The Sun.
London, England, 1836-10-12 00:00:00

THE BISHOP OF EXETER.

(From the Falmouth Packet.)
During the recent progress of Bishop Phillpotts through
this county, a circumstance occurred at St. Ives, which has
occasioned a very strong sensation in that town, exhibiting
a fresh display of the vacillatory character of this Protean
theologist and politician. It seems that the curacy of that
town has for the last three years been served by the Rev.
J. Malkin, a gentleman of highly respectable character, and
who has discharged the duties of his situation with much
credit to himself and satisfaction to the followers of the
Church. But, notwithstanding the general propriety of his
conduct, secret slander worked its loathsome course, in the
shape of a private charge to the Bishop ; and on Mr. Malt-1 proceeding to meet the Rev. Prelate, as was his duty.:at
Lelant, his Lordship told him he had some serious, el,',rges
to make against him, and of these a most irrei-or`,,ant one
was, that he, the curate, was In the " habit tri: attending
a conventicle." To this t'ile curate replied that he had
not been to a convent3cle for the last two years. His
Lordship then sai,..l he had been informed that his wife
and fe:inily went to these places. The curate rejoined that
lie could not dictate to his wife, nor prevent her attend-
ing occasionally a methodist meeting, if she telt inclined so
to do. Dr. Phillpotts then expressed himself to this effect :
—" If you cannot command your wife and family, Sir, not
to visit such places, you are not fit to be a Minister of the
Establishment." The curate thus publicly addressed by his
diocesan, with the honest indignation of a liberal and con-
scientious mind, said, " My Lord, I received this gown
from your Lordship's hands, and I now return it to you
without a blemish." The affair, as we sai(l. before, has
caused considerable excitement at St. he!, where the in-
habitants have subscribed for a handsorae piece of plate, of
the value of 45 guineas, to the curate ; and a deputation,
consisting of four respectable Parsons from the town, waited
upon the Bishop with an adareos signed by several hun-
dred persons, praying that Mr. Malkin might be restored
to their church. The Bishop received them in his courtier-
like manner, but refused the prayer of their petition. The
whole business has since been submitted to Lord John
Russell, where it at present rests. There are many
more particulars connected with the affair, which we for-
bear at present from going into, till we are further in-
formed, and until the result. of the application to the
Home Secretary is known. In the meantime we cannot help
calling the recollection of our readers to the fact, that Dr.
Phillpotts on his last visit to this county, in his charge,
publicly invited the Methodists to commune with the
Church, to unite their flocks, and become parts and parcels
of one religious union. And now this consistent Prelate
tells a Minister of the Establishment he is unfit for his
office, if, under any circumstance, he allows a member of
his family to visit a Methodist Meeting ! We really think
the good Bishop has in this case outdone himself. Can he
possibly forget his ad captanduin charge to the Methodists
at his last visitation ? Does he suppose them so ie:,.aorant
as a body that they could be so easily cajoled by absurd
invitation ? or that they can now look with i':idifference on
his present virulent hatred and opposition to them ? We
have formed a wrong estimate of the rseneral character of
the Wesleyan Methodists, if they 11.-0 not view with amuse-
ment the deceptive invitation bf the Bishop of Exeter on
his last visit, and with scorn and indignation, the insulting
tergiversation, with which, on his present advent, he
has abjured the slightest communication with their
chapels, and has visited with a heavy penalty one of his
clergy, for permitting his wife conscientiously to receive
comfort and instruction at the hands of their body. W,
have heard and read the glaring inconsistencies and contra-
dictions of Bishop Phillpotts, usque ad nauseum, so much
so, that we are rejoiced his transit through this county is
over ; and we trust, for the credit of the establishment, for
the cause of religion, and for the honour of public charac-
ter, that this may be his last visit. We trust that when
the period comes round for the next episcopal administra-
tion in Cornwall, Dr. Phillpotts, may have been translated,
and our county spared another absurd exhibition of his ver-
satility. Of his talents and private qualities we say no-
thing l • but viewing him as a politician in Parliament, and
a prelate in his
province, we pronounce him the most nar-
row-minded Statesman, and the most unsteady theologian,
that ever put on the lawn, and the most unpopular Bishop
that has visited this diocese for the last century.
We shall revert to this affair at St. Ives, and furnish
oti
readers with a more detailed statement of the facts, at an
early opportunity.

