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rrii irs arc not the legislators , but the judges and police of literature . They do not Critic * ^ 9 ^^ -they mterpret and try to enforce ttem . -Edinburgh Review .
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A general election is the death of Letters for the while , unless , indeed , we collect into a fascicle , arid 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 sproutino- like fungi on dead walls in almost every town and village in the land . The revolutionary literature of France—by which we mean , for the moment , the flying-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 c-ives no sign , and that we have nothing to communicate this week , unless ft be to note the return of Macaulay and of Bulwer to the House , not without regret that their diviner leisure should be exchanged for dreary debates 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 .
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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 .
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PASHLEY ON THE POOR LAW . " Pauperism and Poor Laivs . 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 he 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 history 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 the actual condition of the Poor Law . The public provision for the poor is essentially part and parcel of Christian polity ; there was no organized provision of the kind before Christianity . Amongst the citizens of Ancient Home , and we may add of Athens , the distribution of food was only an indulgence to proud idlers , who thought industry lit for nothing better than slaves . When Home had conquered a large part of her empire , and began , as it wore , to grow within herself , her system , so strongly influenced by aristocratic and military habits , afforded no means of providing for the surplus population of ( he dominant race , who became clients , or dependents , of the icher . The earliest legislative provisions for the poor were made by Constantino ; and the duty 1 ' ivbL undertaken by the Christian State was soon transferred to the church . JA > r a long period , the wealth bestowed
on the clergy , and the tylhes paid them , were chiefly granted to that end ¦— they were always solicited on that plea . By canonical and civil law , the bishop was ( he overseer and relieving-ofllcer of the diocese or parish . Mr . Pashley cites many instancies to show that , amongst ; the Anglo-Saxons , the Lombards , and Franks , and I he English in the reign of the Edwards , the clergy were under compulsion to provide for the ; indigent . Although part of the tythe may have been appropriated for the spiritual benefit of the poor , and , therefore , Cor the profitable employment of the clergy , some portion was unquestionably allotted to the material wants . Traces of this are to be seen in our book of Common . Prayer and . Rubric ; and in Ireland , we believe , the churchwardens still carry round a poorbox , which is laid , with its contents , on the communion table , the whole being given to the poor .
The advance of civilization in this country has , lo a great extent , been made at the expense of the poor ; meaning by thai , word , not only the destitute through natural incapacity of some kind , but also the most humble portions of l-he labouring classes . A ( , the lime of the Conquest , the agricultural labourer , was a villein , or a freeman occupying Ins own land , and in either case he was maintainable by land on which he . lived . The laws respecting the poor , before the time of Mlizabelli , are intended chiefly Io eontroul sturdy beggars — a , squnlider sort , of robbers , who
probably begged or extorted , according l . o circumstances . I ho wars , such as those of the Hoses , contributed largely to recruit this class . Other circumstances also contributed , especially the enlargement and transfer of estates in the limes of I he Tudors . Tim number of landed proprietors which , " shortly before the accession of Henry VII ., had justly formed a main ground of Kngland ' 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 Iho working iiinner und
labourer , previously , is immortalized by Fortescue , who cites sumptuary laws which were more than equivalent to the check on the use of the finest broadcloth , coats and silk stockings in our day ; but that good condition rapidly declined . The suppression of the monasteries by Henry VIII . withdrew the assistance that the regular clergy had given to the poor ; and the barbarous laws which , were continued by Edward VI . for punishing beggars and vagabonds by bodily castigation , began to be * mingled with powers for relief and controul of the impotent poor ; the parishioners being exhorted to furnish weekly sums as a spontaneous aid . Elizabeth ' s reign marks a new sera . 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 , with 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 were 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 removal from parisk to parish , to the place of his settlement—that is , an Irish or Manx pauper . Settlement was not established for Englishmen until the unconstitutional reign of Charles II .
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 were subsequently added 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 II ., until , in 1722 , by Sir Edward KnatchbuU ' 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 probajbly 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 , tho 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 , with , 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 , with its consequences . Many of the grounds of settlement and removal were deliberately maintained by the new act of 1834 ; and the Removal Act , passed by Sir Ilobert 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 Whigs , who adopted Peel ' s Bill . In the " main , however , the law of settlement and of local rating , jointly , have tho 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 ways check the ? residence of the labourer . Tho two-fold effect is , that the humbler work-people arc 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 the rate-payers of another parish .
Meanwhile the act which was to purify the demoralized labouring classes , and to diminish the expenditure , has fully succeeded in neither respect . It has , indeed , destroyed one source of demoralization , but not the worst . By discontinuing the allowance system , it has abolished tho premium on multiplication of pauper population in the legitimate way ; but . t , he demoralizations from extreme poverty , from crowded residences , and from other sources far more potent , it has in no respect checked . The extensive machinery devoted to " tests , " which positively withhold ablebodied labour from reproductive employment , has augmented the expenditure . And by conniving at the plan of admitting able-bodied paupers into ii , ii idle workhouse , as in Suffolk , the farmers have , in some districts ^ virtually restored an equivalent for the system of paying rates in aid of wagon . _ . _ _ __ _ ,
in 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 ; tho reader 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 avowed ; and , m short ,, within tho compass of a very compact , octavo volume , the data lor the just and sufficient summary which it , contains are given . Tho survey may be said utterly to condemn the present system . I ' England and Wales , irrespectivel y of endowed charities , yielding" - yearly aggregate of . L'l , 2 () i ) ,: W . > , und of , f ^ , ()()( > , ()()< > yielded by hospital * and dispensaries , the expenditure on the poor for the three- years ending IHfiO , averaged . Cf > , 7 Hi > , r > 8 ;{ . 1 n . 1 H . -J 7 the amended law hud had its greatest ellec ! ,, and the expenditure was reduced . l , o IM ,, OH , 741 : we sec ! the subsequent , increase ; which would appear greater if the price of corn wore taken into account . The ollicial returns give you no duo as Lo the actual number of persons chargeable , since they show you only the numbers lor two days in tho your , the lat of January ' and Iho lat of July . Tho jiguros
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710 THE LEADE R . [ Saturday ,
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Leader (1850-1860), July 24, 1852, page 710, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1944/page/18/
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