The National Register.
London, England, 1817-08-11 00:00:00

TO

No. 496.—V0t. N.

POLITICAL DISQUISITION.

DEPORT OF THE I.ORDs' COMMITTEES ON TIIE

POOR JAWS.

THE Report of the Lords' Committees on the Poor
Laws, presented to the House at the close of the last
Session, is a document more creditable both to their
industry and talents, than any we for a long time re-
member. The duties which they bad to perform,
were of the most difficult kind ; for upon no part of
our national polity, has there ever existed a greater
variety of conflicting opinions, than on the Poor Laws.
Ko two parties are agreed either as to the cause of the
acknowledged distress under their operation, or as to
the means of improvement. Mr. Whitbread and his
followers, attributed the increase of pauperism to the
war ; Mr. Brougham to the Orders in Council ; Sir
Francis Burdett and his friends to the want of Par-
liAmentary Reform ; and Mr. Malthus found out that
none of these was the cause, but that Nature only was
to blame, in having given man the silly propensity to
multiply his species !
_ _

The Lords' Report is divisible into two parts ; the
first of which consists of a clear and well digested
abstract of all the different Acts passed on the subject,
from the 23rd of Edw. 111. to the 43rd of Eliz.,
when the whole of the Acts were united and consoli-
dated, forming that wstem, which, with some motlifi-
aatims, has been acted upon up to the present day.
The second part consists of the Committee's opinions
and observations on the causes of the present evil, and
We means of relief.

In looking at the first part of the Report, and
tracing the present system, from its first rude form in
a very early age, up to the present hour; and
considering that it is the work of some of the wisest and
the best of men, we cannot help feeling with the
Lord's Committees that it ought not suddenly to be
abandoned for the adoption of any untried theories,
however ilatteriag in appearance.

" prom the lapse of time, and a departure from the true
spirit of the above Act, • arising frequently from the Illumine
exercise of its supposed powers' abuses base undoubtedly
been introduced into the general administration of the Poor
Laws of England ) but the Committee ate nevertheless de-
cidedly of opinion, that the general system Of these laws, in-
terwoven as it is with the habits of the people. ought, in the
consideration of any measnres to be adopted for their melio-
ration and improvement, to be essentially maintained."

The Report having shewn what the ancient practice
was, and explained the full bearing of the existing
laws, proceeds to develope the causes which have led
to the present extraordinary increase of the poor.

It must he obvious to any one who considers the general
scope and probable view of many of the Statutes which have
been enumerated, that at the period of their enactment the
state of the country was extremely different from that in which
it is now placed in many important instances t and that (souse-
optentiv, though in the opinion of the Committee the system
of the Poor Laws might to he maintained, yet it must he ad.
mitted that some of their previsions arc le•ss applicable, and
peiliaps more difficult in the execution und:r the present
circumstances, than at the time of their original establish-
ment. At that period, flue population of the country was
chiefly ag,rienltural ; and from the tenor of some of the early
laws to which reference has been made, it appears that ap-
prehensions occasionally ekisted of A deficiency, even in that
population, for the necessary occupations of husbandry•.—
'fhe progressive increase which has since taken place in the
general population of the kingdstin, and the great proportion
of that population which during a long set it's of years has
found a constant and advantageons employment in the occu-
pations of trade, handicraft, and maitillacnire, and in attend-
aiwe on the more opulent members of the conimuitity, (whose
naiiihers have also increased in a great pi opurtionl, have
pith:loved important changes in the operatiim of the Poor
Lau s ; for upon the sodden failure of demand for souse of
MM. manufactures which had All 1,111:: 1111011111.01 the greatest
eocout ageme•nt and theemost ample 11110:111‘ of subsistence to
tin poi,alafion it entire distr.•ds, the most serious di:tress
has wole4l. Tile I•4lll‘4VlCllett has been, that those ela,cs of
persons upon whom the assessments are inasle fitr the never
sure maititeihnsee and is, lief of the itiatiofactitrer and ariisau,
when soddenly deprived of their ael.lloolllCli meat,. ilfslip•
part. have, in soma• instances, been t• posed to a de-rev of
pressure and (.11111)3rra.miwiet whie•lh has volt:1111y nes er been
exp.: I*.toiretl to so great an extent at any former period.'

• .11t 471.,1 of Eliz.