^ THEEE LETTEES FROM SIR CHARLES TREVELYAN TO ' THE TIMES ' ON LONDON PAUPERISM THE LEADING ARTICLE UPON THEM AND EXTRACTS FROM *HOW TO RELIEVE THE POOR OF EDINBURGH AND OTHER GREAT CITIES, WITHOUT INCREASING PAUPERISM : A TRIED, SUCCESSFUL, AND ECONOMICAL PLAN, 1867 ' AND FROM THE ^REPORT ON THE CONDITION OF THE POORER CLASSES • OF EDINBURGH, AND OF THEIR DWELLINGS, NEIGHBOURHOODS, AND FAMILIES, 1868' LONDON LONGMANS, GEEEN, AND CO. 1870 ^o^^noN•. riiiNTr.n BT 8POTTISWOOT)H AND CO., KEW-STjn'.ET BQt'AKB AND PAllMAMKNT STItKliT LONDON PAUPEEISM. FIEST LETTER. To the Editor of the Times, Sir, — The pauperised, demoralised state of London is the scandal of onr age. London is the metropolis, not only of the United Kingdom, but also of an empire upon which the sun never sets, including the vassal continent of India, itself an empire. London is the foremost city of Christendom; and at this season the delegates assemble here of societies v^hich have for their object the evangelisation of the v^orld. The population of London is as large as the aggregate population of the three next largest European cities — Paris, Vienna, and Berlin — and it closely approximates to that of Scotland, is nearly equal to the population of Holland, and is not quite three times that of Wales. The wealth of London is even more remarkable than its population ; and British depen- dencies and foreign nations look to it as an inexhaustible treasury from which loans of vast aggregate amount may be obtained for carrying on every sort of public and private undertaking. Yet this London is a whited sepulchre, w^hich, indeed, appears beautiful outward, but within is full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. It is a gigantic laboratory of corruption and crime ; and, while it aspires to christianise the heathen, it exercises a far more direct and effectual influence in heathenising Christians, and in dragging the rest of England down to its own low level. This monstrous evil is the compound result of various causes, A 2 4 LONDON PAUPERISM. with some of the most remediable of which I will endeavour to deal in a distinct and practical manner. And, first of all, with regard to what is commonly called the vagrant class. We are not now speaking of the sick, aged, and infirm poor, nor of the industrious ablebodied in tem- porary distress ; but of the class of which the idle ablebodied and habitual vagrants form the nucleus. Some persons have a natural predisposition for a roving and rambling life, which is capable of being directed into useful channels ; but the ordinary motive is dislike to continuous industry, or a taste for low and degrading pursuits. Vagrants have their seasons, like their betters ; and their ]3lan for the year nearly follows that of fashionable life. They assemble in London in spring, to reap the harvest of the full season ; and as the town thins, they follow tTie company to the various watering places. How completely they use the casual wards of the metropolitan workhouses, as a town house pro- vided for them at the public expense, will be seen from the following return, showing that the flow of vagrants to London increases at the very time when ordinary pauperism dimi- nishes : — Metropolitan Pauperism. Paupers. Vagrants. 169,553 1,168 166,586 1,447 163,677 1,395 158,774 1,269 153,517 1,365 148,601 1,489 145,421 1,580 142,873 1,604 140,515 1,628 139,524 1,760 The explanation of the last extraordinary increase is the Derby week. Lately, when I expressed my surprise that a single police- man sufficed for the town of Shanklin and its environs, I was told this was so at other times ; but that towards autumn Second week of March Third )) )» Fourth V ?> First j> April Second 5) )) Third )J )> Fourth ?) )) Fifth „ 5> First )> ;NLay Second )> 55 CI/ FIRST LETTER. 5 the Isle of Wight was invaded by a swarm of vagrantSj who were whining or minatory according to the power of resis- tance of the persons whom they happened to meet, and were always ready to pilfer, or worse, when they had an opportu- nity. The relation of the vagrant to the criminal class is of the most intimate kind. Persons without accumulated means must live either by working or by preying upon others ; and those who choose this last bad part, are likely to be guided, as to the mode and extent of their depredations, only by the temptation and the opportunity. In London, this class has attained a magnitude previously unknown in history. First, there is the imported article, and then there is the home manufacture. The amount expended every year in London in public and private charity is vari- ously estimated at from four to seven millions sterling ; so that, whatever London may be to the working-man, it is a land flowing with milk and honey to the idler. The old popular myth that London streets are paved with gold is practically realised to this class. Under the influence of such attractions as these, the metropolis has become the com- mon sink of everything that is worst in the United Kingdom. The case has become more serious than ever now, because many of the counties and provincial towns have begun to en- force the laws against mendicants, and the metropolitan coUuvies is, therefore, swelled by a double process of repul- sion and attraction. Everywhere the criminal class merges, by a natural sympathy, in the vagrant class ; but in London it is estimated that one person in every 150 is a housebreaker, a pickpocket, a shoplifter, a receiver of stolen goods, or a human bird of prey, or man-wolf, of some sort, which gives upwards of 20,000 of this class. According to two independent calculations, there are about 150,000 children whose parents live in chronic indigence, and about 100,000 of them are loose in London streets, in- cluding those who appear for a longer or shorter period in the ragged schools. From this great mass of neglected childhood spring the juvenile criminals who eventually stock our gaols with hardened offenders. They are almost uni- b LONDON PAUPERISM. versally stunted in their growth, and often emaciated with want. ' All of them are more or less debased ; their intel- lectual faculties are of the lowest order ; their moral sense is stifled or inactive, through suspicion or obstinacy.' ' The enormous facts of London charity' are, to a lament- able extent, responsible for this state of things. I do not refer to giving to beggars in the streets, which has been brought within comparatively trifling limits, but to the wholesale, indiscriminate action of competing societies, crowned by the munificent individual gifts of rich charitable persons. This has erected mendicancy into a lucrative scien- tific profession, and has stimulated it by the pleasurable excitement which belongs to a lottery. Labour is the great antidote to crime : ' In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground.' The effect of modern charity has been to suspend this primeval law, and to destroy, in large classes of our people, the natural motives to self-respect and independence of character, and their kin- dred virtues of industry, frugality, and temperance. Many have excellent wages during certain periods of the year ; but, in the face of our so-called charitable system, the man who saves is worse off" than his extravagant neighbour. Not one in a thousand, therefore, provides for the morrow. Every- thing is spent in selfish indulgence, with the comfortable assurance that, when the bad season comes, there will be no hesitation in admitting the claim of ' the labourer out of work' to 'have his things taken out of pawn,' and to receive ' such temporary assistance as may be necessary to prevent his home from being broken up.' There is no part of Lon- don where the trade of the publican is so flourishing as at the East-end, where so-called ' charity ' has done its worst. It has even thrown out a new branch of business there, for fortunes are made by setting up one public-house after another and selling the goodwill. The crowning curse of London is drunkenness, for there is no form of sin or sorrow in which it does not play a part; and drunkenness goes hand in hand with misdirected charity. The claims of rela- tionship, which bind the poor together by the sweetest of FIRST LETTER. * all charities, when they are left in a natural state, are alto- gether ignored in this moral crash. In making out a claim upon a London charitable society, a father or son capable of assisting is an element carefully kept out of sight. In his recent motion on the ^Police Regulation of Va- grants,' Dr. Brewer said : — The evil was increased by the number of charitable institutions intended for the relief of distress, but conducted without discipline, without classification, and without labour, whether as a means of edu- cation or as a test of condition. ... Of the working generally of these institutions, those who had most deeply studied this subject for years as it affected this metropolis felt that what John de Thoresby said in his day was true also in this, for, under colour of giving alms, these institutions were simply provocative of the veiy evils which they were intended to mitigate and allay. Upon this Mr. Goschen remarked : — Yet he would frankly state that the co-operation of the Home Office and the Poor Law Board was not sufficient to put down vagrancy, for there was another power which could contribute far moFe effectually to put it down — namely, the public themselves. Unless the public co- operated, it was impossible to hope to deal satisfactorily with the subject. His hon. friend the member for Colchester (Dr. Brewer) had spoken of the effect on the houseless poor of opening the private