Historical and Political Essays

W >> William Edward Hartpole Lecky >> Historical and Political Essays

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In the last years of her reign the political horizon greatly cleared.
Lord Beaconsfield, during his later Ministries, obtained not only her
fullest political confidence, but also won a warmer degree of personal
friendship than she had bestowed on any Minister since the death of
Lord Melbourne; and her relations with his successor, Lord Salisbury,
appear to have been perfectly harmonious. The decisive rejection by
the country of the Home Rule policy removed a great incubus from her
mind, and she was fully in harmony with the strong Imperialist
sentiments which now began to prevail in English thought, and
especially with the warmer feeling towards our distant colonies which
was one of its chief characteristics. Her own popularity also rapidly
grew. She had keenly felt and bitterly resented the reproaches which
had at one period been frequently brought against her for her neglect
of social and ceremonial duties during many years of her widowhood.
Her censors, she maintained, made no allowance for her loneliness, her
advancing years, her feeble health, the overwhelming and incessant
pressure of her more serious political duties. But her two Jubilees,
bringing her once more into close touch with her people, put an end to
these reproaches. The Queen found with pleasure and perhaps with
surprise how capable she still was of performing great public
functions, and the vast outburst of spontaneous loyalty and affection
of which she became the object gave her deep and unconcealed pleasure.
To those, however, who were closely in connection with her it was
touching to observe the gracious and unaffected modesty with which she
received the homage of her subjects. Flattery was one of the things
she disliked the most, and all who knew her best were struck with the
singularly modest view she always took of herself. But blending with
this modesty, and even with a shyness which she never wholly
conquered, was the craving of a deeply affectionate and womanly nature
for sympathy, and this craving was now abundantly gratified.

Still, with all this there was much that was melancholy in her later
days. She had survived nearly all the intimacies of her youth. Death
had made--especially in very recent times--many gaps in the circle of
those who were nearest to her, and several of her children and of her
children's husbands had preceded her to the tomb. Her sight had
greatly failed. She was bowed down by physical infirmity, and her last
year was saddened by a long, sanguinary, and inglorious war. Yet
almost to the very end she continued with unabated courage to fulfil
her daily task, and there was no sign that she had lost anything of
her quick sympathy and her admirable judgment and tact. Her life was a
most harmonious whole in which mind and character were happily
attuned,

Like perfect music set to noble words.

FOOTNOTES:

[51] _Queen Victoria_, by Sidney Lee, p. 349.

[52] Ollivier, _L'Empire Liberal_, vii. p. 455.

[53] Sir Theodore Martin was asked by the Queen to give her a _precis_
of a very long and unintelligible letter of Mr. Gladstone purporting to
explain the Irish Church Disestablishment Bill (_Queen Victoria as I
knew Her_, by Sir Theodore Martin).--ED.

OLD-AGE PENSIONS

There are many signs that the question of old-age pensions is destined
to assume a great prominence in England; although it is probable that
the large increase of national expenditure which is certain to follow
the unhappy war in South Africa may, for some time, postpone actual
legislation on the subject. The generation has passed away which
witnessed the enormous abuses of Poor Law relief that existed, under
the old English Poor Law, before 1834, and the rapid diminution of
pauperism that was effected by the sterner administration introduced
in that year.

The principles of poor-law relief which were then recognised by the
best minds in England have been somewhat forgotten. These principles
were that, while in England provision is made for the support of all
who are absolutely destitute, it is of the utmost importance that on
the whole the condition of the pauper should be a less eligible one
than that of an independent labourer; that nothing should be done that
could diminish habits of thrift, forethought, and steady industry
among the poor; nothing that could weaken their sense of the necessity
of providing for their latter days, or of their duty of supporting,
when they have the means, their aged parents and relations. In
accordance with these principles it was laid down that outdoor relief
should be either absolutely refused to the able-bodied or only
granted under most exceptional circumstances; that the workhouse test,
with its stringent, deterrent discipline, should be steadily
maintained; that relaxations and special favours granted out of public
funds should be limited, as far as possible, to cases of special
calamity which it was impossible for any prudence or foresight to have
averted.

