without an advance of some kind the people could not have subsisted, and might have been driven by their necessities to break the law and prey upon the community. Berkshire scale, or land Act. In 1795 a meeting of the Berkshire justices and 1795. "other discreet persons," assembled by public adver- breadtisement, for the purpose of rating husbandry wages, Speenhamand declared it to be their unanimous opinion that the state of the poor required further assistance than had been generally given them. They also declared it to be their unanimous opinion that it was not expedient for the magistrates to grant that assistance by regulating wages according to the statutes of Elizabeth and James, but that the magistrates should earnestly recommend to the farmers and others throughout the county to increase the pay of their labourers in proportion to the present price of provisions. The magistrates then present accordingly resolved "that they will in their several divisions make the following, calculations and allowances for the relief of all poor and industrious men and their families who, to the satisfaction of the justices of their parish, shall endeavour (as far as they can) for their own support and maintenance, that is to sayWhen the gallon loaf of second flour weighing 8 lb. 11 oz. shall cost 1s., then every poor and industrious man shall have for his own support 3s. weekly, either produced by his own or his family's labour or an allowance from the poor-rates, and for the support of his wife and every other of his family 1s. 6d. "When the gallon loaf shall cost 1s. 4d., then every poor and industrious man shall have 4s. weekly for his own, and 1s. 10d. for the support of every other of his family. "And so in proportion as the price of bread rises or falls (that is to say), 3d. to the man and 1d. to every other of the family, on every penny which the loaf rises above a shilling." At the same meeting the overseers were recommended to cultivate land for potatoes, giving the poor who worked it one-fourth of the crop, and selling the remainder at 1s. per bushel; also to purchase fuel" and retail the same at a loss"; and the justices promised that, where this plan was adopted, they would, in making allowances for relief and punishing persons for stealing wood, take these circumstances into consideration, and give them their due weight. A meeting held on the same day at Basingstoke, declared it to be their opinion, that the most eligible method of regulating the rate of wages is by reference to the price of wheat; but that in no case ought an able-bodied labourer to have less than 8s. per week.1 The above is the famous Berkshire bread-scale, locally known as the "Speenhamland Act of Parliament," and it was extensively adopted in other counties. The effect of a scale of wages graduated according to the price of bread and the size of families, would be to enable the labouring classes, who necessarily constitute the great bulk of every people, to obtain the same quantity of food in a scarce and dear season, as in an abundant and cheap one. This is contrary to the ruling of providence, would aggravate the evils of dearth, and go far to neutralise the blessings of abundance. That there must, and that there ought to be, a certain proportion between the general wages of labour and the general cost of subsistence, it is impossible to deny; but this must be a proportion admitting of considerable latitude, according to times and circumstances. It would be vain, and as mischievous as vain, to attempt to fix the wages, or in other words to determine the nature and quantity of food, which each individual should be entitled to receive in return for his daily. 1 The above particulars are copied from The Reading Mercury of Monday, May 11, 1795. The Speenhamland meeting took place on Wednesday the 6th of May in that year. labour. Yet this the bread-scale attempts to do, and this Mr. Whitbread likewise attempted to effect, by a Bill which he introduced first in 1795, and again in 1800, for regulating wages according to the price of provisions; but happily both the Bills were rejected on the second reading. On the whole, it may be assumed, that in the latter part of the eighteenth century, the labourer's wages, or his means of procuring the necessaries of life, were increased in a somewhat corresponding ratio to the increase in the price of food. But as throughout the period this latter increase was generally continuous, and at times excessive, the labourer must have been frequently exposed to great privation, and driven to resort to the poor-rates for aid; and every instance of his so doing would naturally lead to renewed applications, until the wages of labour and relief from the rates would become so blended, that the one could not be separated from the other. This result would no doubt Amount of be greatly accelerated by the operation of a bread-scale poor-rates. such as is above described, and we accordingly find that the expenditure for the relief of the poor, which, on the average of the three years 1783, '84, and '85, amounted to £2,004,238,1 was by returns to parliament shown to amount in the year 1802-3 to no less than £4,267,965,2 and in 1801 it therefore could hardly have been under £4,100,000, having thus more than doubled in seventeen years. To what extent such a rapid increase of poor law relief may have been occasioned by the war in the latter half of this period, and by the occurrence of scarcity and high prices, or how far it was owing to the application of the poor-rates in aid of 1 Ante, p. 94. The money levied under the poor's rate, including county rates, in the year 1802-3 amounted to £5,348,205. For the three years 1783-4-5 we have seen that the average was £2,167,750. There were no intermediate returns. See ante, p. 94, note. 2 See Statement of Local Taxation, printed by order of the House of Commons, in 1839. wages by means of a bread-scale, or the roundsman system, or payment of rents, or allowances in some other way, it is impossible to speak with certainty,— probably all may have operated more or less; but we can hardly doubt that the application of rates in aid of wages, in some form or other, had the largest share in causing the increase. The evil thence arising fell heavily alike on all classes-on the rich, who paid more for worse labour, and on the poor, who were compelled to receive the equivalent for their labour in a form that must have been repulsive to their feelings of independence and self-respect. On comparing the condition of the country in 1801, as indicated by the foregoing facts and statements, with what it was at the commencement of the present reign, and again at the end of the American War in 1783, we find that the population was continually on the increase, upwards of 2,000,000 having been added between the accession of George the Third and the end of the century. We find also that the trade, wealth, and resources of the country increased in a still greater ratio than the population. But the general condition of the people did not altogether keep pace with these improvements, since the advance which from time to time took place in the cost of subsistence, continually preceded an equivalent advance in the wages of labour; and the deficiency thence arising was for the most part made up out of the poor-rates, which went on rapidly increasing, and became a heavy burthen to the ratepayer, and a fertile source of demoralisation to the labourer. CHAPTER XIII A. D. 1803-1820 Reign of George III. continued-Renewal of war with, France-Provision for families of militiamen-Increase of poor-rates-Contracts for farming the poor-Revision of bastardy and settlement laws-Audit of overseers' accounts-Extension of Gilbert's Act-Abolition of badges— Apprenticeship indentures-Operation of settlement law-Time of electing overseers-Repeal of restrictions on exercise of trades—Amending settlement law-Punishments in workhouses-Justices may excuse payment of rate-Illegal pawning, etc., of workhouse property-Supply of goods to workhouses-Justices empowered to order out-door relief— Restriction of punishment-Parish apprenticeship-Sketch of events from the Peace of Amiens to the battle of Waterloo-Revenue, expenditure, and national debt-Imports and exports-Prices of wheat-Wages -Poor-rates-Population-Debate in the House of Commons on the appointment of a committee on the Poor Law (1817)-The committee's report and its results-Parish Vestry Act-Select Vestry Act-Amendment of settlement laws-Death of the king. 1803. 43 Geo. III. cap. 47. THE war with France, in which a brief pause had been effected through the Treaty of Amiens at the end of 1801, again raged with greater inveteracy than before. The country was alarmed by threats of invasion, for defence against which it had, in a great measure, to rely upon the militia, and an Act was passed "for consolidating and amending the several laws providing relief for the families of militiamen when called into actual service." The preamble declares it to be expedient that the provisions in previous Acts relating to the subject should be consolidated and amended; and it is then Families enacted, that when a militiaman shall be called out into men to be actual service, leaving a wife and family unable to out of the support themselves, the overseers of the poor of the poor-rates. parish where they reside shall (subject to an order of a justice of the peace) "pay weekly to the wife, and to of militia supported |