had completely refuted himself, by an extract from his Travels in France. "The national assembly of France," says Mr. Young, "though they disapproved of the English poor-laws, still adopted their principle, and declared that the poor had a right to pe. cuniary assistance; that the assembly ought to consider such a provision as one of its first and most sacred duties; and that with this view an expence ought to be incurred of 50 millions a year. But Mr. Young does not comprehend how it is possible to regard the expenditure of 50 millions a year as a sacred duty, and not to extend that 50 to 100, if necessity should demand it; the 100 to 200; the 200 to 300, and so on in the same miserable progression that had taken place in England."- Mr. Malthus's own plan was, "that a regulation should be made, declaring that no child born from any marriage taking place after the expiration of the law; and that no illegitimate child horn two years from the same date, should ever be entitled to parish assistance." By this measure Mr. W. observed, the poor-laws would absolutely cease after a very short period, as to the rising generation. But to what a scene of confusion, jarring, con. tention, and suffering, would it not give birth? He was perfectly certain that if the legislature could be induced to pass a law pregnant with such cruelty, within two years after the commencement of its operation it must be repealed.-The poor, denied their right to support, by those who possessed property, might have recourse to the original right of occupancy. For each man born had surely a right to occupy a spot of ground unoccupied, though he might not possess any right to the A ground occupied by another, or any part of the fruit of his labou But if all the land were occupie and the poor were denied any rig to assistance, might they not beco a most formidable body? and wh step could be taken to cure or co rect an evil thus improviden created? Mr. W. could not lo forward to such a situation witho great apprehension and dread, n consent to break that chain, whic with all its imperfections and d advantages, bound the differe classes of society indissolubly t gether. If then a total and imm diate abrogation of the poor-la were out of the question, and practicable plan presented itself f their gradual abolition, what mained to be done?-It was Mr. W.'s wish to get rid of t poor-laws, but he thought that taking proper steps, they might b come obsolete in the lapse of half century: though he would have su a code always to remain on statute book, that there might be sure and legal refuge, under a change of circumstances or socie for indigence and distress. The principles on which he wou proceed to effect this most desirab object were these. To exalt t character of the labouring classes the community. To give the l bourer consequence in his own eye and in those of his fellows. To mal him a fit companion for himself, an fit to associate with civilized me To excite him to acquire proper by a prospect of tasting its sweet and to give him inviolable securit for that property when acquired To mitigate those restraints whic confined his sphere of action. T hold out a hope of reward to patien exertion. To render depender poverty poverty, in all cases, degradation in his eyes, and at all times less desirable than independent industry.--Having accomplished this first grand object, he would endeavour to lighten the burthens inevitably to be borne, by a more equal distribution. He would propose some material alterations in the mode of affording relief, and to put some of the present institutions on a more orderly footing, that it might be possible to make a distinction be. tween the criminal and the innocently necessitous poor. It would car. ry us far beyond the scale of our narrative to enter into the details of the plan proposed. The great principle, out of which, the greater and most important part of them sprung, or to which they might be referred, was a national or general education; which was expected to extend the views of men, by enlightening their understanding, to raise their aims, to quicken their industry, to purify their morals, to make them sensible to honour or dishonour; and in a word, by making them both wiser. These may be seen in Mr. W.'s bill, which was printed and sent to the magistrates of the different counties in England. †There are at this day, 1698, in Scotland, says Mr. Fletcher, (besides a great many poor families very poorly provided for by the church boxes, and others who, by living upon bad food, fall into divers diseases), 200,000 people begging from door to door. These are not only no way advantageous, but a very great burthen to so poor a country. And though the number of them be perhaps double of what it was formerly, by reason of this present great distress; yet in all times there have been about 100,000 of these vagabonds, who have lived without any subjection to the laws of the land, or even to those of God, or nature. Fathers incestuously accompanying with their own daughters, the son with the mother, and the brother with the sister: no magistrate could ever discover which way one in a hundred of these wretches dies, or that ever they were baptized. Many murders have been discovered among them, and they are not only an unspeakable oppression to poor tenants, (who if they give not bread, or some kind of provision, to