"The Committee having examined the registers of the several parishes referred to them by the House, have collected from them the state of the parish infant poor; and find, that taking the children born in workhouses or parish houses, or received of and under 12 months old in the year 1763, and following the same into 1764 and 1765, only seven in one hundred appeared to have survived this short period.
"That having called for the registers of the years 1754, 1755, 1761, 1762, of the children placed out apprentices by the parishes within the
bills of mortality, it appears that there have been apprenticed out the number of 1419; but, upon examining the ages at which the said children so placed out were received in the seven years from 1741 till they grew up to be placed out, it appears that only 19 of those born in the workhouses, or received into them under 12 months old, compose any part of the 1419; and even of those received as far as three years old, only 36 appear to have survived in the hands of the said parishes to be placed out apprentices. It appears that the children are kept in the several workhouses in town, or in the hands of parish nurses in town, only a small portion of them being sent into the country to be nursed, and the price of 3s. and 2s. 6d. per week first paid, is often reduced so low as 1s. 6d. and 1s. per week; that it cannot be presumed to be equal to the necessary care of infants.
"Your Committee find the conduct of parish nurses was taken notice of by Parliament in the year 1715; and upon examining also into the recent facts above related, it doth not appear to your Committee that the evil is or can be remedied, unless proper regulations are established by legislative authority. It appears from the evidence of the parish officers of St. Andrew, Holborn (called within the City liberties), and also from Mr. Hutton, a principal inhabitant of that parish, that the sum of 2s. 6d. a week for the
article of nursing, is as little as a child can be nursed at to have justice done it; but at the same time, they being sensible of the good conduct and management of the Hospital for the maintenance and education of exposed and deserted young children, they have proposed to the governors and guardians thereof, to receive their infant parish poor at a certain rate, which, by the minutes of the general court of the said Hospital, dated Feb. 18, 1767, which was produced to your Committee and read, the said governors and guardians are ready to comply with, and likewise to forward any general purpose the Legislature may think proper to direct, in relation to the preservation of the infant parish poor within the bills of mortality.
"It appears upon the examination of Saunders Welch, esq. that great inconveniences have been found from parish boys being placed out apprentice so long as till the age of 24; and upon reading the clause in the 43d of Elizabeth, cap. 2, intituled, 'An Act for the relief of the Poor,' in the 5th section thereof it is said, 'Parish officers are to bind their man child to the age of 24, but the woman child to the age of 21, or time of marriage.' This, your Committee thinks, checks marriage, and discourages industry. It appears to your Committee, that the usual sum given by parishes with apprentices, has been generally
from 20 to 40s. only, which your Committee think inadequate to the procuring good masters.
"It appears that the register directed to be made out by the Act of the 2d of His present Majesty, intituled, 'An Act for keeping a regular, uniform, and annual register of all parish poor infants under a certain age, within the bills of mortality,' is deficient, by not setting forth how children are disposed of after the age of four years.
"Upon the whole, your Committee came to the following resolutions: That it is the opinion of this Committee, that the parish infant poor, within the bills of mortality, should be sent into the country to be nursed, at a distance not less than a certain number of miles from any part of the town: That it is the opinion of this Committee, that the parish officers should allow and pay a certain sum for nursing each child: That it is the opinion of this Committee, that a proper number of principal inhabitants should be chosen in every parish respectively, under the denomination of Guardians of the parish infant poor, to inspect into the treatment of the said children nursed as above: That it is the opinion of this Committee, that the parish officers, governors, and directors of the poor, should have the alternative of sending such children to the Hospital, for the maintenance and education of exposed and deserted young children; and the governors
and guardians thereof be permitted to take them at a certain sum, and to be paid by the said officers for nursing such children out of the parish rates: That it is the opinion of this Committee, that parish children should be placed out apprentice for a shorter time than is by law prescribed: That it is the opinion of this Committee, that a proper sum should be given as apprentice fees with the said parish children: That it is the opinion of this Committee, that the register of infant poor under four years of age, should be continued on till the children are in the same manner disposed of in the world.