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

5. No children can be admitted to the assistance of the bureau, nor into the classes of instruction and work, above the age of 15, or without having been vaccinated.

6. If the number of children attending the classes and work shall be too many, either on account of the size of the building or the attention of the instructors, preference will be given to the children whose parents are already on their lists, and who are known to require assistance for the education of their children.

7. Every year, at the period of the first communion, a certain number of children shall be clothed. But to be admitted to this assistance they must produce a certificate from the clergyman appointed to give religious instruction, or from the nuns of the convent, that they have been attentive and are deserving. The boys are clothed in brown cloth; the girls in coloured calico.

8. Every year the sum of 653 fr. (26l.) shall be given to the clergymen of the town, in tickets of 1 fr. (9d.), 50 c. (4½d.), to be distributed where they think proper, of which only those who are past 60 or under 15 can participate.

9. Each person shall receive 3 lbs. of bread, two in the same family 6 lbs. of ditto, three to five persons in the same family, whose children are under 15, 12 lbs. of ditto, for 15 days. The number admitted to this relief to be regulated each year, so that the distribution shall not exceed 3,000 lbs. a month. These distributions will take place to the most needy each Monday and Friday, from 9 to 12 o’clock, after which no more will be given.

10. In the distribution of clothing, which will be made once a year, each individual will only be clothed once in two years.

11. When the establishment is enabled to give woollen clothing, it will only be to such as are above 60 years, or to children under seven years, and those the most destitute; this relief once in two years.

12. If any one who receives bread and clothing from the bureau sells or pawns the same, he shall be struck off.

13. All clothes given by the establishment shall be marked, so that they may be known.

14. Assistance to lying-in women, new-born children, and sick, will be rendered at their houses; those who are not on the lists cannot be assisted until their case is examined; money will not be given to women in labour but when absolutely necessary; soup is distributed on Mondays and Wednesdays, from two to three o’clock.