YALE
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

ENGLAND IN
1841:

A SERIES OF LETTERS WRITTEN TO
FRIENDS IN GERMANY,
DURING A
RESIDENCE IN LONDON AND EXCURSIONS
INTO THE PROVINCES:

FREDERICK VON RAUMER,
PROFESSOR OF HISTORY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BERLIN, AUTHOR OF THE
' HISTORY OF THB HOHENSTATTFEN ; ' OF THE ' HISTORY OF EUROPE
PROM THE END OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY ;* OF ' ILLUS
TRATIONS OF THE HISTORIC OF THE SIXTEENTH AND
SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES,* OF 'ENGLAND IN 1835/
ETC. ETC.

TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN
By H. EVANS LLOYD.

TWO VOLS.
VOLUME THE FIRST.
LONDON:
JOHN LEE, 440, STRAND.

JALLETT, PRINTER, WARDOUR STREET, SOHO,
LONDON.

C*P

CONTENTS OF VOL I. Page
Author's Preface  v
Translator's Preface  vii
LETTER I.
The Queen — Prince Albert  1
LETTER II.
Lord Palmerston — Difference between France and England  6
LETTER III.
Parliamentary Reform — Qualification — Exclusion of the Bishops
— Privileges of Parliament— the Ballot — Annual Parliaments
— the Elective Franchise  13
LETTER IV.
English and French Systems — Constitution — Administration —
Population — Agricultural Labourers — the Army  33
LETTER V.
The Colonies — The Negroes — Sale of Lands — New South Wales
— Criminals in Australia — The East Indies — China  41
LETTER VI.
Canada  62
LETTER VII.
Commerce  67
LETTER VIII.
Rail-roads— The New Post-office — Bankruptcies  79
LETTER IX.
Factories — Education of the Children employed in the Factories
" — their Number — Trades' Unions  89 ,
LETTER X.
Socialism — Chartism  103
LETTER XI.
Criminal Law — Crimes — Punishments — Number of Criminals —
Decrease of Crime — Ryan on Prostitution, refuted — The Silent
System  109

iv CONTENTS.
LETTER XII. Page '
Poor-Laws in England— Advantages of the New Poor-Law —
Diminished Expenditure under the New Poor-Law— Unions—
Complaints and Answers  131
LETTER XIII.
Ireland — Public Law— Agriculture — Legislative Agricultural
Laws."  157
LETTER XIV.
Disturbances in Ireland  166 >
LETTER XV.
Irish Poor in England — Observations  177
LETTER XVI.
Ireland — Poor-laws — Opinions — Labour in England and Ireland
— Parliamentary Opinions  18-1
LETTER XVII.
English Municipal Law— Irish Municipal Law  197
LETTER XVIII.
Ireland — the Church— Commutation of Tithes — Education —
Repeal of the Union — Schools and Scholars  207
LETTER XIX.
England, Schools — Ireland, Schools  211
XETTER XX.
Education of the Lower Classes — Sir Robert Peel on the Educa
tion of the Lower Classes — Sir Robert Peel and the Quarterly
Theological Review  230 '
LETTER XXI.
The Universities — Oxford — Newspapers — Literary Property. . . . 239 '
LETTER XXII.
Church and State. — Livings. — Pluralities. — Chapters  250
LETTER XXIII.
Tithes — Church-Rates — Various Proposals on the Subject— Par
liamentary Report and Proceedings  258
LETTER XXIV.
The Scotch Church  271

THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

A NEW edition of the work, " England in 1835,"
being required, the author was induced to visit
Great Britain in 1841, for the third time. He took
this opportunity of adding to the new edition, the
volumes now offered to the Public, which relate to
the further development of many important subjects
from 1835 to 1841. Though this new work is chiefly
intended for German readers, he hopes that it will
be likewise welcome to the possessors of the pre
ceding volumes in England.

The Appendix, containing extracts from letters
to his friends, will, he trusts, be received with indul
gence. With respect to these extracts, he begs
leave to observe, that he long hesitated whether he
should publish any part of them, or confine himself
entirely to the letters treating upon the great ques
tions which he chiefly had in view ; some critics
have censured all these lighter matters, as unne-

vi THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
cessary and tiresome ; while many readers, whom
he is happy to reckon among his friends, affirm,
that they prefer these familiar letters, to long,
dry essays, and statistical tables. He has endea
voured to satisfy both parties, by printing the po
litical and statistical letters by themselves, re
serving for the Appendix the extracts from the
other letters, written in 1836 and 1841 ; from which,
however, he has struck out every thing relating to
himself personally, as well as the continual expres
sions of gratitude for services and kindnesses which
he received from so many quarters*.
* The author cannot, however, deny himself the gratification of
acknowledging, in the name of himself and his countrymen who have
visited England, the unvarying kindness and courtesy of B. Hebeler,
Esq. the Consul General of Prussia, who is always ready to afford his
valuable counsel and assistance when and where they may be required :
and invaluable as these courtesies are in themselves, they are yet further
enhanced by the cordial and sincere manner in which they are bestowed,
and therefore cannot fail to be highly appreciated by every one who
receives them.

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.

The Author's Preface having sufficiently .explained
the origin and intention of the following continuation
of his Letters on England in 1835, which were so
favourably received by the English public, the trans
lator will merely observe, that though it was imprac
ticable, and hardly necessary for him to consult the
very numerous works quoted, or alluded to by the
Author, he has, however, in some instances, where
the Author gives long, continuous extracts, taken
care to quote them in the original English. Such
are the Bishop of LlandafFs letters to Sir Robert
Peel ; the Rev. Sidney Smith, on the Ballot ; Sir
Robert Peel's Address on the Opening of the Li
terary Institution at Tamworth ; the Remarks of the
British Critic on that Address ; and Mr. Lewis's
Work on the Disturbances in Ireland.
London, Feb. 1, 1842.

ENGLAND IN 1841.

LETTER I.
The Queen — Prince Albert. London, July 10, 1841.
After an absence of five years, I have been en
abled to pay a third lengthened visit to England, and
again carefully to investigate, to the utmost of my
ability, its manners and public institutions. Were
I to compress within a few words the total result of
my observations, I must express myself in a very
different manner from the publications and journals
of the several parties in England ; according to
which, we should believe that England is eitber
fanatically averse from every departure from long-
established customs, or animated by a restless desire
for incessant and rash innovations. While it cannot
be denied, that many countries and people almost
exclusively embrace and pursue the one or the other
of these partial views and tendencies, the calm ob
server, who stands beyond the influence of party
B

2 THE QUEEN.
spirit, sees that there is in England an immense
solidity of the existing institutions, combined with
immeasurable progressive energy. Hence arises the
true equipoise of the life and the powers of indivi
duals as of nations ; and I shall have occasion to
prove the truth of this eulogium, as manifested in
several striking facts, with special reference to the
last five years. Entertaining this conviction, I would
ask, has not the one or the other of these tendencies
of the efforts of the government and the people
sometimes gone too far ? has not the one checked
improvement, or the other been too precipitate in
desiring to effect it ? Such exceptions do not ab
rogate the rule ; such doubts are proof of the impar
tiality of the reporter.
My observations commence in the highest quar
ter. In place of an aged King, I found a youthful
Queen. " A retrograde movement !" would some
exclaim—" A woman instead of a man, and inexpe
rience in the place of wisdom !" But, may we not
answer, that female sovereigns, in proportion to
their numbers, make as distinguished a figure in the
pages of history as kings ; and where is the King of
England whom we may compare to the great
Elizabeth ?
Queen Victoria was fortunate to find, in Lord
Melbourne, a paternal friend, who, far from seeking,

THE QUEEN. 3
with short-sighted presumption, to give her a dislike
for public business, endeavoured rather to habituate
and attach her to it. Accordingly, the reproach
that the Queen was inexperienced and indifferent
was soon changed into the opposite extreme ; and it
was loudly affirmed, that she took too decided a part,
and that her firmness of character degenerated into
unconstitutional self-will. I am the less-disposed to
join in these reproaches, because they are connected
with general views of the royal authority which
strike me as erroneous. Many adherents of the
modern political doctrines desire entirely to set aside
the personal character of kings : they imagine that
the less knowledge and individual will, thought, and
feeling, the less decision of character, a monarch
possesses, the better is he qualified to fill the place of a
symbol at present indispensable. As Diogenes pre
sented the cock stripped of his feathers as the repre
sentative of a perfect man, so do they present a king,
stripped of all kingly qualities, as their ideal of roy
alty ! Wherefore assign this royal office to a man, if,
in fact, all he has to do is passively to nod assent to
whatever a majority requires ?
In this instance, as is so often the case, oppo
site extremes approximate more closely than might
be imagined. Certain leaders of a very different
school, who consider the deaf, the dumb, and the
B 2

4 PRINCE ALBERT.
blind, as qualified for the exercise of royalty, second,
under a thin veil, the views of their opponents.
It has been affirmed, especially with reference
to the kings of the House of Hanover, that a sove
reign of moderate capacity is the best for England.
Undoubtedly it might have been difficult for men of
such strongly marked character as Frederick the
Second and Napoleon to confine themselves to the
course prescribed by the British Constitution, But,
then, have not kings of very inferior minds, such as
James the First, Charles the Second, and James the
Second, acted on their own narrow prejudices ; while
Elizabeth never disagreed with her Parliament, and
William the Third combated with admirable perse
verance for the liberty of England and of Europe.
In a kingdom, where every one claims, as an invi
olable right, the liberty of maintaining his political
and religious opinions, where the most decided ex
tremes exist together, and each party endeavours to
assert its own views, how can it be required that the
Queen alone should have no opinion, no thoughts, no
feelings of her own ? Lord Melbourne has always
justlymaintainedthataQueen of England must govern
with the party at any time predominant in the na
tion ; but it does not follow that she is never to judge
of principles, conduct, and objects, — never to throw
her own conviction into the scale. Queen Victoria

PRINCE ALBERT. 5
has, in no instance, violated the Constitution, to fol
low her own ambition. She was silent when her
consort (certainly with the observance of the legal
forms) was refused what was immediately afterwards
granted him : it was only when demands were made
of her, without sufficient reason, which the meanest
of her subjects would not have tolerated, that she
manifested becoming spirit and feeling, and proved
that she knew how to assert her own liberty. The
Tory leaders may understand every thing better
than the other party ; but they did not then under
stand how to treat a young and high-minded Queen.
In Prince Albert she has found a consort worthy
of her : his position as a foreigner, as the husband of a
reigning queen, was in itself difficult ; and persons
were not wanting who endeavoured to make it still
more so. By discretion, combined with good under
standing, he has daily overcome opposition, and gained
applause. This is proved by his having been unani
mously appointed eventual guardian of the young
Princess. His position will, every year, become more
firm ; and in the Royal Pair and their children the
British Empire has secured, for a long time to come,
what many other nations are destitute of, or despise.

LETTER II.
Lord Palmerston— Difference between France and England.
London, July 11, 1841.
I DO not know, in the history of the world, a more
noble destiny than that to which England is called,
which she has already accomplished, or will infallibly
accomplish in due time. The great projects of
Alexander fell to the ground at his premature death ;
Rome established her power by the sword alone, and
the destruction of other nations, and she perished in
the sequel by her own fault, of a long-protracted dis
ease. Mahometanism, in relation to Christianity, was
a deplorable retrogression, and the Empire of Napo
leon only a meteor of arrogant tyranny. The Papal
dominion of the middle ages had an eternal value
for the education of the human race ; but it extended,
at that time, only to Europe, and fell into numerous
errors. The errors, however, are not the essence ;
and this essence will survive all the trials of political
mountebanks. England is the first empire, which embraces the
whole earth, every nation ; yet the chief weight and
the chief value are not in the extent of its dominion,

LORD PALMERSTON. 7
but in the highest activity, united with progress in
the sciences, and the most laudable solicitude for the
spread of religion. England is the intellectual eye
which turns to every quarter, penetrates through
every zone, and prepares an exalted future destiny
for the human race. Before this noble, comprehen
sive, glorious destination, the low and violent disputes
of domestic parties lose all their importance, or are
but shadows that relieve the higher lights.
There never was, in the history of the world, a
mass of business at all comparable to what the mi
nisters of Foreign Affairs and of Colonies have now
to attend to ; and a full account of their proceedings
during the last five years only, could not be given
without great preparatory study and investigation.
An acquaintance with the general outlines of their
sphere of action, the more easily leads to partial
opinions, as most of the public journals do their ut
most to lead to such a result. Even success, which
most men consider as a sufficient ground for decision,
cannot produce dispassionate and unanimous judg
ments, when totally different objects are proposed
and desired : for instance, the protection or expulsion
of Don Carlos, the increase or the restriction of the
powers of Mehemet Ali, &c. What conflicting and
acrimonious reproaches have been made on these
subjects against Lord Palmerston ! What a mass of

8 LORD PALMERSTON.
the most singular and contradictory demands have
been made on him, and what numberless obstacles
have been thrown in his way, both by friends and
enemies ! Whatever opinion may be entertained of
the course and tendency of his policy, nobody can
deny that he succeeded ; and the late period is one
of the most glorious in English history. In Spain,
Portugal, Naples, Syria, Egypt, Persia, India, and
China*, the will of England has been carried, at
least for the moment, carried for a thousand reasons,
and with very diverse and immense means ; but his
tory will one day confirm, that, without Lord Pal-
merston's restless activity, strength of mind, and
energy of character, this triumphant success would
probably never have been accomplished. He is
very far, however, from ascribing, with petty vanity,
this success to himself alone. On the contrary, in
reply to an attack made by Sir William Molesworth
on the Colonial Minister, he very justly observed,
" According to the constitution of this country, the
government is not an accumulation of independent
spheres of action ; but all important measures in
each department are submitted to the whole Cabinet ;
and all are answerable for the great outlines of the
measures that are adopted, though the execution of
* If China appears to be an exception, I would say — wait till you
see the end '.

LORD PALMERSTON. 9
each is left to the head of the respective depart
ments." In whatever manner the glory and honour
for the success of so many enterprises may be dis
tributed, and whatever blame may be interwoven in
the wreaths of victory, one encomium, and it is the
highest, is due to Lord Palmerston — " He is a MAN,
and that is enough."
Lord Palmerston, they say, is fortunate. Very
true ; but fortune generally accompanies energy and
resolution. It was certainly an unexpected, an in
conceivable piece of good fortune, that the turbid
stream of time brought to the surface, and opposed
to Lord Palmerston, a person who may be any thing
in the world, but certainly not a man in the exalted
sense of the great poet. Never was a man so com
pletely defeated in a diplomatic or rather political
combat, so driven from all his positions, as M. Thiers
by Lord Palmerston. The mountebank challenge of
the French minister did not move the English minis
ter from his dignified attitude, which is necessarily
combined with great penetration and noble princi
ples. While M. Thiers endeavoured to dazzle the
French nation by fireworks, in defiance of facts, of
principles, and treaties, in proclaiming the fanciful ca
prices of every day and of every fool, as questions of
the highest concern to humanity, the English nation
assumed an attitude so lofty and dignified, that

10 LORD PALMERSTON.
M. Thiers could not comprehend it, and had rather
expected an opposite effect from his rhodomontades.
The Duke of Wellington's observation, " It is my
duty to uphold all treaties, even though I did not
originally approve of them," is a conclusive axiom,
in direct opposition to those principles which some
Frenchmen would bring into vogue, in order clan
destinely to introduce, under their cover, their own
arbitrary will, and conceal their own insignificance.
We may foresee, or at least hope, that this evil after
birth of the Revolution in France will soon be dead
and buried. ,
Even the Times and the Quarterly Review,
otherwise the violent opponents of Lord Palmer
ston, much to their credit, defended him against un
just attacks in and out of England. Thus the
latter, in reference to Mr. Urquhart and his parti
sans, says, "by exaggerated assertions, perversion
of facts, and a general confusion of thought and ex
pressions, they have almost forced upon us the con
viction, that Russia is the most innocent and harm
less of all states, and Lord Palmerston the most
judicious and patriotic of all ministers ;" and, in an
other place, the Review says, " the only blame that
can be thrown upon the confederates (with respect
to France) is, in fact, the constant humility with
which they endeavoured to satisfy the caprices of one

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FRANCE AND ENGLAND. 1 1
who was resolved, from the very first, not to be
satisfied*." Nothing can be more erroneous than, on ac
count of the resemblance of some subordinate
points, to overlook the great difference between
England and France. There we find the greatest
-predilection for self-government ; here for centrali-
' zation : there for specialties ; here for generalities ;
there for aristocratic gradations of all kinds; here
for equality : there for the rights of primogeniture ;
here for an equal division of property : there, in the
elections, the preponderance of landed property ;
here of money : there activity in all the cities and
towns by meetings, associations, public dinners,
speeches, parliaments in miniature ; here the supre
macy of the capital : there very few civil offices ;
here an extraordinary number : there improvements
by agreement and reciprocal concessions ; here by
coups d'6tat, &c. &c.
In reference to this state of things, an English
authort says, "An unlimited centralization, such as
we see in France (where no road, path, bridge,
canal, harbour, and the like, can be made or repaired
without application to the capital and the approbation
of the government), is a system so destructive of the
* Quarterly Review, cxxxiii, 259, 288.
f Eandley on Discretionary Power, p. 39.

12 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FRANCE AND ENGLAND.
internal prosperity of a nation, that it is scarcely
possible to imagine a worse. It destroys all local
energy and talent, deters from new and useful enter
prises, converts men into machines, considers their
minds as so many blank leaves, and makes a rich
and fertile province dependent upon a distant and
ignorant minister."

LETTER III.
Parliamentary Reform — Qualification — Exclusion of the Bishops —
Privileges of Parliament — the Ballot — Annual Parliaments — the
Elective Franchise. London, July 12, 1841.
In my former letters upon England, I endea
voured to explain the motives and the substance of
the parliamentary reform. Experience has since
corrected many prejudices and allayed many pas
sions ; some over-zealous advocates of the measure
have become convinced that a change in the form of
political rights can work no miracles, nor remove
all the sufferings of humanity ; while the most vio.
lent opponents confess that their apprehensions were
in a great measure unfounded, and that many a loss
has been more than compensated by other means.
Though all proposals, which have been made since
the Reform Bill, for further changes in the constitu
tion, have been rejected, they deserve however a more
particular notice.
I. A motion of Mr. Ewart's*, to subject ahded
property to the same laws as other property, was that
which met with the least support. This would have
led to the abolition of all the rights of primogeniture,
* Hansard, xxxvi, 734.

14 PARLIAMENTARY REFORM. QUALIFICATION.
which are so necessary a part of the English consti
tution, and so interwoven with the general feeling of
the people, that even those who do not enjoy these
rights, prefer the English law of inheritance to the
French and German, and, in fact, changes of the laws
in England have scarcely ever proceeded from gene
ral, abstract considerations and doctrines.
II. There appeared to be more in favour of the
proposal, not to require in future, as heretofore, that
every member of the House of Commons shall pos
sess a certain amount of landed property. Messrs.
Molesworth, Leader, Ewart, Hume, and others, sup
ported this motion by the following arguments*. In
Scotland, no proof of property is required ; and in
England, only since the time of Queen Anne;
and is no proof of either moral or intellectual excel
lence ; nay, these qualities are often impaired by
riches, and the poorest man takes as much interest
in good laws and good government, and is as much
interested in them, as the richest. Those who are
excluded, are injured without sufficient reason, and
have more inclination and leisure to attend to
public business than the rich, who rather look to their
own affairs. It is notorious that the sons of peers,
who often possess no property, are admitted into the
Hansard, xxxvii, 524 : xxxvii, 802.

PARLIAMENTARY REFORM. QUALIFICATION. 15
House of Commons without proving their qualifica
tion, and that many other members of the House,
notwithstanding what the law requires, possess no
landed property. They must either help themselves
with pretexts and unfounded statements, or, if they
are more conscientious, fall into the class of the ex
cluded. To these arguments it was replied, if no
proof of property is demanded of the elected, soon
there will be none required of the electors, and in
the House of Commons persons will legislate upon
property who do not possess any.
As it was evident that the existing law was daily
evaded, and had been passed in the reign of Queen
Anne only to increase the influence of the land
owners, Lord John Russel proposed to convert the
illegal practice into a legal one, by enacting that every
species of property, and not merely landed property,
might be admitted as a qualification. As the first
proposal, however, was intended much rather to re
move all claims founded on property, than to extend
them, Sir William Molesworth refused this com
promise ; his motion was hereupon rejected by a
majority of 133 to 104 ; and it was not till the 27tb of
July 1838, that a law was passed, that every member
for a county should possess an annual income of £600,
and a member for a city or borough £ 300, derived
from land or other property.

16 EXCLUSION OF THE BISHOPS.
III. A third proposal, made by Mr. Lushington
(supported by Ewart, Bulwer, &c), was entirely to
exclude the Bishops from the Upper House, because
this privilege was incompatible with their other duties,
and because their voices. and votes were in general
contrary to the wishes and wants of the country.
Lord John Russel was the first to defend the
Bishops*; he observed that so important a point in
the Constitution must not be altered without the
most weighty reasons, nor men excluded who repre
sented so great an amount of property. Political and
spiritual duties were in England connected in va
rious ways, and might be performed without any de
triment worth notice to the one or the other. Sir
Robert Peel assented to these arguments, and com
mended Lord John Russel for his defence of the
Bishops, though they had often voted against his
motions. Mr. Lushington's motion was rejected by
a majority of 197 to 92.
The arguments for and against such a change were
certainly more completely developed in the 17th
centuryt ; and, with a reference to long experience,
it was hardly to be denied that the latter still have
the preponderance in England. Nay, it might be
much easier to prove that the interests of the church
* Hansard, xxxvii, 619— 1837.
t Raumer Geshichte von Turopa, vol. v. p. 30.

PRIVILEGES OF PARLIAMENT. 17
are too insufficiently, rather than too powerfully, re
presented. Proposals for the entire abolition or an essential
reform of the whole of the Upper House have not
been made of late years, because the great majority
of the English are convinced of its necessity and use
fulness, as well as of the weakness and superficialness
of all the plans for improving it.
IV. Important questions on the extent and the
limits of the privileges of Parliament were discussed
on occasion of an action by Stockdale against Han
sard. Stockdale affirmed that something which Han
sard had printed by order of Parliament contained
calumnies upon him, and was to be considered as a
libel. While the action was pending, Lord Denman,
Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench, said, " I know
of no body whatever in this country which can autho
rize any one of its servants to print libels." When the
matter came to be discussed in Parliament, the lead
ing members of both parties, and the majority of the
House of Commons, declared that no action was
allowable in this case. Nay, on the 14th of April
1840, a law was passed that no civil or criminal ac
tion could be instituted on account of the printing of
papers and documents, as soon as it was proved that
it had been done by command of Parliament. Not-

18 PRIVILEGES OF PARLIAMENT.
withstanding this decision, the important question
remains, when and how a person really calumniated
in this manner is to look for and find redress. He
is not to bring an action against the printer, nor
against the whole House, nor against individual mem
bers, nor against the Speaker. A law-suit, a punish
ment of the offender, was therefore out of the ques
tion ; and redress was chiefly to be found in the pub
lic refutations and an extra-judicial proof of innocence.
On this subject one author* says — " the omnipotence
of Parliament has become such a favourite principle,
that men quietly allow tyranny of the worst kind to
be introduced under the vague pretext of remedying
abuses and introducing improvements."
I cannot enter in any way into the legal princi
ples which were brought forward in that process,
since even Sir Robert Peel was reproached with not
understanding the substance of it. These, however,
are certainly of less importance than the general
and infinitely more weighty questions, — how far is the
administration of justice, are the judges and jury, in
dependent of Parliament ? and how far, on the other
hand, is the Parliament subject to the decision of the
judge and tribunals. The courts of justice, said Sir
John Campbell, the Attorney-General, are subordi
nate to the Houses of Parliament, and are therefore
• Quarterly Review, cxxi, 205.

THE BALLOT. 19
not authorized to decide a question on the privileges
of Parliament*. To this it was replied, the Lower
House does not possess the entire legislative autho
rity, nor can every thing be claimed as parliamentary
privilege, and the administration of justice be thereby
defeated. The times of Charles I shew us instances of fatal
exaggerations and errors of both kinds. Parliamen
tary legislators giving undue preponderance to con
siderations of alleged public rights, overthrew private
rights and private property ; and, on the other hand,
udges, on the ground of partial private right, re
jected every political improvement, and pronounced in
favour of the tyranny of existing institutions. If all
private right is placed in the application of a dead
letter to individual relations, if public right is con
sidered as the arbitrary result of a temporary all-
powerful majority, we are involved in a two-fold
error ; which, however, increases and becomes appa
rent so rapidly, that a correction founded on mutual
understanding cannot be long delayed, without lead
ing to the entire dissolution of social order.
V. Another motion, which has been brought
forward more than once, and with increasing vehe
mence, is to introduce the ballott,in the parliamentary
* Report of the Case of Stockdale against Hansard, page 23.
t See Index, article Ballot.

20 THE BALLOT.
elections. On the whole, the same arguments, pro
anil con, have been again and again brought forward,
which I have already noticed in my preceding letters ;
yet it is instructive to hear how they have been fur
ther developed, and more decisively expressed.
At every new election • for members of Parlia
ment (said the advocates for the ballot, Messrs. Grote,
Elphinstone, &c), bribery, intimidation, and the undue
influence of the wealthy and of landowners, increase*.
Many vote directly against their conviction, many do
not vote at all, in order that they may offend neither
party; and thus, instead of the vaunted freedom of
election, we have, in truth, only constraint and deplor
able slavery. In every other society, every social
union, the ballot is introduced as the only certain
means of maintaining perfect independence, and giv
ing an opinion without molestation or embarrassment.
The ballot would give the same security in parliamen
tary elections ; it would put an end to bribery and in
timidation. Such, in substance, are the arguments of the ad
vocates of the ballot. I proceed to state in a similar
manner the main arguments against it. We must
try every other means, said Mr. Poulter, to root out
any existing evils before we have recourse to the bal
lot, — that temptation to lying and falsehood. The
t Hansard, xxxvii— 1837 ; xc, 1131—1838 ; xcvii, 458—1839.

THE BALLOT. 21
ballot, said Mr. Vernon Smith, exposes the poor to
a two-fold superintendence and intimidation ; both
which the rich easily avoid. It makes it impossible
to distinguish friend from foes ; it suppresses the sin
cere expression of conscientious convictions, and hin
ders the development and establishment of the truth.
We ought to abide, said Mr. Borthwick, by a system
where every one must boldly come forward and do his
duty in the sight of God and man. Public canvassing
and public voting, said Lord Howick, increase the
knowledge of things and persons ; inform the igno
rant, and check the evil-disposed. The ballot, on the
contrary, throws immense power into the hands of
the returning officers, makes it impossible to express
one's sentiments with manly courage, facilitates bri
bery, and substitutes moral cowardice for noble in
dependence. In America, which is quoted as an ex
ample, there is no real freedom of voting ; and nobody
has the courage to offer opposition to the ruling pas
sions of the multitude. The ballot, said Mr. Milnes,
puts an end to public life, at least amongthe middling
classes ; instead of free development of ideas and
feelings, secret intrigues come in, and the worst and
most ignorant have equal importance and weight
with the most noble and best-informed. A blind
and thoughtless majority of electors, said Mr. Gas-
kell, would govern the country, and, contrary to the
British fundamental institutions, govern without the

22 THE BALLOT.
slightest responsibility. The ballot dissolves all bonds,
all communion between the electors and the elected,
sows mistrust and discord, under the pretext of pro
moting independence, forgets the salutary influence
of man upon man, undermines the generous, free
character of the people, opens a wide door to a far
more general corruption, which could be neither dis
covered nor punished, and would have to be in
troduced into Parliament itself for equally bad
reasons, and with equally bad consequences. " Spe-
ciosa verbis, re inania aut subdola, quantoque ma-
jore libertatis imagine teguntur, tanto eruptura
ad infensius servitium*." But few persons, said
Lord John Russel, vote through intimidation or
against their conscience. But whea'e conscience is
wanting, the ballot avails nothing ; and when the
spirit of liberty disappears in a people, no mechani
cal contrivance can replace or restore it. The poli
tical degradation to which many a man perhaps ex
poses himself by open voting, is essentially different
from the moral degradation which results from the
ballot. Every thing in England is free, open, respon
sible ; so should the election be. But, could we even
prevent intimidation, to a certain degree, by the bal
lot, we should forfeit, on the other hand, truth,
frankness, and character.
For these reasons, the proposal to introduce the
* Taciti Annal. i, 81.

THE BALLOT. 23
ballot was several times rejected in Parliament ly
great majorities. The otherwise hostile journals,
the Edinburgh and Quarterly Reviews*, both de
clared in favour of open voting as hitherto ; they
especially directed the attention of their readers to
the fact, that this means would not lead to the pro
posed end ; would not prevent bribery ; and would
afford no security that the elector, voting by ballot,
would henceforth be actuated only by good and noble
motives. It was also a vain hope that it would be
kept secret how every one voted ; a thousand occa
sions, opportunities, provocations, questions, signs,
threats, flatteries, would bring it to light. But it
would be still worse if this tribunal of the electors
remained a secret one ; if acquittal and condemna
tion were pronounced one knew not by whom or for
what reason. Every elector in England is a repre
sentative of many ; and therefore the 800,000 elec
tors must publicly perform their office for 24 millions.
In France, the ballot appears merely as an oligarchi
cal measure of a few wealthy individuals ; for 206
Frenchmen, there is but one elector ; whereas, in
England, there is an elector out of every ,30 persons.
In France, from one third to one half of the depu
ties are actually connected with the government.
This is not the case in England, which keeps a happy
• Edinburgh Review, lxv, 2, 212. Quarterly, Ixi, 507.

24 THE BALLOT.
medium between the oligarchical tendency of France
and the democratical of North America.
The pamphlets for and against the ballot, repeat
on the whole the above-stated arguments ; only one
by Sydney Smith is so peculiar both in its style and
contents, that I extract some passages from it. " The
loom and the steam engine are furiously political ;
but the plough is not. Nineteen tenants out of
twenty care nothing about their votes, and pull off
opinions as easily to their landlords as they do their
hats. A tenant, dismissed for a fair and just cause,
endeavours to make himself a martyr with the public ;
and no candidate is willing to allow that he has lost
his election by his demerits. If shop-keepers lose
Tory, they gain Whig, customers ; and it is not
always the vote that does the mischief, but the low
vulgar impertinence and the unbridled scurrility of
a man who thinks that, by dividing to mankind their
rations of butter and cheese, he has qualified himself
for legislation ; and that he can hold the rod of em
pire, because he has wielded the yard of mensuration.
But Brutus and butterman, cheesemonger and Cato,
do not harmonize well together. If a shopkeeper,
after an election, sees one of his customers buying a
pair of gloves on the opposite side of the way, he
roars out that his honesty will make him a bankrupt,
and the county papers are filled with letters from

THE BALLOT. 25
Brutus, Publicola, Hampden, and Pym. I will not
hide the best feelings of my heart, and lower myself
down to your mean morals. It is as if a few cowards,
fighting behind walls and houses, were to prevent a
whole regiment from shewing a bold front to the
enemy. Yet Mr. Grote, knowing all the histories
of public courage, preaches cowardice and treachery
to England, tells us that the bold cannot be free, and
bids us seek for liberty by clothing ourselves in, the
mask of falsehood, and trampling on the cross of
truth. The present method may produce a vicious
act ; but the ballot establishes a vicious habit ; and
then it is of some consequence that the law should
not range itself on the side of vice. It is to the
degraded liar only that the ballot-box will be useful :
the man who performs what he promises needs no
box." The advocates of the ballot certainly express
their conviction, according to the best of their know
ledge and conscience ; yet it seems beyond a doubt
that this measure would not lead to the end proposed,
but to greater evils. First, with respect to intimida
tion ; it might become much more general in conse
quence of the ballot, and even on the ground of mere
suspicion ; whereas now, for instance, the purchaser
at least waits for facts before he transfers his custom
to another dealer. Besides, the influence of the well-
vol. I. c

26 THE BALLOT.
informed on the ignorant is not to be confounded
with improper intimidation ; while the ceasing of such
influence would, on the contrary, be a great loss.
When men, waveringin their opinions, areinduced
by a prospect of gain to decide in favour of one or
the other party, this conduct cannot indeed be desig
nated as unprincipled deriliction of well-founded
convictions, or as open bribery; yet this mode of ex
ercising and submitting to influence is essentially
different from the generous and salutary action
alluded to above. The reciprocal accusations of both
parties, of unscrupulous corruption, are certainly not
without foundation, but as certainly exaggerated. If
many may consider the whole business of elec
tion merely as a favourable opportunity to gain,
and to improve their circumstances, as a kind
of saturnalia for the less wealthy, yet, on the
whole, the result of all the elections undoubtedly
shews the real conviction of the electors. If, for in
stance, the Tories have employed more means of in
fluence in the elections now pending, precisely because
they had more at command, I am, however, con
vinced that the majority of the electors consider
greater freedom of trade and the change in the corn
aws to be detrimental and dangerous, and on that
account have declared against the present ministry*.
* It is certainly to be lamented, when, as in the late elections, such

ANNUAL PARLIAMENTS. 27
Whether this is a right view of the subject, whether
it is that of the majority of the people, whether the
present elective system is the best for arriving at the
truth, are important questions which may be more
properly discussed in another place.
A majority in Parliament obtained by bribery
will certainly not withstand, at the long run, the
public conviction : the means punish those who resort
to them ; they lose, in the sequel, money, respect,
and influence.
Independently of all illegal measures, every
parliamentary election has become so costly, through
unavoidable expenses, that the above-mentioned
proof of a qualification is, in comparison, utterly
unimportant. In the actual state of things, every
parliamentary election comprehends, at the same
time, an important monopoly and an oppressive tax
on the wealthy ; and, fortunately or unfortunately,
the object is attained by indirect means, which real
or pretended statesmen often recommend on very
different grounds.
VI. The arguments against annual Parliaments
are so preponderating, that of late years the subject
has scarcely been mentioned in the House of Corn-
eminent statesmen as Lords Hcwick and Morpeth are defeated, while
so many necessarily less important persons are successful.
c 2

28 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE.
mons*. The Government, too, when there have
been sufficient reasons, has always proceeded to a
dissolution, without waiting till the expiration of the
legal term of seven years.
VII. The question of the extension of the elec
tive franchise has been more seriously brought for
ward and discussed. In March 1839, Mr. Hume
proposedt to give the franchise to every householder,
and proved that it was by no means exercised by a
number of persons in proportion to the population.
He said Population. Electors. Proportion.
England has 13,876,000 737,000 as 1 to 17
Wales .... 864,000 43,000 „ 20
Scotland. . .2,550,000 77,000 „ 32

Total 17,290,000 858,000 as 1 to 20
Ireland . . . 8,396,000 98,000 „ 85

Total 25,686,000 956,000 as 1 to 26
In small, less populous places, there are more
electors than in large and populous towns. Thus,
for instance, Tavistock has 4,958 inhabitants and
289 electors ; the Tower Hamlets, 302,000 inha
bitants and 13,189 electors. In Lisburn, 134 elec
tors choose a member of Parliament; in Dublin,
* See Index, Annual Parliaments. t Hansard, xlvi, 1050.

THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE. 29
7,113 electors choose two members. In five small
English counties there are 51,000 inhabitants and
16,000 electors, who sendten members to Parliament ;
in five other counties there are 424,000 inhabitants,
and 80,000 electors, who likewise send ten members.
The reform bill retained or introduced fifty-eight
different qualifications, conferring the elective fran
chise. Not to mention the ancient qualifications,
every holder of a house in the towns, or a lodging
of the clear annual value of ten pounds, has a vote.
In the counties, those are entitled to vote who have a
freehold of the value of forty shillings per annum, or
an estate for life of the annual value of ten pounds,
or holding an estate for sixty years of the same
annual value, or leasehold for twenty years of the
annual value of fifty pounds.
A complete view of the elective franchise would
show extraordinary diversity in the titles conferring
it, and prove that the legislators were not guided by
any general principles. Thus, regard has been had
in some cases to the population, while in others it
has been wholly overlooked. Importance has been
attached to direct taxation, while the more important
indirect taxes have been disregarded.
Lord John Russel observed, that, " of adult males,
there is,

30 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE.
In England, 1 elector in 5
„ Scotland, 1 „ 8
„ Ireland, 1 „ 20."
' By Mr. Hume's proposal, one person out of three
would be an elector. This change appears to me
hazardous in itself; it becomes still more so, because
no certain limit, no grounds for stopping, can be
found, and we should come at last to " universal
suffrage." Mr. Hume's motion was rejected. In June
1839*, Mr. Fleetwood made another similar pro
posal, viz. to give the elective franchise in the coun
ties as well as in the towns to every holder of a house
of the clear annual value of ten pounds. This
motion was likewise rejected by a majority of 207 to
81 ; and it was again resolved to maintain the Reform
Bill unaltered.
The following statistical data deserve to be given
here"|". There are, in England, Electors. Members.
40 counties, with 344,000 for 144
185 towns, boroughs, &c. 274,000 „ 327

Total 618,000 471
* Hansard, xlvii, 1342.
t M'Culloch's Statistical Account, vol. ii, 236.

ELECTIVE FRANCHISE. 31
Electors. Members.
Wales, 12 counties, with 25,000 for 15
14 boroughs, &c. 11,000 „ 14

Total 36,000 29
Electors. Members.
Scotland, 30 counties, with 33,000 for 30
76 boroughs, &c. 31,000 „ 23

Total 64,000 53
Electors. Members.
Ireland, 32 counties, with 60,000 for 64
34 boroughs, &c. 31,000 „ 41

Total 91,000 105
On the whole, 812,000 electors, of whom 1,235
choose a member of Parliament. There are, in the
English counties, an elector out of 24 persons.
„ towns, „ „ 17
Scotch counties, „ ,y 45
„ towns, „ „ 27
Irish counties, „ „ 115
„ towns, „ „ 22
Great Britain, „ „ 22
Ireland, „ „ „ 86

Inhab

tants.

In England there is one member for 27,000
„ Scotland „ „ „ 44,000
„ Ireland „ ,. „ 73,000

32 ELECTIVE FRANCHISE.
If political rights ought to be graduated and dis
tributed with mathematical precision, according
to the amount of population, property, or taxes,
neither England, before or since the Reform Bill,
nor indeed any country in the world, ever had a
constitution and adequate public law.
But how little this dead, arithmetical mode leads
to the desired end, has been proved by the French
constitutions, where the above elements have been
employed either singly, or confusedly mingled to
gether. I close, this letter without adding any further
opinion on the theories and practice, as my only
object was to state what questions relative to these
subjects have been discussed in England during the
last few years.

LETTER IV.

