This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1817 Excerpt: ... and the character of the two parties would be more and more approximated and confounded. Indeed any fund whatever, appropriated to the multifarious purposes which are now within the scope of parish relief, would be insufficient to meet the demands accruing upon it, if the poor are to be admitted to an interest in it by their becoming contributors. A fund for such extensive purposes could not possibly be had by contribution among the poor themselves. The subsisting practice therefore, of assessments upon the property of the other class alone, to be extorted by the occasion, is the only, or the best way of resisting and checking the pressure, as long as the present vague and promiscuous range of relief is attempted to be continued. As the result of these considerations, if there be any weight in them, I conceive that the destination of a fund into which the poor might be invited to subscribe, should be strictly confined to a provision for them against the extreme hardship of bodily infirmity, permanent and irremediable; that the contribution from the poor themselves should be on the sole and separate account of each individual; that his deposits should be moderate, neither to press too much upon his current wants, nor to lay the whole weight of the provision for that particular purpose upon himself; and, as a most necessary stipulation of justice, in order that he may never lose by the exercise of his economy, that the full amount of his contributions, if they should happen not to be ultimately withdrawn by his own personal want, or the remainder of them, should be restored at his decease to his family, or other representatives of blood; or perhaps, in default of near kin, as he might direct.--Whether one stated rate of deposit should be fixed, to insure a st...