Baldwyn Leighton

“ The question of a better administration of the Poor Law, which, in some districts, seems to cause the very evils of improvidence and dependence it should seek to cure, would take too long adequately to go into here, more especially as some of the incidents of the southern counties of England seem almost beyond the power of Poor Law to deal with. It would seem as if labour were in excess, and that migration is the only cure. ”

“ Furthermore, as a matter of principle, is the essential communism incorporated into our Poor Law itself altogether sound? Is not the system itself a matter of expediency and compromise, and therefore to be applied as a system of expediency and practical effect? What is the practical effect of this, not what is the strict theory, must be the question answered by the Poor Law Board. ”

“ Land.—A great deal that is fallacious and absurd has been written chiefly by theorists and closet agriculturists, about peasant proprietorships, and "la petite culture;" for any one with practical knowledge of the subject is aware that the cottier or petty farmer endeavouring to live on his small place of ten or twenty acres is too often a warning and example to all who would set at defiance the practical facts of rural economy. ”

“ The spoken word, the written poem, is said to be an epitome of the man; how much more the done work. Whatsoever of morality and of intelligence; what of patience, perseverance, faithfulness, of method, insight, ingenuity, energy; in a word, whatsoever of strength the man had in him, will be written in the work he does. ”

“ What value they may have arises entirely from their being a record of Fact; a description of the successful application of the simplest, and yet most neglected, economic truths to the condition of the poor: Thrift, Sympathy, and Work, instead of Improvidence, Cash-nexus, and Charity-doles, and it is certain that the same results as are exhibited here, incredible as to some they have appeared, may be attained elsewhere in town as well as country, if individuals informed and capable are forthcoming. ”

“ By sympathy and supervision, not by direct gifts, a beneficial relation has been promoted between rich and poor not uncommon to many country districts, but rarer in towns—and pauperism has been virtually exterminated. There are no demoralizing charities and few beer-shops—five beer-shops on the estate having been converted into cottages. Little or no money is ever given, but considerable sums have been spent in building cottages, and in draining and other improvements; and some such work is continually going on in the neighbourhood during the winter. ”

“ The systematic adoption of strict and sound principles in giving out-door relief: the chief one being an attempt to set a premium on thrift and a discount on improvidence, as far as the present Poor Law will allow.
(2.) Personal devotion to the work—a constant unremitting energy on the part of one or two guardians, acting and re-acting on the officials. It is unnecessary to remind an audience of practical men that this minute individual service is the secret and the soul of success in carrying out any such intricate matters as the administration of a Poor Law ”

“ A chairman of a union who will find opportunities for constant personal communication with the master, schoolmaster, and other officials, will strengthen both his own and their hands, and a guardian who will inquire minutely of the inmates of a workhouse how they came there (generally flagrant improvidence) will learn some of the most fertile local causes of pauperism. An inquiry as to how those are living who have left the workhouse, and who have been refused out-relief, will often lead to still further disclosures ”

“ Showing the pauperism proceeding at a decreasing ratio to the increase of population. Out of 600 unions in England this is the only one that exhibits a smaller proportion of out-door poor to in-door. For anything approaching a parallel you must go to the Irish Poor Law, where the regulations and medical relief make comparison difficult. But the ablest men have now declared their convictions that it is not the in-door but the out-door pauperism that is the subject that most demands attention and reform. ”

“ Then as to soil, it will be found that where the soil is rich, the farms large, and the farmers men of capital, the position of the agricultural labourer will be better on the whole than where with small farms and struggling tenants, as in the south-west of England, the labourer is only employed for a few months in the year, and cast adrift to his own resources or the cold comfort of the Poor Law in winter. ”

“ Very considerable interest has been taken by the Chairman and some of the other guardians in the condition generally of the inmates, and especially in the school. The children are not only taught reading and writing, but they are industrially trained and so fitted for service that there is never the slightest difficulty in obtaining them places; there is, in fact, a local demand for them. It has been found by careful enquiry that a very small number of these children ever return to the workhouse, and hardly any who have had time to experience the effect of the training, so carefully bestowed. ”

“ We must give men some outlook and hope, some means of investment and natural savings bank if we would wean them from the beer-shop, and make them independent of the fatal communism of the Poor Law. On the estate in question no cottager is taken till he can produce evidence of money saved, if it be only a few shillings, as a test of providence ”

“ The money can be advanced by some of the land improvement companies at about 6 per cent, repayable in twenty-five years; and though a landlord might not be able suddenly to rebuild a number of cottages out of income, he will not find the interest on the money in excess of the return of rent so heavy as to debar him from gradually improving all on his estate; and against this is to be placed the elevation of the labourer, and the economic necessity of their being housed for the cultivation of the land. ”

“ PERHAPS the most satisfactory way of describing the principles that should regulate Poor Law Belief will be to explain the administration of out-relief in a certain, now notorious, Union; for the management of out-relief has always been the crucial difficulty of the system, and is now acknowledged to be the main question. ”

“ It does not require anything like forty years to produce these results; less than forty months, in the opinion of the aforesaid Chairman, might suffice to make a serious diminution in even the most pauperised unions; but what makes the difficulties so great is the habits of the people promoted by the present fatuous administration, and the absence of men capable and willing to devote themselves to the work. ”

