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Whiggery thuggery in hard times, which poor law will the government adopt?

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References

  1. This will involve freezing the Single Parent Allowance at its current level, with no future claimants having any entitlement to the benefit.

  2. Secretary of State for Social Security.

  3. Reported inThe Independent, 10th January 1995.

  4. Derek Fraser,The Evolution of the British Welfare State, Macmillan, 1973, 192–206.

  5. Supra n.4 Derek Fraser,The Evolution of the British Welfare State, Macmillan, 1973, National Health Service Act, 1946, and National Assistance Act, 1948. This latter abolished the Poor Law, and stated in s.4: “It shall be the duty of the Board…to assist persons in Great Britain who are without resources to meet their requirements…”

  6. The Republican-led United States Congress introduced in 1995 the “Contract with America”, which includes the stated policy of reforming welfare, targeting children born out of weldock including the suspension of payments to various categories of single mothers.

  7. See especially Charles Dickens,Oliver Twist, Penguin edition, 1994.

  8. Norman Longmate,The Workhouse, Temple Smith, 1974, 11–12.

  9. The Old Poor Law comprised a collection of local systems of poor relief under statutory authority. These included the provision of Houses of Correction, workhouses, allowances of food, rent or money in Out-Relief, the provision of cottages, the Roundsmen system of parishioners finding work for the unemployed, pensions for the elderly and sick, almshouses, local charities, a wage subsidy and the “Speenhamland” system first introduced by Justices in Berkshire which comprised poor relief related to the price of bread and the size of a man's family. See Ann Digby,The Poor Law in Nineteenth Century England, The Historical Association, 1989, 6–8.

  10. T.R. Malthus, “Essays on Population (1802)”, in M.E. Rose, ed.,The English Poor Law 1780–1930, David and Charles, 1971, 43–45; Sir Frederick Morton Eden,The State of the Poor, 1793, reprinted, abridged and edited A.G.L. Rogers, Routledge, 1928, Book I.

  11. One of the allegations against the Speenhamland System was that it encouraged labourers to have more children. Select Committee on Labourers' Wages,Parliamentary Report, VI (1824) 3, 5. Support for this view, first expressed in the work of Malthus, can be found in G.R. Boyer, “Malthus was right after all: Poor relief and birthrates in Southeastern England”,XCVII Journal of Political Economy (1989), 93–114; G.R. Boyer,An Economic History of the English Poor Law 1750–1850, Cambridge University Press, 1990, 85–149.

  12. 4 & 5 Will IV c.76 (1834).

  13. The New Poor Law. Under the Act, being poor was not sufficient in order to qualify for relief, the able-bodied pauper had to be destitute, and the only relief available was to be obtained by entry into a workhouse. Conditions were to be deterrent, “less eligible”, than those enjoyed by the independent labourer. England and Wales were divided into Poor Law Unions, each of which had to provide workhouse accommodation for its poor. Conditions were austere, families divided, a uniform and work tasks provided, diet standardised, and the system was centrally overseen in London. See Digby,supra n9, at 14. The Old Poor Law comprised a collection of local systems of poor relief under statutory authority. These included the provision of Houses of Correction, workhouses, allowances of food, rent or money in Out-Relief, the provision of cottages, the Roundsmen system of parishioners finding work for the unemployed, pensions for the elderly and sick, almshouses, local charities, a wage subsidy and the “Speenhamland” system first introduced by Justices in Berkshire which comprised poor relief related to the price of bread and the size of a man's family. See Ann Digby,The Poor Law in Nineteenth Century England, The Historical Association, 1989, p 208, at 14.

  14. Jeremy Bentham's work was the most influential upon the development of the new Poor Law and, although much of it remained unpublished, his habit of circulating the manuscripts among men of authority ensured its effect. See J.R. Poynter,Society and Pauperism, English Ideas on Poor Relief, 1795–1834, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1969, 106–185.

  15. See Eden,supra T.R. Malthus, “Essays on Population (1802)”, in M.E. Rose, ed.,The English Poor Law 1780–1930, David and Charles, 1971, n. 10, p 208 at 1–99 and Sir George Nicholls,A History of the English Poor Law, vol I, A.D. 928 to 1714, 1851, P.S. King & Son, Reissued 1904, 360–384; see also Robert Pashley,Pauperism and Poor Laws, Longman, 1852, 243–271.

  16. Mark Blaug, “The Myth of the Old Poor Law and the Making of the New”,Journal of Economic History XXIII (1963), 151–184, and Mark Blaug, “The Poor Law Report Re-examined”,Journal of Economic History, XXIV (1964), 229–245.

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  17. M.E. Rose, “Social Change and the Industrial Revolution”, in R. Floude and D.N. McCloskey, eds.,The Economic History of Britain since 1700, I: 1700–1860, Cambridge University Press, 1981, 253–75. Digby,supra n. 9, at 13.

  18. 5 Geo.4, c.83 (1824).

