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Oct. 27, 1860] The Saturday Analyst m%d ...
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PREVENTION OF " ¦ DEATH BY STARVATION." ...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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The Political Drama. The Tendency That G...
Divine justice or mercy is revealed by a quick , a smart , and a marvellous combination of . simultaneous' accidents -which lieaven alone could ' overrule , and fit so . admirably , in time and space . " .
Oct. 27, 1860] The Saturday Analyst M%D ...
Oct . 27 , 1860 ] The Saturday Analyst m % d Leader . 893
Prevention Of " ¦ Death By Starvation." ...
PREVENTION OF " ¦ DEATH BY STARVATION . " WE have , at the risk of being thought tedious , and making ourselves obnoxious to the charge of pertinaciously urging an unpalatable subject on the attention of the public , never ceased for years past to raise our voice in favour of doing something to mitigate the sufferings and diminish the numbers of that unhappy section of the community , comprising multitudes of both sexes , and . all ages , who ,-through inability to obtain work , and consequently food and shelter , find themselves reduced to the frightful alternative of lying down to die of cold and hunger , or resorting to criminal courses for a livelihood . This subject , of such vital importance to a civilized and Christian country , occupied the principal portion of an article in last week ' s number , on the . recent case of " Death from Starvation . " It is , therefore , With the greatest satisfaction that we find in the columns of tlie ' Times the plan of an enterprise to which we earnestly invite the attention of the . public , and venture to bespeak for it the energetic co-operation and . support of all .. who are not dead to the feelings of sympathy and benevolence . The writer speaks our own . sentiments oh this point . We ' quote the words of the communication in the Tirnes ;—r" We take our ground on . a broad basis : —Much present suffering , ¦ whiter ( it may be a Terj severe one ) close at hand , rising prices , a deficient harvest , and a prospect of extreme clearness and scarcity of every kind ' of-provisions- We will not ; sit by , calm observers of our perishing fella w-creatures , content to say , "It is dreadful , but it can't be helped . " We / will make such endeavours as our abilities and powers will allow , and if we fail vre shall only have dene what better men have done before , and even then , possibly , from our ashes may arise the real fruit of bur apparently useless labour . " ,, -. ' . " We give the object and views of die enterprise iii question ' In the woids of its promoters . The writer of this article , in expressing views upon the subject nearly two years ago , wrote as follows , and the sentiments and exhortations delivered then are just as pertinent and applicable now : — resolved not to
" Some short time back various metropolitan parishes establish refuges where the houseless poor might be saved from dying of cold and hunger , and only last week there was a case of . ' death from destitution , ' in which the verdict of tlie coroner ' s jury asoribed death to the visitation of God , ' but ought to have ascri bed , it to . the neglect of wan .. I line ! , moreover , that by the . Registrar-General ' s figures , ono . of our fellow human beings expires per day for want of necessaries . Has the reader ever seriously reflected on the frightful significance of the words which stand atthe head of this article ? lias he cvor tried to realise to himself the wasting agony , the slow sinking to decay of death from starvation ? Has he pictured to Jiimself the horrors of ex tine 1 ion o f life from want of food , of clothing , and of shelter ? And does hs know that on the nveyago ono of his J ' ullow human beings , ono of hi feJlow countiy people , man , woman , or child , is tortured out of existence in this way every twenty-four hours ? . Now I call upon my fellow mon and women throughout the country to stop this , fox * the consciousness of it is torture to every Jutman hewg possessed of common jVeling and common reason . ...... Say that those poor wretches have been i-eckloss , extravagant , improvident ; wliy were they so ? If society took core , as it ought , that all its members woro properly brought up , and were to adjust its laws and institutions lor meeting tho exigencies of moiital and bodily clofools in ¦ its members , people would not bo cxti'ftvagunt and improvident , they would not bring families into tho world •\ yith most criminal rocklossnoss when they hud no prospect of maintaining tliom . Sooioty is taking advantage of its own wrong in urging against its victims tho oonspyuenc 08 of its own gi'Qss nogloct . . . . . . . If it woro the addition of u now comio song to eomo trashy ontortninmont it , would bo tho talk of tlio whole town , a subject which would bj ttiecussod with avidity nt every evening party , but when it is only a i / jttso of doalli fov wont of tho nocoBsarios of lift ? , ovory Lovito , with I . sit'ortod eye , orossoa over to the opposite side of tho way from tho dooristep whoro u follow human boing— -porliaps a woman , trying in vain to suckle hor furnishing infiint , peniaps the helpless and unoH'onding child itsoli , unablo to got warmth or nourishment from its mother ' s cold nml ¦ oxliaustocl bivust—is boing slowly torturocl to death . Nor dp thoso diurnnl deaths from want of tho necessaries of lifb ropropont tlio entire oviJ . Thoro avo about 10 , 000 thiovoe in London ; thoro aro doublo that number of families in a still moro clogrndocl state , whoso designation wo avo not permitted to write in plain XCnglish ; thoro aro noiir ^ 00 , 000 persons in London alcno "who havo no menus of procuring mbaist'cnco I through tho dnyqxcapt by some casual job ororiuio . ' Aguin 1 cull up . uu vay follow men and womon to stop this , for it is u souroo of torturu to every mind not utterly cnllous and UopraVod . Tho mnlariul means exist for reniody . ing it , and nil that is wahtod is tho disposition and will on the part of tho community . Society' is roepormblo l ' or oVovy human being coming into tho world , and bound to boo that its essential wants —food , clothing , shelter , and cduoalion—nro salisflod , It is for its own good that society should bo hold rosponsiblo for this , ns its own wolfui'o oan novev bo bcoiu'ocI on any other conditions . Lot sooioty soo that evory human boing coming into tho world ryooives a good education fitted to ranko it m hnppvand ueoful momboi-of sooiotyj and put it in tho way of gottjng ijd honest living , $ ivo it a fniu ohmioo . In a
