Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

and unperceived channels of private humanity. Let the present ponderous system melt away with the dying out of the old cases, and the parishes in town be as unentangled with each other as parishes in the country. It is not, we repeat it, to any power or productiveness in the organ of parochial distribution, that we look for the main success of this operation -though we have no doubt that, under such an arrangement, a mighty impulse would be given to all the collections of the city. But the substantial, though secret principle of the reformation would consist in the resurrection, partly of a more efficient kindliness on the part of givers, but principally of a more sturdy and determined habit of independence on the part of those who, but for this habit, would be receivers. We are quite sure that, when compared with what the poor can do for themselves, and what, if not cheated away from their true interest by the promises of a system which has done nothing but deceive them, they are most thoroughly inclined to do all that a Kirk-session will do, is but a humble and fractionary part of the operation; and it is for the sake of the former benefit, and not of the latter, that we have ventured to recommend a plan which, in respect of positive and productive administration, has been most truly characterized as no plan at all. *

Had the province of common sense never been invaded by the subtleties of scholastic argument, there might have been no use for the science of metaphysics. But when an acute metaphysician appears to darken the suggestions of this universal and infallible guide, he must be fought with his own weapon, and another metaphysician must arise to meet and to overmatch him; and a positive apparatus of defence and of controversy must be

In the parish of Dunblane, in Stirlingshire, there was, from 1775 to 1800, an assessment for the poor. The heritors at length, on finding that the number of the poor had increased, from the inducement of a regular provision being made for them, agreed for three years to contribute voluntarily a small sum. The experiment was made; the collections improved; and hitherto the funds have proved adequate, and no assessment has been levied for 15 years. The number of poor in 1775, when the assessment began, exceeded 50; but of these, 19 only could be prevailed upon to accept of aliment from the heritors. Shame soon wore off; and the number, before assessments ceased, was often above 40. At present, the number of regular poor is 10;-though there are 50 who occasionally. share in the quarterly distributions.

The collections very naturally decline in those parishes where the nicthod of assessment is introduced.

raised, even though its simple and terminating object is just to' restore to common sense all its prerogatives, and to reinstate this monitor in the original supremacy which belongs to it.

In our last article upon this subject, we confined our remarks very much to the pauperism of Scotland; and the main object of them was to recommend the adoption of an expedient, by which it was conceived that the whole of our own country might be defended from the inroads of this great moral pestilence; and even that part of it which had already sustained an infection from the contagious neighbourhood of England, might be restored to that pure and dignified system which has been bequeathed to us by our forefathers. We shall still reserve ourselves on the question, as applicable to the sister kingdom, to' some future opportunity. In doing so, we imitate the caution that seems to have been observed by the Committees of both Houses of Parliament. We have no doubt, at the same time, that the mischief there is only to be exterminated by some such instrumentality as we recommend here for the purpose of reaching an application to the character and habits of the people. But we honestly confess, that we choose rather to wait for more documents, and to have leisure for more consideration, ere we venture beyond the general and elementary principles of the subject in reference to England, or confidently come forward with the proposal of a remedy for which, in its various details and modifications, we are not yet prepared. Meanwhile, we shall proceed to make such use of the information already collected, as may keep alive the vigilance of our own countrymen, confirm those whom the evil has not yet reached in their resistance to its very first approaches, and convince those who' have suffered it to obtain an incipient footing amongst them, that, if they do not speedily retrace the unwise movement into which they have fallen, they will soon find themselves entangled in a path, where, at every footstep, they must entail a new burden on the wealth of their parish, and a new aggravation on the distress and poverty which abound in it.

And first, it appears from this Report, that after the principle of a legal assessment has begun to be acted upon, there is no one expedient within the reach of human skill by which the progress and increase of pauperism can be arrested. We often hear, in the course of argumentation upon this subject, that the evil does not lie in the system, but in the abuses of it. It would be most obliging to let us know what these abuses are, and what is the practical remedy against them. For this is a great deal more than has yet transpired during the experience of up

wards of two centuries. The people most interested in keeping down the mischief, have not yet made the discovery. The history of all the parishes in England evinces, that if the principle be admitted to exist, it sends forth a malignant influence, which cannot be stayed by any of the varieties of practical management ⚫ that have yet been resorted to, or by any of the devices of practical wisdom which have yet been suggested. And thus it is, that there has been a steady progression of the evil, and that greatly beyond the progress of the wealth or population of the country. The chief and almost solitary example of a retrograde movement in the parochial expenditure which offers itself in the Appendix to this Report, is just such an example as, more than any other, will hold out a warning voice to our Scottish landholders. It is the example of a parish, where, by the wise and vigorous management of its clergyman, the maintenance of its poor has been reduced, in course of time, from 900l. to 500l. a year ;-leaving this latter sum to be expended on the pauperism of a parish containing a population of about one thousand. * This is all the

* Examination of the Rev. Richard Vivian. How long have you been in the parish ?-Nearly twenty years. What was the amount of the poor-rate at the time that you first came into the parish ?—900l. a year during the last twenty years of the last century, it got from 100%. by degrees to 900l. What has been its progress from the time you first came into the parish to the present time?-It has retrograded since; it has got from 900l. to 500l. Has it ever been lower?— Very little perhaps 450l. Is 500l. the amount now?-It amounts this year to about 600l. from various circumstances; from the dearness of provisions, and the trouble of removing persons.-Appendix to the Report, p. 115.

