Part 20

_Orphans._--Various laws have been promulgated in favour of orphans, for whom the respective local magistrates were appointed judges and protectors, which duty now devolves on the justices of the peace. If any property belongs to them, proper guardians are appointed to take care of it, and to educate the children; if none, they are under the municipal protection until of age to be put to some trade or calling, service, &c., in cases where their relatives are unable to take charge of them.

_Foundlings._--Foundlings are taken charge of and treated as orphans; there are several funds set apart for their support by express decrees of former sovereigns of Portugal; they are received into the misericordias, and supported by the chamber of municipality.

_Deserted Children whose Parents are known._--Deserted children are also reputed as foundlings or orphans, and have similar care taken of them by the municipal authorities; the instances are extremely rare of children being deserted by their parents, which is justly held in abhorrence by all classes of persons.

_Cripples, Deaf and Dumb, Blind, Idiots and Lunatics._

There are no establishments whatsoever of any kind; they live on the alms bestowed weekly by the benevolent.

In general there prevails much love and affection between parents and children, and from the children much obedience and respect towards their parents, to which they are exhorted by the clergy, who inculcate great subjection to their parents on all occasions.

The poorest able-bodied labourer abhors begging; his utmost exertions are therefore employed to support himself and family; and it is only in cases of sickness, or other corporeal impediment, that he ever has recourse to alms.

In the Island of St. Mary’s wheat and barley are chiefly cultivated, but little Indian corn; much waste land is to be seen, arising from the absence of the great proprietors, who live in St. Michael’s or at Lisbon.

At Terceira more wheat than Indian corn is to be seen under cultivation; much land lying waste from the want of capital or enterprise in the proprietors.

At St. George’s, being a volcanic soil, there are more vineyards and pasture land than arable.

Gracioza being flat in surface, and having a strong clay soil, much barley and wheat is grown, but little Indian corn; the poor subsist chiefly on barley-bread, pulse, &c.; it also produces much brandy from the low-priced wines.

Pico being very mountainous and volcanic, the whole island is one continued vineyard; little soil for corn; the inhabitants depend upon the other islands for the supplies of bread.

Fayal, partly vineyard, the rest corn land and pasture: all the principal proprietors of Pico living at Fayal, the poor of Pico are chiefly supplied from thence by their landlords.

Corvo produces grain, &c., for its consumption only.

Flores: some wheat and Indian corn is exported from thence, also bacon and hams, as large quantities of hogs are bred in that island.

A great deal of land is still uncultivated throughout the Azores, so that no able-bodied labourer can want employment, and for two centuries to come there will be employment for the increasing population. The temperature of the climate, ranging from 55° to 76° of Fahrenheit, reducing the physical wants of man as to clothing, fuel, &c.; and the abundance of vegetables, fruits, &c., renders the poor man’s lot easier than in colder climates. In the hospitals there is no limit of rations to the sick patients; they have bread, meat, poultry, milk, &c., in abundance. The state of criminals in the prisons is however dreadful; they are not fed by government, and must die if not succoured by relatives, and the casual supply of bread sent them from the misericordia in cases of extreme need: this however is not obligatory on the part of the hospital. Criminals, after sentence to the galleys, are allowed a loaf of bread per day, but nothing more.

St. Michael’s, April 20, 1834.

CANARY ISLANDS.

_Mendicity, Vagrants, Destitute Able-bodied, Impotent through Age._

Mendicity does prevail to a great extent in the Canary Islands. There is no legal provision whatever for the relief or support of the poor included in the denominations stated above; casual charity is the only resource; but as the natives for the most part remain in the places where they were born, there are very few who have not some relations and acquaintance, from whom they receive occasional assistance. From the nature of the climate, the wants of the poor, when not suffering from sickness, are very limited; having food sufficient to satisfy their hunger, they are scarcely affected by the privations so sensibly felt by the poor in northern climates. “Goffro,” (which is maize, barley or wheat, roasted, and ground by the hand between two stones,) mixed with water or milk, potatoes and other vegetables, with sometimes a small piece of salt fish, constitute the general food of the peasantry throughout the islands. In the towns the artisans live better, obtaining bread, potatoes, salt fish, and sometimes butcher’s meat.

