But no less was it urged that the old and infirm should be
XIV CONTROVERTED POINTS IN POOR RELIEF 231
treated with great consideration. Changes were to be
introduced gradually. The system of Poor Law orders
was specially adopted with that object. The instructions
of the Commissioners to relieving officers were as
follows : —
" Each of the Union officers should " (the Commissioners
wrote) " be especially cautioned as to his conduct toward
the claimants of relief; he should be reminded that it is
his duty to treat the sick, the aged and infirm, with tender-
ness and care ; that many of the claims which it will be
his duty to reject, have been created by abuses heretofore
prevalent, and that in rejecting even such claims he must
not use harsh language or show an angry deportment. He
must so conduct himself as to obtain the respect and con-
fidence of the claimants of relief." Further, a "protecting
power " was placed by the Poor Law Amendment Act in
the hands of magistrates, by any two of whom outdoor
relief to aged persons, wholly unable to support themselves,
might be ordered. " It has scarcely ever been necessary "
(it was reported by a Select Committee of the House of
Commons in 1837) "to have recourse to this provision
of the Act, the considerate spirit in which the Boards
of Guardians perform their duties rendering it un-
necessary."
Further, the administration and supply of medical
relief was to be improved. There were to be good and
sufficient, but not lavish or wasteful, dietaries. Classifica-
tion was insisted on and extended.
It is hard to understand how to the just labourer the
new policy could be distasteful.
Let me give one instance out of many — I take the
period with which we are concerned — just before the in-
troduction of the new Poor Law.
In 1831, it is argued by Mr. T. J. B. Estcourt, M.P., a
trustworthy witness, after submission of figures showing the
results of better administration at Radcliffe-on-Trent, that
with the withdrawal of the system of allowances in aid of
wages, the farmers " would be obliged to give as much as
any person in the neighbourhood would give," "not that
232 ASPECTS OF THE SOCIAL PROBLEM xiv
which is much less than the labour of a good workman."
"The consequence of this would be, that if the farmer found
that he had not the means by law of retaining in his
service an unfortunate labourer at inadequate wages, and
that he was obliged to give a very considerable sum of
money, he would of course determine within himself that
he would employ no person that he could not depend on ;
and when a man came to him for employment, the first
question that he would ask of him would be, where he
came from, and who there is that would answer for his
character. The moment we have arrived at that point,
character would be of some value." And in 1837, after the
passing of the Poor Law Amendment Act, one grievance
which was removed was that by which inferior labourers,
owing to their allowances, had sometimes been better off
than superior ones. This can hardly be called administration
conducted under conditions distasteful to the just.
Again Mr. Becher in 1831, quoting what he had written
some years before about Southwell — one of the unions
where the allowance system had been stopped — says, " In
distributing the parochial funds it (our system) takes into
consideration the character and conduct of the person
applying for relief; it discriminates carefully between the
innocent, idle, the profligate, the sturdy, and the criminal
claimants ; it protects even the victims of their own follies
and companions." The system which was thus carefully
worked and which produced as a result " a rise in wages,
an abatement of discontent and improved moral and social
conditions " could hardly be distasteful to the just. It is,
indeed, quite clear that the juster portion of the labouring
classes accepted the new Poor Law, not only as inevitable,
but as desirable ; and they accepted it because it was just.
Thus, to quote two sentences by way of illustration, in July
1835 it is reported in regard to Sussex : " The Bill advances
in popularity and in the good liking not only of the rate-
payers, but of the independent labourer and those of the
poor whose real necessities have made them dependent
upon parish relief." And in 1837, in the northern
counties, the labouring classes "acknowledge the advan-
XIV CONTROVERTED POINTS IN POOR RELIEF 233
tages of the law, and, to use their own words, they 'see
now that it's only the idle drunken vagabonds that are
going to be hurt by it.' "
In the statement under discussion stress is laid on the
words "in the present condition of the country," as if the
Commissioners intended to propose a principle not ap-
plicable to the normal administration of the Poor Law.
