The Early History of English Poor Relief

by of Girton College E. M. Leonard

4. State of poor relief after the Restoration.

We should therefore expect that the lax administration during the war would affect the schemes for the employment of the poor more than any other part of the organisation, and the evidence of many treatises published between the Restoration and the Revolution show us that this was the case. Order had been somewhat restored, and the impotent poor were then relieved, but the practice of finding work had so much fallen into disuse that its former existence was almost forgotten. Thus in a pamphlet published in 1673, called "The grand Concern of England explained[667]," the writer states that the money paid for the poor at that time amounted to £840,000 a year, and "is employed only to maintain idle persons." He proposed that instead of giving the poor weekly allowance, both old and young should be set to work at spinning, or some similar occupation. Another treatise, published in 1683, has been attributed to Sir Matthew Hale[668], and likewise shows that little was then done for the able-bodied poor. The author says, "Indeed there are rates made for the impotent poor.... But it is rare to see any provision of a stock in any Parish for the relief of the poor." The word "stock" is here used in the sense of capital for the employment of the poor, and this writer also states that the law provides that sums of this kind should be so raised. He gives many reasons for the neglect in the matter. One of these is that there was no authority in the Justices of Peace or other superintendent officials to compel the raising of a stock where the churchwardens and overseers neglected it. Both practice and opinion as to the requirements of the law had considerably altered since in 1629 the Privy Council told the justices that it was the opinion of all the judges that they both had the power and the right to levy stocks to set the poor on work, and since in 1631 the justices from all parts sent in the reports on the Book of Orders[669].

The author of a pamphlet of 1685[670] also points out that by the law of Elizabeth the parish was bound to provide "work for those that will labour, punishment for those that will not, and bread for those that cannot; and if the first two parts of that law were duly observed the Poor would not only be reduced to a small number comparatively to what they now are, but there would be no such poor as idle and wandering rogues and vagabonds." The writer further complains that work was not provided for those who will labour, but only bread both for those who can and those who cannot labour. These pamphlets thus afford abundant proof that the plan of raising a stock had fallen into disuse in the reign of Charles II., and few efforts were made to employ the poor until new workhouses were founded in different towns, each by separate Acts of Parliament.

5. Reasons for failure under the Commonwealth to restore the old state of things.

This disorganisation, we have seen, was owing to the Civil War. It is easy to see that when the war was ended, it would be difficult to restore the old state of things because the old conditions were altered. The Privy Council after the Restoration had a much less paternal method of governing, and moreover the nation had outgrown the old methods of organisation: the Council of State of the Commonwealth did however try to restore some of the old remedies.

But under the Commonwealth the justices could no longer have been as efficient instruments for carrying out the poor law as before. Many of those who had formerly had most local influence were in banishment or disgrace; others had lost heavily by the sacrifices made for the war. Probably those who remained were chiefly interested in the more exciting political and religious questions of the time. But without an energetic Council and vigorous and powerful justices acting in sympathy with them, the administration of the poor law had been ineffectual in the reign of Elizabeth and in that of James I. We should therefore expect the same result under the Commonwealth and Charles II., except for the difference made by the ten years in which the relief of the poor had been efficient. The whole of the improvement was not lost, but enough of it to show how much the execution of the law had depended on the Book of Orders, and enough to make the poor relief granted in the years immediately preceding the war different from that of any future time.

6. History of Legislation on poor relief in Scotland.

We will now briefly glance at the history of poor relief in Scotland. Prof. Ashley has shown us that poor laws were not at first peculiarly English institutions. In every country of Western Europe like difficulties seem to have occurred at about the same time. Every one of these countries was developing in new industrial and commercial directions, and all were becoming more peaceably and quietly governed. France, Germany, Holland and Scotland were alike troubled with unemployed vagrants and unrelieved poor. The monastic houses and hospitals under the old system certainly failed to cure the evil, perhaps they only increased it. Municipal regulations and state laws dealing with beggars and almsgiving therefore appear alike in France, Germany, Scotland, and England, and at about the same time[671].

In the sixteenth century the history of poor relief in Scotland and in France is so like that of England as to suggest similar conditions or possibly conscious imitation. In all three countries it is a history of successive enactments in which the legal right of the poor to relief is created, and in which more and more pressure is employed to obtain the necessary funds.