Page:Manual of Political Economy.djvu/47

Rh xxxvi Contents, of the poor law of Elizabeth, in 1601, which first definitely established the right of every destitute person to receive relief and at the same time provided efficient safeguards against voluntary pauperism — The Elizabethan poor law continued in operation virtually unchanged, save for Acts strengthening its principles, such as that which in 1723 established the workhouse test, till the latter half of the i8th century — Pauperism was at that time so insignificant in its proportions that it appears to have been thought unnecessary to maintain the strin- gency of Elizabeth's poor law — The workhouse test was abandoned — Gilbert's Act in 1782 and East's Act in 181 5 abolished nearly all the checks on voluntary pauperism — The consequence of these relaxations and of the encouragement given in various ways to immorality, thriftlessness and dependence brought England to the verge of national bankruptcy — Rates threatened to absorb more than the entire value of the soil— Pauperism became a more remunerative profession than honest labour— This disastrous state of things led to the appointment of the Poor Law Commission in 1832 and in 1834 to the passing of the New Poor Law re-enacting most of the Elizabethan checKS on voluntary pauperism— A comparison of the poor laws of England, Ireland and Scotland proves that the amount of pauperism depends to a very large degree on the restrictions placed upon the distribution of out-door relief — Until the restrictions upon out-door relief were relaxed in Ireland there was considerably less pauperism in proportion to the population than in England and Scotland— The Union Chargeability Act — The Metropolitan Poor Act discourages out-door relief in London, and has been most useful in diminishmg pauperism— The amount of pauperism in the various unions of Eng- land varies largely, and is in the main controlled by the degree of skill with which the existing law is administered— Proportion of pauperism to population in the unions of Whitechapet, Linton (Oambs.), Preston, Atcbam, Oxford and Cambridge (1883)— Nearly all the motives for economical administration of the poor law would disappear if there were a national poor-rate — The dangers associated with the poor law do not lead us to advocate its abolition — It is valuable in affording some control over unorganised and indiscrimi- nate private charity : it also protects the poorest classes from the desperation caused by the prospect of absolute destitution — Hence, though socialistic in its character, the poor law affords a safeguard against the extremes of revolutionary socialism — The influence of education, cooperation and thrift in preventing pauperism — Hind- rances to the employment of women encourage pauperism — Every occupation which is closed to women drives them, in additional numbers, into those occupations which remain open, and hence a tendency is exerted to depress wages already sufficiently low — The principle of the Factory Acts is just as applied to children, but is indefensible when applied to adult women ,. pages 598 — 617 Chapter VI. Local Taxation. In this country a great contrast exists between local and imperial finance — The imperial revenue has been of late years so prosperous that although the expenditure has been maintained at a very high rate, there have been repeated surpluses and constant remissions of taxation — In local finance the expenditure invariably exceeds the Digitized by Google