This plea, in its general application, is grounded on a false analogy between a state and its members, and a parent and his family. A parent has a considerable influence over the subsistence-fund of his family, and an absolute control over the numbers to be supported by that fund; whereas the rulers of a state, from whom a legal provision emanates, have little influence over its subsistence-fund, and no control whatever over the number of its members. If the plea of right to subsistence be grounded on the faults of national institutions, the right ought rather to be superseded by the rectification of those institutions, than admitted at the cost of perpetuating an institution more hurtful than all the others combined. What, then, must be done to lessen the number of the indigent, now so frightfully increasing? The subsistence-fund must be employed productively, and capital and labour be allowed to take their natural course; _i.e._ the pauper system must, by some means or other, be extinguished. The number of consumers must be proportioned to the subsistence-fund. To this end, all encouragements to the increase of population should be withdrawn, and every sanction given to the preventive check; _i.e._ charity must be directed to the enlightenment of the mind, instead of to the relief of bodily wants. If not adopted speedily, all measures will be too late to prevent the universal prevalence of poverty in this kingdom, the legal provision for the indigent now operating the extinction of our national resources at a perpetually increasing rate. ---------------------------------------------------------------- PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES, STAMFORD-STREET. Ireland PREFACE. -------