PAUPER. In the United States a pauper is a person so des titute that he must be supported at the public expense. In the several States there are statutes which make provision for the support of the poor.
In the particular and technical sense in which the term is commonly used in Britain, pauper means a person in receipt of poor law relief, either for himself or for his dependants. In order to get this relief it is necessary to be not merely poor, but desti tute, i.e., without material resources directly available and appro priate for satisfying physical needs, whether actually existing or likely to arise in the immediate future. The relief given may be either "indoor," e.g., maintenance in a workhouse, hospital, infirmary, asylum, or poor law school, or "outdoor" in the form of allowances in money or kind, or of medical attendance in the home. Pauperism formerly involved disfranchisement. This was slightly modified in 1885 by the Medical Relief Disqualification Removal Act, which provided that a man who received medical relief only should not lose his vote, save for the election of boards of guardians. In 1918 the Representation of the People
Act swept away the "pauper disqualification" generally. It lef t two restrictions, however. Regular inmates of poor law institu tions cannot be voters, because residence in such institutions does not qualify them for inclusion in the electoral register. And the recipient of any form of poor law relief is ineligible for election as a member of a board of guardians or of a district council.
The following table shows the total number of paupers in England and Wales on Jan. 1, and in Scotland on Jan. 15, and in the United States (in almshouses), in certain years : It should be noted that these figures repre sent the numbers in receipt of relief on a single day. The number of individuals who become paupers during the course of the year would be much larger. Thus the total on Jan. I, 1907, in England and Wales was slightly under 800,000; but the year's count showed a total of 1,700,00o. (See POOR