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

By far the largest portion of the Belgian poor laws is derived from the first of these sources.

French Poor Laws.

The government of the Directory, by three laws passed in the autumn of 1796, established the system under which the principal portion of the relief afforded by the public is now regulated in most of the countries which constituted the French empire.

Hospices and Bureaux de Bienfaisance.

By the first of these, that of the 16 Vendémiaire, An v. (7th October, 1796), the property belonging to the hospices (or almshouses) was restored to them, and their management was entrusted to a commission appointed by the municipal authorities.

By the second, that of the 23 Brumaire, An v. (13th November, 1706), it was enacted, that all the revenues of the different hospices in one commune should be employed as one fund for their common support.

And by the third, that of the 7 Frimaire, An v. (25th November, 1796), that in every commune there should be appointed one or more bureaux de bienfaisance, each bureau consisting of five members, to administer out-door relief; and that the funds at the disposition of the bureau de bienfaisance should consist of one-tenth of the receipts from all public exhibitions within its district, and of whatever voluntary contributions it could obtain. By the same law all able-bodied beggars were required, under pain of three months’ imprisonment, to return to their place of birth, or of domicile, if they had subsequently acquired a domicile.

By the law of the 3 Frimaire, An vii. (23d November, 1798), the additional sums necessary to provide for the hospices, and the secours à domicile (or out-door relief), of each commune, are directed to be raised by the local authorities in the same manner as the sums necessary for the other local expenses.

By that of the 4 Ventose, An ix. (23d February, 1801), all rents belonging to the State, of which the payment had been interrupted, and all national property usurped by individuals, were declared the property of the nearest hospitals. By that of the 5 Prairial, An xi., the commissaires des hospices and bureaux de bienfaisance were authorized to make public collections in churches, and to establish poor-boxes in public places; and by a train of subsequent legislation they were enabled to acquire property by testamentary dispositions.

It is to be observed that under these laws the members of the commissions des hospices, and of the bureaux de bienfaisance, are frequently, but not necessarily, the same persons. The maire (or principal civil officer) of each commune is a necessary member of every charitable board. The other members go out by lot, one every year, but are re-eligible.