THE COMING SLAVERY, 723 



the offspring of the worthy save burdening their parents by increased 

 local rates. Kay, I even admit that these swarms of good-for-noth- 

 ings, fostered and multiplied by public and private agencies, have, by 

 sundry mischievous meddlings, been made to suffer more than they 

 would otherwise have suffered. Are these the responsibilities meant ? 

 I suspect not. 



But now, leaving the question of responsibilities, however con- 

 ceived, and considering only the evil itself, what shall we say of its 

 treatment ? Let me begin with a fact. 



A late uncle of mine, the Rev. Thomas Spencer, for some twenty 

 years incumbent of Hinton Charterhouse, near Bath, no sooner entered 

 on his parish duties than he proved himself anxious for the welfare of 

 the poor, by establishing a school, a library, a clothing club, and land- 

 allotments, besides building some model cottages. Moreover, up to 

 1833 he was a pauper's friend always for the pauper against the over- 

 seer. There presently came, however, the debates on the poor-law, 

 which impressed him with the evils of the system then in force. 

 Though an ardent philanthropist, he was not a timid sentimentalist. 

 The result was that, immediately the new poor-law was passed, he pro- 

 ceeded to carry out its provisions in his parish. Almost universal op- 

 position was encountered by him ; not the poor only being his oppo- 

 nents, but even the farmers on whom came the burden of heavy poor- 

 rates. For, strange to say, their interests had become apparently 

 identified with maintenance of this system which taxed them so large- 

 ly. The explanation is, that there had grown up the practice of pay- 

 ing out of the rates a part of the wages of each farm-servant " make- 

 wages," as the sum was called. And though the farmers contributed 

 most of the fund out of which " make-wages " were paid, yet, since all 

 other rate-payers contributed, the farmers seemed to gain by the ar- 

 rangement. My uncle, however, not easily deterred, faced all this 

 opposition and enforced the law. The result was that in two years 

 the rates were reduced from 700 a year to 200 a year, while the 

 condition of the parish was greatly improved. " Those who had hith- 

 erto loitered at the corners of the streets, or at the doors of the beer- 

 shops, had something else to do, and one after another they obtained 

 employment " ; so that, out of a population of eight hundred, only fif- 

 teen had to be sent as incapable paupers to the Bath Union Work- 

 house, in place of the one hundred who received out-door relief a short 

 time before. If it be said that the 20 telescope which, a few years 

 after, his parishioners presented to my uncle, marked only the grati- 

 tude of the rate-payers, then my reply is the fact that, when, some 

 years later still, having killed himself by overwork, in pursuit of popu- 

 lar welfare, he was taken to Hinton to be buried, the procession which 

 followed him to the grave included not the well-to-do only but the 

 poor. 