In proof
of the rapid
is making in th Vale -olf Pr'-gress which the iron trade
law! was bro geh • '..;lyde, especially since the black
two hundred u-t1"..+.0 play, we have to mention that about
lonrrin- • •..cres of ironstone on the Airdrie estate, be-
• to the Right lion. Sir William Alexander, was
lately let on a nineteen years' lease, at 12,050/. a year, or
an option in favour of the landlord, at a certain price per
calcined ton. The lease is to five respectable iron-masters
in that neigilhoprhood.—Glasgow Herald.
The accounts from La Guayra to the 11th of
August state that the Executive authorities had received
on the Gth a despatch from the Government of New Gre-
nada, expressing a strong desire for another meeting of
Plenipotentiaries of the three States, either at Caraccas,
Cuito, or Bogota, for a division of the Colombian Debt,

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

We expected much from the Poor Law Amendment •
Act; but we certainly did not expect that it would in
so short a time, as that during which it has been in
operation, produce such astmiishing results as 'lava
taken place n herever unions have been form , cd. ha
character of the agricultural population has hen so
much improved, by restoring them to the itulgpendenco
of which they bad gradually been deprived under tl-N
abuses of the old system, that altcady theyye'pear
quite a new race. The connection between ir.depend3/4
cnce and virtue which had been remarked so early as
the days of Homer is equally evident in our time,
The sullen refractory paupers of 01_:r agricultural dish
tricts have become cheerful nit?, prudent labourers,
We have perused with the utmost satisfaction a
pamphlet full of very instr.uctive details resp#cting
the working of the new law in Kent, by Edward
Hughes, of Smer,th-hill-house, Kent. Vice-Chair-
man of the East Ashford Union, just published,
under the title of " A Compendium of the Ope-
ration's of the Pour Law Amendment Act, with
'seine Practical Oliservations on its Present Results
and Future Apparent Usefulness." Mr. Hughes
commences with a very ingenious account of the
doubts he at first entertained as to the possibility of
overcoming some of the obstacles to carrying the
new law into execution. He was, however, not only
an intelligent but an honest man, and he put his shoul-
der fairly to the wheel, determined to give his best aid
to the work. In his own and all the other 'unions in
East Kent, one of the most pauperised di.e:tricts in the
kingdom, there is but one opinion among all the well-
informed classes as to the beneficial results. It has
been significantly hinted to the fauners by the Times,
that they must not suppose their landlords will allow
them to reap the whole benefit of the reduced poor-
rp.tes. It was never intended that they should mono-
polize all the benefit. In not a few cases, we fear, the
farmers even gained, for a time at least, by the scan-
dalous system of deriving part of the wages of their
labourers from rates towards which those who paid a
fair market price for their urn labourers contributed as
well as themselves. But it would be a poor argument
against an improverner.t, that it cannot be effected
without benefiting only one party. The money ex-
pended on idle paupers is now expended on industrious
labourers; am.% as labour creates additional property,
all are there'oy benefited. The following extract from
a dialogue between the landlord and farmer on this
head, given by Mr. Hughes, reminds us somewhat of
the Giles Joherheads of Cobbett

" Landlord—You and I have gone on pretty smoothly
together, and I trust we shall continue to do so. I have
been thinking that we should bot:n of us partake of the
benefit of this change. Ido no's wish to be hard upon you,
as you know, but I hope yr,u will agree to pay me now
one of the two fifty pound..s a year I took off during the
time things were so desr,erately bad with us all.
Tenant—Why, 'Sir, I heard this question argued the
other day ; my neighbour Mr. C. said, that although the
saving appeared very large in amount, that he did not con-
sider it was all gold that glittered,' for although the men
looked out for work a good deal more than they used to do,
yet that they must all live, and that their pay still came
front farmers.

" Landlord—Well, suppose that to be the case, now
they get work on their farms performed for their money ;
before the work done on the road was worth next to nothing
to them.

" Tenant—But, Sir, he made out that we farmers would
have more to pay out of our pockets ; but I thought I
should like to tell you about it, Sir ; and therefore 1 took
it down.

" Landlord—Well, let me hear how did tie make it
out? Ido not know.

" Tenant—He said, before the law was altered, we had
thirty paupers on the books, and that wr_: had but fifteen
now ; but as there were fifteen less paupers, there were
just so many more to work ; and as tl'.ey were all paid from
the pocket of the farmer, this came to more money than
the charge of keeping them withor,t work.

" Landlord—Well, it may possibly be as he says ; but
suppose it is, the farmer gets land better cultivated, and
will, in all probability, gro'. more corn from it ; this, if ju-
diciously done, ought to Tray him well.
" Tenant (drawing at paper from his pocket)—Mr. C.
made it out in this r,rp4.
There arc 15 men 'Arore to employ, he said, at 52 weeks.
Its. per week s £9 0 0

Say for 52 cc eAs the amount is
Then he r',ckoned 2s. a week more for the chil-
dren of Pact► family

78 0 0

Making
A ar.Lwbael: of two days in a month for illness
'.nd bad weather..

44 11 5

£5Ol 8 7
Now, Sir, if we take the saving of poor's.rate at 300 0 0

It leaves us more to pay every year
" I cannot make out how this is to be done ; for 'twas
almost impossible to pay the poor's-rate before, and now we
seem to have a good deal more to pay ; 'tis a kind of co-
nundrunz to me how it's to be done.

