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times when charity was more prevalent; which funds arise principally from bequests.-Idem.

There is one of those classes, the severity of whose case will be soon greatly aggravated-I mean poor women, with children. Formerly, if fairly entitled to relief from the overseers, they received a small stipend weekly, say from 25 to 75 cents, in their own miserable dwellings. Under the old regime, the administration of the poor-laws was subject to great abuses, and in no part more than in regard to out-door relief. To guard against this a clause was inserted in the new law, which prohibits affording that species of assistance, except temporarily. Hence a woman with children, whatever may be her distress, and however respectable her character, will receive no aid but in the almshouse; and, as her children will not be received there, she must part with them, if she go in, when they are to be sent to the orphan asylum, whence she can never recover them but by paying their board, nearly a dollar a week, which not one in twenty of them are ever able to do. Thus, violence will be offered to some of the finest feelings of human nature, those of maternal affection, which will be fearfully lacerated; and it need not be observed, that the affections of a mother in humble life are as strong as those in the bosoms of the most elevated in society. Cases of this kind have occurred; and it would melt the hearts of the humane to witness the struggles that mothers have had to undergo in such circumstances, and how much they suffered before they could yield to the necessity that tore them from their offspring.-Idem.

What crowds of sawyers and wood-pilers are to be seen constantly at our wharves, eager for employment, often having to return home pennyless, after waiting for hours! Yet these are among the men who are

stigmatized as idle and worthless!

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The population of Philadelphia is about 160,000 souls, of whom about 100,000 depend on the labour of their hands; 40,000 are probably labourers, hodmen, seamstresses, families of workmen on the canals and rail-roads. The utmost industry and economy they can employ will scarcely suffice to sustain them, if not unremittingly employed; and few of them are so fortunate as to be employed through the year. The last descriptions of persons are those whose case I have undertaken to consider. Philadelphia, June 20, 1833.

WAGES OF LABOURERS ON CANALS, SEAMSTRESSES, ETC.

I Now resume the important subject of the charge so often and so triumphantly brought against the poorer classes, of their improvidence and dissipation, and neglect of laying up, in summer and fall, some of their earnings for relief in winter. Its importance to a most numerous class of society, on whom much of our comfort depends, will warrant the resumption. I will, in the first instance, take the case of a labourer on a canal, with a wife and three children, whom he leaves in Philadelphia or New York, and works at the rate of ten dollars a month and found, for ten months in the year, and for the remaining two at five, which are about the average wages of that employment, as stated by Mr. M'Ilvaine, ex-secretary to the Board of Canal Commissioners. Let

us see how his wages and his expenses correspond, and how large a surplus he can have for the winter :

Ten months at 10 dollars

Two months at 5 dollars

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I now submit a calculation of the expenses of such a family, every item of which is at a low rate:

Shoes and clothes for self and wife, each 12 dollars
Washing at the canal, 64 cents per week

Shoes and clothes for three children, each 5 dollars 15

DOLS. CENTS.

24

00

3

25

00

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Fuel, at 15 cents per week

7

80

Meat, drink, vegetables, &c., &c., 6 cents per day

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But suppose him to have twelve dollars per month for ten months, and five for the remaining two, this will raise his receipts to 156, but his expenses will still exceed them, and leave a small balance against him. And let it be observed, that here is not one day allowed for sickness, or for suspension of employment in consequence of unfavourable weather; whereas, it is probable that a deduction of ten per cent for those casualties would not be too great an allowance. It is to be further observed, that when hands are superabundant, and work slack, the labourers often in winter work for their board. And yet this is a specimen of a large class of men, stigmatized and threatened with beggary or starvation for not hoarding up in summer and autumn wherewith to support themselves and families in winter. I say, emphatically, "beggary or starvation;" for if, according to the views of those Malthusian philosophers, who are gaining ground in this country, poor-rates and benevolent societies are abolished, beggary or starvation is the alternative left for the poor.

Even on the enlarged scale of wages, they are, as appears above, inadequate for his support, and for that of his family. Who but must feel for the honour of human nature at this state of things? Who, that has ever joined in the almost universal clamour against the worthlessness and improvidence of the poor, but must lament the delusion under which he has lain? And who, having laboured to propagate those pernicious opinions, and being now convinced of his error, will hesitate to use his efforts to correct the popular views on this subject?

The case of the seamstresses and spoolers has been so often brought before the public, ineffectually, that it is almost hopeless to touch it; but the injustice they experience is so oppressive, their sufferings so intense, and their claims on the public commiseration so clear and decisive, that

it would be almost criminal, in such a discussion as the present, to pass them over in silence. I subjoin strong testimony in support of my positions of their sufferings, and of the effect those sufferings have, as might, à priori, be supposed, on their moral habits-a most deleterious consequence. It was hoped, when the subject was first pressed, some years since, on the public attention, that the ladies, for the honour and safety of their sex, would have interfered with their fathers, husbands, brothers, and cousins, to investigate the case, and ascertain whether their situation was susceptible of alleviation, or was entirely hopeless. The expectation, so far as regards Philadelphia and New York, was, alas! vain: no such interference took place-no examination was ever made in either city.

It is ascertained that a woman, wholly unincumbered with children, cannot make more than eight or nine common shirts per week. Those who are inexpert, or old, or have children to attend to, cannot make more than six or seven. The highest price given in the United States, except in three instances, which shall be stated in a subsequent part of this letter, is twelve cents and a half each. At this rate all the army and navy work is done. But shirts are frequently made for ten, eight, and sometimes for six cents. I will assume nine shirts per week, and the price twelve cents and a half, and state the appalling result to a woman with only two children :

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But suppose the woman to have one or two children; to work for ten cents, which is not below the usual average; to be a part of her time unemployed, say one day in each week; and to make, of course, six, but say seven shirts.

