only a salary of L.5000, and continued at Lisbon, till he received L.18,000 of the public money, fordoing nothing. Lord Castlereagh agreed, that if the case could be made out satisfactorily which had been so boldly and broadly stated by the honourable gentleman, he and his colleagues must fall not only under the displeasure of the House, but be exposed to the reprobation of the whole country. He contended that the expence of the mission was greatly overstated, it being only L.8200 a-year, and in truth, the actual expence was not more than had been granted by the House for the employment of a minister of the second order. This government acted under the view that the Prince Regent would return to his European domi. nions. The return of his Royal Highness was of much importance, and was urged as far as decency would allow, by his Majesty's ministers; so that it would have been unpardonable on their part, had they not taken the steps necessary under such a contingency. The strong objection urged by the Prince Regent of Portugal against returning to Europe was, the unsettled state of the continent; when, therefore, the peace of Paris took place in 1814, the expectation of his Majesty's government, that the court of Portugal would return to Lisbon, was very much strengthened, and a squadron was sent to the Brazils to convey him home. Ministers certainly flattered themselves with the expectation that the Prince of Portugal would return; if they had deceived themselves, they might be blameable for want of foresight, but not criminal.Sir F. Burdett contended, that the appointment was consider. ed out of doors a most scandalous job; and varnish it as ministers would, an inch thick, it was a scandalous peculation on the public purse.

Mr Canning said, after one year of menace hanging over his head, and

three months of awful preparation, to find so strong a phalanx opposed to him, and so many of the leaders of that phalanx hanging back without stating manfully what the charges were they had to impute to him, was peculiar indeed. He then entered into a statement of the expences of various other ambassadors, particularly that of Lord Charles Stewart, who had expended from April 1813, to April 1814, L.31,200. He next went into an explanation of the mission immediately connected with himself. Having proceeded to Lisbon, under the restriction of L.6000 per annum allowance, without knowing how far that sum would go, but with a desire to try—this, with an allowance of a further sum, made the whole sum nominally L.8200, and this sum he intended should be sufficient for all his purposes. But he found there were deductions at home, amounting to 28 per cent. so that he was compelled to forego the line he had chalked out for himself. The total amount of the allowances was L.11,700. His agent had received one quarter's allowance of the L.6000, which he directed should be returned to the treasury, without any previous knowledge that his mission would form the subject of parliamentary inquiry. The right hon. gentleman observed, that he was open to all the imputations which gentlemen might cast upon him, in respect to his eagerness for office, and to his having acted under his noble friend; but as to pecuniary matters, he stood upon a rock from which all they could say would not remove him. Mr C. condemned the personalities which were used in debate, which tended to degrade and debase the debates in parliaments, and placed them on a footing with the harangues in Palace-yard. He defended himself from the imputation of having accepted office under his noble friend, and asked the House if the reconciliation of private enmities

ought to be the ground of public ac

cusation.

Lord Milton declared, that he considered it his duty to vote against the motion of his honourable friend Mr Lambton; although he could not agree that the parties concerned in the appointment of this embassy were entirely free from blame.

The House now divided, when the previous question was carried by a majority of 270 to 96.

On the 8th of May, Mr Bennet brought forward a motion on the subject of Mr Herries's appointment to a situation in the Civil List. He took a review of Mr Herries's public life, and enumerated his several public appointments. Mr Herries was first appointed to a public situation in 1798, when he was appointed to a situation in the Treasury. He was afterwards appointed secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer; afterwards Commissary-General and Comptroller of Accounts; and to these he had various other situations and emoluments added. The hon. gentleman then proceeded to enumerate the services of Mr Herries, which amounted to five years' service in the Treasury, and thirteen years' attendance on the Chancellor of the Exchequer as secretary, and for these arduous services he was rewarded with an income of L.2700, a sum more than double what would be given to a General who should have fought the battles of his country for 20 or 25 years. The hon. gentleman concluded by moving a resolution, declaring that the House considered the allowing Mr Herries to retire with the half of his salary of L.2700 a-year, and allowing him afterwards to take an office of L.1500 a-year, was a great waste of the public money.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer was fully persuaded, that when the House had heard what he had to urge, they would think what had been done

