discharged out of custody. None of the prisoners are allowed to see their friends except by an order from the committee, and this privilege is granted to those only whose conduct is approved by the governor, chaplain, or master manufacturer. The interview must take place before an officer, and no provisions of any description are allowed to be brought.

This prison is governed by a committee named by the privy council, and no person can be admitted to see it without an order from the Home Secretary of State, or unless he is accompanied by one of the committee.

Pauperism and Mendicity.

As the condition of the poor and the indigent, not only constitutes an important feature in the state of society, but also in the character of the government under which we live; some statements regarding the actual extent and progress of PAUPERISM and MENDICITY are necessary to complete this chapter.

POVERTY has been well defined to be that condition in society where the individual has no surplus labour in store, and consequently no property but what is derived from the constant exercise of industry in the various occupations of life; that is, the state of every one who must labour for subsistence. INDIGENCE, on the other hand, is that condition which implies want, misery, and distress. Indigence, therefore, and not poverty, is the evil against which good government must guard. Where indigence exists, the burden of what are called paupers must follow; or, which possibly is much worse, mendicity will ensue. Pauperism and mendicity have of late years become such evils as to call for the interference of parliamentary investigation, in the hope of being able to check the calamities by improved legislation.

On the subject of PAUPERISM, facts have been developed that excite attention and demand further inquiry. The number of persons relieved permanently in London, on an average of the three years, 1817-18-19, was 36,034; occasionally, being parishioners, 81,282; total relieved 1-17,316; so that the number of persons relieved

from the poor's rates appears to have been 113 nearly in each 100 of the resident population-while the number relieved in 1803 was nearly 7 in each 100; and that while the population has increased about one-sixth, the number of parishioners relieved has advanced from 7 to 113 in each 100. The total of the money raised by the poorrates was 679,284l., being at the rate of 13s. 54d. per head on the population, or 2s. 5d. in the pound, of the total amount of the sum of 5,603,057. as assessed to the property-tax in 1815. The amount raised by the same rates in 1813 was 471,9381., being at the rate of 10s. 114d. per head. This, therefore, exhibits an increase of nearly one-half in the amount of money raised to relieve paupers, and 2s. 6d. on the rate per head on the population.-This increase of pauperism has been marked by a decrease of FRIENDLY SOCIETIES, institutions peculiar to England. The number of persons belonging to such societies appeared to be, for the three years, 1817-18-19, nearly 5 in the 100 of the resident population; a decrease, when compared with the abstract of 1803, of nearly 3 in each 100.

To cure or alleviate the evil of MENDICITY and VAGRANCY, the House of Commons promoted inquiries by a committee; and the report developed such a body of evidence, as to ascertain beyond all possibility of doubt, the gross and monstrous frauds practised by mendicants in the capital, and in its immediate neighbourhood.

The following facts were ascertained. That considerable sums of money have been found in the pockets, and secreted in the clothes of beggars, when brought before magistrates; that beggars make great profits by changing their clothes two or three times a day, and receiving money which was intended for others; and that a blind man with a dog has collected thirty shillings aday; and others from three shillings to seven, eight, and even more per day. There are two houses in St. Giles's, which are frequented by considerably more than two hundred beggars. There they have their clubs; and when they meet they drink and feed well, read the papers and talk politics! Nobody dares to intrude into

their clubs except he is a beggar, or introduced by one; the singularity of the spectacle would otherwise draw numbers around them, which would hurt the trade. Their average daily collections amount to from three to five shillings per day, two shillings and sixpence.of which, it is supposed, they each spend at night, besides sixpence for a bed. A negro beggar retired some time ago to the West Indies, with a fortune of 1,500l.! Beggars have said they go through forty streets in a day, and that it is a poor street that does not yield two-pence; and that it is a bad day that does not yield eight shillings, and more.-Beggars make great use of children in practising upon the feelings of the humane. Children are sent out with an order not to return without a certain sum. One man will collect three, four, or five children from different parents, paying sixpence or ninepence for each during the day. Some children have been regularly let out by the day, for two shillings and sixpence, as the price of their hire; a child that is shockingly deformed is worth four shillings a-day, and even more. Before the Commons' committee an instance was stated of an old woman, who keeps a nightschool for the purpose of "instructing children in the street language."

Mr. Martin, a gentleman residing in Westminster, stated, as the result of his inquiries some years ago, the number of beggars about the metropolis to be 15,000. But the committee, from the evidence laid before them, conceived the number to be much larger.

Beggars evade the vagrant act by carrying matches, and articles of little intrinsic value, for sale. There is no form of distress which they do not assume, in order to practise upon the humanity of strangers.

In Mr. Martin's calculation, formed thirteen years ago, there were, out of 15,000 beggars, 5,300 Irish; but Mr. Martin's estimate of the whole number is much under the facts of the present moment. Much pains were taken in 1815, by a remarkably humane gentleman, to ascertain the number of mendicants in London only; and the result was, that there were 6876 adults, and 7288 children, making the total of 14,164.

Mr. Martin's estimates of their numbers, and of the

sums annually extorted from the public by their importunities, follow :

The amount of sums gained by them was not estimated at a greater rate than what may be deemed absolutely necessary for the maintenance of such a body of people, although in beggary; and the succeeding low sums were accordingly fixed upon .

For 6000 grown persons, at 6d. a-day each, lodging and clothes inclusive For 9288 children, at 3d. per day, clothes inclusive

Gross annual expense

As the best security not only against pauperism and mendicity, but also against the extension of crime, will be found to be in exciting and promoting religious and moral habits among the humble, and therefore the frequently-neglected classes of the community; and, as many have been improvident, and have descended into indigence and criminality from deficient education and idle courses; in the chapter respecting education, public charities, &c., we shall treat of what efforts have been made to supply securities against the continuance of evils as enormous as they are alarming.

Workhouses.

FROM what has just been detailed, it will be seen how amazing is the extent of pauperism and mendicity. That there should be such numerous proofs of the be

nevolent care extended towards the helpless poor is a proud boast for the nation; but, at the same time, it is to be lamented, that out of this good should result evil, owing to the inefficacious application of the system. In a working country like England, so distinguished for the industrious, plodding habits of its natives, it never could have been intended that the necessitous poor-necessi tous from want of work, loss of parents and friends, or ruinous accidents-should be supported in idleness, because they threw themselves on the parish." It cannot be that because individuals are compelled to appeal to parish allowances, therefore they must be supported without working: but hence, however, may be traced much of the burden on parishes, and no work being provided in these houses, their very name becomes a misnomer. They have been any thing but houses of real industry and useful reform ;-of late, however, the necessities of the times have promoted a more rational system. Instead of allowing these places to be the scenes of idleness and misery, many of them have been properly converted into places of activity and industry. The workhouse of St. Martin-in-the-Fields merits particular praise; able men and boys are employed as tailors, shoemakers, flax-dressers, weavers, mat-makers, &c.; and the women and girls in needle-work, knitting, spinning, &c. About 800 are so employed. The parish is indebted to Mr. James Cadwallader Parker and Mr. Francis William Barron, late churchwardens, for these improve

ments.

CHAPTER V.

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE COMMERCE AND TRADE of LONDON; ITS PORT,-MANUFACTURES,-COMPANIES, POST-OFFICE,-MARKETS, &c.

THIS chapter introduces us to a copious and an interesting subject; one that cannot but arouse the gratitude of Englishmen, and the astonishment of foreigners. By