It is not necessary for us to say more of cottage farms; but if they were likely to become prevalent, very grave consideration would be called for by the natural effect of heirship, as such customary tenants would not fail again to sap the existence of all large estates, as heretofore happened by the gradual transformation of vassals and retainers into copyholders: but what in the ancient state of society was an improvement, would be in modern times to retrograde immeasurably into barbarism, into a want of every thing beyond the bare necessaries of life. * We hold ourselves exempted from entering upon the subject of SETTLEMENT; a difficulty resulting from the poor laws, and increasing with the amount of expenditure on the poor. The astonishing number of 4700 appeals are stated to have been entered for trial at the quarter-sessions in one twelvemonth; and the absolute impossibility of finishing the business brought before the magistrates at these times, begins to amount to a delay of justice not much less inconvenient than the expenditure of £300,000 per annum, in removals of paupers and consequent litigation. For the remedy of this evil, the poor law committee, which reckons among its members several leading magistrates in their respective counties, was admirably calculated; and the pages in which they have handled this subject at large, therein proposing to establish select vestries, and to give more power to the magistrates in petty sessions, are as masterly in practical views, as many of the preceding pages are in the clear and concise expression of general principles which heretofore had only been understood and recognized by those who had studied good authors, or thought deeply for themselves. And here we particularly advert to the opinion and arguments of the Committee on the subject of 'providing work for all such persons as may require it.' The contingent impossibility of doing this, and the injury sustained from impotent attempts to fulfil such an engagement, are treated with all the delicacy due to the wellmeant enactments of the 43d of Elizabeth, and to those whose active benevolence prompts them to devise employment, or to give alms lavishly, without reflecting that in the first cases they subtract from the funds of labour, unless the newly devised employment be a creation of labour;-and in the second, that money bestowed upon the improvident, is a bounty for the encou ragement of improvidence. The old law + against giving vagrants alms cannot be enforced; but the distinct knowledge of modern times upon this subject ought to give full effect to its spirit and intention. Poor Laws Report, pp. 22-29. † p. 17. 27 Hen. VIII. c. 25. whereby a penalty of ten times the sum given is imposed upon the donor. In proposing to authorize the appointment of a salaried officer, a kind of assistant overseer, in every parish where the majority of the vestry concur in it, the committee state, that they proceed on grounds of experience rather than of theory, the practice having long been beneficially adopted in many populous parishes.'-There can be no doubt of the propriety of such an appointment, as being at once the cheapest as well as the most effectual mode of checking unreasonable applications for relief: it is the cheapest mode, because the office of overseer requires a sacrifice of time which it is unreasonable to expect, as being inconsistent with the attention due from such persons to their own affairs,'t-and these affairs, we may be permitted to add, taken in the aggregate, are the affairs of agriculture and commerce, the interruption of which, in serving parish offices and attending vestries, is not indeed a tax, but a loss equivalent to a very heavy tax on the community at large. 6 In truth, we deem this to be one of the greatest evils of the poor laws; and we cannot perceive without regret, that both the Poor Law Committee and Mr. Davison consider it important, nay, of imperious necessity, that the most educated and enlightened' persons, and those most interested (in other words, of the largest property) in every parish should turn their attention to the management of the poor. Upon this Mr. Davison expatiates very forcibly, and in less measured terms than perhaps the Poor Law Committee felt themselves at liberty to do in an official document; but the opinion of both is the same, and both authorities will doubtless carry with them great and deserved weight. We refer to Mr. Davison's pamphlet for a description of the qualities necessary in such persons for the due administration of the poor laws; but, however reluctant we may be to differ from a writer whom we respect so truly, we cannot but aver that any expectations of this kind are unjust and must be illusory. For to call in this manner upon any person who either by inheritance or his own industry is in possession of property sufficient to entitle him to spend his time in the way most agreeable to himself, is to rob him of the advantage he has acquired, and, by forcing him to employ his time and attention much less agreeably than if he were endeavouring to earn a competence for himself and his children, to place him in a worse situation than the class of society next below him. True it is, that the merit and self-satisfaction resulting from time well spent will be supposed in some degree to repay him for this intrusion on his own pursuits, but this compensation disappears as we approach the actual personal interference necessary in the management of the parochial poor. The p. 21. + p. 21. See Mr. Davison's pamphlet, pp. 43. 46. 54, 55. good good management of the poor can only result from a thorough knowledge of the character, and especially of the faults, of the individuals who apply for relief; and to acquire this implies all the odious qualities of a busybody, if not of a spy, and must in some degree debase the purest and most energetic mind so occupied. Upon knowledge thus acquired, this educated and enlightened man has afterwards to act; that is, face to face to impute to men and women habitual idleness, debauchery or profligacy; and, in many cases, to insinuate suspicions of pilfering and all sorts of evasions and petty roguery. He must divest his nature of all that ennobled feeling and cultivated humanity, which are the best privileges and distinction of his rank in society; and he must acquire the stern impassive obduracy which is created in the manner and conversation of those who, as taskmasters or jailors, must hold authoritative intercourse with the basest of mankind. A sense of religious duty will lead such men as Mr. Davison describes into hospitals and prisons, to perform the most loathsome offices and witness the most heart-rending sights; they go as the ministers of charity, and while they indulge the yearnings of their own sympathetic nature, they are rewarded by the blessings of the miserable and the prayers of the dying. But is it to be supposed that the mere sense of parochial utility, or even of national good, will induce the most educated and enlightened' men to undertake a hateful task, in the performance of which they must needs incur more odium than thanks, while they themselves, being compelled continually to behold the worst parts of human nature, contract inevitably habits the most unfavourable to benevolence, and the most opposite to those which they would fain cherish in themselves? So much for the justice of such an expectation;-as to the probability that it could be carried into effect, we shall only ob serve that what has been will be—that zeal is not lasting in such occupations and that there are very few persons in the nation who are not either too busy or too idle to give up all their attention to the management of the poor: this, as it regards the educated and wealthy, can only extend in practice to a general superintendence of the conduct and accounts of the stipendiary overseer recommended by the Committee. 