"There is an old saying that 'All are equal before the law'. The belief in equality before the law is called legal egalitarianism. In criticism of this belief, the author Anatole France said in 1894, ""In its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets, and steal loaves of bread."" With this saying, France illustrated the fundamental shortcoming of a theory of legal equality that remains blind to social inequality; the same law applied to all may have disproportionately harmful effects on the least powerful. Equality before the law is one"
"ago as 1894, famously observing that ""the law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges"". There is a growing trend in the United States towards criminalizing the state of being homeless. Proponents of this approach believe that punitive measures will deter people from a homeless lifestyle. To this end, cities across the country increasingly outlaw life-sustaining activities—such as sleeping, eating, sitting, and begging—in public spaces, and selectively enforce more neutral laws—such as those prohibiting open containers or loitering—against homeless populations. Violators of such laws typically incur criminal penalties, which result in"
"Vagrancy Act 1824 The Vagrancy Act 1824 (5 Geo. 4. c. 83) is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom that makes it an offence to sleep rough or beg. It remains in force in England and Wales, and anyone found to be sleeping in a public place or to be trying to beg for money can be arrested. Contemporary critics, including William Wilberforce, condemned the Act for being a catch-all offence because it did not consider the circumstances as to why an individual might be placed in such a predicament. The law was enacted to deal with the"
"case, stating that it felt it had not given due weight to the public interest factors tending against prosecution. Vagrancy Act 1824 The Vagrancy Act 1824 (5 Geo. 4. c. 83) is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom that makes it an offence to sleep rough or beg. It remains in force in England and Wales, and anyone found to be sleeping in a public place or to be trying to beg for money can be arrested. Contemporary critics, including William Wilberforce, condemned the Act for being a catch-all offence because it did not consider the circumstances as"
"Vagabonds and Beggars Act 1494 The Vagabonds and Beggars Act 1494 was an Act of Parliament passed during the reign of Henry VII. The Act stated that ""vagabonds, idle and suspected persons shall be set in the stocks for three days and three nights and have none other sustenance but bread and water and then shall be put out of Town. Every beggar suitable to work shall resort to the Hundred where he last dwelled, is best known, or was born and there remain upon the pain aforesaid."" Local government during the early modern period in England (1400s-1700s) was very"
"sleep."" Alfred George Gardiner Alfred George Gardiner (2 June 1865 – 3 March 1946) was an English journalist, editor and author. His essays, written under the alias ""Alpha of the Plough"", are highly regarded. He was also Chairman of the National Anti-Sweating League, an advocacy group which campaigned for a minimum wage in industry. Gardiner was born in Chelmsford, the son of Henry James Gardiner, a cabinet-maker and alcoholic, and his wife, Susanna Taylor. As a boy he worked at the ""Chelmsford Chronicle"" and the ""Bournemouth Directory"". He joined the ""Northern Daily Telegraph"" in 1887 which had been founded the"
"of which lay in the idea that honor and respect for the monarch should not be rooted in any form of egoistic servility or hope of receiving a reward. He also supported the idea of a structure within society that is divided into several hierarchical classes, according to which the life of every citizen is regulated. At the top of the pyramid is the king, who should not be seen as almighty but as ""the first among equals"". Then come the landlords and merchants. The lowest is the class of peasants. Although they were not free, the legislation of the"
"of prayer and kindness. He was a staunch critic of the Poor Laws that condemned the poor, sick, and vulnerable to appalling degradation, left people to starve. In London alone in 1866 there 21,500 patients with no trained nurses. But his influence could be profound in 1874 he criticised her impending Report of Land Tenure in India to the extent that it was never published because she ""could lose influence"". In the midst of other labours, Jowett had been quietly exerting his influence so as to conciliate all shades of liberal opinion, and bring them to bear upon the abolition"
"Joseph Townsend Joseph Townsend (4 April 1739 – 9 November 1816) was a medical doctor, geologist and vicar of Pewsey in Wiltshire, perhaps best known for his 1786 treatise ""A Dissertation on the Poor Laws"" in which he expounded a naturalistic theory of economics and opposed the provision state provision, either outdoor or otherwise. In ""A Dissertation on the Poor Laws"", Townsend criticized relief as allowing the population to swell by protecting the weak, (see his parable of the goats and dogs on the Island of Fernandez), and thus called for the abolition of any state relief in pursuance of"
