and cheap remedy, if neglected to be paid? And if all this could be effected, what is it, after all, but the present system of removal rendered ten times more intricate, confused, and expensive? Perhaps Mr. Scarlett means, that the parishes where these men worked, and which may happen to be within the jurisdiction of the Justices, are to be taxed in aid of the parish M., in proportion to the benefit they have received from the labour of men whose distresses they do not relieve. We must have, then, a detailed account of how much a certain carpenter worked in one parish, how much in another; and enter into a species of evidence absolutely interminable. We hope Mr. Scarlett will not be angry with us: we entertain for his abilities and character the highest possible respect; but great lawyers have not leisure for these trifling details. It is very fortunate that a clause so erroneous in its view should be so inaccurate in its construction. If it were easy to comprehend it, and possible to execute it, it would be necessary to repeal it.

imum is very wisely and bravely enacted, and in the following clause, is immediately repealed.

"Provided also, and be it further enacted, that if by reason of any unusual scarcity of provisions, epidemic disease, or any other cause of a temporary or local nature, it shall be deemed expedient by the Overby virtue of any local Act of Parliament, seers of the poor, or other persons having, the authority of Overseers of the poor of any parish, township, or place, to make any addition to the sum assessed for the relief of the poor, beyond the amount limited by this Act, it shall be lawful for the said Overseers, or such other persons, to give public notice in the several churches, and other places of worship, within the same parish, township, or place, and if there be no church or chapel within such place, then in the parish church or chapel next adjoining the same, of the place and time of a general meeting to be held by the inhabitants paying to the relief of the poor within such parish, township, or place, for the purpose of considering the occasion and the amount of the proposed addition; and if it shall appear to the majority of the persons assembled at such meeting, that such addition shall be necessary, then it shall be lawful to the Overseers, or other

to increase the assessment by the additional sum proposed and allowed at such meeting, and for the Justices by whom such rate is to be allowed, upon due proof upon oath to be made before them, of the resolution of such meeting, and that the same was held after sufficient public notice, to allow such rate with the proposed addition, specifying the exact amount thereof, with the reasons for allowing the same, upon the face of the rate." — (Bill, p. 3.)

The shortest way, however, of mend-persons having power to make assessments, ing all this will be entirely to omit this part of the bill. We earnestly, but with very little hope of success, exhort Mr. Scarlett not to endanger the really important part of his project. by the introduction of a measure which has little to do with it, and which any Quarter-session country squire can do as well, or better, than himself. The real question introduced by his bill is, whether or not a limit shall be put to the Poor-laws; and not only this, but whether their amount shall be gradually diminished. To this better and higher part of the law we shall now address ourselves.

In this, however, as well as in the former part of his bill, Mr. Scarlett becomes frightened at his own enactments, and repeals himself. Parishes are first to relieve every person actually resident within them. This is no sooner enacted, than a provision is introduced to relieve them from this expense, tenfold more burthensome and expensive than the present system of removal. In the same manner, a max

It would really seem, from these and other qualifying provisions, as if Mr. Scarlett had never reflected upon the consequences of his leading enactments till he had penned them; and that he then set about finding how he could prevent himself from doing what he meant to do. To what purpose enact a maximum, if that maximum may at any time be repealed by the majority of the parishioners ? How will the compassion and charity which the Poor-laws have set to sleep be awakened, when such a remedy is at hand as the repeal of the maximum by a vote of the parish? Will ardent and amiable men form themselves into

for a particular hamlet, the poor would very soon come to imagine that they were entitled to that precise sum, and the farmers, that they were compelled to give it. Any maximum established should be a decreasing, but a very slowly decreasing, maximum,—perhaps it should not decrease at a greater rate than 10s. per cent. per annum.

voluntary associations to meet any that sum would in a very few years sudden exigency of famine and epi- become a minimum, and an established demic disease, when this sleepy and claim. If 80s. were the sum allotted sluggish method of overcoming the evil can be had recourse to? As soon as it becomes really impossible to increase the Poor-fund by law-when there is but little, and there can be no more, that little will be administered with the utmost caution; claims will be minutely inspected; idle manhood will not receive the scraps and crumbs which belong to failing old age; distress will make the poor provident and cautious; and all the good expected from the abolition of the Poor-laws will begin to appear. But these expectations will be entirely frustrated, and every advantage of Mr. Scarlett's bill destroyed, by this fatal facility of eluding and repealing it.

