It is necessary to make this distinction, because there is a slight variation in the wording of the two orders. That of 30th of April, 1819, which was carefully framed so as to require as little as possible of detail from the officers, required an account, "show. ing the total amount of the money as sessed and levied upon each parish, township, or other place maintaining its own poor; distinguishing, in the said account, the amount of money paid out of such assessments for any other purpose than the relief of the poor." The remainder, after deducting the latter of these amounts from the former, was taken as the amount expended on account of the poor.

Before the order of 1820 was issued, it appeared that this mode of ascertaining the expenditure on account of the poor was not quite accurate, inasmuch as the sum assessed and levied," and the sum "expended" for all purposes, do not always, in each particular year, correspond in amount. The expenditure of any year may be defrayed in part, out of the balance of the assessment of the preceding year; or there may be a debt remaining at the end of the year, which in some returns may be included in the account of the sum expended, and in others excluded.

Some of the parish officers appear to have supplied this defect in the order, by stating separately the sum expended on account of the poor; and it is owing to this circumstance, that in the abstract of the four years ordered to be printed on July 17, 1820, the second and third columns, which were intended jointly to state the total expenditure, do not exactly agree in amount with the first, which contains the amount assessed and levied. The difference, however, is very inconsiderable; and your Committee are satisfied that the corrected account now given of "money expended solely on

the poor," contains a sufficiently accurate statement of the expenditure for any purpose of comparison.

The order calling for the returns of the year ending March 25, 1820, required, as before, an account of the sum assessed and levied, and also, “the total amount of money expended in that year;" when from this latter sum the amount of the expenditure "for other purposes" is deducted, the remainder comes out accurately as the amount of the expenditure on account of the poor.

There may possibly still be some difference between different parishes in the mode of making up the return; some officers may, perhaps, include in one column, and some in the other, moneys expended in litigation and other matters immediately connected with the poor, but not applicable to their relief. The amount, however, of this mixed expenditure, though considerable in one point of view, does not bear so great a proportion to the whole expenditure, as to constitute a material objection to the accuracy of the returns.

The Committee have the further satisfaction of adding, that the returns under the late order have been made more promptly, and in a more regular form, than those called for in the preceding year.

It may be convenient here to ob. serve, that in the order recently made by the House for returns for the year ending 25th March, 1821, a still further correction is made of the form. Instead of calling for the amount "assessed and levied," the requisition is now for the amount levied only. This alteration was certainly proper, as the whole sum assessed may not always be levied within the year.

Your Committee having been instructed to report to the House an abstract of the late returns, together with their observations thereupon, con

ceive that they cannot more usefully execute the duty assigned to them, than by connecting the returns of the five years referred to them, with those of former periods, which are to be found in the journals and papers of the house.

Returns are already before Parliament, in different degrees of detail of the amount and expenditure of the poor rates in the years ending at Easter 1748, 1749, 1750, 1776, 1783, 1784, 1785, 1803, and 1813, 1814, 1815; your Committee have, therefore, included in their abstract so much of the account of those former years as can be compared with the more recent accounts; so that the House has now before it a statement of the amount of the poor rates, at several periods, commencing in the middle of the last century, and reaching to the year preceding the last.

The first statement which your Committee submit to the House, shows, in gross sums, the amount of moneys assessed and levied in England and Wales, at each former period, and in each year comprised in the late returns; and the amount expended upon the poor, and for other purposes, with other distinctions to be found in some of the returns.

Your Committee present to the House, in the second place, an account of the sums expended in each county, for the relief of the poor only, in each of the eight years, ending on the 25th March, 1820, being the latest period for which there are the means of giving complete yearly accounts; of these eight years, the accounts of the first three are taken from the return of 1815, the others are from the returns referred to your Committee; these they have combined in order that the eight years may be viewed together.

Your Committee have not thought

it expedient to give the detailed account of each parish. The House having lately called for returns of the poor rates, for the year ending the 25th of March, 1821, it appears to your Committee more convenient that a parochial account, embracing nine years, should be prepared early in the next session of parliament, when the House will have the additional advantage of an opportunity of considering these returns in connexion with the result of the late numeration of the people.

They have at the same time the satisfaction of informing the House, that all the parochial returns, and correct abstracts in which each parish is distinguished, are carefully arranged, so as to facilitate reference by any member of the House to the return of any particular district.

The Committee lay before the House, thirdly, a statement in which the former returns, so far as they relate to the expenditure upon the poor only, are also distinguished by counties; and the eight later years are averaged in three periods; the first of three years, ending in March, 1815, being the period which was under the consideration of the Committee of 1817, and which reached to the first year of peace; the second, embracing a like period of three years, ending in March 1818; and the third, comprising only two years, to March 1820, which may be completed to a triennial period, when the returns recently ordered shall have been received.