" Landlord : It appears to me that the statement cannot
be much wrong, as we all agree that it must be right to em-
ploy the men ; but the improved culture should doubly pay
the difference. I trust this and the price will enable you to
give me the little increase of rent."

One of the most baneful of the results of the abuses
of the old Poor-law was the destruction of that most
invaluable class of men, the small farmers. A great
deal of nonsense has often been uttered by men igno-
rant of agriculture of the disadvantages of large farms
with reference to production. The truth, we believe,
lies in general the other way. But the small farmer
had not a fair trial under the old Poor-law. He was
compelled to pay in the shape of rates part of the
wages of his rich neighbours ; so that his expenses were
unjustly increased. But people ignorant of agriculture
have twaddled about small farmers ; we fear political
economists, on the other hand, in their admiration of
an increased net produce, have not sufficiently es-
timated the benefit which morality derives from the
existence of a class of small farmers. They are in ge-
neral models of industry and order, for they tnu strug-
gle hard to keep their footing. "My experience (I
hope based upon rigid impartiality)," says Mr. Hughes,
4, has for upwards of thirty years uniformly led me to
believe that there is no class of persons M the country
who work and fare ha-..der than the littlefarmer ; not
only lees he rise up early, take little rest, and eat the
bread of carefulness, but necessity obliges him to
abridge himself from those indulgences enjoyed by
the worktueu." It is not only of importance that the
labourer should have the prospect opened to him of
being able to enjoy independence at last by investing
his savings on a small farm ; but these small farmers
are examples and puides to the labourers around them,
and a useful link in the social chain. What can the
rich know of the habits and ways of thinking of men
so differently circumstanced from themselves as the com-
mon labourers ? Mr. Hughes, with a feeling highlycre-
ditable to him, observes, ""I have imagined for some time
past, and frequently expressed it, that these alterations
and improvements will eventually create another grade
in society ; a grade of peasants above the paupers ;
this, would stimulate a man to value reputation, and
prize it even to veneration. " We were lately
conversing with a most intelligent gentleman, who had
much struck, on a visit to orthumberl n d and
Berwickshire, with the superiority of the agriculture,
compared with that of the South of England, The
farmer, he observed, was a great manufactnrer of food,
and every operation was conducted with, the economy
a manufacturing
gien however, has its
and the arrangement observable
a-leitther all the results of the
establishment. Every adv
drawback. We question wh
experiment are yet perceptible. The present race of
labo,-rers in these highly-improved districts still retail*
litany of the virtues of their fathers. It is difficult to
imagine, however, that the impossibility of employing
their little savings in any other way than in emigrating
to our colonies will not in time undermine the virtue
of the labourers. It is always beneficial that there
should be the means of employing beneficially small as
well as large capitals ; but in these districts there is
no employment for such small capitals as an industrious
labourer can save. But to return to East Kent and
its Unions. The first Union of which the parti-
culars are detailed by Mr. Hughes is that of
Sheppev. The saving here is a fraction over 25i
per cent. Mr. Chambers, the Chairman, in an-
swer to an application from Mr. Hughes, states that
" for several years I have not known the labourers
so generally employed as at this time ; I am n.ot
aware of one able-bodied man of good character be;.ng
out of employ, The inmates of the house are toir

