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consumption, other markets at a distance must be Pe»ortod> to t 

 this would have been the case in the neighbourhood of Mendiu 

 Hills, had no inclcsures taken place. The counties cf Wilts and 

 Dorset must have supplied the deficiency, and the carriage alone 

 would have amounted to ten per cent. As to the increase of the 

 poors rate, this has b n get cral, and may be attributed partly tq art 

 increased population, and partly to a growing dissolute: ^ in the 

 manners of the poor, which ever accompanies national improve- 

 ment. Active exertions in this way cannot lail to produce a scar- 

 city of labor, and to this, as naturally follows an advance of wages -, 

 but the misfortune is, that such an advance, is not accompanied 

 with a growing disposition in the workman, to maintain, in a more 

 comfortable, way, his wife and family, or to lay by, against a time 

 of need. No, if he can earn eight or nine shillings vafaur days of 

 the week, the remaining /xw days are devoted to pleasure, or lux- 

 ury, and the wife and children are in a worse situation, than when 

 more moderate wages compelled him to constant work. 



I have known many instances, where the v/ages of a collier and 

 his family, not exceeding five persons, have been twenty-five shiU 

 lings per week, and their improvidence has been such, that one 

 week's illness, has brought them to the parish for assistance. 



J can also look back to the time, when a commendable degree 

 of pride, operated on the minds of the lower class, and withheld 

 them from applications to the parish for relief, unless in great dis- 

 tress. This pride, I am sorry to say, is totally lost, and the boon is 

 now administered by the parish officer, with caution and reluctance; 

 and received by the poor, with dissatisfaction, and ingratitude. From 

 what I have said, let it not be inferred, that I wish to depress the 

 poor, or to debar them of that comfort, which their usefulness in 

 society intitie them to enjoy. No sight can be more pleasing to 

 me, than to see an industrious cottager, returning from his daily 

 labor, with a chearful countenance, and viewing his wife and chilt 

 dren, with c ruvdacency .-.nd delight; and I would contribute to 

 their happiness as much as in me lies, by humbly recommending 

 to our legislators, a serious perusal of a pamphlet, published some 

 years ago, entitled, Twenty minutes Advice on the Poor Laws. By 

 the plan there suggested, I verily think the situation of the indus- 

 trious 