_Sick._

In Santa Cruz there is one hospital for the poor, but the accommodation is very limited (24 beds), in no degree proportional to the wants of the population.

In the town of Laguna is one also, larger than Santa Cruz, and tolerably maintained.

At Las Palmas, the capital of the island of Canary, is the largest and best hospital in the islands; near that town also, is the hospital of St. Lazarus, exclusively for lepers, of which there are considerable numbers. This hospital is well kept up, and the building in a good state of repair, with a garden walled round. The unfortunate inmates are said to be comfortably provided for.

_Children, Illegitimate; Orphans, Foundlings, Deserted Children._

There are no legal regulations as to illegitimate children; their support therefore falls on the mother. There is a foundling hospital at Laguna in Teneriffe, and another at Las Palmas in Canary; in each a turning-box, and a great number of children are by this means disposed of. In the hospital of Santa Cruz is also a turning-box; the infants left are understood to be sent to Laguna. Children placed in the box have usually some mark by which they may be recognised, and they are given up to parents when claimed. There is no other provision for children.

_Cripples, Deaf, Dumb, and Blind._

Live with their parents or relations, or subsist by casual charity. No provision.

_Idiots and Lunatics._

No particular establishment; live with their relations. When violent, they are placed in the hospitals or gaols.

Almost all the land in the Canary Islands is cultivated by agreement between the owners of the land and a class of persons called “medianeros” (middlemen), intelligent husbandmen; the conditions are simple: that the medianero shall cultivate the land, and find half the seed, he retaining half the produce; the other half is delivered to the landlord in kind.

The peasantry are a robust and hardy race, laborious and frugal. There is a great deal of family affection among them. Considerable numbers emigrate to the Havannah and Puerto Rico ostensibly, but it is believed that they are taken to Caraccas and other American countries, once dependencies of the Spanish crown.

GREECE.

There are two sets of answers from Greece to the Commissioners’ questions. One a general one, by the Secretary of State for the Interior, the other from Patras, by Mr. Crowe, His Majesty’s Consul. It will be seen from the following extracts from the Government report, (pp. 665, 666, 667,) that there are scarcely any charitable institutions.

_Vagrants._

Before the Revolution, two classes of vagrants existed in Greece; of these, one class consisted of those individuals who, having no property of their own, and being averse to labour, lived by robbery; the other class consisted of those persons who were indeed destitute, but refusing to labour, did not at the same time resort to robbery: the latter existed by the charity of their relations, and of other benevolent individuals, the former were constantly pursued by the Turkish police.

In two provinces only of the new Greek State, viz. Thravari in Acarnania, and Cloutzinas of Kalavryta, does systematic beggary exist; in these places, many persons mutilated their new-born children for the express purpose of exciting the compassion of the public; but neither before the Revolution, during the Revolution, nor even now, is there any public establishment for the relief of either of the above two classes of vagrants; and notwithstanding that during the Revolution the number of these vagrants increased it is now certain that their numbers have sensibly diminished and it is to be hoped that as soon as the municipalities are regularly established, all these individuals will be obliged to labour for their subsistence.

There exists no public institution or decree organizing the relief to be granted to the poor in Greece; neither did anything of the kind exist before the Revolution, although the country was formed into municipalities. It was feared that the Ottoman authorities would appropriate to themselves any resources which might be set apart for the poor. Charitable subscriptions were therefore the only means by which the poor, sick, &c. obtained relief.

_Impotent through Age, and Sick._

No regulations ever existed on these heads. The aged who were destitute received, and still receive, assistance from the charitably disposed, and from the monasteries; but this assistance is voluntary, not obligatory.

With regard to hospitals, there are only two, one at Nauplia and one at Syra; the first is at present given up to the military service, and the second, belonging to the municipality of Syra, is maintained by a small duty levied on merchandize; the one at Nauplia was formerly supported in the same manner.

_Children._

The support of bastards falls upon their fathers. With regard to foundlings, who are generally left clandestinely at the church doors, the local authorities take charge of them, and intrust them to nurses, whose expenses are defrayed by the government; benevolent individuals likewise frequently take charge of them, and bring them up at their own expense. The number of foundlings supported by the government barely exceeds forty throughout the whole State, by which it appears that depravity of morals in Greece is not great.

