This workhouse principle in the matter of relief. seems to be the opinion of the Commissioners, who say that if no such subscription had existed, and if the relief of the necessitous had to be provided out of the poor-rates alone, they are confident that the union authorities would be able to meet any exigencies likely to arise in a manufacturing district; and that by adopting an out-door labour test in addition to the in-door workhouse test, and applying it according to sound rules, it appears that almost any conceivable amount of pressure might be met and adequately provided for. In-door relief, the Commissioners observe, is more certain, simple, and easy in its application; but the out-door labour test is the same in principle. They add, however, that although both tests may thus be employed, "it is yet obvious that the in-door test of the workhouse should, with respect to able-bodied persons, alone be resorted to under ordinary circumstances; and that the out-door labour test should be called into operation only in extreme or emergent cases." The prohibition of out-door relief to the able-bodied was objected to by many wellintentioned persons on the ground of its being a hardship, and as punishing poverty as if it were a crime. But to this it has been well replied, that "to say that forbidding relief to the able-bodied out of the workhouse will make poverty punishable, is the grossest misrepresentation, if by poverty is meant the situation of a man who has to earn his bread. It is the present system which, by confounding poverty with pauperism, and tainting wages by the admixture of relief, punishes poverty with a severity which one would be sorry to see applied to crime." This is meeting the objection on the true ground. 2 1 See the Commissioners' third and fourth reports. 2 Extracted from Mr. Senior's manuscript, before referred to; see ante, p. 262. The workhouse The instances just cited of Andover and Cuckfield system may be taken as exhibiting the average operation of applicable. the law in rural unions, wherever a competent work universally house had been provided, and the guardians acted with firmness and discretion. The pressure to which these two unions were subjected was not perhaps very extreme, but had it not been for the new machinery of a board of guardians acting under definite regulations, and the existence of an effective workhouse, every labourer in these unions would have had his independent feelings outraged and probably perverted by being placed in the condition of a pauper. As it was the labourers doubtless suffered some privation on missing the usual allowance, but the privation would cease on a change of weather, and its occurrence would lead them to make provision for averting it in future. The event might also, and probably would, lead the employers to be more considerate of the welfare of their people, and not permit them to be thrown entirely out of employment on the occurrence of wet weather or a protracted snowstorm. The examples of Andover and Cuckfield are in unison with, and may be regarded as confirming the much earlier example of Southwell, with respect to the sufficiency of the workhouse as a test of destitution, and as establishing its perfect adaptation to the rural districts. The applicability of the workhouse system in the country unions was now indeed very generally admitted, but many persons still asserted that it was unsuited to the manufacturing districts and great towns, and that in such places it must fail. In refutation of such an opinion, it is only necessary to refer to the examples of Nottingham and Stoke-uponTrent, as they are above described, to which may likewise be added that of the metropolitan district of Spitalfields, the circumstances of which were almost identical with those of Nottingham, including a charitable subscription for the relief of the unemployed silk weavers in one case, as for the stocking-weavers in the other. In short, the whole of the experience, both before and after the passing of the Poor Law Amendment Act, goes to establish the universal applicability of the workhouse system, and the certainty of the effects whenever it is judiciously administered. Death of Accession Victoria, In closing this chapter, it is necessary to state with 1837. a view to preserving the order of dates, that William will. IV. the Fourth died on the 20th of June 1837, and was of Queen succeeded by her present Majesty Queen Victoria. June 20th. These events, deeply interesting as they no doubt were to the national feelings, caused no change in the proceedings of the legislature in reference to the Poor Laws, and therefore need not be further noticed here. 1837. Parochial CHAPTER XVII A.D. 1837-1847 Parochial Assessment Act in operation-Commissioners' fourth and fifth reports progress and results-Unpopularity of the Commission-Its uses-Its renewal for one year-Early trials of the law-Savings banks -Friendly Societies-Loan Societies-Education of pauper children— Supplemental report-Irish Poor Relief Act-Amount of relief and numbers relieved-Principle of relief-Commercial difficulty and distress-Causes of increased expenditure-Comparison of expenditure and numbers relieved Amount of property assessed - Commission renewed for five years-Task-work-Pauper lunatics-Vaccination Acts -General rules-Provisions of Amendment Act, 1844-Medical relief --Failure of potato-crop-Allotment system-High prices-Famine and fever; influx of paupers from Ireland-Labour in the workhouse— Bone-breaking-The Andover committee-Salaries of union officersGrant towards salaries-Acts of 1845, 46, and 47—Mr. Bodkin's Act— Removal of Nuisances Act-Letter relative to transaction of business of the Commission-Old and new systems contrasted. THE Parochial Assessment Act1 empowered the ComAssessment missioners to fix the time after which all rates for relief brought of the poor should be made in the manner therein to opera- prescribed, and they accordingly named the 29th of Act into tion. September 1837 for that purpose, and issued the necessary order, accompanied by an explanatory letter, pointing out the manner in which the assessments were required to be made, and giving the parish officers all needful information on the subject. A letter was also addressed to the several boards of guardians, furnishing them with instruction upon several points connected with the execution of their duties, or with the duties of their officers. Amended explanations and instructions, with forms of procedure, were likewise issued for regulating the emigration of labourers from over-populous Ante, p. 308. 1 and migra parishes, and also with regard to the migration of Emigration persons from such parishes to the manufacturing tion. districts. The emigration was considerable, chiefly to Canada; but the migration soon ceased, the depression in trade having caused a general stagnation of manufacturing employment. Commis fourth Notwithstanding the difficulties and impediments 1838. attendant on the introduction of so comprehensive a sioners' measure, the Commissioners had proceeded uninter- report. ruptedly in the task assigned them; and in their fourth report (dated August 1838) they were enabled to state that 584 unions had been formed, comprising 13,560 parishes, having a population of 11,687,456, with an aggregate of rates amounting to £5,515,326. They further stated that 1063 parishes still remained ununited, of which 283 were incorporated in twelve unions, and 5 were single parishes under Gilbert's Act; 364 were incorporated, and 11 were single parishes under local Acts, and 400 parishes were left untouched in any way, chiefly through the impractibility of including them in any union, owing to the intersection of Gilbert and local Act incorporations. local Act tions. The objections to both the Gilbert Act and the Gilbert and local Act unions are then pointed out, and the manage- incorporament in each is shown to be for the most part at variance with the principles of the amended law. It is the Gilbert incorporations however which present the chief impediments, their straggling and irregular formation preventing the arrangement of compact and wellformed unions, and thus depriving considerable districts of the benefits of the new law, and keeping them un-united in a state of uncertainty and disorder. Wherever Gilbert incorporations have been dissolved, and the parishes they comprised formed into unions under the Amendment Act, the best results have invariably followed; and it is therefore suggested that |