ut
hardship, and considerateness with economy.

{174}

It is mentioned in the Parliamentary returns that in the Royston Union
in the winter of 1834, the number of able-bodied men maintained during
the winter out of the poor-rate was 361, whereas in the month of
December, 1836, after the new system had got into operation, there were
only twelve applications for "work or money." All these had orders for
the House, which were accepted by seven of them, two of whom stayed in
only two days, three only stayed in three days, and two, seven days
each. The amounts spent in relief of the poor at earlier periods, in
the reign of George III., were as follows:--In 1801 (the year of
scarcity), L4,017,871; in 1813, it had risen to L6,656,106; and in each
of the years, 1818-20, the figures reached L7,000,000, a figure which
was not again reached till 1832.

The late Mr. Henry Thurnall, though then but a young man, took an
active part in collecting evidence for the Poor-law Commission in this
district, and also in reconciling the working men to the new order of
things, and he was the author of a pamphlet in the form of an address
by a working-man to working-men, addressed to "The Labourers of
England," from which it appears that in some places the new Relieving
Officer was at first so unpopular that he was pelted when he came into
the villages to pay out his relief money!

CHAPTER XVI.

WHEN THE POLICEMAN CAME.--WHEN THE RAILWAY CAME.--CURIOUS AND MEMORABLE
EVENTS.

With the abolition of the old Poor-law the Parish Constable, as he was
understood in the Georgian era, found a large part of his occupation
gone. Those important journeys of Dogberry on the delicate errand of
marrying off young couples who promised otherwise to be a trouble to
his parish, with all the pleasant suppers, breakfasts, dinners, and
beer at inns on the road, of which the reader has been afforded some
evidence in the parish accounts of the last century--all this
interesting part of the village Dogberry's parochial dignity passed
away, and there were even rumours that the constable would no longer be
entrusted with the hue-and-cry after criminals into neighbouring
parishes. Verily the world was getting turned upside down in these
reforming days!

But before we come to the actual disestablishment of Dogberry there are
a few other matters affecting parish life which were getting ready to
be reformed. There were, for instance, tramps even in those