Henry Fielding

“ Can a general Neglect of the Poor be justly charged on a Nation in which the Poor are provided for by a Tax frequently equal to what is called the Land-Tax, and where there are such numerous Instances of private Donations, such Numbers of Hospitals, Alms-houses, and charitable Provisions of all Kinds? ”

“ What then must be the Case, when there should be no such Tax, nor any such Contribution; and when, by relieving a known and certain Object of Charity, every good Man must be assured, that he is not only doing an Act which the Law allows, but which Christianity and Humanity too exact of him? ”

“ That the Poor are in a very nasty and scandalous Condition is, perhaps, too true; but sure the general Charge against the People of England, as well as the invidious Aspersion on particular Bodies of them, is highly unjust and groundless. Nor do I know that any Nation hath ventured to fix this Character of Cruelty on us. Indeed our Inhospitality to Foreigners hath been sometimes remarked; but that we are cruel to one another is not, I believe, the common, I am sure it is not the true Opinion. ”

“ Again, many of the Poor, and those the more honest and industrious, will probably gain by such a Law: for, at the same time that the impudent and idle, if left to themselves, will certainly exact on their Masters; the modest, the humble, and truly laborious, may often (and so I doubt not but the Case is) be oppressed by them, and forced to accept a lower Price for their Labour, than the Liberality of Gentlemen would allow them. ”

“ Are not much grosser Exorbitancies to be feared on the other Side, when the lowest Artificers, Husbandmen, and Labourers, are made Judges in their own Cause; and when it is left to their own Discretion, to exact what Price they please for their Labour, of the poor Farmer or Clothier; of whom if they cannot exact an extravagant Price, they will fly to that Alternative which Idleness often prefers, of Begging or Stealing? ”

“ That the making such a Law is not only an honest, but a charitable Project; as it proposes, by retrenching the Price of poor Mens Labour, to provide Labour, and consequently Hire for all the Poor who are capable of Labour. In all Manufactures whatever, the lower the Price of Labour is, the cheaper will be the Price to the Consumer ”

“ Because those Places, where there are most Poor, consist for the most Part of Tradesmen whose Estates lie principally in their Stocks, which they will not endure to be searched into to make them contributary to raise any considerable Stock for the Poor, nor indeed so much as to the ordinary Contributions: But they lay all the Rates to the Poor upon the Rents of Lands and Houses, which alone, without the Help of the Stocks, are not able to raise a Stock for the Poor, although it is very plain that Stocks are as well by Law rateable as Lands, both to the Relief and raising a Stock for the Poor. ”

“ Hale, for Education and Relief of the Poor in a Way of Industry, is that which fills the Goals with Malefactors, and fills the Kingdom with idle and unprofitable Persons that consume the Stock of the Kingdom without improving it, and that will daily increase, even to a Desolation in Time. ”

“ Upon the whole, this first Class of the Poor is so truly inconsiderable in Number, and to provide for them in the most ample and liberal Manner would be so very easy to the Public; to support and cherish them, and to relieve their Wants, is a Duty so positively commanded by our Saviour, and is withal so agreeable and delightful in itself, affording the most desirable Object to the strong Passion of Pity ”

“ By The Poor, then, I understand such Persons as have no Estate of their own to support them, without Industry; nor any Profession or Trade, by which, with Industry, they may be capable of gaining a comfortable Subsistence. ”

“ The Generality of People that are able, are yet unwilling, to exceed the present necessary Charge; they do choose to live for an Hour, rather than project for the future; and although possibly trebling their Exhibition in one gross Sum at the Beginning of the Year, to raise a Stock, might in all probability render their future yearly Payments, for seven Years together, less by Half, or Two thirds, than what must be without it, yet they had rather continue on their yearly Payments, Year after Year, tho' it exhaust them in time, and make the Poor nothing the better at the Year's end. ”

