POPULATION POOR-LAWS LIFE-ASSURANCE. 



Poor-law Board were empowered to nominate one- 

 third of the guardians in each district. During 

 the following year, further improvements in the 

 system of poor-relief were initiated by the passing 

 of an Act giving the Poor-law Board extensive 

 powers of interference in the various unions of 

 England and Wales, with the view of compelling 

 the different boards of guardians to do all that 

 is necessary for the efficient relief of the poor. 

 In 1871, the Local Government Board was formed, 

 to which were transferred all the powers and 

 duties of the Poor-law Board, together with the 

 various functions of the Home Secretary and the 

 Privy-council, relative to the public health and 

 local government. 



The union workhouses (647 in number) are in 

 general remarkably well-arranged establishments. 

 The food, both in quality and quantity the 

 accommodations of all kinds the moral dis- 

 cipline and order, are in general all that the 

 humane and the enlightened could wish. The 

 arrangements for the education of the young are 

 particularly worthy of commendation. Work- 

 houses are for the most part occupied only by 

 some portion of the aged poor and by young 

 children. Though held open for the reception of 

 the able-bodied under any exigency to which they 

 may be presumedly liable, they are rarely resorted 

 to by such persons, partly because the labour- 

 market being freed, there is in general no lack 

 of means for an independent subsistence, and 

 partly from the natural dislike to a life of restraint. 

 One regulation of these houses may be supposed 

 to have operated powerfully in keeping idle 

 married men at a distance from them. In most 

 instances, they are not allowed to live in the same 

 part of the house with their wives. Partly this 

 was needful for the sake of order, and to avoid 

 sundry gross evils which flourished under the old 

 system. Partly it is owing to a principle laid 

 down by the commissioners, that a pauper is not 

 entitled to be in this respect on a level with the 

 man who works independently for himself and his 

 family. This regulation attracted much clamour 

 and vituperation ; and, by an Act of 1847, the 

 separation of aged couples (above 60) was pro- 

 hibited. 



Shortly after the new poor-law was passed, 

 vagrancy assumed very formidable dimensions. 

 Sturdy beggars availed themselves of the in- 

 experience of the poor-law officers, and contrived 

 to obtain casual relief as destitute persons if only 

 for a single night the relieving officers scarcely 

 thinking it worth while to apply the workhouse 

 test for a period so insignificant, and the appli- 

 cants taking care to arrange their migrations 

 so as to repeat their applications to the same 

 unions as seldom as possible, and select those 

 situated in districts where they were strangers. 

 It was soon found necessary to take vigorous 

 measures to reduce this evil. Special instructions 

 were issued by the commissioners ; the applica- 

 tions of vagrants were more strictly dealt with, 

 and the labour test applied whenever possible. 

 The number of vagrants relieved on the ist of 

 July 1848 was 13,714 ; the number relieved on the 

 ist of July 1850 had been reduced so low as 2954. 

 On the ist July 1872, the number was 2372, 

 although the number of population in that year 

 shewed an increase of 4,696,000 over the number 

 in 1848 ; a fact which conclusively shews the value 



of the poor-laws as a means of repressing the evil 

 of vagrancy. 



SCOTTISH POOR-LAWS. 



For a long time there were no poor-laws of any 

 sort in Scotland. . The poor were left totally 

 unregulated, and matters became at length in- 

 sufferable. The whole country was overrun with 

 hordes of sturdy ruffians, who lived at free 

 quarters upon the industrious, a farmer having 

 not unfrequently to provide food for a score or 

 two of able-bodied ' sorners ' in the course of a 

 day. These vagabonds, often living in incestuous 

 connections, held routs and revels by thousands 

 in the mountains, and attended punctually at all 

 country fairs, weddings, and festivals. Legisla- 

 tion on this subject opened with three Acts passed 

 in the reign of James I. in 1424, chiefly levelled 

 against sturdy begging, and confining the privilege 

 of asking alms to the necessitous poor, who might 

 beg with 'takinnes' or badges. The statute of 

 I S79> c - 74) with a proclamation of the privy- 

 council, was, until lately, the only authority for a 

 compulsory poor-rate in Scotland. It consisted 

 of two parts : one ordained ' strong and idle 

 beggars ' to be scourged and burnt through the 

 ear with a hot iron ; and if caught again at their 

 vocation after sixty days, to be put to death. The 

 second conferred a right to parochial relief on 

 certain parties, whom it designated as ' aged, 

 puir, impotent, and decayed persons,' ' quhilk^ of 

 necessitie mon live bee almes.' Some subsequent 

 Acts made provision for employing able-bodied 

 beggars in common works, and ordained the 

 building of correction-houses, under heavy penal- 

 ties on the burghs disobeying ; but not a single 

 correction-house was ever built, and that part of 

 the law became obsolete. The last proclama- 

 tion of the privy-council, March 3, 1698, com- 

 pleted the fabric of the old poor-law, which was 

 superseded by the Poor-law Amendment Act of 



1845- 



There were many disputes in respect to the 

 classes of poor which were vested with an absolute 

 right to require relief under the old law. The 

 general understanding was, that the Act of 1579 

 only included all who were permanently disabled 

 by age, sickness, or infirmity from gaining a 

 livelihood by labour, destitute children under four- 

 teen years of age, insane persons, and idiots. In 

 practice, also, destitute widows, with several 

 young children, generally received some small 

 modicum of relief; those who were temporarily 

 destitute or infirm were understood to have no 

 legal claim on the parish, but might be relieved 

 at the discretion of the authorities. Speaking in 

 very general terms, a settlement was acquired by 

 three years' continuous residence in a parish. 

 Wives had the settlement of their husbands ; 

 legitimate children of the father, and illegitimate 

 children of the mother. When there was no 

 other settlement, recourse was had on the parish 

 of birth. 



Where there was a legal assessment, the general 

 purpose seems to have been to tax every man 

 in the ratio of his means. Accordingly, originally 

 the parochial board stented every individual's 



Eroportion according to their own estimate of 

 is ability ; and if he demurred, he had to lay 

 bare his whole affairs before officials bound to no 



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