POOR. 



85 



Poor. with due care; and while those who distribute th-m 

 "Y""^ are not only able to understand correctly mo-t o 1 ' the 

 claims, but have also either a natural or a moral in- 

 terest in pit \< nt ing extravagant and unnecessary sup- 

 pliei. In England, the distinction, though laid down 

 in the law, was not made, in practice, correctly, and 

 perhaps could not well be made by the persons to 

 whom the execution was committed, previously to the 

 year 1H1J), when a new mode of proceeding was au- 

 thorized by statute, on improved principle-*, which has 

 already been of considerable advantage, but still re- 

 quires farther improvement. 



irietiej The state of the poor is diversified so much,, that a 

 the tate detail of its varieties would lead into statistical inves- 

 the poor, tjgations, far too extensive and elaborate for a work of 

 this nature. That state is widely different in large 

 towns from what it is in rural districts; it is different 

 in England, from what it generally is in Scotland ; 

 and still more widely different from both in Ireland : 

 there is a wide difference between the state of the poor 

 in these united kingdoms, and that in which they are 

 placed in other kingdoms in Europe, from Russia to 

 Naples ; the state of the poor in Asia and Africa, and 

 within the several parts of each of these quarters of the 

 globe, exhibits diversities even more remarkable. The 

 poor of the metropolis of England are in a different 

 state, in reality, from what appears in most other 

 cities and towns ; it has altered materially in Edin- 

 burgh, Glasgow, and other cities, of late ; the northern 

 and Highland parts of Scotland discover a state of the 

 poor, in many respects different from what occurs in 

 the central parts of it, where it also differs again from 

 their state in the borders ;. the state of the poor in 

 Scotland, at large, is very different from what it was 

 in former times: in England, also, an important change 

 has lately commenced, and is going on. 

 Uy It would be a task equally labo'rious and perplexing, 

 sub- to go through a particular detail of all these diversities 

 in the state of the poor. Perhaps it is owing chiefly to 

 the number and extent of these, compared with the 

 corresponding diversities of the modes adopted for 

 providing for them, and to the no less remarkable di- 

 versities of their consequences and effects, that the 

 subject of " the poor," embracing all these, has been 

 felt so exceedingly difficult. The causS of poverty 

 have not always been well understood, nor even the 

 very nature of it as an evil, nor the best means of alle- 

 viating its pressure: the modes adopted in one coun- 

 try do not answer well in some others; uncertainty 

 leads either to neglect of the poor, or to injudicious 

 modes of relieving them ; and not unfrequently the 

 most important virtues of industry and economy, and 

 the most endearing virtues and ties of charity and gra- 

 titude which ought to unite and to sweeten society, 

 are undermined by the injudicious administration of 

 the poor's funds. 



It cannot be denied that such have been the results 

 in practice, and therefore it is evident that in many 

 respects that practice has been faulty. Entire neglect 

 of the poor drives them to despair, and of course to 

 acts of desperation and violence ; laws and regulations 

 having no object, except to silence or suppress their 

 demands, are cruel, injudicious, and ineffectual. In 

 the indiscriminate supply of all who ask, the most 

 clamorous and worthless often supersede the most de- 

 serving and modest : if want be the sole measure of 

 the supply, without regard to character, conduct, or 

 consequences, temperance, industry, and economy are 

 subverted ; if right be admitted as the basis of the 



n in 



lice. 



rs in 

 Inciplc. 



poor'* claim, charity and gratitude are almost wholly Poor. 

 excluded. In these and other respecU, the practice ^^"f" * 

 may (.lien be justly considered bad; and yet, without 

 going into a det.nl of the many practical errors thus 

 committed, tome view f the correct principles of ad- 

 iiiiiiiitrtion may be attained. 



If poverty were in all its bearings an evil, its total Moral in- 

 removal out of the world might be considered as a * uene * ** 

 blessing. Hut though its preure is always felt and ' "* 

 viewed as an evil, its consequences are not always to 

 be considered in this light. That pressure, with all 

 its privations and sufferings, is a powerful btimulu* 

 to industry and economy. In its undefined, yet ob- 

 vious tendency towards absolute want, it also excites 

 our fears and our foresight ; and thus, though an evil 

 in its pressure. on those who are subjected to poverty, 

 and in the sympathetic views of the charitable who 

 consider their sufferings, it is the instrument of pre- 

 venting indolence and prodigality; and without the 

 sight and the pressure of it, human society could 

 hardly be maintained. These are not all the good ef- 

 fects which result from it; for poverty has often pro- 

 duced other happy moral effects, being favourable to 

 temperance, chastity, and other virtues ; nor are these 

 enlarged on here, though in the habits of considerate 

 and prudent foresight, and < f industry and economy, 

 as well as in their many and growing benefits, the in- 

 dividuals who cherish these habits are gainers, to a 

 high degree, as well as the community in which they 

 live. 



It may therefore be laid down as a principle, that to 

 banish poverty out of any community, would be a 

 vain and inconsiderate attempt ; and that its pressure 

 ought only to be so alleviated, as not to subvert its use- 

 ful influence on mankind. We may view it as one of 

 those apparent evils which occur in society, as the 

 sanction of habits and virtues necessary to its exist- 

 ence. 



The correct principles of the administration of the Extrrmt* 

 funds of charity, have certainly not yet been generally in managt- 

 understood ; otherwise the practice would have been m. 

 proportionally improved. Utter neglect of the wants 

 of the poor is one extreme, which has a dangerous and 

 obvious tendency to excite all the worst feelings of the 

 poor, and to stir them up to violence against indi- 

 viduals, and to hatred and rebellion against the laws. 

 The opposite extreme consists in making want, without 

 regard to conduct, the measure of the pauper's claim; 

 and in grounding this claim, not in charity but in 

 right, for thus are the best principles undermined, 

 both in the giver and the receiver, whose condition 

 indeed becomes so changed, as not to admit of the 

 correct application of the term pauper to one vested 

 with right, and consequently with power to enforce this 

 right at the expence of others. The sister kingdom In Ireland, 

 of Ireland furnishes top many instances of a near ap- 1*"*"- 

 proach towards the former extreme, and England to- laB<1 " 

 wards the latter. 



In Scotland, notwithstanding the rather boasted Tendency 

 superiority of the general mode of administration, t( 

 there is really a tendency towards both of these ex- 

 tremes. Many of the poor in the northern and High- 

 land districts are so neglected by landholders and their 

 men of business, as to be driven out into other parts of 

 the kingdom as common beggars, or to fall as a heavy 

 burden on the families near which they happen to re- 

 side ; and no adequate provision is made for the gene- 

 ral poor of some o l the respective parishes. In the south- 

 ern and border parishes, on the contrary, assessments art 



