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Guard Us From Our Guardians, Epaminondas Smith, March 31, 1866.

 

 

 

Guard Us From Our Guardians

My Dear Brown,

Thanks to a casual revelation of its horrors, some attention has been paid to our Poor Law system lately , and let us hope that public notice may lead to public good. The nation has protested through its mouthpiece, the Press, against the casual crowding of naked human beings in sties, where their humanity is speedily effaced. Where the Poor Law offers shelter it must also offer decency, and must provide inspectors to see that what it offers is properly supplied.

What manner of men, then, should we elect as Guardians, in order that the Poor Law may be rightly carried out? This, as you may know, is the month for their election: and here are a few words extremely apropros:--

"We have no hesitation in saying that there is a great deal of false economy practiced by some well-meaning guardians. The very meagreness of the relief offered compels the recipient to apply again and again; whereas a somewhat liberal relief given in the first instance oftentimes prevents the necessity for a second application. The 'house-test' as it is called, is too often applied in cases where a little out-relief would prevent them from becoming that which they too often do become after entering the house--perpetual paupers; for if once the threshold of the workhouse-door be crossed, the workhouse dress assumed, and workhouse society entered into, then are the seeds of pauperism sown, self-respect lost, and independence destroy."

Penny wisdom and pound folly is the voice and vice of Bumbledom. Small shopkeepers are mostly now elected to be Guardians, and small shopkeepers are usually not gifted with large minds. As Guardians, who have the Poor Rates in their hands, they think a great deal more of the rates than of the poor, and care not how they pinch the latter, so the former are reduced. I thoroughly admit, therefore, that we have had enough of them, and should most heartily rejoice to see them make their way for their betters, in the manner here proposed:--

"It would be well, therefore, if the ratepayers at the coming elections would return gentlemen of respectability, possessed of intelligence and sound common sense. They should be men who have time at their command, and willing to serve the Union at any moment. Mere talkers are not wanted."

Respectable, intelligent, well-to-do, and full of zeal and common sense, these, undoubtedly, are just the right men for the place. But will they let us thrust the greatness of Guardianship upon them? Will they condescend to do our Poor-Law dirty work for us? Will you, or I, give up our leisure and our brains to go inspecting workhouses, and auditing accounts? Of course we shirk duty if we decline to act, supposing that the post of Guardian be offered us. But we harden our skins somehow against the pricks of conscience, and turn a deafened ear to the call of public duty. And, after a good dinner, we prefer making inspection of the ash of a cigar, to making an inspection of a Workhouse Casual Ward.

Instead, then, of small shopkeepers, I wish a few big Swells would now and then consent to be Guardians of the poor, and thereby make the office a fashionable post. There are Lords who are "respectable" and not without "intelligence," and I believe that they have mostly lots of "time at their command." We might do worse than beg of them to do our Poor-Law work. Their taste for hunting might incline them to hunt up pauper grievances, and run the varmint "Bumbledom" once for all to earth. Instead of seeking some employment in directing Join-Stock Companies and managing hotels, let them only condescend to act as Poor-Law Guardians, and, depend, our workhouse system would be speedily improved. You and I and others of the higher middle classes would no longer stand aloof from undertaking Poor-Law duties, when we found them undertaken by a Marquis or a Duke.

Yours serenely, Epaminondas Smith

 

 

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Commentary on the Text

 

During the Elizabethan period, the first Poor Laws were legislated in reaction to the decline in charity previously provided by Christians. Following the Reformation and the establishment of the Church of England, religious recognition of the seven corporal works of mercy was in decline. Derived from the book of Matthew (25:32-46), these works included burying the dead, seeing the imprisoned, caring for the sick, clothing the naked, welcoming strangers, feeding the hungry and nourishing the thirsty. These laws were consolidated into the Elizabethan Poor Law of 1601. Under the Elizabethan Poor Law, there were three categories eligible for relief: those who would work but weren not able to find it, those who could work but were idle, and those who were too young, too ill or too old. There were two types of relief for paupers (the poor): indoor relief and outdoor relief. Outdoor relief allowed the paupers to stay in their homes and receive money or other forms of relief such as clothes or food. Indoor relief was to put the poor into parishes, the ill into hospitals, orphans into orphanages and idle poor into workhouses. Because the law did not establish standards, parishes were left to establish their own (“The 1601 Elizabethan Poor Law”).

