The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift/Volume 16/Considerations about Maintaining the Poor
Considerations about Maintaining the Poor.
WE have been amused, for at least thirty years past, with numberless schemes, in writing and discourse, both in and out of parliament, for maintaining the poor, and setting them to work, especially in this city; most of which were idle, indigested, or visionary; and all of them ineffectual, as it has plainly appeared by the consequences. Many of those projectors were so stupid, that they drew a parallel from Holland and England, to be settled in Ireland; that is to say, from two countries with full freedom and encouragement for trade, to a third where all kind of trade is cramped, and the most beneficial parts are entirely taken away. But the perpetual infelicity of false and foolish reasoning, as well as proceeding and acting upon it, seems to be fatal to this country.
For my own part, who have much conversed with those folks who call themselves merchants, I do not remember to have met with a more ignorant and wrong thinking race of people in the very first rudiments of trade; which, however, was not so much owing to their want of capacity, as to the crazy constitution of this kingdom; where pedlars are better qualified to thrive, than the wisest merchants. I could fill a volume with only setting down a list of the publick absurdities, by which this kingdom has suffered within the compass of my own memory, such as could not be believed of any nation, among whom folly was not established as a law. I cannot forbear instancing a few of these, because it may be of some use to those who shall have it in their power to be more cautious for the future.
The first was, the building of the barracks, whereof I have seen above one half, and have heard enough of the rest, to affirm that the publick has been cheated of at least two thirds of the money, raised for that use, by the plain fraud of the undertakers.
Another was the management of the money raised for the Palatines; when, instead of employing that great sum in purchasing lands in some remote and cheap part of the kingdom, and there planting those people as a colony, the whole end was utterly defeated.
A third is, the insurance office against fire, by which several thousand pounds are yearly remitted to England (a trifle, it seems, we can easily spare) and will gradually increase until it comes to a good national tax: for the society marks upon our houses (under which might properly be written, "The Lord have mercy upon us") spread faster and farther than the colony of frogs[1]. I have for above twenty years past, given warning several thousand times, to many substantial people, and to such who are acquainted with lords and squires, and the like great folks, to any of whom I have not the honour to be known: I mentioned my daily fears, lest our watchful friends in England might take this business out of our hands; and how easy it would be to prevent that evil, by erecting a society of persons who had good estates, such, for instance, as that noble knot of bankers under the style of "Swift and Company." But now we are become tributary to England, not only for materials to light our own fires, but for engines to put them out; to which, if hearth-money be added (repealed in England as a grievance) we have the honour to pay three taxes for fire.
A fourth was the knavery of those merchants, or linen manufacturers, or both; when, upon occasion of the plague at Marseilles, we had a fair opportunity of getting into our hands the whole linen-trade with Spain; but the commodity was so bad, and held at so high a rate, that almost the whole cargo was returned, and the small remainder sold below the prime cost.
So many other particulars of the same nature crowd into my thoughts, that I am forced to stop; and the rather because they are not very proper for my subject, to which I shall now return.
Among all the schemes for maintainuig the poor of the city, and setting them to work, the least weight has been laid upon that single point which is of greatest importance; I mean, that of keeping foreign beggars from swarming hither, out of every part of the country; for, until this be brought to pass effectually, all our wise reasonings and proceedings upon them will be vain and ridiculous.
The prodigious number of beggars throughout this kingdom, in proportion to so small a number of people, is owing to many reasons: to the laziness of the natives; the want of work to employ them; the enormous rents paid by cottagers for their miserable cabins and potatoe-plots; their early marriages, without the least prospect of establishment; the ruin of agriculture, whereby such vast numbers are hindered from providing their own bread, and have no money to purchase it; the mortal damp upon all kind of trade, and many other circumstances too tedious or invidious to mention.
And to the same causes we owe, the perpetual concourse of foreign beggars to this town; the country landlords giving all asistance, except money and victuals, to drive from their estates, those miserable creatures they have undone.
It was a general complaint against the poor-house, under its former governors, "That the number of poor in this city did not lessen by taking three hundred into the house, and all of them recommended under the minister and churchwardens hands of the several parishes:" and this complaint must still continue, although the poor-house should be enlarged to maintain three thousand, or even double that number.
The revenues of the poor-house, as it is now established, amount to about two thousand pounds a year; whereof, two hundred allowed for officers and one hundred for repairs, the remaining seventeen hundred, at four pounds a head, will support four hundred and twenty-five persons. This is a favourable allowance, considering that I subtract nothing for the diet of those officers, and for wear and tear of furniture; and if every one of these collegiates should be set to work, it is agreed they will not be able to gain by their labour above one fourth part of their maintenance.
At the same time, the oratorial part of these gentlemen, seldom vouchsafe to mention fewer than fifteen hundred or two thousand people, to be maintained in this hospital, without troubling their heads about the fund * * * * * * * *
- ↑ This similitude, which is certainly the finest that could possibly have been used upon this occasion, seems to require a short explication. About the beginning of this current century, Dr. Gwythers, a physician, and fellow of the university of Dublin, brought over with him a parcel of frogs from England to Ireland, in order to propagate the species in that kingdom, and threw them into the ditches of the University park: but they all perished. Whereupon he sent to England for some bottles of the frog-spawn, which he threw into those ditches, by which means the species of frogs was propagated in that kingdom. However, their number was so small in the year 1720, that a frog was no where to be seen in Ireland, except in the neighbourhood of the University park: but, within six or seven years after they spread thirty, forty, or fifty miles over the country; and so at last, by degrees, over the whole nation.