STATE PAPERS. 



Q6:. 



vhite, creating at the same time an 

 unlimited demand on funds which 

 it cannot augment ; and as v'.very 

 system of relief founded on com- 

 pulsory enactments umst be di- 

 vested of the character of bene- 

 volence, so it is without its bene- 

 ficial elTects; as it proceeds from 

 no impulse of charity, it creates 

 no feelings of gratitude, and not 

 unfrequently engenders disjjosi- 

 tions and habits calculated to sepa- 

 rate rather than unite the interests 

 of the higher and lower orders of 

 the community ; even the obli- 

 gations of natiual affoctinn are no 

 longer left to their own impulse, 

 but the nuitual support of the 

 nearest relations has been actually 

 enjoined by a positive law, which 

 the authority of magistrates is 

 continually required to enfoice. 

 The progress of these evils, which 

 are ifdiei'ent in the system itself, 

 appeai'3 to have been favoured by 

 the circumstancesof modern times, 

 by an extension of the law in prac- 

 tice, and by some deviations from 

 its most important provisions. How 

 nnich of the complaints which have 

 been referred U) your Committee 

 may be attiibutable to one cnuse 

 or the other, ii I., perhaps not easy 

 to ascertain. The result, how- 

 ever, appears to have been highly 

 prejudicial to the moral habits, 

 and consequent h:ipi)iness of a 

 great body cf t!ie people, who 

 have been leduced to the degra- 

 dation of a dependence upon jia- 

 rochial support ; wliile the rest of 

 the comnusnity, including the most 

 industrious class, has been o])pres.s- 

 ed byawciglUofeontiibutioii taken 

 from t!io>e very means which would 

 otlierwise have l>eeu applied UKue 

 beiielicialiy to the supjily (jf eni- 

 jiloyment. .\n(l, as llie funds 



which each person can expend in 

 labour are limited, in proportion 

 as the poor-rate diminishes tho^e 

 funds, in the same propoition will 

 the wages of labour be reduced, 

 to the immediate and direct pre- 

 judice of the labouring classes; 

 the system thus producing the 

 vei-y necessity which it is cieated 

 to relieve. For whether the ex- 

 ])enditure of individuals be applied 

 directly to labour, or to the pur- 

 chase of conveniences or super- 

 fluities, it is in each case employed 

 immediately or ultimately in the 

 maintenance of labour. 



Tliis system, it is also to be re- 

 maiked, is pi-culiar to Great Bri- 

 tain ; and even in Scotland, whei'e 

 a law similar in principle was 

 about the same period enacted, the 

 intelligent persons to whom the 

 administration of it has been en- 

 trusted, appear by a valuable re- 

 port (for which your Committee 

 are lately indebted to the pi'ompt 

 exertions of the General Assembly 

 of the Church of Scotland) to hav3 

 possessed so nmch foresight and 

 judgment as to its effects, that 

 they liave very generally and suc- 

 cessfully eiuieavoured to avoid 

 liaving recourse to its provisions 

 for a coujpulsory assessment. Their 

 funds, therefore, continue to be 

 derived, except in comparatively 

 few places, from chaiity, and aie 

 di-<pensed with that sound discri- 

 mination, which in the ordinaiy 

 ti'ansactions (;f life belongs to real 

 benevolence; and the committee 

 of the General Assembly state, 

 " That it is clear to them, that in 

 almost all the coimtry parishes 

 A\ Inch have hitheito come under 

 tiioii' notice, whei'e a regular as- 

 sosmcnt has bcci', established, the 

 wants of the poor and the extent 



of 



