Causes favourable to the working of the above institutions. (continued 2)

Nor does the difference arise from the prevalence of infanticide.

It appears from the statistique des tribunaux de la Belgique, that in the years 1826, 1827, 1828, and 1829, there were in the provinces of Antwerp, Brabant, Flandre Orientale, Hainault, and Namur, containing 2,450,740 inhabitants, and possessing foundling establishments, 13 convictions for infanticide; and in Flandre Occidentale, Liege, Limbourg, and Luxembourg, containing 1,601,469 inhabitants, and no such establishments, only nine convictions, being a proportion slightly inferior. So far, therefore, from foundling hospitals having had a tendency to prevent desertion of children, or infanticide, it appears that their tendency is decidedly to promote the former, without preventing in any degree the latter. The real infanticides, strange as it may sound, are the founders and supporters of foundling hospitals. The average mortality in Europe of children during the first year does not exceed one in five, or 20 per cent. In England and Holland it is less: in Belgium it is 22⁴⁹⁄₁₀₀, per cent. But in the foundling hospitals of Belgium (and their mortality is below the average of such establishments), it is 45 per cent.[15]

In the foundling hospital in Brussels it is now 66 per cent., having been from 1812 to 1817, 79 per cent.

Nor is the fate of those who escape from these receptacles much preferable to that of those who perish there. M. Ducpétiaux, the inspector of prisons, states that, small as is their number relative to the rest of the population, they form a considerable proportion of the inmates of gaols and prisons, and a still larger proportion of the prostitutes.[16]

Such having been the legislation, and such being its results, an attempt towards its improvement was made by a law, dated the 30th July, 1834. That laws enacts, that from the 1st of January, 1835, the maintenance of foundlings and of deserted children whose place of settlement is not known, shall be supplied one half by the communes in which they shall have been exposed or deserted, with the assistance of their bureaux de bienfaisance, and the other half by the province of which those communes form a part, and that an annual grant shall be made by the State in aid of this expenditure; and that the expense of maintaining deserted children whose place of settlement is known, shall be supported by the hospices and bureaux de bienfaisance of their place of settlement, with the assistance of the commune.

The object of this law is stated in a circular from the Minister of Justice, dated the 23d January, 1834.

He directs, in the first place, the local authorities to provide for the subsistence of the foundlings with whom they may be charged, without reference to the proposed annual grant, since neither the amount of that grant, nor the mode of its distribution, is laid down by the law; and urges them to prevent the increase of their own burthens by endeavouring to prevent the abandonment of children born within their jurisdictions, and the exposure within their jurisdictions of children born elsewhere; and for that purpose to procure the punishment by law of those convicted of having exposed infants, or made a custom of taking them to hospitals. He admits, however, that the necessary investigations are matters of great delicacy; and he might have added that the punishment by law to which he refers does not exist, unless punishment by law means the arbitrary interference of the police, so much tolerated in continental Europe.

“These,” he adds, “are the wishes of the Government and of the Chambers; and this declaration will enable you to understand the motives of the silent repeal of the law, directing the establishment of tours for the reception of foundlings. The Legislature could not at the same time prescribe measures intended to diminish the exposure of children, and an institution by which it is favoured and facilitated. It did not venture to pronounce the suppression of the existing tours; but the silence of the law on this subject is the expression of its earnest desire that this institution should be discontinued; the mode of discontinuing it is left to the local authorities. The Government will require from you an annual report on these subjects, before it decides on the distribution of the annual grant; and the favour shown to each district may depend on its endeavours to comply with these instructions.”

This circular is a curious instance of an attempt to undermine an institution which the Government and the Legislature disapprove, but which they do not venture directly to grapple with. All that the Legislature ventures directly to do is to express its earnest desire (désir formel), by the silence of the law. The Government however goes further, and holds out hints, though it does not venture to hint very clearly, that the fewer the foundlings in any district, the larger will be the share of that district in the government grant. Under the influence of these double motives we may expect the tours soon to be closed.

We have also inserted (p. 607) a paper respecting the operation of the monts-de-piété, of which the following is the result:—

Average of Nine Years, from 1822 to 1830 inclusive. 1831. 1832.

Pledges. Amount. Pledges. Amount. Pledges. Amount.

Francs. Francs. Francs.

1,271,122 3,778,286 1,185,834 3,268,104 1,129,373 3,939,219

or or or

£151,131 £130,124 £157,548

The number of pledges redeemed is stated only for 1832, in which year 1,124,115 pledges, on which 3,162,399 francs, or 126,495l. sterling, had been lent, were redeemed. It is to be observed that the pledges are for small sums, amounting, on an average, to about three francs, or less than half-a-crown per pledge; and that the amount of the redemption in 1832 nearly corresponds with the amount lent in 1831. On the whole, considering the low rate of interest exacted by the Belgian monts-de-piété, as compared with that taken by our pawnbrokers, the small aggregate amount of deposits, being about 150,000l. for four millions of people, is a strong indication of the generally provident habits of the labouring population.

As further illustrations of the general working of the Belgian system, we extract the following particulars from the reports from Antwerp and Ostend. (pp. 627, 628, 629, 630, 634, 636, 637, and 639.)

Antwerp.

Population, 11,328.

Vagrants.

Indigent travellers, foreigners, or denizens, who pass through Antwerp, are received there at an establishment called St. Julien’s Hospital, where they are lodged and boarded for three nights at the expense of the establishment, which provides their wants for the moment.

The foundation of this hospital, which yearly receives about 1000 individuals, dates from the beginning of the 14th century. It subsists by itself, under the direction of a private charitable administration, by means of some fixed revenues, and also by the liberal donations of philanthropic persons.

The same poor travellers, when Belgians, receive at Antwerp an indemnity of 15 centimes, or 1½d. sterling, per league per head for travelling expenses to the first town in the neighbourhood, where this relief is continued to them. These travelling expenses are at the charge of the town, and paid out of the municipal funds, in virtue of a Royal Act of the 10th May, 1815.

Destitute Able-bodied.

Necessitous individuals of the labouring and indigent class, who do not attempt to go a begging, and who, for want of work, are without means of providing for the necessaries of life, and also the members of their families, are provided for at their own dwellings, by the care of the bureau de bienfaisance, by the means or revenues of this establishment, and the subsidies which the town grants it yearly out of the municipal funds, in order to supply what may be necessary to continue its service. The amount of this grant varies annually, according to the real wants of the establishment, by reason of the circumstances that either augment or reduce its expenses.

The succours distributed by this establishment consist in money, bread, potatoes, fuel, and clothing, &c.

Besides, there exists at Antwerp, under the direction of the same bureau de bienfaisance, a workhouse, where carpets of cow-hair and other articles are made. This workhouse is established especially to procure work to the indigent and working class who are without employ. The population of this establishment varies according to the different seasons and other circumstances. It is most frequented during the winter, when the navigation is interrupted, and the stagnation of several branches of industry causes the number of indigent to augment. Those who come to work in this establishment remain there the whole day, and receive their meals, besides a salary in cash, proportioned to the work they are employed at.

If, through the effects of a hard winter, the wants of the labouring and indigent class are excessive, there are formed at Antwerp private societies for relief, which, by means of donations, collections, and voluntary subscriptions, efficaciously assist the unfortunate by distributions of money, food, fuel, &c.

The depôt of mendicity in the province of Antwerp is situated at Hoogstraeten, in an ancient manor bought for that purpose by the former department administration. It is a spacious establishment of agriculture, possessing a great number of acres of arable, pasture, and wood land, and a still greater number of heath (bruyère).

Those individuals who are destitute, and who desire to be admitted into this establishment, are received as free men; the vagrants are brought there by force. Both are employed there at sundry works of agriculture, of manufacture, or in the household establishment, according to their physical strength. The impotent and aged alone are kept without working in a separate place.

For several years the expense for the maintenance of individuals of the depôt at Hoogstraeten has not amounted to more than 32 centimes per individual, (or 3d. sterling.)

On the 1st January, 1834, the number of persons entertained at the provincial depôt, on account of the city of Antwerp, was 153. The population of this establishment generally amounts to 250 or 300 individuals, all belonging to the province.

The children of the working class or indigent are received, without any distinction, in the public schools established gratis. Those children abandoned to the public charity, or of whom the parents are entirely unable to bring them up, and who request to be relieved of them from inability to maintain them, are sent to an hospital established for that purpose, or else placed in the country under the direction of the civil hospital, or the bureau de bienfaisance.

Impotent through Age.

There are at Antwerp 26 private hospitals, founded and established for many centuries by charitable persons in favour of a stated number of aged persons, of both sexes, and of decent and respectable families; but in preference for the members of the founders’ family, and which persons, without being entirely destitute, have, notwithstanding, no sufficient means to provide for their subsistence. Those persons inhabit a small house in the hospital, where they keep their own household separately, and subsist by what they can earn personally by any hand-work, and by the weekly succour which they receive from the revenue of the foundation. These men and women reside in separate hospitals.