filly satisfied with their situation." The poor have
been reduced in a year from 619 to 437. In Favers-
ham Union the saving is nearly 52 per cent. Mr.
Nearue, the Chairman, states " the labourers arc gent •
rally in employment ; I may say more so than has been
the case for many years past ; the 'lnv law has evi-
dently wrought a great moral improvement in their
.Condition." In the Milton Union the saving is rather
more than 521 per cent. ; the number of poor reduced
from 1,600 to 990. Mr. Hinde, the Vice-Chairman,
states that the Poor Law Amendment Act has decidedly
jmpraved the habits of the poor. In the Blean Union
the number of poor has been reduced from 972 to 775.
The saving is 48i per cent. Mr. Ryder states that
" the 131;.' has done wonders by its promotion of in-
dustry." the Thanet Union the saving is 55 per
cent. The number of paupers has been reduced from
564 to 294. IVII-1 Crampe says, that " the effects
a the new systeio are daily developing them-
selves, and will soon appear in an improved charac-
ter." In the East Ashford Union there has been
a saving of 421. 12s. sd. per cent., the diminution
of pauperism OSA- per cent. In the West Ashford
Union the saving has been 44- per cent. Mr.
Hughes says, " Proofs are not wanting here or else-
where sufficient to convince the iicpartial mind alai'
the industrious classes are more exertive, more vigilant
in seeking employ; less frequently in beer-houses, or
dissolutely wasting their time and their money." In
the Eastry Union the saving is 5114- per cent. Mr.
alnnam states that in this extensive union (of 23,868
inhabitants) " the prejudice and ill feeling which was
so stfongly manifested against the enactments of the
new Pcor-law has astonishingly subsided ; the working
classes tiiiernselves, knowing it to be the law of the
land do not now protest against it, and that it has
worked a great:' chancre for the better is universally ac-
knowledged." the River Union the saving is 11
per cont. In the E'ham Union the number of paupers
has been reduced how 897 to 395 ; the saving 51 per
cent. Mr. Jones states, " the labourers are all em-
ployed; and Cit.'e new law is restoring economy and im-
proving morality." In the Bridge Union the poor are
reduced from 1,906 to 812 ; the saving 224- per cent.
As there has been inn,misrepresentation with respect
'
to the diet of the pauper. 1s Mr. Hughes communicates
the result of a month's expciriment on himself :
Having rather publicly
expressed myself strongly op-
posed to much of the machinery of the measure, as well as
-
imagined the dietary fixed on for th,:' several union houses
of East Kent would be inadequate to ILhe necessities of na-
ture, I resolved to make, at least for one iztonth, a trial in
my own person of the validity of such an opinion.
" This trial terminated yesterday ; and, as I feel inge-
nuousness to be a necessary ingredient in the human cha-
racter, and one which I hope to exhibit through life, I
have considered but fair to state, for your information, and
that of the public of East Kent, that my apprehensious,
which were by no mews peculiar to myself, were, as to the
quantity of fond, quite gyoundless, the supply for me (pos-
sessing a good appetite), Leing more than sufficient—in-
deed, I did not require, and consequently consume, more
than five-sevenths of the quantity- ! and I fully believe, for
the month, I ate less than that proportion ! I should have
stoted earlier, not for your information',. Sir Francis, but for
those who are at least equally interested with you and me,
that for four days in the week twenty-two ounces of food is
the intended allowance to male paupers, and .for the three
remaining days one pound of meat, or puddings, and vege-
tables, with fourteen ounces of bread and cheese e,lch day.
" I may here state that I have rigidly refrained frC.rn the
use of wine, and other fermented liquors, saving the /u.z.:'irY
of small beer, and this is, I believe, the only inroad maa,l
on the letter of the whole regulations. An intimate friend
also a guardian, has made common cause with me, and
joined in the trial. His declaration is, that the quantity is
sufficient for him, indeed considerably more than he re-
quires. 'We arc gratified to find this result ! Perhaps we
are the only two individuals in our grade of society who
have really made a practical experiment on this head, in the
eastern division of our county ; and I may truly add that
our health has been adequate to that of any former period.
—Morning Chronicle.

Our letters fron3 Lisbon, received in the course of
yesterday, shed no -.riore satisfactory light on the cha-
racter of the late revolution in that capital, although
they appear to have lx-en written in an apologetic
spirit. It would appear that the Queen was at one
time disposed to seek refuge on board a British man-
of-war, but that M. Sada Bondeira, whether wisely
or otherwise we do not pronounce, dissuaded her Ma-
jesty from resorting to that measure as dangerous to her
Crown. It is repeated by our correspondent, that the
new Portuguese Ministers have resolved to answer
incurred
by all the pecuniary obligations of the .State
by former Governments, and that the sale Ofecclesias-
tical property is looked to as their chief available
re-
source. The Spanish news transmitted thron,sh this
channel appears to be more important than that
affecting Portugal more immediately. By aocoin:ts
from Cadiz, of the 28th of September, Gomez—
the annihilated Gomez—is said to have overrun
Estremadura and Andalusia—not meeting with the
least resistance—and to have approached within a
few leagues of Cadiz, at the head of twelve batta-
lions, throwing that city and Seville into the deepest
dismay. It is further added, that although what in-
significant force was to be had at either of the above
places had assembled to march against the Carlist in-
vader, there was nothing capable of offering him effec-
tual opposition. If this be true, what a picture does
it present of the desperate condition which the Chris-
tine Government is reduced to, and what a reproach to
the falsehoods propagated by its partisans as to the
military successes of the officers in command of its
troops ! The parties who brought about the Portuguese
revolution having extorted from the Queen a decree for
suppressing the Chamber of Peers, no less a substan-
tive branch of the Constitution of Portugal than our
House of Lords is of the British Constitution, the
Peers, with the Duke of Palmella at their head, have
signed and published an energetic protest against so
lawless and outrageous a proceeding. The Peers assert
broadly and manfully what had been long since repre-
sented in the Times, concerning the revolutions both
of Spain and Portugal, that the form of an existing
Government cannot he legitimately overthrown by any
sudden violence of a licentious soldiery. " The con-
stitutional charter of this Monarchy, granted by the
august father of your Majesty," say the Peers, " sworn
to by the several orders of the State, and by your Ma-
jesty, and repeatedly defended by the Portuguese army,
cannot be revoked or annihilated in a moment of hal-
lucination by a fraction of that army ;" when, besides,
the said army, according to the very Constitution
proclaimed by it (namely, the Constitution of 1820),
and according to the law of all civilized nations, "
never be assembled to deliberate and carry resolutions."
The morality, and consequent legitimacy, of the pre-
sent Portuguese revolution, seem to be pretty well
disposed of by the above passages from the official
protest of the Peers, and so in all likelihood will its
acceptance with the nation be vitally affected by the
same simple but stern exposure.—Times.
In the desperate circumstances in which the Tories
Pave of late been placed, they had been some weeks
consoling themselves—or rather trying to console them-
selves—with the forlorn hope that Lord Brougham
would, on his return to public life, throw himself into
their arms, and identify himself with their interests.
The ground they had for such a hope, uo one could
perceive but themselves. For our own parts we would
never have thought of undeceiving them. e should
have suffered them to lay the flattering unction to their
souls till the very latest moment, and wished them, be-
sides, inzich joy of the delusion. His Lordship, how-
ever, has ;:iinself accidentally dissipated all their fond
expectations. His answer to the address presented to
him the other cipy by the Edinburgh deputation, not
only admonishes theia in the plainest terms, that he is
not only not to be with them, but that his attachment
to the cause of Reform is, in the most liberal accep-
tation of the term, more decided, were that possible,
than ever. So long as the Tory delusion lasted, that
Lord Brougham was to re-appear in public life as a
Conservative—Lord Brougham a Conservative !—so
long as this delusion, fit only to be entertained by the
inmates of certain institutions we will not name—lasted,
so long did the Tory journals express the most immo-
derate exultation at his restoration to health. We are

