maxims of books or the admonitions of preachers, can counterbalance the weight of such an example, rendered brilliant by riches and grandeur, and still farther recommended by the patronage of a king, and the authority of office? Vice and misery are communicated from him, first to his neighbourhood, and then to the public at large, like infectious and fatal diseases from the foul contagion of a putrid carcass.

But if a king, a court, a ministry, a parliament, were to honour and reward those only, or chiefly, whose characters were unimpeached, and to brand with infamy, or at least to neglect, the abandoned libertine and the audacious blasphemer, however celebrated for eloquence and abilities, then would the empire be fixed on a basis of adamant; then would faction and rebellion be no more; and the rulers of this world would deserve to be honoured with a title to which they have usually but little claim, that of the Representatives of the Beneficent and Almighty Lord of all Creation.

No. CXLVII.

On the Profligacy and consequent Misery of the Lower Classes, and on the Means of Prevention.

A CONTEMPLATIVE and benevolent man can scarcely look down for a moment on the lower walks of life without feeling his compassion powerfully excited. On whatever side he turns, he beholds human nature sadly degraded, and sinking into the most deplorable wretchedness, in proportion as it recedes from its natural and its attainable perfection. Ye philosophers, who exert your ingenuity to ex

plode, as unnecessary, the little virtue and religion that remain among us, leave your closets a while, and survey mankind as they are found in the purlieus of a great metropolis, in the haunts of old Drury, of St. Giles's, of Duke's Place, of Hockley in the Hole, of the brothel, of the prison-house, and then say whether your hearts do not smite you on the recollection, that you have exercised those talents which God Almighty gave you for benignant purposes, in breaking down the fences of morality! Let him who coolly controverts the distinction between moral good and evil, and who, instigated by vice and vanity, boldly fights against the religion of Jesus, and the comfortable doctrines of grace and redemption, repair to the cells of the convict, to the condemned hole, and spend the midnight hour with the murderer who is doomed to fall a victim on the morrow to the justice of his country. Ah! little think the conceited sophists who sit calmly at their desks, and teach men to laugh at all that is serious and sacred, to what an abyss of misery the actual practice of their speculative opinions will reduce the poor lost child of fallen Adam! If they thought on this, and possessed hearts capable of feeling, they would shudder at the tendency of their writings, and henceforth employ their abilities in restoring human nature to happiness and dignity.

The evils arising from the poverty of the lower ranks are trifling, when compared with those occasioned by their depravity. There is, indeed, no real and substantial happiness of which poverty, when accompanied with health and innocence, is not capable; but wallowing in vice, involved in the perplexities of fraud, haunted by the fears of detection, and distressed and tormented with the diseases of intemperance, it becomes such a state of wretch

And can the rulers

the regions of infernal torture. of this world possess a plenitude of power without attempting to exert it in its fullest force in the prevention, or at least the mitigation, of extreme misery among the lowest, the most numerous, and perhaps the most useful members of the community? I have no esteem for that species of politics which pretends to pursue a national good independently of the hap- ' piness of individuals; and I cannot help thinking, a system of government which derives any part of its wealth from the wretchedness of the greater part of its subjects, not only defective but diabolical. To encourage intoxication for the sake of increasing a revenue, though it may be natural in a confederacy of sharpers, is an idea so mean, so base, so cruel, that the statesman who entertains it, however loaded with civil honours, and renowned for his wisdom, deserves to be stigmatized with immortal infamy. That the vices and miseries of the lower classes chiefly arise from the multiplication of houses of public entertainment is a truth which none have ever controverted. And perhaps no effectual and permanent remedy can be applied, without the interposition of the legislature, in lessening the number of public houses, and in exacting a strict scrutiny into the characters of those to whom licences are allowed.

But, in the present constitution of affairs, it is greatly to be feared, that the desire of raising' a large revenue will usually supersede all moral considerations. What, indeed, is the moralist to the financier? The greatness of empire, like that of private life, is for the most part estimated by riches, exclusively of private virtue and of intellectual excellence. If then we vainly appeal to the legislature, we must seek, in other resources, for the alleviation of a disease which perhaps the legislature alone can radically cure.

the plebeian order arises from extreme ignorance. All men pursue with ardour the possession of some good, real or imaginary. What is it which must constitute this good, and appear superior to all other objects, in the mind of a wretch born in a cellar or a garret of Kent-street, or Broad St. Giles's, almost starved with cold and hunger during his infancy, beaten, reviled, abused, neglected, while a boy, and conducted to manhood amidst the most shocking examples of cruelty and fraud, of drunkenness and debauchery? Is it probable that, for the most part, he should have an idea of any other good but the possession of money, and the indulgence of the grossest sensuality? Can he have any principles or habits of virtue to restrain him from secret fraud and open violence? His understanding is no less rude and uncultivated than that of the savage, and becomes at last incapable of admitting any instruction but in the low tricks of a thief, and the artifices of a prostitute. The world exists not to him, but as it appears amidst the vilest, the most degenerate, and the most ignorant of the human race. He pursues a summum bonum, or a chief good, which appears to him to consist in seizing the property of the incautious, and in using his gains as the instrument of indulgence in brutal excess. Poor unfortunate brother! for a brother we must acknowledge thee, deformed as thou art with rags, and loathsome to the eye of delicacy. Hapless boy! if thou hadst known purer pleasures and better objects, thou wouldst probably have sought them with the same eagerness which has brought thee to the gibbet. The dignified statesman, the venerable bishop, the authoritative judge who tries and who condemns thee to die, might probably have done as thou hast, and suffered as thou sufferest, had he been born as thou wast born, the child of misery, the outcast of

unknown, and unknowing of the means and motives of an honest industry. Thou fallest a victim to the laws indeed, and perhaps a just victim; but I will pity thee, my heart shall bleed for thee, and ventures to predict that the sweet mercy of Heaven will mitigate the severity of human justice.

He who can enjoy the pleasures of affluence without considering the misery of the lower classes, and endeavouring, according to his influence and abilities, to alleviate the burden, probably possesses a disposition which no riches can render happy. Charity is characteristic of this country, and is, indeed, the natural effect of British generosity. Our clergy are constantly recommending it in the metropolis; and the many palaces of the poor which lift up their roofs around it, are eminent and honourable testimonies, that their preaching is not in vain when they recommend munificence. There are, however, few charitable establishments that so immediately tend to snatch the lowest classes from wretchedness and ruin as that of the Marine Society; and if my praise could contribute to effect it, the fame of its institutors should be immortal. But their own benevolent hearts, and that God, in whose gracious purposes they cooperate, are able to bestow on them a reward infinitely superior to all human glory.

They who inform the understandings of the poor, in such a manner and degree as to amend their morals, contribute more to their happiness than the most munificent among their pecuniary benefactors. In a great and commercial nation honest industry will seldom be destitute of employment and reward. And here I cannot help remarking the singular utility and importance of the clergy. The church-doors are open to all; and valuable instruction in every duty of human life is afforded gratuitously. Our Saviour, who knew and felt for the wretchedness of