Expenditure on

relief of the poor.

1817-1834. 1817-18, the expenditure on relief in that year amounting to £7,870,801, equal to 13s. 3d. per head on the entire population, which was then 11,876,200, as deduced from the census of 1821. In 1812-13 the expenditure on the poor had been £6,656,106, averaging 12s. 8d. per head on the population.1 So that, in the short space of five years, the charge had been increased by the enormous sum of £1,214,695, or upwards of one-sixth in excess of what it was in 1813. This rapid increase of the poor-rates was not caused by any increase in the price of provisions, wheat being 108s. 9d. a quarter in 1813, and 84s. 1d. a quarter in 1818. The alarm which was then felt, therefore, and which has been already mentioned,' was warranted by the facts; and it led, as has also been shown, to efforts in various quarters and in various ways for correcting the evil, and among the rest to the publication, by the author, of the "Overseer's Letters."3 These efforts, and these alarms, and the increased attention which was in consequence everywhere paid to the subject, had the effect of almost immediately causing a considerable decrease of expenditure, which, after several fluctuations, stood in 1833-34 at £6,317,255, that is considerably less than it was in 1813 in actual amount, and only 8s. 94d. per head, instead of 12s. 8d. per head on the population, which had now grown to 14,372,000.

It may be convenient, and serve as a suitable introduction to the proceedings of the Commissioners appointed under the Act, to insert here in a tabulated form the amount of expenditure, the prices of wheat, and the progressive increase of the population, between 1813, the first year these items can be given with certainty, and 1834, the

year

This table shows that the expenditure decreased from what I have called its first maximum in 1818, until it sank to what I call its first minimum in 1824, the efforts to which allusion has just been made, and the examples of Bingham and Southwell extensively promulgated by means of the "Overseer's Letters," all operating in furtherance of this result. These stimulants to an improved administration seem then, however, to have become weaker, if they did not entirely cease to operate; for from 1824 we find the expendi

ture again increasing, until in 1832 it attained its second maximum, and again excited alarms as it had done in 1818. This gave rise to the Commission of Inquiry, and prepared the way for the enactment of a measure constituting a central board, with powers to guide and control the local authorities, to correct abuses, and to impart to the general administration of the law an efficiency which, unless such powers were vested somewhere, all experience proved it would be in vain to expect.

In attributing so much importance as is above done, to the examples of Southwell and Bingham, I am, I trust, solely influenced by a sense of the great value of every such instance of improvement, and the duty which thence arises of making the improvement and the means by which it has been effected known to others, in order that it may lead to similar improvement in other places where, but for such an example, the parish authorities ignorant of the existence of a better system, might be content to proceed in the accustomed course. Such improvements certainly did follow the publication of the "Overseer's Letters," and almost every instance of what can be called good management that came under the author's notice, both before and after the passing of the Amendment Act, were traceable more or less to the examples which these letters made known, and the communications arising out of them; and hence the propriety of adverting to them here.

CHAPTER XVI

A.D. 1834-1837

Proceedings of Poor Law Commissioners-Union and workhouse system established-Orders and regulations for the government of boards of guardians Workhouse regulations — Workhouse plans - Order of accounts-Migration from southern counties to manufacturing districts -Emigration-Bastardy-Commissioners' first Report-Reduction of expenditure-Effect on the labourers-Parish Property Act-Parochial Assessment Act-Commissioners' second Report-Obstructions to the law-Education of the workhouse children-Out-door relief - Workhouse dietaries-Gilbert incorporations-Parish apprentices-Medical relief-Independent sick-clubs-New order of accounts-Auditors— Summary of second year's proceedings-Impediments in the way of the Commission-Commissioners' third Report-Andover and Cuckfield unions-Stoke-upon-Trent and Nottingham unions-The workhouse system universally applicable-Death of William IV.

Proceed

sioners

Poor Law

ment Act.

THE proceedings of the Commissioners for bringing the 1834-1835. new law into operation, together with its working and ings of the results, now claim our attention. It has already been commis stated that the Poor Law Amendment Act received the under the royal assent on the 14th of August, and that immedi- Amendately afterwards the three Commissioners for carrying it into execution were appointed. On the 23rd of August, after taking the prescribed oaths, the Commissioners formally entered on their office, and took an anxious survey of the extensive range of duties committed to them, and for the due performance of which they were responsible.1

The Commission itself, and the measure in which it originated, were very generally approved, although there were, it must be confessed, some marked excep

1 For a comparison of this Commission and that issued by Charles I. in 1630, see vol. i. p. 252, ante.

VOL. II.-19

tions in this respect. For the most part, however, the Commission had the confidence of the country; and the alarms everywhere excited by the circulation of the report of the Commissioners of Inquiry, which, it may be remarked, were rather increased by the debates which took place during the progress of the Bill through parliament-these alarms as to the future, joined to the hopes of obtaining some present relief from the heavy pressure of the poor-rates, secured at the outset a general acquiescence in the proceedings of the Commissioners, and fostered an impression that their powers were greater than they really were.

Such an impression was no doubt fortunate, as it removed difficulties at the commencement of the board's operations, but it was not enduring; and the reaction was likely to be proportionally strong, as in truth the Commissioners ere long found to be the case. However, they moved steadily onward in fulfilment of their task, first organising an office department, for enabling them to deal with the inquiries and representations continually poured in upon them, and then appointing a staff of Assistant Commissioners, by whose agency the powers of local action vested in the board would for the most part be exercised. These assistants were, in the first instance, limited to nine, but their number was afterwards increased to fifteen, and eventually to twenty-one; and it is right to state that in the selection of these gentlemen the board was most fortunate, their intelligence and earnest devotion to the duties of their office securing for them not only the approbation of their immediate superiors, but also very generally the confidence of the country.

As soon as the board had fully deliberated on its course of procedure, in which it must be remembered it had no precedent to guide it, the Commissioners determined to proceed, without delay, to the formation of unions, and the introduction of the workhouse system.