Part 8

The same leave from the police direction is necessary when a pauper wishes, for some good reason, to go out of his police district; the leave is only to be given in both cases on well-grounded reasons, and on proofs that the poor will not be burdensome to other villages and districts; also he must give in a declaration to the same, in which, besides his name and village, and the duration of his absence, the villages to which he intends to go must be expressed.

Paupers who have been warned in vain concerning bad conduct and idleness shall be proceeded against without favour, by the power of magistrates, and be punished accordingly.

The poor institutions can claim repayment from those hypocrites who, although they possess private means, embezzle and grasp at the gifts and assistance which are only intended for true poverty, which shall be fully repaid. The poor institutions can make the same claim from those persons who have renounced their duty of supporting those relations whom they are obliged to support, either by law or by contract.

_No marriage between people without capital shall be allowed without the previous permission of the poor institutions. Directors who do not follow these orders, nor pay attention to the Act of the 12th of July, 1808 (Government Paper, page 1506), concerning marriages in the country, have to answer for the maintenance of the new families, should they not be able to maintain themselves. In the same manner, the priests and other churchmen shall be responsible for the support of such persons as they have married without leave from the authorities, besides other fines which are imposed on this breach of the rules of the marriage ceremony._

[Sidenote: Sources of poor fund.]

Besides the extraordinary sources, which consist partly in the restitution which hypocrites and relations who avoid their duty are obliged to make, and partly out of fines which are given to the poor fund, or may be hereafter given, are sources for charity from donations from the district fund, and from loans or from taxes.

The yearly produce of all charities belongs to the poor institutions, and is used for their purposes. With the establishments for the poor are united the already existing or still accumulating capitals of one or other of the poor institutions; the gain on mortgages or on those possessions whose owners cannot be discovered; the legacies for the poor, when by the will of the deceased they are to be laid out in a regular yearly income, and the fourth part of such legacies as are destined in general for pious purposes.

The voluntary donations consist of casual gifts in money and food which have been given by philanthropic persons of their own accord, for the use of the poor institutions, and in this manner are to be employed for their daily use. Besides these, are the legacies which are meant for immediate division among the poor, and those subscriptions which are collected either by single persons or by companies and corporations.

General and extraordinary collections, in the name of the institutions for the poor, are to be made monthly from house to house, when the members of the parish have bound themselves to a certain subscription; also in the churches on the great holidays, and in the public-houses by means of private poor-boxes; and lastly, on all important and joyful occasions of the state, or companies.

According to the circumstances of the place, certain accidental funds can be appropriated to the uses of the poor institutions, which particularly on great joyful occasions, namely, great marriages in the taverns, the permission to have music, particularly past the stated times, processions of the apprentices, shooting matches, &c. &c., at shows, balls, masquerades, and so on.

When all the aforesaid sources do not suffice to cover the wants of the poor institutions, it will be supplied out of the funds of the district, or through loans, and then only when all these means cannot be put in practice, or do not suffice to cover their wants, compulsory contributions or poor-taxes are to be resorted to. The manner and amount of these are to be according to the calls of the villages and districts, and are only to be levied for a certain time. It is to be observed, however, that these taxes are to be imposed with the greatest equality, and without any exception among all classes.

[Sidenote: Central control.]

The poor institutions and committees in such towns as have no police directors or commissaries, also in the market towns and parishes, are directly under the control of the district tribunal, and under their guidance and inspection.

The inspection of the poor institutions of the whole kingdom is given to the ministry for the interior, which is to receive regularly the report of the state of this branch of administration from the annual accounts and other proper sources, and which is to issue the necessary general orders and regulations, and is to judge of the proposals for the establishment, the arrangement and fitting up of workhouses, and others in which the poor are taken care of, for single districts, whole circles, or for the entire kingdom, which decides with the ministry of finance all proposals for allowing certain taxes and poor subscriptions, decides the complaints brought against the general circle and local commissaries, if such do not belong to the private council, and causes the election of certain poor directors where it may be found advisable.

