Chapter XII: Section 7: Religious Instruction (1)

ART. 1. Religious and moral instruction is to be given in the
chapel twice a week--on Sundays and Thursdays, at 7 in the
evening.

All the able-bodied inmates are to be present, in silence
and attention, under the inspection of their respective
superintendents. On Sundays, and the holidays established by
the Concordat, all the inmates and the officers of the depôt
shall hear mass at half-past 8 in the morning, and vespers at
half-past 1 in the afternoon.

2. At periods determined by ecclesiastical authority, the
children who are to be confirmed are to be instructed for two
months.

7. When any of these regulations are broken, the inspectors
and other officers are to report to the Governor, and he is to
pronounce sentence on the inmates.

BRITANY.

Mr. Perrier’s report from Brest, and Mr. Newman’s from Nantes, give a very interesting account of the state of Britany. We will begin by Mr. Perrier’s, as the more general view. (pp. 728, 729.)

Finisterre 524,396
Côtes-du-Nord 598,872
Morbihan 433,522
Ille-et-Vilaine 547,052
Loire Inférieure 470,093
-------
2,573,935

It is extremely difficult to obtain any statistical information
in Britany, all inquiries being received with distrust, not
only by the authorities, but also by the inhabitants. This has
been the principal cause of my delay in replying to the series
of questions. The answers, imperfect as they may appear, are
the result of patient and persevering inquiry.

The state of society in Britany, and its institutions, differ
so widely from those of any other civilized country, that
few of the questions are applicable. In order, therefore, to
convey the information which they are intended to elicit, it is
necessary to enter into a description of the population, which
I shall endeavour to do as briefly as possible.

The population of Britany may be classed under the following
heads:

Old noblesse, possessing a portion of the land.

Proprietors, retired merchants, and others, who have vested
their money in landed property.

Peasants, owners of the ground they till.

Farmers.

Daily labourers and beggars.

The abolition of the right of primogeniture causes a daily
diminution of the two first classes. As property, at the demise
of the owner, must be divided equally amongst his children,
who can seldom agree about the territorial division, it is put
up for sale, purchased by speculators, and resold in small
lots to suit the peasantry. Farmers having amassed sufficient
to pay a part, generally one-half, of the purchase-money of a
lot, buy it, giving a mortgage at five or six per cent. for
the remainder. Thus petty proprietors increase, and large
proprietors and farmers decrease.

A man, industrious enough to work all the year, can easily get
a farm.

Farms are small. Their average size in Lower Britany does not
exceed 14 acres. Some are so small as two acres, and there are
many of from four to eight. The largest in the neighbourhood of
Brest is 36 acres. The average rate of rent is 1_l._ 5_s._ per
acre for good land, and 8_s._ for poor land (partly under broom
and furze).

The farmers are very poor, and live miserably: yet, their
wants being few and easily satisfied, they are comparatively
happy. Their food consists of barley bread, butter, buck wheat
(made into puddings, porridge, and cakes). Soup, composed of
cabbage-water, a little grease or butter and salt poured on
bread. Potatoes; meat twice a week (always salt pork).

A family of 12, including servants and children, consumes
annually about 700 lbs. of pork and 100 lbs. of cow beef; the
latter only on festivals.

The class of daily labourers can only be said to exist in
towns. In the country they are almost unknown.

The inmates of each farm, consisting of the farmer’s family,
and one, two, or three males, and as many female servants
(according to the size of the farm), paid annually, and who
live with the family, suffice for the general work. At harvest
some additional hands are employed. These are generally people
who work two or three months in the year, and beg during the
remainder. Daily labourers and beggars may, therefore, in the
country, be classed under the same head.

Farmers’ servants are orphans or children of unfortunate
farmers.

The conditions of the poorer farmers, daily labourers and
beggars, are so near akin, that the passage from one state to
another is very frequent.

Mendicity is not considered disgraceful in Britany. Farmers
allow their children to beg along the roads. On saints’ days,
especially the festivals of celebrated saints, whose shrines
attract numerous votaries (all of whom give something, be it
ever so little, to the poor), the aged, infirm, and children of
poor farmers and labourers, turn out. Some small hamlets are
even totally abandoned by their inhabitants for two or three
days. All attend the festival, to beg.

The Bretons are hospitable. Charity and hospitality are
considered religious duties. Food and shelter for a night are
never refused.

Several attempts to suppress mendicity have been unsuccessful.
District asylums were established. No sooner were they filled
than the vacancies in the beggar stands were immediately
replenished by fresh subjects from the country; it being a
general feeling that it is much easier and more comfortable to
live by alms than by labour.

In towns where the police is well regulated, the only
mendicants permitted to sojourn are paupers belonging to the
parish. They are known by a tin badge, for which they pay at
the police office.

No such thing is known as a legal claim for assistance from
public or private charities.

In towns, destitute workmen or other persons in distress must
be authorized by the municipality previous to soliciting
public or private assistance. To this effect, the pauper makes
known his case to the commissary of police of the quarter he
inhabits, who makes inquiry among the neighbours. Should the
destitute case of the applicant be established, the mayor
grants him a certificate of indigence, which authorizes him to
apply for relief to the public institutions, and to solicit
private charity. It also exempts him (or rather causes his
exemption) from the payment of taxes.

The principal cause of misery is inebriety; its frequency among
the lower orders keeps them in poverty. The “_cabaret_” (wine
and brandy shop) absorbs a great portion of their earnings.
This vice is not confined to men; the women partake of it. It
has decreased within the last five or six years, but is still
considerable.

