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 inistrative 
 Reform 
 
 AND THE 
 
 LOCAL 
 
 GOVERNMENT 
 
 BOARD. 
 
 J. THEODORE DODO. 
 
J 
 
ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM 
 
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ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM 
 
 AND THE 
 
 LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD 
 
 BY 
 
 J. THEODORE DODD, M.A. (Oxford) 
 
 Barrister-at-Law (Lincoln's Inn) 
 
 A Councillor and Guardian for 
 
 the City of Oxford 
 
 Author of "The Parish Councils Act Explained," etc. 
 
 ^ECOND.EDITION. 
 
 ' THE 
 
 UNIVERSiTY 
 
 LONDON 
 P* S. KING & SON 
 
 ORCHARD HOUSE 
 WESTMINSTER 
 
 1906. 
 

 mii^^ 
 
OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 TO THE FIRST EDITION. 
 
 It has for some time been obvious that, 
 from various causes, the difficulty of obtain- 
 ing by Act of ParHament those reforms 
 which are essential to the well-being of the 
 community is almost insuperable. 
 
 Yet much can be done by any Govern- 
 ment which has the support of a majority of 
 the House of Commons, and is backed up 
 with respect to just reforms by the country. 
 
 One object of this work is to give a small 
 sample of what can be done in the way of 
 reform by administrative action without any 
 Act of Parhament. 
 
 The powers of the Government, repre- 
 senting both in constitutional theory and 
 practice the Crown, and in practice the 
 House of Commons, may be divided, as far 
 as the present purpose is concerned, into 
 two classes : (i) those derived from the 
 Royal Prerogative and the Common Law ; 
 and (2) those given to various departments 
 of State by statute. 
 
 These latter, again, may be subdivided in 
 
 200618 
 
vi PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION 
 
 various ways. Many statutes give definite 
 powers to departments ; others confer on 
 departments authority to make rules, orders, 
 or regulations, which, when duly framed, are 
 as much law (until revoked or altered) as 
 the statute law itself. 
 
 In this book, the powers and duties of 
 only one of the great departments (the Local 
 Government Board) are discussed ; and 
 even in dealing with that Board I have 
 almost entirely restricted myself to con- 
 sidering its powers in connection with the 
 Poor Law. 
 
 Reform by administration possesses not 
 only the advantage of not requiring the con- 
 sent of a Second Chamber, but it has the 
 further advantage that it has not to be 
 pressed by mere force through a House 
 which includes a minority, who, though 
 unable to prevent reform altogether, can 
 both maul, and to a large extent spoil and 
 delay, all reforms, and, by the very time 
 they consume, as absolutely prevent many 
 reforms as if the obstructive minority were a 
 triumphant majority. 
 
 The subject of Poor Law has now for 
 some time been prominently before the 
 public, and real and substantial movement 
 with regard to its administration cannot 
 long be delayed ; also the unsolved question 
 of the " unemployed " is a disgrace to our 
 civilisation and a danger to the State. As 
 
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION, vii 
 
 Mr. Stansfeld ^ has well pointed out at a 
 recent Poor Law Conference,^ the legislative 
 reforms of 1832 were quickly followed by the 
 *' middle-class " Poor Law legislation of 
 1834, and the great constitutional changes 
 which have taken place in this country since 
 that date now necessitate alterations in the 
 present Poor Law, so as to make it more 
 humane. Indeed, Mr. Stansfeld, who was 
 formerly a President of the Local Govern- 
 ment Board, expressed his opinion that such 
 a change was not only necessary but desir- 
 able. The conduct of the Local Govern- 
 ment Board towards the poor is, in my 
 opinion, sometimes of doubtful legality, 
 sometimes harsh, and sometimes unsatis- 
 factory.^ 
 
 A word should be said as to the reforms 
 which the authorities connected with the Poor 
 Law made under the late {i.e.^ the Gladstone- 
 Rosebery) Government. When Mr. (now 
 Sir Henry) Fowler was first appointed Pre- 
 sident of the Local Government Board, he 
 effected some useful, if not heroic, adminis- 
 trative reforms.* 
 
 ^ [Afterwards Sir James Stansfeld.] 
 
 ^ See p. viii. below. 
 
 ^ I.e., in the old circulars, etc., of the Board and its pre- 
 decessors. See pp. xxiv.-v., xxvii., 33, 40, 44, 49, 52, 53, 104. 
 
 ^ Among Sir H. Fowler's administrative reforms may be 
 mentioned the orders allowing the guardians to give tobacco 
 and " afternoon tea " to the aged, and that permitting the 
 guardians to give " dry tea " so that tea may be '* made " in the 
 wards. The object of this latter order was, of course, to give 
 
viii PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 
 
 It will now be convenient to mention some 
 resolutions for administrative reform passed 
 by the Conference-^ on Poor Law Reform 
 
 a more home-like character to the meal. His order autho- 
 rising every guardian to visit the house is one of great value. 
 Previously a guardian who was not on the Visiting Com- 
 mittee could only go over the house by leave of the master 
 of the workhouse. Also Sir H. Fowler authorised the 
 appointment of lady visitors. The Local Government Act, 
 1894, made no substantive change in the Poor Law, but 
 reformed the mode of election of guardians, etc., and so 
 greatly altered its machinery. 
 
 1 The following bodies appointed representatives to this 
 conference : — 
 
 Boards of Guardians. — Bethnal Green, Camberwell, Ful- 
 ham, Greenwich, Islington, Kensington, Lambeth, 
 Lewisham, St. Olave's, St. George's East, St. Saviour's, 
 Shoreditch, Stepney, Wandsworth and Clapham, 
 Whitechapel, Woolwich. 
 
 Societies. — Battersea Labour League, Bethnal Green Rate- 
 payers' Association, British Women's Temperance 
 Association, Christian Social Union, Club and Insti- 
 tute Union, English Land Restoration League, Fabian 
 Society, Guild of St. Matthew, Helpers' Association, 
 Leighton Hall Neighbourhood Guild, Lifeboat Shelter, 
 Metropolitan Association for Befriending Young Ser- 
 vants, Metropolitan Board School Teachers' Associa- 
 tion, Midwives' Institute, Newman House Settlement, 
 Nonconformist Council, Poor Law Officers' Associa- 
 tion, Positivists' Society, Southwark Diocesan Work- 
 house Association, the United Sisters' Friendly 
 Society, University Hall, West London Ethical 
 Society, West London Mission (Social Department), 
 Wesleyan East End Mission, Women's Poor Law 
 Guardian Society, Women's Suffrage Society, 
 Women's University Settlement. 
 
 Trade Unions. — Clothiers' Cutters, East London (Women) 
 Ropemakers, Electro- and Stereo-typers, Engine 
 Drivers, House Painters (Islington and North Lon- 
 don), Labour Protection League, Litho Stone Pre- 
 parers, Navvies, Operative Bakers (Amalgamated 
 Society), Operative Bakers (Amalgamated Union), 
 
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION, ix 
 
 called by the London Reform Union. At a 
 meeting of this Conference, held on April 
 25th, 1894, at the Club Union Hall, Clerken- 
 well Road, Mr. Thomas Lough, M.P., in 
 the chair,^ the following resolutions were 
 carried : — 
 
 Administrative Reforms. 
 
 (a) Improved Inspection. 
 
 (i) " That this Conference asks for an 
 
 Pressmen, Printers' Labourers, Type Founders, Vellum 
 Binders, Women's Trade Union Association. 
 
 Political Associations. — North Kensington Conservative 
 Association ; Liberal Associations of Bow and 
 Bromley, Chelsea, East Dulwich, Hampstead, Hoxton, 
 Lewisham, Limehouse, Mile End, North Hackney, 
 North Kensington, Poplar, Rotherhithe, West Maryle- 
 bone, West Southwark, West St. Pancras ; Women's 
 Liberal Federation ; Women's National Liberal Asso- 
 ciation ; Women's Liberal Associations of Bethnal 
 Green, Chelsea, Hammersmith, Lambeth, Mile End, 
 Norwood, North Kensington, Paddington, Penge and 
 Beckenham, South Kensington, Westminster, West 
 Ishngton. 
 
 Clubs. — Battersea Progressive, Bloomsbury Young Men's, 
 Cobden, Democratic, Hammersmith, Mildmay Radi- 
 cal, Newington Reform, North London, St. James' 
 and Soho, St. Pancras Reform, West Norwood 
 Reform ; Liberal and Radical Clubs of Battersea, 
 Clapham, Central Finsbury, Chiswick, Dulwich, East 
 Greenwich, Hackney, Hatcham, Lewisham and Lee, 
 North Camberwell, North Lambeth, Paddington, 
 South Wimbledon. 
 
 London Reform Union Branches. — Bethnal Green, Bow, 
 Chelsea, Central Hackney, Fulham, Holborn, Lavender 
 Hill, Lewisham, North Lambeth, Paddington, Peck- 
 ham, Plumstead, Poplar, St. George's East, Stepney, 
 West Islington, West Southwark. 
 
 ^ The Conference sat for two evenings, Mr. Passmore 
 Edwards presiding on the other evening. It was arranged 
 
X PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 
 
 impartial and independent enquiry 
 into the conduct of the Poor Law 
 Inspectors, and other permanent 
 officials of the Local Government 
 Board, towards the Unemployed 
 and Poor." 
 
 (2) *' That Women and Working-men 
 
 Inspectors of Workhouses, Work- 
 house Infirmaries, and Schools 
 should be appointed." 
 
 (b) Outdoor Relief. 
 
 (3) "That this Conference urgently re- 
 
 quests the President of the Local 
 Government Board, with the other 
 members of the said Board, 
 to issue Rules or Regulations 
 (under 5 & 6 Will. IV. c. 69) 
 enabling Boards of Guardians to 
 hire land — (a) for the employment 
 of the Unemployed, provided this 
 can be done without pauperising ; 
 (b) to let land for Allotments to 
 Labourers." ^ 
 
 for convenience that reforms which were possible without an 
 Act of Parliament (/.<?., "Administrative Reforms") should 
 be discussed separately from those which could not be made 
 without the authority of the Legislature. 
 
 ^ It was thought that the guardians could not legally exer- 
 cise these powers under certain old statutes (see pp. 61-79), 
 unless rules were previously issued. It appears, however, 
 that, in theory, they can, although the sanction of the Local 
 Government Board is practically necessary. 
 
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION, xi 
 
 (c) The Administration of the Workhouse. 
 
 (6) " That the Boards of Guardians be 
 
 called upon to employ labour 
 direct in the rate-supported in- 
 stitutions under their charge ; that 
 they be requested to carry out all 
 painting, whitewashing, and cleans- 
 ing in the said institutions with- 
 out the intervention of contractors ; 
 and to have the clothing required 
 for the workhouse made by direct 
 employment of women, without 
 intervention of contractors or 
 middle-men, and at not less 
 than trade union rate of wages." 
 
 (7) " That the regulations, contained in 
 
 the General ConsoHdated Order 
 of 1847, setting forth the duties 
 of Workhouse and other Poor 
 Law Officers with regard to the 
 Administration of Indoor Relief, 
 should be revised by the Local 
 Government Board in the light of 
 modern knowledge and ideas." 
 
 (8) *' That it should be compulsory on 
 
 Boards of Guardians to appoint 
 outside Visiting Committees of 
 men and women to inspect Work- 
 houses and visit outdoor relief 
 cases ; and that such Committees 
 should report to the Guardians, 
 
xii PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 
 
 and have the right to appeal to 
 the Local Government Board in 
 cases in which their recommenda- 
 tions have not been adopted." 
 
 (9) ** That a new model dietary^ should 
 be prepared by the Local Govern- 
 ment Board, and should be made 
 compulsory, as a minimum, on all 
 Boards of Guardians." ^ 
 ***** 
 
 Nothing has been said in this book as to 
 the condition of pauper children under the 
 " Supervision " of the Local Government 
 Board and their men-inspectors. The recent 
 report of the Commission is, as to some of 
 the big " schools," sufficient exposure of the 
 present system.^ 
 
 "It is sixty years since" the Poor Law 
 Administration was thoroughly overhauled. 
 I venture to think that the time has come 
 for further reforms and improvements. 
 
 J. THEODORE DODD. 
 
 Lincoln's Inn, 
 
 Jtme, 1896. 
 
 * [This has now been done, see Preface to the Second 
 Edition, p. xiii.] 
 
 ^ A number of resolutions for other administrative reforms 
 were passed at the above meeting of the Conference, and at 
 a subsequent meeting, held on May 8th, 1894. 
 
 ^ Surely the Government might at least place the children 
 under the Inspectors of the Education Department, and, if 
 necessary, obtain an Act of Parliament for that purpose. 
 [This has now been done, see Preface to Second Edition, 
 p. xiv.] 
 
PREFACE 
 
 TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 — ♦— 
 
 Reforms Already Effected. 
 
 In issuing a second edition of this little 
 book it is most satisfactory to be able to 
 state that not a few of the reforms suggested 
 in the previous edition have been made. 
 The Local Government Board have super- 
 seded the old pauper nurses, and now 
 require the guardians to employ skilled 
 nurses in the Workhouse Infirmaries. They 
 have issued a new and, I think, sufficient 
 dietary for workhouses (except for the 
 tramps). They have by circular letter 
 suggested in many ways '*the brightening 
 of the workhouse and more liberty for and 
 better treatment of the deserving aged who 
 are still in the workhouses." Also Mr. 
 Chaplin, by his circular of igoo,^ advised 
 guardians to give adequate out-relief for the 
 deserving aged poor in suitable cases. In 
 the same circular also he advised that the 
 poor law children should not be retained in 
 
 1 See p. 38. 
 
xiv PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 the workhouse. Recently, also, the educa- 
 tion of the poor law children who are under 
 the care of the guardians in various institu- 
 tions has been placed under the supervision 
 of the education' inspectors, and some addi- 
 tional facilities have been given for boarding 
 out. 
 
 Some substantial improvement has thus 
 been made by the Local Government Board 
 as to the treatment of the sick, the indoor 
 children, and the indoor aged poor ; and a 
 little improvement, at least in many unions, 
 has been effected with regard to out-relief to 
 the aged poor. 
 
 Two Acts have been passed with a view of 
 permitting persons needing poor law relief 
 to retain an advantage from their thrift if 
 they are entitled to help from their friendly 
 societies ; but they do not assist those who 
 have exercised thrift in other ways than by 
 becoming members of such societies, and 
 they are of no use even to members of 
 friendly societies when the guardians refuse 
 out-relief (see Chapter VIII., pp. 54, 55 
 below). Something has also been done by 
 the legislature in extending the time within 
 which certain loans must be repaid. 
 
 Reforms Still Needed. 
 
 But though some improvement has been 
 effected much remains to be done ; and it is my 
 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION, xv 
 
 object in, this preface to indicate briefly what 
 can be done by the Local Government 
 Board (without any Act of ParHament) for 
 the health and well-being of the nation. 
 
 Three Great National Evils. — I say *' of 
 the nation" and not ''only of the poor'* 
 because the Local Government Board can do 
 much to assist the nation to fight against 
 three at least of the most serious evils which 
 affect our country, viz. : disease, destitution,^ 
 and drink. These three evils are both the 
 causes and efl"ects of each other. Disease 
 often causes destitution. Mr. Joseph 
 Chamberlain has said^: — 
 
 " Preventable disease at this moment is the great 
 agent for filling our workhouses." 
 
 It also, as Sir F. Treves has recently 
 said, sometimes leads to drink. Destitution 
 is the cause of a large portion of disease 
 and sometimes causes drink. Drink is the 
 cause of a large portion of both disease and 
 destitution. Yet all these three evils are to 
 a great extent preventable. 
 
 Professor Ray Lankester recently said at 
 Oxford ^ : — 
 
 " Within the past few years the knowledge of the 
 causes of disease has become so far advanced that it 
 
 ^ By destitution I mean lack of any one or more of the 
 necessaries of life. See p. xxiv. 
 2 Standard f July ist, 1904. 
 ^ Romanes Lecture, 1905, p. 30. 
 
xvi PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 is a matter of practical certainty that, by the un- 
 stinted application of known methods of investiga- 
 tion and consequent controlling action, all epidemic 
 disease could be abolished within a period so short 
 as fifty years. It is merely a question of the employ- 
 ment of the means at our command." 
 
 Dr. Heron, Chief of the Medical Staff of 
 the London Hospital for Diseases of the 
 Chest, recently said that it was absolutely 
 demonstrated that consumption was avoid- 
 able. ** We have stopped cholera," he said, 
 *'give us power and we will stop the other." ^ 
 An eminent medical authority recently de- 
 clared that well-to-do people need never 
 have consumption unless they catch it from 
 the poor.2 
 
 For the prevention of epidemic disease, it 
 is essential that the doctor should be called 
 in as soon as a person is ill, for many 
 epidemic diseases are spread because the 
 sufferer and his friends are quite ignorant 
 that he is suffering from an infectious com- 
 plaint. The Medical Officer of Health for 
 St. Pancras has pointed out the great danger 
 of the mild or ''unrecognised" cases in 
 small-pox,^ and there is like danger in many 
 other diseases. All the authorities declare 
 that early diagnosis of consumption is 
 essential. 
 
 * Daily News, May 12, 1906, p. 8. 
 
 2 See also p. 87, note. 
 
 ^ Report, December, 1901. 
 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION, xvii 
 
 The leaflets issued by the medical officers 
 of health exhort parents to seek medical 
 advice as soon as the infants begin to be ill, 
 and their Reports point out how deaths occur 
 among children in measles, etc. from neglect 
 in the early stages. The wonderful success 
 of Villiers le Duc,^ a rural commune in 
 France, where the infant mortality was 
 reduced from a rate equal to that of a town 
 slum to zero, was due to care beginning two 
 months before the infant's birth and con- 
 tinuing for a year after. Yet there have 
 been serious attempts in some quarters to 
 cut down medical relief, e.g., in St. Pancras. 
 A learned Oxford Don recently said at 
 Birmingham that ^'medical relief is a 
 growing evil." 
 
 Suggested Remedies. 
 
 Facilities for Medical Relief.^ — I suggest 
 therefore (i.) The Local Government Board 
 should use its influence in favour of facilitating 
 medical relief for the poor who are ill and cannot 
 pay for the doctor or medical necessaries,^ 
 
 Much illness, weak health and general 
 feebleness is due to want of proper food 
 and care in infancy and childhood. All the 
 
 ^ See Appendix, p. 103. 
 
 2 On this subject see Chapter XII., p. 83, and pamphlet, 
 " Health of the Nation," quoted at p. 43, note, also pp. 41-43. 
 
 3 These are entitled to poor law relief, although not 
 destitute of everything. See pp. xxiv., xxv. 
 
 A.R. b 
 
xviii PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 witnesses {exctpt one) before the Inter-Depart- 
 mental Committee on Physical Deterioration 
 concurred in placing food as the chief 
 among the factors that make for juvenile 
 degeneracy. '' Food," says Dr. Eicholz '' is 
 the point about which turns the whole 
 problem of degeneracy."^ This is accepted 
 by the committee as correct. 
 
 (^.) Adequate Out-relief for Children. — I 
 suggest therefore that the Local Government 
 Board should (a) use its influence in favour of 
 adequate out-relief for children in all cases 
 where out-relief is given to thejn at all ; and 
 (b) advise out-relief in the case oi widows with 
 dependent children if the children are being 
 properly brought up} 
 
 I have not suggested any special provision 
 for school children as I hope there will very 
 soon be legislation on this subject. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to add that out- 
 relief requires care and discrimination, also 
 supervision. In many unions the guardians 
 and others give much personal help, find 
 
 1 Report, par. 289, p. 56. Dr. Eicholz speaks both of 
 want of food and irregularity and unsuitability of food. 
 
 2 See Chapter VI., pp. 38, 40. This may involve in some 
 cases the giving of dinner tickets to children as is done in 
 Scotland, see Appendix, p. 105. Most people will agree with 
 the first branch of this suggestion. As to the second, the 
 alternative is to offer indoor relief. This would, if accepted, 
 be impracticable owing to the number of children (see p. 45), 
 and the enormous cost involved, and undesirable, as 
 relieving the parents of the trouble of looking after their 
 children. Many parents would refuse, and then the children 
 would starve. 
 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION, xix 
 
 work for the widows and the children as 
 they grow up, and encourage famihes in 
 habits of temperance and thrift, so that they 
 will not become eventually a burden to the 
 State. The aged and sick are visited and 
 befriended. Of course a sufficient staff of 
 relieving officers is requisite. 
 
 As to the effects of drink on disease and 
 destitution and general misery, I cannot do 
 better than quote the words of Mr. John 
 Burns, M.P., now President of the Local 
 Government Board ^ : — 
 
 " The tavern throughout the centuries has been the 
 ante-chamber to the workhouse, the chapel-of-ease to 
 the asylum, the recruiting station for the hospital, the 
 rendezvous of the gambler, the gathering ground for 
 the gaol. Alcohol pollutes whatever it touches. It 
 enervates where it does not enslave. It destroys 
 slowly that which it does not degrade quickly. For 
 the individual it is a malignant disease, for the com- 
 munity it is a murrain, for the nation it has become a 
 self-inflicted obstacle to all phases of progress, and it 
 lies athwart the path of personal reformation, muni- 
 cipal progress, and State amelioration ; obstructing 
 all the forces of slow remedial reform, and rapid 
 changes to industrial elevation." 
 
 And in another passage in the same 
 pamphlet Mr. Burns says : — 
 
 "Dr. C. K. Millard, Medical Officer of Health for 
 Leicester, in 1902, sums up the whole question of 
 alcohol and its relation to the public health, in the 
 following remarkable statement : — ' Speaking as a 
 
 1 " Labour and Drink" (Lecture delivered in Free Trade 
 Hall, Manchester, October 31, 1904, price i</.), pp. 6, 12. 
 
 b 2 
 
XX PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 medical officer of health, I can say that if I were 
 given the choice of the abolition on the one hand of 
 the evil of drink, and on the other hand of all the ' 
 other various preventables influencing and affecting 
 public health, on which medical officers are at present 
 concentrating their efforts, I would choose unhesitat- 
 ingly the abolition of drink as being greater by far 
 than all the others combined.' 
 
 " I was informed by a London sanitary inspector 
 this month that he had never served an overcrowding 
 notice except on drinking tenants, and had never 
 issued a notice to abate dirt or nuisance to a teetotaller. 
 The lesson of that is plain. Drunkenness is next door 
 to dirtiness — often in the same house." 
 
 It is obvious that Boards of Guardians 
 may use a good deal of influence against 
 drink ; but much more can be done by the 
 Town Councils, e.g. the Sanitary Committee 
 may issue placards, handbills, and otherwise 
 influence people ; the Education Committee 
 can teach children the necessity of temper- 
 ance and the advantages of total abstinence, 
 the Watch Committee can do much — very 
 much — to prevent drunkenness and excess ; 
 in towns where the municipality is the owner 
 of public-houses the Property and Estates 
 Committee can take care to let them on such 
 terms that they may do the least possible 
 harm ; the Free Library Committee can 
 supply temperance books and literature. 
 The Council can also regulate the letting of 
 their town hall and other public buildings so 
 as to encourage temperance. They may en- 
 courage temperance among their employees, 
 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION, xxi 
 
 and they may in many other ways combat 
 the evil connected with alcohol. 
 
 (3.) Temperance. — I suggest therefore that 
 the Local Government Board should use all its 
 influence against drink ; and for this purpose 
 issue (a) a circular as to the evils connected 
 with the use of alcohol to all sanitary authorities 
 asking their co-operation in favour of temper- 
 ance ; and (b) some simple and definite instruc- 
 tions as to the evils connected with the use of 
 alcohoP and explaining the advantages of total 
 abstinence, for use in all poor-law schools. 
 
 Other Powers of the Government as to Drink. 
 — It maybe suggested that although circulars 
 may do some good they can have little effect 
 in fighting such a gigantic evil as ** drink." 
 It should be remembered, however, that the 
 Government may in many other ways assist, 
 e.g., the Education Department may teach 
 the children the evils connected with alcohol. 
 It is, moreover, essential in making appoint- 
 ments of inspectors, both of the Local 
 Government Board and Education Depart- 
 ment, that the Government should appoint 
 men who will vigorously assist in this 
 temperance work. I do not regard this as 
 a test any more than vaccination,^ and I 
 make no apology for this digression as to 
 
 * A very feeble circular was issued some time ago. It was 
 a small step in the right direction. 
 
 2 Of course alcohol is one of the chief causes of death, 
 while small-pox causes very few. 
 
 f OV THE \ 
 
 UNIVERSITY I 
 
 OF / 
 
 l" 
 
xxii PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 " drink," for a very large portion — estimated 
 varying from 25 to 75 per cent.^ — is drink- 
 caused. The late Lord Shaftesbury has 
 truly said, *' So long as you refuse to 
 grapple with the drink problem the problem 
 of pauperism is unsolvable." 
 
