trol. It is military division, and civil principle; which is the only organization by which well-ordered and real freedom can exist. A parish ward would be to a parish what a company is to a regiment; and the head of the ward, with his deputy and inferior assistants, would answer to the captain with his lieutenant and non-commissioned officers. The company is the foundation of the discipline and well-being of the army, as the ward would be the foundation of the discipline and wellbeing of the state. Military division, combined with the principle of self-government, seems to have been the system perfected by Alfred; and I have so high an idea of its efficacy, as fully to believe the accounts of the good order reported to have prevailed in his reign. Besides, if the histories of him handed down to us had been fictitious, they would, from the age in which he lived, have made him. superstitious and bigoted; but though he is always stated to have been devout, his devotion is represented as pure as his love of justice. It is only under a system of moral influence such as his, that his noble saying, that men ought to be as free as their own thoughts, has any sense. It supposes perfect liberty of action to men made just by good govern

ment.

I shall in my next number proceed to the consideration of parish government in the aggregate.

PAROCHIAL IMPROVEMENT.

The following extract is from the introduction to a pamphlet of mine on Pauperism, first published in 1826. I give it here, not on account of the particular subject, but in connexion with the preceding article, as a practical proof of what might be effected in general improvement by an organized

superintendence under the authority of the law. I was armed with no authority but that of influence of my own creating, and had no organization but a voluntary and very imperfect one. The place, when I began, was considered in a hopeless state of demoralization, and its name was a sort of by-word in the country round; yet a great deal of the attention I bestowed upon it was beyond what was required for its management, and had for its object my own restruction. I made it my constant aim to establish the principle of self-government, and the consequence has been that the system I introduced works well to this day.

"In August 1817, an opportunity occurred to me of commencing an experiment on the subject of pauperism in the township of Stretford, in the parish of Manchester--a district partly manufacturing, but principally agricultural, and containing about 2,000 acres of land and as many inhabitants. I began by procuring the adoption of somewhat the same plan as Mr. Sturges Bourne's Select Vestry, not then legalized—a suggestion of the neighbouring magistrate, whom I consulted in the first instance, and whose co-operation, as well as that of the most respectable inhabitants, I uniformly met with, during a residence at intervals of three years and a half. I soon found that the magistrates as usual had no confidence in the overseers, to the great gain of the paupers, whose appeals from the overseers to the magistrates were incessant. I found that the paupers were insolent in the extreme to the farmers, and in a great measure their masters-that the paupers were leagued together to get as much from the rates as possible, and that they practised all sorts of tricks and impositions for that purpose-that the industrious labourers were discouraged the well-disposed inhabitants afraid, or persuaded that it was in vain to interfere-and every individual driven to do the best he could for himself or his connexions at the

general expense. For some time the paupers tried every art to deceive or tire me out, and some of the rate-payers who

were ousted from the management thwarted me in secret; but the good effects of the new system became so apparent, both as to economy and good order, that opposition grew less ad less, and at last suddenly and entirely ceased. I spent almost my whole time for some months in visiting the labouring classes—in making myself master of their habits—in explaining to them the causes of their distress-and in enforcing, as occasions arose, the doctrines of Mr. Malthus,* which I took care to put in the most familiar and pointed manner I was able, and I was surprised to see the effect generally produced -it was as if a new light had broken in upn my hearers. By degrees I gained their confidence-they constantly applied to me to settle their disputes, or for legal advice, or for assistance in whatever difficulties they found themselves; and as I was frequently able to serve them, I found that circumstance of great advantage in carrying into execution any measure of severity or privation. With respect to former abuses in the management, I made it a rule never to look back, but held that neglect on one side and imposition on the other had balanced the account, and that it would be better to look only to the future. I found this plan attended with the best effects. Those who had profited by abuse were glad to escape so easily. Those who really wished for what was right were not revolted by any appearance of harshness; and instead of wrangling about the past, every thing went on well for the present, and not one retrograde movement was made. A few hours in a week soon became sufficient to do all the business, and at last a trifling superintendence was alone necessary. Information came to me from all quarters—the league amongst the paupers was dissolved-appeals to the magistrates, whose unvaried countenance I experienced, entirely ceasedthe rates were considerably diminished-the labourers depended more upon themselves, and were generally better off-

* I mean the doctrines Mr. Malthus himself laid down, not those ignorantly attributed to him.

and, what was most important, new principles were gaining ground.

"The amount of money paid to the poor during the years of my occasional superintendence, exclusive of the maintenance of those in the workhouse and of the expense of a few articles of clothing, was as follows :—

"When I first interfered in August 1817, it was the practice to admit families into the workhouse; at the time my interference ceased the number of inmates was reduced to eight, viz. six aged persons and two young women-one of the latter half idiotic, and the other labouring under severe disease. Three of the old men broke stones for the roads, and the idiotic girl maintained herself. In fact, a workhouse was become quite unnecessary. Before the commencement of the alteration of system, the expenses of pauperism were rapidly increasing, and the reduction was solely owing to that species of amendment in management, which may be put in practice under any circumstances."

Note to Second Edition, published in 1831.

The last opportunity I had of seeing the effects of my system, was in September 1828, when I made the following extract from the Poors Books.

May 1817, Monthly payments to regular poor 68 3

1818

1827

1828

6

33 12 0

15 2 0

13 10 0

In April of this present year, 1835, I attended a town's meeting for half an hour, after a lapse of fourteen years, and found the business carried on just as when I was there before; and I learnt it was in contemplation to abandon the workhouse on the 21st of this month, as useless.

THE ART OF ATTAINING HIGH HEALTH.

(Continued.)

As I have stated in the beginning of this number, I shall follow in my observations upon health the familiar and desultory style, writing down what I have to say just as it occurs

to me.

This is the golden rule-Content the stomach, and the stomach will content you. But it is often no easy matter to know how, for like a spoiled child, or a wayward wife, it does not always know its own wants. It will cry for food, when it wants none- -will not say when it has had enough, and then be indignant for being indulged-will crave what it ought to reject, and reject what it ought to desire; but all this is because you have allowed it to form bad habits, and then you ignorantly lay upon poor nature your own folly. Rational discipline is as necessary for the stomach, as for the aforesaid child, or the aforesaid wife, and if you have not the sense or the resolution to enforce it, you must take the consequences; but do not lay the fault upon another, and especially one generally so kind, if you would but follow her simple dic"I am always obliged to breakfast before I rise-my constitution requires it," drawls out some fair votary of fashion. "Unless I take a bottle of port after dinner," cries the pampered merchant, “ I am never well.” Without my brandy-and-water before I go to bed, I cannot sleep a wink,"

tates.

66