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M _POOR, DAW SR EpoRT OF MR.
* : CHOL. ;
* Ste Nichol, “scoumpaniet by Dr. Kay, lately visited the fol-
lowing towns in Holland and Belgium :—Rotte:lam, and thence
throug! gh. the Hague, Haarleam, “Amsterdam, : : Utrecht, Breda,
“Antwerp,, Brussels, Malines, Ghent, Bruges, and Ostend.—
He has drawn up a Report, aldressed, as were his two previous
Reports, to Lord John Russell, as sisbmitted the result of
* vhs observations upon the three subjects of education, the relief
the poor, and small farms, .in Holland “and Belgium.’ We
five his rematks upon the relief of the poor. .
> The institutions for the xelief‘of indigente are numerois in
, Holland, and cansists of hospices for the aged and infirm, orphan
* sy houses, workhouses ‘of’ towns, de epots, ‘de mendicite or district
% “workhouses, the poor colonies, aud private charitable institutions.
The funds for the support of these establishments are, to a
+=extent, derived from endowments and voluntary contributions,
» the direct tax not being more than about 1, 800, 009, guilders, or,
£150,000 per annum ; ~ Man of these i institutions, ¢ sutheir struc-
o 4 ture ‘and appearance, rather resembles pal m_ poorhouses,
why and’ they form one of t minent “characteristics of the
a = great t In Am: sterdam, especially, the most superficial
. observer cannot fail to ye struck with the magnitude and num-
* ber of these buildings.
“Among the classes having: ability to ‘aboar, a state of. even,
temporary dependence is ¢ considered disgraceful, and great ex-
ertions are said to be m: the labouring population to avoid
‘The condition of the Soe bonid labourer subsisting on the
. fruits of his own industry, is superior to that of the pauper, both
. > on account, of the aegraiation attached to a state of dependence,
and bee: @ amount of ief* given | either by the ‘r li gious
munities, ' orb: small,
“barely suflicrent for su But eof degratation. ae
taches to the orphan evublishmenits, ‘whielf 208 calculated to
2, otvite, rather than discourage ‘dependence, Out® visits to these
rd « institutions, and to the hospices, enabled us to ascertain that the
arrangements for the comfort of the’ i 8, are, in every re-
© Sepect, | superior {0 those enjoyed by other i inva ot the same
~ “class, that i lent these institutions presented
“ * to the dependence of the entire, class, short of the exhaustion of
“the funds with which ey lowed. |
e depots de: mendicite, or. provi
é Tc “authori st is so
Ta
incial workhouses, bore’ so
-» elose a resemblance to, the old English -workhouoes, that those
. established under Gilbert's Act, and to the incorporated houses
of industry, formed under. local Acts in the southern ant
countries, as to induce a‘ belief, "that. the English wo.
v's), “.” must have beer forme upon a Dutch ‘model4, but, however this
may be, the result has certainly been the same in both countries,
the evil of auperism having been increased, rather than dimi-
nished by theses institu tutions, in which the profitable’ application
o ae pauper | labour has beont sought for, rather 4 than the re} pression
= <p) of pauperis:
~~ The workhouse of Amsterdam i is a vast building, capable of
~ containing 1,500 inmates. The imposing character of its exterior,
* the elegance of its entrance hall, and the decorations of the rooms
i in marked contrast with
? i Ls revailed in the several wards.
‘The inmates chiefly consisted of the lowest and least moral part
* of the population of the great cities, who had sought refuge in the
‘f+, >; Workhouse, because they had forfeited their claim to regular em-
ployment; and the vigilanée of the police did ‘not permit them
to subsist by mendicacy. The sexes were strictly separated at
‘all times; but the children were in the same apariment with the
“adults of each sex. ‘The males and females each occupied sepa-
“ raté day-rooms, in'which. the dirt and disorder were very offen-
on sive. » In these rooms, the inmates eat their meals, without any
Re attentian to regularity or propriety. Here, also, they worked in
the looms,.or at other occupations. The first group of men to
, Whom we advanced, were seated at a table, le, playing at cards;
+ "we found another party: playing at iraughts, andathird at hazard.
