The POLICE. artift, the manufacturer, and the merchant. By granting the fuit of Junius, he will make infolence, fedition, and menace the road to preferment, and prepare for himself a crown of thorns. But whither am I ftrayed-'tis the infection of the times!-The dog-star of politics rages and methinks it is come to fuch a pass, that whether we eat or drink, or whateverwe do--the filt of the porridge is, "the political difputes of the day"---Cool reflection abates the delirium, and now I can refume the thread of my subject without adverting to North or Chatham--Dyson or Barré. All civilized nations have ever fhewn a peculiar vigilance in providing for the maintenance and relief of the poor -many of them from the laudable motive of humanity alone others from religious obligations, and fome from interested, but very commendable caufes. In commercial itates the latter, has always been the cafe, where fuch, ftates understood the true principles of their prosperity----In thefe, the poor are taken care of, not only for their own fakes, but for the relative benefit of fociety: Their labour often refunds the bounty which the duty we owe them as fellow creatures would intitle them to, without this further confideration. But what fhall we fay to a maritime, commercial kingdom (whofe power, riches and fecurity depend on the numbers and ufeful employment of its hands) who fhall fo far forget the firit principles of their rifing glory--"industry and frugality"as to ufe the means of destroying both---and fhall go a little further fill-by drying up the very fource of both," Population." Yet fuch is the fituation of England at this hour---her population is confiderably decreased for the laft ten years, owing to the rapacious difpofition of her landholders (her real tyrants) and to their mistaken notions about improving their eftates, which have induced them to knock down little cottages, to annihilate fettlements for the poor, and thus to prevent the propagation of mankind that they may let their lands to wealthy engroffing farmers,---exporters of corn, or graziers. Her poor, thus deprived of fixed habitations in her refpective villages, 43 ramble up to the capital, and foon learn the lazy art of begging, or the vile occupation of thieving. I have obferved fince the fine arts have been countenanced in this reign, many ftriking portraits of our most gracious fovereign, their profeffed patron, in his royal robes and modern drefs; but I have not remarked any characteristic ingenuity in the artists, even of the Royal Academy. I would therefore beg leave to throw them out a loose hint from antiquity, upon which they may improve at leifure. Plutarch relates, "that Ofiris when he was king of Egypt, drew the inhabitants off from a beggarly and beftial way of living, by fhewing them the ufe of grain, by making laws for them, and teaching them to honour the Gods". In confequence of this he adds---that Ofiris was ever after reprefented amongst the Egyptians..." by an Eye and a Sceptre."--A very proper, full and complete emblem of the majefty of every king, who ought to employ all his power and forefight for the fafety and welfare of his people, of which number are the abandoned poor. Would to God this emblem bore as ftriking a refemblance to his majesty, as any in the print fhops; and that no wicked minifter had it in his power to cover the eye, and expofe to view only the fceptre, the emblem of power! I do not love to pun upon words, but I must repeat the expreffion; If the king had but the opportunity of casting an eye over the accounts of the fum collected by the poor's rates throughout this kingdom, I am fure he would be aftonished, and commifrate the condition of low tradesmen and mechanics, who for the fake of their business are obliged to pay high rents for their houfes, and are proportionally affeffed for the poor---but how fenfibly would his humanity be touched, if he was likewife informed of the vile mifmanagement of this fund, often extorted from the industrious mechanics and tradefmen by compulfion---It is raised to feed, cloathe and employ the poor--yet the poor of this metropolis, and of its fuburbs, one of which is the feat of royalty itself, are neither fed, cloathed nor employed --but on the contrary, fome of them die of nakedness and F 2 hunger 44 The POLICE. hunger in our streets every hard winter--while each hour prefents a swarm of living objects of idleness and unemployed beggary. The low itate of the finances of the kingdom are loudly complained of, yet in this very kingdom near three millions fterling---an immenfe fum indeed! are annually collected for the relief of the most indigent of the people---and though raised by authority of parliament, no account is given into parliament of the application of it; yet both juftice and the very nature and ufes for which the fupply was granted require, that a public account fhould be annually rendered of the expenditure. If the government would wish to have the nation chearfully fubmit to any new tax that may hereafter be requifite in time