igated to get it on
the parish, which they pay; so it's all one; though it grieves a poor
man, as one may say, to apply to them overseers, and to have no hope
but the workhouse at last."

I agree with this humble Economist that it seems to be as ungenerous
as impolitic to throw on the poor's rates a burthen which ought to be
borne by those who profit from the labour thus inadequately
remunerated. It could not, and ought not, to be difficult to fix a
minimum (not a maximum) on twelve hours' labour per day, such as
should be sufficient to support an average-sized family. Suppose for
bread and flour 6_s._ were allowed; for meat, cheese, butter, milk,
and beer, 4_s._; for potatoes, &c. 2_s._ candles, soap, and coals,
2_s._ cloathing 3_s._ 6_d._ house-rent 2_s._ 6_d._ sundries
1_s._--total 21_s._ Here is nothing superfluous, nothing but what
appertains to the earliest stages of civilization, and what every
well-arranged society ought to be able to give in return for manual
labour of the lowest kind. With inferior means the labourer must
suffer the obloquy of being remunerated from the parish rates, to
which all are forced to contribute as fully as though the employer
paid the fair value of the labour in the first instance, and the
amount were assessed on the price of his commodity, instead of being
assessed in the form of poor's rates.

It being, however, the _favourite_ system to pay the difference
between what the labourer receives, and what he ought to receive,
through the medium of the workhouse or parish officers, I anxiously
directed my way to #Wandsworth Workhouse#, to examine whether it was
an asylum of comfort or a place of punishment? On my entrance I found
the hall filled with a crowd of poor persons, then applying to receive
a weekly stipend from the overseers, who, with other parish-officers,
were assembled in an adjoining apartment. Many women with infants at
their breasts, and other children clinging round their knees,
presented interesting subjects for poets and painters. Every feeling
of the human heart, though in the garb of rags, and bearing the aspect
of misery, evidently filled the various individuals composing this
groupe. I pressed forward to the room, where I found the overseers
were sitting at a table, covered with bank-tokens and other silver for
distribution. They received me politely, and, on learning my wish to
view the interior, directed the matron to accompany me. The manners
and countenance