Chapter IV: Section 26: The main principle to be observed everywhere in (3)

The overseers consist (unless it is otherwise determined) of
the directors, of the police, commissaries, and magistrates.

In cases where medical aid is necessary, they are to be
attended by physicians, who are appointed by the state.

In towns and larger market towns, besides the above-named
overseers, a council is to be formed, consisting of the
clergyman and the mayor and persons deputed by the magistrates
and all classes of the people, in proportion to the number of
inhabitants of each place.

In smaller market-towns the clergyman and deputies from the
peasants form this council.

When several villages join together to form one of these
institutions, a general committee is to be formed.

The members of the council for the institutions for the poor
are to be elected in the same way as the magistrates and mayors
(burgermeister).

When several parishes are joined together, a deputy is to be
chosen from each, and again, several are elected from among
these, who are to take immediate charge of the affairs. Each
deputy is chosen for three years, and is obliged to perform
his duties without remuneration; no inhabitant is allowed to
refuse to perform his functions the first time he is elected;
extraordinary merits in the service of the poor are to be
publicly distinguished.

[Sidenote: Mode of relief.]

The public charge is brought into action in the following
manner:

1st. By institutions for working.

2d. By institutions for taking care of people who are unable to
work.

3d. By institutions for alms.

[Sidenote: 1. Finding work.]

1. Materials and tools are to be distributed to those paupers
who, notwithstanding all inquiries and interference, cannot
obtain the necessary work, to be used at their houses until
the required situation can be obtained. If in larger towns the
number of these is very great, houses are to be opened and
maintained at the expense of the institution for the poor, in
which the paupers who are unoccupied are to work.

The choice among the different sorts of work in these houses
is settled according to the local circumstances, and chiefly
according to the facility with which either orders from private
persons can be received, or with which the material is obtained
and worked; then accordingly as the material can be used for
the wants of the poor or can be usefully employed for any other
purpose.

The houses for the employment of the poor are always to retain
their original destination, namely, an employment, for the
present, of poor men who would otherwise be without work, and
therefore do not admit any such persons whose names are not
down on the above-named register. Therefore those persons are
no longer allowed to work in this house after they have had an
offer of work from any other quarter.

[Sidenote: 2. In-door relief.]

2. Houses of nourishment are to be erected for those poor
who, besides having no fortune or means of obtaining their
livelihood, are in an extraordinary degree helpless, namely,
children, sick people, old persons, and cripples.

[Sidenote: 3. Money relief.]

3. Poor people who do not require extraordinary care, and
who are not fit to be admitted into the particular houses of
nourishment, or cannot yet be received into them, but are
unable to gain their livelihood, are to be assisted by alms,
which, however, are not to be given without the most complete
proof of want.

The alms are to be given in the form of gifts of money. These
gifts are sometimes to be increased, according to the price of
provisions; and from time to time a maximum is to be fixed,
which is on no account to be exceeded.

[Sidenote: Relief by quartering on householders.]

These gifts of money may, either in part or entirely, be
substituted by provisions, if this sort of aid is more easily
afforded with regard to lodging, nourishment, and clothing.

Their lodging is to be changed every day among the different
members of the parish, but the poor who are lodged are obliged
to repay this lodging by work. Where there are opportunities,
rooms are to be warmed, to which the poor may bring their work.

The nourishment of the poor can be facilitated and insured
by the equal division of them amongst the public, to be
maintained in turn, being obliged to partake of the work
of their host, or by voluntarily offered days for food, or
lastly, by distribution of bread and other nourishment. Where
circumstances permit, kitchens are to be erected on purpose for
preparing nourishing soups, partly gratis, partly very cheap.

[Sidenote: Liabilities of pauper.]

No pauper who partakes of the benefactions of the poor
institutions may go away from his dwelling without the
knowledge and leave of the head of the village, to stay for
some time, or permanently in another village, even if it is in
the same district.

The same leave from the police direction is necessary when a
pauper wishes, for some good reason, to go out of his police
district; the leave is only to be given in both cases on
well-grounded reasons, and on proofs that the poor will not be
burdensome to other villages and districts; also he must give
in a declaration to the same, in which, besides his name and
village, and the duration of his absence, the villages to which
he intends to go must be expressed.

Paupers who have been warned in vain concerning bad conduct
and idleness shall be proceeded against without favour, by the
power of magistrates, and be punished accordingly.

The poor institutions can claim repayment from those hypocrites
who, although they possess private means, embezzle and grasp
at the gifts and assistance which are only intended for true
poverty, which shall be fully repaid. The poor institutions can
make the same claim from those persons who have renounced their
duty of supporting those relations whom they are obliged to
support, either by law or by contract.

_No marriage between people without capital shall be allowed
without the previous permission of the poor institutions.
Directors who do not follow these orders, nor pay attention to
the Act of the 12th of July, 1808 (Government Paper, page
1506), concerning marriages in the country, have to answer for
the maintenance of the new families, should they not be able to
maintain themselves. In the same manner, the priests and other
churchmen shall be responsible for the support of such persons
as they have married without leave from the authorities,
besides other fines which are imposed on this breach of the
rules of the marriage ceremony._

[Sidenote: Sources of poor fund.]

