STATE PAPERS. 



289 



impotent, have, by a long course 

 of practice, received pecuniary re- 

 lief on account of the number of 

 their family. Your committee 

 must, therefore, again state, in 

 how great a degree the faithful 

 execution of the law respecting 

 children would remedy the abuses 

 which liave ])revailed respecting 

 the administration of pecuniary 

 relief : on this head, therefore, it 

 remains only to consider the mode 

 of giving the relief granted to per- 

 sons more ))ro])erly belonging to 

 this class. Whether they should 

 receive the necessary assistance in 

 money, or by a supply of the ar- 

 ticles wanted — whether at their 

 own houses, or in workhouses, are 

 questions which it is conceived 

 would be best left to the uncon- 

 trolled discretion of their respec- 

 tive parishes. 



Your committee are aware how 

 very frequently workhouses have 

 been condemned, as little corres- 

 ponding with the denomination 

 they r ave received ; and being 

 rather in truth, in many instances, 

 houses of idleness and vice. — Yet in 

 some parishes, from the want of ha- 

 bitations, such establishments seem 

 to be indispensable, to avoid the 

 greater evils of granting pensions 

 to out-lying parishioners. If, by 

 the means which your committee 

 are about to suggest, an improved 

 administration of parochial affairs 

 should be produced, these estab- 

 lishments would undoubtedly de- 

 rive the immediate benefit of a 

 constant and active superinten- 

 dence. 'J'he proper separation of 

 the respective iinnates of such 

 houbes can and ought to be regu- 

 lated at prcr^ent by the vestry and 

 parish officers, without minute in- 

 struction."! fiom the legislature ; 



Vol. UX. 



and whether it be or be not expe- 

 dient to incorporate different pa- 

 rishes, under Mr. Gilbert's or local 

 acts, must depend entirely on the 

 circumstances of such parishes and 

 the adjoining districts. As far as 

 your committee can judge, from 

 the imperfect materials before 

 them, they believe that great be- 

 nefit has been derived from such 

 institutions, in every case in which 

 they have been superintended by 

 the principal inhabitants of the 

 united district ; and that their 

 success and advantage depend al- 

 most wholly on that circumstance. 

 Under such an impression, they 

 thinkevery facility should be given 

 to render that act available for the 

 purpose ; thereby saving the ex- 

 pense which has in various in» 

 stances been incurred, of resorting 

 to the legislature in particular 

 cases. 



It is obviously of the last im- 

 jiortance that this enactment re- 

 specting the impotent, which was 

 humanely intended to secure the 

 indigent and helpless from actual 

 want, should not be made equally 

 available to the idle and the disso- 

 lute. For it is to be recollected, 

 that there will always be a class of 

 persons, and among them the 

 most industrious, who find it diffi- 

 cult, with their utmost labour and 

 exertion, to maintain their fami- 

 lies, after having contributed their 

 quota to the assessment. Such is 

 the cultivator of a small farm ; of 

 whonj it has been said, forcibly 

 and truly, that he " rises early, 

 and it is late before he can retire 

 to rest ; he works hard and fares 

 hard, yet with all his labour and 

 his care, he can scarcely provide 

 subsistence for his numerous fa- 

 mily. He would feed them bct- 

 U tcr. 



