The Act of 1834 and Its Amendments
The marked feature of this period is the paucity of statutory enactment affecting relief. Only four statutes41 contain any provisions on the subject (apart from administrative detail), and these provisions are almost entirely mere enabling clauses, permitting the Central Authority to make such rules as it thinks fit, subject to a few specified exceptions. We can extract from these exiguous provisions nothing in the nature of a policy imposed by Parliament on the Central Authority. As already mentioned, it was assumed that the Central Authority would put into execution the proposals of the Report of 1834. Parliament contented itself with giving the Central Authority wide powers and almost unfettered discretion in the use of them.
Prior to 1834 there were many authorities legally entitled to order relief from the rates. The Act of 1834 made for national uniformity by confining this power, subject to certain exceptions as regards special classes, to the boards of guardians when formed; and until these were formed, to the select vestries or bodies formed under local Acts; to the exclusion, in these places, of the Justices of the Peace and the overseers. The new relief-giving local authorities were made subject to the control of a Central Authority, to be exercised by rules having the force of law.
Two of the great classes of relief were singled out for special reference in the Act. The Central Authority was expressly empowered to make “rules, orders and regulations to be observed and enforced at every workhouse.” 42 The Central Authority was also expressly empowered to make “rules, etc., to regulate the relief of the able-bodied and their families.”43 With regard to all other classes of paupers (e.g. the aged and impotent; orphan and deserted children; widows and deserted wives, with their children; and the sick—unless any of these can be supposed to have been included by Parliament under the term able-bodied) the Central Authority had general powers only; the administration of all poor relief was made subject to its direction and control; and it was empowered and directed “to make rules for the management of the poor, the government of workhouses and the education of the children therein... for the apprenticing the children of poor persons; and for the guidance and control of all guardians, vestries and parish officers so far as relates to the management or relief of the poor.”44
It was expressly provided that relief to the able-bodied should be given only in accordance with the rules of the Central Authority. These rules might be of any kind, including (subject to exceptions) a total prohibition, then or at any future time. In the special preamble to this section, Parliament pointed to the difficulty of “an immediate and universal remedy”—doubtless referring to the proposal of the Report of 1834 that all such relief should be prohibited within two years. But Parliament gave no direction for prohibition, nor did it expressly limit the discretion of the Central Authority on the subject, beyond certain specified exceptions. These exceptions were (1) that complete discretion was reserved to the board of guardians so far as regarded the grant of food, temporary lodging or medicine “in cases of emergency,” subject only to reporting their action to the Central Authority; and also, subject to the approval of the Central Authority, so far as regarded the grant of money or other relief in such cases;45 (2) that in cases of “sudden and urgent necessity” the overseer was required to give “such temporary relief as each case shall require in articles of absolute necessity but not in money”;46 and (3) that any Justice might order medical relief in case of “sudden and dangerous illness” and relief in certain cases to non-parishioners.47
As in the Report itself, no definition is given in the Act of what was meant by “able-bodied persons.” In the special preamble, however, prefixed to this section, it is recited that it is enacted in consequence of the prevalent practice of giving relief “to persons or their families who, at the time of applying for or receiving such relief, were wholly or partially in the employment of individuals.” 48
The Act of 1834 is silent with regard to vagrants, in accordance with the proposal of the Report of 1834 that those destitute persons who had hitherto been deemed vagrants should be dealt with simply as other destitute persons. It may, however, be noted that express provision was made to enable any one Justice to order temporary relief in kind to persons not settled in nor usually residing in the parish, in cases of urgent necessity, in which the overseer had refused relief.49
In 1842, however, it was enacted that the local authority might “prescribe a task of work to be done by any person relieved in any workhouse in return for the food and lodging afforded to such person,” and (implicitly) might detain such person until the task was done; but such detention was not to exceed four hours after breakfast on the day following admission. Refusal or neglect to perform such task, or wilful damage to property, subjected the person to be deemed an idle and disorderly person within the meaning of the Vagrancy Act of 1824. This section is not expressly confined to wandering persons, but the marginal note confines it to the “occasional poor.” 50
In 1844 the Central Authority was empowered to combine parishes, in London and five other large towns, into districts for the provision of Asylums for Houseless Poor, that is to say, “asylums for the temporary relief and setting to work therein of destitute houseless poor”; to constitute Boards for such districts; with the consent of such Boards, to direct the establishment of such asylums, at the expense of the poor rates of such districts, up to a maximum of one-fifth of their whole Poor Law expenditure; and to make rules, etc., for such asylums, subject to a conscience clause and to facilities for entry by ministers of different denominations.51 These Asylums for Houseless Poor were to be mildly penal establishments, supplementary to the workhouses, and involving detention for a term not exceeding four hours after breakfast on the day after admission; or, in the case of a person subjected to punishment for an offence committed during his stay, for any period up to twenty-four hours.52
As in the Report of 1834, so in the Act of 1834, women do not appear as a class. It is assumed that married women follow their husbands, either with regard to the continuance of outdoor relief to the aged, the impotent and the sick; or with regard to its regulation or prohibition in the case of the able-bodied.
