The Sun.
London, England, 1829-11-19 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

A correspondent, well acquainted with the
affairs of Portugal, informs us that we are in
some error as to the respect, bon gr' mal gr'd
which Don Miguel pays to the representations of
this Government, and instances a striking case
-:--that of Mr. Noble, who had been subjected
to a legal sentence, had his property at Oporto
sequestered, but who, on the powerful remon-
strance of the British Government, through the
Consul-General, had been re-admitted into Por-
tugal and reinstated in the possession of his
property. We admit that this is a striking case
no doubt : we hope there will be many such,
unless they are obviated by the reformation and
improvement of Miguel! We admit also, that
the imposition of the 15 per cent. upon British
articles imported into Portugal, except on con-
dition that they are imported in Portuguese or
British vessels, is hut the construction of a
treaty. We think, however, that before Don
Miguel or his Government had practically given
that treaty the new interpretation, they should
have heard what we had to say on the subject.
However, if they listen now, we shall be content.
With respect to the recognition of this person,
—Don Miguel,—we hold the same opinion as
ever in this and all similar instances. We have
nothing to do with the internal government of
Portugal. If the Portuguese choose to keep
him, and the emigrants and discontented within
the realm cannot eject him, it is not our busi-

ness : we have only to take care that he be not
imposed or retained by foreign force. But we
have also to take care that, as sovereign, he do
us no wrong.—limes.
We feel it our duty to inquire once more,
whether any, and what steps have been taken to
elucidate the circumstances under which Mrs

Phillips died, since the general admission seems
to be, that her death was produced by poison.
The suspicion which from the first, and which

to this hour has hung over the decease of that
unfortunate female, must, it is obvious, become
every day less susceptible of explanation, as the
more minute and indirect, though not perhaps
less important facts, wear out from the remem-
brance of the witnesses. We are utterly amazed
at those persons (for some there are) who have
been charged in print with endeavouring to in-
terpose obstacles to the inquiry, how and th rough
what hands the poison made its way into the
same cup or bottle with more innoxious sub-
stances. We are, we repeat, confounded at the
apparent apathy of such persons under a charge
so grievous and appalling. If near relations will
not, when thus goaded, come forward and invite
and promote an inquiry into this foul, or at least
calamitous affair, it is the solemn duty of the
magistrate who has already had some official
knowledge of the case, to revive the question,.
and force it to a result, as satisfactory as anNi
existing or attainable evidence can make it. If
accident only has caused the sudden demise of
one of the King's subjects, prove it, and society
will bow, as it ought, to the infliction ; but if the
event was not the consequence of hazard, public
lustice, humanity, and the interests of domestic
ife throughout the realm, demand loudly that
the investigation shall go on.—lbid.
The Duke of Wellington had a long interview
with the King on Tuesday ; the audience lasted
for nearly three hours, and a variety of business
was transacted. We mention this fact the more
particularly, in order to give an opportunity for
noticing a rumour circulated with an industry
that would be meritorious if it were not exerted
