80 Political Affairs in July. 
might easily be performed by a single 
labourer working at task-work. Instances 
of this fact are to be found in the evi- 
dence, and in the statements ef all persons 
conversant with the subject. 
2dly.—Persons who have no need of 
fanm-labour are obliged to contribute to 
the payment of work done for others. 
This must be the case wherever the la- 
bourers necessarily employed by the 
farmers receive from the parish any part 
of the wages which, if not so paid, would 
be paid by the farmers themselves. 
Sdly.—A surplus population is encon- 
raged. Men who receive but a small 
pittance, know that they have ouly to 
marry, and ‘that pittance will be aug- 
mented in proportion to the number of 
their childrea. Hence the supply of la- 
bour is by no means regulated by ‘the 
demand, and parishes are burthened with 
thirty, forty, and fifty, labourers, for whom 
they can find no. employment, and who 
serve to depress the situation of all their 
fellow-labourers in the same parish, ‘An 
intelligent. witness, who is much in the 
habit of employing labourers, states, that 
when complaining of their allowance, 
they frequently say to him, “ We will 
marry, and you must maintain us.” 
4thly.—By far the worst consequence 
of the system is, the degradation of the 
character of the labouring class. 
There are but two motives: by which 
men ‘are induced to work—the one, the 
hope of improving the condition of them- 
selves and their families; the other, the 
fear of punishment. The one is the prin- 
ciple of free labour, the other the prin- 
ciple of slave labour. The one produces 
industry, frugality, sobriety, family affec- 
tion, and puts the labouring class in a 
friendly relation with the rest-of the com- 
munity; the other causes, as certainly, 
idleness, imprudence, vice, dissension, 
and ‘places the master and the labourer in 
a perpetual state of jealousy and mistrust. 
Unfortunately, it is the tendency of the 
system of which we speak, to supersede 
the former of these principles, and intro- 
duce the latter. Subsistence is secured 
to all—to the idle as well as the indus- 
trious ; to the profligate as well as the 
sober; and, as far as human interests are 
concerned, all inducement to obtain a 
good character is taken away. The effects 
lave corresponded with the cause. Able- 
bodied men are found slovenly at their 
work, and dissolute in their hours of 
relaxation; a father is negligent of his 
childven; the claldren. do not think: it 
necessary to contribute to the support of 
their.parents; the employers and the em- 
ployed.are engaged in perpetual quarrels; 
and the pauper, always relieved, is always 
discontented; ‘crime advances with in- 
creasing boldness; and the parts of the 
eountry where this system prevails are, ‘in 
[Aug. 1} 
spite of onr gaols and our laws, filled wane 
poachers and thieves. 
The evil of this state of things has of 
ten induced individuals to desire further 
means of punishing labourers who refuse 
or neglect to work, and the legislature has 
sometimes listened with favour to ‘stcl 
proposals; but we are persuaded that any 
attempt to make the penalties of this-kind 
more efficacious, would either be so re- 
pugnant to the national character as to 
be totally inoperative, or, if acted apon; 
would tend still further to degrade the 
labouring classes of the kingdom. 
The effects of this system very elearly 
show the mistake of imagining that indis- 
criminate relief is the best method of pro- 
viding for the happiness of the labouring 
classes. Employers, burdened with the 
support of a surplas population, endeavour 
to reduce the wages of labour to the 
lowest possible price. Hence, where the 
_system to which we allude has gained 
ground, the labourers are found to live 
chiefly on bread, or even potatoes, scarcely, 
ever tasting meat or beer, or being able 
even to. buy milk ; while in other parts of 
the country, where high: wages are still 
prevalent, the food and whole manner of 
living of the labourer are on a greatly 
better scale. This difference is, doubt- 
less, to be attributed to the excess of 
population in particular parts of the 
country; but that excess is in great-part 
to be attributed to the mal-admmistration 
of the poor laws during the latter vents 
of the late war. 
Without assigning any precise period 
when the system of paying part of the 
wages of labour out of the poor-rate com- 
menced, we are of opinion, that although 
perhaps it began earlier in some districts, 
it has generally been introduced during 
the great fluctuations of the price of pro- 
visions which have occurred in the last 
thirty years, In the year 1795 especially, 
a year of scarcity, parishes, finding that 
eusployers could not afford to pay their 
labourers a sufficieut sum to support their 
families, even on the most stinted scale, 
added a contribution ont of \the poor-rate 
to healthy labourers in full employment.-: 
We are happy to be able to say, that 
the evil of which we complain. is, partial, 
and that many counties in England are 
nearly, if not totally, exempt from the 
grievance. [no Northumberland, wages 
are 1¢s. a week; and labourers, having 
families, do not usually receive assistance 
from the poor-rate. In Cumberland, 
wages vary from 12s. to 15s. a week, and 
the report is equally satisfactory. Th 
Lincolnshire, the wages are generally 12s. 
per week, and the labourers live in com- 
fort and independence. At Wigan, in 
Lancashire, wages are 7s. or 8s. a week, 
and relief is afforded to a man with three 
ehiidien: in the division of Oldham; in 
the 
