The Sun.
London, England, 1828-07-26 00:00:00

EMPLOYMENT OR KELM OF ABLE BODIED PERWNS FROM

THE POOR-RATE.

" Your Committee do riot undervalue the prac-
tical difficulty of the course they recommend, but
having considered carefully the whole subject, they
beg to declare that they have -embodied their opinion
in the following manner, as stating the principle
upon which they think some improvement may be
founded:

" That it should be declared unlawful for any
overseer or other officer of any parish to make or pay.
to any labourer or person engaged or employed in
any work, any allowance or relief whatever, on ad-
count of himself, herself, or his or her family, in ad-
dition to the wages or emoluments earned from such
work or employment. •
" That this restriction shouldna apply,-Ist, to
prevent parochial relief or allowance in cases of tem-
porary
illness of such labourer or person, or any
part of his or her family ; 2d, not to prevent paro-
chial relief or, allowance being given to any widow,
or wife deserted by her husband, left with a tinnily,
which she is by her or their labour unable to sup-
port; 3d, nor to prevent, parochial relief or allow-
ance to those who, through old age or any infirmity
are unable by their labour wholly to maintain them-
selves and their families ; 4th, nor to prevent paro-
chial allowance to any labourer or person employed
by the parish officers wholly on account of such
parish.
" That an. charge of money paid by overseers, in
contravention of the foregoing restrictions, should
be deemed unfoUnded,' and that:Magistrates should
have power to strike out and disallow such sums so
charged from the overseers' accounts, at their exami-
nation of their books at the Easter Petty Sessions,
in each year, under .50 c. 49.
" It is the opinion of your Committee (which,
•however, they express with the diffidence that ought
to attend on the discussion of so difficult a subject),
that were such regulations to be acted upon, a
gradual improvement would take:place in the condi-
tion of the poorer classes in the districts alluded to,
and -that a rise in wages would theiefore be the
consequence.
" Your Committee, however, cannot remain con-
tented with barely recommending such an alteration
in the law and practice on this subject, without
tracing out shortly what they believe would be its
probable consequences, and considering some of
these objections which would at first be made to it.
" Under the proposed law, no healthy able.bodied
man in employment would have any allowance for
his children ; the effect of which would be that, in
.the first instance, several of those with large families
,might probably come upon the parish altogether, in-
stead of- being partially supported from it as at pre-
sent; but these being taken out of the market for
labour, the wages of all the rest would rise until they
reached that point which it would answer to the mas-
ters to pay: at this point it is evident thatall the single
men, and all those with small families, would be
first employed, in constant work and at secure wages;
and in addition to these, such of the men with large
families as were the, best workmen, or whom, as trusty
men, the employers wished to retain. The rest of
those who had very large families would remain as
workmen employed by the parish (their children em-
ployed and maintained by the parish also), till they
were enabled, either by their own efforts, or their
Children being grown up, to betake themselves to
the ordinary work of the neighbourhood. As all
the workmen, both single and married, who remain-
ed independent of.parish assistance, would see that
by accepting it, they must become parish workme:i,
and controlled by overseers, they would, it is pro-
bable, use the utmost exertions of their industry and
care to avoid being obliged to have recourse to such
an expedient, In this effort (if they were deserving)
they would be aided by the assistance and sympathy

of their employers, who would be sorry to lose a
faithful and meritorious workman. Without any
such assistance, however, these men would be much
.sided in their struggles to keep their independence,
by the rises in wages which would have taken place;
as it appears to your Committee, that in many places
the plan of paying part of the wages from the rates
has depressed the natural rate of wages. The em-
ployer pretended not to be in want of a workman ;
and knowing that, under the practice which pre-
vailed, such workman would (with the parish alloe..
ance) take whatever was offered him, kept back the
demand till the rate of wages fell to 'his own terms.
Such a practice is clearly liable in this way to the
most gross abuses, and the employers, where it pre-
vails, have a strong temptation to pay a great part of
their men's wages out of the pockets of the rate-
payers. It will be seen by the evidence of the Rev.
Joseph Bosworth, that in Buckinghamshire the
wages even of married men with a family were thus
depressed. in one pariSh to 4s. per week. In manu-
facturing districts, such an abuse might equally de-.
press the real rate of wages, which would be com-
pounded of what was paid by the employer, and
what was received from the parish. On this point
your Committee -recommend a perusal of the ins-
portaut evidence of the Rev. J. M. Turner, taken
before the Emigration Committee, and given in the
Appendix to their third report.
" In case the recommendation of your Committee
was acted upon, they beg to state that the number
of labourers thrown on parish employment would, in
theiropinion,be much smaller,than is often supposed,
because, under the allowance system, few care to
exert themselves diligently to seek fresh channels of
employment. It. would, however, he necessary for
overseers, in the first instance, to provide before
hand parochial employment (by contract or other-
' wise) at whatever loSs, and to adhere steadily to the
plan of exacting a full measure of -real work from all
applicants, in which case it is probable that the num-
bers would soon diminish. Considerable difficulty
would perhaps attend the commencement of the
suggested alteration, but it seems worth while to
make some temporary sacrifices for the sake of re-
turning to a better system of relief. Hitherto your
Committee have been looking only at the imme-
diate effect of the proposed law, which would be to
give to the poor the advantage of the whole real de-
'mand for their services, and would directly improve
the situation of- those men who did not depend on
the parish, by giving to every man his pay accord-
ing to the work performed by him. In looking,
however, to the ultimate effect of such a law, your
Committee cannot but anticipate the best permanent
results to the poor. It will be evident that, under
this law, as a single man will be well paid and well
off, so will he see the natural consequence of an im-
provident marriage distinctly brought before him, in
the different condition of the parish workman, which
he can compare with his own. If, therefore, he is
at all regardful of his own comfort, or that of her
whom he wishes to make his wife (whe must share
his fate whatever it be), he will wait for marriage till
he has sufficient, with the wages he can earn, to main-
tain a family. Should the independent workman be
thus induced to delay his marriage for a short time, the
supply of labour being thence a little slower, wages
would gradually rise to the amount sufficient to sup-
port a family in comfort; and in such case the poor
rate will fall as the wages rise. Your Committee do
not venture to anticipate that such results would in
all cases follow from the alteration they recommend;
but they incline to think that, on a general view of
its consequences, considerable and permanent im-
provement might be expected.
" One objection will probably be made to the dif-
ficulty of furnishing parish employment to the addi-
tional numbers who will be forced upon it. Your
Committee cannot but think that exaggerated fears
are entertained on this bead, as under the proposed
law, they conceive better. wages will be paid than
before, and as the total cost of the working classes is
paid by wages and poor-rates, the poor-rate must in
the whole be eventually diminished by the change ;
in addition to which advantages will be the im-
proved tone and spirit of the workmen, resting on
their own efforts, and aided alone in illness, infirmity,
or old age.
" Your Committee have, however, great pleasure
in being able to turn, in support of their reasoning,
to practical examples of the benefit derived from the
regulations they recommend : these have been found
highly advantageous in the populous parishes of
Liverpool and Bethnal-green, where they have been
strictly adhered to, and the consequences are de-
tailed in the evidence of Mr. Hale and Mr. Ellis,
nexed to this report.
" With regard to its practicability in country pa-
rishes', your Committee can state that it is, and has
always been, acted upon in the North of England,
where the condition of the peasantry is universally
allowed to be the best. Wherever adopted and per-
severed in elsewhere, it has been found beneficial,
though the difficulty of such a task is very great
where these abuses prevail in a neighbouring parish,
which would be obviated by a general law on the
subject.
" Should it be deemed expedient to follow the recom-
mendation of your Committee, they beg to state that
the success of such a measure would depend in
many eases on the adoption of a well-regulated
system of workhouse industry, where a full measure
of labour may be constantly exacted, proportioned
to the ability of ends individual, and where such
proper restrictions may be observed as experience
proves to be necessary. Ample powers are given
under the present law for this purpose. Your Com-
mittee can refer to the good effects of such a system
in the parish of Leckhampstead, Bucks, stated in
the evidence of Mr. J. Brickwell.

