STATU PAPERS. 



£67 



much reason ; whether the ground 

 of this evil be from defects in the 

 laws ali'eady made, or in the exe- 

 cution of tliem, deserves your con- 

 sideration j" and though com- 

 plaints appear continually to have 

 been since made of the increasing 

 numbers of the poor, yet it was 

 not till the present reign, in the 

 year 1776, tliat authentic accounts 

 of this expenditure were required 

 under the authority of the legisla- 

 ture. From the returns made 

 under acts j)a5sed in that and 

 sxibsequent years, it appears that 

 in 1776, the whole sum raised 

 was l:720j316Z. of which there was 

 expended on the poor, 1,556,804/. ; 

 on the average of the years 1783, 

 1784, and .7<S5, the sum raised 

 was '2, 167,749/. expended on tlie 

 l)oor,<2,004, 38/.; in theyear 1803 

 the sum raised was 5,348,^05/. 

 expended on the pocu', 4,267,965/. ; 

 in 1815, 7,068,999/. expended on 

 the poor, 5,072,02s/. The ex- 

 cess above the sum apjjlied to the 

 pocu", was expended in church 

 rates, county rates, highway and 

 mihtia ; and ic a[)pears from the 

 evidence before yuiir Committee, 

 that tlie amount of the sums as- 

 ses.sed is largely incieased .since 

 those last returns ; a part of which 

 increase cannot fail to have arisen 

 from the peculiar pressure and 

 difficulty of tin- times, aggravated 

 by tlu- high prices incident to the 

 calamity of a delicient harvest. 

 But independent ot the |)ressure 

 of any temporary or acoidentiil 

 circum-tan(;i'.s, and making eveiy 

 allowance for an increased popu- 

 lation, the rise in the price of pro- 

 visions and otl'.ei' necessaries of 

 life, and a misaj)plication of part 

 of these funds, it is apparent that 

 both the number of paui)ers, and 



tlie amount of money levied by 

 assessment, are progressively in- 

 creasing, while the situation of 

 the poor appears not to have been 

 in a corresponding degree im- 

 proved ; and the Committee is of 

 opinion, that whilst the existing 

 jioor laws, and the system under 

 which they are administered re- 

 main imchanged, there does not 

 exist any power of arresting the 

 progress of this increase, till it 

 shall no longer be found possible 

 to augment the sums raised by 

 assessment. 



For if the means could be found 

 to distribute the burthen more 

 equally, by rendering the interest 

 of money and the profit of stock 

 liable to the assessment, these 

 funds being also in themselves 

 limited, must finally be absorbed 

 by the increasing and indefinite 

 amount of the demand. It having, 

 however, been strongly pressed 

 upon the House and the Commit- 

 tee, in petitions from various 

 quarters, to devise some better 

 means than now exist, of bringing 

 the income der-ved from personal 

 property in aid of this assessment, 

 which is now nearly confined in 

 practice to the revenue arising 

 from land and houses, and bears 

 tuidoubtedly with unequal pressure 

 on the occupier of land, the Com- 

 mittee have given tlieir most at- 

 tentive consideration to this sub- 

 ject. They find that the only 

 enactn^cnt which regulates the 

 descri])tion of pcrsom; and pro- 

 perly suliject to the rate, is the 

 oriirinal clause in the 43d Eliz. 

 which directs the cliurchwardens 

 and overseers " to raise weekly 

 or otherwise ' by taxation of 

 every inhabitant, parson, vicar and 

 others, and of every occupier of 



land. 



