unless the cause of such a deplorable
condition be given, and it be explained how the evil is to be
removed. Our system of "relief to the poor" must be
altered. Investigate in every parish, and you will find that the
greater portion of those that get help have had it for generations;
they regard the "Poor Law" and charitable help of the
district as a kind of "entailed inheritance." When living
amongst the poor of Bethnal Green, I knew a lot that lived upon
what they got from this or that local charity, the existence of
which was only known to the initiated. We have our hereditary
paupers as well as our hereditary peers. At Wrexham there is a
specimen Family, who for three generations have claimed its hospitality.
When the ratepayers of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields were asked to
contribute to the emigration of the paupers, the principal reason
assigned was to get rid of a lot that had been recipients of relief
for generations. We sent a lot oil, but they came hack. At Wrexham,
one of the boys was got away, but he returned, and is again the
"guest" of the ratepayers.
The fare may he meagre, but it is certain, and satisfies that
large class who have no confidence in their own capacity for earning
a living, no ambition to get on in life, and who like to be relieved
of all responsibility beyond a certain prescribed routine. In
India there are no poor-houses, no poor rates, and the indigent
and helpless are a heavy burden on their kindred, who put Europeans
to shame in the care and devotion they show to their poor relations,
cheerfully supporting the aged and decrepit connexions to the
third and fourth generation. But it
