23 JANUARY 1864, Page 3

A correspondent of the Manchester Guardian draws a frightful picture

of the Bethnal Green of that city, two long rows of houses stretching along an open space which was once a cemetery, but is now covered with human ordure. The inhabitants are so bad that decent folk cannot live among them, but there are no schools, no sanitary arrangements, no signs of even the beginning of civili- zation. The rich desert the inhabitants of such spots, the law, which might at least compel education, takes no heed of them till they have graduated in crime ; and as Manchester grows rich and rolls to the suburbs the neglect increases every day. Wherefore, as Earl Russell says, and comfortable Liberals repeat every day, let

us all "rest and be thankful," till some day the elephant looks behind his own ears and sees how big he is. We shall neither rest nor be thankful then.