having this new channel opened to it? Will a smattering in books, and the current pamphlets of the day, tend to quench and smother the flame of the passions, or will it add fuel to them? I do not scruple to assert, that religion itself, when it comes in contact with certain situations, may be highly dangerous. It is the soil in which the greatest virtues and the greatest vices take root. Where it has not strength to stop the torrent of dissolute manners, it gives it additional force by checking it; as the bow that has been long bent in the contrary direction, recoils back with ten-fold violence: It is for this reason that the morals of the people in the trading towns in the North of England are, I believe, worse than they are farther south, because they are brought up more religiously. The common people there are almost all of them originally dissenters. Again, it may be asked, will the poor people in the trading towns send their children to school instead of sending them to work at a factory? Or, will their employers, forgetting their own interests, compel them to do it? Or, will they give up their profits and their wealth for the sake of informing the minds, and preserving the morals of the poor? Oh! no. It may be replied, that it is chiefly for the peasantry and country people, who compose the largest part of the community, that this plan of education is intended. But they are the very people who do not stand in need of it, and to whom, if it does no harm, it will do little good If working hard, and living sparingly are the chief lessons meant to be inculcated in their minds, they are already tolerably perfect in their parts. As for the rest, it is in vain to attempt to make men any thing else but what their situation makes them. We are the creatures, not of knowledge, but of circumstances. For all these reasons I cannot help looking at this general parallel between the benefits derived from education in Scotland, and those expected from it in this country as little better than a leurre de dupe. The advantages of education in the abstract are, I fear, like other abstractions, not to be found in nature. I thought that the rage for blind reform, for abstract utility, and general reasoning, had been exploded long since. If ever it was proper, it was proper on general subjects, on the nature of man and his prospects in general. But the spirit of abstraction driven out of the minds of philosophers has passed into the heads of members of parliament: banished from the closets of the studious, it has taken up its favourite abode in the House of Commons. It has only shifted its ground and its objects according to the character of those in whom

it is found. It has dwindled down into petty projects, speculative details, and dreams of practical, positive matter of fact, improvement. These new candidates for fame come in awkwardly holding up the train of philo-· sophy; and, like the squires of political romance, invite you to sit down with them to the spoon-fulls of whipt syllabub, the broken scraps of logic, and the same banquet of windy promises which had been so much more handsomely served up, and to satiety, by their masters. I know nothing of Mr. Whitbread personally. His character stands fair with the public, for consistency and good intention. But I cannot recognise in his plodding, mechanical, but ill-directed and unsuccessful endeavours to bring to justice a great public delinquent, in his flowery common-place harangues, or, in the cold, philosophic indifference of the sentiments he has expressed upon the present occasion, either the genius, penetration, or generous enthusiasm, (regulated, not damped by the dictates of reason), which shall be equally proof against the artifices of designing men, against the sanguine delusions of personal vanity, or the difficulties, the delays, the disgust, and probable cdium to be encountered in the determined prosecution of such a task. The celebrated Howard fell a martyr to the great cause of humanity in which he embarked. He plunged into the depth of dungeons, into the loathsome cells of discase, ignominy, and despair, he sacrificed health and life itself as a pledge of the sincerity of his motives. But what proof has Mr. Whitbread ever given of his true and undissembled attachment to the same cause? What sacrifices has he made, what fatigues has he suffered, what pain has he felt, what privation has he undergone in the pursuit of his object, that he should be depended on as the friend and guardian of the poor, as the dispenser of good or ill to millions of his fellow beings The "champion" should be the "child" of poverty. The Author of our religion, when he came to save the world, took our nature upon him, and became as one of us: it is not likely that any one should ever prove the saviour of the poor, who has not common feelings with them, and who does not know their weaknesses and wants. To the officious inquiries. of all others, What then are we to do for, them? The best answer would perhaps be, Let them alone I return to the subject from which I set out, and from which I have wandered without intending it; I mean the system of Mr. Malthus, under the auspices of whose discoveries it seems the present plan is undertaken, though it differs in many

