CHARITY A HUNDRED YEARS AGO

Ir has been said of the theological virtues that, if Faith and Hope have lost some of their vigour in the lapse of centuries, Charity was never so robust as she is to-day. This may or may not be true, but it is certain that under the Hanoverian sway Charity enlisted many energetic votaries, and that earnest attempts were then made to solve the social problems with which we are still grappling to-day.

An interesting account of these efforts, throwing incidentally considerable light on the condition of the urban and rural poor of the period, is embodied in five volumes containing the Reports of an association with a formidable name- The Society for Bettering the Condition and Increasing the Comforts of the Poor.'

This Society was founded in 1796 by Mr. (afterwards Sir) Thomas Bernard, assisted by the Bishop of Durham, Mr. Eliot, William Wilberforce, and others.

Mr. Bernard, though born in England, received most of his education in America, as his father, Sir Francis Bernard, was Governor, first of New Jersey, and then of Massachusetts Bay. The American revolt caused the return of the family to England, where Thomas Bernard studied law and became a successful conveyancer. Having acquired a considerable fortune, to which he largely added by his marriage with a Miss Adair, he gave up law and devoted the rest of his life to philanthropy. The Foundling Hospital was one of his great interests. For many years he acted as treasurer, and substantially increased the revenues of the institution by erecting streets on its estates.

One wonders if this statement, copied from an old manuscript, held good in Bernard's time: In the Foundling Hospital the Boys are bound apprentices, the Women when marriageable are conducted in procession thro' yo streets, and any Young Man who sees one He wa wish for a Wife, is at liberty to mark Her by throwing his Handkerchief.' The further formalities required previous to matrimony are not stated. Perhaps this peculiar custom is the origin of the expression 'throwing the handkerchief.'

In the internal arrangements of the Hospital Bernard secured the aid of that scientific philanthropist and cosmopolitan soldier and

statesman, Count von Rumford. During a busy life, divided between America, England, and Bavaria, Count Rumford, otherwise Sir Benjamin Thompson, proved himself a domestic benefactor both to rich and

poor. He not only designed such an excellent system of cooking and heating for the Foundling Hospital that it was adopted in workhouses throughout the kingdom, but he claimed to have cured five hundred smoky chimneys, including those of Lord Palmerston and other noblemen.

Foreigners comment on the English tendency to indicate people and things by letters, and thus to shorten conversation, as, for instance, M.P., P. and O., V.C. Nowadays Mr. Bernard's undertaking must surely have been known as the S.B.C.P., and in such a guise we may venture to encounter its reports. The 'Preliminary Address to the Public' makes its objects quite plain. 'Let us,' says the founder, 'make the inquiry into all that concerns the POOR and the promotion of their happiness a SCIENCE.' Our duty to the poor is, he tells us, a personal service. He considers that they have never had a fair trial, that experiments have been made for their advantage which have not been explained to them, and of which they have been not unnaturally jealous, and that the best means to counteract the idleness and drunkenness of which they are so widely accused would be to provide them with better food and better lodging. Meantime, in a scientific spirit, the S.B.C.P. proposes to collect information concerning the charitable efforts already in existence and to see how they could be improved and extended. The first subjects to be dealt with are friendly societies, a village shop, workhouses, a spinning school, a gaol, fireplaces and fuel, the last topics being evidently the hobbies of Count Rumford. As the volumes multiply the range of subjects is largely extended, and there is hardly any suggestion known to the modern social reformer which does not find place in their pages. For instance, a plan of 'old age pensions' is discussed whereby every employer should be answerable for the regular payment of a twentyfourth or thirty-sixth part of his men's wages to a fund, to be supplemented by a payment of a shilling in the pound from every occupier of land, instead of the present poor-rate. The same fund was to provide sick relief.

Education in Ireland is discussed, and it is roundly asserted 'that the children of Papists attend the Protestant schools without objection whenever education, not conversion, is the object'; and 'that there are several Catholic schools where Protestant children attend and are instructed in the sacred Scriptures, and in the Catechism of the Church of England'! Mr. Bernard becomes a little nervous at such extreme toleration, and appends a footnote to the effect that while 'kindness and mutual concession' are recommended, a caution is needed against that particular species of religious candour which originates in indifference to every religious concern.'

A large number of the Reports, and perhaps some of the most generally interesting, describe the Schools of Industry then very common in country districts. These Schools of Industry have no exact [counterpart at the present time, though slightly akin to the technical classes of the modern County Council. The technical classes, however, supplement the serious business of ordinary school routine, whereas in a School of Industry 'technical instruction,' in the form of spinning, knitting, or some other handiwork, was the main object, with a little reading and writing often tacked on as an extra. Spinning-schools seem to have been originally the most popular and profitable until the competition of factories interfered with their trade.

