Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/265

Rh CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS.] ENGLAND 253 the direct cost of maintenance of the poor is decreasing. Thus in 1871, when the actual maintenance of in-door and out-door paupers cost 893,600 more than in 1876, the extra branches of expenditure were 357,000 less, auper- There cannot be any reasonable doubt that the princi- m anil pal remedy of pauperism must be sought in the general luca- education of the poor. That this is already taking effect, 00 under the salutary working of the Compulsory Education Act of 1870, there are many symptoms. It is stated, in a report of the inspectors of the London board schools, pub lished at the end of 1877, that the order and regularity strictly enforced in their schools not only affect the charac ter of the children, but that of the parents in the most destitute social condition, including paupers receiving out door relief. &quot; There are indications,&quot; says the report, that the parents are beginning to feel the wholesome in fluence of the schools. We are assured by teachers in the very lowest neighbourhood that there is now much less active opposition to their efforts to improve the children than formerly, and a marked diminution in the violent hnguage and roucrh conduct which were at one time the O O invariable accompaniments to a parent s visit to the school.&quot; The education of their children, the report goes on to say, is strikingly reflected in a &quot; growing self-respect of the parents,&quot; while all things &quot; point unmistakably to a great change for the better, which is being slowly yet surely effected in the homes of the children through the influence of board schools.&quot; XIII. Hospitals and Charitable Institutions. barity ^ country in the world is so rich in charitable institu- idpau- tions of every description as England. The relations irism. between the vast pauperism and the equally vast flow of charity designed to remedy it have been keenly discussed ; and while many insist that the latter is simply an offspring of the former, there are others no less confident in main taining that the abundance of charity has given rise to the very evil it was expected to cure. Probably the truth lies midway between the conflicting arguments. If indigence gave rise to charity, the excess of the latter could scarcely fail in its turn to beget improvidence, and, with it, poverty. There can be little doubt that, in modern times at any rate, the immense multiplication of charitable institutions has served to foster idleness among the lower classes in large towns, and thus has swelled the ranks of hereditary pauper ism. Legislation has not remained ignorant of this fact, and hence a large number of laws for regulating the uses and abuses of charity. West ^e oldest of these regulations were made in the same tatute reign which laid the foundation of the poor-law, that of Elizabeth. By the Act of 43 Elizabeth c. 4, passed in harities. 16Q1, usually known as the Statute of Charitable Uses, a rather wide definition was given of what was considered to be within the realm of charity. It might be used, declared the Act, &quot; for relief of aged, impotent, and poor people ; for maintenance of sick and maimed soldiers and mariners ; for schools of learning, free schools, and scholars in universities; for repair of bridges, ports, havens, cause ways, churches, sea-banks, and highways ; for education and preferment of orphans ; for relief, stock, or maintenance of houses of correction ; for marriages of poor maids ; forsup- portation, aid, and help of young tradesmen, handicraftsmen, and persons decayed ; for relief or redemption of prisoners or captives ; and for aid or ease of any poor inhabitants concerning payments of fifteens, setting out of soldiers, and other taxes.&quot; It is clear from, the wording of this statute that, at the time it was made, organized charitable institutions were already numerous in England. In order that they might be well managed, and their funds employed for none but legitimate purposes, the Act ordered that commissioners should be appointed by the lord chancellor, four for each diocese, to act under the bishop, and &quot; inquire by a jury concerning charities.&quot; It does not appear that much action was ever taken under the statute, cumbrous in all its prescriptions, and it had fallen into disuse before the middle of the last century, when it was gradually replaced by other legislative enactments. No general record of charitable institutions is known to Records have existed until the close of the 18th century, when the f chari- subject came to occupy the serious attention of parliament. ** It manifested itself chiefly in the passing of a statute, 26 Geo. III. c. 58, generally called the Gilbert Act, which gave orders &quot; for procuring, upon oath, returns of all charit able donations for the benefit of poor persons in the several parishes in England.&quot; The returns obtained under this Act were examined and reported on by a committee of the House of Commons, which sat in 1786 and 1788, when it appeared that out of 13,000 parishes and townships in England and Wales, only 14 had omitted reporting their charities. The aggregate annual income of those reported upon amounted to 528,710, but it was generally held that this sum was a gross understatement. Consequently, there was more legislation, though at considerable intervals, on the subject of charities. Under an Act of 52 George III. c. 102, passed in 1812, stringent regulations were laid down for ascertaining the nature and income of all the charitable institutions in England ; but the Act was never properly enforced, and remained to all intents and purposes a dead letter. More effective, although limited in scope, was an Act of 58 George III. c. 91, passed in 1818, which ordered an inquiry into the educational charities of England. It was this statute which first instituted the &quot; Charity Com missioners for England and Wales.&quot; The actual functions of this board, in superintending all The charities, and making annual reports upon them to parlia- boartl of ment, were defined by the Charitable Trusts Act of 1853, JJUJto- to which amendments were passed in 1855, in 1860, and in S j ners. 1869. By these statutes, the &quot; Charity Commissioners for England and Wales &quot; are invested with great powers, some of them distinctly judicial in their nature, and the rest of an administrative character. They may compel the trustees and administrators of all endowed charitable institutions to keep full accounts of their receipts and disbursements, and to forward them every year; and they may likewise order special inquiries into the circumstance of individual charities, and enforce the production of all required information. Possessed of such powers, the commissioners have been enabled to publish a number of valuable annual reports, beginning with the year 1852, on the number and character of the net-work of charitable institutions spread all over England, tending to alleviate misery and to promote greater welfare, or at least designed to do so. Still these reports are far from giving a complete picture of the vast extent of organized charity, since the action of the Charity Com missioners does not embrace any bxit endowed charities, and not all even of this class. Specially exempted from the operations of the Charitable Trusts Act of 1S53, and its subsequent amendments, are the charities of the universities and their colleges, those of Eton and Winchester, of the various cathedral foundations, of all friendly and benefit societies, and of all institutions wholly maintained by voluntary contributions. Among these and other exemp tions fall a number of charitable institutions as important of their kind as ancient in origin the Hospitals. There can be little doubt that hospitals were, if not the Origin of very oldest, at least among the most ancient, of English hospi- charitable institutions. The earliest of these establishments tals - probably grew up in the time of the crusades, or soon after, necessitated by the spread of new diseases, introduced by the knights and their followers returning from the East,