It is too often assumed that the social legislation which has been hammered out in the British Parliament of the last two years is the product of some purely socialistic blue-print. In reality it is the culmination of a process dating back to the first decade of the twentieth century, which has been carried out by Liberal, then Conservative and now Socialist governments over the whole period from 1907 to 1947. Although there are differences of opinion on the timing of this process, and on many administrative and legislative details, the broad pattern of development has almost common acceptance. In its essence this pattern is simple. It is no less than the replacement of the Elizabethan Poor Law, with its emphasis on the relief of poverty, by a more modern structure of social legislation intended to ensure the freedom of the individual from the major evils of a modern industrial society. These evils have been aptly summarized by Sir William (now Lord) Beveridge: “physical Want, … Disease which often causes that Want and brings many other troubles in its train, … Ignorance which no democracy can afford among its citizens, … Squalor which arises mainly through the haphazard distribution of industry and population, and Idleness which destroys wealth and corrupts men, whether they are well fed or not, when they are idle.”

The accompanying table sets out the steps in this process of social change in the chronological sequence of the legislative measures by which it has been achieved. In order to prevent the confusion of over-elaborate detail, this tabulation gives only the major changes as they occurred. To have included, for example, the complete tally of unemployment insurance acts from 1911 to 1944 would have been unprofitable and would have obscured the issue.