WIDOWS AND CHILDREN IN GERMANY.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 778, 18 February 1871, Page 2

WIDOWS AND CHILDREN IN GERMANY.

We copy from the " Evening Lloyd," of Pesth, a picture of misery in the Prussian provinces :—" The symptoms of famine which manifest themselves in Prussia strike at the doors of the Government. The cries of distress raised by thousands of widows and orphans threaten to stifle the cries of joy which have been heard on account of the victories which have been obtained over the French. The official journals pass over in silence fmiseries which reign in Prussia, and the other journals do not speak of them for patriotic or other reasons. I will cite

certain facts which will not fail to opeu the eyes of those who are not Prussians. In the Province of "Westphalia there aro 11,817 widows of the landwchr fallen on the field of battle, who during the last month have" addressed the Government aski.iyj for succour. The number of iildren cf these widows is 22,723. hi the Rhenish provinces there are 11,312 widows, with 29,619 children, and in the Province of Hanover there are 9,624 widows, with 26,416 children, "all asking for alms. In Eastern Prussia the distress is indescribable. The Government has found it necessary t > name special commissioners, charged to succour these unfortunates, and to send to them victuals as on the theatre of war. They have purchased in Austria and Hungary many cattle to be seut to Eastern Prussia. In a report addressed to the Government by the Committee of Belief at Berliu, we read the number of those who during this month have asked for help, is so great that with the best will in the world they are not able to accord to all petitioners the smallest sum which they ordinarily give to a necessitous widow. To the list of widows and orphans above-men-tioned, we must add still 80,000 women and children, of whom the fathers and husbands are still in campaign, and who are asking also for help from Government. The news from the other provinces is not more favorable. In Posen the taxpayers are not in a state to pay their taxes. The farmers lack arms for the labors of the field. Many fathers of families do not earn anything, and for the most part manufactories are closed. Such is a picture of Prussia victorious. It has been forbidden to the journals to speak of the distress which reigns in Prussia; and they have seized in Hamburg and Hanover many copies which made mention of it."