For the support of destitute orphans, an establishment (the Orphanotropheion) exists at Ægina, where many are brought up at the expense of the government, and are taught to read and write, and various trades. However, the nearest relations of the orphans generally consider it to be a religious duty to take care of them; so that, in consequence of this praiseworthy feeling, they are seldom left entirely destitute, unless they have no relations, or unless the latter have no means of assistance at their disposal. Moreover, there are numerous benevolent persons who are in the habit of taking orphans into their houses, and bringing them up at their own expense.

Labour hitherto has not much increased in Greece; the labourers are industrious, frugal, and attached to their relations.

I may add, that in consequence of the vast extent of land in Greece in comparison with the number of its inhabitants, the latter apply themselves mostly to agriculture and the care of flocks, by which means they procure ample means of subsistence; and the few manufactures which exist in Greece being all made by hand, sufficient employment is to be procured by every individual. These are the reasons why the number of the poor is so limited, notwithstanding that late events were so much opposed to the progress of arts and industry.

EUROPEAN TURKEY.

The only remaining portion of Europe which has furnished answers to the Commissioners’ questions is European Turkey; with respect to which it may be enough to say, that the only charitable institutions mentioned in the return are religious establishments and khans, in which vagrants are allowed to remain a few days, and receive food; and schools attached to the mosques, in which children of every description receive gratuitous instruction in reading and writing.

ABSENCE OF SURPLUS POPULATION.

[Sidenote: General absence, in the countries not subject to compulsory relief, of a surplus population.]

One of the most striking circumstances connected with the countries which we have last considered is the accuracy with which the population seems to be regulated with reference to the demand for labour. In the ill-administered parts of England there is in general no approach to any such regulation. That sort of population which, from our familiarity with it, has acquired the technical name of a surplus population, not only continues stagnant in places where its services are no longer required, but often springs up and increases without any increase of the means of profitable employment. The parochial returns, forming part B. of this Appendix, are full of complaints of a want of labourers in one parish, and of an over-supply in another; without any tendency of the redundancy to supply the deficiency. In time, of course, the deficient parish is filled up by natural increase; but in the mean time the population of the redundant parish does not seem to diminish. In general, indeed, it goes on increasing with unchecked rapidity, until, in the worst administered portions of the kingdom, a state of things has arisen, of which the cure is so difficult, that nothing but the certainty of absolute and almost immediate ruin from its increase, or even from its continuance, would have induced the proprietors to encounter the dangers of the remedy. Nothing like this, indeed, exists in any of the countries affording compulsory relief, except Berne, which have given us returns. But they provide against its occurrence, as we have already observed, by subjecting the labouring classes, indeed all classes except the opulent, to strict regulation and control, by restraining their marriages, forcing them to take service, and prohibiting their change of abode unless they have the consent of the commune in which they wish to settle. By a vigilant exertion of these means, the population of the north of Europe and Germany seems in general to be proportioned to the means of employment and subsistence; but in the countries which have not adopted the compulsory system the same results are produced without interference or restriction. Complaints are often made in the different returns of the idleness, the drunkenness, and the improvidence of the labouring classes, but never of their disproportionate number.

Condition of the labouring classes.

Another and a very interesting portion of the information which the intelligence and industry of His Majesty’s foreign Ministers and Consuls have enabled us to submit to the public, consists of the answers to the questions respecting labourers. In order to facilitate a comparison between the state of the English and foreign populations, the questions proposed were in general the same as had been already answered in England, either by the population returns, or by the returns to the questions circulated in England by the Poor Law Commissioners.

The following questions, being 1, 3, 7, and 8, correspond to the English questions 8, 10, 13, and 14, of the rural queries:--

1. (8 of English questions.) What is the general amount of the wages of an able-bodied male labourer, by the day, the week, the month, or the year, with and without provisions, in summer and in winter?

3. (10 of English questions.) What in the whole might an average labourer, obtaining an average amount of employment, both in day-work and in piece-work, expect to earn in a year, including harvest work, and the whole of all his advantages and means of living?

7. (13 of English questions.) What in the whole might a labourer’s wife and four children, aged 14, 11, 8, and 5 years respectively, (the eldest a boy), expect to earn in a year, obtaining, as in the former case, an average amount of employment?

