în times of cheap money. But as to the capital, the sum of the story has been-slow and small reductions in times of peace swallowed up at once on the return of war. In the forty years (nearly) of peace (1816-1853) a reduction of 100 millions was effected, in spite of the Syrian, Chinese, Afghan, and other minor wars, and the new loans of 20 millions for the West Indian compensation, and 10 millions for the Irish famine. But in two years the Russian war raised the debt again from about 800 to about 831 millions. This increase was effaced in ten years of peace and prosperity, aided by the falling in of terminable annuities to the amount of above 2,000,000l. per annum in 1860 and 1867. The annual charge on the permanent debt has also been reduced to a uniform interest of three per cent. (with trifling exceptions); but, on the other hand, it has been partially increased by the policy, instituted by Mr. Gladstone and followed by Mr. Disraeli and Mr. Lowe, of converting sums of perpetual stock into terminable annuities, which is really a disguised process of paying off portions of the capital sum annually in the form of higher interest. The only other effective means of reduction has been by the automatic operation of an act of George IV., by which, a balance being struck every quarter of income and expenditure for the year then ending, if then a surplus is shown, one-fourth of that surplus is applied during the ensuing quarter to the reduction of debt by the purchase and cancelling of stock,-an operation most effective during the years of large surpluses which have prevailed since the Russian war. By such means a reduction of more than 20 millions has been made in the last five years. On the 1st of April, 1875, the total amount of the national debt was 775,348,3861.* At the same date the annual charge for the debt was a little under 27,360,000%.; and sir Stafford Northcote proposed a plan for its reduction, by appropriating a fixed annual sum of 28,000,0007. to the payment of the annual charge and the cancelling of a portion of the principal. Meanwhile the country seems to carry this burthen with a lighter step than when it was seven times smaller. § 28. We turn our view from the material to the moral condition : of the nation. With regard to religion, we may notice the societies that have sprung up with a view to the propagation of Christianity such as the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, founded in 1699; the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, established in 1701; the London Missionary and Church Missionary Societies, and the British and Foreign Bible Society, all founded in 1804; besides numerous others. Several of these societies collect a revenue of upwards of 100,000l. The sect of the Methodists, founded by Wesley and Whitfield about the middle of last century, is likewise a remarkable growth of the age. Other sects have risen and enjoyed brief popularity. In 1831 rose the followers of the celebrated Edward Irving, professing to be endowed with the gift of tongues. In the present times we have our Mormons, and other strange sectaries. § 29. One great symptom of moral improvement has been the mitigation of the severity of the criminal law, introduced about the commencement of the present century by Samuel Romilly. Previous to 1808 the offence of privately stealing 5s. from the person was punishable with death, as well as a great many other offences, such as sheep-stealing, shop-lifting, etc.; and it was no uncommon thing to see several criminals executed together at Newgate on a Monday morning. At length the feeling of juries began to revolt against such exorbitant punishments. They refused to convict, and thus the laws became virtually inoperative. Yet some of the judges, as lord Ellenborough and lord Eldon, continued to support the old system. In 1833 a Royal Commission was appointed to examine the state of the criminal law. One of the first results of their report was the act passed in 1836 for allowing counsel to prisoners indicted for criminal offences; and in 1837 a bill was passed remitting the penalty of death in 21 out of 31 cases in which it was previously inflicted, while in the remaining 10 cases it was considerably restricted. Other ameliorations have subsequently taken place, and the penalty of death is now retained only for wilful murder and high treason. A commission has framed a Code of Criminal Law, which awaits the sanction of parliament. The present century has likewise witnessed a great advance in the education of the people, especially of the middle and lower orders. Lord Brougham's is the most conspicuous name at the head of this movement, and he has been ably seconded by a host of enlightened men. In 1823 the London Mechanics' Institute was founded, and was soon followed by others in different parts of the country. The establishment of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge in 1826, and the opening of the University of London in 1828, closely followed by King's College, tended still further to promote sound education, especially among the middle classes. To these may be added the establishment of Sunday schools, the foundation of the British and Foreign School Society and the National Society for diffusing education among the poorer classes, and the cheap and excellent publications of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge and the Religious Tract Society. More recent are the efforts of the