The National Register. — London, England, 1816-11-18 00:00:00

J 11 - r c • f )~w tar atio alf 'OW ~W l' No. 458.—V0L. IX. POLITICAL DISQUISITION. STATE OF THE COUNTRY. (CONTINUED FROM OUR LAM) " THE individual Christian, if he truly deserves that flame, will ever bear in mind an humiliating sense of the evil propensities of fallen humanity, as a motive for Vigilance over his own heart, and fur charity towards the offences of others. But it is the business of govern silents to regard the bright side of human nature ; the better they think of mankind the better they will find them, and the better they will make them. It is well known that in the middle and higher walks of life, men iin geseral bear adverse fortune more wisely than they bear prosperity ; one reason for this is, that these oppo site states call into action the same principle ; and pride, which makes man insolent or arrogant in the one situa tion, is in the other chastened and refined, till it becomes • virtue. The wisest and the best minds have received their painful education in the school of adversity : but if adversity be favourable to the developement of our ♦irtues, (and indeed many of our noblest qualities would 'fever be developed under any other discipline,) there is a degree of misery which is fatal to them, and which hardens the heart as much as coarse manual labour hulurates the skin, and destroys all finer sense of touch. Among savages, those tribes have ever been found the most unfeeling who possess the fewest comforts, and Lave the most difficulty in obtaining food ; for when mlf-preservation becomes the prime concern, the natural &ethics are starved ; a brutish selfishness occupies the whole heart, and man, having no instinct to supply the absence of his human affections, becomes worse than the beasts. Mournful as this is, it is far more mournful to contemplate the effects of extreme poverty in the midst of a civilised and flourishing society. The wretched na tive of Terra del Fuego, or of the northern extremity of America, sees nothing around him which aggravates his own wretchedness by comparison; the chief fares no better than the rest of the horde, and the slave no worse than the master ; the privations wltich they indure are common to all, they know of no state happier than their own and submit to their miserable circumstances as to a law of nature. But in a country like ours, there exists a con trast which continually forces itself upon the eye and upon the reflective faculty. There was a Methodist dabbler in art, who, in the days of onr childhood, used to citify the public with allegorical prints from the great manufactory of Carrington Bowles ; one of these curious compositions represented a human figure, of Which the right side was dressed in the full fashion of the day, while the left was undressed to the very bones, and displayed a skeleton. The contrast in this worse than Mezantian imagination is not more frightful than that between health and squalid pauperism, who are *very day jostling in our streets. From the moment when any man begins to think ,that " The world is not his friend, nor the world's law." the world and the world's law are likely to have that man for their enemy ; and if he does nut commence di rect hostilities against them, he abandons himself to dmpair, and becomes a useless if not a hurtful member of the community. Attempts to reclaim him by penal Mutes aro worse than unavailing; they provoke that spirit of stubbornness which oftentimes is only the dis ease that ill-treatment and untoward circumstances produce in a noble disposition. You might as well at tempt to stop the progress of contagion, by punishing all who are afilvtod by the bunefid principles in the air, as to remedy poverty by penal law against the poor. Children may sometimes be reformed by punish ment, but even foil children it is the clumsiest and worst means of reformation. Men must be led to their duty, not driven to it. Yon may deter them from do ing what is criminal, but you cannot compel them to do what is right : or if the right thing is done by com pulsion, the right will will have been wanting. ‘‘' Laws; says Sir ThIIMIS Ilionard, 'have been made to compel industry and economy, and workhouses have been erected, andjiamed to the best bidder, in order to deter the poor front wanting relief; but parishes and pariah officers Lave nut as yet Leen aware that 'in every Our tonal eettattution anb Mme. :MBER 18, 1816. MONDAY, NI - , *not instance in which a poor fa4lly is driven by distress to take refuge in a workhouse, an encumbrance has been entailed on the funds of the inuish never to be redeem ed, even in part, except by a change of system ; by es couraging that industry and prudence which no act