were conducted, at this moment, before the English justices of the peace, they would soon be unable to provide prisons and asylums for even a tithe of their number.

It has been said, that if the ticket system carried on in some unions was adopted, with some little alteration, throughout the kingdom, 'begging would receive so great a shock, "and become such a bad trade, that thousands would no 'longer follow it, but be driven to do what they never would 'do otherwise-namely, work for an honest living.'

But this supposes a state of things which does not exist in England. It supposes that there is, with provisions at their present prices, labour and wages enough for all who now beg. We know that this is very far indeed from being the case; and until it shall be so, the ticket system would not meet, though it might mitigate, the evil.

With reference to the ticket system, as some of our readers may not have examined it in its details, we supply the following explanation.

The ticket system is an expedient hit upon by the Poor Law Commissioners, as well as by other enemies to vagrancy, to relieve real want, and yet provide against imposition. Every rate payer in a parish it has been proposed to supply with a certain number of blank tickets, to be filled up by him, or her, in favour of any vagrants demanding relief. The tickets are to be addressed to the governors of the Union House to which the poor of the parish are sent to reside, and the governors are to supply the applicant with lodging or food. Some, indeed, propose that the ticket should be valid within twenty miles' distance of the spot where it was given. The author of the pamphlet above referred to, says

To carry out the ticket system effectually, it would not only require the sanction of the poor law commissioners, but the hearty co-operation of the guardians and rate-payers. It will be further necessary, that every workhouse be provided with apartments for the reception of tramps, and with labour for them to do; that every rate-payer be supplied with plenty of the following, or some such kind of tickets, to give to persons soliciting relief, and never give money or food; and that such a ticket be a note of admission into

any workhouse to which it may be directed within twenty miles of the person's house sending.it.

'To the Governors of

Union Workhouse.

who solicits relief in consequence of and charge it to the

account of the overseers of my parish.

Dated this

day of

D. B.

Rate-payer of the parish of
184.

'On the other side of the note should be printed-« The person using this note (supposing him to go into workhouse in the evening) will be allowed a supper of seven ounces of bread and two ounces of cheese, a bed; and for breakfast, a pint of gruel and seven ounces of bread, for which he must do two hours' work before leaving in the morning. If he presents the note, or remains in during the day, he will not be allowed to go out till the morning following, and will be required to work the hours the other inmates do, and at the usual meal-times have the diet of the house. Children and the sick will be dieted at discretion.»'

If the vagrant act be not enforced against the hereditary and professional mendicants of England, at least this ticket system should; and if all classes of the English people would resolve on not relieving such mendicants by any other means, their fate would be certain-they must yield. But in the present state of the agricultural and manufacturing destitute poor, who are beggars for the time being, and who are so from a real pressure of want and misery, the English people, as a nation, will not apply the ticket system to them. It will, however, be enquired, 'what right have even then 'agriculturing or manufacturing destitute poor to complain, 'when an adequate provision has been made for them by the 'workhouse system of the poor laws! and what right have 'they to refuse the relief offered them by that system, and 'become beggars?'

We have so recently defended the workhouse system, and the conduct of the poor law commissioners in enforcing it, that there is no other answer necessary on our part, than the answer of fact; viz. that there is an immense and constantly-increasing number of destitute labourers and manufacturing poor, who will not, until they have made every

other effort to prevent it, become parish paupers. They will sing, sell little wares, tell their tales of misery, and beg; and try all of these expedients before they will consent to enter the unions. Of course, in some cases, this decision is the result of indolence, but in a multitude of others it results from a love of independence

If those labourers and artisans who decide on rejecting parochial relief according to the workhouse system, and on taking to the life of vagrants, could but foresee the wretchedness, misery, degradation, corruption, and vice, to which, in so many instances, that decision must lead them, we confess we think well enough of the English working classes to feel convinced that they would come to another decision. But with this we have at present no concern. They have wages too low, or no wages at all, or the necessaries of life too dear. Something must be done, but what that something must be, we have no intention at present to discuss; as we have already stated at the commencement of this article. (EDINBURGH REVIEW.)

THE BAGMAN'S TALE.

Some few months ago I was carried by the course of my journeys into Liverpool, to which the other members of this circuit were not expected to travel for a fortnight or three weeks. I cannot express to you the solitude of my condition. After my professional labours were over, I had no friendly circle to retire to, in which to while away the memory of the disagreeable incidents which beset the path of every person in business-and none more than persons in our callingcomplaints of orders not fulfilled-want of punctuality in executing an order - apparent differences between the sample and the article sent and other most unfounded and unpleasant observations I had no place in which, by the kind influences of friendship and sociality, the wrinkles could be smoothed from the brow of care, and the wig, as it were, fitted on the bald head of disappointment. No for there is no congeniality between us and the gentlemen of any other occupation. I spent whole days in work, and whole evenings in loneliness. I put up at the Saracen's Head. The barmaid was a man, and the chambermaid dreadfully ugly. In short, she might have supplied the place of the signboard at the door, if time or bad weather had obliterated its paint. A masculine compounder of punch, and a frightful maker of beds, are the two greatest misfortunes that

can befall a commercial gent. Other things may be borne, but these are intolerable. Under these circumstances, it will not be surprising that I hailed the advances towards an acquaintance made to me by a gentleman in the next box, with no little satisfaction. He had sat in the same seat for several nights, and gradually his face assumed a more friendly expression, till when he actually spoke, we both felt as if we had already been acquainted for a long time. He was a man about forty years of age, but retaining, by a considerable effort, the appearances of youth. His hat was always set fashionably on one side of his head-his hair scrupulously brushed his waist very much tied in by an exceedingly tight surtout, and his trowsers firmly fixed down by the help of bright polished straps. His hair was not red, but certainly not very far removed from it; his face was very fat, his eyes very small, his nose large, and altogether he gave you the idea of a person who was considerably too big for his clothes, and who, instead of enlarging his habiliments, brought matters into correct proportion by diminishing the size of his body. But the effort, though well intended, was in vain ; for wherever the button allowed an escape, a protuberance was sure to make its appearance, and his figure had consequently the look of a pillow tied round with a number of strings. He opened his mouth, and smiling so as to show his white teeth, offered me his snuff-box, and said the weather was very hot. As we agreed in opinion, we resolved to prove that we were in earnest in what we said, by calling for two tumblers of cold without.

"I p'rceive you've been in this c'ffee-room every night for a week, he began.

"I think you've hit on the extent of my sojourn here exactly. "

"

Oh, by dad, I'm the wonderfullest fellow for taking notice of things!" he said. «Nothing escapes me; all my friends agree I'm the terriblest hand for keeping my eyes open. »

Then it won't be very safe," I said, « to have a secret in the company of such an Argus. »

Argus is a fire insurance; uncle Bob has some shares in