If the step here suggested were adopted by the Trade Societies, it would, according to calculations which I have made, reduce the begging population by about two per cent.  This percentage, in my opinion, represents the number of vagrants who are able and willing to do a certain amount of work, but cannot get it to do.  It is a percentage which at any rate does not err on the side of being too low; when trade is at its ordinary level it is perhaps a little too high.  In any case this proportion may be taken as a tolerably accurate estimate of the numbers of the vagrant class which will not enter the Unions when out of employment, and are consequently forced by the pressure of want to resort to a life of beggary.

The proportion here indicated of the number of vagrants who are willing to work coincides in a remarkable manner with certain statistics recently collected by H. Monod of the Ministry of the Interior in France.[19] According to M. Monod a benevolently disposed French citizen wished to know the amount of truth contained in the complaints of sturdy beggars, that they were willing to work if they could get anything to do or anyone to employ them.  This gentleman entered into negotiations with some merchants and manufacturers, and induced them to offer work at the rate of four francs a day to every person presenting himself furnished with a letter of recommendation from him.  In eight months 727 sturdy beggars came under his notice, all complaining that they had no work.  Each of them was asked to come the following day to receive a letter which would enable him to get employment at four francs a day in an industrial establishment.  More than one half (415) never came for the letter; a good many others (138) returned for the letter but never presented it.  Others who did present their letter worked half a day, demanded two francs and were seen no more.  A few worked a whole day and then disappeared.  In short, out of the whole 727 only 18 were found at work at the end of the third day.  As a result of this experiment M. Monod concludes that not more than one able-bodied beggar in 40 is inclined to work even if he is offered a fair remuneration for his services.

    [19] Cf. L’Etat Moderne et ses Functions par Paul Leroy Beaulieu,
    p. 300.  See also Mr. J.C.  Sherrard’s letter to the Times of
    January 8th, 1891, on “Tramps.”

If further proof were wanted that vagrancy, as far, at least, as England and Wales are concerned, is very seldom produced by destitution, it will be found in the following facts.  A comparison between the number of male and female vagrants arrested in 1888 under the provisions of the Vagrancy Acts shows that there were nearly four times more male vagrants proceeded against before the magistrates than female.  The exact numbers are males, 40,672; females, 11,464.  Although the numbers charged vary from year to year, the proportion between males and females always remains