v^ o WlfUNIVERy/A \WMJNIVER5//>. o %a3AINa-3WV O -v^lllBRARYQ^ ^^^^UIBRAI1 ^^ ^OFCAIIFO/?^ ^- ^» ^,OfCAllF0/?/(>^ ^OFCAllfO/?^ «^^WF UNIVERS/^ •^i,OFCAllFO% ^.^UIBRAI %odnv: ^OFCAIII %a3AiNn-3Wv ^? ^UIBRARY\IIIBRARY/?/^ %jnvDjo>^ aWEUNIVERVa . , , ^ o v^VlOSANCElfj>, ■^AajAiNn-jwv OfCAlIFO%, ^;0FCAIIF0% ^WE INIVER^ _ o ^^UIBRARYQ^ %JI1V3J0>^ ^WE■UNIVER5'/A ^IJDNVSOl^" .^lOSANCElfj> o "':a3AINn•3W^^ ^A\tLlBRARY6>/C, < ^OFCAIIFO/?^ ^' ^i THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES; OK, THE HISTORY OF THE WORKING OF THE NEW POOR-LAW. G. R. WYTHEN BAXTER, AUTHOR OF " HUMOUR AND PATHOS," ETC. ; AND A LINEAL DESCENDANT OF THE CELEBRATED NONCONFORMIST, RICHARD BAXTER, AUTHOR OF THE " SAINTS' REST," ETC. " Scorn not my words ; beware you slight them not ! I feel how nobk are the motives which now animate my thoughts. Who could not feel as I do, I condemn : — who, feeling so, yet would not act as I shall — I despise." — Sheridan's Pizarro. LONDON: PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY JOHN STEPHENS, WARWICK-LANE ; AND SOLD BY ALL BOOKSELLERS. 1841. LONDON : PRINTED BY JOHN STEPHENS, WARWICK-LANE, I'ATEUNOSTER-ROW. *HV79 INTRODUCTION. The author's reason for calling into existence such a work as the one now presented to the public, was, the conception that a publica- tion, similar in its tendency, was not only, under the present dispen- sation of affairs, required, but imperatively demanded ; and that as much to perpetuate and hand down to the appreciation of posterity the humane exertions of the New Poor-Law Opposition, as to justify, by a condensed (though necessarily comprehensive) and interest- ing selection of their sayings and doings, their conduct in the eyes of the existent generation. In fact, the author deemed there was need in our libraries of a book of national reference — a standard history of Anti-New Poor-Law eloquence and benevolence, and of Pro-New Poor-Law enormities and horrors — a book wdiich our children's children hereafter, when the abominable enactment shall be repealed (as repealed it must be), might consult and wonder o'er as a chronicle that such things were, and, in closing the leaves, bless God that such things were no longer. The Book of the Bastiles is composed not only for the present generation, but for posterity (and to both, surely, such a work will be useful and acceptable) — not only to excite the abhorrence of future beings for an atrocious legislative decree and its administra- tors, but, at the same time, to show those who shall fill our vacant places, when we shall be no longer seen, that there were not want- ing men — and fine, nol)le-minded men too — notwithstanding the outrageous inhumanity which prevailed at the period — who, in the face of arbitrary power, persecution, death, and neglect and con- tempt worse to brook than death, dared be honest, dared be humane, and oppose it. In other words, the Book of the Bastiles is intended to certify to Englishmen, yet unborn, that the same age which produced a Brougham, a Russell, a Malthus, and a " Marcus," nurtured and reared also, as if in extenuation, a Stanhope, an Oastler, a Fielden, and a Walter, — a General Johnson, and a Bishop of Exeter, as excellent as eloquent — benevolent — a constant opponent of the "boon." But the paramount reason for publishing the Book of the Bastiles was, the urgent necessity in the present alarming crisis — a crisis mainly attributal^le to the operation of such harsh, biting sta- tutes as the New Poor-Law — of calling the attention of the upper and middle classes to the inhumanity, unchristianity, injustice, and political and social danger of the continued administration of the New Poor-Law Amendment-Act in Enccland and Wales. IV INTRODUCTION. Had there Ijeen no lettre de cachet^ the revohitionary MarseiUaise would never have been tuned in retribution, and Louis XVI. would have died in his bed, and not on the block. Had there been no New Poor-Law, the name of Chartist would never have been heard ; nor would Birmingham have been heated with fire and fury, or Newport have run red with the gore of Britons from the hills. These are truisms that need no further parley. That Rural Police, and increased taxation, are the " Act's" necessary assistants on the Government's side, and stack-firing, and the manufacturing of pikes, its natural accompaniments on the side of the governed, are facts, alas ! equally incontrovertible. The New Poor-Law and good government and good order cannot exist together ; the former must and will destroy the other two. The contents of the Book of the Bastiles are especially addressed to the sympathies of noblemen, gentlemen, and tradesmen, and those who have the power and means to right the wrong ; and it is sincerely to be desired, that the perusal of its pages will be instru- mental in destroying the apathy — cruel and criminal — with which the generality of the said noblemen, gentlemen, and tradesmen, &c., have too long regarded the wholesale and extensive exteraiination and desperation of their poorer brethren, which, since the introduc- tion of the Somerset-house edict, have taken place. May its pages have such beneficial result, and be the means, now political tempests are raging and roaring, and almost overwhelming, of saving our country — *' a brave vessel, Who ' has,' no doubt, some noble creatures in her," from being wrecked and dashed all to pieces ! With regard to the letters and other articles (exclusive of the contents of the compiled portions) forming the Book of the Bastiles^ it is proper to report, that, with some few exceptions, they have all appeared before, at different periods, in the columns of the Metro- politan Conservative Journal^ and other London papers of note and celebrity ; and likewise have been frequently reprinted in many of the most distinguished and popular of the provincial press ; besides in pamphlets, handbills, &c. " To be mentioned with praise by a fine writer," says St. Evremond, " is a patent for esteem in all future ages, and an ex- emption from contempt and oblivion !" It may, therefore, perhaps be pardoned the confession — the owning the " soft impeachment" — that the letters and articles in question have, whenever they made their appearance in type, been received with very encomiastic ap- proval by editors, politicians, and men of literature. The following are a few (selected on account of their brevity) favourable " notices" of them and their author : of which it would be untrue to assert he is not proud : " We cannot part with the author of the Ponr-Lmv Papers, without thanking him INTRODUCTION. V cordially for the warm, earnest, and eloquent defence of the English peasantry, which he has made against the griping and grasping Whig Commissioners. We wish that, with a voice of thunder, we could echo his complaints, and make them be heard in the very heart of the Cabinet and the Queen's palace." — Editor of the '■^Metropolitan Conservative Journal, Sept. 2, 1837. " We are indebted to Mr. Baxter for a series of eloquent and spirit-stirring letters on the subject of the iniquitous New Poor-Law-Bill." — Metropolitan Conservative Journal, May 19, 1838. " We refer to some former articles on the New Poor-Law in the Conservative, which never have been, and, we honestly believe, never will be satisfactorily answered." — Ibid., July 7, 1838. " Baxter is the author of a host of excellent papers on the New Poor-Law." — Oastler's Letter in the " Champion," Nov. 3, 1 839. " The Author of a poem entitled ' Sunday^ takes the liberty of sending two copies to Mr. Baxter, whose manly efforts on behalf of the suffering poor of England entitle him to the sincere thanks of every well-wisher of his country." — Dated from Calais, Feb. 25, 1838. " I thank you for the efforts you have made to support the cause of the poor and needy. The satisfaction arising from the performance of duty will be your best solace." — Extract of a Letter from John Fielden, Esq., M.P., to the Author, dated Londoti, Feb. 2, 1838. " God has given you a heart, and a head, and the pen of a ready writer." — Extract of a Letter from Richard Oastler, Esq., to the Author, dated Fixby Hall, near Hud- dersfeld, June 6, 1838. " The part you have taken in opposing the infamous New Poor-Law, does credit alike to your head and heart ; and the remembrance of your patriotic course on this question will be always cherished by me with feelings of pleasure." — Extract of a Letter from John Fielden, Esq., M.P., to the Author, dated Todmorden, near Rochdale, Oct. 7, 1838. " It would be very gratifying to you, as well as to myself, and would be very serviceable to the cause, if a local Anti-Poor-Law Association were, under your auspices, to be established at Hereford ; and, I trust, that you would, in that case, be its Chairman, and become a member of the Metropolitan Association." — Extract of a Letter from Earl Stanhope to the Author, dated 14, Great Stanhope-street, London, Feb. 14, 1838. " Your talents and respectability are well known to me." — Extract of a Letter from Thomas Attwood, Esq., (late M.P. for Birmingham), dated Jersey, Sept. 7, 1840. ******** The following excerpts, too, from kind, complimentary, and cour- teous letters and publications, &c., received by the author, from all parts of the United Kingdom, whilst he was engaged in the compo- sition of this work, he hopes, as they show how generally his under- taking was approved, and the New Poor-Law abhorred, he may also be excused for relating here. Indeed, as they are mostly from well- known and distinguished opponents of the Act, they may be consi- dered as his credentials, or letters of recommendation to the public, which it becomes him to deliver, and would be false modesty on his part to withhold. " All who wish to repeal the New Poor-Law will patronize and forward the interest of the above work." — Richardson s " Annual Black Booh'' for 1841. " The poor already owe you much for your past exertions in their behalf; and the friends of the poor will welcome the appearance of a work which will supply them with ample materials for the wise and more effectual application of their zeal in so righteous and blessed a cause." — TJie Rev. Joseph Rayner Stephens, Chester Castle, Sept. 4, 1840. " My friend and true friend, Mr. Oastler, told me of your zeal. May God prosper VI INTRODUCTION. all those who, for fear and love of his name, are endeavouring to do justice to the oppressed."— 7%e Rev. G. S. Bull, Bradford, July 23, 1840. " The interest taken in the welfare of the poor entitle the author to considerable credit for the manly exposure of the poor-exterminating spirit of the present age, and ought to be an encouragement to him to go on and prosper in the valuable work which he has undertaken." — Sheffield Iris, April 28, 1 840. " Wishing you the utmost success in your undertaking, and thanking you for having engaged in such a task, though I am assured that you feel such a work, as I do myself, a pleasure rather than otherwise." — The Rev. F. H. Maherleij, Bourne, near Caxton, Cambridgeshire, August 19, 1840. " I sincerely wish your very praiseworthy efforts success." — Mr. Alderman Scales, London, Oct. 21, 1840. " With much pleasure I shall recommend your proposed work as far as possible, believing it must be useful." — Mr. John Day, Author of " Practical Observations on the Neio Poor-Laiv,'' Sfc, Southwark, August 13, 1840. " To your work I wish all possible success." — Datiiel Whittle Harvey, Esq., late M.P. for Southwark, August 14, 1840. " The publication of your work, I hope, may assist in restoring the rights of the people, against whom I regret to see so large a proportion of tiie upper and middle classes." — James Wilkinson, Esq., 138, Lcadcnhall-street, London, Sept. 23, 1840. " I will request my friends to take your work on the New Poor-Law Your work will, I trust, be out before Parliament, when this Poor-Law question must come before the House of Commons." — General Johnson, M.P., Stamford, Nov. 16, 1840. " Best wishes for your success as a writer." — Editor of the '" Sussex Express^'' Dec. 23, 1840. " 1 admire your zeal in behalf of what you suppose will remove an oppressive evil." — John Gidly, Esq., late M.P. for Pontefract, Oct. 18, 1840. "Your praiseworthy work." — Thomas Glutton Salt, Esq., of Birmingham, Oct. 7, 1840. ^ " Such a work as you propose to publish is very desirable, and I shall be very glad to support it by subscription, or in any other way that may be agreed on. Such a book should be always at hand in every library, the details of which may serve to guard posterity against falling into the errors of our day." — John Fielden, Esq., M.P.., March 22, 1839. " Your work cannot be otherwise than valuable to the public." — Dr. Fletcher, Bury, Lancashire, Sept. 18, 1840. "I am very glad you are going to publish the work you mention." — W. Roioorth, Esq., Mayor of Nottingham, and Author of '•'■ Observations on the Administration of the Netv Poor-Law in Nottingham," August 19, 1840. " I heartily wish you every possible success." — John Bowen, Esq., Author of the " Bridgeivater Case," ^-c, Bridgewater, July 23, 1840. " Let me assure you, that yoiu" forthcoming work shall have my best attention whenever it shall make its appearance." — T. Grimsditch, Esq., M.P. for Macclesfield, July 23, 1840. " I highly approve of your undertaking, and consider it a most necessary step in the further discussion of the subject, which must at length lead to the abandonment of that un-British and un-Christian measui-e." — Rev. J. D. Schomberg, Master of Stoke Grammar School, Leicestershire, and Author of the " Theocratic Philosophy of English History," ^c, Sept. 8, 1840. " To your work I wish all manner of success." — John Bell, Esq., of the " Morning Herald," Oct. 24, 1840. " I wish your work every success. Having seen some of your writings, I feel no doubt whatever of the ability with which the work will be executed." — JF. S. Villiers Sankey, Esq., late Candidate for Marylebone, Sept. 10, 1840. " If my best wishes could help you, yours would turn out a glorious work." — Rev. Joseph Rayner Stephens, Chester Castle, Sept. 21,1 840. " I will do all in my power to recommend it to the notice of the Anti-Poor-Law Association." — James Duncombe, Esq., Hon. Sec. to the Metropiolitan Anti-Poor-Law Association, Oct. 9, 1840. " With respect to the publication which you are about to make of this most abomi- INTRODUCTION. vii nable and atrocious measure, the falsely called Poor-Law Amendment Act, you have my most sincere wishes for success." — Thomas Boxer, Esq., Barrister, London, Sept 1840. *' I hope you will succeed in awakening those feelings of sympathy for our poorer brethren, which appear to be fast vanishing from among us." — W. D. Saull, Esq., Alder syate-street, London, Sept. 8, 1840. " I wish you success in your undertaking, and offer you my cordial thanks for the philanthropy of your proceedings." — Charles Wing, Esq., Surgeon, Author of " The Evils of the Factory System," ^'c. Regent's Park, London, Sept. 30, 1840. " I am highly gratified with your design ; it is one I have long sought for ; and de- pend upon it I will give it my utmost support." — 3Ir. R. J. Richardson, Author of the '■'■ Annual Black Booh," Sfc, Lancaster Castle, Sept. 15, 1840. " I can assure you I feel as anxious and as much interested about your bantling as yourself, and so ought every good, benevolent, philanthropic, and patriotic man." — Rev. C. Powell Watts, Bath, Oct. 23, 1840. " It has given me sincere pleasure, that there is still so much virtue left in England, as that even one individual shall take up arms against that blot on England's charac- ter — that most atrocious and treasonable of all Parliamentary enactments, the ever- accursed New Poor-Law Wishing you all the success which your laudable en- deavom-s to support the cause of the helpless (God help them I) deserve, I have the honour to subscribe myself, dear Sir, your obedient servant (and friend in so noble a cause)." — Colin Mackenzie, Esq., 85, Drury-lane, London, Sept. 25, 1840. " I do sincerely hope you will meet with success in the undertaking, and that the work will prove an armoury of keen-edged, well-tempered weapons to furnish the people's champions withal, against the Malthusian oppressive crew, who have said in their hearts. We will defy the experiences of past ages, and the Holy Scriptures ; we will make the poor to cease out of the land, or we will punish them by imprisonment, starvation, and total bereavement of all domestic comforts." — Mr. W. Willis, Jlfan- chester, Sept. 14, 1840. "Wishing you success." — John Bridgeford, Esq., <■' Iris" Ojice, Shejield, Sept. 23, 1840. "I saw and admired a letter inserted (I think) in the Northern aS'^;- newspaper, addressed by you to Lord Brougham, some time ago, and gave ray bookseller orders to procure it The work is a thing I have long Avished some person of ability would undertake, and I hope it will not only realize the expectations of the subscribers, but also yield you a sufficient remuneration for the time and labour required for its com- pletion." — /. Clarhson, Esq., Bradford, Yorkshire, Sept. 10, 1840. " Sincerely wishing you every success, and that one of the most iniquitous Acts ever designed by knaves, and passed by legislators, looking more to their own relief, than that of their own tenants, the widow, the fatherless, and all the wretched inmates of every hovel in the land — may be finally overthrown by such efforts as your own " R. Cort, Esq., Walhrook, London, Oct.'l9, 1840. " I rejoice at the patronage given to a work which will expose the iniquitous pro- ceedings which arise out of the Poor-Law (miscalled) Amendment-Act." — Tlionias Todd, Esq., Dewsbury, Sept. 9, 1840. " In the aim and purpose of your work, I cordially sympathise." — Thomas Allsop, Esq., 34, Cornhill, London, Sept. 16, 1840. "Wishing your undertaking every success." — /. R. Beasleu, Esq., Mil ford Haven Nov. 13, 1840. "Hoping your exertions will meet with the reward they merit." — Mr. James Heaton, Library, Ludlow, Oct. 20, 1840. " I have no doubt but your work may be a very interesting and useful one ; and I trust it will be read and well-digested by those who have the power to aid efl*ectually any efforts that may be made in Parliament to remodel the bill, if not to destroy its machinery altogether." — Mr. W. Underwood, 1, Vcre-street, Oxford-street, London Sept. 24, 1840. " Wishing your work every success."— *S'. Gordon, Esq., Aunqier-street, Dublin Sept. 21, 1840. "Wishing you success in your work."— C Ethcringlon, Esq., Hechnondwike Leeds, Oct. 10, 1840. ' Vm INTRODUCTION. " Best wishes for your success in the undertaking." — Robert Ceely, Esq., Surgeon, Aylesbury, Bucks., Sept. 10, 1840. " I wish you every success in your undertaking." — W. Leigh Brook, Esq., Thorn- ton Lodge, Huddersfield, August 15, 1840. " Wishing you every possible success in the work you meditate." — J. W. Pepper- come, Esq., Author of the " Rights of Necessity, and the Treatment of the Necessitous by various Nations," Sept. 21, 1840. " You have my sincerest good wishes for the success of your laudable undertaking." — Rev. R. Cruttwell, Spexhall, Suffolk, Author of '■'■ Reform loithout Revolutiofi," Sfc, Oct. 7, 1840. " I fully approve of the object of your publication, and beg to tender my best wishes for your success with it." — William Cooke, Esq., Huddersfeld, Oct. 7, 1840. " Most heartily do I wish you success with your work." — John Drakard, Esq., Ripley, Leeds, Sept. 24, 1840. " I wish you great success in your praiseworthy undertaking." Wimper, Esq., Ipsivich, Oct. 5, 1840. " I shall be very glad if your efforts tend to ameliorate its (the New Poor-Law's) evils, if it be not swept from the Statute Book, and wish you ample remuneration for devoting yourself to such a subject." — James White, Esq., Plymouth, Oct. 6, 1840. " Wishing you eveiy success in your laudable efforts to obtain an amelioration of the condition of the working classes, either by exposing the severities, evils, and ex- pensive operations of the Poor-Law Amendment- Act, or by any other means." — /. W. Greeves, Esq., Spalding, near Norwich, Oct. 17, 1840. " I very much admire your zeal, and also the well-intentioned desire you have to effect the amelioration of the condition of your poorer brethren." — Rev. F. Glover^ Dover, Dec. 10, 1840. " I wish you great success in your praiseworthy undertaking." — Thomas Lindop^ Esq., Hanley, Staffordshire, Feb. 10, 1841. " A well-known friend of the people — Baxter." — Bronterre O'Brien in the " Opera- tive," Jan. 20, 1839. " Mr. G. R. Wythen Baxter. — This gentleman is well known as the Editor of Don Juan, Junior, and the associate with Mr. Oastler in his determined opposition to the infamous Whig New Poor-Law." — Sheffield Patriot, April 14, 1840. " Dr. Humphreys wishes every success to Mr. Baxter in his undertaking." — Rec- tory, Tenby, April 1, 1841. " I hope in the wealthy circles who have properly viewed this vile measure, the Poor-Law, your book will be duly patronized." — Mr. T. Horn, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, June 14, 1841. " Your well-intentioned work on the New Poor-Law." — William Kensett, Esq., Marylebone, London, Feb. 27, 1841. ■' Had you written as much in favour of the law as you have in opposition, how different would be the result ! ! Fear not ; Lord John Russell has found out his mis- take. The tide has taken a turn : may your star in this turn be in the ascendant ?" — Mr. John Cole Doioning, Earl Soham, Suffolk, June 25, 1841. " Your excellent work on the New Poor-Law." — Mr. James Sweet, Nottingham, May 24, 1841. " Wishing you every success." — Joseph H. Cutler, Esq., Birmingham, Jan. 26, 1841. " I shall have much pleasure in subscribing to the work of which you have sent me the prospectus, and only hope that it will speedily make its appearance." — The Hon. H. Fitzroy, M.P., Feb. 17, 1841. " Wishing you every success in the excellent undertaking." — Thomas Rodger s, Esq., Devonshire-square, London, May 18, 1841. " I shall be happy to have one copy of your work, and would deem it an honour to have ray name registered among the opponents of that most cruel measure, the New Poor-Law." — Rev. John James, Furdre, Neath, Glamorganshire, Sept. 17, 1840. " I conceive that such a compilation as you propose would be serviceable and salu- tary. It would assist those who are already convinced of the pernicious nature and tendency of the Law in their efforts to procure its abrogation, or modification, and might, perhaps, disturb the self-complacency of those sagacious persons who declare INTRODUCTION. IX that the measure is a healing one, and works well, by presenting strong facts relative to its operation which they conld neither deny nor palliate." — W. J. Utten Brotvne, Esq., the Lodye, Norwich, Dec. 14, 1840. " Let the reader buy a book now preparing for publication by subscription — ' The History of the Working of the Neio Poor-Law,' by Wythen Baxter, of Hereford. Baxter ! Surely I have heard that name before. I am, indeed, curious to see how this New Poor-Law harmonises with the ' Saints' Rest.' Methinks these are days for the party exclusively claiming to be Protestant and evangelical to take heed to themselves to stir up the gifts which they would have us beheve in them, far before hounds, &c." — " Gilbertize the New Poor-Law,'' by the Rev. E. Duncomhe, of Newton Kyme, Tadcaster, published July, 1841. " Success I heartily wish may amply repay your great labour.'" — W.M. Totvnsend, Esq., Newport, MonmotifhsJiire, Jiily 12, 1841. " How I wish I could send you £100 for a hundred copies of your work to give away ! Nothing would afford me greater pleasure. I will speak of it, and leconi- mend my fiiends and acquaintance to get it wherever I go. Whether your nuich-to- be-desired object of repealing this odious law be accomplished or not, (and God grant it may be !) I hesitate not to say, that your labour of love will deserve, as a slight reward, the deepest gratitude from the whole nation, and I am sure will have it from all the friends and lovers of God's poor. Oh ! where is sympathy ! — where is benevo- lence ! — where is mercy and charity tlown, that you have not thousands of subscribers pouring in ? The world is grown full of self-love, hardness of heart, and covetous- ness, and I am daily sick at heart from what I see and hear. God must, ere long, judge the land for its unrighteousness. I feel the utmost indignation at the reading and contemplation of the horrible truth, that your honesty, boldness, and love for the poor and oppressed, have been productive of the "creation of thousands of enemies," &c., &c. Horribile dictu ! I do hope, still, that friends will be raised up who will not allow you to suifer in pocket.'"'' — The Rev. C. Powell Watts, Kingswuod, near Wotton- under-edge, Wilts, July 15, 1841. Of the compiled matter which forms so considerable a portion of the work, a few words may be said. Much carefulness and research have been employed in the assort- ing and condensation of the same — in the appropriate selection (where so much was to be selected from) of the variety of miscel- laneous information with which it abounds ; and in giving the pith — the intrinsic quintessence of public and Parliamentary speeches, newspaper statements, pamphlets, &c., divested of the redundancy of superfluous verbiage and declamatory accompaniments which attend such productions, and in amalgamating the same in a manner alike pleasing for brevity of detail, and compendious sufli- ciency. Indeed the Book of the Bastiles., without any unseemly exaggera- tion, may be said to contain, amassed together in one common and convenient collection, the best vade mecum — the onlj/ one — of New Poor-Law literature and intelligence which has hitherto been pub- lished. Its large assemblage of authorities quoted against the " Act" and its principles, and the sayings and doings of the Act's favourers and supporters : — its well-chosen statistics corroborative of the decrease of wages, and increase of crime, licentiousness, and rates, under the New system ; its descriptive accounts of the Bastiles, Bastile food, Bastile treatment and tyranny, mortality in the Bas- tiles, and the wretched paupers' dread of those houses of death and bondage — &c., &c., will be esteemed, it is presiuned, worthy of X INTRODUCTION. extensive and popular perusal, and valuable to be resorted to by the politician and public orator for quotation and reference. The author of the Book of the Bastiles cannot close this proem w^ithout returning his cordial acknowledgments for the kind presents of copies of pamphlets, nevs^spapers, speeches, letters, &c., which have been forwarded him from noblemen and gentlemen while his work was in progression, and also for the many friendly communi- cations of encouragement and tenders of pecuniary assistance, which have cheered him in the arduousness and enormous expense of his undertaking. Having published this work purely from feelings of humanity and patriotism, and with an earnest desire to open and undim the too long closed eyes of the upper and middle classes (to whose sympa- thies it is especially addressed) to the cruel and expensive operation of the New Poor-Law — the author trusts, that all those who call themselves Christians, — fear God, — ^love their country, and care for their country's poor; and would not have the peace of the one, or the lives of the other, wantonly destroyed by the nostrums of a new-fangled philosophy, or by the rotten remains of the jawbone of Malthus filched from his tomb — all such, he trusts, will forward the welfare of this work, and increase its circulation by every means in their power, and co-operate with him (its author) to abolish a wicked, arbitrary decree, and to sweep from existence the three unclean spirits of centralization, and their subaltern assistant apostles of man- slaughter and mischief, which it has engendered, and sent forth, and who now, like so many locusts, swarm o'er all the once pleasant and prosperous land — consuming its produce, demolishing its old insti- tutions, monopolising its long-established privileges, cruelly coercing the sons of the soil, driving them to destitution, destruction, and death, and into acts of rebellion, criminality, and despair ! A few words more — the author's last — " Baxters last ivords " — Barons of England, your halls are famous with the noble deeds of your sires of old — Gentlemen of England, ye were once generous — ■ cruelty was not wont to be the cognizance of either. Noblemen and Gentlemen, assume what your fathers were. — Repeal the New Poor-Law — that law which they would never have suffered to be — and declare yourselves your country's saviours. Do so ; and perform, by peaceful means, what, if left undone by you, will most assuredly at last be consummated by popular fire, sword, and fury. No peo- ple could long endure the barbarities of such despots as the trio of Somerset-house — ^they would indeed be base if they did — and least of all will those sprung from earth's best blood, the British people. From such an ignominious yoke they must be free or die, Avho speak the tongue That Shakspeare spake ; the faith and morals hold Which Milton held :"— July 14,1841. G. R. W. B. LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. His Grace the Duke of Newcastle. The Right Hon. Earl Stanhope. The Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Exeter. The Right Hon. Lord Kenyon. The Right Hon. Lord Feversham. The Hon. Colonel Lowther, M. P. The Hon. A. Dimcombe, M. P., two cojnes. The Hon. H. Fitzroy, M. P. The Hon. H. T. Liddell, M. P. John Fielden, Esq., M. P., £d. John Walter, Esq., M. P., £5. General Johnson, M. P., £6. B. D'Israeli, Esq., M. P. Ormsby Gore, Esq., M. P., tivo copies. Townley Parker, Esq., {late M. P. for Preston). Fitzroy Kelly, Esq., M. P. T. S. Duncombe, Esq., M. P. Captain Moneypenny, (late M. P. for Rye). M. M ,Esq.,M. P. J. B , Esq., M. P., three cojnes. Richard Oastler, Esq. The Right Hon. Sir John Beckett, Bart., (late M. P. for Leeds). W. Sharman Crawford, Esq., M. P. General Sir Charles Napier, K.C.B. Daniel Whittle Harvey, Esq., (late M.P. for Southwark). Mrs. Trollope. James Harmer, Esq. (late Alderman), Ingress Abbey, Kent, £2. Samuel Roberts, Esq., Park Grange, Sheffield. John Perceval, Esq., (son of the late Right Hon. Spencer Perceval), Kensington. Thomas Boxer, Esq., Barrister, 33, Surrey-place, Old Kent-road, Southwark. John Day, Esq., Kent-house, ditto, ditto. John Bo wen, Esq., Bridge water. Mr. R. J. Richardson, Salford, two copies. Mr. L. Pitkethley, Huddersiield. XU LIST OF SUBSCllIBEllS. Rev. Joseph Rayner Stephens, Chester. Rev. G. S. Bull (late of Bradford), Birmingham. Rev. C. Fowell Watts, Bath. Rev. E. Dewdney, Portsea. Rev. P. F. Clay, Rector of Chawleigh, Devon. Rev. F. H. Maberley, Bourne, Caxton, Cambridgeshire. Rev. W. M. Smith Marriott, Rector of Horsmonden, Kent, two copies. Rev. W. G. Cookesley, Eton, Bucks. Rev. W. Hill, Hull, Yorkshire. Rev. J. D. Schomberg, Master of Stoke Grammar School, Leicester- shire. Rev. J. James, Fardre, Neath, Glamorganshire. Rev. A. Singleton Atcheson, Rector of Teigh, Stamford, Lincolnshire. Rev. E. Duncombe, Rector of Newton Kyme, Tadcaster. Rev. John Ward, Stoke Ash, Suffolk. W. Roworth, Esq., Nottingham, Uvo copies. Robert Blakey, Esq., 1, Malvern Cottages, North Brixton. Samuel Wells, Esq., Barrister, Serjeants' Inn, London. Matthew Fletcher, Esq., Bury, Lancashire. George Rogers, Esq., High-street, St. Giles, London. Thomas Doubleday, Esq., Newcastle-on-Tyne. John Kerle Haberfield, Esq., Governor of St. Peter's Hospital, Bristol. G. Goldney, Esq., Sub-Governor of ditto, ditto. James Clarkson, Esq., Solicitor, Bradford, Yorkshire. James Duncombe, Esq., Secretary of the Anti-Centralization Society, 4, Gray 's-inn-pl ace, London. John Bridgeford, Esq., Editor of the Sheffield Iris. William Scholefield, Esq., Alderman, Birmingham. Joseph H. Cutler, Esq., Birmingham. Lacy Townsend Gaskell, Esq., 45, Lord-street, Liverpool. John Whitacre, Esq., Woodhouse, near Huddersfield. Joseph R. Beasley, Esq., Milford House, Milford Haven, Pem- brokeshire. W. J.Utten Browne, Esq., the Lodge, Bramerton, near Norwich. Mr. Thomas Lindop, Hanley, Staffordshire. W. Wilkinson, Esq., Brow Bridge, Halifax, two copies. Bowen Woosnam, Esq., Glyndwr House, Llanidloes, Montgomery- shire, <£3. Joshua Milne, Esq., M. D., High Crompton, Oldham, Lancashire. W. Taylor, Esq., Vale House, Crompton, ditto. Richard Rostron, Esq., Merchant, Manchester. R. C. King, Esq., Saxmundham, Suffolk. Mr. John Cole Downing, Earl Soham, ditto. Colin Mackenzie, Esq., 85, Drury-lane, London. William Thurnall, Esq., Duxford, near Cambridge. R. Cort, Esq., 1, Castle-court, Walbrook, London. LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. XUl J. Hamerton, Esq., Surgeon, Elland, Halifax. B. Brooke, Esq., Headingley, Leeds. Mr. W. Underwood, 1, Vere-street, Oxford-street, London. Mr. W, Willis, Bookseller, Manchester. Jonathan Toogood, Esq., Surgeon, Bridgewater. Mr. Abraham Wildman, Keighley, Yorkshire. " A South Country Friend." Mr. James Sweet, Nottingham, two copies. S. D., 9, Aldenham-terrace, St. Pancras, London. W. Leigh Brook, Esq., Thornton Lodge, near Huddersfield. W. Alford, Esq., Casham, Hants. " Anti-Malthusian Bloodsucker." Thomas AUsop, Esq., 34, Cornhill, London. Mr. T. Tatham, Middle Pavement, Nottingham. Thomas Rodgers, Esq., Devonshire-square. London. Fisher, Esq., Great George-street, Bristol. Messrs. Baxter and Son, Proprietors of the Sussex Express. Mr. T. S. Brooke, Bookseller, Dewsbury, Yorkshire. C J. Kilpin, Esq., Student of the Inner Temple. Bleek Lye, Esq., M.D., Hereford. Samuel Gordon, Esq., 41, Aungier-street, Dublin. Miss Baxter, Hereford. W. Villiers Sankey, Esq., Harmood-street, Camden Town. Charles Wing, Esq., Surgeon, 22, North-road, Regent's-park, London. T. H. Smith, Esq., Nottingham. James Wilkinson, Esq., 138, Leadenhall -street, London. " Clericus," Sevenoaks, Kent. Archibald Fullarton and Co., Publishers, Glasgow. Mr. Joshua Hobson, Bookseller, Leeds. George Stephens, Esq., Stockholm, Sweden. G. A. Young, Esq., Upper Portland-place, London (formerly M. P.). A Gentleman, Stamford, Lincolnshire. Mr. T. N. Webb, Bookseller, Hereford. John Simpson, Esq., York-place, City-road, London. Charles Brooker, Esq., Alfriston, Sussex, (late Anti-Poor-Law Candidate for Brighton). E. Buckley, Esq., Manchester. W. S. Hanson, Esq., High-street, Kensington. PAET I. %ttux&, SltctrDcs?, Detitfon^, ^ili^ni^^t^, $rf. A TALK ON THE NEW POOR-LAW BILL. " And fnlkn in office at the mention fret, And fain would blush, if blush they could, for shaitie .'" — Childe Harold. Scene. — The outside of a new-built " Union" — groans, weeping, and gnashing of teeth, and the agonizing cries of innocents ivrithing under the lash, heard from within. The roof falls off, and discovers the Genius of Inhumanity, a " little fiend, that scoffs incessantly,''^ throned on a heap of recently starved paupers, enjoying the working of the New Poor '■Law — videlicet^ infanticides, suicides, seductions, and universal starvation, A V Irelandois. Enter JOHN BULL and his SHADOW. John Bull (vety indignantly). "It is an infamous law! I care not by whom made. I am of no party ; and would as soon execrate an enactment framed by Lord Brougham and Vaux, as I would one by Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland and Teviotdale. Measiures, not men, has ever been my pohtical maxim. Such it was when ' my hair was juvenile and cui'ly,' and, now the snows of many winters have left their silver on my brow, it isn't hkely that I should change my principles. Again, I repeat, I consider tliis New Poor- Act a most cruel, a most unjust, and injurious enactment.* Would you be- lieve it, that under tliis precious starvation amendment (?), tlie felon — the man of blood — in the stronghold of justice, where liis crimes have placed him, re- ceives a greater daily allowance of bread than the honest, the industrious, and now broken-down artisan or tradesman reduced to the parish does !"t Shadow. — " Yet, some time ago, a paragraph went the tee-to-tum round of the Whig press, stating, that a Mister Some-one (I forget his name) declared at a recent provincial meeting, that ' The New Poor-Bill had been the salvation of Essex !'| What are we to say ? — ' Laudatur ah his — culpatur ah illis!' " John Bull. — " I know nothing of Essex and its recent salvation. I only speak from facts, veritahle facts, wliich I have seen and heard ; the cries of the poor, the aged couple, grey, and tottering; the lovers of former, bygone years — ' John Anderson, my joe, John, we clamb the hills togither, And many a canty day, John, we've had wi' ane anither !' — shrieking, because they are to be torn from each other, and taken to the ' Union,' as du'ected by tliis heinous bill ; the widow, — the wife, perchance, of * To bear the old gentleman out in this opinion, vide the paralleled opinions, as regard the New Poor-Law, of the wisest and the best — of the sage, the poet, the patriot, and the lawyer, given in Part II. of this work, under the head of " The New Poor-Law Opposition.'* f A fact, as regarded the allowance of the staff of life, in the Hereford gaol and '* Union" workhouse (both of which places of bondage are situated in appropriate propinquity to each other) acknowledged, by a town-councillor, at a meeting in that city, year 1837. But the predominate preference given to crime over poverty is too well and too widely authenticated to need this or any other comment. Murderers and robbers are esteemed highly respectable and meritorious folk, nowadays, in comparison with the horrid, infamous poor and destitute ! X So were vociferating the Whig press, " forty like one," at the time tbis first appeared, which was in the Metropolitan Conservative Journal o{ At^tH 16, 1837. B 2 4 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. some departed ' honest, staid, hard-working Tyler ' — weeping that her amall stipend of three shilhngs a-week (which, perhaps, slic lias enjoyed for years) must be reduced — nearly reduced to one ! — and half of that, too, in bread as hard and hlack as her oppressors' hearts ! Oh ! the cruelty, not to say the in- justice of such tilings ! when the salary of the overseers, under the various and newfangled titles of ' Guardians," ' Relieving Officers ' (?), * Clerks,' ' Sur- geons,' &c., &e., and &c., &c., is raised two-thii'ds ! ! ! Ah ! it verifies the words of Shelly : — ' Asses, swine, have litter spread, And with fitting food are fed ; All things have ta home, hut one — Thou, oh! Englishman, hast none !' " Shadow. — " Oh ! Vijoh, — o. political j oh, — to rob the rate-payers, and stance the poor, that ' wolves and worms be fed ! ' " John Bull. — " And when any of the poor wretches complain of their wrongs and wretchedness, what is the constant reply they receive ? ' Go and work ! ' Yes, they hid the ae/ed cripple, the bedridden man of eighty, and the widow woman of seventy, to ' Go and work ! ! ' And then the Bastardy Clause — an insult to manliood — to humanity ! a barbarous injustice to the unfortunate of that sex, who were and ai'e our mothers, sisters, daughters, and wives — worthy of the Arclifiend, but towering far above him in cruelty and wickedness ! What! were not our streets full enough — crowded to ovei-flowing, with the un- happy victims of man's perfidy — those fallen, soft fair ones, who ' loved not wisely but too well " — without this legislative enactment of ' power to add to their number ? ' Were not our courts of Justice sufficiently glutted with horrent instances of the young and frail mother — the wii'e who ought to be ! — slaying her own — the child she loved too well to see it starve ? And was there not, prior to this, a plentiful consumption of arsenic, laudanum, &c. ? Was the plunge in the New River, and from Westminster's Bridge, too infrequent ? The tyrant of old made the inventor (a Whig of those days) of the brazen bull be the first to essay its tortures. May then, I say, the creators of this ' Devil's elixir ' be not the last to experience its horrors in the persons of themselves and theu' famiUes ! " Shadow. — " Indeed, that would be justice ; but, if I mistake not (alluchng to the ' Bastardy Clause') it was the hoast of its fi'amcrs, that this clause would act as a stopgap to vice." John Bull. — " By making vicious !"* Shadow. — " So it seems. Yet, I own, I should hke to hear some lover, or admirer of this 'Bill' in question, give Ids reasons (if he have any) in favour of its efficacy, and his approval of it." John Bull. — " Pshaw ! No man of feeling, I am sure, can or will speak in favour of such inhumanity. No ! I know my countr^Tnen (for they are men of feehng), they would be the last to vindicate a measure, the chi'ect tendency of wliich is to starve, make criminals of and driv£ into rebellion,^ the suffering poor, as, most certain, it ultimately will: for though ' Wat Tyler' has long been dead, men like him still exist ; and the hand that then, in Ids time, * Vide the Statistics, corroborative of the " Increase of Cnnw" given in Part II. of this work, and the Assize and Quarter-Session calendars since the administration of the New Poor-Law. f Since this was written the riots and insurrections at Birmingham, Todmorden, Newcastle, Sheffield, Newport, Llanidloes, Bradford^ ^c, ^-c, each and all the legitimate offspring of the oppressive operation of the New Poor-Law, have verified my prophecies of such occurrences foretold in this and other of my Poor-Law writings. But if the Bastile barbarities be conti- nued, the outbreaks that they have already occasioned are mere inconsiderate emeutes to the bloody, determined, unanimous rebellion that will one day startle the land, with teiTor and dismay! Once more, I say, repeal the accursed statute, offensive to God and man, ere worse come of it. LETTERS, SKETCHES, PETITIONS, ADDRESSES. 5 could sacrifice tlic abuser of liis daughter's modesty, can also now fell the wretch who would starve and separate an old, a faithful, and a loving couple !"* [They give three groans for the " New Poor-Act," ami exeunt ambo^ * " To fell the wretch" [i. c, the Relieving Officer) in this instance might, perhaps, be against " lefiem terrw" and rather wrong; but the following is a very good recipe for the pur- pose, and might be more generally adopted, — if it were not so very wrotig — " On Monday last, Mr. John Banks, the Relieving Officer of Kirkheaton, presented himself before the Guar- dians of the Huddersfield Union in a most deplorable plight, his clothes hanging in tatters, and his head and face greatly disfigured. It appears that the deluded populace of his district had been on the look-out for him for tliree days, threatening his life f oh Jit! how naiKjhly!) if he durst commence his duties under the New Law. However, on Monday, he presented liimself at the Workhouse, for the purpose of relieving tho poor (not he), when a large body of semi-barbarians (ha, ha> ha !) surrounded the building, forced the officer out, and chased him over hedge and ditch (looiild I had been there to see. 'J a great distance, pelting him with mud and stones, amidst tho most hideous and barbarous j'ells. He took refuge in a house at Dalton, but tho inmates unmercifully expelled him, and drenched him with a can of water (How could they 1 He, he, he !) He was then left again to the mercy of the mob, who seized his bags and books, and threw them into a pond. His coat was torn from his back, his hat trodden under foot, and his person severely bruised. In this state he proceeded as well as he could, followed (poor harmless iimoceut ! milk-white lamb without guile !) by a brutal crew, until at length he took refuge in a house, the inmates of which were civilized (indeed ! Fray what mhjht their names be ? Baines or Bronijham !), and then made his way to Hiidderstield in the miserable plight we have described." — Leeds Wliitj I'rint (quoted in the Times of April 9, 183'J). Is ducking or diily in g a Relieving Officer,. who separates man and wife, criminal? "Is killing in a Union Workhouse criminal, if sanctioned by the Poor-Law Commissioners?" These are questions. Is a Relieving Officer a reputable character ? "A hangman's post (said my friend Oastler to Brave Barnett, the well-known Nottingham Relieving Officer, April 5, 1839) is not one of honour — it is, however, more respect;ible than a separating, heart-breaking Bastile keeper!" There's for you. And again, "If you have laid hold of a woman, and torn her, because slie is a pauper, from the Englishman to whom she has been lawfully married (not over a sweeping brush, mind) — if you have dared to do this. Sir, I have no hesitation in saying, that you do not deserve to go to bed either cold or wann ; — you do not deserve to mix amongst civilized persons ; — you are a blot on the face of Christianity, an outlaw from the family of nature !" To show the abuses under the New Law as regards the holding of a plurality of flunky-ships, the Barnett here spoken of, is not only the Relieving Officer of the Nottingham Union, but it appears, from an excellent pamjjhlet on the Admi- nistration of the New Poor-Law in that place, by W. Roworth, Esq., Mayor of Nottingham for 1840, that he (the said endable Barnett) is also Master of the Workhouse, Clerk to th« Board, and Superintendent Registrar; and moreover is wishing and waiting to become aai Assistant Poor-Law Commissioner ! ! ! There's a Somerset-house Jack (or perhaps Jack-al would be a better phrase) of all trades for you ! ! I But this is not the only instance of plu- rality of offices held under the three sovereigns of Somerset-house. In Hereford, that Cittf of the Snobs, where Whig Conservatives and Conservative Whigs are your onli/ men, and ail right loyal subjects of the aforesaid Rule of Three, the C omimss'wnevs^ vmn-servant, the Clei'k to the Board — a serio-comic gentleman, witli a little husky churchyard laugh, and who has a pair of spectacles, and a pair of long sha7iks which are also spectacles — this duke of limbs holds, in addition to his Union Clerkship aforesaid, — the situations of New Poor-Law " Ten- der" Agent, Coroner, Contractor for Pauper coffins (liow delicately these two crafts meet !), Electioneering Go-Betweener — is partisan and ladies' man, and everybody's six-and-eight- penny lackey that will say to him — " Nick, my Dolly pal, fake away !" The Collector, too, of the Somerset-house " rint," in the self-same blessed Citi/ of the Snffbs, is not altogether contented with his sinecure, but, at the same time, under the immediate patronage of his Masters, the Commissioners, earns a little i)()cket-moncy by inditing, for the columns of the Hereford Papers, certain little paragraphs, which appear now and then, eulo- gistic of the mild, milky, and merciful operation of the New Poor-Law — the savings so im- mense! .'■ — the paupers themselves so contented .' ! — every one of them as fat as Talstaft' by the ]/rovisions of the " Act ! ! 1" 6 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. A LETTEK TO THE RIGHT HON. LORD BROUGHAM AND VAUX, EX-LORD CHANCELLOR OF GREAT BRITAIN, EDITOR OF THE " PENNY MAGAZINE," AUTHOR OF THE RE- MARK, " THAT IF THERE WAS LITTLE DONE LAST SESSION, THERE WOULD BE LESS IN THE NEXT ;" REGIUS INVENTOR OF THE NEW POOR BILL, AND THE LONDON UNIVERSITY ; CONTRIBUTOR TO THE NEWSPAPERS OF HIS OWN DEATH BY A " DREADFUL AND FATAL ACCIDENT," OCTOBER 19, 1839; CHRISTENER OF A BUGGY CALLED A BROUGHAM, &C., &C. " Amiable man ! we see and acknowledge the protection of Providence, by which you have so often escaped the personal detestation of your fellow-subjects, and are still reserved for the public justice of your countrj-." — Junius to the Duke of Bedford. " Full twenty times was Peter feared For once that Peter was respected." — Peter Bell. My Lord, — There are two w^ays of adcbessing the illustiious order to which your Lordship now belongs — videlicet, in terms of eulogy, and in tenns of hlame. In the times of " glorious John" Drj^den, men, that is authors, gene- rally chose the fonner, and, doubtless, they had then- reasons for so doing ; but, in the times of glorious King WiUiam the Fourth,* we have altered " all that ;" and' to keep pace with the march of improvement, I shall take the benefit of the alteration, and approach your Lordsliip with a selection from the latter. Not that I have any fault to find with your Lordship's talents ; for that you are a clever man, and have often, as BjTon says, " thrown a cloud over Long- man and Jolm Murray," the " Penny Magazine," wliich is, I beheve, hebdoma- dfdly i)er-used by two-tliirds of the semstresses and tailors' apprentices tlu'ough- out Great and Little Britainf, shows : nor with your Lordsliip's popularity, for the fact of your Wliig friends (on their last return to that " sweet home," Downing-street) reheving you fr'om the tedious, and to you not-at-all-desirahle office, the Chancellorship, exhibits in what estimation you are held, at least by them. Neither is it my intention to question your Lordship's personal attrac- tions ; for it is well loiown that your nose % beats all our Islandic face-handles in S}Tnmetry of contom*, with the exception of the ones now in the occupation of Mr. Listen the comedian, and Lord Moi-peth the statesman. No ; to recapitulate my premises, it is not the talents, the popularity, or the personal beauty and attractions of yom" Lordsliip that I have at present to do with ; but with sometliing of infinitely more consequence to humanity, and, I should hope, to the illustrious^ nobleman I have now the honom" to address, — I mean yoiu' Lordsliip's heart ! which {mak/re the breach of pri^olege I may com- mit by the saying) I consider to be fonned of as stem stufi' as any " thumper " that beats between this and the Land's-end. Here, of course, not altogether unmindftil of your former profession as a lawyer, your Lordship will, doubtless, challenge me to " show cause " for my above " assault and battery " on your bosom's inhabitant. My Lord, I am ready to do so ; and, in so doing, must adduce that you are, or rather were, the * William IV. was ( Dei gratia ) our " purple and fine raiment" wearer when this " litera Bellerophontis" originally issued from tlie press. I might, but I shall not, supersede his " superscription'" for Prince Albert's and Viscount Melbourne's Queen. f It was, — but the lads and the ladies of the needle turn up their noses at " Harry's" bother now. X Some modem anonymous numskull has pourtrayed the once Lord Chancellor's violent, ■whimsical nostrils, to a wrinkle, when he, the aforesaid num, whistles — " From his lips keen satire flows, While rancour icrigglcs in hif restless nose." LETTERS, SKETCHES, PETITIONS, ADDRESSES. 7 chief creator of that infamous and unnatural statute, the New Poor-Law ; an enactment in wliich, as a legislator, you have immeasurably out-dracoed Draco, by not only, hke that crimson lawgiver, showing yourself inhumanly severe, but, at the same time, unprofitably cniel ! Indeed, in tlie latter article, you have far outdone all former Malthusian professors in the pliilanthropic science of tliinning and pruning a too greatly increasing population. But to specify what I mean by your Lordsliip's unprofitable cruelty, — simplv, I allude to the principles of your boasted crowning Kefonn* — your poor man's eUxir, which, sans the slightest pain and inconvenience to the pauper, staiTes — yes, starves the old, the bediidden, and the unfortunate, without the remotest advantage accruing to any one, least of all to the rate-payer ; always excepting, though, the thousand-and-one grand paupers, who, under the new-styled nomen- clature of *' Commissioners," " Assistant- Commissioners," " Guardians," " Ee- heving Officers," " Collectors," " Union Clerks," " Union Surgeons," " Union Coffin-makers," &c., &c., derive a " pretty considerable " HveUhood, and have been enabled, respectively, to sport their britzskas, hunters, tandems, and one- horse chaises, not to mention their ojjera (/iris and milliners, as they could afford, according to their oflficial rank and salaiy, since its institution ! Can your Lordship deny tliis statement ? In a word, can your Lordship sa- tisfactoiily prove that any two rate-payers (with the exception of Poor-Law officials and seducers) in this realm, since the introduction of the New Poor- Act, have been the gainers of one shilling, per annum, by the change ? f If your Lordship cannot (which I am well-assured to be the case), then your Lordship will not, I presume, find fault with me for accusing you of unprofit- able cnielty, or, that you have outbidden your antecessors in the amicable pro- vidence of coercing and lopping off a too-increasive population; especially when I instance, that one of the theorists in the same humane line of business, Dean Swift, only proposed an advantageous method of getting rid of Irish children — i. (?., by turning them into roast legs of mutton, pork pies, rashers of bacon, and other articles of daily consumption. Your Lordship's plan of stai-vation, being, as it is, not only applicable to children, but to adults, men and women, old and young, if not quite so original in its conception as the " bookish theoric" recipe of the inditer of the " Drapier's Letters," has certainly proved itself, prac- tically, very efficacious. % But to proceed with other kindred co-practitioners. Those amiable and well- beloved modem Neroes, the Messrs. Burke, Bishop, and Williams, it is well- accredited, made short work with some bakers' dozens of their fellow-beings ; but, at the same time, they invariably {errors excepted) obtained £10, and, in some instances, more, for Iheir " cold meat ;" — not to mention the gratuitous assistance they afforded anatomical jurisprudence, — wliich is a great deal more, your Lordship must allow, than the stai-vation of any pauper, since the esta- bhshment of the " Union " system, has, or ever will, benefit the rate-payers. Besides the modem examples of tliis Malthusian kidney just related, there are divers ancient ones, pat to the purpose, which might be enumerated. His most Christian Majesty, King Herod, for instance, was an early Mufti, or doctrinaire, of your Lordship's academy, and essayed, with some success, even in his days, a kind of Poor-Law edict against his infantine subjects : — from * " They would pin their fame in future times upon their introduction of this measure; and, however fruitful in errors and strong in weakness all their other policy might have been, they would yet be prepared to cast to the winds all relics of reputation, so that they might be recognised by posterity as aw^Aors of the Poor-Law Amendment Act." — Whiff-Ministerial boast ! Well ; we shall see whether it will be their " neck verse at Haribee.''' f The Whig journals have recently been roaring of the multitude of millions saved by the New Poor-Law ; but I have never yet met with a housekeeper (not being a partisan or offi. cial) who could acknowledge that he had icon by it — though I know several, — ay, manij, — who have had their rate5 doubled since its introduction. :j: Vide '•'■ Mortalitij in the Bastiles,'" given in Part II. of this workv 8 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. which affiiir, doubtless, the originators of the present pauper bill took their model. But, then, the Jewish suzerain had his motive for so acting; but your Lord- ship, and your co-partners in the aforesaid meritorious enactment, appear to have none — except you wished to show what a Whig Ministry dared do in the height of its power ! In your Lordship's sweet pet measure, there are other features quite as re- volting, and decidediv more unnatural, than the starvation principle already commented upon. My references are to the Bastardy and Separation items ; both of which, in my poor estimation, are indefensible ; and, if not deserving, like the starvation clause, the epithet of being unprofitably cruel, are at least inhumanly so ! To begin with the separation tyranny. What, let me ask your Lordship, Cim be more heartless, more tin-Bihlelike, thsm for some coarse-minded, brutal ofl&cial, some dirty, indehcate, petty despot — armed with the impious authority the New Poor-Law has given him, to come, vi et armis, and drag from each other, to that accursed " Union " bastile, an old and attached couple, who, for years, had eaten, drunk, slept, and walked out together in corresponsive harmony ? Is not the doing so, let me inquire of your Lordship, in direct opposition to the expressed commands of the Almighty, as revealed in liis Holy Scriptures — " Those whom God hath joined together, let no man put asunder ?" But there, I suppose, the pantology school to wliich your Lordship belongs, is superior to such low prejudices : — be it so ; I do not em^y the members of that seminary ! Next comes the Bastardy injustice. In looking over this division of the *' bill," my first impulse is to inquire — " Had your Lordsliip ever a mother ? and at the time of its (the New Poor-Law's) publication, a "vvife — a sister — a daughter?" You had! Well, that is curious! for I should have sworn, by this notoriously injurious and unmanly clause, that you had not. But, per- adventure, although now so " heroic, stoic, and sententious," your Lordsliip, in your juvenile days, when one of " us youth " found gallantr)' — that is the 2)aternity part of it (for you had not Jive thousand a-year then!) rather too expensive, and out (I only hazard the supposition) of a pliilantlu'opic desire to reheve your successors in the amorous science from such a liabihty, gratuitously inserted the clause we are talking about. Be that, however, as it may, it is rather hard on the women, your Lordship must admit, that a licence, free of aU costs, should be gi'anted by Government to any " Captain Bold of Halifax," or fashionable phantom, who shall feel disposed to make the necessary arrange- ments to ruin them : and also, that a legislature should hold out induce- ments to the said poor lasses, subsequently to desert, drown, or twist the necks of their little ones. But banter apart. Hitherto, I have used that figure, as I thought it the least offensive way in which I could convey to your Lordship my sentiments (I believe the sentiments of indignant thousands) on the New Poor-Law, calcu- lated as that enactment is, to stai-ve, criminate, and ultimately diive into revo- lution,* the distressed labourer and artisan. Cervantes is said to have shamed, by his inimitable Don Quixote, cliivahy from Spain ; would that this, my epistola, might have the same effect in shaming your Lordship from advocating and supporting such a legislative cruelty ! Believe me, when I say, your allowing it to exercise such a benevolent influence, would, in no degree, com- promise your Lordship's character, as a man — a Cluistian — or a diplomatist. This hint is not slightly thrown out — or addressed to your Lordsliip only, but also to your former colleagues in office. Let them take it, and that in time ; for should they still persist to force this heinous "biU " on the people of * It lias clone that since, and is still doing it : pikes are being wrought whilst I write, though the anvil is muffled on which they are made ! " I know what I know, but I munna tell you!" LETTERS, SKETCHES, TETITIOXS, ADDRESSES. 9 England — Masaniello will thrutv aside his nets, nncl Wat Tyler uill be in ISmithJield /* I am, with tlie givatest respect, Your Lordship's most obedient sen^ant, April 30, 1837. G. R WYTHEN B/VXTER. A LETTER TO THE PRESENT WHIG MINISTRY ADVOCATES FOR FLOGGING IN THE ARMY- THE FACTORY SYSTEM — RURAL POLICE AND THE NEW POOR-LAW. "Quousque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra?" — Cic, in Cat. ' Sexton. — "Wliich be tbe malefactors?" Dog. — "Marry, that am I and my partners." — Much Ado About Nothing. My Lords and Gentlemen, — Providence in its mercy hath benevolently ordixined, that those epidemics, or pests, which sometimes pay their awful visi- tation to mankind, though violent in their effects while they last, are not in their duration of any long continuance. Now, my Lords and Gentlemen, in England there is at present a Aisitation (without the remotest symptom of abatement) infinitely more desolating, more cruel, and more destructive in its ravages thtui any plagues : — more desolating, because it attacks those who are akeady desolate ; — more cruel, because its unhappy victims are first by it deprived of home, friends, and eveiy means of alleviation, and then left to sure destruction, and the refusal of an " elm coffin three-quiuters-of-an-inch thick ;"t more destructive, because its attacks are confined, with the greatest hberality, to one class of society — those who have none to help them — among whom it spares neither sex or age ; the infant smiler at its mother's breast, and the moaning, bedridden old man of eighty, are equally amenable to its unnatural and brutal authority — equally subjected to be torn, at a moment's notice, fi-om those that love them, and himied off to be pent up in a loathsome prison-house, far from the genial influence of human * This, I suppose, the "noble and learned Lord" will designate, now he has got his £5,000 per annum, inflammatory language in regard to tbe New Poor-Law. I can only (as Earl Stanhope said, in the House of Lords, to the " great Westmoreland pauper," June, 1838), retort, " Tbe noble and learned Lord opposite had used language more inilammatorv, if not treasonable, on some occasions." If accused of violence by his Lordship, or his flun- kies, the Morning Chroniiie, Examiner, &c., sucli will be my " respondere paratus," as it will be such capital charivari to get him and his steam up to recapitulate the bouncer : — " My Lords, I did not think I should have lived to be charged (poor holy innocent !) with using treasonable language (lavr/hter). It is quite untrue that I ever made an inflamma- tory harangue to the people of Birmingham, as it has been stated. I never stopped in that great town longer than to change horses ; nor did I ever say — as it has been imputed to me —that I hoped to live to see the day when the heads of kings should be made foot-balls for little boys to kick along the streets (loud laughter). I leave it to voiir Lordships to say whether that is my usual way of expressing myself on any sul)ject."-^Ha ! ha ! ha ! Well done, slashing Harry ! there's nothing like throwing the hatchet a good distance ! t CoflTins made plain and of good elm board, three-quarters-of-an-inch thick, with cambric dresses for paupers, who, at the time of their respective deaths, should not exceed four years of age. Ditto for paupers above four years, and not exceeding thirteen. Ditto for all above thirteen. — Vide the " Union" Tenders, en passant. Since these tenders were issued, there has been a manifest improvement made by the Commissioners in the dead line of business. Paupers' bodies now, instead of being buried are packed up, and sent, by a dozen-and-a-half, or so, to the hospitals and Schools of Anatomy, where, after being carved into cutlets, they are allowed to rot and decompose promiscuously in a mass — except, indeed, when a dealer in " any bones" (human ones) is attached to the Schools of Anatomy, which is frequently the case. 10 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. sympathy, and never to see the gi-een earth, their homes, their village churches, more !* The pest I allude to, as you must he well aware, is your oa\ti instituted and fostered Proces monstre against poverty — yom* New Poor-Law ! I am no orator, my Lords and Gentlemen, as some of you profess to be, wliich I regret ; inasmuch as, in the present instance, I should have had plenty of opportunity, in the shrieks and moans of a famisliing poor, of exercising my eloquence — no statesman, as all of you ai'e ; which makes me rejoice — particu- larly if such statutes as tlie New Poor-Law are the pride of statesmansliip ! But I would simply ask you, my Lords and Gentlemen, for how long is it your will and pleasure that this poor man's curse, tliis patent hfe- destroyer, rife Avith all its present horrors, its present inhimianities, and its present injustices, shall depopulate and demorahze om- once happy realm ? That crimes will proceed from such t\Tannical enactments, is, alas ! a cer- tainty estabUshed by past events beyond the redemption of a doubt. To prove my ultimatum, casliier, my Lords and Gentlemen, the partial statements of your paid ^£1,000 and ^£2,000 per annum Commissioners ;t and, absenting youi'selves awliile from dearest Downing-street, and the prurient enjoyment of coimting over the heaps of ghttering twenty-sliilling-pieces of yom* last quarter's salaries, search the newspapers, inspect the coroners' inquests, turn to the juries' ver- dicts, pubhshed since the paupers' amendment Act has been the law of the land, and you will acknowledge, if in the least degree open to conviction, that not only its universally iinticipated offspring, murders, suicides, infanticides, foeticides, seductions, staiTations, &c., have been fearfully engendered tlu'ough its means, but, also, tliat street, highway, house, and other robberies, have numerically, in eveiy part of the countiy, increased !| And can the results be wondered at, when such notorious incentives to viciousness and despair, as the Bastardy, Separation, Anti-pubhc worship, and No-out-door-rehef clauses, are the leading aiticles (and precious ones they are too!) of the code in question; and when its "Union," or more properly its f//«-union treatment, far exceeds in severity — needless, shameful severity ! — that experienced by murderers, felons, and other criminals, in the abodes of restraint where their ill deeds have placed them ? For in the latter, the inmates are unifoimly allowed a sufficient quantity of food, unmeasured by the inch, or un- weighed by the ounce ; and ai'e not, in the extremest cases,§ debarred from the visits of their friends and relatives — or the acceptation of the presents and offerings of those fiiends and relatives || — benefits which the unfortunate pri- soners (for they are nothing else) have not hitherto experienced in the Bastiles — at least, if the pubUc papers are to be beheved. * I Lave seen many go — reluctantly, weeping, go — into these di'ead ahodes, whose giim porters " shut the gates of mercy on mankind " — but I have never seen them come out again ! To he sure I have, some few days or weeks, as it may he, afterwards, ohser\'ed, in rapid suc- cession, issue therefrom, borne on men's shoulders, a few slight boards nailed together in the shape of boxes, in which, perhaps, might be inclosed their bodies — m those portions of them not serviceable to the anatomical collection of the " Union" surgeon, and his apprentice hoys ! " In the midst of life," you are always " in death" when you pass the Hereford Union House ! But it cannot be wondered at when that Bastile is sunounded by swamps, and has the pesti- lential gas works in its rear. f Vide Mr. John Day's (of Southwark) able and ample exposure of the fables and fallacies of these very veracious gentlemen, quoted in Part II. of this work — " The Boasted Economy of the Neiv Poor-Law.'" X Can the Downing-street officials refute this statement? If so, let them show cause ; if not, as the poet says, " Melius non tangere." Vide the statistics on the " Increase of Crime" given in Part II. of this work. § The " morning calls" on the Murderer Greenacre, and his evening sederunts, verify that; as do also that "best of cut-throats," Courvoisier's fashionable conversaziones, and sittings for his portrait ! II Vide several instances related in Part II. of this work, under the head of " Bastile Treat- mcnt and Tvranny." LETTERS, SKETCHES, PETITIONS, ADDRESSES. 11 But to proceed : — Curiously felicitous in bai'barity, and cunningly devised as the New Pauper-Exteimination Act has proved itsell', is it possible — sanguine and reno'v^7ied for temerity, as a Whig Ministry is generally allowed to be — is it possible, my Lords and Gentlemen, that you could conceive the probability of ever forcing it down the throats of an indignsmt, and justly irritated people ? — a people, chronicled through all ages for their hatred of oppression — a people, whose ancestors responded trillion-tongued to Wat Tyler's cry for reckess — and hoarsely re-echoed the sounded " Tambourgi " of liberty in die reign of James the Second ! Is it possible, Enghsh-born as you ai'e, and knowing the " stem stuff'" Englislmaen are made of — their daiing resolution and undaimted he- roism — " Pride in their port, defiance in their eye, The lords of human kind !" is it possible, I repeat, my Lords and Gentlemen, that you ever had such a thought in contemplation ? If you had, wofuUy, terribly, and perhaps revenge- fully, will you be deceived !