It is, as we have shown, difficult to infer that the term “able-bodied” was meant to include any but persons ordinarily in employment at wages, or capable of such employment. Whether or not Parliament had in contemplation under this term even the adult independent woman without encumbrances seems to us doubtful. It is practically clear that the term was not intended by Parliament to apply to the widow, however able-bodied in the ordinary sense, nor to the deserted wife, the wife of the absentee sailor or soldier, or the wife of a husband resident in another parish or another country, if any of these were encumbered with young children, and so did not fall under the class of persons actually or potentially in employment at wages, cited in the preamble to the section dealing with the able-bodied.53 If this is so, we can only infer from the Act, as from the Report, that no change in practice was then suggested. With regard to such women, at least, the discretion of the Central Authority in its “direction and control” of poor relief, and its “management of the poor,” and its power to make rules “for the guidance and control of” the local authority “so far as relates to the management or relief of the poor,” was unfettered.54
The fact that widows were not considered by Parliament to be included within the term “able-bodied persons and their families” may further be inferred from a section in the 1844 Act. This provided that the wife of a husband either (a) beyond the seas, (b) in the custody of the law, or (c) confined as a lunatic or idiot, should, notwithstanding her coverture, be treated for purposes of relief, as if she were a widow.55 This implies that a widow was not regarded as subject to the conditions of relief to “able-bodied persons and their families.”
It may be noted that relief to the child under sixteen of a widow was to be deemed relief to the mother;56 and relief to an illegitimate child under sixteen was to be deemed relief to the mother so long as she remained unmarried or a widow.57 Another section of the 1844 Act allowed a widow having a legitimate child dependent on her, and no illegitimate children, who at her husband’s death was residing with him in a place where she had no settlement, to be granted non-resident relief.58
With certain insignificant exceptions hereinafter noticed, the only provisions with regard to children as such in the 1834 Act relate to children in the workhouse. The Central Authority was directed to make rules, etc., “for the education of the children” in the workhouse.59 It was specially enacted that no child in a workhouse was to be educated in any creed other than that of his parent, or, if orphaned, “to which his godparents may object.” Facilities for free entry of ministers of the child’s own persuasion were to be accorded.60
In 1844 the Central Authority was expressly empowered at its discretion to combine parishes (within fifteen miles) into school districts, and to constitute boards for such school districts; and, subject to the consent of a majority of such a board, to direct the establishment of district schools at the cost of the poor rates of the district, up to a maximum of one-fifth of the total Poor Law expenditure of the district.61
The Central Authority was empowered to make rules for such schools, it being, however, expressly enacted: (1) that an Anglican chaplain was always to be appointed; (2) that facilities for visits by ministers of other denominations were to be given; and (3) a conscience clause was inserted.62 Such district schools were to be for the accommodation of pauper children under sixteen, either orphans, deserted, or having parents who consented,63 including such children from parishes outside the district.64
With regard to apprenticeship the law remained at first unchanged, except that the Act of 1834 empowered the Central Authority to make regulations (in significant phrase) “for the apprenticing the children of poor persons” 65 in the execution of the then existing law. This applied, not to those who were destitute or who applied for relief, but to “the children of all such whose parents shall not, by the... churchwardens and overseers, or the greater part of them, be thought able to keep and maintain their children.” 66
In 1835, the Merchant Shipping Act incidentally authorised local authorities to apprentice boys over thirteen, with their own consent, to the mercantile marine, whatever the distance of the port or address of the shipmaster; to pay a premium of £5; and to convey the boy to his new master by a constable.67
In 1842 the Parish Apprentices Act made it clear that all the previous Acts applied also to cases in which no premium had been paid.68
