III. and
Sebastian both warred against the beggars. A law of the sixteenth
century ordains that the lame should learn the trade of a tailor or
shoemaker, the maimed serve for subsistence any who will employ them,
and the blind, for food and raiment, give themselves to the labors of
the forge, by blowing the bellows. But we see how the law is enforced.
These men behind us are neither lame, halt, nor blind, but truly
represent the sturdy vagrants with whom Queen Bess's statute dealt so
roughly. With what result? It is but the ancestor of a long line of
laws which load our statute-books, and have built up our poor-law
system, merely substituting for one evil another which burdens the
country like an incubus, and, vulture-like, is eating out its
entrails."

"We have no such national institution for the breeding of beggars in
Scotland," said Moodie, from behind.

"Is it because Scotland is too poor to maintain paupers?" inquired
Mrs. Shortridge.

"It is because it is not natural for a Scotchman to be a beggar,"
replied Moodie, with patriotic pride.

"We cannot carry the system much further in England," said L'Isle;
"the resources of the country, and the sturdy character of the people,
are breaking down under it."

"Could our British population be brought down to as low a condition as
these people?" Lady Mabel asked.

"Assuredly not," said Mrs. Shortridge.

"Have you ever been in Ireland?" asked L'Isle.

No, neither of the ladies had been there.

"Or in an English poor-house?"

That, too, was _terra incognita_, especially to Lady Mabel.

"Either of them might assist you in finding an answer to a very
difficult question. Still, like Moodie, I have great faith in race,
and in the fitness of climates to races. There is something enervating
to a northern race in these subtropical climates. While the powers of
enjoyment remain unimpaired, or are even stimulated, the energy of
action is rapidly sapped. We know that the Gothic conquerors of this
peninsula lost, in a few generations, their energy and enterprise. A
war of seven centuries revived and sustained that of their
descendants; but, after that stimulant was withdrawn, on the expulsion
of the Moors, they gradually sunk to what we see them now. Some
persons attribute the character and condition of these peninsular
nations to the vices of government, others to the corruption of the
church. I doubt the question's admitting of so simple a solution as
either, or both