On The CHRISTIAN AND
ECONOMIC POLITY of a NATION
More Especially With Reference to Its Large
Towns
PREFACE.
NEXT in importance to those truths which are directly
religious, do we hold those which relate to the connexion between the Moral and
Economic well-being of Society. But it must be premised that we look on the
good moral condition of human beings as hopeless, save by the instrumentality
of religion - and then, this being admitted, those temporal blessings which
form the unfailing inheritance of a virtuous and well-taught peasantry, the
diffused comfort and sufficiency which are the sure attendants of a
peoples worth along with a peoples intelligence, should be regarded
as exemplifications of the scripture sayings, that if we seek first the kingdom
of God and His righteousness all other things shall be added unto us, and that
godliness hath the promise of the life which now is as well as of that which is
to come.
But this dependence of comfort upon character, or the
connexion between the two terms of this great sequence, is the result of
certain economic laws, the contemplation of which is quite familiar to the
disciples of Political Eonomy. But no two classes of men stand more apart from
each other - than those economists whose office it is to investigate the law of
dependence between character and comfort; and those clergymen whose office it
is efficiently, by their prayers and labours among the people, to build up a
high average character in society. While prosecuting their respective
employments, they are completely beyond the sight and recognition of each other
- the former very generally not cognizant, nay sometimes even contemptuous of
the latter - and the latter quite unconscious that any function or exercise of
theirs can at all expedite the objects of the former. Nevertheless it is not
the less true, that between a high tone of character and a high rate of wages
there is a most intimate alliance; and, while it is for the economists alone to
speculate aright on the action and reaction of these two elements - it is for
the ministers of the gospel alone, by the influence of that faith which they
teach, to elevate the morality of the common people, and so to carry into
practical fulfilment that glorious connexion which is ever found to obtain
between a well-principled and a well-conditioned peasantry.
The walk to
which we now point has been little explored; nor, as far as our experience
goes, does it form a very inviting one to the general, or even to the literary
public. It would seem as if the Economists repudiate the moral ingredient as of
vastly too ethereal a nature for their science - while moralists and divines on
the other hand, are often found to recoil from Political Economy, as they would
from a system of gross utilitarianism. From a late conversation with Mr Guizot
I could infer, that the affinity between these two subjects was still almost an
entire novelty in France. In truth, it is nearly as little studied in England -
though it be amply conceded by the philosophical state with all whom I have now
named, that it is only in this quarter of speculation, where we shall meet with
the solution of the most arduous problems in the art of government, or rather
where the great problem of society can be fully and satisfactorily resolved.
One of the greatest difficulties, both in the management and philosophy
of human affairs, is presented to us by the question of Pauperism; and a large
proportion of the following pages is dedicated to the elucidation of that
question. We have long thought that by a legal provision for indigence, two
principles of our moral nature have been confounded, which are radically
distinct from each other - distinct both objectively in the ethical system of
virtue, and subjectively in the laws and workings of the human constitution.
These two principles are humanity and justice, whereof the latter is the only
proper object of legislation -which, by attempting the enforcement of the
former, has overstepped altogether its own rightful boundaries. It is right
that justice should be enforced by law, but compassion ought to have been left
free; and the mischief that has practically ensued from the violation of this
obvious propriety, strikingly evinces the harmony of the abstract with the
concrete in the constitution of our actual world - insomuch that derangement
and disorder will inevitably follow, whenever the natural laws of that
microcosm which each man carries in his own heart, are thwarted by the
dissonancy of those civil or political laws, by which it is often so vainly
attempted to improve on the designs of the Great Architect, when the inventions
of man are suffered to supersede the great principles of truth and nature in
the mechanism of human society.
But it may be asked, if the practical
necessity for the discussion of this question have not now gone by? Has not the
reformation for which I have all along contended been now set on foot; and is
it not exemplifying at this moment the wisdom of its principles, and the
blessed results of its operation, all over England? Has not the system for
which we begun our advocacy so long back as 1814, been actually adopted, if not
in full, at least by so near an approximation, that any repetition or
republisation of it, whether in its principles or details, is now uncalled for?
And is it not superfluous to bring that again to the test of argument, which
may now be left to the better test of experience?
We reply that if one
consideration could be of more prevailing influence than another, in
determining us on the restatement of our views, it would be the deep
misapprehension which obtains upon this subject. The changes which have taken
place on the system of pauperism in England are not in our estimation accordant
with the true principles or philosophy of the question; and to us it marks a
still more resolute perseverance in error, that the same system has of late
been transported to Ireland, in the vain imagination that it will improve the
economic state of the people, and medicate the distempers of that unhappy
land.
