  Indigence a cause of the increase of Crimes.—The System with respect to the Casual Poor erroneous.—The miserable condition of many who seek for an Asylum in the Metropolis.—The unhappy State of broken-down Families, who have seen better days.—The effect of Indigence on the Offspring of the Sufferers.—The discovery of the Children of unfortunate Families applying for Soup at the Establishments.—The unparalleled Philanthropy of the opulent Part of the Community.—Estimate of the Private and Public Benevolence amounting to 850,000l. a year.—The noble Munificence of the Merchants.—An Appeal to the exalted virtue of the Opulent, who have come forward in acts of Humanity.—The deplorable State of the Lower Ranks attributed to the present System of the Poor Laws.—An Institution to inquire into the Causes of Mendicity in the Metropolis explained.—The State of the Casual Poor resumed.—The abuses and inefficacy of the relief received.—A new System proposed with respect to them and Vagrants in the Metropolis.—Its advantages explained.—The distinction between Poverty and Indigence explained.—The Poor divided into five Classes, with suggestions applicable to each.—The evil Examples in Workhouses a great cause of the Corruption of Morals.—The Statute of 43 Elizabeth considered. INDIGENCE, in the present state of Society, may be considered as a principal cause of the increase of Crimes. The System which prevails in the Metropolis, with respect to these unfortunate individuals who are denominated the Casual Poor, will be found on minute inquiry to be none of the least considerable of the causes, which lead to the corruption of morals, and to the multiplication of minor offences in particular. The number of persons, who with their families, find their way to the Metropolis, from the most remote quarters of Great Britain and Ireland, is inconceivable. In hopes of finding employment they incur an immediate and constant expence, for lodging and subsistence, until at length their little all is in the Pawnbrokers' shops, or sold to raise money for the necessaries of life. If they have been virtuously brought up in the country, despondency seizes upon their minds, in consequence of the disappointments and hardships, their adventurous or incautious conduct has doomed them to suffer; which as it applies to the most deserving of this class, who will not steal, and are ashamed to beg, often exceeds any thing that the human mind can conceive. Their Parochial Settlements are either at a great distance, or perhaps as natives of Scotland or Ireland, they are without even this resource. The expence of removing, as the Law directs, is too serious a charge to be incurred by the parish where accident has fixed them. They are treated with neglect and contumely by the parochial Officers; and even occasionally driven to despair. Willing to labour, but bereft of any channel or medium through which the means of subsistence might be procured. It is assigned to no person to hear their mournful tale, who might be able to place them in a situation, where they might gain a subsistence; and under such circumstances it is much to be feared, that not a few of them either actually perish for want, or contract Such is frequently the situation of the more decent and virtuous class of the labouring people, who come to seek employment in the Metropolis. The more profligate who pursue the same course have generally other resources. Where honest labour is not to be procured, they connect themselves with those who live by petty or more atrocious offences, and contribute in no small degree to the increase of the general phalanx of delinquents. The young female part of such families too often become prostitutes, while the males pursue acts of depredation upon the Public, by availing themselves of the various resources, which the defects in the Police System allow. In addition to the families who thus resort to the Capital, young men frequently wander up who have become liable to the penalties of the laws, in consequence of being unable to find security for the support of a natural Child in their own parish; or who perhaps have incurred the punishment due to some other offence.—Without money, without recommendations, and bereft of friends, and perhaps afraid of being known, they resort to low public houses, where they meet with thieves and rogues, who not unfrequently in this way recruit their gangs, as often as the arm of Justice diminishes their numbers. But it is to be lamented, that in contemplating the mass of indigence, which, in its various ramifications, In all these points of view, from indigence is to be traced the great Origin and the Progress of Crimes. In attending the different Soup Establishments (where 50,000 indigent families, at the expence of one halfpenny per head, have a meal furnished every day during the winter) To have contributed in any degree to the relief of distress rendered painful in the extreme from the recollection of better days, is an ample reward to those benevolent individuals, who have joined in the support and conduct of an undertaking, of all others the most beneficial that perhaps was ever devised, for the purpose of assisting and relieving suffering humanity. While the wretchedness, misery and crimes, which have been developed, and detailed in this work, cannot be sufficiently deplored, it is a matter of no little exultation, that in no country or nation in the world, and certainly in no other Metropolis, does there exist Nothing can place this in a stronger point of view, and perhaps nothing will astonish strangers more than the following summary Estimate of the various Institutions, supported chiefly by Voluntary Contributions, in addition to the legal Assessments, all tending to ameliorate and better the condition of human life, under the afflicting circumstances of indigence and disease. ESTIMATE.
