University of Windsor Scholarship at UWindsor Electronic Theses and Dissertations Theses, Dissertations, and Major Papers 1-1-1980 Henry Fielding on charity and the eighteenth-century English poor. Bruce Donald University of Windsor Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd Recommended Citation Donald, Bruce, "Henry Fielding on charity and the eighteenth-century English poor." (1980). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 6748. https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd/6748 This online database contains the full-text of PhD dissertations and Masters’ theses of University of Windsor students from 1954 forward. These documents are made available for personal study and research purposes only, in accordance with the Canadian Copyright Act and the Creative Commons license—CC BY-NC-ND (Attribution, Non-Commercial, No Derivative Works). 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ABSTRACT As magistrate in a wretched London court, Henry Fielding had daily evidence of the misery and despair of the poor and the power to do something about it. The question addressed by Henry Fielding on Charity and the Eighteenth- Century English Poor is how successfully did Fielding trans­ form his ideal of charity (as moral imperative, religious duty and the ultimate expression of good nature) into practical programs for the poor. The study also tries to establish the meeting point between his idea of charity, as expressed in the fiction writings, and in his legal and other non­ fiction writings on the poor. The study places Fielding’s views on charity within the "benevolist" context of commentators like Isaac Barrow, Shaftesbury and Joseph Addison. Eighteenth-century poverty programs are placed alongside critical assessments by men like Daniel Defoe and Bernard Mandeville. Fielding’s legal tracts on the poor are examined for his attitude to poverty as well as his recommendations for creating programs to eradicate poverty in England. The study reveals the centrality of charity in the body of Fielding's work and underscores his conviction that it is the prerequisite for a humane, vigorous society. The study also establishes Fielding's moral man as no gullible senti­ mentalist but a reasonable, compassionate creature who will ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. iii not support reprobates under any circumstances. To the extent that there is any harshness in Fielding’s attitude to the poor, the study suggests that it is typical of the period. Fielding's conviction that the poor are often responsible for their misery is balanced by a desire to mobilize the full power of the law to force the poor to a social productivity which would be, in Fielding's judge­ ment, their liberation. The study concludes that Fielding's solution for the urban poor, the workhouse, is a well- considered ideal but, in practice, a predictable failure. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT .............................................. ü INTRODUCTION .......................................... 1 Chapter I. CHARITY AND POVERTY PROGRAMS IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLAND Charity as a Religious- Philosophical Ideal ...................... 6 Eighteenth-Century Poverty Programs...... 14 Bernard Mandeville and Daniel Defoe on Charity and the English Poor........... 18 II. HENRY FIELDING AND THE "IDEA" Of Charity.. 31 III. THE PROBLEM AND THE SOLUTION; HENRY FIELDING ON THE EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLISH POOR............................... 4 5 IV. CHARITY IN THE NOVELS : THE CHALLENGE OF THE IDEAL.................... 76 FINAL CONCLUSIONS.................................... Ill BIBLIOGRAPHY.......................................... 117 VITA AUCTORIS......................................... 120 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. INTRODUCTION ...A Person void of Charity, is unworthy the Appellation of a Christian; that he hath no Pretense to either Goodness or Justice, or even to the Character of Humanity; that he is in honest Truth, an Infidel, a Rogue, and a Monster, and ought to be expelled not only^ from the Society of Christians, but of Men. For Fielding, "charity" was a moral imperative, both a concept and a natural law, something to be integrated with good-nature to produce a human being with a marked affinity for God. As such. Fielding believed that charity is the central virtue of the moral universe and no man, in his view, could lay claim to humanity unless charity motivated his behavior toward his fellow men. A study of Fielding's extensive literary and journalistic works will reveal his tireless desire to justify charity to his contemporaries and to show how society is weakened and made barbaric by its absence, Fielding recognized that charity is a virtue easily preached but not easily practised. The ironist . in him noted how the theorists of charity could write volumes in praise of charity and then walk with noses in the air in callous disregard for those in need of their help. Human beings, Fielding sadly realized, can be consummate hypocrites. He was anxious to have these hypocrites exposed as singular enemies of the common good. Fielding's position as tireless advocate of the charitable ideal is somewhat unique in English Literature. He was able 1 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. to carry over his theories and beliefs which he so carefully expounds in his novels and miscellaneous works, into the world of the here and now. At the end of his life. Fielding was a magistrate in a grim London police court and as such found himself face to face with the definitive embodiment of human misery. In the daily parade of impoverished and’ criminal humanity. Fielding found himself having to test the charitable impulse against the exigencies of economics, security and public order. By examining the legalistic writings that ensued from this period of Fielding's career we can see his conviction that charity could be reconciled with the economic well-being of the nation. The poor in Fielding's England were a conspicuous presence and a public disgrace which threatened, according to Fielding, England's claim to being a Christian country. A social history of the period reveals the desperate standard of living and the overwhelming sense of despair that was the lot of the English poor. The urban centers thronged with an impoverished mass of brutalized humanity. Since unemployment and low wages were economic facts of life, many people turned to crime. The criminal laws of England recognized no extenuating circum­ stances, and many of the poor were jailed, transported or hung for the crime of trying to stay alive. Fielding felt keenly the failure of the law and the government to make the lower classes self-supportive and productive, and he took it as the responsibility of the charitable man to reform and Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. and revitalize the social order. Fielding was not alone in his desire to help those who had fallen victim to the general social malaise. In the eighteenth century, there emerged, especially among the educated, a sense of universal benevolism, a recognition that helping the less fortunate was a signal virtue. An examination of these currents will help to isolate Fielding's contribution to this social phenomenon. Fielding never advanced the view that man was perfect and could practise charity with the love and rationality of the angels. Man's moral vision. Fielding maintained, was at best clouded.