On the other hand, without the exercise of this conservative power over their numbers, no enlargement of national resources can permanently improve their circumstances. Every addition to the means of employment and subsistence would only call into existence a corresponding number of claimants to participate therein, and the share of each would not be augmented. Society would be more numerous, but not more happy. Even the best schemes for their relief and employment, devised by the wisest and most philanthropic individuals, must prove illusive, unless seconded by their own co-operative agency. One pauper relieved would only make way for another; one body of emigrants removed this year, a fresh supply to an equal amount would offer themselves next; while one swarm of unemployed labourers is being located on the waste, another is growing up to maturity equally destitute. It is the waves of the sea following each other in endless succession.

I conclude therefore that all remedies are transient -all projects for improving the condition of the working classes vain, unless accompanied by the exercise of that prudential virtue in individuals, and that policy in the state, which shall induce both to concur in limiting the number of the people to the means for their employment and support.

CHAP. XIV.

POOR-LAWS.

Right of the Poor to Parish Relief-Their Claim to a fourth part of Tithe-Queries of the House of Lords relative to able-bodied Poor-Eleven Objections to Poor-laws answered-Under an improved System, Pauperism has declined relatively to the Population-Poor-laws not tended to increase the Number of People-Not fostered improvident Habits-Example of Scotland considered-Working Classes of England, and other Countries-Principles and Policy of the Poor-laws stated and defended-Obligations they impose on the Rich to interest themselves in the state of the Poor-Mendicity, or Poor Assessment the only alternative-Impotence of general System of voluntary Charity-The Poor often the chief Obstacle to the adoption of Plans for their own Benefit-Their Condition can only be improved by the Intervention of the AffluentObligations imposed by the Laws of Infanticide-Provision for the Poor in other Countries-Utility of the Poor-laws proved by Experience-Description of Persons who ought to be entitled to Parish Relief-Police as well as Charity, the object of Poor-laws-Suggestions for Improvement of Poorlaws-Law of Settlement-Unequal size of Parishes-Unequal Pressure of Poor-rate on real and chattel PropertyMendicity in the Metropolis-Practical Hints relative to the Poor and Administration of the Poor-laws.

THE term Poor is usually applied to that class of persons who are unable to maintain themselves, either from inability to procure employment, or from sickness, old age, or other bodily incapacity; whether

this is the description of persons originally intended to be embraced by the poor-laws has been much disputed, but it is the description which is now generally recognised in their practical administration.

In the outset of this inquiry, it may be convenient to advert to the only abstract part of the subject we shall encounter, namely, the right of the poor to a compulsory maintenance. If there be any social obligation to find employment or relief for those who could not otherwise obtain it, such obligation must be derived either from the laws of nature, or the institutions of society.

The land is unquestionably the people's, in their aggregate capacity, and every one has a natural claim to live thereon. But in a state of society, man's natural claims are merged in his civil immunities, and the rights of each person are prescribed by the laws. In a state of natural liberty, every individual may claim the right to do what he likes, or what he can; his right to the enjoyment of this female, or of that piece of land is only limited by his power to defend his pretension against all other claimants. But in civil society, the natural rights of mere force have been superseded by the rights of property, of marriage, and personal security. It follows that the rights of the poor cannot be determined by reference to the natural state of man, which has long since ceased, but by reference to existing social institutions.

What then are the social rights of the poor? If

a man has not the means of maintenance, and society will not relieve him, he must starve. But the question is, Will he starve? Certainly not. Self-preservation will be more imperative with him than respect for civil institutions. If he cannot live in society, he will have ceased to have an interest in its existence; the social compact (if it ever existed) will, in respect of him, be dissolved ; and mendicity, or theft with its penal consequences, will be a less · evil than death by hunger. Rather than he should be reduced to this extremity, in which he has a paramount interest in the violation of the laws, it seems expedient a legal provision should be established for his relief, and to this, though a pauper has no claim as a matter of right, and except as guaranteed to him by the law, yet society concedes it to him as a lesser evil adopted for its own conservation.

In lieu of founding the right of the poor for relief on their original share in the soil of the country, it has been attempted to establish their claim to parish aid as the compensation they received for the losses they sustained at the Reformation, in consequence of the new disposition of ecclesiastical property.. That the poor were originally entitled to a fourth, or some other fraction of the tithe, is an opinion countenanced by many eminent authorities. Dr. Burn, in his Justice of the Peace, published in 1754, admits the maintenance of the poor was anciently an ecclesiastical duty; that a fourth part of the tithes of parishes was originally set apart for this purpose, and distributed by the bishop with the assistance of the

churchwardens and other principal inhabitants; and that afterwards, when the tithes of parishes became appropriated to religious houses, these societies contributed towards the relief of the poor. Blackstone agrees in this view of the subject, and admits that the relief of the poor was among the "purposes for which the payment of tithe was originally imposed" (Commentaries, b. i. chap. ii.) And indeed the fact of the ancient fourfold division of tithes is confirmed by the existing practice in several parts of Ireland; the Bishops of Clonfert and Kildare continuing to receive their fourth or quarta pars of tithes in several parishes of their dioceses.

But admitting all this, it goes little way to establish the right of the poor to relief, except such as they derive from existing laws. Next to founding the claim to any immunity on natural right, the most puerile expedient is to seek to establish it upon some usage existing centuries ago, and which has been superseded by subsequent acts of legislation acquiesced in for ages by the whole community. Existing laws alone prescribe individual rights, and the laws have wisely provided in order to prevent unceasing strife and litigation, that various claims shall be for ever foreclosed unless enforced within determinate periods; as, for instance, a claim to debt and other chattel interests cannot be established unless enforced within four, five, or six years, and even a right to real property is lost if forty years in abeyance. How valueless then must be any claim to tithe founded on their apportionment and appro