Impact of the PLAA 1834 and opposition to the poor law

What were the terms of the act, who liked it?

• commissioners recommendations mainly accepted but Wellington amended act in HOL so not a specific date on when to abolish outdoor relief

• supported by most of parliament as most were ratepayers- so easily passed

Why was the PLAA successful?

• Achieved main aim of saving money

  • 1835-9 only £4.5m compared to nearly 8m in 1830 popular with rate payers

How did the act receive opposition in South England?

• LESS THAN NORTH AS first introduced in south during time of economic recovery in mid 1830s- opposition of stopping outdoor relief caused hardship but good harvests- situation not as bad

• Opposition from local JPs, anti centralising Clergymen and labourers

• Bapchild (kent) 1835-guardian attacked and mobbed and administrative papers destroyed

• workhouses attacked eg. St Clements, Ipswich

• East Anglia: workhouses damaged by villagers hostile to the new methods of pauper classification and segregation of sexes

• But by 1836, 8000 parishes affected

How did the act receive opposition in the North?

• rolled out later immense opposition. during trade recession of 1837-8 - outdoor relief essential

  • downturn in pottery= 300,000 unemployed putting pressure on workhouses/unworkable

• demonstrators by Richard oastler - APLL

• Rebecca Riots- Wales 1839= toll booths attacked as a symbol of resentment

• 1837- Bradford guardians have to be protected by armed troops

• Rochdale - anti poor law guardians elected who refused to relieve old overseers of their traditional responsibility for managing the poor

who had similar opinions on poor law?

• radicals and tory paternalists- support poor so dislike new PLAA,

• tories=key component of deferential society (Richard Oastler)

• whigs and tories- like PLAA- followed political economists

Examples of fears around poor law/workhouses

• J Devon report in Devon in 1836 - peasantry beloved their food was poisoned

• The Book of Murder: gassing pauper children to reduce population - terrified poor

• Fears based around reality: 1832 - Anatomy Act allowed workhouse masters to deliver bodies of deceased paupers to medical schools for dissection

Why was the new poor law impractical in the North?

• Chadwick introduced system based on his understanding of the rural south

• North - times of economic recession = unfeasible to abolish outdoor relief and put recipients in the workhouse

  • No workhouses imaginable able to cope with unemployment in Bolton and Stockport in 1841

• Before 1834 - local magistrates found ways of adapting poor law to their communities but had to abandon

What was the problem with the organisation of the workhouses?

• by 1838 over 13,400 parishes grouped into 573 unions- majority too expensive to provide separate workhouses as stated in the act

• all types of poor inc children - thrown in with criminals and prostitutes

• New system - each parish within union responsible for meeting cost of its own poor (poorest parishes faced largest expenses)

What was opposition to the poor law motivated by?

• Rumours that the government was trying to kill/poison them in the workhouses

Why was there opposition the centralisation of the government/who was it by?

• tory radicals- loyal to the landowners who were responsible for the poor but their responsibilities were taken over by the government in a harsher way eg. poor law commission

Where and who set up the anti poor law league?

• Industrial cities- Lancashire/yorkshire

• Main figures being Richard oastler and radicals like R.J. Richardson

• Joseph Rayner Stepherns

• John Fielden - cotton manufacturers

What did the league do?

• gave out pamphlets

• sent sympathetic letters to newspapers

  • (Leeds Intelligencer and Sheffield Iris)

  • denounced act as being cruel, unchristian and dictatorial

• Oastler - public meetings gave speeches about pauper bastilles and monstrous injustice of less eligibility

• disrupted poor law officials meetings

  • Huddersfield - mob organised by Oastler crashed first meeting of new board of guardians and chased them off

How successful were the anti poor law league?

• successes- delayed implementation of the act in many cities eg. Norwich

  • No workhouse built anywhere in West Rising in 1840s (prevent suffering during slump 1841-2)E

  • First workhouse in Todmorden not built till 1897 - John Fieldan a mill owner led campaign to boycott election of guardians

• 1838 - Guardians in Lancashire and West riding were effectively empowered to continue as before 1834 with no requirement to implement a workhouse test (goals of anti poor law movement

• failure- failed to achieve a national league

Interpretations of PLAA?

• Introduced capitalist marketing system - poor had to take responsibility for their own economic situation (free market - state withdrawn traditional support)

  • accepting lower wages etc

• act to maintain traditional and economic powers of old aristocracy and landed elite

  • restore order and authority by establishing new system, (after stuff like Swing Riots)