FARMERS' REGISTER— OPERATION OF POOR LAWS. 



Ill 



St the year 12s. a week,) two boys,^and six horses. 

 th 1829, Mr. Clarke, the overseer of Reed, (a re- 

 spectable man, who occupies half the parish, and 

 has generally managed all its public concerns,) 

 told Mr. Nash he could no longer collect tlie 

 money for poor rates without resorting to coercive 

 measures, which he would not do; and that the 

 iniemployed poor must be apportioned amonj; the 

 occupiers of land, in proportion to their respective 

 quantities; and that he (Mr. Nash) must take two 

 juore men. All Mr. Nash's laborers had been 

 some jears in his service, and were steady, indus- 

 trious men, and he regretted the necessity of part- 

 ing with any of them. The two men displaced 

 were those who came last into his service (and for 

 that reason only.) One was a pai'ishioner of Roys- 

 ton, an excellent workman at any kind of work. 

 He lived near Mr. Nash's house (a great conve- 

 nience,) and his wife superintended a small school 

 Mrs. Nash had established for the benefit of her 

 poor neighbors. The other was John Watford, a 

 parishioner of Barley, a steady, industrious, trust- 

 A'S'orthy, single man, who, by long and rigid econo- 

 my, had saved about £ 100. Of the two men sent 

 in their stead, one v/as a married man, Avith a 

 family, sickly and not much inclined to work ; the 

 other a single man, addicted to drinkuig. On being 

 dismissed, Watford applied in vain to the farmers 

 of Barley for employment. It teas well known 

 that he had saved money, and could not come vpon 

 the parish, although any of them would willingly 

 have taken him had it been otherioise. Watford 

 has a brother also, who, like himself, has saved 

 money J and though he has a family, and has been 

 laid aside from work for six years, has received no 

 assistance from the parish. After living a lew 

 months without being able to get any work, he 

 bought a cart and two horses, and has ever since 

 obtained a very precarious subsistence by carrying 

 corn to London for one of the Cambridge mer- 

 chants; but just now the current of corn is north- 

 ward, and he has nothing to do, and at any time he 

 would gladly have exchanged his employment for 

 that of day labor, if he could have obtained work. 

 No reilection is intended on the overseers of Bar- 

 ley ; they only do what all others are expected to 

 do; though the young men point at Watford, and 

 call him a fool, for not spending his money at a 

 public house, as they do, adding, that then he 

 v.ould get work." 



" Since Mr. Senior was at Royston last w^eek, 

 ajiother instance has occurred on this farm, illus- 

 trative of the working of the poor laws. John 

 Warren, an inhabitant of Therfield, has been house- 

 keeper there for nine years. A few weeks ago, 

 the bailiff told Mr. Nash he could not find em- 

 ployment for so many men. Mr. Nash desired 

 him to dismiss a bankwayman, who happened to 

 have misconducted himself The bailiti's wife 

 shortly afterwards told Mr. Nash that, if he pleased, 

 John Warren would like to go, as he had a large 

 lamily, and the justices (the magistrates of the 

 Royston division) would give him as siiuch or 

 more, without work, as he earned, and he should 

 avoid the dirty walks from Therfield this winter. 

 Mr. Nash (who is a proprietor, but not an occu- 

 pier, in Therfield) has accordingly discharged him, 

 and he will no doubt, next week, add 12s. or 15s. 

 to the enormous eleemosynary payments riiade in 

 this disorganized and demoralized parish, by the 

 natural and inevitable operation of the poor laws. 



Previous to 1814, there were no unemployed poor, 

 and they were remarkable for their industrious 

 and orderly conduct, and all was satisfactory, libe- 

 ral, and remunerative : now a large portion of the 

 poor have no work, and many lands lie unploughed, 

 covered with thistles, and spreading their seeds 

 with every wind for miles around; and it is said 

 the largest and most wealthy owner and occupier 

 has seen his men steal his corn out of the barns, 

 but would not prosecute, alleging that he must 

 keep them, and that they would live on less if they 

 had the trouble of carrying it away, than if he 

 was to thrash and carry it to Hcrtfoi'd, and bring 

 the produce back to them in money. One of the 

 largest barns on this gentleman's farm has been 

 pulled down piecemeal by the poor, and carried 

 away for fuel. The only probable amelioration of 

 the system may be, perhaps, in appointing itine- 

 rant stipendiaries, who should execute the duties 

 of both magistrate and overseer. It is unjust to 

 compel a large occupier, whose business requires 

 more personal attention than that of other men, to 

 give his time and exertion gratuitously to a dis- 

 gusting public duty, — the only rcAvard of which 

 is either a broken head, or the chance of being 

 burnt in his bed." 



" Royston, January 29th, 1833. 



" Dear Sir, — I write in answer to your in- 

 quiry into the case alluded to in the return to your 

 queries from Royston parish, of refusal of employ- 

 ment to laborers on account of their having lega- 

 cies bequeathed to them. There are obvious mo- 

 tives for disinclination to state particulars, which 

 might be considered to reflect on persons who have 

 no opportunity of giving their own explanations 

 as to the execution of the poor laws. The facts 

 of the case, divested of reference to the locality of 

 its occurrence, are the following: — 



"An individual who had risen from poverty, 

 and accumulated considerable personal property, 

 bequeathed legacies to a number of laborers, his 

 relations. Circumstances delayed for several 

 months the collecting in the testator's estate. The 

 overseer's deputy of one parish, in which some of 

 the legatees were laborers, urged to the agent of 

 the executors the payment, on the ground that it 

 tvould benefit the parishioners, as when the legacies 

 were paid, they would not find employment for the 

 legatees, because they tvould have property of their 

 otvn. 



" The legatees afterwards applied for money on 

 account of their legacies. It was then stated that 

 some of them, ivho lived in a different parish, had 

 been refused employment, because they ivcre entitled 

 to property. 



" An occupier of land in another parish near this 

 place told me. to-day, that in his parish they re- 

 fused employment to laborers who had money left 

 them. He said that he held 320 acres of light 

 land of the value of 18s. an acre, subject to tithes. 

 He pays £74 tithe composition, and £100 for 

 poor-rates, and is compelled to employ fourteen 

 men and six boys, and requires the labor of only 

 ten men and three boys. Plis extra labor at 10s. 

 a week (which is the current rate for men,) and 

 half as much for boys, is £ 130. He pays, in ad- 

 dition, surveyors' and churchwarden's rates. There 

 are sometimes from fifteen to twenty laborers em- 

 ployed in useless public work, besides boys. It is 

 not surprising that, in such circumstances, Uie 



