Posted with permission of the transcriber, 'Ann'. Geo. SICKNESS & POVERTY IN Nineteenth Century Whitehaven. # 46-A. INCREASED POOR RATES. ______ To the EDITOR of the CUMBERLAND PACQUET. Sir, - I perceive it has become a matter of dispute between you and your contemporary whether or not the new system of managing the poor is more expensive than the old one - or, in other words, whether the new law or the old one are more economical in their operations. At the time when the new poor law was first introduced into this town, we were told much about its economy, which would be found so advantageous to the rate-payer, and its superior management, which would prove so beneficial, and would so much increase the comforts of the poor. These benefits, I fearlessly state, have not yet been conferred upon the inmates of our Union, and the advantages resulting from the economy of the new law have not yet been felt by the rate-payer. It is a well-known fact in Whitehaven, that under the old system the condition and management of the poor were everything that could be wished for - that the poor, under the management of Mr. BROWN, were so orderly, comfortable and cleanly, - and withal, managed with so much economy - that not a ground for complaint existed, even in the minds of the most scrupulous. In this respect, then, there has been no improvement or advantage gained by the introduction of the new poor law. In fact, there was no room for improvement; therefore, so far as the physical and moral condition of the poor is concerned, there has been no change, and matters with them remain status quo. Then as no advantage has been gained by the poor, (and I defy all logic of your contemporary and his abettors, - for I know he has abettors, but more of them anon, - to prove that the poor have derived any benefit whatever from the introduction of the new law into Whitehaven,) let us enquire what the introduction ! of the new system has done for the ratepayer. Has it been the means of lessening his burthens? Because, if it has not, and the poor have derived no benefit from the change, I may fairly challenge any advocate for the new law to assign any other reason for its introduction into this town, where both ratepayers and the poor were previously satisfied, than the mere charm of novelty, - or that restless love of change upon which I would charge a large portion of those follies and inconsistencies which in every age have marked the human conduct. Then with respect to the former condition of the rate-payers. Having disposed of the poor in a way that sets all contradiction, either from your contemporary or from any other quarter, at defiance, I must have a word with him on the subject of the rates now collected. I suppose the Editor of the Herald will not dispute with me that the whole of the rates collected by the overseers are ever farthing expended - swallowed up, to a great extent, even before they are collected. But in order to secure myself on this point, I will at once state the well known fact, that the present overseers, as well as those who preceded them, have more than once given security to the Treasurer of the Union for the advancement of money till it could be collected from the rates; therefore on this ground I stand secure enough. I shall now proceed to show that more money, under the name of poor rates, (a very questionable name I admit), has been collected since the establishment of the Poor Law Union in this town than used to be collected prior to the introduction of the New Law. In doing this sir, I am aware that I am taking upon my self a task of supererogation - a task which every old resident in this town could have performed as well as myself. To be continued.