After the middle of the fourteenth century there were vagrant laws in France and Paris as in Scotland and England. The first general measure for the relief of the poor also is almost exactly contemporaneous in all three countries. In 1536, Francis I. issued two edicts. The first ordains "that the impotent poor who have room and lodging and dwelling houses shall be nourished and entertained by their parishes, and for this purpose a register shall be made by the curés, vicars or churchwardens, each for his own parish," in order that these officers may distribute alms to the poor who are disabled. In each parish boxes were to be placed in which offerings were to be collected, and every Sunday, in Paris as in England, the preachers in their sermons were to exhort their hearers to contribute. Abbeys, priories, chapters and colleges were to give their alms to this box[706].
By a second edict of King Francis, issued in this year, the able-bodied poor were compelled to labour in return for their alms, and it was ordered that the ordinances made in Paris concerning the poor should be binding also in the towns of Brittany[707]. These edicts of King Francis contain almost exactly similar provisions to those of the statutes of Henry VIII., even in matters of detail.
Several other edicts between this and 1551 concern the poor, chiefly the Parisian poor. Public works were established to employ them, and efforts were made to succour the impotent poor in hospitals. In 1544 a governing body for the poor was established by Letters Patent, and the right of levying a tax or poor rate was given to this new authority[708]. But the new taxation met with much opposition, and in 1551 an ordinance was issued which bears a very close resemblance to the English statute of 1563. All the inhabitants of Paris and the suburbs were to state how much they were willing to contribute to the support of the poor. Their answers were to be laid before the Parliament, which was then to assess everyone according to his wealth. The object of the edict was to make the taxation voluntary if possible without surrendering the right of imposing compulsory payment. Even at the Revolution this contribution had not altogether disappeared, although it was too small an amount to have much[709] practical effect.
In 1566 it was again ordered that throughout France every town and every village was to care for its own poor[710]. In particular towns a good deal was done: not only were public workshops opened in Paris[711], but in 1612 new hospitals were established, and in Lyons and in certain other towns the same kind of relief was given.
But, as in England in the sixteenth century, relief was only administered in particular districts and for a short time. In France as in Scotland the history of the seventeenth century was like that of the sixteenth. Edict succeeded edict; they had some result but not much; no general system was ever established, nor were the poor ever effectually relieved. Perhaps it was impossible that laws of this kind should be executed in France because the French did not possess any county officials like the English justices of the peace. The Council might be willing to enforce the law, but the necessary machinery was wanting, and consequently in France as in Scotland poor laws were only made; they were not thoroughly administered.
9. Comparison between history of poor relief in England and that in France and Scotland.
The history of poor relief in France and Scotland thus seems to bring into greater prominence the fact that the English organisation is not exactly the inevitable result of the statute of 1601. Like causes led to like regulations in all three countries, but the regulations did not lead to the same result. The organisation of poor relief in France and Scotland continued in the English sixteenth century stage down to the present century. In the light of their history we can understand the preamble to the commission of 1631. The justices acted in many parts as if the poor laws were obsolete, and they were always tending to become obsolete in France and Scotland. In England that stage was passed during the ten years of the enforcement of the Book of Orders. Privy Council and justices were alike effective at the same time; the Privy Council took action, and the justices were urged to do their duty. Few officials, perhaps none, could have done the work so well. If the justices of later days granted too much relief it was because of the justices of Charles I. that relief was ever efficiently administered at all.