1823.] 
enquiry to be made of himself by a 
mutual friend ; and the result is, from 
Mr. Jackson’s own mouth, that he has 
indeed been making use of the water, 
and still does so, but that he is unable 
to say that he has derived any benefit ; 
and, within the last fortnight, has suf- 
fered as much agony from the stone 
as ever he did in his life. It will be 
useless, therefore, for any person to 
remoye to Kingston, to put himself 
under the faculty there, in expectation 
of being relieved, under their advice, 
by the well of Coomb Farm. 
Whoever is in the least acquainted 
with the nature of the urinary calculi, 
and how seldom they yield to the 
most powerful solvents that can with 
safety be introduced into the bladder, 
‘by the stomach or by the urethra, will 
not very readily believe that water, so 
“refined and filtered by the hand of 
Nature” as this is said to be, can be 
productive of even the smallest be- 
nefit. M. 
St. James’s. 
<i 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
AVING frequently observed the 
interest you take in any proposi- 
tion likely to improve the condition of 
the poor, 1 am induced to offer the 
following remarks for insertion (should 
you deem them worthy,) in your valu- 
able Magazine. I have often thought 
that the plan generally pursued by 
overseers, select vestries, and guardian 
boards, towards the poor who are able 
to work, so far from being beneficial to 
the parish, is extremely injurious ; for, 
instead of supporting them, and 
enabling them to contend against the 
attempts of their employers to reduce 
their wages to such a scale as_ will 
searcely afford them a bare subsis- 
tence, they generally make common 
cause with the latter; and, by this 
means, not only reduce the labourer to 
the brink of destruction, but bring the 
price of labour so low, that every man 
who has a family dependant upon his 
bodily exertions alone, is quite unable 
to support them without assistance from 
the poor’s rate. 
The evil of this system was exhibited 
in a strong light at the end of last 
month, by the application of five men 
from Woodstock, in Kent, where they 
all had families, to L. B. Allen, esq. the 
magistrate at Union Hall, requesting 
that he would interfere in their behalf, 
as they were reduced to the greatest 
Remarks on the Distresses of the Poor. 491 
distress by an arrangement between 
the overseers and farmers, which had 
thrown every labouring man out of 
employ who did not obtain a ticket 
from an overseer, appointing him, for 
a certain number of days, to work with 
a particular farmer. itappeared that, 
when any one applied to the overseers 
for relief, instead of giving money they 
handed a ticket, directed to some 
farmer in league with them, desiring 
him to employ the bearer for the num- 
ber of days specified, and at a rate of 
wages also mentioned on the titket, 
the amount of which would be de- 
ducted from his poor rate.* The rate 
of wages never exceeded one shilling 
and eight pence per day for men with 
the largest families, one shilling and 
four-pence was the general rate for 
married men whose families were not 
considered large by the overseer. 
These men had applied to Mr. Forbes, 
the magistrate in their neighbourhood, 
who said he could not interfere, 
although he thought they were very ill 
used. Mr. Allen regretted his inability 
to redress their grievance, but recom- 
mended them to apply to the magis- 
trates at the next sessions for the 
county, and supplied them with money 
to bear their expenses home again. 
Thus it appears that the overseers, 
in conjunction with the farmers, pos- 
sess a power Of fixing the price of agti- 
cultural labour ; and, as the prosperity 
of the country in great measure de- 
pends upon the proper use of this 
power, as no kingdom can flourish 
where the labouring classes are so 
reduced and degraded as they must be 
by a perseverance in such a system, it 
becomes every one, who has the least 
regard for the welfare of his country, 
to look to such combinations with a 
suspicious and scrutinizing eye. 
Every reflecting overseer, however 
he way be blinded or misled for the 
moment, must see that it never can be 
for the permanent interest of his parish 
to reduce the price of labour ; it is by 
the produce of their labour alone that 
the poor are kept from the workhouse ; 
* T have not been able to learn what 
compensation the farmers make to the 
parish for the services of these men, if 
indeed they make any at all; but I should 
think that those parishioners, who derive 
no benefit from this arrangement, would 
not allow their rates to be expended in the 
support of labouring men, for the sole 
benefit of their farming neighbours, - 
an 