It would certainly be a great exaggeration to say that these
principles have disappeared. Indeed, the robust, independent,
self-respecting character which it was the object of the Manchester
School to encourage is abundantly displayed in the gigantic Friendly
and other working-class Co-operative Societies which have so largely
increased in England during the last half-century. Two of these
Friendly Societies--the Manchester Unity and the Foresters--have each
of them more than seven hundred thousand members on their roll. At the
same time, it is equally certain that in many quarters a different,
and, in my opinion, very dangerous, spirit prevails. In England as
elsewhere there is an increased tendency to aggrandise the functions
of the State and to look to State aid or State control rather than
individual or co-operative effort as the remedy of every evil. Social
questions have assumed a greater prominence in politics; and, with the
lowering of the franchise, the vague State Socialism, which, in
different degrees, pervades most working-class politics, has given a
bias to both parties in the State. It has become prominent in every
election and has produced many rash pledges.

The close connection between taxation and representation, which was
once considered the cardinal principle of English Liberalism, has, in
a marked degree, diminished, both in Imperial and local taxation. It
used to be contended that those who chiefly paid should chiefly
regulate, and that taxation should be as much as possible the
voluntary grant of the taxpayers, restricted to their common purposes.
But in many quarters a different belief has grown up. It is held that
in the hands of a democracy taxation should be made the means of
redressing the inequalities of fortune, ability, or industry; the
preponderant class voting and spending money which another class are
obliged to pay. The income-tax is so arranged that a large majority of
the voters are exempt from its burden; a highly graduated system of
death duties is now nearly the most prominent of our Imperial taxes;
and the Local Government Act of 1894 has placed local taxation on the
most democratic basis. The latter has given the power of voting rates
to many who do not pay them; and, by abolishing the nominated, or
ex-officio, guardians, and the plural voting of the larger ratepayers,
it has almost destroyed the influence of property on local taxation.

At the same time the doctrine has arisen, and is now sedulously
propagated in England, that the State ought to undertake to provide at
the public expense for all old persons, or at least for all deserving
old persons, who have not succeeded in obtaining a sufficient
livelihood for themselves; that this provision should not be regarded
as an eleemosynary grant, but as a positive right; and that, in order
to free it from the taint of pauperism, and take away from the
recipient all reluctance to receive it, a new fund should be created,
entirely distinct from poor-law relief, and administered by some other
tribunal than the poor-law guardians.

The claim has been supported on another ground. The immense
improvement of the material condition of the English working classes
during the last half-century is beyond all question; but it is much
more evident among the young and the strong than among the old. The
intense competition of modern industry, stimulated to the highest
point by free trade, by the factory system, and by the vast
development of machinery, has expelled the old and feeble from some of
its most important fields; and the influence of trade-unions in
enforcing, in each trade which they can control, a uniform and minimum
wage, has obliged the employer to employ only the most efficient
labour.

The old man who could once easily obtain a little work at low wages
now finds it much more difficult; and the recent legislation
compelling the employer to compensate his workmen for all accidents
that take place in his employment, even when those accidents are in no
degree due to any negligence on his own part or on that of his
servants, has acted in the same direction. Such serious obligations
have been thrown on the employer in the more dangerous trades, that he
is obliged in self-defence to restrict himself to the workmen who are
least liable to accidents; and they are naturally those whose
strength, activity, and eyesight are at their best. Among the
recipients of poor-law relief the proportion of men over sixty-five is
enormously great; and some figures which, in 1893, were brought before
the Commission on the Aged Poor, made a great impression on the
country. It was stated that in a single year 29.3 of the whole
population over sixty-five were in receipt of poor-law relief in
England and Wales; and assuming that a third part of these old persons
belonged to the well-to-do, it was calculated that not much less than
three in seven must fall into the ranks of pauperism.

