ABSTRACT
The Poor Law Commission was the most assertive and obvious example in the 1830s and 1840s of what would come to be called either the growth of government or 'social welfare policy'. In the campaign for factory reform, moreover, most of the protagonists actively opposed the new political economy. The State should not shrink from donning the mantle of benevolent concern for its citizens somewhat hazily presumed to have been worn by the landowners of rural England in their dealings with the peasantry. It is no accident that factory reform and educational provision were so often linked, for the factory symbolised an urban Britain less secure in its civilising influences than before. By the mid-1840s it was not open to anti-reformers to deny that the most important factors affecting longevity were an individual's social class and place of residence. Between 1832 and 1846 only two significant pieces of central legislation were passed on specific aspects of public health.
