CRIMINALS AND INCAPABLES. 107 



They fill our workhouses, to which they crowd in in- 

 clement weather, leaving the towns for the country in 

 spring, and returning to them in autumn. They sleep 

 in barns, under ricks or hedges, and live on what they 

 can find or beg or steal. They marry and have 

 children, who are often a source of profit from the in- 

 creased charity they bring. Give them a spade to 

 dig, a hammer with which to break stones, or a garden 

 to weed, and they tire of the constantly repeated 

 action, be it ever so simple ; complex manipulations, 

 or tasks requiring forethought or attention, are for 

 them quite out of the question. They will keep rooks 

 out of the fields, tramp after bulrushes, or trap a 

 rabbit, but an unexciting occupation with a result not 

 immediately attainable is to them unendurable. We 

 can hardly fail to see in this class, in many cases, the 

 direct descendants of our more savage ancestors, who 

 most probably never mingled in the streams of 

 civilisation that have flowed by their side. They 

 have continued to exist by the primitive and pre- 

 carious means adopted by early men to gam their 

 livelihood. Charity, firstly of the monastery, and 

 secondly of the Poor-law, has kept them alive, and we 

 have them by our side to-day. 



Segregation Ultimately Required for their Elimination. 

 Whatever be their origin, there they are, leading an 