"handwriting on the wall may be a forgery."" <br>""Time, you old gypsy man, will you not stay, put up your caravan just for one day?"" <br>""Did anyone ever have a boring dream?"" Ralph Hodgson Ralph Hodgson (9 September 1871 – 3 November 1962), Order of the Rising Sun (Chinese 旭日章), was an English poet, very popular in his lifetime on the strength of a small number of anthology pieces, such as ""The Bull"". He was one of the more 'pastoral' of the Georgian poets. In 1954, he was awarded the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry. He seems to have covered"
"how unjustly and basely acquired, while getting them, so to speak, to swear off stealing and usurping and to promise to behave well in the future. We, on the other hand, while insisting on the principle of private property, in wealth honestly obtained under the reign of liberty, do not think it either unjust or unwise to dispossess the landlords who have monopolized natural wealth by force and fraud. We hold that the poor and disinherited toilers would be justified in expropriating, not alone the landlords, who notoriously have no equitable titles to their lands, but all the financial lords"
"Public Health Act 1904 The Public Health Act 1904 was an Act of Parliament of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is one of the Public Health Acts. In the November 1902 issue of ""National Review"" Conservative Party, Lord Salisbury wrote an article titled ""Labourers' and Artisans' Dwellings"" in which he argued that the poor conditions of working class were injurious to morality and health. """"Laissez-faire"" is an admirable doctrine but it must be applied on both sides"", Salisbury argued, as Parliament had enacted new building projects (such as the Thames Embankment) which had displaced working-class people and was"
"tale of a slave auction is told: The legend of Circassian women was also repeated by legal theorist Gustav Hugo, who wrote that ""Even beauty is more likely to be found in a Circassian slave girl than in a beggar girl"", referring to the fact that even a slave has some security and safety, but a ""free"" beggar has none. Hugo's comment was later condemned by Karl Marx in ""The Philosophical Manifesto of the Historical School of Law"" (1842) on the grounds that it excused slavery. Mark Twain reported in ""The Innocents Abroad"" (1869) that ""Circassian and Georgian girls are"
"Housing of the Working Classes Act 1885 The Housing of the Working Classes Act 1885 (48 & 49 Vict. c. 72) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Sections 7 to 10 of this Act are amongst the enactments which may be cited as the Public Health Acts. In the November 1883 issue of ""National Review"" Conservative Party leader Lord Salisbury wrote an article titled ""Labourers' and Artisans' Dwellings"" in which he argued that the poor conditions of working class housing were injurious to morality and health. """"Laissez-faire"" is an admirable doctrine but it must be applied"
"age, and night labor for those of less than 13 years. The law, however, was almost never implemented. Christians imagined a ""charitable economy"", while the ideas of Socialism, in particular utopian socialism (Saint-Simon, Charles Fourier, etc.) diffused themselves. Louis Auguste Blanqui theorized Socialist coup d'états, the socialist and anarchist thinker Pierre-Joseph Proudhon theorized mutualism, while Karl Marx arrived in Paris in 1843, and met there Friedrich Engels. Marx had come to Paris to work with Arnold Ruge, another revolutionary from Germany, on the ""Deutsch–Französische Jahrbücher"", while Engels had come especially to meet Marx. There, he showed him his work, ""The"
"the welfare state. In the late 15th century, parliament took action on the growing problem of poverty, focusing on punishing people for being ""vagabonds"" and for begging. In 1495, during the reign of King Henry VII, Parliament enacted the Vagabond Act. This provided for officers of the law to arrest and hold ""all such vagabonds, idle and suspect persons living suspiciously and them so taken to set in stocks, there to remain three nights and to have none other sustenance but bread and water; and after the said three days and three nights, to be had out and set at"
"society based on cooperation rather than competition. The French Revolution of 1789, Karl Marx and Frederick Engels wrote, ""abolished feudal property in favour of bourgeois property"". The French Revolution was preceded and influenced by the works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, whose ""Social Contract"" famously began: ""Man is born free, and he is everywhere in chains"". Rousseau is credited with influencing socialist thought, but it was François-Noël Babeuf, and his ""Conspiracy of Equals"", who is credited with providing a model for left-wing and communist movements of the 19th century. Marx and Engels drew from these socialist or communist ideas born in the"
