1801.) 
think, feven gentlemen, and prints their 
remarks and objections, two only it feems 
approved of it at all, and one only zz toto, 
an intelligent clergyman, he calls him, of 
a weftern county and a cloathing neigh- 
bourhood, and he to be {ure does not fail 
to cry it.up to the fkies—* Wonderful 
(he fays, p. 169) would be the effect the 
landed-intereft would derive from it ; would 
government but aid and affift fuch a fund 
with its fecurity the effets would be rapid ; 
and it would be decidedly for the intereft 
of the lazded-property to promote fucha 
fub{cription to the utmoft of :heir power.” 
One only flight hardfhip feems to this in- 
telligent clergyman to accrue from it, viz. 
«< that it would prefs hard on the farmer 
under forty pounds per annum, and the 
little tradefman; certainly, however (he 
adds), it would be for the advantage of the 
land-holder tofupport the farmer; the latter, 
no doubt, would foon find his remedy.” 
Such and many fuch are the happy dreams 
of this warm {fupporter of his lordhhip’s 
grand plan to make the poor by law fup- 
port themfélves ; even girls of eighteen 
are not excluded from the benefits of this 
gentleman’s /ecure and ample fund, which 
after all is only to fecure a diftant provi- 
fion on government-fecurity, inftead of 
landed, liable to falary for management, 
fuje&ted to many new reftrigtions, and for 
the benefit of which they muft give up all 
their 34,000 friendly meetings in public 
houfes, which Mr. Colquhoun difapproves 
of, and all his lordfhip’s feven wife men 
feem to condemn; one of whom, p. 164, 
fays roundly, ‘* that they are the undoubt- 
ed great and leading caufe of the corrup- 
tion of the lower ranks.”°—But then again, 
he allows, ‘ beer is neceflary (he does not 
fay, for the revenue) for the labourer ; 
owns HE cannot brew it as heretofore ; 
_fays the farmer caznot be allowed to fell it 
to him—alehoufes, therefore (fays he), 
ARE NeECEssaRyY!’’—And his only re- 
medy for the evil is as follows : 
_ Tf the labourer, who idly waftes his 
time, or extravagantly {quanders his mo- 
ney, were apprehended and brought to juf- 
tice, and punifbed, much mifery and much 
_mifchief might be prevented.” From this 
correfpondence I could quote a numberie(s 
lift of fuch unfeeling, weak, and arbitrary 
paflages, arifing from the weak fears of 
men, who feem. to think that. in thefe 
times the poor ought not to be trufted to 
drink a pint of beer together, and club for 
‘their forry funerals; even his lordhhip 
avows it as his opinion, p. 196, ‘* that if 
any thing beyond the Common Prayer and 
Bible is taught (juft as if that would not 
‘Yead to other reading), it is ftill a matter 
Remarks on Lord Somerville’s Plan for the Poor. 
133 
of doubt, whether, in thefe times of revo 
lution and anarchy, much evil may not 
refult ;”” and in the height of his enthu« 
fiafm for his darling land-holder’s plan, 
obferves, p. 225, ‘* that under fuch cir- 
cumftances as it is likely to produce, far 
from feeking an advance of wages, may 
not the poor labourer with reafon afford to 
accept lower wages? Undoubtedly he 
may ; fo that, whilft his employer is pay= 
ing, we will fay, the whole fixth part, he 
can take off nine-pence-or one fhilling per 
week, and at thefe reduced wages the 
workman will be abundantly richer, anda 
much happier man, knowing that in his 
latter days he wij] poffefs a competency.” 
To anfwer fuch paradoxes, I have nei- 
ther time nor inclination; to fay what I 
think of uch propofals would not now I 
believe be fafe: the poor Jaws are bad 3 
but any ose who perules this modeft 
Jcheme for relievizg the rich, will foon fee 
that they are better than this, and I think 
no honeft man would advife them to con- 
fent to the exchange, efpecially when that 
very provifion, which they are to be made 
to provide for themfelves, is at laft to be 
adminiftered to them by overfeers !|—No, 
let us go on as we have done, rather 
than that; or, if we really wifhthem well, 
let us take a fhorter, more grateful, more. 
‘generous, and, I will even add, more po- . 
litical way of making the poor happy, in- 
dependent, and uteful to themfelves as 
well as the ftate they live in. The road 
lies open, the means are ealy——-Give them «, 
hoes, feed for their firft crop, and portions of 
common-land, tythe and tax free, and they 
will want no other relief in a very foort 
time: take, at the fame time, all cattle” 
whatever from the wajtes, and there will 
need no inclofure ;-and, after all, who 
would be injured? The clergy would lofe 
nothing, for the common produces. no 
tythe ; the farmer little, but what he 
would regain in reduced poor-rates; the 
ftate nothing, for they pay no taxes; and 
the poor could then no longer fay, that we 
kept our rich wayies, like the dog in the man- 
ger, till we fiarved ourfelves:—the very 
ftate to which all his lordfhip’s obferva- 
tions tend to prove we are nearly brought, 
and I clearly think from fomething like 
the fame motive. I remain, Sir, 
Jan. 10; 1801. Your's, &c. G. 
. P.S. If the effect of this, tome, thocking 
propofal, has been that of producing in my 
ftyle an unufual degree of warmth, let not the 
reader attribute it to any perfonal ill-will, 
for I never even faw his lordfhip, but rather 
to the magnitude of the evil, which this, 
perhaps well-intended plan, feems in my 
eyes likely to produce, ~ 
For 
