Report of the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress.

  • Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress 1905-09
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    258/1272 page 232
    The Local Government Zon HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT AND PRESENT CONDITION OF THE VARIOUS BRANCHES OF THE POOR LAW. improvement, and decrease in expenditure, and im 2852 the second of the great out- relief Orders, the Regulation Order, was issued.1 Then came the Russian war, and expenditure greatly increased, owing to the almost-unprecedented severity and duration of the winter, general depression, high taxation consequent on the war, and cost of maintenance of wives and families of men in the services. After the war, and up to the early sixties, Poor Law expenditure continues to fall, and in 1859 the Poor Law Board take occasion to point out that the average expenditure from 1835 to 1859 had been £5°1 millions, as compared with £6°5 millions from 1813 to 1834,? while the expenditure per head of the estimated population had fallen in the same years from 10s. 4d. to 6s. $d., or 42 per cent. 4 * 582. The next decade was an eventiul one for the history of Poor Law administration. In the first place, public attention was called to the question of medical relief in Poor Law institutions, and improvements were initiated which have culminated in what is practically a change of policy in this department. It is now generally recognised that the first consideration in the administration of Poor Law infirmaries is the cure of the patients where this is possible, and their adequate nursing and treatment where it is not. From one point of view, the change has been a source of constantly Increasing expense, and is responsible for a large share of: the growing burden of Poor Law expenditure in recent years. From another point of view, it must have resulted in a diminution of pauperism in so far as patients have been more speedily and in more instances restored to health; but it is not possible to measure to what extent this is the case. 583. In the second place, Poor Law administration was severely tested by the ordeal of the great Cotton Famine. It proved capable, when working during the latter phases of that calamity in co-operation with voluntary charity, of meeting the most acute and prolonged industrial crisis which bas ever been known, and showed a power of resource, combined with firmness in the face of emergency, with which it is not often credited. But, although the distress of the Cotton Famine had subsided by 1864, Poor Law expenditure continued to increase, and the inquiries set on foot by the Central Authority showed clearly that local administration was mainly re- sponsible. A new generation had grown up since the lax administration in the days before 1834 had flooded the country with pauperism; the lesson had been forgotten, and the need was now felt for its re-statement and re-inforcement. The Local Govern- ment Board marked its accession to office by a strenuous campaign in favour of more careful administration, with the result that, notwithstanding continuous improvements in institutional treatment, there was a diminution in expenditure between 1870 and 1875 irom 6s. 113d. per head of population to 6s. 34.3 This is practically the last time there is any diminution in the burden of pauperism upon the ratepayer. With the ex- ception of a slight check in the years 1885-6 to 1889-90, there is a steady rise in the total expenditure in years of distress and of prosperity alike, until in 1906 the expenditure stands at 8s. 23d. per head of population.* 584. While the rise in expenditure was accompanied by a diminution in pauperism it was possible to regard it with some degree of acquiescence. It is worth while to pay highly for the restoration of paupers to independence. But there are indications that the present administration has reached the limits of its remedial powers, and needs once more to be re-inforced. It must, we are convinced, still further extend its policy both of cure and of prevention, and it is in this «sense that we have made our recommendations. More especially, it must extend its policy of making the giving of zelief conditional upon the recipient accepting a way of life likely to restore him to independence. This is no new principle. It was the leading note of the 1834 ad- ministration, and has been so ever since, that one class—the able-bodied—should be relieved only under certain conditions. It is now necessary to apply the principle to other classes. It has proved, indeed, impossible to push a curative policy any further in its absence; sickness cannot be cured, either in institutions or at home, unless the patient y.ill accept conditions; economic evils cannot be combated unless those who suffer from them will conform to conditions ; moral weakness cannot be — strengthened unless the authorities have power to impose conditions. And. what those conditions are to be must become manifest through a careful and progressive study of the causes of pauperism. 1 Adrian, 195, 2 Thirteenth Annual Report, Poor Law Board, 1860-1, p. 7. 3 Sixth Annual | Report, Local Government Board [Cd. 1865], 1877, p. xii. 4 Thirty-sixth Annual Report, Local (tovernment Board [Cd. 3665], 1907, p. 407.
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