eighty years from 1601, and to have reached ten millions, instead of being one fortieth, or more probably one eightieth, it was become one fifteenth.
The feelings and sentiments of the legislature are strongly marked by the acts of the 8th and 9th of William and Mary, for badging the poor. The extreme severity of the law shows how grievous the burdens for the maintenance of the poor were felt, and that it was deemed necessary to check the evil by attaching degradation to pauperism. The humanity of later times has removed it from the statute book: the extent of the evil had long rendered the enforcing it impracticable. The act is so strong a proof of the rapid diffusion of the mischievous effects of the system, that I cannot omit reciting a part of it to the House.
"Every such person as shall be upon the collections and receive relief of any parish or place, and the wife and children of any such person cohabiting in the same house, (such child only excepted as shall be by the churchwardens and overseers permitted to live at home, in order to attend an impotent and helpless parent) shall, upon the shoulder of the right sleeve of the uppermost garment, in an open and visible manner, wear a large Roman P, together with the first letter of the name of the parish or place whereof such poor person is an inhabitant, cut either in red or blue cloth, as by the churchwardens and overseers shall be directed: and if any such poor person shall neglect or refuse to wear any such badge or mark, it shall be lawful for one justice to punish such offender, either by ordering his allowance to be abridged, suspended, or withdrawn, or otherwise by committing him to the house of correction, to be whipped and kept to hard labour, not exceeding twenty-one days: and if any churchwarden or overseer shall relieve any such poor person not wearing such
