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First.—The administration of the Union herein described, where these sort of principles have been practically applied for nearly forty years with this sort of result:—That if pauperism over the rest of England could be brought to the same level, the country and the ratepayers might be saved some 2,000,000l. or 3,000,000l. a year, and according to this experience the poor proportionately benefited, for that is the main point in question.
Secondly.—The Irish Poor Law where out-relief, except medical, is so strictly administered that the number represents only 1·15 of the proportion so treated in England. These statistics somewhat tally with those of the Union above described.
Thirdly.—The movement known as the Society for Organizing Charity and Repressing Mendicity, which has now laid itself alongside the Poor Law in London, and is gradually extending itself over the whole country, which, in reversing the present treatment of the poor, and substituting personal service and sympathy for mechanical cash-nexus, is seeking to raise up over England a new system to correct the vices of the old.
For side by side with a strictly administered Poor Law we should require and desire, especially in towns, a thorough co-extensive administration of localized and organized charity; not that thoughtless, easy giving, miscalled charity; not that vicarious system of paid secretaries, endowments, subscriptions, and sympathy by deputy, that is twice cursed—that curses him that takes and him that gives; no, not that, but hearty co-operation and personal service, with money spent on sound economic five-per-cent. principles, such as the improvement of the dwellings of the poor in towns has been shown to be, and with it all an associated power of repression towards vagrancy and imposture.
To sum up, then, and to repeat the practical causes that have been found in the aforesaid Union to reduce pauperism to a minimum, and out-door relief to the smallest in England, they are these:—
(1.) A strict administration of out-relief.
(2.) Personal energy, supervision, and sympathy.
(3.) Sanitary precautions.
(4.) And last, but not least, a practical reversal of the present Poor Law policy, and a revolution by administration in setting a premium on thrift.
