According to the last Report of the Poor-law Commissioners, the
paupers receiving in- and out-door relief was, in 1848, no less than
1,870,000 and odd. The number of criminals in the same year was 30,000
and odd. In 1844, the number of lunatics in county asylums was 4000
and odd; while according to the Occupation Abstract of the returns of
the population there were, in 1841, upwards of 5000 almspeople, 1000
beggars, and 21,000 pensioners: these formed into one sum, give us no
less than two millions and a quarter individuals who pass their time
without applying to any gainful occupation, and consequently live in a
state of inactivity and vice upon the income of the remainder of the
population. By the above computation, therefore, we see that out of a
total of 16,000,000 souls, one-seventh, or 14 per cent of the whole,
continue their existence either by pauperism, mendicancy, or crime. Now
the cost of this immense mass of vice and want is even more appalling
than the number of individuals subsisting in such utter degradation.
The total amount of money levied in 1848 for the relief of England and
Wales was seven millions four hundred thousand pounds; but, exclusive
of this amount, the magnitude of the sum that we give voluntarily
towards the support and education of the poor classes is unparalleled
in the history of any other nation or any other time.
According to the summary of the returns annexed to the voluminous
Reports of the Charity Commissioners, the rent of the land and other
fixed property, together with the interest of the money left for
charitable purposes in England and Wales, amounts to 1,200,000_l._
a year; and it is believed, by proper management, this return might
be increased to an annual income of at least two millions of money;
and yet, says Mr. M‘Culloch, “there can be no doubt that even this
large sum falls far below the amount expended every year in voluntary
donations to charitable establishments. Nor can any estimate be
formed,” he adds, “of the money given in charity to individuals; but
in the aggregate cannot fail to amount to an immense sum.” All things
considered, therefore, we cannot be very far from the truth, if we
assume that the sums voluntarily subscribed towards the relief of the
poor equal, in the aggregate, the total amount raised by assessment for
the same purpose; so that it appears that the well-to-do amongst us
expend the vast sum of fifteen million pounds per annum in mitigating
the miseries of their less fortunate brethren.
But though we give altogether fifteen million pounds a year to
alleviate the distress of those who want or suffer, we must remember
that this vast sum expresses not only the liberal extent of our
sympathy, but likewise the fearful amount of want and suffering, of
excess and luxury, that there must be in the land, if the poorer
classes require fifteen millions to be added in charity every year to
their aggregate income, in order to relieve their pains and privations,
and the richer can afford to have the same immense sum taken from
theirs, and yet scarcely feel the loss, it shows at once how much the
one class must possess and the other want.