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Many causes have contributed to the increase of this evil . The ruinous wars of the present reign , aud the oppressive system of taxation pursued by the late premier , are among the principal . But the manufacturing system is the main cause : it is the inevitable
tendency of that system to multiply the number of the poor , and to make them vicious , diseased , and miserable . To answer the question concerning the comparative advantages of the savage aad social states , as Rousseau has done , is to commit high treason
against human nature , and blasphemy against Omniscient goodness ; but they who say that society ought to stop where it is , and that it has no further amelioration to expect , do not less blaspheme the one , and betray the
other . The improvements of society never reach the poor : they have been stationary , while the higher classes were progressive . The gentry of the land are better lodged , better accommodated , better educated than their
ancestors ; the poor man lives in as poor a dwelling as his forefathers when they were slaves of the soil , works as hard , is worse fed , and not better taught . His situation , therefore , is
relatively worse . There is , indeed , no insuperable bar to his rising into a higher order — his children may be tradesmen , merchants , or even nobles — but this political advantage is no amendment of his actual state . The
best conceivable state for man is , that wherein he has the full enjoyment of all his powers , bodily and intellectual . This is the lot of the higher classes in Europe ; the poor enjoys neither—the
savage only the former . If , therefore , religion were out of the question , it had been happier for the poor man to have been born among savages , than in a civilized country , w # > # « e he is in fact the victim of civilization .
10 . Mercenary Conduct ofthfi Dean and Chapter of St . Paul * . Some fi ve-and-twenty or thirty years ago the best English artists offered to paint pictures and give them to this cathedral ;—England had never greater
painters to boast of than at that time . The thing , however , was not so easy as you might imagine , and it was necessary to obtain the consent of the bishop , the chapter , the lord mayor , and the ki ng . The king k > vesi the arts ,
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and willingly consented ; the lord mayor and the chapter made no objection ; but the bishop positively refused ; for no other reason , it is said , than because the first application had not been made to him . Perhaps some puritanical feeling may have been mingled with this despicable pride , some leaven of the old Iconoclastic and
Lutheran barbarism ; but as long as the names of Barry and of Sir Joshua Reynolds are remembered in this country , and remembered they will be as long as the works and the fame of a painter can endure , so long will the provoking absurdity of this refusal be execrated . *
11 . Dissenters— " Socinians" f I have related in my last how the Dissenters , from the republican tendency of their principles , became again obnoxious to government during the present reign ; the ascendancy of the
old high church and tory party , and the advantages which have resulted to the true religion . Their internal state has undergone as great a change . One part of them has insensibly lapsed into Socinianism , a heresy , till of late years ,,
* A story , even less honourable than this to the dean and chapter of St . Paul's is current at this present time , which if false should be contradicted , and if true should be generally known . Upon the death of-Barry the painter , it was wished to erect a tablet to his memory in this cathedral , and
the dean and chapter were applied to for permission so to do ; the answer was , that the fee was a thousand pounds . In reply to this unexpected demand , it was represented that Barry had been a poor man , and that the monument was designed by his friends as a mark of respect to his genius : that it would not be large , and consequently
mig-ht stand in a situation where there was not room for a larger . Upon this it was answered , that , in consideration of these circumstances , perhaps five hundred pounds might be taken . A second remonstrance was made : the chapter was convened to consider the matter , and the final answer was , that nothing- less than a thousand pounds could be taken .
If this be false it should be publicly contradicted , especially as any thing dishonourable will be readily believed concerning- St . Paul ' s , since Loid Nelson ' s com a Was shown there in the grave for a shilling * a head . —Tr .
•\ - This passage was quoted in our ac count of The Spaniard ' s Letters on their first appearance , M . Repo * . II ., MKK E » .
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The Spaniard ' s Letters from England . S 5 &
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VOL . XII . 2 z
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1817, page 353, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2465/page/33/
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