of parliament can compel, stud by assisting them with in creased means and advantages of life, calculated to en able them to support themselves and their families in their own cottages, withnueptuuchial relief.' " What reason would rata tb to conclude, and what benevolence would induce us to , Is in theseinstens ces abundantly proved hy• experience. Nen are easily led to their duty. ' A child,' says the Eastern proverb, ' may lead the elephant by a single hair.' Try the ef fect of good will and hope upon dee men who has wrspt himself in the covering of a wraekless and stubborn des pair, and you will see verified the old apologue of the sun, and the wind, and the traveller. His heart will open like a flower that clops st night, and expands its pads to the morning sun. The better parts of his na. ture will be put forth like the tendrils of the sea-ane mune, when it feels the first wave of the returning tide upon its rock. A beautiful instance of the effect of kindness upon a most hopeless subject is related by Mr. ' Weyland in the volume which is now before us ; it would be doing rinjustioe to the able and benevolent author were we to give it In any other language than his own. " " I have seen a poor defortned cripple in a work , house attain his 20th year with not a spark of moral culture, with ears through apish the accents of kind ness and encouragement were never directed to his heart ; the object of complete tseoect, if not of acorn and contempt, to all by whom he was surrounded.— , His mind not highly endowed by nature, completely blunted by hard usage, eppeoached to ittioey, aid his countenance exhibile4 a mixture of sullenness, envy; and despair. I have seen this miserable object taken by she hand of a benevolent individut e bis rage exchanged for decent cloathing, strange wit& etkin&ess and encou ragement addressed to him astonished ear, a spelling book placed in his-lank, his stops directed to a sunday school, and flattering approbation bestowed upon his earnest but quite abortive efforts to learn to read., Al though little actual knowledge was imparted, a more complete moral revolution was never observable in man. The eye, before dejected, was righted up with joy and hope ; the countenance distorted with envy and furrowed with the deep lines of despair, relaxed into a cheerful smile; an interest for his own improvement was excited in his mind, and kept alive by she consciousness that his benefactor card for him. The smile of pleasure, with which that benefactor was con,stmoly wed, imparted u joy only to be equalled by his humble thankfulness for having been the instrument of such a change in the heart of a fellow-creature. But if them were bis feelings as a philanthropist and a Christian, 1 thlnk that he might also fairly indulge some sense of gratification as a politi cian. The dirty and vicious habits, to which this poor creature was formerly a prey, werd far from incapacitat ing him from becoming the sther of a family as wretch ed and denuded as himself. He would have been satis fied to lie down with his partner in the hovel of a work house, and to pullulate without emitroul. But feelings I of decency and self -rasped have now induced better habits. His mind it diverted towards objects more re mote from the brutal part of his nature, and it is probi ble that he will, at least, • become a beanbag if not an useful member of society.' 'T. " The Society have colltietesi rive valuable examples of what may be effected b, willing industry, when there is hope to encourage it.. A tenant of Mr. Way's, in Suf fidk, died, leaving a widose with fourteen children, the eldest, of whom was i girl under fourteen years of age : he h.el rented fourteen acres of pasture land on which he kept two cows ; these cows, with the little furniture and cloathing, were all the arty he left. The parish of which he had been an in t cons within the dis trict of an incorporated house. industry, where the rule was to receive proper ohjeeta within the walla, but not to allow any thing for the =lst poo, except in pe. culiar cases. The di:vetoes ei thwerstablishorent offered to relieve the widow by oiling hoe •SCV42II youngest children into the house. it' ihay oe...difficult to say what system of affording relief toe peer is best, but this rit. may be affietnol without lire , that whatever sys tem tends to weaken the do affections by separat ing child from parent, is radically laid. When this was propmed to the widow, she repel in grant agitation that she would rather die in working to maintain her children, than part with ally of them ; or she would go tirr+ Pstex 94S with all of them into the house atail work Goy Noes there;--but if her landkird would twatineelter ie the farm, (as she called