* But, supposing it to be practically possible to cany the starvation principle of your " bill " into execution ; if the poor of these realms — the halt, the lame, tlie blind, the aged, the bedridden, and the broken-hearted — have so grievously offended you and yours, and thereby rendered themselves amenable to the punishment of death — in mercy to the pauper wretches, discai-d the inch-by- inch system, and do your work of revenge and extermination boldly ; sludce not the chain and let the victims live — live in excruciating toiinent — when the summary and wholesale means of destruction by dro\vning, by shooting, by be- heading, and by hanging, are within your reach. The latter, though cruel, would be manly. The former is only the revenge of a coward ! But, perhaps, I have done you injustice, and, as a body, you are not inclined to proceed to such extremities ; if so, permit me to suggest what I opine would be an amelioration of the measure we have been talking about. It is simply, my Lords and Gentlemen, to add, by " way of rider," a clause to the following effect, videlicet : — that, for the future, convicts be imprisoned in the " Unions," with the " Commissioners," &c., for their gaolers and turnkeys ; and, that in return, the poor be sent to Newgate, the " hulks," Botany Bay, and other places hitherto used for penal restraint and confine, according to their several degrees of poverty and wretchedness. Such an exchange of destination, if not of the criminal, would, beheve me, very much rejoice the heart of the pauper ; and would, in fact, my Lords and Gentlemen, be mercy, and some- what more like distributive justice, than the present system of punisliing wretchedness more than crime. And now, leaving my amendment for consideration at your next cabinet * " The oppressions of Enipson and Dudley had been founded on a stretch of power, usurped and justified on the principles of the civil hiw; by which these Miscreants had been enabled to violate a fundamental part of our Constitution, the way of trial by juries. The effect on the people was dreadful. Accordingly, in the next reign, though the authority by which they had acted, had ever been in Parliament, these creatures of Tyranny, were indicted for High Treason, were condemned, and executed, for having been instrumental in subvert- ing lecfem terra: ; and the extorted Statute under which they had hoped to have sheltered themselves, was, with a just indignation, repealed." — Bishop Hurd. Verb, sap., My Lords Melbourne, John Eussell, Brougham, and you, Messrs. the Commissioners, Fninkland Lewis, Jun., Edwin Chadwick, and Co., and also to your Grace of Portland, who, as heads- man of the Worksop Board of Guardians, sometime ago (in 1839) struck off poor old John Berry's pittance of 2s. a-week, he being 90 years of age at the time ; and to your Earlship of Stradbroke, of whom the Champion {Dec. 1, 1839) said, " Observe the figure which Earl Stradbroke makes as a Guardian (?) of the Poor; and mark his skill in cutting down 3d. a-week from the allowance of a man of 75, and a woman of 83;" and likewise to your Earl- ship of Radnor who drove the widow from your cornfield to make room for " niiie farrow" and a sow ! 12 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. dinner, allow me, wilh Horatius Flaccus, to address each individually con- ceniing it — " Si quod novisti rcctius istis : — Candidus imperii — si non, his utere inecum." I am, my Lords and Gentlemen, Your obetlient servant, May 20, 1837. G. R. WYTHEN BAXTER. A LETTER TO THE RIGHT HON. VISCOUNT MELBOURNE. " He was the wildest far of all ; He had a dozen wedded wives." — Wordsworth's "Peter Bell." " The dissolutcst spirit that fell, The sensuallest, and, after Asmodai, The fleshliest incubus." Paradise Regained. " Am I politic? — Am I subtle? — Am I a Machiavel?" — Merry Wives of Windsor. My Lord, — Bramali, the Indian D.D., taught his votaries to read, write, and play at chess : your Lordship has been far more bountiful in your instruc- tions to your followers, and instilled into their minds lessons of much gi'eater moral importance, namely, that a withered Tory, notwithstiinding his physical and constitutional disqualifications, makes sm excellent Wliif/ Minister ; and that rnttinr/ is commendable when a soft abandonment on a Treasury cusliion, stuffed with Lamb's wool, and a carte blanche to provision all relations, inclu- sive of No. One, are the sweetmeats held out to the rat. That this has been yom' system of education, your Lordship cannot, I tliink, deny ; for that you were, at one time, a Tory is a fact, and therefore beyond your Lordship's impeachment — and that you ai-e now the Premier of Great Britain and Ireland, f under Dan, J is also a fact, and equally beyond conti'a- diction ; though how your Lordship managed to become such, has puzzled and nonplused wiser men than the inditer of this epistola !* To be sure there are several ways of gaining notority, as there are several ways of gaining pence. Juvenal (who, if he had been hving now, would not have been over-choice in the employment of his tnots d' usage — particularly, I am afraid, if addressing your Lordship) says, in his Dunciad : — " Aude aliquid brevibus Gyaris et cavcere dignum, Si vis esse aliquis " and taking his advice, many have, certainly, with a curious fehcity, practically realised his theory. Greenacre, for instance, (of whom of course, being a great Reformer, your Lordship must have heai'd), made mince-cutlets of his gentle intended, and thus, by the profeiTed assistance of a congenial press, w^on his modicum of what so many sumphs ai'e at this hour toiling for — John Bull's sympathy, sovereigns, and regard. "Boz," again, (doubtless better known to your Lordsliip as Mister Dickens, a three -half- penny reporter on the cstablish- * What says the veneralile Nestor of the New Poor-Law Opposition, Mr. Samuel Roberts of ShetTield, of the diplomatic merits of Earl Melbourne and his Company ? Hear him : — " This kingdom has once before been governed by a Virgin Queen, and the nation pros- pered ; but she had men ; nay, she had whe men" for her ministers. She had a Burlrivill own icc wen dear to cuth otlierl" 14 THE BOOK OF THE BASTII.ES. and grindin;/ Flunkij allies — the nick-named " Commissioners," " llclieving Officers," (?) "Clerks," "Surgeons," " Guardians." &c., &c., &e., &c., cl'c., and &c., &c., &c., &c., &c. Excellent Lord Melbourne ! ! Sagacious Lord Mel- bourne ! ! ! Why your Lordship is a match for the Florentine, and might, as the meek, merciful Richard says, — Change shapes with Proteus, for advantages. And set the murd'rous Machiavel to school" to learn maxims of pohtical jurisprudence ! But not to surfeit your Lordship with praise — much and deservedly as your method of pa}dng old debts must be appreciated, there is, however, one drawback to its practical and perfect well working — that is, on the large scale your Lordship contemplated — namely, that the time is unfortunatebj gone by, when you could starve {malgre your official announcement that it "raised their moral dignity") some thousands of your fellow-countrymen, and receive nothing in return but benedictions and confes- sions of unworthiness — " Thants, noble Peer ! The cheapest of us is ten groats too dear !" from them, while undergoing the pinching operation which they had brought upon themselves by — their poverty ! Here, I shall leave your Lordsliip for the present, not because I have no further terms of eulogy to bestow upon your Lordship, but fearful lest the piiuter's devil of that far-famed journal de I Empire, the Morning Chronicle, should squeak forth in the syllables of a certain burlesque — * " Out of my sight ! Begone ! By all my stars, thou enviest ' Lord Melbourne !' "f which, I most conscientioudy assure your Lordship, is not the case — fax from it ! I am, with respect. Your Lordsliip's obedient servant. May 14, 1837. G. R. WYTHEN BAXTER. A LETTER TO THE MEMBEKS OF THE POOR-LAW COMMITTEE. | " The issues of life and death are in your hands. You are to restore ' these men ' once more to the enjoyment of existence and freedom — or to send ' them ' to an ignominious death. * * * * Awful is the consideration — still more awful the responsibility. Violate not lightly ' those temples ' which the Lord hath made. Recollect, the word once gone from you it is irrevocable. Speak it not lightly. ****** If you do this deed, do it not lightly, or its consequences will follow you like a shadow — will accompany you in your crowded walks — be with you in your homes, and 'their' accusing 'spirits' will hover over your death-beds, and confront and condemn you at the judgment-seat of your God. Beware what you do!" — Charles Phillips's Defence of Courvoisier, Friday, June 26, 1840. Gentlemen, — You have, for a very long wliile, like so many brood hens or * " Tom Thumb." f The respective fates of Piers Gaveston, De Spencer, " and Busby, Bagot here, and Green," Empson and Dudley, and the " gentle Mortimer " (Lord Melbom^ne's double to a doxy and " a hey diddle diddle !") prevent me from the entertainment of any such a desire- able feeling as envy as regards him, malgre his apparently prosperous and proud court and cabinet " innings." No ; odds, cords, and axes ! the " off with his head — so much for Buck- ingham " species of rewards and punishments, which so generally has been enjoyed by Eng- lish favourites, has no channs for me ! To escape such a catastrophe, and to perpetuate the New Poor-Law of Terror, its Ministers and Commissioners, the Rural Police, it seems, is to be called into requisition : but will that unconstitutional corps so conserve pitiless peers and their pauper pest ? No, no ; " if," as my glorious friend Oastler has it, " a rural police is to be established to enforce the New Poor-Law, the next page of England's history ivill be one of blood .'" X This was published in the Conservative Journal, May 27, 1837. Mr. Walter moved for LETTERS, SKETCHES, PETITIONS, ADDRESSES. 15 tailors at stitch, sat without ehciting aiiytliing new on tlie subject of Poor-Laws, or made any material progi-ess, beneficial or othenvise, with the exception of lieroically fatiguing Mr. D. W. HaiTey,* whose recent apphcation for liberty to bid you all "good night," and the profitable announcement, between whiles' in the debates, that " Mr. Fazakerley brought up the report of the Poor-Law Com- mittee," are the first-fruits of your proceedings, pubhcly clu-onicled, since vour inauguration as the poor man's special juiy. This dilatoriness, and waste of the pubhc time and patience on your parts, look, I must confess, veiy suspicious, and ai-gue anytliing but a desu-e to remedy the paupers' wTongs you are assembled to consider — and, at the same time, is exceedingly hard on the poor wi-etches who are principally concemed in your detemiinations, and who the while, sans the least lenity or mitigation of the extei-minatoiy decree, are experiencing, in the persons of themselves, wives, and httle ones, all its more than horrors, all its more than cruelties, and all its more than indecencies. Injustice to these ignominiously-treated children of poverty, when you com- menced your dehberation on what to them has proved but " one concern," if not a total suppression, at least a cessation of New Poor-Law hostihties, through your instance and instigation, ought to have been declared on the parts of their savage enemies — the vulture-hearted Commissioners, Surgeons, Reheving Offi- cers, &c., &c. Tliis should have been done at all events, even in the issue of your dehberations tenninating in favour of the poor and the poor's cause ; as, subsequently, should it do so, and a majority of you register your condemna- tion — your abhoiTence of the Wliigs' burking edict — during the period of your sitting, its victims have been inhumanly, unlawfully, and unnecessarily tortured and coerced ! And even should you be so packed — so encusliioned by Whig intimidation and Wliig influence — so utteriy lost to humanity and to human feehngs, as, ex officio, to authorise by your approval, or faint'blame,t such atrocities as rtui riot in almost every clause of the measure, now the subject of your discussion — then, even then, the unfortunate victims of the former brawlei-s forth of " the People, the legitimate source of all power !" ought, in conjunction with the murderer and felon (who are not hanged or ti-ansported before the verdict of the jury has been ascertained), to have been exonerated from the fiendhke per- secutions and giinding tyranny of their merciless taskmasters. But I hope when the results of your protracted consultation are known, numerically you will prove, that your possess better hearts ; and that the questionable company, duiing youi- committeesliip, which you were obhgated to keep, did not so far vitiate your sympathies for the sex of those who were, or are, your mothers, sisters, and daughters — or harden you against the sufierings of those, who, although by chance bom your inferiors" in rank and fortune, are, nevertheless, equally consequential, with yourselves, in the sight of Him, who is tlie Father of all. In a word, I trust you will come to no conclusion which will realize the Hudibrasian opprobium — " Rooks, Committeemen and Trustees !" a Committee Feb. 6, 1837, which, a few days after, was appointed. And a precious com- mittee it turned out ! composed as it was of all the Somerset-house spaniels, with the ex- cepdon of three members, and they were not allowed the " rule of three;' but were so insulted and annoyed that each of them was successively driven to resign. While all the numerous witnesses brought before the committee for Ministers were paid from the public purse, but tlie^ three independent members had to pay the expenses of theirs from their own pockets. May the 12th, 1837, Mr. D. W. Harvey expressed his disapprobation of the dilatory proceedings and onesided conduct of the Poor-Law Committee, and prayed the House to allow hira to discontinue his attendance as a member of that Committee. t Precisely what they succeedingly did. Well, O'Connell sold the factoiy children and 1113 word oi honour (P) for a thousand sovereigns, and, in tliis instance, also,— Once, we confess, beneatli ' earh ' patriot's cloak, From the crack'U bag, the dropping yuiwa^ spol;c! 16 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. I now, Gentlemen, as there is every reason (judging from tlie pror/rcss you have made), to suppose that your inquiry will not be tenninated for some time, approach a subject of momentous importance both to yourselves and to the country at large — I mean your responsibiUty as members of the New Poor- Law Committee. " Had there been no star-chamber," writes the terse author of the Letters of Junius, " there would have been no rebelhon against Charles I." — and on the result of your deliberations depend, whether this greater tyranny than the " star-chamber," the stai-vation, separation, seduction statute shall surcease its pestlike influence ; or whether England — ryoiu- native England — shall be con- vulsed with intestine insurrections from one end to the other : — whether a few paupers, ridiculously veiling their poverty under the assumed grandiloquence of " Commissioners," " Surgeons," " Eeheving Officers," " Clerks," &c., &c., are partially to be kept in state, with their britzskas, their hunters, opera girls, and one-horse chaises, to the manifest injustice of the rest ; or whether a more just and impartial distribution of the householders' subscriptions is to be com- menced : — whether the poor are to be dealt out a measured number of ounces and spoonsful of hard, unwholesome food,* which would set at defiance the mechanical digestion of " Vaucansan's duck ;" or whether they are to be nourished accortling to the liberal and over-abundant means prepared for that pui-pose by the rate-payers of this kingdom :t — whether the hberty of the artisan and labourer is to be respected, or whether they are to be dragged from their homes, their wives, and their children, at the beck of every paid and brutal underling : — whether the laws of God and nature are to be obeyed, or whether husband and wife, children and parents, are to be severed by a process infinitely more cruel than death : — whether the honour and modesty of the poor man's sisters and daughters are to receive that legal protection which your satin-vested fair ones are awarded by the laws ; or whether they are to fall an authorised prey to the last of any smooth-faced or hoary villain : — whether poverty is to be considered a crime, penally higher in atrocity than murder or felony, and punished, as it now is, far more severely ;X or whether its professors are to re- ceive, if not superior treatment, at least equal rights and immunities with cri- minals and convicts. In short, on your exertions purely depends, whether the pubUc heart and eye are daily to be shocked with horrent instances of thick-coming murders, suicides, infanticides, foeticides, seductions, stan-ations, &c., or whether the lives of the poor and their families are legally to be cared for 'more than a litter of blind puppies — or as much as a kennel of game dogs when they are sick. Gentlemen, these ai'e serious consequences, and worthy your deepest deli- beration — for your dehberation ought to embrace all these contingencies — and in so doing, you are bound, like jiuymen, to give your verdict fearlessly and impartially. Let not, therefore, the interested statements of placemen and large-handed public robbers, predonunate in your judgments over the direct evidence and every-day demonstrations of pauper starvations and pauper agonies. Do not then be led away by the prophesied saving which will accrue to the public, by the grinding down of the poor man's flesh and bones ; for, as a rate- payer, I here announce, that instead of a retrenchment taldng place, hitherto, the new system has proved far more expensive than the old !§ nor with the * Vkle tlie division in Part II. of this work, entitled " Bastile Food." f Between £7,000,000 and £8,000,000 sterling per annum ! according toM'Culloch; but a recent authority estimates the annual poor's-rate £5,000,000, and the yearly income of Great Britain at £500,000,000. + In another portion of this work will he found corroborative evidence of the prevalence, under the New Poor-Law, of Crime being treated as a very gentlemanly fellow, and Poverty as a very vicious character indeed. § Vide the statistics on the increase of parish taxes attached to Part II. of this work ; and the collectors' fre(|ueut morning calls for another '' poor's-rale." LETTERS, SKETCHES, PETITIONS, ADDRESSES. 17 abuses and deficiencies of tlie former law, as their prevdous existence is no ex- tenuation for the unnatural cruelties of the present :— nor vnih the IHtigf mcleeru patois, " a thing devised by the enemy," that its operation " nuses the moral "character of the lal)ourer :"— nor, lastly, allow yourselves to be deceived and persuaded into in(hrterence by exaggerated accounts of the fancied content- ment and lulled repose of the population. Their indignation, beheve me, is not d-ad but only sleeps ; let them once know that tliey have nothing to expect from' your clemency, and, lilce a tempest when it is terrible, they will anse in anger, and desU'oy the dastiu'd few who would extennmate them and theirs, body and soul ! . . , i n i u- C)uee and yet once agixin, in the name of an injured and a crueily-usecl multi- tude whose advocate I smi, I entreat you to reforai with mercy, and to do so m time • and above all, leave it not to the discretion of a few offieials— themselves pffuners* notoriously interested in the result— whether several millions ot their fellow-paupers, to pimiper their own riot and extravagance, shall, slowly, yet surely and under the encouragement of an infamous law, be impnsoned in the " Union " houses of bondages— or be " allowed " to rot and fester in the public Hopin*^ I have fully impressed upon your minds, the fearful results which would spring from the arbitrary continuance of the new system of pauper juris- prudence ; and also your great responsibility as members of the Poor-Law Committee now sitting — I am, with the greatest respect, Gentlemen, your obdient servant, May 27, 1837. G- R- WYTHEN BAXTEK. A LETTER OF EXPOSTULATION AND WARNING ADDRESSED TO THE POOR-LAW COMMISSIONERS. ' The evil that ' ye' cause to be done, That is ' your' means to live : Do ' ye' but think Wluit 'tis* to cram a maw, or clothe a back, From their abominable and beastly touches. * * * * Can ' ye' believe 'your' living is a life, , ,, ,r So stinkingly depending ? Go, mend, go mend."-MEASuRE for Measure. Ham. — " Here's the Commission." — Hamlet. " But of this be sure, To do ought good never will be our t;\sk, But ever to do ill our sole delight."— Paradise Lost. Gentlemen,— The inhabitants of this country, once, par excellence caWed " Merrie Englande," but now no longer aspiring to that joyous appellaUon, * The Commissioners are great folk now to be sure, and, of course, it is ver,/ nau>,htj, of me to call them paupers; but, as Afr. Murph,/ said at the Freeirmwm Tavern P^or-Laio Mcctmq,Yeh. 19, l«38, "Mr. Edwin Chadwick. some years ago had probably been ui a situation to render it likely that he hhuself might have applied to the overseers lor rebel, and he ( Mr. Murphy) remembered the time when he almost appeared m that situaliou. Ana if, previously to their installation as executioners of the poor their possession ot ^'ash as little, their property of chastity appears to have been still less 1 he following ,«.re been chronicled of a Joseph : — " UMO>-.HAL...-Yesterday, Jane Mott, who described herself the .ife of Mr. Mott, ^Jl^ f ;;f J;^;^^^^^ inisMoner, ^va8 brought beibre Mr. Traill, charged «ilh being drunk and disorderly, and, ^ ."'« " Jj^^/^^^J^" tiou, using threateuing language towards two tradesmen in ^^■ttl^vortU. Iiom the tvid.uce ol iht cou.plamauts, 18 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. were given to hope that, after the summary disposal of Messrs. Burke, Bishop, Hare, and Williams, and other eminent professors of the Benthamite, Broughamite, Malthusian, and Martineauan philosophy, the doctrine of popular extermination would fall into disuse, and not for the future he practically illustrated, except with en-grave-ings on steel, and that amid the hustle of the field of hattle, and in the " big wars." But subsequent events have shown how great was their delusion, when in you, and in your congenial " flunky " underhngs, the never-to-be-too-much-despised Guai'dians," " Reheving Officers," " Clerks," " Union Surgeons," &c., &c., they perceive an organized body, without shame and without pity, avai'iciously detennined, at all hazards, to revive the statutes of God and man, hitherto respected, being by you and them unani- mously contemned — certainly the principles (if not exactly employing the same executive means of reahzing them), of the before-mentioned worthies ; and that on a much larger scale of business, and with all the aids, advantages, and appliances to boot, which they had not ; videlicet, the ardent encouragement of the laws, the open assistance and protection of the government, the unconsti- tutional co-operation of the soldieiy* and police force, not to mention the prurient, and doubtless well-paid laudation of the greater portion of the press,t and the shameful inertion, with a few, too few exceptions, of the rest. And to crown the whole, and chronicle the most barefaced job ever perpetrated, tlie payment of from twelve hundred to two thousand pounds per annum, (obtained, bear in mind, under false pretences, fi'om the breeches' -pockets of the rate- payers,) to each of you, by way of " prize money," to stimulate your exertions to carry into effect the speedy completion of the Wliigs' fiendish speculation of demorahzing, maddening, starving, and ultimately slaughtering, by excruci- ating gradations, the helpless and suffering poor. BeUeve me, when I aver, it is with much reluctance, and more abhorrence, that / can bring myself to adth'ess a chque of men, so widely renowned for inhumanity as yourselves, and who, in the violent and unnatural cruelty of your " orders," have not even shown yourselves desei-ving of Timon's redeeming quahfication, of being " courteous destroyers, affable wolves, meek bears." And I certainly should not so expend my mk did I not wish (for the sake of the poor wretches, after whom, by the powers that be, hke so many ravening blood-hounds, you have been set), to experimentize how far you ai-e accessible to the animal sensations of pity and fear ; and, if at all ! whether it would be possible, by the application of a prescribed quantum of either, to incite you to the commital of at least one meritorious action in your hves — to throw up your disgraceful commissions ! Malgr^, then, that I am afraid it will prove an indifferent undertaking, I will begin my experiment by commencing an appeal to your feelhigs, if you possess any, which (judging from some of your "wiitten instructions," which I lately, with signal disgUst, perused), I very much doubt; and, in so doing, I will subscribe, for your infonnation, my reasons, and the reasons I should conceive, of every man, whose heart is one degree softer than the stones which it appeared that on Saturday evening, Mrs. Mott, who lives in the same street with them, returned home drunk, and commenced making a noise in the street. She soon collected a crowd in front of a Mr. Nelson's house, and, addressing the mob, said, that she was the wife of Mr. Mott, the Poor-Law Commissioner, and then, pointing at Mr. Nelson's house, kept exclaiming, ' that man keeps Motl's in his house, while I, his lawful, married ivife, am turned out to do the best I can for myself,' " &c., &c., &c. * It has been with the greatest reluctance — ■with " curses not loud, but deep" — that the soldiers have been prevailed upon to do the dirty work of Somerset-house. They don^t like fighting against their fathers, brothers, soiis, and mothers^ f No sooner does a newspaper show fight and fierceness against the New Poor-Law, than, a week or two afterwards, you will be sure to perceive the postman take a Government letter (a double one, containing something " slick") to the office of the said paper, and, ten to one, but ever after the reception of the significance in question, the Editor is remarkably chai'y in his usage of the term Basiile, and of the insertion of " Anothei' affecting Death by Des- titution !" LETTERS, SKETCHES, PETITIONS, ADDRESSES. 19 compose the water-front of Somerset-house, why I could not accept, much less enjoy, an appointment similar- to the ones each of you hold, as long as any situation short of the common Ketch, or hangman, was in prohable reversion : — simplv, because my heart would sicken with loathing, and refuse with indigna- tion, a hvehhood, when I knew it was wi-ung from the deaths, suicides, seductions, and agonies of my fellow-creatures ! — when I knew it was draun from life, the hfe of many an unfortunate \ictim of poverty, who preferred instant death hy his own hands,* to the lingering process, tending to the same consummation, dealt out by the merciless superintendents of the " Union " houses of bondage ! Nor could I, were I placed in your official situation, in addition to the non- enjoyment of the luxuries which report says, you. Gentlemen, at present so pre-eminently enjoy — nor could I, I repeat, ascend or descend the door-steps of my house, " situate and being " in some gi'and square, or haul ton street, — as^ of course, were I one of you, it would be, — without being continually haunted with the fearful apprehension of having my eyes horrified, and my bosom torn to shudders, with the unnatural sight and indecent exposure of some poor seduced girl — seduced under the able superintendence of the New Poor-Law — once blue-eyed and beautiful — a father's pet and joy — but now cold, famishing, broken-hearted, — giving birth, amidst the sneers of the dissolute and unfeeUng, to the offspring of her sin and shame, on my very threshold ! Much less could I rattle, with diuigerous velocity, as I have seen some of you do, my new and elegantly- appointed biitzska, or landaulet Clarence, up and dov\Ti the streets and thoroughfares, without fearing that eveij lurch given by the veliicle might, peradventure, be caused by the wheels' craunching the body of some newborn little one, the " baby of a girl," abandoned in despair to tiie cold ground and colder hearts of the world, or, perhaps, more revolting still ! — murdered by its erring mother, in a moment of mistaken pity, to presen'e it from the sufferings and bai-barities inevitably entailed on its helpless state by the New Poor-Law ! These, Gentlemen, ai'e my reasons, and I am proud of them ! though by you and yours they may possibly be deemed squeamish, why I could not — dare not — accept a Commissionership ; and I hope they will prove reasons why you should throw up yours. Have they any effect in thawing the nether millstone with wliich, apparently, you have liitherto blocked up your hearts ? Or, is it possible, that if such honible liabihties have never occun'ed to your minds, now they are vividly pointed out, you, calling yourselves men, men bom of women, can' continue to hold your unenviable, yoiu* disgraceful situations ? You can ! — Then as my draft on your feehngs is dishonoured, I must even proceed to draw upon your feai's ; and with that view (and, I trust, for the sake of humanity and pubhc morals, effectually), I must borrow the wizard's art, and exliibit to your consideration the shadow of what, ere long, you will perchance see terribly substantiated — an infuriated — a justly infuriated multi- tude, numerically banded thousands, but with one wild will — ferocious in aspect, and " desperately mortal," — curses on their famished lips, and vengeance in then- broken hearts— determined, so help them, God! every " bloody brother " of them, not to be massacred any longer by a few " infernal Uckspittles ! " Furthermore, I must show you this multitude, even in its mildest mood, simultaneously rising up, hke haggard ghosts— the haggard, bleeding ghosts of the murdered ! — in every part of the kingdom in which you shall have the temeritv to make your unconstitutional appearance — every man of them amply provided with brick-bats, dead cats, rotten eggs, clubs, pikes, and, perchance, deadlier weapons ! to give you a reception adequate to the wi-ongs and suffermgs you have been instrumental in inflicting on them and theks : and, to complete * Vide the instance of the Widow Deacon, of Wobuin, who, from the liarsh treatment of the Guardians, in despair, drowned herself in the moat under Wobura Abbey, m the winter of 1837. c 2 20 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. the presentment, in the memorahle periods of the " Baviad," I must pourtray,^ for an example — a deterring example to the rest, the " hasty flight" * of one of your order ; and his ignominious, though, at the same time, certainly deserved persecutions, as he shnks from place to place, imd enumerate " Whene'er unearth'd, what pumps he bore, What horse-ponds, 'till the country he forswore, And chased by public vengeance up and down, (Hopeless of shelter), fled at length to Town !" The ahove is only, as I have already said, the most lenient species of retri- hution, which, if you continue to give a loose to your Poor-Law harharities, you can reasonably expect from tlie hands of those you have so mhumanly hunted down and proscribed ; and well may it be for you and yours, if a concoction of brick-bats, horse-ponds, and " pullets' -sperm," ai-e the only ingredients of the " mess " wliich is m preparatory bremng for you ! But were I to prophesy, judging from the popular ebullitions of feehng, and ini table excitement oil the subject, wliich I have seen and heard, I should foretell a darker conclusion to your labours. In corroboration of what I mean, is it requisite to refer you to the engi'avings mid appropriate mottos affixed to the flags and ensigns at the anti-New Poor-Law gatherings which have already taken place ? f In conclusion, wamingly, for your own sakes, and for the sakes of all who, at present, blush to call you countrymen — to avoid universal anarchy and the burning of another Bristol — I call upon you to beware ! and to renounce your detestable employments. Hitherto, the people have suffered you to tread on them, like worms — crush them not, till, rising, they retahate like snakes ! for if you do, terrible, awful will be the retribution of their sting ! One word more, and I have done. Pizzai'o, having anived in the island of Gallo, seeing that liis followers murmured, is said heroically to have drawn a line with his sword upon the sands, and bidden all who were for their leader and " golden joys," to cross it. In hke manner, I now di-aw an unagiuaiT line of propriety and humanity, and invoke all those of you who are not in-evocably lost to manhood and manhood's feehugs, and who have the leiist particle of pity, the least hope of prospective rewards and punishments, the smallest con- sideration for your country and your countiy's peace, to resign your disgi'aceful commissions. In short, cry muffins with a bell, or grey peas " piping bot ! " * Since this was first written several of these " hasty flights" of the Commissioners, "bloody with spurring, fiery-red with haste," have taken place ; and the frequent " changes " of their districts and destinations tell how often. To show that these worthies are not without immi- nent and constant funk of a bellyful, vide Globe, July, 1838, wherein a whole string of their emigrations, from one Baslile arrondissenient to another is detailed. f Among the banners exhibited at the " Great Yorkshire Anti-Poor-Law Meeting," in 1837, one purporting to be a true and correct representation of the " Pnor-Laiv Commis- sioners draioiny their wages," was particularly significant and conclusive. My Friend Oastler, however, doesn't approve of such summary proceedings as regards their high starverships. He, some time ago, said, in a letter to Lord Brougham, " The only revenge I would take on the Commissioners and their Assistants is, that they be Bastilled, and fed upon skilly, and also that they be separated from their wives and from their children: that is all, my Lord. If I might have my way with them, I would ' moralize'' them, and ' independentize^ them, and ' asylumize ' them, somewhat in their own fashion ; but I would not be so cruel as they are. I would not hurt a hair of their heads. They cut all the hair off" the paupers when they dare. I would not tread-mill them either ; — no, my Lord, their own Bridyetoater skilly would very soon make all their vitals swi7n doivn the common setvers of their ou^i Bastiles.'" But what says my clever Anti-New Poor-Law comrade, the " Suffolk Juror,''' anent these same Somerset-house scourges ? Hear him : — " Do you think that I would pull the Union houses down .'' No, indeed ; I would first put in the ' No Patronage Whigs,' who give away public property to their own toad-caters. I would then put in all the Commissioners that the places would hold ; but I don't expect that there would be room for half the Com- missioners that the Whigs have fastened upon us. I would then make ' Jack Ketch ' Chief Commissioner, and if he did not keep them down on the fifteen-penny-half-penny scale, I would lash the rascal to the ' Halberts' at the door of the ' Old Bailey.'" LETTERS, SKETCHES, PETITIONS, ADDRESSES. 21 enroll yourselves nmong the " rig'lar dustmen," or the Anf^lo-Spanish Legion ; get " bound 'prenti(H! to a waterman ; " become teachers of " dancing and the cahsthenic exercise ; " write " Boz " fooleries, or Ainsworth atrocities ; or, liaving recourse to the last refuge of the destitute in intellect, proclaim, through the medium of the Sunday press, your unrivalled sldll and cheapness ns Upholsterers, Perfumers, Dentists, and Doctors of chimneys, and, as such, professionally advertize, that " Now is the time to many, when bedi'ooms can be completely and substantially furnished by you for £\h ; " that "A fine head of hair can be easily obtained by use of your fashionable gi'ease ; " that " loss of teeth, and decayed chttos, are supplied, and stopped by your sovereign succaedaneum ; and that chimneys cannot smoke with your remarkable ranges ; or sell the " only general pectoral balsam of honey ; " or announce, with suitable emphatic notes of admiration, that " the warmest, the lightest, and the most elegant covering for a bed is the eider down quilt ; — do this — do anything, but continue to exhibit to the world the humihating spectacle of several able- boched men supported in idleness and luxury at the expense of the rate-payers of tins kingdom !* I am. Gentlemen, Your most obedient sen'ant, Julv 1, 1837. G. R. WYTHEN BAXTER. ON THE CHOICE OF PARLIAMENTARY REPRESENTATIVES. A FEW WORDS ADDRESSED TO THE PEOPLE AND ELECTORS OF ENGLAND, ON THE NEW POOR-LAW, ADVISING THEM NOT TO SUPPORT AT THE ELECTIONS, EITHER DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, ANY CANDIDATE ADVOCATING, OR WHO HAS ADVOCATED, THE PRINCIPLES OF THAT ATROCIOUS AND BRUTAL MEASURE.f ' ' Poor-Law' bondmen, know ye not Who would he free, themselves must strike tlie blow ?" O'Connell's Top-knot a little loosened. Fellow-Countrymen, — A venal committee, prostituting its verdicts for the * Since this was first published I have discovered that these worthies have not been alto- gether so lazy and inactive as described in the text; for, in addition to their slaughter of thousands and tens of thousands of the poor by the jaw-bone of jNIalthus, they have been driving, it appears, various other new-fangled, but profitable centralization speculations, having, of course, for their object, the torturing of the poor, and the pocket-picking of the rich. The Times of Nov. 25, 1840, thus ably strips them, and shows their doings in nasty nakedness to the world: — " The Poor-Law Commissioners, whose powers and pay were restricted to fire years, as being amply suffi- cient to enable them to mii.onise the entire country, have been incessaiitly addicting themselves to divers dab- blings not conten>plated among the primary piirjjoses of their appointment. For sometime they undertook an inquiry to establish the necessity of a New Rural Police, on which memorable occasion, when bent on fiirnisli- ing a plea for an increase of Whig patronage, tliey actually invited ' cause they were elected to oppose — and this under the delusion, that the day for fdl'ording an account of their stewardship is too distant to be dreaded ; the prospect of meeting their indignant constituencies too remote to disturb their unenviable e(|uanimity ; and, in the spirit of this dishonourable daring, may cherish the mistaken idea, that, neglect as they may their representative duties — betray as they choose the sacred trust reposed in their hands — as Allan Rmnsay says — " There's nane daur ca' it rude !' Or, at the worst, in the event of then- being called 'upon to defend their official treacheries and deceptions, they can easily invoke a httle cajolery, and with a few sweet saucy words of specious extenuation, smooth, 'till it smile again, the irritation of the " gi'easy citizens " and country yokels. It is well, very well r but let no member, who calls himself an honourable man, betray the sacred confidence placed in his hands by his confichng ccmsti- tuents ! or, if he betray it, have recourse to such mean, such contemptible expe- dients to extenuate the betrayal. One word more in conclusion. The People of England, my Lords and Gen- tlemen, expect much — everything from your exertions in their behalf at the approaching meeting of Parhament. By their united and spirited eft'orts in re- turning you, they have perfonned their part, — have forestalled their gratitude : * Sir James Graham, it is well known, lost his election for East Cmnberland, in 1837, owing to his extreme partiality for skUhj. I trust now, however, his taste is improved by experience. 30 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. 'twill be yours then to do yours, and extricate them from the Slough of De- spond in which they have been hurled by the execrable workings of the New Poor-Luw, and rescue them from the worst despotism — the despotism of the tliree " Uckspittle" autocrats — that ever ground a noble and generous people to the dust. Relying upon your protection, the eyes of all the sufferers ai'e turned to you as tlieu- saviours. Be those saviours, and you erect an obehsk of gi'ati- titude — hvely gratitude — in eveiy islandic breast : forsake them in then- hour of need, and side with the abettors of tyraimy and oppression — and, farewell ! those of your order, who do so, will, after the next dissolution, have to pay the postage of their letters ! * I am, my Lords and Gentlemen, With the greatest respect, vour obedient servant, August 17, 1837. a. R.' WYTHEN BAXTER. A LETTER ADDRESSED TO JOHN WALTER, ESQ., THE POOR MAN's FRIEND, AND LATE M.P. FOR BERKSHIRE, CONTAINING AN HUMBLE TRIBUTE TO THAT GENTLEMANS BENEVOLENT EXERTIONS IN THE CAUSE OF HUMANITY AND THE OPPRESSED VICTIMS OF THE NEW POOR-LAWS. " I do not know you, and may never know Your face — but you have acted on the whole Most nobly, and I own it from my soul." — Byron's Don Juan. " The drj'inp^ up a single tear has more Of honest fame, than shedding seas of gore." — Ibid. Sir, — Among the many who appreciated your generous and unceasing en- deavours throughout the whole of lust session in behalf of suffering poverty and outraged justice, pennit me most respectfully, most cordially, as an humble fellow-enthusiast in the same chaiitable arena, to include myself; and thus pubhcly, in comptuiionsliip with the beating hearts and Hvely gi'atitude of thousands, to express my admiring sense of one, who alone, unsupported (with the spirited exceptions of Mr. Daniel Wliittle Harvey and Mr. John Fielden), out of the collective representation of the three kingdoms, nobly stood forward, amidst the jeei's of the heartless, the neglect of the careless, and the " outcry wild," and savage yells of the partisan and slavef " mocked, yet triumphant, sneered at, unsubdued," — to assert the rights and depi'ecate the honible bar- l)arities, inflicted without the least compunction, as tlie de\dlish principles of the New Poor-Law Act direct, on the wronged and suffering poor. Such humane exertions as yours, Sir, characterised as they were by the greatest disinterestedness and the purest benevolence, deserve universal commen- * This was written when there were franks on the face of the earth, or rather of letters, and before postages were paid by plaster and spittle. f During Mr. Walter's Godlike advocacy of the rights and liberties of the poor and help- less, in the session of 1837, he was continually interrupted in the House by the most savage and brutal conduct of the Ministerial creatures and adherents — " by," to use the words of a weekly paper of that period, " the braying of donkeys and lowing of calves, to the crowing of cocks and hisses of snakes " — all of which discordant sounds were used to intimidate and drown his benevolent endeavours. " By Whigs and Radicals conjointly (says a writer in Blackwood, of April, 1837), he was assailed, interrupted, and insulted, all to stifle the ex- pression of hateful facts, and drown the voice of the speaker — happily in vain. The inter- ruptions, said the fearless orator, within the wall of that house — even if they amount to the huwliugs with which the neighbourhood rang two nights ago, shall not prevent me from making known the cries of the poor out of it." (He alluded to the disgraceful yells with which the Ministerial pack had saluted Lord Lyndhurst). LETTERS, SKETCHES, PETITIONS, ADDRESSES. 31 dation, and much more eloquent encomia than it is in the power and Hmitcd capacity of a " poor de\il of an author," like myself, to bestow. Nevertheless, malgr^ my unworthiuess for the pleasing task, and in these days of universal heartlessness, pleasing it is to record the godly deeds and gracious actions of the philanthropist, I cannot allow this opportunity to shp, without exhibiting to my fellow-countrymen, how active, how benevolent, were your intentions in tlieir behalf; and if those intentions could have been practically verified, and had not been counteracted by the prevalence of a mahgn opposition, composed of the disgraceful outscounngs of all parties, how^ much they would have had to bless you for — how deeply they would have remained youi- debtors ! In a word, I would show them, as through the prospective of a wizard's glass, the what might have been, and draw a parallel between it and the what is, and worse, what too surely will be, the results of your kind-hearted endeavours having been finistrated. Briefly, then, I would show them, that had your meritorious attempts been joined with coiTespondent success, how many a wretched son of poverty — friendless, homeless, careless, and lonely — doomed, by the abominable workings of the Broughamite slaughter decree, to be punished more severely than the murderer and the thief— and suftered to die of hunger, amidst the mockery of abundance, in the hard- paved streets of London* — might have received suffi- cient protection and support ! How many a despakfiil man, driwn by inexora- ble need to utter hopelessness, and bent upon the destruction of himself, his wan wife, or famishing little ones, — might have had the cbeadful appHances of self- slaughter and horrent murders timely wrested from his frantic grasp ; and, by gentle care and pitying attentions, soothed to lay aside his fearful determi- nation, and Uve, and not to take his own Ufe or imbrue his hands in the heart- blood of his nearest and dearest ! How many a seduced girl, too, — a good man's cliild — an Enghshman's daughter — the victim, alas ! of the hbertine's depraved desires — those desires so fostered and encouraged by the infiimous Bastardy Clause ! — might have been rescued from her shameful fate, — the im- modest exposure of bringing into the world her innocent olispring of sin, tmd from suffeiiug all the agonizing tlu'oes and pains of childbed, amidst the griimiug mockery and unhallowed gaze of the dissolute and the ruffian, in the pubUc streets, as, since the workings of the New Poor-Law, has often — too often, been the case ! Furthermore, I would point out to their obsen^ance, and consequently to their gratitude, how many an abused, starved, and famished pauper, now imprisoned, hke the perpetrator of a hundi-ed murders, in the dungeons of the " Bastile Unions" — denied the sight of his friends — pubUc intercourse with his God — and proper medical assistance when persecuted to a shadow, — might (had the late member for Berkshire had his will) have been dehvered from a slow death, worked out by a few superficial spoonsful of water gruel, composed of ground bean-stallcs, or some such rubbish, and restored once more to the fresh air and those he loved ! And how many a heart — now so withered — might have bloomed again with the flower of gladness — of woman's gladness — at the prospect of once more behold- ing the well-known faces of father, husband, brother, friend — long — too long caged by inhuman oppression, and kept by prescribed tATanny from their famiUes — " And will I see his face again ? And will I hear him speak ? I am down-right dizzy with the joy. In troth, I am like to greet '." And lastly. Sir, to crown the whole, and recount the many salutary results * Let the reader peruse a file of any newspaper for the winters passed since the introduc- tion of the New Poor-Law, and, to speak within compass, almost every week's number will be found to contain two or three horrent instances of " Death by Destitution ;" and God only knows how many others happened in those dreary periods which were never made public ! 32 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. which wouhl have aceruetl from, your praiseworthy speculations, I would specify how mucli crime — mmtlers, suicides, infanticides, f(jeticides, seductions, rob- beries, and riots (for such are, and will be, in great abundance, the fruits of the New Poor-Laws !) might have been prevented : how much human degradation, cruelty, immoraUty, and oppression, might have been spared ; while the king- dom, u'revocably ruined if the new system of pauper jurisprudence be continued, (for who, if our population, our "bold peasantry," are exterminated, are to fight her foes, man her ships, conduct her manufactories, suid till her fields?) — might have been saved ! Besides all this, what an ignominious stain would have been removed from oft' our national shield, had the repeal of the odious enactment, so loudly and uni- versally (with the well-greased excepticm of its pauper "flunkies") reprehended, taken place. Then the satirical mimics of the sti'anger's land could not, as now, have jeered our countrymen with their cannibalism and ridiculous incon- sistency : " See ! there go the G — d d — ns ! avIio one year awiird twenty millions of hard cash to free their well-fed and well-clothed blacks abroad ; and the next settle somewhat hke ii!lOO,000 a-year on four-and-twenty " hck- spittles," to enslave and massacre (which they do a merveille!) their own naked and famishing countrymen at home ! — Voila ! the next time we have a breeze with their government, their j)ieces de resistance will not be quite so tremen- dous ! Bah ! with their " coarse food," and " Union" system, they'll breed no more Nelson's " Agamemnons " now ! Ah ! Sir, had your l)enevolent, your patriotic design been properly sustained by the votes of your fellow-representatives, " What," to use the words of our late sailor Monarch, William the Fourth, when the battle-flng, commemorative of the fight at Waterloo, was brought him, while lying on his couch of death — "What a glorious day it would have been for England!" what a glorious day for England's people ! Instead of tyranny and oppression — a tyranny and op- pression unknown in the annals of the worst despots — tliey would have had justice and humanity ; instead of being torn by brutal officials from their famihar homes and dearest relatives — their domestic hearths would have been respected, and their personal liberties and natural sympathies held sacred and inviolable ; instead of being doomed to behold their fiiir-foced daughters and modest wives delivered over shrieldug to the villain's lust, they would have had the grateful satisfaction of knowing, that they (their fond ones) were, which they are not now, under the protection of the laws. And, a consummation, perhaps as desirable as any, their brutal oppressors, the wolfish commissionocracy, and all their attendant underling miscreancy of "Guardians," " Relieving Officers," "Union" Clerks, " Belly-pinchers," &c., &c., would have been handed over to the popular retribution of tar and feathers ; or transported in double-quick time, with a few friendly kicks for luck, over the water, to the penal settlements ; there to fraternize with fellows more kindi-ed to their own atrocious natures, and experience what it is to have nothing a-day, and find themselves ! But the recreant desertion of one party, and the rancorous opposition of the other, denied you the gratffication of perfecting refonuations so beneficial ; yet, notwithstanding your inabihty, under such conflicting circumstannces, to estab- lish the hberation of your countrymen from misery, slavery, and an organized plan for the extermination of them and theirs — our gratitude, our praise, both are equally your due. For though defeated in your philanthropic endeavours to rescue your poorer brethren from the fangs of their ruthless destroyers, in the tune-words of the Quiritian lyrist, " non militavisti sine gloria !" — you have not legislated without renown ; and that in a field more noble than the en- sanguined plain of the warrior — because you. Sir, contended for the preseiTation of your species — he, the man of war, for their destruction : more renowning than the author's — for he only labours to amuse and instruct — while you strove LETTERS, SKETCHES, PETITIONS, ADDRESSES. 33 to clothe, to feed, to free. The reputation of both the foregoing may be ques- tioned by partial historians and party prejudice — but yours* — " Glory like yours, should any dare gainsay, Humanity would rise and thunder " Nay .'" I am. Sir, With feehngs of the greatest admiration and respect. Your obedient seiTant, and cordial well-wisher, August 22, 1837. G. K. WYTHEN BAXTER.f AN EXHORTATION TO PETITION, ADDRESSED TO THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND TO BESTIR THEMSELVES IN THE PRESENT CRISIS,+ AND, BY CONSTITUTIONAL MEANS, TO THROW OFF THE IGNOMINIOUS YOKE OF THEIR DOWNING-STREET AND SOMERSET-HOUSE PER- SECUTORS. PETITION! PETITION! PETITION! " Allons enfans de la patrie, Le jour du glorie est arrive, Contre nous de la tyrannie." — Marseillaise. Friends and Fellow- Countrymen, — The period is fast approaching when Mr. John Fielden, as he has nobly, generously volunteered, will bring your unparalleled wrongs and sufferings under the administration of the new order of pauper jurisprudence, before the House of Commons. Such being the case, let me entreat you, collectively and indi\ddually, as you wish to burst your ignominious chains, to support, by many and numerously- signed petitions, that gentleman's humane endeavours in behalf of yourselves and famihes. Yes ! now is the moment for action ; now is the time, by attach- ring your signs-manual to anti- extermination petitions, boldly, yet constitu- tionally, to tell your slaughterers, the " base and bloody Wltigs," those brutal fatteners on yoiu' flesh, that, guilty of no crime, (unless poverty be one,) you will not tamely submit to be imprisoned, like robbers and murderers, in the unwholesome Bastile " Unions ; " that, you will not, without a struggle, and a fierce struggle, too, forego your right, your undoubted right, — a right which even the beasts that perish are permitted to enjoy, — the right to breathe the airs of heaven ; that you will not quietly suffer your wives, the fond, affectionate gu'ls of former, better times, whom you took for better, for worse, to be your solace in sickness ajid in health, and, too, your pretty Httle ones, to be torn in ruthless violence, as the " Act " directs, from your amis ; that you wUl not see your daughters, sisters, and wives, dehvered over, an authorized prey to dishonour and violation, without making a desperate effort to protect their * It is comfortable to know that Mr. Walter's endeavours have not gone altogether with- out appreciation. The Northern Liberator, ot Feb. 1838, reports, that the poor of Droxford Union, anxious to mark their sense of his services to them, determined to subscribe the humble sum of one penny each family, in order to purchase a testimonial, which they might present to Mr. Walter, as a proof of the sincerity of their feelings towards him. A richly- bound Bible was the appropriate testimonial chosen ; and, adds the Liberator, on Mon- day last, a meeting was held at the school-house of Soberton parish, when the ceremony of presentation took place. t This Letter originally appeared in the 3fetropolitan Conservative Journal of August 2G, 1837. I This was originally published in January, 1838, a few weeks prior to Mr. Fielden's Motion for the Repeal of the New Poor-I-aw, in the House. It is, however, equally appro- priate to the present time, and to any, and all time, until the " accursed thing" be abolished with unanimous and national execration. D 34 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. virtue, and revenge tlieir MTong ; that, in continuation, it is your firm determi- nation, in a country of plenty, where ample provision is periodically subscribed for your support,* not to rot and die of hunger in the pubhc streets and liigh- ways ; that it is equally your detemiination to contend that, after death, your bodies shall not shamefully be thrown, hke dead vennin, into a hole, without the customary and Christian solemnities of the burial service, paU, bell, &c. In fine, friends and fellow-countrymen, show youi" tyrants that, come what will, you will have Hberty, free, unrestricted, constitutional hberty, liberty of reUgious worsliip, hberty of air and exercise, liberty to eat and drinli, and liberty to greet and associate with those most famihar, most desu' to you ; and that, henceforth, you will be treated hke human beings, having souls in your bodies, and not as brutes ; and that you vdW, moreover, resist to the utmost of your power and pith, numerically and unanimously, all official attempts to estabhsh the administration and jurisdiction of the infamous clauses and princi- ples of the most infamous enactment that ever disgi'aced the statute-book of any kingdom. For yoiu- own sakes, for the welfare and presei-vation of your countr}^ and those most dear to you, do this, and don't, as you value your fives and liberties, let an opportunity like the present, an opportunity wliich, if now neglected, may never again occur, of emancipating yourselves, pass by unavailable ! Don't, I emphati- cally and WM-ningly make repetition, don't, now a champion has stepped foi-ward to do battle in your behalf, remain uiert, while he is active, slow, while he is enthusiastic ; on the contrary, be up and be doing, and above all, allow not the specious and notoriously-interested " givings out " of the Wliig-party ones and the Wliig-prejudiced ones, whose emissaries, at the present crisis, will doubtless be dispatched and fee-ed from head-quarters. Downing- street and Somerset- house, to mislead and persuade you from prosecuting your just and constitutional endeavours to obtain the redi'ess of your grievances. It is true, these paid declaimers in favour of pauper starvation, demorahzation, and universal destruction, with the deceit and mendacity of their original male ancestor, the first Wliig, Satan, -^ill essay every means to pervert the truth, and make even humanity, in their reports, appear designing agitation. Thus, they will proclaim to the inexperienced in " such perilous matters," that the " Union" houses of bondage, where death is officially dealt out by inches, are perfect palaces, in whose blessed interior the inmates spend half their time in quaffing brandy-punch, and the remainder, in discussing Strasburg pies, " neat as imported," or, in other words, as I myself was lately told by one of these said Avholesale slaughter eulogists, " the poor were never so well fed and comfortable in their lives !!!!!!!!!'' f But, allowing a heavy discount for the ready " invention of the enemy," is this the case ? is the verification of the tenn " better fed " to be estabhshed by the wretches' daily reception of a few superficial ounces and spoonsful of such abominable garbage as black, rotten bread and hening-bone water ? And is the substantive " comfort " generally elucidated in our dictionaries by iron- bedsteads, no fires, " hnsey-woolsey " go^\^ls, sail-cloth shuts, and Calcutta " black-hole " rooms, poisoned with the unliealthy effluvia of beings populated at the average of two to every square foot, the wretched victims, perchance, involun- tarily voiding their faeces, {n'de Mr. John Bowen's " Bridgewater Treatises") or eaten up with filth and innumerable vermin {vide'yb:. Samuel Koberts's " Mary WildenJ.X * Between seven millions and eight millions, according to M'CnIloch. f In refutation vide Union Diet-Tables. + FifZe Mr. Bowen's pamphlet on the Bridgewater cases of skilly murders, in 1837 and 1838, which took place in the Union workhouse of that town ; and Mr. Roberts's (of Sheffield,) account of Mary Wilden's infamous treatment in the Worksop Union Baslile, and her horrible death. LETTERS, SKETCHES, TETITIOXS, ADDRESSES. 35 But to proceed. Should their three-volume fictions, ahout the hospitality (?)* of the Bastiles, fail (through your sad experience to the contrary !), to tempt you from the performance of the duty you owe to yourselves, incontinently, with the most crafty facility, they will try another tack, and blandly insinuate, that "much misconception and exaggeration of the cruelties of the New Poor-Law ai"e abroad," " unprincipled agitators," " the lying press," " the ' few idle, lazy, dissolute villains ' who oppose it," &c. ; and that the official authorities do not ahcai/s sanction paupers to die of starvation in the sti'eets, but, in some instances, still " offer them out-door rehef ! "f " still allow men, with families of seven chikben, half-a-stone of floiu' ("best seconds") a-Aveek, and, they believe, without curses, — that is, if the applicants are not Tories ! " Kemarkable benevolence ! But, notwithstanding, friends and fellow- countr}anen, be not beguiled by its recapitulation. It is true, out of fear of your indignation, and to sei-ve political ends and pui-poses, in some places, the extreme rigour of the infamous measure in question, has not been exacted ; but what then ? Does that non-imposition speak in favour of the enactment ? Does it not rather show that it is such a one, that even its officials, brutal as they have proved themselves to be, ai'e ashamed of its innate bai'barities, and dai'e not put them into operation ? Besides, there is a deal of time-ser\dng poUcy in this gratuitous and unlawful leniency ; for, beheve me, the present loose enforcement of the Malthusian system, in some districts, is cunningly devised in order to smooth your popular irritation, and divert fi'om its objects, jowvjust retribution. But once let that consummation be effected, once let the administration of the Somerset-house traitor Trinity be, through your apathy, firmly and universally estabUshed, and then where will be that leniency ? then you and yours will have the New Poor-Law, in all its sanguinary atrocities and many horrors, heaped u2:)on your crushed, powerless, imd bleeding hearts ! Again, friends and fellow-countrymen, let me put you on your guard, not to give ear or consideration to the ministerial partisiins, when, bent upon your destruction, and fearful of your power, they, with aii assumption of carefulness for your interests and w^elfare, softly entreat you, " Be quiet, good people, — have patience, there's dears ! and don't curse Lord John in Yorkshire, or throw rotten eggs and dead rats at the Commissioners in Wales, for her Majesty's Ministry intend doing sometliing for you, and, indeed, have, at this very moment, a Committee up-stairs, always ready to listen to your complaints and grievances." They Usten to your complaints and grievances ! they do some- tiling for you ! What ! think you, they will disgorge their ill-gotten plunder, or, unpension and turn adrift the " flunky " crew who are w^allowing in luxuries at your expense ? luxuries bought with your despairful shrieks and cold death- agonies. | If you tliink they will, I can only say, you know very little of the utter heartlessness wliich has always characterized a Whig acbninistration ! No, no ; put not your trust in Whig protestations of redi'ess, for when were they ever but basely forfeited ? Believe me, 'tis by your own constitutional efforts, as petitioners, the battle of liberty must be fouglit ; by your own exertions the victory of emancipation must be obtained ; for — * Vide the descriptions of the Bastiles, Bastile Food, and Treatment, &c., in Part II. of this work. f At Hereford, for instance, (of which anointed ciUf of the snobs, Mr. E. B. Clive, father to one of the Assistant Poor-Law Commissioners, is noiv a member,) it is curious to observe, when the rumour of an approacliinj^ election is rife, how tender-hearted-tenderli/ all at once, as if by magic, the system of separation and no-out-door-relief works; but let the said rumour, like a shower of sleet, blow off, and again all is " weeping and gnashing of teeth " for the poor wretches in the " Union." X The Whig Ministry well exhibit how much they care for the complaints of the people by the recent introduction of their Ten Years' Commissioners' Continuance Bill, that Bill whicli Mr. D'Israeli, in the House of Commons, Feb. 8, 1841, proclaimed to be " an exaggerated copy of the former Act." D 2 36 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. " Poor-Law hondmen, Inow ye not, Who would be free, themselves must strike the hlow ?" Yes ! you must " strike the blow ! " and, oh ! my dear frieuds and fellow- countrymen, strike it now, and petition, everywhere petition, from your liigh places, from your low places, fi'om your mountains, fr-om your valleys, from your towns, from your villages ; and, from the Tower Hamlets to Phnlimmon's hoary top, let no apathy, no paity, no prejudice, damp the general and holy enthusiasm ; but, united in one powerfril and organized band, boldy demand freedom, freedom fi-om the despicable bondage of the " lickspittle " despots of Somerset-house and Downing-street ! Once more, and yet once more, friends and fellow-countrymen, I trumpet you to the glorious onset ; be up and be doing ; and in answering the Godlike call of Liberty, enthusiastically work out your own enfranchisement ! Think of your wives and httle ones ; see ! with himished looks and breaking hearts, they urge you on ! Can I say anytliing further to induce you at the present crisis to be energetic ? Yes, one word — " Awake ! arise ! or he for ever fallen ! " I am, Frieuds and Fellow-countrymen, Your sincere well-wisher, January 3, 1838. G. 11. WYTHEN BAXTER. COPIES OF PETITIONS. TO THE EDITOR OF THE " METROPOLITAN CONSERVATIVE JOURNAL."* Sir, — Knowing and appreciating the interest that you and your numerous readers take in all matters connected with the pauper-extermination decree of the justly designated " brutal and bloody" Wliigs, I beg to transmit, for inser- tion in your benevolent columns, the two following petitions for the repeal of that miscreant enactment. The first, from myself, was presented to the House of Commons on Thursday (the 21st), by Mr. Fielden,t the honourable member for Oldham; and the other, which I have been solely instrumental in getting up at Hereford, and which, in less than a week, received almost a thousand signatures, will, early in February next, be presented by the gentleman already named. I am, Sir, Yours very truly, Hereford, Dec. 26, 1837. G. R. WYTHEN BAXTER. (1.) " To the Commons of the United Kingdom, in Parliament assembled. " The Petition of George Robert Wythen Baxter, of the City of Here- ford, Gentleman, " Showeth, — That your Petitioner, with all respect, approaches your Honour- able House. * The copies of these two petitions appeared in the above paper, December 30, 1837, and subsequently, in several London and Provincial papers, besides being printed as handbills. t " A petition from Mr. G. R. Wythen Baxter, of this city, praying for the total repeal of the New Poor-Law Amendment Act, was presented on Thursday, the 21st instant, to the House of Commons, by Mr. John Fielden, Member for Oldham. Mr. Baxter is also superintending another petition, which, we understand, has received a great many signatures, in this city, for the repeal of the New Poor-Laws." — Hereford Cotinty Press, Dec. 30, 1 837. LETTERS, SKETCHES, rETITIONS, ADDRESSES. 