of war-a feafon of peace fhould be wifely employed in examining into the ftate of the taxes now fubfifting. A wife and affiduous minifter would always find this door open to popularity--to durable efteem and affection. The oppreffive weight of parith taxes is often more grievous than any that are impofed for the publice fervice. In cafe of wrong affeffment, men know where to apply, when government is concerned; but against the arbitrary decrees of an ignorant low-lived fet of people, combined in a fcheme of partial oppreffion in a parifh veftry; the honest, industrious, yet dependent tradefman or mechanic has no relief--he dares not complain of fuperiors, by whom he is employed; to murmur at their villainy, much more to vote against it, might be their ruin. So far back as the year 1693, Sir Jofiah Child, in his Treatife on Trade, mentions the neglected state of the poor, and fays, "that our poor in England have always been in a moft fad and wretched condition, that the children are bred up in beggary and laziness, by which means they become unhealthy in their bodies, and fubject to loathfome difeafes; whereof many die in their tender age, and thofe that live to maturity, by the idle habits contracted in youth, are for ever after indifpofed to labour, and ferve only to flock the kingdom with thieves and beggars." That this evil has continued increafing fince that distant period, notwith ftanding all our ftately hofpitals, I find confirmed to me by every writer on commerce and the state of the kingdom down to the present year. In fact, if I had no written authority in fupport of my affertion, the numbers tranfported or executed after every feffions at the Old Bailey---the quantity of ballad-fingers, the fwarm of poor proftitutes in the streets, and the complaints received of vagrants infefting the villages in the neighbourhood of London, who are fo infolent as to enter court-yards, and throw up the fafhes of parlour windows to demand alms, and on refufal give foul language and abufe, are all convincing proofs that this evil wants a legislative remedy. I cannot help throwing in one remark, " that a prince, or his ministry taking no care to infure the private domeftic happiness of the people in time of peace, deferverdly incur the charge of negligence; and fince the Spanish affair is fettled, I hope the diftrefs we were lately in for want of hands, will teach them not to let one perfon, male or female, be loft to fociety, through idlenefs, drunkenness or difeafe; the confequences of a diffolute life. In order to awaken the attention of government to this grand object, I fhall, in as concife a manner as poffible, ftate fome of the caufes why we do not, nor ever did comfortably maintain and employ our poor. The firft is, our extreme fondness for Liberty, and our inadequate ideas of it; we are apt to mistake civil liberty for natural liberty, not confidering that the first principle of fociety, the very bafis on which all political communities are formed---fuppofes, a sacrifice made of fome of the natural privileges of individuals for the benefit of fociety, and all legiflators have agreed, that what a man lofes on the fide of natural liberty he gains on the fide of political, or civil liberty. For instance, in a state of nature, each individual having the full power of his own actions, might rob his neighbour, or destroy his property---the ftrong might over-power the weak: no man cou'd enforce the aid and affittance even of his own brother to refift fuch violence violence. This favage liberty being given up for the benefit of civil fociety, laws and executive power became the guardians of the fecurity and peace of every individual; and political liberty reftrained them only from injuring fociety. On the principle of civil liberty thus briefly illuftrated, I establish the right of government, even of the freeft, to compel the idle to be induftrious, for idleness being the parent of vice, is an injury to the community, and no political freedom whatever can confer a right to any individual, to injure the fociety to which it belongs. The laws of Holland and Venice refpecting the poor, are formed on this very principle---and I much wonder that our government, which has lately made fome disgustful attacks on our civil liberty, to ferve minifterial purposes, fhould be fo timid in laying legal, political restraints on the exceffes of mere natural liberty. The streets crouded with beggars, the roads infested with highwaymen and footpads, at once impeach the wifdom of our rulers, endanger our fafety, and fhock our humanity. The true caufes of thefe enormities muft be idleness and neceffity, remove these and the effect will ceafe. Can any man fay that a well governed fociety ought not to affift the helpless ftate of the one, and correct the diffipation of the other? 