Agricultural Statistics. 
591 
adverted to would necessarily be the consequence. I have found a general 
impression in the minds ol' those the most friendly to the jjroposed returns 
that a measure so important to the whole community should not be obtmded 
on the still more important duties for the performance of which boards of 
guardians were constituted, and with which in fact it has nothing in cmninon. 
The warm discussions which almost certainly follow the first explanations of 
the inspectors, however carefidly or fully made, tend to place all parties in a 
position at variance with that for which they were appointed, viz. a cordial 
co-operation in the systematic administration of the laws for the relief of the 
poor. The inspector, instead of being welcomed as an adviser and assistant, 
and a referee in difficult cases, is looked upon as an official advocate seeking 
to persuade the guardians to undertake a novel and distasteful task. The 
clerks and relieving officers arc placed in a false position between the con- 
flicting guardians on the one hand, and the Poor Law authorities on the 
other. The ex-ofticio guardians, including usually the chairman and vice- 
chairman, find themselves on this subject brought into collision with many 
of the working guardians ; and it cannot be doubted that the exclusive devo- 
tion of a considerable portion of time to this one object gTeatly increases the 
duties of the Poor Law Inspector, and interferes with the regular perfoiTnance 
of his duties of visitation, always difficult to adjust. Moreover, as has been 
shown in the case of the Faringdon and Newbury Unions, it does not at all 
follow that where the guardians have adopted the measure, and even appointed 
statistical committees, it can therefore be successfully carried out. But the 
chief objection which I see to the agency of boards of guardians and of the 
Poor Law Board in this matter is, that it tends to re-awaken those feelings 
of jealousy and distrust on the part of the fonuer, which have now happily 
almost ceased to exist." 
Here then is a pretty clear preponderance of opinion against 
the plan, not from mere indifferent persons, but from parties 
peculiarly qualified to judge of, and not likely to extenuate, the 
capacity of the machinery they are familiar with for adaptation 
to this new purpose ; while it must be at the same time borne 
in mind that even the more favourable opinions of gentlemen 
employed in this department of the State, could not be taken as 
extending beyond the Aye or No of that particular machinery. 
The syllogism into which their answers must inevitably fall, 
though ' universal ' if in the negative conclusion, would be only 
' particular ' if in the affirmative ; because another system might 
still be immeasurably superior to that which their experiment of 
the Poor-Law machinery might enable them to approve. 
Regarding the question from this point of view, and contrasting 
the limited experiment in England with the results obtained by 
a widely different and strikingly appropriate modus operandi in 
Scotland, it is difficult to avoid the question how much of the 
delay — and, in too many cases, downright opposition — experi- 
enced in some of the districts in England may be referable, after 
all, to the error of having adopted too easily a ready-made and 
tempting machinery, without being sufficiently alive to its 
unfavourable and even misleading associations. Every people 
and every class has its cue, — 
•2 Q 2 