of its features from the expedients recommended by that author. I am afraid that the parent discovery may, however, in spite of any efforts to prevent it, overlay the ricketty offspring. Besides, the original design and principle gives a bias to all our subsequent proceedings, and warps our views without our perceiving it. Mr. Malthus's system must, I am sure, ever remain a stumbling block in the way of true political economy, as innate ideas for a long time confused and perplexed all attempts at philosophy. It is an ignis fatuus, which can only beguile the thoughtless gazer, and lead him into bogs and quicksands, before he knows. where he is. The details of his system are, I believe, as confused, contradictory, and uncertain, as the system itself. I shall, however, confine my remarks to the outlines of his plan, and his general principles of reasoning. In these respects, I have no hesita tion in saying, that his work is the most complete specimen of illogical, crude and contradictory reasoning, that perhaps was ever offered to the notice of the public. A clear and comprehensive mind is, I conceive, shewn, not in the extensiveness of the plan which an author has chalked out for himself, but in the order and connexion observed in the arrangerment of the subject and the consistency of the several parts. This praise is so far from being applicable to the reasoning of our author, that nothing was ever more loose and incoherent. "The latter end of his commonwealth always forgets the beginning." Argument threatens argument, conclusion stands opposed to conclusion. This page is an answer to the following one, and the next to that. There is hardly a sentence in the whole work, in which he seems to have had a distinct idea of his own macaning. The principle itself is neither new, nor does it prove any thing new; least of all, does it prove what he meant it to prove. His whole theory is a continued contradiction; it is a nullity in the science of political philosophy.-I must, however, defer the proof of these assertions to another letter, when, if you should deem what I have already said worthy the notice of your readers, I hope to make them out to their and your satisfaction.——A. O.

POOR LAWS.

STR,You appear to be sufficiently sensible, that the condition of the English peasantry, is extremely miserable. That the majority of them are entire strangers, not to the comforts only, but in a great measure to the necessaries of life, is a fact completely palpable to common observation. The

incessant labour which they are compelled to sustain, and the numberless privations to which they are subjected, cannot tail of exciting compassion in any mind, not utterly devoid of feeling. It not unfrequently happens, that the father of a family, after endu ring "the burden and heat of the day," on his return home in the evening, instead of enjoying that tranquillity and repose which he expects, and which his situation undoubtedly requires, is assailed by the most affecting and heart-rending cries of want, proceeding from his helpless, starving progeny. The quantity of foud, which the produce of his labour enables him to purchase, instead of affording a comfortable supply for his family, serves only to whet, while it does not by any means satisfy, the painful crav-ings of their hungry stomachs. This is assuredly an awful and tremendous picture of human wretchedness; but, it is far from being overcharged. Allow me to inquire, from whence it originates, and whether, if it cannot be wholly removed, it may not be possible to alleviate it. The unhappy suffer. er, you are well aware, charges his misfor tunes to the account of those, who, being elevated above him in rank and fortune, although others are very probably much interior to him, in point of intellectual and moral worth, treat him with the most insufferable insolence, cruelty, and contempt. That a very large share of blame, attaches to persons of this description, I feel most willing to allow; but, I do not think that they are chargeable with the whole of it Obviously

it is in their power, to allow the poor man an adequate compensation for his labour, to pay him that respect which is due to a fellow creature; and, by retrenching that enormous profusion of expenditure, which is every way adverse to their own enjoyment, to render his situation at once easy and comfortable. But, when may we expect to find the wealthy landlord, endeavouring to augment the happiness of his indigent, though sober and industrious tenant? When shall the rulers of a nation regard its interest, at the probable or even certain expence of their own? Assuredly not, so long as self-love continues to be the principal motive which influences human conduct. All forms of government, how multifarious and discordant soever they may be, have hitherto rested upon this basis. Unless, therefore, it were possible to devise a scheme, by which, while those individuals to whose care and direction the affairs of the nation are consigned, were resolutely pursuing their own interest, they could be made to promote that of the public, it is in vain to hope for effects

