Poor Law - 3.4

Question 1

when did the whig government set up the royal commission of enquiry into the operation of the poor law?

Answer 1

February 1832

Question 2

what was the whig government?

Answer 2

one of the two main political parties of Britain between the late 17th and 19th century
-it was right wing but traditionally more associated with social reforms than the conservatives

Question 3

how did the commission set about doing their work?

Answer 3

• consisted of nine commissioners the two noticeable being Nassau senior and Edwin Chadwick
• 26 assistant commissioners were sent to question 3000 parishes (1/5 of the poor law districts)
• info was collected in two ways. three questionnaires were devised, two were sent to parishes in rural areas and the third to parishes in towns

Question 4

strengths of the royal commission?

Answer 4

• different methods were used to collate information getting a variety of perspectives
• survey was the first of its kind
• main function was to investigate with the view of reforming the system meaning they set out to find flaws
• covered 1/5 of districts accounting for widespread regional differences
• people conducting survey were notable figures so their results were likely yo be listened to

Question 5

limitations of royal commission?

Answer 5

• only 10% of parishes responded
• surveys aren’t consistent and large amounts of info are difficult to analyse
• questions were often skewed to elicit the required answers as set out to find flaws. same goes for interviews as many were led down predetermined paths
• didn’t interview the poor themselves leaving it vastly to the opinion of the elites

Question 6

what were the recommendations of the pool law amendment act?

Answer 6

• seperate workhouses should be provided for the ages, infirm, children, able-bodied men and able-bodied women
• parishes should group into unions
• all relief outside workhouses should not continue
• a new central authority should be established

Question 7

what were the terms of the poor law amendment act?

Answer 7

• a central authority should be set up to supervise the implementation and regulate the administration of the poor law
• parishes were to be grouped together to form poor law unions in order to provide relief efficiently ]
• each poor law union was to establish a workhouse in which inmates would live in conditions that were worse than those of the poorest labourer
• outdoor relief for the able-bodied pauper was to be discouraged but not abolished

Question 8

who were the key individuals involved in the poor Law amendment act?

Answer 8

• Thomas Franklin Lewis (tory MP)
• George nicholls (a radical overseer in Nottingham under the old poor law)
• John Shaw-lefevre (a lawyer and whig MP)

Question 9

what did the poor law being independent from parliament mean?

Answer 9

• strength in that it wasn’t subject to their political opinions and axiomatic biases
• weakness meant they didn’t have the backing of them when trying to pass acts
• the commission did however veto appointments, set up dieters in the workhouses and centralise accounting procedures

Question 10

what were the work/priorities of the amendment act?

Answer 10

• a programme of workhouse construction began, the hope for these workhouses was to be deterrent so numbers claiming poor relief would decline
• in most areas outdoor relief was also banned
• the settlement laws were made clearer, to ensure they were adhered to and to protect urban ratepayers from a sudden increase/demand due to migration
• transfer unemployed people from rural areas to urban ones in order to find jobs

Question 11

what were workhouses for?

Answer 11

• for people caught between poverty and destitution
• used to deal with economic up-heaven, the spiralling problem of poverty, soaring population growth and to humiliate paupers into standing on their own two feet
• less eligibility to minimise the welfare bill
• stop the toxic spread and degenerative circle of poverty by separating families

Question 12

what was significant about workhouse architecture?

Answer 12

• designed to humiliate, discipline and judge people
• design provided division and segregation of paupers to provide appropriately for each class and to avoid the moral contagion that would occur of categories mixed.
• meant paupers lost their individuality being treated as impersonal units

Question 13

what were Kempthorne’s two basic designs for workhouses?

Answer 13

-y-shaped workhouse within a hexagonal boundary
the boundary held workrooms and the Y shaped buildings communal facilities like a chapel and masters room for observation
-cruciform shape inside a swarm boundary
wall held workrooms and cruciform divided exercise yard into four spaces and held communal facilities and master quarters in cross itself

Question 14

what was significant about the workhouse staff?

Answer 14

• some work was carried out by the paupers themselves (most of whom lived external to the workhouse). they did menial work for long houses and low pay
• many weren’t paid leaving their reliant on workhouse as a longterm institution
• key posts like the master and matron were unqique to the workhouse and hence it was at their hands as to what the workhouse became
• matron responsible for women and domestic side
• master responsible for economy and internal conditions

Question 15

examples of different workhouse based off their leaders

Answer 15

• Ashford (kent) renowned for compassion

- George Catch (London) inflicted terror and cruelty

Question 16

what was significant about workhouse diet?

Answer 16

• just about kept paupers alive but was served to degrade and discipline in a tedious process
• poor Law commissioners provided 6 model diets from which guardians could choose
• here principle of less eligibility had to hold sway yet was hard as many rural able-bodied paupers were only just existing on a subsistent level diet
• many weighed food in front of poor to delay serving them until it was cold adding to the humiliation
• forced to eat with hands
• way meals eaten was designed to install repressive uniformly (e.g. until 1842 meals were to be eaten in silence)

Question 17

what was work like for paupers inside workhouse?

