28 February 2008

Everything Old Is New Again

Every Person in Health shall be kept to such Labour as they can well do, according to their several Ages and Abilities; that is to say, from Six of the Clock in the Morning to Six at Night; and if any grown Person refuse to work, to be kept on Bread and Water, or expell'd the House: The Children to be corrected by the Mistress. All Persons, who through Idleness may pretend themselves Sick, Lame, or Infirm, so as to be excused their Working ; such Impostors so discovered either by their Stomachs or the Apothecary, shall be carried before a Magistrate, in order to be punished as the Law directs.

- Laws of the Work-House of the Parish of St. John, Hackney, Middlesex, 1834

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