 (4.) Treatment of Aged Poor. — Until old age 
 pensions are obtained the Local Government 
 Board should encourage adequate out-relief for 
 the deserving aged poor far more effectively than 
 they have hitherto done^^ and should also secure 
 {by order if necessary) reasonable liberty and 
 other privileges for such of them as are neces- 
 sarily in the workhouse.^ 
 
 If, however, old age pensions are long 
 delayed, I should suggest a Resolution^ by 
 House of Commons, in favour of treatment 
 of the aged as suggested above, and a grant 
 out of the public funds to guardians in aid 
 of such out-relief, just as grants have been 
 
 ^ " How much pauperism is drink-caused ? It is difficult 
 to reply. A committee of the Convocation of Canterbury- 
 has stated 75 per cent. Several chaplains of unions support 
 this by giving as their experience that, apart from child- 
 hood, old age and sickness, almost the whole of the pauperism 
 to be found in workhouses is drink-caused. Mr. Charles 
 Booth gives 25 to 28 per cent, of poverty as due to this 
 cause ; Mr. Alex McDougall, of Manchester, says half the 
 cases he investigated. Though these figures appear to 
 differ, their difference is chiefly owing to the fact that 
 pauperism has a different meaning in each case, and so 
 includes in some cases {e.g., Mr. Booth's) a larger class of 
 persons." C.E.T.S., "Facts and Figures," 1905, pp. 12, 13. 
 
 2 See Chapter VI., p. 38, and also pp. 18, 19, 27, 29, 51. 
 
 3 See pp. 32—37. 
 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION, xxiii 
 
 made already in aid of salaries of union 
 officials.-^ 
 
 It will be obvious from what has been 
 said that the Local Government Board has 
 great influence and some power, but that 
 the main portion of the power is (as might 
 be expected) in the hands of the local 
 administrators. 
 
 The ineffectiveness and the apparent 
 ** hardness" of many Boards of Guardians 
 is, however, largely due to misconceptions 
 of the law which might be removed by an 
 official statement of the Local Government 
 Board. At the same time some of the old 
 circulars of the Board^ might be recalled or 
 explained, and some of the excellent and 
 thoughtful replies made in recent years by 
 the Board or its Presidents to questions ad- 
 dressed to them in the House or by Boards 
 of Guardians, might be incorporated. 
 
 (5.) I suggest therefore that the Local 
 Government Board should issue a circular to all 
 Boards of Guardians and relieving officers which 
 shall show the rights^ of persons who are so poor 
 
 ^ These are paid by the county and county borough 
 councils out of the funds received from the national taxes. 
 
 2 I mean the Local Government Board or its predecessors, 
 the Poor Law Board Commissioners. I have not thought it 
 necessary in this book always to distinguish between them, 
 as the Local Government Board took over the functions of 
 the former bodies. 
 
 ^ There is a good deal of misapprehension among guar- 
 dians and relieving officers which is partly due to little 
 
xxiv PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 as to lack one or more of the necessaries of life} 
 to reliefs and the obligation of Guardians and of 
 relieving officers to relieve them^ and especially 
 as to : — 
 
 {a.) The right of married women to obtain, on their 
 
 books written by persons of the " hard " school, who con- 
 fuse the law with their own ideas of what they think the law 
 ought to be. Some are not inclined to admit that there is 
 any right to relief at all, though they are obviously wrong (see 
 pp. 5, 21, 22, 28, 44, 53, 57). As to the able-bodied, see p. 103. 
 1 I have here used the phrase " poor," etc., because the 
 word " poor " is used in 43 Eliz. c. 2 (see pp. 44, 57), and the 
 word "destitute," unless explained, is apt to lead to serious 
 misapprehension. The Local Government Board have fre- 
 quently said that only persons who are " destitute " are 
 entitled to poor law relief. If it is clearly understood that 
 this includes a person who is destitute of any one of the 
 necessaries of life {e.g.^ of food, although he may have a 
 cottage, clothing and furniture, or of medical attendance, 
 though he may have food also), this is only a harmless 
 abbreviation for the poor, etc., as defined by 43 Eliz. c. 2. 
 See p. 57, 90. But it is sometimes understood as meaning 
 that a person must be destitute of everything before he has a 
 right to poor law relief. Miss Sophia Lonsdale, who is often 
 cited as an authority on poor law, says : " The poor law 
 ought really to be called 'the law (^i the destitute,' and to be 
 destitute means, in common talk, to be absolutely without 
 possessions of any kind, though the real meaning is, I 
 believe, to be without a position, without a status." Of 
 course Miss Lonsdale is wrong. It is \ht.poor law, and the 
 Local Government Board should make the rights of the poor 
 under it fully understood. In a Circular of 1871 (see p. 44), 
 the Board says that only persons in actual destitution are 
 entitled to poor law relief. The word "actual" in the 
 phrase " actual destitution " is an unfortunate term, as it 
 seems to suggest a more definite or acute destitution, but it 
 only means " present " as opposed to " future " destitution. 
 As to what are necessaries of life, see Report of Royal Com- 
 mission on Aged Poor, i., p. xlvi. The guardians are judges 
 both of what is destitution and of what relief is necessary, 
 and who is able-bodied. See evidence of Sir H. Owen in 
 Appendix to 3rd Report of Select Committee on Distress 
 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION, xxv 
 
 own application, medical relief for themselves 
 
 and children when ill.^ 
 (6.) The right of a woman about to be confined to 
 
 obtain medical help.^ 
 (c.) The right of a person (who is not a casual 
 
 pauper) to be admitted to the workhouse, and 
 
 .not put off with the offer of the casual ward.^ 
 
 (d.) The power of the guardians to give adequate 
 
 out-relief to the deserving aged poor (see 
 
 Mr. Chaplin's circular of 1900), and the right 
 
 from Want of Employment, Appendix 30, pp. 558, 560 ; and 
 Minutes of Evidence, No. III., pp. 64, 99, 651—653 ; " Good 
 Citizenship," pp. 166, 167, 174. [Compare Shaw's Poor 
 Law Orders, by Macmorran, p. 20, note, and Mackenzie, 
 pp. 116, 183.] 
 
 Many so-called authorities have said that guardians have 
 nothing "to do with character but only with destitution." 
 This, however, is contradicted by Mr. Chaplin's circular 
 (see p. 38, below), and the statements of Sir James Stansfeld, 
 Mr. Ritchie, and Mr. Walter Long. Mr. Long said " when 
 it was possible the guardians discriminated between the 
 different classes of paupers and did everything they could 
 to lighten the pressure of poverty and to lessen the suffering 
 of the well-behaved" (Times, March 20, 1902). 
 
 ^ The right of a destitute child to relief is clearly stated 
 in the circular accompanying the Underfed Children's 
 Order, and a destitute wife has a right to relief (see the judg- 
 ments of the Court of Appeal in the Merthyr Tydvil case, 
 cited p. 5, below), just as much as an unmarried woman. 
 Unfortunately there is an idea prevalent that the husband 
 must apply. 
 
 ^ It is specially hard that while a mother of an illegitimate 
 child is usually well cared for during a month in the labour 
 wards of the workhouse the mother of a legitimate one is 
 discouraged from coming for medical help in confinement. 
 In many unions it is always given in the first instance on 
 loan, and at a recent poor law conference a relieving officer 
 of a large city (who was an invited speaker and evidently a 
 man of experience and ability) spoke as if it were a rule of 
 law that it should be so given. The mistake may have arisen 
 from a Poor Law Circular (11 Off. Cir. 44 ; cited Macmorran 
 171, note), which should be recalled or " explained." 
 
 8 See " Health of the Nation," p. 13. 
 
xxvi PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 of such poor, in certain cases, to appeal to the 
 
 magistrates.^ 
 (e.) What relief may be received without loss of 
 
 parliamentary or municipal vote.^ 
 (/.) The responsibilities of relieving officers as to 
 
 relief of the destitute and the remedies open 
 
 to the poor, or those acting on their behalf, in 
 
 case of neglect or misconduct.^ 
 (g.) The duties of poor law inspectors and of the 
 
 Local Government Board as to checking 
 
 breaches of the law.* 
 
 The Unemployed. — A discussion of the 
 powers of the Guardians in connection with 
 the unemployed, and their powers (subject 
 to the control of the Local Government 
 Board) of obtaining land for employment at 
 reasonable wages and for letting allotments 
 
 1 As to out-relief to the aged see pp. i8, 38, 104 ; and as to 
 appeal to the magistrates, pp. 22, 28. The right of appeal 
 seems to have been forgotten, but might sometimes be used 
 with advantage. 
 
 2 I.e., medical relief, including necessaries ordered by the 
 doctor (48 & 49 Vict. c. 46). The legislature, by providing 
 that medical rehef shall not disfranchise (except for election 
 of guardians), has placed a wide distinction between this and 
 ordinary relief. It would be well to place indoor relief for 
 the sick on the same footing. 
 
 3 See p. 28 and compare remedies of poor in Scotland, 
 
 P- 31- 
 
 * See pp. 28, 30. In R. v. Baddeley the Divisional Court 
 quashed a conviction of a pauper for refusing to work, the 
 Court holding that the task was an illegal one {Tribune^ 
 April 3rd, 1906). Surely it ought to be the duty of the 
 inspectors to see that illegal tasks are not given, and that 
 married couples have their separate accommodation unless 
 they renounce it (see p. 36). It would be well to make it 
 known that a pauper could appeal to the inspector of his 
 own district in case of illegal conduct on the part of the 
 authorities. 
 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION, xxvii 
 
 to poor and industrious inhabitants, will be 
 found in Chapters IX. and X. (pp. 56 — 79). 
 This ''unemployed" question requires legis- 
 lation (p. 72), but if obstacles are thrown in 
 the way of this, then a vigorous effort should 
 be made to do what is possible by adminis- 
 tration. Meanwhile, a careful watch should 
 be kept over Consolidation or Revision Bills 
 to see that these old Acts are not repealed. 
 
 The Cost of Indoor Relief. — The cost has 
 increased rapidly of late years, to a great 
 extent in consequence of very desirable im- 
 provements. It is still likely to increase 
 largely. The amount of increase and the 
 great cost of in-relief are to some extent con- 
 cealed by the misleading form of some of the 
 returns of the Local Government Board and 
 their inspectors. These give the cost of 
 (a) in-maintenance, and {b) out-relief. Now 
 the item ''in-maintenance" excludes the 
 salaries, rations, and superannuation of the 
 officers and servants, and most of the other 
 establishment charges. In London the cost 
 of " in-maintenance " is not one-half of the 
 cost of in-relief. Yet these are the returns 
 which the guardians and writers in the 
 press usually see, and the cost of in-main- 
 tenance is constantly given as that of in- 
 relief, and sometimes arguments to show 
 the economy (?) of indoor over outdoor relief 
 are drawn from the supposed erroneous 
 figures. (6.) It would be well in future to give 
 
xxviii PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 the true cost of indoor relief. This might 
 tend to economy. 
 
 In criticising the Local Government Board 
 it should be clearly understood that I am 
 in no way reflecting upon the recently- 
 appointed President ; and I should like to 
 remind the reader that, though the Local 
 Government Board can do much, the 
 guardians can do far more for adminis- 
 trative reform ; therefore those who desire 
 adequate out-relief for the aged and other 
 reforms should take care to elect guardians 
 who properly represent their views. Thanks 
 to a recent Act^ the guardians are popu- 
 larly elected ; and if in some cases parishes 
 with a large population have not their fair 
 share of the representation, on application 
 the County Council or the Local Govern- 
 ment Board can award additional guardians.^ 
 
 J. THEODORE DODD. 
 
 55, St. Giles, Oxford. 
 June^ 1906. 
 
 * The Local Government Act, 1894. 
 
 * Both have jurisdiction. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION .... V-xii 
 
 DiflSculties of obtaining Reforms by Acts 
 of Parliament and possibilities of Reform by 
 Administration, pp. v., vi. — Poor Law and 
 the Unemployed, p. vi. — Views of Sir James 
 Stansfeld, p. vii. — Sir H. Fowler's Reforms, 
 pp. vii., viii. — London Conference in 1894 ^^ 
 Poor Law Reform, pp. viii.-ix. — Proposals 
 of the Conference, pp. ix.-xii. — Time for 
 "Overhauling" Poor Law Administration, 
 p. xii. 
 
 PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION . . . Xlll-XXVlll 
 
 Important Reforms obtained since first 
 edition of this book, p. xiii. — Reforms still 
 needed, p. xiv. — Evils affecting the Nation, 
 p. XV. — Three great National Evils, Disease, 
 Destitution, and Drink, p. xv. — Suggested 
 Remedies, p. xvii.-xxvi. — Medical Relief, 
 p. xvii. — Adequate Out-relief for Chil- 
 dren, p. xviii. — Exposure of the Evils of 
 Drink, p. xix. — Powers of Town Councils 
 against Drink, p. xx. — General Powers of 
 the Government as to Drink, p. xxi. — 
 Adequate Out-relief for Deserving Aged 
 Poor, p. xxii. — Suggestion for Circular 
 OF Local Government Board for in- 
 formation as to duties of Guardians 
 and their Officers, p. xxiii, — The Unem- 
 ployed and Allotments, p. xxvi, — Great 
 Cost of Indoor Relief, xxvii. — Powers of the 
 Guardians and Importaace of their Elections, 
 p. xxviii. 
 
XXX TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 I. EARLY STATUTES RELATING TO THE POOR I-4 
 
 Statutes of Richard II., pp. i, 2 — 
 Edward VI., Philip & Mary, Elizabeth 
 (before 43 Eliz.), Bishops' Exhortation and 
 Justices of the Peace, pp. 3, 4 — Miss Leonard's 
 Early History of English Poor Relief, p. 4. 
 
 n. THE STATUTE OF ELIZABETH (43 ELIZ. C. 2) 5-IO 
 
 The persons entitled to relief, pp. 5, 6 — 
 The " poor " and the destitute, p. 7 — Law of 
 settlement and removal under Charles II., 
 pp. 7, 8 — Modification of Restoration Statute 
 in 1795, p. 9 — Bad times before Poor Law 
 Commission of 1834, p. 10. 
 
 III. THE POOR LAW COMMISSION OF 1834 . 11-22 
 
 Personal constitution of the Commission 
 and their remarkable definition of " poverty," 
 p. II — The witnesses called, p. 12 — Report 
 as to neglect of duty (under 43 Eliz.) of 
 setting to work of persons capable of labour, 
 pp. 12, 13 — Abuse occasioned by out-relief to 
 able-bodied, p. 13 — Recommendations of the 
 Commission as to able-bodied poor, p. 14 — 
 Proposals for establishment of Central Board 
 and Paid Officers, pp. 15, 16 — Alteration of 
 laws of settlement and bastardy and as to 
 emigration, pp. 17, 18 — Remarks of Commis- 
 sioners as to relief of aged and as to useful 
 employment, pp. 18, 19, 20 — Miss Leonard 
 in defence of "the old Poor Law," p. 21 — 
 Legislation consequent on the Commission, 
 p. 21 — Out-relief, p. 22 — Powers of Justices, 
 p. 22. 
 
 IV. THE POWERS OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT 
 
 BOARD 23-30 
 
 Principal powers with reference to the poor, 
 pp. 23-26 — Rules as to out-relief to able- 
 bodied, p. 26 — Remedies of the poor in 
 England, p. 28 — Duty of the Local Govern- 
 ment Board to see that the poor are properly 
 treated, p. 28 — Remedies of the poor in 
 Scotland, p. 30. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. xxxi 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 V. HOW THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD MAY 
 SECURE BETTER TREATMENT OF SUCH 
 AGED POOR AS ARE IN THE WORKHOUSES 3I-37 
 
 Classification, p. 32 — More liberty — Visits 
 from friends, p. 33 — Non-pauper clothing, 
 p. 34 — Brighten the Workhouse, p. 35 — 
 Married couples, p. 36 — The Inspectors and 
 their Reports, p. 37. 
 
 VL OUTDOOR RELIEF FOR THE AGED, WIDOWS 
 AND CHILDREN, THE SICK, AND 
 NURSING MOTHERS .... 38-45 
 
 Attitude of the Local Government Board 
 as to out-relief, p. 38— Mr. Chaplin's Circular, 
 p. 38 — Suggestions for re-issue of Circular 
 with additions, p. 39— Inadequate scales of 
 relief, p. 39 — Guardians' by-laws, p. 40 — 
 Suggestions of Local Government Board 
 against out-relief, pp. 40, 41 — Relief to 
 nursing mothers, p. 41 — Adequate out-relief 
 for children, p. 41 — Medical out-relief, 
 pp. 41, 42 — Unfortunate interference of 
 Local Government Board, p. 43 — Destitution 
 or poverty the title to relief, p. 44 — Number 
 of children receiving relief, p. 45. 
 
 VII. AID EXTORTED FROM POOR RELATIONS . 46-51 
 
 Relations liable under 43 Eliz. c. 2, p. 46 — 
 Meaning of words "of a sufficient ability," 
 p. 47 — Oppressive use of power at instigation 
 of old circular of Local Government Board, 
 pp. 48, 49 — Extorted agreements, p. 50 — 
 Illegal enforcement of orders, p. 50 — Hard- 
 ship on the aged themselves, p. 51. 
 
 VIII. AID FROM CLUBS, OR HOW THE LOCAL 
 GOVERNMENT BOARD DISCOURAGED 
 CHARITY AND THRIFT .... 52-55 
 
 Charity, Club or Friendly Society, pp. 52, 53 
 — Parish support termed "a degradation," 
 P- 53 — Need for revising Circulars, p. 54 — 
 Recent Statutes as to Friendly Societies, 
 PP- 54. 55— Ineffectual in some Unions, p. 5^. 
 
 IX. THE UNEMPLOYED 5^-73 
 
 Statute of Elizabeth directs useful employ- 
 ment, p. 57 — Not as a test of poverty, p. 53 — 
 
xxxii TABLE OF CONTENTS, 
 
 CHAP. PAGK 
 
 Primary duty of parish officers to find employ- 
 ment, pp. 59, 60 — Power to buy or hire land 
 to set the poor on work, pp. 60-63 — Extension 
 to 50 acres, pp. 63, 64 — Power to enclose 
 forest or waste lands, p. 63 — Transfer of 
 powers to Guardians under control of Local 
 Government Board, pp. 63, 65 — Nature of 
 work which can be provided, p. 64 — General 
 powers of Guardians, p. 65 — Orders of Local 
 Government Board, p. 67 — Conservative Act 
 for the unemployed, p. 68 — Guardians can 
 provide allotments, p. 6g — Comparison with 
 Allotments Act, 1887, p. 70 — Legislation 
 suggested, p. 72. 
 
 X. EMPLOYMENT OF THE POOR ON THE LAND 74-79 
 
 Article in New Review, p. 74 — Replies of 
 Sir H. Fowler as to powers of Guardians to 
 buy a piece of land for employment, pp. 75-77 
 — Work given a test of destitution — Disfran- 
 chisement, p. 75 — Discussion as to replies 
 of Sir H. Fowler, p. 77 — Destitution or 
 poverty, pp. 77, 78. 
 
 XI. POWER OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD 
 
 TO ORDER USEFUL EMPLOYMENT . . 80-82 
 
 Power to order improvements in Work- 
 houses, p. 80 — Power to order sanitary 
 improvements, p. 81 — Extension of time for 
 repayment of loans, p. 82. 
 
 XIL DETAILED SUGGESTIONS AS TO OUTDOOR 
 
 RELIEF 83-87 
 
 Co-operation of Guardians with Town 
 Councils, p. 83 — Against unduly deterring 
 applications for medical relief, pp. 84, 85 — 
 Official returns should distinguish medical 
 from other out-relief, p. 85 — Medical relief for 
 tramps, p. 85 — Circular as to medical out- 
 relief, p. 85— Particulars should be obtained 
 from certain Unions of their charges to the 
 poor, pp. 85, 86 — Register of sickness should 
 be kept, p. 86 — Power of Local Government 
 Board to make orders restricting practice of 
 making medical relief a loan, pp. 85, 86 — 
 Consumption, p. 87. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. xxxiii 
 
 APPENDIX PAGE 
 
 I. THE TEXT OF THE POOR RELIEF ACT, 160I 
 (43 ELIZ. C. 2), AS FAR AS IT IS UN- 
 REPEALED 89-97 
 
 Note on Rates in aid, p. 92. 
 
 II. THE TEXT OF THE RECOMMENDATIONS OF 
 
 THE POOR LAW COMMISSION OF 1834 • 97'"I03 
 
 III. THE RIGHT OF THE ABLE-BODIED TO 
 
 EMPLOYMENT AND RELIEF . . . IO3 
 
 IV. INFANT MORTALITY AND VILLIERS LE 
 
 DUC 103 
 
 V. PAYMENT BY GUARDIANS OF RELIEF TO 
 
 COVER RENT IO4 
 
 VI. NOTE ON POOR RELIEF IN SCOTLAND . IO5 
 
 Dinner tickets for children, p. 105. 
 
 A.R. 
 
%^ For definite suggestions for Reforms, 
 see Preface to this (the 2nd) edition, pp. xvii., 
 xviii., xxi., xxiii., xxvii. ; also pp. 29, 32-37, 
 40, 42, 43, 49> 54, 72, 73 > 80-87. 
 
ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 EARLY STATUTES RELATING TO 
 THE POOR. 
 
 The present system of Parochial Relief is based 
 upon 43 Eliz. c. 2 (1601). But the germ of the 
 system dates from a much earlier period. Indeed, 
 we find it stated in the " Mirrour of Justice " ^ that 
 by a very early Ordinance " the poor should be 
 maintained by parsons, rectors of the Church, and 
 by the parishioners, so that none of them die for 
 want of sustenance." Mr. Pashley explains that 
 the parishioners would sustain the poor by paying 
 their tithe and making their oblations to the 
 Church.2 
 
 The right of the poor parishioner to be supported 
 by his own parish is also recognised by 15 Rich. II. 
 c. 6 (A.D. 1391),^ which declares that when parish 
 
 ^ See (i) Mirror, c. i, s. 3, quoted by Lord Coke in his 
 3rd Inst., c. 40, f. 103 ; by Gould, J., Steei v. HougJiton^ i 
 H. Black, 55. See the opinion of Foster, J., Rex v. Aythrop 
 Roodingy Burr, S.C. 414. 
 
 * "Pauperism and Poor Laws," p. 155, Sed qucere. 
 
 8 Revised Statutes, 2nd edit. (1888), p. 170. 
 
 A.R. B 
 
2 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. 
 
 churches were appropriated by licence in Chancery 
 a sum of money was to paid by the appropriators 
 to the poor parishioners. And in 12 Rich. II. c. 7, 
 which condemns the able-bodied beggars to the 
 stocks, the beggars who were unable to work were 
 to abide in the cities and towns where they were 
 dwelling at the time of the proclamation of this 
 statute, " and if the people will not or may not 
 suffice to find them," the beggars were to go to other 
 towns within the hundred, rape, or wapentake, or 
 the towns where they were born, and there con- 
 tinually abide during their lives.^ 
 
 This statute is important as indicating the 
 primary liability of the town and the secondary lia- 
 bility of the hundred, and as foreshadowing the 
 birth " settlement" It is needless for our purpose 
 to repeat the stringent provisions against vagabonds 
 and sturdy beggars which are found in subsequent 
 statutes, but we may state that 27 Hen. VIII. 
 c. 25, directs that the authorities of the parish or 
 hundred shall relieve the poor and keep the 
 "valiant" beggar at continual work. A distinction 
 was clearly drawn between the poor and sick on 
 the one hand, and those "who had their limbs 
 strong enough to labour " on the other hand. The 
 cost was to be defrayed by voluntary alms, collected 
 
 1 Pilgrims begging were to have letters testimonial from 
 their Ordinaries, and University scholars begging, letters 
 from the Chancellor. University students are also specially 
 privileged by 22 Hen. VIII. c. 12, and 14 EHz. c. 5. There 
 is a tradition in Oxford that the scholars of one of the 
 Colleges have the right to beg on the Banbury Road. 
 
EARLY STATUTES. 3 
 
 by the mayor, governor, churchwardens, etc., or ten 
 others of the parish, every Sunday. 
 
 There is no doubt that in the reign of Henry VIII. 
 poverty and distress must have been much increased 
 by the dissolution of the monasteries and the 
 robbery of the guilds, as well as by other causes. 
 And a savage Act against vagabonds was passed 
 among the earliest statutes of the reign of 
 Edward VI. ,^ which, however, directed the curate 
 of every parish to exhort his hearers to relieve the 
 poor born in their parish. Further provision for 
 the poor was made shortly after ; ^ and in the reign 
 of Philip and Mary two able persons were to be 
 chosen in every parish, who should "gently ask" the 
 people at church what they would give weekly to 
 the poor. The clergyman and churchwardens were 
 to " gently entreat " stingy people, and if they 
 would not be persuaded, they were to be reported 
 to the bishop, who was to send for them and to 
 persuade them by charitable means, and so, 
 according to discretion, take order for the charitable 
 reformation of every such obstinate person. 
 
 A more effective Act^ was passed soon after 
 Elizabeth came to the throne. Penalties were im- 
 posed on persons failing to call the meeting to elect 
 the collectors, and on collectors refusing to serve or 
 to account. Also, if the bishop's exhortation 
 failed, the miserly parishioner had to appear before 
 the General Sessions, who again would try gentle 
 
 ^ I Edw. VI. c. 3. 
 
 a 3 & 4 Edw. VI. c. 16. 
 
 ^ 5 Elu. c. 3. 
 
 B 2 
 
4 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. 
 
 persuasion, but if he, or she} was still obstinate, 
 then the justices and churchwardens taxed the 
 stingy person according to their good discretion. 
 
 A few years after, a general power to assess the 
 inhabitants was given to the justices of the peace, 
 subject to the right of appeal to the Sessions 
 (14 KHz. c. 5). And by 18 Eliz. c. 3, stronger 
 provisions were introduced for setting the poor to 
 work and providing stores for that purpose. 
 
