mediately after being married for relief from the parish. What was strictly the sole inheritance of misery is now indiscriminately claimed as a right appertaining to all.

Amongst the agricultural classes this contagion has been spread by other means. Motives not creditable to the parties have contributed to their debasement: with a view of keeping down wages parochial relief was resorted to. The price of grain was taken as the barometer. It does not seem to have been considered what was likely to result from a practice so degrading: by thus rendering the labourer dependent, and compelling him to look to others and not to his own endeavours for support, all economy and forethought vanished; to husband his little gains was to relinquish his own enjoyments for the benefit of a parish. This sacrifice of independence was attended at the commencement with regret; the opinion and respect of neighbours was a strong tie, and operated to keep alive the feelings of independency, when no such means were resorted to, till the late years of scarcity; these have nearly extinguished that honest pride that called forth great exertion rather than submit to pauperism. The mistaken views of some, together with misfortunes of the times, and the effects of example, have nearly reduced the whole of the working classes to a state of pauperism; every sentiment of shame is lost sight of, and with it all, consideration beyond that of the present moment. To stop To stop the progress of this alarming malady, in modern times, expedients have been resorted to which bear a strong analogy to the policy which produced the act of the 8th and 9th of William and Mary, I mean the erection of workhouses for the reception of the poor. The principal object of these receptacles seems to have been not to accommodate the needy, but to deter them from applying for relief: as a preliminary every domestic comfort was to be sacrificed their little property seized for the benefit

of the parish-every hope of returning to their own fireside extinguished. Who can view these mansions of misery without horror? This springs from that radical error in the administration of the poor laws which confounds vice and virtue, and equally entitles both to relief. To guard against the idle and the profligate the unfortunate are the victims. Every feeling heart must deplore that a fellow creature should be exposed to such a cruel alternative.

The best regulated poor houses present a dreadful state of existence-a society with no one common bond of feeling every endearing relation destroyed. In its place a principle of savage selfishness pervading all classes-engendering mutual jealousy and hatred. Age, infirmity, youth, idleness, and profligacy indiscriminately huddled together. Can any mortal contemplate such a conclusion of life, and not bless the attempt to preserve him from it? I put it to every gentleman's feelings who hears me, if he can doubt the poor of England will hail any change of system which will in its operation secure to them the enjoyment of their peaceful habitations and domestic comforts? Yes, they will gratefully acknowledge to God and you the escape from this misery, which the poor laws now hang over their head.

Every motive of humanity as well as policy calls on us to endeavour to devise means for securing so large a portion of our fellow creatures from the degraded situation to which they are reduced. Eight millions expended, and that without promoting the happiness of one individual who participates in it. If the evil is suffered to proceed, the whole industry and revenue of the country will be inadequate to support the poor-not a comfortable, happy, but a dissatisfied and degraded poor, who discover when it is too late, that improvidence and want of economy, which makes them a burden to others, robs them of every comfort of life.

Such are the baneful effects of these laws, their contaminating influence is felt by all ranks. In the higher orders it has lessened those feelings of compassion and interest that would otherwise have been felt for the afflicted: the resources of a parish suspend the claims of charity.

In destroying this system you will render mankind more alive to the feelings of benevolence; every one will then find he has a duty to perform, which under existing circumstances he may consider as not imperiously binding on him.

A sum of eight millions judiciously applied to the relief of the really necessitous and industrious poor would extend the scale of comforts, which might be afforded them, infinitely beyond what ever has yet been in contemplation or practice.

The labouring classes of Great Britain are, at the bottom, a reflecting and moral people, capable of forming a correct judgment on any plan proposed for their benefit. They will not be slow in appreciating the advantages of depending on their own exertions rather than trusting to those of others. I may be too sanguine in the views I have taken : my firm belief, however, is that some plan founded on the principles which will govern what I shall have the honor of submitting to the house, would meet with the approbation of a great majority of the lower orders. No period for the discussion of this momentous question can be more favorable than the present. Splendid as is the renown which the nation has required by its naval and military exploits, these will not form the most brilliant and striking feature in the future history of the present times. The admiration of succeeding ages will be directed to that revolution that has and is operating on the moral state of man by the system of education introduced by Bell and Lancaster, which in its progress will multiply the happiness of every succeeding age by in

NO. XV.

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VOL. VIII.

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creasing its habits of virtue and probity. In twenty years we may fairly contemplate that there will scarce be an individual to be found who will not possess the means of making himself acquainted with his duty to God and man.

The blessed effects of a general system of education, I hold equally high with Mr. Whitbread, and consider it as the foundation on which is to be built any system for bettering the condition of the people of England. Whatever can lead men to curb their passions and teach them to oppose the future to the present, must be attended with the most important results to their happiness.

Disposed as I am to look to education as a most powerful auxiliary, so great is the evil with which we have to contend, that it would not, in my humble opinion, be safe to confide in any plan that did not offer not only an equal but extended scale of support for the afflicted.

I am neither called on nor disposed to enter into the discussion of any abstract principles. It matters not whether every human being be entitled to a support from the produce of the earth; or that the most imperious duty on man after the payment of debts is the exercise of charity. I am disposed to allow every latitude that can be required to the claims of misery, and to agree that the exercise of benevolence is the highest source of human enjoyment.

Nor is the axiom less true that it is an imperious duty, binding on every mortal, to exert his utmost endeavours for the support of himself and those he has contributed to bring into the world. By the sweat of his brow man is ordained to earn his bread. No claim can honestly be set up for relief till every effort has been made and failed. The neglect of this principle has brought on the nation the evils it now endures; unless the consent and opinion of the working classes can be brought back to a recognition of this truth, it is in vain to look for relief from any remedy that can be proposed.

To one half of the empire only do the poor laws extend. Great as is the scale of misery that unfortunately prevails in Ireland, constant and unceasing as are the claims for relief, the appeal is never without effect. To the honor of that country its charity is unbounded. The stream of benevolence flows unceasingly, the indigent themselves view it as an indispensable duty not to refuse their mite. This af fords a proof that when there is no other provision than that of charity all are disposed to exercise it.

In Scotland the number of parochial poor is about one in sixty. The whole poor of that country are calculated from thirty to thirty-six thousand. The expenditure for their support supposed to be about 31. each, and the total expence not exceeding one hundred and eighty thousand pounds. Nothing can afford a stronger proof of the influence of moral and philosophical principles on the conduct and character of a nation, than this view of the laboring classes presents. Voluntary charity is in most instances adequate to all the claims of the unfortunate. The scale of crime is as narrowed as that of necessity. Education and attention to the duties of religion produces the happiest effects on the condition of the lower orders in that country, and encourages us in looking to the same effects from recurrence to the same means. Had our system of poor laws extended to that country, its inhabitants would have been equal sharers in the misery which has resulted from them in this country. A corroborating proof of this arises in a parish in Dumfriesshire, where they have funds for the maintenance of the poor, amounting to between two and three thousand pounds per annum. The number of inhabitants in this parish is supposed to be nearly eight hundred, the greatest part of whom are in a state of pauperism, depending on charity for their support. An adjoining parish has a population of 2,500 souls, and there are in it but