In source 10, Thomas Malthus is discussing the settlement laws and how he feels they are shown as tyrannical and inconvenient as well as them being contradictory to all ideas of freedom

by Awinship (student)

In source 10, Thomas Malthus is discussing the settlement laws and how he feels they are shown as ‘tyrannical’ and ‘inconvenient’ as well as them being contradictory to all ideas of freedom. From this we can see that Malthus isn’t happy with the settlement law and that the people living in the time of this, in the late 1700’s, were not being helped. Instead, those is need were forced to continue to ‘struggle supporting themselves.’

Looking at the sources we can see that there is evidence that the settlement laws didn’t provide a system to make an impact but instead it passed the problems onto other areas rather than providing a solution. This would support Malthus’ claims as source 11 tells us of the order made by Cheshire’s JP’s in 1804 where Overseers of the poor in Dutton has ordered a mother and daughter to be moved out of the town as her husband was put in prison. This supports Malthus as ‘The Overseers’ weren’t looking to help or give support to the family, but instead only supported their removal from the area. Here, the Overseers went against the current system of the settlement laws and didn’t want to solve the problem the right way. In many ways it seems source 11 does supports Malthus strongly and the claims made by him in 1798. These claims were that the settlement laws did not help the ‘struggling’.
On the other hand, the strength and effectiveness of the source doesn’t show a point from any other part of the country, only Cheshire. The source doesn’t lead us to believe that this is valid for across the entire country, limiting the information and our knowledge. Also, this source shows discrimination to a certain family that, in good reason, doesn’t receive any help from the area due to the fact that the father is a criminal. Therefore he isn’t offering anything to the area or putting anything into it. It also doesn’t offer any other representation of a similar or same situation in the country at the time. As the country is very different throughout different regions and towns, this source may have been used to back up Malthus’ claims or this particular situation could have been used to show Malthus’ claims to be more believable, reliable and also more useful.
Overall, although source 11 is an account of one particular event/situation and is specific example that would indeed support Malthus and his claims shown in source 10 but also doesn’t show a wide variety of similar cases from across the county so there are limitations but we gain the knowledge from this source that the settlement laws weren’t as supportive or helpful and they were intended to be.

This is a preview of the whole essay

From reading and studying source 10 we could suggest that the claims made my Malthus about the portrayal of the settlement laws could be slightly amplified or heightened from the idea that they were ‘disgraceful’ and a ‘disgusting tyranny’. The claim made by William Douse of Halton (his legal place of settlement) in source 12 describes how the settlement laws were a help in his case. Douse was given help from the poor rate Halton although he living and continued to live in Wainfleet and this was not his original area of settlement. By just reading this source we would assume that this source would have a total disregard towards Malthus’ claims unlike source 11. This is because Douse is not forced to move away from the area and also is supported by the local parish where he lives. However, looking further into the source we can see, once again, that this is only one account of a situation and across the country different areas follow the settlement in their own way. Also, looking at the date of the source, we can see that it was made in 1835. This was a period of time when new poor laws were in operation therefore the date or the sources origin is less useful for either supporting, or not supporting the claims made by Malthus. Because of the length of time between Malthus’ claims and this particular source alone it is hard to use it as evidence.
Looking further into the source we can see that Douse has a good work ethic as he ‘hired himself each year’ at Spilsby Fair as well as working at Robert Bank’s of East Ford in 1811. This shows that Douse is willing to put into the parish/community and is of the deserving poor as he is able and wanting to work. We then are shown that after breaking his leg he is receiving poor rate help from Halton. Here we can say that this shows the settlement laws did help provide relief, but in this case, for those who ‘deserve it’.

To conclude, we are shown that one source doesn’t support Malthus yet the other does not. As these sources show information about two specific situations of two specific areas it is hard to apply this to the rest of the country to get a clearer picture of the settlement laws. This makes it difficult to see how the two sources can support or not support Malthus, especially source 12. The claims made by Malthus explain that his views of the settlement were that he wasn’t impressed and couldn’t see the support and help they were supposed to give to ‘those who are struggling to support themselves’. In source 11 we can see the discrimination towards the particular family and how to help was given; this would back up Malthus’ claims. On the other hand, source 12 showed how that those, who in theory, deserved the relief given by the settlement law. These were those who had helped the area by continuously worker and provided for themselves but had faced problems not down to their own fault.

Abbey Winship – Mr.Parkin