follow, and odd as the expression may sound, we
become rich by payment and poverty. If we discharge the poor, who shall
act the laborious part? Stop the going out of one shilling, and it will
prevent the coming in of two.

At the introduction of the poor's laws, under Elizabeth, two pence
halfpenny in the pound rent was collected every fortnight, for future
support: time has made an alteration in the system, which is now
six-pence in the pound, and collected as often as found necessary. The
present levy amounts to above 10,000_l_. per ann. but is not wholly
collected.

As the overseers are generally people of property, payment in advance is
not scrupulously observed.

It was customary, at the beginning of this admirable system of
jurisprudence, to constitute two overseers in each parish; but the
magnitude of Birmingham pleaded for four, which continued 'till the year
1720, when a fifth was established: in 1729 they were augmented to half
a dozen; the wishes of some, who are frighted at office, rise to the
word _dozen_, a number very familiar in the Birmingham art of reckoning:
but let it be remembered, that a vestry filled with overseers is not
calculated for the meridian of business; that the larger the body, the
slower the motion; and that the time and the necessities of the poor
demand dispatch.

From the annual disbursements in assisting the poor, which I shall here
exhibit from undoubted evidence, the curious will draw some useful
lessons respecting the increase of manufactures, of population, and
of property.

No memoirs are found prior to 1676.

Year. Disbursed. Year. Disbursed.

l. s. d. l. s. d.

1676 328 17 7 1684 451 0 5-1/2
1677 347 9 10-1/2 1685 324 2 8
1678 398 8 0-1/2 1686 338 12 11
1679 omitted 1687 343 15 6
1680 342 11 2-1/2 1688 308 17 9-1/2
1681 363 15 7 1689 395 14 11
1682 337 2 8-1/2 1690 396 15 2-1/2
1683 410 12 1 1691 354 1 5-1/2
1691 360 0 4-1/2 1720 950 14 0
1693 376 12 3-1/2 1721 1024 6 6-1/2
1694 423 12 1-1/2 1722 939 18