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Kitttaiutt.
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Critics are not the legislators, but the...
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A general, election is the death of Lett...
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History and Geography are condemned, at ...
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PASHLEY ON THE POOB LAW. Pauperism and P...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Ar01805
Kitttaiutt.
_Kitttaiutt .
Critics Are Not The Legislators, But The...
Critics are not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not make laws—they interpret and try to enforce them .. —Edinburgh Review .
A General, Election Is The Death Of Lett...
A general , election is the death of Letters for the while , unless , indeed , we collect into a fascicle , and so reckon as literature ; those periodical outrages on the English language , to say nothing of good feeling and common sense , which the heat of the contest engenders , and which are now
sprouting like fungi on dead Avails in almost every town and village in the land . The revolutionary literature of France—by which we mean , for the moment , the fl y ing-sheets and brochures in which a pent-up democracy vents its terrible humour—would form a curious collection ; but what a farrago of nauseating
cant and jargon our election addresses would offer to the curious . Foreigner ! what a sink of bad wit , coarse calumny , and indecent insinuation the placards of rival committees would present ! No wonder that true literature gives no sign , and that we have nothing to communicate this week , unless it be to note the return of Macaulay and of Bulwer to the House , not without regret that their diviner leisure should be exchanged for drearydebates and committees " upstairs . " Imagine Zanoni side by side with Miles and Knatchbull—with Booker and Beresford !
Lord Mahon _' s enforced leisure is , perhaps , not so much a gain to literature as a loss to the House of Commons . Altogether , the literary element will not prevail in the new and , probably , short-lived _Parliament .
History And Geography Are Condemned, At ...
History and Geography are condemned , at Rome , by the Congregation of the Index , unless done to order . A Universal Dictionary , by M . Bouillet , had been approved by the Archbishop of Paris , and denounced by the Univers as dangerous and heretical . The Univers has triumphed at Rome , and M . Bouillet ' s book enjoys the inestimable advertisement of an ecclesiastical prohibition . It is worthy of remark , however , that the majority of the French Bishops do not think with the Abbe Gaume , that the study of the treasures of antiquity is the " cankerworm of modern society . " The Classics will still be taught in France , with the exception , it may be , advised , of Tacitus , whose burning pages have become almost de circonstance under the existing _Regime of Adventurism .
Pashley On The Poob Law. Pauperism And P...
PASHLEY ON THE POOB LAW . Pauperism and Poor Laws . By Robert Pashley , one of Her Majesty ' s Counsel , late . Fellow of Trinity College , Cambridge , author of Travels in Crete . London : Longmans . 1852 . The object of Mr . Pashley ' s book is to show that the law of settlement is bad , both for the labouring classes and for the ratepayers , and that it ought to be wholly repealed ; and ho proposes a plan of his own , which we shall glance at presently . But the chief value of the book consists in its affording an excellent summary of the histo _^ of the Poor Law , and of the actual state of its administration in this country .
Nothing can be more inconsistent with sound intelligence , or with the faith professed by the body of the people , than tho actual condition of the Poor Law . Tho public provision for the poor is essentially part and parcel of Christian polity ; there Avas no organized provision of the kind before Christianity . Amongst the citizens of Ancient Rome , and wc mayadd of Athens , tho distribution of food Avas only an indulgence to proud idlers , _aaIio _thought industry iifc for nothing bettor than slaves . When Rome had conquered a large part of her empire , and began , as it were , to grow Avilhin herself , her system , so strongly inlluenecd by aristocratic and military habits , afforded no means of providing for tho surplus population of the dominant race , Avho became clients , or dependents , of the richer . Tho earliest legislative provisions for the poor Avero made by Constantino ; and the duty _lirsfc undertaken by tho Christian State was
soon transferred to the church . Por a long period , the Avealth bestowed on tho clergy , nnd tho tytlies paid them , wero chiefly granted to that end ¦—they wen ; always solicited on that plea . By canonical , nnd civil law , the bishop Avas fhe overseer and rolicving-ofh ' eer of the diocese or parish . Mr . Pashley cites many instances to show that , amongst the Anglo-Saxons , tho Lombards , and Franks , and tho English in tho roign of tho Edwards , the clergy were under compulsion to provide for tho indigent . Although part of the tythe may have been appropriated for tho spiritual benefit of the poor , and , therefore , for tho profitable employment of fhe clergy , some portion was unquestionably allotted to flu . material wants . Traces of this are to be seen in our book of Common Prayer and Rubric ; and in . Ireland , we , believe , the churclnv . irdenH still carry round a poorbox , Avhich is laid , with its contents , on tho communion fable , tho whole being given to tho poor .