But this is to give a wrong meaning to the words, as the
Report itself shows. The Commissioners refer to two
"principles." The first is general. "The first and most
essential of all conditions, a principle ivhich we find uni-
versally admitted, even by those whose practice is at vari-
ance with it, is, that the situation (of the person relieved)
shall not on the whole be made really or apparently so
eligible as the situation of the independent labourer of the
lowest class." This principle underlay the measures which
had been adopted in various districts, and had produced
the six satisfactory results which the Commissioners enume-
rate. The second principle they refer to thus : They
have, they state, been "warned at every part of the in-
quiry by the failure of previous legislation," and " they will
not," therefore, "in the suggestion of specific remedies,
endeavour to depart from the firm ground of experience."
It is to this second principle that the qualifying words " in
the present, etc.," refer.
Their first principle is, in the opinion of the Commis-
sioners, universal in its application.
As to the second, others may prefer theory to experi-
ence : their inquiry shows them that the latter is the true
guide. Hence in the present conditions of the country
they propose the extension of what has been found by ex-
perience to be morally and socially advantageous to the
community. I need hardly point out that if the first prin-
ciple be admitted, it must be held to govern all future pro-
posals whether based on theory or suggested by experience.
To admit it is to admit the whole case of the Commis-
sioners. And this essential principle was not treated by
them as applicable only to " the present condition of the
country."
234 ASPECTS OF THE SOCIAL TROBLEM
Statement III.
"Just as on a battlefield a surgeon may amputate a
limb which he would have tried to save if he had had the
appliances and the leisure of a well-appointed hospital, so
in the present condition of the country the Poor Law
reformers chose a cruel remedy, because, on the whole, its
kindness was greater than its cruelty, and nothing kinder
was practicable."
The reformers were in no such conditions of forced
labour and hasty decision. They had before them a great
mass of suggestions and proposals. Eden's book was in
their hands " the great storehouse of information on the
subject," besides a very useful literature that had sprung
up since, and in which all kinds of measures and half-
measures were suggested. Malthus had started discussions
in which the problem of the relief of the poor was met at
every turn. Copleston, Courtenay, and others used and
criticised Malthus. Select Committees had reported on
the relief of the able-bodied, and between 1825 and 1831
five bills were brought in, which dealt wnth this difificult
part of the problem of public reUef. A very useful pre-
liminary inquiry into the administration of poor relief had
been made by a Select Committee of the House of Com-
mons in 181 7; other Committees reported in 181 9 and
1821. In 181 7, and in 1830-31, before the Poor Law
Commissioners were appointed, investigations were made
by Select Committees of the House of Lords. Almost
everything that has been proposed of late years had been
canvassed by competent persons — home colonisation,
employment on farms, national insurance, supplementation
of Friendly 'Societies by the rates, the grant of relief on
favourable terms to members of Friendly Societies, a central
board of supervision, etc. etc. The Report of the Select
Committee of the House of Commons in 18 17 states the
allowance question and much else admirably, acknowledges
the urgency of the problem, and admits that " the remedial
XIV CONTROVERTED POINTS IN POOR RELIEF 235
efforts of the most able and enlightened men have practi-
cally failed." All the many issues of the problem had
been partially threshed out before the Commissioners
came on the scene. They took it up and dealt with it
without half-measures, in a manner which rich and poor
alike could understand. I'hey were all of them, I believe,
either experts in practical administration or well qualified
as students of the subject. Though it was not so large
as they desired, they had a considerable staff of assistant
commissioners, who published reports, the completeness
of which can hardly be gauged without consulting the
lengthy appendix which contains them, and which touch
on all kinds of collateral subjects — wages, rents, charities,
etc. The replies to the questions circulated by the Com-
missioners throughout the country constitute a social
census of a kind never, I believe, undertaken before or
since. "The most valuable part of our evidence," the
Commissioners call it ; though they prudently estimated
that " one-half of the returns were of no value." A volume
of foreign communications contains minute information in
regard to the administration of relief on the Continent and
in America. Another volume of home communications
deals with dispensaries, and with emigration and colonisa-
tion, and contains, besides much else, independent state-
ments regarding the state of administration in certain
parishes and counties in England. The Commissioners
built upon the work of their predecessors. Their measures
were not novel, but they were definite and appropriate.
