REGISTER OF PENNSYLVANIA.

DEVOTED TO THE FRESERVATION OF EVERY KIND OF USEFUL INFORMATION RESPECTING THE STATE.

EDITED BY SAMUEL HAZARD, NO. 51, FILBERT STRÉET.
PHILADELPHIA, AUGUST 9, 1828.

VOL. II.-NO. 4.

ANNALS OF PAUPERISM.

pro

NO. 32.

forms a part of our plan, and as it can only be correctly furnished by such societies themselves, we would be glad to receive a regular series of the reports they have severally published; or, where they have published none, such written information, as will enable us to accomplish our purpose. The annual statements of the directors of the different poor houses throughout the

PENNSYLVANIA LEGISLATURE.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

Under this title we purpose occasionally to furnish such documents and facts as we may obtain, on a subject, which, notwithstanding pauperism has existed from the earliest ages, and the time and talents of philanthropists and statesmen have been devoted to it, appears to be still involved in mystery and doubt. It has always appeared to us, that before any correct theory can be form-state, would be acceptable for as long a series of years ed with regard to the cause of pauperism, or to the as can be furnished. per remedies to be applied to its prevention, removal, or mitigation, we must be possessed of more facts on the subject; and these facts are to be derived only from the poor themselves. It is, therefore, a cause of regret, that more attention has not been paid to this investigation by the different institutions established for the support or employment of the poor. Had a register been kept by each institution from its commencement, in which were noted the principal circumstances attending the history of every applicant at the time of his admission upon the funds, it is easy to conceive, that in the That they have considered the subject with that secourse of a few years, an immense amount of informa-riousness and deliberation which its importance demands,

tion might have been collected, from which correct theories could be established, as to the cause and remedies of an evil, which has rather increased than diminish. ed under all the benevolent exertions which have been made for its extermination. Therefore, though late, we would call the attention of benevolent institutions to this subject, and recommend to them immediately to commence the work of registering all their present and future poor, obtaining from each, every information which may throw any light upon the subject. Some little trouble would attend this operation at first; but if, after the present number on the list is taken, each future applicant were examined, and the circumstances recorded at the time of his application, the labour would be light, and the advantages of it important.

In 1821, the attention of the legislature was directed to the subject, and commissioners were appointed to collect information; and in 1825 the interesting report of a committee of the house, which we now publish, was presented. As it imbodies much information, we presume it will be read with considerable interest at the present

Report of the Committee appointed to inquire into the ope ration of the Poor Laws. Read, January 29th, 1825. MR. MEREDITH, Chairman.

The Committee appointed to inquire into the operation of the Poor Laws in this Commonwealth, and to devise means for remedying the evils of which the present system is productive, and to whom was also referred the petition of the Society for the promotion of public economy,

REPORT:

and have to lament that the information within their im-
meditae reach, has not been so full and minute as to
justify them in the belief that it is possible, at this time,
to make a thorough and complete reform in the system.
At the same time, they think that something may be safe-
may he put in such a train, as to insure, at no distant
ly done at once, and that the necessary future inquiries
day, the consummation of those wishes which all enlight-
ened men must entertain on the subject.
monwealth, was borrowed, in its leading features and
The system of poor laws which prevails in this com-
principles, from that which was adopted in England, in
the reign of Elizabeth. It provides for raising, by a
compulsory tax, a fund for the support of the indigent,
who are disabled from labour, by age, sickness, or in-
firmity, and for providing labour and sustenance, for
such of the poor as are able to work. It has been said
in England, (and the argument appears to be well
founded,) that it was not originally intended to provide
for the latter class, more than an occasional relief; but it
must be admitted that the uniform practical construction
of the law, both in England and in this State, has been,
to place the relief granted to the able bodied poor, on
the same permanent footing with that which is extended
thus understood, was introduced into this State, by an
to the old, the sick, infirm, and disabled. The system
act of Assembly, passed in the year 1771, and it is not
to be doubted that the intentions of the framers of
that act, were most humane and charitable. The mode
then adopted was considered at the time as the best
which could be devised, for the purposes of relieving
the poor, and diminishing the mass of human misery.
Under this system, we have gone on, for more than fifty
years, and it is found that the burthens upon the commu-
nity have been increased, that the number of paupers
has been augmented, that the calls upon private cha-
rity have acccumulated, and under these circumstances,
t becomes necessary seriously to inquire, whether there

With regard to the question of radical defect in the system itself, it is not the intention of your committee to enter at large into a speculative argument upon it, in this report. It has, however, been the subject of keen and voluminous discussion in England, for many years past, and a very succinct summary of a few of the leading arguments which have been there used, may not perhaps be unacceptable.