It will be observed, that these institutions bear a considerable resemblance to those of Wurtemberg. Their effects are thus summed up by Lord Erskine:

Upon carefully examining and considering these poor laws of Bavaria. I have come to the conclusion in my own mind that they are useful, and well adapted to the purposes for which they were intended, because by the establishment of the poor institutions (as they are called), by districts over the whole kingdom of Bavaria, with sufficient power by law to carry their provisions into execution, the great and important object is attained of giving relief and support to the aged, helpless, and sick, and finding work in workhouses or at their own homes, at a moderate payment, for those who cannot otherwise obtain it; for which purpose a register is to be kept by the guardians of the poor of all those persons who are in want of work, and who are therefore either a burthen upon the parish, or are likely to become so, as also a list of those who wish to employ workmen, in order to endeavour to arrange between them the terms of employment; and that this object may be the more easily attained, the directors are required to be in continual communication with the overseers of public works, the masters of manufactories, with individual proprietors, and societies; in order that where there are a quantity of hands capable of work, they may be passed into that part of the country where they are most wanted; but whenever it may happen that, notwithstanding all inquiries and exertions, the necessary work cannot be obtained, in such cases materials and tools are to be distributed to those paupers who may be in want of them, to be used at their own houses; and if in larger towns the number of those paupers should be very great, houses are to be opened and maintained at the expense of the institutions for the poor, in which the paupers who are out of work are to be employed; but the number of paupers to be so employed is always limited to those who have not had a reasonable offer of work from any other quarter. But the great cause why the number of the poor is kept so low in this country, arises from the prevention by law of marriages in cases in which it cannot be proved that the parties have reasonable means of subsistence; and this regulation is in all places and at all times strictly adhered to.

The effect of a constant and firm observance of this rule has, it is true, a considerable influence in keeping down the population of Bavaria, which is at present low for the extent of country, but it has a most salutary effect in averting extreme poverty and consequent misery. (p. 554.)

The last of the countries subject to a system of compulsory relief, from which we have a return, is the ancient part of the

CANTON DE BERNE.

It appears from that return, that the inhabitants of that part of the Canton, which is subject to the laws which we are going to describe, consisted, in 1831, of 321,468 persons, divided into three classes, heimathloses, aubains, and bourgeois.

The first class, which appears to be so small as to be inconsiderable, consist of foreign refugees or their descendants. The second comprises all those who have not a right to bourgeoisie in any commune: their number amounted, in 1780, to 3482 persons. It is said to have subsequently increased, but it is not probable that it has more than doubled; and we believe that 10,000 persons, or less than 1-32nd part of the whole population, exceeds the whole number of those who are not entitled to bourgeoisie; but it is to be observed that the word “aubain,” though strictly meaning a person who has no settlement in the Canton, is also applied to persons who, though bourgeois, are not entitled to bourgeoisie in the commune in which they reside. The support of the heimathloses and of the aubains, properly so called, that is, of those who have no right whatever to bourgeoisie, falls on the government.

The third class is composed of the descendants of those who, in the sixteenth century, were held entitled to the public property of each commune, and those who by themselves or their ancestors have purchased bourgeoisie in any commune. Bourgeoisie appears to be personal and hereditary. It is not gained by residence, or lost by absence; and may therefore, in fact, belong to persons having little other connexion with the commune.

At a period, of which the precise date is not stated, but which appears to belong to the seventeenth century, it became the law that every one was entitled to support from the commune of which he was bourgeois, and that the sums necessary were to be supplied from the public property of the commune; and so far as that was insufficient, from landed property, to whomsoever belonging, situated in the commune, and from the personal property of the bourgeois whether resident or not.

To this hereditary bourgeoisie the raising and administration of the poor-fund was and still is confided; and apparently with most unfortunate results.

The following is the conclusion of the official answer of the government of Berne to the questions proposed by Mr. Morier (p. 207):--

_What are the abuses complained of?_

_Do they arise from the principle of the law, or from the character and social position of its administrators?_

_What remedies have been applied?_

_What have been their results?_

The abuses in the administration arise both from the principle of the law, and from the character and social position of its administrators: from the law, because it abandons all administration to the communes; from the administrators, because they neglect improvement, distribute relief without discrimination or real inquiry, and generally provide only against the exigences of the moment.

