Opposition to the English Poor Laws


Mr. Canning was once asked by Mr. Tierney why he did not touch the Poor Law? To which question Mr. Canning replied:— "Why do not Governments decide offhand a question growing out of the usages of centuries—interwoven with the habits, and deeply rooted in the prejudices of the people? Of all subjects of legislation on which Governments ought not harshly or prematurely to interfere, without ascertaining, and, if possible, carrying with them the prevailing sentiments of the country, this of the Poor Law appears to me the one on which it would be most undesirable to take a precipitate course."

From the reign of Elizabeth I until the passage of the Poor Law Amendment Act in 1834 relief of the poor in England was administered on the basis of a Poor Law enacted in 1601. From the start of the nineteenth century the basic concept of providing poor relief was criticised as misguided by leading political economists and in southern agricultural counties the burden of poor-rates was felt to be excessive. Opposition to the Elizabethan Poor Law led to a Royal Commission on poor relief, which recommended that poor relief could not in the short term be abolished; however it should be curtailed, and administered on such terms that none but the desperate would claim it. Relief should only be administered in workhouses, whose inhabitants were to be confined, 'classified' and segregated. The Poor Law Amendment Act allowed these changes to be implemented by a Poor Law Commission largely unaccountable to Parliament. The Act was passed by large majorities in Parliament, but the regime it was intended to bring about was denounced by its critics as un-Christian, un-English, unconstitutional, and impracticable for the great manufacturing districts of Northern England. The Act itself did not introduce the regime, but introduced a framework by which it might easily be brought in.
Opposition to the New Poor Law strictly speaking was resistance to the introduction of the New Poor Law administrative framework; this was chiefly encountered in the industrial North in 1837–9 and overcome after a few riots by a judicious mixture of legal threats and deployment of the military. Opposition to the New Poor Law in the looser sense of resistance to key features of the regime recommended by the Royal Commission persisted and eventually became orthodoxy: for example outdoor relief was never abolished in much of the industrial North. When a prominent West Riding opponent of the New Poor Law died in 1858, the Huddersfield Chronicle wrote "..the controversy closed and English common sense has settled down on the poor-law question somewhat nearer to the views of Oastler and Pitkethly than those of their opponents."

Criticism of the Elizabethan Poor Law

Criticism of the Poor Law grew in the early nineteenth century after the Napoleonic Wars with France, especially among political economists.
Thomas Malthus thought any benevolence to the poor was self-defeating; the only check on the numbers of the poor was poverty. Furthermore, the Poor Law gave a right to relief only in the parish where the claimant had a right of settlement, obtained by birth or by prolonged residence: it undesirably limited the mobility of labour. Without the Poor Law there would be "a few more instances of severe distress," but "the aggregate mass of happiness among the common people would have been much greater than it is at present." However, he was one of the first to advocate so called 'indoor relief' in workhouses for the poor as opposed to outdoor relief.
David Ricardo supported the abolition of the Poor Law in his book 'Principles of Political Economy and Taxation' published in 1817. Any tax raised to pay for welfare such as poor rates reduced the money available to pay wages. He also argued that it rewarded laziness, discouraged people from saving for old age or illness, and encouraged irresponsibly large families.
Edwin Chadwick, a member of the Royal Commission, and subsequently Secretary of the Poor Law Commission, was a follower of Jeremy Bentham . Chadwick therefore criticized the Old Poor Law because its decentralised administration meant significant variation in the treatment of paupers. Chadwick held that the able-bodied poor should be put to work in workhouses which met the condition of less eligibility: they could not claim outdoor relief as they did under the existing Poor Law. Conditions had to be worse than those for the poorest labourer outside the workhouse, so that people would not want to claim relief. This would decrease the poor rate, allow wages to rise to their true levels, and promote honest toil.
"Every penny bestowed, that tends to render the condition of the pauper more eligible than that of the independent labourer, is a bounty on indolence and vice." -1832 Royal Commission

Opposition to introduction of the New Poor Law

The 1832 Royal Commission

Alarmed at the cost of poor relief in the southern agricultural districts of England Parliament had set up a Royal Commission into the operation of the Poor Laws. Its report had recommended sweeping changes unsurprisingly similar to those favoured by Chadwick:
Acting on the recommendations of the Royal Commission, Parliament passed the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, which however did not directly enact the recommendations. On illegitimacy it did not follow the recommendations of the Commission; under the New Poor Law fathers of illegitimate children could still be pursued; with however the crucial difference that under the old poor law the mother's sworn testimony was sufficient to establish paternity; under the New Poor Law the mother's word alone was insufficient; there had to be corroborative evidence. To implement the other recommendations the Act set up a three-man Poor Law Commission, an 'at arms' length' quango to which Parliament delegated the power to make appropriate regulations, without making any provision for effective oversight of the Commission's doings. Local poor-rates payers still elected their local Board of Poor Law Guardians and still paid for local poor law provisions, but those provisions could be specified to the Board of Guardians by the Poor Law Commission; where they were the views of the local rate-payers were irrelevant.

