The next statute on the subject, which was passed in 1572 (14 Eliz. c. 5), shows how ineffectual the former statutes had been. It enacted that all rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy beggars, including in this description "all persons whole and mighty in body, able to labour, not having land or master„ nor using any lawful merchandise, craft, or mystery, and all common labourers, able in body, loitering and refusing to work for such reasonable wages as is commonly given," should " for the first offence be grievously whipped, and burned through the gristle of the right par with a hot iron of the compass of an inch about ; " for the second, should be deemed felons ; and for the third, should suffer death as felons, without benefit of clergy. For the relief and susten tation of the aged and impotent poor, the justices of the peace within their several districts were "by their good discretion" to tax and assess all the inhabitants dwelling therein. Any one refusing to contribute was to be imprisoned until he should comply with the assessment. By the statutes 39 of Elizabeth, cc. 3 and 4 (1598), every able-bodied person refusing to work for the ordinary wages was to be "openly whipped until his body be bloody, and forthwith sent, from parish to parish, the most straight way to the parish where he was born, there to put himself to labour as a true subject ought to do." The next Act on this subject, the 43 Elizabeth, c. 2, has been in operation from the time of its enactment, in 1601, to the present day. An entire change in the mode of administration which had grown up under its provisions was however effected by the Poor-Law Amend ment Act (4 & 5 Wm. IV. c. 76), which was passed in 1834. During that long period many abuses crept into the administration of -the laws relating to the poor, so that in practice their operation was subversive of the morals of the most numerous class, and injurious to the welfare of the whole country. In its original provisions, the Act of Elizabeth directed the overseers of the poor in every parish to " take order for setting to work the children of all such parents as shall not be thought able to maintain their children," as well as all such persons as, having no means to maintain them, use no ordinary trade to get their living by. For this purpose they were empowered "to raise, weekly or other wise, by taxation of every inhabitant, parson, vicar, and other, and of every occupier of lands, houses, tithes, mines, &c., such sums of money as they shall require for providing a sufficient stock of flax, hemp, wool, and other ware or stuff, to set the poor on work, and also com petent sums for relief of lame, blind, old, and impotent persons, and for putting out children as apprentices." Power was given to justices to send to the house of correction or common jail all persons who would not work. The churchwardens and overseers were further empowered to build poorhouses, at the charge of the parish, for the reception of the impotent poor only. The justices were further empowered to assess all persons being of sufficient ability for the relief and maintenance of their children, grandchildren, and parents. The parish officers were also empowered to bind as apprentices any children who should be chargeable to the parish.
These simple provisions were in course of time greatly perverted, and so many abuses were engrafted upon the statute, that it became an instrument of more general demoralisation than was ever sanctioned by legislative authority. It would greatly exceed any reasonable limits to trace the progress of these abuses. The most injurious practice was that which was established about the year 1795, when, in order to meet the pressure upon the labouring population caused by the high price of provisions, an allowance was made out of the parish fund to every labourer in proportion to the number of his family, and without reference to his being employed or without employment. This allowance fluctuated with tho price of flour, and the scale was so adjusted as to return to each family the sum which a given quantity of flour would cost beyond the price in years of ordinary abundance. If things had been left to take their course in England, as they were in Scotland, the labourer's wages would have enabled him to purchase the same, or nearly the same, amount of pro visions and other articles of necessary consumption as before the advance, and when the necessity for such a rise in wages had passed away everything would have reverted to its former state. Under the
allowance system the labourer was made to receive a part of his earnings in the form of a parish gift, and as the fund out of which it was provided was raised from the contributions of those who did not employ labourers, as well as of those who did, it followed that the labourers were degraded from the condition of honourable inde pendence to that of parish paupers, and that their employers, being able in part to burden others with the payment for their labour, had a direct interest in perpetuating the system. Accordingly it was found that a constant and rapid deterioration took place in the character of the labouring agricultural population, and that they became unable to obtain a rate of wages adequate to their support without parish relief, however moderate might be the prices of the necessaries of life.
There are no accounts of the sums levied year by year in England and Wales for the relief of the poor before the beginning of the present century. The average expenditure for each of the three years 17S3-4 and 5, was 1P12.2411.; the earliest account after that date is for 1801, when the expenditure amounted to 4,017,8711., the asaearenents having been more than doubled in 17 years. It will be aeon from the follow. Mg table how little connection there has been since that time between the sums expended for relief and the price of corn :— The extent to which the pauperising of the labourers of England was carried had long been viewed with alarm, and had formed the subject of many parliamentary inquiries, but without producing any substantial amendment, until, in 1E32, a commission was appointed by the crown, consisting of the bishops of London and Chester, Mr. Sturges Bourne, Mr. Senior, and five other gentlemen, under whose direction inquiries were carried on throughout England and Wales, and the actual condition of the labouring class in every parish was ascertained, with the view of showing the evils of the existing practice, and of suggesting some remedy. The labour of this inquiry was exceedingly great; but in a comparatively short time a report was presented by the commissioners, which completely explained the operation of the law as administered, with its effects upon different classes, and sug gested remedial measures. This report was presented in February, 1S31, and was followed by the passing, in August, 1834, of the Poor Law Amendment Act, in which the principal recommendations of the commissioners were embodied.
The chief provisions of this law are—the establishment of the Poor Law Commissioners (now the Poor Law Board) to exercise a controlling authority over the administration of relief to the by the local authorities. The administration of relief to the poor is placed undo the control of the commissioners, who make rules and regulations for the purpose, which are binding upon all the local bodies. They arc empowered to order workhouses to be built, hired, altered, el enlarged, with the consent of the majority of the board of guardians One very important power given to them was that of uniting parishes for the purposes of a more effective and economical adminis tratien of poor relief. These united parishes, or unions, are manag& by boards of guardians annually elected by the ratepayers and owner of property of the various parishes, but the masters of workhouses ani other, paid officers, though appointed by the guardians, are under the orders of the commissioners, and removable by theta. The system o paying wages partly out of poor-rates is discontinued, and except it extraordinary C3....C8, as to which the commissioners are the judges relief is only to be given to able-bodied persons or to their female within the walla of the workhouse. Another branch of the poor-law which was materially altered by the Act of 1834, WAR that relating to illegitimate children. And the law upon this subject has since beet altered by the 7 & S Viet. e. 101, and indeed entirely distant sleeted with the l'oor Laws, the mother being now left to enforce he civil remedy against the father of the child.