GREAT BRITAIN. 186 GREAT BRITAIN. institutions. With respect to these institutions Die cost is divi<led between the unions and the larger districts. Since 18.30 the iHilicy ]nirsued has been to limit relief as much as practicable to indoor methods. Asylums, infirmaries, and hospitals are provided for the ('lasses needing such treatment as these institutions atl'ord: schools and training ships for children, and workhouses for the able-bodied. But. in practice, exceptions arc made to the rule, and outdoor relief is sometimes given even to the able-bodied, more especially in periods of un- usual distress, at which times some sort of public work is likely to be undertaken in order to give the destitute employment. JIany paupers have been sent out of the country, but the authorities no longer permit the poor rate to be drawn upon in order to trans])ort paupers to the United States. The majority of pauper lunatics are cared for at the comity or borough asylum, but some are kept at the workhouses, and some placed in licensed houses or registered hospitals. In the care of children considerable progress is being made in the operation of the placing-out system. The experience of Scotland has been much dif- ferent from that of England, particularly in its lack of continuity. The Scotch Parliament passed laws for poor relief as far back as 1575, but com- pulsory taxes were not generally collected until the nineteenth century. In the earlier centuries the administration of relief was in the hands first of one body and then of another. Sometimes aid was secured by taxation, but more commonly 1)}' offerings of the church sessions and by volun- tary contributions. The responsibility of relief was placed upon the parish, but little provision was ever made for the able-bodied poor. The ap- pointment of a committee of inquiry resulted in the passing of an act in 1845 providing a system of poor relief which is still operative. On .January 1, 1901, the paupers actually in receipt of aid, exclusive of vagrants, in England, were 752,182; in Wales, 49,165: in Ireland, 101,- 090 : and in Jlav of the same vear the number in Scotland was" 99,016. In 1900 the total sum collected by the poor rates in England and Yales amounted to £2.3.046.814, as compared with £13.033.655 in 1880. But the poor rates are an- nually supplemented with grants in aid. which in 1900 amounted to £3.261.255. Considerably over on»-half is devoted to other purposes than poor relief, such as payments to school boards, rural district councils, county, borough, and police rates and other civic purposes ; less than one-half is actually spent in relief of the poor, the amount in 1900 thus spent being £11,567,649, or Ts. 3f7. per head of the population, as com- pared with £8.015.014, or 6.5. 4^;. per head, in 1880. The expenditure in Scotland in 1900 amounted to £1,056.964, and in Ireland to £1,125.110. Throughout Great Britain private charity is very active and is thoroughlj' organized. A very clear- ly defined distinction is recognized between the function of the State and that of private char- ities, and the two cooperate harmoniously. The State only extends its aid in order to alleviate actual distress, without regard to its cause or to the character of the individual, and it does not undertake to prevent poverty. The activities of private charities cover a much wider scope, giving attention to many questions of public wel- fare, looking toward the prevention and the im- provement of conditions that are not necessarily instigated by immediate distress. Uheat Brit-vin and C0LONIE.S. The develop- ments of the last quarter of the nineteenth cen- tury indicate a tendency toward a closer union of the various members of the British Empire. For several years prior to that time the tendency had been rather in the opposite direction, and many persons, both in the mother country and in the colonies, had come to look u])on complete separation as the desirable and proljable result. But in recent years the idea of a Greater Britain ■ — an Imperial nation — has become popular. The mutual interest existing between the colonies and the mother land is based not onlj' upon their racial and cultural kinship, but upon such prac- tical mutters as trade and defense. According to the recent propaganda the mutual welfare of the Empire shoulji not be so completely dependent upon the mere existence of a "moral federation.' One of the first important steps taken in the movement was the conference held at London in 1884 b}' the Imperial Federation League. Reso- lutions were then passed in favor of some form of close and permanent federation. A second important event was the holding of the Colonial Conference at London in 1887. in the proceedings of which the question of levying a small import duty upon foreign goods was given special atten- tion, and treaties made by Great Britain with Germany and Belgium limiting the trade priv- ileges of parts of the Empire were denounced. In 1894 a, colonial trade conference was held at Ottawa, Can., and the strengthening of Impe- rial cooperation was again advocated. The de- mand was also made that trade should be placed on a more favorable basis than that carried on with foreign countries. The Imperial Federa- tion League was dissolved in 1804, but in the following year the British Empire League was constituted. This organization continues the agitation of the permanent unity of the Empire, and advocates the establishment of periodical conferences for the discussion of the common welfare. The Imperial Federation League of Canada was never dissolved, but be- came a branch of the British Empire League, under the title of the British Empire League of Canada. On the occasion of Queen Victoria's Jubilee in 1897 the common welfare of the colonies was in- formally discussed by the premiers of the self- governing colonies. An offer of aid to the British navy was made then by Cape Colony and Aus- tralia, an olTer of preferential trade duties by Canada, and the above-mentioned treaties were again denounced. Mr. Chamberlain suggested at that time the creation of a Council of Empire, which might slowly grow into a Federal Council : but the resolutions passed admitted that "the present political relations between the United Kingdom and the self-governing colonies are gen- erally satisfactory under the existing condition of things," but that it would be desirable to hold periodic conferences of representatives of the colonies and Great Britain for the discussion of matters of common interest." The concern manifested by the colonies in British success in the South African War, and their ccMJperation to that end, aroused nuich enthusiasm in favor of a more definite Imperial union : but the meeting of the premiers on the occasion of the King's
