Note 16 — SECOND ANNUAL REPORT.

“The month of February appears to be the most trying to the poor of this district. Their little savings, if any, have been exhausted; their clothes and furniture are gradually being taken to the pawnbroker; hunger and cold are producing disease, unless timely help is afforded. . . . The clock is generally the first article sent to the pawnbroker; then the wife’s articles of wearing apparel; the children’s shoes, the husband’s coat and waistcoat; and afterwards his tools, his spade, his saw, &c. The last portion of property, is the bedding and furniture, when shavings are substituted. Such seem to be the regular gradations of distress. The last, happily, has seldom been witnessed since the first month or two of the Society’s operations in this district. It was pointed out to me to-day in another place.”—Report of a Visitor. February 1845.