45 commencement of the fervice of God, till the governors, and in fome places their ladies, arrive at the chapel of the hofpital, cannot help fubfcribing to my opinion, that thefe charities are not conducted on the principles of true humanity. I except the hofpitals for cafualties, and for wounded or feeble old age, whether military, naval or civil inftitutions. The inftitution of the Foundling Hofpital I highly applaud, but the direction and management of it, partakes of the vanity and oftentation I fo much abhor. But I warmly proteft against the multiplication of late years---of lying-in hofpitals, fmall-pox hofpitals and locks---As nuifances in a trading nation inftead of benefits, unless they were under parliamentary regulations--governors are entitled to recommend patients, they are fond of fhewing their authority, therefore they recommend indifcriminately, and who dare reject the patient-neither phyfician, furgeon, apothecary, nor nurfe, who are all the fervants of the governors. A lazy idle man or woman indifpofed for work,goes to an hofpital for one, two, or three months, with a disorder which might have been cured at home, and they continued their ufual occupations. A woman for instance, after the first week of her lying-in, can perform fundry little works on her bed for the use of her family, and her prefence keeps her husband from fotting in an alehoufe at night--this industry and attention is loft by fending her to an hofpital, perhaps a fortnight before her delivery, and the remains there at least three weeks after. A working mechanic or labouring man gets a fever after a fit of drunkennefs--fend him to an hofpital, and when his real diforder is removed, the houfe of correction fhould be his punishment-how eafy to impofe on the doctor or nurfe, and indulge a week or two longer in bed, or walking about the wards---not only fo much labour is thereby loft, but an habit of idlenes is contracted. I will not add other points of mifmanagement---but on a calculation made with great accuracy, I find that for one half of the money beftowed on the erecting, endowing and conducting thefe hofpitais---d penfaries might be kept in every parith, and 46 The POLICE and the fick and infirm be attended at home, with even more profit, though not quite fo much eafe to the faculty. Another cause of the idleness of the poor is, the method of relieving them in each parish; and here let me obferve, that it is very abfurd to argue that the laws now in being for the regulation of vagabonds and the relief of the poor, need but be put in force, and all will be well. Experienee fhews the contrary, and traces the defect to thefe very laws. Giving money to the vagrant is enjoined by law, and is one of the chief causes of the evil complained of: It is often spent at the next gin fhop, and then the beggar has only to change the scene to another part of the town. But the radical error in thefe laws is, the leaving it to the care of every parish to maintain their own poor only, and to aflefs themselves---From whence follows a burthenfome rate on needy housekeepers, and a temporary affiftance to the vagrants, who are only fhifted from parish to parish, while they can ftand or move: Many profeffed beggars carry on the trade in London for feven years before they meet with any obftruction or punishment from the parish officers---they have their stated times of laying each parish under contribution, and to as they do not appear too often in any, and are fatisfied with a trifle to jogg on to another, they can pick up by this relief, and cafual charities, a de. cent livelihood--- provided they are fober and frugal, which is not the cafe of one in an hundred; but when it is, you read in the news-papers of two or three hundred pounds being found in their beds or cloaths, carefully concealed. People may fay what they will about the excellency of our laws, but it is a found maxim, "That there never was a good law made which was not well executed; the fault of the law caufing a failure of execution.” Parishes, it is true, have workhouses where the honelt poor may be fent; and there are houfes of correction for the abandoned and criminal; and yet, fuch is the abufe of terms and futilty of human inititutions, that neither do the former work in workhoutes, nog are the latter corrected, i. e. reformed in houfes of correction. A pauper who has by whatever means been fent to a workhoufe, is hardly fit or willing to apply himfelf ever after, to any useful occupation---and the guilty wretch comes out only the more obdurate, profligate and perverfe from his bridewell. The housekeepers in no country in Europe are buithened with a poor's rate as in England; yet the money collected is for the most part mifapplied, for want of a true teft whereby to judge, who is, and who is not entitled. The churchwarden or overfeer is perpetually harrassed, either for fome weekly allowance in money, or for admiffion into the vorkhouse, by poor people who will take no denial; and who, if refuted, may have their complaints heard before a magiftrate, and the overfeer or churchwarden is fummoned to attend. If the neceffity of the complainant ap-. pears to the Juftice, and it always does, if their tale is believed, they are relieved in their own way. Here lies