  19. Seesupra n. 13. The New Poor Law. Under the Act, being poor was not sufficient in order to quality for relief, the able-bodied pauper had to be destitute, and the only relief available was to be obtained by entry into a workhouse. Conditions were to be deterrent, “less eligible”, than those enjoyed by the independent labourer. England and Wales were divided into Poor Law Unions, each of which had to provide workhouse accommodation for its poor. Conditions were austere, families divided, a uniform and work tasks provided, diet standardised, and the system was centrally overseen in London. See Digby,supra n9, at 14. The Old Poor Law comprised a collection of local systems of poor relief under statutory authority. These included the provision of Houses of Correction, workhouses, allowances of food, rent or money in Out-Relief, the provision of cottages, the Roundsmen system of parishioners finding work for the unemployed, pensions for the elderly and sick, almshouses, local charities, a wage subsidy and the “Speenhamland” system first introduced by Justices in Berkshire which comprised poor relief related to the price of bread and the size of a man's family. See Ann Digby,The Poor Law in Nineteenth Century England, The Historical Association, 1989, p 208, 6–8.

  20. Peter M. Solar, “Poor Relief in English economic development before the industrial revolution”,Economic History Review XLVIII/I (1995), 1–22.

  21. 43 Eliz.I, c.2 (1601).

  22. 13 & 14 Car.II c.12 (1662).

  23. R v.Herberton (1789) 99 E.R. 1017. So technical had this litigation become that Lord Mansfield called “the expenditure on settlement litigation a disgrace to the country”:ibid., at 1018.

  24. Supra at n.13. The New Poor Law. Under the Act, being poor was not sufficient in order to quality for relief, the able-bodied pauper had to be destitute, and the only relief available was to be obtained by entry into a workhouse. Conditions were to be deterrent, “less eligible”, than those enjoyed by the independent labourer. England and Wales were divided into Poor Law Unions, each of which had to provide workhouse accommodation for its poor. Conditions were austere, families divided, a uniform and work tasks provided, diet standardised, and the system was centrally overseen in London. See Digby,supra n9, at 14. The Old Poor Law comprised a collection of lcoal systems of poor relief under statutory authority. These included the provision of Houses of Correction, workhouses, allowances of food, rent or money in Out-Relief, the provision of cottages, the Roudsmen system of parishioners finding work for the unemployed, pensions for the elderly and sick, almshouses, local charities, a wage subsidy and the “Speenhamland” system first introduced by Justices in Berkshire which comprised poor relief related to the price of bread and the size of a man's family. See Ann Digby,The Poor Law in Nineteenth Century England, The Historical Association, 1989, p 208, 6–8.

  25. Dorothy Marshall,The English Poor in the Eighteenth Century, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1926, 15–16, hints at the church's early role but fails to develop the discussion. Paul Slack,The English Poor Law 1531–1782, Macmillan, 1990, 13–17, surveys the current status of poor law historical debate on the role of the parish.

  26. James A. Brundage,Medieval Canon Law, Longmans, 1995, 9–28. From 779 the clergy of each parish were authorised to collect a tithe (a 10% tax on incomes including crops) from all who lived within its boundaries. These tithes continued to be collected for the next thousand years, whilst parishes became administrative and tax collecting structures available to civil authorities.

  27. Brian Tierney,Medieval Poor Law, A Sketch of Canonical Theory and its Application in England, University of California Press, 1959; Ross Cranston,Legal Foundations of the Welfare State, Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1985, 11–15. Cranston's work concentrates upon the origins of charitable trusts and underplays the role of the canon law. He only considers the parish in the context of charities.

  28. Tierney,supra n.27, at 70.Medieval Poor Law, A Sketch of Canonical Theory and its Application in England, University of California Press, 1959

  29. Tierney,supra n.27, at 24.Medieval Poor Law, A Sketch of Canonical Theory and its Application in England, University of California Press, 1959.

  30. Tierney,supra n.27, at 34,Medieval Poor Law, A Sketch of Canonical Theory and its Application in England, University of California Press, 1959, cites St. Ambrose, “No one may call his own what is common, of which, if a man takes more than he needs, it is obtained by violence … the bread that you hold back belongs to the needy, the clothes that you shut away belong to the naked, the money that you bury in the ground is the price of redeeming and freeing the wretched.”

  31. 15 Richard II, c.6. (1391), 22 Hen VIII, c.12 (1531), and 27 Hen VIII, c.25 (1535/6). See Sir Henry Gwillim onTithes, 4 vols., 2nd ed., 1825, for a collection of relevant common law statutes and cases upon tithing.

  32. 22 Hen.VII, c.12 (1531), 3 and 4 Edw.VI, c.16 (1549), 5 Eliz.I c.5 (1563), 4 Eliz.I c.5 s.32 s.37 (1572).

  33. K.D.M. Snell,Annals of the Labouring Poor: social change in agrarian England 1660–1700, Cambridge University Press, 1985, 104–105; K. Wrightson and D. Levine,Poverty and Piety in an English Village: Terling 1525–1700, revised edition, Clarendon Press, 1995, 192.

  34. E.P. Thompson,Whigs and Hunters, Penguin, 1990, andCustoms in Common, Penguin, 1993.

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  1. School of Law, Social Work and Social Policy, Liverpool John Moores University, UK

    Lorie Charlesworth (Senior Lecturer in Common Law)

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Charlesworth, L. Whiggery thuggery in hard times, which poor law will the government adopt?. Liverpool Law Rev 17, 207–214 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02439525

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