The Statesman.
London, England, 1820-01-04 00:00:00

NEN' RUSSIAN T.IIIIIT.

This document will be read with great interest
by all perions connected with the commerce of
the North of Europe: and for ourselves, we hail
with sincere plecsure the evid...rce this document
affords of future heneta and encouragement to the
manufactures of Great Britain. Many descriptions
of goods, prohibited by the tariff which is in use at
present, are to b wilted under the new commer-
cial regulation. ••elt4o . ug these are printed cottons,
and chintz, muslin, linen of all kinds, silk and
half-silk manufactmls, and earthen-ware. Our co-
lonial trade, also, is likely to ih.ive material benefit,
from the reduction by one-third of the original duty
on coffee.

Rill er Co-
Roubles. perk•.
Cotton Twist, white and dyed . per pood• 2 50
clYrTom DI tYVFACTIIIIRS.
Unprinted clothi, cambric., fostiaos,
scc.
Muslims and all transparent thin
staffs made of cotton . . . . ditto I PO
3. Printed cottons and rhints . . . . ditto I 40

THREAD EIANCIPACTrRES.
I.inen, table-cloths, &c.
Stockings, gloves, &c ditto 0
!Ace ditt.. 11
Ditto ordinary
Silk ntannfactnres of all descriptions
11411 silk ditto, with rotton or wool .
Silk ditto' with gold or silver . . .
Ilalf silk'ditto, with gold or silver .
Sowing silk . . . ,
Worsted . . . . . . per pond 2

Earthenware •

Bronze
Cloth, under 27 itershock wide, by land . ditto
Ditto, exceeding do. do. and by
water
herseymeres
igonia
I a nnel,baize, gloves, stockings, carpets, ditto 0
lamblets, stamets, moreens, woollen
tape, &c.
Merinos and fine stuffs
I offee
Hew sugar
Refined ditto, in loaves and crushed
Liquors of all kind remain as before.
• The pood is about 901 b. weight.

ON THE POOR I-111N.

so

61)
25
41)

GO
WI
35
20

One of the chronic diseases of the State, o
hick, without a complication of other ills, it must
waste away until death, is the dreadful system of
the Poor Laws. The drain upon the nation's vi-
tality grows worse and worse every day, and it
affects not only the financial economy of the coun-
try, but its morals : a more fatal inroad than the
other. Previous to our taking up the subject more
at large, we will give our readers the means of
duly contemplating its magnitude, by laying the
following well drawn up facts before them.
As the plan which it is intended to pursue with re-
gard to the Forest of Dartmoor, appears to he con-
nected with some alterations in the system of the
Poor Laws, we will briefly consider the nature and
effects of that branch of our legislation—one that
more than any other affects the condition of that class
of people whose dist at present call so loudly
or rommisseration and relief. The original error of
the Poor Laws is to be found in the spirit of legislat-
ing for that which should be left free, because liable
to be affected by causes not to be foreseen—we mean
human industry. The intention, indeed, of the
fruiters of the Poor Laws was not to confront indus-
try, but to wore a provision for those persons whom
t.ii.kness, old age, or accident, rendered incapable of
supporting themselves. They dill not mean to construct,
at a vast expense to the community, an asylum to render
rofligary seen re, and make idleness perpetual. No —such
was not their design ; but benevolence may produce as
much mischief as a malignant principle, if the means to
which it has recourse should happen to lie absurd. And,
giving every credit to the spirit of h ttttt anity which first
dictated the code that regulates parochial relief, it is not
very difficult to show that its character is not that of
wisdom. For this purpose it is hest to look to its mi-
rth The principle of the sTstem does not, as some
scppose, appear for the first time in the reign of Eli-
zabeth : its rudiments may he found as far back as
the 13th of Richard 11., arid the litth of Henry VII ;
by both which Acts the poor were directed to abide in
the cities and towns wherein they were horn, or in
which they had dwelt for three years; but they con-
tained no clause by virtne of which means could he
taken to compel that confinement to the parish which
hiss since given rise to so many and
Ms _perplexed enact-
ments. It was the Statute of the of Henry VIII.
which first, in some measure, enforced what the former
ones had only advised. In die reign of Henry VI.
hospitals were founded by royal bounty for the support
of the sick and infirm; and Hridewell was erected to
furnish suitable employment to voluntary and sturdy
idlers. Still, however, many persons remained destitute,
who were not in a condition to labour, and many refused
to work, and chose an idle and vagabond existence, who
were folly adequate to the duties of useful employment.
These, no doubt, were existing evils which required a
remedy, hot in the choice of that remedy, some attention
ought to have been bestowed upon the original cause
of the distemper which it was Intended to eradicate.
That cause was to be found in the mistalten or inter-
ested Charity, which went hand in hand with super-
stition in a 'barbarous age. The monasteries which
then overspread the country, and which were so ex-
ceedingly active and successful in drawing to them-
selves the choicest inheritances of the rich, practised
a meretricious hospitality to endear to them the lower
classes, and doled out a portion of the spoils of the
opulent in alms and gratuities, -in order to strengthen
themselves in the affections of the people, and
a character of sanctity in the opinion of
. The consequence was, as might be naturally
, that great numbers who had been bred up to a
toil, chose rather to Wiwr shunt the gates of a
my, and await the stated hours of distribution,
continue at any labour which suited her ter fart
manly state of 'independence. The contagion of
as thus engendered, spread most dangerously to
labouring portions of time community, to the great
' of the spirit and character of the people; for,

,

...7116-17iSh'-ii
the public.
expected, tl
life of toil,
monastery,
thou to eon
with a mat
idleness th
the !Oxtail
• detriment