The Sun.
London, England, 1827-10-04 00:00:00

2.-ENGLAND.

Four witnesses were examined by the Committee
of 1826, respecting the state of the pauper population
in parts of England. Your Committee have
examined on this subject, during the present Session,
twenty-two witnesses, including the Bishop of Ches-
ter ansl Mr. Hyett, who belong to the Committee
for the relief of distressed manufacturers; Mr. Bur-
rell, a member of your Committee, and an extensive
proprietor in Sussex, where the evils of a redundant
population appear to exist in a most remarkable de-
gree ; and several landed proprietors, clergymen,
manufacturers, and overseers of the poor. Four of
these witnesses were examined with a view of ascer-
taining whether the waste lands afford an opportu-
nity for the employment of the pauper population,
involving the certainty of a return ; and their evi-
dence has not impressed your Committee with the
opinion that such would be the result. It was ad-
mitted, that as far as the direct expence was con-
cerned, the location of the poor on the waste lands
at home could net be effected upon terms equally
cheap as those under which their emigration might
be effected. Mr. Malthus also is of opinion, that
the cultivation of poor lands at home, undertaken
merely for the purpose of employing the people,
would end necessarily in failure, and would rather
aggravate than diminish the difficulties arising from
over population. It may not be superfluous to add,
that objections equally strong exist to the employment
of paupers on public works, with the public money,
in cases where such works-would not have been
undertaken, except for the special purpose of thus
employing the population.
The counties to which the evidence refers are—
Sussex, Kent, Cheshire, Northamptonshire,
,o Buck-
inghamshire, Surrey, Middlesex, Lancashire, Suffolk,
' ttiViamshire and Cumberland.—The overseers
of vanotus English parishes who have been examined
before your Committee, were all prepared to admit
that the removal of a redundant pauper family was
a solid advantage to the parish, to be estimated at no
less than a awn, 25/, even if that family had
been partially
of
had been employed, so long as some other family
unemployed for the same period during the
preceding year.
They appear to have understood
accurately the force of principle, that partially
employed labourers are often to be considered as re-
dundant thus, for example, if five labourers could

in the year 1828 execute in a certain parish the Mite
amount of work which eight labourers executed' in
the year 18fl; there would be three redinidant
labourers ; and Who probability existed tinit any real
demand for the permerietit annual serViets df those
three redundant labourers would arise, the parish
would train by contributing towards their emigre-
tion,in the proportion between the expence of such
Contribution and the expellee incurred by the parish
for their maintenance. Your Committee, upon this
subject, would more particularly refer to the evi-
dence of Mr. CoSvray, a proprietor in Romney Marsh
and the Weald of Kent. His testimony is to be
round in his answers to the questions numbered from
48'0 to 3894 in the evidence. Mr. •Cosway not
only stated that in the case of eight labourers being
employed only seven-eighths. of the working time
through Out the year; thtrd was one redundant
labourer; afarding to the principles laid down by your
COlninittee, but he also contended that the aggre-
gate Work executed! by those eight men did not re-
present the work which ought to have been effected
by seven labourers, under the circumstance of a satis-
factory adjustment of the supply of labour to the
demand. .

The House will find also that there is a remark-
able concurrence among the English witnesses, as
to the expediency of raising a fund upon the secu-
rity of the poor-rates (on the principle of the money
permitted to be raised under the Act commonly called
Mr. S. Bourne's Act) for the purpose of contributing
towards the expense of removing redundant paupers
by emigration. A suggestion was offered by Mr.
Conway, that in the event of parishes being allowed
to mortgage their rates for the purpose of contribu-
tion towards emigration, upon the principle esta-
blished with respect to the building of poor-houses,
in the Act referred to, such'parish-es would be dis-
posed to avail themselves of the facility, provided
they were released from any legal claim on the part
of the emigrant pauper, in the event of his return
to his original settlement. Mr. Malthus is of
opinion that parishes in England would act pru- '
dently as regards their interest, in charging their
poor-rates for the purpose of raising a fond to pro-
more emigration, and that even a national tax would
be justifiable for that purpose, if a bare probability
existed of the vacuum not being filled up. Mr.
Cosway also suggested that it would be expedient
to enact a law allowing parishes to impose a tax
on any future cottages to be built in each parish, the
proceeds of such tax to merge in the general poor-
rate of the parish. He is of opinion that if there were
a real demand for labour in such a parish, there
would be no disposition on the part of the rate-
payers to impose any tax on such cottages. On the
contrary, if private speculation and individual inte-
rest contemplated the erection of cottages, for the
mere purpose of obtaining rent from them, without
any consideration of the real demand for labour, Mr.
Cosway considers that the power of self-taxation,
on the principles suggested by him, would inter-
pose a convenient and salutary check. Your Com-
mittee think these suggestions well worthy the at-
tention of the House, although they do not presume
to offer any definitive opinion on tie propriety of
their adoption.
The House will find that all the witnesses concur
in opinion, that the greatest practical improvement
of the poor-rate system is involved in the disconti-
nuance of relief to able-bodied paupers; and your
Committee are of opinion, that such discontinuance
will be rendered more practicable by the introduc-
tion of a system of regulated emigration, than by
any other measure.
On this subject, the questions numbered from
3,252 to 3,257, were put to Mr. Malthus :
" If in England, where a system of poor-rates exists,
redundant labourers were to be removed by emigration, and
it were to be demonstrated that under the terms of such re •
moval their condition was highly improved in the country
to which they were sent, might not the system of relieving
able-bodied men, which his grown up, as many contend,
contrary to the spirit of the law, be gradually extinguished,
to the extreme advantage of the administration of the poor-

