HOW FAR MAY WE SAFELY GO 1

" Perhaps the best eulogium that can be conferred On any Government 13, that thAM Is employment for all the people."—&r F. Eden on the Poor.

TO THE EDITOR OF TIIE SPECTATOR.

Sea—We must take society as we find it. A liberal interpretation of other men's opinions, and an allowance for their prejudices, soon teach us that we must

do all we can although we cannot do all we wish. In social changes regarding the labouring. classes, nothing is more to be shunned.elmes confusion of any kind; and so sweeping an innovation as the total repeal of the law of settlement, and the placing the rights of the poor upon a new basis in this country, might possibly lead to the very evil which we all so heartily deprecate.

Excuse these commonplaces, Mr. Spectator. I feel that some apology may be your due lest I should fall into the same error of which I have, perhaps too hastily, accused others, and, loud in denouncing the evils of our present system, should appear hut weak when I come to speak of a substitute for it. I have spoken before of a central authority. Believe me, that to deal with such a sub- ject as the condition of the poor, it is absolutely necessary: but by a central authority, I would be understood as meaning an individual authority directly re- sponsible to public opinion, bound to render an account of his stewardship to the House of Commons, and to bring the mode and principles of administering the public alms directly under their review. And here one word with regard to cen- tralization.

Centralization is unpopular with the people of England; but the word is odious because it is only used in a bad sense, and has commonly amongst us a sneering and ill-concealed allusion to our neighbours the French. The difference, however, between the centralization of the French metropolis and our own is great Ours has a manifest tendency, nationally speaking, to confirm and build up local author ity; theirs, to weaken and absorb it. In France, literary adventurers, lawyers and persons of use to the Court, occupy a much larger share of power than with us. Brilliant ability, rather than moral worth, is the road to advancement in France. In England, we not only respect the latter, but even go so far as to at- tech importance to that indefinite but potent word "station "—perhaps too much so; yet it has its advantages. There results from it a solidity and gravamen in our social structure, which our lively neighbours may well envy. Unhappily, the Commissions which have been constructed of late years, but more particularly the Poor-law Commission, have been framed rather upon a foreign than upon an English model, and are alien to the ancient spirit of our laws. What should have been sent forth as the desire or advice of a responsible Minister, issued from Somerset House as an edict, in a form as positive and formal as if it had been a law of the Medes and Persians. There was much to shock the prejudices of the people in this. In a few years it has had the effect of reducing Boards of Guardians to mere ciphers; an occurrence which cannot be too much lamented. The gentry, the natural protectors of the poor, absent them- selves by slow degrees from the Board, feeling that they have no real authority. How different was the regularity of their meetings when the question was the enforcement of the new law ! What says the poor man to this? He argues, per- haps in a mistaken way, but with a show of truth, that the gentry were ready enough to enforce a law they thought necessary for the benefit of their estates, but that when the question arises of its just administration they are seen to au away and their visits gradually to become more rare. But while I blame the constitution of the Commission, let me not, like Mr. Ferntnd, run into the error of abusing the individuals who compose it. As a general rule, they are fur above the average run of our men of business. They have borne much odium and abuse with great patience; which it is scarcely to be thought they could have done unless supported by a strong sense of public duty. The education of the people has never been alien to their thoughts. The College at Battersea for Schoolmasters, and the Industrial Training Schools at Norwood, stand forth as monuments of the active benevolence of some of this maligned class. And if we praise the Commissioners, can we in fairness pass over their indefatigable Secretary, Mr. Chadwick? In one sense this gentleman may be called the pioneer of the Condition-of-England question. Of indefatigable industry and great perseverance, it has been his leisure employment, without a farthing of remuneration beyond his salary as Secretary to the Poor-law Board, to furnish statistical details upon all the great sanatory questions which now occupy so much public attention, of surprising accuracy and great importance. To him we may with slight alteration apply the words of Burke in reference to Howard the philanthropist "his it has been to plunge into the infection of hospitals, to surrey the mansions of sorrow and pain, to take the gauge and dimensions of

misery, depression, and contempt, to remember the forgotten to attend to the neglected, to think of the forsaken, and to compare and 'mate the distresses of all 'classes of men throughout his native land." Having, Sir, thus made my aniende to the individuals, I must condemn the system as strongly as ever; and, having as it were installed my new Minister in power, the next question to be considered is the mode in which he would deal with thaw pressing questions likely so soon to be brought before the attention of Parliament.

And first, with regard to the law of settlement. The practical basis of amend- ment will probably be a bill not unlike that of Sir James Graham in 1845—an abolition of all settlement except, first, birth settlement, and secondly, settlement by a five-years residence; with the important alteration also of union settlement, and of course union local taxation.

I have pointed out in a former letter how far the workhouse test is dependent for its efficiency upon the settlement-laws. It is obvious that Sir James Graham's bill was framed with the express intention of keeping the workhouse test intact, and securing its active operation. Ought such an amelioration therefore to be opposed? I think not. The benefit is great to the poor man which you give !inn, by merely increasing the circle of his little domain—by extending the area in which lie can obtain a cottage without forfeiting his birthright. The Guar- dians would do their duly more diligently and cordially if they felt they were all at least as far as taxation 18 concerned, "sailing in the same boat," as it were, and might be the rather induced to combine for charitable and benevolent purposes. Union settlement, lam well aware, has its objections: on the whole, Tam inclined to think they are overbalanced by its advantages. Union taxation might in its turn prepare the way for general taxation and a general poor-fund. The principle of repealing. the law of settlement entirely, and breaking at once the bonds by which the industry of the poor man is trammelled, ought at the same time to have a fair trial and an ample field,—a field in which the true law of each man being taxed to support his poorer neighbour, not according to the measure of his poverty but in proportion to the abundance of his means, should equally prevail. That field, it appears to me, is open to us in the Metropolitan district.