In addition to this, it is highly proper to mention the noble benevolence, which has been displayed by the Opulent of all ranks, but particularly the Merchants, in the very large sums which have been, at various times, subscribed for the relief of the brave men, who have been maimed and wounded, and for the support of the widows, orphans, and relations of those who have meritoriously lost their lives in fighting the battles of their country. Such exalted examples of unbounded munificence the history of no other nation records. It is to this source of elevated virtue, and nobleness of mind, that an appeal is made, on the present occasion, in behalf of those unhappy fellow-mortals; who, in spite of the unexampled liberality which has been displayed, still require the fostering hand of Philanthropy. The cause of these distresses has been explained; and also the evils which such a condition in human life entails upon Society. It is not pecuniary aid that will heal this gangrene: this Corruption of Morals. There must be the application of a correct System of Police, calculated to reach the root and origin of the evil.—Without System, Intelligence, Talents, and Industry, united in all that re One great feature of this evil, on which it is deplorable to reflect, is, that nearly one million of the inhabitants of a country, the utmost population of which is supposed to be short of nine millions, should be supported in part or in whole by the remaining eight. In spite of all the ingenious arguments which have been used in favour of a System admitted to be wisely conceived in its origin, the effects it has produced incontestably prove, that with respect to the mass of the Poor, there is something radically wrong in the execution. If it were not so, it is impossible that there could exist in the Metropolis such an inconceivable portion Impressed with these sentiments, so far as they apply to the state of indigence in the Metropolis, a design has been sanctioned by the Benevolent Society for bettering the Condition of the Poor, the object of which is to establish a department for inquiring into the history, life, and the causes of the distress of every person who asks relief in any part of the Metropolis: not with a view to support these unfortunate persons in idleness and vice; but to use those means which talents, attention, and humanity can accomplish—(means which are beyond the reach of parochial officers), for the purpose of enabling them to assist themselves. In the Metropolis the Magistrates interfere very little in parochial relief, except when appeals are made to them in particular cases, or when called upon to sign orders of removal, which is generally done as a matter of course. Hence it is that the poor are left almost entirely to the management of the Parochial Officers for the time being, who frequently act under the influence of ignorance or caprice, or are irritated by the impudent importunity of the profligate Gin-drinking poor. These Officers also, it is to be remembered, have private affairs which necessarily engage the chief part of The distress which is thus shewn to prevail, by no means arises from the want of competent funds:—the misfortune is, that from the nature of the present mode of management it is not possible to apply these funds beneficially for the proper relief of those for whom they were intended. A much more moderate assessment, under a regular and proper management, would remove great part of the evil. The expence of the class of persons denominated Casual Poor, who have no settlement in any parish in the Metropolis, amounts to a large sum annually.—In the united parishes of St. Giles in the Fields, and St. George, Bloomsbury, this expence amounted to 2000l. in the year 1796. It arose from the support of about 1200 poor natives of Ireland, who but for this aid must have become vagrants. The shocking abuse of the vagrant passes previous to the year 1792, produced the Act of the 32 Geo. III. cap. 45. which requires that Rogues and Vagabonds should be first publicly whipt, or confined seven days in the House of Correction, (females to be imprisoned only, and in no case whipped) before they are passed, as directed by the Act of the 17 Geo. II. c. 5. Hence it is that so many who are either on the brink of va In all the 146 parishes within and without the walls, including the Bills of Mortality, &c. it is not improbable that the casual charity given in this way may amount to 10,000l. a year. The loose manner in which it is given, and the impossibility either of a proper discrimination, or of finding in the distributing these resources, that time for investigation which might lead to the solid benefit of the Pauper, by restoring him to a capacity of earning his own livelihood, makes it highly probable that instead of being useful, this large sum is perhaps hurtful, to the major part of the poor who receive it. The trifle they receive, from being injudiciously given, and frequently to get rid of the clamour and importunity of the most profligate, is too often spent immediately in the Gin-shop.—No inquiry is made into the circumstances of the family—No measures are pursued to redeem the apparel locked up in the Pawnbrokers' shop, although a small sum would frequently recover the habiliments of a naked and starving family—no questions are asked respecting the means they employ to subsist themselves by labour; and no efforts are used to Hence it is that poverty, under such circumstances, contributes in no small degree to the multiplication of crimes. The profligate thus partly supported, too often resorts to pilfering pursuits to fill up the chasm, and habits of idleness being once obtained, labour soon becomes irksome. Why should not the whole nation, but particularly the Metropolis, be considered, so far at least as regards the vagrant and casual Poor, as one family, and be placed under the review of certain persons who might be considered as worthy of the trust, and might devote their time sedulously to that object?