v'f THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES ot s/ / ^/:^/Ca^^6e^ <7 LETTER TO THE KATE PAYEES OF ETON. BY W. G. COOKESLEY. LONDON : JAMES R1DGWAY, PICCADILLY. MDCCCXLI. A LETTER, ETC. ETC. GENTLEMEN, I hardly feel that any apology is necessary from me in venturing to address you on the present occasion, because I am assured that you will never turn a deaf ear to the voice of him who pleads the cause of humanity, however humble his station may be. I am convinced that all the inhabitants of our parish must feel equally afflicted and disgraced at the exposure which has recently taken place of the cruelties practised in our Work- house. It is impossible to deny that every indivi- dual who has a voice in the election of Guardians of the Poor is seriously and responsibly concerned in the conduct of the Board of Guardians and it is our most solemn duty to do all in our power to see that the Board of our Union shall be so consti- tuted, and its offices so discharged as to do perfect 62968? justice to all parties, to be merciful and considerate towards the poor, at the same time that the in- terests of the Rate Payers are not forgotten or neglected ; equally impossible is it to deny that facts have become public which lead us to suspect that the Poor in our Union who are compelled to apply for Parochial relief, are not always treated with that humanity and kindness to which their wretchedness and destitution has so paramount a claim. We have no reason to suppose the case of Elizabeth Wise to be a solitary one, we can only argue from the general character and principles of a system to its natural arid obvious results, and I grieve to say that public opinion does. by no means falsify the probable conclusions of reason in the case of the Eton Union ; I fearlessly appeal to all men who make it their business to inquire into the subject, whether the proceedings of the Eton Board of Guardians have not for some time past been such as to create a general belief that the poor are treated by them with unnecessary harsh- ness and severity ? It is true the Chairman of that Board, Major Bent, is as kind hearted, charitable, and amiable man, as ever breathed, but then what power has he to resist or mitigate the unfeeling decrees of the other Guardians? the two Guar- 5 dians for our own parish (Messrs. H. Ingalton and Goddard) are persons of known humanity and benevolence ; but as they have extensive business to attend to we cannot suppose that they have the power of devoting many hours in the week to the business of Guardians ; to this particular branch of the subject, however, I shall allude more especially hereafter. I have said that \ve have some reason to conclude that the poor in our Workhouse are treated with needless unkindness. I will give you an instance Mr. Ward, the clergyman of Iver, being anxious to mitigate in some degree the wretchedness of such of his pa- rishioners as were confined in the workhouse, some few weeks since brought packets of tea for them, and amongst other things some liquorice to relieve an old person or persons whom he knew to be afflicted with violent cough the Board of Guar- dians, however, resolved that this offering of charity should not be accepted ! Nay more ; they wrote to the Poor-Law Commissioners for authority to reject it, and this authority they of course obtained from their superiors. Now, I call a law admini- stered in such a spirit, a brutal and a barbarous law. I remember who it is that says, that " blessed 6 is the man that provideth for the sick and needy, the Lord shall deliver him in the time of trouble." And I feel myself armed with the same authority when I say that, " cursed is the man that op- presseth the sick and needy, the Lord shall not de- liver him in the time of trouble." This sentence has a national as well as an individual application, and I think we shall incur a heavy national re- sponsibility, if we do not do our utmost, every man in his own order and degree, towards rescuing our country from the judgment due to a national op- pression of the poor. It is high time for every man, professing Christian principles, especially those who are the appointed, consecrated promulgators of the Chris- tian faith, to ask themselves, whether they can con- scientiously approve of a law which is so admini- stered as to violate the first rule of Christian charity? And I cannot but observe, that this cruel method of executing a stern law is no less stupid and im- politic, than it is savage and abominable ; for if it be carried on in this spirit it is past all reasonable doubt, that it must end politically in a regular jacquerie that is, a systematic war of the poor against the rich ; as it must end religiously in the total destruction of all Christian influence upon 7 the poor ; for it is absurd to suppose that they will listen to the doctrines of a religion whose principles they see practically despised by their betters. I should be glad to know, what possible defence can be alleged for a Board of Guardians which appointed such a man as Howe to be Master of a Workhouse. Mr. Parker, the