69-714: Chorlton Poor Law Union was founded in January 1837 in response to the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 , also known as the New Poor Law. It was overseen by an elected board of 19 guardians representing the 12 parishes in the area it served: Ardwick , Burnage , Chorlton-upon-Medlock , Chorlton with Hardy , Didsbury , Gorton , Hulme , Levenshulme , Moss Side , Rusholme , Stretford , and Withington , all (apart from Stretford) in present day south Manchester , England. The Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 placed
138-476: A Royal Commission into the operation of the Poor Laws . The Commission's findings, which had probably been predetermined, were that the old system was badly and expensively run. The Commission's recommendations were based on two principles. The first was less eligibility : conditions within workhouses should be made worse than the worst conditions outside of them so that workhouses served as a deterrent, and only
207-556: A clause that any outdoor relief should only be given under a scheme submitted to and approved by the Commissioners. The Poor Law Commission was independent of Parliament, but conversely, since none of its members sat in Parliament, it had no easy way of defending itself against criticism in Parliament. It was recognised that individual parishes would not have the means to erect or maintain workhouses suitable for implementing
276-489: A free-market system. Chadwick believed that the poor rate would reach its "correct" level when the workhouse was seen as a deterrent and fewer people claimed relief. A central authority was needed to ensure a uniform poor law regime for all parishes and to ensure that that regime deterred applications for relief; that is, to ensure a free market for labour required greater state intervention in poor relief. Bentham's argument that people chose pleasant options and would not do what
345-542: A legal responsibility on parishes to take responsibility for the poor in their areas by organising into poor law unions, each of which was to have at least one workhouse . The Act discouraged the provision of poor relief except through entry into workhouses, and signalled the construction of more than 500 across England and Wales during the next 50 years. The townships in the union, Ardwick, Burnage, Chorlton-upon-Medlock, Chorlton with Hardy, Didsbury, Gorton, Hulme, Levenshulme, Mosside, Rusholme, Stretford, and Withington were in
414-432: A legally constituted Board of Guardians. Poor Law Unions were to be the necessary administrative unit for the civil registration of births, marriages and deaths introduced in 1837. The Act did give paupers some rights. Lunatics could not be held in a workhouse for more than a fortnight; workhouse inmates could not be forced to attend religious services of a denomination other than theirs (nor could children be instructed in
483-698: A less pessimistic view and describing it as producing benefits such as the division of property, industry, trade and European civilisation. David Ricardo 's " iron law of wages " held that aid given to poor workers under the old Poor Law to supplement their wages had the effect of undermining the wages of other workers, so that the Roundsman System and Speenhamland system led employers to reduce wages, and needed reform to help workers who were not getting such aid and rate-payers whose poor-rates were going to subsidise low-wage employers. Edwin Chadwick ,
552-497: A major contributor to the Commission's report, developed Jeremy Bentham 's theory of utilitarianism , the idea that the success of something could be measured by whether it secured the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. This idea of utilitarianism underpinned the Poor Law Amendment Act . Bentham believed that "the greatest good for the greatest number" could only be achieved when wages found their true levels in
621-401: A profit only in the last hour. What Senior failed to realize is that the turnover of capital stock depends on the length of the working day; he assumed it constant. In Karl Marx's first volume of Capital , Senior's analyses are subjected to a series of exacting criticisms. "If, giving credence to the out-cries of the manufacturers, he believed that the workmen spend the best part of the day in
690-545: A religious creed objected to by their parent(s)); they were to be allowed to be visited by a minister of their religion. The central body set up to administer the new system was the Poor Law Commission . The Commission worked in Somerset House , hence were called such as The Bashaws of Somerset House It was initially made up of Thomas Frankland Lewis , former Tory MP, George Nicholls , Overseer of
759-546: The Andover Union Workhouse were found to be inhumane and dangerous, prompted investigation by a Commons select committee, whose report commented scathingly on the dysfunctionality of the Poor Law Commission. In 1847, Government legislation replaced the Poor Law Commission with a Poor Law Board under much closer government supervision and parliamentary scrutiny. According to a 2019 study,