mot so uncharitable as to suppose that even the Con-
sei-vatives themselves, bad as we think of them in their
I,lr *iittl,tal capacity, regret abstractedly considered, that
--,,---_--bi. , ..rdship has recovered from his late indisposition.
t_ 4-. . i'v the fact of that recovery being coupled with
r...\
„ 4. ,
iii . ; ,rarance in the first ranks of the Reformers,
----.:i, 'that; , make them uneasy. We promise them that
.
e' '4.77 • prehenowns of what he is likely to do next
..vv 3

Session will be proved by the event to be well-founded,
to an extent which will fill them with utter astonish-
ment and dismay. Lord Brougham responds to the
sentiments expressed in the Address respecting the de-
sirableness of union among Reformers. He says—" In
the reference which you apparently make to the necessity
of mutual forbearance among Reformers, when they
happen to differ, I entirely agree." This will be gallan-d
wormwood to the Tories. All their hopes now centre
in disagreements among the Reformers. These hopes,
like all- the others they have ever entertained, are swept
away from under them by the sentence we have quoted.
The Tories could almost have reconciled themselves
to the re-appearance of Lord Brougham in public life,
had there been even a hope left them that he would
sow the seeds of disunion among the Reformers when
he resumes his place in the House of Lords. What,
then, must be their mortification and despair when his
Lordship so emphatically declares his conviction of the
desirableness of union among the friends of the
people ! But the union which the Edinburgh Re-
formers recommend, and in which the great champion
of Reform so candidly concurs, will not he effected by
any unworthy compromise of principle on the part of
the various classes of Reformers. It will have its basis
on the most honourable grounds. It will have its
ii,:juidation in the temporary sacrifices of all minor dif-
fereneeZ. of opinion, and in a vigorous determination
to join togetor in one grand effort to secure the tri-
umph of general pis:Dciples, the momentous importance
of which is felt and admiti.:'d by all.-111oriz.Advertiser.
However great may be its aggregate wealth, how-
ever' prosperous its general condition, any state wherein
a considerable portion of the population are perma-
nently dependent for support on legal or voluntary cha-
rity, must necessarily have some unsound principle at
work in its constitution. "Wherever there exists an
eleemosynary class of society, the greater the national
prosperity, the greater the evidence of faulty institu-
tions. In a healthy state the general wealth will cir-
culate through and invigorate the whole social body in
its remotest members—giving them life, and strength,
and tone—nourishing their development, and perfecting
the general structure ; but whenever this free circula-
tion is impeded, society becomes disorganized—one part
suffers from repletion, the other from inanition, and the
whole becomes deficient in health, harmony, and propor-
tion. In no country was this condition more lamentably
illustrated than in England previously to the passing of
the Poor-law Amendment Act, and notwithstanding
the beneficial, though in some instances severe, opera-
tion of that Act, unfortunately but too much evidence
yet remains of the disease of our social and political
system. Exclusion and monopoly have been the bane
of Great Britain. Her whole system is pervaded by
these unjust and pernicious principles ; and as vice
seldom escapes retribution, whatever is evil in the
State may be considered as the consequence of its
own folly and wickedness. We have national exclu-
sion, political exclusion, social exclusion, commercial
exclusion—another name for monopoly. Ireland is
excluded from a participation in the laws and rights
enjoyed by England; a large portion of the popula-
tion of England herself is excluded from the elective
franchise, the first right of a freeman ; the younger chil-
dren of the magnates of the land are excluded from
their natural patrimony ; exclusion is the basis of
England's commercial policy. Thus a large portion
of society are ejected from their rightful position in
the State, left a prey to fortune, and poverty
and crime are the inevitable consequences. In
En ;land pauperism is the sore on the surface which
indicates the malady within. In Ireland it is the
leprosy of the land. Exclusion, like a ligature on a
member of the body, cuts off the circulation, and
while the centre becomes gorged and plethoric, the ex-
tremities mortify from want of due sustenance. Thus
may be explained the vast wealth accumulated by one
class of individuals in England, and the pauperism of
another ; and hence first originated the necessity of
poor laws, which in a country with just and sound po-
litical institutions, are indefensible on any principle
either human or divine. Poor laws are, to pursue our
