Describe the various marginal groups in London in the later half of the 19th century. What steps were taken by the government towards them ?
(1) As London grew, crime flourished. The marginal groups were as mentioned below : Criminals : There were about 20,000 criminals living in London in the 1870s. Crime had become an object of widespread concern. The police were worried about law and order. Philanthropists were anxious about public morality and industrialists wanted hard-working and orderly labour force. Poor people : In his writing on London labour Henry Mayhew listed that ‘criminals’ were in fact poor people who lived by stealing lead from roofs, food from shops, lumps of coal and clothes drying on hedges. There were others who were cheats and tricksters, pickpockets and petty thieves crowding the streets of London. Women : A large number of women worked in factories in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. With technological developments they, however, lost their jobs and shifted to work within households as domestic servants. Some started other works like tailoring, washing or match-box making. Children : Large number of children worked in the factories. They were, however, paid low wages. Under such circumstances, many children turned to criminal activities because they could earn more from thieving. Andrew Means, a clergy man in his book The Bitter Cry of Outcast London in the 1880, wrote that crime’was more profitable than labouring in small underpaid factories. (2) Steps taken by the government : Population of criminals was counted. Their activities were watched and their ways of life were investigated. In an attempt to discipline the population, the authorities imposed high penalties for crime and offered work to those who were considered the ‘deserving poor’. So far women were concerned, as they got employment in wartime industries and offices they withdrew from domestic service. In 1870 the Compulsory Elementary Education Act was passed. Factory acts were passed from 1902 onwards. As a result of these acts, children were kept out of industrial work. Housing Schemes for the marginal groups were planned due to fear of revolt by them.
