STATE PAPERS. 



283 



gree that makes it impossible to 

 ascertain how much should be 

 considered as a relief, pioperly 

 speaking, and how much wages. 

 This deviation from the provisions 

 of the 4:id Elizabeth, may per- 

 haps have arisen not only from 

 the neglect of providing proper 

 p aces for setting to work such 

 children, but from the necessity 

 of abandoning the practice at that 

 time enjoined by law, of regulat- 

 ing the wages of labour, by which 

 it was attenipted to bring to one 

 standard the value of each man's 

 labour, which njust be in the na- 

 tiu e of things unequal ; and your 

 committee would deeply lament, 

 if the contiiuiancp of tlie present 

 low price of labour, and of this 

 practice growing out of it, should 

 create a geneial wish throughout 

 the kintfdo i to revive those laws, 

 which Ikhc not oily been aban- 

 doned ill practice, but at length re- 

 pealed l)y the legislature ; where- 

 as, if such cliildren were set to 

 work and maintained as tiie law 

 directs, thi- practice would scarce- 

 ly continue in any great degree to 

 prevail. 



On this general head, however, 

 youi committee think it their du- 

 ty, ill pursuance of their wish, to 

 suggest to the House such provi- 

 sions as may tend to remove the 

 general dejiendeiice on the pnor 

 rate ; to submit for their consi- 

 deration, whether, when the de- 

 mand for labour may have re- 

 vived, it may not safely be pro- 

 vided, that, from and after a 

 certain time, no relief .shall be 

 extend«*d to any child whose fattier 



being living, is under years 



ofatze; a principle, which by al- 

 tering the age from time to time, 

 might, if it should be thought de- 



sirable, be carried still further 

 into operation. 



It may also be provided with a 

 similar view, thai fiom and after 

 a specified time, no relief shall be 

 provided for any child who>e fa- 

 ther being living, has not above 



children under years 



of age. 



The next provision of the sta- 

 tute directs the overseers " in 

 like manner, to take order for 

 setting to work all such persons, 

 married or unmarried, as have no 

 means to maintain them, and use 

 no ordinary or daily tiade of life 

 to get their brea(l by;" and it 

 then prescribes the manner in 

 which this is to be done, which is 

 directed to be " by raising a con- 

 venient stock of flax, hemp, wool, 

 thread, iion, or other necessary 

 stuff or ware, to set the poor on 

 work." 



'i'hese plain and simple piovi- 

 sions continue to this day to be 

 the rules and authority by which 

 the overseers and magistrates are 

 bound to govern themselves, in 

 setting able-bodied poor to work. 



The act of 9 Geo. 1. cap. 7> 

 which enables parislies to establish 

 workhouses, was <Iesigned to li- 

 mit, rather than enlarge, the 

 powers above recited; by provid- 

 ing that the work, as above pre- 

 scribed, should be cairied on un- 

 der the superintendence of the 

 overseers, in houses to be provid- 

 ed for the purpose. 



What class of pei-sons it is who 

 are described as " using no ordina- 

 ry or daily trade of life to get iheir 

 living by," cannot at any time 

 have been vei v easy correctlv to 

 ascertain ; the words were pro- 

 bably, in the first instance, to ap- 

 I'ly to such jieisons as ajipcar to 



have 



