"The Spitalfields subscription swells at a great rate, and, as a means
of _immediate_ relief, I am glad it does, though I shall always contend,
that whatever degree of _good_ may thereby be done, is due to _you_
more than to any other person, and more than to all other persons put
together; for, it is impossible that the misery should not have _existed
before_ the first Meeting in Spa-fields; and why, then, was it not
_before_ relieved? Mr. Buxton must have long _known_ the facts which
he so eloquently and so affectingly described; and why did he not then
describe them _sooner_? The miserable sailors have long been perishing
about the streets with hunger and cold; and why, then, has no measure of
relief for them been adopted until _now_? I do not pretend to say,
nor do I believe, that the greater part of those who now so freely
subscribe, did not before feel for the unhappy sufferers; but, this I am
quite sure of, that it was your first meeting and your petition which
roused their feelings into immediate action; I do not say, nor do I
believe, that the greater part of the subscribers had no real charity in
them; but I defy any one to say, that their charity, which before lay
dormant, was not quickened by your exertions. One of your flags, or
rather of the flags of the Meeting, which had on it 'FEED THE HUNGRY,'
'CLOTHE THE NAKED,' was called by the _Courier_ 'a standard of
_rebellion_;' but, it is a standard under which the subscribers have
hastened to range themselves; for they are serving out _soup_ and _old
clothes_ in all directions! But, this very _Courier_, after the first
Meeting, expressly stated, that the people in and near London, _were not
in want_. He said, that, though work had fallen off and wages had been
lowered _in the country_, it was _not so_ in London; and he called the
poor starving multitudes _mutinous, lazy_, and _rebellious_. He
charged them with designs to _overset the Government_, and plainly and
distinctly asserted, that they _stood in no need of relief!_ How quickly