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#1732793406843828-795: The Outdoor Relief Prohibitory Order . The implementation of the Act proved impossible, particularly in the industrial north which suffered from cyclical unemployment. The cost of implementing the Settlement Laws in operation since the 17th century was also high and so these were not implemented fully: it often proved too costly to enforce the removal of paupers. The Commission could issue directives, but these were often not implemented fully and in some cases ignored in order to save on expenses. Darwin Leadbitter 1782–1840
897-598: The Poor Relief Act 1601 and attempted to fundamentally change the poverty relief system in England and Wales (similar changes were made to the poor law for Scotland in 1845). It resulted from the 1832 Royal Commission into the Operation of the Poor Laws , which included Edwin Chadwick , John Bird Sumner and Nassau William Senior . Chadwick was dissatisfied with the law that resulted from his report. The Act
966-657: The Waverley novels and William Jacob 's views) were not enough to establish it, and it ceased publication in mid-1829. His writings on economic theory consisted of an article in the Encyclopædia Metropolitana , afterwards separately published as An Outline of the Science of Political Economy (1836), and his lectures delivered at Oxford. Of the latter, the following were printed: Several of his lectures were translated into French by M. Arrivabne under
1035-453: The " iron law of wages " and Jeremy Bentham 's doctrine that people did what was pleasant and would tend to claim relief rather than working. The Act was intended to curb the cost of poor relief and address abuses of the old system, prevalent in southern agricultural counties, by enabling a new system to be brought in. Under this system, relief would only be given in workhouses , and conditions in workhouses would be such as to deter any but
1104-408: The 1834 welfare reform had no impact on rural wages, labour mobility or the fertility rate of the poor. The study concludes, "this deliberately induced suffering gained little for the land and property owners who funded poor relief. Nor did it raise wages for the poor, or free up migration to better opportunities in the cities. One of the first great triumphs of the new discipline of Political Economy ,
1173-528: The Beginning of 1858 ; and the following were edited after his death by his daughter: Senior's tracts on practical politics, though the theses they supported were sometimes questionable, were ably written and are still worth reading but cannot be said to be of much permanent interest. His name continues to hold an honorable, though secondary, place in the history of political economy. In the later years of his life, during his visits to foreign countries, he noted
1242-475: The Commission's doings. Local poor-rates payers still elected their local Board of Poor Law Guardians and still paid for local poor law provisions, but those provisions could be specified to the Board of Guardians by the Poor Law Commission; where they were, the views of the local rate-payers were irrelevant. The principles upon which the Commission was to base its regulations were not specified. The workhouse test and
1311-569: The Factory Act have become notorious for the analytical mistake made in them. Nassau opposed the Child Labour Law and the proposed Ten Hours Act , on the grounds that they would make it impossible for factory owners to make profits. In Senior's analysis of factory production, capital advanced means of subsistence (wage) to the workers, who would then return the advance during the first 10 1 ⁄ 2 hours of their labor, producing
1380-824: The Management of the Poor, for the Government of Workhouses and the Education of the Children therein, ... and for the apprenticing the Children of poor Persons, and for the Guidance and Control of all Guardians, Vestries, and Parish Officers, so far as relates to the Management or Relief of the Poor, and the keeping, examining, auditing, and allowing of Accounts, and making and entering into Contracts in all Matters relating to such Management or Relief, or to any Expenditure for
1449-682: The Poor Law Guardians were built in 1881. The building was designed by Mangnall & Littlewood and also included a registry office. Since 1970 it has been used by Manchester Metropolitan University . Emmeline Pankhurst was a member of the Board of Guardians . In 1910 the Chorlton Union was consolidated into the South Manchester Township, which in turn became part of a unified Manchester Union in 1915, and
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#17327934068431518-589: The Poor throughout England and Wales, according to the existing Laws, or such Laws as shall be in force at the Time being, shall be subject to the Direction and Control of the said Commissioners; and for executing the Powers given to them by this Act the said Commissioners shall and are hereby authorized and required, from Time to Time as they shall see Occasion, to make and Issue all such Rules, Orders, and Regulations for
1587-517: The Purpose of ordering Relief. General Rules could only be made by the Commissioners themselves and had to be notified to a Secretary of State. Any new General Rules had to be laid before Parliament at the start of the next session. General Rules were those issued to the Guardians of more than one Union. Therefore, there was no provision for Parliamentary scrutiny of policy changes (e.g., on
