In every country, however rich or prosperous, the great mass of the people have an expenditure which is equal to their income, and is not easily capable of reduction. They are, of course, unprepared for those diseases or sinister casualties that put an end to their daily earnings, either permanently or for the time. Humanity then requires that provision should be made for the relief of those who are thus afflicted, out of the revenues of the more fortunate classes. Hospitals are therefore provided with adequate funds, and are placed under the management of a competent and permanent board of directors.

The class of persons whose misfortunes thus address themselves to the sympathies of the community are the blind, the deaf and dumb, the insane, those who have been maimed, or afflicted with diseases that unfit them for labor, and lastly, those who are too poor for the maintenance of themselves and their families; which last class will require a separate consideration.

Of the claims of the four first classes to relief, there can be no doubt; and the only question is as to the extent and mode of assistance.

Though there is not entire uniformity in the proportion of persons thus afflicted, yet the diversity appears to be not very great; and it would seem, from the decennial census of the population of the United States and of other countries, that about one in 2000 persons is probably blind, that the proportion of the deaf and dumb is the same, and that one in 1000 is insane; making, in the three classes, three in 5000 - equivalent to six-tenths of one per cent. of the whole population. The number of those who are incapable of supporting themselves either by their labor or capital, in consequence of being maimed or diseased, is not ascertained; but it is probably much larger than that of either of the other classes. If we suppose it to be as much as two in the 1000, it would make the whole number who have undeniable claims to the public charity reach five in the 5000, or one per cent of the whole population; which imposes not a burthensome charge on the community.

The claim, however, of those who are merely poor, but who have experienced neither disease nor infirmity to disqualify them for bodily labor, is another question.

It has been contended by many, ever since Mr. Malthus's work on the tendency of mankind, by their increase, to press on the means of subsistence, that a general system of providing relief for those who are merely poor, tends to increase the very evil it aimed to remedy; and that if individuals, regardless of those considerations of prudence which should prevent them from encumbering themselves with families without possessing the means of their support, and the public should be ready to supply the relief needed by such imprudence, then one of the most efficient checks to redundancy of numbers would be taken away; that cases of such improvident marriages would probably be multiplied, and the evils of poverty and want be thereby augmented; that, consequently, the only system which will keep down population to the level of comfortable subsistence, is to let the imprudent take the consequences of their own error, rather than to cast its results on the rest of the community.

The principle that population will always be in proportion to the means of subsistence had been propounded by Sir James Steuart, Adam Smith, Dr. Franklin, and probably others, long before Mr. Mal-thus; but he was the first who traced its influence on human welfare. While I readily admit the ability and value of Mr. Malthus's work, it has long appeared to me that he has somewhat overrated the multiplying propensity of mankind, which I do not think too strong, and has undervalued the checks to redundancy.*

* These propositions are made by the author only after mature consideration. But the exhibition of his views would require more space than is consistent with the plan of this little work.

But this doctrine is of too cold and heartless a nature, too repugnant to our natural sympathies, to be readily adopted. It confounds imprudence with depravity, and inflicts the punishment due to moral delinquency on those who have yielded to the strongest, and sometimes the best, impulses of our nature. Accordingly, the policy it recommends has no where been carried into strict execution.

But while such attempts to repress our natural sympathy with human suffering may be equally objectionable and vain, both humanity and a regard to the interests of society require us to lessen the occasions of sympathy as far as practicable. If any feasible plan could be devised to prevent very early and imprudent marriages, the evil would be prevented; but it is apprehended that any legal restraints on marriages beyond those now existing might do more harm than good; and that the poverty which they too often produce cannot be entirely prevented, and admits of but partial remedy.

For those who are able to work but cannot find profitable employment, work-houses should be provided, with the requisite materials and tools, where any healthy man or woman may engage in some useful species of labor, or in those simpler trades which require little or no preparation.

As relief to the poor is often a heavy charge on the community, adequate provision should be made for its payment. The money is more conveniently raised by a direct tax, as by a land or income tax. Aid, however, may be drawn from indirect taxes, laid on whatever contributes to encourage idleness and waste, and to impoverish individuals. Thus, gaming and drinking houses might be made to assist in relieving the evils they had fostered.

But nothing, it must be remembered, is so likely to lessen the number of the poor, as a good system of popular education, good government, and good laws; which cherish individual self-respect, an earnest desire of independence, and an industry free to exercise itself in any way. It is thus that we see the number of poor who are supported by other members of the community smaller in this country than in any other, and that their pressure is most felt in those States in which are the greatest number of immigrants.