There has been much controversy about the accuracy of this statement;
and, even if it be admitted, a good deal has been said to attenuate
its force. In the poor-law system as it was reformed in 1834, it was a
first principle that the workhouse, with its painful and degrading
associations, was to be the chief form of poor-law relief, and that
outdoor relief should only be granted on exceptional occasions and on
stringent conditions. This provision has been gradually relaxed.
Outdoor relief, which, in the eyes of the poor, carries with it very
little of the discredit and dislike that gathers round the workhouse,
is now by far the larger part of poor-law relief; and in many
districts it is administered with great laxity.

It has been proved by the clearest evidence that the immense majority
of the aged and deserving poor who are in receipt of poor-law relief
only receive it in the form of outdoor relief, and very often only in
the form of medical relief, and that if they go to the workhouse it is
only when their peculiar circumstances make it desirable for them to
do so. Wherever a more stringent system of relief is imposed,
pauperism invariably and rapidly decreases; and Mr. Loch, the
Secretary of the Charity Organisation Society, has collected much
evidence to show that, on the whole, old-age pauperism is diminishing,
though it has not been diminishing at the same rate as pauperism under
the age of sixty. The administration of the workhouses has also
greatly improved; and the poor-law infirmaries are becoming hospitals
which are largely resorted to in time of sickness by many who might
easily avoid them. On the whole, old-age destitution is, and must be,
a grave question for philanthropists; but there has been great
exaggeration about its magnitude and its hardships.

The expediency of devising a new and better method of providing for
the destitute aged poor of deserving character has long been
smouldering obscurely in English politics; but it obtained a real
importance for the first time when a very strong Royal Commission,
under the presidency of Lord Aberdare, was appointed, at the beginning
of 1893, to inquire into the question. After long and careful inquiry,
and after hearing a great multitude of witnesses, this Commission
reported in the spring of 1895. The majority of the members, while
recommending various reforms in the administration of the poor-law,
reported decisively against any system of old-age pensions, either in
the form of endowment or assisted assurance, as likely to do more harm
than good; but a minority, which derived special importance from the
presence of Mr. Chamberlain, refused to accept this decision as final,
and urged that the question should be submitted to a smaller body of
experts. In the election which took place in 1895 the question
appeared frequently upon the platform, and many members on both sides
of politics pledged themselves on the subject.

The weight which is always attached to the speeches of Mr. Chamberlain
gave a great impulse to the movement. He never countenanced the idea
of universal old-age pensions, which was already advocated by many;
but he strongly maintained that special provision, apart from the
poor-law and in the shape of pensions, might, and ought to, be made
for the old and deserving poor; he expressed his belief that such a
measure 'would do more than anything else to secure the happiness of
the working classes'; and he suggested as the most feasible scheme
that 'whenever a man acquires for himself in a Friendly Society or
any other society a pension of 2_s._ 6_d._ a week the State should
come in and double that pension.' Mr. Chamberlain, however, did not
insist on this precise proposal; but he gave the question a great
prominence; and among politicians on both sides there was a manifest
tendency to make party capital out of it.

A purely non-party Committee, presided over by Lord Rothschild, and
consisting mainly of distinguished financial authorities connected
with the permanent Civil Service, and therefore removed from active
politics, was appointed in 1896, in accordance with the recommendation
of the Aberdare Commission, to inquire especially into the question of
old-age pensions; and it reported in a document of conspicuous
ability. It was unanimous in condemning as impracticable or dangerous
all the schemes for such pensions that were brought before it; and it
fully confirmed the views of the preceding Commission. The report, and
the evidence on which it is based, clearly show the ways in which
measures intended for the benefit of the working class may prove in
the highest degree injurious to them.

