The poor of England have suffered much and deeply from the change made
in the administration of the poor laws in 1795; but of late years they
have suffered still more from the influx of Irish paupers. Great Britain
has been overrun by half-famished hordes, that have, by their
competition, lessened the wages of labour, and by their example,
degraded the habits, and lowered the opinions of the people with respect
to subsistence. The facilities of conveyance afforded by
steam-navigation are such, that the merest beggar, provided he can
command a sixpence, may get himself carried from Ireland to England. And
when such is the fact--when what may almost without a metaphor be termed
floating bridges, have been established between Belfast and Glasgow, and
Dublin and Liverpool--does any one suppose, that if no artificial
obstacles be thrown in the way of emigration, or if no efforts be made
to provide an outlet in some other quarter for the pauper population of
Ireland, we shall escape being overrun by it? It is not conceivable
that, with the existing means of intercourse, wages should continue to
be, at an average, 20_d_. per day in England, and only 4_d_. or 5_d_. in
Ireland. So long as the Irish paupers find that they can improve their
condition by coming to England, thither they will come. At this moment,
five or six millions of beggars are all of them turning their eyes, and
many of them directing their steps to this land of promise! The locusts
that "will eat up every blade of grass, and every green thing," are
already on the wing.--_Edin. Rev._
* * * * *
According to the parliamentary returns of 1815, the number of paupers
receiving parochial relief in England amounts to 895,336, in a
population of 11,360,505, or about one-twelfth of the whole community.
* * * * *
There are many on the continent who might far better have been treading
their turnip-fields, or superintending their warehouses at home, than
traversing the Alps, criticising the Pantheon, or loitering through the
galleries of the Vatican.
* * * * *
Twenty years ago there were at Saffet and at Jerusalem but a small
number of Polish Jews--some few hundreds at the most; there are now, at
the very least, 10,000.
* * * * *
Bishop Watson compares a geologist to a gnat mounted on an elephant, and
laying down theories as to the whole internal structure of the vast
animal, from the phenomena of the hide.
* * * * *
It is the harmony of strong contrasts in which greatness of character
truly dwells. As it rises, its variety and rich profusion, only remind
us of those southern mountains, whose majestic ascent combines the
fruits of every latitude, and the temperature of every clime; the
vineyard is scattered around its base to gladden, and the corn-field
waves above to support, the family of man: mount a little higher, and
the traveller is surrounded by the deep, umbrageous forest, whilst the
next elevation will place his foot on its magnificent diadem of eternal
snows.--_Edin. Rev._
* * * * *