The Sun.
London, England, 1834-07-22 00:00:00

industrious. The distribution of charity by parishes was
the more injurious in its effects, because more liable to
abuse, from being more certain in its nature, more known in
its existence, and because, from the nature f its existence, it
gave rise in the minds of the poor people to a notion, of which
nothing could divest them, that they had a strict, an undeniable,
and a general right to apply to it for support whenever they
pleased. That pernicious practice, which was known under
several denominations, bnt which was generally called by the
comprehensive name of the allowance system, which arose out
of the scarcity of 1795, was a complete development of all
the evils which lurked in the 43d of Elizabeth, but which it re-
quired a length of time and a succession of human improvi-
dence and want of foresight to educe. He had known only
two excuses ever proffered for this pernicious system, which he
would shortly advert to in order to show their utter fallacy.
The fact was an opinion which had been stoutly maintained by
an excellent and talented friend of his in the other House, who,
though possessed of much local knowledge and experience,
had by no means taken an enlarged view of this important
question—this gentleman had approved of the system, because
he considered it calculated to support the character of the
labourer, in enabling him, when in distress, to come
with an erect and dignified port to demand, as a right,
that support to which, as an Englishman, he was entitled; but
which otherwise, he would be compelled to beg and pray for
like a slave. Now he (Lord B.) could not imagine any more
fallacious argument than the one here advanced; for so far
from the system having any such tendency as the one here al-
leged, it had a precisely contrary effect, for it had almost wholly
destroyed the character of the labourer; for where the name of
pauper had heretofore been considered by the individual and
his family as a name of disgrace—little better than that of
felon—it was now no longer felt as a scandal ; the labourer,
indeed, came with an erect port to demand his money, but it
was not with the dignity arising from the feeling of worth
plunged into unmerited distress, but with the "sturdy" air of a
"masterful" beggar—a beggar by choice, and not by necessity,
who insolently tramples upon the honest rate-payer by whose
industry he is fed.—( Hear.) This was not, then, a system
which raised the character of the labourer, for, on the contrary.
it lowered, if it did not entirely destroy it, and rendered him vi-
cious in action and base in principle, if it did not deprive him of
every principle whatever. The other excuse made in defence of
the system, was one which he spoke of with great respect, as
proceeding from a man whose experience he highly esteemed;
that gentleman approved of it, as considering it an effective
check upon a surplus population ; for, said he, while no laws
which human legislatures could desire, or still less execute,
could prevent improvident marriages, the poor laws presented
an effectual check upon them, from the manner in which' re-
lief was distributed. Now, certainly, a more short-sighted
argument than this, or one made use of with less reference to
facts and circumstances, had never been advanced in the whole
history of human error. The very reverse of this effect was
palpable in this fatal law; for the corner stone of the per-
nicious building was the incentive and encouragement it held
out to improvident marriages.—.( Hear, hear.) What more
direct encouragement, indeed, could have been thought of
for such marriages, than the saying to a young couple,
" Here's a fund at your service; you have only to marry
and have children, and we will not only support you and
your children, but we will make you more comfortable
than the industrious man, who labours hard and does not marry,
from an honest determination not to have a family till he
can support one ?" Before he (Lord B.) concluded his ob-
servations on this subject of population, he could not feel sa-
tisfied if he did not do justice to a most learned, a most able,
and most virtuous individual, whose name had been mixed up
with more odious misrepresentation than any other name of
science, he believed, in this Protestant country, or in the pre-
sent enlightened age. Every man would understand who he
meant, when he named as that great man's attributes--talent,
honesty, integrity, the strongest sense of public duty, the most
amiable feelings in private life ; when he described him as the
distinguished ornament and delight of his private and literary
circle, as one of the most blameless and virtuous men that ever
breathed ; when he had stated these attributes, no one could
hesitate at pronouncing the name of Professor Malthus, a
man who, though he had made one of the greatest -and most
beneficial discoveries in political and social science ever con-
ceived, whose abilities were as original as they were trans-
cendent, had been the subject of the malignant and flip-
pant attacks of the low-minded and the ignorant. He
(Lord B.) would now proceed to call the attention of the
House to one of the most important steps which the Go-
vernment had undertaken—the issuing of the Poor Law
Commission. He had been one of those who thought
there was sufficient information already before the House ; but
on more close inquiry, he found that, to obtain a full under-
standing of the practical effects of the poor laws, it would be
indispensable that such a Commission should issue, and the
labours of the Commissioners had fully satisfied his anxiety for
such information. The country was highly indebted to those
gentlemen for the unexampled industry and talent they had so
eminently displayed in obtaining information, and compiling
their admirable and most eminently useful report. The judg-
ment in the selection of these Commissioners had been fully
evinced in the result. The Rev. Prelate the Bishop of Lon-
don, Mr. Sturges Bourne, Mr. Coulson, Mr. Chadwicke,
and other gentlemen, had fully deserved the highest com-
mendation which the country could bestow upon them. Their
report was one whose details were of the highest interest and
importance. From it, it appeared that throughout the coun-
' try able-bodied labourers preferred small sums paid them by
the parish, which they did no labour to earn, to large sums
obtained by wages for labour performed. Many instances
were adduced of young men saying they preferred 3s. 6d. a-
week parish money and the liberty of being idle, to les. a-week
earned by labour. But it was not to be supposed that these
parties were merely idle ; alarming facts proved that these very
idle paupers were always amongst the first to originate and
take the lead in executing mischief and crime. Nor was this
feeling confined to the lazy agricultural labourers, for the evil
had spread itself among the hard-working seamen and fisher-
men, who heretofore would have dared every danger of every
season of the year on the ocean, in order to keep themselves
and families from the parish, but who now, as a matter of
course, threw themselves upon the parish for unearned support
during the winter months, declaring that they would never go
out in bad weather while they could remain at home comfort-
able and get supported by the parish. These were facts
which required no commentary.—( Hear, hear.) And not
only did these paupers assert their right to as much money as
was earned by the independent labourer, but in many parishes
they asserted their right to be exempted from working as bard
as the independent labourer, and, indeed, in one or two
parishes, the grounds of appeal by paupers, from the
overseers to the justices, was that the overseers wanted
to make them work as hart as the independent labourer.
