EXTENT AND COST OF ENGLISH PAUPERISM.

THE cost of relief for the parochial year 1881 was slightly in excess of the amount for the year 1880. For the last-named period it was £8,015,010, for the former £8,102,136; this is an increase of £87,126 or 11 per cent. But tested by population and rateable value, there was a proportionate decrease. The rate per head, which was 6s. 4d. in 1880, was 63. 3d. in 1881. And the poundage on rateable value in the former year was 1s. 24d. and in the latter 1s. 2-3d., which is equivalent to a diminution of one-tenth of a penny in the £. In thirty Union Counties there was an increase in the absolute cost of relief, whilst in seventeen a decrease is shown.

The six principal heads into which Relief to the Poor is divided are placed hereunder for 1881 in comparison with 1880:

Total Relief to the Poor 8,015,010* 8,102,136* 87,126

The discrepancy between these totals and the sum of the six items arises in adjusting the charges for Relief to the Poor in the Metropolisthrough the common Poor Fund.

The cost for the 11 years ended with 1881 is shown in the following table :

The in-maintenance exhibits an increase, when 1881 is collated with 1871, of £313,946; while the maintenance of lunatics in asylums has cost more to the Poor Rates, under the same comparison, by £287,667; about 40 per cent. of this charge is, however, ultimately recouped to the Guardians out of the subventions voted by Parliament. A remarkable and very satisfactory feature of the table is the large diminution of out-relief. The total amounted to £3,663,970 in 1871 and £2,660,022 in 1881. If, however, from the latter sum £33,045 school fees for the children of paupers on the out-door lists, which were not a charge in the earlier year, is deducted, the amount is reduced to £2,626,977. Corrected thus the decrease in 1881 was £1,036,993, or 28.3 per cent. One thing is noticeable here,—the earlier years of the table were prosperous, the latter were seasons of great depression; yet the out-door relief was heavy in the former years, but decreased in the latter. The staple food of the labouring poor is bread. Taking the parochial years in order, the respective prices

* Inclusive of school fees for the children of out-door paupers ; not a eharge before 1877.

This includes only those pauper lunatics in asylums, &c, who were chargeable to the poor rates.

of wheat between 1871 and 1878 were 49s. 8d., 57s. 1d., 57s. 2d. 60s. 3d., 50s. 11d., 45s. 5d., 48s. 2d., and 56s. 8d. ; in 1879 the price fell to 43s. 7d.; the following year it was 45s. 4 d., and in 1871 it was 43s. 7d. There can be little doubt that cheap bread has been an important element in reducing the charge for outdoor relief.

On the 1st July and the 1st January in each parochial year an examination is made of the number of persons in receipt of relief. Every pauper receiving relief on either of those days, or for any period inclusive of those days, is reckoned in these enumerations. The mean number as entered for each year is stated in the following table :

From the statement above it is found that in the total number of paupers, comparing 1881 with 1871, there was a decrease of 246,423 or 23.8 per cent. ; but there was a material addition to those who were relieved in the Workhouse; the increase being 27,442, or 17.5 per cent.; with a very large decrease of the outdoor paupers, the diminution of this class being 273,865 or 31.1 per cent., in the interval of ten years. This decrease is the more satisfactory, because it has been effected in a class of paupers, viz., the out-door poor, whose destitution is seldom subjected to a conclusive or satisfactory test.-Eleventh Annual Report of the Local Government Board.

A Parliamentary return has been issued, giving statistics as to pauperism furnished by 647 unions in England and Wales on July 1, 1882, and a comparison with the corresponding returns of the preceding year. It appears that on the date mentioned relief was given to 761,126 paupers, or 2.9 per cent. of the population, as against 773,198 on the same date in 1881. The number of adult able-bodied paupers was 98,137 in 1881, and 92,944 in

1882.

The returns of metropolitan pauperism show that, during the second week of November last, 52,130 in-door, and 39,893 outdoor paupers were relieved, making a total of 93,023, against 90,862 in the corresponding week of 1881, 88,987 in 1880, and 86,133 in 1879.

JUDICIAL STATISTICS FOR 1881.

BY THE REV. J. W. HORSLEY, M.A.,

Chaplain to Her Majesty's Prison, Clerkenwell.

THE yearly volume giving the record of crime and things relating to crime possesses much interest to Temperance and other social reformers, as giving the statistics for England and Wales which are indispensable for a just estimation of the increase or decrease, comparative or absolute, of crime in general or of some particular class of offences in particular. I extract those figures which may especially interest temperance readers, comparing them in some instances with the records of the five previous years.

1. The number of persons summarily proceeded against in England and Wales for being drunk or drunk and disorderly for the last six years is

The increase being probably due to the revival of trade, as the

high figures of five years were admittedly swollen by commercial prosperity.

2. The places with the largest totals for drunkenness were

It will be observed that the increase is general except in the case of London, Liverpool, West Riding, and Chester County. In London the figures are lower owing largely to the effect of the police order whereby drunkards are not detained when they become sober in the police-station, the improvement in metropolitan sobriety being, therefore, more apparent than real. The figures for Manchester for the last four years are 8,045, 8,596, 8,815, and 9,297, a serious and steady progress downwards, unless the population has steadily and largely increased out of proportion to the increase in other places. Worcester County for the first time appears in this black list, its figures having grown from 1,684 in 1880 to 2,016.

3. Other offences against the Licensing Act, 1872, are for the last six years :—

This includes such offences as permitting drunkenness in licensed houses, illicit sale, adulteration, &c. There are at least 13,800 licensed houses in London alone, and as over 300,000 licenses are issued in the United Kingdom, it is obvious that these offences are very rare (?), or that the offenders are remarkably lucky in escaping conviction.