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A WORD FOR THE POOR TO LORD ALTHORP. 



[WE give insertion to the following letter, because we deem it a 

 duty to submit to our readers remarks properly and sensibly urged 

 on so vital a subject as the present alterations in our Poor Laws. 

 In the articles which have already appeared in the " Monthly," we 

 have freely expressed our opinion as to the impropriety, and indeed 

 impracticability, of many of the proposed alterations ; but the chief 

 point of our objection has been grounded upon the despotic principle 

 of the measure the irresponsible power granted to certain indivi- 

 duals over the liberties, and we may almost say, existence of a large and 

 unfortunate class of our fellow-beings. That the poor laws require 

 revision, we have never attempted to deny ; and some of the recom- 

 mendations of the commissioners appear to be grounded upon correct 

 observation ; and here we are obliged to say, the very part urged by 

 our correspondent, as the principal point of his hostility to the mea- 

 sure, is that which appears to us the least objectionable, viz. that 

 "no relief should be granted to the poor, except in the workhouse." 

 Upon what has this recommendation of the commission been found- 

 ed ? Upon the fact which has been but too obvious to them, that the 

 whole of our agricultural population is in a state of pauperism ; tha tis, 

 they receive part of their wages from the poor-rates, instead of being 

 wholly supported by the land on which they labour. And how has this 

 been effected ? The farmers who manage the rates have unjustly con- 

 trived to make the public pay the wages of their labourers. Is this 

 just? It is a mistake to say that the labourer has a right to look to 

 the public for payment ; it is to the land he must look, and the object 

 of not granting out-door relief is to force the rich and greedy land- 

 holders to enable those who labour for him to live. Before one 

 penny of rent goes into his pocket, all the legitimate burdens upon 

 the land ought to be paid, and labour above all ; if no surplus re- 

 main in the shape of rent, it becomes then the duty of the legislature 

 to seek for the evil ; and, perhaps, when people become disabused of 

 the absurdity of sending rich landed proprietors to parliament, some 

 glimmering of that evil may be discernible in the CORN LAWS. When 

 bread is more than double the price in England than it is in France ; 

 and when the wages of the agricultural labourer are lower in England 

 than they are in France ; it requires no great wit to see that some- 

 thing is radically wrong, and any man not blinded by self-interest 

 will discover that in the CORN LAWS. We do not hesitate to say, 

 that, in England, where the price of bread is double that of our 

 neighbours, there is more real misery among the producers of that 

 bread than among the same class of any other nation in the civilized 

 world. We had better allow the land to run into a huge common, 

 and every man turn his hand to commerce and manufacture, and the 

 labour attendant thereon, than remain in such a state. If there were 

 no CORN LAWS, there would be no occasion now to build jails for 

 the poor. But we will not here trust ourselves further on this subject, 

 let our correspondent argue the matter his own way. ED.] 



M. M. No. 106. 3 I 



