the labourer had long been struggling with increasing misery, till the pressure had become almost too grievous to be endured, while the patience of the sufferers under their accumulated distresses had been conspicuous and exemplary." These were praises which, if applied to the manner in which the great body of the people bore their distresses and sufferings, could scarcely be too highly coloured. Ever since, the people had continued in the same state, and had borne their sufferings with equal patience. Mr. Whitbread observed on the same occasion, "That by the pressure of the times, marriage was discouraged; and among the labouring classes of the community, the birth of a thought it would be more satisfactory to the sufferers to hear the course of the proceedings as they occurred, and the nature of the evidence offered in their favour, than if the subject were to be examined in the usual manner by a Committee especially appointed for the purpose. He thought it necessary to premise, in the outset, that he wished to confine his inquiries solely to the distress prevailing among those poorer classes whose labours were the most productive, and who received at present so small an extent of remuneration in proportion to the labour which they were called on to employ. After all the attention he had been able to give the subject, he was convinced that the distress of this class was to be found in the super-child, instead of being hailed as a blessing, abundance of the number who required employment in proportion to the demand for labour; and that the class most materially interested in the removal of this evil was that on which the maintenance of the labourers principally fell, he meant the landed interest of the country. When he heard so many discussions, night after night, on the subject of the reduction of general taxation, he confessed he was at a loss to understand why the House should allow the Poor-laws to escape consideration, and why it did not direct its attention, in settling the balance sheet, to the reduction of the seven or eight millions of taxation which pressed on the landed interest, through the poor-rates, just as ardently as the Members applied themselves to procure a relief from those other taxes which pressed on the industry of the country. În entering on an inquiry of this kind, it would be well worth while to look at the opinions entertained with respect to the distress of the labouring classes at different periods of our history. In the year 1796, Mr. Whitbread introduced a bill into the House for the purpose of regulating the Wages of Labourers in Husbandry. This, be it recollected, was before the Bank of England was authorised to refuse payments in gold, and before any of those changes which were afterwards introduced into the monetary system had been carried into effect, and yet even then the people were, as now, suffering under that redundancy of labourers, which he maintained to be the great cause of the distress. Mr. Whitbread, in the discussion on the bill, used some language which was peculiarly remarkable with reference to this fact. He said, "In most parts of the country 66 was considered as a curse." To remedy $ib. 709. former, for one of the clauses proposed a premium to the father of a family of six children, the hon. Member proceeded to say, that Mr. Ricardo was the only person who seemed, on the discussion of those bills, which were afterwards lost in the Lords, to have any idea that a redundancy of population diminished the amount of wages, and that the bills were calculated to increase the evils they proposed to cure. When, therefore, they saw that, in the year 1796, the same complaints were made as at present, and that the poorer classes were suffering the same privations, he thought it must be admitted, that the evils did not flow altogether from an increase of taxation. In the work of a gentleman named Barton, with which he thought nearly all the Members of the House must be acquainted, and which contained more information than almost any other on these subjects, he found it observed, " that if it could be proved that in Switzerland and other countries the same distress was suffered as in this country; if the people of countries of the Continent, where there was no paper currency, and where there had always been a free importation of grain; if countries inhabited by a people poor and agricultural, were labouring under the same evils as a country rich, manufacturing and luxurious; did it not show that there existed some cause for that distress, common to all, and independent of those local circumstances to which it was generally attributed?" Now he would ask the House to say, whether that cause was not the redundancy of population, which rendered the wages of labour insufficient for the maintenance of the labourer ? The laws of those countries involved principles much more than we dared to resort to in this country; principles, however, the result of which was to maintain the labouring classes in a state of comparative ease and independence; a state to which pauperism was almost, if not altogether, unknown. With respect to the bills which at various periods had been introduced into that House, for the purpose of establishing a better system of regulations for the poor, they had all failed; they had all been abandoned by their original promoters; and no material alteration had taken place on the subject. The bill which was introduced in 1822 by Mr. Nolan, in a very able and argumentative speech, was more analogous Hansard's