refuges in London, and, indeed, those refuges had as much influence on the spread of vagrancy as the casual wards of the workhouses. While no pro- vision was made for the homeless poor of the metropolis, as his hon. friend preferred to call them, there was every reason why benevolent persons should encourage private refuges, as many harrowing stories were told, and told truly, of accidents happening in consequence of persons coming to town and being unable to find a lodging for the night. It should be borne in mind, however, that in the refuges there was no discipline and no test whatever, and it was curious to observe the effect which the opening of these establishments during the winter had upon the casual wards. Anybody who glanced at the statistics of pauperism in the metropolis would perceive that, while about December pauperism increased, there was a sudden decrease in the number of those who frequented the casual wards. The reason was, that they transferred themselves to the more comfortable wards of the refuges, where there was no labour test. 8 LONDON PAUPERISM. When the charities of this kind were first established, the Poor Law arrangements in the metropolis for the relief of the houseless poor were in an extremely imperfect state. But public attention became strongly directed to the defect, and the Eeport of the Select Committee of the House of Commons of 1864 led to the passing of the Houseless Poor Acts of 1864 and 1865, under which decent and sufficient accom- modation has been provided for every poor wanderer or casual who may happen to be destitute of food or shelter in the metropolis. According to the Report of the Poor Law Board for 1868-9, the accommodation provided is for 1,539 men and 1,066 women, or 2,605 in all ; while the largest number admitted in any one night was 1,698, showing surplus accommodation for 907 persons. Even if the accom- modation at any particular workhouse were insufficient, the guardians would be bound to jDrovide a lodging, with necessary food, for the night, for all applicants, either in their own house or elsewhere. So far from the exist- ing arrangements of the casual wards erring on the side of harshness, complaints are made against them on the op- posite ground ; and it is admitted by the Poor Law Board that more uniformity of treatment and regulation, stricter supervision, and more ready means of communication between the authorities superintending the various vagrant wards, appear to be urgently required. This altered state of things has placed the night refuges in an entirely new position. As satisfactory legal provision has been made for the objects for which these institutions were established, they are no longer necessary ; and they now compete with the Poor Law by the offer of superior advantages. Previously to admission to the casual wards, a strict search is made to ascertain whether the vagrant who claims a night's lodging is or is not destitute of resources. His body is cleansed by bathing ; and, if necessary, his clothes are disinfected ; and a task of work is exacted from the able- bodied. In the night refuges these checks and safeguards are wanting. A perfectly free lodging is offered to all, without the discipline which labour involves ; and persons FIRST LETTER. 9 belonging to that class whicli requires, more than any other, to be dealt with in a strict and careful manner, are enabled to spend all they have in vicious indulgence, with the cer- tainty that a night's lodging and a supper and breakfast will be given them without any payment, either in money or labour. Two of these night refuges take in together 1,200 persons ; and, when they are both open, the aggregate number in the whole of the metropolitan casual wards is reduced below this. Of one of them the vicar of the parish says : — There is no real enquiry of any kind before the inmates are ad- mitted ; no ameliorating care is bestowed on them when they are ad- mitted. The refuge is just as much a charity as it would be to throw a lot of low lodging-houses open free, and to keep order when they were filled. The refuge is a nightly receptacle for prowling ' ne'er- do-weels,' employed daily evilly, who are in any case a moral and often a physical pest to us. It acts as a help, not to a better life, but to the prolonging of mendicancy and immorality. The limit of residence is constantly exceeded by excuse or evasion. The other is a large group of common lodging-houses for the lowest description of people, subsidised and disguised as a charity. The numerous distinguished patronesses, patrons, and vice-presidents cannot, of course, be aware of the sort of institution to which they have lent the authority of their names. Without this help it is impossible that the class which preys upon the rest of society could exist in anything like its present proportions, for it would, in the absence of this support, be at once brought face to face with the Poor Law. Where the self-respect of a man is at the lowest ebb, the only moral and physical training that can be given him is to teach him self-reliance by making him work, and it is a great misfortune that there should be a class of institu- tions which stand between our street Arabs and the casual wards of the workhouses, where they would receive this sort of education. As it is, we place the lowest class of people under the peculiar temptation which has generally been considered to be the special snare of the highest — of having a living secured to them irrespective of their own exertions 10 LONDON PAUPERISM. — witboiit its being possible to supply tbe antidote wbich intellectual and social pleasures and political pursuits afford to persons belonging to the educated classes who have their time at their own disposal. The case is even worse than this, for persons of the higher classes can only spend upon vice what they can save from providing for their necessary subsistence and for maintaining their place in society; whereas the class which lives, not by labour, but by preying upon others, being provided with supper, bed, and breakfast in the night refuges, free of cost and trouble, are able to spend the whole of their time in devising and carrying out schemes for plundering society, and the whole of their ill- gotten gains in public-houses and brothels. We are involved in a vicious circle. Destitution called for relief, and the relief was given in such a wholesale and indiscriminate way as to increase the destitution, which increased destitution has again been met by more indiscriminate relief, and, so on, all round the circle. While no new night refuges have been established since the passing of the Houseless Poor Acts, numerous institu- tions have been founded for rescuing persons of both sexes and all ages, and especially the young, from the vagrant, predatory, profligate class, and preparing them to perform a useful and respectable part in life. The Dudley Stuart House of Eefuge has been entirely converted to this object, and the ISTewpoi-t Market and Field-lane Eefuges show a decided tendency in the same direction. Now that satisfac- tory public provision has been made for shelter and food for houseless persons, the time has arrived for giving to all the night refuges a preventive or remedial character, on the principle of the industrial schools and reformatories, the homes which have for their benevolent object the saving women from vice or reclaiming them from it, and the Houses of Charity, where persons shipwrecked in the voyage of life may find a temporary refuge, until they can be helped with clothes, or tools, or influential recommendations, to the inestimable blessing of a fresh start in a useful and respect- able social position. FIRST LETTER. 11 We have arrived at such a pass in this great metropolis of ours that society can be saved only by leaving the relief of destitution to the Poor Law, and by throwing the strength of voluntary effort into the great work of training the young to industrious habits, and lending a helping hand to those of mature age who are still capable of performing a useful part in life. We must bear our own burdens, and alleviate them for the future as we best may. As we can no longer send our convicts to the colonies, we should try to prevent the growth of the material from which convicts are made. As persons belonging to the London proletaire class are not fit to become emigrants, we ought to keep down the undercrop from which this harvest is reaped. I have the honour to be, C. E. Trevelyan. London, May 27. 12 LONDON PAUPERISM. SECOND LETTER. To the Editor of the Times. Sir, — The Poor Law falls short of its professed object, but what chance would there have been of its attaining even its present moderate degree of efficiency if, instead of each Board of Guardians having a manageable district exclusively appropriated to it, numerous Boards, with their respective staifs of relieving officers, had exercised concurrent jurisdic- tion over entire counties, or over this great metropolis ? Yet this can give no idea of the cross machinery of relief working in all directions in London. To use the words of the present Bishop of London: — You have relieving officers distributing an enormous amount of relief contributed by the ratepayers. Then you have district visiting societies, and almost every other sort of society distinct from each other ; and, in addition, in every district you have a number of benevolent individuals who, without making use of these agencies, distribute money, clothes, and other things in various neighbourhoods. If the different Boards of Guardians all operated over the whole metropolis, they would at least act under the same rules ; but these multifarious agencies are constituted accord- ing to every possible principle, while relief is only the pro- fessed object of many of them, the real motive being to give spiritual instruction under cover of material assistance. The first effect of this has been to paralyse the action of the Poor Law. The legal obligation of a^^pointing a suffi- cient number of qualified relieving officers, and of giving adequate relief according to the exigencies of each particular case, is disregarded, because, no sooner is a case of benevo- lence heard of, than hundreds of volunteers race to relieve it. This is the real explanation of the loose habit of investiga- tion, and of the starvation rates of out-door allowance, which SECOND LETTER. 