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mav approximately indicate the average number constantly chargeable , which appears to be about one million of persons ; but , reasoning on data which are fully explained , Mr . Pashley calculates that the actual number receiving relief , at one time or other during the year , is 3 , 000 , 000 ot souls . Of these , one-tenth are in-door paupers ; one-tenth are able-bodied men , exceeding the army recently raised by Austria from countries with a population of 17 , 900 , 000 ; and one million are children under sixteen years ot age Of the children , from 120 , 000 to 150 , 000 are inmates of workhouses , " now steadily graduating as paupers and criminals , because the loor Law Board abstains from using its powers to establish district schools . To show the effect of the local rating , Mr . Pashley analyzes the state „ * Xl .,, ¦ « . J- * . n—w , x'K « nrli / inn + 1 " 1 /» ViITH / IdTI l ~ lf Tf > llPlT . TOT TflOSfi WJlO ui w- *^ 7 - ~ - ¦—
OI P aUperiSUl III ULM 5 11 U 3 LJHJJJU . L 1 B , W 11 C 1 D UJJ . ^ u uvu ~~ - _ work in the city , is thrown mostly on the poorer parishes of East London He also contrasts the state of three manufacturing districts with ten counties selected for their highly agricultural characteristics . The manufacturing districts are Lancaster . Stafford , and the West Hiding of Yorkshire The agricultural districts are Bedfordshire , Berkshire , Buckinghamshire , Dorset , Essex , Norfolk , Oxford , Suffolk , Sussex , and Wiltshire . In the agricultural districts the poor relief expenditure in 1847 was 2 s . 2 \ d . in the pound ; in the manufacturing districts , 1 * . 2 % d . ; the average for all England and Ireland being Is . 7 d . ; the metropolis Is . 5 ^ d . The poor relief expenditure costs , per head , on the population , in 1850 , for all & 1 J A "XXTrA ^ a Re - \ J . -IVkf T . nrtAnn Ac 3 */ 7 ¦ fin * t . lifl t , PTl
flPTinilltllral districts , 9 s . Id . The Eastern district of London has but half the rental , and more than three hundred times the population of certain unions in the ten counties . In East London , the poor relief costs 5 s . Id . per head ; in the agricultural unions , 10 s . A similar comparison holds good in other respects—in the number of paupers proportioned to population ; in the proportion of crime , both adult and juvenile ; in the proportion of ignorance , and so forth . _ A variety of plans have been suggested for the improvement ot tne present system , and Mr . Pashley passes them all in review . Union rating would be insufficient , as extension would not sufficiently adjust the existing inequalities of burden . Union rating , with Mr . Pigott ' s qualification , fixing the contributions of each parish in proportion to payments at a eiven date , would stereotype inequalities of burden now existing ,
and preclude adjustment according to future changes of population , lo place the charge on the consolidated fund would abolish the last trace of the right of the poor to subsistence out of the land or the rental thereof . A national rate on real property would be fatal to local government , and to local safeguards . A national property-tax , a special income-tax assessment of the tithe commutation rent-charge , transfer to the State of all established or Union charges , transfer to the State of part of the charge of lunatic paupers—all of these measures , suggested by Mr . Disraeli , bir Charles Wood , and others , are open to the same objections , and are also totally inadequate . Mr . Pashley ' s own proposal is — " That the law of tor
settlement be wholly repealed ; that the various provisions raising and administering relief to the poor be consolidated into one statute ; that the yearly sum needed for such relief be raised by parochial rates on real property ; that two-thirds of this sum be raised by a pound rate equal throughout the whole country , and the remainder by a further pound rate raising in every parish a sum equal to one-third of the actual expenditure of such parish . " Assuming the net rental of real property in England to be £ 120 , 000 , 000 , and the sum required for the year's relief of poor to be £ 6 , 000 , 000 , it would be raised by a one shilling rate , of which every parish would contribute 8 d . on its own rental , raising on the aggregate £ 4 , 000 , 000 . The remaining £ 2 , 000 , 000 would be contributed by property in the several parishes in exact proportion to the pauperism found in each . Under this
arrangement , Kensington , which now pays 8 } d . in the pound , would have to pay first 8 d ., then one-third of 8 |< Z ., or 2 frf . —total , 10 £ rf . Chelsea , now paying 2 . ? . 7 d ., would then pay 8 ^ ., plus one-third of 2 s . 7 d ., equal to 10 } d ,, = Is . ( y \ d . St . Christopher Le Stock , now paying nothing , would have to pay Hd . St . Mildred , Bread-street , now pays 8 * ., it would have to pay 8 d ., plus 2 s . 8 d ., equal to 3 s . Ad . This plan would be in accordance -with the principle of one of the earliesf statutes of the time of the Reformation , which enacted that any surplus funda in rich parishes were to be distributed in relieving poor parishes of their burden . If the law of settlement bo repealed , the mci-Httn » n r » f + lw > nnnr . raf . c must , hn altered : otherwise , a higher premium