Besides the extraordinary sources, which consist partly in the
restitution which hypocrites and relations who avoid their duty
are obliged to make, and partly out of fines which are given
to the poor fund, or may be hereafter given, are sources for
charity from donations from the district fund, and from loans
or from taxes.

The yearly produce of all charities belongs to the poor
institutions, and is used for their purposes. With the
establishments for the poor are united the already existing
or still accumulating capitals of one or other of the poor
institutions; the gain on mortgages or on those possessions
whose owners cannot be discovered; the legacies for the poor,
when by the will of the deceased they are to be laid out in a
regular yearly income, and the fourth part of such legacies as
are destined in general for pious purposes.

The voluntary donations consist of casual gifts in money and
food which have been given by philanthropic persons of their
own accord, for the use of the poor institutions, and in this
manner are to be employed for their daily use. Besides these,
are the legacies which are meant for immediate division among
the poor, and those subscriptions which are collected either by
single persons or by companies and corporations.

General and extraordinary collections, in the name of the
institutions for the poor, are to be made monthly from house
to house, when the members of the parish have bound themselves
to a certain subscription; also in the churches on the great
holidays, and in the public-houses by means of private
poor-boxes; and lastly, on all important and joyful occasions
of the state, or companies.

According to the circumstances of the place, certain
accidental funds can be appropriated to the uses of the poor
institutions, which particularly on great joyful occasions,
namely, great marriages in the taverns, the permission to have
music, particularly past the stated times, processions of
the apprentices, shooting matches, &c. &c., at shows, balls,
masquerades, and so on.

When all the aforesaid sources do not suffice to cover the
wants of the poor institutions, it will be supplied out of the
funds of the district, or through loans, and then only when
all these means cannot be put in practice, or do not suffice
to cover their wants, compulsory contributions or poor-taxes
are to be resorted to. The manner and amount of these are to
be according to the calls of the villages and districts, and
are only to be levied for a certain time. It is to be observed,
however, that these taxes are to be imposed with the greatest
equality, and without any exception among all classes.

[Sidenote: Central control.]

The poor institutions and committees in such towns as have no
police directors or commissaries, also in the market towns
and parishes, are directly under the control of the district
tribunal, and under their guidance and inspection.

The inspection of the poor institutions of the whole kingdom
is given to the ministry for the interior, which is to
receive regularly the report of the state of this branch of
administration from the annual accounts and other proper
sources, and which is to issue the necessary general orders
and regulations, and is to judge of the proposals for the
establishment, the arrangement and fitting up of workhouses,
and others in which the poor are taken care of, for single
districts, whole circles, or for the entire kingdom, which
decides with the ministry of finance all proposals for allowing
certain taxes and poor subscriptions, decides the complaints
brought against the general circle and local commissaries,
if such do not belong to the private council, and causes the
election of certain poor directors where it may be found
advisable.

It will be observed, that these institutions bear a considerable resemblance to those of Wurtemberg. Their effects are thus summed up by Lord Erskine:

Upon carefully examining and considering these poor laws of
Bavaria. I have come to the conclusion in my own mind that
they are useful, and well adapted to the purposes for which
they were intended, because by the establishment of the poor
institutions (as they are called), by districts over the whole
kingdom of Bavaria, with sufficient power by law to carry their
provisions into execution, the great and important object is
attained of giving relief and support to the aged, helpless,
and sick, and finding work in workhouses or at their own homes,
at a moderate payment, for those who cannot otherwise obtain
it; for which purpose a register is to be kept by the guardians
of the poor of all those persons who are in want of work,
and who are therefore either a burthen upon the parish, or
are likely to become so, as also a list of those who wish to
employ workmen, in order to endeavour to arrange between them
the terms of employment; and that this object may be the more
easily attained, the directors are required to be in continual
communication with the overseers of public works, the masters
of manufactories, with individual proprietors, and societies;
in order that where there are a quantity of hands capable
of work, they may be passed into that part of the country
where they are most wanted; but whenever it may happen that,
notwithstanding all inquiries and exertions, the necessary work
cannot be obtained, in such cases materials and tools are to
be distributed to those paupers who may be in want of them, to
be used at their own houses; and if in larger towns the number
of those paupers should be very great, houses are to be opened
and maintained at the expense of the institutions for the poor,
in which the paupers who are out of work are to be employed;
but the number of paupers to be so employed is always limited
to those who have not had a reasonable offer of work from any
other quarter. But the great cause why the number of the poor
is kept so low in this country, arises from the prevention by
law of marriages in cases in which it cannot be proved that
the parties have reasonable means of subsistence; and this
regulation is in all places and at all times strictly adhered
to.

The effect of a constant and firm observance of this rule
has, it is true, a considerable influence in keeping down the
population of Bavaria, which is at present low for the extent
of country, but it has a most salutary effect in averting
extreme poverty and consequent misery. (p. 554.)

The last of the countries subject to a system of compulsory relief, from which we have a return, is the ancient part of the

CANTON DE BERNE.

It appears from that return, that the inhabitants of that part of the Canton, which is subject to the laws which we are going to describe, consisted, in 1831, of 321,468 persons, divided into three classes, heimathloses, aubains, and bourgeois.

