I.Pauperism
Perhaps the gravest of all the problems which were to occupy the coming generation was the problem of pauperism.The view taken by the Utilitarians was highly characteristic and important.I will try to indicate the general position of intelligent observers at the end of the century by referring to the remarkable book of Sir Frederick Morton Eden.Its purport is explained by the title:'The State of the Poor;or,an History of the Labouring Classes of England from the Norman Conquest to the present period;in which are particularly considered their domestic economy,with respect to diet,dress,fuel,and habitation;and the various plans which have from time to time been proposed and adopted for the relief of the poor'(3vols.4to,1797).Eden(1)(1766-1809)was a man of good family and nephew of the first Lord Auckland,who negotiated Pitt's commercial treaty.He graduated as B.A.from Christ Church,Oxford,in 1787;married in 1792,and at his death (14th Nov.1809)was chairman of the Globe Insurance Company.He wrote various pamphlets upon economical topics;contributed letters signed 'Philanglus'to Cobbett's Porcupine,the anti-jacobin paper of the day;and is described by Bentham(2)as a 'declared disciple'and a 'highly valued friend.'He may be reckoned,therefore,as a Utilitarian,though politically he was a Conservative.He seems to have been a man of literary tastes as well as a man of business,and his book is a clear and able statement of the points at issue.
Eden's attention had been drawn to the subject by the distress which followed the outbreak of the revolutionary war.He employed an agent who travelled through the country for a year with a set of queries drawn up after the model of those prepared by Sinclair for his Statistical Accoumt of Scotland.He thus anticipated the remarkable investigation made in our own time by Mr Charles Booth.Eden made personal inquiries and studied the literature of the subject.He had a precursor in Richard Burn (1709-1785),whose History of the Poor-laws appeared in 1764,and a competitor in John Ruggles,whose History of the Poor first appeared in Arthur Young's Annals,and was published as a book in 1793(second edition,1797).Eden's work eclipsed Ruggles's.
It has a permanent value as a collection of facts;and was a sign of the growing sense of the importance of accurate statistical research.The historian of the social condition of the people should be grateful to one who broke ground at a time when the difficulty of obtaining a sound base for social inquiries began to make itself generally felt.The value of the book for historical purposes lies beyond my sphere.His first volume,I may say,gives a history of legislation from the earliest period;and contains also a valuable account of the voluminous literature which had grown up during the two preceding centuries.The other two summarise the reports which he had received.I will only say enough to indicate certain critical points.Eden's book unfortunately was to mark,not a solution of the difficulty but,the emergence of a series of problems which were to increase in complexity and ominous significance through the next generation.
The general history of the poor-law is sufficiently familiar.(3)The mediaeval statutes take us to a period at which the labourer was still regarded as a serf;and a man who had left his village was treated like a fugitive slave.A long series of statutes regulated the treatment of the 'vagabond.'
The vagabond,however,had become differentiated from the pauper.The decay of the ancient order of society and its corresponding institutions had led to a new set of problems;and the famous statute of Elizabeth (1601)had laid down the main lines of the system which is still in operation.
When the labourer was regarded as in a servile condition,he might be supported from the motives which lead an owner to support his slaves,or by the charitable energies organised by ecclesiastical institutions.He had now ceased to be a serf,and the institutions which helped the poor man or maintained the beggar were wrecked.The Elizabethan statute gave him,therefore,a legal claim to be supported,and,on the other hand,directed that he should be made to work for his living.The assumption is still that every man is a member of a little social circle.He belongs to his parish,and it is his fellow-parishioners who are bound to support him.So long as this corresponded to facts,the system could work satisfactorily.With the spread of commerce,and the growth of a less settled population,difficulties necessarily arose.
The pauper and the vagabond represent a kind of social extravasation;the 'masterless man'who has strayed from his legitimate place or has become a superfluity in his own circle.The vagabond could be fogged,sent to prison,or if necessary hanged,but it was more difficult to settle what to do with a man who was not a criminal,but simply a product in excess of demand.All manner of solutions had been suggested by philanthropists and partly adopted by the legislature.One point which especially concerns us is the awkwardness or absence of an appropriate administrative machinery.
The parish,the unit on which the pauper had claims,meant the persons upon whom the poor-rate was assessed.These were mainly farmers and small tradesmen who formed the rather vague body called the vestry.'Overseers'were appointed by the ratepayers themselves;they were not paid,and the disagreeable office was taken in turn for short periods.The most obvious motive with the average ratepayer was of course to keep down the rates and to get the burthen of the poor as much as possible out of his own parish.
Each parish had at least an interest in economy.But the economical interest also produced flagrant evils.