Assistant Poor-Law Commissioner, is said to have recommended him to the Board, But this is no justification of them ; it was their duty to examine into the character of a man, to whose discretion and temper they were going to entrust the happiness and comfort of those poor, whose nominal guardians they are. In truth, the ideas which this Board have of justice to- wards their servants, as well as the poor, are rather curious ; for instance, when Howe was convicted before them of the horrid cruelty, for which he was subsequently fined by the Magistrates, (and who then, and not till then, was ordered to be dismissed from his station by the Poor Law Com- missioners,) the Board of Guardians apparently felt no sort of anger, made no attempt at reparation to the injured woman, and contented themselves with resolving that Howe had acted " hastily." Now compare this conduct of theirs with that 8 which they thought proper to adopt towards Mr. Haig, who was master of the workhouse before Howe they dismissed him ; and moreover dis- missed him with such a character and in such a manner as to render it impossible, so far at least as their malignity could make it, for him ever to hold a similar office again. Now what was this man's offence ? Why, that he did not uphold the strict discipline of the house. What this discipline means we have since had ample opportunity of learning. Thus it appears that to be too lenient is an unpardonable sin in the judgment of the Board of Guardians ; but to practise outrageous cruelty is a matter which affects them in a very trifling degree. Whilst on the subject of the appointment of mas- ters to the workhouse, I wish to draw your atten- tion to the circumstances under which a new one has just been appointed. Whilst I was a Guardian it was made a bye-law of the Board, that in the event of an office under the Board being vacant, due notice should be given to every Guar- dian of the day when the office was to be filled up by election. On Tuesday last, January 5, Mr. Parker waited at the Board of Guardians, until only three or four of the members were left sitting, and then, without any notice what- 9 ever having been given that a master was to be elected on that day, he proposed one Aitken, as a fit person to hold that office ; and who is this Aitken? a Serjeant in the army. No man has a higher esteem than myself for the British soldier, but I must maintain that the life of the common soldier is not a proper education to fit a man for the superintendence of a work-house the discipline of the guard-room and the barrack-yard, naturally unfits a man for the very different species of con- troul requisite for the management of aged and sick paupers, of women, and of children ; it is unfair to the soldier to put him in a situation which it is hardly possible he should discharge well. But per- haps you may be inclined to ask me how it is possible that things can be so ill managed by the Board of Guardians, considering that so many men of acknowledged humanity are members of it ? The Union consists of 19 parishes, and the Board, taking in the ex-officio, as well as the elective members, cannot contain less than forty persons ; it is un- reasonable, you will say, to suppose that all these persons should agree in executing this law in so oppressive a manner ; and there is no doubt that these gentlemen would not enforce the law in an unfeeling way ; but )tthe fact is that the whole 10 business of the Union is transacted by about one- eighth part of its members ; not above one in eight, I am quite certain, attends the board regularly and uniformly ; and I am now come to the point to which I wish to direct your particular attention. Any person acquainted with the real operation of the poor law in our Union, will, I know, support me in assuring you that the great cause of the mischiefs that have been done and are now doing, is to be found in the fact that the great majority of the Guardians do not attend, and so the government of it is left in the hands of a small and insignificant knot of men. I think it is our duty to provide, at any rate as far as we can, a remedy for this evil, by electing such Guardians as will undertake, bond r fide, to discharge the duties of their office. It is hardly to be expected that any tradesman in very active business can give up one day in the week to the duties of guardian for attendance at the Board is tedious and wearisome to a very conside- rable degree ; it is the policy of that small com- mittee of men who really manage the Board, to sit out every body but themselves, and then, when the room has been cleared of all but their own persons, they rapidly bring forward and determine on most important matters ; so that it very often happens 11 that more extensive and important business is trans- acted in the last half hour of a seven hours' sitting than was done in the first six and a-half./ Probably Howe was whitewashed as far as the Board could do that respectable service for him at the end of such a sitting as I have described. It is at the same time that jobs of all sorts are done, officers