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popularity , by producing ' , as it will at first , an increase , perhaps , instead of a diminution of the poor-rates . Against these evils , our sole reliance is on the extent of
discretionary power still confided to the Central Board ; even pared down as that power has been , in deference to a short-sighted clamour against what is really the hinge upon which the whole measure turns . Would not one imagine that it had been proposed to invest some body of functionaries with new and unheard-of powers ? instead of merely placing under the controul of a few conspicuous , responsible , and carefully selected officers , free from
local interests , and inaccessible to local intimidation , the very powers which are now exercised without controul by several thousands of petty jobbing local bodies , under every temptation to abuse which the case admits of , without any acquaintance with the principles of the subject , and virtually irresponsible even to an effective public opinion ? Without a Central Board , the framing and administering of a new system would be left , to whom ? To the very authorities whose mismanagement has rendered a new system necessary . The very people who did the mischief would
be the chosen instruments for administering , and in part devising , the remedy ! But this is the spirit of that liberty , which , being different from that of any other people , is called ' English liberty . ' An English patriot of the old school reserves all his jealousy of power , for power in hands of the general government : he is terrified at the thought of confiding to them , or to persons
appointed by them , functions , of which he sees every day , without indignation , the most wanton and flagrant abuse by some paltry knot of incapable or interested persons in his own neighbourhood . A jobbing corporation , or a jobbing vestry , may systematically plunder the public to give lucrative contracts to their own members ; and when it is proposed to place any check upon these
malversations , we are gravely told , that English liberty requires the people to manage their own affairs ; management by the people meaning management by a little section of the people ; and management of their own affairs being management of the affairs of some thousands of other persons . Happily , these prejudices , which but lately were nearly universal , are rapidly wearing away : and we may soon hope to see acknowledged , what it is wonderful should ever be denied ; that if France errs by too much centralization ,
we err as grossly by having too little ; and that no country can be well governed , unless every branch of its local administration , by whomsoever carried on , is closely and vigilantly looked after by the central government , itself duly responsible to the nation at large . Because in England it is no part of the business of the central government to keep any functionaries to their duty , except those appointed by itself ; and because it does not appoint those b y whom the far greatest part of the real government of the coun-
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Refriin of the Poor La ** . 909
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1834, page 363, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2633/page/51/
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