The National Register.
London, England, 1818-01-11 00:00:00

POLITICAL DISQUISITION.

---as.---
ON THE RELIEF OF THE DISTRESSED POOR.

" A due care for the relief of the Poor is an act, first, of
" great piety towards Almighty God, who requires it of you ;
" he bath left the poor as his pupils, and the rich as his Stew-
" arils 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 as his substitutes and receivers. Second, it is
"an act of the greatest humanity among men. Merry and
" benignity is due to the very beasts that serve ns, notch more
" to those that are partakers of the same common nature
• w[LVI us. Third, it is an set of great civil. pristlenre and
"*;oidetn ; for poverty itssl: is apt to emasculate the minds
" of men, or at least it makes them tunialtuntis anal unquiet.
• Where there are many very poor, the rich cannot safely
4‘ continue such. Necessity renders men of phlegmatic and
" dull natures, stupid sad indisciplinable. mid men of more
" fiery or active constitutions, rapacious and desperate."
" SIR MATTHEW HALE."

IN the course of the past week, two Public Meet-
in-gs have been held, the one in the City for the pur- '
pose of adoptan,.ig some means of affording relief to
distressedScamen, and the-other, at the Crown and
Anchor, 't to consider the most advisable steps to
be: pursued for the immediate relief of the destitute,
and the ultimate suppression of mentlieity in the mL-
tropolis." The reflection that twill most fbrcibly
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 Nlagistracy and the head
of parishes, whose duty,it was to have shewn a sense
of feeling for the distresses of their fellow countrymen,
our brave defenders aid others, befitre the approach
of a season, when the grea est in,lcincricy of wcather
was naturally to be expected. Many of these persons
.'oining in the cry of the multitude, have been apt
enough to pass censure on the Government, and to
call upon Ministers to come forward with sonic mea-
aure..to alleviate the distress of those neglected beings,
little considering that a great degree of culpability
might be fairly attached to themselves for a runniness
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-
eines' and misery which have so long pervaded the
streets and avenues of the metropolis. Had the
Churchwardens and Overseers of parishes attended to
these calls in a manner becoming the duty of their
office, we should not have had our feelings harrowed
by the frequent accounts which have been detailed in
the public journals, of poor seamen and others, literally
starving and dying in the streets, from a want of the
common necessaries of life. Government has long
since shewn a laudable example (and which ought to
have proved a stimulus to persons filling those offices,)
by the advance of a sum of great magnitude, consider-
ing the state of the National Finances, for promoting
t.te employment of the poor in the carrying on
and completing works of public utility and conveni-
ence : this has, doubtless, been the means of affording
provision to many, who would otherwise have been
thrown upon the public, and added to the already eau-
terant mass of pauperism and wretchedness.
It is certainly not less the duty than the Interest of
time powerful and the affluent to afford, not merely
casual, but substantial relief to the dsstressed poor,
who by misfortune, or even by some degree of miscon-
duct, may have been thrown upon the wide world.
The learned and upright Judge, whose words we have
quoted at the head of this article, bears us out in this
opinion, by an observation which is tantamount to this,
that the safety of the rich depends upon the comfort
of the poor.' We know, unfortunately, too well, the
great increase of crimes which has
us, and whi"h, there can be no tl..uhl
measure .o be attributed t,) thlt

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