Actual State of the British Empire, 163 



the mischief checked in its bud. But such advice is vain, as 

 well as pernicious. If we are determined to force the growth 

 of our people in the hot-bed of our national wealth, we cannot 

 abandon them in the weakness to which our processes may 

 reduce them. 



I am aware of only one more consideration on this subject 

 which is deserving of much attention. Our contest with the 

 poor-laws, it is said, is a '* helium ad inter necionemy* and that 

 we have to do with an enemy, which, if we do not destroy it, 

 ■will eventually destroy us, and afterwards itself. According 

 to the progress which the system is now making, we are told 

 that, at no very distant period, the whole produce of the soil, 

 and the productive labour of the country, must be absorbed ia 

 parochial taxation. This anticipation, I presume, is sufficiently 

 removed by the calculations in a preceding part of this Essay, 

 by which it is shown that scarcely any virtual increase has 

 taken place in the poor-rates during the last half-century. 

 Some persons, who are unwilling to go the whole length of 

 abolishing the poor-laws, and yet are alarmed at the danger 

 which they conceive to be impending, would limit the future 

 amount of the poor-rates to a definite sum, which should not, 

 in any case, be exceeded. Nothing could be more cruel and 

 unjust than such a regulation, considering the fluctuations to 

 which the value of money and the prices of necessaries are 

 constantly liable. If, however, it is resolved to legislate further 

 in this very difficult subject, I should prefer a statute which 

 enacted that no more than a certain fixed proportion (the pre- 

 sent amount of the poor-rates, for example) of the annual 

 rental of the real property of the country should hereafter be 

 devoted to the support of the poor. By such a law the danger 

 of unlimited increase would be removed, and the changes 

 would, in some degree, be provided for, which are constantly 

 taking place in the value of money, of labour, and of commo- 

 dities. I suggest this idea, however, with the greatest hesi- 

 tation, not being, probably, aware of half the objections to 

 which it is liable ; but of this I am thoroughly satisfied, that 

 the abolition of the poor-laws, in the present condition of the 

 empire, cannot be attempted without the risk of greater 

 miseries than have been witnessed in Europe since the revival 



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