Transcriber’s Note:
Suspected printer’s errors have been corrected. Upper-case accents
weren’t used in the original, and differences of spelling (etc.)
between the different reports have been preserved.
STATEMENT
OF THE
PROVISION FOR THE POOR,
AND OF THE
CONDITION OF THE LABOURING CLASSES,
IN A CONSIDERABLE PORTION OF
AMERICA AND EUROPE.
BY
NASSAU W. SENIOR, ESQ.
BEING THE
PREFACE TO THE FOREIGN COMMUNICATIONS CONTAINED
IN THE APPENDIX TO THE POOR-LAW REPORT.
LONDON:
B. FELLOWES, LUDGATE STREET.
(_Publisher to the Poor-Law Commissioners._)
MDCCCXXXV.
LONDON:
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS,
Stamford Street.
ADVERTISEMENT.
The following pages were prepared for the sole purpose of forming an
introduction to the foreign communications contained in the Appendix
to the Poor-Law Report. Their separate publication was not thought
of until they had been nearly finished. When it was first suggested
to me, I felt it to be objectionable, on account of their glaring
imperfections, if considered as forming an independent work, and the
impossibility of employing the little time which can be withdrawn
from a profession, in the vast task of giving even an outline of the
provision for the poor, and the condition of the labouring classes,
in the whole of Europe and America. But the value and extent of the
information which, even in their present incomplete state, they
contain, and the importance of rendering it more accessible than when
locked up in the folios of the Poor-Law Appendix, have overcome my
objections. The only addition which I have been able to make is a
translation of the French documents.
I cannot conclude without expressing my sense of the zeal and
intelligence with which the inquiry has been prosecuted by his
Majesty’s diplomatic Ministers and Consuls, and of the active and
candid assistance which has been given by the foreign Governments.
NASSAU W. SENIOR.
_Lincoln’s Inn, June 10, 1835._
CONTENTS
Page
INTRODUCTION 1
AMERICA
Pennsylvania 13-18
Massachusetts 14-17
New Jersey 18
New York 19
EUROPE
Norway 20
Sweden 24
Russia 29
Denmark 33
Mecklenburg 44
Prussia 45
Saxony 53
Wurtemberg 53
Weinsburg House of Industry 65
Bavaria 68
Berne 74
CAUSES favourable to the Working of a Compulsory Provision 84
Hanseatic Towns
Hamburgh 95
Bremen 96
Lubeck 98
Frankfort 101
Holland 101
Poor Colonies of 109
Frederiks-Oord 110
Wateren 113
Veenhuisen 113
Ommerschans 115
Belgium and France 117
French Poor-Laws:
Hospices et Bureaux de Bienfaisance 118
Foundlings and Deserted Children 120
Mendicity and Vagrancy 122
Belgium
Monts-de-Piété 126-138
Mendicity 126
Foundlings and Deserted Children 133
Antwerp 139
Ostend 143
Gaesbeck 145
Poor Colonies 148
France 154
Havre:
Hospital 155
Bureau de Bienfaisance 156
Rouen:
Workhouse Regulations 157
Brittany 160
Loire Inférieure:
Nantes 163
Gironde:
Bourdeaux 170
Basses Pyrenées:
Bayonne 176
Bouches du Rhone:
Marseilles 178
Sardinian States:
Piedmont 181
Genoa 186
Savoy 187
Venice 189
Portugal:
Oporto 194
The Azores 196
The Canary Islands 199
Greece 201
European Turkey 203
General Absence of a Surplus Population in Countries not
affording Compulsory Relief 204
Agricultural Labourers in England.
Wages of 206
Subsistence of 208
Wages and Subsistence of Foreign Labourers.
_Vide_ Tables 210-235
Comparison between the state of the English and
Foreign Labouring Classes 236
STATEMENT OF THE PROVISION FOR THE POOR, AND THE CONDITION OF THE
LABOURING CLASSES, IN A CONSIDERABLE PORTION OF AMERICA AND EUROPE.
The Commissioners appointed by His Majesty to make a diligent and full
Inquiry into the practical operation of the Laws for the relief of
the Poor, were restricted by the words of their Commission to England
and Wales. As it was obvious, however, that much instruction might
be derived from the experience of other countries, the Commissioners
were authorized by Viscount Melbourne, then His Majesty’s Principal
Secretary of State for the Home Department, to extend the investigation
as far as might be found productive of useful results. At first they
endeavoured to effect this object through their personal friends, and
in this manner obtained several valuable communications. But as this
source of information was likely to be soon exhausted, they requested
Viscount Palmerston, then His Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State
for the Foreign Department, to obtain the assistance of the Diplomatic
Body.
In compliance with this application, Viscount Palmerston, by a circular
dated the 12th of August, 1833, requested each of His Majesty’s
Foreign Ministers to procure and transmit, with the least possible
delay, a full report of the legal provisions existing in the country in
which he was resident, for the support and maintenance of the poor; of
the principles on which such provision was founded; of the manner in
which it was administered; of the amount and mode of raising the funds
devoted to that purpose; and of the practical working and effect of
the actual system, upon the comfort, character, and condition of the
inhabitants.
The answers to these well-framed inquiries form a considerable portion
of the contents of the following volume. They constitute, probably, the
fullest collection that has ever been made of laws for the relief of
the poor.
But as a subject of such extent would necessarily be treated by
different persons in different manners, and various degrees of
attention given to its separate branches, the Commissioners thought it
advisable that a set of questions should also be circulated, which,
by directing the attention of each inquirer and informant to uniform
objects, would enable the influence of different systems on the welfare
of the persons subjected to them to be compared.
For this purpose the following questions were drawn up:--
The following Questions apply to Customs and Institutions
whether general throughout the State, or peculiar to certain
Districts, and to Relief given:
1st. By the Voluntary Payment of Individuals or Corporate
Bodies.
2nd. By Institutions specially endowed for that purpose.
3rd. By the Government, either general or local.
4th. By any one or more of these means combined.
And you are requested to state particularly the cases (if any)
in which the person relieved has a legal claim.
QUESTIONS.
VAGRANTS.
1. To what extent and under what form does mendicity prevail in
the several districts of the country?
2. Is there any relief to persons passing through the country,
seeking work, returning to their native places, or living by
begging; and by whom afforded, and under what regulations?
DESTITUTE ABLE-BODIED.
1. To what extent and under what regulations are they, or any
part of their families, billeted or quartered on householders?
2. To what extent and under what regulations are they boarded
with individuals?
3. To what extent and under what regulations are there district
houses of industry for receiving the destitute able-bodied,
or any part of their families, and supplying them with food,
clothes, &c., and in which they are set to work?
4. To what extent and under what regulations do any religious
institutions give assistance to the destitute, by receiving
them as inmates, or by giving them alms?
5. To what extent and under what regulations is work provided
at their own dwellings for those who have trades, but do not
procure work for themselves?
6. To what extent and under what regulations is work provided
for such persons in agriculture or on public works?
7. To what extent and under what regulations are fuel,
clothing, or money, distributed to such persons or their
families; at all times of the year, or during any particular
seasons?
8. To what extent and under what regulations are they relieved
by their children being taken into schools, and fed, clothed
and educated, or apprenticed?
9. To what extent and under what regulations, and to what
degree of relationship are the relatives of the destitute
compelled to assist them with money, food, or clothing, or by
taking charge of part of their families?
10. To what extent and under what regulations are they assisted
by loans?
IMPOTENT THROUGH AGE.
1. To what extent and under what regulations are there almshouses
or other institutions for the reception of those who, through age,
are incapable of earning their subsistence?
2. To what extent and under what regulations is relief in food,
fuel, clothing, or money afforded them at their homes?
3. To what extent, and under what regulations, are they boarded
with individuals?
4. To what extent and under what regulations are they quartered
or billeted on householders?
5. To what extent and under what regulations, and to what degree
of relationship, are their relatives compelled to assist them with
money, food, or clothing, or by taking part of their families?
SICK.
1. To what extent and under what regulations are there district
institutions for the reception of the sick?
2. To what extent and under what regulations are surgical and
medical relief afforded to the poor at their own homes?
3. To what extent and under what regulations are there
institutions for affording food, fuel, clothing, or money to
the sick?
4. To what extent and under what regulations is assistance
given to lying-in women at their homes, or in public
establishments?
5. To what extent and under what regulations are there any
other modes of affording public assistance to the sick?
CHILDREN:
_Illegitimate._
1. Upon whom does the support of illegitimate children fall;
wholly upon the mothers, or wholly upon the fathers; or is the
expense distributed between them, and in what proportion, and
under what regulations?
2. To what extent and under what regulations are the relatives
of the mothers or fathers ever compelled to assist in the
maintenance of bastards?
3. To what extent and under what regulations are illegitimate
children supported at the public expense?
_Orphans, Foundlings, or Deserted Children._
4. To what extent and under what regulations are they taken
into establishments for their reception?
5. To what extent and under what regulations are they billeted
or quartered on householders?
6. To what extent and under what regulations are they boarded
with individuals?
7. To what extent and under what regulations, and to what
degree of relationship, are their relatives compelled to
support them?
CRIPPLES, DEAF AND DUMB, AND BLIND.
1. To what extent and under what regulations are there
establishments for their reception?
2. To what extent and under what regulations are they billeted
or quartered on householders?
3. To what extent and under what regulations are they boarded
with individuals?
4. To what extent and under what regulations, and to what
degree of relationship, are their relatives compelled to
support them?
IDIOTS AND LUNATICS.
1. To what extent and under what regulations are there
establishments for their reception?
2. To what extent and under what regulations are they billeted
or quartered on householders?
3. To what extent and under what regulations are they boarded
with individuals?
4. To what extent and under what regulations, and to what
degree of relationship, are their relatives compelled to
support them?
EFFECTS OF THE FOREGOING INSTITUTIONS.
You are requested to state whether the receipt, or the
expectation of relief, appears to produce any and what effect,
1st. On the industry of the labourers?
2nd. On their frugality?
3rd. On the age at which they marry?
4th. On the mutual dependence and affection of parents,
children and other relatives?
5th. What, on the whole, is the condition of the able-bodied
and self-supporting labourer of the lowest class, as compared
with the condition of the person subsisting on alms or public
charity. Is the condition of the latter, as to food and freedom
from labour more or less eligible? _See_ p. 261 and 335 of the
Poor Law Extracts.
* * * * *
You are also requested to read the accompanying volume[1],
published by the English Poor Law Commissioners, and to
state the existence of any similar mal-administration of the
charitable funds of the country in which you reside, and what
are its effects?
You are also requested to forward all the dietaries which
you can procure of prisons, workhouses, almshouses and other
institutions, with translations expressing the amounts and
quantities in English money, weights and measures, and to state
what changes (if any) are proposed in the laws or institutions
respecting relief in the country in which you reside, and on
what grounds?
* * * * *
In reply to the following Questions respecting Labourers, you
are requested to distinguish Agriculturists from Artisans, and
the Skilled from the Unskilled.
1. What is the general amount of wages of an able-bodied male
labourer, by the day, the week, the month or the year, with and
without provisions, in summer and in winter?
2. Is piece-work general?
3. What, in the whole, might an average labourer, obtaining
an average amount of employment, both in day-work and in
piece-work, expect to earn in a year, including harvest-work,
and the value of all his advantages and means of living?
4. State, as nearly as you can, the average annual expenditure
of labourers of different descriptions, specifying schooling
for children, religious teachers, &c.
5. Is there any, and what employment for women and children?
6. What can women, and children under 16, earn per week, in
summer, in winter and harvest, and how employed?
7. What, in the whole, might a labourer’s wife and four
children, aged 14, 11, 8 and 5 years respectively (the eldest
a boy), expect to earn in a year, obtaining, as in the former
case, an average amount of employment?
8. Could such a family subsist on the aggregate earnings of the
father, mother and children, and if so, on what food?
9. Could it lay by anything, and how much?
10. The average quantity of land annexed to a labourer’s
habitation?
11. What class of persons are the usual owners of labourers’
habitations?
12. The rent of labourers’ habitations, and price on sale?
13. Whether any lands let to labourers; if so, the quantity to
each, and at what rent?
14. The proportion of annual deaths to the whole population?
15. The proportion of annual births to the whole population?
16. The proportion of annual marriages to the whole population?
17. The average number of children to a marriage?
18. Proportion of legitimate to illegitimate births?
19. The proportion of children that die before the end of their
first year?
20. Proportion of children that die before the end of their
tenth year?
21. Proportion of children that die before the end of their
eighteenth year.
22. Average age of marriage, distinguishing males from females?
23. Causes by which marriages are delayed?
24. Extent to which, 1st, the unmarried; 2nd, the married, save?
25. Mode in which they invest their savings?
[1] Extracts from the information on the Administration of
the Poor Laws.
These questions, together with the volume to which they refer, of
Extracts of Information on the Administration of the Poor Laws, were
transmitted by Viscount Palmerston to His Majesty’s Foreign Ministers
and Consuls on the 30th November, 1833.
The replies to them form the remaining contents of the following pages.
It will be perceived, therefore, that this volume contains documents of
three different kinds:
1. Private Communications.
2. Diplomatic Answers to the general inquiries suggested by Viscount
Palmerston’s circular of the 12th of August, 1833.
3. Diplomatic Answers to the Questions framed by the Commissioners, and
contained in Viscount Palmerston’s circular of the 30th November, 1833.
Unfortunately, only a small portion of these documents had arrived
when the Commissioners made their Report to His Majesty on the 20th
February, 1834. The documents then received are contained in the first
115 pages of this volume, and were printed by order of the House of
Commons, and delivered to Members in May, 1834. Those subsequently
received were transmitted to the printers as soon as the requisite
translations of those portions which were not written in English or
French could be prepared. If it had been practicable to defer printing
any portion until the whole was ready, they might have been much more
conveniently arranged. But to this course there were two objections.
First, the impossibility of ascertaining from what places documents
would be received; and secondly, the difficulty of either printing
within a short period so large a volume, containing so much tabular
matter, or of keeping the press standing for six or seven months.
The Parliamentary printers have a much larger stock of type than any
other establishment, but even their resources did not enable them
to keep unemployed for months the type required for many hundred
closely-printed folio pages. The arrangement, therefore, of the
following papers is in a great measure casual, depending much less
on the nature of the documents than on the times at which they were
received. The following short summary of their contents, may, it is
hoped, somewhat diminish this inconvenience.
I.--The Private Communications consist of,
Page
1. Two Papers by Count Arrivabene, containing an account of the
labouring population of Gaesbeck, a village about nine miles from
Brussels (p. 1.); and a description of the state of the Poor
Colonies of Holland and Belgium in 1829 610
2. A Report, by Captain Brandreth, on the Belgian Poor Colonies,
in 1832 15
3. A Statement, by M. Ducpétiaux, of the Situation of the Belgian
Poor Colonies, in 1832 619
4. An Essay on the comparative state of the Poor in England and
France, by M. de Chateauvieux 2
5. Notes on the Administration of the Relief of the Poor in
France, by Ashurst Majendie, Esq. 34
6. A Report made by M. Gindroz to the Grand Council of the Canton
de Vaud, on Petitions for the Establishment of Almshouses 53
7. A Report by Commissioners appointed by the House of
Representatives, on the Pauper System of Massachusetts 57
8. A Report by the Secretary of State, giving an Abstract of the
Reports of the Superintendents of the Poor of the State of New
York 99
9. A Report by Commissioners appointed to draw up a Project of a
Poor Law for Norway 701
II.--The following are the answers to Viscount Palmerston’s Circular of
the 12th August, 1833.
Some of these Reports were transmitted to the Commissioners without
signatures. The names of the Authors have been since furnished by the
Foreign Office, and are now added.
AMERICA.
1. _New York_--Report from James Buchanan, Esq., his Majesty’s
Consul 109
2. _New Hampshire and Maine_--Report from J. Y. Sherwood, Esq.,
Acting British Consul 111
3. _The Floridas and Alabama_--Report from James Baker, Esq., his
Majesty’s Consul 113
4. _Louisiana_--Report from George Salkeld, Esq., ditto 115
5. _South Carolina_--Report from W. Ogilby, Esq., ditto 117
6. _Georgia_--Report from E. Molyneux, Esq., ditto 123
7. _Massachusetts_--Report from the Right Hon. Sir Charles R.
Vaughan, his Majesty’s Minister 123
8. _New Jersey_--Report from ditto 673
9. _Pennsylvania_--Report from Gilbert Robertson, Esq., his
Majesty’s Consul 135
EUROPE.
1. _Sweden_--Report from Lord Howard de Walden, his Majesty’s
Minister 343
2. _Russia_--Report from Hon. J. D. Bligh, ditto 323
3. _Prussia_--Report from Robert Abercrombie, Esq., his Majesty’s
Chargé-d’Affaires 425
4. _Wurtemberg_--Report from Sir E. C. Disbrowe, his Majesty’s
Minister 483
5. _Holland_--Report from Hon. G. S. Jerningham, his Majesty’s
Chargé-d’Affaires 571
6. _Belgium_--Report from the Right Hon. Sir R. Adair, his
Majesty’s Minister 591
7. _Switzerland_--Report from D. R. Marries, Esq., ditto 190
8. _Venice_--Report from W. T. Money, Esq., his Majesty’s
Consul-General 663
III.--Answers to the Questions suggested by the Commissioners, and
circulated by Viscount Palmerston on the 30th November, 1833, have been
received from the following places:
AMERICA.
1. _Massachusetts_--by George Manners, Esq., his Majesty’s Consul 680
2. _New York_--by James Buchanan, Esq., ditto 156
3. _Mexico_--R. Packenham, Esq., his Majesty’s Chargé-d’Affaires 688
4. _Carthagenia de Columbia_--by J. Ayton, Esq., British
Pro-Consul 164
5. _Venezuela_--by Sir R. K. Porter, his Majesty’s Consul 161
6. _Maranham_--by John Moon, Esq., ditto 692
7. _Bahia_--John Parkinson, Esq., ditto 731
8. _Uruguay_--by T. S. Hood, Esq., his Majesty’s Consul-General 722
9. _Hayti_--by G. W. Courtenay, Esq., ditto 167
EUROPE.
1. _Norway_--by Consuls Greig and Mygind 695
2. _Sweden_--by Hon. J. H. D. Bloomfield, his Majesty’s Secretary
of Legation 372
(_a_). _Gottenburg_--by H. T. Liddell, Esq., his Majesty’s
Consul 384
3. _Russia_--by Hon. J. D. Bligh, his Majesty’s Minister 330
(_a_). _Archangel_--by T. C. Hunt, Esq., his Majesty’s Consul 337
(_b_). _Courland_--by F. Kienitz, Esq., ditto 339
4. _Denmark_--by Peter Browne, Esq., his Majesty’s Secretary of
Legation 263
(_a_). _Elsinore_--by F. C. Macgregor, Esq., his Majesty’s
Consul 292
5. _Hanseatic Towns:_
(_a_). _Hamburgh_--by H. Canning, Esq., his Majesty’s
Consul-General 390
(_b_). _Bremen_--by G. E. Papendick, Esq., British
Vice-Consul 410
(_c_). _Lubeck_--by W. L. Behnes, Esq., ditto 415
6. _Mecklenburgh_--by G. Meyen, Esq., ditto 421
7. _Dantzig_--by Alexander Gibsone, Esq., his Majesty’s Consul 459
8. _Saxony_--by Hon. F. R. Forbes, his Majesty’s Minister 479
9. _Wurtemberg_--by Hon. W. Wellesley, Chargé-d’Affaires 507
10. _Bavaria_--by Lord Erskine, his Majesty’s Minister 554
11. _Frankfort on the Main_--by ---- Koch, Esq., his Majesty’s
Consul 564
12. _Amsterdam_--by R. Melvil, Esq., ditto 581
13. _Belgium:_
(_a_). _Antwerp and Boom_--by Baron de Hochepied Larpent, his
Majesty’s Consul 627
(_b_). _Ostend_--by G. A. Fauche, Esq., ditto 641
14. _France:_
(_a_). _Havre_--by Arch. Gordon, Esq., his Majesty’s Consul 179
(_b_). _Brest_--by A. Perrier, Esq., ditto 724
(_c_). _La Loire Inferieure_--by Henry Newman, Esq., ditto 171
(_d_). _Bourdeaux_--by T. B. G. Scott, Esq., ditto 229
(_e_). _Bayonne_--by J. V. Harvey, Esq., ditto 260
(_f_). _Marseilles_--by Alexander Turnbull, Esq., ditto 186
15. _Portugal_--by Lieut. Col. Lorell, ditto 642
16. _The Azores_--by W. H. Read, Esq., ditto 643
17. _Canary Islands_--by Richard Bartlett, Esq., ditto 686
18. _Sardinian States_--by Sir Augustus Foster, his Majesty’s
Minister 648
19. _Greece_--by E. J. Dawkins, Esq., ditto 665
(_a_). _Patras_--by G. W. Crowe, Esq., his Majesty’s Consul 668
20. _European Turkey_-- 669
It is impossible, within the limits of a Preface, to give more than a
very brief outline of the large mass of information contained in this
volume, respecting the provision made for the poor in America and in
the Continent of Europe.
AMERICA.
It may be stated that, with respect to America, a legal provision is
made for paupers in every part of the United States from which we have
returns, excepting Georgia and Louisiana; and that no such provision
exists in Brazil or in Hayti, or, as far as is shown by these returns,
in any of the countries originally colonized by Spain.
The system in the United States was of course derived from England, and
modified in consequence, not only of the local circumstances of the
country, but also of the prevalence of slavery in many of the States,
and of federal institutions which by recognising to a certain extent
each State as an independent sovereignty, prevent the removal from one
State of paupers who are natives of another. Such paupers are supported
in some of the northern districts not by local assessments, but out of
the general income of the State, under the name of state paupers.
The best mode of treating this description of paupers is a matter now
in discussion in the United States.
The following passage in the report of the Commissioners appointed to
revise the civil code of Pennsylvania, shows the inconveniences arising
from the absence of a national provision for them: (pp. 139, 143.)
We may be permitted to suggest one alteration of the present
law, of considerable importance. In Massachusetts and New
York, and perhaps in some other States, paupers who have
no settlement in the State are relieved at the expense of
the State. In this commonwealth the burthen falls upon the
particular district in which the pauper may happen to be.
This often occasions considerable expense to certain counties
or places from which others are exempt. The construction of
a bridge or canal, for instance, will draw to a particular
neighbourhood a large number of labourers, many of whom may
have no settlement in the State. If disabled by sickness or
accident, they must be relieved by the township in which they
became disabled, although their labour was employed for the
benefit of the State or county, as the case may be, and not for
the benefit of the township alone. If provision were made for
the payment of the expenses incurred by the township in such
case out of the county, or perhaps the State treasury, we think
that it would be more just, and that the unhappy labourer would
be more likely to obtain adequate relief, than if left to the
scanty resources of a single township. A case which is stated
in the second volume of the Pennsylvania Reports (_Overseers v.
M’Coy_, p. 432), in which it appeared, that a person employed
as a labourer on the State Canal, and who was severely wounded
in the course of his employment, was passed from one township
to another, in consequence of the disinclination to incur
the expense of supporting him, until he died of the injury
received, shows in a strong light the inconvenience and perils
of the present system respecting casual paupers, and may serve
to excuse our calling the attention of the legislature to the
subject.
On the other hand, the Commissioners appointed to revise the poor laws
of Massachusetts, after stating that the national provision in their
State for the unsettled poor has existed ever since the year 1675,
recommend its abolition, by arguments, a portion of which we shall
extract, as affording an instructive picture of the worst forms of
North American pauperism: (pp. 59, 60, 61.)
It will appear (say the Commissioners), that of the whole
number more or less assisted during the last year, that is,
of 12,331 poor, 5927 were State’s poor, and 6063 were town’s
poor; making the excess of town’s over State’s poor to have
been only 497. The proportion which, it will be perceived, that
the State’s poor bear to the town’s poor, is itself a fact
of startling interest. We have not the means of ascertaining
the actual growth of this class of the poor. But if it may
be estimated by a comparison of the State’s allowance for
them in 1792-3, the amount of which, in round numbers, was
$14,000, with the amount of the allowance twenty-seven years
afterwards, that is, in 1820, when it was $72,000, it suggests
matter for very serious consideration. So sensitive, indeed,
to the increasing weight of the burthen had the legislature
become even in 1798, when the allowance was but $27,000 that
“an Act” was passed, “specifying the kind of evidence required
to accompany accounts exhibited for the support of the poor
of the Commonwealth.” In 1821, with a view to still further
relief from the evil, the law limited its allowance to 90 cents
a week for adults, and to 50 cents for children; and again,
for the same end, it was enacted, in 1823, that “no one over
twelve, and under sixty years of age, and in good health,
should be considered a State pauper.” The allowance is now
reduced to 70 cents per week for adults, and proportionally
for children; and in the cases in which the poor of this class
have become an integral part of the population of towns, and
in which, from week to week, through protracted sickness, or
from any cause, they are for the year supported by public
bounty, the expense for them is sometimes greater than this
allowance. But this is comparatively a small proportion of
the State’s poor: far the largest part, as has been made to
appear, consists of those who are but occasionally assisted,
and, in some instances, of those of whom there seems to be good
reason to infer, from the expense accounts, that they make a
return in the product of their labour to those who have the
charge of them, which might well exonerate the Commonwealth
from any disbursements for their support. Even 70 cents a week,
therefore, or any definable allowance, we believe, has a direct
tendency to increase this class of the poor; for a charity will
not generally be very resolutely withheld, where it is known
that, if dispensed, it will soon be refunded. And we leave it
to every one to judge whether almsgiving, under the influence
of this motive, and to a single and defined class, has not a
direct tendency at once to the increase of its numbers, and to
a proportionate earnestness of importunity for it.
It is also not to be doubted, that a large proportion of this
excess of State’s poor, more or less assisted during the year,
consist of those who are called in the statements herewith
presented, “wandering or travelling poor.” The single fact
of the existence among us of this class of fellow-beings,
especially considered in connexion with the facts, that nearly
all of them are State’s poor, and that, to a great extent, they
have been made what they are by the State’s provision for them,
brings the subject before us in a bearing, in which we scarcely
know whether the call is loudest to the pity we should feel
for them, or the self-reproach with which we should recur to
the measures we have sanctioned, and which have alike enlarged
their numbers and their misery. Nor is it a matter of mere
inference from our tables, that the number is very large of
these wandering poor. To a considerable extent, and it is now
regretted that it was not to a greater extent, the inquiry was
proposed to overseers of the poor, “How many of the wandering,
or travelling poor, annually pass under your notice?” And the
answers, as will appear in the statements, were from 10 to
50, and 100 to 200. Nor is there a more abject class of our
fellow-beings to be found in our country than is this class of
the poor. Almshouses, where they are to be found, are their
inns, at which they stop for refreshment. Here they find rest,
when too much worn with fatigue to travel, and medical aid when
they are sick. And, as they choose not to labour, they leave
these stopping places, when they have regained strength to
enable them to travel, and pass from town to town, _demanding_
their portion of the State’s allowance for them as _their
right_. And from place to place they receive a portion of
this allowance, as the easiest mode of getting rid of them,
and they talk of the allowance as their “rations;” and, when
lodged for a time, from the necessity of the case, with town’s
poor, it is their boast that they, by the State’s allowance for
them, support the town’s inmates of the house. These unhappy
fellow-beings often travel with females, sometimes, but not
always their wives; while yet, in the towns in which they take
up their temporary abode, they are almost always recognized and
treated as sustaining this relation. There are exceptions, but
they are few, of almshouses in which they are not permitted
to live together. In winter they seek the towns in which they
hope for the best accommodations and the best living, and where
the smallest return will be required for what they receive.
It is painful thus to speak of these human beings, lest, in
bringing their degradation distinctly before the mind, we
should even for a moment check the commiseration which is so
strongly claimed for them. We feel bound therefore to say, that
bad as they are, they are scarcely less sinned against in the
treatment they receive, than they commit sin in the lawlessness
of their lives. Everywhere viewed, and feeling themselves to be
outcasts; possessed of nothing, except the miserable clothing
which barely covers them; accustomed to beggary, and wholly
dependent upon it; with no local attachments, except those
which grow out of the facilities which in some places they may
find for a more unrestrained indulgence than in others; with
no friendships, and neither feeling nor awakening sympathy; is
it surprising that they are debased and shameless, alternately
insolent and servile, importunate for the means of subsistence
and self-gratification, and averse from every means but that
of begging to obtain them? The peculiar attraction of these
unhappy fellow beings to our Commonwealth, and their preference
for it over the States to the south of us, we believe is to
be found in the legal provision which the State has made for
them. Your Commissioners have indeed but a small amount of
direct evidence of this; but the testimony of the chairman of
the overseers in Egrement to this fact, derived from personal
knowledge, was most unequivocal, and no doubt upon the subject
existed in the minds of the overseers in many other towns.
But shall we therefore condemn, or even severely blame, them?
Considered and treated, in almost every place, as interlopers,
strollers, vagrants; as objects of suspicion and dread, and,
too often, scarcely as human beings; the cheapest methods are
adopted of sending them from town to town, and often with the
assurance given to them that _there_, and not _here_, are
accommodations for them, and that _there_ they may enjoy the
bounty which the State has provided for them. Would such a
state of things, your Commissioners ask, have existed in our
Commonwealth, if a specific legal provision had not been made
for this class of the poor? Or, we do not hesitate to ask, if
the Government had never recognized such a class of the poor as
that of State’s poor,--and, above all, if compulsory charity,
in any form, had never been established by our laws, would
there have been a twentieth part of the wandering poor which
now exists in it, or by any means an equal proportion of poor
of any kind with that which is now dependent upon the taxes
which are raised for them? Your Commissioners think not.
Either an increase of the evils of pauperism, or a clearer perception
of them, has induced most of the States during the last 10 years
to make, both in their laws for the relief of the poor and in the
administration of those laws, changes of great importance. They
consist principally in endeavouring to avoid giving relief out of the
workhouse, and in making the workhouse an abode in which none but the
really destitute will continue. Compared with our own, the system is,
in general, rigid.
In the detailed account of the workhouses in Massachusetts, (pages
68 to 93,) the separation of the sexes appears to be the general
rule wherever local circumstances do not interfere: a rule from which
exceptions are in some places made in favour of married couples. And in
the returns from many of the towns it is stated that no relief is given
out of the house.
The following passages from the returns from New Jersey, Pennsylvania
and New York, are also evidences of a general strictness of law and of
administration.
By the laws of New Jersey,
The goods and chattels of any pauper applying for relief are to
be inventoried by the overseer before granting any relief, and
afterwards sold to reimburse the township, out of the proceeds,
all expenses they have been at; all sales of which by the
pauper, after he becomes chargeable, are void.[2]
The same rule prevails in Pennsylvania. When any person becomes
chargeable, the overseers or directors of the poor are required to
sue for and recover all his property, to be employed in defraying the
expense of his subsistence.[3]
By the laws of the same State,
No person shall be entered on the poor-book of any district,
or receive relief from any overseers, before such person, or
some one in his behalf, shall have procured an order from
two magistrates of the county for the same; and in case any
overseer shall enter in the poor-book or relieve any such poor
person without such order, he shall forfeit a sum equal to the
amount or value given, unless such entry or relief shall be
approved of by two magistrates as aforesaid. (p. 142.)
Nor is the relief always given gratuitously, or the pauper always at
liberty to accept and give it up as he may think fit; for by a recent
enactment[4] the guardians are authorized--
To open an account with the pauper, and to charge him for his
maintenance, and credit him the value of his services; and
all idle persons who may be sent to the almshouse by any of
the said guardians, may be detained in the said house by the
board of guardians, and compelled to perform such work and
services as the said board may order and direct, until they
have compensated by their labour for the expenses incurred on
their account, unless discharged by special permission of the
board of guardians; and it shall be the duty of the said board
of guardians to furnish such person or persons as aforesaid
with sufficient work and employment, according to their
physical abilities, so that the opportunity of reimbursement
may be fully afforded: and for the more complete carrying into
effect the provisions of this law, the said board of guardians
are hereby authorized and empowered to exercise such authority
as may be necessary to compel all persons within the said
almshouse and house of employment to do and perform all such
work, labour, and services as may be assigned to them by the
said board of guardians, provided the same be not inconsistent
with the condition or ability of such person.
And whereas it frequently happens that children who have been
receiving public support for indefinite periods are claimed by
their parents when they arrive at a proper age for being bound
out, the guardians are authorized to bind out all children that
have or may receive public support, either in the almshouse
or children’s asylum, although their parents may demand their
discharge from the said institutions, unless the expenses
incurred in their support be refunded.
In New York the administration of the law is even more severe than this
enactment:--
With respect to poor children, (says Mr. Buchanan,) a system
prevails in New York, which, though seemingly harsh and
unfeeling, has a very powerful influence to deter families
from resorting to the commissioners of the poor for support,
or an asylum in the establishment for the poor; namely, that
the commissioners or overseers apprentice out the children, and
disperse them to distant parts of the State; and on no account
will inform the parents where they place their children. (p.
