When they are
turned out of their lodgings he re-establishes them by force; if they are
distrained on for non-payment of rent, he will not allow the tribunals to
treat the distress as legal. What think you, as a political economist, of
this form of outdoor relief?
What makes the thing amusing is, that the Government which uses this
violent mode of lodging the working classes, is the very same Government
which, by its mad public works, by drawing to Paris suddenly a hundred
thousand workmen, and by destroying suddenly ten thousand houses, has
created the deficiency of habitations. It seems, however, that the
systematic intimidation and oppression of the rich in favour of the poor,
is every day becoming more and more one of the principles of our
Government.
I read yesterday a circular from the prefect of La Sarthe, a public
document, stuck up on the church-doors and in the market-places, which,
after urging the landed proprietors of the department to assess
themselves for the relief of the poor, adds, that their insensibility
becomes more odious when it is remembered that for many years they have
been growing rich by the rise of prices, which is spreading misery among
the lower orders.
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