charged with the maintenance of the
poor of these, in addition to their own. This state of matters
threatened an alarming increase of pauperism. From March, 1832,
to March, 1833, the tax for the relief of the poor had risen to
close upon £7,000,000, for a population of 13,894,574 inhabitants.
A commission was appointed to inquire into these abuses, and the
result was the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, which, along with
some more recent statutes, particularly those of 1844 and 1857,
form the legislation in
actual operation at the present day. The relief afforded to the
poor since 1834 is of two kinds - in-door and out - door; the
former given in the workhouse, and the latter in the pauper's
own dwelling. Out-door relief is more especially accorded to children,
the aged, and invalids; but in certain cases it is also accorded
to the able-bodied. The poor - rate is levied in advance for a
part of the year on a scale adapted to the probable exigencies
of the parish; the Act of Elizabeth directs that it should he
raised by "taxation of every inhabitant, parson, vicar, and
others; and of every occupier - of land, houses, tithes impropriate,
propriations of tithes, coal-mines, or saleable underwoods in
the parish." As an occupier, a man is rateable for all land
which he occupies in the parish, whether he is resident or not;
but the tenant, and not the landlord, is considered as the occupier
within this statute.
There are said to be about 1,500,000 paupers in the United Kingdom,
some say 2,000,000 to 3,000,000 people, more or less dependent
upon "help" in some form - a frightful total to think
of, no matter whether misfortune or folly has produced