for the purpose of deception. It has been said
very confidently, and by persons whO at all
events ought to be above giving countenance to
premeditated fiction, that the intercourse between
the Sovereign and the first Minister of the
Crown has not latterly possessed that character
of confidential cordiality by which it was once
distinguished, and which is, perhaps, indispen-
sable to the prompt and efHcient adininisisation ot
public affairs; that the Sovereign receives his
trusted servant reluctantly, and only when some
great exigency requires a meeting ; and that
there is no disposition on the part of the First
Lord of the Treasury to render these conferences
of more frequent occurrence, or of more extended
duration ; or—to express the matter more plaintv
—we are taught to believe that the foundation
on which the present order of things rests is in-
secure, and that a change is probable, if not im-
minent. Is this really so ? Are we on the eve
of one of those changes which necessarily and
inevitably impede the progress of objects of ge-
neral and national solicitude ? The very reverse
of all this is the fact ; the direct and masculine
understanding of the Premier is a sufficient gua-
rantee against a system which would tend to
preserve office at the expellee of personal inde-
pendence; and the deportment of the Sovereign
is such as befits him towards the most eminent
of his subjects, and most trusted of his counsel-
lors. At no one time were the relations be-
tween the parties more perfectly cordial and sa-
tisfactory.— Morning Chronicle.
Several of our contemporaries have animad-
verted pretty freely on the Circular from Mr.
Walker, one of the Police Magistrates of Lam-
beth-street district, to the t3uardiins of the Poor
of the Parishes in his neighbourhood, in which
he gives some very gcod advice as to the mode
of conducting business connected with the poor,
and at the same time delivers his opinion in ra-
ther a questionable shape respecting the poor
laws. Mr. Walker has had considerable
experience respecting the poor, both in the
North anti West of England, and some year,
ago published a pamphlet on the subject, %,..;'n'ich
attracted considerable notice. He ;ees very
distinctly the abuses connected rith every sys-
tem of relief for the poor, bu't,
persons, he sees only part of hisliskiedijmecatn.y , other
persons,
thorough conviction, from lung experience of
the impolicy, cruelty, and unchristian tendency
of the poor laws, and an earliest desire, by a
strict admistration to facilitate their abolition'
the proposition with which he commences his
circular-e-involves something like a contradiction,
because, if the poor laws are impolitic, cruel, and
unchristian in their tendency, the
stricter the ad-
ministration, the more will that tendency be
evinced. But then it would appear that the
strict administration of these laws would facili-
tate their abolition ; that is, would diminish the
impolitic, cruel, and unchristian tendency;
whence it follows, not that the laws themselves
have an impolitic, cruel, and unchristian ten-
dency, but
that a faulty administration of
them has such a tendency. Mr. \\Talker
evidently possesses more zeal than logic,
otherwise he would not have recommended a
strict administration of what was in itself a
cruel, impolitic, and unchristian tendency, as a
means of improving the condition of
the people
(certainly not unchristian) as to render legal
`provisinn unnecessary. If the law be in itself
impolitic and demoralizing,
the stricter the ad-
o ministration the more mischievous the comm.
qiienco-q, and the greater the difficulty of return-,

