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vnewthat they oarae from the stewardess . A * be adr vanceKng he saw no signs of flames , but he hastened yff ffdrf on to the deck . He there saw no crowd of ^ li p no person to give an alarm jlwt he flaw amid-^ th ^ ffngaf S / flames towaTd ^ Heaven . Hethen sa ^ thJiaSwas lowered at the side > of the ship , and . he ffot over the bulwarks with a view of letting himself SowSintd it ; butin consequenceof his , brokenleg he was careful-howto let himself down , ^ tending to swlnghim-SaInto the boat as it came under him . At thatmoment the ttokle « ave way , and the boat was swamped—and he saw Se whom it had contained struggling in the water with death Two or three were still on the upper part ot the hoat and he appeared to hear a voice whisper to him , rHold on . and all will be right . ' Having mounted the
vessel he lowered himself into another boat , about twenty-five feet above the water , so great and lofty was that noble vessel . That boat stuck on the hatches , and they could not get it off ; but suddenly the boat was capsized , and how he kept his place in the boat fee could not recollect , but he began to imagine the horrors ^ pf death by drowning . Suddenly the boat righted , and she was swung , with thirteen people in her , from the ship , but the tackle could not be disengaged from her . A sailor called for a knife to cut the rope—the rope was cut , the ship was gone , and they were left to the buffetting of
the waves ; and here he felt bound to praise that C * od Who controlled all things , and held the mighty deep in the hollow of His hands , for his preservation . When the boat got clear of the vessel , it was discovered that she had got a large hole in the bottom , and it was feared she must sink . One poor man placed his arm into the hole , and asked for something to plug it With : one gave his hat , another his drawers , another his stockings and other things ; and that the watchful eye of God was still over them , was shown by the fact that two small vessels had been left on board the boat , which served them to bale out the water and keep her from swamping . "
A portion of the paddle-box and some of the machinery of a large new steamer have been washed on shore at Bridport , end is supposed to be a part of the ill-fated Amazon . Information has alreadvbeeiL
forwardeil ^» Th ^^ tanuralty , " and ^ the officers other Majesty ' s Customs have taken active measures for securing the portion of the wreck , which is of some value on account of the quantity of copper and brass attached to it * " ^ The sufferers have been generously cared for at Plymouth and Southampton *
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ADDBESS OF THE POOR-LAW ASSOCIATION TO THE RATEPAYERS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM . Fei , i , ow CoTJNTjtYMBN , — - At the commencement of another year we are desirous of again calling attention to the principles upon which this Institution has been founded , and to the increasing necessity that exists for their adoption and enforcement by the Legislature . " Our object is—To abate the evils of pauperism , and to reduce poor rates . Our means are—The substitution of reproductive employment of the poor , either upon the land , or in handicraft labour , instead of the odious and repulsive labour tests and relief system ; and thus to render the poor-law establishments nearly or altogether self-supporting . In a word , the aim we have in view , and which we confidently call upon the country to assist us in achieving is , to benefit the ratepayer -by benefiting the poor .