 By 39 Eliz. c. 3, great changes were made in 
 the Poor Law. It was re-enacted, with a few 
 alterations, by the 43rd Eliz. c. 2, described in the 
 next chapter. 
 
 For a full and most interesting account of the 
 above statutes, and of the provision made in this 
 country for the poor, prior to the 43rd Eliz. (1601), 
 the reader should refer to " The Early History of 
 English Poor Relief," by Miss Leonard. ^ 
 
 It is enough for our present purpose to have 
 given a very brief outline of the principal statutes 
 relating to the support of the poor, which were 
 passed before 43 Eliz. c. 2? 
 
 1 Mr. Castle, in his able work on " Rating," remarks : 
 " The reference of this Act to the female sex is curious and 
 uncommon. It would appear that the attention of the 
 Legislature must have been expressly directed to the diffi- 
 culty of getting women to contribute. 
 
 * Cambridge University Press, 1900. 
 
 ' A good account of these Acts will be found in Mr. 
 Castle's book on the Law of Rating. A summary is also 
 given in the Report of the Commission of 1834, pp. 6-13, 
 and in Mr. Pashley's work. Professor Thorold Rogers 
 remarks that between 1541 and 1601 no less than twelve 
 Acts were passed with the object of providing for relief 
 against destitution, and that they are omitted in most col- 
 lections of statutes as repealed or obsolete. 
 
THE STATUTE OF ELIZABETH. 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 THE STATUTE OF ELIZABETH 
 (43 Eliz. c. 2). 
 
 Although in 1834, by the passing of the Poor 
 Law Act of that date, such grave changes were 
 made in the poor law that it was commonly said 
 that a "new poor law" was introduced; as a 
 matter of fact the foundation of the old poor law, 
 43 Eliz. c. 2, was not repealed, and a large part of 
 that statute is thus in force at the present day.^ 
 " The class of persons entitled to relief are still 
 (notwithstanding subsequent legislation) the same 
 as those mentioned in section i of the Act of 
 43 Eliz. c. 2." 2 A change was made in the admini- 
 stration of the law rather than in the law itself. 
 To understand the present poor law, therefore, 
 it is necessary to advert with some minuteness to 
 the provisions of the above-mentioned Elizabethan 
 statute. 
 
 The first and governing section of the Act directs 
 
 that the churchwardens of every parish, and four, 
 
 three or two substantial householders, according to 
 
 the size of the parish, are to be called ike overseers. 
 
 These overseers (with the consent of two or more 
 
 ^ The full text of such portions of that Act as are unre- 
 pealed will be found in the Appendix, see p. 89, below. 
 
 * Att.-Gen. v. Guardians of Merthyr Tydinl^ L. R. [1900], 
 Ch. 516 (Court of Appeal), also reported in 82 L. T. 662. 
 
6 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. 
 
 neighbouring justices) are to set to work {a) the 
 children of parents unable to maintain them, and 
 {b) all persons " having no means to maintain them, 
 use no ordinary and daily trade of life to get their 
 living by " — i.e., people with neither private 
 means nor regular employment. The parish 
 officers are to raise a convenient stock of flax, 
 hemp, wool, thread, iron, etc., to set the poor on 
 work. They are also to raise money for the 
 necessary relief of the lame, impotent, old, blind, 
 and such other among them being poor and not 
 able to work ; also for putting out such children to 
 be apprentices. And the parish officers are to 
 meet at least once a month, in the church, on 
 Sunday afternoon, after Divine Service, to carry 
 out the above arrangements. The money required 
 for these purposes is to be raised by a tax on every 
 inhabitant, parson, vicar and other, and of every 
 occupier in the parish. 
 
 It will be at once observed that since this Act 
 great changes have been made in the administra- 
 tion of relief. The guardians of the union, and 
 not the parish officers, are now the ordinary 
 administrators, and they are for many purposes 
 subordinate to the Local Government Board. ^ 
 
 1 By 43 Eliz. c. 2, the churchwardens were ex-officio over- 
 seers, and the other overseers were appointed by the justices. 
 But by the Local Government Act, 1894, commonly called 
 the " Parish Councils " Act, the churchwardens in rural 
 parishes ceased to be overseers, and the overseers are 
 appointed by the Parish Council (section 5), or in small 
 parishes by the Parish Meeting (section 19, sub-section (5) ). 
 In London the powers of the overseers have been transferred 
 to the Borough Councils. As to overseers, see p. 29. 
 
THE STATUTE OF ELIZABETH. 7 
 
 And the union, rather than the parish, is now 
 the unit for the taxation necessary to raise the 
 money required for relief and employment. 
 
 But the three main principles of the Act, viz., 
 
 1. Employment for the able-bodied ; 
 
 2. Necessary relief for old, sick, etc. ; 
 
 3. Industrial education for the children, 
 
 are still largely in force, though not altogether 
 carried out fully in practice. 
 
 It is, therefore, a grave error to suppose that the 
 guardians have nothing to do with finding employ- 
 ment. But we shall discuss this part of the subject 
 more thoroughly in another chapter.^ 
 
 It is likewise a mistake to say that the guardians 
 have nothing to do with the relief of the poor, but 
 only with the relief of the destitute. The Act 
 never uses the word " destitute " : it speaks of the 
 sick and aged poor, and of able-bodied who have 
 insufficient to keep them. It is important to notice 
 that the Act does not require that a person should 
 be bereft of every stick of furniture and have spent 
 his last halfpenny before he comes for relief This 
 again is a point of some practical importance, as 
 will be seen hereafter.^ It is only just to the 
 framers of the Statute of Elizabeth to point out 
 that the various evils inflicted on the poor by the 
 law of " settlement and removal " were of later 
 date. There is a frank brutality about 13 & 14 
 Charles II. c. 12, enacted just after that monarch 
 
 1 See Chap. IX. below, pp. 56, 60, 78. 
 
 • See Chap. X., pp. 44, 58, 60, 76, and Pref. p. xxiv. 
 
8 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. 
 
 was " restored," which renders it worthy of special 
 remark. 
 
 The Act states that " by reason of some defects 
 in the law, poor people are not restrained from 
 going from one parish to another, and therefore 
 do endeavour to settle themselves in those parishes 
 where there is the best stock, the largest commons 
 or wastes ^ to build cottages, and the most woods 
 for them to burn and destroy ; and when they 
 have consumed it, then to another parish, and at 
 last become rogues and vagabonds, to the great 
 discouragement of parishes to provide stocks, 
 where it is liable to be devoured by strangers " ; 
 and it enacts, " That it shall be lawful, upon com- 
 plaint made by the churchwardens or overseers of 
 the poor of any parish to any justice of the peace 
 within forty days after any such person or persons 
 coming so to settle as aforesaid in any tenement 
 under the yearly value of jf lO," for two justices to 
 order the removal of any persons likely to be 
 chargeable^ by warrant to the parish where they 
 were legally settled. Mr. Pashley (p. 225) remarks 
 that " the origin of a great part of those evils 
 which the poor laws have entailed is to be found 
 in this statute." 
 
 1 It will be observed that the commons and wastes were 
 still so much public property, in fact (whatever their legal 
 position), that the poor could build on them. 
 
 2 It would seem from the wording of the Act that the 
 justices could order the removal of any person coming into a 
 house of annual value less than ;^io, if the parish authorities 
 considered him likely to be chargeable, without further 
 enquiry. See Nicholls, i. 296. 
 
THE LAW OF SETTLEMENT. 9 
 
 The preamble of an Act of 1795 ^ well indicates 
 the evils connected with the Restoration statute. 
 It says that many industrious persons chargeable 
 to their parish merely for want of work there, 
 would in any other place where sufficient employ- 
 ment is to be had maintain themselves and their 
 families without being burthensome to any parish, 
 and that such poor persons are for the most part 
 compelled to live in their own parishes, and not 
 permitted to inhabit elsewhere, under pretence 
 that they are likely to become chargeable to the 
 parish into which they go for the purpose of getting 
 employment, although the labour of such poor 
 persons might in many instances be very beneficial 
 to such parish. 
 
 Mr. S. G. Grady observes, in his interesting little 
 book on " The Equalisation of the Rates," ^ that 
 ;^io a year^ in 1662 would be equal to ^50 a year 
 in 1862. The effect of this Act was to tie the 
 labourers to their native villages and turn them 
 into serfs, as they could not go to any other place 
 to seek employment or better wages. This cruel 
 Act was modified in 1795 by the above-mentioned 
 statute,* which only allowed the parish officers to 
 remove to their own parish persons who had 
 actually come on the rates. 
 
 The end of the eighteenth century and the earlier 
 
 1 35 Geo. III. c. loi ; Pashley, p. 253. 
 
 2 Wildy & Sons, Lincoln's Inn Archway. 
 
 2 Persons coming into a house of ^10 annual value were 
 exempt from this removal (see p. 8). 
 ■* 35 Geo. III. c. loi. 
 
lo ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. 
 
 portion of the nineteenth must have been about 
 the most evil time which has ever fallen to the lot 
 of the English labourers. The price of bread, 
 when not kept up " naturally" by war, was made 
 dear by Protection. The commons which the 
 people believed to belong to them, although the 
 lawyers and the squires said they did not, were 
 being rapidly enclosed. Somehow, dear bread did 
 not mean high wages for the labourers, although it 
 did spell high rents for the squires and goodly 
 tithes for the parsons. But the rates rose apace, 
 and a Commission was appointed (as they state) — 
 
 " to make a diligent and full enquiry into the 
 practical operation of the Laws for the Relief of 
 the Poor in England and Wales, and into the 
 manner in which those laws are administered, and 
 to report our opinion whether any and what altera- 
 tions, amendments, or improvements may be bene- 
 ficially made in the said laws, or in the manner of 
 administering them, and how the same may be best 
 carried into effect." ^ 
 
 The work of this Commission will be the subject 
 of the following chapter. 
 
 * Report, p. I. 
 
 \ 
 
POOR LAW COMMISSION OF 1834. " 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE POOR LAW COMMISSION OF 
 
 1834- 
 
 The Report of this Commission is no doubt a 
 very able and valuable one, but it has been a good 
 deal misunderstood, and in some quarters perhaps 
 portions of it a little overrated, while some most 
 important advice of the Commissioners appears 
 to have been quite overlooked. 
 
 The Commission was in no sense a representa- 
 tion of all classes. The following is a list of the 
 signatories, the two first being Lord Bishops : — 
 
 C. J. London, J. B. Chester,^ W. Sturges Bourne, 
 Nassau W. Senior, Henry Bishop, Henry Gawler, 
 W. Coulson, James Traill, Edwin Chadwick. 
 
 But nothing indicates more clearly that the 
 Commissioners were of the comfortable — the very 
 comfortable — class than their most absurd defi- 
 nition of poverty, viz., " the state of one who in 
 order to obtain a mere subsistence is forced to have 
 recourse to labour!' ^ 
 
 * Sumner, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury. 
 
 * Report, p. 227. The whole passage is as follows : " But 
 in no part of Europe except England has it been thought fit 
 that the provision, whether compulsory or voluntary, should 
 be applied to more than the relief of indigence — the state of 
 a person unable to labour, or unable to obtain, in return for 
 
12 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. 
 
 It will be seen that, according to this brilliant 
 specimen of definition, almost the whole of the 
 labouring and artisan and a great portion of the 
 professional and trading classes are " in poverty." 
 All are in " poverty " save those who have inherited, 
 earned, or otherwise acquired " private means," or 
 are Government pensioners or other favourites of 
 fortune. 
 
 Again, the evidence they took, or, at all events, 
 thought it worth while to record in their Report, 
 was almost entirely of men of the upper and 
 middle classes, with a very strong element of the 
 J. P. and parish officer.^ 
 
 The Commissioners, no doubt, found a most 
 
 disastrous condition of affairs, not in consequence 
 
 of the carrying out of the statute of Elizabeth, 
 
 but because of open disobedience to its provisions. 
 
 Immediately after their historical summary they 
 
 state (p. 1 3) : — 
 
 " It is now our painful duty to report that in the 
 greater part of the districts which we have been able 
 to examine, the fund which the 43rd of Elizabeth 
 directed to be employed in setting to work children 
 
 his labour, the means of subsistence. It has never been 
 deemed expedient that the provision should extend to the 
 rehef oi poverty ; that is, the state of one who, in order to 
 obtain a mere subsistence, is forced to have recourse to 
 labour." 
 
 ^ The Commissioners state (p. 5) that the evidence in their 
 Appendix was derived from many thousand witnesses, in- 
 cluding artisans and peasants. In the portion they print as 
 a supplement to their Report I can only find one person who 
 is described as such, viz., John Denson of Waterhead, who is 
 described as a labouring gardener, and appears to have 
 written " The Peasant's Voice." Some of the witnesses are 
 not described. 
 
EVILS IN 1834. 13 
 
 and persons capable of labour, but using no daily- 
 trade, and in the necessary relief of the impotent, is 
 applied to purposes opposed to the letter, and still 
 more to the spirit of that law, and destructive to 
 the morals of the most numerous class, and to the 
 welfare of all." 
 
 It is essential here to notice that not the statute 
 of Elizabeth, but neglect of it, was the cause of the 
 evils of the old poor law. 
 
 The Commissioners add (p. 14) : — 
 
 "The great source of abuse is the outdoor relief 
 afforded to the able-bodied on their own account, or 
 on that of their families. This is given either in kind 
 or in money." 
 
 When work was given it was often a mere sham. 
 Rates were often paid to the able-bodied in aid of 
 low wages. The workhouses were in many cases 
 horrible places, with no government or classification, 
 and subject to great maladministration ; and the 
 indoor relief was as bad as the outdoor. Rates 
 were enormous, bastardy encouraged, all indepen- 
 dence of the poor sapped. The state of things, 
 if we can rely upon the Commissioners, was bad 
 both for rich and poor. Certainly no one who has 
 any knowledge of the subject would wish to bring 
 back the old poor law, or, rather, the old adminis- 
 tration of the poor law. 
 
 The general right of appeal to the magistrates 
 for relief, or additional relief, which the statutes 
 subsequent to 43 Eliz. gave — even to the able- 
 bodied in aid of wages — is said to have been one 
 great source of evil.^ 
 
 1 See Report, pp. 118- 151. 
 
14 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. 
 
 We now propose to set out in detail the principal 
 formal "recommendations" of the Commissioners, 
 and to add a few of their remarks bearing on the 
 question of the relief of the aged poor and sick. 
 We shall quote from the edition of the Report, 
 which was published "by authority" in 1834 
 (London : B. Fellowes, Ludgate Street) in the 
 form of a book. The recommendations of the 
 Commissioners were twenty-two in number, so it 
 will be needful to summarise those which bear 
 least on the present situation.^ 
 
 Able-Bodied. 
 \ 
 
 Clause I deals with the mode of relief to the 
 
 able-bodied and their families : — 
 
 " That except as to medical attendance, and subject 
 to the exception respecting apprenticeship hereinafter 
 stated, all relief whatever to able-bodied persons or 
 to their families, otherwise than in well-regulated 
 workhouses {i.e., places where they may be set to 
 work according to the spirit and intention of the 
 43rd of Elizabeth), shall be declared unlawful, and 
 shall cease, in manner and at periods hereafter 
 specified ; and that all relief afforded in respect of 
 children under the age of sixteen shall be considered 
 as afforded to their parents " (p. 262). 
 
 This is the keynote of the Report — indoor relief 
 for the able-bodied. In the so-called " work "- 
 houses which existed before 1834 there was usually 
 an " absence of classification, discipline, and 
 employment" (p. 57). 
 
 * The full text is given in the Appendix below, p. 89. 
 
RECOMMENDATIONS OF COMMISSION. 15 
 
 The second clause deals with the appointment of 
 A Central Board. 
 
 "The appointment of a central board to control 
 the administration of the poor laws, with such 
 assistant commissioners as may be found requisite ; 
 and that the Commissioners be empowered and 
 directed to frame and enforce regulations for the 
 government of workhouses, and as to the nature and 
 amount of the relief to be given and the labour to be 
 exacted in them, and that such regulations shall, as 
 far as may be practicable, be uniform throughout the 
 country " (p. 297). 
 
 The earlier part of this recommendation has 
 been carried out by the successive appointments of 
 the Poor Law Commissioners, the Poor Law Board, 
 and the Local Government Board, and by various 
 " Orders," as to indoor and outdoor relief, etc. The 
 Report speaks elsewhere of the advantages of giving 
 employment (p. 51), and approves of employment 
 of poor in cleansing streets (p. 298) and in spade 
 husbandry (p. 299). Mr. Chamberlain's circular of 
 1886 with regard to the Unemployed, re-issued by 
 Mr. H. H. Fowler in 1892,^ is couched much in 
 the spirit of these latter suggestions. 
 
 The Commissioners propose, in recommendation 
 No. 3, that the central board shall be empowered 
 to ** incorporate " any number of parishes for pro- 
 viding new workhouses for the district, etc. (p. 314).^ 
 By " incorporation " the Commissioners mean the 
 
 1 Now Sir H. Fowler. 
 
 2 One great object of this was to enable the inmates to be 
 classified, and each class to receive appropriate treatment. 
 " The old might enjoy their indulgences." See id.^ p. 307. 
 
i6 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. 
 
 formation of " unions " of parishes, and no doubt 
 the making of each such union into a corporation. 
 
 No. 4 of the recommendations advises a general 
 and uniform system of accounts (p. 319). 
 
 Clause 5 proposes that the central board be em- 
 powered to incorporate parishes ^ for the purposes 
 of appointing and paying permanent officers, and 
 for the execution of works of public labour (p. 326). 
 
 Paid Officers. 
 
 Clause 6. — The central board be directed to state 
 the general qualifications which shall be necessary to 
 candidates for paid offices connected with the relief 
 of the poor, to recommend to parishes and incorpora- 
 tions proper persons to act as paid officers, and to 
 remove any paid officers whom they shall think unfit 
 for their situations. 
 
 The parishes have for the most part been grouped 
 into " unions," though in London and elsewhere 
 there are still some large parishes which are not 
 grouped but are treated as unions. The paid 
 officers of the guardians are in many cases only 
 appointed or dismissed by the guardians subject to 
 the consent of the Local Government Board. 
 
 Clauses 7 to 1 3 deal with various powers of the 
 central board and regulations. No. 7 (p. 330) 
 advises, as to relief, that the central board should 
 direct that parochial consumption be supplied by 
 tender and contract, with free competition ; and 
 
 * This proposal has, after the lapse of sixty years, been 
 adopted by the " Parish Councils Act," which incorporates the 
 parish council (section 3, sub-section 9), or in small parishes 
 the chairman of the meeting and overseers (section 19, sub- 
 section 6) ; but the Act gives no poor-law powers to the parish. 
 
RECOMMENDATIONS OF COMMISSION. 17 
 
 No. 8 (p. 331) that the board should act as public 
 prosecutors in cases of embezzlement. No. 9 
 (p. 337) recommends that parishes should be em- 
 powered to treat relief to able-bodied or their families 
 as loans, and that wages should be attachable. Such 
 relief is now not unfrequently given as a loan. By 
 No. 10 the board was to make regulations as to 
 apprenticing, and to enquire into the effect of the 
 apprenticeship laws (p. 338). The board was also 
 to frame and enforce regulations as to the relief of 
 vagrants and discharged prisoners (No. 11, p. 340). 
 The central board was to make annual reports and 
 promote bills for amendments (No. I3, p. 341), and 
 appoint its own officers (No. 13, p. 341). 
 
 Law of Settlement. 
 
 Clause 14. — The Commissioners recommended that 
 settlement by hiring and service, apprenticeship, pur- 
 chasing or renting a tenement, estate, paying rates, 
 or serving an office, be abolished (p. 342). 
 
 They advised (No. 15) that in general the settle- 
 ment of legitimate children under sixteen should 
 follow that of the parents, and then revert to birth 
 settlement. They objected strongly to settlement 
 by residence (p. 343). They recommended that in 
 cases of doubt the place where a person should 
 have been first known to have existed should be 
 deemed his place of birth (No. 16, p. 346). 
 
 Bastardy. 
 
 They advised that an illegitimate child till six- 
 teen should follow its mother's settlement, and the 
 
 A.R. C 
 
i8 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. 
 
 mother should be bound to support it (Nos. 17, 1 8, 
 pp. 346, 347). The mother was not to be remov- 
 able or punishable (No. 19, p. 349) ; and they 
 advised that the putative father should not be 
 chargeable or punishable (No. 21, p. 351).^ 
 
 Emigration. 
 
 The final recommendation of the Commissioners 
 was that the vestry should be empowered to pay 
 the expenses of emigration of any persons having 
 settlements in the parish (No. 22, p. 357). This 
 does not seem to be limited to paupers only, and 
 was no doubt designed to prevent pauperism. 
 
 Relief of the Aged. 
 
 It will be seen by the above that the Com- 
 missioners make no formal recommendation, either 
 for or against out-relief to the aged poor. Indeed, 
 the Report (p. 42) contains the following state- 
 ment, which seems rather in the favour of out- 
 relief in some such cases. 
 
 "The outdoor relief to the impotent (using that 
 word as comprehending all except the able-bodied 
 and their families) is subject to less abuse. The 
 great source of poor law maladministration is the 
 desire of many of those who regulate the distribution 
 of the parochial fund to extract from it a profit to 
 themselves. The outdoor relief to the able-bodied, 
 and all relief that is administered in the workhouse, 
 afford ample opportunities for effecting this purpose ; 
 but no use can be made of the labour of the aged and 
 
 * This i$ a^Qther absurdity of the Commissioners. 
 
USEFUL EMPLOYMENT. 19 
 
 sick, and there is little room for jobbing if their 
 pensions are paid in money. Accordingly, we find 
 that even in places distinguished in general by the 
 wanton parochial profusion, the allowances to the 
 aged and infirm are moderate." 
 
 There is no law or order of the Local Govern- 
 ment Board, or of its predecessors, against out- 
 relief to those who from old age or physical or 
 mental defects are not able-bodied. It is wholly 
 in the discretion of the guardians of each union to 
 give or refuse out-relief in such cases. The Commis- 
 sioners raise no objection to outdoor relief of the sick, 
 but say that medical attendance seems in general 
 to be adequately and economically supplied (p. 43). 
 
 Useful Employment. 
 
 Notwithstanding these recommendations of 
 indoor relief for the able-bodied, they strongly 
 advise that "useful employment," such as road- 
 making, drainage, etc., should be given to the able- 
 bodied. " One of the first preliminary measures 
 must be the preparing for the able-bodied more of 
 this employment than we believe that they will 
 accept." The Commissioners lay great stress on 
 useful employment, and speak with disgust of 
 useless labour, such as fictitious errands with 
 baskets full of stones, as " pernicious," and state 
 that they ought to be prevented. (Yet the modern 
 Local Government Board approves of test labour, 
 with useless picking ofoakum and equally profitless 
 breakage of stones.) The Commissioners declare : — 
 
 ** The association of the utility of labour to both 
 
 C 2 
 
20 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. 
 
 parties, the employer as well as the employed, is one 
 which we consider it most important to preserve and 
 strengthen ; and we deem everything mischievous 
 which unnecessarily gives to it a repulsive aspect. At 
 the same time, we believe that in extended districts 
 the requisite sources of employment will be easily 
 found. The supply of the articles consumed in work- 
 houses and prisons would afford a large outlet for the 
 manufactures carried on in the house ; and, with 
 respect to outdoor employment, it is probable that 
 there are few districts to which such evidence as that 
 contained in the following extracts would not be 
 applicable " (p. 324). 
 
 One of these extracts is from the evidence of Mr. 
 Winkworth, overseer of St. Mary's, Reading, who 
 advocates drainage of the town and road-mending; 
 and the other is from that of the Rev. James 
 Randall, rector of Binfield, Berks, who advises the 
 conversion of impassible lanes into good roads. 
 
 So much has been said against the " old poor 
 law" that it is well to remember that there is 
 another side to the question. It is true, as Miss 
 Leonard in the work quoted above (p. 4) has 
 pointed out, that a fairly effectual system of reliev- 
 ing the destitute by public authority has had in 
 England a continuous existence since the 17th 
 century, and that until the poor laws were success- 
 fully administered, the country was repeatedly 
 disturbed by rebellions, and constantly plagued by 
 vagrants. She rightly says^ : — 
 
 " We are apt to consider the facts that we are a 
 law-abiding people, and that we have not suffered 
 
 Preface p. i. 
 
LEGISLATION AFTER COMMISSION. 21 
 
 from violent revolutions, to be entirely due to the 
 virtues of the national character and the excellence 
 of the British Constitution ; but before the introduc- 
 tion of our system of relieving the poor, we were by 
 no means so free from disorder. The poor laws them- 
 selves were at least partly police measures, and until 
 they were successfully administered the country was 
 repeatedly disturbed by rebellions, and constantly 
 plagued by vagrants." 
 
 It should also be remembered that the poor law 
 of Elizabeth had been altered in many respects by 
 Parliament before 1834, and that the evils of the 
 poor law of that date were mainly due to much 
 more recent legislation and to thoroughly bad 
 administration. 
 
 Legislation Consequent on the 
 Commission. 
 
