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After having shown by whom relief may be granted, the author makes the following remarks, as to those who are the proper objects of that relief, and how it may be best administered.

"The relief applied for is either permanent or cafual. The objects of permanent relief, befides particular cafes, fuch as of lameness, blindnefs, idiotifm, or lunacy, are the helpleffness of infancy, and the infirmities of old age. The wants of thefe objects may be relieved, either by pecuniary affiftance afforded them at their respective dwellings, or by receiving and maintaining them in houfes provided at the public expence for that purpofe. And in no one inftance relating to the poor laws, is the exercife of judgment and difcernment more neceffary, than in determining to which of thefe modes of relief the preference should be given. The police of no parish can be perfect without the establish ment of a workhouse: but it is to be regretted, that the means of very few parishes are adequate to the establishment of fuch a workhouse, as will fully answer the purposes intended. In workhouses, as generally conftituted, are admitted the young and the old, the lazy and the profligate, thofe who cannot, and those who will not work: those who are reduced by calamity, or whom the hand of God has afflicted, and those whofe diftreffes have been brought upon them by their follies and their vices. All these are made indifcriminately to inhabit the fame apartments, and are permitted unrestrainedly to converfe together. Under thefe circumstances, gentlemen, the fewer young people you admit into your workhoufes the better; for no difcipline of the house can counteract the contagion of the bad examples they will have perpetually before them: no inftruction there given, can be a fufficient guard against the immoral difcourfes they will there daily hear, or the indecency of behaviour they will there daily be fpectators of. And therefore when either orphan or fatherlefs children require the fupport of the parifh, if the furviving parent in one cafe be of good reputation, for honefty, fobriety, and induftry; or if in the other cafe there be any more diftant relation of like character, who will take the charge of them, I ad vife your committing them to their care, rather than to bring them upin your workhoufe. I am perfuaded that, in fuch cafes, they will not only be better but even cheaper educated by their furviving parents and rela tions, than you can do it in your workhouses. I fcarcely need to add, that in the cafe of families too numerous for the parents to maintain, it will be better to affift the parents, when of good character, than to remove the children from them. There is also another circumstance which fhould have much weight with you. It has been found by experience, even in the beft regulated workhoufes, fuch as have been eftablished in incorporated diftricts, where the objections I have mentioned are, or at least might be obviated, by having a feparate building for the reception of children; that from fuch houfes being much clofer and warmer than the cottages of their parents, and from their employment there being chiefly within doors, the children brought up in them generally fail in acquiring that activity of difpofition, and robuftness of conftitution, requifite in the fphere of life to which their birth and station in fociety deftine them: that they come forth puny

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beings, fhivering at every breeze, and rarely turn out good and useful, either as fervants or as labourers,"

We cannot answer for the phyfical accuracy of thofe obfervations which refpect the effect of workhouses upon the conftitutions of the poor; but thofe which refpect the regulation of workhoufes, and the relief of the poor with their own relations, deferve the ferious attention of all who have the happiness of the lower claffes of fociety, or the interests of their country, at heart. The great mifchief which refults from our fyftem of parochial relief is, that it tends to relax and weaken thofe domestic affections in the hearts of the poor, which are the prime fources of focial comfort, and of virtuous manners. The invincible neceffity of receiving and giving nurture is the great and univerfal ligament by which our creator has, in the animal world, attached the parent and its offspring to each other. It is wonderfully contrived, that our affections fhall derive new ftrength and vigour from the performance of thofe very duties of which they are themselves the caufe. The poor-laws, which fecure an ultimate provifion to the helpless and the aged from the parish, render that office a matter of less concern to those who must perform it, if this refource did not exift. By their means that incumbent weight is, as it were, removed, which by confining and compreffing the benevolent emotions of the heart, endue them with greater power, and give them an additional purchafe. The feeling for their flesh and blood is much weakened in the poor, when the neceffary purpose for which it was given is taken away. Those who have had an opportunity of contrafting the conduct of the loweft clafs of the English poor, in this particular, with those of Ireland and Scotland, must have perceived, that the affection between perfons of the fame family is not fo ftrong with us as it is with them. They have no poor-laws; and it is confidered as the laft ftage of human depravity, to leave a parent or a child to the charity of a ftranger. As the practice which Dr. N. reprobates, of tearing the helpless and indigent poor from their relatives, and committing them to the cold and selfish care of a parish contractor, fuperfedes the reciprocal performance of duties and kindneffes between them to a much greater extent, it gives infinitely greater ftrength to this radical defect, in a fyftem fo highly honourable, in every other refpect, to the humanity of the English nation. The evil is continually gaining ground, from the prevalence of contracts in various parithes for farming the maintenance of the poor, efpecially when they contain the article of which Dr. N. further complains; " that the contractor fhall not be