1656-480: The Relief of the Poor, and for carrying this Act into execution in all other respects, as they shall think proper; and the said Commissioners may, at their Discretion, from Time to Time suspend, alter, or rescind such Rules, Orders, and Regulations, or any of them: Provided always, that nothing in this Act contained shall be construed as enabling the said Commissioners or any of them to interfere in any individual Case for
1725-537: The ancient parish of Manchester; in 1838 Ardwick, Chorlton-upon-Medlock and Hulme were made part of the town of Manchester. The others, apart from Stretford, subsequently became part of the City of Manchester. The union's first workhouse , the Stretford Road Workhouse, offered accommodation for 300 inmates, with segregated living areas for various categories of paupers, such as children, lunatics,
1794-482: The chancellorship of Lord Cottenham , he was appointed a master in chancery. On the foundation of the Drummond professorship of political economy at Oxford in 1825, he was elected to fill the chair, which he occupied until 1830 and again from 1847 to 1852. In 1830, he was requested by Lord Melbourne to inquire into the state of combinations and strikes, report on the state of the law and suggest improvements. Senior
1863-481: The elderly, and the sick; female inmates were housed in the west of the building and males in the east, separated by a central communal dining hall and chapel. The population of the area served by the Chorlton Poor Law Union had been 46,465 at the time of the 1831 census, but as it rapidly increased during Manchester's industrialisation it became clear that the capacity of the Stretford Road Workhouse
1932-491: The extent to which out-door relief would be permitted) affecting a number of Poor Law Unions, provided these were implemented by separate directives to each Union involved. The Act specified penalties which could be imposed upon persons failing to comply with the directives of the Poor Law Commission (£5 on first offence; £20 for second offence, fine and imprisonment on the third offence). However, it did not identify any means of penalising parishes or Unions which had not formed
2001-470: The field of conveyancing , with a pupilage under Edward Burtenshaw Sugden . When Sugden rather abruptly informed his pupils in 1816 that he was concentrating on chancery work, Senior took steps to qualify as a Certified Conveyancer, which he did in 1817. With one other pupil, Aaron Hurrill, he then took over Sugden's practice. Senior was called to the bar in 1819, but problems with public speaking limited his potential career as an advocate. In 1836, during
2070-589: The guide of practical life. Thomas Edward Cliffe Leslie attacked the abstraction implied in the phrase "desire of wealth". Senior reportedly said of the Great Irish Famine of 1845 "would not kill more than one million people, and that would scarcely be enough to do any good". That is a point quoted by theorists who propose that the actions of the British government before and during the famine were tantamount to deliberate genocide , but his opinion
2139-467: The idea of "less eligibility" were therefore never mentioned. "Classification of paupers" was neither specified nor prohibited (during passage of the Act, an amendment by William Cobbett forbidding the separation of man and wife had been defeated), and the recommendation of the Royal Commission that "outdoor relief" (relief given outside of a workhouse) should be abolished was reflected only in
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2208-412: The laborer always receives precisely the necessaries or what custom leads him to consider the necessaries, of life; that as wealth and population advance, agricultural labor becomes less and less proportionately productive and therefore the share of the produce taken by the landlord and the laborer must constantly increase, but that taken by the capitalist must constantly diminish. He denied the truth of all
2277-490: The law to suit the interests of their own parishes, resulting in an even greater degree of local variation. The poor working-class, including the agricultural labourers and factory workers, also opposed the New Poor Law Act, because the diet in workhouses was inadequate to sustain workers' health and nutrition. The Times even named this act as "the starvation act." Even more, the act forced workers to relocate to
2346-532: The locations of workhouses, which separated families. Charles Dickens ' novel Oliver Twist harshly criticises the Poor Law. In 1835 sample dietary tables were issued by the Poor law Commissioners for use in union workhouses. Dickens details the meagre diet of Oliver’s workhouse and points it up in the famous scene of the boy asking for more. Dickens also comments sarcastically on the notorious measure which consisted in separating married couples on admission to
