The Sun.
London, England, 1836-10-19 00:00:00

scheme. They can ill conceal their joy at the oppor-
tunities of which they now see the prospect of wreak-
ing their malice, in the name of charity, upon the
ancient dependents of all charitable establishments,
and of using all the revenues to increase their power
of doing mischief. The Town Councils petition the
Chancellor without delay. (At whose expense are
these worthies going to law ?) By a singular coin-
cidence their petitions are referred to Master Brougham,
who is not the Master in turn (we wonder upon what
pretext). We shall be agreeably disappointed, if this
shuffle does not end as it began and was continued.
We promise the public to keep a watchful eye upon
the tricks. The recommendation of one Town Coun-

cil has already been disregarded, but it was a Conser-
vative one. The Radical councils may have a better
chance. All our consolation is, that if Masters in
. _

Chancery make political decisions upon matters so
important, there is a tribunal of appeal, which is too
noble and high-minded to allow the paltry motives of
party to interfere with the claims of justice.— Times.
`We have received from Mr. Leslie a Postscript to
his pamphlet on The Poor Laws and the Proposed
Extension of that System to Ireland; and although
the importance of the subject and the coincidence of
our views with Mr. Leslie's, have induced us to give
that pamphlet four separate notices, we yet return to a
subject so pregnant with interest to the industrious
classes of this kingdom. The unpopular view of the
Poor Law system which Mr. Leslie joins us in taking,
naturally exposes him to much hostility from those
who see in that system a panacea for the woes of Ire-
land ; and to superficial readers, the ad captandum
statement of taxing the rich to support the poor, car-
ries them away, without a moment's time for reflection
as to the possibility of executing that object. Mr.
Leslie at once lays the axe upon the root of this delu-
sion, and severs it from the ground : he demonstrates
from the evidences which centuries of the English his-
tory have affOrded, that the tax known as a fund " to
relieve the poor," has been the engine of destruction
to millions, whose lot it has been to have been affected
by the pernicious influences which this tax (he clearly
shews) has upon the industry of the country. All
the theoretic notions of the vast improvement which
the Poor Laws occasion in the condition of the work-
ing classes, Mr. Leslie at once annihilates, by one
short sentence in the postscript to his pamphlet, taken,
not from the writings ofmny modern traveller, but from
the Statute Book of England, an authority unim-
peachably important. Mr. Leslie says :
" It may, however, be supposed. that butcher's meat
formed no part of the sustentation of the industrious classes
during those early periods. This is a great mistake, which
the following preamble to the 24th of Henry VIII., c. 3,
(1532)wi1l at once make evident. That Act of Parliament
commences by showing the complaint of the poor—the cause
of the statute :—' Complaineth to your most excellent High-
ness, your poor subjects of this your realm, that when all
manner of victuals before this time bath been sold to your
said subjects at prices convenient, so that all your subjects,
and in especial the poor persons, ?night, with their craft or
bodily labour, buy sufficient for the necessity and sustenta-
lion of them, their wives, and children. But now, gracious
Lord, all victual, and in especial beef, mutton, pork, and
veal, which is the common feeding of the mean and poor
persons, are sold at so excessive price, that your said needy
subjects cannot gain with their labour and salary sufficient
to pay for their convenient victual and sustenance." It
then enacts the regulations under which meat shall be sold,
and limits the price of beef and pork to one halfpenny a
pound, veal and mutton to three-farthings a pound avoir-
dupois, and determines that a calf above eight weeks old
shall be sold at the price of beef ; it is further declared,
that wherever the price of these articles (of the com-
mon feeding of the poor and mean persons') is less than
the above, this act is not to extend thereto."
At what period did the generation of industrious
labourers flourish since the introduction of "the Poor-
law" delusion, who could with truth make such a de-
claration " that beef, mutton, pink, and veal, is the
common feeding 9f the mean and poor persons?" It
appears, from the postscript to Mr. Leslie's pamphlet,
that the public are indebted for. the extremely valuable
additional facts which it contains, to the comments of
our Contemporary the Morning Chronicle, who, not
being prepared to overturn the arguments which Mr.
Leslie had set forth in his pamphlet, wished to make
the readers of the Chronicle believe that Mr. Leslie's
range of observation has evidently been too limited to
