namely, the probable amount beyond which the assessments cannot be augmented, your Committee have again to lament, that the returns collected in 1816 are not yet before them in detail, and there are no means of ascertaining with sufficient accuracy, either the amount of the rates now assessed, or the gross rental of the property on which they are levied.

ever indeed that may be, it appears to be certain that the land owners and the farmers would cease to have an adequate interest in continuing the cultivation of the land, long before the gross amount of the present rental could be transferred to the poor rate; for it is obvious, that a number of charges must be provided for out of the gross rental of land, without an adequate provision for which the land cannot be occupied; the general expenses of management, the construction and repairs of buildings, drains, and other expensive works, to which the tenant's capital cannot reach, constitute the principal part of these charges, and the portion of the gross rent which is applied to these purposes, can never be applied to the augmentation of the poor rate.

Even if it can be thought possible that any landlord could suffer his land to be occupied and cultivated, or that he would continue to give to it the general superintendance of an owner, when the whole of the net rental was transferred to the poor, it is perfectly clear that no tenant could hold a farm upon the condition of maintaining all the poor who might under any circumstances want relief; it would be as much imVOL. LIX.

wise pay in rent; and as under these circumstances, the landowner would still remain enitled to the soil, the paupers could not enter and cultivate for themselves; nor could it be occupied for any beneficial purpose, as whatever stock might be found on the land would be liable to distress for poor rate.

The consequences which are likely to result from this state of things are clearly set forth in the petition from the parish of Wombridge, in Salop, which is fast approaching to this state: the petitioners state, "that the annual value of land, mines, and houses in this parish, is not sufficient to maintain the numerous and increasing poor, even if the same were to be set free of rent; and that these circumstances will inevitably compel the occupiers of lands and mines to relinquish them, and the poor will be without relief or any known mode of obtaining it, unless some assistance be speedily afforded them." And your Committee apprehend, from the petitions before them, that this is one only of many parishes that are fast approaching to a state of dereliction.

By following the dictates of their own interests, land owners and farmers become, in the natural T

order

order of things, the best trustees and guardians for the public; when that order of things is destroyed, and a compulsory maintenance established for all who require it, the consequences cannot fail in the end to be equally ruinous to both parties. These impressions, upon subjects of such great importance, could not fail to induce your committee to take into their consideration whatever plans could be referred to or suggested, the object of which might be to check and modify the system itself, a duty to which they were the more strongly urged by the view which had presented itself to their consideration of the state of society, created by an extensive system of pauperism, and which led them, for the sake of the paupers themselves, to seek for the means of setting again into action those motives which impel persons, by the hope of bettering their condition on the one hand, and the fear of want on the other, so to exert and conduct themselves, as by frugality, temperance, and industry, and by the practice of those other virtues on which human happiness has been made to depend, to ensure to themselves that "condition of existence in which life can alone be otherwise than a miserable burthen; the temptations to idleness, to improvidence, and want of forethought, are under any cir cumstances so numerous and enticing, that nothing less than the dread of the evils, which are their natural consequence, appears to be sufficiently strong in any degree to control them; which the neglect and absence of those virtues, as long indeed as fresh funds

can be found for their relief, those evils may in some degree be mitigated; but when such resources can no longer be found, then will these evils be felt in their full force; and as the gradual addition of fresh funds can only create an increased number of paupers, it is obvious that the amount of the misery which must be endured, when these funds can no longer be augmented, will be the greater (though the longer delayed) the greater the supplies are, which may be applied to the relief of pauperism, inasmuch as the suffering to be endured must be increased with the number of sufferers.

Your committee forbear to expatiate on these considerations which have pressed themselves on their attention; they have said enough to show the grounds which induce them to think that the labouring classes can only be plunged deeper and more hopelessly into the evils of pauperism, by the constant application of additional sums of money to be distributed by the poor rate; true benevolence and real charity point to other means, which your committee cannot so well express as in the emphatic language of Mr. Burke; "patience, labour, frugality, sobriety, and and religion, should be recommended to them; all the rest is downright fraud.”*

With the view then of providing such a check as may lay the foundation for a better system, it may be worth the most serious consideration, whether a provision of various local acts by which the assessment

itself

Thoughts and Details on Scarcity. Burke's Works, vol. vii. p. 337.

itself was limited for the time to come, might not be applied to all other parishes or districts. Your committee are not aware that such a provision would be less practicable, as applied generally, than locally; and it would obviously not only operate in aid of any other check to expenditure which might be devised, but would necessitate a degree of economy, which would probably be more effectual than any detailed regulations which could be prescribed by particular enactments, and render necessary such careful and just discrimination in selecting the properest objects of relief, as would contribute materially to put an end to numberless evils arising from the lax administration of the poor laws; the check, indeed, which is proposed is perfectly consonant with the nature of things, not only individuals, but states themselves are compelled to limit their expenditure according to their means; and the money raised for the poor being strictly a tax, is in no greater degree capable of unlimited extension, when applied to relieve the necessities of the poor than for the purposes of the state. Whether the future assessments should be limited in the first instance to the amount of any one year, or to an average of many, your committee think the amount in each succeeding year, not exceeding seven, ten, or even a greater number, should then afford an average, taken always from the last seven, ten, or greater number; by which means a diminution in the amount might be afforded, without the possibility, on the other hand, of an increase beyond the original limitation. It

