( 394 ) Bk. iv. 



, CHAP. XII.* 



Cotdinuation of the same Subject. 



The increasing portion of the society which has 

 of late years become either wholly or partially 

 dependent upon parish assistance, together with 

 the increasing burden of the poor's rates on the 

 landed property, has for some time been working 

 a gradual change in the public opinion respecting 

 the benefits resulting to the labouring classes of 

 society, and to society in general, from a legal 

 provision for the poor. But the distress which 

 has followed the peace of 1814, and the great and 

 sudden pressure which it has occasioned on the 

 parish rates, have accelerated this change in a very 

 marked manner. More just and enlightened 

 views on the subject are daily gaining ground ; 

 the difficulties attending a legal provision for the 

 poor are better understood, and more generally 

 acknowledged ; and opinions are now seen in 

 print, and heard in conversation, which twenty 

 years ago would almost have been considered as 

 treason to the interests of the state. 



This change of public opinion, stimulated by the 

 severe pressure of the moment, has directed an 

 unusual portion of attention to the subject of the 



* Written in 1817. 



