in connection with these last returns, as well as briefly to describe the Acts in which the returns originated. Both Acts (16 & 26 George III. caps. 40 and 56) commence by declaring that "the great and increasing expenses of maintaining and providing for the poor, and the continual distresses of the poor notwithstanding, make it highly expedient for the legislature to take that subject into their most serious consideration; and that information of the state of the poor and the nature of those expenses is necessary, in order to enable parliament to judge of proper remedies to redress those grievances"-it is therefore enacted, that a sufficient number of copies of the Act, and of the schedules annexed, shall be sent to the clerks of the peace throughout England and Wales for distribution to the acting justices of peace, and also for delivery by the high constable of one copy of the printed schedules to the overseers of the poor of every parish, who are to fill up and return the same, and afterwards to attend and verify by their oaths such answers and returns, at a meeting to be appointed for that purpose by the justices previous to the 20th of October; and the justices are empowered "to examine such overseers upon oath, touching any matters contained in such questions and answers, and to call for the accounts for the preceding year, if they see fit, in order to explain and verify the said accounts as shall be then made.” The returns are then to be transmitted to the Clerk of Parliament, "with all convenient speed, in order that the same may be inspected by members of both Houses," upon pain of forfeiting for every neglect and default on the part of any clerk of the peace, high constable, or overseer, of a sum not exceeding ten, nor less than five pounds; but if any overseer shall knowingly or wilfully make a false or imperfect return, he is, for every such offence, to forfeit the sum of fifty pounds. There are a few differences in the wording of the two Acts, which it is not material to notice. The present Act requires the returns to be made for three consecutive years, in order to show an average, instead of for one year only, as directed in 1776. Both the Acts are very full and minute in their directions, and the schedules of questions and answers are so framed, as hardly to admit of being misunderstood or evaded by the overseers and other local functionaries; so that the returns, as given below, may be assumed, on both occasions, to be on the whole pretty accurate.1 Amount raised by assessment in England and Wales, in the year ending at Easter, 1776. Ditto in the year 1783 £2,132,486 12 2 £1,720,316 14 7 ditto Ditto ditto Ditto ditto 2,185,889 7 8 1 See Sir F. Eden's State of the Poor, vol. i. pp. 363-372. 2 This is given as £2,167,750 in the tabulated statement of "Local Taxation," printed by order of the House of Commons in 1839. £18,376 12 5 Apparent increase on these items in eight years 1 The increase of Poor Law expenditure in eight years is thus shown to have been considerable, and might well warrant the alarm which seems to have prevailed on account of the rapid augmentation of this burthen. In the items not included in actual or net relief of the poor, we see that litigation and law expenses, entertainments, payment of rents and payment of wages, or, as it is called, setting the poor to work, are separately named. These sources of abuse appear already to have attained considerable head, and we know that very little improvement took place with respect to them until half a century afterwards, when these and other evils, which had grown up and become engrafted into the system, were put an end to by the passing of the Poor Law Amendment Act. 1786. 26 Geo. III. cap. 58. Returns of Immediately after requiring the overseers to furnish returns of the moneys raised and expended under the Poor Law, another Act was passed (26 George III. cap. 58), directing the ministers and churchwardens to make able donalike returns, upon oath, "of all charitable donations for the benefit of poor persons in the several parishes and 1 It should be noticed, however, that the items are given in more detail in the last returns, and are probably therefore more correct. For the items of separate charge in 1776, Sir F. Eden quotes the Annual Register of 1777. all charit tions. 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 society- Mr. establish 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. In 1786 Mr. scheme for Acland, 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 14d. Persons 1 Ante, p. 70. VOL. II.-7 |