We now proceed to give some extracts from the more detailed report of Mr. Newman, who writes, it must be recollected, from Nantes. (pp. 171, 172, 173, 174, 178, 175, 176, 177.)

LOIRE INFERIEURE.

NANTES.

[Sidenote: Population of the Department, 470,093. Population of Nantes, 87,191.]

_Vagrants._

In the department Loire Inférieure there is no asylum for
mendicants; but Nantes has a species of workhouse, “St.
Joseph’s House,” supported entirely by private subscriptions.
To this house the tribunals often send vagabonds, in virtue of
the 274th article of the Penal Code, although the directors of
the establishment have contested, and still contest, the right
assumed by the judges to do so; and they never receive any
person so sent as a criminal to be detained a certain number of
days at labour as if in a prison, but merely give him a refuge
as an act of charity, and liberty to leave the place, if he
likes to go before the time expires. The number of vagrants
that formerly infested Nantes (strangers to the department as
well as to the city) have decreased to about a tenth part since
begging in the streets was prohibited, and the paupers sent to
this establishment.

The hospitals of Nantes receive all workmen, travellers, and
needy strangers, that fall sick in the city (if foreigners, at
the charge to their consuls of 1_s._ 3_d._ sterling per day for
men, and 10_d._ for women.) If a man, (and his family also,)
being destitute, wishes to return to his native place, and has
not rendered himself liable to be committed as a vagrant, the
préfet has the power to give a passport to him for that place;
on the production of which at the mairie of the commune from
which he sets out he receives from the public funds of the
department three halfpence per league for the distance from
thence to the next place he is to be relieved at, and so on to
the end of his journey, each place he has to stop at being set
down on his passport; if he deviates from the route designated,
he is arrested as a vagabond.

There is in France throughout the whole country a general
union for each of several trades, the carpenters, bakers,
masons, tailors, &c. In each city or town of consequence, each
society has a member who is called “the mother,” who receives
the weekly contributions of those who reside in that place,
affords relief to all of its members passing through it, and is
obliged to procure work for the applicant, or support him at a
fixed rate, established by their bye-laws, until a situation
be provided for him there or elsewhere. Those unions sometimes
assume a very dangerous power, by compelling masters to hire
all their members that are without work, before they engage one
man who does not belong to them.

_Destitute Able-bodied._

In times of political commotion, of unforeseen events, of
rigorous seasons, when the usual courses of labour are stopped,
the civil administrations create temporary workshops, furnish
tools, &c., to the labourers, and enter into contracts for
repairs to the streets, quays, bridges, roads, &c., from which
a large city, as well as the country parishes, can always
draw some advantages for the money so distributed, to employ
those persons who would otherwise be supported without work
by the same funds. The money required on those occasions is
furnished by the treasury of the city or commune, assisted
by private subscriptions from nearly all persons in easy
circumstances. The want of regular or parish workhouses for
labourers, unemployed, is in some measure supplied by private
charities, for a great number of wealthy families, and others
of the middling class, give employment to old men, women, and
children, in spinning, and in weaving of coarse linen, at
prices far beyond those that the articles can be purchased at
in the shops; but this plan is adopted to prevent a disposition
to idleness, although at a greater sacrifice, perhaps, than
would be made by most of the promoters of it, in a public
subscription.

The bureau de bienfaisance distributes annually about 80,000
fr.; the chief part, or very nearly the whole, to poor families
at their homes, in clothes, food, fuel, and sometimes money;
but of the latter as little as possible. Les dames de charité
(ladies of the first families, who are appointed annually
to visit and give relief to the poor, each having a fixed
district) distribute about three-fourths of that sum, which
would be insufficient for the indigent if it were not assisted
by distributions made by the priests of the different parishes
and other persons employed to do so by private families,
who give their alms in that manner, and not at their own
residences. It is generally supposed that, in the whole, not
less than 250,000 fr. are so distributed annually in the city
of Nantes. In making this distribution care is always taken to
prefer invalids to those in health.

_Impotent through Age._

In the city of Nantes there is a general hospital, called
the “Sanitat,” for the reception of the old and impotent;
at present it contains about 800; it answers to an English
workhouse; the inmates are lodged, fed, clothed, and are taken
care of in every way: they are employed about trifling work,
but the average gain by it does not exceed 20 fr. per annum
for each. The average cost appears to be about 11 to 12 sous
per day for each person. The establishment of St. Joseph’s,
already alluded to, is, in fact, a sort of assistant to the
Sanitat (although supported by private charity) for the 100
to 120 old people it contains. The Sanitat has a ward for
dangerous as well as ordinary lunatics; is under the same board
and direction as the Hôtel Dieu (the general hospital for the
sick); but each is supported by its own funds, arising from
bequests and donations from private persons, and from the city
funds; yet if either hospital should require any assistance,
the money wanted would be voted by the city treasury.

The general council for the department votes about 1200 to 1250
fr. annually to the Sanitat from the departmental funds.

