places within that part of Great Britain called England." The Act commences by declaring it to be " proper that the legislature, who are directing inquiries into the state and condition of the poor, should be informed of the several charitable donations for the use and benefit of poor persons"; and it then prescribes forms for making the returns, in the main similar to the poor-rate returns, and with similar penalties for default or neglect. The Act is directed to be read in open court at the ensuing Midsummer quarter-sessions, and "also by the officiating minister in every parish church or chapel in England, the first Sunday on which Divine service shall be performed after the 31st day of July 1786, immediately after such service." A summary of the returns obtained under this Act is given by Sir Frederic Eden, and amounts (taking the receipts from land and money together) to the sum of £258,710, 19s. 3d. per annum.1 But the committee appointed to consider the returns remark that they "were in many instances very defective and obscure, and that there was reason to believe very considerable further sums would appear to have been given for similar purposes, whenever proper means could be found for completing their discoveries by extending the inquiry to corporations, companies, and societies, as well as feoffees, trustees, and other persons." This has since been done, and the opinion expressed by the committee has been fully borne out, the entire annual amount of such charities being £1,209,395, 12s. 8d., besides £312,545, 5s. 4d. for educational purposes, making together £1,521,940, 18s., as appears by the summary of the Reports of the Charity Commissioners published in 1842. The present Act was, however, a good beginning, and it was important also as recognising the connection between these "charities," and the administration of relief under the Poor Law. 1 See Sir F. Eden's State of the Poor, vol. i. p. 373. CHAPTER XII A.D. 1786-1803 Reign of George III. continued-Proposed universal benefit societyVisitation of poorhouses-Defective management and organisationPunishment of vagrants-Prohibition of begging-Neglect of families -Parish apprentices-Friendly societies-Restrictions on the removal of the poor-The law of settlement-Out-door relief-"Roundsmen "Justices may order occasional relief-Speech and Bill of Mr. Pitt on the Poor Laws-Mr. Bentham's Observations-Commercial treaty with France-Trial of Warren Hastings-French revolutionary war-] -Bank Restriction Act-Union with Ireland—Imports and exports-National debt and revenue-Population-Prices of corn and provisions-Rate of wages-Berkshire bread-scale-Increase of poor-rates-State of the country-Collection of poor-rates-Limit to liability of justices. Mr. scheme for ing a benefit society. THE plan proposed by Baron Maseres in 1772, for 1786. establishing life annuities in every parish for the benefit Acland's of the poor, has already been noticed.1 In 1786 Mr. establishAcland, with a like benevolent intention, proposed a universal scheme for establishing a kind of universal friendly or benefit society, by contributing to which at certain prescribed rates, according to age and other circumstances, all persons might, independently of the Poor Law, assure for themselves adequate support in the time of sickness, infirmity, and old age. Mr. Acland proposed that an association should be established by Act of Parliament for the whole of England, to which every one between the ages of twenty and thirty should be compelled to subscribe, in manner following-a labourer earning 10d. a day, and a man-servant having 1s. 6d. a week or £4 a year wages, or if a female, 1s. 3d. a week or £3 a year wages, to pay to the common stock, the man 2d. weekly, the woman 1d. Persons Ante, p. 70. VOL. II.-7 disabled by accident or infirmity, or being married and having one or more children, are not, however, compellable to subscribe, but may do so if they think fit, as may also persons between the ages of thirty and fifty, on payment of one year's subscription by way of entrance-money, and an additional shilling for every year they exceed the age of thirty. The churchwardens and overseers are in virtue of their office to be the treasurers of the association. In case of sickness or accident happening to any subscriber, notice thereof is to be given to the minister, or to a churchwarden or overseer of the parish, who is forthwith to visit the member, and send the parish apothecary to attend him if necessary; and in order that all persons may have proper assistance at such times, every parish is to agree with some neighbouring apothecary for the supply of medicine and attendance, one half of the apothecary's salary to be paid by the parish, the other half by the association. The subscriber of 1d. a week, if sick or disabled, is to be entitled to receive 4s. a week bedlying pay, 2s. a week walking pay, and 1s. a week for every child above two. The