116 
would not, I think, anfwer the propofed 
intention ; the narrow mode of thinking 
of the lower claffes of people, makes them 
peculiarly jealous of money matters. 
While they themfelves have an oppor- 
tunity, as ftewards, &c. of fuperintending 
the diftribution and expenditure of their 
funds, they know how they are difpofed 
of, and that they are not embezzled : 
but they would not willingly truft their 
favings in the hands of people whem 
they could not call to account ; befides, 
to confound the induftrions and frugal 
with thofe who are fo loft to all fenfe of 
fhame, as to come upon the parifh, is 
highly improper. ; ‘ . 
The appointment of wardens and 
guardians of the peor, and, again, in- 
ipectors of thefe guardians, is an attempt 
to folve the old problem, quis cuffodiet zp/as 
cufiodes, and is not likely to fucceed much 
better than former attempts to attain the 
fame objeé&t. The wardens of the poor, 
who, I fuppofe, are to be in the ftead of 
the prefent mafters and mifirefles of 
workhoufes, will, [ prefume, receive 
falaries; confequently, a number of {mall 
places will be created, to be given away 
by the partizans of the minifter, one 
evident purpofe of the prefent bill. But 
what motive have the infpectors or vi- 
fitors to execute their duty ? _ Few oc- 
cupations are more unpleafant than to 
contemplate the fituation of the poor in 
a workhoufe; to fee human natufe mi- 
ferable and degraded; to hear com- 
Plaints, whofe validity it is difficult to 
inveftigate, and, perhaps, impoffible to 
redrefs, becaufe arifing from the queru- 
loufnefs of dependence, the ftings of con- 
feious folly, or the recollection cf de- 
parted pleafures. From fuch a tatk, 
when the novelty is over, moft men will 
gladly fhrink. How much more eafily, 
as well as certainly, would thefe ends be 
anfwered, by rendering it the intereft of 
fuch as had the care of the poor, that 
they fhou'd be comfortable and induftri- 
ous. That this is poffible, I fhail at- 
tempt to prove in jts proper place. 
Nothing can be more abfurd than 
the idea of making up to the poor 
what they cannot earn ; 
never work, if they are to be -paid for 
being idle. 
To take children from their parents, 
and educate them in public, is a very bad 
plan, and fhould always be avoided, if 
poilible. The education that teaches us 
to live, is not that which is acquired 
from mafters, or in {chools; but what is 
learned from parents, from relations, 
Inutility and Evils of Mr. Pitt’s Poor Bill. 
wilify the human charaéter. 
they will” 
f Feb. 
and companions. But this education can 
never be acquired where children only 
fee children, équally ignorant with them- 
felves. I have, myfelf, known an ex- 
ample of a parith child, brought from 
nurfe at three years of age, who knew 
the names of common objeéts, and could 
combine a variety of ideas in language. 
After two years’ confinement in a work - 
houfe, with children of its own age, and 
fimilar education, it had forgotten. the 
appellations of the moft common objeéts, 
fo as not to be able to diftinguith, by 
name, a horfe fromahog. But, fir, it 
has a worfe effeét, it deftroys all thofe 
relations which are the bands and cement 
of fociety. A boy, educated in an hof- 
pital, knows neither father nor mother, 
fitter nor brother; he has no rela- 
tions either to care for, or who care for 
him ; he has, therefore, no character to 
fupport. Infpeétion alone is fufficient 
to convince any man, how much this 
kind of education tends to abafe and 
Let him 
compare the pale vapid inanity of the 
countenance of the children congregated 
in a parifh workhoufe, with the health, 
intelligence, and vivacity {parkling in 
the faces of an equal number of the fame 
rank, drawn together, for a few hours 
in the day, under the thatched roof of 
fome old dame, in a country village, and 
afk nimfelf, if he would with to fee his 
{pecies degraded, and the fpirit of the 
rifing generation nipt in the bud, by 
being educated in a workhoufe ? 
It is always painful to attribute an ap- 
parently good aétion to bad motives ; 
but from the line of conduét exhibited 
by Mr. Pirr, on other occafions, fome- 
what aualogous to the prefent, it certainly 
is not unfair to hint at the real reafox 
which made him {natch this meafure 
from the hands of a gentleman, who, if 
he had not fucceeded better, moft af- 
furedly would not have conduéted . it 
worfe. On this occafion, when the pref- 
fure of the poor laws, and the ineffectual 
aid the poor received from them, had 
imprefied the public mind fo ftrongly, 
that the Minifier found credit attach to 
the -perfon who made the flighteft ar- 
tempt to remedy the grievance, he con- 
ceived it a favourable opportunity to 
court popularity. He expeéts that the 
lower clafs of people wiil look up to 
him es their friend and proteétor.. In 
this, however, he is deceived. There 
1s not a workman in a garret, in London, _ 
nor a manufacturer in the country, who 
does not know that the waR is the 
I caufe 
q 
ie 
