Well, when the Religious Houses were destroyed in England the State had to do their work.

You could not simply flog beggars out of existence, as Elizabeth tried to do.

Then the inevitable happened, and it began to be a mark of disgrace to be helped by the State in a workhouse: people often preferred to starve.

Then at the beginning of the twentieth century a well-meant attempt was made, in the Old-Age Pensions and George's State Insurance Act, to remedy this and to help the poor in a manner that would not injure their self-respect.

Of course that failed, too.