Opposition to the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act

The radical MP William Cobbett voted against the Act, asserting that the poor had an automatic right to relief and that the Act aimed to "enrich the landowner" at the expense of the poor. The 'Tory Radical' Richard Oastler personally lobbied Tory leaders to oppose the Act. Oastler's objections were that the Act pursued aims dictated by political economy by un-Christian treatment of the poor, and to ensure this was done with consistent heartlessness was setting up an unconstitutional body. Oastler told the Duke "if that Bill passes, the man who can produce the greatest confusion in the country will be the greatest patriot, and I will try to be that man". However the Duke was unconvinced; Tory landowners were as keen on reducing poor rates as were the Whigs, and the Bill received little opposition from either the House of Commons or the House of Lords before gaining Royal Assent. John Fielden, an industrialist and owner of textile mills at Todmorden and MP for Oldham was like Cobbett a strong opponent of the New Poor Law, and after Cobbett's death was part of a small group of MPs who called for review of the working of the Act - Fielden further called for its repeal -: all that was achieved was a Select Committee which took most of its evidence from the Poor Law Commission and other Poor Law functionaries and consequently found much to praise and little to blame.

Resistance to the New Poor Law structures

South of England

The new dispensation was implemented progressively, starting with the southern counties of England, whose problems it was designed to address. There it achieved a considerable reduction in the poor rates with only minor disturbances "Partial riots have occurred in different counties; but, by the aid of small parties of the Metropolitan Police... occasionally aided by the support of military force, these disturbances have been put down, without any considerable injury to property."

North of England

There had been no great dissatisfaction with the existing Poor Law in the North, the burden of poor relief being lower. The rate of increase in the cost of poor-relief was no of concern either: in Sheffield the cost of poor-relief in 1833 was half what it had been ten years before. Correspondingly there had been no urgent need to implement the New Poor Law. Not until January 1837 were the first steps taken to introduce the system into the textile districts of Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire by setting up 'poor law unions' and electing Boards of Guardians for them. The Poor Law Boards were then to appoint a clerk to administer whatever system of relief was specified for that Union by the central Commission.

Inquiries in the West Riding of Yorkshire by an assistant to the Royal Commission had led him to note that out-door relief was an important way of coping with the trade cycle. When trade was slack manufacturers could lay off 500 hands at once - this was a scale for which it would be impracticable to provide workhouse accommodation; where unemployment was likely to be temporary the eventual cost of re-establishing a household on leaving the workhouse had to be borne in mind and could well suggest the wisdom of out-door relief. Furthermore, where the head of a household containing child wage-earners became unemployed, it would be more sensible to supplement the household income by a judicious amount of out-door relief than to move the family to the poorhouse. Hand-loom weavers, a group of workers now habitually in great distress, had very low earnings; not because their wages were supplemented by out-door relief, but because they were competing with power-looms; nothing would be gained by forcing them into the workhouse or to turn to some occupation for which they would not have the required physical strength. The Assistant Commissioner also noted that diet of West-Riding poorhouse inmates was not a deterrent; there seemed to be a deliberate policy of 'the best of everything, and plenty of it'.

