The Statesman.
London, England, 1821-06-06 00:00:00

to the

WO are

The Poor Laws which were designed for the relief
and benefit of the public generally, us well as of that
particular class from whom they derive their name,
have become the occasion of such numerous and in-
toierablo abases, that we do not wonder at the attempts
that are made from time to time to rectify them. We
are aware that they are often perverted from their
original purpose, both by those who have recourse to
them, and by those who have their management.—
We are conscious, too, from this mismanagement they
Dila to relax that reliance upon self-exertion and eco-
non which every one in narrow circumstances ought
to cultivate; and encourage an improvident de-
pendance on external aid. But though the poor may
thus he made to multiply " from what they feed on,"
there are other circumstances that have combined to
cause the great increase of paupers that is now tiee
subject of general complaint ; and eircunsetasaces that
are independent of the poor and of the system. The
feet is, the country is involved in distress by excessive
taxation, and if instead of diminishing the weight of
this, attempts are made to relieve one part of society
by the depression of another, the greatest confusion
and mischief must ensue. We, therefore, not long
sluice, expressed oar wish that the country would de-I
liberate upon the nature and tendency of the measure
lately introduced into Parliament with a view to the
amendment of the Poor Laws; and this we did from a
conviction that its provisions would be found inadm
grate to the end proposed, and its operation' pernicioel
to many districts of the country it professed to relieve.
We are happy to find that the attention of the public
in such party of the country as those to which we re-
ferred, had begun to be aroused; and we willingly give
place to the reflections it has occasioned. The fol-
lowing are from a large manufacturing city—the city
of Nnrwie!s."
The momentous subject of the Poor Laws is again
about to come under discussion, and the few princi-
ples involved in Mr. Searlett's Bill will probably
bring on a general examination. The measure in con-
templation is so palpably absurd and the consequences
to he apprehended so dreadful to the individual and
PO mischievous to society, that we cannot persuade
ourselves the House will consent to the adoption of
an experiment which ought to have for its preamble,l
" a Worm, for the promotion of suicide, rapine, and
rebellion."
Mr. Scarlett proposes to enact—first, that no sum
of greater atnount than the rate of a year (probably the
last) to be named, shall in future be levied on any
place ; and secondly that no single able bodied man
shall be entitled to obtain relief.
Ily such propositions it appears to us that the lion.
blember has not eoateinplated in their proper light
either the causes or the effects, for he treats pauperism
as if it were created by wilful idleness, not by desti-
tution of employasent. Now the cause, the great pre-
vailing cause which constitutes the rule, is not wilful
idleness, but the falling away of work either from tem-
prirary or Listing mutations in the state of society.
The entire occupations of a manufacturing town are
often stopped for a time, and for a long time, by a
sudden decrease of demand, by a change from peace
to n ar, orleivo permanently by the caprice of fashion.
as has been seen in the buckle and buttou making traees.
Even in agriculture something approaching to this
stoppage is of recent occurrence. The labours of rural
industry are palsied by agricultural depression, and
that steration which formerly was peculiar to mann•
facture is now felt by country labourers. Without
advocating natural rights, we may safely aver that
a man mast and will be (ed_whitever may be the
penenee. hunger. (that will " break through stone
Bails.") will set it at definite; and where sustenance
cannot be obtained honeetly, there is the strongest
resson to be assured that it will be obtained disho-
nestly or forcefully.
We will then suppose the case of a young strong
healthy man, (and it is one which is not far sought,)
who Las no work and no relief. It is now pretty well
agreed, and indeed proved by the rates levied—that
al ;lost every parish is overstocked with labourers.—
This young man proceeds for three days from place to
place and finds neither work nor food. What will he do?
out /se do f Steal. lie has no other alternative,
and there cannot remain the shadow ofa doubt upon any
man's mind, that tare sudden increase of theft and vio-
leece would be tremendous upon the immediate passing
Searlett's Bill.
We may now carry the same reasoning into a large
manufacturing town or district, like Manchester,
Glasgow, or Birmingham. A sudden decrease of de-
mand (which has constantly happened) throws from
IMMO to 100,04)0 persons out of etnployment, and
leaves them actually without the means of sustaining
life for a week. The parish officer is denied the power
of raising a sum beyond an amount greatly below the
necresity of the case, for their relief. What can be
expected from the dire necessities of such starving
lumbers ?—What but insurrection, and insurrectio;
• too for the mere purposes of plunder. They can have
ne alternative but to pledge their scanty provision of
clothes or furniture, and then lay down an-I die. Has
it not been seen repeatedly, over the whole kingdom.
that subscriptions to an immense am unt have been re-
• quialte to support nature, even under the present pro-
. • vision% of the law? How then is it possible to take
atiay•the existing statutes that alone furnish the means
of life th such multitudes, without some regulation to
adjust the degrees of the senorinetee change to be
brought about in society ? The weft mug (Mude of
the sums raised for the poor-rates is in Itself a proof
that the law cannot with safety to society be %sullenlyll
or violently altered, and also that, whenever ate eaten-'
sive alteration is planned, as equivalent in the shape of
employment must be included in the design. Nothing
can be clearer than the fact, that for whatever portion
of the rate abrogated, employment wiestin some shape
be substituted, and we think nothing can be more,
certain than that it isisepossible for the paupers them-
selves to fled immediate employment. 'I he workhouses
wneld therefore only empty themselves into the jails,
which would also be encumbered by a vast proportion
Girdle population, now just preserved from actin
crime by an influence fatal in its tendency indeed, bat
not se directly nor so imperatively destructive of all
moral consiaetations as the principle bfr. Scarlett's
31s11 must necessarily briag latiforce.
It will probably be said that them objections lie so
completely open the sedum, they cannot but have
met lir. %erten°, , and consequently are
&Med by himto be of evens. It may be so. But

