jectured. No ; he is allowed to make up a compound of what he saw, and what he conjectured, just as he pleased, and to leave the ingredients without any distinction. In several things he is 'palpably and grossly erroneous. For example, he supposes that beggars in general throw away the victuals which they collect. It is likely that they should take the trouble of collecting any thing merely to throw it away ! It is likely they should throw away that for which they might get money ! Besides, the asser tion is contrary to what is actually delivered in evi dence to the Committee ; the fact, that there are places in St Giles's where the commodity is regular ly bought, and where those who have collected it go to sell it.
• Nothing is more common, in cases of this sort, than to receive a violent impression from the strong eases, however few ; to overlook and forget the small cases, however numerous ; and from the strong cases solely to draw every inference to the whole. There are strong marks of this imperfection in the evidence which is given in this Report. Mr Steven son, for example, in the passage which has just been' quoted, gives it, without any restriction whatsoever, as a general characteristic of the beggars of whom he speaks, to be very abusive when their applications are refused. Now, this may safely be pronounced as one of the rarest occurrences. The writer of this article may give his own evidence. He has lived above fifteen years in the metropolis : he has walked more than most people, both in the streets of Lon don, and in the roads and fields immediately sur rounding it : he never gives anything to a casual beggar : he has been accosted by thousands of beg gars : he cannot at this moment recollect that, in the whole course of that experience, he ever met with one abusive word : but he has a hundred times re ceived a " Thank you, Sir," with a bow or a curtsey from the little boys and girls whom he has refused and repulsed, and to whom it is evident that such a lesson is taught by those on whom their conduct depends. The impostrous beggar, in fact, knows his art too well to lose his temper ; and the spirit of the age, so much improved, renders a mild deportment necessary to the success even of the worst employ ment.
Of this evidence about the great gains of beggars, some parts are directly and strongly opposed to the rest.
should this be, if they were able to afford, in this re spect, a higher degree of comfort ? Notwithstand ing what we are told about their delicate feeding, we are also told that there are eating-houses to which the beggars resort, and in which they buy the scraps of victuals, collected at doors, which the beggars who have collected beyond their own consumption there dispose of. This is no proof that they are ge nerally able to cultivate delicacy.
So slight an exercise of reflection is sufficient to show that the gain of beggars must of necessity be wretched, that one is astonished at the proof which is exhibited of the inattention of mankind, by the number of persons who believe the contrary. Ac cording to the principle of population, which sup poses a greater number of hands than can find em ployment, the ordinary occupations. and trades may all be regarded as overstocked. The lowest is ne cessarily the most overstocked of all ; because the _ hands which overflow from the rest are all driven downwards, and the lowest receives the overplus of the whole. The lowest species of occupation is, therefore, of necessity underpaid ; that is to say, the wages of the labourer are not sufficient to maintain him with such a family as is necessary to keep the number of labourers, in that occupation, at its ex isting amount. But it must necessarily be, that the gains of beggars, upon the whole, that is, the gains of an average beggar, are below, and considerably below, the earnings of individuals in the lowest and worst paid species of labour. If it were not, it would follow, that the wretched starving people, employed in the lowest, naturally the hardest and most paw l() fall, species of labour, of consent, will choose to re ceive a small sum with hard and 'painful labour, when they might receive a larger MUD without any labour at all ; it would follow that, out of a multitude, amounting to the greater part of the population, all, or all but an insignificant portion, are endowed with this degree of heroic virtue. This would be to sup pose a sensibility to moral considerations which, in the circumstances of an oppressive and degrading poverty, is utterly incompatible with the laws of hu man nature.