The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-06-29 00:00:00

THE NEW POOR LAW.

The following extract is taken from a note of Mr. M'Culloch
to his new edition of Adam Smith's Wealthy' Nations:—
" The influence of the pool- law amendment act in a political
point of view seems to be of the most unfavourable description.
Formerly the poor of England were split into as many distinct
divisions as there are parishes in the kingdom. In regard to
ti
all matters 'elating to the poor, each parish was a separate an
independent community, so that if the pour in any particular
parish believed themselves to be aggrieved, it was their own
affair; it interested no one else, and they were lett to settle it
i as they best could with their own parochial authorities. But
now the case is altogether different. Local divisions have been
substantially obliterated; the poor have been reduced into one
huge mass, and are treated on an uniform plan, digested ltv the
central board, and approved by the Secretary of State. What-
ever, therefore may in future concern the poor of one district
must equally concern those of every other district. And in-
stead of petty parish squabbles, Government it now made re.
sponsible for any harshness and cruelty with which the
poor may: .be treated, and will every now and then be
brought into conflict with them. It is not easy to exaggerate
the mischievous consequences of such a state of things.
Certainly, however, it requires no peculiar sagacity to fore-
see that no Government will willingly encounter the wide-
spread unpopularity that must be the consequence of its
invariably opposing the pretensions of the Tamper class, and '
that the severity of the law will be gradually weakened.
The eulogists of this law were absurd enough to talk at its out-
set of its extirpating pauperism. But we may be pretty well
assured that the poor will never cease out of the land; and the
fair presumption is,-that the existing law will, in the end, in-
erease the rates in no ordinant degree. Suppose we were visited
with a season like 1770 or 18W, or that prices were so high, and
1 manufactures as depressed as in 1812, and reflect what a state
we should be in under the present law. It may answer tolerably
with low prices and a brisk demand for labour. But how isf
government to deal with 1,000,000 paupers in a year ofscarcity,
all ascribing their misery to its regulations, and charging it with
inhumanity, and every thing most hostile to the sympathies and
feelings of the public? It is idle to depend on the middle and
wealthier classes for support in an emergency of this sort. 'rhe
Poor Law Amendment Act was, no doubt, passed mainly in the
view of promoting their interests; but the chances are that they
will gradually become more and more disgusted with it. Few
men like to be treated as simpletons incapable of managing
their own affairs; this, however, is the precise point of view in
which the Poor Law Amendment Act regards the landlords
and the respectable classes generally. It proceeds on the prin-
ciple that they are incapable of doing that which every Kirk
session in Scotland is admitted to do admirably well. Even the
boards of guardians it has created have no real power, and are,
in fact, mere tools employed to carry into effect the orders of
the central board. We du not think so ill of the people of Eng-
land as to suppose that a law founded on such false and insulting
assumptions can be permanently popular with any considerable
class of persons.
"The large majorities which supported the Poor Law Amend-
ment Act in Parliament prove, it has been said, that its provi-
sions were well considered and judicious! Such majorities
form, however, but a slender presumption in favour of the po-
licy of any measure. The collective wisdom of the nation has
always had a marvellous sympathy with its collective folly.
There is hardly; in fact, any nostrum so pernicious, or delusion
or quackery so gross, as nut to have met with the approval of
Parliament. Take all instance in our own times—that of the
sinking fund. To attempt to pay off debt by borrowing money
is now admitted on all hands to be a contradiction and an ali-
surdity; and yet the sinking fund was maintained for more
than twenty years on this so-called principle ; and during this
hseor much.. as a dissentient voice,
lengthened period, every public man
anidif
iewytehryelitical party
was eulogizing this wretched juggle,houses of Par-
liamenttiera change of opinion similar
to cturepiitr: passed
inviolability
iwtyi t. h o_rwr t
to what has taken place respecting the sinking fund will take
pce respecting the
, , l). oor Law Amendment Act, remains to be
seen. B
opinion, how wrong soever in its first
estimate of a measure, gets generally sound in the
lathe
!maw
end; and it
we be right in considering the measure founded on entirely
false principles, and as being pregnant with the must mischie-
vous consequences to all classes, we may anticipate that its fate
will n& differ materially from that of the sinking fund."

We understand that Viscount Milton, eldest son r,f Earl
Fitawilliam, will shortly lead to the hymeneal altar the LAY
Frances Douglas, daughter of the Earl of Morton.—Doncaster
• SAvaGr..—The Laughing .ilyena is the title of a new paper
recently commenced in Texas.—New York Mirror.
VESSEL SUNK OFT LYTHAM[.—MELANCHOLY Loss or LICK.
—On Tuesday morning, the 19th inst., between six and seven
o'clock, the fishing smack Good Intent, of North M cols, Wright,
master, was on her homeward course with her cargo, when,
having reached about the sixth Buoy, in the North West Chan-
nel from Lytham, the wind blew a tremendous gale, and the
unfortunate vessel was seen to labour much, No pump was on
board, and the crew bailed the water out or her with bucket t,
whet) she suddenly went down, and, melancholy to relate, all
hands on board (three in nionbet) perished. After the lapse
of a short time, the ill-fated vessel ,A as driven by the boisterous
waves then rolling to the shore near to Qross Slack, where she
now lies, much 'damaged. Two of the crew have left families to
lament their untimely fate; the other was a single man. There
_.
le, we understandteyery proibliOlf.of tloe yef!,i4,heinc,,, got ott