of fociety is affistance in time of need; and its firmeft cement is, the bestowing and receiving kindly offices, especially in diftrefs. Now to unhinge or fufpend the exercife of charity, relaxes every focial virtue by fupplanting the chief of them. The confequence is difmal: exercife of benevolence to the diftreffed is our firmeft guard against the encroachments of selfishness: if that guard be withdrawn, selfishness will prevail, and become the ruling paffion. In fact, the tax for the poor has contributed greatly to the growth of that groveling paffion, fo confpicuous at present in England.

English authors who turn their thoughts to the poor, make heavy complaints of decaying charity, and increasing poverty: never once dreaming, that these are the genuine effects of a legal provifion for the poor; which on the one hand eradicates the virtue of charity, and on the other is a violent temptation to idleness. Wonderfully ill contrived must the English charity-laws be, when their confequences are to fap the foundation of voluntary charity; to deprive the labouring poor of their chief comfort, that of providing for themfelves and children; to relax mutual affection between parent and child; and to reward, instead of punishing, idlenefs and vice. Confider whether a legal provifion for the poor, be fufficient to atone for fo many evils.

No man had better opportunity than Fielding to be acquainted with the state of the poor: ler us liften to him. "That the poor are a very great "burden, and even a nuisance to the kingdom; "that the laws for relieving their diftreffes and "reftraining their vices, have not answered; and "that they are at prefent very ill provided for "and much worse governed, are truths which every "one will acknowledge. Every person who hath

66

property, muft feel the weight of the tax that "is levied for the poor; and every perfon of un

derstanding,

"derstanding, muft fee how abfurdly it is appli"ed. So useless indeed is this heavy tax and fo "wretched its difpofition, that it is a queftion, "whether the poor or rich are actually more dif"fatisfied; fince the plunder of the one ferves so "little to the real advantage of the other; for "while a million yearly is raifed among the rich, many of the poor are starved; many more lan"guifh in want and mifery; of the reft, num"bers are found begging or pilfering in the streets "to-day, and to-morrow are locked up in gaols "and Bridewells. If we were to make a progrefs

through the outskirts of the metropolis, and look "into the habitations of the poor, we should "there behold fuch pictures of human mifery, as "must move the compaffion of every heart that "deferves the name of human. What indeed muft "be his compofition, who could fee whole families "in want of every neceffary of life, oppreffed with "hunger, cold, nakednefs, and filth; and with "difeafes, the confequence of all thefe! The fuff"erings indeed of the poor are lefs known than "their mifdeeds; and therefore we are lefs apt to 66 pity them. They ftarve, and freeze, and rot,

among themselves; but they beg, and steal, and "rob, among their betters. There is not a parish "in the liberty of Westminster, which doth not "raife thousands annually for the poor; and there "is not a street in that liberty, which doth not "fwarm all day with beggars, and all night with

"thieves."

There is not a fingle beggar to be seen in Penfylvania. Luxury and idlenefs have got no footing in that happy country; and thofe who fuffer by misfortune, have maintenance out of the public treasury. But luxury and idlenefs cannot for ever be excluded; and when they prevail, this regulation will be as pernicious in Penfylvania, as the poor-rates are in Britain.

Of the many proposals that have been published for reforming the poor-laws, not one has pierced to the root of the evil. None of the authors entertain the flightest doubt of a legal provifion being neceffary, though all our diftreffes arife evidently from that very cause. Travellers complain, of being infested with an endless number of beggars in every English town; a very different scene from what they meet with in Holland or Switzerland. How would it furprise them to be told, that this proceeds from an overflow of charity in the good people of England!

Few inftitutions are more ticklish than thofe of charity. In London, common prostitutes are treated with fingular humanity: a hofpital for them when pregnant, difburdens them of their load, and nurses them till they be again fit for business: another hofpital cures them of the venereal disease: and a third receives them with open arms, when, inftead of defire, they become objects of averfion. Would not one imagine that thefe hofpitals have been erected for encouraging proftitution? They undoubtedly have that effect, though far from being intended. Mr. Stirling, fuperintendant of the Edinburgh poor-houfe, deferves a ftatue for a fcheme he contrived to reform common prostitutes. A number of them were confined in a house of correction, on a daily allowance of three pence; and even part of that fmall pittance was embezzled by the fervants of the house. Pinching hunger did not reform their manners; for being abfolutely idle, they encouraged each other in vice, waiting impatiently for the hour of deliverance, Mr. Stirling, with confent of the magiftrates, removed to a clean houfe; and inftead of money, which is apt to be fquandered, appointed for each

pound of oat-meal daily, with falt, water, and fire for cooking. Relieved now from diftrefs, they longed for comfort: what would they not give for

milk or ale? Work, fays he, will procure you plenty. To fome who offered to fpin, he gave flax and wheels, engaging to pay them half the price of their yarn, retaining the other half for the materials furnished. The fpinners earned about nine-pence weekly, a comfortable addition to what they had before. The reft undertook to fpin, one after another; and before the end of the first quarter, they were all of them intent upon work. It was a branch of his plan, to fet free fuch as merited that favour; and fome of them appeared fo thoroughly reformed, as to be in no danger of a relapfe.

་ ་

The ingenious author of The Police of France, who wrote in the year 1753, obferves, that notwithstanding the plentiful provision for the the poor in that kingdom, mentioned above, there was a general complaint of the increase of beggars and vagrants; and adds, that the French political writers, diffatisfied with their own plan, had prefented feveral memorials to the the miniftry, propofing to adopt the English parochial affeffments, as greatly preferable. This is a curious fact; for at that very time, people, in London, no lefs dit fatisfied with thefe affeffments, were writing pamphlets in praise of the French hofpitals. One thing is certain, that no plan hitherto invented, has given fatisfaction. Whether an unexception able plan is at all poffible, feems extremely doubtful.

In every plan for the poor that I have feen, work-houfes make one article; to provide work for those who are willing, and to make those work who are unwilling. With refpect to the former, men need never be idle in England for want of employment; and they always fucceed the best at the employment they chufe for themfelves. With refpect to the latter, punishment will VOL. II.

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not

not compel a man to labour: he may affume the appearance, but will make no progrefs; and the pretext of ficknefs or weaknefs is ever at hand for an excufe. The only compulfion to make a man work seriously, is fear of want.

A hofpital for the fick, for the wounded, and for the maimed, is a right establishment; being productive of good, without doing any harm. Such a hofpital fhould depend partly on voluntary charity; to procure which a conviction of its being well managed, is neceffary. Hofpitals that have a fufficient fund of their own, and that have no dependence, on the good will of others, are' commonly ill-managed.

Lies there any objection against a work-house, for training to labour, deftitute orphans, and begging children? It is an article in Mr. Hay's plan, that the work-houfe fhould relieve poor families of all their children above three. This has an enticing appearance, but is unfound at bottom. Children require the tenderness of a mother, during the period of infantine diseases; and are far from being fafe in the hands of mercenaries, who study nothing but their own eafe and intereft. Would it not be better, to distribute fmall fums from time to time among poor families overburdened with children, fo as to relieve them from famine, not from labour? And with refpect to orphans and begging children, I incline to think, that it would be a more falutary measure to encourage mechanicks, manufacturers, and farmers above all, to educate fuch children. A pre.mium for each, the half in hand, and the other half when they can work for themfelves, would be a proper encouragement. The best regulated orphan-hofpital I am acquainted with, is that of Edinburgh. Orphans are taken in from every corner, provided only they be not under the age

of