LETTER XI.

ON A LEGAL PROVISION FOR THE IRISH POOR.

DEAR SIR,

WHEN Cicero had returned from an honourable exile, and was allowed to plead his own cause before the nation to which he belonged, he adduces as a justification of what some persons blamed in his conduct, those feelings of human nature of which no good man, however wise and virtuous, can or should divest himself. "An ego poteram," he says, "cum a tot rerum tanta varietate divellerer inficiari me esse hominem, et communem naturæ sensum repudiare? I feel whilst writing these Letters that I, without comparing myself with the great man now mentioned, owe to you and to the public a justification of my own

conduct in discussing at such length questions foreign to my profession, and in which it might appear unseemly that I should be engaged; but besides that, in the several Letters which I have written, but especially in this, I am labouring as the advocate of the poor, of the unprotected, and of the distressed; I can ask with Cicero, how could I fail to be interested in the general agitation of religious and political, civil and ecclesiastical interests; or how could I be insensible to the general impulse of our nature? St. Paul himself exclaims, "Quis infirmatur et ego non infirmor, quis scandilizatur et ego non uror.” In every nation a clergyman is separated from society only that he may labour the more efficiently for his fellow-men, and his duty of administering to their temporal wants is not less pressing than that of devoting himself to their spiritual concerns. The one ought to be done by him, and the other ought not to be neglected. There are times and circumstances when he is justified-nay, when he is obliged to mix with his fellow-countrymen, and to suspend his clerical functions whilst he discharges those of a member of society. I myself have once been placed in such

circumstances, and devoted many a laborious hour to the service of a people engaged in the defence of their rights and liberties! The clerical profession exalts and strengthens the natural obligation we are all under of labouring for our country's welfare; and the priests and prophets of the old law have not only announced and administered the decrees of heaven, but have aided by their counsel and their conduct the society to which providence attached them. In the Christian dispensa. tion priests and bishops have greatly contributed to the civilization and improvement of mankind: they have restrained ambition, they have checked turbulence, they have enlightened the councils of kings, and infused their own wisdom into laws and public institutions. Arts and sciences are their debtors; history and jurisprudence have been cultivated by them. They have been the teachers of mankind, and have alone been able to check the insolence of power, or plead before it the cause of the oppressed.

The kingdom of which we are ministers is not of this world; and should we at any time neglect

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our duty to our great Master who is in heaven, or abuse the ministry with which we have been intrusted, to the prejudice of men, we declare ourselves prevaricators, and of the worst description; but in labouring for the public welfare in our capacity of citizens or subjects, in pleading the cause of the widow and the orphan, in seeking to obtain justice for the aggrieved, or relief for the distressed, we are only imitating the conduct of HIM who went about doing good, and of those glorious men who have preceded us in exerting all their energies, and employing all the resources of their mind and talents, in seeking to increase the scanty stock of human happiness, or to diminish the burthen of our common misery. You will, therefore, allow me to plead the apology of Cicero, whilst I trouble you with some reflections on the expediency of making a legal provision for the Irish poor.

The bare mention of poor's rates has excited a general sensation in Ireland. They are considered at first view as a heavy tax on all proprietors; hence that class of persons are alarmed. They

would be considered as bringing relief to the distressed Irish, who are chiefly Catholics, and on that account are distasteful to the Orangemen. They are thought by many to operate unfavourably to industry, and to encourage indolence: this consideration weighs with the more judicious part of the community. It is generally supposed that they would contribute to accelerate, rather than to check, the increase of the population: on this ground all the disciples of Malthus are opposed to them. I am of opinion that the objections to their introduction in this country entertained by each of the above classes, with the exception of the second, who are not to be reasoned with, are not well founded, and that effects the reverse of those which are apprehended would follow from the establishment of a well-digested system of poor's rates in Ireland. But before I proceed to discuss the objections thus started, I will sketch some general views of the nature and justice of a State providing in some definite way for those individuals of the community who are unable to provide for themselves.