The Society for the Suppression of Mendicity was instituted in 1818, “for the purpose of checking the practice of public mendicity, with all its baneful and demoralizing consequences; by putting the laws in force against imposters who adopt it as a trade, and by affording prompt and effectual assistance to those whom sudden calamity or unaffected distress may cast in want and misery upon the public attention.”
A just discrimination between cases of real and fictitious distress, and a judicious adaptation of relief to deserving cases, is a necessary, but very difficult, part of true benevolence. The frauds which are successfully practised by systematic sharpers upon a charitable, but over-credulous public, and the existence of an immense amount of genuine and unrelieved suffering, are sufficient proofs of the value and importance of any agency designed to counteract these abuses, and to accord a just measure of benevolence.
By means of printed tickets supplied to subscribers, beggars can be directed to the Society’s offices, where their cases are fully investigated, and treated according to desert, a sure provision being thus made against imposture.
Since the formation of the Society 51,016 registered cases have been disposed of, and food, money, and clothing dispensed to deserving applicants, while employment has been provided for such as were found able to work.
The Association for Promoting the Relief of Destitution in the Metropolis is likewise a safe channel for the exercise of public benevolence. It is carried on under the direction of the bishop and clergy, and the efforts of the Association are directed to the origination and support of local undertakings, thus forming a connection and a centre of union between the various parochial visiting societies.
The present condition of that large class of female workers in London, comprehended under the terms milliners and dressmakers, is one of the saddest reproaches upon a country whose benevolent objects are so numerous, and so extensive, and one of the severest comments upon the heartlessness and artificialism of that society, which takes no cognizance of those who are most largely concerned in administering to its necessities. The miseries of this shamefully under-paid and cruelly over-worked class of white slaves have been too often eloquently animadverted upon, to need any further denunciations of the system, under which they are hopelessly and unfeelingly condemned to labour.
The impossibility of supporting life on the wretched pittance accorded to their labours, is the oft-heard, and the unanswerably extenuating plea for their recourse to criminal avocations.
While, however, the State shrinks from the task of ameliorating their condition by any legislative interference, it is satisfactory to know that public benevolence in this wide field is not wholly unrepresented.
The Association for the Aid and Benefit of Dressmakers and Milliners is a noble breakwater against the inroads of oppression, and a valuable counteracting agency to the force of temptation.
Its objects, briefly stated, are to obtain some remission of labour and other concessions from employers, and to afford pecuniary and medical assistance in cases of temporary distress or illness. A registry and provident fund are provided in connexion with the association.