 Shortly after the Commissioners had reported, a 
 Bill, drawn to a large extent on the lines recom- 
 mended by them, was introduced into the House 
 of Commons. It is manifest from the debates 
 that there was no intention of repealing or super- 
 seding the Statute of Elizabeth. Indeed, the 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer said ^ : 
 
 " The Bill does nothing more than bring back the 
 law of the country to what it was created by the 
 43rd of Elizabeth." 
 
 The right of the poor to necessary relief^ was 
 admitted on all hands ; and it is clear from the 
 discussions that there was no intention on the 
 
 * May 26th, 1834. 2 See Preface, pp. xxiv., xxv. 
 
22 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. 
 
 part of Parliament of taking it away, or of 
 abolishing out-relief by the Bill. 
 
 It took away the general power of a single 
 justice to order out- relief, but out-relief may still 
 be ordered by two justices, in the case of adult 
 persons who are from old age or infirmity of body 
 wholly unable to work, after hearing the guardians 
 in opposition.^ Also, in some cases of an urgent 
 character a single justice may order relief.^ 
 
 The new Act made a variety of important 
 changes, including provisions rendering a man 
 responsible for relief given to his wife and children 
 under the age of sixteen f and a widow similarly 
 responsible in the case of her young children. 
 
 It provided for the formation of unions of 
 parishes, and established a permanent Poor Law 
 Commission, with large powers of superintending 
 the administration of the poor law which will 
 be explained in the next chapter. These Com- 
 missioners were empowered to restrict the giving 
 of out-relief to the able-bodied* and their families, 
 but not in the case of any others. 
 
 1 4 & 5 Will. IV. c. 76, s. 27. I^e£^. V. Tonnes Union, (1845) 
 7 Q. B. 690 ; 9 J. P- 584. 
 
 2 A justice can order temporary relief in articles of abso- 
 lute necessity but not in money in case of sudden and urgent 
 necessity to poor persons not settled nor usually residing in 
 the parish ; also medical relief (only) to any parishioner 
 or out-parishioner, where any case of sudden and dangerous 
 illness may require it, 4 & 5 Will. IV. c. 76, s. 54. These are 
 the only cases where justices can order relief. 
 
 ^ Relief to a child under 16 is to be deemed relief to the 
 parent. 4 & 5 Will. IV. c. 76, s. 56. 
 ^ See Appendix, p. 103. 
 
POWERS OF LOCAL GOVT. BOARD. 23 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE POWERS OF THE LOCAL 
 GOVERNMENT BOARD. 
 
 In accordance with the suggestions of the Com- 
 mission of 1834, a body of Poor Law Commis- 
 sioners was constituted a central authority to 
 supervise the administration of the poor law, with 
 power, by means of General Rules, to alter the 
 law itself to a considerable, though still only to a 
 limited, extent. The Commissioners afterwards 
 became the Poor Law Board, and finally, in 1871,^ 
 the Poor Law Board was dissolved, and all its 
 powers were transferred to the Local Government 
 Board. 
 
 The power to make rules, etc., given by the 
 Poor Law Amendment Act, 1834,2 to the Commis- 
 sioners, was transferred, by the Poor Law Board 
 Act, 1847,^ to the Commissioners under that Act, 
 and thence to the Local Government Board. 
 
 These rules are of a formal character. If duly 
 made and not ultra vires they become law, just as 
 
 1 By 34 & 35 Vict. c. 70, ss. 2, 7. This transfer of powers 
 should be remembered in the perusal of 4 & 5 Will. IV. c. 
 76, 5 & 6 Will. IV. c. 69, and the later poor law statutes. 
 
 2 4 & 5 Will. IV. c. 76. 
 
 ' 10 & II Vict. c. 109, s. 14. 
 
24 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. 
 
 much as a statute, with the important exception 
 that they need no statute to repeal or alter them. 
 
 The present poor law is contained in a large 
 number of somewhat incoherent statutes, in 
 General Orders of the Local Government Board, 
 or of its predecessors (the Poor Law Board or 
 the Poor Law Commissioners), and in special 
 orders of the same bodies addressed to some 
 particular union, or applicable to some temporary 
 emergency. 
 
 In addition to this already formidable mass of 
 law, there is another mass of official circulars, 
 letters, etc., from the Local Government Board 
 and its predecessors, which find a place in the 
 law books studied by boards of guardians and 
 their clerks, and which, though often couched 
 in terms of *' suggestion," may easily mislead 
 guardians into thinking that obedience is due 
 to what are, in fact, only " pious opinions." 
 
 We propose to show now what are the principal 
 powers of the Local Government Board with 
 reference to the poor, and how these powers 
 arise. 
 
 I. They are authorised by section 1 5 of the Poor 
 Law Amendment Act of 1834 to make rules : — 
 
 (a) For the management of the poor ; 
 
 (3) For the government of workhouses and the 
 education of children therein; 
 
 {c) Apprenticing the children of poor persons ; 
 
 {d) Control of guardians, etc., as to manage- 
 ment or relief of poor, and as to accounts 
 
POWERS OF LOCAL GOVT. BOARD. 25 
 
 and contracts, or to any expenditure for 
 the relief of the poor ; 
 {e) For carrying the Act into execution in all 
 
 other respects. 
 Then the Local Government Board may rescind, 
 alter, or suspend such rules. This really makes 
 the Local Government Board very powerful with 
 respect to poor-relief; only the Act does not 
 enable the Board " to interfere in any individual 
 case for the purpose of ordering relief." ^ 
 
 n. The Local Government Board can prescribe 
 the dietary and control the employment of those 
 in the workhouse (see section 21). 
 
 IIL By section 25 the Local Government Board 
 may order workhouses to be enlarged or altered, 
 according to such plan and in such manner as 
 they shall deem most proper for carrying the 
 provisions of the Act into execution. 
 
 IV. By section 26 they may unite parishes into 
 "unions," and issue rules for classification of the 
 poor. 
 
 V. By section 42 of the same Act the Local 
 Government Board may make rules : — 
 
 {a) For the government of workhouses ; 
 
 (b) The nature and amount of relief to be given ; 
 
 and 
 {c) The nature and amount of the labour to be 
 
 exacted therein ; 
 {d) The preservation (in the workhouses) of 
 
 good order. 
 
 * This is different in Scotland. (See p. 30 below.) 
 
26 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. 
 
 The Local Government Board may rescind, 
 alter, or suspend these rules. Rules at the time 
 of issue affecting more than one union are to be 
 considered "general rules." 
 
 VI. By section 46 the Local Government Board 
 may by order direct the guardians to appoint such 
 officers as the Local Government Board may think 
 fit. The Local Government Board may fix their 
 duties and salaries and term of office, and may 
 remove officers (section 48). 
 
 VII. By section 52 of 4 & 5 V^ill. IV. c. y6, the 
 Local Government Board is authorised to declare 
 by rules what out-relief may be given to able- 
 bodied persons and their families, and to what 
 class of persons and on what conditions such out- 
 relief may be afforded.^ Relief given contrary 
 to such regulations is to be disallowed. The 
 guardians may depart from these regulations in 
 emergency, but must report their departure to the 
 Board within fifteen days. 
 
 If the Local Government Board approves, or if 
 the relief shall have been given in food, temporary 
 lodging, or medicine, it shall not be subject to 
 disallowance. 
 
 Besides the above general powers, the Local 
 Government Board has a variety of special powers 
 of making regulations, e.g., as to casual paupers,^ 
 expenses of guardians attending poor law con- 
 ferences, expenses incurred in conveyance of 
 
 * Some Rules have been made, see Appendix, p. 103. 
 
 * 34 & 35 Vict. c. 108, s. 6 ; 45 & 46 Vict. c. 36, s. 4. 
 
POWERS OF LOCAL GOVT. BOARD. 27 
 
 paupers, etc. And the Local Government Board 
 has still further powers which can only be learned 
 by a careful perusal of a multiplicity of statutes. 
 
 The practical result of all these powers is that 
 the Local Government Board might make the 
 poor law infinitely more harsh than it is at present ; 
 or, on the other hand, if the old people are brought 
 into the " house," the Local Government Board may 
 direct such classification, treatment, and liberty, 
 that they would be in the position of indoor pen- 
 sioners rather than paupers, and the workhouses 
 would resemble well-ordered almshouses or cottage- 
 homes for the aged.^ They could insist on proper 
 accommodation in overcrowded workhouses, unless 
 the guardians will give adequate out-relief for some 
 classes of the poor. They could insist on their 
 inspectors making fuller reports on the condition 
 of the workhouses and their inmates ; and then 
 the Local Government Board could publish such 
 reports, and so stimulate reform.^ Unfortunately, 
 some of the old poor law circulars of the Board 
 and its predecessors, and sometimes the words of 
 
 1 It probably could not order pensions for aged poor. It 
 might, however, so carefully prescribe the indoor relief to be 
 given to deserving aged poor that the guardians would prefer 
 to give out-relief. 
 
 ^ I am aware that sometimes it is difficult for a govern- 
 ment authority to compel local authorities to do their duty ; 
 but at least the Local Government Board and their inspectors 
 should, in their reports, publish the facts, and in a demo- 
 cratic cowntxw publicity often means reform. Great improve- 
 ments have taken place in most workhouses of late years, 
 and much has been done by the inspectors and the Board 
 itself in urging such improvements. 
 
28 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. 
 
 the inspectors have been (however unintentionally) 
 against the effective and satisfactory relief of 
 the poor.^ 
 
 Remedies of the Poor in England. 
 It will be seen from what has been said above 
 (pp. 21, 22) that the rights of the poor are undoubted 
 and very considerable, but the direct remedies for 
 obtaining those rights, if denied by the guardians 
 and relieving officers, are, in English law, incom- 
 plete. Only in some exceptional cases can the 
 poor person appeal to the magistrate.^ It is true 
 that a destitute person may in theory be entitled 
 to a Mandamus to the guardians or their officers 
 to relieve him^; but this is obviously a useless 
 remedy. If a relieving officer unlawfully refuses to 
 give necessary relief, and in consequence death 
 ensues, he is guilty of manslaughter, or if serious 
 injury follows, he may be prosecuted for misde- 
 meanour.* This again usually affords no remedy. 
 
 Duty of Local Government Board to see 
 that the poor are properly treated. 
 But, as Messrs. Aschrott and Preston-Thomas 
 
 point out — 
 
 *' The relieving officers and the workhouse master 
 are not only under the control of the guardians, but 
 
 » See pp. 29, 32, 33» 38-44, 49. 52, 53 ; Preface, p. xxv. 
 
 ^ P. 22, above. 
 
 ' Aschrott and Preston-Thomas, p. 171 ; Times ^ Nov. 9, 
 1864. 
 
 *' See case of a prosecution of a relieving officer of White- 
 chapel in 1872, set out in the " Poor Law Officers' Annual," 
 1905-6, p. 81. 
 
LOCAL GOVT. BOARD INSPECTORS. 29 
 
 are paid officers liable to dismissal by the Local 
 Government Board in case of any neglect of duty.''^ 
 
 These writers add : — 
 
 " The practical exercise of the controlling powers 
 of the Local Government Board depends in a great 
 degree on the inspectors. By their eyes and ears the 
 board is made acquainted with any matter of com- 
 plaint and orders the requisite remedy." 
 
 As indicated above, the Local Government 
 Board and inspectors exercise their influence to a 
 considerable extent in favour of the poor in the 
 workhouses, but they might do the same for 
 the outdoor poor, who are greater in number and 
 presumably in many cases specially deserving. 
 
 It is not suggested here that the Local Govern- 
 ment Board shall dismiss or censure relieving 
 officers. The present writer's experience is that 
 they are kind-hearted, sensible men ; but he could 
 wish that the central board and the inspectors would 
 use their influence in favour of out and medical relief 
 in proper cases. The treatment of the indoor poor 
 has been greatly improved through the advice and 
 influence of the inspectors, and they could in like 
 manner assist the outdoor poor also. The relieving 
 officers would loyally carry out the wishes of the 
 Local Government Board. 
 
 As a matter of fact the influence of the inspectors 
 generally appears to be used against out-relief, and 
 in some cases even against medical out-relief; and, 
 
 * In case of urgency the master of the workhouse is 
 bound to admit a destitute person. An overseer is bound 
 to give relief in " cases of sudden and urgent necessity " 
 (section 54). 
 
30 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. 
 
 until Mr. Chaplin's Circular of 1900, the influence 
 of the Board itself was against out-relief. 
 
 Some of the inspectors have, however, spoken 
 in favour of adequate out-relief being given if out- 
 relief is given at all, and the Local Government 
 Board has taken the same view. It must be remem- 
 bered, however, that the Poor Law Amendment Act 
 of 1834 gives no power to the Local Government 
 Board " to interfere in any individual case for the 
 purpose of ordering relief" (section 15), though the 
 board may censure or punish any of its officers 
 who unlawfully refuses it. 
 
 Remedies of the Poor in Scotland.^ 
 In Scotland a poor person who is refused all 
 relief can apply to the Sheriff, who can and 
 frequently does make an order for relief. Also if 
 the person considers his relief inadequate or has 
 only the offer of the "house" when he wants out- 
 relief, he has the right of appeal to the Scotch 
 Local Government Board. In strict law the able- 
 bodied has no right to poor-law relief in Scotland, 
 but practically in cases of great destitution relief 
 is usually given by the Parochial Council (which 
 corresponds to the board of guardians), or is ordered 
 by the Sheriff, in which latter case the Parochial 
 Council is bound to comply. A great deal of out- 
 relief is given by the Scotch. They say they find 
 it better and cheaper to give it, and they give a 
 higher scale than we have usually found in England. 
 
 ' As to Scotland, see also Appendix, p. 105. 
 
AGED POOR IN WORKHOUSES. 31 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 HOW THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD 
 MAY SECURE BETTER TREATMENT 
 OF SUCH AGED POOR AS ARE IN 
 WORKHOUSES. 
 
 The proportion of able-bodied persons in the 
 workhouses of England is very small when con- 
 sidered in relation to the whole number of persons 
 relieved in the workhouse. Almost all the inmates 
 are either — (i) aged ; (2) sick ; (3) children ; or (4) in- 
 capable of work through bodily or mental infirmity 
 or temporary disablement. The statistics on the 
 subject will be found in the annual reports of the 
 Local Government Board.^ 
 
 While we look forward with hope to a universal 
 pension scheme for the aged, we are well aware 
 that under the most favourable circumstances it 
 will be some years before it is at work, and that the 
 old people now alive will have previously passed 
 away ; and therefore the question arises, Can any- 
 thing be done by administrative order to improve 
 the condition of the aged poor who are in the 
 workhouse ? 
 
 1 I believe that the Local Government Board consider a 
 man with a broken leg or scarlet fever as " able-bodied " 
 if he is not permanently disabled. This system of classifica- 
 tion seems to lessen the value of their statistics. 
 
32 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. 
 
 Classification. 
 
 The Poor Law Commissioners, in their Report 
 of 1834 (p. 307), in enumerating the various advan- 
 tages of classification, say : " Each class might thus 
 receive an appropriate treatment ; the old might 
 enjoy their indulgences,'^ 
 
 I suggest that the Local Government Board 
 should order that greater liberty, privileges and 
 comfort should be allowed to aged paupers of good 
 character, and that they should, as far as possible, 
 rather be treated as inhabitants of a State alms- 
 house, or as " State pensioners," ^ than as persons 
 who have committed crime. 
 
 More Liberty. 
 The aged inmates of workhouses should have 
 reasonable liberty to go out in fine weather. At 
 present, a pauper is like a prisoner — he has no 
 right, while he remains a pauper, to go outside the 
 workhouse and yard or garden (if any) ; but this 
 deprivation of liberty may be, and is to some 
 extent, mitigated ; for by Article 1 16 the guardians 
 may by any general or special direction authorise 
 the master to give a pauper temporary leave of 
 absence. By using this power generously and 
 judiciously the captivity of the poor may be 
 greatly alleviated. But the guardians were abso- 
 lutely discouraged from giving reasonable liberty 
 
 1 See Poor Law Reform Bill, introduced some years ago 
 by Sir Alfred Thomas, M.P., and drafted by the present 
 writer. 
 
OF /' 
 
 VISITS "FKciM FRIENDS. 33 
 
 by an idiotic instructional letter of the Poor Law 
 Commissioners.^ 
 
 The attention of Sir Henry Fowler, when Presi- 
 dent of the Local Government Board, was more 
 than once called to this silly instruction ; and 
 ultimately he issued a circular^ advising reason- 
 able liberty for the aged and infirm during good 
 conduct. Happily, many boards of guardians do 
 allow the aged poor to go out at intervals of 
 a month, fortnight or week, but it would be well 
 to give them the right to reasonable liberty during 
 good conduct. 
 
 Visits from Friends. 
 
 Another privilege which might be granted to the 
 deserving aged poor is that of receiving more 
 frequent visits from their friends. 
 
 The Orders of the Poor Law Commissioners on 
 this subject are absurd, for they only allow a pauper 
 to be visited by permission of the master or matron, 
 subject to such conditions and restrictions as the 
 guardians may prescribe ; and further direct that 
 the interview " shall take place in a room separate 
 from the other inmates of the workhouse, and in 
 the presence of the master, matron, or porter, 
 except where a sick pauper is visited." ^ 
 
 It will be observed that the aged pauper has not 
 
 1 Instructional letter, February 5th, 1842 ; Eighth Annual 
 Report, Poor Law Commissioners, p. 115 ; Shaw's " Poor 
 Law Orders," p. 120. 
 
 ' January 29th, 1895. 
 
 3 General Consolidated Order 24th July, 1847, Article 
 118 ; Shaw's " Poor Law Orders," p. 121. 
 
 A.R. D 
 
34 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. 
 
 only no right to go out to see anybody ; he has 
 also no right to have anyone in to see him. In 
 fact, he has no more " right " in either respect than 
 a prisoner in gaol for crime. 
 
 The Local Government Board should repeal this 
 Article, and give to the well-conducted aged pauper 
 the right to receive a visitor at least once a month. 
 Moreover, the provision that the master, etc., must 
 be present, and that the visit must solemnly take 
 place in a separate room, should be abolished. It 
 is obvious that the business of the workhouse will 
 seldom allow the special attendance of the master, 
 etc., and that a private room cannot be very often 
 allowed to each pauper; hence the visits must, if the 
 Order is observed, be few and far between. Why 
 should not there be in every union regular visiting 
 days to the wards for the aged, and simple regula- 
 tions like those usual in well-managed hospitals ? 
 
 Non-Pauper Clothing. 
 
 Intimately connected with the liberty to go into 
 the fresh air and see friends is the question of 
 dress. By Article 95 \ as soon as a pauper is 
 received, "he shall be clothed in a workhouse 
 dress." But the guardians decide as to the 
 material. Article 1 10 ^ : "It need not be uniform 
 either in colour or materials."^ The workhouse 
 stamp is not to be publicly visible. Hence the 
 
 1 Shaw's " Poor Law General Orders," p. 98. 
 
 "^ Ibid., p. 114. 
 
 ^ Instructional Letter, February 5th, 1842. 
 
BRIGHTEN THE WORKHOUSE. 35 
 
 guardians may clearly provide clothing for the aged 
 poor which will not be distinctively of a pauper type, 
 and the Local Government Board disapproves of 
 causing paupers to wear a distinguishing dress as a 
 mark of disgrace ^ ; but the Local Government 
 Board ought to allow the aged to wear any suitable 
 dress their friends may provide, and also order iki^X. 
 the dress supplied for the aged by the guardians 
 shall not be dissimilar to ordinary civilian clothing. 
 
 Brighten the Workhouse. 
 
 Attention may be called to the following 
 subjects : — 
 
 I. Supply of newspapers to workhouses ; 2. 
 Workhouse library ; 3. Spectacles for aged poor ; 
 
 4. Decoration of the walls of the workhouse ; 
 
 5. Entertainments ; 6. Visitation ; 7. Singing 
 Band ; 8. The Brabazon or Meath Employment 
 Scheme ; and, 9. Inmates' afternoon out.^ 
 
 One of the greatest hardships connected with 
 workhouse life is frequently its extreme dulness. 
 
 It would be obviously undesirable, and indeed 
 impossible, for the Local Government Board to lay 
 down rules or to make orders as to the above 
 matters. But they might well direct their inspectors 
 to make systematic reports ^ on the means taken 
 
 1 Mackenzie's "Poor Law Guardian," p. 153. 
 
 ^ The Local Government Board should permit the 
 guardians to give the inmates food for a meal outside 
 the workhouse when they go out for a day. 
 
 2 They do often make informal and useful suggestions, and 
 much has been done of late years. 
 
 D 2 
 
36 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. 
 
 to cheer up the aged poor in each workhouse ; these 
 reports should be made public, and humane and 
 successful treatment in workhouses noted, so that 
 the guardians of badly-managed workhouses might 
 be induced to improve. Often in workhouses, as 
 elsewhere, much misery is occasioned simply by 
 " want of thought." 
 
 Married Couples. 
 
 When both are over sixty years of age, according 
 to law they cannot be compelled to live separate.^ 
 But the guardians may, by their consent, separate 
 them ; and in practice the guardians do usually 
 separate them, and asseverate that the separation 
 is made by consent. The Local Government Board 
 ought to provide that such consent should be 
 taken in writing before some magistrate, county 
 councillor or other person independent of the poor 
 law, and that first an offer be made to them of 
 living together in the workhouse in some reasonably 
 comfortable apartment. At present the consent 
 may be taken verbally and anyhow, and it is 
 impossible to say whether any paupers may have 
 been bullied or cajoled into giving consent, or 
 whether any who refused their " consent " would 
 have a comfortable life. 
 
 It is believed that the Local Government Board 
 does not even require its inspectors to try to find out 
 whether the married couples are separated with or 
 
 » lo & II Vict. c. 109, s. 23. 
 
INSPECTORS AND THEIR REPORTS. 37 
 
 without their own consent, or how the consent has 
 been obtained. 
 
 The Inspectors and their Reports. 
 
 The Local Government Board should insist upon 
 their inspectors making detailed reports ^ as to the 
 condition of each workhouse. If the bad and 
 mediocre workhouses were brought up to the level 
 of the good ones, an enormous boon would be given 
 to the aged, sick, children, and other inmates. 
 
 Both for the sake of the old people and the 
 children, and for the women of all ages, Mr. 
 Burns should appoint some women inspectors of 
 workhouses.^ 
 
 * Most of the present published reports are usually quite 
 inadequate. 
 
 2 It is fair to add that Mr. H. Fowler's circular of January, 
 1895, urged upon the guardians improvements as to classifi- 
 cation, nursing, care of children and imbeciles, unobjection- 
 able clothing of inmates on leave of absence, etc., but this 
 circular was not an order^ so the guardians can neglect its 
 excellent suggestions. Subsequently some orders have been 
 made as to nurses. 
 
38 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 OUT-DOOR RELIEF FOR THE AGED, 
 WIDOWS AND CHILDREN, THE SICK, 
 AND NURSING MOTHERS. 
 
 The influence of the Local Government Board 
 and their inspectors has been generally employed 
 against all out-relief, until in August, 1900, 
 Mr. Chaplin issued his circular advising adequate 
 out-relief for the deserving aged poor in the 
 following terms : — 
 
 " The board consider that aged deserving persons 
 should not be urged to enter the workhouse at all 
 unless there is some cause which renders such a course 
 necessary, such as infirmity of body, the absence of 
 house accommodation, or of a suitable person to care 
 for them, or some other similar cause, but that they 
 should be relieved by having adequate outdoor 
 relief granted to them." 
 
 The circular did good, but unfortunately some 
 of the inspectors rather explained it away. To 
 make it really effective the Local Government 
 Board should re-issue this advice to the present 
 members of the boards of guardians, and should 
 add that the allowances should be sufHcient to cover 
 rent and clothing unless the recipient of out-relief 
 was provided with lodging and clothing from other 
 
OUT-DOOR RELIEF FOR AGED, &c. 39 
 
 sources.^ Also the board should enquire as to the 
 ordinary scale of relief of each board of guardians 
 and publish the replies. Then, after a little time 
 has elapsed, they should, when the scale is below 
 that of other boards in like districts and obviously 
 inadequate, instruct the inspectors to call the 
 attention of the guardians to the facts. 
 
 Although the board and its inspectors have no 
 power at present to prevent out-relief to the aged 
 who are past work, or to the sick, or to a widow 
 with a dependent child or children, they have been 
 perpetually influencing the guardians against out- 
 relief in general terms. The board can only 
 compel the guardians by formal orders ; the 
 official circulars and instructional letters of the 
 board have no binding force, but the tendency of 
 these documents, and, still more, the unwritten but 
 very effective words of the inspectors, have been 
 gradually inducing some guardians to cut off all 
 out-relief, and offer the alternative of starvation or 
 the workhouse to the deserving poor. 
 
 The Local Government Board also uses its 
 influence against out-relief in general by praising 
 the unions where out-relief is the least, and by 
 " patting on the back " officials who keep it down. 
 
 Another method by which the Local Government 
 Board sharpens the poor law is by encouraging 
 
 ^ This is necessary because a Poor Law Order forbids 
 direct payment of rent, and an erroneous idea has been 
 created that the guardians ought not to give an allowance to 
 cover rent, which of course they may do. See Explanation 
 of the Order in Shaw's " Poor Law Orders," p. 33, note, and 
 p. 104, below. 
 
