BIRMINGHAM.-From a survey made, in July last, of the town of Birmingham, it has been found to contain 18,082 houses and pre-upon each rate, levied for the use of the poor, mises assessed to the Poor-rates, and the annual value is estimated at 210,1707.; but only 3,180 of the houses contribute to the rate. The number of non-contributing houses was 14,189, the annual value of which was esti

pressure of scarcity, the sum of £17,000 was raised by private subscription in the Metropolis. Among other measures adopted, a contract was entered into with the North Sea fishermen, to purchase of them at the rate of 181. per ton, all the corned cod, which they could not otherwise dispose of; and in the year 1815, six hundred tons of corned cod, and three hundred tons of fresh cod, were supplied and distributed for the maintenance of our own poor, and of the French prisoners then in England. In 1814, the pressure of the scareity still continuing, the Committee resolved to endeavour to double the supply: they therefore invested the sum of £2264 11s, in the purchase of salt, prepared tanks for curing the fish, and hired double the number of vessels that were employed in the preceding year. When the fishermen were ready to proceed on their voyages, doubts were suggested, and notices given by the excise officer of the district, as to their allowance of salt. An alarm instantly spread among the fishermen; and though upon the Committee's application to the Treasury, an order was obtained for the Excise to make the full allowance of salt duty free, yet the terror of pains, penalties, and Exchequer processes, prevailed among the fishermen, and most of them abandoned their contract for the season. In consequence the quantity of 900 tons, or rather (what might have been obtained but for officious interference) the expected supply of EIGHTEEN HUNDRED TONS of palatable and nutritious food for the relief of a suffering population, was reduced to 150 tons, being only a twelfth part of what might otherwise have been obtained; the Association was subjected to a heavy loss, and countless loads of fish were lost to the country.

Salt is worth about fifteen or sixteen shillings per ton, as delivered by the manufacturer, at his stores. On this Government lays a duty of £30 per ton, or about forty times the value of the commodity itself. To ensure the reception of this immense profit on the labour and capital of the manufacturer, not only a retinue of officers is provided, but also a system of laws distinguished by their severity; the great disadvantages of which are pointed out by this writer, He instances what might be the benefits derived from using salt as a manure, for the improvement of waste lands--for the advantage of cattle, hay, &c.—for the fisheries- for various other articles of manufacture, as mineral alkali, sal-ammoniac, maguesia, Glauber salts, &c.— These, or inferior substitutes, we are now obliged to seek from foreign parts; because, though the unlimited power of furnishing them is within the ready reach of our manufacturers, yet the heavy duties, or the still heavier laws, preclude the attempt. Foreigners take advantage of our discoveries, and send over to us manufactured articles, which we purchase from them at a high price, instead of obtaining them ourselves almost gratis, from what we now waste, as refuse.

The argument of Sir Thomas is, that if these manufactures were set free by alterations in the salt duties, they would give occupation to vast bodies of labourers, farmers, and husbandmen, sailors and fishermen, &c. while the exportable "The terror of pains, penalties, and commodities which would be produced, Exchequer processes, prevailed among at a moderate rate of export duty would the fishermen;"-and not without cause; yield a much greater revenue to the for, supposing that they had transgres-public treasury, than the salt duties sed some statute, known only to officers collected in their present form. whose professional duty required acquaintance with it, what could make them amends for loss of time and expences of process, even admitting that the penalties were not enforced against them? What uneducated sailor, cottager, or fisherman, could warrant himself that he was not at the mercy of some spiteful and unprincipled informer,—that he had not omitted some form of entry, notice, bond, permit, or &c. to the forfeiture of his vessel or boat, and the total ruin of his family?

There are many trades and manufactures on the Continent, such as those of bleachers, calico printers, &c. which cannot be carried on without large supplies of MURIATIC ACID, and also of OXYMURIATIC ACID. And as foreigners, in making these chemicals, have had the unrestrained these articles, so necessary to their operause of English salt, duty free, they obtain

tions, at a much lower rate than our own manufacturers; who are subject to the severe restrictions of the 38th of Geo. III. in the use of salt, and are prevented from ap. plying the residuum to any profitable pur

pose. If the salt used in England, were perfecting that union, which, we trust, duty free, and a small duty laid on export- future generations will describe as their ed salt, muriatic acid and bleaching salts, happiness. We must, however, give would become with us articles of manufacthis gentleman credit for good intention; ture to send abroad; and, on exportation, and we cannot but wish a reform were would bear a moderate duty, equivalent to the export duty on the quantity of salt effected in many departments of life and mauners, on which he descants. treats on tythes-on education-on fash

from which these articles are made.