The separate parishes, being, for the most part, too small to establish schools and workhouses, want means of coercion, and are in general more busied in providing relief for those actually indigent than in diminishing their number, either as regards the present or future generations. Besides, although the practice is not sanctioned by law, many parishes, in order to prevent the return of their bourgeois who are domiciled elsewhere, forward to them relief without being able to ascertain their conduct.

The government has long felt that these abuses could not be remedied except by a law founded on a principle totally different from that of abandoning the administration to the parishes: but from a mistaken solicitude for the poor, it always hesitated to take this course.

_What has been the influence of the system?_

1. _Statistically?_

2. _Morally?_

1. _Has the number of the indigent augmented, diminished, or remained stationary?_

2. _Does the law appear to have encouraged imprudent marriage or illicit intercourse?_

The answers are implied in our previous statements. The existing system favours imprudent marriage and illicit intercourse,--but, precisely because it encourages marriage, probably does not augment the proportion of illegitimate to legitimate births. But the final result is, that it encourages, in an extraordinary degree, the increase of the indigent population. The abuses which have followed this fatal system are too numerous to be here detailed. It is easy to conceive what must have been its results on a populace whom education, or rather the want of education, has deprived of all honourable feeling, and of all preference of independence to public charity. Idleness, carelessness, improvident marriage, and illicit intercourse, have been encouraged by the prospect of making others support their results. All means and opportunities of acquiring knowledge, or skill, or regular occupation, have been neglected. Thence have arisen not only a constantly increasing burden upon society, but obstacles to the development of the physical and intellectual faculties, to moral improvement, and in short to the advancement of civilization. _Experience has clearly proved, that the number of paupers increases in proportion to the resources created for them, and that the bourgeois population is least industrious and least active, and endeavours least to be useful to society in those parishes which have the largest public property and public revenue._

This state of things, and above all the constantly increasing burden in some parts of the country, and the demands urged by parishes on the State for protection against the claims and the insolence of the really and the pretended indigent, have determined the government to strive to remedy the evil at its source. We are still ignorant of the proposed principles of the new law. The plan, or at least the preparatory inquiry, is now going on in the offices of the Department of the Interior. It is nearly certain, however, that compulsory charity will be, if not entirely abolished, at least restricted to those poor who are incapable of work. But if assessment for the indigent is put an end to, the revenue of the properties appropriated to them will remain for their support.

The administration of the poor-laws in the Canton of Berne is therefore on the eve of a radical reform.

The same views are more fully developed in a long and very able supplement to these answers, which immediately follows them, and bears the same official character--(pp. 220-222, and 225.)

The administration of parochial property has not been properly audited by any parochial authorities: frequently and for many years it has remained in the hands of the same family; those to whom it has been intrusted have received little or no salary: a capricious and dishonest management were the obvious and almost the inevitable consequences. The mere nature of the transaction led to mal-administration. The poor who had a right to bourgeoisie had a right to relief. How could their conduct or their wants be ascertained, if they dwelt in other parishes, with whose authorities their own parish had no relation? Was it not almost inevitable that relief would be demanded with insolence and spent in idleness and debauchery?

In some places in the mountains (such as Sieventhal and Grindelwald), the relief was given in kind; but with the increased circulation of money, money-relief has become general, and is exclusively afforded to out-parishioners. The facility with which such relief is mis-applied has favoured mis-management, and may be said to engender pauperism.

_These fatal results have become more strongly felt as the number of the poor has augmented. In many places the growing embarrassment occasioned great and praiseworthy remedial efforts. The administration was made more regular, and inspectors and other officers appointed. Some country parishes erected alms-houses at an expense apparently beyond their means. But many of these fine institutions disappointed the hopes of their founders: we shall presently see why. These new measures and institutions were each the private affair of each parish; they failed because they were isolated. The beneficial measures of one parish were not supported by its neighbours. They followed their old routine, and opposed improvement by obstacles and dislike. Superintendence, which is essential to the administration of poor laws, was ineffectual, because it was applied only to the parishioners of the single commune which enforced it._

