PAUPERISM, AND THE LABOURING POOR.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR.- • Birmingham, 3rd December 1830. '
Stu—Your practical remarks, in November, on " Nostrums," and on the " Relief and Einployment of the Labouring Poor," induce me to send you an extract of the opinions of Dr. THOMAS COOPER, President Of the U. S. South Carolina College, and Professor of Political Economy ; an Anglo-Athe'rican, whose zealous labours in the all-important cause of public ' education' have gained him the honourable appellation of " the - BRonenAat of North America." Dr. COOPER, in his admirable lectures on Political Economy, about to he republished in England, has devoted a chapter on the " Distribution of Wealth" partly to the consideration of those increasing and afflicting causes which have originated the " rural war" now waging in the disturbed districts of England. May. not the old Tory Plot-mongers discover those causes in the public burdens and. degradation consequent on the 'artificial state of society produced by maintaining unameliorated. the Law of Ptimogeniture, by Wars;•by - politic colonization, the Restriction act,pf-1797, the unmodified return to a metallic currency in 1619—the whole summed up in. the words OLIGARCHICAL PARLIAMENTS ? Will they ever discover a real cure or -certain future prevention, or a real remedy, save in a REFORM of the - MEPRESENTATION ?
Observing; that I do not agree with the strictures on marriage,
I am, Sir, a constant reader, I. P.
EXTRACT.
"In what way, then, is the dreadful poverty of the operatives and husbandry la. . bourers is Europe to he counteracted? In what way is the irritating:, disgusting ex.
hibition of cis rmous and useless wealth, and abandoned, profligate, unfeeling luxury, to be counteracted?
" I know of no method but the following. .
" 1. An abolition of every tax whatever; internal or external, on articles used or consumed necessarily by the 'poor ; on protision, on cheap clothing, on houses below a certain rent. Clear away all artificial obstacles to their living cheaply.
",2. Force upon them for their cbieuen, ERUCATION 4gratisk till' at least'twelve eaprof ages.4/tactsi.ripon those whinhall be determined,liy.leilY regulalIon, to [long to that denonithation of the Community. I have no objection to the public maintenance of such children,. when it is determined by Jaw' that their parents • ought not reasonably to maintain them, owing to irreproachable inability.'
" :3. Erect real, not nominal workhouses, where any man or woman willing to laboui during a day of ten working hours, may acquire plenty of wholesome food in return, but no pay. Let these workhouses be a resource only against starving; • affording no temptation to permanent refuge. •
" 4. Onetenth part of the income of a man who earns 100 .dollars a year, paid in taxes, is a burthen intolerable ; one tenth- of the income, of a man who pos- sesses 111,000 dollars a year, would not be felt. Let taxation, therefore, be progres- • sive according to Income, in a proportion beyond arithmetical: For this purpose, a committee of income-tax (the fairest of all taxes), acting inexorably, would be ne- cessary. Taxation in the United States should commence at..5110 dollars a year. and be increased as income increases; with precautions not to check industry and -frugality. Society, Weaned on to protect property, witist dictate the terms and con- ditions /Mons on which it is to be protected. "5. All property bequeathed in mortmain should.he outlawed ;--no suCh bequest ._ should be allowed. By-and-by; the rapacity of ilio,clergy.will areumullite here' as much property as that most dangerous '1)(34'6/Vibe' have grasped and held in England. Governor Lincoln, of Alassachusettr,oth the message preceding his death, .stated that the clergy had levied upon the people of Matsachusetts thirty million of dollars in six years. See tin. St. Telegr. 24th December 1329. " 6. Let the incomes of the clergy, and church property, be subject; like other prciperty; to-taxation. Religion is to them a trade, as.nmeh as the, making of shoes Is to a shoemaker; and Sunday is their day of labour.
"January 1830.—We have 13,000.000 of people now in the unitectStates, who em- ploy about 13;000 clergymen, at 1000 dollars a year each. We pay, therefore, to the ' discordant sects of theology, 13,000,000 of dollars a year, besides the expense of Churches, and irregular exactions 'and fees. In half a centniy*our nopulatiodwill • be 60,000,000, and we shall far outrun the clerical taxes of tbegealisb hierarchy, which are now 40,000,000 of dollars annually. Sir Jas.. Mackintosh; ietris Viddidas Gallia?, has shown; by argument not easily controverted, that church property is ' public property. -
" 7. Let a rigid scrutiny take place as to sinecures and exorbitant `salaries, jobs,. and extravagant appropriations and expenditures. No good government Can •Or - Might to countenance any'kind of extravagance. National wealth is not so mirth the result of industry as frugality. EinOloy whatever public servants are necessary ; in rewarding them, parsimony is not frugality, but extiatiagancecie the worst de- scription. Pay well and punish well ; but, in'paying well, do not pay With wanton profusion: The money is intrusted by the public who pay itom condition of pru- dent expenditure. . • ' " 8. Leta full, complete system of national education be adOpted, open at all times to every eititen; gtatuitously ; including an ample supply of primary or grammar schools, high schools, and universities. Instructors and apparatus to he, amply provided atthe..public emipense. Such a plan I have already sketched. am aware of the well-founded objection to th.that the industrious aretaxedlii aid of the' idle; battbe, resulting benefits 'appear to me greatly, to preponderate. The People maybe safely assured that knowledge is 'power; and superior knolvledge -superior , Tower. . . -• . .7 u 9. Let Marriagete prohibited;among persons who cannot sbowihet thenioSifis, -•Sonie useful• and' ebnipetent means Of.trade or profession to beat'tlieeXpenses attending _oecessailly-oa matriraonf:' 'No person has a right to.bringtvebild into the'world, arid throw its maintenance on others. When people marry,try enter. Into contract with the public, to provide for and-educate the :canting. • larritige a contract between a man and woman for their mutual pleasure; 'there is a third and fermoyeimportalit.party .10-the•contract,.Tiz..the_pubtie. &breach of - this oughtlOsubpzet ballot/tea totedictment and pithistment: =Of the details of , all this, and !or .the kilijebtlium' to which these 'suggestiOns are liable, I can say nothing in such a sketch. They ought to constitute the business oTneampstent 7edninettee, with power to make order,aa to the thildrektitnegligeet parents... el:Uader soch, a sys4em,,mockoftiikeyil of poserly itcatttlie !Able Iki; end all ..tke4anceinSfeoraforfs-seeke ceisiiiies -glee human tocietyeari permaheiitly OM? would, Ise_ obtained. More thinetbie cannot be expected. When will all this take
plime Gretcas Calendasr • '
Previous page
