FRANCE.
The information contained in this Appendix respecting the poor-laws of France, and their administration, consists of a paper by M. Frederic de Chateauvieux, on the comparative state of the poor in France and England (p. 21); a report by Mr. Majendie, from Normandy (p. 34); and reports by his Majesty’s Consuls from Havre (p. 179), Brest (p. 724), Nantes (p. 171), Bourdeaux (p. 229), Bayonne (p. 260), and Marseilles (p. 185).
We have already stated (pp. 117-125) the general outline of the French establishments for the relief of the poor, consisting of hospices for the impotent, hospitals for the sick, depôts de mendicité for vagrants and beggars (constituting the in-doors relief), and bureaux de bienfaisance for the secours à domicile, or out-doors relief. But this comprehensive and discriminative system of public relief appears to have been carried into effect in France with a far less approach to completeness than in Belgium. The number of hospices and hospitals is indeed large in the towns, and not inconsiderable in the country: but of the depôts de mendicité, of which the decree of 1808 ordered the establishment, very few were in fact organized, and of those the greater part have since been suppressed; and the bureaux de bienfaisance are almost confined to the towns. As more than three-fourths of the population of France is agricultural, only a small portion of that population therefore is capable of participating in public or organized relief. M. de Chateauvieux estimates that portion, or, in other words, the population of the towns possessing institutions for the relief of the poor, at 3,500,000 persons, and the value of the public relief annually afforded at 1,800,000l. sterling. (p 25.) If this approximation can be relied on, the expenditure per head in that portion of the French population nearly equals the expenditure per head in England.
The following are the most material portions of the consular reports:—
Havre.
Seine Inferieure. Population of the Department, 693,683. Population of Havre, 23,816.
The provisions for the relief of the poor in Havre may be collected from the following statement of the principal regulations of the hospitals, the bureau de bienfaisance, and the depôt de mendicité for the department, which is situated in Rouen. (pp. 182, 183, 184, 185, 186.)
Hospital Regulations at Havre.
Hospital.