_Sick._

Nantes has a general hospital (Hôtel Dieu) for the sick,
containing 600 beds, 300 of which are reserved for the indigent
of the city. The expense of this establishment is about a franc
to 25 sous per day to each person. The military are received
at 20 sous per man per day, which is paid by the government.
It is supported by its own funds, arising from bequests and
donations, and grants made from time to time by the city; is
under the same board and direction as the Sanitat. If a poor
person becomes sick in the country, he is either relieved
by the curé of the parish or by some of the more wealthy
neighbours, or he comes into Nantes and resides there for a
week or ten days before he makes an application to the mayor
to be admitted into the hospital; he is then sent there as an
inhabitant of the city. The authorities in the country have
not the right to send a patient to the Hôtel Dieu, yet a great
number arrive at the hospital, sent by country practitioners,
who have not the skill, or perhaps the leisure or inclination,
to attend to them; and _they are always received_, if it be
possible to take them in. The students at the hospital are
ever ready to admit any difficult cases or fractures from the
country, for their own improvement.

There are also hospitals for the sick at the following places
in the Loire Inférieure: Ancenis, for the town and commune;
Chateaubriand, Paimbœuf, Savenay, and Clisson, for the towns
only.

Besides the succour afforded to the poor at their homes by the
bureau de bienfaisance, there are three dispensaries supported
by that establishment, for administering relief to the sick,
who are attended at their homes, if necessary, by the nuns of
St. Vincent de Paule, 12 or 14 of whom are kept in the pay of,
and are wholly supported by the bureau. They carry to them
soup and other victuals, remedies, &c., and lend them linen
and clothes, if wanted. There are a number of young men, who
are either studying, or have just completed their study of
medicine, who are anxious to give their assistance gratis,
and who are in constant attendance on those who are receiving
relief from the dispensaries. It is impossible to state the
extent to which such relief is given. The nuns are paid by the
bureau de bienfaisance, which also pays for the medicines, &c.
they distribute; but the sum that is thus expended bears but
a small proportion to the amount that is distributed by the
hands of those sisters, who, from the accurate knowledge they
possess of the real situation and condition of each person they
visit, are employed by numerous wealthy persons to distribute
privately such charities as they feel disposed to give; and can
thus be well applied in providing those little comforts for the
invalids, which cannot be sent from the bureau to all those who
require them, although the funds are increased from time to
time by the proceeds of representations at the theatre, public
concerts, &c. given for that purpose.

Independent of the foregoing, there are several tradesmen’s
societies on the plan of benefit societies in England, the
members of which pay five or six sous per week, and receive, in
case of sickness, all necessary assistance in medicines, &c.,
besides an indemnity of a franc to a franc and a half per day
during the time they are unable to work.

_Orphans, Foundlings, or Deserted Children._

The law requires an establishment (a tour) in each department,
for the secret reception of children. Every arrival is
particularly noted and described in a register kept for that
purpose, that the infant may be recognised if it should be
claimed. The children, after having received all necessary
assistance and baptism, are confided to women in the country
(a regulation of this department only), to dry-nurse them (au
biberon); they are paid eight francs per month for the first
year, seven for the second and third, six until the ninth
year, and four francs per month from that time until the child
is 12 years old; when the nurse who has taken care of one
from its birth to that age receives a present of 50 fr. for
her attention. A basket of requisite linen is given with the
child, and a new suit of clothes annually for seven years.
These regulations are observed for orphans and foundlings. The
registers for the last 20 years give an average of 360 to 370
admissions annually; _more than one-half of them die under one
year old_; therefore, with the deaths at other ages, and the
claims that are made for some of them before they attain 12
years, the establishment has seldom at its charge more than
from 1200 to 1300, of all ages, from 0 to 12.

The parents being unknown when they place their infants in the
“tour,” cannot be traced afterwards, unless they acknowledge
themselves; they are, however, as has been observed before,
liable for the expenses of their offspring; and whenever
they are discovered, whether by claiming their children or
otherwise, the right to make them repay the costs they have
occasioned is always maintained, and they are compelled to pay
the whole, or as much as their finances will admit of.

Deserted children of the city, or the children of poor persons,
who cannot support them, are received and treated in a similar
manner, without being placed in the “tour;” they are admitted
according to the state of the finances appropriated to such
branch of the establishment, which in general permits from
80 to 100 to be on it. Certificates are required that the
parents are dead, the child abandoned, or that the mother is
totally unable to support it, or that she has a number of
young children. Independent of the 1400 children thus received
by the Hôtel Dieu, the bureau de bienfaisance supports 200
_legitimate_ children, and the société maternelle from 60 to
80, until they attain the age of 18 years.

The number of deaths in 1832 was 11,999; the number under one
year old, 1970, or one in 6¹²⁄₁₉₇. Chateauneuf states, _for all
France_, 33 deaths, under one year old, out of every hundred
births, which is nearly double the number of deaths of that
description for this department; but the mortality is much
greater amongst the orphans, foundlings, and deserted children
of this city received at the hospital. An account, made up to
the year 1828, gave an average of 52 deaths, under one year
old, of every hundred children received there; and since that
date it has increased considerably.

There are women in the city who make it their business to place
infants in the “tour,” and who afterwards attend the delivery
of them to the country nurses, and thus, knowing where certain
children are placed, give notice to the parents, who can visit
them without being discovered. Children thus recognised are
frequently demanded by their parents for servants, in the
ordinary way; and by this plan they screen themselves from the
payment of the child’s support.

[Sidenote: Effects of these institutions.]