Destitute persons, of both sexes, who are impotent through age, but have not claims to be admitted into the before-mentioned private hospital, are maintained by the administrations of the poor, the sick, incurable, and impotents, in the civil hospital, and the others in the country, where they are boarded with the farmers at the expenses of the public establishment of charity; that is to say, of the administration of the civil hospitals and bureau de bienfaisance. Besides, there is at Antwerp a special establishment as a refuge to the impotent through age, of decent and respectable families, who are without means of procuring a livelihood.

Sick.

In Belgium every town has its civil hospital for the maintenance of destitute sick. That of Antwerp is open to all the unfortunate, without distinction, whenever their social position does not afford them the means of being attended by a physician at their dwellings, who are deemed proper objects for admission.

Are also admitted, in a private room in this hospital (upon payment of a small daily retribution), all individuals who, although not entirely destitute, prefer to be treated in the hospital rather than at their own houses; such as men and female servants, who are commonly sent there by the persons who have them in their employ.

Indigent persons, born at Antwerp, are treated at the hospital at the expense of the establishment. Those who are not of the town, but are of the country, are treated there at the expense of the commune where they have their domicile de secours.

These expenses are fixed at the rate of 62 cents., or 1 franc 31 centimes (1s. 0½d. sterling) per diem, whatever may be the sickness. The expenses, for the treatment of those who have no domicile de secours, are repaid by government out of the treasury funds. The town provides for the insufficiency of the private revenue of this establishment, in the same manner as it does for the bureau de bienfaisance, by means of “subsidies in aid,” paid out of the municipal funds. This amount of “subsidies” varies annually according to the wants of the administration of the hospital.

Persons of the indigent and necessitous class, whose sickness or complaint is not severe enough to require their entering the hospital, receive medical and surgical relief at their own homes. To that effect, there are several physicians and surgeons appointed and attached to the bureau de bienfaisance, who give their assistance to the sick who require it, every one in the district or section for which he is appointed. These physicians and surgeons, who receive a fixed salary from the administration of the poor, also receive at their domicile, at fixed hours of the day, indigent persons who want to consult them on the state of their health; and it is on a ticket delivered by them, that such sick persons are received at the hospital. The bureau de bienfaisance has a special pharmacy, situated in the centre of the town, where medicine is given gratis to the indigent, on a prescription signed by a physician of the poor establishment.

The indigent persons relieved by the bureau de bienfaisance receive only the strict necessaries of life to feed and support their families, and no more, so that they have nothing to satisfy their private wants or fancies, nor can they procure themselves any luxuries or other comforts; and they always lead a life, that, although protected against the most pressing wants, is notwithstanding a very miserable one. It is thus the interest of those individuals that are able to work (and this they perfectly comprehend) to seek to maintain themselves. It is only those persons who are totally depraved, and who give themselves entirely up to drunkenness and every other excess, who feel assured that, after having wasted and spent the little they possess, and abandoned the work that maintained them, there always remains to them the resource of the distributions made by the administration of the poor.

In Antwerp, the situation of a workman, whatever may be the class he belongs to, and who maintains himself solely by his work, is by all means preferable and better than that of a person who only subsists by relief or public charity. The existence of those who reside in the depôts of mendicity, excepting only the loss of their liberty, is even in many respects preferable to the situation of the latter, who are maintained by general charity.

Ostend.

Population, 11,328.

Destitute Able-bodied.

The only legal mode of lodging the destitute able-bodied is to send them to the depôt of mendicity, where they are treated as paupers. There existed formerly agricultural colonies on the same principles as those in Holland, to which the parishes could send their able-bodied, destitute, and their families; it was found in vain to attempt making cultivators or proprietors of them.

The destitute able-bodied, but quite indigent, of the two Flanders, and the vagrants who have been tried as such, compose altogether a population of about 300 persons (the destitute able-bodied of Ghent excepted.) For each of these 300 poor, his parish pays a contribution of 32 centimes (3d.) per day (men and women equally.) The depôt for both the Flanders established at Bruges, by the mildness of its administration, has gradually overcome the dread which it inspired at its origin. The directors have banished all rigour, not even enforcing work on the destitute; but as they are paid according to their industry, that inducement to work is found sufficient. This establishment is remarkably prosperous, having already saved fr. 80,000 (3200l.), all expenses paid. It is not found necessary to have any armed force in the neighbourhood to keep this large number of destitute in order, this being attained by gentleness and good usage. On any of the poor leaving the establishment, improved in their moral conduct, they receive a part of their own earnings, which enables them to seek some employment.

Besides this depôt, there is at Ghent a workhouse where employment is given to the destitute, but without their being maintained. The number of labourers in this establishment, which was erected by voluntary subscription, has been as many as 1900 in time of great distress.

Every church has its masters of the table of the poor, or distributors of assistance. Such funds proceed from collections made in the church, voluntary alms, and assignments from the “bureau de bienfaisance.” Weekly distributions of bread or fuel, sometimes money or clothing, are made; but this assistance is generally discontinued in the summer months, on account of the abundance of work during that season. In the towns the relief consists principally in money (about 32 centimes per man and per day, or 3d. sterling.) In the country the rule is not to give money, but assistance in kind.

Generally their children may be educated gratuitously; but they take little advantage of it, as they prefer employing them in gathering up firewood, &c.; and, generally, there is felt a want of coercive measures to force the parents to send their children to school, and to allow them to be put out as apprentices.

Impotent through Age.

There are almshouses throughout the kingdom, where the impotent through age are maintained and taken care of. These institutions are so far profitable to the parishes, as that it would cost them more money to assist these persons separately. Some have been endowed by deeds of gift, others are supported by the inhabitants of the towns. The number of them is increasing in the country, and most towns are well provided in that respect.

The assistance afforded to those relieved at home is in clothing, bread, fuel twice a week, and 75 centimes in money (7d.) every Sunday.

There exists between the self-supporting labourers and the persons subsisting exclusively on alms or public charity, a very numerous intermediate class, consisting of those who live partly on relief and partly on labour, so that the two extremities only of the scale can be compared. An able-bodied but not labouring man receives only about the half what the last of those who do labour and are not assisted would earn; the legal relief being 32 centimes (3d.), and the lowest day’s work more than 64 centimes (6d.) As to liberty, nobody is forced to work, not even at the depôt of mendicity; they are only not allowed to go out at will. Food is almost equally distributed, and many destitute poor prefer the depôt to free labour, when they are not sure of being employed every day; but in no other instance.

The grievances which result from this system arise from the neglect, the ignorance or the corruption of the local authorities, and although numerous, they are not very striking.

2dly. Grievances arise from the want of proper conditions with which lands or houses are bequeathed to the bureaux de bienfaisance. Wherever a revenue is bequeathed it is shared equally by the poor, even when they may be beyond need; for instance, a beggar will receive 1 fr. 50 c. (1s. 2d.) per day for her maintenance, which would not have cost more than the fifth part of that sum if paid by the depôt of mendicity. To obviate this abuse, and to increase the power of useful charity, the revenue of the bureau de bienfaisance of each parish should be added to the sum principal of the province when the revenue of the bureau exceeds the wants of its locality. 3dly. Grievances arise from the liberty of parents to neglect their children, and allowing them to beg alms for their own benefit. This last appears to be the root of the evil, and the great cause of the augmentation of pauperism in these towns.

Gaesbeck. (page 1.)

But the most interesting portion of the Belgian details is Count Arrivabene’s account of Gaesbeck, a small village about nine miles from Brussels, containing about 857 acres, inhabited by 364 persons, forming 60 families, or separate menages, constituted of 13 comparatively large farmers, occupying each from 30 to 150 acres, 18 small proprietors or small farmers, 21 day-labourers, and 8 artizans. The commune possesses a property producing an annual revenue of 556 francs, or nearly 23l. sterling, managed by its bureau de bienfaisance, of which the curé is the acting member. It expended in the year 1832, on the relief of the poor, (including the salary of the schoolmaster and clothing for the poor children who were to be confirmed,) 625 francs, or about 25l. 2s., being rather less than 1s. 4½d. per head. How the extra 2l. 2s. was obtained is not mentioned; but as the bureau is stated to have always nearly a year’s revenue in hand, it was probably taken from the receipts of a previous year. The heaviest item of expense is the support of one old man, at the annual expense of 72 francs, (rather less than 3l.) Ten other individuals, or heads of families, appear to have received nearly regular relief, amounting in general to about 6d. a week; and four others to have been assisted at times irregularly; the largest sum being 1l., given to L. Maonens, “pour malheur.” There has been only one illegitimate birth during the last five years. The average age of marriage is 27 for men, and 26 for women; the average number of births to a marriage, 3½. As these averages are taken for a period of 23 years, ending in 1832, during which the population has not increased, they may be relied on. Of the whole 60 families, only 11 are without land; all the others either possess some, or hire some from the proprietor. The quantity generally occupied by a day-labourer is a bonnier, or about 2½ acres, for which he pays a rent of from 60 to 80 francs. With this land the labourers keep in general a cow, a pig, and poultry. To be without land is considered the extreme of poverty. The number of labourers is precisely equal to the demand for their services. Daily wages are 6d., with some advantages equal to about 1d. more; and, as might be expected under a natural system, with no preference of the married to the unmarried. Labourers are generally hired by the year, and remain long in the same service. Crime is exceedingly rare: for the last 12 years no one has been committed to prison. Offences against the game laws are unknown. There are three houses of entertainment in the village, but they are not frequented by the labourers. “Are the labourers discontented; do they look on the farmers with envy?” asked the Count of his informant. “I do not believe,” was the answer, “that the labourers envy the farmers. I believe that the relation between the farmers and labourers is very friendly: that the labourers are perfectly contented in their situation, and feel regard and attachment for their employers.” (p. 14.)