—Were such an establishment, instituted, and supported in the first instance by a sum from each parish, equal to the casual relief they have each given on an average of the five preceding years, with power to employ this fund in establishing Houses of Industry, or Work-rooms, in various parts of the Metropolis, where the Poor should receive the whole of their earnings and a comfortable meal besides:—it is highly probable that while the expence to the parishes would gradually diminish, beggary would be annihilated in the Metropolis—the modest and deserving Poor would be discovered and relieved, while the idle and profligate, who resorted to begging as a trade, would be compelled to apply to honest labour for their subsistence. This is a point in the political oeconomy of the Nation highly important, whether it relates to the cause of humanity or to the morals of the people, upon which all good Governments are founded.—That such an institution is practicable is already proved from the partial experiments that have been made. That the advantages resulting from it would be great beyond all calculation, is too obvious to require elucidation. While it operated beneficially to the lower classes of the people and to the State, it would relieve Parochial Officers of a very irksome and laborious task, perhaps the most disagreeable that is attached to the office of an Overseer in the Metropolis. To give this branch of Police vigor and effect, the aid of the Legislature would be necessary; which would be easily obtained when the measure itself was once thoroughly understood, and it could not then fail to be as popular as it would unquestionably be useful. They who from their habits of life have few opportunities of considering the state of the Poor, are apt to form very erroneous opinions on the subject. By the Poor we are not to understand the whole mass of the people who support themselves by labour; for those whose necessity compels them to exercise their industry, become by their poverty the actual pillars of the State. Labour is absolutely requisite to the existence of all Governments; and as it is from the Poor only that labour can be expected, so far from being an In this view the Poor may be divided into five Classes:— The first Class comprehends what may be denominated the useful Poor, who are able and willing to work—who have already been represented as the pillars of the State, and who merit the utmost attention of all Governments, with a direct and immediate view of preventing their poverty from descending unnecessarily into indigence. As often as this evil is permitted to happen, the State not only loses an useful subject, but the expence of his maintenance must be borne by the Public.—The great art, therefore, in managing the affairs of the Poor, is to establish Systems whereby the poor man, verging upon indigence, may be propped up and kept in his station. Whenever this can be effected, it is done upon an average at one-tenth of the expence at most that must be incurred by The second Class comprehends the vagrant Poor, who are able but not willing to work, or who cannot obtain employment in consequence of their bad character. This class may be said to have descended from poverty into beggary, in which state they become objects of peculiar attention, since the State suffers not only the loss of their labour, but also of the money which they obtain by the present ill-judged mode of giving charity. Many of them, however, having become mendicants, more from necessity than choice, deserve commiseration and attention, and nothing can promote in a greater degree the cause of humanity, and the real interest of the Metropolis, than an establishment for the employment of this class of indigent Poor, who may be said at present to be in a very deplorable state, those only excepted who make begging a profession. It is only by a plan, such as has been recommended, that the real indigent can be discovered from the vagrant, and in no other way is it possible to have that distinct and collected view of the whole class of beggars in the Metropolis, or to provide the means of rendering their labour (where they are able to labour) productive to themselves and the State.—And it may be further added with great truth, that If, therefore, it is of importance to diminish crimes, and to obstruct the progress of immorality, this part of the Community ought to be the peculiar objects of a branch of the National Police, where responsibility would secure an accurate execution of the System. This measure ought to begin in the Metropolis as an experiment, and when fully matured might be extended with every advantage to the Country. The third Class may be considered under the denomination of the Indigent Poor, who from want of employment, sickness, losses, insanity or disease, are unable to maintain themselves. In attending to this description of Poor, the first consideration ought to be to select those who are in a state to re-occupy their former station among the labouring Poor; and to restore them to the first class as soon as possible, by such relief as should enable them to resume their former employments, and to help themselves and families. Where insanity, or temporary disease, or infirmity actually exist, such a course must then be pursued as will enable such weak and indigent persons, while they are supported at the expence of the Public, to perform such species of labour, as may be suited to their peculiar situations, without operating as a hardship, but rather as an The fourth Class comprehends the aged and infirm, who are entirely past labour, and have no means of support.—Where an honest industrious man has wasted his strength in labour and endeavours to rear a family, he is well entitled to an asylum to render the evening of his life comfortable. For this class the gratitude and the humanity of the Community ought to provide a retreat separate from the profligate and vagrant Poor. But, alas! the present System admits of no such blessing.