English and French Systems — Constitution — Administration — Popula
tion, Agricultural Labourers — The Army.

London, July 13, 1841.
Proposals and demands of a change in the con
stitution may proceed from theoretical grounds and
practical evils ; both together appear to have con
curred in the recommendation of annual parliaments,
of the ballot, and of universal suffrage. The last
proposal in particular is founded on the persuasion
that every individual in the state, on whom duties
are imposed, may claim also political rights ; and that
political wisdom increases with the number of per
sons entitled to them. To this, it may be answered,
that neither the duties nor the rights of all can, or
ought to be, equal in a state, and that with the in
crease in the number of persons exercising political
rights, political folly has also increased. Forms, ap
parently similar, have, besides, often the most diverse
results, and forms really different have led to similar
results. Thus, the English House of Commons and
the French Chamber of Deputies are both elected
bodies, yet there is an extraordinary difference in
their conduct, tendency, and mode of proceeding.

34 CONSTITUTION — ADMINISTRATION.
And again, the French system of election is founded
on oligarchical monied interest; and, in comparison
with it, the English system is extremely democra-
tical ; yet, the elected deputies in both countries have
equally protected certain monopolies — for instance,
the trade in corn, cattle, sugar, iron, &c.
True freedom, in the same and in different coun
tries, by no means depends therefore on certain
forms alone ; and least of all is there a formal pana
cea for all social disorders. It is equally foolish,
however, to reject at the same time political quackery
and political medicine.
Many persons in England do not consider the
above proposals as an object in themselves, but as
means to attain certain objects which cannot well be
obtained by the existing forms, or as means to do
away with certain evils which the existing forms
have unhappily protected. It is certainly necessary
to have a knowledge of these real or supposed evils,
before we can judge of the proposals in question,
not merely in a theoretical view of their eligibility,
but with a practical view of their necessity. Per
haps, after the notices of my preceding letter on the
Constitution, I ought to enter into a description of
the Administration, which has been so much praised
and blamed, as well as of the hopes which are con
ceived of the new Ministry. As, however, Consti
tution and Administration do not alone decide, but

POPULATION. 35
their value, or their activity or inactivity, chiefly pro
ceed from th6 relations and situation of the country
and people, I will at least discuss some main points
relative to these matters, and then shew how they
have influenced the course of the Legislation and
Administration. The increase of the population is indeed by no
means always a sign of increasing prosperity and
happiness ; but a continued decrease of the popula
tion is a certain proof of the unhappy retrogradation
of a people*.
It is assumed that the increase in the population
of England since 1800 is equal to the whole number
of inhabitants in 17001".
It mounted, in France, from 1791 to 1831, to 23i
per cent.
In Great Britain, to ... . 621
In France, from 1817 to 1831 +, to . . 11
England,  22
 from 1801 to 1831 §, . . 47

* The consumption of meat in Paris, notwithstanding the prodi
gious increase of the population, has not increased for many years — a
proof of poverty and injudicious legislation. On the other hand, there
were sold1, in Smithfield —
1833. Oxen, 152,000 Sheep, 1,167,000
1837.  172,000  1,329,000
t Reports for 1839, vol. 45. Hansard, lv, 2/7.
| Dublin Review, November 1839.
§ Reports, 1840, vol. ii, Health of Towns.

36 POPULATION.
It is conjectured that the population returns for
Great Britain and Ireland, which are now in pro
gress, will amount to about 27! millions*. The
greatest increase in the population is in the manufac
turing towns. It amounted, from 1801 to 1831,
in Birmingham, to 73 per cent.
Leeds, 99 
Liverpool, 100 
Glasgowt, 108 
Manchester, 109 
In these towns, however (though in general the
duration of human life has increased), the mortality
has also very much increased. There died,
1821, in Glasgow, 1 in 39.
1838 „ „ 1 in 26J.
The Committee appointed to enquire into the
Health of Towns complains of misery, dirt, want of
light and air, danger of fevers, &c. It proposes that
a new building act be introduced, and a Board ap
pointed for the enforcement of better regulations ;
that attention be paid to kennels, sewers, church
yards, public walks, baths, slaughterhouses, &c. In
the country, the mortality is less than in the towns ;
the summer is the most healthy, the winter the most
* This surmise has proved correct.
t Since 1831, the population of Glasgow has further increased 36
per cent, and amount's now to '280,000 ; but the number of houses has
not increased in the same proportion.
J There were, probably, particular reasons for this in 1838.

POPULATION — AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS. 37
dangerous, season of the year*. • Since inoculation
for the small-pox, the danger has greatly diminished ;
yet, in 1839, 8704 persons died of this diseaset- In
the same year, there were —
Births, . . 480,000
Deaths, . . 321,000
Marriages, . 121,000
Of the marriages, 104,000 were of persons be
longing to the Episcopal Church. Of 100,000
deaths, 6TS5 were suicides, and of them twice as
many men as women. Of 1000 deaths, there are
140 of persons of above 70 years old. The average
age at which marriages are contracted, is, for men
27, for women 25 years. The deaths are 1 out of 46
of the population.
The latest census will prove that there is no
country in the world in which the number of field
labourers is so small, in comparison with that of
people engaged in other occupations ; and yet this
small number produces, in proportion, the greatest
quantity of food. From 1835 to 1841 there have
been very favorable and very unfavorable harvests,
which have led to a reconsideration of the corn-
laws, of which I shall treat fully in the sequel.

* Second Report of the Registrar-general of Births, &c. 1840.
t Formerly 5,000 children died every year in London of the small
pox ; now about 300. Report of the Vaccine Establishment, 1837.

38 THE ARMY.
Next to the husbandman, the number of soldiers
is less than in other countries, partly in consequence
of the geographical position of the country, partly
in consequence of very judicious principles. Rus
sia and France, which, though Continental powers,
are quite impregnable against all attack, ought to
follow this example, and, by a diminution of their
armies, remove this, the most oppressive, burden on
our social relations. The army consists (exclusively
of India), for the British empire, of
Horse-guards, . . 1,308 men.
Cavalry, . . . 10,157 „
Foot-guards, . . . 5,253 „
Infantry,* . . . 92,309 „

Total, . . . 109,027 men.
If, even in our country, a residence in remote
provinces, or removing to them, appears to be incon
venient, yet these are but neighbouring towns com
pared with lying in garrison, and being ordered to
distant quarters, in the widely extended British em
pire. But these changes, and residence in other
countries, give the soldier veryT different excitements
and instruction ; they increase his experience and
knowledge ; they free him from local habits and
* Thus in 1838, and nearly the same in 1840. See Reports for
these years.

THE ARMY. 39
prejudices ; and thus we find British soldiers in An
tigua, Trinidad, Tobago, Jamaica, and the rest of
the Antilles, in Canada, Nova Scotia, and New
Brunswick, Newfoundland, the Bermudas, the Baha
mas, Honduras, Gibraltar, Malta, the Ionian Islands,
the Cape of Good Hope, the Mauritius, Sierra
Leone, Gambia, Ceylon, China, New South Wales,
Van Dieman's Land, Western Australia, and St.
Helena. The proposal to abolish corporal punishments in
the British army was renewed in the House of Com
mons in 1837 ; but even the motion for making fur
ther enquiries into the matter was rejected by 167 to
72 votes. It was asserted that the English recruit
ing system made this mode of punishment neces
sary ; and, if it should be abolished, the penalty of
death would often be required to preserve discipline.
To this it was' replied, public opinion and moral
feeling are against corporal punishments, and only
the officers who order them consider them as neces
sary. If they are more rare than formerly, this
proves, at the same time, the necessity of altering
the system of punishments, and the inclination to
follow unrestricted arbitrary will rather than adopt
new legal regulations*. Since the corporal punish
ment of the Hindoos in the Indian Army is abo-
» Hansard, xxxvii, 868.

40 THE ARMY.
lished, why not likewise in the case of the native
Englishman ? So long as the soldier is liable to
corporal punishment, nobody will voluntarily em
brace the profession, who is not destitute of moral
feeling, and discovers no degradation in punishment.

LETTER V.

The Colonies — The Negroes— Sale of Lands — New South Wales-
Criminals in Australia — The East Indies — China.

London, July 14, 1841 .
I HAVE spoken, in my preceding letters, of the
Queen, of the government, and the foreign relations
of England, of the endeavours to correct the constitu
tion, and of the increasing population. I have men
tioned the husbandmen and the army, and shall now
proceed to the other classes of the population.
Their relations (commerce, in particular, and indus
try) will be better represented and understood, if we
first take a view (slight, indeed) of the English co
lonies ; for a thorough knowledge cannot be acquired
without the study of a life, and affords matter, not
for a few pages, but for whole volumes.
Of all civilized nations in modern times (inde
pendently of external facilities and hindrances), the
English have, beyond a doubt, shewn the greatest,
and the French perhaps the least, capacity in the
founding of distant settlements and colonies. At
least, the abominable predatory warfare, which, for
some years past, has been carried on in Algiers, is

42 THE COLONIES.
the blackest contrast to what a nation calling itself
civilized ought to exhibit to a people stigmatized as
uncivilized. The English, indeed, cannot deny* that many of
their countrymen in distant settlements have shewn
themselves to be more rude and wicked than the
aborigines, and that they practised and endeavoured
to propagate all kinds of vices. The missionaries
have had a more salutary influence, even on the
New Zealanders, than on these degenerate English
men. The British government, however, did not
remain an idle spectator ; but caused accurate enqui
ries to be made into the situation and treatment of
the aborigines. The very instructive reportst shew
that the Europeans had done the natives more harm
than good. They had brought them brandy, gun
powder, the small-pox, and venereal disease. They
were every where the assailants ; and a state of
things founded on law had never been thought of.
For the establishment of such legal relations, a
gigantic step was made with one mighty word. The
English Government declared that " Every native
was to be considered and treated as a British sub
ject." Thereby these unfortunate people obtained
a protection and a position of which but few civilized
nations can boast.
* Report, 1837, about New Zealand.
t Reports about the Aborigines in the Colonies, 1832, 1839.

THE COLONIES. — THE NEGROES. 43
The conviction was attained, that the separation
of secular and religious education did not lead to the
desired end, but that both must be united, in order to
raise the natives to a higher degree of real civiliza
tion. This method has already had the best effects ;
andMr. Redman*, the commander in Flinders' Island,
says, " Nothing is wanted but the application of
suitable means to bring to light, and to develop, the
latent capacity of the degraded savages." In par
ticular, the power of Christianity, as the most effec
tual means of education, was here manifested. But
disputes between the clergy of different religious
persuasions (for instance, the English and Scotch
Church) have, unfortunately, sometimes hindered
its progress. Instead of combining their efforts for
the attainment of the same great object, and keeping
in view the leading doctrines of Christianity, they
squabble about subordinate differences, and set a
bad example to those whom they were sent to con
vert. The government provides equally for the
ministers and schools of the several religious par-
tiesj, in order that no one shall be compelled to take
part in the religious ceremonies of a church to which
he does not belong.
The reports of the improvement of the emanci-
* Report for 1839, vol.xxxiv, p. 12. f Report for 1838, vol. iv. p. 4.
J Report for 1840, vol. xxxiii.

44 THE COLONIES — THE NEGROES.
pated Negroes are particularly favourable. Though
much yet remains to be done, the forebodings of all the
friends of slavery have proved fallacious ; and, when
so many matters that have agitated the mind of the
people of England are forgotten as of no importance,
the glory of the emancipation of the slaves, this acti
vity and generosity displayed in the cause of suffer
ing fellow creatures, will undoubtedly shine with un
diminished lustre in the history of the world.
In general, the Negroes are more orderly, tem
perate, and industrious, than many persons expected.
All fears, in this respect, says a well-informed wit
ness*, have vanished from the people's minds, and
have taken .refuge in the daily journals, the last
retreat of all untruths in the world, till they go to
their proper place.
In another reportt we find, " Since the abolition
of slavery, the situation of the Negroes has improved
in respect to education, morality, decent conduct,
and intellectual knowledge. They are careful to
keep their habitations in good order, and acquire a
taste for superior social comforts. The former
black slaves are now perhaps in a better condition
than the peasantry in any part of the world; but
they spend much money in articles of luxury, fine
* Edinburgh Review, lxvi. 411. t Report, 1S40, vol. xviii.

THE COLONIES — THE NEGROES. 45
clothes, eating, drinking, and even in champagne.
Others save money in order to buy land, or to put it
into savings' banks. All must work, to gain money for
these purposes. Theyr prefer raising articles of food
to articles of commerce ; but it is a great evil, that
the rent of the land left to them is not fixed accord
ing to its extent, and productiveness, but to the num
ber of Negro families; which easily leads to Irish
hardships, and to the ejectment of the tenants.
It sounds like a fable to hear that the Negroes*,
of whom it was formerly reported how many thou
sand lashes they were alleged to have deserved and
certainly had received, — that these Negroes, for their
own money, dress fine, and drink champagne; and if
a few, rejoicing, as is very natural, in their new
liberty and their new wealth, spend too much, there
are others, (everywhere, even amongst the whites,)
who are saving ; and that thoughtlessness, certainly,
is less deserving of reproach, than the above-men
tioned selfish and foolish manner of letting, which is
practised by the landowners.
The English government has taken great pains to
obtain correct statistical information! respecting the
* A law of the 11th of April, 1838, secures the emancipated Negroes
in respect to the hours of labour, the administration of justice, &c.
On the other hand, it is affirmed, that they take advantage of the
monopoly which they at present possess : this, however, will disappear in
time. t Reports, on Emigration, 1838, vol. xl.

46 THE COLONIES— SALE OF LANDS.
countries where it intended to form new colonies.
Repeated experience having shown, that such colonies
throve the least where every new comer acquired
land and settled apart from the rest, led to the
conviction, that with the free-landowners, free-la
bourers and mechanics must be procured, and their
generally limited resources be compressed within nar
row bounds. With this the question arose : in what
manner the uncultivated, unoccupied land, which
however was considered as royal property, should be
transferred to the settlers ? It was resolved to make
no more free grants, but to sell it, and to employ the
proceeds chiefly in the improvement of the colony.
At first, for obvious reasons, it was sold by auction ;
but, by degrees, the best-informed persons* were of
opinion that it was better to sell it without auction,
at equal, fixed prices. This facilitates transactions,
spares the settler's time, and removes all uncertainty
with respect to the issue. Above all, bad land is not
entered upon at low prices, but the best is, very pro
perly, first chosen and cultivated. The price is
generally fixed in such a manner, that it by no
means deters purchasers, and is yet so high that not
every one can or will purchase. By this means there
remains a sufficient number of free-labourers for
indispensable employments. * Reports, 1 840, vol. *xx.

NEW SOUTH WALES. 47
Since 1831, there have been sold (besides the very
large free grants), Acres.
In Ceylon, „ „ 20,000
In the North American Colonies, 1,317,000
In Australia, „ „ 1,902,000
The average price of the land sold in New South
Wales was twenty-seven shillings per acre ; but there
have been instances when an acre, principally on
account of the favourable situation, has been sold for
5,000/. and even more.
The inclination, the necessity, and the means of
emigration, have very much increased. This, instead
of being matter of complaint, should rather be looked
on as an advance in the dominion of man and of
mind over the whole earth.
Parliamentary grants, land sales in the colonies,
local revenues, the poor-rates, and contributions of
landowners in England, have contributed to facilitate
emigration. A proposal to send a million of persons
at once to the colonies, for 12,000,000/. sterling, was
necessarily rejected, as well on account of the enor
mous expense, as because such sudden removal of
activity and labour cannot be approved, either theo
retically or practically.
During the last fourteen years*, 790,000 persons
have emigrated, of whom 348,000 went to the United
* Hansard, liv. 848, England.

48 CRIMINALS IN AUSTRALIA.
States of North America. From 1829 to 1839,
271,493 emigrants landed at Quebec,
273,723 „ „ in New York.
In the year 1839, there emigrated from Great
Britain and Ireland,
To British North America, 12,658 persons.
„ The United States, 33,536
„ The Cape of Good Hope, 227
„ Australia, 15,786 „

Total 62,207
No colony makes, in proportion, such rapid and
extraordinary progress as New South Wales.
In the year 1800, there were 6,000 sheep in the
colony ; in 1834 a million. The wool exported
amounted, in 1824, to 279,000 pounds, and gradually
increased, including Van Dieman's Land, to ten
million pounds*. The public revenue amounted,
In 1824, to 49,000/.
„ 1837, „ 354,000
., 1840, „ 426,000 Acres.
In the year 1837, there were sold 3,300t
1838, „ 56,210
The receipts for it amounted in 1832 to 13,000/.
1839 „ 60,000
1840 „ 217,000
* Hansard, xlviii, 874 ; liv, 844 ; lvii, 600.
t Reports, 1839, vols, xvii and xxxiv. ; Report on the Division of
Territory for Australia ; Report on Emigration, 1838, vol. xl.

NEW SOUTH WALES. 49
The customs amounted, in 1839, to 14,000/.
1840 „ 21,000
The exports from New South Wales and Van
Deiman's Land were worth, in 1833, £181,000.
1836, 1,168,000. Tons.
In 1828 the ships were of the burthen of 56,000
„ 1836 „ „ „ 124,000
Though the population does not exceed 150,000,
the exports to the Australian colonies amounted in
1838, to l,336,C001b.
To Russia, 1,663,000
The export to New South Wales is equal to
one-eighth of that to India, to two-fifths of that to
Canada, and almost equal to that to the West In
dian colonies ; and, with this increase of prosperity,
the advance of -intellectual improvement and social
order keep equal pace ; there are juries, a constitu
tion, representation, municipal regulations, freedom
of the press, as in the mother country. One point
only, which was formerly considered as a relief and
advantage to England, has been violently attacked in
these latter years, namely, the transportation of
criminals from England to Australia. It was af
firmed in Parliament that the new colony is thereby
demoralized in an unexampled and frightful manner ;
VOL. I. D

50 CRIMINALS IN AUSTRALIA.
that the proportion of women to men* is as one to
six, and in some parts as one to seventeen. In a
report on this subject, made in 1 838, it is affirmedf
that the whole system has proved inefficacious, that
crimes have not diminished, but increased, while the
convicts are not reformed : that the whole colony is
demoralized, given to drunkenness and vice. If the
convict is assigned to a free colonist, he is either too
well or too ill off ; and those conduct themselves the
worst of all, who, at the expiration of their sentence,
enter into the ranks of the free population. Hence
arises a countless number of new crimes and punish
ments. Former criminals and innocent persons
ought never to be mixed together. Up to the year 1837
the settling of the convicts had cost eight millions
sterling ; it now costs annually 488,000/. In future,
therefore, imprisonment and hard labour, at home or
abroad, ought to be substituted for the present mode.
These objections were not unanswered : Lord
Normanby said, in the House of Commons, " in the
last ten years, 35,900 persons had been transported,
who, however, latterly had neither been distributed
all over the country, nor assigned to private persons.
The sudden adoption of another system is impossible ;
* Hansard, liv. 266.
t Reports, 1838, vol. viii ; Hansard, xxxvii, 726.

CRIMINALS IN AUSTRALIA. 51
and, if we would not return to capital punishment,
imprisonment for life or public labour in chains must
be adopted, which is at variance with English feelings.
To found establishments for the correction of so many
criminals* would occasion too heavy an expense."
Subsequently, other memberst, — for instance, Lord
Mahon, — declared against sending criminals to the
hulks. Defects in the system of transportation might
be remedied and avoided ; and while persons dis
charged from English prisons find it difficult to
obtain employment and are scarcely ever reformed,
transportation had often had a very good effect ; and
accounts of the lawless conduct of the criminals
transported to Australia were undoubtedly exagge
rated. Sir John FranklinJ, too, the governor of Van Die-
man's Land, declared against the total abolition of the
old system, and pointed out the difficulty and danger
of various new proposals. In New South Wales itself,
many landed proprietors, magistrates, and the legis
lative council, contradicted the statement of the above
report§. The free inhabitants and their children,
they said, were in every point of view respectable,
• Hansard, liv, 298.
t In 1839, 1835 persons were transported for seven years, and 1822
for a longer period. The same page, 546.
J Reports, 1838, vol. xlii ; Report of 7th October, 1837.
§ Reports, 1840, vol. xxxiv.
D 2

52 CRIMINALS IN AUSTRALIA.
and a great number of convicts had reformed ; there
fore, single evils might be remedied without abo
lishing the whole system. The immense advance of
the colony in activity, industry, spirit of enterprise, &c.
were the best proofs of the partiality of those objections.
" The system hitherto followed*," says a remark
able writer, " has acted in a very useful manner,
freed the mother country from a great burthen, cul
tivated deserts, and given to thousands, employment,
subsistence, and property. Every thief ought to be
transported : all charitable institutions, peneten-
tiaries, and refuges, have not reformed ten criminals
in ten years.
" In New South Wales, on the contrary, thou
sands have become orderly, industrious, and useful;
and when the parents remain incorrigible, the children
grow up useful members of society."
Some well-meaning persons have proposed to
punish criminals by imprisonment in the mother-
country, and at the expiration of their sentence to
send them to the colonies, there to begin an entirely
new course of life, as entirely free men. This pro
posal seems to do away with all other great difficul
ties respecting the treatment, superintendence, and
employment of the convicts in the colonies. Yet, it
remains to be considered, 1, that the term of punish-
* The World, 1840, page 74.

THE EAST INDIES. 53
ment will be then lengthened, and the number of
persons in the mother-country be greatly increased ;
2, that, besides the increased expense occasioned by
this plan, that of transporting a great number of
persons will remain ; 3, that the convicts just re
leased from prisons, and sent in ship-loads to the
colonies, will scarcely conduct themselves as orderly
free men, so as to render all superintendence and
control unnecessary.
If New Zealand and New South Wales afford
materials for many volumes, what shall we say of
India*, superior as it is to almost all other countries
in the world in population, extent, and in the diversity
of highly interesting subjects which it offers ? The
mode of administration, of taxation (the chief re
venues are derived from the land, salt, and opium),
and the way of carrying on war ; the legislation,
the relations of the priests, the soldiers, the artisans,
and the landowners ; as well as the several Asiatic
nations to the English, — these, and innumerable other
topics, are extremely interesting and instructive. To
exhaust such an ocean is not my vocation, and ex
ceeds my ability; a few statistic remarks may find a
place here.
* Very good information respecting the capabilities of India to
produce almost all useful articles of commerce are to be found in Royle's
Essay on the productive resources of India.

54 THE EAST INDIES.
The object proposed by the Portuguese to pro
pagate Christianity in India, should never be wholly
neglected by a Christian people ; but how little the
English consider violence as among the means
adapted to this end, is apparent, from the one regula
tion, that " the government shall not at all interfere
in the managementand application of all the revenues
of the Indian religious sects ; but shall leave the
temples* and revenues entirely in the hands of the
natives, or restore them to them.
The annual public revenues amount to about
fifteen million pounds sterling. But as India bears
the expense of its own government, and also remits
considerable sums to England, it is a perfectly equit
able demand that it should not be placed in a worse
situation, with respect to taxes and duties of custom,
than the West Indies and other colonies. " Justicet,"
says a report, " requires that all the colonies shall
be placed on an equal footing ; and India, which has
four times as many inhabitants as all the rest of the
British Empire, can and must energetically insist
on the total abolition of all the existing differences."
The imports from India to EnglandJ were —
Coffee  1,519,000 lbs.
White cotton goods  69,000 pieces.
* Reports, 1839, vol. xxxix. f Report of 1840 on India.
t In 1792, the exports amounted to 401,000 pounds. Royle's
Resources of India, 1825.

THE EAST INDIES — CHINA. 55
Coloured ditto  81 ,000 pieces.
Pocket Handkerchiefs. . 41,000 „
Indigo  6,579,000 lbs.
Pepper  1,871,000,,
Rice  203,000cwt.
Saltpetre  234,000 „
Raw silk  1,121,000 lbs.
Silk pocket handkerchiefs 484,000 pieces.
Raw sugar  443,000 cwt.
Tobacco  126,000 lbs.
Cotton  40,217,000 „
The increase in the exports of wool* is particularly
remarkable ; it amounted, in
1833, „ to 3721 lbs.
1834, „ „ 67,763,,
1835, „ „ 295,000,,
1836, „ „ 1,084,000,,
1837, „ „ 1,880,000,,
1838, „ „ 1,897,000 „
The total value of the imports into England,
from India, amounted to about thirty-five or thirty-
six millions of dollars. The cotton manufactures
exported to India weret, in
1814  „  818,000 yards.
* The wool imported from the Cape of Good Hope was,
In 1828, 29,000 lbs. | In 1838, 422,000 lbs.
t Hansard, lvi, 602.

56 THE EAST INDIES.
1821  19,138,000 yards.
1828  42,822,000 „
1835  51,277,000 „
1837  64,213,000 „
Cotton yarn, value, 1825, 16,000/.
1837, 602,000
A very remarkable fact appears here ; namely,
that England, by the superiority of her machinery
and manufactures, is able to import raw cotton from
India, to spin it, and send the yarn back to India, there
to sell it cheaper than the yarn spun by the natives on
the spot. The newly-opened trade of England with
China is almost as important as that to India. If that
ultra-conservative, hermetically sealed, decrepid, and
petrified celestial empire once receives the impulse
of European activity and civilization, if an opening
is once gained, the European-Christian leaven will
break the old bands, and all Asia, like the other parts
of the world, be impelled to a new and more exalted
development of the human mind. The throne of
the Emperor of China does not stand more firmly
than that of the Great Mogul, or of the Turkish
Sultan. The diplomatic tailors, it is true, are rather
proud that they have been able to declare that Turkey
is patched up again, and may be compared to a new,
durable garment; but larger rents are made close to
the seams, and there is perhaps no better historical

CHINA. 57
justification of the partition of Poland than this non-
partition of the Turkish Empire.
When the monopoly of the East India Company
was broken up a few years ago, a prophetical — almost
universal — lamentation arose, that the trade with
China was now at an end, and that all the uncon
nected, injudicious exertions of individuals, the trade
being free, could not make up for the energy, activity,
wisdom, and experience of the monopolists. Never
was a prophecy more completely refuted, and the
power of free trade more fully proved.
Already, in the year 1833, the value of the ex
ports from Canton to India, by the Company,
amounted to only 8,297,000 dollars.
By private individuals, 13,354,000 „

Total, 20,651,000
The exports from India to Canton amounted,
By the Company, to 4,046,000 dollars.
By private merchants, 19,119,000 „

Total, 23,165,000
Perhaps it may be objected that the ancient and
prudent Company would not have got into any dis
putes with the Chinese. It is very possible that this
old woman (as many Asiatics conceived and called
the East India Company) might agree better with

58 CHINA— THE COLONIES.
the old man, the Emperor of China; that they would
have felt more elective affinity to each other, and not
have commenced a suit for separation in their old
age. They would certainly have no more children,
such as may be expected from the new circumstances
and connexions.
I now proceed to give an instructive view of the
imports and exports from and to the English colonies,
exclusive of India.
The imports to England amounted in

1828.

1838.

From Sierra Leone

£ 47,000

77,000

„ The Cape of Good

•

Hope,

191,000

184,000

In 1837, the imports were, however,

232,000

„ The Mauritius,

516,000

843,000

„ Ceylon

181,000

501,000

„ Australia,

79,000

450,000

To The West Indies,

9,496,000

7,680,000

„ British North

America,
1,052,000
1,266,000
The exports of manufactures amou
nted in value
1828.
1838.
To Sierra Leone,
£ 62.000
134,000
„ The Cape of Good
Hope,
218,000
623,000
„ The Mauritius,
185,000
467,000
CHINA— THE COLONIES. 59
To Ceylon, £45,000 107,000
„ The West Indies, 3,289,000 3,393,000
„ British North America, 1,691,000 1,992,000
This table proves, that, however unfavourable the
commercial relations of Great Britain may be in
some years, or even months, yet on the whole, and
for longer periods, an extraordinary progress is un
deniable. In the West Indies alone, there is a stag
nation, nay, an absolute falling off, which many per
sons ascribe to the abolition of slavery, and would
remedy it by the continuation of certain monopolies,
or even by rendering them still more strict. But
this stagnation took place long before the abolition
of slavery and in spite of the monopolies ; and
might, perhaps, be rather ascribed to the fact, that
these monopolies produced an artificial state of
things and too high prices, which, after they have
been enjoyed a short time, fall even below those
which the natural state of things would have pro
duced. Many may perhaps remark, we take no pleasure
in such statements as the preceding ; they prove only
that mankind are devoting their energies to cor
poreal subordinate objects, but neglect and lose sight
of more elevated and intellectual pursuits. But is
there then, in reality, such an absolute opposition

60 THE COLONIES.
between the corporeal and the intellectual, between
the material and the spiritual ? Must all outward
exertions be excited and made from within ? does
not intellectual power every where manifest itself ex
ternally. Does the slave, attached to the soil and op
pressed by want, shew more mental activity than
the merchant, who sails round the world and connects
the most remote countries with each other ? The
indolence, the insipid love of enjoyment of those
who are too rich, is a later excrescence, which is to be
combated by other means. I intended, however,
merely to produce, in this place, a proof that, together
with the exports for eating, drinking, clothing, &c.
that of food for the mind has increased also. The
amount of the quantity of books exported, in
1828, 1838,
To Sierra Leone and Gambia. ... 4 24 cwt.
„ The Cape of Good Hope  67 236 „
„ Mauritius  12 73 „
„ Ceylon  37 89 „
„ West Indies  560 779 „
„ British North America  529 537 ,.
„ Australia  131 784 „
The increase in the exportation to British North
America is probably smaller, only because that co
lony derives its supply of books chiefly from the

THE COLONIES. 61
United States. It has increased most in proportion
to Australia ; a proof that the free inhabitants, and
those who become so after the expiration of their
penalty, feel, in those remote countries, a most urgent
desire for intellectual food.

LETTER VI.
Canada. London, July 17, 1841.
The Spanish colonies were, for the most part, a
present of chance and of a rapid general occupation.
The Russian dominion in the north-west is mostly a
consequence of geographical position ; in the English
colonies, intention, prudence, and activity, have had
a greater share. But the more talents a child pos
sesses, the more judicious and comprehensive its
education has been, the sooner does it attain its ma
jority and separate from its parents. England may
expect this fate with all its colonies. Shall we say,
on that account, that it has pursued a wrong course ?
shall we reject and disdain what is natural in time,
because it is not made for eternity ? By no means ;
every individual, every race, every people, has its
own peculiar task. He who does much, leaves much
behind him, and the inheritance is divided, blessing
distant ages and unknown nations. I do not mean
to repeat, on this subject, what I formerly said ; but
the recollection of Canada impelled me to these
observations. The French part of the country became English
in 1763, but was not immediately treated precisely

CANADA. 63
like the other colonies. In 1791, a new constitu
tion was introduced for Upper Canada, and another
for Lower Canada. Upper Canada had an elective
chamber of at least fifteen members, and a legislative
council of at least seven members, who (as a cham
ber of Peers by birth, was impossible) were nomi
nated by the government for life. In Lower Canada,
the elective chamber consisted of fifty members,
and the legislative council of at least sixteen. Com
plaints, which gradually became louder, arose in res
pect to the position and the influence of the council,
and of its interference in matters of taxation : in
reference to which, Lord John Russel said : " popular
assemblies are seldom wrong in the beginning of
disputes, and seldom right at the end. They begin
with seeking for remedies against existing and real
grievances, and end with declarations of mistrust and
suspicion of all existing authorities. In four years
and a half, Canada has granted no taxes, and de
mands that the legislative council should be likewise
elective, and be answerable to the elective chamber.
The former would thereby become a mere echo to the
latter, and all responsibility to the King and the Par
liament of Great Britain cease. Rather than ac
cept these proposals, it is better to declare — let us
entirely separate the two countries*."
• 1837, Hansard, xxxvi, 1287 ; xxxvii, 144, 1277, 1280.

64 CANADA.
These proposals were rejected by a majority of
144 to 16; a new constitution for Canada, drawn up
by Mr. Roebuck, was not more favourably received.
Sir Robert Peel called it absurd ; for it was absurd,
and would lead to a perfect democracy, which was
by no means the wish of the people of Canada.
Lord Durham, who, as is well known, was sent
to Canada as Governor-General, made a remarkable
report on the affairs of that country, from which I
extract the following passages.
The question is not merely a dispute between the
government and the people, between the executive
and the legislative authorities, but the all-pervading
contest between the English and the French inhabi
tants. The French majority advances the wholly de-
mocratical doctrines of the decided right for every nu
merical majority, while the English minority endea
vours to maintain certain privileges, inequalities, and
properties. But, in fact, the French employ their de-
mocratical arms rather for conservative objects than
for liberal, enlightened improvements ; and the friends
of reform, therefore, take part with the English
ministry, who have hitherto endeavoured, in vain, to
improve antiquated laws. To this we may add,
that the great body of the French suffer from the
feudal system, which the chiefs of the party so ob
stinately maintain.

CANADA. 65
The English and the French in Canada differ in
in every thing ; in origin, character, language, edu
cation, religion, laws, inclinations, and wants. The
French are as an old stationary society in the midst
of a new and advancing world. In all essential par
ticulars, they are still Frenchmen, but quite different
from the French of the present day in France ; and,
with respect to both their good and bad qualities, more
like those of former times. That the English cared
little about them, and obtained almost all public
offices, could not but hurt so sensitive a people. The
former are intolerant of differing customs ; the latter,
vain of their own. Hence, no social intercourse, no
good understanding, no co-operation, for common
objects. The English have more practical judgment and
activity, and are therefore richer ; the French possess
more education, and such knowledge as may be
derived from books. They consider the land as the
property of their nation ; they desire to maintain
what exists, especially the laws respecting landed
property, by which the activity of the English is
every where impeded. Hence the English join with
the government against the French majority in the
elective chambers. They would turn to the North
Americans, hitherto hated by the French, as soon as
the mother-country should reject their demands.
From such a state of things, evils of every kind

66 CANADA.
arose ; even to the greatest, internal war. It is put an
end to, and order restored, almost contrary to expec
tation ; but for how long a time is uncertain. On the
23rd of July, 1840, a law was passed, by which Upper
and Lower Canada are united, and their former con
stitutions abolished. The legislative council, ap
pointed by the Governor according to the instruc
tions to the Queen, consists of at least twenty mem
bers, holding their office for life. At least one-half
of the members are necessary to take a resolution ;
the Speaker is nominated by the Governor. To the
second Chamber or Assembly, Upper and Lower
Canada choose an equal number of members, partly
according to ancient usages and regulations. Every
member must have a clear income of £500 arising
from landed property. The Chamber is convoked
annually, the Speaker is chosen by the members, and
the revenue of the two provinces thrown together.
There is a new election every four years ; the num
ber of the members is not stated in the law, but at
least twenty must be assembled to come to a reso
lution.

LETTER VII.
Commerce. London, July 18, 1841.
In my preceding letter, I have already spoken
of the colonies and of commerce ; but there remains
much to be reported respecting English manufac
tures and trades, and to point out the essential
changes that have taken place in this respect since
1835. Before we join in the loud complaints which
are made at the decline of commerce and industry, it is
necessary to look without prejudice at the facts, and
to see what real results appear from them. But it is
the more difficult to attain this object, because, ac
cording to the difference in people's notions, and the
diverse points of view which they take, not only very
different results are announced, but even numbers
greatly differing from each other are produced.
Let us begin with commerce, and first with
importation and exportation ; many points relative
to the course, the difficulties, and the progress of the
national manufactures will be afterwards more easily
understood. The diverse numbers will reciprocally
correct each other.

68

COMMERCE.

OFFICIAL VALUE"

Exports.

Imports.

1830,

38 million

pounds.

46 milli(

m pounds

1831,

37

49

35

1832,

38

44

)5

1833,

39

45
))
1834,
41
-19
;>
1835,
47
48
jj
1836,
45
57
n
1837,
42
54
>>
1838,
50
61
5?
1839,
53
62
JJ
1840,
102
67t
5)
This first table shews a considerable fluctuation —
rising and falling, favourable and unfavourable years.
All taken together, however, shews not a decline, but
an undeniable increase. Let us compare with these
some other statements. There were exported, on an
average} 18*f 18|f 18|\
Cotton manufact. yds. 230 mills. 333 mills. 570 mills
Linen, yds. 32 mills. 51 mills. 71 mills.
Iron ware, cwt. 243,000 225,000 354,000
* Lord Palmer ston's statement, Hansard, lv. 892. They differ
from many others, but they are the loioest. Compare Report for 1838,
vol. xxxvi.
t Greg. A Letter on the Pressure of the Corn Laws, p. 11.
t Hansard, xlvi, 441.
COMMERCE. 69
Iron and steel, tons 60,000 81,000 185,000
Cloths, pieces 1,445,000 1,758,000 1,988,000
On presenting this abridged statement, it was
at the same time ascertained that the quantity had
increased, but the prices and consequently the pro
fits had decreased. But as soon as the capitals in
crease in a greater proportion, and the expenses of ma
nufacture decrease, a diminution of profit does not
necessarily follow from decline of prices*. In the
same manner, the great reduction of the taxes has
undoubtedly had, in these latter years, an advan
tageous, though less evident, influence.
From the reports for 1840, 1 contrast the follow
ing table of the most important articles of importa
tion for home consumption.

1831.

1839.

Coffeet,

pounds

25,818,000

26,832,000

Wheat,

quarters

1,736,000

2,521,000

Barley,

33

8,000

594,000

Oats,

33

11,000

864,000

Rye,

33

2,000

152,000

Pease,

33

11,000

169,000

Beans,

3!

54,000

123,000

Olive oil,

gallons

2,037,000

1,815,000

* England, ii. 196.
t In a report on the East India trade (1840, vol. viii), it is stated
that Brazil produces annually about 134,000,000 pounds of coffee ;
Java, 80,000,000 pounds, and Mocha only 5,500,000 pounds.

70 COMMERCE. 1831. 1839.
Opium, pounds 31,000 41,000
Raw silk, „ 3,683,000 3,483,000
Lamb-skins, raw 1,983,000 2,120,000
Brandy, gallons 4,338,000 3,991,000
Sugar, cwt. 4,373,000 3,857,000
Tea, pounds 32,367,000 35,136,000
Wine, gallons 7,200,000 7,239,000
Wool, pounds 56,415,000 53,221,000
Cotton*, „ 460,756,000 355,781,000
Export of British production and manufacture,
declared value:
Cotton manufactures, £16,715,000 £17,614,000
„ yarn  7,431,000 6,957,000
Linen  2,730,000 3,422,000
Iron and steel ware  2,535,000 2,702,000
Woollen manufacture. . 5,795,000 6,272,000
Sum total of exports. . 43,344,000 45,281,000
Net receipt of Customs,
1836, £20,522,000
1837, 21,943,000
The wool imported in 1838 amounted to
57,395,000 lbs.
* According to other statements, the total import of cotton was 
1833, 303 million pounds.
1834, 326 „
1836, 363 „
1836, 406 „
After the excessive importation of 1838, a falling off in 1839 was to
be,expeeted j but if we take the average of the two years at 448 million
lbs. there is a regular advance in comparison with the preceding years.