The Poor Law Commission intended to allow the new Poor Law Boards in manufacturing areas to continue out-door relief, but opponents of the New Poor Law held that the safest way to defend out-door relief and the rest of the status quo was to prevent the New Poor Law administrative framework becoming established. Hence they strove to prevent new Poor Law Boards being established, since their existence would allow the Poor Law Commission to specify changes in the regime of existing poorhouses and greatly facilitate the cessation of out-door relief should the Commission change its mind.
In the Northern industrial towns, a variety of organisations were already in existence whose memberships were generally opposed to the New Poor Law. Local Anti-Poor Law Associations sprang up able to readily mobilise large numbers for protest meetings against the Act, and against its local implementation. Many of the leaders of the anti-poor law movement had previously been prominent in the Ten Hours Movement
Richard Oastler wrote letters to Yorkshire newspapers like the Leeds Intelligencer and to the national Radical press denouncing the Poor Law Amendment Act as being cruel and unchristian. He spoke in similar vein at anti-New Poor Law meetings; his first speech was subsequently published under the. Huddersfield was notably slow to set up an effective New Poor Law administration, large crowds/mobs gathering outside meetings of the Guardians, but never with enough violence to lead local Tory magistrates to ask for military assistance to preserve order.
John Fielden attempted to prevent the Act from being implemented in his area, threatening to close the family firm down unless the Guardians of the Todmorden Poor Law Union resigned. When they didn't the Fielden mills duly closed, throwing nearly 3,000 out of work. The Guardians stood firm, troops were moved into the area, and after a week Fieldens re-opened However, some townships refused to recognise the authority of the Guardians. and instructed their 'overseer of the poor' to ignore the Guardians' instructions. The overseer of Langfield was fined £5 for disobeying the Guardians and two constables sent from Halifax to distrain goods to that value. The constables were surrounded by a mob summoned from two of Fielden's mills, roughly treated and made to promise never to return. The following week a mob again gathered in the belief that another attempt at distraint was to be made; when this did not happen, they attacked the houses of various guardians and supporters of the New Poor Law, causing damage put at over £1000.

Extra-Parliamentary opposition to the New Poor Law regime

While there were protests in towns such as Oldham, Huddersfield, and Bradford, in other areas the New Poor Law administrative framework was set in place with much less difficulty. Even in Huddersfield the new administrative framework was in place within two years. However, opposition to the New Poor Law did not cease once its structures were in place. Outside Parliament, agitation and mass meetings continued. Horror stories of -treatment of paupers under the New Poor Law not only featured in the speeches of its opponents; they also circulated in Chartist newspapers such as Augustus Beaumont's Northern Liberator and Feargus O'Connor's Northern Star and were collected in George R. Wythen Baxter's The Book of the Bastilles. Not all the stories were entirely accurate, and some propaganda was very black; a document recommending infanticide and alleged to be the work of the Poor Law Commission was published as the Book of Murder.

Relationship to Chartism

The ease with which the Reform Parliament had passed the Poor Law Act of 1834, its refusal to pass a Ten-Hour Bill and the contrast between the zeal with which the New Poor Law was brought in and the failure to enforce the Factory Act of 1833 were powerful arguments that only the fundamental political changes sought by Chartism would produce a Parliament which paid more than lip-service to the interests of the working classes. Consequently, the anti-poor law movement became almost inextricably linked with Chartism. The leaders of the Anti-Poor Law movement differed in their response to Chartism. Oastler would have nothing to do with it, and continued to speak only on the Poor Law and on Factory Reform. He called upon his hearers to exercise their right to bear arms ; he also warned that a social cataclysm would result if the government were to further oppress the poor. J R Stephens, a Methodist minister who had been prominent in both the Factory Reform and Anti-Poor Law movements addressed Chartist meetings, giving much the same advice as Oastler, and was a delegate to the National Convention, but later said "I would rather walk to London on my bare knees, on sharp flint stones to attend an Anti-poor Law meeting, than be carried to London in a coach and six, pillowed with down to present that petition - the "national petition" to the House of Commons" Stephens was less prudent than Oastler in his speeches and failed to persuade those coming to his meetings to leave their guns at home. Consequently, when the Government cracked down on Chartist activity after the Todmorden Riots, Stephens was imprisoned for eighteen months for unlawful assembly. Fielden deprecated the use of force, or any hint of the use of force, and hence advised against the acquisition of arms. Initially, he had striven to prevent Anti-Poor Law meetings alienating non-Chartist sympathisers by discussing other Chartist demands, but at the height of the Chartist agitation of 1838 he abandoned this position. Instead, thinking that the poor law would never be reformed until parliament had been remodelled along the lines called for by the Chartists' National Petition, he spoke at Chartist meetings and urged Chartists to concentrate on the fundamental reforms they sought and not allow themselves to be bought off with concessions on the Poor Law and Factory Reform. With the failure of the National Petition, and the consequent drift of Chartism away from 'moral force' to 'physical force', he reverted to his original position; that the Anti-Poor Law movement had a better chance of success if it remained distinct from more general Chartist agitation.
Even after the crack-down, the Commissioners admitted that they were influenced by the agitation: "The depressed condition of the manufacturing population, to which we have already adverted, and the disquietude of the public mind occasioned by the chartist riot at Newport, in Monmouthshire, rendered us extremely unwilling to take any step in the manufacturing districts of Lancashire which might have even a remote tendency to produce a disturbance, or which might be used by designing persons as a pretext for agitation"

