therefore high and sure, and consequently persons who had small pieces
of ground were induced to cover them with those buildings. On this
subject Mr. Hodges, the gentleman already referred to, remarks: 'I
cannot forbear urging again that any measure having for its object the
relief of the parishes from their over population, must of necessity
become perfectly useless, unless the act of parliament contains some
regulations with respect to the erecting and maintaining of cottages.
I am quite satisfied that the erecting of cottages has been a most
serious evil throughout the country. The getting of the cottage tempts
young people of seventeen and eighteen years of age, and even younger,
to marry. It is notorious that almost numberless cottages have been
built by persons speculating on the parish rates for their rents.'

The evils of this system had reached their height in the years 1831-2.
That was a time when the public mind was bent upon reforms of all
sorts, without waiting for the admission from the Tories that the
grievances of which the nation complained were 'proved abuses.' The
reformers were determined no longer to tolerate the state of things,
in which the discontent of the labouring classes was proportioned to
the money disbursed in poor-rates, or in voluntary charities; in
which the young were trained in idleness, ignorance, and vice--the
able-bodied maintained in sluggish and sensual indolence--the aged
and more respectable exposed to all the misery incident to dwelling
in such society as that of a large workhouse without discipline or
classification--the whole body of inmates subsisting on food far
exceeding both in kind and amount, not merely the diet of the
independent labourer, but that of the majority of the persons who
contributed to their support. The farmer paid 10 s. in the pound in
poor-rates, and was in addition compelled to employ supernumerary
labourers not required on his farm, at a cost of from 100 l. to 250 l.