They who from their habits of life have few opportunities of considering the state of the Poor, are apt to form very erroneous opinions on the subject.
By the Poor we are not to understand the whole mass of the people who support themselves by labour; for those whose necessity compels them to exercise their industry, become by their poverty the actual pillars of the State.
Labour is absolutely requisite to the existence of all Governments; and as it is from the Poor only that labour can be expected, so far from being an evil they become, under proper regulations, an advantage to every Country, and highly deserve the fostering care of every Government. It is not Poverty therefore, that is in itself an evil, while health, strength, and inclination, afford the means of subsistence, and while work is to be had by all who seek it.—The evil is to be found only in Indigence, where the strength fails, where disease, age, or infancy, deprives the individual of the means of subsistence, or where he knows not how to find employment when willing and able to work.
In this view the Poor may be divided into five Classes:—
The first Class comprehends what may be denominated the useful Poor, who are able and willing to work—who have already been represented as the pillars of the State, and who merit the utmost attention of all Governments, with a direct and immediate view of preventing their poverty from descending unnecessarily into indigence. As often as this evil is permitted to happen, the State not only loses an useful subject, but the expence of his maintenance must be borne by the Public.—The great art, therefore, in managing the affairs of the Poor, is to establish Systems whereby the poor man, verging upon indigence, may be propped up and kept in his station. Whenever this can be effected, it is done upon an average at one-tenth of the expence at most that must be incurred by permitting a family to retrograde into a state of indigence, where they must be wholly maintained by the Public, and where their own exertions cease in a great measure to be useful to the Country.
The second Class comprehends the vagrant Poor, who are able but not willing to work, or who cannot obtain employment in consequence of their bad character. This class may be said to have descended from poverty into beggary, in which state they become objects of peculiar attention, since the State suffers not only the loss of their labour, but also of the money which they obtain by the present ill-judged mode of giving charity. Many of them, however, having become mendicants, more from necessity than choice, deserve commiseration and attention, and nothing can promote in a greater degree the cause of humanity, and the real interest of the Metropolis, than an establishment for the employment of this class of indigent Poor, who may be said at present to be in a very deplorable state, those only excepted who make begging a profession. It is only by a plan, such as has been recommended, that the real indigent can be discovered from the vagrant, and in no other way is it possible to have that distinct and collected view of the whole class of beggars in the Metropolis, or to provide the means of rendering their labour (where they are able to labour) productive to themselves and the State.—And it may be further added with great truth, that in no other way is it possible to prevent the offspring of such mendicants from becoming Prostitutes and Thieves.
If, therefore, it is of importance to diminish crimes, and to obstruct the progress of immorality, this part of the Community ought to be the peculiar objects of a branch of the National Police, where responsibility would secure an accurate execution of the System. This measure ought to begin in the Metropolis as an experiment, and when fully matured might be extended with every advantage to the Country.
The third Class may be considered under the denomination of the Indigent Poor, who from want of employment, sickness, losses, insanity or disease, are unable to maintain themselves.
In attending to this description of Poor, the first consideration ought to be to select those who are in a state to re-occupy their former station among the labouring Poor; and to restore them to the first class as soon as possible, by such relief as should enable them to resume their former employments, and to help themselves and families.
Where insanity, or temporary disease, or infirmity actually exist, such a course must then be pursued as will enable such weak and indigent persons, while they are supported at the expence of the Public, to perform such species of labour, as may be suited to their peculiar situations, without operating as a hardship, but rather as an amusement. In this manner it is wonderful how productive the exertions of even the most infirm might be rendered.—But it must be accomplished under a management very different, indeed, from any thing which prevails at present.