What a contrast is exhibited by this picture of moral, contented, and (if the term is permissible) prosperous poverty, supported by the frugality and providence of the labourers themselves, and that of the population of a pauperized English village, better fed indeed, better paid, better clothed, and better lodged, and, above all, receiving 10, or perhaps 20 times the amount of parochial alms, but depraved by profligacy, soured by discontent, their numbers swelled by head-money and preference of the married to double the demand for their labour, their frugality and providence punished by the refusal of employment, and their industry ruined by the scale; looking with envy and dislike on their masters, and with hatred on the dispensers of relief!

And it is to be observed that the independence of the Belgian peasantry does not arise from any unwillingness to accept of relief. Out of the 60 families forming the population of the village, 19 appear to have received it in 1832; and a fact is related by Count Arrivabene, which shows that indiscriminate alms are as much coveted there as with us. In 1830 (the year of the revolution) many persons applied for charity at the gate of the castle of Gaesbeck, the residence of Marquis Arconati, and something was given to each. The next year the applications were renewed: the sum given to each applicant was fixed at 1d., and a single day in the week was fixed for its distribution. On the first of these days there were 50 applicants; the second, 60. The sum given was reduced to ½d. to a man, and a farthing to a child; but towards the end of the season the weekly assemblage had risen to 300 and 400 persons; they came from 10 and 12 miles distance, and it became necessary to abolish the allowance, trifling as the amount appears.

Poor Colonies.

The last portion of the Belgian institutions requiring notice are the poor colonies. We have already stated, that in 1823 the Belgian Société de Bienfaisance was established on the model and for the purposes of that already existing in Holland. In the beginning of that year the society purchased 522 bonniers (rather less than 1,300 statute acres), at Wortel, for the establishment of two colonies, called free, and divided them into 125 farms, of 3½ bonniers (about 9 statute acres) each; 70 in the colony No. 1, and 55 in the colony No. 2. In 1823 they purchased 516 bonniers (about 1,280 acres), at Mexplus and Ryckevoorsel, for the establishment of a mendicity colony. The first estate cost 623l., the second 554l., or less than 10s. an acre, from which the quality of the land may be inferred.

Families placed in the free colonies were provided each with a house, barn, and stable, a couple of cows, sometimes sheep, furniture, clothes, and other stock, of the estimated value, including the land, of 1,600 florins (133l. 6s. 8d. sterling), which was charged against them as a debt to the society. They were bound to work at wages fixed by the society, to wear the uniform, and conform to the rules of the colony, and not to quit its precincts without leave. A portion of their wages was retained to repay the original advance made by the society; a further portion to pay for the necessaries furnished to them from time to time, and the food for their cattle; and a portion paid to them in a base money of the colony, to be expended in shops established by the society within its limits.

At first each family of colonists worked on its own farm, and managed its own cattle, but it was found that the land was uncultivated, and the cattle died for want of attention or food; and in 1828 the society took back the cattle, and employed all the colonists indiscriminately in the general cultivation of the land of the colony. “From this time,” says M. Ducpétiaux (p. 624), “the situation of the colonist who is called free, but is in fact bound to the society by restrictions which take from him almost the whole of his liberty for the present, and deprive him of all hope of future enfranchisement, has resembled that of the serfs of the middle ages or of Russia. It is worse than that of the Irish cottiers, who, if they are fed like him on potatoes and coarse bread, have at least freedom of action and the power of changing their residence.”

Those colonists who had obtained a gold or silver medal, as a testimony that they could support themselves out of the produce of their own farms, were excepted from this arrangement, and allowed to retain the management of their farms, paying a rent to the society; but at the date of M. Ducpétiaux’s communication (10th December, 1832), the greater part even of them had been forced to renounce this advantage, and to fall back into the situation of ordinary colonists. Four families were all that then remained in this state of comparative emancipation.

The inhabitants of the mendicity colony were from the first subjected to the regulations ultimately imposed on the free colonists, with the additional restriction of being required to live in common on rations afforded by the society; the only respect in which, according to M. Ducpétiaux, they now differ from the free colonists.

Count Arrivabene visited these colonies in 1829, and then predicted their failure. The three years which elapsed between his visit and the report of M. Ducpétiaux were sufficient to prove the accuracy of this prophecy.

It appears from the statement of M. Ducpétiaux (p. 621), that on the 1st of July, 1832, the debts due from the society amounted to 776,021 florins (about 64,661l. sterling); the whole value of its property to 536,250 florins (about 44,698l. sterling); leaving a deficit of 239,771 florins, or nearly 20,000l. sterling. And this deficit was likely to increase every year; the expenses, as they had done from the beginning, greatly exceeding the receipts, a fact which is shown by the following table:—

Free Colonists. Beggars. Expenditure. Receipts.

1822 127 .. 38,899 50 ..

1823 406 .. 93,532 07 ..

1824 536 .. 106,102 72 12,339 31

1825 579 490[17] 102,983 73 25,740 74

1826 563 846 163,933 45 56,476 88

1827 532 899 168,754 61 50,677 38

1828 550 774 144,645 28 54,994 62

1829 565 703 174,611 44 98,523 57

1830 546 598 127,358 72 67,718 72

1831 517 465 135,405 81[18] 82,578 81[19]

M. Ducpétiaux’s statement may be compared with that of Captain Brandreth, who visited the colonies at about the same period. (pp. 19, 20.)

Among the colonists there were a few whose previous habits and natural dispositions disposed them to avail themselves, to the best of their ability, of the benevolent provisions thus offered for their relief, and who had worked industriously, and conducted themselves well during their residence in the colony. Their land was cultivated to the extent of their means; and their dwelling-houses had assumed an appearance of greater comfort, order, and civilization than the rest. But these were too few in number, and the result too trifling to offer the stimulus of emulation to others.

Those farms that I examined, with the above exceptions, were not encouraging examples: there were few evidences of thrift and providence, the interior of the dwellings being, in point of comfort, little, if at all removed from the humblest cottage of the most straitened condition of labourers in this country.

A clause in the regulations allows certain of the colonists, whose good conduct and industry have obtained them the privilege, to barter with the neighbouring towns for any article they may want.

The nearest towns to the establishment, of any note, are Hoogstraten and Tournhout; but on inquiry I could not find that any intercourse was maintained with them; and the country round offered no evidences of the existence of a thriving community in its centre, exercising an influence on its traffic or occupations. In the winter I should think the roads to the colonies scarcely practicable for any description of carriages.

From what I saw of the social condition of the colonists, I am disposed to insist much on the inexpediency of assembling, in an isolated position especially, a large community of paupers for this experiment.

Admitting the physical difficulties to have been much less than they are, and the prospect of pecuniary advantage much greater and more certain, the moral objections to the system would outweigh them. Without the example of the better conditions of society, there can be no hope of such a community gradually acquiring those qualities that would fit the members of it for a better condition. One or two families established in the neighbourhood of an orderly and industrious community would find the stimulus of shame, as well as emulation, acting on their moral qualities and exertions; but in the present case, where all are in a condition of equal debasement, both of those powerful stimuli are wanting. The reports of the progress of the Dutch free colonies up to the year 1828 are certainly encouraging; and as the same system has been adopted in the free colonies of Belgium as in Holland, and the experiment in both cases tried on similar soils, they might lead to the inference that some peculiar cause has operated in favour of the Dutch colonies, and against those of Belgium. Not having had an opportunity of visiting the Dutch colonies, I cannot offer an opinion on the subject; but reasoning from what I personally witnessed, I should be disposed to think, that either some greater encouragement has been granted in Holland, or some improvement of the system adopted; or that the habits, dispositions, and character of the Dutch fit them better for this experiment.

The same authorities that I have quoted in the case of these colonies, speak favourably also of the Belgian colonies up to the same period; and on the part of the latter experiment it may be asserted, that the unsettled state of the country since that period ought very much to qualify any condemnation of its principle. But notwithstanding this disadvantage (which is much less, I fear, than has been insisted on), there would still have remained evidences of the probable success of the experiment. Those evidences were not satisfactory to my mind; and I may further observe, that while the people in general recommended the colonies to foreigners as especially worthy of their notice, I do not remember meeting with one individual who could point out any specific results, and few who would distinctly assert that there was any increasing and permanent benefit to the community from them.

It is probable that unless some great change is made in the present system, the colonies will be ultimately abandoned, or merge into the establishments for compulsory labour: in other words, the society will become the farmers, and the present colonists merely agricultural labourers, differing only from the ordinary labourer, inasmuch as they will work under the penalty of being treated as vagabonds in case of contumacy.

The observations I have hitherto made apply only to the free colonies. In the mendicity or compulsory colonies, the poor are assembled in large establishments, and cultivate the ground, either by task or day labour, and attend the cattle, &c., under the direction of certain officers; it is, in fact, a species of agricultural workhouse.