110.)
[2] New Jersey Revised Laws, p. 679.
[3] Act of 1819, p. 155.
[4] Act of 5th March, 1828, p. 149.
EUROPE.
It appears from the returns that a legal claim to relief exists in
Norway, Sweden, Russia, Denmark, Mecklenburg, Prussia, Wurtemberg,
Bavaria, and the Canton de Berne; but does not exist in the Hanseatic
Towns, Holland, Belgium, France, Portugal, the Sardinian States,
Frankfort, Venice, Greece, or Turkey. The return from Saxony does not
afford data from which the existence or non-existence of such a claim
can be inferred.
The great peculiarity of the system in the North of Europe is the
custom of affording relief by quartering the paupers on the landholders
in the country and on householders in the towns.
NORWAY.
Consuls Greig and Mygind, the authors of the return from Norway, state,
that the--
Impotent through age, cripples, and others who cannot subsist
themselves, are, in the country districts, billeted or
quartered on such of the inhabitants (house and landholders in
the parish) as have the means of providing for them. By them
they are furnished with clothing and food, and they are in
return expected to perform such light services as they can.
In the distribution, respect is had to the extent or value of
the different farms, and to the number of the indigent, which
varies greatly in different parishes. In some they have so
few poor that only one pauper falls to the lot of five or six
farms, who then take him in rotation; whilst in other parishes
they have a pauper quartered on every farm or estate all the
year round, and on the larger ones several. (p. 696.)
It is to be regretted that the information respecting the existing
poor laws of Norway is not more full and precise. The return contains
two projects of law, or in other words, bills, for the relief of the
poor in the country and in towns, drawn up in 1832, in obedience to
a government commission issued in 1829; and also the arguments of the
commissioners in their support; but it does not state how far these
projects have been adopted.
In treating of the modes of relief, the bill for the country states
that,
Section 26. The main principle to be observed everywhere in
affording relief is to maintain “lœgd,” or the outquartering
of the paupers, wherever it has existed or can be introduced,
taking care to avoid the separation of families. The regulation
of “lœgd,” where it has been once established among the farms,
should be as durable and as little liable to alteration as
possible; so that a fresh arrangement should be made only
in instances where there exists a considerable decrease or
increase in the number of the paupers quartered out, or a
marked alteration in the condition of the occupiers upon whom
they are so quartered. In the event of a fresh arrangement, it
is desirable that the existing paupers hitherto provided for
should, in as far as may be consistent with justice towards the
parties to whom they are quartered, continue to have “lœgd”
upon the same farm or farms where they have hitherto been
relieved. Families not belonging to the class of peasants are
bound to have paupers quartered upon them in “lœgd” in case
they cultivate land; however, the overseer of the district
is competent to grant permission to them as well as to other
“lœgds-ydere,” to let out the “lœgd” when he finds that they
individually are unable to provide for the pauper on their
own lands, and the letting out can be effected without any
considerable inconvenience to the latter. (p. 704.)
27. When a new regulation of “lœgd” takes place, or new “lœgd”
is established, a statement in writing of the “lœgd,” or
outquartering intended, is to be issued by the commission,
or by the overseer on its behalf, containing the name of the
pauper to be outquartered, and the farm or farms on which
he shall receive “lœgd,” and in case it is on several, the
rotation, and for what period, on each. In case the “lœgd”
is only to be during the winter, or during a certain part
of the year, this likewise is to be stated. In like manner
the houseless and others, who are provided with relief in
kind from particular farms, are to be furnished with a note
setting forth the quantity the individual has to demand of
each farm, and the time at which he is entitled to demand the
same. In default of the furnishing of these contributions in
proper time, they are to be enforced by execution, through the
lensmand. (p. 705.)
5. In case the house poor, and other poor who are not quartered
out, conduct themselves improperly, are guilty of idleness,
drunkenness, incivility, obstinacy or quarrelsomeness, the
overseer is entitled to give them a serious reprimand; and
in case this is unattended with any effect, to propose in
the poor commission the reduction of the allowance granted
to the offender, to the lowest scale possible. Should this
prove equally devoid of effect, or the allowance not bear any
reduction, he may, in conjunction with the president of the
commission, report the case, at the same time stating the names
of the witnesses, to the sorenskriver[5], who on the next
general or monthly sitting of the court, after a brief inquiry,
by an unappealable sentence shall punish the guilty with
imprisonment not exceeding 20 days, upon bread and water.
In case of a like report from the superintendent of the “lœgd,”
of improper conduct on the part of the pauper quartered out,
the overseer shall give the said offending pauper a severe
reprimand; and in case this likewise proves devoid of effect,
the mode of proceeding to be the same as has been stated
already in reference to the house poor.
36. In case the person with whom a pauper has been quartered
out do not supply adequate relief, or ill use the pauper so
quartered upon him, and is regardless of the admonitions of
the overseer, an appeal to the sorenskriver is to take place,
and in other respects the mode of proceeding is to be the same
as is enacted in s. 35: when all the conduct complained of can
be proved, for which purpose, in default of other witnesses,
the combined evidence of the superintendent of the “lœgd,” and
of the overseer, is to be deemed sufficient, the offending
party to be fined, according to his circumstances and the
nature of the case, from 2 to 20 specie dollars, and in case of
ill-usage, to be imprisoned on bread and water for from 5 to 10
days; and in the event of a repetition of the offence, for from
10 to 20 days.
39. None may beg, but every person who is in such want that he
cannot provide for himself and those belonging to him, shall
apply for aid to the competent poor commission, or to the
overseer. In case any one is guilty of begging, for the first
offence he is to be seriously admonished by the overseer of
the district in which he has begged, who is likewise to point
out to him what consequences will follow a repetition of the
offence. In case he offends afterwards, he is to be punished
according to the enactments set forth in s. 35; and afterwards,
in case of a repetition of the offence, with from two months’
to a year’s confinement in the house of correction.
A person is not to be accounted a beggar who asks only for
food, when it appears that his want of sustenance is so great
that unless he tried to procure immediate relief he would be
exposed to perish of hunger, provided he immediately afterwards
applies to the overseer of the district for relief; or in case
the poor administration is unable to relieve all the poor in
years of scarcity, save in a very scanty manner, and the hungry
mendicant then confines himself to the soliciting of food. (p.
706.)
The bill directs that the poor-fund shall consist, in the country,
1. Of the interest of legacies, and other property belonging to it.
2. An annual tax of 12 skillings (equal according to Dr. Kelly, Univ.
Cambist, vol. 1, p. 32, to 2_s._ 6_d._ sterling,) on each hunsmand or
cottager, and on each man servant, and six skillings on each woman
servant.
3. A duty on stills equal to half the duty paid to the State.
4. Penalties directed by the existing laws to be paid over to that fund.
5. The property left by paupers, if they leave no wife or children
unprovided for.
6. An annual assessment on the occupiers of land, and on all others
capable of contributing, such as men servants, clerks, tutors, and
pilots.
In towns,
Of all the above-mentioned funds, except No. 2, and of a tax of one
skilling (2½_d._ sterling) per pot on all imported fermented liquors.
We have already remarked that the report does not state how far this
bill has passed into a law, or how its enactments differ from the
existing law: they appear likely, unless counteracted by opposing
causes, to lead to considerable evils. The relief by way of lœgd
resembles in some respects our roundsman system. It is, however,
less liable to abuse in one respect, because the lœgd, being wholly
supported by the lœgd-yder, must be felt as an incumbrance by the
farmer, instead of a source of profit. On the other hand, the situation
of the country pauper cannot be much worse than that of the independent
labourer; and in towns, though this temptation to idleness and
improvidence may be avoided by giving relief in the workhouse, the
temptation to give out-door and profuse relief must be considerable,
since a large portion of the poor-fund is derived from general sources,
and only a small part from assessment to which the distributors of
relief are themselves exposed. It is probable that the excellent habits
of the population, and the great proportion of landowners, may enable
the Norwegians to support a system of relief which in this country
would soon become intolerable.
[5] Sorenskriver, an officer in the country, whose duties are chiefly
those of a registrar and judge in the lowest court.
SWEDEN.
The fullest statement of the pauperism of Sweden is to be found
in a paper by M. de Hartsmansdorff, the Secretary of State for
Ecclesiastical Affairs, (p. 368); an extract from Colonel Forsell’s
Swedish Statistics, published in 1833, (p. 375); and Replies to the
Commissioners’ Queries from Stockholm, (p. 372), and from Gottenburgh,
(p. 384.)
M. de Hartsmansdorff states that every parish is bound to support its
own poor, and that the fund for that purpose arises from voluntary
contribution, (of which legacies and endowments appear to form a large
portion,) the produce of certain fines and penalties, and rates levied
in the country in proportion to the value of estates, and in towns
on the property or income of the inhabitants. Settlement depends on
residence, and on that ground the inhabitants of a parish may prevent
a stranger from residing among them. A similar provision is considered
in the Norwegian report, and rejected, (p. 718,) but exists in almost
every country adopting the principle of parochial relief, and allowing
a settlement by residence. An appeal is given, both to the pauper and
to the parishioners, to the governor of the province, and ultimately to
the King.
M. de Hartsmansdorff’s paper is accompanied by a table, containing
the statement of the persons relieved in 1829, which states them to
have amounted to 63,348 out of a population of 2,780,132, or about
one in forty-two. This differs from Colonel Forsell’s statement, (p.
376,) that in 1825 they amounted to 544,064, or about one in five.
It is probable that Colonel Forsell includes all those who received
assistance from voluntary contributions. “In Stockholm,” he adds,
“there are 83 different boards for affording relief to the poor,
independent one of the other, so that it happens often that a beggar
receives alms at three, four, or five different places.” There is also
much discrepancy as to the nature and extent of the relief afforded to
the destitute able-bodied. We are told in the Stockholm return, (p.
372,) that no legal provision is made for them; but by the Gottenburgh
return, (pp. 384 and 386,) it appears that they are relieved by being
billeted on householders, or by money.
The following severe provisions of the law of the 19th June, 1833, seem
directed against them. By that law any person who is without property
and cannot obtain employment, or neglects to provide himself with any,
and cannot obtain sureties for the payment of his taxes, rates, and
penalties, is denominated unprotected (förswarlös). An unprotected
person is placed almost at the disposal of the police, who are to allow
him a fixed period to obtain employment, and to require him to proceed
in search of it to such places as they think fit.
Should any person, (the law goes on to say,) who has led an
irreproachable life, and has become unprotected, not through
an unsteady or reprehensible conduct, but from causes which
cannot be reasonably laid to his charge, and who has obtained
an extension of time for procuring protection, still remains
without yearly employment or other lawful means of support,
and not be willing to try in other places to gain the means of
support, or shall have transgressed the orders that may have
been given him, and (being a male person) should not prefer to
enlist in any regiment, or in the royal navy, or should not
possess the requisite qualifications for that purpose, the
person shall be sent to be employed on such public works as
may be going on in the neighbourhood, or to a work institution
within the county, until such time as another opportunity may
offer for his maintenance; he shall however be at liberty,
when the usual notice-day arrives, and until next moving-time,
to try to obtain legal protection with any person within the
county who may require his services, under the obligation to
return to the public work institution in the event of his not
succeeding. Should there be no public work to be had in the
neighbourhood, or the person cannot, for want of necessary
room, be admitted, he shall be sent to a public house of
correction, and remain there, without however being mixed with
evil-disposed persons or such as may have been punished for
crimes, until some means may be found for him or her to obtain
a lawful maintenance.--(p. 362.)
Servants or other unprotected persons who have of their own
accord relinquished their service or constant employ, and by
means of such or other reprehensible conduct have been legally
turned out of their employ, or who do not perform service
with the master or mistress who has allowed such person to
be rated and registered with them, or who, in consequence of
circumstances which ought to be ascribed to the unprotected
person himself, shall become deprived of their lawful means
of support, but who may not be considered as evil-disposed
persons, shall be bound to provide themselves with lawful
occupations within 14 days, if it be in a town, and within
double that number of days if it be in the country. Should the
unprotected person not be able to accomplish this, it shall
depend on Our lord-lieutenant how far he may deem it expedient
to grant a further extended time, for a limited period, to a
person thus circumstanced, in order to procure himself means
for his subsistence.--(p. 363).
Such persons as may either not have been considered to
be entitled to an extension of time for procuring lawful
maintenance, or who, notwithstanding such permission, have not
been able to provide themselves with the same, shall be liable
to do work, if a man, at any of the corps of pioneers in the
kingdom, and if a woman, at a public house of correction. If
the man is unfit for a pioneer, he shall in lieu thereof be
sent to a public house of correction.--(p. 363.)
It appears that pauperism has increased under the existing system.
Mr. Bloomfield states that since its institution the number of poor
has increased in proportion to the population (p. 368). The Stockholm
return states that--
The main defect of the charitable institutions consists in a
very imperfect control over the application of their funds,
the parish not being accountable for their distribution to any
superior authority. This is so much felt, that new regulations
are contemplated for bringing parish affairs more under the
inspection of a central board. Another great evil is, that each
parish manages its affairs quite independently of any other,
and frequently in a totally different manner; and there is no
mutual inspection among the parishes, which, it is supposed,
would check abuses. Again, parishes are not consistent in
affording relief; they often receive and treat an able-bodied
impostor (who legally has no claim on the parish) as an
impotent or sick person, whilst many of the latter description
remain unaided.
The Swedish artizan is neither so industrious nor so frugal as
formerly; he has heard that the destitute able-bodied are in
England supported by the parish; he claims similar relief, and
alleges his expectation of it as an excuse for prodigality or
indifference to saving.--(p. 375.)
That the number of poor (says Colonel Forsell) has lately
increased in a far greater progression than before, is indeed
a deplorable truth. At Stockholm, in the year 1737, the number
of poor was 930; in 1825 there were reckoned 15,000 indigent
persons. Their support, in 1731, cost 9000 dollars (dallar). In
1825, nearly 500,000 rix dollars banco were employed in alms,
donations, and pensions. Perhaps these facts explain why, in
Stockholm, every year about 1500 individuals more die than are
born, although the climate and situation of this capital is by
no means insalubrious; for the same may be said of almshouses
as is said of foundling hospitals and similar charitable
establishments, that the more their number is increased, the
more they are applied to.
In the little and carefully governed town of Orebro, the
number of poor during the year 1780 was no more than 70 or 80
individuals, and in the year 1832 it was 400! In the parish of
Nora, in the province of Nerike, the alms given in the year
1814 were 170 rix-dollars 4 sk.; and in 1832, 2138 rix-dollars
27 sk.; and so on at many other places in the kingdom. That the
case was otherwise in Sweden formerly, is proved by history.
Botin says that a laborious life, abhorrence of idleness and
fear of poverty, was the cause why indigent and destitute
persons could be found, but no beggars. Each family sustained
its destitute and impotent, and would have deemed it a shame to
receive support from others.
[Sidenote: The price of 8 kappar = 1½ doll., or 2_s._ 5_d._]
When the accounts required from the secretary of state
for ecclesiastical affairs, regarding the number of and
institutions for the poor, shall be reduced to order, and issue
from the press, they must impart most important information.
By the interesting report on this subject by the Bishop of
Wexio, we learn, that the proportion of the poor to the
population is as 1 to 73 in the government of Wexio, and as
1 to 54 in that of Jönköping. The assessed poor-taxes are,
on an average, for every farm (hemman,) eight kappar corn in
the former government, and 12½ in the latter. With regard to
the institutions for the poor, it is said, the more we give
the more is demanded, and instead of the poor-rates being
regulated by the want, the want is regulated by the profusion
of charities and poor-taxes.
In the bishopric of Wisby (Island of Gottland), the proportion
between the poor and those who can maintain themselves, is far
more favourable than in that of Wexio; for in the former only 1
in 104 inhabitants is indigent, and in 22 parishes there is no
common almshouse at all. Among 40,000 individuals, no more than
17 were unable to read.--(p. 377.)
RUSSIA.
A general outline of the provision for the poor in Russia, is contained
in the following extracts from Mr. Bligh’s report, (pp. 328, 329, 330).
As far as regards those parts of the empire which may most
properly be called Russia, it will not be necessary for me to
detain your Lordship long, since in them (where in fact by far
the greatest portion of the population is to be found), the
peasantry, being in a state of slavery, the lords of the soil
are induced more by their own interest, than compelled by law,
to take care that its cultivators, upon whom their means of
deriving advantage from their estates depend, are not entirely
without the means of subsistence.
Consequently, in cases of scarcity, the landed proprietors
frequently feel themselves under the necessity (in order to
prevent their estates from being depopulated) of expending
large sums, for the purpose of supplying their serfs with
provisions from more favoured districts. There is no doubt,
however, (of which they must be well aware) that in case
of their forgetting so far the dictates of humanity and of
self-interest, as to refuse this assistance to the suffering
peasantry, the strong hand of a despotic government would
compel them to afford it.
The only cases, therefore, of real misery, which are likely to
arise, are, when soldiers, who having outlived their 25 years’
service, and all the hardships of a Russian military life,
fail in getting employment from the government as watchmen in
the towns, or in other subordinate situations, and returning
to their villages, find themselves unsuited by long disuse to
agricultural pursuits, disowned by the landed proprietors, from
whom their military service has emancipated them, and by their
relations and former acquaintances, who have forgotten them.
I am led to understand, that in all well-regulated properties,
in order to provide for the contingencies of bad seasons, the
peasants are obliged to bring, to a magazine established by the
proprietor, a certain portion of their crops, to which they may
have recourse in case of need.
In the estates belonging to the government, which are already
enormous, and which are every day increasing, in consequence of
the constant foreclosing of the mortgages by which so many of
the nobility held their estates under the crown, more special
enactments are in vigour; inasmuch as in them, all serfs
incapable of work are supported by their relations, and those
whose relations are too poor to afford them assistance, are
taken into what may be termed poor-houses, which are huts, one
for males, the other for females, built in the neighbourhood of
the church, at the expense of the section or parish, which is
also bound to furnish the inmates with fuel, food, and clothing.
The parish must, moreover, establish hospitals for the sick,
for the support of which, besides boxes for receiving alms, at
the church and in the hospitals themselves, all fines levied in
the parish are to be applied.
The clergy are compelled to provide for the poor of their
class, according to an ordonnance, regulating the revenues set
apart for this object, and enacting rules for the distribution
of private bequests and charities.
In _Courland_, _Esthonia_, and _Livonia_, the parish (or
community) are bound to provide for the destitute to the utmost
of their means, which means are to be derived from the common
funds; from bequests, or from any charitable or poor fund which
may exist; and in Esthonia, from the reserve magazines of
corn, which, more regularly than in Russia, are kept full by
contributions from every peasant.
When those are inadequate, a levy is made on the community,
which is fixed by the elders and confirmed by the district
authorities; and when this rate is levied, the landowners or
farmers contribute in proportion to the cultivation and works
they carry on, or to the amount of rent they pay; and the
labourers according to the wages they receive.
The overseers consist of the elder of the village, (who is
annually elected by the peasantry) and two assistants, one of
whom is chosen from the class of landholders or farmers, and
the other from the labourers, and who are confirmed by the
district police. One of these assistants has to give quarterly
detailed accounts to the district authorities, and the elder,
on quitting office, renders a full account to the community.
Those who will not work voluntarily may be delivered over to
any individual, and compelled to work for their own support, at
the discretion of the elder and his assistants.
Those poor who are found absent from home, are placed in the
hands of the police, and transferred to their own parishes.
All public begging is forbid by very strict regulations.
In the external districts of the _Siberian Kirghese_, which
are for the most part peopled by wandering tribes, the
authorities are bound to prevent, by every means in their
power, any individual of the people committed to their charge
from suffering want, or remaining without superintendence or
assistance, in case of their being in distress.
All the charitable offerings of the Kirghese are received by
the district authorities, and as they consist for the most
part of cattle, they are employed, as far as necessary, for
the service of the charitable institutions; the surplus is
sold, and the proceeds, together with any donations in money,
go towards the support of those establishments; when voluntary
contributions are not sufficient for that purpose, the district
authorities give in an estimate of the quantity of cattle of
all sorts required to make up the deficiency, and according
to their estimate, when confirmed by the general government,
the number of cattle required in each place is sent from the
general annual levy made for the service of the government.
In the _Polish Provinces_ incorporated with the empire, as the
state of the population is similar to that of Russia Proper,
the proprietors in like manner, in cases of need, supply
their peasantry with the means of existence; under ordinary
circumstances, however, the portions of land allotted to them
for cultivation, which afford them not only subsistence, but
the means of paying a fixed annual sum to their lords, and the
permission which is granted to them of cutting wood in the
forests for building and fuel, obviate the necessity of their
receiving this aid.
The same system existed in the _Duchy of Warsaw_ prior to 1806,
and every beggar and vagabond was then sent to the place of his
birth, where, as there was not a sufficiency of hands for the
cultivation of the soil, he was sure to find employment, or to
be taken care of by his master, whilst there were enough public
establishments for charity to support the poor in the towns
belonging to the government, and those, who by age, sickness,
or natural deformities, were unable to work.
But when the establishment of a regular code proclaimed all
the inhabitants of that part of _Poland_ equal in the eye of
the law, the relations of the proprietor and the peasant were
entirely changed; and the former having no power of detaining
the latter upon his lands, except for debt legally recognised,
was no longer obliged to support them.
So great and sudden a change in the social state of the country
soon caused great embarrassment to the government, who being
apprehensive of again altering a system which involved the
interests of the landed proprietors, the only influential class
in the country, for a long time eluded the consideration of
the question, by augmenting the charitable institutions; but
at length the progressive expense of this system compelled the
Minister of Finance to refuse all further aid to uphold it,
and by an arbitrary enactment, recourse was had to the former
plan of passing the poor to the places of their birth. As this
arrangement is only considered as provisional, and as the
population has not hitherto more than sufficed for the purpose
of agriculture, and the manufactories which were established
prior to the late insurrection, it has not been much complained
of, though the necessity for some more precise and positive
regulations respecting the poor is generally acknowledged.
In _Finland_, there are no laws in force for the support of the
indigent, nor any charitable establishments, except in some of
the towns. In the country districts it is expected that reserve
magazines of corn should be kept in every parish, but I cannot
ascertain that the adoption of this precautionary measure is
imperative upon the landed proprietors and peasantry.
On comparing, however, Mr. Bligh’s statement as to the law in Courland
with that made by M. Kienitz His Majesty’s Consul, it does not seem
that the provision afforded by law is often enforced, excepting as
to the support of infirmaries. It appears from his report that the
government provides expeditiously for vagrants by enrolling them as
soldiers or setting them on the public works; and that the proportion
of the population to the means of subsistence is so small, and the
demand for labour so great, that scarcely any other able-bodied paupers
are to be found.
DENMARK.
The information respecting Denmark is more complete and derived from
more sources than any other return contained in this volume.
The Danish poor law is recent. It appears (p. 278) to have originated
in 1798, and to have assumed its present form in 1803. The following
statement of its principal provisions is principally extracted from Mr.
Macgregor’s report (pp. 280, 283, 284-7, 288, 273-285, 289, 290).
[Sidenote: Poor districts.]
Each _market town_, or kiöbstœd, (of which there are 65 in
Denmark,) constitutes a separate poor district, in which are
also included those inhabitants of the adjacent country who
belong to the parish of that town. In the _country_, each
parish forms a poor district.
The poor laws are administered in the _market towns_ by a board
of commissioners, consisting of the curate, of one of the
magistrates (if any), of the provost (byefoged) in his quality
of policemaster, and of two or more of the most respectable
inhabitants of the place.
In the _country_ this is done in each district by a similar
board, of which the curate, the policemaster, besides one
of the principal landholders, and three to four respectable
inhabitants, are members, which latter are nominated for a term
of three years.
All persons are to be considered as destitute and entitled to
relief, who are unable, with their own labour, to earn the
means of subsistence, and thus, without the help of others,
would be deprived of the absolute necessaries of life.
[Sidenote: Classification of paupers.]
The poor to whom parochial relief may be awarded, are
divided into three classes. To the _first class_ belong the
aged and the sick, and all those who from bodily or mental
infirmity are wholly or partially debarred from earning the
means of subsistence. In the _second class_ are included
orphans, foundlings, and deserted children, as well as
those, the health, resources, or morals of whose parents are
of a description which would render it improper to confide
the education of children to their care. The _third class_
comprises families or single persons, who from constitutional
weakness, a numerous offspring, the approach of old age or
similar causes, are unable to earn a sufficiency for the
support of themselves or children.
[Sidenote: Relief to first class.]
Paupers of the first class who are destitute of other support,
are to be supplied by the proper parish officers:
(_a_) With food (or in market towns where the necessary
establishments for that purpose are wanting, with money in
lieu thereof); to which, in the agricultural districts, the
inhabitants have to contribute, according to the orders issued
by the commissioners, either in bread, flour, pease, groats,
malt, bacon, butter or cheese, or in corn, or in money,
or by rations, or in any other manner, which, from local
circumstances, may be deemed most expedient:
(_b_) With the necessary articles of clothing:
(_c_) With lodging and fuel, either by placing them in
establishments belonging to the parish, or in private dwellings:
(_d_) With medical attendance, either at their own dwellings,
or in places owned or rented by the parish.
[Sidenote: To second.]
The children belonging to the second class are to be placed
with a private family, to be there brought up and educated at
the expense of the parish, until they can be apprenticed or
provided for in any other manner.
The commissioners are carefully to watch over the treatment
and education of the children by their foster-parents, and
that such of them as have been put out to service are properly
brought up and instructed until they are confirmed.
[Sidenote: To third.]
The paupers of the third class are to be so relieved that
they may not want the absolute necessaries of life; but
avoiding mendicity on the one hand, they must at the same
time be compelled to work to the best of their abilities
for their maintenance. To render the relief of paupers of
this description more effectual, care must be taken that,
if possible, work be procured for them at the usual rate of
wages; and where the amount does not prove sufficient for their
support they may be otherwise assisted, but in general not with
money, but with articles of food and clothing, to be supplied
them at the expense of the parish.
In cases where families are left houseless, the commissioners
are authorized to procure them a habitation, by becoming
security for the rent; and where such habitation is not to be
obtained for them, they may be quartered upon the householders
in rotation, until a dwelling can be found in some other place.
Should the rent not be paid by the parties when due, such
persons must be considered as paupers, and be removed to that
district where they may be found to have a settlement. The
house-rent thus disbursed must in this case be looked upon as
temporary relief, and be borne by the parish that advanced
it. Where parish-officers refuse to obey these injunctions,
they may be compelled by a fine, to be levied daily until they
comply.
[Sidenote: Liabilities of pauper.]
The Danish law has established the principle, that every
individual receiving relief of any kind under the poor-laws, is
bound, either with his property or his labour, to refund the
amount so disbursed for him, or any part thereof; and authority
has therefore been given to the poor-law commissioners, “to
require all those whom it may concern, to work to the best of
their ability, until all they owe has been paid off.”
On relief being awarded to a pauper, the commissioners of
the district have forthwith to take an inventory of, and to
appraise, his effects, which are only to be delivered over to
him for his use, after having been marked with the stamp of the
board.
Any person receiving goods or effects so marked, either by way
of purchase or in pledge, shall be liable to the restitution
of the property, to the payment of its value, and besides to a
fine.
The same right is retained by the parish upon the pauper, if he
should happen to acquire property at a later period, as well as
it extends to his effects at his demise, though he should not
have received relief at the time of his death.
An ordinance of the 13th of August, 1814, expressly enacts,
that wherever a person absolutely refuses either to refund or
to pay by instalments the debt he has so contracted with the
parish, he shall be forced to pay it off by working for the
benefit of the same, and not be allowed to leave the parish;
but that if he do so notwithstanding, he is to be punished by
imprisonment in the house of correction. The commissioners are
further authorized to stipulate the amount such individual is
to pay off per week, in proportion to his capability to work,
to the actual rate of wages and other concurring circumstances,
and that where such person either refuses to work, or is idle
or negligent during the working hours, he is to be imprisoned
on bread and water until he reform his conduct.
[Sidenote: Begging.]
The poor having thus been provided for, begging is prohibited,
and declared to be liable to punishment.
In adjudging punishment for begging, it is to be taken into
consideration whether the mendicant was in need of support or
not. In the first case he shall, the first time, be imprisoned
fourteen days; the second time, four weeks; and the third time,
work for a year in the house of correction. For every time the
offence is committed, the punishment to be doubled. But if the
mendicant is able to work, and thus not entitled to support
from the parish, he shall, the first time, be imprisoned four
weeks; the second time, eight weeks; and the third time, work
for two years in the house of correction, which last punishment
is to be doubled for every time the offence is committed. When
the term of punishment is expired, the beggar is to be sent
to his home under inspection, and his travelling expenses by
land in every parish through which he passes to be paid by the
poor-chest of the bailiwick in which the parish lies; but his
conveyance by water to be paid by the parish bound to receive
him.
[Sidenote: Duty of the poor to seek service.]
In the market-towns, all persons belonging to the working
classes are obliged to enter into fixed service, unless they
have some ostensible means of subsistence, which must be proved
to the satisfaction of the magistrates, if required.
In the agricultural districts, every person belonging to the
class of peasants, who is not a proprietor or occupier of land,
a tacksman (_boelsmand_), or cottager (_huusmand_), or subsists
upon some trade or profession, is to seek fixed service, unless
he be married and permanently employed as a day-labourer.
Where a single person of either sex belonging to the labouring
class is not able to obtain a place, he (or she) shall within
two months before the regular term when regular servants are
changed (Skiftetid) apply to the parish-beadle, who, on the
Sunday following at church-meeting, is publicly to offer the
services of his client, and inquire amongst the community if
any person is in want of a servant, and will receive him (or
her) as such. Should the said person not get a place within a
fortnight, a similar inquiry is to be made in the neighbouring
parish.
_All those that have not followed the line of conduct pointed
out in the preceding regulation, and are without steady
employment, shall be considered as vagrants, and punished
accordingly._
It is also provided, that where parents, without sufficient
reason, keep more grown up children at home than they
absolutely require for their service, it shall be considered
indicative, either of their being in comparatively good
circumstances, or that their income has been improved by
the additional labour of their children, and their poor and
school-rates are to be raised in proportion.
[Sidenote: Mode of raising fund.]
It is not only made obligatory upon the house and landowners
to contribute to the parochial fund, but also upon servants
and labouring mechanics; in short, upon all persons, without
distinction of religion, who are not on the parish themselves,
and whose circumstances are such that they can afford to pay
the contribution in proportion to their incomes, without
thereby depriving themselves of the necessaries of life.
The only exception are the military, and persons receiving pay
from the military fund, who are only liable to contribute in so
far as they have private means.
The receipts of the parochial fund are derived from various
sources, which may be classed under the following heads, viz.--
[Sidenote: 1. Parochial fund.]
1ᵒ. An annual contribution in money, either voluntary or levied
upon the inhabitants, according to the assessment of the board
of commissioners in each parish, and in proportion to the
amount annually required for the relief of the poor.
This contribution is recovered in four quarterly instalments,
each of which is payable in advance. The commissioners have to
transmit a list of those persons that are in arrears to the
bailiff of the division, who may levy the amount by distress.
2ᵒ. A contribution assessed upon the produce of the ground-tax
in the townships.
3ᵒ. One-quarter per cent. of the proceeds of goods and effects
sold by public auction in the townships.
4ᵒ. Fines and penalties adjudged to the parochial fund by the
courts of justice, and the commissioners of arbitration in the
townships.
5ᵒ. Produce of collections in churches and hospitals on certain
occasions; of the sale of the effects of paupers deceased; of
the sale of stray cattle having no owner; voluntary donations
on the purchase or sale of houses and lands; contingencies.
6ᵒ. Interest on capital, and rent of lands or houses bequeathed
to, or otherwise acquired by, the poor administration.
[Sidenote: 2. Bailiwick fund.]
The receipts of the separate poor fund of the bailiwick consist
chiefly,--1ᵒ. In a proportion of certain dues levied in each
of its jurisdictions; 2ᵒ. In fines and penalties adjudged to
the fund by the tribunals and the commissions of arbitration in
the agricultural districts; 3ᵒ. In ¼% of all goods and effects
sold by public auction in the country; 4ᵒ. In the interest on
capital belonging to the fund.
This fund has been established for the following purposes:--1ᵒ.
Of contributing to the support of paupers who, although not
properly belonging to the poor of the district in which
they have become distressed, must still be relieved; 2ᵒ. Of
assisting the parochial fund in extraordinary cases; 3ᵒ. Of
defraying all expenses of a general nature that ought to be
assessed upon the several parish funds within the jurisdiction
of the bailiwick.
[Sidenote: Effects of these institutions.]
