house prin and at Bingham, and had there been successfully dealt with and overcome. The examples of Southwell and Bingham were therefore of much value to the Commissioners, on whom had been devolved the duty of devising a remedy for the abuses of the Poor Laws; and they were relied upon accordingly as instances of substantial reforms, growing out of the practical application of a principle simple and effective, and that might be reasonably expected, wherever it was adopted, to be as effective as it had proved The work in the case of these parishes. This principle conciple. sisted in so regulating parish relief, as to ensure its non-acceptance unless under circumstances of actual want, such want being at the same time always certain of finding the relief of which it stood in need. well-regulated workhouse answers these two conditions. No person in actual want will reject the relief proffered therein, and a person not in actual want will not submit to the restraints by which the relief is accompanied. Workhouse relief will be more repugnant than labour to persons able to work, whilst to those who are disabled as well as indigent the workhouse will be a welcome refuge. A Workhouse relief, or the workhouse principle, as here stated, was the foundation of the reforms which had been effected at Bingham and at Southwell. Other matters of much interest and importance, and requiring to be kept in view as examples to be followed or beacons to be avoided, were elicited in course of the investigations instituted by the Commissioners of Inquiry, whose assistants examined into and reported upon the practices which prevailed in every part of the kingdom; but in no instance was anything discovered so simple and complete, or of equal efficiency as a corrective, or that was so susceptible of universal application, as the workhouse principle developed and established at Southwell. CHAPTER XV A.D. 1834 Report and recommendations of the Poor Law Inquiry Commissioners- THE Inquiry Commissioners give in their report a very full summary of the evidence which had been obtained, and of the conclusions to which they had come, on the several points of chief importance in poor-law administration; and to this report it is now necessary that we should direct our attention, before entering on a consideration of the Amendment Act which was founded upon it.1 Report of Law In The Commissioners commence by detailing their 1834. course of procedure, and then giving a brief summary the Poor of the progress of the Poor Law, after which they quiry Comdescribe the nature of the relief which it was the missioners. practice to give to able-bodied persons, in kind, in money, without labour, in aid of labour or the allowance system, the roundsmen system, and by parish employment,-in all of which several modes of relief numerous instances of abuse and malpractice are cited, leading to consequences injurious to every class, to the ratepayer and the employer as well as the labourer. 1 "Report from the Commissioners for Inquiry into the Administration and practical Operation of the Poor Laws," dated February 20th, 1834. In-door relief is next considered, that is, the relief "given within the walls of the poorhouse, or, as it is usually, but seldom properly, denominated, the workhouse.' This is likewise declared to be subject to great maladministration, many instances of which are cited; whilst it is on the other hand admitted, that "in some few instances, among which Southwell, in Nottinghamshire, is pre-eminent, the workhouse appears to be a place in which the aged and impotent are maintained in comfort, and the able-bodied supported, but under such restrictions as not to induce them to prefer it to a life of independent labour." The Commissioners consider that the evils consequent on the existing system of administering relief, both in-door and out-door, are, "on the whole, steadily and rapidly progressive." The effects on the owners of property are then stated, including the case of Cholesbury in Buckinghamshire, where, in 1832, it is said, the collection of the poor-rate had "suddenly ceased, in consequence of the impossibility to continue its collection, the landlords having given up their rents, the farmers their tenancies, and the clergyman his glebe and his tithes." It is remarked, however, that the "evidence exhibits no other instance of the abandonment of a parish, but it contains many in which the pressure of the poor-rate has reduced the rent to half, or to less than half, of what it would have been if the land had been situated in an unpauperised district, and some in which it has been impossible for the owner to find a tenant." The effects on the employers of labour, and on the labourers themselves are next shown, and instances of the effects in each case are cited in such detail, as to leave no doubt in the reader's mind of the general accuracy of the description. After this the several authorities to whom the ordering and administering of relief is confided are trates. noticed, and the functions of the overseers, of the vestry open and select, and of the magistrates, are pointed out, and their characteristics respectively described. In this description, instances are adduced of great mischief arising from the improper interference of magistrates in ordering relief. After bearing testimony to the merits of the general body, the Commissioners remark, that "the magistrates have exercised The magisthe powers delegated to them by the Poor Laws, not wisely indeed, or beneficially, but still with benevolent and honest intentions; and the mischief which they have done was not the result of self-interest or partiality, or timidity, or negligence, but was in part the necessary consequence of their social position, and of the jurisdiction which was confided to them, and in part arose from the errors respecting the nature of pauperişm and relief which prevailed among all classes at the time when the allowance system and the scale were first introduced." It is then declared that, "under the influence of such opinions, even good intentions may become mischievous"; and that "a more dangerous instrument cannot be conceived than a public officer, supported and impelled by benevolent sympathies, armed with power from which there is no appeal, and misapprehending the consequences of its exercise." settlement. Having given an outline of the most striking Law of instances of maladministration, and described the effects, the Commissioners next point out the evils of the law of settlement, and the perjury, fraud, and falsehood of which it is the occasion; but there are, it is added, "other evils, greater and more extensive, which arise from the mere existence of a law of settlement, whatever that law may be, which increase in intensity in proportion as the limits of the district which has to support what are called its own poor are restricted, and could be mitigated only Bastardy. by its extension, and removed only by its entire abolition." The next subject adverted to is bastardy, which is said to be "a branch of the Poor Laws, distinguished from the rest both as to the principles on which it is founded, and the evils which it has produced." The several Acts on the subject, from 18 Elizabeth1 downwards, are noticed, and examples of their operation given. The objects of these Acts are stated to be two -the diminution of crime, and the indemnity of the parish; but whilst the first is unquestionably the most important, the chief efforts are said to have been directed to the second, and with the usual fate of pauper legislation, for the indemnity of the parish has not been effected, although every other object has been sacrificed to it-"The guidance of nature has been neglected; the task of resistance has been thrown upon the man instead of the woman; marriages, in which the least fault is improvidence, have been not only promoted but compelled; every possible inducement has been held out to perjury and profligacy, simply to save parishes from expense; and the direct effect has been, in all probability, to double or quadruple that expense, the indirect effect to augment it still more"; and finally, the Commissioners declare, that even among the laws which we have had to examine, those which respect bastardy appear to be pre-eminently unwise.” Three other questions are then discussed, namely, making the poor-rate a national charge, the occupation of land by labourers, and a labour-rate, the two latter being treated at much length. These propositions had at that time each its advocates; but the Commissioners declared against all three, as being contrary to sound principle, and calculated to produce injurious results. 1 Ante, vol. i. p. 165. |