der some general rule, and that, in this way, the foundation was laid for a system of profuse and indiscriminate charity, which, by gradually corrupting the habits of the labouring classes, would necessarily multiply its objects, -that new and increased contributions would be required, and that, from this fertile fountain of evil, new streams of corruption would thus continually issue, to vitiate and to destroy the moral feelings of the people. It is evident, that the system contains within itself a principle of continual increase, and unless it meets with some decided check, it may proceed in absorbing the capital of the country to an indefinite extent. These evils are pointed out with great force and effect by the Select Committee appointed by the House of Commons to report upon this important subject. By diminishing the natural impulse (it is observed) by which men are instigated to industry and good conduct, by superseding the necessity of providing, in the season of health and vigour, for the wants of sickness and old age, and by making poverty and misery the conditions on which relief is to be obtained, your Committee cannot but fear, from a reference to the increased numbers of the poor, and increased and increasing amount of the sums raised for their relief, that this system is perpetually encouraging and increasing the amount of misery it was designed to alleviate, creating, at the same time, an unlimited demand on funds which it cannot augment; and as every system of relief founded on compulsory enactments must be divested of the character of benevolence, so it is without its beneficial effects; as it proceeds from no impulse of charity, it creates no feelings of gratitude, and not unfrequently engenders dispositions and habits calculated to separate rather than unite the interests of the higher and lower orders of the community."

The practical evils flowing from this system very soon began to be very seriously felt, and we find King William, in the year 1699, expressing, in a speech from the throne, his regret that the increase of the poor had become so great a burden to the kingdom; and that their loose and idle life had contributed in some measure to the depravity of manners which

was complained of. In the same strain Bishop Burnet touches the very root of the mischief, in the admirable remarks with which he concludes his history: "It may be thought (he observes) a strange motion from a bishop, that the act for charging every parish to maintain their own poor were well reviewed, if not taken away, this seems to encourage idle and lazy people in their sloth, when they know they must be maintained."

The evil, however, was then only in its infancy. It has now attained to greater maturity, and it seems to be still progressive. We have no account of the annual sums collected for the maintenance of the poor previous to the year 1776. In that year the sum collected was L, 1,720,361, of which L.1,556,804 was expended on the poor. On an average of the years 1783, 1784, and 1785, the sum raised was L.2,167,749, of which L.2,004,238 was employed in the same manner. In 1803, the sum raised had increased to L.5,348,205, of which L.4,267,965 was expended on the poor; and in 1815, the sum of L.7,068,999 was raised, and there was expended on the poor L. 5,072,028. Beyond this period, no returns have been made. But it is observed in the report of the Committee, that these sums have been since largely increased. " Independent (it is observed) of the pressure of any temporary or accidental circumstances, and making every allowance for an increased population, the rise in the price of provisions and other necessaries of life," and a misapplication of part of these funds, it is apparent, that both the number of paupers, and the amount of money levied by assessment, are progressively increasing; while the situation of the poor appears not to have been in a corresponding degree' improved; and the Committee is of opinion, that whilst the existing poorlaws, and the system under which they are administered, remain unchanged, there does not exist any power of arresting the progress of this increase, till it shall no longer be found possible to augment the sums raised by assessment."

For this alarming and growing evil many remedies or palliatives have been suggested, It has been sometimes proposed, by the institution of schools, and by the general diffusion

of instruction, so to reform the habits and feelings of the labouring classes, as to render them averse to receive parish relief, and in this manner, by the mild operation of an improved system of manners, to free society from the disgrace of systematic beggary. In the same spirit banks have been instituted, in order to afford the labourer a safe deposit for such savings as he may be disposed to accumulate into a provision for sickness or for age. But without at all depreciating the utility of public instruction, and without inquiring into the policy of the many other contrivances which have been established for the benefit of the poor, it may be remarked, that these expedients touch not the source of the evil. They leave the grand principle of corruption, namely, the establishment of a compulsory provision for the poor, in full vigour; and while this standing source of moral depravation exists, it will counteract the operation of the best laid plans for the improvement of the labourer. Experience proves, that the human mind requires the continual stimulus of necessity to preserve its healthful and vigorous tone. Man can only be trained to habits of labour, energy, and foresight, by the fear of want; and let this great spring of human action be but once relaxed, and he degenerates into all the degrading vices of idleness and mendicity. In vain with one hand you attempt to lead him to morality and happiness, while, with the other, you are scattering far and wide the seeds of debasement and misery. The system of profuse and indiscriminate charity must be restricted. Beggary must be deprived of this its main stay, and then we may expect all the manly virtues of fortitude, energy, foresight, and industry, to flourish in their own congenial soil of hardy independence.