ers‘were sauntering up ard ie room, with their
*honds i in their pockets. ‘he, women’s "day-roomn was a scen
* of similar disorde ler, Both men and boys were clothed in a
coarse kind of sacking. The chief article of their dict i el rye-
bread, almost Black, and not over-abundant in the quantity’al-
indefinite quantity of boiled buttermilk; but
they aré permitied to work at certain rates of wages, and to
oo spend a certain portion” of their earnings at a canteen in the
, house, where coffee, tobacco, gin, &c. me be obtained. “On
&
7 O
&
*
'
usly ons and are not permitted to go
they give positive hopes that, on re-entering
Society, they will render themselves worthy of their liberty, b:
alge ily en deavouring to gain. their own livelihood by honest
“The establishment at La Cambre, near Brussels,
~ rior in its internal arran;
was supe-
; pane : ments, to the workhouse at Amster-
on my, icularly in the Separate classification of the aged, of
: tee children, and of adults, and ‘also i ja the good arrangement
eat | of Antwerp;
| made efficient, there would have
Truth fs powerful and will prevail. -
W-YORK, SA TURD: AY, JUNE 20, 1838. Se
and cleanliness of the sleeping rooms. |The sexes onl ictly
separated, as is, invariably, the case in all the other Dutc and
Belgian institutions. ~The Inspector- General, M. Ducpetiaux,
who accompanied us in our visit to La,Crambre, informed us,
that, by the penal code, a mendicant, once condemned to a de-
pot de mendicite fr peeing: may be’ kept there during the re-
mainder of his actice, he, is alloyed to leave the
establishment, Whenewce the commission of. ‘superintendence
are satisfied that he- is disposed to labour for his snbsistencey
without resorting to mendicancy.” a,
There are three workhouses for the ‘whole of Holland, which
are situated,.one at ‘Amsterdam, one at Middleburgh, and athird
in the commonalty Nieuvre A, in the province of Gronin-
gen. Belgium has five great “workhouses situated respectivel
at La Crambre, near Brussels, for the province of Brabant; at
Bruges, for the two Flanders; at Hoogstraeten, @r the province
at Mons, for Hainault, Nain, and, Luxembourg ;
and at Reickheim, for Liege, and Litnburgh. Under their p: re
sent regulations, these prov: wincial workhouses, or depots de Then
dicite, oth in Holland and Belgium, are, i think (judging from
what we could Jean and what we saw, lefective institu-
tions ; and hence seems to have arisen m the necessity for resort-
ing to stricter measures, although not, perhaps, to the extent of
that extreme strictness and rigour which are established in the
colonies. In England, the defects of the old workhouses were
remedied by the {introduction of regulations calculated to render
them efficient vests, by the aid of “which we have succeeded in
establishing the distinction between poverty and destitution; for
the latter we have provided relief; but we have left the former
to the natural development of its own resources, and of Holland
and Belgium, no distinction has been made, no such test eslab-
lished. “Their workhouses remain asthey were originally form-
ed—nurseriec for indolence, and stimulants to pauperism. Dut,
in order to correct this evil, the Dutch have had recourse to the
establishment of poor colonies, to which all persons found beg-
ging {or committing vagabondage, as‘it is termed) are sent, nif
able to work, an compelled to labour for their subsistence, un-
der strict discipline and low diet; this is the'real use of poor co-
lonies both in Holland and Belgiuni.. : Had the workhouses een
been no occasion for the
establishments s ; but, the workhouses not being efficient, recourse
has been iad to the penal colonies, where the test of strict dis-
cipline, hard Jabour, and scanty diet, is applied with such seve-
rity as to be in the greatest dread by the. yagrant classes.
All beggars are ‘apprehended by the police; if able to work, they
are sent to the penal colonie aged or infirm, or unable to
| perform out-door. work, they. are sent t workhouses; and,
although the discipline of the workhouses is defective, and the
management in many respects faulty in principle, yet, with the
aid of the severe ¢ discipline of the colonies, they secure the re-
pression of mendicancy.
We were unable, owing to the limited time at our command, to
visit the poor colonies of Holland, which are situated in the re-
mote province ssel 5 and the extreme severity of the
weather, and the badness of the roads (which were described as
being almost impassable,) prevented our going to Hoogstracten,
although we passed at no great distance from it: but the inqui-
ries which we made, enabled me to appreciate the character of
these institutions, and confirmed the i impressions received, from
a perusal of the papers of M. Le Comte rivabene, of the
Baron de Hochepied Larpent, ‘and’ of Ducpetiaux, With re:
spect to the free colonies, We. were assured, that the expectation
of profit, which led to their creation, had notoriously failed—it
could hard ly be otherwise—for, to employ the least skilful and
industrious labourers, on the most sterile soil, first, in the eondi-
tion of sorl, secondly, of co-operation: 2 and, lastly, of independ-
at labourers, with the hope of pro! enterprize so in-
consistent with first principles, that i Me success was, obviously,
impossible.
n the coercive or penal colonies, to which the able-bodied
end are sent, the case is somewhat different ; these, as
before sa “have become efficient for oe representation of
‘y: In of thes
ward is used in corn on as.a dormitory, refectory, ani
; opt the inmates sleep in hammoc cks, and are vei
cla
bricks, or at manofactures in the house, under the _superintent-
ance of an iuspector. ount Arrivabene: say: An account
is kept between the colonists and the Society, jin the military
style. Each colonist is furnished with a book, in which are en-
tered, the work executed daily, the, amount of fvod and clothes
with which he has been furnished, and his share of the general
expenses of the establishment, and whatever he has reocived i in
the Paper qnoney of the colony.”
“ Guar yn hors ceback patrol the boundary of the colony ;
rowan g civen 10 those who bring back any colonist who has at-
tempted to escape, and a anit dress, are the means resorted
to, to prevent desertion from the colony.”
