The following statements will show the number of paupers, and the amounts expended in relieving their wants at various periods since the year 1783.
| The average sum expended for the years 1783, 1784, and 1785, was | £1,912,241 |
| 1801 | 4,017,871 |
| 1811 | 6,656,105 |
| 1821 | 6,959,249 |
| 1831 | 6,798,888 |
| 1832 | 7,036,969 |
| 1833 | 6,790,799 |
| 1834 | 6,317,254 |
| 1835 | 5,526,418 |
| 1836 | 4,717,630 |
| 1837 | 4,044,741 |
| 1838 | 4,123,604 |
| 1839 | 4,421,714 |
| 1840 | 4,576,965 |
| 1841 | 4,760,929 |
| 1842 | 4,911,498 |
| 1843 | 5,208,027 |
| 1844 | 4,976,093 |
| 1860 | 5,454,964 |
Number of indoor and outdoor paupers relieved during the following years:
| Paupers. | Proportion per cent. to Population. | |
|---|---|---|
| 1803 | 1,040,716 | 12 |
| 1815 | 1,319,851 | 13 |
| 1832 | 1,429,356 | 9 |
| 1844 | 1,477,561 | 9·3 |
| 1860 | 844,633 | 4·3 |
In the last report of the Poor Law Board (that for 1860) it is stated that for twenty-two years preceding the Poor Law Amendment Act in 1834 the average annual disbursement for the relief of the poor was 6,505,037l., while for the subsequent 25 years it has only been 5,169,073l., the supposed annual saving by the new law being 1,335,964l. The average annual cost of the new union-workhouses has been about 200,000l., and the salaries of the paid Union-officers about 600,000l.
The strikes of 1860 told severely upon the returns. On July 1st, 1860, there were 1,751 able-bodied men receiving relief more than on the same day of the previous year. On new year’s day of 1860 there were 40,972 more persons of all classes in receipt of relief than on the first day of the preceding year. There were 6,720 more able-bodied men in receipt of relief, and 7,026 more able-bodied women.
Report of the Poor Law Board (1860).
The usual statistics of this report show that in the year 1860 the sum of 5,454,964l. was expended for the relief of the poor in England and Wales, being at the rate per head of the estimated population, of 5s. 6d. The net annual value of the rateable property at the present time (1860) is 71 millions.
The inefficiency of the Poor Law to meet the wants of the destitute in times of great and prevailing distress has been demonstrated over and over again, and at no period more pointedly and decisively than during the year 1860. On this subject we subjoin the remarks of a writer in the Times (Feb. 11, 1861). “It is an admitted and notorious fact, that after a fortnight’s frost the police courts were besieged by thousands who professed to be starving; the magistrates and officers of the court undertook the office of almoners in addition to their other laborious duties; the public poured in their contributions as they would for the victims of a terrible disaster; for a time we had in a dozen places a scene that rather took one back to the indiscriminate dole before the convent door, or the largess flung by the hand among the crowd at a royal progress than to an institution or custom of this sensible age. To some it naturally occurred that the Poor Law ought to have dispensed with this extraordinary exhibition; to others that no law could meet the emergency.... It was the saturnalia if not of mendicancy, at least of destitution. The police stood aside while beggars possessed the thoroughfares on the sole plea of an extraordinary visitation. There was a fortnight’s frost, so it was allowable to one class to hold a midnight fair on the Serpentine, and to another to insist on being maintained at the expense of the public. Was all this right and proper? We had thought that the race of sturdy vagrants and valiant beggars was extinct, or at least that they dared no longer show themselves. But here they were in open day like the wretches which are said to emerge out of darkness on the day of a revolution.... When such is the fact, and when it is now admitted by all to have been not only exceptional, but highly exceptionable, we may leave others to find out the right shoulders on which the blame should be laid. For our part we hold that a Poor Law ought to be as proof against a long frost, or any other general visitation—and there are many more serious—as a ship ought to be against a storm, or an embankment against an inundation.”
On the occasion here referred to the Poor Law gave relief to 23,000; but sent away 17,000 empty-handed, who would have starved but for the open-handed charity of the public, dispensed in the most liberal spirit by the metropolitan magistrates.