54 
National Insurance could be generally enforced, so far as 
provision against approaching old age is concerned, and for 
males only against sickness, you will find that 67-7 per cent. of 
our paupers would not receive any present benefit, and that 
many of the insured, supposing insurance against sickness to 
come into play at 21 years of age, would have to wait another 44 
years before they could receive any return for their involuntary 
investment. 
An immediate reduction of 2°5 per cent., with a prospective 
further fall of 29°8 per cent. in 44 years from date, comes very 
far short of the promise held out by the first advocates of 
Compulsory insurance—‘ the abolition of poor rates.” The 
fact that compulsion would scarcely secure the slightest inroad 
into pauperism—for 44 years to come—and that, supposing 
similar conditions then to obtain, 67°7 per cent. of paupers 
would even then receive no aid from it, will be of no small 
service to us during this discussion. We can proceed calmly 
when we know that it is only one amongst many methods having 
for their end the diminution of destitution—an alterative, not a 
specific. ‘'o be perfectly fair, the direct and visible effect which 
Compulsory Insurance would have upon pauperism, does not 
represent the full benefit that would accrue from its application : 
five shillings per week in case of sickness, and a similar amount 
at and from the age of 65, double the sums usually given under 
the Poor Law system ; and much suffering would be avoided to 
sensitive people who, in spite of the cynic’s denial, frequently 
starve rather than lay bare their condition to those in charge of 
relief. A full disclosure of the percentage of population obliged 
at one time or another to have resource to Poor Law relief, 
would astonish those who act upon the belief that ‘‘ whatever is, 
is best.” 1f you will turn for a moment to Appendix Table 38, 
and compare the number of pauper funerals with the death total 
during the past five years, you will find that, roughly, one in 
every seven whose ages have exceeded 64 years has been buried 
at the cost of the Union, and, taking all ages into account, one 
in every 17—in a fairly prosperous Union with decreasing 
pauperism. 
With these bitter and humiliating facts before us, if pauperism 
could be shown to be a permanent instead of a decreasing 
quantity, the promoters of Compulsory Insurance would have an 
unanswerable case. But the position points directly to the 
contrary. In 1842 there were 1,429,089 paupers in Hngland 
and Wales, or 1 in about every 11 of the population ; in 1858, 
940,552, or 1 in 20; in 1871, 1,085,661, or 1 in 21 nearly; in 
1881, 763,103, or 1 in 84; and in 1891, 721,938, or 1 in 40. 
The decrease throughout Lancashire has proceeded gradually but 
with much greater rapidity, from 1 in 47 in 1881, to 1 in 61 in 