There can be no doubt that the prospect of an asylum for the
indigent creates amongst the working class a disposition to
idleness and debauchery, whilst at the same time there are
those who look down with disgust on their miserable brothers
who are compelled to accept a public charitable support; and
the shame which they consider attaches to a man who does it
stimulates them to avoid the doors of an hospital by industry
and sobriety. The number of these, however, is very small,
whilst the applications for admittance to the Sanitat and
to St. Joseph’s are so very numerous, so far beyond the
accommodation that can be granted, that after the name of an
applicant is registered he has (frequently) to wait 18 to 24
months for his turn. For the sick, however, at the Hôtel Dieu
it is not so; for arrangements are made that no delay takes
place with any case requiring immediate relief or treatment.

The shades between the healthy labourers of the lowest class
that support themselves, and those who obtain relief from
charitable institutions, are so slight, that it is almost
impossible to state the difference in their conditions. _No
man_ has a _legal claim_ upon any of the charities; in the
distribution of which, however, there is but one fixed rule
that governs the distributors, and that is, to compel the
applicants for relief to work to their utmost power, and to
give such relief only in each individual case as they suppose
to be necessary with the wages he can or ought to earn,
according to the demand for labourers at the time.

According to the price of lodgings, victuals and clothing in
Nantes, a steady labourer at the highest rate of wages, 1_s._
3_d._ per day, supposing he had 300 days’ employment in the
year, is considered to be able to support a wife and three
young children; if he has a larger family, is out of employ,
or is at a lower rate of wages, without his wife and children
being able to gain a little, he is regarded as indigent, and
in need of succour. A labourer, his wife, and three children
consume in the day from 8 to 10 lbs. of bread, which is their
chief food, and will cost him 240 fr.; his cabbages and other
vegetables, butter or fat for his soup, 90 fr.; his room, 50
fr.; leaving 70 fr. or 2_l._ 18_s._ 4_d._ for clothes, fuel,
&c.; which make up the sum of his wages for 300 days at 1½ fr.,
or 1_s._ 3_d._ per day. The wife in general adds a little to
the husband’s earnings by spinning, and sometimes weaving; but
it is not much when the family is young.

To prevent the increase and lessen the present state of
disorder into which the greater part of the labouring class and
mechanics of Nantes has fallen, a number of master tradesmen
and proprietors of factories will not employ those men who do
not agree to allow a certain sum weekly to be retained from
their wages for the use of the wife and family. The example
spreads, and will no doubt become more general; but this
circumstance shows forth, in strong colours, the immoral state
of the working class in France.

There are no cottages for labourers, as are seen in England:
the chief part of the work on farms in this part of France is
done by servants in the house of the farmer, or by married
labourers, to whom an acre or two, sometimes as high as 10,
according to the quality, is fenced off from the estate for
the use of the man and his family; for which he has to give a
certain number of days’ work. If such patch of land requires
to be ploughed, the farmer does it for him, for an additional
number of days’ work. Besides those, there are an immense
number of little proprietors, having from an acre and a half to
10 or 15 acres; and they give their labour also to the farmers
of larger estates, receiving in return either assistance with
oxen, carts, ploughs, &c., or an equivalent in some produce
which they do not raise on their own land. Very little money,
if any, passes between them. These little properties have
sprung up from labourers and others fencing in small patches
of commons or waste lands. Nearly all the vineyards in the
Loire Inférieure are cultivated by labourers, who have a small
spot of ground partitioned off from the main estate: it is for
married men only that ground is so divided; the single men live
with their families in the villages, or in public-houses, but
generally in the latter. In regard to these questions, it must
be observed that almost every farmer who hires an estate takes
such a one as will just sustain his family, without the aid, or
with the assistance only of a man or a man and woman servants,
and that therefore very few daily labourers find employment.
Few estates run to 200 acres, and if so large, a daily labourer
is only hired during harvest, so wretchedly is the husbandry of
the country managed.

The cottages or houses in villages for labourers are in
general the property of the owners of the large estates in the
neighbourhood, as well as those that are built on the patches
of land for the use of those who are married; some of the
latter, however, are built at the joint expense of the farmer
and labourer. A cottage or cottages in a detached place from a
village, or a house in such a situation, with a little plot of
ground for a garden for each apartment, lets for about 20 to 30
francs a year per room, whether the building consists of one
or of four rooms. In the villages the rent is a little higher,
from 30 to 50, and sometimes as high as 80, if the garden be
large to a cottage with only one room. These buildings are so
seldom on sale, that the price cannot be stated with accuracy.

We now proceed to the

GIRONDE.

BOURDEAUX. (pp. 229, 230, 231, 232, 233, 235.)

[Sidenote: Population of the Department, 554,225. Population of Bourdeaux, 109,467.]

There are no houses of industry in this department for the
destitute able-bodied, except that known as the _Depôt de
Mendicité_.

This institution was first established in the year 1827, with
a view to suppress the great number of professed beggars
who infested the streets and public walks, taking advantage
of any defect of conformation, &c. to attract the notice of
passengers. By law all persons found begging in the streets
are liable to be taken up, and imprisoned; but instead of
imprisonment, those arrested are conveyed to the _Depôt de
Mendicité_, where, if able, they are made to work. The good
effects of this institution are visible; for instead of the
number of professed beggars amounting to 800, which it did
before the institution of the establishment, it does not now
amount to above 150 or 200.

This institution is supported by private contribution. The King
and the town contribute a certain portion to make up what may
be wanting. The average number of the population of the depôt
amounts to 350 souls.

Generally speaking, owing to the want of population, employment
is to be found in commerce, trade or agriculture. The high
price of wages in the towns and in the country proves that work
is always to be found.

