The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-04-29 00:00:00

012scrbr...

=NTURDAY, APRIL 29, 1871.

PAUPEP ISM.

Tile most pressing question of the day is
" Panperistn and how to deal with it,' and, shirk
the fact as we may, it is undeniable that this
painful question becomes daily of increasing im-
portance. U. . subject may be,
we make no apology for now dealing with it,
more especially as we desire to assert the impor-
tance of some general principles of universal ap-
plication. The guiding maxim of the old law, as
established in the rein of Elizabeth, was that
there was always an indefinite quantity of work
for Mall to do, and it was accortingly enacted
that employment for all labourers out of work
should bo found by their respective parishes.
How political economists gradually found that
employment could not be created by Act of Par-
liament, and arrived at the conclusion that it
was not employment, but subsistence, that was
required; and how it came to be understood that
the Poor Law really guaranteed subsistence to
all, we need not inquire. Suffice it to say that
the Present Poor Law is grounded on the notion
that every individual born in the State is entitled ,
as of natural right, to a hare subsistence from ,!
the State; but it now appears that serious doubts '
are arising as to the ability of the State to guar-
antee such a subsistence. Under the present
Poor Law, out-door relief is rarely given to the
able-bodied ; the workhouse is made so uncom-
fortable that no one will enter it except as a
positively last resort: and husbands and wives
are seperated in the workhouses, as part of the
system of repressihg pauperism.
In administeriiii:; our Poor Law, the aim of
the administrator., is supposed to be to obtain
that almost unattainable medium between harsh-
ness and even cruelty on the one hand and over-
kind treatment on the other. It is comparatively
only latTly that the gross th of public philanthropy
has uused a modification in the operation of the
law by insisting on its being worked more chari-
tably, and by taking the immediate pressure for
economy off Boards of Guardians by increasing
the area of taxation. But. unhappily, we are
having the fact forced on our attention that
psnperisni is increasing in a higher ratio that
the national capital; and, worse than this, it is
seen that there is no limit to these increasing
ratios, and that unless there is some alteration
either in the Principles of the Poor Law or their
administration, pauperism will more than ever
be our master. Something must be done, as the
phrase goes. The popular notion is that if there
were no Poor Law, multitudes would die of star
vatiou. Undoubtedly, if there were a sudden ah-
olitiou of the law and the system founded on it
—were such an Abolition possible. But it is a
remarkable fact, that there is no country in the
world thet has a Poor Law such as ours, or even
any machinery whsch produces the same effect;
and yet there are more deaths from want in Eng-
land than any other continental state. Our poor
are poorer and more numerous than in other
countries that are poorer than we are. It may
be seriously questioned whether one of the main
causes of this is not the Poor Law itself.. Put
the matter thus : say we give away " relief:" and
all that is included in it, to the tune of five mil-
lions sterling this year. Double the amount
available for the relief of pauperism yearly for
the next three or four years, and we doubt not
that there will be a proportionate number of pau-
pers ready to take the relief. That we can re-
duce pauperism by the opposite mode of action
is by no means so clear, though undoubtedly the
less funds were really available for relief the less
tendency would there be to apply fur them ; but
it is pretty clear that the State can have just as
many ithough not perhaps as fewi paupers as it
chooses to pay for. There is another remark-
sable fact connected ',Ali English pauperism—a
-tact, in one respect, creditable to us as a nation,
but which, combined with our enormous direct
and compulsory penditure on pauperism,
manifests one of our weak points. That fact is,
that private charity in this country is unbounded,
while we have, moreover, philanthropic institu-
tions te a greater extent than any country in the

world. -
But s have to deal with the weighty fact of
pauperism as it exists, and it is ceitain we can-
not abolish our existing Poor Law. The ten-
dency, however, ought to be towards modifying
it, and lessening the taxation on the middle and
Nr orkiug classes fur the support of poor, a large
proportion of whom—we state the fact in sorrow
and not in anger—are poor from their own
faults; from idleness, improvidence, and drunk-
enness. To effect this we must have some agency

counteracting the easy descent of our labouring
classes into the gulf of pauperism, and this
agency way be found, we believe, to a large ex-
tent in emigration. That the State should aid
emigration with funds raised by taxation we do
not assert; but it is a ratepayer's question
throughout the country. The question, how.
ever, must oe dealt with as a whole, on broad
national grounds. The peddling system of
seperate parishes or emigration societies sending
out paupers or semi-paupers—that is, those who
either are or will become paupers—will not ef-
fectually grapple with our difficulties. There
must be uniform action for the national good,
and it is to the best means of effecting this uni-
form action that our philanthropists and social
reformers should turn their attention.

LATEST NEWS.

PRESS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAMS.

(REUTERS TELEGRAMS)

FOREIGN NEWS.

FRANCE.

THE INSURRECTION AT PARIS.

REPULSE OF THE FEDERALS.
VaasaiLLaa, Friday.

A Federalist detachment was repulsed Met night to-
wards tho heighta of Bruyerds, morthe officers captured.

AMERICA.
DEATH OF MR. MASON.

WASHINGTON, Friday.

Mr. 31,m0n, formerly Coufrderate Minister to Eng.
land, is dead.

NEW YORK, ll,uniday.

The Level f the has glven wey at,ove N,w
Orient

OLNERAL NEWS.

;Press Associstion Teleyrams.

FRIDAY.

fientral Sheridan. at present st lying in Dublin, ban
refused ti receive an address front the Natiunds," as
he is on official bullies+ from the United Stars.
Tne Ac/so understands that Miss Burdett Conde has
resolved to present Cniumbia Market to the City of Lon-
don.
Duairssr ELs.c-rtos lie official returns are not yet
out, hut the Cooserea,,,, return gives the number as fol.
lowa —h, onrla. St I; Lhosl,non, 776.

LONDON CORN MARKET (CLOSE).
FRIDAY.

Market generally dull. EngHA' and foreign wheat !mile
slowly, at prices in buyers fire cAr. fown ibur unal-
tered; country snarl.. la, and American barrels Gd
cheaper on wok. Ilarley Grin. Oats weaker than on
Wednesday. Maize dull. Yeans and peas firm.