Chapter 24

[285]Letters addressed by the Poor Law Commissioners to the Secretary of State respecting the Transaction of the Business of the Commission, 1847, House of Commons, No. 148 of 1847, pp. 30-1.It is therefore more correct to treat, as Mr. Mackay does, the policy of abolishing outdoor relief to all classes as a further development of the "principles of 1834," rather than as part of them. "The administrative success of the Act of 1834," he writes, "consists in the fact that the offer of the workhouse served quite as well as an absolute refusal of relief. It obliged the able-bodied to assume responsibility for the able-bodied period of life; and, as we shall presently see,it is now argued that an application of the same principle to the other responsibilities of life would produce equally advantageous results.... That the able-bodied period of life must be responsible for the period that is not able-bodied is an incontrovertible proposition. But the first step, at that date the only practicable step, in recreating the personal responsibility of the labourer, was to hold him responsible for the able-bodied period of his own life" (History of the English Poor Law, by T. Mackay, 1899, vol. iii., pp. 137 and 154).

[285]Letters addressed by the Poor Law Commissioners to the Secretary of State respecting the Transaction of the Business of the Commission, 1847, House of Commons, No. 148 of 1847, pp. 30-1.

It is therefore more correct to treat, as Mr. Mackay does, the policy of abolishing outdoor relief to all classes as a further development of the "principles of 1834," rather than as part of them. "The administrative success of the Act of 1834," he writes, "consists in the fact that the offer of the workhouse served quite as well as an absolute refusal of relief. It obliged the able-bodied to assume responsibility for the able-bodied period of life; and, as we shall presently see,it is now argued that an application of the same principle to the other responsibilities of life would produce equally advantageous results.... That the able-bodied period of life must be responsible for the period that is not able-bodied is an incontrovertible proposition. But the first step, at that date the only practicable step, in recreating the personal responsibility of the labourer, was to hold him responsible for the able-bodied period of his own life" (History of the English Poor Law, by T. Mackay, 1899, vol. iii., pp. 137 and 154).

[286]It is a noticeable fact that certain classes of paupers are never mentioned in the legislation of this period, presumably because Parliament was satisfied with the result of giving wide powers to the Central Authority, and did not wish to interfere with its discretion. Apparently there is no single clause dealing with the treatment either of the able-bodied or of the aged. Women are almost equally ignored, wives only being referred to, and they merely in connection with questions of chargeability, and in such a way as to indicate their complete dependence on their husbands. Children, on the other hand, are the subject of numerous enactments, and the sick, lunatics and vagrants also obtain recognition.

[287]Lewis to Head, 19th May 1851, inLetters of Sir G. C. Lewis, edited by Sir G. F. Lewis, 1870, p. 245.

[288]Thus, under the Poor Relief Act, 1849, the Commissioners might make rules "for the management and government of any house or establishment wherein any poor person shall be lodged, boarded or maintained, for hire or remuneration, under any contract or agreement entered into by the proprietor, manager or superintendent, ... with any guardians," unless such an institution be a county lunatic asylum, a hospital registered or house licensed for the reception of lunatics, or a "hospital, infirmary, school or other institution, supported by public subscriptions, and maintained for purposes of charity only" (12 & 13 Vic. c. 13, secs. 1, 2). By the Metropolitan Poor Act 1867 (30 & 31 Vic. c. 6), they were given power to combine Metropolitan unions and parishes into districts for the provision of sick, insane, infirm or other asylums (see sections on the sick and lunatics) and to direct the erection or adaptation of the necessary buildings; what use the Central Authority made of these powers will be seen presently. Another Metropolitan Poor Act in 1871 extended the application of the former to "any ship, vessel, hut, tent, or other temporary erection which may be used by the managers, with the approval of the Poor Law Board, for the reception of paupers, or otherwise for the purposes of the asylum" (34 Vic. c. 15, sec. 1). The Central Authority was also enabled (by the Paupers Conveyance Expenses Act 1870) to "direct in what cases (other than those expressly provided for by law) and under what regulations, the guardians ... may pay the reasonable expenses incurred ... in conveying any person chargeable ... from one place to another in England" (33 & 34 Vic. c. 48, sec. 1).