The first class, which appears to be so small as to be inconsiderable, consist of foreign refugees or their descendants. The second comprises all those who have not a right to bourgeoisie in any commune: their number amounted, in 1780, to 3482 persons. It is said to have subsequently increased, but it is not probable that it has more than doubled; and we believe that 10,000 persons, or less than 1-32nd part of the whole population, exceeds the whole number of those who are not entitled to bourgeoisie; but it is to be observed that the word “aubain,” though strictly meaning a person who has no settlement in the Canton, is also applied to persons who, though bourgeois, are not entitled to bourgeoisie in the commune in which they reside. The support of the heimathloses and of the aubains, properly so called, that is, of those who have no right whatever to bourgeoisie, falls on the government.

The third class is composed of the descendants of those who, in the sixteenth century, were held entitled to the public property of each commune, and those who by themselves or their ancestors have purchased bourgeoisie in any commune. Bourgeoisie appears to be personal and hereditary. It is not gained by residence, or lost by absence; and may therefore, in fact, belong to persons having little other connexion with the commune.

At a period, of which the precise date is not stated, but which appears to belong to the seventeenth century, it became the law that every one was entitled to support from the commune of which he was bourgeois, and that the sums necessary were to be supplied from the public property of the commune; and so far as that was insufficient, from landed property, to whomsoever belonging, situated in the commune, and from the personal property of the bourgeois whether resident or not.

To this hereditary bourgeoisie the raising and administration of the poor-fund was and still is confided; and apparently with most unfortunate results.

The following is the conclusion of the official answer of the government of Berne to the questions proposed by Mr. Morier (p. 207):--

_What are the abuses complained of?_

_Do they arise from the principle of the law, or from the
character and social position of its administrators?_

_What remedies have been applied?_

_What have been their results?_

The abuses in the administration arise both from the principle
of the law, and from the character and social position of
its administrators: from the law, because it abandons all
administration to the communes; from the administrators,
because they neglect improvement, distribute relief without
discrimination or real inquiry, and generally provide only
against the exigences of the moment.

The separate parishes, being, for the most part, too small
to establish schools and workhouses, want means of coercion,
and are in general more busied in providing relief for those
actually indigent than in diminishing their number, either as
regards the present or future generations. Besides, although
the practice is not sanctioned by law, many parishes, in order
to prevent the return of their bourgeois who are domiciled
elsewhere, forward to them relief without being able to
ascertain their conduct.

The government has long felt that these abuses could not
be remedied except by a law founded on a principle totally
different from that of abandoning the administration to the
parishes: but from a mistaken solicitude for the poor, it
always hesitated to take this course.

_What has been the influence of the system?_

1. _Statistically?_

2. _Morally?_

1. _Has the number of the indigent augmented, diminished, or
remained stationary?_

2. _Does the law appear to have encouraged imprudent marriage
or illicit intercourse?_

The answers are implied in our previous statements. The
existing system favours imprudent marriage and illicit
intercourse,--but, precisely because it encourages marriage,
probably does not augment the proportion of illegitimate
to legitimate births. But the final result is, that it
encourages, in an extraordinary degree, the increase of the
indigent population. The abuses which have followed this fatal
system are too numerous to be here detailed. It is easy to
conceive what must have been its results on a populace whom
education, or rather the want of education, has deprived of
all honourable feeling, and of all preference of independence
to public charity. Idleness, carelessness, improvident
marriage, and illicit intercourse, have been encouraged by the
prospect of making others support their results. All means and
opportunities of acquiring knowledge, or skill, or regular
occupation, have been neglected. Thence have arisen not only
a constantly increasing burden upon society, but obstacles to
the development of the physical and intellectual faculties,
to moral improvement, and in short to the advancement of
civilization. _Experience has clearly proved, that the number
of paupers increases in proportion to the resources created for
them, and that the bourgeois population is least industrious
and least active, and endeavours least to be useful to society
in those parishes which have the largest public property and
public revenue._

This state of things, and above all the constantly increasing
burden in some parts of the country, and the demands urged by
parishes on the State for protection against the claims and
the insolence of the really and the pretended indigent, have
determined the government to strive to remedy the evil at its
source. We are still ignorant of the proposed principles of the
new law. The plan, or at least the preparatory inquiry, is now
going on in the offices of the Department of the Interior. It
is nearly certain, however, that compulsory charity will be, if
not entirely abolished, at least restricted to those poor who
are incapable of work. But if assessment for the indigent is
put an end to, the revenue of the properties appropriated to
them will remain for their support.

The administration of the poor-laws in the Canton of Berne is
therefore on the eve of a radical reform.

The same views are more fully developed in a long and very able supplement to these answers, which immediately follows them, and bears the same official character--(pp. 220-222, and 225.)

The administration of parochial property has not been properly
audited by any parochial authorities: frequently and for many
years it has remained in the hands of the same family; those to
whom it has been intrusted have received little or no salary:
a capricious and dishonest management were the obvious and
almost the inevitable consequences. The mere nature of the
transaction led to mal-administration. The poor who had a right
to bourgeoisie had a right to relief. How could their conduct
or their wants be ascertained, if they dwelt in other parishes,
with whose authorities their own parish had no relation? Was
it not almost inevitable that relief would be demanded with
insolence and spent in idleness and debauchery?

