ΑΝ ACCOUNT OF SEVERAL WORK-HOUSES FOR Employing and Maintaining Setting forth The Rules by which they are Governed, And in Particular To the PARISHES where they are Erected. As alfo of feveral CHARITY SCHOOLS For Promoting WORK, and LABO u r. The SECOND EDITION very much Enlarged. LONDON: Printed by Jos. DOWNING, in Bartholomew-Clofe Gough Adds Gen. Top: ft pr 193. THE PREFACE. T * HE Reader will have the Pleasure of seeing in this Second Edition of the Account of Workhouses, that this Method of maintaining the Poor, has met with Approbation and Success throughout. the Kingdom. And indeed a better Method can fcarce be contrived; for Workhouses, under a prudent and good Management, will answer all the Ends of Charity to the Poor, in regard to their Souls and Bodies: and yet at the fame time prove effectual Expedients for encreasing our Manufactures, as well as removing a heavy Burden from the Nation. They may be made, properly fpeaking, Nurferies of Religion, Virtue, andIndustry, by having daily Prayers and the Scriptures conftantly read, and poor Children Chriftianly inftructed. And as the Publick will certainly receive a Benefit from their Work, fo the Poor can have no Occafion to 'complain, because every one has therein Food and Raiment fuitable to their Circumftances; their Dwelling is warm, fweet and cleanly, and all proper Care is taken of them in Age and Sickness. Their reasonable Wants of every kind are fupplied; and therefore they ought to be content and thankful, and do their Duty, that is, all they can do, in that State of Life wherein it has pleafed God to place them. It is indeed a Sin for them to murmur and complain, or to refuse to work; when no Work is put upon them beyond their Strength and Skill: nor are they kept clofer or longer to it than other poor People without Doors are obliged to, if they be as induftrious and diligent as they ought to be, in getting a Livelihood for themfelves and Families. IDLENESS and Sloth are Immoralities as well as publick Nufances: and, as the Apoftle commands, *King WILLIAM's Speech to the Parliament, Dec. 9. 1698. They They who are guilty of them ought not to eat, if they will not work. But tho' this be true, yet is not the Confinement they undergo in Workhoufes too ftrict, and a fort of Punishment inflicted on them for no Reafon but their Poverty? This is indeed with many a matter of Complaint and Clamour; although upon Enquiry there will be found little or no ground and reafon for either: and that the Confinement injoined in moft Workhouses is no other, than what is neceffary, to keep good Order, good Hours, and a prudent Difcipline in them; and is feldom ftricter, than what is ufual among Children and Servants, in fober, regular Families, and in many cafes indifpenfibly requifite to prevent those who have brought themselves to Poverty by a loofe and diforderly way of living, from breaking out into the fame wicked Courfe again. WORKHOUSES then being Charitable Foundations, as well as Hospitals, and under a good Regulation, of greater Advantage to the Publick; they are a National Concern: And accordingly they have received great Encouragement from the Legislature, who will, in all Probability, upon a proper Application, be difpofed to do every thing that is neceffary to make them as useful as they may be. The Parliament indeed has, in every Reign fince the Reformation, endeavoured to make a comfortable Provifion for the Poor, and has enacted feveral Laws with this View, but in all of them the Defign has been to prevent their Idlenefs, as well as to relieve their Neceffities. In the very firft*Act of all, which is ftill in Force, and the Ground of all Parochial Affefsments for the Poor, it is provided that the Money to be raifed, Jhall be employed in purchafing a convenient Stock of Flax, Hemp, Wool, Thread, &c. for fetting to Work all fuch Perfons as have no mears to maintain them, and ufe no ordinary and daily Trade of Life to get their Living by; and that no other Perfons fhall have any Relief from a Parish, but the Lame, Impotent, Old, Blind, and fuch other among them being poor and not able to work. However, notwithftanding this Care, the good Intentions of the Legiflature * 43 ELIZ. Cap. iii. Sect. 1. have bave been in a great measure defeated; and very grofs and burthenfome Abuses had crept in, efpecially in large and populous Parishes, till in the late Reign † an Act was made for amending the Laws relating to the Settlement, Imployment, and Relief of the Poor; by virtue whereof Workhouses have been erected with very good Success in many Places of the Kingdom, especially in, or near London, and have been found to be the most proper Method for Prevention and Removal of great Mifchiefs arifing from Numbers of unemploy'd Poor. IT would therefore be great Pity, and a National Reproach, to have thefe charitable and ufeful Inftitutions fall into Disorder, Abufe or Ruin, thro' any Mifmanagement, that may be prevented; or through any want of Power in proper Perfons to make and execute fuch Rules and Ordinances, as are requifite to their good Government, Difcipline, or Improvement. AND with this View it is humbly propofed: I. THAT in every Parish, wherein any Workhoufe is, or fhall be erected, all Perfons, who are rated to the Poor, may have Power, and shall be obliged yearly to chufe in Veftry, out of the ableft and difcreeteft Inhabitants, fuch a Number of Trustees, for the Care and Management of the faid Workhoufe, as fhall be by them thought meet, baving refpect to the Proportion or Greatness of the Parish: and in cafe any Parifh fhall refufe or neglect at first, or from Tear to Tear afterwards, to chufe Trustees as aforefaid, then it shall and may be lawful for the Justices of the Peace, at their general Quarter-Seffions for the County, City, or Town, where fuch Parish lies, to appoint Truftees out of the ableft and difcreeteft Inhabitants of the faid Parifh. II. THAT the Trustees fo chofen, or appointed, be obliged to act; and that they, or the greater Part of them, have full Power and Authority, to make at firft within a Time limited, Rules and Ordinances for, and concerning the better ordering and governing their respective Workboufes * b 19 GEO. I. 1 GEO. II. An Act for Erecting a Workhouse in the City of Canterbury. |