Selected quad for the lemma: city_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
city_n	great_a	time_n	town_n	5,945	4	6.0551	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50763	A method concerning the relief and employment of the poor humbly offer'd to the consideration of the king and both Houses of Parliament / taken out of Sir Josiah Child's writings ; with somewhat added which the late renowned judge Sir Mathew Hale, writ in his book intituled, A discourse touching provision for the poor.	Child, Josiah, Sir, 1630-1699.; Hale, Matthew, Sir, 1609-1676. Discourse touching provision for the poor.	1699 (1699)	Wing M1941; ESTC R385	10,758	24

to the Care of every Parish to maintain their own Poor only upon which follows the shifting off sending or whiping back the poor Wanderers to the place of their Birth or last Abode the Practice whereof I have seen many Years in London to signify as much as ever it will which is just nothing of Good to the Kingdom in general or the Poor thereof though it be sometimes by accident to so●● of them a Punishment without effect I say without effect because it reforms not the Party nor disposeth the minds of others to Obedience which are the true ends of all Punishment As for instance a poor idle Person that will not Work or that no Body will employ in the Country comes up to London to set up the Trade of Begging such a person probably may Begg up and down the Streets seven Years it may be seven and twenty before any body asketh why she doth so and if at length she hath the ill hap in some Parish to meet with a more Vigilant Beadle then one of twenty of them are all he does is but to lead her the length of five or six Houses into another Parish and then concludes as his Masters the Parishoners do that he hath done the part of a most diligent Officer But suppose he should yet go further to the end of his Line which is the end of the Law and the perfect Execution of his Office that is suppose he should carry this poor wretch to a Justice of the Peace and he should order the Delinquent to be Whipt and sent from Parish to Parish to the place of her Birth or last Abode which not one Justice of twenty through Pity or other cause will do even this is a great charge upon the Country and yet the business of the Nation it self wholly undone For no sooner doth the Delinquent arrive at the place assign'd but for Shame or Idleness she presently deserts it and wanders directly back or some other way hoping for better Fortune whilst the Parish to which she is sent knowing her a Lazy and perhaps a worse qualified person is as willing to be rid of her as she is to be gone from thence If it be here retorted upon me that by my own confession much of this mischief happens by the ●on or ill Execution of the Laws I say Better Execution then you have seen you must not expect and there was never a good Law made that was not well executed the fault of the Law causing a failure of execution it being natural to all men to use the remedy next at hand and rest satisfied with shifting the Evil from their own Doors which in regard they can so easily do by threatning or thrusting a poor Body out of the verge of their own Parish it is unreasonable and vain to hope that ever it will be otherwise For the Laws against Inmates and empowering the Parishioners to take Security before they suffer any poor Person to inhabit amongst them it may be they were prudent constitutions at the times they were made and before England was a place of Trade and may be so still in some Countries but I am sure in Cities great Towns of Trade they are altogether improper and contrary to the practice of other Cities and Trading Towns abroad The Riches of a City as of a Nation consisting in the multitude of inhabitants and if so you must allow Inmates or have a City of Cottages And if a right course be taken for the Sustentation of the Poor and setting them on Work you need invent no Stratagems to keep them out but rather to bring them in For There sort of Poor to a City or Nation well managed is in effect the conflux of Riches to that City or Nation and therefore the subtil Dutch receive and relieve or employ all that come to them not enquiring what Nation much less what Parish they are of Question 3. If the defect be in our Laws how shall we find a remedy that may be rational and consistent This I confess is a hard and difficult question it is one of the Ardua Regni may very well deserve the most deliberat consideration of our wisest Counsellors And if A WHOLE SESSION OF PARLIAMENT WERE EMPLOYED ON THIS SINGULAR CONCERN I think it would be time spent as much to the Glory of GOD and good of this Nation as in any thing that noble and worthy Patriots of their Country can be engaged in But seeing I have adventured thus far I shall humbly proceed to offer some General Proposals that have a tendency towards the effecting this great Work which being seriously thought of and debated by a COMMITTEE may be capable of such melioration as may render them in a great measure effectual to the Kingdom in general although at present to prevent that Common Objection that great Mutations are dangerous I shall only propose them to be experimented in these parts of the Kingdom which are the Vitals of our body politick which being once made sound the care of the rest will not be difficult Proposition 1. That the City of London and Westminster Burrough of Southwark and all other places within the usual Lines of Communication described within the weekly Bills of Mortality may by Act of Parliament be associated into one Province or line of Communication for relief of the Poor 2. That there be one Assembly of men and such as they shall from time to time appoint and deputise entrusted with the care for and treasure of all the Poor within the said Pale or Line of Communication 3. That the said Assembly be incorporated by Act of Parliament with perpetual Succession by the name of Fathers of the Poor or some other honourable and significant Title 4. That all Constables Church-wardens Overseers or other Officers in all Parishes within the said Line be subordinate accomptable to the said Fathers of the Poor and their Deputies for in all things relating to the Poor 5. That the said Fathers of the Poor may have liberty to Assess and receive into their common Treasury for relief of their Poor so much Money from every Parish as they yearly paid to that purpose any of the three Years preceding this Constitution and to compel the Payment thereof but not of more 6. That the said Fathers of the Poor and their Deputies may have very large and sufficient Power in all things relating to the Poor and particularly to have and receive the charitable benevolence of all Persons once every Sunday in every Parish-Church and in any other place and at any other time or times which they shall think fit 7. That the said Fathers of the Poor and such as they shall authorize may have Power to purchase Lands erect and endow Work-houses Hospitals and Houses of Correction and to exercise all other Powers relating to the Poor that any number of Justices of the Peace now may do in their Quarter Sessions or otherwise 8. That