to a :state in-which the law may he &Tense.]
w.th. It is well observed by a cotemporary (the
Globe ) , that " it has been not an unnatural
mistake (but we think it is.a mistake) which
many persons have fallen into from ob2ervino.,
that the poor laws worked be,,t where they were
least liberally administered, to conclude that the
entire absence of poor laws would be a still
farther improvement ; and this appears to be Mr.
Walker's error. The mistake arises from this

assumption, which is not, we b2•lieve, founded in
truth, and from the omission of an important
ant undeniable fact :—lt is assumed much too

rashly, that persons who under a system of poor
laws become chargeable to parishes, would be
cimulated to greater exertions or greater absti-
nence if they saw a distant prospect of misery as
the result of their misconduct. And, on the
other hand, it is not borne in mind, that under a
system of poor laws, it is the interest, and it
becomes the practice, of the more provident part
of the community, to warn the heedless and the
indolent, in the rudest and most effectual manner,
against the probable consequences of their mis-
conduct. The principles of the poor laws are
two-fold—that those who are in want must be
relieved, but that the probability of standing in
need of relief (of becoming chargeable) is some-
thing approaching to a crime. This seems cruel
but it is the least of two degrees of cruelty. It
becomes a part of the business of society—and
in some country parishes it is an important part
of its business—to make the lives of all men,
whose conduct or misconduct is likely to lead to
indigence, disagreeable to them. The inefficacy
of distant and uncertain punishment, as com-
ored with very slight present inconvenience, is
e/cll known ; and the effect of the poor laws is to
'tact present inconvenience on the improvident,
;netead of holding up to them the distant (how-
ev. r preteihle and terrible) evil of want and star-
vation." Mr. Walker, like many others, forgets
that there is a power in any given society, if
there be a sufficiency of food, to double itself in
twenty years ; that there is a constant tendency
to increase at a rate beyond any pessible increase
of the means or subsistence in old countries, and
that consequently, except under a state of high
social improvement, of which there are yet no
examples in Europe, this tendency to increase
can only be counteracted by coercive means.
To an individual in the lower ranks of life,
his own prudence will be unavailing in the way
of escaping poverty, if the rest of his class
are not also prudent. The circumstances which
determine the amount of his wages are not de-
pendent on his individual will, but on the pro-
portion which the number of labourers bears
to the demand for it in the labour market.
If all labourers were to be so wise as to
marry at such an age as should render an in-
crease of their numbers beyond the demand for
their labour impossible, and all individuals we; .e
to be blessed with the power of squaring their
conduct with a view to the future as well as the
present, a labouring roan might (except in case
of accident) count with something like accuracy
on the consequences of his actions. But if a
labouring man, for instance, were upon some
philosophical calculation to marry at what he
deemed the age which would enable him to con-
tribute only the fair contribution to the continua-
tion of the species, if all men did not marry at
this age, he might still be involved in poverty,
and unable to save anything for his old age.
Undue increase of numbers is the cause of
poverty, and poverty again is the cause of undue
increase of numbers. Experience proves to us
ehat the lower the condition of any people, the
ware reckless they are as to consequences ; and
}hence we generally find the multiplication of the
aneeies greatest where the circumstances of the
people are the most • deplorable. Mr. Walker
either takes the present condition of the people
as his guide, or he looks to a more improved
sem-Lao:1. If the present condition of the people
is soch that we should not be warranted in ex-
pecting from them any great degree of prudence in
ells abeence of*the poor laws; and if poverty favours
imprudence instead of increasing the motives for
prudenee., how ate we to bring about the circum-
atances which should render poor laws un-
necessary ? Poor laws must always be the
foundation of every system of police with re-
gate' to the poor.Thedestitute cannot, in a
civilizet; country, be suffered to wander about
a country, The security of property demands
that all vagrancy and mendicancy should be
checked. Begging Is unquestionably a great
nuisance, and it is essential to the comfortable •
existence of the industrious, that it should be
repressed. The spectacle of suffering humanity
will not be endured by a civilized population,
and Mr. Walker will nut pretend that people
ought to be allowed to perish in the streets.
Again the health of the community might be
endangered by the contagious diseaces which
Always follow in the train of excessive privation.
Provialon must, therefore, be made for the poor;
either by voluntary association or by compulsory
tax. In small societies, the object may be
effected by association ; but in a dense popula-
don, every man would throw as much of the
iburden on his neighbour as he could, if the ex-
tent pf the contribution depended on indi-
vidual inclination. We are of the num-
ber of anew who believe in the constant
lanprovement of our species. We conceive that
else virtues of pruclauee and foresight prevail
;among the people of England to a greater ex-
Lent at this moment than ever they dial; and we
might appeal, in evidence of this, to the prodi-
,aious increase of Benefit Societies. In the
te,
course of time, we believe that the means for re-
preosing the tendency to increase beyond food
will become milder and milder. In the mean
time, however, the rid; and prosperous must be
bound by law to provide apinst the undue mul•
tiplication of the poor, by entailiogn on them the
consequences of such multiplication. are
given to the rich, not alone for solitary enjoy-
ment, but in trust for the poor. They have
leisure, they have more ample resans of instruc-
tion. They can go to the Legislature for more
ample powers, when the existing powers are ins
sufficient. But if they were to be freed from the
obligation to maintain the poor, and the poor
were in turn to be relieved from the restraints
imposed on them by laws of settlement, the
consequence of such obligation of' maintenance,
recklessness-and despair would only impede the
advance of the poor in the career of improve-
ment, Poor laws are, therefore, indispensable;
and experience proves, that in the most civilised
nations, the poor are best provided for by law.

