c. 39) was a piece of legislation in England and Wales that criminalised men who lived off the earnings of prostitution (pimping) and who solicited in public places.

[citation needed] Lord Salisbury, a Conservative and the British Prime Minister, was constantly aware of his party's enemy, Socialism, "Whenever an Act for the benefit of the people is introduced.

Henry Chaplin, President of the Local Government Board, implemented the bill in 1899, his committee reported that "All needy and deserving poor over the age of 65 should receive 5 s. per week under strict conditions.

He described "rogues and vagabonds," as "bullies" and "enemies of society," rejoining with "those men who lived by the disgraceful earnings of the women whom they consorted with and controlled.

"[8] Defending beggars and homelessness became one of Liberal leader William Gladstone's social concerns expressed in speeches, legislation, public oratory, and the opening of new hospitals, schools and workhouses.

The essential Protestant nature of the vagrancy offence meant violations were met by punishment such as, beatings, floggings, and whippings before they were sent home, without the adequate realisation that industrialisation caused migration across communities from the countryside.

Thus the Report of Minority Opinion was condemned in a scathing critique by Fabian Socialists, Beatrice and Sidney Webb, in their work The Break-Up of the Poor Law (1909), in which they described how only 3% could actually be categorised as "professional tramps.

London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Newcastle, Bristol in England are the only areas with any correlated data in Victorian period for homelessness.

The Home Secretary did consider amendments, its main purposes being to update the vagrancy legislation in the whole bill; living "on the prostitution of a woman" remained an offence.

"[15] One of the results of Vagrancy Act 1898 was a growth in social purity legislation, including feminist campaigns to protect women and children against trafficking.

Under section 21 of the Summary Jurisdiction (Married Women) Act 1879 any convicted offender who continued in cohabitation was granted an order for separation on the ground of desertion.

Then the High Court ruled that a person was not a vagrant if they were collecting money or food for strikers and their families (Pointon v Hill (1884) 12 QBD 306).

Lord Balfour of Burleigh, the Conservative Secretary of State for Scotland had no objection to a second reading to "compel extremely undesirable persons to leave the Metropolis" of Glasgow.