Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/264

Rh 252 ENGLAND [PAUPERISM. Number f work houses. Able- bodied and adult paupers. Expendi ture for crimi nals. There were 590 workhouses and unions &quot; for the relief of paupers in England and Wales on the 1st of January 1849, and the number gradually rose till it reached 655 in 1864, from which time it remained stationary till 1869, when there was an amalgamation of several poor-law unions. There were 650 workhouses and unions on the 1st of January 1877. The paupers of 1877 comprised 92,806 returned as &quot;able-bodied,&quot; of which number 18,993 received in-door, and 73,813 out-door relief. Of the remaining paupers, 635,544 in number, 138,198 received in-door, and 497,316 out-door relief. Two-thirds of all the paupers were sane adults, the other third comprising children under sixteen years of age, lunatics, and idiots. Among the adult in-door paupers of 1877, the men formed the majority, but the women were nearly three times as numerous as the men among out- door paupers. Aged persons, or widows, deserted wives, and &quot; unmarried mothers &quot; with their children, comprised the great mass of these out-door paupers. Pauperism is far more costly than crime. The total expenditure for criminals in the year 1873 was 585,021, while that for the maintenance of paupers amounted to 7,692,169. The branches of expenditure for criminals in the year 1873, and the average cost of each prisoner, were as follows : Branches of Expenditure. Total Expenditure. Average Expenditure per Prisoner. ORDINARY CHARGES. Repairs, furniture, fuel, and light, rent &c. .

112,414 s. d. 6 7 1 Officers salaries, allowances, and pensions 236,751 13 7 9 Prisoners diet clothinc*, &c 153,339 8 13 5 Total 502,504 28 8 3 EXTRAORDINARY CHARGES. Repayment of money borrowed, -interest, &c., new buildings, addi tions, and alterations 82,517 4 13 4 Total ordinary and extraordinary. 585,021 33 1 7 Expendi ture for the relief of the poor. The total amount raised by &quot; poor rates &quot; so-called in England and Wales in the year 1873 was 12,657,943, and the amount expended 12,426,566. But of this expenditure, not more than the sum of 7,692,169, before mentioned, was employed directly for the relief of the poor, the remainder, 4,734,397, going for other payments under the poor-laws, such as police rates, vaccination fees, and disbursements of highway boards. The actual direct ex penses for the relief of the poor in the year 1873 were under the following branches :

Cost of in-door maintenance ..................... 1,549,403 Cost of out-door relief .............................. 3,279,122 Workhouse loans repaid and interest thereon. 272,698 Salaries and rations of officers ................... 893,218 Other expenses connected with the relief of) the poor ............................................. f Maintenance of lunatics in asylums or licensed [ houses ............................................... Q1, 14, 7flA 8t Total .................. 7,690,325 Taxation The average rate imposed by local taxation for the for pau- actual relief of the poor in 1873 was 5s. lid. in the pound t~ ;m. p er head of population for the whole of the United King dom, while for England and Wales alone it was 6s. 7d. per head of population, for Scotland 5s. 2d., and for Ireland 3s. 4d. Taking the percentage ratio to the whole popula tion, tax-paying and not, the amount was 3s. 3d. per indi vidual for the United Kingdom, while the share for Eng land and Wales was 3s. Sd. per head, for Scotland 3s. 5d. and for Ireland Is, 4d. per head of population. The enormous cost of pauperism, and consequent heavy burthen entailed upon taxpayers deemed the harder as being very unequally distributed, the poorest parishes being the highest assessed led to many recent legislative attempts to effect a remedy. Under the Poor-Law Amend ment Act of 4 and 5 Will. IV. c. 76, passed in 1834, a somewhat complicated administrative machinery was formed for the purpose, receiving the title of &quot; Poor Law Commis sion ;&quot; but it was superseded in 1847, by the statute 10 and 11 Viet, c. 109, which instituted the &quot;Commissioners for administering the Laws for the Relief of the Poor in England an I Wales.&quot; An Act passed two years after, 12 and 13 Viet. c. 103, abolished alike commissions and com missioners, establishing in their stead, a &quot; a poor-law board,&quot; invested with extensive powers, its president having a seat in the Cabinet. Although by the Act itself, and the institution of a new member of the Government, it was sufficiently acknowledged that the question of pauperism had become one of the most momentous of the day, and although its working, under the direction of a very able chief, gave general satisfaction, it was soon found that it was faulty in many respects. It was particularly so in not recognizing that the system of maintaining the poor, having been and remaining entirely local, could not be dissevered from local government in general, and that the necessary reform must be in this direction. The admission of this fact led to the passing of another statute, 34 and 35 Viet. c. 70, which obtained the royal assent, August 14, 1871, known as the Local Government Board Act. The Act ordered the establishment of a Local Government Board, as a ministerial department, to under take all the functions of the Poor-La w Board, abolished henceforth, and, moreover, to superintend the execution of all the laws relating to the public health, and to matters connected with local government. The new Local Govern ment Board began its functions in March 1871, its presi dent holding a seat in the Cabinet. Since its institution, the Local Government Board has published annual reports, addressed to parliament, the sixth of which was issued at the end of the session of 1877. Judging by this report, the action of the new- system for superintending the relief of the poor has been very successful, there being a considerable decrease of the expenditure for the actual maintenance of paupers. But this was effected entirely by savings in out-door relief. The respective charges for the maintenance of paupers in workhouses and for out-door relief in 1871 and in 1876 were stated as follows in the report : Poor-1 commi sioners and poor-li board. Institi tiou ol theLo Goven in cut Hoard Auniu report of the board. Years. In-door Maintenance. Out-door Relief. Total. 1871 1876 Increase Decrease

1,524,695 1,534,224

3,663,970 2,760,804 5,188,665 4,295,028 9,529 903, l66 893J637 Poor-Law Administration. According to the sixth Cost c annual report of the Local Government Board, tle expendi- 1 &quot; 01 &quot;.&quot; ture for the in-door and out-door maintenance of paupers formed little more than half the total cost set down as being &quot; for the relief of the poor.&quot; Among the other branches of expenditure were &quot; salaries and rations of poor-law officers,&quot; 943,000 ; &quot; charges for pauper lunatics in asylums,&quot; 883, 000; and a number of similar disbursements, the total amounting to 3,042,830. It is admitted in the report that, notwithstanding the strictest supervision, the local expenses of administration continue increasing, while