Analysis of an Extract from Joseph Townsends Disseration on the Poor Laws (1786) - Essay Example

An important piece of work in this matter is the paper by Joseph Townsend titled, A Dissertation of the Poor Laws (1786). Here, he emphasizes that it is the basic law of nature that the poor should be in a state of improvidence to some extent so as to make sure that there is a perpetual need to accommodate the most servile positions in society. He further notes that in this way, the cup of human happiness remains overflowing, while the so called “delicate” breed of aristocrats are set free of ever experiencing any kind of drudgery, and the scope of employment is lost so as to spare them the misery of working.

In this way, they are at liberty to pursue activities which they feel like, and which are important for the functioning of the state. Regarding the poor, he has said that they should adopt the policy to take up the most menial tasks and the most laborious works, as well as those activities that involve maximum danger. In the meantime, they may entertain themselves with the hope of any reward for undertaking risks and hard work. Without these standards rules of poverty, the fleets and armies of a country face a serious dearth of soldiers and of sailors.

This kind of a situation will also exist if sensitivity towards the poor were to universally prevailed. This is due to the reason that it is only distress and poverty which can prevail upon the lower classes of the people to encounter all the horrors which await them on the waves of the ocean, or in the bloody fields of battle. It is a well known and well acknowledged fact that no man who has seen an easy life would be willing to fight in the army or take up risky ventures. Further, he talks about the fact that there must be a degree of pressure, so as to make sure that hunger is either felt or feared.

This will fuel the desire of earning one’s daily meals to quietly adjust the mind to undergo the greatest hardships, which will