ADVERTISEMENT.

The little Work, now reprinted, bears evidence of the humanity as well as of the profound political wisdom of its Author; and it is confidently offered to the public, in the hope that, under the present circumstances of the United Kingdom, its principles may be not only examined, but approved, disseminated, and acted upon, to their utmost extent: how far the particular practices in regard to Works of Industry may be usefully adopted, it is difficult to determine; but "where there is a will, there is a way :" local habits and circumstances must be the guides.

January, 1817.

TO THE

RIGHT HON. GEORGE ROSE, M. P.

M

SIR, A COPY of the following work, published in 1796, was put into the hands of a Gentleman, who, at a parish meeting, had forcibly stated the injurious consequences from offering subsistence independent of labor, and the policy and true charity of providing some employment for the distressed poor. The pamphlet contained such evidence of the benevolence and profound political wisdom of its Author, and so much valuable information founded on experience, that we were satisfied we could not render a more essential benefit to society, at the present crisis, than by reprinting and circulating it. Through the medium of Messrs. D. H. & I. A. Rucker and Co. a letter has been received from Baron Von Voght, dated Flotberg (near Altona), 7 Feb. 1817, which has assured us of his free permission to republish the work; and that his observations in various countries, during a period of more than twenty years, on the interesting subject of the guardianship of the poor, had invariably confirmed the correctness of the opinions and regulations which it contains.

We are anxious, on the present occasion, to offer this interesting work to the public under the sanction of your name, as an acknowledgment of the high sense we entertain of your exertions to improve the condition of the laboring classes.

The noble and intelligent Author has pointed out in the clearest manner, some of the causes which have tended to increase

pauperism in this country, even at a period of unprecedented demand for labor; and the inevitable consequences of departing from that principle of sound policy on which our poor laws are founded, "that employment, and not alms, should be given to those who have the ability to work, however small that ability may be." Situation and circumstances must determine the mode of employ ment; But the principle should be invariably adhered to; and no labor should be considered as unprofitable, that preserves the laborers in habits of industry. SOM

Some legislative measure may be required to give permanence to any system adopted upon the principles here recommended and to accomplish an effectual superintendance, perhaps a division of the large and populous parishes will appear the most obvious and practical method. By extending the present system of education, and the establishment of provident institutions, religion, morality, and industry, will then unite to ameliorate the condition of the lower orders of society, and thereby prevent crimes and consequent misery.

DURING a residence of sixteen months in your happy island, where a long-enjoyed security of person and property has called forth, in all fanks, the incalculable powers of human industry, and where domestic comfort rewards every exertion, from the philosopher's study down to the laborer's thatch, such a mass of powers produced, and of happiness enjoyed, strongly attracted all my attention. I admired the daily wonders of industry, the animated exertions of public spirit, and that unbounded active benevolence, become so habitual among you, that you yourselves are hardly conscious of its extent. To each of you, my respectable friends, I have been obliged individually for that information I was so forcibly led to desire: It was you that conducted me to your hospitals, work-houses, Magdalen-houses, and your new prisons, all monuments of British sensibility.

In our conversation on these subjects, I often mentioned the success of our endeavours in Hamburgh in suppressing beggary, encouraging industry, restoring health, and promoting morality, among a numerous class of poor.

You seemed all to think, that in England some consequences of the existing poor-laws made it difficult to obtain these advantages in a degree adequate to the large sums expended: that the right which a poor family has, of living at last at the expense of the parish, encouraged careless idleness: that the annual rotation of Overseers, and the want of a uniform system in the distribution of different kinds of support, and of a general plan for making it concur in promoting the morality, and consequently the happiness of the supported class, demanded some alteration in the manage

ment of the immense supplies allowed by that generous country to the wants of her poor.'

