Poverty and Pauperism

Question 1

1. What was the Speenhamland system?

Answer 1

Outdoor relief to help able bodied workers with either money set at price of bread or work or other benefits in times of crisis.

Question 2

2. When was the Speenhamland system introduced?

Answer 2

1795

Question 3

3. By 1801 how long had the Elizabethan Poor Law been in operation?

Answer 3

200 years

Question 4

4. When did the Napoleonic Wars begin and end?

Answer 4

1793-1815

Question 5

5. What influential book was published by Samuel Smiles in 1859 and what did it advocate?

Answer 5

Self-help – people should take it upon themselves to improve not the role of the state

Question 6

6. When were the Corn Laws introduced?

Answer 6

1815

Question 7

7. What was the purpose of the Corn Laws?

Answer 7

To keep the price of wheat at a minimum level to stop the importation of cheaper, foreign wheat

Question 8

8. When were the Corn Laws repealed?

Answer 8

1846

Question 9

9. Under whose ministry were the Corn Laws repealed?

Answer 9

Robert Peel

Question 10

10. How did the Corn Laws work?

Answer 10

Prohibited the import of foreign corn until the price of domestic corn reached 10 shillings a bushel

Question 11

11. Why did the workings classes oppose the Corn Laws?

Answer 11

Because it raised the price of bread the staple foodstuff

Question 12

12. Why did the Middle classes oppose the Corn Laws?

Answer 12

Because they believed in free market ideas and also employers felt pressurised to raise wages for their workers to pay higher prices

Question 13

13. What did the government set up in 1832 to look at the issue of poor relief?

Answer 13

Royal Commission

Question 14

14. When was the Poor Law Amendment Act passed?

Answer 14

1834

Question 15

15. What is a parish?

Answer 15

An area of a local church

Question 16

16. Give 3 reasons why the Poor Law Amendment Act was introduced. 3 marks

Answer 16

Royal Commission report, Edwin Chadwick, Whig government, Utilitarianism, failure of old poor law, Napoleonic Wars

Question 17

17. What did Gilbert’s Act of 1782 do?

Answer 17

Unions of parishes to build poorhouses more effectively/cheaply

Question 18

18. Give 3 requirements of the Poor Law Amendment Act. 3 marks

Answer 18

‘less elibilitiy’ rule, workhouses, deserving/undeserving poor, poor law commission, diets, punishment rules in w/houses

Question 19

19. What replaced the Poor Law Commission in 1847?

Answer 19

Poor Law Board with more government overseeing than before

Question 20

20. What does the term ‘less eligibility’ mean?

Answer 20

The conditions inside a workhouse to be worse than the conditions outside to act as a deterrent

Question 21

21. What did Jeremy Bentham found?

Answer 21

Utilitarianism

Question 22

22. What was Jeremy Bentham’s theory?

Answer 22

Human nature motivated by pleasure and pain – only principle for governments to act was to promote the ‘greatest happiness for the greatest number’

Question 23

23. Why was Jeremy Bentham’s theory important when considering poor law reform?

Answer 23

Disciple of Bentham was Edwin Chadwick who was a member of Royal Commission

Question 24

24. Give 2 reasons why important parts of the Amendment Act were not implemented successfully. 2 marks

Answer 24

• resistance
• no observations/regulations
• economic climate

Question 25

25.  Give 2 examples of opposition to the New Poor Law (poor law amendment act)

Answer 25

- Anti-poor law - newspapers (Times) - Tories opposed on the grounds that the state was taking over - riots (Ampthill, Beds and Bradford)

Question 26

26.  What book did Charles Dickens write about the despair and drudgery of the workhouse for children?

Answer 26

Oliver Twist

Question 27

27.  Why did Dicken's book have a big impact on the public? Give 2 reasons.

Answer 27

Serialised, Newspapers, wide audience, voice of child, fantastic story

Question 28

28.  What is philanthropy?

Answer 28

Donations of money to help others often from wealthy people

Question 29

29.  When did the Andover Workhouse Scandal happen?

Answer 29

1845

Question 30

30.  What was the Andover Workhouse Scandal? Give 2 points. 2 mark

Answer 30

Cruel master (McDougall), eating with fingers/no cutlery, crushing bones task, starving inmates, limited diet, long work hours

Question 31

31.  How did the Andover Workhouse scandal come to light?

Answer 31

Reported by a local farmer/poor law guardian (Hugh Mundy) took his concerns to local MP and then an investigation by Poor Law commissioner

Question 32

32.  What impact did the Andover Scandal have?

Answer 32

Poor Law Commission dissolved and replaced by Poor Law Board 1847

Question 33

33.  How many workhouses were built between the years 1834 and 1851?

Answer 33

401

Question 34

34.  How many workhouses were built between the years 1851 and 1866?

Answer 34

100

Question 35

35.  Give one reason why the middle-classes supported the Poor Law Amendment Act?

Answer 35

Decreased the poor rate they paid, made the poor pay for poverty, punished the poor

Question 36

36.  Give one reason why the middle-classes opposed the Poor Law Amendment Act?

Answer 36

Saw it as duty of those better off to help the poor, Christian duty to help, didn’t solve the problem, poverty reports, evangelism/methodism,

Question 37

37.  When did the Huddersfield scandal happen?

Answer 37

1848

Question 38

38.  Who was responsible for bringing the Andover Workhouse scandal to light?

Answer 38

- John Walter – The Times - Poor Law Guardian/farmer – Hugh Mundy - MP – Thomas Wakely

Question 39

39.  Name one provision of the Metropolitan Poor Act of 1867 provide?

Answer 39

Medical facilities should be separate from the workhouse, created the Metropolitan Asylum Board

Question 40

40.  Which prominent pressure group leader opposed the Poor Law Amendment Act because of the way it treated labourers?

Answer 40

Richard Oastler

Question 41

41.  Why was the anti Poor Law Amendment movement successful in the north of England?

Answer 41

Industrial poverty different from southern agricultural poverty, not seen as necessary in the north, better organised, better leadership, more support across class lines, public speeches, printed articles,

Question 42

42.  Why did the local officials remind people of the Riot Act in 1835 in Bedfordshire?

Answer 42

300-500 people attacked officials at Ampthill in ‘money or blood’ riots – Riot Act was read (1714 law which said authorities could declare groups of 12 or more illegal)

Question 43

43.  What happened to the workhouse at Bulcamp in Suffolk in 1835?

Answer 43

Attacked by a mob of 200

Question 44

44.  Why was the Poor Law more effectively implemented in the south despite opposition to it?

Answer 44

Removal of ‘outdoor’ relief gave paupers no choice but to enter workhouse in agricultural south, there had been so much diversity in the operation of the Old Poor Law that opposition to the new one was not united

Question 45

45.  Why was opposition in the north of England more significant than in the south? Give 2 reasons.

Answer 45

industrial north different to agricultural south, poor rate in the north lower because more people were employed, the workhouse system didn't suit the cyclical nature of employment in factories/mills, Well organised campaign, strong leadership, more unity in opposition