panded to the sunshine of joy. With her buoyancy of spirits she seemed even to lose all her quickness of intellect, nay, all her readiness of speech: so that, not only fearing to embark with her in serious conversation, but even finding no response in her mind to lighter topics, I at last began to nauseate her seeming torpor and dulness, and to roam abroad even more frequently than before a

the account of Djezzar Pacha's retirement to his harem during the revolt,-equal to any thing in Tacitus; and, above all, to the landing of Anastasius with his sick child, and the death of the infant. It is impossible not to see that this last picture is faithfully drawn from a sad and cruel reality. The account of the Wahabees is very interesting, vol. iii. 128; and nothing is more so than the story of Euphrosyne. Anastasius had gained the affec-partner of my fate remained at home, to count tions of Euphrosyne, and ruined her reputation; he then wishes to cast her off, and to remove her from his house.

the tedious hours of my absence; while she, poor, miserable creature, dreading the sneers of an unfeeling world, passed her time under "Ah no! now cried Euphrosyne, convul- my roof in dismal and heart-breaking solitude. sively clasping my knees, be not so barba-Had the most patient endurance of the most rous! Shut not your own door against her intemperate sallies been able to soothe my against whom you have barred every once disappointment and to soften my hardiness, friendly door. Do not deny her whom you have conquered: but, in my jaundiced eye, Euphrosyne's angelic sweetness must at last have dishonoured the only asylum she has left. If I cannot be your wife, let me be your conviction of her shame; and I saw in her her resignation only tended to strengthen the slave, your drudge. No service, however mean, shall I recoil from when you command. forbearance nothing but the consequence of At least before you I shall not have to blush. her debasement, and the consciousness of her In your eyes I shall not be what I must seem guilt. Did her heart,' thought I, 'bear witin those of others; I shall not from you in-ness to a purity on which my audacity dared cur the contempt which I must expect from first to cast a blemish, she could not remain my former companions; and my diligence thus tame, thus spiritless, under such an agto execute the lowest offices you may require, will earn for me, not only as a bare alms at your hands, that support which, however scanty, I can elsewhere only receive as an unmerited indulgence. Since I did a few days please your eye, I may still please it a few days longer-perhaps a few days longer, therefore, I may still wish to live; and when that last blessing, your love, is gone by, when my cheek, faded with grief, has lost the last attraction that could arrest your favour, then speak, then tell me so, that, burthening you no longer, I may retire—and die!"—(III. 64, 65.)

Her silent despair, and patient misery, when she finds that she has not only ruined herself with the world, but lost his affections also, have the beauty of the deepest tragedy.

gravation of my wrongs; and either she would be the first to quit my merciless roof, or, at least, she would not so fearfully avoid giving me even the most unfounded pretence for denying her its shelter. She must merit her sufferings, to bear them so meekly!'-Hence, even when moved to real pity by gentleness so enduring, I seldom relented in my apparent sternness."—(III. 72—74.)

With this, we end our extracts from Anastasius. We consider it as a work in which great and extraordinary talent is evinced. It abounds in eloquent and sublime passages,—in sense,— in knowledge of history, and in knowledge of human character;-but not in wit. It is too long; and if this novel perishes, and is forgotten, it will be solely on that account. If it is the picture of vice, so is Clarissa Harlowe, and so is Tom Jones. There are no

sius,-nothing which corrupts the morals by inflaming the imagination of youth; and we are quite certain that every reader ends this novel with a greater disgust at vice, and a more thorough conviction of the necessity of subjugating passion, than he feels from read

"Nothing but the most unremitting tender-sensual and glowing descriptions in Anastaness on my part could in some degree have revived her drooping spirits.-But when, after my excursion, and the act of justice on Sophia, in which it ended, I reappeared before the still trembling Euphrosyne, she saw too soon that that cordial of the heart must not be expected. One look she cast upon my counte-ing either of the celebrated works we have nance, as I sat down in silence, sufficed to inform her of my total change of sentiments;and the responsive look by which it was met, tore for ever from her breast the last seeds of hope and confidence. Like the wounded snail, she shrunk within herself, and thenceforth, cloaked in unceasing sadness, never more ex-fine things.

just mentioned. The sum of our eulogium is, that Mr. Hope, without being very successful in his story, or remarkably skilful in the delineation of character, has written a novel, which all clever people of a certain age should read, because it is full of marvellously

SCARLETT'S POOR BILL.*

[EDINBURGH REVIEW, 1821.]

WE are friendly to the main principle of Mr. | Scarlett's bill; but are rather surprised at the unworkmanlike manner in which he has set about it.

