CRIMINALS AND INCAPABLES. 101 



1834. It cannot be denied, therefore, that there is a 

 certain want of independence (especially perhaps in 

 rural districts) engendered by methods of relief 

 administered in past times As a result of this, those 

 without physical and mental disqualification for work 

 fall back on the Poor-law for relief in time of distress, 

 and, counting on the certainty of this relief, are less 

 strenuous in their efforts to provide against the evil 

 hour. Vice, too, is increased in those who know that 

 during the incapacity which may follow its exercise 

 the workhouse door is open to them, and that food 

 and shelter are to be had between the intervals of 

 each debauch. 



It was for the benefit of the sickly, the aged and 

 other really deserving poor, that organised charity 

 came into existence, but it too often has been the 

 lazy and vicious who have profited thereby. 



The Idle and Vicious are Subjects for tJie Criminal 

 Law. 



But though society has made so great a mistake 

 in the past, it is no reason that this system should 

 continue. And that it should do so is inadvisable, 

 both in the interests of the ratepayers and in the in- 

 terests of those upon whom the rates are spent. 



The poor-rates are generally paid with extreme 

 reluctance, whereas were it felt that they were to be 



