THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES cOLD AGE PENSIONS si' AN INQUIRY AS TO THE BEARING OF QUOTED BY THE RT. HON. J. CHAMBERLAIN, M.P. AND OTHERS, IN SUPPORT OF A SCHEME FOR NATIONAL PENSIONS C. S. ^OCH Secretary, London Charity Organization Society ILontiou SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO. PATERNOSTER SQUARE 1892 Butler Sl Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Fbome, and London. H} 07 7 l7 INTRODUCTION. 2 The returns of pauperism in England and Wales are fre- quently quoted as absolute evidence in favour of some kind ^ of National Pension Scheme. This paper has been written 3 ' in order to show that the relation between the two has been mis-stated, and that the returns afford no pretext for the F D proposal. If this be so, the main and most telling argument ^ for it falls to the ground. In support of the proposal, other arguments have also, no r doubt, been used. But they are of minor importance, and ■] to them little or no reference is here made. Here it was desired to deal with only one point in the controversy. A summary of conclusions is given on page 40. S79661 TABLE OF CONTENTS. statistics said to show the Neces- page sity of a Scheme of Old Age Pensions .... 5 The Argument from Pauperism . 8 Four Country Unions and their Lesson . . . . .10 The Four Country Unions : their Lesson as to Able-bodied Pauperism . . . .12 The Lesson of Four London Unions . . . . .15 Pauperism over Sixty and Popu- lation over Sixty in the Eight Unions in 1871, 1881, and 1891 18 The Cost of making Paupers of the Aged . . . .24 Existing Pauperism no Argument for any National Annuity Scheme . . . .25 The Causes of Pauperism Ig- page nored in the Statistical State- ment 29 The Criticism of the Poor Law Commissioners . . .31 Conclusions ..... 40 Appendix : — "Of these old people, two- fifths, at least, belong to the richer classes " . Paupers over Sixty : their Number by a Day Census : their Number in a Year Evidence taken by Select Com- mittee of House of Commons, 1886 Population of the Eight Unions Good Poor-Law Administration Promotes Thrift . 43 47 52 58 59 OLD AGE PENSIONS AND TAUPERISM. STATISTICS SAID TO SHOW THE NECESSITY OF A SCHEME OF OLD AGE PENSIONS. Mr. Chamberlain in the followino; statement sets forth the grounds of his proposal for Old Age Pensions.* He says : — " I want to take this opportunity of consulting you on a practical question. That is the subject to which I have referred on several occasions of late, of a national provision for old age. I think you must be aware of the importance of this question. I said the other day that from returns I had just obtained, I found that of all the old people — man and woman — above the age of sixty, one in seven was at the present time in receipt of pai'ish relief — (shame)— and I said that that was a deplorable fact. (Hear, hear.) But, gentlemen, this statement does not fully express the gravity of the situation. Of these old people who are now living, two-fifths at least belong to the richer classes, of whom very few — some now and then by way of exception, but still very few indeed — ever come upon the poor rates. And accordingly, if you take the old people above sixty belonging to the working- classes, it is not one in seven that is in receipt of poor relief, but one in four. Even that is not all. One in four is in receipt of poor relief at this time, but for one person who is in receipt of poor relief or in the workhouse to-day, there will be two or three persons who are in the same position in the course of the year. One man receives assistance in January, another receives assistance in February ; only one counts at a time, but really there are two in receipt of * Speech by the Eight Hon. J. Chamberlain at Birmingham, 21st April, 1891. 5 poor relief during tlie year ; and consequently this is the summary of the investigation I have made: At the present time, of the working classes, one in two, if he reaches the age of sixty, is almost certain to come upon the Poor Law for his subsistence. (Shame.) Now it may well be that some of these deserve their fate : they may have been brought to it by intemperance or mis- conduct of some kind or another. But nobody will persuade me that that is true of all of them — (cheers) — or even the lai^ger proportion of them. It is impossible that one out of two of the industrial population of this kingdom have done anything to deserve the fate which under existing circumstances is inevitably in store for them. (Cheers.) I say then that this is a question which deserves the attention of politicians and statesmen better than theoretical matters or projects of constitutional reform." (Cheers.) . . . Later on he says : — " There are two other suggestions which have been made to me, which I should like to put forward. One is that the parish should contribute a certain sum, a small contribution if you like, for every child born, and should put it to the credit of the child in the National Insurance fund. The argument is this — it seems at first sight rather a socialistic proposition, but the argument is this — that, as, if this scheme were carried out, the poor rates would be relieved by at least one-half, it is only fair that those who pay poor rates should make a contribution towards the fund ; and as, of course, we all pay poor rates, more or less indirectly or directly, in the course of our lives, the proposition, after all, is really one of co-operation rather than of distinct and definite Socialism." These arguments are frequently quoted as evidence of the urgent need of some scheme of National Pensions ; and very similar arguments have been used with the same object by Rev. W. Moore Ede and Mr. Sidney Webb.* We would submit them to examination. There are three main statements. We will take them in suc- cession, pointing out how they have been framed, so far as it is possible to ascertain this. * See Contemporary Review, April, 1891, p. 100, and July, 1890, p. 107. 1. " Of all old people — man and ivoman — above the age of sixty, one in seven was at the present time in receipt of parish relief.'' Mr. Burt's return * gives the numbers of those who on August 1, 1890, were over the age of sixty and in receipt of Poor Law relief. The total is 286,867. By the census for 1881 there were on April 3, in that year, 1,916,266 persons in England and Wales sixty years of age and upwards. This gives the proportion of one in seven. 2. " Of the old people now living [i.e., ivho are above the age of sixty; namely, 1,916,266] f two-fifths at least belong to the richer classes. . . , Accordingly, if you take the old people above sixty belonging to the ivorhing classes, it is not one in seven that is in receipt of poor relief, but one in four." If it be assumed that two-fifths of the population belong to the richer and three-fifths, or 1,149,759, to the working classes, it follows that of those over sixty in the latter one in four are in receipt of poor relief. 3. Lastly, ''''for one person who is in receipt of poor relief, or in the workhouse to-day, there will be two or three in the same position in the course of the year.'' It is assumed that the number of the paupers over sixty should be multiplied by 2 or 3 to obtain the total number of such paupers in a single year. Accordingly the 286,867 of Mr. Burt's return is multiplied by 2. It thus gives us as the total of paupers over sixty 573,734. This number, taken as the divisor of the figure which represents the working-class population over sixty, namely, 1,149,759 — gives the result that "-At the present time, of the working classes, one in two, if he reaches the age of sixty, is almost sure to come upon the Poor Law for his subsistence. ' If 3, the other figure suggested, be taken as the multiplier, * A Eeturu " showing, in respect of each Union and Parish under a separate Board of Guardians in England and Wales, the number of persons in each sex in receipt (a) of Indoor lielief and {h) of Outdoor Eelief on the 1st day of August, 1890, who were sixty years of age, distinguishing those who were over sixty and under sixty-five, sixty-five and under seventy, seventy and under seventy-five, seventy-five and under eighty, and eighty years of age and up- wards ; Lunatics in Asylums, Licensed Houses, and Kegistered Hospitals, Vagrants and persons who are only in receipt of Eelief constructively by reason of Eelief given to Wives or Children not being included." + This total is obtained from the Summary Table— Table I., vol. iii., of the Census of 1881. we have a result, Avhich, stated in Mr. Chamberlain's words, would be as follows : — " At the present time, of the working classes," nearly three out of every four, " if they reach the age of sixty, are almost certain to comf upon the Poor Law for their subsistence.^' II. THE ARGUMENT FROM PAUPERISM. So far all seems well ; and yet the conclusion is altogether faulty. In the first place, the test of the need of a system of old age pensions is taken to be the number of paupers over sixty, whether in the whole population or in the working class. But the number of paupers over sixty is not a fair test of such a need. The number of paupers depends largely on the administration of the Poor Law. To take the present number as a test is to assume the efficiency of the present administration. To illustrate this we will take four country and four metro- politan unions. Before the Select Committee of the House of Commons on National Provident Insurance, evidence was submitted in the year 1886 to the effect that 37 per cent, of those who were buried in one country parish had " died either in the workhouse or as recipients of outdoor relief." Similar returns, it was stated, had been I'eceived from the clergy of twenty- six other parishes, most of which were in the countxy. Of these the names of seventeert were mentioned at the committee. They were tabulated, it was said, so as to show the number of those buried who " were actually in receipt of relief, indoor and outdoor, in some form or another, at the time of their deaths," and care was taken to avoid parishes in which " there was a union workhouse, which would have increased the rate." The result of this tabulation went to show, it was stated, that " 42' 7 out of every 100 of the population that reached sixty years of age died as paupers." This evidence is printed in the appendix, p. 52. A table of the unions, of which the seventeen parishes form part, is given on page 25. The four country unions, details of which are given in the next and other subsequent tables, are Linton in Cambridgeshire, 9 Midlmrst in Sussex, Brixworth in Northamptonshire, and Brad- field in Berks. Midhurst was chosen as holding a middle position in the list of the seventeen unions arranged according to the number of paupers in the population. Its population has in- creased in the last thirty years, but the increase does not appear to be abnormal. Linton has been chosen as a union in which a policy of outdoor relief appeared to prevail. Brixworth and Bradfield are remarkable as unions in which there has been an unusually careful administi-ation of relief for about twenty years. The population of Brixworth and that of Linton are nearly the same. The four London unions selected are Bethnal Green, the Strand, Stepney, and St. George-in-the-East. Since 1871 there has been a moderate increase of population at Bethnal Green. Each decade there has been a marked decrease in the Strand ; and the decrease, no doubt, tells against the union in the comparison of paupers to population. Also, it must be remembered, that it is in a central part of London, to which much unsettled pauperism is likely to gravitate. Yet, after all deduction made, the figures respecting it, which are given below, are remarkable. Stepney, at the last census, showed a slight decrease, and there has been at St. George-in-the-East a slight decrease, census by census. In the appendix, p. 58, a table of the population of all the unions here referred to is given, since 1861. In Bethnal Green an out-i-elief policy appears to prevail ; a return of 717 outdoor paupers in January, 1881, is succeeded by a return of 1,214 in January, 1891. In the Strand there is still a good deal of out-relief, though since 1881 it has been much reduced. Since about 1876 a non-out- relief policy has been adopted at St. George-in-the-East. At Stepney there has been a steady -reduction of outdoor relief since 1871. All the London unions chosen are poor. The poorest, taken as a whole, is St. George-in-the-East ; next in order perhaps would come Bethnal Green, with some comparatively large better-to-ilo parts ; then Stepney ; then the Strand.* * On this point reference may be made to the " blocks," of which particulars are given by Mr. Charles Booth in the chapter on Statistics of Poverty, in " Labour and Life of the People," vol. ii., London, continued. (Williams & Norgate. 1891.) 