Adaai State of the British Empire. iCl 



safely be depended on, but not as a principal. ** He that runs 

 against time,**' says Johnson, " has an antagonist not subject 

 to casualties ;" and the same may be said of him that strives 

 against want. The supply and the demand being totally differ- 

 ent in their nature, can never be made to quadrate with each 

 other. They are things which are not in the same category. 

 The most benevolent temper will become wearied of applica- 

 tions perseveringly continued, or impatient of claims which 

 are never remitted, or negligent of wants which are diffidently 

 urged. To count upon such a resource, as a regular and 

 never-failing supply, correspondent to the cravings of human 

 wants, would argue a gross ignorance of human nature, and of 

 civilized society. In rural situations, where every individual 

 instance of distress obtrudes itself on the notice of the neigh- 

 bourhood, it might happen that private charity would often be 

 found adequate to its object ; but the case would be far other- 

 wise in great cities. It is in these vast receptacles of poverty 

 and crime that we are to seek for the deep and fathomless 

 recesses of human misery. It is there where poverty retires 

 to its cellar or garret to perish unseen ; where no eye witnesses 

 its decline, and no ear listen to its complainings. In great 

 towns, the most unquestionable and self-evident claims could 

 never depend on receiving that regular supply which, to the 

 human frame, even for its essential wants, is absolutely indis- 

 pensable. 



But to all these objections, and many others which might be 

 urged against the abolition of the poor-laws, a triumphant 

 answer is given, by appealing to the instance of Scotland, and 

 many other countries where no such system has ever been 

 introduced. Here, say they, is a direct appeal to fact and 

 experience, the only test which that class of reasoners who 

 call themselves plain, practical men, will admit to be valid. 

 That fact and experience are the surest guides of human con- 

 duct no one will attempt to deny ; but we must always be 

 sure that the experience we cite is applicable to the case in 

 question, and that the facts which are forced into comparison 

 are really analogous. The case of Scotland is, in many impor- 

 tant respects, a complete anomaly in the history of nations. 

 The system of parish education there established, diffuses 



JULY— SEPT. 1823. M 



