The distress in London is becoming excessive. The failures among
contractors have produced a stoppage of many large works, there is a strike among the shipwrights, who have formally rejected a written offer of Gs. 6d. a day, many trades are sus- pended by the frost, and in almost all the River parishes there is fear of actual starvation. The Vicar of Greenwich dreads both hunger and riot ; in Poplar, by the last weekly return, 8,319 paupers received out-door relief, being 5,400 more than last year ; and more than 16,000 artizans are in actual want along the River. The Bishop of London has called for subscriptions on a large scale, and it may be doubted whether the State will not be com- pelled to lend temporary aid, the distress threatening to pass the bounds of private charity altogether. The Times suggests the formation of a Central Relief Committee, as in the case of the Lancashire Famine, and the suggestion seems at once wise and feasible. Scattered charity is apt to miss its aim, and local bodies work cheerfully in an organized manner under a Central Fund.