The following is a Return of the compulsory establishment at Merxplas. (p. 20.)

1826. 1827. 1828. 1829. 1830. 1831.

Present on the 1st January 604 919 816 722 658 519

Admitted during the year 422 247 172 147 97 5

Brought back from desertion 6 25 12 23 27 18

Born 5 3 3 3 1 ..

1,037 1,194 1,003 895 783 542

Enlarged 7 159 135 116 82 18

Deserted 14 42 35 37 65 66

Died 91 166 104 37 81 23

Entered the military service as volunteers .. .. 2 39 28 ..

Entered the militia 4 9 4 8 4 3

Brought before justice 2 2 1 3 8 ..

118 378 281 240 268 110

Total, 31st Dec. 919 816 722 655 515 432

The number of deaths is very striking. It amounts to 502 in six years, or 83⅔ per year, the average population during that time having consisted of 708 persons; so that the average annual mortality was nearly 12 per cent. The proportion of desertions appears also to have progressively increased, until in the last year 66 deserted out of 542.

On the whole the Belgian poor colonies appear to be valuable only as a warning.

FRANCE.

The information contained in this Appendix respecting the poor-laws of France, and their administration, consists of a paper by M. Frederic de Chateauvieux, on the comparative state of the poor in France and England (p. 21); a report by Mr. Majendie, from Normandy (p. 34); and reports by his Majesty’s Consuls from Havre (p. 179), Brest (p. 724), Nantes (p. 171), Bourdeaux (p. 229), Bayonne (p. 260), and Marseilles (p. 185).

We have already stated (pp. 117-125) the general outline of the French establishments for the relief of the poor, consisting of hospices for the impotent, hospitals for the sick, depôts de mendicité for vagrants and beggars (constituting the in-doors relief), and bureaux de bienfaisance for the secours à domicile, or out-doors relief. But this comprehensive and discriminative system of public relief appears to have been carried into effect in France with a far less approach to completeness than in Belgium. The number of hospices and hospitals is indeed large in the towns, and not inconsiderable in the country: but of the depôts de mendicité, of which the decree of 1808 ordered the establishment, very few were in fact organized, and of those the greater part have since been suppressed; and the bureaux de bienfaisance are almost confined to the towns. As more than three-fourths of the population of France is agricultural, only a small portion of that population therefore is capable of participating in public or organized relief. M. de Chateauvieux estimates that portion, or, in other words, the population of the towns possessing institutions for the relief of the poor, at 3,500,000 persons, and the value of the public relief annually afforded at 1,800,000l. sterling. (p 25.) If this approximation can be relied on, the expenditure per head in that portion of the French population nearly equals the expenditure per head in England.

The following are the most material portions of the consular reports:—

Havre.

Seine Inferieure. Population of the Department, 693,683. Population of Havre, 23,816.

The provisions for the relief of the poor in Havre may be collected from the following statement of the principal regulations of the hospitals, the bureau de bienfaisance, and the depôt de mendicité for the department, which is situated in Rouen. (pp. 182, 183, 184, 185, 186.)

Hospital Regulations at Havre.

Hospital.

Aged persons of 60, without distinction of sex, are admitted into the hospital upon a certificate of indigence delivered by the mayor of their district, and a ticket of admission signed by one of the directors of the establishment.

The sick are admitted if they can produce a certificate of indigence from the mayor or curate of their parish, and every care is taken of them at the expense of the establishment.

Orphans, foundlings, or deserted children are admitted, provided they are under 12 years; they are then engaged as servants or apprentices; but should they get out of employment from no fault of their own, they are at liberty to return until the age of 21 years.

Regulations of the Establishment of the Bureau de Bienfaisance, of Havre.

Bureau de Bienfaisance.

1. None are admitted but those whose poverty is well known, and who have lived 12 months in the town. The number of persons to be relieved is fixed by the bureau, whose names must be entered in a register, stating their age, date of application, place of residence, number and age of their children.

2. There is a second register for such poor who, having resided one year in Havre, shall apply after the closing of the register mentioned in the above article. This inscription is made in order of their dates, and the paupers carried upon it will only be entitled to relief in turn, and as vacancies occur in the first list, by departures, deaths, or discharge.

3. No poor of either sex can receive relief if more than 15 years old, and under 50. This exclusion is not applicable to widows with young children, or with four children under 15 years. In all cases they must produce a certificate that their children attend the free school, and are diligent.

4. The inscription in the register mentioned in No. 2, can only take place after inquiry has been made respecting the claimant, and it has been authorized by the bureau, which meets for this purpose once a month.

5. No children can be admitted to the assistance of the bureau, nor into the classes of instruction and work, above the age of 15, or without having been vaccinated.

6. If the number of children attending the classes and work shall be too many, either on account of the size of the building or the attention of the instructors, preference will be given to the children whose parents are already on their lists, and who are known to require assistance for the education of their children.

7. Every year, at the period of the first communion, a certain number of children shall be clothed. But to be admitted to this assistance they must produce a certificate from the clergyman appointed to give religious instruction, or from the nuns of the convent, that they have been attentive and are deserving. The boys are clothed in brown cloth; the girls in coloured calico.

8. Every year the sum of 653 fr. (26l.) shall be given to the clergymen of the town, in tickets of 1 fr. (9d.), 50 c. (4½d.), to be distributed where they think proper, of which only those who are past 60 or under 15 can participate.

9. Each person shall receive 3 lbs. of bread, two in the same family 6 lbs. of ditto, three to five persons in the same family, whose children are under 15, 12 lbs. of ditto, for 15 days. The number admitted to this relief to be regulated each year, so that the distribution shall not exceed 3,000 lbs. a month. These distributions will take place to the most needy each Monday and Friday, from 9 to 12 o’clock, after which no more will be given.

10. In the distribution of clothing, which will be made once a year, each individual will only be clothed once in two years.

11. When the establishment is enabled to give woollen clothing, it will only be to such as are above 60 years, or to children under seven years, and those the most destitute; this relief once in two years.

12. If any one who receives bread and clothing from the bureau sells or pawns the same, he shall be struck off.

13. All clothes given by the establishment shall be marked, so that they may be known.

14. Assistance to lying-in women, new-born children, and sick, will be rendered at their houses; those who are not on the lists cannot be assisted until their case is examined; money will not be given to women in labour but when absolutely necessary; soup is distributed on Mondays and Wednesdays, from two to three o’clock.

15. There is attached to the establishment a doctor, at 400 fr. (16l.), and two assistants, at 500 fr. (20l.) each per year, who attend such as are named by the bureau; and also women in extraordinary cases of labour.

16. A midwife is attached, at 200 fr. (8l.) a year, who attends all women designated by the bureau.

17. In hard weather, if it should be thought expedient to make a subscription, the poor who are upon the second list (article 2) will be relieved from it.

Rouen.

Rouen Depôt of Mendicity. Regulations.

Section 1.—Duty of the Porter of the Outside Gates.

Art. 1st. All the gates shall be kept constantly shut.

3. The porter shall not allow any one to enter or go out during the day without a permission or passport from the Governor.

6. The porters and other officers are expressly forbidden, on pain of dismissal, to allow the inmates to send any message or commission, or have any correspondence whatever beyond the walls of the establishment. Letters to and from them must be laid before the governor before they are forwarded.

Section 2.—In-doors Porter.

Art. 3. To prevent all communication between the mendicants of different sexes and ages, the porter is ordered to keep locked the doors of the dormitories, the work-shops, the courts for recreation, and other places to which the inmates have access, as soon as they have quitted them, in pursuance of the regulations of the place.

4. It is the duty of the porter and other officers and servants to see that the inmates are carefully kept to the apartments provided for them respectively. The porter must go the rounds from time to time to ascertain this.

Section 3.—Dormitories.

Art. 1. The bell is to announce the hour of rising from the 1st of March to the 30th of September at 4 o’clock in the morning, and from the 1st Oct. to the 28th Feb. at 6. The inspectors must take care that the inmates immediately rise.

3. After prayers at 6 o’clock in summer, and 7 in winter, the inmates, accompanied by the inspectors, are to proceed to their respective workshops. The dormitories are to be swept and cleaned by two inmates, selected by turns for this employment out of each dormitory, and then to be kept locked.

4. At 9 in the evening, in all seasons, the bell is to announce bedtime. The inmates are immediately to proceed to their respective dormitories; the roll is to be called by the inspector, and prayers (not lasting more than a quarter of an hour) are to be said, and listened to attentively; after prayers each shall go quietly to bed, and perfect silence be kept in every dormitory.

Section 4.—Refectories.

Art. 1. Breakfast shall take place during the summer six months precisely at 8 in the morning, and during the six winter months at 9, and last half an hour. Immediately after breakfast the inmates are to return to work until precisely half-past 12 o’clock, the dinner hour at all seasons.

5. From half-past 12 till 2 is allowed for dinner and for recreation, under the inspection, in each division, of a servant. At 2 o’clock precisely the bell is to summon the inmates to return to work, and the inspectors are to call the roll in each workshop.

6. At 8 in the evening, in all seasons, the bell is to be rung for supper; the inmates may remain in the refectory till nine.