13 disgrace our metropolitan Poor Law administration. If a clear division of labour was established between the Poor Law Guardians and the charitable societies, the Guardians would, in self-defence, take the necessary steps to meet their responsibility, and the ratepayers would see the necessity of selecting the best men in their respective Unions to be Guardians. The conference of delegates of Boards of Guardians in the East of London last year expressed their Conviction that, even from a purely economical point of view, nothing can be more shortsighted than to deal out a measure of scanty and insufficient relief. Not only does this involve a dereliction of dutv, but it at once invites the intrusion of benevolent strangers as self- constituted almoners, who, from their want of acquaintance with the circumstances and necessities of the poor, are always liable to be imposed upon, and who too often, by an indiscriminate distribution of the funds entrusted to them, without any communication with the Guardians or their officers, paralyse the efforts of the latter, and tend to increase indefinitely the pauperism of the district, which, with the best intentions, they may be anxiously endeavouring to relieve. The guiding principles for en- suring justice alike to the ratepayer and the poor will be invariably found to consist in the determination that relief, when allowed, shall be always sufficient to provide adequately for the necessities of the pauper and those dependent on him, and, concuiTently with this, in the pro- vision of ample and efficient supervision to check imposition and to en- sure the due and timely administration of the requisite relief. Even from the narrow point of view of keeping down the rates, the relief of destitution ought to be left entirely to the Poor Law, because in no other way can the increase of desti- tion be kept in check. Then this extraordinary variety of administrations, em- ployed in doing precisely the same work, causes enormous waste. Each society must have its separate offices, printing, advertising ; and a swarm of collectors is constantly going the round of the metropolis, whose real cost is nowhere shown, because they are paid by deductions from the sums collected by them. The Bishop of London proceeds : — But then the great evil is, that the money thus expended does not do its work, for the money distributed by these many societies goes to 14 LONDON PAUPERISM. tliose who should not have it, and those wlio should have it, the meri- torious and suffering poor, do not get any. It has been calculated that if one-eighth of the whole metropolitan population — that is, 400,000 persons — were entirely dependent upon the other seven-eighths, the sum annually expended in London in legal and voluntary charity would supply £17 a head for every man, woman, and child, or to every family of five persons £85 a year, and leave £50,000 to pay the expenses of collection and distribation. Notwithstanding this excess of expenditure, and the vast extent of the paid and volunteer agency employed in raising and disbursing the money, pauperism is advancing much be- yond the relative increase of population. In 1858 the ratio of pauperism to population was 2*90 per cent.; in 1868 it was 5*09 per cent. ; and it frequently happens that old and infirm persons, who cannot, from weakness or want of effron- tery, press their claims on charitable societies, die of starva- tion. The right which every person in this kingdom has to be provided with the absolute necessaries of life is withheld, in the hope that the insufficient Poor Law allowance will be supplemented by some of the numerous charitable societies ; but, owing to the want of organisation, this sometimes falls through, and starvation ensues. This might naturally be expected to induce people to abate the waste, and establish a comprehensive, consistent system. But no. The starvation cases are immediately seized upon to season our sensational charitable literature, and the waste and confusion of admi- nistration are aggravated by the fresh impulse given to this gushing, fitful, irregular action. But the evil does not end here (I am still using the Bishop of Lon- don's words), for the money thus bestowed, instead of relieving human misery, increases vice and beggary, for the impostors find it very easy to have different places of abode, and receive three, or four, or five families' allowances from the various agencies. It is easy to conceive that they thus have the means of obtaining larger incomes than they could receive if they were to devote themselves assiduously to the paths of honest industry. And can you conceive this going on, within sight of the lahouring people among whom the impostors dwell, without de- SECOND letti:k. 15 teriorating the honesty of that population ? When men, honest working- men, see another man, living in the same ranks of life as themselves, obtaining more comforts by idleness than they can obtain by industry, and learn, perhaps, that this is done by receiving visits from societies, they, too, are ready to follow the example, and independence is broken down. It is a sorrowful thing when a working-man, among working- men, finds that the wages of mendicity are better than the wages of honest industry, for he is tempted to continue the downward course — in which he tempts others — and in nine cases out of ten, from that downward course there is no return. It would be waste of time to enlarge on this theme, for it is well known that our wholesale, indiscriminate charity has created a host of professional mendicants, from the pretended broken-down lady or gentleman to the female street beggar with borrowed children, who are more than a match for our volunteer sisters and brothers of charity. The able super- intendent of the Dudley Stuart House of Refuge says : — The experience of the past two years has clearly proved that no acuteness of cross-examination or requirement of recommendations, without positive and independent proof by personal investigation and enquiry, can ensure even the experienced almoner against the clever deceptions of the often more experienced impostor, who has studied charity as a means of livelihood. But worst of all is the effect of this golden harvest, reaped by the indolent and impudent, upon the previously sound portion of the population. The demoralisation spreads in a continually widening circle. Even the working classes have become tainted. 'Not only the habit, but the very idea of thrift seems to have been abandoned. The ordinary practice is to spend all that can be saved from weekly earnings in various kinds of selfish indulgence, in which the public- house always comes in for the largest share ; and, when a bad time comes, to pawn household furniture, clothes, and tools, with the full assurance that, on application to a charitable society, the * honest workman out of employ ' will receive the earliest help. And it is so much sweeter to obtain an abundant subsistence without work, than a stinted, precarious one with it, that the great professional 16 LONDON PAUPERISM. mendicant class is constantly receiving recruits from the other classes. But it is time that we should consider the remedy for this state of things. A ' condition precedent/ which governs the whole subject, is that charitable societies should not supple- ment Poor Law relief, but that each agency should take entire charge of its own class of cases. Until this is done, Poor Law administrators will never feel that they exercise their functions at their peril. Besides the starvation cases, there are the cases of widows with children. At present they receive just enough to demoralise them, and their children largely recruit the standing army of habitual pau- pers and criminals. But if the rule were firmly established that every case must be either entirely a Poor Law or en- tirely a charitable case, then a certain number of the most deserving and promising cases would be taken in hand by charitable societies or individuals, and the rest would be fully provided for by the Guardians, the children being edu- cated and put out in life through the district schools, or some other medium. There ought to be the freest possible interchange between the charitable and Poor Law agen- cies. Each should make known to the other cases which appear to require a different treatment from that which they are themselves able to apply; and charity will constantly remove from the Poor Law category cases which call for special arrangements — the young, for instance, and persons of all ages and both sexes, who can be reclaimed to the per- formance of a useful part in life. But the rule should be absolute, that whichever agency finally undertakes a case should undertake it entirely, and do whatever is necessary to meet the real requirements of it."