1837, 407 million pounds.
1838, 507
1839, 389

COMMERCE. 71
Of which, from Russia  7,966,000 lbs.
From Germany  23,837,000
„ Portugal and Madeira 1,024,000
Spain  2,409,000
Italy  1,892,000
Turkey  1,183,000
India  2,103,000
„ New South Wales. . . 6,621,000
Van Diemen's Land* 3,212,000
Chili....  1,339,000
Peru   2,149,000
The importation of wool from India hasincreased,
as well as that from Australia. In 1834, it amounted
to only 69,000 lbsf. This is partly owing to two
circumstances ; the opening of a free trade to the
west of the Indus, to Kabul and Afghanistan, and the
importation of sheep, of the Saxon breed, from the
Cape of Good Hope to Australia and India.
The number of ships employed in commerce
and the coasting trade is variously stated ; at all
events, however, it has constantly increased. The
number of British ships outward bound :

* According to the latest accounts, the importation of wool in 1840
from Australia may be equal to that from Germany, only it is worse
and cheaper. The Australian wool fetches Is. 3d. to 2s. 2d. per lb.;
the German, Is. 8d. to 6s. per lb.
t Royle, Resources of India, 145, 152.

Ships.

Uiviiviiirvoi!/. Tonnage.

Crews.

1838, 30,314

4,003,000

251,000

1839, 31,296

4,322,000

265,000

1840, 33,783

4,661,000

282,000

Foreign ships.

1838, 7,650

1,021,000

57,000

1839, 8,376

1,203,000

67,000

1840, 10,502

1,371,000

78,000

According to another statement

;, there arrived in

the year 1837*,

Ships.
Tonnage. Foreign ships. Tonnage.
In London, 4,079
821,000 1
1,547 440,000
„ Liverpool, 1,940
484,000
987 313,000
„ Bristol, 351
71,000
40 7000
„ Hull, 998
210,000
901 89,000
„ Newcastle, 921
140,000
688 76,000
„ Dublin, 216
35,000
26 4000
The net receipt of customs, in 1
1836, was
In London,
£11,088,000.
„ Bristol,
1,073,000
„ Liverpoo
1, 4,136,000
,, Glasgow,
289,000
,, Dublin,
898,000
„ Leith,
514,000
I might easily enlarge and increase the number
of the tables ; but perhaps no positive result would
* Reports for 1839, vol. xlv.
COMMERCE. 73
be derived from them ; nor will I attempt to explain
them in detail, but merely subjoin a few remarks.
First. The rise and fall of trade in some articles,
and in some years, have generally peculiar causes ;
for instance, failure of crops, too great or too little
importation or exportation in a preceding year, the
augmentation, or reduction of taxes, the opening or
closing of convenient channels of trade, war or
peace, &c.
Secondly. The home-trade, which very much in
creases with the population, is less subject to fluctua
tions than the foreign trade; unfavourable commercial
crises, dearness of provisions, &c. have, however, a
great influence on it.
Thirdly. An increase of trade and wealth mayr
take place to the advantage of the great merchants
and manufacturers, while the smaller merchants and
tradesmen, down to the artisan, are great losers.
Fourthly. The existence of evils in the English
commercial world cannot be denied. The individual,
therefore, as well as the government, should take the
greatest pains to remedy them, and not look on many
causes of disorder as means for the preservation of
health. I shall examine, in the sequel, whether the
corn-laws are really the causes of such disorders.
Fifthly. The years 1837 to 1840, in consequence
of commercial disasters and bad harvests, were not
so favourable to the progress of Great Britain, as
VOL. I. E

74 COMMERCE.
many preceding years ; but it is to be hoped that the
impediments arising from natural phenomena will
not speedily return, and those attributable to legis
lation be wholly removed.
Sixthly. The most important question of the day,
that on free trade, will be better answered when I
have spoken of the manufactures and finances. I
must, however, mention, in this place, the commercial
treaty between England and Germany, concluded on
the 2nd of March, 1841. All the very violent
objections raised against it have been so completely
refuted, that I will not enter upon them, and
refer merely to what I wrote on that subject for
the Leipsig Allgemeine Zeitung (16th July, 1841,
No. 167).
I know that both Englishmen and Germans,
who combine theoretical knowledge with practical
experience, unanimously assert that this treaty
deserves the highest praise, and is a great improve^
merit and gain to both parties. For, in the first
place, it recognises that a more liberal system of
commerce (and in this instance Germany took the
lead in giving a good example) is to be preferred to
all monopoly and separation of interests. Such
reciprocal, manifold mercantile connections are, at
the same time, one of the greatest securities for the
continuance of peace, and a salutary admonition to
every people, to avoid all artificial means, which, in

COMMERCE. 75
the end, are always prejudicial, and to advance in the
natural course of improvement adapted to its own
situation. However difficult the transition from an
artificial to a natural state of things maybe, England,
for its own interest, will be obliged constantly to
approximate to the latter, and to decide the great
questions of free trade and duties of customs con
formably to the spirit of the above treaty. Secondly :
Germany appears in this treaty, for the first time, as
a great power in the commercial world, as a united
people : without division, opposition, or envious ex
clusion. All petty, anxious, arrogant, or selfish
arguments must vanish before this important and
most gratifying fact ; and it will now depend upon the
Germans themselves to hold fast what they have
gained, to pave the way to obtain further advantages.
Thirdly: Without mentioning other immediate bene
fits, I will only remark, that all ports, situated on
German coasts, or at the mouth of German rivers,
are at length considered and recognized, as they
ought to be in the commercial world, as German
ports. Formerly, a Hamburgh ship was not allowed
to convey merchandize from Danzig, nor a Danzig
ship from Hamburgh to England ; each of them, with
much loss of time and money, was obliged to return
home : it could only take in goods from the imme
diate neighbourhood. Now, a Prussian captain, who
E 2

76 COMMERCE.
brings coals from England to Hamburgh, may carry
corn direct from Hamburgh to England. Every
other German captain may take in a cargo in any
German port, and go to England. All this was not
permitted previous to the conclusion of this treaty.
Fourthly: Should objections be made against the
second article, which says " that the English shall
be placed on the same footing with the most favoured
nations, in respect to the importation of sugar and
rice," I think they might be easily refuted. In the
present state of commerce, those articles can be
imported only in German, Dutch, or English vessels.
Now, at the time when the treaty of the second of
March was negociating, the Dutch enjoyed very great
advantages in the importation of sugar ; they, alone,
obtained thereby a kind of monopoly. By allowing
the same to the English, the monopoly was broken
up, and a salutary competition established. Lastly :
if the extravagant favours granted to the Dutch no
longer exist, neither can the English make any claim
to them, and matters are in their natural equipoise:
but if, contrary to the spirit of the German system,
it should be resolved to grant to some states new,
unusual privileges (to the North Americans, for
instance, for rice, or to the Brazilians, for sugar),
England would very naturally pretend to the same,
or, with its preponderating naval power, adopt unplea-

COMMERCE. 77
sant counter-measures. At all events, more advan
tages have been gained from England than could
probably be now obtained from France or Russia ;
our commerce with which being subject to still greater
restrictions. It is, however, to be hoped that the
example of England and Germany will induce those
powers also to abandon their baneful commercial
policy. Nay, we may ask whether the time will not
come (as there once was a time), when, instead of
the highly-inconvenient, costly commercial duties,
which alienate nations from each other, some other
taxes may be substituted ? Perhaps, it may be an
swered, that instead of these reveries on a distant fu
turity, it would be better to devote our whole attention
to the present, and to give a due prominency to the
apprehension that England (as has been already
hinted in Parliament) will make the most exorbitant
demands on Germany for a change of its tariff, and
that infatuated governments may ruin German manu
factures, by too readily conceding a reduction of
German protecting duties. I consider this appre
hension to be unfounded ; because the English, as well
as the German governments, well know that a change
in the duties on corn, timber, and sugar, proceeding
from the internal condition of Great Britan, will
necessarily take place sooner or later, even though
Germany should not make the slightest concession in

78 COMMERCE.
return. In a similar manner, Prussia (and afterwards
the German Customs' Union) for its own interest,
and in consequence of having acquired more solid
views, reduced the import duty on foreign manufac
ture, some years ago, without requiring or obtaining
iii return great concessions from other governments.
From the moment when the doctrine of the advan
tages of free trade and of unlimited competition
universally obtain, a reciprocal understanding on
the tariff of duties will soon follow, and the object of
the changes, dependent and consequent upon it, will
not be the acquisition of undue advantages, but the
establishment of a system founded upon true science
and thorough experience, and equally advantageous
to both parties.

LETTER VIII.
Rail-roads — The New Post-office — Bankruptcies.
London, July 19, 1841.
STEAM-BOATS, high-roads, iron railways, and the
posts, are essential means for the promotion of trade
and commerce ; hence I will say a few words upon
them to-day.
In the year 1812, there was only one small
steam-boat in Great Britain ; in 1836, there were
three hundred and eighty-eight; in 1838, above six
hundred steam-boats, and since then their number
has increased so rapidly that it is scarcely possible to
state it.
England possesses innumerable bye-roads, kept
up by the parishes, and 22,000 English miles of turn
pike road, the constructing and management of which
have been approved and regulated by about 3,800
acts of Parliament. Though the annual revenue
arising from them amounts to 1,500,000/. the con
tractors are very deeply in debt, not indeed without
their own fault (for instance, by injudicious construe-

80 RAIL-ROADS.
tion, expensive management, &c). Many proposals
have been made for the liquidation of this debt and
remedying the defects ; but none have been carried
into execution* : neither have all public taxes on
travelling been abolished. A stage coacht, which
carries six passengers, pays one penny per mile, and
the tax increases to three pence halfpenny for nine
teen to twenty-two persons.
On the 1st of July, 1841, iron railways to the
length of 1581 English miles} were completed and
opened for travelling ; others are nearly terminated.
Among the former, are the railroads English miles.
From London byway of Bristol to Bridgewater, 117
Ditto to Birmingham  112
Ditto to Southampton and Portsmouth.. . 76
Birmingham to Derby  38
Ditto to Gloucester  52
Ditto to Manchester and Liverpool  45
Manchester to Leeds  60
London to Sheffield, Leeds, York, and
Darlington  181
The fares vary according to circumstances ; for
example, from London to
* Reports, 1840, vol. xxvii. t Law of the 24th of August, 1839.
t Journal of the Statistical Society of London, July 1841.

RAIL-ROADS. 81
Miles. 1st class. 2nd class. 3rd class.
Birmingham, 112| 30s. 25s. 20s.
Bridge water, 115 38 26 16
Southampton, 76| 21 14 8
The receipts and the number of travellers in
crease daily. From the 1st of June 1839 to the
31st of January 1840, 437,000 persons travelled
from London to Birmingham ; and upon the Great
Western Railroad*, from May 1839 to the end of
January 1840, 509,000 persons. The clear profit,
on the road from Liverpool to Manchester, amounted,
in 1837, to 82,000/. sterling.
1838, „ 102,000
1839, „ 111,000
The receipts on the Grand Junction Railway
from Birmingham northwards, were
1838, 129,000/. | 1839, 202,000/.
The tax on travellers by the railways, which,
though small, is inconvenient, and in proportion un
productive, is justly blamed, as it is charged according
to the distance (one eighth of a penny per mile),
without regard to the- class of the carriage or the
fare. The poor pay fifteen per cent, while the rich
pay only three per cent.
No where have so many experiments been made
on railroads as in England. Not merely the tech-
* Reports, 1840, vol. xiii.

82 RAIL- ROADS.
nical works, but the official reports, give instructive
information on the subject ; yet many questions still
remain which are hard to be answered, and difficul
ties which are scarcely to be removed. By degrees
it became evident that no competition is possible on
the same railway, ancl that the companies neces
sarily obtain a monopoly. There is no longer any
doubt that travellers must be secured bylaws against
the abuse of this monopoly, and that a general super
intendence of all railways on the part of the govern
ment is indispensable. The freightage of goods sent
by the canals is on an average from five shillings to
ten shillings per ton less than by the railroad, and this
circumstance has occasioned both to lower their prices.
The proprietors of the several railroads have not
adopted the same principle for the conveyance of
goods : some have obtained a monopoly in this
respect, others forward waggons with goods upon
the railroad, others have not undertaken to transport
any goods.
One of the most important changes which have
latterly been effected in the internal communication
in England is in the Post-office. The adversaries of
the former system alleged that the revenue of the
Post-office amounted*, in
* Reports, 1837, vol. xx. Hansard, xlviii, 1348— Iii, 209.

THE POST-OFFICE. 83
1758, to 222,000/. | 1837, to 2,206,000/.
The augmentation of the rates is the more unjust
as the expenses of management (by means of im
proved roads, more ready communication, &c.) have
gradually become proportionally less, and are by no
means increased by the conveyance of a greater num
ber of letters. Every tax on a means of communication
is absurd ; and there is nothing on which such an
enormously high taxation is made for so inexpen
sive a service. The correspondence is considerably
diminished by it ; and cheaper, though prohibited,
means are resorted to. On articles of such trifling
weight as letters, the charges must not be raised in
proportion to the distance, but be decreased according
to the number of letters. The postage for all letters
should be fixed at one penny, as Mr. Rowland Hill
proposes ; it should be raised by some stamp, the
management simplified, abuses abolished, &c.
Nearly all the officers of the Post-office opposed
this plan, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer (at
that time Lord Monteagle) declared emphatically it
would cause a great loss to the revenue, which must
absolutely be made good. The majority within and
without the house, however, thought time will bring,
a remedy, and looked only at the advantages of the
proposed change. " It is," said they, " the greatest
boon for the mercantile world, for domestic and social

84 THE POST-OFFICE.
purposes, friendly intercourse, scientific and even
religious enterprises.
For these and similar reasons, the law of the 10th
of Angust was passed ; the new leading principle of
which is, that letters pay differently according to the
weight, but without regard to the distance. The
postage of a letter within the frontiers of Great
Britain and Ireland is one penny, if it weighs only
half an ounce; a letter above half an ounce to one
ounce weight pays double this rate.
1 to 2 ounces pays 4 rates
<* 33 3 ,, ,D ,,
3 „ 4 „ 8 „
For every additional ounce two rates are charged.
A letter to the colonies pays one shilling.
„ to Germany „ one shilling and
eight pence*.
A newspaper pays, in the United Kingdom,
one penny.
„ to the Continent, two pence.
„ from the Continent, two pence.
All letters which are not prepaid or stamped
(which has been adopted to facilitate the business of
the officers), are charged double on delivery.
* The postage between England and the Hanseatic cities has lately
bpen considerably reduced, and it is hoped that this measure will soon be
adopted with respect to the other German States.

THE POST-OFFICE. 85
Loud and ingenious objections were raised against
these new regulations*. Defects, it was observed,
existed, and these might be remedied ; but to over
turn the whole system for the sake of a dazzling,
promising theory, though that system was founded on
the nature of things and experience, was rash and
unwise. The revenue of the Post-office cannot rise
exactly in proportion to the population ; yet, notwith
standing alleged and prejudicial abuses, it had con-
siderablyT increased ; none but the merchants and the
rich would profit, to a great extent, by the reduction
of the postage; not the poor, who would derive much
greater benefit from a reduction of the duties on
corn and malt. A cheap postage might have bad
consequences as well as good ones, and the revenue
would materially suffer, and all these calculations of
the saving in the expense of management and of an
increase in the number of letters were greatly exag
gerated. Bulk and distance alone should decide the
rate of postage ; innumerable small gradations are
not needful ; but space and time could by no means
be annihilated : otherwise a journey to Edinburgh
ought not to cost more than a journey to Windsor.
The friends of the new system did their utmost
to refute all these objections. They said, for a bad
* Quarterly Review, No. cxxviii, p. 513.

86 THE POST-OFFICE.
tax a better might be substituted, and the loss would
be covered in a few years. Not only the rich, but
the poor would be benefited by the reduction of the
postage. The bulk was not of so much consequence
in light and portable articles as in heavier ones, and
the postage would still greatly exceed the expenses of
conveyance. The new arrangements would mate
rially diminish the expenses of management, &c.
If we looked at the question impartially, we should
probably find, that a tax on the ways and means of
communication, far exceeding the necessary expenses,
cannot be theoretically justified ; and has practical
disadvantages likewise ; that the expenses of the con
veyance of letters by no means increase in propor
tion to the distance, as is the case with other articles ;
therefore, that the innumerable gradations and ex
pensive augmentations are by no means justifiable ;
lastly, that the public in general derive great advan
tages from the reduction of postage. But, on the
other hand, it cannot be denied,
First, That not the poor, but the rich, and es
pecially the merchants, derive the greatest advantage,
and that the inequality of English taxation thereby
becomes still greater.
Secondly, That it was very bold in the Parlia
ment, and a great concession in the Ministry, to

BANKRUPTCIES. 87
grant a remission of taxes, to the amount of a million
sterling, without compensation, at a time when the
annual expenditure already exceeded the revenue.
If, as many propose, an attempt were now made
to double the postage, much louder complaints would
probably be made than previous to the reduction.
The hope of a compensation, through the increase,
in the number of letters, is besides greater ; for in
four weeks* ending 5th January, 1839, the number
of letters sent by post was 1,500,000 ; and in four
weeks ending 22nd May, 1840, 5,236,000; within
four weeks ending 3rd July, 1841, 5,522,000.
I subjoin a few words on Bankruptcy, the dark
side of trade. The laws on the subject differ so
materially, in regard to great merchants and small
traderst, that minute inquiries were made how they
could be better assimilated. Thus, for instance,
the laws on bankruptcy afforded but scanty means of
discovering and punishing dishonesty : the laws for
other insolvent debtors gave but slight means for
ascertaining the amount of their property. Great
merchants are much more secured against imprison
ment than those of a lower rank. The bankruptcy
* Rowland Hill's Results of the New Post Arrangements.
t Report on Bankruptcy and Insolvency, 1840, vol. xvi. I cannot
enter into particulars, which cannot be understood without the most
accurate knowledge of the English administration of justice.

88 BANKRUPTCIES.
laws liberate the bankrupt from all future claims when
he has received his certificate : not so the law for
other insolvent debtors. In the year 1839, 3691 of
the latter were declared ; among them were
2388 merchants,
1056 not merchants,
247 doubtful;
among the latter were sixty-five farmers, forty at
torneys, fifteen school masters, forty-two surgeons, &c.
which gives us some insight into the peculiar position
of these persons.

LETTER IX.

Factories — Education of the Children employed in the Factories —
their Number — Trades' Unions.

London, July 20, 1841.
When I announce that I intend to-day to speak
of manufactures, you will doubtless fear that you
will be overwhelmed with long lines of figures ;
but I think I have given you enough of these in my
letter on commerce, import, export, &c. I will
now claim your attention to other important subjects.
In my former letters, I have spoken of the treat
ment of the children in the factories, and of the
laws passed on that subject. With reference to
them, permit me to communicate some new facts
arid further developments. The law of the year
1833 was prepared essentially for the protection of
children, and enacted that children under nine years
of age* should not be received into any manufac
tories. Children under eleven years of age, not
to be employed above eight hours ; under thirteen,
* Westminster Review, vol. xxviii. ; head of August 1833.

90 FACTORIES.
not above nine hours; under eighteen, not above
twelve hours. Till the age of thirteen, two hours
are daily allowed for instruction in school, and
one hour and a half for meals. These enactments
were afterwards in some degree modified and im
proved ; thus, in February 1839, it was decided that
no child should work, in the same day, in more than
one factory ; that the time allowed for school and
meals should be better observed, &c.
Notwithstanding this, complaints were still made
of the inefficiency, and infraction of the laws. The
health*,it was said, andthe growth ofthe children were
injured ; sickness and premature old age follow, and
even less care is taken of their moral and intellectual
improvement. All family ties are dissolved ; for the
father goes to work in one mill, the mother in a
second, and the children in a third ; or they live
without education, health, or comfort, worse than
the beasts of the field.
On the other hand, the manufacturers complained
that they were calumniatedt, that evils were in
vented or exaggerated, that interruptions were every
where occasioned by intricate laws, which excited,
both in the master and the workman, an inclination
to infringe them. " Many," said Mr. Horner, a
* Quarterly Review, lvii, 397.
t Report, 1838, vol. viii. Trades' Unions.

FACTORIES. 91
well-informed inspector of factories, " are greatly
mistaken in condemning what they term the factory
system. They know not how much virtue, know
ledge, comfort, and happiness, may be found among
the workmen in a well-regulated mill. No less false
are the reports respecting the state of health ; inas
much as exceptions are brought forward as rules ;
at all events, matters are no better in other trades
and occupations ; and the children in the factories
are as well educated as others.
Through the superintendence which the inspec
tors exercise over all the factories, the laws are
better executed ; and, again, the great manufacto
ries in large towns are superior to the smaller ones,
in remote places. The dislike of the masters to
the law, and the number of infractions, daily diminish.
In 596 factories, the inspectors found grounds for
114 complaints*, and chiefly for the employment of
children under nine years of age, for working beyond
hours ; for receiving them without a certificate, for
irregularity in keeping the books, and most fre
quently for receiving children without a certificate
of their attending school.
There is no doubt that, in the latter respect, there
is still a great want, and greater difficulties. Of
2,000 children, 186 did not know their ABC,
* Report of the Inspectoja^VF^ciorh^sJjgT^jvol. xxxi.

92 FACTORIES.
372 knew only their letters,
509 only words of one syllable,
1067 or 53} per cent, could not read,
332 read the New Testament with difficulty,
611 read ditto fluently*.
Of 1040 boys, only 341 could write their name,
„ 900 girls „ 100
In spite of this melancholy result, it seems evi
dent that education, compared with former years, is
improvedt, and would be still more so, if the time
allotted for work were shortened, without reducing
the day's wages, and if their schooling were not put a
stop to when they attain their thirteenth year}.
There is, besides, a great want of school -masters
and schools. Who is to train the former and found
the latter ? It is impossible to have a school for
every individual factory, and there is considerable
difficulty in combining the work within the factory
with the instructions given without, and, after long
bodily exertion, to maintain energy and inclination for
mental improvement.
Many manufacturers now very unwillingly
employ children under thirteen years of age§; for the
\ very reason, that they are obliged to let them attend

* Report, 1837, vol. xxxi, p. 47.
t Ib page 1 1
X Factory Report, 1838-1839.
§ Report for 1840, vol. *.

FACTORIES. 93
school ; by this means, however, their children are
deprived of an income of from Is. 6d, to 4s. 6d. or,
as others say, 7s. per week, for eight hours' daily
work. Their wages are not always regulated accord
ing to the time of work ; but taking into considera
tion other circumstances, such as ability, poverty, &c.
On the whole, the wages have not decreased since the
reduction of the number of hours by the Factory Bill.
It has been hitherto very difficult to ascertain the
ages of the children, for want of complete certificates
of baptism, and baptismal registers. The medical
men often made mistakes accidentally or purposely,
in giving their certificates ; and the parents repre
sented the children older than they were, in order
to obtain employment for them in the factories.
In Scotland and Ireland, proportionally fewer
children under thirteen years of age are employed
than in England. Every where the number of girls
is greater than that of boys. A few years ago it was
computed that there were employed in the factories*,
Children under eighteen years of age, 164,000
thirteen „ 190,000

353,000
However beneficially the laws have operated, it
* Westminster Review, vol. xxviii.

94 TRADES' UNIONS.
appears that here, as is often the case, they are not
able to change natural and general relations ; for in
stance, since almost all the heavy work is done by
machinery, a demand arose for children, to whom
lower wages were paid ; the parents considered this
demand as a gain, and many children as a productive
capital. But when the children grow up and are
discharged, then, independently of all commercial
crises, great difficulties arise in finding other em
ployment for so many thousands ; and those who are
employed endeavour by every means in their power
to improve their condition beyond the natural state
of things. Among the means which they resort to,
are, above all, the Tirades' unions, of which I will now
speak in detail.
]f we compare the old guilds with these new
Unions, we observe at once a great and important
difference. In the former, the interest of the
masters and journeymen was essentially the same :
in the latter, the masters and workmen stand diame
trically opposed, and their general endeavour is to
draw, by open violence, all the advantage to one side.
This again is closely connected with the circum
stances, that, after the establishment of great manu
factories, the number of the masters has very much
decreased in proportion, and that of the workmen
greatly increased ; and that partly through the fault of

TRADES' UNIONS. 95
the legislation, which favors monopoly — an artificial
state of things ; and too great a population has been
produced. Thus the working class amounts, in
Manchester, to 64 per cent, of the whole population
Salford, „ 74
Bury, „ 71 „
Ashton, „ 81 „
Staleybridge, „ 91 „
Duckenfield* „ 97 „
In spite of this enormous disproportion, the indi
vidual workman feels himself weak and helpless in
his isolation, and very naturally looks for a power
ful support in unions, as the law allows them in
general ; and it is difficult to prove and to punish what
may be illegal in their proceedings ; at all events,
the hope of gain outweighs, in this case, every fear
of probable punishment.
When the workman compares the labours of his
life with the enjoyments of the life of his master,
when he sees the contrast between the poor and the
rich, which is still further heightened by taxation,
he but easily conceives the idea that the original
equality must be restored, and that a contest of the
poor against the rich is natural and just. The object
of the unions of the workmen formed in England,
* Report on the Education of the Poorer Classes, 1838, vol. vii, p, 5.

96 TRADES' UNIONS.
Scotland, and Ireland, was declared to be to secure
what they considered as adequate wages for their
labors, and a superintendence over the master manu-
faturer, so far as was necessary for the attainment
of this object. Without such a union* (said the
cotton yarn spinners), the master manufacturers
reduce our wages to the very lowest rate ; whereas
we require a fixed and sufficient income. When ca
pitals and the income arising from them every where
increase, why should we alone have no share in the
profits of trade, and remain constantly in our miser
able situation ? — why should we not claim a small part
of the enormous profits, and defend the rights of
labour against the rights of capital ?
Less share in the unions is taken by the band-
loom weavers, whose homes are more dispersed, and
respecting whose situation a veryT interesting report
was published last year. Their condition, which is
generally unfavourable, depends on skill, bodily
strength, on the greater or less demand, on high or
low prices, and is affected, above all, by the supe
riority of the machines over the hand looms. Many
were too wedded to this old mode of working,
or (spoiled by the old poor laws) averse to ex
erting themselves. Others again live better by gain-
* Report on Combination of Workmen, 1838, Edinburgh Review,
lxvii.

TRADES' UNIONS. 97
ing nine or ten shillings a week, than coal-miners
and workmen in the factories with thirty or forty
shillings. While the latter indulge in eating and
drinking, and frequenting the public-houses, the hand-
loom weaver lived in quietness with his family, and
was satisfied with his domestic enjoyments and inde
pendence. I cannot here examine the plans for im
proving their condition by education, emigration,
taxes on machinery, a change in the corn laws, &c.
I return to the trades' unions.
When the above, or similar arguments and de
mands met with no encouragement, many unions
persevered in patient moderation and negative re
sistance. Others extended their means and their
objects. The principle of universal suffrage, equal
right of voting in the unions, seemed quite natural,
and was very enticing: all the business soon fell into
the bands of a few select persons, who exercised
despotically their newly acquired powers. In conse
quence, many unions laid down the following prin
ciples. I. Nobody shall work in a manufactory who does
not belong to a union.
II. The union determines the number of work
men and apprentices whom a master-manufacturer
shall employ.
VOL. I. F

98 trades' unions.
III. It fixes the amount of wages, and the num
ber of working hours.
IV. It nominates overseers, to maintain and exe
cute all its resolutions.
V. It decides what contribution in money every
one has to pay, what punishments are to be imposed
for the infraction of the resolutions.
VI. It orders, in case of necessity, a suspension
of all work.
With the increase of power, the demands, diffi
culties of admission, the amount of contributions,
the persecution and punishment of opponents, in
creased. Thus the sum to be paid, merely for admis
sion into the union, rose to five, — nay, even to seven
guineas ; and the weekly contribution from half-a-
crown to five shillings, — nay, even to half their weekly
wages. These receipts served to defray the expenses
of management and of occasional law-suits ; the es
tablishment and payment of favourable journals, the
indemnification of sufferers, the reward of the obe
dient, the expenses of voluntary, or compulsory
emigration, and especially the support of those, who,
in consequence of a strike, were without means of
subsistence. Many master-manufacturers listened to equitable
demands, others were ruined by excessive concessions,
and others formed similar unions among themselves,

trades' unions. 99
and endeavoured, through them, to compel refractory
workmen to order. It is certain that at the long run
there cannot be an increase of daily wages, unless
the profits of the manufacturers are very high, or
means are found to manufacture at a cheaper rate, or
to sell goods at higher prices. It is remarkable, that
the most active and dangerous unions* were origi
nated and directed by those who received the highest
wages. By a reaction, however, the most incompe
tent, the idlest, and the worst paid, endeavoured to
obtain entirely equal payment, and thereby to preju
dice their more skilful and diligent fellow-workmen.
Sometimes, however, an apparent reduction of the
wages may in truth include an increase ; namety,
when the workman is enabled to gain more in a
shorter time. Thus, for instance, in the year 1829,
a spinnner produced 312 lbs. at 4s. Id. a lb. ; at a
later time, he obtained only 2s. 5d. a lb. but in
the same period, produced 648 lbs. In the first in
stance he gained, at higher wages, 1274 shillings.
Now, with nominally lower wages, he gains 1566
shillings. As an example how much the workmen
endeavoured, in some instances, to raise their wages,
it is stated, that in Lanarkshire they demanded, instead
of eighteen shillings a week, thirty-five ; and for this,
* Report of the Constabulary Force Commissioners, 1839, vol. xiv.
F 2

100 trades' unions.
would work only three days, and only four or five
hours a day.
However natural and useful the opposition might
be, in individual instances of avaricious and covetous
manufacturers, a general interruption of work was in
jurious to all parties. Many thousands, thrown out
of employment, expended all their former savings.
The Glasgow Union spent, in the last months of 1836
and the beginning of 1837, £11,881 ; out of which,
£978 were for newspapers alone. The total loss was
estimated at £ 194,000. Similar circumstances took
place in Lanarkshire and Preston. When, as in Staf
fordshire, the result was favourable to the workmen,
they used again to increase their demands*, or to waste
what they had gained, or to shorten the time of labour.
With the distress that arose from the suspension
of labour, the violence of the means employed in
creased in several places. Oaths were demanded,
and taken, to obey the resolution of the majority,
even in illegal matters ; to conceal the names of the
leaders and participators, and to chastise those
who worked. Nay, by command of chosen, secret
committees, vitriol was thrown in the face of some
persons ; mills were burnt; and even assassins hired
and paid. The legal proceedings instituted in conse-
* Journal of the Statistical Society of London, 1838, p. 38.

trades' unions. 101
quence had little or no effect, because nobody would
appear as a witness ; and those who were condemned
were amply indemnified from the common fund.
By degrees, however, it became evident to all, that
the existing evils were not destroyed, but greatly
augmented, by this unhappy internal warfare. All free
labour — all undisturbed employment of capital was
stopped, and the tyranny of the unions was more
fearful than that of ill-disposed manufacturers.
For weighty reasons, even O'Connell himself
opposed these abuses ; while Owen encouraged the
unions*, and the chartists endeavoured to connect
them with general revolutions.
The suppression of the unions has not removed
the existing evils: on the contrary, the testimonies to
their great and fearful extent become more and more
urgent. Many witnesses may, perhaps, in their grief
at manifold proofs of degeneracy, have laid on the
colours too strongly ; yet truth is certainly at the
bottom of their depositions. Thus, a Mr. Allison
saidf , I am convinced that there are many thousands
in Glasgow, as complete heathens as the Hotten
tots in Africa, and intoxicated from Saturday evening
till Monday evening. It would be well to provide
the people with some kind of recreation, in order to
* Statistical Journal, I.e. — Quarterly Review, exxxiii, p. 181.
t Report, 1838, vol. viii. page 186.

102 trades' UNIONS.
draw them away from gin-shops and houses of that
description. The too strict observance of the Sab
bath does more harm in this respect than good ; and
I believe that the custom of the continent is to be
preferred to that of Scotland. The reduction of the
duty on spirits has increased the consumption of
them, and the number of public-houses ; yet a dimi
nution of the latter would not lessen immoderate in
dulgence in spirituous liquors, &c.
The Quarterly Review, in generous and sympa
thising indignation, exclaims — these countless multi
tudes, in themselves ignorant and irritable, and yet
more excited by oppression and neglect, are in fact
given over, without any struggle and resistance, to the
intrigues of infidels and democrats. The school, the
church, and the law, must do their duty, and instruct
and protect those to whom neither riches, nor social
position, nor knowledge, have given a bulwark against
tyranny and error.

LETTER X.
Socialism — Chartism. London, July 21, 1841.
TWO subjects of very great importance are closely
connected with those treated of in my former letter ;
namely, Socialism and Chartism. You know the
system of the well-meaning Owen, who would dis
solve and annihilate all that has educated, or regulated
and bound together, the human race for thousands
of years, to introduce instead a state of things alleged
to be infinitely better ; but, in truth, impracticable, and
therefore much worse. Of the bonds of marriage
and of family, of the administration of justice and
government, of the school, and the church, the state
and the magistracy, he exhibits only the reverse, ridi
culously caricatured, takes offence at every thing,
sets up mere abstractions as his idols, denies the ex
istence and the value of all general and particular
qualities or properties, rejects all positive religion,
substitutes for it some trivial principles, and would
destroy all towns and villages, to settle mankind in
small separate communities, and in spaces mathemati
cally planned out.

104 SOCIALISM.
This Utopia, described in the minutest details,
recommended with good-natured credulity, might be
compared with similar reveries, down to the Histoire
des Sevarambes, which have passed harmlessly over,
to the amusement of those who happened to become
acquainted with them. The matter, however, as
sumed a more serious form, when the Bishop of Exe
ter* shewed, in the House of Lords, that Owen and
his partisans formed a great society, which had its
chiefs, missionaries, taxes, pamphlets, newspapers, &c.
Their principles, he said, were equally offensive and
absurd, contrary to religion and morals, and ought to
be opposed by the government and laws.
Lord Melbourne replied, that many useful
societies have been established by similar means and
forms in a legal manner — that it would be very
difficult to introduce a superintendence over them,
or a change in the existing laws — and that long dis
cussions or serious persecutions might only increase
the evil. The common sense of the people, and the
influence of the clergy might, and would, more effectu
ally oppose it than the civil magistrate and the court
of justice. Allied to socialism, and yet essentially different
\ from it, is chartism. The former is founded on the su
perficial speculationsof asingle,well-meaning man ; the
• January, 1840. Hansard, li, 513.

crartism. 105
latter springs up in a thousand places, in consequence
of existing evils, or deeply '"Seated misunderstand
ings, and, in bitter revolutionary anger, arrives at
the cold-blooded resolution, to cast out Satan by Beel
zebub, the chief of the *devils. It avails nothing to
abuse these doctrines, or to refute them theoretically.
On the contrary, the foundations and the evils, the
distress and misery, the selfishness and arrogance,
from which they irresistibly spring, must be com
bated and done away with. On their own ground, the
chartists cannot be refuted, like Babeuf and his
arguments at the time of the French revolution.
" We are robbed," say the Chartists*, " by the
nobility and the government ! Death to the privileged
classes and the aristocrats ! Up with a popular go
vernment. So long as the working classes are not
represented in Parliament, and take no part in the
elections, they are not bound by the laws. A mur
derous majority of the upper and middle classes
robs us of our profits, and nothing can convince
those tyrants of their folly but powder and ball. Do
not engage in any further discussion with them. A
man can die but once for universal suffrage, annual
parliaments, the ballot, and the abolition of white
slavery." * Annual Register, 1839, pages 68, 73, 138, 145

106 CHARTISM.
The demands are for the most part absurd, the
means pointed out condemnable ; but, with this cer
tainty, the greatness of the dangers is only placed in a
clear light, not removed. It has been justly remarked*
Chartism refers less to knowledge* and theory, than
to knife and fork, and bread and cheese. The unem
ployed, ignorant, excited, distressed multitude is
dangerous, when it is unacquainted with the precepts
and consolations of religion. It is often doubly
dangerous when it takes the Bible in hand, and dis
covers in it, by mis-interpretation, a confirmation of
its democratic and anarchical views. In no country in
the world is there such a striking contrast, so defined
a partition, so easy and fearful a comparison between
the rich and poor, as in England. The latter have
nothing to lose ; they can only gain by changes and
revolutions : hence to them they are welcome. With
a far-spread discontent, arising from external neces
sity, they combine a lively sense of civil and political
rights, a feeling of hopeless suffering of wrongs,
which gives a doubly formidable character to the
movement of the Chartists.
When Sir W. Moles worth, in July 1839, pre
sented what was called the national petition, signed by
a million of persons; he developed the dark side of all
* Hansard, xlviii, 842.

CHARTISM. 107
these relations. In addition to the above-mentioned
demands, the Chartists required the abrogation of the
New Poor Law, the diminution of their burdens, the
imposition of an income tax, &c.
Lord John Russell observed, " The means by
which the petition has been produced are blameable,
and the language and representations call to mind the
worst periods of the French Revolution. The adop
tion of the proposals made would avail nothing, but
probably ruin every thing. It is an error," continued
Lord John, " to suppose that the permanent happi
ness of a state can be established merely on any distri
bution of political power by any kind of representation.
No form of government is able to put an end to all
fluctuations of agriculture, trade, commerce, &c. and
in every country there will always be a number of
persons who suffer distress and deserve compassion."
A majority of 235 to 46 rejected the motion to
enter into a discussion on the grounds of this petition.
Thus the Chartists are rejected by the Parliament,
and their meetings forcibly suppressed. They are
odious, not only to the great and rich, but to the vast
majority of the people : they, however, still exist as
numerous as before, and more powerful, through
temporary moderation, and joining the Tories, cer
tainly not to support their conservative views, but in
the hopes of driving things to extremes.

108 CHARTISM.
It is not by arms, not on the ground of formal
political rights, that this battle must be fought ; but by
judicious poor laws, by sound intellectual and religious
education, and a reform in the system of taxation,
which undoubtedly lies heavier on the poor than on
the rich. Before I take these matters into consider
ation, I will communicate, in my next letter, many
points relative to the penal laws, crimes, and punish
ments, which may serve to illustrate what I have
written to-day.

LETTER XI.

Criminal Law — Crimes — Punishments — Number of Criminals — De
crease of Crime — Ryan on Prostitution, refuted — The Silent
System.