nation to provide a system of national education, supported by the rates. § 30. Literature underwent during this period a great revolution. During the early part of it the French taste introduced at the Restoration continued to prevail. Style became more popular and more polished in Anne's reign. In this respect the prose of Bolingbroke, Addison, and Swift, and the versification of Pope, are excellent. This continued to be regarded as the Augustan age of our literature till towards the close of last century. The conventional taste of the latter period is exhibited in the lectures of Blair and the criticisms of Dr. Johnson. The great writers of the Elizabethan age were almost ignored, and any poet before Waller was scarcely deemed worth reading. But a taste for our older literature was beginning to revive, and was fostered by the Percy ballads, and the editorial cares of Warton, Tyrwhitt, and others. Cowper introduced a new school of domestic poetry. The French Revolution shook the European world of thought to its centre, and opened up fresh veins of literature. The study of German literature introduced new elements of thought. The greatest names of the present century-we speak not of living writers are those of Shelley, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Southey, Scott, Crabbe, Campbell, Byron, and Moore. One of the most marked features of the later period is the increase of periodical literature our grandfathers were content with the Gentleman's Magazine, and one or two other reviews and periodicals; at present they may be counted by the score. This period may be said to have witnessed the birth of a British school of art. In the last century we have sir Joshua Reynolds, Gainsborough, and Hogarth. The present age is illustrated by the names of Wilson, Wilkie, Turner, Lawrence, and a long list of eminent painters. In sculpture we may point with satisfaction to the names of Flaxman, Chantrey, Bailey, Westmacott, and others. Architecture has been less fortunate. The Italian style, which culminated in Wren's exquisite sense of proportion, degenerated * Now University College, London. The present University of London is a different body, having been founded by the Crown in 1836, with the power to grant degrees in Arts, Law, and Medicine, and subsequently in Science. under his followers, till the revived study of pure Greek architecture produced works of correct classic beauty (such as those of Smirke and Wilkins), but little suited to our climate and national taste. The ensuing Gothic revival has been chiefly indebted to the labours of Pugin, Barry, Gilbert Scott, and Street; but its chief merit consists in reproducing the types of our genuine old English architecture rather than in any works of original genius. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. A. POOR LAWS. In the statute 11 Rich. II. (1388) we first find mention of the "impotent poor," who are directed to remain and abide in certain places; either those in which they were at the time of the proclamation of the statute, or the places in which they were born. But no provision is made for their maintenance. Indeed, during the Roman catholic times, begging was allowed on the part of the impotent poor, who were chiefly supported by the abbeys, convents, and other religious establishments. Thus, even so late as 1530, just before the breach with Rome, the statute 22 Hen. VIII. c. 10, which inflicts severe punishment on sturdy vagabonds and valiant beggars "being whole and mighty in body," allows the aged and impotent poor to beg and live off alms, provided they confined themselves to certain districts; and they received a letter authorizing them to beg within those limits. The chief object in all the early enactments upon pauperism was to restrain vagrancy. The first act for the relief of the impotent poor was passed in 1536 (27 Hen. VIII. c. 25), by which collections were ordered to be made in the parishes for their support. But by the same statute incorrigible vagrancy is, on a third conviction, made felony, with the penalty of death. The dissolution of the religious houses in that reign had the effect both of increasing the number of vagabonds and beggars, and of diminishing their means of support. The increase of pauperism is shown by several severe statutes on the subject passed in the short reign of Edward VI. But at the same time provision was made for the relief of the poor; and the voluntary collections, such as had been first ordered under 27 Hen. VIII. c. 25, were by a long series of statutes almost insensibly converted into compulsory assessments. At length, by the 43 Eliz. c. 2 (1601), compulsory assessment for the relief of the poor was fully established; and this statute was till recent times the text-book of the English poor-law. The overseers of each parish were directed by this statute to raise by taxation the necessary sums "for providing a sufficient stock of flax, hemp, wool, and other ware or stuff, to set the poor on work, and also competent sums for relief of lame, blind, old, and impotent persons, and for putting out children as apprentices." The justices were empowered to send to prison all persons who would not work, and to assess all persons of sufficient means for the relief of their children and parents. Power was given to the parish officers to build, at the expense of the parish, poorhouses for the reception of the impotent poor only. These are the chief provisions of