53 Remarkable Perfons deceased, of whom Biographical Memoirs are given in Bates 8 Cross 84 Hotham, Sir Richard Roberjot 407 251 Renton, Capt. 86 Bonnier 407 Deane 246 Howard, John 335 Rous, Capt. 164 Bristowe 505 Donegal, Marquis 75 Howard 417. Scandella, Dr. 174 Bruce 249 Ellerton 79 Jewibury 416 Seddon, Miss 244 244 Kilham 83 Shadwell, Col. 503 Callet 258 Fisher, Dr. 245 Lambert, Sir John 496 Carhampton, Counters Fletcher, Mrs. 50r Leeds, Duke of 164 Smith, Dr. 174 of. 84 Follet 163 Livermere 86 Summerland 85 86 Macqueen, Right Hon. Carruthers 504 Frafer 415 Rob, 506 Towers, Dr. 413 Cawood 82 Gamble, Capt. 168 Merry 255 Wales, W. 75 87 Mulfo 163 Ward 503 Chatwine 250 Green 252 Pancton 259 Webb 500 Churchill 414 Groom 341 Pennant 76 White, James 34 79 Harborough, Earl of Portmore, Countess of 47 Williamfon 173 338 Young, F. 338. Cobb 50.1 THE MONTHLY MAGAZINE. No. XLI.] FOR JANUARY, 1799. ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. I SIR, Should not trouble you with any further obfervations relative to Mr. Good, if the point in discussion between us, did not appear to me to be one in which the public are at this time particularly interested. Mr. Good afferts, that it is impoflible to peruse the Shrewfbury account, without deducing the extraordinary conclufion, that the poor there are fupported, upon terms incomparably lower than in any other part of the kingdom. Surely this is dilingenuous! -The fact I stated was, that the poor were fupported here in 1791, for one shilling and fixpence halfpenny each, per week; and I ftated this fact in that very year 1791, when the first edition of the account of the Shrewsbury House was published. After dwelling much at large, on the circumstance relating to the mortality of our children, Mr. Good again adverts to this charge, and observes that in the year 1794, it appears from the accounts, that our poor coft us in provifions upwards of two Thillings each per week; notwithstanding which, he fays, Mr. Wood now attempts once more to state the certainty with which the poor are maintained, at the weekly rate of one shilling and fixpence halfpenny each.-All this may, for ought I know, display Mr. Good's great skill in the arts of a Controverfialist; but it is that kind of acumen, which I do not feel the least ambition to acquire, or the leaft inclination to exercise. I have afferted, and I do now again affert, that this fact, respecting the cost of provisions for our poor in 1791, was "correctly stated from actual experiment, made by very intelligent gentlemen then in the direction." And if the poor at Norwich (where some of the prime neceffaries are confiderably dearer than with us) were maintained, as is undeniably proved by the report of the guardians, the tust year, for one shilling and eleven pence each per week; the difference furely will not appear so very extraordinary, when the confiderable advance on provifions that has taken place ince 1791, is taken into the account; and also, that one third of our poor in that year, were young children. But the fact in which the public is chiefly interested, is this. Mr. Good MONTHLY MAG. NO. XLI. [VOL. VII. stated the cost of the poor at Norwich in provisions, at 2s. Jod. and at Shrewíbury at 3s. 11⁄2 each, per week. It appears, however, that the poor at Norwich were actually supported the last year for 1s. 11d. each; and, I am enabled to add, are now supported in the Shrewsbury House, for 1s. 9d. each, per week. Mr. Good may perhaps be inclined again to " deduce extraordinary conclusions" from this assertion. It is neceffary therefore I should support it by a deduction of particulars. And, however lightly Mr. Good may hold attempts to deceive or mislead the public:- :-for he cannot "trace any fe-verity" in bringing forward fuch a charge against me. I trust your readers will give me credit, when I affure them, that I regard all fuch misrepresentations with the utmost abhorrence. We have a contract with the butchers, by which they stipulate to ferve the house (a certain number each week by rotationwith meat at 2d, per pound; to be in) spected by the directors; and for that purpose sent up on the mornings of the board days: such as is not approved of, to be returned. As the board day falls out two 'days after the market-day, they have an advantage in disposing of fuch meat as is left upon hand provided it be of good quality. The inspection of the directors operates as a check upon all attempts to send in improper meat, and the publicity of the transaction, imposes caution upon the butchers, who would fuffer in their reputation by any abuse. Whenever that is attempted, the meat is always returned. To this contract, twenty-feven of our butchers have affixed their fignatures. We buy our corn at 6s. 8d. per bushel of 75 pounds: each bushel yields