To fix a maximum for the poor-rates, we should conceive to be an operation of sufficient difficulty and novelty for any one bill. There was no need to provoke more prejudice, to rouse more hostility, and create more alarm, than such a bill would naturally do. But Mr. Scarlett is a very strong man; and before he works his battering-ram, he chooses to have the wall made of a thickness worthy of his blow-capable of evincing, by the enormity of its ruins, the superfluity of his vigour, and the certainty of his aim. Accordingly, he has introduced into his bill a number of provisions, which have no necessary, and, indeed, no near connection with his great and main object; but which are sure to draw upon his back all the Sir Johns and Sir Thomases in the House of Commons. It may be right, or it may be wrong, that the chargeable poor should be removed; but why introduce such a controverted point into a bill framed for a much more important object, and of itself calculated to produce so much difference of opinion! Mr. Scarlett appears to us to have been not only indiscreet in the introduction of such heterogeneous matter, but very much mistaken in the enactments which that matter contains.

"And be it further enacted, that from and after the passing of this act, it shall not be lawful for any justice of peace or other person to remove, or cause to be removed, any poor person or persons from any parish, township or place, to any other, by reason of such person or persons being chargeable to such parish, township or place, or being unable to maintain him or themselves, or under colour of such person or persons being settled in any other parish, township or place, any law or statute to the contrary notwithstanding: Provided always, that nothing in this act shall in any wise be deemed to alter any law now in force for the punishment of vagrants, or for removing poor persons to Scotland, Ireland, or the Isles of Guernsey, Jersey, and Man.-And be it further enacted, that in all cases where any poor person, at the time of the passing of this act, shall be resident in any parish, township or place, where he is not legally settled,

1. Letter to James Scarlett, Esq., M. P., on his Bill relating to the Poor-Laws. By a Surrey Magistrate.

London, 1821.

the

2. An Address to the Imperial Parliament, upon Practical Means of gradually Abolishing the Poor-Laws, and Fducating the Poor Systematically. Illustrated by an Account of the Colonies of Fredericks-Oord in Holland, and of the Common Mountain in the South of Ireland. With General Observations. Third Edition. By WIL

GIAM HERBERT SAUNDERS, Esq. London, 1821.

3. On Pauperism and the Poor-Laws. With a Supplement. London, 1821.

and shall be receiving relief from the over seers, guardians, or directors of the poor of the place of his legal settlement, the said overseers, guardians, or directors, are hereby required to continue such relief, in the same manner, and by the same means, as the same is now administered, until one of his majesty's justices of the peace, in or near the place of residence of such poor person, shall, upon application to him, either by such poor person, or any other person on his behalf, for the continuance thereof, or by the said overseers, guardians, or directors of the poor, paying such relief, for the discharge thereof, certify that the same is no longer necessary."-Bill, pp. 3, 4.)

Now, here is a gentleman, so thoroughly and so justly sensible of the evils of the poorlaws, that he introduces into the House of Commons a very plain, and very bold measure to restrain them; and yet, in the very same bill, he abrogates the few impediments that remain to universal mendicity. The present law says, "Before you can turn beggar in the place of your residence, you must have been born there, or you must have rented a farm there, or served an office;" but Mr. Scarlett says, "You may beg anywhere where you happen to be. I will have no obstacles to your turning beggar; I will give every facility and every allurement to the destruction of that the direct tendency of Mr. Scarlett's enyour independence." We are quite confident living in one place, and settled in another, are actments is to produce these effects. Labourers uniformly the best and most independent characters in the place. Alarmed at the idea of being removed from the situation of their choice, and knowing they have nothing to depend upon but themselves, they are alone poor-laws, and frequently arrive at independexempted from the degrading influence of the ence by their exclusion from that baneful priVilege which is offered to them by the inconsistent benevolence of this bill. If some are where they are not settled, these examples removed, after long residence in parishes only insure the beneficial effects of which we the same fate, quit the mug, and grasp the have been speaking. Others see them, dread fail. Our policy, as we have explained in a previous article, is directly the reverse of that of Mr. Scarlett. Considering that a poor man, since Mr. East's bill, if he asks no charity, has a right to live where he pleases, and that a settlement is now nothing more than a beggar's ticket, we would gradually abolish all means of gaining a settlement, but those of birth, parentage, or marriage; and this method would destroy litigation as effectually as the method proposed by Mr. Scarlett.*

This has since been done.

Mr. Scarlett's plan, too, we are firmly per- | towns and villages, be charged with the burden suaded, would completely defeat his own of maintaining those who do not work, and intentions; and would inflict a greater injury before the passing of this act were not settled upon the poor than this very bill, intended to therein: For remedy thereof, be it enacted, by prevent their capricious removal. If his bill the authority aforesaid, that, in either of the had passed, he could not have passed. His above cases, it shall be lawful for the justices, post-chaise on the northern circuit would have at any quarter-sessions of the peace held for been impeded by the crowds of houseless vil- the county in which such places shall be, upon lagers, driven from their cottages by landlords the complaint of the overseers of the poor of rendered merciless by the bill. In the mud- any parish, town or place, that by reason of all in the mud (for such cases made and pro- either of the causes aforesaid, the rates for the vided) would they have rolled this most excel- relief of the poor of such parish, town, or lent counsellor. Instigated by the devil and place, have been materially increased, whilst their own malicious purposes, his wig they those of any other parish or place have been would have polluted, and tossed to a thousand diminished, to hear and fully to inquire into winds the parchment bickerings of Doe and the matter of such complaint; and in case Roe. Mr. Scarlett's bill is so powerful a mo- they shall be satisfied of the truth thereof, then tive to proprietors for the depopulation of a to make an order upon the overseers of the village-for preventing the poor from living poor of the parish or township, whose rates where they wish to live,-that nothing but the have been diminished by the causes aforesaid, conviction that such a bill would never be to pay to the complainants such sum or sums, suffered to pass, has prevented those effects from time to time, as the said justices shall from already taking place. Landlords would, adjudge reasonable, not exceeding, in any in the contemplation of such a bill, pull down case, together with the existing rates, the all the cottages of persons not belonging to the amount limited by this act, as a contribution parish, and eject the tenants; the most vigor- towards the relief of the poor of the parish, ous measures would be taken to prevent any town, or place, whose rates have been inone from remaining or coming who was not creased by the causes aforesaid; which order absolutely necessary to the lord of the soil. shall continue in force until the same shall At present, cottages are let to anybody: be- be discharged by some future order of sescause, if they are burthensome to the parish, sions, upon the application of the overseers the tenants can be removed. But the impos- paying the same, and proof that the occasion sibility of doing this would cause the imme- for it no longer exists: Provided, always, that diate demolition of cottages; prevent the no such order shall be made, without proof of erection of fresh ones where they are really notice in writing of such intended application, wanted; and chain a poor man for ever to the and of the grounds thereof, having been served place of his birth, without the possibility of upon the overseers of the poor of the parish or moving. If everybody who passed over Mr. place, upon whom such order is prayed, fourScarlett's threshold were to gain a settlement teen days at the least before the first day of for life in his house, he would take good care the quarter-sessions, nor unless the justices never to be at home. We all boldly let our making such order shall be satisfied that no friends in, because we know we can easily get money has been improperly or unnecessarily them out. So it is with the residence of the expended by the overseers of the poor praying poor. Their present power of living where for such order; and that a separate and distinct they please, and going where they please, account has been kept by them of the addientirely depends upon the possibility of their tional burden which has been thrown upon removal when they become chargeable. If their rates by the causes alleged.”—(Bill, pp. any mistaken friend were to take from them 4, 5.) this protection, the whole power and jealousy of property would be turned against their locomotive liberty; they would become adscripti gleba, no more capable of going out of the parish than a tree is of proceeding, with its roots and branches, to a neighbouring wood. The remedy here proposed for these evils is really one of the most extraordinary we ever remember to have been introduced into any

act of Parliament.

Now this clause, we cannot help saying, appears to us to be a receipt for universal and interminable litigation all over England-a perfect law-hurricane-a conversion of all flesh into plaintiffs and defendants. The parish A. has pulled down houses, and burthened the parish B.; B. has demolished to the misery of C.; which has again misbehaved itself in the same manner to the oppression of other letters of the alphabet. All run into parchment, and "And whereas it may happen, that in seve- pant for revenge and exoneration. Though ral parishes or townships now burdened with the fact may be certain enough, the causes the maintenance of the poor settled and re- which gave rise to it may be very uncertain; siding therein, the owners of lands or inha- and assuredly will not be admitted to have bitants may, in order to remove the residence of the been those against which the statute has delabouring poor from such parishes or places, nounced these penalties. It will be alleged, destroy the cottages and habitations therein, therefore, that the houses were not pulled now occupied by the labourers and their down to get rid of the poor, but because they families: And whereas, also, it may happen, were not worth repair-because they obstructthat certain towns and villages, maintaining ed the squire's view-because rent was not their own poor, may, by the residence therein paid. All these motives must go before the of labourers employed and working in other sessions, the last resource of legislators—the parishes or townships lying near the said unhappy quarter-sessions pushed to the ex

tremity of their wit by the plump contradictions of parish perjury.

