[11b] It appears from the last Report of the Mendicity Society, who have had opportunities of proving the fact upon an extensive scale, and have endeavoured to apply such tests for the purpose as might discriminate fairly between the idle and the unfortunate, that of 3289 applicants, who, being able-bodied men, were offered work at stone-breaking, only 839 availed themselves of it, 1630 did not work at all, and 820 worked only one day. “Facts which, after making all reasonable allowances, would lead to the conclusion that about three-fourths of the above applicants, were persons who were quite satisfied to lead a life of idleness, and determined to use no exertion to earn a subsistence.”
[12] The following instance, among others, which show forcibly the necessity of caution in this respect on the part of Residents and Subscribers, appears in a communication from a Visitor to the Secretaries:—“I have this day refused to give any relief in Mrs. —. Firstly, because she appears to be forming a habit of making a regular weekly application, on each Saturday. Secondly, because anything given in the District seems to be considered by her as justifying her in making application. Thirdly, because she uses bad language to her children, and shows violence of conduct and temper. Without naming other reasons, it may suffice to say, that I have seen no one feature in her case entitling it to so much attention, on account of character, conduct, or circumstances, but the reverse. She told me that she had acquainted a lady yesterday, that I had not been in the District during the last fortnight; I have been there three times this week, and given relief where required. A glance at the accounts will show that the —’s have, when occasion has demanded it, participated largely in the funds of the District Visiting Society; and that great caution is necessary to prevent them and others from obtaining a regular winter allowance.”
[13] “The present demoralizing system of begging—a thing so ruinous in its effects, that the major part of the delinquents with which our prisons are filled, owe their progress in crime to the encouragement given to idle habits by the false feeling of charity acted upon by the public, in the promiscuous dispensation of alms to those who are seldom, if ever, deserving of them.”—Report on Poverty, Mendicity, and Crime, to the House of Lords in 1839, by W. A. Miles, Esq.
[14] In some districts the greatest inconvenience has been felt from their unsettled condition. The following is but one out of several similar complaints on the part of Visitors:—“I have found the people thankful for the little they receive. But they are such a moving race, that before I get acquainted with their habits they are off to another quarter, and new people fill their places; this to me is most unsatisfactory.”
[15] “The present month, has afforded further evidence of the discontent and disappointment produced by undiscriminating bounty. The gift of bread or coals to a certain number of families taken indiscriminately, or to every poor person, in such a locality, is not only indiscreet but unjust, and impedes the exertions of a society whose principle is to discover and encourage the good, to deter the bad.”—Report of a Visitor, February, 1845.
[16] “The month of February appears to be the most trying to the poor of this district. Their little savings, if any, have been exhausted; their clothes and furniture are gradually being taken to the pawnbroker; hunger and cold are producing disease, unless timely help is afforded. . . . The clock is generally the first article sent to the pawnbroker; then the wife’s articles of wearing apparel; the children’s shoes, the husband’s coat and waistcoat; and afterwards his tools, his spade, his saw, &c. The last portion of property, is the bedding and furniture, when shavings are substituted. Such seem to be the regular gradations of distress. The last, happily, has seldom been witnessed since the first month or two of the Society’s operations in this district. It was pointed out to me to-day in another place.”—Report of a Visitor. February 1845.
[17a] A subject intimately connected with that noticed above, viz. the relation between IGNORANCE and SOCIAL MISERY, has received some remarkable illustrations from the practical operations of this Society.
It would appear from the amount of relief administered in certain districts, selected for the calculation on account of their remote distances from one another, and from their containing a labouring population exclusively, that, although subject to modifications from the peculiar character and condition of the inhabitants, or from circumstances of an accidental nature in each case, yet the same law is found in the mass to prevail throughout; physical distress and want of Education are exhibited as co-existing in a direct ratio.
Omitting, for brevity, 80 families of intermediate degrees of education, it appears that of the remaining 100 families respecting whom the calculation was made, the amount of relief required by those in which neither father nor mother could read, or one of them imperfectly, has been actually twice as much per head as by those in which either father or mother could read and write well.
The attention of the Committee was drawn to this important subject in consequence of the Report of an Intelligent Visitor. The result of his experience shows that, in his district, “distress has been very much in proportion to the deplorable ignorance of the recipients. More than half the relief has been given to persons who could neither read nor write.”