PAUPERISM IN ENGLAND.

Lyttelton Times, Volume V, Issue 292, 18 August 1855, Page 3

PAUPERISM IN ENGLAND.

'We notice, with regret, that the papers of the inanufacttiring'districls are beginning to dwell with some earnestness on an increase of pauperism. There have been added, it is said, 15.023 persons to those claiming relief in Lancashire and Yorkshire. From the official returns, we know that, at the beginning of 1855, there were 20,735 persons more in receipt of relief than at the corresponding period of 1854. Such circumstances, coming after a decline in for several successive years, till the winter of 1853, when the increase again began, may excite a little apprehension. Amongst us there are always many persons desirous of making political capilal for themselves out of any public misfortune or any great distress. At present the agitators for peace are likely to lake advantage of this increase of pauperism to gain converts to their views; and therefore we must remind our readers that, at the present time, there is much greater distress comparatively in the seaport towns of the United States than is to be found in England. A letter from a Catholic piiest resident in New York was published in the Times of Thursday, in which he draws a frightful picture of the distress suffered by the people there, and adjures the authorities in England and Ireland to prevent the further emigration of the Irish to the United States. It is, in fact, notorious, that thousands of persons have been thrown out of employment in the States; that meetings of tbe discontented have been held at New York, at which property has been threatened ; that great subscriptions have been entered into, and great exertions made to relieve the distress, which in spite of them continues. The distress, however, tells on our country. It checks the emigration that was going on, and has actually sent back to England a considerable number of emigrants. America too, is our greatest and best customer, and its demand for our goods has latterly fallen off a full fourth, in consequence of its own deficient means. Our readers are well aware, too, that the trade to our Australian colonies has received a very severejcheck ; that in one of them, Victoria, there has lately been an insurrection, preceded and followed by considerable disorder and a diminished demand in the -colony for the productions of our looms and forges. These circumstances have much in ore to do in causing the deficiency of employment unci the distress which are complained of in the .manufacturing and other districts than the war ; and we remind our readers of them that the facts and the truth may be widely known. The great c-iuse for the increase of pauperism "was the very deficient harvest of 1853—one of the worst that has been experienced in this country for many yea vs. It was accompanied, too, by a general deficiency on the Continent, and led to the highest price for wheat in our markets (upwards of 80s.) in January and February. 1854, that has been experienced for many years. A similar cause is how affecting the people of the United States./-Tempted by the high prices which prevailed in Europe th rough the early" part of 1854, they exported largely ; and the harvest there, inTBS3, having been a failure, they are really suffering as our people suff red, from short crops. They have at least a fifth less to export than they had last year, and consequently they can buy less goods from foreigners, and have less trade. According to the reports from New York, the price of flour and wheat there has been for some months as quite as high as in England, and the consequence is that they are now 'sending us no breadstuffs—whereas, last year, at ibis lime, they were sending us 100,000 barrels of flour per week, and we were sending them comparatively but little cloth and iron. A war, which interrupts the fair and reasonable distribution of the harvests of the different countries, may undoubtedly aggravate the calamities of bad harvests, but it is quite plain, from the example of the United States, and the condition ofour own country, that the nature of the harvests themselves, as 'hey aye good and bad, has more influence over national oivsperity than war. The 'United States aie in the full enjoyment of peace, but it does not save them from devalued trade, high prices, and considerable distress.— Illustrated News.