The miseries of the poor are a national sin, shame, and charge: but by making them happy, we shall pay old debts without new taxes. In passing one effectual law concerning the poor: by Whom (when reformed and judiciously employ'd) we may justly pay off (within twenty years) all our national debts. And from the then numbers, arts, industry, sabriety, courage, discipline and loyalty of the poor (When under the regular management of one loyal corporation, for ail Great-Britain) we shall farther receie, much greater benefits, than paying off these debts and taxes. A due care of the poor is an act of great piety towards Almighty God, an act of the greatest humanity among men, and of great civil [jurispr]udence and political wisdom relation to the state-as things now are, our po...ulousness (which might ... made the greatest ...lessing a kingdom can ...ave) becomes a burden to the nation; by breeding up whole races, families, and generations, in a mere trade on ... thieving, and begging, and a em...ous kind of life; which must in time prodi... ously increase, and over ... whole face of the Kingdom, and eat out the very heart thereof. Lord Chief Justice Hale, in 1670. Upon employing the poor.