^ The general outline of the division of labour between charitable and legal relief is, that to relieve destitution belongs to the Poor Law, while to prevent destitution is the peculiar function of charity. If charity undertook those who have already become paupers, the ratepayers would be relieved at the expense of the benevolent, and the resources * See the note at the end of this Letter, p. 18. SECOIS-D LETTER. 17 of private charity would be exliansted on an object for wliieli it has no special qualification. Aged and infirm paupers, ihe drunken, idle, and recklessly improvident, the entire vasrrant class, should be left to the Poor Law. To use the words of the Edinburgh Association for Improving the Con- dition of the Poor : — In general the proper objects for charitable relief are the sober and industrious, who by accident, sickness, family distress, or other un- avoidable and unforeseen cause, are in danger of being plunged into permanent pauperism, but who, by timely and suitable heljo, may be enabled to tide over the emergency, and regain their former footing of self-support. But the main function of charity is, by securing a proper training for the young, to break the continuity of that per- manent caste of the poor and vicious which is the curse of our civilisation. The secret of reducing pauperism and crime to a minimum and keej)ing it there is discoverable in this direction : — The training of a child costs less than the maintenance of a criminal; and, to put it on the lowest possible ground, every pair of hands re- moved from the unproductive and placed in the productive class is a pecuniary saving to the community. The establishment and maintenance of suitable schools is only one and not perhaps the most important point. To aid the cumbrous and expensive operation of the Indastrial Schools Act, by bringing before the magistrate children de- tained from school for purposes of begging, and children habitually neglected by their parents or guardians, is a far more urgent duty. To depauperise the children of the State and incorporate them in the body of our working- population, by bringing them under the healing', transform- ing influences of home, through the boarding-out system, which has been shown by the experience of Scotland, Massa- chusetts, and some English Unions, to have power to dis- charge even the workhouse taint, is another blessed work of charity of the same kind. I have the honour to be. Sir, yours, &c., C. E. Treveltan. Loudon, June 1. B 18 LONDOX TAUPERlSxM. NOTE TO PAGE IG. * All sources of income ought to be taken into consideration before the amount of the relief is fixed. The Guardians are bound to con- sider what legal and reasonable expectation exists of assistance from other sources, either fully adequate or partially adequate to meet those Avants of the applicant for which the Guardians would otherwise be legally bound to jorovide.' — Mr. Goschen's answer to the Metropolitan G^iardianSj June 3, 1870. This uncertainty and undefined responsibility makes liars of the poor, cowards of the benevolent, and screws of the guardians. This stumbling- block must be got out of the way by firmly establishing the principle that every case must belong either entirely to the Poor Law, or entirely to charity, before there can be any effectual co-operation between Poor Law and charity on the basis of a systematic visitation of the poor in their own homes (where alone can be procured that information as to their habits, character, and resources, which is the indispensable founda- tion of a wise administration of relief), and of a free transfer of cases from one agency to the other, as they can be most appropriately dealt with by one or the other. Happily the latest and most authoritative expression of the Poor Law Board is also the most satisfactory. It will be seen from the following notice of the subject in their report, which has just been published for 1869-70, that the principle of co-operation between charity and Poor Law, on the principle of entire responsibility for their respective classes of cases, is fully admitted. At present the ' dispensers of charitable funds ' are not on an equal footing with ' the Poor Law authorities,' for the charitable funds, with which the former are entrusted, were not subscribed to relieve the rate-payers from their legal responsibilities. OuT-Dooii Rflief. On the 2Uth of November last we issued a minute on ' Relief to the Poor in the Metropolis,' in which, amongst other matters, we called attention to the relations between the guardians, as dispensers of legal relief, on the one hand, and the almoners who dispose of funds entrusted to them by charitable persons, on the other. We print the minute in the appendix. We print also in the njipendix the replies which SECOND LETTER. 19 we received from various boards of guardians] to a circular which we addressed to them, requesting their views on the points we had raised in the minute. Many boards of guardians fell in readily with our main suggestions, and co-operation with some of the leading charitable organisations has been successfully established in several Unions. More difficulty has been experienced in inducing the dispensers of charitable funds to supply lists of the recipients of their bounty to the Poor Law authorities, than in persuading the guardians to place their lists at the disposal of the public. Irrespective of the actual results which have been achieved, much valuable information has been elicited by the discussions which have taken place on the subject, and the statements put forward of the difficulties which prevent, in many cases, the adoption of the suggestions contained in the minute have not been the least useful part of the controversy. Two important facts have been prominently elicited, both unsatisfactory in themselves, but the full knowledge of which was essential to improved administration. It has appeared, in the first place, that relief is freely given in aid of wages in several parts of London ; and, in the second place, that in in- numerable instances the charities and the relieving officers are assisting the same persons. The deplorably low scale of relief observed in many Unions induces charitable persons to supplement relief, which, in their opinion, is totally inadequate to support a family decently, and these grants of alms react on the minds of the guardians, who, by degrees, rely on such charity as a source of income to the pauper which they may fairly take into account. The great increase in the number of the out-door poor, temporarily caused by the severity of the winter, rendered the moment one of peculiar difficulty to the guardians, and not very opportune for increasing the rate of relief, so that it was difficult to persuade them to take steps which appear indispensable to a thorough understanding with the charities, namely, so to act as to give confidence to the public that cases once undertaken by the relieving officers might be safely left in their hands exclusively. We have, however, not ceased to press upon the guardians the absolute necessity of increased vigilance and the appointment of more relieving officers on the one hand, and on the other hand the grant of more adequate relief. Liberal relief, without watchfulness and domiciliary visits to the paupers, might certainly add greatly to the expenditure ; but liberal relief, coupled with a more stringent system of supervision, by means of a better and stronger staff of officers, would not necessarily exceed the amount which has been spent in giving very small sums to a vast number of paupers, Avithout sufficient organisation for ascertaining and testing the real wants of the applicants. B 2 20' LONDON PAUPERISM. THIRD LETTER. To the Editor of the Times. Sir, — Wherever pauperism has been successfully dealt with, as at Edinburgh, Elberfield, and Boston, the simple practical machinery recommended by Dr. Chalmers in his ' Christian and Civic Economy of Large Towns ' has been adopted. He argued strongly against pauperism being under one general management, which, he said, was certain to end in the ad- ministrators taking refuge either in an indiscriminate facility which will refuse nothing, or in an indiscriminate resistance, which will suffer nothing but clamours and importunities to overbear it ; and he advocated what he called the ' indepen- dent local system,' under which each parish was held respon- sible for its own administration, and was again subdivided into sections called 'proportions,' over which an elder was appointed to test the first applications for relief, and to be the medium for submitting them to the parochial committee. The great Irish famine was stayed by an organisation framed on the same principle. After vainly attempting a system of relief works, which brought society to the brink of dissolu- tion, a relief committee, composed of the magistrates, one clergyman of each persuasion, the Poor Law Guardians, and the three highest ratepayers, was appointed in each electoral division ; and a finance committee, consisting of four gentle- men carefully selected for their weight of character and knowledge of business, was formed to control the expenditure in each Union. Nothing could be better than the way they all worked together for a common object of absorbing inte- rest, and the famine was stayed.' At Edinburgh the sub- division is carried so far that the territorial unit has only about twelve families requiring regular visitation, with a ' See the ' Edinburgh Review' for January 1848, and ' The Irish Crisis,' Long- man & Co., 1848. THIRD LETTER. 