10 CIS CO S 1— 1 n3 W W OO H rr r^ fl 0*5 H^ .Si 11. Paupers over 60 on total population. + o IN a o o us a 1-H o a 00 a 10. . Paupers male and female over GO j-ears of ago in receipt of relief.t 00 9. Not ablb- llOBIBn males and females in and out (less children).* 1 g CO cc Able- bodied adult males and females Vt ceiving indoor re- lief owing to tem- porary dis- ablement, and able- bodied adult males receiving utdoor re- lief owing to sickness or in- firmity.* (M o CO -* 7. Total ABLE- BODIED males and females (less child) en under 16) receiving in and outdoor relief.* § <;d Co '-I 6. Paupers on Population. T-l CO ex CO 1—1 5. Total.* 5 <;3 ©5 •-I 4. 111 door paupers less lunatics, snd vagrants relieved out of the workhouse (but in- cluding children under 10). » CO 1-1 CO 05 3. Indoor paupers less lunatics, and vagrants relieved in the work- house (but including children under 10).* § «2 '-I 2. Popula- tion, by Censiis, April 6, 1891, (N CO r-l o 00 o QO' 1. Name of Union. o 6-1 Z t-t H K P « o K A .2 "^ O r^ — ■5 ? ^ r^ a> n c4 pHq ;= 60 11 Three or four facts are made evident by these figures : — 1. In the two unions in which there is the more careful ad- ministration of relief, the paupers ai'e 1 in 12r8 and 1 in 126"8, while in the other two unions they are respectively 8 and 5 times more numerous, being 1 in 14-5 and 1 in 23" 1. 2. Simultaneously with this great difference in the number of paupers in the population, there is a marked difference in the number of able-bodied paupers. Taking in and out together, Linton has 111, Midhurst 80. Brixworth, with rather a smaller population, has 6. Bradfield, with a population much larger than that of any of the other unions, has only 18. 3. AVith the diffei'ence in the able-bodied pauperism, there is a corresponding difference in the "not able-bodied." At Linton the number of these is more than seven times their number at Brixworth, Midhurst has 339 " not able-bodied," while Bradfield has only 87. 4. These differences in the " able-bodied " and " not able-bodied " paupers, are associated with similar differences in regard to the number of paupers over sixty. In the more carefully managed unions the figures are 1 in 150"4 and 1 in 246'8. In the two other unions 1 in 26"9 and 1 in 56"0. It would seem from this that iu unions in which the guardians follow most strictly the advice of the Commissioners of 1832, — make indoor relief the rule and outdoor relief the exception, and avoid giving relief out of the House to able-bodied persons, they prevent the pauperism of old age. Whereas those guardians who only partially follow the Commissioners' advice, make a larger or a smaller number of paupers, who, admitted to relief while still able-bodied, continue to receive it in old age. If the door to pauperism is not closed on the applicant when he is able-bodied, it remains open to him later on, when he is able-bodied no longer, or when he is, to use the words of Mr. Burt's return, " a person of sixty years of age in receipt of relief." Pauperism over sixty, depends very largely, it would thus appear, on the administration of the Poor Law.* * The first of the specific " remedial measures" recommended by the Poor Law Commissioners is : — " That except as to medical attendance, and subject to the exception respect- ing apprenticeship hereinafter stated, all reUef wliatover to able-bodied persons or to their families, otherwise tlian in well-regulated workhouses {i.e., places 12 IV. THE FOUR COUNTRY UNIONS : THEIR LESSON AS TO ABLE-BODIED PAUPERISM. Before passing to the Table of Metropolitan Unions, two tables giving a further analysis of pauperism in the country may be considered. They suggest the process by which able-bodied relief grows into old age relief, and show that, when able-bodied relief is fairly grappled with, a decided check is put on the pauperism of old age. Yet while stress is laid on the effects of a refusal of outdoor relief to the able-bodied, it must not be forgotten that a strict administration on the lines of the Poor Law Commissioners reduces the number of both able-bodied and not able-bodied paupers.* where they may be set to work accordirig to the spirit and intention of the 43rd of Ehzabetb), shall be declared unlawful and shall cease in manner and at periods hereinafter specified. . . ." — Report (1834), p. 262. On p. 42 of the same Report the Commissioners write as to relief to able- bodied widows : — " In all cases which have been mentioned, relief is professed to be afforded on the ground of want of employment, or insufficient wages ; but a class of persons have, in many places, established a right to pubhc support, indepen- dently of either of these claims. There are widows who, in many places, receive what are called pensions of from l*-. to 3s. a week on tbeir own account, without any reference to their age or strength or powers of obtaining an in- dependent subsistence, but simply as widows. In sucb places they receive an additional allowance if they have children." That this practice, disapproved by the Commissioners, still continues, many will bear witness. The returns of unions show a large number of able-bodied women, very many of whom are widows, in receipt of outdoor relief. On p. 45 of their very important Eeport of 1840, the Commissioners write : — " The fundamental principle with respect to the legal relief of the poor is, that the condition of the pauper ought to be, on the whole, less eligible than that of the independent labourer. The equity and expediency of this prin- ciple are equally obvious. . . . The truth of this principle has either been generally admitted, or, at least, has not been disputed ; but the difficulty has consisted in applying it in practice. All distribution of relief in money or goods to be spent or consumed by the pauper in his own house, is inconsistent with the principle in question. Money or goods given to paupers to be spent or consumed by themselves, as they may think proper, is in general more accept- able than an equal value earned as wages, inasmuch as it is unaccompanied by the painful condition of labour. . . ." * " Able-bodied " Is thus defined (see Glen's Poor Laic Orders, 1883, p. 423) : — " ' Neither are persons above sixty years of age necessarily to be regarded as 13 Table II. 1. ., 3. 4. 5. «• ! Able- Able- Able- Able- bodied bodied bodied bodied Total Tolal ' Names of XJoioiis. MALES MALES FEMALES FEMALES Able-bodied Not 1 receiving receiving receiving receiving paupers in ablb-budikd INDOOR OUTDOOB INDOOR OUTDOOll and OUT (less paupers in relief, relief, relief. relief. children) on and out (less i less less less less population. children) on children. children. children. children. population. Linton . . 18 ID 11 63 lin 114-6 iin S2 7 MrDHUKST . 4 17 16 4.3 lin 177-9 lin 41-9 Bkixwoeth . 3 3 1 in 2031-0 lin 160 3 \ Bkadfield . 6 12 1 in 1000-9 lin 207 j 1 These figures show that at Brixworth and Bradfield no outdoor relief is giv^en to able-bodied men or women. At Linton and Midhurst some men and a comparatively large number of women receive it. Of those who figm-e in the "not able-bodied" column (see Table I.), and in Mr. Burt's return of paupers over sixty, the larger proportion are women. In that return they number I8i,304 in England and Wales, against 102,563 men, and the census of paupers on the 1st January, 1891, gives 56,036 adult able-bodied women in receipt of outdoor relief, as against 14,924 men. The dispauperization of women is thus, it would seem, a crucial question in a better administration of the Poor Law. If the rule of no outdoor relief to the able-bodied is applied to them, one of the main grounds on which it is assumed that a National Pension Scheme is necessary, would disappear ; and that it is possible in country districts to adopt this rule, the experience of the Brixworth not able-bodied.' It is a question of fact in each case, depending upon the physical strength and condition of the applicant for relief. The Guardians must decide the question of able-bodied or not for themselves, according to the circumstances of each case ; bearing in mind that an appeal ultimately lies to the auditor against their decision, if they give exceptional relief to a destitute person who, at the time, is really able-bodied." It may seem that too much is made of the difference between able-bodied and not able-bodied paupers. The term " able-bodied " is, however, as a general term recognised in Poor Law administration, and, though not an accurate definition, it represents with sufficient clearness a large class of paujjors. Both the word and the policy, which its use implies, have played a large part in the reform of the Poor Law in England. As the tables show (sec p. 10) cases of " temporary disablement " among able bodied paupers are now separately re- turned. 14 and Bradfield unions shows. It cannot be said that either the able-bodied men or the able-bodied women, when refused outdoor relief, are forced into the House. The figures show they do not go into the House; they provide for themselves.* This is made still clearer by the following table : — ■ Table III. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Total Total Males over 60. Females over 60. Total able- bodied not able- paupers over 60. adults bodied Indoor. Outdoor. Indoor. Outdoor. male adults and male female and Name of Union. ia receipt of indoor and outdoor relief. female in receipt of indoor or outdoor relief. Linton .... Ill 559 13 150 14 295 472 MiDHURST . . . 80 339 12 97 7 138 254 Brixworth . . 6 76 33 10 14 U 81 Bradfield . . . 18 S7 33 4 13 23 73 The able-bodied adult paupers at Midhurst and Linton are, as Table II. shows, mostly women and mostly recipients of outdoor relief. Accordingly, as the second column of the above Table III. indicates, the number of the " not able-bodied " is high ; and of the paupers over sixty, who are chiefly, if not altogether, to be found among the "not able-bodied," the greater part are women and in receipt of outdoor relief. But at Brixworth and Bradfield the reverse process is going on : the paupers are disappearing, whether male or female, able-bodied, not able-bodied, or over sixty. * See Appendix V. p. 59. 15 o m = S 00 00 CO " .2 C5 OS T-H a o 2 .-H y-i I-H i-H £ S o § o c "= . o O L.-5 t- 00 Ci -^ -»< S 5" 0^ a S 3 ? ■~;s to O US CD 1 Ti d ^ o ^ O o t^ 05 o_ t- C5 2 asg-3 "^ .. tC -\ M 00 .W . O hf: i iC 5 30 BODIED adult males an females receiviu indoor rt lief owin to tem- porary di ablcmeu and able bodied udult mal rcceivin; outdoor r lief owin to sicknci or in- firmity. 00 5^3 t^ '-' O f^ U 1 ,^«gi|il|°|^ to o o o O] o lO to to CO iH t- op «> -* <£> W( o OS 05 1-H o (M as a _C _fl J2 s a •-^ "-^ d o 1-H tH I-H iH 00 C« CO CO . 1 "3 1-1 CO *» -s ira t- o O H m '"' ""* ^ OG 'l3 ' «M .s^^il-sl^g^ Tj) OS 00 o .-1 C5 OS us (M_ OS O) 3 a-2 S 5 o> t-^ t-^ us i-H (N us -* EH CO ■< H * » o SB S5 s H z p4 (M o H O i i a a N o H a Ed H H H H m en lC m 16 Here all the four conditions that came to light in Table I. of the country unions reappear, with a partial exception in the case of one union, St. George-in-the-East. The larger proportion of total pauperism to total population is accompanied by a larger proportion both of able-bodied paupers, and of not able-bodied paupers, and lastly of paupers over sixty. The difference between the i^auperism of the Strand union, and that of Stepney and St. Geoi'ge-in-the-East is very marked. St. George-in-the-East is much the poorest, and has been in the past the most pauperized, district of the four; yet in spite of this it might perhaps have been expected that the proportion of actual pauperism to popu- lation (col. 6) would have been less there than at Bethnal Green. This is the partial exception to which we referred. For the rest, Bethnal Green follows the rule. With a larger amount of able- bodied is associated a larger amount of not able-bodied and old age pauperism. The present position of the four London unions in regai'd to able-bodied adults in receipt of in- or of outdoor relief, not able- bodied adults, male and female, and paupers over sixty years of age, is shown in the following table, which should be read in con- junction with Table IV. 17 "3 SS o o m t^ CO (JO o C5 o >-•:) »o " -' S o C-l 00 t~ >o p •a CD ■^ 1 Out ■^ T-1 a o t~ >o r-l o •— ' -§ t— C5 1—1 o o -S< IM (M CM 1^ u o o g u > o o 6 00 o o xn o o o »-l IM o CI •a CO «D -t< -n S o (?» (N CM hH 1 o o c; S 5=2 , ' S o -- ^ :^ JT c ■ S S o S Co Q 5 Q - O 1 S^ > r-i f^ n ° ° ■?, o O -S I. i2 '^ -3 ^ ■- ■'•at-' o r-- =, B j; cu ■« c -^ 5' ^ ° .ii ^H rl — "" « 1^ J . 9 ■^ c oT ■ o ° o pa -■ H-l2 n ci ■ 5 ''^ > OxJ e S 5 a> = -r := 1 i^ v,o n£ h . 