We call the attention of our readers to an
article which will be found in another part of
our columns, giving a melancholy account of the
condition of the labourers in husbandry in the
fertile county of Berks. It appears, from what
transpired at a private meeting of Magistrates of
the Berkshire Sessions, that agricultural distress
is increasing in a degree that excites the most
oriolli alarm. We are informed that a must

deplorable picture was drawn of the depressed
state of every branch of agriculture by Mr.
Green, a Magistrate, who, to his credit, ex-
pressed great solicitude for the sufferings of the
labourers in husbandry, and recommended to his
brother Magistrates the humane duty of making
every possible exertion to ameliorate their condi-
tion. His advice, we hope, will not be tnroe.'n
away ; and his authority ought to be of some
weight, as he has himself carried on farming
-ex-
tensively, both in Hampshire and the county of
Berks. But ie the present day it is not consi-
dered a prom of enlightened intellect to make
any account of zhe feelings, the wants, and the
sufferings of the poor. Our political economists
look only to the accumulation of " capital" in
the hands of a few individuals, not to the diffu-
sion of plenty and comfort among the mass
of the people. The kindlier feelings of our nature
are sacrificed to the sordid theories of a cal-
lous and conceited selfishness, which assumes
the name of philosophy. In the prevailing
rage for " the wealth of nations," that most va-
luable of all wealth—that most precious and
durable of all national possessions—moral wealth,
is depreciated or forgotten. The moral trea-
sures of a nation arc scarcely to be found any
where if the great mass of her population are
reduced to misery, dependence, and depravity.
The accumulation of riches with a few corrupts
and enervates their minds no less than the ab-
ject' poverty of the many drives them to the com-
mission of violence and crime. The increase of
the habit of theft among our rural population,
arising from want, is rapidly reducing the once
manly and honest peasantry of England to the
degraded level of those despised people of some
I Continental States, who are lost to all feelings of
decent and moral pride. Why should we won-
der that our gaols should be crowded with crimi-
nals when the English labourer, in many parts
of the country, fares worse than the common
felon ? It was stated at the Berkshire Sessions
that the labourer who was obliged to apply to
the Overseer for relief was reduced to the ne-
cessity of subsisting on the amount of two half-
peck leaves of second-best flour per week,which,
when at one and sixpence each, amounted to
only three shillings ! Besides the three shil-
lings, on which he was doomed to subsist, or
rather to starve, one and sixpence each is allow-
ed for his wife and family per week, making
seven shillings and sixpence in all, from which
a man and his wire and two children were ex-
pected to derive their support. Who can
be surprised that people so circumstanced
are stimulated by the sting of such bit-
ter poverty to commit theft, and other
crimes, the prosecution of which costs the
county, in law expences, more than is saved by
the parsimony of the allowance ? While the
price of two half-peck loaves of second-best
flour is the pittance of the poor agricultural la-
bourer, who has as yet done nothing to forfeit
his character for honesty or industrious habits,
the amount of allowance for each felon in the
gaol and houses of correction at Abingdon and
Reading is 3s. Id. per week when doing no
work, and 3s.- 6d. when at work, besides cloth-
ing, bedding, and fuel, provided for them at an
annual expence of 3/. per head ; also medical
assistance when requisite : and not having to
pay out of this allowance, like the poor cottager,
a shilling a week at least for lodging. Thus is
England reduced to that state when her felons
are better provided for than her hardy and ho-
nest agricultural labourers, and the accommoda-
tions of the gaol are superior to the comforts of
the cottage ! This is a picture for the " politi-
cal economists" to contemplate. Here may they
recognize much of their own work—the "
capi-
tai" in few hands, and poverty every where—
the rich heartless, the poor degraded—the pro-
duce of the plough and the loom filling the mar-
kets, where only purchasers are wanting—while
mechanical science advances and morality decays,.
—MO I'll ing Herald.

