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good management of the poor can only result from a thorough knowledge of the character, and especially of the faults, of the individuals who apply for relief; and to acquire this implies all the odious qualities of a busybody, if not of a spy, and must in some degree debase the purest and most energetic mind so occupied. Upon knowledge thus acquired, this educated and enlightened man has afterwards to act; that is, face to face to impute to men and women habitual idleness, debauchery or profligacy; and, in many cases, to insinuate suspicions of pilfering and all sorts of evasions and petty roguery. He must divest his nature of all that ennobled feeling and cultivated humanity, which are the best privileges and distinction of his rank in society; and he must acquire the stern impassive obduracy which is created in the manner and conversation of those who, as taskmasters or jailors, must hold authoritative intercourse with the basest of mankind. A sense of religious duty will lead such men as Mr. Davison describes into hospitals and prisons, to perform the most loathsome offices and witness the most heart-rending sights; they go as the ministers of charity, and while they indulge the yearnings of their own sympathetic nature, they are rewarded by the blessings of the miserable and the prayers of the dying. But is it to be supposed that the mere sense of parochial utility, or even of national good, will induce the most educated and enlightened' men to undertake a hateful task, in the performance of which they must needs incur more odium than thanks, while they themselves, being compelled continually to behold the worst parts of human nature, contract inevitably habits the most unfavourable to benevolence, and the most opposite to those which they would fain cherish in themselves? So much for the justice of such an expectation;-as to the probability that it could be carried into effect, we shall only observe that what has been will be-that zeal is not lasting in such occupations and that there are very few persons in the nation who are not either too busy or too idle to give up all their attention to the management of the poor; this, as it regards the educated and wealthy, can only extend in practice to a general superintendence of the conduct and accounts of the stipendiary overseer recommended by the Committee.

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The appointment of such an officer, and indeed the propriety of many other parochial arrangements, are to be considered with relation to the amount of the sum expended on the poor in each parish; and this subject is not unworthy of notice in some detail: the most convenient dimensions of parishes or districts for the purposes of good management having been the subject of speculation and discussion ever since the law of Charles II. (1661) permitted townships and villages in the northern counties (though not entire parishes) to maintain their own poor separately, because otherwise

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the inhabitants of those counties cannot, by reason of the largeness of their parishes, reap the benefit of the act of parliament (43d Eliz.) for the relief of the poor.'

The poor-rates of 1803 do not furnish perfect data for ascertaining the rate on the pound in each parish or township, because it is usually nominal, as being made on an ancient rental. But the general result of a pretty extensive investigation, with this object in view, is, that where less than 1007. was raised annually, the nominal rate on the pound was on the average 3s. 4d; and it is found to increase gradually with the sum raised till that amounts to 1000/. and the nominal rate on the pound to 8s.

Some part of this difference is no doubt attributable to the intimate knowledge which, in small places, the parish officer has of all the inhabitants; but much more to the greater interest which every individual, in a small parish, feels in not creating parishioners; for supposing there is but one occupier, the whole expense of every instance of imprudence of this kind falls on himself; but it falls in less proportion upon the individual as the payers of poor-rates are numerous, till, in very large parishes, a man's own conduct scarcely affects the amount of his payment to the rate, each man therefore becomes careless, and all collectively suffer for it.

The extreme case of extra-parochial places which maintain no poor at all is noticed by the Poor Law Committee, and will perhaps be remedied by their interference. That such a blot on the internal administration of the country should have remained so long is matter of surprize; but the Committee must apply to the parties to relinquish their convenient immunities, always, however, holding sacred those which are connected with the great and important objects of public education. The universities, the public schools of the country, and the inns of court, could not perhaps be touched without producing an evil far greater than the remedy sought to be attained by a subjection of such establishments to the common burdens.*

We cannot quit the subject of the dimensions of parishes without remarking that in places which expend above 1000l. per annum on their poor, the rate on the pound does not appear to be aggravated; the inference from which is, that when it becomes worth while to establish a stipendiary overseer (under whatever title) the natural effect of very large parishes in increasing the poor

In the language of the ancient law of England, extra-parochial places are not geldable nor shire-ground'-non sub districtione curia vicecomitis: and as the sheriff was the king's receiver-general of the county till the time of the revolution, extra-parochial places were neither taxable nor within the pale of any jurisdiction, unless in cases where the writ runs as well within liberties as without;' and the inhabitants are still exempt from all the civil duties and offiees served with much inconvenience by others for the general benefit.

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rates is counteracted. But large parishes, or, more properly speaking, populous parishes, are distinguished from others so decidedly by the different habits of their paupers, that a different mode of counteracting the bad effect of the poor laws becomes necessary.

For the agricultural poor we shall venture to propose a plan (though not with too much confidence) whereby we imagine all the evil influence of the poar laws upon that class may be done away, without compelling any man (educated and enlightened or otherwise) to be occupied in developing the character and conduct of the poor, on whom we shall take the liberty of laying the onus probandi,-by requiring of them to prove themselves meritorious before they can claim any relief beyond the bare necessaries of human existence. But manufacturing places require a distinct consideration as to the mode of compelling manufacturers to be responsible for the contingent relief of the poor whom they themselves have created. Let us, however, premise that the case is usually stated much too strongly against manufactures, as if the landed proprietor always suffered by their introduction. If this be so, whence comes the unparalleled rise in the value of land in Lancashire and the West Riding of York? Whence the numerous purchasers who have become freeholders to the amount of 30,000 in Lancashire, and half as many in the West Riding, and who, taken in the aggregate, pay the larger portion of the poor-rates necessary in their respective districts? Yet it must be allowed, that the decline of a manufacture may easily overwhelm a parish with its destitute retainers, who are not desirable inmates, their own habits,' as has been forcibly said by Mr. Davison, being their worst evil.' This writer has, indeed, drawn their portrait in dark colours, but with a masterly hand.