Parl. Deb, vol. vii, n, s. p. 1560. to the principles maintained by him (Mr. Horton) than any of the measures which had been proposed with similar views; but still it did not suggest any practical remedy for the existing evil which appeared to him to be of sufficient efficacy. After all the attention that he had bestowed upon this subject, and he could assure the House that he had bestowed upon it the most anxious attention; he would suggest to any one who should in future wish to undertake an amelioration of our present condition with respect to the poor, the advantage that would be derived from considering them under four separate heads. First-the poor who had real employment, and who maintained themselves by the actual wages of their labour; such persons were free from pauperism; privations they certainly suffered as compared with other parts of the community: but for that there was no remedy. The next class was the helpless poor; who, however they might wish to labour, were destitute of the power to do so, either from too great age, or too great youth, or sickness, or accident; and who must be supported by charity, whether that charity was compulsory, and prescribed by law, or whether it flowed spontaneously from the benevolence of individuals. The third class consisted of those whom he was desirous especially to distinguish by the appellation of "the pauper class;" being able-bodied men, willing to work, but who could not get employment, and who, if not assisted by others, must perish. That was the class which now demanded the most serious attention of the legislature, in order to endeavour to discover the best means of disposing of it. The last class was beggars; persons who preferred. living on charity to supporting themselves by honest industry, and who, while they could find any individuals in the country prepared to relieve their necessities, would look to no other means of subsistence. Every one conversant with the laws of production knew that no capitalist would go on producing any article unless he could obtain a remunerating price for it. But the labourer had no choice. must continue to offer his labour, not while he could obtain a remunerating price for it, but while he could prevail upon any one to employ him at whatever price. In the large classes supported by charity must be comprehended those who received money for anything but for their labour. He If, therefore, a man received money from | tion, would be attended with highly benethe parish to make good the deficiency of his wages, the mere fact of his receiving wages did not take him out of the pauper class. Such a practice, however, was productive of the greatest evils. It operated specifically against the interest of the strongest and the best labourer; for it brought society into competition against him; diminished the average price of labour; and, finally, reduced him to a state of poverty to which all hope was denied. On these grounds it was, that he highly approved of the bill which an hon. friend of his had introduced, for preventing any part of the wages of labourers from being paid out of the poor-rates; or, in other words, to prevent the private employers of labour from being assisted out of any corporate funds. One modification, however, he wished to see of his hon. friend's bill, namely, that in the case of any labourer having a large family, which he was incapable of supporting on his wages, if those wages were such as would be sufficient for the support of an unmarried and unencumbered labourer, that then the parish should pay to the married labourer the balance necessary for the maintenance of his family. Without entering into the consideration of the mode of levying the poor-rates, the first suggestion which he would take the liberty of throwing out upon the subject was, that in the accounts of every parish the sums paid to the helpless poor should be kept separate from the sums paid to the third class which he had described, or the pauper poor. By such a regulation, they would obtain an account of the redundant labouring population. His next suggestion would be, to empower parishes to employ the able-bodied poor in concentrated labour, instead of employing them in their separate parishes. It appeared to him that in many instances, labour, which afforded no return when employed in separate parishes, would be productive, if the labour of several parishes were concentrated. Another suggestion would be, to frame some regulations for restricting the erection of cottages in parishes where it was shown that a great redundancy of labour existed. A check of this description would be most advantageous. He was also decidedly of opinion, that to give the able-bodied poor, the natural labourers of the country, a small quantity of ground for their own cultiva ficial consequences. In support of his principle of the existence of a large redundance of the labouring population, he would refer to a petition from one of the hundreds of the county of Bedford, presented to the House towards the close of the last Session of Parliament. In that petition it was stated that 4,000l. was paid yearly by that hundred for labour, for which there was no return; and that the system was productive of serious crime and of every variety of shade of moral turpitude; and presented a picture of pauperism of the most deplorable character. The petition proceeded to state what proportion of the able-bodied labourers of the hundred would be sufficient to perform all the ordinary and habitual labour of the