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    Divine justice or mercy is revealed by a quick , a smart , and a marvellous combination of simultaneous accidents which Ireaven alone could ' overrule and fit so . ' admirably , in time and space . " .

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    PREVENTION OF " DEATH BY STARVATION . " W E 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 , ¦ th erefore , With the greatest satisfaction that we find in the columns oi 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 ov » n . sentiments oh this point . We quote the words of the communication in the Z'irnes

    ;—r-" We take our ground on a bi-oacl basis : —Much , present , suffering , ¦ whiter ( it may be a ¦ vev y 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 mw 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 fruii of bur apparently useless labour . " ,, -. " . "

    We give the object and views of the enterprise in question In the ¦ words 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 : — " Some short time back various metropolitan parishes resolved not to 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 the coroner ' s jury asoribed death to the visitation of God , ' but ought to have ascri bed , it to . the neglect of wan .. I find ,, 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 at ' the head of this article ? Has he cvor tried to

    realise to himself the wasting agony , the slow sinking to decay of death icaxa starvation ? Has he pictured to Jiimself the horrors of extiiiciiono of life from want of food , of clothing , and of shelter ? And does h 8 know that on the aveyago ono of his fellow hunitni beings , ono of hi feilow -country people , man , woman , or phild , is tortured out of existence in this way every twenty-four hours ? . Now I call upon my fellow mon and womon throughout the country to stop this , fox * the consciousness of it is torture to every hitman being possessed of common feeling and common reason . .... .. Bay that those poor wretches have been i-eckloss , extravagant , improvident ; w // j / were they so ? If society took pare , as it ought , that all its members woro properly brought up , and were to adjust its laws and institutions lor meeting the exigencies of mental and bodily clofools in its members , people would not bo extravagant and improvident , they

    would not bring families into tho world -with most criminal rocldcasnosa when they hud no prospect of maintaining thpm . Sooioty is taking advantage Of its own ' wrong in urging against its victims tho oonspcjuenc 08 of its own gross nogloct . . . . . . . _ If it woro the addition of a now comio song to eomo trashy ontortninmont il ; would bo tho talk of . the whole town , a subject which would bj diecussod with avidity at every evening pnvty , but when it is only a / jiiso of death for want of tho nocossarios of lift ? , ovory Lovito , with . sivevtod oyo , orosaoa over to tho opposite side of tho way from tho doorstep whoro u follow human , boing—porliaps a woman , trying in vain to suckle hor furnishing infant , perhaps tho helpless and unoH ' ondiiig child . itsali , unablo to got warmth or nourishment from its mother ' s qoltl mid . exhausted bivust—is boing slowly torturod to death . Nor do thoso diurn . nl deaths from want of tho necessaries of lilb ropropont tho ontiro oviJ . Thoro uro about 10 , 000 thiovoe in London ; thoro aro cloublo that

    number of ieinules m a still moro dogrnclod state , whoso designation wo uro not permittee ! to write in plain XCnglish j thoro aro near ^ 00 , 000 persons in London alcno who havo no menus of procuring mbdist'cnco through tho tlnyoxcapt by some casual job ororhuo . ' Aguin 1 call wp . uu v&y follow men and > vom < m to stop this , for it ia \\ soiu'uo oi' tovtuvo to every mind not utterly cnllous ami UopvaVod . Tho matonul means exist for roniody . ing it , and all that is wahtod is tho disposition and will on tho part of tho community . Society is voepormblo l ' or ovovy human being coming into tho work ! , and bound to boo that its essential wants — food , clothing , shelter , and cduoulion—aro pnlisflod , It is for its own pood that society should bo hold vosponaiblo for this , ns its own wolfaro oiui novev bo ticourocl on any other . conditions . Lot ; sooioty soo that evory human boing coming into tlio world ryooives a good oduoation flltod tonmlto it m hnppv nml uaoful momborof sooioty 5 and put it hi tho way of gottjng ijd honest livincj , # ivo it a fniu ohmioo . In a

    mere pecuniary point of view , this would cost less than our inefficient systems of prisons and police . " It may easily be conceived , therefore , : how much we are gratified in having to record the practical carrying out of sp 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 , differing 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 employe ' s of existing societies ; by institutions the vocation oi whose a-ents 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 con-! i ietalone the aim of the alone tne aim 01 :

    :: _ „ . ;< --, nnAOvr « . w < -. snr »; v . . As neciion with one excellent society . . As uu society compi-iscs an earnest wish - effectually- to suppress mendicity , 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 ; bclp-tfre poor to help themselves , and try as far as possible to bring employer and unemployed together . The committee . s hall be composed of such and so many men of known integrity and high position that the public will not hesitate to bestow shall at regular in

    their confidence oil them . They publish . - tervals statements . accounting , for the disposal and employment of the funds intrusted to their charge ; and they shall make such arrangements as shall insure the presence in Londori 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 ., " llcform Club , Pall-mall ; or "W D . B ., Ebor ' s Library , 27 , Old Bond-street . Hand in hand with the due and efficient u relief oi distress" should go on active . measures for removing tlio causes of distress . Those , we believe , may be sum mar > zed under tho general heads of a want of education and training , in which we include that intellectual and moral discipline requisito for imparting not merely the power but the will to work the absence of a proper system of mutual assurance , in times ol

    by which the operative classes may provide , 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 iw prominently enforced in Mr . John Stuart Mill ' s " " Principles of Political Economy , " in his chaptors treating of the working-classes and tho rate of wn < rCs—chapters which every ono interested in national prosperity should carefully peruse . Ono thing ^ c would specially impress upon tho public . Tho destitute classes , who , on the average and as a goncral rule , arc , of course , tho least intelligent and . woll-informod class of tho community , must not bo led to suppose Hint they arc to he maintained in idleness , and bo as reckless and improvident ns they

    please , into tho bargain . Any project of tho kind nboyo indicated , must , to bo really productive of good , conwst ^ in obtaining work for tho objects of its caro , and in qunliiyinff 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 wh : cJi must bV no means be passed over in silence . Those arc days in lv xi inip

    wliidi this nrim-inlv * of logic ore moro vi ; rorou .-cnmpractice in social atfuira than formerly . 1 ' uliticul ocuuomy is simply logic applied to matters of social * A ™\ n }* trW ™' £ ?* i it his boon urged that political economy forb . da *" ^ f ™ ZLW . Vft , i ^ rKSr ^

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    Oct . 27 1860 ] The Scdurday Analyst and Leader . 893

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 27, 1860, page 893, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2371/page/5/