had made." At the dissolution of the abbeys these poor people were thrown again upon the world, and not only they but a large number of monks and lay brothers and servitors employed in and about the abbeys. Soon after came the Elizabethan Poor Law of 1601, under which for the first time a compulsory assessment was made for the relief of the poor and which is the basis of our present Poor Law. It is with the period succeeding 1601 and up to the reform of the Poor Law in 1834 that this chapter will deal. It is impossible to give more than a very imperfect sketch of it within the compass of an article.
The compulsory assessment or "fund set aside for the relief of the poor" in 1601 was to be applied to two main purposes, viz., "the relief of the impotent and the setting of the able-bodied to work." Doubtless the authors of the measure believed that they had solved the problem, and it may be conceded that the Act does appear to cover the whole ground. Looking back on it now by the light of 300 years' experience, we may say that its first object has been largely realised but that its second is as far off as ever. The suggestion of the time was that the able-bodied poor should be set to work by means of "parish stocks," or as they would now be called, "municipal workshops." Stores of hemp, flax, and wool, and other materials were to be collected in every parish to be spun and woven and worked up by the poor, and for the next 200 years that was the method adopted in many places.
The Act of Elizabeth had not been long in operation when the difficulties began to show themselves, and from that time forwards hardly a year passed without the issue of some pamphlet