hundred. The number of able-bodied labourers in the parish was 2,177. After making every due allowance for harvests and other casual demands, it appeared that 1,496 would be sufficient to perform the work of the hundred; and, consequently, that in the hundred in question, containing thirteen parishes, 681 ablebodied labourers might be advantageously spared. He was persuaded that if by the means which he had recommended an account of the redundant labour-population of the country were to be forthcoming, it would create much astonishment. He by no means meant to say that much of this redundant labour might not, at a future period, be again absorbed ; but he contended, that while it continued to press upon the food of productive labour, it occasioned the most serious evils. He had, as might easily be supposed, received numerous letters and other communications, anonymous and otherwise, on the subject to which he had paid so much attion; and among them one from an enlightened individual, a man of the highest possible character, who, speaking of his own neighbourhood, stated that a strong desire for emigration prevailed, that the labouring population were sinking with an accelerating velocity into the jaws of pauperism, and that the funds of the parish were insufficient to remedy the evil; or, to use his own forcible expression, "to relieve the wretchedness of the labouring population, breeding and starving in a paroxysm of hopelessness and fatuity." The state of Ireland afforded a sufficient proof of the evils which resulted to the labouring classes from the absence of all check on the increase of population. The | lation in that country. This potatoe-fed existence of a state in the most wretched pauperism was not in itself a check on that increase. This was clearly established in Mr. Barton's letter, to which he had already referred. Mr. Hodges, a gentleman from Kent, who gave evidence before the Emigration Committee, said that in proportion as the labouring population became more miserably poor, they became more reckless, and married at an early age, without the slightest regard to any consequences. This was a fact established by experience, and by communications from other quarters. He was one of those who thought that if the poorlaws were properly regulated, they would be very beneficial. He conceived that the existence of judicious poor-laws indicated a high state of civilization in any country. But of this he was certain, that a country in which there was a free circulation of labour, as well as of other commodities, must be everywhere under the same law respecting the poor. If twenty counties were without a poor-law, and twenty counties were with one, that would be productive of great evil. For his part, he could see no reason why, now that our union with Ireland was cemented, the interposition of the ocean should prevent Ireland from having the same poor-law as England. But he should be very sorry to see the poor-laws inflicted on Ireland, unless she possessed the means of getting rid of her redundant labouring population. The object of the legislature ought to be to distinguish between that class of the population which lived upon the produce of the labour provided by private employers, and that class which lived upon other sources. If the House wanted to introduce a prudent and effective check to increasing population, it must make a substantive distinction between the two classes which he had described. The labouring classes must be taught to feel the disgrace of pauperism, and they would then anxiously avoid it. At present no such anxiety existed. Until it revived, every effort would be hopeless. It was impossible to consider the situation of the poor in this country, without adverting to the effect produced by the influx of the Irish poor. He by no means intended to say that the Irish poor ought not to be allowed to come over to this country. But the potatoe of Ireland was one of the substantial causes of the increase of popuVOL. XXIII. population came over to this country to enter into competition with our labouring poor, because there was no law in Ireland calling on the rich, under any circumstances, to provide for the poor. So little were the poor of Ireland relieved by the rich of Ireland, that whenever there was a failure in the potatoe-crop of Ireland, exposing the poor of that country to starvation, English benevolence always extended its assistance to them. Thus, however, a bonus was given to the increase of distress in both countries. All he asked was the extension to Ireland of the laws on the subject which were established in Great Britain; and then the potatoe-fed population of Ireland would prove beneficial to the empire. He wished he could see an attempt made to separate the pauper population from the labouring population of Ireland. The Report of the Committee of 1825, to inquire into the state of the Irish poor, stated that, of the former class, no fewer than a million were strolling over the country. It would be a most beneficial policy to introduce into Ireland a National Mendicity Association. The reports of such an Association would distinctly exhibit the amount of the redundant population of Ireland. Until that was ascertained, all legislative proceedings respecting the poor would be premature. If it should be afterwards found, on experiment, that the redundant population might be advantageously employed at home, after the example of the Dutch, let that be tried. If, on the other hand, it should appear that the advantage of the