It may be doubtful, also, whether the first bill should aim at repealing more than 20 per cent. of the present amount of the Poor-rates. This would be effected in forty years. Long before that time, the good or bad effects of the measure would be fairly estimated: if it be wise that it should proceed, let posterity do the rest. It is by no means necessary to destroy in one moment, upon paper, a payment which cannot, without violating every principle of justice and every consideration of safety and humanity, be extinguished in less than two centuries.

It is important for Mr. Scarlett to consider whether he will make the operation of his bill immediate, or interpose two or three years between its enactment and first operation.

We entirely object to the following clause, the whole of which ought to be expunged: —

The danger of insurrection is a circumstance worthy of the most serious consideration in discussing the propriety of a maximum. Mr. Scarlett's bill is an infallible receipt for tumult and agitation whenever corn is a little dearer than common. 66 Repeal the maximum," will be the clamour in every village; and woe be to those members of the village vestry who should oppose the measure. Whether it was really a year of scarcity, and whether it was a proper season for expanding the bounty of the law, would be a question constantly and fiercely agitated between the farmers and the poor. If the maximum is to be quietly submitted to, its repeal person having authority to administer remust be rendered impossible but to the lief to the poor, to allow or give, or for any Legislature. "Burn your ships, Mr. Justice of the Peace to order, any relief to Scarlett. You are doing a wise and any person whatsoever, who shall be mara necessary thing. Don't be afraid of ried after the passing of this Act, for himyourself respect your self, herself, or any part of his or her family, Don't let Clause A. repeal Clause B. at the time of asking such relief, by reason unless such poor person shall be actually, Be stout. Take care that the Rat of age, sickness, or bodily infirmity, unable Lawyers on the Treasury Bench do to obtain a livelihood, and to support his not take the oysters out of your Bill, or her family by work: Provided always, and leave you the shell. Do not yield that nothing in this clause contained shall one particle of the wisdom and philo-be construed so as to authorise the grantsophy of your measure to the country ing relief, or making any order for relief, gentlemen of the earth."

Own nest.

We object to a maximum which is not rendered a decreasing maximum. If definite sums were fixed for each village, which they could not exceed,

"And be it further enacted, that it shall not be lawful for any Churchwarden, Overseer, or Guardian of the Poor, or any other

in cases where the same was not lawful

before the passing of this Act."

Nothing in the whole bill will occasion so much abuse and misrepresentation as this clause. It is upon this

that the Radicals will first fasten. It will, of course, be explained into a prohibition of marriage to the poor; and will, in fact, create a marked distinction between two classes of paupers, and become a rallying point for insurrection. In fact, it is wholly unnecessary. As the funds for the relief of pauperism decrease under the operation of a diminishing maximum, the first to whom relief is refused will be the young and the strong in other words, the most absurd and extravagant consequences of the present Poor-laws will be the first cured.

Such, then, is our conception of the bill which ought to be brought into Parliament - a maximum regulated by the greatest amount of Poor-rates ever paid, and annually diminishing at the rate of 10s. per cent. till they are reduced 20 per cent. of their present value; with such a preamble to the bill as will make it fair and consistent for any future Parliament to continue the reduction. If Mr. Scarlett will bring in a short and simple bill to this effect, and not mingle with it any other parochial improvements, and will persevere in such a bill for two or three years, we believe he will carry it; and we are certain he will confer, by such a measure, a lasting benefit upon his country-and upon none more than upon its labouring poor.

