supposing them to have fairly used the advantages of their station, and to be capable of generalizing their facts, it is not easy to overestimate the importance in all questions of domestic policy. At present, however, few of them are perhaps entitled, on these points, to full confidence. Hume somewhere says, that Father Paul was the only man who was at once an ecclesiastic and a philosopher. This opinion is of course thoroughly tinged with the gall of the historian, and is as inaccurate as his other opinions on topics connected with religion; but, like most other calumnies, it is not wholly destitute of support. We earnestly long for the period when the clergy, labouring in the first place to acquire the sacred knowledge essential to their office, shall extend their view to the questions immediately bordering upon religion; and shall thus qualify themselves to contribute to the temporal as well as the spiritual happiness of their country.

Before we proceed to lay before our readers a view of the luminous Report which forms the title to the present article, there is one additional observation which we wish to offer to their notice. The Com mittee themselves, who framed the Report, have acted with the caution and modesty due to the delicate and intricate questions which engaged their attention. Instead of expressing regret that the shortness of the session prevented their coming to any decision upon the great topics before them, they express their satisfaction at this necessary delay; inasmuch as it released them from all temptations to decide too hastily, or under the peculiar circumstances of the nation during the past year. Now it would be unpardonable presumption for individuals and obscure critics to press on before the legislators of the land to decide, upon less evidence, that which the Committee have refused to decide upon

the fullest evidence which was ever, perhaps, produced to any such court of inquiry. It is our intention, therefore, to maintain, with little exception, the same reserve which has been manifested by our superiors; and rather to present a compact abridgement of their statemeuts, than to offer any of our own. It is for those to cut the knot who have not patience to untie it. For ourselves, we desire patiently to pursue the investigation, till some satisfactory solution of our national difficulties shall offer itself for general adoption.

a

The Report opens by stating as reason why the Committee did not avail themselves of the permission to report their observations from time to time to the House, that they were unwilling to present detached or crude observations upon subjects of such high importance.

In the Report of the Lords' Committee for the same object, a copious account is given of the statutes upon the subject of the poor previous to the reign of Elizabeth. Their general object was to promote the relief of the impotent poor, by the contributions of the church, and by the alms of the charitable; and to discourage the idleness and check the villany of those who sought relief without any real title to it. Many statutes, characterized by the severity of the times, were directed against vagrants of this last character; and a statute in the reign of Edward VI. visited the crime of vagrancy with slavery, mutilation, and death.

The really impotent poor were, on the contrary, permitted to beg within certain limits; and various means were employed to excite the public to relieve them. But these excitements appearing to act both inadequately and partiallypushing on the benevolent perhaps beyond their powers, but leaving the hard-hearted and avaricious altogether uninfluenced-at length,

by the 5th Eliz. c. 3, the justices, after repeated admonition, were empowered, with the churchwardens, &c. to assess such persons, according to their discretion, for a weekly contribution. Thus gradually was established the principle of compulsory contribution for the maintenance of the poor. This simple statement of facts, as to the origin of the Poor Laws in our country, clearly shews that these laws were not adopted as a favourite instrument of legislation; but that they were rather forced upon the legislature by the general circumstances of the times, and the exigencies of the case. They were not chosen in preference to voluntary contribu. tions; but because voluntary contributions, to a sufficient extent, could not be raised.

Now it is a subject of speculation which can scarcely fail to suggest itself to an inquiring mind, How comes it that Great Britain should, thus early, have been driven to so disastrous a measure, and that Scotland should not even now be compelled to have recourse to it? One obvious answer is this: In Scotland, the first Reformation of religion was the work, not of the crown, as in England, but of the people. It was not a transaction founded in state policy, and deriving a secular aspect from the combination of court intrigue with religious zeal; but it was founded on a widely extended and deeply rooted conviction, among the nation at large, of its necessity. In England, a violent shock was given to the influence of religion in the minds of the people, by the attack and overthrow of their religious prejudices before a better substitute had been provided. They were divested of the creed they professed, before adequate means had 'been taken, or indeed could be taken, to diffuse amongst them sound religious knowledge. In Scotland, the evils were of a different class. They arose from an excess of religious zeal on the part CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 193.

of the people, and from an earnestness in the prosecution of the work of reform approaching to what may be termed fanaticism. A character was thus formed of great sternness,severe ruggedness, very alien, it may be, in some respects, from the meekness and gentleness of Christianity, but yet favourable to independence of spirit. The impulse thus given to the minds of men was calculated to make them spurn the idea of eleemosynary assistance; and this feeling was extended even to their remote relations and connexions. The early institution, in Scotland, of a system of national education, founded on religion, and superintended by an informed and active. resident parochial clergy, while it has served to smooth away some of the roughnesses of the national character, has also kept alive those feelings of independence which form, even in the absence of religious principle, a most powerful barrier against the inroads of pauperism.

