The Early History of English Poor Relief. of Girton College E. M. Leonard
reply to the Commons but complained of the manner in which the answer had been delivered, "not using any of their Lordships' former and wonted courteous manner of coming down towards the members of this House to the Bar, but all of them sitting still in their great Estates very solemnly and all covered[149]." A somewhat heated discussion arose between the two Houses as to the way in which the Lords should answer the Commons, and perhaps the friction occasioned by this means contributed to the rejection of the Bill by the Commons by 106 Noes to 66 Ayes[150]. A new Bill for rogues was hastily passed through the House and sent up to the Lords.
The final result of all these discussions, Bills, committees and disputes was a series of Acts dealing with the problems concerning vagrants and the poor from many different sides.
The most important Act of the series is the 39 Eliz. c. 3, formerly the Bill for the relief of the Poor which the great committee appointed on Nov. 19th in the Commons brought in after they had discussed twelve other Bills on the subject. By this Act the relief of the poor was placed mainly in the hands of the Churchwardens and four Overseers of the Poor who were to be appointed every year at Easter by the justices of the peace. These churchwardens and overseers with the consent of two justices of the peace were to take such measures as were necessary for setting poor children to work or binding them apprentice, for providing the adult unemployed with work by means of a stock of hemp, flax, wool, thread, iron or other materials and for relieving the impotent, old and blind. For this last purpose they were empowered to build Hospitals on waste lands. The funds were to be raised by the taxation "of every inhabitant and every occupyer of Landes" and the rates might be levied by distress. An appeal against the assessment might be taken to Quarter Sessions but the assessment itself was to be made by the parochial officers with the consent of two justices of the peace. Rich parishes might be rated in aid of poorer ones and the forfeitures for negligence, made under the Act, were to go to the use of the poor. All beggars were declared rogues except those who begged for meat and victuals in their own parish and soldiers or sailors regularly licensed who were passing to their settlement.
A county rate was also to be levied on the parishes for the relief of prisoners and for the support of almshouses and hospitals, and a Treasurer for the County was to be appointed to administer this relief. Within corporate towns, the head officers had the same authority as justices of the peace in the country.
Another Act passed in this year was entitled "An Acte for the punyshment of Rogues, Vagabonds and Sturdy Beggars[151]."
Justices of the peace in Sessions were empowered to take measures for the erection of Houses of Correction. The old statutes relating to rogues and Houses of Correction were repealed and vagabonds were now to be punished by whipping. They were then to be sent to the House of Correction or gaol belonging to their place of settlement and from thence were to be placed in service if able-bodied or in an almshouse if impotent. If the rogue were likely to be dangerous to anyone he was to be banished, and if he returned was to suffer death. It is a curious part of this Act that the minister of the parish and one other person were to assist by their advice with the punishment of these rogues.
The Bill for Hospitals probably resulted in a statute which re-enacted the old provision that during the next twenty years anyone might found a hospital or House of Correction etc. by simple enrolment in the Court of Chancery and without Letters Patent[152]. Another of the thirteen Bills considered by the committee seems to have become law under the title of an "Acte to reforme Deceipts and Breaches of Trust towching Lands given to charitable uses." It was there stated that the lands appropriated to charitable uses had been misapplied and consequently power was given to the Lord Chancellor etc. to issue writs to the Bishop of the Diocese to inquire into any abuses of the kind and "to set downe such Orders, Judgement and Decrees as the said good, godly and charitable uses may be truely observed in full ample and most liberall sort, according to the true intent and meaning of the founders or donoures thereof[153]."
Two enactments of this series concern soldiers; one confirms the statute of 1592–3 and increases the amount of the rate that justices might impose for their relief[154]; the other provided especially severe punishments against soldiers, mariners and idle persons who wandered "as soldyers or mariners." But on the other hand if a soldier or sailor could not obtain employment in his parish and applied to two justices of the peace, they were obliged to find him work and could if necessary tax the whole hundred for the purpose[155].
The legislation of this year is therefore almost a complete code on the subject, but by far the most important part was the Act concerning the relief of the poor. It was only passed as a temporary measure but was re-enacted with a few alterations four years later. It was in 1597, therefore, and not in 1601 that the whole question was discussed and that the main features of our English system of poor relief were legally established.
This statute differs from earlier statutes, not in the creation of Overseers of the Poor but in making them primarily responsible for the administration of the law. The Act of 1572 first ordered the appointment of Overseers or Collectors. But the burden of initiating measures then rested primarily on the justices of the peace and the head officials of the town. On the other hand the Act of 1597 ordered the overseers to take the initiative, though the justices had still to assent to their proposals and had to see that they did their duty. With regard, however, to soldiers, vagrants and Houses of Correction the justices were still mainly responsible.
4. General features of the discussion in Parliament.
For seventy years Parliament had been making legislative experiments with regard to the public relief of the poor and before 1597 at least nine different plans had been tried. At last a law was produced which as re-enacted four years later is unrepealed at the present day and for more than two centuries was almost unaltered.
Parliament grudged neither its own time nor that of its ablest men to solve the question. The personal side of the history of the discussion is interesting. We see Sir Francis Bacon, to use his own phrase, "not with polished pen but with polished heart," Raleigh neither as courtier nor sea rover but as a stickler for the privileges of Parliament and leader of a committee on the poor, Whitgift, not as ecclesiastical disciplinarian, but as practical philanthropist. Burleigh appears but seldom in the discussions but he too sat on the committee in the House of Lords in 1597.
The most important part of the work seems to have been done by the committee appointed by the Commons on November 19th. The law for the relief of the poor was a new Bill framed by the committee after many other Bills had been considered and seems to have been accepted at once by the House. This committee was an enormous committee and the number of bills considered by it was altogether exceptional, and it is to the meetings of its members in the Middle Temple Hall that we owe the making of a workable Poor Law and all its lasting effects on English social life.
Conclusions.
Even by looking at the provisions of the statutes, we can see that opinion on the subject had greatly changed since 1569. During the earlier years of the period Parliament tried to exterminate beggary by increasing the severity of the punishment of beggars. If we except the law of 1547, this policy culminates in the statute of 1572, though, even in 1572, increased provision for the impotent poor accompanied increased severity towards able-bodied vagrants. The Act of 1576 indicates the beginning of a great change of thought and policy. Legislators have given up the idea that the existence of masterless men is entirely owing to the idleness and wickedness of the men themselves; they provide materials for employment and Houses of Correction and so recognise that the evil was partly caused by a want of training and by a want of work. In 1597 there was a further change; the most severe punishments against vagrants had been repealed and the most important part of the legislation of this year was the statute for the relief of the poor.
5. The chief characteristics of the action of the Privy Council.
We now turn to the second factor in the growth of the English system of Poor Relief; the pressure exercised by the Privy Council on the justices of the peace. The methods employed were twofold; sometimes general measures were enforced through the whole country or through large districts of the country, sometimes pressure was brought to bear only on particular local officials.
The general measures adopted between 1569 and 1597 consist chiefly of organised searches made for the discovery