At the dissolution of the monasteries,the lazy and the indigent,who were deprived of their accustomed food,becameclamorous,and,having long since forgot to work,were not only ready to join in every scheme for the disturbance of thestate,but,as vagrants,by their numbers,by their impostures,and by their thefts,they rendered themselves a public andmost intolerable nuisance.To stop their mouths,and to make them employ their hands in honest labour,was the intentionof that day.But at the same time the laws took under their protection some objects of distress,who for near two hundredyears,from a noble kind of pride,refused the proffered aid,or received it with reluctance;and who at the present momentwould be more effectually relieved,if no other laws existed but the first great laws of human nature,filial affection,and thegeneral benevolence of mankind.The world,it must be confessed,is wicked enough:Yet amidst all their wickedness menseldom want compassion,unless the circumstances in which they find themselves are peculiarly distressing.Should we "inthe straitness of a siege behold men eating the flesh of their sons and of their daughters;should we see among them a mantender and delicate,whose eye should be evil towards his brother and towards the wife of his bosom,and towards theremnant of his children,so that he should not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he should eat;"(1)wemust not from such instances conclude that all men,or even most men,are destitute of mercy and compassion,or that manin general can be kind and beneficent only by compulsion.No doubt in every district will be found some,who are strangersto the finer feelings of the human heart;but at the same time in every district will be found some,who are endued withgenerosity of soul;and others,who under the influence of piety will rejoice to relieve the wants and distresses of theirfellow creatures.In every place some will be distinguished for benevolence,others for brutality;but in general man is whathis situation makes him.Is he happy himself in the enjoyment of ease and affluence?In such circumstances "he will be eyesto the blind and feet to the lame;he will be a father to the poor;the blessing of those that are ready to perish will comeupon this man:he will cause the widow's heart to leap for joy*."(2)Let the same man be straitened in his circumstances,lethim be burthened with taxes,let him be harassed by the clamours and distracted by the incessant demands of the mostimprovident and lazy of the surrounding poor;and he will have little inclination to seek for objects of distress,or to visitthe sequestered cottage of the silent sufferer.It is generally found,that modest worth stands at a distance,or draws nighwith faltering tongue and broken accents to tell an artless tale;whilst the most worthless are the most unreasonable in theirexpectations,and the most importunate in their solicitation for relief.If the latter,from any imperfection of our laws,getabundantly too much,the former must of necessity obtain too little.If,agreeable to the general practice of the labouringpoor,a man,previous to his marriage,or whilst his family is small,has made no provision for his future wants;if all,towhom he might naturally look for aid,are in the same circumstances with himself;and if the charity of those among hisneighbours,who are distinguished for benevolence,nay of all who have the common feelings of humanity,is exhausted;ifthey who are most willing are least able to relieve him;we must expect to see distress and poverty even among those whoare worthy of compassion.--This at present is the case in England.There never was greater distress among the poor:therenever was more money collected for their relief.But what is most perplexing is,that poverty and wretchedness haveincreased in exact proportion to the efforts which have been made for the comfortable subsistence of the poor;and thatwherever most is expended for their support,there objects of distress are most abundant;whilst in those countries orprovincial districts where the least provision has been made for their supply,we hear the fewest groans.Among the formerwe see drunkenness and idleness cloathed in rags;among the latter we hear the chearful songs of industry and virtue.
If laws alone could make a nation happy,ours would be the happiest nation upon earth:idleness and vice could not exist;poverty would be unknown;we should be like a prosperous hive of bees;all would have enough and none too much.Thereverse of this we find to be the case:poverty and vice prevail,and the most vicious have access to the common stock.If aman has squandered the inheritance of his fathers;if by his improvidence,by his prodigality,by his drunkenness and vices,he has dissipated all his substance;if by his debaucheries he has ruined his constitution,and reduced himself to such adeplorable condition that he hath neither inclination nor ability to work;yet must he be maintained by the sweat and labourof the sober and of the industrious farmer,and eat the bread which should be given only to virtue in distress.--If in allcases,this bread,so ill bestowed,were superabundant;if the industrious firmer were himself in ease and affluence;thegrievance would yet be tolerable.But in this day it often happens that the industrious firmer is oprest with poverty.He risesearly,and it is late before he can retire to his rest;he works hard and fares hard;yet with all his labour and his care he canscarce provide subsistence for his numerous family.He would feed them better,but the prodigal must first be fed.Hewould purchase warmer cloathing for them,but the children of the prostitute must first be cloathed.The little whichremains after the profligate have been cloathed and fed,is all that he can give to those,who in nature have the first claimsupon a father.If this evil could be stemmed,whilst the present laws subsist,he might yet have hope:but when he considers,that all the efforts,which have been made in his own parish or in others,have been vain,and that the evil is constantlyincreasing,he is driven to despair of help,and fears that he shall be himself reduced to work for daily hire.It will be evidentthat his fears are not altogether groundless,if we consider,that even in parishes,where no manufactures have beenestablished,the poor rates have been doubling,some every fourteen years,and others heady every seven years;whilst insome districts,where the manufactures are carried on to a considerable extent,the poor rates are more than ten shillings inthe pound upon the improved rents.That the distress does not arise from the high price of com,will be clear,if weconsider,what may perhaps hereafter be more fully stated,that although for these two hundred years the price of wheathas fluctuated between wide extremes,yet upon comparing the average prices within that period,the ancients did not find acheaper market than the moderns.If we take the average of the sixty years which terminated at the commencement of thepresent century,we shall find the price of wheat to have been six shillings and four pence halfpenny per bushel,whereas inthe subsequent sixty years it was only five shillings;and for the last twenty years,ending with the year 1782,not more thansix shillings and six pence:yet during that long period in which provisions were the cheapest,the poor rates werecontinually advancing.That the distress does not arise from the high price of soap,leather,candles,salt,and other smallarticles needful in a family,will appear not only from the superior advance in the price of labour (in the proportion of six tofour within a century),(3)but from hence,that where the price of labour is the highest and provisions are the cheapest,therethe poor rates have been most exorbitant.In Scotland they have no legal provision for the poor,yet labour is cheaper andcorn is dearer than they are in England.
