1@ 0 On the Binding-out of Poor Children Apprentices. [Feb. 1, 
burthen Then let the fund be national, 
and instantly vanish parish removals, 
appeals, certificates, and settlement 
cases, with all the miserable train of end- 
less litigation upon questions of no other 
importance, than as the poor man’s natu- 
‘rai liberty is abridged, and to encourage 
2 praetice which obstructs labour, and is 
therefore at once an injury to the state 
and an aggravation of djstress. Treat- 
ing the poor as the children of a particular 
district, is a petty expedient; and this 
forsooth, because it was the place where 
their parents were horn, or casually resi- 
ded. Is not the king intitled to their 
allegiance, as members of the state; and 
fre they, on account of poverty, to be ex- 
cluded from the ordinary pale of pro- 
tection, andto be imprisoned within their 
‘Own parish ? The enjoyment of natural 
liberty, not incompatible with public 
safety, might be allowed as their consola- 
tion—Their country should be their set- 
tlement, the nation their guardians. 
In order to economy, the plan must be 
simple and universal. Under the fostering 
hand of national protection, the poor 
would feel that they have a home to fight 
for, a country to defend. This grand ob- 
ject accomplished, the vessel of state, 
although on-a dangerous sea, in a tempest, 
may yet brave the storm; but when every 
heart and hand are wanted in the steer- 
age, leave none to perish on the rocks, 
nor unprotected after her arrival in port. 
ist. Establish a national fund by an 
equal annual pound-rate on all visible 
property throughout the country; the 
first not exceeding the average of the pre- 
sent rates. ' 
2d, Establish Boards of Governors, 
applicable as near as may be to an equal 
number of inhabited houses; one in the 
most extensive parish; and where two or 
more are of nearly an equal extent, they 
may for this purpose be joined, under the 
direction of the Quarter Session. 
“Sd. Justices resident within the divi- 
sion, qualified for governors, to act with 
six others, returned by the division, 
chosen by ballot: each person assessed, to 
vote. 
“4th. Appoint three sets of treasurers, 
for promptitude in payments, and to 
facilitate reimbursements to districts 
and counties in which the expenditures 
may have exceeded their respective quo- 
tas—a treasurer for each district, a coun- 
ty and a national treasurer; the rates 
payable to the treasurer of the district; 
declare the balance annually ; let him ac- 
eordingly receive from, or pay to, the 
county treasurer; the latter, in like man« 
ner, receive froin, or pay to, the national 
treasurer. The accounts of district treas 
surers cértified to the county treasurers, 
those of the latter to the national trea- 
surer: deficiency in the national treasury 
provided for by the ensuing rate. Diss 
tricts, guilty of wanton excess In expense 
diture, chargeable with it. 
5th. Paupers not removable without 
their consent; and all rernovals with such 
consent, at the public expence, subject 
to the discretion of the Board of Gover- 
nors. 
6th. The Boards may convert parish 
workhouses, or any other parochial buil- 
ding, into temporary lodgings for them 
within the district, and out of the savings 
may erect schools of industry, purchase 
materials and implements for their em- 
ployment, appoint officers, and make 
weekly allowances to each pauper, or 
family, according to the numbers. 
7th, All beggars to be apprehended 
and conveyed before the governors, wha 
should commit them to hard labor to the 
House of Correction within the district, 
or for the county, for one week; for every 
subsequent offence, the quantum of the 
preceding punishment doubled. 
&th. The Boards to make other regula- 
tions necessary to forward the general 
plan, and to carry the law into execu 
tion, 
i 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
On the coMPULSIVE BINDING-oUT of 
POOR CHILDREN APPRENTICES, without 
their own, or the consent of their 
PARENTS, 
HAVE omitted longer than I could 
have wished, the case of binding-out as 
an apprentice a child to a great distance 
from the tather by compulsion, - 
If proper persons can be found in the 
samé parish, they ought certainly to be 
preferred. 
The act of binding-out a child, without 
either its own consent or that of its 
parents, tends so much to violation of | 
humanity and natural right, without 
which there is no true policy, that it 
ought te be most strictly watched. It 
depends on 43 Eliz. c. 2. §5, which 
is the foundation of the English system 
of the Poor Laws. I cannot say that I 
think this the best part of it. By this 
ast, a male child, if it appear that hig 
parents are not able to maintain it, 
either the child or they being chargeable 
to the parish, may be bound cout to 
twenty-one, and a female ta twenty-oues — 