" The ultimate success of any such alteration of
the law as contemplated by your Committee, would
depend also upon the degree of intelligence and
forethought among the poor themselves; and, on
this account, the general diffusion of such au educa-
tion as may assist and promote the development of
those qualities, will be of the utmost consequence,
and may be considered as the most valuable and per-
manent benefit that can be conferred."

_ -
SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE.

LIVERPOOL.

THURSDAY, Jirtv 24.—High water 27 min. past
eight. —Wind N.N.E.—Arrived the Lady Douglas, from
New Orleans ; George, Consett, frotri Miramichi ; Pro-
mise, Shearer, from Quebec ; Richard Walker, Lowthian,
from Jamaica; Chlory, Lilgebeck; from Fitilitnd ; Eliza
Knightly, Berrill, from Drogheda; "Mary, Mikeller, from
Westport.
CLEARED OurwAßns.—The George Canning, . for
New York ; Thomas, Browne, for Quebec ; Lusitano,
.Potsde, for Lisbon ; John Perle, Wilson, for Riga ; Ve.
nus, Smith,' for Nenifourulland; Wilhehnina Augustie,
Newman, for Stettin; "Pianist Oldham, fur Rio Janeiro ;
Wm. Glen, Anderson, M'Millan, for Bombay Jacoba,
De Jonge, for Antwerp ; Elizabeth, Harrison, for Arch-
angel ; Fortuna, 'Nei, for Carsour; Express, Kragh, for
Copenhagen:

The expense incurred for furniture supplied
and repaired for the houses of Lords and Commons, the
courts of law at Westminster, and the various public
offices, amounted, in the last five years, to the sum of
142.355 E

The expense of all houses and apartments oc-
cupied at the public cost, as residences, by public officers
in London and Westminster, for the last five years, in-
cluding the rent, furniture, and repairs, amounted to the
Sinn of 125,4551.
The schools which the late Lord GUILDFORD
introduced into the lonian islands are in a most prosperous
condition. In Corfu, with 48,737 inhabitants, there are
three schools, with 239 pupils.
Pax°, with 3,370 inhabitants,.l school, with 40 pupils.
Zante, with 40,063 inhabitants, 13 schools, with 363
pupils.
Cephalonia, 49,837 inhabitants, 2 schools, with 157
pupils.
' Ithaca, with 8,200 inhabitants, I school, with 87 pupils.
Santa Maura, 17,425 inhabitants, 1 school, with 75
pupils.
Cerigo, with 8,146 inhabitants, 8 schools, with 722
pupils.
. _

Total-175,795 inhabitants, 29 schools, and 1,7:33
scholars.

GLASGOW CORN MARKE'r:LJitIy 23.
Wheat is in more demand, and fine qualities rather
dearer. Other kinds of .Grain are steady.
Wheat, per 2401 b. s. d. s. d. Oats, per 1•641 b. a. d. a. (1.
British, old 3O 0t032 0 Irish
---. new
Canada, free......., V 0 31 0 ' Beans, ler 2601 b.
Irish
Barley, per :1201b. Scottish
English 2B 0 29 6 Pease, Scottish ... 17 6 ' ISI 6
Scottish 27 0 28 0 Oatmealiperl4oll). 14 0 16 0
Irish 2l 0 24 6 Flour, per 2801 b..., 45 0 460