The opponents of the system have alleged, that while it must always be admitted that charity is the first of our duties, and most grateful to our feelings as men, and consonant with our sentiments as Christians, yet it has been wisely ordained by Providence to be a duty of imperfect obligation, and left to be enforced by the operation of religious motives, and that sympathy for the distressed which is natural to the human heart. That charity, no more than gratitude, or any other duty of a similar nature, is the proper object of human laws, or to be enforced by human sanctions. That, left unrestrained and uncompelled, while on the one hand the constitution of our nature and the dictates of religion, render any general failure of charity extremely improbable, there is on the other hand such an uncertainty attending the relief, which may be required in any particular case, that no individual is tempted to rely upon others, while he can find a support in his own industry or resources. That an individual too, who is about to make a voluntary gift at his own expense, will generally take reasonable care that it is bestowed upon a proper object-upon the deserving and unfortunate; and that those who have contributed, by their own abandoned and dissolute habits, to reduce themselves to penury, will then, and ought always, to find the access to relief hard and difficult. And that moreover, there is always a feeling of humiliation, attendant upon alms taking, which is unpleasant and degrading, and which affords a pledge, that this mode of subsistence will generally not be resorted to, while any other remains open.

Then, upon the effects of a system of relief by a compulsory public provision for the poor, it has been said, that there is, in the first place, no feeling of humanity, of kindness, of tenderness, on the one side, and no sense of humiliation or gratitude, on the other, and that a great obstacle to the increase of pauperism is thus removed; that the relief, which the law awards to the necessitous, is unblushingly demanded as a right, and is ungraciously granted, because it cannot be refused; that the givers and receivers, the rich and the poor, are alike dissatisfied and exasperated; the former, by the sense, that if they have already given much, more is still to be required from them; and the latter, by the consciousness, that all they have received has not been enough, and that they are still uncomfortable, needy and depend

ent.

It is observed, in the next place, that the relief cannot be, and in point of fact, never is in practice, restricted to deserving objects. That it is plainly impossible for a few officers, to whom the administration of the funds is entrusted, to investigate with any minuteness, the former habits and conduct of the individual applicants, and that they are palpably without all motive for attempting to do so, since they have themselves no interest in practising even ordinary economy, in the distribution of supplies which are raised from the resources of others. That it is therefore to be expected, that the system in question will always raise a competition, on the part of the improvident, the dissolute, and the unworthy, against the claims of those who have been reduced to want by unavoidable misfortune or calamity; and that the relief which ought to be granted to the latter alone, will often be yielded to the more clamorous and importunate demands of the former.

In the third place it is asserted, that the most operative stimulus to exertion, among the labouring classes, is the fear of want. That the ambition of a labouring man is, by his exertions during the more vigorous period of his life, to lay up something for his own future support, and to provide a fund for the maintenance of his family when death shall have taken him from them, or age or infirmity shall have rendered him incompetent to contribute to their sustenance, by his own industry. That this desire, so long as he is conscious that its fullment depends entirely upon himself, renders him industrious, frugal and provident. But that if it be proclaim, ed to such a man, that he shall be supported whenever he shall choose to relinquish a laborious employmentthat his wife, his family, shall be provided for, whenever he shall cease to provide for them, he is deprived by the assurance thus given, of his sole or principal motive for exertion; he soon falls into habits of idleness-idleness leads to profligacy-profligacy is sure to end in disease, and he becomes a wretched being, useless to himself, useless to his family and to society; and for the remainder of his miserable existence, au incumbrance-a dead weight upon the public bounty. Or that at least, the temptations thus held out to him will operate gradually learn to indulge in unnecessary expenses; that he will to relax his frugal and industrious habits; that he will imperceptibly become improvident and careless of the future, and at last end his days in the poor house. That the natural tendency of the system (supposing those who are affected by it, to be actuated by the ordinary motives which operate on human nature, will always be to swell the number of paupers to an unlimited degree, and to destroy or diminish the virtue and industry of the labouring classes. And that moreover, as the temptation held out will be indefinite and universal, while the fund itself must always be limited within some bounds, the public provision will never be found adequate to the relief of the paupers, which it has contributed to create; that the needy surplus must fall at last upon the private charity of the citizens, and that in proportion as the number is increased of those who depend upon public bounty, will also be augmented the number of those, whose sole resource must be in the individual sympathies of their fellow men,-sympathies already weakened, by the circumstance that the public have undertaken, however inefficiently, to do away the necessity for their exertion.

impair the social affections of the poor. That the sense Fourthly, it is alleged, that the system tends also to of dependence in the members, upon the head of a family, the consciousness, on his part, that to him, and him alone, must those who are most dear to him, look for protection and support-that these feelings on the links, at least, which would be indissoluble, if the one side and the other, form strong and indissoluble links poor laws did not destroy them all, by removing all sense of necessary dependence on the one hand, and of indispensable protection on the other.