.•
laws in England ?—lt certainly might.
"Do you not consider, that under these circumstances
an effectual remedy would be laid for the prevention of a
disproportionate population in future ?—lf, at the same
time, as suggested with regard to Ireland, the kouses of
those who emigrated were pulled clown, I think then there
might be something like an effectual remedy.
"Does any other practical remedy, present itself to you,
as desirable of being introduced into this country, with
tespect to the filling up of any vacuum occasioned by emi-
gration?—Nn other occurs to me, except the one I myself
proposed a long while ago, that those that were born after
a certain time should not be allowed to have any parish

assistance.
"If parochial assistance were rigidly and invariably
limited to the support of the aged and infirm, or of chil-
dren, and universally denied to able-bodied men who have
no opportunity of working, do you think the existence of a
well-regulated poor-rate under such restrictions would he
prejudicial to the country ?—Perhaps not; but it appears
to be difficult always to restrict it in that way.
Admitting, for the sake of the proposition, that poor's-
rates were judiciously administered under such limitations,
are you of opinion that a pocir's- rate might not be inexpe-
dient ?--At any rate it would be a great improvement, as
compared with the present mode of administration.
" If a system of emigration could be adopted with benefit
to the labourer emigrating, do you not think that it might
justify the enactment of a positive law, removing all claims
on the part of an able-bodied pauper for assistance or for
work, under circumstances of his being in a state of desti-
tution?—As I should say so independently of the question
of emigration, I must say so still more strongly when
coupled with the remedy proposed."
Your Committee .cannot express too strong an
opinion against the idea of regulating, by legislation,
the rate of wages under any conceivable modifica-
tion. t A distinction, however, exists, between an
agricultural and a manufacturing population. The
demand.for the labour of the former is more or less
equal from year to year, involving a comparative
equality of wages for certain periods ; while that of
the latter may at 3..ny moment be materially lower-
ed by the circumstance of the introduction of new
machinery displacing manual labour, or by a dimi-
nution of demand in the home or foreign market.—
On the other hand, those wages may be raised by a
converse increase of demand, arising from an infi-
nite variety of causes, many of which cannot be an-
ticipated with any degree of certainty.
Your Committee are therefore of opinion, that
every endeavour should be made to impress on the
mind of the artisan, that he must himself, for his
own individual interest, carry into effect that prac-
tical equalization of wages, which is absolutely im-
possible to be effected ,by any legislative arrange-
ment, or by any agreement between the capitalists
and himself. It is the condition of his occupation
to oscillate between the two alternate extremes of
high and low wages, from the causes already assigned.
If, at the period of high wages, he does not create a
fund which is to meet the alternation of low wages,
he can have no justifiable cause of complaint when
he suffers the inconveniences of poverty and desti-
tution from the effect of an alternation which it is
not possible to avoid, and from the prejudicial results
of which his own prudence might have protected him.
At all events, when the truth is sufficiently under-
stood to leave no doubt of its import and bearing, the
conviction cannot fail to he produced, not only in the
minds of the manufacturers, but in that of the pub-
lic, that the distress which might have been averted
by prudence is not a distresi which can require any
special exercise of private charity, much less of pub-
lic contribution.
Your Committee cannot avoid to observe that in

requiring this exercise of prudence on the part of
the manufacturing classes, no more is expected from
them than what is.carried into practical effect every
hour in many classes of the community. It would
undoubtedly be an encroachment upon the free
agency of any person, in any condition of life, to
prescribe to him the extent of his expenditure aris-
ing out of his current income ; but no complaint can
exist upon the part of persons (to whatever class
they may belong) who neglect to avail themselves
of the application of so simple and necessary a
principle.
The operation of the poor-rates has tended mate-
rially to prevent the exercise of this particular sort of
prudence. The artisan has considered that he had a
perfect right to expend his wages when they were

highs without making a• provision tor the tnture,
inasmuch as the parish was bound to support him
Whenever the alternation of di§trees Might arise; If
the real eirctinnttances of their situation Were pub-.
licly and diligently impressed upon the minds of ar-
tisans, manufacturing parishes would be relieved at
an early period from the necessity of doing more than
contributing the very minimum of subsistence to all
paupers, whose neglect of prudential caution had
compelled them to depend solely upon parish assist-
ance at the period of slackened demandand depressed

wages.
Your Committee, therefore, from these considera-
tions, feel themselves warranted in concluding, that
a system of emigration might be applicable to there;
lief of overpeopled parishes in England, in which
some security may be offered against a recurrence of
the evil. This security is to be looked for in the
well-understood interest of the rate-payer, in the
greater number of parishes, purely agricultural; but
in the manufacturing districts and larger towns,
where the interest of the majority of rate-payers is
Merged in that of the proprietors of an inferior class
of houses, and of individuals interested in the low
Wages of labour, a slighter security exists for the
Voluntary prevention of the evils of over-population,
as emigration would have a tendency, for the mo-
ment, to raise wages and lower rents.