POOR. It is of more importance than at first appears, to form correct views of the real poor. The word pover ty is a relative term, the precise meaning of which de pends on circumstances and in England, for instance, the law has virtually applied it to all those who receive sup plies as paupers out of the parochial rates, though many of these possess more of the means of subsistence, and even of comfort, than others in different nations, who would spurn at the application of such a term to them. Indigence, applied to the necessaries of life, corresponds with poverty ; but, when it is not severe, nor of long du ration, the sufferers ought not to be classed among " the regular poor." it may be no way degrading to persons incapable of supporting themselves, or of obtaining the means of subsistence, to be on this list ; but to others who are able to labour for their own support, or who possess the means of obtaining the necessaries of life, without be coming what the law calls paupers, it is both degrading and pernicious to sink into that list.
Absolute want of the necessaries of life is, indeed, the extreme of poverty ; yet this may occasionally occur, either to individuals or to nations ; and whether these be rude or civilized, without infetring habitual dependence on the bounty of the community. Many industrious fami lies, and, indeed, the labourers of whole parishes, (with few exceptions) have required some temporary supply, in consequence of particularly unproductive seasons, in va rious parts of Scotland; but these latnilies regained their independent character when the respective emetgency passed away; and if they had not, the Scottish list of paupers would now be many times as numerous as it is. Severe times of dearth or scarcity, are often followed by extended poverty spreadim7„ as one of their effects; but the temporary pressure of famine itself ought not to re duce its victims to the list of regular and habitual poor ; nor should this list ever include those who merely require and receive only incidental supplies. This distinction, though not always correctly observed in Scotland, is yet better observed there than in almost any other county; the numbers requiring aid being few, and their wants more easily supplied ; while the funds of charity arc small, and must be distributed with due care; and while those who distribute them are not only able to understand correctly most of the claims, but have also either a natural or a moral interest in preventing extravagant and unneces sary supplies. In England, the distinction, though laid
down in the law, was not made in practice, correctly, and perhaps could not well be made by the persons to whom the execution was committed. previously to the year 1819, when a new mode of proceeding was authorized by sta tute, on improved principles, n hick has already been of considerable advantage, but still requires farther improve ment.
The state of the poor is diversified so much, that a detail of its varieties would lead into statistical investiga tions, far too extensive and elaborate for a work of this nature. That state is widely different in large towns from hat it is in rural districts; it is different in England from it generally is in Scotland ; and still more widely dif ferent from both in Ireland : there is a wide difference be tween the state of the poor in these united kingdoms, and that in which they are placed in other kingdoms in Eu rope, from Russia to Naples; the state of the poor in Asia and Africa, and within the several parts of each of these quarters of the globe, exhibits diversities even more remarkable. The pour of the metropolis of England are in a different state, in reality, from what appears in most other cities and towns; it has altered materially in Edin burgh, Glasgow, and other cities, of late; the northern and Highland parts of Scotland discover a state of the poor in many respects different from what occurs in the central parts of it, where it also differs again from their state in the borders ; the state of the poor in Scotland, at large, is very different from what it was in former times: in England, also, an important change has lately com menced, and is going on.