"of your system, crime is rapidly decreasing, "and that good order, industry, and all that can "make a poor man respectable, will increase and "be firmly established."*

The system of Mr. Becher operates as that of Mr. Whately does, in inducing the poor to find work for themselves, through regulations introduced by him, particularly with reference to the management of the poor in the workhouse, to

He remarks,

"One part of the effect which we see " is, I must confess, above my comprehension. I was much “afraid that withdrawing parish relief from persons who had "been during their whole lives used to work in their houses, "or at least under cover, and thus forced to adopt other employ "ments, would, at first, be an exceeding great hardship upon “them, and that it would be injurious to the health of many " of them. I thought, also, that at first they would not know "how to find work for themselves; I therefore took much "pains to get work for many of them during the harvest, "and I was fortunate in finding it for them at a distance "from the parish. I had no hope but that when this was "over, and the men had returned home, they would again "have applied for parish pay. I was afraid of pressing the thing too hard at first; and, having decreased our pay about “127. during the summer, we were all well satisfied with it " as a beginning, and hoped to do more next year; but, to my " astonishment, though the harvest is over, and the men have "long been returned, we have no more applications for relief "than we had when it continued. When we found them "work, we took off their pay; and now that the work is over, "they do not ask us to put it on again. It seems, therefore, "almost as if we had done no good by finding work for "them." He adds, "How they find work for themselves "I cannot conceive!"

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which he has mainly applied himself, probably from his parish having been united with fortynine others under Mr. Gilbert's Act. It may be valuable in such cases, but it is of more importance that attention should be paid, as Mr. Whately has done, to the means of lessening the number of inmates in the workhouse, and of ceasing to pay wages out of the rate, which Mr. Whately has accomplished; and of simplifying the question of settlement as he has also done, by rendering a settlement not worth having excepting by the aged and helpless, whom the 43d' Eliz. intended should be the only occupiers of the dwellings which it directed to be provided.*

* Workhouses, as they exist in England, are a perversion and abuse of the 43 Eliz., which directed, "That it shall be" "lawful for the churchwardens and overseers, &c. to erect," "build, and set up in fit and convenient places of habitation, "in such (some) waste or common, &c. convenient houses "of dwelling for the said impotent poor; and also to place, "inmates, or more families than one, in one cottage or house, "one act, made in the one and twentieth year of her Ma'jesty's reign, intituled, ' An Act against the erecting or main"taining of Cottages,' or any thing therein contained to the "contrary notwithstanding; which cottages, or places for "inmates, shall not at any time be used or employed to or "for any other habitation, but only for impotent and poor of "the same parish, that shall be there placed from time to "time by the churchwardens and overseers of the poor of "the same parish, or the most part of them, upon the pains"

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See this act noticed in p. 113.

CHAP. V.

PRACTICE -ILLEGAL.

THE abuses which have been noticed, and other abuses committed in relation to the poor, do not derive any support from the 43 Eliz. c. 2., which was among the last acts of her reign, and is the governing law upon the subject to this day.

. Its main provisions are, that order shall be taken,

1. "For setting to work the children of all "such whose parents shall not be thought able "to keep and maintain their children.

2. "For setting to work all such persons, "married or unmarried, having no means to "maintain them, and use no ordinary or daily "trade of life to get their living by."

For these purposes, direction was given to raise, by taxation, &c.

1. "A convenient stock of flax, hemp, wool, "thread, iron, and other necessary ware and stuff, to set the poor to work.

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2. "Competent sums of money for and to"wards the necessary relief of the lame, im"potent, old, blind, and such other among them

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being poor and not able to work; as also for

Two distinct objects were aimed at by this act of parliament: 1. To set to work those who were able to work, and ought to work, to gain their living. 2. To relieve persons of the description mentioned, requiring relief, who were unable to work. These last alone were to receive relief; and, in prevention even of this last, it is provided "that the father and grandfather, "and the children of every poor, old, blind, lame, and impotent person, or other poor person not able to work, being of a sufficient ability, shall, at their own charges, relieve and "maintain every such poor person in that man"ner, and according to that rate, as by the jus"tices of the peace of the county, &c. shall be "assessed."

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The legislature here made a great mistake in attempting to enforce a moral obligation which rests upon a higher sanction; but it serves to show that, even where it directed necessary relief to be given, it meant it should be without prejudice to to an obligation which should render it

unnecessary.

This moral obligation has never been found to fail in parishes in Scotland, where no compulsory provision is introduced. Mr. Duncan says, "The poor (in his parish) are "principally supported by their own relations. There is

Relief, when it was to be given, however, was to be confined to persons unable to work; but the two objects of this act have been confounded, and both industry and charity suffer from the confusion.

Among those who were to be set to work, however, agricultural labourers do not appear to have been contemplated; at least, if they were to be set to work, it was by being employed in

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"that feeling, in Scotland, of independence, that laudable "desire among the poor to provide for themselves, and that "dislike of any thing approaching upon charity, that the labouring classes, in those quarters where poor-rates have "not been introduced, universally consider it to be their duty to make every sacrifice to support their poor re"lations."

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Wherever this moral obligation has been interfered with in Scotland it has been found to be prejudicial. A committee of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, in a report made to the Select Committee of the House of Commons upon the Poor Laws, in 1817, say, "it is clear to the "committee that, in almost all the country parishes which "have hitherto come under their notice, where a regular assessment has been established, the wants of the poor "and the extent of the assessment have gradually and pro"gressively increased from their commencement; and it "does appear to be a matter of very serious interest to the

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community at large to prevent, as far as possible, this prac"tice from being generally adopted; to limit the assessments “as much as they can be limited, where the circumstances of "particular parishes render them unavoidable; and, whereever it is practicable, to abandon them."

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