The Book of the Bastiles: Or, the History of the Working of the New Poor-Law (Classic Reprint)

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Excerpt from The Book of the Bastiles: Or, the History of the Working of the New Poor-Law The author's reason for calling into existence such a work as the one now presented to the public, was, the conception that a publication, similar in its tendency, was not only, under the present dispensation of affairs, required, but imperatively demanded, and that as much to perpetuate and hand down to the appreciation of posterity the humane exertions of the New Poor-Law Opposition, as to justify, by a condensed (though necessarily comprehensive) and interesting selection of their sayings and doings, their conduct in the eyes of the existent generation. In fact, the author deemed there was need in our libraries of a book of national reference - a standard history of Anti-New Poor-Law eloquence and benevolence, and of Pro-New Poor-Law enormities and horrors - a book which our children's children hereafter, when the abominable enactment shall be repealed (as repealed it must be), might consult and wonder o'er as a chronicle that such things were, and, in closing the leaves, bless God that such things were no longer. The Book of the Bastiles is composed not only for the present generation, but for posterity (and to both, surely, such a work will be useful and acceptable) - not only to excite the abhorrence of future beings for an atrocious legislative decree and its administrators, but, at the same time, to show those who shall fill our vacant places, when we shall be no longer seen, that there were not wanting men - and fine, noble-minded men too - notwithstanding the outrageous inhumanity which prevailed at the period - who, in the face of arbitrary power, persecution, death, and neglect and contempt worse to brook than death, dared be honest, dared be humane, and oppose it. In other words, the Book of the Bastiles is intended to certify to Englishmen, yet unborn, that the same age which produced a Brougham, a Russell, a Malthus, and a "Marcus, " nurtured and reared also, as if in extenuation, a Stanhope, an Oastler, a Fielden, and a Walter, - a General Johnson, and a Bishop of Exeter, as excellent as eloquent - benevolent - a constant opponent of the "boon." But the paramount reason for publishing the Book of the Bastiles was, the urgent necessity in the present alarming crisis - a crisis mainly attributable to the operation of such harsh, biting statutes as the New Poor-Law - of calling the attention of the upper and middle classes to the inhumanity, unchristianity, injustice, and political and social danger of the continued administration of the New Poor-Law Amendment-Act in England and Wales. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.