37 " That, in doing so, he is not actuated by motives of party or prejudice, but purely out of feelings of humanity and justice. '■ That, his reason for so doing is, because your Petitioner has beheld, with sensible regret and anxiety, the extensive misery and utter destitution which per\'ade the old and pauper population of these realms, since the coming into operation of the new pauper institute — commonly called the New Poor-Law Amendment Act. " That your Petitioner has also beheld, with much regret and anxiety, the alarming and numei-ically increased instances of viciousness and crime, wliich the introduction of the Act, aforesaid, has occasioned among the low^er orders, and the frequent accidents of a revolting and an indecent nature, such as births, deaths, and staiTations, in the open air and pubUc streets, which have occurred since its administration as the law of the land. " That, in continuation, your Petitioner has beheld, wdtli equal regret and anxiety, not uumingled with apprehension, the dangerous seeds of discontent and insubordination which the administration of the Act aforesaid has sown in tlie hearts of the artisans and other labouring classes of these realms. " That your Petitioner, in the foregoing, may not be suspected of a desire to create imaginary alarm, he most respectfully begs, in coiToboration of what he has adduced, to call the attention of your Honourable House to the many re- corded instances of populai' opposition which the official attempts to establish the authority and operation of the Act aforesaid have uniformly met with ; tmd, more especially,inYorkslure,*Berksliire, Wiltshire, and the Principahtyof Wales. " That, your Petitioner, deeply interested in the peace, good order, and prosperity of tliis countiy, and highly apprehensive that the continual adminis- tration of the Act aforesaid, will grievously endanger the same peace, good order, and prosperity, most humbly beseecheth your Honourable House to take into consideration the propriety of repealing, or materially amending, the Act aforesaid; or, at least, its most obnoxious principles: such as the 'bastardy,' 'separation,' and 'no-out-door reUef clauses; each of which clauses, with all deference to the superior judgment of your Honourable House, your Petitioner opines to be unnecessarily severe, and in direct opposition to all justice, humanity, and the commands of God ; and likely, if their administration be persisted in, to engender much national licentiousness and crime. " That, in conclusion, your Petitioner humbly begs, that during such time as your Honourable House shaU be deliberating on the subject of pauper juris- prudence, your Honourable House will be gi-aciously pleased to order the suspension of the administration of the Act aforesaid. " And your Petitioner will ever pray, &c." (2.) " To the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom, in Parliament assembled. " The humble Petition of the undersigned Citizens and Inhabitants of the City and Borough of Hereford,t * In Sheffield, at a large Anti-New Poor-Law Meeting, it was unanimously resolved, that whoever favoured the introduction of the New Poor-Law would be an eneniy to the peace, prosperity, and safety of the town ; at the same meeting sixteen thousand individuals signed a petition for its total repeal ! t The petition for the repeal or modification of the New Poor Laws, which, for some weeks previously, had been under the care of Mr. G. R. Wythen Baxter, of this city, and had been circulated for signature, was last week lorwarded to John Fielden, Esq., M.P., for presentation to the House of Commons, who, on Monday night, (the 12th of Feb., 1838,) presented it with several others. We understand it was one of the most numerously-signed Parliamentary memorials that has ever emanated from the city of Hereford. Mr. Fielden, at the same time, presented similar petitions from Weston-under-Penyard, and from Linton, in this county, the first witli 27(>, the latter witli 221 signatures. The Hereford petition had 1 ,707 signatures.— Hereford Counfy Frcas, Feb. 17, 1^38. 4 38 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. " Showetli, — Tliat your Petitioners, with all deference, approach your Hon- ourable House. " That yoiu" Petitioners are instigated to do so by the unparalleled misery and destitution wliicli everj'where pen^ade the pauper population, particularly the old and helpless, of this Idngdom, since the administration of tlie New Poor Amendment- Act. " That your Petitioners view, with unqualified regret and anxiety, the alarm- ing increase of crime and Ucentiousness, and the many instances of shocking catastrophe and indecent exposure, such as deaths, births, and starvations in the pubhc streets and thoroughfares, which have transpked subsequently to the in- troduction of the enactment aforesaid.* " That your Petitioners also view, with sensible apprehension, the constant popular insun'ections, in some instances attended wdth loss of hfe, which have uniformly resulted from the official attempts to estabHsli the jurisdiction and operation of the enactment aforesaid. " That your Petitioners, to prevent the occiu'rence of such alarming conse- quences, humbly entreat your Honourable House, to take into your most earnest and immediate consideration the necessity of totally repealing the enactment aforesaid ; or, at least, its obnoxious principles — such as the ' bas- tardy,' 'separation,' 'no-out-door-relief,' "union-imprisonment,' and 'pro- hibition to attend pubhc worship ' clauses ; all and each of wliich clauses your Petitioner's conscientiously conceive to be excessively arbitrary and ci-uel, and directly opposed to the received commands of Cluistianity, humanity, and justice ; and likely, if their administration be continued, to cause much and grievous national confusion, rebeUion, and wTong.f " And your Petitioners will ever pray, &c." (Here follow the signatures. J TO THE EDITOR OF THE CARMAllTHEN JOURNAL. " Petitioning for pity is most weak -^ The sovereign people ought to demand justice." — Dr. Southey's Wat Tyler. " Sir, — As you were so courteous as to insert in the pages of your excellent * Destitute persons in danger of perishing in the streets of London, during the yeare 1837 and 1838, were, according to the Companion to the Almanac for 1840, and the First Report of the Constabularij Force Commissioners, seven hundred and seventy-four ! ^VTio, after this, can say that deaths in the public streets are fictitious circumstances ! f National confusion and rebellion the Act has caused already at Birmingham, Newport, Newcastle, Llanidloes, Todmorden, Bradford, Sheffield ; and the wrong will be the un-English Rural Police which has been organized in some districts, and is to be in all, if the people will pennit it. The Rural Police, after all, is only an additional clause of tyranny added to the New Poor- Law Act, " by way of rider," though the Whigs want to say it is to apprehend robbers and murderers, and suchlike, and has nothing to do with the administration of that enactment. But ive know it is expressly called into being to " bullet the beggars," and sivord the slaves, who dare to resist the " orders, rules, and regulations" of the three Tyranni of Somerset-house, be those " rules and regulations " to put " Marcus " or Martial Law into operation. Speaking on this subject, that " right good un," the Suffolk Juror, says, " I am desired to keep the Poor-Law and Constabulary distinct and separate in future, like the cockney's milk, ' Give me the milk and the water separate, and let me mix for myself I wish the Poor-Law and the Police Force would prove as harmless as milk and water : they are more like fire and brimstone ; at all events, one is famine ; the other is intended to be the sword .' " .... "A Poor-Law to drive people mad — a Police Force to keep them in stai-vation ! " + " Most weak " indeed ! Sir George Sinclair, in a speech delivered in Parliament on the 22nd of JMay, 1840, and since, I believe, published in a pamphlet, has described the fate the I.KTTKUS, bKETCIIES, PETITIONS, ADDRESSES. S9 paper, a fonncr anti-new-poor-pctition from Hereford, I now beg to transmit for publication in yom- columns, a copy of one of which, in consequence of tlie indifinatiun excited at Herelord by the little regard awarded the honourable Member I'or Oldham's motion of the 20tli ult., has been forwai'ded from G, II. Wythen Baxter, Esq., the chairman of the previous petition, to Mr. Fielden, to be presented to the House of Commons. " I am, Sir, your obedient sen'aut, " Hereford, Feb. 2G, 1838. " '" NO BASTILES !" " To the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom, in Parliament Assembled. " The humble Petition of George Egbert Wythen Baxter, chairman of the Petition for the repeal of the New Poor Amendment- Act, signed by 1,707 of the Inhabitants and Citizens, which was lately presented from the city of Hereford, " Showeth, — That your Petitioner, as stated above, was recently a respectful supphcant, in conjunction with 1,707 of his fellow-citizens, for the repeal of the New Poor Amendment- Act. " That he again craves permission to approach your Honourable Plouse. " That your Petitioner now does so in order that, as the representative of his fellow-citizens, he may express their deep regret and concern, 7iot unmingled nith a.stonishment, that your Honourable House should so dightingli/ have treated the late humane and patriotic motion for the repeal of the New Poor Amendment- Act ; and not given it (the said humane and patriotic motion) the consideration which they, in unity with the majority of their countrymen,* conceive it so imperatively desei-ved. " That your Petitioner, judging from the paucity of votes recorded in favour of the aforesaid humane and patriotic motion, is fearful that the majority of the members of your Honourable House, are not sufficiently aware how vitally the peace, prosperity, morahty, and religion of these realms, depend upon the repeal of the New Poor Amenduient-Act ; or sufficiently acquainted with the unpai'al- leled and revolting cruelties authorized and inflicted under the same : in short, your Petitioner is fearful, that many of the members of your Honourable House have not seriously contemplated the consequential rebelhon, insubordination, and increase of every species of crime and Hcentiousness, which must succeed the continued admuiistration of a statute so diametrically opposed to the com- mands of the Almighty, as the New Poor Amendment- Act. " That your Petitioner, under tliis conviction, humbly calls the attention of your Honourable House to the same, and begs that your Honourable House will incontinently proceed to deliberate on the necessity — the urgent necessity — of aboUshing the Act complained of by your Petitioner. '• That, in conclusion, your Petitioner begs respectfully, yet firmly, to state, that should your Honourable House not take some immediate steps to repeal, people's petitions meet from their representatives to a ti-uism. He says : — "From whence are they (tlie people) to hope for assistance ? To transmit their complaints to this House is an empty ceremony and a vain delusion; as well might they address themselves to the Cono^ress at Washington, to the C'hamher!? of Deputies at Paris, or to the Cortes assembled at Madrid. Their petitions are huddled together like so much rubbish, and consigned in silence to the leathern sepulchre ofolilivion ; if that, indeed, can be said to i)e forgotten which scarcely attracted the notice of a single moment. Should any rash philanthropist venture to utter a single sentence in their behalf, how many patriotic economists of the public time would grudge the ajiplication of even a few minutes to such a theme ! " * To exhibit how little esteemed the New Poor-Lavv is by all, saving its immediate (lunkies, in the session of li^^'i'^^hnt fire petitions were presented in its favour, and those only signed by ei;//)t>/-seirn individuals,' {most probably all of them officials,) while, during the same session, f^ts memorials for amendment and alteration, bearing 5,771 signatures, and eleven for toul rci)eal, with 4,166 signatures, were presented on the opposite side, and this when the generality of the people had begun to consider petitions as " most weak ! " 40 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. or materially modify, tlic Act before mentioned, your Petitioner, in conjunction with many others, much as he will regret the alternative, irill be under the necessity of refusing to pay any lonyer Poors-rates, levelled under the authority of such an unconstitutional and illegal enactment as the New Poor A men dm ent-Act* " And your Petitioner will ever pray." " To the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, in Parliament now assembled. " The humble Petition of George Robert Wythen Baxter, of the City of Hereford, Gentleman,t " Showeth, — That your Petitioner, with feelings of the greatest respect, ap- proaches, as a suppliant, your Lordships' august assembly. " That your Petitioner's reason for so doing, is, because in the present junc- ture of pauper suffering and distress, he, in common wi\h. all humane and well- disposed persons, wishes to express to your Lordships the painful regret and heart-felt commiseration with which he views the unnecessaiyt and inhuman oppression, which the pauper population (particularly the old, the helpless, and females of an unfortunate class), have endured, and still are endming, under the administration of the recently-instituted enactment, commonly called the New Poor Amendment- Act. " That, justly attributing these unparalleled giievances, which his poorer countrymen everywhere complain of, to the obnoxious and unconstitutional principles of the enactment beforementioned ; and regarding, with sincere ap- prehension and alarm, the numerically increased instances of every species of crime and hcentiousness, and more particulai'ly of murders, suicides, infanti- cides,\ foeticides, incendiarisms, and robberies in the streets and highways ; not to mention the many authenticated examples of a revolting and indecent nature : such as Deaths, Births, and Starvations, in the open air and public thoroughfares, which have occurred since the introduction of the New Poor- Law, your Petitioner most earnestly implores yom* Lordships, without loss of time, or further expenditure of pauper hves, to take into your most serious and immediate consideration the necessity of repealing the Act aforesaid. * It would appear from the following analect, ttat the collection of rates, under the new admirable system, which uorks so well, is not the easiest matter in the world. " At the last meeting of the Nottingham Board of Guardians it was declared almost impossible to collect the poor-rates ; out of the last rate of £12,000, £5,000 is uncollected." — Metropolitan Conservative Journal, Oct. 24, 1840. — At Herelbrd, too (the city of the snobs), there never is a rate that can be got in for the benefit of the poor — Commissioners, without having recourse to the physical force of summoning to compel payment. But still it is but fair to add here, that the inhabitants of Hereford are not very famous for settling their accounts : the Gregarach's "good old rule" and "simple plan" agree more with their manner of living ; and it is seldom but that they are as full of tick as a bed, a watchmaker's shop, or a flock of sheep. f " A petition from Mr. G. E. Wythen Baxter, of this city, praying for the repeal of the New Poor-Law, was presented to the House of Lords by Earl Stanhope, on Thursday, the 8th inst."— Hereford County Press, March 17, 1838. + Certainly unnecessary, as regards the thinning of the pauper population of this kingdom, when we find by the EegistrarrGeueral's Report for 1839, that in that year 11,727 died violent deaths (the greater number from accidents with machinery) in England ; and when we see related in the Poor-Eaw Commissioners' Eeport for 1837, that no fewer than 2,000 labourers emigrated from one county (Suffolk) in the space of twelve months. Surely such periodical occurrences, together with the exterminatory practices of the " Act," will drain our " country's pride " too dry ! § For instance, among too many others, the poor girls, Byrom and Jones, at the Chester Assizes, 1838, and Celia Tippins, at Gloucester. The unfortunate creatures, Byrom and Jones, who wei'e rescued by petitions from an infamous death, have in their persons had the torture revived in Englancl, being sentenced to five years' imprisonment, with hard labour, a quarter of each yeav to be solitary confinement, and then transportation for life. So much for Whig mercy ; LETTERS, SKETCHES, TETITIONS, ADDRESSES. 41 ' " That your Petitioner thus humbly entreats your Lordships to repeal, with- out qualiiication, the Act aforesaid, ' because your Petitioner, with becoming submission to the superior judgment and knomi benevolence of yom- Lordships' illustrious House, conscientiously beheves its principles, more especially, those which authorise the unconstitutional existence of the ' central board ;' the illegaUty of separating man and wife, parent and child ; the injustice of making the'^acceptiince of a prison, with worse than prison fare and prison discipUne, the test of destitution and poverty to be reheved ; the cruelty towards unfortu- nate women as enacted in the Bastardy Clauses ; the intolerance of prohibiting the inmates of the ' union ' workhouses from attending public worship ;* and the injuriousness practised towai'ds the rate-payers in expending their charitable contributions in salaries for the numerous officials created under the existing Act, to be not only in the highest degree unconstitutional and illegal, but, at tlie same time, directly opposed to the wiitten statutes of the Almighty, and likely, if their administration be continued, to cause in these realms frequent and extensive occuiTences of rebellion, Hcentiousness, and crime. " Your Petitioner, therefore, to avoid the grievous national misfortune which must inevitably result from the continued administration of the New Poor Amendment- Act, humbly prays, that your Lordships will, in your wisdom, in- continently proceed to deliberate on the propriety of repealing the enactment complained of by your Petitioner, who will ever pray," &c., &c., &c. THE BASTAEDY CLAUSE. A FEW SENTENCES ADDRESSED TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL, ON HIS ADVOCACY OF THAT " WISE ENACTMENT " (aS MR. JOSEPH HUME f DESIGNATED IT IN THE DEBATE OF NOV. 27, 1837) FOR THE PROMOTION OF FEMALE PROSTITUTION. Seb. — " Bate, I beseech you, widow Dido." Ant. — " O, widow Dido ; ay, Widow Dido." — Tempest, Act II. s. 1. Angelo — " The tempter, or the tempted, who sins most ? Ha '. Not she ; nor doth she tempt." — Measure for Measure, Act II. s. 1. My Lord, — The days of chivalry, said one ever)^ay calculated to have been its brightest ornament, are past ! and your Lordship, and your ministerial com- panions, seem to suppose that the days of humanity are also waning to a close ; or, at least, have essayed, by the introduction of your pauper-agony law, to pro- duce and expedite their conclusion. * It appears to he the hig^h aim of the Commissioners not only to prevent the poor from poinp to church, but, it would seem, hy the pitiful salaries given to Union chaplains, they desire to discourage, as much as possible, the reception of any religious instruction, even in the Bastiles. It is curious to contrast the salaries of the Commissioners and the Chaplains. The yearly stipends of all the Chaplains of the Metropolitan Union workhouses are as follows: — West Ham Union workhouse, £120; Brentford, £80; St. George-in-the-East, £50; Hackney, £40; Hendon, £73 10s.; Holborn, £50; Kensington Union,— Chelsea workhouse, £40 ; Kensington workhouse, £40; Hammersmith, £30 ; Fulham, £30 ; City of London Union, three Chaplains, two at £150 each, and one at £100; St. Martin's-in-the- Fields, £100; East London, £100; West London, £100; Poplar, £00; Strand, £00; Stei)ney Union,— Limehouse, £30 ; Mile-end, £30 ; Ratcliflc, £30 ; Wapping, £30 ; Uxbridge, £50 ; Whitechapcl, £70. Thus it will be scon that the entire sum paid for the services of twenty-four clergymen does not exceed £l,4t»3 lO.s. a-ycnr, not so much as the pay of one Poor-Law Commissit)ncr ! And their provision for the bodies of the paupers is as scanty and scandalous as their provision for their souls ; for, in many instances, Notting- ham among the number, where, previously to the introduction of the " Act," three parishes had three medical attendants, they have now only one ! ! ! t Joey's nephew is, or ivas, an Assistant-Commissioner, viz., Mr. James Hume. 42 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. And here, in wonder aud amazement, let me ask your Lordship, liow comes it to pass that yon, not nursed (as some of youi" supporters, in and out the House, may have heen, for aught I know*) in "hideous usages and rights accursed," hut in the sleek ahandonment of Wobum Abbey ; — not brought up in youthhood, a desperate " tall nothing," to follow hounds imd hai-cs, but a Petrarchhke being, shght, small, jmd sickly, who doted upon flowers, and sang contributory " ladye's " love in the "Keepsake" Aimual;t how comes it to pass, I reiterate, that one so sensible of soft impeachments — how is it that your Lordship, above all yom* compeers — you who so often have caused the widow's ;!; heart to leap with joy — you, the translator of " Don Caiios," and the author of the Eeform (bubble) Russell's Purge, could be one of the original creators, and are one of the present advocates of a legislative enactment, containing such a diabolical principle as the Bastardy Clause ? But I don't believe your Lordsliip ever was concerned in the concoction of this revolting enactment, much less the advocate thereof. No, no ; the nation has been under an hallucination all this wliile — your Lordship must have a " double," a " counter-presentment," or something of the sort. Yes, indubi- tably, there are two Lords John Eussell in the field ! and one is the proprietor of the New Poor-Bill and its Bastardy Clause ; and the other, of " Don Ciuios," the " Piu'ge," and the " widow." In a word, it is my film persuasion (for how am I otherwise to account for such a discrepancy?) that some wag, or games- making fellow, has unwaiTantably assumed your Lordship's name and individu- ahty, and, in the assumption and presumption thereof, dressed in his " httle brief authority," has played these " tricks " {ric/e the principles of the New Poor- Law, particuliudy the base and Bastardy Clause) before " high Heaven," and made the " angels weep " — hterally, eaitlily angels weep, viz., those unfortunate, fair, fi'ail ones, who, since the new law's introduction, in gi'adual shameful agonies, have sunk victims to its lionid cruelties in the pubUc sti'eets ! But not to digress : it is to that wag, or games-making fellow, aud not to your real Lordsliip, who, very consistently, some years ago was all for hberty, the people, the aboHtion of sinecures and purification of the pension-hst ! that tliis letter is addi-essed. I tlunk proper to make this announcement, lest in the frequent mention of your Lordsliip's name, which must necessarily occur tlu'oughout tliis epistola, yoiu' Lordship might imagine I intend a personal attack on yourself, aud not on the impudent pretender who, doubtless, suppos- ing your Lordsliip to be closely engaged in your channing avocation, as for- merly, of \mting for the pages of Mr. Ackemian's annuals, has so unla^^4■ully taken upon him the patronymic of the illustrious house of Eussell, and, under that imposing designation, smuggled himself into place and power. Having, to avoid the imphcation of being satuical on any legitimate con- nexion of the Duke of Bedford, made this imperative declaration, I shall now proceed to shame your Lordship (of course, I mean the graceless impostor be- fore mentioned) out of your inhumanity, and, if possible, get you to arrest the administration of a measiu'e rife with such infamous principles, as the sepiu'ation, no relief, and, most abhorrent of all, that miscreant stab at female honour and protection, the Bastaixly Clause ! But -vNithout, in the present instance, dilating on the barbarities of the two former, I shall at once discuss the latter, whose exliibitions of injustice, immorahty, and incitement to crime and cruelty, are, alas ! over- abundantly sufficient for the pui-pose ; and in doing so, it is my in- tention to divide the olijectious to its retention, as the law of the land, into four parts : viz., its injustice, its unmanhness, the viciousness it is calculated to en- gender, and the consequences Hkely to accrue from its continuation. * Mr. Daniel O'Connell, for instance. t " Little Finality" used, in some sort, to soil tlie Armuah with his sorrows and sentiments. I It is well known Lord John wedded a widow for her £. s. d. ; she has since departed, and he is now couiliiig- a^ain ! ^\'hat a bold man I \\lial an enterprising minister ! LETTERS, SKETCHES, PETITIONS, ADDRESSES. 43 To commence with its injustice. And here let me inquke of your Lordship, what can be a greater, a more unparalleled smd signal piece of injustice, than for the executive government of the countr}^ to estabhsh a legislative statute, organized expressly for the extension of female immorality smd prostitution, (which the Bastardy Clause to all intents and purposes is) and then, when the unhappy daughter of humble hfe and humbler circumstances, is, by that sta- tute's direct instnimentality, given over an authorized prey to the seducer, for the members of the executive government aforesaid, to issue, through the me- dium of their detested and detestable commissioners, " orders " dii-ecting a shameful and immodest exposure of her frailty, and her ultimate destruction by starvation, with its many con-esponsive horrors, in the public streets ! and all because the poor deluded \actim followed, as she was coerced to do, their (tlie Government's) " written instructions," and commmitted what those " mitten instructions " were mainly influential in driving her to ! Yet such is one of the leading attributes, which so pre-eminently distinguish your much-lauded, mild, benevolent, and well-working New Poor-Law ! But to proceed : Women (particularly those of the lower orders, whom your Lordship, in co-partnership with Mr. Joseph Hume, and your Downing-street and Somerset-house companions have so mavfidhj raised, and commissioned a flunky crusade to destroy), are naturally, and from circumstances, too open and unprotected against the arts of the deceiver and the villain ; and consequently required no legislative enactment to facihtate their undoing. In verification of tliis assertion, look at the condition of females in humble life, brought up in severity and httle enjo)^nent, they are too prone to give etu- to the specious in- sinuations of those who are, perhaps, the only ones who, during the course of their cheerless lives, have treated them with kindness. This naturally begets love ; and when a woman loves, as your Lordsliip from experience must be well aware, she never stops to think of consequences ; but, confiding in the faith of her admirer, makes those sacrifices which, when too late, she has, poor thing ! such cause, particularly under the administration of the New Poor-Law, to deplore ! But, good God ! is she, for her confidence in the honour of our sex, and through our sex's abuse of that confidence, and disregard of that honour, to be ruthlessly subjected to all the hoiTors of a death by starvation ? Surely the rules of society, strangely in this instance, called " civilized," which ostracise from association and reception, a woman when she deviates from the paths of propriety, inflict a sufficiently severe visitation on her criminality, without having recourse to an Act of Parhament to punish her degTadation Avith a cruel, lingering, and ignominious death ! Eeally, the pohcy which could dictate such a retribution on a poor, weak, soft, ening woman, is the pohcy of a fiend, and barbarously illustrates the common archaism of knocking a wi'etch down, and subsequently kicldng the poor devil for falhng ! At any rate, however, if such chastisement is for the future to await the frailty of woman, in common justice, my Lord, let there be no chstinction made between the unvirtuons lapses of the daughters of the rich and titled, and those of the poor and helpless ; for, of course, it is the crime, not the poverty, of the offender, that such professors of morahty, as you and Lord Viscount Melbourne, desire to punish. Furthermore, to continue exemplifying the manifest injustices of this most abominable clause of a most abominable enactment, what, let me put it to your Lordship's manhood and sense of equity, can possibly be imagined more radi- cally unjust than a law, which, not only permits, but sanctions the escape of the principal criminal and inciter to fornication, without the shghtest mulct ; while, at the same time, it unequally and injmiously compels the suff'ering and weaker vessel to bear all the shame, all the burden, and all the penalty, which is as- suredly ignominy, and, under the present order of tilings, too frequently unmi- tigated starvation and death ! 44 TIIK BOOK OF T.IIK BASTILES. What, let me, in reiteration, nsk your Lordship, were you not one of its crea- tors and advocates, would you have thought of such injustice? and what would you have adjudged of the men who, mahp-e theii' heing the abettors and sup- porters of this outrageous libel juid attack on female purity, possessed the eftrontery afterwaixls to continue to look, not only a woman, but, as her national advisers, their maiden sovereign in the face ? Wliy, doubtless, your Lordship would have concluded, as I do, that they were unenviably gifted with the most indomitable copperas of countenance ! \\\ extenuation of tliis injurious feature, it has been fi'equently adduced by your Lordship and other approvers of the demorahzing edict, that the entaihng of the whole responsibility on the female, in cases of seduction mid fornication, will operate as a species of moral checkstring on the woman ; and that, when she is made aware what will be the certain termination of her deviations from the paths of virtue, it will influence her to be more cautious in giving way to frail propensities, and hstening to lewd proposals. My Lord, I doubt its having such an eflect ; insomuch as I, "vrith many others, haA-ing experience in such matters, consider it a difficult undertaldng to attempt to legislate on natural feelings, for, as Horatius says, " When you essay to rout nature with a pitch- fork, she will again imd agiiin return" {Natiiram ej-j>el/as furca, tamen usque recurret). Yes, yes; beheve me, my Lord, Avise as you ai'e in your generation, it will be some calendar time before you cim make human passion and frailty subservient and amenable to an — Act of Paidiament : woman Avill be woman still ! even should a Home Secretary,* albeit as sagacious as my Lord John Russell, endeavour to rule and regulate her whims and inclinations ! But supposing, for the sake of discussion, that the throwing the onus pro- handi," or whole responsibihty, on the shoulders of the wedver criminal, should, in its practical administration, average an adequate return of moral improve- ment and utiUty, even then, the clause in question, if not injurious, is decidedly faulty, insomuch as the principle of salutary restraint, which it is said to con- tain, is indubitively only a check on the guilty passions of the abandoned females, who, under the old system, sometimes made a trade and hvelihood of their illegitimate offspring ; in short, on those who have previously been con- victed of incontinency, but is not a moral protection to the young and innocent maidens of humble life ! See you not a screw loose here, my Lord, in the vaunted perfectibility of your pet Amendment-Act ? Sm-ely the measure which legislates onl// for the guilty, and leaves the \irtuous girl entirely bereft of legal retbess and protection, an authorized prey to the first designing villain, (say a nephew or vounger brother of one of the Commissioners), who shall feel in- clined, during a vaciint period, for amusement, to undertake her ruin, requires some reformation ? I should opine even your Lordship, and your brother-chs- ciples of the " dat veniam corcis, vexat censura columbas " school of diplo- macy, will admit that. Of the unmanhness of the Bastardy Clause. The miscreant cowardice of depriving the female sex of the protection of the laws, and making them, in their defenceless state, still more defenceless, not to adduce its legahsing the exposm-e of their ti'avail, in the open air, to the unhallowed gaze of the de- praved and dissolute, is, I should tliink, sufficiently obvious to every one, save such interested folk as your Lordsliip, and your Lordships immediate underlings. Well, to shame the shameless, is assm'edly a most unprofitable speculation ; nevertheless, were I a woman, with all deference be it spoken, after the conspiracy you have entered into to degrade the female sex, I would not be your Lordship's spouse for treble the receipts of your official salary, which, if the books of her Majesty's exchequer were consulted, would be found (pickings and stealings included) no " trifle or eightpenny matter ! !" * When tliis was first piihlished, which was in the Metropniitan Conservative Journal of March 17, 1838, Lord Jolm Ivusbell " disfigured" the office of Home Secretary. LETTERS, SKETCHES, PETITIONS, ADDRESSES. 45 And now, to proceed to anotlier antagonist part of this clause, /. c, the pre- mium it unblushingly extends to viciousness and crime. Formerly there were some restrictions ; they were, to be sure, in some instances, inadequate to oppose vice ; but still they were restrictions on the hbertine's lustful speculations ; as the subsequent affiliation and responsible support of the offspring of an ilUcit intercourse, aflbrded an intimidating prospective to the most hai'dened and in- considerate villain ; and doubtless, under the old and better system, faulty as that was, the fear of exposure to the wealthy Lothaiio, and the dread of pecu- niary consequences to the poorer i-oue, operated in a great measure as salutary checks to the perpetration of amatory crime. But now, by this new " inven- tion of the enemy," those obstructions have not only been entirely removed, but inducements and licences of impunity have been wilfully and wickedly added to excite and countenance the commission of profligacy. As for con'o- boration ; during the administration of the former laws of bastardy and affilia- tion, a rake, whether in high or low life, was frequently obliged, in order to avoid these contingencies of his debauchery (viz., the dread of exposure and fear of pecuniary responsibihty, as above quoted) to " talk of a priest and mar- riage," and so far to repau' the miscliief he had previously committed, as to make an honest woman of his victim. That was as it should be ; but now, the new ministry of things has exploded this commendable restitution of female character ; and, to use a slang, but expressive phrase, the " man for the dimity," is chai'tered, without let, molestation, or apprehension of future results, to run riot in the destruction of innocence, and the satisfaction of Ms depraved incli- nations ; and doubtless as he does so, liis heart oveiilowdng with gratitude for this " boon to the female population," he exclaims to his lascivious companions, in Shaksperean off-hand : " Well, God be thanked for these ' Wliig Ministers and Commissioners,' they offend none but the virtuous ; I laud them, I praise them :" for now " 'tis like if there come a hot June, and this ' New Poor-Law ' hold, we shall buy maidenheads, as they buy hob-nails, by the huncbed ! " Ha\dng discussed thus far, according to my original proposition laid down in the commencement of this letter, the injustice, the unmanhncss, and incitement to licentiousness of the BastiU'dy Clause, I shall now, in conclusion, point out for your Lordsliips instruction, the certain consequences which w^ll result from its being continued as the law of these realms, and those consequences, awfully retributaiy as they will be, may be told by a few succinct strokes of the pen. To begin, then, their recapitulation : frequent and numerically-increased in- stances of seduction of the most brutal and heartless nature, and of the after- fruits of those seductions : foeticides, infanticides, and suicides ; in other words, the paving of our streets and thoroughfai'es with the mangled and deserted re- mains of the newborn babes, and the choking up of our canals and rivers with the bodies of their ill-fated mothers ! And then come the minor, but not less deleterious, products of its continuance : namely, the demoralization of pubhc morality which it will cause to both sexes, by the frequent indecent exposures attendant on the now too common spectacles {vide the pubHc press) of woman giving birth to her offspring in the open streets ; and the powerful addition it must malve to the ranks of the sisters of infamy, who are akeady (thanks to our young sprigs of nobihty) too ilumerous ! In ffiie, persist in the Bastardy Clause's retention,* and the statue of the * It is to he persisted in ; — a Coercion Commissioners' Continuance Bill for five years is to be passed, and a Rural Police is lo holster up, for ever and ever, this " hoon to the female population ;" and the memhers of that Police, heing duly qualified, are to be instrumental in making the women, every ?iiHP 7??f)ji;/is, amenable to its tender mercies ! Yes, the Rural Police are expressly called upon duty to play into the Commissioners' hands : the fonner are to seduce and make vicious, and the latter are to starve and torture the victims of their con- genial blue-devilish allies' arts and appetites. Alas ! for England ! alas ! for poor English women ! " To pass," as the " Suffolk Juror" says, " an Act of indemnity first, and then, to turn off a set of unprincipled vagabonds, under the title of ' paid protectors of properti/,' 46 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. Goddess of Unchastity will be publicly set up, and no virtuous woman will be exempt fi-om the insults of the depraved and dissolute. And these deplorable prospects will be estabUshed, all because my Lord John Russell, and liis cabinet associates, wished to exhibit their skill in law-making, and their obstinacy in refusing to open then- eyes, ears, and hearts, to a comaction of their law's (the New Poor-Law's) heinousness,* even though a whole desperate nation was continually proclaiming it to them. Having now come to the conclusion of my strictures on the defects, the guilty, abominable defects of a clause, the most reprehensible, perhaps, a legis- lature e\'er produced,t I cannot lay down my pen, without announcing that it has never been my desire to discharge aitilleiy on such a small insect as a fly ; and I trust that in the foregoing communication, I have not unwittingly done so on your Lordsliip. Though, at the same time, I must say, when I see one advocating, admiring, and cruelly administering to bleeding nature, a measure rife with such clauses as the " Act, " wdiose manifold injustices find bai'barities, I have, for some years, in conjunction with my dear friend Oastler, attempted to expose to pubHc execration, be that advocate and admii-er high or low, lord or loon, he deserves, richly deserves, to be regarded with ineffable scorn and contempt by every virtuous woman, and profound detestation and abhoiTence by every amonsrst unprotected females! How often mil the noted '■'parole' and ' cr)UH<<'m9n' be the same that the gallant Packenham gave, when about to anniliilate General Jackson and a handful of volunteers ? ' Beauty' and ' Booty' — but these men were then useless ! it was the English anny that was annihilated. Would that these words may be just as useless in the contemplated Police Force of Great Britiiin ! Great Britain ! Oh, no ! ye w ill not be Great Britain ! ye will be Little Britain then !" " Little Britain," quolha? England has been Brutish Britain ever since the passing oi ihe Reform New Poor-Law, and will heBurn- in6»/.vo;/6'flf-f^/v/yy<;Y/ broths, and a rftoiic-adultera ted skillies — he, I say, this good — this noble man — fioble by nature, and not by royal courtesy and the trumpeiy trappings (a Jeny Sneak Russell, or a Melbourne Administration j)itch-fork, may, nowadays, wetir those !) of strawbeny leaves, and a few yards of blue ribbon round the left stick — this noble man — (mark ! the signal ingra- titude of the transaction — the paltiy tyranny of the aff'air!) has been persecuted and dismissed from Fixby, because (and nothing else) he has dared to act according to the dictates of humanity and the commands of the Holy Scriptui'es ; and in opposition to the decree of the present demon-dwellers of Downing-street and Somerset-house ! Men of England ! will ye silently suifer him to endure this wTong ? Men and women of England ! (of Yorkshire, especially, for ye are pfulicularly his debtors) will you ? Will you tamely submit to see your Patriot — ijours — thus unjustly treated ? Here, had I not beheld their exti'eme guilty apathy and indifference, dming, and subsequent to the introduction of the killing-no-murder New Poor-Law, with the laudable exceptions of the Rev. Messrs. Stephens, Bull, and Ma- herley (glory to them !) I should have appealed to the clergy — for it is their especial province* (would they more generally used it !) to succour the dis- * The following excerpts will authenticate that it is not only the duty of the clergy to succour and assist the poor, hut that the incomes they receive, were endowed on the express con- dition that they should do so : — " I,et tlio priests set apart tlie first share (of tlieir salaries) for the building and ornaments of the church ; let them distribute the second to the poor and strangers with their own hands, in mercy and humility ; and let them resen'e the third part for themselves " — 24 vf Elfric'i Canons. " It was ordained that the poor should be sustained by parsons, by rectors of the church, and by the parishioners, so that none of Ihcin die for want of sustenance." — Mirrour of Justices. A work written before the Norman Conquest. " The revenues of the church, consisting of various descriptions of tithes, were divided thus : — one-tliird part was taken by tlie priest as his own ; another third-part was applied to the relief of the poor; and the other part to the building and repairing of the church." — Gilbert's Law of the Common Fleas. Selden, I'ope Sylvester, I'ope Simplicius, Pope Gregory, &c., &c., direct and confirm the putting apart of a fourth-part of the income of church property for the use and relief of the poor. Though I am sorry to say the generality of the clergy have favoured the unchristian New Poor-Law, or remained careless and inactive while its dreadful results have been pei-petrating, yet all have not acted so unworthily. Some noble exceptions have, here and there, sprung up, and vindicated their sacred order from the imputation of wholesale hardheailedness against the poor and helpless ; and these, who have thus so nobly distinguished themselves, are no "dim religious lights" — no " dumb dogs "— but men who have shown that they can write with the pen, and speak with the tongue — orators, authors — the powerful and eloquential — worthies who may justly be designated an honour to their cloth — the " lettered cloth " of England Among these clerical champions of charity — these real and virtual suc- cessors of the apostles, in act and deed, the author of this work is proud to celebrate, in the first place, the meek, Christianlike, and inestimable Rev. G. S. Bull, (of Bradford^ Yorkshire), the speaker of numberless philanthropic speeches in behalf of his poorer brethren ; — the author of various excellent pamphlets, &c., in the good cause — and, finally, a martyr for righteousness' sake! Then comes the victorious orator of justice and humanity, the im- piously persecuted Rev. Joseph Rayner Stephens — he of the thrilling eloquence — whose ser- mons and speeches, powerful and inspired, will live to shame his enemies, and the enemies of Heaven's poor — another martyr for righteousness' sake ! Again, there is the Rev. F. H. Maherletj (of Bourn, near Caxton, Cambridgeshire ), who has done much, said much, and written much, and that nobly and well, against the infernal Act — one of Humanity's hardest working labourers — unpaid — persecuted — and another martyr. Come forth, too, for applause, the Rev. Stephen Butler, ( of Soherton, Hampshire ) , your pamphlets must not be forgotten, or your well-intentioned endeavours in the cause of those who have few — too few to help them ! The Rev. Edmund Dewdnej/, ( of Portsea ) — the wretched sons and daughters of Poverty owe you much, and their God will repay you tenfold hereafter. Your letters aud petitions, verstts Malthus and Massacre, had, I remember, the " right bite " about them ; and to your noble exertions, I am told, it is that the principle of the Bill, with all its attendant horrors, is not carried out in your neighbourhood. God bless you ! The Rev. C. Fowell Watts, (of Baih ), great glory is yours for bearding the fell beasts of M^dthus and '• Murcui" in their very LETTERS, SKETCHES, PETITIONS, ADDRESSES. 59 tressed, and uphold those suffering injustice — and said to them, Behold ! here is a man, without heing bound by duty, and the yearly reception of stipend, as ye ai-e, — persecuted — rancourously persecuted — for following and working out the precepts which ye preach: — in your imlpit^ applaud and defend him. Yes, thus I should have spoken ; but there, now I know it would be no use ; so I again turn to you, honest ai-tisans and peasantry. Listen then to my words : — Your benefactor, as I have previously related, is the victim of a mean, low, reptile revenge — the revenge of a set of miscreants — the Downing-street and Somerset-house miscreants (for Thornhill, poor devil, is only their agent or their dupe), who Imow his virtues, and, Uke the devils, tremble at the Imow- ledge thereof : in brief, are tired of hearing him called the good, " the good King Kichard." Now, I will tell you what I would have you do, to show the " hckspittles," who persecute him for lovinf/ you, that you are not insensible of what he has done, and still is striving to do for you : present him with a piece of plate ; not as an adequate return for his unparallelecl services in your behalf — those you can never repay — but as a small hvely token of your gratitude for them ; and, at the same time, to specify to the world, that the working population of England are not quite the ungrateful, senseless wretches their proud, bloody Whig tyrants would make them out. Do this ; and, that even the lowest in circumstances among you may be enabled to clironicle their esteem for their benefactor, let the purchase-money of the plate to be presented, be raised hj penny suhscrij)tions only. It is not the ounce worth of the silver or gold contained in the vase or urn, or the exquisite beauty of its design and workmansliip, that will tveiyh with such a man as Oastler — it might with meaner spirits — but he is of a higher mood. He w^ould not, I am morally confident, give three straw^s for all the mere gold and silver in the world — except, indeed, that its possession might enable him to extend his sphere of usefulness and power of doing good. No, it will be the sympathetic exliibition of yom- regard at this particular moment that will touch his manly heart ; and tell him, as he endures a diminution of health and fortune for your sakes, that he has not risked either in vain, that those, whose cause he has advocated so enthusiastically and so long, with whatever faults their enemies may brand them — a want of gratitude is not among the number ! I am. Friends and Fellow-Countrymen, Your sincere well-wisher, July 6, 1838. G. R. WYTHEN BAXTER. dens — for actively espousing the side of the widow and orphan, the bedridden and houseless, and making- their cries and moans audible throughout the width and breadth of the hind ! Your letters in the Times paper will be your best epitaph. The Rev. J. D. Schomherg, (Master of Stoke Gravtmar School, Hinckley, Leicestershire, whose works on " English His- tory" I would have you read) is a sworn opponent of the New Poor-Law ; and so is the Rev. John James, (of Fardre, Neath ); and so are the Rev. Thomas Curtis, (Rector of Seven Oaks, Kent) ; the Rev. P. F. Clay, (of Chawleic/h, Devon) ; the Rev. A. S. Atchison, ( Teigh Rectory , Stamford ) ; the Rev. Edward Duncombe (cousin to the Hon. W. Dun- combe, Rector of Newton Kyme, Tadcaster, and the writer of several pamphlets of pith on Poor-Law matters, and one of the most enthusiastic defenders of the Gilbert Unions, the which those unclean spirits of centralization, the Poor-Law Commissioners, are now at- tempting, with all their might and main, to dissolve). Honour to this little " army of holy martyrs" in the good cause of the patriot and the poor man (for all of them have been per- secuted, more or less, for their benevolence), England's hierarchy hath none worthier, nobler, or more humane ! But I have forgotten to include the Rev. Sir George Robinson, Bart., (of Kettering, Northamptonshire), whose conscientious resignation of Chairman of the Kettering Board of Guardians in 18.35) is a yreater honour to him than a mitre ; and the Rev. Richard Cruttwell, of Spexhall, Suffolk, (author of several sound-reasoning political works on the currency question, &c., his last work being " Reform ivithout Revolution,") a very good and public-spirited man, who has voluntarily incurred the sacrifice of several thousand pounds iu the affairs of the afflicted. And then there is that poor but upright disciple, the Inde- 60 THE BOOK OF THE IJASTILES. THE PKOSECUTION OF THE REV. JOSEPH RAYNER STEPHENS. A FEW WORDS ON THE ATTEMPT OF THE " BASE, BRUTAL, AND BLOODY " ON THE LIFE AND LIBERTY OF THAT GOOD MAN : ADDRESSED TO THE PEOPLE OF LANCASHIRE AND YORKSHIRE.* Alice. — " My father, wherefore was John Ball imprisoned ? Was he not charitable, good, and pious ?" — Dr. Soutiiey's Wat Tyler. My Friends and Fellow-Countrymen, — It seems the miscreancy of Downing-street and Somerset-liouse, at the criminal expenditure of several thousand poimds of the pubUc money, and through the congenial assistance of spies, pohce, informers, false witnesses, black and white swearers of the Joseph Hume complexion, &c., inclusive of a troop of " gallant hussars," under the command of the puissant Colonel Wemyss,t of that ilk (the Government surely highly honoured that distinguished officer!), have at last summoned "pluck," after a months duo consideration of the consequence, to arrest, " vi et armis" your tried friend and patriotic benefactor, the Rev. J. R. Stephens ; and what is more, by having recom-se to " green bags," filled to biu'sting, ^^^th " non mi ricordo "evidence, have committed that good, just, patriotic, and humane man, like a common felon, to take his trial at the next assizes, where, doubtless, it is intended, if you, my friends, do not look to it, he is to have " a fair, free, open trial," where ChadirickX can " choose his jury, and appoint his judges." And why have they, liis persecutors, done so ? Why have they committed him ? Simply, my friends and fellow-countiTmen, because he was, and has dared to be, your benefactor ; — because he was, and dared to be, for humanity, Christianity, and justice, for peace on earth and goodwill towards men ; and because he was determined to uphold the Bible, and confound and shame the powers of hell, imd its assistant conmiissionocracy of Somerset-house, the doing which, of course on his part, was immediately constituted by his enemies rank sedition and high treason, wdthout benefit of appeal, and not to be tole- rated. So these Russells, Chadwicks, Frankland Lewises, &c., incontinently go to their dirty work, and suborn (as they did that half-saved creature of too much land, and too httle sense, Thoniliill, in Oastler's case) informers, with their mouths chuckful of lies — (and soul! some of them were thumpers ! ) to accuse liim (Stephens) of saying this and that, which he did not say; omerset-house regulations) in a naiTOW passage of about two yards wide, and fifty long, with cells built up on each side. This abode of wretchedness was commonly called the " Long Entry," and opened with a door, thickly studded with iron nails, into the main street — the door in question being always closed. There, the monkey, the hero of my talk, was made, though, I beheve, much against his will, to take up his residence ; and was treated in every respect, like his fellow-captives, the poor paupers ; receiving the same rations of coai'se bread (only rather more) and " skilly " broth ; slept in a similar cell, &c., &c. He had only one advantage over his fellow-prisoners, i.e., being visited by his friends — an advantage which was not allowed to the paupers. But, notwith- standing this advantage in his favour, Jackanapes did not relish his confine- ment ; on the conti'ary, he gi-ew very morose under it ; and his daily and nightly squealings and chatterings told — as plainly as squealings and chatterings could — that, though such treatment might be very well for aged paupers, who had seen better days, it was not at all such as ought to be awai'ded to a gentleman s monkey ! But justice, for once, even in a workhouse, had its way ; and the parties, who had previously closed then" ears against the moans of the pauper, now equally closed them against the squeals of the monkey. The poor, by long endurance, were compelled to submit to their cheerless lot ; but the monkey was of a different temperament ; and to show his detennination not to be buried alive, one day, in his "angry mood," bit two of his companions in misfortune (two pauper children), who had approached too near with an intention to con- sole him in his confinement. One of these children remained for a long time dangerously ill fi'om his unfriendly attack ; the other died of the bite ! — (Contributed, through Mr. Oastler, by the author of this work, to the Man- chester and Salford Advertiser, Jan. 5, 1839.) ME. KICHARD OASTLER, THE PEOPLE'S PATRIOT! AN INVOCATION ADDRESSED BY THE AUTHOR OF " HUMOUR AND PATHOS," " POOR- LAW PAPERS," " DON JUAN, .JUNIOR," &C., &C., TO THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND OF ALL CLASSES AND PARTIES — MORE ESPECIALLY TO THE FINE-HEARTED MEN OF YORKSHIRE EMPHATICALLY BESEECHING THEM TO COME FORWARD, AND PROTECT, BY SUBSCRIPTIONS, THE PATRIOT OASTLER, AND TO FULFIL THEIR PROMISES MADE AT HUDDERSFIELD, WHEN THEIR " OLD TORY KING " WAS DRIVEN FROM FIXBY-HALL, TO HIS BROTHER-IN-LAW's HOUSE, "TO FIND HIM A BETTER ONE SOON." " He must not sink, The good, the brave — he must not Shall not sink." — Kirke White. " Let the people do their duty, as Mr. Oastler has done his, and he becomes at once, a.s their friend and defender, ten thousandfold mightier, than either his friends could have hoped, or his foes could have feared." — Prospectus of the "Oastler Testimonial." Friends and Fellow-Countrymen, — You cannot be ignorant that there is at present a " base, brutal, and bloody " conspiracy hatcliing by the powers of hell, to insiduously cut off, one by one, all those who have proved themselves your benefactors. The means by which your enemies hope to acliieve such a desirable consummation to themselves — desirable, insomuch as its realization would keep them undisturbed in office, and dehver you, bound hand and foot, are allowed to go out when their work is done, oa asking leave, and the Goveinor said that had consequences seldom foUoxced the indulgence." 96 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. by rural police and gagginof acts, to their mercy — are as unprincipled as they are manifold, — and decidedly opposed to the dictates of Magna Chmta, and the liberties of the subject. Thus, to accomphsh their pui-poses, and secretly undermine * and destroy men, whom, for fear of your popular retribution hooting them fi'om place to place, they dare not (there's no coward like your WhiyJ openly attack, the atrocious espionage system of Oliver and Castles has been, with double ignominy, revived ; false witnesses, ready- to -attest- any- thing swearers, the filthiest scum of Government reporters and Government poHce have been, at large salaries, engaged ; and " green bags," overflowing, like a naked Cohurgs purse, when it has been filled by the fool John Bull, with the most abominable " non mi recordo " matter, have been reproduced. While, in addition to these veritable Sidmouth auxiliaries, weak Yorkshire " Shallow " 'Squires, doubtless under promise of pitclifork peerages tuid Brummagem baronetages, have been suborned to say they " ai'e wronged," and institute vexatious civil actions. Bribes, too, from the treasui7 purse fi. e. your pockets J, have been plenteously distributed, and apphed to the itchy palms of the presiding ninnyhammers of the Whig press, to conceive and propagate cases of madness, incendiarism, and treason f against your deai'est imd your best ! Not to mention, that seditious harangues have been duly authenticated, which were never uttered by the persons impeached, for the pui-pose of affording a colour and pretext to the niendaciloqueut accusations, which they have dared, in the face of the honest indignation of all upright men, to chai'ge your noblest coun- sellors, protectors, and friends. Among those who stand in that meritorious relation towai'ds you, whom they have succeeded but too well in enttmgling in the snares of their treachery, (for what could an honest and honourable man do against a powerful and unprin- cipled conspiracy, determined to effect his rum !) is — let no sound come between your ears and silence, while I whisper a name — adeai* and enthusiastic name, never heard by you, but with the loudest booms of admiration and applause — the man of your choice — of your confidence — " your King " — " Richard Oastler ! " Yes, Richard Oastler, because he dared be honest — dared be honourable — dared be humane — dared be religious — dared shield you and yom's from the "painless extinction " of " Marcus," starv^ation, poisoned skillies, " coarser food," dungeons, sabre-cuts, and ball-cartridges ; because he dared, when all hands were against you and all hearts, — step nobly forward, and with the eloquence of a god, — an eloquence intense and powerful in the cause of heaven's poor, but terror- striking to the man-slayers and woman-quellers of the Bastiles — declare that you should not, being guiltless of crime, be dragged to rot and fester in the unwholesome cells of the union-houses of bondage, because you chanced to * To show the paltry spite which abounds in the Whig " powers that be " against the opponents of the accursed, incendiary, and revolutionary New Poor-Law, for months, my newspapers (as vide the Sheffield Iris of the 24th of March, and April 24, Sheffield Patriot of April 14, Champion of April 22, Cheltenham Free Press of March 21, Carmarthen Journal of the 14th and 27th of March, 1840), have been pui-posely raissent, and frequently lost, passing through the post ; and last year (1839), on the publication of my " Don Juan, Junior," I have it from secret yet sure authority, that communications, written by Downing-street and Somerset-house Jists, were directed to such town and country booksellers as they dared take the liberty with, (of course, containing a con-sid-er-a-tion) directing them not to order or expose the work for sale ! ! Not to mention, that in several abusing and Billingsgate revieivs of the same, in certain nameless pests of the press, the execution^'r hands of a member of the Poor- Law Commissionocracy, and of that "little fiend that scoffs incessantly," Lord John Russell, were extremely coiupicuous. f Oastler, that nobleman by nature, the enthusiastic, the good, the great, the generous, was, not long ago, called by the scunks of the Whig press, a traitor, an incendiary, and a madman ! ! ! Believe, posterity ! ! ! ! Among the many of the paid Downing-street and Somerset-house reptilia, who thus stigmatized the Jinest fellotv in the world, Baines, {subaudi M.P.) in the Leeds Mercury, was, as might have been expected, as busy as his paternal ancestor generally is accredited to be, in a gale of wind. But their " curses are like chickens, they always come home to roost ;" so Baines look out for your brood. LETTERS, SKETCHES, PETITTONS, ADDRESSES. 07 be poor; — Unit your wives, sisters, and dauglitcrs — ns virtuous ns they ! — yen, more so than many of tlie satin-clad and diamond-gemmed Avives, sisters, and daugh- t-rs (ride the crim. con. trhih) of "my I.ords and (rcntlemen " — sliould not be lianded over an authorized prey to lust and brutality ; that your children— your ''prctti/ ones " — should not be torn from your bosoms ; and, by " Hocie- ties " miscalled " Friendly,"* transported thousands of miles across the deep waters to distant colonies ; that your limbs should not be tied up and manactled, if at any time, in the Bastile prisons, you happened to converse with your wretched relatives and friends ;t that the bodies of your murdered dead should not, without the decent ceremonial of book, bell, and pall, be U-midled into an uncousecrated hole, like deceased dogs, cats, rats, and stots. For the declaring tliis in your behalf, and, moreover, asserting that you were worthy of your hire, and had a vested right in the soil, your interceder and advocate has, (God ! that might should overcome right — vice, virtue, cruelty, humanity!) been pounced upon as a victim by your destroyed ; and if filthy lucre, peijuries, falsehoods, and the grossest peiTcrsion of justice can do it, they are determined to effect his ruin ! For, not contented with having, by the most unQenerous means, deprived him of his liveUhood and " sweet home," they have, as you are well awai-e, by the infamous assistance of a dull and silly aristocrat, or, as Shakespere would appropriately designate the chap, " a very shallow monster " — " a very weak monster " — " a most poor credulous monster " — "a ma%t iierjidious and puppy-headed monster" — one that gloats and fattens upon your sinews ! saddled him with an infamous lawsuit. By such unworthy co-operation, I say, your ENEMIES, the Whigs, have succeeded in getting up a Government prosecution (for Thornhill, ^.s^/^/zr, his action is only really such in disf/uisc) against "good King Eichard;" and they, the miscreants, have boasted, through the mouthpiece of their fool (for the outlay will be theirs, not the tool's) that they will spend a hundred thousand jwunds sooner than the// will not put up Oastlers tombstone ! ! ! % Men of England ! — her brave peasantry and noble artisans ! will you suffer this to be ? — allow tliis t}Tanny — permit this wrong ? — I hear you, in response, rend the sky and clouds with a unanimous and glorious " No ! " — with deafening cheers for your " good old Tory King," and dreadful groans for his enemies. My friends, I dearly love to hear you thus give vent to your feelings — ^^to do so is "the immemorial right of Englishmen; and I hope that period will never arrive when such a right shall be discouraged and discontinued. But remember, groans, however deep, will not scare away the oppressors from their ungodly puqioses, or cheers, however loud, enable the oppressed to defend himself agiiinst the oppressors' tyranny. It is true, cheers, Idte the strains of martial music, will encourage and invigorate Oastler as he fights his battles — which, in truth, are yours also — but the sinews of war, which will empower him to con- summate Ids victory, or cover his retreat (if worsted), are wanting. Already (and cordially dt) I bless you for it) have you honoured Oastler, * The atrocious instance (amonf? many), of a child's bein,? torn from its mother, and sent to the Cape of Good Hope (?) by an infamous and ahnost 3/rtrf«,s association, desifjfnated, liypocritically, " The Chiklren's Friend Society," about a year ago (the beginning of 1H30), must be in the recollection of all readers of newspapers. t Amongst the cruelties exercised on the inmates of the Wisney Union, is the nhnt ayxtem. Tt appears that husband, wife, and children, are separated, and never see each other, except at meals ; and then they are not allowed to speak to each other, on pahi of hniuj tied up ; viz., hy hnvinff one leg tiedup,nn(lbein(f obliged to rest on the other for half -an-hour ! ! ! ! — Oxford Chronicle of the 1st of Jan., 1839. X Fact. Thornhill has often been heard to splutter the charitable exclamation of the text. yc are, jfoursclics. 98 THE BOOK OF THB BASTILES. as never public man vrfts honoured before — liis political profi^css by you has been made one triumphal march of enthusiasm ! You have everywhere met him with silken banners, joyous music, loud huzzas, and all the "pride, poriip, and circumstance" of the most exalted popularity; and wdien he has spoken — he of the buiTung tongue — you have forgotten your misery, and hung on his accents with delight, as if they were the soft breathings of your first loves, and shook the wide land with your exclaims when they were fiidshed. You have fonvarded him, from all parts of this queendom, addi'csses of confi- dence, of love, of gratitude, of approval ! You have had medals stnick of him ; and that his dear, benevolent countenance should be ever before your eyes, you have transferred his likeness to your drinldng mugs, teacups, and dinner- platters.* Not a paper issues from the press but Avhat is filled with his renown — a Christian's renown — and whose columns ai'e not fame-scented with reports of his eloquence, his patriotism, and fine humanity. His life and the chronicles of his good deeds are in the hands of all — from the coronetted noble to the nobler peasant — from the mitred bishop to the hooded deacon ; and directly a periodical is known to contain a portrait, life, speech, letter, or anec- dote of the " King," a double circulation is the rcsult.f Dinners, meetings, and commemorations of all sorts — in the open air and under cover — by torch- light and otherwise, you have invited him to. Pieces of plate, too, you have pre- sented to him — yea, a thing, perhaps, never heard of before — even the tenants of his greatest enemy, Thornhill, have (so universally is he esteemed) presented him with one ! % While, to sum up all, and give the finishing stroke to his glory, the very soldiers that were some time ago sent to take him dead or alive, if need should be, have been discovered on their knees, praying for him in their guard-rooms ; and likenesses of him have been found attached and concealed in the pummels of their saddles ! || * Dinner and tea-services of ware and cLina, with portraits of Oastler, and views of Fixby-liall, were advertised for sale in the papers, vide, the Northern Star of 1838, and other Yorlvsliire and Lancashire journals. The following is an advertisement which appeared in the Northern Star of Dec. 1, 1838. " Earthenware. — James Greaves begs most respectfully to inform the public of Htuldersfielil and Dews- bury, and their respective neighbourhoods, tliat he intends to oflcr to their notice, a quantity of Earthenware, ■with splendid portraits of J. K. Stephens, and Kichard Oastler, engraved on the ware. — Mr. G. will be in Huddersfield in the course of a few days." f The immense circulation of the Northern Star was originally much owing to the letters and portraits and speeches of Mr. Oastler, which appeared in that periodical during the first twelve months of its publication. X A fact. In Dec, 1838, Thornhill's tenants unanimously voted Mr. Oastler a splendid piece of plate ... " We have been favoured with the sight of a most elegant silver salver, which has been this week forwarded to ]Mr. Oastler by the tenants of one part of the York- shire estates of Mr. Thornhill. The pattern round the salver is beautifully executed in frosted silver, and the centre occupied by the following inscription : ' This jriecc of plate in presented, hi/ the tenants of Thomas Thornhill, Esq., who are resident in the township of Fixhy, to liiehard Oastler, and is intended as a feeble exjiression of their sincere respect, and heartfelt affection, both towards himself and his late revered father, who, together, have for thirty-eight years discharged, with un blemished integrity, genuine kindness, and unsuspected disinterestedness, the office of Stewards upon Mr. Thornhill's Yorkshire estates, and who will both live, at ivhatever distance of time, in the best feelings of their hearts. Fixby, August 2bth, 1838.' We cannot but sympathize in the honest feelings of gratification which Mr. Oastler must have in this testimony to his worth by those amongstwhom he has lived for years." — Manchester Advertiser, Dec. 15, 1838. II Also facts. The soldiers are, as a hody, particularly attached to the " Old Tory King." *' A friend of mine, a Methodist, went into their barracks, I won't say at Manchester, though it was not one hundred miles off. On entering their rooms, he began to talk serious things. He was informed that they had a prayer -meeting, and was invited to go to it. He went, and several soldiers prayed. My friend asked them what they prayed for ? One of the soldiers answered, they prayed that God Almighty might bless the widows, the latherless, and the oppressed ; that he would strengthen the hands of those persons who were endea- vouring to prevent them being crushed ; and they prayed especially fur Stephens aud Oastler. One old stager, a Waterloo soldier, observed my friend, said he had never seen Stephens or Oastler, but he should know them if he were to see them. " How so?" asked my friend, and he was taken to the stable for an answer. There the old soldier took up part of the LKTTERS, SKETCHES, PETITIONS, ADDRESSES. 