21 visitor assigned to each. There are 900 visitors actually at work under 28 local committees, in addition to from 250 to 300 committeemen who occasionally act as visitors, including- many of the most highly cultivated and influential members of Edinburgh society ; and especial thanks are said to be due to the working men and women who have undertaken this duty during their brief intervals of respite from toil. ' They have a power and an influence with those whom the associa- tion seeks to improve far beyond that of visitors taken from any other class of society.' The point at which we have arrived here in London, is that the outline of an organisation on this principle has been formed in fifteen out of the thirty-eight Metropolitan Poor Law Unions ; but five or six general relief societies still range at large over the metropolis, besides numberless charitable societies with more limited objects, and charitable individuals without limit either of number or object. We have the skeleton, indeed ; but it still has to be clothed with muscles and flesh, and to be animated with warm life blood. The task of grappling v/ith the chronic pauperism and teem- ing crime of our metropolis, with its 3,250,000 people, is, under any circumstances, sufliciently appalling ; but it is an iiidisj)ensable condition of success, that there should be only a single responsible committee for each district, in which the clergy of all persuasions and the most active and influential laymen should be represented, and that each district should be again subdivided among responsible visitors in sufiicient detail to allow of the state of the poor being really investi- gated and dealt with according to the specialities of each case. Until we arrive at this point we shall not be face to face with our task. Sympathy and counsel, advising where to put the boys to school, and helping to get the girls into service, encouraging the able-bodied members of the family to save a portion of their wages against a time of need, or to support their aged or infirm parents, checking dirt and over- crowding, and, if necessary, calling the attention of the proper authorities to physical and moral nuisances, recom- mending really deserving cases to the district committee for 22 LONDON PAUPERISM. temporary relief, and firmly discountenancing the immoral, the improvident, the would-be mendicant, are impossible without a local apportionment of the zealous agency and abundant means which, wandering at haphazard over the whole circumference of the metropolis, cause some to be surfeited with plenty while others are consumed with famine, and stimulate all to a scramble of the worst kind, because the prizes are won by those who are most accomplished in the arts of deception. But how is this indispensable fusion to be accomplished ? The clergy of all persuasions hold the key of the position. Besides actually managing many endowed charities, and having the control of the collections made in their churches and chapels for charitable purj)Oses, their just influence on this subject is such that if we have them on om- side our object will be quickly and easily attained. This is a subject on which the authority of Holy Writ and the conclusions of modern science are entirely in accord. And in those clays, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration. Then the Twelve called the multitude of the disciples vmto them, and said, ' It is not reason that we should leave the Word of God and serve tables. Wherefore, Brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word.' There could not possibly be a better-founded division of labour than that between things material and things spi- ritual, or, as the translators of the Bible express it in the abstract at the beginning of the chapter, between ' bodily sustenance ' and the ' food of the soul.' The complaints made on behalf of the widows show that even Apostles might fail to give satisfaction in the administration of re- lief, and the argument nsed by the Apostles for seeking to be exonerated from the charge ('it is not reason that we should leave the Word of God and serve tables') indicates that their spiritual efficiency might have been impaired by THIKD LETTER. 23 having to attend to the details of charitable relief. The result was the aj^pointment of a relief committee, of which we propose an humble imitation, after more than 1,800 years, in this metropolis of the West. This experience completely holds to the present day, not only to the wasting of the time and secularising the spirit of the clergy, but even to the suggestion of grave scandals, which are injurious to the fair fame of Christianity itself. The Rev. Mr. Rowsell, Rector of St. Margaret's, Lothbury, and Chaplain in Ordinary to the Queen, bore this testimony on March 80, before a large and distinguished assembly, on the occasion of the first annual meeting of the Society for Organising Charitable Relief and Repressing Mendicity : — He believed there was no more degrading form of administering alms than that resorted to by competing religious bodies. There was nothing more disgraceful, nothing which tended so much to falsify tlie character of the people, as the almost conscious bribery by which the poor were sometimes induced to say canting words, or, when the almoner went round, to quote the Bible and appear very devout in order to elicit arms. He held it to be vitally necessary for clergymen to sepa- rate their spiritual from their temporal ministrations. Wlien he went on his spiritual errands he made it a rule to put aside all thoughts of temporal relief, knowing from experience that the danger miglit be that the one to whom he went for one purpose might only welcome his visit for quite another. He remembered a poor Irishman whom he urgently asked to send for his priest. He seemed disinchned to do so, and at last said, ' O, sir, if I send for him, you will just continue the mate 30U have been giving me, won't you?' He thought, of all the evils tliat this society was laying the axe to the root of, the most serious was that dangerous practice of proselytisation. It was the more dangerous because, it seemed to him, there was mixed up with it so much con- scientious feeling. They bribed persons, as it were, by giving them alms to get them on their side; and, if they succeeded, they had not only a weak member, but a false man ; and this demorahsation was just in proportion to the amount of alms he received from their hands. Mr. Walrond, Yicar of St. Mary, Charterhouse, stated as follows on January 15 : — Ministers of religion are harassed away from attention to their spiri- tual duties, and are sometimes ensnared into thinking, that to be bene- 21 LONDON i'Auri:uis:^i. volciit .'ulniiiiistralors is to liillil (lie i'liiu'tions of tlieir office. Tlieir time is taken up in getting and giving. Circumstances of spiritual, are Avont to pass unseen l)y the side of circumstances of gieat temporal need. There is a temptation to think that, having given to the latter, we have relieved the former; that, in fact, with a shilling and a word or two of religious commonplace we have done our duty to the poor. The very iiict of a religious minister or his agent bringing the relief is, on the other hand, a snare to tie recipient, who is tempted to put the best religious face he can on his condition to please the giver, and to listen with an air of receptiveness and goodwill to the ' word in season,' which really may be unintelligible or repugnant to him. Under the fallacy that charity (so called), however dispensed, must be at least harmless, sjiecially so if connected with some professions of religion, there have arisen a set of religious philanthropic adventurers who, without any responsibility or subsequent audit, colL^ct funds from the public for some special case or neighbourhood, and spend them ignorantly, some- times dishonestly, to the discredit of wiser and more scrupulous M-ell- ducrs. By the S3^stem of relief through denominations a spirit of sectarian antagonism is soAvn and nurtured among the poor. An applicant, for instance, refused by the Rev. A. because he is a member of the Kev. B.'s (a Dissenter's) congregation, goes away, saying, ' Ah ! a pretty sort of religion the Church of England ; he won't believe me because 1 am a Dissenter ; ' while, indeed, this is not at all the case, but because the Kev. A. (from want of communication with him) does not know what relief the Kev. B. may have given, and whether, to the exclusion of some other recipient, a double benefit would not be confei-red by his gift. In this way evil ieelings arise. Sometimes unwittingly, though not always so, the clergy and re- ligious teachers bribe by the gitts given away in coimexion with their several churches and chapels, and the poor are induced (to what avoidance of home duties and destruction of growth in religious life!) to go here on Sunday, there on Monday, there on Tuesday, and so on through the week ; not really lor instruction, but because they may claim ac({uaintance with so many diiTerent givers of charity. There is a waste of charitable funds; and the same persons, on account of their importunity and hypocrisy, receive twice or thrice, or more often, while othei's worthier are left unaided for want of means. And, lastly, in our action in the matter, and by allowing ourselves to be ever-ready go-betweens, we have weakened the consciences of laymen as to the duty of personal interest in, and knowledge of the ])oor, and thus have robbed them of a happy privilege, and charity of its real meaning.* THIRD LETTER. 