Shrewsbury and Glasgow' have shown what advantages may be obtained, even by a partial deviation from the plans usually followed in both parts of the island. The similarity of the principles they had adopted, with those to which we in Hamburgh owe our success, was striking, and induced you to desire me to give you a more circumstantial account of our institutions,

It is certainly a duty in me, to give you back the little I can give, for the much I have received. The reason why I do not think it unworthy of your notice is, that it is not an ideal scheme, easily formed by a warm heart and a lively fancy; but a real experiment, tried for these six years past, in a population of one hundred and ten thousand inhabitants, who have the misfortune to feed above seven thousand poor, besides two thousand five hundred in their different hospitals. Give me leave, before I proceed, to offer a few general observations, of which the following sheets will contain the application.

Nature seems to have destined all her children for a state of continual exertion: and their perfectibility perhaps depends on the unceasing exercise of their powers for ends never completely attainable. These objects increase in number with the more enlarged sphere of our ideas. In the most numerous classes of men, bodily wants are the main object of their toil, and they struggle only to preserve life. In this contest with necessity all are not equally successful, not equally attentive, assiduous, sober, saving, orderly, honest, and prudent. We generally blame them for it, as if those qualities were so very common in the higher classes, and as if corruption did not always spread from the higher to the lower orders.

Among these poor there are not only victims of incapacity,

The poor rates are allowed to amount to two millions and a half sterling. It is certainly under the truth to state at a million more, the sums expended through the island in hospitals of all kinds, and in workhouses: if to this are added those large sums distributed annually by the beneficence of the noblemen and gentlemen at their country residences, and numberless subscriptions for immediate relief, &c. I make no doubt, that the sum of British charities amounts to near five millions a year. This is certainly too much. Supposing the extravagant proposition of one man in ten wanting support: in a population of nine millions, 51. sterling would fall to the share of each pauper, out of which undoubtedly onefourth part is able to perform some work, and the half capable of doing a fourth towards earning their subsistence.

2 Vide Mr. Wood's account of the Shrewsbury House of Industry, 1792. Dr. Porteus's Letter on the Management of the Poor Funds in Glasgow. Now, in 1817, upwards of eight millions, and private and public bene factions have increased in the same ratio.

folly, and vice, to whom public justice owes instruction and correction: I am afraid by far the greatest number of poor in Europe are of a very different description.

Through a concurrence of numerous circumstances, the price of labor and of the necessaries of life are in a very unfavourable proportion for the poor in most countries of Europe. A man who lives by labor, but requires nothing but bodily strength, has still a right to expect such wages as may enable him to live comfortably this, in Britain, is to live in dry and healthy lodgings, eat sound provisions, sufficient to support his labor, to be covered against the inclemency of the weather, and to appear with a certain cleanliness on Sundays; to rear his children decently, and lay by something to live upon when age has deprived him of his strength. This is indeed the situation of the laboring poor in all new societies of men: there he earns even beyond this, till augmenting population lowers the price of labor, and raises the necessaries of life. Hard labor then procures him no more than a small pittance, upon which he barely lives; little for comfort, less for the education of his children, and nothing to depend upon in those times when labor is wanting, when sickness confines him, or a rigorous season requires more food, more clothing, and more firing; then he sells or pawns his bed, his tools, his every thing, till despair takes from him sobriety, order, assiduity, and economy: he first is tempted into drunkenness by his misery, and, by a fatal circle, is miserable for ever by the habit of drinking. Sloth, beggary, and all the train of vices that attend them, completely destroy his industry; and if this situation has lasted for some time, he is irrecoverably lost to order and regularity.

W

2

In the south of Europe, where the climate is mild, and men want but little food, less clothing, and hardly any shed, numbers live the life of a savage in the midst of civilization, reconciled to it by habits of security and independence, and by the indulgence of libertinism and idleness. Thousands throng at the gates of the monasteries in Spain for some soup, which they receive as a tribute; and in Naples forty thousand lazaroni are dreaded by despotism itself.

In those countries, adultery and prostitution are common, the sources of life are tainted by dreadful disease, spies are easily obtained, and assassinations are cheap.

In northern latitudes, where more food, more clothing, and a house are wanted, the effects of misery are more severely felt. Many, many fall a slow sacrifice to chill penury, and starve for months or years. But here the remedy is much easier. Pity prompts to relieve obvious distresses, and the sharpness of want arges men to its antidote, labor. In repairing, however, those