CHRISTMAS IN ENGLAND.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1890, 15 March 1880, Page 3

CHRISTMAS IN ENGLAND.

The “Times” of December 26th says : “ This is an unusually hara Christmas, and the festivities of Boxing-day will contrast sadly with the suffering and the need in thousands of poor homes. Though trade has been reviving, it is still backward, and the poorer classes have arrears to make up. The long weeks of frost we have lately undergone ore a somewhat novel and unwelcome experience during the first part of the winter, and some strain has already been put upon reserved resources and upon charity. The pinch, moreover, has come at a time when almost all classes in the country have had to be stinting expenditure, and when a general apprehension is abroad that we are passing through a stormy period alike in the physical, the social, and the political world. There is, indeed, no great convulsion, nothing like the tremendous struggles which our forefathers had to endure, when every timber in the ship of State was strained to the verge of breaking. There are very few among us now who can remember what such a time as that means, and it is to be hoped we shall have no occasion to learn. But there prevails nevertheless a general sense of difficulty and effort. There are discontent and distress in Ireland ; anxious legislative and electoral questions are pending; there are financial perpl xities, if not a deficit, to be encountered ; and we are involved in a war which, though not one of great magnitude, is nevertheless of considerable anxiety. To a large class of the population it is an appreciable addition to these various burdens that their energies are depressed by a long spell of severe weather. It needed more than usual determination to be cheerful yesterday in London, for there was nothing but the clock the whole day long to tell the inhabitants it was daytime. The country at large was doubtless more fortunate. But on the whole it is anything but a bright Christmas, and it is difficult to put aside the attitude of endurance and struggle.”