London, July 22, 1841.
Extremely careful investigations have been made
of late years into the criminal law of Great Britain*,
and many improvements effected ; yet even official
reports agree, that the confusion is so great, and a
mass of laws, without plan and system, so heaped
upon one another, that it seems to be necessary to
draw up a new general code of criminal law. The pro
ceedings in the Courts of Justice are too complex and
expensive, and so burdensome to the witnesses and
jury, — nay, even to the criminal, that essential ameli
orations must be made in them also. " Especially,
it is advisable to introduce a summary process for
trifling offences ; for instance, petty thefts, to leave
to the judge the decision and punishmentf, without
the co-operation of the jury. This, indeed, is
considered as a departure from the general mode
* Fourth Report on Criminal Law, 1839, vol. xix, p. 9.— Reports
for 1840, vols, xxv, xxvi.
f Third Report from the Commission of Criminal Law, vol. xxxi.

110 CRIMINAL LAW — CRIMES.
prescribed by the constitution ; but it is jus
tified by the abridgment of the time of imprison
ment, and the lessened moral contamination of the
offenders." An extraordinary number of crimes of another
kind is caused by drunkenness ; thus, for instance,
in Glasgow, out of 7687 persons accused, 3000 were
taken up on a charge of intoxication. Again, these
excesses may be traced, in a great measure, to a
lamentable want of education and instruction. On an
average, there were among the criminals*,
33 to 35 per cent, who could neither read nor write,
53 „ „ badly,
10 „ „ well,
Only I „ had enjoyed a superior education,
„ 2j „ could not be ascertained.
The chance of anyT prisoner returning to, or
adopting an honest course of life, amounts to nothing.
Five or six thousand, who remained in the coun
try, were arrested more than four times: hence
the transportation to Australia has still many zea
lous advocates ; partly, because this banishment
deters from crime, more powerfully then imprison
ment ; partly, because the persons transported more
frequently have the power and the opportunity to
amend their course of life.
* Report 1839, in the Reports, 1840, vol. xxxviii.

PUNISHMENTS. Ill
From 1814 to 1820 were transported 12,043
„ 1823 „ 1827* „ 13,052
„ 1828 „ 1834 „ 29,098
This last increase was chiefly owing to a change in
the laws. In the year 1838, there were transported
from England and Wales - 3735
Imprisoned for two or three years 25
„ from one to two years 393
Whence it appears that much shorter periods of
imprisonment are usual in England than in many
other countries. In 1837 again, capital punish
ment in many instances was abolished, and retained
only for the greatest crimes, such as murder; as
sault, with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm ;
robbery and burglary, with the infliction of severe
wounds; arson in ships and inhabited houses ; false
signals to cause shipwreck, &c.
There were executed t Persons.
1831 - - 50
1835 - - 34
1836 - - 77
1837 - - 8
1839 - - 10
From 1829 to 1833 - 259
„ 1833 to 1838 - 99
* Third Report, vol. xxxi, p. 8. t Reports, 1839, vol. xxxviii.

Persons.

one out of

- 267,000

33

- 437,000

33

- 832,000

33

- 1,903,000

112 NUMBER OF CRIMINALS.

1831
1835 1836
1837
This decrease in the numbers originates partly in
the mitigation of punishments ; partly in the fact,
that crimes against the person have, on the whole,
become less frequent, while those against property
have increased. The last circumstance is, perhaps,
naturally and necessarily connected with the in
creased difficulty of finding constant and profitable
employment, and of procuring the necessaries of
life, such as bread, clothing, and fuel. It is there
fore very difficult to form a well-founded opinion on
the greater or less degree of morality, during a long
period ; and still less can a general conclusion be
formed respecting the morality of the people, from
the difference of single years, but rather a presump
tion of changes in the administration of justice.
In 1831 were punished for robbery, - 297
1837 „ - 158
The number of persons accused of forging bank
notes, amounted in 1817 to several thousands. After
the abolition of capital punishment in the year 1836,
it fell to 233. Theft alone amounts to 83 per cent.

NUMBER OF CRIMINALS. 113"
of all crimes.* The number of crimes is, therefore,
greater in the towns than in the country districts!-
It is affirmed that the authorities know, as suspicious
and equivocal characters,
Of the entire population —
In London, one out of 89
Liverpool, „ 45
Bristol, „ 31
Bath, „ 37
Hull, „ 67
Newcastle-on-Tyne ,, 27
Such indications are, however, always deficient of
satisfactory proofs. In 1839 J, compared with 1838,
1356 more criminals were brought before the tribu
nals. Increase and decrease appeared in the towns as
well as in the country, and cannot, therefore, enable
us to distinguish a prevailing contrast of the places of
abode, and the employment of the criminals.
In 1 840, were brought to trial,
Adults 20,178 males, 5009 females
Younger persons 2,870 „ 570 „

Total, 23,048 males, 5579 females ;
• Statistical Journal, Oct. 1839. According to the Quarterly
Review, No. cxxviii, p. 348, 72,000 persons were hanged for theft
during the reign of Henry VIII. which proves at the same time the
severity of punishments, and the very great amount of crimes with a
much smaller population.
t Reports, 1838, vol. viii, p 168,
I Reports, 1840, vol. xxxviii.

114 DECREASE OF CRIMES.
28,627 were summarily punished for smaller of
fences. There were under 12 years of age, 837
12 to 14 1521
17 5009 •
In the last four years, 41 per cent, of all criminals
were not above twenty-one years of age ; the num
ber of all under thirty years was 71 per cent. The
worst of the older criminals had already been sent to
Australia. The youthful criminals were, for the most
part, led astray by worthless parents and relations.
In a Report on Prisons of 1838, the following
general assertion is made* : — " The crimes committed
now-a-days are of a much less heinous character
than twenty or forty years ago ; and their entire
number has greatly diminished, in comparison with
the more numerous population." A still more
striking statement is given in Leigh's New Picture
of London (page 17): — "In the first year of the
reign of George II. the capital was dreadfully
molested by robbers, who went about the streets
in broad daylight, and, but for an accidental circum
stance, would have robbed the Queen herself re
turning home from the city." I will not repeat what
I have already said in my former letters against rash
and false conclusions, which are so easily drawn from
• Reports, vol. xxxi, p. 5.

RYAN ON PROSTITUTION, REFUTED. 115
a consideration of crimes and punishments in dif
ferent countries. I will only give an example of the
justice of my animadversion or warning. Mr. Ryan,
in his book on Prostitution, says, " there are in
London 80,000 prostitutes, and 400,000 persons con
nected with prostitutes." These numbers are merely
imaginary. Does Mr. R. think that bakers, shoe
makers, tailors, &c. who sell any thing to those
women are, therefore, connected with prostitution ?
He might as well say the same of a clergyman, whose
sermon they have heard. Such loose talk avails
nothing. A simple calculation will show the false
hood of the fearful number of 80,000.
London has almost 1,600,000 inhabitants, of
whom 800,000 are males, and 500,000 girls and
women too young or too old for seduction ; so that
of the remaining 300,000, more than one in four
would be a prostitute.
Let us see what the General Official Reports
state. There are in London,
Houses in which such persons are kept, 933
„ which they frequent . 848
„ in which they live . . 1,554
Girls who never quit such houses, 813
, well dressed in the streets, 1460

116 RYAN ON PROSTITUTION, REFUTED.
Girls of a lower class . . 3,533
Others, who occasionally fall into
this error . . . 500

6,300
If we say 7,000, there would be only 1 in 43 of
the younger females, or 1 in 1 14 of the whole
number of females, who follow this way of life. If a
few hundreds may gain and spend a great deal, the
majority are certainly very badly off, as is evident
from their mean dress and often bad appearance;
and yet Mr. Ryan affirms (what an invitation to
a dissolute life !) that they gain annually 8,000,000
sterling, or about * 55,000,000 of dollars. This, if
we allow the number to be 10,000 (instead of 7,000),
would make 5500 dollars per head.
Without much exaggeration, the evil is great
enough in London, and in proportion greater in Li
verpool ; for which reason, societies are very merito
rious which endeavour to do good by the seizure of
immoral books, closing the worst houses, improving
the penitent, and curing the sick.
Though the most complete information respecting
the prisons, and treatment of prisoners, is to be
found in the works of persons fully acquainted with
the subject, I will not wholly pass it over, but men-
* Equal to the whole public revenue of the Prussian monarchy.

THE SILENT SYSTEM. 117
tion the various opinions entertained respecting it.
During my first residence in England, I heard of the
silent system, as it is called, every where praised ;
according to which, criminals are condemned, during
the whole time of their punishment, to absolute silence ;
and their constant obedience to this command is
reckoned an essential evidence of their improvement.
At that time I had already some doubts of the expe
diency, and the severity of this method, which en
hances the legal punishment ; but my objections
were declared to be futile. Now, after longer expe
rience, public opinion is changed, and accords with
my former notions and feelings.
In the Second Report of the Inspectors of Prisons
for 1837 *, it is stated in general, " we are able to
prove that the silent system is burthensome and
complex in its application, not adapted to the end
proposed, and, in respect to its utility, dependant
upon circumstances which cannot be every where pro
duced, and on which we cannot rely. Besides,
together with its good tendency, it has others which
are dangerous, or useless ; nay, while its advantages
are only uncertain and accidental, its defects appear
to be necessary and unavoidable. It imposes on the
prisoners a very severe and useless punishment, and
may perhaps merit praise, only in comparison with
* Reports, vol. xxxii.

118 THE SILENT SYSTEM.
old and very bad arrangements. A reciprocal under
standing by signs, whispers, &c. cannot be hindered,
and persons who are only arrested, but not yet con
demned, and perhaps quite innocent, suffer the most,
and are frequently punished for transgressing this
order. In one of the best-managed prisons, there
were inflicted, in 1838, 5138 punishments.
In a second „ . 6794 „
In a third* „ . 12,445
In a fourth „ . 13,812
It is improper, and injurious to health, that the
punishment frequently consists in deprivation of
food, and that, to save expense, individual criminals
are appointed as superintendents over the others.
" The oldest thief," said an officer, " makes the best
inspector ;" but excitement and hatred naturally arise
among the prisoners against these persons.
The silent system cannot be carried into effect
without the application of means, which are evi
dently contrary to the spirit of the constitution, and
to the first principles of a good administration
of justice. The prisoner sees that the deprivation,
which is the most burthensome to him, is by no
means imposed by a legal sentence. Hence his
mind is irritated, he has a sense of injustice, forgets
his transgression, and loses a due sense of his
• Reports, 1838, vol. xxx, p. 392.

THE SILENT SYSTEM. 119
guilt, which closes the door against every exhorta
tion, and makes the endeavours of the clergy hopeless
and inefficacious. The prisoner feels neither the pre
sence and power of the law, nor the consequences
of his own misdeeds ; he sees and feels nothing but
the uninterrupted effect of tormenting regulations".
In another Report for 1838*, the arguments
against the silent system are again discussed, and
the following important remarks are added : — the
criminal is now well- clothed, well-fed, and well-
lodged ; and in the society which is most congenial
to his inclination and habits. In the day-time, his
work, if he has any, is often lighter than that of the
honest day-labourer or peasant ; his food is often
better, his recreations more numerous, his cares less.
At night he goes early to bed, and enjoys more com^
forts than they do ; in the morning he rises without a
thought for the wants of the day, as he is supplied,
regularly and sufficiently, with every thing needful ;
by these arrangements the indifference and careless
ness peculiar to criminals are increased. In his
almanack there is no such day as to-morrow.
Partly from being tired of the silent system, the
praise was transferred to the system of separation,
by which every criminal is to be confined in a
different cell ; but even the greatest panegyrists of
* Report, 1838, vol. xxx, p. 3.

120 THE SOLITARY SYSTEM.
this system cannot conceal from themselves that a
rapid introduction of it would require immense sums
of money, new buildings, and a change in the laws,
regulations, arrangements, and punishments; but,
before all these obstacles and difficulties could be in
anywise removed, the zeal for the system of sepa
ration has greatly cooled, and often changed into
censure. In the first place, it is evident that most of
the objections against the silent system are appli
cable to the solitary system ; however, it might at
least be supposed that this seclusion would prevent
all communication and connection. That this is not
the case, and that other evils arise, appear from the
following remarkable and unlooked-for testimony.
An Official Report of the year 1838* says,
" nothing can be more erroneous than the idea that
the separation of the cells, and the prohibition of all
communication, place the prisoners in gloomy and
comfortless solitude. In fact, the evil takes quite
another course ; for, notwithstanding all our laws
and precautions, the most extensive intercourse is
effected. The prisoners communicate their his
tories to each other, conclude friendships, become
at enmity, and mutually annoy each other, by their
communication." * Report on Criminal Offenders, vols, xlii and xliii.

THE SOLITARY SYSTEM. 121
In the Fourth Report on Prisons for 1839*, it is
stated, " the idea has not been realised that complete
solitude contributes to moral improvement ; on the
contrary, a concealed and profound hatred against
civil society is engendered, secret vices increased,
even madness has been the consequence, and mor
tality has augmented. A wicked man left to himself
never improves by solitude; he rather delights in the
retrospect of bis former sins, and the projecting of
plans for new misdeeds. Nothwithstanding the
enormously large sums which have been expended
in North America for the introduction of the solitary
system, the object has not been obtained. In spite
of the complicated and artificial arrangements of the
buildings"!", communications by tones and sounds have
* Reports, vol. xxii. See England in 1835.
f The new jail at Glasgow, under the admirable management of
Mr. Brebner, appears to me to combine the greatest advantages. The
cells are all arranged on the two sides, and in the centre there is an
open space through all the stories. In each story there is a gallery
running along the cells. One man can overlook all the stories, and the
chaplain speaking in the central space is understood by the prisoner in
every cell as soon as a window in the door is opened. From August
1838 to August 1839, 1,128 men and 969 women were imprisoned,
most of them for one or two months. 991 were sentenced for stealing,
and 219 women confined for a time as vagrants and for breaches of the
peace. The same principles are adopted in the model prison now building
in London. So much care is taken for warmth, constant ventilation,
space for exercising in the open air, the size and cleanliness of the cells
and mattresses, the introduction of water through pipes into every cell,
VOL. I. G

122 EXPENSES OF PRISONS.
not been prevented ; the system therefore makes little
progress : whereas the silent system is more easily
&c. &c. that millions of innocent people are far worse lodged and sup
ported than criminals are here ; and even kings and princes are without
many of the conveniencies here provided.
I subjoin to these observations that of a well-informed friend. The
jail iu Glasgow was founded in the year 1824, and it has been enlarged
by a new wing, which has been occupied since the beginning of this year.
The older part of the jail, consisting of two wings, which is much more
costly and not so well arranged, is no less interesting in respect to the
solitary system than the new wing ; for that system was introduced in the
old portion earlier than in America, and has been retained till this time,
so far as it can be judiciously carried into effect. But neither in this
nor in the new part of the prison is there such severe discipline as is
stated to exist in the American prisons. Tha only thing which too
much resembles the Pensylvanian theories, is in the new wing, the ser
mon in the gallery. Brebner affirmed indeed, that every prisoner can
hear and understand, in his cell, the clergyman standing at one end of the
gallery, and speaking in a loud and distinct voice : hutif we allow this,
it is much to be doubted whether the prisoners will choose to hear, and
whether some of them will really take the trouble to stand at the open
ing in the door, so that the divine service performed in this manner
shall have any moral effect upon them. Superintendence of the prisoners
during the service is not possible in this manner. For the rest, this
institution is much to be commended for a great variety of employ
ments, and, in general, sound j udgment in the management.
In the model prison building in London, the hope is entertained to
approximate to the much-praised American strictness of the solitary sys
tem ; though the practical sagacity of the general inspectors has already
thrown aside much of the merely theoretical doctrines. This prison is
fitted up with an economy rarely met with in England. In each of the
500 cells, it is true there is a contrivance by which the water necessary
for washing and drinking is conveyed to the prisoner, and also a good
water-closet ; but this expensive arrangement is not made for the greater
convenience of the prisoner, but to give to the whole institution the salu
brity which, according to English notions, is indispensable. In the
older English prisons, these arrangements are generally not found, yet
immense expense is often lavished in them on less useful matters.

EXPENSES OF PRISONS. 123
applied, and certainly cheaper. When one hundred
and forty-six to two hundred and eighty-six dollars were
expended for the latter, the solitary system required
978 to 1648 dollars. A letter from Boston says,
" in the prisons which are built according to Hol
land's improved solitary system, there is nothing but
jabber, jabber, jabber. Nobody can tell whence the
jabbering comes, and the inspectors confess that they
cannot hinder it. With the silent system there was
more quiet, order, and activity."
So many ineffectual attempts and conflicting
opinions must not make us fall into inactive despon
dency; for if the evils can never be wholly remedied,
and constantly re-appear in another place, and under
another form, it is doubly necessary to investigate,
and to acquire a knowledge of the mode of treating
them. Let us beware of proposing and executing,
from inconsiderate predilection for any system, or
from false philanthropy, measures which cost im
mense sums, heavily tax many honest people for
the sake of a few rogues, and so exhaust our re
sources, that more necessary objects are on that
account entirely neglected. Every one naturally
prefers his own plans and object; but the go
vernment has to regard equally all plans and
objects, and make them harmonize one with another.
Every system carried to excess leads to partialities,
g2

124 EXPENSES OF PRISONS.
absurdities, and follies*, each comprises elements
of truth and order. England gives sufficient proofs
of this by her long series of experiments. In spite
of all the gradual ameliorations, the expenses of the
buildings, maintenance, superintendence, &c. are
still very high, even for this wealthy state, though
the total amount of them cannot be exactly given, or
at least is stated very differently t- The daily ex-
* The following are some observations of an intelligent friend. Ac
cording to my judgment, this cannot be rightly conceived, without an
entire renunciation of the idea of improvement of the prisoners. But if we
have once got rid of this erroneous belief, we have the far more simple,
and certainly more easy, task of confining the prisoners individually in
such a manner, that they cannot mutually corrupt each other. For this
purpose, the constant solitary system for one portion, for another the silent
system, with separation at night, both applied in a judicious manner, are
not only sufficient, but certainly may be employed with great advantage.
A third portion of the prisoners, in my opinion the largest, requires
neither isolation nor silence, nor a too rigorous superintendence ; it con
sists of those whose passions are vehement, and of the weak-minded.
How the youthful criminals, and the children of criminals, shall
be disposed of, and how the latter shall be treated, is another, and,
in my opinion, a much more serious question. It has hitherto been
scarcely touched upon ; and in England less attention has been paid to
it than on the Continent, especially in Germany. In England, a class
might be formed of infant criminals, on which the Christian zeal of
Ladies' Associations would have a more beneficial effect than on the
class of hardened transgressors. It is certainly a defect in the legisla
tion, that children of eight years of age may be thrown into prison, and
those of twelve to fourteen condemned to transportation. How this
defect is to be remedied, and what is to be done with the children, is a
new problem for ingenious system-makers. Unhappily, it is not
doubtful, that their rash zeal will cause confusion enough in this matter
also. t It is justly observed, that moderate sums expended for schools

CRIMES IN ENGLAND AND IRELAND. 125
penses for one prisoner, in the prison for debtors *,
amount to 5s. 5d. In others they have fallen to five-
pence, and in some they are entirely defrayed by the
work of the prisoners. In Scotland, where the most
careful administration seems to exist, the daily ex
pense for a prisoner amounts to 1 Jd. up to 4fd. and
the weight of the food rises from sixteen to thirty-six
ounces. The annual expense for a prisoner is esti
mated at £10 9s. 6d.
Disputes about the proportion of crimes in Eng
land and Ireland are generally carried on with great
vehemence, and often only to hinder or to forward
certain political objects. From the conflicting state
ments, the true result may be, that in England more
crimes are committed against property ; in Ireland,
against the person ; that is, more breaches of the
peace, affrays, malicious attacks, wounding, &c.
According to one statement, there weret, Inhabitants.
Sentences of death in Ireland, 1 in 46,000
England, 1 in 26,000
Transportation in Ireland, 1 in 8,500
England, 1 in 4,500
The Dublin Review for January 1839, defending
would have produced the noblest fruits, and greatly diminished the
enormous expenses for criminals and prisons.
* Reports, 1840, vols, xx, xxv, and xxvi.
t Annual Register, 1839, p. 53. Edinburgh Review, lxvi, p. 242

126 CRIMES IN ENGLAND AND IRELAND.
Ireland, affirms that in 1837 there was in England
one condemnation to eight hundred and thirteen ; in
Ireland, to eight hundred and twelve of the population.
But if we set aside the petty transgressions in the
two countries, we find one great crime in England in
2,220 inhabitants, in Ireland in 3,267. I am the less
able to examine and discover the truth of these asser
tions, because the number of crimes in some Irish
counties is in proportion very great, in others very
small. In Ireland, poverty, religious excitement,
the position of the higher and lower classes, and many
other circumstances, have an influence on the nature
and number of crimes ; but of this, more in another
place ; to-day I add some particulars respecting
London. In 1837 there were arrested*  64,416
Discharged by the magistrates, about 33,000
In the total number there were, men 42,494
„ „ „ women 21,922
Intoxicated men  14,021
,, women  7,405
Loose women  3,103
Common thieves  , , 8,094
Of the 64,416, there were,
Men  15,463 •} Who could neither read
Women  13,033 y nor write.
* Statistical Journal, 1838, p. 97. Reports, 1839, vol. xlv.

LONDON POLICE. 127
The greater part of the accused and sentenced
were between twenty and twenty-five years of age.
The police for London and some places in the
neighbourhood, exclusive of the city, costs about
280,000/. or 3s. 8c?. per head for a million and a half
of people. Of this sum, the government pays one
quarter, the metropolis three quarters. The London
police* does not, however, perform only that service
which is generally assigned to it, but likewise under
takes the duty of gens-d'armes and watchmen.
It consists of
17 chief inspectors, with an annual salary of 2001.
70 inspectors, who receive weekly £1 18s. 6d.
342 Serjeants „ „ 12 6
2977 constables „ „ 0 19 0
That the City has retained its old defective, ex
pensive police establishment, and not joined the better
metropolitan institution, is an instance of pertinacious
and prejudicial adherence to antiquated regulations.
If a thief runs down the Strand and through Temple
Bar, one of the city aldermen must back the order of
the metropolitan police ere a further pursuit can take
place. There is but one opinion of the advantages of the
metropolitan police ; yet a more accurate distinction
* England, ii, letter 33. Edinburgh Review, lxvi, p. 358.

128 CONSTITUTION OF THE CITY.
between police and judicial matters, better and sepa
rate places for the prisoners, are wished for ; nay,
there are some who urge a greater centralisation,
and the establishment of a department of police,
independent of the Home Department.
As the City, properly so called, has its distinct
police, it has also a very peculiar constitution*. It
had eighty-nine companies or guilds (some of which
are abolished), with freemen and liverymen, whose
civil rights differ in some points from each other.
Every guild is nearly independent, and not subject to
any superintendence. Not all householders are free
men. These enjoy an exclusive right to certain
trades, and exemption from certain taxes. There
are three magisterial authorities : the Lord Mayor
and Aldermen, the Court of Common Council, and
the Common Hall. Twenty -five aldermen are chosen
for life by the householders who pay certain taxes ;
the government and administration of justice are
vested in their hands. The Court of Common
Council consists of the aldermen and two hundred
and forty common-council men, who are elected in a
similar manner. It has the superintendence of coin
age, management of the city estates, bridges, naviga
tion, &c. and issues ordinances on those subjects.
* Report about Municipal Corporations, 1837, vol. xxv.

REVENUE OF THE CITY. 129
The Common Hall consists of the aldermen and
liverymen, and nominates certain officers. As all
elections are distributed in the same manner among
the wards, differing in extent and population, the
political rights must be greater in some and less in
others. The Common Hall annually nominates two
of the aldermen who have filled the office of sheriff,
one of whom the Court of Aldermen returns for Lord
Mayor. His salary amounts to 8,000/. per annum ;
but he is always obliged to expend more. Complaints
are made of the complicated duties of many second
ary authorities, as well as of the too great number
and arbitrary conduct of many higher authorities.
It is considered as blameable that a number of cir
cumstances co-operate to disgust the higher classes
with any participation in the government of the city,
and to throw it into the hands of the inferior.
The revenues of the city amounted, in 1834, to
about 147,000/. ; namely,
From landed property  49,000/.
„ market tolls  77,000/. &c.
and from these the expenses of salaries, the police,
prisons, bridges, &c. are defrayed.
It is surely to be expected that the citizens will
soon agree on a modification, and simplification of this
constitution. Existing evils appear intolerable only

130 IMPROVEMENTS OF THE CITY.
when preponderating hopes* are thrown into the
opposite scale.
* Iii the Reports for 1840, vol. xii, there is satisfactory information
relative to the great plans for the improvement of London, part of which
have already been executed.

LETTER XII.
Poor-Laws in England — Advantages of the New Poor Law — Dimi
nished Expenditure under the New Poor Law — Unions — Com
plaints and Answers. London, July 23, 1841.
AFTER writing on some of the evils and sufferings
which exist in England, and at least alluded to others,
— for instance, the distress of many workmen in the
factories, — it is necessary to enquire what has been
done to remedy them, by poor-laws, education, and
alteration in the system of taxation.
Let us begin with the poor-laws. In my letters
of the year 1835*, I described, so much in detail, the
ancient institutions as well as the motives and the
substance of the new ones, that it is unnecessary to
repeat what has been already said. But it is instruc
tive to hear what form opinion has taken of late
years, and whether the new institutions have corres
ponded with the expectations which were entertained
of them. Since the general oppression of greater
evils, which induced the majority to desire their
abolition, has in a great measure vanished, atten
tion is now directed, with double energy, to the defects
and desiderata of the new law. The most violent
* England, i, letter 15,

132 POOR-LAWS IN ENGLAND.
complaints have been made, both in and out of Par
liament, though, properly speaking, nothing was al
leged which had not been already mentioned and re
futed on the enactment of the law*. The new law,
it is said, is a cruel, heartless, selfish, unchristian!
law, made only to dispense the rich from payments
to which they are in duty bound, and to rob the poor
of their just claims to indispensable support. The
saving is much less than was prophesied and ex
pected. It can only be attained by harshness and
injustice, and will therefore soon entirely vanish.
In the place of a free existence, the prison of the
union workhouse is substituted ; and for local autho
rities, the intolerable, tyrannical power of officers
who are strangers, and live at a distance. The old
salutary self-government of the parishes isundermined
by the great unions, and by the interference of heart
less commissioners. He who deprives the people
of their self-government, and introduces central
boards, acts in opposition to English manners, rights,
and feelings ; and the poor would rather starve than
separate from their families, and suffer themselves to
be confined in those English bastiles, the workhouses
or houses of correction. While the commissioners
prove to a workman that he can subsist on six shil-
* England, vol. i, letter 15.
t Hansard, 183"/, xxxvi, 986—1088; xxxvii, 604; xliii, 46;
xlvi, 16-2, 654 ; xlvii, 188 ; xlviii, 1340 ; xlix, 249 ; liv, 835.

ADVANTAGES OF THE NEW POOR-LAW. 133
lings a week, they are themselves extravagantly
paid, and occasion useless expense to the country.
Tobacco, tea, sugar, brandy, (which in our days are
necessaries to every body), are withheld from the
poor in the workhouse ; nay, religious consolation is
denied them, which every one is entitled to demand,
according to his conscience and his creed. If relief
were judiciously given out of the workhouses, these
costly tryannical institutions would he wholly un
necessary. But, unhappily, Russell, Peel, and Inglis,
all join in support of these wrongs and absurdities,
and thereby secure to themselves an immortality of
infamy*. Such a union of the leaders of all parties in de
fence and support of the law, is of itself calculated
to inspire the most favourable opinion of the mea
sure ; — let us, however, hear their arguments.
I. — Lord John Russell. Let the law be amended,
but not abolished. It has reduced the poor-rates,
and not compelled the poor to go into the workhouse,
but rather to labour, and to be economical.
II. — Mr. Hume. The evils are diminished, the
law is on the whole liked, and every body, except
the ginshop-keepers, has gained.
III. — Mr. Alston and Mr. Cripps. The new
poor law is the greatest benefit to the lower classes,
* Fraser's Magazine, April 1841.

134 ADVANTAGES OF THE NEW POOR-LAW.
and, in the end, they too will profit by the reduction
of the poor rates.
IV. — Mr. Roebuck. Every industrious poor man
is better off than before. The management of the
poor must be considered as a national concern, and
therefore must not be left to the local authorities.
V. — Lord Hatherton. The law has had a most
beneficial effect on the welfare and the moral cha
racter of the people, and the system of the boards
and the administration has proved good.
VI. — Mr. Gaily Knight and Lord Howick. For
merly even great abuses were concealed, now the
very least are denounced. In spite of all declama
tion, nobody is able to propose anything better. —
None has the courage to recommend a return to the
old system.
VII. — Sir Robert Peel. The Parliament must
give its moral support to those officers on whom ob
noxious duties are imposed. The chief advantage
of the new arrangements is, that they have improved
the morals of the poor, promoted their independence,
and raised their position in the scale of society.
VIII.— The Duke of Wellington. The new
arrangements have exceeded all the expectations
which I had formed of their salutary effects. For
merly there were in every individual parish abuses
a hundred times greater than those which are now

ADVANTAGES OF THE NEW POOR-LAW. 135
complained of in so many petitions. 1 find that the
administration has perfectly sufficed for the task
imposed on it; and the poor-law commissioners are,
in my opinion, the most important part of it. The
abuses of the former management were so numerous
and manifold, and at the same time so deeply rooted,
that it was not possible to overcome them without
a central board, which superintended the execution
of the new law and took care that its enactments
should be no where violated or evaded.
IX. — Lord Brougham. The sum saved is con
siderable, and yet the enjoyments, the situation, and
the character of the working classes are improved.
These and similar arguments appeared so con
vincing, that Mr. Fielden's motion for the abolition
of the new poor-law was rejected by a majority of
309 to 17.
Objections like the above were also repeatedly
made out of Parliament, especially in some journals,
and the refutations of them are equally numerous.
Before I enter upon them, however, I must give
some extracts from the instructive Reports of the
Commissioners. Already, in the year 1837*, it is
remarked, the applications for admission into the poor-
houses are not so numerous as was apprehended. The
• Reports, Vol. xxxi.

136 DIMINISHED EXPENDITURE
allowances* having been done away with, the able-
bodied workmen are more diligent and active, and
the old, infirm, and sick, can be better provided for
than before; yet great savings have already been
made. The expense per head in England and Wales
amounted s. d.
In 1834 to 9 1
„ 1836 „ 6 9
„ 1837 „ 5 10
The total expenditure, 1834 £7,511,000
1837 4,808,000

Decrease, 2,703,000
In England, the highest expenditure was,
1834 1837
s. d. s. d.
In Sussex  18 1 In Essex.. 9 4
The lowest in
Lancaster  3 9 Lancaster. . 2 9
The average expense per head was
s. d.
1818t  13 2
1837  5 10
When the poor-house is full and a sudden stag
nation in certain works and employments occurs,
relief is granted out of the houses. But, on the
whole, activity and wages increase, and the lower
* England, vol. i, letter 15. f London Statistics! Journal, 1838, p. 52.

UNDER THE NEW POOR-LAW. 137
classes, both in and out of the poor-house, were even
at that time better off than formerly. Accordingly,
Mr. Woolley*, one of the tithe commissioners, said,
" Our new poor-law has saved the country. I am
quite disgusted with the cry raised against it, and
especially its pretended inhumanity." Another ex
claimed, " Gentlemen, you have performed miracles
with the new poor-lawt ; you have healed the sick,
and the lame have learned to walk, and the blind
to see." In the Report for 1838J and 1839, it is granted
that individual instances of harshness aud abuse oc
curred; but they could not be wholly avoided in such
an extensive and intricate administration, and the
less so, because many local, partly inadequate, ar
rangements were not to be attained by the new law.
The poor-rates have remained, since 1834, about
£2,300,000 below the former amount §; and yet the
new management had to contend with very great
difficulties. The two first years passed on in esta
blishing the system. In the third, there was an un
usually severe winter||. In the fourth, there was a
crisis in trade and manufactures :— in the fifth, a
* Reports, 1837, vol. xxxi, p. 45.
t Reports, 1837, vol. Ii, p. 16.
J Reports, 1838, vol. xviii, p. 28.
§ They amounted, in 1840, to £4,576,000. Seventh Report.
|| Report, 1839, vol. xx.

138 DIMINISHED EXPENDITURE
failure in the crops ; yet the law has proved good in
practice, and has overcome the evils ; for though out
door relief has been granted to factory workmen
suddenly thrown out of employment, the pernicious
system of allowances in aid of the daily wages has
never been returned to.
The state of the Banks for Savings leads us to
infer the improving situation of the lower classes.
They possess, in England, £ 16,177,000
Scotland, 401,000
Ireland, 1,775,000
and, with the addition of the Friendly Societies*, a
capital of £19,620,000. The number of contribu
tors was, in England, £544,000
Wales, 13,000
Scotland, 13,000
Ireland, 64,000

Total, £634,000
of whom there were 334,000 who did not pay in
more than £ 20.
The fifth very detailed report of the poor-law
commissioners contains, in substance, the following
statement : — a central board is now, and will continue
to be, necessary, in order to obtain a general view of
the state of the poor, to prevent deviation from the
law, to counteract false indulgence and undue
* Report, 1639, vol. xlv.

UNDER THE NEW POOR-LAW. 139
severity, to decide disputes, to carry general regu
lations into effect, &c. Their position is not contrary
to the spirit of the constitution, which has likewise
approved and introduced general boards for the
army, the navy, the taxes, the post-office, &c. ; nor is
their power too great, since in every place the rate
payers choose guardians who have now the appoint
ment of all paid officers, and the distribution of the
relief. Nay, the entire management is, properly
speaking, in their hands, while the poor-law commis
sioners have only the superintendence. In truth, the
activity and the influence of local and general
boards are hereby advantageously connected.
The poor-law commissioners, who might easily
gain favour by neglecting their duties, have never
gone beyond their rights, nor even strictly enforced
them. Sometimes it is complained that they inter
fere too much, sometimes too little, and they are
made responsible for instances of mistakes for which
very different persons are to blame. It is certain
that, in former times, incomparably more arbitrary
power was exercised, against which recourse was
seldom had to complaint or publicity, as is now the
case. But, indeed, every restriction of arbitrary
power excites opposition ; and numerous interests are
affected by the new poor-law, and the possibility
of diverting the money intended for the relief of the

140 UNIONS.
poor into other channels for the benefi of certain
persons is prevented. The rhetoric of the journals
and the agitators represent all these things in a false
and partial light.
Thirteen thousand six hundred and ninety-one
parishes, with a population of 11,841,000, are joined
in large unions *.
Seven hundred and ninety-nine parishes, with a
population of 2,055,000, are not yet united.
The expenses amounted to an average annually,
from 1830 to 1834  of  £6,754,000
„ 1834 to 1839  4,567,000

Annual saving . . £2,187,000

Total saving in five years, £10,935,000
On the other hand, the additional expense arising
from the new arrangements (printing, correspond.
ence, salaries, &c.) amounted to only £182,000.
The number of poor received into the
workhouses was  98,000
The number of poor who received out
door relief  560,000
Of these, there were about 40,000 who were
* According to the Seventh Report of the Poor-Law Commissioners,
just published, there are still 776 places, with a population of 1,715,000
inhabitants, which are not united according to the new law.

UNIONS. 141
settled in other places, and had only temporary relief.
Widows with families  28,000
Old, infirm persons, and partly unable
to work  300,000
It is not true that there is less poverty in the
country than in the towns and manufacturing dis
tricts. An average of many unions of both kinds
shews : —
Population. Expense per head. Poor per cent, in
the population.
Country unions,
233,000  7s. 8id  8318
Town unions,
233,000  3s. 7d  5192
There are elected inspectors, who voluntarily
undertake the office ,.  16,667
Appointed officially  4,198
Total, 20,865

All of whom, like the electors, give, by their
co-operation, an evidence in favour of the new regu
lations. I will mention some points which are particularly
complained of: —
First Complaint. — Little or no provision is made
in the workhouses for religious instruction and the
performance of divine service.

142 COMPLAINTS AND ANSWERS.
As soon as a union workhouse is established, care
is taken to appoint a clergyman of the Church of
England. But it is impossible to provide a separate
clergyman for every individual who belongs, or pre
tends to belong, to a particular sect. Nay, men and
women, who were permitted to go out of the work
house on Sunday to attend, as they alleged, the
chapel of their own denomination, went instead
to the public-house *, and were brought back in a
state of intoxication.
Second Complaint. — The regulations respecting
illegitimate children t are contrary to the laws of
God and of nature.
Answer. — Infanticide has not increased. The
expense of maintenance, as well as the number of ille
gitimate children and forced marriages, has, on the
contrary, decreased.
This is the proper place to introduce the following
letter of the respectable clergyman of a large parish J.
He writes : — " I have, perhaps, more opportunities
than many inspectors to form a well-founded opinion
of the effect of the law on the character of the
female sex in the lower classes. The good effects of
these much-abused regulations have, in my parish,
* Report, 1837, vol. xxxi, p. 38.
t England, vol. i. letter 15.
t Reports, 1837, vol. xxxi, p. 113.

COMPLAINTS AND ANSWERS. 143
perfectly answered the expectations that were
formed. The number of illegitimate children has
greatly diminished, and the conduct of young women
of the lower classes has much improved. Formerly,
there was good reason to suspect the whole of them
of want of chastity. Whereas now, out of more than
twenty-five, there are not more than three or four
who are liable to suspicion. I also feel a great re
lief, as a clergyman, from being no longer obliged
to officiate at forced marriages, on which, during the
old poor-law, the local authorities frequently insisted,
in order to get rid of the burden of providing for such
persons. Often a man was conveyed directly from the
prison to the church to be married. The handcuffs
were not taken off till he got to the door. The turn
keys and jailors remained as witnesses, as I was
obliged to pronounce a benediction on a union which
has no meaning nor value, when a free choice founded
on affection is wanting."
Third Complaint. — To confine innocent persons
in a workhouse is evidently unjust, and the separation
of families an infraction of the law. " What God has
joined together, let no man put asunder."
Answer. — Workhouses cannot be converted into
poor-houses, nor must a hope be excited in old, and
still less in young and healthy people, that they need
not provide for themselves and their future subsist-

144 COMPLAINTS AND ANSWERS.
ence. The inmates of the workhouse eat, drink,
live, and lodge freer from care than out of it * ;
therefore there must be, in its strictness and
order, and the deprivation of liberty, something
repulsive, that every one may do his utmost, and not
wish and require to be admitted, without real and
urgent want.
It is impossible to receive men and women into
the workhouse and to give to each couple a separate
room. The law, what God has joined let no man
put asunder, is wholly misapplied here. There is no
idea of separation of man and wife; but voluntary or
legal separation takes place daily in the case of sol
diers, sailors, criminals, and persons under sentence
of capital punishment. Children under seven years
of age are not separated from their mothers, and
longer experience alone can decide whether more
strictness or more indulgence will be necessary in the
workhouse, to lessen the desire or the fear of ad
mission. Fourth complaint. — Relief is not given in propor-
* I have visited several workhouses (for instance, that at Green
wich), and have found lodging, clothing, beds, and especially the provi
sions, so excellent and abundant, that millions of free men are incompa
rably worse off in these respects ; and all the reproaches of cruel treat
ment and insufficient nourishment appear to be wholly groundless. But
unhappily such arguments were used in the last parliamentary election
as a means to excite the people against the ministry.