of this kind. But such a scheme is yet a desideratum in political science, and until it is otherwise, it behoves us not only to inform people of their duty considered abstractly; but what is infinitely more necessary, the duty of moral agents, placed in their circumstances. It is an axiom in morals, that the line of conduct which one man ought to pursue, would be quite unlawful for his neighbour, because their situations are extremely different. For example, do I know assuredly that the produce of my labour would enable me to maintain a family, decently, comfortably, and respectably? If so, then ought I to marry. But if on the other hand, I am fully convinced that the opposite of this is the case, it cannot possibly escape me, that the consequences resulting from such a conduct, must ultimately prove in the highest conceivable degree tragical. By entering into an alliance of this kind, I may give existence to human beings, whom it is morally impossible for me to supply with food, and still less so with education, and whose future lives must of course end in misery. Marriage in itself is an highly beneficial institution; and may be productive of an immense sum of pleasureable sensation; but, when it is not subject to proper restric tions, it becomes the veriest plague that ever cursed the human race. How frequently has the marriages of paupers entailed guilt, and its necessary concomitant misery, upon millions of innocent victims. Their children are immured to all those hardships, incident to cheerless poverty, from their earliest years, deprived of the means of useful knowledge, and doomed to earn a scanty subsistence within the walls of a manufac tory, very probably, at the expense of every sentiment and feeling, which could secure them the respect of the wise and good. The consequence is, the girls for the most part become common prostitutes, the boys acquire habits of vice, which can never afterwards be eradicated, and both are counted the banes of civil society. Notwithstanding, however, of the authenticity of these facts, there are not wanting those who maintain, "that marriage is honourable in all,” and who are perpetually exhorting the young and thoughtless of either sex, to form connections, which must inevitably embitter all their future days. The motives of such persons are confessedly virtuous; but they proceed, as it seems to me, upon an erroneous principle. Because the marriage contract is sanctioned by the command of the Deity, they suppose that it must on this account be the duty, as well as the interest, of each individual, capable of procreation, to

enter into it. They inform us, moreover, that its natural and necessary tendency, is to check the progress of vice; and this is partly true. But they forget to consider, that if the number of marriages among the lower orders of society, tend in effect, although it may be not in reality, to increase the population above the level of the means of subsistence, vice and misery, in their most hideous and destructive forms, must of consequence be introduced. There is nothing which I more anxiously wish to see, than an healthy and happy population; but, I shall in vain look for it, while the duty of moral restraint is so partially understood, and so little practised. Then only, as it should seem, may we hope that the people of England will cordially unite together, in asserting their just, their inalienable rights, immuni ties, and privileges, when they shall begin to contemn and anathematise that inhumanity, which seems to delight in nothing so much, as peopling the workhouse. When parents shall feel solicitous, that their children should, if they are unable to leave them a decent competence, at least have the means of providing for themselves, independent of the dear bought assistance of the great, then may they bid eternal defiance to the whole host of placemen, pensioners, blood-suckers and earth-worms. An Englishman never acts in character, but when he can proudly say to the world, "I shall not die in your debt: my children, thank heaven, are amply provided for, out of the produce of my industry: they do not want your pity, and they scorn to purchase your assistance." This is alone the language of an independent mind; a mind, that will not stoop to receive a favour, at the expense of its honour.-It does appear to me, that the frequency of marriage among the English peasantry, is the real cause of more than one half of that misery under which they now groan. We all know very well, that self-love is the motive, which prompts by far the majority of them. to enter into that contract; a desire for promoting the welfare of the community, is seldom found to exist in their breasts. Your readers will readily remember, the opinions of the inhabitants of Lilliput on this subject. Their notions," says Gulliver, "relating to the duties of parents and children, differ extremely from ours. For, since the conjunction of male and female is founded upon the great law of nature, in order to propagate and continue the species, the Lilliputians will needs have it, that men and women are joined together, like other animals, by the motives of concupiscence; and that their tenderness towards their young, proceeds

