Page:Landholding in England.djvu/129

 so much sympathy for paupers, unless it had been felt that the paupers were to be pitied. The wilfully idle are not pitied. And if half of those receiving relief could have earned their living, and there was, as asserted, plenty of work for them, why did not those who had to keep them see that they did -this work and kept themselves?

Defoe was very emphatic about there being work if a man chose to work; for if not, "why are gaols rummaged" for recruits for the army? If there was really no work, they would be glad to wear the Queen's cloth, "or anybody's cloth," rather than go naked. Real poverty drives men in crowds into armies. But he that can earn 20s. a week in steady employment "must be drunk or mad to list to be knock'd o' th' head for 3s. 6d. a week" (Address to Parliament, "Giving Alms no Charity," 1704). Defoe] says, what is perfectly true, that all our Acts for setting the poor to work in workhouses "are and will be a public nuisance," and will only increase the number of poor. At this time the Poor Rate had risen from £840,000 in 1673 to £1,000,000 in 1700. The whole revenue of the country is given as £3,895,285 in 1701; so that more than a quarter of the revenue raised by taxes was spent on the poor out of the rates ! And however much opinion may differ on all other points, it always agrees that poverty and absolute begging are increasing.

Misery had become so chronic and so vast that it was worth being exploited. In 1731 and 1732, the disgraceful affair of the "Charitable Corporation" excited the public to such a degree that people compared it with the South Sea Bubble — with which it had not the remotest resemblance. The Bubble was the result of the public's own speculation; while the Charitable Corporation was a most glaring instance of a benevolent institution captured by swindlers. It was founded to lend money to the poor on pledges. When the exposure came, it was found that for £159.276 there were no vouchers at all. For £44,874 there were vouchers unsigned by the borrowers. By the simple trick of issuing new notes on renewal of the old pledges, which the cashier was unable to pay, the holders of fictitious pledges—"and perhaps some real ones"—would go to the office, pay interest, and get a new note, though the old notes were neither paid nor called in.