from 58 to 60 pounds of fine batch flour. The present consumption is 30 bufhels per week. We brew our own beer, of two forts; the finall beer lies us in 3d. per gallon, the better fort in iod. per gallon. The amount of each week's confumption is 134 gallons of small, and 22 gallons of better drink. Two days in the week, the poor drink skimmed milk in the winter, at their dinners, and in the fummer whey: the produce of our own dairy. The weekly allowance of skimmed milk, ís 156 gallons. We fell the butter made from the cream; and estimate the skimmed A med milk at 2d. per gallon. Potatoes coft us is. 3d. per bushel of 95 pounds, and the quantity now used, is 18 bushels per week. Peas, oatmeal, falt, and groceries cost us the last year, with a larger family, 11. 5s. per week. A general store book is regularly kept, wherein is entered in separate columns, the confumption of each article for every day in the week, at the end of which, it is cast up, balanced with the stock of each article remaining upon hand, examined and figned by a director. From that store-book, the following account has been taken by myfelf; and I pledge my veracity for the accuracy of the statement. Weekly confumption of Provisions in the Shrewsbury House of Industry for four weeks, from Dec. 2, to Dec. 30, 1798. 50 67 is The number of our present family 274, and Mr. Good will find that the above fum, divided by 274, does not amount to 1s. gd. each. He will alfo find, upon comparing the above quantities with our dietary, as he himself has stated it, that we continue the fame liberal allowance of provisions to our paupers; recollecting, as he likewife observes, page 62 of his Differtation, that a considerable proportion of them are children.-Will Mr. Good now fay, that-my "error, though not so enormous, is rendered more palpable and conspicuous than before?" or that" the error he at first suspected, is now confirmed beyond all possibility of denial."-It really requires a stretch of candour to conceive, that he could him self be the dupe of his fallacious reasoning. But, if he prefumès, that the public is to be impofed upon by round and confident affertion; or, that the dagger aimed at a man's reputation, will inflict no wound when it is dipped in oil; I must beg leave to say, that he is not the man with whom I would wish to enter the lifts. This is not that liberal discussion which in my poor opinion can alone be gratifying to liberal minds, or profitable to the public. In questions of political economy, fuch artifices are peculiarly improper. to 66 ১৯ If I had knowingly attempted to deceive or mislead;-nay, if I had not been particularly cautious not to be myself de ceived or misled; before I comn. ted myself by the statement of any fals so interesting the community; ; I had indeed deferved the lash of Mr. Good's criticisms. He, can trace no feverity I conceive, that neither Mr. Good, nor any other man, could, on fuch a fubject, have advanced an accufation more severe. Should he regard fuch an attempt to deceive as a venial offence, we must continue to differ; for I regard it as a capital crime. Here, however, my confcience tells me, I have nothing to fear. Mr. Good enlarges much, on the circumstance of my having stated that out of 91 children born in the houfe, not one had died within the month. - To state the whole paragraph would not fo well have answered his purpose. My words were, "that of these (91) only two had died in the house, and two more out at nurse, all at the age of two months."The fact is simply this. The directors of the Shrewsbury House serve for three years, and then retire. Soon after I had quitted the direction, I published my account of this Establishment; and, in consequence of the correfpondence it produced with Mr. Howlett, I searched the books, and strictly questioned the fecretary. There was no register of any deaths, but those I stated; and the fecretary assured me there were no other. I had no reason then, to doubt his affertion; but various proofs have fince arisen, that he was inaccurate, and negligent in his accounts; and he has lately been removed. I do therefore now believe it poffible, that he may not have kept a correct register. In my last letter, I admitted this, and might have hoped, that Mr. Good would have given me credit for the admiffion. I can, however, fay on my own knowledge, whilft twice in the direction, that in confequence of the advantages enjoyed by the mothers, and the tender attention paid to them during their lying-in month, the mortality of the children has been remarkably small: much, very much less than in the old workhouses, or among the poor of the town in their own dwellings. I believe no doubt has for a long time been entertained of the falubrity of our House of Industry. What 799.] Mr. Wood in reply to Mr. Good on the Poor. What "right" Mr. Good had to prefume, that the number of our poor diminished annually, it is above my humble capacity to comprehend. I should have entertained a presumption directly the reverse. The circumstances of the times; -the stagnation of many branches of manufactures; the vast number of families belonging to foldiers, militia-men, and failors, thrown upon their parishes;-in my poor judgment, would have led to the oppofite conclufion. Is Mr. Good to learn, that the amount of the poor's rates have prodigioufly increased? At Birmingham, the fum raised for the support of the poor in 1787, was 11,1321. 