STATE PAPERS. 



271 



to distinguish in any enactment 

 between parishes in large towns 

 and those in the country, your 

 committee wouki recommend, such 

 an alteration in the persons rated, 

 to be Incited to paj'ishes of the 

 former description. But if that 

 should be found, as tliey fear, im- 

 practicable, they would still re- 

 commend such a general provi- 

 sion, exempting cottages below a 

 certain value, from it? operation. 

 By which exemption, such cot- 

 tages as are now rated, would be 

 excluded from the assessment. 



With the same view of making 

 all property contribute to the re- 

 lief of the poor, where it is prac- 

 ticable, the <.'onmiittee think tliat 

 provision should be made to pre- 

 vent extra-parochial places being 

 exonerated from this burthen. 

 Whether they should be made 

 contributory to some other dis- 

 trict, or compelled themselves to 

 provide for their own poor, it is 

 obviously most unjust, that bur- 

 thens propeily belonging to them 

 should continue to be borne by 

 others. 



The committee are well aware, 

 that however important and de- 

 sij-able it undoubtedly is to equal- 

 ize this heavy burthen, yet if new 

 funds are provided, it should at 

 the same time be remembered, 

 -that a facility of expenditure will 

 be also created. But whether the 

 assessment be conlined to land and 

 houses, or other denomination of 

 pr()])erty be niade practically lial)]e 

 to the same charge, yotn- commit- 

 tee feel it their iin|)erious duty to 

 state to the House tlieir opinion, 



that, unless some efficacious check 

 be interposed, there is every reason 

 to think that the amount of the as- 

 sessment will continue, as it has 

 done, to increase, till at a period 

 more or less remote, according to 

 the progress the evil has already 

 made in different places, it shall 

 have absorbed the prolits of the 

 property on which the rate may 

 have been assessed, producing 

 thereby the neglect and ruin of 

 the land, and the waste or removal 

 of other property, to the utter sub- 

 version of that happy order of so- 

 ciety so long tiplield in these 

 kingdoms. 



The gradual increase whicih has 

 taken i)Iace, both in the number of 

 paupers, and in the assessments 

 for their support, can hardly fail 

 to have arisen from causes inhe- 

 rent in the system itself, as it does 

 not ajjpcar to have dej)ended en- 

 tirely upon any temporary or local 

 circumstance. Scarcity of provi- 

 sions, and a diminished demand for 

 particular manufactures, have oc- 

 casioned from time to time an in- 

 ci'eased pressure in particular pa- 

 rislies, and at no former time in so 

 great a degree as during the early 

 part of the present. But by com- 

 paring the assessments in the two 

 counties in this kingdom, in which 

 the largest portion is employed iir 

 agriculture, namely Bcvlforiishire 

 and Herefordshire, it will be seen 

 that there has been the same pro- 

 gressive augmentation in the a- 

 mount of t!ie assessments, as may 

 be observed to have t;dven place in 

 the manufacturing counties. 



County 