They were measures, and not half- measures. They
adopted the old workhouse system, but on new conditions.
They reverted to " tests and rules " with inquiry, instead of
relying, as the legislators just before them had done, on
inquiry solely. The refusal of relief to able-bodied men,
which others had suggested, they approved, but again under
definite conditions consistent with their main principle.
Alike therefore in investigating the subject, and in suggest-
ing remedies, they endeavoured to carry out their immense
task with thoroughness. Nothing could be more unlike the
hasty treatment of the wounded on a field of battle than their
236 ASPECTS OF THE SOCIAL PROBLEM xiv
deliberate and thoughtful analysis of the evil and their
suggested remedies. There is no sign of panic in the
legislation they proposed, or of extremity of haste in their
counsels.
In all efforts to gain or retain self-dependence there
may seem to be some hardship, and if the discipline of
returning to healthy social conditions is hard, even some
" cruelty," if a rather exaggerated expression is permissible.
But, except in this sense, there is no reason to believe that
the reformers chose a cruel remedy, or a remedy that they
thought cruel, or that they chose the remedy as 2i pis aller,
because nothing better was practicable. They submitted
the plans which they thought actually the best. That the
change would entail an effort, and even some hardship, on
the part of the people was obvious ; and this was not over-
looked at the time. In 1837, within three years of the
passing of the Act, a Select Committee of the House of
Commons inquired into particular instances of alleged
severity or abuse, which had been mentioned in Parlia-
ment. In one instance there had been, it was judged,
improper action on the part of officials. In others the
charges came to naught. The difficulty of the able-bodied
in meeting the change in the administration of poor relief
was admitted. The Committee wrote : —
These statements (evidence of the great benefits produced
by the Poor Law Amendment Act) have been met by the pro-
duction of particular instances in which the rules of the Com-
missioners are said to have operated with severity, principally
upon labourers with numerous famihes of children too young
for work. It is impossible that the withdrawal of parish
allowances in such cases should not have been attended with
privations unless met by a rise of wages, by more constant
work, or greater employment for the family. The evidence
received by your Committee leads them to believe that these
results have followed the alteration of the law — wages have
risen, and the amount of employment has confessedly, and by
the admission of adverse witnesses, increased. But your Com-
mittee cannot pretend to say that, in any state of things, or in
any condition of society, the possession of a numerous family
XIV CONTROVERTED POINTS IN POOR RELIEF 237
dependent on the efforts of their parents for support will not
be felt as a serious incumbrance. Much must always depend
upon the disposition and means of the employers of labour,
much upon the character and exertions of the labourers, and
in these important respects the law appears to your Committee
to have placed both parties reciprocally upon a better footing.
Bad habits of long standing are, however, not easily eradicated.
The inclination to make the parish fund contribute to the pay-
ment of wages may for a time prevail with the employers of
labour, and the labourer's disposition to rely on so easy a
resource may not at once be changed for greater activity and
exertion, but it is to be remarked that the new law has a direct
tendency to produce a better state of things, the employers of
labour having an immediate pecuniary interest in avoiding the
expense of maintaining whole families in the Workhouse, and
at the same time the labourers are necessarily stimulated to
increased efforts, and to greater regularity of conduct, in order
to avoid the necessity of going there. While, therefore, it is
most desirable to employ all practical means for the alleviation
of particular instances of pressure, great care should be taken
not to introduce in any shape the old system of allowances,
which had a decided tendency to lower wages, and to deprive
the labourer of his independent character. The aged poor in
Droxford, and in all the unions which have come before your
Committee, do not appear to be materially affected by any
rules which have been issued for the regulation of their relief.
