Providence Lost by Lay Paul;

Author:Lay, Paul; [Lay, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Head of Zeus

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The reality was that the moral policing of the major generals and their commissioners, while irritating to many, had only a limited impact. There is little evidence that, on their watch, sexual offences were reduced, nor that rural sports were successfully proscribed. And, although England – thanks to the Elizabethan Poor Laws – had, arguably, the most successful system of poor relief in Europe at the time, vagrancy, which had risen considerably as a result of the devastation of civil war, remained a problem. Some major generals made considerable efforts to tackle the issue, using the brutally effective method of rounding up vagrants for transportation, but they discovered that central government had failed to organize the ships required to transport these unfortunates overseas. As a consequence, most were released back on to the streets.

There were those, however, who believed the system was working. Whalley informed Thurloe that the people of the East Midlands ‘look upon it as a favour to them to have us in their county’. He was not alone in thinking so. In Wales, Rowland Dawkins thought the results of their labours were ‘very observable’ and that the good people of South Wales regarded their rule as ‘very necessary and just’. It is worth remembering, however, that the major generals came into contact largely with commissioners, who shared not only their world view, but also their overly optimistic account of what they were achieving. Both the major generals and their commissioners would face a public judgement on their rule soon enough.

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