rage unheeded every year
and every day among the lower orders. It is its name, its
suddenness, and its frightful symptoms that terrify. The
investigations, however, into the condition of the different
parishes have brought to light dreadful cases of poverty and
misery. A man came yesterday from Bethnal Green with an account of
that district. They are all weavers, forming a sort of separate
community; there they are born, there they live and labour, and
there they die. They neither migrate nor change their occupation;
they can do nothing else. They have increased in a ratio at
variance with any principles of population, having nearly tripled
in twenty years, from 22,000 to 62,000. They are for the most part
out of employment, and can get none; 1,100 are crammed into the
poor-house, five or six in a bed; 6,000 receive parochial relief.
The parish is in debt; every day adds to the number of paupers and
diminishes that of ratepayers. These are principally small
shopkeepers, who are beggared by the rates. The district is in a
complete state of insolvency and hopeless poverty, yet they
multiply, and while the people look squalid and dejected, as if
borne down by their wretchedness and destitution, the children
thrive and are healthy. Government is ready to interpose with
assistance, but what can Government do? We asked the man who came
what could be done for them. He said 'employment,' and employment
is impossible.

February 20th, 1832 {p.262}

Lord Grey was very much pleased with the result of his interview,
and expresses unbounded reliance on Lord Harrowby's honour. The
ultras, of course, will give him no credit, and don't believe he
can command votes enough; 'l'affaire marche, mais lentement,' and
the seceders (or those we hope will be so) will not declare
themselves positively. There is no prevailing upon them. The
Archbishop is with us one day, and then doubts, though I think we
shall have him at last. A good deal of conversation passed between
Grey and Harrowby, which the latter considers confidential and
won't repeat. It was about the details; the substance of the
minute he feels at liberty to communicate. By way of an episode,
news came last night of an insurrection of the slaves in Jamaica,
in which fifty-two plantations had been destroyed. It was speedily
suppressed by Willoughby Cotton, and the ringleaders were executed
by martial law.

February 23rd, 1832 {p.262}

[Page Head: LORD HARROWBY'S LETTER.]