Star.
London, England, 1817-04-09 00:00:00

mechanism must be rendered subservient, Instead of
being applied at present to supersede it."
To conduct a change so important. and of such
Vital necessity to our well-being, demands a comm.
behave view, and an accurate knowledge of the real
state of society.
The measure should be well considered with re.
spect to its present bearings and connexions, and its
consequences traced by minds uninfluenced by pre-
• jodices of party or of class.
The circumstances of the times render a change
in our internal polity respecting the poor and work-
ing classes absolutely necessary ; And the first ques-
tion to be decided by every man of all rinks is, shall
the alteration be made under the guidance of mode-i
radon and wisdom, foreseeing and gradually pre-
paring each step, one regularly after another, thereby
preventing a single premature advance—or shall the
change be effected by ignorance and prejudice, under
the baleful influence of the angry and violent pas-
sions ? Should these prevail, then will the truly dis-
interested, those whoa* ardent wish is to ameliorate
the condition of mankind, withdraw from the con-
test, and society be involved in confusion. But,
surely, the experience of past ages, and particularly
of the last twenty-five years, will have taught men ,
wisdom, and prepared the minds of all for a calm ,
and dispassionate inquiry—how the evils which' at
present afflict society can best be remedied.
I proceed, therefore, with the subject, and shall i
endeavour to shew in what manner advantageous!
employment can be found for all the poor and work- ,
lag classes, under an arrangement which will permit
mechanical improvement% to be carried to any extant.
Under the existing laws the unemployed working.j
classes are maintained by, and consume part of, the!
property and produce of the wealthy and industrious,
while their powers of body and mind remain unpro-
ductive. They frequently acquire the bad habits
which ignorance and idleness never fail to produce;
they amalgamate with the regular poor, and become
a nuisance to society.
Most of the poor have received bad and Ticions4
habits from their parents; and so long as.the present
treatment continues, those bad and vicious habits
will be transmitted to their childien, and through
them to succeeding generations.
Any plan, then, to ameliorate their condition must
prevent bad and vicious habits from being Wight to
their children, and provide the means by which only
good and useful ones may 1* given to them.
The labour of some individuals is far mere valuable
than that of others ; and this arisen principally from
the training and instruction they receive.
Means should therefore be 'devised to give dial
most useful training and instruction to the children
of the poor.
The same quantity and quality of labour under
one direction, will produce a much more valuable
result than under another.