this celebrated statute. Workhouses were first established in 1722 by 9 Geo. I. c. 7. They were not at first intended so much as a refuge for the poor, or as a test by which real destitution might be discerned, but, as their name implies, with a view to derive profit from the labours of the poor. The workhouses were in fact a kind of manufactories carried on at the risk of the poor-rate; and though they at first diminished the cost of relief, they ultimately increased it, by pauperizing the independent labourer. In the reign of George II. the amount expended in relief was under three-fourths of a million. In 1775 it amounted to 1,720,000l. From that period it went on rapidly increasing, and in 1818 it reached its maximum of nearly 8 millions. This large fund was subject to great abuses of administration, which begot habits of improvidence among the poor by encouraging early At marriages, etc. Labourers' wages were frequently paid in part from the rates; and thus a portion of the farmer's labour was done at the expense of the parish. length, in 1832, a commission was appointed to inquire into the practical operation of the poor-laws. In February, 1834, they made their report, and a bill founded upon it, the Poor-Law Amendment Act, was soon afterwards introduced by lord Althorp, and received the royal assent on August 14, 1834. By this act all bodies charged with the relief of the poor are placed under the control of a central board of three commissioners, who are to make rules and regulations, binding upon the local boards. One important power given to them is that of uniting several parishes for the purpose of a more economical administration. The system of paying wages out of the poor-rate is abolished; and, except in extreme cases, to be determined by the commissioners, relief is only given to the able-bodied, poor within the workhouse. After this period, in the face of a rapidly increasing population, the sums expended have rapidly diminished. In the administration of the law, the "workhouse test" has been greatly mitigated. The "Poor-Law Commissioners" have now been superseded by the "Local Government Board," with a president who is a member of the government. On this subject see sir G. Nicholls's Hist. of the English Poor-Law, 2 vols. 8vo; Porter's Progress of the Nation, sect. i. ch. 4; and the article PAUPERISM in the Penny Cyclopædia. B. CORN LAWS. The earliest enactments on this subject were to forbid the exportation of corn, while its importation was freely admitted; but in later times the policy of the legislature was altogether different. The first statute extant on corn is the Dictum de Kenilworth (1266), and the next the 34 Edw. III. c. 20 (1360), which forbids its exportation, except to certain places where it was necessary to the king's interest, and to be named by him. At a later period, in the reigns of Richard and Henry VI., we find this policy reversed, and liberty given to export to any places; though subject, in the latter reign, to restriction in case the price of corn reached 6s. 8d. the quarter for wheat. Since no attempt was made to prevent the importation of corn, we may infer II. that it was produced in England as cheap, or cheaper than in neighbouring countries. In the reign of Edward IV. we find the first protective law in favour of the agriculturist, importation of corn being forbidden by 3 Edw. IV. c. 2, unless the price of wheat exceeded 68. 8d. the quarter. But agriculture seems to have much declined in England towards the end of the reign of Henry VIII. and in that of Edward VI., which was probably in some degree owing to the great change of property consequent on the dissolution of the abbeys and religious houses. Thus the statute, 25 Hen. VIII. c. 2, positively forbids the exportation of corn; and the statute 5 and 6 Edw. VI. c. 5, entitled "An Act for the Maintenance and Increase of Tillage and Corn," attempted to make the cultivation of corn compulsory, by exacting a fine of 5s. payable by each parish on every acre of land in each deficient in tillage when compared with the quantity that had been tilled at any period after the accession of Henry VIII. The act of Hen. VIII. forbidding the exportation of corn was repealed in the reign of Mary; but the price at which exportation was allowed was gradually raised, till in 1670 it was enacted that wheat might always be exported as long as it was under 53s. 4d. per quarter. At the same time heavy import duties were imposed; and the design of the legislature seems to have been to keep wheat at an average of about 53s. 4d. Nay, in 1689 the landowners obtained the payment of a bounty of 5s. per quarter on the exportation of wheat when the price did not exceed 488., and on other grain in proportion. These bounties were not repealed by law till 1815, though they had been for some time virtually inoperative. Regulations were also made respecting the home trade in corn; and in the reign of Elizabeth it was made an offence, under the name of engrossing, and punishable with imprisonment or the pillory, to buy corn in one market in order to sell it in another. The act 15 Chas. II. c. 7, legalized engrossing when the price of wheat did not exceed 488. Till a very recent period engrossing continued to be regarded by public opinion as a heinous offence, and even lord Kenyon violently denounced from the bench a corn-factor accused of it. By a bill of 1773 importation was allowed at the nominal duty of 6d. whenever |
