The Sun.
London, England, 1830-11-12 00:00:00

POOR LAWS.

The Earl of WINCHILSEA, in rising, according to
notice, to move for leave to bring in a Bill to amend the
poor laws, requested their Lordships' attention for 4 few
minutes, while he explained to them the points which he
sought to alter. It was, he considered, impossible for any
man, who had witnessed the graduel demoralization of the
English peasantry, not to be affected with the necessity
which existed to eon ect the abn.ea in these laws, which
in his opinion, if not reformed, would *Owed the b,st
interests of socicty.—( Hear.) The object of the measure
he had to propose was confined to two points, one of which
was to endeavour to restore the operation of the existing
lass to that purpose for which they were originally in.
tended. The other was to provide, from the first of No-
vember to the Ist of April, a mode of giving employment
to the able-bodied labouring classes, to en title them to earn
sn honest subsistence, and to prevent them from being
thrown on the poor-rates, which ought to be devoted to
the aged and infirm. By the 4.3 d of Queen Elizabeth, and
subsequent Acts, the poor-rate was to be appropriated Ins
the relief of those who, by age or sickness, were unable to
labour. It was never contemplated that able-bodied men
should receive the slightest relief frost the industry of
othets-(11ear)--“nal it war also never intended that the
wages of the labourer Omuta' he paid out of the poor-
rates. Both these causes lied the worst effects, anal had
led to the lowering the spirit and the character of the
working people of England more than any other measure
that lie knew of. In the course of the winter he often saw
thirty, or More, able-bodied men gathered together on the
road, with an allowance front the parish of 6d. a day for
each. This was not as it should he, and be could say,
from personal conversation with the deluded peasantry in
the county where he resided, that they were apposed to
Huth a system. All they required was honest employ-
ment, and they did not want to be thrown upon the
pal iete—(Hear.) The Bid which he sought to bring in
would enable the Justices of the Peace of any particular
parish to make an assessment from the Ist of November
to the Ist of April, which was to be celled the labour-rate,
and to be expended in giving employment to those men
who were able to work, anal could not get it. By
this means the man would be paid for the value of
his labour, and relief would not be afforded, as at pre-
sent, according to the number of the workm.n's family.
The system of paying in consideration of the num-
ber of the l nor man's family litti to Wettest on the one
banal, and induced thoughtless men to contract imprudent
and early marriages. The Bill, its he observed, would
enable Magistrates to make a labour-rate ; and those oc-
cupiers of land who famed employment would be protected
from the rate, so far us their work extended. An esti-
mate
registering u' gh might
the ly
n' allpo
itnohyetihnleaelnamtpuplii:irknegel
likely
ntoeofn ieni
afforded
ther, e
plea 7-1
ride anal the quantity of
them. He would not enter into the subject further at
present. He would move that the Bill be read a first time,
and be printed ; and he would gladly confer with any
Nuble Lord es tQ the day on which the second reading
could properly take place.
Lord SUFFIELD was aware that was not the time at
which' the Bill Wei to be discussed. At the same time he
could not forbear saving that the statements of the Noble
Earl were must true ; anal if the Noble Earl could ac.
cotnplieh what he proposed, he would confer the lowest
benefit on society. He was obliged, however, in candour,
to declare that part of this plan would meet'with his de-
cided dissent. With regard to the operation of puor laws
as they bad been in some places administered, he was con.
vinced that they had a most demotaliaing effect. They
had reduced the peasantry of England, in many cases, to
Inigary ; and they almost unfitted them for the enjoyment
of their social affections, for which, at one period, they
were much distinguished. By the rattee of Elizabeth,
the labourer whose earnings wets insufficient to maintain
a large family, received relief in prop' tion to his whet. ;
but the evil of the present system of the pow laws was, that
the labourer who earns much receives little or no relief
proportionate ; while he who earns nothing, derives his
whule maintenineefrom them. It was impossible to have
devised a more unjust seheme of apportionment than that
which was at present in force. But this was not all ?
some persons maintained that the principal evil was the in-
sufficiency of the wagesof ti.e labourers, by which the poor
laws ware rendered more oppressively operative in one county
than in another. Others attributed the evil to various
direimilar amoegst many that were nettled,
the heavy causes;
taxation under which the country laboured
was 'stigmatised as the principal obstacle in the way of the
but he did not believe that to
efficiency
seen efy, tta f;
itthewpas" nrolta,‘s ;
inhis opinion, the weight of taxa-
tion that caused the present mischievous state of the pow'
laws ; and lie maintained, in contradiction to those who
asserted that the reduction of taxation would throw into
employmeut the accumulated capital of the country, and
thus enable the farmer to Ova the labourer higher wages,
that the moment the pressure of taxation on the neces-
saries 'of life was retnoved, anal those necessaries rendered
cheaper, the farmer would lower the wages of the labourer,
so that any reduction in the amount of the times would
not operate as a relief to the labouring classes. The cause
to which he was Inclined to attribute all the evil was-the
enormous superabundance of labour above the demand ; in
saying this he was actuated, mat by fectious hut by very
dull' rent motive,. h would be in the recollection of the
Howie that the Noble Duke near him (Richmond) bud
unwed, in March last, for a Committee of the whole House
to institute an inquiry into the causes of the distress of the
voutatry. Now, in hid opinion, those causes were not in-
volved in so much mystery as this preposition implied, and
he we'll I state concisely to their Lordships what, in his opi-
nion, were the causes of this general distress; they wore
sithply the inal-adminietration of the poor laws, and the au.
perahundence of lab tor. If the Noble Duke, or amy other
Noble Lord, would move for another Committee, in which
the means for remedying these evils were to form the sub-
ject of inquiry, and the suggestion of such rumps to the
Government for adoption was to be the result-of that Com-
mittee, he, for one, would support the motion, and he bail
no doubt that every Nuble Lord present would approve of
it. To prove this it was only to look at the state of things
tinder which it was the duty of the Hulse to advise
Government. The Government, es was very evident,
waited for suegestians from other quarters before any cep
were takers, for, in many recent cases, those intestates.
which others co dsidered it their -duty to propose were
.adopted ; it might even be said that Millicent waited for
same turbulent demonstration of diasatlefeetion.' It wtr'
well known to all those who were at all acquainted with
the Nettle Duke's system of ware—he (Lord Suffield) was
nut able to form an opinion on it ;—but it had been sle-
tiered to he what tatted 4o waiting on the enemy," and
he apprehemled that the Noble Duke had induced
colleagues to adopt that course of tactic. in their filinieterte
measures. Their success had .been proved in the OW 1
but, With whatever degree of eclat that system laad been
punned by the Noble Duke in his warlike rufweith
it watt one %villa was must petuicious in the Cathilltta
Instead of anticipetiogibe approach of evil, they awaited