There was no sudden break with the older system. St Thomas's, St Bartholomew's and Bedlam had all been hospitals for centuries. They had been saved from destruction, improved and enlarged, but essentially the same work was done in the same places. There were however important points of difference between the new system and the old even as regards these three hospitals. They were under public management. There were many abuses in this management, but these abuses were now more readily detected and punished and were found out and reformed several times in the course of the next century.
But a more important difference lay in the fact that the hospitals were not now isolated institutions, each dealing with their patients, but were now part of a larger whole and had a definite part to play in the government of the City. Vagrants, who were taken to Bridewell and found to be ill, were sent on to St Bartholomew's or St Thomas's, while, on the other hand, a whipping was administered to the idlers after cure at St Thomas's, and the beadle of St Bartholomew's had special orders to prevent discharged inmates from begging. All these regulations show that they had become, not merely agencies for the relief of the sick, but also part of a system which aimed at the repression of beggars.
Bridewell was the greatest innovation and the most characteristic institution of the new system. The organisation for the relief of the poor had been called into existence because the crowds of vagrants were a chronic nuisance and danger to society. Bridewell dealt with the most difficult class of these vagrants and gave some of them a chance of training and reform. Moreover, Bridewell as a place of punishment for idlers was the necessary counterpart of the new schemes for universal relief. You could not relieve and find work for every one unless you had some means for coercing and punishing the "sturdy vagabond." Christ's Hospital, like Bridewell, is a new institution, but, unlike Bridewell, it does not altogether strike out a new line. Still, as soon as the relief of the poor becomes a public duty, institutions for the training of the young become increasingly popular, and we shall find that, during the next century, there are other Christ's Hospitals as well as other Bridewells in most of the great towns of the kingdom.
6. Failure of the municipal system in London.
This municipal system however was not successful in London. So far as London was concerned the organisation seemed fairly complete. But even from the local point of view the system was weak in one point. Funds had to be provided. It was not easy suddenly to raise the money necessary for the new organisation; men were not accustomed to be taxed for the poor, and, as soon as the first enthusiasm had subsided, a sufficient sum could not be collected. During the succeeding period we shall find that the rulers of London found great difficulty in this matter, and that this was one of the causes of the want of success of the municipal system of London. But another difficulty was inherent in the system in the very fact that it was municipal, and not national. A few years ago the distribution of the Mansion House Relief Fund caused a considerable immigration from the country. Exactly the same result arose from the first organisation of the poor in the City of London. In March, 1568/9, we are told that "forasmuch as experience late hath shewed that the charitable relief gyuen as well by the quenes maties most noble progenitors as also the charitable almes from tyme to tyme collected within this citie and bestowed by the cittizens, aswell upon the poore and nedy citizens, being sicke, impotent and lambe as the poore orphans and fatherless children ... aswell in Chryste Church and Bridwell as in other hospitalles founded for the reliefe of the poore within the said citie, hath drawen into this citie great nombers of vagabondes, roges, masterless men and Idle persons as also poore, lame and sick persons dwellyng in the most partes of the realme[76]." The very measures which were taken to cope with poverty in London thus increased the crowd of beggars, not because they caused more people to become beggars, but because they attracted the poor from all parts. The City organisation broke down because it was confined to the City, but it had already done considerable service in helping the growth of the national organisation which was to follow.
Poor relief in towns other than London.
7. Provision of corn in Bristol and Canterbury.
We have now to examine a few cases in which other towns before 1569 adopted measures similar to those of London. With regard to the provision of corn it is quite possible that the London plan was widely followed. In 1522 we read that in Bristol "this yere whete, corn, and other graynes rose at a dire price, by reason whereof the said Maire, of his gode disposition, inclyning his charitie towardes the comen wele and profite of this Towne," ordered grain to be bought in Worcester, "by reason wherof greate abundance of whete, corn, and other graynes was so provided, that the inhabitauntes of the said towne were greatly releved and comforted in mynysshing of the price of whete, corn and other graynys, sold in the open markett of this said Towne[77]." At Canterbury the funds for this purpose are accounted for in the year 1552. More than £70 was then spent in the purchase of wheat and barley. It was not however altogether raised by the Town Council, more than half was obtained from the sale of the plate of the parish of St Andrew and from contributions from the parishes of St George and St Michael. This corn was bought especially for the benefit of the poor, and about one-fifth part of it was directly sold to them; the rest was sold to large buyers, and could only have benefited the poor by easing the market and so lowering the price to everybody[78].
8. Survey and employment of poor at Lincoln.
The surveying and licensing of beggars appears to have been very usual. Thus, at Lincoln in 1543, the constables were ordered to bring all the poor people in the city before the justices and it was provided that those who were to be allowed to beg should have a sign given to them. A similar order was made in 1546, and it was also decided that no one was to give alms to any beggar without a sign[79]. These orders are exactly parallel to the earlier measures of the rulers of London. Next year, in 1547, the citizens of Lincoln took a farther step. Not only were the beggars to be surveyed, but they were to be set to work, and in 1551 all the young people, who lived idly, were placed with the clothiers for eight or nine years and were to have meat, drink and other necessaries. All who refused this work were to be expelled from the town[80]. In 1560 a salary is paid to an officer who is to oversee and order all the poor and idle people in the town[81]. Special collections for the relief of the poor were also made in Lincoln before 1569, but apparently only in times of plague[82]. Grants were occasionally made to particular poor at other times and there was a more than usually definite amount of relief provided by the guild regulations for the poorer members of some of the Lincoln guilds[83].