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

Mendicity and Vagrancy.

The following is an outline of the French regulations, as far as they affected Belgium, for the repression of mendicity and vagrancy. A decree of the Convention, 27 Vendémiaire, An ii. (15th Oct., 1798), fixed the settlement, or domicile de secours, of every person, 1st, in the place of his birth; 2dly, of his residence for six months in any commune in which he should have married, or for one year in any in which he should have been registered as an inhabitant, or for two years in any in which he should have been hired by one or more masters. Every person found begging was to be sent to his place of domicile; if he could not prove any domicile he was to be imprisoned for a year in the maison de repression of the department, and at the end of his imprisonment, if his domicile were not then ascertained, to be transported to the colonies for not less than eight years. A person found again begging after having been removed to his domicile, was also to be imprisoned for a year: on a repetition of the offence the punishment was to be doubled. In the maison de repression he was to be set to work, and receive monthly one-sixth of the produce of his labour, and at the end of his imprisonment another sixth, the remaining two-thirds belonging to the establishment. On the third offence he also was to be transported. A transport was to work in the colonies for the benefit of the nation, at one-sixth of the average wages of the colony: one-half of that sixth to be paid to him weekly, and the other half on the expiration of his sentence. No person was to be transported except between the ages of 18 and 60. Those under 18 were to be detained until they arrived at that age, and then transported; those above 60, to be imprisoned for life.

The local authorities were authorized to employ their able-bodied poor on public works, at three-fourths of the average wages of the canton. Every person convicted of having given to a beggar any species of relief whatever was to forfeit the value of two days’ wages; to be doubled on the repetition of the offence.

The provisions of this law were, as might have been anticipated, far too severe for execution. After having remained, though inoperative, on the statute book for nearly 15 years, it was replaced by the Imperial decree of the 5th July, 1808.

By that decree a depôt de mendicité was directed to be established in each department, at the expense partly of the nation and partly of the department. Within 15 days after its establishment, the Prefect of the department was to give public notice of its being opened, and all persons without means of subsistence were bound to proceed to it, and all persons found begging were to be arrested and taken to it.

By a subsequent arrêté of the 27th October, 1808, it was ordered that all beggars should on their arrest be placed in the first instance in the maison d’arrêt of the district; and transferred from thence, if guilty of vagrancy, to the maison de detention, or prison; if not vagrants, to the depôt de mendicité. In the depôt they were to be clothed in the house dress, confined to regular and very early hours, the sexes separated, subject to severe punishments (rising to six months’ solitary imprisonment (cachot) on bread and water) for disobedience or other misconduct, or attempts to escape; deprived of all intercourse, except by open letters with their relations or friends, and kept to work at wages to be regulated by the Prefect, two-thirds of which were to belong to the establishment, and the remaining third was to be paid to them on their quitting the depôt.

The conditions on which a person might obtain his release from a depôt de mendicité are not stated.

The provisions of the code pénal appear to leave that question to the discretion of the Executive.

Section 274 of that code enacts that every person found begging in a place containing a public establishment for the prevention of mendicity, shall be imprisoned for from three to six months, and then removed to the depôt de mendicité. Under section 275, if there be no such establishment in the place where he is found begging, his imprisonment is to last only from one to three months; if, however, he has begged out of the canton in which he is domiciled, it is to last from six months to two years.