he poor-law, asserted itself
in its extremest form in times of dearth and difficulty during the
Napoleonic War. In 1802-1803 it was calculated (Marshall's _Digest_)
that 28% of the population were in receipt of permanent or occasional
relief. Those in receipt of the former numbered 734,817, including
children--so real had this serfdom of the poor become.

In 1832 the expenditure on pauperism in England and Wales was
L7,036,968. In the early years of the 19th century the mendicity
societies, established in some of the larger towns, were a sign of the
general discontent with existing methods of administration. The Society
for Bettering the Condition of the Poor--representing a group of men
such as Patrick Colquhoun, Sir I. Bernard, Dr Lettsom, Dr Haygarth,
James Neald, Count Rumford and others--took a more positive line and
issued many useful publications (1796). After 1833 the very atmosphere
of thought seems changed. There was a general desire to be quit of the
serfdom of pauperism. The Poor-law Amendment Act was passed in 1834, and
since then male able-bodied pauperism has dwindled to a minimum. The bad
years of 1860-1870 revived the problem in England and Scotland, and the
old spirit of reform for a time prevailed. Improved administration
working with economic progress effected still further reductions of
pauperism, till on the 1st of January 1905 (exclusive of lunatics in
county asylums and casual paupers) the mean number of paupers stood at
764,589, or 22.6 per thousand of the population, instead of 41.8 per
thousand as in 1859 (see POOR-LAW).

Charity organization societies were formed after 1869, with the object
of "improving the condition of the poor," or, in other words, to promote
independence by an ordered and co-operative charity; and the Association
for Befriending Young Servants, and workhouse aid committees, in order
to prevent relapse into pauperism on the part of those who as children
or young women received relief from the poor-law. The Local Government
Board adopted a restricted out-door relief policy, and a new interest
was felt in all the chief problems of local administration. The movement
was general. The results of the Elberfeld system of municipal relief
administered by unpaid almoners, each dealing with but one or two cases,
influenced thought both in England and America. The experience gained by
Mr Joseph Tuckerman of Boston of the utility of registering applications
for relief, and the teachi