educated, well versed in political economy, and possessing firmness and decision, tempered with humanity, should preside as judge. It would be his province to have the pauper brought before the jury, to keep proper decorum, and to explain to all parties the relations in which they stood to each other; making the jury, in the first place, properly acquainted with their functions; and, secondly, letting the pauper know that his fate rested with men of his own condition, who could either grant him relief or consign him to hard labour, according to his deserts. A code of laws would be required, concise and simple, which, in a short time, would become understood by all classes.

On a former occasion the objects seeking relief were specifically enumerated; at present we may consider them under the same three classes; first, the aged, infirm, and impotent poor generally; second, the industrious accidently thrown out of employment; third, the idle or the vagrant. To uphold in the labourer the feeling of self-respect, it ought to be a fundamental principle, that the maintenance of a man thrown upon the parish should be of inferior description to that of those in active employment. No matter how great the pressure, or how mean the fare, generally in use by the labouring classes, a man receiving charity should live still lower than he who is struggling, of his own accord, to maintain independence. Contentment in life is altogether comparative; and to let the labourer view the condition of the pauper with dread, would go a great way to make him prudent, before he ventured on the charge of a family.

Supposing the condition of the labourer actually employed superior to that of the same class in other countries, the operation of the proposed plan might, in its working, be particularly humane, notwithstanding the apparent harshness with which the pauper was treated. He would still receive relief sufficient for subsistence; he would find his condition enviable, when contrasted with the starvation and misery prevailing in other countries; and yet, to his own fellow-labourers at home, in employment, he might seem to suffer much privation. Labourers, themselves working laboriously, will never think of meting out to paupers too large a scale of allowance, when it is left to their own option to decide upon the nature of the work, the description of the food, and the mode of receiving it. They will frame a scale of expenditure adapted to all the classes; increasing or decreasing in liberality, according to the merits or previous conduct of the applicant. By confirming the maintenance of the pauper decidedly within such limits as can be compassed by the lowest description of labour in actual employment in the neighbourhood, the line of proceeding is clear and definite. If the common labourer spend fifteen shillings per week in subsistence, then that of the pauper, in case he is blameable for improvidence, should be limited to twelve shillings, or less, as the case may be. If the one partake of comforts, such as tea and coffee, the efficient pauper should partake of no such enjoyment.

This system of strict discrimination and severe vigilance would not, in the slightest degree, militate against the purely unfortunate. The jury would have power to exercise indulgence; a deserving man, deprived of work by unmerited distress, would meet with sympathy; and it is proper that the jury should have power to exercise so laudable a feeling. Amongst the lower classes there is no want of sympathy; and the connecting ties of brotherhood possess a moral charm, which cannot be too indefatigably strengthened. The social circle is drawn closer and closer, and a double

value is given to the pecuniary gift. On the other hand, in cases of incorrigible vagrancy, some punishment should follow conviction, and no punishment is so much dreaded as steady and constant labour. Solitary confinement sometimes might be properly resorted to; and these considerations, relative to the time and manner of compensation for previous idleness, should be left to the free discretion of the jury, who, under the authority and admonition of the person presiding, should possess the power of sentencing the vagrant to one week, one month, or three months labour or confinement, according to the turpitude of the case.'pp. 134-138.

To the result of such an institution as this on the moral feelings of the lower classes, the author looks with great expectations. By the frequent assembling of these juries, important and practical lessons in political economy will be unfolded; the labourer will have explained to him the reason why employment is beyond his reach-but the especial advantage to be derived from the existence of such a tribunal is, that it will afford repeated proofs of the utility, or rather, the necessity of every young man in the capacity of a labourer, taking care that he does not enter into matrimony, without a provision sufficient to keep his future family from the parish. The labourer will soon learn to look to himself for support during his life; and, in order to be able to accomplish the scheme of self-support, to which so many motives will direct him, he must be economical-he must be sober-he must be industrious.

The author continues to pursue the description of the new tribunal and its duties, to the utmost limits of its possible jurisdiction, dispensing with the greatest caution the offices of its executive administration, and defining their respective duties, with as much precision as if the law for establishing his parochial courts had actually received the royal assent. His innovations, however, are pushed too far; and, in their extravagance, are apt to throw discredit on the general measure. He proposes, for instance, that to aid, and illustrate the execution of this measure, a weekly journal should be established, at the expense of a number of united districts; that the journal should proclaim the names of the paupers who claimed support; should give reports of cases in which there were any circumstances that tended to exemplify the disadvantages of improvident marriages, negligence, drunkenness, or any other improper conduct; and should, lastly, contain essays relating to commerce, manufactures, wages, &c. in a way capable of being understood by the humblest.

The funds necessary for the support of any poor which the new system could not altogether supersede, are recommended to be supplied principally out of the property of those who are most interested in the suppression of pauperism. Land, therefore, is the great fountain from which the poor fund should be collected; and here again the rate should be levied on each proprietor, in

proportion to the interest he has in the same suppression. Besides, the landlords or occupiers of land, the labouring classes, it is proposed, should likewise be obliged to contribute. A small payment from the members of this class, say three pence per week, would make up an annual sum, (provided the number of those receiving wages throughout the country were five millions,) of not less than 2,600,000l.

It is an essential part of this system, that the paupers should be put to work, but that as they would compete with some independent artisan, were they to be employed in any of the ordinary trades, our projector has thought it advisable to consign the paupers to that description of occupation which in the usual state of things would not be called into existence, but of the utility of which no doubt could exist. Thus we find, that he suggests the undertaking of extensive embankments from the sea; the formation of footpaths; the removal of nuisances; and in some agricultural villages, the author doubts not but that it would be practicable to get up a set of tread-mills, to be worked by vicious paupers, who would then be intitled to the credit of having ruined all the millers of the parish. Another proposition of the author is, that labourers who are in danger of becoming paupers, should be enabled to shape out work for themselves, without any detriment to others. No matter what ingenuity a pauper may be possessed of, he must not spoil the vested interests of a neighbouring shoemaker or barber, and so decided is our projector in the maintenance of this principle of exclusion, that he absolutely insists that new articles of consumption must be created! He will allow, however, an exception in favour of furniture adapted for labourers' houses, and also for making and embellishing the dresses of labourers' wives and their daughters.

