70 Of Poor- Laws. Bk. iik 



which their degree of skill and industry entitle 

 them, in the actual circumstances of the country, 

 diminished exactly in the same proportion that 

 command over the necessaries of life, which the 

 classes above them, by their superior skill and 

 industry, would naturally possess ; and it may be 

 a question, whether the degree of assistance 

 which the poor received, and which prevented 

 them from resorting to the use of those substitutes 

 which, in every other country on such occasions 

 the great law of necessity teaches, was not more 

 than overbalanced by the severity of the pressure 

 on so large a body of the people from the extreme 

 high prices, and the permanent evil which must 

 result from forcing so many persons on the parish, 

 who before thought themselves almost out of the 

 reach of want. 



If we were to double the fortunes of all those 

 who possess above a hundred a year, the effect 

 on the price of grain would be slow and inconsi- 

 derable ; but if we were to double the price of 

 labour throughout the kingdom, the effect in 

 raising the price of grain would be rapid and 

 great. The general principles on this subject 

 will not admit of dispute ; and that, in the parti- 

 cular case which we have been considering, the 

 bounties to the poor were of a magnitude to ope- 

 rate very powerfully in this manner will sufficient- 

 ly appear, if we recollect that before the late 

 scarcities the sum collected for the poor was es- 

 timated at three millions, and that during the year 



