303 CHAP. XV. ON THE NECESSITY OF A TOTAL REPEAL OF THE LAW OF Cuncta prius tentata: sed immedicabile vulnus OVID. MANY of the evils under which the whole country has long suffered, and which arise mainly from the law of settlement and removal of the poor, have presented themselves for consideration in the course of the previous pages. But the most striking, and most extensively injurious, of all the evil influences of that law remain to be pointed out; and will be found in the necessary effect of such a law on the distribution and wages of labour throughout the country. If a farmer, acquainted only with the neighbourhood of manufacturing regions of the North, occupying a farm in Nottinghamshire, or North Lincolnshire, or the West Riding of Yorkshire, were suddenly made acquainted with the condition of an agricultural labourer in Devon, or Somerset, or Hants, or any of our ten selected counties of pure agriculture and unmitigated operation of the law of settlement, he would hardly be able to credit, still less to understand, what he would find. The week's wage of the labourer which, in the one part of the country, is 118., or 12s., or 138., becomes, in the other, only 78., or 88., or 98. The work done is the same in both districts; and if the necessities of existence had anything to do with the matter, the necessities of the man who receives the lower sum are the greater.* The effect of the law of settlement and removal affords the only explanation of this remarkable state of things. The natural and necessary tendency of such a law to produce * For instance, the price of fuel is much higher in the Eastern, Southern, and Western districts, than in the Northern. such results, has been sufficiently pointed out, and explained, by most impartial and competent witnesses, and to their reports reference will shortly be made. * But grievous as is the hardship thus produced throughout these purely agricultural counties, on the whole mass of the labouring population, still greater social evils than even this extreme of poverty, are due to the law of settlement. The practice of hiring labourers by the year, once enforced by law as a binding obligation on all employers of labour in husbandry, has generally ceased; and the labourer is employed from day to day, or at the most from week to week, as he is wanted by the farmer. Hence it follows that, in the winter season, many men are thrown out of work, and at once become a charge on the parish. The selection of labourers for employment during the winter, is very generally made in parishes, at all events in the pauperised agricultural district, with a mere view of keeping down the poor-rate, and in total disregard of the character and skill of the candidates for work. A single man of unblemished reputation, an excellent workman, is certainly the first to be thrown out of employment (especially if he should have saved as much as will maintain him for two or three months): and the ill-conducted drunken spendthrift, who has a wife and family, as certainly will have employment given him, in order to save the parish from a heavy weekly charge for so many mouths in the union-house. On the inquiry of 1833, it appeared, that a large part of the social evil of the pauperism of England was caused by the law of settlement and removal alone; and was not necessarily incident to the administration of relief under the humane provisions of the statute of Elizabeth. It need not, therefore, excite any surprise that the very same evils as were then brought to light, should be found in existence at the present day. Such evils are essentially inherent in the law of settle * Adam Smith observed (Wealth of Nations, vol. i. p. 193.), "The very unequal price of labour which we frequently find in England, in places at no great distance from one another, is probably owing to the obstruction which the law of settlements gives to a poor man who would carry his industry from one parish to another without a certificate" ment and removal, and must necessarily arise under the administration of that law. The Rev. H. H. Bailey, a witness examined on the inquiry of 1833, then stated: "I consider the present law of settlement renders the peasant, to all intents and purposes, a bondsman he is chained to the soil by the operation of the system, and it forbids his acquiring property, or enjoying it openly or honestly.-I have no doubt, that if the labourers were freed from their present trammels, there would be such a circulation of labour, as would relieve the agricultural districts. I am certain that the poor labourers of those parishes, with which I have been connected in the country, are fully aware that it is not to their interest to advance their condition by the acquisition of property. I once congratulated my bailiff on the prospect of his inheriting, by his wife, a little real property; he replied, 'It would be of no use to me, Sir; for I should be less able to get employment, and could obtain no relief until it was all spent.' When the gentlemen and clergy of Henley contemplated the establishment of a savings bank in their neighbourhood, I thought it my duty to address the young men on the subject, after morning service, and urge upon them the propriety of saving for their protection against the contingencies of sickness and old age. They listened to me very attentively. One or two persons asked me, whether I honestly thought it would not be for the benefit of the parish, more than themselves, if they saved? I was startled by the inquiry; but, on consideration, I found that I really could not state that it would be for their benefit The decided conviction of the whole body of the labourers was, that any saving would be for the benefit of the parish and the farmers, and not for the benefit of the individuals saving."