The advance of civilization in this country has , lo a , great extent , been made at the expense of the poor ; meaning by Mini word , not , only tho destitute through natural incapacity of some kind , but also the " most humble portions of the labouring classes . Af the time of the Conquest , the agricultural labourer was a villein , or a , freeman occupying his own land , and in either case he was maintainable by laud ou which he lived . The laws respecting the poor before Ihe time ' of _Kli-zabeth , arc intended chiefly to controul sturdy beggars—a squididor sort of robbers , who i robably begged or extorted , according fo circumstances . Tho wars , hucIi as those of the Roses , contributed largely to recruit , this class . Other circumstances also contributed , especiall y fhe enlargement and _fransfir of estates in the times of the _Tudors . Tim number of lauded proprietors which , " shortly before the accession of Henry VII ., had justly formed a main ground of JCugland ' s claim to superiority and social condition from many other countries , was diminished , partly because many landowners cleared a , part of their estates , by pulling down houses and turning tillage ground into pasture . " Tho lino condition of fhe working farmer and
Pashley On The Poob Law. Pauperism And P...
labourer , previously , is immortalized by Eorteseue , who cites _sutnptu laws which were more than equivalent to the check on the use of _tlJ finest broadcloth coats and silk stockings in our day ; but that good c dition rapidly declined . The suppression of the monasteries by Hen **" VIII . withdrew the assistance that the regular clergy had given to th _^ poor ; and the barbarous laws which were continued b y _Kdward Vr * for punishing beggars and vagabonds by bodily _castigation , beg _& n to h mingled with powers for relief and controul of the impotent poor- th parishioners being exhorted to furnish weekly sums as a spontaneous ' aid Elizabeth ' s reign marks a new _ara . Mr . Pashley excavates an "im " portant page in the history of the Poor Law ; " a clause in a statute
creating Poor Law districts independently of parochial boundary , _tviti compulsory taxation for relief within those districts . This remained in force for twenty years ; but , having been repealed , its provisions no longer appear in the ordinary editions of the statutes . Provisions wero made to check immigrations from Ireland , on the Isle of Man , or the landing of any one " very lyke to lyve by begging ; " birth became a qualification for relief , and a pauper became liable to remoA al from parish to parish , to the place of his settlement—that is , an Irish or Manx pauper . Settlement was not established for Fnglishmen . until the unconstitutional reign -of Charles II . I
The 18 th of Elizabeth provided for the " Setting of the poor on work ;" the principle of the celebrated 43 rd . That latter act , however , gave relief to the poor wherever residing ; leaving rogues and vagabonds liable to removal . Workhouses Avere subsequently add _^ d to the machinery , on the suggestion of Sir Matthew Hale , " to prevent poverty ; " " in ignorance , " says Lord Campbell , " of the elements of political economy , and led away by Communist doctrines . " The workhouse was built under numerous local acts , from the reign , of Charles IL , until , in 1722 , by Sir Edward Knatchbull ' s act , they became strictly tests of destitution .
