Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1847-11-27

the philanthropst and the patriot with the most
painful apprehension and there is no doubt but
that il causes the Government more anxiety than
even the currency question or the commercial crisis
Ii will certainly be much more difficult TO arrange,
and more terrible in its consequences. The Mar
quis of WATERFORD appears to have the proper
view of the matter, when he says: at is our duty
4 10 consider by what method we can give food and
employment to the laborng classes. The poor
I. must be provided for; the money for that purpose
Il must come out OF our pockets: we have only 10
decide whether we are to give wages to the hap
II py and contented laborer, or to pay the poor rate
for the wretched pauper. | do not envy the feel
ings Of the man who cannot at once form his de-
II cison between these queries the one remunera-.
Il tive and benevolent, the other mean, sordd, and
Il unproductiye. What can be more gratifying than
by the same process to make ourselves prosper
Gus and our dependents happy? What happi-
ness can be equal to the proud feeling that while
enrching ourselves by the proper cultivation of
our farms, we are at the same time rendering the
laborer, our auxiliary in the good work. contented
and independent ~ Let the landowners through
out Ireland imbibe apd practice these sentiments OF
Lord Waterford, and very little more would be ne
cessary to bring about the regeneration Of that at
present, miserable land Ireand's soil mast main
tain Ireland's son, and it can do it, excepting in
seasons of absolute famine and scarcity and it only
needs the fostering care and management Of the
higher classes of the Irish people TO give comfort
and plenty TO the now miserably AFFECT poor. The
meeting of the Roman Catholic prelates in Dublin
is an event Of great importance. The memorial to
the Lord Lieutenant, which the meeting adopted,
attributes much Of the distress now existing IN Ire
land to the unjust relations between landlords, te-
nants, and laborers. The memonallsts do not ask
for gratuitous relief from the Government but pre-
fer employment of productive Iature Tor the able
bodied men who now want foot. Large tracts OF
land, say they, capable of cultivation, are now ly-
ing in waste the coasts abornd in fish, which
would give large supply o. food. 1t IS to the
working of these and other mines OF wealth with
" which the country is teemig" that the attention
of the Government is direced. Thus the clergy
and the landowners appea, to be adopting cor
rect view of the proper means of helping Ireland
The Lord Lieutenant showed, by his reply, that he,
as the representative Of the Government was fully
imbued with the same sentiments. Thus Is little
bright spot visible in thecondton of Ireland, and
hope given that the knowledge of the proper re-
medy for her relief will be followed, at no remote
day, by It's application In the mean time Liverpool
and the neghborhood is sadly oppressed with the
number of Irish paupers who are daily landed there
Last week 3,l33 persons arrived Ill that port from
Ireland making, from the lst to the oath OF the
month, ll,722; the arrivals IN September were
of the most confirmed description of paupers, but
in the lowest stage of rags and starvation. This is
a terrible visitation to the good people of Liverpool
and will not it is to be feared, abate during the win
ter. Its increase is much to be apprehended.
England will have paupers enoug h of her own
10 maintain during the approaching winter. Pau
perism is indeed the blistering plague spot on Eng
lands social condition the weight which depresses
her, and an evil which, probably, no other Eu-
ropean country could long contend against How
long she sustain herself under its operation re-
mains to be seen. That it is an increasing epa,
no one can doubt; what and where is the mari
mum point, beyond which the social ediice can
not bear il to advance, is an unsolved problem, in
what is called the science" of political economy.
That poverty and want have debasing effect upon
the character cannot be doubted BY any one who
will take mornings ramble in London or its
neighborhood; nay, not London only, but almost
any where in England. The expressions of the
wo-begone countenances Of the beggars for bread,
who will pain his every sense by their imporun-
ties, will convince him that rant is not the only
degradation which they are subjected to. ButhOw
can human being be conscious of the possession
of mind, or have the capabilily of exercising any
of the higher feelings and faculties of his race,
whose entire thought and exertion are appropriated
to the collection Of enough TO eat, TO prolong
his animal existence. Tell me not of slavery or of
any other condition of mankind whatever, where
the daily rants Of the body, ho,cerer coarSetJ, are
\ sufficiently supplied. We must measure suffering
and degradation by the standard of those who Lave
to bear them, and not by the ascription to then of
what IRE should feel in the same position and es-
timated in this mode, the suffering and degradation
of the whte beggar of England are many tines
greater than those of the black slave of the United
States. 1t may be replied that the English beggar
has hope the slave has none but this is not the
/ fact the slaves condition is always made better
by good conduct, and freedom is not unfrequently
the reward Of those who prove themselves deserv-
ing OF it, and qualified to that freedom TO their
own advantage. But what hope can come to the
pauper on the highway or in the workhouse What
glimmerng of rational expectation has he that his
own condition or that of his children will be I'M
proved and what means does he possess of fitting
his offspring for more elevated position " Hope
which comes TO all, comes not to him." He
becomes callous 10 the present, and Indifferent 10
the future Sensual qualification, when he has the
means Of enjoying it, becomes his chief good, be-
cause he has no chance whatever Of acquiring any
other. The ae-house or the gn-shop is the scene
OF his only moments of pleasurable excitement
lie loses more and more Of his human nature and
sinks lower and lower in the scale of animated ma
ture, until the very animals around him possess, in
their unabused instinct higher attribute than he
in his misapplied or unemployed reason. This is
not an overcharged picture. The counenances