In some places in the mountains (such as Sieventhal and
Grindelwald), the relief was given in kind; but with the
increased circulation of money, money-relief has become
general, and is exclusively afforded to out-parishioners. The
facility with which such relief is mis-applied has favoured
mis-management, and may be said to engender pauperism.

_These fatal results have become more strongly felt as the
number of the poor has augmented. In many places the growing
embarrassment occasioned great and praiseworthy remedial
efforts. The administration was made more regular, and
inspectors and other officers appointed. Some country parishes
erected alms-houses at an expense apparently beyond their
means. But many of these fine institutions disappointed the
hopes of their founders: we shall presently see why. These new
measures and institutions were each the private affair of each
parish; they failed because they were isolated. The beneficial
measures of one parish were not supported by its neighbours.
They followed their old routine, and opposed improvement by
obstacles and dislike. Superintendence, which is essential to
the administration of poor laws, was ineffectual, because it
was applied only to the parishioners of the single commune
which enforced it._

During the last half century, other countries have acquired
knowledge relative to alms-houses for the poor, and have
adopted the results of the inquiries and experience of
their neighbours. This has not been the case with our own
establishments: their very origin was erroneous. They were
the products of a philanthropy which proposed entirely to
remedy all human misery. They were founded in villages, and
proportioned each to the existing wants of the village. Their
resources seldom permitted the adoption of the first condition
of good administration, namely, classification. And even when
we find a spacious building, we see heaped, pell-mell, children
by the side of the old and infirm, and the sick mixed with
able-bodied idlers. Even whole families are found in this
assemblage of the good and bad, the sick and the healthy, the
useful and the mischievous. In such establishments provision
ought to have been made for the education of the children, the
cure of the sick, the support of the aged, and the employment
of the able-bodied. Each class of inmates required a separate
treatment. The instant this principle is neglected, and
classification abandoned, the institution not only loses its
utility, but becomes actually mischievous. But each single
establishment was governed by a single authority, unfit for
the management of several dissimilar classes of inmates.
In general, one uniform system was applied to them all. A
further obstacle to the success of these establishments was
the frequent change of their governors. As they were ill-paid
and often subject to disagreeable contests with the local
authorities, it was difficult to get good officers, and still
more so to keep them. (p. 221.)

Unfavourable as our representation of these establishments has
been, the picture of the treatment of the poor in the other
parts of the canton is still more gloomy and painful. In these
districts (superintendence being absent) all that is not left
to accident is regulated by habit, or by a routine without
apparent motives.

In such places no regular system is to be looked for. The
most usual modes of affording relief are allowances in money,
or payment of board. In some places, as in Emmenthal, the
parochial charges are thrown on the large estates, and the
proprietors are forced in turn, and gratuitously, to maintain
the paupers who are allotted to them. In many other places
it has long been the custom to send round the poor to be
maintained in turn by the settled inhabitants (bourgeois), some
of whom, though forced to receive paupers, are themselves in
indigent, or even in distressed circumstances.

Not less sad or even revolting is the practice which prevails
in some poor and ill-judging parishes of getting rid of their
poor by allotting them to those who will take them on the
lowest terms. The parochial authorities offer an allowance to
those who will receive such and such paupers. The allowance
at first proposed is very small; but it is ready money, and
public competition enables the parish to make it still smaller.
The poor victim falls into the hands of a rapacious and needy
family. We may conceive how deplorable his situation must
always be. That it is sometimes supportable can be attributed
only to a benevolence not yet entirely stifled in the hearts of
our people. Cases even have occurred in which the proprietors,
by allowing their inmates to work for themselves, have given
them habits of industry, and bred up their children to be good
workmen. But these exceptions only render the general rule more
apparent.

Relief in money produces effects equally pernicious. It is
the result of the law which enables every family which is,
or believes itself to be, in want, to demand a relief which
cannot be refused. Small sums are given sometimes for payment
of rent, sometimes to meet other wants, whether the applicant
live in the parish or elsewhere--and without control or
superintendence. What can, what must be the consequences? (p.
222.)

We cannot wonder, then, that the administration of the poor
laws in the canton of Berne has become so irregular and so
mischievous. The effects of the subdivision of the inhabitants
into so many corporations have become more and more apparent.
The principle of permanent and hereditary unions necessarily
clashed with the principle of mobility and change which governs
all our social relations. The welfare of the public necessarily
gave way to that of the particular corporations, and the
private interests of the corporations or parishes rendered
them selfish and mutually hostile. _Obstacles were opposed
to every change of residence, and consequently the industry
and enterprise of the labouring classes were paralyzed, and
the parishes felt the results of their own measures when an
unemployed and dispirited population was thrown upon them. It
was to be expected that in time this population would look for
support to the relief to which they had a legal right; it was
natural that in time they would get a taste for an idle and
consequently vicious existence._ We could support our remarks
by many instances of whole families which have subsisted like
parasites from year to year, and from generation to generation,
on the parochial funds; whose status it is to be paupers; and
the cases in which they have emerged from this condition are
few.

