1807.) Onthe Cause of the Distresses of the labouring People. 119 
of the people being bettered, it is incum- 
bent on them to prove, either that they 
enjoy more holidays in a year, that they 
work fewer hours in a day, or that they 
acquire a portion of luxuries or comforts 
which may be taken as an equivalent in 
lieu of dimimished Jabour, and what those 
Juxuries are. Without a specification of 
this sort, Mr. Whitbread’s declamation 
carries no more conviction than any 
other declamation; and ‘Common Sense,” 
need only compare the account that Sir 
John Sinclair, (in his “ Essays on Mis- 
cellaneous Subjects,” page 38,) has given 
of the labour which the people must per- 
form to procure thirty-five pounds a 
year, and the catalogue of supplies that 
Mr. Weyland (in his “ Observations on 
Mr. Whitbread’s Poor Bill,”) has shewn 
thirty-five pounds a year to be capable of 
procuring, with the detail given in the 
“Wants of the People,” page 25, in 
order to convince him that all the l:ght 
he has derived from Mr, Whitbread is 
utter darkness. 
justifiable to reason seriously with per 
sons who contend that. the condition of 
the labouring people is bettered, for they 
do not themselves believe it. It has 
always been the principle of the English 
government, and no person has ever re- 
ceived its countenance, who has not 
adopted the principle as avowed by Dr. 
Colquhoun, (in his “ Treatise on Indi- 
gence,” page 8,) that poverty is the true 
stimulus to industry, and therefore that 
the labouring people ought to be kept 
poor. The truth or falshood of the prin- 
ciple is not now the subject of inquiry ; 
my end will be answered if 1 prove that 
it is the “cause of the pauperistn of 
which we complain, and of the system by 
which its evils are attempted to be pal- 
lated.” But as the gentlemen who are 
governed by this parsimonious principle 
contend much about religion, and shelter 
their selfishness under the simple sen- 
tence “ God maketh both rich and poor,” 
I should like thein to favour the world 
with a few hints upon another passage of 
the Bible— There is that scattereth and 
yet encreaseth, and there is that with- 
holdeth more than is meet, and it ten- 
deth to poverty.” It is withholding more 
than is meet, or, in other words, robbing 
the labourer of his hire, that obliges a 
small number of labourers to do the 
work which ought to afford an indepen- 
dency to a large number; this reduces a 
considerable part of them to idleness 
and distress for want of employment, and 
It is however hardly 
‘of Cloyne’s “ Querist,” 
commend them to begin with—Query, 
palliating this evil, without removing the 
cause of it, is the reason why the system 
of charity or pauperism was commenced 
and is continued. ; 
To disguise this latter fact is hypocrisy 
in every one who attempts it; but some 
of the advocates of the system are too 
generous to conceal it, and the justifica- 
tory reasons for the principle, as they are 
stated by Mr. Weyland, (in his “ Short 
Inguiry sito the Policy, &c. of the Poor 
Laws,” page 42,) may be taken as the 
creed of all the authors and abettors of 
the pauper-system, “It may be asked,” 
says that gentleman, ‘ what right has 
any government to oblige a part of its 
labourers to receive their hire in the 
shape of alins, the most disgraceful me- 
thod, and at the same time the most 
calculated to eradicate honest and inde- 
pendent principles from their minds?” 
and it is not in the nature of justice to 
be satisfied with the worthy magistrate’s 
‘answer; for, whatever plausible arguments 
may be urged in favour of commerce to 
support the system, their amount in plain 
English is, that by disabling 1,039,264 of 
our own people from consuming their 
share of the comforts and conveniences 
of life, we have a larger surplus of com- 
modities to barter with foreigners for 
those articles of luxury which the rich 
take pleasure in consuming among them- - 
selves. The narzow and selfish policy 
of the commercial age has prevailed over 
the original rights which held all the 
different interests of all the different 
classes of society in equilibrium ; and by 
its sophistry has persuaded men, that the 
very existence of a country depends 
upon keeping its stock of labourers ma 
constant struggle to obtain two-thirds 
of their portion of necessaries. This 
foolish policy, it would not be far wrong - 
to say this English pohey, is about as 
well defended by Mr. Weyland, as itis 
capable of being defeuded ; but it would 
be well if those who call upon the coun- 
try to sacrifice one-cighth part of its in- 
habitants to the phantom called Com- 
mercial Prosperity, would consider at- 
tentively the valuable hints in the Bishop 
and I would re- 
112 (in page 131, of “A Miscellany,” &. 
pudlisbed by the Bishop in 1752,) which 
calls upon them to answer how the coun- 
try could be ruined by our ‘Squires 
being condemned to drink ale and cydety 
in order to enable the bulk of the people 
to have good shoes to their feet, good — 
clothes 
fy, 
ee rg ee 
Se ee ne ee 
Te See 
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SR mer eh ee 
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; 
