在舊時代中，有錢有勢的階級繳濟貧稅，企圖用錢收買平靜，將窮人隔離在他們的活動範圍之外，即使許多從事慈善的動機也不外乎是如此。

恩格斯(F. Engels)在1843年的曼徹斯特衛報上讀到一篇給編輯部的信，內容是這樣的：

編輯先生，

近來在我們的城市街道上出現了大批的乞丐，他們時常企圖用那襤褸的衣服和生病的樣子，或者令人作嘔化膿的傷口和殘廢的肢體，以極端無恥和令人討厭的方式吸引路人的注意和憐憫。我認為，一個不僅已經付過濟貧稅而且還給慈善機構捐過不少錢的人，應該有充分的權利要求不再碰到這種不愉快和無恥的糾纏了。如我城市警察連保證我們平靜地在城裡來去都做不到，那我們究竟為什麼要付出那麼多的稅捐來供養他們呢？我希望這封信在你們這個擁有廣大讀者的報紙上刊登之後，能促使當局設法消除這種惡劣現象。

永遠忠實於您的一位太太

In the old days, people with money and power attempted to buy peace. They isolated the poor in a corner of the society where they would never visit. They paid the poor rate(tax) and even contributed to the charities for this attempt.

Friedrich Engels read in the Manchester Guardian the following letter to the editor in 1843. This letter as an instrument was published without comment as "usual". It seems it was such a "natural" and "reasonable" thing to do.

Mr. Editor,

For some time past our main streets are haunted by swarms of beggers, who try to awaken the pity of the passers-by in a most shameless and annoying manner, by exposing their tattered clothing, sickly aspect, and disgusting wounds and deformities. I should think that when one not only pays the poor-rate, but also contributes largely to the charitable institutions, one had done enough to earn a right to be spared such disagreeable and impertinent molestations. And why else do we pay such high rates for the maintanance of the municipal police, if they do not even protect us so far as to make it possible to go to or out of town in peace? I hope the publication of these lines in your widely-circulated paper may induce the authorities to remove this nuisance; and I remain,

Your obedient servant,

A lady**

**Friedrich Engels, The Condition of the Working-Class in England in 1844 (London: George Allen &Unwin Ltd., 1892), p.278-279.