[289]The episode of the Lancashire Cotton Famine, and its relief works, in which the boards of guardians were concerned only as nuisance-abatement authorities, will be dealt with under the head of Municipal Work for the Unemployed.

[290]It should perhaps be said that the Central Authority sought to widen the category of able-bodied, so as definitely to include persons over sixty, but in no way disabled (Official Circular, April 1849, No. 24, N.S., p. 63); and also "Children competent to render service" (Poor Law Board to Evesham Union, 3rd April 1869, in Twenty-second Annual Report, 1869-70, p. 5).

[291]Circular of 25th August 1852 in Fifth Annual Report, 1852, pp. 21-2. Note the limitation which we have italicised.

[292]Ibid.p. 22.

[293]Fifteenth Annual Report, 1862-3, p. 14.

[294]Sixteenth Annual Report, 1863-4, p. 15. The boards of guardians did not, in this emergency, always turn round as quickly as did the Central Authority. Thus, in December 1863, the Manchester Town Council, which was building its Prestwich Reservoir, and applying for a loan of £130,000 under the new Act, offered to the Manchester Board of Guardians to take on any able-bodied paupers as labourers. That body, instead of gladly accepting under proper arrangements, passed a series of abstract resolutions, to the effect "that this Board conceives that the payment by boards of guardians of wages in return for labour to poor persons chargeable or seeking to become chargeable upon the rates, or the holding themselves responsible for the providing of such labour for wages—thus impairing the self-reliance of the poor—is opposed to the whole spirit and intent of the Poor Law, and it is inexpedient both upon social and economical grounds." The town council (which duly received its share of the Government loan from the Poor Law Board) persisted in its desire to be helpful in the great crisis, and let the work to a contractor, who undertook to employ only such unemployed operatives as were recommended by the board of guardians or any other body to be named by the town council, but with full control and right of dismissal. We do not find evidence that the guardians named any one (MS. Minutes, Manchester Board of Guardians, 3rd and 10th December 1863).

[295]"No work has been executed ... which was not desirable as a work of permanent utility and sanitary improvement, altogether independent of the circumstances which, during the existence of the cotton famine, gave rise to the special Acts of Parliament.... During the rapid growth of these towns works necessary to health, comfort and trade, such as main sewering ... had not been executed as rapidly as they were required" (Rawlinson's Report of 12th January 1866, in Eighteenth Annual Report of the Poor Law Board, 1865-6, pp. 44, 46).

[296]For this, the leading case in England of national relief works, see Professor Smart's Memorandum on the Poor Law Board, in Report of the Poor Law Commission, 1909, Appendix, vol. 12; Annual Reports of the Poor Law Board, 1862-3 to 1865-6 inclusive;History of the English Poor Law, by T. Mackay, 1899, vol. iii., pp. 398-424;The Facts of the Cotton Famine, by Dr. John Watts, 1866;History of the Cotton Famine, by R. A. (afterwards Sir Arthur) Arnold, 1864;Lancashire's Lesson, by W. T. M'Cullagh Torrens, 1864;Public Works in Lancashire for the Relief of Distress, 1863-6, by Sir R. Rawlinson, 1898.

[297]MS. Minutes, Manchester Board of Guardians, 30th October, 20th November, and 3rd December 1862.

[298]Reports and Communications on Vagrancy, 1848.

[299]Minute of Poor Law Board, 4th August 1848, inOfficial Circular, 1848, No. 17, N.S., p. 271.

[300]On Vagrants and Tramps, by T. Barwick L. Baker (Manchester Statistical Society, 1868-9, p. 62).

