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 statements are extracted from the narrative of Count Arrivabene, who visited them in 1829: (pp. 610, 611, 612, 613, 614.)

The dearths of 1816 and 1817, and the consequent distress, occasioned the establishment, in the northern provinces of the Low Countries, of a Philanthropic Society (Société de bienfaisance), to whose funds each subscriber was to pay one halfpenny a week. The subscribers soon amounted to 20,000. One of its projects was the foundation of poor colonies among the heaths, with which this country abounds. The Colonies were to be divided into Colonies for the Repression of Mendicity, Colonies for Indigent Persons and Veterans, Free Colonies, Colonies for Inspectors of Agricultural Works, Colonies for Orphans and Foundlings, and Colonies for Agricultural Instruction.

In the first year of its formation the Society established the Free Colony, called Frederiks-Oord, on the heaths between the provinces of Drenthe, Friesland, and Over-Yssel. It consisted of 52 small farms, part of which had been previously cultivated by the Society, of a store-house, of several workshops, a school, &c. It was peopled with families, indigent, but not dependent altogether on alms. The expense of its foundation amounted to 68,000 flor. (5666l. 13s. 4d.), and was defrayed out of the annual subscriptions and donations of the members of the Société de bienfaisance; and in order to give employment to the colonists during the dead season of the year, the Society engaged to purchase from them 26,000 ells of linen.

In 1819, the Society proposed to the directors of the Orphan Institutions throughout the kingdom, to take charge, at a fixed annual payment, of any number of orphans of the age of six years, leaving to those institutions the right of superintending their treatment. To meet this expense, the society borrowed 280,000 flor. (23,333l. 6s. 10d.). The orphans were for a time placed in separate dwellings, six orphans with two elderly persons, to act as their parents, in each. But afterwards almost all were collected into large buildings. In the same year the members of the society had increased to 22,500, and their subscriptions to 82,500 flor. or 6875l., and the society was enabled to establish two other free colonies, and to place in them 150 families.

In 1820, the society borrowed 100,000 flor. more, or 8333l. 6s. 8d., which, with donations to the amount of 78,000 flor. or 6500l., enabled it during that year to settle 150 more families.

In 1821, the society by means of loans and subscriptions had collected a sum of 421,000 flor. or 35,083l. 6s. 8d., of which 300,000 flor., or 25,000l. was borrowed, and 121,000 flor., or 10,983l. 6s. 8d. subscribed, and was possessed of seven free colonies, consisting of 500 small farms, with the public buildings to which we have alluded.

In 1822 the society founded the first colony for the repression of mendicity; and engaged with the Government to receive and settle on its colonies 4000 orphans, 2500 indigent persons, and 1500 mendicants, the Government engaging to pay for each orphan 45 florins, or 3l. 15s. a year, for 16 years, but nothing for the others. As yet the society has fulfilled only a part of its engagements. It has, however, established every kind of colony which we have enumerated.

Frederiks-Oord.

In August, 1829, we visited all the colonies of the society. Those of Frederiks-Oord are spread over a space of two leagues. The small farms, containing each about 9 English acres, extend along the sides of roads, bordered with trees, and of canals, which intersect the colonies in different directions. Each house is composed of one great room, round the walls of which are placed the large drawer-like beds, in which, according to the custom of the Dutch peasantry, the family sleep. A cow-house, a barn, and every building necessary for an agricultural family, is annexed to the farm. Near the house is the garden; beyond it the land to be cultivated.

Upon his admission into the colony, each colonist makes a declaration, by which he binds himself to obey its rules, as respects subordination to its officers, moral and religious conduct on the part of himself and his family, modes of working, wearing the colonial uniform, &c.