A very great reduction also was effected by means of a vigilant superintendence on the part of Joseph Sabine, Esq. in the parish of North Mimms, Hertfordshire; and yet, after all, the yearly expense is 600l. to a population of 1001. The two following questions, among many others, were put to him. From your extensive knowledge of the labouring classes, what do you suppose has been the cause of the general increase of poor-rates, and the decrease of happiness among them?-Losing the feeling of independence they had, and their indifference about taking relief. Do you believe there is any thing can effectually apply a remedy, but renovating those feelings? By not paying those who are not entitled to relief, you will reestablish it.

Who can doubt the desireableness of the former expedient, and who can but suspect the efficacy of the latter, when he contemplates the actual expenditure which still remains in each of these parishes? And, besides, it is a reduction effected by extraordinary vigilance

goes

fruit of a very rare and miraculous achievement; and it most strikingly to prove, that no modification which can be practised under the principle of a compulsory provision, will ever make head against the bare existence and operation of the principle itself. And even in Scotland, where some mysterious charm has been supposed to reside in the mere construction of our courts of supply, let this principle once make its appearance amongst them, and, as if by the rod of Aaron, all the divinations of all the wise men will be swallowed up and brought to nothing by it. The Kirk-session, with the minister at its head, which seems to many so goodly an apparatus, and to which, by our Southern neighbours, something like a fancied omnipotence has been ascribed, will oppose a barrier feeble and flimsy as cobweb, to the wide-wasting operation of a principle so pregnant with all moral and with all physical disorder. It is true, that in none, even of our contaminated parishes, have we yet attained to the strength and the virulence of disease which exist in England. But this, we are persuaded, is entirely owing to the want of time for the development of the mischief, and not to any superior wisdom of management. We know that many of our countrymen are like to be lulled into a very fatal security upon this subject, because the burden yet in the Scottish parishes is so small, when compared with the burden on the parishes of England. They look only to the present amount of the expenditure, when they ought to look to the rate of acceleration. It is saying but little, and marvellously little, in an English ear, that the assessment for the poor of Barony parish, containing a population of forty-three thousand, should be only three thousand four hundred pounds for the present year. But it really appears to us equivalent to pronouncing a sentence of extinction on the whole landed wealth of that parish, when we add, that the principle of a legal assessment was only introduced into that parish in 1810, at which time the heritors contributed just six hundred pounds to the poor; and that in the short space of seven years, their burden has thus increased nearly six times. †

and activity; and that surely is not a good legislative arrangement which requires, for its safe administration, such an agency as is only to be met with in very rare and uncommon instances.

Till 1810, the heritors made up from themselves any deficiency in the ordinary funds of the Session, without having recourse to any assessment upon the landholders; and the whole expense of maintaining the poor seldom exceeded 600l. per annum. Since that period it has considerably increased, till this year (1817) it will be considerably above 3000/. And all this is independent of the extraor dinary relief granted to meet the pressure of last winter.

We have not yet, indeed, in any of our parishes where the compulsory method has been introduced, nearly come up to the ave rage expenditure of England. But, in the great mass of such parishes, we are in full and rapid career towards it. It is this which ought to convince us, that after the principle is once admitted, it is mockery to think of counteracting it by any thing that can be done in the way of modification or detail. It is this which ought to alarm us into the conclusion, that if the disease is to be exterminated at all, it must be combated in its principle; and that we must stop at nothing short on rooting out the principle where it exists-of repelling it where it is unknown.

And, that this is very nearly the opinion of the Committee of the House of Commons, appears evident, from their utter hopelessness of any substantial reformation being effected by any thing short of a radical change of the whole system.

The following are some examples of the expenditure in Scottish parishes where assessments have been introduced, which the reader will do well to compare with the expenditure already quoted, of parishes which are yet free from assessments.

[blocks in formation]

The following are some examples of this increase in parishes where assessments have been introduced into Scotland. Wilton in Roxburghshire, in 1790, had an assessment of 92/. 18s. The average from 1812 to 1815 was 2887. 17s. 11d. The corresponding numbers for Hawick are 3117. Is. 8d., and 8867. 19s. 6d.; and for Roberton 617. 5s., and 1427. 10s. 6d. Parishes of equal population in Fife, where there are no assessments, occur with expenditures below 20%, and 50%, and 1207. In East Kilbride, the supply to the poor in 1790, was 34/. 6s. 8d.; and in 1810, was 213/.2s. 5d. In Coldstream, it was at the rate of 2087. yearly in 1790; and 6287. in 1815. At Linton, 20/. in 1790, without assessments; and 90/. in 1815 with them. In Jedburgh, the assessment in 1790, was 1417. 8s. 5d.; and the average from 1811 to 1815, was 350l. 6s. 4d.

|| 'Your Committee forbear to expatiate on these considerations which have pressed themselves on their attention. They have said enough to show the grounds which induce them to think that the labouring classes can only be plunged deeper and more hopelessly into the evils of pauperism, by the constant application of additional sums of money to be raised by the poor-rate. True benevolence and real charity point to other means, which your Committee cannot so well

« ForrigeFortsæt »