Part 37 (1/2)

Others, with equal wisdom, were to ease the levies, by feeding a drove of pigs, which, agreeable to their own nature--ran backwards.--Renting a piece of ground, by way of garden, which supplied the house with a pennyworth of vegetables, for two-pence, adding a few cows, and a pasture; but as the end of all was _loss_, the levies increased.

In 1780, two collectors were appointed, at fifty guineas each, which would save the town _many a hundred_; still the levies increased.

A pet.i.tion is this sessions presented, for an Act to overturn the whole pauper system (for our heads are as fond of new fas.h.i.+ons, in parochial government, as in the hats which cover them) to erect a superb workhouse, at the expence of 10,000_l_. with powers to borrow 15,000_l_.

which grand design is to reduce the levies _one third_.--The levies will increase.

The reasons _openly_ alledged are, ”The Out-pensioners, which cost 7000_l_. a year, are the chief foundation of our public grievances: that the poor ought to be employed _in_ the house, lest their morals become injured by the shops; which prevents them from being taken into family service; and, the crowded state of the workhouse.”--But whether the pride of an overseer, in perpetuating his name, is not the pendulum which set the machine in motion? Or, whether a man, as well as a spider, may not create a _place_, and, like that--_fill it with himself_?

The bill directs, That the inhabitants mall chuse a number of guardians by ballot, who shall erect a workhouse, on Birmingham-heath--a spot as airy as the scheme; conduct a manufacture, and the poor; dispose of the present workhouse; seize and confine idle or disorderly persons, and keep them to labour, till they have reimbursed the parish all expences.

But it may be asked, Whether spending 15,000_l_. is likely to reduce the levies?

Whether we shall be laughed at, for throwing by a building, the last wing of which cost a thousand pounds, after using it only three years?

Our commerce is carried on by reciprocal obligation. Every overseer has his friends, whom he cannot refuse to serve; nay, whom he may even wish to serve, if that service costs him nothing: hence, that over-grown monster so justly complains of, _The Weekly Tickets_; it follows, whether _sixty_ guardians are not likely to have more friends to serve, than six overseers?

Whether the trades of the town, by a considerable manufacture established at the workhouse, will not be deprived of their most useful hands?

Whether it is not a maxim of the wisest men who have filled the office, ”to endeavour to keep the poor _out_ of the house, for if they are admitted, they become more chargeable; nor will they leave it without clothing?”

A workhouse is a kind of prison, and a dreadful one to those of tender feelings--Whether the health of an individual, the ideas of rect.i.tude, or the natural right of our species, would not be infringed by a cruel imprisonment.

If a man has followed an occupation forty years, and necessity sends him to the parish, whether is it preferable to teach him a new trade, or suffer him to earn what he can at his old? If we decide for the latter, whether he had better walk four hundred yards to business, or four miles? His own infirmity will determine this question.

If a young widow be left with two children, shall she pay a girl six-pence a week to tend them, while she earns five s.h.i.+llings at the mops, and is allowed two by the parish, or shall all three reside in the house, at the weekly expence of six, and she be employed in nursing them? If we again declare for the latter, it follows, that the parish will not only have four s.h.i.+llings a week, but the community may gain half a crown by her labour.

Whether the morals of the children are more likely to be injured by the shops, than the morals of half the children in town; many of whom labour to procure levies for the workhouse?

Whether the morals of a child will be more corrupted in a small shop, consisting of a few persons, or in a large one at the workhouse, consisting of hundreds?

Whether the grand shop at Birmingham-heath, or at any heath, will train girls for service, preferable to others?

Shall we, because the house has been crowded a few weeks, throw away 15000_l_. followed by a train of evils? A few months ago, I saw in it a large number of vacant beds. Besides, at a small expence, and without impeding the circulation of air, conveniency may be made for one hundred more.

Did a manufacture ever prosper under a mult.i.tude of inspectors, not one of which is to taste the least benefit?

As public business, which admits no profit, such as vestry a.s.semblies, commissions of lamps, turnpike meetings, &c. are thinly attended, even in town; what reason is there to expect a board two miles in the country?

The workhouse may be deemed _The Nursery of Birmingham_, in which she deposits her infants, for future service: the unfortunate and the idle, till they can be set upon their own basis; and the decrepid, during the few remaining sands in their gla.s.s. If we therefore carry the workhouse to a distance, whether we shall not interrupt that necessary intercourse which ought to subsist between a mother and her offspring? As sudden sickness, indications of child-birth, &c. require immediate a.s.sistance, a life in extreme danger may chance to be lost by the length of the road.

If we keep the disorderly till they have reimbursed the parish, whether we do not acquire an inheritance for life?

We censure the officer who pursues a phantom at the expence of others; we praise him who _teaches the poor to live_.