And how was it with the poor of this mighty metropolis—the imperial city, to whose marts whole navies waft the commerce of the world!
The granaries were full; the pastures had surrendered up fat oxen to commemorate the season; the provision-shops teemed with food of the most luxurious and of the humblest kinds alike. A stranger walking through this great city would have wondered where the mouths were that could consume such vast quantities of food.
And yet thousands famished for want of the merest necessaries of life.
The hovels of the poor echoed not to the sounds of mirth and music—but to the wail of hunger and the cry of misery. In those sad abodes there was no joviality to welcome a new year;—for a new year was a curse—a mere prolongation of the acute and poignant horrors of the one gone by.
Alas! that New Year's Day was one of strange contrasts in the social sphere of London.
And as London is the heart of this empire, the disease which prevails in the core is conveyed through every vein and artery over the entire national frame.
The country that contains the greatest wealth of all the territories of the universe, is that which also knows the greatest amount of hideous, revolting, heart-rending misery.
In England men and women die of starvation in the streets.
In England women murder their children to save them from a lingering death by famine.
In England the poor commit crimes to obtain an asylum in a gaol.