90 So has Richard Oastler boon honoured! Such marks of distinction and esteem has he received at your hands ! But, my friends and fellow-countrymen, these demonstrations, let me again recapitulate, however well-intentioned on your pai-ts, are most impotent to save. Honom-s, he they ever so signal, let me inculcate on your hearts, will not pay the expenses of a protracted lawsuit, or support a dearly beloved wife; neither will they feed or clothe, or H(iui- date the heavy and too frequent calls of the Queen's or Cohurg's tiLxes. To satisfy such demands, Oastler must have gold and silver! and from whom ought he to receive it but from you, whose acknowledged champion he is ; and for whose sakes he has been persecuted — is suffering — is impover- ished. The smallest donation, even the smallest coin, unanimously from each of you, would estabhsh him above his difficulties — enable him to defy the machinations of his enemies — and empower liim to contend for your rights and liberties with greater ardour and chance of success. Your " King " requires, in his old age, such assistance from you, and your " King's " friend, G. R. Wytheu Baxter, now asks it of you, and will you refuse liis request ? Remember, on that memorable occasion, when, by thousands and tens of thousands, you led him in triumph (oh! how I blessed you at the time !) from Fixby-hall, to his brother-in-law's house, at Huddersfield — that day, by token, he gave up ^£700 jm- annum and a cherished home for your sakes — one and all, enthusiastically exclaimed, as he told you that (his brother-in-law's house) would be his abode for a short time — "Never mind; well f/et you a better one soon ! i " That promise is yet unfulfilled ! and Oastler, he who so doted upon a home, is, to this moment, a Houseless Wanderer f I know Oastler is too proud — too independent — too disinterested a man, ever to put you in mind of that promise ; but I, as liis friend, have no such scruples — and here, empha- tically call upon you to fulfil it. Listen to me, my friends ; I am no orator as Oastler is, but a plain and homely man, who hates oppression as the devil, and loves liis friend. Now Oastler is my friend — a most valued and esteemed friend ; but what is he not — has he not been to you ? Your saviour — your benefactor — your protector — your patriot — your father — your king! For you he has, without a murmur, risked liis Hfe, liis liberty ; and lost all — his fortune, home, domestic peace — all in your behalf. Obloquy and insult, m lavish abundance, have, by the organs of all pfu-ties, to their shame, been heaped upon his noble and honourable head, because of liis endeavour's in your service ; and his ruthless foes, for the same cause, not satisfied, as the most malicious might have been, after hunting him " by foul lies from his heart's home, An early chosen — late lamented— home," are now rancorously seeking, through their minion Thornhill — that' hofuy pic- ture of ingratitude ! — to deprive him of hberty — his Hfe if they can — to harass and drive him to despair by vexatious law (?) proceedings*, and force him in equipage, I don't know the name of it, and there was a portrait of Stephens and another of Oastler. "T keep them there," said the Waterloo man, " in order that I may know them."— Mr. Ocistler's Farewell Speech at Huddersfield, reported in the " Halifax Guardian," January 26, 1839. * Since this was written Mr. Oastler's action has been tried. The cause was heard on the 10th of July, 1840, and terminated "entirely," to use Mr. Oastler's words in a letter to the author of this work, " to his satisftiction." the only ground of Mr. Oastler's resistance was Thornhill's charge of fraud, and that being distinctly, and by universal acclamation, pro- claimed an unfounded charge of the 'Squire's by the Judge, and even by the counsel for the plaintiff in the court, Mr. Oastler wanted no more. The following is an extract from the trial : — " Mr. Oastler said lie had merely resisted the action because he understood that it had been imputed to him that he had fraudulently detained the money, whereas it now appeared to be acknowledged that it was a simple matter of di;bt. " The Lord Chief Justice observed, that there was no imputation whatever upon Mr. Oastler's character here. H 2 100 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES, his old age, when infimiities, griefs, nnd sickness are gathered hkc spies nrouud him, to pine and drag out the hist of his days in indigence and misery. As such harhiirous and dialjoUeal attempts against the hfe, hherty, and peace of your Benefactor, are meditated, now then, is your time to come fonvard, and you are hound to do so, to succour and assist him, who has ever heen so ready to succour and assist all of you. Think of what he has done for your Bakes, and show your gTatitude. Had it not heen for him and his timely inter- ference — his glorious, enthusiastic exertions — " Miu'cus" massacres, hroken- hearted massacres, skilh/ massacres, famine massacres, and sword and bayonet massacres, would have left very few^ of you to this time, to bless his Godlike endeavours and detest his fiendlike opponents. Think of all this, I reiterate ; and, oh \ let not this benevolent being — the only one ever so renowned for de- fending you grataitonHhi — whose heart would have bled its best blood to right you — let not him have to exclaim — " I dcarhj loved tliem, those artisayis and j)easantrt/ — I r/ave up cheerfully, all for them — my home, my liberty, my life, were theirs — hut how they have repaid me — let my old aye of destitution show ! J" * Men of England ! Men of England ! if ye possess one particle of his beau- tiful enthusiasm — one particle of his generous feehngs — one particle of grati- tude — ye will not give him, llii-hard Oastler, cause to say this — ye will not suffer tins line fellow to sink, without exhibiting some hearty and strenuous manifestations in liLs favom*. Believe me, Oastler's well-being is your safety — Ms freedom from the gp^es of cii'cumstances, your protection — from tlie worse shackles of universal slavery and universal extennination ! One word more to you and I have done — and that is most seriously and energetically to invoke you, one and all, to do your duty — your f/ratefu I duty to Richard Oastler. By, then, the " big ha' Bible," which he hiis taught you to revere — by the iron chains of bondage which he has torn from your limbs — by the many sacrifices he has made for your welfare — by the bitter sufferings lie, and his dear wife, and adopted daughter, have endured in your cause — by his powerful and electrifying elo(pience never heai'd too oft, and wdiich has soothed you and yours in your misery and despiur — do not, as ye are men — as ye have hearts — let this noble — this enthusiastic; — this generous Englishman fall an easy prey to his " base, brutal, and bloody " enemies ! If ye do — l)y the indignant sconi that burns upon my brow at the bare thought of such in- gratitude — I, — and you Icnow I have done you some service — cast you off for ever ! — and trust your other known and tried friends will follow my example .... But you will not — I know you will not prove such ingrates — [ know^ — for you are Enylishmen — you will not desert your " old Tory King '" — your own — own Oastler ! I am. Friends and Fellow-countrymen, Your sincere well-wisher, Monkton, near Pembroke, G. R. WYTHEN BAXTER. April 4th, 1840. " Mr. Oastler saij that was all he had ever wished to be settled. " Here a couFerence took place between the learned counsel and the defendant, which resulted in an anange- rnent to the cflect that a verdict was taken for the plaintilf for ^.'2,000, without prejudice to a claim of the de- fendant against the plaintiff for J;5()0 ; the defendant to deliver up the honks to the jdaintitf, on receiving a re- lease from him of all claims and demands whatsoever, except as to Oie amount of the verdict. " Mr. Kelly, after stating to the learned Judge tlie terms of the arrangement, said he felt great jdeasiire at this unpleasant afl'air being thus satisfactorily settled. " Lord Chief Justice Tindal. — I am very glad, Mr. Oastler, that tliis action is brought to such a satis- factory settlement. " Mr. Oastler bowed to his Lordship. " A verdict was Uien entered for the above sum, and the Court rose. "Mr. Kelly applied to the Lord Chief Justice to certify for a special jury. " The Lord Chief Justice refused to complj'." * Since this was written, Mr. Oastler, as will be seen by the following articles in tliis work, has been shut up by Mr. Tbornhill (to please llic Whigs) in the Fleet prison. Alas ! LETTERS, SKETCHES, TETITIONS, ADDRESSES. 101 P.S. — I beg of ilw Times, Standard, Cliampion, hiKpatrh, ConKervative Journal, the Leed>i Intelligencer, Northerfi Star, Halifax (htardian, Man- clie.ster Advertiser, Liverpool Mail, &c., &c., and all papers wliicli ndore patriotism Hiul hate the iufernal New I'oor-Law — who love Oastler and despise his paltry oppressors — I beg of them all — without ref/ard to party — colleetively and indi- vidually, to copy this Invocation into their respective columns — to give it every piihlieity — and to call the attention of their numerous readers to the matter con- tained in the same. I, also, take the opportunity, at the same time, of most respectfully requesting Karl Stanhope, Mr. John i'ielden, M.P., the Hon. W. Duncombe, M.P., Mr. Walter, ( ivho ouyht lo have been M. P. for Houthwark,} the Rev. Mr. Bull, Mr. Day, of Southwark, Mr. Roberts, of Shelfield, Dr. Fletcher, of Bury, Mr. Bowen, of Bridgewater, Mr. Roworth, of Nottingham, Mr. R. J. Richardson, of Salford, &c., and other injluential opponents of the llastile system of horrors, will purchase copies of the newspapers publishing this Iuvt)cation, and idford it all possible circulation, by distribution of them imiong theu' friends, tenants, seiTants, and retainers, — and by such an act of sympathy for Mr. Oastler, they will gain the good wishes of hundreds of thou- sands of the worldng classes. Let them do so ; and let them aid G. R. Wythen Baxter, in his humble but hearty endeavours to organize, in reality, a " Testimonial " north y to present to and reward the exalted, genuhie patriotism of — (rood King Richard. Let them, I sav, show every respect to Richard Oastler in these troublous days, so trying to men's souls ; for, to use the words of the Prospectus to the " Oastler Testimo- nial " — " Our Constitution has no abler champion — our National Christianity has no firmer defender. The People have neither Representative nor Leader like Oastler — at once competent to the mighty task, and equal to the emergency of the times." (i. R. W. B. MR. OASTLER IN THE FLEET PRISON.* Noblemen, Gentlemen, Tradesmen, and Working -Men of England AND Wales, — I have leanit, with much indignation and poignant regret, that Rifhard Oastler has, by the renewal of proceedings of Mr. Thomas Thornhill, been dragged from his family to the Fleet Prison. I am too much excited by the suddenness and sadness of the intelLigcnce, and by that indignation which, as one of his most attached friends, I cannot help but feel, — to addi'ess you at length on the occasion ; but I ask you, will you suffer this wrong to be ? Will you permit the " King of the Poor Factory Child " to rot in a common prison-house ? Will you suffer this fine fellow — this man so noble by nature — so pre-emi- nently humane, so friendly, so generous, so enthusiastic, and so good, to fall an easy prey to his unscrupulous Whig enemies, whose silly dupe Thornhill must be ? Will you suffer the friend of the late lamented Michael Thon)as. Sadler to be thus revengefully incarcerated and " mewed up" without making some lively demonstration in his favour ? I hope and trust you will not ; and I now propose for your adoption, that immediately a public subscription be set on foot all over England and Wales, to rescue the noble Oastler from the fangs of his merciless creditor. In maldng this appeal to your sympatlues, I desire to enlist, without refer- ence to party, or the furtherance of party purpose, the yood and u-ell-iutentioned of every political denomination, and of every rank in life, to co-operate, heart to use the memorable words spolcen of tlie gallant Ralcigli, tliat " sucli a (inc bird should be kept to sing in a cage !" * I\Ir. Oastler entered the Fket Dee. !), 1840. Tlic above address appeared in the Leeds InteUiijeneer of Doe. 2(i, in the Nurthcm Slur of ditto, the louden Taucs of Jan. 7, 1841^ vStC, -Vc. 102 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. and hand, to release Mr. Oastler from his unjust and injurious confinement. Yes ; I call on all those, be they peers or people, gentlemen or tradesmen, who worship the God Oastler worships — who love their country as Oastler has loved it — who care for the poor as Oastler has cared for them — who revere the fine, generous feelings, ancl firm, undeviating principle, which Oastler has ever exhi hited the possession of — to noxo come fonvard, and, by their unanimous suh- Bcriptions, clu'onicle their hatred of oppression, their respect for England's noblest heart now sorely tried, and their sympathetic consideration for a just and upright man struggling -with, but not subdued by, the ruthless onslaught of an unworthy foe, and an adverse fate. " He must not sink — The good, the brave — be must not, Shall not sink !" I have the honour to be. Noblemen, Gentlemen, Tradesmen, and Working-Men of England and Wales, Your most obedient sen'ant, G. K. WYTHEN BAXTEK. P. S. — Until such time as Committees can be organized to carry the plan of a general subscription for Mr. Oastler mto execution, I shall be happy to re- ceive Subscribers' Names. *** I have just Icamt that my friend Oastler intends, on the 2d of January next, to bring out a series of papers weekly, to be called " The Fleet Papers," whose object will be the constitutional upholding of the rights of " The Altar, the Throne, and the Cottage," and I trust that all who are well-wishers of that trio will take in the work — it will be but twopence a- week ! — G. R. W. B. Hereford, Easton-place, Dec. 20, 1840. MR. OASTLER'S "FLEET PAPERS." FEW WORDS, ADDRESSED BY THE AUTHOR OF "HUMOUR AND PATHOS," " POOR-LAW PAPERS," " DON JUAN, JUNIOR," &C., TO TPIE PEOPLE OF YORK- SHIRE AND LANCASHIRE, EXHORTING THEM TO BUY THEIR "OLD KING's" BOOK. " Flowers are lovely ; love is flowerlike ; Friendship is a sheltering tree : O ! the joys that come down showerlike Of Friendship, Love, and Liberty ! " — Coleridge. Men OF Yorkshire and Lancashire, — Tliis Saturday,* your captive " King," from the gloom of liis prison-house, sends forth upon the waters of pubhc favour liis httle hterary venture, freighted with a fresh and precious cargo of liis benevolent ideas, and " Goodliest plans of happiness on earth, And peace and liberty !" Yes ; this day the first number of your own Oastlcr's " Fleet Papers" has made its appearance, and you, I trust, my friends, will vindicate yourselves from the opprobrium of being thought one great plurahty of worldliness and ingrati- * The first number of the " Fleet Papers''' appeared on Jan. 2, 1841, and this little friendly herald was inserted in the Halifax Guardian, Northern Star, Leeds, Sec, &c., of the same day. It has, subsequently, been published in the Sheffield Iris of Jan. 5, and several other Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Welsh papers. It was, also, plentifully distributed in handbills, on the occasion, all over England and Wales. LETTERS, SKETCHES, PETITIONS, ADDRESSES. 103 tude, by going in hundreds, and in Uionsnnds, and in tens of thousands, to tho buokscllors' shops in your respective neigliljourhoods, and tlierc possessing your- selves of the treasure of your '" Okl King's" printed patriotism and soul-animat- ing thouglits — a treasure which you could keep in rememhnmce of him — a U'easuro which it would become you to bequeath to your children — a treasure which he now places within the reach of all of you, at so cheap a rate as iwoj)euce. Men of Yorkshire and Lancashire, you must do this little ser\'ice for your " King" — the King of your ill-used factory childi'en — and the bosom friend of the late lamented Michael Thomas Sadler — and you must do it, not individu- ally but collectively, — not in one city, town, or village only, but in every city, town, and village, throughout the length and breadth of Yorkshire and Lanca • shire. You must do so : and, with your wives Mid daughters (for their glorious bright eyes must hght you up with enthusiasm !) present yourselves in troops — iroojj.'i of Oastler's friends — yes, in regular standing armies of bookbuyers, you must besiege the bibliopohsts' stalls, and, each arming himself and herself with the mental weapons of Oastler's wiu'rior scriptures for the right and against the 'ftT.-ong, exhibit the gi-and moral spectacle of a general and generous people, honouring and succouring, by their encouragement, a just and upright man, who stands in native dignity of worth, keepmg his adverse foes and fate at bay — unsubdued, though deprived of Hberty and in ruin ! You must do tliis : and, as you and your wives and daughters return home- wards, in gloiy and in gratitude, with each a purchased copy of the " Fleet Vapers" in hand, it wdll be a fine sight — and a long-remembered, instiTictive h^sson to those who hereafter may feel disposed to play private or public tyrants. Your wives and daughters, beHeve me, in thus exliibiting their sympathy and attachment for their miprisoned benefactor, and each with his hook in her hand, will look infinitely more noble than the present Queen of the Esquimaux did, when in her nuptial robes, flasliing with jewelled splendour, like " The moonbeams when they fall Through some cathedral window," ahe gave that " pretty, fooHsh thing," her royal person, and £37,000 a-ycar of the stai'\Ting people's taUow, to a gilt- gingerbread or German stranger ! \Vliile you, my bold Fustain Jackets, as you hold in your blistered palms Oastler's " bit o' w^itm'," will stand confessed (for wdiat is more honourable than gratitude'^) much more deserving and worthy objects than a Prince Halbert, a Coimt Sword, a Don Dagger, or a Baron Belt, equipped in all the fashionable milliuery of a Field-Marshal's harness, even though each should have a grey parrot, which recently cost Jifty poimds of the jpuhlicfat, perched on his fist !* * " A beautiful grey parrot arrived at the Castle this afternoon, which has been purchased by Prince Al])ert for hfty guineas, of ]Mr. Shepherd of the City-road. The Prince saw it at Buckingham-Palace, where it was taken by command of his Royal Highness by Mr. Shep- herd," \'c. — Metropolitan Conservative Journal, Dec. 26, 1840. The same paper of Jan. K?, 1H41, has the additional interesting morceau concerning his Royal Highness — "Prince Albert took a fancy to the fifty-guinea horse of a gentleman in Hyde Park, and ultimately purchased it for a thousand guineas." Again, the Dispatch of Jan. 10, 1841, intimates that " It is said that Prince Allierl's kennels are to be lined with India rubber to prevent the dogs from taking cold." Well, these are princely traits to be sure, and, with his Royal Higli- ncss's adroitness in pushing her Majesty's sledge on the ice, and his songs and rondos down the throats of the musical public — together with the notoriety of his walking-stick, his Hussars, his pension, and the tulip called after him in the Florist Magazine, ^c, and other similar Souvenirs (V Allemagnee, must be hif/hli/ gratifijing to the pauper inmates of that Union Workhouse (the Windsor) whose lot he publicly sometime back annovmced in the newspapers was so blest and ' beautiful exccedinghj.'' The following reminiscences nmst, like- wise, be very consoling to the said Unionists : viz., that his Royal Highness has (itted up an apartment in Buckingham Palace as a painter's studio, with i)alette, drawiug-i)aper, and bo.\ of paints, complete ; — that his Royal Highness is about to study the Unvs of England 104 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. Then, wliat a severe Llow and signal discourngement will be yonr cntliusi astic support of Oastler's periodical, to the " dirty, damned rogues " (as Ben Jonson Avould have called them,) of" Somerset-house, wlio, ever since liis in- carceration, have been I'attmg themselves with a paltry and pitii'ul joyfulness at his undoing ! The very mere turning over hy you of the leaves of Oastler's hook, will dash all the coarse sweets of their contentment with bitterness, and cause each commissioned slaughterer, from Edwin Chadwick downwards, to wax as " Mad as the priestess of the Delphic god !" The local debihty of DoAvning- street, too, will incontinently become weaker and more miserable at the knowledge of your enthusiasm ; and, hereafter, persecu- tion would lose its sting, and persecutors their victory ! Besides, now that every department of the business of blarney and quack- quack, is so prosperous and flourishing in this monarchy, and the upper classes are continually, with exceeding ill-judgment, i^lacbifj and pensioning/ and praisinf/ and pettina the wretched, wilful charlatans who lucubrate, for prompt payment, in tliree volumes, their vain and vicious adventures and vagabondage — and the sickly soitows and sickening sentimentalities of scribbler lords and ladies run, hke dish-water, through countless echtions : — now such things are, I say, it would be well on your parts to show that you, as a body, can cUscri- minate and appreciate better — that you, too, have the power, to patronize, and the will to bestow that patronage, when injured merit, patriotic worth, perse- cuted benevolence, and natural nobility, are the candidates for your support and approval. Twaddle is not always a book-.sc//^r ; and, in the present instance, by pro- longing my gossiping, I may, perchance, mar the welfare of tlie work, the suc- cess of which I so desire to promote. Therefore, I will now conclude, — but, before I do so, I must give you one clieer more — and that is — Buy the Great and Good Man's Book ! I am. Men of Yorkshire and Lancashire, Your sincere well-wisher, G. R. WYTHEN BAXTER P.S. — Although the above is addressed especially t(^ the Men of Yorkshire and Lancashire, who know Oastler best, and must love him most ; yet, the inha- bitants of all England, I trust, will obey my exhortation and — Buy the Great and Good Man's Book! The sons and daughters of "Bonnie Scotland," too, I hope will do so ; and green Erin's people will also. Nor will, I hope, my own native Cymru — both the Waleses, North and South, be backwjxi-d, but, from Phnhmmon's top to the Vale of Neath, echo back enthusiasticidly — " We ■will Buy the Great and Good Mans Book!" — G. R. W. B. Hereford, Jan. 2, 184L COPY OF A PETITION. To the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom in Parliament assembled. under the aWe superintendence of a barrister learned therein ;— that his Royal Highness, upon all occasions, in all meetings, except when otherwise provided by Act o'f Parliament, shall have, hold, and enjoy, ])lace, pre-eminence, and precedence, next to her Majesty {Gazette, Feb. 1840) ; that his Royal Highness " accompanied by Viscount Melbourne, &c., left the Castle for — preserves, where the i)arty were engaged a short time in shooting, and returned about two o'clock ;" that " it is said to be the intention of his Royal Highness, who possesses several exceedingly valuable brood mares, to devote some portion of his'leisure time to the breeding of horses {Conservative, Feb. f>, 1H4I);— that his Royal Highness has erected a bar to practise horse-leaping with, to enable him to obtain the requisite proficiency to hunt with the royal hounds, .^-c, SiC. Mcin Goit ! das Vaterland ist dcr Ilimmel ! LETTEIIS, SKETCHES, PETITIONS, ADDRESSES. 105 The Hiinil)lc Petition* of G. R. Wytiien Baxtee, niul the midersigiietl Inlmhitiuits of the City of Hereford, Showeth, — That your petitioners are greatly ahvrnied at tlie knowledge that a hill is at present hefore your Ilonourahle House to eontinue the powers of the i'oor-Law Commissioners for ten years. That your petitioners consider such power as possessed hy the Commissioners to he in principle most unconstitutional — in practice most dangerous — and that they (the Connnissioncrs) have uniformly exercised the same in an extremely arhitrary, cruel, expensive, and vexatious maimer. ThatVour petitioners, therefore, pray that the office of Commissioner — whether Central or Assistant — he abolished, and that the management of the rate-payers' money, in every parish, he restored to its former imd rightful administrators ; viz., those wdio pay the rates, and who must know better how to expend the same than a hoard of three perfect strangers residing in London. That vour petitioners have now had some years' experience of the New Poor- I.aw in their citv and neighhourhood, and have found its operation to have hcen very baneful both to the rate-payers and the poor — and that it has considerably increased the rates, and lilcewise crime — particularly infanticides and shecp- steiihng ; that the number of instances of bastardy has also been gi-eatly augmented, and that beggars and other distressed objects are every day becoming more numerous and more wretched in appearance. That, finally, your petitioners implore that yom- Honourable House will, for the sake of humanity, and for the peace of the country at large, not pennit tho bill for the Ten Years' Continuance of the Commissioners to pass into law. And your petitioners will ever pray, &c. THE WORKING OF THE NEW POOR-LAW IN THE AGRICUL- TURAL DISTRICTS ! ! ! to THE EDITORS OF THE " SHEFFIELD IRIS."t Gentlemen, — I beg to inclose you, for insertion in your columns of the Ilia, a copy of a petition presented to the House of Commons, on Monday, the 1st inst., by my esteemed and honourable friend, T. S. Buncombe, Esq., M.P. for Finsbm-y,:!: and hope the same will be interesting to your numerous * This petition was circulated for signatures by the author in the city of Hereford, March, 1841. fXhis appeared in the Sheffield Iris of March 9, 1841, and subsequently in several other papers. + "House of Commons, Monday, March 1, 1841. — Mr.T. Duncombe presented a petition against the bill from Mr. G. 11. W. Baxter, of Hereford. The petitioner stated, that he had watched the operation of the bill with great care, and that he had seen it cruel and oppres- sive to the poor almost beyond human endurance ; that it had raised tlie poor-rates from 4s. to 9s. 7|d. in Hereford ; that it had incited to child-murder, and that incendiarism liad com- menced ; that it had greatly increased the number of criminals for trial at the Herelord Assizes and Quarter-Sessions, and that such was the hatred of the Union workhouse, that some women who had been in one of them with their bastard children, declared .that they would rather pcrisli in a ditch by the road-side than again go into them." — Times, Marcli 2, 1841. On the reception in Hereford of the news of the presentation of tlie above memo- rial, great and grievous was the alarm among the Somerset-houseites — especially among the long-necked poultry of the Board of Guardians. The Chairman cried out " rape !" and the Chapbiin, " lire!" The Collector trembled double, himself and shadow {i. e. his son) and the Relieving Officer, like many poor wretched paupers whom he had daily driven away empty, could find no relief from his extreme Iright, for his teeth they would " chatter, chatter, chatter, chatter still!" What was to be done ? A meeting of the Guardians was called forthwith to deliberate. Captain Funk took the chair, and Messrs. Fear, Trembling, Terror, and many others, attended. The assassination of the petitioner, as recummended by their Somerset-house correspondent, was proposed, and would have been carried ncm. cou., loo THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. readers, and, uIbo, to those romantic personages, Messrs. Rohcrt Peel, Gaily Knight, Grantley Berkeley, Joseph Hume, &c., &c., who proclaim, in sol't charitable voices, the " Act " works so well, especially in the Agriciillural Districts. I am, yours, very truly, G. R. WYTHEN BAXTEK. To the Honourahle the Commons of the United Kingdom in Parliament assembled. The petition of George Robert Wytiien Baxter, author of " Poor-Law Papers," &c., an inhabitant of the City of Hereford, Showeth, — That your petitioner regards, with exceeding alarm and regret, not unmingled with feelings of indignation and astonishment, that, after the enormous official and establishment expenses, — the many horrors, — paupers" deaths, — and public discontent and revolutionary insubordination, which the New Poor-Law has entailed, and is entailinr), upon the country — a bill should have been proposed to continue for ten years, and to considerahlij increase the already too arbitrary and dangerous powers of its numerous Commissioners, That your petitioner has always esteemed the original New Poor-Law Amendment- Act, enacted in 1834, to have been nothing less than the revo- lutionary passing of the capital punishment of death upon the British Consti- tution ; and he considers that if the present " Commissioners' Continuance Ten Years' Bill " be made law, it will speedily put that sentence into execution. That your petitioner y;/-o/^Ac'//^f///y warns your Honoiu'able House, that this liberticide bill, if passed, and subsequently administered by the Commissioners, with their known disregard of all human sympathies, and natural affections — with their accustomed contempt of every local privilege and old-estabHshed usage, — will at last weary out the patience and forbearance even of a people so proverbial for their longsuffering and sloAviiess to anger as the British nation, juid that a disastrous and terrible revolution will be the result — the not unnatural result thereof. That your petitioner should have thought, after the previous administration of the Poor-Law Commissioners — wliich, in spite of interested party statements only a difficulty was started that it would be a hazardous matter to get behind him (the petitioner), as he generally had all his buttons about him — and two or more could play at sharps or pops. " Well," was the unanimous hiccough, " if we cannot cut his throat, we can cut tip his testimoni/ ; we'll send up a counter-petition to the House, denouncing, officially, that all that he has chronicled is fudge, and that the law works as nicely as a Factori/ child." Agreed, responded onines, and we'll get the Hereford Journal to notify our dreadful, despe- rate determination. On the following Wednesday, the Commissioners' print, trembling like an aspen leaf, did (the penny being pouched) enunciate a short, dull, dismal howl for its skilly patrons. The howl in question was immediately answered so : — " TO THE EDITOR OF THE ' HEREFORD JOURNAL." " Sir, — The following morccau appeared in your paper of last Wednesday (March 10) — " In consequence of some unfounded aspersions iu regard to the operation of the Poor-Law in this city, the Board of Guardians o( the Hereford Union have agreed to a petition to the House of Commons, pointing out that the assertions that ' infanticide and incendiarism have increased, and that unmarried mothers of cliildren have declared that they would rather die in a ditch than go into the workhouse,' have no foundation in fact." "Now, as this paragraph evidently alludes to a petition of mine presented to the Commons on Monday, the 1st inst., hv njy honourable friend, Mr. T. S. Buncombe — in answer, I beg to say, that I have no will or time to bo drawn into a discussion ; but that I am prepared to prove, before any proper tribunal, that infanticide and in- cendiarism have increased since the introduction of the New Poor-Law in Herefordshire," and that " unmarried, mothers of children have declared, that Uiey would rather die in a ditch than go into the workhouse." " The paragraph in question, moreover, declares, " that the Guardians have agreed to a petition to the House of Commons, pointing out, ' that the statements contained in my memorial have no foundation in fact.' " I have only to hope they will do so, as in tliat case I shall also send up afiirthei corroborative continuation of my for- mer petition, and the result, peradventuie, will bo, that a proper investigation of the workuig of the New Poor- Law in Herefordshire will take place — a result which not only I, but my I'ellow-associates in the good cause, will very much rejoice at. " I am. Sir, " Hereford, Easton-placc, " Your most obedient, humble servant, " March 10, 1841." " G. K. WYTHEN BAXTER." LETTERS, SKETCHES, PETITIONS, ADDIIESGES. 107 to the contrary, hns everywliere been so signally unsuccessful in beneficial con- sequences, and so savage in the perpetration of cruelty, — so decidedly failing in the practical realization of their own published luid promissory tlieories, — but, at the same time, so notorious for the exercise of unnecessary coercion and hai-slmess, and for the unhmited and licentious expenditure of the rate-payers' money : — Your petitioner should have thought, he repeats, that no Christian, or civilized, or politic government would have the conscience, the temerity, the hard-heartedness to propose the adoption of a bill, having for its distinguished features the bestowal of additional powers on, and the almost peqietual conti- nutuice of, so utterly an unconstitutional, unscrupulous, and irresponsible autho- rity as the Poor-Law Commission. That your petitioner has narrowly watched the working of the New Poor- Law system in his own county, Herefordshire, and has found the same to bo cruel, and expensive almost beyond endurance, both to the poor and the rate- payers. To give some examples : — In the City of Hereford, the householders, who formerly, under the old system, were rated at 4s. per rate, are now paying 9s. 75-d. ; and many farmers in the county have publicly declared their inabihty to keep on their farms and pay such exorbitant poor-rates ! But, notwith- standing this increase of parochial taxation, the general consequences of the operation of the New Poor-Law in Herefordshire, have been most demoralizing and destructive. As in corroboration : Instances of bastardy now happen to an extent unprecedented under the Old Law ; sheep-steahng is greatly on the in- crease {vide the local papers) ; and incendiarism, foiinerly almost imkuown in this county, is at present oi frequent occurrence. Not fm'ther back than the niglit of Saturday, the 31st of January last, a respectable farmer, of the name of Stephens, living at Hunderton, within a mile of the City of Hereford, had his bams and out-buildings destroyed by fire to the amount of between £300 and a£400, which work of destruction is supposed to have been the act of an incen- diary. Again, the serious and unnatural offence of child murder is constantly being committed in this county ; for scarcely has an assize been held since the introduction of the New Poor-Law, but what there have been trials for infanti- cide ; and at this very time there are two unfortunate females to be tried for that heinous offence. But, besides these cases of crime and costliness, illustrative of the evil and expensive operation of the New Poor-Law, just related by your petitioner, many instances of extreme harshness and hardship have occurred in this vicinity, owing to the strict adherence to the rules and regulations as promulgated by the Commissioners. Last year two or more reports appeared in the Hereford Newspajjers, detailing that the bodies of pauper children deceased had remained for weeks unburied, in consequence of the inability of the parents on the one hand, and the refusal and non-legal liability of the parochial authorities on the other, to defray the expense of the last right of sepulture. Several authenti- cated sad catastrophes of deaths from want and destitution have likewise oc- curred. Among other instances, it was currently reported last summer that a man of the name of Knell, who had not previously tasted food for two days, having been given some victuals by a compassionate publican, devoured the same so voraciously that he shortly afterwards died on the hay-stack of a farmer, resi(hng within a short distance of the City of Hereford. The dread, too, of the destitute poor to enter the Hereford Union Work- house has produced, and is producing, the perpetration (for they will not starve! J of sheep,* corn, potato, turnip, and poultry steaUng,t tmd other smaller depredations on agricultural produce, to an alarming and ruinous ex- * " Sheep Stealing. — This species of crime seems to be on the increase in this neigh- bourhood."— //or/brrf Times, Jan. U!, 1841. t " Poultry Siealinc. — This offence still continues very common in the neighbourhood of Ledbury."— //en/ord Times, March 6, 1841. 108 TTIE BOOK OF THE UASTILES, tent in tins neit^lihourliood : nnd in oon'()'l)uriiti(m- tliut this tihhorrenoe of the Union Workhouse has heen instmmental in increasing crime, is the lolh)wing extract from the Hereford Journal, of Dec. 31st, 1840: — "At the connnence- nient of the present week there are no fewer than 112 prisoners in our county gaol, the lar(/est niiinher hioun for a r/rmt^ many ijears." Again, tlie Here- ford Times of Jan. 16th, 1841, says: — "The Quarter-Sessions for this city takes place on Thursday next ; there tu'e an iinusiialli/ larye number of pri- soners for trial." But'to instance the great and unconquerahle horror the poor have of the work- house, your petitioner knows a distressed widow, with five small children, who repeatedly declares, that before she would go in and he separated from her family she would take each of her little ones to a block and chop its head off" ! Another instance is that of a girl, with two illegitimate children, who has already been an inmate of the Hereford Union Workhouse, and who now pro- tests althouo-h in a most destitute state, that she would go and he in a ditch and die, sooner than again enter its precincts ! In short, your petitioner, viewhig all these giievous results, and tiddng into account the inunense increase of beggars and other Avretched mid pitiable ob- iects which the operation of the New Poor-Law has produced, conscientiously beUeves that no individual in Hereford, city or county, (with the exception of the immediate Poor-Law^ officials, who are enabled by virtue of their offices to fare sumptuously eveiy day — particularly the Union coffin maher, who has been so incessantly en»af^ed in his calling that, throughout the A\-inter, he has heen obliged to work on Sundai/s)* has gained by the administration of the Act in question, — far from it. , . •, ^-. , , In conclusion, vour petitioner most earnestly nnplores your Honoiu'ablo House to show some commiseration for the sufferinr/s of your poorer country- ^g,i and some consideration for your country's peace, which has already, on several occasions, at Birmingham, Newport, Llanidloes, and elsewhere, been seriously endangered, and broken, Avitli bloodshed, by the administration of the harsh principles' of the New Poor-Law. He implores your Honourable House to do so, iuid to tlu-ow out this new invention of coercion, this Poor-Law Com- missioners' Continuancy Bill — for if it should l)e passed, the precious links which now bind society together tvill assuredly be rudely and violently rent asunder, and the affections of the humbler classes, for ever and ever, alienated from their superiors. And your petitioner will ever pray, kc, &c. A LETTEK TO THE EDITORS OF THE "SHEFFIELD IRIS." Gentlemen, — You and your thousands of readers, doubtless remember that in your excellent columns of the of last month, there appeared a copy of an Anti-New Poor-Law petition of mine, which had been presented to the House of Commons, on the 2d inst., by T. S. Buncombe, Esq., M.P. for Finsbur)-. Now the presentation of tliis petition, has subsequently lucked up a most unac- countable " dust," among the Board of Guardians, and other friends of skilly and stiu-vation at Hereford, city and county, and many have been the curses and con-espondences which have ensued on account thereof. The wai' of words and Whigs, still continues, with unabated fierceness in the City of the snobs, (the local name of Hereford,) and vengeance on G. R. Wythen Baxter, is the most famihar shibboleth exchanged by " Union" official lips in the streets. * Seven coffins (besides two wliieli liad just liecn fetched away) were lieinp made, as per order, for the Hereford Union, at the colHu makers in ordinary, on Feb. 18, 1841. LETTERS, SKETCHES, rETTTTONS, ADDRESSES. 109 The following scriptural, nnd documental oftsprings of my before-mentioned petition are, I opine, like red raspberries, worth preserving. N.]5. Number (2.) I consider to be a fancy feather worth wealing in my cap — especially when I had such a " dead pluck," (as they used to say, when I w'as at Aula Mag, (Oxford,) to get it from one of that order of domestic bii'ds whoso necks arc none of the shortest. I have the honour to be. Gentlemen, vom* o])cdient sen'ant, Hereford, April 12,1841. G. E. WYTHEN B AXTEE . (No. 1.) The Albany, March 12, 1841. Dear Sir, — The enclosed I received a few days l)ack, and have forwarded to Captiiin Bennett a copy of your petition. He is idso aware of my sending you his letter, which, after perusing, or copying if you like, I Avill tlumk you lo return to mo. Yours faithfullv, G. R. Wythen Baxter, Esrp T. S. DUNCOMBE. (No. 2.) King Street, Hereford, March 7, 1841. Sir, — I am not certain that I need offer any apology for having presumed to address you upon this occasion, unless in doing so, I may be guilty of a breach of eticpiette, but having read in the public papers of the 1st inst., state- ments setting forth, that a petition had been presented to the House of Com- mons by you, from a Mr. George Baxter, who stated that he had watched the operation of the New Poor-Law, that the cruelty and expense entailed by it were almost beyond endurance, that the rates in Hereford had been raised, from 4s. to 9s. 7|-d, — that robbery and incendiarism had increased in consequence, — that many of the poor would rather starve than go into the workhouse, — mid that, if it were continued, the lower classes would be completely alienated from their superiors. Now, Su', you will be perhaps astonished if I state to you, that the whole of these statements of Mr. Baxter's are wicked, malicious, and mahgnant false- lioods, and that they are merely got up by an itinerant scribbler, for the pm-jiose of bringing the Poor- Law Act into disrepute, and annoying the Government. Having been for two years a Guardian for one of the city parishes, and one of the Vice-Chairmen of the Hereford Union, I think it may fairly be presumed, that I am qualified to give an opinion on the subject. And to Mr. Baxter's first assertion, relative to cruelty to the poor, that statement may readily be contradicted, by the evidence of the paupers themselves, as well as the written statements of hundreds of ladies and gentlemen of all ranks, who very frequently visit the house, and enter any remarks relative to the house, the officers, and inmates, in a book kept for that pui-pose, and who I wish could be examined, by the members of the House of Commons. Mr. Baxter's next charge states, that the rates in Hereford, had been raised from 4s. to 9s. 7^d. This is absolutely untrue ; so far from that being the case, the rates for the last three years, have been decreased one-fourth, or 25 per cent. ; for the proof of which I beg to refer you to the printed official state- ment, which I have this day forwarded to E. B. Clive, Esq., M.P. for tliis city, and who will, I am sure, be happy to afford you a sight of it. The next statement is, that robbery and incendiarism has increased in con- sequence. I should like to laiow whether either has taken place in this county ? certainly, like other places, we have our share of petty larcenies ; but did none of these occur before the New Poor-Law came into operation ? Incendiarism is a crime happily unknown here, but if the po]")ulation are excited to discontent, by such mahn-olent scribblers as Mr. George Baxter, I do not know liow long it mav coutinue so. no THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. The next of Mr. Baxter's assertions is, tliat many of the poor would rather starve than go into the workhouse. I grant it, insomuch as \X\g prostitute, the idle, and the dissolute, would doubtless rather (accorchng to the glorious old times), receive 4s. or more per week out-relief, and spend that in a gin-shop, than they would subject themselves to quiet, order, and decent behaviour, though aided by good and wholesome food in the Union workhouse. The concluding remark of Mr. Baxter's is, that if the present law is con- tinued, the lower classes would be completely ahenated from their superiors. I totally deny the assertion. We have in tliis county a population of hardy, industrious, peasantry, attached to their landlords and employers, generally speaking honest, industrious, and sober, and the only fear is, that such busy, meddhng, ignorant scribblers as Mr. George Baxter, may, in time, convert them from useful, honest peasants, to a troublesome, discontented mob. I hope you will not consider me intrusive, in having stated these things to you, feehng confident as I do, that had you been aware of the facts, you would have hesitated before you had placed before the House, a document which, how- ever unjust and unfounded, was an unfair attack, not only upon the New Poor- Law, but upon me, and the other Guardians of this Union ; insomuch as it attaches to us the crime of cruelty to the poor in our charge. Should you, Sir, ever visit this part of the country, or should any of your friends do so, I will engage to disabuse their minds of any prejucUce winch they may entertain of the system, which, I am happy to say, progresses here with us most favourably. Begging permission to apologize for the Hberty which I have taken, I have the honour to subscribe myself, with every sentiment of respect, Sir, Your very obedient, humble servant, THOMAS BENNETT, CajH. Royal Navif, and Vice-Ghairman of the Hereford Board of Guardians. T. S. Buncombe, Esq., M P. (No. 3.) Hereford, Easton-Place, March 14, 1841. Dear Sir, — I was quite prepared to receive the letter you have transmitted me, from a Mister Thomas Bennett, who signs himself " Capt. Royal Navy, and Vice-Chimm^n of the Hereford Board of Guardians;" and am rather surprised, from the well-known conduct and conversation of the man, that it was not more abusive than it is. I am, however, as a gentleman, too proud to take any offence at what such a person may say or write : and when I state he (this " Captain Bold of Halifax") is a Whig, and holds a subordinate situation under the rascally Commissioners, I think I have returned his abusive salute, to use a sea slang, with an equal nmnber of guns. But (though I can hardly spare time) to discuss his communication. He says " the whole of these statements of Mr. Baxter's are wicked, malicious, and malignant falsehoods" — I flatter myself that this letter, and its contents, will prove his to be such. " That they are merely got up by an itinerant scribbler," &c., — What he intends by an " itinerant scribbler,' so help me, Murray ! I don't know ; but, as to bringing the New Poor-Law into disrepute and aimoying the Government, I proudly plead guilty — 7nost guilty, iipon my honour. But to proceed. *' Having been for two years a Guardian for one of the city parishes, and one of the Yice-Chairmen of the Hereford Union, I think it may fairly be presumed that I am quahfied to give an opinion," &c. — A Whig Poor-Law Commissioners' flunky give an opinion, as to the operation of the Act ! ! Excellent well ! ! A Bridgcnorth opinion truly ! ! " Mr. Baxter's first assertion, relative to cruelty to the poor, that statement LETTERS, SKETCHES, PETITIONS, ADDRESSES. Ill may readily bo contradicted by the evidence of the paupers themselves,* as well as the written statements of liundreds of ladies and gentlemen, &c." What the poor creatures in the Union-house here may be friyhtcncd to say, through fear of Mack holes and persecution, I cannot say ; 1 dare say plenty of Whit/ ladies and gentlemen may be obtained (at per order), to corroborate and swear imytliing: tlieir testimony is not worth a farthing. When wolves make laws for the sheep, the latter are surely the best jiuhjes, of whether the same are cruel or not. . /. i i i i "Mr. Biixter's next charge states, that the rates ni Hereford had been raised from 4s. to 9s. 7^d. This is absolutely untrue, &c." The enclosed receipts of rates f paid in 1833 smd 1841, aj-e, I conceive, a very good reply. N. B. As for the printed official statements, they are all humbug, tmd the E. B. Chve, Esq., M.P., spoken of, is lather of an Assistant Poor-Law Com- missioner.:!: I cannot conclude this, without expressing my concern, that I should have been the iimocent cause of your being troubled with this Whig fellow's impudence. I have the honour to be, Dear Sir, Very faithfully vours, G. 11. WYTHEN BAXTEBx. T. S. Duncombe, Esq., M.P (No. 4.) HEEEFOED POOE-LAW UNION. || The following important document has been handed to us for publication : — " In consequence of a petition ha^dng been presented to the House of Com- mons from a Mr. Baxter, of Hereford, reflecting upon the Coqioration of the New Poor-Law, in the Hereford district, and asserting that the rates had been nearly doubled, and including other unfounded charges, the Board of Guardians, at their last meeting, agi-eed upon the following Petition, to be presented to the House by Mr. Chve : — " To the Honourable the Commons of England in Parhament assembled, " The humble Petition of the Board of Guardians of the Hereford Union, Showeth, — That your Petitioners have heard with much regi'et and surprise, that a statement has gone forth, that the rate on a tenement in the City of Hereford has been doubled — that infanticide and incendiarism have increased * May it, indeed ? I should rather fancy not, or why does that poor idiot woman, mad Kate, incessantly stop the Guardians in the street, and, shrieking, inquire "When is tlie v-nrkhouse to he pulled down ?" Why have women in a Guardian's shop, when he has in a joke threatened to send them to the workhouse, ejaculated " God Idess you, Sir, send us to the gaol ; we'd sooner go there .'" Whv, too, is the door of the "hlack hole" m the Hereford Union-house, split and cracked from the kicks and struggles of the unfortunate creatures who have heen confined in its loathsome walls ? f Vide No. 6. . + These Extracts from the Hereford papers, &c.,corrohorative of the increase ot crime, are, to avoid repetition, left out, but will be found given in No. 7 of this correspondence. II This self-denying ordinance was paraded in the Hereford Times of: March 13, 1841, nnd mihe Hereford Journal of March 17; but several of the stoutest of the Guardians have, ever since, like the magnanimous captain in Roderick Random, taken refuge under their wives' flannels, from which place of protection they, every now and then, stretch out tluir long necks uud hiss most melodiously. 112 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. — and that unmniTied mothers of cliihU'cn have dechired that they would rather die in a ditch than go into the Hereford workhouse. " In reference to the first of tliese charges, your Petitioners have to ohsen'e, that they have no control over the rating of any particular parishes or tenements. It may happen, that Ly the revision of the rating of an individual house, such a rating may have heen increased, hut, as regards the whole expenchture of the Hereford Union, a saving of twenty-six per cent, has heen eifected hy the management of your Petitioners on the cost of the system hefore 1834. " Your Petitioners have never heai'd of, and do not heheve in, any increase of infanticide or incencharism within the Hereford Union, smce that period.* " That the disciphne essential to the mortil improvement of unmarried mothers of children, and the religious hahits which your Petitioners endeavour to estahlish in the workhouse, may not at first he palatahle to those whose lives have heen passed in chssolute hahits, cim hy no metms sm-prise your Petitioners. They, however, heg to assure your Honoiu'ahle House, that they heheve fewer offences and greater comforts exist in the Hereford workhouse than in any other estahlishment of the Idnd, with which your Petitioners are accpiainted. "Your Petitioners have devoted their hest efforts towards rendering the workhouse availahle to the comforts, welfare, and moral improvement of the inmates, and a more frecpient and strict supeiwision of the house takes place on the part of the Guardians, than in any other workhouse known to them. " Your Petitioners have, since the huilcling of the workhouse, not only given ample opportunities to all respectahle persons to visit the workliouse at all rea- sonable hours, but a hook is presented to all visitors for the insertion of remarks ; and your Petitioners find the highest praise given to the officers and arrangements of the house, hy almost every visitor. " Your Petitioners heg leave fiu'ther to state, that while discontent and disturbance have prevailed in many parts of the kingdom, more or less remote from the City of Hereford, no riotous assemblages, Chartist meetings, or other disorders, have taken place in the district over which their duties extend. f * The Hereford Guardians (vel geese) have never heard of infanticides occurring in Here- fordshire since the introduction of the Act, of course ; suppose they were to read the follow- ing, and bottle up their hiss, hiss, hiss, for their own use : — " Comiiiitted to our county j?aol, Mary Evans, charged with tlie wilful murder of her infant child, at the parish of Little HeTufonV— Hereford County Prens, Sept. 22, 1S3S. " There are at present about sixteen prisoners for trial at our ensuing Assizes, which commence on the 23d. Among them is one (a female) charged with child murder." — Ibid., March 16, 1839. " On Wednesday an inquest was held hy Peter Warburton, Escj., on the body of an infant found in St. Owen's burying ground, as stated in our last, but there was no evidence to show how it came by its death, uor by whom it was placed tliere." — Hid., April 4, 1840. And in addition to these, there are the two instances of child-murder, and for concealing the hirth, tried at the Hereford Spring Assizes, 1841, and many, too many, concealed homd affairs of the sort, which are never disclosed, but which, no doubt, have been entered in the leaves of that awful book which, when opened hereafter, the Hereford Guardians will find themselves called upon to answer for the spilling of the innocent blood. But, talking of infanticide, since this was written, their own paper (edited by a very good fellow, though a Whig) has had the honesty to blush for their enonnous lying, and to speak the truth — " That infanticide has lately increased, is a fact which the late Assizes throughout the country have demonstrated. — Hereford Times, April 17, 1841. f What an infamous falsehood! There have been several Chartist meetings held in the city T)f Hereford, and one, March 15, 1839, when Messrs. Vincent and Burns made speeches under the market-place. No riotous assemblages ! What a ditto ! Ye most obedient, humble servants of Somerset-house, read this : — " It is with great regret we are this week forced, in tlie performance of our duty as journalists, to notice a threatened disturbance in this neighbourhood. It was wideh' reported, that on Wednesday last, a party of labourers from Aconbury, Ajraestry, and adjoining parishes and townships, would visit this city, armed with pickaxes and billhooks, with the riotous design of wreaking their vengeance upon the Union workhouse just completed, and now inhabited by the indigent poor (cnmcd cant) in this city and neighbourhood. What ground tliere was for the apprehension, further than report, we have heen unable to leaiMi ; but it seems Uie authorities have reposed so muili fai'.h in the tliveatenid tumult and riot, that additional constables were sworn in, and asstmbled at the county gaol ; to be ready to act in case iiny riotous asstniblago had taken jduce." — Hereford County Press, March 24, 1638. LETTERS, SKETCHES, PETITIONS, ADDRESSES. *113 " Your Petitioners have respectfully to assure your Honourable House, that they are resolved to persevere, with impartiality and firmness, and without fear, favour, or affection, in the arduous and unpopular task of relie\ing destitution, of detecting imposition, of discouraging profligacy, and of raising the moral character, and the physical condition, of the lower orders.* Through good report and evil report, your Petitioners will continue to execute the duties entrusted to them, in the fullest confidence that the enlightened and reflecting portion of the community will not be swayed by vague accusations or unfounded statements. " And your Petitionera, as in duty bound, will ever pray. " Signed, on behalf of the Board of Guanhans of the Hereford Union, " WATSON JOSEPH THOENTON, " Chairman of the Hereford Union." (No. 5.) THE POOR-LAWS.t TO THE EDITOR OF THE "HEREFORD TIMES." Sir, — I have seen a copy of a ParHamentary petition, from an individual in Hereford, against the New Poor-Law, which, if it were tal<;en as a specimen of tlie opposition to that law, would tend strongly to establish the perfection of the Act. The petitioner, among other romantic statements, seriously assures the House of Commons, that he had heard unmarried mothers of childi-en (how dehcate the description !) vow they would rather die in a ditch than go into the Hereford Union workhouse. Mai"veUous, indeed ! Is it not sui-prising. Sir, that the ladies of the paveX should not have fine mansions erected for them at the public ex2)ense, and is it not abominable, that our city and county gaols should not aiford the highest luxuries for our criminals? I have heai'd of convicts vowing that they would rather be transported than be caged by Mr, * This, I presume, is Messrs. the Hereford Guardians (vd geese) your recipe, your tried efficacious recipe for raising the moral character and the physical condition of the lower orders : — it does raise them indeed — it raises them to heaven, where they will find few, if any, Poor-Law officials ; — " Death by DESTiTUTio>f. — A poor old man, named John Hill, was, on Sunday last, discovered dead in his bed, in a room, the use of which was kindly allowed him, in a house used for his business only, by Mr. Winter, butcher, St. Owen's- street, in this city. He was seen tor the last time on the previous Thursday, and must, from the state of the body when found, have been dead some time. An inquest was held over his remains by Mr. T. T. Gough, and a verdict, ' Died from tlie want of the common necessaries of life,' returned." — Hereford Countij Press, Sept. 1, 1838. Remember all this perfidious gammon of raising the moral fiddle-stick will not wipe ofi", from the heads of those who let him perish, this poor old man's blood — 'twill be upon them and upon their children. Nor will these well got-up feeding paragraphs induce the poor and helpless to deem the Bastiles otherwise than, what they are all over the kingdom, licensed slaughter-houses and starvation prisons : — " The inmates of the Hereford Union, 60 in number, were regaled (how well it sounds on paper!) with good roast beef and plum-pudding for dinner on the day of the Queen's coronation at the expense of the Board of Guardians {qnert/, the rate-payers?/' — Hereford County Press, June 30, 1838. _ ■" On Christmas-day, Mr. Proece the respectable (?) and higlily-efhcient (no doubt) master of our (how affec- tionate !) Union workhouse, kindli/ gave the poor himates, 170 in number, a plentiful (?) dinner of excelknt (?) roast beef and plum-puddiug at his own expense" (query, rate-payers' ?) — Ibid., Jan. 12, 1839. The poor, perhaps, could, if they dared, tell how romantic these paid paragraphs, of which above a dozen are inserted per annum, in the Hereford papers, were and are ! Would that the deaths by destitution already detailed could be proved to be romances of a like description ! t This elegant extract perfumed and added fragrance to the Hereford Times of March 13, 1841. X As for the ladies of the jyave, it is well known that they, perchance, through their former commercial relations with the officials, are much better treated in the Hereford U«ion work- house, thau the old and respectable folk who are taken in and done for. H * 114* THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES, Kecnc ;* and others vowing that they would bo rather hanged than transported ; and such persons regret, that in the erection of prisons, the feehngs and wislies of thieves and cut-throats are not consuhed. As to the workhouses, they ought not to he places of indiscriminate refuge for the poor and the mothers of illegitimate children — such mothers are, in a large majority of cases, most nhandoncd characters, and it is unjust and cruel to the virtuous poor, young and old, to bring them in daily contact with habitual vice. That such profli- gate characters should swear that they would rather die in a ditch than go into the workhouse, where they must lead a new Ufe, that is, live morally, wliile they Hve at the expense of the hard-working rate-payer, is quite natm-al ; but the maiTcl is, that any person should evince such insanity, to describe it very mildly, as to be the petitioning mouth-piece of these matrons ! — it is one of the many wonders of the day. Would that all the wives of the independent labourers in this county had equal comforts before and after \he\T accouchements, as the unmarried mothers enjoy in the Hereford workliouse. Hundred of Broxash, ANTI-VICE.f March 10th, 1840. * The designation, I believe, of the govenior or turntey of the Hereford county gaol. f The veritable writer of this original article, signed with the Christian name of " Anti" and the surname of Vice, although his manly modesty prevented him attaching his bap- tismals to it, is, I fancy, the distinguished naval and New Poor-Law penman of No. 2, and the talented author of the following exijuisite performance, which appeared in the Court Journal of March 27, 1841 :— " The Princess Royal. — We have received several letters on tlie subject of a most malicious rumour -which concerns this illustrious personage. It has Leen statetl, tliat her Royal Highness is blind, and ol' imperfect intellect ; but wo can assure our readers, and the public generally, that the princess can see quite as well as the best of them, and that, in mental capacity, she is gifted beyond her age ! ! !" It may not, perhaps, be amiss, as he has recently made himself so conspicuous, to attach a short historiette of this remarkable and highly-gifted individual. This '■'■(jreat ammiral" in expectation, then, is the son and heir of a gentleman of respectability, fonnerly the sole pro- prietor of certain iron works in the city of Hereford, which, though they were not quite so extensive as those now in the possession of Messrs. Bailey and Crayshaw, were still consi- dered worth ^>jh// af, and by their genial glow his sire pursued, with "hard knocks," the profession of that lame and impotent deity, the husband of the Olympic Vestris, who, accord- ing to the blind fiddler Homerus, in handing round the Milford oystei-s and bottled " malt" at the cancB, noctesque dcum, so frequently caused the whole house of gods to resound with iro7i\col cheers. Well, oiu* " great ammiral's" father was one of those entei-prising indivi- duals who have always more than one iron in the Jire at a time, and who are ever ready, at the shortest notice, and for the dedication of the requisite " tip," to take horse exercise (not for their health, but for their interest), and accommodate any fanner's " dobbin" roadster with " tU'Ofor his hecls,^'' but not " one for his nob.^' The nativity of our hero, the ''^ great ammiral" was, of course, like the " natus sum vel fid" of every other illustrious character, since the world began to bake twopenny busters, signalized by the perpetration of sundry illustrative prodigies and extraordinary occurrences ; for, at his birth, independent of the lurapike-roads being woolly and whipcord a scarcity, " The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes," which ascended by hundreds from the chimney of his father's smithy, and " The ' smidis' run from the ' forges,' and the ' colts' Were strangely ' kicking' in the affrighted streets !" But to proceed. Our hero was originally intended to have been brought up to the bar ; btit, not liking the sparks he daily associated with in his father's company, he refused to tread in • his father^s shoes, and, hissing hot, volunteered in the sea service ; but aboard ship, howbeit, it is whispered, though indisputably the bravest of the brave, he still retained his early abhorrence of that metal which it was his sire's wont to belabour, blast, and beat, from morn- ing's sun to dewy eve, so unmercifully, and he never permitted, in the greatest victory, hot or cold iron to approach too near his jyerson if he could help it. From time immemorial it has been the esteemed practice of biographers, in their pages, to " show up" their monsters as having been in the undisputed possession of penchants and idiosyncracies peculiar to themselves, and which the poor devils of common-place could not by any manner of means have about them, if they were (o cry their eyes out, and pawn their Sunday's breeches. Our hero, " the ammiral," was not wanting in these respects — indeed, he was pre-eminently and prodigally endowed therewith. To give a few of his " characteristic traits." In the first LETTERS, SKETCHES, PETITIONS, ADIMIESSES. *115 A LETTER TO THE EDITOR OF THE "HEREFORD JOURNAL."* SiK,_In the Hereford Times of last Saturday, I perceive the Hereford Board'of Guardians have deemed it hecoming to advertize a tal)lc, setting forth the (/rent .mviiif/ which, they contend, has occurred since the introduction of the New Poor-Law in these parts. Now, what does this docimient, "fearfully made," and duly signed by N. Lanwame, Clerk to the Board, prove ? Why, nothing more nor less than tliat, if the saving in question have taken place, the poor must have hcen deprived of a great portion of their lawful allowance— that allowance contributed by the rate-payers for their support ; and not for the salaries of officials with large pockets; and that they (the said poor) must have had their hearts pierced, and their bellies pinched, in a most cruel and unchristianhke mimner, to have achieved the same. Surely the wants of the pauper in 1840, since the passing of the "Act," were as pressing as the wants of the pauper m 1833, previous to the passing of the "Act;" and surely there were as many paupers in the former year as in the latter— a great many more, I should sav. Then what conclusion can he deduced from this " round table " (round rohhinr/ .V in question ? Simply, that the poor and helpless have either been.