Poverty and Pauperism 2 Flashcards
What did Gilbert’s Act of 1782 do?
Grouping together of parishes into unions to provide a poor house for physically unfit people rather than able-bodied poor people.
Give 5 requirements of the Poor Law Amendment Act.
Poor Law Commission set up
‘Less eligibility’ rule
Grouping of parishes together
Workhouses
Ending of outdoor relief
What replaced the Poor Law Commission in 1847?
The Poor Law Board
What does the term ‘less eligibility’ mean?
Makng the conditions in workhouses so harsh than only the truly desperate would enter/apply to go into a workhouse - putting the emphasis on work rather than relying on the state for help.
What did Jeremy Bentham found?
Utilitarianism
What is Jeremy Bentham’s theory?
Utilitarianism is the belief that human’s are motivated by pleasure and pain and that government action should be based on what provided the greatest happiness to the greatest number of people.
Give 8 reasons why important parts of the Poor Law Amendment Act were not implemented sucessfully.
. North/south divide
. Industrial v agricultural areas
. Opposition to the law
. Continuance of ‘outdoor relief’
. Same overseers continued
. Lack of uniform picture
. Lack of weight behind the new Commission
. Division within the Commission.
What book did Charles Dickens write about the despair and drudgery of the workhouse for children?
Oliver Twist
Why did Dicken’s book have a big impact on the public? Give 2 reasons.
Because it was serialised in a newspaper making it cheaper to buy, read by more people and tapped into a growing concern amongst the public
What is philanthropy?
General concern for the welfare of others through charity or donations to help people
When did the Andover Workhouse Scandal happen?
1845
What was the Andover Workhouse Scandal? Give 7 points.
Harsh regime, treated more like prisoners, eating rotten bones, abuse of women inmates, eating with fingers, long working day, starving.
Why did the Andover Workhouse scandal come to light?
Concerns raised by local poor law guardian to MP and home secretary, role of newspaper reports by the Times.
What impact did the Andover Scandal have?
The Poor Law Commission was dissolved and replaced by a Poor Law Board in 1847
How many workhouses were built between the years 1834 and 1851?
402
How many workhouses were built between the years 1851 and 1866?
100
Utilitarianism
The moral belief that an action is right if it brings the greatest good to the most number of people
What was Edwin Chadwick appointed as in 1832?
Assistant commissioner into the poor law royal commission
What did Chadwick help write?
The final report of the Poor Law Royal Comission
What did Chadwick believe in?
Utilitarianism
What did parliament ask Chadwick to do?
Investigate living conditions in London
What was Chadwick the man behind?
The poor law Amendment Act of 1834
What did Chadwick want to create a system of?
Poor relief where people were trained to help themselves.
What did Chadwick believe the old system did?
Encouraged a system of laziness by simply handing out money every week
How did the Victorians categorise the poor?
. Deserving
. Undeserving
What did legislators want the new poor law to do?
To force the poor to stand on their own feet and participate in a healthy economy
Why were the upper and middle classes against the old poor law?
Against paying taxes
Who was the most significant individual regarding the new poor law?
Edwin Chadwick
How many parishes did the Royal Commission visit out of how many and what does this show?
3000 out of 150,00 - not representative of the whole country
Out of 15,000 parishes how many responded to the questionnaires sent by the Royal Commission?
10%
What % of the total population received relief?
13%
Of the 13% who received relief what % were children and what % were sick/old/infirm?
. 50% children
. 20% sick/old/infirm
What % of able bodied males claim relief of the 13%?
20%
What did Commissioners ignore in their report?
That most relief went to the deserving poor rather than able bodied male
How many commissioners were there per county?
Only 35
How did Commissioners investigate?
. Examined parish records
. Witnesses interviewed
. Meetings
What did the commissioners have before conducting the investigation?
A predetermined opinion
What types of evidence did the commissioners use?
Moral rather than evidence based judgements
What did the Commission recommend for the PLA act?
. No outdoor relief for able bodied poor
. Each class of pauper should be treated the same under a centrally controlled system
. Each parish should have a workhouse for able bodied
What classes were the paupers defined as in the PLA act?
. The aged and really impotent
. The children
. The able bodied females
. The able bodied males
In the PLA Act what was decided about an able bodied person?
Not allowed to receive money or other help from the poor law authorities except in a workhouse
In the PLA Act what were workhouse conditions decided to be like?
Made to be very harsh to discourage people from wanting to receive help
In the PLA Act where were workhouses workhouses to be built?
Built in every parish or if the parishes were to small, in the unions of parishes
In the PLA Act what did ratepayers have to do?
Ratepayers in each parish had to elect a Board of Guardians to supervise the workhouse, to collect the Poor Rate and to send reports to the Central Poor Law Commission
In the PLA Act who would appoint the three man Central Poor Law Commission and what would they be responsible for?
Appointed by the government and would be responsible for supervising the Amendment Act throughout the country
By 1830 how much did the poor relief cost per year?
7 million
What was the role of newspaper and journals for the poor?
Publicised the debate about the poor in society
What appealed to those in favour of reducing the cost of the poor relief?
New economic theories like Riccardo and Smith
Give the cost of poor in 1815, 1817, 1823 and 1830
. 1815 - 5.7 million
. 1817 - 7.9 million
. 1823 - 5.7 million
. 1831 - 7 million
Malthusian belief
Too many people and not enough food
Interpretation that PLA act was inspired by the middle class
. Middle class had just been enfranchised
. Reduce burden on property owners
. Force poor to work for lower wages
What was the middle class philosophy about the poor
Individualism, we succeeded by hard work so why can’t you, replaced older idea that the rich had some responsibility for the poor
Interpretation that PLA act was a way of maintaining the traditional social and economic powers of the elite
. PLA helped restore order after riots
. Royal Commission appointed by the aristocratic MPs
. Landowners continued to dominate
How the poor feel about the new poor law?
They hated it and lived with the threat of the workhouse
What did William Cobbett say about the act?
Object of the Bill was to ‘rob the poor man and enrich the landowner’
Was there much opposition in parliament to the PLA act?
Very little opposition
What did Thomas Malthus write an essay on and what did it conclude?
. Essay on population in 1796
. Funding the poor law would lead to famine and disaster as it would encourage the population to grow as there would not be enough food
What did Malthus think should be done with the poor law?
Abolishing PL would leave employers more money to pay workers and discourage poor from having more children to claim support for
What did Thomas Paine think about the poor law?
. Criticised it for its inability to function properly
. Urged reform to provide better support for poor and wanted tax to pay for it
. Poor should learn to support each other
What was the Commission supposed to comprise of?
About 30 parishes and 100,000 people to make it efficient
What did parishes refuse to do under the PLA act?
Refused to form new unions and 20/50 of the biggest unions continued to hand out relief under older acts
What happened to the old overseers under the new poor law?
Often reappointed and left scope for continuity of old ways of corruption
What was slow to happen under the new poor law?
Make workhouses
What relief was the most common after the PLA act?
Outdoor relief was mist common especially in the north as it was most humane and cheapest
In 1840 how many paupers moved to settlements based on births/marriage?
40,000
Before the PLA act what % of the UK’s GDP was spent on poor relief expenditure?
20%
What was David Riccardo’s economic theory called?
Wage fund theory
If people are working what are they less likely to do?
Revolt
