new form of note presenting peculiar and characteristic marks, but the imitation of which we could not confidently feel to be extremely difficult, would not only not do good, but would produce much evil; and would induce a false security, by accustoming the public to rely upon the appearance of such marks and peculiar character, rather than upon a cautious and general observation of the whole note.

Our remarks, however, as to imitation, do not apply to all the specimens which have been offered to us. There are a few of singular and superior merit produced by means which it is very improbable should ever come within the reach of any single forger, and the imitation of which, except by those means, appears in a high degree difficult.

Safety, or rather comparative safety, is to be sought, to a certain extent, in a combination of excellence in various particulars; but chiefly, as we conceive, in the application of a principle beyond the reach of the art of the copperplate engraver, which in its different processes is possessed of the most formidable power of imitation. One plan, before alluded to as apparently affording this advantage, has been, with the most liberal assistance from the Bank, for some time past in a course of trial for its greater perfection, and with a view to combination with other improvements, satisfactory experiments of which have already been effected. The result, if our expectations be not disappointed, will afford a specimen of great ingenuity in the fabric

of the paper, of great excellence in the workmanship, and of a very peculiar invention, and difficult machinery in the art of printing. We confidently hope, that no long time will elapse before we are enabled to lay before your Royal Highness that result: and we have every reason to know, that the Bank Directors are sincerely anxious to adopt any plan, which shall be found, after patient examination, to be worthy of adop tion. In the mean time, we have thought it right not to delay informing your Royal Highness of the course of our proceedings. The investigation in which we have been engaged, has strengthened, rather than removed, our feeling of the dif ficulties with which the whole subject is surrounded. We do not wish to represent those difficulties as precluding the propriety of an attempt to remove the existing evils, by a change in the form of the notes issued by the Bank of England; but we do feel them to be such, as make it imperative upon those with whom the responsibility rests, to be fully satisfied that they shall produce an improvement, before they venture to effect a change.

All which is humbly submitted to your Royal Highness's consideration and judgment.

Jos. BANKS,

WM. CONGREVE,
WM. COURTENAY,
DAVIES GILBERT,
JER. HARMAN,
WM. H. WOLLASTON,
CHARLES HATCHETT.

The Report, after stating what had been already done on the recommendation of the Committee in the last session, thus proceeds;

Other enactments of minor importance will be found in the act of this session, which it is unnecessary here to detail: but in addition to these, there are some expedients which your Committee are enabled to recommend, and which either do not absolutely require, or do not perhaps admit of any legislative injunction such as establishing a prescribed form for keeping parochial accounts, and giving to them periodical publicity; by which the amount of expenditure will be seen under its proper head, and any illegal or unnecessary disbursements will be brought to light and corrected. Printing and distributing still more frequently lists, which the vestry is now bound by law to make out, of the names of those who at any time receive relief, and on what account, is a practice which has prevailed lately in many populous parishes, and with the best effect; and your Committee, therefore, have added to this Report, an eligible form in which these accounts and lists may be exhibited, in the hope that this practice may be very generally adopted, even without a compulsory enactment, to which, however, it may yet be wise to resort; and further, to direct that the clerk of each subdivision meeting of Magistrates should form an abstract of the total

expense incurred in each year for the support of the poor within such subdivision, and return the same to the clerk of the peace of the county at the next ensuing Quarter Sessions, who should be required to publish such abstracts from all the subdivisions of the county annually, together with the amount of charge of each subdivision in the preceding year, so as to afford a comparative view of the diminution or increase of each respectively; and should make an annual return of the aggregate expense of each county to the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for the purpose of bringing the same under the view of Parliament.

In order to prevent litigation in case of removal, a practice has been in some instances adopted by Magistrates of causing a communication to be made personally, or by letter (which it would be extremely difficult to regulate by law,) to the parish to which the removal is proposed to be made, of the day in which the adjudication of the settlement will take place; a fair hearing of both parties commonly ensues, and the expense of an appeal is frequently prevented.