In no instance have they been compelled to reside in the Work-
house, and in those cases in which they have, it is owing to
the circumstance of their having no home or friends with whom
they could conveniently lodge, or from their own choice. The
same parties, before the change of law, would have been found
in the parish poorhouse. They generally receive their pay at
the place where they live, and the amount seems, upon the
whole, to have been increased rather than diminished.
" Cruelty " then, if there was cruelty at all, was due to
the change as it affected the able-bodied poor and their
families, and no other class. And this change I have
shown to be just, and I believe all disputants at the present
day allow it to have been necessary and salutary. Unless
the evidence is sufificient to justify so extreme a charge, is
238 ASPECTS OF THE SOCIAL PROBLEM xiv
it not a pity that words like " cruelty " should be imported
into a discussion in which, more than in any other, careful
and discriminating language is desirable ?
Statement IV.
"The Poor Law Commissioners hoped, as I do, that
the condition of the working classes would improve, till
public relief is no longer needed, and all the services
rendered by them to the State take higher forms. They
did not attempt to prove that public relief must always,
and from the nature of the case, involve a special disgrace,
independently of the circumstances under which it was
given. But the notion that it does, has been fostered by
legislators, by economists, and others, and by the action of
the stern school of Poor Law reformers. It has been
fostered also by many ofificials of the Charity Organisation
Societies, and though I am informed that it is not deliber-
ately adopted by the council of the Central London Society,
it appears to be practically inculcated by their action and
by the general tone of their publications."
" The other course is to turn a deaf ear to the com-
plaints " (of the working classes), " and to speak, as the
editor of the Chanty Organisatio7i Review (April 1892, p.
139) does, as to their having a wholesome feeling of
inferiority in accepting public relief."
If the Commissioners hoped that the condition of the
working classes would improve till public relief was no
longer needed, they certainly did not say so. They are
very guarded in their expressions. They describe their
hopes thus : —
" It will be observed that the measures which we have
suggested are intended to produce rather negative than
positive effects ; rather to remove the debasing influences
to which a large portion of the labouring population is now
subject, than to afford new means of prosperity and virtue.
We are perfectly aware, that for the general diffusion of
right principles and habits we are to look, not so much
XIV CONTROVERTED POINTS IN POOR RELIEF 239
to any economic arrangements and regulations as to the
influence of a moral and religious education, and import-
ant evidence on the subject will be found throughout the
Appendix. But one great advantage of any measure which
shall remove or diminish the evils of the present system
is, that it will in the same degree remove the obstacles
which now impede the progress of instruction, and interrupt
its results ; and will afford a free scope to the operation of
every instrument which may be employed for elevating the
intellectual and moral condition of the poorer classes."
It is true that the Commissioners did not attempt to
prove that public relief must always, and from the nature of
the case, involve a special disgrace. But neither has the
notion been fostered by legislators, nor by the stern school
of Poor Law reformers, nor by the officials of the Charity
Organisation Society. Of economists I will not presume
to speak. They may be left to devour one another. If,
however, the notion had been fostered by legislators we
should find the traces of it in legislation ; and it might, I
suppose, be said to be fostered by legislation, for instance,
by the fact that those who receive poor relief are deprived
of the franchise. This restriction, so far as medical relief
pure and simple is concerned, is now removed, rightly or
wrongly. But the general rule remains, and in 1834 it
seems to have been accepted as a matter of course. What
is the ground for it ? This surely, that relief should not
be given or taken in such a way as to act as a political
bribe. And that the provision is wise I think American
experience has shown. On the other hand, that legislation
has not, even in this matter, fostered the idea that public
relief must "always, and from the nature of the case,"
involve a special disgrace is evident. In the Poor Law
Amendment Act itself is a provision that "all relief given
to or on account of the wife, or to or on account of any
child or children under the age of sixteen, not being blind
or deaf and dumb, shall be considered as given to the