--(Hear, hear.) The next evil was that paupers had not
only less work to do than the independent labourer, but
they were better off in many places ; their actual re-
ceipts were considerably larger than those obtained by persons
who supported themselves by their industry.—( Hear, hear. )
This disparity was particularly observable in some parts of
Sussex, where, according to the report, each pauper received
sixteen shillings a week from the parish, while no independent
labourer, work hard as he might, could earn more than twelve
shillings; and, in the Isle of Wight, a case occurred of two
hundred paupers rebelling because they were paid no more
for doing nothing than the independent labourer, and they
succeeded in getting a rise according to their demand. He
did not so much blame the men as the laws, which made
them what they were. Again, the law of nature declared
that parents should support their children ; and that, as a ge-
neral rule, all distressed relatives should be relieved by such of
their kindred as were better oft than themselves ; but the poor
laws said no such thing ; on the contrary, they said, " Don't
trouble yourselves about supporting your parents, or your
children, or your distressed relations, the parish will do all
that for you ;" and hence arose the most disgusting conduct in
such children, for parents said to the parish officers, " If you
don't give me more to support my son, I shall turn him
out," and, as in a case mentioned in the report, a son
comes and says, "If you don't give me some money for
the support of my mother, I'll take her out of my house and
lay her down in the street, or at the door of the workhouse."
This was, then, a system which not only tended to destroy the
best feelings of humanity, to counteract the law of nature, but
it had a direct tendency to ruin the country. If it were per-
severed in, parish after parish would be thrown out of cultiva-
tion, for here one parish was thrown out, the unavoidable
tendency would be to throw out three or four of the surround-
ing parishes. Some people seemed to think it would be better
to remain as we were, and to avoid any attempt to better
things, least they should become worse, but he was decidedly
of opinion; that things were in such a position that we could
not stop short with impunity. The picture presented by the
report was a most harsh, a gloomy, and awful one, and the
most determined, though still cautious legislation was neces-
sary to avert the calamity. The laws we had made had re-
versed the original curse on man, " by the sweat of your brow
shall you live," but the Poor Laws took from the labouring
man the rewards of the sweat of his brow, and bestowed it
upon those who worked not. The Poor Laws, too, took
from the poor man that safeguard from vice which con-
sista in labour and industry, for the pauper spent his time
in that idleness which invariably produces vice and crime.
The crimes which the calendar were swollen with, murder,
infanticide, incest, were in very great part attributable to the
Poor Laws. The sole exceptions to the general report of
depravity and corruption detailed in this volume, were to be
found in the manufacturing towns, those flourishing seats
of art, which alone seemed to oppose any resistance to the en-
trance into them of this fatal evil : but it would be in vain to
expect that even such places as these, Manchester, Leeds,
Birmingham, should long remain as they now were, so many
claps in the desert. It became then the bounden duty of the
Legislature, before all was involved in one common ruin, to
make a firm stand, and to bring into effect real and practical
reformation of these manifold and destructive evils. He did
not for the present say anything about repealing these laws,
which he should look upon for the time as the fixed law of the
land ; but much might be done in amending their administra-
tion—( Hear)--and to this they should apply their best
attention. One thing to be attended to was, the separate
jurisdiction. At present the utmost want of unifornait„
and regularity prevailed, and the consequences were vel,
mischievous. One magistrate laid down one rule ; any
other, another : one set of overseers had one system ; an"
other set had another : one bench of justices, one rule -
another, another. Now, as every thing depended upon unity;
of system in the persons who administered these laws, the pre-
sent want of unity must be fatal to good administration. So
different were the plans in different parishes, that though next
to each other, one would suppose them to be in different coun-
ties. The change which was wanted might be very simple
for several cases had occurred where a simple plan of action
carried fairly into effect, had effected the most extraordinary
improvement in the respective parishes ; the poor-rates dimi-
nished one half, the idle reclaimed and set to work, and the in-
dustrious rewarded according to their works. Scotland, in the j
matter of her poor law administration was an example which