THE PHILOSOPHY OF POVERTY. 45 



body of small landholders and landowners, that not long ago 

 formed one of the most valuable portions of the community. 



This assertion as to the demoralizing agency of the poor laws, can 

 in very few instances be brought to bear upon the degraded condi- 

 tion of the population in our large manufacturing towns ; because 

 these laws are generally administered by men of intelligence, and 

 with the strictest regard to the interests of the rate-payers. Thus, 

 in Lancashire, with its immense and moveable population with its 

 acknowledged moral, social, and religious depravity, the poor rate is 

 less, in proportion to the number of inhabitants, than in any other 

 county in England, amounting only to 4s. 8d. per head ; whilst in 

 some of the agricultural counties it amounts to 16s., 17s., or even 

 20s. lid. per head. 



The "philosophy of poverty" would thus appear to consist of de- 

 pravity, irreligion, and unlicensed wickedness. It is clear, from the 

 foregoing details, that it is not the absence of education, or of the 

 teachings of a pure religion, to which this state of things can be im- 

 puted it is clear too that it does not arise from utter and hopeless 

 poverty, nor from the maladministration of the poor laws. From 

 whence, then, does such a philosophy originate ? We are unwilling to 

 believe that it can be the spontaneous production of the civilized 

 mind. It is a state of things almost as debased as that which we find 

 even amongst the most barbarous of mankind, and yet it is the con- 

 dition of a large proportion of our fellow-citizens. 



We will not stay to discuss the question, but rather proceed to 

 point out such remedial measures as seem likely to introduce a better 

 philosophy than that at present governing these masses of the com- 

 munity 



The grand error has lain in the kind and degree of education con- 

 ferred upon the poor. As it is likely that further educational grants 

 will be given by parliament, and some general scheme will be con- 

 cocted for national instruction, the kind of education to be pursued 

 will be of immense importance to the future welfare of our country. 



First, then, what is now called education that is, the education of 

 the poor, to which our observations refer does not in any degree 

 merit the name. It has been well remarked, that the error of this 

 age is to substitute knowledge for wisdom, to educate the head, and 

 to forget that there is a more important education necessary for the 

 heart or, in other words, that the intellect is cultivated, and that 

 morals are neglected. This is strictly true ; and since education has 

 made such rapid progress, the morality of the people has undergone 

 a decided change for the worse. We do not wish the corollary to be 

 drawn from this, that intellectual education, per se, has done all the 

 mischief; what we mean to assert is, that it is a kind of education, 

 neither fitted for the wants nor the improvement of the poor, and that 

 they have thus been left exposed to mischievous agencies, both moral, 

 religious, and political. 



What benefit, we would ask, does the labouring man derive from 

 learning to read and to write ? many, is the answer. No doubt he 

 does he may read his Bible and he may find a source of perpetual 