- diiven' into the pei-petration of crime to support themselves, or they have been " tested " out of existence, and so got rid of. One or the other it must be. . • i , % But supposing this " table " to be correct— (I only suppose it, mmd that)— that the cost for the maintenance of the poor has been less in the three years- succeeding the administration of the New Poor-Law, than it was iu the three years precechng the achninistration thereof, it by no means proves that the rates 'have been dimluished, or that the rate-payers have paid less. It only authenti- cates, that, contrary to Scripture words, " the ' rich ' have been filled with good things, while the ' hunr/r// ' have been sent empty away ! " Can the Hereford Guardians, without stretching out their long necks, and having recourse to personalities— can they declare that the householders of the parishes within their Union generally, have paid less rates ? I challenge them— I dare place then, he possesses a thorougli-hred and undisguised abomination of lamb or mutton, bocaiise those agricultural productions, when alive, are in the habit of emmciating the, to him, disgusting monosyllable of baa, or bar as he fancies it. Secondly, he never on any persuasion, purchases any goods or chattels too cheap, as he perfectly abhors bargains. Thirdly he has never yet been known to sojourn in his native city during the season ot the holding of the Assizes or Quarter-sessions, for he would as lief meet a bear without a muz- zle as a <^ent. of the bar. Fourthly, when he travels, and has occasion to frequent inns or public-houses, he scrupulously avoids ingress to that portion of the buildings generally set apart by the landlords for the keep of their lasses and glasses. Fifthly, he cannot abide do.'s or oak-trees, as the former irtrk, and the latter are barked. Sixthly, there are three baronets aud one baron residing in his neighbourhood, who are continually importunatiiig him to know and patronize them, and he won't. Seventhly, on one occasion, when one ot the audience at a theatre, at the enactment of Othello, no sooner did Desdemona impart to Mrs. lago, who was undoing her things previous to her going to bed, that her " Mother liiid a maid call'd Barhara," than our hero, the " ammirai;' uttering an hysteric cry, rushed from the temple of Thespis, as if Edwin Chadwick's uncle, the very devil, was scouring after him with the intention ot catching him, and dishing him up that very night, with sulphur sauce, for his supper ! JUit., enough. Long may this wonderful salt warrior man be spared to serve his Queen and country rt,s- an alderman of the Hereford Town Couneil, and as a Guardian oj the Hereford Hoard of Guardians ; and when he dies, may his latter end be that ol a great naval com- mander': i. e., by seasickness, and not in a blaeksnuth''s shop ! * Tliis appeared in the Hereford Journal, M.irchei, IS 11, and subscqucuUy, a great por- tinn of it appeared iu No. 21 of my friend Oasllcr's "■ Fleet Faicrs.'' 110* THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. them to pro\i3 it. Tlicy cannot. There is G. B. Wythcn Baxter's gage thrown down, they will pick it up if they are men* The following copies of receipts of Poor's Bates paid by my father in 1833, and by my father and self jointly in 1841, will proclaim that the " Botu'd " table is anything but a credible one : — " Beceived of Mr. Baxter, Poor's Bate for the Paiish of St. Martni, m the City of Hereford, made the 9th of May, 1833. " House and Garden d£0 4s. Od. " Charles Lucy, A.ssistant-0 irrsecr." * It is needless to say the cLallencfe tlirown down in this letter was not accepted ; it looked too much like " work " for the capacities of the Hereford Guardians {vel f/eese), and they, with tears in their eyes, and on their bended drumsticks, piteously implored — " Hold, enough ! " In a word, they could no more : look on it again, tliey dared not, but, with a snivel, confessed that their bellies were full — they had had their gruel. But, Quod non fecerunt Goti, Hoc fecerunt Scoti. What the Hereford Board feared to do {i. e., to prove truth to he a lie), that the Ledhuiy Board dared to undertake. Yes, the pauper worriers of lewd, licentious, liberal Ledbury, stepped into the rescue of their Malthusian brethren of the viti/ of the snobs. On the KJth of March, 1841, the Chairman of the Ledbuiy Board, a clerk of no importance, having pre- viously had an illicit intercourse with the Assistant-Commissioner of the district, who, under promise of marriage — no, but under promise of sousing him up to his great red ears in the grease of a fat living, had seduced and crammed him, was suddenly taken in labour of a " praise-barc-bones Poor-Law speech, and was delivered of the same (the aforesaid Assistant- Commissioner acting as man midwife) in the presence of the assembled billy and bearded goats, Guardians of the Ledbury Union. This bantling address, it was proclaimed by every Union goat and goose in Herefordshire, would soon settle Baxter, and all such mischievous agitators ; and to be enabled to perform its part of agitatorcide more effectually, on the 17th of the following April, it appeared, breeched as a book, and dressed up as a pamphlet. And prettily it prattled ! and bravely its author brazened out his lost virginity of human feelings, and well in every line he earned the living (to which he will shortly be gazetted), for which he had sacrificed his veracity. The law was perfect — too perfect — its perfection was almost beyond endurance. The Commissioners, central and circulating, were angels in French boots, but, like angels, alas ! there were too few of them : and then, as for the gore of Coroi. ners' inquests upon their heads and hands, it was very gentlemanly, and more becoming than anything else. Instances of bastardy, muler the new " amendment " order of things, were most chasteli/ uncommon ; only one illegitimate child had been born {vide Commissioners' last report,) in England and Wales, since the introduction of the Act, to the present time, and that had been preserved and pickled, and presented, as a great curiositi/, to the museum of the Hereford Literary and Philosophical Institution. The savings which had accrued from the administration of the New Poor-Law, were so excessive, as to be almost troublesome : there had been a decrease of expenditure, within these three years, of ten hundred thousand and sixty-fire and a-half millions, per each year, in Isle of Shy and Bank of Air notes. These were official statements : could any one have the hardihood to call their veracity in question ? And then the working of the dearlnv/ in Herefordshire (oh ! what did that Baxter deserve !) had been the very reverse of kill pauper and rob rate-payer; on the contrary, it had been administered with spoonsful, night and morning, of soothing syrup, and almond demulsion — with nods, becks, and wreathed smiles, and by the most humane and lovely lived of men, and not (oh ! what ought not that Baxter to be done to ?) with black holes, and black looks, and l)y black guards. So in the country had it made itself beloved, and in the city of Hereford, especially, it had made itself adored. There was once a farmer who wished his son, howbeit not over clever in courting matters, to make up to a certain pretty virginity, and, as the parent expressed it, to say something soft to her. The next time the obedient son met the fair damsel in question, he went up to her, and in a marvellous small voice, whispered, " flashed potatoes, 3fiss.'" In Hereford, then, it had regularly proved mashed potatoes itself! Brave Guardians {vel geese) of Hereford, who have suffered many times and oft from Baxter's lash, with grateful hearts, turn to him, the Chairman of the Ledbuiy Board, who has thus so kindly kissed your parts, and made them well : — " However successful the operation of this bill, and hoivever discreet and humane the Guardians may be, their faitlilul discliarge of duty aifords them no security against animadversion. I see that the Herelbrd Union, ■with its orfHiiJ-aZ/Zc workhouse economy, has not escaped ; the Guardians, in a counter-petition (c/rfe No. 4) to I'arliameut, have been compelled to juslily their regulations against the sweeping charges of an indi\-idual, not, I believe, a member of the Board." — " 2'he I'ractical Workinij nf the Poor-Lairs in Herefordshire," hi/ the Rev. J. H. Underwood, Chairman nf the Ledhnry Board of Guardians, spoke March 10, 1841 ; I'ublished the 17th of April following. [Nota Beke. — This Underwood, like " this C'loten, was a fool. "J LETTERS, SKETCHES, PETITIONS, ADDRESSES. *117 (2.) " Parisli of St. Martin, Hereford. Ecccived the 20t}i day of Febmary, 1841, of Messrs. Baxter, Nine Shillinf/s and Heveupence Halfiwnny . " Lemuel Llewellyn, Collector." I take tins opportunity of calling upon all those rate-payers wlio have had their rates thus increased, to come fonvard, tmd, in a hke manner, publicly corroborate the fact. I cannot conclude this communication without relating an instance — a bar- barous, brutal instance, illustrative of the way in which the savings of relief expenditure, so boasted of, ai'e effected under the New Poor-Law. This evenin"-, (Saturday, March 20, 1841,) a respectable young woman, Caroline Garstonc, wife of Thomas Garstone, a turner and cai-penter, lodging in a house in St. Martin's- street, four doors from my o^^^l residence, called upon me in gTeat distress, and almost broken heaited, and told me that her infant child had died three days ago, and that her husband having, unfortunately, been ten weeks out of work, and they having been almost without food for some days past, they could not bury it. She said, in the morning she had been to the Board of G uardians, and requested them to allow her a tiifle to bmy the child. This they refused her. She then, to use her own piteous words, implored of them, as a mother only can implore, to " give her a bit of gi'ound only," and she and her husband would tiy and bury it themselves. This also was refused her ; and she was told she and her husband must come into the house, and then the child would be buried — otherwise, she might go about her business, as they wouldn't assist her. The Chairman, she said, had asked her what her husljand's trade was, and upon being informed that he was a carpenter, he declared that he was the very man they Avanted in the house, as he would be very nseful (i. e., to make the coffins !). The poor young woman protested, she and her husband couldn't come into the house — indeed, that she had not asked rehef for them- selves, but only for a small trifle with which to bury their dead babe. The conclusion was, she ob tamed no assistance, "and was ultimately oblio'ed to sohcit subscriptions from door to door of the charitable neighbours^ and she was driven (in a city in which there are a cathedi-al and three churches, mark !) to the necessity of begging an old orange box, with which the father, the sad tears trickhng down Ms cheeks, late on Saturday night, actually made a coffin for his own child ! So much for the means by which savings are achieved mider the adminis- tration of the New Poor- Amendment- Act ! I blush for its supporters, and am proud to be numbered among its active — most aetive opponents. I am. Sir, Your most obedient servant, Easton Place, Hereford, G. R. WYTHEN BAXTER March 20, 1841. COPY OF A PETITION.* (No. 7.) " To the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom, in Parliament now assembled. " The Petition of George Robert Wythen Baxter, of the City of Here- ford, Gentleman, AT* 5""^^ "^ Commons, March 29, 1841.— "Mr. T. Duncombe presented a petition from Mr. Baxter, of Hereford, maintaining,' the truth of his statements contained in a former petition of the sj:reat increase of crime in that county since the passing of the New Poor- Law.— 7 mc5, March 30, 184 J. 118* THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. " Showeth, — Tlmt on the 1st inst., a mcmoriiil from your petitioner, com- plaining of the cruel, demoralizing, and expensive operation of the New Poor- Law, in the agricultural county of Hereford, was presented to your Honourable House. " That the pui*port of that memorial was, that rates and crime (more particu- larly infanticide, bastardy, sheep-steahng, and incenchiuism), had alarmingly increased since the introduction of the New Poor-Law Act. " That, immediately on the news of the presentation of your petitioner's memorial reacliing Hereford, a fearful sensation arose amongst the friends and favourers of the New Poor-Law in that city — a sensation which has not since subsided — and the Board of Guardians incontinently proceeded to hold a sage and sorrowful dehberation on the subject, and, in the end, a counter-petition was adopted, which has subsequently (as they themselves have advertised,) been presented to your Honourable House by one of the members for the City of Hereford, Mr. Bolton CUve, who is likewise father to an Assistant Poor-Law Commissioner. " That tliis counter-petition of the Hereford Guardiims denounced, in no raciisured terms, the statements made by your petitioner with regard to the baneful effects of the administration of the New Poor-Law in Herefordsliire, and stigmatized the same as entirely unfounded and unworthy of beUef. " That your Petitioner, not choosing — particularly as he has at present a liis- tory of the worldng of the New Poor-Law in the press — to have his character for veracity traduced and hed away in such a summary and malevolent maimer, by a body of men, officials and partizans, notoriously interested in suppressing, if possible, all disclosures likely to mihtate against their favourite and profitable code — respectfully begs to lay before your Honourable House the following local quotations and statistics, corroborative of the verity of his former relations. " Firstly, as regards the increase of ciime generally : — " 'In Herefordshke, there is an increase of crime of 12.5 per cent.' — Com- panion to the Almanac, 1841. " * At the commencement of the present week there were no fewer than 112 prisoners in our coimty gaol, the largest number kno^^^l for a great many years.' — Hereford Journal, Dec. 30, 1840. " ' Hereford Epiphany Sessions. — The Chairman regretted to say, that the number of prisoners was large — nearly as large as on any pre\dous occasion since he had had the honour of presiding at the Sessions." — Ibid, Jan. 6, 1841. " ' The Quarter- sessions for this city takes place on Thursday next ; there are an unufiuaUy large number of prisoners for trial.' — Hereford Times, Jan. 16, 1841. " Secondly, as regards the increase of infanticide : — " * Gentlemen, I now come to call your attention to two cases, which are, perhaps, the most serious in the calendar, viz., in the first of those cases, the prisoner is charged with the wilful murder of a newborn child ; and the charge in the second, is that of conceaHng the birth.' — Mr. Justice Coleridge's CJiarge to the Grand Jury at the Hereford S^^ritig Assizes, March 25, 1841. " ' Charge of Infanticide. — A young girl, about 16 years of age, named Carohne Jennings, was apprehended on Tuesday, on the charge of having destroyed her infant, about a fortnight old, by throwing it into the Wye, near Clock WiW:— Hereford Times, March 27, 1841.* " Tliirdly, as regards the increase of sheep-stealing : — " ' In consequence of the alarming extent to which this crime has been carried on in several parishes in the neighbourhood, an association has been formed in the parish of St. Weonards, for the pm-posc of endeavouring to sup- press it.' — Hereford Journal, Jan. 6, 1841. * Vide Part II. of this work-- Section, Duslanhj. LETTERS, SKETCHES, PETITIONS, ADDRESSES. *119 " * Sheep-stealing. — This species of crime appears to bo on the increase in this neighhourhood.' — Hereford Times, Jan. 16, 1841. "'Early on Satuixlay morning Last, a sheep, the property of Mr. Robert Da\as, butcher, was found Idlled in a meadow at the top of Ailstone Hill, near this city. Two shoulders, and part of the leg, were taken away.' — Hereford Times, March 13, 1841. " ' Sheep-Stealing. — On Friday last, Mr. Veny, of Everson, in the parish of Peterstow, had a fine wether sheep stolen. A reward of ten pounds is offered for the apprehension of the offenders.' — Hereford Times, March 20, 1841.* " Fourthly, as regards the increase of incendiarism, the Vice-Chainnan of the Hereford Board of Guardians having declared that incendiarism is imhiown in Herefordshire : — " ' Peteiichurch. — Late on Monday evening last, as Mr. Jones, and a lad, were returning to the vicarage, they discovered a wheat rick, the property of Mr. John Baughan, of Showell, parish of Madley, to be in flames ; they im- mediately gave an alarm, and speedily obtained assistance. The fire had, however, gained too much ascendancy, and the whole, containing from twelve to fourteen loads of wheat, was entirely consumed. A reward of £20 is offered for the discovery of the peqietrator or perpetrators, it being considered that tlie firing was the act of an incendiaiy.' — Hereford Times, March 13, 1841. " Fifthly, as regards the increase of rates, the Hereford Guardians having pubhcly advertised that a sa\dng of 25 per cent, had taken place ; the following are copies of receipts of rates paid by your petitioner's father in 1833, before the passing of the New Poor-Law, and by your petitioner and his father for the same tenement, being a house and garden, in 1841, after the passing of the New Poor-Law : — (1.) " ' Received of Mr. Baxter, Poor's-Rate for the Parish of St. Martin, in the City of Hereford, made the 9th of May, 1833 :— " House and Garden £0 4s. Od. " Charles Lucy, Assistant Overseer." " Parish of St. Martin, Hereford Received, the 29tli day of February, 1841, of Messrs. Baxter, Nine ShilHngs and Sevenpence Halfpenny. " Lemuel Llewellyn, Collector." " In conclusion, your petitioner begs respectfully to state, that he has been induced to bring the foregoing facts, corroborative of liis former statements, before your Honourable House, in order to clear his character fi"om the impeach- ment of factiousness and falsehood, which the Hereford Board of Guardians have jjresumed to make against it; and, in so doing, he (your petitioner) beseeches your Honourable House to institute a proper investigation of the operation of the New Poor-Law in the city and county of Hereford, and then your petitioner flatters himself that his declarations will be found to be very coiTect. " And your petitioner will ever pray, &c." * " Five Pounds Reward. — Stolen, sometime last night, or early this morning (Monday), from a field adjoining the Madley turnpike road, in the parish of Clehonger, two yearling wether sheep, the property of Mrs. Tunstall, of tlie Bowling Green. The skins and entrails were left in the iiekV— Handbill, March 29, 1841. PART II. ADVERTISEMENT TO PART 11. It was originally the intention of the Author to have amalgamated the fol- lowing portion of this work into a mass of his o^^^l, and, after the general and greatly esteemed manner of the semng-men and wsuting-maids of to-day's literature, to have subdivided the same into chapters. But, as that method of the " trade " of working other people's stuff into a consistency of their own, would, in tliis instance, have materially increased the hulk of the volume, without bringing any additional interest or mfonnation for the perusal of the reader, the idea of " making up " the matter has been abandoned, and the present mode of giving facts, scraps, figures, quotations, &c., simply as he found them, adopted by the Author. Besides, as in the previous department of the work, he (the Author) has " let off" a reasonable sufficiency of liis own " brave words," he deemed it but fair that others of the New Poor-Law Opposition should enjoy a hke privilege of speaking their sentiments, and in their own language, without addition, or molestation ; and, to the attent peruser, it will be seen that in the excerpts given from their speeches, pamphlets, &c., they have done so well and wisely, and without requiring any artistical an-angement, or ornamental grouping of their parts of speech, from the pen and ink of the Author of tliis work. With regard to the statistics, instances of cruelty, and other matters of fact, pubhshed in this collection — they are too stubborn, and too true, to have ad- mitted, under any system of an'angement, the remotest degree of embelhshment, but, like the nine nymphs of Parnass, who used in the good old times to dance in naked sincerity of form to the tin-ills of Apollo's flute, are, when un- adorned — " Adorned the most !" At the end of the sections, called the " Opinions of the Poor-Law Opposi- tion" there is a letter from the Bishop of Exeter, containing a disavowal on his Lordsliip's part, of ever having uttered a certain speech against the New-Poor Law, wliich has been attributed to him, and which disavowal his Lordsliip has particularly requested the Author of this work to insert, and call public atten- tion to. ANTIPATHY OF DESTITUTE TAUPERS TO GO INTO THE UNION WORKHOUSES. " The pauper palace lohich they hate to see ■'" — Crabbe. *' I can say with truth that I know of several deaths having occurred from the workhouse test. I have seen naany fami- Hes submitting to the severest privations rather than go into one of those prisons." — Extract of a Letter from the Rev. Smith Marriott to the Author, dated Horsmonclen, Tunbridffe, Feb. 10, 1841. " During an inquest an other day, before Mr. Wakley, M.P., that gentle- man stated, that in the course of official inquiries, he repeatedly met with instances of the extreme dislike paupers entertained to going into the workhouses for relief. On Saturday last he held two inquests, at Stepney, on persons who had died of desti- tution ; and he was told that both of them had invariahly refused, though advised, to seek for indoor relief. The inquest was on the shockingly-emaciated body of a fe- male, who was upwards of 80 years old, and who ajipeared to have been literally starved to death." — Champion, Feb. 16, 1840. " During the last winter, there had been considerable depredations committed in the county of Sussex, which he thought had been caused by a terror of the wox-k- house." — Lord Colchester in the House of Lords, March 20, 1838. " The Pencoyd Suicide. — A poor old man, named Thomas Williams, said to have been eighty-five years of age, wilfully hanged himself with a halter, on the 25th ult., in a millhouse near where he lodged at Pencoyd, from a dread of being removed into the Ross Union work- house. At the inquest on the body the jury returned a verdict, that he, T. W., did wilfully hang and murder himself in consequence of the horror and dread which he had of going into the Ross Union workhouse." — Hereford County Press, Sept. 8, 1838. " In the parish of Bourne, in Lincoln- shire, a poor man who was out of work applied to the Guardians of the poor for relief. They offered him admission into one of the Union workhouses. He declared he would rather die than enter such a place, and refused to accept the offer. Within a week afterwards the man Avas found dead in a field, having absolutely chosen to submit to death by starvation, than enter one of the workhouses estab- lished under the present system." — Getd. Johnson, at the Crown and Anchor , Feb. 9, 1838. " A poor old man, named Benjamin Hammond, hanged himself lately at Ep- ping, in Essex, rather than be imprisoned in a Bastile." — Northern Star, Feb. 23, 1839. " The general feeling of the poor is, that the}' will rather starve, or commit suicide, than go into these jirisons, and many are Avilling to emigrate." — Extract of a Letter from Mr. John Perceval to Mr. Oastler, dated from Kent, Feb. 18, J 838. " There is in Nottingham a poor family, a father, a mother, and two children ; the mother is near her confinement. A few weeks ago, they were found by a friend of mine, in an old cellar, a lump of dirty straw in a corner on the brick floor was their only bed — a dirty rag, their only covering — a chair and a few broken pots, composed the rest of their furniture. They could get no work, no relief, — they were ofi'ered the accursed Bastile. But they had been ' tested,'' my Lord ! And they preferred to die and starve out of the House, rather than again submit to the Devil's ' test.' " — Oastler's Jjctter to Lord John Russell, March 3, 1838. " I have before me an account of a cir- cumstance related by General Johnson, ]NLP., of a poor man who had a wife and three children. He applied to the Poor- Law Guardians for relief. Thej^ offered him the workhouse, and, having been distrained upon by his landlord, he was compelled to go there with his wife and children. How long he remained there, he ( General Johnson) did not know, but he believed not more than three weeks. Having left the workhouse, and being unable to maintain himself and family, he applied to the Magistrates at the Petty Sessions at Bourne, for relief or work : they told him they had no power to order him work. The parish continued to I 2 116 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. refuse him relief, but offered him the workhouse again. The man declared before the Magistrates, that he would rather murder his children^ and cut his ow)i throat, than go into the workhouse again. Bear in mind, he had been in about three weeks, but such was the horror of it, that he appears to have pre- ferred murder and suicide to a continuance in such a place. Another circumstance stated by General Johnson was, that not long ago he was applied to, as a Justice of the Peace, by a working man for relief or work. He told him, that the power to dispense the one or find the other, was taken out of his hands, and that he must apply to the Poor-Law Guardians. The man's answer was. You tell me to go to 4he Guardians — / u-oidd rather die. "Within a week the man Avas found dead in a ditch." — Jiev. W. V. Jackson's Ser- mon on the New Poor-Law, preached Feb. 18, 1838. "Why, 1 apprehend, that we have hun- dreds of cases in which the poor, perishing creatures — aged men and aged women — -dare not open their mouths to those who are starving them to death (they loill perish before they will go into prison) ! half their former pittance is taken from them — if they dared to open their mouths, the answer would be, ' You shall have no more out relief; come in.' They of course refuse, and die, so the blessed Union saves the money. I know of these cases, though the Guai-dians hear nothing of them — they, therefore, cry out, ' the Bill works •well ! ' " — Mr. Roberts s "■Mary Wilden; a Victim to the Neiv Poor-Laiv.' 1839. " Q. As you say that within your ob- servation the rate of wages of a single man has been lowered, in consequence of the operation of the Poor-Law, the Com- mittee will be naturally desirous of know- ing how that effect is produced ? — A. By the dread of the Poor-house.'''' — Exami- nation of the Rev. T. Sockett before the Poor-Laiv Committee, March, 1837. "By Mr. Wakley — Q. Are you able of your own knowledge to state the minimmn amount of wages which a labourer would consent to receive before he would go into a Union workhouse ? — A. No ; but my opinion is that he wotdd be g?'otmd doivn to almost anything ! " — Ibid. " As a commercial traveller was passing from Wragby to Lincoln, on Tuesday last, when about a mile west of the former place, he came up with a party who were bearing to Wragby a female apparently in the last state of exhaustion : on inquir- ing, he was told that she had been found in a hole in a haystack. Tlie poor crea- ture was scarcely able to articulate answers to his interrogatories ; but, at length, ex- plained that some trifling misbehaviour had induced her to run awaj- from her situation three weeks ago ; that she had hid herself in the stack, where she had remained ever since, coming out only at nights to satiate her extreme hunger ; and that she had fed on the grass of an adjacent field: eventually her strength failed her, and for several days she had been unable to move from her hiding-place. She was scented out bj^ a dog, whose owner being attracted to the spot, by the animal's barking and whining, discovered the girl in her dejilorable state. She is eighteen years of age, and states, as a reason for her singular conduct, that she feared being sent to the Union.'' — Liverpool Standard, July 16, 1839. "Mr. Fielden, the Member for Old- ham, has succeeded by his agents in dis- covering men who avowed they had turned sheep-stealers and thieves of lesser degree, " rather than go to the Bast He ;" and we can avouch as a fact, that a pauper, on lately coming out of a Union workhouse not far distant from Halifax, declared that, if on the coming w'inter he could not maintain himself, rather than go to the Bastile again, he would commit some slight depi'edation in the hope of being committed to Wakefield during the winter months." — Halifax Guardian, July 18, 1840. " I had a letter from Sussex early in this year, saying that a gang of about seventeen sheep-stealers had been dis- covered ; about nine were found guilty and transported or imprisoned : ' Yet ! ' said my informant, ' the people are deter- mined to do anything rather than enter the Bastiles ; and two or three sheep are stolen weekly.' " — Extract of a Letter from Mr. John Perceval to the Author, dated Kensington, August 13, 1840. " Here is the appalling fact, that the New Poor-Law is indirectly demoralizing a very large proportion of children, whose destitute parents, rather than encounter the persectitions of a Whig tvorkhouse, permit them to become habitual thieves." — Times, August 21, 1840. " It is not very long ago since an in- dustrious and well-behaved labourer, in the neighbourhood of Birmingham, having become involved in debt and misery during a long illness, was driven into such a state of despondency, by the anticipated separa- ANTIPATHY OF TAUPERS TO GO IXTO THE UNION WORKHOUSES. 117 tion and imprisonment of himself and family in a Union gaol, that, in a moment of" frantic agony, he strangled all his child- ren then in the house, three remarkably tine boys, to whom, as proved in evidence, he had always been fondly attached." — Ibid. " In certain parishes the poor were dying in great numbers, and die they will sooner than go into the Bastile, as they call it." — Mr. Walter s Speech in the Hotise of Commons, 1837. " The peacefully inclined, and jiarticu- larly aged women, who have been accus- tomed to the quiet of their own cottages in their native village, and others, also, feel such an abode (a Union workhouse) to be nearly as bad as Bedlam to them. Their existence cannot be otherwise than per- fectly wretched. I have heard several say they would rather be in prison if it were not for the disgrace ; indeed, I know the poor, generally spealdng, to be very unhappy in the House, and that ninety out of a hundred go into it with feelings very similar to those with Avhich a bul- lock goes to the slaughterhouse." — The Rev. C. Fowell Watts^ (of Bath J, in the " Times;' August 25, 1840. " A poor man with a pig need not apply to a Relieving Officer ! that is an effectual bar to relief! Thus a poor man is either driven to despair or desperation, from an abhorrence of the ' House.' " — Letters of a '"'' Suffolk Juror " on the Neio Poor-Laro, 1838. " MiNTO, OF Felton. — There cannot be the slightest doubt but this j'oor man came to the dreadful resolution of destroy- ing himself in consequence of the Morpeth Union's ordering him to be taken to Bed- lington icorhhouse I shall give the declaration of the Coroner to the jury who sat upon the body. Mr. Russell has filled this situation for nearly twenty years, and is both an able and dispassionate gentleman. After hearing the evidence, he said, ' What an abominable shcmie to offer to take this poor infirm old creature from among his neighbours and acquaint- ances, to place him, among strangers, ivith- out any prospect of benefit to the toionship. There can be no doubt that he committed the act from the dread of going to the poor- hoase.'" — Blake ys " Controversial Letters with the Morpeth Board,'' 1837. " Wm. Woods was indicted on a charge of steahng one bushel of potatoes. " I have to say I am guilty. I had but sixpence on which to support myself, my wife, and five children, for the whole week; if I had had " threepence " more, and had not been almost starving, I would not have broken the laws of my country." Poor fellow ! does he yet call this his country ? The Chairman, in passing sentence of solitary imprisonment for one month, said, " he might have been received into the Union House if he had pleased, or he might have gone to a distant country, and earned an excellent living ! " He chose the chance of escaping detection, to shim imprisonmeyit in the Union Llouse, or to imdergo transportation. The essence of the New Poor-Law is vohmtary transpor- tation, founded on the Test Act ! This New Poor-Law Act is an Act of desola- tion ! A man, and his wife, and six children, in this place, rather than go into the Union House, on several days during the snow, lived on a peck of potatoes a-day ! the price was \d. a-peck. Eight fellow- creatures, in the midst of plenty, to be compelled to exist on one halfpenny a-dav ! Is this Ensrland?" — Letters of a '■'■Suffolk Juror," \^3%. " I have known numbers of families suffer the greatest destitution, rather than submit to go into the loorkhouse .... Sooner than be separated from each other, many families submit to the greatest privations. The very feelings congenial to nature, and which bind them to each other, cannot be broken. I have heard a mother say she would die on the scaffold rather than have her children taken from her." — Hotrorth's " Observations on the Neio Poor-Law," 1840. " I consider a residence in a gaol pre-- ferable to Hving in a workhouse. In- deed the Governor of the Bath gaol told me that he had had it repeatedly (I almost think he said universally) said to him by those of the inmates, who had also been inmates of the workhouse, that they far jjref erred Yv'isow residence, dis- cipline, and food, to that in the work- house." — Extract of a Letter to the Author from the Rev. C. Foicell Watts, (of Bath J, dated 23d of October, 1840. " He knew of two instances occurring in one week, of persons who preferred death rather than go into the workhouse." — Mr. Wakley, House of Commons, Jan. 29, 1841. " I have known crippled widows of advanced age and most sober habits to quit the workhouse and wander the streets for weeks together in the most inclement weather. I have asked them if the woi'khouse was not preferable to leading such miserable lives and half 118 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. starving. " No ;" has been the reply. They felt it prefcrayie to run the risk of being found some night dead in the streets to returning to that prison-house of misery and oppression." — The Rev. C Fowell Watts. " The law under which the poor man lias cheerfully toiled, has been withdrawn, but no relaxation of claim has been with- drawn from him for taxes. He is called upon to make ' his tale of bricks as hithertoforth, now the straw is withheld." A new law has been passed to dejirive him of his domestic comforts, to cause him to be taken, in his declining years, from his old associates ; from the chil- dren of his love ; not a trifling allowance to keep on the urgent throbbings of na- ture, except through the tender consider- ation of a Relieving Officer ; he may be compelled to go to the Union-house ; to be placed under lock ; to be shut out fi'om the all-glorious sun; to be placed under the mercy of the Governor; and thus to have his grey hairs brought in sorrow to the grave ! Is it to be wondered at, then, that the poor man should say, ' / ivill die rather than go to the Union- house P "—The " Suffolk Juror:' " I am satisfied that many have lingered, and hungered, and died, rather than ac- cept the workliouse, so that it has actually tested them into another world:' — Days " Practical Observations on the Neic Poor- Laio:' 1838. " It is commonly asserted that the severity of the refusal of out-door relief to the labourer is much mitigated by the ready offer of the workhouse ; upon this subject I find it difficult to repress my feelings, and write with becoming mo- deration ; when I reflect that one hundred and fifty of my fellow-creatures, are shut up, and kept upon a diet, characterised by medical authority ' as productive of debility, and pre-disposing to disease ;' and since the character of this House has become known, I firmly believe that many of our poor are prepared for death and starvation rather than seek an asylum xoithin its walls.'' — Pev. Stephen Butler s (of Soherton) '"'' Letter to the rate-payers of the Droxford Union:' 1838. " A 2)oor woman, who had been in one of these Union Bastiles, went to a public- house to fetch a letter that came from her son, and borrowed 4d. to pay for it ; and some of the company were S2:)caking in favour of the NewPoor-Law. The poor woman said, ' I only wish those who like the law may suflbr under it as I have done. I would sooner kill my children and hang myself than go in again to be treated as I have been.' She burst into tears after saying this ; but before she got home, the servant girl came after her with 6d. and some halfpence, collected from the company for her. The Union Surgeon told this woman, after she had been in the Bastile \hG first time, that she was very weak and low, brought on for want of proper food and nourishment ; and she herself believed it was brought on by the bad living and treatment she had experienced under the New Poor- Law, and the last I heard of her, was, that she was in the last stage of a con- sumption." — Extract of a Letter from a Southern Count)/ Correspo7ident to the Author, dated October 2, 1840. "A poor woman, named Jane Grays- ton, in her evidence before the House of Lords' Committee (vide page 394), de- clares, that sooner than go into the Union Bastile again, she would get two ounces of laudanum, and equally tlivide it among herself and children, and they would all sleep together; and they could not punish her, after that had taken place !" " I have visited the sick and dying out of the ' House,' in the most wretched places that can be imagined, and enduring such sufferings and privations, that I have endeavoured to persuade them, but in vain, to go into the workhouse. I re- member one case of a jioor young woman lying in a cellar, but who, nevertheless, said that kind friends, and 2}0(>i' ones too, brought her all she wanted, fruit, buns, a little jelly, he, which I saw each time I visited her, and these things she could not get in the Union-House. I have before my eyes, too, an old woman (whom for months I visited), lying on a bedstead, the sacking of which was in so wretched a state, that her back nearly touched the floor. When I have proposed to her the Union House as a place where she would have a better bed, &c., she has replied — ' No, Sir, / will^ never go there ; my miseries, and want, and sufferings, are, I know, very great here, but I will bear them rather than go into that House P Here, I can see daily my daughters and my grandchildren whom I love to see ; and, when I am dying, they will attend upon me, close my eyes when I am dead, and follow me to the grave. In the Union-House I shall, on the contrary, be surrounded by strangers, who (caring not for me) will close my eyes." — Extract of a Letter from the Rev. C. Fowell Wafts ANTIPATHY OF PAUrERS TO GO INTO THE UNION WORKHOUSES. 119 (of Bath) ^ to the Author, dated Oct. 9, 1840. " The Coroner said he knew that the poor would sooner die than go into the troi-hhouse." — Inquest on Elizabeth Friiy, aged 65, who died from starvation, Oct. 12, 1840, at Kensington, owing to neglect of the Relieving and Medical Officers." — Times, Nov. 4, 1840. " In his visits among the poor, he had found that great numbers would rather starve than enter within the Avails of a workhouse." — Speech of IV. Itoicorth, Esq., Mayor of Nottingham, at a Meeting of liate-jjagers of that Town, July 16, 1840. " I have seen the dying man at my door, and heard his voice cry, ' For God's sake, beg of them to take me into the House, that I may not die in the street !' when the Relieving Officer had refused hira admittance there. I stood by his bedside, when one had been provided for him, and saw the tear of joy roll down his cheek, when, in answer to his request, I promised he should not be removed into the Union House to die ! I have seen families in sickness, destitution, and want of food, and, when death was near, with- out a bed whereon to lay the body in an easy position ! I have seen the famishing mother, frantic, seeking food for herself and children ! I have seen the weeping widow shed tears at the cruel treatment she received from the Relieving Officer, when she was refused relief for her starv- ing children ! I have seen atFectionate children weeping and mourning at the prospect of their aged parents being se- parated from them in a workhouse ; and the dread of their separation seeming more than nature could bear ! I have seen married women with wan looks, bearuig children with exhausted bodies, and their husbands with meagre countenances, through want of sufficient food, choosing to suffer the extreme of destitution rather than std}mit to be separated in a work- house T' — '■'•Observations on the Adminis- tration of the New Poor-Law in Notting- ham'' by IF. Roworth, Esq., Mayor. Published Nov., 1840. " During the dearth of employment in Nottingham, one family whom I visited, became unlike the same persons they previously were, in their appearance, through want of proper food and clothing. I persuaded Ihem all I could, and with- held relief from them for a time, to cause them to go into the House, as I was con- Hdent disease woidd take place ; but they would not go into what the woman re- gularly called * The Bastile,' and at last they became the most afflicted creatures, with the loss of the use of their limbs, and then, as I generally found it to be the case, some out-door relief was given." —Ibid. " There are many evils produced by ■withholding temporary relief; from my own knowledge of the way it has been withheld in Nottingham, it has produced the greatest distress amongst the indus- trious poor, and brought on disease, which would have caused death, had not others provided that which the Relieving Officers ought to have given. The painful and demoralising effect of refusing temporary relief, and offering the in-door test merely to get rid of the applicant, is but little known. At such times, the poor (from dread of the House) sell or pawn one article of clothing or furniture after the other, to get food, until they have scarcely anything left: their beds and bedding are gone ; they sleep on the floor, with scarcely any covering ; and through such numbers being improperly together, im- morality and disease follow." — Ibid. " Erasmus Charlton, Police Sergeant says : ' The weavers are much distressed : they are wretchedly off in bedding : has seen many cases where the man and his wife, and as many as seven children have slept upon straw laid upon the floor, with only a torn quilt to cover them. Has frequently told them they would be better off in the poor-houses :' their answer has been, 'WE WOULD SOONER STARVE!' Has often dropped in at meal times, and found them eating po- tatoes with a bit of ' flick,' or suet." — Report of Mr. Miles, Commissioyier of Hand-loom Weavers' Inquiry, for Glou- cestershire. " The miserable inmates of the Wind- sor workhouse have just been removed from their comfortable quarters in the workhouse, in Sheet-street, in that town, to the newly -erected Union workhouse at Old Windsor. Many of the old creatures shed tears upon being removed from the comforts they had hitherto enjoyed, to be exchanged for the miseries and the re- straints, and the hard fare, of a ' Union.' Several manifested a disposition not to be removed ; and one poor man (who doubt- less had heard of the Imnianity i)ract'sed at ' Unions ') resolutely refused to be taken, except by force. He Avas imme- diately liandcuffcd and dragged away ! /" T/mc5, Nov. 21, 1840. 120 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. " It was well known that thousands would rather die of starvation, and that thousands did die from that cause, rather than submit to the degradation offered to them; and he felt no hesitation in de- claring, for the facts bore him out in that assertion, that the Poor-Law Commis- sioners were wholesale murderers." — Mr, Thomas Glutton Salt's Speech in the Birmingham Town Council, upon the threatened introduction of the Neiv Poor- Law into that town, Dec, 1 , 1 840. " Let them look at the facts stated in reference to some of the Metropolitan dis- tricts, that twelve out of every thirteen of those who were attacked by disease, pro- duced by want, perished, rather than apply at the Union workhouses for relief." — Ibid. " Among the many thousands who pine and die outside the walls of a workhouse, rather than submit to the Commissioners' * regulations ' Avithin, there are but com- paratively few who are registered as having been starved to death. The last return of the Registrar- General gives only 167 as the number of starvation cases in 1838 in all England, which is scarcely four times as many as were brought to an untimely death in the Bridgewater Union workhouse under the dietary regulations of the Commissioners ; but then the actual causes of these deaths were not registered, or any inquests held on the victims. Thus, the reported number of starvation- cases has but little to do with the actual amount; although even 167 proved cases are somewhat more than should have oc- curred in a country where £50,215 per annum is abstracted from the proceeds of the labouring man's toil, and lavished on a Poor-Law Commission." — Air. Bowetis f of Bridgewater J Letter in the " Times, ^^ Dec. 16, 1840. " The dread of entering the Union workhouse is very great at Hereford, although the law in that city, from mo- tives of political expediency, is not dared be put in full force. A little while ago the worthy wife of a Whig Alderman endeavoured, with all the eloquence she was mistress of, to persuade a young widow woman, with her five fatherless children, who, previous to her marriage, had lived as a servant with her (the ' marrow' of the Alderman), to 'discreetly go,' with her children, into the Hereford workhouse. ' It' (the Union workhouse) said the enthusiastic lady-loyal subject of the Three Kings, ' was as clean as any gentleman's house, and she and her young ones would be so nice and hot there all the winter, and in the summer could come out well off.' But the temptations held out by the municipal female charmer had not the desired effect upon the poor woman ; she declared, in my presence, that she would sooner take her children^ one by one, and chop their heads off than enter iuch a place ! Another old woman about 60, when spoken to concerning the separation clause, exclaimed, with tears in her aged eyes, that she was sure ' God never meant that an old woman should be taken from her man ; and though they might have bits of bad speech with one another, now and then, they would sooner starve out together than go into the Union, to be parted." — From a Hereford Correspondent, Dec. 23, 1840. " On Monday se'nnight a poor old man, named John Hall, aged 59 years, and belonging to the parish of Gnosall, was found dead in a shed belonging to Mr. Michael Belcher, on his land at Coton, in that parish. The poor old man had been in the Gnosall workhouse, but he left that estabUshment, preferring a precarious mode of life to the shelter and sustenance it afforded, and nothing could induce him to re-enter its doors. It seems that for some time his wretched existence had been prolonged by what had been scantily doled out for him by the hand of charity, and when found he was partly undressed, notwithstanding the inclemency of the weather. An in- quest was held on the body at the Boat Inn, on Tuesday, when the following ver- dict was returned : — That the deceased died through the inclemency of the wea- ther, and the want of the common neces- saries of life." — " Wolverhampton Chro- nicle," quoted in the " Times " Dec. 24, 1840. " A short time ago, a labouring man of the name of David Williams, of Cinna- mon-grove, near this town (Haverford- west), was at the last Pembrokeshire Quarter- Sessions found guilty of embez- zling a sum of money belonging to his employer, and sentenced to imprisonment and hard labour, which sentence is not yet expired. The prisoner has a wife and three small children unprovided for. The poor unfortunate wife being deprived of her husband, who was the sole prop and support of herself and infant children, ap- plied to the humane and benevolent so- ciety, called the ' Guardians of the Poor,' for relief. The distressed applicant stated, that sooner than go to the Union, she would ANTIPATHY OF PAUrERS TO GO INTO THE UNION WORKHOUSES. 121 be content with the small sum of three shillings weekly for the support of her- self and family ; but this was refused her, and she was informed, that if she did not choose to enter the Union and receive re- lief there, she might go where she liked. The poor woman, after declaring that no indticement whatever should make her enter its walls, then departed and went home ; she disposed of every article belonging to her that was saleable for the purpose of subsistence, and after the little money which she had procured by these means had been exhausted, and all prospect of assistance was banished from her view, she locked herself and children up in the cottage, and came to the reso- lution of putting an end to the existence of herself and children by starvation. Fortunately, however, a neighbour entered the cottage in time to prevent the awful determination being carried into effect, and found them in a most deplorable state ; temporary relief was then afforded them, and the surgeon for the district re- quested to go and see the distracted crea- tures, which he did, and immediately ordered wine should be given them, and also that a nurse should attend them. The poor woman and her children are now in a weak state of health, and only the paltry pittance of five shillings a-week is allowed them to subsist on, and 2s. 6d. for a nurse to attend them. Had it not been for the providential interference above alluded to, this poor woman and family would have perished in consequence of the Board's refusal to grant the poor wo- man the trifling sum of 3s. per week, while the Guardians are now compelled to give 7s. 6d." — Haverford-toest Corres- pondent to the " Times, ^^ Jan. 8, 1841. " The workhouse is terrible in the eyes of the poor ; it is terrible to the harmless and respectable, as well as to those whose characters are vicious and violent. Sa- muel Daniels and his wife suffered no peculiar ill-treatment in the workhouse of Stratford-upon-Avon, yet the general dis- cipline was so intolerable to them (though of blameless disposition) that after three days' experiment, broken in health as the husband was, and hopeless as both were of finding the means of subsistence in London, they returned to the metropolis on foot ; and, in less than three months afterwards, Daniels died from disease, aggravated by want of the necessaries of life. Edwin Garrett, at Wells, murdered his children, because he loved them too well to endure the separation which must have been the consequence of their enter- ing a workhouse, and he could not provide them with food at home." — Times, Jan. 30, 1841. " Henry Campbell, a distressed looking youth, was charged before Mr. Dyer with stealing a pair of shoes, which he had effected by seizing them in broad daylight before the owner's face. The prisoner, on being asked what he had to say in his de- fence, replied that all that had been stated was perfectly true, and that he had been impelled by want to commit the theft. Mr. Dyer asked why, if he was in such distress, he did not apply for relief to his parish. The prisoner said, that the in- mates of the workhouse wei^e so harshly treated, and so ill-fed, that a prison was much preferable. The prisoner was then fully committed for trial." — Times, Jan. 10, 1841. " On the third day after the setting-in of the snow in Dec, 1836, no fewer than 149 applications for relief were made to the Board of Guardians for the Union of Cuckfield, in Sussex : to a few of these, as cases of urgent necessity, a trifling re- lief was given in flour ; but the workhouse was ofiered to 118, of whom 6 only ac- cepted it." — Annual Register, 1837. " The confinement of the new system was intolerable ; and they who were un- able to bear it were thrown out upon the wide world. Hence arose the encou- ragement to emigration, and all the arti- fices resorted to to induce the poor to emigrate. The whole number of persons thus driven from their country, under the management of the Commissioners, amounted last year to 5,140." — Mr. Wal- ter, House of Commons, Feb., 1837. " The idea of the workhouse is so hate- ful to the people, that unless great care be taken they will adopt some violent course. But supposing the people to submit to the condition on which they are to be fed, is it not probable, that, de- prived of every family comfort, and of all that tends to mitigate the asperities of the human character, they will come out of your great prison-houses infinitely more disposed to enter into predial warfare, than at any former period." — Mr. D, (y Connell, Irish Poor-Law Bill, Feb. 9, 1838. " Hatton Garden. — Eliza Goswell, a distressed looking young woman, far advanced in pregnancy, was placed at the bar, yesterday, charged by Mansell, a constable of G division, with being desti- tute. The constable being sworn, stated 122 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. that, at an early hour yesterday moi'ning, he was iu Leather-lane, Holborn, when the 2^risoncr came up to him and requested him to take her to the station-house, as she was in a state of destitution, and had no place to go to. Witness asked her whether she had applied to the parish ; she said that she had ; she belonged to iVIarylebone parish, but she would rather at any time be in the House of Correc- tion, than in a workhouse. Witness did not immediately take her into custody, and she pursued him for some time on his beat and abused him, and she threatened to complain of him if he did not take her, when he took her to the station-house. The prisoner now said that she was destitute, and she belonged to St. Marylebone pa- rish, in which workhouse she had been." — Times, Feb. 16, 1841. "He alluded to an afflicting case which he had seen in a morning paper, where a woman had died from famine, and was, when found, in so emaciated a state, as to be scarcely recognizable. Her whole furniture consisted of two old chairs, without backs, and the walls of her dwel- ling were running down with moisture. This woman had been advised to go to the workhouse, but, instead of following this good advice, she held up a sort of dagger, and vowed that rather than go there she would plunge it into her breast." — Marquis of Normanhj, House of Lords, Debate on the Drainaqc and Improvement ofBuildimjs Bill, Feb. 12, 1841. " Only last week, in this very town, where the law has been in a great mea- sure administered by the Guardians with- out the interference of the Commissioners, and therefore with less severity, a poor woman committed suicide, preferring an agonizing death to being separated from her husband and fomily in the workhouse, to which want of employment had com- pelled them to apply." — Sheffield Iris, Feb. 9, 1841. " An inquest was held on Saturday last at Witton, before Mr. Hollins, on the body of an unfortunate creature who was found under a hedge whither he had repaired as the only shelter he could ob- tain rather than endure the imprisonment consequent upon his becoming an inmate of one of the Poor-Law Bastiles. He had formerly been in easy circumstances when living at Hanley, but had so dissi- pated his property there that he was com- pelled to seek a situation, which he held for some time in Liverpool, as clerk; losin^r that he came to Wilton ; and ra- ther than be driven into the workhouse at Hanley, he met his death as above. Verdict — ' Died by the visitation of God.' " — Stockport Advertiser, Dec. 25, 1837. " Death through Actual Starva- tion AND Dread of the Bastile. — On Friday, an inquest was held before Mr. Wakley, at the Three Kings' Tavern, Clerkenwell-close, on view of the body of Elizabeth East, aged 33, whose death was occasioned through actual starvation. Martha Daniels, a miserable looking ob- ject deposed that she lived in Cock-yard, Turnmill-street, Clerkcnwell ; deceased lived in the same house, and had been cohabiting with a man named Holmes. Deceased used to sell lucifers, and Holmes went about bone-picking, which was also witness's occupation On Tuesday morning witness asked deceased, who was then lying on a mattress, how she was, to which she only replied, ' Oh, dear.' Witness saw her no more alive, and about three hours afterwards was told that she was dead, which she found to be the fact Edward Holmes stated that he obtained a living as well as he could. He had known the deceased for the last four months, during which time she had now and then lodged with him. About three weeks ago he had told her she must shift for herself, and she went away. He saw no more of her till Friday last, when she came back to him. He advised her, as he had often done before, to apply to the workhouse ; but she said, ' Oh ! no, no ! I'll not go to the workhouse while I can scrape a few halfpence by selling Congreves.' Deceased had nothing to eat that day, nor at any time previously to her death, she having no money, and he not having anything to give her. The man who rented the room, the last wit- ness, himself and deceased (when she was there) all lived together. Mr. Wakley — ' Is it possible ? Then how is it that all you people, being in the same room, could see this poor woman starving ?' Witness — ' Why, Sir, we are obliged to go about our own business, and forage for our- selves. I did not consider that she had any legal claim upon me.' Mr. Wakley remarked that it was a very melancholy case. As far as they could learn, the de- ceased had but a basin of tea from the Friday till she died. The deceased had beenstarved to death without any person's being legally accovnitable. Pie considered the conduct of the witnesses to be ex- ceedingly disgraceful, and could not di&- ANTIPATHY OF PAUPERS TO GO INTO THE UNION WORKHOUSES. 123 cover the meaning of such a frightful state of society. Workhouses, since the passing of the New Poor-Law Act, had become as nauch dreaded as the Inquisi- tion was in Spain. The jury, having ex- pressed their full concurrence in what had fallen from the Coroner, returned the fol- lowing verdict — ' That the deceased died from exhaustion, consequent on starva- tion arising from her not having made application to the parish for relief, and from her refusal to go to the workhouse.' " — Weekly Disjxttch, Feb. 28, 1841. " On Thursday, C. C. Lewis, Esq., the Coroner for Essex, held an inquest at the Swan, Romford, on the body of Thomas Brown, aged 58, late hostler at the above inn, who committed suicide by cutting his throat with a pruning knife a few days before. It appeared from the evidence, that the deceased rented the stables be- longing to the Swan, by which specula- tion it is supposed he reahzed a good profit. For some time past he had been in a desponding state, and expressed his fears to many that he should be compelled some day to go into the workhouse. On the night he was last seen alive, he appeared particularly depressed, and al- luded several times to the workhouse. He left the Swan about nine o'clock, and was seen no more of till noon the follow- ing day, when he was found in the stable with his throat cut, and weltering in his blood. After his death i;pwards of £70 in gold and Bank notes were found in the hayloft, and it was further ascertained that he had £800 invested in the funds. The Coroner said the deceased must have laboured under a most extraordinary delusion, and there could be no doubt that his intellects were deranged. The jury returned a verdict of ' Temporary derangement.' " — Ibid. "Guildhall. — On Saturday, Ann Weeks and Sarah Hart, two young wo- men, were charged with wilfully breaking the windows of the London Union work- house. The Poor-Law officer said the prisoners were admitted into the ' casual ward' of the workhouse, and, disliking the fare, they broke the windows for the purpose of being sent to gaol. The fe- males said, that they had gone into the house in a famishing condition, and, after sleeping in the house all night, they re- ceived a small piece of dry bread, and on the following morning had nothing to eat. They sighed for the living of the p?-iso7i, and broke the icindoics in hopes of being committed to gaol! The overseer said, that there were 50 applicants a-night, and he admitted that the fare was hard enough, being only a specified allowance of dry bread ; but the paupers had broken every window, pulled out the stoves, and done all the mischief they could. The Alder- man said, it was lamentable to think that a gaol should be sought after by the poor as a superior refuge to the workhouse. He must administer the law as he found it, and he therefore committed the young women for two months to Bridewell." — Tiines, March 12, 1841. On Wednesday, the 3rd inst., an in- quest was held before Mr. Wakley, upon the body of William Eaton, aged 61, a pauper, who died in the workhouse at Kensington within a few hours after he was brought there on the Saturday pre- ceding. This man was a journeyman shoemaker, Avho, during the winter, had been almost entirely without employment. When in full work he was accustomed to earn about 6s. a-week, but never more. His character was good ; his disposition quiet, inofiensive, and uncomplaining. Lodging with a poor Irish labourer in Brompton, he was so reluctant to become burdensome to his landlord's family, that he went on pining day after day, without the necessaries of life, yet never so much as mentioned the fact of his being in want of food. On Saturday, the 27th ult., he was found dying in his room, the door of which he had locked for the purpose of conceaUng his distresses from observa- tion ; and, on his pockets being searched, they proved to contain 07i. order for his admission into the Kensington loorkhouse, dated four days previously. When the jury went to view the body, they found it in appearance scarcely different from a skeleton ; and several of them are re- ported to have declared that the sight which they then saw could never be efiaced from their remembrance. After hearing evidence at considerable length, they returned the verdict, — 'That the deceased died from exhaustion, gradually produced by scantiness of nourishment.' The poor man may well be left to tell his own story. On the Wednesday before his death he informed INIr. Burr, the mas- ter shoemaker for whom he occasionally worked, that he 'had applied to the Union, and he had a pound of meat and a loaf of bread. He also said, they wanted him to go into the workhouse, but he said, he did not like to sell his liberty, and be placed in confinement ; but if they would but allow him 2s. a-week out, he 124 THE BOOK OF THF: BASTILKS. should be able to do: He did not say that he had an order for the workhouse. He said, he ' tvould not go into the Union ivorkhouse, as he could not sell his liberty /' He also stated, that ' When he first ap- plied to the Union he was kept waiting to be called in from before 1 1 o'clock in the forenoon until between 8 and 9 o'clock at night, and the next day he had to go all the way to Kensington for his pound of meat, which lost him half-a-day.' " — Times, March 12, 1841. " A gentleman had that morning de- sired him to inform the meeting, that ' During the late severe weather many persons, able-bodied labourers, in Tile- hurst parish, and their families, lived for days on boiled Swedish turnips, rather than apply to the Bradfield Union for re- lief.' If you know what kind of stuff these turnips are when boiled, you may guess to what a state the poor creatures were reduced. Still, however, the sup- porters of the measure had the effrontery to assert that the poor were better off, as wages had been raised — an assertion wholly against facts and truth." — Mr. Walter, Crown and Anchor Meeting, March 11, 1841. BASTILE TREATMENT AND TYRANNY. " And wherefore do the poor complain A rich man ask'd of me ? I turn'd me to the rich man then, For silently stood he : You ask me why the poor complain And these have answer'd thee." — Southey. " I have been told, that poor women have been brought to bed there (in the Bastile), without any attendance, and without being allowed even a candle." — Leicestershire Correspondent to the '"''Chmn- pion;' Feb. 16, 1840. " Under the provisions of the bill no fewer than half-a-million of children would be shut up in solitary confinement, with- out an opportunity of seeing either father, mother, sister, or brother, and deprived of all communication with those who were near and dear to them, cooped up, like birds in a cage, to be ultimately thrown loose on the world." — Lord Teynham at the Croion and Anchor, Feb. 9, 1838. " Earl Stanhope said that, in the event of a Committee being appointed to inquire into the working of the Poor-Law Amend- ment-Act, he could prove more cases of the cruel, and unconstitutional, and un- christian working of the ' Act ' than the House would go through in a session. One of these was of a man who killed himself in consequence of the treatment he suiTered in the workhouse, A coroners jury brought in a verdict of temporary insanity, but it ought to have been wilful murder against the oppressors of the poor, who drove the man insane. Another case M'as that of a young woman, who was flogged like a soldier." — House of Lords, May 1, 1839. " A parent or relative, or an old master, was not, under the present system, allowed to give to the paupers in the workhouse any additional allowance, as regarded bedding or provision, or any other com- forts, which might take from the difficulty of their situation. These parties are not allowed to give any little presents to paupers in workhouses, and to this effect he might mention one fact relative to a poor girl in a Union in Kent, Avho was desirous to give her aged mother in the workhouse a seed-cake, but was pre- vented." — L&rd Wynford, House of Lords, May 1, 1839. " Mr. Mitchell gave an account of a woman recently deceased in Portwood, who had died by starvation. She had applied for relief, and was told to go into the streets, and prostitute herself." — Stoclqmrt Anti-Poor-Law Meeting, Feb. 1, 1839. " Mr. Chappell related an anecdote of a man who was now in Knutsford gaol, for fetching his child into his own bed, having heard it crying during the night, in another part of the workhouse in Avhich he then was." — Ihid. " There was a standing order in the books of the Guardians, that none of the medical gentlemen was to see patients in the workhouse without the master or matron being present. The sole object of this was, that the inmates should have no opportunity of making any complaints of their harsh treatment to their medical attendants." — A Speaker at an Anti-Poor- Law Meeting at Morpeth, reported in the " Northern Star," March 9, 1839. "William Hunter, an elderly person, became affected with a bowel complaint. The doctor ordered port-wine and sago ; the port was considered too dear, and gooseberry wine was given. The conse- quence was, that the poor man was carried off quickly." — Ibid at ibid. " We regret to learn that the annual dinner of roast-beef and plum-pudding, &c., usually allowed on Christmas-day to the paupers in the Bridgewater Union, has been, by order of the Poor-Law Com- missioners, for the first time in the memory of the oldest inhabitant, discontinued." — Dorset Counfg Chronicle, Dec. 24, 1836. " Earl Stanhope, in the House of Lords, 15th of June, 1839, related, that certain Guardians had told a poor woman, when she applied for relief, ' to go home and make a pie of some of her children,' " 12G THE BOOK OF THK BASTILES. " Mr. T. Duncombe presented a petition from three of the Overseers of St. Andrew, Holborn, stating that they had lately visited the Holborn Union workhouse, where they had found forty females, of ages varying from forty to eighty, confined in a small room, seven feet nine inches in height, several feet below the surface of the earth, and built over a large sewer, the smell from which was very offensive. The room was, besides, exceedingly dark, and these aged females were confined eleven hours out of the twenty-four, at very severe work, pulling wool for mattresses. They were not allowed any beer, and the expense of their maintenance was but fourpence per day each." — House of Com- mons^ July, 1839. " John P , Governor of the P — • — Union, was in the habit of standing outside the workhouse, and inviting, as a treat, his companions and the passers-by, to come in and see his wild-beasts fed, as he called them ; viz., the wretched inmates." — From a Correspondent. " There was a woman not long ago in one of the Union workhouses, who, for three days after her husband died, knew not but that he was living, and in good health." — The Rev. Joseph Rayner Ste- 2)hens, at Wic/an, Nov. 1838. " Until that infernal law came into operation, if an Englishman had gotten a woman with child, he Avas sorry for it ; and, though circumstances might be such that he could not marry the woman, he always kept the child, and had a pride in keeping it. This was always done ; it was done by the poor as well as the rich ; but now those damned devils had made a law that if a poor girl be led astray and have a baby, there was no father for it in the world ; there was nothing to maintain it : and she must either take herself into the Bastile, and be kept a prisoner all her life, and have the baby taken from her, either to be poisoned or strangled, or cut up alive, or dead, by the damned doctors, or sent abroad to the plantations — she must do all that, or bind her baby to her broken heart, and plunge with it into the stream and die." — Rev. J. R. Stephens. " The New Poor-Law regarded the poor as being positively worth more when dead than living, insomuch as the Over- seers could procure from the surgeons £2 12s. per corpse, and thus save the expense of burial." — Fearytis O'Connor, Bradford Anti-Poor-Laiv Meetinrj, Dec. 13, 1837. " Isabella Shotton, Woodhorn, aged 80, granted on the 25th of December, 1 836, One Shilling per week, to keep house, coal, clothes, and food." — Blakeijs " Let- ters with the Morpeth Board.'