Legislature would be necessary; which would be easily obtained when
the measure itself was once thoroughly understood, and it could not
then fail to be as popular as it would unquestionably be useful.
They who from their habits of life have few opportunities of
considering the state of the Poor, are apt to form very erroneous
opinions on the subject.
By _the Poor_ we are not to understand the whole mass of the people
who support themselves by labour; for those whose necessity compels
them to exercise their industry, become by their poverty the actual
pillars of the State.
Labour is absolutely requisite to the existence of all Governments;
and as it is from the Poor only that labour can be expected, so far
from being an evil they become, under proper regulations, an
advantage to every Country, and highly deserve the fostering care of
every Government. It is not _Poverty_ therefore, that is in itself an
evil, while health, strength, and inclination, afford the means of
subsistence, and while work is to be had by all who seek it.--The evil
is to be found only in _Indigence_, where the strength fails, where
disease, age, or infancy, deprives the individual of the means of
subsistence, or where he knows not how to find employment when willing
and able to work.
In this view _the Poor_ may be divided into five Classes:--
_The first Class_ comprehends what may be denominated _the
useful Poor_, who are able and willing to work--who have
already been represented as the pillars of the State, and
who merit the utmost attention of all Governments, with a
direct and immediate view of preventing their _poverty_ from
descending unnecessarily into _indigence_. As often as this
evil is permitted to happen, the State not only loses an
useful subject, but the expence of his maintenance must be
borne by the Public.--The great art, therefore, in managing
the affairs of the Poor, is to establish Systems whereby the
poor man, verging upon indigence, may be propped up and kept
in his station. Whenever this can be effected, it is done
upon an average at one-tenth of the expence at most that
must be incurred by permitting a family to retrograde into
a state of indigence, where they must be wholly maintained
by the Public, and where their own exertions cease in a
great measure to be useful to the Country.
_The second Class_ comprehends the _vagrant Poor_, who are
able but not willing to work, or who cannot obtain
employment in consequence of their bad character. This class
may be said to have descended from poverty into beggary, in
which state they become objects of peculiar attention, since
the State suffers not only the loss of their labour, but
also of the money which they obtain by the present
ill-judged mode of giving charity. Many of them, however,
having become mendicants, more from necessity than choice,
deserve commiseration and attention, and nothing can promote
in a greater degree the cause of humanity, and the real
interest of the Metropolis, than an establishment for the
employment of this class of indigent Poor, who may be said
at present to be in a very deplorable state, those only
excepted who make begging a profession. It is only by a
plan, such as has been recommended, that the real indigent
can be discovered from the vagrant, and in no other way is
it possible to have that distinct and collected view of the
whole class of beggars in the Metropolis, or to provide the
means of rendering their labour (where they are able to
labour) productive to themselves and the State.--And it may
be further added with great truth, that in no other way is
it possible to prevent the offspring of such mendicants from
becoming _Prostitutes_ and _Thieves_.
If, therefore, it is of importance to diminish crimes, and
to obstruct the progress of immorality, this part of the
Community ought to be the peculiar objects of a branch of
the National Police, where responsibility would secure an
accurate execution of the System. This measure ought to
begin in the Metropolis as an experiment, and when fully
matured might be extended with every advantage to the
Country.
_The third Class_ may be considered under the denomination
of the _Indigent Poor_, who from want of employment,
_sickness, losses_, insanity or disease, are unable to
maintain themselves.
In attending to this description of Poor, the first
consideration ought to be to select those who are in a state
to re-occupy their former station among the labouring Poor;
and to restore them to the first class as soon as possible,
by such relief as should enable them to resume their former
employments, and to help themselves and families.
Where insanity, or temporary disease, or infirmity actually
exist, such a course must then be pursued as will enable
such weak and indigent persons, while they are supported at
the expence of the Public, to perform such species of
labour, as may be suited to their peculiar situations,
without operating as a hardship, but rather as an
amusement. In this manner it is wonderful how productive the
exertions of even the most infirm might be rendered.--But it
must be accomplished under a management very different,
indeed, from any thing which prevails at present.