perhaps forty of such villains in one day, are sure to be insulted by them); but they rob many poor people who live in houses distant from any neighbourhood. In years of plenty, Tuany thousands of them meet together in the mountains, where they feast and riot for many days: and at country weddings, markets, and other like public occasions, to be seen, both men and women, perpetually drunk, cursing, blasphemning, and fighting together. they are K2 Educa Education*. In contrast with the description that had been given of the state of Scotland by Mr. Fletcher in 1698, Mr. W. produced another given by the lord advocate of Scot. land, the honourable Mr. Hope, in 1803, on the occasion of a bill brought into parliament for a more liberal provision for the school-masters of that country; which bill was afterwards passed into a law; the preamble of which recites, "that the school-masters of Scotland are a most useful body of men, and essential to the public welfare." Mr. Hope, on that occasion, ascribed to the establishment of those schools, all that intelligence which was so ob. servable in that part of the united kingdom, and that which so much attracted the attention of strangers who visited it. To this, also, was to be ascribed, the good morals, the social order, the loyalty, the paucity of crimes, the proper attendance on divine worship, and the increasing wealth of that part of the country. The paucity of crimes was so remarkable, that there were more convicts transported in one . quarter sessions, from Manchester, than from all Scotland, in the course of the year. He also observed, that the executions in Scotland did not amount, on an average, to more than six in the year. Mr. Whitbread then proposed a general system of national education, by the establishment of parochial schools; not compulsory on the poor, which would destroy its objeet, but voluntary. And he was confident that it would soon so work its way, that every man in England and Wales, as in Scotland, would f it a disgrace not to have his childr instructed. Among various con derations recommendatory of plan, Mr. W. noticed, that ↑ main spring of all that was good earth, namely, religious instructi had been particularly attended He also called the particular att tion of the house to the illustrati of the advantages of education h up to their view by the state of poor in Ireland. There were that country, no poor-laws, to wh the wretchedness and misery of lower orders of society could traced. But they had no instr tion. In Scotland they had instr tion, and therefore they were co tented and happy, and did avail themselves of the poor-la which they had. Mr. Whitbrea after a very comprehensive and c cumstantial view of the evils to remedied, and the means of remed ing them, recapitulated the effec that might be expected to result fr his bill in a kind of peroration. "D ring the hours of anxious though and laborious investigation which have passed, I have been charm with the pleasing vision of the ger ral amelioration of the state of ciety, and the eventual and ra diminution of its burthens. Int adoption of a general system of ed cation, I foresee an enlighten peasantry, frugal, industrious, sob orderly, and contented, becau they are acquainted with the tr value of frugality, sobriety, indi try, and order: crimes diminishin because the enlightened understan ing abhors a crime; the practi * The system of national education in Scotland was established in 1696, but course, its operation could not have been felt in the very short period betwe that year, and 1693. of Christianity prevailing, because the mass of our population can read, comprehend, and feel its Divine origin, and the beauty of the doc. trines which it inculcates: the kingdom safe from the insults of the enemy, because every man knows the worth of that which he is called upon to defend. In the provision for the security of the savings of the poor, I see encouragement to frugality, security to property, and the large mass of the people connected with the state, and indissolubly bound to its preservation: in the enlarged power of acquiring settlements, the labour directed to those spots where labour is most wanted: man, happy in his increased independence, and exempted from the dread of being driven in age from the spot where his dearest connections exist, and where he has used the best exertions, and passed the best days of his life litigation excluded from our courts, and harmony reigning in our different parochial districts. In the power of bestowing rewards, I contemplate patience and industry remunerated, and virtue held up to distinction and honour. In the various detailed alterations, in the mode of rating, and the equalization of the county rate, I perceive the more equitable distribution of a necessary, but henceforth, I trust, decreasing burthen; in the constitution of vestries, the benefit universally resulting from arrangement, order, and œconomy, derived from the more attentive inspection by each, of the general concern: from the power to exempt cottagers from the rate; a great relief to individuals, at a very trifling expence to the public; in the power to build habitations for the poor, their comfort, and health. Lastly, in the reform of the work house system, and the power of discrimination in administering re lief, an abandoment of filth, slothfulness, and vice; and a desirable and