When any unforeseen circumstances have arisen to interrupt the
common order of things, the local authorities have come to the
assistance of the population, by giving work to those out of
employment. Public subscriptions are also resorted to on these
occasions.

All indigent families, and in which there are those capable of
working, but who are not able to obtain it, or whose numbers
are so great that all cannot be subsisted, are relieved by the
_Bureaux de Charité_.

The same relief is given to those who, having a habitation,
are unable of themselves, through age or infirmity, to support
themselves.

The mode of obtaining this relief is by petition, signed by
some credible person, and attested by the priest or protestant
clergyman. It is proportioned to the number of the family, and
to the number of those able to work, and whose wages go to
the maintenance of the family. The relief consists in bread,
soup, wood for fuel, and sometimes, though rarely, blankets and
woollen clothing; medicines for the sick, and broth.

Generally speaking, these distributions of food would be
insufficient; but most indigent families are assisted by
private persons, so that, on the whole, they have wherewithal
to sustain life.

The annual _distribution à domicile_ (domiciliary relief)
amounts to the sum of 100,000 francs (4,000_l._).

3,520 families are relieved. The number of impotent in these
families, father and mother included, though able to work,
amounts to 9,634, or less than a franc per head per month.

It is in proportion to these numbers that the relief is given,
but it is greater in winter than the other parts of the year.

As to the medicines and broth, whenever there are sick in these
families a sufficiency is given. Physicians are attached to
each auxiliary bureau of every district, who visit the sick,
prescribe the remedies, &c., all of which are distributed
by the _Sœurs de Charité_ (Sisters of Charity, an order of
nuns who devote themselves to the care of the poor and sick,
and who undertake, gratuitously, the elementary education of
their children). It is a most respectable and praiseworthy
institution.

The same Sisters receive in their houses the little girls of
these families who are old enough to read. Books are supplied
by the instructors.

In extraordinary cases, recourse is had to subscriptions and
collections, which increase the means of the _Bureaux de
Charité_; so that during long and hard winters, more clothing,
&c. is distributed. It seldom happens that money is given.

There are, however, no positive regulations on these
points. The whole is in the hands of the directors of this
establishment. A responsible receiver is attached to it, whose
accounts are submitted to the examination of the _Cours des
Comptes_ (audit office). Thus, though the distributions are
left to the judgment of the directors, they are subjected to
control.

The above details relate to the city of Bourdeaux. There are,
however, proportionate institutions in most of the larger
towns of the department, but in the poorer parishes and rural
districts the _Bureaux de Charité_ are merely nominal. These
parishes being without a revenue, are unable to assist their
poor, who subsist on the alms they may receive at the different
dwelling-houses, and who when ill, if possible, come to the
nearest hospital, generally to that of Bourdeaux.

In this department there are no schools in which indigent
children are received to be fed and clothed gratuitously, but
there are those in which they receive a certain degree of
instruction.

For Boys.--The institution of _Freres des Ecoles Chrétiennes_
(Brothers of the Christian Schools), and two Lancasterian
schools, which have been lately instituted.

For Girls.--A Lancasterian school, a few boarding schools,
in which a certain number of indigent girls are taught
gratuitously; and also the Sisters of Charity attached to the
administration of the _Bureaux de Charité_.

The _Ecoles Chrétiennes_ are at the charge of the town. The sum
appropriated to those establishments amounts annually to about
14,000 francs (560_l._). Admissions are granted by the town.
The number of children instructed in reading, writing, and a
little arithmetic, amounts to about 1,800 for the town. At
the Lancasterian school, the instruction is on a more extended
scale. Grammar, drawing and surveying are taught, in addition
to what is taught at the _Ecoles Chrétiennes_.

There are at present in these latter schools 300 boys and 150
girls in all.

The department pays the expenses of these schools.

The girls received in the private boarding schools, where they
learn to read, to write, and to sew, amount to the number of
about 600. This is entirely a private act of charity.

The number of girls received by the Sisters of Charity amounts
to about 900.

There has also been established within the last year a model
infant school, founded by private subscriptions, for the
children of labourers and journeymen artisans. At present,
however, it is so little known, that it is of very little
importance.

_Impotent through Age._

Bourdeaux is the only town of the department which possesses
any establishments of this kind, viz., the Hospital of
Incurables (_Hospice des Incurables_), and that of the old
people (_Hospice des Vieillards_).

These two establishments support 300 old people. This number
falls very short of that which the population requires. The
requisite qualifications for admission are, to have passed the
age of 60, and to prove that the candidate has no means of
subsistence.

It may be added, that at Bourdeaux the number of old people who
are candidates for admittance to these hospitals amounts to
300, and that on an average a vacancy occurs for each at the
end of four years at the _Hospital des Incurables_, and two
years at _Hospice des Vieillards_, and that all these claimants
find either in their families, the _Secours à Domicile_, or
private charity, means of subsistence.

_Sick._

The department possesses, for the reception of the sick, a
small hospital at Bazas; one at St. Macaire, and one at La
Réole; a more extensive one at Blaye and Libourne, and the
great hospital at Bourdeaux.

The great hospital of Bourdeaux contains always from 600 to 650
sick. The daily admittances average 30; the discharges, 28, and
the deaths two.

No distinction is made as to country, &c. either in admittance,
treatment, or discharge.

The inmates of this hospital are generally composed of
inhabitants of the town, who are too poor to be treated at
home, or who prefer the care that is taken of them there to
that which they would experience at home; of workmen, &c. from
the neighbouring departments employed in the town, and who have
nowhere else to go; of peasants, even in easy circumstances,
who, from illness or accidents, have not the same resources at
home.

