wished that the objects of the Bath Society fhould be adopted by the members of every veftry; that feveral of the principal refidents of every parish being, of course, members of the veftries, fhould devote a confiderable portion of their time and attention to the promotion of fuch purposes, acting in the vestry, and, as far as poffible, in their capacities as members of the veftry; but also wherever fuch mode of acting fhould be found impracticable or inconvenient, as members of a charitable affociation, prepared with ready benevolence to afford aid in all fuch omitted cafes.

I think, however, that it will be found that an extenfive charitable affociation, acting in concurrence with magistrates, overseers, and a vestry, may poffefs many advantages, which a veftry, confined to its legal functions, would not attain.

The parishioners merely affembled in the vestry cannot make adequate enquiry into the numerous cafes which may be prefented for infertion in the lift for relief out of the poor-house. A fociety devoted to investigation, and regularly allotting to each member in fucceffion a definite portion of time for fuch purpose, will not vacillate, and pause to see by whom it fhall be undertaken. Each perfon will know his defined duty. The inquiry, which even the most fagacious might purfue with difficulty when newly engaged, will become eafy from habit. The occupation will benefit the man of leisure by diffipating the fickness of ennui, and the languid fhame of uselessnefs; to the man of bufinefs it will afford the relaxation of

parishes of all great towns except the difficulty of procuring members; but, quere, what is requifite to establish a custom in fuch cafe? "By cuftom there may be felect veftries of a certain number of perfons elected yearly to make rates, and manage the concerns of "the parish for that year; and fuch cuftom is a good cuftom.". Burn's Juftice, vol. i. p. 396.

eafy effort, and the gratifying occafion of doing good without risk; of indulging the feelings of kindnefs, unalloyed by nicely calculating felfifhnefs. It has been frequently objected against all inquiry into the circumstances of the poor, that all the knowledge fo obtained has a tendency to harden the heart; that it is merely a knowledge of folly, and selfishness, and vice, in its groffest and meaneft forms, calculated to excite difguft and contempt, to deaden fympathy, and to avert charity. Such objectors may rave in praise of the

Pity which gave, ere Charity began;" but the objection is founded in falfehood, and the verfe is at the best mifapplied. It is an amiable character, which in childhood difplays lively fenfibilities at a period when experience cannot poffibly have been acquired to control them; but manhood is difgraced by the abandonment of reafon, either in respect to religion or to morals: and the advocates of fuch abandonment may be fairly fufpected, in either cafe, of wishing to fubftitute formal jargon and oftentation in place of the foul's ftruggle and the body's toil. In fact, the higher faculties of the mind, like thofe of the body, are notorioufly ftrengthened by continual exertions, and become torpid from inaction. Benevolence expands in proportion as it extends the sphere of its regards. The continued contemplation of its exalted relation to the everlasting Fountain of Mercy cannot fail to exalt its affections; the high and folemn thought that the Eternal Spirit in whom all light, all life, all goodness, are inherent and effential, beholds each conception as it rifes in the heart, each action throughout all its progrefs, must furely awaken all the energies of zeal, and invest charity with the radiant dignity of holiness.

But the knowledge of the poor is not fo degrading to humanity, in its display or in its operation, as the objection ventures to affume. Ignorance must, perhaps, in equal circumftances of temptation, be more liable to error than wisdom. But the temptations of poverty are mercifully modified to the condition of the poor. If they often are defective in prudence, in neatnefs, and politenefs, they poffefs many qualities which the more refined claffes might do well to copy. They are commonly, to an exemplary degree, patient under affliction, and calm at the approach of death. If the greater number of criminals who fuffer the penalties of the law be found amongst them, it must be remembered that they are the most numerous class, and that the culture which should teach the control of the paffions has been rarely and fcantily imparted to them; and although of late a wholesome emulation (not to fay rivalry) has arifen in extending education, yet many ftill avow a wish to fee them excluded from fuch, which they deem dubious, advantages. They are, as far as my experience extends, as honeft as their betters. A comparative estimate of the virtues and vices of different claffes is, however, not easily made, and it might appear invidious to state a balance upon either fide. The poor are most certainly at the leaft as prompt as the rich in all acts of humanity, according to their means. In all fituations of hazard, inftances continually occur of danger to limbs and to life braved and encountered to convey fuccour to fuffering fellow-creatures. They have, indeed, little to give; but the shelter of their dwellings is afforded to the wanderer, often with too little caution; and amongst the female poor I have delighted in obferving a magnanimous perfeverance in humane attentions to their fick neighbours, undeterred by naufeating horrors, and undismayed

by the peril of infection. They are accused of wanting gratitude. This accufation, were it true, would not justify, in any inftance, the flightest diminution of charity; a principle not liable to vary with the eddies of temper, caprice, and conjuncture; a combination of elevated intellect, and of purified fenfibility, fixed on the law of GOD, which it delights to contemplate, eternal as the Great Spirit of eternal mercy from whence it draws its birth, afcending ever from height to height of goodness, advancing, linked with piety, as "cherub with cherub joined," under the banner of the Most High, in strict and glorious union. But the accufation is not generally true. They may, indeed, be found to be but flightly affected by benefits manifeftly not flowing from fympathy, not afforded with kindnefs, extorted by painful importunity, or scattered with difdainful carelessness; but let those who visit them in fickness, who cheer them in affliction, who, condefcending to conceive that they have hearts to feel, fpeak to those hearts with the voice of tenderness; let these fay, whether those whom they have thus addreffed have wanted the eloquence of fobs and tears in aid of their unpolished language; have foon forgotten the genuine benefactor; have not, even at remoteft periods, rejoiced in opportu nities not to discharge obligation, but to find expanse in action for the high fwelling flood of affection, which lifts the foul towards the level of that spring which gave the impulfe to its energies. No. Their feelings are abundantly refponfive to real fympathy, but they have the fagacity to diftinguish between oftentation and charity.

CONCLUSION.

IN feveral parts of this imperfect survey of the conduct of different ftates, and the opinions of certain divines, philofophers, and legislators, relative to the poor, I have in fome degree anticipated inferences, which are yet more ftrongly impreffed by a review of the whole.

The poor have existed in all periods. The infpired legiflator of the Jews tells them, "the poor fhall "never cease out of the land." The fagacious philofopher fays, "All cannot fhare alike the bounties. "of nature. Were there no established administration " of property, every man would be obliged to guard "with force his little ftore. Selfifhnefs would be triumphant. The fubjects of contention would be perpetual. Every individual would be under a "conftant anxiety about corporal fupport; and not "a fingle intellect would be left free to expatiate in "the field of thought." Malthus, vol. ii. p. 102.

"

As the poor have ever exifted, fo the efforts of the rich have ever been directed, fometimes more and fometimes lefs fyftematically, to the alleviation of their wants and diftreffes. The ancient fyftem of flavery was, however odious and degrading, a fyftem of fure fuftenance for the poor. The military arrangement of the feudal fyftem brought the vaffals continually under the notice of their fuperiors and their lords, who were duly prepared to fuftain their human property, and encourage the devotion of their adherents, generally ready to repay kindness with the facrifice of life in the lords' quarrel.