And lastly, it is insisted that the poor laws encourage improvident marriages, among those who are entirely unable by their own exertions to support a family, and thus tend to breed generation after generation, of hereditary paupers, who, through their whole lives, never know any other mode of subsistence than that which is afforded to them by the public bounty.

Upon the whole, it has been concluded that the system of a compulsory public provision for the poor, will always increase and aggravate the evil which it is intended to remove; create an acerbity of feeling between the different classes of society; demoralize, to a greater or less extent, the labouring classes; promote idleness and licentiousness among the poor; destroy their frugal and industrious habits; impair their social affections, and throw upon the diligent and provident, the burden of maintaining the idle and profligate. That the necessity for private charity will be increased, while the sentiment of charity itself will be weakened-that the number of

paupers will swell rapidly; the pressure upon the community proportionably accumulate, the abuses grow more and more inveterate, and finally, all other burthens become as nothing, when compared with this one paramount oppression.

Your committee do not intend to enter further into the argument upon this subject. If the system were to be introduced now for the first time, it would be necessary to resort to speculation, in the absence of facts; but since it has prevailed in England for more than two centuries, in this commonwealth for above fifty years, and in some of the other States in the Union, for a still longer period, your committee will take experience alone as their guide, and direct their enquiries towards ascertaining, not what might have been expected, but what has actually taken place.

To avoid confusion, your committee will point the most striking facts which they have collected, as far as may be, to the following heads:

1. Whether under a system of poor laws, such as ours, the number of paupers and the amount of the public expense have uniformly been augmented?

2. Whether the necessity for private charity, has been done away by the operation of the public provision for the poor?

3. Of those who are relieved by the public bounty, whether the greater portion be not composed of such as have been reduced to penury by their own vice or improvidence?

4. Whether any expedient has been found, by any modification of the system, to prevent the evils which it produces?

1. Under a system of poor laws, such as ours, have the number of paupers and the amount of the public expense uniformly been augmented?

Your committee will take, in the first place, the case of England, into which this system was first introduced, and where it has prevailed for a longer time than in any of our own states. An enlightened writer, of the last century, bears the following emphatic testimony. (1) "Under the operation of the poor laws, it is a sad truth, that the disease of poverty, instead of being eradicated, has become more and more inveterate. England in particular overflows with beggars, though in no other country are the indigent so amply provided for."

The following statement of the sums raised in different
years, in England, for the support of the poor, will
-show a progressive and rapid increase:
Year.

(2) 1680

(3) 1750

Sums raised.

£665,260
700,000
965,000

1,306,000

It was stated by Mr. Walter Burrell, a member of the House of Commons, (Debates House of Commons Feb. 9, 1819,) that, in his own parish, that of West Grinstead, which consisted of 5000 acres, the rental of which was 4000% the poor-rates of the year 1818-19, amounted to 45001. And on the 7th of March, 1817, Mr. Calcraft, also a member of the House of Commons, presented to that body, petitions signed by individuals for whose respectability and credibility he vouched, which stated, that in the parish of Langton Matravers, in Dorsetshire, 1,774,000 containing 575 inhabitants, 419 were receiving parochial relief; and that the poor-rate amounted to at least 18 2,567,000 shillings or 19 shillings in the pound. And that, in the 3,867,000 5,407,000 parish of Swanage, also in Dorsetshire, containing 1500 inhabitants, there was not 1 in 7 able to support himself; that the poor-rates amounted to 21 shillings in the pound, 6,630,297 and every occupant of land, but one, had given notice An extract from the report of a select committee of the House of Commons, appointed to consider of the poor laws, will explain the conclusion to which they were led, after a laborious investigation of the whole subject, as to the fact of the progressive increase of the burthen, in that country.

6,680,000
7,004,765

7,525,057

It is said by Lowe, that there has been a gradual reduction of the charge since 1819, and that it may now be taken at less than 6,000,000%

The following statement, taken from "Lowe's Present State of England," (p. 193,) will show the increase, in two English counties.

(1) Sketches of Man. b. 2, sk. X.

to abandon.

(1) Documents accompanying the report of the Se(2) Mr. Curwen, (House of Commons,) May 28, 1816.cretary of the State of New York, to the Assembly,

(3) Lowe's Present State of England, p. 181, &c.
(4) Statement presented to the House of Commons,
by Mr. Addington, Feb. 26, 1816, adding 1-14th for pa-
rishes not returned. Lowe states it at 5,745,8337.

February 12, 1824, p. 126.

