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provision, and without those pre-eminent advantages of government which Englishmen enjoy, where the condition of the lower classes is superior. That cases of individual distress must occur in these countries, no person can for a moment doubt; but as there is no habitual dependence on a legal provision, the number is comparatively small; and I have never heard of any of those consequences of the absence of Poor Laws, which have sometimes been contemplated by warm imaginations, in the case of their abolition here.
The subject is besides peculiarly complex and delicate. To you who have made it your study, I can confidently appeal for the justice of my application of Mr. Hume's remark on the science of politics[1], to every plan for im-
- ↑ "Of all sciences, there is none where first appearances are more deceitful than in politics." Hume, Essay xi. vol. 1, p. 416.—He is led to this remark when speaking of Foundling Hospitals, which evidently belong to that branch of the science which is at present under discussion.
