ART. IX. Reports of the Society for bettering the Condition of the Poor. 5 vols. Price 11. 12s. Hatchard.

The fame in crown 8. a cheap Edition. Price 10s.

IVE

[Concluded from vo!. xxxv. p. 624.]

E come now to the fifth volume; the introduction of which is addreffed to Mr. Wilberforce. It contains obfervations on the various propofals which have been produced in this country refpecting the management of the poor, arranged under four claffes; the first propofing Parochial Annuities or Friendly Societies, for inviting or obliging the poor to provide for themfelves; the fecond, fapplying them with employment; the third, recommending a general fyftem of Workhouses, as the means not only of maintenance, but of correction and amendment; and the fourth, the establishment. of a fixed rice of food and labour. The objections to a reliance on any of thefe, are stated with confiderable force; and the author goes on to etablish his favourite pofition, that nothing is to be done for the poor, that will permanently benefit them and the public, without their individual improvement; and lays down, as to any variation to be made in our poor laws, the four following principles: 1ft, that no plan for the management of the poor will be of any avail, unless the foundation be laid in the melioration of their moral and religious character; 2dly, that no project should be admiffible, if it tends to alienate the cottager from his cottage and his domeftic attachments; Sdly, that in what may be done, we fhould be careful never to remove the fpur, the motive, and the neceffity of exertion; and 4thly, that we fhould avoid, not only fudden and rapid changes, but unneceffary variation in form and manner. An outline of the measures propofed by the author, in conformity to the principles which he has endeavoured to establish, is given in the first article of the Appendix.

The fifth volume contains fome very ufeful communications. The account which Mr. Eftcourt has given of meafures which he has adopted at his parish of Long Newnton; a paper of Sir William Pulteney's, on a cottager's cultiva tion in Siropthire; Mr. Reed's account, and five other papers on vaccine inoculation; Mr. Wrangham's two papers, and Mr. Auft's account of the Bifhop of Dromore's Sunday Schools, are all deferving of attention. There are two Spanifh papers in the Appendix, which are peculiarly intereft

M

BRIT. CRIT. VOL. XXXVI. AUGUST, 1810.

ing;

ing; that of Don Jovellanos, on the amufements of the poor, evinces an enlightened and benevolent mind, and points out the caufes to which the prefent defects in the Spanish character are to be ascribed: the other, extracted from the Madrid Gazette, gives an account of a voyage round the world, made by the order, and at the expence of the Spanish Government, between November 1803, and October 1806, for the wife and benevolent purpose of extending the benefits of vaccination to their foreign dominions, and to other countries.In South and North America, in China, and in a great variety of other places, the benefit was received with emotions of gratitude, which converted the most savage and hoftile difpofitions into friends and allies.

Before we take leave of the reports, we fhall felect a paffage from the preface to the fifth volume, on the plans for the management of the poor, and on the effects of chriftianity, particularly as it refpects the origin of that co-operation for the benefit of the poor and diftreffed, which is now diftinguished by the name of charity.

"In all the plans that have been produced for the management of the poor, we may difcover talent and ingenuity; and in moft of them, charity and philanthropy. But the defect seems to be, that they do not propofe to operate, as on free and rational agents, and on religious and accountable creatures;-cach filling his place beft when most earnestly fecking his own happinefs: but as upon WORKS OF ART AND MERE MECHANISM; where the greatest mo mentum is to be acquired, when the machinery is most complica ted, and the principles of action moft involved. The virtue and energy of the feparate parts of the political body conftitute the aggregate of the virtue and energy of the whole; and it is vain to expect, that, while individuals are depraved and ignorant, the ftate should be profperous and enlightened. We have made repeated experiments on parochial manufactures, on farming the poor, on increafing the poor's rate, on the patronage of fentimental beggars, and the establishment of incorporated workhouses. Let us how try the influence of RELIGIOUS MOTIVE, the confequences of MELIORATION OF CHARACTER, and the effects of IMPROVEMENT OF CONDITION. Let us endeavour to operate by individual kind. nefs and encouragement, by the profpect of acquiring property, and by every other incitement to industry and prudence: and we fhall find that, when the component parts of the body politic be. come found and perfect, the state itself will be healthy and thriving.

"To pure and vital CHRISTIANITY we must look for the bafis of every effential and permanent improvement in the condition of the poor. To that alone we are indebted, not only for our exemption from fome of the most defolating evils under which huma nity formerly fuffered, but even for the very exiftence of CHA

KITY itself. In the first place, we may obferve a visible and obvious improvement of our condition, by its influence in refpect of war, and in the mitigation of those horrors and atrocities, which, until the corruption of our nature, is in a great measure done away, will, I fear, be unavoidable evils, produced and re-produced by our own lufts and paffions. The murder of prifoners in cold blood, and the subjugating of them to the caprice and ferocity of the conqueror, either chained to his triumphal car, or trained to flaughter as gladiators, or fubjected to domestic or predial flavery, all these are now done away. In the most embittered hoftility, among chriftians at leaft, we find that as foon as the conflict is paffed, and victory decided, the causes of en mity are forgotten, and charity and mutual kindness are restored. "Of the wretched lot of GLADIATORS we can now only learn from hiftory. The evil has long ceafed to exift. When chrifti. anity obtained the afcendency in the civilized world, the Empe ror Conftantine prohibited this outrage on human nature; and though partially renewed by his fucceffors, the fhows of Gladiators were entirely and finally fuppreffed by his chriftian fucceffor, Honorius. I wish I were able to add, that christianity had already produced the fame beneficial effects, in the ENTIRE ABO LITION OF SLAVERY. Where, however, it does continue to exift, we have the fatisfaction to know, that the number is fo dia minished, and the feverity fo mitigated, as to bear no resemblance to its ancient form.

