principle that every labourer should have a gallon loaf of standard
wheaten bread weekly for every member of his family, and one over. The
effect of this was, that a man with six children, who got 9 s. a week
wages, required nine gallon loaves, or 13 s. 6 d. a week, so that he
had a pension of 4 s. 6 d. over his wages. Another man, with a wife
and five children, so idle and disorderly that no one would employ
him, was entitled to eight gallon loaves for their maintenance, so
that he had 12 s. a week to support him. The increase of allowance
according to the number of children acted as a direct bounty upon
marriage. The report of the Committee of the House of Commons on
labourers' wages, printed in 1824, describes the effect of this
allowance system in paralysing the industry of the poor. 'It is
obvious,' remarked the committee, 'that a disinclination to work must
be the consequence of so vicious a system. He whose subsistence
is secure without work, and who cannot obtain more than a mere
sufficiency by the hardest work, will naturally be an idle and
careless labourer. Frequently the work done by four or five such
labourers does not amount to what might easily be performed by a
single labourer at task work. A surplus population is encouraged: men
who receive but a small pittance know that they have only to marry and
that pittance will be increased proportionally to the number of their
children. When complaining of their allowance, they frequently say,
"We will marry, and then you must maintain us." This system secures
subsistence to all; to the idle as well as the industrious; to the
profligate as well as the sober; and, as far as human interests are
concerned, all inducements to obtain a good character are taken away.
The effects have corresponded with the cause: able-bodied men
are found slovenly at their work, and dissolute in their hours of
relaxation; a father is negligent of his children, the children do not
think it necessary to contribute to the support of their parents;