The burden of poor rates has increased in density year after year ; and whithersoever we turn we discover no prospect of improvement , save in the adoption of the principles of this Association . The evil is getting worse and worse , At first it was , so to speak , like a cloud no bigger than . a man ' s hand ; " now it is like a flight of locusts , threatening to eat up every green thing . In many districts in Ireland numerous rentals have been entirely swallowed up by the poor rate . Take the following statistics , illustrative of the tremendous increase of this impost in the sister kingdom : — In 1840 the expenditure for administration of
Irish poor law , was £ 37 , 051 1841 Ditto do . 110 , 278 1842 Ditto do . 281233 1843 Ditto do , 244 , 374 1844 Ditto do . 271 , 334 1845 Ditto do , 316 , 225 1846 Ditto do . 435 , 001 1847 Year of famine , do . 803 , 684 1 « 48 Ditto do . 1 , 826 , 634 1849 Year of cholera do . 2 , 177 , 651 The expenditure for the year 1860 fell to £ 1 , 430 , 108 , a lact which is no subject for gratulation , as , alas ! it is mainly attributable to the frightful diminution of the p 0 W . , ' especially by death , a « the last Census returns so faithfull y testify . The above figures require no commentary to sustain
them . More eloquently than words do they proclaim a «? u . u lnft <** quacy of the law to accomplish the object for which it was avowedly framed . It will be seen that W » e ruinous exaction was multiplied in the very years when the country was leaat able to meet it-when lying plague W successive viaitationa of famine and th ?« J ' n ' ^ , «\ mion ? sterling per annum wrung from the property and the industrial resource * of Ireland , for uZK ? ' ^^^^?** oanthe Statesman , the Phihave Z ' ° n 9 « hrl ^ fn ' ^ atiafy hira 8 elf *•* «* o Poor that ™ iV eally r r i ^ we not q «« te the words « mi * A * - !" ft PP lusd to «** condition of England in his t oEfliT IS ? T matter e «« toni 8 hment to any man Si'Sk * . **! !?«!?_ # » " ^ e poor arc , beyond
other « rTf «* . t ija 7 Provided for than in any otner part of the world , there should be more betraar / raore miserable distressed objects , than arei to be seln throughput all the states of Europe ? " ° be Been under the Irish . poor .-law administration ,
notwlthstanding the enormous supplies levied by it , thousands and tens of thousands of pur fellow-creatures have notoj npjidyJlied-of-4 tow ^ i © iH- ^^ standing that the workhouses are full , the oountrjr is ravaged by hordes of mendicants , who , like guerilla bands , prowl from village to village , extorting from the unfortunate taxpayers the remnant that has been left them by the poor-rate collector—for ? ' what the cater * pillar has spared , the cankerworm has devoured . " Under that system , cargoes , of Irish paupers have been , thrown upon the coasts Of England and Scotland to swell , to an intolerable extent , the ranks of pauperism in London , Liverpool . Manchester . Bristol , Glasgow , &c , &c .
Under that system , humanity has been degraded below the level of the brute creation ; and in Irish board-rooms and English vestries the price of sending so many paupers to Liverpool ,, or despatching them back to their native parishes , has been debated with infinitely greater callousness than would be exhibited in a discussion between a Sraithfield grazier and a shipping agent , on the subject of the transmission of so many head of horned cattle . It is impossible to avoid shuddering at a condition of things of which these features are the indices . The social position of Ireland , under the operation of the poor law— -a position which menaces a speedy extinction of an entire people—as it cannot be contemplated
without horror , so it cannot be justified by the most subtle sophistry . In that country there are millions of acres of waste lands , which only require the application of labour , that is now waste , to make them yield their increase , and augment the wealth of the State . Shall we not make an effort to remove this anomaly ? or , to use the language of a respected member of the Legislature , and * of this Association , in his letter to Lord John JRussell , in 1847-i- ^ ' * Shall We * my lord , wait for some terrible convulsion , before you appropriate the waste lands of Ireland
- —the peoples' farms—to the use of the people ?** The social cancer is also steadily eating its way in England , the charge in 1849 being £ 5 , 792 , 963 . In 1836 , the expenditure for the relief of the poor of Manchester was only £ 25 , 0 OO ^ buUt * ejwteii | l 2 ^^ aranTTaT ^ KrgeTias since been reduced , owing simply to the abundant employment of the working classes in this district . Any one who has watched the mutations in the manufacturing districts , -within the last half century , will readily decline the task of deciding how long this happy employment of the people , and consequent diminished charge for pauperism , may be expected to ¦