we appreriat _
pour a prudential regard to fntnre adversity its time
of prosperity, and of thusenabling theinduotrione man
to lay up a provision during the brighter honrs of
health and employment, against the days of sickness-
or idleness. But a mere declaratory lzyripcur Neither!
propagate nor enforce this salutary pri 44 tomes"',
lion and care. Neither caw it ever bt brae& iota
action, except by the gradual operationW a steady
contemplation of its known results wilier favourable
circumstances. The time is now most entirely unpro-
pitious to such an experiment, except it be (as we con-
tend it must be) coupled with a national scheme of em-
ployment. At this moment, when the contraction of
demand so heavily felt is likely to be pnshed still far-
ther by the reduction of every man's income, and when
as an inevitable consequence of that contraction the
labourer most be thrown out of employment, it is
surely no time to augment the pressure upon the indus-
trious orders. Let Mr. Scarlett compute the compara-
tive numbers of the provided and the unprovideil, and
we thinkfte can but dread the effects of turning so
prodigious a proportion of society loose upon the rest,
an without As means of obtaiiting food, raiment, or
shelter. an look calmly upon
suits of each chyme, his nerves

than those *most retiring men,
inapt however entertain is project,
it Is the consummation of that di
first infatuates and at last ilestroys a
FORi/11GAr
The Appendix to the Report of the House of Lords'
Committee, on the means of extending and securing
the Foreign Trade of the 'pantry, is now ready fur

