still is it for her, that, from an experience of neap 

 two hundred years, {he finds, that, under a wise an4 

 simple mode of economy, which Ihe has discovered 

 in the management of the poor, {he ig able, by vo- 

 luntary contributions alone, to support her poor a^ 

 well as the state of the case requires, without having 

 recourse to any legal compulsitor. 



The poors laws in England may fumifh one of the 

 roost satisfactory lefsons in political ec onomy that 

 can be any where met with. Nothing could be more 

 deserving the applause of men than the principle 

 which suggested these regulations. Justice and be- 

 nevolence, humanity and prudence, seeme4 for once tcj, 

 have been united in lending their aid to this institution. 

 No evil that could be foreseen was not carefully guar- 

 ded against ; and the framers of these laws exulted 

 in the thought that they had attained to a perfection 

 in beneficent legislation, that had never beforp been 

 experienced on the globe. Wisdom and humanity 

 triumphed over niggardly parsimony, and churlifh 

 selfilhnefs ; such was the idea universally entertain- 

 ed of this important political regulation by all the 

 thinking part of mankind, when new adopted. Not 

 a difsenting voice was to be heard, and universal sa- 

 tisfaction resounded through the whole land. How 

 circumscribed is the wisdom of man I How misera- 

 bly different have been the real effects, from what 

 were expected to result from this regulation ! — men 

 were not more unanimous then in praise of it, than 

 they now are in condemning it. What appeared in 

 prospect so infinitely attractive, has proved in reality 

 inconceivably destructive. It will be well if this 

 striking example of the fallacy of relying on specu- 

 htive principle Sf in regulating the practical concerat o£ 



