Star.
London, England, 1831-02-28 00:00:00

WHY AND BECAUSE.—.No. 11.

N IMITATION OP THE POPULAR LITTLE WORK OP
THE REV. D. BLAIR.
WHY are there so many very poor and destitute ?
BECAUSE there are many that have accumulated greater
wealth than they are able or willing to spend.
WHY cannot some be very rich, without making a great
tinny very poor?
BECAUSE there is only a certain quantity of money and
property in a country, and if a few accumulate large masses,
there is less to divide among the many, and some therefore
mutt be quite destitute.
Wily does wealth tend to accumulate ?
BECAUSE, if a man have more than he can spend, or has
the spirit to spend, his overplus capital at common interest
doubles every 14 years, and if employed in legitimate usury,
it doubles every eight or ten years.
WHY does one degree of poverty lead to a greater?
BECAUSE he who has no capital buys at a disadvantage,
deals at a disadvantage, and is taken advantage of by every
body.
_ _

it v does not the law protect the transactions of poverty?
BECAUSE it is not made for the poor, nor accessible to
any but those who have spare capital. Wrongs must, there-
fore. be borne by those who have not hundreds to hazard in
the lottery of law-suits.
Wily has poverty so much increased of late years ?
BECAUSE loans, contracts, interest of public debts, ex-
chequer bills, and mortgages, have afforded such profitable
employment to capital, that none is adventured on enter-
prizes of industry, hence wealth augments in few hands,and
the mass of the people become poorer every year.
v are labourers so wretched, and work-houses so
filled ?

Bec A VSE for many years the wages of labour have borne
a continually decreasing proportion to the prices of wheat.
fill within these 50 or 60 years labourers for the previous 800
years received the 20th of a quarter of wheat per day, it
then fell to a 30th, and latterly has been only a 40th, or even
less. Hence labourers pass their prime in privation, and in
their old age or sickness have no resource but the work-
house.

WH y has not labour maintained its usual price ?
BECAUSE about 60 years ago when the " Deserted Vil-
lage" was written by Goldsmith, the system began of de-
stroying villages and farm-houses, and uniting many farms
in one for the sake of high rents from speculative oc-
cupiers. This system continued to progress and
even to increase for above 40 years, by which little
farmers were converted into labourers, while increased pas-
ture and new machinery rendered fewer than even the usual
number of labourers necessary.
WHY was such a system tolerated by parliament?
BECAUSE the landed influence predominated; and instead
of the public good being the supreme law, the private good
was made the supreme law.

WII Y were nut efforts made to correct so vicious a system ?
BECAUSE the votes of the land proprietors were required
by the Minister to support a general war of the European
Courts, against the liberties of France, and facilities to raise
rents, and engross farms, were part of their recompence.
Wtty is it not now corrected, seeing that it has created
such great mischiefs ?

BECAUSE every cause of wealth and power finds willing
advocates, who can male the worse appear the better cause;
or who can distract the public councils by theories and asser-
tions leading to a similar confusion of tongues to that which
prevailed at Babel.

Wednesday night, O'Gorman Mahon presented a petition
from Stephen Fitzgerald, who bad been transported under the Insur.
rection Act. The hon. gentleman stated the nature of this Algerine
Act tee be similar to the Norman Curfew, es It forbade Itisimien to
breathe the air after eight o'clock, and if found beyond the threshold
after that hour, they may be seized by any in authority, and imprisoned
or expatriated by sentence of a special commission, that is, by the opi-
nion of a judge, without jury or appeaL The promulgation of this act
happened in 1823, on a Saturday ;—on Sunday petitioner surrendered
the arms entrusted to him by a magistrate ; on Monday he attended a
fair, and returning in company with,his brother and other persons. fear-
ing they should not reach home before the time specified in the proclama-
tion, they were about to stop at a friend's house, when Mr. Studdart, to
whom they were personally known, overtook them, and said they might
proceed,as be would procure them an order to pass unmolested. The
brothers accordingly proceeded in company with him ; but on arriving',
at the military station, they were all seized by the guard, and brought
before Major Warburicn, who discharged Air. S. but detained the Fitz.
geralds, notwithstanding Mr. S. stated the facts, and solicited their libe-
ration. The prisoners were detained in custody, without being even per.
mittcd to see their friends ; and on the following Wednesday they were
brought before the special commission Judge Torrent presided. Mr.
Studdart again protested their innocence, and implored their libera-
tion. 31ajur IV.trburton requested the prisoners to inform him of
the pings of a secret committee, with which they declared them.
selves unacquainted. He is said to have sworn, "by the Immortal
Gon, you shall travel ;" and accordingly, without further ceremony,
they were sentenced, by the Bat of a special commissim, to seven years'
transportation, and instantly sent in a cart to the transport hulk The
Fitsgeralds were the only support of an aged mother, who has since
lingered ins state of the utmost destitution. Who does not shudder at
this detail, who would hesitate to grant to Ireland a domesic legisla-
ture, to investigate her grievances, and prevent the recurrence of such
barbarity ? One of the Fitageralds has now returned from Botany Bay,
after seven years' exile, so claim redress from Parliament—friskiness.