A METHOD Concerning the Relief and Employment OF THE POOR Humbly offer'd to the Consideration of the KING and both Houses of PARLIAMENT Taken out of Sir Josiah Child's Writings With somewhat added Which the Late Renowned Judge Sir Mathew Hale Writ in his Book Intituled A Discourse touching Provision for the Poor May true Wisdom be given for the carrying on so Great and so Good a Work LONDON Printed by the Advice of some in Authority 1699. A METHOD Concerning the Relief and Employment OF THE POOR IN the Discourse of this Subject I shall first assert some Particulars which I think are agreed by common Consent and from thence take occasion to proceed to what is more doubtful 1. That our Poor in England have always been in a most sad and wretched condition some Famished for want of Bread others starved with Cold and Nakedness and many whole Families in all the out Parts of Cities and great Towns commonly remain in a languishing nasty and useless Condition Uncomfortable to themselves and unprofitable to the Kingdom this is confessed and lamented by all Men. 2. That the Children of our Poor bred up in Beggary and Laziness do by that means become not only of unhealthy Bodies and more then ordinary subject to many loathsome Diseases whereof very many die in their tender Age and if any of them do arrive to years and strength they are by their idle habits contracted in their Youth rendred for ever after indispos'd to Labour and serve only to stock the Kingdom with Thieves and Beggars 3. That if all our impotent Poor were provided for and those of both Sexes and all Ages that can do Work of any kind employed it would redound some Hundreds of Thousands of Pounds per Annum to the Publick Advantage 4. That it is our Duty to GOD and Nature so to Provide for and Employ the Poor 5. That by so doing one of the great Sins for which this Land ought to Mourn would be removed 6. That our fore-Fathers had pious Intentions towards this good Work as appears by the many Statutes made by them to this purpose 7. That there are Places in the World wherein the Poor are so provided for and employed as in Holland Hamborough New-England and others and as I am informed now in the City of Paris Thus far we all agree The first Question then that naturally occurs is How comes it to pass that in England we do not nor ever did comfortably Maintain and Employ our Poor The common Answers to this Question are two 1. That our Laws to this purpose are as good as any in the World but we fail in the execution 2. That formerly in the days of our Pious Ancestors the work was done but now Charity is deceased and that is the reason we see the Poor so neglected as now they are In both which Answers I humbly conceive the Effect is mistaken for the Cause For tho' it cannot he denied but there hath been and is a great failure in the Execution of those Statutes which relate to the Poor yet I say the Cause of that failure hath been occasioned by defe●t of the Laws themselves For otherwise what is the reason that in our late times of the Confusion and Alteration wherein almost every Party in the Nation at one time or other took their turn at the Helm and all had that Compass those Laws to Steer by and yet none of them could or ever did conduct the Poor into a Harbour of security to them and profit to the Kidgdom i. e. none sufficiently maintained the Impotent and employed the Indigent amongst us And if this was never done in any Age nor by any sort of Men whatsoever in this Kingdom who had the use of those Laws now in force it seemes to me a very strong Argument that it never could nor ever will be done by those Laws and that consequently the defect lies in the Laws themselves not in the Men i. e. those that should put them in Execution As to the second Answer to the aforesaid Question wherein want of Charity is assigned for another cause why the Poor are now so much neglected I think it is a scandalous ungrounded accusation of our Contemporaries for most that I converse with are not so much troubled to part with their Money as how to place it that it may do good and not hurt to the Kingdom For If they give to the Beggars in the Streets or at their Doors they fear they may do hurt by encouraging that Lazy unprofitable kind of Life and if they give more than their Proportions in their respective Parishes that they say is but giving to the Rich for the Poor are not set on Work thereby nor have the more given them but only their Rich Neighbours pay the less And for what was given in Churches to the Visited Poor and to such as were impoverished by the Fire we have heard of so many and great Abuses of that kind of Charity that most men are under sad Discouragements in Relation thereunto I write not this to divert any Man from Works of Chaity of any kind He that gives to any in Want does well but be that gives to Employ and Educate the Poor so as to render them useful to the Kingdom in my judgement does better And here by the way not to leave men at a loss how to dispose of what GOD shall incline their Hearts to give for the Benefit of the Poor I think it not impertinent to propose the Hospitals of the City and Poor Labouring People that have many Children and make a hard shift to sustain them by their industry whereof there are multitudes in the out Parts of this City as the best Objects of Charity at present But to return to my purpose viz. to prove that the want of Charity likewise that is now and always hath been in relation to the Poor proceeds from a defect in our Laws Ask any Charitable-minded Man as he goes along the Streets of London viewing the Poor viz Boyes Girles Men and Women of all Ages and Many in good Health c. why he and others do not take care for the setting those poor Creatures to Work Will he not readily answer that he wisheth heartily it could be done though it cost him some part of his Estate but he is but one Man and can do nothing towards it giving them Money as hath been said being but to bring them into a liking and continuance in that way % Question 2. Wherein lyes the defect of our present Laws relating to the Poor I answer that there may be many but I shall here take notice of one only which I think to be Fundamental and which until altered the Poor in England can never be well provided for or Employed and that when the said Fundamental Error is well amended it is almost impossible they should lack ei●●er Work or Maintainance The said radical Error I esteem to be the leaving it