6 APRIL 1861, Page 5

Upwards of 23,0001. have now been collected and remitted by

the Lord Mayor to Sir George Clerk, to be expended in aid of the famine- stricken people of North-Western India. But the horrible calamity will last so long that this is a trifle compared with what the neces- sities of the case require. On Wednesday there was a meeting at Wilton, where Lord Herbert of Lea proposed a resolution and made a speech. Some of his remarks will interest our readers as political students, as well as stimulate their political feelings:

Lord Herbert subscribed 1001., and the corporation 101. towards the relief fund.

The Speaker of the House of Commons presided, on Wednesday, over a meeting at Nottingham held to establish a society for im- proving the dwellings of the poor. Dr. Marsh described the scope of the society's operations. In every case where bad cottage pro- perty at present exists we should endeavour to obtain possession of tt either by purchasing it or leasing it, and, if it was capable of im- provement, expend upon it the requisite amount of capital to render it fit for habitation ; if it was incapable of such improvement, it would be pulled down and rebuilt. The erection of suitable cottages upon approved sites where such additional accomodation is required would form the second feature in the society's operations. Model lodging-houses for families too poor to occupy an independent house, also lodging-houses for single men and single women, in populous districts, would form subjects for the consideration of the managers of the society, the object being in every case to supply the best pos- sible accommodation at the smallest possible cost to the tenant. A. society, on the limited liability principle, was forthwith established.