“ However, if there be any Person who is yet unwilling to trust the Poor to voluntary Charity, or if it should be objected, that there is no Reason to lay the whole Burden on the worthier Part of Mankind, and to excuse the covetous Rich; and that a Tax is therefore necessary to force open the Purses of these latter ”

“ Perhaps, indeed if two or more Justices of the Peace were appointed to meet once every Month at some convenient Place, as near as possible to the Bridewell, there to summon the Governor before them, to examine the Accounts of his Stock and Implements for Work, and to make such Orders (under what Restrictions the Parliament shall think proper) as to such Justices shall seem requisite; this might afford a Palliative at least. In short, the great Cure for Idleness is Labour; and this is its only proper Punishment ”

“ Secondly, Wherever Wages are high, universally throughout the whole World, 'tis an infallible Evidence of the Riches of that Country; and wherever Wages for Labour run low, it is a Proof of the Poverty of that Place. Thirdly, It is the Multitudes of People, and good Laws, such as cause an Encrease of People, which principally enrich any Country; and if we retrench by Law the Labour of our People, we drive them from us to other Countries that give better Rates; and so the Dutch have drained us of our Seamen and Woollen Manufacturers, and we the French of their Artificers and Silk-manufacturers ”

“ Having now run through the several immediate Consequences of a general Luxury among the lower People, all which, as they tend to promote their Distresses, may be reasonably supposed to put many of them of the bolder Kind upon unlawful and violent Means of relieving the Mischief which such Vices have brought upon them; I come now to a second Cause of the Evil, in the improper Regulation of what is called the Poor in this Kingdom, arising, I think, partly from the Abuse of some Laws, and partly from the total Neglect of others ”

“ As to Diseases to which Human Nature is universally liable, they sometimes (though very rarely; for Health is the happy Portion of Poverty) befal the Poor; and at all such Times they are certainly Objects of Charity, and entitled by the Law of God to Relief from the Rich. ”

“ To give this Argument any Force, our Wages must be reduced at least below the Standard of other Countries; which is, I think very little to be apprehended; but, on the contrary, if the Labourer should carry his Demands ever so little higher, as may be reasonably expected, the Consumption of many Manufactures will not only be confined to our own People, but to a very few of those People. ”

“ The Dutch, it is true, are principally our Rivals in Trade in general, and chiefly as Carries; but not so in Manufacture, particularly in the Woollen Manufacture. Here our chief Rivals are the French, amongst whom the Price of Labour is known to be considerably lower than with us. To this, among other Causes, (for I know there are others, and some very scandalous ones) they owe their Success over us in the Levant. It is indeed a Truth which needs no Comment nor Proof, that where Goods are of equal Value, the Man who fells cheapest will have the most Custom ”

“ Such, I think, is the present Bounty to Beggars; for, at a Time when every Man knows the vast Tax which is raised for the Support of the Poor, and when all Men of Property must feel their Contributions to this Tax, Mankind are so forward to relieve the Appearance of Distress in their Fellow-creatures, that every Beggar, who can but moderately well personate Misery, is sure to find Relief and Encouragement ”

“ And if any Man will profess so little Knowledge of Human Nature, and so mean and unjust an Opinion of the Christianity, I might say the Humanity, of his Country, as to affect a contrary Opinion, notwithstanding all I have said, let him answer the following Instance, which may be called an Argument à posteriori, for the Truth of my Assertion. ”

“ What good Consequence then can arise from sending idle and disorderly Persons to a Place where they are neither to be corrected nor employed; and where with the Conversation of many as bad, and sometimes worse than themselves, they are sure to be improved in the Knowledge, and confirmed in the Practice of Iniquity? Can it be conceived that such Persons will not come out of these Houses much more idle and disorderly than they went in? ”