If the matter could have been decided by pure reasoning, this report
might have been generally accepted as decisive. But many of the
supporters of the Government had at the election made speeches in
favour of old-age pensions. One of its most powerful members had
thrown his weight into the scale. The idea had taken hold of great
sections of the working classes. The trade-unions, that see in
increasing old-age poverty the chief drawback to their policy of
enforcing in each trade a uniform and minimum wage, were naturally
delighted that the State should undertake, out of public funds, to
remove their difficulty. A number of Bills dealing with the question
had been introduced into the House of Commons by private members; and
the reluctance of the Government to take it up had become a favourite
form of party attack. The Government acted as perhaps most
Governments, under the circumstances, would have done. While refusing
to give any pledge, and repudiating any sympathy with the idea of
universal pensions, and insisting that an encouragement of thrift
should be an essential condition of any old-age pension scheme, they
refused to admit that a false departure had been made; and they
appointed a new Committee--of which the writer of these lines was a
member--to report upon the best means of improving the condition of
the aged deserving poor, and upon the feasibility of dealing with
their case by old-age pensions.

Mr. Chaplin, the President of the Local Government Board, an
experienced and very popular member of the Cabinet, presided over the
Committee; and the fact that he drew up the report of the majority
gave that report its chief political importance. The Committee
consisted largely of members who had already committed themselves
deeply in favour of old-age pensions; and it will hardly be disputed
in England that it carried with it much less financial and political
weight than its predecessors; and that the majority report--which was
carried by 9 to 4--is more remarkable for the boldness of its
recommendations than for the cogency of its reasoning. It completely,
and almost contemptuously, discarded the conclusions of the majority
of the Aberdare Commission, and the unanimous opinion of the
Rothschild Committee; and it recommended that old-age pensions,
derived in part from Imperial and in part from local sources, and
varying from 5_s._ to 7_s._ a week, should be granted to all the
deserving poor who had attained the age of sixty-five and whose
incomes did not exceed 10_s._ a week. It proposed that these pensions
should be granted by committees established in every poor-law union
and elected by the poor-law guardians; that they should be revised
every three years; and that they should be distributed through the
agency of the post-office.

On the great difficulties that seemed so formidable to its
predecessors it touched very lightly. How many of the poor were likely
under the proposed system to become pensioners, and what burden of
taxation was likely to be thrown on the State, were questions that
were put aside as irrelevant to the inquiry. To meet the enormous
difficulty of deciding upon the real merits, and of investigating the
real circumstances, of the great masses of independent and industrious
labourers who live in the manufacturing towns, or are constantly
moving from one great centre of population to another, and circulating
in quest of work through the whole extent of the Empire, it was
suggested that the relief be confined to those who were resident in a
single locality; and it was pointed out that a number of charities,
endowed out of old legacies or donations, and applying to particular
classes or districts, had come to be administered by the Charity
Commissioners, and that in this restricted field they had been able to
convert a large part of the income at their disposal from doles into
permanent pensions.

The thrift test and the character test, which previous inquirers had
found it almost impossible to establish on a satisfactory basis, were
defined on the loosest lines. The pensioner must not, during the
preceding twenty years, have been sentenced to penal servitude or
imprisonment without the option of a fine; he must not, during the
same period of time, have been in receipt of poor-law relief 'other
than medical relief or unless under circumstances of a wholly
exceptional character'; and he must have 'endeavoured to the best of
his ability, by his industry and by the exercise of reasonable
providence, to make provision for himself and those immediately
dependent on him.'

The extreme vagueness and the extreme elasticity of such provisions
are sufficiently manifest; and it is difficult to see how they can
give any real assistance in practical legislation; while they leave
the door open to the largest and most lavish expenditure. I have
endeavoured in a minority report to deal with these questions at
somewhat greater length than my present space will admit; but a few
pages may suffice to give an outline of the case of those who believe
the new policy to be both mistaken and dangerous.

