THE PROBLEMS OF POVERTY 579 overseers ceased to be concerned in the relief of the poor AD Ih farther than by the collection of rates. It may almost be said to have established a new system which was based on new principles, and which existed side by side with the old, according as different parishes exercised their local option. The confusion in the whole of the arrangements was farther confounded by the special provisions which were adopted in various towns and districts under the authority of private Acts of Parliament. A farther relaxation of the severity of the system, as it and. mn . . against the had been administered in the greater part of the eighteenth settlement century, was effected by modifying the unfair restrictions path which the law of settlement placed on the artisan. The tyranny of the overseers had been specially felt by such new-comers in a parish, as might become chargeable at some future time; but in 1795, an Act was passed which protected them from interference, until they actually became chargeable. This measure did not render it easier to obtain a new settlement; but it enabled labourers to live and work in any parish, so long as they could pay their way and did not come upon the rates; and it protected them from the cruelty of sudden and injudicious removal, if, through sickness, they did become dependent on parochial relief?. These re- nae laxations were in themselves harmless, but they prepared granting of the way for that granting of lavish relief, in the early part retief more of the nineteenth century, which led to the growth of a “mo pauperised class of a new type, and one which proved more difficult to deal with than the half-criminal, half-pauper cottagers on the commons had been. The provision of mairitenance on the land for persons, who were under no obligation to work, could not be extended indefinitely; but the lavish distribution of outdoor relief seemed to have unlimited possibilities of mischief. It pauperised a large proportion of the rural poor and contaminated many other persons as well, before it was effectively checked. 4 At first very little use was made of it (Young, Considerations on the subject of Poor houses, 1796, p. 29); before 1834, 924 parishes had adopted it. 2 85 Geo. IIL c. 101. dn Act to prevent the removal of poor persons until they shall become actually chargeable. The attempt to remedy hardships, by 8 and 9 W. III. c. 80, had proved ineffectual 27