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PAUPERISM ABROAD: in BELGIUM, showing its frightful extent, and that "in procuring labor for the poor" is the hope of its abatement.
AUTH.

"PAUPERISM. -- The discussions of the Second Chamber on the Charitable Institutions bill elicited very valuable information on the present state of pauperism in Belgium. According to M. Percival, a speaker of the Liberal party, the nation consists of 908,000 families, 89,000 of which are wealthy, 373,000 are in embarrassed circumstances, and 446,000 live upon what every day brings them. Of the latter 226,000 families are paupers, whom the state has to support. The aggregate income of the charitable institutions amounts to about ten millions of francs. Estimating the number of paupers who have to be supported at 800,000 individuals, the average support which the charitable institutions are able to afford to every individual would be four centimes a day. From 1828 to 1850, the number of paupers has been increased by 300,000 individuals, and from 1840 to 1850, the communities have had to contribute thirty millions for the support of the paupers. M. Percival concludes from these frightful statistics, the accuracy of which no speaker from the other side of the Chamber has contested, that the solution of the question of pauperism lies neither in an unlimited freedom of donations and be- quests, nor in the restoration of corporations with personal rights, but in procuring labor for the poor. Some of the Catholic speakers charged against Protestantism with having produced pauperism, and found the only remedy for it in the Catholic Church, and more particularly in the spreading of convents, but they did not explain why so many countries which are almost entirely without a Protestant population, suffer so dreadfully from the spreading of pauperism," N. Y. Independent, June 25, 1857.

PAUPERISM IN EMGLAND AND WALES. -- It declines when the poorer classes can have employment. A few years since the paupers of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, were estimated at several millions. And even now, by the following 'Parliamentary return,' the paupers of England and Wales are nearly 1,000,000 persons. -- AUTH.

"DECLINE IN PEUPERISM. -- It is gratifying to observe, from a Parliamentary return issued on Tuesday, that throughout the quarter ending at Lady-day last, there has been in every week a diminution of the numbers relieved both of in-door and out-door paupers, in England and Wales, as compared with the corresponding weeks of last year. In the last week of the quarter the total number was 897,445, against 928,561 last year, showing a decrease of 31,110. This is doubtless to be attributed, to a considerable extent, to the comparative cheapness of bread; but it is also a favorable indication as regards the employment of the poorer classes." -- N. Y. Independent, July IG, 1857.

In 1848 the number relieved in England and Wales, in door and out door, was 1,026,201." -- U.S. Census, 1850.

The following bit of 'Romance' we found in either a New York or Philadelphia paper, but were unusually careless at the time in noting which. -- AUTH.

Romance of Life.

The Orleans Republican, published at Albion, gives the following instance of romance in real life:

"In 1816 an enterprising man, possessed of some capital, removed to this section, which was then an unbroken forest, and took up a considerable tract of land, a part of which is now included in the limits of our thriving village. Where the Seminary now stands, he commenced his clearing, and built his humble cabin. After a while he became discontented, perhaps involved, sold his farm for a trifle, and suddenly disappeared, leaving behind his wife and child. After the lapse of years, a rumor came that he had been accidently killed in Canada. His supposed widow, re-married, lived with her second husband several years and died. In the fall of 1855, an old man, of most forlorn appearance, was seen at the corner of our principal streets, inquiring for the Poormaster. That officer was pointed out, and the old man told him that poverty had overtaken his old age, and that as he was one of the pioneers of Orleans county, he' thought he should be supported here, and concluded by asking to be sent to the county house. After becoming satisfied of his identity, the Poor-master took him to the county house, and then proceeded to inform the son, whom the father considered dead, that his long absent parent was alive and had returned. The son -- who was well-to-do in the world -- immediately sought out his father and took him home, where he still is."

Instances of re-union after so long a separation are rare; and still less often does it happen that a man returns to what was once his own property, and which he left almost an unbroken wilderness, to find it a thriving and prosperous village of four thousand inhabitants, and to witness on every hand evidence of wealth, while he who was formerly lord of the soil still remains in abject poverty.