acknowledge. Every perfon who hath property, must feel the weight of the tax that is levied for the poor; and

every person of understanding, must fee "how abfurdly it is applied. So ufelefs "indeed is this heavy tax, and fo wretch"ed its difpofition, that it is a question, "whether the poor or rich are actually

more diffatisfied; fince the plunder of "the one ferves fo little to the real advantage of the other; for while a million yearly is raised among the rich, many of the poor are starved; many more languish in want and mifery; of the reft, numbers are found begging or pilfering in the streets to-day, and to66 morrow are locked up in gaols and "Bridewells. If we were to make a progrefs through the outskirts of the metropolis and look into the habitations of "the poor, we should there behold fuch

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pictures of human misery, as must move "the compaffion of every heart that de"ferves the name of human. What in"deed must be his compofition, who "could fee whole families in want of every neceffary of life, oppreffed with hunger, cold, nakedness, and filth; and with "diseases,

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"difeafes, the certain confequence of all "these! The sufferings indeed of the poor

t

are less known than their misdeeds ; " and therefore we are lefs apt to pity "them. They ftarve, and freeze, and rot,

among themselves; but they beg, and "steal, and rob, among their betters. "There is not a parish in the liberty of "Westminster, which doth not raise thou"fands annually for the poor; and there "is not a street in that liberty, which "doth not fwarm all day with beggars, "and all night with thieves."

There is not a fingle beggar to be seen in Penfylvania. Luxury and idlenefs have got no footing in that happy country; and those who fuffer by misfortune, have maintenance out of the public treasury. But luxury and idlenefs cannot for ever be excluded; and when they prevail, this regulation will be as pernicious in Penfylvania, as the poor-rates are in Britain.

Of the many propofals that have been published for reforming the poor-laws, not one has pierced to the root of the evil. None of the authors entertain the flightest doubt of a legal provifion being neceffary, tho' all our diftreffes arife evidently from

that

that very cause. Travellers complain, of being infested with an endless number of beggars in every English town; a very different scene from what they meet with in Holland or Switzerland. How would it surprise them to be told, that this proceeds from an overflow of charity in the good people of England!

Few inftitutions are more ticklish than those of charity. In London, common. prostitutes are treated with fingular humanity: a hospital for them when pregnant, difburdens them of their load, and nurfes them till they be again fit for business: another hospital cures them of the venereal difeafe and a third receives them with open arms, when, instead of desire, they become objects of averfion. Would not one imagine, that these hospitals have been erected for encouraging prostitution? They undoubtedly have that effect, tho' far from being intended. Mr Stirling, fuperintendant of the Edinburgh poor-house, deferves a ftatue for a scheme he contrived to reform common prostitutes. A number of them were confined in a houfe of correction, on a daily allowance of three pence; and even part of that small pittance was embezzled

embezzled by the fervants of the house. Pinching hunger did not reform their manners; for being abfolutely idle, they encouraged each other in vice, waiting impatiently for the hour of deliverance. Mr Stirling, with confent of the magiflrates, removed them to a clean house; and instead of money, which is apt to be fquandered, appointed for each a pound of oat-meal daily, with falt, water, and fire for cooking. Relieved now from distress, they longed for comfort: what would they not give for milk or ale? Work, fays he, will procure you plenty. To fome who offered to spin, he gave flax and wheels, engaging to pay them half the price of their yarn, retaining the other half for the materials furnished. The fpinners earned about nine pence weekly, a comfortable addition to what they had before. The rest undertook to fpin, one after another; and before the end of the first quarter, they were all of them intent upon work. It was a branch of his plan, to fet free fuch as merited that favour; and fome of them appeared fo thoroughly reformed, as to be in no danger of a relapse.

The ingenious author of The Police of France,

France, who wrote in the year 1753, obferves, that notwithstanding the plentiful provifion for the poor in that kingdom, mentioned above, there was a general complaint of the increase of beggars and vagrants; and adds, that the French political writers, diffatisfied with their own plan, had prefented feveral memorials to the ministry, propofing to adopt the Englifh parochial affeffments, as greatly preferable. This is a curious fact; for at that very time, people in London, no less diffatisfied with thefe affeffments, were writing pamphlets in praife of the French hospitals. One thing is certain, that no plan hitherto invented, has given fatisfaction. Whether an unexceptionable plan is at all poffible, feems extremely doubtful.

In every plan for the poor that I have feen, workhoufes make one article; to provide work for those who are willing, and to make those work who are unwilling. With respect to the former, men need never be idle in England for want of employment; and they always fucceed the beft at the employment they chufe for themselves. With refpect to the latter, punishment