Statement of the Provision for the Poor, and of the Condition of the Labouring Classes in a Considerable Portion of America and Europe / Being the preface to the foreign communications contained in the appendix to the Poor-Law Report

by Nassau William Senior

Deserted Children.—There are no public or private regulations or institutions under this head; but I have not heard of a case in question in this department.

Cripples, Deaf and Dumb, and Blind.

Cripples.—Obliged to beg if destitute, there being no public or private institutions or regulations for cripples.

The deaf and dumb, if poor and destitute, are obliged to beg; there are excellent establishments in the large towns for their instruction, for those who have the means.

Blind.—Obliged to beg, there are no public or private institutions for them.

Idiots and Lunatics.

There are no public or private institutions for idiots.

There is an institution (Maison de Force) for the admission of lunatics at the Chef Lieu of the department only (at Pau).

The questions relative to hired country labourers are not altogether applicable to this department, which is invariably divided into small farms, not exceeding from 20 to 30 English acres each, the families on each farm sufficing for the cultivation thereof, the proprietors or the farmers being themselves the labourers of the soil, the neighbours assisting each other in time of harvest; consequently it seldom occurs that a hired labourer is called in; but when employed they are paid at the rate of about 1s. per diem, without food. The women, and the children from the age of 10 years, constantly work on the land. The children generally receive a primary education at the village day schools, where there is always a schoolmaster or mistress appointed by the authorities; price of education, 2 francs (about 1s. 7d.) per month. At these schools the children are prepared for their first communion; they learn reading, writing, and calculation. The food of the proprietor or farmer labourer chiefly consists in vegetable soups, potatoes, salt fish, pork, bacon, &c., and seldom or ever butcher’s meat, and invariably Indian corn bread, homebaked. These persons (who are generally the owners of the soil) procure for themselves a comfortable subsistence, but they are seldom able to lay by anything. The equal division of the land prevents in a great measure mendicity. The families on each farm in the whole department consist on an average of about five persons.