if he lives on one side of Highgate Lane he must find the relieving officer at King's Heath; but if he happens to be on the other side he will have to go to Gravelly Hill or Erdington. Not long ago to obtain a visit from the medical officer for his sick wife, a man had to go backwards and forwards more than twenty miles. The earliest record we have found of the cost of relieving the poor of the parish is of the date of 1673 in which year the sum of £309 was thus expended. In 1773 the amount was £6,378, but the pressure on the rates varied considerably about then, as in 1786 it required £11,132, while in l796 the figures rose to £24,050. According to Hutton, out of about 8,000 houses only 3,000 were assessed to the poor rates in 1780, the inhabitants of the remaining number being too poor to pay them. Another note shows up the peculiar incidence of taxation of the time, as it is said that in 1790 there were nearly 2000 houses under £5 rental and 8,000 others under £10, none of them being assessed, such small tenancies being first rated in 1792. The rates then appear to have been levied at the uniform figure of 6d. in the £ on all houses above £6 yearly value, the ratepayers being called upon as the money was required—in and about 1798, the collector making his appearance sixteen or eighteen times in the course of the year. The Guardians were not so chary in the matter of out relief as they are at present, for in 1795 there were at one period 2,427 families (representing over 6,000 persons, old and young) receiving out-relief. What this system (and bad trade) led to at the close of the long war is shown in the returns for 1816-17, when 36 poor rates were levied in the twelvemonth. By various Acts of Parliament, the Overseers have now to collect other rates, but
| Year | Rate in £. | Rate in £. | Amount collected. | Paid to corporation. | Cost of In and Out Relief. | Parochial Expenditure. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| s. | d. | £ | £ | £ | £ | |
| 1851 | 4 | 0 | 78,796 | 39,573 | 17,824 | 21,399 |
| 1861 | 3 | 6 | 85,986 | 33,443 | 14,878 | 14,878 |
| 1871 | 3 | 2 | 116,268 | 44,293 | 37,104 | 34,871 |
| 1881 | 4 | 8 | 198,458 | 107,520 | 42,880 | 48,058 |
The amounts paid over to the Corporation include the borough rate and the sums required by the School Board, the Free Libraries, and the District Drainage Board. In future years the poor-rate (so-called) will include, in addition to these, all other rates levyable by the Corporation. The poor-rates are levied half-yearly, and in 1848, 1862, and 1868 they amounted to 5s. per year, the lowest during the last forty years being 3s. in 1860; 1870, 1871, and 1872 being the next lowest, 3s. 2d. per year.
| Year | Highest No. daily | Lowest No. daily. |
|---|---|---|
| 1876 | 7,687 | 7,058 |
| 1877 | 8,240 | 7,377 |
| 1878 | 8,877 | 7,242 |
| 1879 | 14,651 | 8,829 |
| 1880 | 13,195 | 7,596 |
| 1881 | 11,064 | 7,183 |
| 1882 | 9,658 | 7,462 |
| 1883 | 8,347 | 7,630 |
Not long ago it was said that among the inmates of the Workhouse were several women of 40 to 45 who had spent all their lives there, not even knowing their way into the town.
Population.—Hutton "calculated" that about the year 750 there would be 3.000 inhabitants residing in and close to Birmingham. Unless a very rapid thinning process was going on after that date he must have been a long way out of his reckoning, for the Domesday Book gives but 63 residents in 108o for Birmingham, Aston, and Edgbaston. In 1555 we find that 37 baptisms, 15 weddings, and 27 deaths were registered at St. Martin's, the houses not being more than 700, nor the occupiers over 3,500
