(5.) Another principle, not less essential than either of the preceding, is, that where there are relatives of the poor, who are able to provide for them, almsgiving should not be permitted to interfere with the duties of such relatives. If the alms are evil, worse than thrown away, which operate as substitutes for industry and economy, in a still higher sense are they evil, because conducing to greater sin, where they interfere with, and supersede the demand for, the affections and duties, which belong to the near relations in which God places us in this world.

It is the will of God, that, as far as they can, parents should provide for their children. It is equally his will, if parents fall into a condition of dependence, and there are children who are able, even at the cost of much labor and self-denial, to take charge of them, that parents, under these circumstances, shall be supported by their children. Law and right, indeed, require this support from more distant relatives of the impotent poor. Law, however, independent of a higher principle, cannot do much in this case. The duty is one of high moral character, and as such is to be early and universally inculcated. So it has been inculcated in Scotland; and the consequence is, that, where there are no poor-laws, and no parish assessments in that country, the care of the people for their own poor relatives goes far to supersede the necessity of any other provision for them. Legal and other artificial provision for the poor, greatly checks and restrains the natural sympathies of relatives with each other's necessities. They also paralyze public sentiment upon the subject of duty in the case; and induce a tacit approval of turning over poor relatives upon public charity, even where it ought to cover the individuals, who are guilty of it, with shame and disgrace. We ought to do all we can to counteract this insensibility; to call up and strengthen the affections by which relatives should be bound to each other, and to show our respect for those who are faithful to the offices of kindred and neighbourhood. Here, as in the cases before adverted to, a judicious respect, and a kindly word of encouragement, are a far better tribute, than would be the most abundant alms.

1 Timothy v. 8.

(6.) Once more;— since not only a large part of the dependence upon alms, even among the virtuous poor, but nearly all our pauperism, (abject poverty,) is either immediately or remotely to be ascribed to intemperance in drinking, the question arises, and it is often a question of great difficulty, What ought we to do, or what shall we do in the cases, in which, but for intemperance, there would be no call for alms? We must always distinguish between the intemperate man and his family. The wife of a

drunken husband and her children may be without food, without fuel, without comfortable clothing, and wholly innocent in respect to the causes of their destitution. Or, it may be, the wife is as intemperate as her husband. Yet there are children to be housed, and clothed, and warmed, and fed, and instructed. It may be said, that our very alms will be appropriated to the rearing of these children in intemperance. To some extent, they probably will be. Yet there may be actual and pressing want of the absolute necessaries of life. Let him, who thinks it easy always to act wisely in reference to this class of cases, make himself practically acquainted with them, and give us the light of his counsel and example. The best general rule is this, to the intemperate, whether man or woman, money should never be given. Nay more, even relief in kind should never be given to the families of the intemperate, beyond the demands of unquestionable necessity. Not that we ought to inflict upon them any suffering; we ought, rather, to be willing and gratified instruments, as far as we can, of their rescue from all suffering. But any alms we may bestow, except with the greatest caution, will but plunge them still further in want and misery. Nay, through our own very alms, may an intemperate husband and father feel himself relieved from the necessity, and perhaps from the obligation, of providing for his wife and children.

There are cases, in which law might do far more than it has ever done for the prevention of pauperism. But, while it licenses the dram-shop, and interferes not with the victim of intemperance, to whatever pitch of wretchedness he may bring his family, while he commits no outrage against the public peace, we must still do what we can, that our alms may not minister to his yet further progress in guilt and misery. Let us seek, by all the

means of which we can avail ourselves, to recover him from his ruin. Above all, we ought never to lose our interest in his children.

5. The administration of alms by a system of poor-laws remains to be discussed, and is too important to be omitted. The great danger of systematic and established provisions for the relief of the poor, in the form of poor-laws, consists in their tendency to deprave the poor, and thus indefinitely to cxtend and perpetuate pauperism.

