The Sun.
London, England, 1819-04-23 00:00:00

the inFluence of a hostile alministiatiun of`the
law ; believe me there is no man who may not he
of some use in procuring emancipation, and. all
can be roused to assist each other, believe me that
emancipation will be certain.
" Let nit then conjure you, As you value your-
selves, your families, and your unhapp.y enontrY.
to, cast away all -pretences, ,for negligence- or
silence, and to come forward one and all to de-
mand your rights.
" Catholics of Ireland, we are about to ad-
dress another and a better Parliament. This,is a
moment peculiarly suited to our just views. The
ProiestAnts of this Empire, and in particular the
Protestants of Ireland, exhiL;t daily proofs of an
increasing, liberality and kindness. fine Govern-
ment appears riot to he unfavourable.
" Catholics of Ireland,• deign to liscn to the
Counsels of an humble bfit sincere hieud, who
athises you at tLia propitious motntH to make
one enrnLined and nomellul struggle for ',happy
homes and altars f•ee.'

" I bet: leave, cf•llo;r-countrytnen, to subscribe
myself, your tlevi,ted Servant,
"•I)A\IEL O'CONNELL."

FOR THE SUN.

THE POOR LAWS.

MR. EDITOR—Of all the at tempts to make these
Laws efficient, the Sill brought in►o the Com-
mons by Mr. STURGRs Boy KNE is by lar the best ;
atul ought,. as is devoutly wished, to pass. The
dis Order to he cured has too long prevailed.

fly the 19. 1-1. Vll. Overseers wele directed to
kelp the poor within the cites or towns where
they were, horn, or had resided three years, so
as to entitle them to a settlement ; but after the
dissolution of the Monasteries by his son Henry
VIII.; many other provisions were made for theta
by Parliament, in lieu of what they lost is the
alms of those superstitious houses. Edward
the VI, founded the Hospitals of Christ and
St. Thomas, in London and Southmark, for
youth health and sickness ; and Bridewell for
the employment of the able, and correction of the
idle. For the poor in, gtneral throughout the
kingdom, Eliz. by the Act of the 43d year of her
reign, directed that overseers should be appoint-
ed in evety parish, to relieve the impotent, and to
find work for the s'urdy in their own homes; not
in comtnon work-houses, .where liberty and do-
mestic comtorts are abridged, and the sober and
diligent are too generally placed with the disso-
lute and lazy.
Since tl•e Reformation, the great variety of
La', -s. and the decisions thereon, have not only
swelled the S'atute Books, hut have increased
the poor, and the difficulty of telieving them, by
the several modes of obtaining set,lements, which
have set the parishes to quarrel with each other,
and pot them to enormous expenses for law suits,
although the Act of Elizabeth directs that each
pisrish shall maintain its oven poor.
By the 13. and 14. Charles 11. the poor gained
a settlement by birth, ildiabitancy, apprentice-
ship, or service for 40 days. This enconraged.
emigration train the parishes, but if they did not
rent tenements of 10/. a year in any, they were
deemed intrmlera ; and so short a residence hav-
ing occasioned frauds, the 17 James 1. directed,
that they should give notice in writing to the
parish officers of their qualification before they
could enti•le themselves to a settlement by inha-
bitancy; and the 8 William 111. c. 30., by way
of further caution, directed that certificatesshould
be given to a man, shewing the parish he was of,
whereby he could not be removed from any other,
until he became actually chargeable there. Be-
(ore this Overseers removed labourers aga,nst their
will, front where they Were industriously employ-
ed, to where they came from, on pretence that
they were likely to become chargeable where they
dwelled.
Thus were the Poor Laws till the year'l793,
when an Aet pissed for the protection of Benefit
Societies, in which the members thereof were,ex-
pressly exempted from any removal ; and in 1795
another Act passed to prevent a removal until the
poor were actually chargeable. Vet this often
produced expcn.iive litigations, and forced a poor
man from where he had lived the prime of his
life,- to where he was forgotten or unknown. As
a remedy for this, a residence for a' given time,
on giving notice of his qualification to the Over-
see) s, and not being chargeable in the mean time,
might give him a better title to a settlement than
service, renting a tenement, or performing, an
office.

In short, if none but the impotent were to be
relieved ; if no children were taken from their
parents but were living in dirt and vice; and if poor
men with their families were employed when they
'requited it, for their own entire profit, industry
might soon revive, labour be a pleasure in pro-
viding subsistence, the 'indigent Might work
without a murmur, and when truly impotent be
entitled to support from their peculiar pal ishes.
NUMA.

SumcioN OF MtinDEX.—A considerable sen-
sation has been excited at and in the neighbour-
hood of Sunbury-green, near Harrow, in conse-
quence of a circumstance having transpired, by
which a female of respectability is charged with
having been privately delivered, and murdering
tier offspring. A young woman, about 17 years
of age, named Ann Smith, residing at Sunbury,
who had been suspected for some time to be in a
state of pregnancy, was within these few days so
altered in her shape and appearance as gave rise
to a report that she bad been delivered, and had
destroyed the child; and what strengthened the
suspicion was, that the body of a new-born child
was discovered in a ditch. The body was taken
up and carried to the Mitre public-horse, and
information was given to the parish officers, who,
from the investigation of the case, sought out the
young woman on whom previous suspicion bad
fallen, and she. immediately acknowledged that she
had been delivered of a child ;1 anti a cousin of the
young woman acknowledged that the child, soon
'atter it was born, was thrown into some water,
and concealed in a ditch. The Parish Surgeon
was called to examine the body, and immediately
afterwards notice of the circumstance was sent to
Mr. STIRLING, the Coroner, who appointed to
hold an inquisition at eight o'clock last