It is the opinion of many eminent writers on this question, that, by the modern corruptions which have been introduced into the administration of the poor-laws, the 43d of Queen Elizabeth has been extended far beyond its original intention, and that this act had no relation whatever to the able-bodied labourer who was in employment; but merely contemplated the relief of those who were sick or infirm, or who, from some temporary accident, were for the present unemployed. In later times, however, re

lief has been extended to all classes of labourers, and it has been administered in order generally to add to the earnings of the labourer, when the provisions were scarce and dear, or when the wages of labour were low. Now, what is this but endeavouring forcibly to raise the rate of wages, or to fix a maximum on the price of provisions? When provisions are scarce, or, in other words, when a smaller supply has to be divided among the same number of consumers, it is evident, that a smaller portion must fall to the share of each individual. This smaller portion the able-bodied labourer will be enabled to purchase by means of his wages, and if, by general and profuse donations of money, he is placed in a condition to purchase more, it is clear that he will be benefited at the expence of some other order of the community; for it is certain, that when there is a general deficiency in the supply of provisions, the want must fall somewhere, and that donations of money, though they may alter the distribution, can never affect the quantity of a deficient supply. In the year 1795, the system was begun in several counties, of regulating the rate of wages, and a table was published for the direction of magistrates and overseers, in which the wages necessary for the subsistence of the labourer were computed according to the price of bread, and when they fell below the computed standard, they were made up to it by a parish contribution. Wages were, in short, to rise in proportion to the price of provisions, which was in effect saying, that the mass of the community should consume the same quantity of provisions when the supply was deficient, as when it was abundant. Under this system Mr Malthus men→ tions, that he has known labourers, whose earnings amounted to 11s. per week, receive 14s. from the parish. "Such instances," he observes, "could not possibly have been universal, without raising the price of wheat very much higher than it was during any part of the dearth. But similar instances were by no means unfrequent, and the system itself of measuring the relief given by the price of grain was universal." The consequences are such as might have been expected. The exactions for the poor have rapidly increased, while it does not ap

pear, that, by all these enormous contributions for their relief, their condition has been in any degree improved.

This view of the subject, then, suggests an important and seemingly practicable reformation in the present administration of the poor-laws. If the act of Queen Elizabeth were strictly confined to its only proper objects, namely, to such as are disabled by age, sickness, or bodily infirmity, a large class of paupers would be withdrawn from the operation of this system, and the expence would be proportionally retrenched. It is not meant, however, that any reformation of this nature should be attempted suddenly, or without due warning, more especially in the present circumstances of the country. But when trade and the demand for labour are somewhat revived, there could be no possible hardship in leaving the ablebodied labourer, in the full vigour of health and strength, to depend for subsistence on his own industry; and in warning him that he had no reason to expect relief on any future occasion, unless in the case of sickness or infirmity, from any system of public charity.

With respect to another class of objects comprehended in the act of Queen Elizabeth, namely, the children of the poor, and those who have no employment, and for this purpose to procure a convenient stock of flax, hemp, wool, &c., it seems obvious, as has been already stated, that the overseers cannot procure those materials on which to set the poor to work, without in so far encroaching on the general funds of productive industry, of which they form a part, and that the effect of these contrivances, therefore, is only to divert a portion of the capital of the community into a channel, in which it will be less beneficially employed than when it is allowed to remain under the management of the private manufacturer. These views are explained in the late Report of the Select Committee on this subject with great force and clearness." An increased demand for labour (it is observed) is the only means by which the wages of labour can ever be raised; and there is nothing which can increase the demand, but the increase of the wealth by which

labour is supported; if, therefore, the compulsory application of any part of this wealth tends (as it always must tend) to employ the portion it distributes less profitably than it would have been, if left to the interested superintendence of its owners, it cannot fail, by thus diminishing the funds which would otherwise have been applicable to the maintenance of labour, to place the whole body of labourers in a worse situation than that in which they would otherwise have been placed.'

