§ 1. Anglo-Saxon times. § 2. The Labour statutes. § 3. The control of charitable funds by the state. § 4. The control of charitable funds by the towns. § 5. Summary of the main features of public control of poor-relief before the sixteenth century pp. 1-10 CHAPTER II. THE CAUSES OF THE REORGANISATION OF POOR RELIEF. § 1. Increase of vagrants. § 2. Reasons for increase of beggars. § 3. Old methods of charity. § 4. Attempts to reorganise charitable funds on the Continent. § 5. Three factors in the making of the English system of poor relief pp. 11-21 CHAPTER III. 1514-1569. POOR RELIEF IN THE TOWNS. § 1. Importance of municipal government in Tudor towns. § 2. London regulations for a constant supply of corn, 1391-1569. § 3. Regulations for the repression of vagrants and the relief of the poor, 1514-1536. § 4. Refoundation of St Bartholomew's Hospital and imposition of a compulsory poor rate, 1536-1547. § 5. Completion of the Four Royal Hospitals and establishment of a municipal system of poor relief in London, 1547-1557. § 6. Failure of the municipal system of London. § 7. Provision of corn in Bristol and Canterbury. § 8. Lincoln. Survey of poor; and arrangements for finding work for the unemployed. § 9. Ipswich. Survey of poor; imposition of compulsory poor rate and foundation of Christ's Hospital. § 10. Cambridge. Survey of poor and assessment of parishioners. § 11. Summary pp. 22-46 CHAPTER IV. 1514-1569. THE PRIVY COUNCIL AND PARLIAMENT. § 1. Efforts made by the Government to secure the employment of the clothmakers during the crisis in the cloth trade of 1527-8. § 2. Regulations for the supply of the markets with corn, 1527-8. § 3. Similar action in regard to corn in 1548 and 1563. § 4. Letters of the Privy Council to particular local officials in connection with the relief of the poor. § 5. Legislation concerning the relief of the poor during the reign of Henry VIII. § 6. The two earlier statutes of Edward VI. § 7. Legislation between 1551 and 1569. § 8. Summary pp. 47-60 CHAPTER V. REVIEW OF THE GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PUBLIC POOR RELIEF, 1514-1569. § 1. The action of municipal rulers precedes the action of Parliament. § 2. Advantages of the municipal system of relief. § 3. Connection between the municipal organisation of poor relief and the dissolution of the monasteries. § 4. Relation of beggary to the first schemes of relief. § 5. Parental government. § 6. Bridewell, the key-stone of the system pp. 61-66 CHAPTER VI. 1569-1597. PARLIAMENT AND THE PRIVY COUNCIL.