The Poor Law
The Poor Law
This chapter on the poor law in the 19th century begins with a discussion of the English poor law and how it became the most comprehensive system of public poor relief before the coming of the welfare state. It considers debates about the Speenhamland system, under which the poor were given supplements to wages, and these were increased in proportion to rises in the cost of basic necessities such as bread. The chapter then discusses the creation of the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws, parliamentary debates over the Poor Law Amendment Bill, controlling the machinery of the poor law, and the failure of the law.
Keywords: English law, poor law, poverty relief, public welfare
Oxford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .
