and that besides man ythousands in hospitals, there are three millions who have not a certainty of a month's subsistence *.

Coincidence of opinion in persons totally unconnected, adds strength to a general argument. An able writer in the Monthly Review †, preceded, a gentleman who has paid much attention to the subject, has followed in point of time the present writer in a similar view of the subject. The facts collected by Mr. Sadler differ from those produced in the present pamphlet, but still tend to confirm them; and the present writer feels gratified in availing himself of the testimony of that gentleman, who quotes him with approbation, as having had the benefit of personal experience with respect to the administration of the Poor Laws §. A very strong reason indeed for the republication of this Essay by the writer was, that he might have an opportunity of bearing testimony, by a further experience of * Monthly Review, January 1829.

+ Monthly Review, May 1818. The present writer had never seen that Review previous to the first publication of his pamphlet.

Ireland, its Evils and their Remedies, by M. T. Sadler, Esq. M.P.

§ Ibid. p. 203.

seven years, to the value of the legislative enactments of the 59th Geo. III. c. 59, and proving how effective they were in practice.

If it may be said, that improvements in the administration and reduction in the rates

are the consequences of every considerable legislative change in the Poor Laws, and that the adoption of the Workhouse System and of the Incorporation of the Hundreds had the same effect on their first establishment, and that the Select Vestry Act will have the same fate with those,-to become obsolete and ineffective,-the writer can only make one observation, which he thinks decisive; namely, that the poor-rates cannot be considered as very oppressive, when those who are to contribute to them will not give up so small a portion of their time as the duties of a Select Vestry require to their administration; when the sacrifice of that time is not attended with any expense or any outlay of capital; and if not effective, may be abandoned without any pecuniary loss,— which has not been the case in the instances of the Workhouse System and the Incorporated Hundreds.

The writer has not vanity enough to set himself on a level with men of such distinguished talent and research as Mr. Malthus and Mr. Godwin. Their works have attracted much public attention, and those of the latter excited the former to arrange and illustrate the views of population, which had been promulgated by Wallace and Townsend. But they have both gone further: they have each in his turn brought forward plans for ameliorating the condition of mankind by removing indigence and poverty. That indigence may be diminished,-that the sum of human happiness may be increased, is also within the belief as well as within the wishes of the writer. In the course of his life he has seen very considerable advances made towards it in the progress of knowledge, and, he believes, also in the advancement of morality and religion. But that in the present state there is to be unmixed happiness, without vice and poverty, is, he thinks, contrary to the system of the moral government of the world, which implies the existence of evils,-of which poverty is one, and therefore impossible.

But Mr. Godwin looks to an ideal perfection; to the consummation of which it is necessary to remove those great boundaries between vice and virtue, which have stood the test of ages, are analogous to the course and constitution of Nature, the intuitive evidence of natural religion, and the precepts of that which is revealed. The effect (if we could suppose an impracticable theory practicable) would be, to bring down the rich and the wise to the level of the poor and ignorant: it would be "sowing the wind, to reap the whirlwind."

Mr. Malthus, on the contrary, wishes to make use of known and existent human virtues, but to compel all human beings to adopt them by an Act of the Legislature and a short notice from the pulpit; and thus by a sort of magic elevate the poor and ignorant at once to a level with the rich and wise.

The view of the writer is to act on the common principles of human nature: to acquiesce in the belief of that fact, which we know from all history, and which is confirmed by revelation,-"that the "that the poor shall be always amongst us;" to contemplate amelioration

and to aspire to perfection, but to doubt the attainment of the latter; to consider the rich and wise as stewards for the poor and ignorant, and accountable to their common Master; and to continue in all conditions the exertions of the virtues adapted to their several stations, he has attempted to show that the plans which may be legally followed in this country are the best hitherto discovered; but he is far from supposing that better may not be found.

The question is not of trifling, although of ordinary occurrence. The Public, who are the judges, are also the parties; it appeals to their feelings and to their abilities, and they are vitally interested in the result.