The government appears to have been struggling with these evils ever since the beginning of this century. The first ordonnance which has been forwarded to us is that of the 22d December, 1807.

The following are its most material enactments (pp. 191, 192):--

The parishes and parochial corporations (bourgeoisies) in the
town and in the country are required, as heretofore, to afford
protection and relief to their needy fellow-citizens.

No one can claim parochial relief unless he is without
property, and either physically incapable of work, or out of
employ without his own fault.

Parishes may continue their previous modes of regulating and
fixing their accounts with respect to the poor.

They may likewise relieve their poor as they think fit,
by regular money relief, by putting them out to board, by
collecting them in a single establishment, or placing them in
hospitals, or distributing among themselves the children of
the indigent. But it is forbidden for the future that, except
in cases of emergency, and with the sanction of the district
authorities, they should be sent round from house to house to
be maintained. Persons arrested for begging, and taken to their
parish, shall be sentenced by the parochial authorities, after
having given notice to the district judge. The punishment may
be eight days’ imprisonment on bread and water, or fifteen
days’ hard labour[8].

_An equally rigorous treatment is to be applied to those who,
being in the receipt of parochial relief, are disobedient, or
give rise to well-founded complaint. They may be forbidden
to enter inns, or drinking-shops, and punished in the
above-mentioned manner if they disobey._

Parishes may require their overseers to watch the conduct of
those who, from extravagance, drunkenness, debauchery, or other
misbehaviour, are in danger of poverty, and to proceed legally
to have them placed under restrictions. Such persons may be
forbidden by the prefect, on the application of the parish, to
frequent, for a certain period, inns and drinking-shops.

If a person who has received relief subsequently obtains
any property, his parish may demand to be reimbursed their
expenditure on his behalf, but without interest; and though
they may not have exercised their right during his life, they
may proceed against his estate after his death.

_No pauper can marry without the consent of his parish, nor
without having reimbursed it for the relief which he has
received._ The same law applies to widowers, who, while
married, had received relief for themselves or their children.
None who are relieved in consequence of sickness or infirmity
should be allowed to marry, except in extreme cases.

No minister, unless with the permission of the parish, ought to
announce from the pulpit the intended marriage of one whom he
knows to be in the receipt of relief.

If children, in consequence of the idleness, debauchery,
gambling, or voluntary desertion of their father, become
chargeable to the parish, and it is alleged that the father if
he had been industrious and frugal could have supported them,
the overseers may bring an action against him for the amount
of the relief which has been afforded to his children; and if
he do not pay he may be suspended from the exercise of all
civil rights and claims as a bourgeois, _or be sentenced to not
exceeding two years’ imprisonment in a house of correction_. A
second offence is to be more severely punished.

A mother wilfully abandoning her children shall be taken
back to her parish and there kept to work. If she refuse, or
attempt to escape, she may, on the requisition of her parish,
and subject to an appeal to the Council of State, be sentenced
to not exceeding three years’ imprisonment in a house of
correction.

Women who have had several bastards chargeable to the parish
may, on the requisition of their parishes, be similarly
punished. No one receiving, or who has received, parochial
assistance, either on his own account or on that of his
children can, unless specially authorized so to do by his
parish, be present at parochial meetings, until he has repaid
all the sums advanced to him.

If any person entitled to parochial relief shall be refused,
or insufficiently relieved, he may complain to the Prefect,
who shall thereupon hear the allegations of the parish,
and ascertain the condition of the complainant, with the
assistance, if he has any doubt as to the existence or degree
of his bodily infirmities, of a physician. The Prefect may then
order such relief as may appear to him necessary, but no part
of it is to be given in money.

It appears, however, to have been unsuccessful; for 12 years after, the government, after having in vain offered rewards for good advice on the subject (p. 225), by an ordonnance dated the 14th April, 1819, absolutely forbade the levying of rates higher than the average of those of the years 1813, 1814, and 1815. The failure of so coarse a remedy might have been predicted, and accordingly we find the present state of the country thus described in the official report (p. 214):--

It is evident that, with respect to pauperism, the present
situation of the Canton de Berne is in the highest degree
painful. The evil is not temporary or partial: it arises from
no external or accidental sources: a considerable portion of
the population is attacked by it, and it is spreading itself,
like a moral blight, over the whole community.

Some districts, or some classes, may perhaps suffer less
than others, but the malady continues its progress and its
extension: if it decrease in one place, it grows in another. It
is indeed evident that it contains within itself the elements
of its own increase. Not merely the annual augmentation
of the number of paupers, but their constantly increasing
misconduct, their carelessness, and insolence, and above all,
their utter immorality, prove the augmenting force of the
evil; an evil which must destroy all benevolent feelings, and
swallow up, without being satisfied, all that charity can
supply. The contagious nature of the disease carries it beyond
the indigent, to invade and destroy the classes immediately
above them. Those whose daily labour ought to have supported
them, and those small proprietors whose properties ought to
have enabled them to maintain their families, satisfy their
engagements, and contribute to the relief of the poor, even
these classes throw themselves among the really indigent, and
add weight to the load which oppresses those who cannot escape
the poor tax.

[8] It is not easy to say what is meant by the original; whether labour in irons, “enchainement au bloc,” is a necessary part of the punishment or not.

