The National Register.
London, England, 1818-01-12 00:00:00

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No. 518.--VoL. XI.

POLITICAL DISQUISITION.

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ON THE RELIEF OF THE DISTRESSED POOR.

"A doe care for the relief of tho Poor is an set, first, of
" great piety towards Almighty God, who requires it of you ;
" he !lath left the poor as hi 4 pupils, and the rich as his Stew-
" ards to provide for them : it is one of those great tributes
" that he justly requires from the rest of mankind, which,
" because they cannot pay to him, he bath scattered the poor
" among them art his snbatitntes and receivers. Second, it 14'
"an act of the createst .humanity among men. Mercy and
" benignity is due to the very beasts that serve its, much more
" to those that are partakers of the same common nature
" with us. Third, it is an act of great civil prudence and
" wisdom ; for poverty itself is apt to emasculate the minds
" of null_ or at least it makes them tumultuous and unquiet.
•' 11'hu•e there are many very poor, the rich cannot safely
" contittne such. Necessity renders men of phlegmatic and
" dull natures, stupid anti intlisciplinAble.amd men of inure
" fiery or active constitutions, rapacious and desperate."
" SIR MATTIIF.W HALE."

IN the course of the past week, two Public Meet-
ing have been held, the one in the City for the pur-
pose of adopting some means of affording relief to
distressed seamen, and the other, at the Crown and
Anchor, "to consider the most advisable steps to
be pursued for the immediate relief of the destitute,
aad the ultimate suppression of mendicity-in the me-
tropolis. ' The reflection that will most forcibly
strike the minds of many on this occasion, will doubt-
less be that of surprise, that no measure of the kind
has been resorted to, by the Magistracy and the heads
of parishes, 'whose duty it was to have shewn a sense
of feeling for the distresses of their fellow counts poen,
our brave defenders and others, before the approach
of a season, when the greatest inclemency of weather
was naturally to be expected. Many of these perems
joining in the cry of the multitude, have been apt
meter -to-pans eyesore efr. the Government, and to'
call upon 7.linisters to come forward with some med.
eure to alleviate the (listless of those neglected beings,
little considering that a great degree of culpability
might be fairly attached to themselves for a remiFsness
of duty, an inattention to the strong appeals of suffer-
ing humanity presented
.to the eyes and ears of
every one, for months past, in the scenes of wretch-
edness and misery which have so long pervaded the
streets and avenues of the metropolis. Had the
Churchwar lens and Overseers of parishes attended to
these calls in a manner be.zovaing the duty of their
office, we should not have hail our feelings harrowed
by the frequent accoun:s which have been detailed in
the puldic journals, of poor seamen and others, literally
starving and dying in the streets, from a w nit of the
common necessaries of life. Government has long
since shown a laic! ile example (ant which ought to
have proved a slinedes to persons filling those offices,)
by the adv.ince of a sum, of great magnittule, consider-
ing the state of the National nuances, for promoting
the employment of the poor in the carrying on
and completing works of public utility and conveni-
ence : this has, doubtlees, been the me.ms of affording
provision to many, who weold otherwise have been
thrown upon the public, and added to the already exu-
berant muss of pauperism and wretchedness.

. .
It is certainly not lefs the duty than the interest of
the powerful and the affluent to afford, not merely
casual, but substantial rolief to the dsstressed poor,
who by misfortune; or even by some degree of miscon-
duct, may have been the - ,wn upon the wide world.
The learned and upright Jude, whose wonls we have
quoted at the head of this artivie, 4,:ars us out in this
opinion, by an observation witi..ll is tantamount to this,
that the safety of the nub no in the comfort
of the Rim.' We know, Itufn;nnatcl.•. too well, the
great increase of :rime: which has tit. 1, place among
us, and which, there ...;n IQ :la 01. u , in a great
ng which

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