English Poor Law Policy - free ebook by Beatrice Webb

ENGLISH POOR LAW POLICY. BY SIDNEY AND BEATRICE WEBB.

LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO., 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON, NEW YORK, BOMBAY AND CALCUTTA. 1910. ( Second Impression, 1913 )...

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PREFACE

Nothing of to-day, it may be suggested, can be really understood without its history. This, at any rate, is true of the complicated policy of the English Poor Law, which is now (1910) costing the public (for the United Kingdom) close upon twenty millions sterling every year; and which is producing, on the whole, results which led the Royal Commissioners of 1905-1909, without distinction of political or economic party or creed, to their unanimous and emphatic condemnatory verdict. That policy is

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Chapter II

The Poor Law Commissioners The Able-bodied (i.) on Outdoor Relief, (ii.) in the Workhouse — Vagrants — Women — Children — The Sick — Persons of Unsound Mind — Defectives — The Aged and Infirm — Non-Residents — The Workhouse — Admission — Segregation — Service — Diet — Cleanliness and Sanitation — Discipline — Employment — Sanctions — Discharge and Detention — The Workhouse of the General Consolidated Order of 1847 — The position in 1847 compared with the Principles of 1834....

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Chapter III

The Poor Law Board The Able-bodied — National Uniformity — Municipal Work for the Unemployed — Vagrants — Women — Children — The Sick — Persons of Unsound Mind — Defectives — The Aged and Infirm — Non-Residents — The Workhouse — Emigration — Relief on Loan — Co-operation with Voluntary Agencies — The Position in 1871....

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Chapter IV

The Local Government Board The Able-bodied — National Uniformity — The Workhouse Test — The Labour Test — The modified Workhouse Test Order — The Test Workhouse — The Provision of Employment — The Farm Colony — Vagrants — Women — Children (i.) on Outdoor Relief; (ii.) in Poor Law Schools; (iii.) the Workhouse Children; (iv.) The Education of the Indoor Pauper Child; (v.) Boarding-out; (vi.) Apprenticeship; (vii.) Adoption — The Sick — Domiciliary Treatment — Institutional Treatment — The Municip

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Chapter V

The Principles of 1907 The Departures from the Principles of 1834 — The Principle of National Uniformity — The Principle of Less Eligibility — The Workhouse System — New Principles unknown in 1834 — The Principle of Curative Treatment — The Principle of Universal Provision — The Principle of Compulsion — The Contrast between 1834 and 1907 — No Man's Land....

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Chapter VI

The Majority Report of the Royal Commission of 1905-1909 The Principles of 1907 — The Plea for a Single Destitution Authority — The Reversion to 1834 — The mutual Incompatibility of the Proposals of the Majority Report — The Principle of Curative Treatment and a Destitution Authority — The Principle of Compulsion and a Destitution Authority — The Principle of Universal Provision and a Destitution Authority....

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Chapter VII

The Minority Report of the Royal Commission of 1905-1909 The Principle of Prevention — The "Moral Factor" in the Problem of Destitution — The Sphere of Voluntary Agencies in the Prevention of Destitution....

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Chapter VIII

Summary and Conclusion Appendix A Memorandum by the Local Government Board as to the Local Authorities for Poor Law purposes and the Out-relief Orders in force at the end of the years 1847, 1871, 1906. Appendix B Extract from the Minority Report for Scotland giving the reasons in favour of the Complete Supersession of the Poor Law. Index of Unions and other Places mentioned Index of Subjects Footnotes...

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ENGLISH POOR LAW POLICY

The English Poor Law Policy, of which we present an analysis, is that which has been from time to time promulgated for the authoritative guidance of local authorities in the relief of the destitute, whether laid down by Parliament or by Departments of the National Government. This policy is to be found principally in (1) Orders, whether "General" or "Special"; (2) circulars and other instructional communications to officials and to local authorities, and (3) reports to Parliament. These document

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CHAPTER I

THE REVOLUTION OF 1834 It is unnecessary for us even to refer to the disastrous chaos into which the Poor Law and its local administration had in 1832 fallen, or to the events which led up to the celebrated Royal Commission appointed in that year. Their report, presented in 1834, and the Poor Law Amendment Act of the same year, together form the starting-point of all subsequent legislation and administration. The 1834 Report The proposals of the Commissioners of 1834 were either formal "recommen

