the weights and measures employed in commerce; and the abstract of these laws, which we have prepared, will be found in the Appendix (B) of this Report. We must, however, reserve for a future occasion the information which we have procured respecting the customary weights and measures of the different counties, as we have not yet been able to reduce our abstract into the most convenient form for affording a connected view of this branch of the subject referred to us. (Signed) Jos. Banks.

GEORGE CLERK. DAVIES GILbert. WM.H.WOLLASTON. THOMAS YOUNG. HENRY KATER. Soho-square, June 24, 1819.

EXTRACTS FROM THE REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE POOR LAWS.

The farther consideration of the Laws for the Relief of the Poor, and of the practical application of them, has tended to confirm, in the opinion of your committee, the correctness of that view of the subject which was taken by the committee in the year 1817, and the soundness of the principles which were then stated in their Report; to that document, therefore, your committee would rather refer, than repeat a detailed statement of the evil which must be necessarily inherent in any system which undertakes to provide for the indigent by a compulsory contribution from the funds accumulated by the industry of others, and of

the aggravation of that evil by a lax or mistaken execution of the law. The consideration that upwards of two centuries had elapsed since the system was established, that it had operated in the mean time, and latterly with augmented force, upon the habits, the pursuits, the feelings, and the social economy, of a large class of the community, induced that committee to attempt to correct, in the first instance, the administration of the law; and to consider such means as might, by their gradual operation, effect a transition to a better order of things, and revive those habits of industry and frugality which a reliance

upon an indiscriminate parish support must necessarily impair. They consequently recommended to the House, and the legislature has since enacted, various provisions for the better administration of this system. Regulations have been prescribed for the conduct of parish vestries, with a view of securing a more efficient control over that expenditure which is become so large in its amount as to require the vigilant attention of those most interested in the welfare of the parish; a weight, therefore, has been given to the persons rated, proportioned in some degree to the magnitude of their respective contributions.

In populous places, however, the numbers of which that body is composed, being too great for the convenient discharge of complicated and detailed business, power has been given to the ves try at large of choosing a select body, on whom new authority is conferred, and under whose di

rection

rection the officers of the parish are to act in the management and relief of the poor. Their proceedings and orders are moreover not subject to the control of a single magistrate. It has been also specially enjoined, that both the select vestry and magistrates, in determining the nature and quantity of relief required in particular cases, shall take into their consideration the character and conduct of the applicant, in order that the same measure of relief may not be extended to the wants arising from unavoidable misfortune on the one hand, and from idleness and extravagance on the other; it being important that the express words of the law should leave the duty of such discrimination no longer doubtful.

It has been also provided, for the better execution of the office of overseer in particular cases, that the vestry may appoint an assistant or assistants, with an adequate salary. This provision arose from the inconvenience resulting from the office of overseer being annual, and the injustice of extending beyond that period a burthen that often requires the unrequited sacrifice of his whole time and private interests. But a person so selected, and remunerated for this task, may be required to devote his whole time to the service of the parish, and may be expected to become, from a continuance in office, accurately acquainted with the duties he has to discharge. A more correct adherence to the law, and a uniformity in the system of management, may therefore be anticipated from such an appointment, which, under annual of

ficers, without a select vestry, may well be wanting.

To these provisions have been added others to guard against evasion in the payment of rates, and against the frauds of persons who seek to derive aid from the parish while they are in the receipt of other means of subsistence. It having been found essential to make such provision against bestowing on one man the property of others, without that reason which alone can justify such an act; the plea of absolute necessity. The advance of relief, by way of loan only, there is reason to hope will be found beneficial, by affording timely aid in some instances, and discouraging in others the applications of those whose earnings have been improvidently and extravagantly wasted.

The partial alteration of the law of settlement, as far as it respects the renting of tenements, which has also been effected, will undoubtedly have placed that part of the law on a more reasonable and simple footing; and while it diminishes the endless litigation respecting the nature and value of the tenement, will no longer be an obstacle to the accommodation which may be afforded in some instances to a poor family, by renting the pasturage of a cow, or some other temporary profit from the occupation of land.

Other enactments of minor importance will be found in the Act of this session, which it is unnecessary here to detail: but in addition to these, there are some expedients which your committee are enabled to recommend, and

which either do not absolutely require, or do not perhaps admit, of any legislative injunction; such as establishing a prescribed form for keeping parochial accounts, and giving to them periodical publicity; by which the amount of expenditure will be seen under its proper head, and any illegal or unnecessary disbursements will be brought to light and corrected. Printing and distributing still more frequently, lists, which the vestry is now bound by law to make out, of the names of all those who at any time receive relief, and on what account, is a practice which has prevailed lately in many populous parishes, and with the

best effect.

By such provisions, and more especially by the establishment of select vestries and assistant overseers, your committee are sanguine in their hopes, that the mischief resulting from the reliance on parish support, may be in some degree palliated, and that the loose and careless administration of the law, by which it has been aggravated, will be essentially corrected.

But this is not all that your committee deem requisite to secure the kingdom from the calamities that must attend the continued progress of this evil; and they do not believe tua such security can be obtained, as long ás by an erroneous construction, as your committee believe, of the act of Elizabeth, parishes are supposed liable to be called upon to effect the impracticable purpose of finding employment for all who may at any time require it; they believe the ill conseVOL. LXI.

quences which have arisen from this practice are most palpable, and most mischievous, and they are therefore peculiarly anxious to recall the most serious attention of the House to this construction which has been put practically on this part of the statute.

