The Select Committee of the House of Commons appointed to consider of the Poor Laws, and is report their Observations thereupon from time to time to the House, have, pursuant to the Order of the He, considered the same accordi:gly, and agreed to the following Report.

You Committee have forborne to avail themselves of the permission to report their observations from time to time to the House, from the persuasion that they could not do justice to so extensive and intricate a subject, by presenting it in detached parts before they had the means of taking a deliberate Vew of the whole; and not seeing it probable that they could recommend any such alteration of the existing laws as would afford immedi.te relief in those cases of severe and urgent pressure, which can scarcely be deemed to have arsen out of the ordinary operation of this system, they could But feel themselves justitied in offree any suggestions hastily to the House on questions of acknowIddhculty, enhanced in a

grze by the c.rcumstances if the times, and on which they tainot but recollect, that the reRor, al cñerts of the most able and

enlightened men have practically failed.

It

In bringing under the view of the House the whole of this system of laws, they feel it unnecessary to refer minutely to the statutes which passed antecedent to the reign of Queen Elizabeth may be sufficient to state, that they were generally directed to the relief of the impotent poor, by the contributions of the church and the alms of the charitable, and to the suppression of vagrancy and idleness; for while permission to solicit support from private benevolence was given to those who were disabled by age or infirmity, it became probably extremely difficult to repress the same practice in others, who "as long as they might live by begging, did refuse to labour, giving themselves to idleness and vice." Enactments the most harsh were therefore provided against "strong beggars, persons whole and mighty in body;" and the relentless rigour of these laws, which was consummated in the first year of Edward VI. visited the offence of vagrancy with the barbarous penalties of slavery, mutilations, and death. And although these severities were somewhat relaxed, even before the expiration of that short reign, yet they

did not wholly give way to a milder system till the beginning of the last century.

The impotent poor, on the other hand, were permitted to beg within certain districts, and no means of exhortation were spared to excite the people" to be liberal, and bountifully to extend their good and charitable alms towards the comfort and relief of the poor, impotent, decrepit, indigent, and needy people." Subsequent statutes in the reign of Edw. VI. were directed to the same object, till at length by the 5th Eliz. c. 3, upon the exhortation of the priest, bishop, and justices in sessions, having been directed in vain to those who were unwilling to contribute, the justices, after repeated admonition, were empowered with the churchwardens to assess such persons according to their discretion for a weekly contribution. Thus gradually was established a general and compulsory provision for the maintenance of the impotent poor; it was modified and extended by various successive enactments, and at length matured and consolidated by the statute of the 43d of the same reign, which continues to this day the fundamental and operative law on this important subject.

This statute enacts, that "the churchwardens and overseers" shall take order from time to time (with the consent of two or more justices) for setting to work the children of all such whose parents shall not be thought able to keep and maintain their children; and also 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; and also to raise by taxation, &c. 66 a convenient stock of flax, &c. to set the poor on work ;" and also competent sums of money for and towards the necessary relief of the lame, impotent, old, blind, and such other among them, being poor and not able to work."

This new and important principle of compulsory provision for the impotent, and for setting to work the able, originated, without doubt, in motives of the purest humanity, and was directed to the equitable purpose of preventing this burthen falling exclusively upon the charitable. But such a compulsory contribution for the indigent, from the funds originally accumulated from the labour and industry of others, could not fail in process of time, with the increase of population which it was calculated to foster, to produce the unfortunate effect of abating those exertions on the part of the labouring classes, on which, according to the nature of things, the happiness and welfare of mankind has been made to rest. By diminishing this natural impulse by which men are instigated to industry and good conduct, by superseding the necessity of providing in the season of health and vigour for the wants of sickness and old age, and by making poverty and misery the conditions on which relief is to be obtained, your Committee cannot but fear, from a reference to the increased numbers of the poor, and increased and increasing amount of the sums raised for their relief, that this system is perpetually encouraging and increasing the amount of misery it was designed to alle

viate, creating at the same time an unlimited demand on funds which it cannot augment; and as every system of relief founded on compulsory enactments must be divested of the character of benevolence, so it is without its beneficial effects; as it proceeds from no impulse of charity, it creates no feelings of gratitude, and not unfrequently engenders disposi tions and habits calculated to separate rather than unite the interests of the higher and lower orders of the community; even the obligations of natural affection are no longer left to their own impulse, but the mutual support of the nearest relations has been actually enjoined by a positive law, which the authority of magistrates is continually required to enforce. The progress of these evils, which are inherent in the system itself, appears to have been favoured by the circumstances of modern times, by an extension of the law in practice, and by some deviations from its most important provisions. How much of the complaints which have been referred to your Committee may be attributable to one cause or the other, it is perhaps not easy to ascertain. The result, however, appears to have been highly prejudicial to the moral habits, and consequent happiness of a great body of the people, who have been reduced to the degradation of a dependence upon parochial support; while the rest of the community, including the most industrious class, has been oppressed by a weight of contribution taken from those very means which would otherwise have been applied more beneficially to the supply of employment. And, as the funds

which each person can expend in labour are limited, in proportion as the poor-rate diminishes those funds, in the same proportion will the wages of labour be reduced, to the immediate and direct prejudice of the labouring classes; the system thus producing the very necessity which it is created to relieve. For whether the expenditure of individuals be applied directly to labour, or to the purchase of conveniences or superfluities, it is in each case employed immediately or ultimately in the maintenance of labour.

