Chapter VII: The Remedies of 1795 (3)

[258] At Heckingham in Norfolk a putrid fever, in 1774, killed 126 out of 220 inmates (Eden, vol. ii. p. 473, quoting Howlett); cf. also Ruggles, _History of the Poor_, vol. ii. p. 266.

[259] ‘The Village,’ pp. 16 and 17.

[260] Eden, vol. iii. p. 694 ff.

[261] 36 George III. c. 23.

[262] The last of these systems had been included in a Bill introduced by Sir William Young in 1788. ‘In order to relieve agricultural labourers, who are often, during the winter, out of employment, the vestry in every parish is empowered, by notice affixed to the church door, to settle a rate of wages to be paid to labourers out of employ, from the 30th Nov. to the 28th of Feb.; and to distribute and send them round in rotation to the parishioners, proportionally as they pay to the Rates; to be paid by the person employing them two-thirds of the wages so settled, and one-third by the parish-officers out of the Rates.’--Eden, vol. i. p. 397.

[263] _Parliamentary Register_, February 12, 1796.

[264] _Ibid._, December 22, 1796.

[265] The Bill is printed in House of Commons Papers, 1796. The ‘Heads of the Bill’ as circulated appear in the _Annals of Agriculture_, vol. xxvi. pp. 260 ff. and 359 ff. Eden gives in the form of Appendices (1) the Heads of the Bill, (2) the Amendments introduced in Committee.

[266] _House of Commons Journal._

[267] _Parliamentary Register_, February 11, 1800.

[268] 35 George III. c. 101.

[269] For Whitbread’s proposals to amend the Law of Settlement in 1807 see next chapter. An attempt was made in 1819 (59 George III. c. 50) to define and simplify the conditions under which the hiring of a tenement of £10 annual value conferred the right to a settlement. The term of residence was extended to a year, the nature of the tenement was defined, and it was laid down that the rent must be £10, and paid for a whole year. But so unsuccessful was this piece of legislation that it was found necessary to pass a second Act six years later (1826, 6 George IV. c. 57), and a third Act in 1831 (1 William IV. c. 18).

[270] _Senator_, March 1800.

[271] See Debates in _Senator_, March 31 and April 3, 1800, and _Parliamentary Register_. Cf. for removals for temporary distress, Sir Thomas Bernard’s Charge to Overseers in the Hundred of Stoke. Bucks. _Reports on Poor_, vol. i. p. 260. ‘With regard to the removal of labourers belonging to other parishes, consider thoroughly what you may lose, and what the individual may suffer, by the removal, before you apply to us on the subject. Where you have had, for a long time, the benefit of their labour, and where all they want is a little _temporary_ relief, reflect whether, after so many years spent in your service, this is the _moment_ and the _cause_, for removing them from the scene of their daily labour to a distant parish, etc.’ (1798).

[272] Davies, pp. 102-4.

[273] 15 George III. c. 32.

[274] _Reports on Poor_, vol. ii. p. 171.

[275] _Reports on Poor_, vol. ii. p. 136.

[276] _Ibid._, p. 137.

[277] _Ibid._, vol. v. p. 66.

[278] Mr. Estcourt mentions that the land ‘would let to a farmer at about 20s. per acre now.’

[279] It is interesting to find that these allotments were still being let out successfully in 1868. See p. 4145 of the Report on the Employment of Children, Young Persons, and Women in Agriculture, 1868.

[280] _Reports on Poor_, vol. iii. p. 329.

[281] 1803, p. 850.

[282] _Reports on Poor_, vol. i. p. 100.

[283] Vol. xxvi. p. 4.

[284] The most distinguished advocate of this policy was William Marshall, the agricultural writer who published a strong appeal for the labourers in his book _On the Management of Landed Estates_, 1806, p. 155; cf. also Curwen’s _Hints_, p. 239: ‘A farther attention to the cottager’s comfort is attended with little cost; I mean giving him a small garden, and planting that as well as the walls of his house with fruit trees.’

[285] Vol. xxv. p. 349.

[286] _Ibid._, p. 358.

[287] _Reports on Poor_, vol. ii. p. 184.

[288] _Ibid._, p. 134.

[289] Cf. _Poor Law Report_, 1817, Appendix G, p. 4.

[290] Capes, _Rural Life in Hampshire_, p. 282.

[291] _Poor Law Report_, 1834, p. 61; cf. _ibid._, p. 185.

[292] Notes to Kent’s _Norfolk_, p. 178.

[293] See _Poor Law Report_, 1834, p. 181, and _Allotments Committee_, 1843, p. 108.

[294] 59 George III. c. 12.

[295] 1 and 2 William IV. c. 42.

[296] Speenhamland is now part of Newbury. The Pelican Inn has disappeared, but the Pelican Posting House survives.

[297] Charles Dundas, afterwards Lord Amesbury, 1751-1832; Liberal M.P. for Berkshire, 1794-1832, nominated by Sheridan for the Speakership in 1802 but withdrew.

[298] _Reading Mercury_, April 20, 1795.

[299] _Reading Mercury_, April 20, 1795.

[300] See _Ibid._, May 11, 1795.

[301] Eden, vol. i. p. 578.

[302] On the same day a ‘respectable meeting’ at Basingstoke, with the Mayor in the chair, was advocating the fixing of labourers’ wages in accordance with the price of wheat without any reference to parish relief.--_Reading Mercury_, May 11, 1795.

[303] See _Ipswich Journal_, February 7, 1795, and _Reading Mercury_, July 6, 1795.

[304] Eden, vol. ii. p. 384.

[305] _Ibid._, p. 548.

[306] _Ibid._, p. 27.

[307] Eden, vol. ii. p. 29.

[308] _Ibid._, p. 32.

[309] ‘The Village,’ Book I.