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CHAPTER II

THE POOR LAW COMMISSIONERS It had, as we have seen, been left to the Poor Law Commissioners to formulate their own policy, with the guidance of the Report of 1834. This policy is, during the ensuing thirteen years, to be found in (1) the orders issued under the Act of 1834 and subsequent statutes; (2) the circulars and other explanatory or instructional communications to the local authorities, inspectors, auditors, etc., and (3) the reports to Parliament. Under the term "order," we include, as i

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CHAPTER III

THE POOR LAW BOARD We have seen that between 1834 and 1847 the Central Authority settled down to a certain empirical policy as to the administration of relief, which was embodied, as regards workhouse management throughout the whole country, in the General Consolidated Order of 1847; and (as regards outdoor relief in the different geographical regions into which England and Wales had been divided) in the Outdoor Relief Prohibitory Order of 1844, in that Order coupled with a Labour Test Order, an

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CHAPTER IV

THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD As we have already mentioned, the merging of the Poor Law Board in the newly established Local Government Board came about for reasons unconnected with the Poor Law, and it coincided with no definite change in Poor Law Policy. But, as already indicated, the placing of the Central Authority on a permanent basis coincided with a gradual improvement in the quality of the inspectorial staff, who, in the ensuing decades, remind us more of the masterful assistant commissione

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CHAPTER V

THE PRINCIPLES OF 1907 It is unnecessary to attempt to summarise the policy of the Central Authority from 1847 to 1907, in the manner adopted for the inaugural period, 1835 to 1847. The policy of the last sixty years is so complicated and diversified that we could hardly compress it further than is already done in the foregoing analysis, without making it unintelligible. We propose, therefore, to end this report by examining to what extent, in our opinion, the Central Authority has, in 1907, dep

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CHAPTER VI

THE MAJORITY REPORT OF THE ROYAL COMMISSION OF 1905-1909 The analysis of Poor Law Policy contained in the preceding chapters, and the comparative statement of principles to which it led, was made the subject of a report to the Royal Commission on the Poor Law in the very middle of its career. We have thought it convenient to leave the analysis and the statement—subject to the correction of a few trifling errors—exactly as they were written in July 1907. We have now to examine the Report of the R

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CHAPTER VII

THE MINORITY REPORT OF THE ROYAL COMMISSION OF 1905-1909 We have described how the Majority Report of the Royal Commission professedly accepts the "Principles of 1907," but attempts to graft them upon a new Destitution Authority, and then inevitably finds itself compelled—seeing that these principles are incompatible with the very nature of a Destitution Authority—to revert, in reality, to the "Principles of 1834." The Minority Report on the other hand, carries the "Principles of 1907" to their

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CHAPTER VIII

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION We may now attempt to sum up the position as it presents itself, after the deliverance of the Royal Commission, to the statesman and to the public opinion of 1910. There is first the chaos of authorities, the overlapping of functions and the duplication of services, resulting in the expenditure, out of rates and taxes in the United Kingdom, on the maintenance, schooling, and medical attendance of the poorer classes of nearly seventy millions sterling annually. During the p

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APPENDIX A

MEMORANDUM BY THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOARD AS TO THE LOCAL AUTHORITIES FOR POOR LAW PURPOSES AND THE OUT-RELIEF ORDERS IN FORCE AT THE END OF THE YEARS 1847, 1871, 1906. The following table exhibits all the unions, incorporations, and separate parishes which existed for Poor Law purposes on the 31st December in the years 1847, 1871, and 1906 respectively. Where any such union, etc., did not exist at the end of 1847 or ceased to exist before the end of 1906 a note has been made in the margin showin

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APPENDIX B

EXTRACT FROM THE MINORITY REPORT FOR SCOTLAND, GIVING THE REASONS IN FAVOUR OF THE COMPLETE SUPERSESSION OF THE POOR LAW We realise that the foregoing recommendations amount to the complete supersession of the Poor Law, and, indeed, to its abolition. In its stead, we propose merely an adequate enlargement of the work already undertaken by the various existing public authorities for the prevention of destitution—for the prevention of the destitution due to neglected childhood by the Local Educati

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THE PREVENTION OF DESTITUTION

Demy 8vo (1911). Price 6s. net. ADVERTISEMENT In this volume the authors propound a constructive policy, worked out in considerable detail, by the adoption of which they believe that the nation could, within a very few years, progressively get rid of the great bulk of the involuntary destitution in which so large a proportion of our population is now plunged. They analyse the several causes of this destitution, and show how these can severally be arrested in their operation. The extensive ravage