Nothing is more certain or more cheering in the condition of modern
England than the extraordinary diminution that has taken place, during
the present generation, in pauperism. It began with the reform of the
poor law in 1834; and although it has been found possible to relax
greatly the stringency of the poor-law regulations that were then
made, it has steadily continued. Much of this is due to the increase
in the rate of wages which has taken place in most departments of
English industry, and which has been accompanied by a great decrease
in the cost of most of the chief necessaries of life, as well as by a
considerable reduction in the hours of work. Sir Robert Giffen, in the
very remarkable paper which he published, in 1883, on the condition of
the working classes in England during the preceding fifty years, has
shown that in every class of work in which it is possible to make a
comparison the wages of the labourer have in these fifty years risen
at least 20 per cent., and in most cases between 50 and 100 per cent.;
and he has clearly demonstrated that no other section of the community
has obtained so large a proportion of the increase of the national
wealth, and improved in so great a degree in material prosperity.

But the mere increase of wages is but one element of this improvement.
The very mainspring of the prosperity of the great masses of the
British working classes is to be found in their increased sobriety,
and in the habits of thrift and providence that have followed the
spread of education. The statistics of the Friendly Societies, the
Industrial and Provident Societies, the Building Societies, the
savings-banks, and of countless other institutions, created by
voluntary working-class effort for the purpose of insuring against
sickness or death, and providing working-class investments, attest in
the clearest manner the rapid growth of provident and thrifty habits
among the wage-earning classes. In no other respect is the improvement
of the nation so marked and so indisputable and no element in the
national character is more important to its prosperity and to its
enduring greatness. In the evidence that was brought before our
Committee, it was shown that since 1849 the pauperism of Great Britain
had been reduced from 62.7 per 1,000 to 26.2 per 1,000, if lunatics
and vagrants are included, to 22.8 per 1,000, if lunatics and vagrants
are excluded.

The first, and most vital, condition of any sound legislation for the
relief of poverty is that it should not impair these industrial
qualities, or weaken these vast voluntary organisations of self-help
which are their result. Can it be said that the old-age pension policy
is compatible with this condition?

It proposes to open, in addition to the existing system of poor
relief, a new fund, amounting to many millions of pounds a year, and
drawn from compulsory taxation for the purpose of subsidising simple
poverty; a fund to which it is to be rather creditable than otherwise
to resort; a fund which is intended to deal, not with exceptional
calamity, but with that which springs from the mere efflux of time,
and which is, beyond all others, the most normal and most easily
foreseen. It proposes to teach the whole working population to look to
the State, and not to themselves, for the provision for their old age,
and for the old age of those who might be dependent on them, and thus
to destroy the most powerful of all motives to thrift--the very
mainspring of productive and self-sacrificing industry. And it
proposes to do this at a time when wages are higher than they have
ever been before; when voluntary societies for securing the poor from
want are flourishing and increasing as they have never done before;
when the rapid decline of pauperism is one of the most marked and most
universally recognised signs of national improvement. Can it be
seriously believed that the addition of many millions a year to the
State funds directly employed in the relief of poverty will, in the
long run, tend to diminish pauperism or to encourage self-reliance and
thrift?

Mr. Chamberlain and the other more considerable advocates of old-age
pensions clearly see that if such pensions are to be of real value
they must discriminate between the deserving and the undeserving; and
they believe that they may have the effect of stimulating, instead of
weakening, thrift. For this purpose several schemes have been devised.

The most popular Continental method of achieving this end is by a law
obliging the working man in early life to insure against old age, and
by supplementing the income derived from this insurance by a State
subsidy. In Germany, where this system is actually carried out, the
old-age pension is derived from three sources--viz. compulsory
insurance by the workers, compulsory contribution by the employer, and
a State subsidy. Compulsory insurance found for many years a powerful
English advocate in Canon Blackley; and it has been recommended by a
recent inquiry in Holland, which, however, refused to propose any
system of old-age pensions. According to the best accounts, the German
system has been far from successful either economically or
politically; and it has certainly not prevented Socialism from
becoming one of the great dangers of the State. Into this question,
however, it is needless to enter, as it is now universally admitted in
England that compulsory insurance for old age is an impossibility; for
it would certainly be repudiated by the working classes.

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