in each year, and the total amount outstanding at the end of each year, with the amount annually charged for interest on the same; amount of income derived from taxes within each year, and the amount of Expenditure, exclusive of the charge on the money raised by funding, or the Expenditure as it would have been had the total supply been raised by taxes within each year: Col. No. 9, showing the additional amount of taxes requisite to have been raised under such circumstances, and a further statement, showing what sum would have sufficed to have been funded had no Sinking Fund System existed," &c. &c. &c.

OF

A SIMPLE, ORIGINAL, AND PRACTICAL

PLAN,

FOR

SUPPRESSING MENDICITY,

ABOLISHING THE PRESENT SYSTEM

OF

PAROCHIAL TAXATION,

AND

AMELIORATING THE CONDITION

OF

THE LOWER CLASSES OF SOCIETY.

"PHILOSOPHY holds her beavenly light

To Senates and to Kings, to guide their Councils,
And teach them to reform and bless MANKIND."

LONDON:

VOL. XXI.

Pam.

NO. XLII.

2 C

SKETCH OF A PLAN,

&c. &c.

To the enlightened philanthropist it is unnecessary to dilate on those principles of action by which man is influenced and governed; he knows that the machine of civil society is kept in perpetual motion by the operation of the grand influential principle of selfishness, under its various modifications, refined or abased, by predisposing principles established in the mind. He traces its operation in the higher and lower walks of life, and discerns its effects alike in the natural, the moral, and the political world. The profound statesman appropriates his knowledge of human nature not only to the good of his country, but to the whole mass of congregated man. To his country he feels he owes his talents, his time, and his fortune to the unfortunate, the active exertions of benevolence; and to the human race unitedly, his good will.

To such individuals the following pages are addressed, and the proposed Plan submitted with the deference due to enlightened judgment and superior talents.

Society consists of gradations, and there can be no society without diversity of rank, talents, fortune, mental attainments, and personal qualifications.

The social contact does not preclude this diversity, but renders its moral existence more conspicuous by pointing out the various gradations more ostensibly than where such contact does not so obviously exist; or rather, than where government has not assumed the rank and dignity of a moral science.

The science of politics is founded on the nature of man; and the means of promoting the ne plus ultra of human happiness is its important and influential basis.

To the mind of sensibility and refinement no subject can be more fraught with pain than the condition of thousands of the human race, groaning under the pressure of want and misery, and

enduring the deprivations of penury in a land of plenty and optlence. To mitigate the sufferings necessarily attendant on that state of civilisation from which poverty results, is a duty connected with the cultivation and refinement produced by civilisation : to cure a radical evil, or rather a necessary consequence attendant on the present state of society, is impossible; but there are means by which even necessary suffering may be diminished, and to have recourse to these is surely the characteristic of superior intelligence.

To promote the greatest possible sum of human happiness, with the least possible portion of attendant evil, is an object worthy the attention of the enlightened philosopher and benevolent patriot. Should the suggested Plan be considered deserving the attention of such characters, the writer's aim will be fully accomplished, and the study and reflection of years be amply recompensed.

pa

That the aggregate of evil produced by the present system of rochial taxation preponderates over the good, is a fact which observation and experience incontestably establish. To ameliorate the sufferings of afflicted humanity-to chase the tear from the eye of the fatherless, and calm the agitations of the widow's sorrows, when helpless, friendless, and destitute, they are cast on a pityless world, a prey to anguish, suffering, and want, is surely an indispensable duty of the Christian legislator; but to burden the active and industrious members of a community with the support of the idle and licentious-to take the hard-earned produce of labor, to maintain those whose self-abasement has destroyed the moral independence of the mind, is not the means of benefiting individuals, or effecting the general good of society.

To obviate some of the innumerable evils which result from the dependance of one class of society upon another, to afford employment to the indigent and industrious, to support the aged, to instruct the young, and give to the necessitous that energy and moral independence which is the soul of virtue, is the object of the following pages.

The evils which result from the existing system of parochial taxation have been so ably discussed, particularly by Mr. W. D. Bailey' of the Inner Temple, that to descant on them here is unnecessary. To suggest means for their redress, which are not only tangible in theory, but capable of exemplification by practice, either extensively or limitedly, and calculated to produce a considerable accession to the sum of individual happiness and the general good of society, is surely a subject the utility and importance of which must mitigate censure, if not insure indulgence.

In every county there is more or less uncultivated land, or land

See a pamphlet on the Poor Laws, by W. D. Bailey, Esq.

not appropriated to agricultural purposes. It is suggested that such, or any other portion of land, be appropriated in every county for the general reception, support, and occupation of all the poor of the county.

That in every county an association should be formed of the benevolent and patriotic gentlemen of the county.

That money should be subscribed, or advanced, for the formation of a fund for the purposes of the said association.

That in every county three hundred acres, or any other portion of land, should be appropriated for the purpose of erecting suitable tenements for the reception of all the poor of the county.

That a church, school houses, manufactories, and a hospital for the sick, should be erected in the middle of the spot selected for the purpose, surrounded with cottages for the reception of the poor, and to each cottage should be annexed garden-ground sufficient to supply the family with potatoes and vegetables.

That at the commencement of the establishment of county associations, the poor be employed, first in erecting the cottages, afterwards the manufactories, &c. &c. That food and raiment be provided, and little or no wages given until the completion of the habitations, &c. &c.

That meal, milk, and soup be provided and distributed by the association.

That the children be employed part of the day in occupations suited to their strength and years, and the other part in receiving instruction.

That every able housekeeper and landholder in the county contribute a suitable sum, in money, or value in useful commodities, for the establishment and support of the county association in lieu of parochial rates.

That these rates be diminished or abolished as soon as the association shall be able to support itself; which it is conjectured it might do in about three years from the establishment of the asso

ciation.

That care should be taken to preserve the strictest harmony and peace, and promote industry and general good conduct, amongst the individuals received by the association.

That the good effects of the establishment of such associations would be most beneficial to England, is obvious from the following considerations:

First, they would be effectual in abolishing the existing evils attending the present system of parochial laws.

That instead of several places of reception for the poor in a county, and their being transferred from parish to parish, one general place of concentration would unite the whole.