THE one feature of the permanent distress ruling amongst the working classes, to which public notice is most forcibly drawn, is the existence of a large and destitute class, outside the poor-houses, without employment or visible means of existence. This plant of evil growth ripens in the winter; not only because the building trades cease, and the summer occupations of casual labourers come to a standstill, but because the physical contrast presented between the lives of capitalists and of labourers, at this season of the year, is too vivid to be wholly ignored. The customary method of expressing a sense of

Distress in London is not the distress of a great city-it is the distress of a great Empire. If a Yorkshire yokel is dismissed from employment because machinery performs work formerly effected by men, he is as likely

There are two considerations which lend support to the view now advanced, upon which some detailed examination will not be out of place.

The Government of the City of London glories in a great historic position, and in the possession of privileges more extended than those of any town in the Empire. It shares the administration of the province of houses from which it derives its name, with the , , , , the Local Government Board, and . The only municipality in London is the Corporation of the City, and although it enjoys a complete power of internal reform,

Since there is no municipality to whom the unemployed can address themselves, it follows that, pending the creation of a London Government, the Queen's Minister is, whether he likes it or not, in loco parentis to the unmanageable masses of unemployed gathered on the poor man's side of the .

Before entering into the consideration of what can be done for the permanent benefit of the unemployed, it will be well to analyse the materials from which the army of unemployed is created. The analysis I am about to give is the result of personal examination into the circumstances of about six thousand men, who, presumably unable to afford fourpence for shelter in a common lodging-house, were found wandering throughout the winter nights foodless and without a place to lay their heads. I do not pretend

Forty per cent. of these night nomads were, in a national sense, hopelessly submerged. They were often affected with disease, infected with lice, and bore the marks of Cain upon their countenance. They are the pariahs of civilization. Irregular meals, uncleanly habits, and the loathly environment in which they live, render them physically incapable of doing an honest day's work. Petty crimes are perpetrated by people of this class as one means of existence, and they are partly maintained by the system of bat-eyed benevolence which gratifies its own selfish emotions at the cost of generations to come. The casual wards always contain specimens of this class. They are the unfittest of the unfit, and are to be dealt with permanently only by sterilization. For this purpose they must be regarded as the enemies of society, and, as in the case of repeatedly convicted

The next 40 per cent. have not fallen to so low a level. Emaciated with want, they retain some moral sense of the dignity of manhood. They are capable of performing two or three hours' work of descriptions not demanding the exercise of skill. But their labour does not possess such competitive value as would enable them to assume a serious part in the work of the world. Intimate relations seem to exist between the physical and moral states of this class of the unemployed. Fed and clothed into fitness and decency, they quickly become as other men are, and resume the cheery demeanour and alertness characteristic of the Londoner when relieved from the pressure of immediate want. There is not much that can be done by public means for the benefit of the majority of the class now under review. The function of the State is not primarily to save the lives of the unfit-from whatsoever cause unfitness may arise. They are proper subjects for

The larger portion of the remaining 20 per cent. consists of soldiers. Large numbers of men who have served the Queen in recent campaigns are compelled on wet and snowy nights to tramp the streets because they have nowhere to get a crust or a shelter. Trades are not learned in the army so as to enable ex-soldiers to compete with skilled and energetic men engaged for the whole of their lifetime in the practice of one employment. Trades acquired in the services do not, except in special cases, enable the learners to obtain a subsequent livelihood. Many men leaving the army are practically homeless, and as the scanty store of money taken with them melts away, they gravitate to the banks of the Thames, and become rivals for work, which only one in three can succeed in obtaining.