Within our present space , it is impossible to follow the ins and outs of Poor Law legislation . Suffice it to recall the fact , well known to most of our readers ; that , from a variety of causes , —and mainly , we believe , the laziness of parish officers , the essential provisions of the Poor Law , as it now stood on the basis of the 43 rd of Elizabeth , had fallen into a lax administration , if not total neglect . The increase of _systematic pauperism , —that is to say , of a deliberate and intentional subsistence on the poor rates , was probably aggravated by Gilbert ' s Act of 1783 , and still more by the allowance system introduced in 1795 , —the allowance of parish relief in aid of insufficient wages . Practical agriculturists favoured this system , under the idea that it contributed to keep down , wages ; whereas ,
the effect was to encourage an immense multiplication of a pauper population , with the worst possible economy—domestic , parish , or public . The law of settlement occasioned endless litigation . The practice of " setting the poor on work" was continued only in a few parishes ' . During the first thirty years of the present century , the political economy of that day carried the doctrine of " let alone" to the most bigoted pitch of exaggeration and prejudice , and debarred the Poor Law reformers from investigating the subject of reproductive employment . The main evils which engaged attention in the enquiry of 1833 , were the enormous increase of pauperism and poor rates , Avith an attendant demoralization ; and , accordingly , the main objects were to diminish expenditure , and to apply a rigid test of destitution , in order to destroy the allowance system , Avith its consequences . Many of the grounds of settlement and removal
Avere deliberately maintained by the neAV act of 1834 ; and the Removal Act , passed by Sir Robert Peel , in 1846 , very slightly endeavoured to check some of the evils , by exempting residents for five years , or paupers through temporary causes , from compulsory removal . Mr . Evelyn Denison ' s attempt to introduce a union settlement into that act has been adjourned continuously by the WhigB , who adopted Peel ' s Bill . In tho main , however , the law of settlement and of local rating , jointly , havo the effect of restricting the poor to particular places . To keep down the rates in their own parish , as it is well known , owners of property destroy their cottages , and in other Avays cheek the residence of the labourer . The two-fold effect is , that the humbler work-peoplo are obliged to reside at a distance from their work , and that the paupers created by the bad industrial system of one parish , are charged on tho rate-payers of another parish .
Meanwhile the act which Avas to purif y the demoralized labouruiK classes , and to dimim _*^ * li _« expenditure , has fully succeeded in neither respect . It lias , indeed , destroyed ono source of demoralization , but not the _Avorst . By discontinuing the allowance system , it has abolished tho premium on multiplication of pauper population in tho legitimate way ; but the demoralizations from extreme poverty , from crowded residences , and from other sources far more potent , if has in no respect checked . The extensive machinery devoted to " tests , " which positively withhold ablebodied labour from reproductive employment , has augmented tho expenditure . And by conniving at the plan of admitting able-bodied paupers into an idle workhouse , nn in Suffolk , the farmers have , in some districts _^ virtually restored an equivalent for tho system of paying rates in aid of _vvaires .
Tn reviewing the actual state of pauperism in this country , Mr . Pashley brings before the reader an immense number of documents , very carefully collated and very candidly explained ; the render who chooses to take equal pains is supplied with a , clue to follow the writer through his own researches ; the mode of working the calculations is avoAved ; and , in short , within the compass of a very compact octavo volume , the data for the just and su / lieionf Nummary which if contains are given . The survey may bo said utterly to condemn the present system .
In England and Wales , irrespectively of endowed charities , y ielding «• yearly aggregate * of . Cl , 2 () 0 , 3 ! . f > , and of . C 2 , ()() 0 , t )()() yielded by hospitals and dispensaries , tho expenditure on the poor for ( ho three years ending IH 50 , averaged . C'r > , 7 _Hi ) , r > 83 . lu 1837 Ihe amended law had had its greatest effect , and the expenditure was reduced fo 1 . 4 , 014-741 : we see the subsequent increase ; which would appear greater if tho price of corn were taken into account . The ollicial returns give you no eluo as fo the actual number of persons chargoaldn , since they show you onl y the numbers for two days in the your , the 1 st of January and the 1 st of July . The figures
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 24, 1852, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_24071852/page/18/
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