120 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1800. 



Your committee, in the mean 

 time, from the pressing exigency of 

 the case, think it necessary to re- 

 commend, that, with a view to the 

 immediate ease of the parishes in 

 question, the house should address 

 his majesty, that he would be gra- 

 ciously pleased to advance, for their 

 use, out of the civil list, such sum 

 as may he deemed necessary,assuring 

 his majesty that the house will pro- 

 ceed to make good the same ; and 

 your committee beg leave to express 

 their opinion, that it ought to be 

 made good out of such local fund 

 as shall be provided by parliament 

 for that purpose. 



Your commit tee have only farther 

 to observe, that they trust the levy- 

 ing of a local tax through the me- 

 tropolis, with the view which has 

 been stated, will not be considered 

 as opening the way to any invasion 

 qf that general principle of the poor 

 laws, by wliich parishes, which 

 have sufficient means of maintain- 

 ing their poor, are exclusively 

 charged with their support; a prin- 

 ciple which they deem highly con- 

 ducive to the good management of 

 the poor, and respecting the preser- 

 vation of which the house can 

 scarcely be too jealous. 



Your committee conceive that 

 the measure now proposed, being 

 founded on the principle laid down 

 in one of the clauses of that act from 

 which the poor laws of this country 

 took their rise ; and being also called 

 for by the singular circumstances 

 of the district which they have de- 

 scribed, as well as by the extraor- 

 dinary pressure of the present time, 

 will form no precedent that can 

 be pleaded, except in some case of 

 similar emergency, and in a like 

 period of dearness of provisions and 

 consequent distress. 



Sixth Report of the same Committee. 



They have proceeded farther In the 

 matters to them referred ; and have 

 agreed upon the following Report : 



Your committee having stated, in 

 their first report, the reasons which 

 induced them to direct their atten- 

 tion, in tl>e first instance, to such 

 measures as appeared best calculated 

 to alleviate the present pressure, 

 and as were capable of being car- 

 ried Into execution during the ex- 

 istence of this parliament, have sub- 

 mitted to the wisdom of the house, 

 in that and their subsequent reports, 

 such suggestions as have appeared 

 to them to fall within that descrip- 

 tion. They have been anxious to 

 discharge with diligence the task 

 which was imposed upon them, and 

 had continued their sittings without 

 intermission from day to day, from 

 the period of their appointment to 

 the present moment, when their 

 proceedings are interrupted by the 

 necessary termination of this session, 

 in consequence of the union with 

 Ireland. Notwithstanding their 

 best exertions, so much time has 

 been unavoidably occupied by the 

 consideration and discussion of mat- 

 ters connected with the different 

 measures above alluded to, which 

 appeared to your committee, in 

 every point of view, the most Impor- 

 tant as well as the most urgent, that 

 they have found it impossible to 

 enter, so fully as they could wish, 

 upon otherpartsoftheextensiveand 

 complicated subject which thehouse 

 has thought proper to refer to them . 



The manner in which the com- 

 merce of grain is carried on, has 

 however engaged no small propor- 

 tion of their attention ; but even 

 upon this branch of the subject, the 

 information which they have hither- 



