ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the reach of friendly society assistance: either their needs exceeded the limits of the assistance available, or as they spiraled downward economically, friendly society dues were allowed to lapse. It was necessary, according to contemporary upper- and middle-class commentators, to recast poor relief as privilege rather than right, and to allot a greater role to voluntary charity. Poor relief and philanthropic assistance were becoming more difficult to accommodate because of the ways in which, from the late eighteenth century, London parishes and many charitable bodies began to change their practices. Poor men at all times were to be held accountable for the well-being of their families: subsistence was to be achieved through their good efforts rather than through reliance upon public assistance. Waged work was crucially necessary, but was not alone sufficient in the struggle to maintain subsistence. Rather, it and other formal resources like poor relief and charity meshed with informal mutuality, credit and pawning networks.
