ENORMITY OF ENGLISH PAUPERISM. [From the Sydney Morning Herald.]

New Zealander, Volume 1, Issue 11, 16 August 1845, Page 4

ENORMITY OF ENGLISH PAUPERISM. [From the Sydney Morning Herald.]

Familiar as the people of England are, and especially Members of Parliament with the more piominent facts connected with the operations ot the poor-law system, yet a statement made in the Houseof Commons on the 11th Febnur), by Sir James Graham, Secretary of State for tlie Home department, must have struck all who heard it as a most astounding communication. In moving for leave to bring in a bill to consolidate and amend the laws relating to paiochial settlement, and to the removal of the poor, the Right Hon. Gentleman said,—"lt might startle the House to hear, that one tenth of the whole population of the kingdom received relief from the poor rates; and, to give borne idea of the extent of the relief afforded, he would just state, that sinre the ypar 18]5 no les3 a snm had been collected as poor rates than tico hundred millions, one fourth of the capital of the National Debt." The whole population of the kingdom, that is, of England,—at the census of IS4I, was in round numbers, 15 millions. Taking the subsequent increase at the same centisimul ratio pet annum as in the previous ten years, namely, a fraction less than l£ per cent, the population at the end of the )ear 1844 must have been full 15,600,000. Of this immense mass of human beings, dwelling in the most opulent and highly civilized eountn in the world, Sir James braham declares one tenth to be dependent upon paiochial relief! That is to say, rich and prosperous England, at one of the most palmy epochs in her commercial historx, bears in her bosom considerably moie than a million and ahull* of paupers ! And it should not be overlooked that these paupers do not east exclusively, nor even principally, of the aged and infirm, the manned, the halt, and the blind ; but in "great part of the young and healthy of both sexes, of persons in the full vigour of their faculties, well able in point of bodily and mental strength, and quite willing, to earn an independent subsistence bj the labour of their own hands. Is not this state of things as unnatural as it is melancholy? Is it not contrary to the manifest and recoided intention of the Creator, that the strong and the healthy should thus eat the bread of idleness, and be a burden instead of a help to the community of winch they are members ? And behold what that burden is ! In the brief space of thirty years, —less than one half of the ordinary term of man's life —it has accumulated to the almost inconceivable snm of Two Hundred MdLons Sterling ! being at the rate of nearly £6,700,000 per annum !

And is there no remedy for this frightful evil ! .Yes, quoth the disciples of Maltlius :, discourage improvideut marriages — a political nostrum which the common sense of mankind has put to shame. Encourage the small allotment system, sa^s the more philahthrophic tinker of the present day,— an expedient 4 which the narrow confines English territory on the one hand, and the prodigious increase; of population on the other, would soon however bring to a dead halt. Repeal the corn laws, says the enthusiastic followers of Cobden, and the poor will neither lack work nor bread : an assertion easily made, but incapable of proof. Is there then some invincible necessity that pauperism and poor-rates should go onjncreasmg adinifintum, until the evil burst by its own enormity? Can English s.gacity devise, can English wealth execute, no plan for converting these hundreds of thousands of healthy idlers, into cheerful, and productive and prosperous labourers f If the national dominions extended no further than the shores of Great Britain and 111 1 eland, the case might truly be pronounced hopeless, and it would be no exaggeration tosay, as many do say, that England is approaching a terrible crisis, — a crisis in which the foundations of society will be torn up, the rights of property east to the winds, and brute force become lord of the ascendant. But the same overruling Providence that has raised England to so dizzy a height of opulence and power, and caused her people to increase and multiply to so overwhelming an. extent, has also conferred upon her those vast colonial possessions, which rightly understood and wisely applied constitute the great safety vents of her social and political elements. Her statesmen are well awaieof this. Asa bare proposition, they are never backward to acknowledge it. Nay, they not only acknowledge, but exult in the magnitude of her colonial dominions. Only three da)s after the Home Sscietary's above mentioned statement in the House of Commons, Sir Robrrt Peel in the opening of his budget, seemed proud of the fact, that "in 1792 we had twenty two colonies; in 1820, we had thirty four; and in 1845 their number ! amounts to forty Jive." In little more than half a century, the number of British colonies has doubled itself. "Our commerce," added the Premier, "is co-extensive. with our colonies.'* And why not our emigration too ? Why shouid a million and a half of paupers be pining away, in her poor houses, a misery to themselves, and a dead weight upon their country, when amongst lhese forty five colonies, the greater portion of them might find comfortable homes, and comparative independence ? Why should she be lavishing her poor rates by millions upon millions in the maintenance of a system which is unmitigated loss to the nation, when at a much lighter cost she might promote emigration on a scale so extensive as mt only to make a sensible reduction in the number of her paupers, but at the same time add immensely to her own resources, as a manufacturing and commercial s.tate? These questions have been often asked in Parliament, but never satisfactorily answered there or elsewhere. They will be asked again and again ; and however Ministeis may try to shrink from the great duty which is thus pressed upon their attention, they will eventually, and devoutly it is to be hoped befove long be compelled to grapple with the exigency which is coming upon them. We trust it will be found that the i umour w hich assigns to Her Majesty's Government an intention to give the Emigration question fair play during the session of 1845, is not without foundation.

[From the Cape Frontier Times.] " ~~ In one of the English papers last received there is a proposition on the subject of emigration, lhalis worthy of attention. It was suggested that the younger sons of nohlemen should place themselves at the head of emigrant parties, consisting perhaps of their father's tenants, and settle upon the unreclaimed lands in the colonies, thus employing their mental and corporeal vigour in extending over them the laws, language and institutions of the parent country. Such a plan, if carried out, vrould be of infinite service to all who embarked in it. Emigration is necessary to carry off the redundant population of England. There are too many mouths to feed, and too many hands to h'ml employment. The emigrant, therefore, is" doing good to himself, and betters at the same time, ihe condition of those he leaves behind him. Unfortunntely, emigration is regarded by the humble classes, as a sort of banishment. It is too often looked upon as a last resource or preservation against want by those who prefer honest industry to the dismal horrors of the poor house. The people are too often apt to associate something discreditable wtth the name of a " settler.*' Nothing can be more ridiculous or false than this prejudice. The man who farcing poorly and working hard in his own country, seeks out for himself and suffering family a home in the wilderness* and who clearing the land, at last succeeds by the labour of his hands, by the sweat ot his. brow, and with the blessing of heaven, in becoming the possessor of an estate, is a much nobler, and more useful member of society than the miserable half fed and overworked artizan or laborer, who is content to toil on to the end of his days, like a horse in a mill, with the prospect before him that his children will bedoomed to the same unhappy state of slavery. What can be more bonorabie or praiseworthy than for a man to exchange his honest poverty,. for a life of virtuous independence, by settling in a country where the cure of involuntary idle^ ness is unknown, where'industrions habits and / manual labor bring with them their certain ¥ reward, and where all necessary and reasonable! wants, that have not been occasioned by sloth-* fulness or vice, are sure to be supplied. The' prejudice against emigration, seems however, to be gradually wearing away. And nothing would tend to remove it altogether from the minds of the people, than giving practical effect to the suggestions that have been offered. A more exalted character would at once be given to emigration* which would be esteemed honorable and meritorious, instead of being sought on no higherground than as a refuge from want.