gravity, by making mountains rise signed to promote trade, and the artificial system by which they encumbered it, was the result, not of any ill intention, but of ignorance. Their plans not harmonizing with the great and original laws of society, thwarted its progress, and counteracted the first princples of social improvement.Such, however, was unquestionably far from their intention. In the case also of the English system of poorlaws, we cannot doubt that the intentions of the legislators were exceedingly laudable. Their object was to relieve the poor at the expence of the rich, to take from those who were amply provided with all the superfluities of life what was necessary for the support of the destitute. The intention was here benevolent in the extreme. But the evils which have flowed from this erring benevolence have taught us the necessity of not rashly giving way to appearances, but of rigidly canvassing the merits of all those projects of benevolence, however specious an aspect they may assume, and of examining not merely I am, Sir, yours, &c. whether the object in view be a good PETER PANGLOSS, LL. D. one, but whether the means proposed afford any chance of accomplishing In the foregoing remarks I refer only to works which treat of matters of fact,---not to works of fiction. I have no desire to curb the genius of our poets, by taking one word out of their vocabulary. Let the roaring of the sea in a tempest, or the soft murmur of its almost quiescent waves in a calm, be granted to those who would personify a poker, or apostrophize a coffee-pot. And rivers may glide, rush, and hasten with fearful velocity,---bend, twist, and stretch ;-or, if they please, steal gently along, and kiss the wild-flowers which overhang their banks, in peace, and without molestation from me;-provided it be always understood, that these phrases are merely figures or fictions of speech, and convey nothing which can disturb our belief of the earth's stability, or shake our faith in the received ideas which divide animated from inanimate matter. F. R. & ASS. it. According to these principles, we propose shortly to examine the nature OBSERVATIONS ON THE PRINCIPLES and policy of the English system of OF THE POOR-LAWS. poor-laws. whose comfort they so largely administer, should contribute to their relief; and there is no question, that if, in any season of general distress, the poor could be relieved by the simple process of assessing the rich, both humanity and sound policy would justify the most effectual measures for this purpose. But experience too fatally proves, that the system of general assessments on the rich for the relief of the poor, produces effects precisely the reverse of those intended; As it is by the industry of the laIN the union of integrity and wis- bouring classes that the community at dom consists the perfection of govern- large are provided with food, clothment, and from the want of some one ing, and lodging, it seems at first view of these two essential requisites to go- both reasonable and humane, that vern, every species of mal-administra- when this useful class fall into povertion necessarily flows. In the pasty and want, the richer classes, to sing of laws which are directed to the general good of the community at large, and which are wholly unconnected with the personal interests of individuals, it is impossible that legislators can have had any sinister purpose in view. In this branch of legislation, therefore, their errors must proceed, not from a want of integrity, but from a want of wisdom,from a want of those just and comprehensive views of the nature of society, without which no legislator can ever be qualified to regulate its complex concerns. In all those laws, for example, which have been passed for the encouragement of commerce, there is no reason to believe that their authors had any other object in view than what they professed. They really de that, so far from relieving their distress, or in any respect improving their condition, it plunges them into the lowest depths of vice and misery,— degra ling their moral habits,-eradicating from their minds every feeling of honest independence,-reconciling them to idleness and Beggary, and finally, increasing the distress which it is intended to relieve. Those various evils have been sometimes ascrived to the faulty administration of the system, and many cases of gross corruption and mismanagement have no doubt been pointed out. But a system which professes benevolence, and which is thus fruitful in all the worst of evils, must be wrong, not merely in detail, but in principle. It must have some inherent quality of mischief, by which so much intended good is transmuted into so much practical evil. The two great calamities to which the labourer is chiefly exposed, are a want of subsistence or a want of employment. A want of food may either arise from a deficiency in the usual supply, or the same effect may be produced by an over abundant population. In either case, a smaller supply has to be divided among a larger number of consumers, and in these circumstances, it is evident that a smaller share must fall to the lot of each. The deficient supply is divided among the consumers, in smaller portions by means of a higher price; the price rising in consequence of the deficiency, until the labourer is disabled from purchasing the same quantity as before. The evil falls upon the rich in the form of a tax; they use the same quantity of subsistence as before; but they purchase it at a higher price. The wages of the labourer not being sufficient for this, he is put upon short allowance and it is by his savings that the deficient supply is made to last out the year. In such cases, the law has generally interfered to regulate wages, or to extort money from the rich in order to divide it among the poor, the principle in either case being the same, namely, the making a general distribution of money among the labourers, to enable them to consume the same quantity of a scarcer commodity. We shall suppose the annual consumption of a country to amount to 100 millions of quarters of wheat. In consequence of a bad harvest, the supply falls short by 10 millions. It is clear, therefore, that, by some means or other, the deficient supply of 90 millions, in the same manner as formerly the more abundant supply of 100 millions, must be made to last the same number of consumers the VOL. I. same length of time. It is equally evident that, for this purpose, a certain proportion of the community must consume less, and they are reduced to this diminished consumption by the rise of price. But the system which we are considering makes a general distribution of money among the labourers, that they may be enabled to