1824.] 
the same county, a great manufactaring 
district, wages are from 12s. to 18s. a 
week, and no such practice is known. 
Im Yorkshire, wages are generally 12s. a 
week; but in some parts of that extensive 
county, the practice of giving married 
labonrers assistance from the parish ap- 
pears very prevalent. In Staffordshire, 
wages are about 16s. and Jabourers having 
families only occasionally receive relief 
from the poor-rate. In the divisions of 
Oswaldslow, in the county of Worcester, 
the practice of paying part of the wages 
of labour ont of the poor-rate has been 
entirely put a stop to by the vigilance of 
the magistrates, If we turn to the mid- 
land, sonthern, and western, parts of the 
country, we find a great variety in the 
rate of wages. In the Wingham division, 
in Kent alone, it appears, that the lowest 
wages paid were, in one parish, 6d.; in 
four, 8d. ; in eleven, 1s. 6d. ; in four, 2s. ; 
and, in the greater number, 1s. a-day. 
In Suffolk, Sussex, Bedfordshire, Buck- 
inghamshire, Dorsetshire, and Wiltshire, 
the plan of paying wages ont cf the poor- 
vate has been carried to the greatest 
extent, Norfolk, Huntingdonshire, and 
Devonshire, are likewise afflicted by it. 
In some of these counties wages are 8s. 
or 9s,; in others, 5s.; and in some parts 
they have been and are so low as 3s. a 
week for a single man; 4s. 6d. fur a man 
and his wife. 
_A great number of returns on this sub- 
ject have been collected, of which an ab- 
Stract, when made, will be presented to 
your Honourable House. 
With respect to the remedy for the evils 
pointed out, it is obvious to remark, that 
a great, if not the greater part, arises from 
the mal-administration of the laws. Yet 
when this remark is made, it does not ap- 
pear how, under the present system, the 
laws which regard the poor should be 
otherwise than ill administered. Where 
no select vestry or assistant overseer has 
been appointed, the poor are consigned to 
the care of a person named only for one 
year, and in general anxious chiefly to get 
rid of his office with as little trouble to 
himself as possible; or, if he endeavours, 
ip spite of clamour and vexation, to im- 
prove the practice, his designs are liable 
to be overset by the orders of Magistrates, 
who, with excellent intentions, are often 
not conversant with the details of the ma- 
Nagement of the parish in whose concerns 
they interfere. 
The great object to be aimed at is, if 
possible, to separate the maintenance of 
the unemployed from the wages of the em- 
ployed labourer; to divide two classes, 
which haye been confounded; to leave the 
amployed labourer in possession of wages 
sufficient to maintain his family, and to 
oblige the rest to work for the parish in 
the way most likely to prevent idlenesss 
MonruLy Mac. No, 399. 
Political Affairs in July. 
$1 
In order to effect the purpose of sepa- 
rating the wages of employed labourers 
from the poor-rate, it appears to us that 
mucli might be done by affording to ap- 
pellants against the yearly accounts, the 
easiest remedy of which the law admits. 
The Act of 50 Geo. IIL. c. 49, directs that 
the yearly accounts, to be made out ac- 
cording to previous Acts of Parliament, 
shall be submitted to two or more justices 
ata Special Sessions ; and the Act em- 
powers the justices, ‘* if they shall so think 
fit,” to examine into the matter of every 
stich account, and to “disallow and to 
strike out of every such account, all such 
charges and payments as they shall deem 
to be unfounded, and to reduce such as 
they shall deem exorbitant; and they are 
to specify the cause for which any charge 
is disallowed or reduced.” 
Notwithstanding this provision, it ap- 
pears, that at present, even when a com- 
plaint is made that the sums levied on the 
parish have not been applied according to 
the intention of the law, a practice has in 
some places prevailed of directing thie 
complainant to appeal to the Quarter 
Sessions. ‘This proceding entails the em- 
ployment of Counsel, and an expeuse 
of money and time, which is both unne- 
cessary and oppressive. There is some 
ambiguity certainly in the word “ un- 
founded,” contained in the Act just quoted; 
bunt there cannot well exist a doubt that it 
is intended to apply to charges or payments 
which do nof come within the scope and 
intention of the poor laws. ; 
On this, and on almost every part of the 
subject, we may observe, that if the 
payers of the rates do not complain, and 
thereby enable the neighbouring justices 
to execute the Jaw at present existing, it is 
needless to attempt, by any new Act, to 
prevent abuses permitted or connived at 
by those who have the clearest interest in 
repressing them. Above all, the farmers 
themselves ought to perceive, that any 
practice which tends to degrade the cha- 
racter of the labonrer, tends, in the same 
degree, to diminish the value of his la- 
bour, and to render agricultural property 
less secure, and less desirable. 
By the Act of the 43d of Elizabeth, it is 
ordered, that the “ Chnurchwardens and 
Overseers” shall take order, from time to 
time, with the consent of two or more 
justices; for setting to work the children 
of all such who shall not be thought able to 
keep and maintain their children. This 
provision, while it clearly shews that the 
framers of that Act never had it in’cons 
templation to raise a fund for the support 
of all the children of all labourers, affords 
the means of remedying, in some degree, 
the existing evil of adding to the wages of 
labour from the poor-rate. Wherever, 
from disinclination to work, parents ear 
less than they might do, in order to dra 
M from 
