labour and make it possible, whilst on the other hand they give a sanction to irresponsibility amongst the poor.
With regard to the payment of labour, undoubtedly there has been great improvement in the past century if we may trust such authorities as the late Professor Thorold Rogers, Mr Shaw Lefevre, and many others. There is still much to be desired in many directions, but so far as we can judge from the reports of the Labour Department of the Board of Trade and the statistics given in the Report of the Labour Commission that improvement still continues. The progress made has been made, be it remembered, under a Poor Law which, in principle at least, is confined to the relief of destitution, though in practice it has often gone far afield. Many still believe that the maintenance of that principle is the sheet anchor of future progress.
Next to and of equal importance with the adequate payment of labour is the strengthening of the desire for self-maintenance and self-respect. We hear much of altruism and collectivism in these days. We hear but little of self-respect. If we do hear of it, it is apt to be identified with selfishness and self-love. Yet we have authority for saying even of self-love—
"Self-love, my lord, is not so vile a sin
As self-neglecting."
With the weakening or annihilation of self-respect and the principle of self-maintenance the evils which we seek to abolish grow in intensity; no relief can supply the gap which is created by the weakening of character. Most of us probably know many concrete cases of people who have been ruined by "charity "and the Poor Law between them. We see them in the streets every day. Self-respect is a