for Mr Herries was merely justice. Mr Herries was first appointed secretary to him (the Chancellor of the Exchequer) when a Lord of the Treasury; and afterwards he was appointed private secretary to Mr Percival, a place of great trust; and such as had invariably led to great preferment. In 1808, Mr Herries was appointed a comptroller of army accounts, with a salary of L.1500 for life; this certainly he gave up, and in 1811 succeeded CoIonel Gordon as Commissary-General. In this situation he continued till 1816, when an arrangement was made in the Commissariat, by which a sum of L.11,000 was saved annually to the public. The right hon. gentleman then proceeded to contend, that in retiring under such circumstances as he did, Mr Herries was entitled to his half-pay as Commissary-General; and with respect to his appointment of Auditor of the Civil List, parliament had decreed that there should be such an officer; if Mr Herries had not been appointed, some other person must; and no man, from his talents, knowledge of business, and extensive connections, was so well suited to the situation as Mr Herries was.

Mr Tierney had no personal feelings towards Mr Herries, but was as ready as the Chancellor of the Exchequer could be to acknowledge his personal services; but, allowing them to their fullest extent, the question was, whether he had not been more than paid by his appointment of L.2700 a-year? Mr Percival appointed Mr Herries to a situation of L.1500 ayear, as Auditor of Accounts; and in doing that, no doubt, Mr Percival thought he had rewarded that gentleman's services.

After a few words from Lord Castlereagh, to which Mr Bennet replied, the motion was negatived by a majority of 93 to 42.

In this era of public distress, the attention of the public was mainly directed to the devising remedies for the various ills with which the nation was beset. Among these, none struck reflecting men, and particularly landed proprietors, with such alarm and dismay as the enormous increase of the poor rates, now risen to eight millions, and threatening farther and speedy augmentation. Notwithstanding, how ever, the most anxious endeavours of parliament, stimulated at once by patriotism and self-interest, no remedy, or even palliative, appears yet to have been discovered. We cannot boast of having made any profound researches into this subject; nevertheless, in the course of observation and inquiry, some reflections have occurred, which we do not exactly recollect to have met with elsewhere; and as the subject is so important, and one on which the nation is still involved in such deep perplexity, hints from any quarter may not be wholly unacceptable.

There are few channels by which a greater mass of valuable information has been collected, than by the reports

presented to parliament on the different branches of political economy. Yet we cannot help thinking that there is a tendency to spin out these investigations to too great a length, and to exhaust upon them that zeal, and those efforts, which might have led to the fulfilment of the object for which the inquiry was instituted. These are carried on from year to year, till all the first enthusiasm has evaporated, and till the subject has begun to pall both on the House and the public. At last, it is declared, that the utmost efforts of parliament having been employed for years without any result, the evil may fairly be considered as beyond the reach of remedy,-when, in fact, nothing has been even attempted beyond the collecting and printing these voluminous masses of evidence. Such, perhaps, has been somewhat the process followed, with regard to the very important subject of the present chapter. It has been overlaid by the very mass of the materials thus collected; the mind of the legislator has been puzzled by confused and contradictory materials, and rendered inca

pable of devising any distinct and feasible plan for the attainment of the object. Yet we are inclined to think, that the truth does not lie at any very unfathomable depth; that a few simple principles, applied to the obvious facts of the case, may afford all the materials necessary for attaining an accurate view of it.

One circumstance, which appears to us to have materially impeded the adoption of any remedial measure as to these laws, is the loud call made by their opponents for a total repeal. This is a step upon which, in the present state of society, it seems impossible to venture; and, indeed, some doubts may exist as to its absolute expediency. Perhaps, even, it may be questioned if there be such a total absence of right as is maintained by modern politicians. The casuists have decided, that the man who can by no other means obtain food to keep him from starving, is justified in seizing it by force: may not this, then, constitute some sort of natural right? May it not be too much to leave the bare existence of a great body of the community dependent upon casual charity? We are, indeed, very willing to believe, that the voluntary charity of Britons, should it be come the sole dependence of the poor, would not be wanting. Yet, it may be observed, that Ireland and Italy, two countries in which no poor rates exist, are peculiarly remarked for the misery of the lower orders, and for a system of extensive and degrading mendicity. Even as to Scotland, while we are fully disposed to claim for it the praise of superior management, we still doubt whether the former entire exemption from these burdens be not connected with peculiar circumstances in the state of society and occupancy. At the present moment, we know a parish, at the distance of only thirty miles from Edinburgh, in which there are not only no poor rates, but no

