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THE RELATIVE DUTIES OF MANKIND. [Part III.

cerned, and of all other than purely moral provisions for theseexigencies, will be dispelled.

It is in these emergencies, that the greatest accessions are madeto the number of recognised and permanent dependents uponpoor-laws, and upon charitable societies. The difficulties, it maybe the actual sufferings of the poor, but independent laborer, arethen sometimes very great. A strong sense of character, it maybe a strong sense of duty, is then required for the maintenance ofhis independence. His case is very proper to enlist private sym-pathy, to be manifested by giving him employment , or makinghim small loans; but let him manfully persevere in his indepen-dence, and avoid a resort to poor-laws. By receiving aid underpoor-laws, during a pressure of this kind, many thousands havebeen brought to pauperism, who, aided by private sympathy asthey should have been, might have obviated the temporary diffi-culties of their condition by their own exertions, have gainedstrength to principle and character from these very difficulties,and ultimately have been gainers through the very circumstances,which, causing them to depend on alms, have eventually broughtthem to degradation and ruin.

I omit all consideration of the excessive burthens imposedupon the community in the way of taxes by pauperism, becausethis part of the subject belongs to the legislator and the politicaleconomist, rather than to the moral philosopher. But the effectsof poor-laws upon the moral feelings and natural sympathies ofpaupers come fairly within my province. “ The burthen ofthis” (the pecuniary) “tax upon its payers,” says the highestauthority, “ sinks into insignificance, when compared with thedreadful effects, which the system produces upon the morals andhappiness of the poor. It is as difficult to convey to the mindof the reader a true and faithful impression of the intensity andmalignity of the evil, in this view of it, as it is by any descrip-tion, however vivid, to give any adequate idea of the horrors of ashipwreck, or a pestilence. A person must converse with pau-pers, must enter workhouses and examine the inmates, must at-tend at the parish pay-table, before he can form a just conceptionof the moral debasement, which is the offspring of the present(poor-law) system. He must hear the pauper threaten to aban-