7. The same regulations shall be observed in the dormitories and refectories of each sex, except that as respects the aged, sick, and infirm.

Section 4.—Workshops.

Art. 1. The inspectors are to see that every workman is busily employed, and loses no time.

2. The workshops are to be kept locked during the hours of work, and the inmates not allowed to leave them.

3. Each able-bodied inmate is to have a task set him, proportioned to his strength and skill. If he do not finish it, he is to be paid only for what he has done, put on dry bread, and kept to work during the hours of recreation.

4. Every workman, who for three consecutive days fails in completing his task, is to be kept during the hours of meals and of recreation, and during the night, confined in the punishment-room upon bread and water, until he has accomplished his task.

5. Every workman who wilfully or negligently spoils the materials, tools, or furniture in his care, shall pay for them out of the reserved third of his earnings, besides still further punishment as the case may deserve.

6. Every workman doing more than his task is to be paid two-thirds of the value of his extra labour.

7. With respect to every inmate who shall have been imprisoned, 5 centimes for each day of imprisonment shall be deducted from the reserved third of his earnings. The amount of these deductions, and of all fines and other casual sources of profit, is to form a reserved fund for the purpose of rewards for those inmates who may distinguish themselves among their companions by good conduct and industry.

Section 7.—Religious Instruction.

Art. 1. Religious and moral instruction is to be given in the chapel twice a week—on Sundays and Thursdays, at 7 in the evening.

All the able-bodied inmates are to be present, in silence and attention, under the inspection of their respective superintendents. On Sundays, and the holidays established by the Concordat, all the inmates and the officers of the depôt shall hear mass at half-past 8 in the morning, and vespers at half-past 1 in the afternoon.

2. At periods determined by ecclesiastical authority, the children who are to be confirmed are to be instructed for two months.

7. When any of these regulations are broken, the inspectors and other officers are to report to the Governor, and he is to pronounce sentence on the inmates.

Britany.

Mr. Perrier’s report from Brest, and Mr. Newman’s from Nantes, give a very interesting account of the state of Britany. We will begin by Mr. Perrier’s, as the more general view. (pp. 728, 729.)

Finisterre524,396

Côtes-du-Nord598,872

Morbihan433,522

Ille-et-Vilaine547,052

Loire Inférieure470,093

2,573,935

It is extremely difficult to obtain any statistical information in Britany, all inquiries being received with distrust, not only by the authorities, but also by the inhabitants. This has been the principal cause of my delay in replying to the series of questions. The answers, imperfect as they may appear, are the result of patient and persevering inquiry.

The state of society in Britany, and its institutions, differ so widely from those of any other civilized country, that few of the questions are applicable. In order, therefore, to convey the information which they are intended to elicit, it is necessary to enter into a description of the population, which I shall endeavour to do as briefly as possible.

The population of Britany may be classed under the following heads:

Old noblesse, possessing a portion of the land.

Proprietors, retired merchants, and others, who have vested their money in landed property.

Peasants, owners of the ground they till.

Farmers.

Daily labourers and beggars.

The abolition of the right of primogeniture causes a daily diminution of the two first classes. As property, at the demise of the owner, must be divided equally amongst his children, who can seldom agree about the territorial division, it is put up for sale, purchased by speculators, and resold in small lots to suit the peasantry. Farmers having amassed sufficient to pay a part, generally one-half, of the purchase-money of a lot, buy it, giving a mortgage at five or six per cent. for the remainder. Thus petty proprietors increase, and large proprietors and farmers decrease.

A man, industrious enough to work all the year, can easily get a farm.

Farms are small. Their average size in Lower Britany does not exceed 14 acres. Some are so small as two acres, and there are many of from four to eight. The largest in the neighbourhood of Brest is 36 acres. The average rate of rent is 1l. 5s. per acre for good land, and 8s. for poor land (partly under broom and furze).

The farmers are very poor, and live miserably: yet, their wants being few and easily satisfied, they are comparatively happy. Their food consists of barley bread, butter, buck wheat (made into puddings, porridge, and cakes). Soup, composed of cabbage-water, a little grease or butter and salt poured on bread. Potatoes; meat twice a week (always salt pork).

A family of 12, including servants and children, consumes annually about 700 lbs. of pork and 100 lbs. of cow beef; the latter only on festivals.

The class of daily labourers can only be said to exist in towns. In the country they are almost unknown.

The inmates of each farm, consisting of the farmer’s family, and one, two, or three males, and as many female servants (according to the size of the farm), paid annually, and who live with the family, suffice for the general work. At harvest some additional hands are employed. These are generally people who work two or three months in the year, and beg during the remainder. Daily labourers and beggars may, therefore, in the country, be classed under the same head.

Farmers’ servants are orphans or children of unfortunate farmers.

The conditions of the poorer farmers, daily labourers and beggars, are so near akin, that the passage from one state to another is very frequent.

Mendicity is not considered disgraceful in Britany. Farmers allow their children to beg along the roads. On saints’ days, especially the festivals of celebrated saints, whose shrines attract numerous votaries (all of whom give something, be it ever so little, to the poor), the aged, infirm, and children of poor farmers and labourers, turn out. Some small hamlets are even totally abandoned by their inhabitants for two or three days. All attend the festival, to beg.

The Bretons are hospitable. Charity and hospitality are considered religious duties. Food and shelter for a night are never refused.

Several attempts to suppress mendicity have been unsuccessful. District asylums were established. No sooner were they filled than the vacancies in the beggar stands were immediately replenished by fresh subjects from the country; it being a general feeling that it is much easier and more comfortable to live by alms than by labour.

In towns where the police is well regulated, the only mendicants permitted to sojourn are paupers belonging to the parish. They are known by a tin badge, for which they pay at the police office.

No such thing is known as a legal claim for assistance from public or private charities.

In towns, destitute workmen or other persons in distress must be authorized by the municipality previous to soliciting public or private assistance. To this effect, the pauper makes known his case to the commissary of police of the quarter he inhabits, who makes inquiry among the neighbours. Should the destitute case of the applicant be established, the mayor grants him a certificate of indigence, which authorizes him to apply for relief to the public institutions, and to solicit private charity. It also exempts him (or rather causes his exemption) from the payment of taxes.

The principal cause of misery is inebriety; its frequency among the lower orders keeps them in poverty. The “cabaret” (wine and brandy shop) absorbs a great portion of their earnings. This vice is not confined to men; the women partake of it. It has decreased within the last five or six years, but is still considerable.

We now proceed to give some extracts from the more detailed report of Mr. Newman, who writes, it must be recollected, from Nantes. (pp. 171, 172, 173, 174, 178, 175, 176, 177.)

LOIRE INFERIEURE.

Nantes.

Population of the Department, 470,093. Population of Nantes, 87,191.

Vagrants.

In the department Loire Inférieure there is no asylum for mendicants; but Nantes has a species of workhouse, “St. Joseph’s House,” supported entirely by private subscriptions. To this house the tribunals often send vagabonds, in virtue of the 274th article of the Penal Code, although the directors of the establishment have contested, and still contest, the right assumed by the judges to do so; and they never receive any person so sent as a criminal to be detained a certain number of days at labour as if in a prison, but merely give him a refuge as an act of charity, and liberty to leave the place, if he likes to go before the time expires. The number of vagrants that formerly infested Nantes (strangers to the department as well as to the city) have decreased to about a tenth part since begging in the streets was prohibited, and the paupers sent to this establishment.

The hospitals of Nantes receive all workmen, travellers, and needy strangers, that fall sick in the city (if foreigners, at the charge to their consuls of 1s. 3d. sterling per day for men, and 10d. for women.) If a man, (and his family also,) being destitute, wishes to return to his native place, and has not rendered himself liable to be committed as a vagrant, the préfet has the power to give a passport to him for that place; on the production of which at the mairie of the commune from which he sets out he receives from the public funds of the department three halfpence per league for the distance from thence to the next place he is to be relieved at, and so on to the end of his journey, each place he has to stop at being set down on his passport; if he deviates from the route designated, he is arrested as a vagabond.

There is in France throughout the whole country a general union for each of several trades, the carpenters, bakers, masons, tailors, &c. In each city or town of consequence, each society has a member who is called “the mother,” who receives the weekly contributions of those who reside in that place, affords relief to all of its members passing through it, and is obliged to procure work for the applicant, or support him at a fixed rate, established by their bye-laws, until a situation be provided for him there or elsewhere. Those unions sometimes assume a very dangerous power, by compelling masters to hire all their members that are without work, before they engage one man who does not belong to them.

Destitute Able-bodied.

In times of political commotion, of unforeseen events, of rigorous seasons, when the usual courses of labour are stopped, the civil administrations create temporary workshops, furnish tools, &c., to the labourers, and enter into contracts for repairs to the streets, quays, bridges, roads, &c., from which a large city, as well as the country parishes, can always draw some advantages for the money so distributed, to employ those persons who would otherwise be supported without work by the same funds. The money required on those occasions is furnished by the treasury of the city or commune, assisted by private subscriptions from nearly all persons in easy circumstances. The want of regular or parish workhouses for labourers, unemployed, is in some measure supplied by private charities, for a great number of wealthy families, and others of the middling class, give employment to old men, women, and children, in spinning, and in weaving of coarse linen, at prices far beyond those that the articles can be purchased at in the shops; but this plan is adopted to prevent a disposition to idleness, although at a greater sacrifice, perhaps, than would be made by most of the promoters of it, in a public subscription.

