The Village Labourer, 1760-1832: A Study in the Government of England Before the Reform Bill |
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acres agricultural labourer allotments allottees Annals of Agriculture Appendix appointed arable aristocracy Armley Arthur Young award boroughs bread burgage claims Cobbett Commissioners common fields common rights consent copyholders cottagers Court described Duke eighteenth century enclosed Enclosure Acts Enclosure Bill England English estates expenses families farmers farms fencing freeholders give given governing class ground House of Commons House of Lords Ibid inhabitants interests Jury Justice labourers Laleham Burway land landlords landowners living Lord Melbourne magistrates Manor ment Otmoor overseers owners parish parish officers Parliament passed pasture persons petition Petitioners Pitt Poor Law poor rates present prisoners proposed proprietors provision punishment Quarter Sessions received Reform refused relief rent Report rich Right of Common riots Select Committee settlement society Speenhamland Speenhamland system Standing Orders tenants threshing machines tion tithes village wages waste Whitbread William Wiltshire
Popular passages
Page 110 - And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I am the LORD your God.
Page 112 - Act was neclared to be necessary in the preamble, because ' by reason 'of some defects in the law, poor people are not restrained from going from one parish to another, and therefore do endeavour to settle themselves in those parishes where there is the best stock...
Page 165 - A transient pleasure sparkles in his eyes, He hears and smiles, then thinks again and sighs: For now he journeys to his grave in pain; The rich disdain him; nay, the poor disdain: Alternate masters now their slave command, Urge the weak efforts of his feeble hand, And, when his age attempts its task in vain, With ruthless taunts, of lazy poor complain.
Page 204 - Pone crucem servo: meruit quo crimine servus Supplicium ? quis testis adest ? quis detulit ? audi : Nulla unquam de morte hominis cunctatio longa est. «o O demens, ita servus homo est? nil fecerit, esto: Hoc volo, sic jubeo, sit pro ratione voluntas.
Page 147 - There children dwell who know no parents' care; Parents, who know no children's love, dwell there! Heartbroken matrons on their joyless bed, Forsaken wives, and mothers never wed; Dejected widows with unheeded tears, And crippled age with more than childhood fears; The lame, the blind, and, far the happiest they! The moping idiot and the madman gay. Here too the sick their final doom receive, Here brought, amid the scenes of grief, to grieve, Where the loud groans from some sad chamber flow...
Page 212 - Plenty smiles — alas! she smiles for few — • And those who taste not, yet behold her store, Are as the slaves that dig the golden ore, — The wealth around them makes them doubly poor.
Page 226 - I was compelled to part with him at Michaelmas — he has not yet got work, and he has no chance of getting any until he has become a pauper; for until then, the paupers will be preferred to him. He cannot get work in his own parish, and he will not be allowed to get any in other parishes. Another instance of the same kind occurred amongst my workmen. Thomas Hardy, the brother-in-law of the same man, was an excellent workman, discharged under similar circumstances; he has a very industrious wife.
Page 147 - And the dull wheel hums doleful through the day;There children dwell who know no parents' care; Parents, who know no children's love, dwell there! Heart-broken matrons on their joyless bed, Forsaken wives, and mothers never wed; Dejected widows with unheeded tears, And crippled...
Page 18 - The laws of this land are not so vulgar to permit a mean fellow to contend with one of your ladyship's fortune. We have one sure card, which is to carry him before Justice Frolick, who, upon hearing your ladyship's name, will commit him without any farther questions.
Page 105 - Go to an alehouse kitchen of an old enclosed country, and there you will see the origin of poverty and poor rates. For whom are they to be sober ? For whom are they to save ? (Such are their questions) For the parish ? If I am diligent, shall I have leave to build a cottage...