WURTEMBERG.
The information respecting Wurtemberg is remarkably full and precise, having been collected with great care by Sir Edward Disbrowe and Mr. Wellesley, assisted by the provincial authorities and the government.
The kingdom of Wurtemberg consists of about 8000 square English miles, inhabited by 1,578,000 persons, being about 200 persons to a square mile. It is divided into 64 bailiwicks, which are subdivided into civil communities or parishes, containing each not less than 500 individuals. Each parish constitutes a separate corporation, and the parishes in each bailiwick also constitute one superior corporation.
A large proportion of the parishes appears to possess a fund called pium corpus, arising partly from voluntary contribution and other casual receipts, but principally from funds which previously to the Reformation had been employed for the purposes of the Roman Catholic worship, and instead of being confiscated by the government, as was the case in England, were directed to be employed for charitable purposes.
Many of them also have almshouses, or, as they are called in the Reports, hospitals for the residence of the poor, and other endowments for their use; and almost all possess an estate called an allemand, which is the joint property of the persons for the time being having bürgerrecht, or the right of citizenship in the parish, and is, together with the pium corpus and endowments, the primary fund for the relief of the poor. Subject to the claims of the poor, the allemand is divided among the bürghers, without reference to their wealth or their wants, but apparently in equal proportion to each head of a family, and enjoyed in severalty, but inalienably, either for life or for a shorter period.
Sir E. Disbrowe states (p. 485) that the government of the parish is vested in the mayor and a certain number of counsellors for life (who appear to be appointed by the government), and an equal number of representatives chosen by the bürghers, half of whom go out by rotation every second year.
About nine-tenths of the population appear to be bürghers; the remainder are called beisitzers or settled non-freemen, and differ from the bürghers by having no claim on the allemand, or vote in the election of the parochial authorities.
Bürgerrecht is obtained by inheritance, or by purchase at a sum regulated by law, but varying according to the allemand and the population of each parish.
It is lost by emigration or misconduct. 1st, A person who has lost his bürgerrecht is entitled to purchase that right in the parish in which he formerly possessed it: a person who never possessed that right is entitled to purchase it; 2dly, In the parish in which he spent the last five years. In default of this claim, 3dly, in the parish in which he obtained his marriage license. 4thly, If unmarried, in the parish in which he was born; or 5thly, if he have none of these claims, in the parish to which the police thinks fit to assign him. If he cannot or will not pay the requisite purchase-money, he is bound by payment of half the previous sum to constitute himself a beisitzer, and has similar claims to admission as a beisitzer. If he cannot pay this sum he is assigned by the police to a parish, as a beisitzer, without payment.
Having given this outline of the mode in which the population is distributed, we proceed to state, from the report furnished by the government, the degree and mode in which the poor are relieved. (Pages 524, 525, 537, 538, 539, 540, 541, 542, 543, 547.)
39. He who cannot derive the necessaries of life either from his property, his labour, or his trade, nor be supported by his nearest relations and other persons bound to it by private right, has a claim on the support of the (political or civil) community in which he has the right of a burgher or of a beisitzer.
In times of particular distress, not only those who are absolutely poor, but those also who are indeed not without property, but, by the unfavourable circumstances of the times, are rendered incapable of providing the necessaries of life for themselves and their children, have a right to require, from the communities of which they are members, the necessary support. Thus, in the year of scarcity in 1817, the spiritual and temporal overseers of the communities were expressly made responsible by the government, that none of those who were confided to their superintendence and care should be exposed to suffer want; with the threat, that if, for want of care on the part of the overseers, any person should perish, the guilty should be prosecuted with all the rigour of the law.
If a person belonging to one or more communities has need of public support, the share to be borne by each is determined by the government authorities, having respect to the merely personal or family connexion with the several communities.
Each of the three religious persuasions prevailing in the kingdom has the full enjoyment of its poor fund. Poor members of the community, however, who belong to a religious persuasion different to that which prevails in the place, cannot be denied the necessary relief from the poor fund of the place, on account of the difference of religion.
Of the Bailiwick Corporations.