The bureau de bienfaisance distributes annually about 80,000 fr.; the chief part, or very nearly the whole, to poor families at their homes, in clothes, food, fuel, and sometimes money; but of the latter as little as possible. Les dames de charité (ladies of the first families, who are appointed annually to visit and give relief to the poor, each having a fixed district) distribute about three-fourths of that sum, which would be insufficient for the indigent if it were not assisted by distributions made by the priests of the different parishes and other persons employed to do so by private families, who give their alms in that manner, and not at their own residences. It is generally supposed that, in the whole, not less than 250,000 fr. are so distributed annually in the city of Nantes. In making this distribution care is always taken to prefer invalids to those in health.

Impotent through Age.

In the city of Nantes there is a general hospital, called the “Sanitat,” for the reception of the old and impotent; at present it contains about 800; it answers to an English workhouse; the inmates are lodged, fed, clothed, and are taken care of in every way: they are employed about trifling work, but the average gain by it does not exceed 20 fr. per annum for each. The average cost appears to be about 11 to 12 sous per day for each person. The establishment of St. Joseph’s, already alluded to, is, in fact, a sort of assistant to the Sanitat (although supported by private charity) for the 100 to 120 old people it contains. The Sanitat has a ward for dangerous as well as ordinary lunatics; is under the same board and direction as the Hôtel Dieu (the general hospital for the sick); but each is supported by its own funds, arising from bequests and donations from private persons, and from the city funds; yet if either hospital should require any assistance, the money wanted would be voted by the city treasury.

The general council for the department votes about 1200 to 1250 fr. annually to the Sanitat from the departmental funds.

Sick.

Nantes has a general hospital (Hôtel Dieu) for the sick, containing 600 beds, 300 of which are reserved for the indigent of the city. The expense of this establishment is about a franc to 25 sous per day to each person. The military are received at 20 sous per man per day, which is paid by the government. It is supported by its own funds, arising from bequests and donations, and grants made from time to time by the city; is under the same board and direction as the Sanitat. If a poor person becomes sick in the country, he is either relieved by the curé of the parish or by some of the more wealthy neighbours, or he comes into Nantes and resides there for a week or ten days before he makes an application to the mayor to be admitted into the hospital; he is then sent there as an inhabitant of the city. The authorities in the country have not the right to send a patient to the Hôtel Dieu, yet a great number arrive at the hospital, sent by country practitioners, who have not the skill, or perhaps the leisure or inclination, to attend to them; and they are always received, if it be possible to take them in. The students at the hospital are ever ready to admit any difficult cases or fractures from the country, for their own improvement.

There are also hospitals for the sick at the following places in the Loire Inférieure: Ancenis, for the town and commune; Chateaubriand, Paimbœuf, Savenay, and Clisson, for the towns only.

Besides the succour afforded to the poor at their homes by the bureau de bienfaisance, there are three dispensaries supported by that establishment, for administering relief to the sick, who are attended at their homes, if necessary, by the nuns of St. Vincent de Paule, 12 or 14 of whom are kept in the pay of, and are wholly supported by the bureau. They carry to them soup and other victuals, remedies, &c., and lend them linen and clothes, if wanted. There are a number of young men, who are either studying, or have just completed their study of medicine, who are anxious to give their assistance gratis, and who are in constant attendance on those who are receiving relief from the dispensaries. It is impossible to state the extent to which such relief is given. The nuns are paid by the bureau de bienfaisance, which also pays for the medicines, &c. they distribute; but the sum that is thus expended bears but a small proportion to the amount that is distributed by the hands of those sisters, who, from the accurate knowledge they possess of the real situation and condition of each person they visit, are employed by numerous wealthy persons to distribute privately such charities as they feel disposed to give; and can thus be well applied in providing those little comforts for the invalids, which cannot be sent from the bureau to all those who require them, although the funds are increased from time to time by the proceeds of representations at the theatre, public concerts, &c. given for that purpose.

Independent of the foregoing, there are several tradesmen’s societies on the plan of benefit societies in England, the members of which pay five or six sous per week, and receive, in case of sickness, all necessary assistance in medicines, &c., besides an indemnity of a franc to a franc and a half per day during the time they are unable to work.

Orphans, Foundlings, or Deserted Children.

The law requires an establishment (a tour) in each department, for the secret reception of children. Every arrival is particularly noted and described in a register kept for that purpose, that the infant may be recognised if it should be claimed. The children, after having received all necessary assistance and baptism, are confided to women in the country (a regulation of this department only), to dry-nurse them (au biberon); they are paid eight francs per month for the first year, seven for the second and third, six until the ninth year, and four francs per month from that time until the child is 12 years old; when the nurse who has taken care of one from its birth to that age receives a present of 50 fr. for her attention. A basket of requisite linen is given with the child, and a new suit of clothes annually for seven years. These regulations are observed for orphans and foundlings. The registers for the last 20 years give an average of 360 to 370 admissions annually; more than one-half of them die under one year old; therefore, with the deaths at other ages, and the claims that are made for some of them before they attain 12 years, the establishment has seldom at its charge more than from 1200 to 1300, of all ages, from 0 to 12.

The parents being unknown when they place their infants in the “tour,” cannot be traced afterwards, unless they acknowledge themselves; they are, however, as has been observed before, liable for the expenses of their offspring; and whenever they are discovered, whether by claiming their children or otherwise, the right to make them repay the costs they have occasioned is always maintained, and they are compelled to pay the whole, or as much as their finances will admit of.

Deserted children of the city, or the children of poor persons, who cannot support them, are received and treated in a similar manner, without being placed in the “tour;” they are admitted according to the state of the finances appropriated to such branch of the establishment, which in general permits from 80 to 100 to be on it. Certificates are required that the parents are dead, the child abandoned, or that the mother is totally unable to support it, or that she has a number of young children. Independent of the 1400 children thus received by the Hôtel Dieu, the bureau de bienfaisance supports 200 legitimate children, and the société maternelle from 60 to 80, until they attain the age of 18 years.

The number of deaths in 1832 was 11,999; the number under one year old, 1970, or one in 6¹²⁄₁₉₇. Chateauneuf states, for all France, 33 deaths, under one year old, out of every hundred births, which is nearly double the number of deaths of that description for this department; but the mortality is much greater amongst the orphans, foundlings, and deserted children of this city received at the hospital. An account, made up to the year 1828, gave an average of 52 deaths, under one year old, of every hundred children received there; and since that date it has increased considerably.

There are women in the city who make it their business to place infants in the “tour,” and who afterwards attend the delivery of them to the country nurses, and thus, knowing where certain children are placed, give notice to the parents, who can visit them without being discovered. Children thus recognised are frequently demanded by their parents for servants, in the ordinary way; and by this plan they screen themselves from the payment of the child’s support.

Effects of these institutions.

There can be no doubt that the prospect of an asylum for the indigent creates amongst the working class a disposition to idleness and debauchery, whilst at the same time there are those who look down with disgust on their miserable brothers who are compelled to accept a public charitable support; and the shame which they consider attaches to a man who does it stimulates them to avoid the doors of an hospital by industry and sobriety. The number of these, however, is very small, whilst the applications for admittance to the Sanitat and to St. Joseph’s are so very numerous, so far beyond the accommodation that can be granted, that after the name of an applicant is registered he has (frequently) to wait 18 to 24 months for his turn. For the sick, however, at the Hôtel Dieu it is not so; for arrangements are made that no delay takes place with any case requiring immediate relief or treatment.

The shades between the healthy labourers of the lowest class that support themselves, and those who obtain relief from charitable institutions, are so slight, that it is almost impossible to state the difference in their conditions. No man has a legal claim upon any of the charities; in the distribution of which, however, there is but one fixed rule that governs the distributors, and that is, to compel the applicants for relief to work to their utmost power, and to give such relief only in each individual case as they suppose to be necessary with the wages he can or ought to earn, according to the demand for labourers at the time.

According to the price of lodgings, victuals and clothing in Nantes, a steady labourer at the highest rate of wages, 1s. 3d. per day, supposing he had 300 days’ employment in the year, is considered to be able to support a wife and three young children; if he has a larger family, is out of employ, or is at a lower rate of wages, without his wife and children being able to gain a little, he is regarded as indigent, and in need of succour. A labourer, his wife, and three children consume in the day from 8 to 10 lbs. of bread, which is their chief food, and will cost him 240 fr.; his cabbages and other vegetables, butter or fat for his soup, 90 fr.; his room, 50 fr.; leaving 70 fr. or 2l. 18s. 4d. for clothes, fuel, &c.; which make up the sum of his wages for 300 days at 1½ fr., or 1s. 3d. per day. The wife in general adds a little to the husband’s earnings by spinning, and sometimes weaving; but it is not much when the family is young.

To prevent the increase and lessen the present state of disorder into which the greater part of the labouring class and mechanics of Nantes has fallen, a number of master tradesmen and proprietors of factories will not employ those men who do not agree to allow a certain sum weekly to be retained from their wages for the use of the wife and family. The example spreads, and will no doubt become more general; but this circumstance shows forth, in strong colours, the immoral state of the working class in France.

