13 JANUARY 1956, Page 20

The gmerfator

JANUARY 15, 1831 Tim poor-laws of England are a premium on wretchedness everywhere : their effects are had here, but they are not less mischievous in the other parts of the empire. They unnaturally lower the price of labour in one division, only to lower it more oppressively in another. Scotland bears up under the infliction, because it opposes to the balance of the poor-laws the balance of intelligence. Ireland is in a worse condition, intellectually considered, than Eng• land; and yet we deny to her the schoolmaster and the overseer equally—we neither feed her mind nor her body. Is it wonderful that in her darkness and feebleness she often totters, and sometimes falls?