William Rathbone

“ It was most oppressive to the labourer, and often most unjust to the owners of property, that a man should be thrown upon the rates of a parish when he became ill, sick, or useless, simply because he was born there, while he might have lived and worked elsewhere. But still in remedying one injustice we ought to be careful not to commit another. While relieving the farmer and the landowners of a burden which ought not in justice to be borne by them, we must take care not to throw that burden upon the small householders of our large towns, a class who are still less able to bear it. ”

“ Unless a Poor Law guardian is to be expected to do his work more thoroughly than a magistrate or a town councellor, I do not see how the evils of which you complain are to be removed, because I am convinced that a workhouse, in which the master is not thoroughly supported by the guardians, is at any time liable to fall into a state of over-crowding from any relaxation in the exercise of the laws which empower the managers to insist upon a strict labour test. ”

“ What is the history of the Poor Law Board? It was instituted, in 1832, to prevent the entire agricultural population of the country from sinking into pauperism; and to a great extent it succeeded. But in order to succeed it ruled, I believe it was obliged to rule, with a very high hand. It had to exert a tremendous despotism over the Boards of Guardians, and the consequence was a perfect storm of public indignation. When the crisis had passed it was found that the power nominally placed in its hands could not always be employed, and years of enforced inactivity ensued. ”

“ I also venture to assert that a large mass of pauperism accumulates in the large towns, for which they are in no way responsible, and with the burden of which they ought not to be charged. I would point out that although much of the pauperism of the country may arise from labour employed in particular trades and places, there is no inconsiderable amount of floating pauperism which cannot be attributed to the locality, and which may be fairly considered as national in its character, and chargeable upon the general wealth of the country. ”

“ I maintain that the classes who possess this property do not contribute their fair share towards the rates levied to support, in sickness, accident, or poverty, those without whose labour their wealth would never have been created. Nay, more, as their wealth has increased, as the large towns have expanded, and as the burden of supporting the poor in the large towns has become heavier, the proportionate contribution of this class towards local taxation has actually diminished. ”

“ It must be perfectly evident that either one parish is making paupers wholesale by administering insufficient relief, or that the other parish by giving relief in an extravagant and a wasteful manner is securing the same result. Indeed, I believe that both systems of making paupers are practised in almost every parish in the kingdom. I believe that great numbers are continually added to the class of habitual paupers by not granting relief with sufficient discrimination, and above all with sufficient promptitude in times of great and exceptional distress. ”

“ I have now to ask the House to consider whether my proposal that, as in the case of education, grants from national sources, conditional on efficiency, made through the medium of the Poor Law Board, would not tend to remedy the injustice and diminish the evils. As much of the wealth of some classes is at present only subjected to Imperial taxation, it would certainly to some extent adjust the inequalities incident to our system of local taxation, not only as between different districts, but as between different classes living in the same district. ”

“ These masses of surplus population have been called our reserves of labour. Now a reserve of labour, to be of any use, ought to be available when it is wanted, but these reserves as they are called do not come to the large towns in times of prosperity. They flock to large towns in times of distress, and therefore, far from being reserves of labour, they are simply reserves of pauperism, and the large towns instead of receiving any benefit from their labour are simply charged with their support. ”

“ It has often surprised me to see how much time has been given to their duties, which are very laborious, and I do not see why you should expect from guardians more than from an unpaid bench of magistrates, or from the members of a town council. Yet I hold that the management of a workhouse is far more difficult than that of a gaol, and requires far more constant watching to prevent abuses creeping in. ”

“ I can only say from my own experience, derived from an intimate acquaintance with the crowded streets and courts of a large town and its workhouses, I would infinitely rather that those for whom I care most in the "world should be exposed to any amount of physical suffering, or even to death itself, than be subjected to the degradation and temptations which are inseparable from the system at present adopted in our large towns, under which multitudes of our working classes are continually sinking. ”

“ How can you expect a merchant, banker, tradesman, or professional man, who has his own business to attend to, to give that minute constant and daily attention to the subject which is necessary, if he would attempt to deal successfully with the large masses of pauperism which many of our large parishes contain? Take Liverpool for instance, which contains not only the parish of Liverpool but four other townships besides. ”

“ I will venture to point out to the House the result of this absence of uniformity and efficiency. A man living in a parish which makes no proper provision for the sick poor falls ill. There being no proper provision for giving him medical aid in his own parish, his sickness remains unattended to until it has become chronic, and he himself ultimately becomes a permanent burden upon the industrious portion of the community. ”

“ Of course any improvement in the management of our Poor Law must involve an improvement in the Poor Law Board itself. As a Board it is a mere delusion. It never meets. The members in addition to the President, viz. the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Home Secretary, the Lord Privy Seal, and the President of the Council, are mere dummies as far as Poor Law administration is concerned. ”

“ They are rarely to be found in our Guardians, because, however heartily they may throw themselves into their work at first, they are very apt to become weary and tired of it just when they are really beginning to understand the nature of their duties. The consequence, as I have said, is an utter want of uniformity of management. A pauper can move from parish to parish always finding some place where he can live in idleness, spreading in every direction the foul disease of habitual pauperism, continually becoming more proficient in teaching and learning iniquity. ”