40 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. 
 
 boards of guardians to make bye-laws or resolutions 
 tying their own hands as to out-relief, and (I believe) 
 even restricting medical attendance. These bye- 
 laws go on from year to year, and prevent the 
 guardians from exercising the discretion which the 
 law has put in their hands, as to the kind of relief 
 to be given. 
 
 The law gives certain powers and discretions to 
 a board of guardians ; can it be right for them to 
 refuse to exercise such discretion because another 
 board, some years before, passed a bye-law that no 
 out-relief should be given in certain cases where 
 the law permits the guardians to give it if they 
 think fit ? Probably these bye-laws are in law 
 waste paper, but they deprive many poor men and 
 women of the aid they seek in distress. 
 
 The paupers cannot challenge their validity in 
 the law courts, but I wish some M.P. would call 
 for a return of the bye-laws and resolutions of the 
 boards of guardians, and ask the Law Officers of the 
 Crown whether they are of any legal weight. 
 
 Widows and Children. 
 
 The Local Government Board in 1871 made 
 (among others) the following suggestions : — 
 
 (a) That out-relief should not, except in special cases, 
 be granted to any woman deserted by her husband 
 during the first twelve months after the desertion, or 
 to any able-bodied widow with one child only. 
 
 (b) That in the case of any able-bodied widow with 
 more than one child it may be desirable to take one 
 
OUT-DOOR RELIEF FOR CHILDREN. 41 
 
 or more of the children into the workhouse in prefer- 
 ence to giving out-door relief.^ 
 
 It should be noticed that the law gives — yes, and 
 even the Poor Law Orders give — full power to the 
 guardians to grant out-relief in such cases ; but the 
 Local Government Board tried by suggestions to 
 prevent such relief. Most people think it better for 
 children not to be brought up in the workhouse 2 ; 
 and surely the best mode of boarding-out a child is 
 to board it with its own mother. This was done in 
 the case of Moses with distinguished success. This 
 same circular contains many other suggestions, all 
 calculated to dissuade the guardians from giving 
 out-relief in cases where the law permits such 
 assistance. 
 
 In some instances, if out-relief is refused, the 
 results may be most serious. If a mother with an 
 infant is refused out-relief, she will often be obliged 
 to undertake for a bare subsistence work which will 
 prevent her from " nursing " her infant, or from 
 discharging this, her first duty, properly. Or she 
 will earn so little that the infant will be starved to 
 death. We know now that the high infant mor- 
 tality occurs almost entirely among infants who are 
 not "nursed" by their mothers.^ Even older children 
 will often require milk which the mother cannot 
 
 1 "Relieving Officer" (Shaw & Sons), p. 55. See also 
 Shaw's " Poor Law Orders, pp. 24, 25." 
 
 2 Mr. Chaplin in his Circular of 1900 (see p. 38) advised 
 that children should not be kept in the workhouses. This 
 circular of 187 1 should be formally recalled or "explained." 
 
 3 As to infant mortality, see pp. xvii, 103. 
 
42 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. 
 
 afford to buy ; and " taking one or more of the 
 older children into the workhouse" will not feed 
 the others who are left with the widow. 
 
 In the above-mentioned circular of 1900, Mr. 
 Chaplin made many suggestions for the welfare of 
 the children treated by indoor relief. Now the 
 children for whom out-relief is given are far more 
 numerous than those in workhouses, schools, etc. 
 (see p. 45), and the out-relief is very often quite 
 inadequate. I fear that often bread is given when 
 milk is required. Another circular should be issued 
 advising that the out-relief to children should be 
 adequate and suitable. With a view of reducing 
 infant mortality the guardians should be advised 
 (even where there is an able-bodied father) to supply 
 when necessary, milk or other food to nursing 
 mothers — in some cases this might be given on loan. 
 
 Medical Out-Relief. 
 
 Attempts have been made by the Poor Law 
 Department of the Local Government Board and 
 its inspectors to cut down medical relief Colonel 
 Preston advised that all medical orders should be 
 given on loan.^ Mr. Longley recommended that the 
 guardians should require personal attendance of 
 applicants for medical relief, and also laid great 
 stress on the importance of giving it on loan.^ 
 
 A very recent example of unfortunate interfer- 
 ence on the part of the Local Government Board is 
 
 1 Report ofPoor Law Conference, Northampton, i9oi,p. 500. 
 ' Quoted by Mr. Bousfield, Poor Law Conference, 1883, 
 p. 432. 
 
OUT-DOOR MEDICAL RELIEF. 43 
 
 given in the following paragraph of the Poor Law 
 Officers' Journal oi March 9th, 1906 (p. 230) : — 
 
 The Local Government Board are enquiring from 
 the St. George-in- the- East Guardians the cause of the 
 recent increase in the number of medical orders issued 
 in the parish. Mr. Long, a member of the board of 
 guardians, attributes the increase to the number of 
 foreigners who apply to the medical officers for certi- 
 ficates to enable them to get relief from the Jewish 
 Board of Guardians.^ 
 
 While, therefore, medical officers of health are 
 insisting upon early medical inspection in case of 
 illness, with a view of saving the public from 
 infection, should the illness turn out to be of an 
 infectious kind, the Local Government Board are 
 putting obstacles in the way of poor people (among 
 whom infectious disease often commences) asking 
 for prompt medical help. For some detailed in- 
 formation as to the danger of this course, both to 
 the life of the individual as well as to the health of 
 the public, reference may be made to a pamphlet, 
 "The Health of the Nation." a 
 
 The Local Government Board would do well to 
 advise boards of guardians to offer every reasonable 
 facility for medical relief to poor persons. 
 
 See also suggestions made in the Preface, p. xvii., 
 
 ^ The Jewish Board of Guardians — a voluntary society — 
 gives out-relief. Infant mortality has been decreasing in 
 this union, so I trust the guardians will not take any notice 
 of the suggestions of the Local Government Board. 
 
 "^ A Letter to the President of the Local Government Board 
 (Mr. Long), by J. T. Dodd (Alden, Oxford. Simpkin, Mar- 
 shall & Co., London, 1905). 
 
44 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. 
 
 above, and in Chapter XII., pp. 83 — 87, also the 
 notes in the Appendix, p. 103, below. 
 
 Destitution or Poverty the Title to 
 Relief. 
 
 In a memorandum of February, 1878, the Local 
 Government Board again calls attention to the 
 restrictions on out-relief suggested in 1871,^ and 
 quotes with approval some Manchester bye-laws 
 founded on them. This memorandum declares : — 
 
 " The guardians need scarcely be reminded of the 
 broad and general principle of the English Poor Law, 
 viz., that no person has a claim to relief from the 
 rates, except in case of actual destitution." 2 
 
 It is submitted that this is not a correct account of 
 the law. The statute of Elizabeth orders relief for 
 those who are not able to maintain themselves, 
 and speaks of " the poor," not of the destitute.* 
 
 See p. 40, above. 
 
 2 The Act II & 12 Vict. c. no, s. 10, speaks of "destitute 
 wanderers or wayfarers." If these apply for relief they may- 
 be searched, and their money forfeited. AH persons applying 
 for relief must on enquiry make complete disclosure of any 
 property. If a pauper has any property the guardians may 
 recover the cost of his maintenance. See 12 & 13 Vict. 
 c. 103, s. 16, and Archbold, on Poor Law, pp. 331-38. But 
 this does not alter the statute of Elizabeth or justify the 
 statement of the Local Government Board cited in the text. 
 As another example of the tendency of the Poor Law 
 Board to sharpen and misstate the law against the poor, 
 note how the sudden or urgent necessity of Article 208 (i) 
 becomes " peculiar urgency " in its application to the belated 
 wayfarer in 9 Off. Circular, 144. See Shaw's " Poor Law 
 Orders," pp. 97, 204. 
 
 ' This is confirmed by use of the word " poor " in 4 & 5 
 Will. IV. c. 76. See section 109, and Preface, pp. xxiv — v. 
 
THE TITLE TO RELIEF. 
 
 45 
 
 And the class of persons entitled to relief are those 
 mentioned in the statute of Elizabeth (see pp, 5, 6, 
 57). A person may have a claim to relief 
 although he is still possessed of a bed, chairs, and 
 table, and has a few pence in his pocket.^ 
 
 1 Sir Hugh Owen, before the Commission on Distress 
 from want of Employment " (commonly called the " Unem- 
 ployed Commission ") admitted that " it is not necessary for 
 a man to sell all his furniture in order to obtain relief from 
 the guardians." First Report p. 56, Q.Q. 536, 537. 
 
 Additiojtal Note. — The following statistics are taken from 
 the 34th Annual Report of the Local Government Board, 
 1904 — 5 (pp. Ixiv, Ixv) : — 
 
 Total 
 Unions in Unions out- England 
 London, side London, and Wales. 
 
 Indoor :— 
 Children of able-bodied parents 
 
 relieved 2,546 12,451 14,997 
 
 Children of not able-bodied 
 
 parents relieved 1,574 2,842 4,416 
 
 Orphans or children relieved 
 
 without parents .. .. 15,719 23,946 39,665 
 
 Outdoor :— 
 Children of able-bodied widows 
 
 relieved 7,079 89,656 96,735 
 
 Other children relieved with 
 
 one or both parents being 
 
 able-bodied . . . . . . 
 
 Children of not able-bodied 
 
 parents relieved 
 Orphans or children relieved 
 
 without parents 
 
 37,747 210,024 247,771 
 [This shows that there were only 59,078 children receiving 
 indoor rehef, while no less than 188,693 received outdoor 
 relief. In discussing the position of the children it is fair to 
 add that the Local Government Board have done good by 
 their " Boarding-Out " Orders (which, however, need a little 
 extension) and recently by the issue, under Mr. Gerald 
 Balfour, of the Underfed Children's Order and Circular. 
 See p. XXV, above.] 
 
 8,982 
 
 53,384 
 
 62,366 
 
 918 
 
 18,797 
 
 19,715 
 
 929 
 
 8,948 
 
 9,877 
 
46 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 AID EXTORTED FROM POOR 
 RELATIONS. 
 
 It is obviously right that when a father or 
 mother comes to want, the son or daughter, if 
 able, should take the parent home and return the 
 kindness received in infancy. The child or other 
 near relation, rather than the ratepayers, should, 
 if capable, maintain the poor person. This 
 excellent principle is laid down by the statute 
 43 Eliz. c. 2, s. 7, in the following words : — 
 
 " And be it further enacted, That the father and 
 grandfather, and the mother and grandmother, and 
 the children of every poor, old, blind, lame, and 
 impotent person, or other poor person not able to 
 work, being of a sufficient ability ^ shall at their own 
 charges relieve and maintain every such poor person 
 in that manner, and according to that rate, as [by 
 the Justices of the Peace of that County where such 
 sufficient persons dwell, or the greater number of 
 them, at their General Quarter Sessions, shall be 
 assessed, upon pain that every one of them shall 
 forfeit 20S. for every month which they shall fail 
 therein]." ^ 
 
 * The legal liabiHty is as declared by this statute, although 
 the present procedure is regulated by modern statutes. See 
 Archbold's "Poor Law," 14th edition, 1885, pp. 220-23, and 
 I^ex V. Halifax^ Set. and Rem. 33, pi. 52 ; Rex v. Dunn, i 
 Bott. 376. There are other provisions compelling persons 
 
AID EXTORTED FROM RELATIONS. 47 
 
 The portion in brackets has been repealed/ but 
 it is of great importance in estimating the true 
 meaning and effect of the statute. 
 
 Notice the words " of a sufficient ability," and that 
 the forfeiture ordered was ^i a months Now, con- 
 sidering what labourers' wages were in the time of 
 Elizabeth, it is absurd to suppose that this was 
 intended to reach either the labouring or the 
 artisan class,^ It was only intended that the well- 
 to-do people should provide for their relations, 
 not that people who can only with difficulty main- 
 tain their wives and children should be compelled 
 to cut down their children's necessary food and 
 clothing to save the pockets of the ratepayers. 
 Had it been intended that persons who had only 
 enough, or little more than enough, to keep them- 
 selves and their families, should be taxed, the fine 
 would have been a moderate sum, and probably a 
 variable sum. And a power of distraining or 
 imprisonment would have been given.* 
 
 It may be worth while to cite the expressions of 
 the judges, mere dicta though they are, in connec- 
 tion with this section : — 
 
 " There being no temporal obligation to enforce 
 
 to maintain their wives and children if able to do so. See 
 Archbold, p. 224 et seq. [In some editions this is section 6]. 
 
 1 By 31 & 32 Vict. c. 122, s. 36. See p. 96. 
 
 ^ Probably equivalent to at least ^5 a month at the present 
 time. 
 
 ^ "The condition of the labouring class was such in 1601, 
 that It cannot be considered labourers were included " 
 (Stone's ''Justices' Manual," 31st edit, p. 668). 
 
 * Compare sects. 3, 7 in Appendix. The Poor Law Am. Act, 
 
48 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. 
 
 the law of nature, it was found necessary to estab- 
 lish it by Act of Parliament, and that can be 
 extended no farther than the law of nature went 
 before" (Pratt, C.J. , in Rex v. Munden, i Stra. 190). 
 
 "If the grandfather be a rich man, and the father 
 a poor man, they (the justices) may make an order 
 on the former to maintain his grandchildren " 
 (Littledale, J., in Rex v. Cornish^ 2 B. & Ad. 502). 
 
 In St. Andrews Under shaft v. Mendez de Br eta 
 (i Lord Raymond 669), the justices made an order 
 against a " very rich " Jew, who had turned his 
 daughter out of doors because she had embraced 
 Christianity, and in Reg v. Toke, 8 A. & E. 227, 
 the order was made against a wool-sorter.^ 
 
 In practice, now, labourers with families, having 
 small or irregular wages, are compelled to stint 
 their children to pay a shilling or two to save the 
 rates. It will be observed that the only power 
 given by the Act is to authorise the justices to 
 direct persons who are of sufficient ability to 
 " relieve and maintain " their poor relations. If 
 construed in the plain and simple meaning of the 
 words, it does not enable them to order a person who 
 is not able wholly to maintain the poor relation to 
 
 1834, s. 78, does give power of distress and imprisonment ; 
 but this cannot alter the construction of 43rd Elizabeth. 
 
 ^ Reference may be made also to the following cases : — 
 Rex V. Dunn, i Bott 446 ; Rex v. Halifax, ib. 429 ; Rex v. 
 Reeve, ib. 421 ; Rex v. Woodford, ib. 434 ; Rex v. Kanpson, 
 llf' 373 ; Maund v. Mason, 9 L. R. Q. B. 254 ; Reg. v. Morten 
 (or Martin), 5 Q. B. 591 ; Coie?nan v. Birmingham, 6 
 Q. B. D. 615 ; Bancroft v. Mitchell, 2 L. R. Q. B. 549 ; Reg. 
 V. Benoier, 2 Lord Ray, 115 ; Rex v. Smith, 2 C. & P. 449. 
 
AID EXTORTED FROM RELATIONS. 49 
 
 contribute towards his maintenance ; but constantly 
 boards of guardians (with the approval of the Local 
 Government Board) compel the poor creatures to 
 do so, and this course is said to be legal. 
 
 The Local Government Board in the above- 
 mentioned circular of 1871 says : — 
 
 " That the provisions with respect to the compulsory 
 maintenance of paupers by relations legally liable to 
 contribute to their support should be more generally 
 acted upon."^ 
 
 The memorandum of 1878 repeats this recom- 
 mendation, and emphasises it.^ 
 
 It is probable that a system by which the " house" 
 alone is offered to poor old folk, and every effort is 
 made to extort money out of sons or daughters 
 (who can scarcely keep themselves), does for the 
 moment save the rates. But it seems hardly wise to 
 take from labourers money needed for the healthy 
 up-bringing of their children for this purpose. 
 
 Practically, the Local Government Board should 
 issue a circular, this time on the side of the poor, 
 suggesting that no contribution should be asked 
 from a man with less than a *' living wage," and 
 that the guardians should not endeavour to imprison 
 before they have satisfied themselves that the man 
 has means to pay. 
 
 In most cases the guardians never go before the 
 justices at all to obtain an order for maintenance. 
 
 1 " Relieving Officer," p. 56 ; " Shaw's Poor Law Orders," 
 p. 19. 
 
 ' I6id., pp. 57, 58 ; Shaw, p. 20. 
 
 A«R. E 
 
50 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. 
 
 They simply threaten the wretched labourer, and 
 make him sign some document or enter into an 
 agreement binding himself to make the payment 
 which they (the guardians) take the liberty of 
 assessing. 
 
 The Local Government Board should enquire 
 into these agreements ^ and into this very doubtful 
 procedure ; and perhaps some M.P. will ask for 
 copies of such agreements as have come to the 
 knowledge of the board, and enquire whether they 
 or their inspectors have expressed approval or 
 disapproval. 
 
 In 1898 the Attorney-General said in an applica- 
 tion for a writ of Habeas Corpus : — 
 
 It is only because it has been the common practice 
 in many parts of the country to enforce these orders 
 by imprisonment that it is desired to have an author- 
 itative decision that such mode of enforcement is 
 illegal." 
 
 In this case {Re Gamble) the Attorney-General 
 obtained the order for which he applied, and said 
 he would wire to Worcester to have Gamble 
 released : ^ 
 
 * Of course they are entered into under pressure and 
 without legal advice. See also p. 86, note.^ 
 
 2 The following is a full note of the decision in this case : 
 — " Money due under an order of the justices made upon a 
 person for the maintenance of his father under 43 Eliz. c. 2, 
 s. 6, is recoverable as a civil debt and not as a penalty ; 
 and an order of justices for the payment of money so due 
 cannot be enforced by imprisonment in default of distress, 
 unless it has been proved that the person in default has 
 since the date of the latter order had the means to pay the 
 sum in respect of which he has made default : Re GambUy 
 [1899], I Q. B. 305 : 79 L, T. Rep. 642. 
 
HARDSHIP ON AGED POOR. 51 
 
 In complaining of the cruel way in which the 
 very reasonable provision of the statute of Elizabeth 
 has been used against the struggling labourers, I 
 have only spoken of the hardship upon the poor 
 person who is compelled to contribute ; but the 
 hardship is still greater on the poor old man, who 
 is thus compelled to be, in effect, the prosecutor of 
 his own son, and to take the bread out of mouths 
 of his son's children. No wonder that we some- 
 times hear of poor people starving rather than apply 
 to the "guardians of the poor." 
 
 E 2 
 
52 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 AID FROM FRIENDLY SOCIETIES; OR, 
 HOW THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT 
 BOARD DISCOURAGED CHARITY AND 
 "THRIFT." 
 
 In the circular of 1871, already mentioned, the 
 Local Goverment Board said : — 
 
 " If the applicant receives relief from any charit- 
 able sources, the same should be taken into account 
 by the guardians in determining the amount, if any, 
 to be allowed by them." ^ 
 
 The meaning of the board appears to be that if 
 the ordinary relief to a person is 3^. 6d. and a 
 loaf, and the applicant has is. from any charity or 
 charitable person, the allowance shall be cut down 
 to 2s. 6d. and a loaf. 
 
 The form of this declaration is likely to delude 
 guardians into thinking that it is law, but it is 
 nothing of the sort. 
 
 Surely this is a point on which the guardians might 
 well, as representatives of the ratepayers, be left to 
 their own discretion. But the Local Government 
 Board's views were equally hard in the case of the 
 
 1 The Local Government Board did not try to make a rule 
 to this effect. And see recent statutes cited below, pp. 54, 55. 
 
AID FROM FRIENDLY SOCIETIES. 53 
 
 thrifty working man who has put his savings into 
 a club. 
 
 The Poor Law Board said ^ : — 
 
 " With regard to relief to members of sick benefit 
 societies, in the opinion of the Poor Law Board the 
 guardians were not justified, according to the strict 
 law applicable to such cases, in giving any further 
 relief than such an amount as would, together with 
 the sum that the person was receiving from the 
 benefit society, render the amount of such person's 
 weekly income equal, and no more than equal, to that 
 amount which the guardians hold to be necessary to 
 relieve the destitution of a person similarly circum- 
 stanced, but who has no other means of support." 
 
 The Poor Law Board admitted the value of 
 benefit societies, but the above rule carefully dis- 
 couraged any one from belonging to one, unless he 
 could obtain from the club sufficient for his total 
 maintenance. 
 
 The Poor Law Board added : — 
 
 "The only safe basis on which the system of 
 benefit societies can rest, under the present system of 
 the legal right to relief, is that they afford the means 
 of providing in times of distress or disability a more 
 eligible, respectable, and liberal maintenance than 
 that supplied under the poor law, and that they 
 should be still regarded as a mode for avoiding the 
 degradation of parish support, rather than as con- 
 ferring a title by which a claim to such support may 
 be established even beyond the line of actual 
 destitution." 
 
 1 Shaw's " Poor Law Orders," pp. 298-9, citing " 22nd 
 Annual Report, Poor Law Board," p. 108. But now see 
 statute, p. 54 below. 
 
54 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. 
 
 These remarks allow the true inwardness of the 
 Poor Law Board and the Local Government Board 
 to appear. They regarded the receipt of parish 
 relief '■'a degradation'' This was the view of the 
 Local Government Board, which its inspectors try 
 to impress on the officers who have the administra- 
 tion of the poor law. It is submitted that this 
 view is not part of the law of England, and further, 
 that any one holding it is unlikely to administer the 
 poor law in a satisfactory manner. 
 
 Drunkenness, dissolute life, and idleness, which 
 lead many to the poor law, are undoubtedly 
 degrading. The harsh treatment of some Bumble, 
 the want of classification, etc., may in another 
 sense also be '* degrading." But the man in receipt 
 of parish relief may himself be just as good a man 
 as an honest millionaire. 
 
 It is evident that these official circulars and in- 
 structional letters, etc. (most of which were first 
 published many years ago), need overhauling, and 
 others of a different character should be substituted- 
 The Local Government Board could do all this 
 without any Act of Parliament. 
 
 By a recent statute (57 & 58 Vict. c. 25) power 
 is given to boards of guardians to grant relief to 
 persons, otherwise entitled to relief, notwithstand- 
 ing income from a friendly society, and to grant 
 such relief without deduction of the money received 
 from the society. 
 
 This does not apply to charity in general nor to 
 income from modes of thrift other than savings in 
 
AID FROM FRIENDLY SOCIETIES. 55 
 
 friendly societies, and, so far as it goes, is an 
 evidence of legislative disapproval of the policy of 
 Local Government Board on the subject. The 
 Local Government Board has called the attention 
 of the guardians to this Act (and so has, of course, 
 superseded the circular where it conflicts with the 
 Act), but in all probability the effect of the old 
 circulars will long continue to the great hardship of 
 many deserving poor. 
 
 The privileges of a member of a friendly society 
 were further extended by 4 Edw. VII. c. 32 as 
 follows : — 
 
 "In granting outdoor relief to a member of any 
 friendly society, the Board of Guardians shall not 
 take into consideration any sum received from such 
 friendly society as sick pay except in so far as such 
 sum shall exceed 5s. a week." 
 
 In a " hard " union, however, this is perfectly 
 useless, for the guardians can evade this statute by 
 refusing out-relief and offering the workhouse to the 
 applicant. 
 
56 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 THE UNEMPLOYED.! 
 
 The object of this chapter is to show the powers 
 given by law to the boards of guardians, subject to 
 the control of the Local Government Board, to 
 provide useful and productive employment for the 
 able-bodied inmates of our workhouses, and, what 
 is more important, for our unemployed labourers, 
 many of whom would rather starve than enter the 
 walls of institutions which they regard as degrading, 
 and which their fathers styled " Bastilles." It is pro- 
 posed to describe only those powers which can be 
 exercised at once, without any new Act of Parlia- 
 ment, if both boards of guardians and the Local 
 Government Board take the proper steps to put 
 them in force ; and the actual words of the 
 statutes are here set out rather fully. If we wish to 
 understand the poor law so that it shall become a 
 means whereby to assist the unemployed, we should 
 turn back to the statute 43 Eliz. c. 2, passed in the 
 
 1 It is merely suggested that favourably disposed and 
 situated boards of guardians be allowed to try working 
 under the Acts mentioned at pp. 61-65 ^s an experiment. 
 The Acts are also quoted as affording a basis and precedent 
 for legislation. See p. 72. 
 
EMPLOYMENT UNDER 43RD ELIZ. 57 
 
 year 1 601, which is in truth the very basis of the 
 English Poor Law. 
 
 Duties under the 43RD Elizabeth. 
 
 The text of the first section is as follows : — 
 
 ** Bee it enacted by the authoritie of this p'sent 
 Parliament, that the churchwardens of everie parishe, 
 and fower, three, or two substanciall housholders 
 there as shal be thoughte meete, havying respecte to 
 the p'porcon and greatnes of the same parishe (or) 
 parishes, to be no'iated yearelie in Easter weeke or 
 within one monethe after Easter, under the hande and 
 scale of two or more justices of the peace in the same 
 countie, whereof one to be of the quom dwellinge in 
 or neere the same parishe or division where the same 
 parishe doth lie shal be called overseers of the poor 
 of the same parishe ; and they or the greater parte of 
 them shall take order from tyme to tyme, by and 
 withe the consent of two or moresuche justices of the 
 peace, as is aforesaide, for settinge to worke of the 
 children of all suche whose parentes shall not by the 
 saide Churchwardens and overseers or the greater 
 parte of them bee thoughte able to keepe and main- 
 taine theire children, and alsoe for settinge to worke 
 all such p'sons, maried or unmaried, havinge no 
 means to maintaine them, use no ordinarie and dailie 
 trade of lief to get their livinge by ; and also to 
 raise weekelie or otherwise, by taxacon of ev'y 
 inhabitant, parson, vicar, and other, and of ev'y 
 occupier of landes, houses, tithes impropriate or 
 propriacons of tythes colemynes or saleable under- 
 woods, in the saide parishe in such competent sume 
 and sumes of money as they shall thincke fytt, a conve- 
 nient stocke of flaxe, hempe, wooll, threed, iron and other 
 necessarie ware and stujfe to sett the poore on worke ; 
 and alsoe competent sumes of money for and towardes 
 the necessarie releife of the lame, impotent, olde, 
 blinde, and suche other amonge them beinge poore 
 and not able to work and alsoe for the puttinge out 
 
58 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. 
 
 of suche children to be apprentices, to be gathered 
 out of the same parishe, accordinge to the abilitie of 
 the same parishe and to doe and execute all other 
 thing as well for the disposinge of the saide stocke 
 as otherwise concninge the p'misses as to them shall 
 seeme convenient." 
 
