1809.) 
ance of the works, without putting the 
_parish to much greater expence, than is 
incurred by his apparent remissness 
in his office. Neither is the overseer 
checked by these considerations alone ; 
for, by late acts of Parliament, a 
power is given to justices of the peage of 
interfering with, and contouling his autho- 
rity in points of discipline, which our ear- 
her laws enjoined him, under penalties, 
to enfore; such for instance, as that 
which empowers magistrates to excuse 
paupers from wearing the parish badge, 
as directed by the Act 8,9, Will. LI. 
c. 50, s. 2, whereby that mark of degra- 
dation has fallen nearly into disuse, and 
disorderly paupers go undistinguished, as 
such, in every parish. And again, by 
the Act, Geo. 1. c. 7, 8, 4. poor per- 
sons who require parish relief, and yet 
refuse to be maintained in the work-’ 
honse provided for them, under that 
Act, are to be put out of the collection 
book, and not be intitled to relief; but. 
by a subsequent law, 36 G. IL]. c. 23, 
justices may order relief to be given to poor 
persons at their cwn houses, whereby 
the intent of providing such workhouses 
is often frustrated, arid the pretences of 
the pauper set successfully up against the 
authority of the overseer, to the certain 
extension of relaxed discipline. The 
power given to justices in these cases 1s, 
it is true, limited by circumstances; but 
it very rarely happens, that an overseer 
{cels disposed to contest a doubtful point 
with the magistrate, when sure, by so 
doing, if successful, to incur the ill word 
and ill will of the poor around him ; and 
it is truly remarked in a note to the re- 
turn of the parish of Bushey (county of 
Herts), by the Rev. Mr. Vivian, rector 
of that parish—* It is impossible not to 
observe, that the want of all shame, in 
applying for parochial charity, must be 
attributed, among other causes, to the 
inconsiderate interference of authority, 
in throwing families on the poor’s rate, 
who otherwise would have been above 
depending on the parish.” The facility 
of thus getting relief, after their own 
way, represses the necessity of their vigi- 
lance to seek out employment, and all 
inducement to economise their earnings 
among the poor, and thus parish relief, 
without labour, becomes the fruitful pa- 
rent of debauchery and depravity. There 
is one writer of consideration, who, in 
his Essay on Population, refers the in- 
creased misery of the poor, of late years, 
to our overabundant people, whereby 
labour is reduced in yalug, whilst food is 
O8 
Observations on the Poor-Laws. 852 
\ 
less in proportion to people, and of course 
dearer. That our poor have multiplied 
with our people is true, but it must be 
admitted also, that the means of empley- 
ing them in useful and diversified ocen- 
pations, have increased in an equal or 
greater proportion: our trades manual 
and mercantile, and arts liberal and 
mechanic, are prodigiously extended of 
late years, and have supplicd employ- 
ment fornumereus additional hands; and 
yet these resources have not kept back 
the progress of poverty and increase of 
the poor’s rate. War, without doubts, 
occasions great waste of provisions, and, 
but for this waste, I am inclined to 
think, that our national supply of good 
and wholesome food would scarcely fall 
short of our demands, except in very un- 
productive years ; nor, perhaps, even then 
were the laws revised and enforced, which 
interdict the conversion of lands from til- 
lage to pasture, and the accumulation of 
farms. We may perceive what were the 
sentiments of our ancestors on these 
evils, nearly three centuries ago, by re- 
ferring to the statute 25 Hen. VIII. c. 13, 
the preamble of which states, “ That by 
reason of the accumulation of farms and 
cattle, especially sheep, into few hands, 
and putting such lands to pasture and noe 
to tillage, towns have been destroyed, 
rents raised, and all manner of corn, cat- 
tle, wool, pigs, geese, hens, chickens, 
egys, are exbanced almost double their 
accustomed price, by reason whereof a 
marvellous multitude and number of peo= 
ple be not able to provide meat, drink, 
and cloaths for themselves, their wives, 
and children, but be so discouraged by 
misery and poverty, that they fall daily 
to theft, robbery, and other inconveni- 
ences, or pitifully die for hunger or cold; 
and, asit is thought by the King’s most 
humble and loving subjects, that one of 
the greatest occasions that moveth and 
provoketh those greedy and _ covetous 
people so to accumulate, and keep in 
their hands, such great portions and parts 
of the grounds and lands of this realm, 
from the occupying of the poor husband- 
men, and so to use it in pasture and not 
in tillage, is only the great profit that 
cometh of sheep,” &c. Itthen limits the 
number of sheep to be kept by any per- 
son, and forbids any one to “ take in» 
farm any more houses and tenements of 
husbandry, whereunto any lands are be- 
longing above the number of two such 
holds, or tenements ; nor two such, ex- 
cept he or they be dwelling in the same 
parish, under the penalty of 3s. 4d. per 
: : week,, 
