Ten Chapters on Social Reform. By Sir Edward Sullivan, Bart.
(Stanford.)—Sir Edward Sullivan has hit many blots in our system, but he has not been the first to do so, and he does not suggest any possible remedies. The evils of our Poor Law, of our Church patronage, of our Vagrant Law, of the licence accorded to all classes, and of the use drunkards and criminals snake of it, are by no moans now even to casual observers. Had Sir Edward Sullivan suggested any method of working the present system, or of sabstituting a system that will work better, the force with which he dwells on existing evils might serve to convince people of the necessity of the change proposed. But what is proposed is either impossible, or open to as great objections as the old state of things. Before we can do away with the sale and purchase of livings, before we can have a general poor-rate for the whole country, before we can make our vagrants engage in profitable work, before we can rebuild all the houses of the poor, before we can close a great pro- portion of the present public-houses, we must know something about that which wo are to substitute, and we must ascertain whether it will be bettor on the whole. To this Sir Edward Sullivan has not given a thought, and the result is that his ten chapters irritate instead of appeasing.
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