Bourdeaux possesses a _Hospice de la Maternité_, or Lying-in
Hospital, and a society, founded by private benefactions, for
the same purpose.

The Lying-in Hospital is an asylum in which any woman who
presents herself in the ninth month of her pregnancy, whatever
may be her state, her country or condition, is admitted without
difficulty, without question or inquiry, under the name she
pleases, and in such a manner, that the fear of being known or
discovered may not prevent those who wish to remain unknown
from benefiting by the institution.

Women admitted at the ninth month remain in the establishment
till they have completely recovered their lying-in. (p. 231.)

The number of those women, either lying-in or subsisted in the
hospital, varies from 35 to 60, and their stay is about 30
days. The births amount annually from 400 to 450; upon this
number, 30 or 40 at most are kept and suckled by their mothers;
the rest are abandoned and sent to the Foundling Hospital.

Among these inmates, about one-fifth is composed of married
women, who have no means of being confined at home; two-fifths
of young girls of the town, chiefly servants; the rest of
peasants, who leave their homes in order not to be discovered.

Illegitimate children deserted by their parents, and which are
deposited at the Foundling Hospital, are clothed and nourished
by women in the institution, till a nurse out of it can be
procured.

These children, after being suckled, remain with their nurses
till the age of 12 years. At this age, if the individuals who
have brought them up do not wish to keep them gratuitously
till their majority and give them a trade, they return to
the hospital, and they then cease to be at the charge of the
special funds. The establishment itself provides for their
expenses; and until they can be placed as apprentices, they
receive, in the Bourdeaux hospital, the rudiments of reading
and writing, and they are taught some trade.

Once placed as apprentices, they remain with the master till
the age of 21, when they are to shift for themselves.

Those that cannot be placed, or are infirm, remain in the
hospital, and form a sort of permanent population there.

Children whose parents are known, and who are living, but
have either disappeared or are confined, are received in the
same way as foundlings, the mode of admission differing only.
This must be granted by the prefect after an inquest. For the
remainder, they enjoy the same advantages as the foundlings.

As to orphans, they are also admitted into the Foundling
Hospital, upon the order of the administrative commission,
after information as to the state of the family. At Bourdeaux
the orphans of the town alone are received. Those of the rest
of the department remain at the charge of their parishes, and
generally live by alms. The orphans received into the hospital
enjoy the same privileges as the foundlings and deserted
children.

The annual exposal of children amounts at Bourdeaux to 900,
comprising all those abandoned at the Lying-in Hospital, those
of the town, and those sent from the various parts of the
department, as well as from the neighbouring departments.

From 10 to 15 deserted children, and the same number of
orphans, are annually admitted.

The population of the hospital amounts generally to 40 new-born
infants, waiting to be sent to nurse; 150 children beginning
their apprenticeships, and waiting to be placed; about 150
infirm of all ages forming the permanent part of the population.

The number of children from the age of one month to that of
12 years, amounts to 3,600; and that of children above 12 and
below 21 apprenticed out, amounts to above 1,500.

The expenditure of the hospital, comprising the clothing for
the children brought up out of the establishment, amounts to
110,000 francs per annum (4,400_l._) That for the nurses or
board in the country, to 240.000 francs (9,600_l._), of which

104,000 fr. (4,160_l._) is given by the government upon the
common departmental fund.

27,000 fr. (1,080_l._) taken from the revenue of the town of
Bourdeaux.

60,000 fr. (2,400_l._) voted by the general council on the
_Centimes Facultatifs_.

49,000 fr. (1,960_l._) on the revenue of the other parishes of
the department.

Owing to the extreme carelessness and entire absence of frugality on the part of the peasantry and other classes of labourers, it is impossible to give an accurate account of their expenditure. They live entirely from hand to mouth; and nine-tenths are in debt for the common necessaries of life. The men are addicted to gambling, and the women spend the greater part of what they earn in useless articles of dress. As to the expenditure for schooling and religious teaching, no provision is thought of.

BASSES PYRENÉES.

BAYONNE.

[Sidenote: Population of the Department, 428,401. Population of Bayonne, 14,773.]

On recurring to the statistical statements respecting this department, it will be seen that it supports its population with a smaller number of deaths, births, and marriages, than any other extensive district in Europe. Compared with the countries which have been lately considered, its provisions for public charity are trifling, as will appear by the following extracts from Mr. Harvey’s report. (pp. 260, 261, 262.)

_Vagrants._

Mendicity, under the head of vagrancy, is not prevalent in the
department of the Lower Pyrenees; the relief afforded to French
subjects passing through the department, seeking work (which
seldom occurs), or returning to their native places, is at the
rate of three sols per league, or ½_d._ per mile; but this
relief is more frequently granted to foreigners in distress,
and is paid by the several mayors at certain stations or towns
on their route. There is no public relief granted to vagrants
living by begging.

_Destitute Able-bodied._

There are no public or private establishments or relief
afforded to the destitute able-bodied or their families; but
this description of pauper is seldom or ever to be met with in
this department.

_Impotent through Age._

There are no public or religious institutions or regulations
for the relief of the poor in general; they subsist by begging;
and when no longer able to do so, they receive a trifling
relief from “The Ladies of Charity” (Dames de la Charité), who
make quarterly collections from the respectable inhabitants,
which these ladies distribute in food, fuel, or money, to the
_pauvres honteux_, or infirm, as the case may be; but this
private voluntary subscription is very inadequate.

