of 'internecine' which is correctly given as 'deadly'; while its misuse by modern writers in the sense of intestine, almost common enough to amount to inveterate error and a secondary sense, is traced to its origin in the explanation-Modern sense is due to erroneous explanation of "mutually destructive" in Johnson.' Johnson's slip has been perpetuated by most English lexicographers. Richardson, indeed, made the necessary correction but Ogilvie relapsed. Webster, who gives the correct meaning as the primary sense, adopts Johnson's definition as a secondary meaning. Less accurate, his American successor, Worcester, adopts Johnson's definition as the primary meaning of the word. It is significant of careful editing that the Century Dictionary gives the correct definition without any reference to Johnson's slip; but it is striking evidence of the influence of Johnson's work on English literature that a mere lapse on his part should so permeate the modern language.

No less interesting in its precise detail is the following etymological notice of the word 'pantechnicon.' 'Coined (1830) from G. πâv and tɛxvikós, relating to the arts, as name of a bazaar in Motcomb Street, Belgrave Square, which was later converted into a storehouse for furniture. Now usually short for pantechnicon van.' Another instance of Mr Weekley's erudition must bring our quotations to an end even at the risk of leaving the reader to find out for himself the full answer to the question, 'What is it?' Duly registered as a new English word appears Sinn Fein traced back to 1882 as the title of an Irish play by T. S. Cleary. Already,' we are informed, i.e. since Easter 1916, the phrase has become current abroad,' and for that statement a French writer is avouched who, in the crisis of France's fate at the date named, applied it as a term of reproach to the traitors who were watching for a chance to stab in the back the nation fighting for its life at Verdun.

With all his limitations the lexicographer may fairly say with old Chremes, Humani nihil a me alienum puto.'

J. W. GORDON.

Art. 12.-THE DOLE AND DEMORALISATION.

1. Petition with regard to the increased expenditure on Public Assistance presented to the Prime Minister on Jan. 28, 1923, and correspondence with Mr Stanley Baldwin, M.P., as Chancellor of the Exchequer.

2. Third Annual Report of the Ministry of Health. (Cmd. 1713. 1922.)

3. Reports of Official Enquiries into the Expenditure of the Sheffield and Poplar Guardians, 1922.

And other Official Documents.

THERE is no more pressing problem in practical politics than that of the expenditure on public assistance. There is none that most of our statesmen and politicians are more unwilling to face. In English home politics, from time immemorial, the two questions that have mainly occupied English statesmen are the maintenance of a sound system of finance, and of a strong and efficient Navy. On these two problems the expenditure on direct public assistance threatens to have a disastrous influence. There is a third problem of a moral nature, and that is the maintenance of the national characteristics, a sound, honest, and efficient people, full of initiative, self-help, self-reliance, and, if need be, self-sacrifice. Here again the expenditure in question threatens national disaster. A century ago, immediately after Waterloo, the country was faced with similar difficulties. Relatively speaking, there was the same financial position, and the same position of demoralisation in regard to public assistance. Between 1815 and 1834 the nation looked on in a kind of paralysis at the inordinate growth of moral abuses and industrial disaster, and of ruinous expenditure. Committees were appointed and reported, but nothing was done.

Expenditure on public assistance had increased from 2,000,000l. in 1783 to 4,269,000l. in 1803 and 7,870,8001. in 1817 for a population of 11,000,000, that is, an expenditure of 148. per head. The direct burden for the year ending March 25, 1832, amounted to 7,036,9687., and in addition the waste from the labour rate and roundsman system of employment was estimated at a further

7,000,000l., so that the total all told amounted to something like 20s. per head of the population of 14,000,000. In 1834 there were two Commissions on the Poor Laws. The first reported and laid down the following principles: (1) That the recipient of public charity (in a blunter age called a pauper tout court) should not have a position more eligible than that of the independent labourer of the most poorly paid class. (2) That while destitution must be relieved by the State, destitution must be proved in the case of able-bodied persons by the test of willingness to enter the workhouse. (3) The appointment of a central board to centralise knowledge and to frame and enforce regulations as to the distribution of relief and uniformity of accounts. (4) That while knowledge and supervision should be centralised, power should be localised, since local knowledge was of the essence of sound administration in public assistance. The reforms above suggested were carried out by the second Commission which was appointed under the Act of Parliament of the same year. The unemployed were speedily absorbed. In two years the number of the able-bodied paupers in 12 Poor Law Unions decreased from 3512 to 5. Economies followed so that in 1871 the expenditure had fallen to 78. per head of the population, although in addition to the old expenditure new and costly institutions, such as asylums, infirmaries, and district schools, had been provided.