To this abstract, with the view of facilitating any comparisons which the members of the House may think it desirable to make, of the relative expenditure of the poor rates in each county, with its population, your Committee have also annexed a table of the number of people in each county, according to the enumeration taken in 1811.

And they have brought from the abstract of 1815 the account of the property assessed in each county under schedule A.

They have also thought it useful to annex an account of the average price of corn in England and Wales, in such of the years ending on the 25th of March, included in their abstracts, as have occurred since the establishment of the office of receiver of corn returns. The accounts of these averages already before the House are generally made up to a period of the year not corresponding with that of the poorrate accounts; and as comparisons are sometimes made between the amount of the poor-rates and the price of wheat, they trust that this account of the prices may be acceptable to the House.

Your Committee do not feel themselves at liberty to make any observations which are not suggested by the mere inspection of the several ab

stracts,

These observations, they trust, the House will permit them to commence, by the statement of a few results drawn from the returns of the earlier periods, which indeed have been formerly stated to the House, but which it may be useful to place here :

The pecuniary amount of the levies, by way of poor's rates progressively, and very largely increased from 1789 to 1812:

The amount of the sums applied to the relief of the poor, increased within the same period progressively, and very largely :

The amount expended for other purposes increased progressively, and still more largely than the expenditure on account of the poor,

In reference to comparisons with the year 1803, your Committee have to observe, that there is no account of any average of years between 1783-4

5, and 1813-14-15; nor any account of any single year between those periods, except that of the year 1803. The House will judge, whether there would have been any materially different result, if an average of 1801-2-3 had been taken, instead of the year 1803 only. However this may be, it is clear, that in 1812-13 the expenditure, both for the poor and other pur poses, greatly exceeded the amount in 1803. Since 1812, the total expen diture in both branches has still fur ther increased, and the remark made upon the former statements, that the expenditure for other purposes rose more rapidly than the expenditure on the poor, is not applicable to the later

for the year 1820-21 recently required, will shew whether the amount has continued to decrease; and your Committee have been informed, that the greater number of the returns which have already been received, exhibit a more or less considerable diminution.

These comparisons are taken from the total amount of England and Wales; your Committee have considered the county abstracts with the view of ascertaining the exceptions which are to be found in particular counties, to the results drawn from a general average.

These exceptions are most numerous as to the first triennial period. In the counties of Durham, Hertford, Kent, Middlesex, and Surrey, the amount was considerably greater in 1813-14, than in 1812-13; and in seven other counties of England, and in eight of Wales, there was also a slight excess. But there is no exception to the statement, that the year 1814-15 was below the average of the two ear. lier years, and below the year immediately preceding.

the

As to the second period, there are three exceptions to the gradual rise to year 1817-18, and to the statement that that year was the highest which had at that time been known. In the county of Nottingham, the year 1816-17 was the highest ; and in Wiltshire and Berkshire the year 181213 exhibited an amount which has not since been equalled.

There are more numerous exceptions to the statement, that the year 1817-18 was higher than any subsequent year; for it appears, that in the counties of Devon and Surrey, there was an excess, not inconsiderable, in 1818-19 over the preceding year; and a slight excess in Bedford, Cumberland, Gloucester, Huntingdon, Lincoln, Middlesex, Northampton, Rut

land, Westmoreland, and the East and North Ridings of Yorkshire. In other counties of England there was scarcely a diminution; and in Wales, generally, an excess. In Cumberland, Leicester, Lincoln, and the West Riding of Yorkshire, the year 1819-20 shews the greatest amount.

The exceptions to the statement, that as to the two years of the third period, of which there are returns, there was a slight diminution in the second, arise in the counties of Chester, Cumberland, Derby, Durham, Leicester, Lincoln, Nottingham, Warwick, and the West Riding of Yorkshire.

Reverting to the averages, it is to be remarked, that there is no exception to the general excess of the second period over the first; and that Berkshire, Norfolk, and Salop, afford the only exceptions to the general excess of the third period over the second.

At the foot of the table of yearly amounts, the House will find a statement, in which the returns from towns are distinguished from all others. The towns included in this distinction are those which, in the abstract of population in 1811, are set in Roman capitals.

This separate account of the towns affords no exceptions to the general statements which are worthy of particular remark.

It appears that select vestries, under the act 59 Geo. III. c. 12, have been appointed in 2006 parishes; and assistant overseers in 2257. The whole number of parishes, townships, or other sub-divisions, from which returns have been required, is about 14,700.

Your Committee have not thought it necessary to make any selections from the "Observations," which, in conformity with the orders of the House, have in some instances been subjoined by the parish officers to the returns. Many of these are irrelevant;