_The fourth Class_ comprehends the _aged and infirm_, who
are entirely past labour, and have no means of
support.--Where an honest industrious man has wasted his
strength in labour and endeavours to rear a family, he is
well entitled to an asylum to render the evening of his life
comfortable. For this class the gratitude and the humanity
of the Community ought to provide a retreat separate from
the profligate and vagrant Poor. But, alas! the present
System admits of no such blessing.--The most deserving most
submit to an indiscriminate intercourse in Workhouses with
the most worthless: whose polluted language and irregular
conduct, render not a few of those asylums as great a
punishment to the decent part of the indigent and infirm as
a common prison.
_The fifth Class_ comprises the _Infant Poor_, who from
extreme indigence, or the death of parents, are cast upon
the public for nurture. One fifth part of the gross number
in a London Workhouse is generally composed of this class.
Their moral and religious education is of the last
importance to the Community. They are the children of the
Public, and if not introduced into life, under circumstances
favourable to the interest of the State, the error in the
System becomes flagrant.--Profligate or distressed parents
may educate their children ill; but when those under the
charge of Public Institutions are suffered to become
depraved in their progress to maturity, it is a dreadful
reproach on the Police of the Country.--And yet what is to
be expected from children reared in Workhouses, with the
evil examples before them of the multitudes of depraved
characters who are constantly admitted into those
receptacles? Young minds are generally more susceptible of
evil than of good impressions; and hence it is that the
rising generation enter upon life with those wicked and
dangerous propensities, which are visible to the attentive
observer in all the walks of vulgar life in this great
Metropolis.
The limits of this Treatise will not permit the Author to attempt more
than a mere outline on the general subject of the Poor; a System of
all others the most difficult to manage and arrange with advantage to
the Community; but which is at present unhappily entrusted to the care
of those least competent to the task.
The principle of the Statute of the 43d of Elizabeth is certainly
unobjectionable; but the execution, it must be repeated, is defective.
In short, no part of it has been effectually executed, but that which
relates to raising the assessments. It is easy to make Statutes; but
omnipotent as Parliament is said to be, it cannot give _knowledge_,
_education_, _public spirit_, _integrity_ and _time_, to those
Changeable Agents whom it has charged with the execution of the Poor
Laws.
In the management of the affairs of the State, the Sovereign wisely
selects men eminent for their talents and integrity:--Were the choice
to be made on the principle established by the Poor Laws, the Nation
could not exist even a single year.
In the private affairs of life, the success of every difficult
undertaking depends on the degree of abilities employed in the
management. In the affairs of the Poor, the most arduous and intricate
that it is possible to conceive, and where the greatest talents and
knowledge is required, the least portion of either is supplied. How
then can we expect success?--The error is not in the original design,
which is wise and judicious. The 43d of Elizabeth authorizes an
assessment to be made for three purposes.
1st. To purchase Raw Materials to set the Poor to work, who
could not otherwise dispose of their labour.
2d. To usher into the world, advantageously, the Children of
poor people, by binding them apprentices to some useful
employment.
3d. To provide for the lame, impotent and blind, and others,
being poor and not able to work.
Nothing can be better imagined than the measures in the view of the
very able framers of this act: but they did not discover that to
execute such a design required powers diametrically opposite to those
which the law provided. The last two centuries have afforded a series
of proof of the total inefficacy of the application of these powers,
not only by the effects which this erroneous superintendence has
produced; but also from the testimony of the most enlightened men who
have written on the subject, from the venerable Lord Hale to the
patriotic and indefatigable Sir Frederick Eden. But the strongest
evidence of the mischiefs arising from this defective execution of a
valuable System, is to be found in the Statute Books themselves.[96]
[Footnote 96: In the Preamble of the Statute on 3 & 4 _William_ and
_Mary_ _cap._ 11. and particularly Sec. 11 of that Act, in which the
sense entertained by Parliament, of the shocking abuses of the Statute
of Elizabeth, "through the unlimited power of Parish Officers," is
very forcibly expressed--the truths there stated are found to have
full force, even at the distance of more than a Century.]
