ABSTRACT
At present vagrancy is an insoluble problem. In Berkshire it appears that the guardians are employing the police as assistant relieving officers, with very satisfactory results, the numbers of vagrants having been thereby reduced from 28,395 to 26,665. The guardians in that locality propose to distinguish between the professional vagrant and the mechanic in search of work, by empowering the police to grant travelling passes to men of good character in search of work. Vagrancy must be regarded not as a crime, but as a disease the outgrowth of neglect, ignorance, and poverty, and reference is made to experiments which have been made abroad. The present system of relief is condemned as defective, as not calculated to improve the vagrants, as not sufficiently elastic to meet exceptional cases of distress, and the labour test as not calculated to produce a spirit of independence, a habit of work, or even physical power for other employment.
