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

The following extracts comprise their most material contents. (Pages 653, 654, 655, 656, 657, 659, 660, 661, 662.)

The general system appears to resemble that of France, except that in Piedmont mendicity is not an offence.

Piedmont.

Mendicants.

Mendicity is not forbidden by law; every person who is considered unable to obtain by his own industry subsistence for himself and his family may station himself in the streets, and ask charity of the passers by. The government and the local authorities have often, but in vain, endeavoured to repress the innumerable abuses which have followed. But the regulations which have been made for this purpose have been ineffectual and even nugatory. The law, however, which forbids the poor to beg out of their parishes, is frequently put in force. When a great number of strangers are found begging in a town, the municipal authorities drive them out en masse, leaving it to the gendarmerie to oblige them to return to their country, or to the places considered to be their homes. But as the law in question is not enforced by any punishment, if they find any difficulty in living at home, they soon return to violate it afresh.

There are no means of ascertaining, even by approximation, the total number of mendicants. It depends, too, in part on many causes continually varying; such as good or bad harvests, hard or mild winters, and the changes of employment in those trades which afford subsistence to many hands. It is spread, however, over the whole country, but in different degrees. In the valleys of the Alps it scarcely exists; in those of the Apennines it is considerable, as is generally the case where chestnuts are the ordinary food of the lower orders.

If a labouring man, not domiciled in the place of his residence, finds himself, from accident or illness, unable either to earn his living, or to reach his home, the authorities, both of his temporary residence, and of the places that lie in his route homewards, are required to supply to him the means of travelling. In Turin, a small pecuniary assistance is given to all workpeople who wish to return to their own homes, but this is not a general practice.

Destitute Able-bodied.

Are there any establishments for the reception of the destitute able-bodied and their families, in which they are set to work, and furnished with food and clothes?