^ " Hannah Sykes has been in the AI- mondbury workhouse four or five months ; she is often afflicted with fits. While there, and in a fit, she fell and broke her leg. She asked the master of the House ' to send for a doctor to set it ; ' he told her, ' that she had no use for it, for she worked none.' The leg remained in that condition for a fortnight or three weeks. Two women went there who knew her ; they informed her mother, who Aveut to the town's committee at Slaithwaite, and informed them of this worse than bar- barous treatment. They gave her a note to go to the doctor, and he went with her, and set the leg. The mother found fault with the master for neglecting her daugh- ter in the manner described, and he told her, ' that if he had got the leg set, with- out an order, he would have had to pay the doctor's charge out of his own pocket.' " — Mr. Oastler's Letter inthe " Champion^^ March 29, 1840. "The roast-beef given to the poor inmates of St. Marylebone workhouse, on the day of her Majesty's marriage, was dearly paid for by the unfortunate paupers, who were deprived on the following day of their usual allowance of meat, and on the day after that found the basin of soup subtracted from their ordinary modicum of food. The loyal, benevolent, and eco- nomical Guardians so contrived the matter, that in the end there should be a positive balance of profit to the parochial fund." — Champion, Feb. 23, 1840. " A few days ago, while strolling in Stepney, I happened to meet a funeral, which was followed by about half-a-dozen women, dressed in the modern workhouse garb ; but what was my surprise to see the procession turn down an obscure street, instead of advancing towards the parish church. I had the curiosity to follow it, and found that the corpse was taken to a cemetery, as it is called — an un- consecrated ground, the property of an individual, which the next proprietor, if he think it a more advantageous specula- tion, maj' convert into a kitchen-garden, or a brick-field, or a building ground. Well, the corpse was laid in the grave, no clergyman read the beautiful service of our church ; in short, tlie whole proceeding was a direct outrage on the sacred insti- tutions of our country." — Correspondent to a London Paper, Feb. 23, 1840. BASTILE TREATMENT AND TYRANNY. 127 " The strict workhouse ' test ' requires that every man before receiving relief should enter the workhouse, and his goods be sold for the benefit of the parish." — Commissioners' " Third Report.'''' "■ We must say, that we felt unutterable disgust at the following cold and cruel observation of the Poor-Law Connnission- ers : — ' It must be remembered, too, that Ave do not propose to deprive either the woman or her parents of their direct means of redress : she may still bring her action for breach of promise of marriage, and her parents may still bring theirs for the loss of their daughter's service.' What cruel derision ! The poor gu-1, whose bread is obtained by the daily labour of her fingers, whose fortune may reach 20s., she may bring her action for breach of promise of marriage ! The father, whose weekly pittance of ten shillings is expended in supporting his wife and family, he may bring his action for the loss of his daughter's service ! ! This language but adds insult to injury ! " — Hereford Times (Whig J, June 28, 1834. " Jesse Knolton, a pauper, belonging to INIinisteed, died in Ringwood, and on Tuesday last, Mary Jones, a woman who had lived in his family, was begging through the streets for money to pay for his grave, saying, the allowance from the parish was a cojfin, and 2s. to hury him, and uo more ! It seems as if this rigid economy follows its victim after death, nor ceases till the last shovel of earth closes up his grave ! " — Hants Advertiser, Jan. 21, 1837. " The Commissioners have written to the Guardians of the Boston Union, re- fusing to grant out-door relief to a man named Clarke, who cannot earn sufficient, by sixteen hours' labour, to support him- self, wife, and eight children." — Lincoln Chronicle, Feb. 16, 1839. "A poor man, in the township of Oven- den, had a daughter who died suddenly, and, being extremely reduced in circum- stances, he thought to obtain some little relief from the parish to assist him to bury her decently. Accordingly he ap- plied to the Relieving Officer of the town- ship of Thornton, about five miles distant, but he could not see the .s7/o?^ Aspin. " Philip Oxley. mark." —Ibid. " At a Board lately, a poor fellow, with a wife only, but ^yho, having undergone the starvation ' test; had at length worked himself up to the unnatural resolution to be separated from his wife in the Union- House, appeared at the Board, at the distance of eight or nine miles from his home. The order was about to be made out, when one of these immaculates, who had a small parcel of land in the poor man's parish, he himself living in another parish in the same Union, said, ' You have not applied to me for work.' That was a ' clincher ; the order was withheld, of course, and this poor fellow was dismissed, w'ithout food, and without money, to trudge his eight or nine miles BASTILE TREATMENT AND TYRANNY. 135 ])ack to ail empty cupboard, but with the cheering prospect of work in the morning. 'Tis said, that ' hope deterred maketh the heart sick ;' but this is a love atfair, whilst this poor man's was a craving belly atf iiir. However, in the morning, off' he went to his benefactor ; this volunteer supporter of his hopes of food. ' Oh ! I have no tvork fur you to do .'' There, then, that's new ! that is worlhj' of all })raise ! The Commissioners must re- ward that Guardian ; he shall have a draft from Somerset-house." — The " Suf- folk Jurory " An inquest was held on Friday, on the body of Gwenllian Thomas, aged 74. It appeared in evidence, that the deceased and her husband were admitted into the Brecon Poor-House the day preceding, being at that time in great distress ; that, ai::reeable to the regulations of the New Poor-Laiv Act, the deceased was sepa- rated from her husband, and placed in one of the female wards, where she be- came much distressed, frequently calling for her husband, and that between the hours of 11 and 12 at night, she rose from her bed and jumped out of one of the windows, about sixteen feet from the ground. The jury, after a patient inves- tigation, returned the following verdict — ' That the deceased, Gwenllian Thomas, came to her death by a fall from one of the windows of the Brecon New Poor- House, having thrown herself out of the window when in a state of temporary derangement, occasioned by her having been separated from her husband, under the provisions of the New Poor-Law Act. This jury cannot separate without thus ])ublicly expressing their abhorrence of that clause of the ' Act,' sanctioning the separation of man and wife.' '' — Silurian, Nov. 2, 1839. " Princes and Prelates of Christian England advertise for cojfins to be made by contract of //wce-quarter-inch deal boards, besmeared with pitch or thinnest ])aint, without even the commonest orna- jnent, and tumble the bodies of the nuu'- (lered poor into them — such I mean as have not been cut up by the boy-butchers of the hospitals — and, without pall or toll of bell, wheelbarrow them to a poor-law gra\ (.> !" — Rev. J. R. Stephens's lliird London Sermon. "■ How different had been the treat- ment of the labjuring poor in Notting- ham, and in Holbeach, Lincolnshire. In Nottingham there was a large and vigo- yous population ; and when the law was about to be introduced last year, the Whig gentry, thinking it rather a delicate experiment at a period of great pressure, generously entered into a subscription for the purpose of easing the poor-rate. The sum of £5,000 was raised, in order to sustain and employ the poor, that there might be no inconvenient clamour with reference to the introduction of this bill. In August last, the money being ex- pended, they said the principle of the bill must be enforced ; and was it enforced ? No such thing. The able-bodied labourer was provided with work, and paid out of the rate, as in olden times under the 43d of Elizabeth. In Holbeach, Lincolnshire, the Guardians had made application to the Commissioners ; they had sent up an humble memorial to Somerset-house, praying that in the extreme pressing seve- rity of the season, so many being out of employment, the Board might be allowed to exercise their discretion, and give the able-bodied labourer and his family some relief. What was the answer of the Commissioners ? ' Yoic shan't do it. No ; it was not done with regard to the agricultural labourers, who were pre- vented by the severe inclemency of the season, by the rigours of the climate it- self, and by no fault of their own, from working. This Avas the answer : — ' Break up your establishments, sell your furniture, abandon your cottages !'.... He wished to know why, if the princi- ples of this bill were so worthy of adop- tion, it had been deemed so flexible that in Nottingham assistance should be given out of the poor-rates to the labourers in the shape of wages, while at Holbeach it was entirely Avithheld ? No doubt the Commissioners Avere present, as they always were, when their misdeeds were discussed in that house, and he hoped some Hon. gentleman would take care to ascertain from them, why one rule had been applied to Nottingham, and the re- verse to Holbeach ?" — Mr. Wakleij., House of Cortwions, Feb. 20, 1838. " The regulations of the Commission- ers were most arbitrary and partial, for why should the paupers in the I^ondon workhouses be allowed eleven pints of beer a-week, while those of the Bethnai- green workhouse, for instance, were re- stricted to cold water." — Mr. Pearce, at the Freemasons' Tarern Anti-Neio Poor-Law Meeting, Feb. 19, 1838. " In the Union of Droxford there was a woman of the name of Honor Sawyer, who, being ill, the Master refused to send 136 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. for the doctor to attend her until it was too late, and the consequence was, that she died from neglect." — Rev. Edmimd Deicdnerj fof Porfseaj, at the Freemasons' Tavern Anti-Netv Poor-Laic Meeting, Feb. 19, 1838. " Under the present law, he knew that in Suffolk many cases had taken place, in which a delay of ten days had oc- curred between the application for, and the administration of, relief." — Earl Stan- hope. House of Lords, March 22, 1838. " An investigation of considerable im- portance was made last week at Cam- bridge, touching the death of an infant, which, with its mother, had been removed from Tnplow to Cambridge by a brute of an overseer. The child died in conse- quence of the removal, and to carry his hardheartedness still further, the over- seer refused to give a single farthing to- wards the funeral ! Upon being remon- strated with for not giving relief, and in ordering the unfortunate mother and babe to be removed, he said, ' he believed the child ivotdd die soon, and so the matter would be drojyped.'' The coroner summed up the case in a most able manner, and quoted several cases to show that if a party be guilty of negligence, and death is the result, the party guilty of such negli- gence is also guilty of manslaughter. The (ury immediately returned a verdict of inanslaiKjhter, and the overseer was com- mitted to gaol forthwith." — Halifax Guardian, Jan. 26, 1839. " An investigation was held on Thurs- day, at St. Mary's Cray, Kent, on the body of a pauper named Burgess, who died in the workhouse of the Bromley Union. It appeared that the deceased having applied for relief to Mr. Palmer, Relieving OlFicer of the Lewisham Union, that gentleman (?) had him sent forward in an open cart to Coodham, his alleged legal settlement. Burgess was exceed- ingly ill at the time, and died shortly after his arrival at Coodham. Mr. Palmer, in his defence, said he did not know that the man was in a dangerous state at the time of his removal. After a long inves- tigation the coroner summed up, and, in doing so, observed, that the jury were to determine if any party was to be made responsible for the death of the deceased. The jury retired for about an hour-and-a- half : — Mr. Snelling (the foreman) ' We find Mr. Palmer guilty of neglect of duty, not knowing the state the deceased was in at the time.' Coroner — ' But what is your verdict in reference to the dectased;' Foreman — ' We find there has been neg- lect of duty; we can't soften it.' Coroner — ' Do you intend a verdict of manslaugh- ter, or not ?' Foreman — ' We leave tliat to you. Sir.' The jury-room was now again cleared, and after above two hours had elapsed the public were admitted, and the jury delivered a verdict of ' Man- slaughter against George Harding Palmer, accompanied with a recommendation to mercy' (?). The coroner then made out Palmer's commitment to Maidstone gaol." — Fxami?ier, March 31, 1839. " An inquest was lately held on the body of Mary Hancox, at Ampney Crucis. The deceased was a poor wo- man, aged 55, the wife of James Hancox, a poor old cripple. Being destitute, the deceased applied to tlie Cirencester Union Board on the INIonday (distant from Ampney about three miles). The day was piercingly cold, and after waiting at the Board a long time without getting re- lief, she returned home in a very weak and shivering state, and went to bed ill. On the Tuesday, application was made for medical assistance, and medicine was sent on the Wednesday. On Friday she was attended again, and had more medi- cine ; and on Saturday morning she died. After a long and patient investigation, the jury returned a verdict — 'That the de- ceased died by the visitation of God, and that her death was accelerated by the in- tensity of the cold to which she was ex- posed in attending the Board of Guar- dians on the preceding Monday.' " — Gloncestershire Chronicle, March 31, 1838. " Perhaps the worst and most deci- dedly M?j-English part of the new system is, the separation of mothers from their children, husbands from their wives, in the New Bastiles, and the driving men from the marriage bed to sleep with boys.''' — Weekly Dispatch, Feb. 21, 1836. " In this day's i:)aper, we give some particulars of scenes at Rolvenden, in Kent, connected with the removal of aged and bedridden paupers in the depth of winter. It will be seen that some of the victims died under the operation, and that others were subjected to sufferings that made them pray to the Almighty to re- lease them by death." — Ibid. " Jacob Pike, a poor man, weak in intellect, who had, for many years pre- viously to the introduction of the New Poor-Law, been an inmate of the Soberton Poor-house (he was then a stout, robust man, he is now dwindled away and e:ihi- BASTILE TREATMENT AND TYRANNY. 137 bits a pale-faced, half-starved appear- ance) ; for the last twenty j^ears this j)Oor innocent creature had been supplied with tobacco by private charity, but even this is now denied him by the rules and res^u- lations of the House." — Rev. Stephen Butler's f of Sober to7i J, '■'■Letter to the llate- imyers of the Droxford Union.,'''' 1838. " I found in one room (of the Droxford House) 14 children confined with the itch ; one little girl had been shut up in this apartment eig-ht weeks and was not then recovered; another was insuch a state of salivation as to be laid on a bed, spit- ting up blood, which I was informed she had done for a week." — Ibid. " A man with a large family went into the Union workhouse. As soon as they were washed and got the work- house di-ess on, the Governor said to another woman, ' take that child from that woman's (the man's wife) arms and carry it to the nursery.' The poor mother thought she should drop. The woman took it with tears in her eyes and said she would take care of it. The mother could only say, ' Pray do.' This was on a Fri- day, and on the following Sunday, one of the women stole away the child from the nursery and brought it to the mother in the chapel, and she suckled it during the service, and two or three days after she did the same again This woman was locked up with others in a close gaol of a washhouse, containing the linens of the dead, diseased, those having the venereal comjilaint, Sec, &c., and, day after day, though in a very weak state, could only have the door open a little time by chance, as that was contrary to the ' Rule.' The matron of the workhouse said to this poor woman, ' I know you and the rest all want and desire some extra or better living. I dare not give it you ! ! !' This family cost too much in the Bastile, and were sent for out again ; a farmer pro- mising the man work because his family cost 30s. or 40s. per week in the House : but he had not worked for him many weeks before he was jeering him with how well they lived in the workhouse, &c., &c. The poor man said, ' Yes, in- deed ! look how they have treated my son.' (This son had married a widow with a family, and, to oblige the Union officers, went to Lancashire and got a good contract there. But his master died, and his son refused to abide by the contract, which the magistrates could not enforce, but sent the whole family back by orders, which this poor family could not help. But on their return, they were treated worse than beasts. Indeed it is enough to break any one's heart to read their story — I liaAe written it from their own mouths.) The master of the poor man in question, still continued his jeers and sneers, till the poor man said — ' Damn the House ! I wish it was blown up,' &,c., &cc. The master discharged him that night, and said he would every man that made use of such language, and gave him notice to keep off his premises. The pcor man replied, that he liad committed no crime, or done anything to be so cruelly treated ; and if he did not come to ask him for work, he might be sent to prison, or refused all relief, because he had not done all he could to obtain work, and keep his family from becoming charge- able. After this, the best work he could get, was picking stones off the land to mend the roads. Himself and four.'chil- dren, 16, 14, 12, and 8 years of age, were five weeks earning 40s., which, reckoning the children at 2d. per day, (including Sundays) each, left him not 6d. per day for himself. In fact such work is only fit for women and children, who can pickup more than men very often." — Extracted from a Letter of a Southern County Correspon- dent to the Author, dated Oct. 2, 1840. " A poor man, with a wife and child at the breast, was last winter obliged to go into the Union workhouse. The woman's child, which was only a year-and-a-half old, was taken from her, as tisuat, and they were treated so badly that they came out again at the end of one week, when she suckled the child again. But the man could get only four days' work, and after that was again forced into the 'House,' with his wife and child. The poor wo- man, on this their second admittance, begged and prayed her clnld might not be taken from her, as she had suckled it again since she had been out ; but all in vain. The jolly babe was crammed into a ward were the scarlet fever was raging, and the mother had great difficulty to be allowed to nurse her own child; but it recovered from that; and as soon as given up again to the matron, the father, by stealth, found it in bed with a child that had got the measles ; and, before he could get the mother to it, the child had lain 48 hours in the most filthy, horrid state; from which, in spite oif all the mother could do, it died from neglect of their keeping the mother from it ; and she has since declared, that she would live upon half-a-bellyful of potatoes per 138 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. day sooner than go again into the work- house," — Ihid. " In pages 447 and 448 of George Arerys Evidence before the Committee of the House of Lords, there is an account of a man named Clover, nearly 80, being worked to death by the skilly. This Clover I knew very well, and he was just such a man as Morland's picture of the ' Woodman ;' six feet high, and very stout in proportion, and had been one of the finest, strongest, and best labourers that ever lived, until he was at last (in my opinion) murdered by this New Poor- Law ; as another man, whom I knew, was, by being forced into the Union House, where he died broken-hearted. The same George Avery (Evidence, page 444,) proves his two children came home, after being in ten days, — filthy, lousy, and itchy — in fact the girl was nearly purged to death, besides bringing home lice, and giving the whole family the itch ! !" — Ihid. " Here is what the Duke of Sussex, and the rest in the House of Lords, called ' Boons and Benefits,' granted to the poor by this New Poor-Law: — A poor girl (19) went into the ' House ' to lay in, and came out, at the end of three weeks, as her mother said, with all her linen and clothes in such a filthy state, that she locked her cottage door while she washed the girl and her child, and their clothes, which were too foul to describe, and smelt so bad she could hardly bear the house shut up, but was ashamed to open the door for fear any one should come in and see them. Soon after this, the fa- ther and mother of this poor girl, herself, and her child, with seven more children, making eleven persons, went to America ; and, like five or six other families around me, declared to me most solemnly, they were driven to volunteer to go, through the dread and hatred of the Bastiles, and the fear of starvation under this ac- cursed law ; every one of them protesting they were uttei'ly at heart against leaving their native country, if they could have got bread to eat in it as they used to do under the Old Poor-Law." — Ihid. " There are thousands, to my certain knowledge, who have not had one penny to buy clothes, &c., since the New Poor- I^aw began." — Ihid. " A poor woman, named Rebecca Col- lett, supposed to be six or seven months gone in the family way, was committed for some trilling offence to the cell, called by the paupers the ' black hole,' for 24 hours, in the latter end of the month of November, 1839, when it was so ex- tremely damp that the sides ran down with water. She was put in at twelve o'clock in the day without either bonnet, cloak, or shawl on, and was otherwise miserably clad. When night came on, and it began to grow excessively cold from severe frost, the man who locked her in went to the master of the workhouse to remind him of her situation, i.e., being far gone in the family way — and to ask him if she were not to come out for the night, and go in again in the morning ; to which he replied, ' No ; she should not.' The woman declared to me, that in one part of the night she fainted, and, at another time, her groans were so heart- rending that two men quitted their beds, got through the window of their sleeping- room, and went to her in the middle of the night, asking her what was the mat- ter. ' Oh !' she replied, ' do go and en- treat to have me let out, for I am ready to perish with the cold, and am sure 1 shall die before morning.' The men dared not go. Her groans could not allow them to sleep the whole of the night, I asked them very particularly if her cries were like those of anger and resentment, when they instantly replied, ' No, not at all ; but like the moanings and groans of a dying person.' In the morning a slice of dry bread and a cup of cold water were taken to her for the third time by the porter, whom she told that she made sure she should have died in the night ; and, at twelve o'clock, she was let out, when, after having sat an hour close to the fire, she was taken so ill with violent shiver- ings, which lasted five hours, in spite of her being wrapped up in bed in a heated flannel petticoat, and two extra blankets from other beds, that the woman with her thought she would have died. These shiverings were followed by an excessive hajmorrhage and she was ill for a week. When I complained of such treatment, I did so under the impression that the Guardians could not have given it their approval, and that it could not possibly be sanctioned by the Poor-Law Commis- sioners, but in this opinion I soon found myself to be greatly mistaken ; for, when 1 first met the Assistant-Commissioner he treated it with such levity as to say, ' You seem. Sir, to think a great deal of this confinement case.' To which I replied, ' Indeed 1 do, for I am horrified at it.* And again, ' Why, what would be the use of straw in the cell ? There is no warmth in straw, is there ?' To which I gave for BASTILE TREATMENT AND TYllANNY. 139 answer, deeply grieved at such a spirit of inhumanity and hardheartedness, ' You had better, Sir, ask your horse if he feels no warmth or comfort in it, or if he would as readily lie on the stones ?' ' Oh, Sir, I am shocked at such want of feeling !' And I am obliged with pain to observe, that when this case was under investiga- tion, the I'ecital of the poor woniau's suf- ferings only produced every kind of con- tempt. My asking one of the witnesses if the poor woman hud either bonnet, cloak, or shawl on, called forth sneers and ridi- cule from some of the Guardians, (who, to justify the master, told the Assistant-Com- missioner that the punishment had been approved of by them). And again, when it v/as stated in evidence, that for five hours after the poor creature's quitting the cell, she had such violent shiverings upon her, although wrapped up in heated flan- nel and several blankets, that her teeth chattex'ed in her head, a Guardian at my side observed, contemptuously, ' Her teeth chattered in her head, eh ? and my teeth, too, have often chattered in my head when in bed on a cold night.' Upon which I said, ' Gentlemen, I feel we are all the children of one common Father, but I perceive there are some here who think of and feel towards the poor and unfortunate, as if they were the dogs in the streets.' " — Rev. C Fowell Watts (of Bath J, in the " Tmes," August 1 1 , 1840. " Thomas Oliver, aged 100, and Mar- garet, his wife, aged 73 ; no friends to keep them. The Board generously gave, on the 25th of Dec, 1836, the sum of three shilhngs for the two. Out of this come rent, coals, clothes, &c.j the residue, if fmy, for food!!" — Blaheys '•^ Letters icith the Morpeth BoardJ" " I was very much struck with an in- stance yesterday : I will give you it. A man came to me yesterday to know what he was to do. He said thei-e were seven of them in family, and only one, besides himself, able to work ; and now it had pleased God to take away one of them by death — a little boy. lie said, ' Mr. Ste- phens, I have been some time in this neighbourhood, and, as God is my wit- ness, I have never bought a glass of ale since I came into the neighbourhood.' He said, ' I want it, and I think I ought to have it ; but when I look at the penny or twopence, and then look at my chil- dren, I think they have more need of the bread than I have of the beer, and I dare not buy them any, and never do buy any.' But he said, ' After I have dra^Yn the fortnight's wages, it is sometimes as much as ever we can do to make it reach over the week we drew it in ; and till the next week we are obliged to take our clothes, the Avife's clothes, and the children's clothes, one after the other, to the pawn- shop, to get a little money, to help us to get the week over. And now, you see my rags ; these are all the clothes I have left, and that child I cannot bury. I don't like to go to the overseers, because I know they are a hardhearted set of men. They will begin to tell me about the idle- ness and drunkenness of the working classes ; and that they ought to lay up something against a rainy day. Some of my friends have been recommending me to have a subscription, and go round in the factory ; but I don't like to do that, because those Avho might give anything are almost as much in need of it as my- self.' He said, ' I'll tell you what I have been thinking of doing, and I have come to ask you whether you think it would be right or not, — I have been thinking of getting a little bit of wood, or a piece of tarpauling, and making a something — either a box or a bag, and putting my dear boy's body into it, and carrying it upon my shoulders, in my rags as I am, through the streets, and leaving it at the church door, and kneeling down in the chui'ch, and praying God Almighty to take him and all of us in his own good time, where the ' wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest.' I asked him what had put that into his head. ' Mr. Stephens,' said he, ' it is time us working men did something. It is time we began to set an example, and to let the world see that we are not ashamed of what we are compelled to do, and that we are determined to do nothing but what is right. If, when my poor boy is dead, we are to have nothing from the town, and if we can get nothing fairly and honestly in any other way, I am not going into debt. If I go into debt, I must mort- gage my family for perhaps six, nine, or twelve months ; and I think it is high time the labouring classes began to set an example, and refuse to have their chil- dren christened, except by shedding over them an unfortunate father's tears, and praying God to bless the babe ; to refuse to have their children buried, except in the way I have mentioned ; and if I thought it was not against the law, I would have a flagstone taken up, and I would bury it underneath my own floor, and, over the tomb of my dear boy, pray God night.and 140 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. morning to deliver us.' I told the man I could not advise him; I said I never liked to advise people in such a case; but if the case were mine, I thought I would do so." — Rev. J. R. Stephenss Sermon, preaclied at Hyde, Feb. 1 7, 1 839. " There was another part of this law, which he deemed to be not a whit less culpable before God; it was that by which the unhappy inmates of the work- houses were prevented from enjoying re- ligious fellowship and community with their Christian friends in the worship of their God : they were confined to the as- sociation of persons like themselves. To them Sunday was no day of rest or en- joyment ; but it was converted into a day only calculated to remind them of that unhappy fate to which the law of their own land had consigned them." — Bishop of Exeter, July, 1839. " Shall an industrious artisan who offers a fractured arm as the evidence of his willing labour, be hurried, regardless of his agonizing sufferings, of the entrea- ties of his wife, the tears of his children — shall this valuable citizen of a free country be torn from his homely comforts, to be tossed upon the straw and iron bed of a parish Bastile, surrounded by all that is odious to the eye of independence, and shocking to the feeling of innocence ? Hu- manity appeals from the cell to Heaven, and says — such things shall not be. — The helpless infant, the hoary head, the sub- ject of passing accidents must be differ- ently treated. Relief to them must not be termed a degradation — it is their right, and they must have it. Heaven and Humanity have ratified the claim — law and justice must concede it. Death must not be approached through a dungeon — at least not by the industrious poor." — Daniel Whittle Harvey's Speech at the Southicarh Anti-Poor-Law Meetiny, Au- gust 23, 1836. " What a thing it is for an aged couple, who have hved twenty, thirty, or perhaps forty years together, till the time of weak- ness and infirmity had come — and why are they to be separated just at last? Where are the feehngs of humanity in that ? We all know what age is — ' once a man — twice a child.' Towards the close of life the faculties become impaired, and I have mostly obser\ed amongst aged couples that the Lord appoints one stronger than the other, so that they may tend and nurse the weaker ; but the law acts contrary to nature, for it parts the aged from each other." — Simch of W. Roworth, Esq., Mayor of Noitinyham, at a meetiny of the Rate-payers of that place y July 16, 1840. " I found in Sussex, children were se- parated from their mothers, 5, 7, 10, or more miles asunder ; and anecdotes were told me of their dying without informa- tion being given to their parents. I found, also, a general complaint, which appears almost inconceivable, that in some places, they will neither relieve the labourer, nor admit him info the house. This I ha\e heard in other parts too. I have no doubt it is the case, though probably the Poor-Law Commissioners would ' prove ' it is not so." — Extract of a letter from Mr. John Perceval to the Author, dated Aug. 13, 1840. '^In the report of Mr. Charles Mott, Assistant Poor-Law Commissioner, ad- dressed to the Poor-Law Commissioners, it is stated that the Vestry of St. Nicholas, Deptfoid, complain of a man of the name of Doyyett, who was refused admission to see his wife in the last moments of her life at the Deptford workhouse." — Mr. Mott's Report is dated December, 1837. " In these Bastiles, if a man is dying, his w^ife cannot see him if she be an in- mate !" — Mr. Walter's Speech, House of Cummo7is, 1837. " Your petitioner humbly requested the attention of your Lordships' Committee to the case of a young woman of unsound mind, who was flogged in the Thimbleby workhouse, near Horncastle, in Lincoln- shire, and respecting whom the Guardians at first reported, that ' it had done her good ;' but by the persevering exertions of the Rev. J. Fendall, Rector of Buck- nell, it was presented to the magistrates, and the assaulters were fined." — The Rev. G. S. Bull's Petition to the House of Lords, May 30, 1838. " In various Union workhouses, whose ' rules ' are prescribed or allowed by the Commissioners, it is the practice to ' crop short ' the hair of paupers generally, after the manner of felons, whether chil- dren or adults, of both sexes; an act which Mr. Justice Bailey has held to be, with- out consent of the party, in itself unlawful, and in the case of Forde versus Skinner, (March 1830), he adjudged the same to be an assault ; and forasmuch as it was done to a young woman with a view to her degradation, and expressly ' to take down her pride,' he directed increased damages, and the jury in consequence awarded her the sum of £60." — Ibid. " Under the workhouse f^ysteui, so long BASTILE TREATMENT AND TYRANNY. 141 as a stick of furniture can be found in the poor man's cottage, or a shilling in his possession, he is not entitled even to the luxuries of the Union Gaol. Nay, dis- tress warrants have been issued and ex- ecution levied, 'to recover, by public sale of his goods, the defalcation of contribution assessed upon the son of a pauper earning l'2s. a- week, and on the point of being married, for the parish outlay upon his mother." — Blackwood's Magazine, April, 1837. " Relief, or its cost price, when given to any person beyond the age of 2 1 , or to his wife, or any part of his family, under the age of 16, may, under the regulations of the Commissioners, be considered by Avay of loan ; whether any receipt for it or its cost price, or any agreement to re- pay it, shall have been given or not." — New Poor- Law Act, page 62. (Abridged. ) " When relief has been given to any person, his wife or family, by way of loan ; or where it, or the cost price of it, shall be treated as a loan under the orders of the Commissioners, and any part of it re- mains due, Justices viay summon the mas- ter or employer, and direct him to pay the sura at once, or by instalments, out of Avages due or becoming due from time to time." — Ibid. " This Act repeals so much of any Act of Parliament as enables any single wo- man to charge any person with having gotten her with child ; or so much of any Act of Parliament as renders any person 60 charged liable to be apprehended or committed or required to give security ; or, as enables the mother of any bastard child to charge or affiliate it on any per- son, as the reputed or putative father ; or, as enables any overseer or guardian to charge or make complaint against any person as such reputed or putative father, and to require him to be charged with the expenses attending the birth or mainten- ance of such child, or to be imprisoned or otherwise punished for not contributing thereto ; or, as in any way renders such reputed or putative father liable to pun- ishment or contribution as such ; or, as enables churchwardens and overseers, by order of any two justices confirmed by sessions, to take, seize, and dispose of his goods and chattels, or to receive the rents and profits of his lands." — Ihid. Page 69. " The mother of every child horn a bastard shall be bound to maintain such child until the age of sixteen, and all relief granted to such child, while under sixteen, to be considered as granted to the mother." — Ibid. Page 71. "All relief to the wife, or child under sixteen, considered to be given to the husband of such wife or the father of such child." — Ibid. Page 60. " Any relief given to the child of any icidow, to be considered as given to such widow." — Ibid. Page 61. " In any parish or union under the controul of guardians, or of a select vestry, it shall not be lawful for any Justices to order relief from the i:)Oor-rates." — Ihid. Page 59. "Not long ago a poor woman was found by the porter lying at full length in a fit in the confinement cell of the Bath Union workhouse. The poor creature said that she had seen something in the cell which had so frightened her as to throw her into the fit. It is seen at once from such cases as these how barbarous and inhuman a practice is that of shutting up females in such places throughout the night. If they are to be confined, why not confine them merely during the day ? Such imprisonment may prove the death of a timid and superstitious female." — Rev. a Fowell Watts (of Bath), in the " Times^' August 25, 1840. " I have seen a very aged and sick woman sitting up in her bed, and heard her complaining bitterly of the cruelty of her not being allowed a nightgown to put on. At the same time she had on a very small, thin, short garment that only reached half-way down her arms and just below her chest. She died a few davs after." — Ibid. " I have known a child four years old, looking the picture of wretchedness and sickness, to be brought out of the house by its indignant mother, with its little back covered with weals and bruises, which had been inflicted after its being plunged into a cistern, or cask, of cold water, for wetting its bed during sickness. I have heard this mother state, that she twice attempted to obtain redress, but in vain. The first time, she informed me, that she went to the board-room with her child in her arms, she was prevented going in by the Relieving Officer and Master, who said, ' Oh, you are come here to make a fuss about your child, are you ? But you shall be disappointed, you shall not go in.' The second time she went, (not having the child with her, on account of its being so unwell,) she was allowed to go before the board, when, she in- formed me, the persons who so treated 14-2 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. the child received no reproof whatever." —Ibid. " I know that one poor woman in the Hoxne Union had been ill a fortnight be- fore her husband could contrive to get an 'order' for the Union Surgeon; the Guardian had got a sore throat, and a cold, and could not go ten miles to the house, or ' he could have managed it /' Now the poor man has got the proper order, the Surgeon informs him that it is too late., and he has the satisfaction to hear that his wife must die, and leave him with three or four helpless children, in grateful remembrance of the New Poor-Law!" — Letters of a Suffolk Juror. " I know an infirm old man (between 70 and 80) of a most excellent character, "who receives 2s. and a loaf per week, from the Union. A short time ago he had the opportunity of earning, for two or three days in one week, 6d. a-day. This was reported to the Relieving Officer, when his allowance was immediately stopped. Not being again able to earn anything, he applied to the Board, and his pay was resumed ; but the Relieving Officer told him that if he heard of his earning as much as a single ^A.. he would imme- diately take it off." — Rev. C. Foioell Watts' s Letter in the " Inncs,^' Septem- ber 15, 1840. " I have known a little boy, eight or nine years old, to be flogged most cruelly for three days successively, for complain- ing to the Guardians of his having been unjustly beaten. A man, who witnessed this cruel treatment, declared to me he shed tears at the sight. Many others witnessed it." — Rev. C. Fowell Watts, in the " Times;' August 25, 1 840. " An aged woman brought into the House an ounce of tea. It was discovered by the matron that she had it about her person, when she was desu'ed to give it up ; and because she demurred about doing so, she was repeatedly struck so violently as to be obliged to exclaim, 'Oh, INIrs. , you will break my arm ! ' " — Ibid. " I have heard from those who witnessed it, of a poor female cripple being hurled down headlong in the yard upon rough stones, because she did not go quite fast enough to the confinement cell." — Ibid. " I have been informed by a woman, of her having been driven away from the fire, at which she was standing and complain- ing of illness, out to the cold place, to resume her work, being told, with an oath, that if she didn't work, she should not eat ; and I have seen this woman, who was known on account of bodily disease to be unfit to be in so cold a place, lying, a day or two after, dangerously ill, in a sick ward, and upon my inquiring what was the matter with her, I have had it replied to me, by the nurse, who was applying leeches to her temples, and by several others in the ward, that she was very ill, and that her illness had no doubt been occasioned by her sitting so long at oakum- picking in that bitterly cold outhouse. This unfortunate sufferer had given evi- dence in the course of the investigation by the Assistant-Commissioner, and, while lying sick, she said to me, ' Oh, Sir, I am determined, as long as I stay in this house, not to tell anything, so great has been the persecution and cruel usage I have received since I gave evidence.' " — Ibid. "I know a case, at this moment, of a poor man, a widower, who has been in agony for six w^eeks with an eye that must perish ; he has applied to the Relieving Officer repeatedly to no purpose ; the Board is seven miles from his residence, but if he were able to get to it, it would be useless, as, without the ear of the officer, there is ' no admittance there.' When he has applied, the answer has been, ' Oh ! if you can afford to pay a doctor, you can do without relief!' ' Why, Sir, you would not have granted me the Union Surgeon if I had asked you ! ' And was this poor man to lose his eye without an attempt to save it ? Is sight less a blessing to a poor man than to a rich one ? " — Letters of a Suffolk Juror on the New Poor-Laio, 1838. " Moreover, I beg to remark, that the original resolution of the Morpeth Board, that the poor should not have the decencies of Christian burial, is yet in full force ; it is unrepealed in the minutes of the Union to this hotir, and forms a part of the present standing regulations, of this same humane and immaculate Board ! " — Blakefs " Controversial Letters with the Morpeth Board;' 1837. " About a fortnight ago, a woman came out of the ' house ' under the following circumstances : — While she M'as out in the yard, the porter went, unseen by her, into the ward, and snatched up her baby, only eight months old, and carried it away. She did not discover the robbery until the porter had arrived at the other side of the yard door, where the unfeeling monster stood ridiculing the anguish of the parent, whose cries were nearly making her, for BASTILE TREATMENT AND TYRANNY. 143 hours, an inmate of the ' black hole.' " — Rev. C. FowcH Watts in the " Times,''' Sept. 15, 1840. " Anything and everything calculated to annoy the unfortunate inmates of a Poor-Law Bastile is adopted. Nothing is overlooked that may have a tendency to brutalize them. The withholding of the baptismal right from the pauper infants, which circumstance also involves the right of Christian burial, is but one of the 'inany attempts now being made to under- mine and destroy every principle of Chris- tianity.'" — Anti-MaUhusiun Bloodsucl^er'' s Letter, Sept. 19, 1840. "At a recent audit, (in St. George's, Southwark,) only a few weeks ago, the auditor, Mr. Meymott, said he could not allow the paltry sum of sixpence, weekly, to a poor old woman nearly eighty years old, for snufi"; this had been allowed for several years, as the doctor had stated it to be comparatively necessary to the old creature's existence." — Day's " Practical Observations on the Neio Poor- Laiv,'^ 1838. " Elizabeth Aspin, aged 57, a widow, being very ill last November (1836), took a medical certificate to the Board, and they gave her Is. 6(1. per week, for two weeks. At the end of that time, not being well, the Board undertook to show its professional skill in medicine. It was suggested that the Is. 6d. per week was feeding the disorder, and that if they gave the woman nothing, she would get rapidly better ! This was accordingly acted upon. A week or so after, the woman was fast sinking to the grave for want of food." — Blakey's " Letters ivith the Morpeth Board;' 1837. " John Coates, Morpeth, aged 86, now sfo7ie blind, and otherwise seriously dis- eased, kept from pai'ochial relief till within tliese two months by the industry of a daughter. Her hands are now tied with him. The Board have allowed two shil- lings per week for them both, to keep themselves in house-rent, clothes, fuel, and food ! " — Ibid. "Lord Wynford mentioned a case which had occurred in SuH'olk, and been, as he said, proved before a Committee of the House, in which a Relieving Officer had allowed an old man of ninety to die of want. An indictment would, as he said, have prevented that monster from continuing in office." — Pev. Edmund Deu'dney's Letter to the Duke of Rich- mond, May 12, 1840. " Now, the man without work (and with the snow on the ground for six weeks it was impossible for every man to have work,) has no allowance, he is otierod tiie ' House ' only — take that or nothiwj ! " —Letters of a Suffolk Juror, 183». " Elizabeth Aspin. — The statement of the Board of Guardians is, that in conse- quence of this poor woman's having three grown-up daughters at home, they would not relieve her wants. It is implied in this statement that the Board are wishful they should be sent from home, to follow some honest and creditable employment ; a very good wish, if there had been any truth or sincerity in it. Now I have good evidence to show that the only recom- mendation the Board ever gave, in this case \yvi^,that this poor and helpless woman was to j)roct<)-e a subsistence by the open prostitution of her own children ! Yes ! Let this be known throughout the length and breadth of the land, that the Morpeth Union recommended an infirm old icoman to lire by the open profligacy of her own offspring ! What horrid brutality ! '' — Blakefs " Controversial Letters with the Morpeth Board;' 1837. " A woman of good character, who had come out of the ' House ' for the day, in- formed me, that their condition became more and more wretched every daj-, and that their unhappy lot is their talk from morning to night : this woman has fre- quently told me how happy she should be if she could only get an allowance of Is. Qd. a week out of the House : she has several times applied for it, but in vain ; for having boldly expressed her dislike to the House in the presence of the Guardians, and at other times spoken in uniavourablo terms of it, she is a marked character, and in the Avorkhouse will no doubt be made to live and die. She, with tears, declared to me, she should be glad to be sent to prison (if not for sin), knowing how much more comfortable she should be there. She is 65 years of age." — Rev. C. Powell Watts (of BathJ^in the " Times;' Sept. 15, 1840. " I have read of a Board of Guardians actually petitionhig the Commissioners to be allowed to give temporary out-relief where a number of woikmen had been thrown out of employment, who, with their families, were walking from house to house, begging for the very means of existence which had been withheld from them by the regulations of the Poor-Law Commissioners. The prayer of the jietition was not granted ! " — Anti-JSlaltliusian Blood sticker's Letter. " Who ever heard before of any new 144 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. law without compensation to the sufferers? There is compensation to the sufferers from Raih-oads ; to the sufferers from Municipal Reform ; to the sufferers from Slave Abolition ; there is compensation allotted, by Act of Parliament, to every known interference in the vested rights of others, — but the vested rights of the poor are never regarded. The old Poor-Law was passed after years of injustice, inflicted by the confiscation of the revenues of the Monasteries, and the various other proper- ties of the poor, which confiscation was begun by that remorseless tyrant, Henry VIII., continued under the reign of his pious son, Edward VI., and which the vilely-calurainated Mary did not live long enough to redress ; and even the old Poor- Law was not extorted from the Parliament of the pure virgin, Elizabeth, until the 43d year of her benignant reign. This same virgin, who, when playing her pranks, at the matured age of 38 years, caused her Parliament to pass an Act, that any ' natural ' child of hers should inherit the crown ! And now, by the New Law, the mother of a natural child has a very xmcertain chance of escaping the whole charge for the maintenance, unless she should in despair commit a crime that I shall not mention." — The Suffolk Juror. " Mrs. Baker, an industrious and deserv- ing widow, with four children, who had done without relief for some time, applied to the Board of St. George's, Southwark, for a little assistance in the middle of the last severe winter, but was told she must come into the ' House ;' however reluctantly, she was compelled to accept it, and was actu- ally kept during the eleven weeks she was there a perfect prisoner ; and when she begged she might be permitted to see her children, she was refused, and not allowed during the whole time. This was of course intended to drive her upon her oivn resources. Poor woman ! we have libe- rated her since." — Day's " Practical Ob- servations on the New Poor-Law^'' 1838. " The inhabitants of Bath entered into a subscription to give the inmates of the Union a dinner on Christmas-day, but Avere prevented by a positive order from the Poor-Law Commissioners." — Ihid. " I met with a poor woman the other (Jay: — ' What is the matter with you, you look half-starved ? ' ' Why, Sir, my hus- band is always afflicted with the rheu- matism, and can never earn more than \\d. a-day when in full work ; but now he has nothing to do, nor has he had for five weeks past, and we have had a sick daughter at home, that we are much dis- tressed,' ' What allowance have you ? ' ' My husband went to the Board, when he had been out of work a fortnight; it took him five hours to walk the seven miles, and tlie Board granted us one stone of flour a-week ! It took him longer to walk home, and he was so jaded that he could hardly get to bed, the torture was so great. We have had three stone of flour in five weeks ! ' ' And how much money ? ' ' Not one farthing ! ' ' Do you mean to say that you have been allowed only three stone of flour in five weeks for three persons ? ' ' I do ! indeed. Sir, it is true!' Now for my figures. In five weeks there are thirty-five days ; and three persons and three meals a day will stand 35 -^3X 3 — 315 meals, to be made out of 421bs. of flour, not quite 1\ ounces for each meal : no fire, and conse- quently, cold water." — The Suffolk Juj-or, 1838. ^' Jane Alexander, aged 36, was deserted by her husband, and left with two child- ren, one about four years old, and the other nine months. Her father is a poor working man, near Cruickham, and hear- ing of his daughter's melancholy con- dition, oflered to give her lodgings for self and children, if the Board of Guardians would allow her what would keep them with food and clothes. In Dec. last (1836), the Board gave this poor woman two shillings a-week for herself and two infant children, which is about one penny a-day for each member of the family for food and necessaries ! ! She had a distance of fifty miles to travel with these children, and she applied for a trifling sum to pay her expenses ; the Board refused to give her anything, but generously oflered to lend hev /our shillinffs, which was to be paid out of her weekly allowance I " — Blakcy's " Letters with the Morpeth Board." " Elizabeth Scott, aged 25, recently con- fined with an illegitimate child, applied to me for temporary relief to keep her from actual famine. The Board had given her one shilling and sixpence per week for her- self and baby; out of this she had one shilling to pay for lodging, which left just sixpence per week for herself (only three weeks confined) and child, to purchase food for seven days ! ! The poor girl seemed so exhausted, for want of suste- nance, as not to be able to undergo the requisite examination as to her settle- ment ! " — Ibid. " Morpeth, April 5, 18,37.-1, Robert Pender, of Fclton, do hereby solemnly BASTILE TREATMENT AND TYRANNY. 145 declare before God, that in the month of November last, Mr. Samuel Donkin, of Bywell, did, as a Guardian of the Morpeth Union, request me to horsewhip the late William Minto, and George Hume, when placed under my care in the village of Felton." — Blakey's Controversial Letters ivith the Morpeth Board. " And in tliis way they use the aged men (in Stowmarket Union workhouse) ; they are placed in one of the large rooms, and the little boys have a strap of leather, and by the command of the master of the workhouse, the boys are to strike the old men as they are marched past them." — Rfv. J. R. Stephens's Sermon at Hyde, Feb. 17, 1839. " I have seen women, with trifling in- disposition (certainly not fever) upon them, put in a fever ward into beds adjoining those occupied by persons dying of fever. Should it be pretended that the patients were not dying of fever, I reply that it is well known to many that I was advised by the master to discontinue visiting the ward for fear of infection. After many had died, the nurse of the ward caught the fever and died.*' — Rev. C. Fowell Watts (of Bath) in the " r/me*," August 11, 1840. " The wretched plead against us; multitudes Countless and vehement, the sons of God, Our brethren! " — Coleridge's Sibylline Leaves. " We have offended, oh ! my countrymen ! We have offended very grievously, And been most tyrannous. From east to west, A groan of accusation pierces Heaven ! " — Ibid. " Mr. D. Whittle Harvey, the City Police-Commissioner, appeared before the Lord Mayor yesterday, accompanied by some of his officers, to lay complaints against the authorities of the West London Union, for refusing to shelter several un- fortunate and destitute persons who had been found, a night or two ago, exposed to the inclement weather which has lately prevailed. The authorities of the Union told the officers to take the poor sufferers to the ' straw yard,' a place unknown to the law, and one into which Mr. Harvey has resolved no policeman shall ever con- duct the houseless poor under his manage- ment. The officers of this Union actually muffled the bell, to prevent the poor crea- tures from annoying them during the late severe weather." — Feb. 24, 1841. " On Tuesday last we noticed seven of the inmates of the Bradford Bastile, drawing a Avater-cart, laden with water, the distance from the well to the workhouse being about a quarter-of-a-mile ; four of them were geared to the shafts, and the other three were in the traces. Three out of the seven are idiots, and one of them is also deaf and dumb." — Northern Star^ March 6, 1841. " He recollected that a Magistrate from Wales complained to him of a Union no fewer than twenty-two miles in length. Now, supposing the workhouse to be situate in the middle, what were they to think of a law which sent starving men and women eleven miles from their homes. Before they could expect relief, too, they must have sold up every rag and stick of their wretched cottages, or else they would be interpreted into people possessing pro- pertj'." — Mr. Walter, Crown ayul Anchor y March 11, 1841. [From the Merthyr Guardian, April 6, 1839.] A great sensation has been produced atBlaina, Abergavenny, and the surround- ing neighbourhood, by the death of a poor man of the name of William Nicholas, who had, for the last four or five weeks, been sleeping in a hovel and other places, in the Blaina Iron Works, without receiv- ing necessary sustenance. About the 14th ult. he was taken ill, from want of food and the impure nature of the air of the cabin and other places in Mhich he slept. The facts, as far as we have been able to collect them, are as follow : — On Tuesday week great complaints were made to Messrs. Brown, by the men employed at the works, of the filthy and dirty state the deceased was in, and the unbearable stench arising therefrom. Mr. Thomas Brown immediately caused ap- plication to be made to the deputy reliev- ing officer, James Thomas, residing at Blaina, stating deceased's illness, and re- questing his immediate removal, but he took no steps in the matter further than sending him food. On Tuesday, the 26th, Mr. Thomas Brown wrote to Mr. Wat- kins the Relieving Officer, stating the case and desiring the paupers immediate re- moval, as deceased's life was endangered bv remaining in such an unwholesome at- 146 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. mosphere. The next day, Mr. Brown wrote another letter to him as follows : — " Sir, — I have to request your immediate at- tention to a poor man who is in a destitute con- dition, and has been lying in one of our miners' cabins several days. The man's life will be sac- rificed unless he is immediately attended to. " Your obedient servant, " March 27th, 1839. " THOMAS BROWN. " 1 have previous to this given your deputy notice, which is not attended to." On the return of the messenger he gave the following statement to Mr. Brown : — " On Wednesday morning I took a note from Mr. Thomas Brown, by his request, to the Relieving Officer, with instructions to deliver it into his hands. After he had perused the note he said he had spoken to the magistrates, at the Board of Guardians, the week before, at Aberga- venny, respecting the poor man, who was in the cabin, being in a destitute and filthy state ; when Mr. Gabb told him they would not allow him to send him to the Avorkhouse ; and that he had their orders for him to stay where he was. I asked him if the surgeon had seen him. He answered in the affirmative, but said he could give him no medicine to do him good. I asked him if he had sufficient food and attendance, when he told me James Thomas had pro- cured everything necessary, and had em- ployed a woman to take his victuals regularly ; that he had had him washed, and had put on him some fresh clothes. He said that he had done all that he had the power of doing; but the next day, Thursday, he was going to the meeting of the Board of Guardians at Abergavenny, and would lay Mr. Brown's letter before them, and receive their instructions what was to be done with him. I told him the men working near him were much incon- venienced, and did not like to go near him, and therefore I thought he ought to be removed. He said, it would be im- possible for him to get him, in his filthy state, into a house at Blaina, but he had no doubt if he was at Abergavenny he could get lodgings for him." The deceased left the cabin on Saturday morning, and w^as seen that morning lean- ing on the palings of a house some distance from the cabin, and afterwards found lying in a ditch by the house, and there died before assistance could be procured. On Monday an inquest was held on the body, before Mr. Thomas Hughes, Coroner for the county of Monmouth. The fact of the deceased's having been found dead in the ditch was proved by two witnesses. Thomas Parry. — This day week, about seven o'clock, I went to the works, and found deceased in the cabin. I asked him Avhat he did there, but could get no sensible reply. He said, James Thomas had brought him there. I then went to James Thomas, and asked him to have deceased removed. He replied that he had nothing more to do with him, as he had reported the case to the Guardians at Abergavenny. I saw some children bring him something. The deceased was in that cabin on Monday, Tuesday, and Wed- nesday. I took a note from Mr. Brown to the Relieving Officer, and left it at Wat- kins's house. Mr. Thomas Brown. — I heard there was a man in a destitute condition in one of our cabins, and I sent a note to the Relieving Officer apprising him of it ; and on Wednesday I sent another note desir- ing his removal, but without eff'ect. Mr, Rowland, surgeon of Nautyglo, sworn. — On Friday week, as surgeon to the Board, I went to examine the deceased. I saw him with Mr. James Thomas, with whom he was walking away, and as that was the case, I did not make an exami- nation. I understood he Avas a great annoyance to the workmen, being in an extremely filthy state. I also understood that he incommoded Messrs. Brown by occupying the ash-pit. This day I have seen the body, and from the extreme emaciation of his person, and the way in which he has been living, I think he died from a worn-out constitution, which may have arisen from want of proper food and sustenance, and his death must have been hastened by being surrounded by filth, want of cleanhness, and breathing an im- pure atmosphere. In consequence of some observations from Mr. Thomas Brown, to the effect that the examination of witnesses had not been carried to a sufficient length, the Coroner asked if he thought there could be any evidence given that would seriously implicate the ReHeving Officer .'' Mr. T. Brown answered. Yes ; that the Relieving Officer was much to blame in not taking the deceased to clean lodgings, or removing him when he oflfered him the use of a horse, a man, and a spring-covered cart, to remove him where he thought proper ; that he would have removed de- ceased himself, but could not take the re- sponsibility ; and at the same time warned him of the consequences of neglect. Mr. Watkins, the Relieving Officer, stated — On Wednesday w^eek I received BASTILE TREATMENT AND TYRANNY. 