The inhabitants of Bayonne (and it is hoped and expected that
the example will be followed in other places) are now occupied
in forming, by voluntary annual subscriptions, an establishment
for the relief of the poor; a commission of gentlemen has been
appointed, and there is every prospect that this charitable
undertaking will be crowned with success.

_Sick._

In the towns there are public hospitals for the sick and
wounded; but when convalescent, they are obliged immediately to
quit the hospital, destitute or not.

CHILDREN.

_Illegitimate._

Illegitimate children (infants only) are received into the
hospitals established by the famous St. Vincent de Paul, but
where the parents have no communication with or control over
them; these children are placed out to nurse in the country
at about 5_s._ a month, and are afterward provided for by the
hospital, if in the course of seven years they are not claimed
by the parents.

When not deposited in the hospitals, the mothers have
invariably been found to bestow upon their infants the most
scrupulous care and attention, the natural consequence of
having had the firmness and humanity not to abandon their
offspring, notwithstanding the facility of concealment held out
to them by the hospital.

_Orphans or Deserted Children._

There are no public or private institutions or regulations for
orphans.

_Deserted Children._--There are no public or private
regulations or institutions under this head; but I have not
heard of a case in question in this department.

_Cripples, Deaf and Dumb, and Blind._

_Cripples._--Obliged to beg if destitute, there being no public
or private institutions or regulations for cripples.

The deaf and dumb, if poor and destitute, are obliged to beg;
there are excellent establishments in the large towns for their
instruction, for those who have the means.

_Blind._--Obliged to beg, there are no public or private
institutions for them.

_Idiots and Lunatics._

There are no public or private institutions for idiots.

There is an institution (Maison de Force) for the admission of
lunatics at the Chef Lieu of the department only (at Pau).

The questions relative to hired country labourers are not
altogether applicable to this department, which is invariably
divided into small farms, not exceeding from 20 to 30 English
acres each, the families on each farm sufficing for the
cultivation thereof, the proprietors or the farmers being
themselves the labourers of the soil, the neighbours assisting
each other in time of harvest; consequently it seldom occurs
that a hired labourer is called in; but when employed they are
paid at the rate of about 1_s._ per diem, without food. The
women, and the children from the age of 10 years, constantly
work on the land. The children generally receive a primary
education at the village day schools, where there is always a
schoolmaster or mistress appointed by the authorities; price
of education, 2 francs (about 1_s._ 7_d._) per month. At these
schools the children are prepared for their first communion;
they learn reading, writing, and calculation. The food of the
proprietor or farmer labourer chiefly consists in vegetable
soups, potatoes, salt fish, pork, bacon, &c., and seldom
or ever butcher’s meat, and invariably Indian corn bread,
homebaked. These persons (who are generally the owners of the
soil) procure for themselves a comfortable subsistence, but
they are seldom able to lay by anything. The equal division of
the land prevents in a great measure mendicity. The families
on each farm in the whole department consist on an average of
about five persons.

It is calculated that persons attain a more advanced age in
this department than in any other in France.

BOUCHES DU RHONE.

MARSEILLES.

[Sidenote: Population of the Department, 359,473. Population of Marseilles, 145,115.]

_Vagrants._

It has been calculated that the average number of beggars in
this department (the Mouths of the Rhone) is 1060, whereof 900
are natives and 105 strangers, besides 240 who traverse the
department. The calculation having been made some years ago,
the numbers may have increased with the population, which was
then 313,000, and is now 359,000.

The only relief granted to the poor travelling is by giving
them a “passport d’indigent,” furnished by the local
authorities, in which their exact route is designated, and not
to be deviated from; they receive, as they pass through each
commune, three sous for every league of distance, equal to a
halfpenny per mile, and lodging for the night: beggars have no
relief but private charity.

_Destitute Able-bodied._

The principal establishment at Marseilles for their relief is
the bureau de bienfaisance, whose revenues, arising partly from
the remnant property of some charitable institutions existing
before the revolution, partly from an annual allowance granted
by the budget of the commune, partly by a tax on theatrical
admissions, and from private subscriptions, amount altogether
to about 140,000 francs, or 5600_l._, of which the major
part is distributed in money to the “pauvres honteux” (those
who have seen better days), and in providing necessaries and
medical assistance for the poor in general, by five directors,
and at their sole discretion. Similar establishments exist in
the other arrondissements of this department, but, with the
exception of Aix, with very small means, principally dependent
on the commune budgets, which, in many cases, furnish nothing.
I am informed that in this commune, with a population of
140,000 inhabitants, the bureau relieves, more or less, 800
families of “pauvres honteux” and 4000 families of indigent
poor. There is also at Marseilles a société de bienfaisance,
supported principally by private charity, whose chief object
is the establishment of soup kitchens and dispensaries for
the relief of the poor, and a school for the education of
their children from four to nine years of age. No relief is
ever given in money. Their annual revenue is about 40,000
francs, or 1600_l._; and in times of great distress the local
administration increases its funds, and supplies the poor with
soup through its means.

The number of children received in the school above-mentioned
is about 200: they receive two meals a day and sleep at home;
they are taught various trades, and apprenticed at the expense
of the commune; there are also several gratuitous day-schools
for children of the age of seven years and upwards, and who
bring their own food.