‘When mendicants are arrested by the gendarmerie,’ they
are permitted to choose, whether they will te brought before the
and wi onke
coarsely
o
Be
They labour with the ¢ ‘spade in the fields, or in making | soe
lony, where they must remain, at least, oné yen The Go-
yernmient, however, either spontaneously, or, iu’ consequence cf ¢
a request from the Society (of bienfaisance, ) ordinarily pe. rmits
those mendicants who seem disposed to avoid a.recurr .
to anendlicancy to leave the colony, before, the expiration of this
per : -
‘These rigorous measures for the suppression of mendicancy . a
have: been adopted, in the absence of. any acknowledgment ofa, * - i
right torelief, and notwithstanding that a large portion of the re= 8) "+ 5 oA
ief actually administered arises from endowments and volunta- °°
yy contributions. This forms an important feature in the Datch
and Belgian systems; and, if, as I believe, the rigour of this
part of their institutions has been caused by the e hecessity, aris- «|
ing out of the imperfect organization of the other institutions, the *~
true remedy would seem to have beén, not in the establishment
of penal colonies, but in such.an_ improvement of the organjza- +
tion of those institutions as would have removed their defects, ° ,
anq rendered them efficient for the repression of mendicancy, as
well as for the administration of r :
Ifthe pees of relief here Vrielly. dleseribed as existing in Hol.
land and Belgium be compared with the system of relief which
it is proposed eo fe in Ireland, by the nnobe now. before
to
Parhament, the Ithink, be foun, e much more
simple and’ ey nd consequently, more efficient. * No
right to relief ¢ exists in Holland or Belgium, yet, mendicancy is
eflectually suppressed in both these countries.” It is proposed
not tq give a right to relief in Ireland; and it is intenued to sup- +
press mendicanc: ; in this respect, therefore, the provisions. are
similar ; 3 but, i in Ireland, itis proposed to divide the whole coun-
try into numerous districts, of convenient extent, with «a work- . .
house to. each, so that every destitute and infirm person will , ‘
there be within easy reach of adequate relief; and this arrange- ve
ment is obviously preferable to the various, and, in some re foe .
spects, conflicting modes of relief which exist in Holland and!) .) ss °
ore effective in. * “4
delgium, and, it may be Dresamed, will be m
operating. ‘The example of Holland and Belgium may, there-
fore, be cited, in’ Addition to that of England, in support of the. . *
principle of the Irish Poor Law,measure proposed by Govern- , ww tS
ment. . . fay ‘ -
,
ee cog 2 tk
THE MINES OF IRELAND. y ! oo
Dublin Beoning Post) subjoin a return of the sal les ay é a : vt
‘Wednesday. si . }
en; and. are rejoiced to find, thatthis “4
is extending, under ¢ cireumstan-
We ii
Swansea, on
new source of national eae
ui f the .. ra
copper “mines of Ireland now rival the best mines of Cormwwall, ba :
both i in regard to the quantity raised and the'riclmess of the’ * >.<" 4.
"Sales of Copper ore, the Produce, of Tish Mines, at Swanseay, ay
Tay 2d. x .
Mines. Parcels. », Price per ton. Produce. °°.
Knockmahon,;; 726 tons. .* £8 10 0 £6166 15 0% * :
Alihies, “414 y 9 85 * 3899 10 6 .
Ballymurtha, 322 's. 0 2 8 0, TTL ISO eg
‘Tygrony and yep 45 '7 a63."3 0+ oo Ps
Cronbane, « “ a on - e wo BS
Ballygagan, so 3.91, 307 12 6. s
Connoree, 29 on 4.17 6° 1417 Gee aa .
1761 tons. * e131 76
Trish Ores for sale, 16th’ May, —Knockmahon, 4 9; Bally
murtha, 343; Cronebane, 141; Ballygahan, 55 tons Tot:
we
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CIVIL AND. RELIGIOUS.
' GOVERNMENTS.
The following i is an extract from a lecture, delivered, late: :
ly in London, by the Teevorend Mr. Ilinton, in reply toDr. * . 7! {
Chalmers: Government is a state of restriction upon our ,* . .
natural rights, every individual giving up.a part, for the sake of”
securing the rest. ‘It is only a portion of our evil rights that we
thus surrender, None of us mean ,to surrender any portion of:
our moral or religious ‘rights i into the hands of any-person, what-
ver, None of u: Fmean to do that, and, if we did, we could nor; os “
because God woy“7 not permitit; nor could it be carried out,» 9, >
even if we werf,o0 By, because, the state has not anything to 4 +3
give us for such ‘a sacrifice. e government, in this respect,”
receiving no trust, is under no oblizston. to exercise care:
whole care is to be confined to the civil welfare of the kingdom.
We draw this broad line between civil'and religi
Weeay, that itis limited to this civil, because religious matters ,
e practical lly beyond the reach of human Governments. Re- 5
ligionis, essentially, a matter of opinion, ai and, as such, cannot be .
reached by the machinery of human information. _ They don a
attempt to’ reach any other matter of opinion, _W out id the
enact, that all men should be Buconiaris and Aristoflians? . It :
would be quite preposterous ‘to attempt to pass any law that the “7
subjects of the erate f-one particular religious pers -
at
ts-
» +
ers.—,
tibunals; as vagabonds, or be tranepone te the Coercive Co-
suasion. The actual effect of all such enactments would be Hes ly