New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1852-08-21
FFom tIe Home Jot
RURAL LIFE IN ENGLAND.

gte guipom ann her Son.


Among the many widowed pensioners upon
the bounties of the parish, was woman of the
name of Floyd The room in which she lived
was one of the most comfortless and dessolate of
those allotted to the paupers. The furniture
consisted of q broken backed chair, stool, a
rickety table, q sort of wooden cot, upon shich
was bed, if a few bundles of straw are deserv-
ing the name. In this miserable apartment,
without companionship, and without employ
ment, did this poor creature exc out her misera-
bic existence. She was almost constant app1i-
cant for medical aid. although she labored un-
der no positive disease, but she felt the need of
something to sustain her failing powers of life,
and for the want of good nourishing food
strengthening and restorative medicine seemed
to offer the only relief within her reach. The
parish supplied the paupers bountif1lly with
medicine, for it was much cheaper than meat,
potatoes and bread. In paying physician to
attend the poor, the officers of the parish seemed
to think that they had done all that humanity
| required or justice demanded. The church
wardens annually partook of splendid dinner
| Mt the parish expense The various officers
read their reports on these occasions, and not
withstanding disease, famine and death, b1otted
their statements with most sad and heart-rend-
ing details, these bloated wretches would gour-
mandize as freely; and talk of the glory of Eng
land, and Of the privileges and blessings enjoyed
though their own reports had not given the lie
| to their beef-fed patriotism These annual feast
ings were held under the pretence of meeting to
adopt measures for the benefit and relief of pau
pers, but, with poor Ezekiel Homespun in the
play, &c l never could understand how stuffng a
church warden's stomach could be for the good
Of the poor
But, however, nothing is done in England, of
| public nature, without dinner. Beef and
philanthropy, religion and pudding, turtle soup
and political economy go hand in hand. Char
ity, they say beg gins at home, and suppose this
is the reason why the public men of England,
in matters of philanthropy, commence by sup
plying themselves with beef before they begin
to think of offering slice to their neighbor; for
this is the only sense in which the mighty char
ity of England has to do with home. Thousands
upon thousands of pounds are freely given by
British philanthropy to clothe the naked savage.
and to convert the heather, whilst their own
| flesh and blood are left to penury and want.
| Tracts and moral essays are distributed
| through the land with bountiful hand; but of
what value are they to the starving laborer :
What comfort can they carry to the fireside
| (heayen save the mark y of the pauper widow
Christian faith can and does bear one "stiffiy
up amidst the ills and mistortunes OF life; but
| it cannot stop the gnawing hunger of the starry
ing peasant, clothe his children, OF light his own
cold, dismal fireside with ray of cheerfulness.
Christianity, like love, wants something besides
| the ideal to maintain its integrity unmpeached
Those men are likely to be the best Christians
who are most free from the temptations of pow
erty. Look at the agricultural laborer of Eng
land, with a wife and seven or eight children to
maintain on a pittance of as many shillings a
week, and see him do this without encroaching
upon the rights of others. and then talk of the
heroism of the battlefield The latter abso-
| lutely amounts to nothing, compared to the re-
sisting honesty which keeps the hands of n man
so tempted free from the stain of theft. If such
a man were to rob his richer neighbor of the
means of giving the wife of his bosom and the
children of his loins substantial meal one day
out of seven, how the well fed virtue of England
would be Mortified; how the majesty of the Brit
| ish government would frown upon a deed born
of its guilty extravaganza.
| There is great deal of heroism among the
poor people of England, but it may be tempted
too far, and, if l mistake not, the time is not
| far distant, when the poor but honest English
| peasant will demand, in a voice which will
| make itself heard through every room in the
palace, his share in the bounties of the land |
am not one of those who would advocate a sniv-
cling economy in rewarding the services of
eminent and distinguished men, but nations like
| individuals, should be just before they are gen.
erous. The English government, at the same
time that she is crowding bounty upon bounty
on her successful warriors, and voting pensions
to the widow of this distinguished man and to
the family of the other should, not forget the
condition of those whose toil-worn sinews made
the means by which such muniticence was OBJ
| tanned
No government however wisely or humanely
administered, can prevent in individual cases
of distinction and want; but when we see, in a
land boasting of the wisdom of the legislation
the largeness of its philanthropy, the vastness
OF its possessions, the immensity of its resources
and the splendor of its private domains, every
village and town teeming with hundreds and
thousands of its industrial classes with scarce a
rag to cover their nakedness, or a crust of bread
to appease their craving hunger, it is obvious
there must be something rotten somewhere
Such startling inequality cannot exist in 8
healthy system of government or in sound so
cial existence. But to return to the widow.
There were many, very many widows in tn,
parish of T, as destitute and wretchedl,
situated as Mrs. Floyd, and only single out he
case because of the incident connected with he
history
She had but one child, son, when her hus
band died and left her to the care of the over
seer. The child grew up somehow, but in wha
way, or by what strange mystery he manage,