Pauperism in so far as sustained on the principle, that each man,
simply because he exists, holds a right on other men or on society for
existence, is a thing not to be regulated but destroyed. Any attempt to
amend the system which reposes on such a basis will present us with but another
modification of that which is radically and essentially evil. Whatever the
calls be, which the poverty of a human being may have on the compassion of his
fellows - it has no claims whatever upon their justice. The confusion of these
two virtues in the ethical system will tend to actual confusion and disorder -
when introduced into the laws and administrations of human society. The proper
remedy, or remedy of nature, for the wretchedness of the few, is the kindness
of the many. But when the heterogeneous imagination of a right is introduced
into this department of human affairs, and the imagination is sanctioned by the
laws of the country, then one of two things must follow - Either an indefinite
encroachment on property, so as ultimately to reduce to a sort of agrarian
level all the families of the land; or, if to postpone this consequence a rigid
dispensation be adopted, the disappointment of a people who have been taught to
feel themselves aggrieved, the innumerable heart-burnings which law itself has
conjured up, and no administration of that law howevçr skilful can
appease.
If the many thousand applicants for public charity in England
really do have a right to the relief of their wants why should not that right,
as a right, be fully and openly and cheerfully conceded to them? Why should
they be scared away from the assertion of this right, by any circumstances cf
hardship or degradation, or violence to the affections of nature, being
associated therewith? Should the avenue to justice be obstructed, and that too
by the very pains and penalties which are laid on those who trample justice
under foot? Yet every approximation of an alms-house to a gaol, of a house of
charity to a house of correction, but exemplifies this grievous paralogism; nor
can we wonder, when the rulers of England have led its people so grievously
astray, that elements of conflict are now afloat, which destroy the well-being,
and even threaten the stability of society.
It is playing fast and
loose with a people - first to make a declaration of their right, and then to
plant obstacles in the way of their making it good. There is an utter
incongruity here of the practice with the principle, which betrays a secret
misgiving, as if the principle was not felt to be a sound one. The truth is
that it is such a principle as will not bear to be fully and consistently acted
upon a pretty decisive evidence of something radically wrong in the whole
system. The economy of a legal provision for the poor can only be upheld in a
country by a compensation of errors - an expedient which might do in
mathematics; but which can never be made to do prosperously or well in the
management of human nature.
But it may be asked whether the last reform
in the pauperism of England has not, in point of fart, turned out to be a
prosperous experiment? Not most assuredly if the question is to be decided by
the moral test, or satisfaction of the people. And if brought to the economical
test, or saving of the expenditure, it should be recollected that the immense
reduction which has been effected under the new system in certain of the
parishes, but with a very sore exasperation of the popular feeling, might well
be argued as an experimental proof in favour of the doctrine that there is no
natural necessity for a legal provision in behalf of indigence at all; and if
so, it were surely better that the legal imagination of a right to such
provision were dislodged from the hearts of the people, which it never will be
completely or conclusively, till the law itself shall, after a gradual
retracement of the parishes of England from the great practical error into
which they have fallen, have at length been dislodged from the statute-book.
If the body of pauperism is, as we believe it, an artificial
excrescence - then it admits of indefinite reduction, whenever the pressure of
an energetic administration from without is brought to bear upon it. Now such
an administration is never more likely to address itself with resolution and
strenuousness to its task, than at the commencement of some very sanguine
attempt to rectify and remodel the whole system. And accordingly the great
reforming Acts of Mr Gilbert and Mr Sturges Bourne, were signalised
during the first years of their operation by the practical triumph of large and
marvellous retrenchments in a goodly number of the parishes. But it was at
length found, that the unnatural tension of a very strict and vigilant and of
course unpopular management, could not always be sustained; and so, on the
moment of consequent relaxation, the pauperism, in virtue of its own native
elasticity, speedily resumed, nay, exceeded the greatest amount which it had
formerly arrived at.
Even though a rigorous style of administration
should be persevered in, there is reason to apprehend that this may not
permanently keep down the expenses of their pauperism. By aggravating the
restraints or the humiliations and sacrifices which are attached to the system,
they may scare away from it those of a finer and better spirit among the
peasantry of England. But on the other hand the very effect of the system may
be, so to degrade and harden the general feeling of the cornmonalty, as shall
open the way to the same if not to a greater pressure of applications than
before. If the people are revolted by the hardships and annoyances of the
present work-house system, this may save the economic pressure - but at the
heavy expense of a great moral calamity even a turbulent and dissatisfied
feeling throughout the labouring classes of society. But if on the other hand
the people shall be so far reconciled as to brook these apnoyances, this will
recommit the parishes of England to their wonted expenditure; and without even
the comfort of any economic saving, there will still be the great moral injury
of a population more blunted in all their delicacies, more insensible to all
the feelings whether of honour or of natural affection than heretofore. It
remains to be seen how the proposed apparatus of Pauperism for Ireland will be
met by its peasantry. If they be generally revolted by its seventies, there is
reason to fear the same resentment that is awakened, when we imagine a delusive
promise to have been given, a deceitful semblance to have been placed before
us, or a mockery to have been practised upon our expectations. And if on the
contrary, the urgencies of want shall prevail over the charms of their liberty
and their homes, all the resources of the country may not be able to withstand
the inroads of a multitude, who, if not countless, may at least turn out
indefinitely greater than is now counted on; and in the utter helplessness, if
not the utter ruin that must follow, we shall have the abundant practical
evidence, that a system which is wrong in principle, is also both unsound in
its policy and pernicious in its consequences.
