Perhaps this mode of supply by common begging is one of the very worst ways in which the poor are, or have been supported in any country; and yet it continues even in France, where the revenues of the state arc sparingly supplied in aid of the funds of charity.. Under the old ecclesiastical establishments, largesses were distributed to crowds of beggars, with little or no discrimination ; and still, at this (fay, it is impossible to distinguish correctly among vagrants from all quarters, of whom nothing can be certainly known, who employ all the acts of fraud and falsehood, conjoined with the habits of idleness and low profligacy, and who are suffered to perpetuate these evils by training children in the same habits. England alone, and some of the border districts of Scotland, have got rid of this great evil; as in some degree an alleviation of the burdens entailed by assessment ; and a great relief it cer tainly is.
It would swell this article too much to go into details of the management or the poor in other European states. We have laws in Great Britain to regulate this adminis tration; and the statute laws are in principle similar in the two united kingdoms, though in most parts of Scot land the common law has established a practical and su perior influence. An approximation is making in respect of administration, by the silent progress of statute law in Scotland, and by the new statute of 1819, in England. In Ireland, it seems hardy possible to go on, without some poor laws, for any length of time; but, indeed, better prin ciples of economy ought to precede these, in order to give them effect. In other kingdoms and states, there is little to remark, and less to commend; only that the poverty, misery; and vice, which have overrun some of the finest and most fertile nations, are truly astonishing. And on this point it seems unnecessary to say more than merely to name France and Spain, Portugal and Italy ; and to re fer to the ton well authenticated facts connected with the Poissards, the Sans Culottes, and the Lazzaroni. It is re freshing to cross the sea to the new wolld, to the United States, where land is in abundance, labour productive, in dustry almost unrestrained, and the condition of poverty seldom and little known.
The causes of poverty ought to be well considered, in order to arrive at any certainty with regard to the best and safest means of alleviating its pressure : now these causes may be either natural or artificial ; and in some cases these may be conjoined.
Among the labouring classes, whatever incapacitates from productive industry, may be the cause of poverty, such as befalls the blind, maimed, lame, aged, and per sons under diseases of body or mind ; and also persons burdened with the charge and support of others in any similar condition. These arc, by the common consent of
all nations, considered as " the poor ;" and many seem to look upon these as almost the only persons entitled to be so considered. Accordingly, nost of the lists of regular poor are made up of persons in such a state as these ; and it is for persons in that state that provision is ordained to be made, under the statute laws of England and Scotland also. They are what the people call " seen objects ;" and every one admits that they ought to be supported, though it is not quite agreed upon what is the best mode of so doing. If' the administrators of the poor laws of England had found it safe to confine the public bounty to such as these, no country in Europe would have been less pressed than England would now have been in maintaining its poor.
But other causes may and do operate in extending po• verty, besides old age, diseases, and bereavement. One bad and unproductive season has reduced numbers of the labouring clags,>s to poverty, and the subsequent years have distinctly shown that such has been the consequence; as may be too well established by referring to 1783, 1800, 1317, and other times of dearth and scarcity following un propitious years. The last of these years was followed by a great want of labour; and the impoverishing conse quences among labourers and tradesmen, in many coun try districts, are still felt among them to the present day.
Yet the many artificial causes of poverty are not com monly so well marked and understood, although their ef fects are equally, or even more extensive. We do not here allude particularly to the waste and ravages of war, though frightful ; nor to governments founded in ignorance and tyranny, such as those of Turkey, the states of Bar bary and Egypt, which have reduced to poverty and misery the inhabitants of some of the most fertile parts of the earth. Neither do we allude to those losses which occur in trade, nor to that misfortune, from which not even the most industrious are exempted, nor the most prudent. These occasional causes of poverty are neither uncommon nor unknown. But there arc other causes which operate steadily, and to a Wide extent, the conse quences of which are less regarded ; and even the causes themselves are often too little considered. These are want of employment, want of industrious dispositions and ha bits, and want or principles and habits of economy.