Joseph Townsend
A Dissertation on the Poor Laws
1786
SECT. I
To a man of common sensibility nothing can be more distressing, than to hear the
complaints of wretchedness, which he hath no power to redress, and to be daily
conversant with misery, which he can neither fly from, nor relieve. This at
present is the situation of the clergy, who, in virtue of their office, are
obliged to visit the habitations of the poor. Here they see helpless infancy and
decrepit age, the widow and the orphan, some requiring food, and others physic;
all in such numbers, that no private fortune can supply their wants. Such scenes
are more distressing, when, as it sometimes happens, the suffering objects have
been distinguished for industry, honesty, and sobriety. The laws indeed have
made provision for their relief, and the contributions are more than liberal.
which are collected for their support; but then, the laws being inadequate to
the purposes for which they were designed, and the money collected being
universally misapplied, the provision, which was originally made for industry in
distress, does little more than give encouragement to idleness and vice. The
laws themselves appear beautiful on paper, and will be the admiration of
succeeding ages, when, in the revolution of empires, the whole fabric of our
government shall be dissolved, and our nation, as a separate kingdom, shall
exist no more. These laws, so beautiful in theory, promote the evils they mean
to remedy, and aggravate the distress they were intended to relieve. Till the
reign of Q. Elizabeth they were unknown in England; and to the present moment,
they have never been adopted by any other kingdom upon earth. It has been most
unfortunate for us, that two of the greatest blessings have been productive of
the greatest evils. The Revolution gave birth to that enormous load of debt,
under which this nation groans; and to the Reformation we are indebted for the
laws which multiply the poor.
At the dissolution of the monasteries, the lazy and the indigent, who were
deprived of their accustomed food, became clamorous, and, having long since
forgot to work, were not only ready to join in every scheme for the disturbance
of the state, but, as vagrants, by their numbers, by their impostures, and by
their thefts, they rendered themselves a public and most intolerable nuisance.
To stop their mouths, and to make them employ their hands in honest labour, was
the intention of that day. But at the same time the laws took under their
protection some objects of distress, who for near two hundred years, from a
noble kind of pride, refused the proffered aid, or received it with reluctance;
and who at the present moment would be more effectually relieved, if no other
laws existed but the first great laws of human nature, filial affection, and the
general benevolence of mankind. The world, it must be confessed, is wicked
enough: Yet amidst all their wickedness men seldom want compassion, unless the
circumstances in which they find themselves are peculiarly distressing. Should
we "in the straitness of a siege behold men eating the flesh of their sons and
of their daughters; should we see among them a man tender and delicate, whose
eye should be evil towards his brother and towards the wife of his bosom, and
towards the remnant of his children, so that he should not give to any of them
of the flesh of his children whom he should eat;"(1) we must not from such
instances conclude that all men, or even most men, are destitute of mercy and
compassion, or that man in general can be kind and beneficent only by
compulsion. No doubt in every district will be found some, who are strangers to
the finer feelings of the human heart; but at the same time in every district
will be found some, who are endued with generosity of soul; and others, who
under the influence of piety will rejoice to relieve the wants and distresses of
their fellow creatures. In every place some will be distinguished for
benevolence, others for brutality; but in general man is what his situation
makes him. Is he happy himself in the enjoyment of ease and affluence? In such
circumstances "he will be eyes to the blind and feet to the lame; he will be a
father to the poor; the blessing of those that are ready to perish will come
upon this man: he will cause the widow's heart to leap for joy*."(2) Let the
same man be straitened in his circumstances, let him be burthened with taxes,
let him be harassed by the clamours and distracted by the incessant demands of
the most improvident and lazy of the surrounding poor; and he will have little
inclination to seek for objects of distress, or to visit the sequestered cottage
of the silent sufferer. It is generally found, that modest worth stands at a
distance, or draws nigh with faltering tongue and broken accents to tell an
artless tale; whilst the most worthless are the most unreasonable in their
expectations, and the most importunate in their solicitation for relief. If the
latter, from any imperfection of our laws, get abundantly too much, the former
must of necessity obtain too little. If, agreeable to the general practice of
the labouring poor, a man, previous to his marriage, or whilst his family is
small, has made no provision for his future wants; if all, to whom he might
naturally look for aid, are in the same circumstances with himself; and if the
charity of those among his neighbours, who are distinguished for benevolence,
nay of all who have the common feelings of humanity, is exhausted; if they who
are most willing are least able to relieve him; we must expect to see distress
and poverty even among those who are worthy of compassion. -- This at present is
the case in England. There never was greater distress among the poor: there
never was more money collected for their relief. But what is most perplexing is,
that poverty and wretchedness have increased in exact proportion to the efforts
which have been made for the comfortable subsistence of the poor; and that
wherever most is expended for their support, there objects of distress are most
abundant; whilst in those countries or provincial districts where the least
provision has been made for their supply, we hear the fewest groans. Among the
former we see drunkenness and idleness cloathed in rags; among the latter we
hear the chearful songs of industry and virtue.
If laws alone could make a nation happy, ours would be the happiest nation upon
earth: idleness and vice could not exist; poverty would be unknown; we should be
like a prosperous hive of bees; all would have enough and none too much. The
reverse of this we find to be the case: poverty and vice prevail, and the most
vicious have access to the common stock. If a man has squandered the inheritance
of his fathers; if by his improvidence, by his prodigality, by his drunkenness
and vices, he has dissipated all his substance; if by his debaucheries he has
ruined his constitution, and reduced himself to such a deplorable condition that
he hath neither inclination nor ability to work; yet must he be maintained by
the sweat and labour of the sober and of the industrious farmer, and eat the
bread which should be given only to virtue in distress. -- If in all cases, this
bread, so ill bestowed, were superabundant; if the industrious firmer were
himself in ease and affluence; the grievance would yet be tolerable. But in this
day it often happens that the industrious firmer is oprest with poverty. He
rises early, and it is late before he can retire to his rest; he works hard and
fares hard; yet with all his labour and his care he can scarce provide
subsistence for his numerous family. He would feed them better, but the prodigal
must first be fed. He would purchase warmer cloathing for them, but the children
of the prostitute must first be cloathed. The little which remains after the
profligate have been cloathed and fed, is all that he can give to those, who in
nature have the first claims upon a father. If this evil could be stemmed,
whilst the present laws subsist, he might yet have hope: but when he considers,
that all the efforts, which have been made in his own parish or in others, have
been vain, and that the evil is constantly increasing, he is driven to despair
of help, and fears that he shall be himself reduced to work for daily hire. It
will be evident that his fears are not altogether groundless, if we consider,
that even in parishes, where no manufactures have been established, the poor
rates have been doubling, some every fourteen years, and others heady every
seven years; whilst in some districts, where the ...
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