He

The regulations respecting the salt du-ion-on the influence of female manners ties are, on account of the excessive amount -on ale-houses-pawn-brokers, &c.of the tax, necessarily very strict and seWe grant that many things he has fixed vere. The salt proprietor is in no case, allowed admission into his own warehouses, lication will effectually promote that deon need reformation; whether his pubexcept in presence of the excise officer, who keeps the key, and never trusts it out sirable end, must be left to the decision of hand on any account whatever. When- of time and experience. A more simple ever the proprietor wants admittance to statement, a more one-at-a-time prothem, he is obliged to give previous notice posal, would have stood a better chance to the exciseman, and request him to attend. of being effectual. We wish for univerSo, on the pumping into the pan, boiling, sal reform; but we despair of seeing it drawing, warehousing, and loading, pre-advance in every direction at once. vious notice must be given; and thereby time is lost, expense incurred, and the proprietor often materially injured.

It may be

sent State of Public Affairs" opened in The pamphlet, entitled "On the preTaxes laid on during war are not al-information, and just reasoning, in the a mauner which led us to expect much ways so thoroughly considered as to their distant consequences, continuation says the writer, as they should be. The pressure of the mo- These party-patriots, who ferret out, and ment induces the Minister to prefer such fasten upon the distresses of the time with articles as appear to yield the greatest so keen a tooth, do by no means lament profit with the smallest cost, or incon-them, violent as they are in their commisvenience, at the time. eration they are perfectly well satisfied hoped, that a state of peace, as afford-ing a powerful means of fermenting the that things should be as they are, as affording more leisure, and producing many spirit of hostility against those upon whose changes, may also afford opportunity for removal from power they are so eagerly better arrangement of the public bur- beut. Wealth, and rank, and station, are thens. They will be less felt when bet- of themselves strong excitements to hatred ter arranged; even though their amount in low and contracted minds; more espemay not be diminished. It is well cially when the mass of persons of this known, that a vessel's rate of sailing is cast are made to believe, that they are greatly affected by the manner in which this; that the whole equipment is at their the main contributors to the support of all her cargo is disposed on board; and the charge, and furnished by their labour. same may be said of the vessel of the State; the comparison is just.

On the other works included in this article, little need be said. That intitled "Hints to Radical Reformers," would have accomplished more if it had attempted less. The author informs us that he is an Irishman; and many of his remarks apply particularly to the state of Ireland. He speaks of his country as separate from Britain; a mode of speech we can by no means allow. The two islands now form one kingdom; and this writer knows that every Session of Parliament something is done towards

Let these possessors of power and place, -such is the sentiment which slides into fied, and annoyed as they may, they have their feelings-let them be attacked, vilipublic and personal gratifications that are an ample fund of compensation in the heaped upon them. They have enough of the sunshine to repay them for the peltings of the storm. This is, indeed, a very mistaken view of the case. Those who see nothing but the exterior of office; those who bring nothing within the short of its rank, take a very erroneous survey. range of their optics but the appendages That authority of which they are jealous, to be truly estimated, must be seen in the fatigues of its exertion, in the wear

and tear of mind, in the sweat-not indeed The common people of this country are of the brow-but of the brain, in its taught to look up to their respective paanxious days and sleepless nights. Where rishes as bound to support them, and to is the reward of all this to be sought? In maintain their children, if they have no the insignia of distinction and the splendour | means of livelihood. The natural tendency of authority? Far from it. These soon of this is, to make them improvident, grow familiar to the possessor, and become thankless, and dissatisfied. In fact, the as nothing in the scale of real enjoyment; more we consider the subject, the more all the happiness which place and power forcibly shall we be convinced that can give soon fades and dies away of itself; the levying a compulsory rate on any numthe cause of this is in the human mind.ber of individuals in that parish, is in itself But the toil, the solicitude, the difficulty, a stretch of authority to which custom has the vexation, the disappointments; all these | made us familiar, and against which the sarvive, and, what is worse, survive, for benevolent tendencies of our nature do not the most part, to be perpetually encoun-prompt us to contend; but when the rate tered and never overcome. is augmented, as in many parishes it is, to Take the most opulent man you can find an amount most oppressive to those on -his personal consumption-the portion whom it is levied, the nature of the exacof his property expended on himself-is astion, and of the authority under which it nothing. His own share of its enjoyment is enforced, becomes more palpable. The is limited indeed. Take, for instance, a subject contributes to the support of the landed proprietor - there are not many government, because he owes the security such-of twenty thousand a year, and cal- of his property to the peace which it preculate what is expended on his own support, serves, and the protection it ensures. On and you will find, that all which ministers the same ground he is called upon to pay to his own subsistence, may be purchased his fair contingent towards the public exfor three hundred pounds a year; perhaps, penditure, whether incurred in the defence for less. The rest of his income, if he lives of the state, or by other causes connected up to it, after deducting the pay and main with its splendour, its strength, or its setenance of his household, is exhausted in curity; but that the arm of power should the payment of the wages of labour to the interfere to take whatever portion it may tradesman, the artizan, the manufacturer, deem expedient of the industrious man's the artist, all of whom the necessities of earnings, to provide for those who earn his situation compel him to employ, and nothing, is a violation both of the law of towards whose maintenance-such is the property and the principles of justice. All order of things-he pays his ample contri-that can rightfully be done, is to put the bution. After all, the great difference between a small or a great fortune consists in this, that the one you spend upon yourself, the other you spend upon other people.