40. If a community has so many poor, or is so limited in its resources, that it is not in a condition properly to support its poor, the other communities of the bailiwick, particularly the towns, so far as they are better able, and have few or no poor, are bound by the law to assist such a poor community with their alms. A general obligation of the bailiwick corporation to assist those communities of the bailiwicks which are not able to afford the necessary assistance to their poor inhabitants, is not ordained by the laws, unless such assistance is to the interest of the bailiwick corporation as such.
In the year 1817, however, the bailiwick corporations were enjoined, so long as the dearth lasted, and with reference to old laws, in case single communities should be unable sufficiently to provide for all the inhabitants, to give them credit so far as to answer either partly or entirely for the debt, but always with the reservation of repayment by the receivers of the aid. And with respect to the support of the poor, which are assigned to a community, it is expressly ordered, that if the assignment is founded on one of the titles to a right of settlement enumerated under 1, 2, and 3[6], the community against which the right is established is to bear only one-third, and the whole of the bailiwick the other two-thirds; but if the assignment is founded on one of the other titles, the whole bailiwick has to take upon itself this support. The expense which is hereby incurred by a bailiwick, constitutes an object of what is called amtsvergleichung, and is imposed on the whole old and now rateable cadastre of the bailiwick.
Of the Duty of the State.
41. The public Exchequer affords, partly on account of the previous sequestration of the church property, and of some other funds and revenues destined for pious and charitable purposes, and partly without any such special legal ground, contributions for the foundation and support of various public beneficent institutions, and it sometimes assists single bailiwicks, communities, and individuals in particular cases, by contributions for charitable purposes. But a general obligation of the public Exchequer to intervene, in case of the inability of the communities or bailiwicks, is no where enacted in the laws of Wurtemberg, and is also not recognised by the government, because too great liberality on its part, and the grant of a distinct head of expenditure for this purpose, as in general the transferring of local burthens to the public exchequer, might lead to very extensive consequences, and might gradually give rise to always increasing claims, which, in the impossibility of ranging single cases under general points of view, it might not be always possible successfully to meet.
Amount of Relief to the Poor.
42. What is necessary for a poor person or a poor family, and how much such a person or family may require for their necessary support, is not expressed in the laws of Wurtemberg; on the contrary, the answer to this question is left to the judgment of the magistrate in every particular case. In fact, it is not well susceptible of a general answer, because the wants of men are so very different, according to their constitutions and inclinations, and the means of satisfying these wants depend too much on personal, local, and temporary circumstances.
Support and Employment of the Adult Poor.
Relief of the able-bodied out-doors.
75. With respect to the adult poor, it is enacted by our oldest laws, that such grown-up poor who would willingly work, but cannot find employment, shall, as far as possible, have means found them by the magistrates to earn a livelihood by their labour; but that lazy idlers who are strong and healthy shall be compelled to work; and, according to a recent ordinance, the able-bodied who claim support from the public funds are bound to take any work for which they have adequate strength, whether it be public or private, which is assigned to them by the local overseers, receiving for it proportionate moderate wages. If they refuse to do the work assigned them, and cannot allege that they can earn something by other work, or produce some other excuse, the overseer is authorized to employ towards them means of compulsion.
According to old laws, poor persons who still have a house and lands, or at least some little portions of land, and who have suffered by failure of the crops, frost, &c., or who cannot sow their lands, or are unable to dispose of them without great loss, but are still able to work, and have hopes of retrieving their losses in the harvest and autumn, shall be assisted by the communities, which, according as the case may be, shall lend to them from the public fund a sufficient sum, to be repaid as they may be able to do it in course of time, or shall at least give security for them.
The laws also order that in public works which the communities have executed by daily labourers, able-bodied poor who have a claim to support from the public funds shall be employed in preference. In places where the hospitals have lands of their own, and farm them on their own account, poor persons are also employed in preference, at suitable wages.
Not only in the year of scarcity, 1817, and subsequently, many adult poor have been employed at suitable wages on the public account in other hard work, such as forest labours, planting trees, cultivating waste lands, turf-digging, working in the quarries, lime-pits, or excavating for antiquities, pulling down old buildings, cutting down avenues of old trees, levelling ground, laying out new public walks or churchyards, draining marshes, cleaning common sewers and streets, working at bridges, roads, and canals, &c.
