ON THE ENGLISH POOR-LAWS, AND THE LITERATURE TO WHICH THEY HAVE GIVEN ORIGIN. If the English Church has abjured all charge of the poor, neither feeding them, nor lodging them, nor clothing them, nor visiting them in prison, nor administering the cup of cold water to the thirsty; if English libraries furnish, neither by churchman, nor statesman, nor philanthropist, any complete treatise upon Christian Charity, the language is by no means deficient in literature of the poor; we mean, not poor literature, nor literature for the poor, but literature of the "Poorlaws." When the English civil authorities assumed the charge of the poor, whom the Church rejected, they undertook a most dangerous and difficult task, as the whole history of their poor-administration proves. We do not say it would have been done better by any other authorities, for we admit it was the most difficult undertaking ever assumed by civil authorities. The management of the poor in England has given birth to volumes of legislative enactments, volumes of judicial decisions on questions as to whether a pauper belonged to one parish or another, as to what sort of residence constituted a claim to relief, as to which parish the burden of the pauper belonged to, and which should be exempted from affording any aid; volumes upon the most economical mode of feeding and keeping these burdens of the parishes; volumes on the history of the poor-laws and their administration; on the management of the poor; on their employment, on workhouses, on the history of the poor, and on the poor-rates. This literature is unique-there is no parallel to it in any country. It exhibits a constant series of writers struggling against the whole system, disgusted with it, or approving it only as an inevitable evil without remedy; but all unable to rise to the Christian solution of the subject. The Protestants of England had absolutely lost sight of the relations between Christianity and poverty, and numberless humane writers were racking their brains during centuries to find some plan or theory in regard to the poor which might meet the object and quiet disturbed consciences. But no solution appeared, and the evil continually increased. We may characterize the actual state of the poor and the legislation for the poor during nearly the whole of this period by the following extract from a work of the highest authority, "The History of the Poor Laws," by Richard Burn, L.L. D. 1 vol. 8vo. London, 1764. "THE OFFICE OF AN OVERSEER OF THE POOR seems to be understood to be this: To keep an extraordinary lookout to prevent persons coming to inhabit [his parish] without certificates, and to fly to the justices to remove them; and if a man brings a certificate, then to caution all the inhabitants not to let him a farm of £10 a year, [which would give him a settlement in the parish,] and to take care to keep him out of all parish offices; to warn them, if they will hire servants, to hire them half-yearly, or by the month, or by the week, or by the day, rather than by any way that shall give them a settlement [which entitles them to relief in case of their becoming poor;] or, if they do hire them for a year, then to try and pick a quarrel with them before the year's end, and so to get rid of them. To maintain their poor as cheaply as possibly they can, at all events; not to lay out twopence in prospect of any future good, but only to serve the present necessity. To bargain with some sturdy person to take them by the lump, who yet is not intended to take them, but to hang over them in terrorem, if they shall complain to the justices for want of maintenance. To send them out into the country abegging; for why not they, as well as others? To bind out poor children apprentices, no matter to whom or to what trade, so that the master live in another parish. To move heaven and earth, if any dispute happens about a settlement, and, in that particular, to invert the general rule, and stick at no expense. To pull down cottages. To drive out as many inhabitants and admit as few as possibly they can; that is, to depopulate the parish in order to lessen the poor-rate. To be generous indeed, in sometimes giving a portion with the mother of a bastard child to the reputed father, on condition that he will marry her [and support her;] or with a poor widow, for why should she be without the comforts of matrimony?—always provided that the husband is settled in another parish. Or, if a poor man with a large family appears to be industrious, they will charitably assist him in taking a farm in another parish at £10 a year, and give him the money to pay his first year's rent; and if any of the poor have a mercantile genius, they will purchase him a box of pins, needles, laces, buckles, and such-like wares, and send him abroad in the quality of a petty chapman: with the profits thereof, and a moderate knack at stealing, he can decently support himself, and educate his children in the same industrious way."-Page 211. A CATALOGUE OF SOME ENGLISH WORKS ON THE POOR-LAWS AND THEIR ADMINISTRATION, AND ON THE POOR. Proposals for Employing the Poor, by T. Firmin, London, 1678 Provision for the Poor, by Sir M. Hale,. 66 1683 Proposals for a College of Industry, by John Bellers, Considerations on Better Management of the Poor, 4to... Of the Care of the Poor in most Civilized Nations, by Richard Onely, 4to... 66 1758 Causes of the Increase of the Poor, by Josiah Tucker, 4to.......London, 1760 Letters on the Rising Generation of the Labouring Part of our Fellow-subjects, by Jonas Hanway, 2 vols. 8vo. .......... A Dissertation on the Poor-laws, by Rev. Joseph Townsend, 8vo. Howlett, 8vo.