than ever would bo given to indiscriminate and remorseless clearances : a contingency provided for by the plan . The provision for a rate- in aid under the statute of Elizabeth , shows an intention to limit i \ io . / idministration to the parish ; but not the raising of the funds for poor relief . The effect would be very groat ; there arc now 1 ( 550 parishes , which pay less than ChL in the pound , and 440 which pay more than 4 . x-. The parishes in which poor-rates are oxtremoly high , or extremely low , are for the most part small parishes ; hence the great relief Tashley ' l » " would give to the most heavily burdened , would scarcely be appreciable as an increase of the special burden throughout the country . law of settlement
The fears entertained by some , that repeal of the would increase vagrancy , aj-e exaggerated ; but oven if it were increased , the evil might be met" by tho present ; law , or by a law adapted to the want , and vagrancy might be deal I ; with in a more separate and substantial form . Our own readers will scarcely need to be reminded , thai ; Mr . Pashley ' s proposal is not one which we can accept as sufficient . ^ We have always ( contended for three essentials as the main elements of a sound Poor Law— . Reproductive employment , and no other relief for the ablebodied pauper ; perfectly free relief for the siek , with i ' ri ' ^ provision for old age ; and industrial training for the young . All these elements are to be found , in a scattered or imperfect shape ,, in . tho actual administration of
the Poor Law , under practical parish ollicers , who carry improvements beyond , perhaps , the warrant of * the central authority . Jt appears to us that mieli a law is justified by h priori reason , as securing to tlie poor that subsistence out of the land which they would have by nature , if society did not prevent their access to the land through the institution of private property . It appears to us to bo justified by expediency , ua mooting the
wants of each class in the proper manner . It appears to us to be demanded by the actual state of industry , as a means of regulating the distribution of employments , by causing labour to revert to the primary source of all SU i ) S 1 S t GIT C G Mr . Pashley ' s book , however , possesses very great value as the most intelligent , if not the only , survey of the existing state of poverty in this country , and of the administration of the Poor Law .
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WOMAN'S LIFE . Woman ' s Ufe ; or the Trials of Caprice . By EmUie Carlcn , author of "The Rose of Tisleton . " 3 vols . Bentley . With the aid of judicious " skipping" this Swedish novel will be found very interesting , not simply as reflecting the homely life of Sweden , but also as telling a story of woman ' s caprice and passion which when once commenced cannot be laid down unread . The earlier portions are terribly wearisome , being padded out with a surplusage of stupid talk and indifferent incident , only tolerable among our cold-blooded , slow-blooded northern friends ; but when once the drama between Helmer and Edith fairly opens , then the interest is riveted . Not that the story has much vraisemblance , nor the characters more of reality than belongs to the ordinary class of novels ; but there is a certain fascination in these eternal conflicts of passion which is irresistible . The caprices of woman , ( not to mention our own ) , we have all more or less suffered from , and our experience makes us sympathise with poor Helmer , though we have no very great belief in his reality . And if Edith ' s caprices are extravagant and often unintelligible , what then ? Are the caprices of woman usually intelligible , and should we call them caprices if they were ? One of the best portions of this story is , where Edith becomes jealous of her husband , insults him grossly ( is not all jealousy an insult ?) is sternly reprimanded for her folly , and lives to see her husband jealous of her in his turn . The authoress has not worked this donnie with the power it
demanded , but she has suggested it . What we most miss in the work is the evidence of that impassioned experience which alone can furnish permanent material for fiction . It is a novel such as hundreds of novels are—readable enough , but not memorable . The plot is constructed with sufficient skill to sustain sympathetic curiosity ; but as soon as the whole web is unravelled , all interest vanishes . Those who delight in Miss Bremer's books will also welcome this , and for a similar reason , namely , because the stories move amidst localities and details which are fresher than those of our English and French fictions . The description of a London dinner , or Paris ball , is too hackneyed to be attractive ; but a Swedish tea drinking , or dance , has still attraction .
