Ch. vii. Of Poor-LaivSy continued. 99 



those who have taken the lead in these efforts, but 

 merely that a part only of what has been attempted 

 is practicable. 



It is practicable to mitigate the violence and 

 relieve the severe pressure of the present distress, 

 so as to carry the sufferers through to better times, 

 though even this can only be done at the expense 

 of some sacrifices, not merely of the rich, but of 

 other classes of the poor. But it is impracticable 

 by any exertions, either individual or national, to 

 restore at once that brisk demand for commodities 

 and labour which has been lost by events, that, 

 however they may have originated, are now beyond 

 the power of control. 



The whole subject is surrounded on all sides by 

 the most formidable difficulties, and in no state of 

 things is it so necessary to recollect the saying of 

 Daniel de Foe quoted in the last chapter. The 

 manufacturers all over the country, and the Spi- 

 talfields weavers in particular, are in a state of 

 the deepest distress, occasioned immediately and 

 directly by the want of demand for the produce 

 of their industry, and the consequent necessity 

 felt by the masters of turning off many of their 

 workmen, in order to proportion the supply to the 

 contracted demand. It is proposed, however, by 

 some well-meaning people, to raise by subscrip- 

 tion a fund for the express purpose of setting to 

 work again those who have been turned off by their 

 masters, the effect of which can only be to continue 

 glutting a market, already much too fully supplied. 

 This is most naturally and justly objected to by 



H 2 



