The Royal Commission on the Poor Laws, 1905–09

Kathleen Woodroofe

doi:10.1017/s0020859000005472

Abstract

Although there is some truth in the comment made by Canon Barnett, rector of St Jude's, Whitechapel, and founder of Toynbee Hall, that the issue in 1909 of the Report of the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws “may mark the beginning of a new epoch in our social life”, the precise reasons for the appointment of the Commission on December 4th, 1905, are not yet known. The Conservative government, which made the appointment almost on the eve of its defeat, had been in power for ten years, first under the prime ministership of Lord Salisbury and then, until his resignation in December 1905, of A. J. Balfour. During that time the cost of the Poor Law had risen steadily, and yet, until the end of 1904, either through social myopia or a preoccupation with the greater drama of events abroad, the government displayed little interest in the problem of the Poor Law or, indeed, in any of the wider questions of social reform.

Highlights

There is some truth in the comment made by Canon Barnett, rector of St Jude's, Whitechapel, and founder of Toynbee Hall, that the issue in 1909 of the Report of the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws "may mark the beginning of a new epoch in our social life",1 the precise reasons for the appointment of the Commission on December 4th, 1905, are not yet known
Since the Act could be interpreted as a kind of guarantee that the government would help working men who were unemployed during a depression, it indicated yet once again how far relief authorities had abandoned in practice the Poor Law principles of 1834, especially the twin principles that the able-bodied pauper should receive relief only in a workhouse and that his condition should be made "less eligible" than that of the independent labourer
Intent on achieving this objective was James Stewart Davy, head of the Poor Law Division, that he seized upon the appointment of the Royal Commission as a means to this end, organized a campaign to "railroad" the Commissioners into reaching his pre-determined conclusion, after which, in a moment of blazing indiscretion, he revealed his machinations to the one Commissioner, Beatrice Webb, least likely to fall in with his plan.[3]

Summary

Introduction

There is some truth in the comment made by Canon Barnett, rector of St Jude's, Whitechapel, and founder of Toynbee Hall, that the issue in 1909 of the Report of the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws "may mark the beginning of a new epoch in our social life",1 the precise reasons for the appointment of the Commission on December 4th, 1905, are not yet known.

Results

Conclusion