The Sun.
London, England, 1828-02-21 00:00:00

bargains in the labour market as possible, could
coolly approve of the proposition that it is good that
the as and manufacturing labourers should

be ;round to wretchedness. The opinion that the
sufferings and privations of the lower orders from
low wages arc beneficial to a country, is so absurd,
to leave inhumanity out of the question, that we
'cannot persuade ourselves it was actually uttered
by one so lately charged with the interests of
the people of thse Islands. The enlightened author
of the " Wealth of Nations " had. very different ideas
as to what constitutes the good of a country. " Ser-
vants, labourers, and workmen of different binds,"
he observes, " make up the far mater part of every
great political society. But what improves the cir-
cumstances of the greater part, can never be regarded
as an inconveniency to the whole. No society can
surely be flourishing and happy, of which by far the
greater part of the members are poor and Miserable.
It is but equity, besides, that they ssh 6 feeds elothe,
and lodge the whole body of tha peetqa, should have
such a share of the produce of their owa labour, as to
he themselves tolerably Well led; clothed, and lodged."
Does Mr. S. Rice imagine the agricultural and Tila•
nufacturing laboumrs of England are at this present
time so much tr.ore than tolerably Well fed, clothed,
and lodged, 'that the good of the country requires
that thir condition should be lowered by an influx
of Sts:angers ? Did his researches in the Home
OTice lead him to the conclusion, that the extraor-
thnary increase of crime of late is a oreaf of the ex-
cessive prosperity of the lower otders ? Does he be-
lieve, if there is such an extra Ordinary prosperity among
the labourers, that the good of the countmv requires
it should be diminished, by the increased competition
caused by increased numbers, that the tendency of
the labouring classes to increase whenever thee- have
the means of supporting their families, will not in
all razes, in old settled countries, produce the addi-
tioaal numbers required, as rapidly as is compatible
v:aith the good of the country ? Does he believe
that the people of England are e stupid as to sup-
pose that, because it may be the interest of an Irish
Landholder to rid himself of part of his redundant po-
pulation, by threiaing them on England, that it is
therefore the interest of England that her agricul-
tural and manufacturing labourers sh add be de-
graded, by the competition created by such in-
flux of strangers, to the level of Irish wretchedness?
- But Mr. Spring Rice could not have u creel the sen-
timent ; because the English Menthe isof the House
are not so destitute of huiettity, as to have listened
with patience to lam,Snage unworthy of a rational
being. They walla have marked their abhorrence in
some uneouiviacal manner. As to the question of
the introduetion of Poor Laws into Ireland, the op-
poaition of Irish Members to' any such introduction
is more excusable, however inexcusable it may he in
the English Membera, as guardians of the people, to
suffer them to be sacrificed to the interest of Irish
Luidholders. The English Members are bound to
protect the agticult oral and mantheturing classes of
England against the calamity which is assailing them
from Ireland, and to disregard the howling of inte-
rested laitdowiters. " The excess," says Mr. M'Cul-
- loch, in his new edition of Smith's Wealth of Ara-
tio-as, with the notes and additions necessary to put
the reader in possession of the present state of the
science of Political Economy, " the excess to which
population has now arrived in Ireland, and time
time misery of the inhabitants, threatens, by caus-
ing an extraordinary emigration from Ireland to
Great Britain, to have the most pernicious influence
on the condition of the labouring classes here. This
is indeed tt subject of paramount importance, and
Which calls loudly for the immediate attention of
Government. If the existing sources of pauperism
he left to flow unchecked 'in Ireland, and to seek
a vent. for themselves, it is not easy to see
how we shall be able to prevent ourselves from
being overrun by them. . . . • . A
double injury is, in consequence, inflicted upon the
native population of Britain. In the first place, their
wages are reduced by the competition of the Irish;
and in the second place, their-opinions with respect
to what is necessary for their comfortable and -de-
