Alabama state intelligencer., 1831-02-02
TATE OF ENGLAND A WARNING TO FRANCE
 LETTER PRESENT STATE OF ENGLAND.

PRESENT STATE OF ENGLAND.
 LONDON, 26th Nov 1s3O
 To te Editor of La Rerolution, at Paris
 Sir: You hear of great commotion in England and particularly of the fires which are now blazing in 26 counties out of 40 that England contains These fires consume barns and other farm-buildings, and stacks, or rcks, of wheat, barley oats, beans peas and hay and sometimes the value ofthese, in one single farm yard, amounts to hundred thousand francs or more The country working people causing this destruc- ton, which is spreading into every part of England You will be that this terrible state of things has not taken place without cause this cause will explain to you, and in that explanation you will see the real state of England all the causes of her fec bleness, and ofthe slavery and misery of her once free and happy people. The working people of Eng land were, in all former times, better off, better fed clothed and lodged, than any other working people in the world. Their rights and their happiness seem to have been the chief object of the laws of England in all former times. During the predominance of the Roman Catholic religion, the municipal laws so far interfered with the property of the Church as to make it conductive to the relief of the indgent.-- When that religion was put down, and the property of the church grasped by the aristocracy, law was passed to cause provision to be made for all ndigen persons. This famous law, passed in the 43d year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, appointed officers for each parish, to impose tax on land and house, and thus to rase without any limit, whatever money might be wanted for the relief and support ofpersons unable to provide sufficiency for themselves. So that there can, if this law be duly enforced, be no person in England to suffer for want This law is called the Poor Law md beg you to bear in mind the description that have given oft.
 The working people, especially the country work ing people, lvedn thehappest state that canbe ima gined until thereign of George III. His war against our brethren in America which added greatly to the taxes of the nation, made a great change for the worse; itmade the people poorer than they had ever been before, but still they lived olerabe we'll much better than the working people of any other country in Europe. It was the long and expensive war IL ganst the republic of France that brought them down to real poverty. Before the American war began, it was rare thing that any one, amongst the aged and the widows, had occason to apply for aid from the poCrtaxes; that war made this mark of wreched ness les, but now the rare thing is to know of n working man, single or married, who is not com pelled to resort to the poor taxes to keep himself from perisbing with hunger. That the Debt and Government taxes have been the cause and the sole cause of the misery, is evident from the increase of the poor-taxes having kept an exact pace with the n crease of the Debt and the Government taxes Mo- thingcan conrovert this conclusion: the facts un- dsniable, and the conclusion is equally undeniabe,