APPENDIX. 467 



listing were only for a limited time, and at the expiration of 

 that time every person who had conducted himself well 

 were entitled to a house and a small portion of land, if a 

 country labourer, and to a tenement in a town and a small 

 pension, if an artificer (all inalienable), a very strong motive 

 would be held out to young men, not only to enter into the 

 service of their country, but to behave well in that service; 

 and, in a short lime, there would be such a martial popula- 

 tion at home as the unfortunate state of Europe seems in a 

 most peculiar manner to require. As it is only limited as- 

 sistance that the society can possibly give, it seems in every 

 respect fair and proper that, in regulating this limit, some 

 important end should be attained. 



If the poor-laws be allowed to remain exactly in their 

 present state, we ought, at least, to be aware to what cause 

 it is owing, that their effects have not been more pernicious 

 tlian they are observed to be; that we may not complain of, 

 or alter those parts, without which we should really not 

 have the power of continuing them. The law which 

 obliges each parish to maintain its own poor is open to 

 many objections. It keeps the overseers and churchwar- 

 dens continually on the watch to prevent new comers, and 

 constantly in a state of dispute with other parishes. It thus 

 prevents the free circulation of labour from place to place, 

 and renders its price very unequal in different parts of the 

 kingdom. It disposes all landlords rather to pull down than 

 to build cottages on their estates ; and this scarcity of ha- 

 bitations in the country, by driving more to the towns 

 than would otherwise have gone, gives a relative discou- 

 ragement to agriculture, and a relative encouragement 

 to manufactures. These, it must be allowed, are no 

 inconsiderable evils; but if the cause which occasions them 

 were removed, evils of much greater magnitude would fol- 

 low. I agree with Mr. Young in thinking that there is 

 scarcely a parish in the kingdom, where, if more cottages 

 were built, and let at any tolerably moderate rents, they 

 would not be immediately tilled with new couples. I even 

 agree with him in thinking that, in some places, this want 

 of habitations operates too strongly in preventing marriage. 

 But I have not the least doubt that, considered generally, 

 its operation in the present state of things is most benefi- 

 cial; and that it is almost exclusively owing to this cause 

 that we have been able so lone to continue the poor-laws. 



11 II 2 



