ABSTRACT
These laws were no doubt chiefly intended as measures of police, and appear well calculated to prevent the growth of vagabondage and violence. But they had likewise the effect of establishing reciprocal relations between the landless-man and the landowner, between property and poverty, between the householder and the houseless; casting upon one the duty of supervising the conduct and providing for the necessities of the other, in some respects similar to the Poor Law of the present day. The results of this legislation were likewise, it may be presumed, not very dissimilar, for the improvident and the indolent would endeavour, with the smallest amount of labour, to obtain the largest amount of assistance from the householder who was liable for their support, and responsible for their conduct; whilst the householder would as certainly endeavour to obtain the largest amount of labour in return for the cost and responsibility to which he was subject. It would be then-as it has been since, and is now-a struggle between property and poverty, between the provident and the improvident, between the industrious and the idle ; and on
the mode in which this struggle is conducted, and the medium attained by these opposing influences, the social condition and general weal of a people will in great measure depend.