168. gd.; in 1794, 24,0501. 145. 1d.. I stated in my last, that the amount in 1789 at Norwich, was 17,4861. 195. 11d.-in 1797, 25,5161. 78. 80. Yet, with this fact sta. ring him in the face, Mr. Good fays, he had a right to prefume that their poor were diminished. It appears also from the printed Norwich accounts, that the number of their poor in 1792, was 1141; in 1794, 1406: but here again Mr. Good conceives, that it was natural to expect the reverse; and states such diminution to have taken place at Hamburgh -At Hamburgh, where there is no legal provifion for the poor, and where the diminution was naturally produced, by taking a hundred families per annum from beggary, and, by the admirable regulations of their benevolent establishment, putting them in a way of supporting themselves. In all well-regulated houses of industry, the refidents principally consist of invalids; the old poor; and children. Of these there is a continued succession: and in these classes Mr. Good will not say, he has a" right to expect" an annual diminution. The great utility of these establishments confifts in their furnishing a very comfortable afylum for the aged, and disabled poor; a useful seminary for the young, where they are trained up to habits of in dustry and virtue; and the only effectual check against the frauds and impofitions of the idle and profligate, who can no longer extort undeferved relief, by the pretence that they cannot procure employment. The vehement declaimers against these institutions, who reprefent them as flaugh ter-houses, and expatiate upon the cruelty of compelling the poor indiscriminately to quit their own dwellings, and thus destroy*ing all the tender sympathies of social and domeftic life, and all the endearing affini ties of parent and child, fifter and brother, have conjured up a phantom which exifts no where but in their own disturbed 3 and busy fancies, and serves only to mark how far men may be mifled by groundlefs prejudices, hastily adopted, and obstinately retained. Such practices have no place in any well-regulated house of industry throughout the kingdom. They are as incompatible with found policy and parochial economy, as they are abhorrent to every principle both of justice and humanity. The inestimable advantages derived from these institutions may be obtained, and at the same time, the condition of the poor really ameliorated. The aged, who have relatives or friends disposed to take proper care of them, may be relieved at those dwellings which long habit, and tender connection have endeared to them: the fick and infirm, more liberally assisted in seasons of temporary distress, from the produce of that fund which is created by resisting the claims of the idle and profigate: the offspring of illicit amours; the orphan bereaved of its parent; and fuch others of the young poor whom the labour of their parents cannot maintain; may be trained up in these parochial seminaries to virtuous dispositions, and industrious habits; and, at the same time, by allowing of mutual intercourse, occasional visits to their parents or friends, and such other prudent regulations, as a board of respectable directors will not fail to adopt, those objections which have been stated by fpeculative theorists, ignorant of the practical management of these establishments, may be completely obviated, or at least all reafonable ground of objection be removed. But, to fupport these assertions, it would be necessary to exceed those limits to which communications for your truly valuable mifcellany ought to be confined. I have some thoughts of entering at large into this argument, by way of introduction to a fifth edition of my little pamphlet which is now in the press. Mr. Good complains, that the published accounts of the Shrewsbury House are im perfect. I admit the fact, and will tell him the true reason. The profperity and flourishing state of this establishment for the first seven years, excited in the then Board a very mistaken idea; that our fuccess was chiefly owing to the exertions of our domestic officers. This produced a false confidence, and the management of the internal concerns of the house was resigned into their hands. The consequence was (as it always will be), increased ex. pence, and growing neglect. Many inef fectual struggles to refume the reins enfued. So true is the obfervation of my excellent friend M. Voght, one of the benevolent A4 founders founders of the Hamburgh Institution; that when the whole administration falls into the hands of under officers, they afterwards know so well how to embroil the business, that no fubfequent director is ever able to unravel the clue.