Ch. vii. Of Poor- Laws, continued. 101 



and now perhaps, since the great loss of agricul- 

 tural capital, almost every sort of labour upon the 

 land, which could be carried on by public sub- 

 scription. 



Yet even in this way of employing labour, the 

 benefit to some must bring with it disadvantages 

 to others. That portion of each person's revenue 

 which might go in subscriptions of this kind, must 

 of course be lost to the various sorts of labour 

 which its expenditure in the usual channels would 

 have supported; and the want of demand thus 

 occasioned in these channels must cause the pres- 

 sure of distress to be felt in quarters whicli might 

 otherwise have escaped it. But this is an effect 

 which, in such cases, it is impossible to avoid; 

 and, as a temporary measure, it is not only cha- 

 ritable but just, to spread the evil over a larger 

 surface, in order that its violence on particuiar 

 parts may be so mitigated as to be made bearable 

 by all. 



The great object to be kept in view, is to sup- 

 port the people through their present distresses, 

 in the hope (and I trust a just one) of better times. 

 The difficulty is without doubt considerably aggra- 

 vated by the prodigious stimulus which has been 

 given to the population of the country of late years, 

 the effects of which cannot suddenly subside. 

 But it will be seen probably, when the next re- 

 turns of the population are made, that the mar- 

 riages and births have diminished, and the deaths 

 increased in a still greater degree than in 1800 

 and 1801 ; and the continuance of this effect to a 

 certain degree for a few years will retard the pro- 