 The section then proceeds to direct the church- 
 wardens and overseers to meet together at least 
 once a month, in the church, upon the Sunday in 
 the afternoon, after Divine Service, " to consider of 
 some good course to be taken and of some meete 
 order to be set downe in the premises." They were 
 to render accounts of moneys received and of stock in 
 their hands, ''or in the hands of any of the poore to 
 worke." A penalty of 20s. is imposed on the parish 
 officers for absence, without due cause, from the 
 Sunday monthly meeting, or for negligence in their 
 office. 
 
 The object of the above section, which may be 
 called the dominant section of the Act, is threefold, 
 viz., to provide (i) for children of the poor, (2) for 
 the able-bodied unemployed poor, and (3) for the 
 old, sick, and other poor^ who are not able- 
 bodied. 
 
 In this chapter it is proposed to discuss only the 
 means which the poor law provides for helping 
 the able-bodied unemployed, and strives to prevent 
 destitution. 
 
 It will be observed at once that the Act contem- 
 plates not employment by way of test of poverty, 
 
 * By " poor " I mean those who are unable to maintain 
 themselves, and need relief. Observe that the Act does not 
 use the word " destitute." 
 
EMPLOYMENT BY GUARDIANS. 59 
 
 but useful employment by which the able-bodied 
 may earn, at least in part, their own living. It not 
 merely enables, but orders^ the parish officers to 
 provide a convenient stock of " flaxe, hempe, 
 wooll, threed, iron, and other necessarie ware and 
 stuff"; and the overseers are to do whatever is 
 necessary for the manufactures they are directed 
 to set on foot, and also for disposing of the manu- 
 factured goods. The Act contemplates that each 
 parish shall become both a manufacturer and a 
 merchant. Though wool and iron, etc., are 
 expressly mentioned, it is by no means intended 
 that the powers of the parish officers should be 
 limited to any particular kind of manufacture ; for 
 the Act, after enumerating several species of 
 merchandise, proceeds to authorise the church- 
 wardens and overseers to procure " other necessarie 
 ware and stuff." They might, evidently, set up 
 shops for the sale of goods. This section is still in 
 force ; it will be found at p. 546 of vol. i. of the 
 second edition of the Revised Statutes, published 
 by authority in 1888 ; but, as it has been observed 
 above, the powers of the parish officers have been 
 transferred to the boards of guardians and the 
 Local Government Board. The guardians are the 
 local administrators of the relief of the poor, though 
 they are in almost all respects made subject to the 
 control of the central authority, viz., the Local 
 Government Board.^ 
 
 1 See Poor Law Am. Act, 1834, 4 & 5 Will. IV. c. 76, s. 38 ; 
 Archbold's " Poor Law," 14th edit., p. 82. Subject to some 
 
6o ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. 
 
 However, the net result is that 43 Eliz. c. 2, 
 s. I, empowers every board of guardians to become 
 manufacturers of any kind of goods, and to open 
 shops for the disposal of such manufactures. 
 
 In Rex V. Collett (2 B. & C. 329) it was declared 
 by the Court that '* undoubtedly it is the primary 
 duty of the overseers to find employment for the 
 poor^ if possible.'' " And," continues Chief Justice 
 Abbott, " I express the opinion now for the sake 
 of the poor themselves, to whom no greater kind- 
 ness can be done than by enabling them to earn 
 their own living by labour, instead of suffering 
 them to eat the bread of idleness, by which their 
 habits and morals must soon be corrupted." Find- 
 ing employment for the legal poor is still the duty 
 of the guardians of the poor^; for the law has 
 not been altered in this respect by the Poor Law 
 Commissioners or Board, or their modern repre- 
 sentatives, the Local Government Board. 
 
 Powers of Obtaining Land. 
 
 It will be noticed that the Poor Law Statute, 
 43 Elizabeth, confers no express power upon the 
 parish officers to obtain land. In all probability 
 there was in the time of Elizabeth no occasion to 
 give any such powers. Many parishes possessed 
 
 small exceptions, the ordering of relief is now taken away 
 from justices and overseers. See pp. 22, 29. 
 
 1 Observe that here again the word " poor/' not " desti- 
 tute," is used by the judges. 
 
 2 But they need not do more than '* offer the Workhouse" 
 with employment therein. See Appendix p. 103. 
 
POWER TO BUY OR HIRE LAND. 6i 
 
 land of their own, and in many others the common 
 or waste was not yet regarded as strictly private 
 property, and was easily obtainable for the public 
 purposes of the parish. 
 
 Power to Buy or Hire Land. 
 
 But, in later years, difficulties with reference to 
 land appear to have arisen ; and the Act 59 
 Geo. ni. c. 12, s. 12, states^ that by an Act 
 passed in the 43rd year of the reign of Queen 
 Elizabeth, the churchwardens and overseers were 
 directed — observe, not merely enabled — to set to 
 work certain persons therein described ; and that 
 by the laws then {i.e.^ in 18 19) in force sufficient 
 powers were not given to the churchwardens and 
 overseers to enable them to keep such persons 
 fully and constantly employed. It then proceeds 
 to authorise the parish officers to buy or hire 
 twenty acres of land in the following terms : — 
 
 "It shall be lawful for the churchwardens and 
 overseers of the poor of any parish, with the consent 
 of the inhabitants thereof in vestry assembled, to 
 take into their hands any land or ground which shall 
 belong to such parish, or to the churchwardens and 
 overseers of the poor of such parish, or to the poor 
 thereof, or to purchase, or to hire and take on lease, 
 for and on account of the parish, any suitable portion 
 or portions of land within or near to such parish, 
 not exceeding twenty acres in the whole ; and to 
 
 1 These statements being in the nature of '' preamble " 
 are not printed in the revised second edition of the Statutes. 
 They will be found in Evans's " Collection of Statutes " 
 (vol. viii., p. 145) and other editions. 
 
en ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. 
 
 employ and set to work in the cultivation of such 
 land, on account of the parish, any such persons as 
 by law they are directed to set to work, and to pay 
 to such of the poor persons so employed as shall not 
 be supported by the parish, reasonable wages for their 
 work ; and the poor persons so employed shall have 
 such and the like remedies for the recovery of their 
 wages, and shall be subject to such and the like 
 punishment for misbehaviour in their employment, 
 as other labourers in husbandry are by law entitled 
 and subject to." 
 
 Here, then, it is to be remembered, that, after 
 the experience of more than two centuries, the 
 Legislature affirmed and extended the provisions 
 of the Elizabethan poor law ordering that useful 
 employment should be given to the poor. It also 
 declared that the poor so employed might have 
 "reasonable wages " — a suggestive premonition of 
 " fair wages " — recoverable at law. This is different 
 from a starvation allowance. 
 
 This section is still in force, and will be found 
 printed in vol. iv. of the second edition of 
 the Revised Statutes, published in 1891, at 
 page 216, though of course the powers therein 
 described are no longer in the hands of the parish 
 oflficers.^ 
 
 In 1 83 1 the Allotments Act of that date (i & 2 
 Will. IV. c. 42) declares that the limitation to 
 twenty acres had "been found inconvenient in 
 
 * The Act limited the amount to be raised for buildings, 
 purchase of land, stocking, etc., to a rate of is. in the ;^, 
 except more was authorised by a species of special resolution 
 of the inhabitants. Under certain circumstances loans 
 might be raised ; see sections 14-16, now repealed. 
 
TRANSFER OF POWERS TO GUARDIANS. 63 
 
 many parishes," and extends the power of hiring 
 from twenty acres to fifty acres.^ 
 
 The statute also gives some further powers for 
 obtaining land, which it is only necessary to mention 
 here as indicating the thorough conviction of Par- 
 liament that useful employment on the land was 
 the best remedy for the destitution of able-bodied 
 persons. In fact, the Legislature was so pleased 
 with the idea that it calls the purposes of this, its 
 own Act, "salutary and benevolent." And in the 
 same year an Act (i & 2 Will. IV. c. 59) was 
 passed empowering the parish officers, with the 
 consent of the Treasury, to enclose forest or waste 
 lands not exceeding y^^ acres, for the purpose of 
 cultivating and improving the same for the use and 
 benefit of such parish and the "poor persons" within 
 the same. (Revised Statutes, second edition, vol. v., 
 p. 138 ; Evans, vol. ix., p. 123.) 
 
 Transfer of Powers to Boards of 
 Guardians. 
 
 It is necessary now to show how these powers 
 were transferred from the parish officers to the 
 boards of guardians. This was done by the Union 
 and Parish Property Act, 1835 (5 & 6 Will. IV. 
 c. 69), which followed upon the Poor Law Amend- 
 ment Act of 1834, the famous " New Poor Law," ^ 
 
 ' Probably this Act also extends the purchasing power to 
 fifty acres. The opinion of the Law Officers of the Crown is 
 in favour of this view. See p. 75, below. 
 
 ^ See pp. 6, 22, 54, above. 
 
64 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. 
 
 whereby the relief of the poor was almost entirely 
 taken out of the hands of individual parishes 
 and placed under the management of boards of 
 guardians. 
 
 Section 4 of the above-mentioned Act of 1835 
 enacts that all the powers and authorities in and by 
 59 Geo. III. c. 12, given to the parish officers for 
 taking land or ground into their hands, and for 
 purchasing, hiring, and taking on lease any land, 
 and all the powers and authorities contained in 
 I & 2 Will. IV. c. 42, and in i & 2 Will. IV. c. 59 
 (the three Acts quoted above), and in 2 & 3 
 Will. IV. c. 42 (an Act which will be mentioned 
 hereafter), shall in future be exercised (under the 
 control and subject to the rules, orders, and regula- 
 tions of the Poor Law Commissioners) by the 
 overseers of the poor in any parish not under the 
 management of a board of guardians, and by the 
 guardians of the poor of any union or parish 
 formed or established by virtue of any statute or 
 local Act. 
 
 The powers of the Poor Law Commissioners 
 have been transferred to the Local Government 
 Board, and therefore nothing can be done except 
 under their control. 
 
 So the practical result at which we arrive is 
 this :— 
 
 Subject to the rules, etc., of the Local Govern- 
 ment Board, every board of guardians may buy 
 fifty acres of land for the purposes of the above 
 Acts. It may be open to question whether they 
 
POWERS OF GUARDIANS. 65 
 
 can only buy twenty acres for the whole union, or 
 whether they can buy that acreage for every parish 
 within the union ; but it is submitted that the 
 latter is the true interpretation of these '* salutary 
 and benevolent " Acts.^ 
 
 Nature of Work which can be Provided. 
 
 The guardians can stock the land, erect all 
 necessary farm buildings, make all needful improve- 
 ments, and dispose of the produce by sale or other- 
 wise. In fact, they have full power to establish 
 labour colonies. 
 
 General Powers of Guardians. 
 
 The Statute Law, then, permits boards of 
 guardians to put in force the laws which our 
 forefathers made for the benefit of the poor. 
 Should this be done on a large scale it will be very 
 necessary to guard against injury to independent 
 workers from competition by the guardians' 
 industrial undertakings. This might be accom- 
 plished by providing that no manufactured articles 
 should be put on sale in the open market, but that 
 they should only be used for* the support and 
 maintenance of, or for sale at a low price to, the 
 workers in the labour colonies, or for exchange 
 
 ^ This chapter consists mainly of a portion of an article 
 by the present writer which appeared in the New Review of 
 August, 1893. Since that article was written the Law Officers 
 of the Crown have given an opinion in favour of the view 
 taken by the present writer, that the fifty acres may be 
 bought for each parish. See p. 76, below. 
 
 A.R. F 
 
66 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. 
 
 with other colonies, or for the poor in receipt of 
 indoor or outdoor relief 
 
 Allowances of boots, shoes, clothing, etc., to sick 
 or aged persons in receipt of out-relief, in addition 
 to, and not in substitution for, their " parish pay," 
 would materially add to their comfort and happi- 
 ness without in the least depriving private shop- 
 keepers of any profitable custom. Sales for His 
 Majesty's prisons, and perhaps for the Army and 
 Navy, might also be permitted ^ ; and probably it 
 would not be needful to place any restriction on 
 the sale of the produce of the farm, the garden, or 
 the poultry yard. 
 
 One word with regard to the expenses incurred 
 by guardians. No doubt the cost of establishing 
 farms and workshops would have to come out of 
 the local rates, but the money required for 
 purchasing land, erecting buildings, etc., might be 
 raised by a loan from the Government, and the 
 repayment spread over a period of years, so that 
 the burden would not fall too heavily on the present 
 ratepayers. 
 
 And the Government would also further en- 
 courage action by the guardians, if they would 
 arrange to lend money for the purchase of land 
 and for permanent improvements on easier terms, 
 and throw the repayment over a longer period than 
 is at present permitted. 
 
 There is one more provision as to taking land 
 
 ^ See suggestions and observations of the Poor Law Com- 
 mission of 1834, pp. 15, 16, 19, above. 
 
POWERS OF GUARDIANS. 67 
 
 which should be mentioned : 30 and 3 1 Vict, 
 c. 106, s. 13, enables guardians, with the approval 
 of the Local Government Board, to hire or take on. 
 lease temporarily, or for a term of years not 
 exceeding five^ any land or buildings for the 
 purpose of the relief or employment of the poor. 
 No doubt this is put in force to some small 
 extent. 
 
 Orders of Local Government Board. 
 
 It should be understood that there is no general 
 order of the Local Government Board preventing 
 guardians from giving any kind of employment 
 they may think fit ; but there are some suggestions 
 of the Poor Law Commissioners as to the 
 desirability of test labour, originally made many 
 years ago, which are still considered authoritative. 
 And practically no large amount of permanent 
 useful employment can be given unless the 
 guardians obtain both land and loans, with the 
 sanction of the Central Board. 
 
 Moreover, though in London and most of the 
 large centres of population the guardians can give 
 out-door relief (coupled with employment) to the 
 able-bodied, in most of the smaller towns and in 
 the rural unions the " prohibitory " order is in force 
 which forbids out-relief to the able-bodied who 
 need relief only from lack of employment. In these 
 last-mentioned unions, therefore, the guardians can 
 only give employment coupled with residence in 
 the workhouse unless (as is frequently done in 
 
 F 2 
 
68 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. 
 
 emergencies) the Local Government Board issue a 
 supplementary order which places these unions^ 
 on substantially the same footing as the first class 
 of unions mentioned.^ 
 
 Conservative Act for the "Unemployed." 
 
 When the Conservative Government passed in 
 1905 an Act for providing employment for the 
 unemployed they were accused of having intro- 
 duced a novelty into the law of England ; but as a 
 matter of fact it is already, and has been from the 
 time of Elizabeth, the duty of the State (first through 
 the parish officers and now through the guardians) 
 to find employment for all the unemployed who 
 cannot find work and have no others means of 
 maintenance. 
 
 It is true that the guardians can usually meet 
 this obligation by giving them employment in the 
 workhouse, and that, except in the case of employ- 
 ment for reasonable wages under 59 Geo. III. c. 12, 
 s. 12 (see p. 61), disfranchisement follows ^ ; but 
 these facts do not take away the right to employ- 
 ment given by 43 Eliz. and never abolished. If 
 the guardians and the Local Government Board 
 thought it desirable, any kind of work might in any 
 union be given to the unemployed who cannot 
 maintain themselves, without any workhouse test. 
 
 * These are under the Outdoor Relief Regulation Order, 
 
 which strictly regulates their employment. See App., p. 103. 
 
 ^ It is doubtful whether such labourers are disfranchised. 
 
ALLOTMENTS. 69 
 
 Guardians can provide Allotments. 
 
 So far we have been assuming that the persons, 
 being previously unemployed and practically desti- 
 tute, will work for the guardians either as paupers, 
 or as labourers receiving reasonable money wages 
 or a sufficient payment of money and kind. But 
 it is far better to prevent extreme poverty than to 
 attempt to alleviate that dreary evil. 
 
 And here, again, we may recall the almost for- 
 gotten laws which were made more than eighty 
 years ago. 
 
 By section 13 of the Act 59 Geo. III. c. 12, it is 
 provided : — 
 
 " That for the promotion of industry amongst the 
 poor, it shall be lawful for the churchwardens and 
 overseers of the poor of any parish, with the consent of 
 the inhabitants in vestry assembled, to let any portion 
 and portions of such parish land as aforesaid, or of the 
 land to be so purchased or taken on account of the 
 parish, to any poor and industrious inhabitant of the 
 parish, to be by him or her occupied and cultivated on 
 his or her own account, and for his or her own benefit, 
 at such reasonable rent and for such term as shall by 
 the inhabitants in vestry be fixed and determined "• 
 (Revised Statutes, second edition, p. 216). 
 
 This section 13 must be read with section 12 (set 
 out above), and, as will be seen, it enabled the parish 
 officers, with consent of the vestry, to let any part 
 of the twenty acres mentioned in section 12 to poor 
 and industrious inhabitants, to cultivate on their 
 own account, at a reasonable rent. 
 
 These powers of the parish officers have been 
 
70 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. 
 
 transferred to the boards of guardians, and can 
 only be exercised by them under the control and 
 subject to the rules, etc., of the Local Government 
 Board. (See 5 & 6 Will. IV. c. 69, s. 4, cited 
 above, p. 64.) 
 
 It is needful, here, to mention that these 
 provisions of 18 19 are in some respects far more 
 liberal to the labourers than the Allotments Act, 
 1887 (S0& SI Vict. c. 48) :— 
 
 1. The old Act only requires a "reasonable 
 rent," which may fairly mean a rent that the 
 labourer can pay while he lives and thrives. The 
 modern statute requires such a rent as will recoup 
 the local authority for their outlay in purchase of 
 land, law costs, etc. 
 
 2. The old Act imposes no restriction on the size 
 of the allotment, while under the Act of 1887 no 
 one may hold more than one acre. 
 
 3. By the Allotments Act, 1 887 (s. 7), the tenant 
 is forbidden to erect any building other than *'a 
 toolhouse, shed, greenhouse, fowlhouse, or pigsty." 
 And if he does erect any such forbidden building, 
 not only does he obtain no compensation for it 
 when he leaves, but the council is directed by 
 the Act to pull it down as soon as it is built, and to 
 sell the materials and confiscate the money produced 
 by the sale. No option is given to the council 
 to repay to the tenant the net sale-moneys after pay- 
 ing expenses of sale ; but they are, legally, bound 
 to keep the money as if it were rent. Such a pro- 
 vision in an Act affecting rich people would be 
 
ALLOTMENTS. 71 
 
 called robbery. There is nothing of the kind in the 
 Act of 1 8 19. 
 
 4. Under the Allotments Act, 1887, if the land 
 bought for allotments turns out valuable for building 
 in consequence of a town developing towards it (land 
 in " a town " is exempt from rights of pre-emption), 
 and the council decides to remove the allotments 
 elsewhere, before selling the land the council is 
 bound to offer it for sale, at a price to be fixed by 
 arbitration (no doubt on the increased value), to the 
 person entitled to the land from which it was severed, 
 or, if he cannot be found, to the neighbouring owners. 
 
 No special privilege of pre-emption to landowners 
 is given by the Act of 1819 ^ over land which the 
 ratepayers have purchased. 
 
 The powers of the parish officers under the Allot- 
 ments Act, 1832 (2 & 3 Will. IV. c. 42), were like- 
 wise transferred to the guardians ; but it does not 
 seem needful now to discuss this Act, or the effect 
 upon it of subsequent legislation. It is, however, 
 worth while to mention that it speaks in the preamble 
 of " fair rent," and provides that allotments should 
 be let at such rent as land of the same quality is 
 usually let for in the parish. 
 
 1 On the other hand, the Act of 1887 has no limit of 
 twenty or fifty acres. 
 
 Additional Note. — It is not meant in any way to depreciate 
 the Allotments Act, 1887. It is a very useful Act, though it 
 needs amendment. It does not apply to the Metropolis. 
 The Town and District Councils are the authorities for 
 putting it in force. The old Acts for Allotments do apply to 
 the Metropolitan Guardians as well as to all other Boards of 
 Guardians. 
 
72 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. 
 
 Legislation Suggested. 
 
 It will be seen from the above statements that 
 the duties of the guardians are extensive, and 
 the powers of the guardians and of the Local 
 Government Board together extremely wide. 
 
 It is therefore most important not to allow them to 
 be swept away under the pretence of consolidation 
 of the poor law or of removing " obsolete laws " 
 from the statute book, unless and until better pro- 
 vision is made for the unemployed. Many persons 
 whose views are entitled to consideration greatly 
 deprecate any measures, either of administration or 
 legislation, which will bring more people within the 
 scope of the poor law. It would, of course, be well 
 to deal with the unemployment by legislation. It 
 is an Imperial and not a local problem. Also in 
 many ways the municipal bodies are better able to 
 give useful employment than the boards of guar- 
 dians, and therefore either some of the powers and 
 duties of the guardians should be transferred to the 
 town councils^ or, at least, the town councils should 
 elect out of their own body a certain number of 
 representatives to sit on the boards of guardians.^ 
 
 Again, it would be better that the Allotments Act, 
 1887, should be improved and extended, than that 
 a rival set of " poor people's " allotments should be 
 provided by the side of those provided by the 
 
 ^ Thus the power to rent or buy land and set the unem- 
 ployed at work for wages should be transferred to the Town 
 Council as proposed by Mr. Atherley Jones' Bill of 1905. 
 
 * This is done at Oxford under local Acts, 
 
LEGISLATION FOR ALLOTMENTS. 73 
 
 councils. The chief obstacle 
 
 the Act of 1 887 is the requir 
 
 should not acquire land for allotments under that 
 
 Act, unless the council think the allotments will 
 
 pay their own expenses. 
 
 Now allotments give such a healthy kind of 
 employment and amusement that they are really 
 indirectly a gain to the whole body of ratepayers. 
 They are strongly recommended as an aid to the 
 health of the city by Dr. Ormerod, the able medical 
 officer for Oxford. The Act of 1887 should be 
 modified so as to enable the councils to risk a loss 
 if they think it for the benefit of their districts so 
 to do. 
 
74 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 EMPLOYMENT OF THE POOR ON THE 
 LAND. 
 
 The New Review for August, 1893, P- ^Q^j con- 
 tained an article by the present writer which 
 showed ^ that the Act of Elizabeth ordered the 
 parish officers to procure a stock of flax, iron, and 
 other ware to provide employment for the poor, 
 and that the same Act enabled them to sell the 
 manufactured goods. In the same article it was 
 also shown that by statutes of the 19th century,^ 
 the parish officers were authorised to buy or hire 
 land, and both {a) to employ the poor thereon at 
 " reasonable wages," and {U) to let land in allot- 
 ments of any size at " reasonable rents " to poor 
 and industrious inhabitants. It was also explained 
 that these powers of acquiring land were now by 
 the Union and Parish Property Act, 1835,^ vested 
 in the boards of guardians, but could only be 
 exercised under the control and subject to the 
 rules, orders, and regulations of the Local Govern- 
 ment Board ; and the article concluded with urging 
 the Government to issue regulations for putting 
 these Acts in force. 
 
 * See Chapter IX., pp. 57—59- 
 
 2 59 Geo. III. c. 12, ss. 12, 13; I & 2 Will. IV. c. 42, 
 pp. 61, 69. 
 
 3 5 & 6 Will. IV. c. 69, s. 4. See p. 63 above. 
 
EMPLOYMENT OF POOR ON LAND. 75 
 
 The whole subject was ) 
 Fowler, the President of t 
 
 Board, in Parliament; and on September 12th, 1893, 
 he said, in reply to Mr. Keir Hardie : — 
 
 " The Law Officers of the Crown have advised that 
 the powers which were vested in overseers of parishes 
 under the 43 Eliz. c. 2 (passed in 1601) and the 
 59 Geo. III. c. 12 (passed in iSig), are, by virtue of 
 the Poor Law Amendment Acts of 1834 and 1835, 
 vested in boards of guardians subject to the control 
 of the Local Government Board. The result appears 
 to be that the boards of guardians have power to 
 purchase or rent land not exceeding fifty acres for 
 any parish, and to open workshops for setting destitute 
 able-bodied persons to work, and to pay such persons 
 reasonable wages for their labours. The law officers 
 further advised that wages so paid would be parochial 
 relief, and would involve the same disfranchisement 
 as other relief under the poor laws." 
 