enable him to he a competent judge of the question
upon which he has entered :
" If," says the Chronicle, " Mr. Leslie had made himself
acquainted with the actual state of Europe, he would have
been struck with the fact, that in all those countries in
which the cultivators are not slaves, the lower orders are
uniformly found in a state of extreme destitution and demo-
ralization where there are no poor laws, and that wherever
poor laws exist, the population is orderly. In Holland,
Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, Eng-
land, Scotland., there is a legal provision for the poor."
`Mr. Leslie replies—
" I take the rebuke, coming from the respected quarter
it does, with the most kindly feeling, and, I trust, with a
desire to profit by it ; but I owe it to myself—to my argu-
ment—and to my readers, to slim that I am not so ignorant
of the condition of Europe, or even of America, connected
with the operation of the legal provision for the poor, as is
thus imputed to me.
" I shall take the countries of Europe in the order in
which the worthy writer in the CYlsonic/c has placed them,
and from the most authentic documents, published by the
authority of Parliament—from the valuable statistical
works of G. R. Porter, Esq. (the most recent of which,
just published, The Progress of the Nation : Population
and Production,' should be in the hands of every one who
is anxious to promote the best interests of his country),
from these authentic sources I present facts to maintain all
the positions I have taken in the preceding pages, and to
demonstrate that whenever a poor-law system is a part of
the domestic policy of the country, no matter what may be
its political constitution, whether it be monarchical or re-
publican—whether the religion be Catholic or Protestant—
whether labour abounds and is well remunerated, or the
very reverse be its condition, one uniform and unvarying
result attends that fatal principle ; creating misery, which
it afterwards can neither control nor mitigate.
Mr. Leslie then submits from the various countries
(of the condition of which the Chronicle imagined he
was ignorant) such overwhelming statements of facts
as to the workings of all the various modifications of
the Poor Law system, as firmly to establish his posi-
tion, that " wherever a Poor Law system is part of
the domestic policy of the country, no matter what
may he its political constitution, whether it be monar-
chical or republican—whether the religion be Catholic
or Protestant, whether labour abounds, and is well
remunerated, or the very reverse be its condition, one
uniform unvarying result attends that fatal principle ;
creating misery, which it afterwards can neither controul
nor mitigate." The extraordinary facts which Mr. Leslie
has collected from such authentic sources, pour in a flood
of light upon this importantquestion, and our Contempo-
rary, the Chronicle, vainly attempts to rid himself of the
uneasiness which Mr. Leslie's facts have thus occa-
sioned him. Any one who knows with what tenacity
our Contemporary adheres to preconceived opinions,
will not be surprised that these facts do not alter his
notions ; but to the readers of the Chronicle, we have
no doubt that they will carry conviction. Our Con-
temporary says, " that when Mr. Leslie tells us that
the number of poor is great in a country, he tells us
nothing which bears upon the question." But we
submit that, when Mr. Leslie demonstrates that (in
those very countries which the Chronicle selected to
triumph over Mr. Leslie's ignorance of the state of
Europe), the number of the poor is not only great, but
rapidly increasing, he submits evidence which does
bear upon the question ; for, whatever the Chronicle
may think, the fact is, that pauperism is a barometer
which better indicates the moral and social condition
of the labouring classes of a country than the mise-
rable evasion which the Chronicle is resorting to dis-
tort this astounding evidence. We have not space to
go more at large upon this question to-day; and we
shall, in consequence, conclude this notice by extract-
ing the following extraordinary statistical information
as to Ireland, which is one portion of the valuable ad-
ditional matter Mr. Leslie has appended to his
pamphlet :
" IRELAND.—The Parliamentary returns exhibit the
following facts, as to the lands, the landowners, and the
agricultural labourers and their families :
" First, as to the land.—A Parliamentary return of
1827 shows the number of acres in that country to be
19,441,944 ; of these 12,125,280 were cultivated, 4,900,000
were uncultivated, and 2,416,644 were unprofitable. Ano-
ther Parliamentary document shows that the cultivation
in 1836 has extended to 14,600,000 acres, the average
rent of which is 12s. 6d. per Irish acre, equal to 14s. 2cl.
per English acre.
" Second. as to the landowners.—The gross rental of
land in Ireland (exclusive of the towns), is not quite ten