The 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act (PLAA) was put into place to reform the relief system, which had become financially overburdened. Encouraged by wealthy landowners in the south, the Prime Minister Early Grey and his Whig government enacted the law ("The Making of the New Poor Law" 15). The central purpose of the PLAA was to make workhouses that discouraged pauperism and to build character for those who were forced to enter. This was done through the workhouse test, which stipulated that relief could only be received by entering the workhouse (“The anti-Poor Law campaign”). Though the relief system was already financially overburdened, the workhouse test did nothing to relieve it. An anonymous workhouse officer revealed in a 1959 pamphlet that outdoor relief only cost 7 schillings and 6 pennies, while workhouse relief cost 17 schillings and 6 pennies (“The English Poor Laws” 107)

The law was immediately rejected in the pages of many different newspapers of the period (“The Implementation of the Poor Law”). In the years following the PLAA, the press uncovered many scandals concerning the treatment in workhouses. The Andover Workhouse Scandal of 1845 involved the master, surnamed McDougal, sexually abusing women, and starving the paupers to the point where they ate ground animal bones. While there was a Board of Guardians charged with overseeing the workhouses, the Guardians were not paid well. In the case of the Andover workhouse, the Guardian had not inspected the premises in five years (“The Andover Scandal”).

These scandals lead to increased dissatisfaction with the state of the PLAA. Charles Dickens was a particularly vocal critic of the workhouse conditions. He wrote about his tour of a workhouse in 1850, “In one place, the Newgate of the Workhouse, a company of boys and youths were locked up in a yard alone; their day-room being a kind of kennel where the casual poor used formerly to be littered down at night."

The 1860s were particularly rife with scandals and calls for reform. The editorial, “Guard Us From Our Guardians” was published in Punch magazine in 1866, and reflects much of this desire for change. Epaminondas Smith invokes the memory of the Andover Workhouse Scandal as a justification for this desire: “The nation has protested through its mouthpiece, the Press, against the causal crowding of the naked human beings in sties, where their humanity is speedily effaced.” Mr. Smith also makes use of a quote to draw attention to the conflict between building character within workhouses and the financial burden it incurs. The quote complains that the “house-test” (short for the workhouse test) is used in cases where outdoor aid could be used more efficiently. Mr. Smith calls for the gentry (“big Swells”) to set an example for the middle class by bring their intelligence and decency to the Guardians positions. Since the pay was low, it was mostly taken up by those individuals in the lower stratus of the middle class. The editorial is critical of the attitudes of the higher middle class: “But we harden our skins somehow against the pricks of conscious, and turn a deafened ear to the call of public duty.” Middle-class feelings toward paupers during this period were particularly cold, stemming from the growing population of paupers that were collecting in urban areas. While the poor had been seen as a problem that only effected rural areas, economic troubles such as the Lancashire Cotton Famine caused a growth in urban poverty (“The English Poor Laws” 108).

 

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Commentator Name, date of comment

 

 

Theresa Rickloff, 4/3/2008

 

 

Though this project doesn't seem to be quite complete yet, I thought it looked so fascinating, and decided to comment on it anyway. The Poor Laws seem to be a very intriguing aspect of English history, and something I knew nothing about before reading this article -- though now it really clears a lot of things up. It's interesting to hear about this through a letter from a person who truly hoped for reform, though perhaps a slightly short-sighted opinion. I thought it a bit odd that Smith's solution involves putting the responsibility of them under the hand of aristocrats, since, given the way modern thought has gone, that would seem to lend itself toward corruption faster than putting it in the hands of well-meaning, yet poorer, middle-class shopkeepers. It shows how different our thought has changed, or perhaps it's only mine. Obviously, Smith's care for the poor is genuine, and his solution offered may be entirely adequate, just far different than I would expect coming from my political climate and time period. This definitely was interesting for me to think about, since it shows how our relation to the poor has changed so much over the past century.

