pauperism. Let the Poplar Committee any unemployed artizans as they can dispose of, but do not let it be supposed ng they are at all contributing to the pauper problem. 1 to be supposed by many people that sands of half-starved wretches in Engld be thriving if only they happened n some more favoured land. But all have ever seen goes to negative such and to establish the fact that the rive in the new country are just those ven in the old; those, that is, who are a strong body, a vigorous mind, a and industrious habits. How many now starving in England? On the attempts to regenerate the refuse of ns by mere change of air and scene bortive. For some specimen results of ation, I may refer your readers to a imes, of January 26, where the fortunes rs from London and from Limerick are into the New World. They carried eir intemperance, improvidence, sloth, proved a curse to the country they pon, as they were to the country from ere ejected. But there is no need to point, since I am able to call two proates of emigration, Mr. Jenkins and Haly, as witnesses to the impossibility must reconcile ourselves to the anarchic, amorphous periods which must precede the reign of Christ. NEW UNIVERSITY CLUB, I have been studying in the Débats, with great attention and interest, the debate in the Corps Législatif about the Paris improvements. When Leon Say used to talk about it at Paris, I used to think I never should get to understand it, but this debate has made it quite clear to me. Among others here are a few little facts. The Imperial improvements have cost in the last fifteen years, 1,865,000,000 francs, or £74,000,000 sterling. The current expense of paving, lighting, cleaning, &c., which cost in 1847 4,300,000 francs, or £172,000 sterling, now costs 23,600,000 francs, or £944,000, sterling: this is exclusive of "entretien des promenades," &c., which costs over £100,000 a year more. The spirit in which the work is done may be illustrated by the fact that about £2,000,000 were absolutely thrown away and wasted in contracting one loan at a ruinous price in order to conceal the transaction from the Corps Législatif. The Minister finally was driven to justify the works by the necessity of staving émeutes. All my suspicions are being confirmed to the letter by these revelations. THE CONFERENCE OF EAST END GUARDIANS. To the Editor of the East London Observer. SIR,-At a time when pauperism is in every mouth and on every pen, and when the papers are stuffed with the recipes of every charlatan for its cure, it is refreshing to meet with a document such. as the body of resolutions adopted by the East End Guardians, February 1, and published in the Times of last Monday. Here, in place of windy declamation and thoughtless advocacy of impossible panaceas, we have solid, well-considered, practicable recommendations, for the treatment of those who, being unable to maintain themselves, are maintained by the alms of their neighbours, collected in the form of a poor-rate. I use this circumlocution advisedly, in presence of the reckless talk about "the law" and "the State," which seems to obscure the fact that pauper Smith, of No.-, in Queer Street, is, and can only be, supported by the alms of Brown, Jones, and Robinson, just round the corner, and not by the mysterious and wealthy stranger who seems to embody the idea entertained of the State by too many philanthropists. The spirit of Christian charity is happily combined in this remarkable paper with regard for economic truth, and if we could hope that most metropolitan unions are ready heartily to adopt its recommendations we might look forward to a speedy and per manent reduction of metropolitan destitution. Unfortunately we are in the dark as to the degree of unanimity among the representative Guardians which this report implies, and the degree of acceptance it will meet with from those whom they represent is still more problematical. I feel, however, so convinced of the soundness of the principles therein laid down, and of the expediency of the practical measures proposed, that I am anxious to press them upon the favourable notice of your readers. The most satisfactory feature of this report is the importance it assigns to the labour test, and the sound doctrines it propounds respecting it. The truth is, the method of applying a labour test has yet to be evolved, and on the direction taken in this matter it depends whether we succeed in leading back our paupers into the path of independent industry, or drag the whole nation into that vortex of public works which leads inevitably to the bottomless pit of Communism. The framers of the Poor Law of 1834 never seriously considered how they could find work for the destitute. They only wanted a disagreeable and deterrent occupation. Their principle was to offer board and lodging in the workhouse to all who would take it; the only further consideration being, how to make the recipient's condition so uncomfortable that he would avoid it as long as he could, and get out of it on the first opportunity. Possibly this system, thoroughly and universally enforced by able adminis |
