ABSTRACT
In this period the universal applicability of the 1834 Poor Law to deal with the multifarious problems of destitution was seriously questioned. By the 1890s, with the advent of empirical social surveys, notably those of Charles Booth (1840–1916) (11g), the easy assumption that poverty was caused by individual or familial shortcomings was undermined. It was also increasingly doubtful that poverty should be alleviated by individualist charities or organizations. Through writers like W.H. Mallock (1849–1923) of the Liberty and Property Defence League were re-stating this old doctrine in the 1880s (11d), their arguments did not survive the revelation of the true extent of poverty. Between 1870 and 1895 there was a decisive shift in attitude to the problem generated arguably as much by fear of the threat posed by a vast army of the poor as by humanitarian sentiment.