paupers. The cause lies in the poverty of the district, which has prevented it from being reached by the modern agricultural improvements and arrangements. It is situated on that somewhat elevated and bleak table land, which fills the greater part of the space between Edinburgh and Glasgow. The land is parcelled among small proprietors, and equally small tenants, both of whom cultivate with their own hands the spot which they inherit or rent. Both consider themselves as of a superior class to common labourers, and would think it a disgrace to allow their relations to become dependent upon public charity. In the whole presbytery of Linlithgow, of which this district forms part, assessments are known in one parish only, though this presbytery be situated in the close vicinity of the great cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, where poor rates have been long established. Even in those richer tracts, where estates and farms were on a much greater scale, the hinds, as they were called, were anciently on a different footing from mere hired servants. They considered themselves almost as bound to the glebe, or rather the glebe as bound to them, from which their ejectment would have been contrary to the usages and established principles of society. After a life spent in the place, they expected, upon continuing to render such services as their strength afforded, to collect a subsistence, in some shape or other, from the soil which they had spent their lives in cultivating. At present, in all these districts, the farmer is a merchant, with a large capital invested in his employment, who turns every part of his produce to account, exacts work for whatever is paid, and whenever a servant can no longer perform his usual functions, turns him off, and hires another. Thus, in the low country of Scotland, the agricultural labourers have generally

been reduced to the same precarious and dependent situation as those in the large towns and manufacturing districts. From these causes, we conceive, and not from a mere error of manage ment, have arisen the assessments which have become so general over the low country of Scotland. Their growth, indeed, has been observed to take place remarkably on the English border, and has been naturally ascribed to the contagion of this vicinity. The remark, however, applies almost solely to the rich and highly improved agricultural districts of the east border. The mountainous border on the west, where old habits still continue, has exhibited little change. In general, the Scotch assessments have not yet arisen to any very serious or alarming height; nor are we inclined to share the dread so generally entertained of their indefinite and ruinous extension, provided care be taken to avoid those palpable errors which have rooted themselves in the English system.

The law upon which the present system of poor rates has been founded, is the 43d of Elizabeth, which enacts, "that the churchwardens, or overseers, shall take order from time to time, (with the consent of two or more justices,) for setting to work the children of all whose parents shall not be thought able to keep and maintain their children; and also for setting to work all such persons, married or unmarried, having no means to maintain them, and use no ordinary or daily trade of life to get their living by; and also to raise by taxation, &c. a convenient stock of flax, &c. to set the poor on work." This natural, humane, and seemingly so reasonable enactment, has been the source of all the evils with which England has been inundated.

Hoc fonte derivata clades In patriam, populumque fluxit.

The framers of this act knew not that there is in every society only a limited quantity of work to be had, which cannot be increased at pleasure; that the overseers and churchwardens are not at all likely to be the best persons for finding out, superintending, and directing this work, and for disposing of its fruits to the best advantage; and that whatever they do obtain for those under their charge must be taken from others who perhaps stand equally in need of it. The consequence has been, that since they could not give work, the laws held them bound to give the wages of work; effective claims for relief have been advanced not only by the aged and infirm, but by those who, from their own misconduct, perhaps, found difficulty in obtaining employment, as well as from those who had more than a very small number of children; in short, there remained scarcely any barrier to prevent the whole labouring population from coming upon the funds appropriated to charity.

A view of the errors in the English system, as arising out of the great fundamental one now stated, may, perhaps, afford the best clue to the discovery of a remedial process. These errors appear to be, 1. The too liberal scale of allowance. 2. The extension of relief to the labouring poor. 3. The confinement in workhouses.

1. In defending the expediency of some legislative provision for the poor, we conceive it to be indisputable, that this ought to be confined to what the French call the physique necessaire,— to that which is strictly necessary for the support of life. In laying down this principle, we should be sorry to be understood as asserting that no more ought in any case to be given. The generosity of the opulent and charitable may often be laudably employed, not in preserving the existence merely, but in bestowing comfort on