Book II. relieved of that anxiety by the tax for the poor, his affection cools gradually, and he turns at last perfectly indifferent about them. Their independence, on the other hand, weans them from their duty to him. And thus, affection between parent and child, which is the corner-ftone of fociety, is in a great measure obliterated among the labouring poor. In a plan published by the Earl of Hillsborough, there is an article, obliging parents to maintain their indigent children, and children to maintain their indigent parents. Natural affection must indeed be at a low ebb, where fuch a regulation is neceffary: but it is neceffary, at least in London, where it is common to fee men in good bufinefs neglecting their aged and difeafed parents, for no better reafon, than that the parish is bound to find them bread: Prob tempora, proh mores!

The immoral effects of public charity spread still wider. It fails not to extinguish the virtue of charity among the rich; who never think of giving charity, when the public undertakes for all. In a fcheme 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 parifh? Every hofpital has a poor-box, which feldom produces any thing*. The great com. fort of fociety is affiftance in time of need; and its firmest cement is, the bestowing and receiving kindly offices, especially in diftrefs. Now to unhinge or fufpend the exercife of charity, by rendering it unneceffary, relaxes every focial virtue, by fupplanting the chief of them. The confequence is difinal: exercise of benevolence to the diftreffed is our fureft guard against the encroachments of selfishness: if that guard be withdrawn, selfishness will prevail, and become the ruling paffion. In fact, the tax for the poor has contributed

One exception I am fond to mention. The poor-box of Edinburgh infirmary was neglected two or three years, little being expected from it. When opened, £74 were found in it; befide a few fhillings and half-pence contributed probably by the lower fort, who were ashamed to give their mite publicly.

tributed greatly to the growth of that groveling passion, fo confpicuous at prefent in England.

English authors who turn their thoughts to the poor, make heavy complaints of decaying charity, and increafing 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, inftead of punishing, idlenefs 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 even a nuifance to the kingdom; that the laws for "relieving their diftreffes, and reftraining their vices, "have not anfwered, and that they are prefent very "ill provided for, and much worfe governed, are "truths which every one will acknowledge. Every "perfon who hath property, muft feel the weight of "the tax that is levied for the poor; and every perfon "of understanding muft fee how abfurdly it is applied. "So ufelefs indeed is this heavy tax, and fo wretched its difpofition, that it is a queftion, whether the ་་ or rich are actually more diffatisfied, fince the plun"der of the one ferves fo little to the real advantage "of the other for while a million yearly is raised << among the rich, mary of the poor are starved

poor

many more languifh in want and mifery; of the rest, "numbers are found begging or pilfering in the streets "to-day, and to-morrow are locked up in goals and "Bridewells. If we were to make a progrefs through "the outskirts of the metropolis, 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 muft be his compofition, who

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.Book II. "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 thefe! The fufferings indeed of the poor are lefs known than their mifdeeds; and there"fore we are lefs apt to pity them. They starve, and freeze, and rot, aniong themselves; but they beg, "and fteal, and rob, among their betters. There is "not a parish in the liberty of Westminster, which "doth not raife thousands 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 their maintenance out of the public treasury. But luxury and idleness cannot for ever be excluded and when they take place, 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 flighteft doubt, of a legal provifion being neceffary, tho' all our diftreffes arife evidently from that very caufe. Travellers complain, of being infested 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 furprise them to be told, that this proceeds from an overflow of charity in the good people of England!

Few inftitutions are more ticklish than thofe of charity. In London, common prostitutes are treated with fingular humanity: a hofpital for them when pregnant, difburdens them of their load, and nurses them till they be again fit for business: another hofpital cures them of the venereal disease: and a third receives them with open arms, when, inftead of defire, they become objects of averfion. Would not one imagine, that these hofpitals have been erected for encouraging prostitution? They undoubtedly have that effect, tho far from be

ing intended. Mr. Stirling, fuperintendant of the Edinburgh poor-house, deferves to be kept in perpetual remembrance, 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 by the fervants of the house. Pinching hunger did not reform their manners; for being fo abfolutely idle, they encouraged each other in vice, waiting im patiently for the hour of deliverance. Mr Stirling, with confent of the magiftrates, removed them to a clean houfe; and inftead 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 long for comfort: what would they not give for milk or ale? Work, fays he, will procure you plenty. To fome who offered to fpin, 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 reft undertook to spin, 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 plain, 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, 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 miniftry, propcfing to adopt the English parochial affeffiments as greatly preferable. This is a curious fact; for at the very fame time people in London, no lefs diffatisfied with these affeffiments, were writing pamphlets in praise 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

In every plan for the poor that I have seen, workhoufes make one article; to provide work for those who are willing, and to make those work who are unwilling. With refpect to the former, inen need never be idle in England for want of employment; and they always fucceed the best at the employment they chufe for themselves. With refpect to the latter, punishment will not compel a man to labour seriously: he may affume the appearance, but will make no progrefs; and the pretext of sickness or weakness is ever at hand for an excufe. The only compulfion to make a man work feriously, is fear of want.

An hofpital for the fick, for the wounded, and for the maimed, is an excellent establishment; being productive of good, without doing any harm. Such an hofpital fhould depend partly on voluntary charity; to procure which a general conviction of its being well managed, is neceffary. Hofpitals that have a fufficient fund of their own, and that have no dependence on the good will of others, are commonly ill managed.

Lies there any objection against a workhouse, for training to labour deftitute orphans, and begging children? It is an article in Mr. Hay's plan, that the workhouse should relieve poor families of all their children above three. This has an enticing appearance, but is unfound at bottom. Children require the tenderness of a mother, during the period of infantine difeafes; and even after that period, they are far from being fafe in the hands of mercenaries, who ftudy nothing but their own eafe and intereft. Would it not be better, to dif tribute finall fums from time to time among poor fami lies overburdened with children, fo as to relieve them from famire, not from labour? And with refpect to orphans and begging children, I incline to think, that it would be a more falutary measure, to encourage mechanicks, manufacturers, and farmers above all, to educate fuch children. A premium for each, the half in hand, and the other half when they can work for themselves, would be a proper encouragement. The beft-regulated orphans-hofpital I am acquainted with, is that of Edinburgh. Orphans are taken in from every corner, provided only they be not under the

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