"Torture was once the ordinary and familiar mode of extracting evidence. In the Roman empire, all perfons were fubjected to it, a few privileged citizens excepted. It is now entirely abolished in every chriftian ftate: and little more than the tradi tional memory of its horrors, does now remain in any part of the civilized world. In criminal proceedings, the accufed, no longer fubjected to prejudice before judgment, and to cruelty afterwards, is treated, in England at leaft, and in other countries where the reformed religion of CHRIST is recognized, with a degree of mercy and tenderness, which has appeared in fome inftances, even to pafs the bounds of political wifdom; particularly where the kind. nefs and compaffion fhewn to an atrocious criminal has a tendency to leffen the abhorrence of his guilt, and to diminish the effect of his punishment.

It is not, however, the mere abftinence from injury and eruz elty to our fellow-creatures, and from the aggravation of the mi feries of mankind, but it is active and unwearied labour for the benefit of others, which characterizes our pure and undefiled religion. That CHARITY originated in chriftianity, and was firft practifed by the chriftians, appears by the testimony of JULIAN,

The evidence of the Emperor Julian is very curious. It is contained in a letter from him to Arfacius; in which he recomM 2 mends

their malignant and inveterate enemy: CHRISTIAN CHARITY, as it has been emphatically called, being first enforced by the Divine Author of our religion, and till then, a novelty in the world. By its influence, the mitigation of the forrows and calamities of life has been reduced and arranged into a system, which excludes intereft, power, and fenfuality; and directs the earnest exertions of the individual to the benefits of thofe, with whom he has no other connexion than that of man with man. The co-ope

ration of individuals for the relief of the mifery, and for the increafe of the happiness of their fellow-creatures, has not only been extended to every clafs of fociety, and even to the animal creation; but it has been applied by a variety of charitable inftitutions, to every thing in which the interefts of man can be concerned. By thefe fruits of genuine chriftianity, the character of the reformed church is best known, and the evidence of its intrinfic purity moft completely established."

We will not entirely leave unnoticed the feparate publications of the fociety. That on the education of the poor, is little more than an arranged felection from the reports of what relates to the Education of the poor, fo favourite an object of the Society. The Cottager's Religious Meditations. is quite a new work, though the author has acknowledged the fources, from whence he has derived fome of his materials. If we were to venture on a defcriptive name for it, we fhould call it "Family Difcourfes for the Cottager."The fubjects are felected with great care and attention; and the length of each is within the compfs of any Cottager's Sunday Reading. They are written, fo as to be fubjects of meditation, and of Bible reference; and contain, befides a fhort poetical introduction and clofe, thirty-fix Meditations or Reflections on different paffages of fcripture, confifting not of a mere text, but of feveral verfes.

Among their feparate publications, hardly any will be more ufeful, than thofe on the effects and cure of dram-drinking, and on the cold and tepid affufion in cafes of typhus fever; both of them applied to infectious diforders of the moft dele

mends the example of that peculiarity, by which chriftianity had been most promoted. "I MEAN (fays he) THEIR KINDNESS AND

BENEVOLENCE TO STRANGERS, THEIR ATTENTION TO THE FUNERALS OF THE DEAD, AND THEIR APPARENT SANCTITY OF LIFE. WHEN THESE GALILEANS NOT ONLY TAKE CARE OF THEIR OWN BRETHREN BUT EXTEND THEIR KINDNESS TO OTHERS, IT IS SHAMEFUL THAT OUR PEOPLE SHOULD WANT

EVEN OUR OWN ASSISTANCE." This is the teftimony of Ju LIAN, the declared and rancorous enemy of chriftianity.”

terious

terious kind. The four little, penný publications, of the hif tory, the difcourfes, the miracles, and parables, of our Saviour, feem to make a kind of appendix to the work of the new fchool, being examples of the mode and auxiliaries of the practice. The Cottager's Friend (like the two publications now out of print, of Information for Cottagers, and Information for Overfeers) contains, in addition to fome new matter, felections from the reports, carefully and judiciously made for the ufe of the English cottager.

In the reports of the Society for the poor, fome articles are inferted which appear to be of little importance, and there is a confiderable inequality in the flyle; but it would be injuftice to fay that they do not contain much ufeful matter, many important facts and obfervations deferving of attention, and forming a regifler and repertory, to be confulted not only by the politician, the lawyer, and the economift, but by the hiftorian and antiquary. They have produced effects in every part of the kingdom, and, if we are rightly informed, in foreign countries. We are glad to learn that, after two years difcontinuance, the Society is preparing to continue them; not being able to fix on a different mode of publica tion, which is likely to be fo ufeful or applicable.

ART. X. An Addrefs from a Clergyman to his Parishioners. By R. Valpy, D.D. F.A.S. Rector of Straddifhall, Suffolk. 158 pp. 3s. 6d. Richardfon.

8vo.

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1810.

HE learned author of this addrefs does not, we conceive, ftand pledged to the affertion, that it contains literally the fubftance of what he has preached to his flock, as occafion offered for twenty years paft, and nothing more. He reminds his parishioners, indeed, in the opening of his addrefs, that fuch had been their defire. "When I lately addreffed you on the twentieth anniverfary of my connection with you, it feemed to be your wifh that I fhould fend you in print a fhort abftract of the exhortations which I had given you, for the direction of your faith and practice." Yet, in drawing up this tract, in a regular and connected form, many things would naturally occur, which in detached difcourfes had not found a place, and which the author could not think himself bound, for that reafon, to omit. If this be not fo, Dr. V., in preaching to his parish only a few times in a year, which is the utmost M 3

that