During the last half century, other countries have acquired knowledge relative to alms-houses for the poor, and have adopted the results of the inquiries and experience of their neighbours. This has not been the case with our own establishments: their very origin was erroneous. They were the products of a philanthropy which proposed entirely to remedy all human misery. They were founded in villages, and proportioned each to the existing wants of the village. Their resources seldom permitted the adoption of the first condition of good administration, namely, classification. And even when we find a spacious building, we see heaped, pell-mell, children by the side of the old and infirm, and the sick mixed with able-bodied idlers. Even whole families are found in this assemblage of the good and bad, the sick and the healthy, the useful and the mischievous. In such establishments provision ought to have been made for the education of the children, the cure of the sick, the support of the aged, and the employment of the able-bodied. Each class of inmates required a separate treatment. The instant this principle is neglected, and classification abandoned, the institution not only loses its utility, but becomes actually mischievous. But each single establishment was governed by a single authority, unfit for the management of several dissimilar classes of inmates. In general, one uniform system was applied to them all. A further obstacle to the success of these establishments was the frequent change of their governors. As they were ill-paid and often subject to disagreeable contests with the local authorities, it was difficult to get good officers, and still more so to keep them. (p. 221.)

Unfavourable as our representation of these establishments has been, the picture of the treatment of the poor in the other parts of the canton is still more gloomy and painful. In these districts (superintendence being absent) all that is not left to accident is regulated by habit, or by a routine without apparent motives.

In such places no regular system is to be looked for. The most usual modes of affording relief are allowances in money, or payment of board. In some places, as in Emmenthal, the parochial charges are thrown on the large estates, and the proprietors are forced in turn, and gratuitously, to maintain the paupers who are allotted to them. In many other places it has long been the custom to send round the poor to be maintained in turn by the settled inhabitants (bourgeois), some of whom, though forced to receive paupers, are themselves in indigent, or even in distressed circumstances.

Not less sad or even revolting is the practice which prevails in some poor and ill-judging parishes of getting rid of their poor by allotting them to those who will take them on the lowest terms. The parochial authorities offer an allowance to those who will receive such and such paupers. The allowance at first proposed is very small; but it is ready money, and public competition enables the parish to make it still smaller. The poor victim falls into the hands of a rapacious and needy family. We may conceive how deplorable his situation must always be. That it is sometimes supportable can be attributed only to a benevolence not yet entirely stifled in the hearts of our people. Cases even have occurred in which the proprietors, by allowing their inmates to work for themselves, have given them habits of industry, and bred up their children to be good workmen. But these exceptions only render the general rule more apparent.

Relief in money produces effects equally pernicious. It is the result of the law which enables every family which is, or believes itself to be, in want, to demand a relief which cannot be refused. Small sums are given sometimes for payment of rent, sometimes to meet other wants, whether the applicant live in the parish or elsewhere--and without control or superintendence. What can, what must be the consequences? (p. 222.)

We cannot wonder, then, that the administration of the poor laws in the canton of Berne has become so irregular and so mischievous. The effects of the subdivision of the inhabitants into so many corporations have become more and more apparent. The principle of permanent and hereditary unions necessarily clashed with the principle of mobility and change which governs all our social relations. The welfare of the public necessarily gave way to that of the particular corporations, and the private interests of the corporations or parishes rendered them selfish and mutually hostile. _Obstacles were opposed to every change of residence, and consequently the industry and enterprise of the labouring classes were paralyzed, and the parishes felt the results of their own measures when an unemployed and dispirited population was thrown upon them. It was to be expected that in time this population would look for support to the relief to which they had a legal right; it was natural that in time they would get a taste for an idle and consequently vicious existence._ We could support our remarks by many instances of whole families which have subsisted like parasites from year to year, and from generation to generation, on the parochial funds; whose status it is to be paupers; and the cases in which they have emerged from this condition are few.

The government appears to have been struggling with these evils ever since the beginning of this century. The first ordonnance which has been forwarded to us is that of the 22d December, 1807.

The following are its most material enactments (pp. 191, 192):--

The parishes and parochial corporations (bourgeoisies) in the town and in the country are required, as heretofore, to afford protection and relief to their needy fellow-citizens.

No one can claim parochial relief unless he is without property, and either physically incapable of work, or out of employ without his own fault.