"The want of a due provision," says Lord Hale, "for the relief and
education of the Poor in the way of _industry_, is what fills the
gaols with Malefactors, the Country with idle and unprofitable
persons, that consume the stock of the Kingdom without improving it;
and that will daily increase even to a desolation in time--and this
error, in the first concoction, is never remediable but by gibbets and
whipping."
That this will continue to be the case under any species of changeable
management, however apparently correct in theory the System may be,
must appear self-evident to every man of business and observation,
whose attention has been practically directed to the general operation
of the present mode in various parishes, and who has reflected deeply
on the subject.
But to return to the immediate object of inquiry, namely, the means of
more effectually preventing the numerous evils which arise from
indigence and mendicity in the Metropolis, whether excited by idleness
or extreme and unforeseen pressures: Under every circumstance it would
seem impracticable without any burthen upon the Public, to provide for
all such at least as are denominated Casual Poor (from whom the
greatest part of this calamity springs) by adopting the following or
some similar plan, under the sanction of Government, and the authority
of the Legislature.
That a Public Institution shall be established in the
Metropolis, with _three Chief Officers_, who shall be
charged with the execution of that branch of the Police,
which relates to STREET BEGGARS, and those classes of Poor
who have no legal settlements in the Metropolis, and who now
receive casual relief from the different Parishes, where
they have fixed their residence for the time;--and that
these principal Officers, (who may be stiled _Commissioners
for inquiring into the Cases and Causes of the Distress of
the Poor in the Metropolis_) should exercise the following
FUNCTIONS:--
1st. To charge themselves with the relief and management of
the whole of the _Casual Poor_, who at present receive
temporary aid from the different Parishes, or who ask alms
in any part of the Metropolis or its Suburbs.
2d. To provide Work-rooms in various central and convenient
situations in the Metropolis, where persons destitute of
employment may receive a temporary subsistence for labour.
To superintend these work-houses, and become responsible for
the proper management.
3d. To be empowered to give temporary relief to prop up
sinking families, and to prevent their descending from
poverty to indigence, by arresting the influence of
despondency, and keeping the spirit of industry alive.
4th. To assist in binding out the Children of the Poor, or
the Unfortunate, who have seen better days, and preventing
the females from the danger of becoming Prostitutes, or the
males from contracting loose and immoral habits, so as if
possible to save them to their parents, and to the state.
5th. To open offices of inquiry in different parts of the
Metropolis, where all classes of indigent persons, who are
not entitled to parochial relief, will be invited to resort,
for the purpose of being examined, and relieved according
to the peculiar circumstances of the case.
6th. To exercise the legal powers, through the medium of
Constables, for the purpose of compelling all Mendicants,
and idle destitute Boys and Girls who appear in the streets,
to come before the Commissioners for examination; that those
whose industry cannot be made productive, or who cannot be
put in a way to support themselves without alms, may be
passed to their Parishes, while means are employed to bind
out destitute Children to some useful occupation.
7th. To keep a distinct Register of the cases of all
Mendicants or distressed individuals, who may seek advice
and assistance, and to employ such means for alleviating
misery, as the peculiar circumstances may suggest--never
losing sight of indigence, until an asylum is provided for
the helpless and infirm, and also until the indigent, who
are able to labour, are placed in a situation to render it
productive.
8th. That these Commissioners shall report their proceedings
annually, to his Majesty in Council, and to Parliament; with
abstracts, shewing the numbers who have been examined--How
disposed of--The earning of the persons at the different
Work-rooms--The annual expence of the Establishment;
together with a general view of the advantages resulting
from it; with the proofs of these advantages.