lated to destroy industry, foresight, and economy in the poor; to extinguish compassion in the rich; and, by destroying the balance between the demand for and the supply of labour, to spread a degraded population over a ruined land. Not to attempt the cure of this evil would be criminal indolence: not to cure it gradually and compassionately would be very wicked. To Mr. Scarlett belongs the real merit of introducing the bill. He will forgive us the freedom, perhaps the severity of some of our remarks. We are sometimes not quite so smooth as we ought to be; but we hold Mr. Scarlett in very high honour and estimation. He is the greatest advocate, perhaps, of his time; and without the slightest symptom of tail or whiskers-decorations, it is reported, now as characteristic of the English Bar as wigs and gowns in days of old, he has never carried his soul to the Treasury, and said, "What will you give me for this?"-he has never sold the warm feelings and honourable motives of his youth and manhood for an annual sum of money and an office, he has never taken a price for public liberty and public happiness,-he has never touched the political Aceldama, and signed the devil's bond for cursing to-morrow what he has blest to-day. Living in the midst of men who have disgraced it, he has cast honour upon his honourable profession; and has sought dignity, not from the ermine and the mace, but from a straight path and a spotless life.

PRISONS. (E. REVIEW, 1822.) 1. The Third Report of the Committee of the Society for the Improvement of Prison Discipline, and for the Reformation of Juvenile Offenders. London, 1821.

We presume there are very few persons who will imagine such a measure to be deficient in vigour. That the Poor-laws should be stopped in their fatal encroachment upon property, and unhappy multiplication of the human species, and not only this, but that the evil should be put in a state of diminution, would be an improvement of our condition almost beyond hope. The tendency of fears and objections will all lie the other way; and a bill of this nature will not be accused of 2. inertness, but of rashness, cruelty, and innovation. We cannot now enter into the question of the Poor-laws, of all others that which has undergone the most frequent and earnest discus- THERE never was a Society calculated sion. Our whole reasoning is founded upon the whole to do more good than upon the assumption, that no system the Society for the Improvement of of laws was ever so completely calcu- Prison Discipline; and hitherto it has

VOL. I.

Remarks upon Prison Discipline, &c.
&c., in a Letter addressed to the Lord
Lieutenant and Magistrates of the
County of Esser. By C. C. Western, Esq.
M.P. London, 1821.

A A

been conducted with equal energy and prudence. If now or hereafter, therefore, we make any criticisms on their proceedings, these must not be ascribed to any deficiency of good will or respect. We may differ from the Society in the means-our ends, we are proud to say, are the same.

In Staffordshire, the commitments have gradually increased from 195 in 1815, to 443 in 1820-though the jail has been built, since Howard's time, at an expense of 30,000l.—(Report, p. 67.) In Wiltshire, in a prison which has cost the county 40,000l., the commitments have increased from 207 in 1817, to 504 in 1821. Within this period, to the eternal scandal and disgrace of our laws, 378 persons have been committed for Game offences-constituting a sixth part of all the persons committed; so much for what our old friend, Mr. Justice Best, would term the unspeakable advantages of country gentlemen residing upon their own property!

In the improvement of prisons, they consider the small number of recommitments as the great test of amelioration. Upon this subject we have ventured to differ from them in a late Number; and we see no reason to alter our opinion. It is a mistake, and a very serious and fundamental mistake, to suppose that the principal object in jails is the reformation of the offender. When the Committee was appointed The principal object undoubtedly is, in the county of Essex, in the year to prevent the repetition of the offence 1818, to take into consideration the by the punishment of the offender; state of the jail and houses of correction, and therefore it is quite possible to they found that the number of prisoners conceive that the offender himself may annually committed had increased, be so kindly, gently, and agreeably led within the ten preceding years, from to reformation, by the efforts of good 559 to 1993; and there is little doubt and amiable persons, that the effect of (adds Mr. Western) of this proportion the punishment may be destroyed, at the being a tolerable specimen of the whole same time that the punished may be im- kingdom. We are far from attributing proved. A prison may lose its terror this increase solely to the imperfection and discredit, though the prisoner may of prison discipline. Increase of popureturn from it a better scholar, a better lation, new statutes, the extension of artificer, and a better man. The real the breed of pheasants, landed and and only test, in short, of a good prison mercantile distress, are very operative system is, the diminution of offences by causes. But the increase of committhe terror of the punishment. If it can ments is a stronger proof against the be shown that, in proportion as atten- present state of prison discipline than tion and expense have been employed the decrease of recommitments is in upon the improvement of prisons, the its favour. We may possibly have number of commitments has been made some progress in the art of diminished, this indeed would be a teaching him who has done wrong to convincing proof that such care and do so no more; but there is no proof attention were well employed. But that we have learnt the more important the very reverse is the case; the num-art of deterring those from doing ber of commitments within these last wrong who are doubting whether they ten years having nearly doubled all over England.

