280 Proceedings of the British Association, 



beggary was idleness ; and the means and remedy to cure the same 

 must be its contrary, which is labour ; and it hath been a speech 

 used of all men to say unto the idle, Work ! Work ! even as though 

 they would have said, the mean to reform beggary is to fall to work." 

 In consequence of this petition Bridewell was established, and thus 

 public charity was organized for three great objects — the relief of the 

 sick, the education of the young, and the employment of the able- 

 bodied labourer. The hospitals were supported by assessments levied 

 on the citizens and the companies. By the charter of Edward the 

 Sixth the government of these institutions was given to the Corpora- 

 tion of the City of London, but the chief power was seized by the 

 Court of Aldermen. Mr. Fletcher then explained the causes that 

 placed these institutions in the hands of self-elect governors, between 

 whom and the corporation a kind of compromise was effected by Act 

 of Parliament in 1782. But this Act only provides for the election 

 of forty-eight governors annually by the Common Council, twelve for 

 each hospital, Bethlehem being reckoned with Bridewell ; and as these 

 form but a small minority among the total number of governors, the 

 anomalous self-elect constitution of these bodies continues to the pre- 

 sent day. Mr. Fletcher then entered into an elaborate detail of the 

 various efforts that have been made to suppress mendicancy by penal 

 enactments, some of which were so severe as to vest an arbitrary 

 power of transportation in any two governors of Bridewell. In 1 708 

 the London Workhouse, though of earlier origin, was first brought into 

 full operation ; but it fell into a state of inefficiency and was abolished. 

 Mr. Fletcher then contrasted the system of relief attempted by the 

 Royal or Corporation Hospitals with the present pauper administra- 

 tion of London, and showed how widely the hospitals had deviated in 

 practice from the principles at which their founders aimed. 



Prof. Pryme said that too much importance had been attributed to 

 the suppression of monasteries as a cause of pauperism. Before that 

 time repeated Acts of Parliament had been passed complaining of the 

 increase of vagrancy and mendicancy. The influx of the precious 

 metals from America had lowered the value of money, and as there 

 was no corresponding increase in the rate of wages, the condition of 