9 to s o,^ 5 C m" c ■" S o I" '■'5 — QO t^ n cc H 02 a VI. PAUPERISM OVER SIXTY AND POPULATION OVER SIXTY IN THE EIGHT UNIONS IN 1871, 1881, and 1891. It is obvious that a reformed administration will not show its full effects upon old age pauperism till twenty or twenty-five years have elapsed. The paupers Avho are numbered as from sixty to seventy years of age in Mr. Burt's returns may have been in rereipt of relief for ten years and more, if they were first assisted wlien comparatively able-bodied. Those wdio were counted as seventy to eighty years of age may have been in receipt of relief for fifteen to twenty years. In Brixworth and Bradfield a decided change in the administration was made after 1871. Accordingly we should expect that while it had already affected the younger generation, it could not until after the year 1895, or even later, be shown to have cleared away all the residue of pauperism that previous ill administration had entailed on the union. The figures prove this to be the case. The London figures, though in intervening years affected by " times of special pressure," tell the same story. Accordingly to put this and the other questions at issue as clearly as possible, tables have been prepared showing the relative pauperism of the eight unions in decennial periods for the last twenty years. The census of paupers made on the 1st of January (and published in Return B) preceding each census day of the whole population in 1871, 1881, and 1891 has been used as the basis of those tables ; and the pauperism of the union in Januarj- has in each case been compared with the population of wliich the census was taken in the next subsequent April. In all the unions there is some change for the better. In all are fewer paupers. The year 1871 was the last of a series of five yeai-s of rather higher pauperism throughout the country.* The earlier part of * See Eeturn No. 96, p. 378, Nineteenth Annual Report of the Local Ciovern- ment Board. Appendix D. 19 the year 1881 showed in the country generally a slightly inci'cased pauperism compared to the year pi-eceding. In contrasting 1871, 1881, and 1891, we start with a rather high ratio. Good admin- istration would reduce it, in spite of fluctuations in the interim during the twenty years that follow. Irregular and inconsistent administration would leave matters much as they were, or woukl show but a comparatively slight reduction. The figures given in Tables VI. and VII.* as those of January 1st in each tenth year must be considered not merely as repre- senting the number of paupers reckoned up on a single day. They are an index of either an accumulating or a decreasing pauperism. They represent, so to speak, a roll of pauperism which has been gi-adually wound round coil on coil, or has been gradually unwound. The census day marks the point at whicli the one pro- cess or the other, the rolling or the uni-olling, has arrived. Bearing this in mind, we would take the country unions first. At Linton we find that the population over sixty has slig'htly dwindled decade by decade. Between 18H1 and 1891 the pro- portion of paupers over sixty to population over sixty has hardly changed, though the figures of 1881 compare favourably with those of 1871. Stated in percentages the proportion was in 1871, 4(3-3 (or 1 in 2-1) ; in 1881, 33-9 (or 1 in 2-9) ; in 1891, 33-2 (or 1 in 3'0). There is, in fact, no improvement here at all compar- able with that at Brixworth and Bradfield. Linton stands now almost where Bi-adfield stood twenty years ago. Had Midhurst retained the position it held in 1881, its pauper burials of persons over sixty would be about 14 j)er cent. ; but its administration since 1881 has apparently become less strict, and the paupers over sixty are now more than 18 per cent, of the pojiulation over sixty. Turning to the two contrasted nnions whei'c the administration has been thi-oughout careful, we find tliat at Brixworth, in 1871, almost 5G per cent, of those over sixty were paupers, while now only between 5 or G per cent, are paupers and would be buried by the parish. And at Bradfield, instead of one in 2'8 or '.i'>o per cent, being paupers, the paupers over sixty are one in 25"1, or about 4 per cent. It would seem, then, that in country districts it is almost entirely a question of Poor Law administration whether 4 or 5G * For these Tables, see the next two pages, 20 and 21. 20 Taupers over 60 on population over eo. 10. 11. 12. 00 1 in 3 or 33-2 per c. go •" 00 tH l-t O CJ CO 1- ■ (U O o ■-I J- a (M 00 1 in 2-9 or 33-9 per c. So — ' CO 1-1 I— 1 So i-i — < So CO S C5 P- — o 1—1 r-l s lin 2-1 or 46-3 per c. CO (p 1-1 ca O o .5 CO lin 2-8 or 35-5 per c. Paupers over 60. § 7. 8. 9. ■^ r-l eo lo 00 t- 00 1 CO «o C5 00 O CO -H CO 00 1— 1 O 00 CO o CO 1 CO i (M 0> 00 o . 1 1 CO o O 2 !>• CO CO C<1 CO (M r^ 1 -t< CO t~ t CO t; t- (M CO cr> S Ci W3 00 00 a > o 1 '" p P. o o i-T 1-H 00 CO CO t^ o o >h" 1-h" S CO eo_ T-l C5 CO CO o T-T 1—1 00 ■^_ 1-1 o '^ r-T CO t-h" CO i-T O '5 t3 c z 1-^ H 02 B5 W Q l-H W H O 3 p S pq cS CO >. p .C CO OJ " S t) r; > O .2 o o C ^ a> •;: H P- ^ _a ^ o .2 « cS (3 caS O » rH 9 2 p K.ii o o cj . ? '::: *^ "" X 'S ©"'S -P '" ^< S Q O S tS CO > Ci o o a C3 CO _c3P^H' — '-^ 'S :gcStn"'^'^- - S CO ^ _, CD CO o .2 '^ E: ^ Cfi "*^ .*J i-^ rv -^ f-H '"S'^P'"''^'"''^ O O cS r- o P P^ - «*H ^_- rt '^_- 05 ^ ? ^ S ^ if P '3 -^r^ "^ 2 g ^ "43 ta .2 ^ "S ''H 2 o OD 0^ ; S c CS i, g'ls c o .S Q) O 3 -w . O -TS •*-' ra - a rt CD 3 CO f^ m S S QJ -P cu . 1^ a vs 3 >«! p 5J p< a c3 tC'

P c! O > O 21 5^ O o O o •J O a? > Paupers over 60 on Population over CO. i 1 in 5-1 or 19-5 per c. (M 0< ■^5 1 1 in 4-4 or 22-2 per c. 1 iu 5-9 or 16-8 per c. aa 1 in 51 or 19-4per c. 1 in 6-7 or 14-9 per c. 1 iu 5-4 or 18-2 per c. 1871. 1 in 2-3 or 41-8 per c. 1 iu 3-7 or 20-6 per c. 1 iu 3-5 or 28 per c. 1 iu 2-5 or 38-9 per c. s o 0) s o 00 1 t>- o o 00 I-T 00 o 1,106 568 1871. 1,247 683 1,929 1,252 Able-bodied and not able- bodied, exclttdiiig children. o 1,132 1,351 ini of o 00 00 1,195 800 1,664 CO 00 00 ,-1 C5 00 co_ i-T o c ui W o m o W m xn ^^ gg O w P5 P^ P P^ O o m O o a E-i § > 5?- P.C _-- PhA PS 4) o e3 o o .If. ^ »C CO 05 ic ^- M< O >p 00 ^ c1 OS t^GS ;QOTi(i!l((M t>OMeO 00 -^ -^ C5 rH Ci CI i „• O t- 05 00 O 00 «D ^ (M OJ t- O Cfj t-^ o o co^ -M CO 1^ O o cr> o --I 5rt co_o oo_o_ o' CO fff o 00 CO c- >o o o; .-H O «0 I-H 'l^ t- C- rH eo r^ (M rH ,— I C- 00 X -H 05 O C- o C- CO O CO O -^ t- -M O CO --I o to ■^ ^ t>- t— CO «o d (M "-I 05 Tjl O O 00 00 00 -f o o -^ CO l-^0_ r-T C^Ti-l ^ Ci !M -Ja 0 I-H -^ CO >-< Ci (•i-i »"" r-i wrf t.^ *rt o CI 00 CO (N OJ eo CO Oi ■»« 00 rH ■^__-*_Ci Oi tH o «o"oi ci" rH CO 00 !>• - 2 S § S 2 55 P ^ Hj 5 " « K § c < a • « t! i^ H H H H ■S ■ o -^ i a> p^ n 1-1 ~»-^ 5 3 o S S 2 - ^TS...- ^ tatements achiias an respect o pectively. 2ral years cc-a 2 s > O U3 : 1 " hH =• c-icc .;:; nsC year £1,0 strict ation -Sli a ft S, C§^ =* c § *» m c — a> t-i d "^ S — eS t>. (B orS 3 C"^ 00 .2 c.i: c ^ -c ^ S =* >^~ res in 1 in Eng Incl sylum, ppendi 3=r, >,<:-U 2« S^c^:; H ^< C/2 >»t-H I T.Uif.E OF inr SiivrsTrFV Uxnixs the Names of Pjnisiirs i\ vviiicn WFtiF, f.tVFX to tiif. Select Contmittfi: ox Natioxat. IxsrnAXCE. Name of Union in which io Hie rariah rererred to in qaeetion 2,s*l.j. mitlee on NationRi Provlilpnt In. Pnpula- leDl.'t 1 T..lnl • i AWc-bndieil Ou explnilin;; Sm.'. ICT.. Total." 13 PopalH ov""«l lalod by pro 14 PAoperA popiilA. tion HRO). IS population. 16 T.>tJ>l co.t of 17 1.373 4,078 1,230 1,373 per ir- is 3 1-7 2 7-2 3 87 3 7-7 4 2-3 3 11-9 1 Panpers Paupers less loss .hinatiCH, lnnaticf, ' vapTftn ts . V afrmn is in the r>ntoflhe hoiiae, hniise, children children 9 , 3 Adalt Unles 7 Total 8 24 34 33 33 43 38 24 33 00 inccidon nrmily. 6 3 5 6 ™" i'aiipera M. e 30 20 22 23 33 24 GO 20 37 12 11 43 43 8 37 43 IC 10 9 11 13 70 12 10 236 39 59 134 39 Wallinofobd Union — (Parish noted; North Moretou. Berkshire; pop. 325)* . . . Pembroke Ukion— (Parish noted ; Stockpole Elidor, Pembroteshire ; pop. 41(5) . . 14,706 31.276 08 C7 45 482 160 527 132 203 373 181 923 310 419 21 08 1,013 2,733 673 899 1,759 718 4-2 12-8 12-7 13-4 13-8 1 in 210-2 79 351 80 121 244 95 1.031 I in 891 lin77 1 in 71-4 Albesfobd Uniox — (Parish noted ; Cheriton .Hants ; ■18 1 101 3 5 e 7 1 u 24 20 39 9 10 5J 34 14 1 01 0' 20 10 37 13 m 7| 97 8.C17 17.170 0.(103 KiSOSCLEnE Unios— (Pfirish noted ; Bnrghclere, Hants ; pop. 753) .... 00 S7 r.o 77 112 280 131 240 Staufobd Unios (Lincoln) — (Parish noted; Thoruhaugh. Northamptonshire ; pop. 245) 2 3 1 in 70-3 1 in 09-4 3,013 1.319 Stockbbiuqf. TJsion— (Parish noted; KinRs Som- borne, Hants; pop. 1,218). . 21 238 19 48 43 13 2 Liscoi-s Usios — (PamU noted; Netllehaiu. hincolnnliin ; pop. (IGB^ <17,B09 4 9 X ;■> os-a 10.702 4 11'6 OnA.vnnooK Union — (Pai-ish noted ; Goudlinrst, Kent; pop. 2,7ti4J .... 13,730 23,fiia ll,23.j 1 1 114 314 138 120 057 171 213 407 231 l,3.-.9 2,550 1,381 1,59.1 0,019 2.200 130 13-9 1 in 04-4 2,782 4 00 Newport Pao.veix Union — (Parisli noted; Shenley, Bucks; pop. 499) Su 433 301 3 1 in 02-9 5,008 3 10-8 4 3 3 3-9 3 11-9 4 2 4 2-4 3 8-2 UlDBCBST USION-— {Parish uoteil ; Bury, RiisHrx ; pop. ^17) S8 14 18 3 13-9 17 10-1 191 21 19-9 linSO 1 in 33-5 3,028 2.168 Ldtterwoiith Union— (Parish noted ; South KilwoiU, Leicestershire ; pop. 423) . . 12,390 30 215 275 ,101 338 213 738 832 302 :i 1 8 13 172 30 40 80 05 33 10 19 70 307 223 1,028 327 St. Thomas" Union— (Parish noted ; er head of the j^opulation is half what it used to be twenty yeai's ago. At Betlmal Green the amount spent in relief appears to be rising steadily. The following figui'es give the average cost of relief per annum at St. George-in-the-East and Betlmal Green, calculated on periods of five years between 1870 and 1890. St. George-in-the-East. Bethnal Green. 1870-7:> . . . £17,409 . . . £21,710 1876-80 . . . £14,lir) . . . £20,719 1881-85 . . . £17,878 . . . £25,887 1886-90 . . . £16,566 . . . £30,251 Taking good years witli bad, St. George-in-the-East has in one quinquennial period slightly exceeded the expenditure incurred between 1870 and 1875. But at Bethnal Green, as in the number of paupers, so in expenditure, there has been of late a steady increase. VIII. EXISTING PAUPERISM NO ARGUMENT FOR ANY NATIONAL ANNUITY SCHEME, BUT THE REVERSE. Finally we would refer to a table of the seventeen unions, the names of parishes in which were given to the Select Committee on National Insurance. This Table (No. IX.) is arranged according to the number of paupers over sixty on population (column 16). At the bottom, printed apart, are the figures of the Brixwortli and Bradfield unions. The figures of the Wallingford union at the top of the list strike us at first glance. Wallingford is a union bordering on Bradiield, and affected probably by the same desire to introduce a better Poor- LaAV administration. Its outdoor ])auperism (column .S) is low. Its able-bodied pauperism (column 8) is low also ; and if it were 26 to (leal with tlie female able-bodied paupers as cai-efully as is done at Brix worth and Brad field, its pauperism would be, like theirs, reduced to a minimum. The paupers over sixty in it are but 4"2 per cent., as against '•), 4, and 5 times that percentage in the other unions. Its poor-rate (column 18) is per head of the population more than Gd. less than that at Pembroke, the union which, as regards that column, stands next it in the list ; and it is more than os. Gd. per head less than the rate at Chippenham, which stands highest in the list. Taking the list as a whole, the reader will note that, generally speaking, where the outdoor relief (column 3) is large, the out- door relief to the able-bodied (column 8) is large also, and so is the old age pauperism (column 13). The definition of able-bodied no doubt varies in some degree in different unions (cf. for instance Lutterworth and Alresford in columns 4 and 8) ; but yet in the main the sequence holds good. Were a non-out-relief policy adopted by all these unions, we should soon have, excluding perhaps the town union of Lincoln, a percentage of jjaupers over sixty on population over sixty of not more than 4 per cent., and then 3 and 2. I^ext, we may compare the unions in Table IX. with Brixworth and Bradfield. The great difference in every figure is remai-kable, but above all the numbers of those who being able-bodied are in receipt of outdoor relief stand in mai'ked contrast to the line of noughts set against Brixworth and Bradfield. Lastly, it will be noted that in none of these unions is the per- centage of paupers over sixty on population over sixty so high as it was at Brixworth and Bradfield twenty years ago, viz., 5<3 and 35 per cent. The more reason then is there to hope for quite as good results as in those unions, if the same policj^ be followed. We next turn to the statement that "42' 7 out of every 100 of the population that reach sixty years of age die as paupers." From the published Poor-Law- i-eturns it is not of course jjossible to check this statement. It applies to comparatively small jjai-ts of country unions, and to conditions of administration Avhich can- not be considered satisfactory. Instead of it we would work out the ratio of paupers over sixty to population over sixty. By so doing we take into account the effect of careful and less careful administration, and we have thus in our hands, we believe, a more 27 accurate gauge of the need of social refoi-ra, though the reform which this method suggests is widely different from that proposed by the advocates of further State intervention. Finally, we may conclude that if a national annuity system were established according to some of the proposals now on foot, without a very much stricter administration of the Poor Law, there would be created in these unions in varying numbers a kind of hybrid pauper. The pauper in them, before sixty, might receive a pension of outdoor relief. After sixty or sixty-five, having, as is suggested, paid earlier in life a qualifying contribution, he would become a claimant for the national pension. Thus from a pauper pensioner he would become a pensioner pauper. In the one case the poor-rates, in the other the taxes imperial and local with the proceeds of his own contribution would maintain him. In one case his pauperism would be manifest, in the other it would be obscured. But pauper he would remain under both guises.