in considering "the Laws of Action of Benevolence and Destructiveness" (see vol. x., p. 1); and the following quotations will farther illustrate the principle. "The effect of extreme destitution," says Dr Alison in a former work, "on the general conduct of man, is brutalising; it is to deaden, more or less, the sensibility to all feelings of a higher order than the sensual appetites."-(On the Management of the Poor in Scotland, p. 117.) "Mr Hume," says Dr Wade, "in one of his essays, alludes to the deteriorating effects of misery on individual character. A prosperous man will be found more accessible to virtuous emotions than one who has been soured by want and disappointment. Every one knows that it is a more favourable moment to ask a favour of a person when full than fasting; after dinner, when the heart has been mellowed by a good repast, than before. Narratives of shipwrecks, the history of the French campaign in Russia, and traits of character in our peninsular wars, testify how the noblest natures may be subdued by the constant pressure of cold, hunger, and fatigue, and rendered callous to every claim save that of self-relief and preservation. The same causes will influence the character of a whole community suffering under the misery produced by a redundant population. It is a struggle for existence, in which moral and social ties are disregarded in the conflict for food, profit, and employment. The debasing effects of want and indigence may be remarked in the different demeanour of the several classes of society. Prudence and forethought are mostly proportioned to the degrees of comfort enjoyed. The lower we descend in the social scale, the greater is the recklessness we find as to future consequences."-(Wade's History of the Middle and Working Classes, 2d edit., p. 325.) "Kindness," says Dr Johnson, "must be commonly the exuberance of content: the wretched have no compassion-they can do good only from strong principles of duty."-(Letter to Mrs Thrale, April 14, 1781.) The temper," says W. J. Fox, "gives way, it becomes hard and cold, and even fierce, under the multiplied evils of physical privation."—(Lecture on the Corn-Law Question, considered in its Moral Bearings, 1839, p. 10.) The acts of incendiarism which abounded in Suffolk last year, afford an impressive commentary on the principle here laid down. From the evidence collected by a gentleman sent into that county by the proprietors of the Times, it appears that the crime prevailed chiefly in consequence of the misery arising from the want or insufficiency of employment, and was hardly known in those districts where the labourers could earn even a bare subsistence. The reporter

says "The clergyman of the next village told me,- The labourers' wives, when I call at their cottages, tell me, My husband has been out of work three days or two days this week, and we and the children are almost hungered; it's hard to bear, God knows, and it puts bad thoughts into my husband's head!' 9 This clergyman told me he had heard these fearful words, It puts bad thoughts into my husband's head,' fifty times." To return to Dr Alison's work:

He urges, with perfect success, that the Christian maxim quoted by the Commissioners, is applicable, not to all the able-bodied poor, but only to those who "will not work;" and that nothing more can be deduced from it than this,that, in giving relief to such persons, "we ought to satisfy ourselves that they cannot find work, we ought to establish a test of destitution, and, wherever it is possible, couple that relief with labour."

Facts are then adduced, fully proving the unsoundness of the opinion that legal relief to the poor must create more of general want than it supplies; and he justly concludes, not only that a legislative protection against destitution, to ablebodied labourers unable to find employment, is not necessarily destructive, or even injurious, to the moral character of those receiving it, but that it actually elevates and maintains their character, and that nothing is so certainly ruinous to the love of independence and industry, as a long period of abject destitution and despondency. "That the object which the Commissioners seem to have so much at heart, of stimulating the industry of the poor,' should be much better accomplished under the operation of an effective provision against destitution, than where they are thrown on their own resources,' on the failure of employment, is easily understood by those who have observed, that all the greatest efforts of human industry, in all ranks of society, are made under the exciting and animating influence of Hope, not under the depressing and slavish feeling of Fear. I formerly quoted the just and profound observation of the late Dr M'Gill-that the great error in many speculations on this subject is the notion that the only motive that stimulates the labouring orders to activity, is the fear of want. On the contrary, the love of distinction, the hope of reward, the fear of shame, the sense of duty, the welfare of friends, and neighbours, and relations, are daily stimulating men of the lowest condition (just as decidedly as those of the higher ranks) to active exertions.' But whatever be the general explanation, the fact of injury to character, by imperfectly relieved destitution, both as to the adults themselves, and still more as

to their children, is fully ascertained on such a scale as to be a fit ground for legislation."—(P. 232-3). These remarks are equally sound and valuable.

It is true, as Dr Alison admits, that of this, as of all other charities, there is a certain risk of abuse; but the risk attends equally the voluntary as the legal relief,-equally the aged and infirm poor, who may be, and are, in part, supported by their relations, as that of the able-bodied poor, who may be, and are, in part, supported by their savings. Experience shews that it is to be obviated not by refusing relief, in cases of real destitution anywhere, but by regulating the relief given everywhere; and, certainly, there is far greater chance of the discriminating bestowal of charity under a legal provision than under the voluntary mode which now prevails.

Of the condition of the insane poor we have already published sufficient particulars (vol. xvii., p. 253), and also quoted (p. 316) the recommendation of the Commissioners, that parochial boards should be obliged to send them to asylums.

