4811.) 
whose blissful land is freed from the an- 
noyance 
Of thorny evil, or perplexing fear. 
, The third court, or the Virtuous Life, 
is now to be examined by the strangers. 
Lofty groves, and delicious bowers, en- 
circling a luminous enamelled meadow, 
are there depicted: these are the abode 
of all the Virtues, and of Happiness, 
whose palace, encircled by a golden wall, 
has a gate of diamond. 
Hence are expelled Blindness and Error, 
aud high-boasting Pride, Intemperance, 
Lust,Wrath, Avarice, and all the Plagues 
which, in the first court, oppressed the 
pupil. On his admission, the Virtues 
approach to hail their enraptured guest, 
See Knowledge grasping a refulgent star ; 
See Fortitude in panoply of war; 
Justice her even scale aloft displays, 
And rights both human and divine she weighs. 
_ There Moderation, Liberality, Temper- 
ance, Meekness, Probity, attend to lead 
their votary to Happiness, the rewarder of 
the just. 
They are then directed toa lofty castle, 
This majestic pile extends its front above 
_a hill, whose boundless prospect com- 
mands the courts below. _ Within the 
porch, high on a jasper throne, sits Hap- 
piness, the imperial mother, who adorns 
her hero with a starry crown, 
honourable meed 
Of conquests won by many a valiant deed. 
_ The curiosity of the strangers enquires 
what conquests. They learn that these 
were of the moral kind: that he had sube 
dued the Bad Habits, formidable beasts, 
to which he was once a weak prey, nearly 
devoured ; until rouzed from his sloth, he 
‘attacked them and curbed with a power- 
‘fal chain. The hierophant describes 
these foes of mankind, Error, Ignorance, 
Impatience, Incontinence, Avarice, and 
nombers more; and again panegyrizes, as 
man’s proper bliss, independent of power 
and wealth, a self-approving conscience, 
the true substantial peace. 
: a 
To the Editor of the. Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
EFORE the destruction of monas- 
teries, the poor were under the pro- 
tection cf the church, afterwards commit- 
ted to parish-ofticers; and the very excellent 
le established by the statute of 
izabeth, for their food, clothing, and em® 
ployment, was only defeated by the mode 
lopted for .enforcing it—the principle 
was nationat; the practice, parochial. 
Limiting the barthen to a mere parochial 
, 
Observations on the Poor Laws. 
li 
fund, laid the foundation of the evils 
which followed ; these have rendered the 
machinery so very complex, that very few, 
even of the lawyers themselves, understand 
the subject. The number of legal deci- 
sions of the superior courts upon Settle- 
-ment Cases, from the Quarter Session; 
form as complete a code of jaws for be« 
wildering and confounding the judgment, 
as ingenuity could suggest. 
This statute, in the same breath in 
which it announced a great national prin- 
ciple, crippled and bound itin swaddling- 
clothes, by declaring, that every parish 
should maintain its own poor ; for, questi- 
ons arising who where to be considered 
as the poor of the parish, several! acts af- 
terwards passed to ascertain them. Tao 
enter into the detail would be tedious; but 
from the multiplicity of statutes and de- 
cisions, the settlement of the poor now 
depends upon ten distinct general heads : 
Birth, Apprenticeship, Certificate, Estate, 
Hiring and Service, Marriage, Office, Pur= 
chase, Rating, and Renting a Lenement. 
Funds destined to the relief of the languid 
and distressed, have been dissipated in 
attempting to remove the burthen of ‘ 
maintenance from limits, in which the un- 
happy wanderer sought shelter. 
For more than two centuries have the 
poor been driven up and down, often af- 
flicted with disease and infirmity, to the 
imminent danger of life. Let us imagine 
a poor woman just delivered of a child, 
deserted by her husband, and cast upot 
the parish, waiting for the Doctor’s cers 
tificate of her being sufficiently recovered 
to be removed to a distant settlement 
in an inclement season. Upon such oc- 
casion, an appeal to the passions may be 
fairly allowed, for it is only by arousing 
the feelings, we hope to meliorate the. 
condition of the poor. y 
National protection is not confined to 
locality, nor.can the pauper receive a bet- 
ter or cheaper maintenance, by transport- 
ing him to a place of settlement near 200 
miles. 
If the desire for reform. be sincere, w@ 
must not affect alarm at novelty in prac- 
tuce, convinced by experience of the utter 
insufficiency of particular systems : to suf 
fer them to remain, is shutting our eyes 
against the light, and sinning against con- 
viction. To meliorate what is false, isa 
vain attempt; radical defects may be re- 
moved, but never admit of improvement, 
Many laws have passed; and as many thou- 
sands pursuing the same plan, would be 
equaily fruitless. What is the cause of the 
removal? the answer is, to get rid of the 
burthes. 