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from the like natural principle: for which reason, they will never allow that a child is under any obligation to his father, for begetting him, or to his mother, for bringing him into the world; which, considering the miseries of human life, was neither a benefit in itself, nor intended so by his parents, whose thoughts, in their love encounters, were otherwise employed."--Moral restraint with regard to marriage, the only rational and safe check to population, is a doctrine, which is little understood, and still less relished, by the generality of mankind. But, until its salutary tendency is perceived, and it shall have in some degree regulated human desires, and passions, and appetites, we shall in vain expect any great amelioration of the condition of the poor. They may still continue to suffer every species of cruelty from their superiors, and linger out a wretched existence, while the varied and accumulated evils, incident to cheerless poverty, will as invariably continue to prey upon them. And, so long as the marriage contract is entered into, with a thoughtlessness and levity, unworthy of rational beings, these effects must result from it. Obviously enough, therefore, the solemn inculcation of the doctrine of moral restraint with regard to it, becomes the duty of every friend to the best interests of human kind. The design of our glorious constitution will continue to be frustrated, and a gloomy train of petty tyrants and stock-jobbers will exist, while self-love is the motive which regulates the actions of the majority of mankind; but, notwithstanding this, the peasantry of England still have it in their power to be happy. They may be independent, if they are not yet mean enough to choose slavery, and thus entail misery on posterity. This subject is assuredly deserving of serious and impartial consideration, as it evidently involves our welfare and happiness. If I have erred in the elucidation of it, or, if I have advanced any opinion, which is dissonant to the dictates of sober and enlightened reason, I shall be happy to be better informed. Meanwhile, I remain, with every sentiment of esteem and respect, yours, &c.—SIMPLICIUS.--Aberdeen, Sunday, 1st. March,

1807.

THE WIDOW'S VINE.

SIR, The zeal with which you have, on many occasions, pointed out and stigmatized political profligacy and abuse in all its shapes, has very justly entitled you to the praise of an independent advocate and supporter of an enlightened and free press: and in any case you have, by false intelligence,

been betrayed into misrepresentation, you have with becoming candour been ready to acknowledge your error. This being, as I conceive, the character of your Political Register, you will not, I presume, incline to forfeit it in the instance which I now recall to your recollection. In the 4th number of the present volume, p. 127, is inserted a letter, under the invidious title " Oppression of Assessed Taxes," signed A. X. containing a charge as false as it is malicious, and tending to nothing less than to cast an unmerited odium on the characters of every Commissioner of the Property or Assessed Taxes, persons who act in these troublesome offices without fee or reward, under the authority of the law of the land, and the more solemn sanction of an oath. The whole letter, is a scandalous libel of which it would well become the Board of Taxes to take cognizance. The facts of the case so grossly misrepresented in that letter are these: Mrs. L-, a widow, who carrys on the business of a saddler at Newmarket, in Suffolk, has a vine growing against her house, it is planted in the public foot-path, and the stem is guarded by a few boards to protect it from the tread of the passenger. This vine was of course pruned, from time to time, and probably by a gardener. Mrs. L. however, was never assessed for such a servant, till the Inspector, receiving information, that she did occasionally employ a gardener, he surcharged her, as his duty enjoined him, for a five shilling servant. On the day of appeal the case was investigated by the commissioners, who, not out of their gracious condescension, but because they thought themselves in justice bound so to do, released the widow from the surcharge, and this without putting her either to trouble or expense; for her attendance was dispensed with: and the tax for keeping a gardener was not, as is falsely stated, confirmed.--I make no further comment on this scurrilous scribbler, but, leaving him, if known, to your lash, and if unknown, to your contempt.—I remain, Sir, your constant reader,—A COMMISSIONER OF TAXES, in the County of Suffolk, Feb. 21, 1807.

