Taxation as affectinrj the Agricultural Interest. 413= 147 
Thus it will be seen that two-fifths of the agricultural share of 
lis particular rate is expended in out-door relief distributed 
nong upwards of a quarter of a million paupers. A little more 
\n a fourth goes to maintain in workhouses and asylums a 
nailer contingent of the pauper army, while the remainder is 
tlier absorbed in providing the necessary buildings, staff, and 
cessories incident to a system of poor relief, or devoted to 
!ier matters which, for the sake of convenience, are administered 
V Poor Law authorities. 
The average poundage rate throughout all England, is now 
turned as Is. 2|6?. Though this is a lower point than has 
imetimes prevailed, its value as an index of burden is but little, 
ving to the shifting which has taken place in the standard of 
^sessment, which is now a closer approximation to the full 
due than at any previous period. Thanks, however, to im- 
oved administration and the recent prosperity of the working 
nsses, there is no question that a welcome reduction has of late , 
en effected in the numbers of English paupers, who now form 
ily 3 per cent, of the population against 5 per cent, thirteen 
ars ago ; while the total charge imposed by the system of 
lief, which eight years ago equalled a poll tax of Is. on each 
L'ad of the population, has now sunk to 6s. a head. 
The pressure of the Poor-rate varies, however, greatly in dif- Local distri- 
rent localities, and is peculiarly amenable to reduction by careful ^j^tion of the 
Iministration. A very marked contrast is presented between PO'^i-rate. 
le northern and north-western section of the country and the 
istern, south midland, and southern counties; On the one hand 
e see the average outlay for relief in Durham or Lancashire 
' be less than 4s. 3(/. per head of the population ; while, on 
le other hand, in Wiltshire 9s. Id. per head will be expended, 
I Cambridgeshire 8s. 10c?., and in Sussex 8s. 8fZ. The dis- 
nctively agricultural districts usually show more pauperism 
an the dense, busy, and wealthy centres of industry. Yet the 
ore northerly of our distinctly agricultural counties show that 
.'avy pauperism is no necessary characteristic of a country 
»pulation. Dorset, in the south, by placing one sixteenth of 
■r population on the pauper roll, spends 8s. Ad. a head of her 
-"ople in relief, and thereby subjects her land to a tax of Is. 9(/. 
1 the pound. Hereford, in the west, and Suffolk, in the east, 
lend 7s. bd. and Gs. lid. per head, and thereby incur a tax of 
. and Is. Ad. in the pound respectively. In the north, on the 
•ntrary, Westmoreland resorts to the Poor-rate for assistance 
the case of only one thirty-seventh part of her inhabitants, 
1(1, spending but 4s. lOd. per head in relief, her rental escapes 
Iith a tax of S^fZ. in the pound. 
Individual instances of separate unions, selected as distinctly 