last . -.., •¦ . In a late return to the board , there is a passage preginant with importance , as illustrative of the injurious effects upon England of the overflow of Irish pauperism t—' The relief granted during the week ending December 17 , 1851 , in the township of Manchester , was as follows : —Settled poor , 1951 cases , at a cost of £ 231 . 5 s . 5 d . ; Iri 8 h , 1780 cases , at a Cost of £ 221 . 10 s . 9 d . ; English non-settled , 8761 cases , at a cost of £ 108 . 17 s . 2 d . Compared with the corresponding week of the previous year , there was an increase of 188 English cases , and £ 4 . 3 s . 6 d . in the cost ; and an increase of Irish cases , and £ 36 . 2 s . 6 d . in the cost . "
This tax upon the industry and property of the country is becoming too heavy to be borne longer , without an effort to throw it off or mitigate it . So wretched , indeed , is the method of disposing of the impost , that it is a question whether the poor or the rich are actually more dissatisfied , or have greater reason to be so , since the plunder of the one serves so little to the real advantage of the other . And if this evil be not corrected in a time of almost profound peace and comparative prosperity , how will it be endured in a season of commercial or manufacturing distress , when thousands of hands will be thrown of employment , to add to the number of recipients of relief—how tolerated in a currency crisis—or how wilj . the Chancellor of the Exchequer find dividends in any future war , to pay the interest of an increasing debt ?—all possible contingencies , which it becomes the statesman seriously to contemplate and provide against . :
The remedy which we suggest for this crying evil—the instruction and employment of the poor in works of a remunerative character—is not a new panacea . It has had the sanction of some of the most illustrious names in English history and literature ; and it has had the imprimatur of success , wherever it has been judiciously ftP £ he celebrated statute , the 43 rd of Elizabeth—the maladministration , not the principle , of which demanded a change—was drawn up by the great Lord Bacon , and " gave power to raise by assessment , to purchase a stock of wool , hemp , flax , &c , for the employment of the . ¦
poor . . .. .. __ . « _ Lord Hale prepared a scheme , well worthy of his highly . gifted intellect , for the employmentof the poor in workhouses , which would have bc « n ft great improvement Upon the 43 rd of Elisabeth , inasmuch as it rendered it compulsory upon the justices of the peace to procure stock for the poor , when the overseers neglected this duty . One of the suggestions of Lord Hale demonstrates that the sale , outside , of the goods manufactured in the workhouae , was a p art of his p lan : — •« That there be yearly chosen by the sajd justices , a master for each workhouse , . with a convenient salary , " out of the Baid < , ) na «« Vho nrndlina thf > TPlft { . to OOntlnUO fOt thrCB
years . " It is deeply to be lamented that . Lord Hale , wno looked forward to tho accomplishment of his scheme for the improvement of the condition of the poor as the crowning aot of Kin public Jife--a 8 a vrork of great humanity , " worthy of a Christian and an Englishman — was removed by death before he had time to preas it upon the attention of the Legislature . Sir Joshua Child , who wrote elaborately on the subject , gave the following as the result of his reflections : — . 44 It la no matter whether the manufacture in the worKhouse turns to present profit or not , the great business of the nation being—first , to keep the poor from begging , and starving , and inuring such as we able to labour ana
discipline , that they Imay be hereafter useful members of the kingdom . " ¦ ¦ ' :- ' . ¦ ¦ - ¦ ¦ - In 16977 M rr ~~ Locka Suggested tnat , "houses of industry were the means to increase the quantity of labour throughout the kingdom , and decrease the expense of maintaining the poor , " Against these opinions , emanating from the " master spirits of the age" m which they lived—against the light of reason , the testimony of experience , and the dictates of humanity—the disciples of a false version of political economy present us with certain fallacies , which , although they have been often refuted before , it may be necessary here again to notice . First , it is urged that the substitution of employments of a healthful and remunerative charactive for compulsory idleness or cruel and repulsive task work , such ai picking oakum , &c , would interfere with the means of testing cases of real destitution .