(2) From the reports of the committees of House of Commons on the poor laws, 1817 and 1821.—Lowe, App. 58.

one.

crease of expense in certain Scottish parishes, where the
legal assessments have been introduced.
(1) Par. County. Expense
in 1790.

Wilton,

Roxburgh, 1.92 18 00

East Kilbride,
Coldstream,
Linton,
Jedburgh,

311 01 08

61 05 00

34 06 08 208 00 00

20 00 00 141 08 05

Averg. ann. expense from 1812 to 1815. 288 17 11

836 19 00
142 10 06

213 02 03 (in 1810)
628 00 00 (in 1815)
90 00 00 (in 1815)
350 06 04(Av. from
1811 to 1815.)

visions, and other necessaries of life, and a misapplication of part of the funds, it is apparent, that both the number of paupers, and the amount of money levied by assessment, are progressively increasing, while the situation of the poor appears not to have been in a corresponding degree improved, and the committee is of opi- Hawick, nion, that whilst the existing poor laws, and the system Robertson, under which they are administered, remain unchanged, there does not exist any power of arresting the progress of this increase, till it shall no longer be found possible to augment the sums raised by assessment." (1) The English system of poor rates has never been generally introduced into Scotland. The mode adopted (2) Into the Barony parish, one of the suburbs of for the relief of the poor in that country, is a peculiar Glasgow, with a population of 43,000, the English asIn every parish is a fund raised by the voluntary sessments were introduced in 1810-the expenses then contributions of the parishioners, at the kirk door, and amounted to £600 per annum. devoted to charitable uses. The fund is administered In 1817, they had swelled to 3,000 do. by the "kirk session," a body composed of the minister and elders of the parish. When a year of extraordinary Exhibiting an increase of nearly six-fold, in 7 years; pressure occurs, and the fund proves insufficient for its while in the Gorbals, another suburb of the same city, purposes, the heritors or landholders of the parish hold with a population of 20,000, where the English assessa meeting, at which they fix for themselves a rate of con-ments have not been introduced, the regular annual extribution, to make up the deficiency. (2) It is unneces- penditure is 3501; and the whole sum expended on the sary at this time to discuss the advantages of this ar- poor in a year of extraordinary pressure, was 8751. rangement, (which "leaves the object of their charity the maintenance of the poor, amounted to between two (3) In a parish in Dumfrieshire, where the funds for and the measure, to the humanity and discretion" (a) of the givers,) over the English mode. The actual effects and three thousand pounds per annum, of a population of the two systems, are alone to be inquired about, at supposed to be nearly 800, the greater part, in the year present; and the following statements exhibit their dif- 1817, were in a state of pauperism, dependent on chaferent practical results, in a striking point of view. rity for their support. While, in an adjoining parish, with a population of 2,500 souls, there were but two, The expense of supporting the poor in certain Scotch paupers. The number of parochial poor in Scotland, in parishes where there are no poor-rates, contrasted 1817, was about one in sixty-the whole number of poor with certain English parishes, where there are poor- in that country, was then calculated at from thirty to rates. (From the Edinburg Review for Feb, 1818.) thirty-six thousand, and the total expenditure for their support, supposed not to exceed 180,000l. It is stated, however, (4) that the total poor rate collected in Scotland, in 1817, a year of scarcity and distress, was 119,0007, of which 49,000l. proceeded from assessments, and the rest were voluntary contributions.

SCOTCH.

Parish. County, Population. Total yearly fund.

£ s. d.

6 00 00 99 00 00 124 00 00 13 00 00 18 17 00 5 00 00 Poor Rates, 1,868 17 00

Frazerburgh, Aberdeen, 2,271

100 00 00

New Deer

do.

803 7 4 901 07 00 1,764 00 00 1,015 00 00 1,391 05 06

In France, before the revolution, the funds appropriated for the poor, yielded the same sum annually; "that sum was always pre-occupied; and France, with respect to all but those on the list, approached the state of a nation that had no fund provided by law for the poor." (6) Besides this, there were no doubt certain sums given in charity, by the religious establishments of that country; and in 1791, when the revolution had swept away those institutions, "there took place in the Assemblee Legislative, a long discussion on the fittest mode of Your Committee have observed that the English legal providing for the poor; the result was a decided deterassessments, have not been generally introduced into mination to avoid the English plan, but to provide at the Scotland; they have however been adopted in certain public charge, a fund of about 2,000,000l. a year, for parts of that country, and the following examples of the the relief of the aged and infirm throughout the whole expenditures in certain Scottish parishes where they of France." (7) In addition to the permanent aid afford. prevail, may be advantageously compared with the ex-ed by the government, collections are made "by subpenditures stated above, of Scottish parishes, which are yet free from such assessments. (3) Parish. County. Population. St. Boswell's Roxburgh,