* to save. The Dean of Hereford, whose testimony I am always glad to invoke, observed, while residing in his rural parish of King's Somborne, the way in which the law of settlement in Extracts from information received by Her Majesty's Commissioners, as to the administration and operation of the Poor Laws, pp. 271, 272. London, 1833, 8vo. X terferes with the fair remuneration of labour, and saw clearly how great is the evil effect of the same law, in obstructing all educational advancement of the labourer. He adopts the opinion that "a modification, or even the total repeal of our present law of settlement, would do more than anything else to secure the immediate success of any attempt which may be made to educate the poorer classes. At present the labourer possesses no inducement to improve himself, to establish a good character, or to acquire knowledge or skill. He has no hope of benefiting himself in any way, do what he may-nor can he ever look forward to receiving higher wages than those which are given to good and bad workmen alike, or to securing for himself a better position than that of his fellowlabourers. He has no motive for improving himself, because, by doing so, he would not improve his condition; nor has he any motive for recommending himself to the employers of labour, because, whether they like him or dislike him, they must employ him, and at the same wages as the rest of their men. If there were no law of settlement, every farmer would seek for the most industrious and intelligent labourers, just as a tradesman or manufacturer does, and he would pay them in proportion to their value, because they would be sought after. This would be a direct premium upon good conduct, intelligence, and skill. Education amongst the agricultural poor is deprived of its marketable value, as an investment of time and attention, and it is therefore deprived of almost all motive, by our present law of settlement. Those, therefore, who are desirous of seeing the poor well educated, ought to be desirous of seeing this great obstacle to their education removed as speedily as possible.' A conviction that such are the necessary consequences of this law, has become widely diffused; and the words of Adam Smith, denouncing its impolicy and injustice, recognised as true, only by the few who appreciated his great work, during the eighteenth century, are now adopted by the many, and may be said to express the views of the great * Dawes, Remarks occasioned by the present Crusade against the Educational Plans of the Committee of Council on Education, pp. 48, 49. London, 1850. majority of those who are brought into daily contact with the administration of relief to the poor. The late President of the Poor Law Board, Mr. Charles Buller, was desirous, as it would seem, "to make assurance doubly sure," in respect of pronouncing a just condemnation on the law of settlement, if it was to be condemned. He, therefore, after presiding over the labours of the Committee of 1847, instituted further inquiry into the operation of that law on the welfare of all classes of the community. Much time was bestowed, in the year 1848, by many able and diligent Poor Law Inspectors, in again investigating the practical working of the law. At the same time, the opinion of local boards of guardians, which, if adverse to the existing system, would be entitled to great weight, was inquired into and ascertained. The results of this inquiry were fully known to the Poor Law Board in 1848 and 1849; they were communicated to the public in 1850, nearly two years ago. The inspectors employed to report, certainly obtained plenty of evidence, and that evidence showed conclusively that a great part of the existing evils of the pauperism of England and Wales, is owing to the law of settlment and removal. In 1847, a Select Committee of the House of Commons, appointed to inquire into the operation of the law of settlement and removal, and of the statute of 9 & 10 Vict. c. 66., passed in the previous session of parliament, reported to the House, from time to time, a vast body of evidence which they heard; and ultimately agreed in opinions embodied in the following resolutions, which, however, were not reported to the House. 1. Resolved, "That the law of settlement and removal is generally productive of hardship to the poor, and injurious to the working classes, by impeding the free circulation of labour." Reports to the Poor Law Board on the Laws of Settlement and Removal of the Poor, presented to both Houses of Parliament, by command of Her Majesty, 1850. |