Indigent travellers, foreigners, or denizens, who pass through Antwerp, are received there at an establishment called St. Julien’s Hospital, where they are lodged and boarded for three nights at the expense of the establishment, which provides their wants for the moment.
The foundation of this hospital, which yearly receives about 1000 individuals, dates from the beginning of the 14th century. It subsists by itself, under the direction of a private charitable administration, by means of some fixed revenues, and also by the liberal donations of philanthropic persons.
The same poor travellers, when Belgians, receive at Antwerp an indemnity of 15 centimes, or 1½d. sterling, per league per head for travelling expenses to the first town in the neighbourhood, where this relief is continued to them. These travelling expenses are at the charge of the town, and paid out of the municipal funds, in virtue of a Royal Act of the 10th May, 1815.
Destitute Able-bodied.
Necessitous individuals of the labouring and indigent class, who do not attempt to go a begging, and who, for want of work, are without means of providing for the necessaries of life, and also the members of their families, are provided for at their own dwellings, by the care of the bureau de bienfaisance, by the means or revenues of this establishment, and the subsidies which the town grants it yearly out of the municipal funds, in order to supply what may be necessary to continue its service. The amount of this grant varies annually, according to the real wants of the establishment, by reason of the circumstances that either augment or reduce its expenses.
The succours distributed by this establishment consist in money, bread, potatoes, fuel, and clothing, &c.
Besides, there exists at Antwerp, under the direction of the same bureau de bienfaisance, a workhouse, where carpets of cow-hair and other articles are made. This workhouse is established especially to procure work to the indigent and working class who are without employ. The population of this establishment varies according to the different seasons and other circumstances. It is most frequented during the winter, when the navigation is interrupted, and the stagnation of several branches of industry causes the number of indigent to augment. Those who come to work in this establishment remain there the whole day, and receive their meals, besides a salary in cash, proportioned to the work they are employed at.
If, through the effects of a hard winter, the wants of the labouring and indigent class are excessive, there are formed at Antwerp private societies for relief, which, by means of donations, collections, and voluntary subscriptions, efficaciously assist the unfortunate by distributions of money, food, fuel, &c.
The depôt of mendicity in the province of Antwerp is situated at Hoogstraeten, in an ancient manor bought for that purpose by the former department administration. It is a spacious establishment of agriculture, possessing a great number of acres of arable, pasture, and wood land, and a still greater number of heath (bruyère).
Those individuals who are destitute, and who desire to be admitted into this establishment, are received as free men; the vagrants are brought there by force. Both are employed there at sundry works of agriculture, of manufacture, or in the household establishment, according to their physical strength. The impotent and aged alone are kept without working in a separate place.