Page:Appeal to the wealthy of the land.djvu/31

Rh what are the remedies? Fortunately, on this important point we are not left to mere speculation or theory. The experiment has been tried in several parishes in England, and found completely successful: and it is unnecessary to observe, that a remedy found effectual in one disorder, bids fair to be equally so in all disorders of an exactly similar type. The remedy is an asylum, where labour will be found for the able-bodied, and support refused but in return for labour. This has in many parishes diminished the applications for relief, and the poor rates 20, 30, 40, and in some, 60 per cent. The principal means of effecting the reformation has been the abolition of the interference of the magistrates, who, strange to say, in almost every instance when the paupers appealed from the overseers, decided in favour of the appellants, although in most instances wholly unacquainted with the merits or demerits of the case, which the overseers had properly investigated. This shocking procedure was so uniform, that the overseers found themselves generally forced to comply with the demands of the paupers, often obstreperously and impudently preferred. Select vestries with final jurisdiction have been appointed in many of the parishes, and have in every instance produced the most salutary reformation.

"Some time ago, for instance, we had a lot of granite broken: there were not above 20 per cent. of the men who began the work, who remained to work at all; there where not above 2 per cent. who remained the whole of the time during which the work lasted!!"—Report of Commissioners on Poor-laws, p. 209.

"In June, 1821, a select vestry was formed: and although they had to clear off a debt of £300, they speedily effected a great reduction of the rates. The cases were all investigated respectively, and the relief adjusted by judgment of the vestry. The expenditure, which, according to the parliamentary returns, was £720 in 1819-20, was reduced to £347 in 1822-23, and to £216 in 1828-29."—Idem, p. 369.

"In Swallowfield, where it was partially effected, the rates were reduced from 9s. and 10s. in the pound to 5s. 8d., and during the last year to 3s. 8d. in the pound."—Idem, p. 337.

"The able-bodied applicants for parochial relief increased in such numbers, that it has recently been found necessary to recur to the use of the stone-yard to stem the influx: 900 of the applicants for relief were set to work; only 85 have continued at work!!!"—Idem, p. 210. "He cited the cases of nine families who had applied for relief, but had refused it when they were told they would be removed" [to the workhouse.] 'Six of these families,' he said, 'had not only been saved from pauperism, but they were now in a better situation than he had ever before known them to be in."—Idem, p. 208.

"The interference of the magistrates is unknown. The present acting guardian took on himself the management in 1815. In four years he reduced the expenditure £2,600; and though the population has nearly doubled since that period, the rates have never exceeded what they were after that reduction."—Idem, p. 106.

"The parish officers of St. James's, Westminster, state, that 'on one occasion, in the month of November last, upwards of 50 paupers were offered admission into the workhouse, in lieu of giving them out-door relief; and that of that number only four accepted the offer;' and that 'since then, the same system has been pursued in a number of instances, and attended with a similar result.'"—Idem, p. 214.

"All the lazy, profligate, and disorderly part of the community, necessarily entertain the greatest possible disinclination to the hard labour and severe discipline enforced in every well-conducted workhouse."—E. R. vol. xlvii. p. 308.

"The real use of a workhouse, is to be an asylum for the able-bodied poor; for the maimed and impotent poor may, speaking generally, be more advantageously provided for elsewhere; but it ought to be such an asylum as will not be resorted to, except by those who have no other resource, and who are wholly without the means of supporting themselves."—Ibid. "From the year 1821 to 1826, the average assessment was £3500 per annum; from 1826 to 1831, the average has been £1800. The population in 1821 was 5317; in 1831 it had increased to 6341; thus exhibiting decreasing rates with an increasing population."—Commissioners' Report, p. 189.

"Previous to the establishment of this house, the average rates of the parish of Shardlow were £570; since that period they have been reduced full one third. In the year ending