· · · · · · · · History of the Poor, by Thomas Ruggles, 2 vols. 8vo........... 66 1767 This writer first clearly announced the wrong which the Established Church had done to the poor, by taking possession of and holding the church property given for the relief of the poor. It is said he was compelled by clerical influence to expurgate his work and publish without these objectionable allegations upon the purity of the Church. Means of Providing Employment for the People, a Prize Essay, by Samuel Crumpe, 8vo... . . . . The Case of Labourers in Husbandry stated, by Rev. D. Davis, 4to. This is the most elaborate work to which this fruitful topic has given rise. It is highly valuable in the sense in which this subject was viewed. It descends to the merest minutiae of food and clothing, and sifts numberless reports, documents, and accounts, to exhibit the true cost of maintaining the poor during the period to which it relates. The treatment of the poor is discussed solely in the light of economy. It is the best history of prices for the last three centuries extant, and is, otherwise, an important collection of facts. Can any thing more strongly exhibit the blindness of English people to the true relations of this subject, than that a work of 3 vols. 4to. could be written upon the State of the Poor, from the Conquest to the year 1797, on which so little should be said upon the true nature of the claims of the poor and the obligations of the rich? The author has, however, said enough to show that he was not ignorant of the truth, but he evidently considers that view of the subject as one of small importance. Inquiry into the Policy and Humanity of the poor laws, by J. Weyland, 8vo..... A Treatise on Indigence, by P. Colquhoun, 8vo. [This is not elementary, as its title imports.]. .. . . . . London. 1808 1815 Systematic Relief of Poor in different Countries, by J. Duncan, Bath, Report and Evidence on Mendicity in the Metropolis, to House of Commons, folio...... ...London, 1815 Condition of Labouring Classes of Society, by John Barton, 8vo. 1817 1818 Remarks on the Report on the Poor-laws, by J. H. Moggridge, 8vo. Bristol, ......same..... 66 1826 66 1827 •London, 1824 Economy, by J. E. Bicheno, 8vo....... 1830 Nature, Extent, and Effects of Pauperism, by Thos. Walker,.. Christian and Civic Economy of Large Towns, by Thomas Chalmers, D. D., 3 vols. 8vo...... Causes and Remedies of Pauperism in Great Britain, by R. Wilmot Horton, Svo.......... 1821-26 • London, 1830 Moral and Physical Condition of Working Classes, by J. H. The Poor and the Labouring Classes in America and Europe, by The History of the Middle and Working Classes,-the Economi- Several editions of this valuable work have appeared since. The Agricultural Classes of Great Britain and Ireland, with Extracts from Parliamentary Reports from 1833 to 1840, Remarks of the French Editor, published at Vienna, with a Preface, by Henry Drummond, Esq., 2 vols. 8vo........ This mystified title, doubtless, is but a thin covering to the fact that H. Drummond is responsible for the work. National Distress, its Causes and Remedies, by Samuel Laing, Esq. Jun., 8vo. London, 1844 The Working Classes, their Moral, Social, and Intellectual condition, with Suggestions for their Improvement, by G. Simmons, 12mo..... The Social Condition and Education of the People in England and Europe, by Joseph Kay, 2 vols. 8vo. THE POPULATION QUESTION AND ITS DISCUSSIONS. The discussions carried on in the books on the subject of the poor and poor-laws were much enlivened by the publication of the Rev. T. R. Malthus, in 1798, of "An Essay on the Principle of Population, as it Affects the Future Improvement of Society," London, 8vo., already referred to by our author, who has quoted some of its positions, (ante, page 150.) Malthus produced nothing very original; he merely reduced English feeling and usages in regard to the poor into a philosophy. Previous to this publication, the questions discussed had been chiefly as to points of economy in keeping the poor, and the very point of feeding had been assiduously ascertained, discussed, and tried: it had also been a matter of much inquiry how far and in what way the labour of paupers might be made to pay for their maintenance. In these inquiries, nothing, however small or unimportant, escaped remark: in a question of economy, a very small saving, even that of a few pence in a year, made a large sum when multiplied by the poor of England. The keeper of one of the workhouses once made the important discovery that the constant use of the same scales in weighing out paupers' rations had worn upon one side of the scales so as sensibly to affect the adjustment. This was brought forward at the meeting of the superintendents as indicating the means of a considerable economy. But no one, who has not looked into the details which occupied the attention of writers and administrators of the poor-laws, can conceive to what a nicety of management this economy was carried. A question of moment was debated by many, while the attention of others was directed to the point of economy, that of the propriety of any compulsory provision for the poor; some alleging that the poor ought to be left to the charity of individuals—any public provision made for them only encouraging idleness and consequent pauperism. Others averred that there must be paupers, and that they could be more economically kept upon some general plan, applicable to all, and that allowing hordes of beggars to stroll through the kingdom was an annoyance not to be endured. It was much discussed whether paupers should be confined, families being separated, in poorhouses, or let out to the farmers, upon the best terms obtainable. In the midst of these and many like debates, Mr. Malthus appeared, and announced that he had discovered the philosophy of the |