With respect to the effects of these institutions the evidence is not
consistent. Mr. Macgregor’s opinion is, on the whole, favourable.
Be the management (he says) of the poor-laws good or bad, yet
the system itself seems to have answered an important object,
that of checking the rapid growth of pauperism. I admit that
paupers have increased in Denmark these last thirty years, in
the same proportion with the increase of population (_pari
passu_); but I am far from believing that the proportion which
they bear to the whole population is _much_ greater now than
it was in 1803, namely, 1:32, although some of the townships,
from particular circumstances, may form an exception. I have
diligently perused all the different reports that have been
published for the last five years upon the present state of the
rural economy of the country, and they all concur in stating
that there is a slight improvement in the value of land; that
idle people are seldom found; and that there is sufficient work
in which to employ the labouring population.--(p. 291.)
Pauperism is chiefly confined (especially in the country) to
the class of day-labourers, both mechanic and agricultural,
who, when aged and decrepit, or burdened with large families,
throw themselves upon parish relief whenever they are
distressed from sickness or from some other casualty. But
happily the allowance-system, which is productive of so much
mischief, is not acted upon here to the same enormous extent as
in England, and as the able-bodied can expect nothing beyond
the _absolute_ necessaries of life, they have no inducement for
remaining idle, and they return to work the moment they are
able, and have the chance of obtaining any. Relief, therefore,
or the expectation of it, has hitherto not been found to
produce any sensible effect upon the _industry_ of labourers
generally, nor upon their _frugality_, although it is more than
probable that any relaxation in the management of the system
would stimulate them to spend all their earnings in present
enjoyment, and render them still more improvident than they
already are. Nor are the poor-laws instrumental in promoting
early marriages among the peasants; but it being their custom
to form engagements at a very early period of life, this, in
the absence of all moral restraint in the intercourse between
the two sexes, leads to another serious evil, _bastardy_,
which has so much increased of late years, that out of _ten_
children, _one_ is illegitimate.
A pauper in this kingdom lives in a state of degradation and
dependence; he only receives what is absolutely necessary for
his subsistence, and must often have recourse to fraud and
imposition to obtain that, what is reluctantly given.
The working labourer, on the other hand, enjoys a certain
degree of freedom and independence, although his means may
be small, and that sometimes he may even be subject to great
privations.
Should it ever so happen that the labouring population readily
submit to all the restrictions imposed upon them by the
parish officers, and that this is found not to be owing to
any transitory causes, such as a single year of distress or
sickness, _then_, in my humble opinion, the time is arrived
and no other remedy left to correct the evil than for the
government to promote emigration. (p. 292.)
Mr. Thaloman states that,
Hitherto these institutions have had a salutary and beneficial
effect on the nation, inasmuch as many thousand individuals
have been prevented from strolling about as beggars, and many
thousand children have received a good education, and have
grown up to be useful and orderly citizens. Neither as yet have
any remarkable symptoms of dissatisfaction appeared among the
wealthier classes. But we cannot be without some apprehension
for the future, since the poor-rates have been augmented to
such a degree that it would be very difficult to collect larger
contributions than those now paid. And as sufficient attention
has not been paid to this circumstance, that the farmers are
continually building small cottages, in which poor people
establish themselves, since the government have been unwilling
to throw any restraint on marriages between poor persons; there
seems reason to fear, that in the lapse of another period of
twenty years, the poor in many districts will to such a degree
have multiplied their numbers, that the present system will
yield no adequate means for their support.
In the towns much embarrassment is already felt, the poor
having increased in them to a much greater extent than in the
country.
All the taxes of a considerable merchant of Dram in Norway, who
owns eight trading vessels actually employed, amounted during
last year to not more than the school and poor-rates of one
large farm in the heath district which you visited last year.
(p. 279.)
M. N. N., a correspondent of Mr. Browne’s, and the author of a very
detailed account of the existing law, after stating that,
Benevolent as the Danish poor system will appear, it is
generally objected to it that the too great facility of gaining
admittance, particularly to the third class, encourages sloth
and indolence, especially in the country, where the means
are wanted to establish workhouses, the only sure way of
controlling those supported:
And that,
It is further objected to the present system, that it already
begins to fall too heavy on the contributors, and that in
course of time, with the constant increase of population, it
will go on to press still more severely on them, inasmuch as
their number and means do not by any means increase in a ratio
equal to the augmentation of the number wanting support: (p.
274.)
Adds, in answer to more specific inquiries,
Before the introduction of the present poor law system, the
distress was much greater, and begging of the most rapacious
and importunate kind was quite common in the country. This was
not only a heavy burthen on the peasantry, but was in other
respects the cause of intolerable annoyance to them; for the
beggars, when their demands were not satisfied, had recourse to
insolence and threats, nay, even to acts of criminal vengeance.
This is no longer the case, and _in so far_, therefore, the
present system has been beneficial.
It is a fact that poverty now appears in less striking features
than it did before the introduction of the poor law system.
This may, however, proceed from causes with which that system
has no connexion; for example, from the increased wealth of
the country in general, from improvements in agriculture, from
the large additions made to the quantity of arable land, which
have been in a ratio greatly exceeding that of the increased
population. If the clergyman, who is, and will always be the
leading member of the poor committee, was able to combine
with his other heavy duties, a faithful observance of the
rules prescribed for him in the management of the poor, I am
of opinion that the system would neither be a tax on industry
nor a premium on indolence. But it rarely happens that the
clergyman can bestow the requisite attention on the discharge
of this part of his duty; and therefore it is not to be denied
that the present poor law (not from any defect inherent in the
system, but merely from faulty management) does occasionally
act as a tax on industry and a premium on idleness. (p. 275.)
On the other hand, Mr. Browne thus replies to the questions as to the
effects of the poor laws on the, 1. industry, 2. frugality, 3. period of
marriage, and 4. social affections of the labouring classes, and on the
comparative condition of the pauper and the independent labourer. (pp.
266, 267.)
1. On the industry of the labourers?--On their industry, most
injurious, involving the levelling principle to a very great
degree, lowering the middleman to the poor man, and the poor
man who labours to the pauper supported by the parish. It tends
to harden the heart of the poor man, who demands with all that
authority with which the legal right to provision invests him.
There is no thankfulness for what is gotten, and what is given
is afforded with dislike and reluctance.
2. On their frugality?--The poor laws greatly weaken the frugal
principle.
3. On the age at which they marry?--Encourage early and
thoughtless marriages. The children are brought up with the
example of indolence and inactivity before their eyes, which
must be most prejudicial in after-life. I have often remarked
amongst the people, who are naturally soft, susceptible and
sympathizing, an extraordinary insensibility towards those who
voluntarily relieve them, even at the moment of relief, and
no gratitude whatever afterwards. I can attribute this most
undesirable state of feeling, so contrary to what might be
expected from the natural character of the people, solely to
the perpetual association of right to relief. Thus does the
system always disturb and often destroy the moral and kindly
relation which should subsist and which is natural, between
the higher and lower orders. The poor man becomes stiff and
sturdy; the rich man indifferent to the wants and sufferings
of the poor one. He feels him a continual pressure, at moments
inconvenient to relieve, and under circumstances where he
would often withhold if he could, partly from dislike to the
compulsory principle, and often not regarding the case as one
of real charity, and disapproving, as he naturally may, of the
whole system of poor laws’ administration. From all I have
observed, I feel persuaded (and I have lived a good deal in the
country, having had much connexion with the lower orders, and
not having been indifferent to their condition either moral or
physical) that a more mischievous system could not have been
devised--that poverty has been greatly increased by weakening
the springs of individual effort, and destroying independence
of character--that the lower orders have become tricky, sturdy
and unobliging, the higher orders cold and uncharitable; and in
short, that ere long, unless some strenuous steps are taken,
Denmark will drink deep of the bitter cup of which England, by
a similar system, has been so long drinking to her grievous
cost. Were there no other objection, the machinery is wanting
to conduct so delicate and complicated a system. And were it
the best possible, and had the managers no other occupation
but the one, the ingenuity of idleness to escape from action
is so great, that it would often, very often, defeat eyes less
actively open to detect it. I have spoken with few who do not
object to the system from first to last, or who do not press an
opinion that the state of the population before the existence
of the poor laws was more desirable by far than at present.
4. On the mutual dependence and affection of parent, children,
and other relatives?--No doubt it materially disturbs the
natural dependence and affection of parent and child. The
latter feels his parent comparatively needless to him; he
obtains support elsewhere; and the former feels the obligation
to support the latter greatly diminished. In short, being
comparatively independent of each other, the affections must
inevitably become blunted.
5. What, on the whole, is the condition of the able-bodied
and self-supporting labourer of the lowest class, as compared
with the condition of the person subsisting on alms or public
charity; is the condition of the latter, as to food and freedom
from labour, more or less eligible?--Were I a Danish labourer,
I would endeavour to live partly on my own labour, and partly
on the parish, and I feel persuaded that a labourer so living
in Denmark will be better off than one who gets no help from
the parish; that is, the former, from a knowledge that he may
fall back on the parish, will spend all he earns at the time on
coffee, spirits, tobacco, snuff, &c., whereas the latter, who
certainly can live on his industry (except under extraordinary
and occasional emergencies, sickness, &c.) is debarred from
such gratifications. Under such circumstances, the _poorer_
labourer is better off than the _poor_ one.
And his views are supported by the following observations of Count
Holstein:
1st. The dread of poverty is diminished, and he who is
half-poor works less instead of more, so that he speedily
becomes a complete pauper. Those who are young and capable
of labour are less economical, always having the poor rate
in view, as a resource against want; likewise marriages are
contracted with much less forethought, or consideration as to
consequences.
2d. The morality of the poor man suffers, for he looks upon
his provision as a right, for which he, therefore, need not
be thankful; and, 3d, the morality of the rich man suffers,
for the natural moral relation between him and the poor man
has become completely severed; there is no place left for
the exercise of his benevolence; being obliged to give, he
does it with reluctance, and thus is the highest principle of
charitable action, Christian love, exposed to great danger of
destruction.
4th. As the clergyman of the parish is the president of the
poor committee, he becomes involved in transactions peculiarly
unsuited to his sacred calling, sometimes even compelled
to resort to the extremity of distraint to compel his own
parishioners to pay the allotted proportions; and thus does the
moral influence of him, who should be a picture of the God of
love, become every day less and less powerful. (p. 276.)
We have entered into this full statement of the Danish poor laws,
and of their administration, because they exhibit the most extensive
experiment that has as yet been made in any considerable portion of the
Continent of a system in many respects resembling our own.
MECKLENBURG.
The following passage, at the conclusion of M. Meyen’s report, gives a
short summary of the poor laws of Mecklenburg: (p. 424.)
Every inhabitant is obliged to pay certain poor rates, with
the exception of military men, up to a certain rank, students,
clerks in counting-houses and shops, assistant artisans and
servants.
When the crown lands are let, there is always a clause in the
contract, to regulate what the farmer, the dairy farmer, the
smith and the shepherd, are to give. A day labourer pays 8_d._
yearly.
The inhabitants of higher situation and public officers pay
voluntarily. They ought to pay one per cent. of their income.
If any one pays too little, the overseers of the poor rates
can oblige him to pay more. The overseers are chosen by the
inhabitants of the district.
In the towns all inhabitants pay a voluntary subscription; it
ought to be one per cent. of their income. If they pay too
little, the overseers can demand more. The overseers are chosen
by the magistrate.
With respect to estates belonging to private individuals, the
subsistence of the poor falls entirely to the charge of the
proprietor, who is entitled to levy a trifling tax from all
the inhabitants of the estate, equal to a simple contribution
amounting to 8_d._ for a day labourer per annum, and 4_d._ for
a maid servant. Few proprietors, however, levy such a tax.
Every one has a legal claim to assistance, and there are to be
distinguished,
1st. Able-bodied persons. Work and a dwelling _must_ be
provided for them; the former at the usual rate, in order not
to render them quite destitute, if through chicane work should
be denied to them.
2d. People, impotent through age, must perform such work as
they are capable of, and so much must be given to them that
they can live upon it, besides a dwelling and fuel.
PRUSSIA.
There is some difficulty in reconciling Mr. Abercrombie’s report and
Mr. Gibsone’s. The following is Mr. Abercrombie’s statement: (pp. 425,
426.)
Throughout the whole kingdom of Prussia, the funds for the
maintenance and support of the poor are raised from private
charity. No law exists enabling either the government of the
country, or the subordinate provincial regencies, to raise
funds explicitly appropriated for the provision of the poor,
and it is only when private charity does not suffice for the
exigencies of the moment, that the government, or the regency,
advance money for that purpose. But to enable them to do so,
the amount must be taken from those funds which had been
destined for other purposes, such as, for improvements in
paving, lighting, or for the public buildings of a town, or for
the construction of roads, or other public works.
In Prussia, each town, and each commune, is obliged to take
charge of the poor that may happen to reside within them; and
consequently there is no passing from one parish to another, or
refusal to maintain an individual because he belongs to another
parish.
In each town there is a deputation (called armen-direction)
or society for the poor, who undertake the collection and
distribution of funds raised by charity. In small towns, of
under 3,500 inhabitants, exclusive of military, this society is
composed of the burgomaster, together with the town deputies
(forming the town senate) and burghers chosen from the various
quarters of the town.
In large and middle-sized towns, including from 3,500 to 10,000
inhabitants, exclusive of military, to the afore-mentioned
individuals is always added the syndic (or town accomptant),
and if necessary, another magistrate. Clergymen and doctors
are likewise included in the society; and where the police of
the place has a separate jurisdiction from the magistrate, the
president of the police has always a seat as a member of the
society.
Under this armen-direction the care of the poor is confided
to different sub-committees formed of the burghers, and for
this purpose the town is divided into poor districts (or
armenbezirke). In small and middle-sized towns, these districts
are again divided into sub-districts, containing not above
1,000, or less than 400 souls. In large towns the sub-districts
are to comprise not above 1,500, or less than 1,000 souls; and
in these last towns several sub-districts may, if requisite, be
united into one poor district or armenbezirke.
From each armenbezirke must be elected one or more of the
town deputies, or burghers, according to necessity, for the
management of the affairs of the poor; and it is also required
that at least one of those elected should be a member of
the society for the poor (or armen-direction), and these
individuals are required to find out and verify the condition
of the poor of their own district.
The direction of the affairs of the poor is therefore, as thus
established, confided entirely to the burghers of the town,
and the provision of the funds rests upon the charity and
benevolence of the inhabitants.
As regards hospitals and public charities, one or more of the
members of the armen-direction undertake to watch that the
funds are expended according to the provisions made by the
founders.
In the villages, the direction of the funds for the poor is
confided to the mayor (or schûltze), assisted by individuals
chosen for that purpose from amongst the principal inhabitants
of the commune.
This body is accountable to the councillor of the district (or
land rath), who is in like manner under the jurisdiction of the
provincial regency, and the whole is under the inspection of
the 1st section of the home department.
I have now specified the authorities who control the
maintenance for the poor, and who are likewise charged with the
care of administering to their wants.
_As regards the manner of obtaining the necessary funds,
everything is done by donations and private charity. Each house
proprietor, each inhabitant of a floor or apartment, is in his
turn visited by some of the members of the sub-committee of
the armenbezirke, who, in return for the donation, deliver a
receipt for the amount._
_The donations from residents are generally monthly, and vary
in amount according to the number of individuals in the family,
or to the feelings of generosity of the donor. No rate or
calculated fixed table exists, regulating the sum to be given
by each individual or head of a family._
Each town being governed by its own particular laws and customs
with regard to the management of its poor, and each from
accidental circumstances differing from its neighbour, it is
impossible to particularize any other general principle that
is followed, than the establishments of the armen-direction,
and of the sub-committees; which detailed information I have
extracted as above from the Städte Ordnüng, or town laws, as
revised in 1831.
As regards the practical working of this system, I have no
hesitation in affirming, that it is found universally to
succeed; that the effect upon the comfort, character, and
condition of the inhabitants, is, first, to afford speedy and
sufficient means of relief when necessary; that it prevents
in a great degree false applications, inasmuch as that the
districts being small, the really needy are more easily
discovered; and secondly, that as no tax is fixed for the
maintenance of the poor, it renders all classes more willing
and anxious to assist, according to their respective means, in
sustaining the funds required for the support of the poor. (p.
426.)
On the other hand, the following is the statement of Mr. Gibsone: (pp.
460, 461, 463, 464.)
In general it is the duty of the police authority in every
community, where any person in distress may come, to render him
the needful assistance for the moment, which must be repaid,
_a_) by the provincial pauper fund, if the person be a
foreigner, or have no domicile; or,
_b_) by the community, or owner of the estate (called the
dominium), he belongs to, if a native of the country.
_Destitute Able-bodied._
Every pretended needy person is duly examined by a medical
man, whether he be bodily and mentally able to maintain
himself (it is the same with families) by work, and in this
case he is required by the police to do so, and to conduct
himself properly. Any one who does not, is sent to the
poor-and-workhouse (the work is compulsive) of the province,
where he is taught to earn a livelihood. If the distress be
temporary, the proprietor of the estate (called the dominium),
or the community in which the indigent person has acquired
a settlement, is bound to afford the requisite relief; yet
having the right to claim restitution, upon the assisted person
becoming able to make it. When this is not the case, and the
relief has been afforded by a community, the members of it must
bear the expense, if in a town, out of its general funds; if
in the country, in the proportions they pay the land-tax to
the king, called war-contribution. The support is rendered in
giving a dwelling, (with a garden, if in the country), fuel,
salt, money, &c., wholly or partly, sometimes by boarding the
pauper, according to the necessity of the case.
There is in every province a poor-and-workhouse (the work
compulsive), for receiving the following persons:
_a_) such as have indeed a fixed place of abode in the country,
yet seek their livelihood by begging, although able to work;
_b_) actual paupers, who receive a fixed maintenance or
aid from communities, benevolent institutions, &c., yet,
notwithstanding, wander about the country begging;
_c_) invalid soldiers, found begging, as every soldier who has
been rendered invalid in war enjoys a pension from the state (a
very small one);
_d_) travelling handicraftsmen, as none are permitted to travel
in their profession who have not the means of subsistence, or
are above 30 years old;
_e_) foreign vagabonds, until they can be transported over the
borders;
_f_) those who have been punished for crime, in the fortress
or house of correction, and after expiration of their term of
punishment, are unable to show how they can earn an honest
livelihood;
_g_) such as by particular sentences are, or by future laws may
be, declared subjects for the compulsive workhouse.
It is left to every proprietor of an estate (called the
dominium), to every town and village community, to provide and
select, at their option, a livelihood for those individuals,
having a settlement under their jurisdiction, who cannot
procure such for themselves. _Should a proprietor of an estate,
or a community, not fulfil this obligation, it is compelled to
do so, but which seldom is necessary._
It is to be observed, that when, from bad crops, inundations,
&c., a general scarcity occurs in particular parts of the
country, works of public utility, such as turnpike-roads,
drains, and the like, are ordered by government, in order to
afford the inhabitants the means of subsistence, which work is
paid for with money, grain, salt, or other articles, as most
suitable, according to circumstances.
_No person, able-bodied or capable of earning a livelihood, has
a legal claim for support, but he can only, when misfortune
befals him, receive a temporary aid in the way of an advance._
For further answers to this question, see the preceding answers.
All children capable of going to school are obliged to attend
it. Those whose parents are unable to pay the expense,
must be sent thither at the cost of the community to which
they belong, which must also do the needful for clothing,
feeding, educating, and apprenticing them. Such children also
frequently receive assistance from private benevolent societies
and individuals.
_Impotent through Age._
In the towns, the community must provide for all the absolute
wants of the poor out of the municipal funds, and in every town
a board is established for directing the management of these
affairs.
In the country, the proprietors of the estates, or the village
authorities, must provide for these wants, for which, in
the latter case, the members of the village community must
contribute in the proportions as they pay the taxes to the
king, say the land-tax, called war contribution.
In Dantzig, the poor, besides being placed in the poor-house,
or, otherwise assisted, receive alms at their homes from a
charitable society of the citizens, whose funds arise partly
from private contributions, and partly from an annual supply
out of the municipal funds. From this society about 1000
persons yearly receive support (about one-third males and
two-thirds females), but not above about 3_s._ to 4_s._, and
not under 1_s._ monthly, for the time the support is required.
In winter, when severe, they get also firing, partly in
fir-wood, but chiefly in turf. The sum thus disbursed is now
considerably less than before, from the control on the part of
the magistracy being much stricter. The whole annual expense of
the society is about 1200_l._ sterling.
_Sick._
The law prescribes that every town and every village community
must support its own members when in distress, provided there
be no relations able to do so, and the owners of estates are
under a similar obligation; hence the sick stand under the same
regulations as the impotent through age.
_Effects of the foregoing Institutions._
The regulations for the support of paupers operate beneficially
on industry. Every proprietor of an estate, every community
of a town or village has unquestionably the most correct
knowledge of the bodily condition, of the moral conduct, of the
expertness, of the capability to earn a livelihood in whole
or in part, and of the pecuniary circumstances of the needy
persons under their jurisdiction, whom they are bound to
support, as well as of the circumstances of their relatives.
The pauper knows that aid must always be given when necessary,
_and he applies to the proper authority for it, when not duly
afforded_; while he is, on the other hand, deterred from
making exorbitant claims by his situation being so thoroughly
known in every respect, and from ungrounded demands not being
complied with. In general, therefore, neither the party called
upon for assistance, nor that requiring it, inclines to let
the authority interpose, but an amicable arrangement usually
takes place between them, according to existing circumstances.
The pauper must perform what service or work he can for those
who assist him, or for himself, towards contributing to his
own support as far as in his power; while those rendering
assistance can seek only in themselves the means to do so, of
course in the least expensive and most suitable manner. The
paupers are employed at various kinds of work and service,
accordingly as such is wanted and as they are able to perform
it, and this as well for their supporters, privately, as in the
public workhouses.
It is, in general, to be observed that the right of settlement
of individuals is established in the following manner:--
If any person acquires the right of citizenship in a town,
or a possession (house or lying-ground) in the country, or
if he is permitted by the local authority to form a regular
domicile by becoming a householder, he then is considered as an
expressly accepted member of the community, and the obligation
to support him, when reduced to want, immediately commences. So
soon, therefore, as any person shows an intention to settle,
or to become a householder, in a place, it is the business of
the community, or of those interested, to ascertain, through
the medium of the proper local authority, whether or not the
emigrant possesses sufficient means to maintain himself there.
Should this not be the case, and he is evidently unable to
earn a livelihood, then must the support of the individual
(or family) be borne by the community where he has previously
dwelt, and it is not advisable to permit the change of
domicile. Thence is the rule justified, that upon any person
being regularly received as member of a community, with the
express consent of its magistracy, that community becomes
bound to render him support, when his situation requires it.
Minors belong to the community in which their parents were
settled, even after the death of these. With regard to other
inhabitants, only that town or village community is bound to
maintain a pauper where he last contributed to its public
burthens.
A person who is of age, and has resided three succeeding years
in a place (for instance, as servant,) acquires by that the
right of settlement, but which he again loses by leaving the
place for one year. Privileged corporations, that possess a
particular poor-fund, or raise among themselves, pursuant to
their laws, the means to provide for their needy members, are
specially bound to maintain them.
In conformity with the rules before stated, must also the
wives, widows, and destitute children of paupers be supported
by the communities or corporations, or the owners of the
estates.
Paupers for whom communities, corporations, proprietors of
estates, or relatives are not bound to provide, according to
the foregoing rules, or when these are unable to do so, have
to be maintained in provincial poor and workhouses. These are
established at the expense of government, and supported by
contributions from the whole province.
We are inclined to suspect that the practice corresponds with Mr.
Abercrombie’s account, and the general law with Mr. Gibsone’s, and that
the pauper possesses a legal right to assistance, though that right is
seldom enforced, because the impotent are voluntarily provided for,
and the able-bodied would probably be sent to a penal workhouse. It is
probable indeed that the law itself is vague as respects the relief
of the able-bodied. The difficulty in framing a poor-law, of either
expressly admitting or expressly rejecting their claim, is such that
almost all who have legislated on the subject have left their legal
right undecided. Mr. Gibsone’s statement, that no person able-bodied
_or_ capable of earning a livelihood has a legal claim for support, is
inconsistent with his general account of the law, unless we change _or_
into _and_.
SAXONY.
But little information has been received from Saxony.
Some of the modes in which relief is administered appear, as they are
nakedly stated in the Report, to be liable to great abuse. We are told
that persons receive from the parishes to which they belong assistance
in proportion to their inability to maintain themselves; that a sum is
fixed as necessary to support a man, and that if he cannot earn the
whole, the difference is given to him as relief; and that with respect
to lodging, the parish interferes in cases where ejectment takes place
on account of non-payment of house-rent, and guarantees payment for a
short time to those who agree to receive the houseless (p. 479). These
customs, as they are mentioned, resemble the worst forms of English
mal-administration,--allowance and payment of rent.
Mr. Forbes, however, states that more relief than is strictly necessary
is never given; and that it has been the steady determination of every
government to render the situation of those receiving parochial relief
too irksome for it to proceed from any other than the merest necessity.
It is probable, therefore, that a strict administration prevents the
customs which have been mentioned from being sufficiently prevalent to
produce what have been their consequences with us.
WURTEMBERG.
The information respecting Wurtemberg is remarkably full and precise,
having been collected with great care by Sir Edward Disbrowe and Mr.
Wellesley, assisted by the provincial authorities and the government.
The kingdom of Wurtemberg consists of about 8000 square English miles,
inhabited by 1,578,000 persons, being about 200 persons to a square
mile. It is divided into 64 bailiwicks, which are subdivided into civil
communities or parishes, containing each not less than 500 individuals.
Each parish constitutes a separate corporation, and the parishes in
each bailiwick also constitute one superior corporation.
A large proportion of the parishes appears to possess a fund called
_pium corpus_, arising partly from voluntary contribution and other
casual receipts, but principally from funds which previously to the
Reformation had been employed for the purposes of the Roman Catholic
worship, and instead of being confiscated by the government, as was the
case in England, were directed to be employed for charitable purposes.
Many of them also have almshouses, or, as they are called in the
Reports, hospitals for the residence of the poor, and other endowments
for their use; and almost all possess an estate called an allemand,
which is the joint property of the persons for the time being having
bürgerrecht, or the right of citizenship in the parish, and is,
together with the _pium corpus_ and endowments, the primary fund for
the relief of the poor. Subject to the claims of the poor, the allemand
is divided among the bürghers, without reference to their wealth or
their wants, but apparently in equal proportion to each head of a
family, and enjoyed in severalty, but inalienably, either for life or
for a shorter period.
Sir E. Disbrowe states (p. 485) that the government of the parish is
vested in the mayor and a certain number of counsellors for life (who
appear to be appointed by the government), and an equal number of
representatives chosen by the bürghers, half of whom go out by rotation
every second year.
About nine-tenths of the population appear to be bürghers; the
remainder are called beisitzers or settled non-freemen, and differ
from the bürghers by having no claim on the allemand, or vote in the
election of the parochial authorities.
Bürgerrecht is obtained by inheritance, or by purchase at a sum
regulated by law, but varying according to the allemand and the
population of each parish.
It is lost by emigration or misconduct. 1st, A person who has lost his
bürgerrecht is entitled to purchase that right in the parish in which
he formerly possessed it: a person who never possessed that right is
entitled to purchase it; 2dly, In the parish in which he spent the last
five years. In default of this claim, 3dly, in the parish in which
he obtained his marriage license. 4thly, If unmarried, in the parish
in which he was born; or 5thly, if he have none of these claims, in
the parish to which the police thinks fit to assign him. If he cannot
or will not pay the requisite purchase-money, he is bound by payment
of half the previous sum to constitute himself a beisitzer, and has
similar claims to admission as a beisitzer. If he cannot pay this sum
he is assigned by the police to a parish, as a beisitzer, without
payment.
Having given this outline of the mode in which the population is
distributed, we proceed to state, from the report furnished by the
government, the degree and mode in which the poor are relieved. (Pages
524, 525, 537, 538, 539, 540, 541, 542, 543, 547.)
39. He who cannot derive the necessaries of life either from
his property, his labour, or his trade, nor be supported by
his nearest relations and other persons bound to it by private
right, has a claim on the support of the (political or civil)
_community_ in which he has the right of a burgher or of a
beisitzer.
In times of particular distress, not only those who are
absolutely poor, but those also who are indeed not without
property, but, by the unfavourable circumstances of the times,
are rendered incapable of providing the necessaries of life
for themselves and their children, have a right to require,
from the communities of which they are members, the necessary
support. Thus, in the year of scarcity in 1817, the spiritual
and temporal overseers of the communities were expressly made
responsible by the government, that none of those who were
confided to their superintendence and care should be exposed
to suffer want; with the threat, that if, for want of care on
the part of the overseers, any person should perish, the guilty
should be prosecuted with all the rigour of the law.
If a person belonging to one or more communities has need of
public support, the share to be borne by each is determined
by the government authorities, having respect to the merely
personal or family connexion with the several communities.
Each of the three religious persuasions prevailing in the
kingdom has the full enjoyment of its poor fund. Poor members
of the community, however, who belong to a religious persuasion
different to that which prevails in the place, cannot be denied
the necessary relief from the poor fund of the place, on
account of the difference of religion.
_Of the Bailiwick Corporations._
40. If a community has so many poor, or is so limited in its
resources, that it is not in a condition properly to support
its poor, the _other communities of the bailiwick, particularly
the towns, so far as they are better able, and have few or no
poor_, are bound by the law to assist such a poor community
with their alms. A general obligation of the bailiwick
corporation to assist those communities of the bailiwicks
which are not able to afford the necessary assistance to their
poor inhabitants, is not ordained by the laws, unless such
assistance is to the interest of the bailiwick corporation as
such.
In the year 1817, however, the bailiwick corporations were
enjoined, so long as the dearth lasted, and with reference
to old laws, in case single communities should be unable
sufficiently to provide for all the inhabitants, to give them
credit so far as to answer either partly or entirely for the
debt, but always with the reservation of repayment by the
receivers of the aid. And with respect to the support of the
poor, which are assigned to a community, it is expressly
ordered, that if the assignment is founded on one of the titles
to a right of settlement enumerated under 1, 2, and 3[6],
the community against which the right is established is to
bear only one-third, and the whole of the bailiwick the other
two-thirds; but if the assignment is founded on one of the
other titles, the whole bailiwick has to take upon itself this
support. The expense which is hereby incurred by a bailiwick,
constitutes an object of what is called _amtsvergleichung_, and
is imposed on the whole old and now rateable _cadastre_ of the
bailiwick.
_Of the Duty of the State._
41. The public Exchequer affords, partly on account of the
previous sequestration of the church property, and of some
other funds and revenues destined for pious and charitable
purposes, and partly without any such special legal ground,
contributions for the foundation and support of various public
beneficent institutions, and it sometimes assists single
bailiwicks, communities, and individuals in particular cases,
by contributions for charitable purposes. But a general
obligation of the public Exchequer to intervene, in case of the
inability of the communities or bailiwicks, is no where enacted
in the laws of Wurtemberg, and is also not recognised by the
government, because too great liberality on its part, and the
grant of a distinct head of expenditure for this purpose, as
in general the transferring of local burthens to the public
exchequer, might lead to very extensive consequences, and might
gradually give rise to always increasing claims, which, in the
impossibility of ranging single cases under general points of
view, it might not be always possible successfully to meet.
_Amount of Relief to the Poor._
42. What is _necessary_ for a poor person or a poor family,
and how much such a person or family may require for their
_necessary support_, is not expressed in the laws of
Wurtemberg; on the contrary, the answer to this question is
left to the judgment of the magistrate in every particular
case. In fact, it is not well susceptible of a general answer,
because the wants of men are so very different, according
to their constitutions and inclinations, and the means of
satisfying these wants depend too much on personal, local, and
temporary circumstances.
_Support and Employment of the Adult Poor._
[Sidenote: Relief of the able-bodied out-doors.]
75. With respect to the adult poor, it is enacted by our oldest
laws, that such grown-up poor who would willingly work, but
cannot find employment, _shall_, as far as possible, _have
means found them by the magistrates_ to earn a livelihood by
their labour; but that lazy idlers who are strong and healthy
_shall be compelled to work_; and, according to a recent
ordinance, the able-bodied who claim support from the public
funds are bound to take any work for which they have adequate
strength, whether it be public or private, which is assigned
to them by the local overseers, receiving for it proportionate
moderate wages. If they refuse to do the work assigned them,
and cannot allege that they can earn something by other work,
or produce some other excuse, the overseer is authorized to
employ towards them means of compulsion.
