Ch. viii. of the Poor- Laws proposed. 347 



vantage in the state of her poor, 'the superiority is 

 entirely to be attributed to these favourable cir- 

 cumstances, and not to the poor-laws. A woman 

 with one bad feature, may greatly excel in beauty 

 some other, who may have this individual feature 

 tolerably good ; but it would be rather strange to 

 assert, in consequence, that the superior beauty 

 of the former was occasioned by this particular 

 deformity. The poor-laws have constantly tended 

 to counteract the natural and acquired advantages 

 of this country. Fortunately these disadvantages 

 have been so considerable, that though weakened 

 they could not be overcome ; and to these advan- 

 tages, together with the checks to marriage, which 

 the laws themselves create, it is owing that Eng- 

 land has been able to bear up so long against this 

 pernicious system. Probably there is not any 

 other country in the world, except perhaps Hol- 

 land before the revolution, which could have acted 

 upon it so completely for the same period of time, 

 without utter ruin. 



It has been proposed by some to establish poor- 

 laws in Ireland ; but from the depressed state of 

 the common people, there is little reason to doubt, 

 that, on the establishment of such laws, the whole 

 of the landed property would very soon be ab- 

 sorbed, or the system be given up in despair. 



In Sweden, from the dearths which are not un- 

 frequent, owing to the general failure of crops in 

 an unpropitious climate and the impossibility of 

 great importations in a poor country, an attempt 

 to establish a system of parochial relief such as 