It is necessary then that the labour of the poor
should be exerted under the best. •
One mode of management as to their expendi.
Lire will create many more advantages and comforts
than another.
• ' Such arrangements should therefore be made in
this department as should produce the largest bene-
fits at the smallest expense.
Most of the vices and misery of the poor arise from
their being placed under circumstances, in which their
apparent interest, and their apparent duty are op-
posed to each other ; and in consequence of their
being surrounded by unnecessary temptations which
they had not been trained to overcome. ,
It would therefore be a material improvement in
the management of the poor; to place them under
sue circumstances as would obviously unite their
real interest and duty, and remove them from unne-
cessary temptation: '
Under this view of the subject. any. plan for the
amelioration of the poor should combine means, to
prevent their children from acquiring bad habits. and
togive them good ones—to provide useful training
. and.inatruction for them—to provide proper labour
for the adults—to direct their labour and expendi.
tare, so as to provide the greatest benefit tn them-
. seises and so society; and to plate them,tdider such
ciriumstances as shall remove them WWI unnecessary
temptations,ind dimly unite theirinterest and duty.
These advantages cannot be gives either to indi-
viduals, or families, separately, or to large congre.
gated numbers.
• 'They can be effectually introduced into practice
only under arrangements that :mould unite in one
establishment a • population of from 500 to 1,500
person, averaging abeam 1,000.
I now sobsek to the Committee the following plan,
founded on the foregoing principles; which, it is pre-
sumed, will combine all the advantages dist- have
been enumerated, add, in progress of time, lead to
many. others of equal importance.
As the seeming novelty of the plan might possibly
induce a hasty or premature decision respecting it on
the part of those who have not had.much prgetical
capering* among the poor, of Who may be ender
the oadoenes of some favourite theory of political
mammy, to which* utight.oear to be ,OPpesedr.
41 beg tweabasit It as the teak of dad* toenail,
among the poor and wmalng chasm* da 'stens)",
seek, for terepty•five years ; and during which the
moot Unceasing attention)** beep directed to'lliteever
the prlMary.eauses of their-poverty and misery ,and
the best menus of providing a remedy for births
A .casual or superficial consWeration of- the plea
now proposed cannot bet' expected to impart a stilt/
chat knowledge of the various bedeficial reanka.et
such a combination; or to form.the mead of mu-
eatable opinion as to its practicability. • ' " • • •
I now beg leave to solicit the **Mks ..arthe
Committee to the drawings and' taptaanaliii which
accompany thig Report. •••
They sue intended to represent isquare of building
sufficient to accommodate about 1200 persons,. and
be surrounded by a quantity of land, from =--- to
.—. acres. Within the square are public buiWings.
which divide it into two parrallelogragas. I.lle can.
tral building cootaint a public kitchen, mess rooms, ,
and all the acCommodation necessary to economical
and comfortable cooking and eating,. To the right ,
of this is a building of which the first floor will form
the infant school, and the other a lecture room and , j
place of worship. • 4 ,
The building to the left contains a school for the . ,
older children and re Committee-room on the first ,
door, above a library and a room for adults: In the I

vacant space within-the square are inclosed grounds
't foe exercise and recreation 1 these indosures to have
trees planted in them. It is intended that three sides
of the square shall be lodging-houses for the married
Poor, consisting of four rooms in each. Each room
to be sufficiently large to accommodate a men, his
wife, and two children. The fourth side is deigned
for dormitories for all the children-exceeding two in
a family, or above three years of age.
In the centre of this site of the square are apart-
ments for those who superintend the dormitories; at
one extremity of it the infirmary, and at the other a
building for- the accommodation of strangers who
may come from a distance to see their friends and
relatives.. In the centres of two sides o( the squares I
are apartments for general superintendents, and in
the third are store rooms, for all the articles required
for the use of the establishment.
„ On the outside and at the back of the houses around
rte spare arc gardens, bounded as the drawings re-
present by roads..
Imusediatfy ;beyond these on one side, are build-
ings for nolchairical and manufacturing purposes,
slaughter-house; &c. separated from the establish-
ment by plantations.
At the other side are offices for washing, bleach-
ing, &c. and at a still greater distance from the
, square are two farming establishments, with conve-
niences for malting, brewing, and corp-mills. etc.
laround these are cultivated inclosures, pasture lands,
&c. the hedge rows of which to be planted with fruit
1 trees. The plan represeuted is on a scale considered
to be sufficient to accommodate about one thousand
two hundred person..
And.these are to be supposed men, women,- and
i children a all ages, capacities, and dispositions; most
of them very ignorant ; many with bad and vicious
habits, possessing only the ordinary bodily and men-
tal faculties of human beings i and who require to
be supported out of the funds appropriated to the
maintenance of the Poor—individuals who are at pre-
sent not only useless and a direct' burthen on the
public, but whose moral influence is highly prrni.
cious, since they are the medium by which ignorance
and certain classes of vicious habits and crimes are
fostered and perpetuated in society.
It is evident, that ediile the poor are suffered to
remain under ise circumstances in which they have
hitherto existed, they, and their children, with very
few exceptions, teal continue unaltered to succeeding
generations.
In order to effect any radically beneficial change in
their character, they must be removed front the in-
fluence of such circunsitances, and placed under those
which, being congenial to the natural constitution
of man, and the well-being of society, cannot fail to
produce that amelioration in their condition, which
all classes have so great an interest in promoting.
Such circumstances, after incessant application to
the subject, I have endeavoured to combine in the
arrangement of the establishment represented in the
drawings, so•far as the present state of society will
permit. These I will now attempt to explain more
particularly.
Each lodging-room is to accommodate a mats, his
wife, and two children under three years of age; aid
to be such as will permit them to have much more
comfort than the dwellings of the poor usually aifwe.
It is intended that the children above three years. of
age should attend the school, eat in the mess-room,
and sleep in the dormitories,- the parents being of
course permitted to see and converse, with them s
meals, and all other propel times. That before they
leave school they shall be well instructed in all ne-
cessary and useful knowledge; that every possible
means should be adOpted to prevent the acquirement
of bad habits, from their parents or otherwise; that
no pains should be spared toimpress upon them sorb
habits and dispositions as may bemost conducive to
their happiness through life, as well as render ahem
useful and valuable members of the community to,
which they belong.
It is proposed that the womep should be employed
in the first place, in the care of their infants,. and in
keeping their dwellings in the best order —2dly, in
cultivating the gardens to raise vegetables for the
supply of the public kitchen—Sdly, in attending to
such of the branches of the various manufactures as
women can well undertake; but not to be employed
more than four or five 'boors in the day-4thly, in
making up clothing for the inmates of the establish-
ment—Sthly, in attending occasionally, and in rota•
tion, in the public kitchen, mess rooms, and dormito-
ries; and, when properly instructed, in superintend-,,1
ins some parts of the education of the children in the
schools.
It is proposed that the elder children should be
trained to assist in gardening and manufacturing fur
a portion of the day, according to their strength.;
and that the men should Se employed, all of them,
in agriculture, and also-in manufactures, or some
other occupation, fur the benefit of the establishment.
The ignorance of the poor, their ill training, and
want of a rational education, make it necessary that
throe of the present generation shoild be actively and
regularly occupied through the day in some essentially
useful work ; yet in such a manner, as that disk em-
ployment should be *healthy and productive. The
plan which has bile despihed will most amply ad.
apt of ihis.-- In ordsietiara• some practical idea of '
the expenses that would be incurred in founding seek
an establishment for 1200 persons, the following items
are submitted :

