NOTES AND EVENTS OF THE MONTH. 575 



he can, provided the provocation be not offered within the precincts of a 

 Law Court ; which (and which only ?) renders him liable to a criminal 

 action at law. Here again, then, we have the Judges versus the Law. 

 Really, this is too provoking. Is law law ? is it to be abided by ? may it 

 be infringed ? in what cases ? by whom ? are there places of sanctuary, 

 where timid people may receive insults without losing caste, by re- 

 senting them in a certain way ? is it penal for a man to be a man of 

 honour ? is it legal to break the laws ? which of them ? when ? how ? 

 and to what extent ? Surely, it is not too much to require this necessary 

 information : and we pause for an opinion from the twelve Judges. 



ALIMENT FOR THE POOR. There has been a great deal of talk, lately, 

 by and about one of the metropolitan vestries, upon the subject of pauper 

 provender. It appears from a very nicely digested estimate, that the 

 able-bodied poor may be maintained by a parish, at the rate of fifteen - 

 penceh-a'penny per stomach per day no, not per day, we beg pardon, 

 per week which of course reduces the diurnal expenditure to twopence 

 half-farthing ; the number in ounces of fluid and solid nutriment bread 

 and broth in several luxurious varieties being carefully stated, so as to 

 enable other figurative overseers, in other parishes, to check the total 

 summation if they will. It also appears, that the poor-law commis- 

 sioners, upon becoming acquainted with this fact, felt themselves scan- 

 dalously outraged by such a piece of wilful and flagrant extravagance, 

 against which, moved by a proper spirit of economy, they determined 

 resolutely to set their faces. Whereupon the incensed overseers of the 

 parish alluded to, took it upon themselves to declare before their rate- 

 paying constituents in solemn vestry assembled, the sore wound which 

 their own humanity had sustained by the stinting interdiction of the said 

 commissioners, and appealed to the meeting, whether, as men and free- 

 born Britons, as fathers, husbands, and brothers, they would countenance 

 such shocking illiberality as that contemplated by the board ? Loud and 

 indignant cries of shame and other vocal missiles, were launched against 

 this spirit of parsimony ; and the meeting, much to its own honour, 

 testified alike its detestation of short commons and its approbation of the 

 Samaritan-like sympathy displayed by their fifteen- penny overseers 

 who, accordingly, came off with flying colours. 



It is not our intention, as it never could be our desire, to bring into 

 contempt the efforts of the Poor-law Board ; and we expect nothing less 

 than the most kindly and liberal construction will be placed on our ob- 

 servations. But we do thinkthat, forasmuch as the objectof the legislature, 

 in appointing it, was avowedly to save parochial expenses, it would be 

 more manly and straightforward, more strictly in accordance with the 

 spirit of the act cot to approach in these slow degrees the actual starving 

 point ; but at once, and by a bold practice (as the doctors call it) to 

 reach the goal of intention by mercifully starving the wretched creatures 

 out of hand. This would spare them the miseries of suspense, and 

 effect an entire saving to every parish in a surprisingly short time ; 

 all parties paupers, rate-payers, and commissioners, would speedily 

 attain the common object ; the sufferings of the poor would be promptly 

 determined, parishioners would save their money, the central board its 



