STATE PAPERS. 



465 



In the following extract, it 

 is Robert Barclay, Esq. who 

 speaks : 



" It certainly is of great mo- 

 ment, to find some method to 

 enable country labourers to live 

 more comfortably than tliey do at 

 present, by placing them in a 

 situation where they may acquire 

 some property and subsistence, 

 when they become old, and un- 

 able to perform hard work, and 

 that they may not be so subjected 

 to the difficulties which they now 

 undergo, in times of scarcity, 

 nor become a burthen upon the 

 parishes where they reside ; like- 

 wise, that they may be enabled to 

 keep cows for the nourishment of 

 their children. — Barclay, Commu- 

 nications, vol. 1, p. Q\. 



The person employed by the 

 Board, and who examined above 

 forty parishes minutely, gives the 

 following general result. 



" Seven hundi'ed and fifty-three 

 cottagers have amongst them 1 194 

 cows, or, on an average, IJ and 

 l-13th cow each. Not one of 



THEM RECEIVES AXY THING FROM 



THE p.iRisH ! even in the present 

 scarcity. The system is as much 

 approved of by the farmers as it 

 is by the poor people themselves. 

 They arc declared to be the most 

 liard-working, diligent, sober, and 

 industrious labourers who have 

 land and cows, and a numerous 

 meeting of farmers signed their 

 entii'e aj)probation of the system. 

 In the above-mentioned parishes, 

 rates are, on an average, \7^d. in 

 the pound ; and, but for excep- 

 tions of some families vvho have 

 not land, and of certain cases and 

 expenses foreign to the inijuiry, 

 they would not be one penny in 

 the pound. 



" In nine parishes, where the 

 Vol. LVIII. 



propoition of tlie poor having 

 cows amounts to rather more tlian 

 half the whole, poor-rates are 3i</. 

 in the pound. 



" In twelve parishes, where 

 the proportion is less than half, 

 but not one-third, poor-rates are 

 9id. in the pound. 



" In ten parishes, where the 

 proportion is something under a 

 fourth, poor-rates are Is. Gd. in 

 the pound. 



" In seven parishes, where the 

 proportion is but nearly one- sixth, 

 poor-rates are As. l|d. in the 

 pound. 



" And in thirteen parishes, 

 where few or none have cows, 

 poor-rates are 5s. lie/, in the 

 pound. 



'•' The poor in this considerable 

 district being able to maintain 

 themselves without parish as- 

 sistance, by means of land, and 

 live-stock, and to do it at the 

 same time so much by their in- 

 dustry and sobriety, and consist- 

 ently with an honest conduct, 

 clearly marked by the entire appro- 

 bation of tim system by the farmers, 

 S|C. their neighbours, is a circum- 

 stance which, well considered, 

 does away a multitude of those 

 objections and j)rejudices which 

 we so often hear in conversa- 

 tion." 



In the replies to the Circular 

 Letter of 1816, some notes occur 

 upon this practice, of cottagers 

 keeping land, which it is neces- 

 sary here to recite. 



At Shewart in Kent, it is re- 

 marked by Mr. Curling, that a 

 late legal decision, determining 

 that keeping a cow gained a set- 

 tlement, has deprived many cot- 

 tagers of that comfort, as it is 

 properly called ; an observation 

 which, however, does not attach 



^H to 