Attacks on workhouses

On two occasions in the 1840s, newly built workhouses were sacked by rioters, but on neither occasion was the riot clearly single-issue:
Criticism slowly mounted: when the Whigs introduced a Poor Law Amendment Bill in 1841 to extend the Commission's life, MPs complained of the pettiness of some of the rules called for by the Poor Law Commission, of the refusal of the Commissioners to allow Boards of Guardians much discretion, and of the way the Commission had evaded Parliamentary scrutiny. A general election occurred before the Bill was passed, and the Conservatives came to power, with some of their MPs stating that they owed their seats to the opposition they had professed to the New Poor-law; the government, however, came forward with a Bill to extend the Commission to 1847, and to make minor amendments to the Poor Law. Whilst there continued to be cross-party Front Bench support for the New Poor Law Conservative malcontents such as Disraeli were alive to the consequent opportunity to undermine Peel by allying themselves with the opposition to unpopular Whig measures. The Bill made very slow progress, and many clauses were dropped in order to secure its passage before the existing authorisation of the Commission lapsed. The previous proceedings of the Poor Law Commission were not endorsed unequivocably : it was now stressed that the virtue of the Commission was that it supported diversity, rather than that it was necessary to achieve uniformity; administratively 'special rules' were to be as far as possible consolidated into general rules laid before Parliament. A further Poor Law Amendment Act was passed in 1844; its main effect was to again revise the treatment of unmarried mothers: in Committee stage many amendments seeking to relax the poor law regime were rebuffed by the Home Secretary on the argument that - correctly understood - the existing rules and regulations of the Poor Law Commission already permitted the relaxation sought.

Scottish Poor Law Commission critical of 'workhouse test'

A Commission of Enquiry into the Scottish poor laws, set up in 1843 and reporting in May 1844 came to conclusions which differed significantly from its English predecessor, being critical of the effect of the 'workhouse test' on those subjected to it:
" It did not promote the development of any intellectual energy, neither did it foster feelings of manliness and independence. Its influence dries up the last impulses of social life. It destroys all feelings of self-respect and alienates the inmates from almost every sympathy which either in equals or superiors is inherent in rightly constituted natures. Repulsion and discomfort being the sole means by which this workhouse test works—that repulsion and discomfort must be carefully kept up for its operation."
and of the argument that as a 'self-acting test' it had the great virtue of removing any need for moral judgement on applicants:
"We hold that no just system of Poor Laws can exist, excluding, in the distribution of relief, the consideration of character—which should be a fundamental consideration. The man who has conducted himself with activity and industry for the bettering of his condition, and has only fallen through misfortune, not by fault, has a just title to the sympathy of his fellow-men. And not only that the necessary relief be cheerfully accorded, but full scope given for all the ministrations of charity to his comfort."

Andover workhouse scandal and subsequent inquiries

In 1845, it was alleged that paupers at the Andover Union workhouse employed in crushing bones were eating marrow from the bones and gnawing off any shreds of meat still adherent. When reported to the guardians, they had neither intervened, nor informed the Poor Law Commissioners. The Assistant Poor Law Commissioner for the area was sent to investigate, and found the allegations to be largely true, if slightly over-stated. This had been going on for some time without being detected by the Poor Law Commission's supervisory regime. The Home Secretary had on a number of occasions told the House of Commons that grinding bone was work of too penal a nature to be carried out by workhouse inmates, and the Poor Law Commission would see that his wish that it should cease was acted upon. The crushed bones were mostly sold to the guardians at a price which did not represent good value for the rate-payer.

Public hearings by Assistant Poor Law Commissioner

On the instructions of the Commission Parker then heard in public charges against the master of the workhouse of diverting some of the paupers' rations for his own use, improper behaviour towards pauper girls, sleeping with inmates, conducting prayers when drunk, etc., but nothing relating to the bone-crushing. Parker was critical of the prosecution witnesses, even criticising the workhouse medical officer for not keeping his books in the form prescribed by the Poor Law Commission, when the books were in the form directed by the Andover Guardians, and Parker was more demonstrably at fault since his routine duties included inspecting workhouse books to ensure that they met the Poor Law Commission's requirements. The hearings were adjourned to give the master of the workhouse time to prepare his defence and witnesses, but before the time allowed was up the Commissioners stopped the enquiry, recommended suspension of the master and suggested complainants prosecute him on specimen charges at Quarter Sessions. The complainants declined; seeing this not as an escalation of proceedings, but an attempt to evade a verdict against the master, pointing out that whilst the charges against the master showed him unfit to hold his post, they were unlikely to support a conviction. The Times, saying the behaviour of the Somerset House set was like that of a cheat at cards, held open hearings of witnesses to the bone-crushing and -gnawing. The guardians voted not to suspend the master; his wife was however suspended, having physically attacked witnesses against her husband. The Commission then ordered the immediate resumption of the inquiry, allowing no further time for the master to prepare his defence.: the resumed enquiry was now attended by a shorthand writer taking an accurate record and reporting it to the Home Secretary. No sooner had the enquiry resumed than it was terminated by the master's resignation.

