The Poor Law Author:T. W. Fowle Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III POOR LAW HISTORY.1 The existing system of poor relief in England is 80 entirely, both as to its principles and its institutions, a matter of gr... more »adual growth, that in giving some account of the earlier Poor Law we shall be virtually describing the essential elements and main features of that which is at present established. And as the history, even in the brief compendium which is all that we can attempt, is both interesting and valuable, whereas the details of administration can with difficulty be made so, we are the less reluctant to beg the reader's attention to what is, in truth, a singular episode in the annals of our social progress. The old Poor Law came to an end, as most people know, in 1834; previous to which time it may be divided into three distinctly marked periods. 1 The authorities for the next two chapters are mainly—Nieholls's History of the English Poor Law; the Report of the Poor Law Commissioners in 1834 ; the Sixth Eeport of the Poor Law Commission in 1839 ; an article in the Edinburgh Review, Number 149, on Poor Law Reform, attributed to Mr. Nassau Senior; and an article in the Quarterly Review, Number 106, attributed to Sir Francis Head, on English Charity. Reference has been made to the original standard work on the subject—Sir Frederick Eden's State of the Poor, published in 1797. First, down to the death of Elizabeth in 1603, or more strictly to the famous Act which definitely established poor reh'ef in England in 1601. Second, down to a somewhat uncertain date, for which the accession of George IIL in 1760 may be taken as a convenient point. Third, down to the Reform of 1834. The First Period.—Down to the reign of Elizabeth it cannot be said that Poor Laws, in our sense of the word (i.e. measures for the relief of destit...« less