Page:The reports of the Society for Bettering the Condition and Increasing the Comforts of the Poor (IA b21971961 0001).pdf/30

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xvi
PRELIMINARY ADDRESS, &c.

and lastly, that parish relief be systematically directed to the encouragement of industry and economy, and to making the poor man happy in his own cottage, instead of its being the instrument of driving him and his family into a workhouse.———Suppose even a part of this effected, and then let the reader himself judge, what must be its operation on the poor—on the rich—on every class and rank of society? what must be the addition to individual morality and happiness? what to national security and prosperity?

27th April, 1797.