79. According to the ancient laws, the communities are bound to advance money on loan according to the ability of the poor fund, and to the circumstances of the persons, to poor mechanics who cannot begin or carry on their trade, without assistance, which sum they are to repay as they may be able to do in time.
81. But the indirect support of the poor by employment and loans has, however, its limits.
The extraordinary expense incurred in 1817, for public works, was indeed justified at that time by the extraordinary distress; but for the constant prosecution of such works, there would be wanting, in most places, occasion and opportunity, and at all events the necessary means; nor could the communities well be expected, merely for the sake of employing the poor, to have such works done by them if they are not absolutely necessary, or at least urgently required at the moment, or if they could be performed at a cheaper rate by contract or by statute labour.
In many places there is not always an opportunity to obtain work for daily wages, with private persons, especially in winter, and for women and children; or at least the wages at different times of the year, and for many kinds of work, are too small to support a family, and when public institutions for giving employment are in question, great prudence is necessary, that while one person is provided with work and wages, another may not find the source of gain interrupted or cut off by which he has hitherto obtained a livelihood without the assistance of the magistrates.
But when due attention is paid to these very important considerations, it is extremely difficult, in Wurtemberg at least, to find means of employing the poor capable of work, by the intervention of the magistrates, when they are themselves not able to obtain suitable employment, and this difficulty must increase from year to year, in which the number and extent of the public institutions for employing children increase, and as the employment of the prisoners in the penal establishments (police and workhouses, and houses of correction) is extended.
On this account, there are indeed in the capital, and in some other places, where for the sake of the moral gain a small pecuniary sacrifice is not regarded, particular public establishments for employing the adult poor in spinning, and other such work; but they nowhere extend to a whole bailiwick. Wherever they still exist, though the poor in them are not fed and clothed, but only employed, their support requires considerable annual aid from public funds; and in most places the establishments formerly opened for the employment of the adult poor have been entirely broken up, with the exception of a part of the inhabitants of the poor-houses (s. 91).
Consequently, and especially till the new institutions for the better education of the youthful poor shall have been able to produce their entire effect, there will still remain in Wurtemberg a very considerable number, not only of poor unable or unwilling to work, but also of such as are both able and willing, who cannot be supported otherwise than directly.
82. In many places the local poor are, with this view, allowed themselves to collect gifts in money, food, &c. from the wealthier inhabitants of the place; but in most of these places this kind of collecting of such gifts is limited to the houses of certain of the richer inhabitants, who have given them express permission to do so, and to fixed days and hours, and it is likewise subject to the superintendence of the police: but as a general rule, the poor are prohibited from personal collecting of gifts, even in their own place of residence. On the other hand, those poor persons in whose cases the above-described indirect means of relief are not applicable, or not sufficient for their necessary support, regularly receive everywhere out of the public funds of the community to which they belong, and under different names, such as alms, gratuity, pension, board, &c., partly weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annually, partly without any fixed time, as need may be, gifts according to the wants of the individuals relieved, and the ability of the community, sometimes amounting to only one or a few florins, sometimes to 20, 50, 70, and even 100 and more florins, for each person or family in a year. With respect to the extent of these gifts, there is nowhere any general, legal ordinance; but the question, how much is requisite for the necessary support of each individual or of each family, remains entirely for the consideration of the authorities which have to give the relief.
In-door relief.
67. Adult poor who, on account of their great age, or of weakness, infirmity, and sickness of body or mind, or on account of immoral conduct, cannot be left to themselves, and who have no relations legally bound and able to superintend and take care of them, and who consequently would not be sufficiently relieved merely by a present in money or in kind, are even now, especially in small towns, taken in by all the members of the community in their turn, from house to house, by the day or by the week, or else put out to board in a fixed private house at the expense of the local funds.