* It would not be necessary to press this argument, if those who advo- cated the annuity scheme were ready to act upon and enforce the maxims upon which a good administration of the existing Poor Law is based; but, though sometimes giving formal assent to its principles, they in practice abandon them entirely ; and necessarily so, for, if these principles were generally enforced, the people would all the more readily make provision for themselves, and pauperism would furnish not even a pretext for the introduction of a national annuity scheme. On the financial question in its relation to the amount of pauper- ism, a word may be added. If the returns of pauperism are to be taken as a test of the need of a system of old age pensions, there would, as we have seen, be one claimant at Bradfield for at least six at Linton ; and if an imperial tax were levied in aid of the paupers over sixty at Linton or at Midhurst, and any of the other seventeen unions, the ratepayers in the well-administered * The proposal is that the pension secured by a contributor from Lis or lipr own resources shall not be less than £6 10.<. a year, payable at sixty-five years of age ; and that the amount of pension guaranteed by the State to meet such sum should be another annual sum of £G 10^., so that each contributor be entitled at sixty-five years of age to a pension of £13. " The production at any time of a certificate of contribution shall," it is added, " entitle an applicant to receive any Poor-Law relief which maybe necessary during any period of life, in the form of outdoor relief if so desired."' These extracts are taken from the scheme cuxulated by the National Providence League. 28 unions, such as liradfield, Stepney, or St. George-in-the-East would, directly or indirectly, have to support the paupers whom bad administration was continually ci'eating elsewhere. Thus the ratepayers in well-administered unions, rewarded though they might be by the reduction of their local rates, would be lined for the mal-administration of their neiglibours ; and the argument by which the fine would be levied resolves itself into this : that the worse the general administration of the Poor Jjaw, the greater the number of paupers ; and the larger the poor-rate, the greater is the need of the pension scheme. Our conclusion therefore is, that the argument from pauperism must be set aside. Pauperism is in great part a question of administration ; as Mr. Bland Garland has said, " Four-fifths of our pauperism is due to outdoor relief." 29 IX. THE CAUSES OF PAUPERISM IGNORED IN THE STATISTICAL STATEMENT. It is evident that the argument from pauperism, as above stated, excludes any fair consideration of the causes of pauperism. Yet such a point is the very gist of the matter, if there be any real relation between the argument and the problem. It is not enough to treat this incidentally, to say : — ^'' Now it may well be that some of these deserve their fate ; tliey ■may have been brought to it hy intemperance or misconduct of some kind or another ; but nobody ivill persuade me that that is true of all of them, or even of the larger proportion of them. It is impossible that one out of two of the industrial population of this kingdom have done anything to deserve the fate which, under existing circumstances, is inevitably in store for them." If the causes of pauperism, when analysed, show that the needs of paupers in their old age can only in a small degree be met by a provident or part-pay annuity system, then the figures of the calculation will have to be altei-ed throughout. There will be no question whether " one out of two of the industrial population has or has not deserved his fate." With the basis of the calculation altered to accord with the facts of life, the proportion of " one in two " in need of Poor-Law subsistence for lack of State-aided annuities will disappear. The statistical information as to the causes of pauperism is at present insufficient; but it is certain that the causes that lead to dependence upon the Poor Law in old age are in great measure the same as those which lead to it earlier in life. Into this matter Mr. McDougall, vice-chairman of the Board of Guardians at Manchester, has inquired.* He made a thorough examination of 254 cases, excluding epileptics and lunatics, "of * "Drink and Poverty," by Councillor Alexander McDougall, Yicc-Chair- man of the Manchester Board of Guardians, p. 5, 1885. whom 120 were outdoor and 100 iudoor, besides cases in the lock and vagrant wards," and he found that " pauperism caused by old age or infirmity, without any discredit, explained nearly one- eighth of the pauperism of the township ; pauperism by disease (not brought on by misconduct) or accidental injuries, involving inability to work, accounted for one-seventh " ; drunkenness explained 51"24 per cent. Kow it was shown above that the proportion of paupers over sixty to population was large if the proportion of pauperism at all ages to population was large. It is a fair inference that similar causes (including as one cause bad administration) act throughout ; and, in process of time, produce in a great degree the pauperism of old age as well as that of earlier years. If this be granted and Mr. McDougall's figures are, by way of illustration, applied to the pauperism of old age, following Mr. Chamberlain's process step by step, we have these results : — 1. Pauperism due to "old age or infirmity," or " disease or ac- cidental injuries," as above defined, forms roughly a fourth of the mass of pauperism, and might possibly be affected by the estab- lishment of an annuity system. 2. The paupers over sixty are 286,867. A fourth of 286,867 is 71,716. Thus not, as is alleged, 1 in 7, but 1 in 26"7 of the population over sixty would be benefited. 3. Accepting for the purposes of the argument Mr. Chamber- lain's figures, we may reduce this number to a working-class population over sixty, by deducting two-fifths. Our working-class population will then stand at 1,149,760, a fourth of whom would, it is assumed, be benefited — that is, 1 in 16, and not 1 in 4. 4. Lastly, we may reduce the population to its working-class numbers, and at the same time, again accepting Mr. Chamberlain's figures merely for the purpose of the argument, multiply the number of paupers on a single day by 2 or 3, in order to obtain a total of paupers in a year. But in that case we would by an old age scheme benefit, not " 1 out of 2 of the industrial popula- tion who reach the age of sixty," but, at the most, 1 out of 8, or 1 out of 5. If therefore the question be considered, not as one of the number of paupers merely, but in reference to the causes of 31 pauperism, tlie calculation which we are criticising become» almost valueless. It is true that further statistical inquiry as to the causes of pauperism is desirable, in order that some more complete conclu- sion may be drawn. Inquiry of this kind is now being made. X. THE CRITICISM OF THE POOR-LAW COMMISSIONERS. We would now, in support of our argument, submit the criticisms of the Poor-Law Commissioners of 1832 and some of their inspectors. First, from the Report of 1840 we take the following extract, which refers to " any pauper class," including the class of paupers the conditions of whose pauperism it is proposed to alter^ whose pauperism, as some think, it will be possible to prevent, by an annuity scheme. " The first and most essential of all conditions," write the Com- missioners, " a principle which we find universally admitted, even by those whose practice is at variance with it. is, that the situation [of the individual relieved by 'a compulsory provision'] on the whole shall not be made really or apparently so eligible as the- situation of the independent labourer of the lowest class. Through- out the evidence it is shown that in proportion as the condition of any pauper class is elevated above the condition of independent labourers, the condition of the independent class is depressed, their- industry is impaired, their employment becomes unsteady, and its remuneration in wages is diminished. Such persons, therefore, are under the strongest inducements to quit the less eligible class of labourers, and enter the more eligible class of paupers. Tlio converse is the effect when the pauper class is placed in its pi'oper position, below the condition of the independent labourer. Every penny bestowed tliat tends to render the coudition of the pauper more eligible than that of the independent labourer is a bounty on indolence and vice. We have found that, as the poors'^ rates are at present administered, they operate as bounties of tliis description to the amount of several millions annually." 32 In most of the schemes now proposed, this principle is aban- doned. By one, to which reference has already been made, a certificated pension-holder, prior to the age of sixty-five, when his national pension is to begin, will have the right to outdoor relief till he attains his seniority. Such a pensioner's position will be rendered much "more eligible than that of the independent labourer " ; and if it be retorted that all will have this boon, and that therefore none can be made paupers by it — a more than questionable argument — it may be rejoined : " If all take advantage of the boon, all, by whatever name they may be called, will become habitually dependent on the State ; and a large part of the population, seduced by their newly acquired right to receive outdoor relief, will become actual paupers, and then the State in self-defence will have to reassert the principle of the Poor-Law Commissioners, and to make good at great pain, mischief, and expense to the community, the evils which the pension scheme will have brought into existence." A similar pi'oposal recently mooted is to turn the workhouses into almshouses, or to build Poor-Law almshouses for the aged poor. This is the view of the Commissioners on that scheme : — " The principle that relief should be administered so as to render the condition of those who receive it less desirable than the con- dition of those who maintain themselves without such aid, can- not be carried into eifect unless those who control the administra- tion of relief have the power of defining the condition of the receivers of relief. It is impossible to apply the principle to those who receive outdoor or domiciliary relief, for their condition can- not always be ascertained or regulated, inasmuch as it is often impossible to discover what resources they have, or what aid they may receive in addition to the maintenance afforded to them from the poor-rates. " By means of the workhouse, however, and its regulations, it is in the power of the guardians and the Commissioners to place the condition of the pauper accurately at its level — to provide for all his wants effectually — and yet so as to make the relief thus afforded desirable to those only who are hond fide in need of it. Throughout all the unions in which we have established woi'k- 33 houses, this principle of the workhouse system is very well understood as respects the able-bodied labourers, and, with very few exceptions, the benefits which arise from its application are admitted and appreciated. With regard to the aged and infirm, however, there is a strong disposition on the part of a portion of the public so to modify the arrangements of these establishments, as to place them on the footing of almshouses. The consequence which would flow from this change have only to be pointed out to show its inexpediency and its danger. If the condition of the inmates of a workhouse were to be so regulated as to invite the aged and infirm of the labouring classes to take refuge in it, it would immediately be useless as a test between indigence and indolence or fraud ; it would no longer opei'ate as an inducement to the young and healthy to provide support for their later years, or as a stimulus to them, whilst they have the means, to support their aged parents and relatives. The frugality and forethought of a young labourer would be useless if he foresaw the certainty of a better asylum for his old age than he could possibly provide by his own exertions ; and the industrious efforts of a son to pro- vide a maintenance for his parents in his own dwelling would be thrown away, and would cease to be called forth, if the almshouse of the district offered a refuge for their declining years, in which they might obtain comforts and indulgences which even the most successful of the labouring classes cannot always obtain by their own exertions." " If the views of those persons who desire the conversion of the workhouse into an almshouse were to be carried into effect, not only would all the aged of the labouring class be maintained at the public expense, and the burdens of the community be thus enormously increased, but the habits of forethought and industry in the young, who, exerting themselves for their future benefit, find an immediate reward in the increase of their present Avelfare — habits which, we rejoice to say, are daily developing themselves throughout the labouring portion of the community — would be discouraged and finally extinguished."