_Impotent through Age._

The only public establishment for the reception of this class
is that called “La Charité,” in which those are admitted who
have attained the age of seventy, and none before; the number
of those individuals at present is about 350; they are there
boarded, clothed, and fed.

_Sick._

There are no district institutions for the reception of the
sick, except the general hospitals. The average number of sick
in the hospital of Marseilles may be about 450.

_Children._

One large branch of the administration of hospitals of
Marseilles is “La Charité,” which receives, as before
mentioned, old men, and also all children under twelve years of
age, whether illegitimate, orphans, foundlings, or deserted;
they are there received, and, when infants, principally nursed
in the country. At this time there are 2240 infants in this
situation, and on their return they are boarded, lodged, and
educated.

SARDINIAN STATES.

The information respecting the Sardinian States consists of answers from Piedmont, Genoa, and Savoy, obtained by Sir Augustus Foster from the Minister of the Interior, from M. de Vignet, a Senator of Chambery, from Marquis Brignole Sale, Syndic of Genoa, and from the Marquis Cavour, Syndic of Turin, and his son, Count Camille Cavour.

The following extracts comprise their most material contents. (Pages 653, 654, 655, 656, 657, 659, 660, 661, 662.)

The general system appears to resemble that of France, except that in Piedmont mendicity is not an offence.

PIEDMONT.

_Mendicants._

Mendicity is not forbidden by law; every person who is
considered unable to obtain by his own industry subsistence for
himself and his family may station himself in the streets, and
ask charity of the passers by. The government and the local
authorities have often, but in vain, endeavoured to repress the
innumerable abuses which have followed. But the regulations
which have been made for this purpose have been ineffectual
and even nugatory. The law, however, which forbids the poor to
beg out of their parishes, is frequently put in force. When
a great number of strangers are found begging in a town, the
municipal authorities drive them out _en masse_, leaving it to
the gendarmerie to oblige them to return to their country, or
to the places considered to be their homes. But as the law in
question is not enforced by any punishment, if they find any
difficulty in living at home, they soon return to violate it
afresh.

There are no means of ascertaining, even by approximation,
the total number of mendicants. It depends, too, in part on
many causes continually varying; such as good or bad harvests,
hard or mild winters, and the changes of employment in those
trades which afford subsistence to many hands. It is spread,
however, over the whole country, but in different degrees. In
the valleys of the Alps it scarcely exists; in those of the
Apennines it is considerable, as is generally the case where
chestnuts are the ordinary food of the lower orders.

If a labouring man, not domiciled in the place of his
residence, finds himself, from accident or illness, unable
either to earn his living, or to reach his home, the
authorities, both of his temporary residence, and of the places
that lie in his route homewards, are required to supply to him
the means of travelling. In Turin, a small pecuniary assistance
is given to all workpeople who wish to return to their own
homes, but this is not a general practice.

_Destitute Able-bodied._

_Are there any establishments for the reception of the
destitute able-bodied and their families, in which they are set
to work, and furnished with food and clothes?_

There are none. The only attempt of the sort was one made
some years ago at Raconis, and it failed almost immediately,
among difficulties and bad consequences of every description.
An establishment called Ergastolo exists near Turin, in which
young vagrants are confined and kept to constant work; but
although a person may be committed to it without trial on a
simple order from the police, it is considered rather as a
house of correction than a workhouse.

There are still convents at whose doors soup, bread, and other
kinds of food are distributed. But this deplorable practice is
not now sufficiently prevalent to produce a sensible effect
except in some parts of the Genoese coast, where the mendicant
orders are the most numerous, and the poverty the greatest.

Many charitable institutions have ecclesiastical forms and
names, but their attention is almost confined to the sick and
the impotent. When a bad harvest or a hard winter occasions
much distress, the municipal authorities, either spontaneously
or on the suggestion and with the aid of the government,
undertake public works in order to give employment to the
able-bodied. This is more frequent in the large towns, such as
Turin and Genoa.

_To what extent do they obtain relief in kind and in money?_

They never receive either from the government or from the
municipal authorities; what they get is from private charity.
But on some great occasions, such as the anniversary of the
Restoration of the Monarchy, or the celebration of the King’s
Birth-day, food and clothes are distributed among some of the
most needy families.

Many of the towns have _Monts-de-piété_, which lend on pledges
at 6 per cent., but under very rigorous rules. If the unhappy
borrower cannot redeem the pledge before the fixed time, it is
sold, whatever may be its value, for the amount of the debt.
In spite of this, the number of people who have recourse to
them is immense. I do not think I exaggerate in saying that
there are very few poor housekeepers some of whose furniture or
clothes is not thus in pawn.

_Impotent through Age._

1. _Are there hospitals for the reception of those who through
age are incapable of earning their subsistence?_

There are none avowedly for this purpose, but there are several
intended for incurables, into which those whose only infirmity
is old age, manage to get received.

2. _Do they receive relief in kind and in money at their own
homes?_ They receive none from the government or the municipal
authorities, but such relief is afforded by many charitable
institutions. In Turin, for example, the congregation of St.
Paul has large revenues; and by law, there ought in every
parish to be a charitable association. But, in fact, none
are to be found excepting in some villages and towns; almost
all the rural parishes are without them. The resources of
those which exist arise from endowments, from donations, and
from periodical collections made in churches, or from house
to house. _These associations certainly do much good, but
being subjected to no general rules or central control, their
proceedings are neither uniform nor regular; a source of
enormous abuse, which, in the present state of things, it is
impossible to correct or even to verify._