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 of pauperism;and he found that, in 1837, the rates levied in England and Wales for the relief of the poor amounted to 4,044,741; and in 1843, they amounted to £5,200,000. The number of paupers chargeable upon the rates, when the period of distress commenced, was 1,000,000; and when the Minister announced that there were indications of the distress having subsided, the number was 1,500,000. What was the number of able-bodied adult paupers at the same period, unable to obtain employment, and depending upon the poor rates for relief? At the period when the distress commenced, the number was under 200,000, that was in 1836; and in 1842 the number was 407,570. Then, observe in particular places the increase in the amount expended inrelieving the poor in dear years, as compared with cheap years. He found that the amount expended—

Throughout the manufacturing districts there was great increase, but it was not confined to these districts. The increase was hardly less in the agricultural districts. In the fifteen chief agricultural counties he found the increase in the amount of poor rates between 1836 and 1842 was 21 per cent., while in the twelve principal manufacturing counties the increase had been 30½ per cent. This surely was sufficient to show the injurious effect of high prices of food on the labouring population."

Effect of deficiency of food on health:—

"There was a most important report by Dr. Alison, in which it was stated 23,000 persons existed in Edinburgh in an entirely destitute state, and completely dependent upon casual charity. He said:—'As the botanist can tell the quality of the soil from the flowers that spontaneously arise upon it, the physician knows the state of a people from the epidemics that mow it down. It is not asserted that destitution is a cause adequate to the production of fever (although in some circumstances I believe it may become such), nor that it is the sole cause of its extension. What we are sure of is, that it is a cause of the rapid diffusion of contagious fever, and one of such peculiar power and efficacy that its existence may always he presumed when we see fever prevailing in a large community to an unusual extent. The manner in which deficient nourishment, want of employment, and privations of all kinds, favour the diffusion of fever, may he matter of dispute; but that they