By such provisions, and more especially by the establishment of select vestries and assistant overseers, your Committee are sanguine in their hopes, that the mischief resulting from the reliance on parish support may be in some degree palliated, and

that the loose and careless administration of the law, by which it has been aggravated, will be essentially corrected.

But this is not all that your Committee deem requisite to secure the kingdom from the calamities that must attend the continued progress of this evil; and they do not believe that such security can be obtained, as long as by an erroneous construction, as your Committee believe, of the Act of Elizabeth, parishes are supposed liable to be called upon to effect the impracticable purpose of finding employment for all who may at any time require it: they believe the ill consequences which have arisen from this practice are most palpable, and most mischievous; and they are, therefore, peculiarly anxious to recall the most serious attention of the House to this construction which has been put practically on this part of the statute.

Pecuniary relief seems indisputably to have been only contemplated by this act for "the lame, impotent, old, blind, and such other among them being poor and not able to work, and also for putting out children to be apprentices;" but the direction to "set to work all persons having no means to maintain them, and using no ordinary or daily trade of life to get their living by," has been acted upon as if it were a clear authority for requiring the parish to find employment for all who want it. The Committee, in 1817, question ed the soundness of this construetion in the following terms:-" If the object of the statute was merely to set to hard labour such idle wandering persons as might be found in a state nearly approaching to that of vagrancy, such an object might possibly be carried into effect with a fair hope of beneficial consequences; but if the object of the statute was

(as it is now interpreted) that the State is to find work for all who in the present, and in all succeeding time, may require it, your Committee are of opinion, that this is a condition which it is not in the power of any law to fulfil; what number of persons can be employed in labour must depend absolutely upon the amount of the funds which alone are applicable to the maintenance of labour." The Committee proceeded to illustrate their position by a train of reasoning, which will be found in the 14th page of that Report.

The further consideration and investigation of this subject has confirmed their opinions; for your Committee are not aware, that the Courts of Law have at any time construed the act according to this practice; indeed, the decision referred to in the former report, in which it was held that an order of maintenance is not valid without it adjudges the party seeking relief to be impotent, leads to an opposite conclusion. If reference be had also to the authority of early writers, or to those who in modern times have bestowed the most attention on this subject, the same inference would follow. In a work which has been lately cited by an able anonymous author, entitled, "A Description of England," by W. Harrison, and which, as published in the Chronicles of Holingshed, is brought down to the year 1586, it is stated, that "the poor are divided into three sorts, so that some are poor by impotency, as the fatherless child, the aged, blind, or lame, and the diseased person that is judged to be incurable; the second are poor by casualty, as the wounded soldier, the decayed householder, and the sick person visited with grievous and painful diseases; the third consisteth of thriftless poor, as the rioter that hath consumed all, the vagabond

that will abide no where, but runneth up and down from place to place, (as if it were seeking work, and finding none); and finally the rogue," &c. "The two first sorts, that is to say, the poor by impotency, and the poor by casualty, are the true poor, indeed, and for whom the word doth bind us to make some daily provision; there is order taken throughout every parish in the realm that weekly collection shall be made for their help and sustentation; but if they refuse to be supported by this benefit of the law, and will rather endeavour, by going to and fro, to maintain their idle trades, then they are parcel of the third sort, and so, instead of courteous refreshing at home, are often corrected with sharp execution, and whip of justice abroad."

Now, this classification of the poor, in the very age of Elizabeth, leads to the conclusion, that the persons designed by the terms "using no ordinary or daily trade of life to get their living by," were, as the Committee of 1817 supposed, that third class who are deemed "thriftless poor, &c.," who, it should seem, were made to labour as long as they continued within their own parish; but if they left it, were subject to the severe penalties then inflicted on vagrancy, and would now come within the provisions of the present vagrant laws.

In the year 1695, another author of eminence, referring to the sums raised for the relief of the poor, says, "As this money is managed in most places, instead of relieving such as are truly poor and impotent (which the laws design,) it serves only to nourish and contínue vice and sloth in the nation. The real and true objects of charity would cost the nation but little to maintain; and it is to be doubted they have the least share in the public reliefs."

