But the history of administration during this period is important for a second reason. The part of the poor law relating to the impotent poor and children has been enforced ever since the reign of Charles I., but the clauses relating to the unemployed were very little executed after the Civil War. In 1662 the destitute were relieved, but the unemployed were no longer set to work. In this respect therefore the poor law administration of the reigns of the earlier Stuarts is unique. It is interesting therefore to examine the methods then employed a little more closely and see if the instances of the provision of work which we have already considered are isolated cases of this kind of relief or if they are examples of a general system. If the unemployed were at all generally set to work, then this period is important, not only because the legal relief of the destitute then became the practice of the country, but because we then had more poor relief than we have ever had before or since. For a short time a limited kind of socialism was to some extent established. We will therefore now try to find out how the events of the period throw light on these two points; (1) when and how was the system of poor relief thoroughly established, and (2) how far was that part of it which concerned the employment of the poor ever an important part of the social organisation of the country. The two parts of our inquiry are much intermingled, and it is impossible to separate them entirely. But in the first part we will consider the system of poor relief as a whole including the finding of work for the unemployed when it is closely associated with the other portions of the system, and we will afterwards examine more in detail a few points which especially concern the provision of work. [Sidenote: 2. The administration of the law in the North and extreme West was negligent.]