definition excluding the independent female wage-earner from the term "able-bodied," the Commissioners frequently use this term as applicable to men only; and nowhere do they mention, in recommendation or by way of illustration, under the category of able-bodied, the independent woman worker. [12] p. 228 of the Report of 1834. When we pass to recommendations explicitly restricted to the able-bodied, we are left in the same uncertainty as to what the term includes. No definition of able-bodied occurs in the Report. From the course of the argument throughout and all the illustrations from the evidence, we infer that the Commissioners had exclusively in view the adult man capable of obtaining employment in the labour market at any wage whatsoever, together with his wife and children under sixteen dependent on him. It is important to notice this ambiguity in the Report of 1834, because it explains a similar ambiguity in the subsequent policy of Parliament and the Central Authority. Assuming that we understand what classes of persons were intended by the Commissioners to be included under the term able-bodied, the proposals of the Report of 1834 are clear and peremptory: I. That outdoor relief to the able-bodied and their families should be discontinued; except-- (_a_) As to medical relief; and (_b_) Apprenticeship of children. No other exceptions should be made. "Where cases of real hardship occur, the remedy must be applied by individual charity, a virtue for which no system of compulsory relief can or ought to be a substitute."[13] "It appears to us that this prohibition" (of outdoor relief to the able-bodied) "should come into universal operation at the end of two years,"[14] Meanwhile, it was suggested-- (_a_) That there should be a gradual substitution of relief in kind for money doles;[15] (_b_) "That all who receive relief from the parish should work for the parish exclusively, as hard and for less wages than independent labourers work for individual employers."[16] (_c_) That the able-bodied, even "of the best character," should not be offered "more than a simple subsistence. The person of bad character, if he be allowed anything, could not be allowed less."[17] [13] p. 263 of Report of 1834. [14] p. 297 of Report of 1834. [15] p. 298 of Report of 1834. [16] p. 262 of Report of 1834, made by way of comment as to the temporary policy. [17] p. 264 of Report of 1834.