Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 3.djvu/211

 12 S. III. MARCH 17, 1917.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

published also his ' Observations on the Exportation of Wool from Great Britain to Ireland.' Young notes in May, 1804, that he does not get on with Lcrd Carrington as President of the Board as well as with Lord Sheffield. In February, 1805, " this miserably constituted Board of Agriculture is ever in a dilemma when a new President is to be elected " ; and apparently the unpopularity of Sir John Sinclair did not make the task any easier. He had been deposed from the Presidency in 1798, his management of its income of 3,OOOZ. a year being " next to throwing it away."*

Writing upon the " Poor Laws " in 1818, Sheffield dwelt upon the greatness of the mischief that had arisen from " the system of compulsory charity," as opposed to the voluntary system which prevailed in every other country in the world except England, and which still, to a large extent, was main- tained in the more provident Scotland, although the principles were mainly the same in both countries. Sheffield, speaking from a ripe experience of forty-eight years in the management of the poor, asserted that the deviation from the law of Elizabeth was responsible for the mischiefs causing embarrassment.

Forty years before he wrote Sheffield had, by a literal adherence to the statute, re- duced the poor rates of his own parish of Fletching to Is. Qd. in the pound, whereas in 1812, under bad management, he saw them rise from 387Z. 5s. 9d. in 1789 to 2.461Z. 15s.2d., at 15s. in the on a rental of 3.300Z., i.e., about three-fourths of the full rental. The whole of this burden fell almost exclusively on the land, while at the same time the landlord and occupier paid all the other taxes in common with the rest of the com- munity, with the natural result that the property of the country was passing into new hands, without benefit to individuals or the State. The position of the farmer becoming desperate, he was unable to employ the country people, the land was not half tilled, farms could not be stocked, nor manures purchased. Sheffield's pro- posal was that the poor rate should be limited to 2s. in the on the full rental of the parish to date from the end of six or seven years, so as to prepare for better management. He protested against the relief of the poor by money as infinitely mischievous in its effects, by aggravating

Ernest Clarke, in the Journal of the R. Agricultural Soc., 1898.
 * See the History of the Board, 1793-1822, by Sir

the evil, and promoting indulgence in habits of indolence and dissipation :

" It is stimulating necessity alone that produces- the exertion of the body and mind, and leads to- industry, and ultimately to moral feelings and moral foresight."

A certain degree of want, he declared, will be always necessary to stimulate the in- dustry of the poor ; and indeed there is no necessity to confine the golden generalizatioru to any class of the community.

It almost looks as if Mr. Jesse Collings's famous ideal of " Three acres and a cow" emanated from Lord Sheffield's ' Observa- tions,' where he says :

" The allotting of four acres to a cottage is not perhaps so desirable as it at first appears : it often misleads the labourer into speculations that waste much of his time, and he can no longer be depended on as a regular steady workman."

With this quantity of land he would become- subject to all the parochial assessments, and it would be better to restrict him to- half an acre, which he could cultivate with his spade in his spare time. In regard to the cow, not only would he be liable to ruinous loss from accidents, but his time- would be wasted going about to find a market for the cow's produce, and therefore- Sheffield prefers the plan of small dairy farms, where the occupier is bound by covenant to sell by retail the milk, butter,, and cheese.

It only remains for me to acknowledge- gratefully the use I have made of Mr. Row- land E. Prothero's valuable notes to his 'Private Letters of Edward Gibbon (1753- 1794),' and to express a hope that the- patriotic Lord Sheffield may through his letter contribute posthumously to the funds- of the Red Cross Society.

A. FORBES SIEVEKING, F.S.A. 12 Seymour Street, Portman Square, W.

THE CORRESPONDENCE OF RICHARD*

EDWARDS, 1669-79. (See ante, pp. 1, 44, 81, 122, 161.)

LETTER XXI: Richard Edwards to John Smith (rough draft)*

(O.C. 3419.)

Cassumbuzar le llth April 70 [1670] To Mr Smith

Yours of the 9th past month received togither with the 2 ps. Tanjeebs,* for the- procury whereof returne you many thanks*


 * See Letter XV.