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    assembled . Does the ' Times' mean that the Poor Rates are now voted by King , Lords , and Commons in Parliament assembled ? or that the rules which regulate relief are made by Parliament , and not by the Magistrates and Vestries ? Is it credible that any person , not drunk with anger or intoxicating liquors , could have penned such an assertion ? It is valuable however , in one respect , as bringing into a strong light the

    truth and value of constitutional clap-traps . It is not , it neyer was , nor ought it to be , part and parcel of the Constitution of any people out of Bedlam , nor was it ever dreamt of in England , that no one should be empowered to raise money from the people , or make rules to bind them , except Parliament . What is part of the Constitution , is that no one can do these things except in the manner and to the extent which Parliament may authorize ; which is only saying what we all know , that Parliament is the Sovereign .

    The ' Times' finds it very absurd to argue that the Commissioners will be responsible , and asks , where is their responsibility if a civil action lie not against them for injury to individuals ? We ask , where is the responsibility of Ministers , or any other constituted authorities ? In the certainty of their losing their offices at the discretion of Parliament ; and the probability , if public opinion , through the customary channels ,

    calls for their removal . What must be the good faith , or the discernment of a writer , who deems this no responsibility , and who at the same time considers the magistrates responsible , because about once a year or less , for some very gross abuse of authority , some magistrate is called to account in the King ' s Bench , and let off ( for the most part ) entirely unharmed ?

    The 'Times' has discovered that republicans are the principal supporters of the Poor Law Bill , and that they support it as a means of disorganizing society , and getting rid of King , Lords , and Commons . The present Poor Law Bill is undoubtedly approved by most of those who judge of public measures from a consideration of means and ends , and not from blind traditions : and if such are generally republicans , that is no compliment to King , Lords , and Commons . But as far as we know anything of English republicans , and there are few who have had

    more extensive opportunities of knowing tfceir sentiments , it is far truer of tliem that they are republicans for the dike of such measures as this , than that they wish for such measures because they are republicans . We have hardly ever conversed with any English republican , who was not almost indifferent to forms of Government , provided the interests of the mass of the people were substantially cared for , in the degree which he considered adequate ; and if among the educated and philosophical reformers , to whom the * Times * seems more particularly to allude , there be anv who desire extensive alterations in the Constitution , we believe we

    may say with some confidence , that there is not one in whom that wish does not originate in despair of seeing an effectual reform in the inward structure of society , except by a previous bursting asunder of its external framework . Any Ministry which should deal with all our social evils , as the present Ministers are [ dealing with one of the principal of them , by probing the evil to the very bottom , and cutting away , cautiously but unsparingly , all that is pernicious , would convert all the philosophical £ - publicans : by practically demonstrating the possibility of carrying Mb same practical measures in the same efficiency , under a monarchy as in

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    Progress of the Poor Law Bill . 453

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1834, page 453, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2634/page/71/