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.

ADVERTISEMENT.

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if considered as forming an independent work, and the impossibility of employing the little time which can be withdrawn from a profession, in the vast task of giving even an outline of the provision for the poor, and the condition of the labouring classes, in the whole of Europe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.

Nassau W. Senior.

Lincoln’s Inn, June 10, 1835.

CONTENTS

Page
Introduction[1]
AMERICA
Pennsylvania[13-18]
Massachusetts[14-17]
New Jersey[18]
New York[19]
EUROPE
Norway[20]
Sweden[24]
Russia[29]
Denmark[33]
Mecklenburg[44]
Prussia[45]
Saxony[53]
Wurtemberg[53]
Weinsburg House of Industry[65]
Bavaria[68]
Berne[74]
CAUSES favourable to the Working of a Compulsory Provision[84]
Hanseatic Towns
Hamburgh[95]
Bremen[96]
Lubeck[98]
Frankfort[101]
Holland[101]
Poor Colonies of[109]
Frederiks-Oord[110]
Wateren[113]
Veenhuisen[113]
Ommerschans[115]
Belgium and France[117]
French Poor-Laws:
Hospices et Bureaux de Bienfaisance[118]
Foundlings and Deserted Children[120]
Mendicity and Vagrancy[122]
Belgium
Monts-de-Piété[126-138]
Mendicity[126]
Foundlings and Deserted Children[133]
Antwerp[139]
Ostend[143]
Gaesbeck[145]
Poor Colonies[148]
France[154]
Havre:
Hospital[155]
Bureau de Bienfaisance[156]
Rouen:
Workhouse Regulations[157]
Brittany[160]
Loire Inférieure:
Nantes[163]
Gironde:
Bourdeaux[170]
Basses Pyrenées:
Bayonne[176]
Bouches du Rhone:
Marseilles[178]
Sardinian States:
Piedmont[181]
Genoa[186]
Savoy[187]
Venice[189]
Portugal:
Oporto[194]
The Azores[196]
The Canary Islands[199]
Greece[201]
European Turkey[203]
General Absence of a Surplus Population in Countries not affording Compulsory Relief[204]
Agricultural Labourers in England.
Wages of[206]
Subsistence of[208]
Wages and Subsistence of Foreign Labourers.
Vide Tables[210-235]
Comparison between the state of the English and Foreign Labouring Classes[236]

STATEMENT
OF THE
PROVISION FOR THE POOR,
AND THE
CONDITION OF THE LABOURING CLASSES,
IN A CONSIDERABLE PORTION OF
AMERICA AND EUROPE.

The Commissioners appointed by His Majesty to make a diligent and full Inquiry into the practical operation of the Laws for the relief of the Poor, were restricted by the words of their Commission to England and Wales. As it was obvious, however, that much instruction might be derived from the experience of other countries, the Commissioners were authorized by Viscount Melbourne, then His Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department, to extend the investigation as far as might be found productive of useful results. At first they endeavoured to effect this object through their personal friends, and in this manner obtained several valuable communications. But as this source of information was likely to be soon exhausted, they requested Viscount Palmerston, then His Majesty’s Principal Secretary of State for the Foreign Department, to obtain the assistance of the Diplomatic Body.

In compliance with this application, Viscount Palmerston, by a circular dated the 12th of August, 1833, requested each of His Majesty’s Foreign Ministers to procure and transmit, with the least possible delay, a full report of the legal provisions existing in the country in which he was resident, for the support and maintenance of the poor; of the principles on which such provision was founded; of the manner in which it was administered; of the amount and mode of raising the funds devoted to that purpose; and of the practical working and effect of the actual system, upon the comfort, character, and condition of the inhabitants.

The answers to these well-framed inquiries form a considerable portion of the contents of the following volume. They constitute, probably, the fullest collection that has ever been made of laws for the relief of the poor.

But as a subject of such extent would necessarily be treated by different persons in different manners, and various degrees of attention given to its separate branches, the Commissioners thought it advisable that a set of questions should also be circulated, which, by directing the attention of each inquirer and informant to uniform objects, would enable the influence of different systems on the welfare of the persons subjected to them to be compared.

For this purpose the following questions were drawn up:—

The following Questions apply to Customs and Institutions whether general throughout the State, or peculiar to certain Districts, and to Relief given:

And you are requested to state particularly the cases (if any) in which the person relieved has a legal claim.