“ But in towns, in neighbourhoods where the beer-shops and public-houses amount to about one for every twenty or thirty grown-up males—not a very unusual proportion—it is evident that either the beer-shop keepers or some of the twenty or thirty men must, financially or morally, be ruined; and every inducement, legitimate or other, will be brought into play to prevent the financial ruin of the beer-shop, especially when temptation is so easy, and resistance so hard. ”

“ The landlord of farms is obliged necessarily to provide cottages for the labourers on the farm as much as buildings for the farmer. That they must then be looked on practically as part of the landlord's outlay on the farm. When let, as they generally are, at non-remunerative prices, they are actually let in supplementation or part payment of wages; but in such an arrangement an injustice is done to the other owners of cottages, and yet more to the tenants in the neighbourhood, namely, those built independently of any farm ownership. ”

“ Should the applicant have more land than a garden, the guardians would refuse out-relief, except medical or temporary, on account of the bad example to the poorer neighbours. Should the bedrooms be over-crowded, except with a man's own family, the guardians might refuse out-relief.
If a man or a woman's character is indifferent, out-relief is generally refused, but in the instance of members of benefit societies the case is always favourably considered. ”

“ Some fundamental facts must not be lost sight of in the consideration of such a subject, because they will be found, after all that can be said and done, to have an influence for good and evil respectively. ”

“ If the farmers habitually turn off their men in the winter, and there is no work for them, although, during the summer months they are required, it may be that migration must naturally correct the overplus, and machinery supply its place. ”

“ If landlords would take the trouble, either by borrowing money or more cheaply out of income, to push forward such works in their several neighbourhoods, very timely relief might be afforded in those cases where labourers are employed only during the summer months, and heartlessly thrown on the rates in the winter. ”

“ Administer generally your relief on a more liberal scale to those who have made some attempt at provision for themselves than to those who have not, and so set a premium on thrift.
(2.) As a rule the annuity or allowance of a friendly society should not be directly supplemented, since it ought to be adequate; but give to non-subscribers, ceteris paribus, two thirds only of what members are receiving, or the offer of the workhouse. ”

“ When widows or men with children apply, the Board offer to take part of their family into the house, and though this plan was first introduced in order that the children of widows should receive an education, or in the case of sick men that the ventilation of his home should be improved by lessening the numbers, yet it has proved, rather to the surprise of the guardians, a most efficient test of destitution. ”

“ It is a deplorable sight to witness a hard-working, industrious labourer, who has saved a little money, endeavour thus to carry on a life of struggle and rags, by depending entirely on the resources of la petite culture ”

“ Meanwhile though governments with expensive commissions, and individuals with knowledge more or less imperfect, seem to have exhausted the subject, the condition of the rural labourer, especially in parts of the south and west of England, is yet an unsolved problem. ”

“ Since in these set of questions we are nothing unless practical, it should be stated that the suggestions here put forward are founded on what has been practically done by individual and especially landlord influence in a certain agricultural district where wages are not high, and where Pauperism, audits natural concomitants of misery, improvidence, and degradation, were once rampant. ”

“ If a parent's sons or daughters are earning wages this would be taken into account, and the guardians would consider them bound to contribute to the support of their parent according to their ability. No relief is ever given to non-residents; and no out-relief is ever allowed to illegitimate children, nor to deserted wives, whom experience shows are generally in collusion with their husbands. ”

“ Secondly, the land must be let to agricultural day labourers, not to petty farmers who design to live or rather starve on the place; the profits are then made by the wife without interfering with the weekly wages of the labourer. ”

“ The systematic application of these principles, namely, inculcating and promoting providence and self-reliance among the poor, has been found during forty years' experience to be attended with the very best results in the district in question. Those who too ignorantly assert that there is no prospect for the agricultural labourer but the workhouse, might be surprised to find in this district labourers at 11s. ”

“ In many unions it would be desirable to appoint at once a medical inspecting officer for a short time, to examine and report upon sanitary deficiencies, and this more especially in towns where much sickness is produced by neglect of the most simple precautions. ”

“ There is hardly a parish or an estate in England where draining, road-making, and other permanent improvements are not, more or less, urgently required, and it is in winter that such works may be best undertaken. ”

“ This ought not, strictly speaking, to be; a cottage should be made to pay a fair rent, and the mode in which the difficulty is here sought to be solved is, by the garden or allotment system, which is easier to the large landlord than to the smaller cottage speculator. ”

“ This would have two effects, which the farmers, landlords, and others, should well consider. First, wages would rise, which would possibly be no loss to any one, as it has been often shown that the lowest paid labour is not always the cheapest; but secondly, the beat men would be the first to migrate. This would soon be felt as a serious and palpable loss in a district, as has practically been found in more than one previously overstocked neighbourhood. ”

“ Stuart Mill, nor yet any natural check to longevity—rather the contrary; the death-rate being less than 14 per 1000; large families and old age are the rule not the exception, and the one supports the other. ”

“ In addition to this there is a clothing club established, and in sickness or sudden distress such assistance as medicines or strengthening food, or clothing are given, but only to the members of the club, thus instituing another and more inclusive provident test. ”

“ Work.—Without going as far as Hampshire or Berkshire or Devonshire, there are few agricultural districts where work is not slack in winter as compared with the summer. Some day machinery may come to compensate the vacuum ”