This system, it is also to be remarked, is peculiar to Great Britain; and even in Scotland, where a law similar in principle was about the same period enacted, the intelligent persons to whom the administration of it has been entrusted, appear by a valuable report (for which your Committee are lately indebted to the prompt exertions of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland) to have possessed so much foresight and judgment as to its effects, that they have very generally and successfully endeavoured to avoid having recourse to its provisions for a compulsory assessment. Their funds, therefore, continue to be derived, except in comparatively few places, from charity, and are dispensed with that sound discrimination, which in the ordinary transactions of life belongs to real benevolence; and the committee of the General Assembly state, "That it is clear to them, 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

of the assessment have gradually and progressively increased from their commencement; and that it does appear to be a matter of very serious interest to the community at large, to prevent as far as possible this practice 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 whenever it is practicable to abandon them."

Under this impression, respecting the effect of a system, which having been in operation upwards of two centuries, has beco.ne interwoven with the habits and very existence of a large class of the community, your Committee have anxiously endeavoured to devise such means as may be calculated, by their gradual operation, to revive, with habits of industry and frugality, those moral feelings in the people which are intimately connected with their selfsupport and independence; and further, to correct any such defects in the mode in which the law has been executed, as may have tended to create or aggravate the evils to which they have referred.

With these views, they have felt it their duty to consider maturely every plan which has either suggested itself to your Committee, or which has at various times been proposed by the most eminent persons, who have devoted their attention and efforts to the amelioration of this part of our law; and such suggestions as may seem worthy, either of the adoption or consideration of the House, your Committee will notice as they arise, on the consi

deration of the subject in detail, as it relates to the assessment and the purposes for which it is levied.

Before your Committee proceed to these considerations, they must lament that it has yet been found impossible to reduce the returns made under the 55th of the King to the shape in which they should be presented to Parliament; even the abstract of the expenditure could only very recently be completed, from the tardiness with which the statute has been executed in no less than 854 parishes. From the want of the details of these returns, they have been deprived of a large mass of the most valuable, and for some purposes indispensable information; they have been compelled to make new and otherwise unnecessary inquiries, and they are still without the means of presenting to the House any view of the comparative increase or diminution of this expenditure in different parts of the kingdom.

What might have been the amount of the assessments for the poor during the 17th or 18th centuries, the Committee have no means of ascertaining; for although the preamble of 13th and 14th Ch. II. states "the necessity, number, and continual increase of the poor, to be very great and exceeding burthensome;" and in the year 1699, King William thus expressed himself in a speech from the throne, "the increase of the poor is become a burthen to the kingdom; and their loose and idle life does in some measure contribute to that depravation of manners which is complained of, I fear with too

much

much reason; whether the ground of this evil be from defects in the laws already made, or in the execution of them, deserves your consideration;" and though complaints appear continually to have been since made of the increasing numbers of the poor, yet it was not till the present reign, in the year 1776, that authentic accounts of this expenditure were required under the authority of the legisla ture. From the returns made under acts passed in that and subsequent years, it appears that in 1776, the whole sum raised was 1.720,316. of which there was expended on the poor, 1,556,8041.; on the average of the years 1783, 1784, and .785, the sum raised was 2,167,7491. expended on the poor, 2,004, 381.; in the year 1803 the sum raised was 5,348,2051. expended on the poor, 4,267,965l.; in 1815, 7,068,999l. expended on the poor, 5,072,028l. The excess above the sum applied to the poor, was expended in church rates, county rates, highway and militia; and it appears from the evidence before your Committee, that the amount of the sums assessed is largely increased since those last returns; a part of which increase cannot fail to have arisen from the peculiar pressure and difficulty of the times, aggravated by the high prices incident to the calamity of a deficient harvest. But independent of the pressure of any temporary or accidental circumstances, and making every allowance for an increased population, the rise in the price of provisions and other necessaries of life, and a misapplication of part of these funds, it is apparent that both the number of paupers, and

the amount of money levied by assessment, are progressively increasing, while the situation of the poor appears not to have been in a corresponding degree improved; and the Committee is of opinion, that whilst the existing poor laws, and the system under which they are administered remain unchanged, there does not exist any power of arresting the progress of this increase, till it shall no longer be found possible to augment the sums raised by assessment.

For if the means could be found to distribute the burthen more equally, by rendering the interest of money and the profit of stock liable to the assessment, these funds being also in themselves limited, must finally be absorbed by the increasing and indefinite amount of the demand. It having, however, been strongly pressed upon the House and the Committee, in petitions from various quarters, to devise some better means than now exist, of bringing the income derived from personal property in aid of this assessment, which is now nearly confined in practice to the revenue arising from land and houses, and bears undoubtedly with unequal pressure on the occupier of land, the Committee have given their most attentive consideration to this subject. They find that the only enactment which regulates the description of persons and property subject to the rate, is the original clause in the 43d Eliz. which directs the churchwardens and overseers" to raise weekly or otherwise by taxation of every inhabitant, parson, vicar and others, and of every occupier of

land,