It probably arises from several causes; the increasing luxury, which leaves more persons in indigence when they come to an advanced age, owing to their being unwilling or unable to undergo the hardships to which nature subjects those who have been born to labour, and outlive their vigour; being thereby deprived of those indulgences which, in better days, they have experienced. In England, menial servants are accustomed to consume more than people of moderate fortune do in other countries, and they are the race of people most likely to be left to penury in their old age. In countries where there are, indeed, greater trains of menial attendants than in England, they, in general, belong to the great, who make some provision for them, or who, keeping them from ostentation, can retain them to a more advanced age; and, at all events, as they live a less luxurious life, they can make a better stand against that penury which it is their hard destiny to encounter. [end of page #247]
In a commercial country there is less attachment between master and servant, than in any other; and the instances of provision for them are very rare.
In proportion as a nation gets wealthy, the human race shares the same fate with other animals employed in labour; they are worked hard, and well fed while they are able to work, but their services are not regarded when they can do but little. {194}
Want of economy in the management of the funds destined for the purpose of their maintenance is another cause of increase in the expense of the poor. In a nation where every individual is fully occupied with his affairs, and has little time to attend to any thing else, those who manage the affairs of the poor find that few are inclined to look close into matters, and fewer still have the means of doing it if they would; so that abuses increase, as is always the case when there is no counteracting check to keep them within bounds.
Another cause, no doubt, is that, as the number of unproductive labourers increase, greater numbers of children are left in want.
To all those causes we must add the increase of towns, and the decrease of hamlets and villages. Towns are the places where indigence has the greatest consolation, and where the relief which is held out is attended with the least degree of humiliation and reproach.
When we compare the cases of England and Scotland, the causes cannot be doubted; for, there, servants live harder, the working class do not labour so hard, and are not so soon worn out, neither have the towns increased so much, at the expense of the hamlets and villages.
The greatest of all the causes of the increase of poor, however, arises from taxation and rent. It has been observed, in the chapter on Taxation, that, for a certain length, taxes and rent are productive of industry, and that, at last, they finish by crushing it entirely.
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{194} If it were the custom to keep horses that were worn out till they died a natural death, the maintenance of them would cost more in England than in any other country; for their vigour is exhausted before the term of old age arrives. The calculation is in this country, to pay well, and be well served.