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It would appear from the different prices of labour in different parishes, and the different proportions of population relieved, that the farmers, although they bear themselves a large portion of the assessments, have already learned in some places to prefer low wages and high rates, to low rates and high wages[1]. The consequences of this preference I am inclined to believe would have been more marked than they really are, if the demand for men, on account of the war, had not rendered it extremely difficult to keep down the price of labour. But as it is, this circumstance, com-
- ↑ Mr. Rose, in a note to his "Observations on the Poor Laws" p. 14, says "There is but too much reason to believe that in many parts of England the cultivators of the land are more solicitous to restrain the price of labour than to keep down the poor's rate; in which case the latter in fact becomes a part of the former. In Sussex, an agricultural country, the parishioners relieved are 23 in 100 on the population, and the rates average 1l. 5s. 11½d. on it; in Surrey 13 in 100, and 13s. 3½d.; in Kent 14 in 100, and 16s. 7¼d.; and in Hants 15 in 100, and 16s. 3d."
