Letter to the Right Honourable William Chambers of Glenormiston, Lord Provost of the City of Edinburgh, on the aims and practical working of the Association, more especially in reference to the employment of the poor / by David Curror.

Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Letter to the Right Honourable William Chambers of Glenormiston, Lord Provost of the City of Edinburgh, on the aims and practical working of the Association, more especially in reference to the employment of the poor / by David Curror. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    as at present, of the industry of other people. But, as it is in this class that all the difficulties of the situation centre, I must ask consideration to some general principles which have obvious appUcation to the class, and to the benevolent, before indicating the reformation proposed. Christians have the best authority for holding, that if a man, who is able, will not work, neither should he eat. They have the same authority for holding that, if a man works in quietness, he will eat his own bread, for there is much food in the tillage of the poor. Here then these general principles are established—(1) that, if the able will be idle, he ought to starve; and it follows that it is not benevolence to reverse the Apostolic injunction, and (2) that if the idle, who are able, will work, he will not starve, but eat his own bread ; and it follows that true benevo- lence truly and best discharges itself of its obligations in reference to the idle, when it finds them work ; and, having done so, all legitimate demands on it are satisfied. I have seen it asserted somewhere, and with some authority, that give an able-bodied willing man w^ork, materials, tools, and space, he will, without over-exerting himself, work for the food of nine. And there are many families where the returns from the work of one man provide food and raiment for as many mouths, without grumbling on the part of either giver or receiver. Keepingthese general principles in view, take these factsalong with them. During the year to May 1867, there were in the City Poors-house altogether 4,135 souls—the daily average being 604. During the course of that year, the gross returns from the productive labour of these inmates amounted to £498, 5s. 2^d., being a gross produce of 2s. 2^d. for the labour of each soul in the house during the year, or 15s. 2d. of a gross produce from the year's work of each of the 604 who, on an average, w^ere daily maintained in it. 15s. 2d. is about 10 days' wages of an ordinary out-door female worker, so at present an ordinary out-door female worker makes as much in 10 days as a Poors-house inmate makes in 365 days. The most of the pauper children are boarded out, but there are