cause of a temporary or local nature, it shall be deemed expedient by the overseers of the Another of the many sources of litigation, in poor, or other persons having, by virtue of any this clause, is as follows:-A certain number local act of Parliament, the authority of overof workmen live in a parish M., not being seers of the poor of any parish, township, or settled in it, and not working in it before the place, to make any addition to the sum assessed passing of this act. After the passing of this for the relief of the poor, beyond the amount act, they become chargeable to M., whose poor- limited by this act, it shall be lawful for the rates are increased. M. is to find out the said overseers, or such other persons, to give parishes relieved from the burthen of these public notice in the several churches, and men, and to prosecute at the quarter-sessions other places of worship, within the same pafor relief. But suppose the burthened parish rish, township, or place, and if there be no to be in Yorkshire, and the relieved parish in church or chapel within such place, then in Cornwall, are the quarter-sessions in Yorkshire the parish church or chapel next adjoining the to make an order of annual payment upon a same, of the place and time of a general meetparish in Cornwall? and Cornwall, in turn, ing to be held by the inhabitants paying to the upon Yorkshire? How is the money to be relief of the poor within such parish, towntransmitted? What is the easy and cheap ship, or place, for the purpose of considering remedy, if neglected to be paid? And if all the occasion and the amount of the proposed this could be effected, what is it, after all, but addition; and, if it shall appear to the majority the present system of removal rendered ten of the persons assembled at such meeting, that times more intricate, confused and expensive! such addition shall be necessary, then it shall Perhaps Mr. Scarlett means, that the parishes be lawful to the overseers, or other persons where these men worked, and which may hap-having power to make assessments, to increase pen to be within the jurisdiction of the justices, are to be taxed in aid of the parish M., in proportion to the benefit they have received from the labour of men whose distresses they do not relieve. We must have, then, a detailed account of how much a certain carpenter worked in one parish, how much in another; and enter into a species of evidence absolutely interminable. We hope Mr. Scarlett will not be angry with us: we entertain for his abilities and character the highest possible respect; but great lawyers have not leisure for these trifling details. It is very fortunate that a clause so erroneous in its view should be so inaccurate in its construction. If it were easy to comprehend it, and possible to execute it, it would be necessary to repeal it.

The shortest way, however, of mending all this, will be entirely to omit this part of the bill. We earnestly, but with very little hopes of success, exhort Mr. Scarlett not to endanger the really important part of his project, by the introduction of a measure which has little to do with it, and which any quarter-session country squire can do as well or better than himself. The real question introduced by his bill is, whether or not a limit shall be put to the poorlaws; and not only this, but whether their amount shall be gradually diminished. To this better and higher part of the law, we shall now address ourselves.

In this, however, as well as in the former part of his bill, Mr. Scarlett becomes frightened at his own enactments, and repeals himself. Parishes are first to relieve every person actually resident within them. This is no sooner enacted than a provision is introduced to relieve them from this expense, tenfold more burthensome and expensive than the present system of removal. In the same manner, a maximum is very wisely and bravely enacted; and in the following clause is immediately repealed.

"Provided, also, and be it further enacted, that if, by reason of any unusual scarcity of provisions, epidemic disease, or any other

the assessment by the additional sum proposed and allowed, at such meeting, and for the justices, by whom such rate is to be allowed, upon due proof upon oath to be made before them, of the resolution of such meeting, and that the same was held after sufficient public notice to allow such rate with the proposed addition, specifying the exact amount thereof, with the reasons for allowing the same, upon the face of the rate."-(Bill, p. 3.)

It would really seem, from these and other qualifying provisions, as if Mr. Scarlett had never reflected upon the consequences of his leading enactments till he had penned them; and that he then set about finding how he could prevent himself from doing what he meant to do. To what purpose enact a maximum, if that maximum may at any time be repealed by the majority of the parishioners? How will the compassion and charity which the poor-laws have set to sleep be awakened, when such a remedy is at hand as the repeal of the maximum by a vote of the parish? Will ardent and amiable men form themselves into voluntary associations to meet any sudden exigency of famine and epidemic disease, when this sleepy and sluggish method of overcoming the evil can be had recourse to? As soon as it becomes really impossible to increase the poor fund by law-when there is but little, and there can be no more, that little will be administered with the utmost caution; claims will be minutely inspected; idle manhood will not receive the scraps and crumbs which belong to failing old age; distress will make the poor provident and cautious; and all the good expected from the abolition of the poor-laws will begin to appear. But these expectations will be entirely frustrated, and every advantage of Mr. Scarlett's bill destroyed, by this fatal facility of eluding and repealing it.

The danger of insurrection is a circumstance worthy of the most serious consideration, in discussing the propriety of a maximum. Mr. Scarlett's bill is an infallible receipt for tumult and agitation, whenever corn is a little dearer

We presume there are very few persons who will imagine such a measure to be deficient in It may be doubtful also, whether the first vigour. That the poor-laws should be stopped bill should aim at repealing more than 20 per in their fatal encroachment upon property, and cent. of the present amount of the poor-rates. unhappy multiplication of the human species, This would be effected in forty years. Long-and not only this, but that the evil should before that time, the good or bad effects of the measure would be fairly estimated; if it is wise that it should proceed, let posterity do the rest. It is by no means necessary to destroy, in one moment, upon paper, a payment which cannot, without violating every principle of justice, and every consideration of safety and humanity, be extinguished in less than two centuries.