STATE PAPERS. 



26-3 



PARLIAMENTARY REPORTS. 



The Stlect Committee of the House 

 of Commons appointed to consider 

 of the Poor Laws, and to report 

 their Observations thereupon from 

 time to time to the House, have, 

 pursuant to the Order of the 

 House, considered the same ac- 

 cordingly, and agreed to the fol- 

 lowing I'eport. 



Your Committee have forborne 

 to avail themselves of the permis- 

 sioii to report their observations 

 from time to time to the House, 

 from the persuasion that they could 

 not rlo justice to so extensive and 

 intricate a subject, by presenting^ 

 it in (letaclied parts before they had 

 the means of taking a delibeiate 

 ^ie\v oF the whole ; and not seeing 

 it probable that they could recom- 

 mend any such alteration of the 

 existing laws as would afford im- 

 mediate lelief in those cases of 

 severe and urgent pressuic, which 

 can scarcely be deemed to have 

 arisen out of the ordinary ojie- 

 ration of this system, they could 

 not feel thcmsel\es justilied in of- 

 fering any suggestions hastily to 

 the House on (piestions of acknow- 

 ledged diiriculty, enhanced in a 

 high (ItLjree by tlie civcunistances 

 of tlie times, ar>d o;i wlsich they 

 cannot but recollect, that the re- 

 me(nal et1"urls of the most able and 



enlightened men h.ave practically 

 failed. 



In bringing under the view of 

 tlie House the whole of this sys- 

 tem of laws, they feel it unneces- 

 sary to refer minutely to the sta- 

 tutes whicli passed antecedent to 

 the reign of Queen Elizabeth It 

 may be sufficient to state, that 

 they were generally directed to the 

 lelief of the impotent poor, by the 

 contributions of the church and 

 the alms of the charitable, and to 

 the suppression of vagrancy and 

 idleness; for while permission to 

 solicit support from private bene- 

 volence was given to those who 

 were disabled by age or infiimity, 

 it became probably extremely dif- 

 ficidt to repress the same practice 

 in others, who " as long as they 

 might live by begging, did refuse 

 to labour, giving themselves to 

 idleness and vice." Enactments 

 the most liarsh were therefore 

 provided against " strung beggars, 

 persons whole and mighty in 

 body;" and the relentless rigour 

 of these laws, which was consum- 

 mated in the first year of Edward 

 VI. visited the oil'ence of v;igrancy 

 v/ith ihc barbarous ]ienaltieH ofsla- 

 \cry, mutil'.itioiis, and death. And 

 although these sovcrities;wcre some- 

 what rela\e(l, even before the expi- 

 ration of that short reign, yet they 



(iid 