“ Shaw observes, 'would prevent the Children of our Poor being brought up in Laziness and Beggary, whereby Beggary is entailed from Generation to Generation: This is certainly the greatest Charity; for though he who gives to any in Want, does well, yet he who employs and educates the Poor, so as to render them useful to the Public does better; for that would be many hundred thousand Pounds per Ann. Benefit to this Kingdom.'
Now the former of these Provisions hath, perhaps, though in a very slovenly and inadequate Manner, been partly carried into Execution ”

“ In serious Truth, if proper Care should be taken to provide for the present Poor, and to prevent their Encrease by laying some effectual Restraints on the Extravagance of the lower Sort of People, the remaining part of this Treatise would be rendered of little Consequence ”

“ To provide for these, seems, as I have said, to have been the chief Design of the Statute of Elizabeth, as well as of several Laws enacted since; and that this Design hath hitherto failed, may possibly have arisen from one single Mistake, but a Mistake which must be fatal, as it is an Error in the first Concoction. The Mistake I point at is, that the Legislature have left the whole Work to the Overseers. They have rather told them what they are to do (viz. to employ the industrious Poor) than how they shall do it. ”

“ Hands for the Work are already supposed, and surely Trade and Manufacture are not come to so low an Ebb, that we should not be able to find Work for the Hands. The Method of adapting only seems to be wanting. And though this may not be easy to discover, it is a Task surely not above the Reach of the British Parliament, when they shall think proper to apply themselves to it. ”

“ Such I will endeavour to give it; since no Man is more inclined to respect the Opinions of such Persons, and as the Revival of the Law, which he opposes, is, I think, absolutely necessary to the Purpose I am contending for. ”

“ An utter Incapacity to work must arise from some Defect, occasioned either by Nature or Accident. Natural Incapacities are greatly the most (perhaps the only) considerable ones; for as to accidental Maims, how very rarely do they happen, and, I must add, how very nobly are they provided for, when they do happen! Again, as to natural Incapacities, they are but few, unless those two general Circumstances, one of which must, and the other may befal all Men ”

“ He seems rather to argue against giving too little, than against regulating what is to be given; so that his Arguments are more proper for the Consideration of the Justices at their Meeting for settling the Rates of Wages, than for the Consideration of the Legislature, in a Debate concerning the Expediency of the above Law. To evince the Expediency of which, I appeal to the concurrent Sense of Parliament in so many different Ages ”

“ But 'till this Plan shall be produced; or (which is more to be expected) 'till some Man of greater Abilities, as well as of greater Authority, shall offer some new Regulation for this Purpose; something, at least, ought to be done to strengthen the Laws already made, and to enforce their Execution. The Matter is of the highest Concern; and imports us not only as we are good Men and good Christians; but as we are good Englishmen. Since not only preserving the Poor from the highest Degrees of Wretchedness, but the making them useful Subjects, is the Thing proposed ”

“ Fourthly, That they shall, from the same Tax, provide towards the necessary Relief of the Lame, Impotent, Old, Blind, and others, being Poor, and not able to work.
Fifthly, That they shall, out of the same Tax, put the Children of poor Persons Apprentices. ”

“ I mean, the Extremes of Youth and Age: for, besides these, the Number of Persons who really labour under an utter Incapacity of Work, will, on a just Inspection, be found so trifling, that two of the London Hospitals might contain them all. The Reader will be pleased to observe, I say of those who really labour, &c. for he is much deceived, who computes the Number of Objects in the Nation, from the great Number which he daily sees in the Streets of London. ”

“ As to the first of these, I do not find any Alteration hath been made, nor if there was, might it possibly produce any desired Effect. The Consequence, as it appears, would be only making Churchwardens of the Justices of the Peace, which many of them are already, not highly to the Satisfaction of their Parishes; too much Power vested in one Man being too apt perhaps to beget Envy. ”

“ But this is a Way of acting, however worthy be the Motive, which is sometimes more justifiable to a Man's own Conscience, than it would be in the Court of King's Bench, which requires the Magistrate to execute the Laws entrusted to his Care, and in the Manner which those Laws prescribe. ”