According to old laws, poor persons who still have a house and
lands, or at least some little portions of land, and who have
suffered by failure of the crops, frost, &c., or who cannot sow
their lands, or are unable to dispose of them without great
loss, but are still able to work, and have hopes of retrieving
their losses in the harvest and autumn, shall be assisted by
the communities, which, according as the case may be, shall
lend to them from the public fund a sufficient sum, to be
repaid as they may be able to do it in course of time, or shall
at least give security for them.
The laws also order that in public works which the communities
have executed by daily labourers, able-bodied poor who have a
claim to support from the public funds shall be employed in
preference. In places where the hospitals have lands of their
own, and farm them on their own account, poor persons are also
employed in preference, at suitable wages.
Not only in the year of scarcity, 1817, and subsequently,
many adult poor have been employed at suitable wages on the
public account in other hard work, such as forest labours,
planting trees, cultivating waste lands, turf-digging, working
in the quarries, lime-pits, or excavating for antiquities,
pulling down old buildings, cutting down avenues of old trees,
levelling ground, laying out new public walks or churchyards,
draining marshes, cleaning common sewers and streets, working
at bridges, roads, and canals, &c.
79. According to the ancient laws, the communities are bound
to advance money on loan according to the ability of the
poor fund, and to the circumstances of the persons, to poor
mechanics who cannot begin or carry on their trade, without
assistance, which sum they are to repay as they may be able to
do in time.
81. But the indirect support of the poor by employment and
loans has, however, its limits.
The extraordinary expense incurred in 1817, for _public
works_, was indeed justified at that time by the extraordinary
distress; but for the constant prosecution of such works, there
would be wanting, in most places, occasion and opportunity, and
at all events the necessary means; nor could the communities
well be expected, merely for the sake of employing the poor,
to have such works done by them if they are not absolutely
necessary, or at least urgently required at the moment, or if
they could be performed at a cheaper rate by contract or by
statute labour.
In many places there is not always an opportunity to obtain
work for daily wages, with private persons, especially in
winter, and for women and children; or at least the wages at
different times of the year, and for many kinds of work, are
too small to support a family, and when public institutions for
giving employment are in question, great prudence is necessary,
that while one person is provided with work and wages, another
may not find the source of gain interrupted or cut off by which
he has hitherto obtained a livelihood without the assistance of
the magistrates.
But when due attention is paid to these very important
considerations, it is extremely difficult, in Wurtemberg at
least, to find means of employing the poor capable of work, by
the intervention of the magistrates, when they are themselves
not able to obtain suitable employment, and this difficulty
must increase from year to year, in which the number and extent
of the public institutions for employing children increase, and
as the employment of the prisoners in the penal establishments
(police and workhouses, and houses of correction) is extended.
On this account, there are indeed in the capital, and in
some other places, where for the sake of the moral gain a
small pecuniary sacrifice is not regarded, particular public
establishments for employing the adult poor in spinning, and
other such work; but they nowhere extend to a whole bailiwick.
Wherever they still exist, though the poor in them are not
fed and clothed, but only employed, their support requires
considerable annual aid from public funds; and in most places
the establishments formerly opened for the employment of the
adult poor have been entirely broken up, with the exception of
a part of the inhabitants of the poor-houses (s. 91).
Consequently, and especially till the new institutions for the
better education of the youthful poor shall have been able
to produce their entire effect, there will still remain in
Wurtemberg a very considerable number, not only of poor unable
or unwilling to work, but also of such as are both able and
willing, who cannot be supported otherwise than directly.
82. In many places the local poor are, with this view, allowed
_themselves to collect_ gifts in money, food, &c. from the
wealthier inhabitants of the place; but in most of these
places this kind of collecting of such gifts is limited to
the houses of certain of the richer inhabitants, who have
given them express permission to do so, and to fixed days and
hours, and it is likewise subject to the superintendence of
the police: but as a general rule, the poor are prohibited
from personal collecting of gifts, even in their own place
of residence. On the other hand, those poor persons in whose
cases the above-described indirect means of relief are not
applicable, or not sufficient for their necessary support,
regularly receive everywhere out of the _public funds of the
community to which they belong_, and under different names,
such as alms, gratuity, pension, board, &c., partly weekly,
monthly, quarterly, or annually, partly without any fixed time,
as need may be, gifts according to the wants of the individuals
relieved, and the ability of the community, sometimes amounting
to only one or a few florins, sometimes to 20, 50, 70, and even
100 and more florins, for each person or family in a year.
With respect to the extent of these gifts, there is nowhere
any general, legal ordinance; but the question, how much is
requisite for the necessary support of each individual or of
each family, remains entirely for the consideration of the
authorities which have to give the relief.
[Sidenote: In-door relief.]
67. Adult poor who, on account of their great age, or of
weakness, infirmity, and sickness of body or mind, or on
account of immoral conduct, cannot be left to themselves, and
who have no relations legally bound and able to superintend
and take care of them, and who consequently would not be
sufficiently relieved merely by a present in money or in kind,
are even now, especially in small towns, taken in by all the
members of the community in their turn, from house to house,
by the day or by the week, or else put out to board in a fixed
private house at the expense of the local funds.
But as nobody readily determines to admit such persons to
his table and his house, particularly persons affected with
the itch and other contagious disorders; and as even the
most careful selection of such private boarding-houses, with
the best superintendence which is possible in such cases,
frequently answers neither the expectations of those who
provide such accommodation, nor the wants of those intended
to be provided, it is very fortunate that, partly so far back
as the 14th and 15th centuries,--partly in modern and very
recent times, almost in every large and small town, and even
in some villages,--partly by particular endowments for the
purpose,--partly at the expense of the local funds, a distinct
public poor-house, or even several such poor-houses, have been
built, or purchased, or taken from debtors in lieu of payment,
which were not precisely intended to provide for persons of the
above description, but rather to receive foreign vagabonds,
and also for fear of the leprosy, plague, or cholera; which
establishments, founded under various denominations, such as
poor-house, beggars’-house, hospital, lazaretto, infirmary,
leprosy-house, cholera-house, &c., &c., now that the entrance
of foreign vagrants is prevented, and the fear of plague,
leprosy, and cholera is past, can be made use of for the
reception of the native poor belonging to the above classes.
Many of these houses can, indeed, accommodate only 10, 20, 30,
or 40 persons, but many of them are calculated for a hundred or
several hundred persons.
Formerly it was usual to receive also poor children, with or
without their parents, into these houses, but latterly the
children are otherwise disposed of, and only _married persons,
without children_, or single adult poor, are admitted, who for
the most part are, as far as possible, kept separate according
to their sex, and partly according to other circumstances,
especially as prescribed by existing ordinances. Separate
rooms for insane and sick persons, particularly for those
who have the venereal disease and the itch, are fitted up in
these poor-houses, so as to answer, as much as possible, this
particular object; and in some cases separate buildings are
allotted for this purpose.
90. In many of these poor-houses, those who are admitted into
them have only free lodging and firing, and sometimes clothing;
and to provide for their other wants, a weekly, monthly, or
annual allowance in money or in kind.
In others, they are directly provided with every thing; that
is, they have in the house free lodging, candles, firing,
bedding, clothes, food, and in case of sickness, medical care,
medicine, and attendance. In general, in this case, each of
the two sexes, or a great number of such persons, nearly of
the same class, have a _common sleeping-room_, and a _common
eating_ and _working-room_. Sometimes however only two, three,
or four poor persons together, and often even individual poor
have their separate rooms.
In the common sleeping-rooms, every person has his separate
bed, generally feather beds, such as are usually found in poor
independent families.
The clothing is mostly warmer and stronger, but not so
good-looking and more old-fashioned than that of the poorer
independent citizens.
The food consists, generally, in the morning of soup, at noon
a farinaceous dish and vegetables, and once, twice, rarely
three times in the week, of a quarter or half a pound of meat;
in the evening of soup, together with milk or potatoes. There
are, however, poor-houses where they get no breakfast in the
morning; at dinner only farinaceous food or vegetables (not
both together), and once a week only, or even but a few times
in the year, on certain holidays, or even not at all, meat,
and in the evening nothing but _soup_.[7] When this diet is
furnished by contract, 5, 5½, 6, 7, 8 to 8½ kreutzer daily per
head are at present paid for it; besides which, however, the
contractor mostly has lodging and firing gratis, and the use of
a garden.
Besides this, every person receives in most of these houses,
3, 3½, 4, 5, 6, and even 7 pounds of bread weekly, and in some
places a few kreutzer every week for snuff; wine is given only
where there are special endowments for that purpose, mostly on
certain holidays. The sick have better and lighter food and
wine, as the physician thinks fit to prescribe in every case.
In some of these houses, more, and in others less, care is
taken that the inmates of them do not unnecessarily go out,
and that those who are able to do some work are not idle. Some
hospitals have lands which they keep in their own hands, and
in this case the inmates are employed as much as possible in
assisting in the agricultural operations. Where there is no
land, they must at least prepare the necessary firewood, carry
wood and water, help in washing, cooking, and other domestic
employments; they must spin, wind yarn, knit, sew, make clothes
and shoes for the house, &c. In some poor-houses they are also
employed in making wooden pegs for shoemakers and tilers,
matches, &c.
On the whole, however, the employment of these people in the
poor-houses does not produce much.
_In the year 1817, and during the dearth which prevailed at
that time, an old law which had fallen into desuetude was
revived; according to which, the rich and opulent who, after
having been previously applied to for voluntary contributions,
should not come forward in a manner suitable to their property,
are to be taxed by the magistrates in a sum conformable to
their income, and according to all the circumstances of their
situation._
The comparative situation of the pauper and the independent labourer is
thus stated at the conclusion of the Government Report:--
If we now compare the situation of one of the poorest of the
Wurtemberg poor who support themselves independently by their
labour without external aid (_see_ § 40.), with that of one of
the more favoured of the Wurtemberg poor who lives by public
charity, for instance, the inmate of an hospital, and even of
a prison, it might certainly appear that the condition of the
latter is preferable to that of the former.
In fact, we often see such hospital inmates, and even
prisoners, attain the most advanced age, while many a poor
day-labourer and artisan sinks at a much earlier age under the
weight of his cares and the want of necessaries. In fact, many
an inmate of an hospital, and many a prisoner, even with bodily
infirmities and sufferings, still seems to find his condition
quite comfortable, and shows himself thankful for the good
which he enjoys, while many a day-labourer or artisan, in the
enjoyment of good bodily health, feels himself miserable, and
curses his existence; in fact, many a one seeks admission into
the hospital who would be very well able to provide himself
with necessaries by his work at home. In fact, the man often
separates from his wife, or the wife from her husband, or from
the children, to be received into the hospital. In fact, many
a one does not economize, but squanders what he has, and does
not work in order to earn something, because he thinks that
he always has the right of being received into the hospital
as a last resource. _In fact, in many places where there are
rich hospitals and other foundations, the number of the poor
is proportionably greater than in places where less is done
for their support. In fact, many a one continues to beg and to
steal, who has already been frequently imprisoned for these
offences, because he finds his situation in the workhouse very
tolerable in comparison with the laborious life of a poor man
at liberty._
However, the situation of the inmates of an hospital, even
of those which are the most liberal to their inmates, is by
no means so enviable as from the above comparison it might
seem to be. Frequently their residence is embittered by their
being obliged to live together with rude, quarrelsome, mad,
silly, and disgusting persons. Many embitter their own lives
by a discontentedness, which may either be natural to them, or
communicated by others. Many dislike the kind or the quantity
of the work allotted to them, the restrictions with respect to
the time of going out and returning home which are prescribed
by the regulations of the house. Prisoners, in particular,
consider the loss of their freedom as an intolerable burden.
Besides this, too, the treatment is by no means in general and
in _every_ poor-house so good as it is represented in the above
comparison; hence it is not the case with all the poor received
into a poor-house, that they have voluntarily sought admission
there, or that they voluntarily and willingly remain in it;
hence, too, the applications for admission to these houses are
not everywhere equally pressing; hence the assertion that the
existence of such houses increases the numbers of prodigals,
idlers, and poor, cannot be taken as generally correct.
At all events, the above comparison applies to the actual
inmates of the hospital, rather than to those poor who are
relieved only by money and commodities, or by finding them
employment; for the relief which they receive in this manner is
in most places dealt out with so scanty a measure, that their
situation is little or not at all better than that of a healthy
poor person, who maintains himself independently by the labour
of his hands, without external assistance. The independent
poor man always has the cheering consciousness of maintaining
himself and his family by his own exertions, and of enjoying
the respect of his fellow-citizens, which is always lost in a
greater or less degree by the poor man who receives relief, to
whom, in the eyes of the better classes, a kind of disgrace
attaches, which must often fall on the idle, who is excluded
from elections of the community, &c., restricted in marrying,
&c.
And the authors go on to express a belief that pauperism is
diminishing, and that the number of paupers, which in 1820 amounted
to 64,896, does not now exceed 50,000, or about 1-30th of the whole
population.
The preference which the government reporter appears to give to
out-door relief is opposed to the preface to the rules of the Weinsburg
House of Industry.
The former mode of providing for the wants of the poor by
weekly relief in money or in bread, by giving them clothes,
or providing them small apartments, or by paying their rent
or their board, entrained many abuses, and therefore little
effected its end; in fact, it wanted the superintendence
essential to the management of a class of men for the most
part of irregular and dissipated habits. Employment was not
furnished to those who were yet in a state to work; and there
were no means of repressing mendicity and vice.--(p. 500.)
The object of this establishment is said to be,
Art. 1.--To provide a common habitation, and all other
necessaries, for all those who, whether sick or in health,
need assistance.
Art. 2.--As far as it may be possible, to furnish them with
employment, according to their capability of work.
Art. 3.--Not only to provide work for those who ask for it, but
to enforce it from those who, being without property, neither
engage in trade nor in service, but endeavour to live at the
expense of others.
2. _Conditions of Admission._
The persons who need assistance are, with few exceptions, men
of vicious, or careless, or improvident habits, who are now
unable to earn their bread. The old practice was, to pay their
rent, furnish them with fuel, or give them weekly allowances
in money or bread; but there was no certainty that these gifts
were well employed. For this reason, only persons worthy of
assistance are received, clothed, and fed in this institution:
for, in our country, well-disposed people, even with little
talent, can always earn their own maintenance.
The aged or impotent poor may be admitted at their own request.
Art. 7.--The Directors of the establishment, as well as the
President of the Committee of Founders, can order the admission
of poor people if they are fully persuaded of its necessity.
The person so admitted must promise, in writing, to obey the
laws of the establishment. This admission requires to be
confirmed at the next sitting of the Committee of Founders. The
same rules apply to the admission of the indigent sick.
Art. 8.--_But in no case is this charitable institution to
become the periodical abode of persons not accustomed to
a fixed trade, or of those who will not remain with their
masters, or who would like to pass there the winter when the
demand for labour is slack, or who have wasted their summer
wages by spending the earnings of one day’s toil in two days of
idleness and debauchery._
Art. 9.--_Whoever then is once admitted, enters the
establishment with all that he possesses, and engages himself
to work and remain there for ever._
Art. 10.--In all cases, those who enter voluntarily, as well
as those who are forced to enter, are, from the moment of
admission, considered as paupers, and whatever they possess
becomes the property of the foundation.
Art. 11.--In case of extraordinarily good conduct on the part
of a pauper, when there is reasonable hope that he can support
himself, or if he wishes to enter the service of a respectable
family, the Council of Foundation may permit him to leave the
Institution. In this case his property is restored to him,
after deducting, from a person capable of work, 58f., and from
one incapable of work 88f. The expense of their residence is
deducted from the property of the sick.
All persons of the age of fourteen, who cannot prove that they
are in the service of a respectable family, may be forced to
work in the Institution.
Art. 12.--All persons of either sex, who are not in a state to
maintain themselves, either from their property or by industry,
and who become chargeable to others may be admitted; but,
before the police can require their admission, it must be shown
that they have been punished three times, either for mendicity
or theft--(p. 501.)
Regulations of this severity prove that the able-bodied paupers at
least are a small and degraded class, exciting little sympathy, for
whom enough is supposed to be done if they are prevented from starving.
As far indeed as can be collected from the Weinsberg regulations, the
undeserving may be utterly refused relief, since it does not appear
that relief is to be given out of the house, and the applications for
admission by undeserving objects are to be rejected.
The actual working of the system may be best inferred from the detailed
accounts supplied by Sir Edward Disbrowe of 18 parishes.
Of these four, that is Obertürkheim, Osweil, Necker Weihingen,
and Egolsheim, provide for their poor by rates levied on all the
inhabitants. During each of four years, from 1829 to 1832 inclusive,
the persons receiving relief in Obertürkheim were three out of a
population of 842, at an annual expense of 5_l._ 0_s._ 3_d._, or about
1½_d._ per head on the whole population. In Osweil the average number
was eight, out of a population of 1608; average annual expense 25_l._,
or about 3½_d._ a head. In Necker Weihingen, of which the population
is 1070, the persons relieved were, in 1829, one man; in 1830, one man
and one woman; in 1831, one man and one woman; and the annual expense
in 1829 was 5_l._; and in each of the years 1830 and 1831, 4_l._ 3_s._
4_d._, or about 1_d._ a head. The number relieved in Egolsheim, of
which the population is 618, is not mentioned; but it must have been
very trifling, since the average annual expense is stated at 2_l._
1_s._ 8_d._, which is less than 1_d._ per head.
In those places in which the relief of the poor is wholly or
principally supplied from endowments, the annual expenditure is, as
might have been expected, much larger. But even in these it seldom
amounts to 1_s._ per head on the whole population, being about
one-twelfth of the average expenditure in England. And in the whole
bailiwick of Ludwigsberg, containing 29,068 inhabitants, in the year
1831 only 372 persons received regular, and 371 persons irregular (and
indeed merely medical) relief. The kingdom of Wurtemberg, therefore,
appears to have been, as yet, eminently successful in reconciling a
recognition of the right to relief with economy in its distribution.
[6] See above for the statement of the different grounds on which a
man may claim the right to obtain a settlement in a parish.
[7] The word “_suppe_,” here and elsewhere translated by the word
_soup_, has, however, a far more general signification; the proper
definition of it being “_boiled fluid food_, eaten alone, warm, with
a spoon.” Thus the Germans have water-soup, beer-soup, milk-soup,
bread-soup, flour-soup, wine-soup, &c.
BAVARIA.
With respect to the Bavarian institutions we have little information
excepting the text of the law. The following extracts will show its
general law tendency: (pp. 556, 557, 558, 559, 560, 562, 563.)
[Sidenote: Poor Law authorities.]
Each town, market, and village, is to have an institution for
the poor; but if several villages wish to unite in forming
one of these institutions, it is not only to be permitted, but
every facility is to be afforded it.
Each provincial district (landgericht) must have an institution
of its own.
All the inhabitants of such district are obliged, according to
their means, to contribute to that purpose; each person is,
besides, bound to continue to support those poor relations whom
the laws direct him to maintain.
The claims for relief are to be fixed according to the laws of
their district (heimath gesetz.) Sometimes, in cases of great
necessity, relief is allowed to strangers who do not belong to
the parish.
The overseers consist (unless it is otherwise determined) of
the directors, of the police, commissaries, and magistrates.
In cases where medical aid is necessary, they are to be
attended by physicians, who are appointed by the state.
In towns and larger market towns, besides the above-named
overseers, a council is to be formed, consisting of the
clergyman and the mayor and persons deputed by the magistrates
and all classes of the people, in proportion to the number of
inhabitants of each place.
In smaller market-towns the clergyman and deputies from the
peasants form this council.
When several villages join together to form one of these
institutions, a general committee is to be formed.
The members of the council for the institutions for the poor
are to be elected in the same way as the magistrates and mayors
(burgermeister).
When several parishes are joined together, a deputy is to be
chosen from each, and again, several are elected from among
these, who are to take immediate charge of the affairs. Each
deputy is chosen for three years, and is obliged to perform
his duties without remuneration; no inhabitant is allowed to
refuse to perform his functions the first time he is elected;
extraordinary merits in the service of the poor are to be
publicly distinguished.
[Sidenote: Mode of relief.]
The public charge is brought into action in the following
manner:
1st. By institutions for working.
2d. By institutions for taking care of people who are unable to
work.
3d. By institutions for alms.
[Sidenote: 1. Finding work.]
1. Materials and tools are to be distributed to those paupers
who, notwithstanding all inquiries and interference, cannot
obtain the necessary work, to be used at their houses until
the required situation can be obtained. If in larger towns the
number of these is very great, houses are to be opened and
maintained at the expense of the institution for the poor, in
which the paupers who are unoccupied are to work.
The choice among the different sorts of work in these houses
is settled according to the local circumstances, and chiefly
according to the facility with which either orders from private
persons can be received, or with which the material is obtained
and worked; then accordingly as the material can be used for
the wants of the poor or can be usefully employed for any other
purpose.
The houses for the employment of the poor are always to retain
their original destination, namely, an employment, for the
present, of poor men who would otherwise be without work, and
therefore do not admit any such persons whose names are not
down on the above-named register. Therefore those persons are
no longer allowed to work in this house after they have had an
offer of work from any other quarter.
[Sidenote: 2. In-door relief.]
2. Houses of nourishment are to be erected for those poor
who, besides having no fortune or means of obtaining their
livelihood, are in an extraordinary degree helpless, namely,
children, sick people, old persons, and cripples.
[Sidenote: 3. Money relief.]
3. Poor people who do not require extraordinary care, and
who are not fit to be admitted into the particular houses of
nourishment, or cannot yet be received into them, but are
unable to gain their livelihood, are to be assisted by alms,
which, however, are not to be given without the most complete
proof of want.
The alms are to be given in the form of gifts of money. These
gifts are sometimes to be increased, according to the price of
provisions; and from time to time a maximum is to be fixed,
which is on no account to be exceeded.
[Sidenote: Relief by quartering on householders.]
These gifts of money may, either in part or entirely, be
substituted by provisions, if this sort of aid is more easily
afforded with regard to lodging, nourishment, and clothing.
Their lodging is to be changed every day among the different
members of the parish, but the poor who are lodged are obliged
to repay this lodging by work. Where there are opportunities,
rooms are to be warmed, to which the poor may bring their work.
The nourishment of the poor can be facilitated and insured
by the equal division of them amongst the public, to be
maintained in turn, being obliged to partake of the work
of their host, or by voluntarily offered days for food, or
lastly, by distribution of bread and other nourishment. Where
circumstances permit, kitchens are to be erected on purpose for
preparing nourishing soups, partly gratis, partly very cheap.
[Sidenote: Liabilities of pauper.]
No pauper who partakes of the benefactions of the poor
institutions may go away from his dwelling without the
knowledge and leave of the head of the village, to stay for
some time, or permanently in another village, even if it is in
the same district.
The same leave from the police direction is necessary when a
pauper wishes, for some good reason, to go out of his police
district; the leave is only to be given in both cases on
well-grounded reasons, and on proofs that the poor will not be
burdensome to other villages and districts; also he must give
in a declaration to the same, in which, besides his name and
village, and the duration of his absence, the villages to which
he intends to go must be expressed.
Paupers who have been warned in vain concerning bad conduct
and idleness shall be proceeded against without favour, by the
power of magistrates, and be punished accordingly.
The poor institutions can claim repayment from those hypocrites
who, although they possess private means, embezzle and grasp
at the gifts and assistance which are only intended for true
poverty, which shall be fully repaid. The poor institutions can
make the same claim from those persons who have renounced their
duty of supporting those relations whom they are obliged to
support, either by law or by contract.
_No marriage between people without capital shall be allowed
without the previous permission of the poor institutions.
Directors who do not follow these orders, nor pay attention to
the Act of the 12th of July, 1808 (Government Paper, page
1506), concerning marriages in the country, have to answer for
the maintenance of the new families, should they not be able to
maintain themselves. In the same manner, the priests and other
churchmen shall be responsible for the support of such persons
as they have married without leave from the authorities,
besides other fines which are imposed on this breach of the
rules of the marriage ceremony._
[Sidenote: Sources of poor fund.]
Besides the extraordinary sources, which consist partly in the
restitution which hypocrites and relations who avoid their duty
are obliged to make, and partly out of fines which are given
to the poor fund, or may be hereafter given, are sources for
charity from donations from the district fund, and from loans
or from taxes.
The yearly produce of all charities belongs to the poor
institutions, and is used for their purposes. With the
establishments for the poor are united the already existing
or still accumulating capitals of one or other of the poor
institutions; the gain on mortgages or on those possessions
whose owners cannot be discovered; the legacies for the poor,
when by the will of the deceased they are to be laid out in a
regular yearly income, and the fourth part of such legacies as
are destined in general for pious purposes.
The voluntary donations consist of casual gifts in money and
food which have been given by philanthropic persons of their
own accord, for the use of the poor institutions, and in this
manner are to be employed for their daily use. Besides these,
are the legacies which are meant for immediate division among
the poor, and those subscriptions which are collected either by
single persons or by companies and corporations.
General and extraordinary collections, in the name of the
institutions for the poor, are to be made monthly from house
to house, when the members of the parish have bound themselves
to a certain subscription; also in the churches on the great
holidays, and in the public-houses by means of private
poor-boxes; and lastly, on all important and joyful occasions
of the state, or companies.
According to the circumstances of the place, certain
accidental funds can be appropriated to the uses of the poor
institutions, which particularly on great joyful occasions,
namely, great marriages in the taverns, the permission to have
music, particularly past the stated times, processions of
the apprentices, shooting matches, &c. &c., at shows, balls,
masquerades, and so on.
When all the aforesaid sources do not suffice to cover the
wants of the poor institutions, it will be supplied out of the
funds of the district, or through loans, and then only when
all these means cannot be put in practice, or do not suffice
to cover their wants, compulsory contributions or poor-taxes
are to be resorted to. The manner and amount of these are to
be according to the calls of the villages and districts, and
are only to be levied for a certain time. It is to be observed,
however, that these taxes are to be imposed with the greatest
equality, and without any exception among all classes.
[Sidenote: Central control.]
The poor institutions and committees in such towns as have no
police directors or commissaries, also in the market towns
and parishes, are directly under the control of the district
tribunal, and under their guidance and inspection.
The inspection of the poor institutions of the whole kingdom
is given to the ministry for the interior, which is to
receive regularly the report of the state of this branch of
administration from the annual accounts and other proper
sources, and which is to issue the necessary general orders
and regulations, and is to judge of the proposals for the
establishment, the arrangement and fitting up of workhouses,
and others in which the poor are taken care of, for single
districts, whole circles, or for the entire kingdom, which
decides with the ministry of finance all proposals for allowing
certain taxes and poor subscriptions, decides the complaints
brought against the general circle and local commissaries,
if such do not belong to the private council, and causes the
election of certain poor directors where it may be found
advisable.
It will be observed, that these institutions bear a considerable
resemblance to those of Wurtemberg. Their effects are thus summed up by
Lord Erskine:
Upon carefully examining and considering these poor laws of
Bavaria. I have come to the conclusion in my own mind that
they are useful, and well adapted to the purposes for which
they were intended, because by the establishment of the poor
institutions (as they are called), by districts over the whole
kingdom of Bavaria, with sufficient power by law to carry their
provisions into execution, the great and important object is
attained of giving relief and support to the aged, helpless,
and sick, and finding work in workhouses or at their own homes,
at a moderate payment, for those who cannot otherwise obtain
it; for which purpose a register is to be kept by the guardians
of the poor of all those persons who are in want of work,
and who are therefore either a burthen upon the parish, or
are likely to become so, as also a list of those who wish to
employ workmen, in order to endeavour to arrange between them
the terms of employment; and that this object may be the more
easily attained, the directors are required to be in continual
communication with the overseers of public works, the masters
of manufactories, with individual proprietors, and societies;
in order that where there are a quantity of hands capable
of work, they may be passed into that part of the country
where they are most wanted; but whenever it may happen that,
notwithstanding all inquiries and exertions, the necessary work
cannot be obtained, in such cases materials and tools are to
be distributed to those paupers who may be in want of them, to
be used at their own houses; and if in larger towns the number
of those paupers should be very great, houses are to be opened
and maintained at the expense of the institutions for the poor,
in which the paupers who are out of work are to be employed;
but the number of paupers to be so employed is always limited
to those who have not had a reasonable offer of work from any
other quarter. But the great cause why the number of the poor
is kept so low in this country, arises from the prevention by
law of marriages in cases in which it cannot be proved that
the parties have reasonable means of subsistence; and this
regulation is in all places and at all times strictly adhered
to.
The effect of a constant and firm observance of this rule
has, it is true, a considerable influence in keeping down the
population of Bavaria, which is at present low for the extent
of country, but it has a most salutary effect in averting
extreme poverty and consequent misery. (p. 554.)
The last of the countries subject to a system of compulsory relief,
from which we have a return, is the ancient part of the
CANTON DE BERNE.
It appears from that return, that the inhabitants of that part of the
Canton, which is subject to the laws which we are going to describe,
consisted, in 1831, of 321,468 persons, divided into three classes,
heimathloses, aubains, and bourgeois.
The first class, which appears to be so small as to be inconsiderable,
consist of foreign refugees or their descendants. The second comprises
all those who have not a right to bourgeoisie in any commune: their
number amounted, in 1780, to 3482 persons. It is said to have
subsequently increased, but it is not probable that it has more than
doubled; and we believe that 10,000 persons, or less than 1-32nd part
of the whole population, exceeds the whole number of those who are
not entitled to bourgeoisie; but it is to be observed that the word
“aubain,” though strictly meaning a person who has no settlement in
the Canton, is also applied to persons who, though bourgeois, are
not entitled to bourgeoisie in the commune in which they reside. The
support of the heimathloses and of the aubains, properly so called,
that is, of those who have no right whatever to bourgeoisie, falls on
the government.
The third class is composed of the descendants of those who, in the
sixteenth century, were held entitled to the public property of each
commune, and those who by themselves or their ancestors have purchased
bourgeoisie in any commune. Bourgeoisie appears to be personal and
hereditary. It is not gained by residence, or lost by absence; and may
therefore, in fact, belong to persons having little other connexion
with the commune.
At a period, of which the precise date is not stated, but which appears
to belong to the seventeenth century, it became the law that every one
was entitled to support from the commune of which he was bourgeois, and
that the sums necessary were to be supplied from the public property
of the commune; and so far as that was insufficient, from landed
property, to whomsoever belonging, situated in the commune, and from
the personal property of the bourgeois whether resident or not.
To this hereditary bourgeoisie the raising and administration of
the poor-fund was and still is confided; and apparently with most
unfortunate results.
The following is the conclusion of the official answer of the
government of Berne to the questions proposed by Mr. Morier (p. 207):--
_What are the abuses complained of?_
_Do they arise from the principle of the law, or from the
character and social position of its administrators?_
_What remedies have been applied?_
_What have been their results?_
The abuses in the administration arise both from the principle
of the law, and from the character and social position of
its administrators: from the law, because it abandons all
administration to the communes; from the administrators,
because they neglect improvement, distribute relief without
discrimination or real inquiry, and generally provide only
against the exigences of the moment.
The separate parishes, being, for the most part, too small
to establish schools and workhouses, want means of coercion,
and are in general more busied in providing relief for those
actually indigent than in diminishing their number, either as
regards the present or future generations. Besides, although
the practice is not sanctioned by law, many parishes, in order
to prevent the return of their bourgeois who are domiciled
elsewhere, forward to them relief without being able to
ascertain their conduct.
The government has long felt that these abuses could not
be remedied except by a law founded on a principle totally
different from that of abandoning the administration to the
parishes: but from a mistaken solicitude for the poor, it
always hesitated to take this course.
_What has been the influence of the system?_
1. _Statistically?_
2. _Morally?_
1. _Has the number of the indigent augmented, diminished, or
remained stationary?_
2. _Does the law appear to have encouraged imprudent marriage
or illicit intercourse?_
The answers are implied in our previous statements. The
existing system favours imprudent marriage and illicit
intercourse,--but, precisely because it encourages marriage,
probably does not augment the proportion of illegitimate
to legitimate births. But the final result is, that it
encourages, in an extraordinary degree, the increase of the
indigent population. The abuses which have followed this fatal
system are too numerous to be here detailed. It is easy to
conceive what must have been its results on a populace whom
education, or rather the want of education, has deprived of
all honourable feeling, and of all preference of independence
to public charity. Idleness, carelessness, improvident
marriage, and illicit intercourse, have been encouraged by the
prospect of making others support their results. All means and
opportunities of acquiring knowledge, or skill, or regular
occupation, have been neglected. Thence have arisen not only
a constantly increasing burden upon society, but obstacles to
the development of the physical and intellectual faculties,
to moral improvement, and in short to the advancement of
civilization. _Experience has clearly proved, that the number
of paupers increases in proportion to the resources created for
them, and that the bourgeois population is least industrious
and least active, and endeavours least to be useful to society
in those parishes which have the largest public property and
public revenue._
This state of things, and above all the constantly increasing
burden in some parts of the country, and the demands urged by
parishes on the State for protection against the claims and
the insolence of the really and the pretended indigent, have
determined the government to strive to remedy the evil at its
source. We are still ignorant of the proposed principles of the
new law. The plan, or at least the preparatory inquiry, is now
going on in the offices of the Department of the Interior. It
is nearly certain, however, that compulsory charity will be, if
not entirely abolished, at least restricted to those poor who
are incapable of work. But if assessment for the indigent is
put an end to, the revenue of the properties appropriated to
them will remain for their support.
