12 
A COTTAGE AND GARDEN 
called " the relief of the poor," be applied 
in assisting and encouraging them to thrive 
-and be happy in their cottages, the poor's 
rate will be lessened, and a national saving 
made both in labour and food.* The .la.* 
bourer is capable of more exertion, and is 
maintained for less than half the expense, 
in his cottage than in, a workhouse. In his 
cottage he has his family around him, he 
has something he can call his own, he has 
objects to look forward to, and is the mas- 
ter of his own actions. — Domestic connec- 
tions, property, liberty, the hope of advance- 
ment, those master springs of human action, 
exist not in a workhouse. 
It is the misfortune of this country, that 
Defects in the well disposed and indus- 
our system trious poor do not receive suf- 
of relief. ficient aid or encouragement. 
They find no distinction made between 
them and the idle and profligate ; except 
* This experiment would be easily tried. Suppose 
the poor's rate of a parish so applied to be £. (500 a 
year; and that£. 60 a year of the rate were to be an- 
nually employed in assisting the most industrious and 
deserving labourers, to become possessors of cottages 
and cows : I am confident the poor's rate of that parish 
would be greatly diminished in a few years ; probably to 
half its present amount. The difference between a law 
that encourages the poor to exertion, and one that at- 
tempts to compel them to it, is, that in the first you have 
the co-operation of the millions of the people who are to 
be the objects of the law ;, in the second, all the labour 
is thrown on the unfortunate and unsuccessful pcrsont, 
vtho are to attempt to execute it. 
