The parochial settlement of the poor was favored by
some for this purpose. It is true that eighteenth century
writers were for the most part opposed to the Settlement
Acts, though these acts appear to have been one of the
most powerful of agencies maintaining the class status of
the laborer. But this effect of strict legal settlement was not
the subject of their attack; the influence of the acts in the
formation of rigid social classes was rarely noted, nor were
there many writers who appeared to appreciate how ad-
served .... that these things never happen when wheat and other neces-
saries are dear; labor is then too plentiful and becomes too necessary to
admit of such unnatural combinations; nor does this ever happen in a
state where there is plentyof laboring hands. The most efiScacious remedy
for these and many other evils is a general naturalization" (p. 27).
146 THE POSITION OF THE LABORER

versely the economic well-being of the laboring population
was affected by the parochial dehmitation of the labor
market. The opposition was based chiefly upon the injury
sustained by the upper classes through the Settlement Acts.