COMPLAINTS AND ANSWERS. 145
tion to the necessity of the case. It ought to be
graduated according to the number of the family.
Answer. — This would gradually lead to all the
evils of the allowances in aid of daily wages, and a
premium to idleness. A numerous family should be
an inducement to prudence and exertion ; but the
prudent and diligent ought not to be placed in a less
favourable situation. Unequal treatment appears
worse, and more oppressive, than harsh treatment.
Relief in the poor-house is more definite, effectual,
and cheaper ; whereas, out of the house, no limit can
be discovered, nor is it possible even to define what a
numerous family and its wants are.
These matters are no where more clearly and
precisely explained than in the " Remarks on the
Opposition to the Poor-Law Amendment Bill, by a
Guardian" (N. Senior). The motto itself indicates
the tendency and object of the book. " Nemo tam
parcus, quin prodigus es alieno." The poor, says the
author, must be in some way or other worse off than
the independent workman. But as it appears harsh
to restrict them too much in regard to food and cloth
ing, as it is difficult to find, for many more, laborious
employment, the best thing is to combine relief with
a restriction of their freedom, on their admission
into the workhouse. This is the best proof of real
VOL. I. H

146 MR. SENIOR'S OBSERVATIONS.
want, and a security for their endeavours to regain
their independence.
At the beginning, when the evils of the old system
were fresh in the minds of the public, the new arrange
ments were almost generally approved; but the ob
jections, by degress, became more numerous.
1 . Because the former evils were forgotten by
some, and others almost wished for their return, from
self-interest, indolence, or false philanthropy.
2. Because the English are more attached to that
which is ancient, than eager for that which is new.
3. Because exceptions and individual abuses were
represented as the rule.
4. Because the law, and the mode of management,
appeared to the aristocracy too democratical, and to
the radicals too aristocratic.
5. Because it is easier to find fault than to amend,
and because journals, authors, and public speakers,
find more matter, and gain more favour, by pretended
philanthrophic opposition, than by apparently heart
less, or selfish approbation.
It would occupy too much space to examine in
detail all the proposals made for the modification of
the present, law. I will, therefore, select only one of
the mostdoubtful, and difficult questions ; viz. whether
out-door relief is not more humane and efficacious,

MR. TUFNELL'S LETTER. 147
more natural and economical, than relief in the work
house ? The author proves that relief in the workhouse
is more economical than any relief out of it, especially
in regard to food and fuel. Let it be given only to
the really distressed ; let a check be put on unfounded
demands ; and let those who are used to disorder and
idleness be deterred. Another result of accurate
investigation is, that when parish labour is substituted
for employment in the workhouse, no advantage accrues
to the rate-payers ; because every attempt has failed
to make parish labour more disagreeable than free
labour, which is often more difficult to be found. On
this account, such a proceeding increases the number
of those who seek relief, while the work allotted to
them is in general badly done, and seldom affords any
real advantage.
The following statement of Mr. Tufnell, a poor-
law commissioner, places the case in so clear a light,
that I cannot avoid quoting it. "The injustice, the
moral and physical evils, which are imposed upon
all, especially the working classes, by paying wages,
allowances out of the poor-rates, are now so generally
acknowledged, that I have met with no one who has
ventured to defend them. Yet this mode finds so
much indirect support, and the abuse assumes such a
variety of forms, which conceal its real nature, that
the insincere and short-sighted easily make it believed
H 2

148 MR. TUFNELL'S LETTER.
that they would apply the poor-rates only to their legal
objects, whereas they in truth pay wages out of them.
" The most usual case in which the advocates would
return to the old abuses, without knowing or confes
sing it, is where a workman loses his employment
for one or two weeks. Their argument is, it is cruel
to send a man into the workhouse who could be re
lieved during the time of need by a small allowance.
This apparent indulgence becomes, however, the
greatest injustice to the workmen, and the seeming
economy is changed into almost unlimited prodigality;
for it is forgotten that wages cannot fall for a long time
below the necessary wants of the workmen ; and a
farmer cannot secure their services, unless he gives
them enough to support themselves. But if the poor-
fund undertakes the payment of an allowance, in the
event of a suspension of employment, wages fall in
the same proportion, and the farmer endeavours to
diminish his outlay in this manner. He says, justly,
I am ready to pay the wages of my own people ; but
I cannot, and will not, pay wages (through the poor-
rates) for my neighbour's people. If I am obliged
by out-door relief to do this, because my neighbour
discharges his workmen at a moment when employ
ment is slack, I am compelled likewise to discharge
my men, that my neighbour may pay as much for me
as I do for him.

BISHOP OF LANDAFF TO SIR R. PEEL. 149
" The offer to receive the workmen into the work
house prevents this evil, because the farmer does not
then discharge them on account of temporary circum
stances. He fears that they will not return to him ;
but will seek and find employment elsewhere. By
this he acquires a bad reputation ; so that only inferior
workmen apply to him, and require higher wages.
Thus the much-decried poor-house secures to the day-
labourers suitable employment and good treatment,
while out-door relief makes the master harsh and the
men idle."
The following passage of a letter to Sir Robert
Peel, by Dr. Copleston, Bishop of Landaff, published
in 1819, throws a strong light on this sub
ject. " The fundamental mistake to which I al
lude is the confusion of moral duty with the task of
legislation. That which all ought to do, it is the
business of the laws to make them do, — is a plausible
position, and has actually been adopted by some of
the ablest and most virtuous men. But nothing in
reality is more fallacious ; nothing less congruous with
the nature of man, and with that state of discipline
and trial which his present existence is clearly designed
to be. In the first place, it destroys the very essence,
not only of benevolence, but of all virtue, to make it
compulsory ; or, to speak more properly, it is a con
tradiction in terms. An action, to be virtuous, must

150 BISHOP OF LANDAFF TO SIR R. PEEL.
be voluntary. It requires a living and a free agent
to give it birth. If we attempt to transplant it from
our own bosoms to the laws, it withers and dies. It
cannot inhabit an inert and inanimate mass, and the
fabled attempt of Prometheus to breathe life into his
lump of clay was not more presumptuous than the
endeavour to inspire a code of laws with that prin
ciple which, by its very essence, is inherent in a moral
and accountable being. And, in fact, this endeavour
to invest the laws with the office of humanity, incon
sistent and impracticable as it is when attempted from
the purest motives, does in reality often originate
from an imperfect sense of moral obligation, and alow
degree of benevolence in men themselves. Absurd
as the thought is, when expressed in words, men
would be virtuous, be humane, be charitable, by
proxy. This, however, not only the divine purpose
and the declared end of our being, but common sense
itself, forbids. To throw off the care of want, and
disease, and misery, upon the magistrate, is to con
vert humanity into police, and religion into a statute
book. There is a querulous sensibility, fostered by
sombre descriptions in prose and verse, of workhouses
and village poor, which tends only to breed discontent
and to propagate the most erroneous notions of the
duty of government, and the defects of civil institu
tions. When we hear these doctrines from the

VARIOUS OPINIONS. 151
mouths of seditious demagogues, we feel only indig
nation and disgust; but the offence against reason is
really as flagrant, though not so alarming, when these
false opinions are insinuated by means of the heart
into the weaker intellects of persons unaccustomed
to deep reflection ; not with a view to awaken active
benevolence, but to make them repine at the evils
incident to social life."
As I am quoting instructive passages, I will add
some which afford matter for manifold consideration.
The Tory Quarterly Review*, " Alms given in the
street, and similar charity, avail nothing; but he who
affords a poor person means to regain his position in
society, to raise himself again from great distress to
the independent gaining of his own subsistence, per
forms a work of real charity."
: The Radical Westminster Reviewt declares
against giving out-door relief to able-bodied persons,
for it makes them idle and improvident It is better
to spend money as wages, than as poor-rates ; only
we should avoid the error of having public works
executed by the poor, because, unfortunately, it too
often happens that what is of no use is performed in
the dearest manner at the public expense.
Mr. Sandby, in a work on the poor-law, says,
" Out-door relief to able-bodied persons would lessen
* cxxviii, 348. f Vol. xxviii.

152 THE STATE OF THE POOR.
order, moderation, industry, and voluntary acts of
charity. The firmness with which such relief is
generally refused, has had the happiest effects on the
farmer, the labourer, and the public ; increases em
ployment, industry, and charity ; elevates the cha
racter ; and in this manner most adequately relieves
the distress of honest families.
" I have repeated and given in all their force the
arguments against out-door relief to able-bodied
workmen, in order to strengthen my feeling against
confining them in workhouses ; and I have become
convinced that the course pursued is the best for
England, in order to pass from immense intolerable
evils to a more healthy condition, and in particular to
get rid of mischievous allowances. But that this
system is equally applicable, and to be recommended
in all countries, and at all times, or even that it is
capable of putting an end to all poverty and distress,
its most zealous advocates will scarcely venture to
affirm. As little as physicians and medical boards
can prevent all diseases, and even death itself — so
little can local and central boards solve that impos
sible problem ; and in the same manner as diseases
and the remedies for them are different, so also are
the reasons of poverty, and the mode of treating
them. In our days, what most strikes the eye is
the preponderance of the monied man over the

THE STATE OF THE POOR. 153
labourer, and that the gains of the first increases
almost without interruption, even through the mere
lapse of time ; while the only capita] of the latter,
his ability to labour, often lies unemployed, and
thereby causes him to be impoverished. The idea of
dividing gain and loss between both appears at first
sight very plausible ; but if we seek charitably to
carry it into effect, the complex relations of civilised
society oppose insuperable obstacles.
The distress of the factory workmen may cer
tainly be called new and peculiar. Antiquity, how
ever, was not better off when it allotted all manufac
turing labour to the slaves ; and even in our days,
as we see, there is no less distress in the country, than
in the manufacturing districts of England. The
manufactures are, besides, in the continued process of
improvement, natural and necessary ; and can no
more be got rid of by fair speeches, or rigorous
measures, than superfluous population by foundling
hospitals and infanticide. The glaring contrast be
tween the rich and the poor is doubtless offensive and
dangerous ; yet, we meet with it through all history,
and one prolific source of difference, birth, has at least
lost its power. Savings' banks diminish the evil ;
but only in a slight degree : and more might, perhaps,
be done by well-directed assurance offices.
Uncertain factory work is, at all events, better

154 THE STATE OF THE POOR.
than certain slave labour ; and it is only in a lower
point of view that it can be affirmed, that in trade, as
in politics, the freedom of one party causes the op
pression of the other. When the Roman empire,
with apparently flourishing manufactures, went to
ruin, there was no public law for the rich ; no civil
rights for the slaves. Christianity alone opened the
prospect of another world. There are, in our days,
power and means to overcome distress, as well as at
any other time ; nay, more means than in many
former periods, if we will but seriously apply them,
and not fancy that every source of evil is stopped by
building workhouses. It is absurd to indicate riches
as the chief source of poverty. The poorer the
society, the more general is the distress. Tribes of
fishermen and hunters do not possess so many means
to remedy it as Great Britain. Agriculture has
equally and still more unavoidable years of famine
than trade, and the internal intercourse may suffer as
well as foreign trade. There is no such thing as
absolute security on earth ; and distress in former
times was probably not less, but of a different kind.
Men were ruined and died, without statistical notices,
and without funeral orations in journals and pam
phlets. The new English poor-law very properly en
deavours to strengthen every man's moral energy

THE STATE OF THE POOR. 155
and will, and to set him on his own feet : it very pro
perly refrains from converting workhouses into poor-
houses for able-bodied workmen ; but another, not
inferior danger, appears to be gradually creeping in.
There were received in the workhouse for Suffolk
and Norfolk,
Bastards  548
Orphans  382
Children abandoned by the father  279
„ „ by father and mother - 54
„ of criminals  171
„ of sick and infirm persons  116
„ of widows, able to work, in the
workhouse  144
„ of widowers, able to work  36
„ of persons able to work, and re
ceived into the workhouse to relieve
their parents  122
Total, 1852
Admitted into the workhouses of 478 unions,
Children under sixteen years of age. . . 42,767
„ above  54,743
About 4,000 were under two years of age. 97,510
When I read this, it seemed to me that rewards
for thoughtless production of children are granted,

156 THE STATE OF THE POOR.
though in a rather different form ; and I am reminded
of all the absurdities, sufferings, and enormities
which arise in many countries from supporting and
fostering foundling hospitals.
In Scotland there are no poor-rates ; and it is
thought that the object might be more easily attained
by education and voluntary contribution. Though
many advantages of the Scotch management of the
poor are acknowledged, complaints are, however,
made, that the evil increases, and that the existing
means are insufficient*. A poor-rate, it is obvious,
does not hinder private charity ; but compels the hard
hearted to contribute. The English principles might
be adapted to the circumstances of Scotland, without
falling into the errors that have been committed in
England, There was as much diversity of opinion
as in Scotland respecting the value and the applica
bility of the English poor-law system in Ireland ; I
will, therefore, give an account of them in my next
letter. * Alison on the Management of the Poor in Scotland.

LETTER XIII.
Ireland — Public Law, Agriculture— Legislative Agricultural Laws.
London, July 24, 1841.
On more mature consideration — I say, that it is not
well possible to speak of the Irish management of the
poor without a view of the general condition of Ireland.
I will therefore now state what may be added in con
tinuation of my preceding account. On the whole,
the complaint is still true which I made in 1835 on
the state of things in that country. The easiest and
most usual way seems to be to lay the blame entirely
on the barbarism of the Irish, or the injustice of the
English. But, in truth, the foundations are much
more manifold and complex, and therefore the more
difficult to be remedied. When Lord Lyndhurst
said " the Irish are aliens in descent, language, and
religion," he was perfectly right ; for the Irish are of
another race, speak no English, and follow another
creed. When such extremes are to be reconciled,
and harmony, peace, and content, are to be possible
in one and the same state, the strictest justice must
be exercised towards those who are in so many res
pects aliens ; and to this justice must be added con-

158 IRELAND — PUBLIC LAW.
fidence and affection ; -a contrary course cannot
fail to produce hatred, and an endeavour to bring
about an entire separation of Ireland from England.
In what manner many persons would abolish this
contract, or had carried out Lord Lyndhurst's idea in
their own mind, appears in a passage in the Quarterly
Review*. The real justice which Ireland has so
long needed, would be the introduction of martial
law for ten years, under such a commander as Crom
well, whose plain dealing and impartiality would
have accustomed the whole country to peace and
order. There is scarcely any one who would now
recommend, in earnest, this senseless and wicked
course; all now extol a just and equal treatment of
England and Ireland ; the only doubts are whether,
and how far, the different circumstances of the two
countries call forth, and justify, a different legislation.
Much, however, is already gained by the acknow
ledgment of the general principle, though innumer
able obstacles still oppose a proper application of it.
For this reason, after the fashion of our days,
a remedy is sought preferably in changes of the law.
The long, tedious, and intricate debates on the Irish
Registration Bill, shewed, in the back-ground, a
desire to admit many individuals, because wisdom
and justice increase with numbers, or to exclude
* Quarterly Review, hi, 276.

AGRICULTURE. 159
many because these virtues decrease in the same pro
portion. The fear and the hope of gaining or losing
influence was probably more concealed, but still more
powerful. It is certain that the wish to participate
in the government arises in the many, when the few
do not exercise a paternal care for them.
The improvements in agriculture and trade appear
to be considerable. There were exported,
1825. 1835.
Oxen*  63,000 98,000
Sheep  72,000 125,000
Pigs  65,000 376,000
Butter, cwt  471,000 827,000
Flax and tow  54,000 163,000
Wheat, quarters  1819, 967,000
1829, 2,307,000
1837, 3,030,000
1838, 3,474,000
^*~ The greatest exportation was followed by a bad
harvest. 1839, 2,240,000
Exports from England to Ireland.
1825. 1835.
Woolen goods, yards. 3,384,000 7,884,000
Cotton goods  4,996,000 14,1 72,000
* Hansard, xlvi, 632, 644; ii, 281, 18.

160 AGRICULTURE.
The imports amounted — 1825. 1835.
Tea, lbs  3,889,000 4,794,000
Coffee, lbs  335,000 1,105,000
Coals, tons  734,000 1,001,000
The value of the exports from Ireland to England
amounted to  £7,048,000 12,080,000
Exports from England to Ireland,
£8,531,000 10,918,000
In the year 1816, Ireland did not possess a single
steam-boat ; in 1836, it had 71.
The pleasure derived from this incontestible im
provement is doubled by the testimonies that the rent
of land has been tripled within fifty years* ; but the
poverty of the peasanty has since increased ; and the
greatest exportation, especially of corn and cattle,
arises chiefly from the fact, that the poor Irish can
not afford to eat either meat or wheaten bread.
Thus, then, we are still compelled to behold, in
the defects of the laws and practice relative to land,
the chief source of all the misery of Ireland ; and
what I said upon this subject in 18351", has been since
confirmed by other observers. Thus M. De Beau
mont saysj, the more we consider Ireland, its wants,
and the difficulties of every kind in removing them,
* Annual Register, 1839, p. 51.
t England.
X Sur 1' Irlande, vol. ii. p. 198.

LEGISLATION. 161
the more are we inclined to believe that an essential
change in the condition of the peasantry is the true
remedy for its sufferings. On the other hand, he de
clares my proposals on this head to be revolutionary,
odious, and contrary to morality and policy. The
Quarterly Review says, in the same spirit, Mr. Von
Raumer must necessarily have remarked, how little
probability there is that our Protestantism or Popery
will be soon lowered to the philosophical standard of
Berlin. This circumstance might have led him to
doubt whether Prussia could be, with propriety,
quoted in this place ; and a little further investigation
into the temper of the Roman Catholics and Pro
testants in the Rhenish provinces would have
heightened his doubts. But as Mr. Von Raumer
seriously proposes, as a remedy for the evils of
Ireland, that all the tenants of that country should
at once be converted into landowners, we may in
some measure infer, with what extraordinary compo
sure a certain class of German Literati pursue their
didactic dissertations.
In reply to these French and English critics, I
will take upon myself the blame, that an insufficient
development of my ideas gave occasion to misun
derstanding ; but, when a German writer, well
known in Prussia and Berlin, asserts in print that
my proposals go beyond the worst that appeared in

162 AGRICULTURAL LAWS.
the French revolution, I venture to affirm that he
has either not read the passages in question, or that
he has read them carelessly or with ill-will.
Have I then really expressed myself so obscurely ?
I said literally, "my proposal is objectionable, unless
both parties gain ; if both parties are not gainers,
either impolicy or injustice, or both combined, pre
vail, and punishment will not fail to follow." How,
then, can I have recommended a general robbery,
since every one who has the use of his senses knows
'hat in every robbery both parties lose (bei jedem
^aube, beide Theile veriieren). The substance and
the object of a refutation should, therefore, be to
shew that my belief in the possibility of this gain by
both parties was a foolish error, or at best a good-
natured illusion. Nobody has attempted to prove
this ; all have found it more convenient to overwhelm
me with accusations of immorality, of a revolutinary
spirit, which are wholly imaginary. Theoretical
doctrines of German Literati have nothing to do in
this case, but approved practice and instructive ex
perience. The English landed proprietors, with the
same lease, have, however, applied them in a very
different manner from those in Ireland ; and, instead
of leases for a year, or even for a shorter time, have
granted longer ones, which almost afford the security
of property. This mode of proceeding, by which both

AGRICULTURAL LAWS. 163
parties undoubtedly gain, is what I recommended : I re
commended the Prussian system, which, by a legisla
tive measure went a step further, and produced the
most salutary consequences for all parties, as is ac
knowledged by every body, who is not blinded by
prejudice or selfishness. Industry, patriotism, inde
pendence, credit, and produce, increased; and dangers
which may perhaps here and there occur, may be
removed or regulated by farther legislation. Those
who doubt this, may take the trouble to examine the
Prussian legislation; this is not the place for didactic
disputations. No reasonable person will affirm that
it might be transferred at once to Ireland, and ap
plied without restriction; but no unprejudiced person
will deny that it contains great principles and points
out of real means of improvement.
True it is, when we look at the vast misery" of the
Irish peasantry, and see that centuries of govern
ment, and innumerable laws, have rather produced
than remedied it, we are tempted to feel less averse
even from violent means, or at least to acknowledge
the dark side of unrestricted private right, not regu
lated by public law. Hence Mr. Buret* exclaims,
" The sight of a population consigned to misery has
placed before my eyes the incredible abuses of pro
perty. The unlimited right to use and abuse such
* De la Misers des Classes Lahorieuses, 322, 327.

164 FRENCH AND GERMAN PEASANTRY.
property is a crying sin ; for it would give the present
proprietors a right to devour the land, as well
as all the productions, in order to increase their
enjoyments." There are certainly many excellent landlords,
and many well-disposed leaseholders in Ireland; but,
in general, both lose by the system which is now
almost universally followed. He who first throws it
aside and takes a better course, will acquire not only
a moral, but likewise a pecuniary gain, and will then
not accuse me as a revolutionist, and an advocate of
robbery. At the conclusion of my letter, I will add a remark
able passage from the Edinburgh Review*. The cot
tage of the French and German peasant is worse than
that of the English; but it is his own property. He
lives on common vegetables and on bread which an
English beggar would refuse ; but it comes from his
garden and his field. His clothing is coarse and ill-
made ; but the linen is perhaps grown, spun, and wove
in his own house; and his woollen clothing is frequently
the produce of his own sheep. He makes nothing in
a superior manner, but much tolerably well. His
labour and skill are divided; not directed, as in Eng
land, to one point. Such a population may be ill-fed,
clothed, and lodged ; but it is at least sure of employ-
* July 1841, p. 503.

IMPROVIDENCE IN IRELAND. 165
ment, and exposed only to the variations of the seasons.
Such a population is necessarily economical and pru
dent ; and least of all will it commit the greatest of all
imprudences, that of an inconsiderate marriage."
No where is this wise counsel neglected more
than in Ireland; youths, young men and women,
says Mr. Nicholls*, " marry there literally without
possessing a dwelling or any means of subsistence.
Accordingly there is no country to which emigration is
so necessary and advantageous as Ireland ; but so
long as more children are born than afterwards emi
grate (unless other counteracting measures are ap
plied), the complaints of too great a population will
not cease." * Report, vol. Ii, p. 31.

LETTER XIV.
Disturbances in Ireland. London, July 25, 1841.
A GREAT portion of my last letter contains illustra
tions and explanations from the instructive work of
Mr. Lewis, on "The Disturbances in Ireland*."
I copied the following extract so far back as July
1836; but this appears to me the best place to
insert it.
" By the settlement of Ireland after the revolution
of 1688, the power of the new government was so
firmly established, that no combined movement took
place in favour of the ancient dynasty, not even
during the Scottish rebellions of 1715 to 1745. The
first of the risings, which had little or nothing in com
mon with the previous troubles in Ireland, was that
of the Whiteboys or Levellers, in 1761. These in
surgents were so called, because they wore white
shirts over their clothes, as a badge of their union,
* On Local Disturbances in Ireland, and on the Irish Church
Question.

DISTURBANCES IN IRELAND. 167
and because one of their principal objects was the
levelling of the fences of newly-inclosed waste-land.
The immediate cause of their rising is stated as
follows by Dr. Curry, the earliest and best-informed
writer on the subject : —
" About this time great tumults had been raised
and some outrages committed in different parts of
Munster, by cottiers, and others of the lowest class
of its inhabitants, occasioned by the tyranny and rapa
city of their landlords. These landlords had let
their lands to cottiers far above their value, and, to
lighten their burden, had allowed commonage to their
tenants. Afterwards, in despite of all equity, con
trary to all compacts, the landlords inclosed those
commons*, and precluded their unhappy tenants from
the only means of making their bargains tolerable.
Another cause of tKese people's discontents was the
cruel exactions of tithe-mongers ; these harpies
squeezed out the very vitals of the people, and by
process, citation and sequestration, dragged from
them the little which the landlord had left them."
Mr. O'Connor, writing to Dr. Curry, says, " I as
sured Dr. Warner that they proceeded from the
* By commons is here doubtless meant merely ivasle land. If
tliere had been a right of commonage over these wastes, and they had
not been private property, the landlords would have been unable to in
close them without the consent of the commoners.

168 DISTURBANCES IN IRELAND.
throwing of that province, like Connaught and Lein-
ster, into pasture-inclosures, which excluded the
poor, and reduced them into a state of desperation,
and into that rage which despair on such occasions
will dictate." Arthur Young describes in similar
terms the cruelty of the charges that are made, and
the distress of the lower classes produced by them.
The landlords, he says, expel the people, because
cows and sheep appeared in many places more profit
able. Even at that time we find the system after
wards acted upon by the Whiteboys, viz. compulsion
to make people join in their union, punishment of
those who resisted, intimidation of witnesses, of plain
tiffs, &c.
Their proceedings were directed against rent
and taxes, without being at all connected with reli
gious feelings. The clergy rather endeavoured to
prevent their excesses.
All the subsequent disturbances (with the ex
ception of the political troubles of 1798) have re
lated to the respective situations of landlord and
tenant ; and this was, and still is, different, and more
unhappy in Ireland than in any other country ; for
etther, which was very common, the landlord lived
abroad, and then the tenants fell into the hands of
oppressive, rapacious, middle-men ; or, he lived on

DISTURBANCES IN IRELAND. 169
the spot, and then, as a member of the privilege
class, as a Protestant, he was often inclined and en
titled, without any responsibility^ to treat his Roman
Catholic tenants harshly ; and, was it not the greatest
and most general injustice, that the Roman Catholics
are declared incapable of acquiring land ! The chief
object of the Whiteboys was to maintain the actual
tenant in the undisturbed possession of his piece of
land, and to see that at his death it should remain in
the possession of his .family. They effected both,
by preventing, or punishing the ejectment of the
tenant, and the taking of his land by another. Some
times the efforts of the Whiteboys are directed to
fixing the rate of wages ; very seldom, in later times,
to the tithes : this is apparent from the following
view of the crimes committed in Munster in 1833.
There were
Crimes connected with the occupation of land, 140
„ employment of labourers, 67
„ collection of tithes, rent,
„ and local taxes, and the
„ enforcing of their pay-
„ ment by law  71
„ payment of tithes  10
Crimes committed in order to obtain arms . . 65
Crimes connected with forced marriages .... 13
VOL. I. I

170 DISTURBANCES IN IRELAND.
Crimes connected with religious feeling .... 2
„ „ political feeling .... 3
„ ,, local party feeling (fac
tions)  28
Miscellaneous  12

411
" The principal objects the Whiteboys have in
view, is to keep themselves upon their lands. I have
often heard their conversations, when they say,
' What good did the Emancipation do us ? are we
better clothed or fed, or our children better clothed
and fed ? are we not as naked as we were, and
eating dry potatoes when we can get them ? Let us
notice the farmers to give us better food and better
wages, and not give so much to the landlord.' " All
these latter troubles had nothing to do with religion,
and were partly the greatest in wholly Romish dis
tricts. The attacks are made equally, for the same
reasons, on Protestants and Romanists ; but, indeed,
the poor and oppressed are for the most Romanists.
The Association of the Romish Ribonmen against the
Protestant Orangists was of a different kind.
The Whiteboys employ every kind of violence to
attain their ends ; their punishments are seldom
directed against their landlords, but generally against
new tenants. When, for instance, a tenant is ejected,

DISTURBANCES IN IRELAND. 171
and another comes in his place, the latter is warned,
threatened, and, if he does not obey, punished with
extreme severity, even with assassination, and the
burning of his house. This is a secret, formidable
tribunal, against which the ordinary laws and courts
of justice are utterly powerless. " The Whiteboys
find in their favour, already existing, a general and
settled hatred of the law among the great body of the
peasantry. The Irish peasant has been accustomed
to look upon the law as an engine for oppressing and
coercing him, administered by hostile persons, and in
a hostile spirit*. He has been accustomed to look
upon himself as the object of general persecution ;
' the world has not been his friend, nor the world's
law :' and he has sought for protection from illegal
combination against legal oppression. The extent to
which the hatred of the law and the sympathy with
• Rev. John Keily: — " I believe it was a pretty general feeling
among the common people in Ireland, that there was little justice to be
had for them ; in fact, I conceive it to be one of the greatest blessings,
that Ireland can obtain an equal distribution of justice to all classes
there. I do not here make distinction of classes as it regards religion,
but I mean the poor and the rich. It was formerly an Irish adage, that
a word in the court was better than a pound in the purse. It is an Irish
phrase, the idea that nothing was to be done but through interest, I will
not say bribery. But, that a word in the court was better than a pound'
in the purse, is a phrase almost in every person's mouth in the country
whence I came.
" What circumstances induced them to entertain those opinions ?
— A general feeling that might was more powerful than law and right in
Ireland."— H. C, 1825, p. 397. 12

172 DISTURBANCES IN IRELAND.
criminals are carried in Ireland, is so great as to be
scarcely credible to persons who have lived in a
country where the mass of the community feel that
their interests are on the side of the established order
of things." Crimes, on the contrary, which are not
connected with the possession of land, &c. such
as robbing for mere personal gain ; and some species
of crimes, — for example, parricide, or child-murder, —
would probably create nearly as much disgust in the
Irish as any other peasantry. Scarcely any person
ventures to give evidence in court against a White-
boy ; for which reason all legal proof is impossible.
The Whiteboys rule, in many parts, without control,
and there the country is quiet; and they inflict no
more punishments, because the people do what they
choose to command to be done. Public opinion, in
the neighbourhood of the Whiteboys, declares for
them and protects them. They do not form an asso
ciation of a few desperate characters, but a well-
organized union of peasants and tenants, who endea
vour to protectthemselves by violence from the danger
of complete poverty and wretchedness. They express
the wants and the feelings of the great masses of the
people. Wherever they prevail, they do away with
the existing law and. the existing government ; and
establish a rule in its place, which, in its immediate
effects, appears to be advantageous to the tenant ¦

DISTURBANCES IN IRELAND. 173
but is, at the same time, arbitrary, capricious, violent,
and blood-thirsty ; hurts the upper classes, seduces the
lower, and in time endangers the existence of civil
society. All attempts to put an end to this state of
things by legal measures and severe punishments
have entirely failed, and must fail, because they, by
no means remove the cause of the general evil ; men,
who have nothing to hope, and little to fear, from the
consequences of their crimes, are not to be influenced
by ordinary means and mere criminal law.
There is in Ireland a want of profitable, con
tinued employment; this is the reason that the
mass of the people is driven to agricultural labour.
The impossibility of living as labourers, and on daily
wages, compels the inhabitants to enter into leases on
exorbitant conditions, and, because they are ejected
if they do not fulfil them, they have no other re
source than to join the Whiteboys. There is a want
of capitalists, and of large farms, which afford employ
ment. It is also impossible for the proprietor to
unite great masses of land, because the ejected
tenants fall into the greatest distress, and the new
occupants are in danger of being murdered. There
is a general desire to give each of the many children
a piece of their land, and to leave it to him as an
inheritance ; which leads to a too great division into

174 DISTURBANCES IN IRELAND.
small portions, and to constant misunderstandings
between the landlords and the tenants.
Thus far I have quoted Mr. Lewis' instructive
work, to which I will add a few remarks.
I. — Those who ascribe all the evils of Ireland
chiefly to the Roman Catholic Religion, and oppose
all improvement in the legislation, for fear of the
Papists, find here not only no confirmation, but
a sufficient refutation of their views on the subject.
II. — The tyranny of private right, not restricted
or directed by any law, is here manifest. The di
visions, and the enclosures of commons, which, if due
prudence had been observed, would have been ad
vantageous to all parties, have produced the greatest
misery ; and from that misery the most revolting
exercise of arbitrary power has arisen.
III. — The legislator should effect, by laws, what
the Whiteboys endeavour to obtain by illegal means ;
for the object is natural, and if attained, would
benefit all. The object, I say, is natural ; for every
one must desire to be secured against want, and
to see his children provided for. The Emanci
pation Bill, as I observed in my former letters, is but
the first step of a necessary series of improvements ;
it did not bring any direct advantage to the lower
classes.

DISTURBANCES IN IRELAND. 175
IV. — When existing laws are universally de
tested, and the violation of them is not considered as
a crime, local measures and punishments no longer
avail. The subject must be considered from a higher
point of view, and prosperity and harmony established
by great measures.
The laws still exist in name ; but in truth tbey are
abolished by the Whiteboys. Nominally the land
owner can do what he pleases with the land and the
tenants ; in reality he has no power over them, and
his right and property are transferred by arbitrary
and violent means to others. Would it not then be
infinitely better to effect a moderate improvement, to
the advantage of both parties, by equitable laws, than
to suffer every thing to be thus turned upside down ?
Emigrations have already taken place, and it may
be well to facilitate and promote them. It is, however,
an erroneous assertion, that Ireland has such an
excessive population, that a portion must necessarily
be sent to other countries and distant quarters of the
globe. The same complaint of a surplus population
was made fifty years ago ; and since that time the
produce of Ireland has so much increased, that it
would afford subsistence for double the former
number of inhabitants. The same may, perhaps,
be the case in the next ten years ; or double the

176 DISTURBANCES IN IRELAND.
capital, and with it employment, the population will
not be too great.
In the Quarterly Review, No. CXI., we find the
following passages: — " If a landowner divides his
fields into small portions, and takes from them as
much profit as he can, his revenue will be larger than
with abetter system." Very true ; but it is only for
a short time that the poor gives more than the rich
tenant; and when the Whiteboys enterfere, this erro
neous calculation is so much the sooner found to be
fallacious.

LETTER XV.
Irish poor in Englaud — Observations. London, July 'lo, 1841.
By way of introduction to the later discussions on a
New Poor Law, I send you to-day an extract from
the " Instructive Enquiries and Reports on the Irish
Poor in England."
In the first place, I must observe, that the persons
putting the questions and making the reports, as
well as all the witnesses, are Englishmen, and there
fore partiality to the Irish is certainly out of the
question. There is, however, no reason to complain
of partiality against the Irish, though there is, of
course, a difference in the experience and opinions of
the persons examined. I could have wished, how
ever, that some Irishmen, even of the lower orders,
had been examined ; for discoveries are often made
by this means, which are too easily concealed from
persons in a superior station.
The opinion which is most generally given is the
following: — "the immigration of the beggarly poor
Irish to England is very prejudicial, and ought to be
prohibited, because it diminishes the wages of the

178 IRISH POOR IN ENGLAND.
English labourers, and corrupts their morals." I have
always the greatest distrust of assertions of this kind ;
for, not to mention that they frequently take the
thing to be proved, as granted, and then boldly
proceed to further conclusions, it usually happens that
what is thus proved, affords no satisfactory ground for
the proposals and laws which it is intended to justify.
No notice is taken of the partiality of the proceeding,
as many persons do not recollect that the same side of
the moon is always turned towards us, and why this
is so. Thus most Englishmen abide by the English
view of the case, entirely forgetting that there is an
Irish one ; or, might we not reverse the above fact,
and conclusion,' without committing a fault against
the rules of logic, and say, the immigration of the poor
Irish to England is very advantageous, and ought to
be encouraged, for it raises the wages of the Irish
workmen and improves their morals ? When one
party gains as much as the other loses, the one cer
tainly balances the other ; but I am convinced that, in
the end, and on the whole, both parties gain.
I am myself, however, falling into the mistake
which I blame ; I begin with generalities, instead of
giving testimonies and facts. The Irish, says the
report, are satisfied with the lowest wages, and yet
they are higher than in their own country. Whereas
they receive there sixpence, or at the most a shilling

IRISH POOR IN ENGLAND. 179
per day, they gain in England two or three shillings.
A second equally great advantage is that they find
here constant, uninterrupted employment, which they
can seldom depend upon in Ireland. They are ready
to perform the meanest and hardest manual labour ;
and many of them become hucksters and petty retail
dealers. Many shew great skill and dexterity in
their business. Any suitable education would make
them equal to the English in all affairs of trade.
Several of them seem to be quite in their element in
buying and selling.
The English and Irish receive different wages
only in proportion as they differ in ability ; the former,
however, are more prudent managers, and live better
on the same wages : they like to have meat, and to
be well lodged ; whereas the Irish are content with
potatoes and herrings, and are indifferent to a dirty
dwelling. On the other hand, they are more addicted
to spirituous liquors, and are fond of dress. Upon
the whole, they behave better or worse than the
English ; they are either diligent, willing, dexterous,
well-conducted, or idlers and drunkards. In general,
they marry early; have numerous families, and in
proportion many debts. Their wives are said to be
bad managers, and given to drinking and other vices;
yet, before marriage, they are generally more modest
than Englishwomen of the same rank, which appears

180 IRISH POOR IN ENGLAND.
to be an effect of the ancient laws on illegitimate
children. As the English are not inclined to have much
intercourse with them, they live for the most part
together in certain quarters, which makes it more
difficult for them to adopt another and better mode of
life. Those whose morals were corrupted before
they left Ireland, generally become worse in England
or Scotland ; because they throw aside all restraint,
and soon perceive that the clergy here cannot con
trol them, like the priests in Ireland. The separa
tion from parents, relatives, and friends, has often an
unfavourable influence in this respect. Those who
are not corrupted when they come to England, gene
rally improve in their morals ; because they are
constantly employed, less exposed to want, and follow
the good example of their fellow workmen.
Many of the Irish peasantry have their morals
corrupted by the transition to the temptations of a
town life in England ; yet, on the whole, they gain
more than the English lose, by their intercourse with
each other. Their mode of life can be gradually
improved only by rewards, example, instruction, &c.
The crimes which they commit in England are
not of a dangerous kind, as is so frequently the case
in Ireland ; but generally the consequence of violent
tempers and drunkenness.