[301]MS. Minutes, Bradford Board of Guardians, 23rd November 1849. On this, the Central Authority evidently felt that it had gone too far. It informed the Bradford Guardians that the resolution must be rescinded; that "in affording relief to vagrants the guardians should be governed by the same rule that applies to relief in other cases, namely, the nature of the destitution and the amount of the necessity of the applicant. If the guardians or their officers are satisfied that there is no actual necessity, no danger to health or life, they will be justified in refusing to give more than shelter [Mr. Buller's circular had suggested refusing even shelter in weather not inclement]; but if the applicant appears to be really in want of food, it must be supplied" (Poor Law Board to Bradford Union, 29th November 1849; MS. Minutes, Bradford Board of Guardians, 30th November 1849).

[302]Official Circular, No. 17, N.S. July and August 1848, p. 270.

[303]Ibid.p. 271.

[304]Mr. Sotheron Estcourt (President of Poor Law Board), 15th July 1858,Hansard, vol. 151, p. 1500. "The nightly occupants of the vagrant ward interfere with the regular inmates, harass the officers, and at some seasons and in some workhouses render it impossible to preserve the order or to carry out the ordinary regulations of the establishment" (Circular of 30th November 1857, in Eleventh Annual Report, 1858, p. 29).

[305]Ibid.pp. 30-31.

[306]Mr. Sotheron Estcourt, 15th July 1858;Hansard, vol. 151, p. 1500.

[307]Minute of 23rd December 1863, in Sixteenth Annual Report, 1863-4, p. 31.

[308]27 & 28 Vic. c. 116 (1864); 28 & 29 Vic. c. 34 (1865); Circular of 26th October 1864, in Seventeenth Annual Report, 1864-5, p. 77.

[309]The first expedient was to cause the sums so expended to be refunded by the Metropolitan Board of Works. In 1867 this was replaced by the Common Poor Fund.

[310]Circular of 26th October 1864, in Seventeenth Annual Report, 1864-5, p. 78. It may be added that from 1863 onward, the police acted as assistant relieving officers for vagrants in the Metropolis. The police complained of the filth and vermin brought to the police stations by applicants for relief, and they were relieved of the duty in 1872 (Report of Departmental Committee on Vagrancy, 1906, Cd. 2852, vol. i. p. 12). The police also acted for some rural boards of guardians, the police stations serving as "vagrant relief stations," e.g. at Bakewell, where they were discontinued in 1869 (MS. Minutes, Bakewell Board of Guardians, 15th March 1869).

[311]General Order of 3rd March 1866, in Nineteenth Annual Report, 1867, p. 37.

[312]Reports on Vagrancy made to the President of the Poor Law Board, 1866.

[313]Sir M. Hicks Beach, 28th July 1868 (Hansard, vol. 193, p. 1910).

[314]Sir M. Hicks Beach, 28th July 1868 (Hansard, vol. 193, p. 1910).

[315]Circular of 28th November, 1868, in Twenty-first Annual Report, 1868-9, pp. 74-76. It is curious that the dietary suggested in this Circular allowed (without explanation), the guardians to give male adults eight ounces of bread and a pint of gruel, whereas the General Order to the Metropolitan Unions of the preceding year had definitely limited adult males to six ounces of bread and a pint of gruel.

[316]St. George's, Hanover Square, to Poor Law Board. The numbers of "casual and houseless poor" relieved in the Metropolis went up from 1086, on 1st July 1866, to 2085 on 1st July 1868, and 1760 on 1st July 1870 (Twenty-third Annual Report, 1870-1, p. xxiv).

[317]Ibid.pp. 394-5.

[318]On Vagrants and Tramps, by T. Barwick L. Baker (Manchester Statistical Society, 1868-9, p. 62).

[319]Mr. Goschen (President of Poor Law Board), 13th May, 1870,Hansard, vol. 201, pp. 660-2.

