Cli. vii. Of Poor -Laws, continued. 107 



labour out of the parish rates. During the war, 

 when the demand for labour was great and in- 

 creasing, it is quite certain that nothing but a 

 practice of this kind could for any time have pre- 

 vented the wages of labour from rising fully in 

 proportion to the necessaries of life, in whatever 

 degree these necessaries might have been raised 

 by taxation. It was seen, consequently, that in 

 those parts of Great Britain where this practice 

 prevailed the least, the wages of labour rose the 

 most. This was the case in Scotland, and some 

 parts of the North of England, where the im- 

 provement in the condition of the labouring classes, 

 and their increased command over the necessaries 

 and conveniences of life, were particularly remark- 

 able. And if, in some other parts of the country, 

 where the practice did not greatly prevail, and 

 especially in the towns, wages did not rise in the 

 same degree, it was owing to the influx and com- 

 petition of the cheaply raised population of the 

 surrounding counties. 



It is a just remark of Adam Smith, that the at- 

 tempts of the legislature to raise the pay of curates 

 had always been ineffectual, on account of the 

 cheap and abundant supply of them, occasioned 

 by the bounties given to young persons educated 

 for the church at the universities. And it is 

 equally true that no human efforts can keep up 

 the price of day-labour so as to enable a man to 

 support on his earnings a family of a moderate 

 size, so long as those who have more than two 

 children are considered as having a valid claim to 

 parish assistance. 