husband of such wife, or to the father of such child or
children as the case may be." It follows that, when the
wife or child is blind or deaf and dumb, their relief is con-
240 ASPECTS OF THE SOCIAL PROBLEM xiv
sidered as >wt given to the husband or father responsible
for their maintenance, and accordingly the husband or
father retains his franchise. To take another point. By
the same Act any justice of the peace is empowered to
give an order for medical relief (only) to any parishioner,
as well as out-parishioner, where any case of sudden and
dangerous illness may require it. Also the overseers in
cases of sudden and urgent necessity have to give relief
under penalties. And further, there is the clause already
referred to, by which, "it is lawful for any two of her
Majesty's justices of the peace usually acting for the district,
at their just and proper discretion, to direct, by order under
their hand and seal, that relief shall be given to any adult
person, who shall from old age or infirmity of body be
wholly unable to work, without requiring that such person
shall reside in any workhouse." These powers could
hardly have been placed in the hands of justices, who were
required to act as a check on the Guardians, nor would
these penalties have been imposed upon overseers, if the
relief which they were authorised to give was considered
by the legislature " always and in the nature of the case to
involve a special disgrace." Further, in regard to the aged,
the Prohibitory Order and the Outdoor Relief Regulation
Order say nothing, and I have shown both above and in a
paper on 01d-i\ge Pensions read by me at Brecon in May
1892 that the policy of the Poor Law Commission was to
deal very gently with the aged, and not by any means to
treat them as participators in a "special disgrace." More
recent legislation, as it affects the afflicted and members of
Friendly Societies, fully confirms the view that the statement,
so far as it concerns legislators, is incorrect. Let us now
come to the "stern school of Poor Law reformers."
First we take one of the older school, Sir George Nicholls.
He wrote, in \\va Letters of an Overseer {1% 2 2), as follows: —
I will now proceed to make some observations on Poor
Houses, or Work Houses, or Buildings for the reception and
residence of our indigent Poor. The laws humanely provide
that no person shall be permitted to perish through absolute
XIV CONTROVERTED POINTS IN POOR RELIEF 241
want. If in any town or parish there be a number of persons,
who from age, infirmity, or indigence have become unable to
support or take care of themselves, it may be desirable to
provide a suitable residence in which they shall be taken care
of — -thus far the law enjoins (see the several Acts regulating
the construction and government of workhouses from the 9
Geo. I., Ch. 7, down to the 59 Geo. III., Ch. 12). In such a
receptacle, these poor persons ought to have what is really
necessary for their support, but nothing superfluous — it is likely
that they would there too occupy the attention of the surround-
ing population, and the inmate of a Poor House would excite
pity or reproach as the case might be ; but there ought to be
nothing in his situation at all calculated to create any desire
among that surrounding population for becoming resident
therein — the Poor House ought to be so framed and conducted,
as that the labouring part of the community might not behold
it better furnished, better provided, more comfortable than
their own Houses ; they should not, in winter, see all its chimneys
cheerfully smoking, when their own hearths were cold through
the want of means to provide needful firing ; nor all comforts,
at least in their estimation, pervading the abode of the Pauper,
when their own habitations presented scenes of want and
wretchedness ! On the contrary, it is most desirable that they
should consider the poor objects there sheltered rather as
beacons to be avoided, than as examples to be followed, or as
possessors of a good to be coveted.
If a Poor House, then, or a receptacle for the aged, infirm,
and needy be necessary — and I fear it would be in vain now
to expect that our lower orders generally will have been so
provident as to lay by during the period of their youth and
strength against the season of age, want, or sickness, however
desirable it might be for them to do so — if such a house be
provided, it ought to comprise only what is really 7tecessary
for persons in their situation, coupled with every possible pro-
vision for their moral and religious improvement : but the rules
observed in it should be so strict and repulsive, — the living,
the clothing, and the comforts provided in it should be of
such a description as not to excite a desire for ])artaking of
them among others.
I wish to see the Poor House looked to with dread by our
labouring classes, and the reproach for being an inmate of it