The author having now accomplished the grand object of setting the, paupers to work, the next point is, to create a market where their manufactures may be disposed of, still keeping to the principle that the vested interests of the regular tradesmen are sacred. Upon this subject the author proposes the following expedient:

It seems expedient to establish in those districts chiefly inhabited by the working classes, a large bazaar, to be devoted to the sale of articles fabricated by the labourers and their families. The object is to bring into existence an additional quantity of commodities, and to expose and congregate those articles in such a manner, consulting display and convenience, that every person will at once be attempted to consume, and, consequently, sedulous to produce. There is little doubt that the lower orders are desirous to consume as well as other descriptions of people; and if we show them that production is within their reach, enabling them to compass additional gratification with a little exertion, new wants will arise, possessing an inherent principle of growth, which must extend, and gradually elevate the scale of their living. It would be desirable to have those bazaars built on an extensive scale. They might be divided into

two stories: on the lower floor would be stalls for tables, chairs, household implements of every description, and all such articles as can be as advantageously made by a single man as by the intervention of capitalists: in the upper floor would be stalls for gowns, shirts, bonnets, stockings, made up dresses, and every species of sempstress' work in general. It would be proper to have those buildings, in the first instance, erected by subscription, or public funds, in order that the rents might be trifling, and that every article might be sold as cheaply as possible.'-pp. 181, 182.

Another part of the plan is to apply a portion of the pauper fund in encouraging ingenious operatives to make discoveries which may be useful to commerce and the arts. Rewards, it is suggested, should apply to every pursuit which can be undertaken by human hands, and one of the first steps that should be taken with the view of creating fresh opportunities for employment, is the erection in every town of a large institution for the encouragement of the fine arts. A great opening, according to this writer, would be afforded to the genius of the provinces for a profitable exercise of its powers in the art of painting and sculpture, inasmuch as there are at present but very few of the town-halls of England ornamented with memorials of the illustrious citizens who flourished at any time as mayors or sheriffs of a particular locality. Here, therefore, is at once a field for employment which has the peculiar recommendation in its favour, that it may be cultivated to any extent, without infringing on the permanent interests of any portion of society.

We must stop here. The reader will agree with us that enough has been extracted from this work to show the intentions of the author in his proposed scheme. The practicability of his plan seems to us to be about as probable as the substitutions of airballoons for coaches and sailing vessels. We have, however, deemed it necessary to give a sketch of the means by which he would redress one of our greatest national calamities, merely as a specimen of the nature of the speculations in which the human mind, even in these days, will sometimes indulge.

ART. V.-Records of Travels in Turkey, Greece, &c. and of a Cruise in the Black Sea with the Capitan Pasha, in the years 1829, 1830, and 1831. By ADOLPHUS SLADE, Esq. In 2 Vols. 8vo. London: Saunders and Otley. 1832.

THERE is in these volumes a source of interest for British readers, exceeding in attraction whatever might be expected in a work which purports to be merely the record of an extensive journey through foreign countries. They contain the results of protracted observation directed on the inhabitants of the Turkish dominions,

during an interesting period of the recent history of that empire, namely, the time when an experiment had but just been introduced by the Sultan for the purpose of ameliorating the moral condition of his subjects. The importance of the author's testimony regarding the present condition of Turkey, and the effects upon it of the reforms instituted by the government, is considerably enhanced by the circumstance, that these measures have comparatively failed-that instead of being a blessing to the people they have proved to it a curse, and that they have only widened the breach between contending parties, and even shaken the very foundations of the throne. Descriptions which involve such historical coincidences as these, must be pregnant with instruction to states of every degree. They are striking lessons-they are warnings that are calculated to make an indelible impression on the civilized world.

But it would be great injustice to the author were the observations which we have just concluded, to be considered as implying, that the general contents of these volumes were of a description to require some such accidental material as that which we have just alluded to, in order to confer interest upon them. We are happy to have it in our power to undeceive any reader who may have mistakenly so interpreted our remarks, and to assure him, that no record of travels in modern times, with which we are acquainted, presents so many features of general attraction as the volumes before us. This superiority is owing, in some measure, to the fortunate opportunities which Mr. Slade enjoyed of becoming acquainted with Turkish character and manners, and by and by we shall come to understand how great is the debt we owe to him for the use to which he has converted the facilities thus luckily afforded him.

The author seems to be a traveller from taste, and to have been led to undertake the long journey, of which these volumes present an account, from curiosity alone. After making the tour of France, passing through part of Italy, and sailing amidst the Grecian isles, Mr. Slade reached the Bosphorus in May 1829. He remained in Constantinople for some time, when he proceeded to some of the chief places which could be conveniently visited by one who was cruising in the Black Sea. He next visited Roumelia, the seat of a war then subsisting between the Russians and the Turks, passed the winter quarters of the former, and arrived at Shumla. From this place, so celebrated in the annals of war, the traveller returned to Constantinople; thence he migrated to Adrianople, and visited Demotica, Enos, Samothraki, and Mount Athos, as also Salonica and Smyrna, returning home by way of Italy.

At the period of the author's arrival at Constantinople the Turks were busily employed in preparations for the second campaign with Russia. The fleet of the contending powers were on the sea, that of the Turks being anchored in the Bosphorus. It happened that out of