31
so desirable an effect may be produced ; but that
he humbly conceives, that if an Act could be
passed to authorize and encourage, if not actually
to enforce an allowance of a small portion of land
to each agricultural labourer, it would do more
to tranquilize and satisfy that description of per-
sons, than any other measure that could be
adopted.* After an allusion to the Quarterly
Review for Midsummer, 1829, Mr. Demainbray
informs us, that Mr. Estcourt, the father of the
present Member for the University of Oxford,
successfully adopted this plan in the parish of
Newntown, Wilts, where, for several years, only
two aged parishioners received relief; all the rest
having accepted small portions of land at a mo-
derate rent, in lieu of assistance from the Poor's
Box. The next statement he gives, is that of a
parish in Wiltshire, where, by the adoption of
this system, the poor-rates are considerably
reduced. It appears, that in the year ending
March 25th, 1819, in Malmesbury and the ad-
joining hamlets of Rodbourne and Corston, they
amounted to—
£.2,074 1 8
In 1830 - - - 1,424 18 0
Reduction - - £. 649 3 8
* This has been happily effected hy the two Acts brought into
the House of Lords, for the relief of the labouring poor, the 1st
and 2d Gul. IV. can 24 and cap. 59.