Imatges de pàgina
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generally

were for the most part aged and infirm, and were little interfered with in any way. But the relief to the Relief casual or occasional poor admitted of considerable reduced. curtailment, and was reduced from £138, 9s. 4d. in 1820-21 to £68, 7s. in 1822, to £33, 13s. in 1823, and to £19, 10s. 6d. in 1824. The relief of the nonresident poor, that is, those having a settlement in Southwell but residing elsewhere, was also materially reduced. This class of cases was peculiarly open to misrepresentation and abuse. The amount of nonresident relief in 1820-21 was £93, 8s. 6d. ; in 1821-22 it was £41, 17s. ; in 1822-23 it was £30, 16s.; and in 1823-24 it was brought down to £13, 7s. 6d., the workhouse being offered whenever the relief was discontinued or reduced.

Bastardy had prevailed much in Southwell, and the Bastardy. expense to the parish thence arising was considerable. In 1820-21 it amounted to £60, 1s. 6d. ; in 1821-22 to £79, 13s. 6d.; in 1822-23 to £26, 8s. 6d.; in 1823-24 to £13, 0s. 6d; and in 1824-25 to £20, 1s. 6d., about which amount the charge under the head of bastardy continued during the next ten years. All the changes in dealing with this difficult question, were made with the view of inducing greater restraint on the part of the female. The practice had been lax in this respect; the sympathy for the mother, who was ostensibly the greatest sufferer, operating as a palliative for her lapse from virtue, and causing its consequences to the community to be overlooked or lightly regarded.

excused

poor-rate.

Soon after the workhouse had been brought into None effective operation, and when some progress had been paying the made in economising expenditure, it was determined to make the rating for relief of the poor universal in the parish, and that none should be excused.' Hitherto

1 The power of excusal was given to petty sessions by 54 Geo. III. cap. 170. Ante, p. 150.

Workhouse school.

most of the cottages and dwellings of the working classes had been omitted in the collection, and the poor-rates came to be regarded in the light of a tax payable by one class for the benefit of another; and so viewed, we cannot wonder that the latter should be desirous of obtaining as much of the supposed benefit as possible. No poor man, that is, no labouring man, hesitated to dun the overseers for what he considered his share, nor scrupled to resort to trick or subterfuge for the purpose of obtaining it. If every individual were required to pay the rate, it would serve as a corrective to this evil, and be to some extent a protection to the ratepayers generally, and this was accordingly done. Even those in receipt of an allowance from the parish were required to pay their poorrates, which thus became a contribution, not from one class only for the benefit of another, but from all of every class for relieving the necessities of the indigent; and the administrators of this relief were enabled to say, that their duty to the poor as well as to the rich, required from them the exercise of a strict economy in dispensing it. The consequences in other respects were also beneficial, for the people took a pride in these payments, and exhibited the printed receipts which they obtained in return, as proofs that they also had contributed for the common benefit.

In aid of the other measures for improving parochial administration at Southwell, a school was opened in a building adjoining the workhouse, to which one or more of the children of labourers burdened with large families and applying for relief, were admitted and kept during the day, returning to their parents at night. The "Overseer" states, that "the children were employed in a way suitable to their ages, were wholesomely fed, were taught to read the Bible, and instructed in their duty towards God and man. Those

children who attended on Sunday had their dinners given to them, and were taken regularly to church."1

The success attending the new organisation and use of the workhouse at Southwell, led, in the latter end of 1823, to the incorporation of forty-nine neighbouring parishes, under 22 George III. cap. 83, for the purpose of providing a common workhouse, and managing the poor of the associated parishes according to the system adopted in Southwell. In thus acting, it was no doubt overlooked that the principle of this statute (known as Gilbert's Act) in no respect accorded with the Southwell practice, except only as respects the providing of a workhouse; but the Act enabled. parishes to unite, and to raise money, and erect the necessary buildings; and this being done, the "Thur- "Thurgarton Hundred Incorporation" became a useful fence Hundred against the spread of pauperism in that district. It tion. did not affect any material reduction of the rates, but it was a means of preventing their increase.2

The reforms at Southwell above described, were as complete as the means by which they were accomplished was direct and simple; and in this respect the example was of great importance to the Commissioners of Inquiry, whose object it was to discover some means susceptible of general application, which would be effective for correcting the evils arising out of the Poor Law as then administered. There were other parts of the kingdom where those evils had attained a greater head, but every variety of them existed in a greater or less degree both at Southwell

1 "Eight Letters on the Poor Laws, by an Overseer," see p. 30. The author was mostly absent from Southwell after 1823, and in 1827 he altogether ceased to reside there. He, however, visited it occasionally, and never failed to inquire into the state of the parish, and the working of the incorporation. It was on one of these occasional visits that he was greeted in the market-place by a number of labourers with expressions of hearty good-will, and with declarations of his having been their best friend, for that he had compelled them to take care of themselves. How gratifying this must have been will be readily imagined.

garton

Incorpora

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

house prin

A

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 accom-
panied. 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.

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-
Speech of Lord Althorp on introducing to the House of Commons a
Bill founded on the Commissioners' recommendations-Speeches of
Lord Brougham and the Duke of Wellington-Passing of the Poor
Law Amendment Act-Summary of the Act-State of the country-
Expenditure on relief-Amount of rates, population, and prices of
wheat.

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.

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