of distress, were left without any support,
except the casual charity of their neighbours,
who had little to spare from their
own absolute necessities. The situation of
the poor is therefore much worse in Savoy,
than before the abolition of the monasteries.
The poor in England suffered in
the same manner on the abolition of the
monasteries in the reigns of Henry VIII.
and Elizabeth, before the poor’s rates were
enacted.
On the establishment of tithes in EngOland,
they were expressly stated to be for the
maintainance of the clergy and the poor.
Such I suppose to have been the case in
other countries; but the rich regular
clergy, have long since forgotten the claims
of the poor to a portion of the tithes, and
abandoned them to the care of the monks.
On the lay appropriation of the revenues of
the monasteries, the poor found no defenders
to enquire into the original inten^
tions of the founders, or to assert their
claim to a portion of the property.
The charity of the monks of Savoy lost
much of its usefulness by the indiscriminate
manner in which it was generally bestowed
: certain days and hours were appointed
at each monastery for the distribution
of provisions, and the indolent were
thereby enabled to support themselves during
the whole week, by walking to the different
monasteries on the days of donation. This
was offering a premium to idleness, and
was the means of increasing the number
of mendicants, which will in every country,
be proportionate to the facility of obtaining
food without labour.
Though the peasantry in Savoy are very
poor, they cannot be called miserable. In
the neighbourhood of towns, their situation
is worse than at a distance, and
not far from Chamberry, I have seen a
few families, that might almost vie in
squalid misery, rags, and filth with the
poor of Ireland *: but the general appearance
of the peasantry is respectable.
The following summary of the answers to
the three series of questions I proposed,
relating to the agriculture of Savoy, will be
sufficiently explanatory of the nature of the
questions ; I have not therefore thought it
necessary to enlarge the work by stating
them.
* I speak of the poor in Ireland as I saw them in the
vicinity of Dublin in the year 1813.
F “'' '