nably expected to
assist them. The separation of the individuals of this class from those
of the former one, is not made on the single ground that, according to
law, sons and unmarried daughters, and grandchildren, call be compelled
to support their sires. If the parochial authorities had no stronger
appeal than that which the law of Elizabeth affords, the pauper list
would soon be filled to overflowing. The law is more correct in
principle than efficient in practice. Fortunately, the natural feelings
of humanity effect that spontaneously, which the law with its penalties
cannot compel. It is a matter of daily remark by those who mix much and
observantly among the poor--not the class merely who struggle hard to
preserve a decent appearance, and to drive destitution from their
dwelling's but those who have no qualities which can engage, whose
ordinary habits are those of intemperance, whose manners are rough, and
whose language is coarse and obscure--and to a class still lower, who
are steeped in vice and crime, who seem regardless of God or man, and to
whom society appears to have done its worst; that even in these rude,
uncultivated, and depraved human beings, a strong under-current of
natural feeling wells up and flows perpetually. So strongly are these
feelings sometimes manifested in such characters, that they appear to be
developed with an intensity proportionate to the extent to which the
other feelings have been wrecked, and to the loss of sympathy which
these miserables have sustained from the world. It is too often
forgotten by those who are concerned for the poor, that these
feelings--the love of parents for offspring, and the reverence of
children for parents--are instinctive, and that their activity depends
upon the fact, whether there are children to be loved and parents to be
revered. And this being so, we may be satisfied that they are not
extinct in any case. They may not be expressed in good set terms, or in
the ordinary language of endearment. The conversation of these persons
may sound harsh to unaccustomed ears, and the acts may often coincide
with the words. But the bond of union is seen in acts of mutual defence,
in acts of mutual aggression, and in acts of mutual assistance. The true
ground of separation is, that it would be highly inexpedient, and
prejudicial to public morals, if the duties of these relations were to
be forgotten or superseded. And, therefore, when it appears from the
relieving of