Answer 17

• primary aim was to rehabilitate the paupers and restore them for the workhouse outside
• had to available within confines of workhouse
• couldn’t diminish available employment on the outside
• philosophical stance of the commissioners meant work couldn’t pay more than it cost to maintain the pauper as if it did there would be no incentive for the pauper to return to the labour market

Question 18

why was discipline significant for the workhouse?

Answer 18

• not only physical but also psychological as being had their dignity stripped from them
• among the paupers themselves bullying and blackmail was common
• rewards helped to maintain order
• girls and women couldn’t be beaten bur reduction in rations was common
• one of the main problems was the promotion of Mobile paupers, these transient, itinerant paupers who drifted in and out brought tensions, stresses and petty crime
• sexual abuse between staff and inmates

Question 19

what was significant about children within workhouses?

Answer 19

• high infant mortality rates
• parents had to relinquish responsibility for their child as children couldn’t be held responsible for their own poverty
• Educational act of 1870 led to the education of pauper children within the elementary school system helping their integration into society
• many given medical attention and at nine an apprenticeship to.a trade
• yet education was often rudimentary and they could be apprenticed to any trades people, often being taken far away without their parents knowledge
• couldn’t leave workhouse on own free will quickly becoming institutionalised and unable to cope with life beyond the walls

Question 20

what was significant about the regime within workhouses?

Answer 20

• routine was unpleasant and designed to deter people from entering
• no personal possessions allowed and uniform worn
• men given razors to shave once a week and all paupers were given a weekly bath but watched to prevent self mutilation and to highlight loss of privacy
• principle of less eligibility led to inevitable conflicts as boards of guardians struggled to match their own prejudices with demand of local requirements

Question 21

how was the principle of less eligibility met in workhouses?

Answer 21

• menial, monotonous tasks as had to pay less than cost of maintaining that pauper meant inmates were often less economically stable than on the outside
• one bath a week, on outside there were no formal limits against this
• loss of identity, individuality and personal space
• regimented routine demoralised paupers
• split up families
• silent mealtimes often with no cutlery
• subject to abuse which was more avoidable on outside

Question 22

how was the principle of less eligibility not met in workhouses?

Answer 22

• children were given education and an apprenticeship which often wasn’t achievable on the outside
• food was guaranteed daily, this wasn’t so definite on the outside
• limits to the power of guardians as women and children couldn’t be beaten
• could leave the workhouse and re-enter somewhat exploiting the system, reaping benefits that the poorest labourer often wouldn’t get
• shelter meant free from the elements and vermon
• nature of matron/master could make it pleasant

Question 23

what role did Chadwick have before the commission?

Answer 23

• worked for two years as Bentham’s secretary becoming a reverent believer in the doctrine of utilitarianism
• because of his role, this permeated into the repairs, the act itself and the implementation of it
• first appointed as assent commissioner where his prodigious output soon led to his promotion to post of commissioner

Question 24

what role did Chadwick have in the actual report?

Answer 24

• wrote second half of the report (Senior the first) setting out remedial measures for the poor law to work properly
• clear objective to deter applications for relief driven by the principal of less eligibility where the workhouse test act was a genuine test of their destitution
• key influence in drafting the parliamentary bill, both of his recommendation were implemented (local control vested in boards of guardians and magistrates could becomes ex officio poor law guardians)

Question 25

what role did Chadwick have in enforcing the report?

Answer 25

• his desire to become a poor law commissioner was overruled by the cabinet who thought he wasn’t of a sufficient rank
• made secretary to poor law commissioners
• issued hundred of circulars and queries, attempting to impose his understanding of utilitarianism into the operation of the new poor law

Question 26

how did rumour and propaganda effectively oppose the new poor law?

Answer 26

• union workhouses were built at a distance from the homes of those seeking relief fuelling belief they were extermination centres in an attempt to keep poor rates low
• book of murder suggested pauper children were gassed
• many believed food like bread was poisoned
• many believed it was introduced to lower the national wage bill

Question 27

how did genuine fears effectively oppose the new poor law?

Answer 27

• based on individual perceptions of how people believed society should be run
• many attacked the centralisation of the scheme as commissioners were seen as being London based with no real understanding of life outside the metropolis
• many fearer it would break the traditional paternalistic role between rich and poor
• outdoor relief was cheaper that initial outdoor relief due to immensely costly construction of workhouses

Question 28

what opposition did John Fielden create?

Answer 28

• voted against the poor law trying to get it replaced
• claimed it had only taken evidence from commissioners and guardians
• attended anti poor law events in Yorkshire as owner of a mill, threatening to shut them down if guardians didn’t resign causing 3000 to become homeless
• after violence ensued, the mills opened and when attacked homes of guardians, making troops restore order

Question 29

was Fielden successful in his opposition?

Answer 29

• new poor law passed in 34 but implemented in Todmordan in 77 therefore he must have been somewhat successful in delaying it
• sat with the whigs in house of commons as perceived as being more likely to support radical measures than torys
• member of commons committee in years 1837-38 who investigated new poor law, when they reportedly favourably he was vociferous in his criticism

Question 30

why did Richard Oastler oppose the new poor law?