cent subsistence, are lowered by the contaminating
influence of example, mai by familiar intercourse
with those who are content to live in filth' and mi-
sery. I am- finely persuaded that nothing so deeply
injurious to the character and habits of our people has
ever;otcurred,aa the late extraordinary influx of Irish la-
. bowers ; and yet thisiufluxmaybesaidto be only com-
mencing)." Have the Poor Laws' in England ten-
ded to keep do men the numbere of the
.People, or have
they not ? If they have kept down the umnbere of
the people, by the derided interest which they. gave
to per Sons of property to guard against redundancy,
of which the charge had to be borne by them, what
reason is there for supposing that Poor Laws would
not have the same effect in Ireland ? If Ireland
ever come to be civilized, it must have Poor Laws;
fot we contend that mendieity is incompatible with
civilization, and that vagrancy must prevail where-
ever a provision of. some sort is not made for
the destitute poor. Till of late years the Poor
Laws of England were always held to have
been a check on population ; and if they have
ceased to be so efficacious a check as formerly, it is
because the provisions which enabled them to pro-
duce this effect, were inconsiderately repealed in our
times. •In a debate in the House of Commons,
April 28, 1773, on a Bill to prevent vexatious re-
movals of the Poor, according to the Parliamentary
History, Mr. Graves, in. moving for leave to bring
hi this Bill, said, " How inconsistent is it with rea-
son that. young, hale, vigorous men, whether la-
bourers in agriculture or manufactures, who ale well
able to maintain themselves—nay, more than able
sti do it—should, on their offering to marry, have
notice from. time parish officers that they shall
remove them, as likely to become chargeable ? Is
not this of all other means the most efectual to pre-
vent- and check population ? ,A ud did ever any
nation 'under heaven grow great by checking popu-
lation ? • Suppose, Sir, the couple, in spite of this
infamous notice, should persevere in their intention
amid marry ; they are removed. Gentlemen may say
what harm in that.? Why not live in one parish as
well as another? I will tell such Gentlemen wherein
is the mischief : the removal carries them from a place
where they can earn lbs. a week by manufactories,
to another where they can get but lOs.by agriculture."
&c, Mr. Whit Worth said," Sir, I have known, to the
amount of 30 or 10 families sent off by removal orders
in one day,a scene highly scandalous,and urging iii the
strongest manner the necessity of the Bill.' Who
does not see, that harsh as tliia-state of the taw at
first sight seems to be, it 'was, ia reality, kind to
the labouring classes ? It furnished the single man
with the strongest notions-for carefulness and fru-
gality, in order that by acquiring a settlement
through the various modes prescribed, he might se-
eine himself, if diaposed to marry, against removal
from a place where he was earning fifteen shillings,
to another place'where he could get but ten shillings.
very oste acquainted with the country pasts of
England, knows that the labourers on sufferance in
parishes, were generally models in all that regarded.
'industry and good conduct. But, by a spurious li-
berality, the fruit of imperfect knowledge of:the
social system, and little insight into human nature,
the labouring poor have been deprived of the chief
motives for prudence and exertion. The single
man, so far from having to dread any thing from
has atpresent a bonus, by
marriage,. entering. into
that condition. But the Irish Landholders purposely
confound the abuses of the English Poor Laws,
which have been engrafted on
them of late years,
with the laws themselves. They forget that under
these laws the finest race of. lalsoirreakin the world
try-, dexterity, for habits of
for laborious indua
were formed ' •
order-and cleanliness, S
,arace which
.even yet, in their deteriorated condition,
have not
—2tforiang Chick.., equals in Europe.

Although Lord Salisbury's Bill to " legalize the
sale of game" is on a more restricted principle than
we could wish, yet we should be glad to see that
or any measure pass into a law which is calculated
to work some amelioration in the present system of
Game Laws. The mischievous effects of this
branch of our. Penal Legislation upon the habits and
morale of the peasantry of England call for the moat