NEAR TADCASTER. 
1$ 
this — that the idle and profligate are main,' 
tained in part at their expense. As the law 
is too frequently executed, the cottager,. 
though poor himself, is regularly assessed for 
the relief of the poor; but he receives no 
benefit from the fund, no assistance towards 
the support of himself and his family, unr 
less lie is reduced to absolute want, and 
presents himself hopeless at the door of. 
the workhouse. 
The evil has been greatly increased by 
the ninth of George L which Increasedb ■ 
authorizes the farming of the the act of 
poor, and refuses relief to those Geo. I. as to 
who will not submit to reside in workh °uses. 
the workhouse.* It is, in consequence, the 
interest of the farmer of the workhouse, to 
keep it in such a condition, that (to use 
Mr. Parry's words +) " the honest and in- 
" dustrious labourer, who has brought up a 
" large family Avith credit, and who from 
" misfortune is poor, and from age past 
" his labour, will submit to be half starved, 
" rather than take up his abode amid such 
" wretchedness and profligacy." By these 
means workhouses become objects of terror 
* An act has been lately passed (in December, 1795,) 
empowering the magistrates to order the cottager, under 
special circumstances, temporary relief at home. It has 
not, however, been attended to in some districts • and in 
others, the execution of it is very unwillingly jubmitted 
to by parish officers. 
t See the first Report of the Society. 
