We will first examine part of the evidence bearing upon the lax administration of the whole system of poor relief and some of the efforts which were made under the Commonwealth to restore the old state of things. Sometimes we hear of the disorganisation of semi-voluntary charities; at other times of the bad administration of the laws for the poor; occasionally of fraudulent practices in connection with charitable endowments.
1. Lax administration of system of Poor Relief in England during the years of the Civil War.
a. Decline of charitable institutions.
The four royal hospitals of London are the most conspicuous instances of charities which were under public management, but only partly supported by public contributions. We get from them several complaints of a partial break-down owing to the Civil War, and the figures furnished by the Governors speak for themselves. In 1641 there were over nine hundred children in Christ's Hospital, in 1647 there were only five hundred and ninety-seven; at Thomas's Hospital, in 1641, over a thousand patients were relieved, and in 1647 only six hundred and eighty-two; at St Bartholomew's and Bridewell the numbers had also decreased[645]. The Governors of Christ's Hospital give us their estimate of the reasons for this. We are told that "in respect of the troubles of the times, the meanes of the said Hospital hath very much failed for want of charitable Benevolences which formerly have beene given, and are now ceased; and very few legacies are now given to hospitals, the rents and revenues thereunto belonging being also very ill paid by the tenants, who are not able to hold their leases by reason of their quartering and billetting of soldiers and the taking away of their corne and cattell from them[646]." A few years later the billeting had apparently ceased, but the tenants then suffered "by reason of the severall charges and taxes laid upon them[647]." Even in 1653 we are informed that the revenues of Christ's Hospital "hath divers wayes fallen very short of means formerly received, viz. heretofore many have given monies privateley, others very bountifull at their deaths. And several parishes in London have sent in large contributions and now but one that sends anything at all[648]." The Civil War had reduced many of the richer classes to poverty, and probably most institutions which were maintained by private contributions would suffer in the same manner as Christ's Hospital in London.
1 b. Neglect in execution of ordinary law.
There are also complaints and instances of the bad administration of the ordinary law. One of these is contained in the ordinance of the Lords of 1646/7. The Lord Mayor in the City and the justices and judges in the country are to put in execution the laws concerning the poor and rogues, because "by reason of the unhappy distractions of these times the putting of the Lawes into execution have been altogether neglected[649]."
Numerous resolutions tell us that the state of the London streets had become almost unbearable. The vagrants hung on coaches and begged clamorously at the doors of churches and private houses[650]: moreover not only did men gather in tumultuous assemblies "by playing at football or otherwise," but many "loose and vagrant persons" also had been found to wander, who, "under colour of begging in the day time," did pilfer and steal, and in the night time "did break into houses and shops to the scandall of the governmente of this City[651]."
In 1652 several resolutions were passed by Parliament on the matter, and a committee was appointed to consider how the poor might be employed, to revive the laws concerning the poor and setting them to work, and "to consider by what means or default the same are become ineffectual or are not put in execution[652]."
These resolutions and these complaints at once show that the administration had become lax, and that there had formerly been a time in which these laws had "not become ineffectual," and were put in execution.
1 c. Instances of corrupt practices.