In answer to this objection , we submit , that the test system itself is unjust , and the sooner its doom is sealed the better . The right of the poor to relief on the soil that gave them birth is as sacred , as ancient , as fully recognized by statute and by judicial authorities , since the days of Richard II . downwards , as any right to property , title , or prerogative , possessed by the highest in the land . This being the case , is it just to clog their acceptance of relief with conditions so revolting that , in
thousands of cases , it is notorious they endure the utmost extremity of suffering rather than apply for assistance ? The pauper , living in a highly artificial state of society , finds himself reduced , by circumstances over which , perhaps , he has had no control , to indigence ; and unable longer to support himself , his wife , and children , without extraneous aid , he presents himself to the guardians of the poor , and in obedience to the primaeval mandate from on high— " In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread until thou return to the ground "—he
" Humbly asks his fellow-worm To give him leave to toil . " He does not demand subsistence for nothing . The only capital hehasfo the World is the _ Jabjoirjaf-hig _ hands » - and that he ^ is willing to give in return for the assistance advanced to him . He desires "to take his portion , and rejoice in his labour , for this is the gift of God . " But he is stopped at the threshold by the stipulation which is imposed upon him , viz ., that , if he enter the workhouse , he must be content to languish in total idleness , or go through a certain amount of task work , which , while it thoroughly disgusts him , neither is , nor is intended to be , of any benefit to the public . It is hard to say whether the injustice of this system to the poor , or the absurdity of advocating it for the benefit of the ratepayers , is . more transparent . In the case of youthful paupers , the weight of our argument is greatly enhanced .
" Ju 3 t as the twig is bent the tree ' s inclined . " Under the plan we recommend , industry would keep the rising generation from mischief , and fashion the future man , for a life of honesty and self-dependence . Another objection presented by pseudo-political economists to the carrying on of reproductive labour by guardians is , that it interferes with # ndependent industry . At a cursory glance , this objection may appear to possess some force ; but a closer observation will discover that it ia wholly untenable . Expounders of political economy should be the last persons to advance this objection , for that science teaches us , " That the wealth and prosperity of a kingdom increase in a ratio with the aggregate of the money earned by the labour and employment of its inhabitants ; ' and " that production generates demand ;" and the highest authority that could be appealed to asBures us " that idleness is the root of all evil . " It is
asserted that the application of the labour of the inmates of poorhouses to works of a remunerative nature is an injustice tojthe workmen who are supporting themselves without parochial relief ; and that it is better for the latter that the former should be supported in total idleness . This proposition is as rational as if we said that in a family of six persons three should insist upon doing all the work , and complain that they were about to be plundered , if the remaining three contributed aught towards the common stock ! Three should " eat the bread of idleness , " in order that the labour of the other three should not be interfered with ! The proposition is as sensible as if we said that one half of the faotory
labourers in Manchester should be drafted to the poorhouse , there to receive relief at the cost of the remaining sons and daughters of industry . What should we think of the sanity of a man who , about to walk a considerable distance , insisted that he would advance with greater ease and speed if permitted to carry a neighbour on his back ? Beyond all doubt , if the suffrages of the workmen of this country were taken upon the subject , all of them , who are not blinded by ignorance and prejudice , would unhesitatingly concede to the indigent unemployed the privilege of contributing to their own support by the labour of their hands , and to the consequent reduction ot the burden of poor rates , which presses so severely upon all classes , from the landed proprietor and capitalist to the hard-working mechanic ,
Will the opponents of the self supporting system display the temerity of asserting , that the present administration . of the-poor law has not moat seriously affected independent industry in Ireland , by swamping the rentrolls of the landlords , driving the farmers out of the country by hundreds of thousands , and pressing bo h eavily upon the trading classes in the towna as td compel thousands of once comfortable ratepayers to become recipients of in-door relief ? Has it not seriously interfered with the labour markets of England and Scotland , by aubjeoting the workmen in these countries to an injurious competition with Irish immigrants , who , on the principles we are advocating , might be employed at home to their own benefit and that of society ? Has the interdiction of reproductive employment not perniciously affected all olaoBea in England , by swelling the rates to such an extent that , in numerous rural districts , whoa
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Jan . , 1852 >] gftg tteafrgt . ™
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 24, 1852, page 79, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1919/page/11/
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