Moreover, within the same time a moral reformation had taken place. The working men came to trust their own initiative and self-reliance, and had in their Friendly Societies, Trades Unions, Building Societies, and Co-operative Societies, provided a practical solution for various sections of the social problem. For instance, provision was made against sickness, accident, old age, and unemployment by insurance, for arbitration and conciliation in industrial strife, as well as for facilitating the purchase of their own dwellings by the working classes, and facilitating the purchase at a reasonable price and of good quality of such necessities as food and clothing. Further, there was not only associated thrift but private thrift; and this prevailed to such an extent that at the end of the century the working classes, the first generation of which had been almost entirely dependent on the rates,

had amassed in various forms of thrift and self-help capital estimated by good authorities to amount to between 350 and 400 millions sterling, of which about 300 millions can be definitely earmarked in various institutions. In Mr Gladstone's words, the Poor Law Reform of 1834 'rescued the English peasantry from the total loss of their independence.'

Roughly speaking, up to 1890 the old provisions with regard to public assistance, known as the Poor Law, prevailed; and it was possible to tell by reference to accurate statistics what proportion of the population was living by their own exertions and what proportion were dependent on public relief. Since then, owing to certain sentimental and political causes, the system of public assistance for every conceivable object has been introduced. This is due, in so far as the politicians are concerned, to a desire for popularity at any price, and in the general public to a certain sloppiness of sentiment and lack of clear thinking, and in the majority of the recipients of the benefits to a certain want of grit, initiative, and self-respect; in other words, to a certain flabbiness of character which is always latent in human nature, but which can be encouraged or discouraged by the legislator. Till within the last quarter of a century dependence on the State has been a disappearing factor, but now it has reappeared in all its force. It is a chronic disease, for the same cases come back again and again for public assistance. It is hereditary in certain families from generation to generation, and is contagious. When a relieving officer has been to one house in a street he has to come again to others. Poor people will apply for what they believe to be their share in an inexhaustible fund intended especially for them; and if they have ever contributed to the rates they think they are only getting back their own money. Average human nature is not proof against the common desire to live without labour. During the Victorian era a test of well-being in a country was held to consist in the maximum of independence and the minimum of dependence on the public funds. In a letter to the Daily Telegraph' on May 30, 1921, in support of an article of mine in the same paper, the writer pointed out that twenty years ago, although he lived in a poor street in the East End of London

where all were poor, it was felt to be a degradation for a man or a member of his family to be in receipt of public assistance."

The first breach in the reforms introduced by the Poor Law Commission of 1834 was effected in 1886 by the transfer of the relief of some of the able-bodied poor in the shape of the unemployed from the Guardians to other authorities. The second was the remission of school fees by the Education Act of 1890, which was advocated, amongst other reasons, to give the poor more money to clothe and feed their children. After 1890 came a halt, due perhaps to the exhaustive report of the Royal Commission on Labour which showed to what extent the material and moral well-being of the working classes had improved thanks to their own efforts, and the good hope existing that if the wholesome development and progress was allowed to continue the unskilled classes would solve their own problems as the skilled classes had done.

At the beginning, however, of the new century, from 1900 onwards, new views prevailed. In 1905, the Unemployed Workmen's Act was carried; in 1906, the Education (Provision of Meals to Children) Act; in 1907, the Educational Administrative Provisions Act, giving free medical attendance to children; in 1908, the Old Age Pensions Act; and in 1911 the National Health Insurance Act, which was followed by the National Insurance for Unemployment. The problem, therefore, was not due to the War of 1914-18, although that war has aggravated it by new economic conditions which have pressed heavily on certain branches of highly skilled labour, and concealed it in other cases, for instance, by new forms of malingering. The war has been followed by the new development of the Housing Acts, the extension of the unemployment dole, and the increasing overlapping and confusion of accounts. The figures can be given as far as they are now available for the United Kingdom: 1890, 25,000,000l., including 12,500,000l. for

* History has repeated itself, for an old labourer stated to the Com. mission of 1834 that when he was young, 'If any man applied to the parish he was pointed at by all who knew him as a parish bird, but it was very different now.' First Report, p. 69. Formerly a man would rather starve than apply,' p. 73.