280 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1817. 



of all such as demand relief of the 

 parish, aboTe three and under 

 fourteen years of age, whilst they 

 live at home with their parents, 

 and are not otherwise eniployed 

 for their livelihood, by the allow- 

 ance f)f the overseer of the poor, 

 shall be obliged to come. By this 

 means the mother will be eased 

 of a great part of her trouble in 

 looking after and providing for 

 them at home, and so be at more 

 liberty to woik ; the children will 

 be kept in much belter order, be 

 better provided for, and from tlieir 

 infancy be inured to woik, which 

 is of no small consequence to the 

 making of them sober and indus- 

 trious all their lives after ; and 

 the parish will be either eased of 

 this bxuthen, or at least of the 

 misuse in the present manage- 

 ment of it ; for a great number of 

 children giving a poor man a title 

 to an allowance from the parish, 

 this allowance is given once a 

 week, or once a month to the 

 father in money," which he, not 

 seldom, spends on himself at the 

 alehouse, whilst his children (for 

 whose sake he had it) arc It- ft to 

 suffer, or perish imder the want 

 of necessaries, unless the charity 

 of neighbours jelieve them. We 

 humbly conceive, that a man and 

 his wife in health may be able, by 

 their ordinary labour, to main- 

 tain themselves and two children ; 

 more than two chiidrtn at one 

 time under the age of three years 

 will seldom liappen in one family ; 

 if, therefore, ail the children above 

 three years ohi be taken off tiieir 

 hands, those who have never so 

 many, whilst they remain them- 

 selves in health, will not need any 

 allowance for them. \\'e do liot 

 suppose that children of three 



years old will be able, at that age, 

 to get their livelihoods at the 

 working school ; but we aie sure, 

 that what is necessary for their 

 relief will more effectually have 

 that use, if it be distributed to 

 them in bread at that school, than 

 if it be given to their fathers in 

 money. What they have at home 

 from their parents is seldom more 

 than bread and water, anil that, 

 many of them, very scantily too ; 

 if, theiefore, care be taken, that 

 they have each of them their belly 

 full of bread daily at school they 

 will be in no danger of famishing ; 

 but, on the contrary, they will be 

 healtliier and stronger than those 

 who are bied otherwise. Nor will 

 this practice cost the oveiseer any 

 trouble, for a baker may be agreed 

 with to furnish and bring into the 

 school house eveiy day the allow- 

 ance of bread necessary for all 

 the scholars that are there. And 

 to this may be added also, with- 

 out any trouble, in cold weather, 

 if it be thought needful, a little 

 warm water-gruel ; for the same 

 tire that waims the room may be 

 made use of to boil a pot of it. 

 From this method the children 

 will not only reap the foreii en- 

 tioned advantages, with far less 

 charge to the parish than what is 

 now done for them, and apply 

 themselves to work, because otlier- 

 wise they will have no victuals ; 

 and also the benefit thereby, both 

 to themselves and the parish, will 

 daily increase ; for the earnings 

 of their labour at school every day 

 increasing, it nifiy reasonably be 

 concluded, that computing all the 

 etirnings of a child from three to 

 foui teen years of age, the nou- 

 rishment and teaching of such 

 child, during that whole time, 



will 



