Law+and+Order

**Victorian police(Andrew Moore)**
 * __Law and Order__**

** (Louise Wylie) If a 10 year old Princess Victoria had been standing in Whitehall on the evening of 29 September 1829, just eight years before she came to the throne, she would have witnessed something quite new in the law enforcement of the country. A line of men dressed in tall hats and long blue coats marching out into the streets of London. These men were members of ‘The New Police’ or ‘Peelers’ as they were popularly called, marching to their duties. Every so often an officer would leave the line and commence to patrol his ‘beat’: a small group of streets which were his responsibility for the night. Nowadays we take our police service for granted and it is hard to imagine what it must have been like without them, but until the first few years of the great Victorian age things were very different indeed. (Louise Wylie)
 * In 1601 the ****Elizabethan** Poor Law made no mention of workhouses. Nevertheless, the act stated that “materials should be bought to provide work for the unemployed able-bodied". The act did propose the building of housing for the impotent poor**, which included the elderly and chronically sick. Most ****poor relief** of the time continued to be in the form of outdoor relief** . The system was funded through ****rates** a local tax. The workhouse system began to evolve in the 17th century as a way for ( Church of England)** parishes to decrease the cost to rate-payers. This form of ****indoor relief** was a deterrent to the able-bodied who were required to work usually without pay. The Workhouse Test Act **made it possible for parishes to deny outdoor relief and only provide indoor relief. ( Tonicha McGowan )**

A Victorian policeman. (Eve Niblock)  ** Early Victorian police worked seven days a week, and their lives were strictly controlled. To reduce the public’s suspicion of being spied on, officers were required to wear their uniforms both on and off duty. (Eve Niblock) The Victorians were very worried about crime and its causes. Reformers were asking questions about how young people who had broken the law ought to be treated. They could see that locking children up with adult criminals was hardly likely to make them lead honest lives in the future. On the other hand, they believed firmly in stiff punishments. In 1854 Reformatory Schools were set up for offenders under 16 years old. These were very tough places, with stiff discipline enforced by frequent beatings. Young people were sent there for long sentences - usually several years. However, a young offender normally still began their sentence with a brief spell in an adult prison. (Niamh Tweedie)

**The Poor Laws** Parishes were first instituted with the Elizabethan Poor Law of 1601, which organized tax-collected assistance. The poor were divided up into two groups: the "impotent" (the sick and elderly, those classed "would work but couldn't") and the "able-bodied" (thought of as "could work but wouldn't"). The impotent were given outdoor, or out-of-almshouse, relief, while the able-bodied were brutally beaten to "right" their paths. Not all parishes were the same: some didn't have almshouses, while others were known for kinder treatment. To prevent droves of paupers from inundating the parishes with better arrangements, the 1662 Settlement Act stated that people had to prove "settlement" before receiving relief from a parish. Proof consisted of birth in the parish, marriage (for women) or working in the parish for a year and a day. Labor contracts were often made for 364 days to prevent settlement rights (by Kaitlyn O'neill)

== At the beginning of Queen Victoria's reign this wild upland area was policed mainly by **parish constables**. None of these men were paid or had any training. They had to do their duties as well as their own jobs, so you can imagine that not many people were keen to be a constable. They served for one year **without pay**, and often were not allowed to finish their duties by the courts unless they found someone else to take over. The Breconshire court records have very **few cases** from this part of the old county. This could mean that the area was very law abiding and there were few crimes. **Or** it could mean that crimes were dealt with by local people who gave out their own punishments to the people they thought were guilty. (Clare Carson) ==