* The relief of the partially disabled forms the subject of a communication from one of the Assistant Commissioners, Mr. * Extract from the "Report of the Further Ameudment of the Poor Law," December, 183'J, pages 47, 48. C 34 Edward T. B. Twisleton.* On evidence which he submits his general conclusion is " that although to withhold relief in aid of wages from the partially disabled is the wise and proper course, yet that this district is by no means ripe for such a mode of deal- ing with them. It appears to me that it would excite suspicion, and the evil of the clamour would be far greater than the good effected by the saving. Indeed, it would be much more feasible to prohibit at some future period all out-relief to widows who have no children under seven years of age, although the time has not arrived when even the latter measure could be quietly carried into effect." Mr. Twisleton writes under the shadow of the great reforms that the Commissioners had carried through only a few years be- fore. The question with him is evidently one of expediency rather than of reason. Now it might be a question whether those who propose the scheme of national annuities are ready to enforce any such prohibition, as he suggests, in regard to outdoor relief to widows. If the analysis of the administrative causes of pauperism which we have made above is at all correct, there is no doubt that this would be one of several effectual means of pre- venting old age pauperism. From the evidence which Mr. Twisleton quotes we make the following extracts : — 1. "Mr. Sandby, Chairman of the Wangford union, who, in his letter to Dr. Kay, submitted to the Committee of 1838 of the House of Commons, so clearly and decidedly expressed his views respecting relief to the able-bodied, writes as follows: — "In re- gard to the ' partially disabled,' I have the greatest difficulty in coming to a conclusion ; for, while I am by no means prepared to recommend the prohibition of outdoor relief in all cases of the partially disabled, for reasons that are obvious, it is impossible not to see that the continuance of such relief must eventually act with an injurious effect upon the provident habits of the rising generation, while, in many instances, at the present day, it may disturb the natural relations of master and man in respect to the employment and remuneration of the younger labourer. Cer- tainly in those few cases where our Board has acted with firmness and perseverance in refusing outdoor relief their decision was * See p. 143 of the same Eeport. 35 attended with the happiest results ; at the same time I again repeat that, as far as it relates to the partially disabled, I am far from being prepared for its adoption as a general rule." On this opinion Mr. Twisleton's criticism is : — " The principal practical difficulty would be in the parish finding work for such persons proportioned to their strength. If yoa could always offer the workhouse to them, the difficulty would disappear ; but it is obvious that in some instances (such, for example, as that of a consumptive patient, or one of a delicate constitution from other causes) confinement in a workhonse might be prejudicial to the health. Now, the parish would often be nnable to give them profitable work, and as for their not being allow^ed to work at all while in the receipt of parish relief, this is something quite foreign to the conception of farmers, though experience may have shown to the labourers themselves the necessity of adopting such regulations in their 'Friendly So- cieties.' It does not seem to me that the evils resulting from this mode of relief are sufficiently striking to make an impression on the minds of the majority of Boards of Guardians. However, some see clearly the bad tendency of such partial relief." 2. Mr. Edwards, Chairman of the Thetford Union, writes : — " Another instance is that of a partially disabled man who is above sixty, and for nine years, or it may be for many more for what I know, has continually received relief ; but upon the passing of the new Poor Law and the formation of this nnion, whether from the dread of being deprived of his weekly allowance, or from being ashamed of being any longer dependent npon the bounty of others, I know not, but the effect was, he exerted himself, obtained work, and supported himself without relief, except at severe seasons in winter, when he had occasional out-relief. When the alteration took place of allowing ont-relief to the partially disabled, the idea spread that they were entitled to out-relief. This man again applied for out-relief, but the Board, judging from the past, j^efused it, but gave an order for the house, which he did not accept ; he is again supporting himself by his own labour. " We want to manage as the labourers themselves do in their Friendly Societies, who give no weekly allowances if any work is done ; the fact that a man does any work is in all such societies 36 deemed evidence that he is capable of work, and therefore not entitled to be on the box." 3. Mr. William Gwjn, of the Depwade union, "writes : — " I have always been of opinion, and so expressed myself repeatedly at the Board, that it would be much better and much fairer towards the able-bodied labourer that the persons alluded to by you should be either paupers entirely or not at all ; because, if you give a half-man an allowance for the parish, and allow him to work, he is enabled to undersell the man who depends entirely upon his own exertions for his maintenance, and I am afraid these half-paupers are often employed cheaply, to the injury of the independent labourer. Either let them receive a good allowance or none at all ; if an allowance, with the understanding that they should do no work. There are times when all may be employed, and the present is one ; but in the winter, and other periods when labour is scarce, it is surely better that the half-labourer, if requiring relief at all, should be wholly maintained by the parish. But I beg to assure you that this is an unpopular view of the subject, and would require great consideration before putting into practice. " The elder children of labourers, boys of fifteen, would find that employment which is now in possession of these half-paupers, and this surely would be a great relief to the father of such a family, although not perhaps to the parish. " This has always been my view of this question, but I repeat that it is, I know, an unpopular one with the farmers, and I am satisfied the plan I have mentioned would meet with great opposi- tion." 4. " The only one among the new unions in which partial out- relief is not given ordinarily to the partially disabled single persons is," writes Mr. Twisleton, "the Cosford union; in which the reduc- tion of rates has been gi^eater than in any other in this district. Mr. Calvert, the chairman, informs me that the only exception which they admit is in favour of old or disabled women who are supposed to earn a trifle by spinning. Even in this union, how- ever, relief is afforded to married labourers not able-bodied, by admitting into the workhouse one or more of the eldest of the unemployed children." The Rev. F. Calvert, thus referred to, writes : — 37 " I am of opinion that if Boards of Guardians adopt any system of giving out-relief in aid of wages to men above sixty years of age, or to persons professing to be partially disabled for other reasons, without a previous exhibition of the workhouse test, they Avill descend very rapidly into many of the vices of the old Poor Law. " I could produce a dozen instances of men who have passed for persons wholly or partially disabled, and have been regularly relieved as such, but who, upon an offer of the workhouse, actual or implied, have immediately I'ecovered their strength, or have otherwise found means of supporting themselves without parochial assistance. Last year, a man named William Finch, belonging to this parish, who had never done a day's work for about fifteen years (during which time he had been considered both by his parish, and subsequently by the Board of Guardians, as u-holly disabled), was observed one day by a relieving officer collecting liorse dung on the high road (his only occupation), at a greater distance from his home, and with a more heavily-laden wheel- barrow than seemed consistent with his professed helplessne.ss. His allowance Avas stopped, with the understanding that he might have relief in the workhouse ; but, instead of applying for an order, a grown-up daughter went out to service, and he hired himself to a farmer as a ploughman, at lO.-?. per week. " He has been in regular work ever since, and I heard yesterday that his present employer considers him to be one of tlie best ploughmen in the county. " Besides cases of this kind, where pretences of sickness h ive been detected, there is a very numerous class of persons who have no regular employment, and consequently no means of subsistence which can be estimated by any but themselves. " These people live nobody knows how ; some carry baskets about the counti-y wdth various articles for sale ; some pick up ' odd jobs ' in market-towns, etc., etc. Now all these persons were constant pensioners upon the parochial rate formerly, and would again get themselves placed upon the outdoor relief list of the relieving officers, if the rule of requiring them to receive relief in the workhouse were relaxed. A great proportion of this class would come under the denomination of the partially disabled ; for, if a man has never been seen to work, he has one good pi-etext for asserting his inability to do so. niXiGi 38 " I cannot see in what way Boards of Guardians could find work for any class of paupers otherwise than in the woi'khouse." The Vice- Chairman of the Hoxne union is quoted as writing as follows :■ — " The effects of relief given out of the workhouse to persons i-epresented to be upw^ards of sixty years, but who are yet able- bodied, has been to deter them in a great measure from seeking so perseveringly for work as they otherwise would have done, and we are often compelled to resort to the test of the workhouse where outdoor relief has been granted in order to stimulate them to the exertion necessary to obtain employment. " In cases where outdoor relief is granted to the partially dis- abled, we are the most subject to imposition, more so than in any other cases that come before us, for partial disability is almost sure to be made the cloak for hypocrisy and imposture, and they are consequently the most difficult to deal with ; for if the test of the workhouse be applied on a first application, or even after it has received a temporary outdoor relief, we are almost sui*e to have an outcry raised against us for being hard-hearted and cruel ; whereas, on the contrary, if the test has been applied, and it proves to be a case where the applicant chooses rather to maintain himself, thereby proving that there was no necessity for making the application, we get very little credit for the test otherwise than the satisfaction of knowing that imposition has been detected and prevented, and the funds of the union have been so far i-j^ared ; these are the cases which now require our most constant care and attention, for as some do, and I believe some of them very properly, obtain relief, even these are inducements for all sorts of expedients to be resorted to by those who may have the appearance only of decrepitude or of being partially disabled ; and indeed I have been repeatedly told by paupers that they have no I'ight to work after they have arrived at a certain age, merely because others of the same age are obtaining outdoor relief ; and they say that they can see no reason why one should obtain it at such an age, and others, no matter what their capabilities may be, should be debarred from it ; I have not only heard this from the poor themselves, but from others who I should have thought much better versed by their