Part 39 (2/2)

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CHAP. V.

_Of Taxes for the Maintenance of the Poor.--Their enormous Increase.--The Cause.--Comparison between those of England and Scotland.--Simple, easy, and humane Mode of reducing them_.

Amongst the interior causes that threaten England with decline, none is more alarming than the increasing expenses of the poor; expenses evidently rising in a proportion beyond our prosperity, and totally without example, either in the history of past times, or in that of any modern nation.

The poor of England cost more to maintain than the free revenue of the country amounted to thirty years ago, and to nearly three times the amount of the whole revenues of the nation, at the time of the revolution.

The proportion between the healthy and the sick cannot have changed so much as to account for this augmentation; we must, therefore, seek for the cause elsewhere.

It probably arises from several causes; the increasing luxury, which leaves more persons in indigence when they come to an advanced age, owing to their being unwilling or unable to undergo the hards.h.i.+ps to which nature subjects those who have been born to labour, and outlive their vigour; being thereby deprived of those indulgences which, in better days, they have experienced. In England, menial servants are accustomed to consume more than people of moderate fortune do in other countries, and they are the race of people most likely to be left to penury in their old age. In countries where there are, indeed, greater trains of menial attendants than in England, they, in general, belong to the great, who make some provision for them, or who, keeping them from ostentation, can retain them to a more advanced age; and, at all events, as they live a less luxurious life, they can make a better stand against that penury which it is their hard destiny to encounter. [end of page #247]

In a commercial country there is less attachment between master and servant, than in any other; and the instances of provision for them are very rare.

In proportion as a nation gets wealthy, the human race shares the same fate with other animals employed in labour; they are worked hard, and well fed while they are able to work, but their services are not regarded when they can do but little. {194}

Want of economy in the management of the funds destined for the purpose of their maintenance is another cause of increase in the expense of the poor. In a nation where every individual is fully occupied with his affairs, and has little time to attend to any thing else, those who manage the affairs of the poor find that few are inclined to look close into matters, and fewer still have the means of doing it if they would; so that abuses increase, as is always the case when there is no counteracting check to keep them within bounds.

Another cause, no doubt, is that, as the number of unproductive labourers increase, greater numbers of children are left in want.

To all those causes we must add the increase of towns, and the decrease of hamlets and villages. Towns are the places where indigence has the greatest consolation, and where the relief which is held out is attended with the least degree of humiliation and reproach.

When we compare the cases of England and Scotland, the causes cannot be doubted; for, there, servants live harder, the working cla.s.s do not labour so hard, and are not so soon worn out, neither have the towns increased so much, at the expense of the hamlets and villages.

The greatest of all the causes of the increase of poor, however, arises from taxation and rent. It has been observed, in the chapter on Taxation, that, for a certain length, taxes and rent are productive of industry, and that, at last, they finish by crus.h.i.+ng it entirely.

{194} If it were the custom to keep horses that were worn out till they died a natural death, the maintenance of them would cost more in England than in any other country; for their vigour is exhausted before the term of old age arrives. The calculation is in this country, to pay well, and be well served.

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The manner that this happens, is, that long before a country is as highly taxed as the majority of its inhabitants will bear, those who are the least able to pay are crushed, and reduced to absolute poverty.

There are two causes which may render a person unable to support the burthen of taxation: the one is, having a great family; the other is, being able to gain but little from weakness, or some other cause; and, where there are two causes that tend to produce the same effect, though they operate separately, they must, of course, sometimes act in conjunction.

The weakest part of society gives way first, in every country; and, on account of the arbitrary and ignorant, though lavish method of relieving that portion of society, in England, the evil is increased to more than double.

There is no relief at home in their own houses, no help, no aid, for the indigent, which might produce so admirable an effect, by counteracting the ruin brought on by heavy taxes and high prices; no, the family must support itself, or go wholesale to the workhouse. This is one of those clumsy rude modes of proceeding that a wealthy people, not overburthened with knowledge, naturally takes to overcome a difficulty, but without care or tenderness for the feelings of those relieved, or that regard for public interest, which ought to go hand in hand. For this it would be well to search a remedy.

A father and mother, and six children, will cost, at least, fifty pounds a year in a workhouse; but, perhaps, the aid of twelve or fifteen pounds would keep them from going there, and by that means save the greatest part of the money, while the country, which loses their industry, would be doubly a gainer.

There is a sort of rough, vulgar, and unfeeling character, prevalent amongst the parish-officers, that is a disgrace to the country and to the character of Englishmen. It is highly prejudicial to the nation; and, if there were no moral evil attending it, if the feelings of the poor were no object, =sic= the rich ought to attend to it for self-interest. If they will not, the government of the country is interested, both in honour and in interest, to do so.

Exemption from taxes will do little or nothing, the lower orders [end of page #249] are nearly all exempt, but that general dearness, that is the consequence of a general weight of taxes, is severely felt by them, and from that they cannot be exempted. They must get relief by a.s.sistance, and that a.s.sistance ought to be given in a manner that will not throw them altogether a burthen on the public. {195}

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