"advantage to tenants. People moved in so rapidly that there was not enough capital to build adequate housing for everyone, so low-income newcomers squeezed into increasingly overcrowded slums. Clean water, sanitation, and public health facilities were inadequate; the death rate was high, especially infant mortality, and tuberculosis among young adults. Cholera from polluted water and typhoid were endemic. Unlike rural areas, there were no famines such as devastated Ireland in the 1840s. A large exposé literature grew up condemning the unhealthy conditions. By far the most famous publication was by one of the founders of the Socialist movement, ""The Condition"
"rich, of those in easy circumstances, of the poor, of workmen with their hands, workmen with their minds; of day-laborers, of those in need, of a small number of men enjoying considerable acquired or inherited wealth, of others of a smaller fortune painfully increased and improved, of others with property only sufficient for their needs; there are some, finally, without any personal possession but their hands, and gleaning for themselves and for their families, in the workshop, or the field, and at the threshold of the homes of others on the earth, the asylum, the wages, the bread, the instruction,"
"strategy by the anarchist London Congress. In 1886, French anarchist Clément Duval achieved a form of propaganda of the deed, stealing 15,000 francs from the mansion of a Parisian socialite, before accidentally setting the house on fire. Caught two weeks later, he was dragged from the court crying ""Long live anarchy!"", and condemned to death. Duval's sentence was later commuted to hard labor on Devil's Island, French Guiana. In the anarchist paper ""Révolte"", Duval famously declared that, ""Theft exists only through the exploitation of man by man... when Society refuses you the right to exist, you must take it... the"
"there must be at least five hundred poor, and the affluence of the few supposes the indigence of the many. The affluence of the rich excites the indignation of the poor, who are often both driven by want, and prompted by envy, to invade his possessions. It is only under the shelter of the civil magistrate that the owner of that valuable property, which is acquired by the labour of many years, or perhaps of many successive generations, can sleep a single night in security. He is at all times surrounded by unknown enemies, whom, though he never provoked, he"
"Law of rent The law of rent was formulated by David Ricardo around 1809, and presented in its most developed form in his magnum opus, ""On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation"". This is the origin of the term Ricardian rent. Ricardo's formulation of the law was the first clear exposition of the source and magnitude of rent, and is among the most important and firmly established principles of economics. John Stuart Mill called it the """"pons asinorum"""" of economics. The law of rent states that the rent of a land site is equal to the economic advantage obtained"
"Statute of Cambridge 1388 The Statute of Cambridge 1388 (12 Rich. 2, ch. 7) was a piece of English legislation that placed restrictions on the movements of labourers and beggars. It prohibited any labourer from leaving the hundred, rape, wapentake, city, or borough where he was living, without a testimonial, showing reasonable cause for his departure, to be issued under the authority of the justices of the peace. Any labourer found wandering without such letter, was to be put in the stocks until he found surety to return to the town from which he came. Impotent persons were to remain"
"has been a frequent commentator in the UK press on social responsibility and the treatment of homeless people. In June 2018, he argued in ""The Guardian"" that homelessness in the UK must not be viewed ""as detached from the housing crisis – a crisis exaggerated, even driven, by speculation on the housing market"". Kumar is also known for his legal reform campaigning. In November 2017, Kumar launched a campaign for the repeal or reform of the Vagrancy Act 1824, which makes it an offence to sleep rough or beg in England and Wales. The campaign gained initial support in the"
"hath he hitherto been happiest on earth; and when he invented his hell, behold, that was his heaven on earth."" Throughout his writings, he speaks of the human being as an animal. In 1894, Henry Salt (1851–1939), a former master at Eton, who had set up the Humanitarian League to lobby for a ban on hunting the year before, published ""Animals' Rights: Considered in Relation to Social Progress"". He wrote that the object of the essay was to ""set the principle of animals' rights on a consistent and intelligible footing."" Concessions to the demands for ""jus animalium"" had been made"