There are no cottages for labourers, as are seen in England: the chief part of the work on farms in this part of France is done by servants in the house of the farmer, or by married labourers, to whom an acre or two, sometimes as high as 10, according to the quality, is fenced off from the estate for the use of the man and his family; for which he has to give a certain number of days’ work. If such patch of land requires to be ploughed, the farmer does it for him, for an additional number of days’ work. Besides those, there are an immense number of little proprietors, having from an acre and a half to 10 or 15 acres; and they give their labour also to the farmers of larger estates, receiving in return either assistance with oxen, carts, ploughs, &c., or an equivalent in some produce which they do not raise on their own land. Very little money, if any, passes between them. These little properties have sprung up from labourers and others fencing in small patches of commons or waste lands. Nearly all the vineyards in the Loire Inférieure are cultivated by labourers, who have a small spot of ground partitioned off from the main estate: it is for married men only that ground is so divided; the single men live with their families in the villages, or in public-houses, but generally in the latter. In regard to these questions, it must be observed that almost every farmer who hires an estate takes such a one as will just sustain his family, without the aid, or with the assistance only of a man or a man and woman servants, and that therefore very few daily labourers find employment. Few estates run to 200 acres, and if so large, a daily labourer is only hired during harvest, so wretchedly is the husbandry of the country managed.

The cottages or houses in villages for labourers are in general the property of the owners of the large estates in the neighbourhood, as well as those that are built on the patches of land for the use of those who are married; some of the latter, however, are built at the joint expense of the farmer and labourer. A cottage or cottages in a detached place from a village, or a house in such a situation, with a little plot of ground for a garden for each apartment, lets for about 20 to 30 francs a year per room, whether the building consists of one or of four rooms. In the villages the rent is a little higher, from 30 to 50, and sometimes as high as 80, if the garden be large to a cottage with only one room. These buildings are so seldom on sale, that the price cannot be stated with accuracy.

We now proceed to the

GIRONDE.

Bourdeaux. (pp. 229, 230, 231, 232, 233, 235.)

Population of the Department, 554,225. Population of Bourdeaux, 109,467.

There are no houses of industry in this department for the destitute able-bodied, except that known as the Depôt de Mendicité.

This institution was first established in the year 1827, with a view to suppress the great number of professed beggars who infested the streets and public walks, taking advantage of any defect of conformation, &c. to attract the notice of passengers. By law all persons found begging in the streets are liable to be taken up, and imprisoned; but instead of imprisonment, those arrested are conveyed to the Depôt de Mendicité, where, if able, they are made to work. The good effects of this institution are visible; for instead of the number of professed beggars amounting to 800, which it did before the institution of the establishment, it does not now amount to above 150 or 200.

This institution is supported by private contribution. The King and the town contribute a certain portion to make up what may be wanting. The average number of the population of the depôt amounts to 350 souls.

Generally speaking, owing to the want of population, employment is to be found in commerce, trade or agriculture. The high price of wages in the towns and in the country proves that work is always to be found.

When any unforeseen circumstances have arisen to interrupt the common order of things, the local authorities have come to the assistance of the population, by giving work to those out of employment. Public subscriptions are also resorted to on these occasions.

All indigent families, and in which there are those capable of working, but who are not able to obtain it, or whose numbers are so great that all cannot be subsisted, are relieved by the Bureaux de Charité.

The same relief is given to those who, having a habitation, are unable of themselves, through age or infirmity, to support themselves.

The mode of obtaining this relief is by petition, signed by some credible person, and attested by the priest or protestant clergyman. It is proportioned to the number of the family, and to the number of those able to work, and whose wages go to the maintenance of the family. The relief consists in bread, soup, wood for fuel, and sometimes, though rarely, blankets and woollen clothing; medicines for the sick, and broth.

Generally speaking, these distributions of food would be insufficient; but most indigent families are assisted by private persons, so that, on the whole, they have wherewithal to sustain life.

The annual distribution à domicile (domiciliary relief) amounts to the sum of 100,000 francs (4,000l.).

3,520 families are relieved. The number of impotent in these families, father and mother included, though able to work, amounts to 9,634, or less than a franc per head per month.

It is in proportion to these numbers that the relief is given, but it is greater in winter than the other parts of the year.

As to the medicines and broth, whenever there are sick in these families a sufficiency is given. Physicians are attached to each auxiliary bureau of every district, who visit the sick, prescribe the remedies, &c., all of which are distributed by the Sœurs de Charité (Sisters of Charity, an order of nuns who devote themselves to the care of the poor and sick, and who undertake, gratuitously, the elementary education of their children). It is a most respectable and praiseworthy institution.

The same Sisters receive in their houses the little girls of these families who are old enough to read. Books are supplied by the instructors.

In extraordinary cases, recourse is had to subscriptions and collections, which increase the means of the Bureaux de Charité; so that during long and hard winters, more clothing, &c. is distributed. It seldom happens that money is given.

There are, however, no positive regulations on these points. The whole is in the hands of the directors of this establishment. A responsible receiver is attached to it, whose accounts are submitted to the examination of the Cours des Comptes (audit office). Thus, though the distributions are left to the judgment of the directors, they are subjected to control.

The above details relate to the city of Bourdeaux. There are, however, proportionate institutions in most of the larger towns of the department, but in the poorer parishes and rural districts the Bureaux de Charité are merely nominal. These parishes being without a revenue, are unable to assist their poor, who subsist on the alms they may receive at the different dwelling-houses, and who when ill, if possible, come to the nearest hospital, generally to that of Bourdeaux.

In this department there are no schools in which indigent children are received to be fed and clothed gratuitously, but there are those in which they receive a certain degree of instruction.

For Boys.—The institution of Freres des Ecoles Chrétiennes (Brothers of the Christian Schools), and two Lancasterian schools, which have been lately instituted.

For Girls.—A Lancasterian school, a few boarding schools, in which a certain number of indigent girls are taught gratuitously; and also the Sisters of Charity attached to the administration of the Bureaux de Charité.

The Ecoles Chrétiennes are at the charge of the town. The sum appropriated to those establishments amounts annually to about 14,000 francs (560l.). Admissions are granted by the town. The number of children instructed in reading, writing, and a little arithmetic, amounts to about 1,800 for the town. At the Lancasterian school, the instruction is on a more extended scale. Grammar, drawing and surveying are taught, in addition to what is taught at the Ecoles Chrétiennes.

There are at present in these latter schools 300 boys and 150 girls in all.

The department pays the expenses of these schools.

The girls received in the private boarding schools, where they learn to read, to write, and to sew, amount to the number of about 600. This is entirely a private act of charity.

The number of girls received by the Sisters of Charity amounts to about 900.

There has also been established within the last year a model infant school, founded by private subscriptions, for the children of labourers and journeymen artisans. At present, however, it is so little known, that it is of very little importance.

Impotent through Age.

Bourdeaux is the only town of the department which possesses any establishments of this kind, viz., the Hospital of Incurables (Hospice des Incurables), and that of the old people (Hospice des Vieillards).

These two establishments support 300 old people. This number falls very short of that which the population requires. The requisite qualifications for admission are, to have passed the age of 60, and to prove that the candidate has no means of subsistence.

It may be added, that at Bourdeaux the number of old people who are candidates for admittance to these hospitals amounts to 300, and that on an average a vacancy occurs for each at the end of four years at the Hospital des Incurables, and two years at Hospice des Vieillards, and that all these claimants find either in their families, the Secours à Domicile, or private charity, means of subsistence.

Sick.

The department possesses, for the reception of the sick, a small hospital at Bazas; one at St. Macaire, and one at La Réole; a more extensive one at Blaye and Libourne, and the great hospital at Bourdeaux.

The great hospital of Bourdeaux contains always from 600 to 650 sick. The daily admittances average 30; the discharges, 28, and the deaths two.

No distinction is made as to country, &c. either in admittance, treatment, or discharge.

The inmates of this hospital are generally composed of inhabitants of the town, who are too poor to be treated at home, or who prefer the care that is taken of them there to that which they would experience at home; of workmen, &c. from the neighbouring departments employed in the town, and who have nowhere else to go; of peasants, even in easy circumstances, who, from illness or accidents, have not the same resources at home.

Bourdeaux possesses a Hospice de la Maternité, or Lying-in Hospital, and a society, founded by private benefactions, for the same purpose.

The Lying-in Hospital is an asylum in which any woman who presents herself in the ninth month of her pregnancy, whatever may be her state, her country or condition, is admitted without difficulty, without question or inquiry, under the name she pleases, and in such a manner, that the fear of being known or discovered may not prevent those who wish to remain unknown from benefiting by the institution.

Women admitted at the ninth month remain in the establishment till they have completely recovered their lying-in. (p. 231.)

The number of those women, either lying-in or subsisted in the hospital, varies from 35 to 60, and their stay is about 30 days. The births amount annually from 400 to 450; upon this number, 30 or 40 at most are kept and suckled by their mothers; the rest are abandoned and sent to the Foundling Hospital.

