322 Slancy on Rural Expenditure. 



ing which, access to their houses might be gained with less 

 wear of horses and carriages ? We merely throw out these 

 hints : a little reflection on them, we have no doubt, will 

 suggest various other modes in which noblemen and gentle- 

 men, or their stewards, may employ, with small and indirect 

 profit indeed, but still with profit, some of the idle poor in 

 their neighbourhood. Farmers also may employ them, so as 

 to repay themselves for the wages they give them, at least in 

 part. The very best farmed lands would admit of hedges 

 being kept much more clean than we ever saw them : of alter- 

 ations in the soil, by mixing the clay of the strong and wet 

 part with the sand of the too light portions ; and by various 

 other modes, which will not fail to present themselves to an in- 

 telligent farmer, actuated at the same time by a wish to improve 

 his farm and give employment to the poor. 



But it will be said at once, in the present state of 

 agriculture, farmers cannot afford to spend money even on 

 improvements which would be certain to repay them; and 

 even landed proprietors have little to spend in this manner. 

 As this objection, if it cannot be obviated, must apply with 

 still greater force to those modes of employing the poor which 

 cannot yield profit, it will be proper to consider it before we 

 proceed further. 



Suppose a farmer pays in poor rates 5s. in the pound on 

 his rental, and rents a farm of 500 acres, at 305. an acre, his poor 

 rates in this case will amount to about 187/. : in return for this 

 money he gets nothing. He sees round him a number of idle 

 people, whom he is obliged to contribute to support. If, by 

 any means, he could obtain for his 187/. even one-half of the 

 profit which that sum would yield in the regular way of his 

 farming, would it not be preferable to throwing it away ? Let 

 us suppose, then, that he takes of these poor as many as he 

 can employ and pay at the rate of 105. a week, in the modes 

 we have pointed out, or others similar, that will suggest them- 

 selves : his outlay is not increased, and from this outlay of 

 187/. he derives some profit. But his gain is not merely 

 direct, such as we have pointed out. Can any one doubt, 

 that if the idle poor of a parish were employed, there would 

 be less immorality of all kinds ; and, -what is to our present 

 purpose, less depredation — less breaking of gates and hedges 

 — less trespassing on fields and farm-yards, than there is at 

 present ? 



The benefit to the poor, from these modes of employing 

 them, might be extended to a greater number, and at the 

 same time increased, without any expence to the farmer, if he, 



