348 Plan of the gradual Abolition Bk. iv. 



that in England (if it were not speedily abandoned 

 from the physical impossibility of executing it) 

 would level the property of the kingdom from one 

 end to the other, and convulse the social system 

 in such a manner, as absolutely to prevent it from 

 recovering its former state on the return of plenty. 



Even in France, with all her advantages of 

 situation and climate, the tendency to population 

 is so great, and the want of foresight among the 

 lower classes of the people so remarkable, that if 

 poor-laws were established, the landed property 

 would soon sink under the burden, and the wretch- 

 edness of the people at the same time be in- 

 creased. On these considerations the committee 

 de Mendicite, at the beginning of the revolution, 

 very properly and judiciously rejected the esta- 

 blishment of such a system, which had been pro- 

 posed. 



The exception of Holland, if it were an excep- 

 tion, would arise from very particular circum- 

 stances — her extensive foreign trade and her nu- 

 merous colonial emigrations, compared with the 

 smallness of her territory, together with the ex- 

 treme unhealthiness of a great part of the country, 

 whichocccasions a much greater average mortality 

 than is common in other states. These, I con- 

 ceive, were the unobserved causes which princi- 

 pally contributed to render Holland so famous for 

 the management of her poor, and able to employ 

 and support all who applied for relief. 



No part of Germany is sufficiently rich to sup- 

 port an extensive system of parochial relief; but 

 I am inclined to think, that from the absence of it 