is fit, however, to apprise the House, that it was thought necessary by the legislature, in the year 1795, to relieve these parishes from the obligation of this clause, "by reason (as it is stated) of the late very great increase of the price of corn, and other necessary articles of life." They were, therefore, enabled to raise sums exceeding the amount of the limited assessment, whenever the average price of wheat in Mark-lane exceeded the average price at the same market, during those years from which the average amount of the poor rates were taken. But a new limitation was again imposed by the same act, providing, that after the 1st January, 1798, no assessment should exceed double the sum raised in 1795. And your committee apprehend, that this limitation remains still in force. In case it was thought expedient to adopt this limitation of assessment generally, it appears to your committee, that provision might be made against such an emergency as that of the year 1795, without abandoning the principle, by providing, that in case of an urgent and unforseen necessity, far exceeding any such average, the vestry of the parish might apply to the justices, in their quarter sessions, for an aid from the county to the amount of one moiety of such necessary excess, and for permission to raise the other moiety, by way of assessment within the parish, in addition to such average amount; and if the justices, or a committee of them appointed for that purpose, should, after examination on oath as to the necessity of such excess of expenditure, be of opinion that

it was unavoidable, they might order the moiety of such excess required for the ensuing quarter to be paid out of the county rate, (subject to exception in the case of a parish whose rate is below the average ratio of the county) and make an order to permit the overseers, &c. to levy the other moiety, by way of assessment, on the parish. The necessity of the strictest economy, which would be created by the limitation of the rate, would not, it is hoped, be impaired under this strict scrutiny, in case of excess. For an interest would thus be given to the justices, to make the examination into the expenditure of such parish rigorous; and further, to regard continually the mode in which the poor are managed and maintained in the different parishes of their county. It would be necessary also to provide, that the power to levy the augmented rate should never be continued longer than the duration of the temporary exigency which gave occasion to

to it.

The House are aware, that by the statute of Elizabeth, the parishes of the hundred, and in some instances those of the county, might be rated in aid of every parish in which the inhabitants are not able to levy sufficient sums for the relief of their poor: great difficulties however have occurred in practice, from the want of a clear definition of such inability; nor does it afford any sufficient security against the mismanagement or misapplication of the funds of one parish being rendered, against every principle of equity, a charge on others, who had no share or interest in such ex

penditure; and on these grounds your committee are not disposed to recommed any facility being granted for the execution of this provision of the law.

Your committee cannot close their observations on the subject of the assessment, without adverting to a suggestion which has been made to them from various and respectable quarters; that the maintenance of the poor should be made, by way of equalizing the burthen, national rather than parochial. rochial. To this proposal your committee feel one, among various other difficulties, which appears to them insuperable, and of such a nature and magnitude as to supersede the necessity of entering into the other considerations connected with such a measure. They refer to the impossibility of devising any adequate means to check the demands upon such a fund, when every excess in parochial disbursements would be merged in the general expenditure of the empire.

If your committee have been desirous to recommend some gradual but effectual check to the otherwise certain growth, and ultimately inevitable effect of the present system of the poor laws, they have not been less attentive to the duty of suggesting every possible means of affording special encouragement and facility to meritorious industry, for rescuing itself from the evils of an habitual reliance on parochial relief, and they have looked to this part of the subject with the more anxiety, from the entire conviction, that, in proportion to the aggregate number of persons who are reduced to this unfortunate dependance, must be

not

not only the increase of misery to each individual, but also the moral deterioration of the people, and ultimately, from the concurrent tendency of these evils, the insecurity and danger of the state itself. The encouragement of frugal habits would, in any state of society, be an object of importance; but your committee are strongly impressed with the opinion, that, in the present situation of the poor in this country, it is chiefly by the gradual restoration of a feeling of reliance upon their own industry, rather than upon the parochial assessments, that the transition to a more wholesome system can be effected.

Your committee have the satis faction of seeing, that institutions for the secure and profitable deposit of the earnings of the industrious, which was heretofore projected, are now, by the spontaneous exertions of individuals, in actual and successful operation; and from the growth of the system of Saving Banks, they are inclined to expect very beneficial results, not only in affording to the industrious poor a secure deposit for their savings, but in familiarizing them with a practice, of which the advantage will be daily more apparent.

Other institutions founded upon a principle of mutual assurance, are familiar to the people, and as far as they provide for sickness and old age, and some other casualties, have received the sanction of Parliament, under the name of Friendly Societies. Your Committee have reason to believe that these societies, judiciously managed, have in some parishes tended greatly to the melioration of the

condition of the people; but they trust that they may be enabled to set before the people, in a way that they cannot misunderstand, the means of securing their own comfort and happiness, by holding out advantages exceeding in amount any that the existing establishments with which they are familiar can offer, with the certainty of the advantages offered, viz. relief in sickness, and an annuity in old age being secured by the contribution of the parish. Your Committee is therefore of opinion, that it will be expedient to enable parishes to establish Parochial Benefit Societies, under the joint management of the contributors and the nominees of the parish, calculated to afford greater pecuniary advantages than could result from the unaided contributions of the subscribers. Your Committee trust, that, holding out to the people benefits somewhat superior in amount and security, to any which they can now obtain by the contributions of their earnings, and adding some which are not generally afforded by voluntary association, they may be enabled to render these institutions notless popular than advantageous. They are of opinion therefore, that parishes should be enabled to afford to the contributors a benefit rather greater than that which a table formed on mere calculation would yield; and in order to adapt their new system to the situation of the country, under the administration of the poor laws, your Committee are of opinion, that at the outset of these institutions, parishes should be permitted to place, by contribution from the parochial funds, those who have advanced in years without having

made