41
peasant, who has an acre or half an acre of land
to cultivate on his own account, will be sure to
employ his children on it, and can hardly fail to
make them industrious and good workmen; a
child so brought up, whether male or female, has
a much better chance of bettering its condition,
and obtaining a settlement elsewhere, than chil-
dren brought up in idleness on the parish pay
list, who are sure to remain a burthen on their
parish. But let us consider the subject in a
more general point of view, not as it relates to
the interests of particular parishes ; for the na-
tion at large, it is indifferent by which parish a
pauper is supported. The great question for our
present inquiry is; whether the letting the poor
have land has a tendency to increase the popu-
lation. It is well known that the population of
England has greatly increased without the poor
having any land. By the census taken in 1821,
it was fully ascertained, that in the preceding
ten years, it had increased sixteen and a half per
cent, exclusive of the army and navy; and that
if these were included, the increase would amount
to eighteen per cent. We certainly cannot attri-
bute this to the poor having land; because it is
long subsequent to that period, that land has
been let to them, on any extensive scale. The
argument, therefore, as far as relates to England
is, that having by the 15th Geo. 3d. cap. 32,
F