$50 
far as they fall short of affording suste- 
nance to the labourer and his family, he 
must make up the deficiency by lawless 
means, or be supplied from the poor’s 
rate: the latter is an expedient wiich 
too many farmers, in country parishes, 
have adopted, although-they are almost, 
exclusively the employers of the poor, 
and payers of the rates, and therefore 
ean profit little by this sinister manage- 
ment. In the return from the parish of 
Cornwell, Oxford, the ove seers account 
tor the comparatively low rate in the 
pound of their assessment to the poor, 
by saying, “ We give our labourers good 
wages, who’ are thereby enabled to sup- 
port their families comfortably, and sel- 
com apply for relief, but in particular 
eases.” Vide Abstract, p. 400.—Were 
zt possible to apportion the product of 
the land betwixt the owner, cultivator, 
and labourer, according to their respee- 
tive claims fairly estimated, it. would be 
well; but at present the cultivator has 
to contend, unless he has the benefit of 
xn old lease, with excessive rents, heavy 
taxes, and advanced charges for all his 
husbandry implements, whereby his con- 
dition is sometimes little to be envied by 
his common labourers. Landlords must 
abate of their rents, before an increase 
of the wages of labour can be sustained 
by their tenants; as it is, should corn 
and cattle decline in price, as, in the 
event of a peace, may be expected, we 
must not be surprised to hear of very ge- 
reral distress among the tenantry of the 
country. But though the high price of 
provisions and inadequate wages of coun- 
try labour, tend greatly to swell the 
amount of the poor’s rate, yet there are 
e her causes which concur in no small 
degree to the same end; such a cause 
we may trace in the very general extinc- 
tion of that ingenuous shame among the 
poor, which turmerly withheld them from 
applying for parish relief. The poor 
would then struggle bard to rescue them- 
selves and their families from such humi- 
Hating dependence; and as the means of 
benevolence were not, then, wrested, by 
complicated and oppressive taxation, 
added to excess of current expences, 
from the middling people, their struggles 
were facilitated aud generally successful. 
It is now widely different. The poor, 
an the first, and on every slight oceasion, 
claim -with confidence, and as a right, 
the allowance which heretofore they 
avoided, or received with difidence and 
pain, Instead of making. exertions in 
proportion to their dithculties, they now 
; f) e x) 
Observations on the Poor-Lazws. 
[May 1, 
look at once to the poor’s fund as their 
only refuge against hunger and naked- 
ness: application for parish relief has 
ceased to be deemed reproachful, and 
the residence in a poor-house to be felt 
as a disgrace, either by the residents, or 
their families; but, these sensations must, 
Tam persuaded, be revived before any 
material décrease of our paupers, or dimi= 
nution of vur poor-rates, can be obtained. 
When we observe the manners and ha- 
bits in which the poor commonly bring 
up their children, we cannot wonder at 
the increase of paupers ; and this is oc- 
casioned by a general relaxation of dis- 
cipline towards all descriptions of them, 
trom the lazy and thriftless parishioner to 
the roving sturdy vagrant. The effects 
of this relaxation are seen in our streets 
hourly, where we cannot but notice boys, 
fit for some kind of work, loitering, beg- 
ging, or playmg together, and swearing 
at almost every word, with a strong proba- 
bility, seeing the ragged state of them, that 
their fathers are wastiug their time in ale- 
houses, at least wasting part of every day 
there, whilst their wives and other children 
are at home neglected, almost naked, 
and nearly starved, relying on parish re- 
lief for chat succour, which the industry | 
of the husband and parent, if exerted, 
and the whole family co-operating, would 
fuliy supply. But if, impressed with a 
strong sense of this misconduct, an indige 
nant observer should demand of the over- 
seer, why he suffers it to prevail in viola- 
tion of the Act, 32 Geo. III. c. 45, 
wherein it is enacted, that “ If any per- 
son shall not use proper means to get em= 
ployment, or is able to work and neglects 
it, or spends his money in alehouses, 
and shall not apply a proper portion of 
the money, earned by him, towards the 
maintenance of his wife and family, so 
that they become chargeable, he shall be 
punished as a disorderly person”—that 
is, be committed to the house of correce 
tion to be kept to hard labour; and why, 
if such person pretends that he cannot 
get employment, he does not provide the 
means of setting him, and. such idle chil- 
dren, to work, according to the statute of 
the 43d of Ehz. he will tell you that, by 
a long relaxation of discipline, the poor 
have, in a manner, obtained an immu- 
nity against the law, and were he to at- 
teimpt areform in his parish, it would 
be like running his head into a hornet’s 
nest; and even if he were resolute to ful- 
fil this part of his duty, it would be im- 
possible for him to provide stocks of re- 
guisite materials, and proper superintend- 
ance 
