The Sun.
London, England, 1834-07-07 00:00:00

ciates. The two first will oppose them in every
other measure—the last will fight with the spirit
of a renegade ; but, like all characters of that de-
scription, will inspire no confidence, because they
fight only for their own ends. Let Earl GREY
and his colleagues, however, remain firm and
they will be backed by the strength of the country.
Let them persist in measures for the removal of all
Church abuses—for the abolition of pluralities and
non-residence—the more equal distribution of Church
property—the appropriation of the surplus,—for cor-
poration reform and law reform, and though the Lords
reject one or all, let them renew the contest and
they will finally prevail. Notwithstanding the
vile outcry raised against Earl GREY, the people of
England know how much they are his debtors, and
how much they have yet to expect from him. He and
his colleagues are carrying Reform into every depart-
ment of the constitution —they have preserved the
peace of Europe in times of no ordinary difficulty—
they have mainly contributed to the regeneration of
the Peninsula—they are every day improving our com-
mercial relations with France, and cementing the union
and peace of the two countries, and reducing taxation
to an amount never before contemplated, and
is it likely that the sober—the staid people of Eng-
land will mar all these, and throw the United Kingdom
into confusion out of pure fickleness, and for the pur-
pose of making an experiment which they know cannot
succeed ? The idea is absurd. If the Tories persevere,
they will only more speedily accomplish their own de-
struction, and GOD grant that they may not involve
the Church with them.

The main object of the Poor Laws' Amendment Bill
is to put down the system of paying wages out of
the rates, and to teach the able-bodied poor that they
are to depend upon their own labour, and not upon
parish pay for their support. The moral good to be
accomplished by the bill is of infinitely more import-
ance than the money benefit to arise from it, though
that also is not to be despised. The diminution of
the poor rates in the parishes of Cookham, Southwell,
Thurgolon, Uley, and many other parishes in which
there already exists a system of correction similar to
that to be produced by the bill, is not much less than
three-fourths of the amounts levied in these parishes
for the relief of the poor before the correction of the
abuses began which has been effected there ; and if, in
place of upwards of seven millions expended last year in
England and Wales in the relief of the poor, the sum
shall be reduced to less than two millions per annum,
which it should be, according to what has been
effected in these parishes, such reduction will be a
great relief to the industry of those by whom the idle
able-bodied poor are supported, by being at present
enabled to live upon the labour of others, in place of
living upon their own. But gnat as this relief will be
to the industrious who now bear this unwholesome
burthen, we repeat, the moral benefit to arise to the
able-bodied poor themselves is of infinitely greater im-
portance. Mr. BEC HER says, that in his parishes of
Southwell and Thurgarton, the work performed by a
labourer is four times the quantity of that performed
by a labourer in the other districts of the county of
Nottingham, where the abuses of the poor laws con-
tinue to prevail. Mr.WHATELEY says, that in his pa-
rish of Cookham, in Berkshire, the morals of the people
are improved as well as their condition; insomuch, that
" those who were disorderly are very much the reverse,
and he has only had two bastardy cases in ten years."
The account given by Mr. BAKER of Uley, in Glou-
cestershire, is not less encouraging. He says, " I have
heard from different persons who reside in the parish,
and who, from the difference in their stations and
habits, I have every reason to believe had never con-
versed together on the subject, such accounts of the
poor as give the strongest ground for hoping that
since the establishment of your system crime is rapidly
decreasing, and that good order, industry, and all that
can make a poor man respectable, will increase, and be
firmly established."
The system here alluded to is the workhouse sys-
tem, that is, of withholding relief from every one who
does not go the workhouse, which the bill has adopted
as the means of inducing the able-bodied to avail them-
selves of their own exertions for their support, rather
than become the inmates of a workhouse. The bill,
therefore, does not proceed without experience in this
respect. On the contrary, it seeks to render operative
in every parish in England and Wales, that which has
been already put in practice in upwards of one hun-
dred parishes, with safety and certainty to the improve-
ment of the moral habits and the personal condition
of the poor. Not a whisper has been heard against
the object, and it is remarkable that amidst all the
clamour which has been raised against the machinery
of the bill, no other mode has been suggested of
accomplishing its purpose.
Settlement is incident to any compulsory provision
for the poor, and the object here has been to render a
settlement not worth having to the able-bodied, and to
remove causes of dispute.
Cases of bastardy must be dealt with. Those who
have screeched against this bill have shown themselves
so obtuse to what is passing in every parish in Eng-
land, that they could not be expected to look for infor-
mation elsewhere. But they might have learned that
the operation of the law in Scotland is very much
what the operation will become in England under this
bill. In Scotland, the oath of the mother is not more
available than the oath of the putative father. The
object is to prevent the getting of bastard children,
and the throwing the onus upon the woman has been
found to be a very effectual means of prevention. Here
again the bill avails itself of experience. Its purpose
is to restore the female part of the lower orders to
their ancient purity, and the male part to their former
habits of honest independence. We do not mean to
say that no emendation has been made, but every one
who understands the subject, and has attended to the
proceeding, must deplore that the efficacy of the bill
has been impaired by alterations made upon it in the
House of Commons. In the pride of magistracy,
which delights in the exercise of power however mis-
chievous, and under the influence of parish peculators
that minister to the wants of the poor, who see in the
bill only the loss of their own ungodly gains, we
doubt not it will continue to be misrepresented. But
its merits, and the merits of the Government in bring-
ing it forward, are duly appreciated by every reflecting
mind, and its authors and supporters will receive their
reward in the estimation of those whose opinion is
worth having, and in the good which will be the result
of their labours, to the discomfiture of the parish and
party brawlers who have babbled against it.

On the motion of Mr. HUME, the Admiralty has
made a return to Parliament of the number of cor-
poral punishments inflicted in the Navy in each of the