—The most deserving most submit to an indiscriminate intercourse in Workhouses with the most worthless: whose polluted language and irregular conduct, render not a few of those asylums as great a punishment to the decent part of the indigent and infirm as a common prison. The fifth Class comprises the Infant Poor, who from extreme indigence, or the death of parents, are cast upon the public for nurture. One fifth part of the gross number in a London Workhouse is generally composed of this class. Their moral and religious education is of the last importance to the Community. They are the children of the Public, and if not introduced into life, under circumstances favourable to the interest of the State, The limits of this Treatise will not permit the Author to attempt more than a mere outline on the general subject of the Poor; a System of all others the most difficult to manage and arrange with advantage to the Community; but which is at present unhappily entrusted to the care of those least competent to the task. The principle of the Statute of the 43d of Elizabeth is certainly unobjectionable; but the execution, it must be repeated, is defective. In short, no part of it has been effectually executed, but that which relates to raising the assessments. It is easy to make Statutes; but omnipotent as Parliament is said to be, In the management of the affairs of the State, the Sovereign wisely selects men eminent for their talents and integrity:—Were the choice to be made on the principle established by the Poor Laws, the Nation could not exist even a single year. In the private affairs of life, the success of every difficult undertaking depends on the degree of abilities employed in the management. In the affairs of the Poor, the most arduous and intricate that it is possible to conceive, and where the greatest talents and knowledge is required, the least portion of either is supplied. How then can we expect success?—The error is not in the original design, which is wise and judicious. The 43d of Elizabeth authorizes an assessment to be made for three purposes. 1st. To purchase Raw Materials to set the Poor to work, who could not otherwise dispose of their labour. 2d. To usher into the world, advantageously, the Children of poor people, by binding them apprentices to some useful employment. 3d. To provide for the lame, impotent and blind, and others, being poor and not able to work. Nothing can be better imagined than the measures in the view of the very able framers of this act: but they did not discover that to execute such a "The want of a due provision," says Lord Hale, "for the relief and education of the Poor in the way of industry, is what fills the gaols with Malefactors, the Country with idle and unprofitable persons, that consume the stock of the Kingdom without improving it; and that will daily increase even to a desolation in time—and this error, in the first concoction, is never remediable but by gibbets and whipping." That this will continue to be the case under any species of changeable management, however apparently correct in theory the System may be, must But to return to the immediate object of inquiry, namely, the means of more effectually preventing the numerous evils which arise from indigence and mendicity in the Metropolis, whether excited by idleness or extreme and unforeseen pressures: Under every circumstance it would seem impracticable without any burthen upon the Public, to provide for all such at least as are denominated Casual Poor (from whom the greatest part of this calamity springs) by adopting the following or some similar plan, under the sanction of Government, and the authority of the Legislature. That a Public Institution shall be established in the Metropolis, with three Chief Officers, who shall be charged with the execution of that branch of the Police, which relates to Street Beggars, and those classes of Poor who have no legal settlements in the Metropolis, and who now receive casual relief from the different Parishes, where they have fixed their residence for the time;—and that these principal Officers, (who may be stiled Commissioners for inquiring into the Cases and Causes of the Distress of the Poor in the Metropolis) should exercise the following FUNCTIONS:— 1st. To charge themselves with the relief and management of the whole of the Casual Poor, who at present receive temporary aid from the different Parishes, or who ask alms in any part of the Metropolis or its Suburbs. 2d. To provide Work-rooms in various central and convenient situations in the Metropolis, where persons destitute of employment may receive a temporary subsistence for labour. To superintend these work-houses, and become responsible for the proper management. 3d. To be empowered to give temporary relief to prop up sinking families, and to prevent their descending from poverty to indigence, by arresting the influence of despondency, and keeping the spirit of industry alive. 4th. To assist in binding out the Children of the Poor, or the Unfortunate, who have seen better days, and preventing the females from the danger of becoming Prostitutes, or the males from contracting loose and immoral habits, so as if possible to save them to their parents, and to the state. 5th. To open offices of inquiry in different parts of the Metropolis, where all classes of indigent persons, who are not entitled to parochial relief, will be invited to resort, for the purpose of being exa 6th. To exercise the legal powers, through the medium of Constables, for the purpose of compelling all Mendicants, and idle destitute Boys and Girls who appear in the streets, to come before the Commissioners for examination; that those whose industry cannot be made productive, or who cannot be put in a way to support themselves without alms, may be passed to their Parishes, while means are employed to bind out destitute Children to some useful occupation. 