the fource of all the mifchief, for while the idle poor know, or think that they may at any rate be relieved, either by a workhoufe, or by money, they are little folicitous to provide for themfelves, and under various pretences will avoid labour. Now Sir, let me throw out a bait for the treasury to take up this matter. If all the impotent poor were comfortably provided for, and those of both fexes and all ages that can do work of any kind, were compelled to labour, and this may be done compatible with the true principles of civil liberty---Half a million fterling at least, might be carried to the public revenue from the monies raifed by the prefent poor's rates. Either this fum then might be employed to leffen the excife duties on foap, candles, and other articles that affect our indigent manufactures, or it might ferve to pay the intereft of a new loan in time war. But if the legiflature commiferating the heavy burthens already laid on the trading and induftrious part of the nation, chofe to lower the exorbitant poor's rates The forteft remedy would be to oblige every parish to give in annually to a committee of the house of Danger of beftering unmerited Praifess of commons, to be entitled the public guardians of the poor---exact accounts of their receipts and difbursements, with full defcriptions of the parties relieved. The following good effects would refult from this plan. Avaritious, felfith veftrymen would be afraid of having their partialities and unwarrantable expences expofed--And with all the lits before them, the committee would find out the notorious profeffed vagrants and impoftors, who are the drones living on the induftrious bees of the nation, and the houfe might proceed with them in a fummary way. If this fails to leffen the poor's rates and difpofe of vagrants- propofe a new law to be made, follow property whereever you find it, and declare you will rate for the poor, according to the rank and reputed circumftances of each housekeeper, deducible from his oftenfible tokens of wealth. You will by this propofition alone, alarm all fubftantial housekeepers, and excite them to be vigilant in their parochial duties, and to tranfact this material bufinefs, instead of entrusting it to interested perfons. 47 Having already taken up too much of your time, permit me to conclude with recommending government for the employment of the poor, to that excellent plan established by the corporation of Bristol, under the fanction of parliament 7th. and 8th. of William III. The account of the proceedings of that corporation in execution of this act, for the better employing and maintaining the poor---is to be found in the appendix to Cary on Trade, printed at London, A. D. 1745. That fome fuch inftitution is wanting all over this kingdom we cannot doubt, when we fee the high sheriff of the opulent county of Kent advertifing for a general meeting to confider of better ways and means of regulating and providing for the poor. In a word, we can hardly believe that all the magiftrates and parish officers are fo`remifs in their duty, as to redress none of thofe evils juftly complained of refpecting the poor: It is on the contrary, more reasonable and equitable to attribute the little that is done in this weighty affair to their circumfcribed power. BENEVOLUS. Feb. 8, 1771. following effect,-" Ibu Malik furpasses thould ask a favour of him, I'll engage that he shall not be refused." Danger of beflowing unmerited Praifes. HE poet Nabati, who was reencomiums, was one day fummoned to appear before the Cadi. Nabati, who had been thus accustomed to flatter every man from the highest to the loweit, was amazed how he could have offended or injured any one: As to lands and poffeffions he had none. He owed no man any thing, nor had any demand upon any man; he therefore could not divine the meaning of his being fummoned before the Cadi. When he arrived, he was informed that a fuit had been commenced against him for a hundred pieces of gold. The aftonifhed poet, demanded to know how the claim could be made out. In the works that you have published, replied the other, there are fome of the finest verses upon Ibu Malik, our Grand Vifir, that ever were written, and by thofe verfes you are become indebted to me in the fum of one hundred pieces of gold. They are to the Upon the faith of this poem, I have been to ask the vifir for an hundred pieces of gold, which I have an urgent occafion for. He has refused to comply with my request, but I am not uneafy on that account, because you have engaged to be anfwerable for him. The poet only required time to fee the vifir, and immediately running to him, he faid. "I have done you the honour to fay much in your favour, and I hope you will now convince the world of the truth of what I have afferted." He then acquainted him with the particulars of the hundred pieces of gold. The vifir consented to pay the money, but made the following obfervation. "My modeity enjoins you not to do me the honour to pay me fuch very high compliments for the fu ture.” A Shor |