CHAPTER VI.
1569-1597. PARLIAMENT AND THE PRIVY COUNCIL.
- A. Parliamentary History.
- 1. Discussions, Bills and Statutes between 1566 and 1576.
- 2. Parliamentary history between 1576 and 1597.
- 3. The Bills and Statutes of 1597.
- 4. General features of the discussion in Parliament.
- B. The action of the Privy Council.
- 5. The chief characteristics of the action of the Privy Council.
- 6. The whipping campaign.
- 7. The scarcity measures.
- 8. The influence of the Privy Council on
- (1) the Mayor and Corporation of London,
- (2) other local officials.
The action of municipal authorities in particular towns, which, before 1569, is the main feature in the development in the English system of poor relief, becomes of relatively less importance after that date.
Matters concerning the poor attract increased notice in Parliament and the statutes become more definite and more effective until 1597. An enactment was then passed, the provisions of which, as re-enacted in 1601, have remained almost unaltered until the present century. The leading feature therefore of the period from 1569 to 1597 is the improvement in legislation. But besides the improvement in legislation we must notice the pressure exercised by the Privy Council on the justices of the peace. This becomes more operative and frequent throughout the reign of Elizabeth, but before 1597 it had not attained anything like the same degree of success that it was destined to achieve under Charles I. At the same time local organisation must not be altogether neglected, and now the measures of the justices in the country are important as well as the orders of the towns.
We will consider, therefore, so far as they affect the poor, first, the Parliamentary history from 1569 to 1597; secondly, the action of the Privy Council; lastly, some of the more important local measures and the events of the concluding years of the period 1594 to 1597.
A. Parliamentary history.
The history of the Bills, committees and debates in Parliament in the period from 1569 to 1597 shows very clearly that the English Poor Law did not come by chance, but was the result of the thought and experience of the greatest men of the time. Their discussions make us realise, that in those days, as in ours, opinion was much divided on the subject, and that in matters concerning the poor it is particularly true that there is very little new under the sun. The earlier part of the parliamentary history of the question circles round the statutes of 1572 and 1576, the later round the code of 1597. Between these two dates there were some slight alterations and additions to the law and a decided change in opinion and feeling.