198 POOR RATES. 



the tenth calf and lamb, the tenth measure of 

 milk, the tenth egg; or they may agree to 

 an equivalent, or composition, which perhaps 

 amounts to five or six shillings an acre. This 

 method is usual, and saves some trouble to 

 the parties concerned, and perhaps, too, some 

 strife. 



The overseers are parish officers, whose 

 business it is to collect and lay out the rates, 

 or monies levied for the support of the poor. 

 These vary in amount, according to circum- 

 stances. Sometimes they are equal to a fourth, 

 sometimes to three-fourths of the whole rent ; 

 so that a farmer who pays the landlord four 

 hundred pounds a year, may have to find also 

 one hundred and fifty pounds for the clergy- 

 man, and one, two, or three hundred for the poor 

 those only (it should be) who are unable, by 



