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Distress in East London, England.

'The workhouses are filled by 6,374 inmates, and 24,163 persons are in receipt of outdoor relief.

'The poverty has gone on steadily increasing for twelve months past, and it is estimated by those resident and visiting through the district, that in addition to the ordinary misery which tries to hide its head, or finds refuge in the workhouse, or receives outdoor relief, there are among the masses at this moment, at the lowest estimate, more than 12,000 men out of employment, and that they with their families amount to upward of 50,000 souls in destitution, of whom at least 15,000 are children, almost naked and starving. These were in great part sufferers last year in the period of cholera, and, though then aided, had first exhausted all their little means. Last summer, instead of being, as usual, a time for recruiting their resources, was, from want of work, an aggravation of their poverty, and the coming winter will find them stripped of everything usually available to pawn for bread, and still unemployed.

'The details furnished by the visitors, of strong men starving, and wives and children dying from want of sufficient food and clothing, are even now so harrowing as to prove that when winter sets in, the mass of misery and loss of life will be perfectly appalling. Able men walk for miles, from place to place, to seek employment—hundreds are all day assembled at the dock gates, awaiting the casual work there found, and frequently failing to do so, return to their homes penniless and unfed. A great body of Spitalfield's weavers, who heretofore found work at the docks, have lost their work by competition of stronger men, and are now unemployed.

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'To effect relief on a scale at all commensurate with the need, at least £30,000 will be required, and a staff of 250 visitors.'