There are other cases in which there seems to have been evidence of corruption. The Chester Hospital, we are told, had been much neglected[653]; in 1653 we hear also that persons counterfeited the Letters Patent and orders of the Council of State for licenses to collect money for charitable purposes, so that people were cheated, and it was necessary to pass a special resolution of Parliament on the subject[654]. A curious instance of corruption in the administration of charitable funds appears at Barnstaple. Many sums of money had been bequeathed there as elsewhere for the purpose of enabling a young craftsman or trader to set up business on his own account. Some time before the war the town rulers found it difficult to find young men who could furnish good security, and so lent part of the money to more prosperous manufacturers, who, they said, set the poor inhabitants to work. But in 1653 the money was altogether misapplied; the Corporation bought some gold maces, found they had no funds to pay for them, and so ordered the debt to be paid with this endowment[655]. Apparently the money was never paid back, for payments on account of it cease after this time.
Any one of these instances of fraud and neglect might have occurred at any time, but so many receive official notice when peace was restored that they must have occurred more frequently during the war than at other times. A letter of this period seems to indicate the opinion of contemporaries: "You speak of feasts to relieve the poor, but it is well if the money left long since for the poor be given to them and not to feasts[656]."
2. Attempts to regain a good organisation of poor relief under the Commonwealth.
As soon as the Commonwealth was fairly well established many efforts were made to relieve the poor of London. As early as 1647 a new organisation was established, named the Corporation of the Poor, which was empowered to erect workhouses and Houses of Correction[657]. Something seems to have been done by the members of this body. The store-house situated in the Minories and the Wardrobe-house were granted to them, and here orphans were maintained and many hundred of poor families were employed and relieved by the Corporation by spinning and weaving, "and," they tell us, "whosoever doth repair, either to the Wardrobe near Blackfriars, or to Heiden House in the Minories, may have Materials of Flax, Hemp or Towe to spin at their own houses if it be desired, leaving so much money as the said Materials cost, until it be brought again in Yarn; at which time they shall receive money for their work and more Materials to imploy them; so that a stock of 12d. or 14d. will be a sufficient security for any that will be imployed; and every one is paid according to the fineness or coursness in the Yarn they spin: there being a certain rule of Length and Tale to pay every one by, so that none are necessitated to live idly, that are desirous or willing to work[658]."
But the President and Corporation of the Poor were soon hindered in their work by want of funds, and were not at all successful in maintaining order in the London streets[659]. Their greatest difficulty seems to have been in 1656, and they try an interesting experiment. Many pamphlets of this century concern the fishing trade and were written to urge the English to keep it from the Dutch. Some of the writers consider the fitting out of fishing-boats the best means of setting the poor of the nation to work[660]. The plan now was actually attempted; three busses or fishing smacks were taken from the Dutch and granted to this Corporation for the purpose of employing the poor[661].
But still the help given was but small; several committees were appointed by the Council of State, but few decisions were reached; the measures of relief only concerned London and not the whole of the country, and even in London comparatively little was accomplished. In spite of the new orphanage at the Wardrobe few children were educated there, probably because no money could be got. The hymn sung by the children implores Parliament to redress the matter:
"Grave Senators that sit on high
Let not poor English Children die
And droop on Dunghils with lamenting notes;
An Act for Poor's Relief they say