S OF PRESTON.

_Burghclere, Hampshire, 22d August, 1826._

MY EXCELLENT FRIENDS,

1. Amongst all the new, the strange, the unnatural, the monstrous things
that mark the present times, or, rather, that have grown out of the
present system of governing this country, there is, in my opinion, hardly
any thing more monstrous, or even so monstrous, as the language that is
now become fashionable, relative to the condition and the treatment of
that part of the community which are usually denominated the POOR; by
which word I mean to designate the persons who, from age, infirmity,
helplessness, or from want of the means of gaining anything by labour,
become destitute of a sufficiency of food or of raiment, and are in danger
of perishing if they be not relieved. Such are the persons that we mean
when we talk of THE POOR; and, I repeat, that amongst all the monstrous
things of these monstrous days, nothing is, in my opinion, so monstrous as
the language which we now constantly hear relative to the condition and
treatment of this part of the community.

2. Nothing can be more common than to read, in the newspapers,
descriptions the most horrible of the sufferings of _the Poor_, in various
parts of England, but particularly in the North. It is related of them,
that they eat horse-flesh, grains, and have been detected in eating out of
pig-troughs. In short, they are represented as being far worse fed and
worse lodged than the greater part of the pigs. These statements of the
_newspapers_ may be false, or, at least, only partially true; but, at a
public meeting of rate-payers, at Manchester, on the 17th of August, Mr.
BAXTER, the Chairman, said, that some of the POOR had been _starved to
death_, and that _tens of thousands were upon the point of starving_; and,
at the same meeting, Mr. POTTER gave a detail, which showed that Mr.
BAXTER'S general description was true. Other accounts, very nearly
official, and, at any rate, being of unquestionable authenticity, concur
so fully with the statements made at the Manchester Meeting, that it is
impossible not to believe, that a great number of thousands of persons are
now on the point of perishing for want of food, and _that many have
actually perished from that cause_; and that this has taken place, and is
taking place, IN ENGLAND.

3. There is, then, no doubt of the existence of the disgraceful and horrid
facts; but that which is as horrid as are the facts themselves, and even
more h