25 And tlie mixed Clerical and Lay Committee appointed at the conference held at Sion College in December last, ' to consider the desirableness of united action with a view to checking the increase of pauperism and improving the condition of the deserving poor,' reported as follows, in guarded, but significant terms: — It seems well Avorthy of consideration whether, whenever circum- stances appear to justify an appeal to the liberality of the wealthier parts of the metropolis for the relief of the distress which exists where the poor are crowded together, the ajjpeal might not with advantage be made simultaneously in all churches and chapels, and by a house to house canvass, and the amount collected be paid into a common fund, and divided, without regard to religious distinctions, among the various charitable agencies in the district where the distress exists. Thus the stream of charity would be more equably diffused, and the suspicions as to motives which at times cleave to individual activity in this field be diminished, if not removed. I purposely confine the evidence on this part of the subject to clerical testimony. While Mr. Walrond says, on behalf cf the clergy, ' By allowing ourselves to be ever ready go-betweens, we have weakened the consciences of laymen as to the duty of personal interest in and knowledge of the poor, and thus have robbed them of a happy privilege, and charity of its real meaning,' Mr. Bosanquet, secretary to the new society, in a little book published by him last year, on ' London : its Growth, Charitable Agencies, and Wants,' said : — We have put too much on the clergy. It was evidently not the intention of the Founder of our religion that the visiting of the sick and poor, and helping them in times of difficulty, should be thrown mainly on the order of teachers whom He appointed. . . . My own opinion is, that the less clergymen have to do with temporal relief the better. The most important testimony, however, and the most in point, is that of our beloved and honoured Bishop, which was delivered on April 27, at a meeting for the extension of the Organisation Society to the great parish of St. Pancras : — Whenever we feel an uncertainty as to the necessity of giving, we should not give at all, but we should u;() HOW TO iMCMKvr: THE rouii OF i:diniu:rgii. Others have jisked if tliero is not too much ceiitriilization V We reply : The plan is an application of what is known as Dr. Chalmers's ' territorial system.' The committee and Visitors of each district belon<^, as much as possible, to that district. Instead of visitin<^ i^er salium [Scottice, sprang- wise) all over the city, as our charitable societies for the blind or destitute sick are obliged to do, each Visitor has a small and manageable locality, in which he learns to know every household and its score of neighbours. He goes to them all, blind, or old, or sick, or strong, honest or disreputa- ble, just as they come ; and then he has a consulting com- mittee of experienced and benevolent men, such as heads of existing charities, besides his co-visitors, to take counsel with, whose interest, experience, and judgment are thus brought to bear upon each case of importance. Nothing can be more local and individual than the distribution of charity. Visitors. The business of a Visitor is to become thoroughly acquainted with the people he has undertaken to visit, with their cir- cumstances and wants, and to minister advice and aid according to definite rules (adapted by the committees as fjir as possible to all cases, so as to relieve him of care and responsibility). He can alwa^'S, if he chooses, consult the Visitors of adjoining districts, until the meeting of the local committee, who will then give such directions as the com- bined judgment of all suggests. He has to submit regular reports of what he lias done, and what he proposes, to his committee, whose meetings he is expected to attend. The society has a central but inexpensive office, and employs an efficient hard-working secretary* to transact its daily business, who is the only person (besides office-assistants, messengers, &c.) who is paid. How tlic The services of the society are at the disposal, not only of work? subscribers, but of the public in general. So soon as any one is applied to for relief, he sends the applicant, if evidently ' Sucli a secretary should be well paid, and l»e in a position equal to an Insppctor of the Poor. HOW TO RELIEVE THE POOR OF EDINBURGH. 37 able to go in person, to the secretary, but otherwise he fills up a small printed form with his name and address, and forwards it, without signature and without any recommenda- tion whatever, to the secretary's office, where an alphabeti- cal register is kept of every case enquired into by the society, containing all that has been ascertained respecting each. Unless the secretary is obliged to reject the application on the spot, as that of one totally undeserving, he despatches printed forms, requesting information, to the lady or gentle- man Visitor of the district in which the distressed person lives, and also to all city-missionaries, Bible-women, or other agents of any denomination employed in the same locality. These agents are not in any way either remunerated or directed by the society, but the religious bodies employing them readily consent to their investigating cases of distress within their respective districts, because their own special work, instead of being thereby hindered, is furthered by in- creased familiarity with the character and condition of the poor. The Visitor is expected to go or send at once, and is empowered to supply all that is absolutely necessary for the day. When the secretary receives the answers of all to whom he has applied for information, he is able to send relief to the case in question, according to certain fixed rules (relating to the number and state of the family, &c.), which leave little or nothing to his discretion, until the meeting of the district committee, before whom the whole matter is laid.^ Among the fundamental rules are — 1. To give what is least sus- ceptible of abuse, and consequently no money. 2. To give necessary articles, but only in small quantities, and in pro- portion to immediate need ; and of coarser quality than might be procured by labour, except in cases of sickness. 3. To give assistance at the right moment ; not to prolong it beyond the necessit}- that calls for it ; but to extend, restrict, ' The articles can either be sent from a depot, formed by gifts or purchases, or the poor may be authorized by ticket to obtain goods from respectable trades- men with whom the society has made an arrangement to supply them at wholesale price. 38 now TO KHL1E\'K Till-: I'OOK OF EDINBUROII. and modify relief according to that necessity. In the mean- time, the Visitor continues visiting and counselling the dis- tressed person, and becoming thoroughly acquainted with his difficulties and wants. A little wise advice, a little encourage- ment, a few seasonable hints, are often what are chiefly required. The secretary and Visitors submit all their reports to the committee, and the united experience, ingenuity, and influence of all are thus brought to bear on every case. The immense advantages of this system of communication between all who are working among the poor cannot be over- estimated. I'iivcnts A single visitor may be imposed upon, but it is scarcely iiiii.u.vtarc. ^yi^j^jj^ ii^Q "bounds of possibility that imposture should escaj)e discovery, when the knowledge gathered up during a long course of years by the different religious bodies, and that acquired by the recent investigations of their experienced agents, visiting independently of each other, is concentra.ted into one focus, so as to throw light on each case. By this riev( nts means charitable relief is not wasted either on imposture, or \v:ibie. ^^ extravagance or misapplication, but, on the contrary, is preserved for those really in need, and is also applied in the most business-like manner, so that a shilling is often made to go twice as far as at present. All visited. Another main advantage of this system is the thorough manner in which the poor are visited. Owing to the regular way in which the whole city is divided, and the small size of the districts, each is so easily and so thoroughly visited, that not a single poor family can be overlooked, and no case of real distress can fail to become known and relieved. I^ciievcs The collateral advantages are innumerable. For instance, this system relieves clergymen and other spiritual instructors from a burden too heavy for them to bear. It saves them from being compelled to spend their time and strength unduly, as is now the case, in investigating and attending to temporal want alone. The clergymen, like other charitable people, will be able to make over the work of examining and inquir- ing into character and circumstances to a body of experienced a^'-ents. The city missionary will be left free for his proper clcrfrynicn and others mors s ,'iows. HOW TO RELIEVE THE POOR OP EDINBURGH. 39 work. He will be able to refer the poor for temporal relief to the Visitor, while the latter will thankfully avail himself of the experience and information of the Scripture-reader, missionary, or Bible-woman. The district-visitor will be more sure of the motives of those who attend her mothers' - meetings and Bible-classes. Mrs. Eanyard, the well-known founder of the Bible-woman's Mission, is most earnest in re- peatedly urging attention to this point. She says, ' We never think it right to dispense relief by the hand of a Bible- woman if we can help it. It is not that we do not trust her, but it hinders her true usefulness.