simile, a vain attempt to restore, by extraneous means,
health to the member cut off by the ligature, whereas '
the removal of the ligature itself is the only remedy.
It is this which would at once let the life blood flow
equally through the whole system, and vivify its se-
veral parts. Any remedy is, however, better than the
loss of the member, and therefore poor laws are better
than starvation—but as the alternative is one to which
no people would submit with the means of existence
around them, we consider a legal provision for the
poor to have originated as much from the fears as
from the benevolence of the ruling powers. Parochial
relief is the pittance flung to a defrauded people to
nake them subservient to their wrongs, and by
the,:" degradation remove their desire of redress. It
is the tjatuity given by the highwayman to the tra-
veller whop he has plundered to save him from pe-
rishing by the way-side, with this difference, that the
relief of the pooc comes, for the rnost part, from the
pockets of the defrauded classes themselves. .And just
as we should encourage the act of paltry restitutio:.l in
the robber, rather than leave the victim utterly desti-
tute, so would we advocate poor laws, but under pro-
test against their being considered a permanent com-
promise of the wrongs which originated their necessity.
With this restriction, since a refractory branch of the
Legislature denies justice to Ireland, we say—while
that branch is being brought to reason, and its usurpa-
tion superseded—" Give Ireland a poor law—the peo-
ple must not be left to starve." But rather than the
Irish people should be left permanently dependent on
a poor law—rather than such a law should be accepted
as au equivalent for their claims, and an atonement for
their multitudinous wrongs—rather than see them take
a lease of their bondage by a degrading acquiescence,
involving the sacrifice of all feelings of independence—
all the dignity of man—and leave posterity only the
inheritance of their degradation—we would much pre-
fer leaving them to Providence and their own resources.
It has been alleged, that without poor laws there can
be no efficient system of police, and no security to pro-
perty, and the greater order of those countries where
there is a legal provision for the poor, compared with
those where there is not, is appealed to in support of
the assertion. But in such cases the order which pre-
vails is the order of despotism, similar to that which
prevailed in Warsaw when the people were prostrated
by tyranny. Order is frequently an evil. There may
he order amongst slaves, but who would not prefer a
struggle for independence to the disgraceful and de-
czar ding tranquillity of consenting slavery ? The best
systen; of police is that wherein the stake in society
possessed by the mass of the people secures their co-
operation in the suppression
of those outrages which,
in the best order,' d countries, may be committed by
isolated individuals. A legal provision for the poor
generates habits of indoLence, carelessness, and sloth—
it destroys the aspirations of independence, and leaves
man content with an animal existence, forgetful of the
higher faculties of his nature. The utmost filth,
penury, and destitution of an Irish cabin, where thC
inmate is stimulated by suffering to exert his mental
and physical faculties to procure means of existence
and improve his condition, is less injurious to the moral
attributes of man than the most perfect supply of animal
necessities in the English workhouse, where the
inmate contents himself with the provender of his
stall. The severity of the workhouse system in
England is complained of, but the greatest curse that
could be inflicted on the country would be that of
making
of charity,
her poor contented while accepting the pittance
whether legal or voluntary. Do justice to
Ireland, and a
poor law will be unnecessary. , Do jus-
tice to England—purge
her legislative system from the
absurd and
iiniquitous irresponsible hereditary principle
—abolish
prmogeniture and the Corn Laws—un- j
shackle her commerce—and give to each adult citizen
a voice in the selection of a legislative representative,
and the poor lac.' will become obsolete. These views,
as our readers are aware; are not new with us ; they
have again and again appeared in the columns of this
journal, and whatever may be tii3 result of our publi-
cation of them, we are prepared to sta;:fl by them, as
well as to give a reason for the " faith that is us."
At the same time, we owe it to Mr. Leslie to state,
that the facts and reasonings in his able pamphlet, al-
ready noticed by us on two occasions, has tended
greatly to confirm us in opinions, which, previously to
its publication, had not met with support in any quar-
ter, except from Mr. O'Connell, who evidently detests
the application of a poor law to Ireland, and if he