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This is a plain, simple, unexaggerated statement of harrowing facts, which make a powerful appeal to the humanity of the public. It exhibits a state of things, of which not one in a thousand of our citizens could have formed an idea: it challenges contradiction: let it be most rigorously scrutinized, and not condemned by individual exceptions. The shaps, in Boston, pay for common shirts eight cents, according to a statement in a recent Report of the Seaman's Aid Society.

The only remedy for these grievances would be such a rise in the rate of wages as would insure honest industry a sufficiency of the common necessaries of life; but there is not the least prospect of such a rise, while

the supply of female labour in the market so far exceeds the demand as it does at present, and is likely to continue. A necessary result of this superabundance of labour is a constant competition for employment; and reduction follows competition as regularly as the forked lightning blasts the object on which it alights.

It is not easy to ascertain the number of females in Philadelphia who depend for a support on this kind of work. I shall attempt an estimate, which will probably approximate near the truth. The contractor for supplying the government work employs about 1000, the Provident Society above 800, and the slop-shops probably 2000, but say only 1200: this forms an aggregate of 3000, but few of whom can earn a dollar and a half a week, when expert and constantly employed, and most of them not more than from seventy-five cents to a dollar. Few of them, when sick or divested of employment, escape a state of extreme destitution. In such cases, what would become of them, were they not relieved by the overseers of the poor, or benevolent societies? It is a striking fact, and affords a most unequivocal comment on the ruinous effects of low wages, that of all the out-door paupers in the city of Philadelphia, in the year 1830, more than two-fifths, 232, were seamstresses, washerwomen, and spoolers!

In the year 1824, in consequence of the clamour on the subject, the House of Representatives of this state appointed a committee to "inquire into the operation of the poor-laws." Mr. W. M. Meredith, chairman of this committee, made an elaborate report, in which he assumed that the inevitable tendency and statutory provision for the poor is to increase pauperism and poor-taxes, and to encourage imprudent marriages, and thus create a pauper population. His report recommended a gradual abolition of the system.

If it were proved that the increase of pauperism and poor-taxes outran the increase of population, and that this effect could be clearly traced to the operation of the poor-laws, then it must be conceded that there is some radical error in the laws themselves, or in their administration, or perhaps in both. But if paupers only increase in proportion to the increase of population, this is a natural consequence of the state of society, and warrants no argument against the soundness of a system of poor-laws. Unless some new source of employment opens, it is perfectly in the order of things that there shall be about twice as many paupers in a dense population in a city of 200,000 people, as in a population of 100,000. There is one considerable class of indigent persons, which embraces a large proportion of the paupers of all countries, whose claims of support even Malthus himself would not dispute, and which must necessarily increase with the increase of population; that is, the decrepit, the diseased and the superannuated. Of the great extent of the last description some idea may be formed from the extraordinary fact, that among the out-door paupers in 1830, in number 549, there were no less than 390 above 60 years of age, of whom 236 were above 70! Probably there were as many thus aged in the almshouse, making an aggregate of at least one-fourth, but more probably one-third, of the whole number of paupers of that year in a state of superannuation!

Let us now test Mr. Meredith's assumption of the undue increase of paupers and taxation beyond the increase of population by the criteria of facts, the only criteria admissible in the case...

His report informs us, that, in the year 1803, the poor-taxes of the city and adjacent districts was 75,226 dollars.

Unfortunately we do not know the exact population of that period, but in 1800 it was 70,287.

We may therefore assume that, in 1803, it had arisen to about 75,000.

Thus the poor-taxes, at that time, were about one dollar a head for the entire population.

In 1830 the population of the city and districts was 167,811.

When we consider the great number of houses erected within the last four years, it may be fairly presumed that our population is at present 185,000.

The poor-tax of this year is 130,000 dollars, or about 70 cents per head. Thus, instead of outrunning, as is supposed, the increase of population, it has, in about 30 years, fallen short 30 per cent.-Idem.

THE STATE OF WEAVERS, ETC.

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Sterne was about to write an elaborate dissertation on slavery, which he began on a large scale :- Though thousands in all ages have been made to drink of thee, thou art not less bitter on that account." However, he found his powers to fail, and it suited his purpose better to take a single captive to exemplify the horrors of captivity. So, with respect to the weavers, I find it more to my purpose, in order to convey an idea of the suffering of this class, to take a single case, than to present a general, abstract view of the subject.

J. O'Neal is a decent, respectable, intelligent cotton-weaver, who came to this country about two years and a half since, having left his wife and children behind, with a view of sending for them as soon as he should find it convenient. His business was at that time brisk, and in about a year and a half he earned enough to pay for their passage, viz., 96 dollars. They accordingly arrived about twelve months since. Meanwhile wages had fallen at least 33 per cent. He now earns only three dollars per week, with his utmost industry, working from five or six in the morning till nine or ten at night. He has a single room in a basement story, in a street in Kensington, called Black Hawk or Police Row, and but one bed for himself, his wife, and five small children ! I did not measure the room, but think it is not more than from sixteen to eighteen feet square. He was obliged lately to pledge a coat to raise a dollar to pay for the repair of his loom. A wheel and swifts, necessary articles for his work, he is obliged to borrow of a neighbour, who sometimes requires them himself; and when thus reclaimed, O'Neal is half idle. So heavy is the burden under which he labours, and so slender the prospect of any melioration, that I think I understood him to say that he is sometimes tempted to run away from his family, as many of his neighbours have done.

Having examined this case thoroughly, I pledge myself for its correctness, however incredible some part of it may appear. I earnestly entreat some of the opposers of poor-laws and benevolent societies to go and examine for themselves. I am much mistaken if it does not change their views on this important subject. I wish them to extend their examination to the case of other weavers.

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