But as nobody readily determines to admit such persons to his table and his house, particularly persons affected with the itch and other contagious disorders; and as even the most careful selection of such private boarding-houses, with the best superintendence which is possible in such cases, frequently answers neither the expectations of those who provide such accommodation, nor the wants of those intended to be provided, it is very fortunate that, partly so far back as the 14th and 15th centuries,—partly in modern and very recent times, almost in every large and small town, and even in some villages,—partly by particular endowments for the purpose,—partly at the expense of the local funds, a distinct public poor-house, or even several such poor-houses, have been built, or purchased, or taken from debtors in lieu of payment, which were not precisely intended to provide for persons of the above description, but rather to receive foreign vagabonds, and also for fear of the leprosy, plague, or cholera; which establishments, founded under various denominations, such as poor-house, beggars’-house, hospital, lazaretto, infirmary, leprosy-house, cholera-house, &c., &c., now that the entrance of foreign vagrants is prevented, and the fear of plague, leprosy, and cholera is past, can be made use of for the reception of the native poor belonging to the above classes.
Many of these houses can, indeed, accommodate only 10, 20, 30, or 40 persons, but many of them are calculated for a hundred or several hundred persons.
Formerly it was usual to receive also poor children, with or without their parents, into these houses, but latterly the children are otherwise disposed of, and only married persons, without children, or single adult poor, are admitted, who for the most part are, as far as possible, kept separate according to their sex, and partly according to other circumstances, especially as prescribed by existing ordinances. Separate rooms for insane and sick persons, particularly for those who have the venereal disease and the itch, are fitted up in these poor-houses, so as to answer, as much as possible, this particular object; and in some cases separate buildings are allotted for this purpose.
90. In many of these poor-houses, those who are admitted into them have only free lodging and firing, and sometimes clothing; and to provide for their other wants, a weekly, monthly, or annual allowance in money or in kind.
In others, they are directly provided with every thing; that is, they have in the house free lodging, candles, firing, bedding, clothes, food, and in case of sickness, medical care, medicine, and attendance. In general, in this case, each of the two sexes, or a great number of such persons, nearly of the same class, have a common sleeping-room, and a common eating and working-room. Sometimes however only two, three, or four poor persons together, and often even individual poor have their separate rooms.
In the common sleeping-rooms, every person has his separate bed, generally feather beds, such as are usually found in poor independent families.
The clothing is mostly warmer and stronger, but not so good-looking and more old-fashioned than that of the poorer independent citizens.
The food consists, generally, in the morning of soup, at noon a farinaceous dish and vegetables, and once, twice, rarely three times in the week, of a quarter or half a pound of meat; in the evening of soup, together with milk or potatoes. There are, however, poor-houses where they get no breakfast in the morning; at dinner only farinaceous food or vegetables (not both together), and once a week only, or even but a few times in the year, on certain holidays, or even not at all, meat, and in the evening nothing but soup.[7] When this diet is furnished by contract, 5, 5½, 6, 7, 8 to 8½ kreutzer daily per head are at present paid for it; besides which, however, the contractor mostly has lodging and firing gratis, and the use of a garden.
Besides this, every person receives in most of these houses, 3, 3½, 4, 5, 6, and even 7 pounds of bread weekly, and in some places a few kreutzer every week for snuff; wine is given only where there are special endowments for that purpose, mostly on certain holidays. The sick have better and lighter food and wine, as the physician thinks fit to prescribe in every case.
In some of these houses, more, and in others less, care is taken that the inmates of them do not unnecessarily go out, and that those who are able to do some work are not idle. Some hospitals have lands which they keep in their own hands, and in this case the inmates are employed as much as possible in assisting in the agricultural operations. Where there is no land, they must at least prepare the necessary firewood, carry wood and water, help in washing, cooking, and other domestic employments; they must spin, wind yarn, knit, sew, make clothes and shoes for the house, &c. In some poor-houses they are also employed in making wooden pegs for shoemakers and tilers, matches, &c.
On the whole, however, the employment of these people in the poor-houses does not produce much.
In the year 1817, and during the dearth which prevailed at that time, an old law which had fallen into desuetude was revived; according to which, the rich and opulent who, after having been previously applied to for voluntary contributions, should not come forward in a manner suitable to their property, are to be taxed by the magistrates in a sum conformable to their income, and according to all the circumstances of their situation.
The comparative situation of the pauper and the independent labourer is thus stated at the conclusion of the Government Report:—
If we now compare the situation of one of the poorest of the Wurtemberg poor who support themselves independently by their labour without external aid (see § 40.), with that of one of the more favoured of the Wurtemberg poor who lives by public charity, for instance, the inmate of an hospital, and even of a prison, it might certainly appear that the condition of the latter is preferable to that of the former.