But, besides this, the demand and pressure upon benevolence were, probably, less in Scotland than in England. The latter country was more early a commercial and manufacturing country, and was therefore more exposed to vicissitude and to the sudden influx of pauperism on its popula tion; so that while the higher morality of the Scottish peasantry operated powerfully in their fa vour, this mitigated poverty may not have been without its influence. And as we are not convinced, on the one side, that England, with the same proportion of paupers as the Scotch, would have followed the example of Scotland; so neither are we sure, on the other, that Scotland, with the same proportion of paupers as England, would have readily pursued her present practice. We are strengthened in these doubts by observing, that where the English, as in many of the agricultural districts, might support their poor by voluntary F

required to enforce. The progress of these evils, which are inherent in the system itself, appears to have been modern times, by an extension of the favoured by the circumstances of

contributions, no attempt is made to do it; and that Scotland, in many cases where her circumstances approximate to those of England, has, most unhappily, as we conceive, been led to adopt the practice of this country. But, to return to the Report

The Committee give the following statement of the Act of Elizabeth.

"This statute enacts, that the churchwardens and overseers' shall take order from time to time (with the consent of two or more justices) for setting

to work the children of all such whose parents shall not be thought able to keep and maintain their children; and also for setting to work all such persons, married or unmarried, having no means to maintain them, and who use no ordinary or daily trade of life to get their living by; and also to raise by taxation, &c. a convenient stock of flax, &c. to set the poor on work; and also competent sums of money for and towards the necessary relief of the lame, impotent, old, blind, and such other among them, being poor and not able to work." pp. 6, 7.

The Report next proceeds to state the truly melancholy results of this system of compulsory provision for the poor. It tended to abate the industry of the labouring classes, while it promoted their increase it was calculated to produce habits of improvidence, taking away the natural impulse to exertion and frugality. By making poverty the title to relief, it encouraged the growth of the misery it was designed to alleviate. Being compulsory, it divested relief of the character, and of all the beneficial effects, of benevolence.

"Proceeding from no impulse of charity, it creates no feelings of gratitude, and not unfrequently engenders dispositions and habits calculated to separate rather than unite the interests of the higher and lower orders of the community: even the obligations of natural affection are no longer left to their own impulse, but the mutual support of the nearest relations has been actually enjoined by a positive law, which the authority of magistrates is continually

law in practice, and by some deviations from its most important provisions." pp. 7, 8.

The Committee next allude to various points on which it will be unnecessary to dwell; namely, the melancholy impression produced upon their own minds by the contemplation of the increased and increasing evils of this systemthe deep anxiety they have felt to discover some adequate remedy for them the attention they have bestowed on every plan proposed to them-and the defects in the returns required from the parishes by an Act of 1815, which have left the information of the Committee incomplete.

They then enter upon a statement of the rapid and uniform increase of the assessment and ex

penditure for the poor. In the year 1776, the sum expended was 1,556,8041. The average expenditure of 1783, 1784, 1785, was 2,004,238/. In 1813, the sum expended was 2,467,9657.; in 1815, it amounted to 5,072,0287. Considerably more was raised in these years; in 1815, 7,068,9907. The excess was spent in church and county rate, militia, &c.

In order to meet this increasing expenditure, it has been suggested, by some writers on these subjects, that whereas the assessment is now levied on land and houses alone, it should be extended (as the Act of Elizabeth appears to warrant) to personal property of all kinds. With regard to some species of personal property, it may be stated that, if the assessment has not been extended to them, it has arisen only from the difficulty of ascertaining the amount of the property to be taxed without investing the assessors with inquisitorial powers, of such a nature as the exigencies of war alone have ever

induced the legislature to grant; and repeating an experiment which had already failed in the case of the original land tax. The important subject of taxing funded property for the relief of the poor, is noticed in the Report, and the injustice and impolicy of such a measure fully shewn. The assessment would, indeed, be easy in any given proportion; but how is it to be distributed among the different parishes of England and Wales, to which the funds have no local relation? It would be a violation of good faith to the public creditor, if, while sums at interest on other securities were practically exempt from this tax, money lent to the state should alone be subject to it, although by law the payment of the dividend is secured "free from all taxes, charges, and impositions." Besides, are foreigners, or stockholders in Ireland and Scotland, to be assessed? In short, while the injustice is palpable, the difficulties would be insurmount able.