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'Their wages are so high in good times, that if they worked steadily and lived with moderation, they might very well reserve out of them a fund of supply against a time of want, which would carry them through till their trade revived, or till they had settled and adapted themselves to some new occupation. But the whole history of their life is of the most opposite kind, as far as it can be comprised in any one general description. The excesses of these men, in their intemperance and prodigality, the rashness and recklessness of their expenditure, their division of the week into'days of work, and days of the most gross and obstinate idleness, and the unfeeling neglect of their families, are some of the striking lines in the character of our manufacturing population. In numerous instances, the indigence of these people, which the law takes such anxious and extraordinary pains to relieve, implies more of real moral delinquency, and more harm to society, than many of the crimes for which our most severe penal statutes have been framed. And one consequence of such a life is, that when it meets with any check, they have such distempered and extravagant notions of a necessary support, as to make them ready to spurn the fare and diet which

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ether people hardly enjoy in the times of their most perfect competence. They become destitute and unreasonable at once. Their wants are not the wants of other men. Upon a round estimate, it would not be asserting too much, that these labourers are perfectly well able to maintain themselves from year to year. Their income might be made both a present and a future support. The excess of their earning at one time, (or of what they might earn,) above a fair substantial maintenance, would fully meet the deficiency of them at another, under the ordinary fluctuations of their trade. The means are there; they only want to be more evenly distributed. They are the men of all others who need to be taught the value of that trite maxim, that "frugality is a fortune," quàm magnum vectigal sit parsimonia; and none have the power of learning it more successfully, since they have only to practise their frugality upon an abundance.-The blank days of idleness in the manufacturer's life, which are quite a matter of choice with him, have this further effect, that they make a greater number of hands necessary for any brisk flow of work; and then when it slackens, they are proportionably incommoded by their numbers. Their idleness, in times of work, reproduces a forced and necessary loss of work in the sequel, which they might avoid if they pleased.'-pp. 108–110.

Mr. Davison truly observes, that a reformation of manners in this class would be a moral and political benefit beyond every other, and that Saving banks are exactly adapted to their use. On these points we shall not enlarge in this place. But with respect to the immediate evil of the poor-rates, we are convinced that the master manufacturer * ought to deposit in security of the parish at least one shilling on the pound of all wages paid by him, whether to be placed to the account of the individuals whom he employs, or generally to that of the parish, we shall not determine. In the former case, the individual must have no power to draw it out, but as permitted by the vestry or magistrates in time of sickness or distressand should lose all right of drawing it out at all, if his habits were profligate, or if any weekly days of idleness could be proved against him. With these checks, which, we shall see presently, could be easily enforced by a certain alternative of otherwise administering relief in a disagreeable form, the manufacturing poor might be reduced to the same good order and easy method of management, as the agricultural poor. Of this latter class, we shall now proceed

Speaking of the effect of manufactures on the poor-rates, Mr. Davison says, that they ought to bear the burthen for themselves,' for the same reason upon which their mills and engines are obliged to eat up their smoke when it becomes troublesome. It is to be wished that the fact were as this apt simile represents it ;-but in reality the nuisance of steam engine vomitories is doubling upon us in London every year, insomuch that the clearness of a bright sky in the vicinity of the metropolis only serves to shew by how many distinct black columns of smoke it is disfigured. Certain it is that steam-engines may be made to devour their own smoke in more ways than one; but it is very doubtful whether they will do so till the legislature shall induce them to abate the nuisance by a tax per inch of cylinder, on all which shall persist in this obstinate inattention to the public convenience, after time allowed for altering the apparatus.

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to treat, with a lively hope that, by rendering a good character valuable, and discountenancing bad characters, the labouring classes in England will become moral, respectable, and happy; and in course of time recover the honourable repugnance to parish support, which so wonderfully withstood the baleful influence of the poor laws for almost two centuries, but which has yielded considerably during the last thirty years, and is now giving way with alarming acceleration. Not that the remains of respectability are not still very considerable; insomuch that we doubt whether half the parishes in England would not be immediately ruined, if the right of relief (supposed to be conferred on the poor by the modern construction of the law) were insisted on, and generally pursued with all the artifice and chicane which is obviously practicable, and which indeed is practised by a certain proportion of troublesome claimants, such as infest every parish vestry in the south of England, with which we happen to be acquainted.

All the errors in the administration of the poor laws are deducible from an extension of that popular maxim of justice, which holds every man to be innocent, however strong the grounds of suspicion against him, till he shall be proved guilty. This degree of liberality is honourable to the society which ventures thus to prefer the immediate interest of the supposed offender to its own; and human society is strong enough in civilized countries to exercise it without too much danger to itself. But here liberality should stop if it be extended to a general principle that every man is meritorious till he is proved to be otherwise, this is to mingle right and wrong with an unsparing hand,—it is to render good conduct and good character of no available value, and thereby as far as possible to annihilate both.

It has been shewn by Hartley in what manner pleasure passes into pain, if the emotion goes beyond a certain point: here his mechanical philosophy is well founded; and in like manner there are virtues which when carried beyond their just bounds lose their character, and produce the effect of vices before they are actually denominated as such. Perhaps there is no virtue, either in private or public life, which so easily tends to this transmutation as liberality. The excess of liberality has produced mischief among us in many ways; but principally and mainly it has injured all who pay and all who receive poor rates, the greater portion of our population; and this enormous evil can only be remedied by a strict and determined reference to character, by laying upon the man who applies for relief the onus probandi that he has honestly endeavoured to maintain himself and his family, that there has been no idleness on his part, no wastefulness, no profligacy; but that he has, as far as in him lay, discharged his duty: for any man to ask relief from the property

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