This is true; and it reconciles the philosophical investigator of passing events to the facts of the times as they rise before him. There is this further distinction: that wealth be expended in virtuous, or at least, innocent enjoy ments; for when, on the contrary, wealth is the pander to vice: there is no curse more cruel to which a country can be subjected. This writer wanders from what would have been his better path, by taking too much notice of Lord Cochrane and Mr. Cobbett; his work will not convert a single one of their adherents; and no others need conversion. With regard to the Poor Rates, there seems to be an increasing disposition to view them in a light different from what is now established law. We set this before our readers in the author's words:

necessitous in the way of providing for themselves; to furnish them, if they have the ability to labour, with the means of making their labour profitable. If authority can usefully interfere, it can only be in this course; all beyond it is inequitable,

in:politic, and pernicious.

lower classes should be brought to consider It is of the utmost importance that the this subject, as in truth and sound reason it ought to be considered; and that they should not be misled, as too long they have been, to conceive themselves as having a natural right, when overtaken by poverty, to be supported out of the earnings of others."

In pursuing his argument, the author observes, that "less than a hundred thousand pounds satisfies all the sinecures in England, and in England alone SEVEN MILLIONS annually are levied for the support of the poor!" He states the deductions from the supposed profits of several offices; and shews that the nominal amount of their incomes

imposes no burden on the public treasury, being derived from other sources. The truth of the following observations

is obvious:

in the scale of the creation, lower than brutes-To this principle then, inherent in the breast of all, is to be attributed by far the greater part of the present distress of the Country-to this is to be traced the The number is always great of those, scenes of riot universally apparent when who having started for the gold cup of po- the earnings of the individual somewhat exceed the demand for his present subsistpularity, are not very choice in their maTo this is to be attributed the pernœuvres for jostling others out of the ence. course; in this contest, of all others, the petual scenes of excess and drunkenness race is not always to the swift. A prodi- of the lower orders, to be found in no gious reduction of patronage must at all Country except in England. From these times unavoidably arise from the termina- causes the corrupt state of the morals of tion of war. Not only is all that influence the people naturally proceed. No interlost which arises from the giving ships and ference of the Legislature, no anxious exerregiments, stations and appointments, but tions of the well intentioned, can counteract a considerable degree of odium and unpo- these evils while these principles remain prepularity is incurred by his Majesty's minis-dominant-Thus a very great proportion of ters, from the hardships to which vast numbers are subjected by this very reduction; not only are so many avenues to popular favour shut up, and other great means of countenance and promotion curtailed and cut away, but the general mass of dis-mau, of the lower order, has expended tress and discontent is augmented; and by the general system of economy pursued through all the different departments of the state, they multiply their enemies, and lessen their adherents.

The country Overseer, who traces England's ruin to the Poor Laws, agrees with the foregoing writer, in describing as extremely baneful, the principles they have been the means of spreading. He says,

the sums collected for the support of the Poor may be traced, immediately or ultimately, to Ale Houses and Gin Shops; to these receptacles all occasionally or more frequently resort; almost every English

large sums in these public resorts; here is swallowed up all that is not required for immediate support; and much of what is necessary for the maintainance of a family, Beer is frequently substituted for bread, and Spirituous Liquors are indulged in at the expense of the starving children-Thus from the Poor rates arise, in a great ineasure, the immense fortunes acquired by Brewers and Distillers; and the thriving condition of almost every Publican-Why are the hard earnings of the provident and the industrious to be torn from them for

the maintenance of the idle, the profligate, and the drunkard? If the Laws of England enforce it, the Laws of Nature for bid it.

We notice this passage the more particularly, because it appears from an article in the present number, that England does not furnish that singular instance of poverty from indulged intoxication, which this writer supposes.

These alarming and increasing evils evidently originate in the principles ingrafted by the Poor Laws, in the minds of the lower orders of society; every individual is fully and firmly convinced, that the Parish is obliged to provide for him and his family in every case of emergency. Are they hungry? the Parish must feed them; do they want clothing? the Parish must provide it; are they destitute of a home? the Parish must provide house room, bedding, fuel, &c. &c. Hence every provident feeling is banish-America, a young and rising state, sufed, all thoughts of provision for the future fers the same evil to an equal degree. are entirely set aside; the labourer, the The fact deserves attention; for, if idlelow mechanic or manufacturer, the soldier ness and intoxication prevail, wherever or sailor, who provides somewhat for the the poor are maintained by provision of future, is indeed a phenomenon.The law, at the expence of the industrious idea of future provision from the Parish is and sober;-and, if where such statutes predominant, and a sufficient answer to are unknown, the poor do not thus prey any prudent feeling that may at any time on their fellow-citizens, then it follows, arise in the breast-many animals are known to provide for the future; the effect beyond denial, that, however well inof the English Poor Laws on the lower tended, such enactments are injurious. class of society however, is to preclude all to the body politic. They confer the idea of future provision, to reduce them, power of legal plunder on a few, whom