Towards defraying the whole expence of this Establishment it is
proposed, that (in lieu of the Casual Charity, paid at present by all
the Parishes in the Metropolis, which under this System will cease,
together with the immense trouble attached to it,) each Parish in the
Metropolis shall pay into the hands of the Receiver of the Funds of
this _Pauper Police Institution_, a sum equal to what was formerly
disbursed in casual relief, which for the purpose of elucidation, is
estimated as follows:--
L. _s._ _d._
97 Parishes within the Walls,
average 10_l._ each 970 0 0
16 Parishes without the Walls, in London and
Southwark, average 60_l._ each 960 0 0
---------------
L.1,930 0 0
23 Out-parishes in Middlesex and Surry,
average 100_l._ each 2,300 0 0
10 Parishes in Westminster,
average 100_l._ each 1,000 0 0
--- ---------------
146 L.5,230 0 0
---
This sum (which is supposed to be not much above one half of the
average Annual disbursements of the 146 Parishes above-mentioned;
especially since it has been shewn, that the expence in St. Giles' and
St. George Bloomsbury alone, has been 2000_l._ in one year) will
probably, with oeconomy and good management, be found sufficient for
all the relief that is required; more especially as the object is not
to maintain the indigent, but to put them in a way of supporting
themselves by occasional pecuniary aids well and judiciously applied.
The experiment is certainly worth trying. In its execution some of the
most respectable and intelligent individuals in the Metropolis, would
gratuitously assist the Commissioners, who as taking responsibility
upon them, in the direction of a most important branch of Police,
ought undoubtedly to be remunerated by Government, especially as it is
scarcely possible to conceive any mode in which the Public money could
be applied, that would be productive of such benefit to the State.
If that utility resulted from the design, which may reasonably be
expected, it would of course extend to other great towns, as the
private _Soup Establishments_ have done, and the condition of the poor
would undergo a rapid change. The destitute and forlorn would then
have some means of communicating their distress, while information and
facts of the greatest importance, to the best interests of Society,
would spring from this source.
With respect to the general affairs of the poor, much good would arise
from consolidating the funds of all the parishes in the Metropolis.
The poor for instance, who are supported from the parochial funds of
Bethnal Green, and other distressed parishes in the eastern parts of
the Metropolis, are the labourers of the citizens and inhabitants of
the 97 Parishes within the Walls, who, although opulent pay little or
nothing to the Poor, since the city affords no cottages to lodge them.
Why, therefore, should not the inhabitants of the rich parishes
contribute to the relief of the distresses of those who waste their
strength in contributing to their _ease_, _comfort_, and _profit_? In
several of the most populous Parishes and Hamlets in the eastern part
of the Town, the Poor may actually be said to be assessed to support
the indigent. In the very populous Hamlet of Mile-End New Town, where
there is scarcely an inhabitant who does not derive his subsistence
from some kind of labour, the rates are treble the assessments in
Mary-le-bone, where opulence abounds. Nothing can exceed the
inequality of the weight for the support of the Poor in the
Metropolis; since where the demand is greatest, the means of supply
are always most deficient and inadequate.
Certain it is that the whole system admits of much improvement, and
perhaps at no period, since the Poor Laws have attracted attention,
did there exist so many able and intelligent individuals as at
present, who have been excited by motives of patriotism and
philanthropy, to devote their time to the subject.
At the head of this most Respectable Group stands Sir FREDERICK EDEN;
a gentleman, whose entrance into life, has been marked by a display of
the most useful talents, manifested by an extent of labour and
perseverance, in his elaborate work on the Poor, which may be said to
be unparalleled in point of information, while it unquestionably
exhibits the respectable Author as a character in whose patriotism and
abilities the State will find a considerable resource, in whatever
tends to assist his Country, or to improve the condition of Human
Life.
To the Lord Bishop of Durham, the Earl of Winchelsea, Count Rumford,
Sir William Young, Thos. Ruggles, Esq. William Morton Pitt, Esq.
Jeremy Bentham, Esq. Robert Saunders, Esq. Thomas Bernard, Esq.
