The establishment of a Store for the sale of provisions, clothing, etc.
The building, purchasing, or erecting a number of houses, in which those members desiring to assist each other in improving their domestic and social condition may reside. To commence the manufacture of such articles as the Society may determine upon, for the employment of such members as may be without employment, or who may be suffering in consequence of repeated reductions in their wages.
As a further benefit and security to the members of this Society, the Society shall purchase or rent an estate or estates of land, which shall be cultivated by the members who may be out of employment or whose labour may be badly remunerated.
That, as soon as practicable, this Society shall proceed to arrange the powers of production, distribution, education and government: or, in other words, to establish a self-supporting home colony of united interests, or assist other societies in establishing such colonies.
That, for the promotion of sobriety, a Temperance Hotel be opened in one of the Society's houses as soon as convenient.
SECTION V
1. Settlement Law, 1662—2. Defoe's pamphlet "Giving Alms no Charity," 1704—3. The Workhouse Test Act, 1722—4. Gilbert's Act, 1782—5. Speenhamland "Act of Parliament," 1795—6. The Workhouse System, 1797—7. Two Varieties of the Roundsman System of Relief, 1797—8. Another Example of the Roundsman System, 1808—9. Report of the Poor Law Commission, 1834—10. The Poor Law Amendment Act, 1834—11. Outdoor Relief Prohibitory Order, 1844.
The national organisation of poor-relief was permanently affected by the constitutional troubles of the seventeenth century. Supervision and pressure from a central authority were removed and were not again strongly felt till near the close of this period. This change shows itself in the documentary evidence; national regulation is rare and comes only as the result of a special emergency or panic (Nos. 1, 3, 4, 10). The Settlement Act of 1662 (No. 1), with its successors, was an attempt to meet the special local difficulties which sprang from the want of central control and uniformity. The Act of 1722 provided the machinery for the more drastic treatment of the poor advocated in Defoe's pamphlet (No. 2), by means of a workhouse and a system of tests for relief; for this purpose unions of parishes could be formed (No. 3). Gilbert's Act (No. 4) in the last quarter of the century was a reversion to milder policy; it was intended to distinguish more clearly the different classes of poor relieved, to provide suitable treatment for the old infirm and children in institutions, and to find employment for the able-bodied. It illustrates the growing pressure of industrial changes on the working classes, as well as the current of humanitarian feeling which ran a broken course from this time to the end of the period. It was an adoptive, not a compulsory, Act, and no more legislative changes of the first importance were made till 1834. Meanwhile vast transformations were being made in town and, especially, in country life, and the destitution line was crossed by a whole section of the nation. The Settlement laws were relaxed, but, after Pitt's abortive proposals in 1795, Parliament stood aside. The initiative was thus left to the local authority. The so-called Speenhamland Act of Parliament (No. 5) is the classic instance of the methods of supplementary allowances adopted by the Justices in various counties. Its aim was humane; its effect, to check the pressure for higher wages, was not intended (see No. 5, note).