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GRANTS IN AID:

A CRITICISM AND A PROPOSAL BY SIDNEY WEBB Demy 8vo, 120 pp. (1911). Price 5s. net. ADVERTISEMENT This is the first volume dealing with Grants in Aid as an instrument of government. In the United Kingdom, at the present time, a sum of about thirty millions sterling is annually paid by the Chancellor of the Exchequer to the various Local Governing Authorities of the Kingdom. This large subvention has important effects on Local Government which have never before been critically examined. The author

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ENGLISH POOR LAW POLICY

Demy 8vo, pp. xiii and 379 (1910). Price 7s. 6d. net. In this volume, the authors of Industrial Democracy and English Local Government present what is practically a history of the English Poor Law, so far as the policy of the central authority is concerned, from the Report of the Royal Commission of 1832-4 down to that of the Royal Commission of 1905-9. For this work they have analysed, not only the statutes, but also the bewildering array of General and Special Orders, Circulars, Minutes, Inspe

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ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT

(THE PARISH AND THE COUNTY) FROM THE REVOLUTION TO THE MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS ACT This work, the result of eight years' research into the manuscript records of the Parish and the County all over England and Wales—from Northumberland to Cornwall, from Cardigan to Kent—combines history and description in a continuous narrative of extraordinary interest. Avoiding the questions of the origin of English local institutions, and even of their mediæval development, the authors plunge at once into a vivi

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THE PARISH

Introduction . The Legal Framework of the Parish. ( a ) The Area and Membership of the Parish; ( b ) The Officers of the Parish; ( c ) The Servants of the Parish; ( d ) The Incumbent; ( e ) The Parish Vestry; ( f ) The Parish as a Unit of Obligation. Unorganised Parish Government. ( a ) The Parish Oligarchy; ( b ) Government by Consent; ( c ) The Uncontrolled Parish Officers; ( d ) The Rule of the Boss; ( e ) The Turbulent Open Vestry. An Extra-legal Democracy. ( a ) The Organisation of the Publ

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THE COUNTY

Introduction. The Legal Constitution of the County. ( a ) The Area and Divisions of the County; ( b ) The Custos Rotulorum; ( c ) The Sheriff and his Court; ( d ) The High Constable; ( e ) The Coroner; ( f ) The Commission of the Peace; ( g ) County Service; ( h ) An Organ of National Government. On some Anomalous County Jurisdictions, including the Counties Palatine. The Rulers of the County. ( a ) Number and Distribution of Justices ; ( b ) The Justice of Mean Degree ; ( c ) The Trading Justic

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ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT

(THE MANOR AND THE BOROUGH) FROM THE REVOLUTION TO THE MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS ACT In this second instalment of their English Local Government the authors apply their method of combined history and analysis to the fascinating story of the towns and the manorial communities, of which several hundreds find mention, belonging to all the counties of England and Wales. An interesting new account is given, from unpublished materials, of the organisation and development in the seventeenth and eighteenth

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ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT

"A book of the deepest, even of fascinating interest. Here for the first time we have a real study of local life in England, in village and town and country.... Everywhere we follow the gallant fights of humane and just men whose stories are scattered through these pages, along with the sharp dealings of the astute. Familiar names meet us—a great-uncle of Cecil Rhodes making his 'Empire' in St. Pancras; the novelist Fielding cutting down the gains of the magistrate who preyed on the poor.... Nob

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THE BREAK-UP OF THE POOR LAW

BEING PART I. OF THE MINORITY REPORT OF THE POOR LAW COMMISSION Edited, with Introduction, by Sidney and Beatrice Webb Demy 8vo, xx and 604 pp. 7s. 6d net. Uniform with "English Local Government" Bluebooks, it has been said, are places of burial. The original edition of the Report of the Royal Commission on the Poor Law and the Agencies dealing with the Unemployed is a ponderous tome of seven pounds weight, crowded with references, footnotes, and appendices, impossible either to handle or to rea

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THE PUBLIC ORGANIZATION OF THE LABOUR MARKET

BEING PART II. OF THE MINORITY REPORT OF THE POOR LAW COMMISSION Edited, with Introduction, by Sidney and Beatrice Webb Demy 8vo, xvi and 332 pp. 5s. net. Uniform with "English Local Government" The Problem of the Unemployed, which the Royal Commission on the Poor Law was incidentally set to solve, is the question of the day. Part II. of the Minority Report deals with it in a manner at once comprehensive and complete. The whole of the experience of the Poor Law Authorities, and their bankruptcy

