282 



ANNUAL REG ISTER, 1817. 



at which the literal and faithful 

 execution ot the law so strongly 

 recommended, and by such high 

 authority, can have been more 

 indispensable than at the present 

 moment ; and some facilities ap- 

 pear to offer themselves at this 

 time, which have not existed at 

 former periods ; the institution of 

 parochial or district schools for 

 education, proposed some years 

 since as the basis of an amended 

 system, are now so generally esta- 

 blished and supported by volun- 

 tary subscriptions, that they ap- 

 pear to afford the readiest means 

 by which education and industry 

 may be most advantageously unit- 

 ed. And if the large sums of 

 money now given to the parents 

 were really bestowed on tiie main- 

 tenance of their children in such 

 schools, it would probably more 

 than defray the expense of such 

 an institution. 



The Connuittee would therefore 

 recommend most earnestly a moie 

 faithful execution of the existing 

 law by the establishment of 

 schools for the above purposes ; 

 and they believe such institutions 

 would be in all respects more be- 

 neficial, if the children were lodg- 

 ed where they would be employed 

 and maintained, for in extensive 

 parishes the daily attendance of 

 the younger class would be im- 

 jjiacticable ; and where proper 

 establishments for these purposes 

 sliall be adopted to the satisfaction 

 of two justices, who shall certify 

 the same, relief should no longer 

 be given on account of such ciiil- 

 dren as shall be of a fit age to be 

 there instructed and maintained. 

 And if it should be found that the 

 43d of Elizabeth aided by the 9th 

 Geo. I. has not provided suffi- 



cient means for the accomplish" 

 ment of its own purpose, new 

 powers should be given to parishes 

 for this end. 



In such an execution of the 

 directions of the 43d Eliz. to set 

 to work the children of parents 

 who cannot maintain them, your 

 Committee see, besides the ad- 

 vantages so forcibly above stated, 

 the only remedy for that practice 

 which has prevailed in the south 

 of England particularly, of defray- 

 ing what should be part of the 

 wages of labour out of the poor 

 rates, according to an uniform 

 scale of relief, to which an unde- 

 viating adherence is in some in- 

 stances required, without refer- 

 ence to any other consideration 

 than the numbers of the family 

 of the claimant, and the amount 

 of their actual present earnings, 

 and the price of bread. Higher 

 wages may have been squandered 

 away, and the actual earnings 

 may be far less than increased 

 and reasonable industry might se- 

 cure, and yet the amount of relief 

 is unvaried. Such a practice, by 

 placing the idle and industrious 

 upon an equal footing, must ne- 

 cessarily destroy every human 

 motive to exertion ; nor does your 

 Committee conceive it to be strict- 

 ly consonant to law ; for an order 

 of relief they apprehend to be in- 

 valid that tloes not adjudge the 

 party to be " impotent" as well 

 as " poor." It has familiarized 

 the labourer to a dependence upon 

 the parish, which he would for- 

 merly have cnnssdered as a degra- 

 dation, has im])osed upon those 

 contributors to the rate who em- 

 ploy no labourers a most unjust 

 bin then, and has swelled the a- 

 mount of the assessment to a de- 



g- 



ree 