ultimately join in the general outcry for it, will only do
so from compulsion, not from conviction. In conclu-
sion, and partly in answer to the admirers of the old
poor law system, we quote the following passage from
the pamphlet alluded to. What an admirable illustra-
tion it furnishes of the "venerated wisdom," and the
still more venerated benevolence of our ancestors !
We are often required to venerate these laws (says Mr.
Leslie) because they are said to have been introduced by
some of the greatest statesmen this country ever produced ;
but, when this claim is made, we must not forget that, amid
all their greatness, they have left a melancholy record of
their mental degradation in the statute-book ; for, in three
years after they had passed the celebrated 43d of Elizabeth,
they passed the Ist of James 1., c. 12, an Act against con-
juration, witchcraft, and dealing with evil spirits.'
" It may naturally be supposed that an Act of the im-
portance of the 43d of Elizabeth would have been most de-
liberately considered by the Legislature before it was passed
into a law ; but this does not appear to have been the case
—on the contrary, it was a very hasty piece of legislation.
On the 14th of December, 1601, it was twice read in the
House of Commons, and ordered to be engrossed. It was
read again on the 15th. On the 16th it was introduced
into the House of Lords. It was read a second time on
the 17th ante nzeridienz; and a third time the same day
post nzeridienz; so that it had only twenty-four hours' con-
sideration by one branch of the Legislature. The 20th
section of the 43d of Elizabeth, perhaps, may account for
this short consideration ;it enacts that This Act shall en-
dure no longer than to the end of the next session of Par-
liament.' There was an important political cause for this
hasty legislation during the week—the Parliament was dis-
solved in two days afterwards, on the 19th of December,
1601. _ _

" If there be anything solid in the arguments I have
used as to the effect of a compulsory tax for the relief of
the poor on the wages of labour ; then, as a matter of
course, the introduction of the system will sooner or later
produce the same effect, and a general depreciation of the
wages of labor must be the consequence in Ireland. The
very reverse course, I have endeavoured to show, is being
beneficially taken in England, and the result is that wages

are rising.
" Ireland, at the present moment, is by many considered
to be in the same state as England was about the period
of the 43d of Elizabeth. I have shewn that a fall in the
wages of labour was a consequence of the poor law sys-
tem ; and by this train of argument, I conclude that tke
poor law system, if introduced into Ireland, would exert a
most prejudicial effect upon the industrious classes of Eng-
land. But, on the other hand, the improvement in the
condition of the industrious classes in England, if not in-
terfered with by legislative enactments, will rapidly extend
itself to Ireland.
" Many persons argue that the market of labour is much
depreciated in this country by the emigration of Irishmen,
and the obvious remedy to which, in their opinion, is a
system of poor laws for Ireland, whereby the land shall be
taxed to support its inhabitants. This process, to be of
benefit to the industrious classes of England, must be
accompanied by an Act of Parliament to compel Irishmen
to remain at home, where wages are falling by the intro-
duction of poor laws ; where, in the sister country, wages
are rising in consequence of the poor being emancipated
from the operation of these laws.
" It would be absurd in a discussion of so much import-
ance, however unworthily I may treat it, not to admit to
the fullest extent the wretchedness and misery which abound
in Ireland. Painful as it must be to contemplate a people
under their present circumstances, it is only a thorough
knowledge of the existing evils that can by possibility lead
to a cure. That cure, to be effectual, depends upon the
soundness of the principle upon which the remedial process
is commenced and proceeded with."—Morning Advertiser.
The advocates of the new Poor Law are everywhere
instructed to put forth the vast savings brought about
by it as an overwhelming reason and defence for its
adoption. To such persons, no doubt, the end, under
any circumstances, is sufficient to justify the means ;
especially if that end consists in putting money into
the pockets of those who carefully adopt the Horatian
maxim of " quocunque modo rem." For ourselves we
believe that if the whole account were fairly stated,
little or no reduction has been brought about by the
operation of the new poor law ; but that the whole re-
duction which has taken place may be accounted for
by the low price of provisions, and the increased de-
mand for labour which has everywhere taken place ;
while, if the expence of the new law, of the staff at
Somerset House, and in every Union—and the cost
of building new workhouses, where no work is to be
provided, were fairly taken into the account, instead of
being studiously kept out of sight, an increase, and not
a diminution of expense, as far as the new law is con-
cerned, would be found to be, up to this time, its re-
sult. That a reduction in the poor rates, as well as a
reform in many other abuses under the old law, were
called for, we have never denied, but have ourselves
advocated, long before the present Malthusian project
was set on foot. But, as in the case of other reforms,
we do not consider it necessary either to destroy exist-
ing institutions, or to outrage humanity or public feel-
ing in so doing. It is not the disease which we deny
the existence of, but we quarrel with the remedy,
which, as far as it has hitherto proceeded, has done
more to unhinge society, and to dissatisfy a large and
important class of society—the labouring population--
than all which the efforts of the Radicals have hitherto
been able to accomplish. It acts like the surgeon, who
recklessly amputated the limb, which a little care would
heal and ultimately preserve. Let us hear no more
then of those boasted savings, which, in fact, have no
exis:fnce, and which, if they existed, would have been
obtained :!t a price which none but the extreme of
cold-blooded se:sli heartlessness could rejoice at or
defend. No misrepre3tntation, no sordid feeling, can
reconcile the country to the obvious errors (to call its
defects by no lighter name) of this new system. Its
injustice, its inhumanity, must be remedied ; and that
without in the smallest degree lessening the certainty
of the real evils of the old poor law being effectually
and permanently redressed.—Morning Herald.
In alluding very lately to the remarkable silence of
Lord Brougham on public affairs, we expressed our
honest regret that ill-health should have imposed such
a restraint on his Lordship. We are still actuated by
the same feeling. But recent circumstances induce
us to think that we must not altogether attribute to
the absence of physical power the withdrawal of the
Noble Lord from the turmoil of politics. We cannot
but suspect that reflection—for which his illness has
allowed him but too much time—or age, in the exer-
cise of its sedative quality, has superinduced a certain
degree of discretion on the brilliant eccentricities of
Lord Brougham. His answer, which we published
yesterday, to an address from certain politicians in
Edinburgh, inviting him to a public dinner in that
city, affords presumptive evidence that we are not
wrong in our conjecture. Judging from that answer,
one should have thought that the address was as
vague and general in the treatment of political subjects
as the reply of the Noble Lord. But that it was not
so, will appear by the following extract from it, which
the Edinburgh Evening Post enables us—albeit
rather in an inverse order of historical relation—to lay
before our readers :

