ABSTRACT
The analysis of Poor Law Policy, and the comparative statement of principles to which it led, was made the subject of a report to the Royal Commission on the Poor Law in the very middle of its career. To the Eoyal Commission of 1909 the retention of a general Destitution Authority, dealing with all sections of destitute persons as destitute persons, was, therefore, not a necessity. To the Royal Commission of 1834 the single all-embracing Destitution Authority was not a matter of principle at all, but a necessity, which no one questioned. “The administrators of the present Poor Law,” it was expressly declared without dissent from any Commissioner, “are in fact endeavouring to apply the rigid system of 1834 to a condition of affairs which it was never intended to meet. It has usually been considered impracticable to combine any powers of compulsion with a Poor Law system.