-Page 54 of bis admirable account of the Hamburgh Eftablishment. In fuch a state of things, it was not much to be wondered at, that annual accounts were not published as they ought to have been. After a very painful and vigorous effort, this evil however is now removed; a most pleasing profpect already begins to open of regaining our former advantages; and it is refolved, that the accounts thall be published annually, together with a statement of the average number of poor for each year. Mr. Good appears to me to have taken an odd method of manifesting, that from an enemy, he is converted into a friend; as the first lines of his Greek quotation might seem to imply. I have no objection, however, to the concluding sentiment of the poet: That laying afide enmity, men should conjointly labour to promote the public good. I am, Sir, Your humble servant, I SIR, N the statement, in your last Number, of the debt incurred during the present war, a confiderable article seems to be omitted; notwithstanding which, the total is fome millions greater than it would appear if the particulars were correct. I prefume it will no longer be denied, that the imperial loans, the interest on which is now paid out of the produce of the confolidated fund, without any reimbursement, are to be confidered in the fame light as any other part of the national debt: these fums should therefore be included in the account of the money borrowed, which however will not then amount to 147 millions, but to 1384 millions. The total amount of the funded debt created during the war, was on the 5th of April, 1798, nearly 159 millions; to which, if 39 millions are added for the stock created by the two last loans, and 74 millions Imperial three per cents. the total capital of stock will be 206 millions, instead of 2244. The annual fum payable for the fame, will be as follows: 363 millions at 3 per cent. £4,890,000 at 4 per cent. 12 500,000 The statement therefore appears to exceed the truth about nine millions with respect to the money borrowed, nearly nineteen millions in the total of stock created, and about 619,000l. in the annual charge thereof. I am, however, far from thinking that Y. Z. has intentionally reprefented the debt incurred greater than it really is; if such a practice was in any case allowable, on this fubject it would be entirely unneceffary, for the unprecedented increase of the funded debt during the laft fix years, seems almost to set exaggeration, within the limits of probability, at defiance. Although the proportion of the general income taken from the people for the expences of government, has been increased to an enormous fum by the many new taxes imposed since the commencement of the war; the additional fums found necefsary for fupplying the still greater increase of the public expenditure, already exceed the fums borrowed during the two preceding wars; and to what they may amount before the termination of the present contest, I believe few will venture to conjecture. In consequence of this great increase of the national debt, the public funds have experienced a greater depreffion, with respect to their current price, than at any period fince the establishment of the fund. ing system; for these securities, like every thing else that is bought and fold, must be disposed of at a reduced value, whenever the quantity offered for fale exceeds the demand of the buyers; and although this has been so much the case of late, that the property of those who purchased a short time previous to the commencement of the war, is now worth but little more than balf what it then cost: the diminution of the value of this species of property would have frequently appeared much greater, had not the price been supported by the operation of the project carried on under the name of the Sinking Fund. Another effect of this rapid increase of the public debt, appears still more certain and permanent. Every new loan must be procured from persons already poffeffing confiderable property, and fuch perfons will not lend their money without the expectation of making a profit by it; the increase of the debt is therefore to them a fource of increasing wealth, to which their share of the additional taxes attendant upon it bears but a small proportion: the depre ciation of the price of the funds likewife, though |