I thought the editor did a good job of describing in depth the Poor Laws, and Poor Laws Amendment, fiasco, and I was able to understand Smith's letter far, far better after reading the commentary. There were a few terms that I was hoping to understand, which may be coming once the annotations are up. For instance, the term "Bumbledom," and who Mr. Brown is.

I would have liked to hear more about how the PLAA situation was ultimately resolved, and what became of "The Guardian" situation. This is a fascinating piece of history, and one I don't get to hear about often, so I really enjoyed being enlightened about this.

 

Kevin Korpal 4/3/2008

 

    This project is very interesting. I knew nothing about the Poor Laws in England and this project gave a great base for starting some research on the topic. I've always been interested in the plight of the working class and poor. The primary text that was chosen was great. I liked the sarcastic bite of the criticism of the upper class. Not only did Smith condemn the upper class for not helping, he also condemned the middle class for generally turning a blind eye to the problem. The creators of this project did a fine job giving the background of the Poor Laws, giving me a context for what was being said.

    The title itself is interesting. It displays a discontent with the Guardians of the day. These people who were supposed to be helping the poor were really making it worse for them. The Andover Scandal exemplifies the meaning of the title perfectly. The Guardian has not inspected the workhouse in five years, allowing the overseer to do whatever he wants.

    The section in the letter that compares what the upper class already does, ie hunting and hotel buying, with what being a Guardian entails was insightful and to the point. I thought it was great to point out the similarities, helping to further condemn the upper class for its indifference and general ignorance of the poor.

 

 

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Works Cited

 

 

Please be sure to cite reference works, including dictionaries, encyclopedias, scholarly articles, other 19th century sources, and other websites that you used in preparing this page. In particular, it is extremely important to use quotation marks when copying material directly from another source, to provide a parenthetical citation to the source and relevant page number, and to include that source here. If you do not know how/when to decide what to cite or how to format citations in MLA Style, please consult your instructor. [Please retain these directions.]

 

Brundage, Anthony. The English Poor Laws, 1700-1930. New York, New York. Palgrave, 2002.

 

Brundage, Anthony. The Making of the New Poor Law: The Politics of Inquiry, Enactment and Implementation, 1832-1839. New Brunswick, New Jersey. Rutgers University Press, 1978.

 

Dickens, Charles. "'A Walk in a Workhouse' (Household Words, 25 May 1850)." The Victorian Web. 10 Feb. 2008. <http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/poorlaw.html>.

 

"The 1601 Elizabethan Poor Law." The Victorian Web. 10 Feb. 2008. <http://www.victorianweb.org/history/poorlaw/elizpl.html>.

 

"The Andover Workhouse scandal, 1845-6." The Victorian Web. 13 Feb. 2008. <http://www.victorianweb.org/history/poorlaw/andover.html>.

 

"The anti-Poor Law campaign." The Victorian Web. 10 Feb. 2008. <http://www.victorianweb.org/history/poorlaw/antipoor.html>.

 

"The implementation of the Poor Law." The Victorian Web. 13 Feb. 2008. <http://www.victorianweb.org/history/poorlaw/implemen.html>.

 

 

 

 

 

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Project Group Members

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Member Name	University	Course
Jeffrey Benner	Western Washington University	English 310
Kelly Blumberg	Western Washington University	English 310
Katherine Bouck	Western Washington Univesity	English 310

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Project Completed: Winter 2008

 

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