98 



and consequently, the population would not have been so 

 greatly increased. In giving Poor Laws to Ireland, it is not 

 only intended to afford relief to the aged and impotent, but 

 to give employment to able-bodied labourers, and 1 feel 

 convinced that in the present state of that country, no plan 

 would prove so effectual to get the labourers into employ- 

 ment, as to make it lawful, in the intended Poor Laws, for 

 any parish, or district, where the majority of the occupiers 

 of the land shall think it necessary, to establish the system 

 of Labour Rate. 



1 feel conflicting opinions in my mind on the subject of 

 Emigration. It must be regretted that it should be thought 

 necessary, in times like the present, when there appears to 

 be a superabundance of corn. In my young days, the 

 population of a country was considered as wealth. A full- 

 employed population must ever be so, and it is most 

 certain that the larger the population of a country, the 

 greater the value of the land. Great as the population of 

 this country now is, and likely as it is to increase, I do not 

 think any apprehension need be entertained (assisted as 

 we are by the surplus produce of Ireland), of finding food 

 for the population, without any foreign assistance. A 

 general failure of the cotton crops, would be a most 

 alarming event to this country. The really important 

 consideration is, whether employment can be found for a 

 great increase of the number of the working classes. I 

 have heard manufacturers say, that their export trade is 

 likely so to increase, as to furnish employment for a great 

 additional number of hands. 1 doubt this; for every clay 

 they are making alterations in their machinery to lessen the 

 demand for manual labour. 1 hope my fears are ground- 

 less, but I confess that I have serious apprehensions, that 

 there may be, some years hence, great difficulty in finding 

 full employment for the labouring classes. There are 

 numbers of persons living on small incomes, derived from 

 the funds. It would be well if their number could be 

 increased threefold, for in England's vast hive of popu- 

 lation, there are, or at least I fear soon will be, too many 

 working bees : the harmony of the hive would perhaps be 

 better preserved by increasing the number of drones- The 

 large capitalists appear of late to be selling out of the 