it,) Are would wartlike to bring up the whole fourteen without any help from the parkk She was a strong woman, about 45 years old, and d • noble spirit ; happily too she had to deal with a beams. lent man. He told her she should continue the Imag o and hold the land for the first year rent , froe ; and a the same time, unknown to her, he directed his receiver est Wall upon her afterwards, thinking that even with tit iedsalgetwe it wank he b great thing if she (sing =ger tain so lne a family. But this further liberality war not needed. She brongtl'her rent regularly eves, yaw after the first ; held the land till she had placed twat" of the fourteen children in iservice, end this) rengsea - to take the employment of a nurse, which would enable her to provide for the remaining two, for the little ohne longer that they needed support. and which was mote suited to her declining years. Had the seven claim been sent to the House of Industry, they waall hails cost the pa;ish scarcely less than seventy pounds a jeer* and the widow and the other children also, had she deprived of the land, would in all likelihood have soon required parochial support. " Twenty years ago there stood a small cottage by the road side; near Tadcasier, which 6or its singukar beauty, and the neatness of its little garden, attmetail the notice of every traVeller. The remarkable proemial, which appeared in every part of this tenement, made Sir Thomas . Bernard'eurious to learn the history of die owner, and he obtafiled it from his own mouth. Britten Abbot (such was the owner's name) was a day-labourite: beginning to work with a farmer at nine years old, and being careful and industrious, be had ainrd.twarlyt, 401.. by the time he was tab -and- twe et Witk tin* matey he nauried.ant took *it farm at PM. *, kips: the -firm was too much for*ltli rieas4 • akd before Oa tied-or-the seteed year he trued it issewittry to give it up, having exhausted ahaost all his little .property.... He then removed to a cottage, where with two wave of land and his right of common, he kept two cows, and lived in comfort for nine years • at the expiration of that time the common MU inclosed, and he had to reek a new habitation with six children, and his wife ready to lie-in again. In this state he applied to Mr. Fairfax, and told him that if he would let him have a little bit of ground by the road side he would chew him the fashions on The slip of land for which he arked was exactly a rood ' • Mr. Fairfax, after inquiring into hie character, suffe red him to have it; the neighbours lent him some little assistance in the carriage of his materi. ale : he built his house, inclosed the ground with a sin. Fie row of quickset, which he cut down six times, when it was young, and planted the garden, The meaner is which be set to work, and the way in which thework was performed, pleased Me Fairfax so much, t 110 told him he should berent free. Hie answer, as Sir Ber nard justly says, deserves to be remembered. Now, in, you have a plemere in seeing my cottag e and garden neat : and why should nut other squires have the same pleasure in seeing the katages and gardens as nice about • them?—The poor woua then he happy, and would love them, and the place whoa .chey lived ; but now every nook of land is to be let to the great, fitrmers, and thing left for the pour but to go to the pariah.' " ' Though my visit,' says Sir Thomas, was unex pected, and he et the latter end of his . Saturday', work, his deaths were neat and sufficiently daub • litiarceriar tenance was healthy and open ; he was a little butte l one leg, the consequence of exposure to wet and wea ther. He said he had always worked hard and well ; but kin would not deny but that he had loved a mug of rod ale when he could get it. When I told him my object in inquiring alter him, and that it was in order that other poor persons might have cottages and gardens am neat as his, and that he must tell me all his secret, how it was to be done, lie scented extremely pleased. and very much affected : He said, " nothing would make per folks more happy than finding that great Alhe thought of them that he wished every poor man had a. comtor4ble a 'home as his own,—not but that he be. lieved there might be a few thoughtless fellows who • would not do g.esl in it." " Britton Abbot was at this time sixty,seven, and had lived happily with his wife for five and flurty years. He e:•.-ned from twelve to eighteen shillings a week by teak NV( rk, • but to be sure, he said, I have a tread character in all this country.' rhe of his children were living, and having been well brought up, were thriving in the world. Upon his rood of ground he had fifteen . apple trees, one green gage, three %sane sour plum weal. ~. a t