Causes favourable to the working of the above institutions.

We have now given a very brief outline of the institutions of those portions of the Continent which appear, from the returns, to have adopted the English principle of acknowledging in every person a right to be supported by the public. It will be observed that in no country, except, perhaps, the Canton de Berne, has compulsory relief produced evils resembling, either in intensity or in extent, those which we have experienced; and that in the majority of the nations which have adopted it, the existing system appears to work well.

These opposite consequences from the adoption of the same principle, may be accounted for on several different grounds.

[Sidenote: 1. Villenage.]

1. Among some of the nations in question villenage still exists. Now where slavery, in any of its forms, prevails, the right of the slave or villein to support is a necessary and a safe consequence. It is necessary, because a person who is not a free agent cannot provide for himself. It is safe, because one of the principal evils of pauperism, improvidence, can scarcely exist among slaves, and the power of the master enables him to prevent idleness and fraud. The poor laws of Russia, therefore, if they can be called poor laws, are merely parts of her system of slavery.

[Sidenote: 2. Recency of the system.]

2. Among most of the other nations in question the compulsory system is in its infancy. Denmark has only lately got rid of slavery, and her poor laws date from 1798. Those of Sweden, in their present form, of Mecklenburg, Saxony, Wurtemberg and Bavaria, all bear the appearance of recency. In Wurtemberg assessments had been long obsolete, until they were re-introduced during the famine of 1817. The only country in which the compulsory system appears to have continued as long as it has in England, is that in which it has produced effects resembling those which have followed it with us, namely, the Canton de Berne.

[Sidenote: 3. Small number of persons wholly dependent on wages.]

3. Another circumstance which renders compulsory relief less dangerous in the countries which we have been considering than in our own, is the economical situation of their labouring population. In England the great mass of the people are day-labourers, enjoying, where they have escaped the oppression of poor law abuses, high wages and steady employment, but possessed of little visible property, and seldom living under their masters’ roof. Such persons are not deterred from demanding relief by the fear of losing their property, since, where they have any, it is capable of concealment; and they need not always even fear degradation, since the fact of their receiving it may often be concealed. There are many instances in the Poor Law Evidence in which the masters, and even the companions of paupers, were not aware of their receiving allowance. But the class of persons without visible property, which constitutes the bulk of English society, forms the small minority of that of the north of Europe. The Norwegian return states, (698 and 699) that at the last census in 1825, out of a population of 1,051,318 persons, there were 59,464 freeholders. As by 59,464 freeholders must be meant 59,464 heads of families, or about 300,000 individuals, the freeholders must form more than a fourth of the whole population. Mr. Macgregor states (p. 300) that in Denmark (by which Zealand and the adjoining islands are probably meant), out of a population of 926,110, the number of landed proprietors and farmers is 415,110, or nearly one-half. In Sleswick Holstein, out of a population of 604,085, it is 196,017, or about one-third. The proportion of proprietors and farmers to the whole population is not given in Sweden; but the Stockholm return estimates the average quantity of land annexed to a labourer’s habitation at from one to five acres (p. 375); and though the Gottenburg return gives a lower estimate, it adds, that the peasants possess much of the land. (p. 387.) In Wurtemberg we are told that more than two-thirds of the labouring population are the proprietors of their own habitations, and that almost all own at least a garden of from three-quarters of an acre to an acre and a half. (p. 511.)

All the returns concur in stating the number of day-labourers to be very small.

The Norwegian report states, that “by law servants should never be hired for a shorter period than a twelvemonth. Employing labourers by the day, though often done in and about towns, is consequently illegal.” (p. 695.) Few day-labourers are to be met with. (p. 698.) The Gottenburgh, that “strictly speaking there are in Sweden few labourers on the same footing as in England.” (p. 387.) The Russian, that “the labourers are almost all slaves,” and that “the average quantity of land allowed by a proprietor to his slave is 15 acres.” (p. 334.) The Danish report, that “the day-labourers form in Zealand and the adjoining islands less than one-fifth, and in Sleswick Holstein less than one-third of the agricultural population.” (p. 300.) The Wurtemberg report states the labourers to amount to 41,913 (meaning of course heads of families, or about 210,000 individuals) out of a population of 1,518,147, being in fact less than 1-7th. (p. 514.) The Bavarian, that “in the country there are very few day-labourers, as almost every person has some ground of his own, and few are rich enough to hire labour.” (p. 556.)

It is probable therefore that the class of persons who in the north of Europe and Germany would be exposed to the temptation of applying for public relief if it were granted on the same terms as in England, would be a small minority instead of a large majority, and would be perhaps a seventh, fifth, or at most a third instead of three-fourths, or even a larger proportion of the whole community.

[Sidenote: 4. The situation of the pauper being made less eligible than that of the independent labourer.]

4. But the conditions on which parochial assistance is afforded in the countries in question, form perhaps the principal difference between their systems and that which we have adopted. In England, where the scale and the allowance system prevail, no condition whatever can be said to be imposed on the pauper. What he receives is a mere gratuitous addition to his income. Even where work is required, the hours are in general fewer, and the labour less severe than those of the independent labourer. And the workhouse, the most powerful of our instruments of repression, affords, in general, food, lodging, clothing and warmth, better than can be found in the cottage, _and may be quitted at a day’s notice_.

