The Schaffhausen Gazette ...
'T'lhe Schatqfhausen Gazette gives an accoulnt of a s t cide committed in a miiost extraordinaty manner by a man at lift rot, who fl'ued his nostrils, mouth, and ears with ginpowder, and then blew off the top of his head. The weather has been hotter in Holland than in Eng- land. At the Hague the thermometer stood 92? degrees Fahrenheit in thc shade. Tlhe rap!(l increase in the amount of money expended on the poor, at the commencemnent of the late war, andt during its con- tinuance, was the subject of much declamation amongst a class of political canonomists, who considered it as a proof of the truth of their doctrine, that any attemtipt to alleviate -,he distress of the poor by a legal provision inifalliblv adds to their nunmberand their misery. It was in vain to tell them of the increase of taxation-the increase of population-the fluctuations of commrnerce in that agitated period -thie operation ofthe corn bill, and the depreciation of the paper currencv. " Poverty." they replied, " grows in propor ion to the means provided for its reliet." War and its train of attendant evils had exposed the poor man to the necessity of receiving assistanee from the hantd of his mote fortunate neighbour; and thUY assumcd- titat after committing this crime, he would ever aftcrwards be guilty ofthesins of poverty and depentldece,and that consequently the poor- rates would go on increasing. The reduction in theamount of rates, which has gradually been taking place during the last six .vears, has contradicted their theory; and now they tum round, and compute the expenditure on thie poor, not as before, when it suited their pur pose, by its amountin money, but by the quantity of food which can be purr.hased with it; ana they.say that it is now as great in pro- portion to the produce of the lapd and labour of the country as it was in 1817. We have had the curiosity to qxarnine how far this asser- tion is correct, as regards the expenditure on thepoor of Alsnchest;r. Thefollowing is a statement of the annual paymlents for the last eight years - 1816-17 ... ?51;488 1D20-21 ... ?28,30 1817-18 ... 47,340 182 122 ... 24,09 1818-19 ... &4,543 . 1822-23 ... 20D,550 1819.20 ... 31,022 18234.4 ... 19,748 Manchester Gazetle.