delivery.
It consists of upwards of 250 pages. Much of the
first portion of the Appendix is taken up with details of
the " East India Company's endeavours to settle, a•id
prosecute trade in the Eastern Islands and other
countries with China," &c. which, bring founded on
" early records," trace the history of these transactions
to 1601.
Under the heal of Cischiss-China, there is a long and
singular narrative of Mr. Chapman's mission thither,
by command of Warren Hastings, Esq. Mr. C. return-
ing with two Mandarins of Cochin-China, whonemcci-
dent had brought to Bengal in Intl. 'I he narrative
is accompanied with a sketch of the geography of the
country, and some particulars of the 'nonusers, customs
and history of the inhabitants. It is a most enter-
taining, and, indeed, a valuable document. It is fol-
lowed by the report of Mr. Roberts's unsuccessful
mission to China, in 1793.
Appendix E. gives a series of instances or disputes
arising from the intercourse of British Sailors with
the Chinese, from 1772 to the present time. Some of
these have alrtatly been noticed ; but we cannot omit
repeating the information contained in the following
paragraph t—ln 1904, the attention of the Conrt was
called to the long established practice of permitting
the seamen of the Company's ships to spend three
days ashore at Canton, " where they are exposed to
Onset practised by the Chinese of mixing their lk)
goon, with ingredients of on irritating and a mirk
dening effect,. causing a state of inebriety more fere'
cious than diat occasioned
.by any other spirit, and
leading to 'Vous scenes of the greatest enormity, and
which tend to keep alive in the minds of the Chinese
the most unfavourable opinion of our character."
The Appendix likewise contains the Correspondence
between the Directors and Mr. Canning on the part of
the India Boar& "on the necessity ofsimante relaxation
of the Company's monopoly of the China trade." " Af-
ter the experience," says Mr. Canning, May 17, 1020,
" of five years of peace, his Majesty's Ministers are
of opinion that in the present state of commercial con-
cerns in this country, it is adviseable to permit British
vessels to return from ports and places within the limits of
the Company's Charter to any country in foreign
Europe, without touching at a British port ; and they
intend to propose to Parliament a Bill for this object.
Under such a permission, British subjects will be at
liberty to brine to foreign linrope the commodities of
India and those of China, with the exception of tea.—
This permission it is in the discretion of Parliament
to grant, without any violation of the compact with the
Company; but it is not to be denied that tea would be a
most desirable article of traffic to those who are likely to
engage in the new trade." It will be recollected that
at the conclusion of the Report, it was stated by the
Committee that they bad been informed by such Mem-
b.irs of the Committee as were connected with his Ma-
jesty's Bovernment, that a Bfll was prepared to be
submitted to Parliament, in the course of last Session.
" for extending the private trade between Intlia and
foreign Europe :" and that such Bill was only post-
poned in consequence of the inquiries depending, con-
, I nected with Asiatic commerce.
in a=alawan===lo

POR TUG URS E MEETING.

A Meeting of the Portuguese residents in London
was held (as stated in yesterday's paper) at tin City
of London Tavern, on Monday, for the purpose of
voting an address of congratulation to Zbe general ex-
traordinary Cortes of the Portuguese nation, and to
the King. Nearly the whole of the Portuguese re-
sidents were present. At one o'clock the chair was
taken by J. F. Pinto, Egg.; and A. J. Freire Marreco,
Req. was appointed honorary secretary to the meeting.
In proposing the addresses, several of the gentlemen
present delivei ell their sentiments on the great re-
volution their country had recently experienced, with
much feeling and manly eloquence. We regret that
our limits preclude even a short transcript of their
speeches. In the address to the Cortes, which was
voted with entire unanimity, we noticed many striking
passagts. but nose more so than an allusion to the
alienation of their rights and liberties, which had been
wrested from them above a century, but which to
them was more bitter than to the rest a their
countrymen, from their residence among a free
people, whose proud station they were in the daily
habit of contrasting with their ow■ fallen con-
dition. But they now, rescued from so long a political
death, ventured to raise their oppressed beads, and to
place them on a level with those from whom they re-
ceived the rites of hospitality. In their address to the
King. which was also voted unaninimisly, they claim
the merit of having, with all doe humility. laid their
repeated representations at the foot of the throne, of

food, raiment, or
Yesterday a wardmote of the inhal
n the practical re- of Aldersgate was lwld for the purl
are far stronger Common Coaocilman its the room ol
i. Shoold ' Paribak4gra‘ed...—Al Cif% took the Chi
we *ball Zdri#lllishiess of IN; la altoppiae
lispensatio ich Mr. Piet**, in rising propose M
nation," didate fur the representation of the o
II
sion to pay a tribute of respect to tli