Ch. iv. Objections to this Mode considered. 295 



is a melancholy and distressing sight to observe, 

 not unfrequently, a man of a noble and ingenuous 

 disposition, once feelingly alive to a sense of 

 honour and integrity, gradually sinking under the 

 pressure of circumstances, making his excuses at 

 first with a blush of conscious shame, afraid of 

 seeing the faces of his friends from whom he may 

 have borrowed money, reduced to the meanest 

 tricks and subterfuges to delay or avoid the pay- 

 ment of his just debts ; till ultimately grown fami- 

 liar with falsehood and at enmity with the world 

 he loses all the grace and dignity of man. 



To the general prevalence of indigence, and the 

 extraordinary encouragements which we afford 

 in this country to a total want of foresight and 

 prudence among the common people,* is to be 

 attributed a considerable part of those continual 

 depredations on property, and other more atro- 

 cious crimes which drive us to the painful resource 



* Mr. Colquhoun, speaking of the poor-laws, observes, that 

 '• In spite of all the ingenious arguments which have been used in 

 " favour of a system, admitted to be wisely conceived in its origin^ 

 " the efl'ects it has produced incontestably prove that, with respect 

 " to the mass of the poor, there is something radically wrong in the 

 " execution. If it were not so, it is impossible that there could exist 

 " in the metropolis such an inconceivable portion of human misery, 

 " amidst examples of munificence and benevolence unparalleled in 

 " any age or countiy." Police of Metropolis, c. xiii. p. 359. 



In the effects of the poor-laws I fully agree with Mr. Colquhoun ; 

 but I cannot agree with him in admitting that the system was well 

 conceived in its origin. I attribute still more evil to the original 

 ill conception, than to the subsequent ill execution. 



