cribed by this statute was rather the duty
of private charity than of the public legislature. The effect of this
law had been to give the magistrates the power of ordering relief to the
poor in their own dwellings, and the principle being followed up, led
from bad to worse, until every spark of independence in the breast of
the peasantry had been nearly extinguished. The parish must keep them,
it was often said; and they did not care to obtain an honest livelihood
by the sweat of their brow. The existing state of things had indeed
reduced the labouring population in many districts to a state of
deplorable misery and distress. It was evident that there were great
dangers to be incurred if matters were left as they stood, and that it
was absolutely necessary to adopt sounder principles, and to carry them
into execution unflinchingly. In fact, there were examples already to
be followed. In about one hundred parishes the evils of the system had
compelled the inhabitants to adopt an approved mode of administration,
and in every instance they had succeeded, although some of them had been
completely pauperised. Where, again, the former system still prevailed,
cultivation had been abandoned; so heavy was the pressure of rates, and
so great the evils of mismanagement. The consequence of this was that
the neighbouring parishes were compelled to support the poor; and it was
evident that they also would soon be reduced to a similar situation if
the system was not soon and effectually altered. It was on the grounds
of this mischief, and the necessity of checking it, that Lord Althorp
defended the principle of entrusting the poor-laws to a board of
commissioners. He admitted that this was an anomalous course of
legislation, and that the board would be entrusted with extraordinary
powers. This, however, he argued, was rendered unavoidable by the
necessity of the case; a discretionary power must be vested somewhere,
in order to carry into effect the better principles to be introduced.
But before extending any discretionary power, he continued, it would be
necessary to fix a day on which the allowance system should cease; and
in the bill it would be fixed in some of the summer months, when the
labourers were in full employment. The allowance system, he said, was
the foundation of almost all other evils; and until it was abolished,
any attempt at amending the poor-laws would be nugatory.

The allowance system being abolished, and the cent