THE INCUBUS OF TAXATION 121 



they accept it. Small blame to them; in fact we should 

 probably do precisely the same thing if we were in their 

 position. " Any port in a storm " is good enough for 

 them. 



But this is not doing the best for the people; this is 

 not uplifting them, but casting them down; this is not 

 encouraging self-help and individual independence, but 

 creating a weak, limp, nerveless condition, which has to 

 be bolstered up by outside support. We are really doing 

 our best to bring about the complete demoralisation of 

 the poorer classes, and it is no wonder that our pauper 

 ranks continue to be well recruited. 



That this state of affairs constitutes a grave danger New 



Practical 



to the commonweal by sapping the manhood of the Legislation 

 nation there is no shadow of a doubt, and it behoves us ^i"""® 

 to go back on our tracks, pick up the loose threads of 

 feeble legislative measures, knit them together in a firm, 

 tight skein, and then weave them into one solid, sensible, 

 practical law that will make the people self-respecting 

 and self-supporting ; a law that will help and not hinder 

 the people from becoming free and independent citizens, 

 and that will relieve the unfortunate tax-payer of an 

 iniquitous burden which is as unjust as it is unnecessary. 



We may be sure that a great amount of nonsense and 

 twaddle will be talked the moment a proposal is made to 

 alter these hopelessly impossible Poor Laws. 



So-called philanthropists will rise up in indignant 

 wrath at the very name of reform, and every attempt 

 wiU be made to show that any alteration in existing laws 

 would be cruel and barbarous, and an outrage to the 

 deserving poor. Then again bumbledom wiU rise up as 