 This question of " disfranchisement " will be 
 discussed further on (see p. yy). Sir H. Fowler 
 added that, although these various powers still 
 remained on the statute book, there could be no 
 doubt that during a long period of years they had 
 been regarded as obsolete, and since the passing 
 of the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 they 
 had not been acted upon by boards of guardians. 
 Sir H. Fowler concluded his reply by saying : — 
 
 " The principle by which the boards of guardians 
 have been governed in the administration of out-relief 
 to destitute able-bodied persons has been that in each 
 case such relief should be given by them as the 
 necessities of the case require, work being provided 
 merely as a test of destitution. 
 
 "The adoption of schemes for the provision by 
 
76 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. 
 
 boards of guardians of work at wages would involve 
 an abandonment of what has hitherto been regarded 
 as the principle of the new poor law, upon which the 
 orders as to out-relief which have been in force during 
 the last half-century have been based. Whether so 
 grave a change in the policy and administration of 
 the poor law is desirable, and if so, whether it should 
 be made without legislative authority, are questions 
 on which I could not express an opinion without the 
 sanction of my colleagues. In the meantime the 
 fullest and most careful consideration of the Local 
 Government Board shall be given to the whole 
 subject." 
 
 Mr. Keir Hardie then asked whether " in cases 
 where two or more parishes are combined in one 
 union, the union has power to acquire fifty acres 
 of land in respect of each parish, or only fifty for 
 the combined parishes ? " 
 
 Sir H. Fowler : — 
 
 " We are advised that it would be for each parish. 
 Therefore, if there were three parishes, the union 
 would have power to acquire 150 acres." 
 
 It should be added that both Sir H. Fowler's 
 replies are " starred" in " Hansard," indicating that 
 they have been revised by him. 
 
 On July loth Sir H. Fowler said : — 
 
 " The law does not empower the guardians to pro- 
 vide employment for assisting those who are out of 
 work. Their duty is to relieve destitution, and in 
 connection with this relief they may impose a task 
 of work as a test of destitution." 
 
 This reply is also "starred " in " Hansard." 
 There are two points in Sir H. Fowler's reply 
 which deserve notice. It would appear from his 
 
DOES EMPLOYMENT DISFRANCHISE ? 77 
 
 words that persons employed by the guardians 
 on the land acquired under the above-mentioned 
 statutes of the 19th century would become dis- 
 franchised. But it is doubtful whether this would 
 be so, and whether the law officers definitely 
 advised to this effect^ It has been decided 
 that men employed in the stoneyard, or on 
 other labour by way of relief, at less than the 
 current wages, would be disfranchised. But it does 
 not in the least follow that a person employed on 
 land acquired under the Act of 18 19 and paid 
 " reasonable wages " would lose his vote. Such a 
 man is not treated by the Act of 18 19 as a pauper, 
 or in receipt of relief. Although paid by the 
 parish, he is not regarded as supported by the 
 parish. The Act gives him, too, all the remedies 
 for recovery of wages that other labourers in hus- 
 bandry were entitled to. This is not the case with 
 a pauper. 
 
 Sir H. Fowler seemed to be under the impression 
 that boards of guardians have nothing to do with 
 giving employment, but only to relieve destitution ; 
 
 ^ A legal opinion is not of much value unless the " case 
 for opinion " is produced, so that it is clear that the facts 
 have been fully and correctly stated. In several cases it has 
 been held that payment by the parish at a lower rate than 
 the usual rate of wages disqualified. See "Rogers on 
 Elections," i. 192 ; "Mackenzie and Lushington," 263 ; and in 
 Magarrill v. the Overseers of Whitehaven (16 Q. B. D. 242 ; 
 55 L. J. Q. B. D. 38) it was held that payments made to a 
 pauper for breaking stones in the stoneyard disqualified ; 
 but this payment assumed the form of relief, not wages, 
 " and was measured by the wants of the applicant and not 
 by the quantity of work done." This is quite different from 
 " reasonable wages." 
 
78 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. 
 
 and apparently the Local Government Board has 
 been affected by this same notion for many years. 
 But the governing idea of the statute of Elizabeth 
 is "giving employment to the poor who cannot 
 maintain themselves." The Court has stated that 
 it was the primary duty of the overseers to give 
 employment for the poor if possible. This applies 
 now to the guardians. (See pp. 60, 64.) 
 
 It is true that section 52 of the Poor Law Act 4 & 5 
 Will. IV. c. y6, enabled the Poor Law Commis- 
 sioners (now the Local Government Board), by 
 *' rules, orders, or regulations," to declare on what 
 conditions outdoor relief should be given to the 
 able-bodied. But no rule, etc., has been issued 
 taking away from the guardians their primary 
 duty, which therefore still remains their duty 
 accordingly.^ 
 
 The law cannot be altered except by a formal 
 " Order " of the Board. The mere pious opinions 
 of the inspectors, or of the president, cannot 
 weaken the force either of the statute of Elizabeth 
 or of the decisions or even of the dicta of the 
 judges. 
 
 It would seem, consequently, that the Local 
 Government Board have not given due regard to 
 some of the principles of the law they are supposed 
 to administer. 
 
 Again, Sir H. Fowler spoke of the " destitute " ; 
 
 but this is not the word used in 43rd Elizabeth. Our 
 
 ^ Of course the guardians "satisfy" the law by giving to 
 the able-bodied employment in the workhouse. See App., 
 p. 103. 
 
"POOR" OR "DESTITUTE." 79 
 
 poor law provides for the poor who are unable to 
 maintain themselves.^ The notion which seems to 
 exist in some quarters that guardians can do 
 nothing for a man until he is completely destitute 
 is not law ; but this mistaken notion has been used 
 to press hardly upon the poor.2 
 
 * See Preface, pp. xxiv. — v., andpp 44, 57, 60, 61, 90, 93, 
 95> 97> 98- Of course, Sir Henry Fowler only represented 
 the views of th Board. For his excellent and humane work 
 in connection with the Poor Law, see p. vii. 
 
 "^ Note also the power to provide allotments for "poor and 
 industrious persons " (p. 69) ; and also that the guardians 
 have certain powers of assisting emigration of "poor" 
 persons. 
 
8o ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 POWERS OF THE LOCAL GOVERN- 
 MENT BOARD TO ORDER USEFUL 
 EMPLOYMENT. 
 
 The question has been asked, Can the Local 
 Government Board in any case order productive or 
 useful work to be done ? ^ It certainly can in some 
 cases : — 
 
 (i) It can, where necessary, order enlargement 
 or improvement of workhouses or workhouse in- 
 firmaries, 4 & 5 Will. IV. c. ^6, s. 25. These in- 
 stitutions are sometimes grievously over-crowded. ^ 
 
 The board should in the first instance direct its 
 inspectors to state, by name^ in their published 
 reports, all such workhouses. Then, if exposure 
 and the advice of the Local Government Board 
 did not induce the guardians to remedy the evil, 
 the Board should order the improvement to be 
 made, unless the guardians reduced the over- 
 crowding by giving out-relief.^ 
 
 1 See question and reply in the House of Commons on 
 November 24th, 1893. 
 
 2 This appears from the reports of the inspectors, and 
 would appear much more plainly if they reported more 
 fully. 
 
 * No doubt this would often be the best course. 
 
POWER OF LOCAL GOVT. BOARD. 8i 
 
 (2) Apart from the poor law, the Local Govern- 
 ment Board in its capacity as superior sanitary 
 authority can order the performance of some 
 sanitary work which would give a substantial 
 amount of useful employment. 
 
 Of course it should not, and could not, order 
 sanitary work merely for the unemployed ; but 
 the contention is, that if the Local Govern- 
 ment Board only ordered such work as is highly 
 necessary, great benefits would be conferred 
 on the community, with the incidental advan- 
 tage that some, at least, of the rough work 
 would afford employment where it was and is 
 most needed. 
 
 When a local authority fails to put down 
 nuisances the Local Government Board may take 
 proceedings for that object (Public Health Act, 
 1875, 38 & 39 Vict. c. 55, s. 106), and in many 
 other cases enforce performance of duties by local 
 authorities {id,^ s. 299). They may order mortuaries 
 to be provided {id.^ s. 141), and in urban districts 
 may order cleansing of footways and pavements 
 {id.y s. 42).^ 
 
 Besides the direct power of the Local Govern- 
 ment Board to compel'^ better sanitation, it has 
 
 * By s. 42 the Local Government Board may order cleansing 
 of " streets." This includes footways and pavements ; see 
 s. 4, and note to s. 44 in " Lumley on Public Health," p. 72. 
 In towns the carriage roadways are usually cleansed (more 
 or less) by the local authorities, but not the pavements. A 
 circular, suggesting cleansing of pavements also, would be 
 useful. 
 
 2 The Public Health Act, 1875, does not apply to London, 
 which is governed by the Public Health Act, 1891. This 
 
 A.R. G 
 
82 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. 
 
 many opportunities, by holding public enquiries 
 and otherwise, of improving the public health. 
 But the following extract from a medical paper of 
 November, 1893, seems to suggest that more vigour 
 is needed in this department of the Local Govern- 
 ment Board : — 
 
 " Hitherto the pressure on local authorities to under- 
 take sanitary improvements has come from the Local 
 Government Board ; but the inevitable delays which 
 must attend all transactions with a great public office 
 have caused the local authorities to look upon its 
 interference as a subject, as the French say, pour rire." 
 
 It is obvious, also, that the Government might 
 advance public health and encourage useful work 
 by reducing the rate of interest on loans, and by 
 allowing the local authorities in many cases to 
 throw the repayment over a longer period than is 
 now permitted. There are statutory periods within 
 which the loans must be repaid, according to the 
 nature of the work ; but the Government officials 
 often considerably shorten such periods, to the 
 sorrow of the present ratepayer and the advantage 
 of the landlord.^ 
 
 latter Act places more power in the London County 
 Council ; consequently the Local Government Board has 
 less power in London than elsewhere. 
 
 ^ No doubt the future tenant will throw a share on the 
 landlord, if the repayment is spread over a longer period 
 as is here suggested. 
 
MEDICAL OUT-RELIEF. 83 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 DETAILED SUGGESTIONS AS TO 
 MEDICAL OUT-RELIEF. 
 
 This subject has been fully discussed by the 
 present writer in a letter to the President of the 
 Local Government Board (Mr. Long), entitled, 
 " The Health of the Nation," so it is only necessary 
 here to give some suggestions as to the form which 
 a circular as to Medical Out-relief should take, 
 and other means by which the Local Government 
 Board could reduce disease and high infant 
 mortality in the nation. 
 
 It is suggested that the Local Government 
 Board should issue a circular advising Boards of 
 Guardians : — 
 
 (i) In favour of harmonious co-operation with 
 the Town Councils for the benefit of the 
 Public Health ; and pointing out that, 
 where the Guardians think fit, they can 
 co-opt two members of the Council (under 
 the Local Government Act, 1894, sect. 20, 
 sub-sect. (7) ), and also may, by arrange- 
 ment with the Council, secure the assis- 
 tance of the Sanitary Inspectors to relieve 
 destitute persons where the visits of the 
 Relieving Officer may be attended with 
 
 G 2 
 
84 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. 
 
 danger to him and his family and the 
 public.^ 
 (2) Against deterring applications for Medical 
 Relief by persons unable to pay a doctor ; 
 and especially against any general rule 
 or practice making Medical Relief relief on 
 loan in the first instance,^ or requiring the 
 sick person, or a husband or wife of the 
 sick person, or a parent of a child, to 
 appear before the Board or Committee 
 unless there is some special reason for so 
 doing ; ^ against attempting to make poor 
 persons repay the cost of Medical Relief 
 (especially in infectious or children's cases), 
 unless there is reason to believe that they 
 can afford to repay.* 
 
 ^ See pp. I, 2, 16 — 23, oi Letter cited. 
 
 2 When the case has been seen by the doctor and reported 
 to the Board, the Guardians could make all future relief 
 from that date a loan, or require the applicant's attendance 
 if they thought fit. The important point is that there should 
 be early inspection by the Doctor ; and therefore the first 
 order, whether made by the Relieving Officer or by the 
 Guardians, should be free of any suggestion of loan to 
 persons who state that they cannot pay for a Doctor, unless 
 there is strong reason to the contrary. I think, however, 
 in infectious cases and in children's cases where there is 
 destitution {i.e. present inability to pay anything, see Letter, 
 p. 3), it should be clearly understood that medical attendance 
 and medicine (and usually all medical relief) would be free 
 during the whole illness. 
 
 3 This is specially important, as some of the Poor Law 
 Inspectors have advised Boards of Guardians to adopt these 
 methods. 
 
 * See pp. 6—8, 35, 36, of above Letter, as to present 
 practice of some Guardians, and id.^ pp. 23 — 25 as to some 
 Poor Law Inspectors. 
 
MEDICAL RELIEF. 85 
 
 (3) Against making Medical Relief in Confine- 
 
 ments a debt, unless there is reason to 
 believe that the persons assisted can afford 
 to pay for medical help.^ 
 It is also suggested that the Local Government 
 Board should : — 
 
 (4) In official returns and statistics distinguish 
 
 between Medical Out - relief only and 
 ordinary Out-door relief.^ 
 
 (5) Issue a Circular as to Tramps, advising 
 
 a careful inspection of Tramps in the 
 casual wards, and ready grant of Orders 
 for the doctor to those in the common 
 lodging houses unable to pay a doctor.^ 
 
 (6) Issue a Circular explaining the duties of 
 
 Guardians and Relieving Officers as to 
 Medical Relief. In drafting such Circular 
 special attention should be paid to points 
 where the Poor Law has often been mis- 
 understood.^ This might be done as a 
 supplement to the Circular issued to the 
 Relieving Officers in 1896.^ 
 
 (7) Obtain from all Unions, which habitually 
 
 give Medical Relief on loan, particulars of 
 their charges to the poor ; and, where a 
 charge is made for medical attendance, 
 
 * See Letter, pp. 13 — 16. 
 
 ' This is advocated by Sir William Chance (Report of 
 Poor Law Conference, May 22, 1903, p. 174). See Letter^ 
 p. 20. 
 
 ' See Letter, pp. 22 — 25. 
 
 * See Letter, pp. 11 — 13. 
 
 « See Letter, pp. 30, 35, 36. 
 
86 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. 
 
 information whether the doctor is paid in 
 
 whole or in part by case fees ; also when 
 
 the Guardians use any printed or written 
 
 form of agreement for repayment, obtain a 
 
 copy of such agreement.^ 
 
 (8) In accordance with the Recommendation of 
 
 the Committee on Physical Deterioration,* 
 
 set on foot and maintain from year to year 
 
 a register of sickness treated by the Poor 
 
 Law Medical services not confined to 
 
 infectious sickness. 
 
 It is here suggested that the Local Government 
 
 Board should proceed by Advisory Circular; but 
 
 should this prove insufficient, of course the power to 
 
 make relief a loan is dependent upon the " Orders " 
 
 of the predecessors of the Local Government 
 
 Board. If the Board thought fit it could, for 
 
 instance, wholly prohibit this practice in the case 
 
 of persons with infectious disease, or of sick 
 
 children, when there was present inability to pay 
 
 the doctor ; or prohibit it in the case of such 
 
 persons with weekly earnings below some specified 
 
 amount ; or they could suspend the power during 
 
 an epidemic. Small-pox and measles and other 
 
 infectious diseases in one Union soon spread to 
 
 another. Should, therefore, the fiery zeal of 
 
 any Board of Guardians for the reduction of 
 
 1 See Report of Poor Law Conference, May, 1903, p. 170; 
 also p. 50 above, and Letter, pp. 30, 35. 
 
 2 Report, pars. 62, 63, and Recommendation No. (2), 
 par. 423. I would suggest this should include confinements. 
 See Letter^ p. 16. 
 
DETAILED SUGGESTIONS. 87 
 
 " pauperism " make the Guardians forgetful of the 
 great and lasting strife of the Nation with the 
 forces of preventable disease and degeneracy and 
 premature death, the Local Government Board, 
 which has the supreme supervision of the health of 
 the whole country, can make any Orders which 
 may be necessary.^ 
 
 * Consumption. — It is among the very poorest that the 
 poison is generated which extends from them indirectly to 
 classes that ought not to have consumption at all : per 
 Sir W. Broadbent, Tuberculosis^ Aug. 1905, p. 258 ; see also 
 id. 254. "By feeding the underfed school children we shall 
 be preventing tuberculosis," id.^ Jan. 1906, p. 378. With a 
 view of reducing the national mortality from consumption, it 
 is important that, besides affording early medical relief when 
 needed, we should regard it as " an infectious disease of a 
 dangerous character" within the meaning of the Consolidated 
 Order of 12 Feb. 1879, Art. III. (Shaw's P. L. Orders, 
 p. 669), and that notice should be given by the Poor Law 
 doctor for the district to the Sanitary Authority or Medical 
 Officer of Health, so that the Sanitary Inspector may visit 
 the house where the patient lives and cause all possible pre- 
 cautions to be taken. Probably this could be effected by 
 Local Government Board circular to the Poor Law medical 
 officers, but if an explanatory order is necessary it should be 
 made. Guardians should also be reminded of their power, 
 in case of consumption or other illness, to give, where neces- 
 sary, extra money relief on condition that the patient has a 
 separate room. See pp. 39, 104, and Letter^ p. 11. 
 
 On the subject of medical relief generally, see also pp. xvii, 
 42, 43- 
 
APPENDIX. 89 
 
 APPENDIX/ 
 
 THE TEXT OF THE POOR RELIEF ACT, 1601 
 (43 Eliz. c. 2) SO FAR AS IT IS UNREPEALED. 
 
 ANNO QUADRAGESIMO TERTIO ELIZABETHS 
 REGINS. 
 
 CAP. II. 
 
 AN ACT FOR THE RELIEF OF THE POOR? 
 
 Be it enacted by the Authority of this present Par- 
 liament, That the Churchwardens ^ of every Parish, Overseers of 
 and Four, Three, or Two substantial Householders Jheifoffice, 
 there, as shall be thought meet, having respect to the etc 
 Proportion and Greatness of the same Parish [or]** 
 
 * See Chapter II., p. 5. 
 
 "^ Only those portions of the Act which are unrepealed are 
 here printed. It must, however, be remembered that though 
 the sections here printed are not repealed, their practical 
 effect has sometimes been much altered by subsequent legis- 
 lation : e.£^., see pp. 6, 63, above. There is no preamble to 
 43 Eliz. c. 2. An old edition of the Statutes, at the com- 
 mencement of the statutes for the year, states that they 
 were enacted "To the high pleasure of Almighty God and 
 the weal publick of the realm." 
 
 ' The mode of appointment of overseers is now altered in 
 rural parishes. 
 
 * Another reading is " and." 
 
90 
 
 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM, 
 
 Who shall 
 be taxed 
 towards the 
 Relief of the 
 Poor. 
 
 A conveni- 
 ent Stock 
 shall be pro- 
 vided to set 
 the Poor on 
 Work. 
 
 The Over- 
 seers shall 
 meet Once 
 every month 
 and ac- 
 compt. 
 
 Parishes, to be nominated yearly in Easter Week, or 
 within one Month after Easter, under the Hand and 
 Seal of Two or more Justices of the Peace in the same 
 County, whereof One to be of the Quorum, dwelling 
 in or near the same Parish or Division where the 
 same Parish doth lie, shall be called Overseers of the 
 Poor of the same Parish ; and they, or the greater Part 
 of them, shall take Order from Time to Time, by and 
 with the Consent of Two or more such Justices of 
 Peace as is aforesaid, for setting to work the Children 
 of all such whose Parents shall not, by the said Church- 
 wardens and Overseers, or the greater Part of them, 
 be thought able to keep and maintain their Children ; 
 and also for setting to work all such Persons, married 
 or unmarried, having no Means to maintain them, 
 [and] 1 use no ordinary and daily Trade of Life to get 
 their Living by ; and also to raise weekly or otherwise 
 (by Taxation of every Inhabitant, Parson, Vicar, and 
 other, and of every Occupier of Lands, Houses, Tithes 
 Impropriate, Propriations of Tithes, Coal Mines or 
 saleable Underwoods in the said Parish, in such 
 competent Sum and Sums of Money as they shall 
 think fit) a convenient Stock of Flax, Hemp, Wool, 
 Thread, Iron, and other Ware and Stuff, to set the 
 Poor on Work ; and also competent Sums of Money 
 for and towards the necessary Relief of the Lame, 
 Impotent, Old, Blind, and such other among them 
 being Poor, and not able to work ; and also for the 
 putting out of such Children to be Apprentices, to be 
 gathered out of the same Parish, according to the 
 Ability of the same Parish, and to do and execute all 
 other Things, as well for the disposing of the said 
 Stock, as otherwise concerning the Premises, as to 
 them shall seem convenient ; ^ which said Church- 
 wardens and Overseers so to be nominated, or such of 
 
 1 The word "and" is omitted in the large Record Office 
 edition of the Statutes and in the second edition of the 
 revised Statutes. It is in Pickering's and the Queen's 
 Printers' editions. In Chitty's Statutes the reading is " as 
 use." 
 
 2 See Chapters IX., X., pp. 56, 74. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 91 
 
 them as shall not be let by Sickness or other just 
 Excuse, to be allowed by Two such Justices of Peace 
 or more as is aforesaid, shall meet together at the 
 least Once every Month, in the Church of the said 
 Parish, upon the Sunday in the Afternoon after Divine 
 Service, there to consider of some good Course to be 
 taken, and of some meet Order to be set down in the 
 Premises ; and shall within Four Days after the End 
 of their Year, and after other Overseers nominated as 
 aforesaid, make and yield up to such Two Justices of 
 Peace as is aforesaid a true and perfect Accompt of all 
 Sums of Money by them received, or rated and sessed 
 and not received, and also of such Stock as shall be 
 in their Hands or in the Hands of any of the Poor to 
 work, and of all other Things concerning their said 
 Office ; and such Sum or Sums of Money as shall be 
 in their Hands shall pay and deliver over to the said 
 Churchwardens and Overseers newly nominated and 
 appointed as aforesaid, upon pain that every One of 
 them absenting themselves without lawful Cause as 
 aforesaid from such monthly Meeting for the Purpose 
 aforesaid, or being negligent in their Office or in the 
 Execution of the Orders aforesaid, being made by and 
 with the Assent of the said Justices of Peace or any 
 Two of them before mentioned, to forfeit for every such 
 default of Absence or Negligence Twenty Shillings. Penalty xos. 
 II. And if the said Justices of Peace do perceive Clause reiat- 
 that the Inhabitants of any Parish are not able to g'aUhes°°' 
 levy among themselves sufficient Sums of Money for 
 the Purposes aforesaid, that then the said Two 
 Justices shall and may tax, rate, and assess as afore- 
 said any other of other Parishes, or out of any Parish 
 within the Hundred where the said Parish is, to pay 
 such Sum and Sums of Money to the Churchwardens 
 and Overseers of the said poor Parish for the said 
 Purposes as the said Justices shall think fit, according 
 to the Intent of this Law; and if the said Hundred 
 shall not be thought to the said Justices able and fit 
 to relieve the said several Parishes not able to provide 
 for themselves as aforesaid, then the Justices of Peace 
 
92 
 
 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. 
 
 A Remedy 
 for levying 
 the Money 
 assessed. 
 
 Distress for 
 Nonpay- 
 ment. 
 
 at their General Quarter Sessions, or the greater 
 Number of them, shall rate and assess as aforesaid 
 any other of other Parishes, or out of any Parish 
 within the said County, for the Purposes aforesaid, 
 as in their Discretion shall seem fit.^ 
 
 III. And that it shall be lawful as well for the 
 present as subsequent Churchwardens and Overseers 
 or any of them, by Warrant from any Two such 
 Justices of Peace as is aforesaid, to levy as well the 
 said Sums of Money, and all Arrearages, of every One 
 that shall refuse to contribute according as they shall 
 be assessed, by Distress and Sale of the Offenders' 
 Goods, as the Sums of Money or Stock, which shall 
 be behind upon any Accompt to be made as aforesaid, 
 rendering to the Parties the Overplus [and in defect 
 
 ^ In some editions the sections here printed as 2 and 3 are 
 together printed as section 2, and the numbers of all the 
 subsequent sections altered accordingly. It seems that 
 this power to make rates in aid is still in force, notwith- 
 standing the following question and reply (taken from the 
 Daily Chro7iicle of Feb. 17th, 1894) : " Mr. Keir Hardie asked 
 the President of the Local Government Board whether sec- 
 tion 3 of the Act 43 Eliz., c. 2, which empowered two justices 
 of the peace, who were satisfied that the inhabitants of any 
 parish were not able to relieve their own poor, as provided 
 by the poor law, to assess other richer parishes within the 
 same hundred or county for the relief of the poor in the 
 parish first referred to, was still in force ; and if not, by what 
 statute it had been repealed; and whether he was aware 
 that it had been decided in the Law Courts that under this 
 section the justices might impose a special rate on selected 
 rich individuals in a neighbouring parish, instead of levying 
 it on such parish as a whole. — Mr. Fowler said whether the 
 enactment of 43 Ehz., c. 2, which was passed in 1601, was 
 operative at the present time was a question of law, which 
 could only be determined by a judicial decision. Under the 
 existing law, the maintenance of the poor was a charge on 
 the common fund of the union, to which all the parishes 
 included in the union contributed in the proportion of their 
 rateable value. The Local Government Board were not 
 aware of any case in which rates in aid had been levied 
 under the Act of Elizabeth since the Poor Law Amendment 
 Act, 1834, was passed." 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 93 
 
 of such Distress it shall be lawful for any such Two 
 Justices of the Peace to commit him or them to the 
 Common Gaol of the County, there to remain without 
 Bail or Mainprise until payment of the said Sum, 
 Arrearages, and Stock] ^ ; and the said Justices of 
 Peace, or any One ^ of them, to send to the House of 
 Correction or Common Gaol such as shall not employ 
 themselves to work, being appointed thereunto, as 
 aforesaid ; and also any such Two Justices of Peace to 
 commit to the said Prison every One of the said 
 Churchwardens and Overseers which shall refuse to 
 accompt, there to remain without Bail or Mainprise 
 until he have made a true accompt, and satisfied and 
 paid so much as upon the said Accompt shall be 
 remaining in his Hands. 
 
