nodvortzi, or one houfe owners. 3. Coffacks: fome of whom, by military service, have become noble. 4. Tartar tribes. 6. Disbanded foldiers. 7. Emancipated ferfs. 8. Malo-Ruffian boors. 9. Vaffal boors. These are of three kinds, 1. Crown boors. 2. Economy boors, formerly belonging to churches and monafteries. 3. Boors of the mines. 4. Noble and private boors. Refpecting these last, the Emprefs, in her inftructions, &c. declares her diffatisfaction at the feverity with which this inferior clafs is treated; a severity, as fhe fays, readily leading to resistance. She displayed unwearied attention in ameliorating their condition, and promoting their welfare, declaring her wish that vaffalage fhould be gradually abolished.

Amongst the valuable paffages quoted from the journal of Mr. Reginald Heber, in Clarke's Travels in Ruffia, it is faid, "we obferved a ftriking difference "between the peasants of the crown and those of "individuals. The former are almoft all in compa

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ratively easy circumftances. Their abrock, or rent, "is fixed; and as they are fure it will never be raised, "they are more induftrious. The peasants belong"ing to the nobles have their rent regulated by their "means of getting money; thus it becomes, not a "rent for land, but a downright tax on industry. "Each male peafant is obliged to labour three days "in each week for his proprietor. If a flave exer"cifes any trade which brings in more money than

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agricultural labour, he pays a higher abrock. "The aged and infirin are provided with food, and "raiment, and lodging, at their owner's expense. "Such as prefer cafual charity to the miferable "pittance they receive from their mafter,

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are

frequently furnished with paffports, and allowed to "feek their fortune; but they fometimes pay an

I

1

"abrock even for this permiffion to beg. The "number of beggars in Petersburg is very fmall; "as when one is found, he is immediately fent back "to his owner. In Moscow, and other towns, beg

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gars are numerous, though I think lefs fo than in "London. They beg with great modefty, in an "humble and low tone of voice, frequently croffing "themselves, and are much lefs clamorous and im"portunate than London beggars. The mafter has "the power of correcting his flaves by blows or con"finement; but if he is guilty of great cruelty, he "is amenable to the iaws: Inftances of barbarity are, however, by no means rare. Domestic fervants, and thofe employed in manufactories, as they are more exposed to cruelty, fo they fometimes revenge themfelves in 3 terrible manner. No "flave can quit his village, or his master's family, "without a paffport. The prifons of Moscow and "Koftroma were filled with runaway flaves, who "were for the moft part in irons. If a mafter is difpleafed with his flave, he may at any time "fend him for a foldier. With regard to the pea"fant's comforts, or means of fupporting existence, "I do not think they are deficient," &c.

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Thefe extracts, taken in fragments, with a view to brevity, fhew that a ftate of lordship and vaffalage, however galling to the poor, is, probably, not lefs onerous to the rich than the fyftem of legal poor's rates, and is furely not more favourable to general industry.

Iceland Poor Law.

In the very interesting narrative of Sir George Stewart Mackenzie's Travels in Iceland, during the fummer of 1810, &c. we find an account of a regularly established law to fecure the maintenance of the infirm poor. "The Icelandic laws refpecting "the condition and maintenance of the poor are very strictly enforced, and become much more "burthenfome to the farmers and peafants of the

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country than the taxes to which they are fubject. "With the exception of three fmall buildings for "the admiffion of a few incurable lepers, there is no "public establishment in the island which affords a permanent abode to the aged and deftitute; and "by all fuch the more immediate affistance of their

fellow citizens is therefore imperiously required. "The laws render it neceffary for every farmer or "householder to receive into his family, and to give "fupport to, thofe of his relations, even in the fourth

degree of kindred, who may be in a deftitute "condition. If he has no fuch calls made upon "him by confanguinity, he is ftill required to affift "in fupport of the poor, either by admitting fome 66 orphan or aged perfon into his house, or by con

tributing an annual fum proportioned to the value "of his property. It not unfrequently happens, that "a landed proprietor, who pays little more than two "rix-dollars to the public revenue, is called upon for "forty, fifty, or even fixty, as his ratio towards the "maintenance of the poor in the district, when he "is unwilling to receive any of theie into his own "habitation. The execution of the poor laws is "committed to the Hreppftiorè of each parish, and "forms the most effential part of the duties of his * office."

State of the Poor, and Charities, in Ireland.

The wealth of Ireland is lefs diffused than that of England. The great opulent proprietors are rarely refident on their eftates. The middle clafs is proportionably small, and ill educated. The poor numerous, ignorant, moft prolific, and moft thoughtlefs. A mixture of popery, with peculiar pagan superstition, the prevailing religion. Mendicity univerfal. All the helpless, infirm, and deftitute, feek fubfiftence from cafual charity. Wretches who cannot walk abroad to beg are carried by their idle neighbours from door to door, and fet down to obstruct the entrance, till they obtain a pittance of meal or money. Police in Dublin, and induftry in Belfast, however, preferve their streets in fome degree from fuch exhibitions.

In an "Account of Ireland, ftatistical and poli"tical, by Edward Wakefield, 1812," it is remarked, "the mountain tenants of Connaught are the spal

peens,' who in fummer travel into Leinfter in fearch "of work, while the wife and children wander about "begging, and foliciting charity for the honour of "GOD.' Groupes of thefe poor creatures may be "feen during the fummer months, from one fhore to "the other, perambulating the country, in want and "mifery. One of the children carries a tin kettle ; "others, if ftout enough, have a bundle of bed "clothes on their backs; and the mother is fre"quently loaded with an infant, that peeps over her "fhoulders out of a blanket in which it is fufpended. "Their clothes are filthy rags; and although the "roads are rugged and hard, none of them have "ftockings or fhoes." The author of the ftatistical account of the parish of Inch, in the county of Wigton, complains of its being infested with Irish beggars. "This parish," fays the author,

"is both willing and able to provide for its own poor, but the people are greatly oppreffed by "inundations of poor vagrants from Ireland. The great road from Portpatrick to Dumfries paffes through this parish, and is constantly swarming "with Irish beggars. They turn aside into the country, and either by entreaties, or by threats, extort alms from the inhabitants."-Sir J. Sinclair's Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. iii. p. 139.

I am not willing to extract inftances of the wretchedness of the Irish poor from Mr. Wakefield's book, (as vol. ii. p. 773,) I hope they are exaggerated; if they are not, much of the diftrefs of that country is attributable to the barbarous manners not only of the lower clafs, but of thofe above them. The best authority relative to the state of the poor is to be found in the different county furveys. “It "is furprifing," fays Mr. Tighe, Survey of Kilkenny, p. 473, "how, in the cheapest times, they "can struggle for existence, unaided as they are

by many little helps they meet with in this coun"try (England); and, in fact, we feed them on "fuch wretched diet, curtailed of that neceffary "article milk during great part of the year; fcantily "fupplied with potatoes; clothed with rags; famished "with cold in their comfortlefs habitations; nor can "they, though fober, frugal, and laborious, which "from my own knowledge I affert, provide against infirmity and old age with any other refource than begging and dependence, than the precarious re"lief of charity; extremities to which many are constantly reduced. None can tell better than the "members of the charitable focieties, what numbers "of miferable objects depend on the diftribution of "their bounty for existence, and how inadequate language is to convey a juft idea of their poverty

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