PEWTER

¹ As a specimen of this extraordinary composition, we shall take leave to introduce here the following extract, which appears to us to be eminently characteristic: "As for legacies for the poor, I am at a stand; as for beggars by trade and election, I give them nothing; as for impotents by the hand of God, the public ought to maintain them; as for those who have been bred to no calling or estate, they should be put upon their kindred; as for those who can get no work, the magistrate should cause them to be employed, which may be well done in Ireland, where is (are) fifteen acres of improvable land for every head; prisoners for crime, by the king; for debts, by their prosecutors; as for those who compassionate the sufferings of any object, let them relieve them, and relieve themselves by relieving such sufferings, that is, give them alms pro re nata, and for God's sake relieve those several species above mentioned, where the above-mentioned obligers fail in their duties: Wherefore I am contented that I have assisted all my poor relations, and put many in a way of getting their own bread, and have laboured in public works, and by inventions have sought out real objects of charity; and do hereby conjure all who partake of my estate, from time to time to do the same at their peril. Nevertheless, to answer custom, and to take the surer side, I give L. 20 to the most wanting of the parish wherein I die." Here we have the domain of charity laid out by a political economist; and after the exclusion of the various classes above specified, it must be confessed that enough will scarcely remain to render it discernible on the map of the moral duties; though, "to answer custom and to take the surer side," a prudent Dives may, out of his enormous wealth, leave some L. 20 to the most destitute of the parish wherein death separates him from all his earthly possessions.