The next question noticed by the Committee, is, whether it would be desirable to rate every individual to the Poor Rate in proportion to the number of hands employed by him. The great objections to this proposal are, the necessary discouragements it would give to the employinent of workmen -the consequent difficulties of the labouring class-and the inevitable increase which must thence arise of the very evils which the proposal is designed to remedy.

The Committee then proceed to consider certain complaints of inequality in the mode of assessing property in large towns; and they recommend, that, in consequence of the immense loss sustained through the insolvency or knavery of lodgers in petty houses, the house owner, in the case of houses of a certain rent, should be compelled to pay the assessment. Various petitions have reached the House, praying the adoption of such a

measure. The only strong objection that has been stated to it is, that, if adopted, individuals perhaps residing at a distance, so as not to be able in any way to controul the expenditure of a parish, might nevertheless have to pay the rate. But to this it may be answered, that no beneficial controul of the expenditure can possibly arise from those who now do or ought to pay the rate. But while the Committee admit it to be exceedingly desirable to equalize the Poor's Rate as much as possible, they state their deliberate conviction, that, if new funds are provided, a facility of expenditure will also be created; and that,

"unless some efficacious check be in

terposed, there is every reasou to think that the amount of the assessment will continue, as it has done, to increase, till, at a period more or less remote, according to the progress the evil has al ready made in different places, it shail

have absorbed the profits of the proassessed, producing thereby the neglect perty on which the rate may have been and ruin of the land, and the waste or removal of other property, to the utter subversion of that happy order of society so long upheld in these kingdoms." p. 16.

The Committee next present us with a curious table; from which it appears, that the increase of pauperism, even in districts almost purely agricultural, has been of the most gigantic nature. For example, the county of Hereford " expended on poor, in 1776, 10,5937.; average expenditure in 1783, 1784, 1785, 16,7271.; in 1803, 48,0677.; in 1815, 59,2557." The causes of this rapid increase of pauperism they conceive to be, mainly, the annihilation of that spirit of independence and selfsupport which checked this evil at an earlier period. The fear of the work-house, which operated for a time, has now ceased to act; partly through the number of paupers vastly exceeding the capacity of the work-liouse, and partly from the power given to the magistrate

of relieving the poor without their entering the work-house. From these circumstances, and the pro bability that the children of paupers will also be paupers, the ratio of increase is likely to be every day more rapid.

The Report then proceeds to offer some observations on the cu rious, and, as in other circum stances it would have been called, merely speculative question, as to the point at which, from the pressure of the Poor's Rate, a total stoppage of agriculture might be anticipated; the land owners and farmers refusing any longer to cultivate the soil. It is obvious that this would take place whenever the assessment nearly approached the gross rental of the land and that some such instances even now exist, may be collected from the following extract.

"The consequences which are likely to result from this state of things are clearly set forth in the petition from the parish of Wombridge, in Salop, which is fast approaching to this state. The petitioners state, that the annual value of land, mines, and houses in this parish, is not sufficient to maintain the numerous and increasing poor, even if the same were to be set free of rent; and that these circumstances will inevitably compel the occupiers of lands and mines to relinquish them, and the poor will be without relief or any known mode of obtaining it, unless some assistance be speedily afforded them. And your Committee apprehend, from the petitions before them, that this is one only of many parishes that are fast approaching to a state of dereliction." p. 20.

depriving their employers of the means of setting them to work ;that although the legislature has endeavoured, in some instances, by local acts and otherwise, to limit the influence of parishes, necessity has already shewn itself too strong for law;-and that any participation of the burden of assessments with neighbouring parishes, whilst it lessens the weight on one part of the community, only does so by removing it to another part. The plan of a "national assessment” has, indeed, been proposed; but the Committee justly object to this that it would incalculably increase the evil, by putting the funds under the controul of those who did not, perhaps, contribute to raise them. It would also be altogether impossible to devise any adequate means of checking the demands on such a fund, when every excess in parochial disbursements would be merged in the general expenditure of the empire.

The Committee next dilate upon the importance of endeavouring to apply the only radical remedy for the existing evils; namely - the creation of a spirit of virtuous independence in the lower orders. They state with justice, that the transition to a more wholesome system can be accomplished only by the gradual restoration of a feeling of reliance upon their own industry, rather than upon the parochial assessments.

After this, they advert, with much satisfaction, to the establishment of" Saving Banks," and of " Be