But in all the countries which we have been considering, except the Canton de Berne and perhaps Denmark, the great object of pauper legislation, that of rendering the situation of the pauper less agreeable than that of the independent labourer, has been effectually attained.

On recurring to the statements which we have extracted, it will be seen that he loses all right to property; that he becomes incapable of contracting marriage while receiving relief, and in many countries, if he have once received relief, cannot marry until he has reimbursed the parish, or has procured security that his future family shall not become chargeable, or till three years have elapsed since he last received relief. If married, he loses control over his children, he cannot choose his residence or his occupation, and if he once becomes the inmate of a workhouse _he incurs the risk of imprisonment for life_. When such are the terms offered by the public, it is easy to understand that none but the really destitute will accept them.

[Sidenote: 5. Restraints imposed on the labouring classes.]

5. The prevalence of habits productive of pauperism is repressed by subjecting the whole labouring population to superintendence and restrictions, which we should consider vexatious. As they are in a great measure interwoven with the laws for the relief of the unemployed, and have been in general already stated, it is not necessary to repeat them.

[Sidenote: 6. Prevention of improvident marriage.]

6. In almost all the countries which have been mentioned, endeavours are made to prevent the existence of a redundant population, by throwing obstacles in the way of improvident marriage. Marriage on the part of persons in the actual receipt of relief, appears to be everywhere prohibited, and the marriage of those who are not likely to possess the means of independent support, is allowed by very few.

Thus we are told that in Norway no one can marry without “showing, to the satisfaction of the clergyman, that he is permanently settled in such a manner as to offer a fair prospect that he can maintain a family.” (p. 697.)

In Mecklenburg, that “marriages are delayed by conscription in the 22d year, and military service for six years; besides, the parties must have a dwelling, without which a clergyman is not permitted to marry them. The men marry at from 25 to 30, the women not much earlier, as both must first gain by service enough to establish themselves.” (p. 423.)

In Saxony, “that a man may not marry before he is 21 years old, if liable to serve in the army.” In Dresden, “professionists, (by which word artizans are probably meant,) may not marry until they become masters in their trade.” (p. 482.)

In Wurtemberg, “that no man is allowed to marry till his 25th year, on account of his military duties, unless permission be especially obtained or purchased: at that age he must also obtain permission, which is granted on proving that he and his wife would have together sufficient to maintain a family, or to establish themselves; in large towns, say from 800 to 1000 florins, (from 66_l._ 13_s._ 4_d._ to 84_l._ 3_s._ 4_d._;) in smaller, from 400 to 500 florins; in villages, 200 florins, (16_l._ 13_s._ 4_d._) They must not be persons of disorderly or dissolute lives, drunkards, or under suspicion of crime, and they must not have received any assistance from their parish within the last three years.” (p. 511.)

And we have seen that a similar law prevails and is strictly enforced in Bavaria.

[Sidenote: 7. Provision for the education of the labouring classes.]

7. Another means by which the extension of pauperism is opposed in the countries which we have described, is the care taken by the government to provide for the education of the labouring classes. We are told (pp. 695 and 698) that in Norway their children have free access to the parish schools, and that the poor pay for the education of their children, and for religious teachers, nothing or nearly so. The general report from Russia states (p. 332) that every parish in every town has a school which is open to children of all classes, under the direction of the clergyman; and this is borne out by the consular return from Archangel. (p. 337.) The Gottenburg report states (p. 385) that in Sweden gratuitous education is provided for children of the indigent, and that it is asserted that there is not one person out of 1000 who cannot at least read. The Danish reports state (pp. 264, 293) that the children of all poor persons are educated gratuitously: that the parish is taxed for the payment of the schoolmaster, the repairs of the schoolhouse, books, papers, pens, ink, &c.; and that parents are bound under a penalty to send their children regularly to school until they have passed the age of 14, and been confirmed. Gratuitous education is also afforded in Mecklenburg (p. 491) and in Prussia. Mr. Gibsone states, as the general law of the country, that “all children capable of going to school are obliged to attend it. Those whose parents are unable to pay the expense, must be sent thither at the cost of the community to which they belong” (p. 460); “the expense of school-money and religious instruction is about 1_s._ 6_d._ yearly for each child.” (p. 466.) In the detailed regulation for the relief of the poor in Berlin, (p. 455,) it is laid down that “the period of children being sent to school regularly commences at the beginning of the child’s seventh year, and terminates when the child, according to the testimony of the minister, has acquired the knowledge necessary for his station in life, which generally occurs on his attaining his 14th year. If parents allow their children to grow up without instruction, the commissioners for the relief of the poor are to remonstrate with them, and should this be of no avail, the commissary of police is to interfere.” In Saxony, “the local poor commission supports free schools.” (p. 480.)