* ^ Dr. Chalmers, who is perhaps one of the greatest of writers Dr. Chal- on the relief of the poor, strongly advocated the necessity of ^j in general keeping spiritual work distinct from almsgiving. He once said, ' You ladies go about among the poor with a tract in one hand and a shilling in the other. How caw their eye be single ? It just keeps veering from the tract to the shilling.' He based his views on the example of the apostles, who, although they exhorted Christians to give largely, and even undertook to convey their gifts, yet refused, to ' leave the Word of God to serve tables.' Dr. Chalmers says, ' It has never been enough adverted to that a process for Christianizing the people is sure to be tainted and enfeebled when there is allied with it a process for alimenting the people ; there lies a moral impossibility in the way of accomplishing these two objects by the working of one and the same machinery.' At the same time, it must be remembered that no restriction is or can be laid upon the Visitor. His business is to relieve distress, as a surgeon's is to relieve pain ; but if either the Visitor or the surgeon be a Christian, he cannot be precluded from endeavouring to lead all with whom he comes in contact to the knowledge of Him who is the Life. And it is worthy of note that some of those most conspicuous for thorough and efficient parochial work have hailed this system with the greatest eagerness. The very men who do most, know best how much remains to be done, and the need for a better method of doing it. ' Life Work, p. SO. 40 now TO RELIEVE THE POOR OF EDINBURGH. This plan no more interferes witli the proper action of the Poor- Laws than does private charity. All who are strictly paupers or proper objects for parochial relief are referred to the Poor-Law guardians. But there are numerous cases which no Poor-Law can meet. For instance, a skilled workman is attacked by severe and tedious illness. After many months he recovers suffi- ciently to look out for lighter employment. His savings are expended, his clothes worn out, yet he is not a fit object for parochial relief, nor for any existing charity. He is well, but out of work. Is he to starve ? Able-bodied men out of work have been found living for a whole week on dry bread, and tea without milk or sugar. Does such diet fit them for work? And do not such men i^equire a helping hand ? The great object of the society is to prevent the j^oor from hecoming paupers ; in other words, so to tide them over temporary difficulties, that they may be able to pursue their voyage through life, instead of being left wrecked and stranded half way. It is for the advantage of the public that the poor should be assisted to maintain themselves, rather than be forced to go into a poorhouse, where they can do nothing towards their own maintenance. All who are fit objects for any existing charitable institu- tion, hospitals. Destitute Sick Society, reformatories, &c,, will be presen"t:ed to these charities until the latter can do no moi e. But the timely interposition of the relief society will save many from sinking into such a condition as to require the aid of these institutions. Thus the demands on each will be materially lessened. Some have enquired how this system will afiPect private charity ? It leaves it to do all that it can ; it only offers co-operation when that is insufficient. Most of us have some poor friends, — some whose respect- ability and honesty we have known for years. There is no question about these. We can and ought to aid such in private as we should aid a friend in a higher rank of life. But how often are our means insufficient, and our help HOW TO RELIEVE THE POOR OF EDINBURGH. 41 miserably short of what is needed ! When this is the case, we may, under such a system, refer a poor friend confiden- tially for further aid to the society ; for the committee can so arrange, that there will be nothing to degrade or wound the feelings in the mode of rendering assistance. And in the far more numerous instances where we are applied to by comparative strangers, we shall be able to in- sure relief for them without the risk of fostering imposition/ All the ingenuity and efforts of private charity, in clothing- societieS; working-parties, or in sending little delicacies to the sick, &c., will be made doubly efficacious, by the security thus afforded that the objects of it are deserving. All that is required is communication and co-operation. No good luork will he interfered vnth. It will only be helped. And there are few of us so self-satisfied as not to acknowledge the immense advantages of such opportunities of comparing notes and gaining information as are afforded to each Visitor at the meetings of the local committee. It has been sarcastically said, ' In London rival philan- thropists ride their respective hobbies, and decline to run them candeni-wise, or in any way in association with another hobby.' ^ Now we ask still less. Those who prefer to ride a hobby alone are only requested not to run ac/ainst each other. For some purposes a humble donkey-cart is more suited than a splendid team of four-in-hand ; but it cannot be necessary to have two donkey-carts for the same old woman, while another still more infirm has to trudge afoot. This system is an effectual method of suppressing begging. Effect on To give to beggars is to foster idleness and imposture, "^^ndicity. Many have been driven to begging by extreme distress, and have found it so much more profitable than labour, that they have stuck to it as the trade that paid them best. As Arch- ' Of course others can visit the poor besides those connected with the society; occasional visitors can render great service to the common cause, if they will only communicate their information to the society ; and still more so if they will avail themselves of its services for the thorough examination of the cases they are interested in. 2 Children of LiUctia. 42 now .TO UELIKVI-: TIIH TOOK OF EDINBUKGII. bishop Wliatelj justly said, ' What you pay a man to do, he will do ; if you pay a man to work he will work, and if yon l)ay a man to leg he will hey.' Well- authenticated instances are known of vagrants here in Edinburgh, confessing that they could make at the rate of more than forty shillings a week by begging, which is upwards of 100/. a year! At present, many soft-hearted people give to street-beggars, for fear of refusing assistance to one who is starving. If they were certain tliat on sending the name and address to the Visitor of the district, real want would be at once relieved, they would cease to give in the streets, and would feel that by nuiking over beggars to the society, they were jjlacing the case in hands which would deal with it far more skilfully than any private individual could do ; and would no more attempt to meet it by the casual gift of a few pence or a few shillings, than they would tie up a broken arm with a ' bit of blue ribbon ' in preference to sending the patient to the Infirmary. It will be a great relief to know that we need no longer run the risk of encouraging vice in order to avoid the danofcr of turninf]^ a deaf ear to real distress. The moral influence of this system is very great. It has greatly promoted temperate habits. When it is necessary to relieve the families of drunkards, it is done, as far as possible, by sending them where they will get a good meal, while, as for the drunkard himself, the choice lies between abstinence during the time he receives help, or quasi- starvation. It is found in practice that the former is chosen. This rule is based on the principle that charitable peo^Dle do not give their money with the intention of ministering to vicious indulgence. The intemperate are not required, but are recommended to take the pledge, as by associating with those who have done so, they meet with encouragements to sobriety. The result of thus breaking the habit of drinking, even for a short time, is that about half continue to be tem- perance members when their distress is over. It is not fair to overlook the fact, that while drink is a frequent cause of poverty, poverty is a frequent incentive to drink. A person living on tea and dry bread for days, unable to buy more HOW TO RELIEVE THE POOR OF EDINBUEGH. 43 satisfying food, flies to stimulants as the cheapest way of intempe- s tilling the cravings of want. Another great advantage resulting from the action of such Education a society is, that the education of all the vounsr under its ^i|^,^escue mlluence is secured, as it requires that all children of a dren. proper age shall attend school, clothing being supplied, and school-fees paid when necessary. A valuable off-shoot from the relief society is one for orphans, and for those children whose vicious and criminal parents are too glad to get rid of them. Instead of poor little children being kept in huge orphanages, they are placed under the charge of small com- mittees, formed all over the country, who board them with respectable poor families or widows, where they often find the only real homes they ever knew, while the expense is less than that of large asylums. These local committees watch over their education ; apprentice them to farmers or others ; and see that they are x^i"operly trained and cared for in all respects. They are thus rescued from otherwise inevi- table ruin, and prevented from adding to the ranks of the pauper or criminal classes, while the plan itself, seems in accordance with that Infinite wisdom which ' setteth the solitary in families,* One of the most valuable results of this system is the Friendly friendly intercourse it establishes between different classes. ^^^^'^' •^ course The isolated young workwoman from the country is brought between into contact with a person of better education, wider expe- pooV^" rience, and greater knowledge of the world than herself. She has thus some one to turn to for advice and help in time of sickness, privation, or temptation. The industrious mechanic gains a friend with whom he can take counsel regarding a change of residence, or the principles of a benefit-club, or a building-society, the propriety of emigration, or a thousand other subjects where the advice of a man of greater know- ledge than his own is invaluable ; while the Visitor, whose interests, sympathies, time, and thoughts are thus drawn away from himself, and directed to his fellows of a lower rank and less fortunate position, cannot fail to experience how much more blessed it is to give than to receive. 