Without being able to say what might absolutely be the best remedy, it is, at least, fair to ask the question, whether it is fit that the administration of 5,500,000 L. a year should be intrusted to the hands of ignorant men? It may likewise be asked, if the feelings of the necessitous ranks of society (as keen in many instances as those of their betters,) should be wounded by men, who have not sufficient knowledge of any sort to act with the humanity necessary. The candidates for popular favour, amongst the lower housekeepers, are generally flattering, fauning =sic=, cringing men, and such are almost without exception, cunning, ignorant, and overbearing, wherever they have the least [end of page #255] authority over others. Such, in general, are the parish-officers, to whose care this important affair is committed. Though this is an institution almost on the purely democratic principle of equal representation, it is a very bad specimen of that mode of government. The shameful lawsuits between parishes, about paupers, the disgraceful and barbarous treatment of women, who have been betrayed and abandoned, admit of no excuse. They are not productive even of gain or economy. Amongst some tribes of savage Indians, the aged and helpless are put to death, that they may not remain a burthen on those who are able and in health; and it is equally true, that, in England, the young innocents, who have not parents to protect them, are considered as a burthen; and, if they are not absolutely sent out of the world, the means necessary to preserve them in it are very inadequate to the purpose. If criminality could be engraved on a graduated scale, their deaths ought in general to be written down at some intermediate point between accidental homicide and wilful murder. The persecution of this unfortunate race may be said to commence before they are born; and, though the strength of a nation depends much on its population, less care is taken to encourage it, than to produce mushrooms, or to preserve hares and partridges. [end of page #256] CHAP. VI. _Causes of Decline, peculiar to England_. In addition to the causes of decline which Britain, as a wealthy country, has, in common with most other nations, it has some peculiar to itself, (or of which the degree at least is peculiar to it). The national debt, the high rate of taxation, the prodigious expense of the poor, and the nature of the government, are peculiar to this country. There are other circumstances in its favour, of which we shall speak in the next chapter; but, in this, we shall review those that are against it, and of an unfavourable nature and operation. The high rate of taxation, for the very reason that it is the highest ever known, inspires our enemies with hopes of our downfall, and makes them persevere in continuing to put us to expense.