" Your Lordship may differ with us upon certain points,
as we (amicably) differ among ourselves but while we agree
in so many important measures, and especially in every one
of those fundamental principles of political and social ame-
lioration which we believe Lord Brougham to have quite as
Incr.h at heart as any statesman whatever, we are persuaded
that no
vial consideration will intervene to disappoint our
hopes of your lordship accepting the invitation we have
the honour to semi to you ; and that you will not hold
aloof from Reformers who justly and warmly appreciate
your long and eminent serviet. to the common cause. We
are prepared to welcome you upon that high and open
ground where all lovers of freedom and of their country
may frankly meet. We disclaim every mere party interest
and factious motive ; but, looking to the threatening aspect
of public affairs, we feel that it is high time the nation were
,bestirring itself. We all alike demand justice to the Dis-
senters, justice to Ireland, and the speedy removal of those
ascertained impediments which check the free working of the
Reform Bill. We alike desire law reform and short Par-
liaments; but, more than all, we earnestly demand the
immediate adoption of such measures as may remove the
present obstacles to good government and to sound and
liberal legislation."

Now here, assuredly, was no lack of topics on which,
if brought under his notice in former days, Lord
Brougham would have discoursed most fluently,
through all the hours that were inscribed upon Shrews-
bui'v clock. But now, not a word—not a syllable—
in the way of:Tinion to the Whig apothecary, the
Whig commission-agent, tim bookseller,: or,
the Radical shopkeeper, of whom, as we learn
our Edinburgh Contemporary, the Reform deputation
consisted. If illness unfortunately prevented the atten-
dance of the Noble and Learned Lord in his place in
Parliament during the past Session—if the fear of a
relapse prevented him from appearing in such a bear-

garden as the celebrated dinner to Lord Grey showed
an Edinburgh " Reform" dinner to be—there was
no such excuse for silence here. The illness is past
away. A relapse could hardly have been produced by
quietly writing on a sheet of foolscap a brief notice of
the questions mooted by the Liberals of Edinburgh.
To what then are we to attribute the new taciturnity
of the Noble Lord? To what must we ascribe the
abstinence from all that fidgetty bustling with which
in time past he was wont, in compliment to Scottish
Reformers, to stick burgess-tickets in his hat, and pro-
mise to write to Windsor by that night's post ?
Simply, as it seems to us, to a discretion that did not
formerly belong to him, to the fact that Lord Brougham
is now

" Grown wiser than of yore ;"

that lie has at length discovered the causes of that po-
litical shipwreck, which must have been as unaccount-
able to himself as it was to many besides. A vessel,
we suspect, lie has now found out may go down by
merely carrying more sail than ballast. It was the
" top-hamper," as the sailors call it, that did the mis-
chief. It would really appear as if Lord Brougham
had seen his error—as if he had lowered his " sky-
scrapers ;" or, in other words, as if he were now con-
vinced that his abilities will have more weight if he
gravely and deliberately exercised them in his place as
a Peer of Parliament, than they had when, with mor-
bid vanity, he used them for the childish purpose of
dazzling the weak optics of busybodies and dema-
gogues. We confess we shall rejoice if our anticipa-
tion should prove a correct one. But it will much sur-
prise us, if certain quondam colleagues of the Noble
Lord should, in even the smallest degree, participate
in our satisfaction.—Morning Post.