44 now TO RELIKVE TlIK POOH OF i-:DiXBri{rni. This plan has done much to bridge over the gulf between the working man and his employer, and indeed between all classes. The Visitors are not only ladies and women of all ranks, but often men of position, many of them men of business, lawyers, merchants, and others. They get to un- derstand the feelings, wants, and difficulties of their poorer neiixhbours to a deforce heretofore unknown. In cases of wide-spread distress, from workmen being thrown out of employment, the society has intervened most beneficially as a mediator between employers and workmen. These kindly proceedings produce friendly feeling between the two classes. It is not in human nature to ' gTind the poor ' whom you have just been assisting, still less is it in human nature not to feel gratitude for seasonable relief. The system of concentrating and recording the knowledge obtained from all quarters is of the greatest benefit, by enabling the poor to find work, and masters to find workmen. A separate register is kept, under different headings, of all persons in want of work. So that any one requiring a journeyman, a respectable seamstress, an errand-boy, servant, or labourer of any kind, can at once have a list of such pre- sented for inspection, with a general reference to character. Such a register often enables a tradesman to comj^lete an important order, by supplying him with the means of gettmg extra hands at an hour's notice. Properly arranged loans to trustworthy people, in times of difficulty, are fruitful of the best results. The means of the benevolent are economized, and the poor are encouraged to maintain their independence. As Dr. Norman Macleod, in his eloquent exposition of the plan now under consideration, justly says,^ * One of the most cheering, yet humbling facts, in connexion with the relief of the deserving poor, is the little money that will tide a family over a trying time, when it is prudently used, with encouraaina* words, and other small but effective remedial nieasiuvs, which can hardly be specified, but which expe- ' Good Worth, August 1S66, p. ooG. now TO RELIEVE THE POOR OF EDINBURGH. 45 rience, good feeling', and common sense naturally dictate. In the path of the deserving poor there ever and anon' occur ditches, which they have not the means of crossing at the moment, and which, therefore, mate escape from the bull that is pursuing them as impossible as if they were oceans. A single plank would make escape easy — but the plank is not there ! They may be able to command a dozen in a month perhaps, but they need one now ; and if they have not the plank, and the bull is in full chase ! — v/hat then ? ' The result too often is, that they are driven by the pressure of sore temptation to take their first downward step from the path of virtue or of honesty, and are not only ruined, body and soul, but become a burden and curse upon society. Few persons are at all aware how much the poor stand in Need of need of information. They neither know that help is to be |iift)rma- had, nor how to apply for it, and they often endure life-long among the suffering for want of some simple surgical appliance, even such ^^^^^' as a bandage. They still more often, either from ignorance or from fear of expense, neglect their health until it is past recovery, or else injure it by having recourse to quacks and their pernicious nostrums. Many might be saved from death or from lingering disease and dei^endence upon the public, by the aid of a Visitor who would procure for them, at the right moment, skilled medical aid, the services of a nurse, and sometimes only a little tempting or nourishing food. Some of them do not know that the blind or the dumb are capable of being taught. An insane girl was recently found shut up in a small dark closet, her friends having no idea that anything else could be done with her. No one not conversant with the difficulties of the poor, and the manner in which their whole time and faculties are absorbed in the effort to maintain life, can appreciate the benefit often conveyed to them by a few words of advice relative to a more profitable application of their labour, or where to find work. The effect of this organized system of visitation, wherever Society it has been set on foot, whether in Europe or America, has ^'^l effects. been to bring to light many existing unrelieved v/ants, and 40 now TO RELIRVR TITR POOU OF EDTXBURGIT. as many ways of remedying them. Dr. Maclood says, ' It was not possible for an association like this to come into such close contact with the masses — to gather up throui^h its many agents so much accurate information every montli, and to systematize this, year after year — without its sug- gesting and developing various benevolent schemes and social reforms bearing on the moral and physical well-being of the poor. And one of the benefits conferred by such a society is its influence in creating a right public opinion, which must precede any legislation required to effect sanitary reforms on a large scale. Each succeeding year almost, in the history of the association, has been thus marked by a practical enquiry into some existing evil or remedy for it. It has, for example, organized a system for the supply of the indigent side with gratuitous medical aid ; and this has ended in the establishment of admirable dispensaries in the several wards of the city — the Demiet Dispensary alone having last year aided 328,308 persons, 66,128 being at their own homes. It has fostered special societies, as, for example, one " for the relief of the ruptured and crippled." ^ It introduced and systematized measures for lending stoves, tools, &c., and for gathering and distributing second-hand clothing and broken victuals. It published and circulated j)opular tracts on moral and economical subjects, imparting useful information and counsel. It took means of gathering neglected and vagrant children into Sabbath, iveeh-day evening, and indus- trial schools; furnishing statistics which proved that, in the city, 40,000 children were growing up in ignorance, pro- fligacy, and crime ! As a result of this investigation, it pro- jected and established a Juvenile Asylum for the education and elevation of vicious children, and their subsequent in- denture. It founded a Public Washing and Bathing Establish- ment, at an expense of upwards of 8,000/., of whose benefits, for cheap washing and ironing, 75,000 persons annually avail themselves, so that it is now self-supporting. It has done much for the young, by obtaining an Act for the care ' 'This soeicly rdievfd, in 18G1, 819 oases.' HOW TO RELIEVE THE TOOK OF EDINBURGH. 47 of truant children ; and by establishing a Ghildreri's Aid, Society. It has been instrumental in raising a WorJcing MarC s Hortie ', and has consequently kept before the public and the legislature of the State the demands of the city for sanitary reform in the drainage and in the overcrowded, ill- ventilated houses.' There is nothing in this society more worthy of note than The unde- the principles on which it acts towards the undeserving, and ^^^^'^'^^• the influence it exercises over them. These principles are such as peculiarly commend themselves to our Scottish love of independence, and strong sense of the demerits of wilful idleness. The Scripture precept, ' If any will not work, neither shall he eat ' (2 Thess. iii. 10), is carried out into practice. Those who persist in wilful idleness and vice ought not to be relieved by any one until they amend. To do otherwise is not only foolish, but wrong ; it is not only ' putting money into a bag with holes,' but it is a real injury both to the public, by perpetuating the evils of vagrancy and vicious pauperism, and to the delinquents themselves, by encou- raging them in their downward path. But while we rightly leave those who persist in vicious courses to suffer the misery which Divine wisdom has made the natural consequence thereof, yet it is equally our duty not to give up even the worst of our fellow- sinners, as if there were no hope for them. The prodigal was left to feed upon the husks which the swine did eat ; but no sooner did he begin to return than his father met him a great way off; — and we must endeavour to follow our Great Exemplar. It is therefore an essential part of the duty of the Visitors to do their utmost to reclaim even the most debased. They are visited, exhorted, and encouraged to amend ; the way pointed out, and every inducement offered to follow it. We have shown that the co-operation and communication established by the society among those who relieve the poor effectually prevents the vicious poor from obtaining by deceit and imposition from one, what has been justly refused to them by another. It would therefore be difficult to ex- 48 now TO RELIEVE THE POOR OF EDINBURGH. Wronp; t(j iVuslralo these .mcts. Jvcfornia- t'>iy \\()rk. Jtocom- menils the Gospel to the poor. giviii