Part 28 (1/2)
3d. To provide for the lame, impotent and blind, and others, being poor and not able to work.
Nothing can be better imagined than the measures in the view of the very able framers of this act: but they did not discover that to execute such a design required powers diametrically opposite to those which the law provided. The last two centuries have afforded a series of proof of the total inefficacy of the application of these powers, not only by the effects which this erroneous superintendence has produced; but also from the testimony of the most enlightened men who have written on the subject, from the venerable Lord Hale to the patriotic and indefatigable Sir Frederick Eden. But the strongest evidence of the mischiefs arising from this defective execution of a valuable System, is to be found in the Statute Books themselves.[96]
[Footnote 96: In the Preamble of the Statute on 3 & 4 _William_ and _Mary_ _cap._ 11. and particularly -- 11 of that Act, in which the sense entertained by Parliament, of the shocking abuses of the Statute of Elizabeth, ”through the unlimited power of Parish Officers,” is very forcibly expressed--the truths there stated are found to have full force, even at the distance of more than a Century.]
”The want of a due provision,” says Lord Hale, ”for the relief and education of the Poor in the way of _industry_, is what fills the gaols with Malefactors, the Country with idle and unprofitable persons, that consume the stock of the Kingdom without improving it; and that will daily increase even to a desolation in time--and this error, in the first concoction, is never remediable but by gibbets and whipping.”
That this will continue to be the case under any species of changeable management, however apparently correct in theory the System may be, must appear self-evident to every man of business and observation, whose attention has been practically directed to the general operation of the present mode in various parishes, and who has reflected deeply on the subject.
But to return to the immediate object of inquiry, namely, the means of more effectually preventing the numerous evils which arise from indigence and mendicity in the Metropolis, whether excited by idleness or extreme and unforeseen pressures: Under every circ.u.mstance it would seem impracticable without any burthen upon the Public, to provide for all such at least as are denominated Casual Poor (from whom the greatest part of this calamity springs) by adopting the following or some similar plan, under the sanction of Government, and the authority of the Legislature.
That a Public Inst.i.tution shall be established in the Metropolis, with _three Chief Officers_, who shall be charged with the execution of that branch of the Police, which relates to STREET BEGGARS, and those cla.s.ses of Poor who have no legal settlements in the Metropolis, and who now receive casual relief from the different Parishes, where they have fixed their residence for the time;--and that these princ.i.p.al Officers, (who may be stiled _Commissioners for inquiring into the Cases and Causes of the Distress of the Poor in the Metropolis_) should exercise the following
FUNCTIONS:--
1st. To charge themselves with the relief and management of the whole of the _Casual Poor_, who at present receive temporary aid from the different Parishes, or who ask alms in any part of the Metropolis or its Suburbs.
2d. To provide Work-rooms in various central and convenient situations in the Metropolis, where persons dest.i.tute of employment may receive a temporary subsistence for labour.
To superintend these work-houses, and become responsible for the proper management.
3d. To be empowered to give temporary relief to prop up sinking families, and to prevent their descending from poverty to indigence, by arresting the influence of despondency, and keeping the spirit of industry alive.
4th. To a.s.sist in binding out the Children of the Poor, or the Unfortunate, who have seen better days, and preventing the females from the danger of becoming Prost.i.tutes, or the males from contracting loose and immoral habits, so as if possible to save them to their parents, and to the state.
5th. To open offices of inquiry in different parts of the Metropolis, where all cla.s.ses of indigent persons, who are not ent.i.tled to parochial relief, will be invited to resort, for the purpose of being examined, and relieved according to the peculiar circ.u.mstances of the case.
6th. To exercise the legal powers, through the medium of Constables, for the purpose of compelling all Mendicants, and idle dest.i.tute Boys and Girls who appear in the streets, to come before the Commissioners for examination; that those whose industry cannot be made productive, or who cannot be put in a way to support themselves without alms, may be pa.s.sed to their Parishes, while means are employed to bind out dest.i.tute Children to some useful occupation.
7th. To keep a distinct Register of the cases of all Mendicants or distressed individuals, who may seek advice and a.s.sistance, and to employ such means for alleviating misery, as the peculiar circ.u.mstances may suggest--never losing sight of indigence, until an asylum is provided for the helpless and infirm, and also until the indigent, who are able to labour, are placed in a situation to render it productive.
8th. That these Commissioners shall report their proceedings annually, to his Majesty in Council, and to Parliament; with abstracts, shewing the numbers who have been examined--How disposed of--The earning of the persons at the different Work-rooms--The annual expence of the Establishment; together with a general view of the advantages resulting from it; with the proofs of these advantages.
Towards defraying the whole expence of this Establishment it is proposed, that (in lieu of the Casual Charity, paid at present by all the Parishes in the Metropolis, which under this System will cease, together with the immense trouble attached to it,) each Parish in the Metropolis shall pay into the hands of the Receiver of the Funds of this _Pauper Police Inst.i.tution_, a sum equal to what was formerly disbursed in casual relief, which for the purpose of elucidation, is estimated as follows:--
. _s._ _d._ 97 Parishes within the Walls, average 10_l._ each 970 0 0
16 Parishes without the Walls, in London and Southwark, average 60_l._ each 960 0 0 --------------- .1,930 0 0
23 Out-parishes in Middles.e.x and Surry, average 100_l._ each 2,300 0 0
10 Parishes in Westminster, average 100_l._ each 1,000 0 0 --- --------------- 146 .5,230 0 0 ---
This sum (which is supposed to be not much above one half of the average Annual disburs.e.m.e.nts of the 146 Parishes above-mentioned; especially since it has been shewn, that the expence in St. Giles' and St. George Bloomsbury alone, has been 2000_l._ in one year) will probably, with oeconomy and good management, be found sufficient for all the relief that is required; more especially as the object is not to maintain the indigent, but to put them in a way of supporting themselves by occasional pecuniary aids well and judiciously applied.
The experiment is certainly worth trying. In its execution some of the most respectable and intelligent individuals in the Metropolis, would gratuitously a.s.sist the Commissioners, who as taking responsibility upon them, in the direction of a most important branch of Police, ought undoubtedly to be remunerated by Government, especially as it is scarcely possible to conceive any mode in which the Public money could be applied, that would be productive of such benefit to the State.
If that utility resulted from the design, which may reasonably be expected, it would of course extend to other great towns, as the private _Soup Establishments_ have done, and the condition of the poor would undergo a rapid change. The dest.i.tute and forlorn would then have some means of communicating their distress, while information and facts of the greatest importance, to the best interests of Society, would spring from this source.