The Emancipation of Labour. 503 



Much was to be said in favour of Mr. Whitbread's sugges- 

 tion compared with that preferred by the justices at Specn- 

 hamland. By the revival of the old Elizabethan statute the 

 labourer would have received as a right what hitherto he had 

 been receiving as a charity, whereby (we quote the words of 

 Sir Frederick Eden) his spirit of independence, now almost 

 extinct, would have been preserved and cherished.^ 



The House, however, had no resource but to negative a pro- 

 posal which would have given over to utter destitution all 

 who failed to find employment at the rate fixed. It had 

 evidently been greatly moved by the honourable member's 

 appeal, and therefore eagerly adopted the principle of the 

 Berkshire magistrates, and sanctioned the practice of aiding 

 wages out of the poor funds.^ 



The greatest mischief followed this measure.^ Each parish 

 carried the allowance system into effect by whatever expedient 

 seemed best to its executive. The commonest practice was 

 that known as the "roundsman" system, whereby employers 

 of labour were bribed out of the poor rates to give work to 

 the applicants for relief. The result was that most of the 

 ablebodied labour of the district was " on the rounds"; that 

 is to say, individuals desiring employment went to work from 

 one house to another round the parish. The labourers, in fact, 

 were let out by the parish, and the farmers turned off em- 

 ployes simply in order to take them back on reduced wages. 

 In many rural districts it was soon found that three-fourths of 

 the rental was absorbed by the poor-rates. Every man who 

 was known to be laying by funds for sickness or old age was 

 refused work till his savings were absorbed. The food and 

 lodging supplied to paupers were far superior to those earned 

 by the labourer, and often better than those of the ratepayer 

 himself. 



quit the parish and retire to his own, or procure there a certificate. He 

 applies, fails, and takes the vows of celibacy. — Farmer'' s Letters, pp. 

 300-303. 



^ Eden on the State of the Poor, bk. ii. ch. ii. 



* Whi thread had the mortification of again seeing his proposal re- 

 jected in 1800. 



^ 36 Geo. III. c. 35 : " The Speenhamland Act." 