The administration of the poor-laws in the Canton of Berne is
therefore on the eve of a radical reform.
The same views are more fully developed in a long and very able
supplement to these answers, which immediately follows them, and bears
the same official character--(pp. 220-222, and 225.)
The administration of parochial property has not been properly
audited by any parochial authorities: frequently and for many
years it has remained in the hands of the same family; those to
whom it has been intrusted have received little or no salary:
a capricious and dishonest management were the obvious and
almost the inevitable consequences. The mere nature of the
transaction led to mal-administration. The poor who had a right
to bourgeoisie had a right to relief. How could their conduct
or their wants be ascertained, if they dwelt in other parishes,
with whose authorities their own parish had no relation? Was
it not almost inevitable that relief would be demanded with
insolence and spent in idleness and debauchery?
In some places in the mountains (such as Sieventhal and
Grindelwald), the relief was given in kind; but with the
increased circulation of money, money-relief has become
general, and is exclusively afforded to out-parishioners. The
facility with which such relief is mis-applied has favoured
mis-management, and may be said to engender pauperism.
_These fatal results have become more strongly felt as the
number of the poor has augmented. In many places the growing
embarrassment occasioned great and praiseworthy remedial
efforts. The administration was made more regular, and
inspectors and other officers appointed. Some country parishes
erected alms-houses at an expense apparently beyond their
means. But many of these fine institutions disappointed the
hopes of their founders: we shall presently see why. These new
measures and institutions were each the private affair of each
parish; they failed because they were isolated. The beneficial
measures of one parish were not supported by its neighbours.
They followed their old routine, and opposed improvement by
obstacles and dislike. Superintendence, which is essential to
the administration of poor laws, was ineffectual, because it
was applied only to the parishioners of the single commune
which enforced it._
During the last half century, other countries have acquired
knowledge relative to alms-houses for the poor, and have
adopted the results of the inquiries and experience of
their neighbours. This has not been the case with our own
establishments: their very origin was erroneous. They were
the products of a philanthropy which proposed entirely to
remedy all human misery. They were founded in villages, and
proportioned each to the existing wants of the village. Their
resources seldom permitted the adoption of the first condition
of good administration, namely, classification. And even when
we find a spacious building, we see heaped, pell-mell, children
by the side of the old and infirm, and the sick mixed with
able-bodied idlers. Even whole families are found in this
assemblage of the good and bad, the sick and the healthy, the
useful and the mischievous. In such establishments provision
ought to have been made for the education of the children, the
cure of the sick, the support of the aged, and the employment
of the able-bodied. Each class of inmates required a separate
treatment. The instant this principle is neglected, and
classification abandoned, the institution not only loses its
utility, but becomes actually mischievous. But each single
establishment was governed by a single authority, unfit for
the management of several dissimilar classes of inmates.
In general, one uniform system was applied to them all. A
further obstacle to the success of these establishments was
the frequent change of their governors. As they were ill-paid
and often subject to disagreeable contests with the local
authorities, it was difficult to get good officers, and still
more so to keep them. (p. 221.)
Unfavourable as our representation of these establishments has
been, the picture of the treatment of the poor in the other
parts of the canton is still more gloomy and painful. In these
districts (superintendence being absent) all that is not left
to accident is regulated by habit, or by a routine without
apparent motives.
In such places no regular system is to be looked for. The
most usual modes of affording relief are allowances in money,
or payment of board. In some places, as in Emmenthal, the
parochial charges are thrown on the large estates, and the
proprietors are forced in turn, and gratuitously, to maintain
the paupers who are allotted to them. In many other places
it has long been the custom to send round the poor to be
maintained in turn by the settled inhabitants (bourgeois), some
of whom, though forced to receive paupers, are themselves in
indigent, or even in distressed circumstances.
Not less sad or even revolting is the practice which prevails
in some poor and ill-judging parishes of getting rid of their
poor by allotting them to those who will take them on the
lowest terms. The parochial authorities offer an allowance to
those who will receive such and such paupers. The allowance
at first proposed is very small; but it is ready money, and
public competition enables the parish to make it still smaller.
The poor victim falls into the hands of a rapacious and needy
family. We may conceive how deplorable his situation must
always be. That it is sometimes supportable can be attributed
only to a benevolence not yet entirely stifled in the hearts of
our people. Cases even have occurred in which the proprietors,
by allowing their inmates to work for themselves, have given
them habits of industry, and bred up their children to be good
workmen. But these exceptions only render the general rule more
apparent.
Relief in money produces effects equally pernicious. It is
the result of the law which enables every family which is,
or believes itself to be, in want, to demand a relief which
cannot be refused. Small sums are given sometimes for payment
of rent, sometimes to meet other wants, whether the applicant
live in the parish or elsewhere--and without control or
superintendence. What can, what must be the consequences? (p.
222.)
We cannot wonder, then, that the administration of the poor
laws in the canton of Berne has become so irregular and so
mischievous. The effects of the subdivision of the inhabitants
into so many corporations have become more and more apparent.
The principle of permanent and hereditary unions necessarily
clashed with the principle of mobility and change which governs
all our social relations. The welfare of the public necessarily
gave way to that of the particular corporations, and the
private interests of the corporations or parishes rendered
them selfish and mutually hostile. _Obstacles were opposed
to every change of residence, and consequently the industry
and enterprise of the labouring classes were paralyzed, and
the parishes felt the results of their own measures when an
unemployed and dispirited population was thrown upon them. It
was to be expected that in time this population would look for
support to the relief to which they had a legal right; it was
natural that in time they would get a taste for an idle and
consequently vicious existence._ We could support our remarks
by many instances of whole families which have subsisted like
parasites from year to year, and from generation to generation,
on the parochial funds; whose status it is to be paupers; and
the cases in which they have emerged from this condition are
few.
The government appears to have been struggling with these evils ever
since the beginning of this century. The first ordonnance which has
been forwarded to us is that of the 22d December, 1807.
The following are its most material enactments (pp. 191, 192):--
The parishes and parochial corporations (bourgeoisies) in the
town and in the country are required, as heretofore, to afford
protection and relief to their needy fellow-citizens.
No one can claim parochial relief unless he is without
property, and either physically incapable of work, or out of
employ without his own fault.
Parishes may continue their previous modes of regulating and
fixing their accounts with respect to the poor.
They may likewise relieve their poor as they think fit,
by regular money relief, by putting them out to board, by
collecting them in a single establishment, or placing them in
hospitals, or distributing among themselves the children of
the indigent. But it is forbidden for the future that, except
in cases of emergency, and with the sanction of the district
authorities, they should be sent round from house to house to
be maintained. Persons arrested for begging, and taken to their
parish, shall be sentenced by the parochial authorities, after
having given notice to the district judge. The punishment may
be eight days’ imprisonment on bread and water, or fifteen
days’ hard labour[8].
_An equally rigorous treatment is to be applied to those who,
being in the receipt of parochial relief, are disobedient, or
give rise to well-founded complaint. They may be forbidden
to enter inns, or drinking-shops, and punished in the
above-mentioned manner if they disobey._
Parishes may require their overseers to watch the conduct of
those who, from extravagance, drunkenness, debauchery, or other
misbehaviour, are in danger of poverty, and to proceed legally
to have them placed under restrictions. Such persons may be
forbidden by the prefect, on the application of the parish, to
frequent, for a certain period, inns and drinking-shops.
If a person who has received relief subsequently obtains
any property, his parish may demand to be reimbursed their
expenditure on his behalf, but without interest; and though
they may not have exercised their right during his life, they
may proceed against his estate after his death.
_No pauper can marry without the consent of his parish, nor
without having reimbursed it for the relief which he has
received._ The same law applies to widowers, who, while
married, had received relief for themselves or their children.
None who are relieved in consequence of sickness or infirmity
should be allowed to marry, except in extreme cases.
No minister, unless with the permission of the parish, ought to
announce from the pulpit the intended marriage of one whom he
knows to be in the receipt of relief.
If children, in consequence of the idleness, debauchery,
gambling, or voluntary desertion of their father, become
chargeable to the parish, and it is alleged that the father if
he had been industrious and frugal could have supported them,
the overseers may bring an action against him for the amount
of the relief which has been afforded to his children; and if
he do not pay he may be suspended from the exercise of all
civil rights and claims as a bourgeois, _or be sentenced to not
exceeding two years’ imprisonment in a house of correction_. A
second offence is to be more severely punished.
A mother wilfully abandoning her children shall be taken
back to her parish and there kept to work. If she refuse, or
attempt to escape, she may, on the requisition of her parish,
and subject to an appeal to the Council of State, be sentenced
to not exceeding three years’ imprisonment in a house of
correction.
Women who have had several bastards chargeable to the parish
may, on the requisition of their parishes, be similarly
punished. No one receiving, or who has received, parochial
assistance, either on his own account or on that of his
children can, unless specially authorized so to do by his
parish, be present at parochial meetings, until he has repaid
all the sums advanced to him.
If any person entitled to parochial relief shall be refused,
or insufficiently relieved, he may complain to the Prefect,
who shall thereupon hear the allegations of the parish,
and ascertain the condition of the complainant, with the
assistance, if he has any doubt as to the existence or degree
of his bodily infirmities, of a physician. The Prefect may then
order such relief as may appear to him necessary, but no part
of it is to be given in money.
It appears, however, to have been unsuccessful; for 12 years after,
the government, after having in vain offered rewards for good advice
on the subject (p. 225), by an ordonnance dated the 14th April, 1819,
absolutely forbade the levying of rates higher than the average of
those of the years 1813, 1814, and 1815. The failure of so coarse a
remedy might have been predicted, and accordingly we find the present
state of the country thus described in the official report (p. 214):--
It is evident that, with respect to pauperism, the present
situation of the Canton de Berne is in the highest degree
painful. The evil is not temporary or partial: it arises from
no external or accidental sources: a considerable portion of
the population is attacked by it, and it is spreading itself,
like a moral blight, over the whole community.
Some districts, or some classes, may perhaps suffer less
than others, but the malady continues its progress and its
extension: if it decrease in one place, it grows in another. It
is indeed evident that it contains within itself the elements
of its own increase. Not merely the annual augmentation
of the number of paupers, but their constantly increasing
misconduct, their carelessness, and insolence, and above all,
their utter immorality, prove the augmenting force of the
evil; an evil which must destroy all benevolent feelings, and
swallow up, without being satisfied, all that charity can
supply. The contagious nature of the disease carries it beyond
the indigent, to invade and destroy the classes immediately
above them. Those whose daily labour ought to have supported
them, and those small proprietors whose properties ought to
have enabled them to maintain their families, satisfy their
engagements, and contribute to the relief of the poor, even
these classes throw themselves among the really indigent, and
add weight to the load which oppresses those who cannot escape
the poor tax.
[8] It is not easy to say what is meant by the original; whether
labour in irons, “enchainement au bloc,” is a necessary part of
the punishment or not.
Causes favourable to the working of the above institutions.
We have now given a very brief outline of the institutions of those
portions of the Continent which appear, from the returns, to have
adopted the English principle of acknowledging in every person a right
to be supported by the public. It will be observed that in no country,
except, perhaps, the Canton de Berne, has compulsory relief produced
evils resembling, either in intensity or in extent, those which we have
experienced; and that in the majority of the nations which have adopted
it, the existing system appears to work well.
These opposite consequences from the adoption of the same principle,
may be accounted for on several different grounds.
[Sidenote: 1. Villenage.]
1. Among some of the nations in question villenage still exists. Now
where slavery, in any of its forms, prevails, the right of the slave
or villein to support is a necessary and a safe consequence. It is
necessary, because a person who is not a free agent cannot provide for
himself. It is safe, because one of the principal evils of pauperism,
improvidence, can scarcely exist among slaves, and the power of the
master enables him to prevent idleness and fraud. The poor laws of
Russia, therefore, if they can be called poor laws, are merely parts of
her system of slavery.
[Sidenote: 2. Recency of the system.]
2. Among most of the other nations in question the compulsory system
is in its infancy. Denmark has only lately got rid of slavery, and her
poor laws date from 1798. Those of Sweden, in their present form, of
Mecklenburg, Saxony, Wurtemberg and Bavaria, all bear the appearance
of recency. In Wurtemberg assessments had been long obsolete, until
they were re-introduced during the famine of 1817. The only country in
which the compulsory system appears to have continued as long as it has
in England, is that in which it has produced effects resembling those
which have followed it with us, namely, the Canton de Berne.
[Sidenote: 3. Small number of persons wholly dependent on wages.]
3. Another circumstance which renders compulsory relief less dangerous
in the countries which we have been considering than in our own, is
the economical situation of their labouring population. In England
the great mass of the people are day-labourers, enjoying, where they
have escaped the oppression of poor law abuses, high wages and steady
employment, but possessed of little visible property, and seldom
living under their masters’ roof. Such persons are not deterred from
demanding relief by the fear of losing their property, since, where
they have any, it is capable of concealment; and they need not always
even fear degradation, since the fact of their receiving it may often
be concealed. There are many instances in the Poor Law Evidence in
which the masters, and even the companions of paupers, were not aware
of their receiving allowance. But the class of persons without visible
property, which constitutes the bulk of English society, forms the
small minority of that of the north of Europe. The Norwegian return
states, (698 and 699) that at the last census in 1825, out of a
population of 1,051,318 persons, there were 59,464 freeholders. As by
59,464 freeholders must be meant 59,464 heads of families, or about
300,000 individuals, the freeholders must form more than a fourth of
the whole population. Mr. Macgregor states (p. 300) that in Denmark (by
which Zealand and the adjoining islands are probably meant), out of a
population of 926,110, the number of landed proprietors and farmers is
415,110, or nearly one-half. In Sleswick Holstein, out of a population
of 604,085, it is 196,017, or about one-third. The proportion of
proprietors and farmers to the whole population is not given in Sweden;
but the Stockholm return estimates the average quantity of land annexed
to a labourer’s habitation at from one to five acres (p. 375); and
though the Gottenburg return gives a lower estimate, it adds, that
the peasants possess much of the land. (p. 387.) In Wurtemberg we are
told that more than two-thirds of the labouring population are the
proprietors of their own habitations, and that almost all own at least
a garden of from three-quarters of an acre to an acre and a half. (p.
511.)
All the returns concur in stating the number of day-labourers to be
very small.
The Norwegian report states, that “by law servants should never be
hired for a shorter period than a twelvemonth. Employing labourers
by the day, though often done in and about towns, is consequently
illegal.” (p. 695.) Few day-labourers are to be met with. (p. 698.)
The Gottenburgh, that “strictly speaking there are in Sweden few
labourers on the same footing as in England.” (p. 387.) The Russian,
that “the labourers are almost all slaves,” and that “the average
quantity of land allowed by a proprietor to his slave is 15 acres.” (p.
334.) The Danish report, that “the day-labourers form in Zealand and
the adjoining islands less than one-fifth, and in Sleswick Holstein
less than one-third of the agricultural population.” (p. 300.) The
Wurtemberg report states the labourers to amount to 41,913 (meaning
of course heads of families, or about 210,000 individuals) out of a
population of 1,518,147, being in fact less than 1-7th. (p. 514.) The
Bavarian, that “in the country there are very few day-labourers, as
almost every person has some ground of his own, and few are rich enough
to hire labour.” (p. 556.)
It is probable therefore that the class of persons who in the north of
Europe and Germany would be exposed to the temptation of applying for
public relief if it were granted on the same terms as in England, would
be a small minority instead of a large majority, and would be perhaps a
seventh, fifth, or at most a third instead of three-fourths, or even a
larger proportion of the whole community.
[Sidenote: 4. The situation of the pauper being made less eligible than
that of the independent labourer.]
4. But the conditions on which parochial assistance is afforded in the
countries in question, form perhaps the principal difference between
their systems and that which we have adopted. In England, where the
scale and the allowance system prevail, no condition whatever can be
said to be imposed on the pauper. What he receives is a mere gratuitous
addition to his income. Even where work is required, the hours are in
general fewer, and the labour less severe than those of the independent
labourer. And the workhouse, the most powerful of our instruments of
repression, affords, in general, food, lodging, clothing and warmth,
better than can be found in the cottage, _and may be quitted at a day’s
notice_.
But in all the countries which we have been considering, except the
Canton de Berne and perhaps Denmark, the great object of pauper
legislation, that of rendering the situation of the pauper less
agreeable than that of the independent labourer, has been effectually
attained.
On recurring to the statements which we have extracted, it will be
seen that he loses all right to property; that he becomes incapable of
contracting marriage while receiving relief, and in many countries,
if he have once received relief, cannot marry until he has reimbursed
the parish, or has procured security that his future family shall not
become chargeable, or till three years have elapsed since he last
received relief. If married, he loses control over his children, he
cannot choose his residence or his occupation, and if he once becomes
the inmate of a workhouse _he incurs the risk of imprisonment for
life_. When such are the terms offered by the public, it is easy to
understand that none but the really destitute will accept them.
[Sidenote: 5. Restraints imposed on the labouring classes.]
5. The prevalence of habits productive of pauperism is repressed
by subjecting the whole labouring population to superintendence
and restrictions, which we should consider vexatious. As they are
in a great measure interwoven with the laws for the relief of the
unemployed, and have been in general already stated, it is not
necessary to repeat them.
[Sidenote: 6. Prevention of improvident marriage.]
6. In almost all the countries which have been mentioned, endeavours
are made to prevent the existence of a redundant population, by
throwing obstacles in the way of improvident marriage. Marriage on
the part of persons in the actual receipt of relief, appears to be
everywhere prohibited, and the marriage of those who are not likely to
possess the means of independent support, is allowed by very few.
Thus we are told that in Norway no one can marry without “showing,
to the satisfaction of the clergyman, that he is permanently settled
in such a manner as to offer a fair prospect that he can maintain a
family.” (p. 697.)
In Mecklenburg, that “marriages are delayed by conscription in the 22d
year, and military service for six years; besides, the parties must
have a dwelling, without which a clergyman is not permitted to marry
them. The men marry at from 25 to 30, the women not much earlier, as
both must first gain by service enough to establish themselves.” (p.
423.)
In Saxony, “that a man may not marry before he is 21 years old, if
liable to serve in the army.” In Dresden, “professionists, (by which
word artizans are probably meant,) may not marry until they become
masters in their trade.” (p. 482.)
In Wurtemberg, “that no man is allowed to marry till his 25th year,
on account of his military duties, unless permission be especially
obtained or purchased: at that age he must also obtain permission,
which is granted on proving that he and his wife would have together
sufficient to maintain a family, or to establish themselves; in large
towns, say from 800 to 1000 florins, (from 66_l._ 13_s._ 4_d._ to
84_l._ 3_s._ 4_d._;) in smaller, from 400 to 500 florins; in villages,
200 florins, (16_l._ 13_s._ 4_d._) They must not be persons of
disorderly or dissolute lives, drunkards, or under suspicion of crime,
and they must not have received any assistance from their parish within
the last three years.” (p. 511.)
And we have seen that a similar law prevails and is strictly enforced
in Bavaria.
[Sidenote: 7. Provision for the education of the labouring classes.]
7. Another means by which the extension of pauperism is opposed in the
countries which we have described, is the care taken by the government
to provide for the education of the labouring classes. We are told
(pp. 695 and 698) that in Norway their children have free access to
the parish schools, and that the poor pay for the education of their
children, and for religious teachers, nothing or nearly so. The general
report from Russia states (p. 332) that every parish in every town has
a school which is open to children of all classes, under the direction
of the clergyman; and this is borne out by the consular return from
Archangel. (p. 337.) The Gottenburg report states (p. 385) that in
Sweden gratuitous education is provided for children of the indigent,
and that it is asserted that there is not one person out of 1000 who
cannot at least read. The Danish reports state (pp. 264, 293) that
the children of all poor persons are educated gratuitously: that the
parish is taxed for the payment of the schoolmaster, the repairs of
the schoolhouse, books, papers, pens, ink, &c.; and that parents are
bound under a penalty to send their children regularly to school
until they have passed the age of 14, and been confirmed. Gratuitous
education is also afforded in Mecklenburg (p. 491) and in Prussia.
Mr. Gibsone states, as the general law of the country, that “all
children capable of going to school are obliged to attend it. Those
whose parents are unable to pay the expense, must be sent thither at
the cost of the community to which they belong” (p. 460); “the expense
of school-money and religious instruction is about 1_s._ 6_d._ yearly
for each child.” (p. 466.) In the detailed regulation for the relief
of the poor in Berlin, (p. 455,) it is laid down that “the period of
children being sent to school regularly commences at the beginning of
the child’s seventh year, and terminates when the child, according to
the testimony of the minister, has acquired the knowledge necessary for
his station in life, which generally occurs on his attaining his 14th
year. If parents allow their children to grow up without instruction,
the commissioners for the relief of the poor are to remonstrate with
them, and should this be of no avail, the commissary of police is
to interfere.” In Saxony, “the local poor commission supports free
schools.” (p. 480.)
The care which has been bestowed on this subject in Wurtemberg
is remarkable. The government report, after stating the recent
introduction and success of infant schools, adds that--
For older children, from the age of 6 to 14, there has long
existed in Wurtemberg in every, even the smallest community,
supported chiefly at the expense of the local church estate
and community fund, and of the parents, with the co-operation,
however, of the public treasury, a _German or elementary
school_, which all children of that age, both boys and girls,
must attend, and in which, with the exception of short holidays
during the time of haymaking, harvest and vintage, they receive
throughout the year every day, with the exception of Sundays
and holidays, in winter for five and in summer for at least two
hours, instruction in religion, morality, singing, the German
language, reading, writing, arithmetic, and the elements of
natural philosophy, natural history, geography and history.
In summer, in consideration of the work in the fields, the
instruction is given as much as possible in the morning; and
at the season when the labours of the field are the most
urgent, and in cases of great poverty, an exception is made
in favour of those children, where it is required, who, on
application, are excused two or three times a week from coming
to school. With this exception, every illegal neglect of school
is punished by a fine of two or three kreutzers, and if the
neglect of attending is continued, from four to six kreutzers;
and no child, even if it has completed the 14th year, is
suffered to leave the elementary school till it has acquired
sufficient knowledge of what is taught there. (p. 528.)
As, however, many poor children endeavour notwithstanding to
avoid attending the elementary schools, and in all cases the
instruction in these elementary schools occupies only the
smaller portion of the day, so that those poor children who are
not properly attended and employed by their parents have still
plenty of time for idleness and beggary; attempts have latterly
been made in some places to put such children under special
superintendence, as, for instance, by appointing a guardian for
each poor child in the person of an overseer or other public
officer of the community, or of a neighbour, who has to observe
it every where, at home, at work, at play; or by periodical
general summons to the several parents; or by periodical
visitations in the houses of poor families, especially of
those who are suspected of not paying proper attention to the
education of their children; or by the periodical exhibition
of the work done at home; or by the public performance of some
work as a specimen; or by gratuitously providing the poor
children with tools and materials; by the distribution of
rewards among the most diligent and skilful of the children;
and by exhorting, summoning, and punishing negligent parents;
by these means to acquire the certainty that such children are
kept to the constant attendance of the church and school, and
to doing their tasks; that they are sufficiently employed in a
suitable manner; that they are not ill-treated, either by being
overworked or by unmerited corporal chastisement; that they
are not neglected with respect to clothing and cleanliness;
and that they are not abandoned to idleness, beggary and other
vices, &c. (p. 529.)
Partly to retain, by practice, what they have learnt in
the elementary schools, and partly to promote the further
improvement of the grown-up youth, a _Sunday School_ is kept
in every community in Wurtemberg, in the common school-room,
where every youth and girl above 14 years of age, in the
Protestant places to their 18th, and in Catholic places to
their 21st year, must go every Sunday, or where there is only
one school-room the youths and girls every Sunday alternately,
and attend the lessons for at least an hour and a half, on
pain of paying four kreutzers, and if the neglect is of long
continuance, six kreutzers, for every time that they remain
away. It may be added, that, according to the existing laws,
more care has lately been taken that young persons of this
age, unless they are wanted to assist their parents in their
domestic and field-work, particularly those who are educated at
the public expense, and the poor girls and youths discharged
from the penal establishments, _do not remain at home with
their families_, or, out of love to a more unrestrained way of
life, endeavour to gain a livelihood as _Eigenbrödler_[9], as
they are called, merely by sewing, knitting, &c., but that they
try either to engage as servants or learn a trade. (p. 534.)
The Bavarian poor law enacts, that all the children of the poor shall,
without favour and without regard to the usual pretexts, be kept to the
practice of the public school and religious instructions, as also of
frequenting the work and industry schools, and of learning a trade. The
school money is to be paid from the poor institutions. (p. 559.)
Among all the Continental communities which recognize in the poor the
right to relief, the only one which does not appear to provide the
means of education, and to enforce their being made use of, is that
in which pauperism has become absolutely intolerable, namely, the
Canton de Berne; and even there any aubain (or person not entitled to
bourgeoisie in the parish in which he resides) may be summarily ejected
(unless possessed of landed property in it), if it can be proved that
he does not either send his children to school or provide otherwise for
their education. (p. 199.)
[Sidenote: 8. Central superintendence.]
8. Lastly, in most of the countries which have been considered,
the local administration of the laws for the relief of the poor is
controlled by a central superintending authority.
The only countries, the reports from which state that this is not
the case, are Sweden, Denmark, and Berne; and we have seen both that
these are the three countries in which the poor laws are the worst
administered, and that in all of them the mal-administration which the
reporters deplore is mainly attributed by them to the absence of a
central control.
[9] “_Eigenbrödler_” means one who endeavours to earn a livelihood
independently.
* * * * *
We now proceed to give a short outline of the institutions for the
relief of the poor in those countries which do not appear, from
the reports in this Appendix, to acknowledge a legal right in the
applicant.
HANSEATIC TOWNS.
_Hamburgh._
1. HAMBURGH.--The situation of Hamburgh, a large commercial town, with
a small territory and few manufactures, exposes it to a considerable
influx of foreign poor; and the number of charitable establishments
appears to have fostered and still to encourage pauperism to an
extent exceeding the average of the north of Europe. It appears from
the Consul-general’s return, that besides many endowed schools,
hospitals, and almshouses, the city possesses a general institution
for the poor, supported by the interest of its own capital and by some
voluntary contributions, and considerable advances from the treasury
of the State. A report has been furnished of the proceedings of that
institution during the year 1832.
It appears by that report (pp. 397, 398) that in 1832, 141,858 current
dollars, or about 25,000_l._ sterling, was distributed in money, by
way of weekly relief among registered or regular poor, amounting at
an average to 2,900 individuals, or heads of families; the smallest
weekly relief being 8 schillings or 7_d._ sterling; the largest for an
individual, 2 dollars or 7_s._ sterling; and for family, 3 dollars or
10_s._ 6_d._ Half of the adult paupers appear to have been foreigners.
Besides the amount of money relief, considerable sums were expended
in the distribution of soup, clothing, beds and bed clothing, and
fuel, and in the education and maintenance of poor children, and in
medical relief to the sick. Both the Consul’s report and that of
the institution, lament the absence of a workhouse. “Of those who
are capable, but will not work,” says the latter, “a great number
to be sure will be found: the only help against this would perhaps
be an institution, under a strict superintendence of the police,
for compelling them to work; the want of which, from the undeniably
increasing degeneration of our lowest class of people, is sensibly
felt from year to year.” (p. 402.) This statement is borne out by the
progressive increase of the registered paupers, from 2,332 in May 1826
to 2,969 in May 1832, and by the large amount of the regular out-door
relief in money, amounting, on a population of 130,000, to very
nearly 4_s._ a head. Further evidence of the extent of pauperism is
afforded by the number of persons buried in 1832 at the expense of the
institution, which was 459, or nearly one-tenth of the average number
of deaths.
No means exist of forcing parents to educate their children; a defect
deplored by the institution. (p. 403.)
_Bremen._
2. BREMEN.--The poor institutions of Bremen seem to resemble those
of Hamburgh; but the general enforcement of education, the use of a
workhouse, and perhaps other circumstances not mentioned in the report,
appear to have rendered their results more beneficial. The following
answers to questions 3, 4, 5, 7, and 8 of the Commissioners’ questions,
give a short outline of the existing system:--
3. To what extent and under what regulations are there district
houses of industry for receiving the destitute able-bodied,
or any part of their families, and supplying them with food,
clothes, &c., and in which they are set to work?--There
exists but one poor-house in Bremen, in which the destitute
able-bodied are received, to the number of 220, lodged, fed,
and clothed, for which they are bound to work, for the benefit
of the institution, as far as they are able.
4. To what extent and under what regulations do any religious
institutions give assistance to the destitute, by receiving
them as inmates, or by giving them alms?--Independently of
three houses for the lodging and partly providing for poor
widows, free of expense, there are other buildings set apart
for the reception of poor superannuated or helpless women;
but chiefly a number of private institutions for the relief
of poor deserving persons by testamentary bequests. Such are
the Rheden, the Tiedemann, the Nonnen, the Von Bühren, &c., so
called.
5. To what extent and under what regulations is work provided
at their own dwellings for those who have trades, but do not
procure work for themselves?--This is done, but in a very
limited degree, at the public expense, as those who have trades
come under the care and superintendence of their respective
guilds, whose duty and credit it is to prevent any of their
fraternity coming upon the parish, and who can easily afford
the means of providing them with work. Females, on application
to the poor-house, may receive hemp and flax for spinning, and
are remunerated accordingly.
7. To what extent and under what regulations are fuel,
clothing, or money distributed to such persons or their
families; at all times of the year, or during any particular
seasons?--Those who are registered in the poor-house list, and
thus come under the superintendence and control of the parish
officers, receive, as long as they may require assistance,--1.
A small monthly allowance in money. 2. Clothing for themselves
and their families. 3. If necessary, bedding. 4. In the winter,
during severe frost, fuel.
8. To what extent and under what regulations are they relieved
by their children being taken into schools, and fed, clothed,
and educated or apprenticed?--Means are not only afforded to
the poor for sending their children to school and for giving
them religious instruction, but they are here compelled to do
so, on pain of forfeiting all claim to parochial relief, or
by other modes of punishment. _That every child in the State,
of whatever descent, shalt be subjected to school discipline
and tuition_, is founded upon the principle, that no means so
effectually obviates that general poverty, among the lower
classes in particular, as an attention to the development of
their minds, by which they acquire that self-confidence that
stimulates exertion, and that proper spirit of independence
that keeps them above want, whilst by religious instruction
they are impressed with a sense of the duties and advantages
of good moral conduct through life. It has ever been the
prevailing opinion in this Republic, that the principal duty
of the State towards bettering the condition of its poorer
classes, rests upon a due regard to this school discipline,
and that it tends in its practice to prevent the frequent
recurrence of application for relief in the same family; the
descendants of which, without such control, would habitually
and irrecoverably become, in their turn, dependents upon
public charity. When such children have arrived at the age of
14 or 15 years, after having been taught reading, writing,
arithmetic, and any other acquirement consistent with their
situation, books, and other materials being furnished them by
the poor-house, gratis; they are, after confirmation, generally
put out to service, and thus prevented from returning to the
idle habits of their parents. Girls are, in like manner, often
provided for. They are taught reading, writing, knitting, and
needle-work. (pp. 410, 411.)
_Lubeck._
3. LUBECK.--If the statistical returns respecting Lubeck, which
however do not appear to rest on enumeration, can be depended on, the
proportion of deaths, births, and marriages to the whole population is
less than in any other part of Europe. The deaths being stated to be 1
in 56; the births 1 in 53½; and the marriages 1 in 177. And, what is
perhaps the strongest indication of the general welfare of a community,
the deaths under the age of one year are stated to be only 1 in 7. The
following answers to questions 3, 4, 5, 7, and 8, may be compared with
the corresponding answers from Bremen:
3. To what extent and under what regulations are there district
houses of industry for receiving the destitute able-bodied,
or any part of their families, and supplying them with
food, clothes, &c., and in which they are set to work?--No
other institution of this kind exists here but the work and
poor-house, called the Cloister, into which, however, none are
admitted but persons totally incapable of contributing to their
own support, whether from drunkenness or other incapacitating
causes.
4. To what extent and under what regulations do any religious
institutions give assistance to the destitute, by receiving
them as inmates, or by giving them alms?--We have none such,
but a collection is made in all our churches every Sunday for
the poor; this, however, being a regular matter-of-course
thing, yields comparatively small sums, which are privately
distributed to poor persons by the churchwardens and deacons.
