462 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1816. 



ness of the inconvenience may be 

 easily conjectured from the case 

 of Lincolnsliire, where that dimi- 

 nution is stated to amount to no 

 less than two millions and a half 

 sterling; and in Wiltshire to 

 300,0001. But a few others are 

 of opinion, that the present 

 amount of jjaper is adequate to 

 the object of buying and selling 

 at the present reduced prices. 



Eighth Query. — State of the La- 

 bouring Poor, and Poor-Rates. 



The total number of letters 

 containing replies on the iirst of 

 these subjects, amounts to 273. 



Two hundred and thirty-seven 

 letters describe the state of the 

 poor under various e.xpressions, 

 denoting a want of employment, 

 in terms more or less forcible. 



One Inmdred and one of the 

 above letters, expatiating on the 

 degree of this want of employ- 

 ment, describe the extreme dis- 

 tress resvilting from it as amount- 

 ing to great misery and wretched- 

 ness, and in some cases to an 

 alarming degree. 



Eigliteen letters describe the 

 state of the labouring poor as 

 neither better nor worse than for- 

 merly. 



Twenty- five letters give a fa- 

 vourable report, representing 

 their state as not in want of em- 

 ployment, and therefore not dis- 

 tressed. 



These forty-three cases, so 

 much more favourable than the 

 rest, lequlre a few words of ex- 

 planation, as in fifteen of them 

 theie occiu' circumstances tending 

 to shew, that whatever the pre- 

 sent state may be, it will soon 

 become not sui)crior to that of 

 tlie rest. In seven of these cases. 



they are attended by minutes of 

 unoccupied farms, and notices to 

 quit. In two others, poor-rates 

 are stated to be high and in- 

 creased. In one other, the fa- 

 vourable report combines with the 

 fiict of fifty farmers being dis- 

 trained for rent. In another case, 

 the favourable report is confined 

 to one or two paiishes, with much 

 distress in their vicinity. In one 

 other, in which the poor are re- 

 presented as not suffering, it is 

 admitted that they have less em- 

 ployment than heretofore. In 

 another case, employment is found 

 by manufacturers ; and in one, 

 the reporter employs all the poor 

 of his pai-ish, on a principle of 

 charity. 



Cottagers, Land, and Cows. 



The Board of Agriculture, on 

 occasion of the scarcity in the 

 years 179.") and 179G, made vari- 

 ous inquiries into the state of the 

 labouring poor ; which produced 

 some interesting memoirs on the 

 best means of supporting them. 

 Among these, one from the Earl 

 of Wiuchelsea, on a practice which 

 had been common in Rutlandshire 

 for time immemorial, that of at- 

 taching buid to cottages, to enable 

 the poor to keep cows, was par- 

 ticularly distinguished : and que- 

 ries on the same subject were 

 also satiisfactorily answered by the 

 late lord Brownlow, and some 

 other correspondents. In the 

 year 1800, the Secretary of the 

 Board was directed to employ the 

 summer in examining the eff"ect 

 of a great number of parliamen- 

 tary enclosures, as well in re- 

 spect to the interest of cottagers, 

 as to those general beneficial re- 

 sults well known to flow from. 



the 