'RMS Off WJ$$Ll FOR FORMING AN ISTABLISII.
NWT PO& TWILVS NUM= MN, woauts, AND
=ULMER.

It the Lindh. pnrcbastd
1100 Acres el Land, ae alleper Acre , - seali,ooo
Lakin Armaments fee 1,11110 persons - 17,000
'1 brae Piddle Maw wields the Square - 14000
Uswatereery, firSfletairs, and Washing Mute 1,000
iallashlng SOS Masi at AI each - 11,4100
livnieldng Mem, ' and Donnkerles . - gone
"Itesia7llo•l Rololetiolinosge °nth Corn MA MAi .
and lielsoMg Appendages • ' - . - 0,000
Mahlon Ms leterlor of IM keine and Roads - 11,000
block rue the ham ander Spade Cultivation - 4,0111
Contingencies and Rivas . . . - GAM

_-TI

teit#3°6
.Which bring divided by £1,200, gives a capital to
be adianced of £BO per head, or at 5 per cent. per
annum, 44 each per year;
Thus, at so small an expense as a rental of £4
Or bead, may these uartnßloyed poor bc pot into a
condition to Maintain themselves. and, as may be
easily conceived, quickly to reply the capital advari-
ced it thought necessaty.
But, if wit bad be rented, day £BO,OOO capital

would be required. There ere several seetillilphieh
this ptaa may be effected.
It may be arreoniplished by individuals, by parishes,
by countries, by districts, Itc. comprising more coin:
ties than one, and by the nation at large through its
government. Some may prefer one mode, some
another; and it would be advantageous certainly to
have the experience of the greatest variety of parti-
cular modes, in order that the plan which such di.
venified practice should prove to be the best, might
afterwards be generally adopted. It may therefore
be put into execution by any parties, according to
their own localities and views.

