NOTE.
The text of this short paper is taken from Deane Swift's
edition,
which was followed by Sir Walter Scott.
[T. S.]
CONSIDERATIONS ABOUT MAINTAINING THE POOR.
We have been amused, for at least thirty years past, with numberless
schemes, in writing and discourse, both in and out of Parliament, for
maintaining the poor, and setting them to work, especially in this
city: most of which were idle, indigested, or visionary; and all of
them ineffectual, as it has plainly appeared by the consequences. Many
of those projectors were so stupid, that they drew a parallel from
Holland to England, to be settled in Ireland; that is to say, from two
countries with full freedom and encouragement for trade, to a third
where all kind of trade is cramped, and the most beneficial parts are
entirely taken away. But the perpetual infelicity of false and foolish
reasoning, as well as proceeding and acting upon it, seems to be fatal
to this country.
For my own part, who have much conversed with those folks who call
themselves merchants, I do not remember to have met with a more
ignorant and wrong-thinking race of people in the very first rudiments
of trade; which, however, was not so much owing to their want of
capacity, as to the crazy constitution of this kingdom, where pedlars
are better qualified to thrive than the wisest merchants. I could fill
a volume with only setting down a list of the public absurdities, by
which this kingdom has suffered within the compass of my own memory,
such as could not be believed of any nation, among whom folly was not
established as a law. I cannot forbear instancing a few of these,
because it may be of some use to those who shall have it in their power
to be more cautious for the future.
The first was, the building of the barracks; whereof I have seen
above one-half, and have heard enough of the rest, to affirm that the
public has been cheated of at least two-thirds of the money raised for
that use, by the plain fraud of the undertakers.
Another was the management of the money raised for the Palatines;
when, instead of employing that great sum in purchasing lands in some
remote and cheap part of the kingdom, and there planting those people
as a colony, the whole end was utterly defeated.
A third is, the insurance office against fire, by which several
thousand pounds are yearly remitted to England, (a trifle, it seems, we
can easily spare,) and will gradually increase until it comes to a good
national tax: for the society-marks upon our houses (under which might
properly be written, “The Lord have mercy upon us!”) spread faster and
farther than the colony of frogs.[192] I have, for above twenty years
past, given warning several thousand times to many substantial people,
and to such who are acquainted with lords and squires, and the like
great folks, to any of whom I have not the honour to be known: I
mentioned my daily fears, lest our watchful friends in England might
take this business out of our hands; and how easy it would be to
prevent that evil, by erecting a society of persons who had good
estates, such, for instance, as that noble knot of bankers, under the
style of “Swift and Company.” But now we are become tributary to
England, not only for materials to light our own fires, but for engines
to put them out; to which, if hearth-money be added, (repealed in
England as a grievance,) we have the honour to pay three taxes for
fire.
A fourth was the knavery of those merchants, or linen-manufacturers,
or both, when, upon occasion of the plague at Marseilles, we had a fair
opportunity of getting into our hands the whole linen-trade of Spain;
but the commodity was so bad, and held at so high a rate, that almost
the whole cargo was returned, and the small remainder sold below the
prime cost.
So many other particulars of the same nature crowd into my thoughts,
that I am forced to stop; and the rather because they are not very
proper for my subject, to which I shall now return.
Among all the schemes for maintaining the poor of the city, and
setting them to work, the least weight has been laid upon that single
point which is of the greatest importance; I mean, that of keeping
foreign beggars from swarming hither out of every part of the country;
for, until this be brought to pass effectually, all our wise reasonings
and proceedings upon them will be vain and ridiculous.
The prodigious number of beggars throughout this kingdom, in
proportion to so small a number of people, is owing to many reasons: to
the laziness of the natives; the want of work to employ them; the
enormous rents paid by cottagers for their miserable cabins and
potatoe-plots; their early marriages, without the least prospect of
establishment; the ruin of agriculture, whereby such vast numbers are
hindered from providing their own bread, and have no money to purchase
it; the mortal damp upon all kinds of trade, and many other
circumstances, too tedious or invidious to mention.
And to the same causes we owe the perpetual concourse of foreign
beggars to this town, the country landlords giving all assistance,
except money and victuals, to drive from their estates those miserable
creatures they have undone.
It was a general complaint against the poor-house, under its former
governors, “That the number of poor in this city did not lessen by
taking three hundred into the house, and all of them recommended under
the minister's and churchwardens' hands of the several parishes”: and
this complaint must still continue, although the poor-house should be
enlarged to contain three thousand, or even double that number.
The revenues of the poor-house, as it is now established, amount to
about two thousand pounds a-year; whereof two hundred allowed for
officers, and one hundred for repairs, the remaining seventeen hundred,
at four pounds a-head, will support four hundred and twenty-five
persons. This is a favourable allowance, considering that I subtract
nothing for the diet of those officers, and for wear and tear of
furniture; and if every one of these collegiates should be set to work,
it is agreed they will not be able to gain by their labour above
one-fourth part of their maintenance.
At the same time, the oratorial part of these gentlemen seldom
vouchsafe to mention fewer than fifteen hundred or two thousand people,
to be maintained in this hospital, without troubling their heads about
the fund. * * * *