marked distinction between the profligate and the innocent. Mr. Whitbread concluded a very long, elaborate, and animated speech, with the motion above sta. ted. He was complimented for the pains he had taken, and the ability he had shewn in the investigation of a great and complicated subject. Mr. Rose, however, at the same time that he thought the honourable gentleman entitled to the highest degree of gratitude, feared that his object would not be effected without a general plan for the employment of the poor. Mr. Spencer Stan. hope allowed the existence of every grievance that Mr. W. had ascribed to the present poor.laws. He was not prepared to say how far the present plan contained adequate remedies. The opinion of the justices could not be collected at the next quarter-sessions, and it would be material to the facility of collecting that opinion, to divide the bill into three or four parts. Mr. Sturges Bourne wished the bill to be in the hands of the country-gen. tlemen, at the assizes, as well as the quarter sessions. Mr. Ba. thurst recommended to have a great number of copies of the bill printed, and to have them cir. culated through the country, with every facility of conveyance that government could give. The bill would be better considered altogether, in the first instance. It might afterward be divided and if the whole of it should not pass this session, he hoped that some parts of it at least would, as many would be highly beneficial. Leave was given, and a committee appointed K 3 to to prepare and bring in the bills*. The bill was presented to the house by Mr. Whitbread, Feb. 23, read a second time, ordered to be printed, and then to be sent to the quarter-sessions in the several counties, for the consideration of the justices, who were instructed to give their opinions upon it. But the progress of the bill was precluded by a dissolution of parliament, and concomitant change of administration. It was, with amendments, brought several times under the consideration of the house of commons, but, August 11, thrown out of the house of peers, on the motion of lord Hawkesbury. Lord Howick, March 5, in pursuance of previous notice, moved for leave to bring in a bill for securing to all his majesty's subjects, the privilege of serving in the army or navy, upon their taking an oath, prescribed by act of parliament, and for leaving to them, as far as conveniences would admit, the free exercise of their respective religions. He held it as a maxim. that all governments ought to unite every de. scription of persons living under them, in their own defence. A great portion of our soldiers and sailors, were catholic, and was it fitting that parliament should not allow, that by right, which was already allowed by connivance ? The bil he had to propose, would enable persons of every religious persuasion to serve in The power of education, the main spring of Mr. Whitbread's plan, to effect his object, seems, at first sight, to have been demonstrated with a precision and certainty, amounting to that of a legitimate process of algebra, or a mathematical demonstration. Yet there is a fallacy in his reasoning, of which that ingenious and most respectable gentleman was not aware. He presumes, that because a religious and virtuous education produced the happiest effects about a century ago, in Scotland, it would do the same thing now in England. Towards the conclusion of the 17th, and for the first half of the 18th century, the Scots of the higher, and middling ranks, were a religious people. It was usual for many gentlemen, and even noblemen, to keep up the worship of God in their families, and to officiate, as elders, in visiting the sick, maintaining the discipline of the kirk, making collections for the poor, and even in assisting in the administration of the sacrament. Religion was respected and honoured. Opinions, customs, usages, and, we may add, fashions, uniformly descend from the high to the low; and when these are given up by the former, they are also, at no great interval of time, abandoned by the latter. The minds of the lower classes of the Scots, or labouring poor, were prepared to receive, even with avidity, instructions so highly valued by their superiors. The spirit, the zeal for religion was infectious. The soil was mellowed and pulverized, for the reception of good secd. Though the French revolution has driven many to a decent attendance at church, it is not to be concealed that the present is not the age of vital religion. On the whole, the great, the affluent, the fashionable; those who give the ton to society, are any thing but religious. Had the great, the affluent, and even niddling classes of people in Scotland, been as indifferent about religion, in the times of the Scottish parliament, as they are now, the poor would have given themselves very little trouble about the acquisition of knowledge despised by their su periors. Nevertheless, it is to the parochial schools, that the Scots are principally indebted for the industry that needs not, and the spirit that scorns the acceptance of parochial charity. Attracted to the parish schools first by a spirit of religion, when religion was in vogue, they have been induced to crowd to them still, in early, and often pretty advanced youth, from other considerations. They have discovered the importance of education to their temporal concerns.-The Presby |