442 
vantages, the most perfect machines, im- 
plements, and tools, must be provided, 
and vigilant and faithful teachers en- 
gaged to instruct and assist in the use 
aud management of them; and thus 
provided with the means of carrying a 
system of industry, on an enlarged scale, 
into execution, and conducted under 
wise regulations of proper encourage- 
ment and necessary concern, may not Its 
success in efiecting a radical reform of 
the poor, and bettering their condition, 
as well as in reducing the rates levied for 
their maintenance by their own produc- 
tive labour be reasonably expected? But 
it will not be alone sufficient, that the 
inmates be employed diligently to fulfil 
all the advantages from the union of pa- 
rishes for the purposes mentioned; but it 
will be necessary also, that the means be 
added of feeding and cloathing them 
frugally: the latter will arise out of their 
own labour, but for the former it will be 
indispensable, that each district manu- 
factory be accommodated with ample 
appurtenant land, and therefore that it 
be placed in a retired situation, and that 
this may admit of suitable allotments for” 
gardens and orchards, woodland for fu- 
ture fuel and repair timbers, for potatoe 
ground of large extent, -and for the cul- 
tivation of hemp and flax in fit soils, be- 
sides the ordinary demands for pasture 
and tillage ; and foreseeing, that a conside- 
rable proportion of it may be indifferent’ 
in quality, each district house should have 
attached or belonging to it an acre, or 
nearly so, for each inmate itis calculated 
to contain. With this provision for 
their frugal maintenance, added to the 
value of labour, with reason to be 
reckoned, jit would not be too much to 
expect, that the more constant inmates 
of these manufactories would in a few 
years, on an average, wholly or in great 
part, earn their subsistence. The adults, 
even those only half able, would to a 
certainty earn enough to support them- 
selves; and none but children under 
eight years of age would be likely to earn 
less, As for sach paupers as would be sent 
to the district manufactory for temporary 
causes, thesewould be employed to the best 
advantage; remain only whilst the causes 
‘continue, and at their departure receive 
wages for tse work performed by them, 
deducting frugally for diet and lodging; 
nor should they, by indulgence of any 
kind, diet, lodging, or remission of em- 
ployment, be tempted, needlessly, to 
protract their residence in the manufac- 
tory. For the other inmates, in so far 
Observations on the Poor-Laws, and on the most [June 1, 
as their earnings collectively fall short of 
the expence of their maintenance. The 
incorporated parishes should pay per head 
for their respective parishioners, and pa- 
rishes not incorporated, whose paupers 
are farmed, would have to pay extra on 
account of outset expences, to which 
they had not contributed. 
The chief cbjections to this plan will 
be the outset expences, the difficulty of 
procuring land, the inconveniency of at- 
tendance for inspection and centroul, and 
the chance of abuses in various ways: 
but before we endeavour to obviate these 
objections, it may be proper to observe, - 
that a belief has very long prevailed, that® 
no plan of employment for the parish 
poor can be of general good to the com- 
munity, since, in proportion as these 
execute-any given quantity of work, an 
equal quantity of employment will be 
withdrawn from the other poor. This 
opinion was always a fallacy, and is 
now known to be so. The commerce of 
this country has opened vents for English 
manufactures, which were heretofore not 
contemplated even in fancy. To com- 
pare our present demands for industry, 
or our present exports, with those of for- 
mer times, would be lke comparing 
London at the beginning and end of the 
18th century; moreover, the use of all 
articles of necessity, as well as of orna- 
ment, are deubled, nay, quadrupled at 
home, in modern times. Things deemed 
indispensable now, and many of them 
superfluous enough God knows, were ne- 
ver dreamt of in the time of De Foe, who 
first started this objection to the employ- 
ment of the parish poor. . For my part I 
should not entertain a doubt, that if all 
the unemployed able poor of the king- 
com were at work to-morrow on articles 
of real use and needful comfort, to be 
sold 10 or 12 per cent. cheaper to those 
who cannot ncw procure them at all, or 
who must forego other conveniences to 
obtain them, that there would be nodan- 
ger of an accumulation on hand, and 
that it would diffuse a mass of substan- 
tial happiness over the whole inferior 
part of the community. With respect 
to the outset expences, the necessary 
buildings, though durable and convenient, 
should be plain as pessible; and with 
proper care and prudent management, 
no district house and offices, need cost 
more than some of our houses of industry 
of incorporated parishes, and which cost 
has been amply provided for by conse- 
quent savings in the rates of such parishes ; 
and in order to provide for these expences 
i in 
