THE REFORM OF THE ENGLISH POOR LAW In as much as the reform of the English Poor Law in 1834 has exercised a unique influence upon all subsequent discussions of the policy of public relief, it is interesting to inquire whether the circumstances under which this reform was brought about were such as to warrant the conclusions ordinarily drawn from it.
The famous report of the Commission of 1832, upon which the reform was based, is a masterpiece of painstak ing investigation. It happens also that the history of the English Poor Law has been written by one of the three commissioners charged with the administration of the new law, so that our current interpretation of earlier and later English history is colored by the very views that controlled the reformers of that period./ In a word, the dominating idea of the reform of 1834, which has remained in almost unquestioned supremacy in England and America, is that the lax administration of relief was responsible for the deplorable prevalence of pauperism at that time ; and that this is the chief source of danger from which even now the poor must at all haz ards be protected. It is curious that not only writers on the poor but even and historians, in 1 Nicholls : " History of the English Poor Law." 2 In thirty years the dependent population, called into existence by the facilities of relief, brought the country to the verge of ruin. —Mackay: "The English Poor." This volume, however, has the merit of discussing the problem of pauperism as an integral part of the social and economic history of the people.
8 Compare, for example, the description of "the operations of the English Poor Law" in Hadley's "Economics," pp. 53-55. The para graph on this subject is a part of an admirable discussion of economic responsibility.
269 referring to this subject, have usually treated it as an entirely detached episode, and yet nothing could be more futile than to attempt to estimate it without reference to the stirring events of the generation in which it occurred. The report of the various commissions and parliamentary committees appointed to inquire into the conditions of particular classes of laborers is perhaps a more authentic and instructive source of information than the report of the Poor Law Commission itself, for the very reason that the attention of the investigators in these other inquiries was not fixed to such an extent upon particular evils and upon the search for their remedy.'
At the time when the new commissioners undertook to reform the administration of the Poor Law, England had been at peace for about twenty years. The nation had been partially relieved from the crushing burden of war The collapse of prices and the violent readjust ment made necessary by the close of the Napoleonic wars caused, it is true, severe industrial Within ten years, however, the freedom of commerce from the war embargoes, and the return of capital to the investments and occupations of peace, showed their natural effect. The relations between England and her colonies were greatly altered by the removal of restrictions upon colo nial commerce ; and treaties were made with Prussia, Denmark, and other European countries, which were most The exclusive commercial powers of the East For example : Reports of the Central Board of his Majesty's Com missioners who inquired into the employment of children in factories, 1833.
.Report on Enclosures, 1808.
Report of the Select Committee on the State of the Coal Trade, 1830. Report of the Select Committee on Manufactures, Commerce, and Shipping, 1833.
2 Early in the present century the Imperial taxes — for the greater part war taxes — amounted to one-fifth of the whole income of the coun try, whereas now they are not more than one-twentieth, and even of this a great part is spent on education and other benefits which government did not then afford. —Marshall : "Principles of Economics," p. 233. Never was the United Kingdom in a more parlous state than when the crowning triumph of Wellington placed it at the head of the nation. —Rose :. "The Rise of Democracy," p. 15.