2415-616: The lot of the Irish people, even at considerable personal cost (in 1832, he was removed, after one year in office, from his position as Professor of Political Economy at King's College, London, for supporting the Catholic Church in Ireland). In his letter of 8 January 1836 to Lord Howick, Senior wrote, With respect to the ejected tenantry, the stories that are told make one's blood boil. I must own that I differ from most persons as to
2484-438: The meaning of the words 'legitimate influence of property'. I think that the only legitimate influence is example and advice, and that a landlord who requires a tenant to vote in opposition to the tenant's feeling of duty is the suborner of a criminal act.' Senior's notes of his visits to Birr, County Offaly in the 1850s mention his surprise and concern that the everyday lifestyle of the Irish poor had changed so little, despite
2553-493: The neediest would consider entering them. The other was the "workhouse test": relief should only be available in the workhouse. Migration of rural poor to the city to find work was a problem for urban ratepayers under this system, since it raised their poor rates. The Commission's report recommended sweeping changes: Malthus ' An Essay on the Principle of Population set out the influential doctrine that population growth
2622-520: The new arrangements. This resistance was eventually overcome, but outdoor relief was never abolished in many Northern districts, although the possibility existed. Policy officially changed after the passing of the Outdoor Labour Test Order , which "allowed" outdoor relief. After 1834, Poor Law policy aimed to transfer unemployed rural workers to urban areas where there was work, and protect urban ratepayers from paying too much. It
2691-538: The old Poor Law which peaked between 1815 and 1820 was described by both sides as " Malthusian ". Of those serving on the Commission, the economist Nassau William Senior identified his ideas with Malthus while adding more variables, and Bishop John Bird Sumner as a leading Evangelical was more persuasive than Malthus himself in incorporating the Malthusian principle of population into the Divine Plan, taking
2760-482: The old system and John George Shaw Lefevre a lawyer, while Chadwick, an author of the Royal Commission's report was Secretary. The Commission's powers allowed it to specify policies for each Poor Law Union , and policy did not have to be uniform. Implementation of the New Poor Law administrative arrangements was phased in, starting with the Southern counties whose problems the Act had been designed to address. There
2829-471: The policies of "no outdoor relief" and segregation and confinement of paupers; consequently, the Commission was given powers to order the formation of Poor Law Unions (confederations of parishes) large enough to support a workhouse. The Commission was empowered to overturn any Unions previously established under Gilbert's Act , but only if at least two-thirds of the Union's Guardians supported this. Each Union
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2898-510: The political and social phenomena that they exhibited. Several volumes of his journals were published. Senior regarded political economy as a deductive science, of inferences from four elementary propositions, which are not assumptions but facts. It concerns itself, however, with wealth only and can therefore give no political advice. He pointed out inconsistencies of terminology in David Ricardo 's works: for example, his use of value in
2967-424: The production, i.e., the reproduction or replacement of the value of the buildings, machinery, cotton, coal, &c.," Marx writes, "then his analysis was superfluous." Senior modified his opinions on population in the course of his career and asserted that in the absence of disturbing causes, subsistence may be expected to increase in a greater ratio than population. Charles Périn argued that he set up "egoism" as
3036-448: The propositions. Besides adopting some terms, such as that of natural agents, from Jean-Baptiste Say , Senior introduced the term "abstinence" to express the conduct of the capitalist that is remunerated by interest. He added some considerations to what had been said by Adam Smith on the division of labor and distinguished between the rate of wages and the price of labor but assumed a determinate wage-fund . Senior's 1837 Letters on
3105-636: The publishing of Democracy in America . Senior was in the spring of 1849 legal advisor and counsellor to Jenny Lind , who then was performing in London. She intended to marry a soldier named Harris, and Senior was supposed to draw up marriage settlements. Harriet Grote in correspondence calls him Claudius Harris, a lieutenant of the Madras Cavalry; the Grote connection was that he was the brother of
3174-596: The reform of the Poor Laws, consequently had no effects on economic growth and economic performance in Industrial Revolution England." Nassau William Senior Nassau William Senior ( / ˈ s iː n i ər / ; 26 September 1790 – 4 June 1864), was an English lawyer known as an economist . He was also a government adviser over several decades on economic and social policy on which he wrote extensively. In his writings, he made early contributions to theories of value and monopoly . He