The care which has been bestowed on this subject in Wurtemberg is remarkable. The government report, after stating the recent introduction and success of infant schools, adds that--

For older children, from the age of 6 to 14, there has long
existed in Wurtemberg in every, even the smallest community,
supported chiefly at the expense of the local church estate
and community fund, and of the parents, with the co-operation,
however, of the public treasury, a _German or elementary
school_, which all children of that age, both boys and girls,
must attend, and in which, with the exception of short holidays
during the time of haymaking, harvest and vintage, they receive
throughout the year every day, with the exception of Sundays
and holidays, in winter for five and in summer for at least two
hours, instruction in religion, morality, singing, the German
language, reading, writing, arithmetic, and the elements of
natural philosophy, natural history, geography and history.
In summer, in consideration of the work in the fields, the
instruction is given as much as possible in the morning; and
at the season when the labours of the field are the most
urgent, and in cases of great poverty, an exception is made
in favour of those children, where it is required, who, on
application, are excused two or three times a week from coming
to school. With this exception, every illegal neglect of school
is punished by a fine of two or three kreutzers, and if the
neglect of attending is continued, from four to six kreutzers;
and no child, even if it has completed the 14th year, is
suffered to leave the elementary school till it has acquired
sufficient knowledge of what is taught there. (p. 528.)

As, however, many poor children endeavour notwithstanding to
avoid attending the elementary schools, and in all cases the
instruction in these elementary schools occupies only the
smaller portion of the day, so that those poor children who are
not properly attended and employed by their parents have still
plenty of time for idleness and beggary; attempts have latterly
been made in some places to put such children under special
superintendence, as, for instance, by appointing a guardian for
each poor child in the person of an overseer or other public
officer of the community, or of a neighbour, who has to observe
it every where, at home, at work, at play; or by periodical
general summons to the several parents; or by periodical
visitations in the houses of poor families, especially of
those who are suspected of not paying proper attention to the
education of their children; or by the periodical exhibition
of the work done at home; or by the public performance of some
work as a specimen; or by gratuitously providing the poor
children with tools and materials; by the distribution of
rewards among the most diligent and skilful of the children;
and by exhorting, summoning, and punishing negligent parents;
by these means to acquire the certainty that such children are
kept to the constant attendance of the church and school, and
to doing their tasks; that they are sufficiently employed in a
suitable manner; that they are not ill-treated, either by being
overworked or by unmerited corporal chastisement; that they
are not neglected with respect to clothing and cleanliness;
and that they are not abandoned to idleness, beggary and other
vices, &c. (p. 529.)

Partly to retain, by practice, what they have learnt in
the elementary schools, and partly to promote the further
improvement of the grown-up youth, a _Sunday School_ is kept
in every community in Wurtemberg, in the common school-room,
where every youth and girl above 14 years of age, in the
Protestant places to their 18th, and in Catholic places to
their 21st year, must go every Sunday, or where there is only
one school-room the youths and girls every Sunday alternately,
and attend the lessons for at least an hour and a half, on
pain of paying four kreutzers, and if the neglect is of long
continuance, six kreutzers, for every time that they remain
away. It may be added, that, according to the existing laws,
more care has lately been taken that young persons of this
age, unless they are wanted to assist their parents in their
domestic and field-work, particularly those who are educated at
the public expense, and the poor girls and youths discharged
from the penal establishments, _do not remain at home with
their families_, or, out of love to a more unrestrained way of
life, endeavour to gain a livelihood as _Eigenbrödler_[9], as
they are called, merely by sewing, knitting, &c., but that they
try either to engage as servants or learn a trade. (p. 534.)

The Bavarian poor law enacts, that all the children of the poor shall, without favour and without regard to the usual pretexts, be kept to the practice of the public school and religious instructions, as also of frequenting the work and industry schools, and of learning a trade. The school money is to be paid from the poor institutions. (p. 559.)

Among all the Continental communities which recognize in the poor the right to relief, the only one which does not appear to provide the means of education, and to enforce their being made use of, is that in which pauperism has become absolutely intolerable, namely, the Canton de Berne; and even there any aubain (or person not entitled to bourgeoisie in the parish in which he resides) may be summarily ejected (unless possessed of landed property in it), if it can be proved that he does not either send his children to school or provide otherwise for their education. (p. 199.)

[Sidenote: 8. Central superintendence.]

8. Lastly, in most of the countries which have been considered, the local administration of the laws for the relief of the poor is controlled by a central superintending authority.

The only countries, the reports from which state that this is not the case, are Sweden, Denmark, and Berne; and we have seen both that these are the three countries in which the poor laws are the worst administered, and that in all of them the mal-administration which the reporters deplore is mainly attributed by them to the absence of a central control.

[9] “_Eigenbrödler_” means one who endeavours to earn a livelihood independently.

* * * * *

We now proceed to give a short outline of the institutions for the relief of the poor in those countries which do not appear, from the reports in this Appendix, to acknowledge a legal right in the applicant.

HANSEATIC TOWNS.

_Hamburgh._

1. HAMBURGH.--The situation of Hamburgh, a large commercial town, with a small territory and few manufactures, exposes it to a considerable influx of foreign poor; and the number of charitable establishments appears to have fostered and still to encourage pauperism to an extent exceeding the average of the north of Europe. It appears from the Consul-general’s return, that besides many endowed schools, hospitals, and almshouses, the city possesses a general institution for the poor, supported by the interest of its own capital and by some voluntary contributions, and considerable advances from the treasury of the State. A report has been furnished of the proceedings of that institution during the year 1832.