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GREGORY'S ORGANIC CHEMISTRY . A Handbook of Orqanic Chemistry . For the use of Students . By William Gregory , M . D . Third Edition , corrected and much extended . Taylor , Walton , and Maberly . Db . Gregory ' s Handbook of Organic Chemistry is a work which should be possessed by every student , but which must puzzle the reviewer who attempts to do more than briefly indicate his sense of its value . Meant for the laboratory and the study—meant to be used and not rapidly perused—it baffles all attempts to make it the subject of an article . It is as full of facts as an egg is full of meat . It bristles with formula ? and and its
tables that would frighten the reader of a newspaper ; general principles , though clearly and succinctly expressed , are so connected with these facts , these tables , and these symbols , that one cannot separate them . We have made three several attempts to give an interesting analysis , and now confess the failure . We must be content with saying that the Handbook is what it professes to be , a Handbook , and an admirable one . It contains tho results of the very latest researches , expressed in the briefest compass ; and although of course specially addressed to students of chemistry , it has passages of universal interest when treating of the chemistry of agriculture and physiology . Erom these portions we will borrow an extract or so for the sake of those not likely to see the book .
EFFECT OF VEGETATION ON THE AIK . " The various processes , constantly going on , of the decay of ( lend animals and vegetables , the respiration of animals , and combustion , are at every moment pouring carbonic acid into the , air , and yet , in the free open atmosphere , the proportion of carbonic acid never increases , as it would do in a closed spare , beyond the average of about ' th part of the volume of the air . Now those processes not only produce carbonic acid , but also consume oxygon , and that in the same proportion , the oxygon they talce up being equal in volume to the carbonic , acid which it forms . And yet , not only does the proportion of carbonic acid in the air not increase , but that of the oxygen docs not diminish . Kvidontly , therefore , some cause must be
in operation , directly opposed to , and exactly balancing the processes of respiration , decay , and combustion . And such a , process is that of vegetation , or the action of growing plants on carbonic acid and water under the influence of light , by which , as we have seen , these are deoxidised ^ vegetable products are formed , and oxygen is given out . Thus tho air is kept in a state of purity , and yet ; is constantly undergoing change ; for jih fast as respiration , demy , and combustion consume oxygon and form carbonic ! acid , vegetation consumes carbonic acid and produces oxygen . Any excess of carbonic acrid instantly causes an increase ! of vegetation , and therefore of oxygen , as well as of food for animals . When animals , by this food , increase , they produce more carbonic ! acid , and so on , the oxygen circulating from the air lo carbonic acid in tho animal processes , and from carbonic acid , by means of plants ,
back to the air again . " It is quite conceivable , that in the earlier geological periods , when , as if , appear * , warm-blooded animals did not exist , the iiir may have been unfit for them , by reason of its containing too much carbonic ! acid . Hut this , within certain limits , ill" 4 would be favourable to vegetation , and especially , as then ! is reason to helieve , to that of oryptogamous plants , such as ferns and lycopodiaeea ' , and also tho eyeaduceu ! . The action of such plants growing with enormous luxuriance , and not balanced by animal life , would in time diminish the amount of carbonic acid , increasing at the same time that of oxygon in tho air , till it- became fit for tho respiration of warm-blooded animals , and tho carbon , thus removed from tho air , would bo Htoml up in the form of ronmiua of these plants , protected from decay by being
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Jcly 24 , 1852 . ] THE LEADER . 711
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Leader (1850-1860), July 24, 1852, page 711, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1944/page/19/
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