tion, from the rank of ensign to that of colcnel; that of his time of service, 13 years had been spent upon foreign stations, frequently under circumstances of great fatigue and danger; and, that, during the whole of the said service, he had never, upon any occasion, incurred the censure or displeasure of any one of his superiors, but had generally the satisfaction to meet with their marked approbation.-That brevet promotions in the army are made according to seniority of rank, and that for an officer to be passed over in such promotion is a deep disgrace to him. That, in the aforesaid month of Oct, 1803, a brevet promotion of majorgenerals took place, in which promotion the name of your petitioner was purposely omitted. That, sensible of the disgrace thus inflicted on him, and conscious that the infliction was unjust, he immediately applied to his Royal Highness the Duke of York, then and now commander-in-chief of his Majesty's forces, to know the cause of punishment so severe and unexpected. That it was upwards of two months before he received any answer at all to this application, and that he was then informed of the cause of his punishment, by a letter from the Duke of York, dated on the 10th of Dec. 1803, containing the following words:"It is an invariable rule of the service, not to include in any general brevet promo"tion, an officer (whatever may be his

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rank) against whom there EXIST CHARGES, "the merit of which has not been decided; "but, whenever an investigation shall have "taken place, and, should the result prove "favourable to you, there will not be any "difficulty in your recovering the rank, "which your seniority, as colonel, entitles

you." That, it was with great surprise, that your petitioner thus, for the first time, learnit, that there were charges existing against him; and, it was not without some degree of indignation, that he perceived, that he had been punished upon the ground of mere charges preferred in the dark; that these charges had never been communicated to him, and, morcover, that, even of the existence of which charges he was not informed, until upwards of two months after he had been punished, and had complained of his punishment. That your petitioner, upon receiving the letter aforesaid from the Duke of York, lost no time in most earnestly soliciting his Royal Highness to afford him information as to the nature and purport of the charges existing against him; but, that, unto his repeated entreaties for this purpose, no answer whatever was he able to obtain, until the 28th day of the ensuing

month of May, when, after having been thus kept in a state of suspense and disgrace for six months, he was informed, by order of the Duke of York, that he, the Duke of York, had now called upon Major Gordon (the accuser) to state WHETHER HE MEANT to bring forward any charges at all against your petitioner; so that, as your Honourable House will perceive, your petitioner was now informed, not of the nature of the charges against him, but that the Duke of York had not yet ascertained whether there were in EXISTENCE the grounds whereon to form any such charges, though, as it will be perceived by your Honourable House, your petitioner had actually been punished, upon the ground, as stated by the Duke of York himself, that CHARGES EXISTED against your petitioner in the preceding month of Oct. That your petitioner, conscious that no criminal charge could, with truth, be preferred against him, impatiently waited for the day of trial, which, however, to the great vexation and injury of your petitioner, was deJayed until the month of March 1805, though, according to the Duke of York's letter of the 10th of Dec. 1803, the charges actually existed against your petitioner in the month of Oct. preceding, a year and a half before it was thought proper to proceed upon them. That previous, however, to the assembling of the court martial, before whom your petitioner was sent, stigmatized with having now been passed over in two general brevet promotions, some circumstances occurred, to which your petitioner humbly presumes to solicit the particular attention of your Honourable House. That your petitioner having stated to Sir Charles Morgan, the then judge-advocate-general, his objection to Mr. Oldham as a person to officiate as judge-advocate at the approaching trial, and which objection was founded upon the partial conduct of Mr. Oldham upon a recent occasion, Sir C. Morgan informed your petitioner, that, in consequence of such objection, he had had an intention of appointing some other person to officiate at the court martial; but that he had recently received an application from the Duke of York, specially requesting that Mr. Oldham might officiate; and that this had determined him (Sir C. Morgan) to employ Mr. Oldham upon the occasion. That your petitioner, at no loss as to the motive of this interference, adhered the more resolutely to his aforesaid objection; but that, though he, finally, and with much difficulty, succeeded in this point, he, to his great mortification, found that, inmediately afterwards, the seat of the court martial, which was,