[320]The prohibition was made even more embracing in theOfficial Circularfor April and May 1848 (Nos. 14 and 15, N.S., pp. 227-8), where the term "able-bodied" (though the Central Authority expressed itself as willing to consider relief by gifts of clothing in special cases) was held to include females, not sick or disabled, who were nevertheless unable to earn sixpence a day at field work; "young females" just emancipated; persons of weak constitution, or having frequent ailments, but in receipt of "full wages"; and persons not of weak constitutions, but employed at low wages from inaptitude to labour. Thus, for outdoor relief in the part of England to which this Order applied, the term "able-bodied" ceased to have any relation to any physical conditions whatsoever, but was used as a term covering a heterogeneous class of men and women, strong or weak, healthy or subject to epileptic fits, able or unable to earn complete sustenance. On the other hand, within the workhouse, as we have seen, the same term was becoming more and more definitely restricted to adult persons on normal diet, requiring no medical treatment.

[321]Besides the widows and deserted wives, and the unmarried mothers, the class of able-bodied single women unencumbered by children, in receipt of relief, was not insignificant. In 1859 there were 5173 such in receipt of outdoor relief (Twelfth Annual Report, 1859-60, p. 15;seealso corresponding figures in Thirteenth Annual Report, 1860-1, p. 13).

[322]In 1861, indeed, when the guardians asked advice of the Central Authority, the recommendation to offer relief in the workhouse was distinctly limited to able-bodied males (Poor Law Board to St. James's, Westminster, 19th January 1861, in Thirteenth Annual Report, 1860-1, p. 35).

[323]Twenty-second Annual Report, 1869-70, pp. xxviii, 9, 17-22.

[324]Eleventh Annual Report, 1858, p. 166;seethe corresponding statistics in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Annual Reports.

[325]Twenty-second Annual Report, 1869-70, p. xxi.

[326]Ibid.pp. xxxii-xxxiii, 9-30.

[327]Twenty-third Annual Report, 1870-1, pp. 32-93.

[328]The Central Authority observed in 1858 that "more than one-third of the paupers are children under sixteen." The numbers at that date were 44,989 indoors, and 263,994 out of doors, or 37·4 per cent of the whole (Eleventh Annual Report, 1858, p. 166). It is not clear to us whether this total of children on outdoor relief includes in all cases the children of men in receipt of medical relief only.In 1869, in answer to Mr. Goschen's Minute, the Holborn Board of Guardians forced on the attention of the Central Authority the fact that they, like the other Metropolitan guardians, were allowing for each child on outdoor relief 1s. and one loaf of bread. "No one can pretend," they said, "that this amount is of itself adequate support" (Twenty-second Annual Report, 1869-70, p. 20). The Holborn Board of Guardians practically defied the Central Authority to find any other policy. The Central Authority did not reply to this challenge.

In 1869, in answer to Mr. Goschen's Minute, the Holborn Board of Guardians forced on the attention of the Central Authority the fact that they, like the other Metropolitan guardians, were allowing for each child on outdoor relief 1s. and one loaf of bread. "No one can pretend," they said, "that this amount is of itself adequate support" (Twenty-second Annual Report, 1869-70, p. 20). The Holborn Board of Guardians practically defied the Central Authority to find any other policy. The Central Authority did not reply to this challenge.

[329]Official Circular, 31st January 1844, No. 31, pp. 178-9.

[330]Ibid.1st September 1847, No. 9, N.S. p. 131.

[331]MS. Minutes, Manchester Board of Guardians, 1850-5.

[332]18 & 19 Vic. c. 34 (Education of Poor Children Act 1855). "An enactment involving the important admission that want of education was a form of destitution, which ought to be adequately relieved" (History of the English Poor Law, by T. Mackay, 1899, vol. iii. p. 428).

[333]Circular of 9th January 1856, in Ninth Annual Report, 1857, pp. 13, 15. In 1856 it was reported that there were in Lancashire and the West Riding 48,412 children on outdoor relief, of whom about 30,000 ought to be at school. Yet down to December 1855, the boards of guardians had taken no steps to get them to school, in spite of the inspector's protests (Eighth Annual Report, 1855, p. 63).

[334]House of Commons Return, No. 437 of 1856; Ninth Annual Report, p. 8. Newcastle-on-Tyne adopted it at once (MS. Minutes, Newcastle Board of Guardians, 10th October 1855).

