M^^ On th Englifh Poor's Lawl, Nov< 



years, to a conGderable proportion of the rent, Infomuch as to 

 bear extremely hard on the middling and lov/er claiTes of occu- 

 pants of land, many of whom, in this pari{h, are not better pro- 

 vided for than fome of thofe families which receive relief from 

 the poor's rate, were fuch families fufB.ciently induftrious and 

 carefuh But the certainty of relief held out by the poor's rate 

 fund, by removing far from a man's eyes the profpeft of fa- 

 mine to his family, baniihes all ftimulus to exertion of induftry 

 and ceconomy. For why Ihould /:e deny himfelf the dear plea- 

 iuvcs of the village alelioul'e, whofe wife and children will ul- 

 timately be provided for, independently of his labour and care, 

 and at the coll of other people, vi^hatever may be his own ex- 

 travagance and excefs there ? Inilances of this fort may be ad- 

 duced, that are truly dlfgulling. I have paid, during my refidencc 

 in a neighbouring parim, to a perfon who worked for me as » 

 mafon, upwards of icol. in the <;ourfe of a fummer, and, at the 

 very commencement of the Vv^inter, I was a witnefs to his wife's 

 obtaining from a neighb:mring Magifcrate, relief of not Icfs than 

 OS. per v.-cek, to be paid her out of the poor's rate, when it might 

 have been proved, that the money of the huiband's earnings had 

 b?en diihpated in the m.ofl extravagant way. 



The fyllem is fundamentally bad, and generally the mod pro- 

 fiigate are the fole gainers by it : confequently, holding out fuch 

 fuiids almoil indifcriminacely, mull have a tendency to produce 

 much immorality, and heedlefsnefs of the future, among the poor 

 themielves ; thereby fruftrating every good intention of the law, 

 and creating poverty, the very evil intended to be remedied by it. 

 Doubtlefs the widow, the difabled and deilitute, mtufl be provided 

 for •, but the bed mean of doing it, is well worth the confidera- 

 tion of every one who is concerned in the fupport of good order, 

 and attentive to the wants and necelhties of others. 



It may not be unreafcnable to inquire a little into the caufe and 

 origin of the Engliih poor's laws, as they now Hand ; for they 

 were ena6led in the reign of EHzabeth, only as a partial remedy 

 for the previous embezzleinent of the poor's fund among other 

 pubhc funds, by her rapacious and tyrannical father Henry VIII., 

 at the time of what is ufually ftyled the Reformation. Before 

 that period, the poor were relieved out of a certain proportion o£ 

 the parochial tenths or tithes, fet apart for that purpoie, as a con- 

 tmgency of their f^rant. Thefe were originally the efFecls of vo- 

 luntary contribution, which, it may eafily be proved, had for its, 

 ohje£l: the provillon for the poor, as well as for thb clergy, &c« 

 &c. They were greedily feizcd by the tyrant, and doled out a- 

 gain to his courtiers, Iiis nobility and gentry, as a bribe for their 

 fupport of him againll the Pope j who very juRly threatened him 



w'lih 