 IV. And it shall be lawful for the said Church- 
 wardens and Overseers, or the greater Part of them, 
 by the Assent of any Two Justices of the Peace afore- 
 said, to bind any such Children as aforesaid to be 
 Apprentices, where they shall see convenient, till such 
 Man-child shall come to the Age of Four and Twenty 
 Years, and such Woman-child to the Age of One and 
 Twenty Years, or the time of her Marriage ; the same 
 to be as effectual to all Purposes as if such Child were 
 of full Age, and by Indenture of Covenant bound him 
 or herself.^ 
 
 V. And to the Intent that necessary Places of 
 Habitation may more conveniently be provided for 
 such poor* impotent People, be it enacted by the 
 Authority aforesaid. That it shall and may be lawful 
 for the said Churchwardens and Overseers, or the 
 greater Part of them, by the Leave of the Lord or 
 Lords of the Manor ^ whereof any Waste or Common 
 
 Imprison- 
 ment of 
 those that 
 will not 
 work. 
 
 Refusers to 
 accompt im- 
 prisoned. 
 
 Binding of 
 
 Children 
 
 Apprentices. 
 
 Building of 
 Houses on 
 the Waste 
 for the Poor 
 to inhabit. 
 
 ^ Words in brackets repealed by 12 & 13 Vict. c. 14, s. 2. 
 
 ^ The word "one" is omitted in the Revised Statutes, 
 2nd edition. 
 
 ' So much of this Act as compels any person to receive 
 an Apprentice is repealed, 7 & 8 Vict. c. loi, s. 13. 
 
 * Note the word "poor" again, and also at pp. 90, 95, 97. 
 
 * It will be observed that no consent of the freeholders or 
 
94 
 
 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. 
 
 A Remedy 
 for them 
 which find 
 themselves 
 grieved with 
 any Tax. 
 
 within their Parish is or shall be Parcel, and upon 
 Agreement before with him or them made in Writing, 
 under the Hands and Seals of the said Lord or Lords, 
 or otherwise, according to any Order to be set down 
 by the Justices of Peace of the said County at their 
 General Quarter Sessions, or the greater Part of them, 
 by like Leave and Agreement of the said Lord or 
 Lords, in Writing under his or their Hands and Seals, 
 to erect, build, and set up, in fit and convenient Places 
 of Habitation in such Waste or Common, at the 
 general Charges of the Parish, or otherwise of the 
 Hundred or County as aforesaid, to be taxed, rated, 
 and gathered in manner before expressed, convenient 
 Houses of Dwelling for the said impotent Poor, and 
 also to place Inmates or more Families than One in 
 One Cottage or House ; One Act made in the Thirty- 
 first 3^ear of Her Majesty's Reign, intituled An Act 
 against the erecting and maintaining of Cottages,^ or 
 anything therein contained, to the contrary notwith- 
 standing ; which Cottages and Places for Inmates 
 shall not at any Time after be used or employed to or 
 for any other Habitation, but only for Impotent and 
 Poor of the same Parish, that shall be there placed 
 from Time to Time by the Churchwardens and Over- 
 seers of the Poor of the same Parish, or the most Part 
 of them, upon the Pains and Forfeitures contained in 
 the said former Act made in the said Thirty-first Year 
 of Her Majesty's Reign. 
 
 VI. Provided always. That if any Person or Persons 
 shall find themselves grieved with any Sess or Tax, or 
 other act done by the said Churchwardens, and other 
 Persons, or by the said Justices of Peace, that then it 
 shall be lawful for the Justices of Peace, at their 
 General Quarter Sessions, or the greater number of 
 
 copyholders is requisite. This suggests that either the Waste 
 or Common was not yet looked upon as strictly private 
 property, or that the officers of the parish were considered 
 to sufficiently represent the tenants of the manors. For 
 restrictions on enclosures under this section, see Commons 
 Act, 1899, s. 22. 
 
 * This Act, 31 Eliz. c. 7, is repealed by 15 Geo. IIL c 32. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 95 
 
 them, to take such Order therein as to them shall be 
 thought convenient ; and the same to conclude and 
 bind all the said Parties. 
 
 VII. And the Father and Grandfather, and the 
 Mother and Grandmother, and the children of every 
 poor, old, blind, lame, and Impotent Person, or other 
 poor Person not able to v^^ork, being of a sufficient 
 Ability,! shall at their own Charges relieve and main- 
 tain every such poor Person in that Manner, and 
 according to that Rate as.^ . . . 
 
 VIII. And the Mayors, Bailiffs, or other Head 
 Officers of every Tov^n or Place Corporate and City 
 within this Realm, being Justice or Justices of Peace, 
 shall have the same authority by virtue of this Act, 
 within the Limits and Precincts of their Jurisdictions, 
 as well out of Sessions as at their Sessions, if they hold 
 any, as is herein limited, prescribed, and appointed to 
 Justices of Peace of the County, or any Two or more 
 of them, or to the Justices of Peace in their Quarter 
 Sessions, to do and execute for all the Uses and Pur- 
 poses in this Act prescribed, and no other Justice or 
 Justices of Peace to enter or meddle there ; and that 
 every Alderman of the City of London within his 
 Ward shall and may do and execute in every respect 
 so much as is appointed and allowed by this Act to 
 be done and executed by One or Two Justices of 
 Peace of any County within this Realm. 
 
 IX. And if it shall happen any Parish to extend 
 itself into more Counties than (Dne, or Part to lie 
 within the Liberties of any City, Town, or Place Cor- 
 porate, and Part without, that then as well the 
 Justices of Peace of every County, as also the Head 
 Officers of such City, Town, or Place Corporate, shall 
 deal and intermeddle only in so much of the said 
 
 Poor Per- 
 sons relieved 
 by their 
 Parents or 
 Children. 
 
 Officers of 
 Corporate 
 Towns have 
 the Autho- 
 rity of Jus- 
 tices of 
 Peace. 
 
 Aldermen of 
 London. 
 
 A Parish ex- 
 tending into 
 Two Coun- 
 ties, or into 
 Two Liber- 
 ties. 
 
 ^ These words are very important. See Chapter VII., 
 pp. 46 — 51. Note also the words "poor person," not 
 "destitute person." 
 
 2 The rest of the section is repealed by 31 & 32 Vict, 
 c. 122, s. 36. See p. 46. The Petty Sessions now have 
 jurisdiction. 
 
96 
 
 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. 
 
 The Justices 
 Forfeiture 
 for not 
 naming of 
 Overseers. 
 
 How the 
 Forfeitures 
 shall be 
 levied and 
 employed. 
 
 Parish as lieth within their Liberties, and not any 
 further ; and every of them respectively, within their 
 several Limits, Wards, and Jurisdictions, to execute 
 the Ordinances before mentioned, concerning the 
 Nomination of Overseers, the Consent to binding 
 Apprentices, the giving Warrant to levy Taxations 
 unpaid, the taking Accompt of Churchwardens and 
 Overseers, and the committing to Prison such as refuse 
 to accompt, or deny to pay the Arrearages due upon 
 their Accompts ; and yet nevertheless the said Church- 
 wardens and Overseers, or the most Part of them of 
 the said Parishes that do extend into such several 
 Limits and Jurisdictions, shall, without dividing 
 themselves, duly execute their Office in all Places 
 within the said Parish in all things to them belonging, 
 and shall duly exhibit and make One Accompt before 
 the said Head Officer of the Town or Place Corporate, 
 and One other before the said Justices of Peace, or 
 any such Two of them, as is aforesaid. 
 
 X. And if in any Place within this Realm there 
 happen to be hereafter no such Nomination of Over- 
 seers yearly as is before appointed, that then every 
 Justice of Peace of the County dwelling within the 
 Division where such Default of Nomination shall hap- 
 pen [and every Mayor, Alderman, and Head Officer 
 of City, Town, or Place Corporate where such Default 
 shall happen],^ shall lose and forfeit for every such 
 Default Five Pounds, to be employed towards the 
 Relief of the Poor of the said Parish or Place Cor- 
 porate, and to be levied as aforesaid of their Goods 
 by Warrant from the General Sessions of the Peace 
 of the said County, [or of the same City, Town, or 
 Place Corporate, if they keep Sessions.] ^ 
 
 XI. And all Penalties and Forfeitures before men- 
 tioned in this Act to be forfeited by any Person or 
 Persons shall go and be employed to the Use of the 
 Poor of the same Parish, and towards a Stock and 
 
 ^ These two portions in brackets are repealed by 12 & 13 
 Vict. c. 8, s. 2, subject to proviso (s. 4) as to the City of 
 London and places under local Acts. 
 
APPENDIX. 97 
 
 Habitation for them, and other necessary Uses and 
 Relief, as before in this Act are mentioned and 
 expressed ; and shall be levied by the said Church- 
 wardens and Overseers, or One of them, by Warrant 
 from any Two such Justices of Peace, or Mayor, 
 Alderman, or Head Officer of City, Town, or Place 
 Corporate respectively, within their several Limits, 
 by Distress and Sale thereof, as aforesaid ; or in defect 
 thereof it shall be lawful for any Two such Justices 
 of Peace, and the said Aldermen and Head Officers 
 within their several Limits, to commit the Offender 
 to the said Prison, there to remain without Bail or 
 Mainprise till the said Forfeitures shall be satisfied 
 and paid. 
 
 [Sections 12 — 17 are repealed by 26 & 27 Vict., 
 c. 125 (Statute Law Revision Act). Section 18 relates 
 to the Island of Fowlness, in Essex, only. It directs 
 that Justices of Peace shall nominate and appoint 
 Inhabitants within the said Island to be Overseers for 
 " the poor People " ^ dwelling within the said Island.] 
 
 [Section 19 (or 18) is repealed by 56 & 57 Vict., 
 c. 61 ; and section 20 (or 19) by 26 & 27 Vict., c. 125, 
 k^. L. R.] 
 
 II. 
 
 THE TEXT OF THE RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE 
 POOR LAW COMMISSION OF 1834.^ 
 
 I. In-Relief to Able-Bodied. 
 
 [No. I is fully set out at p. 14, above.^] 
 
 2. Central Board. 
 
 We recommend, therefore, the appointment of a poorLaw 
 Central Board to control the administration of the Commis- 
 
 sioners, 
 p. 297. 
 
 * Observe the word "poor" not "destitute." 
 
 ^ See Chapter HI., p. 11, above. 
 
 3 Report of the Poor Law Commissioners, p. 262. 
 
 A.R. H 
 
98 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. 
 
 poor laws, with such assistant Commissioners as may 
 be found requisite ; and that the Commissioners be 
 empowered and directed to frame and enforce regu- 
 lations for the government of workhouses, and as to 
 the nature and amount of the relief to be given and 
 the labour to be exacted in them, and that such 
 regulations shall, as far as may be practicable, be 
 uniform throughout the country.^ 
 
 3. Formation of Unions. 
 
 Poor Law To effect these purposes ^ we recommend that the 
 
 Commis- Central Board be empowered to cause any number 
 of parishes which they may think convenient to be 
 incorporated for the purpose of workhouse manage- 
 ment, and for providing new workhouses where 
 necessary, to declare their workhouses to be the 
 common workhouses of the incorporated district, and 
 to assign to those workhouses separate classes of poor, 
 though composed of the poor of distinct parishes, 
 each distinct parish paying to the support of the 
 permanent workhouse establishment in proportion to 
 the average amount of the expense incurred for the 
 relief of its poor for the three previous years and 
 paying separately for the food and clothing of its own 
 
 sioners 
 p. 314, 
 
 paupers.^ 
 
 4. Accounts. 
 
 Poor Law We recommend, therefore, that the Central Board 
 
 Commis- j^g empowered and required to take measures for the 
 p. sfjf' general adoption of a complete, clear, and as far as 
 may be practicable, uniform system of accounts.* 
 
 * Report, p. 297. 
 
 ^ That is, classification, uniformity of treatment, economy, 
 etc. — subjects which the Commissioners discuss in the 
 pages preceding this recommendation. They remark that 
 " the children who enter an ordinary workhouse quit it, if 
 ever they quit it, corrupted where they were well disposed, 
 and hardened where they were vicious" (p. 309) 
 
 ^ Report, p. 314. 
 
 * Id., p. 139. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 99 
 
 5. Incorporation of Parishes. 
 
 We further recommend, therefore, that the Central Poor Law 
 
 Board be empowered to incorporate parishes for the Jo™5i'^' 
 
 purpose of appointing and paying permanent officers, p- 326-' 
 and for the execution of works of public labour.^ 
 
 6. Paid Officers. 
 [No. 6, relating to paid officers, is set out above Poor Law 
 
 at D. 16.1 Commis- 
 
 •t^ J sioners 
 
 7. Tender. ^' ^'^' 
 
 We recommend that the Central Board be em- Poor Law 
 
 powered to direct the parochial consumption to be So™r 
 
 supplied by tender and contract, and to provide that p. 330.' 
 the competition be perfectly free.^ 
 
 8. Prosecutors. 
 
 We recommend that the Central Board be em- Poor Law 
 powered and required to act in such cases as public ^oJIl™*" 
 prosecutors.^ p- 331. 
 
 g. Relief by Loan. 
 We therefore recommend, that under regulations to Poor Law 
 
 be framed by the Central Board, parishes be empowered 
 to treat any relief afforded to the able-bodied, or to 
 their families, and any expenditure in the workhouses 
 or otherwise incurred on their account, as a loan, and 
 recoverable not only by the means given by the 29th 
 section of the 59th Geo. III., c. 12, but also by attach- 
 ment of their subsequent wages in a mode resembling 
 
 Commis- 
 sioners, 
 P- 337- 
 
 * Report, p. 326. The Commissioners strongly urge the 
 provision of useful employment, pp. 324 — 328, and condemn 
 useless toil as pernicious (p. 324). Drainage of a town and 
 road-mending in the country, are given as instances of useful 
 employment (p. 325). 
 
 2 M, p. 321. 
 
 3 /d.^ p. 331. See p. 16 above. 
 
 H 2 
 
100 
 
 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. 
 
 ^oor Law 
 Commis- 
 sioners, 
 p. 338. 
 
 that pointed out in the 30th, 31st, and 32nd sections of 
 that Act.i 
 
 10. ApPRENTICIxNG. 
 
 We recommend, therefore, that the Central Board be 
 empowered to make such regulations as they shall 
 think fit respecting the relief to be afforded by appren- 
 ticing children, and that at a future period, when the 
 effect of the proposed alterations shall have been seen, 
 the Central Board be required to make a special 
 inquiry into the operation of the laws respecting the 
 apprenticing children at the expense of parishes, and 
 into the operation of the regulations in that respect 
 which the Board shall have enforced.^ 
 
 Poor Law 
 Commis- 
 sioners, 
 p. 340. 
 
 II. Vagrants. 
 
 We recommend that the Central Board be em- 
 powered and directed to frame and enforce regulations 
 as to the relief to be afforded to vagrants and dis- 
 charged prisoners.^ 
 
 Poor Law 
 Commis- 
 sioners, 
 P- 341. 
 
 12. Report of Central Board. 
 
 We recommend, therefore, that the Board be required 
 to submit a Report annually to one of your Majesty's 
 Principal Secretaries of State, containing — (i) An 
 account of their proceedings ; (2) Any further amend- 
 ments which they may think it advisable to suggest ; 
 
 (3) The evidence on which the suggestions are founded ; 
 
 (4) Bills carrying those amendments (if any) into effect, 
 which Bills the Board shall be empowered to prepare 
 with professional assistance.'* 
 
 Poor Law 
 Commis- 
 sioners, 
 P- 341- 
 
 13. Officers of Central Board. 
 
 We recommend that the Central Board be em- 
 powered to appoint and remove their assistants and all 
 their subordinate officers.^ 
 
 Report, p. 337. 
 Id., p. 338. 
 Id., p. 340. 
 
 " /^.,p. 341. 
 « Id., p. 341. 
 
APPENDIX. loi 
 
 14. Settlement. 
 
 We recommend, therefore, that settlement by hiring Poor Law 
 
 and service, apprenticeship, purchasing or renting a S°™r"sr 
 
 tenement, estate, paying rates, or serving an office, be p. 342.' 
 abolished.^ 
 
 15. Settlement of Children. 
 
 We recommend, therefore, that (subject to the PoorLaw 
 obvious exceptions of persons born in prisons, hospitals, Commis- 
 and workhouses) the settlement of every legitimate p, "43.' 
 child born after the passing of the intended Act, 
 follow that of the parents or surviving parent of such 
 child, until such child shall attain the age of sixteen 
 years, or the death of its surviving parent ; and that 
 at the age of sixteen, or on the death of its surviving 
 parent, such child shall be considered settled in the 
 place in which it was born.^ 
 
 16. Proof of Settlement. 
 
 We 'recommend that whenever there shall be any poor Law 
 question regarding the settlement by birth of a person Commis- 
 whether legitimate or illegitimate, and whether born p. 346.' 
 before or after the passing of the intended Act, the 
 place where such person shall have been first known 
 by the evidence of such person, by the register of his 
 or her birth or baptism, or otherwise to have existed, 
 shall be presumed to have been the place of his or her 
 birth, until the contrary shall be proved.^ 
 
 17. Settlement of Illegitimate. 
 
 We recommend that the general rule shall be poorLaw 
 followed, as far as it is possible, and that every illegi- Commis- 
 timate child born after the passing of the Act, shall, p. 346.' 
 until it attain the age of sixteen, follow its mother's 
 settlement.^ 
 
 1 Report, p. 342. 3 /^,^ p, 3^6, 
 
 2 Id., p. 343. * Id., p. 346. 
 
102 
 
 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. 
 
 Poor Law 
 Commis- 
 sioners, 
 P- 347- 
 
 i8. Support of Illegitimate by Mother. 
 
 As a further step towards the natural state of things, 
 we recommend that the mother of an illegitimate 
 child born after the passing of the Act, be required to 
 support it, and that any relief occasioned by the wants 
 of the child be considered relief afforded to the parent.^ 
 
 Poor Law 
 Commis- 
 sioners, 
 P- 349- 
 
 Poor Law 
 Commis- 
 sioners, 
 P- 349- 
 
 19. Support of Illegitimate by Mother's Husband. 
 
 We recommend that the same liability be extended 
 to her husband.2 
 
 20. Mother of Illegitimate. 
 
 On the other hand we recommend the repeal of that 
 part of the 35 Geo. III., c. loi, s. 6, which makes an 
 unmarried pregnant woman removable, and the 
 50 Geo. III., c. 51, s. 2, which authorises the committal 
 of the mother of a chargeable bastard to the House of 
 Correction.^ 
 
 Poor Law 
 Commis- 
 sioners, 
 P- 351. 
 
 Poor Law 
 Commis- 
 sioners, 
 P- 357- 
 
 21. Immunity of Father of Illegitimate. 
 
 We recommend, therefore, that the second section of 
 the 18 Eliz. c. 3, and all other Acts which punish or 
 charge the putative father of a bastard shall, as to all 
 bastards born after the passing of the intended Act, be 
 repealed.^ 
 
 22. Emigration. 
 
 We recommend, therefore, that the vestry of each 
 parish be empowered to order the payment out of the 
 
 1 Report, p. 347. 
 
 « Id., p. 349 
 
 » Id., p. 349- 
 
 * Id.^ p. 351. Of course the suggestion that a man should 
 be free to have illegitimate children without paying for their 
 support has not been adopted by the Legislature. When 
 the wisdom of the Commissioners of 1834 is over-much 
 extolled, it is desirable to remember this suggestion of theirs 
 (see pp. 17, 18). 
 
APPENDIX. 103 
 
 rates raised for the relief of the poor, of the expenses 
 of the emigration of any persons having settlements 
 within such parish, who may be willing to emigrate ; 
 provided that the expense of each emigration be raised 
 and paid within a period to be mentioned in the Act.^ 
 
 III. 
 THE RIGHT OF THE ABLE BODIED.« 
 
 The right of the able-bodied person who is unable 
 to maintain himself is (under 43 Eliz. c. 2) to 
 employment coupled with relief ; see Attorney -General 
 V. Guardians of Merthyr Tydvil, L. R. [1900] i Ch. 
 516 ; 82 L. T. Rep. 662, 665, but he cannot claim out- 
 relief unless the workhouse is full ; and in unions 
 where the " Prohibitory Order " is in force, the 
 guardians can only give him relief in the workhouse — 
 except in case of sickness of himself, his wife or 
 family, and in some other excepted cases. Where this 
 Order is not in force they can give even the able- 
 bodied out-relief, but it is strictly regulated by the 
 Out-door Relief Regulation Order (see pp. 67, 68 above). 
 
 IV. 
 INFANT MORTALITY AND VILLIERS LE DUC.« 
 
 The following extracts from the report of the 
 Mayor of Villiers le Due will show the wonderful 
 reduction of infant mortality in that district. Though 
 the same methods could not be followed exactly by 
 English local authorities, still much might be done 
 even under the present law. I quote the extracts from 
 pages 64, 65, of the very able report of Dr. Moore, of 
 Huddersfield : — 
 
 " Considering that the municipal authorities have 
 the duty of endeavouring to stop the depopulation of 
 
 1 Report, p. 357. 
 
 ' See Preface, p. xxiv. 
 
 3 See Preface, p. xvii. 
 
104 ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. 
 
 the country by taking the measures necessary to pre- 
 vent birth mortality and any child being still bom, 
 and to do away with infant mortality, the Municipal 
 Council orders as follows : — 
 
 Regulation. 
 
 "Article I. — Every woman with child, whether 
 married or not, having her home in the villages, and 
 not in possession of sufficient means to allow her to 
 take upon herself the expense of the measures neces- 
 sary to secure as far as possible not only her own life, 
 but also of the child about to be born, shall have the 
 right to acquire the help of the village authority." 
 
 [For details of the measures taken the reader must 
 be referred to Dr. Moore's report.] I quote, however, 
 the satisfactory result. 
 
 "According to the official registers it is shown that 
 before the application of these measures the infantile 
 mortality (infants under one year of age), calculated 
 by decennial periods during a century, had never fallen 
 to less than 13 per cent, at Villiers le Due, and had 
 risen as high as 28 per 100 of the number of births. 
 
 " Since the orders given below have been observed, 
 that is to say, during the last decennial period (1892 
 to 1903), the infantile mortality rate has fallen to zero. 
 
 " In fact, for ten years no child has died as com- 
 pared with fifty-four reared, and no death has 
 followed any confinement. 
 
 " The women of the district very easily fall in with 
 the rules given, for they understand the usefulness of 
 them. 
 
 " (Signed) The Mayor of Villiers le Dug, 
 " Morel de Villiers." 
 
 V. 
 
 PAYMENT BY GUARDIANS OF RELIEF TO 
 COVER RENT.i 
 
 In a Minute by the Right Hon. G. J. Goschen, the 
 President of the Poor Law Board, on the subject of 
 
 1 See pp. 39, 87. 
 
APPENDIX. 105 
 
 " Charity and Relief," quoted at pp. 190, 191, of " The 
 Guardians' Guide," it is stated that boards of guardians 
 " cannot legally give relief in paying rent or lodging, 
 so that assistance rendered for these purposes^ will 
 not interfere with the action of the guardians." This 
 is, however, a misleading statement, as will be seen on 
 reference to the proviso in Article V. of the Prohibitory 
 Order, and the explanatory letter of the Poor Law 
 Commissioners, 21st December, 1844. This erroneous 
 minute should be corrected, as the mistake has done 
 much mischief. 
 
 VI. 
 
 NOTE ON POOR RELIEF IN SCOTLAND.2 
 
 Of the ordinary poor,^ nearly 86 per cent, receive 
 out-relief, and only 14 per cent, receive indoor relief 
 (Scotch Local Government Board Report for 1904, 
 p. viii). One hundred and one complaints were 
 made in 1904 to the Local Government Board 
 of inadequate relief; 21,567 have been received 
 since the Board of Supervision was formed {ih. 
 pp. xix, xx). It is stated in this Report that the 
 Board saw no objection to a proposal of the Edin- 
 burgh Parochial Council to send a list of the children 
 on the outdoor roll attending schools in the town to 
 the headmasters, and that they should indicate the 
 children who in their opinion should be provided with 
 one good meal a day ; and then the Relief Committee 
 should, where they found the children would be 
 benefited by such treatment, give tickets for free 
 dinners * (ib. p. xxiii). 
 
 * I.e., by charitable persons. 
 2 See p. 30. 
 
 ^ The "ordinary poor" include all the poor except the 
 lunatics. 
 
 * The Scotch appear to give out-relief freely, and to give 
 defter out-relief than most English boards. 
 
 A.R. 
 
 v:^ 
 
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