abilities to have seen the case in its true bearina/' 39 From all this fcliere can be no doabt what the Cominissiouers' opinion was. If, they say, the views of those who desire to convert the work- house into an almshouse were to be carried into effect, not only would all the aged of the labouring class be maintained at the public expense, and the burdens of the community be thus enor- mously increased, but provident habits would be seriously checked. It is desirable, they conclude, that relief to the partially or wholly disabled should be by offer of the House, but how far this course, which is just, and which would usually lead to even this class providing for itself sufficiently well, can be adopted, depends largely on public opinion. Those who would wish to learn what at a later date were the oj^inions of men who from their ability and opportunities were well qualified to judge of the question, will find further evidence in the reports of Inspectors and others, published by the Poor Law or Local Government Board. We would refer more par- ticularly to Mr. Edmond Wodehouse's report on outdoor relief (1872), and to the reports made by Rev. William Bury (Bi-ix- worth), and by Mr. Sendall and Sir Henry Longley (1873 and 1874). Writing on workhouses in 1S7-4, Sir Henry Longley says*: — " The mention of improved discipline, indeed, suggests the exis- tence of a further impediment to the action of the Board, with its present powers, in completing the proposed reform of indoor relief. The effective and px-actical result aimed at by a minute classification of workhouse inmates, other than the sick, is the maintenance of the deteri'ent discipline which, it is not too much to say, fails at present to be duly enforced in London workhouses almost without exception. In a former minute on workhouse dietaries and pauper labour, I have discussed at length some of the conditions of this laxity of discipline, and it will be sufficient here to suggest that though a pretence of severity towards the purely able-bodied class of inmates is maintained in theory, in most workhouses the general tone of their administration is that of the almshouse rather than of the workhouse system." * See Keport of the Local Goverumeut Board, 1874, 5, p. 49 of the Appcudix. 40 XT. CONCLUSIONS. We would now state our conclusions in a few words. 1. To base any statement in regard to the alleged need of a national annuity or pension scheme upon the pauperism of the country, as it stands at the present time, is to accept that pauperism as inevitable, whereas it has been proved by the better administration of certain unions in the country and in the metropolis that the number of paupers to population over sixty can be reduced in a country union to a minimum, say 4 per cent., and in the metropolis, if we may judge by its poorest union, by more than a half. 2. The statement that 42' 7 per cent, of the total population of persons over sixty in the country die as paupers is based on the returns of certain parishes in unions mostly in the country ; with one or two exceptions all these unions, if compared with certain well-administered country unions, show a large and un- necessary old age pauperism, which, by an even and careful administration, could without difficulty in the course of ten or fifteen years be very greatly reduced. 3. To reduce or prevent the old age pauperism of the country, no national pension scheme is necessary. What is necessary is to carry out the " remedial measures " which the Poor Law Com- missioners of 1832, who had an altogether exceptional opportunity for judging of the issues, proposed. The most important of these is to make outdoor relief the exception, and, above all, to give no outdoor relief to the able-bodied, whether men or women. When this rule has been adopted, pauperism of all kinds, indoor, outdoor, able-bodied, and " not able-bodied," has decreased, and with it the pauperism of old age, the pauperism over sixty. The people, to whom outdoor relief has been refused, have not been forced into the house, but have, in fact, provided for themselves, or been provided for by their relations and others, both while able-bodied and in their old age. 41 4. Pauperism, as has just been said, is caused in great part by a^lax administration of Poor-Law relief. Bat, if we may judge from an analysis of the causes of pauperism in a large town, the demand for Poor- Law relief in such places is in great part due to intemperance, misconduct, and the like. A national pension scheme has no relation to causes of either kind, and it will not remove them. 5. To establish an annuity system, and not to prohibit outdoor relief to the able-bodied, or perhaps to all but those who require medical out-relief, would be to foster a hybrid pauperism, in part maintained by the rates, in part by imperial and local taxes. But the advocates of pension schemes do not propose any such pro- hibition. APPENDIX. We have now completed our argument ; but we have not followed Mr. Chamberlain in his second and third steps (see pp. 2 and 3). To do so would take us into a maze of speculative statistics. No social enumeration of the people has been made which would enable us to saj that of those who are more than sixty years of age, at least, two-fifths belong to the working classes ; or that one in four of the old people in those classes are in receipt of poor relief. Further, there has been no census of paupers for a single year. Nor are there sufficient data to justify the use of two or three as a multiplier, by which from the number of paupers over sixty on a single day, their number in a year can be calculated. In the Appendix we add notes on these two points. " Of these old People, Two-fifths, at lf.\st, belijng to tub Richer Classes." In 1867 Mr. R. Dudley Baxter calculated the number of the upper and middle classes of the population, as distinguished from the manual labour class, basing his figures on an analysis of the occupations in the census of 1861 ; but the general opinion on the pai't of experts at the present time would be that the returns of occupations in the census are quite insufficient data for this pur pose. His conclusion was that the richer class was about a fourth of the w^hole population.* * His figures are : — Upper aud MiJJle-class Population .... 4,870,000 Manual Labour Clas.s lG,iaO,UOO Total Population: England and Wales, 18t)7 . 21^0.0J10 " National Income," by R. Dudley Baxter, p. 13, etc. 44 Another test of the social distribution of the population is such an investigation as that made b^ Dr. Ginnishaw in regard to class mortality statistics.* Dr. Grimshaw divides the Dublin popula- tion, according to a social census, into five classes : I. Professional and independent class. II. Middle class. III. Artisan and petty shopkeepers. IV. General service class. Y. Inmates of work- houses. Persons returned under the head " unspecified," namely, 25,967 in all, are distributed pro rata among the several groups to which they most probably belong. In the third group are " work- ing Engineers, Engravers, Printers, Watchmakers and Jewellers " — most of whom are skilled workmen, and very rarely would come on the rates in consequence of inability to provide against old age. " Petty shopkeepers " are included in the same class ; and in Class IV. are included " Army, Police, Postal Delivery and Prison Ser- vices, etc.," in which probably a retiring pension would be paid. But accepting the classification as it stands, we have — 11 Persons . 23,874 1,652 lass I. 4,334 428 „ 11. . . 2,604 124 „ III. 6,289 366 „ IV. and V. . 10,647t . 734t Thus we have a total population, above sixty, amounting to 5,526, of which 18,036 belong to classes III., IV. and V. and form the working-class population. Applying the proportion to Eng- land and Wales, we should have, in a population of 1,916,266, a richer population of 562,133 and a less rich of 1,354,133 — or about one- third rich as aginst two-thirds poor. These figures go further than Mr. Chamberlain's estimate ; one-third instead of two-fifths are rich, two-thirds instead of three-fifths of the working classes. * See British Medical Journal, August 13th, 1S87. Mr. Charles Booth, iu his recent volume on " Labour and Life of the People of London," publishes a statistical summary of social life in London. The details which he gives have to do with certain " blocks" selected for purposes of illustration ; and otherwise he follows, in the main, the divisions of the School Board. His social census is not however, like Dr. Grimshaw's, classified according to age, one of the con- ditions of the present inquiry. t In workhouses 1,698 and 159 respectively. 45 But, ill trutli, even as an estimate the figures are misleading when applied to this question. Merely by way of illustration, take for instance, as before, two unions very similar in position, one well administered, one ill administered, and apply Dr. Grimshaw's classification, by way of illustration. (See Table on next page.) Both these unions are agricultural, and their population is nearly the 'same. Yet at Linton the State (if we are to consider the working class as a class apart) would be, on this estimate, distri- buting annually what is practically a charity of £4,706 in a population of the working classes numbered at 8,990. "While conditions of this kind prevail generally in country districts, it is evident that a huge State supplementation of wages is going on, which keeps down wages and at the same time prevents thrift and saving. Those who would promote pension schemes would find it difficult, unless they were prepared to limit outdoor relief in some absolute manner (and this they do not propose), to give natural space and air enough for any plan of national pensions to develop ; and if they restricted outdoor relief, their pension schemes would probably no longer be, or even appear to be, necessary. At Brix- worth there must, on this estimate, be every inducement to save, for 2s. 7'2d. a head per working man or woman is all the poor relief given; at Linton what inducement to save can there be? There must always be a good chance of obtaining relief, if it be asked for ; 10s. 5'6tZ. a head per working man or woman indicates the rate of distribution ; and that it is effectual as a temptation not to save, is clear. There are, judging by the day census returns, nearly nine paupers at Linton for one at Brixworth. It is to no purpose, then, that we divide the population accord- ing to social scale, and jump to conclusions as to their relative need of pensions, or the relative amount of pauperism. If we ignore the causes of pauperism, our sum cannot fail to be wrong. But, even gi^anting that this ai-bitrary division of the population according to classes may be made, "one in five " may hold in the case of a pauperized parish : " one in 43 " is nearer the true mark if attention is paid to causes ; and in the Brixworth union, as we have said, there are several parishes with no paupers at all. 46 M c C • C - mpi "-S or Ou 1^ — 2 Z s ►3 pq >5 J= & •p! 2 cS m u P^ , ^ W ;t; s a rt H 47 II. Paupers oyer Sixty : their Number by a Day Census ; their Number in a Year. The last point in Mr. Chamberlain's argument is that " for one who is in receipt of poor-relief or in the workhouse to-day, there will be two or three in the same position in the course of the year." Mr. Chamberlain's final conclusion that " one in two of the Avorking classes, if he reaches the age of sixty, is almost certain to come upon the Poor Law for his subsistence " is based upon the multi- plication of the total of the day census of paupers oYer sixty by 2. It may, perhaps, in the light of the conclusions set out above, seem hardly necessary to discuss this point in detail, but it is so often referred to that some of the arguments that bear upon it may well be submitted. A census of paupers is made twice in the year, on January 1 and July 1. The return of paupers of all classes, — which is published by the Local Government Board in its annual reports, — is the mean of the number counted on these two dates. To obtain the number of paupers in proportion to population, it is necessary to compare the day census of pauperism with that of population, or an estimate of a year's pauperism with a year's population. Here we have to do only with people and paupers over sixty years of age. The population over sixty in England and Wales on April 5, 1891, would be 2,139,591, if the proportion of persons over sixty to the total population which held good in 1881 still continues ; and perhaps 2,311,843 may be taken as representing the total number of those Avho are upwards of sixty, and of those who are sixty or in the course of a year will turn sixty.