272 ANNUAL REGISTER, 181 



What number of years, un'ler 

 tlie existing; laws and manage- 

 ment, would probably elapse, and 

 to what amount the assessments 

 might possibly be aug-mented, be- 

 fore the utmost limitation would 

 be reached, cannot be accurately 

 ascertained ; but with regard to 

 the first, your committee think it 

 their duty to ])oint out, that many 

 circumstances which, in the early 

 periods of tiie system, rendered its 

 progress slow, are now unfortu- 

 nately changed. The independent 

 spirit of mind which induced indi- 

 viduals in the labouring classes to 

 exert themselves to the utn>ost, 

 before they submitted to become 

 paupers, is much impaired ; this 

 order of persons therefore are 

 every day becoming less and less 

 unwilling to add thcmsehes to the 

 list of ])aupers. The workhouse 

 system, though enacted with other 

 views, yet for a long time acted 

 very ])owcrfu]ly in deterring per- 

 sons from throwing themselves on 

 their parishes for relief ; there 

 were many who would struggle 

 through their difficulties, rather 

 than undergo the discipline of a 

 workhouse; this effect however is 

 no longer produced in the same 

 degree, as by two modern statutes 

 the justices have power under cer- 

 tain conditions to order relief to 

 be given out of the wojkhousos, 



and the number of persons to 

 whom relief is actually given, be- 

 ing now far more than any work- 

 houses would contain, the system 

 itself is from necessity, as well as 

 by law, materially relaxed. 



In addition to these important 

 considerations, it is also apparent, 

 that in \vhatever degree the addition 

 to the number of paupers depends 

 \ipon their increase by birth, that ad- 

 dition will probably be greater than 

 in past time*, in the propoi tion in 

 \\ hich the present number of pau- 

 pers exceeds that which formerly 

 existed ; and it is almost needless 

 to point out, that, when the pub- 

 lic undertakes to maintain all who 

 may be born, without ciiarge to 

 the jjarents, the number born will 

 probably be greater than in the 

 natural state. On these groimds, 

 therefore, your committee are led 

 to apprehend, that the rate at which 

 the increase would fake place un- 

 der the existing laws, would be 

 greater than it has heretofore 

 been ; but at whatever rate the 

 increase might take ])lace, it could 

 not fail materially to depend on 

 the general state of the country, 

 whether it was in an imjiroving, 

 a stationary, or a declining state, 

 and it would also be affected by 

 the recurrence of plentiful or de- 

 ficient harvests. 



W'lih regard to the second point, 



namely. 



