Such others amongst them being unable to work can only be construed to relate to the preceding description of lame, blind, &c. yet, strange as the construction appears, it has been made the foundation on which maintenance is granted to all classes of persons. The indigent, the idle, the profligate, have all equal claims for support: distinction between vice and virtue there is none.
If a doubt can remain on the mind of any one as to the views with which this statute was framed, I would refer them to the sum fixed, beyond which no parish could be assessed: this was restricted to sixpence in the pound on the value of rateable property. If we consider the annual revenue of the kingdom to have at that time amounted to five millions, and every parish rated to the utmost, it would have amounted to one hundredth part, or fifty thousand pounds. Most probably, it did not reach half this sum, or above twenty five thousand pounds. I conceive this as affording complete evidence of the limited extent to which Parliament intended that the system should be carried.
I question not the humanity of those who have construed it so differently from the sound policy on which it was enacted. It is greatly to be regretted the results have turned out so contrary to their intention. Little did they suppose the effect would be to destroy all economy and forethought,—transferring the maintenance of the laboring classes from their own shoulders to those of the public. Vain is the hope of bringing the law back to its first principles. The evils resulting from this act evidently began to be felt very shortly after its passing. In 1680 the sum raised for the support of the poor amounted to ₤665,206. If we admit the value of rateable property to have doubled in the
to assess him what they thought reasonable towards the relief of the poor. And this brought on the general assessment, in the fourteenth year of Queen Elizabeth."
