CH. IV.] AGED AND INFIRM POOR. 165 



I have known money to be sent from America for that 

 purpose. The country poor have a great dislike to beg- 

 ging, and suffer many privations before they resort to this 

 alternative for support. 



The gentry have no regular subscriptions raised among 

 them for the support of the infirm. The landlords look 

 to the poor resident upon their own estates. Absentees 

 are not so liberal, although in general more wealthy, but 

 I think there is an improvement of late years. There are 

 no almshouses in this part of the country. 



I am sure that, considering the wages a labourer ob- 

 tains, it would be utterly impossible for him to make any 

 provision for the wants of old age. 



Evidence of the Roman Catholic Archbishop, written by himself. 



Amongst the agricultural population, the heads of fa- 

 milies feel a right to their support, when aged, as proper 

 possessors of the land occupied by the family. The 

 support of the old usually devolves upon the younger 

 branches of the family, or nearest relatives : their main- 

 tenance may frequently press heavily upon those whose 

 means are far from adequate to their own wants ; the 

 pressure is lightened, however, by a sense of dutiful af- 

 fection. A child, upon whom the burden of a parent's 

 support falls, feels sorely aggrieved, not at sharing what 

 he has with his aged parent, but because the laws that 

 alienated the treasures of the poor leave him nought where- 

 with to relieve his aged parents. 



Those who have not relatives able to support them, go 

 from one neighbour to another for food and lodging. 

 They sometimes receive money from friends who have 

 emigrated to the colonies. 