The first thing necessary is to raise a sum of money
adequate to purchase the land (or it may be rented)
to build a square, manufactories, farm-houses, and
their appendages, to stock the farm, and provide
every thing to pat the whole in motion.
Proper persons must be procured to superintend
the various departments, until others should betraieed
in the establishment to supply their places.
The labour of the persona admitted may then be
applied to procure a comfortable support for them-
selves and their children, and to repay, as might be
feted, the capital expended on their establishment.
When their labour shall be thus properly and tem-
perately directed, under an intelligent system, easy
of practice, it will soon be found to be more than
sufficient to supply every reasonable want of man.
How wails and useless to acknowledge the truth of the
principle that men may be trained to produce more
than they will consume, unless the means shall be de-
vised by which the principle may be carried into
practice I The period is arrived when it may be caret
advantageously put into practice. And the period it.
also arrived when the state of society imperiously re-
quires the adoption of some measures to relieve the
wealthy and industrious from the increasing burthenk
of the poor's rate, and the poor trout their increasing
misery and degradation.
It is impossible to find language sufficiently strong
to express the inconsikency, as well as the injustice,
of our present proceedings towards Ole poor and work-
ing classes. They are tilt in gross ignorance. They
are permitted to be trained up in habits of vice wind
in the commission of crimes; and, as if purposely to
keep them in ignorance and vice. and goad them on
to commit criminal acts, they are perpetually spr-
roanded with temptations which cannot fail to pro-
duce all those effects.
The system, or rather want of system, which ex-
ists with regard to the management of the poor, has
been emphatically condemned by a long and painful
experience.
The immense sums annually raised for their relief
are lavished in utter disregard of every principle of
public justice or economy. They offer greater reward
or idleness and vice than for industry and virtue;
auJ thus directly operate to increase the degradation
and misery of the classes whom they are designed to
serve. No sum, however enormous, administered
after this manner, could be productive of any other
result : rather will pauperism and wretchedness in.
crease, along with the increase of an expenditure thus
applied.
The poor and unemployed working classes, how-
ever cannot, moat not, be abandoned to their fate,
jest the consequences entail misfortune on us all. In-
stead of being lett as they now are, to the dominion
off ignorance: and to the influence of circumstances
which are fatal to their industry and morals—e situa-
tion in which it is easy to perceive the inefficacy, or
rather** injuriousness of granting than a provision
in k mere pecuniary shape—they .should, on the con-
trary, be afforded the means of procuring a certain
and comfortable subsistence by their labour, under a
system which will not only direct that labour and ks
earnings to the best advantage. but, at the same time,
place them under circumstances the most favourable
to the growth of tweak and of happiness. In shirt,
instead of allowing their habits to proceed under the
worst influence possible, or rather as it were to be left
to chance, thus producing unintentionally crimes that
render necessary the severities of our penal code—e
let a system for the prevention of pauperism and of
crimes be adopted, and the operation of our penal
code will soon be restricted to very narrow limits.
The outlines of such a plan, it is presumed, have
been, however imperfectly, suggestedind sketched
in this Report.
It may be hoped that the Government of thiscoun-
try is now sufficiently alive to the necessity of aban-
doning the principle on which all our legislative mea-
sures on this subject have hitherto proceeded : for no-
thing short of this cut place the Empire in perma-
nent safety. Until the preventive principle shall be-
come the basis of legislative proceedings, it will be
vain to look for any measures beyond partial tempo-
ray expedients, which will leave society unimproved,
or inviilve it in a much worse state.
If such should be the conviction of Government,
the change proposed in the management of the poor
and unemployed working, classes will be much better
directed nationally than ptivately.
In fact, many of the benefits to be derived to so.
eiety at large sill not be realized until the plan be.
dome national.
Should the practical outline, which is now sub-
mitted, be approved., and. engage the attention of
Parliament, the nest consideration would be, in what
manner it may be carried into effect with-the least
loss of time, and without immediate or future injury
to the resources of the country.
The money necessary tor founding Establishments
on the principle of the Plan now proposed, may be
obtained by consolidaties the Funds of son)e of the
Public Charities; by equalizing the rate, and bor-
rowing on their security 40. The Poor, including
those belonging to Public Charities, should be made
national. Hence will arise a superabundance of
funds and labour. The country should be surveyed,
and the best situations for these agricultural and ma-
nufactories establishments be ascertaiced. •
Such as can be the mosteasily procured, in various
parts of the kingdom, should be fairly valued. and
eittrchared by the nation, on perpetual lease, or other-
wise, and be properly laid out by competent persons
for the purposes required. The labour of the poor
and unemployed may be most advantageouily ap-
plied to the execution of every part of the work, under
• Or the toads may be raised by horrowleg of Individual.
who have new a sorplos capital unemployed ; by borrowing from
the Sinking Fund; er br any other Guancial arrangement that
may be deemed preferable. The establishment* rapidly increasing
in vales by the labour ut the Individuals on the lands will soon
become a sulkient security for a large proportion of the nuoiey
that any be expended la on mhos%