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obliged to make any allowance to the poor out of the house but in a very limited proportion, and for a very short time nor to furnish any clothing but to those in the house." (p. 40) We strongly recommend to the magiftrates of every district where fuch contracts fubfift, to purfue that which is the only means of refcuing the poor from the hands of fuch "mercenary fubftitutes," which Dr. N. declares to be the laudable refolution of the magiftrates of the Ile of Ely: "that if parithes will perfift in this method of farming their poor, the magiftrates of the Ifle will always exercife the difcretionary powers vefted in them, without regard to the expence it may occafion to the parishes." (p. 44)

We have extended our confideration of this fma pamphlet to an unusual length, from a deep fenfe of the importance of its fubject. The author of the difcourfe has been misled by no vifionary schemes of improvement. He has no plan for the introduction of Arcadian manners into vulgar life; no infallible fpecific for the uninterrupted felicity of the human race. He proposes the obfervance of the exifting laws, which it is the duty of every magiftrate to enforce, and which it is the intereft of every gentleman to promote, as they will raife an induftrious and virtuous race around his dwelling, and bring the praifes and bleflings of the poor home to his houfe. I any example can teach the political fchemer the dangers of innovation, and how idle it is to expect that the benefits of a new fyftem, even where it does not force up fociety from its ancient habits, fhall correfpond with thofe which glitter over its furface while it remains untried, it is the fyftem of our poor-laws. No ftatutes could be devifed more humane in their object, or more plaufible in their provifions, than those which direct the maintenance, and ascertain the fettlements of the poor. Yet gracious and neceflary as thefe laws were, after the confifcation of the church property, the legislature muft have paused upon their enactment, if they had foreseen the mifchiefs which have ar fen from them. They have been the force of encrmous expence, and infinite litigation; they have been used, in many inftances, as an engine for harraffing the rich, and for oppreffing the poor. It is not to be expected that thefe mifchievous confequences ever will be wholly eradicated. But we ought not to neglect improvement because we must defpair of perfection. As the principal fource of the evil is not in the law, but in the imperfect and flovenly manner in which it is carried into execution; it is in the power of every parish to apply the remedy, and remove the most prominent inconveniences of a fyftem, which cannot be abolished with fafety to the country.

ART.

ART. V. The Voyage of Hanno tranflated, and accompanied with the Greek Text; explained from the Accounts of modern Travellers; defended against the Objections of Mr. Dodwell' and other Writers, and illuftrated by Maps from Ptolemy, D'Anville, and Bougainville. By Thomas Falconer, A. M. Fellow of C. C. C. Oxford. 8vo. 105 PP. 5s. Cadell

and Davies. 1797.

WE

E had by no means overlooked or forgotten this learned and valuable publication, though the accidental delay of this account of its contents might wear that appearance. It falls in too exactly with the liberal courfe of geographical enquiries lately purfued by fome very learned writers, to be flighted by any liberal fcholar, It may be confidered particularly as the legitimate precurfor of Dr. Vincent's intended work on the Periplus of Arrian.