* Next, what is the pauperism above sixty for a year ? The census figure of August, 1890, was 280,867. This Mr. Chamberlain * The figure is thus worked out, ami for our purpose is probably snfliciently exact. At the 1881 census 158,578 persons were estimated to be fifty-nine yeais of age in the middle of 1881 (see Table II., p. 80, of the (leneral Report). Proportionately on the census of 1891 they would number 177,057. By the EngUsh Life Table out of 3,90(5 persons who reach fifty-nine, 100 die before their sixtieth year. This makes 4,805 deaths on the 177,057, which represents the number of those who would be fifty-nine years of age in the middle of 1891 ; and it leaves 172,252, which is added to the number who by that census were numerated sixty years old and upwards (see Summary Table I.). 48 would multiply by 2 or 3. Of coui-se it makes a very great difference which multiplier is used. First, as to the general question of the returns. In making up the returns of outdoor pauperism, the following rule is observed by the authorities : — " If an able-bodied man, being head of the family, is sick or temporarily disabled or out of work, the whole family dependent on him are to be entered as chargeable. If the relief is given on account of the sickness of a wife or child, or specially for a wife or child, the wife or child only and the head of the family are to be inserted in the list." In the former case the entry in the return must at least be two (for man and wife), but will generally be moi-e according to the number of the children ; in the latter case the entry will always be two. Clearly, so far as the returns of general pauperism are concerned, the " able-bodied " cases will make the greatest vari- ations in the returns. A single family may make a difference of eight. If the family go into the house, they will be reckoned in the same way as eight ; and if they go in and out and return to the house in the course of the year, they will be entered as sixteen.* The estimate of 2 or 3 as the multiplier of the total number of paupers over sixty, as ascertained by day census, is probably based on calculations made in regard to paupers generally, and not on any special statistics in regard to paupers over sixty. Mr. Purdy made a return of paupers for the parochial year 1857, from which it was concluded that to obtain the number of paupers for the year their number on January 1 should be multi- plied by 3|t- But since 1857 there has been a great change in the character of English pauperism. The adult able-bodied pauperism, as reckoned by day census, has decreased steadily from 171,382 in 1858 to 97,745 in 1891, and the percentage of able-bodied paupers to the total number of paupers was in 1890 12-3, instead of 17-2 in 1858. J How greatly this affects the return is evident, if, com- * lu order to exclude, as far as possible, this cause of fluctuation in the returns, children have been omitted in the tables used in the preceding paper. t See " National Income," by the late K. Dudley Baxter (1886), p. 87. + See, for instance, " The English Poor Bate : some Kecent Statistics of its Administration and Pressure," by Major Craigie, Journal of the Statistical bociety, June, 1868. 40 paring- 1870 and 1890, we note the number of cliildrcn dependent on tlie able-bodied heads of families. On January 1, 1870, able- bodied men and women numbered 194,089 ; their children numbered 302,526.* And among the 194,089 arc also included, as '"abh*- bodied," the wives of able-bodied men. On January 1, 1890, the able-bodied men and women numbered 97,745, their children 171,262. Roughly in the last twenty years able-bodied pauperism has been reduced by half; and a reduction of 96,U00 in the number of able-bodied adults has entailed a reduction of 131,000 in the number of children. Pashley, writing in 1852, said that the able- bodied men were 1 in 10 of those who received relief on a single day in the summer half-year : now they would be 1 in 38"8. f On the other hand there has been, particularly in the last fifteen or twenty years, a large increase in Poor- Law medical relief. There is much outdoor medical relief. Those who received this in London in the year 1881 are stated to have numbered 61,750. The Poor- Law infirmaries also are becoming hospitals ; and it is officially admitted that there has been a large increase in the number of cases treated in them. This is shown by the evidence recently taken by the House of Lords Committee on Hospitals, and by such i-eports as those which the late Dr. Ilott, Medical Officer of the Whitechapel Infirmary, used to publish in the half- yeaily report of that Board cf Guardians. It may be urged, however, that allowing for these changes, the proportion of paupers per day and per year i-emains much the same. In confirmation of whicli a I'eturn in the report of the Local Government Board for 1882-3 may be quoted. It is a return of outdoor pauperism in the metropolis for the year ending December 25, 1881. The outdoor paupers, less lunatics, etc., according to it, numbered 185,194. On the last day of the fifth week of January, 1881, the outdoor pauperism of London was, excluding the insane, etc., 51,439, which supports Mr. Purdy's multiple of 3|. This however cannot be accepted as a final test. Judging from the plan on which the half-yearly Poor- Law returns are compiled, it is very doubtful whether all duplication of paupers • See Appendix D, Local Government Report, 1889-90. t July, 1889. See Local Government Report, 1889-90. In the year 1881 the able-bodied men, women, and children who received outdoor relief are returned at 63,065— so large a factor in pauperism does outdoor relief to the able-bodied still remain in London. D 50 between half-year and half-year has been avoided. The I'eturn refers to London only, and to outdoor relief only. It includes the most shifting class of pauper and not the more stationary. All that can at present be said in regard to the returns of general pauperism is, that to give any true idea of its bulk and cliaractex% the several kinds of relief should be described and classified, and a proportion taken between the number who roceivt^- each kind of relief on a single day and in the year ; and that further information is necessary before any final conclusion can be drawn. The smallest experience of the statistical book-keeping of the Poor-Law authorities will convince any inquirer that, at least in our large town unions, a very careful and detailed in- vestigation would be necessary to obtain true results.* We turn now to the question of the day census and the year'.s- census, as it concerns paupers over sixty. We take the country first. On the parochial list of the Brixworth union (Lady Day, 1889) are 102 paupers in receipt of in- and outdoor relief over the age of sixty. Of these, all but eight of the outdoor paupers had been relieved for twenty-five weeks ; and all but two or three of the indoor were, it is evident, permanent paupers ; in the half- year ending Michaelmas, 1890, there were on the list ninety-five indoor paupers, and only one person over sixty was added. Of the thirty-nine outdoor pauper.s in receipt of relief the average age was seventy-four, and none were added. At Bradfield, of fifty paupers in the house of sixty years and more, all but eleven have been in I'eceipt of relief for more than a year, and all in receipt of outdoor relief have been on the list more than that time. Iil most instances relief had been given for several years. In the country, therefore, so far as these returns go — and they refer only to unions in which there is a careful administration — there is little difference in the number of the paupers over sixty,, on a single day and in the year.f Next, to take the town. On general evidence it would seem that there is very little fluctuation in the number of persons over sixty * Compare on this point Mr. Sendall's and Sir Henry Longley's reports, above referred to. t If reference be made to Tables VII. and IX., it will be seen that in the case of some unions to multiply by three the number of paupers over sixty will give- a larger number than the total population over sixty. That multiplier there- fore can hardly be used in reference to this class. 51 or sixty-five in the workhouse of St. Pancras, if a census for the day and for the year be compared. At Paddington, taking a day census of persons over sixty in the infirmary and the workhouse, the numbex'S are 382 ; while the half-year's census is 570. It would seem from this that to the number entered on the day census, who are sixty years and over, about half that number (or 49'2 per cent.) should be added, to give the total for the half-year. At White- chapel, the number of those over sixty who were relieved in the workhouse in a single day should be multiplied b}' 2^ to obtain the total so relieved in the half-yeai-. With regard to the infirmary, "the multiplication (Mr. Vallance writes) will have to be by 4| to get at the total number relieved [in the half-year]. But this proves nothing. The fact is that we have an increasingly migra- tory population, the 8,000 or so beds in common lodging-houses, shelters, and refuges feeding our infirmary with sick, and mounting up the admissions sometimes to startling figures. Last half-year the admissions averaged nearly 100 a week, whilst the average num- ber at one time would not be more than 600 oi* thereabouts." In many ways Whitechapel is an exceptional district, and to obtain an accurate criterion, an examination of the records of most of the unions of London would be necessary. Between half- year and half-year there is a large amount of overlapping in the applications. Probably in the whole of London, in the case of paupers of sixty, the number of the day census Avould at most have to be doubled to give the number for the year. But this is a mere provisional estimate, and inquiries will shortly be made, which will, it is hoped, throw light upon it.* Our conclusion, then, for the present and until further inquiry has placed more trustworthy information at our disposal, must be that, taking London as a whole, possibly the number of paupers • At Marylebone in the year 1887, according to the report of the master of the workhouse, twelve persons made 447 admissions, and, unless they were chocked, would appear in returns for the year as 447 persons. He also makes the following note which has its bearing on the causes of pauperism : " With an average number of 840 men and 400 women over the age of sixty, who are granted a fortnightly holiday, the leave of absence of 128, who returned drunk and disorderly during the year, was stopped, against 212 cases of the same kind in the previous year," p. 23. — Report of the master of the St. Marylebone Workhouse for the year 1887. At Chelsea, twenty-five persons, including two children, one of five and one of fifteen years old, made in one year 5',)3 admis- sions and discharges. over sixty should be doubled to give tlie number of such paupers for the year ; that for the country unions this is too large an esti- mate ; and that possibly for the whole of England tw^o-thirds of the day census added to the total of that census would give the number of paupers over sixty in the year. But it must be remembered that apart from such aggravated conditions as prevail at Whitechapel, the better the administration, the less is likely to be the fluctuation between the numbei's for the day and for the year, and the fewer the numbers of paupers over sixty. As an argument for a nationa annuity scheme, any such calculation is misleading. III. EVIDENCE TAKEN BY THE SELECT COMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, 1886. [Extract from the Rev. Canon Blackley's evidence before the Select Com- mittee on National Provident Insurance, pp. 159, ICO, 161.] Chairman. 2785. There is a point to which you allude, I forget whether it was in your evidence or elsewhere, namely, the proportion of pauper deaths in the workhouse ?■ — That is a newly-ascertained fact. 2786. Would you state it as you stated on a former occasion ? — In investigating this subject, as I am doing nearly every day of my life, it occurred to me to try and find out what proportion of the people in our country who reached old age die as paupers. T therefore took fii-st the burial register of my own parish. I got the relieving officer, v?ho has been fourteen or fifteen years in his office, to come with me and examine. We marked off every person in the parish who had died over the age of sixty in our bui-ial register; then I asked him, with his knowledge and the authority of his books, to point out how many of those who died either in the woi'khouse or as recipients of outdoor relief, and I found, to my hori'or, that there were 87 per cent, of such. That differs from the ordinary proportion of the number of paupers. What people commonly call paupers are about 3 per cent, of the population ; that is what is ordinarily ^supposed to be the average of pauperism. That figure, however, is taken from a misreading of the Local Government Board returns. That figure is only the mean be- 53 tween the numbci' of paupers on the 1st of January and the l^t of July in each year ; that is not a tabulation of the number of paupers in England. That tabulation Avas last made, as to the number of paupers, in the year 1857. Mr. Purd}', who made the return, gave the number of actual paupers as three-and-a-half times the mean number I'eturned in that year. If Ave npply that tabulation, and there is no reason for oui- applying any other, to the mean number at the present time, v>e shall find that the number of paupers in England is 10 per cent, of the. whole population. Examination of the pauperism on my parish register amongst old persons over sixty years of age, proved 87 per cent, of persons of that age dj-ing as paupers. I wrote to the Guardian newspaper stating this fact, and asking other clergymen to be good enough to make the same examination of their burial registers. I added up and averaged all the returns, and I found that instead of 87 per cent., which was the case in my parish, 42*7 out of every 100 of the population that reached sixty years of age die as paupers ; that is nearly one out of every two people in the country attaining that age. Mi;. Noinox. 