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
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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
Mr. Money’s Report from Venice is so concise that we insert the whole
(pp. 663, 634). We cannot perfectly reconcile the statement at the
beginning, that there is no compulsory legal provision for the poor;
and that at the end, that every commune is bound to support the poor
and indigent within its limits. Perhaps Mr. Money uses the word “bound”
in a moral, not a legal sense.
1. Is there any compulsory legal provision for the poor in
Venice?--None.
2. In what manner are the funds arising from voluntary
donations collected in Venice?--There is a commission of
public charity, composed of the laity of the first rank and
consideration in Venice, at the head of which is the patriarch.
All sums destined for the relief of the poor and the indigent,
from whatever source, are placed at the disposal of this
commission.
These funds arise from bequests, which are numerous, from
voluntary contributions, from collections made by lay
associations in each of the 30 parishes, which hold their
meetings either at the church or at the house of the priest;
sometimes from the produce of a lottery; and by a singular
contrivance of the late patriarch, to render an old custom of
complimentary visits on New Year’s-day contributory to the
purposes of charity, he had it announced, that all who would
subscribe to the funds of the commission of public charity
should have their names published, and be exempted from the
costly ceremony above adverted to.
3. By what authority are they distributed?--By that of the same
commission, which receives the reports of the state of the poor
in the several parishes, and particularly inquires into the
circumstances of every case.
4. What constitutes a claim to relief, and how is that claim
investigated?--Among the lower classes, extreme poverty without
the means of obtaining subsistence, or incapability from age
or sickness to labour for it. This is certified by the parish
priest to the association mentioned in answer to query No. 2,
which makes itself acquainted with every case of distress. But
there is great distress to be relieved among those who once
constituted the higher classes of society, but whose families,
since the fall of the Republic, have, from various causes,
fallen into decay; these make their application direct to the
commission, and are relieved according to their necessities
and the state of their funds. 5. What is the amount of relief
usually given in each case, and for what length of time is
it usually continued?--The amount of relief given, according
to the class and circumstances of the distressed, is from 10
cents. to 65 cents. per head per day (or from 3_s._ 4_d._ to
5_s._ 4_d._ sterling.)--[_Sic in orig._]
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