Mr. C. Booth, the well-known statist, read a paper on
Tuesday before the Statistical Society, great part of which was concerned with projects for granting pensions to the aged. He was inclined to believe that no such scheme would work unless it were universal, and entered into detail as to the cost and result of granting to every one a pension of 5s. a week at sixty-five. Briefly, this would cost. £17,000,000 a year. This plan is discussed elsewhere, but we may mention here that 40 per cent. of the population which reaches sixty-five receives poor-relief, and that the number so relieved in 1890 was 507,650. In another portion of his paper, Mr. Booth gave some carious statistics as to the causes of pauperism in St. Pancras. Some 736 cases had been investigated, with the result that in 21 per cent. of them all, pauperism was attributed to drink, in 10.6 per cent. to laziness, in 20.7 per cent. to sickness, and in 23.4 per cent. to old age. It should not be forgotten that, below a certain grade, a great many of our people will always quote drink, as they used to quote the Devil, as the cause of their fall ; and we should like to know how the " lazy " statistics were obtained. There are more people who positively will not work, any more than savages will, than is usually imagined ; but 10 per cent. seems a large proportion even among paupers.
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