147 the first intimation from Mr. Brown of the state of the deceased. I reported the case to the Boai'd of Guardians on their next meeting at Abergavenny. The Board thought he was not in a fit state for re- moval to the workhouse, I was told to reUeve him, and to find lodgings if I could ; if I could not find lodgings, I was to relieve him where he was. I said I could not find lodgings. I attended the Board the next Thursday, and again re- ceived the same instructions. I laid before them the letters I had received from Mr. Brown. I described to them the state deceased was in. Mr. James Brown here remarked it was the duty of the Relieving Officer to remove such persons, and thought there was a great direlection of duty in the case. The Coroner said the Relieving Officer was to find proper food for such persons until they were in a fit state to be removed to the workhouse. In this case the Re- lieving Officer had acted wrong ; but he hoped it was an error of judgment, and not from wilful neglect, and he thought if the Board had understood in what con- dition the man was, they would have given orders to remove him. J. Thomas said he had done everything he could for deceased. INIr. James Brown informed the Coroner, that about ten days ago he wrote to Mr. Williams, o»f Nantyglo, one of the Guar- dians, telling him of the deplorable situa- tion deceased was in, and begging his interference with the Relieving Officer to get him removed to the workhouse, but received no reply. He also asked James Thomas if he had stated to the Board of Guardians at Abergavenny, that he told him that unless deceased was removed from the premises he would kick him olf ; and if the vicar replied, " If anything happens to this man, I will see him (Mr. Brown) prosecuted for manslaughter ! " J. Thomas replied, " I did tell the Board you said you would turn the man out, and the vicar said, " If he does, I ■will take care he shall be indicted for man- slaughter." Mr. T. Brown here said that J. Thomas told him it was the opinion of the Board that he should expel all vagrants who came to tlie works, by force ; and that on Friday he employed men to take deceased to the constable's house, but he refused any care of him. Coroner (to J. Thomas, constable). — It Avas your bounden duty to remove the man to the workhouse. Mr. J. Brown then read an extract from the 4th Annual Report of the Poor- Law Commissioners, p. 155, showing that it was the especial duty of peace-olficers to conduct destitute persons to places where relief would be administered. The Coroner concurred with Mr. Brown. Mr, T. J. Phillips suggested that one of the witnesses examined Avas not on oath. The Coroner said, if it was so it had escaped him ; but his reason for not swearing so many witnesses was, that if they were sworn, though their evidence might not be at all material, their ex- penses would have to be paid. The witness mentioned was afterwards sworn. William Williams stated, that he was by the cabin door one night last week, and overheard Watkins tell the deceased to make himself comfortable there that night, for he would be whipped oflf in the morn- ing. Watkins admitted having used some such expression ; but said it was only to hear what reply deceased would make. At the conclusion of the examination the Coroner remarked, " I have no hesi- tation in saying that no man could have acted with greater credit, greater huma- nity, or greater kindness, than Mr. Brown has, with reference to this poor man." At this stage of the proceedings the jury left the room for the purpose of viewing the cabin in which the deceased had been staying. On their return the foreman stated it to be a beastly place — cold, wet, and filthy, and not fit to put a pig in. The jury having expressed a wish to go into another room to consider their verdict, the coroner ordered one ; and said, if they thought of returning any stronger verdict than one of censure on the conduct of the Relieving Officer, he should consider it his duty to go much further into the evidence, and examine more witnesses than he had done, and then the case could not be finished that day. The jury then retired, and after an absence of about a quarter-of-an-hour, returned the following verdict : — " That on Saturday morning last, the 30th day of March, in the year 1 839, in the parish of Aberystwith, in the county of Monmouth, the said William Nicholas was found dead ; that there are no marks of violence to be found on his person, and that the death of the said William Nicho- L 2 148 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. las Avas accelerated by the want of proper food and nourishment." The body of the unfortunate deceased was buried the same evening. [From the Times, April 11, 1839.] A case of great importance, and which is attended with many extraordinary cir- cumstances, was settled a few days ago by Mr. William Moody, the barrister, it having: been referred to him for arbitration under an order of the Bath quarter-ses- eions, dated the 4th of January last. The award was made an order of court last week, on the motion of Mr. Stone, before D. Jardine, Esq., the recorder of the city and borough of Bath. The following are the particulars : — Two years back this month a poor fel- low, named William Withers, whilst ill, was removed on the outside of a coach by an overseer of Walcot Union, in Somer- setshire, from the workhouse of that place to the poor-house of Clerkenwell. He travelled by night without any other pro- tection from cold than an old great coat. When he was admitted into the latter place he was in a state of collapse that placed his life in the utmost peril. He complained of coldness, numbness, and pain in the upper and lower extremities, and was unable to make the least use of them. His hands, extending considera- bly above the wrists, were of a livid colour, approaching to black, and without heat. The feet were in the same state. His nose and upper lip bore the same ap- pearance, and his pulse were scarcely perceptible. The parish surgeons, Messrs. "Spencer and Taylor, were immediately called in to see the unfortunate sufferer, and from the appearances described, the former gentleman states in his evidence, *' I was apprehensive that the blood was 60 far coagulated in the vessels, and the vitality of the parte destroyed, that morti- cation would almost certainly ensue. All the means which seemed best calculated to restore the vital energies, both generally and locally, were carefully and sedulously employed. After some days it became manifest, from the separating process commencing, and a deep discoloured state of the hands and feet, that mortification was inevitable, since which it has been ■necessary, in consequence of the mortified condition of them, to remove them by am- putation, as well as the feet at the ankles. The upper lip is restored to a natural state, as is also the nose, excepting a por- •tion of the tip which has sphacelated and fallen off. He has subsequently been attacked with erysipelas of the face and head, of a dangerous character. He has thrice suffered from diarrhoea and once had a pleuritic seizure, from all of which he has recovered. He is still confined to his bed in consequence of the wounds of the extremities and extensive exfoliation of bone, and the chance of his ever re- covering is hardly to be expected." The evidence of poor Withers is as follows : — " In the month of February, 1837, I left the city of Bristol, with the intention of travelling to London, but was then so ill with the rheumatism as to be unable to proceed fa thcr than Bath ; and on my application there for relief I was admitted into the poor-house of the parish of Walcot, in that city, and placed in the sick ward, where I continued six weeks very ill, and chiefly in bed, under the care of the medical attendant of the place, by whose orders I took some opening pills only ; but not being able to sleep, I in- formed him that I had taken opium pills to obtain rest before I saw him, and he then furnished me with some of that me- dicine. On or about the 7th of the month of April following, whilst lying ill in bed, the governor of the said poor-house in- formed me at four o'clock in the afternoon that I was to be removed that evening outside a stage-coach, and inquired if I felt well enough to go in that way to London, and I replied, ' Yes, if well wrapped up to protect me from the incle- mency of the weather,' which was then severely cold. About six o'clock on that evening I was furnished with a great coat belonging to the establishment, but it was not near large enough to afford me that protection from cold which my limbs re- quired, and I was placed outside of a coach from the White Hart at Bath, ac- companied by the Assistant Overseer of Walcot, who sat on the leeward side at the back of the coach, and I on the wind- ward side. There was a considerable fall of snow and a severely cold wind. When I had travelled about 17 miles my feet and legs were very cold, and I lost the use of my hands so as to be incapable of getting them inside my coat or pocket to procure warmth. At that time there was inside the coach a pauper who was being removed from Walcot to Kent. He was in a consumption, which, being ascertained by a gentleman who was also an inside passenger, he left the vehicle, being afraid to ride with a man so afflicted. 1 then entreated the Overseer to let me go inside BASTILE TREATMENT AND TYRANNY. 149 the coach, telhng hira the dreadful suffer- ing I was enduring, andtliat if something was not speedily done I should perish ; to which the overseer repHed, ' It is not so cold as it has been,' and refused to allow my request. I continued in the same state all night, repeatedly imploring him to be placed inside, but without suc- cess. At one place where the coach stopped the overseer, who got off the coach, sent me some beer by a servant, but as I could not use my hands, I did not get it. At Newbuiy, where I arrived about one o'clock in the morning, I got off the coach with the assistance of two men, one on each side of me, and was by them helped into a tap- room. The waiter told me to have something to drink, and he humanely gave me a glass of brandy and water, which was held up to my mouth to swallow. On the coach leaving New- bury I was again jolaced on the coach by two men, and I continued there, without taking anything further, until I arrived at the Golden-cross, Charing-cross, at six o'clock in the morning, when I had a glass of gin, which was also held up to my mouth by a stranger. The overseer afterwads removed me in a coach to Clerkenwell workhouse, where I have since remained. Through that dreadful journey I have lost my hands and feet." Mr. Prendergast, the barrister, pro- duced to the arbitrator the order upon which the i-emovalof the pauper took place. It was dated 17th March, 1837. Mr. Hill said, there was no doubt that Withers's settlement was Clerkenwell ; but he contended that he must be thrown on the parish of Walcot for life, in con- sequence of the removal not having been in conformity to law. Under the clause 79 of the 4th and 5th William IV., c. 76, it is enacted, " That from and after the 1st day of November, 1834, no pei'son shall be removed from any parish or workhouse, by reason of his being so chargeable to, or relieved therein, until 21 days after a notice in writing of his being so chargeable or relieved, accom- panied by a copy or counterpart of the order of removal of such person, and by a copy of the examination upon which such order was made, shall ha\e been given to the overseers or guardians of the parish to which such order is directed." Evidence having been given that no more than 1 days elapsed from the re- ceipt of the notice of the pauper's charge- ability to Walcot and his deUvery at Clerkenwell workhouse, Mr. Moody decided that the objection to the notice was fatal, and that the order of removal must, consequently, be quashed, and he ordered that the costs of the appeal and the charges for the maintenance of Withers up to the present time be paid in full bj' the overseers of Walcot, who are likewise directed to pay in future 5s. a-week to the overseers of Clerkenwell until the pauper can be removed thence back to Bath. There is no probability of the pauper ever being consigned again to the tender mercies of the Walcot overseers, as his health is not likely to permit of his removal, and that he will shortly sink under his heavy afflictions. He speaks in the highest terms of the medical officers, the master of the workhouse, and all others who have had anything to do with him since his confinement in Clerkenwell, and fervently prays that he may die under their protection. He is not restricted to diet; whatever he asks for he has. If he fancies fish, flesh, or fowl, he is supplied with them. He smokes a great deal, and has two pots of porter a-day, besides two glasses of gin or wine, as he thinks proper. Such things, it is said, are absolutely necessaiy to keep him alive. The costs arising from the brutality of the Walcot overseers will fall little short of £500. " Are they, my Lord Duke, locked up as well as separated in hospitals? If not, if separation be sufficient in a hospital, what makes imprisonment needful in a workhouse ?" — Rev. Edmund Dewdneys Letter to the Duke of Richmond. " A poor old woman, a short time be- fore last Christmas, put a grandchild, three years old, into the Bath workhouse, conceiving that the child as well as her- self would be benefited by it. After it had been there a few weeks, she went to see it, but was not permitted to do so ; again she tried, but in vain ; but the third time she would not go without seeing it, when she discovered the child to be so altered for the worse, that she unmediately took it ont. I have seen a gentleman who advised the grandmother to put it in the workhouse, who declares that he never, in his life, beheld a healthier, heartier little thing when it left home, and that when it returned from the workhouse at the end of six weeks, it was a mos wretched object, a comparative skeleton, and evidently would soon have died unde' 150 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. the barbarous treatment it had met with. Its arms, and back, and loins were covered with bruises. I have seen several of the old woman's neighbours who bear the same testimony. One informed me (into whose house the child was carried on its way home) that the little creature appeared quite dreading and stupid, standing while she spoke to it with its hands up to its head as if trying to screen the sides of its face. This led her to ex- amine it, when she found it covered with bruises about its arms and back, which told her the cause of its singular manner and position was fear. Another told me, she was sure it would not have lived another week, it was so thin and weak, it appeared quite a cripple. I have since seen the little thing of late, and wretched as is its dwelling, its cheeks are as rosy and ruddy as possible, now that it is well used again and happy. It was shown to a Guardian, who, I am told, brought the case before the Board ; but nothing was done, although the Guardians had brought before them the cruel treatment of a for- mer child which had been so beaten by the same woman in the workhouse. This nurse and guardian of little helpless in- nocents was kept in office until her death, an event which occurred a short time ago. She died in great horror of mind. There is no doubt many have been destroyed by such merciless protectors. How barbar- ous and unnatural a thing to take the little creatures away from their parents, their natural guardians, and to commit them to the care of those who care not for them. My family and I have fre- quently remarked how sickly the little things looked ; and how could it be ex- pected to be otherwise ? when there are 60 or 70 together in a room which they never quit, and when they are so barbar- ously treated ?" — Extract of a Letter from the Rev. C. Foivell Watts f of Bath J to the Author, dated Oct. 9, 1840. " The nearest relative is not allowed to carry the least thing, not even a bit of fruit, or a bun, into the House, to a dying person. I have had it said to me — ' Oh, Sir ! if I had but an orange to suck to moisten my dry mouth !' and oranges I have stealthily carried to the sick and dying. A friend of mine carried a short time ago a little snufF to a man blind and dumb, whom he had long known, and who had taken it for 25 years. He was not allowed to give it. He wrote to the Board, and received for answer, that it was against the ' rules ' of the House to allow it, nor could it be allowed unless the medical officer stated it to be necessary for the man's health." — Ibid. " I have known a dying man get out of bed in the night in the dark (for no light is burnt), and fall prostrate on the floor. He died early on the following morning, — I mean six or seven hours after. A man in the same ward who heard him fall, and cried out for a light and help, was sharply reproved for making such a noise and fuss." — Ibid. " A poor idiot woman, aged 34, far gone in the family Avay, went into the Union House for 17 days, when she asked leave to go out to see her father (aged 84) and mother. This was on a Wed- nesday, and on the Friday following, she walked back six miles, when on her ar- rival she was put into the Probationary Ward to be washed. She had hard work to walk these six miles — was near falling several times the last mile — and being scrubbed down with cold water on her return, was her reception instead of meat and drink ! Another woman and two children were also waiting in this ward of weariness at the time, who stated, that the porter came about nine o'clock that evening, and called her and her two chil- dren out, and brought a small bed and bedding and threw down, and said, ' There, A. B., you must lie there to night ;' and as he locked her in, said to the other woman, ' She should not have gone out, and then she would not have had to lie there.' The poor woman her- self told me the same, and added, that she grew worse and worse, and tried all she could to make some person hear her, but in vain ; and she was quite alone all night, and thought she must have died. But her child was born between the church striking two and three, for she heard every hour it struck that night ; and she never pulled off any of her clothes till after the birth of her child, when she took off her apron, and with that and her handkerchief she wrapped up the babe, and took all the care of it she could. But no one came near her till seven o'clock in the morning, when a poor girl found her alive and that was all. She had not had even a chamberpot to make use of; but all was spread over the room just as na- ture and her exhausted strength had left it. Several women just cleansed up the place a little and called two men : one of whom gave me the following account of the transaction. He Avas cook that morn- ing, and after boiling and serving out the BASTILE TREATMENT AND TYRANNY. 151 skill}', he asked if all were supplied? and ' Yes, yes, yes,' was the answer; but, after a few minutes, a girl said ' No ; there is poor A. B. locked up in the 'Probationary Ward:' run with this basin of skilly.' He did ; and found her as before stated. He said there was a great bustle and whispering with the wo- men, and presently he was called ; and the porter and he, one at the head, and the other at the feet, carried the poor woman up stairs into the lying-in-ward. The nurse had got a blanket in her hand, and this man said, as he went up stairs, ' Lay down that blanket and help carry the poor woman.' But she said she could not lay it down. He then suspected, and afterwards found, she had got the child in the blanket; and, as he came down stairs, he said to the porter who helped him to carry the poor woman up stairs, ' By what authority did you lock that poor woman up in this place, so far away from all the rest where no one could see or hear anything of her ?' But he could not answer the question. But the nurses and matron, to screen themselves, made up a report that the woman came in late and could not be attended to ; and that they had no idea of anything of the kind happening ; and that the matron said she went to look at her at eleven o'clock that night when she was asleep and very well ; and that when she was found in labom* in the morning, between six and seven o'clock, her child was born before they could fetch the doctors, &c., &c. When this tale was told by them to the Guar- dians, they would, of course, believe no other than their own tools ; but when the poor woman told every one of the paupers, when she was well enough between whiles, that she had been very bad indeed at eleven o'clock, for she heard the church clock strike eleven, and all was still, she could hear no one, nor could she make any one hear or answer, although she called and screamed as loud as she could, — they were, I believe, in a great fright for fear she might die ; but she recovered and lived some 8, 10, or 12 months after. Since, several of the women have told me they did not believe she ever got over it ; but that from suckling her child upon the cruel, pinching dietary, and being com- pelled to wash and work so hard, she got worse and worse, weaker and weaker, till at last she sank under it and died, as they believe, from want of proper food and nourishment, as thousands of others have done ; and the last I heard of her child, was that it was not likely to live." — Extract of a Letter from a South County Correspondent to the Author, dated Oct. 10, 1840. " He had lately heard of three girls of fifteen or sixteen years of age who had become the mothers of children to youths of twenty-five or twenty-six. Now, he would ask their Lordships whether it was not most unjust to compel the mothers in such a case to support their children?" — Lord Wytford, House of Lords, JNIay 1 , 1839. " The ' discretionary ' power which the Commissioners profess to leave in our (the Guardians') hands of giving out-door relief in ' cases of urgent necessity,' is a mere nullity, for it is now said, not only that the Relieving Officer is the ultimate judge of what is and what is not 'urgent necessity,' but, in order to shut the door still more closely against all benevolent interference on the part of the Guardians, all cases arising from any sudden defi- ciency of work, from the exigencies of a large family above the age of seven, or from the wickedness of a husband in de- serting his wife and children, are declared to be of that class in which the workhouse is the only alternative." — Rev. Sir George Rohinson s Letter to the Kettering Board, Oct. JO, 1839. " Your Grace doubtless remembers, that Coombs, a man with a large family, who at best earned but 12s. a-week, and for fifteen weeks had earned nothmg whatever, applied for relief to the Guar- dians of Westbourne, of which he was an acknowledged pauper, but was refused, and referred to the Guardians of Portsea (the place where he was living) ; that he was refused also by them, and roamed about seeking for work, till at length he dropped from exhaustion on the snow and very nearly died. That then the Portsea Board, being alarmed, did what was ne- cessary for his restoration, and, as soon as they could, passed him to his parish, where he and his family were, as usual, shut up in the workhouse and separated from each other. That till his starvation he was a strong man, but he is now en- feebled for life, a victim of oppression which defrauds and destroys the poor to enrich the wealthy." — Rev. E. Deicdneifs (of Portsea) Letter to the Duke of Rich- mond, May 12, 1840. " All we know is, that early in the week, for some reason or another, a girl 15 or 16 years of age, jumped out of a Ihii-d story window (of the Union work- 152 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. house at Ludlow), at the hazard of her life, hoping to escape from something she did not like — whether it was cruel treat- ment or not." — Ludlow Standard, Oct. 17, 1840. " She told him that she would tell him all about their ill-using her. She told him that the doctor had only seen her twice, and he had never seen all her wounds. She also told him that the Irish woman dragged her up and down in the bed by the hair of the head, put her hand , and said she would pull her guts out, d — d b — h ! She also told him that one day there was a man going past the window, and the Irish woman (the nurse) asked him if that was not a nice place ; and said here is a d — d b — h and a w — e lying. This was when the poor patient was lying helpless in bed. She said that the Irish woman had flogged her with a rod and besom-stick, nipped her, scratched her, punched her, and that she had been used as bad as any slave." — Mary Wilderis fa Victim to the New Poor- LaioJ Description of her ill-usage in Worksop Union Workhouse; and on whose body an inquest tvas held the 4th and 7 th of Miirch, 1839. " The Bill worked well ! Yes, he had a paper there that told him so. This document was from an agricultural dis- trict, from Cheadle, in Cheshire. It was a communication from one of his boys, as he called them, by trade a mason, who was helping to build a church. This boy had sent him this fact to show how the Poor-Law worked there. He stated that while at work in the church-yard he heard the cry of murder — it was the voice of a female outside the walls. He and a com- panion went to the spot, and there saw a pauper mother, who, with her infant babe, had escaped from the workhouse. One of the workhouse demons was approach- ing to seize her and her babe to carry them back again; the woman protested that she would die sooner than allow her babe to be taken from her. The work- house official then tried coaxing, and said if she would go back her child should not be taken from her. She yielded, and the child was again taken away. His in- formant and his companion went to the Cheadle workhouse, which was not quite finished; they were refused admittance, but they succeeded in seeing in one of the rooms a parcel of old men ; in another, little children, varying in age from one month to ten years ; the children were crying and sobbing, and wiping their eyes, and the demons who had the care of them were, as these men informed him, lugging the poor children by the hair of the haad because they were crying for their mothers !" — 3Ir. Oastler's Speech at the Freemasons' Tavern, Y eh. 19, 1838. " Last week a child died at Hereford of the small-pox, and the surviving rela- tives, being almost destitute, were unable to bury it ; they therefore, first applied to the parish-ofiicers, who refused to assist, and then to the magistrates, who had no power to interfere. According therefore to the law, as it now stands, the body of the child must remain above-ground. A similar instance occurred some time ago in the case of a poor woman, who was at length buried by subscription." — Mon- mouth Beacon, Nov. 14, 1840. " In the last week the York Town Council agreed that a shed should be erected over the felons to protect them from the inclemency of the weather whilst engaged in their labour. On Thursday last, at a meeting of the Board of Guar- dians, Mr. Littlcdale, a gentleman dis- tinguished for his humanity and benevo- lence, urged before the Board the pro- priety of erecting a shed, under which the unfortunate paupers in the workhouse might be sheltered whilst engaged in breaking stones ; and Mr. Peacock pro- posed a resolution that the committee should take into consideration the pro- priety of the suggestion. This very pro- per motion was met by Mr. Spearman Johnstone (Whig of course), the Guar- dian for Dringhouses, in a manner which showed him ill-qualified to be a Guardian of the poor. He ridiculed the proposition, remarking, 'that if this shed was pro- vided, the paupers would next want a bil- liard-room, with chairs and cushions!' "- — Yorkshire Gazette, Dec, 1839. " The charity dress debases the child ; for, in his earliest yfears, he is marked and pointed out among his fellows as the poor man's child ; and ostentation puts upon him the livery of pauperism. I would not use the dress so injudiciously, but I would make it the badge of merit to be won by good conduct in the school, so that the child would feel himself raised in the eyes of strangers rather than self- lowered and self-degraded." — W. A. Miles, Esq. His '•'' Report''' from Glou- cestershire npo7i Hand-loom Weaviiig. " The most worthy gentleman thinks the charity dress debases the child, then Avhy do he and his fellows affix the pau- per's badge upon the children of the poor BASTILE TREATMENT AND TYRANNY. 153 in the Union workhouse ? Why brand the honeet man's clothes across the back with the pauper-mark that points him out as a poor man ? Surely the livery of pauperism is not less debasing to the un- fortunate adult than to the poor boy !" — R. J. Richardson, of Salford. "How TO DEPOPULATE A HoUSE OF Industry in Dublin. — ' The old, infirm, and what may be termed the regular in- mates of the institution, will be constantly lessening in number now that new admis- sions are stopped, and may be xoill pro- bably leave when a stricter discipline is established in the House.'' — Commis- sioners' " Report" for Ireland. " Phillis Blake was a woman grown. When she was beaten she was 28 years of age. The master beat her with a stick, not a rod ; he beat her on her person and across her back, more than one, or two, or three blows. She had not got her clothes on ; she was flogged because she was not up in the morning when he went up to her room. I mean she was in her bedroom at the time when the master entered and scolded her. She had on only her chemise and her night-cap. I have known the master to go down to beat her. I have seen her marked afterwards. She is now dead. She had marks of whipping on her body after her death. During her life she was never free from marks on her body, I remained with her until the time of her death. I saw the marks on her hands and across her back. Her hands were like black kid gloves. I fetched in the mistress to look at them. She was violently marked Avith a stick. I don't know of what complaint she died. She only kept her bed two days.'" — Witness in the Prosecution of Mr. Miles, the Master of the Hoo Union, '"'' Morning Herald;' Jan. 7, 1841. " Bow-STREET. — Just as Mr. Hall was about to leave the bench, a young man, driver of cabriolet 1,161, applied to him for advice under the following circum- stances : — He stated that on Sunday week last he was standing with his cab at the coach-stand, Holborn, when he was called by a man who desired he would take a female, who appeared ex- tremely ill and near her confinement, to a house in Gerrard-street, Soho, where her sister resided, and on arriving there, he found that no such person resided there, and being ordered to take her to West- minster Hospital, he proceeded thither, but he was told that she could not be ad- mitted. He then drt)ve, as he was de- sired, to the institution in Queen's-square, which, on his arrival, he found had been broken up for some time past. The poor woman was by this time in the greatest agony, and she requested him, as well as she was able, to stop at the house of some medical man from whom she could obtain relief, and knowing that such a person kept a shop in Tothill-street, he drew up at the door, but the gentleman of the house not being at home, his assistant ad- vised him to take her to the Lying-in Hospital in the York-road, Lambeth, where, on arriving, the matron refused to receive a patient unless she could pro- duce an order in the usual way, at the same time recommending the applicant to apply at the Lambeth workhouse. Applicant, seeing the woman getting worse and worse, drove with the greatest expedition to Lambeth workhouse, but she was refused to be admitted there also, as the parish authorities would have no such incumbrance, and being directed to take her to the St. James's workhouse, he drove to Poland-street, where, upon arriving, he discovered that she had deli- vered herself of a child. On explaining this circumstance, they refused to take her in or have anything to do with her, and, as he was advised, he drove oft" to the institution in Portugal-street, Lin- coln's-inn-fields, where she was again re- fused, and having taken the poor crea- ture, who then appeared entirely ex- hausted, to Bow-street Station-house, he explained the matter briefly to Inspector Meddlicot, who instantly dispatched a constable to St. Giles's workhouse, where she was at length admitted, but on taking her out of the cab, it was found that the infant was dead," Sec. — Conservative Jour- nal, Oct. 31, 1840. " Your memorialists beg to assure you that none but those who have experi- enced or witnessed it, can form any idea of the distress both of body and mind which the working classes undergo ; — a father looking upon the pale and sickly faces of his half-naked children, is bowed down with aflHiction, but how much more greatly is that afiliction increased, when he hears them crying to him for that food which he has not to bestow. The pow- ers of imagination would fail to describe the spectacles of wretchedness which are frequently presented in reality ; — the house once well furnished, now nearly emptied — piece after piece of the goods having been sold to pay rent, or to satisfy the cravings of nature — and in numerous 154 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. instances, where nearly every article has been disposed of, the poor family are compelled to abandon their home, and to seek for shelter in a single room, where they are huddled together so closely, that the atmosphere becomes fetid and un- wholesome, and they sink into sickness, and are frequently carried off by death. What language can portray the agony of the hearts of parents, as they watch the dying moments of their children, and see them carried off to the grave, well knowing that a want of the necessaries of life, which they could not procure, has caused the melancholy and untimely sa- crifice !" — Memorial of the Workmg Classes of Nottingham to the Mayor, 1840. " On Monda)', John Stokes, the porter of the Kidderminster Union workhouse, was brought before the county magis- trates on the charge of ill-treating a pau- per boy in the house, named Perks, aged 8 years. From the evidence it appeared, that the child had a disease of the blad- der, which gave great offence to the de- fendant, who had often punished the boy for the involuntary effects of the com- plaint. On the previous morning, groans were heard issuing from a sack hanging up from a beam, and on the Governor of the Workhouse cutting it down, the child was found doubled up within the bag, in which state the porter had kept him sus- l^ended all the morning ; this ferocious act had been previously perpetrated on several other occasions." — Ten lowns' Messenger, 1840. " Another great evil produced from abiding by the in-door test, and refusing temporary relief, has been the driving men away from their families, in search of employment. Some form other con- nections, and never return. I know cases of this kind of the most painful and dis- tressing nature. Some have waited day after day, hoping for a change, and no- thing appearing, their minds became care- less, and they, by leaving their homes, have neglected their families." — " Obser- vations on the Administration of the Neiv Poor-Laic in Nottingham,^ by W. Roivorth, Esq., il/oyo;-.— Published Nov., 1840. " The poor residing in the town, who belong to other unions within a short dis- tance, suffer very much, and are most cruelly treated, through so much power being given to the Relieving Officer. When under temporary distress, for want of employment, they applied to our Re- lieving Officer, and were directed to ap- ply to their own unions. When they did so, they were told to apply in the union they were living, and Avith exhausted bodies, for want of food, they have been sent several miles, from one ReHcving Offi- cer to another. A female came to me, with a medical certificate, testifying her inability to work ; she resided at Notting- ham, and had been to our Relieving Offi- cer to ask for relief; he told her to apply to her own union ; she did so, and they told her to apply to the union in which she lived, and between them both, she ob- tained no relief'' — Ibid. " A family in distress, got a waggon returning empty, to where the relieving officer resided, of the Union to which they belonged ; when they arrived he would neither relieve nor receive them, and the owner of the waggon had them in his house all night, and they returned the next day, as the Relieving Officer would not receive them without an order of re- moval." — Ibid. " An old man came to my door, who had the symptoms of death in his face, and could scarcely walk : lie told me that he had ai)plied to the Relieving Officer, to take him into the workhouse, and he had refused, saying to him, ' Get away with you ! I'll not hear your tales !' He said to me, ' For God"s sake, beg of them to take me in, and donH let me die in the street ! I shall eat very litth, and not live long.'' I asked him several questions, and where he was residing. I did not then send him up again to the Relieving Officer, as it was too late, but, having re- lieved him, told him to go again in the morning, and ask to see the other Reliev- ing Officer, and he went away The infirm creature, nearly a skeleton, with great difficulty dragged his body up to the House again, which was nearly the two extremes of one part of the town. His last reception I took dotvn from his dying lips ; it was as follows : — ' I stood at the door a good bit — the other door was open (the Board-room, near the Re- lieving Officer's door) — I thought I would go in. In a little time, the ReUeving Officer observed me, and he said, very roughly, ' What do you want ?' I said, ' I wish to come into the house, for I am friendless in a strange place.' He said, ' Be off with you.' I said, ' Pray let me stop. / am destitute, and cannot traveV He said, ' Begone ; don't do the same as you did before — go aicay, like a tramping scamp as you are ; if you stay in the totvn ever so long, we should give you no relief BASTILE TREATMENT AND TYRANNY. 155 These are the dying words and testimony of this poor man, against the inhuman and cruel conduct of the Relieving Officer, and they strike me with an awful solem- nity while I record them : his dying looks and dyiiig ivords are quite fresh to my mind." — Ibid. '' There was one woman who cut her throat. She told the INIaster that if he took her child from her, she would cut her throat, and he did do it, and after she left the House she carried her threat into execution, and did cut her throat.''' — Witness examined on the Prosecution of the Master of the Hoo Union, " Morning Herald;' Jan. 7, 1841. " I had repeated appHcations to visit cases of great destitution, and I frequently found them quite neglected, and never visited hij the Relieving Officer. I was fetched to a case, where the man was suf- fering from an abscess in the arm, and could not work ; there were five chil- dren, the eldest of whom had been a cripple from its birth ; all that they were allowed for several weeks' maintenance of seven persons, was Is., one stone of bread, and one peck of potatoes a-week. I reported this case to the ReUeving Offi- cer, but it never was visited, nor any more relief given." — Roioorth's " Observa- tions." " The coroner (Mr. Wakley) said he had seen five j^ersons asleep in one bed in a workhouse at the east end of London. The workhouse in question was ori- ginally built to contain 300 persons only, while at the time he was speaking of, it actually contained no fewer than 1 ,300 !" — Coroner's inquest in the " Times;'' Nov. 28, 1840. " On Monday morning (Dec. 7), at nine o'clock, Mr. Wakley, M. P., coroner, and a jury of respectable inhabitant house- holders, re-assembled pursuant to ad- journment, in the Board-room of the Union workhouse, Hendon, Middlesex, further to prosecute the inquiries into the circumstances attending the death of James Lisney, a pauper therein, aged 45, who, it was reported, had died through an illness produced by being confined in a damp room by order of the Board of Guardians From the evidence ad- duced it appeared, that the deceased was formerly a footman in service at Hendon, but, being out of place, and becoming greatly reduced, in March last, his goods were distrained upon for rent, and he was compelled, with his wife, and one of his children, to seek an asylum in the above workhouse, from which he had been, for some time previous, in the receipt of out-door relief. On Tuesday, the 3d ult., he asked permission of the Master of the workhouse, in the presence of the Board of Guardians, to be allowed a holiday, when the Chairman of the Board, on being made acquainted with his request, said it could not be com- plied with. Deceased then remarked, that ' he did not see why he should not have a holiday the same as another per- son,' when he was told by the Chairman to leave the room. This he said he should not do, and the Chau"raan then di- rected that he should be placed in con- finement for 24 hours for his ' imperti- nence,' and fed upon bread and water, which was carried into efiect on the fol- lowing morning by the Master locking him up in the Lodge, or receiving- ward, and keeping him there until the next (Thursday) morning. Shortly after- wards, deceased was taken ill, and coughed violently ; and on the paiish surgeon seeing him, that gentleman said he had caught a dreadful cold, and must take care of himself. Subsequently, on the Sunday previous to his death, his daughter, who was in service in the neighbourhood, went to see him. He was then in bed very ill, and told her in the presence of Judith Biddle, one of the nurses, the Rev. Mr. Pemberton, the chaplain, and his own wife, that he had been locked up in a damp room by order of Mr. Williams (the Chairman, and a clergyman ! ! ) for saying a few ivords the latter did not approve of; that he had thereby caught a severe cold, which had struck to his inside ; that he had kept his bed in consequence, which he was sure he should never be able to leave again ; that he had never felt warm since, and was sure he should die. His pre- diction proved true ; for he got worse, rapidly sank, and died on Friday, the 21 st of Nov." — Poor-Laiv Murder reported in the " Metropolitan Conservative Journal;^ Dec. 12, 1840. " An inquiry has taken place this week at Rochester, before the county magis- trates, into several charges preferred against James Miles, the Master of the Hoo Union-House, for cruelly beating several young pauper-children of both sexes. Elizabeth Danes stated, that she was 13 years of age, and that the defend- ant, James Miles, had punished her three times while she was in the Union-House. The oflence she had committed was leav- 156 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. ing a little dirt in the comer of a room, and the defendant made her lie upon a table, and took her clothes off, and beat her with a rod made of a birch-broom until blood came. Another time, she was stripped and received ten severe stripes ; and a third time, the Master pulled up her clothes, and flogged her on her person. The latter time blood came. A woman named Roberts corroborated a portion of the above evidence. The defendant fetched her to hold the little girl while he flogged her. The child cried bitterly, and the marks of the beating lasted upon her for some time. The girl's person was cut in stripes ! Witness never saw the Matron flog the girls. Sarah Barnes, a little girl about 10 or 11 years of age, stated, that she had no father or mother. She was in the Hoo Union-House until Friday last, and she had been Hving with her grandmother at Grange since Satur- day afternoon. She left the Union-House because she broke a piece out of a milk jug, and she was told she was to 'have the rod' the nest morning. At six o'clock on Saturday morning she got up and left the Union-House She could not say how many times the Master had flogged her, but he flogged her on the Tuesday previous to her running away. She was also beat on the Mon- day for not washing a dish clean. The Master laid her on a table in the hall, and pulled up her petticoats, and beat her, until she was very much hurt with a birch rod. Upon one occasion, the Mas- ter flogged her until the blood came, and the Mistress struck her on the last Board- day with a poker upon her arm. (The child showed her arm, which was still black). She was also struck on the back with the poker, because she did not clean the stoves in the Board-room." — Ibid. "The Poor-Law Commissioners were remarkable for the discoveries they had made ; they had discovered that over- seers of parishes were too lavish in the expenditure of their own money ; and they had also made one important dis- covery which he would mention — that was, that if it were wished to raise a man's moral character, it was only to be done, by first ascertaining the extent of misery he endured, and then by adding a little more misery in addition. ' Give him,' said they, ' a little skilly, and then you will see his moral character !' " — Mr. T. Clutfon Salt, in the Birmingham Council, Dec. 1, 1840. " Upwards of half-a-dozen girls in the Hoo workhouse, some of them verging on %vomanhood, have at times had their per- sons exposed in the most brutal and inde- cent manner, by the Master, for the pur- pose of inflicting on them cruel floggings ; and the same girls, at other times, have, in a scarcely less indecent manner, been compelled by him to strip the upper parts of their persons naked, to allow him to scourge them with birch rods on their bare shoulders and waists, and which, from more than one of the statements from the lips of the sufierers, appears to have been inflicted without mercy. One girl says, ' My back was marked with blood.' Another, a witness, who had not herself been punished, says, ' We women were called to hold one of the girls while the Master flogged her ; but we went down in the yard out of the way, because we could not bear the sight ; afterwards we got ointment out of the sick ward to rub her back, for it was cdl cut to ]}ieces^ Again, ' One Sunday the Master flogged little Jemmy (a pauper's illegitimate child, then two years of age) with a birch rod, so that the child carried the marks a month, because it cried for its mother, who was gone to church, and for its little bro- ther, who was that day put into breeches, and taken away fi-om the children's ward.' " — Rochester Correspondent to the " Times-' Dec. 26, 1840. " On Thursday, Ann Davis appeared before the magistrates sitting at the Angel Inn, Merthyr, to crave their interposition to save herself and infant from destruc- tion. She was in great distress, and ap- peared exhausted with mental and bodily aflJiction. It ajipears that the unhappy woman was the mother of a child, to which a low vagabond fellow, in the pa- rish of Gellygaer, was father. When the child was born, she was in service in the adjoining parish of Bedwellty ; as soon as she could walk, she took her infant and carried it into the parish of Gelly- gaer, and there left it at the dwelling of its father. For leaving the child in that manner, she was brought before the ma- gistrates of Merthyr by the parish-officer of Gellygaer, and was committed to Car- diff" gaol for a month for the offence, she observing at the time she wished it had been for a longer period, as she did not know what to do. The period of her im- prisonment having expired, she was set free, and now applied to the magistrates, saying, that she had passed the previous night under a hedge with her infant. BASLILE TREATMENT AND TYRANNY. 157 which she did not wish to murder, but which she could not support ! The fa- ther neither would or could support her or it. She would be glad to be sent to gaol to keep them from perishing. The magistrates lamented their inability to make any order in her case ; all they could do was to request the parish-officers to give her a few shillings for the supjily of her immediate wants. Let the hard- hearted advocates of the Bastardy Clauses of the New Poor-Law read this, and then say whether those clauses are not merci- lessly cruel in their operation. Here is a poor creature compelled, in an inclement season, with a sucking babe at her breast, to pass the night under a hedge, implor- ing for incarceration in a gaol, as offering her an asylum from such horrors. Sup- posing this forlorn being had, in her des- jjeration and misery, destroyed her babe or herself, or both, on whose head would be the fearful responsibility of the crime?" — Merthyr Guardian^ Dec, 1840. " I have seen an old woman named Thorp, who is dead now, led up the hall by the ears, by the Master ; and he has made her walk round the line-posts in the yard when she could scarcely drag one leg after the other." — A ivitness on the Pro- secution of 3Ir. Allies, the blaster of the Hoo Union, for cruelhj and indecently foyyiny the pauper female children, re- ported in the " 3Iorniny Herald" Jan. 7, 1841. " Phillis Danes is in the House now. I saw the Master once tie her up under the Lodge, where we wash our hands, and she had a fit, and pitched down while she was so tied." — Ibid. " I have seen Mr. Miles pinch Sarah Barnes's ears, and make them look ' angry,' because she did not wash the plates clean." — Ibid. " Mary Paste is a great girl, 14 years of age ; I saw red weals left upon her each time she was flogged. No one held her except the Master. He came and seized her by the arm while she was at breakfast. She cried bitterly, and asked me to go with her, and told me she was to be flogged. When she was punished, her chemise was off' the upper part of her body, her bosom was laid bare, and the band of her petticoat alone kept her che- mise upon her body." — Ibid. " The following is the report of a trial which took place, at the Old Biiiley on Tuesday last, before the Comniou Sergeant. It appeared in the Tinwn and in the Herald of Wednesday, l)e- ing stated by those two papers in very nearly the same words. And Ave beg the reader to remark, before he pro- ceeds to peruse this homble detail, that the Whig press have given no re- port at all of the case : neither the Chronicle nor the Globe say one sylla- ble about it : — William Hill, a shoeing-smith, 38 years of age, was convicted of stealing a pair of clogs of the value of 2s. 6d., the property of a person of the name of Towers. It appeared from the evidence that the clogs were missed from the pro- secutor's shop, and immediately after- wards were found in the possession of the prisoner. The prisoner was also found guilty on another indictment, charging him with having been previously con- victed at the June sessions of a trifling offence, and sentenced to two months' hard labour. The Common Sergeant. — Well, Sir, how is it you make your apjiearance here so soon ? Prisoner. — Why, my Lord, the fact is, I came out of the House of Correction in August last without a penny, and with my character blasted ; and I assure you, my Lord, I have since that time tra- velled 800 miles in search of work, but, unfortunately, without success. Our trade has, in many parts, been entirely broken up ; and the opening of the Bir- mingham and other railways has thrown more than 2,000-shoeing smiths out of emploJ^ The Common Sergeant. — But, not- withstanding you are poor, you should not resort to thieving. Prisoner. — Oh, my Lord, hunger and starvation will drive a man to commit acts which he would otherwise scorn. The Common Sergeant. — Then you should apply to your parish, and they will relieve you. The prisoner shook his head. The Common Sergeant. — Where do you belong to ? Prisoner. — I belong to Birmingham, my Lord ; but it's quite useless to apply to the parish for relief under the New Poor- Law system. I am an able-bodied man, as your Lordshi]) can easily perceive. I applied to the parish, and was told to go and look for work. I have done so, but have not been able to succeed. Really, my Lord, there are so many clauses in 158 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. the Poor-Law Amendment- Act which clash one against the other, that no per- son seems able to understand them. (Laughter.) It's all very well laughing, but I declare I had no food for two days, nor a bed for three nights, before I com- mitted this oifence, and I will candidly admit I did it on purpose to be taken into custody ; what else could I do ? The Common Sergeant. — And I suppose you are aware you have sub- jected yourself to transportation ? Pkisoner. — I was aware, my Lord, of Avhat I was about. I do not expect to find transportation a bed of roses, but I must now submit to my fate. I would certainly rather leave the countiy than be compelled to starve in it. The Common Sergeant. — Now, sup- pose the Court feels inclined to take a lenient view of your case, what Avould you do with yourself when you are libe- rated } Prisoner. — My Lord, I really do not know. I am a good workman, and wovdd gladly labour for 2s. per day, if I could get it. Alderman Farebrother. — I think you had better go to Birmingham, and apply to the overseers there. Prisoner. — My Lord, I have done so, but they won't relieve me. Aederman Farebrother. — Then go to the workhouse and sit down, and tell them they must relieve you. Prisoner. — Well, my Lord, if I did so they would soon show me the door, and order me to walk myself off (Laugh- ter). I never had a farthing of parish money in my life, and before I committed this theft I sold my last shirt and waistcoat from off my back. The police-constable who apprehended the prisoner said the statement was per- fectly true. The Common Sergeant. — It is cer- tainly a circumstance much to be regretted that persons should be driven to crime from the want of proper relief. The Court, believing jour statement to be true, will depart from its general rule, and not transport you. The sentence, therefore, is, that you be imprisoned two days and discharged ; therefore, you may now go and seek employment. Prisoner. — Pray, my Lord, may I ask whether there is not any fund from which I can obtain a few shillings to purchase me a shirt and a few necessaries to start with ? The Common Sekgeant. — I am sorry we have no such fund here, and it is much to be regretted that amongst so many charitable institutions Avith which the metropolis abounds, there is not one where, in proper and deserving cases, relief can be afforded to discharged pri- soners. Alderman Farebbotheb, having consulted with the governor of the prison, intimated to the poor fellow that he might inquire at the gaol whether anything was left for him. He then left the dock, apparently with great gratitude. Here is a man twdce found guilty of felony in the course of a few months ; no doubt about the facts any more than the crime : liere is a criminal whom the judge might have transported for life, and we find the judge gi\iug liim the nominal punishment of two days' inqnisonment ! And this, simply be- cause the idea of treating the poor creature as a criminal, was revolting to all sense of justice. Well may the Wliigs make a struggle to get rid of trial by jury, and so prevent the ex- posure of sucli cases. We cannot un- dertake to say that any such case as the above ever occurred. But it looks very much like truth, because, while the Whig papers never even mention the man's name in then columns, they give the report in the other papers a complete go-by. If such a trial did not take place, is it likely that the Chro- nicle and its allies would have neglected to attack the pubhshers of the false report? A transportable felon sent forth from the dock to ' go and seek employment ! ' Since the above was written we have heard that sums of money have been sent to the Magis- trates anonymously for tliis poor fellow." — Chamjnon, Dec. 2, 1838. " On Monday afternoon an inquest, which had been adjourned from Friday, was resumed, at the Plough Inn, Clapham, to inquire into the circumstances of the death of Mary Stonard, aged 61 years, Avho is stated to have died from sheer destitution. — Alfred Bridges, a police- constable, 30, V division, deposed that on the preceding Thursday, a young man came to the station-house and informed him that there was a woman in the tap- BASTILE TREATMENT AND TYRANNY. 159 room of the Plough (the above house) dying. Witness immediately hastened there, and found the deceased supported by some persons, but she was dead. He took charge of the body, and, after the doctor had seen it, searched it, and found twenty-two duplicates for property pledged with pawnbrokers ; two or three pieces of coke, and a snufF-bos, were also found in her pockets. — Mary Ann Stonard, the daughter-in-law of the deceased, stated, that the deceased lived upon Putney- common. Her husband is a gardener, but unable to work from infirmity, being as old as the deceased, and very lame. They had received slight relief from Putney parish, but not sufficient for them to exist upon. On Thursday the deceased was going before the Guardians of the Claphara Union, and upon leaving witness in the morning, she said, ' If I don't get relief, I and my husband must starve.' The witness added that she knew deceased had had very little to eat lately. She had nearly five miles to walk from Putney- common to Clapham. She was a very sober woman, and had formerly been well off". — George Gill, waiter at the Plough, stated that the deceased came into the tap-room between twelve and one o'clock, in company with another elderly woman. The woman who was with her called for a pint of porter, but deceased scarcely tasted it. The deceased appeared very cold, and, about five minutes after she came, fell from her seat, and in a very short time, expired. — Charles Hughes deposed that he was in the room of the Plough when the two women came in. Witness was having his dinner, and the woman who was with the deceased asked him if * he had done with his potato-peelings ? ' She was eating them when the deceased fell from the form. — Juror : Who paid for the beer ? — Witness : The deceased put down a halfpenny, and said that was all she had. — Mr. D. Green- wood, of Clapham, surgeon, stated that he had examined the body of the deceased, and had found the brain, the heart, the liver, the lungs, and other intestines, in a healthy state ; the stomach was contracted and al- together destitute of food ; indeed, the only thing it contained was about a quarter- of-an-ounce of gastric juice ; the smaller intestines were also contracted and empty, but in some degree distended with Jiatus. He was decidedly of opinion that the de- ceased died from exhaustion, caused by the intensity of the cold weather, fatigue, and the want of food. The body alto- gether had a wasted and emaciated ap- pearance. Several other witnesses were examined, from whose evidence it ap- peared that the deceased and her husband were industrious people, but were reduced to the last stage of destitution, and that the deceased had repeatedly applied to the parish-officers of Putney, without ob- taining relief. — Mr. Unwin, the Relieving Officer of the Putney, Wandsworth, and Clapham Union, gave evidence to show that he had used every diligence in answering all demands made to him for relief. — Some conversation took place be- tween the relatives of the deceased and this witness, after which the jury returned the following verdict : — ' That the de- ceased, being very lightly clad, perished from exhaustion, extreme cold, and want of nutritious food.' " — Sunday Times, Jan. 21, 1838. " The horrible inhumanity and disgust- ing heartlessness which, in these days of pauper-starving, cold-blooded political economy, characterize those who are ap- pointed to minister to the immediate wants of the destitute, were strikingly developed at Marlborough-street, on Tuesday, by Bryant, the Relieving Officer of St. James's. A young man, named Addison, dreadfully affiicted, with his left arm and leg crooked and withered, crawled into the office on that day to relate a tale of horrible privation and sufiering. He stated that he had come up from I^iverpool in search of employment — that he had been unsuccessful — had spent what little money he had, and had been compelled to walk in the streets during several nights, notwithstanding his dreadful bodily in- firmities. Mr. Conant, on ascertaining that, in addition to his being found desti- tute in the parish of St. James's, he had slept there one night, sent for Bryant, the Relieving Overseer, who, on making his appearance, with the most revolting heart- lessness, observed, ' He (the wretched out- cast) says he has been walking about the streets several nights. He must, there- fore, have committed a number of acts of vagrancy. What were the police about that they did not take him into custody and have him punished ? ' Ay, why did they not have him 'punished?' Why was he not sent to the treadmill for a month ! ' I am aware,' said Mr. Conant, ' that I have no power to make an order on the parish. I onlj' put the case on the ground of humanity. Here is a young man evidently brought up in a respectable station, afflicted so dreadfully by a pai-a- 160 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. lytic stroke tliat his leg and arm are withered up, obliged to walk about the streets, according to his own statement, nearly exhausted from starvation.' ' But, exclaimed Bryant, ' his story is incredible. How could such a cripple suppose he would obtain a situation in London ? I Avish to have him sworn to the truth of what he has stated.' The young man immediately took the oath, and proceeded to draw a most horrible picture of misery and misfortunes. The humane Overseer, however, still declared his story to be in- credible, and called him again contemptu- ously a cripple and a fool, on which the wretched creature burst into tears, and again solemnly declared that all he stated was correct. ' It is true,' he said, ' that I am a cripple, and miserably poor ; but my character is unblemished.' Eventually Mr. Conant humanely consented to pay half the expense of sending the poor creature to Liverpool, and the parties left the office ; but what a dreadful exemplifi- cation does this case afford, not only of the working of our anti-Christian Poor- Laws, but of the horrible and disgusting heartlessness by which its ministers, in the aggregate, are characterized." — WeeMij Dispatch, Nov. 18, 1838. " QuEEN-SQUAKE. — A lad, not more than twelve years of age, was charged by policeman Dawney, of the B division, with an offence which has been frequently con- sidered at this office as of a most dreadful nature, that of being found sleeping in the open air. The policeman stated, that the lad crouched himself under the portico of St. George's hospital, but this situation af- forded him very little protection from the rain, which at this time was falling in torrents, and upon the prisoner not being able to give an account of himself he took him to the station-house. The boy, who shivered with cold when placed before the Magistrates, said that his name was George Fisher, He was born at Beacons- field, in Buckinghamshire. He did not recollect his mother, but he knew very well that his father had been transported. Mr. Gregorie — ' For Avhat offence was he transported ? ' The boy burst into tears, and said for breaking machinery in Buck- inghamshire. Since his father had been transported he had not had a friend in the world. He was willing to do all he could for himself, and had come up to London to seek for work. Mr. Gregorie — ' Before you left Buckinghamshire, how did you live ? ' The lad replied — ' As well as I could. I did jobs ; and sometimes slept in the manger and sometimes in the j^ard. Nobody cared about me.' Mr. Gregorie — ' Did you apply to the overseers of the Union workhouse ? ' 'I did, but I could get no relief.' Mr. Gregorie — ' To whom did you apply ? ' 'I went to Hobbs, a publican, at Woburn-green ; he is one of the overseers ; but before I went there they told me if I hadn't friends it was of no use, and I found it was true, for they would not give me a halfpenny, and so I came by Mr. Jolly's waggon to London.' Mr. Gregorie — ' Did you apply to the Guardians of the Poor ? ' 'I did not, for I was left without friends, and nobody helped me.' The policeman, Dawney, said that he was himself born in Bucking- hamshire, and having only lately joined the ' Force,' he knew, and could swear, that the overseers in that part of the country would not allow a destitute man or woman to be introduced to the Guar- dians, no matter as to the business they might have with them. Mr. Gregorie ordered the poor lad to receive immediate relief, and that a few shilhngs should be given to him from the poor-box. He would himself take care that he should be sent back to his parish, and directed the clerk to Avrite to the Union workhouse authorities, in order that he might receive the relief due to him." — Weekly Dispatch^ Jan. 6, 1839. " On Tuesday a poor woman, named Dunne, who had two young children with her, applied, under the following circum- stances, to Mr. Codd, the sitting Magis- trate : — She stated, that the father of these poor children, M'ho was her brother-in-law, died last Thursday in his wretched lodg- ings in Rose-lane, Spitalfields. While able he had been in the habit of selling things in the street. Duringhis last illness he had received some attendance from the parish doctor ; but the applicant said that he had no such attendance for three days preceding his death, and his body had since been lying naked in the room, as no coffin could be procured to put it in, and had now become swollen, as if on the point of bursting. These poor children had been left in the place, which was visited occasionally, and they were almost perishing of neglect and want. The ap- plicant herself, who was exceedingly poor, came twice a-day from Blackfriars'-road. She was unable to provide for the children herself, but had applied repeatedly, but in vain, to the parish-officers. From the workhouse she was sent to the house of Almond, the Relieving Overseer, but at his BASTILE TREATMENT AND TYRANNY. 161 place the door liad been shut in her face ; and on Monday, when she last called, Mrs. Almond told her that he was then before the Committee of the Union. (This statement caused some surprise, for Al- mond, instead of being in attendance upon the parochial Committee on Monday, was at this office with a broken head and black eye, and charged with being drunk and behaving outrageously at a public- house at two o'clock on Sunday morning.) — Mr. Codd expressed in strong terms his feelings at the facts which the poor woman had related. He immediately caused some soup and other nourishment to be supplied to the woman and children, which the poor little creatures devoured with avidity, and he then sent Grove, the officer, with a message, which caused them immedi- ately to be received into the workhouse, and measures to be taken with respect to the other facts which had been stated." — Sunday Times, Jan. 14, 1838. " He was a short time ago called upon to attend in his official capacity at the Isleworth workhouse, to hold an inquest on a child who had died tliere. It had been taken to Ealing to be buried. The mother, on arriving there (and she had to run all the way almost to get there in time, the funei-al having started without her having been informed), was told that the child could not be taken into the Church, because it had died of the small- pox. She said no, it was not so ; she was an inmate of the workhouse too, and it was no such thing. The clergyman, on finding this discrepancy between the state- ments of the mother and the workhouse authorities, sent back the funeral, and wrote to him (Mr. Wakley), stating the facts, and requesting him to inquire into the case. He had accordingly issued his precept for an inquest, on which it was proved that the mother had been shortly before received, with her child, into the workhouse, the latter being about a year old. Soon afterwards the surgeon said it must be weaned, as it was a year old. It was weaned, and taken from her on Tues- day. Well, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday passed, the mother having inquired after it on Wednesday and Saturday. On Monday she paid it a visit at the house. She was shown a number of cliildren, and on look- ing at her own child, it was so changed she could not recognize it. Well, she went down to the Governor, and asked for an order to go, ' for,' said she, ' it is impossible that my child should Yi\g here.' The man said he would give her an order for the doctor. Shortly after, he arrived, and administered some medicine, a powder, or something of the sort. That was on the Monday. The child lingered from the Wednesday to the Sunday, when, at nine o'clock it was seized with convulsions, and at a quarter-to-eleven it was dead. The nurse informed the Governor of this circumstance, and on being asked whether she had informed the mother of the child, ' No, Sir,' was her answer, ' I have nothing to do with the mother.' In reply to another question, she said that she did not in any shape consider it her duty to acquaint the mother. The mothers were not allowed to attend their children in the workhouse. In this case the mother re- sided in the same house with the deceased child. She casually entered during breakfast the next morning, and it was stated at the inquest, and not denied by the authorities, all of whom were present, that one of the women present pointed at her with her finger and said, ' Do you not know what has happened to your child ? Why the child is dead.' She rushed from the room, and found that it was the fact." — Mr. Wakley's Speech, House of Commons, March 19, 1841. " Hatton-Gaeden. — On Saturday, Harriet Longlej', a handsome young wo- man, aged 20, was charged with the wilful murder of her child, an infant three weeks old. Sergeant King, of the N division of police, stated, that the prisoner came to him on the previous evening, and gave herself up on the charge of murder- ing her child, and taking him to the New River, opposite to Owen's-roAV, pointed out where the body was found. The un- happy woman gave the following heart- rending account of her sufferings : — Some weeks before her confinement she was committed to gaol on the charge of being destitute ; she was confined there, and she and her child, a fortnight after her accouchement, were sent from the prison without a home to shelter tliem, or a mouthful to eat. She wandered about, maddened by starvation, and implored assistance at various workliouses, but was refused relief at all, the Marylcbone workhouse being the last. From fatigue and starvation combined, her milk dried up, and as she sat before the water the piercing cries of her helpless infant for food reduced her to that state of frenzy that she plunged it into the water to put an end to its agonies. The surgeon who examined the wasted bodv of the infant M 162 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. said it was quite dead when taken out of the water. Mr. Combe said, it was the most awfully-distressing case he had ever heard of; he must remand the miserable woman for a week, when it would be his painful duty to commit her for trial to Newgate." — Times, March 22, 1841, "Another Pook-Law Muedek. — On Thursday, an inquest was held at the King and Keys public-house, Clerkenwell- close, Clerkenwell-green, upon thebodyof Thomas Stratton, aged 36, who came by his death under the following melancholy and distressing circumstances. The jury proceeded to the vaults under Clerkenwell church to view the body, which presented a miserable spectacle. It was quite emaci- ated, and in every respect indicated that the deceased had died through want of the common necessaries of life. On their return to the jury-room, James Locke, policeman, No. 179, G division, residing at No. 30, St. Helena-place, Clerkenwell, being sworn, stated, that on Monday night last, he saw the deceased sitting by the side of a doorway in Gray's-inn-lane, and two men, who appeared to be strangers, were supporting him. Witness spoke to him, and he appeared to be very weak, and he begged of him (witness) to suffer him to remain there for a short time, and he would be able to walk away. Witness left him, and returned in about ten mi- nutes, when he found him gone, but he afterwards discovered him near the Hol- born end of Gray's-inn-lane, scarcely able to walk. Witness asked him what parish he belonged to. He replied, St. Sepul- chre's parish, and that he had applied there that morning, and they told him that they would have nothing at all to do with him. Witness said, ' I had better take you to the station-house,' and he consented to go there, when he with diffi- culty walked to the bottom of Eyre-street- hill, Coldbath-square, but he could proceed no farther, and witness sent for a stretcher, and he was carried to Rosamond-street Btation-house, where he was entered on the charge sheet as being drunk. Juror — * Did he appear sober ? ' Witness — ' I don't know.' Coroner — ' Or rather, was he ill, and not in liquor ? ' Witness — ' I think he was ill ; and conceiving that he was in distress, I gave him twopence to procure some bread and coffee.' The Coroner asked witness why he signed the charge sheet, when he had doubts whether the deceased was drunk? He replied, that it was usual to do so. The Inspector of the G division also acknowledged that he did not read the charge before he signed it. Sergeant Barton, G 1 , being sworn, stated, that the deceased was brought to the station-house at a quarter-before-seven o'clock on Monday evening last. He ap- peared to be drunk. He smelt of liquor decidedly. He did not appear to be in ill health. He could speak. The last wit- ness said that he was drunk or ill. Wit- ness set down the charge, and Locke signed it. Coroner — ' It is too bad that a poor creature lying ill in the street should be taken and locked up, when he ought to be provided with assistance and a bed.' Barton added, that on searching him after death, a card was found, showing that he was an out-patient of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, under Dr. Farr; several pills, 2^d., two combs, some needles, and some papers, also a bag containing some ground- sel for birds, &;c. The jury examined the papers, one of which was the frontispiece of the play of The Old Bachelor, act iv., scene 6, on the back of which was written, in masterly style, the following : — ' If I die of starvation or want, I do lay my death to Mr. Miller and the Guardians of St. Sepulchre's parish.' Another printed tract was found, headed. Thoughts on Eternity ; and went on to state, ' Whether you are old, or whether you are j'oung, whether you are decaying with sickness, or whether you are in blooming health and vigour, every moment brings you nearer to eternity. Eternity! well weigh that word, and compare how matters stand between God and your soul. You are a sinner by na- ture, a sinner by practice, guilty and undone for ever, unless Jesus deliver you by giving you faith in his precious blood and righte- ousness. Have you received him ? Does his ' Spirit dwell in you ? ' Have you re- demption in his blood, even the forgiveness of your sins ? Has he "clothed you with the robe of righteousness ? ' &c. Here was written in pencil, — ' Oh, God ! would I were at rest with thee, and out of the troubles of this hardhearted world.' Tho- mas Stratton.' — Sergeant Barton added, that the deceased said he slept the night before in Maiden-lane, but not on a bed. At a quarter-past-two on Tuesday morn- ing. Ginger, 137, informed witness that he was dead, and he found him lying on the floor. He sent for a doctor, but he had been dead half-an-hour. The body was removed to the vaults of Clerkenwell church. The Coroner said, it was evident that the deceased's mind and circumstan- ces were iu a miserable condition ; and, BASTILE TREATMENT AND TYRANNY. 