when the public undertakes for all. In a scheme published by Mr Hay, one article. is, to raise a stock for the poor by voluntary contributions, and to make up the deficiency by a parish-tax. Will individuals ever contribute, when it is not to relieve the poor, but to relieve the parish? Every hospital has a poor-box, which feldom produces any thing *. The great comfort of fociety is affiftance in time of need; and its firmeft cement is, the beftowing and receiving kindly offices, efpecially in distress. Now to unhinge or fufpend the exercise of charity by rendering it unneceffary, relaxes every focial virtue by fupplanting the chief of them. The confequence is difmal: exercife of benevolence to the distressed is our firmest guard against the encroachments of felfishness if that guard be withdrawn, felfishness will prevail, and become the ruling paffion. In fact, the tax for the poor has contributed greatly to the growth of * One exception I am fond to mention. The poor-box of the Edinburgh infirmary was neglected two or three years, little being expected from it. When opened, L. 74 and a fraction was found in it; contributed probably by the lower fort, who were afhamed to give their mite publicly. that that groveling paffion, fo confpicuous at present in England. English authors who turn their thoughts to the poor, make heavy complaints of decaying charity, and increasing poverty: never once dreaming, that these are the genuine effects of a legal provifion for the poor; which on the one hand eradicates the virtue of charity, and on the other is a violent temptation to idleness. Wonderfully ill contrived muft the English charity-laws be, when their confequences are to fap the foundation of voluntary charity; to deprive the labouring poor of their chief comfort, that of providing for themselves and children; to relax mutual affection between parent and child; and to reward, instead of punishing, idleness and vice. Confider whether a legal provifion for the poor, be fufficient to atone for fo many evils. No man had better opportunity than Fielding to be acquainted with the state of the poor let us liften to him. "That : "the poor are a very great burden, and that even a nuifance to the kingdom; "the laws for relieving their diftreffes and « restraining their vices, have not answer "ed; ❝ed; and that they are at prefent very "ill provided for and much worse go"verned, are truths which every one will acknowledge. Every perfon who hath property, must feel the weight of the tax that is levied for the poor; and e“ very person of understanding, must see "how abfurdly it is applied. So ufelefs "indeed is this heavy tax and so wretched 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 languifh in want and mifery; of the rest, 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 pro .. grefs through the outskirts of the me tropolis and look into the habitations of "the poor, we fhould there behold fuch pictures of human mifery, as must move the compaffion of every heart that deferves the name of human. "What indeed must be his compofition, " who "who could fee whole families in want of every neceffary of life, oppreffed with hunger, cold, nakedness, and filth; and "with diseases, the certain confequence of all these! The fufferings indeed of "the poor are lefs known than their mif“deeds; and therefore we are lefs apt to 66 pity them. They ftarve, and freeze, "and rot, among themselves; but they beg, and fteal, and rob, among their "betters. There is not a parish in the li"berty of Westminster, which doth not raise thousands annually for the poor; " and there is not a street in that liberty, "which doth not fwarm all day with beg .. gars, and all night with thieves." There is not a fingle beggar to be seen in Pensylvania. Luxury and idleness 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 proposals 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 slightest doubt of a legal provifion being necessary, tho' all our distresses arise evidently from that very cause. Travellers complain, of being infefted with an endless number of beggars in every English town; a very different fcene 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 hofpital for them when pregnant, disburdens them of their load, and nurses them till they be again fit for business: another hofpital cures them of the venereal difeafe and a third receives them with open arms, when, instead of defire, they become objects of averfion. Would not one imagine, that these hofpitals have been erected for encouraging proftitution? They undoubtedly have that effect, tho' far from being intended. Mr Stirling, fuperintendant of the Edinburgh poor-houfe, deferves a ftatue for a fcheme he contrived to reform common proftitutes. A number of VOL. III. them L |