subscriber of 2d. a week, if sick or disabled, is entitled to 6s. a week bed-lying pay, 3s. a week walking pay, and 1s. 44d. a week for every child above two. There are other provisions extending the proposed association to persons possessed of property, and superior in condition to labourers or servants; but the above particulars are all that need here be noticed as bearing upon the Poor Law, which this plan was intended in great measure to supersede. The continually increasing amount of the poor-rates, coupled with the other evils arising out of the law as then administered, caused much alarm at this time, as it long continued to do, and as we have seen it had done previously. The law of settlement was not the least prominent of these evils. By binding the labourer to his parish, it destroyed his energy, and prepared him Mr. scheme. for becoming a pauper, at the same time giving rise to litigation and expense, and thus in every way adding to the burthen of the rates. Various remedies were proposed; among the rest this scheme of Mr. Acland's, of which it is only necessary to remark, that however well intended and unobjectionable in principle, it was, like that of Baron Maseres, unsuited to the circumstances of our population, and therefore impracticable. Mr. Gilbert also in the following year (1787), partaking of 1787. the prevalent alarm, and dissatisfied apparently with Gilbert's the working of the Act which bears his name, proposed a scheme somewhat similar to that which he had introduced in 1765, but dividing the country into smaller districts of not more than thirteen parishes, with an entirely new local executive in each. He proposed to vest the whole power and control in a Board of County Commissioners, chosen by the justices, who were likewise to appoint committees in the several districts. Workhouses were moreover to be provided in each district, and on these, and the regular attendance of the gentry at the county boards, the chief reliance was placed for securing good management and effecting all that was desired. We are indebted to Mr. Gilbert for organising the returns of Poor Law expenditure, on which account, rather than for his Act of 1782, his present scheme is entitled to notice, although not adopted or favourably received at the time that it was promulgated.1 1790. 30 Geo. III. The 30 George III. cap. 49, is entitled "An Act to empower Justices and other persons to visit Parish cap. 49. Workhouses," etc., and after reciting "that the laws now in being for the regulating parish workhouses or poorhouses have been found in certain instances deficient and ineffectual, especially when the poor in such houses 1 The above particulars of Mr. Acland's and Mr. Gilbert's schemes are abridged from the detailed accounts of them given in Sir F. Eden's State of the Poor, vol. i. pp. 373 and 388. 97336 Parish poorhouses, etc., may and justices such orders as are for remov complaint. are afflicted with contagious or infectious diseases, in which cases particular attention to their lodging, diet, clothing, bedding, and medicines is requisite," it goes on to enact that any justice of peace, or any physician, surgeon, or apothecary, or the officiating clergyman of the parish, when authorised by warrant of such justice, may at all times visit any parish workhouse or poorbe visited, house within the county or division where such justice may give resides or has jurisdiction, and may examine into the state of the poor people therein, and their food, clothnecessary. ing, and bedding, and into the condition of the house, ing cause of etc.; and if there be found cause of complaint, the same is to be certified to the next quarter-sessions, at which the overseers of the poor and the master of such house are to attend, to answer such complaint. And the justices in quarter-sessions assembled, after hearing the parties, are empowered to make such orders and regulations for removing the cause of complaint as to them shall seem meet. But it is likewise provided, that in case there be occasion for immediate interference, application is to be made to one or more other justices of the county or division, "and thereupon the said justices shall and may make such order for the immediate procuring medical and other assistance, or of sufficient or proper food, or for the separation or removal of such poor as shall be afflicted with any contagious or infectious disease, as they shall think proper to direct, until the next quarter-sessions of the peace be held, to which the said justices are to certify the same; and the justices assembled at such quartersessions are required to make such order for the further relief of the poor in such workhouse or poorhouse as to them shall seem meet and proper." Incorporated workhouses are, however, expressly exempted from these provisions. The parish That the organisation and management of parish houses. poorhouses, miscalled workhouses, should have been poor |