William Wilberforce, Esq. Rowland Burdon, Esq. the Rev. Dr. Glasse,
the Rev. Thomas Gisburn, the Rev. Mr. Howlet, Mr. Davis, Mr. Townsend,
Arthur Young, Esq. and William Sabatier, Esq. as well as several other
respectable living characters, who have particularly turned their
thoughts to the subject of the Poor, the Public are not only already
much indebted, but from this prolific resource of judgment, talents,
and knowledge, much good might be expected, if ever the period shall
arrive when the revision of the Poor Laws shall engage the attention
of the Legislature.
The measure is too complicated to be adjusted by men, who have not
opportunities or leisure to contemplate its infinite ramifications.
It is a task which can only be executed with accuracy by those, who
completely understand the subject as well in practice as in theory,
and who can bestow the time requisite for those laborious
investigations, which must be absolutely necessary to form a final
opinion, and to report to Parliament what is most expedient, under all
circumstances, to be done in this important National Concern.
Happy is it for the country, that a resource exists for the attainment
of this object, than which nothing can contribute, in a greater
degree, to the prevention of Crimes, and to the general improvement of
Civil Society.
CHAP. XIV.
_The state of the Police, with regard to the detection of
different classes of offenders, explained.--The necessity,
under the present circumstances, of having recourse to the
known Receivers of stolen Goods, for the purpose of
discovering Offenders, as well as the property stolen.--The
great utility of Officers of Justice as safeguards of the
Community.--The advantages to be derived from rendering them
respectable in the opinion of the Public. Their powers, by
the common and statute law, are extensive.--The great
antiquity of the Office of Constable, exemplified by
different Ancient Statutes.--The authority of Officers and
others explained, in apprehending persons accused of
felony.--Rewards granted in certain cases as encouragements
to Officers to lie vigilant:--The statutes quoted,
applicable to such rewards, shewing that they apply to ten
different offences.--The utility of parochial Constables,
under a well-organized Police, explained.--A fund for this
purpose would arise from the reduction of the expences of
the Police by the diminution of Crimes.--The necessity of a
competent fund explained.--The deficiency of the present
System exemplified in the effect of the presentments by
Constables to the Grand Inquest.--A new System
proposed.--The functions of the different classes of
Officers, explained.--Salaries necessary to all.--The System
of rewards, as now established, shewn to be radically
deficient; exemplified by the circumstance, that in 1088
prisoners, charged at the Old Bailey in one year, with 36
different offences, only 9 offences entitled the
apprehenders to any gratuity:--Improvements suggested for
the greater encouragement of Officers of Justice.--1043
Peace Officers in the Metropolis and its vicinity, of whom
only 90 are stipendiary Constables.--Little assistance to
be expected from Parochial Officers, while there exists no
fund for rewarding extraordinary services.--Great advantages
likely to result from rewarding all Officers for useful
services actually performed.--The utility of extending the
same gratuities to Watchmen and Patroles.--Defects and
abuses in the System of the Watch explained.--The number of
Watchmen and Patroles in the Metropolis estimated at
2044:--A general System of superintendance suggested.--A
view of the Magistracy of the Metropolis.--The efficient
duty shewn to rest with the City and Police
Magistrates.--The inconvenience of the present
System.--Concluding Observations._
As it must be admitted, that the evils arising from the multiplied
crimes detailed in the preceding Chapters, render a correct and
energetic System of Police with regard to the _detection_,
_discovery_, and _apprehension_ of offenders, indispensably necessary
for the safety and well-being of Society; it follows of course, in
the order of this Work, to explain _how this branch of the public
service is conducted at present, the defects which are apparent,--and
the means of improving the System_.
When robberies or burglaries have been committed in or near the
Metropolis, where the property is of considerable value, the usual
method at present, is to apply to the City Magistrates, if in London;
or otherwise, to the Justices at one of the Public Offices,[97] and to
publish an Advertisement offering a reward on the recovery of the
articles stolen, and the conviction of the offenders.[98]