"abolitionist, wrote a poem in his memory. Samuel Edmund Sewall Samuel Edmund Sewall (1799-1888) was an American lawyer, abolitionist, and suffragist. He was one of the founders of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society in 1831, lent his legal expertise to the Underground Railroad, and served a term in the Massachusetts Senate as a Free-Soiler. Sewall was involved in several notable cases involving refugees from slavery, including George Latimer, Shadrach Minkins, Thomas Sims, Eliza Small, and Polly Ann Bates. He also worked to advance women's legal rights in Massachusetts. He was a descendant of the Puritan judge Samuel Sewall. Sewall was born"
"privileged body exempted from the ordinary law of the land. No such privileged body has ever before been deliberately created by an English Parliament. The economist Joseph Schumpeter in his book ""Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy"" said of the Act: It is difficult, at the present time, to realize how this measure must have struck people who still believed in a state and in a legal system that centered in the institution of private property. For in relaxing the law of conspiracy in respect to peaceful picketing—which practically amounted to legalization of trade-union action implying the threat of force—and in exempting"
"with division of labour and produce, common property, abolition of civil marriage and of the official currency, prohibition of taverns, liquor and prostitution, rigid control over crimes and mandatory religious activities. He also gave a measure of personal freedom from injustice and oppression by landlords and governmental authorities. The fame of Canudos spread rapidly throughout the Northeast, as being a promised land of ""milk and honey"". Former black slaves, uprooted indigenous people and impoverished and landless mestizos started to come in droves to Canudos. By one year later, Canudos already had 8,000 new residents; by 1895 its population had grown"
"who was also known as ""The Gloucester Miser"". According to the sociologist Frank W. Elwell, Scrooge's views on the poor are a reflection of those of the demographer and political economist Thomas Malthus, while the miser's questions ""Are there no prisons? ... And the Union workhouses? ... The treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?"" are a reflection of a sarcastic question raised by the Chartist philosopher Thomas Carlyle, ""Are there not treadmills, gibbets; even hospitals, poor-rates, New Poor-Law?"" There are literary precursors for Scrooge in Dickens's own works. Peter Ackroyd, Dickens's biographer, sees similarities between Scrooge"
"Vagabonds Act 1530 The Vagabonds Act of 1530 (22 Henry VIII c.12) was an act passed under Henry VIII and is a part of the Tudor Poor Laws of England. In full, it was entitled an ""Act how aged, poor and impotent Persons, compelled to live by Alms, shall be ordered; and how Vagabonds and Beggars shall be punished.” Under this act, vagabonds were subject to the harsher punishment of whipping, rather than the stocks. However, it also created provisions for those who were unable to work due to sickness, age, or disability. These ""impotent"" beggars could become licensed to"
"basis to a compulsory tax that was collected at a parish level. Early legislation was concerned with vagrants and making the able-bodied work, especially while labour was in short supply following the Black Death. Tudor attempts to tackle the problem originate during the reign of Henry VII. In 1495, Parliament passed the Vagabonds and Beggars Act ordering that ""vagabonds, idle and suspected persons shall be set in the stocks for three days and three nights and have none other sustenance but bread and water and then shall be put out of Town. Every beggar suitable to work shall resort to"
"Edwin James Milliken Edwin James Milliken (1839 in Ireland – 26 August 1897), was a ""Punch"" editor, journalist, satirical humorist and poet. He is best known for his oft-quoted poem """"Death and his brother sleep"""", notably quoted by Winston Churchill in the prelude to World War II when he felt that parliament was not taking the prospect of a war against Hitler seriously enough. He produced a series of comic poems published as ""The 'Arry Papers"" between 1874 and 1897. He worked as journalist on the ""London Figaro"" in 1872 and joined ""Punch"" in 1877. His creation of 'Arry, a"
"This class of capitalists and landlords, the unlimited freedom that makes mistress of grain prices, is also mistress of the establishment of the working day."" He concluded by calling for land reform, with a maximum farm size of , and the central management of essential supplies, with its members elected by the people. He also argued in favour of a law establishing the general maximum, thus introducing price controls. At the time the Convention was dominated by the Gironde, so his proposal was rejected. Only when the Jacobins took power was a Commission on Subsistence and Provisions set up, in"