HATCHARD AND SON, PICCADILLY; J. AND A. ARCH, CORNHILL; AND MAY BE HAD OF ALL BOOKSELLERS IN EAST KENT; MESSRS. HALL CRANBROOK. TO THE CHAIRMEN, VICE CHairmen, and GUARDIANS, of the several UNIONS of EAST KENT. GENTLEMEN, In dedicating so trifling a production to you, as I have now the honour to introduce, under the appellation of "A Compendium of the Operations of the Poor Law Amendment Act, with some practical Observations on its present Results, and future apparent Usefulness," I should have felt more than ordinary diffidence, but from the kind assistance rendered me by many individuals of your respectable body, who have so considerably facilitated my success in an enquiry into those consequences which your exemplary attention to the onerous duties of your situation has produced. These embolden me to invite your perusal of the pamphlet I lay before you;—not from an idea of its affording any novelty, in its detail, to you who are so perfectly acquainted with the operations of your respective boards; but from the desire I feel to stimulate others to proffer to the public such new matter as they conceive may be useful to our future procedure; so that one system may hereafter prevail, founded on the basis of the most widely diffused, and general usefulness. Thus, by an endeavour to re-animate the peasantry to their former independence, economy, |