In further proof of the greater distribution
of means among the humbler than the higher
orders, we can turn once more to Mr. Porter,
who assures us that in proportion as the
savings of the industrious poor have
augmented, the dividends received at the Bank
by the "comfortable" and the rich have
decreased.

The test of the dividend-books of the Bank
of England, to which Mr. Porter next brought
his calculations, varies essentially from that
afforded by the progress of savings' banks;
inasmuch as it excludes all evidence of actual
saving or accumulation, while it offers a
strictly comparative view of such saving as
between different classes of the community.
The accounts furnished to Parliament by the
Bank of the number of persons entitled to
dividends upon portions of the public debt,
divide the fund-holders into ten classes,
according to the amount of which they are so
entitled. Mr. Porter contrasted the numbers
in each class as they stood on the 5th of April
and 5th of July of the years 1831 and 1848,
respectively. He then went on to show, that
there has been a very large addition between
1831 and 1848 to the number of persons
receiving under five pounds at each payment
of dividends, and a small increase upon
the number receiving between five pounds
and ten pounds, while, with the exception of
the largest holders—those whose dividends
exceed two thousand pounds at each payment,
and of whom there has been an increase of
five—every other class has experienced a
considerable decrease in its numbers. There
has been a diminution of more than Eight
per cent. in the numbers receiving between
three hundred pounds and five hundred
pounds; of Twelve and-a-half per cent. of
those receiving between five hundred pounds
and one thousand pounds; and of more than
Twenty per cent. among holders of stock
yielding dividends between one thousand
pounds and two thousand pounds; this would
seem conclusively to prove that, at least as
respects this mode of disposing of accumulations,
there is not any reason to believe
that the already rich are acquiring greater
wealth at the expense of the rest of the
community.

All evidence proves, then, that the great
accession of wealth which has been accumulated
in this country during the past thirty
years, has been most distributed amongst
the middle classes. The natural effect of a
change from agricultural to manufacturing
industry—a change which has come over this
country during the roll of a single century—
is to increase the wealth of the manufacturing
and trading elements of the community,
in proportion as these are called into activity.
The "great fortunes" of the old time were
nobles and land-holders; the millionaires of
to-day are merchants, bankers, and mill-
owners. Forty years ago a rich retail tradesman
was a rarity; his dealings with the
wholesale trade were chiefly carried on by
means of bills at long dates, in which large
sums were included for risk and interest;
charges which decreased his profits, and
increased the price of all articles to the
consumer. Now the more frequent rule amongst
retailers is prompt payment, discounts in their
own favour, and affluence. In our "nation
of shopkeepers," it is industry which has
prospered and had its reward.

Turning from the British Association to the
Poor-Law Board—from Mr. Porter to Mr.
Baines—we shall see that in the scramble for
wealth, pauperism itself has benefited; that,
in fact, the highest grades in the scale of
society have benefited as little as the very
lowest. It is true that in the progress of
accumulation by manufactures, the necessity
of bringing large masses of operatives into
confined foci, and of providing work for them,
at all times and seasons, has caused temporary
spasms of poverty, that have occasionally
almost defied relief; but despite the rapid
increase of the population, the ranks of what
may be called permanent pauperism have not
been augmented. Consequently the increased
wealth of the country has descended even to the
lowest ranks of the people. In the year 1813,
when the population of England and Wales
was only ten millions, the sum expended
for the relief of the poor amounted to six
millions and a half sterling. From the
return of the Poor-Law Board, now before
us, it appears that during the year which
ended on Lady Day, 1849, and with a
population in England and Wales of one-third
more—or nearly fifteen millions—the
exactions for poors'-rates amounted to no more
than five millions, seven hundred and ninety-
two thousand, nine hundred and sixty-three
pounds—three-quarters of a million less
than was drawn for the pauperism of 1813.
The poor have ceased to regard the rich, as a
class, as their natural enemies. We hear no
more, now, of a "grinding oligarchy."

Besides the decrease of poor rates, other taxes
have diminished. Let the three grumblers
with whom we started be pleased to remember
that, no longer ago than 1815, when war had
done its worst on the lives and fortunes of
our fathers, they were taxed at the enormous
rate of five pounds four shillings and ten pence
a head to each individual of the population,
from the centegenarian to the latest born
baby; while we, in this day and generation
of "ruin," pay per head, only fifty shillings
and eleven-pence, or scarcely one-half.

It is the strength and safeguard of the
English nation, that its most prominent
elements are industry and commerce; for, tending
as they do, to the general dissemination, as
well as to the general accumulation of wealth,
they effect a fusion of interests—a union of
classes, and a dependence of each upon the
others—which is true national power. At
the moment at which we write, we learn
from local sources of information, the accuracy