community would be more promoted by national colonization, some plan for carrying that colonization into beneficial effect should be devised. All he contended for was, that something must be done to put an end to a system which, if not checked, would multiply misery to an indefinite extent. Until, however, the day arrived when the labouring classes of the community should be convinced of the truth of what he had stated, and that the misery of their present situation, proceeding from redundancy, could be remedied only by removal, he was convinced that the Representative Body could never take any salutary step. He therefore called on the intelligent part of that class of the community, on the labourers and mechanics who had received the benefits of education, and who were competent to the C consideration, to investigate the subject, | and to determine if there was not truth in his statement, that where the numbers of the population were redundant, no legislative measure, no remission of taxes, or any other proceeding, could effectually put down pauperism. In 1826, a small experiment had been tried at Manchester. In the year 1825, the population of that town, 200,000 in number, was in a state of the greatest possible distress. The richer inhabitants determined to give work to all, at low wages. He had been told by an intelligent individual, that many persons supposed that there was a redundant population, others that there was no redundant population, but nothing certain was established on that point. The people were put to work, however; they were taken back into the general demand as they were required, and at no very distant period they were all absorbed. No one could deny that there was a great difference between the condition of the agricultural and the condition of the manufacturing population. The fact was, that whereas the demand for manual labour required in agriculture diminished, the demand for manual labour required in manufactures increased. In agriculture the improved processes had occasioned a greater produce, with less manual labour; but in manufactures the improvement of machinery, were it not for the introduction of Irish labourers, would have greatly increased the demand for, and bettered the condition of, the workmen. For the last thirty years, however, the latter had been kept down by the influx from Ireland. He could not avoid saying a few words on the subject of the currency. Many hon. Gentlemen appeared to be of opinion that a change-a depreciation-in our currency would operate to remove the national distress. Never, in the history of mankind, however, had the depreciation of the value of the money of any country produced any thing but misery to the labouring classes. This was undeniably true; and ought to enter into all the considerations of the legislature, when we were contemplating measures for the relief of those classes. The people at large ought to know that if, by a change of the standard, or by the introduction of paper, money were depreciated five-and-twenty per cent, the consequence would be, that every shilling received by a labourer or an artizan would be practically reduced in value to ninepence. It was true that time would afford a slow remedy for this evil, and that wages would gradually increase in the proportion of from one shilling to one shilling and threepence; but it would be then, and then only, that the situation of the labourer or of the artizan would be upon a par with his situation before the depreciation of the currency. When, therefore, he heard a depreciation of the currency described as a means of relief for the labouring classes, he only wished that those who so described it would consider the subject a little, and they would perceive that the sole tendency of such a depreciation would be, to benefit the debtor at the expense of the unfortunate creditor. He protested, therefore, against such a proposition; which, instead of relieving, would only add to the distresses of the labouring classes, and would not add a single grain of value to the wealth of the country. As to the changes which had already taken place in the currency, he did not pretend to say that the landed interest had not been affected by them. But if those changes were now to be renewed, and all the evils attendant on the alteration of the real terms of contracts were again to be produced, and that not only without benefitting, but very much to the injury of the labouring classes of the community, such a proceeding would experience his entire condemnation. Nor could the labouring classes derive the slightest relief from any such remission of taxation as would render it impracticable to keep up the necessary establishments of the country, and at the same time preserve faith with the public creditor. He should grossly deceive the people were he to tell them that they must look for relief to such a remission of taxation. There was another sound principle which he wished to inculcate on this subject. It was impossible that any remission of taxes could materially affect the situation of the paupers. Those who had to dispense charity might certainly, by a remission of taxes, have their means of doing so increased; but those who were to be maintained out of that charity-in other words, the redundant labouring population-must be benefitted in a very small degree by the remission of taxation, since it would not increase the amount of employment. He alluded especially to this part of the subject, because it had been said that the remission of the |