There are none. The only attempt of the sort was one made some years ago at Raconis, and it failed almost immediately, among difficulties and bad consequences of every description. An establishment called Ergastolo exists near Turin, in which young vagrants are confined and kept to constant work; but although a person may be committed to it without trial on a simple order from the police, it is considered rather as a house of correction than a workhouse.
There are still convents at whose doors soup, bread, and other kinds of food are distributed. But this deplorable practice is not now sufficiently prevalent to produce a sensible effect except in some parts of the Genoese coast, where the mendicant orders are the most numerous, and the poverty the greatest.
Many charitable institutions have ecclesiastical forms and names, but their attention is almost confined to the sick and the impotent. When a bad harvest or a hard winter occasions much distress, the municipal authorities, either spontaneously or on the suggestion and with the aid of the government, undertake public works in order to give employment to the able-bodied. This is more frequent in the large towns, such as Turin and Genoa.
To what extent do they obtain relief in kind and in money?
They never receive either from the government or from the municipal authorities; what they get is from private charity. But on some great occasions, such as the anniversary of the Restoration of the Monarchy, or the celebration of the King’s Birth-day, food and clothes are distributed among some of the most needy families.
Many of the towns have Monts-de-piété, which lend on pledges at 6 per cent., but under very rigorous rules. If the unhappy borrower cannot redeem the pledge before the fixed time, it is sold, whatever may be its value, for the amount of the debt. In spite of this, the number of people who have recourse to them is immense. I do not think I exaggerate in saying that there are very few poor housekeepers some of whose furniture or clothes is not thus in pawn.
Impotent through Age.
1. Are there hospitals for the reception of those who through age are incapable of earning their subsistence?
There are none avowedly for this purpose, but there are several intended for incurables, into which those whose only infirmity is old age, manage to get received.
2. Do they receive relief in kind and in money at their own homes? They receive none from the government or the municipal authorities, but such relief is afforded by many charitable institutions. In Turin, for example, the congregation of St. Paul has large revenues; and by law, there ought in every parish to be a charitable association. But, in fact, none are to be found excepting in some villages and towns; almost all the rural parishes are without them. The resources of those which exist arise from endowments, from donations, and from periodical collections made in churches, or from house to house. These associations certainly do much good, but being subjected to no general rules or central control, their proceedings are neither uniform nor regular; a source of enormous abuse, which, in the present state of things, it is impossible to correct or even to verify.