Statement of the Provision for the Poor, and of the Condition of the Labouring Classes in a Considerable Portion of America and Europe: Being the preface to the foreign communications contained in the appendix to the Poor-Law ReportSenior, Nassau William
History
Statement of the Provision for the Poor, and of the Condition of the Labouring Classes in a Considerable Portion of America and Europe: Being the preface to the foreign communications contained in the appendix to the Poor-Law Report
Senior, Nassau William
Poor -- Europe; Poor -- United States; Working class
We have already stated (pp. 117-125) the general outline of the French
establishments for the relief of the poor, consisting of hospices
for the impotent, hospitals for the sick, depôts de mendicité for
vagrants and beggars (constituting the in-doors relief), and bureaux
de bienfaisance for the secours à domicile, or out-doors relief.
But this comprehensive and discriminative system of public relief
appears to have been carried into effect in France with a far less
approach to completeness than in Belgium. The number of hospices and
hospitals is indeed large in the towns, and not inconsiderable in the
country: but of the depôts de mendicité, of which the decree of 1808
ordered the establishment, very few were in fact organized, and of
those the greater part have since been suppressed; and the bureaux
de bienfaisance are almost confined to the towns. As more than
three-fourths of the population of France is agricultural, only a small
portion of that population therefore is capable of participating in
public or organized relief. M. de Chateauvieux estimates that portion,
or, in other words, the population of the towns possessing institutions
for the relief of the poor, at 3,500,000 persons, and the value of the
public relief annually afforded at 1,800,000_l._ sterling. (p 25.) If
this approximation can be relied on, the expenditure per head in that
portion of the French population nearly equals the expenditure per head
in England.
The following are the most material portions of the consular reports:--
HAVRE.
[Sidenote: SEINE INFERIEURE. Population of the Department, 693,683.
Population of Havre, 23,816.]
The provisions for the relief of the poor in Havre may be collected
from the following statement of the principal regulations of the
hospitals, the bureau de bienfaisance, and the depôt de mendicité for
the department, which is situated in Rouen. (pp. 182, 183, 184, 185,
186.)
_Hospital Regulations at Havre._
[Sidenote: HOSPITAL.]
Aged persons of 60, without distinction of sex, are admitted
into the hospital upon a certificate of indigence delivered by
the mayor of their district, and a ticket of admission signed
by one of the directors of the establishment.
The sick are admitted if they can produce a certificate of
indigence from the mayor or curate of their parish, and every
care is taken of them at the expense of the establishment.
Orphans, foundlings, or deserted children are admitted,
provided they are under 12 years; they are then engaged as
servants or apprentices; but should they get out of employment
from no fault of their own, they are at liberty to return until
the age of 21 years.
_Regulations of the Establishment of the Bureau de
Bienfaisance, of Havre._
[Sidenote: Bureau de Bienfaisance.]
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