'the direction of proper-persons appointed to sui
tend the various departments.
Nothing new would be required ; all that could
wanted is in daily practice all over the kingdom.
The land and houses would not only possess ?it(
original• worth, but as the plan advanced, both W -.11
materially increase in value, and all the districts ,
the neighbourhoods of these communitie. would p
take of the general amelioration which they could
not fail to introduce in a very extensive degree.
When these arrangements shall be adopted ar,J
carried into execution—and sooner or liter they n,u,t
be—in order to permanently relieve the national dn.
tresses, new end extraordinary consequences will
follow. The real value of the land and lab-uts
rise, while all the productions of land anJ lab( ur w :I
fall; mechanism will be of more extensive worth 4,1,;
benefit to society; every encouragement L,
given to its extension, and its extension
ad infinitsim, but only in aid of, and not in coayezizi‘a
with, human labour.

A summary of the advantages to be derived f,rm
the execution of such a plan may be presented
the following heads:-
4. Estpwisire as such a system for the unemployed ploy any
appear to a superficial observer, it will be Mumd on mature la.
♦estiption, by those who tndere*and all the l 011) quencrt of mat
a combination, to be by far the most tcmomlcal that ba. Itt
been devised.

L Many of the unemployed poor are now in a stat: of r-iss
ignorance, and have been trained in bad h tbi r—eons,
underthe present system, are likoly to contmue for end:.,.
rations. The arrangements rropored (ler the most
in a manner gratffying to all the parties insert-Led, and s. even
Mind mind, of overcoming bath their ignorance and their unit
habits, in one generation.
S The greatest evils In satiety arise from onitikind
tidined in prindples of disunion. The proposed rat agree nary
to Mite men in the pursuit of common objects rt,r their mutual
benefit, by presenting an easy practicable pl.t a for gradmillt w.th.
dirliwing the must-s 01. difference among intlividuats, and of .nik•
ing their interest and duty very gen rally the sam..
4. This system will aka afford, the most simple al,' ff.e.431
means of giving the brit habits and senfintents to all ;rti
of 'the unemployed poor, according as society shall he eh,. to
determine what habits and sentiments, or what diameter, iseg t
10 be given to them.
_ _

5. It will likewise offer the most powerful means of inior.iy-
log the habits and general conduct of the present unen4loy,,l
adult poor, who have beets grossly neglected by society from ti.cr
infancy. • _ _ _