shall do it or not, and who, of course, will be principally guided in their decision by the sufferings of those who have previously yielded to temptation.

There are some assertions in the Report of the Society to which we can hardly give credit, not that we have the slightest suspicion of any intentional misrepresentation, but that we believe there must be some unintentional

(Report, p. 57.) error.

"The Ladies' Committees visiting Newgate and the Borough Compter, have continued to devote themselves to the improvement of the female prisoners, in a spirit worthy of their enlightened zeal and Christian charity. The beneficial effects of their exertions have been evinced by the progressive decrease in the number of female prisoners recommitted, which has diminished, since the visits of the Ladies to Newgate, no less than 40 per cent."

"Two notorious poachers, as well as bad men, were committed for three months, for not paying the penalty after conviction, but who, in consequence of extreme contrition and good conduct, were, at the intercession of the clergyman of their parish, released before the expiration of their term of punishment. Upon leaving the House of Correction, they declared that they had been completely brought to their senses-spoke with gratitude of the benefit they had derived from the advice of the chap

lain, and promised, upon their return to minister, express their thanks for his intheir parish, that they would go to their terceding for them; and moreover that they would, for the future, attend their duty regularly at church. It is pleasing to add, that these promises have been faithfully fulfilled."-(App. to Third Report, pp. 29, 30.)

Such statements prove nothing, but that the clergyman who makes them is an amiable man, and probably a college tutor. Their introduction, however, in the Report of a Society depending upon public opinion for success, is very detrimental.

That is, that Mrs. Fry and her friends have reclaimed forty women out of every hundred, who, but for them, would have re-appeared in jails. Nobody admires and respects Mrs. Fry more than we do; but this fact is scarcely credible; and, if accurate, ought, in justice to the reputation of the Society and its real interests, to have been thoroughly substantiated by names and documents. The ladies certainly lay claim to no such extraordinary success in their own Report quoted in the Appendix; but speak with becoming modesty and moderation of the result of their labours. The It is not fair to state the recommitenemies of all these reforms accuse the ments of one prison, and compare them reformers of enthusiasm and exaggera- with those of another, perhaps very tion. It is of the greatest possible differently circumstanced, the recomconsequence, therefore, that their state-mitments, for instance, of a county ments should be correct, and their views jail, where offences are generally of practical; and that all strong assertions serious magnitude, with those of a should be supported by strong documents. The English are a calm, reflecting people; they will give time and money when they are convinced; but they love dates, names, and certificates. In the midst of the most heartrending narratives, Bull requires the day of the month, the year of our Lord, the name of the parish, and the countersign of three or four respectable householders. After these affecting circumstances, he can no longer hold out; but gives way to the kindness of his nature-puffs, blubbers, and sub scribes.

A case is stated in the Hertford house of correction, which so much more resembles the sudden conversions of the Methodist Magazine, than the slow and uncertain process by which repentance is produced in real life, that we are a little surprised the Society should have inserted it.

borough where the most trifling faults are punished. The important thing would be, to give a table of recommitments, in the same prison, for a series of years, the average of recommitments, for example, every five years in each prison for twenty years past. If the Society can obtain this, it will be a document of some importance (though of less perhaps than they would consider it to be). At present they tell us, that the average of recommitments in certain prisons is 3 per cent.: in certain other prisons 5 per cent, but what were they twenty years ago in the same prison?-what were they five years ago? If recommitments are to be the test, we must know whether these are becoming, in any given prison, more or less frequent, before we can determine whether that prison is better or worse governed than formerly Recommitments will of course be more