Pauperism - 1871 Author:Henry Fawcett Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: POSTSCRIPT. The Boarding-out Of Pauper Children. Whilst these pages were being written, the Poor Law Board issued an order relating to the boarding-out of ... more »pauper children, which affords striking evidence that there is a danger of the country at any moment returning to some of the worst evils of the old Poor Law. What makes the matter the more serious is that the order has met with the strong approval of the public, and has been unanimously praised by the press. No one has pointed out the encouragement which it will give to improvidence, to immorality, and to other social vices; no one has objected to it on the ground that it rewards the imprudent at the expense of the thrifty. It has simply been considered in relation to the effect it will have upon the children who are boarded out, and not a moment's attention has been given to any ulterior consequences. A brief description of the leading provisions of the order will, I think, prove that it will introduce far greater evils than it will cure; and that it will exercise a demoralizing influence which will most powerfully promote the future increase of pauperism. The order contemplates that children who are boarded out should be sent to healthy country homes; the greatest care is to be shown in selecting the foster- parents to whose charge they are intrusted; these foster- parents may receive qs. a week for each child, exclusive of school-fees and medical attendance, which are also pro- vided by the guardians. Besides this they allow Ids. aquar- ter for clothes. If the children are ill an extra allowance is given in order that they may have nourishing food. None of these pauper children must live in a house where there is an adult lodger. When the child is more than seven, he must not sleep in the same room with a married...« less