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192 METIfODS OF SOCIAL REFUKJf.
to tho accumulation of capital and the employment of it for
their own benefit, a now and more hopeful order of things will
not be far distant.
Having ventured to speak against the abuse of medical
charities, I think I need not spare my remarks upon an innumerable
multitude of other charities which have nothing
to reoommend them. I allude to the small doles of money
and bread, coals and blankets, and other articles, which, in
almost every parish in England, are given out chiefly through
the hands of tho clergy at intervals, according to the benevolent
but mistaken intentions of testators. In Manchester I
hnvo seen the Cathedral entirely filled by an indiscriminate
crowd of poor persons, each summoned to receive a blanket or
coverlet. Every one, of course, must know that a certain
amount of physical comfort may thus be caused; but what is
this to t.he dcrnoralieing effect of such casual charity upon the
encrgyand prudent habits of the recipients ? I do not hesitate
to my thnt such charities arc an ~cnmitigntcd n~tisanc.e, and
thnt the moncy is not merely thrown away but used to do
I1nrm. It would nccordingly be n most salutary memure to
divert a considerable part of these misused funds to the promotion
of education. Such funds are really public and not
private funds, and when the State recognises in tho Poor Lam
an indefeasible right of every person to maintenance under
certain most necessary conditions, and spends R huge annual
sum of moncy in consequence, it ha0 R perfect right and duty
to inquire into the npplicntion of other public funds mhicll
really go to swell the crowd of paupers.
The British Poor Law of 1832 is one of the wisest measures
ever concerted by any gorornment, and we of this generation
hardly appreciate what it has saved UB from. But I much
fear lest any mistaken feelings of humanity should lead us to
relax t,he rigour of its application, and to allow it in one way
or other to be circnmyented and counteracted. Should this
be so, then, I say that British pauperism is simply a hopelea
and permanent, and probably an increasing reproach to the
civilisation of this country. Doubtless the state of things is
somewhat better than it was before 1832; but, considering the