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 persons placed in the colonies for the repression of mendicity receive a new and uniform dress, and for some time are maintained without reference to the value of their work. Their out-doors employment consists of agricultural labor, brick-making, or turf-cutting: in-doors they work as artizans, generally by piece work. The society fixes the amount of their wages.

The lands of these colonies are divided into farms of thirty-two bonniers, or about eighty acres each, half arable, half pasture. To each of these farms are attached forty or fifty colonists, who work under the orders of a superintendent, who himself follows the instructions of a sub-director. The annual expenditure on each of these farms is fixed at 1680 flor., or 140l.

The accounts between the society and the colonists are kept in the military form. Each colonist carries a book, in which is entered the work which he has performed each day, the supplies and paper money which he has received, and his share of the general expenditure. If his earnings exceed what has been laid out on him, which is said to be commonly the case, a third of the excess is given to him in paper money, another third is placed in a savings’ bank, to be given him on his leaving the colony, and the remaining third is retained by the society to meet contingent expenses.

Horse-patrols round the colonies, rewards to such as bring back colonists who have attempted to escape, and a uniform dress are the means employed to prevent desertion. The colonists are detained for 6 years, unless they have previously saved 12½ flor. (1l. 10d.), which entitles them to immediate discharge.

Orphans are admitted in the orphan colonies at the age of six. They work, either in-doors or in the fields, for a part of the day, another part is employed in elementary instruction, drawing, and singing. They leave the colonies at the age of 18, generally for the sea or land service.

The colonies for indigent persons and veterans serve as preparatory residences for those who are to be placed in the free colonies. These colonists dwell with their families in the outer apartments of the great buildings, the interior quadrangles of which are inhabited by the mendicants and orphans. Like the mendicants, they are considered day labourers, and paid according to their work.

In every colony the supplies and wages vary according to the difference of age, strength, or sex. The men are divided into 5 classes, the women into 7. The first class of men is supposed to earn 1 flor. 70 cents, or 2s. 10d. per week; the second, 1 flor. 35 cents, or 2s. 3d.; the third, 1 flor. 6 cents, or 1s. 11d.; the fourth, composed of children from 8 to 16 years, 1 flor. 1 cent, or 1s. 8½d.; the fifth, composed of children under that age, 67½ cents, or 1s. 1½d. The first class of females is supposed to earn per week 1 flor. 51 cents, or 2s. 6¼d.; the second, 1 flor. 26 cents, or 2s. 1d.; the third, 98 cents, or 1s. 7½d.; the fourth and fifth, composed of children, 95 cents, or 1s. 7d., and 75 cents, or 1s. 3d. respectively; the sixth and seventh, composed also of children, but still younger, 63 cents, or 1s. 0½d., and 55 cents, or 11d., respectively.

Ommerschans.

On the morning of the fourth day we went to Ommerschans, which is seven leagues from Veenhuisen.

At Ommerschans there is a colony for the repression of mendicity, and one for indigent persons and veterans. The first is composed of men and children; and has a separate division for the free colonists who have been sent thither as a punishment. The building can contain 1000 persons, and resembles in several respects those in Veenhuisen, except that its moat, and the iron-bars to its windows give it more the appearance of a prison; and that it has a story above the ground floor. Nor does it differ as to its interior arrangement, or the employment or treatment of its inmates. In the middle of the quadrangle there are shops for locksmiths, joiners, and other trades; and for the manufacture of thread and linen. On the outside stands the church, which serves for both Catholic and Protestant worship, and as a school; the house of the sub-director, the hospital, and other public edifices; and 20 houses scattered about the lands, form a colony of inspectors of agricultural works. Nearly 150 persons are annually discharged from this colony for the repression of mendicity.