492 
and, in proportion as that is dimi- 
nished, the number of paupers will be 
increased ; and, however the overseers 
may congratulate themselves on the 
apparent saving in giving an order for 
a few days’ labour instead of a few 
shillings, they will find, in the end, 
that they have gained nothing by the 
contrivance, for the families of the. 
labourers must be supported; and, as 
the rate of wages they have fixed is 
insufficient for that purpose, who but 
the overseers will ultimately be called 
upon to make up that deficiency? 
They will have even to do more, be- 
cause a man will make the greatest 
exertions, and suffer the greatest 
privations, to prevent himself and 
family from becoming chargeable ; but, 
when once the barrier is broken down, 
as it must be in numerous instances by 
a reduction in wages, he is invariably 
found to relax his own efforts, and rely 
more upon the parish. 
The effect of this system is more 
evident when applied to agricultural 
labourers, but the evil is equally great 
when it is acted upon in large towns: 
how often do parish-officers, on com- 
plaint of the master, act with harshness 
to men who have refused an offer of 
work at 10s. or 12s. per week, when 
the average wages have been from 
twenty to five-and-twenty shillings ; 
declaring that, if they had accepted the 
offer, they (the overseers) would wil- 
lingly have assisted them with some- 
thing more to enable them to support 
their families, without considering that, 
whenever a man obtains employment 
on such terms, some other man on full 
pay must be thrown out of it, and that 
the masters will never employ any 
others while they can obtain those to 
whom the-parish will pay a portion of 
their wages. 
It will no doubt appear unreasonable 
to many, that individuals, able to work, 
should be supported in the workhouse 
without being called upon to do any 
thing in order to reduce the expense ; 
but, let it be recollected, that their 
being there is a proof that the demand 
for labour has decreased, or, what is 
virtually the same thing, that the in- 
crease of labourers has overstocked the 
market ; and that, if those who cannot 
find employment elsewhere are taken 
into the house, and the produce of 
their labour carried into the market, it 
makes matters still worse, particularly 
asitis always sold below the fair mar- 
ket price; whereas, if all who were: 
The German Student, No. XXVI. 
{Jan 1, 
unable to support themselves, were 
taken into the workhouse, and not 
allowed or assisted by the overseers to 
underwork their neighbours, the rate of 
wages would be immediately increased ; 
and, in a short time, the demand for 
labour also, those who wanted labour- 
ers either for the production of agri- 
cultural stock, or manufactures, would 
take them from the workhouse at fair 
wages, and charge this increase to the 
consumers, who, as they derive all the 
benefit, certainly ought to bear the 
whole expense; by these means, the 
poor would be protected, and enabled 
to support themselves ereditably, 
while the burthen to the rate-payers 
would be diminished. The office of 
overseer of the poor is in some measure 
similar to that of the Roman tribune 
of the people; and, as the latter sup- 
ported the plebeians against the nobi- 
lity, so should the former protect and 
support the poor when they are no 
longer able to support themselves, nor 
to contend with success against the 
difficulties opposed to them by the 
rules, regulations, and restrictions, of 
socicty, constituted as it is at pre- 
sent. S. E. 
——— 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
THE GERMAN STUDENT. 
NO. XXVI. 
WIELAND continued. 
J HAT circumstances prepared 
the separation of Wieland and 
Bodmer, have not been clearly ascer- 
tained. Whether Bodmer | availed 
himself of Wieland’s pen too encroach- 
ingly,—for some have affected to trace 
the style of the latter in “Sir Percival,” 
and othér poems, circulated as Bod- 
mer’s; whether already Wieland’s 
admiration of ‘the White Bull” of 
Voltaire, and of various infidel works 
of the F'rench, began to give offence to 
an old man, who had much of the in- 
tolerance of faith; whether bis moral 
austerity restrained the young man 
inconveniently ;—in 1754 Wieland had 
quitted his host, had taken separate 
lodgings, and gave lessons in Greek 
to some pupils of family. He trans- 
lated, for the manager of the theatre 
at Zurich, Rowe’s ‘‘ Lady Jane Gray,” 
which was successfully performed as 
an original; and he composed a less 
popular tragedy on the story of Cle- 
mentina of Poretta. In 1758 Wieland 
accompanied these players to Bern, 
where he accepted a preceptorship in 
the house of M. Sinner. At Bern he 
became 
