they were incapable of finding work for all their labourers, they should be at liberty to look out and transfer them to such quarters as they could be employed in with advantage. The public and the individuals would be mutually gainers by the exchange.
The effect of establishing parish funds would undoubtedly be to raise the wages of the labourer in those districts, where an advance on the poor rates constitutes a part of the payment: this would, in the view I have taken of the subject, be for the advantage of all parties. It is to be hoped that the price of the necessaries of life will, when once fairly settled, be less subject to those variations which bear so hard on the working classes.
I have some doubts whether I may not have estimated the produce of agricultural labor too high, in supposing the gains of each family calculated, as consisting of six persons, to amount to thirty shillings. I have, however, premised, that I would in no instance take more than 4d. and that sum not to exceed a thirtieth part of the earnings of the party. That the difficulties which will attend this, or any other material change of system, are great, cannot be denied: I do not anticipate opposition from the quarter where many look for it, I mean on the part of the laboring poor. The comforts the plan holds out to them will be felt and appreciated; it will afford them many solid consolations, and exempt them from sufferings which can only be tolerated from the oppressive burdens now imposed, the benefit of which reaches not the poor.
Grateful to the House for the indulgence they have shown me, I shall not trespass longer on their time. I am fully sensible of the importance of the subject, I again repeat the apologies I offered at the outset: I am sensible the plan I have suggested, under the most favorable construction, will require much amendment to adapt it to practice.
