
1797+] 
and extends about ten fect either way. 
Many bones were lying there, but as it 
is long fince it’‘was opened, J could learn 
nothing of the pofition in which they 
were found. The vault is very rudely 
conftruéted : it is on a level with the 
field, covered over with ftones and rub- 
bifh, but fo irregularly, as to prefent 
no appearance of a tumulus. 
T thal! be obliged to any of your rea- 
ders who can inform me, at what period 
thefe modes of fepulture were common. 
Brifiol, Fan. 28. B. 
; ee 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
ape regulate judicioufly the internal 
policy of ftates is a more dificult 
matter, than to maintain ae external 
"relations. Of this internal policy there 
is no dopey! more involved in dif- 
ficultie, than the management of that 
numerous clafs of modern {cci el termed 
the Poor. 1 fay cf modern Joct 
among the nations properly termed az= 
cient, no fuch clafs of citizens is heard 
of. Our anceftors, at no very remote 
period, were ignorant of the exiftence of 
aclafs of people who were to be fup- 
ported at the public expences and fo- 
reign countries, nay, even our near 
neighbours, the Scotch, till within a few 
years, had no fuch eftablifhments, and, 
comparatively fpeaking, had no poor. 
The idea of fupporting one clafs of ci- 
tizensvat sine ,expence of the reft, firft 
originated in this country ; and the j im- 
menfe increafe of the number requiring 
to be fo fupported, fince that period, 
isa proof | that there was fomething er- 
_ roneous in the original inftitution. 
To regulate, or to abolifh, an infti- 
tution, which increafes the evil it was 
ely, 10f 
meant to obviate, which reware, and » 
encourages yice and- profligecy, while 
ae oppreli es the prudent and atte chtive, is 
a problem which has emplo re the wifeit 
heads, and the beft patriots of this coun- 
try.. That Mr. Pirr thould attempt to 
fucceed in what fo many great men haye 
failed, will not furprize any cne who 
has poled the arrogance which has 
prompted him to tear away fome of the 
firmeft fupports of the conttitution of the 
country, as well as the rafhne{s which he 
has difplayed on many other impértant 
occafions. | 
I fhall notice fome of the ciaiufes in the 
intended bill, and endeavourto prove their 
inadequacy to preduce the propoted efed. 
The intention of allowing a fhiling 
~ per week toa poor family, for each child, 
ie BONTHLY Mac. No.X1V. 
Inutility and Evils of Mr. Pitt's Poor Bill. 
is not’ made the firft claufe of the ac 
Without a meaning. 
with that little policy by which the mi- 
nifter has attempted to regulate the af- 
fairs of great nations. It is a bait to 
eatch the firaggling benevolence, as it has 
been moft aptly termed, of many well- 
meaning people. The notion of its be- 
nevolence will be widely diffufed among 
the poor, who, hearing that for every 
‘idle child they are to receive a fhilling 
per week, will extol the goodnefs cf Mr. 
Pir, and with for the exiftence of the 
law. But let me afk any reafonable man, 
whether this fhilling per week is not an 
inducement for the poor mau to keep his 
child ignorant and idle, becaufe when. 
able to work this premium for idlenefs 
ceafes. : 
The plan of uniting parifhes, except 
in cafes where in contiguous parifhes 
great inequality in the numbers of the 
pocr is founds which is already done, I 
highly difapprove, for reafons which will 
appear more fully among the improve- 
ments which I fthall fugeett on this fub- 
ject. The more men are broken into 
{mall focteties, the more eafly are their 
interefts underftood, and the better they 
are managed ; every parifh, therefore, 
fhould be obliged to take care of its own 
poor. 
The notion of purchafing a poor man a 
cow, or other animac yielding profit, mutt, 
certainly, have originated in the brain of 
a Cockney, and 1s too abfurd to be treat- 
ed but ‘with ridicule. Where can the 
man.who is fo poor as to require relief 
from the parifh, find food for a cow } 
If a cow is not well fed, fhe will not yield 
any thing at up far lefs profit. If the 
fuggettor of this claufe ever trayelled fo 
far from London, as to have an oppor- 
tunity of contemplating the meagre, half- 
flarved inhabitants of an over-fed: com- 
mon, he would net have fuppofed there 
was much humanity in condemning any 
guadruped to fuch a mode of exiilence, 
or any biped to depend upon it, either 
for exiflence’ or profit. The number of 
thele commons, t0o, are daily, and very 
wifely, diminifhing, with the concur- 
rence of the legiflature of the country. 
But this benevolent plan would foon 
cover the fides of our highways with 
re cattle, and fill the cellars of St. 
Giles’s with hungry fwine, and meagre 
affes, the anirals hon which the in- 
habitants of theie places are accufiomed 
to derive profit. ‘ 
The intention of mingling the paro- 
chial funds with thofe of benefit fociettes, 
OL would 
115 
It is of a piece. 


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