114 



FARMERS' REGISTER— OPERATION OF POOR LAWS. 



IN-DOOR PAUPERS. 



St. Laivrence, Reading. 

 " I began my inquiries of the governor [of the 



Eoor house] by asking him what quantity of food 

 e gave to those under his charge? "Quantity! 

 why, a bellyful. We never stint them. I stand 

 by the children myself, and see that they have a 

 bellyful three times a day." 



" What description of food do you give them?" 

 " Good Avholesome victuals as any body would 

 •wish to taste. You shall taste it yourself We give 

 them all meat three times a week. The working 

 men have a bellyful. We never weigh anything, 

 and there is no stint, so as they do not waste any- 

 thing. Then they have good table beer and good 

 ale." 



" How many paupers have you generally in 

 your workhouse?" 



" From forty to fifty." 



"And what is the quantity of meat usually con- 

 sumed weekly by that number?" 



" Seldom less than 150 pounds meat." 

 " Do you find them in tobacco or snuff?" 

 " No, sir ; but if they get a few pence, or if 

 their friends choose to give it to them, we do not 

 debar them from anything, so long as they do not 

 make beasts of themselves." 



" I requested to be shown the house. Every- 

 thing appeared remarkably cleanly and in good 

 order. He requested my particular attention to 

 the goodness and cleanliness of the sheets and bed- 

 ding, and the general comfort. He dilated on the 

 quality of the bread, which he showed me. He 

 also gave me some of the table beer and ale to taste. 

 I must do him the justice to state that it was ex- 

 cellent. The table beer was such as in the me- 

 tropolis is called table ale. But besides these liquors 

 for the use of the paupers, he produced a third spe- 

 cimen, still superior, of which I tasted. This was 

 a most potent beverage. It was two years old; 

 and he said he generally reserved it for the over- 

 seers after the performance of a dry day's work. 

 The paupers themselves appeared to be very strong 

 and healthy, and the children the most so of any 

 that I had observed in the district. He pointed out 

 to me one pauper, a remarkably hale-looking man 

 of 63, who had, with his wife, been on the parish 

 more than 40 years, and in all probability would 

 live more than half that time longeron theircharge. 

 The governor, it appeared, had been a farmer many 

 years ago. I asked him — 



" Do you tliink the condition of these paupers 

 better or worse than the condition of the agricul- 

 tural laborers thirty or forty years ago?" 



" A great deal better off than the laborers forty 

 years ago." 



" Than the agricultural laborers of any class?" 

 " Yes, sir, I know they are a great deal better 

 off." 



" And what is the present condition of the inde- 

 pendent laborers, as compared with that of the la- 

 borers at the time you mention?" 



" I think they are not quite so well off. To be 

 sure, they got less wages, and clothing was dearer : 

 they only got 7s. a week. But then on the other 

 hand, they only paid 8d. for the gallon loaf I 

 think they were better off. There are too many 

 laborers now, and labor is more uncertain than it 

 was then." 



" I may say, then, that not only is the condition 

 of those under your care better, as regards food, 



clothing, lodging, and comfort, than the laborers 

 who toil out of floors ; but that they are under no 

 uncertainty, and have no anxiety about providing 

 for themselves?" 



" Yes, sir, you may say that. You may say, 

 too, that they are better off than one-half of the 

 rate-payers out of the house. I know the rate- 

 payers; I know what it is to be a rate-payer; and 

 I know that a great many of them are worse off." 



" In the course of my inspection of the work- 

 house, I observed that the men's rooms were cdl 

 locked. I inquired the cause of this — " that they 

 may not come in and lie down befoi'e bed time." 



" That is, I suppose, that they may not escape 

 from their work ?" 



"No, sir, we have no work here, even for those 

 that might work ; it is that they may not come up 

 here and lollop about, and role about in their beds 

 after dinner, or when they are tired of doing no- 

 thing." 



" How does this sort of life agree with them on 

 their first entrance?" 



" Wonderfully well in general. Sometimes when 

 they come in very low, and on the brink of starva- 

 tion, the great change in the way of living is too 

 much for them ; but when they get over the change 

 they go on surprisingly. Their friends, when they 

 have any come in to see them, have sometimes 

 been quite surprised at the change, and hardly 

 knew them agahi, they were looking so well. We 

 had an old woman brought in not long ago; she 

 was so very low and feeble, that you would have 

 thought it impossible she could live long; but now 

 she IS one of the most active women of her age, 

 and will live, I dare say, a great many years more ; 

 they will say themselves they never were so well 

 off before. There are some, it is true, who cannot 

 bear even our regularity, and prefer the dog's life 

 of hunger and liberty ; but in general they never 

 leave us." 



" In answer to my interrogatives, as to the gene- 

 ral character of the inmates he declared that the 

 great majority of them were undeserving charac- 

 ters, who had been reduced to poverty by impro- 

 vidence or vice." 



" The male and female paupers were separated 

 in the night, but in the day the young girls, and 

 the mothers of bastard children, and all classes, 

 might meet and converse together in the yard. 



" On examining the books containing the list of 

 the out-paupers, I found the management equally 

 characteristic; out-door paupers having nearly the 

 same amount of wages allowed them without work, 

 that could have been obtained by independent la- 

 borers by hard work ; the pauper having, in addi- 

 tion to the money payments, frequent allowances 

 of clothes from the parish, and payments on ac- 

 count of rent, and 'other advantages.' I made 

 inquiry into the case of the persons by the same 

 name first presented on opening the book, when I 

 found them to consist of a pauper family of three 

 generations, the whole of whom received upwards 

 of lOOZ. per annum from the parish. The parents 

 of the pauper stock were described as remarkably 

 hale old people, in the workhouse, who had lived 

 on the parish upwards of forty years. The father 

 was the man who had been pointed out to me as 

 an instance of the care taken of the inmates, he 

 had lived so long and so well on the parish. I took 

 down their names in the order which exhibits the 

 genealogy of the living pauper family : — 



