Mr. Wright, of Luton, describes in Tuesday's Times a case
which, at first sight, seems to be one of extreme oppression. Samuel Dawson, of Nether Dean, Bedfordshire, is a labourer of fifty-seven, bent and decrepit, and afflicted with chronic rheu- anatism. He earns 12s. 6d. a week, and has to support a sick wife, and partly support a sick daughter, who earns 2s. Od. a week at lacemaking. His parents, however, have persisted in living to eighty-five and eighty-two, and as they are chargeable to the parish the Guardians insist on Dawson paying a shilling a week towards their support. Dawson cannot do it, and has been committed to Bedford Gaol for two months. We presume the Guardians thought it necessary to act in this rigorous manner because, in rural districts, men who can support their parents constantly refuse " to save the parish rates ;" but in the particular case the law, as administered, works most absurdly. Because Dawson cannot keep his parents off the rates, therefore the magistrates put Dawson and his wife upon them in addition. The case was one for a day's sentence at most.
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