Hansard
28.9.1841
Thomas Wakley argued that it was not specific abuses but the principle of
the 1834
Poor Law and its tendency to produce the evils complained of that should be
dwelt on.
The principle of the law, as he understood it, was that it removed the
authority for its administration from local ratepayers to an irresponsible
national body, the commissioners, and that it deprived the poor of the
right to relief.
By this law, Wakley argued
"the poor had been literally outlawed - they had been placed beyond the
pale
of the law. The law of the present day was not the law which existed for
the poor in the time of Queen Elizabeth. By the statute of Elizabeth, the
poor had a right to demand relief - the law authorised them to demand it".
" ... he would ask ... if the Poor-law commissioners, possessing the
limited information which they could obtain, considered it their duty to
apply the law less rigorously, whether the Poor-law guardians, having
better opportunities of being made acquainted with the local condition of
the poor, could not also be empowered to relax, under certain
circumstances, the operation of the law?"
Wakley proceeded to criticise the system imposed by the centralised board
in concrete detail.
SIZE OF UNION
MEDICAL RELIEF
DETERRENCE
THE WORKHOUSE
[Hansard
28.9.1841
col.975]
"the object of the commissioners was ... that all the poor should be
compelled to resort to the
workhouse. Now, what was the opinion of Blackstone upon this point? His
words were these, when speaking of the statute of Elizabeth, with respect
to the poor:
"The two great objects of this statute seem to have been, - 1. To relieve
the impotent poor, and them only. 2. To find employment for such as are
able to work. And this principally by providing stocks of raw materials to
be worked up at their separate homes, instead of accumulating all the poor
in one common workhouse, a practice which puts the sober and diligent upon
a level, in point of their earnings, with those who are dissolute and idle,
depresses the laudable emulation of domestic industry and neatness, and
destroys all endearing family connections, the only felicity of the
indigent."
Hansard
28.9.1841 cols 974 to 976
PARISH TENEMENTS
The commissioners had sold small old workhouses and "parish
tenements" to pay for the new workhouses. Parish tenements were houses
owned
by the parish and tenented by the poor. These Wakley said
"
belonged to the
poor ... though he could not say that they were possessed of it by any
written trust, they were entitled to by tenure, and by that right it
belonged to them ... was it the intention of the House, that the poor law
commissioners should sell all the dwellings of the poor ... and ... leave
the poor no habitation at all but the union house? ... Now, if the
tenements thus destroyed had been retained, they might have been converted
to useful purposes. It would be a highly desirable object to endeavour by
law to force the labouring population to practice virtue. Might not other
influences than those of coercion be resorted to for that purpose? Did hon.
Gentlemen imagine that their properties were more secure from plunder, or
their persons more safe from violence, because no regard was shown for the
wants of the poor, and no efforts made to train them to virtue? ... Much of
the immorality and of the vice which was to be found amongst the labouring
classes could clearly be traced to the fact that no reward or inducement
was held out for good conduct. In the whole of the Poor Law ... there was
no contrivance for the reward of good conduct, and no provision by which
some slight honour or distinction might mark the last days of those who in
their lives had set examples of humble virtue. Now, the tenements to which
he had alluded would have answered well for such purpose, by granting them
to well-behaved paupers of a certain age, as places in which they might
repose in peace and quiet during the remainder of their lives. Such a
course would be far better than the present practice of sending them to
prisons, in many instances miles away from all the scenes of their former
associations ... if the prospect of reward was held out to deserving
paupers at certain periods of their lives, the labouring population would
soon become a new race of men, working in tranquillity and contentment, and
happy in the position in which circumstances had placed them"
Hansard
28.9.1841
col.978
"Difficulties could be overcome if the House agreed to legislate in the
spirit of the law of Elizabeth The 1834 law originated with a set of
Utilitarians ... they would have gone on and ground the bones of the poor,
and used them for manure if they thought it would enrich the soil. ["Oh,
Oh"] ... Some hon. Gentlemen might not be aware of the opinions entertained
by that body. They believed it was an affliction to a country that there
should be any poor persons in it. He trusted the House would legislate in a
spirit that should cause the working men of this country to teach their
sons that the gentry were their friends and benefactors. ... If this were
done there would be no fear of midnight conspiracy or crime, nor would any
tremble through the night, in apprehension of the scenes which they might
be doomed to witness in the morning."
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