3243-766: The rise of the welfare state in the 20th century. In 1948, the PLAA was repealed by the National Assistance Act 1948 ( 11 & 12 Geo. 6 . c. 29), which created the National Assistance Board to act as a residual relief agency. Alarmed at the cost of poor relief in the southern agricultural districts of England (where, in many areas, it had become a semi-permanent top-up of labourers' wages—the Allowance System , Roundsman System , or Speenhamland System ), Parliament had set up
3312-409: The sense of cost of production, high and low wages in the sense of a certain proportion of the product as dilute amount and his employment of the epithets fixed and circulating as applied to capital . He argued, too, that in some cases the premises assumed by Ricardo are false. He cited the assertions that rent depends on the difference of fertility of the different portions of land in cultivation; that
3381-522: The title of Principes Fondamentaux d'Economie Politique (1835). Senior also wrote on administrative and social questions: His contributions to the reviews were collected in volumes entitled Essays on Fiction (1864); Biographical Sketches (1865, chiefly of noted lawyers); and Historical and Philosophical Essays (1865). In 1859 appeared his Journal kept in Turkey and Greece in the Autumn of 1857 and
3450-465: The truly destitute from applying for relief. The Act was passed by large majorities in Parliament, with only a few Radicals (such as William Cobbett ) voting against. The act was implemented, but the full rigours of the intended system were never applied in Northern industrial areas; however, the apprehension contributed to the social unrest of the period. The importance of the Poor Law declined with
3519-545: The wife of Joseph Grote, the brother of her husband, George. Senior accompanied Lind and Harriet Grote to Paris (amid civil strife and a cholera epidemic). The marriage failed to take place. Senior was "indirectly responsible for the contract which Jenny Lind condescended to sign in 1850 with the American promoter P. T. Barnum ". Senior was one of the commissioners appointed in 1864 to inquire into popular education in England. He died at Kensington that year. Senior
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#17327934068433588-693: The workhouse was renamed Withington Hospital . 53°26′N 2°17′W / 53.44°N 2.28°W / 53.44; -2.28 Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 The Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 ( PLAA ) known widely as the New Poor Law , was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed by the Whig government of Earl Grey denying the right of the poor to subsistence. It completely replaced earlier legislation based on
3657-461: The workhouse: "instead of compelling a man to support his family [they] took his family from him, and made him a bachelor! " Like the other children, Oliver was "denied the benefit of exercise" and compelled to carry out the meaningless task of untwisting and picking old ropes although he had been assured that he would be "educated and taught a useful trade." In the North of England particularly, there
3726-717: Was a contributor to the Quarterly Review , Edinburgh Review , London Review and North British Review . In their pages, he dealt with literary as well as with economic and political subjects. The London Review was a project of Senior from 1828, for a quarterly periodical. It was backed by Richard Whately and others of the Oriel Noetics , and with the help of Thomas Mayo , he found an editor in Joseph Blanco White . Early contributions from John Henry Newman , Edwin Chadwick and Senior himself (on
3795-432: Was a gratifying reduction in poor-rates, but also horror tales of paupers ill-treated or relief refused. Some paupers were induced to migrate from the Southern to Northern towns, leading to a suspicion in the North that the New Poor Law was intended to drive wages down. By 1837, when roll-out of the new arrangements reached the textile districts of Lancashire and Yorkshire , trade was in recession. The usual response to this
3864-546: Was a member of the Poor Law Inquiry Commission of 1832, and of the Royal Commission of 1837 on handloom weavers . The report of the latter, published in 1841, was drawn up by him and had the substance of the report he had prepared some years earlier, on combinations and strikes. Senior became a good friend of Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859) whom he met in 1833 for the first time before
3933-421: Was born at Compton, Berkshire , the eldest son of Rev. J. R. Senior, vicar of Durnford, Wiltshire . He was educated at Eton College and Magdalen College, Oxford ; at university he was a private pupil of Richard Whately , afterwards Archbishop of Dublin with whom he remained connected by ties of lifelong friendship. He took the degree of B.A. in 1811 and became a Vinerian Scholar in 1813. Senior went into
4002-480: Was explicitly given powers to specify the number and salaries of Poor Law Board employees and to order their dismissal. It could order the "classification" of workhouse inmates and specify the extent to which (and conditions under which) out-door relief could be given. Clause 15 of the Act gave the Commission sweeping powers: That from and after the passing of this Act the Administration of Relief to