6 The appointment of such an officer, and indeed the propriety of many other parochial arrangements, are to be considered with relation to the amount of the sum expended on the poor in each parish; and this subject is not unworthy of notice in some detail: the most convenient dimensions of parishes or districts for the purposes of good management having been the subject of speculation and discussion ever since the law of Charles II. (1661) permitted townships and villages in the northern counties (though not entire parishes) to maintain their own poor separately, because otherwise the the inhabitants of those counties cannot, by reason of the largeness of their parishes, reap the benefit of the act of parliament (43d Eliz.) for the relief of the poor.' The poor-rates of 1803 do not furnish perfect data for ascertaining the rate on the pound in each parish or township, because it is usually nominal, as being made on an ancient rental. But the general result of a pretty extensive investigation, with this object in view, is, that where less than 100l. was raised annually, the nominal rate on the pound was on the average 3s. 4d; and it is found to increase gradually with the sum raised till that amounts to 1000/. and the nominal rate on the pound to 8s. Some part of this difference is no doubt attributable to the intimate knowledge which, in small places, the parish officer has of all the inhabitants; but much more to the greater interest which every individual, in a small parish, feels in not creating parishioners; for supposing there is but one occupier, the whole expense of every instance of imprudence of this kind falls on himself; but it falls in less proportion upon the individual as the payers of poor-rates are numerous, till, in very large parishes, a man's own conduct scarcely affects the amount of his payment to the rate, each man therefore becomes careless, and all collectively suffer for it. The extreme case of extra-parochial places which maintain no poor at all is noticed by the Poor Law Committee, and will perhaps be remedied by their interference. That such a blot on the internal administration of the country should have remained so long is matter of surprize; but the Committee must apply to the parties to relinquish their convenient immunities, always, however, holding sacred those which are connected with the great and important objects of public education. The universities, the public schools of the country, and the inns of court, could not perhaps be touched without producing an evil far greater than the remedy sought to be attained by a subjection of such establishments to the common burdens.* We cannot quit the subject of the dimensions of parishes without remarking that in places which expend above 1000l. per annum on their poor, the rate on the pound does not appear to be aggravated; the inference from which is, that when it becomes worth while to establish a stipendiary overseer (under whatever title) the natural effect of very large parishes in increasing the poor In the language of the ancient law of England, extra-parochial places are not geldable nor shire-ground'-non sub districtione curia vicecomitis: and as the sheriff was the king's receiver-general of the county till the time of the revolution, extra-parochial places were neither taxable nor within the pale of any jurisdiction, unless in cases where the writ runs as well within liberties as without;' and the inhabitants are still exempt from all the civil duties and offices served with much inconvenience by others for the general benefit. rates rates is counteracted. But large parishes, or, more properly speaking, populous parishes, are distinguished from others so decidedly by the different habits of their paupers, that a different mode of counteracting the bad effect of the poor laws becomes necessary. For the agricultural poor we shall venture to propose a plan (though not with too much confidence) whereby we imagine all the evil influence of the poor laws upon that class may be done away, without compelling any man (educated and enlightened or otherwise) to be occupied in developing the character and conduct of the poor, on whom we shall take the liberty of laying the onus probandi,—by requiring of them to prove themselves meritorious before they can claim any relief beyond the bare necessaries of human existence. But manufacturing places require a distinct consideration as to the mode of compelling manufacturers to be responsible for the contingent relief of the poor whom they themselves have created. Let us, however, premise that the case is usually stated much too strongly against manufactures, as if the landed proprietor always suffered by their introduction. If this be so, whence comes the unparalleled rise in the value of land in Lancashire and the West Riding of York? Whence the numerous purchasers who have become freeholders to the amount of 30,000 in Lancashire, and half as many in the West Riding, and who, taken in the aggregate, pay the larger portion of the poor-rates necessary in their respective districts? Yet it must be allowed, that the decline of a manufacture may easily overwhelm a parish with its destitute retainers, who are not desirable inmates, their own habits,' as has been forcibly said by Mr. Davison, being their worst evil.' This writer has, indeed, drawn their portrait in dark colours, but with a masterly hand. 'Their wages are so high in good times, that if they worked steadily and lived with moderation, they might very well reserve out of them a fund of supply against a time of want, which would carry them through till their trade revived, or till they had settled and adapted themselves to some new occupation. But the whole history of their life is of the most opposite kind, as far as it can be comprised in any one general description. The excesses of these men, in their intemperance and prodigality, the rashness and recklessness of their expenditure, their division of the week into days of work, and days of the most gross and obstinate idleness, and the unfeeling neglect of their families, are some of the striking lines in the character of our manufacturing population. In numerous instances, the indigence of these people, which the law takes such anxious and extraordinary pains to relieve, implies more of real moral delinquency, and more harm to society, than many of the crimes for which our most severe penal statutes have been framed. And one consequence of such a life is, that when it meets with any check, they have such distempered and extravagant notions of a necessary support, as to make them ready to spurn the fare and diet which other |