Answer 30

• opposed poor law from position of a factory reformer believing the poor law commissioners had too much power (esp ability to supply cheap pauper labour to factories)
• he believed this would lead to a reduction in factory wages and the consequent deterioration of living conditions of industrial WC, increasing pauperism
• concerned with concept of unions saying it removed any personal interaction between the giver and receiver of relief

Question 31

how did ouster oppose the new poor law?

Answer 31

• urged workers to involved themselves in strikes and sabotage, news of this reached London commissioners
• Thornill’s reaction was to dismiss ouster yet this didn’t stop him as he had more time to urge protests in the WC
• 2 years later in prison yet his supporters raised the necessary money to have him released after 4 years- impact minimised in this time
• steward of foxy for 14 years so landlord knew of his support for ten hours movement, sympathising with him

Question 32

what forms of protest were there in the rural south?

Answer 32

• most heavily pauperised district
• local magistrates and clergy angry at what they saw as unnecessary centralisation and the removal of traditional master-servant relationship
• protests about the regime and institutionalisation of workhouses
• e.g. riots took place when paupers were being transported to a new workhouse in Amersham… special constable read the Riot Act and placed armed yeomanry on the streets
• e.g. in east anglia new workhouses attacked and officers assaulted

Question 33

how did rural paupers and move influential people oppose the new poor law?

Answer 33

• paupers took to the streets
• more influential citizens used their positions of power (e.g. refusing to apply principal of less eligibility as strictly, continuing to provide outdoor relief and circumventing inhumane destructive law)

Question 34

drawbacks of rural protests in terms of opposition

Answer 34

• recent fate of Tolpuddle martyrs sentenced to transportation for swearing illegal oaths depressed rural protests limiting size of movement and preventing from lasting for a long period of time
• despite feelings of disgruntlement most likely being widespread acts of violence were sporadic and localised so cannot constitute being a widespread reason

Question 35

what wear the Tolpuddle martyrs?

Answer 35

• in 1834, six agricultural workers were sentenced to seven years transpiration for swearing illegal oaths that bound men into a train union
• gov feared that unions agricultural workers would heighten general rural unrest

Question 36

what was the Ten Hours’ Movement?

Answer 36

• a sustained campaign in the 1830s for the reduction of hours worked in textile mills to ten per day
• led in parliament by Shaftesbury and fielden and on the outside by oastler

Question 37

why did northern oppositon come about?

Answer 37

• chadwick urged an early start on unionising the industrial regions of Britain while times were relatively prosperous
• yet commissioners only turned attention in 1837 during onset of trade depression
• many had adapted their relief provisions to meet the cyclical depressions yet rural industrial owner rested interference from Londoner who knew little of rural conditions
• these owners facing lay offs and short hours needed short term relief to tide them over in periods of temporary unemployment not the removal of whole families to workhouses

Question 38

what were the forms of northern oppositon?

Answer 38

• anti poor law associations sprang up fired up by the demands of the ten hours movement
• this united tory paternalists like oastler and fielden with radical printers like Richardson snd socialists like Pitkeithy
• high public protest meetings held and their bastilles denounced forms of insurrection

Question 39

examples of northern protests

Answer 39

• armed riots in Todmorden
• London troops were sent to quell 1838 Dewsbury riots
• 1838, in Bradford, commissioner power was threatened by a mob
• workhouses attacked (e.g. Stockport in 1842)

Question 40

what is a chartist?

Answer 40

-a member of a WC movement emerged in the 1830s with the aim to gain political rights for WC people

Question 41

similarities of opposition to the old and new poor law?

Answer 41

• both had key individuals who campaigned
• both had rural rebellions and regional differences
• economic reasoning in both (more prevalent in old poor law)
• lots of complaints about overpopulation and how this was accommodated (more so in old poor law)

Question 42

differences of opposition to the old and new poor law?

Answer 42

• general discontent in new poor law vs serious issues in old poor law
• individuals like Bentham was more successful in the old poor law due to links with people like Chadwick
• more concerns in new poor law (e.g. rumours)
• more threatened by opposition with old poor law as more pressure but also because it was acc related (the new poor law wasn’t)

Question 43

analsysis of industrial north opposition

Answer 43

• does constitute being widespread as ten hours movement had parliamentary backing and many protests seen in multiple town scubas Oldham and Bradford
• yet not long lived as despite todmorden only having new poor law implemented in 1877 this was a singular isolated case
• by 1838 the reaction of gov had quelled majority of city riots and the ten hours movement had begun to lose momentum

Question 44

analysis of individual oppositon

Answer 44

• oastler himself cannot be attributed with providing widespread opposition his role in Ten Hours movement did achieve widespread albeit short term oppositon
• not long term as with loss of support from Thornill he found himself in prison for four years where he couldn’t inspire opposition
• fielden’s work in Todmorden led to new poor law only being implemented in 1877. this shows longterm opposition for nearly 40 years yet is n isolated case so doesn’t constitute being widespread