A letter from a pauper in Truro, Cornwall, to Edwin Chadwick, expressing his intention to commit individual acts of vandalism in protest at his treatment under the New Poor Law. This was the 3rd letter that Mr Ford wrote about his relief:
Archive reference: MH12/1527/32
Date of Letter: 14 August 1835
Poor Law Union: Truro Poor Law Union
Mr E Chadwick
Sir
I humbly supplicate you of your goodness, to convey me, those documents, I enclosed in a letter some time Since, addressed to the Commissioners, as they may be to me of material consequence, I once more beg to inform the Board that since my arrival from Penzance Dispensary about a month since, I received on the Parish account, one pound and half of dry bread alone and that quantity, but for one week, during that time, they Select Vestry assembled yesterday. I [n]<entreated> them, to only to assist me to a few Shillings, to again go to the Penzance Dispensary but they would ^not^ neither give me a farthing nor admit me to the Work House, last Evening a Humane person represented my Condition at the house of the overseer, but to no purpose, so in order to prevent starvation and an increase of disease, I must and do intend this day to break the windows of the Overseer, Mr Hicks, if I do so he says, he will immediately, write your Honour and Endeavour to get me Transported which I can assure your Honour ^that^ a life of banishment, would be preferable to perishing in the Streets, I believe the Law does not allow any one to Die for want, if they are able to work and refuse so to do, they have no more to do, but to make a complaint to a Magistrate as [if] the Justices, have previously, told them, and then commit, me to prison, for refusing to be employed, if they would do this I would break no Glass, but no, they will not do it, they well knows, by undergoing an examination [from] the Surgeon of the County would pronounce me to be a disabled person
I am Sir
Your Most Obedient
Humble Servant
John Ford
Truro Post Office
August 14th 1835
PS, To prove Gentlemen that it is alone for want, I violated or must violate the Laws of my Country, I told the Overseer what I intended Doing, and have also, allowed this Letter to be read, by Mr Rowe Constable,, opposite the House of Mr Hicks, he certainly advises me not to do so but cannot tell, how I may get cured of my disease, or relieved of my wants, he says he will speak to the Keeper of the Town Prison. To let me lie there, in Prison, rather than I shall remain at night in the streets