Among these inmates, about one-fifth is composed of married women, who have no means of being confined at home; two-fifths of young girls of the town, chiefly servants; the rest of peasants, who leave their homes in order not to be discovered.

Illegitimate children deserted by their parents, and which are deposited at the Foundling Hospital, are clothed and nourished by women in the institution, till a nurse out of it can be procured.

These children, after being suckled, remain with their nurses till the age of 12 years. At this age, if the individuals who have brought them up do not wish to keep them gratuitously till their majority and give them a trade, they return to the hospital, and they then cease to be at the charge of the special funds. The establishment itself provides for their expenses; and until they can be placed as apprentices, they receive, in the Bourdeaux hospital, the rudiments of reading and writing, and they are taught some trade.

Once placed as apprentices, they remain with the master till the age of 21, when they are to shift for themselves.

Those that cannot be placed, or are infirm, remain in the hospital, and form a sort of permanent population there.

Children whose parents are known, and who are living, but have either disappeared or are confined, are received in the same way as foundlings, the mode of admission differing only. This must be granted by the prefect after an inquest. For the remainder, they enjoy the same advantages as the foundlings.

As to orphans, they are also admitted into the Foundling Hospital, upon the order of the administrative commission, after information as to the state of the family. At Bourdeaux the orphans of the town alone are received. Those of the rest of the department remain at the charge of their parishes, and generally live by alms. The orphans received into the hospital enjoy the same privileges as the foundlings and deserted children.

The annual exposal of children amounts at Bourdeaux to 900, comprising all those abandoned at the Lying-in Hospital, those of the town, and those sent from the various parts of the department, as well as from the neighbouring departments.

From 10 to 15 deserted children, and the same number of orphans, are annually admitted.

The population of the hospital amounts generally to 40 new-born infants, waiting to be sent to nurse; 150 children beginning their apprenticeships, and waiting to be placed; about 150 infirm of all ages forming the permanent part of the population.

The number of children from the age of one month to that of 12 years, amounts to 3,600; and that of children above 12 and below 21 apprenticed out, amounts to above 1,500.

The expenditure of the hospital, comprising the clothing for the children brought up out of the establishment, amounts to 110,000 francs per annum (4,400l.) That for the nurses or board in the country, to 240.000 francs (9,600l.), of which

104,000 fr. (4,160l.) is given by the government upon the common departmental fund.

27,000 fr. (1,080l.) taken from the revenue of the town of Bourdeaux.

60,000 fr. (2,400l.) voted by the general council on the Centimes Facultatifs.

49,000 fr. (1,960l.) on the revenue of the other parishes of the department.

Owing to the extreme carelessness and entire absence of frugality on the part of the peasantry and other classes of labourers, it is impossible to give an accurate account of their expenditure. They live entirely from hand to mouth; and nine-tenths are in debt for the common necessaries of life. The men are addicted to gambling, and the women spend the greater part of what they earn in useless articles of dress. As to the expenditure for schooling and religious teaching, no provision is thought of.

BASSES PYRENÉES.

Bayonne.

Population of the Department, 428,401. Population of Bayonne, 14,773.

On recurring to the statistical statements respecting this department, it will be seen that it supports its population with a smaller number of deaths, births, and marriages, than any other extensive district in Europe. Compared with the countries which have been lately considered, its provisions for public charity are trifling, as will appear by the following extracts from Mr. Harvey’s report. (pp. 260, 261, 262.)

Vagrants.

Mendicity, under the head of vagrancy, is not prevalent in the department of the Lower Pyrenees; the relief afforded to French subjects passing through the department, seeking work (which seldom occurs), or returning to their native places, is at the rate of three sols per league, or ½d. per mile; but this relief is more frequently granted to foreigners in distress, and is paid by the several mayors at certain stations or towns on their route. There is no public relief granted to vagrants living by begging.

Destitute Able-bodied.

There are no public or private establishments or relief afforded to the destitute able-bodied or their families; but this description of pauper is seldom or ever to be met with in this department.

Impotent through Age.

There are no public or religious institutions or regulations for the relief of the poor in general; they subsist by begging; and when no longer able to do so, they receive a trifling relief from “The Ladies of Charity” (Dames de la Charité), who make quarterly collections from the respectable inhabitants, which these ladies distribute in food, fuel, or money, to the pauvres honteux, or infirm, as the case may be; but this private voluntary subscription is very inadequate.

The inhabitants of Bayonne (and it is hoped and expected that the example will be followed in other places) are now occupied in forming, by voluntary annual subscriptions, an establishment for the relief of the poor; a commission of gentlemen has been appointed, and there is every prospect that this charitable undertaking will be crowned with success.

Sick.

In the towns there are public hospitals for the sick and wounded; but when convalescent, they are obliged immediately to quit the hospital, destitute or not.

Children.

Illegitimate.

Illegitimate children (infants only) are received into the hospitals established by the famous St. Vincent de Paul, but where the parents have no communication with or control over them; these children are placed out to nurse in the country at about 5s. a month, and are afterward provided for by the hospital, if in the course of seven years they are not claimed by the parents.

When not deposited in the hospitals, the mothers have invariably been found to bestow upon their infants the most scrupulous care and attention, the natural consequence of having had the firmness and humanity not to abandon their offspring, notwithstanding the facility of concealment held out to them by the hospital.

Orphans or Deserted Children.

There are no public or private institutions or regulations for orphans.

Deserted Children.—There are no public or private regulations or institutions under this head; but I have not heard of a case in question in this department.

Cripples, Deaf and Dumb, and Blind.

Cripples.—Obliged to beg if destitute, there being no public or private institutions or regulations for cripples.

The deaf and dumb, if poor and destitute, are obliged to beg; there are excellent establishments in the large towns for their instruction, for those who have the means.

Blind.—Obliged to beg, there are no public or private institutions for them.

Idiots and Lunatics.

There are no public or private institutions for idiots.

There is an institution (Maison de Force) for the admission of lunatics at the Chef Lieu of the department only (at Pau).

The questions relative to hired country labourers are not altogether applicable to this department, which is invariably divided into small farms, not exceeding from 20 to 30 English acres each, the families on each farm sufficing for the cultivation thereof, the proprietors or the farmers being themselves the labourers of the soil, the neighbours assisting each other in time of harvest; consequently it seldom occurs that a hired labourer is called in; but when employed they are paid at the rate of about 1s. per diem, without food. The women, and the children from the age of 10 years, constantly work on the land. The children generally receive a primary education at the village day schools, where there is always a schoolmaster or mistress appointed by the authorities; price of education, 2 francs (about 1s. 7d.) per month. At these schools the children are prepared for their first communion; they learn reading, writing, and calculation. The food of the proprietor or farmer labourer chiefly consists in vegetable soups, potatoes, salt fish, pork, bacon, &c., and seldom or ever butcher’s meat, and invariably Indian corn bread, homebaked. These persons (who are generally the owners of the soil) procure for themselves a comfortable subsistence, but they are seldom able to lay by anything. The equal division of the land prevents in a great measure mendicity. The families on each farm in the whole department consist on an average of about five persons.

It is calculated that persons attain a more advanced age in this department than in any other in France.

BOUCHES DU RHONE.

Marseilles.

Population of the Department, 359,473. Population of Marseilles, 145,115.

Vagrants.

It has been calculated that the average number of beggars in this department (the Mouths of the Rhone) is 1060, whereof 900 are natives and 105 strangers, besides 240 who traverse the department. The calculation having been made some years ago, the numbers may have increased with the population, which was then 313,000, and is now 359,000.

The only relief granted to the poor travelling is by giving them a “passport d’indigent,” furnished by the local authorities, in which their exact route is designated, and not to be deviated from; they receive, as they pass through each commune, three sous for every league of distance, equal to a halfpenny per mile, and lodging for the night: beggars have no relief but private charity.

Destitute Able-bodied.

The principal establishment at Marseilles for their relief is the bureau de bienfaisance, whose revenues, arising partly from the remnant property of some charitable institutions existing before the revolution, partly from an annual allowance granted by the budget of the commune, partly by a tax on theatrical admissions, and from private subscriptions, amount altogether to about 140,000 francs, or 5600l., of which the major part is distributed in money to the “pauvres honteux” (those who have seen better days), and in providing necessaries and medical assistance for the poor in general, by five directors, and at their sole discretion. Similar establishments exist in the other arrondissements of this department, but, with the exception of Aix, with very small means, principally dependent on the commune budgets, which, in many cases, furnish nothing. I am informed that in this commune, with a population of 140,000 inhabitants, the bureau relieves, more or less, 800 families of “pauvres honteux” and 4000 families of indigent poor. There is also at Marseilles a société de bienfaisance, supported principally by private charity, whose chief object is the establishment of soup kitchens and dispensaries for the relief of the poor, and a school for the education of their children from four to nine years of age. No relief is ever given in money. Their annual revenue is about 40,000 francs, or 1600l.; and in times of great distress the local administration increases its funds, and supplies the poor with soup through its means.

The number of children received in the school above-mentioned is about 200: they receive two meals a day and sleep at home; they are taught various trades, and apprenticed at the expense of the commune; there are also several gratuitous day-schools for children of the age of seven years and upwards, and who bring their own food.