The history of such establishments, is full of solemn admonition on these dangers. The Reports, recently published in England, upon the poor-laws and their effects, enable us fully to understand this subject. They show, that, from the beginning and constantly, these laws have operated upon very many, as lures to seek support by alms, rather than by labor. Where there is little or no sense of character, or sense of shame, to deter from willing dependence, the temptations to it need not be great. Human wants are divine provisions for human exertions; and, where ability is possessed, and opportunity is had, for the exertions by which self-support may be obtained, it is the will of God, that man should provide for his own subsistence. Yet many are, and ever have been, disposed to live with as little labor and selfdenial as possible. Many are industrious, economical, and careful for the future, only as they are compelled to be so by the absolute necessity of their condition. They are always ready to avail themselves of any circumstances, by which they can live upon easier terms than daily forethought, care, and toil. The fact stands out in bold relief, and for solemn admonition, that established provisions for the support of the poor have never failed to obtain claimants, to any extent to which such provisions have been made. And not only so, but the relief thus given has been received, not as alms, but as the proportion due to the receiver from a recognised common stock.

As yet we see these results but to a comparatively small extent in our own country. The facilities for employment and support everywhere among us are so many and great, and our population is as yet so little crowded, compared with that of Europe, that demands of this kind may be resisted here, as they cannot be

there. But we have experience enough of these results to satisfy us, that they are not fictions. It is to be considered, also, in this connexion, that every addition to the number so supported, exerts some influence in breaking down the sense of shame in regard to this kind of support, in those who are in the same, or in similar, circumstances. On this subject, the experience of England is too instructive to be passed by lightly. "I am every week astonished," says the overseer of an English parish, "by seeing persons come for relief, who I never thought would have come. Among them are respectable mechanics, whose work and means are tolerably good. The greater number of out-door paupers are worthless people. But still, the number of decent people, who ought to make provision for themselves, and who come, is very great and increasing. Indeed, the malady of pauperism has not only got among respectable mechanics. We find even persons, who may be considered as the middle classes, such as petty masters, who have never before been seen making applications to parish officers, now applying. My opinion is, that they apply in consequence of witnessing the ease with which others, who might have provided for themselves, obtain relief."*

Thus, in England, circle has gradually been added to circle, and the whirling eddy has extended, until it has ingulfed multitudes who once thought themselves, and were universally thought, far from its brink. Here, too, the great secret is disclosed, of the pauperism of very many in this country. They might have provided for their own necessities. But they have seen, that others obtain relief amid their wants, simply by asking for it, and thus they, also, have been led to ask for it. And if, moreover, we take into account the peculiar pressure for aid, which always has been, and always will be, incidental to seasons of scarcity, and to those fluctuations of the commercial and manufacturing interests, by which many, for a time, are thrown out of employment, and the wages of labor are reduced to those who may still be employed, while the price of provisions may even be considerably enhanced, the whole mystery of the danger of permanent provisions. for the relief of want, so far as the increase of pauperism is con

*

Report of Commissioners upon the Poor-Laws, p. 45.

cerned, and of all other than purely moral provisions for these exigencies, will be dispelled.

It is in these emergencies, that the greatest accessions are made to the number of recognised and permanent dependents upon poor-laws, and upon charitable societies. The difficulties, it may be the actual sufferings of the poor, but independent laborer, are then sometimes very great. A strong sense of character, it may be a strong sense of duty, is then required for the maintenance of his independence. His case is very proper to enlist private sympathy, to be manifested by giving him employment, or making him small loans; but let him manfully persevere in his independence, and avoid a resort to poor-laws. By receiving aid under poor-laws, during a pressure of this kind, many thousands have been brought to pauperism, who, aided by private sympathy as they should have been, might have obviated the temporary difficulties of their condition by their own exertions, have gained strength to principle and character from these very difficulties, and ultimately have been gainers through the very circumstances, which, causing them to depend on alms, have eventually brought them to degradation and ruin.

upon

I omit all consideration of the excessive burthens imposed the community in the way of taxes by pauperism, because this part of the subject belongs to the legislator and the political economist, rather than to the moral philosopher. But the effects of poor-laws upon the moral feelings and natural sympathies of paupers come fairly within my province. "The burthen of this" (the pecuniary) "tax upon its payers," says the highest authority, "sinks into insignificance, when compared with the dreadful effects, which the system produces upon the morals and happiness of the poor. It is as difficult to convey to the mind of the reader a true and faithful impression of the intensity and malignity of the evil, in this view of it, as it is by any description, however vivid, to give any adequate idea of the horrors of a shipwreck, or a pestilence. A person must converse with paupers, must enter workhouses and examine the inmates, must attend at the parish pay-table, before he can form a just conception of the moral debasement, which is the offspring of the present (poor-law) system. He must hear the pauper threaten to aban