The next circumstance which is stated by the wit nesses before the Committee as a cause of multiply ing beggars, is the state lottery. It is adduced by more of the witnesses than one, but we must remain satisfied with a specimen. Mr Wakefield was asked, " You have mentioned the lottery, as the second muse ; have you any facts to state, justifying that opinion ?—I beg to state a very strong 'instance of an apparently industrious man, who applied to the committee of the Spitalfields Soup Society for re . lief; he was told, that his appearance did not indi cate want ; and his mode of living was asked. He said he was a " Translator ;" which is a business of buying old shoes and boots, and translating them into wearable ones. Inquiry was then made, if he had such a business, why he should then apply for relief; and he answered, as a matter of course, that the lot tery was drawing, or about to draw. " Why, how can that affect your business ?"—" I have no sale for boots or shoes during the time that the lottery draws." Inquiry was then made as to the truth of the statement, and it was found to be the case, and that he was an industrious and respectable man ; and that it was only on account of the loss of his trade that he was brought into that distress.
" Hem long ago was that ?—Two or three years ago ; the money went, of course, either in the pur - chase of tickets, or the payment of insurances in the lottery." Almost all the witnesses who deliver any opinion upon the causes mendicity, mention the use of intoxicating liquors as one of the greatest. It is needless, we conceive, to adduce the testimony of • any individual in this case. The only mistake, of which there is any danger, in respect to this cause, is the ascribing to it more effects than it Though mischievous, in proportion to the quantity, by every drop that is consumed, it will accomefor but a small portion of the mischief which we be hold.
Local demands for temporary labour often affect the -poor very unfavourably. A passige already quoted from the evidence of Mr Gurney, shows in what manner a great number of persons crowding to the vicinity of London in the hay season, are driven or seduced into habits of beggary.
One cause 'of beggary may here be mentioned, which has not attracted all the attention which it deserves. That is, the mode in which we'allow cer tain classes of the people to pay themselves by a sort of begging. In these unhappy circumstances we allow post-boys, stage-coachmen, and various other classes to be placed. One sort of begging is nearly allied to another. Of the same tendency is the practice . by which servants take, and by their well known expectations beg, gratuities from their master's guests. All these are degrading practices, which bring down the mind to the mendicant level. We have no doubt whatsoever, that, of this sort of people, a greater proportion than of others, recruit the ranks of mendicity.
Almost all the witnesses represent the want of education, as standing high in the list of the causes of mendicity. Some of them who had used the
greatest range of observation, spoke of this cause with extraordinary emphasis ; and of the powerful effects of schooling, as giving that sense of honour to the people, which makes them willing rather to die than to beg. We shall not enlarge upon this cause, which would afford materials for a volume. It is enough, in this place, to mark the importance which the mere outward observation of practical men hie drawn them to attach to it.
The poor laws stand branded by the witnesses as perhaps the most prolific of all the causes of beg gary. The object of the poor laws is the very re verse. They are, by this account, the greatest cause of that which they were contrived to prevent. By making a sure provision for every body reduced to want, all motive for begging was expected to be taken away. The legislator looked only to onething; where he had a great many things to which he ought to have looked.
Mr John Stafford, the chief clerk of the Police office in Bow-street, said,—" I think it might prevent a considerable number of persons becoming beggars, if there was greater facility given to the magistrates to compel parish-officers to relieve poor persons who are in want, and unable to work or provide for them selves; for, as the law stands now, if a poor person comes to the magistrate to complain that he is in a state of distress, and does not know what to do to ob tain relief, that person must apply to two overseers of the poor, who may refuse relief. The magistrate must then summon the two overseen to appear be fore him ; and it is not until after they appear, or have made default, that he is enabled to make any order upon the parish-officers to relieve those per sons ; so that, in cases where the parish-officers are from home, or when they live at any distance, it re quires frequently a day or two before a return to the summons can he procured ; then, unless anything can be done in the meantime, the paupers have no means of obtaining relief, but by soliciting charity." Sir Nathaniel Conant, the magistrate, describes the same evil in nearly the same words. Respecting the beggars produced by this cause he was asked, " Do you think they constitute a large proportion of the beggars in London ?—I cannot state that ; there are a great many, almost all the persons not actually . known in a parish, who have occasion to apply for parish relief, apply in their last extremity. They are shifted about from poet to pillar for two or three days, before they can obtain relief. They beg at the corner of a street ; they are taken up by the watch man ; and when they are found to belong to a parish, they are let out, instead of being taken to the over seers. I conceive a good many of those who run after the passengers are in that situation. I con alive that, if they could go to the parish-othcers at ' the moment of casualty, they would not be in the streets.