IRISH POOR IN ENGLAND. 181
England pays large sums for Irish poor ; and they
are larger, as they are not always employed in the
most judicious manner. The Irish themselves are
very charitable in relieving each other, as far as their
means will allow.
Immigration* from Ireland has increased: 1, be
cause those who come over obtain, as we have said,
higher wages and constant employment; 2, because
many English country people do not like to begin a
town life ; 3, because the unions of English work
men to compel the masters to give higher wages have
caused a demand for Irish ; 4, because property in
Ireland is less secure, and there is no poor-law for
the relief of the indigent ; 5, because the expense of
immigration has so much diminished since the esta
blishment of steam-boats, that a man generally pays
only a shilling, and sometimes only sixpence for the
passage. If there were no immigration from Ireland, more
Scotch Highlanders would have come to England ;
but no great number of workmen can be depended
on from that country. The Highlanders are shep
herds, fishermen, or farmers' labourers ; disinclined
* From March 1836 to March 1837, 74,000 Irish lauded at Liver
pool, and 50,000 returned to Ireland; and from 1838 to 1839, there
landed 45,000, and 39,000 returned. About 50,000 Irish live in
Glasgow, and 60,000 iu Manchester —Hansard, li, 1229.

182 OBSERVATIONS.
to working in the manufactories, and not so ready
and quick in learning a new business as the Irish.
To these facts I will add some observations.
I. — There is no essential difference between the
English and Irish in regard to their intellectual qua
lities ; and the defects which appear occasionally, will
be most easily remedied, and even wholly removed,
by employment, education, mutual influence, and
equal treatment.
II. — The amount of wages is by no means de
termined by the number of workmen alone ; but,
in the last instance, much more by the possibility of
paying wages from the profit of the work. Thus,
for instance, it would be very foolish to believe that,
if the number of workmen in a manufactory were
suddenly reduced one-half, the wages of the remain
der might be increased one-half.
III. — The lower the wages, the more easy is it
(independently of the influence of other circum
stances) to sustain a competition with other countries,
and extend the manufactures. This effect has been
partly produced by the Irish workmen, without wages
having fallen so low that the workmen could not sub
sist upon them. Or if they fell in some measure for
the English, they at least rose in the same proportion
for the Irish.
The farmers derive as much advantage in the

OBSERVATIONS. 183
harvest-time from the immigration of the Irish, as the
manufacturers do.
Mr. Alexander Carlisle, cotton manufacturer in
Paisley, seems to have hit the right nail on the head,
when he says "the immense coal-mines under us,
and, so to speak, the inexhaustible mine of labour in
Ireland, form together one of the greatest mysteries
of the almost unparelleled prosperity of the country."
Nobody denies this, with respect to the coals, the
inorganic riches of the country : but I am convinced
that in a few years the same views will be general
with respect to the abundance of living power.

LETTER XVI.
Ireland — Poor-laws — Opinions — Labour in England and Ireland —
Parliamentary Opinions. London, July 21, 1841.
Whatever opinions may be entertained of the new
poor-law for Ireland, passed 31st of July 1838, it is
certain that the report and the discussions in Parlia
ment manifest the endeavour, without the influence
of party views, to obtain a thorough knowledge of
the existing evils, and to discover the best means of
remedying them. It is to be regretted that the in
vestigation did not lead to a coincidence of views on
both points; but, in difficult and complicated affairs,
this is so natural, that we cannot be surprised at it.
Let us first hear some of the witnesses.
Mr.Nicholls says, in his Reports*, land is the great
want of every Irishman ; but as the small portion
which he gets to cultivate by no means affords him con
stant occupation, he never learns the value of time ;
he becomes indolent, does not concern himself about
the future, and gives himself up to drinking. There is
little demand for labour, and little inclination to work
* Reports, 1837, vol. Ii.

IRELAND— POOR-LAWS — OPINIONS. 1 85
as day-labourers. If we should lay down, as a prin
ciple, that every poor person had a right to relief, all
wouldapply forit,andall property would be consumed.
Beggary in Ireland is but the external sign, though
no proof, of want. Voluntary support is not suffi
cient; and the present mode of raising contributions
is unequal and partial, inasmuch as they fall almost
exclusively on the lower classes, while the rich and
the absentees are exempt. The poor-rate should
be divided between the landowners and the tenant.
Beggary can be prevented without mischievous out
door relief, if the Irish are referred to the work
houses, which they hate. A law on settlements is un
necessary, as soon as no right to relief is allowed.
Mr. Senior confirms the want of daily wages and.
of constant employment, and ascribes the misery of
Ireland to the division of the land into too small por
tions, to want of capital, the insecurity of persons
and property, &c. — Mr. Lewis is of opinion that the
English poor-law, with some modifications, might be
introduced into Ireland. The Westminster Review
says, beggary is to the Irish peasant what the local
poor-fund was for the English workman ; viz. an ap
parently inexhaustible source of relief. Both have
produced a spirit of improvidence and carelessness.
Colonel Torrens, in a letter to Lord John Russell,
declares : The state of Ireland is so peculiar, that it

186 LABOUR IN ENGLAND AND IRELAND.
cannot be changed by poor-laws and workhouses : so
long as activity and produce do not increase, so long
as land and labour do not yield more, it is impossible
permanently to improve the condition of the dis
tressed. For apiece of land, which in England re
quires two labourers, five are required in Ireland.
Acres.
1,131,000 persons cultivate, in England, 34,000,000.
1 ,095,000  Ireland, 14,000,000.
In England, the produce is worth 150,000,000
sterling. In Ireland, only 36,000,000. An English
labourer, therefore, produces the value of £142 in a
year; an Irish labourer, only £31. The former
receives ten shillings a week wages ; the latter a quar
ter of that sum. So long as this state of things con
tinue, the people must remain poor ; they cannot be
enriched by laws and regulations.
The debates in Parliament on a new poor-law
for Ireland are so peculiar and instructive, that I
cannot resolve to weaken them by compressing them
into a general narrative ; I will rather endeavour to
select some leading points from the speeches of the
members. Lord John Russell*. — We have great difficulties
to contend with, which have been imposed upon us
by former ages; we must not, however, be deterred
* Hansard, xxxvi, 453.

PARLIAMENTARY OPINIONS. 187
by them, but endeavour the more carefully to avoid
ancient mistakes. Poor-laws are peaceful measures
to enable a country to forbid beggary. It seems, to
the common feeling of mankind, to be unjust to say
to the needy who cannot support themselves, you
shall not roam about the country", to get rid of your
distress by the charity of the rich. It is not till the
poor-law offers assistance, that we can proceed against
beggary. A poor-law greatly promotes social union,
because it proves an inclination to provide for the
well-being of all classes. It is for the interest of every
rate-payer, that every one about him should be em
ployed, and that his own tenants should be well off.
In Soulbury*, poverty had so increased in conse
quence of the defective regulations, that the land
owners abandoned their land, the tenants their farms,
the clergy their tithes, and left all in the undisputed
possession of the poor. It is the principle of the
new institutions, as of the enactments of Elizabeth,
to bring the poor into a position which is more un
comfortable and disagreeable, than that of the active
independent labourer. Therefore, a poor-house must
be so arranged, that the poor willingly avoid going
into it. If possible, aid should be given to every one
in need of it, and not merely to the blind and the
lame, who most easily excite, and find compassion.
" Page 457.

188 PARLIAMENTARY OPINIONS.
Emigrations have their advantages ; but if the
expense of them were to be paid by the state, all
voluntary emigration would cease, and many, after
having received the money, would rather remain
here than go away. The idea of sending away the
poor by force, is cruel and impracticable. The in
crease of population in Ireland has not been in an
equal proportion to the means for their subsistence.
The beggars in Ireland now levy a tax of £700,000
to a million ; and yet the importunate and the impos
tor, not the truly indigent, is often relieved.
The landowners are for the most part indifferent
to the fate of their tenants ; there is a want of know
ledge, public spirit, even compassion ; and every one
who is ejected from his piece of land immediately
falls into the greatest distress. A poor-rate will
essentially alter and improve this state of things ;
want of capital produces want of employment ; want
of employment produces distress, disturbances, and
insecurity ; and hence again arises want of capital.
Thus all moves in an unfortunate circle, without ever
advancing. No out-door relief, which mingles beggary and
work ; no law of settlement, which limits the market
for demand and activity ; no ecclesiastical members
of a poor-law board, for they act more beneficially
as mediators; no right of voting without payment of

PARLIAMENTARY OPINIONS. 189
the poor-rates. One principal board for England and
Ireland, that there may be a general superintendence,
and uniform modes of proceeding, the division of the
tax between the landlords and tenants ; and above all,
to include the absentees, who have hitherto escaped
all these burthens.
Mr. O'Connor. — It is good to throw the relief of
the poor, from the poor to the rich, whose property
becomes more valuable through greater security,
than by the excessive offers of indigent people, who
then make, and execute agricultural laws to their own
advantage. A law of settlement is out of the ques
tion, so long as we do not give the poor a right to
support. Lord Morpeth. — The distress is so great, that
something must be done. The poorhouse will be an
inducement to seek for work, and likewise to give
work, in order to reduce the poor-rate.
Sir Edward Sugden. — A poor-law will better the
condition of the people, and oblige the landlords to
take more interest in the fate of the labouring class.
— (The Dukes of Wellington and Devonshire were
of the same opinion.)
a Lord Lyndhurst. — There has been no application
for a poor-law. The experiment is dangerous, and
the people want work, not the inclination to be
diligent. Lord Hatherton. — Those who are to pay the

190 PARLIAMENTARY OPINIONS.
poor-rates of course make no application for a poor-
law ; and those who are to receive, can neither read
nor write. If the law is to be brought into operation
at once, regulations respecting settlement are unne
cessary ; if it is to be gradually introduced, they
cannot be dispensed with.
The Marquis of Lansdowne. — The principals and
most useful effect will be on the rate-payers, par
ticularly the absentees.
Mr. Richards. — In point of fact, a poor-law
already exists in Ireland, since the beggars levy a
million in an irregular and false manner. Charity
will not be destroyed by judicious poor-laws.
Lord Stanley. — It is impossible to exaggerate, or
to estimate too highly, the importance of the evils now
existing in Ireland : the habit of begging arises
from the general and arbitrary system of relief for
real or pictured, merited or unmerited, distress.
This poison is insinuated in the family ; it promotes
carelessness, checks all improvements, discourages
industry, forethought, and prudence, and ruins the
moral and social condition of Ireland. In compa
rison with this evil, even very high taxation seems of
little importance ; the poor Irish are extremely cha*
ritable ; but the rich and the state must also do
something, and contribute to the extirpation of this
evil.

PARLIAMENTARY OPINIONS. 191
Mr. O'Connell. — The new law is false in prin
ciple, and poor in substance. To support the poor is
a moral and Christian duty ; but it is a mistake to at
tempt to convert it into a legal, compulsory duty.
The misery of Ireland arises from so many causes,
that it seems foolish to expect relief from such an
absurd, petty remedy. Give us all the rights of
England, and we will ourselves provide for our
poor, without troubling you. The evil arises not
only from the possession of land, and too high rents ;
there are 500,000 miserably poor Irish who have not
a foot of land. You gave 20,000,000 to the negroes,
or their masters ; and what do you offer us ? the
right to tax ourselves, and to put our money from the
one pocket into the other. The Irish look every
where for employment ; but when multitudes, able
to work, can no where find employment, and starve ;
you say starve, or suffer yourselves to be shut up.
There are too many poorhouses ; and, jTet again, in
proportion to the really distressed, far too few.
The expenses are excessive, and the whole ma
chinery of inspectors, sub-inspectors, buildings, &c.
much too intricate. The absentees, who do nothing
for the country and the people, should be doubly
taxed; the clergy not excluded from taking part in
the boards ; the mere tenants should be less bur
dened, emigration facilitated, and every" other means

192 PARLIAMENTARY OPINIONS.
tried, rather than the introduction of an English
poor-law. Mr. O'Brien. — If the misery of Ireland has al
ready reached the highest degree, it cannot be in
creased by a poor-law. A tax on the absentees, or
for the promotion of emigration, would be only a
compulsory poor-rate. The claims of the poor are
not opposed to the interests of the rich ; but poor-
houses cost more than emigration.
Mr. Wyse. — As long as greater relief is refused,
any poor-law affords only a miserable, apparent
remedy to ecclesiastical, political, spiritual, and tem
poral evils. Land is let at the highest rate ; labour
paid at the lowest. Thence arises the distress of
the labourers, and of those who are able to labour.
Mr. Shaw. — Out-door relief would have a most
injurious effect, and put an end to all free, inde
pendent labour.
The Duke of Wellington. — If no assistance is
to be given to those who are able to work, the
machinery of poor-houses is superfluous.
Mr. Crawford. — When there is a monopoly of
landed property*, and corn laws, there must be pro
tection and assistance for the poor ; and if laws have
been enacted against usurious interest, why not also
* Hansard, xxxviii, 383; xxxix, 493 ; xl, 947 ; xlii, 675; xliii,
16, 675, 352, 440, 477, &c.

PARLIAMENTARY OPINIONS. 193
against usurious rents ? Poverty has its root in the
relations of the landlord to the tenant. Where there
is no law of settlement, the responsibility of the land
lord is at an end, and the beggars roam over the
whole country. Confinement in the workhouse should
not be an indispensable condition of relief to men
capable of working; it is more expensive, and renders
it more difficult for those who are so confined, to
better their condition by obtaining employment out
of the house.
Earl Fitzwilliam. — It is not the poor-houses, but
the overseers, that give the right evidence of indi
gence. All the proposals proceed only from traders
in humanity ; and are not approved in Ireland, be
cause they come from England.
Sir Robert Peel. — No system is secure against
objections ; we must, therefore, wait for the instruc
tion of time and experience. A great disadvantage
of the system of workhouses lies in its inflexibility.
Perhaps this might be diminished by some connection
with relief at home. If, in general, the Irish are
extremely averse to that means, and, especially, will
not separate from parents and other relations, it at
least affords real aid to those who are in need of it.
It is very unadvisable to expend large sums on public
works, merely to obtain work for those who are un
employed. For, in a tranquil country, and a well-
VOL. I. K

194 POOR-LAW IN IRELAND.
regulated civil society, all really useful employment
is afforded by private enterprises. Such public work
increases the evil ; inasmuch as it excites hopes of
constant employment, whereas it can only be tem
porary. Notwithstanding all objections, it was resolved in
Parliament, by a very large majority, to introduce
into Ireland a poor-law, similar to that of England.
The enactments respecting poor-houses, superintend
ents, inspectors, unions, and the distribution of relief,
are essentially the same. The tax is almost exclu
sively imposed on landed property and income con
nected with it. It is paid by the tenant, and the half
of it deducted from the rent. The guardians are
chosen annually by those who are liable to pay, or
rather by those who actually pay. They have, in
proportion to their contribution, from one to six votes.
A net income of 30/. per annum is the highest quali
fication that is required for a guardian. Certain
persons (for instance, justices of the peace) are offi
cially guardians ; but their number is not to exceed
one third of those elected. No clergymen can be
chosen guardian.
The inspectors and guardian?, in their reports for
1839, do not deny that the first and most general
feeling in Ireland was directed against the new law,
and that it was considered as an additional evil. By

POOR-LAW IN IRELAND. 195
patience, moderation, perseverance, and instruction,
the opposition was allayed ; but still the law was not
liked. In the year 1840, the reporters speak of pro
gress being made, though party spirit and greater
poverty had increased the difficulties. O'Connell, and
those who think with him, affirm that the new law
has an injurious effect, and that, by a far too complex
administration ; by salaries, poor-houses, &c. the ex
pense was increased, and the number of the poor not
diminished. There being no law of settlement, the
poor were sent into the towns, and the sympathy and
relief to the neighbouring poor were diminished.
The English system of workhouses is justified
chiefly on the ground, that men able to work, who
have been spoilt and rendered indolent by allowances
in aid of wages, ought to be deterred and compelled
to svork. In Scotland, on the contrary, there is no
such necessity; because allowances of that kind were
never made ; and in general it is not the fault of
those able to work if they remain unemployed. If
the aversion of the Irish to suffer themselves to be
confined in workhouses were not so very great, the
application of persons really indigent would soon
increase to such a degree that the whole system
would be broken up, as insufficient and excessively
costly. At all events, very different means must be
K 2

196 TEMPERANCE SOCIETIES.
employed — a very different course taken — to establish
order, content, and prosperity in Ireland.
The temperance societies, founded by Father
Matthew, do more good to Ireland than the work
houses. Every member renounces all intoxicating
liquors, unless prescribed as medicine. Hence ex
traordinary savings arose ; the affrays, attacks, in
flicting of wounds, formerly so frequent, ceased, and
health was manifestly improved. That many persons
looked on these natural consequences as a miracle,
and Father Matthew as a worker of miracles, in spite
of his assurances to the contrary, I would not blame
so severely as many have done. The temperance
societies certainly cause a gain of hundreds of thou
sands ; and even the loss to the revenue, which is an
inferior consideration, will soon be made up for in
another way. The greatest and truly praiseworthy
wonder is, that a whole people, by the energy of a
free, voluntary resolution, should emancipate itself
from a deeply-rooted vice, and begin, it may be hoped
for ever, a new and respectable way of life. Instead
of indulging in ridicule or calumny, many intem
perate Englishmen had better follow the example of
the Irish.

LETTER XVII.
English Municipal Law — Irish Municipal Law.
"London, July 27, 1841.
If opinions differed on the suitableness of a poor-
law for Ireland, they diverged still further on the
question, whether Ireland needed a municipal corpora
tion law, and whether the English law should extend
to Ireland ? In order to understand and answer this
question, we must call to mind what disputes have
already taken place in England on this subject*, and
what apprehensions have been expressed. Even a
Prussian minister of state (who knew the salutary
effects of the Prussian municipal law, and was per
fectly acquainted with foreign affairs) believed that
the English municipal law of the 9th of September,
1835, would lead to a sanguinary revolution. All,
however, went on quietly, and the consequences
have been very beneficial ; yet of so peaceable a kind,
that, out of England, hardly any thing has been
heard of them.
The new municipal law enacted, that all the
rights and revenues of the freemen and other privi-
* England, vol. ii, letter 27.

198 ENGLISH MUNICIPAL LAW.
leged persons should remain in force ; on the other
hand, all privileges for exclusive trade were abolished.
Every resident occupier of a house or shop, who has
been liable to the payment of poor-rates for three
years, and has actually paid them, has the right of a
citizen. Every other means of acquiring these rights
ceases. The magistracy consists of a mayor, alder
men, and common-councilmen. The number of
common-council men is three times as great as that of
the aldermen. In small towns the citizens choose
twelve, in large towns forty-two, councilmen, and the
number of the aldermen chosen by the councilmen
by open voting is from four to sixteen. The mayor
is chosen annually by the council, either from their
own body, or the aldermen. A third of the council-
men go out every year, but may be re-elected. A
man must possess property, varying in the different
towns from 500/. to 1,000/. to be eligible to these
offices. No clergyman is eligible. At least one
third of the councilmen must be present to take a
resolution, and the majority decides. They have the
right to make bye-laws, and take a decided part in
most matters relative to the administration and to
taxes. The mayor is at the head of the whole, and
the aldermen are his immediate assisfants.
Five plans for a municipal law for Ireland were
laid before Parliament, none of which were adopted ;

ENGLISH MUNICIPAL LAW. 199
and a sixth was agreed to, with great difficulty, because
longer delay became more and more dangerous, and
the principle of an essentially different treatment of
England and Ireland could no longer be maintained.
For these six centuries it has been affirmed that Ire
land is not ripe for equal treatment. If this be true,
it must be allowed that the mode of education hither' o
pursued has been the slowest recorded in the histo; v
of the world. In the year 1836, a Tory said to m. ,
" Time gained, all gained." But the latter part of
this proverb, which is equally true, says, " Time lost,
all lost." Another said, if we reject the bill for some
consecutive years, the Irish, who have been artificially
excited, will entirely forget the whole affair ; a no
tion, which appears to me thoroughly false, in a
matter of such general necessity and interest. It is
certainly true, as Sir Robert Peel remarked, that
countries and cities have been well governed and
prosperous without municipal laws ; this, however,
was not the question, but what the circumstances of
place and time now demanded.
Let us hear first what was said in Parliament*
against the introduction of a municipal law into Ire
land. In theory, said its opponents, the plan looks
very well, but it will work badly in practice ; it will
increase the power of the Whigs, give the. predomi-
* Hansard, xxxvi, 207, 301, 667, 747.— xxxvji, 928.— xxxviii, 261.

200 IRISH MUNICIPAL LAW.
nance to the Roman Catholics, and ruin the Protestant
Church. Every new corporation will be a fortress
against Protestantism ; every old one was intended
as a fortress against Popery. Ireland is not accus
tomed to a complex municipal law ; neither does she
desire it. Agitators raise the outcry solely to pro
mote their own political and religious views. This
outcry must on no account be yielded to ; nor must
we fancy that the same laws will produce the same
effects in England and in Ireland. Without a suffi
cient proof of property, the right of voting will fall
into the hands of the mob, who are misled by dema
gogues. Men without property will govern and
impose taxes, all which is directly contrary to the
letter and the spirit of British institutions. The
qualifications must be established and proved in
Ireland, as well as in England.
The new corporations, said Sir Robert Peel, are
as liable to objections as the old ones. The Irish
have a perfect right to the enjoyment of all civil
privileges ; but I positively deny that such corpo
rations are to be considered as a part of those civil
rights; at least, prejudice will be in favour of the
ancient institutions, which were advantageous to the
church. Five pounds is too small a qualification for
obtaining civil rights ; besides, there is no means to
examine the truth of the statements of property.

IRISH MUNICIPAL LAW. 201
To these and similar arguments, it was answered,
the abuses of the old municipal institutions in Ireland
are notorious, and even greater than former abuses
in England and Scotland. Any longer to withhold
a munipical law, is a breach of the laws for the union
of England and Ireland, and for the emancipation
of the Roman Catholics ; it is better to separate
religious from political matters, than, for the sake of
the former, to resist all improvement. It is absurd
to exclude the Roman Catholic majority from the
exercise of all civil rights, and to subject them for
ever, in all municipal concerns, to the will of a Protes
tant minority. It is foolish to place the safety of the
Church in the withholding of equal rights and refusing
free institutions. As the Irish can no longer be oppres
sed as slaves, we must try to gain them as friends and
allies. There are differences, indeed, between the
two countries ; but they are by no means so great,
that the smallest town in England should be ripe for
a municipal law, while Dublin and Limerick are
not. Ireland being poor, it is unreasonable to re
quire there, as high a qualification in property, as in
England, which is so much wealthier: the number of
electors and citizens would be thereby much di
minished in that country, &c. &c.
Under these circumstances, and amidst this
diversity of views, a motion of Lord Francis Egerton

202 IRISH MUNICIPAL LAW.
was supported by a great number of members. This
proposal was, entirely to abolish the old corporations
in Ireland ; not, however, to introduce a new muni
cipal law, but to place all essential rights in the hands
of officers appointed by the Crown. Nothing but the
fear of democratical anarchy, and Roman Catholic
encroachments, could have led to such an idea, which
substitutes the power of the general government for
the exercise of local government, and is directly op
posed to the feelings of the English. While the
French system of administration is generally desig
nated here as objectionable and tyrannical, it was
proposed to force upon the Irish something similar,
as an improvement. Why should cities like Dublin,
Belfast, Cork, and Limerick (which may be com
pared with the largest in the Prussian monarchy), be
governed by a commissioner, nominated and removed
by the lord-lieutenant at his pleasure ? Because, it
was answered, Roman Catholics live there; because
we wish to avoid excitement, and not to increase the
power of O'Connell, &c.
After the Roman Catholics were treated as citi
zens of the state, and admitted into Parliament, it
was impossible to exclude them for ever from the
exercise of the rights of freemen ; and if such rights
are not to be allowed as civil rights, they must then
be granted as political rights.

IRISH MUNICIPAL LAW. 203
The passions of the different parties gradually
subsided, and truth gained more ground. Sir Ro
bert Peel said*, "the abolition of the Roman Ca
tholic disabilities included a solemn obligation that
the abolition of all limitations of civil equality and
the exercise of all civil privileges was consistent with
the maintenance of the Protestant Church, the invio
lability of its possessions, and the security of its rights
and privileges. Since the self-electing corporations
have been abolished in England t, they cannot be
retained in Ireland ; since circumstances have be
come so powerful, the Roman Catholics can no
longer be excluded ; since the laws on tithes, and
the poor-laws, have been agreed to, a municipal law
can no longer be refused.
After this agreement on the main question, the
dispute turned chiefly on the amounts and the proof
of praperty ; and the Irish were obliged to give way
on this point, in order to obtain the principal object.
The Irish municipal law was passed on the 10th of
August, 1840. In the leading particulars, it is copied
from the English law : therefore I will mention only
some of the more important particulars in which
it differs. Every person is entitled to the rights of a
* Hansard, xliii. 460; xliv, 162 ; xlv, 360.
t Hansard, xlvi, 185, 751 ; 1.207; li, 641; Iii, 254, 1068 ; and
several other places.

201 IRISH MUNICIPAL LAW.
citizen, who has a clear income of £10 derived from
real property, who is charged for the poor-rate on
this sum, has punctually paid all the taxes to which
he is liable, and has enjoyed that income for at least
a year. The citizens elect the common-councilmen
and aldermen. A fourth part of those who have the
greatest number of votes are aldermen, the other
three-fourths are common council-men. One third
of the latter, and the half of the former go out every
three years. The mayor is chosen by the common-
councilmen from among their own body, or that of
the aldermen, for one year. In Dublin, which is the
largest cit)', there are fifteen aldermen and forty-
five common-councilmen. Every person elected must
possess, in the principal towns, unencumbered pro
perty of a thousand pounds sterling, or pay £25 to
the poor-rates. In the smaller towns, only £500 in
property, or £15 poor-rates is required. Whoever
refuses to accept a municipal office, must pay a certain
fine. Clergymen are not eligible. The common-
council has the right to make bye-laws, to appoint
city officers, and commitees for the management of
certain affairs, and lay the accounts annually before
the Lord-Lieutenant, &c. On the other hand, they
are subject to certain restrictions, in respect of the
property of the city.
Many Irishmen still complain, that the qualifica-

IRISH MUNICIPAL LAW. 205
tions entitling to the rights of citizens are fixed at a
higher amount in Ireland, which is so poor, than in
wealthy England, and that the persons elected must
possess the same amount of property in both countries ;
hence, say they, arises the preponderating influence
of a few rich men, and an injurious division between
the upper and lower classes. The advocates of this
measure affirm, on the contrary, that the above re
quisites and conditions are too low and inconsiderable
for England, and that the greater strictness now re
quired is to be considered as a step to improvement.
It is impossible to discover a rate every where
applicable, an infallible nominal sum for countries
and towns so extremely different ; besides, however
important these things may be, a good municipal
government by no means depends on them alone.
At all events, if the higher qualification was not
adopted from party views in the Irish law, an increase
must necessarily take place in England. At all events,
the ancient institutions in both countries require es
sential alterations, which, in general, scarcely any
body considers as adverse to improvement.
One objection to the new Irish corporation law has,
perhaps, not been made, and yet it is too well-founded.
This is, that it is very long, very confused, and very
obscure. In fact, most of the English laws are defective in

206 IRISH MUNICIPAL LAW.
their arrangement and composition, and the language
and meaning are rendered obscure by the endeavour
to be too explicit, and too definite ; and yet this very
endeavour has caused and increased the obscurity,
and rendered innumerable subsequent declarations
and explanations absolutely necessary.

LETTER XVIII.
Ireland  the Church — Commutation of Tithes — Education — Repeal
of the Union — Schools and Scholars. London, July, 1841.
In my former letters* I have treated so much at
length on the religious affairs of Ireland, and, on the
whole, every thing is so nearly in the same state, that
only a few remarks will be necessary.
After five bills, for the Commutation of Tithes f,
had been rejected, the sixth was at length passed in
August 1838. No law, however, could remove the
innate difficulty of the question ; great poverty often
made all payment impossible, and compelled a
general reduction. Compositions in land led to diffi
culties in the management; compositions in capital,
to doubts respecting the manner in which it might be
safely invested.
At the end, the main evil remained in full force;
viz. that the great majority of the indigent Roman
Catholics, who had been expelled from their old
hurch property, must pay and maintain a wealthyT
church for a few Protestants.
* England, vol. ii, letter 27-
t Hansard, xxxviii, 408 ; xlii, 1174 ; xliii, 444 ; xliv, 1112.

208 EDUCATION.
In May 1838, Lord John Russell estimated the
number of Roman Catholics at  6,500,000
„ of Presbyterians  650,000
„ of the established Anglican Church 852,000
In Cashel and Derry, there were —
To Roman Catholics  3,408,000
Protestants  140,000
In Tuam, 96 per cent, were Roman Catholics,
and only 4 per cent. Protestants. The Romish
Church in Ireland is connected with the great
majority of the people, but not with the state ; the
Protestant Church is connected with the state, and
separated from the people. The plan of connecting
and reconciling both, by the education of children, in
reading, writing, and arithmetic, however laudable it
appears, will scarcely be carried into effect, and the
demands for decisive measures become more and
more violent. " O'Connell*," therefore, said, " you
say we want education, and yet you shew that you
do not aim at, or believe what you say. A petty
party spirit predominates in the council, and produces
resolutions which excite both nations to ill-will and
enmity, instead of uniting and blending them together.
I believe that a man is no more bound to give money
for the spiritual wants of another, than to pay his
apothecary's bill." * Hansard, xlii, 1315.

REPEAL OF THE UNION. 209
This state of things led to the formation of great
and powerful associations, which were justly cen
sured, but without removing, in any manner, the
foundation of the evil. Both parties were inflamed,
on the contrary, with increased zeal ; the one to
maintain all existing rights, the other to shake off all
existing burdens. Thus, for instance, when Mr.
Drummond*, the Under Secretary of State, once said,
property has its duties as well as its rights, a great
outcry was raised, though the position merely ex
presses an indisputable truth.
Many persons consider that the best remedy for
the evils existing in Ireland, would be the repeal of
the union. May this endeavour tend to deter from
error, and to compel the adoption of a better system ;
in itself the proposal strikes me as very hazardous
and objectionable ; for though several assemblies of
estates, in one and the same kingdom, may be useful
and necessary, the proposition might, in this case,
be too violent and hostile. " The absentees," says
O'Connell, " must then return to Ireland, and, in the
grants of money, Ireland, if independent, would have
an influence over the affairs of the rest of the world."
But if opposite courses were taken, who then will
decide, or lead to a wise diagonal of the different
forces ? I do not give up the hope, that without
" Annual Register, 1839, p. 40.

10 NUMBER OF SCHOLARS AND SCHOOLS.
having recourse to such an extreme measure, all that
can be naturally and justly claimed for Ireland will
be obtained ; for, in spite of all obstacles, it has made
more progress within the last forty years, than in
centuries before.
Thus, for instance (in spite of Protestant and
Roman Catholic zealots), with respect to education,
there were, in
1826, 69,000 scholars.
1837, 166,000 „ 1300 schools.
1838, 181,000 „ 1384 „
1839, 205,000 „ 1581 „
Much remains to be done; yet there is an unde
niable progress, and the idea of common instruction
in reading, writing, and other elements, and of
separate instruction in religion, for scholars of dif
ferent creeds, is not so foolish, vain, and imprac
ticable, as many persons affirm.
This subject will, however, be better illustrated
in connexion with the modes of proceeding, and
opinions entertained in England.

LETTER XIX.
England, Schools— Ireland, Schools. London, July 28, 1841.
All parties, with very few exceptions, are of the
same opinion respecting the necessity and importance
of general popular education.
Thus, the Edinburgh Review says*, in the pre
sent state of civilization, no security for liberty and
order can be found, except in a proportional and
adequate system of national education. In the same
manner, there are but too many testimonies that,
notwithstanding recent improvements, the number of
schools is not sufficiently great, nor is the system
followed in them satisfactory. There is, besides, a
want of means to train schoolmasters, and to pay-
either the educated or the uneducated.
According to Mo- Slaneyt, two thirds of all the
children in England, and half of all the children in
London, receive no instruction. Instead of being at
* lxv, 2, 213. See England, vol. iii, Letter 57, on Schools and
Universities. t Hansard, xxxix, 432, 724; xlv, 273; xlvi, 880; xlvii, 530;
xlix, 312.

212 ENGLAND. — SCHOOLS.
the head of this species of civilization, England, as
Mr. Wyse assures us, has almost the last place
among the European powers. In Manchester, 49?
per cent, of the boys and 57 per cent, of the girls
are without instruction ; 67 per cent, of the boys and
88 per cent, of the girls could not write their names.
In the twelve workhouses in East Kent*, there were
4 who could read and write well,
297 could write indifferently,
474 could neither read nor write.
In the workhouses of Norfolk and Suffolk,
10 could read and write well,
281 read and wrote badly,
928 could neither read nor write.
Eighty-five per cent, of all criminals were totally
without educationt- Besides this, in many towns
the children are too soon independent of their parents,
or the parents are totally indifferent about the educa
tion of their children.
In a report of 1838, on the education of the
poorer classes, we find it stated}: ; it maybe assumed
that there are scarcely a sufficient number of schools
for an eighth part of the population. In Bethnal

* Report of the Poor-Law Commissioners, 1838, vol. xxviii, p. 140.
f Kecent Measures for the Promotion of Education in England,
P. Neale. Juvenile Delinquency in Manchester.
J Reports, vol. vii.

1 in

12,

1 35

24,

*¦ 35

35,

* 33

38,

41,

GENERAL WANT OF EDUCATION. 213
Green, between eight and ten thousand children grow
up without any instruction in their duties to God and
man. The Sunday schools are no where sufficient,
and do not fully answer the desired object. Without
great and persevering efforts of the government, this
neglect will be a source of the greatest evils to all
classes. In many towns, only
„ others 
„ Manchester 
„ Birmingham 
„ Leeds 
receive some kind of education.
According to the second report of the registrar-
general of births, deaths*, &c. for 1840, there were,
in fifteen English counties, and in Wales, 40 per
cent, of the men and still more of the women unable
to write their names. Of 121 ,083 who were married,
40,587 men and 58,959 women could not write.
About 33 per cent, of all the men, and 49 per cent.
of all the women in the kingdom are equally ignorant.
If, said the Bishop of London, we had applied fifty
years ago to churches and schools a tenth part of the
sums expended on prisons, penetentiaries, and poor-
houses, we should be in a different, and better si
tuation.

• Report of the Registrar-general of Births, Marriages, and
Deaths, in England and Wales, 1840.

214 MINISTERIAL PROPOSAL.
The efforts and associations of private persons
are not commensurate with the wants of the people.
The voluntary system (which is justly rejected with
respect to the church, and erroneously defended in
regard to schools) has likewise proved totally insuffi
cient. The state, the church, and dissent, said Lord
Morpeth, have equally failed in their duty.
With the certainty of these facts, the truth of
these assertions, the desire to improve the schools,
every body asks with astonishment why no progress
has been made, or, at least, why the desired end is so
far from being accomplished ? From love of liberty
and religion, is the reply of most Englishmen. This
answer, which foreigners especially find it difficult to
understand, will be best explained by one decided case.
For the purpose of at least a partial remedy of
the above evils, the Ministry proposed to found a
kind of normal school, or seminary, for training-
schoolmasters, and to give the superintendence of
this school, and of the disbursement of the money
granted by government for schools, to some mem
bers of the Privy Council, and to some commis
sioners whose assistance might be necessary*. These
proposals were rejected in Parliament ; for it was
alleged, * A compromise was subsequently made respecting the last proposal,
after the Ministry had given up the post

OBJECTIONS TO IT. 215
In the first place. .—There is no universally applicable
system of instruction. What is suitable in one place,
is not so in another : the town and the country, the
high and the low, every class of people, every
religious denomination, needs and requires a different
kind of schools and instruction. No restraint should
be put in this respect on the habits and feelings of
the people. It is tyranny to fix any thing and lay
down a general rule for the number of schools, the
attendance at school, the kind of instruction, the
school books, &c. The Prussian institutions in par
ticular are wholly unfit for a free country* ; for there
the people are drilled like soldiers in a camp, and are
more like a standing army than inhabitants of a land
of freedom. All compulsory attendance at school is
an encroachment on the parental authority and on
personal liberty, and merely a consequence of des
potic governments. (This, it is true, does not agree
with the proposal to withhold all assistance when a
school is opposed to certain theological views, nor
can it be reconciled with the compulsory attendance
at schools in factories.)
Secondly. — The proposals of the Ministry lead to a
* Lord Brougham's expressions. Hansard, xxxix, 432 ; xlix, 312.
See Raumer's England, vol. iii, letter 57. From Pillar's Lectures on
Education, the English may obtain more solid knowledge of the Prus
sian system. It is perfectly unnecessary and superfluous to make any
further remarks for the Germans.

216 OBJECTIONS TO IT.
tyranny of the authorities, and to education by the
state, which puts an end to all self-determination and
self-government, and suppresses the liberty of pur
suing divers courses. All are thrown into the same
mint, and come out with the same impression, and the
same inscription. The state cannot educate, and the
state ought not to be the universal school-master, the
sole superintendent of all establishments, the whip
per-in of all the idle, to a chase after useful know
ledge. Thirdly. — A board of education, consisting of privy
counsellors, a ministry of public instruction, is a
frightful hydra — a hideous chimera ; to which neither
the English Church, nor the Roman Catholics, nor
the Presbyterians, nor Dissenters will submit. Where
the state takes all upon itself, the subject becomes a
machine. From a free self- direction we fall back
into the system of barbarous ages, which some please
to^erm a paternal government. Such a board would
encourage and propagate its own views ; would have
more regard to political objects than to religious
truths*, and would sooner make the children heathens
than Christians. No board of any kind can or should
have the superintendence of the moral and religious
education of a people, or appoint the schoolmasters.
If the latter are trained in a normal school, their
" Wilberforce on National Education.

OBJECTIONS TO IT. 217
opinions will probably differ from those of the Church
of England, and the children be consequently edu
cated in hostility to it.
Fourthly. — All superintendence over schools, all
disbursements of grants of money, the whole direc
tion of education, belongs to the Church and the
clergy. They have religion and knowledge more at
heart than the Ministers and Privy Counsellors*. It
has even been proposed (by Lord Brougham) to
establish a board of education in every town, and to
give to every person who may be supposed to be
educated, a vote in school matters. So that a shop
keeper may very likely become president, while the
clergyman holds the lowest place. The Church
cannot give up her claim to be the judge and the
deliverer of the people of God. To give the Privy
Counsellors the superintendence of the schools would
be cutting off Samson's hair, so that the strong man
might be unresistingly delivered into the hands of the
Philistines. Fifthly. — Knowledge without religious instruc
tion, is rather a curse than a blessing. It is treachery
to be impartial in religion, or to teach a motley reli
gion, instead of that which alone is true ; or to set
aside the special and peculiar dogmas ; or so to
weaken them that nought remains but a caput mor-
/ * Hansard, xlvii, 220.
VOL. I. L

218 OBJECTIONS TO IT.
tuum of deism*. No plan will ever prosper which
excludes religious instruction. This instruction can
never be adapted to children of different denomina
tions : no suitable prayer, in which all may join, can
be composed, much less a complete course of religious
instruction, for Protestants, Roman Catholics, &c.
To learn reading and writing is not education ; to
mix children of different denominations in religious
instruction, is to undermine all faith, and would lead
to general scepticism, which is the harbinger of infi
delity. Moral precepts are no substitute for religion ;
and it is not good to learn, in early youth, that the
religious convictions of different people do not har
monize. If the state will not teach the true religion,
it is better to be wholly silent, than to proclaim a
false one. If the Bible is made the basis of all
instruction, and secular knowledge used to illustrate
it, the young people will learn more, than if the latter
only is taught in the schools. If the scholars are
divided for separate religious instruction, differences
and disputes will arise, and a great number of teachers
will be requisite. It is, therefore, best to combine
secular knowledge and religion in the school, and to
teach the latter in the only pure form. The plan of

* Speech of the Bishop of London on National Education. Wil-
berforee. Letter on the Government Plan of Education. The Church
and the Education Question. Fox's Lectures on National Education.

