APPENDIX. 67
No. 6.
Advice to Parish Officers.
Labour must be found for the poor man; and it
must not be of that degrading kind, which, from its
avowed inutility, is felt as an insult, and which, in
the present feverish state of society, would not again
be borne; it must be useful labour; and if it be for
himself, it will be cheerful and contented labour. But
how is the poor man to support himself while culti-
vating his quarter or half acre ? In his present de-
pressed state he will, in some cases perhaps, be unable
to do so, without parochial assistance; at the outset
some, aid may be necessary, but not more than if he
were one of these supernumeraries, scraping roads,
dragging about loaded waggons, fetching bricks from a
distance, or any of those ill-judged and irritating ex-
pedients for creating artificial labour ; but with this
difference, that if he works on his own land for his
own benefit, he will be well-disposed and contented,
and will probably consent to work on it at the same
rate of wages he was accustomed to receive previous to
the late extorted advance; in which case the parish
would at once feel the benefit of the arrangement in
reducing their rates. It is, therefore, strongly recom-
mended to parish officers, to pay the poor man for
working on his own allotment, instead of loitering on
the roads ; let him work on his own land, and prepare
it for a spring crop ; thus employed, he will work well,
and will acquire habits of industry. Surely it is better
to pay him in this way, and provide for him, by the
encouragement of habits of industry.