brought upon the parish, upon the occasion of her appearing before him to present the parish with her seventh bastard! She replied, 'I am not going to be disappointed in my company with men to save the parish.' This woman now receives 14 s, a week for her seven bastards, being two shillings a head for each. Mr. Sewell informed me that had she been a widow, with seven legitimate children, she would not have received so much by 4s. or 5s. a week, according to their scale of allowance to widows. A bastard child is thus about twenty-five per cent. more valuable to a parent than a legitimate one!!!"—Commissioners' Report, p. 393.
"One woman named Smith has three children by three different fathers. She has never been punished, and the parish allows her 6s. per week. Women are very rarely punished; has only known one or two instances in his memory of the parish. Bastards very common."—Idem, p. 394.
"An unmarried girl, upon leaving the workhouse after her fourth confinement, said to the master, 'Well, if I have the good luck to have another child, I shall draw a good sum from the parish, and with what I can earn myself, will be better off than any married woman in the parish."—Idem, p. 395.
"Bastardy is very much increasing in Badford; believes that one third of all the number applying to the parish, old and young, are bastards."—Idem, p. 396.
"Is bastardy pretty much the same in your parish as in the rest of the county?—Yes; very bad. There are two women who have four children each, and each by three different fathers. The order on the father varies, from 1s. 6d. to 3s. 6d., according to his circumstances. But the women extort money by threatening to swear the child first to one, then to another."—Idem, p. 385.
"In the first place, I appeal to the experience of all overseers in rural districts, whether the instances of marriages taking place among the labouring classes, without previous pregnancy, are not so very rare as to constitute no exception to the general assertion, that pregnancy precedes marriage."—Idem, p. 392.
"There are twenty-five bastards supported by the parish at 1s. 6d. per week."—Idem, p. 105.
"There are at the present time eleven bastards on the weekly list. The parish receives for two only.
"It is well known that for from £3 to £4, and a treat, many men consent to be sworn to as the fathers of illegitimate children, knowing that the parish cannot enforce payment against them, and that, generally speaking, it will not be attempted."—Idem, p. 122.
"Nine out of ten of the orders of removal which the parish receives, are cases of bastardy. Mr. Barnet knows whole families in the town which are bastards from generation to generation. He has observed that magistrates generally favour the mothers of bastards in their complaints against overseers."—Idem, p. 397.
"The English law has abolished female chastity, self-respect, proper pride, and all the charities of domestic life, derived from and connected with its existence. It has destroyed, likewise, the beneficial influence which this virtue in women reflects on the character of men."—Idem, p. 399.
"In referring to the printed lists, it will be observed, that out of sixty illegitimate children, the allowance from the father is only recovered for twelve."—Idem, p. 403.
"A woman has brought three illegitimate children on the parish, and for the last she was committed to prison for three weeks. She told the vestry that she would, if put to jail again, swear the child to the overseer: she is now pregnant a fourth time. This same individual says openly to the vestry, 'If you don't give me some relief (enough, in fact, to support her in idleness), I will bring you some more bastards to keep.'"—Idem, p. 122.
Philadelphia, July 10, 1833.
ESSAY IX.
Is it wonderful that pauperism, profligacy, and other evils, together with poor rates, have rapidly increased under such a hideous system of mismanagement! And is it not unaccountable that such an enlightened nation as England should have for nearly forty years submitted to it without serious and decisive efforts to free themselves from it, before it had arisen to its present alarming and oppressive height?
It remains to ascertain whether or not the evils are remediless, and if not,
