3.4 Poor Law Amendment Act Flashcards
When was the Royal Commission of Enquiry set up? What could contribute to the reasons for the set up of this Commission?
Feb 1832, it was around the time when the passage of the Parliamentary Reform Act 1832 was contested (expansion of franchise), and also it could also have been due to the pressure of change
How many commissioners were there in the Royal Commission of Enquiry? Who were the 2 most influential members?
9, Nassau Senior (professor of Political Economy at Oxford and disapproved of the allowance system) and Edwin Chadwick (Utilitarianism)
How many assistant commissioners were there? What did they do?
26, they put in the leg-work, collecting and collating evidence, each commissioners were assigned a specific district in which to conduct their enquiries
What was the first way in which data was collected?
the commissioners devised 3 questionnaires, 2 to parishes in rural areas and 1 to parishes in towns, around 10% of the parishes replied because there was no compulsion o do so
Since the data collected was so hard to analyse, what did assistant commissioners do?
they talked to the poor, attended vestry meetings and magistrates’ sessions
How many parishes did the assistant commissioners visit in total?
around 3000
Why can it be argued that the Royal Commision reports were flawed?
because the questions were skewed in order to elicit the answers required, or at least were ambiguous and open to interpretation, the same was for interviews, the questions were sweked and witnesses were led along predetermined paths
Why did the commissioners have to skew the questions?
because any challenge to the conclusions drawn from the ‘evidence’ would be time consuming and very difficult
What is an example of the result of the report that is not reflective of the actual situation because of the wording?
the use of word ‘allowance’ - the final report made it appear that allowances to supplement wages (Speenhamland system) were commonplace, but in reality these systems had largely died out since the 1820s, in reality, most parishes did not increase relief until the birth of a third/ fourth child
How can the flaws of the report be justified?
it was the first of its kind and it wold be unrealistic to expect a more systematic and sophisticated approach, also the enquiry was not intended to be impartial
What was the core function of the reports by the Royal Commission
to focus specifically on how the old Poor Law worked with a view to reforming it
What do historians, demographers, economists etc say about the link between the relief under the old Poor Law and population growth, low wages/ unemployment? How is this different from the Royal Commission’s findings?
they say that the relief under the old Poor Law was a response to population growth, low wages, unemployment etc,, the RC said increased relief was the cause of it
When was the RC’s report published?
early 1834
What was the conclusion of the RC report?
that the old Poor Law itself was the cause of poverty
What was at the core of the commissioners’ analysis?
the belief that there was a need to keep the distinction between poverty (part of natural order) and indigence (inability to earn enough to live on)
Which group of the poor was the main problem for the RC?
the able-bodied poor who either could not or would not earn sufficient income to keep themselves from grinding poverty
What were the 4 recommendations made by RC to save money and improve efficiency?
1) separate workhouses to be provided for the aged and infirm, children, able-bodied women and men
2) parishes group into unions to provide these workhouses
3) outdoor relief should stop, and less eligibility test applied
4) a new, central authority to be established with powers to make and enforce regulations concerning the workhouse system
What were the 3 main aims of the Poor Law policy?
1) reduce the cost of providing relief
2) ensure that only the genuinely destitute received relief
3) provide a national system of poor relief
When was the Poor Law Amendment Act? What was it a response to?
1834 - it was a response to the report of the Royal Commission
Were there any opposition to the passing of the Poor Law Amendment Act (PLAA)?
no, there was litte opposition to the bill, partly because it did exactly what MPs and the Lords wanted- reduce the cost of providing for the poor by providing for them efficiently
Why were there little opposition to the passing of PLAA?
the Tories, who might have stood out against it as an encroachment on traditional paternalism, were in a minority in the Commons and were overwhelmed by the utilitarian arguments of the Whigs
Give an example of an individual that helped create the climate of change within Parliament.
Brougham, he contributed to the ‘Edinburgh Review’, a journal that throughout the 1820s published a stream of articles on social problems of the day
What were the concerns of the people that opposed the bill?
the centralisation involved and the increased opportunities for patronage it would provide
What were the 4 things that PLAA laid down?