ANSWERS TO OBJECTIONS. 219
a uniform popular education, of children of all deno
minations, has totally failed*; it is absolutely de
structive to the Church and to Christianity, contra
dictory to the nature of man, and to the command of
Christ. It exists only as a delusive dream in the
minds of men, who, having no religion themselves,
cannot conceive how it influences others.
Such were the principal objectjojis : they did not,
however, remain unanswered ; in the first place, the
Ministers repeatedly stated the substance and inten
tion of their proposals. They declared that they did
not aim at a too great centralization, nor the setting
up an unconditional system of instructions, nor en
croachments on the rights of the Church and Clergy,
and least of all were they indifferent or hostile to
religion. Though these assertions were neither ap
proved nor credited by their opponents, it is neces
sary to state them rather more in detail.
In the first place — The wants of the towns and
villages, of the rich and the poor, are undoubtedly dif
ferent, and it would be foolish to keep these differences
out of sight; but there are general deficiencies which
may be remedied, obstacles which may be removed,
measures which may and should be adopted, without
being united with the danger of a general mechanical,
compulsory system. Besides, many branches of in-
* Quarterly Review, cxxxiii, 132.
L 2

220 ANSWERS TO OBJECTIONS.
struction, such as reading, writing, and arithmetic,
are of so simple a nature, that a good method is
every where applicable. The education of the
people*, says Mr. Buller, should not be left, without
guidance and aid, to the pleasures, the fancies, and
caprices of individuals. You do not properly appre
ciate these questions, if you consider education
merely as a right of individuals, or as an alms, which
you distribute with a liberal, or niggardly hand, or as
a premium for agreement with the Established
Church. Education is, in fact, the greatest of bless
ings to a free man, the most valuable of his rights ;
but it must be considered as the first precaution of a
wise government, a measure which the landowners
in particular should adopt, in reference to the mass
of the people, and which, in no country in the world,
is so necessary as in Great Britain, where the artificial
edifice of society, and the great inequality of civil
conditions, expose us to constant dangers, arising
from the discontent and ignorance of the uninstructed
poor. In this point of view, I cannot think of this
and similar questions, without concern and appre
hension; when I observe the situation of the la
bouring classes, the profound and dark abyss which
separates them from the knowledge and the sympa
thy of their superiors, the total ignorance of their
* Hansard, xlviii, 553, 557, 123S.

ANSWERS TO OBJECTIONS. 221
feelings and their wants, in which we live, the little
influence which we possess over their conduct, the
slender portion which we have of their attachment,
I recoil with terror before the wild passions and pro
found ignorance which appears to be fermenting in
that mass of merely physical power. A great part of
it is entirely neglected, quite uninstructed, and,
during every interruption of their labours, sunk in
deplorable excesses. In others, we perceive a germ
of thought, still more dangerous ; a union in feeling,
still more threatening. These murmurs of discon
tent and ignorance sometimes assume a more definite
form, and express themselves in the schools of Thorn,
the partisans of Stephen, and the millions whose
belief consists in Chartism ; for these are the teachers
to whom you abandon the minds of the people. Some
learnt their religion from a maniac, in whose resur
rection they believed ; others are taught that they
have a right to fix the amount of wages at their plea
sure, and to enforce their resolutions with the dagger
of the assassin, and the torch of the incendiary.
Others again teach, that rents and interest are de
ductions from daily wages, and that, consequently,
the landowners and capitalists are robbers, and op
pressors of the working classes. This miserable
instruction is still the only instruction of the poor;
while you, the enlightened law-givers of the land.

222 ANSWERS TO OBJECTIONS.
whose property and lives would be the first victims
of these fearful delusions, spend, in idle discussions
on forms of faith, the precious time which is hurrying
on rapidly to a dark revolution, the consequence of
our culpable folly and negligence ; and when the
Government, which is the last of the educated classes
to awake from their indolent neglect of the minds of
the people, at length proposes to send the school
master among these dangerous, yet stilt teachable
masses, then comes a noble lord, and the church,
and the aristocracy, and the great conservative party,
and block up the way with the thirty-nine articles.
This too true and deeply affecting picture would
have made the greatest impression on unprejudiced
hearers ; but it left no trace in the minds of those in
whose narrow principles or prejudices no eloquent
words, no discussion, can effect any change or modifi
cation. Let us, however, hear the further replies to
the opponents of the plan.
Secondly and Thirdly. — The distribution of the
trifling parliamentary grants to schools has hitherto
been made by some officers of the Treasury who
were frequently not qualified for it. If this office
is confided to some carefully selected privy coun
sellors, if we merely enquire whether and how the
money granted has really been employed for the
schools, if all are subject to publicity, and answerable

ANSWERS TO OBJECTIONS. 223
to Parliament, only party passions can raise an outcry
about dangerous centralization, tyrannical inter
ference, and compulsary public education. Nobody
ever thought of imposing and prescribing teachers
and elementary books, methods of instruction, and
school hours ; but theory, as well as practice, shews
that the voluntary system, without any superintend
ence, has not been successful, and that a combination
of local with a more general superintendence is
necessary. As local government did not attain the
desired object in the management of the poor, so
neither can the management of schools, unconnected
by any general system, produce a satisfactory result.
It is an erroneous idea that the responsible ministers
in the distribution of public grants to the schools
ought not to exercise the slightest influence over the
general education of the people. It would be unjust
to exclude poor places (as has hitherto been done)
from a share in such grants, when they are not able
themselves to contribute a considerable sum ; it
would be unjust to take the money from all the
subjects, and to give it only to the adherents of a
certain creed. In the colonies, the Government
gives money for the instruction of all religious deno
minations; and, in this respect, we must appeal from
the artificial conscience of the state, or the established
church, to common justice, and universal Christian

224 ANSWERS TO OBJECTIONS.
charity. The government and the ministers may
belong to a certain religious denomination ; but it does
not follow that they are to employ their power and re
sources for the promotion of that alone, and to neglect,
or even discourage all others.
Fourthly. — The Established Church cannot claim
the sole superintendence and direction of the edu
cation of the people ; for it has no influence and
connection, except with its adherents. Millions of
Roman Catholics and Dissenters neither can, nor
will, submit to its direction, or rather to its tyranny ;
while it gives little or nothing towards education out
of its very ample resources, it would willingly inter
fere in every thing, and persuade people that the
muliplication table and the doctrine of justification by
faith must be mingled together. The clergy under
stand nothing of scientific instruction ; and, for that
reason alone, are unfit to conduct and superintend it.
If they were all taken from one denomination, reli
gious liberty would suffer ; if they were taken from
several, discord and disputes would ensue. Instead
of imparting really useful knowledge, the clergy teach
the children a great deal about Moab and Ammon,
the mountains and rivers in Palestine, the employment
of the angels, and such matters.
Fifthly. — If the dogmas of every religious party,
with all their subtleties and details, are to be taught

ANSWERS TO OBJECTIONS. 225
in all the schools, no common education is possible;
there must be distinct schools for each sect, or rather
(as this is quite impossible) the hitherto prevailing
general ignorance must be suffered to continue. I
believe, says Mr. Wyse, that, without interfering with
the religious opinions of any party*, Christian charity
and national unity, which are among the primary
objects of all Christian and popular education, might
be promoted, by imparting instruction to all in com
mon. I cannot conceive why matters on which all
are agreed should not be taught in common, reserv
ing matters on which they do not agree for separate
instruction. Education in common (said Lord Stanley on a
former occasion) will allay religious animosity and
zeal, and form, in youth of all sects and persuasions,
a bond of harmony and friendship, which the changes
and struggles of life will not break, and which will
have a most salutary influence on the public welfare.
It is foolish, said Mr. Buller, to affirm that it is
impossible to teach certain scientific subjects, without
immediately connecting them with religious instruc
tion. It is delightful, writes the noble Wilberforce,
to see that in this way (by common education) men
of different sects may join in the execution of useful
plans. I feel myself elevated, and freed from former
» Hansard, vol. xlv, 294.

226 ANSWERS TO OBJECTIONS.
fetters, when I see this blessed freedom of charity,
which brings all other blessings with it.
All apprehensions for the church, said Mr. Shiel,
are vain and ridiculous. Christ would not have re
jected the child of a Sadducee or a Samaritan as a
little heretic : and while Dissenters are* admitted
into all offices, and into Parliament, they are excluded
from the schools, if they do not change their creed.
Instead of disputing, said the Bishop of Norwich,
we ought to take each other by the hand, and combat
our common, but more powerful enemies, viz. igno
rance, vice, and profligacy.
In the report on the schools in Ireland, we find
the following passaget : we are of opinion that it
is highly desirable, for all the purposes of really re
ligious and moral education, to impress on youth, not
merely precepts, but to inspire the minds of the chil
dren with the habits of cheerful obedience, social
intercourse, and Christian charity ; and, for these pur
poses, the children of differing denominations must,
as far as possible, be educated together.
The division of instruction into separate depart
ments, says Mr. TowellJ, does not include the
slightest disregard of the great principle of a complete
* A Letter to Lord Stanley on National Education.
t Report on Foundation Schools, 1838, p. 40.
X Towell, State Education considered with reference to prevalent
misconceptions, on religious grounds.

OBSERVATIONS. 227
education. Still less does it follow, that any depart
ment is degraded, which is taught apart from the
others. An attentive consideration of all these facts, prin
ciples, and views, impels, almost irresistibly, to an
attempt to discover and express certain results, at
least for one's own private information. The aversion
of the English from excessive interference of superior
authorities, from mechanical teaching, from inert,
lifeless principles of education and instruction, is
laudable, and favourable to real liberty. Equal praise
is due to the doctrine that isolate scientific instruc
tion does not include, or supply the place of, general
education. Lastly, very great stress is justly laid on
sound religious instruction, and the immediate and
natural influence claimed for the clergy.
On the other hand, party views and objects were
blended with these great truths ; dangers were said
to be perceived, which, in fact, did not exist ; and, by
the stubbornness of certain doctrines, the fault of
mechanism, which it was wished to avoid, was neces
sarily incurred. For instance, it is impossible to give
complete religious instructions to children of every
sect, in one and the same school ; it is impossible to
have separate schools for every sect. Consequently
the compulsory sway of one religious party will pre
ponderate, or children remain without instruction.

228 OBSERVATIONS.
Knowledge without religion, is as defective as reli
gious doctrines, if not combined and supported by
knowledge and science. To a German *, it appears
extremely simple and natural, to leave instruction in
every branch of science to persons versed in it, and
instruction in religion to the clergy of the several
denominations ; to employ the children together in
the lessons in reading, writing, arithmetic, latin,
Greek, mathematics, &c. and leave to the parents the
choice of a clergyman for their separate instruction in
religion. This idea appears, however, to most En
glishmen to be strange, superficial, nay, irreligious !
It is so disliked, that, even on that account, joint school
instruction is impossible. But, on that account also,
the progress of education in England is slow and dis
connected, while the dangers arising from ignorance,
or ill-directed education, increase in a more rapid
proportion. But even were this not the case, I see
another very great evil, in the circumstance, that
(as I shall shew in the sequel) the religious parties
in Great Britain differ exceedingly, or fall into bitter
internal disputes. Now, if this theological zeal is
inspired in the youth by the several clergymen,
without being allayed by the conciliatory intercourse
• Lord Brougham says justly, " the true principle of education, is
to give the people secular instruction, in which all sects can join, and
leave the important task of spiritual instruction to the several religious
teachers,"

OBSERVATIONS. 229
afforded by joint instruction, the individual, as well
as the state, falls from the harmony of life into
abrupt and hideous opposition, and Great Britain
will acknowledge, too late, that Germany, which is
now so often unjustly accused, has, in this respect,
chosen the better part.

LETTER XX.
Education of the Lower Classes — Sir Robert Peel on the Education
of the Lower Classes — Sir Robert Peel and the Quarterly Theolo
gical Review. London, July 29, 1841.
The school educates the child; but the man requires
also, in riper years, a progressive education, and espe
cially, if in his youth he neglected or had no oppor
tunity of receiving instruction. On that account,
laudable efforts have been made to open institutions
for workmen, artizans, mechanics*, and the lower
classes in general, where they may receive instruction
adapted to their condition, instead of squandering the
time, when they are not at work, in mere indolence,
or in sinful indulgences. Lectures and books, calcu
lated to awaken their mental faculties, and to have a
salutary influence on their ordinary occupations, were
therefore provided. By this means, the influence of
false teachers and false doctrines was to be com
bated, and the great dangers to civil society, which
has been so often mentioned, would be at the least
diminished. * Channing. Lectures on the Education of Labouring Portions of
the Community.

TAMWORTH LIBRARY. 231
With this view, a reading-room and library was
founded,— for instance, at Tamworth. For a quar
terly payment of about a shilling, persons of both
sexes, without regard to political or religious opinions,
were admitted. Maps and terrestrial globes were
provided, collections of plants and minerals, which
appeared important to the manufacturer, were ex-
pected-to be soon acquired, and it was intended, if
possible, to combine, with the use of the books, plain,
simple lectures, on astronomy, botany, chemistry, the
progress of the arts and sciences, the application of new
discoveries to agriculture, manufactures, and com
merce. Two of the principal clergymen in the town
were among the directors of this institution. All
frivolous, immoral books were excluded ; but as per
sons of different religious denominations were to
subscribe, and to make use of the library, it was laid
down, as an inviolable rule, that no theological, ex
citing, polemical writings, should be purchased, and
that political disputes in the reading-room should be
avoided. At the opening of this institution, Sir Robert
Peel delivered to the, probably very mixed, assembly,
a plain, truly popular, cordial speech, from which I
extract the following passages.
" I cannot share in the apprehensions ©f those

232 SIR R. peel's speech.
who anticipate injurious consequences, either to the
moral or religious character of the people, from im
parting to them such knowledge, or inviting them to
such investigations, as are the proper objects of our
concern." " I can hardly conceive a mind so constituted, that
being familiarised with the wonderful discoveries
which have been made in every department of ex
perimental science — that seeing the proofs of Divine
intelligence in every object of contemplation, from
the organization of the meanest weed that we tram
ple on, or the insect invisible to our eyes, up to the
magnificent structure of the heavens, or the still
more wonderful phenomena of the soul and reason of
man — can retire from such contemplations, without
more enlarged conceptions of God's providence and
a higher reverence for his name."
" I fervently hope and believe that this will be
the result. I hope and believe that - increased
sagacity' will be subservient to a more exalted faith.
— That science and knowledge will not merely im
press upon the mind a cold conviction of the truths
of Natural Religion, but that they will temper and pre
pare it for the better reception and comprehension of
the great scheme of human Redemption — that new
sources of conviction will be opened, independent of

sir r. peel's speech. 233
the overwhelming force of historical testimony —
independent of that assent of the heart and con
science, which instinctively discovers, in the pure
system of Christian Morality, the internal evidence
of a divine origin."
" I hope and believe that the ' increased saga
city,' which takes the most comprehensive view of
the order of the universe — which is most conversant
with the concurring 'proofs of infinite wisdom — with
the varied stages of existence in organic life — with
the recurring vicissitudes of life and decay, and re
surrection — which best knows the assigned limits of
human inquiry — the difficulties that cannot be solved
— the mysteries that cannot be interpreted, in res
pect to objects of sense, and daily observation —
that ' that sagacity' will lend the most unwilling ear
to presumptions and objections against the Christian
Dispensation ; and will be the most forward to re
cognize its perfect harmony, with all that we could
conclude from reason, unaided by revelation, in re
gard to the constitution and course of nature, and the
moral government of a Creator and Ruler of the
world*." Thus spoke Sir R. Peel, on these occasions cer-
» British Critic and Quarterly Theological Review, July 1841.

234 THE BRITISH CRITIC,
tainly without reserve, and according to his full
convictions. Let us now see how the journal of
the strict church party treats and judges of him, on
occasion of this speech, at the moment when he
enters the ministry as the leader of the conservatives
and friends of the church. This vote of con
fidence, of quite a peculiar kind, is in substance as
follows. " Sir Robert Peel has great weight on questions of
malt, registration, and sugar; but surely, by this time,
his name is a nullity in any question in the smallest de
gree connected with religion." — " False and mistaken
friendship is tenfold worse than honest and avowed
hostility*. What peril can be greater than the pro
tection of a latitudinarian minister ?" " This new
minister will bring the danger nearer the church and
within her bosom : we think no warning can be too
strong, too earnest, too clamorous" — " Too soon
will the church have to deprecate the killing-kindness
of these new statesmen. They fraternise with every
species of heresy, and treat (especially Peel and
Brougham) all politics as party matters. The former
says to the poor man, I will teach you to exalt your
minds with entomological researches, to learn mag-
* The Tory Morning Herald said, " Peel and his body-guard
have again sold their supporters.''

ON SIR R. peel's speech. 235
nanimity by decimal fractions, to tranquillize your
tempers with the study of chemical affinities, and to
refresh your daily lassitude by calculating the plana-
tary revolutions.
" Sir Robert is a man, who, amiable and respect
able as he is, plays his part in the great arena with
no more largeness and comprehensiveness of view —
no more grandeur and sacredness of principle, than
the most ordinary partisan in the most local squabble,
on the most ephemeral interests. A man may be great
on a paving and lighting dispute, or a watch and ward
committee ; he may be great with his servants or by
himself; but Sir Robert is small with nations, petty
with a constitution of ages, and (we say it sadly and
seriously) unfaithful to the everlasting Catholic Church.
He wishes to know nothing beyond the House of Com
mons. Its resolutions, passed in heat and speed, under
royal or popular dominion, in days of corruption or
violence; its chance majorities of ten, two, or one, are
his inviolable canons of legislating, beyond which
he dreams not of a principle." — " This profane and
vulgar House of Commons is his only reality. Every
other thing or thought to him is form and shadow.
To the House of Commons he is thoroughly harmo
nized, soul and body, mind and manner. In vain
might we search through his speeches for splendid

236 the British critic.
theories, large inductions, universal sentiments, great
maxims, solemn sanctions, profound arguments, and
immutable principles ; or if one does find them here
and there, they are so brought in as to be the excep
tions that prove the rule. From beginning to end,
his career is one of shifts and expedients. Neither
he, nor any man on earth, can venture to say what
he will do next ; nor can any say what he has done
already, in terms implying intention and consistency."
— " It is I and my party throughout." — " Strike the
first person out of Sir Robert's speeches — -aye, cut off
his whole career, — and they become a rope untwisted,
a net unknotted, a ship unnailed and unpinned." —
" The whole career of this statesman has been one
continual defalcation. From the first moment that
our too-confiding church began to lean on this staff
of a broken reed, it has never ceased to pierce her.
One concession, one betrayal has only been the pledge
of another." — " We see no sign or token of sacred-
ness in the self-styled conservative body."
" How melancholy is it, that a man of such ex
emplary life, such cultivated tastes, such political
distinction, such parliamentary tact, and such varied
experience, should have so little confidence in him
self, so little faith in his own principles, so little hope
of sympathy in others, so little heart for a great ven-

OBSERVATIONS. 237
ture, so little of romantic aspiration and of firm re
solve, and of dutifulness to the unseen ! How sad,
that he, who might have had the affections of many,
should have thought, in a day like this, that a states
man's pride lay in preserving the mean, not in aim
ing at the high ; that to be up was his first merit, and
to kindle enthusiasm his most disgraceful blunder.
How pitiable that such a man should not have under
stood that a body without a soul has no life, and a
political party without an idea, no unity !"
Perhaps I should not have given this extract here,
but have reserved it till an opportunity offers to speak
of the present state of political parties. But it re
flects alight on the preceding observations on schools
and education, and upon the following account of
religious affairs. The Theological Review does,
indeed, by no means express, in the above extract,
the sentiments of all those who nominally belong to
the high church, but of the most active and zealous
members, who would strengthen the form of the
church, and not adapt the substance of religion to
the convenient indifference of the day. The character
it draws of Sir Robert Peel is harsh and severe, and
was expressed on an occasion which did not seem to
call for it; but, upon the whole, it attains its object
better than the abuse of many other opponents.

238 OBSERVATIONS.
Whether it is possible to represent the weaknesses
and defects with which he is here reproached, as
advantages and perfections ? — this is a question I am
not called upon to answer here.

LETTER XXI.
The Universities— Oxford— Newspapers— Literary Property.
London, July 30, 1841.
With respect to the English universities, no essential
change has taken place since the year 1835, except
that continued examinations have rendered their dark
and bright sides more prominent. As Mr. Huber will
probably soon continue his very profound and instruc
tive work to the latest times, it would not be proper
for me to lengthen my former unconnected observa
tions, unless I could sufficiently clear up the intricate
subject. The latter object may perhaps be best promoted
by an extract from the very able account and defence
of the English universities, especially Oxford, which
is contained in several numbers of the Quarterly
Review*. °- Oxford has always combined the spirit of inde
pendence with a sincere attachment to the existing
institutions in Church and State. It has manifested
courage against abuse and menaces, and composure
towards ridicule and calumny ; it was neither intole-
. * No. lix, 439 ; lxi, 203.

240 UNIVERSITIES — OXFORD.
rantly devout nor stationary, but proceeded in its own
legislation, without renouncing its respect for the past,
or running into rash innovations. A union of the
system of tutors and colleges with that of profes
sors and universities, is the most perfect arrange
ment ; but if the whole conduct of education is to be
given to one half, the former of these is preferable to
the latter*. Oxford had not the means thoroughly
to complete the system of professors ; the small sala
ries tempt nobody : a man gains more as a school
master or a clergyman ; and the State, far from grant
ing assistance, takes, for stamp duties, a thousand
pounds a year more than it gives for the university.
Not every tutor is qualified to be a professor,
nor every professor to be a tutor. It is necessarv,
in the first place, to communicate knowledge ;
secondly, to instil morals and principles. The
latter object is not obtained merely by the lectures
of professors. It is more important to become
acquainted with ancient approved works, than with
every new opinion of the day. The natural ten
dency of the professors is to excite in the students
a blind, superstitious attachment to half-regulated
and half-understood theories, and veneration for
the theorists themselves, no less than in the darkest
ages. More is given for novelty than for truth ;
and with each of the innumerable changes, the
* No. cxxxi, 166.

THE UNIVERSITIES. 241
treasures said to have been accumulated are again
dissipated. This state of things in Germany
is prejudicial to the students ; instead of being
scholars, they become critics, and judges of their
teachers; and docility, confidence, and respect are
lost. The English universities do not take it for granted
that young men, without being in some degree im
pelled, will learn every thing useful to them ; that
the mind may be filled with knowledge, like a glass
with water; that it is sufficient to place a student
on a seat before the professor, without catechising,
explaining, impressing, and examining. In like
manner, they know in England that the professor
can do little more than deliver his lecture, as appears
from the most recent enquiries respecting the Scotch
universities. The character, nay, the very names of
the students, are unknown to the professors, and
there are no opportunities for any communication
before, or after the lecture. There is no means to
arouse to activity and to awaken thought. All this is
at the command of those teachers who are intimately
acquainted with their scholars, who take an interest in
their progress, and see to their general education.
The professors cannot compel any student to be
present at their lectures, much less to hear them with
VOL. I. M

242 THE UNIVERSITIES.
attention. Thus the voluntary principle in education
is manifestly as absurd as in religion. As the teacher
is chosen by the scholar, the former must take care
not to offend him ; he must rather flatter than super
intend him ; and thus the ignorant is left to himself,
and studies, or not, as he pleases. Perhaps he is
taken with a predilection for some branch of learn
ing; but no dependence can be placed on such
fancies ; and if the student is to be attracted, it must
be through something paradoxical, irregular, or
new; in short, by something that necessarily flat
ters the bad taste of a yet uninformed mind ;
whereas, the teacher, from his higher position, should
superintend and regulate. We must not doubt that
young men study what pleases them, with more zeal
and success under the system of mere professors ;
but the real question is, what, though unwillingly,
they should learn and not learn ; and how far their
intellectual character, though brilliant in one point,
is yet behind in general knowledge, and behind the
firm, moderate, and mature tone which, taking all in
all, includes the true and reasonable perfection for all
the practical purposes of life, and is the grand aim
and object of all education. We consider formation
of character to be the primary and most laudable
distinction of the English universities.

THE UNIVERSITIES. 243
A good tutorial system is far better adapted* to the
ends of instruction, than a crowd of professors. The
latter may extend the boundaries of science, and
collect materials for study; but should be freed in a
great measure, if not entirely, from the business of
instruction. Those who instruct, must, on the other
hand, be limited in the application of new theories ;
they may prepare the ground, but the former procure
new seed.
As a German professor, I ought, perhaps, to dis
cuss, or even contradict this account of the English
criticism on the German universities ; but I rather
remain silent, even at the risk of having it said,
" qui facet consentire videtur." I will only remark,
that a comparison of the English and German uni
versities, merely in reference to the mode, the matter,
and the amount of teaching and learning, does not
comprehend everything. We must rather eon sider
how extremely different the subsequent scientific and
practical public and official life is in England and
Germany, and consequently, that to adopt similar, or
the same, mode of education in both countries, would
be rash and hazardous.
According to a statistical account, there are,
At Oxfordt, about 1600 students.
• I found the lectures excellent, for they did not require any exer
tion on my part. — Autobiography of a Dissenting Minister, page 9.
t Statistical Journal, No. 38.
M 2

244

THE UNIVERSITIES.

At Cambridge . . 1600 students.
„ Dublin  800 „
„ Edinburgh  2300
„ Glasgow  1300
„ Aberdeen. . . . 650 „
„ St. Andrews. . 300 „
The number of professors and lecturers,
At Oxford  32
„ Cambridge  49
„ Dublin  29
„ Edinburgh  30
„ Glasgow  21
„ Aberdeen  28
„ St. Andrews. .. . 13
„ Dumfries  10
„ Durham  9
„ London  52
Among these, there are,
Professors of Divinity  16
Moral Philosophy . . 10
Logic  6
Rhetoric. „  1
Greek  11
German  3
Music  3
Ancient History  1
Modern History. .„. 4

NEWSPAPERS. 245
This is a good place to insert some additions td
what I said on a former occasion respecting the
English newspapers*. In the year 1836, Mr. Roe
buck proposed entirely to take off the stamp on
newspaperst, and thereby to remove one of the
greatest obstacles to popular education. Mr. Trevor
replied, " It is contrary to common sense to affirm
that newspapers are a general and proper means of
diffusing knowledge among the people ;" and Sir
Robert Peel remarked, that the newspapers would
not become better or more moral in proportion as
they become cheaper ; however, it is dangerous to
decry the press in general, on account of accidental
individual abuses.
Mr. Roebuck's motion was rejected ; but a law
passed on the 13th of August, 1836, containing some
new regulations respecting newspapers. By this law
nobody may publish a new journal, without giving
formal notice to the stamp office. There are detailed
enactments respecting the 6tamp duty, the punish
ment of offenders, the seizure of unstamped papers,
&c. Every sheet pays a duty ; a penny, when the
page exceeds 2,295 square inches, and a halfpenny
when it is of a smaller size.
From September 1835 to September 1836, there
were printed and stamped,
* England, iii, letter 53. t Hansard, xxxvii, 116?.

246 NEWSPAPERS. Newspapers. Stamps. Duty.
London  71 19,241,000 £256,000
English Counties. 194 8,535,000 113,000
Scotland  54 2,654,000 35,000
Ireland  78 5,144,000 37,000

Total, 397 35,576,000 £443,000
And from September 1836 to September 1837,
London  85 29,172,000 £121,000
English Counties. 237 14,996,000 62,000
Scotland  65 4,123,000 17,000
Ireland  71 5,203,000 16,000

Total, 458 53,496,000 £217,000*
In July 1840, there were stamped, of the
Examiner  27,000
Herald (Glasgow)  36,000
Courier  42,000
Mercury (Leeds)  45,000
Globe  72,000
Morning Post  95,000
Morning Herald  140,000
Morning Chronicle.... 196,000
Northern Star  223,000
Times  320,000, &c. &c.
This great increase in the sale must doubtless be
ascribed to the reduction of the stamp duty. About
27,000 newspapers were sent in September 1 837 to the
* Reports for 1839, vol. xlv.

LITERARY PROPERTY. 247
Continent, and 23,300 from the Continent to Great
Britain. As it may be asked whether the increase in the
number of journals and the reading of them is an
indisputable improvement, I will add some statements
less liable to criticism, relative to the reading in the
British Museum. It was visited, in the year,
1810, by about 2,000 persons.
1830  31,000 „
1838  54,800 „
The endeavours of Mr. Serjeant Talfourd to
obtain greater and longer protection for the literary
works of authors* have hitherto been unsuccessful.
He said, " I wish to prevent an unanswerable viola
tion of the natural rights which every one has to the
productions of his mind. For what a man produces
with his hand or his mind, belongs to him, and him
alone." — Mr. Warburton replied, " I do not recog
nise any such things as natural rights ; I recognise
only those rights which are founded on convenience
and general expediency. If Mr. Talfourd's prin
ciple were adopted, such thing as taxes, rent of land,
and interest, would not exist- If we look at the plan
according to expediency, the interest of the publishers
and readers, not merely that of the authors, is to be
considered. These relations must be so regulated
* Hansard, lvi, 148, 345. England, iii, letter 54.

248 LITERARY PROPERTY.
as to dispel apprehensions of monopolies, high prices,
voluntary or compulsory suppression of books, &c."
" Property," said Mr. Macaulay, " is a creature of
the law ; and a law which creates property, can be
defended only on the ground, that it is advantageous
to mankind. Thus, for instance, there is only one
natural law of inheritance, but innumerable positive
laws. The right of publication is a monopoly ; con
sequently, hurtful ; if extended beyond thirty years,
it is of no value to the author."
In these discussions, there is much which appears
to me to be unconnected and unintelligible. The
distinction, or the relation of right and expediency,
of natural and positive laws, is neither logically7 con
ceived, nor fully illustrated. Setting aside, however,
such profound philosophical, or scientific questions, it
is hard to conceive why intellectual property, as an
injurious monopoly, shall cease at the expiration of
thirty years, while every other description of pro
perty, with numberless obligations, conditions, divi
sions, &c. exists in perpetuity. The St. Simonists,
in their universal attacks on all inheritance of pro
perty, were much more consistent ; and a great
majority of the public, for whose reading such kind
care is taken, would very willingly agree to an eternal
right of publication, to the inviolability of intellectual
property, on condition that the monopoly upon land

LITERARY PROPERTY. 249
and houses should cease every thirty years. The
convenience and expediency of such a measure theyr
would easily prove in a similar manner. The fear of
an intellectual monopoly, and of high prices of books,
seems very singular, while the prices of all other
things are left to the free option of those concerned.
It seems almost absurd to affirm that authors or their
heirs would sell their works at enormous prices,
while, at the same time, it is presumed (on the whole
with too much truth) that after thirty years there is
no more demand for them ; and it would be in vain
to set too high a price on them.

LETTER XXII.
Church and State. — Livings. — Pluralities. — Chapters.
London, August 1, 1841.
There have not been wanting frequent opportu
nities to observe that the freedom of thought and
speech has produced in England various doctrines
and opinions, respecting almost all temporal concerns ;
yet that this war of all against all has on the whole
brought about, in the end, conciliatory compro
mise, and better-secured harmony. One would
think that church and religion, founded on a positive
revelation, on the contrary, ought always to manifest
an invariable conformity. Yet this is less the case
in Great Britain, than in any other country. There
are thirty-eight sects*, of which twenty-six have
religious edifices, and 12 not. In the United Statesf
of North America, the anarchical divergencies go
still further. Many live without any religion, and
the slaves are often tyrannically excluded. Some
churches and chapels have no clergyman ; in others,
they change with the fluctuating views of the people.
• Report on Births, &c. 1839, vol. xvi, p. 6.
t Lorimer, Religion in the United States.

CHURCH AND STATE. 251
In Cincinnati, which has 25,000 inhabitants, there
are thirteen sects.
The English church, or the English churches,
are very peculiarly situated with respect to the state,
and reciprocal claims arise, from entire independence,
to rigorous submission. The notion that the state
(the King and Parliament) has no right to in
terfere with the regulations and property of the
church, nor make any laws respecting them, has
been rejected, both in theory and practice, for some
centuries, and has found but a few isolated advocates
in modern times. The next question, whether any
thing can be taken from the church in this manner,
has been often answered in the affirmative, especially
under Henry VIII, and in the 17th century, but is
now denied by the Tories, and every proceeding of
this nature designated as sacrilege. In general,
this appears very simple and praiseworthy ; but, in
the detail, great difficulties occur, which make it
necessary to deviate, in many points, from the strict
ness of that doctrine ; for instance, when, on ac
count of insuperable causes, many per cent, are
deducted by law from the full amount of tithes, when
distress on the one hand, great wealth on the other,
when the rapidly increasing population, &c. render
another distribution of the revenues of the church
advisable. An equally important question is, whether

252 LIVINGS— PLURALITIES.
the education of the people is a temporal object,
and an application of ecclesiastical revenues to pro
mote it unjust ? Popular education is certainly no
ungodly object ; on the contrary, the school and the
church may be considered as the two great arms,
which are to be equally put in motion for the education
of the human race, and must mutually assist each
other. Complaints about pluralities have also been again
discussed in Parliament in recent times. On this
occasion, it was affirmed* that there are in England
and Wales 10,742 livings ;, but that, in 4307, the
clergyman (for various reasons) was not resident.
For the public worship of the Dissenters of all de
nominations, there were —
In England, in 1812 . . 4302 chapels
1836 . . 8490 ,
261 9 clergymen have an income below £100
680 „ „ between 1 00 & 200
32 „ „ „ 200 & 340, &c.
Six livings brought in an income to one clergy
man of only £300. There are eight parishes with
less than £10 income ; eight with £10 ; fifteen with
£20 ; sixteen with £30 ; fifty-nine with £40 ; ninety-
five with £50 income, &c.

* Hansard, xlii, 906, Reports 1840, vol. xxxix. The number and
calculations by no means agree in all the authorities.

THE CHAPTERS. 253
Sir Robert Peel observed*, we ought to enlarge
and strengthen the foundations of the church. If we
omit to do this, the richly ornamented capital will
become too heavy for the shaft. If we take away
some ornament, solely for the purpose of enlarging
and consolidating the base, religious feeling will
spread, and the love of the people to the church
increasef. On another occasion, Lord John Russell
confessed, that sufficient provision was not made for
the religious worship of the people ; but that, with
the diversity and zeal of the numerous sects, it was
extremely difficult for the state to do anything. All
support from the treasury would only inflame the
enmity of parties ; yet the state has contributed, from
1801 to 1840, for religious objects —
In England  £2,753,000
„ Scotland  435,000
„ Ireland  2,490,000

Total, £5,678,000
For which churches were built, clergymen assisted,
failure of tithes covered, &c.J
The cathedral establishments§ in particular have
been the objects of very serious attacks in recent times.
It was said, the opinions and the wants of the times
* Hansard, liii, 604. t Hansard, lv, 355.
X Reports, 1840, vol. 39. § The Church and the Chapters.

254 THE CHAPTERS.
are no longer the same, and have led to a necessity for
many changes. Of what use now are prebendaries,
who for their large revenues do nothing, while the
working clergy suffer want ? Property granted
for public services can continue no longer than the
good originally intended from the use of it ; and in
dividuals, as well as societies, must give way in time
of need to the public advantage. In a report on
the state of chapters, changes were proposed,
but not to take place till after the extinction of
the rights of the present possessors*. The chapters,
however, notwithstanding indisputable defects and
abuses, found, in general, eloquent advocates ; and
the Archbishop of Canterbury!" declared that he
believed the church would lose more by their disso
lution, than the working clergy would gain by having
the revenues of the chapters assigned to them.
An article on this subject in the Quarterly Re
view} extols, in so peculiar a manner, the habit
of meditation, which in our days is very much neg
lected, that I cannot refrain from giving the following
positions and observations, though unconnected : —
You ought, in your reforms, to aim more at improve
ment of the hearts of men, and trust to them, rather
* Reports about Cathedral and Collegiate Churches, 1837 — 1838,
vol. xxviii.
t Correspondence with the Bishop of Exeter.
X lviii. p. 197.

THE CHAPTERS. 255
than to the wax and parchments of the laws. The
salvation of this country depends upon its parochial
ministers ; unless gigantic efforts are made to extend,
to strengthen, to increase, it is all over with us as a
nation. Woe to the integrity of the man or the people,
who ventures to take delight in pleasing dreams,
even of benevolence, which must be realized out of
the property of others ; do not deprive the chapters
of their property, without examination of the question
of right ; do not expose property to the discretion of
every fanciful doctrine of improvements, which the
irresponsible legislation of the day mayT recommend,
without considering whether they are honourable or
not. Watch, with the greatest zeal, Over all resources
which in any form whatever are dedicated to future
generations. Recognize rights, duties, feelings, and
personality, as well in corporate bodies as in in
dividuals. Foundations and incorporations are the
palladium of the state. Europe is indebted to these
corporations and foundations for all her liberty,
knowledge, wealth, and power. The views of the
founders were always directed to something definite,
local, peculiar ; not tb general objects. If the former
be set aside, there are no limits to generalization,
for all sects, all churches, all Christians, all mankind,

256 THE CHAPTERS.
for the one final objectof general utility. The chapters
are no less necessary than the local clergy ; a system
of parish priests is not the only instrument which the
church requires for her objects.
The present disunion in the church may be
ascribed, in a great measure, to the neglect and the
decay of the chapters. The misfortune has not
arisen from the existence of the chapters, but from
their inactive existence, their decay, their de
parture from their original destination, the promo
tion of religion and learning.
Personal attachment to the virtues and talents of
a clergyman is not sufficient, when veneration for
the body which he represents is wanting. An
opinion has little weight and power when it does not
proceed from a corporation. May our church steer
firmly and safely between papal slavery on the one
hand, and lawless puritanism on the other.
These principles and considerations will be very
generally acceded to ; and the preservation of the
chapters be advocated, in the hope that they will
fulfil their destination better than of late years, and
that provision will be made in some other manner
for the religious wants of a population*, which has
* According to a letter of the Bishop of London, there were only
140,000 seats in the churches for 1,380,000 inhabitants, and to 14,000
persons only one clergyman.

