HOLROYD (John Baker, Earl of Sheffield). Observations on the Impolicy, Abuses, and false Interpretation of the Poor Laws; and on the Reports of the Two Houses of Parliament.1818

London: Printed for J. Hatchard, First edition, 8vo, iv, [3]-60 pp., stitched as issued, uncut and unopened, small stain on inner blank margin of title, a nice copy. In this work the author strongly condemns the present management of the poor as a disgrace to the policy and political economy of the poor. He alleged that the heavy burden of the poor rate had so ruined small tradesmen as to have added to, rather than reduced the existing number of paupers. He advocated the abandonment of the whole system; the separation and classification of paupers, the education of pauper children, and their separation from criminal parents. He suggested the application of the unemployed to agricultural work. Holroyd, an intimate friend of Gibbon, wrote numerous pamphlets on economic subjects, including commerce, manufacturers, slavery and the Corn Laws. His estate at Sheffield Place, in Sussex, was regarded as a model of farming. Kress, C170; Goldsmith, 22206; Einaudi, 2916; Black, 3097.