burn, last week, 19,345 persons were in receipt of poor-law relief. When we add to all this mere statistical pauperism, the vast distress occasioned to the families or relatives of all those persons; when we think of the amount of bitter privation, the hunger, the cold, the want of every little comfort and of many a necessary; it is really oppressive to any regulated mind. The poor factory hands of Lancashire, Yorkshire and Chesshire(sic) have but one consolation - that the distress has come upon by no fault of their own, but by the direct action of a pitiful, revengeful and cruel war, which they had no power to stop. In this respect the moral of the American war ought indeed to be powerful. It should do more in creating a horror and disgust for war generally than all the peace lectures that were ever delivered. Every American mail should be a homily; every transatlantic newspaper, nightly read, should be a sermon.
The patient, quiet endurance which the operatives of the north are now manifesting is an honour to them, and a noble spectacle for the world; and we can show, in no boastful spirit, another noble spectacle - the effort to relieve this bitter distress. Our colonies have already done bravely. Australia has sent us £15,000; India has sent a like amount; and both countries will send more. In our own country, great efforts have been made and are still being made to relieve this distress; but it is evident from Mr. Farall's report, with the winter setting in, and from the absence of any probability of the speedy influx of cotton, that a great deal more must be done in this way. We therefore throw out a few suggestions - some of which may have been made before - that all who can may help in the good work.
In every church and chapel collections should be made - say on the first Sunday in November. Every workshop and factory should have its penny subscription; concerts, lectures and other entertainments should be given to help the poor factory operatives, and thus, pleasure would have a double zest. By such agencies an immense amount might be raised; and it is the duty of Hastings, as well as of the country generally, thus to help the suffering work-people. The distress will not be permanent. The hour of deliverance may be far off, but the good time will come; and we shall have the satisfaction of knowing that we have honourably and kindly met a severe stroke of affliction, which we, in the first instance were powerless to avert.
In consonance with the foregoing appeal the following letter was received by the Editor:- "Sir - may God bless you for the stirring appeal in your last on behalf of the suffering operatives of Lancashire; and I hope that the press all over the United Kingdom will similarly raise its powerful voice. A Lancashire woman myself, and an eye witness within these last few weeks of the misery now reigning in the cotton districts, I can fully appreciate every effort, however humble, which aims at lessening -