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THE STATE AND THE DOCTOR

Demy 8vo, pp. viii and 276 (1910). Price 6s. net. In this work a great deal that will be new to the ordinary citizen is brought to light. The authors show that we do a great deal of State Doctoring in England—more than is commonly realised—and that our arrangements have got into a tangle, which urgently needs straightening out. Everywhere there is a duplication of authorities, and more or less overlapping of work. We are spending out of the rates and taxes, in one way or another, directly on sic

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THE HISTORY OF TRADE UNIONISM

Demy 8vo; Tenth Thousand; New Edition, with New Introductory Chapter; lvii and 558 pp. (1911). Price 7s. 6d. net. This work describes, not only the growth and development of the Trade Union Movement in the United Kingdom from 1700 down to the end of the nineteenth century, but also the structure and working of the present Trade Union organisation in the United Kingdom. Founded almost entirely on material hitherto unpublished, it is not a mere chronicle of Trade Union organisation or record of st

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INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRACY

Demy 8vo; Tenth Thousand; New Edition in 1 vol., with New Introductory Chapter; lxi and 929 pp. (1907), with Two Diagrams. Price 12s. net. ADVERTISEMENT In this work the authors of The History of Trade Unionism deal, not with the past, but with the present. They describe, with the systematic detail of the scientific observer, and in the same objective spirit, all the forms of Trade Unionism, Factory Legislation, and other regulation of industry to be found within the British Isles. The whole str

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PROBLEMS OF MODERN INDUSTRY

Post 8vo; Fourth Thousand; New Edition, with New Introductory Chapter; xx and 286 pp. (1907). Price 5s. net. CONTENTS Introduction to the New Edition. Preface. CHAP. I. The Diary of an Investigator. II. The Jews of East London. III. Women's Wages. IV. Women and the Factory Acts. V. The Regulation of the Hours of Labour. VI. How to do away with the Sweating System. VII. The Reform of the Poor Law. VIII. The Relationship between Co-operation and Trade Unionism. IX. The National Dividend and its Di

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LONDON EDUCATION

By SIDNEY WEBB Small 8vo; viii and 219 pp. (1903). Price 2s. 6d. net. A Description of the Educational Organisation of London, with a Survey of some of its Administrative Problems—avoiding both politics and religion. CONTENTS CHAP. I. The Evolution of an Educational System. II. The Organisation of the University. III. The Organisation of Commercial Education. IV. The Organisation of the Polytechnics. V. The Organisation of the Library Service. VI. The Lion in the Path. VI. The Lion in th

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THE CO-OPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN GREAT BRITAIN

By BEATRICE POTTER (Mrs. Sidney Webb ) Crown 8vo; Second Edition (1893); Fifth Thousand; xii and 260 pp., with Coloured Map, Appendices, and Index. Price 2s. 6d. CONTENTS CHAP. I. The Co-operative Idea. II. The Spirit of Association. III. The Store. IV. Federation. V. Association of Producers. VI. A State Within a State. VII. The Ideal and the Fact. VIII. Conclusion. APPENDIX Bibliography of the Industrial Revolution — List of Parliamentary Papers Relating To Labour Question in thi

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SOCIALISM IN ENGLAND

By SIDNEY WEBB Crown 8vo; Second Edition (1894), with New Introductory Chapter; xxii and 136 pp. Price 2s. 6d. "The best general view of the subject from the moderate Socialist side."— Athenæum....

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THE LONDON PROGRAMME

Crown 8vo; Second Edition (1894), with New Introductory Chapter; viii and 214 pp. "Brimful of excellent ideas."— Anti-Jacobin. Published by Walter Scott, Limited...

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THE EIGHT HOURS' DAY

By SIDNEY WEBB, LL.B., AND HAROLD COX, B.A. Crown 8vo; 280 pp. with Bibliography Price 1s. "The unique value of this little book lies in its collection of facts. It is likely to hold the field as the handbook to one of the chief items in the social politics of the immediate future."— Pall Mall Gazette. Published by Vandenhoek und Ruprecht (Göttingen) DER SOCIALISMUS IN ENGLAND. Geschildert von englischen Socialisten. Herausgegeben von SIDNEY WEBB...

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