It would be impertinent to express an opinion as to the military effect of the short-service

So long as England is able to buy for seventy thousand pounds a picture, considered by some critics not of the highest class or to defend one Irish landlord at a cost to the country of three thousand pounds a year, the needless death of a one man who has served his country, and the general condition of the whole class of ex-soldiers, is a stain on the character of the country. I do not believe it is the will fo the English people that men who

Another component portion of the twenty per cent. of the unemployed now being considered is the class of men who have been artizans earning their living by skill in the use of tools. Too large a family, illness, or depression of trade, and the compulsory sale of tools, have forcedthem to relinquish the exercise of skill, and sink into the ranks of mere labourers. The sufferings of these men are acute: and their pluck and patience is most pathetic. Unaccustomed, as agricultural labourers are accustomed, to hard and grinding toil, they quickly become submerged,

Then come the agricultural labourers from all parts of the kingdom, who in entering London exchange a hard lot for one that is hopeless. The whisper of a Mansion House fund blackens the North Road with swarms of these poor fellows, who, aimlessly and unprevented, swell the ranks of the competitive army of the soldiers of unskilled labour. In three months their rural characteristics have disappeared, and in six they

The only method of dealing with the agricultural classes who flock to the towns, attracted by the magnetism of a great mass, is to divert them from the country to the Colonies. Emigration is practically at a standstill. Colonization, therefore, is the only method of dealing with the surplus rural population, and there is perhaps no method by which the permanent good of all classes of the community is more effectually secured, than by the organization of settlements such as that dealt with in the chapter on Colonization.

This analysis of a few thousands of night nomads shows that besides the soldiers and the agricultural labourers, to be dealt with by colonization and State employment respectively, there is a large body of men who have drifted to London as much from thoughtlessness as from design. These people being rooted in the Metropolis, are those upon whom the punishment of a cold winter and general depression tells with the most unerring certainty. The labour test usually

It is difficult to resist the conclusion that under the special circumstances of the case, i.e., the absence of a Municipality for London, the impotence of the local authorities, and the grave evils attending the helterskelter administration of charitable fundsthe Government must accept a responsibility in London which they do not seek to evade in India. Plans for the employment of Indian labour in districts liable to famine are in readiness throughout the three Presidencies. I fail to see why provisions held to be necessary in the case of our Hindoo and Mahometan fellow-subjects should be superfluous or unwise when dealing with Englishmen and their families. Irish distress is articulate through the voices of Irish Members of Parliament, and measures for the relief of distress in the sister island receive the approval of all parties and of all creeds. What

If, on reviewing all the circumstances of the case, spade labour be considered most suitable to the needs of a starving population, the defences of London would appear the most appropriate object for the expenditure of funds intended to be applied to the relief of distress. It cannot be pretended that relief works of this nature would be pecuniarily remunerative. It is undesirable that they should be directly remunerative. The erection of forts and earth-works would compete with no other employment; would not involve the possession of skill; and would be carried out beyond the confines of the metropolitan area. Payment should be made largely in kind, and, if necessary, should be modified with this object. No Act of Parliament would be needed for the erection of forts on land already in possession of the War Office, and preparations for the camp of labour to be employed can be organized in a few weeks. Ministries have again and again incurred expenditure on wars, and preparations for war, for which they were subsequently obliged to

It is probable that the organization of relief works on some such plan as this would reduce the distress of able-bodied men to manageable dimensions. The wives and families of the men employed would no doubt need assistance, which could be rendered by arranging for the payment to the wives of a portion of the wages earned by the men on the same system of deposit notes and remittances as is adopted on behalf of seamen

Some military authorities are of opinion that the creation of a system of defence for the metropolis and its approaches is by itself a matter that should no longer be postponed, and that without reference to the state of the labour market the accessibility of London to hostile forces constitutes a grave and national danger. Whether or not this view of the case be correct, it is clear that there is an opportunity of ensuring the safety of London and of its prodigious wealth under circumstances exceptionally favourable to the National Exchequer, and at the same time of reducing the proportions of a calamity with which we are menaced from within.

To recapitulate some of the measures

(1). The institution under War Office management of a system of metropolitan defences.

(2). The organization of agricultural settlements in the Colonies for labourers driven from the soil.

(3) The employment of ex-soldiers in the petty offices of the civil service.

(4). The administration of charity, whenever practicable, by the givers themselves or their agents, and under no circumstances resort to centralized funds, care being taken by organization to prevent " over-lapping."