It is on the strength of
these considerations, that we have resolved to present anew those views and
reasonings on the subject of Pauperism, which we gave to the public eighteen
years ago. The late reform of English pauperism bears more the semblance than
the reality of an approximation to that system which we have all along
advocated, With them there is little or no change of principle, admitting, as
they still do, the right of the destitute to relief, - but, along with this, a
large and instant change of practical administration. With us again there is a
total diversity of principle from the other, in that we deny the right but
along with this a very gradual movement in that executive process by which we
would carry our principle into effect. In single parishes we propose to get rid
of the old pauperism, not by any sudden or violent dismissal of the actual
paupers, who, for aught we care, may be sustained through life in the
sufficiency of their present allowances - but by our treatment of the new
applications, and which we think may be easily so disposed of, as at length to
exchange the heavy expenditure of a legal for the light expenditure of a
gratuitous economy. And in carrying this reformation over the country at large,
we would proceed not by a simultaneous but by a successive operation - just as
the inclosure of commons passes onward from parish to parish under the
authority of a permissive law,
If the present reform shall turn out to
be a failure, and add one more to the list of abortions which have gone before
it, - then at length may it come to be acknowledged, that it is vain to look
for any permanent deliverance from this sore mischief, by the mere modification
of that which is radically and essentially evil. It has long been the obstinate
imagination in England, that the error lies not in the essence of their
poor-law, but in the accidents of its administration. This error will probably
never be dislodged, but by means of a long and varied experience, by a series
of disappointments in one fruitless expedient after another - when their eyes
at last may open to the truth, that nothing short of a process of eradication
will conclusively relieve them, from the manifold evils of a system which ought
not to be regulated but destroyed.
One object of the following pages is
to explain, how, wide as the transition may be from their established to our
proposed system, yet still there is a series of practicable stepping-stones by
which it may be effected.
But let us not forget that the subject of
Pauperism occupies but a part, and the smaller part of these volumes, which are
more taken up with the Christian than with the economic polity of a nation. And
on the former of these two questions we have greater reason to felicitate
ourselves in the progress of sound opinion, and of the consequent practical
reforms which are now going forward. If in the management of the poor, there
has taken place but the semblance of an approximation to the view which we
first ventured to publish in 1814, or twenty-five years ago there has been a
real and substantial approximation to our views on the Christian education of
the people, which were first published in 1817, or twenty-two years ago.
It is most encouraging to observe the amount of Church Extension, and
on the right territorial principle, which has already been carried into effect;
and the still greater amount which is contemplated both for Scotland and
England - a most refreshing contrast with the imputation of Utopianism and
folly, wherewith all our speculations on this great topic were wont to be
stigmatized. And yet it were a mistaken inference to draw from this revolution
of public sentiment, that a renewal of the very arguments in the very language
of twenty years back on this subject must be now uncalled for. It is little
known how obtuse and impracticable the general mind of society is, when aught
in the form of novelty is addressed to it; and what incessant reiteration must
be employed ere the resistance, or rather perhaps the apathy, can be fully
overcome. Certain it is that to this hour, there is, throughout whole orders of
the community, a marvellous inertness of understanding, on the great question
of the Establishment and the Extension of National Churches; and we shall not
regard the publication over again of our first and still favourite views upon
this theme as superfluous or uncalled for - if a few hundred more of readers
shall be thereby brought into contact with the elements of the controversy.
We confess no small gratification in finding, at the end of twenty
years, that our promulgations held at the time to be altogether Utopian, of the
great charm and efficiency which lie in the household ministrations of
clergymen, are now repeated in the most popular, and at the same time, the most
able and authoritative of our daily journals. The Times Newspaper of a
few days back recommends with great force and eloquence, and in the following
terms, the still further prosecution of an
earnest and indefatigable system of parochial domiciliary visiting throughout
all the parishes of the land. This, depend upon it, is the only patent and
talismanic key to English hearts, whether of Churchmen, Papists, or Dissenters.
Disinterested and persevering kindness, brought habitually to a mans home
under all sorts of discouragement, is what no human being can long or rudely
resist. With that elevated determination and single-heartedness, which, in the
absence of all impertinent intrusions or officious curiosity, manifestly seeks
to engage mankind in a devout concern for their immortal interests, let every
family in every city, town, or hamlet, be regularly and affectionately visited,
no matter what denomination they may belong to. The established clergy,
accredited, commissioned, and upheld by the law of this realm, are the clergy
of the whole nation. Every fireside in their parish is a part of their allotted
charge. They have an official as well as a moral right, subject, of course, to
discreet limitations, to seek admittance into every door, whether men
will hear or whether they will forbear.. Painful repulses will
occasionally, though not often, occur; but these, compensated by a
consciousness of dutiful exertion and by cordial welcomes in other cases, will
sooner or later be overcome by meek and patient endurance. Only let all the
families of England be regularly invited to the dispensation of a free gospel
in a free church; and eventually the very universality of this habit of
parochial visiting will establish it as a part of our social system, and cause
it to work with the uniform beneficence of natures general
laws.
Proceed to Chapter
One?
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