FOOTNOTES:
[154] Hallam, Lit. of Europe, iii. 457.
[155] “It cometh many times to pass,” says Bacon, “that ‘materiam superabit opus’—that the work and carriage is more worth than the material, and enricheth a State more; as is notably seen in the Low Countries, who have the best mines above ground in the world.”—Bacon’s Essays, xv.
[156] Bancroft, Hist. Am. i.
[157] The Water Poet (temp. Charles I.)
[158] Nugæ Antiquæ, i. 349, apud Taine,II. i. 3.
[159] Jermyn debauched Lord Grandison’s sister, Miss Villiers; this incident was important, as it first led Hyde, a connection of the lady, into a correspondence with the king, whom Hyde tried to get to act firmly in the matter. Such misconduct, however, in no way impaired Jermyn’s influence with the queen, who not only supported him against the king at home, but afterwards kept him by her as her constant companion abroad.—Lister’s Life of Clarendon.
[160] Harris, Life of Cromwell.
[161] Evelyn, 196, 261; Chambers, 569, 599.
[162] Though a committee of Parliament was appointed to investigate the state of prisons in 1729, no reforms were made for another half century. In 1773 John Howard began his tour of inspection. He lived to see many reforms introduced, both in the condition of prisons and the treatment of prisoners, the results of his own noble efforts.
[163] Whitelock, Mem., 450.
[164] Roger North, Life of Lord Guildford; Somers, iii.; Trial of Lancashire Witches.
[165] Life of Lord North; Beesley, Hist. of Banbury; Cullum, Hist. of Hawsted; Evelyn, Diary.
[167] Rushworth, Abr., ii., 191.
[168] The law, having thus forbidden the labourer to move from his parish to seek work for himself, was compelled to provide for him. If the overseers could not find him full employment, they were required to make up any deficiency in wages out of rates. In consequence of this system, farmers purposely underpaid their labourers, knowing the parish could not refuse relief, while the labourers themselves were deprived of any motive for self-exertion. As the overseers were not appointed by the ratepayers, there was no check upon the expenditure, and the poor-rates rose with extraordinary rapidity. In 1760, the population was 7,000,000; the rates were £1,250,000. In 1834, the population had rather more than doubled, being 14,372,000, the poor-rates had increased by more than five times, £6,317,235. In 1834, the Reformed Parliament passed the Poor Law Amendment Act. A central authority was created—a board of three commissioners, with power to regulate the administration of relief throughout England and Wales. Parishes were united into unions, directed by boards of guardians, of whom the majority were elected by the ratepayers. The commissioners put an end to the allowance system, only granting outdoor relief to the able-bodied poor in exceptional cases. This Act made no alteration in the Law of Settlement. The 35th George III. had already prohibited the removal from a parish of any newcomer, until he should have become actually chargeable (1795). The 9th and 10th Victoria prohibits the removal of any person who shall have resided five years in a parish without being chargeable. The 11th and 12th Vict. relieves the parish of the cost of maintaining persons who have so become chargeable, and lays it on the common fund of the union. The continuance of the Laws of Settlement to the present time is consequent upon the principle, that every parish, however poor itself, is bound to relieve its own poor. The entire abolition of these is still required, as well as the universal substitution of union instead of parochial chargeability; and, where necessary, an equalization of the poor-rates over wider areas than a single union presents.—Nicholls on the Poor Laws. Chitty’s Statutes.
[169] Baxter’s Life, 33.
[170] The deaths from plague in London were:—
11,503 in 1592
30,583 in 1603
35,428 in 1625
1,317 in 1630
12,102 in 1636
2,876 in 1637
State Papers, 1637.
[171] Cromwelliana.
[172] Evelyn, Diary; Knight, i. 191; Character of England, Somers Tracts, vii.
[173] In 1697 an Act of Parliament was passed, abolishing the privileges of Whitefriars and of the Savoy, another haunt of the same kind. See Macaulay, chap. xxii.