to their own use the income previously applied to the defence of
the realm. This was a bribe, but it brought its own punishment. The
eviction of the working farmers, the demolition of their dwellings,
the depopulation of the country, were evils of most serious
magnitude; and the supplement of the measures which produced such
deplorable results was found in the permanent establishment of a
taxation for the SUPPORT of the POOR. Yet the nation reeled under
the depletion produced by previous mistaken legislation, and all
classes have been injured by the transfer of the support of the
army from the land held by the nobles to the income of the people.

Side by side, with the measures passed, to prevent the Clearing of
the Land, arose the system of POOR LAWS. Previous to the
Reformation the poor were principally relieved at the religious
houses. The destruction of small farms, and the eviction of such
masses of the people, which commenced in the reign of Henry VII.,
overpowered the resources of these establishments; their
suppression in the reigns of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth aggravated
the evil. The indiscriminate and wholesale execution of the poor
vagrants by the former monarch only partially removed the evil, and
the statute-book is loaded with acts for the relief of the
destitute poor. The first efforts were collections in the churches;
but voluntary alms proving insufficient, the powers of the
churchwardens were extended, and they were directed and authorized
to assess the parishioners according to their means, and thus arose
a system which, though benevolent in its object, is a slur upon our
social arrangements. Land, the only source of food, is rightly
charged with the support of the destitute. The necessity for such
aid arose originally from their being evicted therefrom. The charge
should fall exclusively upon the rent receivers, and in no case