assemblies are constructed during periods of epidemical presumption. Hence the immense importance, at such times, of influential measures being introduced by men of lofty views and commanding intellect, who are determined to justify the confidence reposed in them, by an inflexible adherence to principle, and a scrutinizing attention to detail. Had the great Statesman, who has been lately driven from the Councils of his Sovereign, been permitted to employ his distinguished talents in averting from his humble fellow subjects, the evils with which they are threatened, by the rashness of his predecessors, these pages would have been unnecessary. His penetration must have already detected, the gross blunders and cruel misstatements, which it is the object of this humble effort, to expose and to refute and having detected them, his sound judgment and creative genius would have provided an effectual antidote. But as this boon has been withheld from the Poor; as the instruments of their injury are again become the arbiters of their fate; that appeal, which would otherwise have been superfluous, if not indecorous, becomes a solemn duty, especially devolving on persons who, while they are by birth and education connected with the Poor, are not altogether incompetent to the refutation of the calumnies, by which they, in common with their brethren, are assailed. Under this conviction, an honest attempt will be made to examine, candidly and patiently, the Spirit which was displayed in the progress of this measure, and some of the delusive statements, by which the acquiescence of the Public was obtained. No apothegm on legislation has obtained more general currency than the assertion, that "the Letter of a law is nothing: its Spirit every thing." If this be so, where the judges of the land solemnly propound the intentions of the legislature, how much must depend on the Spirit of an enactment, which, like the act for amending the Poor Laws, is not merely declaratory of legislative intention, but invests those who are to administer it with an authority to make other laws which, in their practical operation, may reach every poor person in the kingdom. Here the Spirit of the law is, indeed, every thing; and, as far as that can be inferred, from the Spirit displayed in the progress of that law, it may be fearlessly asserted, leaving the law itself unscathed, that no measure ever called more strongly for a serious examination of the circumstances connected with its introduction, the statements by which it was supported, and the existence of the overwhelming necessity which was pleaded for its enactment. It is scarcely necessary to state, that this measure was introduced to the public by the appointment of a Commission "to make a diligent and full enquiry into the practical operation of the Laws for the relief of the Poor in England and Wales," and to report thereon. The Commissioners were directed to employ Assistant Commissioners in the prosecution of their enquiry; and, we learn from the Report, that these appointments were "accompanied by no remuneration." The service was a gratuitous one, and only a few of the gentlemen engaged in it have yet had their patriotism rewarded by lucrative employments, created on the recommendation of their own Report. The B persons who have been so distinguished are certainly not those who took the most enlarged view of their subject, or who exhibited the most kindly feelings towards their suffering fellow creatures. On the qua lification of the Commissioners it is unnecessary to descant their eulogy, delivered in the House of Lords by my Lord Brougham, has passed into the hands of every one. His Lordship apostrophized these functionaries with an eloquence almost as fervid as that with which he assailed the Poor, and denounced the "grievous mischief inherent originally in the system" of making any provision for their relief. A part of the information collected under this Commission, addressed to the Home Secretary, was published and circulated By AUTHORITY. The Spirit which pervaded this publication, will be rendered apparent by a short extract from the Table of Contents which accompanied it. Some of the references in this table to the words "POOR LAW and PAUPER" will sufficiently demonstrate the shamefully partial and distorted character of this Official Document. There are other references to these words besides those which follow; but not one pointing to a single case favourable to a provision for the Poor under any circumstances, or indicating that they are otherwise than a horde of turbulent, profligate, lazy cheats and incendiaries. POOR LAWS. A check to industry, a reward for improvident marriages, a stimu- Have become a system for preventing the accumulation of capital, for destroying that which exists, and for reducing the ratepayer to pauperism. The destroyer of filial, parental, and conjugal affection. PAUPERS. Generally worthless and profligate. Mostly made so by improvidence and vice. The chief receivers of donations from charitable institutions and charitable ladies on whom they impose. Receiving allowance frequently, much better off than the soldiers. The originators of riots and fires in Sussex. In Sussex looked upon one who had been hanged for incendiarism as a martyr, exhibiting him in his coffin, and subscribed for his family. In some parishes one mass of dissatisfaction, turbulence, and demoralization. Aid each other in imposing upon magistrates and parish authorities. Drive others to receive allowance. Disimprove rapidly both in skill and morals. Continue, from generation to generation, raising their families on parish allowance. Know accurately the allowance of food in each workhouse and each prison within their district, and try to enter where the largest and best is given. In workhouses fare luxuriously, compared with the labourer of Ireland or Scotland. Such is the general Spirit of a volume extensively circulated by authority, and left to fret and rankle on the public mind, under the pretence of preparing it for sober and impartial legislation. But even this bill of indictment of four hundred and thirty pages preferred against the Poor, was only the avant courier of the many hundred folios of heavy foolscap which followed in its train, under the name of a Report and Appendixes, crushing the whole question beneath a chaotic mass of rubbish, from which no one has hitherto attempted to extricate it. The utmost that has been done, even by its advocates, was to select from this mass a few striking passages as themes for declamation, according to the taste or the interest of the selector. The Malthusian philosopher chose those which would best enable him to demonstrate the wickedness of agricultural labourers marrying and begetting families; the hungry expectant of place and perquisite under the anticipated Act, ferreted out instances to establish the sanative virtues of watergruel and the vast sums which could be saved by curtailing the allowance of the pauper; while the restless slave of ambition pounced on those repulsive traits of character which promised to afford a vehicle for unbounded invective and savage vituperation, and mercilessly launched his bolts on the naked defenceless heads of the Poor. Such were the Official productions of a Commission appointed "to make a diligent and full enquiry into the operation of the Poor Laws" with a view to their amendment. Instead of performing this duty impartially, they produce a nauseous compendium of abuses, improvidence, and crime, without citing a single example of the blessings distributed or the evils averted. To circulate such statements for the purpose of guiding the public to the best mode of cultivating their sympathies with their distressed fellow subjects, is as palpably dishonest as it would be to circulate the Tyburn Chronicle or the Newgate Calendar by authority, for the purpose of regulating our general intercourse with society. If the effects of an influential enactment, or the |