DISTREiSED STATE OF THE LABOURERS IN IIUS-

BANDRY.

At the Berkshire Quarter Sessions, held at
Abingdon, a discussion took place (though not in
open Court) touching the general depression of
agriculture, originating from what had passed at a
meeting held some weeks previous thereto, at Ils-
ley, in order to promote and encourage the use and
wear of British wool ; the main difference of opi-
nion with regard to which was, whether, as the
members of that meeting had resolved to wear no
other woollen clothes than what were composed
wholly of the growth of this country, it would be
a means of encouraging British wool. After this
subject had been discussed for some time, Mr.
Green, who for many years has carried on farming
on a very extensive scale, both in this county and
Hampshire, was called on for his opinion of the
general state of those concerned in every branch of
agriculture, which he most pathetically depicted as
deplorable, especially than of the labourers in hus-
bandry ; the amelioration of whose state he parti-
cularly recommended to the consideration of his
brother Magistrates, and the Chairman, the elder
Member of our county; when it was observed, and
pressed upon the attention of the Magistrates pre-
sent, that the amount of their allowance for each
prisoner in their gaol and houses of correc-1
tion there, and at Reading, when doing no
work, was 3s. id. per week, and for those at
work 3s. 6d.; all of whom had clothing, bed-
ding, and fuel, provided for them, amount-
ing annnlly, per head, to 3/.; besides medical
assistance when necessary ; and that these allow-
ances could not be reduced without danger to their
health, as advised by the surgeons of the establish-
ments. But, on the contrary, when the labourer
happened to be out of work, and obliged to apply to
his overseer for assistance, he was reduced to the
necessity of subsisting on the amount of two half-
pack loaves, of second•best flour (which, when at
Is. 6d., amounted only to 3s. per week for himself),
and Is. 6d. each for his wife and family, out of
which he, perhaps, might have to pay weekly for his
cottage Is., or otherwise submit to have another
family put in with him, or go to the paor.house, in-
stead of being allowed 4s. per week as formelly.
When a relief table, established by the Justices of
the County, in 1795, and for several years after
acted upon, was the rule of relief, a man with a fa-
mily was allowed is, more than tite amount of the
two half-peck loaves; whereas now the amourtt of
the loaves, :34. is the general amount of the
reducing the labourer to less than the prisoner for
felony. So that, while the poor raun has been taken
down in his parochial allowance from 3s. to 25., the
soldier, on a footing with whom the labourer Sias
pieced, and whose daily pay in 1795 did not exceed
7d. per day, has been raised to 14d. The Re-
viewers in the quarterly of July last, in noticing
the work of Mr. Sadler, on Ireland, its evils
and their remedies, say, " Posterity will scarcely
credit the extent to which the popular feeling of the
country has been worked upon and warped by the
ins scant ravings of some of our modern economists.
They truly have dune all that in them lay to ex•
tinguish in the bosoms et" the more opulent classes
every spark of generous and benei,oleot compassion
towarAs the destitute and needy pauper. In deer
eyes pauperism is a crime, for which nothing short
of absolute starvation can form an adequate punish-
ment. Hence the poor laws of this country have
been held up to the world ee deserving of every re-
proach, as an infringement upon the laws of nature
and of God! which, according to their version of
them, doom the destitute pauper to perish for want

r:1 rood. They allege that these laws injure the
feeling 4, and pervert the principles of the rich,
whilst they degrade the poor, for whose benefit they
have been ostensibly established. This being the
; 1:2-,In in which the English Poor Laws are so con-
; stantly represented, it is not to be wondered at that
. the Irish landlords should dread the appoach of
what the French (forming their opinion upon
..this
subject from the lectures of our long-winded, It not
long-headed, philosoj h rs) have denominated a
greater evil than the National Debt.";