to be tested by the willingness to enter a workhouse or institution.
(c) That remedial relief, as opposed to the relief of destitution, should be left to voluntary charity.
The above is a rough sketch of some of the literature dealing with Poor Law questions between 1602 and 1834. Much has been omitted, and especially that which deals with the period immediately preceding the Act of 1834. For the conditions of that time, we must refer to the Report of the Commissioners itself, concerning which it is of the utmost importance that every one should inform himself. The literature of the earlier period is not so well known or so easily attainable. Nevertheless, it is of great importance to any one who will follow the evolution of the subject, and will apply it as a test to many questions which are now before the public. Scrappy and disjointed as it is, there is yet a thread running through it, which, if rightly followed, will give the clue to the way out of many difficulties. There are several points which especially call for attention. The first and most important is that of the effect of relief upon character, an effect which is as potent to-day as it was a hundred years ago, as it has been through all history. Next, we must observe the gradually growing conviction that in all public relief there must be an element of deterrence, and some check or test as an alternative to a general pauperism. It was long before even this much was understood ; it was longer before reformers hit upon the solution of what is now known as the "workhouse test," of which Mr Cary at Bristol was the first important exponent. The principle was decisively adopted by legislation of George I., and as decisively rejected by legislation of George III.
