aged. I have heard that the plan for relieving the
poor is much better systematized here than in England. Well! I fear, and
I say it with shame, that it could not be much worse or more bungling
anywhere. Our wretched system of miscalled _Work_houses or Unions is
utterly unworthy of us; some of these places, in fact, are abominably
demoralizing and degrading. We clothe the poor in a dress of shame, and
then wonder at their want of self-respect! Many of our unions are
utterly unfit for the respectable poor and (we seem to forget that there
is such a class)--I was nearly saying, are places of seething vice; no
wonder, then, even starving people, who have a spark of true pride left
in them, prefer to die rather than go there. Poverty and distress are
inevitable in every great city, and one can no more help being poor than
being born, and there is no shame in this lack of riches; yet it is sad
to see, in these philanthropic days of clerical energy and individual
benevolence and charity, the number of dreadful courts and alleys almost
leading out of the finest squares, a frightful contrast between abject
poverty and superfluous wealth.[H] The only effectual way to relieve
and diminish this misery is by assisting the poor to help themselves;
then indeed this would produce gratitude instead of sullen discontent,
which, I fear, is the general feeling in our workhouses. A well-managed
system of out-door relief, aided by providing employment and
well-organized emigration to our own colonies (the natural destiny of
our surplus population), is the only efficient method; but this must be
done in a thorough, liberal, and judicious spirit, not in the grudging
manner in which some charities are doled out. It is much to England's
credit that energetic efforts are being made to educate the poor; but I
think some help in that direction should also be extended to the middle
classes, and those between the two, to _prevent_ their becoming
indigent. The advantages of education cannot be too highly esteemed, but
each class should be fitted to the sphere it is likely to occupy in
life; the same training does not suit all alike. I fear at the present
time we are inclined to run to the other extreme, and over-educate those
who would be far happier and altogether more useful members of society,
were we content with teaching the three great rudiments--reading,
writing, and arithmetic. These, with good _religious_ instruction and a
trade, would enable