With respect to the Highlands, Dr Alison is of opinion that, "under proper management, workhouses in some of the larger villages or towns might be safely and beneficially introduced into the Highlands, for the classes of the poor peculiarly adapted to them; but it is obvious that the labour test must be the chief safeguard for preventing abuse, when relief is given to the able-bodied poor in such districts. And I cannot doubt that the introduction of work, done by paupers at the public expense, into the country, would be the true stimulus, now wanted, to induce the landlords to set on foot those different improvements, which require, indeed, some outlay and much attention on their parts, but which, according to many witnesses, would furnish a profitable investment for labour in almost all parts of the country."

We have so much faith in the coincidence of the dictates of well-directed benevolence with sound policy, that we feel confident that the interests and happiness of all classes of society would ultimately be promoted, by the enactment of such a poor-law as experience has shewn to be really beneficial to the poor. That the irresistible power of public opinion will effect the desiderated reform we have an equally strong conviction. "The tendency of the present age," says Dr Alison, "is undoubtedly towards more charitable views of human nature, and more liberal and humane measures, than were popular with our ancestors; and this change is so consonant with the spirit of Christianity, that I cannot doubt of its being progressive in a nation which stands at present at the head of the Christian world. In legislation and va

rious departments of human affairs, it is certain that less is trusted to fear, and more to the excitement, and cultivation, and encouragement, of the better and higher feelings of our nature. The great public duty of the education of the people is more generally recognised; and the natural inference is, that we must be prepared to treat all classes of society as men to whom the blessings of education have been imparted; and that it is unwise to treat even the lowest of the species as if they were capable of being influenced only by fear, and that it is safe to trust to the power of more elevated and generous motives. This gradual change has not only been going on, but has been found by experience to be safe and beneficial. We observe this tendency in the present views of mankind as to slavery, and as to colonial policy in general. We observe it in the management of our prisons, and still more in the improvements in our criminal law. When Howard began to propose measures for the physical and moral purification of the inmates of jails, he was met by the very same objections that are now stated to a more liberal and merciful treatment of the poor; that the objects of this false and ill-directed philanthropy' were so debased, so improvident, lazy, and intemperate, that all kindness bestowed on them was thrown away, and would only serve as an encouragement to vice and crime in others; but the progress of those improvements has shewn, that the more liberal and charitable view of human nature was the more just. At the present day we see the safety of various ameliorations of the law, which have been made in this spirit. We see that property is not less safe, because we no longer hang thieves and forgers,-that crimes are not less detested, because we do not immure criminals in receptacles of physical and moral infection,-and that Religion is not less respected, because we have ceased to burn heretics. So, also, we may be assured that industry and independence will not be less valued, when we shall cease (as we shall) to believe, that the only security for the maintenance of those virtues among the poor, is to leave them and their children exposed to such sufferings and sorrows, as I have taken upon me to describe and to denounce."-Pp. 300, 302.

It is with poverty as with other evils; to remove it we must remove its causes. These, and the means of counteracting them, are discussed by Mr Combe in his Moral Philosophy, Lectures XII. and XIII., where he shews the tendency of a too economical management of the poor to maintain the causes in operation, and even to produce new generations of paupers. Ill-feeding weakens the brain and whole body.

V. The Duality of the Mind proved by the Structure, Functions, and Diseases of the Brain, and by the Phenomena of Mental Derangement; and shewn to be essential to Moral Responsibility. By A. L. WIGAN, M.D. London: Longman & Co. 1844. 8vo.

(Second Notice.)

Though hostile to Dr Wigan's theory of the independent and frequently opposite working of the two brains or hemispheres, as a permanent habitual mode of action, we have already admitted, that, in certain exceptional cases, the theory seems to us to be the only one capable of accounting for the mental phenomena. But in a subject so obscure, and where demonstrative evidence is hardly to be attained, we are disposed, in treating of the effects of the duality of the brain, to speak rather with the diffidence expressed by Dr Holland and Mr Watson, than in the bold and unhesitating tone of Dr Wigan. The strongest cases in favour of the notion that the two brains can act singly, are those of which some examples were given on p. 178 of our last Number; and we now quote the following weaker case, related by Kotzebue of himself, and to which our attention has lately been directed by Dr Wigan:-"In the course of the night," says Kotzebue, "a remarkable circumstance took place, the explanation of which I must leave to my good friends, Doctors Gall and Hufeland. I had fallen asleep; towards twelve o'clock I awoke, and fancied myself on board a ship. I not only felt the rocking motion of the vessel, but heard the flapping of the sails, and the noise and bustle of the crew. As I lay on the floor, I could see no objects through the window, except the sky, and this circumstance added to the force of the illusion. I was sensible it was such, and endeavoured to overcome it. I felt myself, as it were, furnished with two separate minds; the one confirmed what I fancied, the other convinced me that it was all imaginary. I staggered about the room, thought I saw the counsellor, and everything that surrounded me the evening before, remaining absolutely in the same place. I went to the window; I thought the wooden houses in the streets were ships, and in every direction I perceived the open sea. Whither am I going? seemed to say one mind. Nowhere, replied the other; you are still in your own apartment. This singular sensation, which I cannot well describe, continued for half an hour; by degrees it became less powerful, and at length entirely quitted me.