In 1832, the Poor Law Commission was founded in order to review the Poor Laws of England and the state of the poorer classes in England. The commission was primarily concerned with the poor being hired for cheap labor and paid for by parishes, and parishes helping pay wages. The commission saw these practices as harming the natural workings of the economy and creating poor people who were dependent on outside aid. In 1834, the Poor Law Amendment Act was passed, intending to address these problems. The new law created workhouses where the poor would live and receive aid. However, the Poor Law declared the workhouses as the only source where aid could be given, effectively shutting down parish aid. Additionally, conditions inside the workhouses were often worse than outside. This was thought to discourage those who were otherwise able to work from entering the workhouses and receiving aid unnecessarily.
Mill originally defended the act in his autobiography “against an irrational clamour grounded on the anti-centralization prejudice.” He shared similar fears as proponents of the act and stated, “[i]f the condition of a person receiving relief is made as eligible as that of the labourer who supports himself by his own exertions, the system strikes at the root of all individual industry and self-government” (Mill, John Stuart. 1848 [1965]. The principles of political economy. Collected Works 2–3). While Mill supported egalitarian principles, he was still wary of the working class and had reservations about their growing political influence. In his autobiography, Mill reflects on his defense of the Poor Law Reform and the two extremes of centralization and anti-centralization. “I have steered carefully between the two errors, and whether I have or have not drawn the line between them exactly in the right place, I have at least insisted with equal emphasis upon the evils on both sides, and have made the means of reconciling the advantages of both, a subject of serious study.”
Citations:
Hansson, Sven Ove. “John Stuart Mill and the Conflicts of Equality.” The Journal of Ethics, vol. 26, 26 Feb. 2022, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10892-022-09393-7.
The National Archives. “1834 Poor Law.” The National Archives, 2021, www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/resources/1834-poor-law/#:~:text=T....