In fact, we often see such hospital inmates, and even prisoners, attain the most advanced age, while many a poor day-labourer and artisan sinks at a much earlier age under the weight of his cares and the want of necessaries. In fact, many an inmate of an hospital, and many a prisoner, even with bodily infirmities and sufferings, still seems to find his condition quite comfortable, and shows himself thankful for the good which he enjoys, while many a day-labourer or artisan, in the enjoyment of good bodily health, feels himself miserable, and curses his existence; in fact, many a one seeks admission into the hospital who would be very well able to provide himself with necessaries by his work at home. In fact, the man often separates from his wife, or the wife from her husband, or from the children, to be received into the hospital. In fact, many a one does not economize, but squanders what he has, and does not work in order to earn something, because he thinks that he always has the right of being received into the hospital as a last resource. In fact, in many places where there are rich hospitals and other foundations, the number of the poor is proportionably greater than in places where less is done for their support. In fact, many a one continues to beg and to steal, who has already been frequently imprisoned for these offences, because he finds his situation in the workhouse very tolerable in comparison with the laborious life of a poor man at liberty.
However, the situation of the inmates of an hospital, even of those which are the most liberal to their inmates, is by no means so enviable as from the above comparison it might seem to be. Frequently their residence is embittered by their being obliged to live together with rude, quarrelsome, mad, silly, and disgusting persons. Many embitter their own lives by a discontentedness, which may either be natural to them, or communicated by others. Many dislike the kind or the quantity of the work allotted to them, the restrictions with respect to the time of going out and returning home which are prescribed by the regulations of the house. Prisoners, in particular, consider the loss of their freedom as an intolerable burden. Besides this, too, the treatment is by no means in general and in every poor-house so good as it is represented in the above comparison; hence it is not the case with all the poor received into a poor-house, that they have voluntarily sought admission there, or that they voluntarily and willingly remain in it; hence, too, the applications for admission to these houses are not everywhere equally pressing; hence the assertion that the existence of such houses increases the numbers of prodigals, idlers, and poor, cannot be taken as generally correct.
At all events, the above comparison applies to the actual inmates of the hospital, rather than to those poor who are relieved only by money and commodities, or by finding them employment; for the relief which they receive in this manner is in most places dealt out with so scanty a measure, that their situation is little or not at all better than that of a healthy poor person, who maintains himself independently by the labour of his hands, without external assistance. The independent poor man always has the cheering consciousness of maintaining himself and his family by his own exertions, and of enjoying the respect of his fellow-citizens, which is always lost in a greater or less degree by the poor man who receives relief, to whom, in the eyes of the better classes, a kind of disgrace attaches, which must often fall on the idle, who is excluded from elections of the community, &c., restricted in marrying, &c.
And the authors go on to express a belief that pauperism is diminishing, and that the number of paupers, which in 1820 amounted to 64,896, does not now exceed 50,000, or about 1-30th of the whole population.
The preference which the government reporter appears to give to out-door relief is opposed to the preface to the rules of the Weinsburg House of Industry.
The former mode of providing for the wants of the poor by weekly relief in money or in bread, by giving them clothes, or providing them small apartments, or by paying their rent or their board, entrained many abuses, and therefore little effected its end; in fact, it wanted the superintendence essential to the management of a class of men for the most part of irregular and dissipated habits. Employment was not furnished to those who were yet in a state to work; and there were no means of repressing mendicity and vice.—(p. 500.)
The object of this establishment is said to be,
Art. 1.—To provide a common habitation, and all other necessaries, for all those who, whether sick or in health, need assistance.
Art. 2.—As far as it may be possible, to furnish them with employment, according to their capability of work.
Art. 3.—Not only to provide work for those who ask for it, but to enforce it from those who, being without property, neither engage in trade nor in service, but endeavour to live at the expense of others.
2. Conditions of Admission.
The persons who need assistance are, with few exceptions, men of vicious, or careless, or improvident habits, who are now unable to earn their bread. The old practice was, to pay their rent, furnish them with fuel, or give them weekly allowances in money or bread; but there was no certainty that these gifts were well employed. For this reason, only persons worthy of assistance are received, clothed, and fed in this institution: for, in our country, well-disposed people, even with little talent, can always earn their own maintenance.