5. To what extent and under what regulations is work
provided at their own dwellings for those who have trades,
but do procure work for themselves?--or for such persons in
agriculture or on public works? Every able-bodied man is
supposed capable of providing for himself, and no such work
or relief is afforded him. In winter, many poor women are
supplied with a little work by the overseers of the workhouse,
who give them flax to spin. The average annual quantity thus
spun is about 6000 to 6500 pounds, the pay for which, amounting
to about 130_l._ annually, relieves about 300 poor women.
The linen yarn thus spun is disposed of by lottery among the
wealthier classes. No work is supplied at the public expense
or by public institutions to able-bodied men, merely because
they are destitute; they must seek and find it themselves,
and are of course accepted and employed on public works, as
far as there is a demand for them. Having no relief to expect
elsewhere, they are of course spurred on to exertion, and if
sober and of good character, it may be generally assumed that
they find work, at least sufficient for their bare existence,
since, if a man can earn but a few pence daily, it will suffice
to support him in this country.
7. To what extent and under what regulations are fuel,
clothing, or money, distributed to such persons or their
families; at all times of the year, or during any particular
seasons?--As above stated, no relief of this kind is afforded
to able-bodied men; their families, if considered destitute,
may perhaps obtain the relief afforded by the poor-board to the
poor generally, by means of portions of cheap food daily during
the five winter months, and four times a week during the other
part of the year. About 230,000 such portions are distributed
annually, and bread to the value of about 60_l._ Fuel is
distributed during the severer part of the winter, but money
is rarely given, and only in extreme cases, never exceeding
one mark, or about 14_d._ sterling a week, to the same party.
Clothing forms no part of the relief afforded. In Lubeck these
various kinds of relief are partaken of by about 850 persons
annually.
8. To what extent, and under what regulations, are they
relieved by their children being taken into schools, and
fed, clothed, and educated, or apprenticed?--Not only are
all the children of the poor admitted into the poor-schools
for instruction gratis, but when relief is afforded by the
poor-board, it is on the positive condition that they shall
send their children to such schools. Neither food, clothing,
nor any further provision is afforded them, in these schools,
excepting in a very few extreme cases, in which the maintenance
of very young children is undertaken by the poor-board. The
number of children in our poor-schools averages about 300. (p.
415, 416.)
The allowance in our poor and workhouse for every individual,
is--
Daily:--1½ lb. of coarse rye bread.
2½ -- vegetables or porridge, such as potatoes,
yellow peas, green peas, dried white
beans, carrots, peeled barley, cabbage, &c.,
according to the season, and sometimes rice.
1 bottle of weak beer.
Monthly:--1½ lb. of meat, and
½ lb. of butter, lard, or fat, to cook the food with.
(p. 420.)
Marriages among the poor are delayed by the necessity a man is
under, _first_, of previously proving that he is in a regular
employ, work, or profession, that will enable him to maintain
a wife; and _secondly_, of becoming a burgher, and equipping
himself in the uniform of the burgher guard, which, together,
may cost him nearly 4_l._ (p. 419.)
The condition of the labouring classes living on their own
earnings is considered by themselves to be far superior to
that of the paupers maintained in our poor-house. The partial
assistance afforded by the poor-board is chiefly directed
towards aiding those who are not devoid of honest pride, and
have some feelings of independence left, who consequently
earn their own maintenance as far as they can, and are thus
assisted in their endeavours to support themselves, and keep
out of the workhouse. The aid they receive is proportioned to
their age and families, and is mostly granted to females; it
is gratefully received, and no idea exists of ever thinking it
a right. As a rule, no persons fully able to work can receive
assistance; they are therefore forced to seek out employment,
and may be generally presumed to succeed. If they get but a
moderate portion of work, very trifling earnings place them
in a situation much more eligible than that of the pauper
maintained in the poor-house. (p. 418.)
FRANKFORT ON THE MAIN.
The institutions for the relief of the poor in Frankfort do not appear
to require much notice.
The most striking circumstance mentioned in the report is, that the
orphans and deserted children brought up in the public establishments
are so carefully and successfully educated, that on an average they
turn out better than those merely kept to school and living at home.
(p. 567.) Permission to marry is not granted to a person who cannot
prove his ability to support a family.
HOLLAND.
As the Canton de Berne appears to be the portion of continental Europe
in which the burthen of legal relief is most oppressive, Holland
appears to be that in which pauperism, unaided by a legal claim, is the
most rapidly advancing. The Appendix contains an official communication
from the Dutch government, and answers from His Majesty’s Consul in
Amsterdam, to the Commissioners’ questions.
The clearest general view of the mode in which relief is administered,
is contained in the following extract from the Consul’s report: (p.
581.)
[Sidenote: General view of the Dutch system.]
The main support of the poor is derived from religious
communities and charitable institutions. Every denomination of
Christians, as well as the Jews, relieve their own members;
and for this purpose have, for the most part, orphan and
poor-houses, and schools connected with them, which are
supported by property belonging to them, and by voluntary
contributions at the church-doors, and collections at the
houses of the members: the Jews being permitted occasionally
to make a general collection throughout the city for their
own purposes. These establishments, among the Protestants
(the most numerous community), are called Deaconries; and
they provide not only for the support of their indigent
members, but also for their relief in sickness. The deacons,
who have the immediate superintendence of the poor, limit the
assistance given according to the exigency of the case, which
they investigate very narrowly; and by becoming particularly
acquainted with the situation of the applicants, are enabled to
detect any imposition. The pecuniary relief afforded is very
small, and can only be considered as in aid of the exertions
of the poor to earn their own support, being limited to a
few pence in the week; a weekly donation of 2 florins (or
40_d._) being looked upon as one of the largest. In winter,
provisions, fuel, and clothing, are given in preference to
money. The aged and infirm are admitted into the poor-houses,
where, and at the schools, the children are educated, and
afterwards put out to different trades, till they are able
to provide for themselves. The deacons act gratuitously; and
being of the most respectable class of citizens, elected by
the churches to that office, the conscientious discharge of
it is ensured, and in consequence, malversations seldom take
place. The general poor (being inhabitants), including persons
who are and are not members of religious communities (Jews
excepted), are relieved at their own houses from the revenue of
property, long since appropriated to that use, administered by
commissioners appointed by the magistrates, and acting without
emolument (as is the case with most similar offices in this
country), and in aid of which public charitable collections at
private houses are permitted, while any eventful deficiency is
supplied from the funds of the city; but the relief afforded by
these means is very small, and is confined chiefly to bread,
with the addition of fuel in winter. Without other resources,
therefore, or the assistance of private charity, the claimants
could hardly subsist upon what they obtain in this way. By
a decree passed in the year 1818, it was enacted, that the
domicile of a male pauper is the place of his birth, superseded
by the place where he has resided four years and paid taxes;
and that of a child, the residence of his father, or of his
mother, if a widow. That the domicile of a stranger is the
place where he has resided six years; of married women and
widows, the place of their husband’s residence; of legitimate
minors, that of their fathers’, and of illegitimate, that of
their mothers’. This decree, fixing the domicile of paupers
for the purpose of obtaining relief, and a subsequent one, by
which gratuitous legal advice is allowed them, if they apply
for it, implies that they have a claim to support, which can
be enforced at law; but as the funds from which this support
must be obtained are uncertain, the amount of the relief that
can be given depends upon their extent, and it is in fact left
at the discretion of the overseers, who have the faculty of
withholding it on the proof of bad conduct of the recipients,
or when their children do not properly attend the school, or
have been neglected to be vaccinated. Those not members of
churches are, moreover, admonished to join some religious
community, and must promise to do so the first opportunity.
The decree above alluded to also regulates the proceedings
of one town against another, and of religious and charitable
institutions at the same place, in respect to paupers. There
are at Amsterdam, besides, a variety of private establishments
for the poor of different religious denominations, endowed by
charitable persons, in which the poor are relieved in different
ways, according to prescribed regulations. _In general, the
funds of all the public charitable institutions have greatly
diminished, while the number of claimants has much increased,
which causes frequent and urgent appeals to the public
benevolence._ In the country, the same system prevails, and
the deacons or office-bearers of the churches are often called
upon during the winter to assist in the support of indigent
labourers with families, till the return of spring enables them
to find work; but there are few permanent poor there, except
the old and infirm, who are generally boarded in poor-houses in
the adjoining town. (p. 582.)
It will be observed that the Consul considers the law which fixes the
domicile of a pauper, and entitles him to legal advice, as implying in
him a legal right to relief. We understand, however, that no such right
is in practice acknowledged. And as a large proportion of the fund for
the relief of the poor arises from endowments, the law may fix the
legal settlement of every person, that is, his right to participate in
the endowments of a particular parish, and allow him legal assistance
in establishing it, without giving to him that indefinite claim which
exists in those countries in which every person has a right to receive
from the public subsistence for himself and his family.
The official report contains the following details respecting the funds
from which public relief is afforded: (pp. 573, 574, 575.)
The principle which invariably has been acted on is, that
the charge of relieving the poor should in the first place
rest on the overseers of the poor of the religious sects in
each parish; but when the means of the administration of the
poor are not sufficient, they can indiscriminately (without
reference to the sect to which such poor belong) apply
to the local administration for relief, which, after due
investigation, generally grants it, according to the means
of the municipal administration, which is regulated by its
direction.
Paupers, however, who are not members of any congregation, or
any religious sect, in the place where they live and receive
relief, or where no ecclesiastical charity for the poor exists,
are supported by the municipal administration of the place
where they live and obtain their support; for which purpose,
in several cities and parishes, a separate administration
for the poor is established responsible to the municipal
administration; whereas in the remaining cities and parishes
such relief is granted either by the burgomaster, or by an
overseer of the poor nominated by him.
The hospitals, which in many cities exist, are for the greater
part government establishments, which are administered on
account of the local magistracy, by a number of directors
appointed thereto, in which hospitals all inmates, without
any distinction as to religion, are taken in; some of these
hospitals are however separate foundations, which exist wholly,
or in part, on their own revenues.
Amongst the orphan houses and charities for children and old
people, there are several establishments which exist wholly
or in part on their own revenues; whereas the remainder are
generally the property of particular church administrations of
the poor, which in great cities is almost generally the case in
orphan houses, or charities for children.
Foundlings and abandoned children, at the charge of the
place in which they are abandoned, are provided for in the
establishment for children of the society for charitable
purposes; by which institution the beggars are also provided
for in the establishments appropriated for that purpose, and
acknowledged by the government, at the charge of the place
where they have a claim for relief.
There exist three local workhouses, one at Amsterdam, one at
Middleburgh, and one in the commonalty Nieuwe Pekel A., in the
province of Groningen, in which paupers, generally those who
apply of their own accord, are taken in, upon condition that
they contribute to their support as much as possible by labour:
further, there are in several places twenty-one charitable
houses of industry, which procure work for paupers who are in
immediate want of work, either in the houses of industry, or at
their own dwellings.
Besides the before-mentioned institutions, there are also
various places, unions, and societies, the intentions of which
are to grant relief in some way or other; namely, some for the
relief of very indigent poor; others for granting relief to
poor lying-in-women; and the commissions or societies which
during the winter distribute provisions and fuel.
For the twelve years from 1820 to 1831, the receipts of the
administration for the established charity houses, and those
of the hospitals, taken on an average for each year, amount
together;
| Guilders.
1. The revenues of properties and acknowledged rights | 2,461,883 26
2. Proceeds of collections | 1,320,551 48
3. Subsidies granted by |
_a._ The parishes 1,779,719 67|
_b._ The provinces of the State 38,642 78|
--------------+ 1,818,362 45
+---------------
Making Guilders | 5,600,797 19
|
By which all the disbursements of these |
institutions are covered. |
|
And if to the above-mentioned sum are added, for the |
same period of twelve years, the following, viz.: |
|
1. For the local workhouses and charitable houses of |
industry: |
_a._ Revenues of properties | 7,458 50
_b._ Collections | 7,971 63
_c._ Subsidies of the parishes | 99,083 87
2. For the new erected beggars’ workhouses: |
_a._ Daily wages paid by the parish for the |
beggars placed therein | 41,090 40
_b._ Provincial subsidies | 871 49
3. For the society for charitable purposes: |
_a._ Contributions and voluntary donations |
by individuals | 48,893 55
_b._ Monies for stipulated contracts | 208,651 69
+---------------
Consequently, the whole sum is Guilders 6,014,818 32
--------------------------
It appears from this statement that rather more than 6,000,000 guilders
(equal, at 20_d._ the guilder, to 500,000_l._ sterling) has, on an
average of the last 12 years, been annually expended on the relief
of the poor, being an expense per head, on an average population of
2,292,350, of about 4_s._ 4¼_d._--an expenditure small compared with
our own, but very large when compared with the average expenditure of
Europe.
The official report does not state the progressive increase of the
annual expenditure; but it contains a table of the progressive increase
of the number of persons receiving relief, from which we extract the
particulars of the 10 years ending with 1831. (p. 580.)
HOLLAND.--Statement of the Number of Persons who have received Relief,
or to whom Work has been given, by the Civil or Ecclesiastical
Charitable Institutions in North Netherland, during 10 years, from 1822
to 1831 inclusive.
+----+----------+-------------------------------
| | | Institutions for Relief.
| | +-----------+----------+--------
| | | | |
| | | | |
| |Population| Number of | |
| |of North | Persons | |
| |Netherland| relieved |Population| Number
| |on the | by the | of the | of
| |31st Dec. | direction |Hospitals.|Persons.
| | | of the | |
| | |Poor-House.| |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
+----+----------+-----------+----------+--------
|1822| 2,190,171| 174,802 | 20,501 | 195,303
| | | | |
|1823| 2,219,982| 193,633 | 17,430 | 211,063
| | | | |
|1824| 2,253,794| 196,786 | 19,955 | 216,741
| | | | |
|1825| 2,281,789| 240,400 | 17,943 | 222,343
| | | | |
|1826| 2,296,169| 227,501 | 18,731 | 246,232
| | | | |
|1827| 2,307,661| 232,426 | 19,775 | 252,201
| | | | |
|1828| 2,329,934| 217,343 | 17,928 | 235,271
| | | | |
|1829| 2,427,206| 235,771 | 17,884 | 253,655
| | | | |
|1830| 2,444,550| 244,503 | 17,870 | 262,373
| | | | |
|1831| 2,454,176| 248,380 | 17,887 | 266,267
+----+----------+-----------+----------+--------
Key to Column Headings:
Col A1: Fed and lodged in the Institutions.
Col A2: Those only who have worked in the same, or at their own Houses.
Col A3: Together.
Col B1: At Hoorn.
Col B2: At Veere.
Col B3: Together, or in the whole.
Col C1: Poor Families making the number of Persons.
Col C2: Orphans, Foundlings, or abandoned Children.
Col C3: Beggars.
Col C4: Persons, Veterans’ families, making together.
Col C5: Together, or in the whole.
Col D: Number of Persons
----+--------------------------------------------------------------------
| INSTITUTIONS FOR GIVING OR PROCURING WORK.
+---------------+-----------------+---------------------------+------
| Number of | | |
| Persons who | | |
|have worked in | |Population of the Colonies,|
| and for the | Population | and Establishments of |
| the local | of Paupers’ | the Society for |
|Workhouses and | Workhouses. | Charitable Purposes. |
| Charitable | | |
| Work-places. | | |
+---+-----+-----+----+-----+------+-----+-----+-----+---+-----+
| | | | | | | | | | | |
|A1 | A2 | A3 | B1 | B2 | B3 | C1 | C2 | C3 |C4 | C5 | D
| | | | | | | | | | | |
----+---+-----+-----+----+-----+------+-----+-----+-----+---+-----+------
1822|id.| id. |3,227|750 | .. | 750 |1,979| 456| 300| ..|2,735| 6,712
| | | | | | | | | | | |
1823|id.| id. |4,358|750 |273 |1,023 |2,295| 475|1,053| ..|3,823| 9,202
| | | | |[10] | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | |
1824|id.| id. |4,271|700 |200 | 900 |2,614|1,214|1,061| ..|4,889|10,060
| | | | | | | | | | | |
1825|862|2,982|3,844|323 |136 | 459 |3,227|2,174|1,377| ..|6,778|11,081
| | | | | | [11] | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | |
1826|920|3,199|4,119|380 | 82 | 462 |2,724|2,233|1,581|231|6,769|11,350
| | | | |[12] | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | |
1827|670|4,001|4,671|378 | .. | 378 |2,560|2,059|1,763|401|6,783|11,832
| | | |[13]| | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | | | | |
1828|607|4,017|4,624| .. | .. | .. |2,510|2,358|1,826|562|7,256|11,880
| | | | | | | | | | | |
1829|672|4,077|4,749| .. | .. | .. |2,626|2,340|1,942|543|7,451|12,200
| | | | | | | | | | | |
1830|733|4,263|4,996| .. | .. | .. |2,619|2,288|2,111|473|7,491|12,487
| | | | | | | | | | | |
1831|973|4,637|5,610| .. | .. | .. |2,694|2,297|2,406|456|7,853|13,463
----+---+-----+-----+----+-----+------+-----+-----+-----+---+-----+------
----+---------+--------------------------------------+
| | Statement for the Population |
| | of North Netherland of 100 Persons. |
| General |------------+------------+------------+
| Total | | | Of the |
| Persons | Of the | | general |
|who have |Total Number|Of the Total| Total of |
|received | of Persons | of Persons | Persons |
| Relief, |relieved or | by the | who have |
| or to | maintained |Institution |participated|
|whom Work| by the | for | in the |
|has been |Institution | providing | Relief, or |
| given. |for granting| Work. | to whom |
| | Support. | | Work has |
| | | |been given. |
----+---------+------------+------------+------------+
1822| 202,015 | 8,914 | 0,306 | 9,220 |
| | | | |
1823| 220,265 | 9,507 | 0,415 | 9,922 |
| | | | |
1824| 226,801 | 9,617 | 0,446 | 10,063 |
| | | | |
1825| 233,424 | 9,744 | 0,486 | 10,230 |
| | | | |
1826| 257,582 | 10,724 | 0,494 | 11,218 |
| | | | |
1827| 264,033 | 10,929 | 0,513 | 11,442 |
| | | | |
1828| 247,151 | 10,098 | 0,510 | 10,608 |
| | | | |
1829| 265,855 | 10,450 | 0,503 | 10,953 |
| | | | |
1830| 274,860 | 10,733 | 0,511 | 11,244 |
| | | | |
1831| 279,730 | 10,849 | 0,549 | 11,398 |
----+---------+------------+------------+------------+
OBSERVATIONS.
_General Observations._--Although the persons who have only
worked in or for the charitable work-places, and are not lodged
or fed in them, are probably already included amongst the number
of those who have been relieved by the direction of the
Poor-house; it was, however, thought proper not to exclude
them from this Table, because the expenses of procuring work
belong likewise to these persons.
[10] This being the first year in which the establishment at
Veere was opened.
[11] This decrease is occasioned by the removal of able paupers
to the Ommerschans.
[12] This establishment was done away with on the 20th June,
and the able paupers were removed to the Ommerschans, and the
invalid paupers to Hoorn.
[13] This establishment was done away with on the 15th October,
all the paupers in it were removed to the Ommerschans.
It appears from this table that the number of persons relieved has
steadily increased from 202,015, the number in 1822, to 279,730, the
number in 1831; and that the proportion of paupers to independent
members of society has also increased from 9²³⁰⁄₁₀₀₀ per cent., the
proportion in 1822, or rather more than one-eleventh, to 11⁸⁹⁸⁄₁₀₀₀
per cent., or rather more than one-ninth, the proportion in 1831: a
proportion exceeding even that of England.
And it is to be observed that the greater part of this great positive
and relative increase of pauperism has taken place during a period of
profound peace, internal and external; only one of these years being
subsequent to the Belgian revolution. It is probable that if the years
1832 and 1833 had been given, the comparison with the earlier period
would have been still more unfavourable.
We have omitted in the statement of the expenditure for the relief
of the poor a sum of 200,000 guilders, or about 16,666_l._ sterling,
annually employed on the gratuitous instruction of poor children: the
number thus instructed in 1831 was 73,609. It does not appear, however,
that any persons are compelled to attend to the education of their
children, except by its being made (as is the general rule on the
Continent of Europe) one of the conditions on which relief is granted:
and the Consul states that the labourers in general think it beneath
them to let their children go to school for nothing; and that some,
when unable to pay, prefer keeping them at home.
It is remarkable that neither the official nor the consular report
dwells on that portion of the Dutch poor institutions which has
excited the greatest attention in Europe, namely, the Poor Colonies.
POOR COLONIES.
The following statements are extracted from the narrative of Count
Arrivabene, who visited them in 1829: (pp. 610, 611, 612, 613, 614.)
The dearths of 1816 and 1817, and the consequent distress,
occasioned the establishment, in the northern provinces of
the Low Countries, of a Philanthropic Society (_Société de
bienfaisance_), to whose funds each subscriber was to pay one
halfpenny a week. The subscribers soon amounted to 20,000. One
of its projects was the foundation of poor colonies among the
heaths, with which this country abounds. The Colonies were
to be divided into Colonies for the Repression of Mendicity,
Colonies for Indigent Persons and Veterans, Free Colonies,
Colonies for Inspectors of Agricultural Works, Colonies
for Orphans and Foundlings, and Colonies for Agricultural
Instruction.
In the first year of its formation the Society established the
Free Colony, called Frederiks-Oord, on the heaths between the
provinces of Drenthe, Friesland, and Over-Yssel. It consisted
of 52 small farms, part of which had been previously cultivated
by the Society, of a store-house, of several workshops, a
school, &c. It was peopled with families, indigent, but not
dependent altogether on alms. The expense of its foundation
amounted to 68,000 flor. (5666_l._ 13_s._ 4_d._), and was
defrayed out of the annual subscriptions and donations of the
members of the _Société de bienfaisance_; and in order to give
employment to the colonists during the dead season of the year,
the Society engaged to purchase from them 26,000 ells of linen.
In 1819, the Society proposed to the directors of the Orphan
Institutions throughout the kingdom, to take charge, at a
fixed annual payment, of any number of orphans of the age
of six years, leaving to those institutions the right of
superintending their treatment. To meet this expense, the
society borrowed 280,000 flor. (23,333_l._ 6_s._ 10_d._). The
orphans were for a time placed in separate dwellings, six
orphans with two elderly persons, to act as their parents,
in each. But afterwards almost all were collected into large
buildings. In the same year the members of the society had
increased to 22,500, and their subscriptions to 82,500 flor.
or 6875_l._, and the society was enabled to establish two other
free colonies, and to place in them 150 families.
In 1820, the society borrowed 100,000 flor. more, or 8333_l._
6_s._ 8_d._, which, with donations to the amount of 78,000
flor. or 6500_l._, enabled it during that year to settle 150
more families.
In 1821, the society by means of loans and subscriptions had
collected a sum of 421,000 flor. or 35,083_l._ 6_s._ 8_d._, of
which 300,000 flor., or 25,000_l._ was borrowed, and 121,000
flor., or 10,983_l._ 6_s._ 8_d._ subscribed, and was possessed
of seven free colonies, consisting of 500 small farms, with the
public buildings to which we have alluded.
In 1822 the society founded the first colony for the repression
of mendicity; and engaged with the Government to receive and
settle on its colonies 4000 orphans, 2500 indigent persons, and
1500 mendicants, the Government engaging to pay for each orphan
45 florins, or 3_l._ 15_s._ a year, for 16 years, but nothing
for the others. As yet the society has fulfilled only a part
of its engagements. It has, however, established every kind of
colony which we have enumerated.
_Frederiks-Oord._
In August, 1829, we visited all the colonies of the society.
Those of Frederiks-Oord are spread over a space of two leagues.
The small farms, containing each about 9 English acres, extend
along the sides of roads, bordered with trees, and of canals,
which intersect the colonies in different directions. Each
house is composed of one great room, round the walls of which
are placed the large drawer-like beds, in which, according
to the custom of the Dutch peasantry, the family sleep.
A cow-house, a barn, and every building necessary for an
agricultural family, is annexed to the farm. Near the house is
the garden; beyond it the land to be cultivated.
Upon his admission into the colony, each colonist makes a
declaration, by which he binds himself to obey its rules, as
respects subordination to its officers, moral and religious
conduct on the part of himself and his family, modes of
working, wearing the colonial uniform, &c.
When a family of 8 persons (the number usually adopted by the
society) has been settled in a farm, the society opens an
account with them, in which they are debited in the sum of 1700
florins, or 141_l._ 13_s._ 4_d._, which is considered as having
been advanced for their use under the following heads:--
flor. _£_ _s._ _d._
Purchase-money of 9 acres of land 100 or 8 6 8
Labour previously expended on it 400 ” 83 6 8
Two cows and some sheep 150 ” 12 10 0
The house 500 ” 41 13 4
Incidental expenses 50 ” 4 3 4
Furniture and clothing 250 ” 20 6 8
Reserved fund for extraordinary occasions 250 ” 20 16 8
---- --- -- --
1700 141 13 4
The sum advanced for furniture and clothing is stopped out of
the wages of the colonist; and as soon as the farm has been
completely brought under cultivation, the head of the family is
annually debited 60 florins, or 5_l._, as the interest of the
remainder of the capital, and the rent of the farm.
During three years at the least, the colonists cultivate the
land in common, and receive wages, but are allowed to make
use of no part of the produce of the farm; though that of the
garden and the cows is their own. The farm produce (and it
appeared to us to be very trifling), consisting principally of
rye, potatoes, and buck-wheat, is taken to the storehouses of
the society to be preserved for subsequent distribution, either
as prepared food or otherwise, among the colonists, in payment
or on account of their wages.
As long as a family cannot provide its own subsistence, it
receives food daily from the society; but when it can provide
for itself (as it can when it earns 4 flor., or 6_s._ 8_d._ a
week), it is allowed to prepare its food at home.
The society distributes medals of copper, of silver, and of
gold. The first are the rewards of those who distinguish
themselves by regular labour and good conduct, and confer the
right to leave the colony on Sundays and holydays without
asking permission. The second are bestowed on those whose
industry supplies their whole subsistence; they confer the
right to leave the colony without permission, not only on
Sundays and holydays, but on every day of the week, at the
hours not devoted to labour. The golden medals are distributed
to those who have already obtained silver ones, when their
farms produce the annual value of 250 flor. (20_l._ 16_s._
8_d._), and upon obtaining them the colonist is no longer
subjected to the strict colonial regimen, though some
restrictions still distinguish him from an ordinary farmer.
The medals which have been obtained by good conduct may be lost
or suspended, with their privileges, by misbehaviour. They are
solemnly distributed, and withdrawn every fifteen days.
After a residence of three years in the colony, the colonists
are distributed into three classes:--1st, That of industrious
men who have received the silver medal: they may continue to
cultivate their farms in common, as before, or, after having
discharged their original debt to the society, may manage them
on their own account, at a rent payable to the society. 2nd.
That of colonists who have received the copper medal: they may
manage their own farms, and dispose of a part of the produce;
the other part must be sent to the magazines of the society, to
be applied in payment of the rent of the farm, in discharge of
the original advances, and in creating a common fund. A portion
of it, however, is returned to them in bread. But if in any
year a colonist does not raise a given quantity of potatoes,
or if he requires from the society extraordinary assistance,
he is forced to restore his medal, and to return to the third
class. 3. This last class, which is composed of those who have
obtained no medal, must, in addition to what is required from
the others, render to the magazines of the society a greater
amount of produce, and have therefore less for their own use.
A certain extent of ground is cultivated in common by the
colonists, each head of a family being required to work on
it three days in the year, at wages paid in a colonial paper
money. The produce of this common land is employed in supplying
the deficiencies of the harvests of the separate farms, and
meeting the expenses of the school, the hospital, and the
general Administration. The colonists are also allowed in
summer to pasture their cattle in the common pastures of the
colony. There are several shops for the sale, at prices fixed
by the Administration, of whatever the colonists are likely to
want, except spirituous liquors, the use of which is prohibited.
Whatever may have been the length of time during which the
colonist has resided in the colony he can never become the
proprietor of his farm. He may, however, acquire the ownership
of his furniture, and sell it or remove it when he quits the
colony.
No colonist is allowed to marry unless he be a widower, or
the son of a widower, and in possession of a farm. When his
children have attained 16 or 18 years of age, they choose
a trade (etat) with the consent of their parents and the
colonial authorities, and may follow it either in the colony or
elsewhere.
To every 25 farms there is a superintendent, who visits them
daily, and directs and distributes among the colonists the
labours of the day; and to every 100 farms a sub-director, who
gives instructions to the superintendent, keeps the registers,
and manages the manufactures.
In selecting the occupiers of each subdivision of 25 farms,
care is taken that persons of different trades shall be
included. The superintendence to which a family is subjected
diminishes day by day with its good conduct, and ceases almost
entirely as soon as the colonist has repaid the value of the
advances which have been made to him. Those who are idle or
disorderly are taken before a council of superintendence, of
which some colonists are members, and may be sent on to a
council of discipline, which has the power to transfer them
to Ommerschans, a colony for the repression of mendicity; of
which we shall speak hereafter. They are detained there for a
fixed period, in a place set apart for them, and kept to more
than usually hard labour. The industrious and well-disposed
colonists are appointed superintendents of the works in the
colonies for the repression of mendicity, and in those for the
reception of orphans and indigent persons.
Most of the inhabitants of Frederiks-Oord are Protestants;
there are, however, several Catholic and two Jewish families.
_Wateren._
In the morning of the 3d day we went to Wateren, which is
two leagues from Frederiks-Oord. Wateren is the colony of
Agricultural Instruction, to which are sent the orphans who
most distinguish themselves in their colonies. They amount
to 60, and acquire agricultural knowledge from a master, and
from the practice of working at a farm of 42 bonniers (nearly
103 acres) in arable, nursery grounds, and pasture. They are
instructed by the same master in the Bible, the history of
Holland, land surveying, natural-history, botany, mathematics,
chemistry, and gymnastics. They are better dressed than the
others, and wear a hat with a riband, on which is written the
name of the privileged colony to which they belong. Their
destination is to become superintendents in the free colonies.
The society derives from this colony an annual profit of about
900 flor. or 75_l._
_Veenhuisen._
On the same day, after a journey of three leagues, we arrived
at Veenhuisen, which contains one colony for the repression
of mendicity, two for orphans, one for indigent persons and
veterans, and one for inspectors of agricultural works. They
are intersected by high ways, bordered by trees and by canals
communicating with Amsterdam. Two great square buildings,
at the distance of a half mile from each other, contain, in
the part which looks into the interior quadrangle, the one
mendicants, the other orphans, and each contains, in the
rooms on the exterior, indigent persons and veterans. Another
similar edifice, at two miles distance, contains all these
three classes of individuals. In the midst of the three
edifices are situated two churches, one Catholic, the other
Protestant; twenty-four houses forming a colony of inspectors
of agricultural works, and an equal number of houses inhabited
by the officers of the colonies.
The children and grown-up persons have been placed thus near
one another for convenience, with respect both to their
agricultural and manufacturing employments.
The interior of each of the three great edifices is divided
into two sides, one for the males, the other for the females,
separated by the kitchen. On the ground-floor are large rooms,
containing each forty or fifty individuals. The upper floors
are mere lofts, and used as store-rooms.
The persons placed in the colonies for the repression of
mendicity receive a new and uniform dress, and for some time
are maintained without reference to the value of their work.
Their out-doors employment consists of agricultural labor,
brick-making, or turf-cutting: in-doors they work as artizans,
generally by piece work. The society fixes the amount of their
wages.
The lands of these colonies are divided into farms of
thirty-two bonniers, or about eighty acres each, half arable,
half pasture. To each of these farms are attached forty or
fifty colonists, who work under the orders of a superintendent,
who himself follows the instructions of a sub-director. The
annual expenditure on each of these farms is fixed at 1680
flor., or 140_l._
The accounts between the society and the colonists are kept in
the military form. Each colonist carries a book, in which is
entered the work which he has performed each day, the supplies
and paper money which he has received, and his share of the
general expenditure. If his earnings exceed what has been laid
out on him, which is said to be commonly the case, a third of
the excess is given to him in paper money, another third is
placed in a savings’ bank, to be given him on his leaving the
colony, and the remaining third is retained by the society to
meet contingent expenses.
Horse-patrols round the colonies, rewards to such as bring back
colonists who have attempted to escape, and a uniform dress
are the means employed to prevent desertion. The colonists
are detained for 6 years, unless they have previously saved
12½ flor. (1_l._ 10_d._), which entitles them to immediate
discharge.
Orphans are admitted in the orphan colonies at the age of six.
They work, either in-doors or in the fields, for a part of
the day, another part is employed in elementary instruction,
drawing, and singing. They leave the colonies at the age of 18,
generally for the sea or land service.