1) a central authority should be set up to supervise the implementation and regulate the administration of the Poor Law
2) parishes were to be grouped together to form Poor Law Unions to increase efficiency
3) each Poor Law union was to establish workhouses with the less eligibility test applied
4) outdoor relief for the able-bodied was discouraged but not abolished
Was the actual programme of reform laid down by parliament?
no, they simply set down the administrative arrangements through which the three commissioners were to implement and interpret
What was set up to administer the PLAA throughout the country? Where did they work?
a central Poor Law Commission was set up, they worked in Somerset House, London
Who were the 3 commissioners?
Thomas Frankland Lewis (Tory MP), George Nicholls, John Shaw-Lefevre
Who was the secretary to the commission?
Edwin Chadwick
How many assistant commissioners were there? What were there roles?
they were 9 assistant commissioners (no. varied over time), their job was to make sure that decisions made centrally were implemented at local level in the parishes
What was a disadvantage of the commission being independent of parliament?
it did not have a spokesman in parliament to defend it against the criticisms levelled against it by MPs, the commissioners, parishes were almost universally hated
What were some powers for the commissioners?
they could issue directives, draw up regulations and monitor their implementation
Were the parishes obliged to do what they were told?
no
What were some negative powers that the commission have?
it could veto appointments it thought unsuitable, refuse to allow certain types of building, set dietaries for the workhouses, centralise accounting procedures - make life difficult for parishes who opposed it
What were the two priorities of the Poor Law Commission policy after 1834?
the transfer of out-of-work and unemployed workers in rural areas to urban areas where employment was plentiful
the protection of urban ratepayers from a sudden surge of demand from rural migrants prior to their obtaining regular employment
Which programme was the first priority of the PLC policy to transfer unemployed workers to urban areas?
the programme of workhouse construction- setting up deterrant workhouses to drive potential paupers to find work in towns and cities
Which Law tackled the second priority of the PLC policy? (protection of urban ratepayers from a sudden surge of demand from rural migrants prior to their obtaining regular employment )
the Settlement Laws - poor rates would be kept low, and would not fall disproportionately on the towns if the Settlement Laws were stringently applied, returning the seekers of relief back to their home parishes
What were built with the assumption that outdoor relief for the able-bodied poor would stop?
deterrant workhouses
Why did the building of deterrant workhouses progress slowly?
amalgamating unions/ building workhouses took time even with no opposition
What 3 things did the commission do to try to forbid outdoor relief for the able-bodied poor?
1) throughout the 1830s, the comission began issuing orders to specific unions in the rural south of England, prohibitng outdoor relief to the able-bodied poor
2) this was extended to the rural north in England in 1842
3) the 1944 General Outdoor Relief Prohibitory Order applied to all unions and forbade outdoor relief to the able-bodied poor
Were the orders prohibiting outdoor relief effective?
no, oudoor relief continued to be the most common form of relief given to paupers, particularly in industrial northern towns (who were subject to enormous swings of cyclic unemployment) - they were the cheapest alternative to building huge workhouses that would remain half empty for most of the working year
Why were the Settlement Laws necessary still in the mid-19th century?
to make sure that the cost of maintaing paupers was fairly spread between urban and rural parishes, and if workhouses were indeed to be true deterrants
By 1840, how many paupers had been removed from the parishes in which they were living and claiming relief, back of their parishes of settlement (theirs by virtue of birth/ marriage)?
40,000
Were the Settlement Laws costly?
yes, both in practical and adminsitrative terms, but the cost in terms of human suffering was incalculable
Which doctrine was Chadwick a firm believer of?
utilitarianism
How did Edwin Chadwick’s role influence the policy of Poor Law?
his work permeated the Royal Commission Report, the Poor Law Amendment Act and the work of the commission in implementing the Act
What was Chadwick’s object in the Royal Commission report?
deter applications for relief by making the relief itself, and the coniditons under which it was given, repugnant - principle of less eligibility
Who was the one that drafted the parliamentary bill? Who was he assisted by?
John Meadows White, assisted by Nassau Senior and William Sturges-Bourne
What report did Chadwick write before the Royal Commission report was finalised (but did not appear in the RC report), that also played a part in the bassing of the bill?
Notes for the Heads of a Bill’
In ‘Notes for the Heads of a Bill’, which two recommendations were implemneted in the bill?
1) that local control of poor relief should be vested in elected boards of guardians 2) magistrates could become ex officio Poor Law guardians
