1797+] 
fequence, become more populous. Hence 
the affertors of increafing population, 
maintain, that the aggregate number of 
inhabitants in the whole kingdom is aug- 
mented, without feeming to reflect, that 
thofe who have left their healthy employ- 
ments in the country, and are cooped up 
within the narrow limits of a town, foon 
‘become languid with ficknefs, and enfee- 
bled with difeafe ; not to mention many 
habits of debauchery, into which the mem- 
bers of great communities are inuch more 
apt to fall, than thofe who are brought up 
amid.the happy and peaceful purfiits of 
agriculture and the rearing of cattle. 
Ina late excurfion to the northern part 
of this kingdom, I obferved many in- 
ftances of the woeful effeéts of /beep-farm 
ing (fo prevalent in the highlands of Scot- 
Jand) in leffening the numbers of the peo- 
ple. Traverting a diftriét, confifting of 
fifteen hamlets, which twenty-five years 
ago fupplied with the fimple neceffaries of 
life, feventy- five families, in each of 
which, at a low average, fix perfons might 
be. reckoned; I faw, with forrow, the 
eottages and farm-houfes in ruins, and 
the whole extent im poffeffion of (no lefs 
than) ¢qvo families; thefe, at ten perfons 
each, give a population of twenty fouls in 
place of 450. This is not a folitary in- 
ftance, and if the prattice of laying out 
whole traéts of country in fheep-farms. do 
not meet witha check, the highlands, that 
ufeful nurfery of foldiers and feamen, will 
fcon become an univerfal pafture. 
This, fir, isa melancholy faét, and it 
1s matter of juft regret, that a fyftem fo 
fraught with ruinous confequences, conti- 
nue to be pratifed. Your’s, 
CaLEDONIUS. 
+ 
To the Editor of tie Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, . 
GREAT deal has lately been pub- 
-* lithed of the good effeéts that have 
accrued to the pubiic, from the faving 
that has been made in fome of our new 
erotted large houfes of induftry. That the 
ariihes, or difiriéts, where thefe have 
<a ereéted, have paid lefs to the poors’ 
rates fince the ereétion of thofe, I will not 
deny, but they afford no proof of any pub- 
lic utiliry. Whoever ferioufly confiders 
the poors’ laws will, furely, confider them 
as a national evil; the original intention 
was good ; but, like many other fchemes, 
the rheory and the praétice difagree ; ne- 
verthelefs all the evils that {pring from 
them do not arife from the nature of the 
laws, but the mal-adminiftration of them. 
The original intention was a certain re- 
MonreLy Mac. No. XXV. 
Depopulations—Abufe of Poor Laws. 
43% 
lief for the really indigent, who though 
willing to fupport themfelves, were not 
able, and who muft otherwife depend upon 
the precarious hand of charity for exift. 
ence ; but as the relief is now adminiftered, 
confiderably more than half of what is ex 
pended for the fupport of the poor, is 
{pent upon thofe who are by no means 
objeéts of charity, while numberlefs ob- 
jeéts to whom ir ought to be adminiftered, 
perith for want, or at leaft fuffer unknown 
hardfhips, rather than receive relief on the 
terms they mutt fubmit to, to partake of 
it. Jn {mall towns and villages where the 
real circumftances of people may be eafily. 
known, relief may be adminiftered pro- 
perly, much eafier than in large towns; and 
in thofe it might be expeéted that the real 
indigent poor fhould be properly taken 
care of, and the idle vagrants punifhed s 
but it too generally happens that the pa- 
rifh officers think it the firft duty and 
principal bufinefs of an overfeer, not to aét ° 
as the guardian of the poor as well as of 
the parifh, but to fcrew down the poor as »° 
low as they can, fo that the parith may be 
at as little expence as poffible ; and the pa= 
rith having provided a workhoule for the 
poor, if fixpence per week can be faved 
by fending them there, no diftintion is 
made between the idle vagabond, who is 2 
peft to fociety, and loaded with-flth and 
difeafe, and the fober, modeft, cleanly, bur 
unfortunate perfon, who, perhaps, once 
lived reputably and always decently, tut, 
through ficknefs or misfortune, 1s reduced 
to poverty and want: but all are thruft 
together into the fame dwelling, and not 
unfrequently into the fame bed, to avoid 
which it has been frequently known, that 
perfons who have lived decently, have fuf- 
fered penury and* want inthe extreme, ra- 
ther than be thruft into fuch a he!l upon 
earth. In ‘large towns it is lefs eafy to 
difcriminate between the characters of 
the fober and induftrious, and the idle and 
extravagant ; their fituation and circum- 
ftances.are lefs known than in villages; and 
as impofitions are fo frequently practifed 
upon parifh oficers, who afterwards difccs= 
ver them, tt almoft fleels them againtt lif- 
tening to tales of woe, and thereby many a 
deferving objc€t is refufed by a overfeer, 
who would willingly give proper relief 
was he convinced of the truth of the 
cafe, but refufes, froma fear of fmilar 
impofition being praétifed upon him. 
Had the fame efforts been made to reform 
the morals of the poor, that have been 
made to leffen the expence of maintaining 
them, much more had been faved in the 
expences than by all the other means that 
3 L have 