But to come nearer to our own times, and to the most laborious, copious, and valuable work on this subject, we find the opinion of the judicious and unprejudiced author of "The State of the Poor," expressed in the following decided terms :

"From the language of various statutes concerning the poor, which passed during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and which being in pari materia, explain each other, either in matter of law, or illustrate each other in matter of fact, it may fairly be implied to prove, that the relief of the able-bodied poor, with or without families, was no part of the original system of the poor laws. The 3d of William and Mary, c. 11, s. 11, corroborates this idea, which is put out of doubt by the preamble to 8. and 9. William and Mary, c. 30, s. 2. "To the end, that the money raised only for the relief of such as are as well impotent as poor, may not be misapplied or consumed by the idle, sturdy, and disorderly beggars."

These opinions would, in the absence of any decision of Courts of Law to the contrary, be entitled to much weight; but this preamble referred to by the last author, and which was cited in the former report, p. 20, for the same purpose, seems decisive on the question. Nor, indeed, can it be well imagined, that the supreme legislative power of any country would have anticipated a permanent order of things, in which a large class of the people should be habitually and necessarily without employment. Your Committee conceive that the demand and supply of labour have, in the natural course of things, such a tendency to regulate and balance each other, unless counteracted by artificial institutions, that any excess of either, arising from temporary causes, would, if met by temporary expedients alone, in no

long time correct itself; whereas the practice now under consideration, originating perhaps in a humane extension of the law to meet cases of occasional and pressing emergency, and inconsiderately continued, is calculated to perpetuate evils that would otherwise be transient, and permanently to derange the whole industry of the country.

That such has been its effect in those parts of this kingdom where the practice has most prevailed, is but too manifest. Your Committee say, where the practice has most prevailed, because they have learnt that some Magistrates have resisted this, which they have deemed, with your Committee, a misconstruction of the law. We may feel and lament that a compulsory provision, for even the helplessness of age and infirmity, has a tendency to weaken in a degree the natural efforts of men to provide against future ill; but if, by any human institution, the present wants of life are to be obtained otherwise than . by human exertion, the very sources of all industry must be destroyed. If, therefore, the parish be bound to find employment for those who are, from whatever cause, without it, it is obvious that in cases where the family is numerous, and the honest pride and independence of selfsupport is extinguished, it becomes on calculation a matter of perfect indifference, whether the money requisite for their maintenance be derived from the wages of labour, or the alms of the parish. The consequence is, that the motive that would naturally impel men to active and faith ful service is wanting; for even if employment be forfeited by misconduct, the same means of support, in the case supposed, will be given, and probably little labour will be exacted in return; for the parish work is in all cases performed without the su

perintending control of private interest; and it must be remembered, that the persons who make this demand for work on the parish, are, generally speaking, (though at the present time it is certainly in many instances otherwise), the least active, the least strenuous, and the least industrious of the community. It is the want of those qualities which has, generally speaking, deprived them of employment. It has consequently appeared to your Committee, that under this practice, not only the pressure of the burden of the poor's rate has become almost overwhelming, but that the amount of regu lar labour has been greatly diminished, and its quality materially impaired; and that it should be so, under such direct temptations to idleness, can scarcely be matter of surprise, or even of inculpation. But a strik. ing proof of the prejudicial consequences of this practice is afforded by the circumstance, which for other purposes has been pressed on the attention of your Committee, that it is uniformly found that such inhabitants of a parish as have not acquired a settlement in it, and can obtain no such relief without being removed, are distinguished by their activity and industry, and generally possess not only the necessaries, but the com forts of life; and your Committee have lately learnt with satisfaction, that the operation of the act of this session has already relieved some parishes of the metropolis from the heavy burden of maintaining num bers of persons without settlements in England; who are stated " now to support themselves, instead of applying for parochial relief, under the apprehension of being sent home." If, therefore, from a due conside ration of this part of the statute of Elizabeth, from the opinions of early and late writers of authority on the