1st. Let all parts of the Metropolis be subject to an equal rate for the support of the poor. 2d. Let the fund arising from such rates be redistributed to Local Boards, upon definite and clear statistical information with regard to the wants of each district, by the Poor-law Central Authority. /idly. Let those Boards be instructed that it is their duty to relieve the aged and infirm, either in their own houses or in an asylum; that with regard to the able-bodied, they have authority to give relief or to refuse it according to the na- ture of the ease.

4thly. Let every measure be taken to give the clergy and the charitable the fullest information regarding the state of the poor; thus to render, if possible, your poor system a stimulant to voluntary charity, and not a damper upon it, as, alas! it now too often is.

You will admit, Sir, that it is not upon a corpus vile I would try this great experiment. But bow stands the fact ? The law of settlement, like all bad laws, has a tendency to repeal itself; and in the London district it is perfectly well known to be for every useful purpose a dead letter. Let any intelligent man give himself the trouble to peruse the first two or three pages of the Reports pro- posed by the various members of the Committee on Metropolitan Asylums in May last, which precede the Evidence printed by the order of the House, and he will hardly come to a different conclusion. Let alone "the refractory paupers" —with whom I am glad to see that you and your able contemporary the Times have been busying yourselves of late—what, I ask, is the state of our streets? "Prostitutes and vagrants go from one workhouse to another, received into one one night and into another another night."• "All persons applying, whether worthless or really .destitute, receive relief either in food or lodging (the law so orders). Houses intended for the relief of the destitute are converted into free quarters, where the worst characters are admitted, frequently to save themselves the expense of a night's lodging; and in many instances the really destitute are

plundered of their property, and even of their scanty meal, by profes- sional vagrants, who appear by the evidence to be formed into gangs headed by their captains, for the depredation of the public."if But, Sir, poor creatures like these are not better for too harsh treatment, after all. The story is an old one, as old as the days of Sir Josiah Child. What said Sir Josiah, in the little work to which I have before adverted? "Bad laws are always badly executed." Give the working people freedom of industry, and you will soon diminish the social offence of pauperism. Hear what he describes as the state of London in his day. "A poor idle person, that nobody will employ in the country, comes up to London to set up the trade of begging: such a person probably may beg up and down the streets seven years, it may be seven-and- twenty, before anybody asketh why she does so; and if at length she Lath the ill luck in some parish to meet with a more vigilant beadle than one in twenty of them are, all he does is but to lead her the length of five or six houses into another parish, and then concludes, as his masters the parishioners do, that he bath done the part of a most diligent officer. But suppose he should go yet further to the end of his line, which is the end of the law; suppose he should carry this poor wretch to a Justice of the Peace, and he should order the delinquent to be whipt, and sent from parish to parish, to the place of her birth or last abode (which not one Justice of twenty, through pity or other cause, will do); even this is a great charge to the country, and yet the business of the nation wholly undone: for no sooner doth the delinquent arrive at the place assigned, but for shame or idleness she presently wanders directly back, or some ether way, hoping for better for- tune; while the parish to which she is sent, knowing her to be a lazy or perhaps worse qualified person, is as willing to be rid of her as she is to be gone from thence."

Nothing is more common, now-a-days, than for prostitutes at the time of fairs or races (as I know in my own union) to leave the house, and return to it after two or three days spent in idleness, swilling, debauchery, and crime. For this the law has no remedy. But, Sir, the length of this letter reminds me I must close. I have kept my word, and given you at least some practical suggestions. I have touched upon an old tale, and one not unknown in S.hakspere's clays—" Poor Tom! who is whipped from tything to tything, and stock'd, and punisli'd, and imprison'd." There are other points on which I may trouble you hereafter, more briefly—the Education of Pauper Children, and Poor-law Medical Relief.

In parting from you at present, I would observe—

We have tried under the Old Pcor-law, relief to all who ask for it; measuring that relief rather by the demands than the deserts of the applicant. The con- s-nuence was, social disorganization in the South of England.

In the New Poor-law' we have tried relief' to all who ask, but relief of such a

penal character as to be to the industrious and accepted by the bad only. The consequence has been, great odium to the law, irregularity in its ad- Ministration, and disappointment among its advocates.

The true secret of a Poor-law I believe to be, do not relieve all who ask; but when you give relief, let your rule be the rule of kindness, and the principles upon which you administer it those of Christianity.

.1 remain, Sir, your obedient servant, A GUARDIAN.

• Report by Mr. Horne.

Report by Sir C. Napier. The increase of vagrancy In the City of London Unlon Ma been, in 1839, 356 relieved ; in 1840, 2,403; In 1841, 11,203' in 1842, 26,113 ; in wia, 43,275; In 1844, 24,574; in 1845, 26,003.