Star.
London, England, 1831-04-25 00:00:00

COLCHESTER GAZETTE, APRIL 23.

We Invite attention to the discussion which ensued at the last Bury
Stssions, upon the practicability of doing awry with the pernicious
system of allowing labourers a certain amount from the poor rates.
Mr. DALTON, in contemplating the progress of the lac disorders,
said, there was much that was calculated to excite alarm, but more to
awi.ken feelings of sympathy and compassion. It was clear that to die. I
t;es., and distress alone, the disturbances owed their o. igin. It ass no
new opinion of his that the occurrence of that period might be attributed !
to the perversion of the pour laws, which had been the great cause of '
the distress, by stimulating the supply of labourers to excess. Hy a
return made to the last Session of Parliament it appeared that in six
agricultural counties the quantum of crime in proportion to the popu-I
lotion was 80 per cent higher, than in all the other counties of England. 1
It required nu prophet to tell them what must be the effect of saying to I
a single mar.—" So long as you remain unmarried you shall not be
employed, and Sou shall receive just so much as will keep you front
starving ; but if you, marry you shall be employed, it'd for every rultli.l
tional child you shall receive an additional allowance." Now it ap.
peered that the expenditure on the poor in the year ending March 25,
18a9, in England and Wales, was 6,332,4101. being equal to a priori.
pal sum on mortgage at four per cent. of 158 millions. He then read
sonic extracts from the observations of parish officers appended to the
returns made to the House of Commons' Committee in 1825, condemn.
ing the practice of paying the labourers from the rates, and according to
their families, as calculated to encourage idleness, improvidence, proili.
guy, and theft, and to increase the amount of pauperism :
" Sir. J. Dances, farmer, of Stukeley, Hunts, said he considered the
practice of paying part of the subsistence of the labourers from the rate
a very bad one : it had made a great change for the worse in the cha-
racter of the labourers ; they were formerly ashamed to come to the
parish—now they took ptide in it.
" The Hey. P. Hunt, of lltdtbrd, said it had made the labourer in.
different to his character, since no exertion or good conduct could better
their condition. _ _

•' The Rev. A. Collett, of llaveningham, pronounced that the system
was ruinous to the moral character of the labourer, and must be su to
the landed proprietor also, who would find that he held his estate not fot
hts own benefit, but as a trustee for the poor.
" The Rev. If. Walter, of Husehury Brian, Dorset, stated to the
Committee that the farmers in one or two neighbouring villages had
begun to attempt the system, hut it was put an end to by the Magis-
trates. The reFort of the committee stated that in the division of
Oswaldslow, in the county or NN master, the practice bad been entirely
stopped by the vigilance of the Magistrates."
Lord Calthorp rose and said, however strong his dislike to the pre-
sent system, he scarcely knew how, as a magistrate, lie could abstain
from acting upon the system which had been so long in use. That
system was full of error, and had produced as much mischief as any
measure which the ingenuity of man could have devised ; though he be.
Hemel that its projectors in 1790 imagined that it would be conducive
to the interests of the labourer, and were influenced by humane mo-
tives in adopting it. But circumstanced as they now ♦were, be felt that
they had great difficulties to contend with- For though it was true
what was granted to the labourer in the shape of poor rates, tended to

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encourage habits of indolence and every kind at evil—yet, on the other
hand, the practice was so mixed up with the whole system of adminis-
tering parish relief, that it was not only per. eseyno, but the very sys-
tem which had superseded every other snecies of relief.
Mr. Dalton said, with regard to the illegality of the practice, the
Act of Elizabeth distinctly stated, that the persons to be relieved were
the impotent and unable to work, and a more recent Act of George 111.
adhered to the same principle, in requiring that persons should be not
only poor but impotent :mil . unable to work, to justify a magistrate in
even ordering it child to be maintained by his fucker, or a father by his
child : a fort iori then he could not make order on a parish to maintain
a person who was not only able to work, but actually working. Mr.
hlapletoft denied that the system was upheld by the landlords to keep
up their rents.
31,1111:IED.—On Monday se•nnight, at St. George's, Chas. Ralph
Bigland, Esq. to Rachael, youngest daughter of Mr. Crane, of CreLt-
ing Saint Mary's—Mr. Richard Denny, of Bungay Uplands, to Sarah,
second daughter of the late Mr. George Kirkham, of Bedingbam—Mr.
JAMS Barnard, of Nayland, to Mitts Lucy Potter, of Thorrington.
.DIED.—At Sudbury, 93, Mr. Thomas Faster—Mrs. Edwards,
wife of the Reverend John Edwards. A.M. bead master of the Gram-
mar School, Bury.—at Great Thurlow, Sulibik, the Reverend Samuel
Ilaistead, curate of that parish, and sixteen yews rector of Little Thur.
low-30, Elizabeth, daughter of Mr. Thomas Groome, late of Dayton-
hall—b9" , Thomas Tayspill, Esq. collector of Customs of this port for
33 years.

DERBYSHIRE COURIER, APRIL 16.
The large corn Finding mill belonging to Mr. Staniforth, at
Iteighton, near Sheffield, was discovered to be ou fire soon after Sunday
midnight, and by ten o'clock on Monday morning the building was re-
duced to a mere shell. How access had been gained to the interior, or
whether any property had been canted away from the mill, it was not
possible to ascertain. That the conflagration must have been wilful
appears to be the general opinion. The value of the stock and pre-
mises destroyed is estimated at upwards of 2,0001. and they were not
insured. The constables of Sheffield and others have been actively en-
gaged ever sine:: the fire in tracing out the Incendiaries.
Sir Oswald Mosley, Bart. as chairman of the Staffordshire sessions,
has signed a petition to the House of Commons, in behalf of the ma-
gistrates of the county, in favour of the bill for altering the law of set-
tlement by hiring and service, and praying that such mode of settlement
may be abolished, by which the expenses of vexatious appeals, and
many other evils resulting therefrom,will be in a great measure avoided.
Tun Cucxoo.—On Monday last this " harbinger of spring" was
heard at Well Springs, near Barlow Bole Hill, which may be consi-
dered SS an unusual occurrence, as it is well known that the cuckoo
rarely makes its appearance until about the 25th of the month.
MARRIED.—At Chesterfield, Mr. Samuel Brentnall, to Miss
Elizabeth Anthony—The Bev. G. B. BI Ickley, Curate of St,
Michael's, Derby, to Mary. only daughter of Thomas Harrison, Esq.
DI b.ll.—Akßolchill, Wirksworth, 35, Martha, wife of Mr. George
Buckley—At Northullerton, in her 100th year, Mrs. Elgie, relict of
the late Mr. Matthew Elgic—At the Rectory, Carbon, 64, Charlotte,
relict of Archdeacon Eyre.