11. owjng to the peculiar arrangement of the plan, it will give
to the poor, in return for their labour, more valuable, ►ubstan.
IW, and permanent comfort, than they have ever yet been able
to obtain.
. 7. In one generation it will supersede the necessity for poor
ryes, or any pecuniary gifts of charity, by preventing any one
from being poor, or subject to such unnecessary drgra Leon.
S. It will offer the means of gradually increasing the
don of such unpopulous districts of Europe and America as may
be deemed necesaary, and of enabling a much greater poi•.ulaticra
to soloist In comfort on a given spot, if requisite, than existed
before; in short, of increasing the strength and political ;omit
of the country in which it shall be adopted, more than tenfold,
9. It is so easy, that It may be put into practice with let
lity and nankin than are necessary to estalitth a new manefttc.
tavola a new situation. Many individuals of ordinary taints
have fanned establishments which possess cunibinstions ranch
tastes crimple& ld fact, there would not be any thing requital
which is not dolly performed In common society, and whites,
der the proposed arrangement, might not be much more racy
aecomplished.
10. It will effectually relieve the manufacterlog and labour:mg
Poor from their present deep distress, without violently or pre.
seater* interfering with the existing Institutions of society.
11. It will permit mechanical inventions and improvements to
be carried to any extent. for by the proposed arrangement every
iwovensent in mechanism would be rendered subearvient to,
sad In aid of. human labour.
lab, and lastly. Every port propriety would be essentially be-
nelked by this'ehange In the condition of the poor. Some Oa,
(vended oa mei pHnelphe as have boo developed herein, ap-
point alosohneby necessary to secure that well-being of society ; al
wall as so prevent the adliktlng optetsele of thousands pining to
want, and eneldot a sqierabondanee of means, to well.traht, ens.
ate, employ, and support in comfort, a population of at least four
times the present numbers.

THE EVENING STAR.

\

LONDON.

- 7

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 9, 1817.
!RICE OF STOCKS THIS DAY AT TWELVE O'CLOCK;
Reduced 'MO 73 ex. dlv.-4 per Cent. Si ea die.
3 per Cent. Navy, 1033 f —lndia Sends 63 63 pr.
Cou. meaty, 73ef—for see. 74—for May 74
Exelbesser 144. to las. prem.

It is now reported, with great confidence, that it
has. at length been resolved by Ministers to propose
a Tax of twenty per cent. upon the property of all
Absentees. Such a measure would certainly be a
popular one i nor do we see any solid objections that
could be proposed against it. There may, however,
be some that have not occurred to us.

The gloss attempted to be put upon the quarterly
statement of the Revenue and the charges upon it,
by an over-officious Journal, has become the subject
of general reprehension. Every friend to his country
would rejoice to see the income once more exceeding
the expenditure of the country ; especially if levita
without pressing too severely on the necessaries, nnt
to say the comforts, of the community. But svil.rt
end can be gained by dituising for a day a fact
which no artifice can conceal for forty-eight hours
Whecan be served by such an imposition but stock-
jobbing speculators, to whose operations the false-
hoods of even a single hourmay be made subservient.'

The statement alluded to, which would have been
fallacious in its conclusions, even if its items had been
correct, was erroneous in the latter to no less as
amount than £838,90 ; for it is admitted, that the
Land Taxes (read Land Tax) of the first quarter of

1817 should have been stated at £154,550, and the
£993,493, which stood tinder that head, should have
been entitled, as we supposed it should, ifrreart cf
PropertyTaxl This we did, and do consider as a rwi.•
take ; but the conclusions were not mistakes, but
fallacies, pronounced as" most important" proefs () a
large surplus, and as' the best answer to all cro.dcers.'t
Taken as an illustration of the present state of the
country compared with that of last year, to Vt!l3t a
different result are we led from the one intended by
the writer ! Some war-taxes now rendered permAr.c.:t
(the amount of which is still not si ,ciried) are tales
in tinder the head of Customs, to lw compared with
the sum under that head in another )ear, sr4rl
those taxer, a: thes temporary. xo:re not r::Lreyli
—Maly st million is brought in, as arrears of Pic,-