[335]Fifteenth Annual Report, 1862-3, p. 18; Circular of 29th September 1862.

[336]MS. Minutes, Manchester Board of Guardians, 9th October 1862. The Manchester Guardians, whose early school experiment we have already mentioned, largely nullified their own action (and apparently contravened the spirit, if not the letter of the law), by insisting on the attendance of the outdoor paupers exclusively at the guardians' own school, which gave "undenominational" religious instruction, and refusing to pay fees for children to go to any other schools (except for a short time in 1862-3 when their own schools were over-full). In vain did the Roman Catholics and the Manchester and Salford Education Aid Society protest, pointing out that the children were in consequence growing up untaught (ibid.26th May, 23rd and 30th June, and 10th November 1864; 19th June 1865). The Central Authority does not appear to have intervened.

[337]That the children should be accommodated in a separate building, under a separate superintendent, and educated by "a person properly qualified to act as a schoolmaster" (page 307 of Report of 1834, reprint of 1905).

[338]The children in the Bakewell Workhouse were found, in 1855, to be in a dreadful state of health, owing to the literal application throughout the workhouse of the principles of the General Consolidated Order of 1847. The inspector protested at last, and recommended special arrangements for the children in the way of more nourishing diet and outdoor exercise. The guardians framed a new dietary, ordered "the swings, etc. recommended by the inspector," and directed the schoolmistress "to take the girls out for a walk every day when the weather is fine" (MS. Minutes, Bakewell Board of Guardians, 1st October 1855 and 29th September 1856.)

[339]From 1846 onwards the Committee of the Privy Council on Education had, as part of the nation's educational policy, actually made grants to the boards of guardians to pay the salaries of qualified workhouse schoolmasters and schoolmistresses. In 1848 it was announced to the boards of guardians that, whereas "no comprehensive effort has hitherto been made" to raise the standard of efficiency, henceforth the inspector of pauper schools will examine the schools and the qualifications of the teachers as part of the conditions for sharing in the grant (MS. Minutes, Newcastle Board of Guardians, 31st March 1848).

[340]Hansard, vol. 100, p. 1217 (8th August 1848).

[341]Third Annual Report, 1850, p. 6. Few children of independent labourers' families could at that date rise to be artisans.

[342]Poor Law (Schools) Act 1848 (11 & 12 Vic. c. 82).

[343]Second Annual Report, 1849, p. 13. The Central Authority, which had for fourteen years let the establishments alone, now used its influence against them. Mr. Drouet's was closed. Another similar contractor's establishment (Mr. Aubin's at Norwood) was presently taken over by the Committee of the Central London School District and continued as a district school, with Mr. Aubin as salaried superintendent. Three or four other small places were discontinued. Two others at Margate, used for sick and convalescent young paupers, continued with the approval of the Central Authority. An act of Parliament (12 & 13 Vic. c. 13) was passed for their regulation (Second Annual Report, 1849, pp. 16-17).

[344]The Manchester Board of Guardians had had its own boarding-school at Swinton since 1844, where, on the advice of Mr. Tufnell (assistant Poor Law inspector), the children were eighteen hours a week "at school" and eighteen hours "at labour" (MS. Minutes, Manchester Board of Guardians, 22nd August 1844). For the next few years we see them taking great pride in this school, and receiving the highest commendation from the inspectors. But the district auditor, in 1846, complains bitterly of the "costly establishment," warning the guardians that the expense of this school has "already reached an amount that is inconsistent with the class of children for whom the schools were designed," and is "creating dissatisfaction amongst the ratepayers" (ibid.25th June 1846). And in 1861 the Central Authority itself deprecates the payment of so large a salary as £250 a year with board and lodging to the headmaster, and urges the great importance of the industrial as distinguished from the intellectual training of the children (ibid.10th and 16th January 1861).