The colonies for indigent persons and veterans serve as
preparatory residences for those who are to be placed in the
free colonies. These colonists dwell with their families in
the outer apartments of the great buildings, the interior
quadrangles of which are inhabited by the mendicants and
orphans. Like the mendicants, they are considered day
labourers, and paid according to their work.
In every colony the supplies and wages vary according to the
difference of age, strength, or sex. The men are divided into 5
classes, the women into 7. The first class of men is supposed
to earn 1 flor. 70 cents, or 2_s._ 10_d._ per week; the second,
1 flor. 35 cents, or 2_s._ 3_d._; the third, 1 flor. 6 cents,
or 1_s._ 11_d._; the fourth, composed of children from 8 to 16
years, 1 flor. 1 cent, or 1_s._ 8½_d._; the fifth, composed of
children under that age, 67½ cents, or 1_s._ 1½_d._ The first
class of females is supposed to earn per week 1 flor. 51 cents,
or 2_s._ 6¼_d._; the second, 1 flor. 26 cents, or 2_s._ 1_d._;
the third, 98 cents, or 1_s._ 7½_d._; the fourth and fifth,
composed of children, 95 cents, or 1_s._ 7_d._, and 75 cents,
or 1_s._ 3_d._ respectively; the sixth and seventh, composed
also of children, but still younger, 63 cents, or 1_s._ 0½_d._,
and 55 cents, or 11_d._, respectively.
_Ommerschans._
On the morning of the fourth day we went to Ommerschans, which
is seven leagues from Veenhuisen.
At Ommerschans there is a colony for the repression of
mendicity, and one for indigent persons and veterans. The
first is composed of men and children; and has a separate
division for the free colonists who have been sent thither
as a punishment. The building can contain 1000 persons, and
resembles in several respects those in Veenhuisen, except
that its moat, and the iron-bars to its windows give it
more the appearance of a prison; and that it has a story
above the ground floor. Nor does it differ as to its interior
arrangement, or the employment or treatment of its inmates. In
the middle of the quadrangle there are shops for locksmiths,
joiners, and other trades; and for the manufacture of thread
and linen. On the outside stands the church, which serves for
both Catholic and Protestant worship, and as a school; the
house of the sub-director, the hospital, and other public
edifices; and 20 houses scattered about the lands, form a
colony of inspectors of agricultural works. Nearly 150 persons
are annually discharged from this colony for the repression of
mendicity.
On recurring to the official statement of the total number of persons
relieved during the ten years ending 1831, it will be seen that in
1831 the population of the poor colonies consisted of 7853, being an
increase of 402 from the time of Count Arrivabene’s visit, arising
solely from an increased number placed in the repressive or most severe
of the penal colonies; and that this population was thus distributed:
2297 in the colony assigned to orphans and abandoned children; 456 in
the preparatory colony; 2694 in the colonies called free; and 2406 in
the repressive or mendicity colonies.
The nature of these institutions appears to have been imperfectly
understood in England. They are in fact large agricultural workhouses;
and superior to the previous workhouses only so far as they may be less
expensive, or, without being oppressive, objects of greater aversion.
It is scarcely possible that they can be less expensive.
The employing persons taken indiscriminately from other occupations and
trades, almost all of them the victims of idleness and misconduct, and
little urged by the stimulus of individual interest in farming the
worst land in the country, (land so worthless that the fee-simple of it
is worth only 24_s._ an acre,) at an expense for outfit, exclusively of
the value of the land, of more than 130_l._ per family, and under the
management of a joint-stock company of more than 20,000 members, cannot
but be a ruinous speculation.
Nor does the institution appear to have repressed pauperism by the
disagreeableness of the terms on which it offers relief: we have seen,
on the contrary, that it has not prevented its steady increase. It will
be shown subsequently that a similar establishment has signally failed
in Belgium, and we cannot anticipate a different result in Holland.
BELGIUM AND FRANCE.
M. Lebau, the Belgian Minister of Justice, has furnished a detailed
report on the poor laws of Belgium, together with a considerable
number of printed documents. Of the latter, we have printed only the
regulations of the schools for the poor in Louvain, and of the out-door
relief in Tournay; the laws of August, 1833, respecting the Dépôts de
Mendicité; and some statistical papers respecting the relief afforded
in different manners in 1833, and in some of the preceding years. The
others were too voluminous for this publication; and though we have
consulted them (particularly the Code Administratif des Etablissemens
de Bienfaisance, M. Quetelet’s statistical works on the Netherlands
and Belgium, and M. Ducpétiaux’s on Indigence,) with great advantage,
we have been forced to omit them. Baron de Hochepied Larpent and
Mr. Fauche, His Majesty’s Consuls in Antwerp and Ostend, have given
valuable replies to the Commissioners’ questions; and Count Arrivabene
a detailed account of the state of Gaesbeck, a village a few miles from
Brussels. And we have inserted three reports as to the state of the
Belgian poor colonies; one from Count Arrivabene, who visited them in
1829, and one from M. Ducpétiaux, and another from Captain Brandreth,
both dated in 1832.
The union and subsequent separation of Belgium and France, and
afterwards of Belgium and Holland, occasion the Belgian laws on this as
on every other subject to be divisible into three heads:
First, those which she received when incorporated with France;
secondly, those which were made during the union with Holland; and
thirdly, those which have been passed since the revolution of 1830.
By far the largest portion of the Belgian poor laws is derived from the
first of these sources.
FRENCH POOR LAWS.
The government of the Directory, by three laws passed in the autumn of
1796, established the system under which the principal portion of the
relief afforded by the public is now regulated in most of the countries
which constituted the French empire.
Hospices and Bureaux de Bienfaisance.
By the first of these, that of the 16 Vendémiaire, An v. (7th October,
1796), the property belonging to the hospices (or almshouses) was
restored to them, and their management was entrusted to a commission
appointed by the municipal authorities.
By the second, that of the 23 Brumaire, An v. (13th November, 1706),
it was enacted, that all the revenues of the different hospices in one
commune should be employed as one fund for their common support.
And by the third, that of the 7 Frimaire, An v. (25th November, 1796),
that in every commune there should be appointed one or more bureaux de
bienfaisance, each bureau consisting of five members, to administer
out-door relief; and that the funds at the disposition of the bureau
de bienfaisance should consist of one-tenth of the receipts from all
public exhibitions within its district, and of whatever voluntary
contributions it could obtain. By the same law all able-bodied beggars
were required, under pain of three months’ imprisonment, to return to
their place of birth, or of domicile, if they had subsequently acquired
a domicile.
By the law of the 3 Frimaire, An vii. (23d November, 1798), the
additional sums necessary to provide for the hospices, and the secours
à domicile (or out-door relief), of each commune, are directed to
be raised by the local authorities in the same manner as the sums
necessary for the other local expenses.
By that of the 4 Ventose, An ix. (23d February, 1801), all rents
belonging to the State, of which the payment had been interrupted,
and all national property usurped by individuals, were declared the
property of the nearest hospitals. By that of the 5 Prairial, An
xi., the commissaires des hospices and bureaux de bienfaisance were
authorized to make public collections in churches, and to establish
poor-boxes in public places; and by a train of subsequent legislation
they were enabled to acquire property by testamentary dispositions.
It is to be observed that under these laws the members of the
commissions des hospices, and of the bureaux de bienfaisance, are
frequently, but not necessarily, the same persons. The maire (or
principal civil officer) of each commune is a necessary member of every
charitable board. The other members go out by lot, one every year, but
are re-eligible.
By the law of the 16 Messidor, An vii., the inmates of the hospices
were to be set to work, and two-thirds of the produce of their work
was to belong to the hospice, the other third to be given to them
either periodically or when they quitted the hospice. We mention
this enactment, because it has afforded a precedent for many similar
regulations.
And partly for the purpose of increasing the funds for charitable
purposes, and partly with a view to reduce the rate of interest in
the mode of borrowing usually adopted by the poor, by two arrêtés of
the 16 Pluviose and 24 Messidor, An xii. (6th February and 13th July,
1804), all pawn-broking by individuals was prohibited, and public
establishments for that purpose, under the name of Monts-de-Piété, were
directed to be established and conducted for the benefit of the poor.
Foundlings and deserted children.
The French legislation respecting foundlings and deserted children is
of a very different kind, and appears to us to be the portion of their
poor laws deserving least approbation.
A law of the 27 Frimaire, An v. (17 Dec., 1796), enacted, that all
recently-born deserted children should be received gratuitously in all
the hospices of the Republic, at the expense of the State so far as
those hospices had not a sufficient revenue specially destined to that
purpose; and an arrêté of the Directory, of the 30 Ventose, An v.,
(20th March, 1791), founded on the previous law, directed that as soon
as possible after children had been received in any hospice they should
be sent out to be nursed, and brought up in the country until the age
of 12; and then either left to those who had brought them up, if they
chose to take charge of them, or apprenticed to farmers, artists, or
manufacturers, or, if the children wished it, to the sea service.
The law on this subject received nearly its present form from an
Imperial decree of the 19th Jan., 1811.
By that decree, the children for whom the public became responsible
were divided into three classes: 1. Enfans trouvés; 2. Enfans
abandonnés; 3. Orphelins pauvres. The first class comprises children of
unknown parents, found exposed, or placed in foundling hospitals. The
second, children whose parents are known, but have abandoned them, and
cannot be forced to support them. The third, children without father
or mother, or means of subsistence. For the first class a hospice was
directed to be appointed in every arrondissement, with a tour (or
revolving slide) for their reception, without the detection of the
person bringing them. All the three classes of children were to be put
out to nurse until six years old, and then placed with landholders
(cultivateurs) or artizans until 12, subject to any mode in which the
Ministre de la Marine might dispose of them. If not wanted by him, they
were at 12 to be apprenticed for periods not exceeding their attaining
the age of 25.
The annual sum of four millions (160,000_l._) in the whole was to be
contributed by the State towards these expenses. The remainder to be
supplied by the hospices out of their own revenues or out of those of
the communes.
Relatives claiming a foundling were to repay all that it had cost, as
far as they had the means.
The last clause of this decree directs that those who make a custom
of taking infants to hospitals shall be punished according to law.
It is not easy to reconcile this clause with the rest of the decree.
If taking an infant to a foundling hospital were an offence, it
seems strange that the law should itself prescribe a contrivance (a
tour), the object of which is to prevent the detection of the person
committing the offence. In fact, however, no such punishment “according
to law” seems to exist. If a nurse or other person entrusted with a
child take it, in breach of duty, to a foundling hospital, the offence
is punishable by the code pénal; but no punishment is denounced against
a parent for doing so, however often the act may be repeated. Nor
does the “making a custom of taking children to a hospital” appear as
an offence in the detailed “Compte général de l’administration de la
justice criminelle en France.”
Mendicity and Vagrancy.
The following is an outline of the French regulations, as far as they
affected Belgium, for the repression of mendicity and vagrancy. A
decree of the Convention, 27 Vendémiaire, An ii. (15th Oct., 1798),
fixed the settlement, or domicile de secours, of every person, 1st,
in the place of his birth; 2dly, of his residence for six months in
any commune in which he should have married, or for one year in any
in which he should have been registered as an inhabitant, or for
two years in any in which he should have been hired by one or more
masters. Every person found begging was to be sent to his place of
domicile; if he could not prove any domicile he was to be imprisoned
for a year in the maison de repression of the department, and at the
end of his imprisonment, if his domicile were not then ascertained,
to be transported to the colonies for not less than eight years. A
person found again begging after having been removed to his domicile,
was also to be imprisoned for a year: on a repetition of the offence
the punishment was to be doubled. In the maison de repression he was
to be set to work, and receive monthly one-sixth of the produce of his
labour, and at the end of his imprisonment another sixth, the remaining
two-thirds belonging to the establishment. On the third offence he also
was to be transported. A transport was to work in the colonies for the
benefit of the nation, at one-sixth of the average wages of the colony:
one-half of that sixth to be paid to him weekly, and the other half on
the expiration of his sentence. No person was to be transported except
between the ages of 18 and 60. Those under 18 were to be detained until
they arrived at that age, and then transported; those above 60, to be
imprisoned for life.
The local authorities were authorized to employ their able-bodied poor
on public works, at three-fourths of the average wages of the canton.
Every person convicted of having given to a beggar any species of
relief whatever was to forfeit the value of two days’ wages; to be
doubled on the repetition of the offence.
The provisions of this law were, as might have been anticipated, far
too severe for execution. After having remained, though inoperative, on
the statute book for nearly 15 years, it was replaced by the Imperial
decree of the 5th July, 1808.
By that decree a depôt de mendicité was directed to be established in
each department, at the expense partly of the nation and partly of the
department. Within 15 days after its establishment, the Prefect of
the department was to give public notice of its being opened, and all
persons without means of subsistence were bound to proceed to it, and
all persons found begging were to be arrested and taken to it.
By a subsequent arrêté of the 27th October, 1808, it was ordered that
all beggars should on their arrest be placed in the first instance
in the maison d’arrêt of the district; and transferred from thence,
if guilty of vagrancy, to the maison de detention, or prison; if
not vagrants, to the depôt de mendicité. In the depôt they were to
be clothed in the house dress, confined to regular and very early
hours, the sexes separated, subject to severe punishments (rising to
six months’ solitary imprisonment (cachot) on bread and water) for
disobedience or other misconduct, or attempts to escape; deprived
of all intercourse, except by open letters with their relations or
friends, and kept to work at wages to be regulated by the Prefect,
two-thirds of which were to belong to the establishment, and the
remaining third was to be paid to them on their quitting the depôt.
The conditions on which a person might obtain his release from a depôt
de mendicité are not stated.
The provisions of the code pénal appear to leave that question to the
discretion of the Executive.
Section 274 of that code enacts that every person found begging in
a place containing a public establishment for the prevention of
mendicity, shall be imprisoned for from three to six months, and
then removed to the depôt de mendicité. Under section 275, if there
be no such establishment in the place where he is found begging, his
imprisonment is to last only from one to three months; if, however, he
has begged out of the canton in which he is domiciled, it is to last
from six months to two years.
After having suffered his punishment, he is to remain (apparently in
the depôt de mendicité) at the disposition of Government.
BELGIUM.
Monts-de-Piété.
Such was the state of the law respecting purely charitable, and what
may be called penal, relief at the time of the establishment of the
kingdom of the Netherlands. We have stated these provisions at some
length, because they form, with little material alteration, the
existing law on the subject in France. No change of any importance
appears to have been made by the late Government of the Netherlands,
or by the present Belgian Government, with respect to the hospices or
the bureaux de bienfaisance; but with respect to foundlings, an arrêté
of the 2nd June, 1825, declared that the expense of their maintenance
ought to be supplied by the hospices, and so far as these were unable
to meet it, from the local revenues of the commune or the province
in which they had been abandoned--a provision which has been the
subject of much complaint, as imposing a heavy and peculiar burthen
on the few towns which possess foundling hospitals. And with respect
to monts-de-piété, an arrêté of the 31st October, 1826, directed the
local authorities of towns and communes to prepare regulations for the
management of their respective monts-de-piété, their support, and the
employment of the profits, subject to certain general rules; among
which are,--
1. That the administration shall be gratuitous.
2. That the interest shall not exceed 5_l._ per cent. per annum, and
that no farther charge shall be made on any pretext whatever.
3. That they shall be open every day.
4. That the pledges may be redeemed at any time before their actual
sale.
5. That they shall not be sold until the expiration of 14 months from
the time of the loan.
Mendicity.
The following are the most material alterations made in the laws
respecting mendicity. By a law of the 28th November, 1818, the period
of residence necessary for acquiring a settlement, or domicile de
secours, was extended to four years: and by a law of the 12th October,
1819, the expense of supporting a person confined in a depôt de
mendicité was thrown on the commune in which he had his domicile de
secours.
In 1823 the Belgian Société de Bienfaisance was established, on the
model of that which existed in Holland, and contracted with the
Government to receive in its colonies de repression 1000 paupers,
at the annual sum of 35 florins (2_l._ 18_s._ 4_d._) per head. In
consequence of this arrangement, all the regulations which required
a beggar to be removed to a depôt de mendicité were varied by the
introduction of the words “or to a mendicity colony;” and by an arrêté
of the 12th October, 1825, the governors of the different provinces
were directed to give notice that all persons in want of employment
and subsistence would obtain them in the depôts de mendicité, or the
mendicity colonies, and had only to apply to the local authorities in
order to be directed to the one or the other; and that consequently
no begging at any period of the year, or under any pretext whatever,
could in future be tolerated. Persons arrested for begging were
allowed on their own request, if their begging were not accompanied by
aggravating circumstances, to be conducted to one or the other of these
establishments without suffering the previous imprisonment inflicted by
the penal code.
By another arrêté of the same date, the local authorities were directed
to prepare new codes for the regulation of the different depôts de
mendicité, based on principles of which the following are the most
material:
1. That the depôts should be confined to the reception of those who,
from age or infirmity, should be unfit for agricultural labour.
2. That all above the age of six, and under that of 70, and capable of
working, should be kept to work, at average wages; that each person
should be charged per day 17 cents (about 3½_d._) for his maintenance,
being its average cost, and retain the remainder of his earnings; and
be allowed nothing beyond strict necessaries (mere bread is specified
for food), if his earnings were under that sum.
That a portion of each person’s surplus earnings should be reserved and
paid over to him on leaving the house, and the other portion paid to
him from time to time in a local paper money.
3. That cantines should be established in the house, to enable the
inmates to spend their surplus earnings.
4. That those who had voluntarily offered themselves for reception
should be at liberty to quit the house, after having repaid the
expenses of their maintenance there.
5. That those arrested and sent thither as beggars should not be set
free until, 1st., they had repaid all expenses; and 2ndly, had fitted
themselves to earn an independent livelihood, or been demanded by their
commune or relatives, and security given for their future conduct.
6. That in each house there should be an ecclesiastic to perform divine
service, and give moral and religious instruction, frequently in
private, and twice a week in public; and that, where the inmates should
consist of Protestants and Catholics, there should be both a Catholic
and a Protestant ecclesiastic.
7. That in each house there should be a daily school for the young,
and a school for the adult, open for four hours on Sundays, and for an
hour two evenings of the week. The attendance on these schools to be
compulsory.
8. That so far as the confined paupers did not earn their own
subsistence, each commune should pay for the support of those having
in it their domicile de secours, at the above-mentioned rate of 17
cents. (3½_d._) per day, but be allowed a discount of 2 cents. per day
(reducing the daily payment to 3_d._) on prompt payment.
A decree of the 9th April, 1831, by the Regent, abolished that
discount, the sum of 3_d._ a day having been found insufficient, except
in the depôt of Bruges, in which the decree states that it covers every
expense.
The existing Government has passed two very important laws, dated the
13th & 29th of August, 1833.
The first of these enacts, that until the laws on mendicity shall have
been revised, the daily charge for the subsistence of each detenu in
the depôt de mendicité, instead of being fixed at 17 cents., shall be
determined annually by the Government. The commune bound to repay the
expense is to be assisted, if incapable of meeting it, by the province,
the King deciding if the matter is disputed. If payment is not made, a
personal remedy is given against the receiver of the commune.
By the second, a conseil d’inspection des depôts de mendicité is to be
elected in each province. Each conseil is to propose a scheme,--
1. For dividing the inmates of the depôts into three classes,
comprising, 1st, the infirm; 2d, the able-bodied who have voluntarily
entered them; 3d, those sentenced to them as beggars or vagrants.
2. For obviating the abuses which might follow from the power given to
the indigent of voluntarily entering the depôts.
And as a general rule, a pauper who requests admission without any
authority from his commune, may be received; but in that case his
commune is to be immediately informed of what has occurred. If it
offers to support him at home, he is to be sent back to it: if it
refuses, he is to remain in the depôt at the expense of the commune:
and the communes are to be informed that it depends on themselves to
diminish the expense of supporting their poor in the depôts, by the
judicious distribution of out-door relief, by the organization of
committees for the purpose of watching over the indigent, and inquiring
into the causes of their distress; by the erection of asylums for
lunatics, the deaf and dumb, the blind and the incurable; and by the
establishment of houses of employment (d’ateliers libres de travail) in
winter, and infant schools. For all which purposes they are recommended
to assess themselves. M. Lebeau says in his report, “Enfin chez, nous
nul ne peut exiger de secours en vertu d’un droit.”[14] (p. 594.) But
it must be admitted that these provisions, if not constituting a right
in the pauper to relief, give at least a right to the managers of the
depôts to force the parishes to relieve, either at home or in the
depôt, any pauper who presents himself: and M. Lebeau himself felt
the danger to which the parishes are exposed. In his circular of the
13th September, 1833, addressed to the provinces in which depôts are
established, he urges the importance of adopting regulations respecting
the reception and dismission of the poor voluntarily presenting
themselves, which may preserve parishes from “the indefinite burden
which would follow the too easy admission of applicants.” “These
establishments,” he adds, “must not be considered by the poor as places
of gratuitous entertainment, (des hôtelleries gratuites.) One of the
best methods of preventing this will be the strict execution of the law
which prescribes work to all those who are not physically incapable
of it; and for those who are incapable, the ordinary hospices and
hospitals are the proper receptacles. It is true that in some depôts
work has been discontinued, because the results did not repay the
expenditure; but this consideration ought not to prevail over the moral
advantages which follow its exaction. Labour is the essential condition
which must be imposed on the pauper; and if it require the sacrifice of
some expenditure, that sacrifice must be made.”
In a subsequent circular, dated the 4th July, 1834, and addressed to
the governors of the different provinces, M. Lebeau states, that one of
the causes assigned for the prevalence of mendicity, is the facility
with which persons obtain release from the depôts. “I invite you, M. le
Gouverneur,” says the Minister, “when a pauper requests his release,
to consider his previous history, to ascertain whether he has the means
of subsistence, or the local authorities have engaged to provide for
him; and to treat with great suspicion the solicitations of parishes,
as they are always interested in obtaining the release of the paupers
for whose maintenance they pay.”
With respect to the general working of these institutions we have not
much information. It appears from the report of M. Lebeau that there
are in Belgium six depôts de mendicité; one at Hoogstraeten for the
province of Antwerp, at Cambre for Brabant, at Bruges for the two
Flanders, at Mons for Hainault, at Namur for Namur and Luxembourg,
and at Reckheim for Limbourg and Liege; that the hospices for the old
and impotent, and the hospitals for the sick, are very numerous, and
that nearly every commune possesses its bureau de bienfaisance for
the distribution of out-door relief. In 1832 the annual income of the
different bureaux de bienfaisance was estimated at 5,308,114 francs
(equal to about 212,325_l._ sterling), and that of the hospices at
4,145,876 francs (equal to about 165,835_l._ sterling), altogether
about 378,160_l._ But the report contains no data from which the whole
expenditure in public relief, or the whole number of persons relieved,
or the general progress or diminution of pauperism, can be collected.
An important paper, however, is contained in the supplement to M.
Lebeau’s report, stating the number of foundlings, deserted children
and orphans, in the nine provinces constituting the kingdom of Belgium,
in the years 1832 and 1833; of which we subjoin a copy, having added
to it the population of the different provinces, as given in the
official statement of 1830.
YEAR 1832.
---------+-----------+-----------+-----+-------+----------------------+--
Population. | | | | OBSERVATIONS.
|PROVINCES. | | | | |
| | Average | | | |
| | number of | | | |
| +-----+-----+ | | |
| |Foundlings.| | | |
| | |Deserted | | |
| | |Children | | |
| | |and | | |
| | |Orphans. | | |
| | | |TOTAL| | |
| | | |NUMBER. | |
| | | | |TOTAL | |
| | | | |EXPENSES. |
| | | | | | Subdivision of those |
| | | | | | Expenses among |
| | | | | +----------------------+
| | | | | |The Hospitals, |
| | | | | |Charitable |
| | | | | |Institutions, |
| | | | | |or Foundations. |
| | | | | | +---------------+
| | | | | | |Towns or |
| | | | | | |Communes. |
| | | | | | | +-------+
| | | | | | | Provinces.
---------+-----------+-----+-----+-----+-------+------+-------+-------+--
354,974|Anvers | 886| 566|1,452| 71,300| .. | 31,300| 40,000| a
| | | | | | | | |
556,146|Brabant |2,244| 286|2,530|197,550| .. |147,050| 50,500| b
| | | | | | | | |
601,678|Flandre | 35| 461| 496| 34,123|15,600| 18,523| .. | c
|Occidentale| | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | |
733,938|Flandre | 688| 219| 907| 64,479| .. | ..| 64,479| d
|Orientale | | | | | | | |
| | | | | | | | |
604,957|Hainault |1,870| 333|2,203|172,792| .. | 25,072|147,720| e
| | | | | | | | |
369,937|Liége | 41| 153| 194| 15,550| 9,665| 4,694| 1,191|}
| | | | | | | | |}
337,703|Limbourg | 11| 123| 134| 12,056|10,658| 1,398| .. |}f
| | | | | | | | |}
292,151|Luxembourg | 13| 12| 25| 1,841| 232| 1,609| .. |}
| | | | | | | | |
212,725|Namur | 653| 9| 662| 44,533| .. | 25,533| 19,000| g
---------+-----------+-----+-----+-----+-------+------+-------+-------+--
4,064,209| TOTAL |6,441|2,162|8,603|614,224|36,155|255,179|322,890|
---------+-----------+-----+-----+-----+-------+------+-------+-------+--
(a) There is a tour at Antwerp, and also at Mechlin.
(b) A tour in Brussels and one in Louvain.
(c) No tour.
(d) A tour at Ghent.
(e) A tour in Mons, and one in Tournay.
(f) No tour.
(g) A hospital, but no tour.
N.B. There are tours at Antwerp, Mechlin, Brussels, Louvain, Ghent,
Mons, and Tournay; seven in all.
N.B. A tour is a horizontal wheel, with a box for the reception of the
infant, which, when empty, is open to the street, and when full is
turned into the interior of the house.
YEAR 1833.
+---------------+-----------+------+-----------------------+-----------+
| PROVINCES. | Number of |Total.| Expenses of | TOTAL |
| +-----+-----+ +-----------+-----------+ EXPENSES.|
| |Foundlings.| |Foundlings.| | |
| | |Deserted | |Deserted | |
| | |Children. | |Children. | |
| | | | | | | |
+---------------+-----+-----+------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
|Anvers | 886| 578| 1,464| 37,107 65| 26,927 61| 64,035 26|
|Brabant |2,648| 318| 2,966|182,321 69| 23,081 84|205,403 53|
|Fl. Occidentale| 39| 460| 499| 3,258 67| 31,841 89| 35,100 56|
|Fl. Orientale | 752| 242| 994| 49,874 81| 14,902 67| 64,717 48|
|Hainault |1,969| 382| 2,351|123,368 71| 23,533 18|146,901 89|
|Liége | 38| 162| 200| 2,899 0| 12,857 04| 15,756 04|
|Limbourg | 14| 157| 171| 913 96| 11,054 44| 12,968 40|
|Luxembourg | 7| 31| 38| 880 94| 3,212 80| 4,093 74|
|Namur | 615| 7| 622| 41,082 0| 467 60| 41,549 60|
| +-----+-----+------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| |6,968|2,337| 9,305|442,647 43|147,879 07|590,526 60|
+---------------+-----+-----+------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
Foundlings.
It appears from this statement that in the provinces of Antwerp,
Brabant, and Hainault, containing a population of 1,514,072 persons,
and possessing each two public receptacles for foundlings, the number
of foundlings in 1833 was 5,404, or 1 in 278: that in Flandre Orientale
and Namur, containing a population of 946,663, and possessing each a
single public receptacle, the number of foundlings was 1367, or 1 in
699; and that in Flandre Occidentale, Liége, Limbourg and Luxembourg,
containing a population of 1,601,469, but having no such establishment,
the number of foundlings was 98, or less than 1 in 16,000. Nor does
this difference arise from an increased number of deserted children
in those provinces in which foundling hospitals do not exist: on the
contrary, the numbers in the second column, comprising both orphans
and deserted children, in the four provinces in which no foundling
hospitals exist, amount to 910, out of a population of 1,601,469, being
1 in 1649, whereas those in Antwerp, Brabant and Hainault amount to
1356, out of a population of 1,514,077, or 1 in 116; and when it is
recollected that the proportion of orphans can scarcely differ in the
different provinces, and that in the second column they are mixed with
the deserted children, the superiority of the four former provinces
over the three latter will be found to be really much greater than it
appears.
Nor does the difference arise from the prevalence of infanticide.
It appears from the statistique des tribunaux de la Belgique, that in
the years 1826, 1827, 1828, and 1829, there were in the provinces of
Antwerp, Brabant, Flandre Orientale, Hainault, and Namur, containing
2,450,740 inhabitants, and possessing foundling establishments, 13
convictions for infanticide; and in Flandre Occidentale, Liege,
Limbourg, and Luxembourg, containing 1,601,469 inhabitants, and no such
establishments, only nine convictions, being a proportion slightly
inferior. So far, therefore, from foundling hospitals having had a
tendency to prevent desertion of children, or infanticide, it appears
that their tendency is decidedly to promote the former, without
preventing in any degree the latter. The real infanticides, strange as
it may sound, are the founders and supporters of foundling hospitals.
The average mortality in Europe of children during the first year does
not exceed one in five, or 20 per cent. In England and Holland it
is less: in Belgium it is 22⁴⁹⁄₁₀₀, per cent. But in the foundling
hospitals of Belgium (and their mortality is below the average of such
establishments), it is 45 per cent.[15]
In the foundling hospital in Brussels it is now 66 per cent., having
been from 1812 to 1817, 79 per cent.
Nor is the fate of those who escape from these receptacles much
preferable to that of those who perish there. M. Ducpétiaux, the
inspector of prisons, states that, small as is their number relative
to the rest of the population, they form a considerable proportion of
the inmates of gaols and prisons, and a still larger proportion of the
prostitutes.[16]
Such having been the legislation, and such being its results, an
attempt towards its improvement was made by a law, dated the 30th
July, 1834. That laws enacts, that from the 1st of January, 1835, the
maintenance of foundlings and of deserted children whose place of
settlement is not known, shall be supplied one half by the communes in
which they shall have been exposed or deserted, with the assistance of
their bureaux de bienfaisance, and the other half by the province of
which those communes form a part, and that an annual grant shall be
made by the State in aid of this expenditure; and that the expense of
maintaining deserted children whose place of settlement is known, shall
be supported by the hospices and bureaux de bienfaisance of their place
of settlement, with the assistance of the commune.
The object of this law is stated in a circular from the Minister of
Justice, dated the 23d January, 1834.
He directs, in the first place, the local authorities to provide for
the subsistence of the foundlings with whom they may be charged,
without reference to the proposed annual grant, since neither the
amount of that grant, nor the mode of its distribution, is laid down by
the law; and urges them to prevent the increase of their own burthens
by endeavouring to prevent the abandonment of children born within
their jurisdictions, and the exposure within their jurisdictions of
children born elsewhere; and for that purpose to procure the punishment
by law of those convicted of having exposed infants, or made a custom
of taking them to hospitals. He admits, however, that the necessary
investigations are matters of great delicacy; and he might have added
that the punishment by law to which he refers does not exist, unless
punishment by law means the arbitrary interference of the police, so
much tolerated in continental Europe.
“These,” he adds, “are the wishes of the Government and of the
Chambers; and this declaration will enable you to understand the
motives of the silent repeal of the law, directing the establishment
of tours for the reception of foundlings. The Legislature could not at
the same time prescribe measures intended to diminish the exposure of
children, and an institution by which it is favoured and facilitated.
It did not venture to pronounce the suppression of the existing tours;
but the silence of the law on this subject is the expression of its
earnest desire that this institution should be discontinued; the mode
of discontinuing it is left to the local authorities. The Government
will require from you an annual report on these subjects, before it
decides on the distribution of the annual grant; and the favour shown
to each district may depend on its endeavours to comply with these
instructions.”
This circular is a curious instance of an attempt to undermine an
institution which the Government and the Legislature disapprove, but
which they do not venture directly to grapple with. All that the
Legislature ventures directly to do is to express its earnest desire
(désir formel), _by the silence of the law_. The Government however
goes further, and holds out hints, though it does not venture to hint
very clearly, that the fewer the foundlings in any district, the
larger will be the share of that district in the government grant.
Under the influence of these double motives we may expect the tours
soon to be closed.
We have also inserted (p. 607) a paper respecting the operation of the
monts-de-piété, of which the following is the result:--
------------------------+---------------------+---------------------
Average of Nine Years, | |
from 1822 to 1830 | 1831. | 1832.
inclusive. | |
-----------+------------+----------+----------+----------+----------
Pledges. | Amount. | Pledges. | Amount. | Pledges. | Amount.
-----------+------------+----------+----------+----------+----------
| Francs. | | Francs. | | Francs.