4071-628: Was exponential , and that, unless checked, population increased faster than the ability of a country to feed it. This pressure explained the existence of poverty, which he justified theologically as a force for self-improvement and abstention. He saw any assistance to the poor—such as given by the old poor laws—as self-defeating, temporarily removing the pressure of want from the poor while leaving them free to increase their families, thus leading to greater number of people in want and an apparently greater need for relief. His views were influential and hotly debated without always being understood, and opposition to
4140-407: Was fierce resistance; the local people considered that the existing system there was running smoothly. They argued that the nature of cyclical unemployment meant that any new workhouse built would be empty for most of the year and thus a waste of money. However, the unlikely union between property owners and paupers did not last, and opposition, though fierce, eventually petered out. In some cases, this
4209-471: Was for hours of work to be reduced, with pay reducing correspondingly and out-door relief being given to those who could not make ends meet on short-time earnings. This was clearly incompatible with a policy of "no out-door relief", and, despite assurances from the Poor Law Commission that there was no intention to apply that policy in the textile districts, they were not believed and a number of textile towns resisted (or rioted in response to) efforts to introduce
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#17327934068434278-468: Was further accelerated as the protests very successfully undermined parts of the Amendment Act and became obsolete. Fierce hostility and organised opposition from workers, politicians and religious leaders eventually led to the Amendment Act being amended, removing the very harsh measures of the workhouses to a certain degree. The Andover workhouse scandal of the mid-1840s, in which conditions in
4347-488: Was impossible to achieve both these aims, as the principle of less eligibility made people search for work in towns and cities. Workhouses were built and paupers transferred to these urban areas. However, the Settlement Laws were used to protect ratepayers from paying too much. Workhouse construction and the amalgamation of unions was slow. Outdoor relief did continue after the PLAA was introduced. The board issued further edicts on outdoor relief: The Outdoor Labour Test Order and
4416-462: Was in charge of the commission's finances. The PLAA was implemented differently and unevenly across England and Wales. One of the criticisms of the Poor Relief Act 1601 had been its varied implementation. The law was also interpreted differently in different parishes, as these areas varied widely in their economic prosperity, and the levels of unemployment experienced within them, leading to an uneven system. Local Boards of Guardians also interpreted
4485-669: Was inadequate for the demands placed on it. As the Stretford Road site offered no scope for expansion the guardians decided to commission the construction of a second workhouse, the Withington Workhouse. Opened in 1855, and costing £53,000 to build, the new workhouse was able to accommodate up to 1500 inmates. The site also included a new cemetery to serve the union's area, the Chorlton Union Cemetery, which remained in use until 1920. The Offices of
4554-414: Was not government policy . Costigan argues, however, that the quote is taken out of context and reflects Senior's opinion purely from the viewpoint of the theory of political economy; in other words, even such a large reduction in the population would not solve the underlying economic, social and political problems, which would be proved correct. He argues that Senior made attempts over many years to improve
4623-576: Was passed two years after the Representation of the People Act 1832 which extended the franchise to middle-class men. Some historians have argued that this was a major factor in the PLAA being passed. The Act has been described as "the classic example of the fundamental Whig- Benthamite reforming legislation of the period". Its theoretical basis was Thomas Malthus 's principle that population increased faster than resources unless checked,
4692-516: Was to have a Board of Guardians elected by rate-payers and property owners; those with higher rateable-value property were to have multiple votes, as for the Select Vestries set up under Sturges-Bourne's Acts . The Commission had no powers to insist that Unions built new workhouses (except where a majority of Guardians or rate-payers had given written consent), but they could order improvements to be made to existing ones. The Commission
4761-470: Was unpleasant provided a rationale for making relief unpleasant so that people would not claim it, "stigmatising" relief so that it became "an object of wholesome horror". When the Act was introduced, it did not legislate for a detailed Poor Law regime. Instead, it set up a three-man Poor Law Commission , an "at arms' length" quango to which Parliament delegated the power to make appropriate regulations, without making any provision for effective oversight of
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