276 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1817. 



i( was unavoidable, they might 

 order the moiety of such excess 

 retiuired for the ensuing quarter 

 to be paid out of the county rate, 

 (subject to exception in the case 

 of a parish whose rate is below 

 the average ratio of the county) 

 and make an order to permit the 

 overseers, &c. to levy the other 

 moiety, by way of assessment, on 

 the palish. The necessity of the 

 strictest economy, which would 

 be created by the limitation of tlie 

 rate, wovdd not, it is hoped, be 

 impaired under this strict scrutiny, 

 in case of excess. For an interest 

 would thus be given to the jus- 

 tices, to make the examination 

 into the expenditure of such parish 

 rigorous ; and further, to regard 

 continually the mode in which the 

 poor are managed and maintained 

 in the different parishes of their 

 county. It would be necessary 

 also to provide, that the power to 

 levy the augmented rate should 

 never be continued longer than 

 the duration of the temporary 

 exigency which gave occasion to 

 to it. 



The House are aware, that by 

 tlie statute of Elizabeth, the pa- 

 rishes of the hundred, and in some 

 instances those of the covuity, 

 might be rated in aid of every 

 parish in which the inhabitants 

 ate not able to levy sufficient sums 

 for tiie relief of their jioor : great 

 tiifficulties however have occurred 

 in practice, fiom the want of a 

 clear definition of such inability ; 

 ir.or does it afford any sufficient 

 •security against the mismanage- 

 mient or misapplication of the 

 'funds of one parish being render- 

 «ed, against every principle of equi- 

 ity, a charge on others, who had 

 mo share or interest in such ex- 



penditure ; and on these grounds 

 your conmiittee are not disposed 

 to recommed any facility being 

 granted for the execution of this 

 provision of the law. 



Your committee cannot close 

 their observations on the subject 

 of tlie assessment, without advert- 

 ing to a suggestion which has been 

 made to them from various and 

 respectable quarters ; that the 

 maintenance of the poor should be 

 made, by way of equalizing the 

 burthen, national lather than pa- 

 rochial. To this pi'oposal your 

 committee feel one^ among vari- 

 ous other difficulties, which ap- 

 pears to them insuperable, and of 

 such a natuie and magnitude as to 

 siqjersede the necessity of entei'ing 

 into the other considerations con- 

 nected with such a measure. They 

 refer to tlie impossibility of devising 

 any adequate means to check the 

 demands upon such a funti, when 

 every excess in parochial disburse- 

 ments would be merged in the 

 general expenditure of the em- 

 pire. 



If your committee have been 

 desirous to recommend some gra- 

 dual but effectual check to the 

 otherwise certain growtli, and ul- 

 timately inevitable effect of the 

 present system of the poor laws, 

 they have not been less attentive 

 to the duty of suggesting every 

 possible means of affiirding spe- 

 cial encouragement and facility to 

 meritorious industry, for rescuing 

 itself from the evils of an habitual 

 reliance on parochial relief, and 

 they have looked to this part of the 

 subject with the more anxiety, from 

 the entire conviction, that, in pi o- 

 portion to the aggregate number 

 of peisons who are reduced to this 

 unfortunate depejidance, must be 



not 



