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(15.) I turn from the contemplation of this state of things, infinitely more disgraceful to the rich than to the poor, wherever it exists, to a very different picture. I shall not instance England, though I think I well might, after what has been seen, but appeal to one of the most interesting countries in Europe, in all respects, where a system of sustaining the poor very similar to ours prevails-the kingdom of the Netherlands. In the year 1823, an official report was made to the States General, upon the " établissemens de bienfaisances et de l'éducation des PaysBas1." We have already, in reviewing the agriculculture of the Netherlands, seen that there a beggar is scarcely to be found. From this report, however, it appears there are 2,285 mendicants; the number is triumphantly small. But, though there is so littlé begging allowed, there is poverty; but it is treated as poverty ought always to be, not thrown prominently forth on accidental charity, but quietly and regularly retired, protected, and sustained. The population of the kingdom is stated at 5,721,724; the number of those who are at the "charge publique," and whom we should, perhaps, disdainfully call paupers, exclusively both of the "atteliers de charité," whom we should certainly class with them, and of those who receive education at the public expense, is 682,185, or near an eighth part of the entire population2. Hear this, ye dissatisfied Englishmen! Nor have they got, as yet, the divine knack of feeding them upon words:

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See Bulletin Universel, Avril, 1825, p. 165.

Raport fait aux Etats-Generaux, for 1822.

versel, Geog. et Stat., tom. v., pp. 19, 165.

Bulletin Uni

they expend upon them, exclusively of education, 10,212,976 florins. In this report, the provinces are divided into southern and northern; the latter, including old Holland, one is curious to examine, from the circumstance of the merited celebrity that country has enjoyed for ages, in the preservation of its poor. The population of the nine northern provinces is stated at 2,148,339, their poor at 196,053 persons: but the Dutch, continuing their habits of humane attention to their poor, expended no less a sum, on this smaller number, than 5,955,030 florins1, or about thirty florins each; something more, I think, than three quarters of wheat, at the average Amsterdam prices of that year. I have not in my possession any returns of the number of paupers, in that year, in England and Wales; but, to recur to the year 1813, already referred to, there were then 971,913, on whom was expended £6,679,657, or about ten bushels each, not half the former quantity: now, however, the fall in grain has increased that allowance; but still, I fear, we fall far short of the Dutch in care of, and liberality to, our poor 3.

Here, then, is the real secret of the management of the poor of Holland; it is not that she has an extensive foreign trade, or sends forth numerous colonial emigrations, or that she possesses an extremely unhealthy country (these are the reasons of such as conceive that the only way to cure poverty is to expel or desert it): no! those who live at the public

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Rapport fait aux Etats-Generaux, for 1823, tom. v. p. 165.

See Foreign Corn Returns, published March, 1826.

"Poor-rate Returns for 1813, published 1818.

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cost are, proportionably, at least as numerous as are such in England; but generous and unwearied attention to wretchedness and distress is her plan. Perpetually accused of selfishness, where is generosity like this to be found?-of coldness, where does the flame of Christian charity burn with so bright and so steady a flame, as in Holland? Possessed of a narrow untractable territory, and an unpropitious climate, loaded with taxes and with a declining trade; still she sets an example to every nation upon earth; which speaks as loudly as human conduct can, Go and do thou likewise!

I will close these remarks on the poor-laws of Holland, by an anecdote which, to me, is very impressive, as evincing that there is something in the very nature of charity that strikes those hearts that are dead to every other duty, and which inspires their deepest reverence even where it fails to excite their imitation. "When the Duke of Lotherdal, jeering about the fate of Holland, then threatened by Louis, and basely deserted by Charles the Second, said that oranges would be scarce when the French should have plundered Amsterdam, Charles, who knew Holland well, as a resident there, interrupted his mirth, and, for once serious, replied: I am of opinion that God will preserve Amsterdam from being destroyed, if it were only for the great charity they have for their poor'."" Difficulties environ our own country, at present; a storm seems gathering, and the future prospect darkens; let us cover our manifold offences with this divine mantle; let us lay hold of the weakness of the Deity, if I dare so to express myself: let

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1 Ker, of Kersland, Remarks on Holland, part iii. p. 34.

us increase our attentions to our own poor; and perform a solemn act of justice and mercy in behalf of those of Ireland, without delay. "If merits, in an individual, are sometimes supposed to be rewarded in this world, I do not think it too presumptuous to suppose, that national virtues may likewise meet with their blessings. England bas, to its peculiar honour, not only made its poor free, but hath provided a certain and solid establishment, to prevent their necessities and indigence, when they arise from what the law terms the act of GOD.' And are not these beneficent attentions to the miseries of our fellow-creatures the first of those poor pleas which we are capable of offering in behalf of our imperfections to an all-wise and merciful Creator1?"

(16.) With the sacred feelings which such a passage as this leaves upon the mind, it is painful to return to controversy. But the cause demands it, and the stronghold of the adversaries of the poorlaws has still to be attacked, and one against which, in many cases, neither right, nor reason, nor revelation can make the least impression: I mean the stronghold of selfish interest. The country has been taught to regard the national charity not merely as a vast national burden, but as a growing one; threatening to "absorb" (to use the fashionable term of the day) the entire property of the kingdom. Mr. Malthus told us, in 1803, that more than one half of the population was reduced to the condition of paupers. Another celebrated authority tells us gravely,

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if I recollect right, that, in England, seven parts of the population are sustained by the remaining eighth : as to the expense, the latter does not so much regard it; but the former says, that his supposition" of a collection from the rich of eighteen shillings in the pound has been nearly realized'," and that it had been justly stated, that the system was an evil in comparison with which "the national debt, with all its magnitude of terror, is of little moment"." One would really think that such statements as these require no notice, and that they would render any views and opinions founded upon them utterly valueless; but, no! such authorities continue to be consulted and appealed to.

I shall only say, as it regards one of these assertions, that instead of one man amongst us supporting seven paupers, ten or a dozen of us are contriving to assist one. As to Mr. Malthus's, that the poor-rates had nearly amounted to eighteen shillings in the pound, and that above one-half of us were paupers; at the very time he was publishing this, an exact account of the number of the poor, and the rates for their support, was in the act of being taken throughout England and Wales, and his "suppositions were nearly realized," thus:-The number of the poor were 725,568; and as the population was, in 1801, 9,168,000, in 1803 they were certainly not one-thirteenth of the whole, instead of "the largest half:" then the amount collected was £5,348,205, being, as the report says, "an actual rate on the rack-rental of England and Wales of 2s. 10d. in * Ibid. p. 536.

Malthus, p. 399.

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