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Poverty has always been in existence in Britain, but because of social and economic changes in society during the late 18th and early 1th Centuries, the number of poor people rose dramatically. Poverty means having too little for a comfortable life, which was the situation for many people. Pauperism however meant being destitute, meaning so poor that you could not survive without help and that you were too poor to feed yourself or your family.
The Poor Law system was set up in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. It was legislated to help the poor people not to end up as paupers. Poverty had been largely due to an undeveloped economy in which famine and pestilence became recurring phenomena. A system of relief was needed in order to assist the poor. The parish became the primary unit in providing relief. The poor individuals residing within the parish boundaries could only receive this relief. This put tremendous pressure on parishes to give paupers the adequate amount of relief. As a result many parishes became overrun with too many poor people, and not enough assistance was administrated. For these reasons the problem of aiding the poor became regarded as the first English poor law. The old poor law had shown that poor relief confined to town parishes put too heavy a burden on them and as a result distribution of aid rather than alleviation of aid had been allotted in relieving the poor.
By 175 the Poor Law system was already facing problems, as the population increased so did the need for funding, housing and educating the poor. Changes bought about from farming and industry changes; poor harvest and unemployment increased the amount of people claiming poor relief. Many new schemes were introduced to cope with this problem. A system was set up in a town called Speenhamland where the poor received an allowance. The amount of relief a pauper received depended upon the size of his family and the cost of bread. Bread was the staple diet of the poor and as food prices began rising at a rate more than the average wage, the numbers of paupers claiming increased. This Speenhamland system was adopted throughout most agricultural areas of Southern England and the Midlands. Unfortunately as the population increased it became increasingly difficult and expensive for parishes who found it very hard to control how much they had to spend. Between 17 &175 a succession of poor harvests put wheat in very short supply, making bread very expensive. Wheat, which was 4s. d per quarter was 78s.7d by 175. (Taylor, D, 188 p.40). The old poor law of 1601 could not assign a good method of relieving pauperism in England.
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Attitudes began to harden towards the poor and Thomas Malthus a Utilitarian published an essay in 178 on why the Poor Law should be abolished, he was critical of the allowance system which he argued 'Encouraged early marriages and large families'. Malthus wrote ' A labourer should not get married until he had enough money to support a family. (Taylor,D,188 p4). This encouraged low wages because farmers knew that the workers were getting poor relief and would pay workers less wages. It also encouraged laziness, there was no need to go out and work so hard when they were receiving an allowance anyway. Ratepayers and church ministers criticized this as it was costing them, which was the biggest concern.
Conditions deteriorated in the workhouses as described in the Norwich Mercury in 18, 'The workhouse was a scene of filth, misery and indecency…imagine 600 persons badly looked after crowded into rooms seldom or never ventilated, swarming with vermin'. There were many reasons for reform and by 180 the whole Speenhamland system was unacceptable. People started to object to their conditions of work. Pauper's felt that they were being demoralized after doing full weeks work and still having to rely on poor relief.
In 18 a Royal Commission was set up to investigate the Poor Law. They were set up by the ideas from Jeremy Bentham, a Utilitarian. His ideas influenced many people. He believed 'All actions and laws could be judged against his Principle of Utility'. This principle would show if an action or law had 'Utility' or was useful in 'Bringing about happiness of the greatest number of people' (Martin,D 000 P56). This led to the Government to alter the Poor Law system.
However not everybody took the same view, as Bentham and 'Laissez-faire' was the name for the ideas of those who believed no action should be addressed at all by the government. Mr Isaac Willis a collector of the poor rates in the parish of St. Mary said ' Those who depend upon parish relief are dirty in their person and slothful in their ways' (Tonge,T 1 p40). Self-help was the root of all genuine growth in the individual and that no laws could make the idle work. The commission was headed by Economist Nassau & Senior and had twenty-six commissioners, the most prominent being Edwin Chadwick. It investigated whether reform was required by visiting parishes and by setting a questionnaire. The questionnaire proved unsuccessful because only 10% were returned covering only 0% of the population. The questions were poorly phrased which in turn produced misleading data. Chadwick's report was that the Poor Law looked costly, clumsy and was very wasteful. It also showed that pauperism was causing growing illegitimacy, low nutrition was causing early aging and sickness. The report also recommended that there should be only one poor relief for the whole country.
As a result in 184 the government passed the Poor Law Amendment Act and Chadwick became Secretary to the Poor Law Commission. Parishes were grouped into unions and by 188 there were 57 unions. In each union everybody who paid a poor rate elected a Board of Guardians, They were responsible for running the Poor Law in their union. Unions had to either build workhouses or adapt an existing one in which paupers would live. All families had to be separated from one another, women, men and children were all put in separate dormitories. They were made to live under strict conditions. The intention was to make it such an unpleasant place that it would only be entered as a last resort. 'Principle of less Eligibility' meant that working conditions inside the workhouses were worse than the conditions on the outside. The daily diet was intended to keep people alive but was deliberately kept uninteresting, beds resembled coffins and 'It was a true test between real pauperism and mere poverty, (Shuter.P 18 p144). Paupers were then given a uniform to wear with the letter 'P' for pauper on the back followed by the letter of the Parish. It was seen as a triumph that by making conditions worse in the workhouse a pauper would think twice about entering and if they did enter then they would have to pay the price, which was the cruel conditions. Punishing the paupers for their mistakes was seen as an incentive to get them back on their feet quicker. A report kept in a book that recorded punishments said ' Twenty nine women at the mill, neglecting and refusing to work, dinner and supper and milk stopped' (Shuter, D 18 p144).
The Poor Law Amendment Act 184 eventually led to immediate and visible economies, from an average of £6.75 million pounds per year in 180-4, the cost went down to £4.5 millions for 185-. This was mainly due to the poor fearing the workhouses. There were those who opposed the new law, workhouses were labelled as 'Bastilles' after a notorious French prison stormed during the revolution. The Times newspaper 'A champion of Laissez-faire' did not like the central administrators, they repeatedly printed articles condemning the Poor Law and the Commissioners.
Furthermore political riots broke out in the North of England, unemployment in the growing industrial cities tended to be short term therefore recipients of poor relief required only temporary help, further more to criticize workers as able bodied idle added insult to injury. The Poor Law did reduce the cost of poor relief in many areas but did not produce 'well regulated workhouses'. In the Andover scandal many paupers were starving and some were seen to be eating the bits of meat left on the bones that they made to crush in the workhouses, this was very bad for their health. Furthermore the cornerstone of the workhouse and of the outdoor relief was widely ignored and in 1847 the Poor Law Board replaced the Commission. (Martin, D 000 p 68).
Despite this The Poor Law Amendment Act was an attempt to deal with pauperism that just did not have the effect hoped by all. It was impossible to enforce the 'Principle of Eligibility' there was not enough space in workhouses to accommodate labourers who applied for the relief during the trade depression. The Poor Law Commission adopted a severe attitude to the poor assuming that all poverty wascaused by laziness. The real causes to the problem were overlooked such as population overgrowth and industrial changes.
Culpin, C (187) Making Modern Britain; Collins Educational
Martin, D (000) Britain 1815-1851 London; John Murray.
Mason, S (188) Work Out Social & Economic History London; Macmillan Education
Shuter, P & Child, J (18) The Changing Face of Britain; Heinneman Eduactional
Taylor, D (188) Mastering Economic and Social History Macmillan
Tonge, N (1) Industrialisation & Society 1700-114 Surrey; Thomas Nelson and Sons Ltd.
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