under the present law, and it requires no great stretch of imagination to suppose a state of things when small country villages will be wholly eaten up and ruined by having to support the disabled poor of this extraparochial population.

The burden is already becoming too grievous to be borne, and some alteration in the law of settlement has become imperative. There is certainly no moral necessity which compels a parish to support more than its own inhabitants; and that it should support all its inhabitants who need relief can be no hardship to a town which has had the benefit of their labour, and which already overflows with the munificence of private charity. Beyond some alteration in the Law of Settlement, there is not much to be gained by meddling with the Poor Laws. They can never be anything but mechanical means for relieving the most dire necessities. Friendly and Benefit Societies, when based on sound principles, can do much to raise the position of the labouring man; but they have had no chance under the present system, which holds out no helping hand to the man who is willing to help himself. It is even thought by some that it would be much to the interest of employers and employed if these Societies could be made co-extensive with labour, by compulsory membership and a higher rate of wages equal to the required payments.

*This was changed by the Act of 1865; the relief of the poor was charged to the Common Fund of the Union, and the time for gaining a settlement shortened to one year.

ROYALTY AND REVOLUTIONS.

[Union, May 24, 1861.]

OYALTY and devotion to our beloved Queen -which none can glory in more than we -will not blind us to the many inconsistencies which hedge in and surround Royalty. We do not confound Majesty itself with her Majesty's advisers, or hold the Sovereign responsible for the acts of a Ministry which a British Parliament has imposed upon her. When, therefore, we have had occasion to comment upon ecclesiastical appointments, which were neither more nor less than a caricature of the Royal prerogative, we have never lost sight of this circumstance, or attributed them to aught else than the Puritan element which predominates in the Cabinet, and in all its vagaries, takes shelter under the shadow of the Throne.

Proclamations emanate from the Queeu as directly as do the appointments of Bishops; and yet they, too, have their satirical as well as their grave aspect. Not quite a year ago a proclamation was issued which

(amongst other things) enjoined reverential behaviour during the worship of GOD. But the authorities from the highest to the lowest continued to wink at the profane parody on it which was weekly enacted at S. George's-in-the-East. In last week's Gazette we have another proclamation enjoining all her Majesty's subjects to observe strict neutrality in regard to the civil war in the United States-united no longer. The meddlesome, hot-headed temper of the English is so well known that, if only it is obeyed, the Royal proclamation comes out most opportunely to restrain those who, having nothing else to do, are ready to take up arms on the side of popular clamour, no matter whether for right or wrong, provided a few clap-trap phrases can be strung together to rouse their John Bull propensities.

But as the exception proves the rule, so in this instance the converse is strictly true that the rule proves the exception. Or how was it that only a few months ago steam vessels, with levies of men and arms, left these shores openly and without any attempt at disguise in order to take part in the Italian revolution, and yet no voice was raised; nor, as far as we have heard, did anyone incur the high displeasure of her Majesty for affording assistance to Garibaldi, or those Powers whose tool he was. If ever Englishmen were out of their places, it was assuredly when they were ranged on the side of rebellion and revolution. We are now properly forbidden to take part in an Ameri

can civil war; and yet only last year, not merely with the connivance but with the encouragement of our Government, supplies were forwarded to Italy to enable one who seemed nothing more than a common adventurer and a brigand to overturn a State with which we, as a nation, hypocritically professed to be at peace! The Army and Navy Gazette declared at the time, as the result of mature opinion, that every man who joined an armed force for the purpose of killing the soldiers and servants of a State with which the country to which he belonged was not at warwhether he did so because he had nothing else to do, because he wanted to see service or desired excitement -was little if at all better than a principal or accessory in murder.

When we think then of the supineness if not complicity of our Government in the matter of the Italian Revolution we tremble lest a Nemesis should visit our quiet homes. When the peace-at-any-price principle in Quaker guise has fulfilled its mission, and has drawn all it can out of a very clever but too complacent Chancellor of the Exchequer or an unwilling Parliament, who knows but that some Irish adventurer may then come to finish the work which has been so ably begun under the influence of a malignant Star ; and, should he receive supplies of men and arms from our nearest neighbour, that neighbour may in an unneighbourly way, according to the principles we acted upon last. year, find himself in a position to direct the

affairs of England without having to comply with the troublesome etiquette of nations in the unpleasant task of recalling an ambassador before the commencement of hostilities. There is only this slight difference between us and our neighbours-and here the comparison does not hold-we do an act of wantonness and injustice and derive no advantage from it; while our neighbour is alive to his own interests and will do nothing for nothing. Absit omen: we trust this slight sketch will never be realized: we but hold it up as a warning. England must be true to herself and her principles of honour and integrity if she is to hold her own among the nations of the world. We sincerely hope that the terms of the present proclamation may be strictly obeyed, and that the same principle may be carried out in future Garibaldi riots. It is not for England to encourage anarchy and revolutions.