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FARMERS' REGISTER— OPERATION OF POOR LAWS. 



Tlie Operation of Poor L-aivs 



ON AGIlICtlLTUIiAL INTERESTS. 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



I send to you the last number of tlie Westmin- 

 ster Review, containing a long and valuable arti- 

 cle on the present effects of the poor laws, as ad- 

 ministered in England, of which I have marked 

 the most important passages for extraction and 

 republication in the Farmers' Register. There is 

 no political institution that promises to affect agri- 

 cultural interests more deeply than the poor law 

 system, and therefore no other deserves more at- 

 tention from tliose wlio wish to guard and defend 

 the interests of agriculture. 



The people of Virginia, as well as those of all 

 our sister stales, have copied almost all the politi- 

 cal and social institutions of our mother country 

 England, except such as were manifestly and di- 

 rectly opposed to our free government. From this 

 source we have derived much evil, and still more 

 of good; but we have refused to accept the great- 

 est benefit which the example of England offers, 

 namely, her experience of the evil consequences 

 of some of those institutions which slie has fully 

 tried, and which we have adopted without dread or 

 hesitation. The system of poor laws presents a 

 remarkable example of our total disregard of ex- 

 perience and of consequences. Of all the oppres- 

 sions that bear on the agriculture of England, none 

 is so intolerable as the poor law system — and there 

 is no other of which the removal or alleviation is 

 so hopeless. Upon all other important features of 

 the policy of that country, honest and intelligent 

 men are found on both sides. But as to the evils 

 produced by the poor laws, there is but one ophiion 

 among enlightened men of all parties. That opi- 

 nion, however, does not suffice to remove, and 

 scarcely to lessen evils, which the operation of that 

 system has created and nourished to a most alarm- 

 ing magnitude. Millions of paupers have been 

 brought into existence by the bounties held out 

 by this system, and depend upon its continuance 

 for their sustenance. These bounties cannot be 

 withdrawn ; for, independent of the claims of hu- 

 manity and of all other important considerations, 

 the abled bodied paupers that would be thus con- 

 demned to starvation, are sufficiently numerous to 

 make the whole face of England one wide scene 

 of pillage, conflagration, and massacre. Half a 

 million of^ men having a common interest, and 

 feeling a common wrong, will not, and cannot sub- 

 mit to a sentence of speedy and certain death from 

 starvation, which would be the effect of a repeal, 

 or even of any considerable modification of the 

 poor laws at this time. Yet with a full opportu- 

 nity of knowing and profiting by these results, we 

 have commenced in this country the same system, 

 which in the fulness of time and of events, will 

 surely lead to similar consequences. It may re- 

 quire more than two centuries in Virginia, as in 

 England, before the worst consequences of the 

 poor laws will be felt; and because the burden is 

 yet light, we pay no attention to its slowly pro- 

 gressive, though sure inci-ease of weight. If cor- 

 rect views on this subject pi-evailed, we still have 

 the power to restrain the evil ; but such views will 

 not be acted on, until we shall have lost all power 

 of obtaining relief by proper regtdations. The 

 tax imposed on us by the poor laws, may as yet be 

 gcarcelv felt — but the working of the svstem has 



been already enough develojjed to shov/ that in 

 Virginia as well as in England, a compulsory and 

 unlimited legal provision for the poor, represses 

 private and discriminating charity — offers rewards 

 to idleness, wastefulness and debauchery — encou- 

 rages the increase of unproductive and pauper 

 population — and finally, will produce ten times as 

 much of human misery among the professed ob- 

 jects of its care, as the system can possibly relieve. 

 The extracts which accompany these remarks 

 offer, on unquestionable authority, a number of 

 faci-s which speak more loudly than any general 

 arguments against the poor law system. The 

 whole body of evidence, of which this forms a very 

 small part, constitutes the latest as well as the 

 most full and authentic information of the effects 

 of the system in England on agricultural and na- 

 tional interests. Except the introductory remarks 

 of the -reviewer, which will ser\e to explain the 

 object and labors of the poor laws commission, all 

 the extracts offered are from the evidence obtained 

 and reported by the commission to the govern- 

 ment. A. B. 

 From the 'Westminster Review. 



In March last, a Board of Commissioners was 

 appointed by the King to inquire into the pi-acti- 

 cal operation of the poor laws. The specific ob- 

 jects of this commission may be learned from the 

 " Instructions from the Central Board to Assistant 

 Commissioners," at the opening of which it is 

 stated, that "the Central Commissioners are di- 

 rected by his IMajesty's Commission to make a 

 diligent and full inquiry into the practical opera- 

 tion of the laws for the relief of the poor in Eng- 

 land and Wales, and into the manner in which 

 those laws are administered, and to report whether 

 any, and what alterations, amendments, or im- 

 provements, may be beneficially made in the said 

 laws, or in the manner of administering them ; 

 and how the same may be best carried into effect."* 

 Since their appointment, these Commissioners, — 

 the Central Board by printed queries circulated 

 over the country, and the Assistant Commissioners 

 by personal investigation, — have been actively 

 employed in collecting evidence on the subject of 

 the Commission. The result will be the most im- 

 portant and comitlete body of evidence that was 

 ever laid before a House of Commons, on the most 

 vitally important question that ever engaged the 

 attention of a government. The squabbles of 

 foreign despots, tl>e intrigues of diplomacy, the 

 various intei'ests of colonies, distant or near, sink 

 into utter and almost ludicrous insignificance in 

 the eyes of those who have not slirunk from the 

 ungrateful task of watching the progress of a dis- 

 ease that is feeding upon the very vitals of their 

 country. 



Extracts from the Report of the Poor Laws Com- 

 mission. 



"Mr. Nash, of Royston, is proprietor and occu- 

 pier of a farm containing 150 acres, situate a mile 

 and a half from his residence, and in about equal 

 pi-oportions in tlie parishes of Barhway and Reed, 

 in the county of Hertford. It is what is usually 

 called an outfield farm, being at the extremity of 

 these parislies, and nearly equidistant from Roys- 

 ton, Therrield, Reed, Barhway, and Barley. Mr. 

 Nash employed six men (to whom he gives through - 



* Instructions, p. 3. 



