The government, self-help and charity, 1847-80 (3.5)

• stories of abuse perpertrated in the nation's workhouses
• workhouse cruelties were regularly reported in The Times, in provincial newspapers, and the Chartist press
• boards of guardians denied any wrongdoing
• of the 21 adverse reports carried in The Times, about 12 were largely false, five were correct and the others were not even investigated
• the investigations into the reports of a scandal at the Andover workhouse in Hampshire that brought down the Poor Law Commission

• Hampshire - outdoor relief abolished and the strictest dietary was used in the union workhouses
• 1837 - Colin M'Dougal and his wife appointed as workhouse master and matron
• after this, they only made cursory inspections
• reports began to highlight that all was not well in the workhouse
• Thomas Wakley, MP for Finsbury and a strong opponent of the Poor Law, asked a question in the House of Commons about the situation in the workhouse. This was serious, and pointed to more than straightforward scaremongering by the press
• Henry Parker, assistant commissioner, ordered to investigate
• discovered that the stories were true - sexual abouse of female paupers, serving even less food than laid down by the worst dietary, forced starving paupers to **** meat and marrow from the bones they were supposed to be crushing

The Poor Law commissioners tried to extricate themselves from the situation by:

• sacking M'Dougal from his post as workhouse master
• blaming Parker for not uncovering the abuses sooner - had reduced the number of assistant commissioners from 21 to 9, making his job impossible
• sacking Parker from his post of assistant commissioner
• issuing an order forbidding bone crushing

• Parker struck back by writing a pamphelt explaining his position, gaining the support of Edwin Chadwick
• precipitated an enquiry by a select committe of the house of commons
• the full report was extremely critical of the Poor Law commission, and it was clear that a major shake-up in the administration of the poor laws was highly likely
• the select committee's enquiry revealed more problems

• the 1834 act limited the life of the commission to five years
• after 1839, the commissions powers were renewed on an annual basis
• however, by 1842 opposition to the implementation of the poor law amendment act was waning
• it looked as though parliament would not have to intervene and so it extended the commission's contract for a further 5 years to 1847
• The Andover scandal revelaed the worst abuses of the workhouse system and the apparent lack of willingness of the commission to detect and correct such matters
• Henry Parker alarmed those who knew how administrators should be treated in problematical situations
• the select committee revealed that there was considerable tensions with Somerset House, where the commission worked