8. (14 of English questions.) Could such a family subsist on the aggregate earnings of the father, mother, and children; and if so, on what food?

The following is a digest of the answers from all the agricultural parishes in England which have given returns to the corresponding questions circulated by the Poor Law Commissioners:--

Agricultural wages in England.

Q. 8. Weekly wages, with or without beer or cider, in summer and winter?

254 parishes give an average in summer, with beer or cider, of per week, 10_s._ 4¾_d._

522 parishes give an average in summer, without beer or cider, of per week, 10_s._ 5½_d._

200 parishes give an average in winter, with beer or cider, of per week, 9_s._ 2¼_d._

544 parishes give an average in winter, without beer or cider, of per week, 9_s._ 11¾_d._

Q. 10. What in the whole might an average labourer, obtaining an average amount of employment, both in day-work and piece-work, expect to earn in the year, including harvest work, and the value of all his other advantages and means of living, except parish relief?

Q. 13. What in the whole might a labourer’s wife and four children, aged 14, 11, 8, and 5 years respectively, (the eldest a boy,) expect to earn in the year, obtaining, as in the former case, an average amount of employment?

856 parishes give for the man, an average of £27 17 10 668 parishes give for the wife and children an average of 13 19 10 --------- Average annual income of the family £41 17 8 ---------

Subsistence of agricultural labourers in England.

Q. 14. Could such a family subsist on the aggregate earnings of the father, mother, and children; and if so, on what food?

+----------+---------+---------+----------+------- | Number of| No. | Yes. | Barely, | With | Parishes |(simply).|(simply).|or without| Meat. | answering| | | Meat. | | Q. 14. | | | | --------------+----------+---------+---------+----------+-------- Bedford | 15 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 11 Berks | 24 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 19 Bucks | 27 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 15 Cambridge | 33 | 2 | 11 | 3 | 17 Chester | 12 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 5 Cornwall | 24 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 21 Cumberland | 33 | 0 | 7 | 13 | 13 Derby | 7 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 5 Devon | 18 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 9 Dorset | 16 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 9 Durham | 30 | 0 | 6 | 4 | 20 Essex | 38 | 9 | 9 | 6 | 14 Gloucester | 19 | 0 | 7 | 5 | 7 Hereford | 16 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 8 Hertford | 16 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 8 Huntingdon | 9 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 6 Kent | 43 | 5 | 12 | 2 | 24 Lancaster | 14 | 0 | 8 | 1 | 5 Leicester | 14 | 0 | 6 | 3 | 5 Lincoln | 14 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 8 Middlesex | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 Monmouth | 7 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 4 Norfolk | 27 | 2 | 8 | 0 | 17 Northampton | 14 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 11 Northumberland| 18 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 16 Nottingham | 19 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 11 Oxford | 21 | 0 | 8 | 3 | 10 Rutland | 4 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 Salop | 19 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 18 Somerset | 22 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 14 Southampton | 43 | 3 | 7 | 6 | 27 Stafford | 12 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 10 Suffolk | 26 | 4 | 9 | 3 | 10 Surrey | 20 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 13 Sussex | 68 | 21 | 18 | 7 | 22 Warwick | 31 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 22 Westmorland | 17 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5 Wilts | 24 | 1 | 7 | 4 | 12 Worcester | 18 | 1 | 6 | 2 | 9 York | 65 | 4 | 16 | 17 | 28 (40) +----------+---------+---------+----------+-------- | | | | | TOTAL | 899 | 71 | 212 | 125 | 491 --------------+----------+---------+---------+----------+--------

Wages and subsistence of foreign labourers.

We now add a digest of the foreign answers to the corresponding questions, and also to Question 6: “What can women and children under 16, earn per week in summer, in winter, and in harvest, and how employed?” a question as to which the English answers do not admit of tabular statement.

We have arranged the answers under seven heads: 1. Wages of artisans; 2. of agricultural labourers; 3. of labourers whom the author of the return appears not to have included in either of the other two classes; 4. of women; 5. of children; 6. of the labourer’s wife and four children; and 7. the food on which the supposed family could subsist, on their average annual earnings and means of living.

DIGEST OF FOREIGN ANSWERS