On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
Report , and he has sketched the family tree in a very lawyer-like manner . It is inconceivable , to any not practically concerned in the management of the poor , and to many that are , but who have not all their wits about them , the frauds which this volume shows to be practised for the sake of obtaining parish money . Many claim and get it while in full work , and receiving more ,
independently of the allowance , than others who , though sore pressed , yet manage to pay their rates . Three or four lodgings are sometimes tenanted by as many persons in common * that each may claim on three or four different parishes . Children are let out , that travelling paupers may obtain the allowance upon them . Parish officers are frequently under the influence of intimidation . Gross jobbery prevails abundantly . In short , the real distress of the
poor is made the pretext for a most extensive and nefarious system of plunder and idleness . And the demoralizing effects which inevitably ensue , are powerfully aided by the charitable institutions which everywhere abound . The full growth of mistaken benevolence , and the kind of fruit which it bears , are best exhibited in the Spital fields charities . The rector of the parish of
Christ Church , Spitalfields , states himself to have been accessary to a distribution of above 8000 Z . within one year . The whole of his evidence is important . One part of it , though inconveniently long for our limits , we must give . It is the exemplification , in an individual case , of the operation of the various local charities , and is certified by his ' own personal observation . '
A young weaver of twenty-two marries a servant girl of nineteen - —and the consequence is the prospect of a family . We should presume , under ordinary circumstances , that they would regard such a prospect with some anxiety ; that they would calculate upon the expenses of an accouchement , and prepare for them in the interval by
strict economy and unremitting industry . No such thing . —It is the good fortune of our couple to live in the district of Spitalfields , and it is impossible to live there without witnessing the exertions of many charitable associations . To these , therefore , they naturally look for assistance on every occasion .
• They are visited periodically by a member of the " District Visiting" Society . " It is the object of this society to inquire into the condition of the poor , to give them religious advice and occasional temporal relief , and to put them in the way of obtaining the assistance of other charitable institutions . To the visitor of this institution the additional " relief from charitable foundations and benevolent people ?•— " Yea , " » aid the governor , «« we have a great many benevolent people in this townand they help .
, There it * always something or other given ; a great deal of coal is given away , and the churchwardens give away linen . " He admitted , in answer to further inquiries , that the greatest impositions were practised on the most humane people . One of the paupers had declared to him , that he had as many aa six shirts at a time given to him by different benevolent people . It was intimated that , as a matter of course , these thing * went to the pawn-shop for drink . He expressed an opinion that coalf were the best commodity to give aw « y— " as cuals cannot be pawned I" '
Untitled Article
$ 66 Poor Laws and Paupers .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1833, page 366, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2616/page/6/
-