of those who had landed poffeffions, in difcharge of their religious and moral duties ;but those days have long fince paffed away;→→ and in proportion as the refreshing streams were diverted from their proper current, by the cunning and selfishness of those whofe duty it was to have administered them; the principle of charity, ever fruitful in means to accomplish its godlike purposes, has ftruck, like Mofes, from the rock, other fruitful ftreams to refresh those who stand in need of refreshment; and on the bafis of fluctuating compaffion, has founded a firm municipal right.

In remoter times, when the feudal tenures fubfifted in this kingdom, which made no other confideration of man, than as an agent of defence, or deftruction; when the maxim, detur fortiori was paramount, every claim which the rights of nature, or the constitution of the country held facred; the voice of the laws, or the claims of equity could be heard but feldom, amidst the din of arms; which the contentions among the defcendants of William, the Norman, for the fovereignty of that kingdom, that he had wrefted from its old poffeffors, occafioned; no wonder if, in such VOL. II. times,

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times, the more filent claims of the poor, for that dole which they had been accustomed to receive the diftribution of, from the incumbent clergy, in obedience to the ordinance of councils and papal decrees, were of no avail; and no wonder also that after feveral centuries paffed in warfare and bloody contention, between the houfes of York and Lancafter ; when the union of the two families was perfected, by the marriage of Henry the Seventh with Elizabeth of York; that the right itself, under which the ecclefiaftical eftates of the kingdom were held in truft, for the maintenance of the poor, laity as well as clergy, fhould be forgotten; and that when the immediate defcendant of that alliance broke all bounds with the court of Rome, fpurned the fource from whence he had perfonally received the title of fidei defenfor, and divided the spoils of the monafteries among his unprincipled courtiers; no wonder that these claims should have remained dormant; but it by no means follows as a confequence, that because such rights of charity as thefe, owing to the rough and unfettled circumstances of the times were dormant, they should become extinct; especially when

fo

fo large a portion of revenue ftill remained to the church; the poffeffors of which, however charitable in their doctrines, by degrees withdrew the rightful and accustomed proportion of their estates from the repair of churches and the maintenance of the poor; and although they still prefided in our high court of conscience, and through the enfuing century gave us chancellors, were notwithstanding very careful how they permitted fuch a claim to be established over the estates of the diffolved monafteries; knowing that their own poffeffions were held by the fame tenure, granted for the fame purposes, and liable to fimilar trusts.

Hence, therefore, may be dated the origin of the compulsory maintenance; hence, as from a channel whofe fources have in past ages been diverted from their natural and proper current, may be deduced that steril appearance,

which would have clofed in fcenes of blood or famine, and all its horrid accompaniments; if the legislature, in the age of Elizabeth, awakened from a long apathy to the sufferings of poverty; by thofe fcenes of woe which the Queen's progreffes through her kingdom of fered to her view; and which occafioned that

feeling exclamation, Pauper ubique jacet ; had not opened, by the compulfion of legal authority, new fources to feed the wretched.

But the distribution of charity was not the total of the lofs fuftained by the poor; they were, during the earlier ages of this kingdom, ufed to receive advice, and the direction of their moral conduct, from the exhortations of the clergy; and that not from their pulpits only; but they were the private friends, the patrons, the counsellors, the confeffors of the poor; they held an amazing sway over their minds; à fway, I fear, ill exchanged, both here, and in a neighbouring country, for that unhallowed indifference for every thing sacred which now prevails; but here, as there, while the clergy guarded the moral conduct, watched over the industry, the health, the œconomy of the patish poor, they protected their own eftates from incumbrance; and in proportion as their parishioners poffeffed the moral and œconomic virtues, in that proportion were the ecclefiaftic eftates productive to the refpective incumbents; because the wants of the poor were less; and a probability of increafing the voluntary contributions of the more opulent parishioners

rishioners was greater, as the respect the parish held the clergy in increased.

It was with a view to this influence, and to preferve the decaying authority and practice of the clergy in this respect, that those admonitions to charity from the pulpit, were enjoined by the ecclefiaftic courts, which Dr. Burn mentions; and which prove, that those courts, however now they may have fallen into difrepute, felt then ftrongly, the obligation upon their fuitors, to provide, either from their pockets, or from their preachings, a fund for poor.

the

LETTER XXVIII.

ENOUGH has been advanced to prove

how these things have been; we all know how they are; we all know that a claim to the third or the fourth part of the ecclefiaftic revenue, for the benefit of the poor, is nearly vanished in the oblivion of past times; but a right

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