STATE PAPERS. 



287 



put otlier labour in motion, the 

 money thus restored to its natural 

 channel cannot fail to assist in in- 

 creasing the natural demand for 

 lahouj- ; and if the wages of agri- 

 cultural labour, which are now in 

 so great a proportion paid through 

 the poor rate, were left to adjust 

 themselves by the operation of the 

 market, it could hardly fail to 

 have ihe effect of gradually raising 

 the wages of labour : for it is the 

 obvious interest of the farmer 

 that his work should be done with 

 effect and celerity, which can hard- 

 ly take place unless the labourer 

 is provided according to his habits, 

 wiih such necessaries of life as 

 may keep his body in full vigour, 

 and his mind gay and cheerful. 



If, however, it should be thought 

 wise or even practicable to perse- 

 vere in endeavouring to provide 

 work for all who want it, fresh 

 powers must certainly be devised 

 for that piupose ; the nariow 

 limits and the strict specifications 

 by which the existing authority to 

 set to work is confined, have made 

 your committee somewliat at a 

 loss to ascertain on what legal 

 provision the practices of making 

 u|) the wages of labour, according 

 to a certain scale, of sending 

 roundsmen, &c. have been imagin- 

 ed to depend. But if labour is to 

 be continued, it would be idle to 

 attempt to prescribe to every 

 parish the means which they 

 should respectively adopt, in order 

 to comply as far as it be possible 

 with such an injunction of the 

 law ; and your conmiittee can only 

 recommend all possible facility of 

 providingeniployment beinggivcn, 

 not so much with a view to the 

 profit to be derived from it, as 

 from the necessity of withholding 

 from idleness the wages tha'. 



should be due to industry alone j 

 care however should be taken, 

 with a view to the interests of in- 

 dustrious persons, that the local 

 work to be supplied, should be 

 such as will least sensibly interfere 

 with existing occupations and 

 trades. In country parishes, agri- 

 culture affords the most obvious 

 and useful source of employment; 

 for though the whole stock of 

 subaistence be thereby increased, 

 yet the cultivator of the land 

 would be more than compensated 

 for any diminution in the value 

 of his produce, by the correspond- 

 ing diminution of the expense 

 of maintaining his family and la- 

 bourers, and the more important 

 reduction of tlie poor rate. Your 

 committee find, that in the county 

 of Kent it has been thought expe- 

 dient, in two instances, to carry 

 this practice so far as to establish 

 parochial farms in the parishes of 

 Benenden and Cranbrooke ; an ac- 

 count of them, which has lieen 

 communicated to your conunittee, 

 will be found in the appendix. 



]f it should be found impracti- 

 caijle or inexpedient, as from the 

 difficulty of providing a careful 

 and economical superintendent 

 over such a concern, it probably 

 Uiay be in tlie generality of agricid- 

 tural parishes, to make such an ex- 

 periment on so large a scale ; yet 

 great benefit might, in the opinion 

 of your committee, be derived 

 from some jiarishes being enabled 

 to possess tliemsclves of as mucli 

 land as might produce at least an 

 adecpiate supply of piovisions for 

 those whom they are bound to 

 maintain, and woidd afford the 

 means, which otherwise migiit be 

 wanting, of bringing to the test 

 the willingness to woik of some 

 of the applicants for employment} 



but 