7th. To keep a distinct Register of the cases of all Mendicants or distressed individuals, who may seek advice and assistance, and to employ such means for alleviating misery, as the peculiar circumstances may suggest—never losing sight of indigence, until an asylum is provided for the helpless and infirm, and also until the indigent, who are able to labour, are placed in a situation to render it productive. 8th. That these Commissioners shall report their proceedings annually, to his Majesty in Council, and to Parliament; with abstracts, shewing the numbers who have been examined—How disposed of—The earning of the persons at the different Work-rooms—The annual expence of the Establishment; together with a general view of the advantages resulting from it; with the proofs of these advantages. Towards defraying the whole expence of this Establishment it is proposed, that (in lieu of the Casual Charity, paid at present by all the Parishes in the Metropolis, which under this System will cease, together with the immense trouble attached to it,) each Parish in the Metropolis shall pay into the hands of the Receiver of the Funds of this Pauper Police Institution, a sum equal to what was formerly disbursed in casual relief, which for the purpose of elucidation, is estimated as follows:—
This sum (which is supposed to be not much above one half of the average Annual disbursements of the 146 Parishes above-mentioned; especially since it has been shewn, that the expence in St. Giles' and St. George Bloomsbury alone, has been 2000l. in one year) will probably, with oeconomy and good management, be found sufficient for all the relief that is required; more especially as the object is not to The experiment is certainly worth trying. In its execution some of the most respectable and intelligent individuals in the Metropolis, would gratuitously assist the Commissioners, who as taking responsibility upon them, in the direction of a most important branch of Police, ought undoubtedly to be remunerated by Government, especially as it is scarcely possible to conceive any mode in which the Public money could be applied, that would be productive of such benefit to the State. If that utility resulted from the design, which may reasonably be expected, it would of course extend to other great towns, as the private Soup Establishments have done, and the condition of the poor would undergo a rapid change. The destitute and forlorn would then have some means of communicating their distress, while information and facts of the greatest importance, to the best interests of Society, would spring from this source. With respect to the general affairs of the poor, much good would arise from consolidating the funds of all the parishes in the Metropolis. The poor for instance, who are supported from the parochial funds of Bethnal Green, and other distressed parishes in the eastern parts of the Metropolis, are the labourers of the citizens and inhabitants of the 97 Parishes within the Walls, who, although opulent Why, therefore, should not the inhabitants of the rich parishes contribute to the relief of the distresses of those who waste their strength in contributing to their ease, comfort, and profit? In several of the most populous Parishes and Hamlets in the eastern part of the Town, the Poor may actually be said to be assessed to support the indigent. In the very populous Hamlet of Mile-End New Town, where there is scarcely an inhabitant who does not derive his subsistence from some kind of labour, the rates are treble the assessments in Mary-le-bone, where opulence abounds. Nothing can exceed the inequality of the weight for the support of the Poor in the Metropolis; since where the demand is greatest, the means of supply are always most deficient and inadequate. Certain it is that the whole system admits of much improvement, and perhaps at no period, since the Poor Laws have attracted attention, did there exist so many able and intelligent individuals as at present, who have been excited by motives of patriotism and philanthropy, to devote their time to the subject. At the head of this most Respectable Group stands Sir Frederick Eden; a gentleman, whose entrance into life, has been marked by a display of the most useful talents, manifested by an extent of labour and perseverance, in his elaborate work on the Poor, which may be said to be unparalleled in point of in To the Lord Bishop of Durham, the Earl of Winchelsea, Count Rumford, Sir William Young, Thos. Ruggles, Esq. William Morton Pitt, Esq. Jeremy Bentham, Esq. Robert Saunders, Esq. Thomas Bernard, Esq. William Wilberforce, Esq. Rowland Burdon, Esq. the Rev. Dr. Glasse, the Rev. Thomas Gisburn, the Rev. Mr. Howlet, Mr. Davis, Mr. Townsend, Arthur Young, Esq. and William Sabatier, Esq. as well as several other respectable living characters, who have particularly turned their thoughts to the subject of the Poor, the Public are not only already much indebted, but from this prolific resource of judgment, talents, and knowledge, much good might be expected, if ever the period shall arrive when the revision of the Poor Laws shall engage the attention of the Legislature. The measure is too complicated to be adjusted by men, who have not opportunities or leisure to contemplate its infinite ramifications. It is a task which can only be executed with accuracy by those, who completely understand the subject as well in practice as in theory, and who can bestow the time requisite for those laborious investigations, which must be absolutely necessary to form a Happy is it for the country, that a resource exists for the attainment of this object, than which nothing can contribute, in a greater degree, to the prevention of Crimes, and to the general improvement of Civil Society. |
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