SUGGESTION OF A PLAN FOR THE PERMANENT EMPLOYMENT OF THE
LABOURING POOR.
TO THE EDITOR Oi TIIE SPECTATOR.
Sin—Notwithstanding your witty remarks upon " Nostrums," a week or two ago, I venture to offer a plan for the relief of the country against the growing evils of pauperism. I need not enumerate the forms which they take, nor attempt to assign the causes to which they are attribu- table. The stern facts which meet us on every side are sufficient for my present purpose. The farmer is unable to provide work for the agricul- tural labourer ; the deficiency of wages is therefore supplied, partly by the farmer, and partly by the landed proprietor, in the shape of poor- rates ; and, after all, the allowance fails to supply the means of subsist- ence.
The plan which I have to propose contemplates a perpetual and uni- versal system of employment throughout the country ; so that whether the manufacturer or the agriculturist be distressed, his labourers who will work shall find work ready for them. The means of employment I would find partly in the existing poor-rates--partly in additional assessments, if ne- cessary. If five millions of the poor-rates (supposing the other two or three millions to have been expended on the aged and those that are in- capable of labour) had for the last twenty years been expended on a well- regulated system of public employment, a great advancement must have taken place in the intellectual and moral progress of the poor. Nor would this have been the only advantage. Public buildings, gardens, roads, improvements and embellishments of great towns, would have followed the expenditure of this money. I speak so far only as concerns the proper expenditure of the poor-rates already levied. Had these been managed in such a manner as to encourage industry, as well as to relieve the people from starvation, the fires of Kent would never have thrown a light upon the people's sufferings. I do not pretend that the poor- rates would have been sufficient to afford a recompense to the fair exer- tions of the labourer. We have too much cultivated the disposition to be satisfied with the prevention of absolute starvation ; and the rich, in. stead of extending relief from their abundance in a spirit of generosity, have laboured systematically to degrade the poor man in his own eyes by the churlishness of their charity. But I do contend, that the relief I seek for the poor, would have been an economical and judicious outlay by the higher and middling classes.
Had such measures been adopted long ago, a great saving might have been effected, to many counties, so far as respects the keeping of gaols and their inmates, together with the enormous costs of criminal prosecu- tions—leaving out of view the moral mischief's which are attributable to the existence of these nurseries of crime. Formerly, I may observe, in palliation of some of the bad habits of the working classes, labourers were entertained by their masters, and retained in their service from youth to old age ;—but the calculating economy of modern times has broken ties at one time regarded as little less than sacred, and has sought to re- duce the rate of wages to the lowest level. But to my plan. I propose that an assessment be made upon all persons liable to pay rates in each county; that, to facilitate the application of these funds, committees shall be formed in every hundred ; that the rates be not levied, according to the number of the poor in the parish, upon the in- habitants of the parish, but that the inhabitants of the county, generally, shall be assessed to provide for the poor of the entire county. In many parishes the numbers of the poor are very large in proportion to the well-doing ; whereas, in other parishes, the well-doing far exceed the poor : it seem unjust that the relief should be determined by locality,
'rather than by the general ability of the county: I also contemplate,- by- this provision, the extinction of that system of litigation by which the funds of parishes have often been squandered to determine the right. of settlement of a single individual.
It should be the business of the committees to determine the nature of the works that should be required, and to enter upon them as the demand for labour should increase,, and in the same way to relax as it lessened. These works should consist of undertakings of general utility— of schools, houses for indigent persons who are past labour, the forma- tion of gardens and public walks in the immediate neighbourhood of towns, the care of all public ways throughout the country, the high- roads and the parish-roads, without distinction. This latter species of employment, by facilitating the communication between the different estates of the county, would improve the value of the property of those who contributed to the fund ; at the same time, where a great private or merely local advantage would result to some particular person or neighbourhood by any of these works, a contriltution from the persons especially benefited might be reasonably required: and in the case of many undertakings, in which much general interest was felt, the regular assessments might be augmented by the voluntary subscriptions of per. sons who felt disposed to support them. The persons who should form these committees, should be elected by the different parishes ; and every person, paying rates, should be entitled to vote in such election. The accounts should lie published monthly ; and the different local papers. should be solicited to insert them at a small charge for printing, and they should be free of all advertisement-duty. The wages to be paid to the workman should be formed on a fair' scale, that. they might afford him a sufficient means of subsistence ; and every encouragement should be givers to those who contrived to save— that habits of frugality as well as industry might be inculcated. At the same time, the rate of wages should not be raised beyond the ordi- nary scale in the respective trades of the different labourers, unless in- deed they were, like the wages now paid by the agriculturists, insuffi- cient to support existence. And in no instance should the deficiency of wages be supplied from the public fund. By these means, the poor in all classes would be protected from the encroachments of their employers. If the latter reduced the wages to so low an amount that a fair subsist- ence could not be obtained from them, the labourer would seek employ- ment from the public ; and as he would be entitled to earn nothing at the public works by accepting the deficient wages of another employer, he would not enable the latter to rob the general fund to provide his own work at a cheaper rate. In harvest and haymaking, and other times of constant agricultural employment, the public works would be discontinued, or slowly carried on, as there would be a demand for the labourer's assistance ; and as private work proved less abundant, the pub- lic works should be resumed. I would put the poor beyond the reach of the immediate payers of the rates, who naturally feel resentment at such reduction of their resources ; but I would do so chiefly that the poor might be removed beyond the reach of the oppressive tyranny of obscure overseers. The claim and the right of the pauper should be, work ; which would entitle him to wages. The places where work was to be provided, should be publicly made known to the county.
The claim of the poor to work being conceded, the inquiry would na- turally be, what work would be most available for the public benefit ? In some counties, schools, churches, chapels, would be required ; in others, lands would need drainage, new roads to be cut, old roads to be- kept in repair ; and, after the most pressing necessities of the public were- provided, places for mechsmics' institutes, and other undertakings calcu- lated to improve the condition of the poor, should be entered upon. I know I shall be asked, what is to be done when all these works are finished ? I answer, that the spirit of improvement will never want objects on which to exert itself. A plan has been proposed (Lord WINCIIILSEA'S) to enable the ma. gistrates to make assessments, to provide labour for the agricultural poor in the winter season : but the system should be general and uni- form—the machinery ever on foot, to be applied the instant the emer- gency arises. It is questionable whether the power of assessing should be vested in the magistrates :—the committee should be popular—their proceedings open to the public, and recorded. If the large sums of money that are bestowed upon the numerous cha- rities devoted to the irregular, and I cannot but say the injurious re- lief of the poor, were contributed to this universal system of relief, the five millions that we have named as the poor-rate allotted for the employ- ment of the able-bodied poor, would be doubled. When we look back to ancient Greece and Rome, or indeed look at the great buildings—the cathedrals, for example—erected in this country ill former times, we- cannot but perceive vast scope for the employment of the poor, in works- that shall adorn and dignify the national character. But, first of all, I repeat, the application of the public funds should be administered in the way most likely to secure the elevation of the intellectual and moral. character of the great mass of the people. S.
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