procure the same quantity of provisions as before ;-or, in other words, that they may be enabled to consume 100 millions when the whole produce only amounts to 90 millions. It is evident, therefore, that for the evil of scarcity, a general distribution of money affords no relief whatever. The other evil to which the labourer is exposed, namely, a general scarcity of work, can only be adequately relieved by increasing the funds of productive industry. The employment of the poor in work-houses, which is the remedy provided by the law, creates no new fund for the maintenance of labour. It merely diverts a portion of the old stock into a different channel. Even if there were no such establishments, the materials which are there worked up, would set industry in motion under the more careful inspection of the private manufacturer; and the effect of such projects is not to increase the funds of industry, but to change their management,―to take them from those who have an interest in faithfully administering them, and to place them under less careful overseers, where they may be abused or lost. All such projects, therefore, for the relief of the labouring classes, are of the most mischievous operation. They originate in the most mistaken and partial views, and manifest an ignorance of those great and general laws on which the structure of society is framed, and to which all subordinate regulations ought to be accommodated. But although the evil of this system be now generally admitted, it has been acted upon so universally, and to such an extent in England, that it has become a question of serious difficulty in what manner all its various evils can now be checked. So widely has it spread the evil of mendicity,-so thoroughly has it corrupted the moral feeling of the great mass of the community, and so general, of late years, has been the stagnation of trade, and the want of employment, among the E labouring classes, that a vast train of helpless dependents are now attached to it, who cannot be suddenly cast off to misery and want. And in this in deed consists one great evil of every erroneous and artificial scheme of policy, that, in the course of time, it establishes itself among the fixed and settled arrangements of society, so that, however sensible we may be of its mischiefs, we cannot suddenly remove it without producing the most extensive disorder and mischief. This naturally creates hesitation among those who, however they may feel the evil, are desirous to accomplish the proposed reformation at the least possible expence of present misery. In the case of the English poor-laws, however, the malady is not stationary. It is making continual progress,-it is gradually undermining the sound and healthy constitution of society, and it requires, therefore, to be checked by seasonable and vigorous remedies. The system established in England, of a compulsory provision for the relief of the poor, originated in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and the various statutes which were passed on this important subject, were consolidated into one general law, by the 43d of her reign. This statute enacts, that "the churchwardens and overseers" shall take order from time to time (with the consent of two or more justices) for setting to work the children of all such whose parents shall not be thought able to keep and maintain their children; and also for setting to work all such persons, married or unmarried, having no means to maintain them, and use no ordinary or daily trade of life to get their living by; and also to raise by taxation, &c. a convenient stock of flax, &c. to set the poor on work;" and also competent sums of money for and towards the necessary relief of the lame, impotent, old, blind, and such other among them, being poor and not able to work. By this law the churchwardens 'are invested with the important power of taxing the people for the support of the poor, or for setting to work poor children, or such as had no employment. All the various details of the system, the mode of making the assessment, the species of property to which it was to be extended, were either left entirely to their discretion, or no precise rule was prescribed for their conduct; nor was any adequate security provided by the law for the upright administration of the funds which they were empowered to raise. The statute is framed in vague and general terms. The object which it proposes is indeed plain and obvious, as well as the vast powers which it creates; but it contains no adequate provision for regulating the exercise of these powers; it trusts the whole practical detail of the measure to the discretion of individuals. In the administration of this system of compulsory charity, disputes have in consequence been continually arising respecting the legality of the proceedings of the churchwardens, and respecting another important point, namely, the species of property which is legally rateable to the parish contributions. This has been a most fertile subject of legal wrangling, inso much, that the money expended on law-suits amounted in 1815 to L. 285,000; and amid the series of contradictory decisions and statutes by which the subject is perplexed, there is still ample scope for new doubts and interminable disputes. It is generally believed, that the intention of the legislature was to subject every species of property to contribution. But in practice, so many difficulties have been experienced in enforcing this law against personal property, that the burden falls almost exclusively on lands and houses, and it has been gradually encroaching upon the income derived from this source, until it threatens in some cases its total extinction. At the time when the 43d Elizabeth was passed, it might have been easily foreseen,. that a system of compulsory provision for the relief of the poor, established and acted upon throughout the kingdom, would necessarily tend to relax the principle of private exertion,—that the stimulus to industry, frugality, and foresight, being once withdrawn, misery would increase,-that new claimants thus continually arising, the administrators of those funds would be gradually overborne by the importunate solicitations of beggary, that, in place of any nice discrimi nation between the cases of different claimants, the easy process would be adopted of confounding them all un 66 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 se parate 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 po pulation, 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 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 cominunity; 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 mentions, 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 |