Statement of the Provision for the Poor, and of the Condition of the Labouring Classes in a Considerable Portion of America and Europe / Being the preface to the foreign communications contained in the appendix to the Poor-Law Report

Transcriber’s Note: Suspected printer’s errors have been corrected. Upper-case accents weren’t used in the original, and differences of spelling (etc.) between the different reports have been preserved.

STATEMENT OF THE PROVISION FOR THE POOR, AND OF THE CONDITION OF THE LABOURING CLASSES, IN A CONSIDERABLE PORTION OF AMERICA AND EUROPE.
BY NASSAU W. SENIOR, Esq.
BEING THE PREFACE TO THE FOREIGN COMMUNICATIONS CONTAINED IN THE APPENDIX TO THE POOR-LAW REPORT.
LONDON: B. FELLOWES, LUDGATE STREET. ( Publisher to the Poor-Law Commissioners. ) MDCCCXXXV.

LONDON: Printed by William Clowes and Sons, Stamford Street.

The following pages were prepared for the sole purpose of forming an introduction to the foreign communications contained in the Appendix to the Poor-Law Report. Their separate publication was not thought of until they had been nearly finished. When it was first suggested to me, I felt it to be objectionable, on account of their glaring imperfections, if considered as forming an independent work, and the impossibility of employing the little time which can be withdrawn from a profession, in the vast task of giving even an outline of the provision for the poor, and the condition of the labouring classes, in the whole of Europe and America. But the value and extent of the information which, even in their present incomplete state, they contain, and the importance of rendering it more accessible than when locked up in the folios of the Poor-Law Appendix, have overcome my objections. The only addition which I have been able to make is a translation of the French documents.

I cannot conclude without expressing my sense of the zeal and intelligence with which the inquiry has been prosecuted by his Majesty’s diplomatic Ministers and Consuls, and of the active and candid assistance which has been given by the foreign Governments.