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that * whicft he enjoys , is manifestly absurd , and tends to the disorganization of the whole . If it be asked at all why is it to stop at the pauper ? « - * -We indulge our tastes for pageantry
and pomp and splendour . We have our privileged orders , our nobles , our ministers , our princes , and our kings . How is it then that we cannot afford , without injury to the state , to relieve our poor ?
The right by which the indigent claim our relief , is , notwithstanding the positive denial of its existence by Mr . Malthus , one of the most sacred and indefeasible which man can possess . It is incident to our human
condition . It is as ancient as the heart of man . It arises from that-fellowship in suffering from which no one is exempted . We find ourselves here situated in a state of sorrow and of tears , made ** of one blood , " and sharing in the same fears , the same
hopes , the same unknown destiny . We have all passed through the weakness of the cradle , we shall all soon be gathered together in the silence of the grave . We are united together by a thousand ties ; and of these grief is the most sacred . Confiding love ,
unshaken friendship and mutual assis tance are the surest earthly things we have to rest on . The right to compassion , to consolation and relief is possessed by every one who suffers . For who shall dare deny that which he may to-morrow require ? Who of
us shall insolently tell the wretched , that " no cover is spread for him at nature ' s table , " when the applicant may shortly be seated in our place to reproach us as intruders ? Other rights arise out of the necessities of the social state , but this is derived
from the natural condition of man . " Est enim hcec non scripta , sed nata lex : f / uam non didicitniis , accepimusy legimuSj verum ex naturd ipsft , arripuimuSy hausimus , expressimiis ; ad quam non docti sed facti ; non instituti , sed imbuti sumiis . " * What monarch has
a right so sacred to plead for his aceptre ? It is far from my object to defend the policy of the system at present pursued for the national relief of the poor . But I find it impossible to agree in deprecating the principle on * Cic . pro . Miione . Sect . iii .
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which it is founded . Nor have I any sympathy with those who regard even common beggars as nuisances , whom individuals ought to spurn and magistrates to punish . It cannot , indeed be denied that the scanty boon we
afford them is a very small exertion of beneficence , compared with the active charity which searches out the objects that stand most in need of its aid , and relieves them in such a manner as to do the greatest ultimate service . But it must be confessed , that the far larger number of mankind are
indisposed to pursue the latter course . The business of the world , especially that which has gain for its immediate object , necessarily tends to harden the heart . In the sunshine of our own prosperity , we are too apt to forget the distresses under which our
fellowcreatures are suffering . Our gross selfishness requires to be perpetually disturbed , or it would over-crush the soul , and paralize all its generous energies and sweet affections . ou We be perpetually reminded o ^ r fellowship with a nature of which sorrow is a universal condition . These
benefits the despised vagrants afford us . They bring want and misery before the eyes of the licentious and the proud ; they remind us all affectingly of our own dependant state ; and they excite those little impulses of tender feeling and pensive thought , which
prevent our hearts from utterly " losing their nature . " They have , perhaps , been our first teachers of the greatest of sciences—the science of humanity . They are the best sineenrists whom artificial society maintains . Besides , they form a part , an old and
customchartered part , of the great commonwealth of man . They are a distinct class of that great body whence no race could . be struck without injuring the rest ; without destroying some pleasant associations and kindly feelings , which every thing belonging to
humanity must bring to those who are human . We cannot afford to lose old and familiar things , which have stirred our hearts with gentle emotions in the mornii » g of life , and the continuance of which binds the various periods of our age together . If , when youngf wc have been accustomed to relieve the
wretched , every similar act of charity will call up the heart of childhood again within us . We shall delight in
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662 On the System of Malthus .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1817, page 662, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2470/page/22/
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