“ I would ask, what country was ever brought more nearly to the brink of ruin than this was under the old Poor Law, when our whole agricultural population was sinking hopelessly into pauperism, and the whole landed income of agricultural districts was in danger of being swallowed up by pauperism, and that, too, it must be remembered, under a system of purely local taxation, locally administered. ”

“ I repeat, therefore, that in the large towns, and I have no doubt the same is the case in other places, the poorer class contributes to the poor rate a larger proportion of its income than the richer, and the poorer in each class contribute a larger proportion of their income than the richer. ”

“ Unfortunately in poor-houses neglect is too general, and we want a thoroughly good inspection to stir us all up to our duties."
Under our present no-system,—for it is no system, whatever we may call it,—neglect is easy, tempting, and general. Good management requires hard, steady work, and requires, moreover, men of experience and training, and experience and training are rarely to be found in our parochial officers, although there certainly are some exceptions, because there is no system by which this training is provided, and no adequate promotion to stimulate to improvement. ”

“ But I venture to think they may be in danger of confining their attention too exclusively to the money raised by Imperial taxation, and overlook the fact that the money raised by local taxation deserves equal attention. For the local expenditure and the local taxation, especially in a free country like this, directly affect the large masses of the people upon whose soundness the national fabric rests; and if time allowed me I think I could prove from the history of other countries the danger of mismanaging local taxation and administration. ”

“ I think I have shown incidentally in the first part of my speech that the want of uniformity and efficiency in our poor law system as regards the sick not only does not promote good management, but that it is antagonistic to the attainment of that result. ”

“ They do not contribute upon their capital, because their capital consisting chiefly of personalty is, as a rule, exempted from liability. They do not contribute upon their domestic expenditure as they used to do, because the rich merchant, broker, or banker, instead of living as he formerly did, and as his fathers had done, on the spot where his business was carried on, and in the midst of those whom he employed, now lives out of town and beyond the area of its taxation. ”

“ Not only are half-educated and badly-trained men placed in these responsible offices, but even the governorships of houses and the posts of relieving officers are frequently given to men who have failed in other departments of life owing to the absence of those very qualities which are eminently essential in the offices which they are now appointed to fill. And yet on the efficiency and good management of the governor of the workhouse not only the welfare of the inmates, but the whole poor-law system in the locality, depends. ”

“ The result of this alteration of the law, combined with increased facility and cheapness of locomotion, and with the want of efficient management of the poor law, has I contend, been to throw upon the large towns great masses of pauperism which have been created elsewhere, and to throw upon the local rates the support of persons from whose labour the locality has derived no benefit whatever. ”

“ I think I shall be able to show that it presses with far greater injustice upon the small householders in our large towns. The House has always evinced a disposition to consider the interests of that class, although it has not until recently been sufficiently powerful to enforce its claims, and I venture to think that a grievance which presses alike upon the always powerful landowners of this country, and upon the now powerful body of householders, is a grievance that cannot long remain unredressed. ”

“ The proportion of their income which two of the most prosperous shopkeepers in Liverpool pay to the poor rate amounts to 5 per cent., and if this is the case with these wealthy and prosperous tradesmen, how heavy must be the burden upon the men who are striving hard, and who barely succeed in gaining sufficient to maintain and educate their families. ”

“ I believe that it will tend to prevent our being startled at one time into hasty and therefore wasteful expenditure by those disgusting exposures which are occasionally made, at another time frightened by rising rates into equally inconsiderate and equally wasteful parsimony. ”

“ The Isle of Man had the benefit of his health, the parish of Liverpool the expense of his sickness." Thus the House will see that parishes are not unfrequently punished for doing their duty by adequately providing for the cure of sickness, yet sickness, as every one connected with the administration of the poor law knows, is one of the most prolific causes of pauperism. ”

“ After allowing matters to go on in a way that those who are acquainted with the habits of our working population can easily understand, he hears that in another parish, either by private charity or good parochial management, efficient provision is made for the curing of sickness. ”

“ I do not think that it is a sound or beneficial principle that a pauper, however indolent and however vicious, should have an absolute right to relief at the expense of the industrial portion of the community. ”

“ One guardian has sent me instances of almost incredible carelessness in the collection of the rates, and the loss which has resulted has of course inflicted great and undeserved injury upon those who have honestly paid their rates. ”

“ He only pays on the rent of his office or warehouse, whatever his profits may be. I know the case of merchants who have made the calculation, and find that their rates vary from 1⁄2 to 2 per cent, on their incomes, while the average per-centage of the rates of the porters in their employ amounts to 33⁄4 per cent, on their incomes. In other words, the labourers pay from twice to seven times as much in proportion to their incomes as do their employers, the merchants and brokers alluded to. ”

“ And if you have incompetent relieving officers, you either do not relieve those who ought to be relieved, or you relieve the idle and the profligate, to whose support the rates ought not to be called upon to contribute. ”