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This Voyage of Hanno is in the original a very short and fimple narrative, bearing many intrinfic marks of truth. Some of the facts contained in it have been repeated by ancient authors; and it has been confidered by fome very eminent moderns as a fingularly valuable relic of antiquity. Ifaac Voffius more efpecially, in his obfervations on Pomponius Mela, fays of it, Dignum eft hoc monumentum quod cum curâ illuftretur, non tantum veritatis ergo, fed et gratia antiquitatis, cum id omnibus Græcorum monumentis longe fit vetuftius." P. 302. It was printed by Hudfon, among the Geographi Minores, but accompanied by a long differtation from Dodwell, who, for the fake of oppofing Voffius, or from that morbid love of paradox by which he was poffeffed, chofe to argue that it was fpurious. To the text, in the prefent publication, the editor has fubjoined two very learned and judicious differtations; in the first of which he fhows, from the authorities of travellers, that most of the facts afferted by the writer of the Periplus are probable, or capable of very clear explanation. In the fecond, he combats the arguments of Dodwell, and very fairly fhows them to be captious and futile in an extraordinary degree. He does not however undertake to fay, that the prefent tract is the actual journal of Hanno; he modeftly afferts even less than might well be warranted by the confiderations he adduces. "I do not affert," he fays, "either that Hanno performed the Voyage, or compofed the narrative; but that a Voyage was performed, from which the materials of the prefent narrative were collected," P. 20. That Hanno performed fuch a Voyage, feems to be fufficiently teftified by ancient writers;

writers; the prefent Greek narrative was probably taken from the Punic original. We do not fee any reafon for conjecturing with Mr. Falconer, that Hanno might write it originally both in Punic and in Greek, though fuch inftances have exifted. It will be quite fufficient for the authenticity of its report, to be content with the more natural fuppofition, that it was tranflated from the Punic by a Greek.

Pliny fays (N. Hift. ii. 67) that Hanno failed round Africa to Arabia, and left an account of his Voyage in writing. This proves either that Pliny had never feen the Periplus, or that this is not the fame; for nothing of that kind is here faid. On the contrary it is faid, that from the country of the Gorilla, whence they brought fome skins of the wild females as a proof of their existence, they turned back, becaufe their provifions were exhausted. Scylax, whoever he might be*, or whoever might affume that name, feems to confirm Hanno, without copying him, and gives an account of the trade upon the coast as it flood after it had been fettled by Hanno. When the latter account was written, trade was not carried on beyond Cerne, probably on account of the danger and expence of the further navigation. One of the difficulties found by modern examiners, is to fix the pofition of this ifland Cerne. Ptolemy's account is certainly wrong, if this voyage be genuine. Hanno fays (or feems to fay, for the Greek expreffion is fingular; Sx, for was equal to) that it was as far from the Straits to Cerne, as from Carthage to the Straits; Scylax gives the number of days. By a confideration of thefe two circumstances, in a ftrict comparison with the coaft, the pofition of Cerne might probably be fixed. Bougainville and others have placed it at the island of Arguin, which is not deftitute of probability. The epithet given to Cerne by Dionyfius the geographer, exactly coincides with the report of Scylax, that the trade ended there. He calls it μán, extreme.

Αυτῷ ἐπ' Ωκεανῷ πυμάτης παρὰ τέμπεα ΚΕΡΝΗΣ.

The fancy of Dodwell, that Tiunea muft imply all the circumstances which exifted in the Tempe of Theffaly, is perfectly ridiculous. The fame poet has ἱερα τέμπεα Δάφνης, the facred Tempe of Daphne, to exprefs the beautiful spot in the neighbourhood of Antioch. 1.916.

*Scylax of Caryanda, was employed by Darius to fail from the Indus to the Perfian Gulf. The name was thus rendered famous, and therefore perhaps was chofen; but we cannot attribute to him what is now extant under that name.

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