Assistant Poor Law Commissioner 'resigns' and retaliates

The guardians asked the master to stay on until a permanent replacement was chosen; Parker insisted this was unacceptable and recommended a former master of the Oxford Union workhouse as a locum. The Times promptly revealed that Price had resigned from the Oxford post when serious allegations had been made against him. Price had resigned his post at Oxford whilst complaints against him were being investigated by an Assistant Poor Law Commissioner; The Poor Law Commission originally claimed that a report had been submitted to them, but gone unread because of Price's resignation; they then admitted than once Price had resigned the investigation was abandoned without their knowledge by the Assistant Commissioner, and no record of it kept by the Commission. The Poor Law Commission insisted on Price resigning and instructed Parker to resign. He did, but then published a pamphlet justifying himself and detailing conversations with the Commission and with the Home Secretary which alleged that
It was separately alleged that the Commission had attempted to discredit a Yorkshire MP critical of it by sending an Assistant Poor Law Commissioner to inspect and unfavourably report upon the conditions in and management of a workhouse of which the MP was a guardian; that report had then been quoted by the Home Secretary in the Commons.
Against the advice of the Home Secretary the House of Commons voted for a Committee to enquire into the management of the Andover workhouse, and into the conduct of the Poor Law Commissioners and Mr Parker Further questions arose as to the dismissal of the Assistant Commissioner for Wales and to the propriety of the Haydock Lodge Lunatic Asylum for lunatic paupers being owned by a serving assistant secretary to the Commission and Mr Mott. The Andover Committee revealed an underlying split between the Commissioners and Chadwick, each party feeling that they should have had more power and the other less. As a consequence of this split both parties were happy to share with the Committee the shortcomings of the other. Sir Frankland Lewis, the first Chairman of the Commission gave evidence that Chadwick had written an order that bells should not be tolled at the funeral of a pauper, and - having waited until Lewis was absent - induced the Commissioners to issue the order. It became apparent that the important business of the Commissioners had not been conducted by minuted meetings as a Board, nor had adequate records been kept of their decisions and the reasons for them. Chadwick's evidence to the Committee confirmed what had previously generally been taken to be a wild allegation by the wilder opponents of the New Poor Law: that in 1834 the Commission had indicated in a secret briefing paper for ministers that they intended to completely taper-out out-door relief for all classes of paupers, to coarsen the diet of paupers, reduce its quantity, and enforce strict regulations. Ministers had repeatedly denied the existence of any such paper or any such plan. The findings of the committee characterised the Commissioners' conduct on matters within the committee's terms of reference as "irregular and arbitrary, not in accordance with the statute under which they exercise their functions, and such as to shake public confidence in their administration of the law", going on to note that the committee had in passing heard worrying evidence on matters outside its terms of reference on which it would be improper to base findings.

Poor Law Commission replaced by Poor Law Board

The Peel administration fell in the aftermath of the repeal of the Corn Laws, and the new Home Secretary denied that the Andover Committee had demonstrated malice, recklessness or illegality in the proceedings of the Commission but promised that it would be replaced. The Poor Law Amendment Act of 1847 replaced the Poor Law Commission with a Poor Law Board, the President of which sat in the Commons. The Annual Report of the Board would be laid before Parliament ; the nine Assistant Commissioners remained in post but were re-titled Inspectors, and three further Inspectors were recruited. The Poor Law Board took up its duties in December 1847; in preparation for this a detailing the 'general rules' which it intended to apply to poor relief were issued in July 1847 by the outgoing Commission. The powers of the Board were not materially different to those of the Commission, but they were applied in a different spirit: for example, whereas the Commission had to be applied to for authorisation of any deviation from the normal workhouse diet on Christmas Day, the new general rules explicitly noted that this was permitted. The 'New Poor Law' remained, but its underlying intent had been largely defeated. At the end of 1849, the Chartist paper the Northern Star was hopeful of achieving an extension of the franchise, drawing encouragement from the fate of the other great agitations going on when the Star had been founded twelve years before:..now, when the Ten Hours"Bill" has become an ACT; now, when the Poor Law Commission has become a Poor Law BOARD; and the ultra-Malthusianism of the one has been replaced by a policy more in accordance with humanity and reason".