vision and discretionary relief; but relief, in all practicable cases, connected with labour of a kind not to interfere with the regular demand existing for it. In a word, assisting poverty to emerge from its condition, rather than making it dependent upon it; and affording at once the inducements for such an effort, and the means of rendering it successful. But into these particulars, I repeat, I must not now allow myself to proceed.

(27.) The principal proposition, then, which I make in favour of Ireland, is the immediate establishment of a national provision for the poor, and the outcry which is raised against this by political economists, is a sufficient apology for the length into which I have gone in defence of the measure, and in showing its results. And if any of the arguments advanced in favour of the principle generally, have the least weight, or have made any impression; when applied to Ireland in par, ticular, they acquire tenfold force. Are the wrongs perpetrated by absenteeship in clearing farms, dispossessing tenants, in disturbing and impoverishing the coun try, undeniably great? A poor's law is the specific for those evils; it would interpose a barrier to those clearances-calm those disturbances; in a word, it would operate as an effectual check to the cupidity and cruelty of a system which has long proved itself insensible to all but mercenary motives. Is the want of employment another of the peculiar grievances of that country? A poor's law, under proper regulation, would go far to remedy that evil'. Is the remuneration

2 Dalton, Country Justice, ch. XX.

of labour there inadequate to a decent, comfortable. state of living? A poor's law would undoubtedly raise and sustain the value of labour. On this last point, indeed, directly the contrary has been asserted, in a spirit of hostility to the poor-laws, and in defiance of both reason and experience. But Lord Hale has proved what is here maintained, in his treatise on the subject, the arguments of which cruelty and sophistry will never be able to answer, and which justice and mercy will never attempt to do. Nay, so clear is this point, that Lord Kaimes, in writing against the system, confesses that its tendency is to increase the remuneration of labour; one of the most essential and universal benefits which could be bestowed upon Ireland.

It may be necessary to particularize an objection or two urged against this measure, as peculiar to Ireland, The grand one, I presume, is, that it would attempt an impossibility; to which I will simply reply, by observing, that the fallacy of this objection has been practically demonstrated in this and many other countries, by the experience of centuries; and that it is theoretically false, I trust I shall fully prove by actual calculations, touching the principle of human increase, in a work to which I have often ventured to allude. The strange idea of Mr. Malthus, that we should have had four million millions of labourers, if our funds for the poor had been properly managed, will there, I trust, be fully confuted. That the poor-laws have a tendency to increase population, I deny; without, however, admitting that such an increase would be an evil,

which I equally controvert. It is singular enough that one of the leading impugners of those laws, Lord Kaimes (who, nevertheless, suggested in their stead a far more burdensome and impracticable system), should have urged a directly contrary objection to them, arguing that they have a positive tendency to "depopulate the country." Without entering into either argument, it may suffice to say, that, as far as experience goes, he was right: nothing can be more at war with fact than to assert the contrary. Ireland, without poor-laws, notwithstanding her constant emigrations to England and elsewhere, has increased in inhabitants more rapidly than England, which enjoys such laws; and Scotland, which, in proportion to its population, certainly sends forth a far greater number, had, during the ten years between 1811 and 1821, increased fourteen and a half per centum ; while England and Wales, which have received these immense accessions from both countries, forming so considerable a portion of the inhabitants of all the crowded districts, had increased only sixteen and one-third, or one and four-fifths more, in ten years. But to return to Ireland, with which we have at present to do; the population of that island has augmented more rapidly than England, notwithstanding all these numerous and incessant deportations, and in consequence of a principle already developed. This argument, then, totally fails.

(28.) But the next objection to the poor-laws in Ireland, is the most powerful one, as rooted in selfinterest. Mr. Malthus informs the Emigration Committee, by whom he is appealed to on the question, that "the rates would very soon absorb the rentals of

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all the estates'," thus rousing in hostility to the measure the ready fears and interested feelings of those to whom the assertion is addressed. Prophecies are usually little attended to, excepting when directed against poverty and the poor-laws: then they are deemed inspiration itself; even though they proceed from oracles whose claims to préscience have as yet been but very poorly vindicated. To say nothing of many strange notions which have, I understand, been quietly with drawn, it was foretold, on the same authority, a quarter of a century ago, that the price of labour had been continually rising-not to fall again; that the rents of land had been every where advancing not to fall again; that the price of produce would rise-not to fall again;" that the return of such scarcities as had been recently experienced (those of 1800 and 1801) were to be expected as "unavoidable:" with some strange speculations about the future value of "patents for food," and other matters, concluding with this ominous apostrophe, in allusion to such complaints→ "how will they be aggravated twenty years hence"!" That interval has elapsed, and has answered the question at its termination, we know that the distresses of the country arose from diametrically oppasite causes; from depreciation of prices, and, as Lord Liverpool stated, from over-production of provisions. In that interval, indeed, many fluctuations have occurred, none of which have been caused by the principle of population: at one time the demand for labour has been distressingly excessive; at another as much

Emigration Report, part iii. p. 31, § 3227.

2

Malthus, Essay, pp. 444, 445.

too low on the whole, however, it is acknowledged, by the authority mentioned, to have been great. But during all this time, the bounties of Providence have flowed upon us in an equal and unfailing stream, which has still enlarged with our enlarging numbers. Still, however, the contrary principle has been maintained. Like the maledictory prophet of old, it may have varied its positions, but it has persevered in its purpose. Secure and at a distance, it has fixed its malignant gaze upon the tribes of human beings spreading beneath, and "covering the face of the earth," and has resumed from time to time its prophecies against the increasing mulitudes. "But God hath blessed them, and they shall be blessed!"

But, to return to the objection to a poor's law, on the score of its absorbing the entire rental of Ireland: limit, if you please, to a maximum the amount of relief that one parish shall raise; and empower such parish, in case of unrelieved distress still prevailing, to apply for assistance to that parish of the barony or county which is the least burdened, agreeably to the letter of our original law, and this objection also is obviated.

As to the term " absorbing" rents, now so hacknied, what, I would ask, is it that Ireland wants, but that some part of its rental should be absorbed? It is the very relief that is suitable to, and demanded for, her particular case. Of all the money circulated in a country, that dispensed by the poor is the most beneficial, because it passes immediately into the hands of active reproductive industry, and is distributed by the most rapid of all the channels of circula