[345]In 1849, at the instance of the Committee of Council on Education, it issued a Circular extending to workhouse schools the privilege of getting at a low price the school-books of which the Government had arranged the publication for elementary schools (Circular of 25th January 1849, in the Second Annual Report, 1849, p. 25).

[346]House of Commons, No. 50 of 1867, p. 158 (Letter to Guardians of the Holborn Union).

[347]Thus, in 1850, it is reported with laudation that "there are workhouses, like that of the Atcham Union, in which the children receive an education beyond all comparison better than is within the reach of labourers in any part of the county. In the girls' school of the Ludlow Union the children now receive an education in all respects superior to what the humbler ratepayers are able to purchase for their children. This high standard of workhouse education is fast ceasing to be exceptional" (Third Annual Report, 1850, p. 7).

[348]Official Circular, No. 17, N.S. July and August 1848, p. 264.

[349]MS. Minutes, Norwich Board of Guardians, 1845.

[350]Special Order of 30th January 1845.

[351]MS. Minutes, Norwich Board of Guardians, 3rd January and 7th February 1854, 1st April 1856, and 6th January 1857. We gather that the inspector's prescience was so far justified that the Norwich Guardians managed to retain their children's homes, which were in existence a generation later.

[352]12 & 13 Vic. c. 13, sec. 1 (The Poor Law Relief Act 1849). Out of this sprang the Certified Schools Act of 1862 (25 & 26 Vic. c. 43), and the provision in the Poor Law Amendment Acts of 1866 and 1868 (29 & 30 Vic. c. 113, sec. 14, and 31 & 32 Vic. c. 122, sec. 23), enabling the Central Authority peremptorily to order the removal to a certified school of a child of non-Anglican parents, when the board of guardians refused to allow religious freedom.

[353]20 & 21 Vic. c. 48 of 1857; 24 & 25 Vic. c. 113 of 1861; 29 & 30 Vic. c. 118 of 1866.

[354]32 & 33 Vic. c. 63, sec. 11 (Metropolitan Poor Act of 1869); these ships were regulated by Special Orders.

[355]"The vast number of the (outdoor) pauper children in London is as melancholy as it is remarkable" (Twenty-second Annual Report, 1869-70, p. xxii).

[356]See, for instance, as to the Swinton school of the Manchester Board of Guardians, Special Order of 6th July 1852; as to the Cowley school of the Oxford Board of Guardians, Special Order of 24th November 1854; as to the Kirkdale School of the Liverpool Select Vestry, Special Order of 7th August 1856.

[357]Even so populous a town as Newcastle-on-Tyne refused to remove its children from the workhouse. We see the Poor Law inspector arranging a special visit to inspect them, and to confer with the guardians to urge a district school (MS. Minutes, Newcastle Board of Guardians, 10th August and 21st September 1849). He then presses for a joint conference, which does nothing but adjourn (ibid.17th January and 14th March 1850). Nothing is done. Six years after he finds the education is still in a deplorable state (ibid.29th August and 3rd October 1856), and gets the infants into a separate building. The guardians will not appoint a resident schoolmaster (ibid.12th December 1856; 23rd January, 29th May, 18th August, 4th September 1857). It takes three months and three urgent appeals to get them to appoint an additional infants' mistress (ibid.19th November 1858; 21st January, 11th February, 25th February 1859).