2787. Do you mean that they actually die in the union work- house ? — No, as paupers, either in the workhouses or in the receipt of relief. 2788. Would you call a person a pauper who got a verv small relief, say a gallon of flour I'* — We do not give anything like a gallon of flour to anybody; we give money; and when we give relief, it is at the rate of 2s. dd. a week. 2789. What you call a pauper is any person who is a recipient of relief ? — Certainly, any person Avho is a recipient of relief ; because they cannot receive any relief by lav\' iinless they are destitute people. Mi;. Fexwick. 2790. Could you tell the Committee what proportion of the population reach the age of sixty ? — I can ; it is roughly 2,000,000 of the population ; it is not quite 2,000,000, but very nearly ; the total is 1,916,200. 2791. And it is oG per cent, of those who die as paupers? — The number of people existing over the age of sixty is 1,91("),2GG ; and more than 42^ per cent, of those die as paupers. I think 54 that closes what I have to say witli reference to the amount of pauperism in England. It is so appalling in itself that it is not necessary to say anything more upon it. Mi;. Hovle. 2792. How did you arrive at that 427? — By tabulating all the returns got from the clergy; finding how many died, and how many of those were paupers, and that was the result. 2793. Do you mean that of the persons who arrive at the age of sixty in all classes, 427 die as paupers ? — 427 of all persons Avho arrive at the age of sixty die as paupers, as far as my returns go. 2794. That is a xerj startling statement r — It is a very startling statement. Mr. Walter James. 279o. What have you taken as the basis of your statistics ? — Simply the burial statistics as they were sent in to me; we find from them how many die and are buried ; how many of those are in receipt of relief, and then we tabulate the results. Mk. Hovle. 2796. It is not 427 of the whole population, it is only 42*7 of those who reach the age of sixty ? — Certainly ; the entire popula- tion above sixty of every class. 2797. But the words " entire population "' may possibly mislead one ; and what I wish to know is this, whether this proportion is of those who attain the age of sixty ? — Certainly, that is my object ; to shoAv that, Avhatever our friendly societies may do for the people who are in Avork, and are able to pay their contribu- tions, nothing is done to meet the awful amount of pauperism under which nearly every one of us may say for ourselves that he has a corpse chained to his right hand. 2798. These conclusions may not be absolutely relied on ? — No, only as far as I have tabulations; but as far as I can judge they are a veiy fair tabulation. 2799. Out of what proportion of the population would you have these tabulations? — Out of about 12,000 persons altogether; but I asked the clergy to do it very faii-ly for mo, looking very carefully to see that I had not got hold of any place where there was a union Avorkhouse, which would have increased the rate. 55 2800. "Would it liavc been a twentieth part of the whole king- dom ? — No ; certainly not. I put my letter in the Guardian newspaper, which goes to most of the clergy in the country ; but it would cover very large numbers of people, because we have only taken the I'etorns of the deaths of persons above that age. ViSCOrXT FOLKESTOXK. 2801. Did you get returns from all kinds of districts, towns, manufactui'ing and agricultural, and seaports, as well as from agricultural and mining districts ? — Xo ; my difficulty is this : not that my statistics Avould not be the same, but that we cannot expect the clergy in our large manufacturing districts to tabulate the j-egisters ; they have not the time to do it. My statistics liave been chiefly draAvn from parishes with 1,000 down to 300 of population. Mr. Arthur Aclaxd. 2802. Would it be fair to say that the amount of outdoor relief is larger in a country parish than in, say, the East End of London ? — 1 cannot distinctly say ; but we have very dreadful tabulations of the amount of deaths in workhouses throughout London. 2808. The death-rate in workhouses is about per cent., is it not ? — In London per cent, of the whole population at all ages die actually in workhouses, apart from those receiving outdoor relief. 2804. I suppose it would be impossible to get statistics of the kind you spoke of from the East End of London, because no clergyman or anybody else would know the facts? — Certainly; but one cannot say that people in the East End of London ait) generally better off in their old age than people in the country are. 2805. In this case you could not say an^^thing at all ? — No ; only that as far as one has obtained the tabulations, a certain result is shown. Mr. Llewellyn. 280G. I was so much struck with the statement when I heard it the other day that I should like to know a little more about it; how many clergymen did you apply to ? — I applied generally to all the clergy by my letter in the Guardian newspaper. 5G 2807. What returns did you receive P — I received returns from something like 2G parishes. 280S. Would most of these be country villages ? — Yea. 2809. Then the average -would not apply to towns ? — The returns, at all events, were not taken from towns for the reason I have mentioned. Mi;. Waltei; James. 2810. Did your letter go out to those individual clergy ? — No ; I put the letter in the Guardian newspaper, asking anybody who Avould be good enough to make the tabulation, and to let me have it. 1 am quite sure that anybody who has sent me tabulations has made exact returns. Mr. NoitTON. 2811. Would the 26 clergy go over an area of 20,000 popula- tion ? — Yes. 2812. Did you ask them to say whether those dying were actually in receipt of relief at the time of death, or had been in receipt of relief?— My information is that they were actually in receipt of relief, indoor or outdoor, in some form or other, at the time of their deaths. 2813. Then it amounts to this, that you got the evidence of 25 or 26 country parishes in one particular part of England ? — Xo ; the parishes were spread all over the kingdom ; the tabula- tions were voluntary in answer to public advertisement. 281-i. Could you tell me what part of the country the returns Avere chiefly from ? — There were some from the north of England, and some from the south of England, Devonshire, Sussex, Berk- shire, Wiltshii'e, P]ssex, Bucks, Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire, Kent, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Suffolk, Leicestershire, and Pembroke. That was the only way I could ascertain it; of course I should bo glad to ascertain the tabulation of 10,000 parishes if there are 12,000 parishes in England. I should be glad to get all I could ; but some of the i-eturns sent to me amounted to positively 50 per cent, of the people over sixty years of age who were actually paupers at the time of their death, including, of course, those Avho were in the Avorkhouse. I think it may be very advantageously known throughout the country that such a tabulation was made. 57 Mi;. William Lo\\thi;i:. 2815. Could you put in as a paper the names of the phices that were given to you ? — I will do that. They were as lollows : Stackpool, Elidor, Pemliroke ; Bury, near Pulborough, Sussex; Rewe, near Exeter; North Moreton, Berks; Shenley, Bucks; Biddesdon, near Chippenham; Thaxted, near Dunmow; Burgh- clere, near Newbury ; Thornhaugh, Northamptonshire ; Nettle- sham, Lincoln; East Knoyle, Wiltshire; Gouldhurst, Kent; Stockbridge, Hampshire ; Cheriton, Hampshire ; Steeple Lang- ford, near Bath ; PJarsham, near Bungay, Suffolk ; and South Kilworth, Leicestershire. Cn All; MAN. 281G. I suppose if you had had a suflicient staff and funds at your disposal, you Avould have made your inquiry more s^'stematic and universal ? — I do not see how I could possibly have made it more universal ; because if people were unwilling to make it, you would have to pay for every entry you looked at, because thei-e is a fee for each entry, and a fee for search. I think most of the clergy, if they had not too large a district, would be very glad to give you a similar return. Mr. Ai;rui,"R At land. 2817. Do not you think that any statement based upon (•uuiitry parishes, where pei-haps i>U per cent, of the people earn under l-t-N-. a week might be very misleading as applied in any sense of the word to the whole country ? — I think it is entirely impossible to say so, because one takes the most public view of one's disposal. You get the largest tabulation you can, but it involves consider- able labour, and that is the reason you cannot get material for making a tabulation of large po^julations. But unless you can say that there is in large populations less distress in old age than in smaller ones, then I say that, as far as I have been able to ascertain, and I have been eai-nest in endeavouring to ascertain it from every quarter, that tabulation may be regarded as fairly representative. 2818. But is it not the case that there is a very nnu-li larger proportion of people earning very small wages in the country parishes than of the people who are earning wages, rich and ])oor together, in the town districts ? — 1 am not speaking of the people 58 eai-ning wages, but I am speaking of rich and poor together in all districts where our inquiries have reached. 2819. But I am speaking of people earning wages, because in the country districts the wages are so low ? — Whatever the cause may be, the fact is there. Viscount Folkestone. 2820. Is it the fact that the proportion receiving relief in the towns is larger than it is in the country? — I cannot say; but I think one witness hit the mark when he said that the difference between the country and the town was in the question of rent ; the cost of living is necessarily cheaper in large towns on account of the number of shops. IV. Table XI. — Population of Eight Unions (seep. 8). Union. Total Population. 1871. TSyl. 1891. Linton MiDHURST .... Brixworth. . . . Bradfield .... St. George's East . Strand Bethnal, Green . . Stepney .... 13,768 13,051 13,866 15,691 48,052 41,339 120,104 57,690 13,073 13,965 18,836 17,972 47,157 33,582 126,961 58,543 12,724 14,235 12,186 18,017* 45,546 27,473 129,134 57,599 Mr. Bland Garland, speaking on the question of the increase of thrift, as a result of a Poor-Law administration, says : — "As to proofs of increased thrift, you will of course see that it is difficult to give you much data on that subject. However, in * Between 1881 and 1891, the population and area of the Bradfield union were reduced (see note to Table VII., p. 24). 18,017 is the population of the lesser area. The report of the Bradfield Guardians, 1st January, 1891, states that the population was reduced by 1,606 through the curtailment of the union. 59 1888 I got returns from all the friendly societies in the union area, including' all the old clubs whicli were diminishing in numbers, and from all our medical officers, as to the membership of their medical clubs. I am happy to say that the medical clubs showed an increase of membership, during the time of our reform of 148 per cent. The friendly societies showed an increase of membership of l')0 per cent. Of course I could not get at thc- data of the large collecting societies and the savings banks, and building societies, and therefore cannot say Avhat effect our policy has had upon that class of thrift. But I see no reason to supposi- that the deposits of savings banks, and the contributions to these collecting societies and building societies, have not increased in like manner. 1 have no doubt in my own mind that they have."* • " The Story of the Bradfield Union," being an address delivered at the annual meeting of the London Charity Organization Society, on April 26, IS'.tl, by Mr. Bland Garland, the Chairman of the Board of Guardians. Butler * Tanner, Tho Selwood rrmting Worts. Fromc. and Loadon. + > THE LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY AA 000 961 414