ap- pointed, &c. I do not expect a Guardian to undertake to waste so much time for nothing. I therefore pro- pose that we should pay at least one Guardian in future who will pledge himself to attend the weekly sittings of the Board. There are, I apprehend, many persons in our parish, who would gladly un- dertake this office if they were remunerated for it. I believe we may safely challenge any parish in England to produce a greater proportion of cha- ritable and benevolent persons than dwell amongst ourselves, and I am convinced, that if the pa- rishioners were satisfied, that by the payment of 25. per annum to a Guardian, they would gain some sort of security against the continuance of the present system of ill-treating the poor, there would be no difficulty in raising that sum b} r sub- scription. I would further propose that this Guar- dian should be required to make a note of the case of every Eton pauper who applies for relief to w the Board, and that in the event t)f any person's application being, in his judgment, unjustly and unfeelingly rejected, as also in the case of any thing being done by the Board, which he considers cruel, he should immediately communicate with the overseers of the parish, and it would be their duty to make the matter known immediately to a vestry. Thus a certain degree of publicity would be given to the proceedings of the Board of Guardians. I am perfectly certain that the enor- mities that have been perpetrated under the au- thority of the Poor Law would never have been attempted, if the Guardians had not felt that they were a secret and virtually an irresponsible court. I am not so weak as to imagine that by securing the regular attendance of our Guardians, we shall necessarily secure humane and wise management of the poor but we shall take an important pre- liminary step towards obtaining that desirable object; at present we know nothing of the manner in which the wants of our poor are dealt with, unless, indeed, when some gross case of cruelty is accidentally dragged into light. It is in fact no- body's business in the parish to find out the real condition of the poor. I think this is a bad state of things, and one which WQ are bound to remedy as 13 V- far as we can. *\ very much doubt whether one person in a hundred of all the inhabitants of our Union knew that the case of the man who died in a field from starvation (which case was detailed in a letter signed " Justitia"), occurred in our own Union. I cannot doubt that if we of this parish had been aware of the circumstances at the time they occurred, we should have instructed our Guardians to remonstrate with the Board on their unfeeling conduct. 1 hope you will not look on me as a headlong intemperate opponent of the New Poor Law as one anxious to procure its total repeal by whatever means. I am not in- sensible to the merits of the law and the good that it has worked in our own pari'sh. Under the old system a number of idle and drunken persons were entirely supported at the expense of the honest and industrious rate -payer parochial relief had become an hereditary settlement in many families, and mischiefs proceeding from this source of a very great and disastrous extent, had become permanently fixed amongst us ; these evils have been satisfactorily and finally remedied by the new law, and I feel that a great good has been done accordingly ; but the very fact that the evils of the old law have been abolished those evils which it 14 was the professed object of the Amendment Act to remedy renders a recourse to harsh and cruel measures under the present system the more unac- countable and unjustifiable. We shall do well to reflect seriously what will be the probable conse- quences of the continuance of such a system. The starving labourer to whom I have just alluded, having failed of obtaining any relief from the Board of Guardians, having no means of satisfying the famine of his wife and children, and unable to bear the horrors of his own wretched family, arose and left his desolate home, and laid himself to sleep in a field, and in the morning was found a starved stiffened corpse. But suppose this same man had proceeded to the high road, resolved to feed his children by the fruits of robbery rather than see them die of hunger, is there any one so hard-hearted as to find no excuse for a man that had formed such a determination ?Vl am sure you will consider the matters on which I have ventured to address you, to be worthy of your most solemn regard ; at all events, entertaining the strong opinions on the subject that I do, and remembering that you did me the honour to appoint me guardian of your poor when this new law was first set in operation, I am satisfied that you will not consider me obtru- 15 sive or impertinent in thus desiring your attention on so important an occasion. I am, Gentlemen, Your very obedient servant, W. G. COOKESLEY. Eton, Jan. 11, 1841. NOK.MAX AMI SKEEX, PRINTERS, MAIDEN LANE, COVJJST GARDEN. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. MV 2 8 1950 Form L9-42m-8,'49(B5573)444 TTRRARY A 000 622 974 4 *M m