[358]The disfavour with which, as we have noted, the Central Authority regarded apprenticeship, seems to have continued. The Special Orders of 31st December 1844, and 29th January 1845 (issued to several hundred unions), severely restricting apprenticeship, and the amending Special Orders of 15th and 22nd August 1845, which slightly mitigated these restrictions, were continued in force. Some of the provisions were relaxed in special cases (e.g.Special Order of 11th August 1855, to Leicester Union for a deaf and dumb girl). No General Order seems to have been issued on the subject between 1847 and 1871; nor do we trace any instructions or advice to boards of guardians as to the steps to be taken to place boys and girls out in advantageous callings. A few decisions on legal points tended rather to restrict apprenticeship. The Central Authority held that a child could not be apprenticed to domestic service as it was not a "trade or business"; nor bound to a married woman, nor beyond the age of twenty-one (Official Circular, No. 54, N.S., 1856, p. 38;ibid.No. 46, N.S., February 1851, p. 17;ibid.No. 34, N.S., February 1850, pp. 17-18). In 1851, Parliament passed the Poor Law (Apprentices) Act (14 & 15 Vic. c. 11), for preventing cruelty to apprentices; and the Central Authority, in transmitting this statute to the boards of guardians, carefully abstained from any indication of policy, as to how pauper children should be placed out in life (Circular Letter, 26th June 1851, in Fourth Annual Report, 1851, pp. 19-21). As a minor instance of the merging of branches of the Poor Law into the general treatment of all classes of the community, it may be noted that this Act was repealed in 1861, its provisions being practically embodied in the Offences against the Person Act (24 & 25 Vic. c. 100, sec. 26).

[359]Eighth Annual Report, 1855, p. 58.

[360]Circular of 5th September 1863; in Sixteenth Annual Report, 1863-4, pp. 19, 34.

[361]Seethe first set, in Twentieth Annual Report, 1867-8, pp. 128-58.

[362]Home Training for Pauper Children, 1866;Children of the State, by Miss F. Hill, 1869;The Advantages of the Boarding-out System, by Col. C. W. Grant, 1869;Pall Mall Gazette, 10th April 1869; debate in House of Commons, 10th May 1869.

[363]Poor Law Board to Evesham Union, 3rd April 1869; House of Commons, No. 176 of 1869; Circular of 30th October 1869; Twenty-first Annual Report, 1868-9, pp. 25-6; House of Commons, No. 176 of 1870, pp. 123-189; Twenty-second Annual Report, 1869-70, pp. lii-lv and 2-8. It was explained to boards of guardians that they were at liberty to board-out children within the area of the union at their own discretion, "no orders or regulations to the contrary having been issued" (Poor Law Board to Newcastle Union, 17th March 1871).

[364]Pauperism, by H. Fawcett, 1871, pp. 79-91.

[365]The Poor Law, by Rev. T. Fowle, 1881, p. 144.

[366]History of the English Poor Law, by T. Mackay, 1899, vol. iii. p. 434.

[367]Official Circular, Nos. 14 and 15, N.S. April and May 1848, p. 228.

[368]Outdoor Relief Regulation Order of 14th December, 1852.

[369]General Order of 1st January 1869, in Twenty-first Annual Report, 1868-9, pp. 28, 79-82.

[370]Circular of 27th July 1866, in Nineteenth Annual Report, 1866-7, p. 39.

[371]Official Circular, No. 20, N.S. Nov. and Dec. 1848, p. 297.

[372]Fourth Annual Report, 1851, p. 15; 14 & 15 Vic. c. 105, sec. 4.

[373]Twentieth Annual Report, 1867-8, pp. 27-8.

[374]Twenty-second Annual Report, 1869-70, pp. xxiv-xxvii, 38-108; Twenty-third Annual Report, 1870-1, pp. xliv-lii, 173-188.

[375]See, for instance,The Administration of Medical Relief to the Poor—Reports by the Poor Law Committee of the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association, 1842;Life and Times of Thomas Wakley, by S. Squire Sprigge, 1897.

[376]Mr. Baines (President of the Poor Law Board), 12th July 1853;Hansard, vol. 129, p. 138.

[377]Sixteenth Annual Report, 1863-4, p. 108.

[378]Circular of 12th April 1865, in Eighteenth Annual Report, 1865-6, pp. 23-24.

[379]Some boards of guardians rebelled in this connection against a departure from the principle of "less eligibility" that they did not understand. When the circular of the Central Authority inviting compliance with the recommendation of the House of Commons Committee reached the Manchester Board of Guardians, it was referred to a committee. When the committee, after eighteen months' delay, recommended compliance, its report was rejected (MS. Minutes, Manchester Board of Guardians, 20th April 1865, and 25th October 1866).

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