THE CHAPTERS. 257
increased by millions. It is neither poverty nor
covetousness, neither indifference nor ill-will, that
stand in the way of these infinitely important objects ;
but principally the above-mentioned inclination to
separation and dissent.

LETTER XXIII.
Tithes — Church-Rates — Various Proposals on the Subject— Par
liamentary Report and Proceedings. London, August 2, 1841.
The tendency to separation and dissent is in exact
proportion to the tendency of the Established Church to
govern. The one presupposes the other and brings it
forth. The highest problem would be to recognize and
to tolerate peculiarities of opinion, and yet so to re
strict them from too wide deviations, as not to dissolve
the more general, more comprehensive community.
However, there may, perhaps, be a better oppor
tunity for such general remarks. Much dispute was
caused by the assertion of the Established Church,
that she alone was authorized to solemnize valid
marriages. Sir Robert Peel wrote on this subject to
the Bishop of Exeter*, The best principle, in re
spect to the marriages of Dissenters, appears to me
to be, make the civil contract (or rather the recogni
tion of the contract before a civil authority) an indis
pensable condition ; recommend, but do not compel
* Correspondence of the Lord Bishop of Exeter.

tithes. 259
religious ceremonies — leave this point to the good
sense and feeling of the parties.
The New Laws of the 17th August 1836, and the
30th June 1837, enact: the newly appointed officer,
the registrar, receives the necessary notices of
persons intending to marry, takes care that they
shall be duly published, and at the expiration of
twenty-one days (if no objection is offered) gives
licence for the marriage. After this, the marriage
is permitted in every place destined and licensed
for divine worship, in presence of a registrar and two
witnesses. The registrar keeps the books and lists
in the form prescribed. The expenses amount to
five shillings. Births and deaths are registered in
a similar manner, and the result collected by the
General Registrar Office.
On the 13th August 1836, and 4th June 1840,
laws were passed on the Commutation and Abolition
of Tithes, in England and Wales*, from which I
extract the following particulars: — Three commis
sioners, of whom the ministers appoint two, and the
Archbishop of Canterbury one, direct the whole,
and nominate the necessary inferior officers, clerks,
&c. The expenses are borne by the State, as soon
as two-thirds of the inhabitants of a place, or rather,
as many as pay two-thirds of the tithes, agree on a
* England in 1835, vol. i. letter xii.

260 CHURCH-RATES.
certain sum to be paid : this resolution is obligatory
on all. The amount of the shares is estimated as* in
the poor-rates. Should any differences ensue, the
parties interested name arbitrators. The assent of
the patrons, of the bishop, and of the commissioner, is
required for a final resolution ; the indemnity may
be given in land or in rents. The average pro
duce of seven years is taken as a basis of the cal
culations. With respect, therefore, to two important sub
jects, the marriages of the Dissenters and the tithes,
a satisfactory solution has been attained, or is in
a fair way of being so. On the other hand, all at
tempts have failed to reconcile the demands of the
Established Church and the Dissenters, with respect
to church-rates. The former affirms that everybody,
without exception, is bound to contribute to the
building and repair of the churches. The latter
deny the obligation, and designate such a demand as
unjust. As the dispute grew more and more ani
mated, and resistance more general, the Government
was at length obliged to take notice of it. In the
year 1837, Mr. Spring Rice*, at that time Chan
cellor of the Exchequer, submitted to the House of
Commons a plan for the abolition of Church-Rates.
• Hansard, xxxvi, 1210, 1277 ; xxxvii, 6, 149, 405 ; xxxviii,
932 ; xlii, 820, 860 ; xlv, 869 ; xlix, 998, &c.

CHURCH RATES — VARIOUS PROPOSALS. 261
The following are the most important facts and argu
ments produced, and maintained by both parties.
The question, said Mr. Spring Rice (now Lord
Monteagle), is now come to such a point, that it
can no longer remain undecided. Disputes and
acts of violence arise, even in the churches ; and there
are no definite principles respecting the imposition
and levying a church-rate by the parish itself, or by
any other authority. There are no legal means
to enforce such a levy, or to obtain the amount of the
rates from those who refuse payment. In this state
of things, which is very prejudicial to the church and
religion, several plans were proposed to remedy
the evil.
Firstly. — That all church-rates should be abo
lished, and the discretion of every individual be left
to decide whether, and how much, he would or
would not do and pay for church and religious pur
poses. But this voluntary system, as it is called,
never attains the desired object, in the Church or
in the State, with respect to the army, revenue,
expenditure, &c.
Secondly. — That church-rates should be levied only
upon those, who, by their creed, belonged to the Esta
blished Church. But, how is this to be ascertained and
proved ? By examinations, oaths ? Shall compulsion
be used, or every refusal received as sufficient?

262 VARIOUS PROPOSALS.
Thirdly. — That the clergy alone should be taxed
for this purpose. This, however, is contrary to the
Constitution, and the more unsuitable plan, inas
much as the average income of an English clergyman
does not amount to more than £284, and would be
increased, by the abolition of all bishops and chapters,
to no more than about £ 300.
Fourthly. — That the necessary amount should be
raised by letting the pews or seats. Such a tax,
however, would exclude the poor, and never suffice to
meet the expenses.
Fifthly. — That the expenses should be defrayed out
of the public Treasury ; but then, in consequence of
a general tax, 5000 English parishes, which now pay
no church-rate, the Scotch and the Roman Catholic
Church, would have to contribute indirectly, and the
evil now complained of by the Dissenters would only
return in another form.
All these proposals being inadequate, only one
satisfactory course remains ; namely, to obtain the
necessary sums by a different and better manage
ment of the church lands. The archbishops, bishops,
deans, and chapters, have, hitherto, not effectively
directed the letting and management of the estates ;
on which account this business must be confided to a
new commission, consisting of clergymen and lay
men, and the property of the church be managed in

LETTING OF CHURCH-LANDS. 263
the same manner as the crown lands. In this man
ner, such a surplus may be obtained, without injury to
any person interested, that all church-rates may be
abolished. A Parliamentary Report shews*, that church-
lands have been usually let, for nearly three cen
turies, on leases of twenty-one years ; but, with
respect to cultivation, value, and produce, are far
below the lands of all landowners ; because the latter
employ more labour and capital upon them than the
farmers of church-lands.
Another custom, which is inconvenient and pre
judicial to landlord and tenant, is the payment of
fines, which are demanded, after certain intervals, for
prolonging the leases, generally for seven years.
Much has been said of the abolition of these fines,
and of converting the lease into an annual rent,
either fixed, or changeable, according to the prices of
corn ; but no general plan has yet been carried into
effect. I now return to the 'Ministerial proposal ; it
agrees in its basis, say its defenders, with justice and
equity; relieves the bishops from a management
incompatible with their office, does away with the
abuses of the present system of letting, leads to
better cultivation, and an increase of the riches of the
* Reports on Church Leases, vol. viii. 1839.

264 OBSERVATIONS.
people. It is not the Dissenters alone who oppose
church-rates, but all confess that the English church
is placed by them in a lamentable situation with
respect to the people. Formerly, the duty of main
taining the churches was incumbent on every one
belonging to the parish ; in the sequel, only the
landowners were bound to it ; but now there is no
legal means of compelling a parish, by the civil
authority, to levy church-rates ; and the Ecclesiastical
Courts have no possible means of punishing and
alarming, since excommunication and interdict have
lost their power.
Parliament has, in numberless instances, disposed
of church property; but on this occasion, the question
was not to reduce, but increase the revenue. As
soon as the church is found to be rich enough to
accomplish all its ohjects, with its own resources, it
would be unjust and foolish to tax others for that
purpose; or to reject just demands, under the
pretext that granting them would encourage ine
quitable claims.
Let us now hear the arguments of the adversaries
of the above proposal. It is the duty, said they, of
every nation to support its churches; and this duty is
acknowledged in England by the far greater ma
jority, and even by the Dissenters themselves. If
the latter, in their acquisition of landed property, take

CHURCH RATES. 265
into account the amount of the church-rate, there is
no reason to excuse them from the payment of it;
and it seems still more absurd to make such a pre
sent to nine-tenths of all the people, who belong to
this Established Church. Resistance to an existing
law is no reason for abolishing it ; and a small
minority has no right to resist the great majority.
The complaint is, besides, not of the amount of the
tax, which is, in fact, trifling ; but it is wished to
establish the principle, that the state must separate
itself entirely from the church and religion, and treat
all denominations alike. The assertion, that con
science forbids the payment of church-rates, is a
vain pretext. The law is sufficient to put aside
such doubt; otherwise other sectarians might refuse,
on similar grounds, all taxes, military service, &c.
Church-rates are the property of the church,
which cannot, in any manner, be taken from it. If,
by a better management of the church-lands, in
creased revenues can be obtained, these also are
the property of the church, and to be employed for
the objects of the Established Church (for instance,
augmenting the small incomes of many of the paro
chial clergy, or the building new churches) ; but they
are not to be given away.
The letting of the lands, and receiving fines,
cost no time, and do not at all interrupt the clergy in
their functions. The Parliament too has no more right
VOL I. N

266 CHURCH RATES.
to interfere in these affairs, because they appear to it
to be ill-managed, than it has to regulate the affairs
of any other landowners and tenants. Whatever
difference there may be between church property
and private property, it does not go so far that the
one may be spoiled, while the other must be pro
tected. If the church is deprived of the management
of its estates, it loses the character of independence
and solidity ; and it would be contrary to the nature
of the British constitution for the bishops to sit in
the upper House merely as annuitants.
From the establishment and preservation of the
English Church, the Dissenters themselves derive
many advantages ; such as the promotion of order,
of good morals, &c. ; and it would be better for them
to rejoin the former, than to split into numberless
fluctuating opinions * and refuse church-rates, while
they often build chapels for the purpose of gaining
money, in the same manner as theatres and ball-rooms
For these and similar reasons, the ministerial
proposal was rejected in the House of Commons by
a majority of 273 to 250, which, however, did not
remove the ground of the complaints, nor put an end
to the literary warfare on the subjectt- A motion to
* Quarterly Review, lvii, 365.
t Campbell's Letter to Lord Stanley on the Law of Church-
rates. Bricknell, the Grievances of Church-rates. Wilkins' Letter on
Church-rates. Ogly's Letter on Church-rates. Perceval, the Origin
of Church-rates. Letter of the Bishop of London about the additional
Churches. Edinb. Review, lxv, 2, 178.

CHURCH RATES. 267
levy a new tax on seats in the churches, brought
forward in May 1840, in the House of Commons,
was also thrown out. It was objected that it would
be uncertain and insufficient, would deprive the poor
of free access to the churches, or fall only on those
who are inclined to attend them.
When I impartially consider the arguments ad
duced for and against church-rates, I cannot entirely
agree with either of the two leading parties ; but I
have still some doubts and objections.
Granting, for instance, that the ministerial pro
posal was objectionable, this mere negative did not
remedy the uncertainty, and the insufficiency of the
existing laws and regulations. While some deny
that any parish has a right to levy general church-
rates, others declare it to be a sacred duty. Some
again say, no parish can be compelled to do this ; but
if it has granted a rate by a majority of votes, it may
and ought to be levied by compulsory means. Expe
rience, however, has shewn, that compulsion gives
very great offence*, and cannot be carried into exe
cution against many obstinate persons. On this ac
count, there is an aversion against the enactment of
new and positive laws.
It has been justly said, if the church-rate is a
' Hansard, xlix, 996 ; Iii, 102.
N 2

268 CHURCH RATES.
real tax, imposed on the soil, which the purchaser
has taken into account, there is no ground what
ever, in law or conscience, to make a present of it
to anybody, still less to the Dissenters alone. Be
sides this, the latter, partial favour, would only
induce all selfish persons to fall off from the church.
But the Dissenters object, that they are now obliged
to pay once for the Established Church, and once for
their own, so that the ancient real charge is doubled
in their case.
How far the state may interfere in this case, and
how far the church must remain independent, cannot
be decided in the general sense, and for all ages and
nations. Thus, in the several preceding cases, dif
ferent answers were made to the questions, whether
a surplus revenue really could be obtained, and
whether the church was rich enongh to do without it,
for the attainment of its objects. Lord John Russell
stated its clear annual income as follows*: —
1. Archbishopricks and Bis'hopricks. . . , 160,292
(on an average £5936)
2. Cathedrals and collegiate churches . . 208,289
3. Special revenues of some individual
members of these churches  66,465
4. Benefices with or without cure of souls 3,004,721

Total, £3,439,767
• Hansard, xlii, 820.

CHURCH RATES. 269
The church, as well as the state, must be able to
impose, and remit payments on sufficient grounds ;
and it is the duty of every Christian people to pro
vide for its churches and clergy, by foundations or
payments. The superintendence and control of
the revenues of the state is more strict and careful
in England, than that of the revenues of the church ;
and the laity very naturally bring forward certain
claims, in opposition to the clergy.
If, however, the laity is divided into numerous
sects, each of which claims for itself absolute inde
pendence and equal rights, not only does spiritual
freedom degenerate into anarchy, but the splendid
churches will fall into decay, which were erected at
a time when conscience prescribed, not to set private
opinion above the universally recognized doctrine.
There are, doubtless, as many varieties of reli
gious conviction in Germany as in England ; but
they are, for the most part, inwardly and spiritu
ally developed, without leading to external separa
tion and division. Freedom of conscience suffices ;
poverty too, or a regulating influence of the govern
ment and laws, stands in the way. In England, on
the contrary, the very smallest minority aims like
wise at external separation ; each wishing to have
its distinct churches, chapels, clergy, revenues, &c.
&c. ; and from this tendency and pretension the

270 CHURCH RATES.
dispute respecting church-rates arises. The German
mode is a protection against this and many other
evils ; but, in England, it is designated as condemnable
indecision and lukewarmness. The proposal would
be equally disapproved, to put an end to that of
fensive strife, by the several sects agreeing to use
the same churches, and to contribute equally to their
support.

LETTER XXIV.

The Scotch Church.

London, August 23, 1841.
A MORE important and more dangerous dispute than
that about church-rates in England, has broken out
in Scotland, chiefly on the right of patronage ; and
has not only divided the Presbyterian church, but has
led to an open rupture between the church and the
state. In order to understand the subject, the best way
will be to state, with all possible brevity, the facts
and the course of the matter, and then to give the
arguments by which each party endeavours to justify
its proceedings. At the very commencement of the Scotch reforma
tion, the public voice already declared against the
right of patronage, and complaints were made of it
in the book of discipline. After the overthrow of
the royal power, and the execution of Charles I, it
was wholly abolished, in the year 1649 ; and the
election of the clergy, on a popular basis, was sub-

272 THE SCOTCH CHURCH.
stituted for it. After the restoration of Charles II,
the Scotch church suffered many persecutions ; and,
in 1669, the unconditional supremacy of the king
in the affairs of the church was declared, and the
right of patronage restored. On the expulsion of
James II, King William III was inclined to main
tain it; but, the general voice being decidedly ex
pressed against it, a law was passed in July, 1690, of
the following tenor : — In case of the vacancy of a
parish, the heritors and elders are to nominate a
person, and propose him to the whole congregation,
which may either accept or reject biro. If they re
ject him, they must state their reasons, in order that
the clergy of the district may examine them, and,
according to their judgment and decision, the call
and introduction of a clergyman is ordered and car
ried into effect.
On the union of England and Scotland in 1706, the
religious institutions of that country were confirmed
and guaranteed; but, in 1711, the united Parlia
ment of Great Britain passed a new law, re-establish
ing the right of patronage ; because, said one party,
it was wished to favour the principal partizans of the
state ; but, as the other said, because the arrange
ment of 1690 had turned out ill, and led to violent
disputes. From the year 1711 to 1834 the laws remained

THE SCOTCH CHURCH. 273
unchanged ; but in that year the minority, which
had gradually become the majority,, resolved, in the
general assembly of the clergy, that the parish had
the right to reject any candidate proposed by the
patron, without assigning any reason for so doing.
The patrons affirmed that this innovation, this un
conditional veto, infringed, nay, annihilated their
rights; and the civil tribunal decided in their favour.
Hereupon, while the assembly deposed those minis
ters who obeyed the decision of the court, the latter
ordered them to be reinstated ; and the House of
Lords, before which the matter came by appeal, con
firmed the opinion and the decision of the civil
tribunal. Proposals for new laws met with no approbation
from either of the excited parties ; and the general
assembly, or its committee, has not only again con
firmed the deposition, but even extended it to those
who approved the conduct of those ministers, or
took part in it. Thus, with the most violent dis
sension in the church itself, there is open war
between the church and state.
Where there are parties, there is never a want
of party names; and thus the defenders of the old
rights of patronage are called Intrusionists, and their
opponents Non-intrusionists. The numerous pub
lications that have appeared on the subject, mostly

274 THE SCOTCH CHURCH.
embrace one of the two sides ; and but few endea
vour to discover a middle course, which, with the
present excitement, finds favour with neither. But
even the writers of one party, as well as the other,
are so peculiar, and different from each other, that it
is scarcely possible to give a general, I would say, an
average, statement of their views. It will, therefore,
be better perhaps to extract, at least, from some of
these publications, the most important and most
characteristic points.
All patronage, says Mr. Buchan*, is an infringe
ment of the rights of the people, and has gradually
become more and more strict, and been enforced
with less and less regard to those rights. Accord
ing to the laws of the Scotch church, a clergy
man is not to be forced upon any parish ; and the
church has an inviolable right to the internal re
gulation of all spiritual affairs. By virtue of this
right, the assembly, in the year 1834, passed the
veto law, by which the majority of the male heads
of families in a parish may absolutely reject the
candidate proposed to them. The civil tribunals and
the House of Lords can interfere and judge only
in temporal, not in spiritual matters. The decision
of that House, as well as the speeches of the Lord
Chancellor and Lord Brougham, who would limit
* Historical Sketch of the Ecclesiastical Establishments in Scotland.

THE SCOTCH CHURCH. 275
the right of examination and decision in the eccle
siastical tribunal to the ability and morals of the
proposed candidate, are contrary to the views of
all parties in Scotland, give to the civil tribunals in
Scotland greater rights than they possess in England
and manifestly aim at the overthrow of the Presby
terian church.
The church, on her part, acknowledges her de
pendence on the state, with regard to civil rights ;
so that a convention between both exists, by which
the church receives from the state the benefit of
protection and endowment ; but, on the other hand,
undertakes moral and religious instruction, as well
as the promotion of order, and of the temporal
and spiritual welfare of the people. If the state
should withhold the endowment, the contract be
tween it and the church would be dissolved, and
the voluntary system, as it is called, introduced.
The right of patronage, which, in the course of
the 18th century, was exercised with less and less
discretion, introduced ministers of a lukewarm dis
position, without piety and ardent zeal. No pre
scription can be a reason for maintaining a bad
system ; patronage, too, is not a mere right of pro
perty, with which the patron may do as he pleases ;
it is rather a sacred trust and an important duty.

276 THE SCOTCH CHURCH.
If the present mode of proceeding is founded on
laws, they must be changed ; without the veto law,
the pulpits would soon be filled by tools for political
party purposes. It has worked well ; and only ten
nominations of 160 to 170 have been contested.
The good sense of the people, sayTs Dr. Chal
mers*, gives with the veto a sufficient guarantee for
the correctness of the conviction, bona fide, which is
different from a bona ratione. A statement of reasons
cannot be required from the members of a congrega
tion, of which they would probably be incapable ;
and still less a logical defence and justification of
these reasons, which would be utterly boyond them.
The Bible, says Mr. Ritcbiet, shews that the
course of the Non-intrusionists is the most unobjec
tionable and correct; it condemns every lay patron,
who, against the will of a parish, sacrilegiously at
tempts to force a minister upon them. The choice
of Barnabas and Matthew shews that the election
and confirmation of its ministers are in the people.
Many assemblies in Scotland demanded the total
abolition of the right of patronage^, and called the reso
lutions of the House of Lords, on this subject, unholy,
unjust, and unchristian : no civil tribunal, said they, can
* Chalmers on the Present Position of the Church of Scotland.
t Ritchie, Letter on the Non-intrusion Question.
X Hansard, lvi, 1S38 ; Ivii, 68.

THE SCOTCH CHURCH. 277
decide on the limits of ecclesiastical right*; none
may interfere in questions on the spiritual relations
between the congregations and their ministers ; and
this less in the Scotch church than in any other, be
cause she especially requires and presupposes the most
perfect union between the congregation and the mH
nister. The bare willof the members of the congrega
tion of itself, without any reasons, must lead to the
decision of the ecclesiastical court, without, however,
thereby destroying all control in the several cases (?),
In every congregation, says Mr. Colquhount, the
minister and some elders form the kirk session ; the
latter are for the most part chosen by the other mem
bers of this court. The second superior courts, or
the Presbyteries, consist of the ministers and one
elder from every congregation of the district, con
sisting of several contiguous parishes. There are, in
Scotland, 82 such Presbyteries. From the kirk
session there is an appeal to the Presbyteries ; from
them to one of the 16 synods ; and, lastly, to the
general assembly. The general assembly consists of
a certain number of ministers and elders, as dele
gates from all the rest ; besides six delegates for the
Universities, and two for the Presbyterian churches
* Moncrief, Letter to Lord Melbourne, on the appointment of
Ministers in the Church of Scotland.
t Colquhoun, Hints on the Question now affecting the Church of
Scotland.

278 THE SCOTCH CHURCH.
in India. The total number is now composed of
238 ministers and 175 elders. A resolution, or judg
ment of the assembly is, therefore, not a resolution
or judgment of the ministers only, but of the church
and the people. It has both legislative and judicial
power. Every motion made in the assembly is re
ferred, in the first instance, to a committee, and can
not become a law till the following year, after the
Presbyteries have examined the matter, and the
majority has decided in its favour. The veto law
was an innovation, in order to give the people an
unrestricted, decisive, and conclusive authority,
which the church cannot overthrow, but by which it
is bound. The decision is transferred to a small
portion of the church, without allowing any ex
amination to the superior and more extensive por
tions and authorities. It is not enough to examine
three things — the intellectual acquirements, the life,
and the doctrine of a minister ; but, fourthly, his fit
ness for a certain congregation, which should in
preference decide on this point ; because congeniality
between it and the minister proposed, is absolutely
necessary in the Scotch church ; and a candidate ought,
therefore, to be rejected, when such congeniality is
wanting. The law of 1711, which set aside the
people, has done great mischief, and led to the subse
quent dissensions.

THE SCOTCH CHURCH. 279
Let us now hear some arguments of the other
party. " Never," says Mr. Hope, " did the people
possess a right to reject a duly qualified minister,
proposed by the legal patron, without assigning any
reasons. Neither has the Church ever possessed or
exercised the right to confer such privileges. It has
violated and overturned existing rights, expressly
protected by the law ; in spite of this certainty, the
assembly perseveres in its resolutions, complains of
ignorance, precipitation, and disregard of the dearest
principles of the Church. The Scotch clergy make
this noise chiefly to acquire popularity and more ex
tensive influence ; to which the numerous, easily
excitable, popular assemblies must likewise lean.
In the Gospel there is nothing of the veto, and the
election of ministers is not given to the people by a
divine law. Notwithstanding all the censures on
Romanism, the Scotch Church speaks in a similar
manner. Our Lord Jesus Christ, as King and Head
of the Church, has given the keys to us, independ
ently of every civil authority and confirmation. All
spiritual authority, with respect to doctrine, to the
constitution, and discipline of the church, comes
from Jesus Christ alone, and belongs to the church
alone ; intimately, essentially, and inalienably, by
virtue of the immediate receipt of it from his own
hand.

280 THE SCOTCH CHURCH.
The most moderate and excellent persons are
led to serious errors and intolerant views, as soon as
they convert questions of Church discipline into
questions of religious belief. If religious sanction
and Biblical confirmation are required, not merely
for the leading principles of the several religious
systems, but also for the inferior details, the neces
sary consequence is, extreme intolerance towards all
deviations of the several creeds. No person ac
quainted with ecclesiastical history can doubt that the
worst kind of ecclesiastical tyranny arises from these
doctrines carried to extremes. The pretensions of
the clergy to unlimited power, over every thing which
they please to call spiritual or ecclesiastical, open a
way to the most mischievous restrictions of human
freedom. By these declamations on the right of the
Church of Christ, the prejudices, the weaknesses, or
the errors of mankind are flattered, and spiritual
pride (so rich a source of practical evil, a poison so
destructive of the popular character, so injurious to
true religion) is offered and encouraged by those
whose duty it would be to suppress this very pride.
The clergy would decide alone what rights belong
to them. All the rights of the state, and of every
other religious party, disappear before this supreme
power. This tendency and disposition of the assembly

THE SCOTCH CHURCH. 281
has arisen chiefly from its having extended the right
of sitting, in the lower and superior ecclesiastical
courts, from the parish priests to the clergymen who
officiate in newly-erected chapels. These young
zealots are envious of the rights of patronage, and
take advantage of democratic movements, in order to
advance themselves. The number of members of the
assembly has increased, since 1832, from three hun
dred and fifty to about four hundred.
Even Dr. Chalmers, a chief mover and advocate
of the veto law, cannot dissemble the bad effects of
it, and would now be glad to introduce some limita
tions ; for instance, that the right of voting should be
lost, if anyone voted from secondary motives ; and,
in fact, it is absurd that the hearers of the word
should decide on their teachers, by which the respect
due to him, and their docility, are weakened.
Every popular election has great difficulties*.
Who shall elect ; the landowners, the heads of fami
lies, the adult males, the communicants, all the
members of the congregations, the true believers ?
If the patrons have given away a part of their income
for the right to present clergymen, how can one party
venture to destroy that right ; or, instead of a wise
division, and mixed constitutiont, to deliver every

* Essay on Church Patronage.
t Neale's Lectures on the Church of England,

282 THE SCOTCH CHURCH.
thing exclusively into the hands of the people. How
can the synod of 1638 be so honourably mentioned
on this occasion, which prohibited speaking and
writing against its views and resolutions, paved the
way for the rebellion, and the murder of the king*,
and cursed all toleration.
Only the populace and the arrogant clergy vote
for the vetot, and abuse their opponents as uncircum-
cised Philistines, children of Belial, &c. By the veto
law the best clergyman is often the most easily re
jected, or converted into a machine, who must preach
according to the fancy of his hearers.
The conduct of the majority of the Scottish
clergy, says the Quarterly ReviewJ, is inconsistent
with the existence of an established Church ; nay, it
overturns every constitution. They require an entire
independence of the law, in respect to every thing
which they themselves are inclined to call spiritual.
They will not obey the laws of the country, and yet
retain the temporal goods, which they enjoy solely by
virtue of the laws which they attack. Till the intro
duction of the veto law, the patron proposed the
clergyman ; every member of the congregation had
* Review of certain recent Proceedings of the Scotch Kirk ; Car
lisle. Letter to the Marquis of Normanby. James Smith's Letter on
the Church of Scotland.
t Frazer's Magazine, No. cxxxiii, cxxxvii.
X Quarterly Review, cxxxiii, 203.

THE SCOTCH CHURCH. 283
aright to oppose his appointment, stating his reasons,
on the weight and admissibility of which the eccle
siastical courts decided. The most conflicting argu
ments have been adduced in favour of the innovation
of 1834 ; such as, the express directions of the Bible;
a return to the ancient usages of the Church ; the
right of the Church to make new laws of this kind,
or alleged utility. In truth, the veto is contrary to
the existing laws, and to the powers of the assembly ;
leads to disputes with the civil tribunals, and to the
loss of all temporal revenues. The Apostolic Age
knew nothing of popular elections and of uncon
ditional rejections by the members of the congrega
tion. Popular elections and the veto inevitably lead
to selfishness, ignorance, prejudice, party spirit, spiri
tual pride, intrigues, and false representations. The
best candidate must be averse from exposing himself
to be rejected, without any reason assigned ; whereas
the less qualified candidate sets in motion, and makes
use of, a trivial eloquence, an artificial enthusiasm,
and an indulgence to weaknesses. The new law
has, indeed, already worked ill, led to acts of violence
and indecorum (even among the clergy), and induced
the people to vote against persons whom they them
selves previously recommended in writing.
Against these and other similar arguments, Mr.

284 the scotch church.
Hamilton* came forward. Undeserved and intem
perate accusations, he said, have greatly inflamed
people's minds ; too ardent opponents, in their pre
sent temper, see nothing in and about the Church,
but an injurious, poisonous spirit, which must by
every means be rooted out and destroyed. As the
Church cannot change her fixed and unalterable prin
ciples, the change must be made on the other side ;
but care must be taken, at the same time, that no
wrong is done to the patrons. The question is
Scotch, and must be examined and decided as such.
As soon as one or several persons of the con
gregation produce important objections, this leads to
a process, which is to be determined by a sentence ;
but the opinion or consent of the whole congregation
is, in such case, not asked, and disregarded, and yet
the general objection, without statement of reasons,
is something very different from that mode of pro
ceeding. It is a general rule of the Scotch Church,
that no patron, whoever he may be, can force a
clergyman on a parish ; and as the Scotch are more
religious and better informed than perhaps any people
in the world, there is no danger in this regulation ; and
should abuses occur, they may be easily remedied.
The English institutions cannot be compared with the
* John Hamilton. Remonstrance in relation to the Scottish
Church Question.

THE SCOTCH CHURCH, 285
Scotch ; for this reason, that here the reformation
proceeded from the people, and granted them much
greater rights ; the very first regulations on church
discipline in 1580 gave them the right to consent to
the appointment of ministers, according to the ex
ample of eaidy centuries.
The law of 1649 gives the right of proposing to
the lay elders. When the majority of the congrega
tion objects, the admission of the proposed candidate
cannot take place. If it assents, the minority mast
submit, or produce special and satisfactory reasons.
The establishment of the right of patronage in 1711
was a rash, impolitic, and perfidious measure, which
must be revoked. The rule, however, remained, for
many years together, a dead letter, till the majority
of the Scotch clergy themselves began to favour the
candidates, in contradiction to the fundamental insti
tutions of the Church, to disregard the will of the
congregation, and to reduce the call to a mere for
mality. At the same time, zeal became cool and
discipline relaxed ; and this evil was called modera
tion, and this false moderation* is looked upon as
philosophical and venerable. But now the zealous
minority has become a majority, and is justly deter-
• Sir Robert Peel, on the other hand, complained strongly of the
change which had taken place with respect to the spirit and character of
the Scotch clergy.

286 THE SCOTCH CHURCH.
mined to bring back every thing to the purity and
strictness of the first institutions of the Church, with
out waiting for an English, temporal, political deci
sion* ; and the more so, because the government of
the country remains wholly passive and indifferent.
Since the Church has declared her views, she cannot
recede ; but should she now be forsaken, given up to
the arbitrary will of her own excited and mortified
minority, that she should be abused, ridiculed, tor
mented, torn in pieces and trodden under foot, by the
enemies whom she has just conquered, but would
then become insolent, — this would be the most cruel,
the most unjust, unmerited, ungenerous treatment
that any society on earth ever met with.
The civil court could only approve the withhold
ing of the temporal revenues, but not decide any
thing respecting the admission or rejection of minis
ters ; those ministers who do not obey the commands
of the Assembly, have, therefore, been justly deposed
by the Spiritual Authority.
To this it was answered, nobody has any where,
* The English Church likewise calls on the members of the con
gregation, in the name of God, to express and to prove well-founded
objections to a minister proposed to them. In the English Church, every
minister proposed by the patron is, in general, declared qualified, by ex
amination or ordination, for any parish. In Scotland, the ordination
of the person proposed does not take place till afterwards, for the parti
cular parish. — Macneile's Lectures on the Church of England.

THE SCOTCH CHURCH. 287
or in any manner, infringed on the rights of the
church* ; it has been in all cases the aggressor, vio
lating the laws of the country, and established usage,
despising the decision of the courts of justice, and
even the House of Lords. It is not the people, but
the clergy, that have produced all these consequences ;
they care little about the participation and influence
of the parishes ; they hope, on the contrary, when the
right of patronage is set aside, to have the sole direc
tion of them. If, on the other hand, the uncondi
tional veto is to destroy the influence of the clergy,
because it is injurious, the whole church is in a de
plorable condition, and the Dissenters obtain a con
firmation of all their objections. If the choice of
the members of the congregation is to decide alone
and unconditionally, they must be allowed to accept
a person who does not even belong to the Presby
terian church, or to dismiss a minister, who has
been approved, but afterwards found to be unfit,
When a smith refused to sign a petition for the veto,
his minister said to him, do you not wish to have the
right to give your vote in the choice of your minister?
I would rather like, said the smith, looking intently
at the speaker, to have a right to dismiss him.
The civil court has not interfered in spiritual
matters, but merely affirmed that every congrega-
* Practical Remarks on the Scotch Church Question.

288 THE SCOTCH CHURCH.
tion must, for the future, as has been the case for more
than a hundred years, state reasons for rejection.
The Ecclesiastical Court decides on them ; and if they
are found untenable, admitthe candidate ; butitcannot
by any means depose men for having obeyed the laws
of the country. The new regulations laid down by
the clergy, infringe on the rights of others, are given in
an unconstitutional manner, and are most unjustly and
arbitrarily applied. The state cannot and will not
submit to such unheard-of spiritual tyranny, and
none of the great political parties can promote or
tolerate it, without submitting to absolute slavery.
Great interest was manifested for the deposed
ministers, at a numerous meeting held in May 1841,
at which Lord Dunfermline (formerly Mr. Aber-
crombie, the speaker) presided ; he too affirmed
that the church was the aggressor, and had violated
the laws of the constitution, by which it had been
received and confirmed ; that it had not a right
to decide alone what was an ecclesiastical con
cern, and to proscribe men who believed obedience
to the laws of the country to be a duty, and obe
dience to arbitrary innovations to be wrong. What
a state of things ! the Assembly expels their minis
ters, and appoints others ; the civil tribunal, on the
other hand, forbids the deposition of the former, and
the induction of the latter ; instead of seven minis-

THE SCOTCH CHURCH. 289
ters, there are fourteen, opposed to each other ; one
half of whom are deprived of spiritual protection ;
the other half, of temporal protection, and of their
income. The ehurch annihilates the spiritual rights
of the first ; the civil tribunal does not confer these
rights, but maintains those in possession who have not
forfeited them by obedience to the laws. It is by no
means meant to hinder the preaching of the Gospel ;
only it shall not be done by those who are not en
titled, to the prejudice of those who are.
When these matters were at length mentioned in
Parliament, Lord Melbourne declared that the laws
were not to be altered, but those already existing to be
applied ; but that either the change or the application
would encounter the greatest difficulties, on account
of the prevailing excitement, and the late numerous
depositions of the opposing ministers ; and yet it is
impossible to suffer this war and this anarchy to
continue. When even the government of the country considers
the Scotch affair as a noli me tangere, and when every
judgment and every measure is undoubtedly exposed
to violent censure, it would, perhaps, be the wisest and
most prudent in me, to be contented with this attempt
at an historical representation ; yet I am not willing,
least of all from cowardice, to withhold some obser
vations which occur to me.
VOL. i. °

290 THE SCOTCH CHURCH.
Firstly. — The question is certainly a Scotch one,
and cannot be decided according to the views and
principles of other countries.
Secondly. — Laws and customs are capable of im
provement ; and abuses (consequently, the abuses of
the right of patronage) are not consecrated for ever
by the lapse of time.
Thirdly. — Every church has its own invaluable
rights, which the state cannot abolish, without preju
dice both to the church and to itself.
On the other hand, the church, in its relation to the
state, to patrons and to the laity, may not decide alone
and partially, merely according to its pleasure, and
abolish or infringe existing rights. By an obstinate
application of an absolute veto, the right of patron
age is certainly indirectly destroyed, and those who
declare for its abolition are more sincere and con
sistent. The idea of renouncing all temporal reve
nues for the abolition of the right of patronage, is a
passionate, impracticable, impious notion ; as Pope
Paschal II experienced in a manner perfectly similar,
in his dispute with the Emperor Henry V. The
church cannot do without such endowment, and ought
not to renounce it.
I cannot join in the violent censure of the Scotch
clergy of the last century ; and their moderation ap
pears to me far less dangerous and unchristian, than

THE SCOTCH CHURCH. 291
the excessive zeal*, and the lust of power, which, in
these latter times, again manifests itself in almost all
the Christian churches. I must be content to be
blamed for want of sense, and for lukewarmness, if
I affirm that the former distribution of rights and
duties between the patron, the congregation, and the
clergy, that this mixed constitution appears to me far
preferable to an absolute veto, which gives all rights to
the congregation, and destroys those of the other two
parties ; or smuggles them in again, in an objection
able manner. If the just claims of the congregation had
been of late unduly neglected, they might have been
restored to their ancient legal claims, without giving
the institution a wholly different direction and form
by the veto. Unless other important views and ob
jects are in the back-ground, the dispute turns on the
assigning or not assigning of reasons; and if I may not
say that this is much ado about nothing, yet certainly
too much ado has been made about a trifle, and a de
plorable spiritual war has been excited. The asser
tion, which it is alleged removes all evils and. solves all
doubts, viz. that the church has a right of absolute
decision, aud that it has exercised this right, has no
meaning whatever in the present relations and dis
positions. Thus, for instance, the clergy in Aberdeen,

* The Annual Register for 1839, Chronicle 161, speaks of the
fanatic zeal of certain Scotch Revivals.

292 THE SCOTCH CHURCH.
when the committee of the Assembly called upon
them to teach and to defend from the pulpit the
principles that had been set up, of the infallibility of
the church, and the measures which had been
adopted, declared that all this had no connexion with
true Christianity, that it was a violation of their duties,
a scandal in the church, and corruption, and an abuse
of divine service, of church; discipline, and of reli
gion itself.
The worst of all is, if, in disputes of this kind, the
opinions of some, at once inconsiderate and violent,
are given out as absolute Divine commands, and the
opposite opinions of others designated as sinful and
devilish ; very often the second party (with equal
injustice) returns these reproaches ; and obstinacy,
eternal animosity, is esteemed as the highest Christian
duty ; and Christian charity, on the other hand, as
wretched weakness and damnable treachery. In this
manner, many nations, especially Germany, in the
thirty years' war, have ruined themselves. May the
Scotch, taught by their own experience and that
of others, soon return to moderation, and, as Christian
brethren, hold out to each other the hand of recon
ciliation. END OF VOL. I.

J. MALLETT, PRINTER, W1BDOU1 STREET, SOHO, LOSDOS.

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