PAUPERISM, the state of indigent persons supported or aided at the public charge, was recognized: 1, under the Mosaic economy, by special enactments authorizing the right of gleaning, setting apart portions of the produce of the land in sabbatical years. providing for re-entry in years of jubilee, enjoining loans without interest, forbidding perpetual bondage and regulating the manumission and redemption of bondsmen and bondswomen, allotting portions of the tithes, providing for the participation of the poor on festal occasions, and instituting the daily payment of wages; 2, among the Greeks. by public donations, such as the free distributions of corn, the so-called cleruchice among colonists (who, hieing mostly poor, were to be raised to a state befitting the dignity of Athenian citizens), the revenues from the mines, and the theorica, in the first instance designed to enable the poorer classes to attend theatrical exhibitions at the public cost, but afterwards considerably extended; 3, among the Romans, as one of the duties of government, the many frumentarian laws providing not only for the purchase and sale .of corn to the people at a low price wnd at a price below cost. but also for its gratuitous distribution. The first legal provision of the second nature was made 123 u.c.; that of the third in the lex Clodia, 58 me., with the result that the free distribution of corn absorbed one-fifth of the entire revenue of the state. The great danger of the prac tice induced Caesar to apply a remedy, in the number of the recipients, by the rigorous exclusion of all persons unable to prove their Roman eitizenshii; from the list of corn-receivers, froth 320,000 to 150,000, and it was enacted that this number should not be exceeded. The congioria, which in the early times of the republic were coutri0n Lions of a (oughts, of oil or wine (= about 6 pints), designated afterwards liberal donations to the peoi le (as contrastedwith the do/th:at, or donto i yes to the sohhers) of oil, wine, corn, money, or other things, and always denoted that they were gratuitous. The limits fixed by Cesar were soon exceeded, and the number of recipients had risen, 5 n.c., to 320.000. Augustus, 2 n.c., revived many of Csesar's regulations, reducing the number to 200,000 entitled to receive corn on payment of a small sum, and providing for the gratuitous distribution to the absolutely indigent, who were furnished for the purpose with certain tokens, called iC8Sel'03 nummarhe or fruntentarhe. These tcsseim became very valuable property in course of time, when the distribution of corn had become entirely gratuitous, and could be sold and bequeathed by will. At a still later period the pubhe bounty, instead of supplying corn, furnished wheaten bread, baked at the public charge. Constantine extended the same privilege to Constantinople, with the amplification that the privilege, which at Rome was personal, became in the new capital attached to the houses. Thu daily allowance at Constantinople was, acconling to Socra tes, eight myriads of corn, i.e., either of modli or of loaves. The history of Constan tinople proves the disastrous consequences of the emperor's short-sighted policy, just as in the decline and fall of imperial Rome the policy of conginria and donatives was a powerful factor of disintegration. When Odoacer reigned in Italy (47640 A.D.), and the tributary harvests of Egypt and Africa were withdrawn, pope Gelsn-ins affirmed, with strong exaggeration, that in 'Emilia, Tuscany, and the adjacent provinces the human species was almost extinct. The plebeians of Rome were reduced to starvation, and actually perished when the cessation of the congiaria, a soil exhausted by famine, war and pestilence, the decay of agriculture, habits of idleness, and the interruption of commerce, left them in the most deplorable state of helplessness (see Gibbon, ch. 36). The care for the poor, at that period, passed from the hands of an impotent govern ment into those of the church, and was dispensed on the principle of Christian charity. Through the instrumentality of the church the globe has becu covered with countless institutions ot' mercy, of which the pagan world was utterly ignorant. But that subject belongs elsewhere, and is here only referred to for the purpose of indicating that the evil and spread of poverty have increased with the multiplication of charitable institu tions. That aspect of the case, which is a stubborn fact, belongs to the venue of polit ical economy, which has proved beyond all doubt that charity ceases to be charity when it supports and fosters idleness and destroys what has been felicitously called the parsi mony of foresight. It is not t he whole truth to say that charity is an unproductive expendi
ture: discriminating charity is productive expenditure, and to the latter belong certainly popular education, savings banks, insurance companies. law associations, and broad efforts for the supprt s:iou of vice. We have to deal with two forms of pauperism—one the result of improvidence, the other the result of providential visitations; and to the alleviation of both the attention of legislative bodies and philanthropists should be directed.—A brief survey of what has been done and is doing in that direction among the leading civilized nations is now in place. Beginning with Rome under papal rule, and the Latin Catholic countries, excepting France, the affairs of the poor were generally administered, and with the qualifications above-named, well and exhaustively', though not without n tinge of bigotry, through ecclesiastical channels. The convents, monasteries, hospitals, and asylums were often liberally endowed and supported by public and private munificence. Many of the latter, even since the suppression of religious orders, are maintained, wholly or in part, at the public charge. Relief is often afforded by means of money, food, fuel, clothing, and tools. In Austria the "Institutes of the Poor," composed of the parochial minister, two persons called "fathers of the poor," and a controlling officer. all duly recognized by the state. are charged with the administration of hospitals, asy lums, etc., and the dispensation of relief to the indigent. The system in cities is muni cipal, in country districts parochial in the English sense. In Switzerland, the communes must provide for their poor if disabled, and find work for those who are able. In Ger. many, a poor-tax is raised either by state assessment or self-assessment; communal and, in many instances, congregational boards afford relief; poor-houses, asylums, orphan ages. and hospitals, mostly supported at the public charge, are abundant. In Russia, most of the comparatively few charitable institutions are supported by government. Hospitals outside the large cities are not frequent. In Norway and Sweden the public charities are administered by the church which is established; the system resembles that of Germany. The characteristic feature of the Danish system is the provision of mone tary relief by loans. lIolland compels all able-bodied paupers to support themselves by work in certain public institutions. The relief of destitute families in free pauper colonies flows from private sources. In Belgium, besides the vast array cf charitable religious institutions taking cognizance of multifarious forms of distress, exist the public alms-houses in the different departments, in which able-bodied paupers are compelled to work for their support. In France, besides the religious charitable work tame in hospitals, asylums. homes, etc., which began at a very early period (the Hotel Dieu at Paris, formerly known as the Maison Dieu, was founded in the 7th c.), public relief dates back as far as the edict of John II. in 1350. The institution of boards of charity, begun at Lyons in 1531, enlarged at Paris in 1544, and extended in 1566 over France. with power to levy a poor-rate on all property, continued in operation until 1791. In successive reigns, in periods of general distress and destitution, paupers found employment in industrial nospitals; public works were constructed to give employment to the poor; and the eolon'cli were to be stocked with the surplus pauper population, which at times increased to a prodigious extent. The public almshouses (depots de menclicite), originated in 1703, were extended over all the departments in mos, but speedily used for other purposes, revived in 1830, with the important modification that they should be for the reception of paupc I'S required to work for their support. Inadequate to meet the evil, private beaevoleuce, of strictly voluntary character, has created a large number of local bureaux of charity, which, however, as well as all philanthropic institutions, are under the supervision of government, which, iu the administration of those of Paris, is repre sented by the prefect of the Seine as presiding officer of a council of clerics and laymen. Similar boards exist throughout the country. See POOR and Poon-Laws, ante.