1,271,122 | 3,778,286 |1,185,834 | 3,268,104| 1,129,373| 3,939,219
| or | | or | | or
| £151,131 | | £130,124 | | £157,548
-----------+------------+----------+----------+----------+----------
The number of pledges redeemed is stated only for 1832, in which year
1,124,115 pledges, on which 3,162,399 francs, or 126,495_l._ sterling,
had been lent, were redeemed. It is to be observed that the pledges
are for small sums, amounting, on an average, to about three francs,
or less than half-a-crown per pledge; and that the amount of the
redemption in 1832 nearly corresponds with the amount lent in 1831. On
the whole, considering the low rate of interest exacted by the Belgian
monts-de-piété, as compared with that taken by our pawnbrokers, the
small aggregate amount of deposits, being about 150,000_l._ for four
millions of people, is a strong indication of the generally provident
habits of the labouring population.
As further illustrations of the general working of the Belgian system,
we extract the following particulars from the reports from Antwerp and
Ostend. (pp. 627, 628, 629, 630, 634, 636, 637, and 639.)
[14] “With us no one has a right to relief.”
[15] Quetelet, Recherches sur la Population, &c., p. 38.
[16] Des Modifications, &c. de la Loi sur les Enfans Trouvés,
p. 13.
ANTWERP.
[Sidenote: Population, 11,328.]
_Vagrants._
Indigent travellers, foreigners, or denizens, who pass through Antwerp,
are received there at an establishment called St. Julien’s Hospital,
where they are lodged and boarded for three nights at the expense of
the establishment, which provides their wants for the moment.
The foundation of this hospital, which yearly receives about 1000
individuals, dates from the beginning of the 14th century. It subsists
by itself, under the direction of a private charitable administration,
by means of some fixed revenues, and also by the liberal donations of
philanthropic persons.
The same poor travellers, when Belgians, receive at Antwerp an
indemnity of 15 centimes, or 1½_d._ sterling, per league per head for
travelling expenses to the first town in the neighbourhood, where this
relief is continued to them. These travelling expenses are at the
charge of the town, and paid out of the municipal funds, in virtue of a
Royal Act of the 10th May, 1815.
_Destitute Able-bodied._
Necessitous individuals of the labouring and indigent class, who do not
attempt to go a begging, and who, for want of work, are without means
of providing for the necessaries of life, and also the members of their
families, are provided for at their own dwellings, by the care of the
bureau de bienfaisance, by the means or revenues of this establishment,
and the subsidies which the town grants it yearly out of the municipal
funds, in order to supply what may be necessary to continue its
service. The amount of this grant varies annually, according to the
real wants of the establishment, by reason of the circumstances that
either augment or reduce its expenses.
The succours distributed by this establishment consist in money, bread,
potatoes, fuel, and clothing, &c.
Besides, there exists at Antwerp, under the direction of the same
bureau de bienfaisance, a workhouse, where carpets of cow-hair and
other articles are made. This workhouse is established especially
to procure work to the indigent and working class who are without
employ. The population of this establishment varies according to the
different seasons and other circumstances. It is most frequented during
the winter, when the navigation is interrupted, and the stagnation of
several branches of industry causes the number of indigent to augment.
Those who come to work in this establishment remain there the whole
day, and receive their meals, besides a salary in cash, proportioned to
the work they are employed at.
If, through the effects of a hard winter, the wants of the labouring
and indigent class are excessive, there are formed at Antwerp private
societies for relief, which, by means of donations, collections, and
voluntary subscriptions, efficaciously assist the unfortunate by
distributions of money, food, fuel, &c.
The depôt of mendicity in the province of Antwerp is situated at
Hoogstraeten, in an ancient manor bought for that purpose by the
former department administration. It is a spacious establishment of
agriculture, possessing a great number of acres of arable, pasture, and
wood land, and a still greater number of heath (bruyère).
Those individuals who are destitute, and who desire to be admitted into
this establishment, are received as free men; the vagrants are brought
there by force. Both are employed there at sundry works of agriculture,
of manufacture, or in the household establishment, according to their
physical strength. The impotent and aged alone are kept without working
in a separate place.
For several years the expense for the maintenance of individuals of the
depôt at Hoogstraeten has not amounted to more than 32 centimes per
individual, (or 3_d._ sterling.)
On the 1st January, 1834, the number of persons entertained at the
provincial depôt, on account of the city of Antwerp, was 153. The
population of this establishment generally amounts to 250 or 300
individuals, all belonging to the province.
The children of the working class or indigent are received, without any
distinction, in the public schools established gratis. Those children
abandoned to the public charity, or of whom the parents are entirely
unable to bring them up, and who request to be relieved of them from
inability to maintain them, are sent to an hospital established for
that purpose, or else placed in the country under the direction of the
civil hospital, or the bureau de bienfaisance.
_Impotent through Age._
There are at Antwerp 26 private hospitals, founded and established for
many centuries by charitable persons in favour of a stated number of
aged persons, of both sexes, and of decent and respectable families;
but in preference for the members of the founders’ family, and which
persons, without being entirely destitute, have, notwithstanding,
no sufficient means to provide for their subsistence. Those persons
inhabit a small house in the hospital, where they keep their own
household separately, and subsist by what they can earn personally
by any hand-work, and by the weekly succour which they receive from
the revenue of the foundation. These men and women reside in separate
hospitals.
Destitute persons, of both sexes, who are impotent through age, but
have not claims to be admitted into the before-mentioned private
hospital, are maintained by the administrations of the poor, the sick,
incurable, and impotents, in the civil hospital, and the others in the
country, where they are boarded with the farmers at the expenses of the
public establishment of charity; that is to say, of the administration
of the civil hospitals and bureau de bienfaisance. Besides, there is
at Antwerp a special establishment as a refuge to the impotent through
age, of decent and respectable families, who are without means of
procuring a livelihood.
_Sick._
In Belgium every town has its civil hospital for the maintenance of
destitute sick. That of Antwerp is open to all the unfortunate, without
distinction, whenever their social position does not afford them the
means of being attended by a physician at their dwellings, who are
deemed proper objects for admission.
Are also admitted, in a private room in this hospital (upon payment of
a small daily retribution), all individuals who, although not entirely
destitute, prefer to be treated in the hospital rather than at their
own houses; such as men and female servants, who are commonly sent
there by the persons who have them in their employ.
Indigent persons, born at Antwerp, are treated at the hospital at the
expense of the establishment. Those who are not of the town, but are of
the country, are treated there at the expense of the commune where they
have their domicile de secours.
These expenses are fixed at the rate of 62 cents., or 1 franc 31
centimes (1_s._ 0½_d._ sterling) per diem, whatever may be the
sickness. The expenses, for the treatment of those who have no domicile
de secours, are repaid by government out of the treasury funds.
The town provides for the insufficiency of the private revenue of
this establishment, in the same manner as it does for the bureau de
bienfaisance, by means of “subsidies in aid,” paid out of the municipal
funds. This amount of “subsidies” varies annually according to the
wants of the administration of the hospital.
Persons of the indigent and necessitous class, whose sickness or
complaint is not severe enough to require their entering the hospital,
receive medical and surgical relief at their own homes. To that effect,
there are several physicians and surgeons appointed and attached to
the bureau de bienfaisance, who give their assistance to the sick
who require it, every one in the district or section for which he is
appointed. These physicians and surgeons, who receive a fixed salary
from the administration of the poor, also receive at their domicile,
at fixed hours of the day, indigent persons who want to consult them
on the state of their health; and it is on a ticket delivered by them,
that such sick persons are received at the hospital. The bureau de
bienfaisance has a special pharmacy, situated in the centre of the
town, where medicine is given gratis to the indigent, on a prescription
signed by a physician of the poor establishment.
The indigent persons relieved by the bureau de bienfaisance receive
only the strict necessaries of life to feed and support their families,
and no more, so that they have nothing to satisfy their private wants
or fancies, nor can they procure themselves any luxuries or other
comforts; and they always lead a life, that, although protected against
the most pressing wants, is notwithstanding a very miserable one. It
is thus the interest of those individuals that are able to work (and
this they perfectly comprehend) to seek to maintain themselves. It is
only those persons who are totally depraved, and who give themselves
entirely up to drunkenness and every other excess, who feel assured
that, after having wasted and spent the little they possess, and
abandoned the work that maintained them, there always remains to them
the resource of the distributions made by the administration of the
poor.
In Antwerp, the situation of a workman, whatever may be the class he
belongs to, and who maintains himself solely by his work, is by all
means preferable and better than that of a person who only subsists
by relief or public charity. The existence of those who reside in the
depôts of mendicity, excepting only the loss of their liberty, is even
in many respects preferable to the situation of the latter, who are
maintained by general charity.
OSTEND.
[Sidenote: Population, 11,328.]
_Destitute Able-bodied._
The only legal mode of lodging the destitute able-bodied is to send
them to the depôt of mendicity, where they are treated as paupers.
There existed formerly agricultural colonies on the same principles as
those in Holland, to which the parishes could send their able-bodied,
destitute, and their families; it was found in vain to attempt making
cultivators or proprietors of them.
The destitute able-bodied, but quite indigent, of the two Flanders,
and the vagrants who have been tried as such, compose altogether a
population of about 300 persons (the destitute able-bodied of Ghent
excepted.) For each of these 300 poor, his parish pays a contribution
of 32 centimes (3_d._) per day (men and women equally.) The depôt
for both the Flanders established at Bruges, by the mildness of its
administration, has gradually overcome the dread which it inspired
at its origin. The directors have banished all rigour, not even
enforcing work on the destitute; but as they are paid according to
their industry, that inducement to work is found sufficient. This
establishment is remarkably prosperous, having already saved fr. 80,000
(3200_l._), all expenses paid. It is not found necessary to have any
armed force in the neighbourhood to keep this large number of destitute
in order, this being attained by gentleness and good usage. On any of
the poor leaving the establishment, improved in their moral conduct,
they receive a part of their own earnings, which enables them to seek
some employment.
Besides this depôt, there is at Ghent a workhouse where employment is
given to the destitute, but without their being maintained. The number
of labourers in this establishment, which was erected by voluntary
subscription, has been as many as 1900 in time of great distress.
Every church has its masters of the table of the poor, or distributors
of assistance. Such funds proceed from collections made in the church,
voluntary alms, and assignments from the “bureau de bienfaisance.”
Weekly distributions of bread or fuel, sometimes money or clothing,
are made; but this assistance is generally discontinued in the summer
months, on account of the abundance of work during that season. In the
towns the relief consists principally in money (about 32 centimes per
man and per day, or 3_d._ sterling.) In the country the rule is not to
give money, but assistance in kind.
Generally their children may be educated gratuitously; but they take
little advantage of it, as they prefer employing them in gathering
up firewood, &c.; and, generally, there is felt a want of coercive
measures to force the parents to send their children to school, and to
allow them to be put out as apprentices.
_Impotent through Age._
There are almshouses throughout the kingdom, where the impotent through
age are maintained and taken care of. These institutions are so far
profitable to the parishes, as that it would cost them more money to
assist these persons separately. Some have been endowed by deeds of
gift, others are supported by the inhabitants of the towns. The number
of them is increasing in the country, and most towns are well provided
in that respect.
The assistance afforded to those relieved at home is in clothing,
bread, fuel twice a week, and 75 centimes in money (7_d._) every Sunday.
There exists between the self-supporting labourers and the persons
subsisting exclusively on alms or public charity, a very numerous
intermediate class, consisting of those who live partly on relief and
partly on labour, so that the two extremities only of the scale can be
compared. An able-bodied but not labouring man receives only about the
half what the last of those who do labour and are not assisted would
earn; the legal relief being 32 centimes (3_d._), and the lowest day’s
work more than 64 centimes (6_d._) As to liberty, nobody is forced to
work, not even at the depôt of mendicity; they are only not allowed to
go out at will. Food is almost equally distributed, and many destitute
poor prefer the depôt to free labour, when they are not sure of being
employed every day; but in no other instance.
The grievances which result from this system arise from the neglect,
the ignorance or the corruption of the local authorities, and although
numerous, they are not very striking.
2dly. Grievances arise from the want of proper conditions with which
lands or houses are bequeathed to the bureaux de bienfaisance. Wherever
a revenue is bequeathed it is shared equally by the poor, even when
they may be beyond need; for instance, a beggar will receive 1 fr. 50
c. (1_s._ 2_d._) per day for her maintenance, which would not have cost
more than the fifth part of that sum if paid by the depôt of mendicity.
To obviate this abuse, and to increase the power of useful charity, the
revenue of the bureau de bienfaisance of each parish should be added
to the sum principal of the province when the revenue of the bureau
exceeds the wants of its locality. 3dly. Grievances arise from the
liberty of parents to neglect their children, and allowing them to beg
alms for their own benefit. This last appears to be the root of the
evil, and the great cause of the augmentation of pauperism in these
towns.
GAESBECK. (page 1.)
But the most interesting portion of the Belgian details is Count
Arrivabene’s account of Gaesbeck, a small village about nine miles from
Brussels, containing about 857 acres, inhabited by 364 persons, forming
60 families, or separate menages, constituted of 13 comparatively large
farmers, occupying each from 30 to 150 acres, 18 small proprietors or
small farmers, 21 day-labourers, and 8 artizans. The commune possesses
a property producing an annual revenue of 556 francs, or nearly 23_l._
sterling, managed by its bureau de bienfaisance, of which the curé is
the acting member. It expended in the year 1832, on the relief of the
poor, (including the salary of the schoolmaster and clothing for the
poor children who were to be confirmed,) 625 francs, or about 25_l._
2_s._, being rather less than 1_s._ 4½_d._ per head. How the extra
2_l._ 2_s._ was obtained is not mentioned; but as the bureau is stated
to have always nearly a year’s revenue in hand, it was probably taken
from the receipts of a previous year. The heaviest item of expense
is the support of one old man, at the annual expense of 72 francs,
(rather less than 3_l._) Ten other individuals, or heads of families,
appear to have received nearly regular relief, amounting in general
to about 6_d._ a week; and four others to have been assisted at
times irregularly; the largest sum being 1_l._, given to L. Maonens,
“pour malheur.” There has been only one illegitimate birth during
the last five years. The average age of marriage is 27 for men, and
26 for women; the average number of births to a marriage, 3½. As
these averages are taken for a period of 23 years, ending in 1832,
during which the population has not increased, they may be relied on.
Of the whole 60 families, only 11 are without land; all the others
either possess some, or hire some from the proprietor. The quantity
generally occupied by a day-labourer is a bonnier, or about 2½ acres,
for which he pays a rent of from 60 to 80 francs. With this land the
labourers keep in general a cow, a pig, and poultry. To be without
land is considered the extreme of poverty. The number of labourers
is precisely equal to the demand for their services. Daily wages are
6_d._, with some advantages equal to about 1_d._ more; and, as might
be expected under a natural system, with no preference of the married
to the unmarried. Labourers are generally hired by the year, and
remain long in the same service. Crime is exceedingly rare: for the
last 12 years no one has been committed to prison. Offences against
the game laws are unknown. There are three houses of entertainment in
the village, but they are not frequented by the labourers. “Are the
labourers discontented; do they look on the farmers with envy?” asked
the Count of his informant. “I do not believe,” was the answer, “that
the labourers envy the farmers. I believe that the relation between
the farmers and labourers is very friendly: that the labourers are
perfectly contented in their situation, and feel regard and attachment
for their employers.” (p. 14.)
What a contrast is exhibited by this picture of moral, contented, and
(if the term is permissible) prosperous poverty, supported by the
frugality and providence of the labourers themselves, and that of the
population of a pauperized English village, better fed indeed, better
paid, better clothed, and better lodged, and, above all, receiving
10, or perhaps 20 times the amount of parochial alms, but depraved by
profligacy, soured by discontent, their numbers swelled by head-money
and preference of the married to double the demand for their labour,
their frugality and providence punished by the refusal of employment,
and their industry ruined by the scale; looking with envy and dislike
on their masters, and with hatred on the dispensers of relief!
And it is to be observed that the independence of the Belgian peasantry
does not arise from any unwillingness to accept of relief. Out of the
60 families forming the population of the village, 19 appear to have
received it in 1832; and a fact is related by Count Arrivabene, which
shows that indiscriminate alms are as much coveted there as with us. In
1830 (the year of the revolution) many persons applied for charity at
the gate of the castle of Gaesbeck, the residence of Marquis Arconati,
and something was given to each. The next year the applications were
renewed: the sum given to each applicant was fixed at 1_d._, and a
single day in the week was fixed for its distribution. On the first
of these days there were 50 applicants; the second, 60. The sum given
was reduced to ½_d._ to a man, and a farthing to a child; but towards
the end of the season the weekly assemblage had risen to 300 and
400 persons; they came from 10 and 12 miles distance, and it became
necessary to abolish the allowance, trifling as the amount appears.
_Poor Colonies._
The last portion of the Belgian institutions requiring notice are the
poor colonies. We have already stated, that in 1823 the Belgian Société
de Bienfaisance was established on the model and for the purposes
of that already existing in Holland. In the beginning of that year
the society purchased 522 bonniers (rather less than 1,300 statute
acres), at Wortel, for the establishment of two colonies, called free,
and divided them into 125 farms, of 3½ bonniers (about 9 statute
acres) each; 70 in the colony No. 1, and 55 in the colony No. 2. In
1823 they purchased 516 bonniers (about 1,280 acres), at Mexplus and
Ryckevoorsel, for the establishment of a mendicity colony. The first
estate cost 623_l._, the second 554_l._, or less than 10_s._ an acre,
from which the quality of the land may be inferred.
Families placed in the free colonies were provided each with a house,
barn, and stable, a couple of cows, sometimes sheep, furniture,
clothes, and other stock, of the estimated value, including the land,
of 1,600 florins (133_l._ 6_s._ 8_d._ sterling), which was charged
against them as a debt to the society. They were bound to work at wages
fixed by the society, to wear the uniform, and conform to the rules
of the colony, and not to quit its precincts without leave. A portion
of their wages was retained to repay the original advance made by the
society; a further portion to pay for the necessaries furnished to them
from time to time, and the food for their cattle; and a portion paid to
them in a base money of the colony, to be expended in shops established
by the society within its limits.
At first each family of colonists worked on its own farm, and managed
its own cattle, but it was found that the land was uncultivated, and
the cattle died for want of attention or food; and in 1828 the society
took back the cattle, and employed all the colonists indiscriminately
in the general cultivation of the land of the colony. “From this time,”
says M. Ducpétiaux (p. 624), “the situation of the colonist who is
called free, but is in fact bound to the society by restrictions which
take from him almost the whole of his liberty for the present, and
deprive him of all hope of future enfranchisement, has resembled that
of the serfs of the middle ages or of Russia. It is worse than that
of the Irish cottiers, who, if they are fed like him on potatoes and
coarse bread, have at least freedom of action and the power of changing
their residence.”
Those colonists who had obtained a gold or silver medal, as a testimony
that they could support themselves out of the produce of their own
farms, were excepted from this arrangement, and allowed to retain
the management of their farms, paying a rent to the society; but at
the date of M. Ducpétiaux’s communication (10th December, 1832), the
greater part even of them had been forced to renounce this advantage,
and to fall back into the situation of ordinary colonists. Four
families were all that then remained in this state of comparative
emancipation.
The inhabitants of the mendicity colony were from the first subjected
to the regulations ultimately imposed on the free colonists, with the
additional restriction of being required to live in common on rations
afforded by the society; the only respect in which, according to M.
Ducpétiaux, they now differ from the free colonists.
Count Arrivabene visited these colonies in 1829, and then predicted
their failure. The three years which elapsed between his visit and the
report of M. Ducpétiaux were sufficient to prove the accuracy of this
prophecy.
It appears from the statement of M. Ducpétiaux (p. 621), that on the
1st of July, 1832, the debts due from the society amounted to 776,021
florins (about 64,661_l._ sterling); the whole value of its property
to 536,250 florins (about 44,698_l._ sterling); leaving a deficit of
239,771 florins, or nearly 20,000_l._ sterling. And this deficit was
likely to increase every year; the expenses, as they had done from the
beginning, greatly exceeding the receipts, a fact which is shown by the
following table:--
----+-------------+-----------+------------------+-----------------
| Free | Beggars. | Expenditure. | Receipts.
| Colonists. | | |
----+-------------+-----------+------------------+-----------------
1822| 127 | .. | 38,899 50 | ..
1823| 406 | .. | 93,532 07 | ..
1824| 536 | .. | 106,102 72 | 12,339 31
1825| 579 | 490[17] | 102,983 73 | 25,740 74
1826| 563 | 846 | 163,933 45 | 56,476 88
1827| 532 | 899 | 168,754 61 | 50,677 38
1828| 550 | 774 | 144,645 28 | 54,994 62
1829| 565 | 703 | 174,611 44 | 98,523 57
1830| 546 | 598 | 127,358 72 | 67,718 72
1831| 517 | 465 | 135,405 81[18] | 82,578 81[19]
----+-------------+-----------+------------------+-----------------
[17] During the four last months.
[18] These sums do not include many of the expenses of
administration. They consist simply of the sums remitted to the
director for current expenses.
[19] These sums include not only every species of net profit,
but in fact the value of the gross produce.
M. Ducpétiaux’s statement may be compared with that of Captain
Brandreth, who visited the colonies at about the same period. (pp. 19,
20.)
Among the colonists there were a few whose previous habits and
natural dispositions disposed them to avail themselves, to
the best of their ability, of the benevolent provisions thus
offered for their relief, and who had worked industriously,
and conducted themselves well during their residence in the
colony. Their land was cultivated to the extent of their means;
and their dwelling-houses had assumed an appearance of greater
comfort, order, and civilization than the rest. But these were
too few in number, and the result too trifling to offer the
stimulus of emulation to others.
Those farms that I examined, with the above exceptions, were
not encouraging examples: there were few evidences of thrift
and providence, the interior of the dwellings being, in point
of comfort, little, if at all removed from the humblest cottage
of the most straitened condition of labourers in this country.
A clause in the regulations allows certain of the colonists,
whose good conduct and industry have obtained them the
privilege, to barter with the neighbouring towns for any
article they may want.
The nearest towns to the establishment, of any note, are
Hoogstraten and Tournhout; but on inquiry I could not find
that any intercourse was maintained with them; and the country
round offered no evidences of the existence of a thriving
community in its centre, exercising an influence on its traffic
or occupations. In the winter I should think the roads to the
colonies scarcely practicable for any description of carriages.
From what I saw of the social condition of the colonists, I am
disposed to insist much on the inexpediency of assembling, in
an isolated position especially, a large community of paupers
for this experiment.
Admitting the physical difficulties to have been much less than
they are, and the prospect of pecuniary advantage much greater
and more certain, the moral objections to the system would
outweigh them. Without the example of the better conditions of
society, there can be no hope of such a community gradually
acquiring those qualities that would fit the members of it for
a better condition. One or two families established in the
neighbourhood of an orderly and industrious community would
find the stimulus of shame, as well as emulation, acting on
their moral qualities and exertions; but in the present case,
where all are in a condition of equal debasement, both of those
powerful stimuli are wanting. The reports of the progress of
the Dutch free colonies up to the year 1828 are certainly
encouraging; and as the same system has been adopted in the
free colonies of Belgium as in Holland, and the experiment
in both cases tried on similar soils, they might lead to the
inference that some peculiar cause has operated in favour of
the Dutch colonies, and against those of Belgium. Not having
had an opportunity of visiting the Dutch colonies, I cannot
offer an opinion on the subject; but reasoning from what I
personally witnessed, I should be disposed to think, that
either some greater encouragement has been granted in Holland,
or some improvement of the system adopted; or that the habits,
dispositions, and character of the Dutch fit them better for
this experiment.
The same authorities that I have quoted in the case of these
colonies, speak favourably also of the Belgian colonies up to
the same period; and on the part of the latter experiment it
may be asserted, that the unsettled state of the country since
that period ought very much to qualify any condemnation of
its principle. But notwithstanding this disadvantage (which
is much less, I fear, than has been insisted on), there would
still have remained evidences of the probable success of the
experiment. Those evidences were not satisfactory to my mind;
and I may further observe, that while the people in general
recommended the colonies to foreigners as especially worthy of
their notice, I do not remember meeting with one individual
who could point out any specific results, and few who would
distinctly assert that there was any increasing and permanent
benefit to the community from them.
It is probable that unless some great change is made in the
present system, the colonies will be ultimately abandoned, or
merge into the establishments for compulsory labour: in other
words, the society will become the farmers, and the present
colonists merely agricultural labourers, differing only from
the ordinary labourer, inasmuch as they will work under the
penalty of being treated as vagabonds in case of contumacy.
The observations I have hitherto made apply only to the free
colonies. In the mendicity or compulsory colonies, the poor are
assembled in large establishments, and cultivate the ground,
either by task or day labour, and attend the cattle, &c., under
the direction of certain officers; it is, in fact, a species of
agricultural workhouse.
The following is a Return of the compulsory establishment at
Merxplas. (p. 20.)
---------------------------+-------+-------+-------+-----+-----+-----
| 1826. | 1827. | 1828. |1829.|1830.|1831.
---------------------------+-------+-------+-------+-----+-----+-----
Present on the 1st January | 604 | 919 | 816 | 722 | 658 | 519
Admitted during the year | 422 | 247 | 172 | 147 | 97 | 5
Brought back from desertion| 6 | 25 | 12 | 23 | 27 | 18
Born | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | ..
| ----- | ----- | ----- | --- | --- | ---
| 1,037 | 1,194 | 1,003 | 895 | 783 | 542
| | | | | |
Enlarged | 7 | 159 | 135 | 116 | 82 | 18
Deserted | 14 | 42 | 35 | 37 | 65 | 66
Died | 91 | 166 | 104 | 37 | 81 | 23
Entered the military | | | | | |
service as volunteers | .. | .. | 2 | 39 | 28 | ..
Entered the militia | 4 | 9 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 3
Brought before justice | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 8 | ..
| ----- | ----- | ----- | --- | --- | ---
| 118 | 378 | 281 | 240 | 268 | 110
| ----- | ----- | ----- | --- | --- | ---
Total, 31st Dec. | 919 | 816 | 722 | 655 | 515 | 432
---------------------------+-------+-------+-------+-----+-----+-----
The number of deaths is very striking. It amounts to 502 in six years,
or 83⅔ per year, the average population during that time having
consisted of 708 persons; so that the average annual mortality was
nearly 12 per cent. The proportion of desertions appears also to have
progressively increased, until in the last year 66 deserted out of 542.
On the whole the Belgian poor colonies appear to be valuable only as a
warning.
FRANCE.
The information contained in this Appendix respecting the poor-laws of
France, and their administration, consists of a paper by M. Frederic
de Chateauvieux, on the comparative state of the poor in France and
England (p. 21); a report by Mr. Majendie, from Normandy (p. 34); and
reports by his Majesty’s Consuls from Havre (p. 179), Brest (p. 724),
Nantes (p. 171), Bourdeaux (p. 229), Bayonne (p. 260), and Marseilles
(p. 185).
We have already stated (pp. 117-125) the general outline of the French
establishments for the relief of the poor, consisting of hospices
for the impotent, hospitals for the sick, depôts de mendicité for
vagrants and beggars (constituting the in-doors relief), and bureaux
de bienfaisance for the secours à domicile, or out-doors relief.
But this comprehensive and discriminative system of public relief
appears to have been carried into effect in France with a far less
approach to completeness than in Belgium. The number of hospices and
hospitals is indeed large in the towns, and not inconsiderable in the
country: but of the depôts de mendicité, of which the decree of 1808
ordered the establishment, very few were in fact organized, and of
those the greater part have since been suppressed; and the bureaux
de bienfaisance are almost confined to the towns. As more than
three-fourths of the population of France is agricultural, only a small
portion of that population therefore is capable of participating in
public or organized relief. M. de Chateauvieux estimates that portion,
or, in other words, the population of the towns possessing institutions
for the relief of the poor, at 3,500,000 persons, and the value of the
public relief annually afforded at 1,800,000_l._ sterling. (p 25.) If
this approximation can be relied on, the expenditure per head in that
portion of the French population nearly equals the expenditure per head
in England.
The following are the most material portions of the consular reports:--
HAVRE.
[Sidenote: SEINE INFERIEURE. Population of the Department, 693,683.
Population of Havre, 23,816.]
The provisions for the relief of the poor in Havre may be collected
from the following statement of the principal regulations of the
hospitals, the bureau de bienfaisance, and the depôt de mendicité for
the department, which is situated in Rouen. (pp. 182, 183, 184, 185,
186.)
_Hospital Regulations at Havre._
[Sidenote: HOSPITAL.]
Aged persons of 60, without distinction of sex, are admitted
into the hospital upon a certificate of indigence delivered by
the mayor of their district, and a ticket of admission signed
by one of the directors of the establishment.
The sick are admitted if they can produce a certificate of
indigence from the mayor or curate of their parish, and every
care is taken of them at the expense of the establishment.
Orphans, foundlings, or deserted children are admitted,
provided they are under 12 years; they are then engaged as
servants or apprentices; but should they get out of employment
from no fault of their own, they are at liberty to return until
the age of 21 years.
_Regulations of the Establishment of the Bureau de
Bienfaisance, of Havre._
[Sidenote: Bureau de Bienfaisance.]
1. None are admitted but those whose poverty is well known, and
who have lived 12 months in the town. The number of persons to
be relieved is fixed by the bureau, whose names must be entered
in a register, stating their age, date of application, place of
residence, number and age of their children.
2. There is a second register for such poor who, having resided
one year in Havre, shall apply after the closing of the
register mentioned in the above article. This inscription is
made in order of their dates, and the paupers carried upon it
will only be entitled to relief in turn, and as vacancies occur
in the first list, by departures, deaths, or discharge.
3. No poor of either sex can receive relief if more than 15
years old, and under 50. This exclusion is not applicable to
widows with young children, or with four children under 15
years. In all cases they must produce a certificate that their
children attend the free school, and are diligent.
4. The inscription in the register mentioned in No. 2, can only
take place after inquiry has been made respecting the claimant,
and it has been authorized by the bureau, which meets for this
purpose once a month.
5. No children can be admitted to the assistance of the bureau,
nor into the classes of instruction and work, above the age of
15, or without having been vaccinated.
6. If the number of children attending the classes and work
shall be too many, either on account of the size of the
building or the attention of the instructors, preference
will be given to the children whose parents are already on
their lists, and who are known to require assistance for the
education of their children.
7. Every year, at the period of the first communion, a certain
number of children shall be clothed. But to be admitted to this
assistance they must produce a certificate from the clergyman
appointed to give religious instruction, or from the nuns of
the convent, that they have been attentive and are deserving.
The boys are clothed in brown cloth; the girls in coloured
calico.
8. Every year the sum of 653 fr. (26_l._) shall be given to
the clergymen of the town, in tickets of 1 fr. (9_d._), 50 c.
(4½_d._), to be distributed where they think proper, of which
only those who are past 60 or under 15 can participate.
9. Each person shall receive 3 lbs. of bread, two in the same
family 6 lbs. of ditto, three to five persons in the same
family, whose children are under 15, 12 lbs. of ditto, for 15
days. The number admitted to this relief to be regulated each
year, so that the distribution shall not exceed 3,000 lbs. a
month. These distributions will take place to the most needy
each Monday and Friday, from 9 to 12 o’clock, after which no
more will be given.
10. In the distribution of clothing, which will be made once a
year, each individual will only be clothed once in two years.
11. When the establishment is enabled to give woollen clothing,
it will only be to such as are above 60 years, or to children
under seven years, and those the most destitute; this relief
once in two years.
12. If any one who receives bread and clothing from the bureau
sells or pawns the same, he shall be struck off.
13. All clothes given by the establishment shall be marked, so
that they may be known.
14. Assistance to lying-in women, new-born children, and sick,
will be rendered at their houses; those who are not on the
lists cannot be assisted until their case is examined; money
will not be given to women in labour but when absolutely
necessary; soup is distributed on Mondays and Wednesdays, from
two to three o’clock.
15. There is attached to the establishment a doctor, at 400
fr. (16_l._), and two assistants, at 500 fr. (20_l._) each per
year, who attend such as are named by the bureau; and also
women in extraordinary cases of labour.
16. A midwife is attached, at 200 fr. (8_l._) a year, who
attends all women designated by the bureau.
17. In hard weather, if it should be thought expedient to make
a subscription, the poor who are upon the second list (article
2) will be relieved from it.
ROUEN.
_Rouen Depôt of Mendicity._
REGULATIONS.
SECTION 1.--_Duty of the Porter of the Outside Gates._
ART. 1st. All the gates shall be kept constantly shut.
3. The porter shall not allow any one to enter or go out during
the day without a permission or passport from the Governor.
6. The porters and other officers are expressly forbidden, on
pain of dismissal, to allow the inmates to send any message
or commission, or have any correspondence whatever beyond the
walls of the establishment. Letters to and from them must be
laid before the governor before they are forwarded.