mediately after being married for relief from the parish. What was strictly the sole inheritance of misery is now indiscriminately claimed as a right appertaining to all.
Amongst the agricultural classes this contagion has been spread by other means. Motives not creditable to the parties have contributed to their debasement: with a view of keeping down wages parochial relief was resorted to. The price of grain was taken as the barometer. It does not seem to have been considered what was likely to result from a practice so degrading: by thus rendering the labourer dependent, and compelling him to look to others and not to his own endeavours for support, all economy and forethought vanished; to husband his little gains was to relinquish his own enjoyments for the benefit of a parish. This sacrifice of independence was attended at the commencement with regret; the opinion and respect of neighbours was a strong tie, and operated to keep alive the feelings of independency, when no such means were resorted to, till the late years of scarcity; these have nearly extinguished that honest pride that called forth great exertion rather than submit to pauperism. The mistaken views of some, together with misfortunes of the times, and the effects of example, have nearly reduced the whole of the working classes to a state of pauperism; every sentiment of shame is lost sight of, and with it all consideration beyond that of the present moment. To stop the progress of this alarming malady, in modern times, expedients have been resorted to which bear a strong analogy to the policy which produced the act of the 8th and 9th of William and Mary, I mean the erection of workhouses for the reception of the poor. The principal object of these receptacles seems to have been not to accommodate the needy, but to deter them from applying for relief: as a preliminary every domestic comfort was to be sacrificed—their little property seized for the benefit
