Cylchgronau Cymru

THE CAMBRIAN QUARTERLY MAGAZINE AND (Ktltit Bepeilovg. No. 14.—APRIL 2, 1832.—Vol. IV. A Letter to the Lord Chancellor on the Expediency of Establishing a General State Insurance, to defray the Expense of an efficient Rural Police, and to operate towards the gradual Reduction of the Poor Rates. MY LORD, The alarming increase of pauperism, vagrancy, and crime, more particularly incendiarism, together with the consequent accu¬ mulating burthen of the Poor Rates, call loudly for the remedial interposition of the legislature. Indeed, unless some speedy cure be devised for these crying evils, we cannot but feel the most serious apprehensions, lest, at no distant period, the rich¬ est country in the world, however paradoxical the assertion, may become overwhelmed by its own pauperism. Various projects have been proposed, and others are said to be now in contemplation, but it is evident no remedy will be effec¬ tual that shall not assure the attainment of this fourfold object, viz. 1. Provision for the invalid poor unable to work. 2. Work for those poor who are unwilling to labour, or una¬ ble to procure employment. 3. The prevention, repression, and speedy correction of crime, combined with that general "surveillance" of the country, which shall afford effectual protection to the persons and property of its inhabitants. 4. And, lastly, an alleviation of the present onerous pressure of the parochial rates. The writer presumes to flatter himself that the accomplishment of these four desirable purposes may be simultaneously effected by the adoption of a system, the general outlines of which he has NO. XIV. L