The Committee afterwards add the following judicious observations: "Under these circumstances, if the demand for labour suddenly decreases, the provisions of the poor-law alone are looked to, to supply the place of all those circumstances which result only from vigilance and caution; the powers of law, whilst they profess to compel both labour and wages to be provided, under these circumstances, in reality effect nothing but a more wasteful application of the diminished capital than would otherwise take place; they tend thereby materially to reduce the real wages of free labour, and thus essentially to injure the labouring classes, In this situation of things, not only the labourers, who have hitherto maintained themselves, are reduced, by the perversion of the funds of their employers, to seek assistance from the rate, but the smaller capitalists themselves are gradually reduced, by the burden of the assessments, to take refuge in the same re❤ source. The effect of these compulsory distributions is to pull down what is above, not to raise what is low; and they depress high and low together, beneath the level of what was originally lowest."

The Committee then proceed to point out the following method for freeing the system from this unnecessary burden: "If these views of the effect of undertaking to provide employment for all who want it are founded in truth, there results from them an obvious necessity of abandoning gradually the impossible condition, that all who require it shall be provided with work, which, whether or not it be the real object of the statute, has by many been held to be so. On this head, your Committee submit, that if the provision which they have pointed out be made for children

whose parents cannot maintain them, and the provision also for such as are of the class of poor and impotent be continued, the labouring classes will continue to be relieved from the heaviest part of their necessities. But if any portion of the general and indiscriminate relief which is now given, must of necessity be withheld, your Committee think, it can be withheld from none by whom the privation could so well be borne, as by those who are in the full vigour of health and strength; it may therefore be worthy of consideration, whether, if, under favourable circumstances of the country, the demand for labour should again be materially enlarged, it might not be enacted, that no person should be provided with work by the parish, other than those who are already so provided, and who might be permitted to continue until they could provide for themselves; but if the change by this provision might be thought too rapid, limitations might still be provided, the effect of which would render it more gradual, as by enacting, that none shall be provided with employment who are between the ages of 18 and 30; and then, after a certain lapse of time, that none between 16 and 35, 40, and so on, until the object shall be gradually effected."

Such seem to be the only practicable expedients for circumscribing the operation of the poor-laws within their original limits; for, however other and milder plans may aid the effect of this radical reformation, it is certain that the poor will never be trained to habits of independence, until those profuse and indiscriminate donations which they are taught to depend on, beretrenched. No man who can live in idleness will ever practise industry, and, if the poor are taught to look to a certain provision, independent of their own exertions, we may be assured that all plans for their improvement will be for ever vain.

Among other projects for the improvement and happiness of the labouring classes, we may here notice the schemes of Mr Owen, which have of late attracted a considerable share of attention. Unlike all other reformers, Mr Owen proposes at once to banish vice and misery entirely out of the world. He is to place the labouring classes in such prosperity and plenty, that there will be no longer

any scope under this system for the hateful passions of envy, anger, or revenge, by which the world has been so long tormented, Mr Owen lays it down as a fundamental proposition, that land, labour, and capital, under more skilful management, might be made to support four times the number of people which are at present maintained by it, and, under this notion, he proposes collecting into workhouses, containing from 500 to 1500 persons, all the poor who cannot find employment; and in these workhouses, they are to be furnished with work,-to labour in common,-and to form a sort of primitive society. It does not appear that such an establishment, however admirably it might be managed in its details, would differ from an ordinary work-house in this respect, that it must be supported by capital taken from the general fund, for maintaining productive industry. Mr Owen cannot create capital. He takes capital already accumulated, and, in so far, he diminishes the stock out of which labour is employed and supported. The effect of his plans, therefore, is merely to transfer the labourer to the work-house, and in this there is neither novelty nor ingenuity. As to the reformation which he proposes to accomplish in the habits and dispositions of mankind, this is chimerical in the extreme. The world, from time immemorial, has gone on in a course of strife, violence, and mischief. But a new era, we are told, is now to commence. These vices are to be superseded by gentleness, mildness, and peace. All is to be changed by the fiat of Mr Owen. He seems to imagine, that he has found out a recipe for producing whatever quantity of wisdom and virtue he chooses to call into action; and he expects the world to give him credit for the possession of this wonderful power. It is useless to enter farther into the details of a scheme which is so wild and absurd in principle. We know that the foundation for vice and misery is laid deep in the constitution of human society,-that these evils, though they may be palliated by wise and beneficial institutions, can never be removed; and the pompous pretensions, therefore, of those political projec tors, who, seeing no difficulties in the way of their schemes, undertake, without hesitation, to reverse the set