THE THIEF AND POACHER. 89 



for a felony as to wood, and by these un- 

 restricted and indiscriminate <^ifts of rabbits, the 

 penalty inflicted by an, as usual, too lenient 

 miscalled Bench of Justices^ had been more than 

 paid. 



There is nothing so mischievous in a parish 

 as indiscriminate charity — it amounts, in fact, to 

 a premium upon vice. I have had a really hard- 

 working labourer say to me, "• What use, sir, is 

 my good character to me, and what good have 

 I done myself in never having had my family 

 chargeable on the parish ? Here is Jack, as 

 lives close to mc, whose family is always a re- 

 ceiving parish relief, and who never does, and 

 never has done, any regular work in his life, 

 and who finds money, someliow^ to get drunk 

 with; he gets as much given to him at the big 

 house, and a Christmas dinner to boot, and 

 broken victuals beside, or even more than I does ; 

 so what 's the use of honesty ? You gets no 

 more by it than if you'd been a dozen times in 

 gaol ; they says, or, leastways, the parson does, 

 as ' virtue is its own reward,' and burn my shirt 

 if he ain't about right, for you never gets any 

 good for it." 



