Practicable Socialism, New SeriesBarnett, S. A. (Samuel Augustus)
Religion
Practicable Socialism, New Series
Barnett, S. A. (Samuel Augustus)
Great Britain -- Social conditions -- 19th century; Social problems; Working class
During the next two centuries great strides were made in the directions
indicated by each of these three principles. The right to punish persons
who would not work “for the ordinary wages” was extended from that
legalized in Elizabeth’s time of being “openly whipped till his body was
bloody,” to the drastic statute of the reign of Charles II, when it
became lawful to transport the beggars and rogues “to any of the English
plantations beyond the seas,” while the effort to create the shame of
pauperism was made by the legislators of William III, who commanded that
every recipient of public charity should wear “a large ‘P’ on the
shoulder of the right sleeve of his habilement”. Pity was shown to the
old, for whom refuges were provided and work such as they could perform
arranged; the lame were apprenticed; the lives of the illegitimate
protected; the blind relieved; the children whose parents could not or
would not keep them were set to work or supported; lunatics were
protected; and infectious diseases recognized.
The whole gamut of the woes of civilization as they gradually came into
being were brought into relation with the State, whose sphere of duty to
relieve suffering or assuage the consequences of sin was ever enlarging,
until, in the reign of George III, we find it including penitentiaries,
and the apprenticing of lads to the King’s ships. The organization to
meet these needs grew apace; guardians were appointed, unions were
formed, workhouses were built (the first erected at Bristol in 1697), a
system of inspection was instituted, relieving officers were
established, areas definitely laid down, and the function of officials
prescribed. But abuses crept in, and in 1691 we find that an Act recites
“that overseers, upon frivolous pretences, but chiefly for their own
private ends, do give relief to what persons and number they think fit”.
And yet another Act was passed to enable parish authorities to be
punished for paying the poor their pittances in bad coin.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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