ABSTRACT
The continual difficulties and ultimate failure which attended every parochial experiment to employ the able Poor, left a heavy burden on the ratepayers. We have seen that in the field of out-door relief the overseers achieved a qualified success, but the expense of these activities, unbalanced as they were by any receipts from the earnings of the able Poor, alarmed the body of the ratepayers. The overseers and churchwardens therefore, having neither the time nor the skill, nor frequently the wish, to contrive the most economical methods of administration, developed a fierce protective instinct against any one who might “bring a charge on the parish.” This instinct for self-protection manifested itself in different directions, all equally marked by a callous disregard for humanity when the interests of their parishes were involved.