Pecuniary relief seems indisputably to have been only contemplated by this Act for "the lame, impotent, old, blind, and such other among them being poor and not able to work, and also for putting out children to be apprentices," but the direction to" set to work all persons having no means to maintain them, and using no ordinary or daily trade of life to get their living by," has been acted upon as if it were a clear authority for requiring the parish to find employment for all who want it. The committee, in 1817, questioned the soundness of this construction in the following terms: "If the object of the statute was merely to set to hard labour such idle, wandering persons as might be found in a state nearly ap proaching to that of vagrancy, such an object might possibly be carried into effect with a fair hope of beneficial consequences; but if the object of the statute was (as it is now interpreted) that the state is to find work for all who in the present and in all succeeding time may require it, your committee are of opinion, that this is a condition which it is not in the power of any law to fulfil; what number of persons can be employed in labour, must depend absolutely upon the amount of the funds, which alone Y

are

are applicable to the maintenance of labour."

The farther consideration and investigation of this subject has confirmed their opinions; for your committee are not aware, that the courts of law have at any time construed the act according to this practice; indeed the decision referred to in the former Report, in which it was held that an order of maintenance is not valid without it adjudges the party seeking relief to be impotent, leads to an opposite conclusion. If reference be had also to the authority of early writers, or to those who in modern times have bestowed the most attention on this subject, the same inference would follow. In a work which has been lately cited by an able anonymous author, intituled "A Description of England, by W. Harrison," and which, as published in the Chronicles of Holingshed, is brought down to the year 1586; it is stated that "the poor are divided into three sorts, so that some are poor by impotency, as the fatherless child, the aged, blind or lame, and the diseased person that is judged to be in curable; the second are poor by casualty, as the wounded soldier, the decayed householder, and the sick person visited with grievous and painful diseases; the third consisteth of thriftless poor, as the rioter that hath consumed all, the vagabond that will abide no where, but runneth up and down from place to place (as it were seeking work, and finding none); and finally, the rogue, &c."

"The two first sorts, that is to say, the poor by impotency,

and the poor by casualty, are the true poor indeed, and for whom the word doth bind us to make some daily provision; there is order taken throughout every parish in the realm that weekly collection shall be made for their help and sustentation; but if they refuse to be supported by this benefit of the law, and will rather endeavour, by going to and fro, to maintain their idle trades, then they are parcel of the third sort, and so instead of courteous refreshing at home, are often corrected with sharp execution, and whip of justice abroad."

Now this classification of the poor in the very age of Elizabeth, leads to the conclusion, that the persons designed by the terms, "using no ordinary or daily trade of life to get their living by," were, as the committee of 1817 supposed, that third class who are deemed "thriftless poor, &c." who it should seem were made to labour as long as they continued within their own parish, but if they left it, were subject to the severe penalties then inflicted on vagrancy; and would now come within the provisions of the present vagrant laws.

But to come nearer to our own times, and to the most laborious, copious and valuable work on this subject, we find the opinion of the judicious and unprejudiced author of "The State of the Poor," expressed in the following decided terms:

"From the language of various statutes concerning the poor, which passed during the reign of queen Elizabeth, and which being in pari materia, explain each

other,

́other, either in matter of law, or illustrate each other in matter of fact, it may fairly be implied to prove, that the relief of the ablebodied poor, with or without families, was no part of the original system of the poor laws. The third of William and Mary, c. 11, s. 11, corroborates this idea, which is put out of doubt by the preamble to 8 and 9 William and Mary, c. 30, s. 2: To the end that the money raised only for the relief of such as are as well impotent as poor, may not be misapplied or consumed by the idle, sturdy and disorderly beggars."

These opinions would, in the absence of any decision of courts of law to the contrary, be entitled to much weight; but this preamble referred to by the last author, and which was cited in the former Report for the same pur pose, seems decisive on the question. Nor indeed can it be well imagined, that the supreme legislative power of any country would have anticipated a permanent order of things, in which a large class of the people should be habitually and necessarily without employment. Your committee conceive that the demand and supply of labour have, in the natural course of things, such a tendency to regulate and balance each other, unless counter acted by artificial institutions, that any excess of either, arising from temporary causes, would, if met by temporary expedients alone, in no long time correct itself; whereas the practice now under consideration, originating perhaps in a humane extension of

the law to meet cases of occasional and pressing emergency, and inconsiderately continued, is calculated to perpetuate evils that would otherwise be transient, and permanently to derange the whole industry of the country.

That such has been its effect in those parts of this kingdom, where the practice has most prevailed, is but too manifest. Your committee say, where the practice has most prevailed, because they have learned that some magistrates have resisted this, which they have deemed, with your committee, a misconstruction of the law. We may fee and lament, that a compulsory provision, for even the helplessness of age and infirmity, has a tendency to weaken, in a degree, the natural efforts of men to provide against future ill; but if by any human institution the present wants o life are to be obtained otherwise than by human exertion, the very sources of all industry must be destroyed. If therefore the parish be bound to find employment for those who are, from whatever cause, without it, it is obvious that in cases where the family is numerous, and the honest pride and independence of self-support is extinguished, it becomes on calculation a matter of perfect indifference, whether the money requisite for their maintenance be derived from the wages of labour, or the alms of the parish. The consequence is, that the motive that would naturally impel men to active and faithful service is wanting; for even if employment be forfeited by misconduct,