But the first substantive alteration of the law was made in 1844, when the Central Authority was expressly empowered to make regulations prescribing the duties of masters and the other conditions of apprenticeship; the power of apprenticing was confined to the boards of guardians; and the former compulsory obligation on householders to receive apprentices was abolished.69 The class of children to be apprenticed remained unchanged.70
Parliament made no enactment with regard to the sick as a class; did not therefore seek to interfere with the existing practice under which the sick usually received outdoor relief; and did not even empower the Central Authority to make any regulations for the relief of the sick as such, except in so far as they were either inmates of workhouses or belonged to the indeterminate class of the “able-bodied and their families.” Its only power in this connection lay in the general words placing the administration of all relief under its direction and control, and in the general authority to make rules, etc., for the guidance and control of local officers as far as related to the management or relief of the poor.71
The only provision relating to the sick as such was an express sanction of the existing power of any Justice to order medical relief in cases of sudden and dangerous illness without any restriction whatever.72
With regard to lunatics, the only provision was one in 1838, that the Justices might commit a dangerous or criminal lunatic to an asylum, at the cost of the Poor Rate.73
We may note a provision, declaring that relief to a blind or deaf and dumb wife or child under sixteen should not be deemed relief to the husband or the parent.74 This apparently prevented these (together with their husbands or parents), from falling into the class of the “able-bodied and their families.”
The only provision relating to the aged and impotent as such was the express retention of the Justices’ power to order outdoor relief without limit of amount or period. This was made subject to the conditions that the person should be (1) wholly unable to work, (2) entitled to relief in the union, and (3) desirous of outdoor relief; and that (4) the order should be given by two Justices “usually acting for the district,” one of whom had satisfied himself of his own knowledge that the conditions were fulfilled.75
The conditions and character of the relief to be afforded by admission to the workhouse were to be subject to rules etc., which the Central Authority was empowered and directed to make.76 The power of the Central Authority was subject to an important limitation. Any order for the building of a new workhouse was made conditional on obtaining the consent either of a majority of the guardians or of a majority of the ratepayers and owners.77 The Central Authority could, however, without such consent, order the local authority “to enlarge or alter” any existing workhouse or building capable of being converted into a workhouse up to a limit of £50 or one-tenth of the average Poor Rate for the past three years.78 Moreover, the local authority was not to expend on the building, alteration or enlargement of any particular workhouse (whether by way of loan or out of rate) more than the annual average of the poor rate during the three preceding years.79 These limitations were removed, so far as regards the cost of sites in the Metropolitan Police District and the parish of Liverpool, in 1844.80 It was also expressly provided that no person was to introduce alcoholic liquor into a workhouse without the written order of the master, under penalty of a fine not exceeding £10; nor was the master to do so save for domestic use of the officers, except in conformity with the rules.81 Confinement beyond twenty-four hours, and the corporal punishment of adults, were expressly forbidden.82 Notices of the law on these subjects were to be publicly displayed.83 A conscience clause protected workhouse inmates, and they had also the right to receive visits by religious ministers of their own persuasions.84
The Act carried out the proposal of the Report, by enabling the ratepayers (including rated owners) to emigrate, at the expense of the poor rates, with the approval of the Central Authority, “poor persons” having settlements in the parish whether paupers or not.85
It was enacted that any relief that the Central Authority might declare or direct to be by way of loan should be legally recoverable by the local authority, even by attachment of wages.86
Five years later the local authority was given power to attach Army and Navy pensions, in repayment of the cost of relief, even without such relief having been declared to be on loan.87