376 Diff'erent Plans of improving the Bk. iv. 



labour, which, as Adam Smith justly states, will 

 always be paid, and in a more expensive manner, 

 by the consumer. The landed interest therefore 

 would receive little relief from this plan, but would 

 pay the same sum as at present, only in the ad- 

 vanced price of labour and of commodities, instead 

 of in the parish rates. A compulsory subscrip- 

 tion of this kind would have almost all the bad 

 effects of the present system of relief, and, though 

 altered in name, would still possess the essential 

 spirit of the poor-laws. 



- Dean Tucker, in some remarks on a plan of the 

 same kind, proposed by Mr. Pew, observed that, 

 after much talk and reflection on the subject, he 

 had come to the conclusion, that they must be 

 voluntary associations, and not compulsory as- 

 sembhes. A voluntary subscription is like a tax 

 upon a luxury, and does not necessarily raise the 

 price of labour. 



^ It should be recollected, also, that in a volun- 

 tary association of a small extent, over which each 

 individual member can exercise a superintendence, 

 it is highly probable that the original agreements 

 will all be strictly fulfilled, or, if they be not, 

 every man may at least have the redress of with- 

 drawing himself from the club. But in an uni- 

 versal compulsory subscription, which must neces- 

 sarily become a national concern, there would be 

 no security whatever for the fulfilment of the ori- 

 ginal agreements ; and when the funds failed, 

 which they certainly would do, when all the idle 

 and dissolute were included, instead of some of 



