STATE PAPERS. 



279 



They cannot, however, quit this 

 topic without observing, that a 

 bill passed this House in the year 

 1789, having for its object much 

 of what the Committee have now 

 recommended, and accompanied 

 by tables which the Committee 

 have reason to hope may be found 

 useful in arranging any similar 

 measure. One of the tables will 

 be found in the Appendix. 



Having submitted to the House 

 such observations as have occurred 

 to them, with respect to the as- 

 sessment of the poor rate, your 

 Committee proceed to consider the 

 purposes for which it is authorized 

 to be levied, as they regard the 

 persons entitled to relief, and the 

 mode in which it should be admi- 

 nistered. These Avill be found, 

 by a reference to the same part of 

 tlie fundamental law of Elizabeth, 

 to be directed to — 



1st. Setting to work the chil- 

 dren of all those whose parents 

 shall not be thought able to main- 

 tain them. 



2nd. Setting to work all per- 

 sons hiving no means to maintain 

 them, and using no ordinary or 

 daily trade to get their bread by. 



3rd. The necessary relief of the 

 lame, impotent, old, blind, and 

 such other among them as are 

 poor and not able to work, as well 

 lus for apprenticing .such childien 

 as are before described. 



.■\nd it appears to your Com- 

 mittee, that the above description 

 and classification of persons en- 

 titled to relief has not been inten- 

 tionally altered by any subsequent 

 stitute; that the general term, 

 the Poor, contained in all subse- 

 (pient acts on thi.s subject, has re- 

 feience only to th poor as above 

 classed and defined in the ISd of 



Elizabeth ; and though the persons 

 entitled to relief, and the sort of 

 relief, seem to be pointed out with 

 sufficient clearness, yet the prac- 

 tice has in many instances long 

 been at variance with the law. 

 The statute directs the children to 

 be set to work ; the almost general 

 practice is to give money to the 

 parents, without any provision 

 for setting the children to work. 

 The course adopted requires, un- 

 doubtedly, less trouble and atten- 

 tion than the providing and super- 

 intending proper establishments 

 for their moral instruction, em- 

 ployment, and maintenance ; and 

 this deviation from the injunction 

 of the statute obtained so early as 

 to have attracted the attention of 

 Lord Hale and Mr. Locke ; and 

 the Committee cannot but avail 

 themselves of the high authority 

 of a Report of the Board of Trade, 

 in the year 1697, drawn up by 

 Mr Locke, and confirmed (if it 

 needed confirmation) by the con- 

 currence of the other Commis- 

 sioners, after an exercise of the 

 full powers of inquiry conferred 

 on them for this purpose by King 

 AVilliam the Third, and which ap- 

 pears to your committee still more 

 applicable to the present moment 

 than to the time at which it Avas 

 written. 



" The children of labouring 

 people are an ordinary burthen to 

 the parish, and are usually main- 

 tained in idleness, so that their 

 labour also is generally lost to the 

 pidjlic, till they are twelve or 

 fcmrtecn years old. The most 

 ert'octual remedy for this, that we 

 are able to conceive, and whicli we 

 therefore humbly propose is, that 

 working schools be set uj) in 

 each parish, to which the children 



of 