These schools were often an object of great interest to the local landlords. In the Harcourt Papers Countess Harcourt gives in a letter written to her sister a charming account of the annual Nuneham spinning feast, when a spinning competition was followed by a distribution of prizes, garlands of flowers were presented, appropriate poems recited, and the whole terminated with dancing and illuminations, the neighbours from miles round coming by road and river to share in the sport. Apart from such festive scenes the work in the schools was much harder than would be approved in our easier days. The S.B.C.P. includes extracts from a report supplied by Lord Winchilsea of a spinning school at Oakham. Any inhabitant of the parish might attend, but anyone refusing to send children to this school forfeited all claim to parochial relief unless it were proved that the children could be more profitably employed elsewhere. Spinning and knitting were taught gratis, and any who chose might learn to read; but as all earnings belonged to the children it is probable that the literary scholars were few and far between. The hours of work were ten daily, from 8 to 1, and from 2 to 7. On Saturdays there was no work after dinner. From 1 to 2, dinner and rest, and dinner was provided at the school for all who chose to pay sixpence weekly. The bill of fare consisted of pease porridge, rice milk, rice broth, and potato pudding, it would seem in rotation, for when the children were not supplied with rice milk and pudding a quarter of a pound of barley bread was added to their portions. Of anything except bread they might eat as much as they liked. Between sixty and seventy children worked and dined at this school. The sixpences of the children covered the cost of the food, but who paid the teachers and furnished the plant is not specified-apparently the parish.

A remarkable instance of philanthropy is reported by the Hon. Mrs. Childers from Campsall, in Yorkshire. Here three young ladies, the daughters of a Mr. Frank, as soon as they had finished their own education, undertook the gratuitous instruction of poor girls in their father's house. The numbers rose by degrees to between sixty and

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seventy, to all of whom the Misses Frank taught reading, knitting, and plain work without the help of any mistress. The father must have been as forbearing as the daughters were excellent. Even on Sundays the children came to school morning and afternoon, and attended church regularly, presumably escorted by the young ladies. On weekdays the hours were from nine to noon, and from one to four, when we can only hope for his own sake that Mr. Frank was absent at an office. Though this was not officially a School of Industry, the articles made by the children were sold, and by an elaborate system of reward tickets the proceeds ultimately returned to them either in money, clothing, or other gifts.

At the Schools of Industry at Kendal, where 112 boys and girls from three years old and upwards were received, the instruction was most varied, including spinning, weaving, knitting, and sewing for the girls, shoemaking for the big boys, and for the younger ones card-setting-i.e. making cards for teasing wool. In addition to this, reading and writing were taught, and, marvellous to relate, somebody presented a set of maps, and, after much searching of heart as to the propriety of making this a part of the education of poor children,' simple lessons in geography were permitted. For these 'extras a master aged eighteen was engaged, and an usher aged fourteen. The latter, named Daniel, was such an adept at maps that Mr. Bernard speculates as to the service which he might, later on, render in the Metropolis 'by finishing the education of our men of high rank and learning in practical geography before they set off on their travels."

Again and again in these Reports laments occur as to the injury done to the poor by the multiplication of spinning-mills, which ruined the home industry hitherto carried on by women and children. Many were reduced to subsist on parish pay, for which, anyhow in Wiltshire, they had in return to pick stones and help in the repair of the roads. It seems to be generally assumed throughout these papers that a labourer's wages alone could not support his family.

To alleviate this distress straw-plaiting was introduced in many neighbourhoods, and a curious account is given of the initial difficulties of its establishment at Avebury. An instructor from London was engaged, two schoolrooms hired, neighbouring farmers gave the straw, and all the women and children in the parish were invited to come and learn the art. All that was required was personal cleanliness, but this appeared to be a demand impossible to fulfil. The poor people had sold their clothes and bedding, and possessed nothing but dirty rags. Some children, having been washed and cleaned, attended one day at the school, but, returning at night to those of their families who had failed even in this effort at cleanliness, the effect of contact was such that the would-be scholars were rejected next morning despite their tears. However, a second appeal to the

parish, which had already provided funds for the teacher, resulted in a further grant to provide clean bedding and to whitewash the cottages. A division was also made between those workers who were quite clean and those who only wished to become so. The former were put in the inner, the latter in the outer of the two rooms. So effectual were these dispositions that within a year from the introduction of the industry nearly a hundred women and children were at work, earning from three to ten shillings a week at their own homes, children of eight years old being able almost to support themselves.

Besides accounts of these Schools of Industry, descriptions are given of Sunday and other schools, from which space forbids extracts, but it may be noted that there seems to have been a general desire on the part of the promoters to treat the children kindly. One injunction is too characteristic to be omitted. In a school near Hawkstone 'the mistresses are enjoined to treat the children tenderly, and not to use the rod except in cases of necessity. But in order to reconcile their young minds to flogging, when necessary, several sayings of King Solomon are put in a conspicuous part of the schools, and read once a quarter, so as to attract their attention and show them the advantage of their being whipt.'

With regard to the vexed question of pauper children, it is interesting to notice that both boarding-out and district schools were brought to the notice of the S.B.C.P. Mr. Bernard strongly deprecates the injury done to the rising generation by continuing the children of paupers in the workhouse until the age of service arrives.' Six or eight children might, he says, be kept in some widowed cottage' at less expense than in the workhouse, and some poor widow might be therefore supplied with a far more acceptable maintenance than her pauper's pension.' For supervision 'each of these little seminaries would find patronesses, who would make their superintendence a subject of amusement.'

Mr. Bernard knew how to keep the ladies at work, and ladies' societies and committees form a prominent feature in his Reports. The Kensington Ladies' Society consisted of nearly sixty members, who visited schools and met monthly at the house of one of their number to discuss methods of benefiting the poor.

The Birmingham Guardians, however, having tried the system of boarding-out pauper children between the ages of four and ten in neighbouring villages, found some inconveniences,' and tried another plan. In 1797 they took a large house about a mile from the town, which happened to be vacant, and started an establishment which differed very little from our district schools. The girls were trained in domestic work and needlework, and the boys during the summer were occasionally employed in neighbouring gardens and farms. It is remarkable what profits were derived from child labour in those