The aged or impotent poor may be admitted at their own request.
Art. 7.—The Directors of the establishment, as well as the President of the Committee of Founders, can order the admission of poor people if they are fully persuaded of its necessity. The person so admitted must promise, in writing, to obey the laws of the establishment. This admission requires to be confirmed at the next sitting of the Committee of Founders. The same rules apply to the admission of the indigent sick.
Art. 8.—But in no case is this charitable institution to become the periodical abode of persons not accustomed to a fixed trade, or of those who will not remain with their masters, or who would like to pass there the winter when the demand for labour is slack, or who have wasted their summer wages by spending the earnings of one day’s toil in two days of idleness and debauchery.
Art. 9.—Whoever then is once admitted, enters the establishment with all that he possesses, and engages himself to work and remain there for ever.
Art. 10.—In all cases, those who enter voluntarily, as well as those who are forced to enter, are, from the moment of admission, considered as paupers, and whatever they possess becomes the property of the foundation.
Art. 11.—In case of extraordinarily good conduct on the part of a pauper, when there is reasonable hope that he can support himself, or if he wishes to enter the service of a respectable family, the Council of Foundation may permit him to leave the Institution. In this case his property is restored to him, after deducting, from a person capable of work, 58f., and from one incapable of work 88f. The expense of their residence is deducted from the property of the sick.
All persons of the age of fourteen, who cannot prove that they are in the service of a respectable family, may be forced to work in the Institution.
Art. 12.—All persons of either sex, who are not in a state to maintain themselves, either from their property or by industry, and who become chargeable to others may be admitted; but, before the police can require their admission, it must be shown that they have been punished three times, either for mendicity or theft—(p. 501.)
Regulations of this severity prove that the able-bodied paupers at least are a small and degraded class, exciting little sympathy, for whom enough is supposed to be done if they are prevented from starving. As far indeed as can be collected from the Weinsberg regulations, the undeserving may be utterly refused relief, since it does not appear that relief is to be given out of the house, and the applications for admission by undeserving objects are to be rejected.
The actual working of the system may be best inferred from the detailed accounts supplied by Sir Edward Disbrowe of 18 parishes.
Of these four, that is Obertürkheim, Osweil, Necker Weihingen, and Egolsheim, provide for their poor by rates levied on all the inhabitants. During each of four years, from 1829 to 1832 inclusive, the persons receiving relief in Obertürkheim were three out of a population of 842, at an annual expense of 5l. 0s. 3d., or about 1½d. per head on the whole population. In Osweil the average number was eight, out of a population of 1608; average annual expense 25l., or about 3½d. a head. In Necker Weihingen, of which the population is 1070, the persons relieved were, in 1829, one man; in 1830, one man and one woman; in 1831, one man and one woman; and the annual expense in 1829 was 5l.; and in each of the years 1830 and 1831, 4l. 3s. 4d., or about 1d. a head. The number relieved in Egolsheim, of which the population is 618, is not mentioned; but it must have been very trifling, since the average annual expense is stated at 2l. 1s. 8d., which is less than 1d. per head.
In those places in which the relief of the poor is wholly or principally supplied from endowments, the annual expenditure is, as might have been expected, much larger. But even in these it seldom amounts to 1s. per head on the whole population, being about one-twelfth of the average expenditure in England. And in the whole bailiwick of Ludwigsberg, containing 29,068 inhabitants, in the year 1831 only 372 persons received regular, and 371 persons irregular (and indeed merely medical) relief. The kingdom of Wurtemberg, therefore, appears to have been, as yet, eminently successful in reconciling a recognition of the right to relief with economy in its distribution.
[6] See above for the statement of the different grounds on which a man may claim the right to obtain a settlement in a parish.
[7] The word “suppe,” here and elsewhere translated by the word soup, has, however, a far more general signification; the proper definition of it being “boiled fluid food, eaten alone, warm, with a spoon.” Thus the Germans have water-soup, beer-soup, milk-soup, bread-soup, flour-soup, wine-soup, &c.