mere pecuniary point of view , this would cost less than our inefficient ' systenia of prisons and police . " It may easily be conceived , therefore , : how much , we are gratified in having to record the practical carrying out of so " ¦ philanthropic a scheme . The subject is , in our eyes , one of such transcendent importance that we shall give the outline of the project in considerable detail . It . is . proposed , then , to constitute a great central Board or Society , dinering both in construction and Avorking from any yet established . Its object shall be to feed the hungry and shelter and clothe the houseless and naked . It shall be free from every kind of sectarian prejudice , and shall work gratuitously ; the money intrusted to its care by the public going direct and untouched to the object for which it is intended ; the . whole expenses of organization , management , printing , advertising , paid secretaries , work , & c , being defrayed by the committee .. Its organization and -machinery-to be supplied by gratuitous information of cases of extreme distress communicated by the emplowki of existing societies ; by institutions the vocation of whose agents already brings them in continual contact with the poor in every district ; by . organized volunteers . . n every part of London , of whom 400 already exist an connexion with one excellent society alone . . As the aim of . the society comprises an earnest wish ' effectually- to suppress mendicky , it will hope for the co-operation of all who have so excellent an object in view . It would seek assistance ir . om and impart its own aid to those associations which help the poor to help themselves , and try as far as possible to bring employer and unemployed together . The committee shall be composed of such and so many men of known integrity . and high position that the public will not hesitate to bestow their confidence oil them . They shall publish . at regular intervals statements accounting , for the disposal ; and employment of the funds intmsted to thehv charge ; and they shall make such arrangements as shall insure the presence in Loudon of a sufficient number of them at all times of the year , so that the control of the funds can never degenerate into less trustworthy or less responsible hands . It shall have volunteer agents in every part of the metropolis , whose addresses shall be published , so that the public may always know where to refer cases of distress .. It shall also establish or encourage the establishment of night refuges in every district . .
Those who arc desirous of promoting it can communicate with the originators , through " II . A . H ., " City of London Club , E . G . ¦;¦ " J . N . M ., " Keforim Club , Pall-mall ; or " W . D . B . ' / 7 EbOr's Library , 27 , Old Bond-street . Hand in hand with the due and efficient u relief of distress" should go on active . measures * for removing the causes of distress . These , we believe , may be . sum man zed under tho general heads of a want of education and training , in which we include that intellectual and moral discipline requisite for imparting not merely the power but the will to work ; the absence of a proper system of mutual assurance , by which the operative classes may provide , ia times of health and work ,, against sickness and want of employment ; the reckless improvidence of incurring ; the responsibilities of a family , without sufficient means of providing ; for and educating ; it . This subject is prominently enforced in Mr . John Stuart Mill's " ' Principles of Political Economy , " in his chaptors treating of the working-classes and tho rate of wages—chapters which every ono interested in national prosperity should carefully peruse . Ono thing ^ o would specially impress upon the public Tho destitute ? classes , who , on the avernjjo and an a goneral rule , are , of course , ' tho least intelligent and . woll-informccl class of tho com- , nmnity , must not bo led to . suppose that they arc to be maintained in idleness , and bo ns reckless and improvident ns they please , into tho bargain . Any project of tho kind nboyo indicated , must , to bo really productive of good , consist in obtaining work for tho objects of its caro , and in qxtnlilymff them for work , wherever this is possible . Wo shall watch tiro movement with interest , and heartily wish it all possible success , . ... , There is a point connected with this question wn .: cii musi . bV no means be passed ovea in silence . Thusu nro cloys in \ vluuh this princ-ipUi of logic nro moro vi / roroiwly cu-rr . 'cl into practice in sociul atfuirs than formerly , i ' ulitia . l ocuuymy is simply logic applied to matters of social acJininistratioiu JNow . it has boon urged llmt political economy forb . ds tho u ct oi the destitute altogether . In reply to thus wo no ; » nt to tho groat fact of a pour lasv , to ihVftot that the worKhouao an institution of the country . Wa will ndmi , for ai gun nt sa c , that if the principle of individual acqu s : ition lor i 'd » vKluaI omplumont were logically onrrlod out-f ^ f ' « muoh which each is isolated , and hw to live by muUng- as muoii c \ ?
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 27, 1860, page 5, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_27101860/page/5/
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