564 THE POOR LAW AMENDMENT BILL. 



wages paid him by his employers falling short of the tabular allow- 

 ance."* 



By this improvident and short-sighted act, the means, the morals, 

 and the independence of the labouring classes, received a blow from 

 which they have been yearly sinking lower and lower in the scale 

 of industry and of happiness ; for by this fatal act pauperism, which 

 was formerly confined to the necessitous and the impotent, was made 

 to spread its baneful influence, more or less, through all degrees of the 

 industrious classes of society ; pauperism, which was before casual, 

 now became a system ; the beautiful ordinance of nature, that the 

 labourer was " worthy of his hire" was lost sight of, and the labourer 

 and the pauper became assimilated in one common sink of impro- 

 vident and slavish indifference. The labourer of England now no 

 longer found himself the master of his actions and his resources, no 

 longer the maker or or the marrer of his fortunes The honest pride 

 of independence and of property, which is the noblest and distin- 

 guishing sentiment of our nature, was poisoned within him ; and he 

 who had been accustomed to live by the " sweat of his brow" soon 

 found that he was no better off and no better esteemed than his 

 neighbour who consumed his time in sloth and debauchery. Of this 

 lamentable state of things the volume before us contains but too 

 many and too striking instances : 



" It is to be observed," remark the Commissioners, " that even in those 

 parishes in which the amount of allowance is supposed to depend on that 

 of the applicant's earnings, the inquiry to the amount of those earnings is 

 now carried back no further than the current or the previous week or fort- 

 night. The consequence is that many of those who at particular periods of the 

 year receive wages far exceeding the amount of the earnings of the most indus- 

 trious labourer, receive also large allowances from the parish. Mr. Cowell 

 and Mr. Bishop found a parish in the Bedford Level, in which a recently 

 drained tract of fertile land requires more labour than the settled inhabi- 

 tants can provide ; and the average yearly earnings of a labourer's family 

 are from 60/. to 70/.j but during a frost, and generally from November to 

 March, almost every labourer comes on the parish !" 



Sometimes, however, the overseers are content with little or no 

 inquiry on the subject, as appears in the following case : 



"A case was mentioned to me," says Mr. Stuart, "of nine men who had 

 been able to earn fifteen shillings each by task-work, in three days, and 

 who came to the parish for the other three days of the week, during which 

 they had no employment. The overseers, aware of the profitable work in 

 which they had been engaged, offered Is. a day for the last days, instead 

 of Is. 6d. a day, which would have been their allowance according to the 

 scale. This the men rejected ; left the work which they then had, and went 

 to a magistrate to complain. The magistrate sent an open note by the 

 complainants, appealing to the humanity of the overseer. The "men 

 aware of the contents of the note, backed the recommendation of the ma- 

 gistrate by threats, which induced the overseer to comply." 



- How, with such instances before us, can we wonder at the evils 

 and distress which prevail ; ought we not rather to be astonished 

 and grateful that they are no worse than they are, and that there is 

 yet a spark of moral feeling left amongst the labouring strength of the 

 country ! It will be seen that all this is in direct violation of the 43rd 



* Me. Culloch, Pol. Econ. p. 418. 



