86 Of Poor-Laws, continued. Bk. iii. 



become grating to those who are driven to ask for 

 support. The tyranny of churchwardens and 

 overseers is a common complaint among the poor; 

 but the fault does not lie so much in these per- 

 sons, who probably before they were in power 

 were not worse than other people, but in the na- 

 ture of all such institutions. 



I feel persuaded that if the poor-laws had never 

 existed in this country, though there might have 

 been a few more instances of very severe distress, 

 the aggregate mass of happiness among the com- 

 mon people would have been much greater than it 

 is at present. 



The radical defect of all systems of the kind is 

 that of tending to depress the condition of those 

 that are not relieved by parishes, and to create 

 more poor. If, indeed, we examine some of our 

 statutes strictly with reference to the principle of 

 population, we shall find that they attempt an ab- 

 solute impossibility ; and we cannot be surprised, 

 therefore, that they should constantly fail in the 

 attainment of their object. 



The famous 43d of Elizabeth, which has been 

 so often referred to and admired, enacts, that the 

 overseers of the poor " shall take order from time 

 " to time, by and with the consent of two or more 

 "justices, for setting to work the children of all 

 " such, whose parents shall not by the said per- 

 *' sons be thought able to keep and maintain their 

 " children ; and also such persons married or 

 " unmarried, as, having no means to maintain 

 " them, use no ordinary and daily trade of life 

 " to get their living by; and also to raise, weekly 



