23. of MONTHLY ADVERTISER AND REVIEW OF GENERAL LITERATURE AND CURRENT EVENTS. No. 1.] Interference with Independent Labour.-The Objec tion Refuted. March of Intellect.... New Books. Notices to Correspondents. Poor Law Circular.... Productive Employment for the Poor. 4 8 8 4 1 4 7-8 4 1 1 2 Productive Employment.-Official Obstructions. .... Page. minds free from the mists of prejudice and 3 The Meaning of the Word "Constitutional," and its Application in regard to Local Self-Government. 6 To our Committees and Friends... What the Nineteenth Century has to do................... 3 Pour Lam Circular. 3 Under the superintendence of the Executi ve Committee THE NATIONAL POOR LAW ASSOCIATION" (established to promote the substitution of productive labour for idleness and useless tests), who are responsible for this department of the Publication exclusively. Communications to be addressed to the Secretaries of the Association, 1, Elm Court, Temple, Lonion, and 7, Norfolk-street, Manchester. PRODUCTIVE EMPLOYMENT FOR THE POOR. Is the useful and productive employment of the indigent, who depend upon the rates, better for them and the ratepayers, than the prevalent system of mere relief, total idleness, or such taskwork as is nearly, or altogether, unproductive, and meant chiefly to be of a deterring nature? This question, stripped of the rubbish that has been thrown around it by persons who delude themselves into the conviction that they are sound political economists, appears as plain and simple, and easy of solution in the affirmative, as any that could be found in the language. In other words, the question may be put thus: Is industry better than idleness; knowledge than ignorance; economy than waste; increase than hopeless sterility and irremediable loss? A wrong answer to this question has had the effect of taking from the pockets of the ratepayers of England and Wales, since the passing of the Poor-law Amendment Act in 1834, upwards of a hundred millions sterling, not one sixpence of which was ever returned to them! A wrong answer to this question compels the collection of a tax of about £8,000,000 per annum from the ratepayers of the United Kingdom, for the relief of the poor, who, with a correct answer to the same question, would be able nearly or entirely to support themselves, and thus render this enormous drain upon the resources of industry and property nearly or entirely unnecessary. In the columns of The Constitutional, with the help of God, and the co-operation of good men, we purpose making the reply to the above interrogatory as patent as daylight to the people of these kingdoms. We may not be able to subdue the pride of a narrow-minded class of economists, but we do hope to tear the scales from the eyes of their dupes. We will show the ratepayers that it is not conducive to the pecuniary, moral, or social prosperity of England, to support in total idleness, or degrading and unprofitable task-work, week after week, and year after year, about 150,000 persons, who are able to labour for their own subsistence. This truth,-which, one would think, does not require any recommendation, save its own simplicity, and which, indeed, would ask no more to be universally accepted, were all men's This will prove to us indeed a "labour of love," if we are supported by the information and encouragement of those throughout the country, who, with us, long to see inaugurated a more humane and inexpensive system of relieving the necessities of the poor. Our hands will be strengthened by well-attested instances of the wasteful and demoralising tendencies of the present system; and not the less by a knowledge of the advantages that have followed a deviation from it. We earnestly hope to secure the confidence and assistance of that numerous and influential class who constitute the Boards of Guardians of the United Kingdom. Among these "local parliaments" are hundreds of enlightened members who, justly appreciating the responsibility they have incurred, are animated by a sincere desire to discharge their duties, by availing themselves of every rational suggestion for improving the administration of the statutes for the relief of the poor. With these, we shall experience little difficulty in impressing our views. There are others, however, who are not so accessible to conviction. We mean those who, although, maybe, not less honest than the class we have already indicated, are so wedded to old practices, founded on unreason, that they can scarcely be persuaded to investigate or contemplate, with patience and temper, any new plans, founded on truth. They have been so long inhaling a foul atmosphere, that they imagine a mouthful of fresh air would destroy them. We do not despair, however, by gentle means, of bringing even these gentlemen round to our way of thinking. In addressing ourselves to the Guardians, we wish it to be distinctly understood that we shall not attempt to dictate any particular mode by which, in any district, our principles may be best carried out,-of this they themselves will be the fittest judges-but confine ourselves to advocating generally the benefits to be derived, alike by the poor and the ratepayers, from the substitution of useful labour for useless tests, and industry for idleness, and showing, by reference to districts where the experiment has been tried, how much can be done, even under the restrictions imposed by the law, to accomplish this change. [Price 2d. INTERFERENCE WITH INDEPENDENT LABOUR. THE OBJECTION REFUTED. SOME time ago a correspondence took place between the member for Stroud and Dr. W.P.Alison, of Edinburgh,whose contributions to literature, though less brilliant than those of his brother, the great "Historian of Europe," are nevertheless entitled to claim attention from all who take an interest in questions affecting social progress. The subject was, The Poor Laws and the means of remedying their evils. Mr. Scrope-one of the most consistent advocates of poor law reform on the principles propounded by the National Poor Law Association-applied himself to the task of removing the doubts that influenced Dr. Alison; and the result was the subjoined letter, which we consider an admirable specimen of clear and candid reasoning. MY DEAR SIR, I have read your letter of the 28th with great interest, in which you give your reasons for hesitating to join the Poor Law Association. You think they have in their Prospectus expressed themselves too strongly as to the possibility of finding remunerative employment for able-bodied paupers, without interfering with the market for independent labour. And you say, that "until they show that they have fully considered, and are prepared to meet, this difficulty, they will not make much progress in public estimation." I quite agree with you in thinking this very common and obvious objection to be one of the greatest, if not the greatest obstacle to the general acceptance of the Society's main principle. And I think it might serve a useful purpose, if the doubts you declare yourself to entertain on this point, were stated in a form which would enable the argument to be fairly and fully discussed between us. It may turn out that our correspondence will throw sufficient light on the subject to be considered worthy of publication by the Society. I will commence by referring to the passage in your letter in which you very clearly sketch the outline of the difficulty in question. You say, "All will allow that if paupers and criminals (for the same arguments, pro and con, apply to them) can be employed usefully, so as to make a clear addition to the productions of the country, great advantages would be gained; viz., 1. A benefit to the paupers themselves, especially by improving their moral character and industrial habits; 2. A benefit to the rate-payers, by economising their funds; 3. A benefit to the country at large, the resources of which are increased. But in many cases it may be found that the work done by these persons will be no clear addition to the produce of the country, but only a substitution of their work for what would otherwise be done by independent labourers, who will thus be injured and even reduced to pauperism." And you quote, as taking this view of the case, a passage from a wellwritten weekly journal--"We may set the prisoners to work under proper guidance, and compel them to earn their own livelihood. employ prisoners in this manner, we transform our prisons (and the same may be said of workhouses) into huge establishments, national workshops, to bring down the price of labour, and reduce But if we |