163 judging from the groundsel and other articles produced, he had been striving for a wretched subsistence through indus- trj'. He inquired whether the jury wished Mr, Miller to be sent for. The jury concurred that his attendance was neces- sary, and Mountstevens, the beadle, was despatched to St. Sepulchre's workhouse, to bring him forward. Juror — ' The de- ceased, I have no doubt, was starved to death ; he is a complete skeleton.' Ano- ther Juror — ' I did think when the New Poor-Law Bill was about to be introduced, that the Government would have provided for such miserable beings as the deceased, and not allow them to die in the streets ; or that something would be done to afford them immediate relief, but they are pushed from one place to another until they die.' Mr. Miller here entered the room, and being sworn, he gave his name Samuel Mil- ler, No. 68, Wynyatt-street, Clerkenwell, and proceeded to view the body of the de- ceased. Juror — ' Pray, Sir, what are you I Mr. Miller — ' Relievinc: Officer to the West-end Union, St. Sepulchre's parish.' Juror — ' Do you know the de- ceased, Thomas Stratton ?' — ]\Ir. Miller — ' I recollect him.' Juror (handing the paper on which the writing with his name appeared) — ' Do you know anything of that paper ? ' Mr. Miller (reading it) — ' No, but I am quite free from that.' He stated that about a month ago the deceased called on him, and said he belonged to the parish, and he had been warehouseman to Messrs. Brownings, oil-merchants, of St. John's-street. He gave him some bread, and he went before the Guardians, who thought he was yovmg and able enough to maintain himself. Witness sent to Messrs. Brownings, who said they did not recollect him.' Juror — ' Wc have it in evidence that the deceased said he applied to the parish on Monday morning last ; is that the fact?' Mr. Miller— '"it is not; at least he did not apply tome.' The Coro- ner said that when the policeman found him, he conducted himself in a rational and discreet way, and did not speak as a drunken man would do. He went on Tuitil he was able to go no farther ; and there was no pretence to charge him with drunkenness. It was for the jury to de- cide, and he had no doubt but they would arrive at a proper verdict. The jury con- sulted about three minutes, when the foreman said, 'Our verdict is, that the deceased died a natural death through starvation.' Several of the jury — ' No, no; starvation alone is our verdict.' Juror — ' It cannot be a natural death, if a man be starved to death.' Mr. Bell — ' Then your foreman returns one verdict, and you another.' Jury — ' No ; we all agree to starvation. It is unnatural for a man to starve.' Foreman — ' I misunder- stood ; it was my mistake.' The whole of the jury then agreed that the deceased died through want of the common neces- saries of life." — Northern Star, July 28, 1838. " I have just received a letter from my friend J. Perceval, Esq., son of the late Right Hon. Spencer Perceval. He has been on an Anti-Poor-Law excursion. I will give you a short extract from his letter, because I think your readers will be gratified to find that he is still busily labouring in the field of humanity. I have many other letters from the agricul- tural districts, informing me how dissatis- fied the labourers are, cmd how much the. gentrij are ciccciviny themselves. If there were a northern movement just now, (I mean southward), oh, what an Emjlandtoe should have ! We should have no petition- ing, but we should have what Lord Howick seems to think of more value. Mr. Perceval says — ' I called at Sevenoaks on a solicitor, a bootmaker, and a brewer. The conversation was decided and strong AGAINST the principle and operations of the New Poor-Law. The solicitor, an old gentleman, said " There is a person who was formerly the landlord of the Black Boy ; he and I were old friends, but he is now obliged to come upon the parish. He often used to show me fa- vours, and I returned them ; now, if I go down to the woi-khouse, I may not bring him even an apple; and what is worse, / cannot speak to him, except in presence oj his master// I call that very hard.' And so do I. It is hard ! — it is unjust ! — it is unnecessary cruelly ! — it is shutting u{i the bowels of mercy ! — it is the death- blow to charity ! — it is the grave of Chris- tianity ! But, Gentlemen, it shall not be eiidured much longer.^ Mr. Perceval pro- ceeds — ' The brewer is a Guardian of the new Union; he has a servant whose father was ill in the workhouse. This man ap- plied to his master for an order to go and see his sick father. His master, who was going out, had not time to write an order but told the servant ' to go down to the workhouse, and use his name, and that, no doubt, he would be admitted.' The man went down, and was refused admittance to sec his sick father / / though he assured M ii 164 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. the master of the workhouse, that he had his otvn master's leave to do so ! ! (his own master was a Guardian of the Union.) The next day when he went down TO the wokkhouse provided with AN ORDER, HIS POOR FATHER WAS NO MORE.' I dare not publish Mr. Perceval's remarks on this case of horrible devilisra. He is horror-struck, and he expresses himself so strongly that I dare not copy him. But, Gentlemen, let me ask, why all this unnecessary severity ? Why this unheard-of cruelty ? \& poverty now really worse than murder ? Had that pauper been a convicted mur- derer he tvould have been allowed to have seen his so7i the day before his execu- tion. O horrible ! horrible ! Brougham, that law is thine ! some day thou shalt answer for it ! Gentlemen, if this be all the comfort which the Queen can afford to her poor subjects, let her be crowned in sackcloth, kneeling upon ashes ! or rather, let her refuse a crown which can only confer disgrace on a female and a Christian, and let the demon-damned, the execrable monster, ' under whose rules and regulations ' these enormities are prac- tised ; let them be crowned in iron by Satan, (Lord Brougham acting as his prosy, as he did at the begetting of this monster ! !) and then let the people of England have at them ! ! and restore to Victoria the unsullied 'uncommissioned' crown of her ancestors ! " — Oastler s Letter to the Editor of the " Northern Star," April 28, 1838. " On Wednesday evening, an inquisi- tion, which did not terminate until a late hour, was taken before Mr. Higgs, and a most respectable jury, in the board-room of St. George's Hospital, Hyde-park- corner, on view of the body of Elizabeth Monday, aged 76 years, whose death was occasioned under the following circum- stances : — William Chilton, one of the constables of Hanwell, deposed that on the morning of Monday, the 25th of June, he was called up about a quarter-before- one o'clock by Thomas Spillman, one of the mounted patroles stationed in that vil- lage, who told him that a woman who had been run over was lying at the bottom of Hanwell-hill. Witness immediately got up and went to the spot, where he found the deceased lying on the footpath, in the care of Spillman, who told witness that his fellow-constable, Denton, had gone after a coach, which was supposed to have inflicted the injury. Witness instantly went for Dr. Haffenden, who promptly attended the deceased, and recommended her being conveyed to that hospital. De- ceased was sensible, but had evidently been drinking. She said she belonged to Stoke Poges, and had been in the work- house of that Union (Slough). On the day previous she had been with a parcel to Uxbridge, for carrying which she was to have 2s., and being tired had sat down at the side of the road, and having fallen asleep did not know whether it was a cart or coach which had passed over her legs. Witness then went to the house of Mr. Ladley, one of the overseers of Hanwell, and rang the bell for the purpose of in- quiring what he was to do with the unfor- tunate woman. On Mr. Ladley's opening the window, he told him that her leg was broken, and that she was lying on the side of the road, and asked him what he was to do with her, or where he was to take her to, the workhouse being some miles distant, to which his answer was, that he should not take her up, nor did he care who did. He then shut the window, and went to bed, and witness, on his own re- sponsibility, procured a cart, in which he conveyed the deceased to that hospital. From subsequent evidence given by this and other witnesses, it appeared that the poor Avoman had been run over by the wheel of a coach belonging to a Mr. Fol- litt, of Uxbridge, the driver of which was drunk. The jury having animadverted most strongly on the conduct of the driver, and of Mr. Ladley, returned the following verdict — ' Accidental death, through the negligence of James Bond, the driver of William Follitt's coach, with a deodaners into indepen- dent labourers, and a simultaneous re- duction of the parish expenditure ; the second observable result being a rise in the wages of labour ; the third, a dimi- nution of improvident marriages ; and the fourth, increased content of the labourers, as their industry and the reward of their industry increased ; and the fifth, a dimi- nution of crime." — Commissioners' \st Report, " INIr. Hume. — We were not surpiised to find Mr. Hume among the foremost supporters of the Poor-Law Bill — a mea- sure which certainly required the stomach of a Scotchman to swallow whole and un- divided. It may be inferred from this, that he is a disciple of that school which has long been labouring to substitute a heartless selfishness for the more gener- ous impulses of our nature. The tendency of this misnamed philosophy in substance amounts to this : — that the miseries of life result from the absence of individual pru- dence, and that this prudence will be best taught by abandoning the destitute to the consequences of their vices or misfortunes; thereby extinguishing all the charities M'hich hitherto it has been the business of science and religion to inculcate, and bringing society into that primeval state, in whicli the predominant rule is — Take care of yourself ivithout any regard to any body else ! A man who thinks that social existence can be bettered by the dissemination of such a doctrine, must have a very peculiar organization himself, and have had a very limited and peculiar observance of human nature." — Appendix to the Black Book. " I certainly heard one of the itinerant Poor-Law Commissioners, when develop- ing the law and promoting the ' Unions,* boast that the New Poor-Houses would not be ' too comfortable,^ that they would bij so hard to tlie innultc^^, that none, not 198 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. even the most idle, would stay in them longer than they could help, nor when they might, in any degree short of starva- tion, maintain themselves, that is, keep body and soul together." — Blackwood's Magazine, April, 1838. " Why did not the Commissioners bring down the history of the poor and the Poor-Laws to the present time, in- stead of stopping at the reign of Ehzabeth ? Had they done so, they would have found that all their more important suggestions have been already tried ; that the project for incorporating parishes has been tried ; that the plan for refusing relief to able- bodied poor, except in a workhouse ; and for attaching wages for advances pre- viously made to paupers out of the rates. Mention may be found of all these plans and their failure and abandonment in Eden's History of the Poor, and Wade's History of the Middle and Working Classes. But a notice of them might have weakened their case, and lessened the coniidence of the public in any schemes founded upon them." — Appendix to the Black Book. "The Poor-Law Commission originated with, and was formed by, Lord Brougham. His Lordship, about 20 years ago, gulped down some new and abstract dogmas on the tendency of a compulsory rate for the relief of the poor, and the Commissioners were set to work to establish by evidence these old 'foregone conclusions.' They did their bidding certainly ; for the zeal with which they got up criminatory mat- ter against the poor was assuredly not exceeded by that with which the agents in Italy filled the famous '■green bag'' against the unfortunate Queen Carohne." —Ibid. " The Bill works well in the particular part of the country mostly under my Observation." — Duke of Wellington, 1837. " Lord Western (in his 70 year at the time), in the Chelmsford Chronicle, breaks out in a violent hysteric of rejoicing at the New Poor-Law Bill, and adds, ' No minister could build his posthumous fame upon a more solid rock.' " — Conservative Journal, August 5, 1837. " The poor ought to be national pro- perty, and regulated as the army is On whom did the duty of relieving the poor devolve ? Certainly not on indivi- dual localities, but on the country at large. To whom did the poor devolve, but on the nation, and it ought not to be left to any locality to legislate for their relief." — Mr. Roebuck, House of Com- mons, Feb., 1837. " The New Poor-Law is really the house of Want against the house of Have. On one side are all who have, in- cluding all who have laboured for what they have ; on the other, are those who ^cant, and who desire to satisfy their want by taking from those who have, without equivalent. On the one side is the prin- ciple of protection to property, protection to the produce of industry, in the hands of the industrious ; on the other side are the have-nothings, who seek, not liberty to earn, not power to sell their labour in the dearest market and buy food in the cheapest ; but to be maintained by the people of property, to eat unearned bread at their expense The agitators against the law are attacking the security of projierty, encouraging the indigent to prey upon the rest of society." — West- minster Revieiv, Oct., 1837. " The New Poor-Law had called pri- vate charity more into action than the old." — Lord Ellenborough, House of Lords, A.\^n\ 17, 1837. " At the quarter-sessions held last week at Bradford, there were only two applica- tions for orders of maintenance in Bas- tardy. The first was against the master of a workhouse in the Union whence the application came, and the second was against a Poor-Law Guardian in another Union!" — Halifax Guardian, July, 1840. " The slaves of antiquity were cattle. Without much difficulty the sexes might be kept effectually separated. Or if, by some relaxation of this rigour, the offspring came to be more than was wanted, it was destroyed as a matter of course The practice of infanticide, rendered fa- miliar by its frequency among the slaves, was nowise shocking when applied to the other part of the population. Only being optional and not enforced, it did not reach the point we have in view, the jjreventing of the existing of persons for tvhom there are no places." — Marcus on " the Possibility of Limiting Popidous- ness," chap. 2, " We will, for that reason, anticipate a future argument. And without discuss- ing yet, which will be the best means of subjecting nature to discretion, we will imagine one found, facilitated by artful gradations, physical and moral ; and iinally adopted in practice, by which it may be rendered optionable to rear or not to rear : to introduce into life and citizen- THE FRIENDS AND FAVOURERS OF THE NEW POOR-LAW. 199 ship, or to exterminate therefrom the just- born infant." — Ibid., c. 3, s. 2. " The untimely death of elder persons eeem to be convenient in this at least, that it makes room for the younger ones." — Ibid., c. 3, s. 3, " What is to be done with the lazars of Naples, or with the half-savages of Ireland — or the Ireland of France — La Vendee ? Are those populations doomed to be as they are for everlasting ? Any attempt to amend their condition must set out by a reduction of their numbers. This can be done only by putting them, district by district, into a state of coercion." — Ibid., c. 5, s. 4. " To save life is not to save pain, but to inflict it." — Ibid., c. 5, s. 5. " Beyond these two considerations, (of the parents' loss, and of their sympathy for the infant's pain), there is another, which goes to make up the complex idea of criminally killing. It is that of the right or property in life, inherent in the living person himself. However it may be, that with the extinction of life is ex- tinguished the wish to live : this opinion is not the most natural. We sympathise strongly with the imaginary wishes of the lifeless corpse. We see hovering over us the departed shade, with indignant and imploring looks, demanding of us justice and vengeance. Even of the unthinking and newborn infant, we cannot help en- tertaining the same notions, though clearly illusive in regard to him ; and although it may be clearly demonstrated that he never can have possessed the right, any more than he has felt the wish, to live. He has not a real right to life, it has never been given or bequeathed, or conferred in any legal way, or by any principle of natural justice equivalent to formal legality." — Marcus's '''■Essay on Poptdousness," s. 2. "We inquire, could not a full-grown animal be so deprived of life, — gradually and painlessly ? We establish the theory of stifling, and then — we supj)ose that the appetite for air might be for an interval of time suspended and nullified — and we show, that during that interval air and life might be withdrawn without pain." — Marcus's "Theory of Painless Extinction." " If sleep so nullify the eagerness of sensation, and if the newborn sleep so readily without an opiate, may we not hope that, during the interval, the sensa- tion of which we treat will again be placed within our empire ? and that then we may at will revoke or continue its existence without infringing the law of humanity, — without inflicting pain? And if, further, we call to our assistance other elements of the physical world ; if we compel into our service that gas, sometimes so fatal and perfidious, but in this case useful and subservient; shall we not have insured success ? And may we not conclude that our industry has but employed these means, which have been, by the intention of Providence itself, placed within our reach ?" — Ibid. " Under the New Poor-Law any rule sent from Somerset-house has the same authority with an Act of Parliament." — Rev. Sir George Robinsoyi's Letter to the Kettering Board, Oct. 10, 1839. " The Poor-Law Bill was an Act of charity and benevolence." — Earl of Winchelsea, House of Lords, March 26, 1838. "Among other charges brought against Mr. Laurence, Master of the Bath Union Workhouse, in the investigations held on that person's conduct in 1838 — 39, it was proved by Mr. T. Hewett, Clerk to the Governor of the Bath Workhouse — and subsequently by the Rev. C. Fowell Watts, since dismissed as Chaplain, on ac- count thereof — that this Laurence, 'though required by the duties of his situation to call over the muster-roll of the inmates of the workhouse every morning, totally neglected this branch of his duty; in con- sequence of which, the parishes of the Union were charged with the maintenance of paupers for many weeks after they had ceased to be inmates. One pauper, who was in the House only two days, was charged to the parish of Walcot for nearly seven months. Every weekly report made to the Board during that period must consequently have been incorrect, as well as the books kept in the House, the quarterly abstracts, and the weekly re- turns made to the Commissioners.' That nearly all the accounts this Laurence had returned concerning the expenditure, and the clothing stores intrusted to him, were false. That he was in the habit of taking improper liberties with the females of the establishment, and giving them spirits. That sometime back a pau})er in the ' House ' had died possessed of half-a- crown, of which sum he (Laurence) gave no account to the Board, but converted it to his own use, though the man was taken out and buried by his friends. Also, that another pauper, named Bates, had died leaving a sovereign which he had appro- priated in a like manner. That Mary 200 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. Hewitt, a young woman, declared herself prepared to swear that he (Laurence) had forced her more than once into illicit con- nexion with him ; that she had been with child by him ; that she told him so in the presence of others ; that means were used to induce her to father her child upon some other man ; and that she ultimately miscarried. Yet, notwithstanding all these criminal acts on the part of Laurence, he was shielded for a long time by the Com- missioners and Bath Guardians, and only, at last, reluctantly dismissed from his situation, and then with ' an excellent chaiacter from his last place.' While, on the other hand, Mr. Thomas Hewett and the E,ev. C. Fowell Watts, Avho made known the fellow's infomous con- duct — the former was treated with the most ignominious insult during the inves- tigation, and the latter (Mr. Watts) was incontinently, by the arbitrary ukase of Frankland Lewis's son, G. C. Lewis, and J. G. S. Lefevre, removed from his situ- ation of chaplain to the Union, April 25, 1839." — For further particulars of Lau- rence's case, vide The Minutes of the same delivered to the House of Commons, Aug. 5, 1840, and the ''^ Times" Sept. 3, 12, and 15, 1840. " The Guardians of the Sudbury Poor- Law Union have lately discovered a most extensive system of fraud which had been perpetrated by the Governor of the Union workhouse. The depredations had been on a scale scarcely credible ; and all the supplies of the poor have been put under heavy contribution to supply the Governor's extravagance. It appears that the deficiency in the stores supplied for the use of the paupers caused the Guardians to institute an inquiry, when suspicion fell upon Mr. F. Fisher, the Governor of the House. It transpired that he was living at a rate of expense that his income could not support, and that he kept a female in London, for whom he had an establishment there, and to whom, it was asserted, large quanti- ties of stores, the property of the Guar- dians, were sent for disposal in the me- tropolis. On Friday a local constable was sent to the Union-House to appre- hend Fisher, who, suspecting the man's errand, escaped by the back of the house, crossing the river by means of a boat moored at the side of the garden, and fled to Ipswich, whence he took the mail to London. The clerk of the magis- trates, anticipating the course Fisher would take, gave general orders to the rural police to look out for him, and he was caught the same evening as he was leaving the mail for the railroad at Brent- wood, and taken in a post-chaise back to Sudbury. On his journey, the prisoner attempted to commit suicide by cutting his throat, but the officers prevented him from completing his object, and he was safely lodged in gaol. The Guardians lost no time in sending officers to town to search the house of the woman who had been cohabiting with Fisher, whom they found in a house in the City-road, and there they discovered a large quantity of stores, which they seized and brought down to Sudbury. Fisher has been com- mitted to Bury gaol." — Suffolk TimeSy August, 1840. " In 1837, a Committee of the House of Commons was formed to investigate the working of the New Poor-Law. Among other persons examined was one Mr. Hawley, an Assistant-Commissioner, who stated that six shillinc/s a-iceek teas sufficient w'ages for a labouring man ! " " Idle, extravagant, and worthless as the working classes are said by the advo- cates of the Poor-Law to be, and far re- moved as the aristocracy are from liability to any such charges — much as beer-shops and pawn-shops are frequented by the one class, and gaming-houses and money- lenders shunned by the other, — still, per- haps the maxims so signally successful in correcting the bad habits of the labourers, by throwing them on their own resources, may be at least harmlessly applied in confirming the industry of farmers, and the independence of landlords. If reduc- tion of income have so greatly elevated the moral character of the cultivators of the soil, it is not quite clear to me that reduction of prices and of rents might not be equally beneficial to the occupiers and owners." — Rev. E. Dewdneys (of Port- sea) Letter to the Duke of Richmond^ May 12, 1840. " The Ludlow Guardians have sanc- tioned and encouraged the withholding medical relief for the sake of economy, and in this district (the Clee-hill) the number of cases for which orders have been given is considerably less than half what it was when a fixed salary was paid, recently a contract having been entered into between the Guardians and the Medical Officer, to attend the poor at 8s. a-head. Indeed, since the 27th of September only one order has been given, and this in a dis- trict comprising a population of more than 3,000. This is economy with a THE FRIENDS AND FAVOUREHS OF THE NEW rOOR-LAW. 201 vengeance ! and the poor are the suffer- ers ! The present medical officer has re- peatedly complained of this injustice, but the Shylocklike answer was — ' It is the bond " — and they have compelled him to adhere to it !" — Ludlow Standard, Oct. 24, 1840. " There is one right which man has generally been thought to possess, which I am confident he neither does nor can possess — a right to subsistence when his labour will not fairly purchase it. Our laws, indeed, say that he has this right, and bind society to furnish employment and food to those who cannot get them in the regular market ; but in so doing they attempt to reverse the laws of nature. A man who is born into a world already possessed, if he cannot get subsistence from his parents, on wliom he has a just demand, and if society do not want his labour, has no claim of right to the small- est portion of food, and, in fact, no busi- ness to be where he is. At nature's mighty feast, there is no vacant cover for liim ; she tells him to begone." — Rev. Mr. MaltJiUS /^" Essay on Popidation^'' p. 531). At Bourn (Lincolnshire) in a sad sea- son of typhus fever, the Guardians were so liberal of port wine that it drew upon them the honour of a repi'imand from the Assistant Poor-Law Commissioner, who had the assurance to recommend them to drug it (as they did, he said, at Notting- ham) to make it distasteful, and convert it into real, nauseous physic ! ! This fact was told the General (Johnson, M. P.) and myself by (the humane clergyman of Bourn) a Guardian. The Assistant- Commissioner never showed his face more at Bourn; his masters removed him to Ireland — a more congenial soil, 1 sup- pose." — Extract of a Letter from a Stam- ford Correspondent fa friend of Gen. Johnson, M. P.) to the Author, dated Oct. 24, 1840. " Nothing can be more ruinous than for a legislature to entertain charitable views.'' — Earl Haddington, House of Lords, June, 1838. " Dr. Pye Smith says to the poor inde- pendent minister of Loxley — ' When such men as the Duke of Wellington, Sir Robert Peel, and others, who are among the greatest authorities among the Tory members of both Plouses of Parlia- ment, have pronounced their decided ap- probation of the New Poor-Law, you surely ought to have suspected the cor- rectness of your own opinion ; an opinion, I cannot doubt, not resting upon a care- ful and impartial study of the Act itself, but borrowed I'rom the misrepresentations of ignorant and malevolent persons.' This is the first time that 1 ever heard that the opinion of any man, however eminent, was to tie up the mouth of a freeborn Englishman. I certainly lament very much that such opinions have been given by the distinguished persons above mentioned, I think by such opinions they have gone very far towards losing the affection of the great mass of the British nation, and shaking that unlimited confidence which would otherwise have been reposed in them. Had it not been for these declarations, my firm opinion is, that a Conservative Ministry would have been brought in by acclamation, before the death of William IV., upon the shoulders of a joyous people.'' — Mr. John Walter's Letter to Mr. Samuel Roberts (of Sheffield), Feb. 6, 1839. " I shall never forget being once in company with my late fi-iend, that true son of the Church, and champion of the poor, Michael Thomas Sadler; he had been perusing the Report of the ' Poor- Law Commission ;' it was lying open before him ; his countenance indicated the mournful workings of his soul — sor- row and despair were depicted in every feature. He looked earnestly at me, and placing his finger on the signature of the two bishops (London and Chester), which are appended to that Report, he ex- claimed, ' Oastler, it is impossible to save the Church ; she is her own executioner. See there, her death-hlow, struck by two of her Bishops !' " — Oastler s ^'- Right of the Poor to Liberty and Life. " When the more humane Guardians of Ecclesall Bierlow, wrote to the Work- sop Union, to request that they would allow poor old John Berry and his wiie something more than two shillings a-week to live upon, the answer of the worthy clerk of his Grace the Duke of Portland (I suppose by his Grace's order) was, that if the Union heard any more upon the subject, the ttco shillings would be wholly withdrawn, i. e., if the poor old man (aged 9 1 ) and his aged wife could not be satisfied with a shilling each, they must have their old bones shaken in a cart full twenty miles, and be put asunder into prison.'' — Mr. Samuel Roberts's (of Sheffield J Pamphlet. " The enemies of God and of the poor will say, ' try the measure, and if you find it does not act ivcll, then amend and re- 202 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. form it.' * Try the measure,' indeed ! ' Reform the Act,' indeed ! ' Amend the curse,' indeed ! Why, my friends, it is the catechism of hell ! It is the devil's own book ! It must be burnt — out-and- out BUKNT. I know that the hangman's fingers will be defiled by the touch — so let him fork it on to the flames. ' Try it?' 'amend it?' 'reform it?' Try the devil as soon! Get thee behind me, Satan ! ' Amend ' Belial, as easily ! Reform hell, if you can ! !"' — Mr. Oastler's Speech at Huddersjield, 3a.n. 14, 1837. " Ninety-nine out of every hundred of the labouring classes of this land would evade rather than seek employment." — Lord Brougham, House of Lords, July 21, 1834. " Another effect of the Bill had been to increase the independence and improve the character of the agricultural labourer." — Earl of Devon, House of Lords, March 19, 1838. " The allowance of medicine and of wine, and generous food, when it was necessary for sustentation of the patient, was larger, notoriously, than ever it had been under the old system." — Lord Brougham, House of Lords, March 20, 1838. "A clause; proposed by Mr. T. Dun- combe, to prevent women above Q5 years of age, from being put to work, was ne- gatived ivithout a division." — House of Commons, August 8, 1839. " During the past week Prince Albert (no doubt being tutored by the Whig Ministry so to do, and to earn his kennel's building money), attended by Col. Wilde, paid a visit of inspection to Windsor Union workhouse, which was opened on Saturday last for the reception of its un- fortunate inmates. The Prince expressed himself highly delighted at the admirable arrangements throughout the extensive building."— Zmes, Oct. 28, 1840. " I consider any statesmen who sup- port the New Poor-Law Amendment- Act, as totally unfit to lead any party of Christians or constitutionalists. I care not what their rank, talents, influence, or wealth, may be — they are philosophers, not Christians! — they are levellers, not conservators ! They may call themselves by what name they please, to gull their followers — they have rendered themselves incapable of guiding the vessel of State in a Christian land !" — Oastler's Retiring Address to his Friends at Huddersfeld Oct. 27, 1840. " The labourers themselves acknow- ledge ' that they live hard, but on the whole are better off than formerly ; that their masters are kinder to tliem ; that an industrious man has a better chance ; and the idle ones are (I use their own words) put to the rout, and forced to beat wide for a living," — Mr. Hall's Heport, 1837. " The trial to which the new system has been exposed, before even it was per- fectly organized, shows that it is quite as well adapted to a manufacturing as to an agricultural population." — Companion to the Almanac, 1838. " The overstocked labour-market in the county of Suffolk has been relieved of families comprising upwards of two thou- sand individuals who have emigrated to Canada." — Appendix to Third Report of the Commissioners, 1837, " We ai-e upheld by the confldent per- suasion, which every day's experience tends in our opinion to confirm, that not to the rate-payer only, but to the labour- ing classes themselves, the provisions of the New Law continue to be productive of the greatest benefits." — Commissioners' Third Report. " I avow at once, that I supported the Bill at the time that his Majesty's Minis- ters proposed it ; and I do not repent of what I did on that occasion, in so sup- porting it ; but, on the contrary, I rejoice in the part I then took, and I now con- gratulate his Majesty's Ministers on its success." — Duke of Wellington, House of Lords, April 7, 1837. " A youth of 1 8 would be as com- pletely justified in indulging the sexual passion with every object capable of ex- citing it, as in following indiscriminately every impulse of his benevolence." — Malthus — " Essay on Population^'' p. " The infant is, comparatively speak- ing, of no value to society, as others will immediately supply its place.'" — Ibid., p. 540. " He was happy to state that he had in this measure (the Bastardy Clause) the concurrence of a Right Rev. Prelate (Chester), the mere mention of whose name would be sufficient to testify, that it had nothing in it contrary to the law of God, or opposed to the best feelings of humanity." — Bishop of London, House of Lords, August 8, 1834. " Suppose, at some distant day, it is proposed as expedient to begin quite de novo: that all land shall be divided afresh, and every man have his share : THE FRIENDS AND FAVOURERS OF THE NEW TOOR-LAW. 203 who can plead for the existing rights of property ? Neither the authors or abet- tors of the New Poor-Law ! !" — The Rev. Edivard Duncombes f Newton Kyme, Yorkshire) Pamphlet on Church Reform. " All their experience has convinced the Commissioners ' of the applicability to the manufacturing districts both of the principles of the New Poor-Law Amend- ment-Act, and the mode of administration which it prescribes." — Companion to the Almanac, 1839. " The comforts of the aged and infirm are increased (! !) The industry and moral character of the poor are improved (! !) Their (the people's) discontent has been abated, and their moral and social condition has in every way im- proved (! ! !). — " Commissioners' Canter- buries'''' for 1839. " I rejoice to think that the stern de- cree of the Poor-Law Commissioners has been already more than once disregarded by the Kettering Guardians, and that one of the last acts of my official existence at the Board was to concur in an order of out-door relief to a poor woman of my own parish, who, according to the doc- trine of the Commissioners, ought to have been sent away with the brief reply, * House offered.' " — Sir George Robin- son s Letter to the Kettering Guardians, Oct. 10, 1839. " The Report on Quackery, read by Dr. Cowan, at the late meeting of the Provincial Medical Association, says, that a statement was made to Lord John Russell, when Home-Secretary, that out of 1,830 practitioners, employed under the Poor-Law Amendment-Act, 327 had not been examined in surgery, 323 had not been examined in medicine, and 233 had not been examined at all !" — Felix Farley, Oct. 10, 1840. " Tyeanny of the Pook-Law Com- missioneks over the boaeds of Guardians who give otit-door Re- rief instead of imprisoning the Poor. — ' We have felt it necessary to say this much on the subject of partial relief, notwithstanding we have so repeatedly noticed it in our former reports, because we are convinced, that unless the pro- ceedings of the Guardians be watched with the greatest vigilance, there is great risk of their continuing (to give out-door relief) or returning to this system.' " — Commissioners' Report, 1840, sect. 40. " Severity towards the poor was, in Dr, Johnson's opinion, an undoubted and constant attendant on Whiggism." — Mrs. Piozzi. " None are legally entitled to relief who have any property, or who are not in a state of absolute destitution, and in danger of perishing for want if relief be withheld. — By order of the Board, Edwin Chadwick, Secretary." — Commissioners' Third Report, p. 88. "I have seen Eliza Screese beaten three times by the Master. She was twice flogged standing up, and the third time she was laid upon the table, and beaten with a rod. She was very vio- lently flogged, and I have seen spots of blood upon her chemise. When she was flogged the only clothes she had on was her chemise and under-petticoat, shoes and stockings. She took them oft" herself at the desire of the Master, and laid them down by her. She also removed her things off her shoulders ; and because her petticoats were not untied, INIr. Miles told her to strip. The Master stripped up her clothes, and it required two of us to hold her down, she struggled so violently. The Master said he icould make her feel. Mr. Miles told me to hold her, and I re- fused on the ground that I had children of my own. He then said — ' Don't let me have any of your d — d nonsense, or I'll serve you the same ; you want twenty- four hours in the cage.' " — Prosecution of the Master of the Hoo Union, '•'^ Morn- ing Herald, Jan. 7, 1841. " The New Poor-Laws are a guarantee to the respectable operatives against the encroachments of the less meritorious." — Dan. 0' Connell. " Laurence, the Ex-Master of the Bath Union has been, by the recommendation of Mr. Weale, the Commissioner, trans- ferred to a Union in Derbyshire ; and Howe, before coming to the Eton work- house, had been dismissed from his situa- tion as Master of another workhouse, for cruelty to a child, which died in conse- quence." — Times, Jan. 11, 1841. " The old Poor-Law required revision and amendment, and the gentlemen who had undertaken to make laws for us tacitly confessed that they knew nothing of the matter, by despatching a number of persons to collect Poor-Law tittle-tattle in every corner of England and Wales. The immediate result of this gossiping- commission was a garbled report, in the preparation of which, the testimony favourable to the poor was thrown over- board, while that which represented the 204 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. most industrious population on earth as a collection of lazy cheats and thieves, was carefully selected and elaborately drawn out. Even the preparation of an index to those atrocious libels on the labouring classes, was basely taken advantage of to 251'opagate opinions, instead of merely referring to facts. That index was made to heighten and to condense the libels of a thousand folios into a few jDages of con- centrated venom ; and all this mass of idle tittle-tattle and malignant slander was urged in proof of an overwhelming neces- sity for the appointment of that shoal of Commissioners and Assistants who now revel in the proceeds of the poor man's labour." — Mr. Bon-cm'' s Letter in the " Times:;' Dec. 23, 1840. " Destitution the ground of relief;" " The workhouse the test of destitution ;" " The parish the worst paymaster, and the hardest taskmaster ;" " None are en- titled to more than will relieve their actual wants, and the idle, the improvident, and the worthless, are entitled to no less ;" *' Any relief is a benefit, and the only question is one of amount and measure." — Commissioners Aphorisms. " In the early part of last week, her ^lajesty the Queen Dowager, attended by Earl Howe, Lady Clinton, and other members in the Royal suite, inspected the Uttoxeter Union workhouse. In going over the different apartments her Majesty W2iS 2)leased \o express her approbation at the cleanliness (?) of the establishment, and admired the general arrangements for the comforts (?) of its poor inmates, who, it is needless to observe, were delighted (?) at her Majesty's affability and condescen- sion." — Hereford Journal [Commission- ers' Print J, Dec. 2, 1840. " I attended a cattle-show yesterday; but what pubhc good can be intended by the reward of that cruelty and waste re- quired to bring the creatures to that state of unnatural fatness, which unfits them either for service or for food ? The groans of some, and their positive inabi- lity to rise unassisted, are sufficient evi- dence of the sufferings they must neces- sarily undergo. And the rice, for in- stance, upon which they are glutted for the whole preceding year, would keep several families from the miseries of starvation and the workhouse." — A Hint to Earl Spencer and other Cattle Breeders and Farotirers of the Neiv Poor-Law, " Times;' Dec. 23, 1840. " The Board of Guardians of the Thornbury (Gloucestershire) Union, on Friday, presented to their Chairman, Wm. Joyner Ellis, Esq., a splendid and massive piece of plate, at the Aust Pas- sage Hotel, in testimony of their respect for his character and their high estimation of his public services. Lord Segrave, in presenting the plate, alluded to the vile efforts and falsehoods of unprincipled party writers. He hoped and believed that the measure was fraught with bene- fits and advantages which would be felt and appreciated still more than they were at present The fact was, the old Poor-Law had brought with it a mass of abuses, which had crept in till they had grown to such an alarming height, that, had they been suffered to go further, everything would have been overwhelmed by them — the rate-payer zrould have been overichelmed, as ivell as the pauper loho subsisted on the rates. That, it was clear, could not be continued; and, accort'ingl}-, the good (?), the patriotic (?), the wise (! !), of all parties, determined to remove the evil ; and the Dukes of Richmond and Wellington, Earl Grey, the Bench of Bishops, and the leaders of the House of Commons, saw the imperative necessity for the change, and lent their most cor- dial, their most efiicient, and industrious support to the measure until completed. It was very true that it was not a perfect measure ; there were some of its provi- sions, doubtless, which required amend- ment ; but, considering how great was the nature of the change it introduced, the wonder was that it was so near per- fection. Time had developed its value, and he trusted gentlemen would never be deterred from the support of a measure of which they approved, because it was unpopular : the evil and the ignorant might revile it, but time would test and disclose its value." — Shrewsbury Chro- nicle, August 28, 1840. " Two of the Assistant-Commissioners, prominently active in proving how little was sufficient for the stomachs of the ]wor, have been known to swallow eleven bottles of Champagne at a sitting !'" — Metropolitan Conservative Joxirnal, Jan. 2, 1841. " Disgraceful and Inhuman Con- duct OF A Union IMastek. — At the Eton Petty Sessions, held on Wednesday, a summons was applied for against Joseph Howe, the INIaster of the Union workhouse, for inhuman treatment of a pauper named Elizabeth ^A^yse, at pre- THE FRIENDS AND FAVOURERS OF THE NEW POOR-LAW. 205 sent an iiunate of the workhouse. It ap- peiircd that on Sunday hist, the woman Wjse had received permission to bathe her children's feet, which were at the time atlected with chilblains from the severity of the weather. She had, however, scarcely commenced doing so, when she was spoken to by the Master, and her rejilies not having been deemed by him sufficiently respectful, some altercation ensued, upon which he seized her with great violence, and carried her to the refractory ward, in which slie remained locked up from ten o'clock on Sunday morning until the same hour on the fol- lowing day. The dungeon in which she was confined was generally called the ' black hole ' by the paupers, from its wretched and dismal appearance, and in this hole, the windows of which were unglazed, and entirely open to the severity of the intense frost which pre- vailed on Sunday night, was this poor creature immured, without sheet or blan- ket, or covering of any description, and even without a truss of straw upon which to lay herself. On the following morn- ing, when liberated from her dungeon, she was discovered by the Master, thaw- ing her frozen limbs by the fire-side ; she was then peremptorily directed by him to go instantly and clean out the cell in which she had been confined ; and, on her begging permission to remain a short time longer at the fire, he, not content with his former severity, caught her by the middle, and, after a severe struggle, again dragged her to the same cell in which she had already suffered so much. In this place she endured a further incar- ceration of nine hours." — Conservative Journal^ Jan. 2, 1841. " When the wolves make laws for lambs, it is for the latter to say Avhether they icorh well or not.''' — Mr. Saynuel Roberts, of Sheffield. " According to the advocates for the bill, the workhouse is to be made the ' test' of the claimants for relief. This means that the treatment is to be such that no one, unless in absolute destitution, with impending starvation hovering over him and his family, will submit to it ! Thus, by this inhuman experiment, the aged, the maimed, and the poor, who ought to spend their latter hours in com- fort, are to be crucified as a ' tesf for claimants for relief! In some cases, this has been carried so far, that the inmates have died, in direct co7iseqitence of im- proper and imperfect nutriment being afforded them. Now as to this we shall only say, that for this treatment of parish apprentices Elizabeth Brownrigg in the last, and Mary Hibner in the present cen- tury, lost their lives on a gallows, amid the well-merited execrations of the people. To this, then, we have come, that for assisting, under colour of law, to bring about that in England for which Brown- rigg" and Hibner were hanged. Sir John Hibner receives ' a, thousand a-year,^ and Lady Brownrigg ' patronizes concerts !' — Roberts's " The Peers, The People, and The Poor.'' " What do the rich and noble men of the nation, who are famishing and afflict- ing to death the worn-out labourers of the land, do with their sporting dogs and horses, when they are old ? Do they cal- culate to a morsel how little food will serve to keep them alive, or how coarse and nauseous that food may be '? or do they put them in clamminghouses (slaxigh- terhouses) till they die ? No ; they let tJiem live in comfort. — Ibid. " There are, I believe, in England and Wales, somewhat about thi-ee thousand parishes. In some ten or a doeen, we will say the utmost, fifty agricultural parishes, principally in the south of Eng- land, in which parishes a few of our lead- ing rulers had considerable estates ; in them the rates had become very high, they alleged from abuse of the law by re- sident magistrates. (Pray, ought any law to be condemned for the abuse of it ?) Now, supposing this to have been the case, ought two thousand nine hundred and fifty contented parishes to be thrown into confusion, and their poor famished, because some abuses were alleged to have crept into the administration of fifty, ia which some of our Ogre Rulers had es- tates ? Which abuses (if really existing) might have been at once remedied by the interested parties going themselves to their estates, and that with a hundredth part of the trouble, which, to their eter- nal disgrace, and, if I mistake not, to their eternal punishment, is now taking by the Duke of Richmond, Earl Spencer, Earl Fitzwilliam, the Duke of Portland, and many others, to deprive the poor of their rights, and in many instances to hasten their death. Well, but these Aviso men of Gotham, who, if they ever had any, had lost their wits, cried out ' Wolf!' so lustily, that more than one-half of all the wise men in the nation, in Parliament assembled, concluded, as they were told, that if this new poor destructive Bill did 20G THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES, not pass, and become the law of the land within a very few days, their estates would not be their own at the end of twelve months. As the great soul-pledging ifooZ-stapler (Brougham) told them this — how could they doubt it ? Well ! what was the object? Simply and solely this, that less money should be paid in future in poor-rates. This was the sole object. As no tax in the world ever was, or ever will be, collected and administered at a proportionate less expense than our old poor-rates, it is perfectly clear that the poor in future must receive at least as much less than formerly, as the rate- payers contributed less. This, then, was clearly robbing poor Peter to pay rich Paul — Paul being the lawyer, and Peter the client, who having before only one coat had only half a one left." — Ihid. " Theunfeelingnessof the higher ranks towards the sufferings of the poor are ' frightful,' exclaims Mr. Bowen, ' as when Spallanzani or Magendie twist their accursed ligatures round the organs of life and of sensation, lacerating the quiver- ing nerve, and puncturing the palpitating heart, that they may impiously pry into the sanctuary of nature, and detect under how much torture, and loith hoio little sus- tenance, existence may be sustained. The heart shrinks back sickened and appalled from such presumptuous exhibitions, and no adroitness in the details of the operator can reconcile humanity to the frightful ex- periment.' Thus it is that the higher ranks in these degenerate days deal with their poor and afflicted fellow-creatures ! They have not yet, it is true, proceeded quite so far as to consign them before death to the tender mercies of the anatomists, to nail their hands and feet down to the bloody table, and, after gagging them, de- liberately to proceed to lay open the seat of life, and ' lacerate the quivering nerve, and puncture the palpitating heart, that they may impiously pry into the sanctuary of nature, in order to detect (otherwise than the New Poor-Law,) under how much torture, and rvith hoio little sustenance, existence m,ay be sustained.'' This (by law) they have not yet been authorized to do ; but who will dare to say how long (if our present wicked rulers continue to govern this disgraced empire,) it may be before they are so authorized. They possess the same right to decree that as they had to decree dissection. They are only dif- ferent degrees of punishment inflicted for no crime. Do not the nerves quiver, and the heart palpitate, of both the victim (before death), and of the immediate relatives of the poor innocent doomed to dissection ? And for iohat crime ? Be- cause he is poor and powerless ! But who will dare to say that he is not by this ac- cursed law doomed to be given up alive to the knife of the anatomists ? Were he wanted to be so given up, the crime is, by the new law, rendered so easy of com- mission, tliat detection, were the Surgeon and the Governor combined, would be next (humanly speaking) to impossible." —Ibid. " Under the old law unanimity did pre- vail so far as varying times and circum- stances rendered it desirable ; but under the new law (whose excellence consisted, it was stated, in making it general and permanent) I doubt if there be two Unions in the kingdom acting alike ; certainly not one in full accordance with the law itself. The Great Law Manufactory established at Somerset-house, is kept constantly at work in framing, in revising, in altering, and abrogating — but still none can be made to suit all — so that at last it has, it seems, been found necessary for the Great Wholesale Law Manufacturer to make different laws for different places, accord- ing as he found they would be submitted to. According to law, i. e., according to the law as first struck off, there was to be an equality of quantity, quality, weight, and measure, throughout the kingdom ; but this it was found would not do ; in- quiry, therefore, was made by the under- inquisitors, how much men generally eat in each district, altering their diet for each proportionably, as if the quantity of food re- quired to keep the souls and bodies of pau- pers together varied accordingly as their richer neighbours eat more or less. In this Union of Sheffield, for instance, they have twice as much allowed as they have in some others. Here too, by far the greater part of the paupers are reUeved at their own homes — in most others very few are so. Here, and in all the manufacturing districts, able-bodied men are relieved at home in great numbers (more in some in- stances than under the old law) — in the agricultural districts scarcely at all." — Ibid. " The part he took in carrying that law would always, in reviewing the events of his public life, be a satisfaction to him." — Lord John Russell, House of Commons, Jan. 29, 1841. " The structure of the bill is despotism. Three men, called Commissioners, select- ed, avowedly, on account of their hard THE FRIENDS AND FAVOURITES OF THE NEW POOR-LAW. 207 hearts, unfeeling dispositions, unyielding- ness to the natural emotions of pity, have power given them to treat the poor of England nearly as they please. These three Neros have in every county subor- dinate tyrants, called Assistant Poor-Law Commissioners, who are to perform, as far as they can, the cruel orders of the three incarnate fiends in London. In order to take a part of the odium from these tyrants, the Act directed ' Guardians' to be elected by the rate-payers ; but these Guardians have no power under the bill to act for themselves. The covert intention is, gradually to get men elected who will wink at, and in time sanction, the denial of all relief as intended by the bill, and, at the same time, be a sort of shield for the Commissioners. This it is hoped to effect gradually, as the sight of cruelty gradually hardens men's minds." — Mr. Samuel Roberts's " The Peers, The People, and Tlie Poor.''' " Those who framed the statute of Elizabeth were not adepts in political science, — they were not acquainted with the true principle of population, — they could not foresee that a Malthus would arise to enlighten mankind The right to share in a fixed fund is the grand mis- chief of the Poor-Laws, with the seeds of Avhich they were originally pregnant I shall say nothing, at present, for repeal- ing the Poor-Law itself. I shall, yb/ the present, assume, that the statute of Eliza- beth cannot now be dealt with." — Lord Brougham on moving the Second Reading. " From the bottom of our souls, as Christians and as Churchmen, we feel, that when the poor, for whom our Saviour came down from heaven, are trampled under the hoofs of a vain and selfish philosophy, it is no time for the disciples of our Lord to abide in the sheepfolds to hear the bleating of the flocks. The Church of England is called upon, in this trying hour, to prove by her conduct, that she is indeed the church founded by the meek and humble Jesus. Her clergy are bound to stand by that portion of humanity ■which constitutes the base of society. Oh ! that they would make common cause with the injured poor and the depressed labour- ers of their country ! Then might the Church smile at the worst that her foes could meditate ; for the God of the neces- sitous would take her part, and she will have righted herself by becoming — what should be the prime characteristic of a Christian establishment — the poor man's church ; and he who came to refresh the ■weary and heavy laden, will bless her endeavours, and crown her charitable offices with triumph. When a tyrannical triumvirate proscribes in awful characters so many thousands of our fellow-citizens and fellow-Christians (for two-thirds of the population belong to that class which comprehends the pauper) — when these worse than Antonii and Lepidi rule over the indigent, and with legal violence, ' do deeds to make the angels weep,' and their blood runs cold, and bids their will avouch it ; at such a time the Church should open her arms to welcome the oppressed poor, the halt, the blind, the stricken, to her capacious bosom. The pulpits should resound with notes of lamentation, and Avith the voice of welcome. When they, who are enabled to do so, by the goodness of Providence, approach with comparative joy the throne of the universal Father, they should be reminded, in the first place, that it is their first duty to love everything that he hath made; that every form which bears the image of God is their brother, and that every being that is dear to him ought also to be dear unto them. If with mental vision, brightened by the advantages of education, they have looked with gratitude at that perpetual care whereby the universe is maintained, and in which everything ' lives and moves and has its being ;' a voice touched by the living coal from God's altar, should whis- per in their ear, that inasmuch as they are members of the mighty system, on them some sentient immortal beuigs, jour- neying from the thorny thoroughfares of preparative existence, depend for succour and support ; and that the noblest career which the highest, wisest, and best of mankind can run, is that of being fellow- workers, with the Giver of all good, in the welfare of the creation." — Chtirch of England Quartei-ly Review. "Now I really doubt whether Satan himself, if he could have obtained the same power to afflict and try this nation as he did to put Job to the test, could have devised any means so likely to cause this kingdom to ' curse God and die,' as this accursed New Poor-Law Bill. All moral and religious principles — all fear of offending God and afflicting men, are uprooted. Miseries worse, far worse, than ever Job endured, are by this law inflicted on hundreds of thousands of unoffending Britons. Where Satan de- stroyed one of the children of Job — he and his agents have by this law destroyed a thousand of the children of Britain. AMth 208 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. what delight must his Satanic Majesty now be going to and fro, and walking up and down in tliis country, his now assigned probationary victim! How easy, how effectual, how complete, were his tempta- tions in the occupiers of High Places ! How readily they became his mercenary instruments ! ' See,' said the wily temp- ter to them, ' see all these millions of sovereigns which are now spread before you, devoted, by fools, to maintain useless beings ten times better dead than living — all these will I give you, if you will only fall down, Avorship, and henceforth obey me !' And they said unto him, ' Remain with us, Satan, and declare unto us thy will, and we will be thy servants, and henceforth obey thee in everything, for the kingdom is ours and all the people therein.' So Satan remained with them, and he concocted for them the New Poor-Law Bill ; he planted it in the Metropolis, where his agents are now working his pleasure ; and, as far as they can, to the ruin of this land, which had hitherto — more than any other — been able to set his machinations at defiance.'" — Mr. Samuel Roberts's " The Peers, The People, and The Poorr " What a sweet expense the Triune Pope and nil his squad of travelling Car- dinals will be! as well as the erection and subsequent final alteration into Lunatic Asylums of the New Bastiles will be, with the open salaries, and secret perqui- sites, of the forty or fifty widely dispersed Guardians. As to the poor Doctors and Parsons, they are to be paid pretty much in proportion to their services which are not required to be many ; the Parsons not being to be troubled with burying the bodies which the Doctors are to have in part of payment. Never was a Bill in this world passed so promotive and encou- raging of roguery as the New Poor-Law Bill ; — this is in some degree always the case with such laws as are obscure — but this is worse than obscure. I have heard of many Acts of Parliament which no one but the framers could understand; but this is one which even they cannot com- prehend. I have heard of one instance in which application was made for expla- nation to the travelling law dispensers fii-st — but in vain ; then to the Great fixed Infallible — but even he was at a nonplus ; the Secretary of State was then referred to, and the applicants by him advised to appeal to the then King's Bench." — Ibkl. " Why, if the Bill be so self-evidently advantageous, is there any necessity to employ Commissioners to fabricate volu- minous Peports, at a great expense to the public, from year to year, tilled with the most paljiable misrepresentations and falsehoods, that ever appeared in print? Why, if the Bill is so decidedly goocf, do not the patriotic Ministers take tlie sense of all the different parishes in the kingdom (who are the best able to judge, and have now had an opportunityof judging) on the subject ? Why, when the people in some parishes have called meetings to take the subject into consideration, have police- officers been sent down from London, and even soldiers with loaded fire-arms to check the freedom of debate upon the subject ? Why, in these times, when we are told that the country cannot afford to pay the old poor-rates, are such demands for secret service-monej^ made, as thirty- five thousand pounds at a time, but to bribe the country, particularly the public periodical press to cajole the people by praising the New Law ? Whj% when any member of the House of Commons has, from any motives, annoyed the Ministers by abusing the New Law, have they stopped his mouth by cramming him with places or pensions, or if they have no place to suit him, creating such, as the Director of Cabs, Coaches, &.c. ? Why, if truth be their object, do they, as soon as they hear of a clergyman — should it even be in Cumberland — opposing the New Bill, do they send down their emis- saries — first to dissuade him from perse- vering ; if that fails, to induce him by promises — and if still unsuccessful, to threaten : and even through his Dioce- san or others, annoy and persecute him as much as ever they are able ? Why, if they only wish to do justly, do they use their best endeavours to induce every man of influence to exert it in preventing any of his dependents from declaring their objections to the Bill ? Why, but to cram the Bill down the throats of the people who are sick of it, — do Dukes, and Earls, and Lords — who never did so before — go, and sit for hours in a dusty prison, among farmers, grocers, and cow- jobbers, like fellows well met, to take a few pounds from the bare maintenance of the poor, which is more their right than the estates of the nobles are theirs ? If they sought for nothing but what was just, why did they endeavour to lower the character of all the poor in the land by hired miscreants, and not only asserted those falsehoods as truths to the whole world in both Houses of Parliament, but THE FRIENDS AND FAVOURERS OF THE NEW TOOR-LAW. 209 published them, at great expense, to be distributed gratis tlirough the kingdom ?" — " The Rev. Dr. Pye Smith and the Neiv Poor- Law" hy Samuel Roberts. *' If a fourth of the two milhons of which ihe poor are being robbed had been taken from the Church — is there a sacred spire or tower in the kingdom that would not have vibrated with the effect of the thundering voices which would have pro- ceeded from the pulpits beneath ? Oh ! if our liyht be darkness — how great is that darkness? If the God-appointed Guardians oj the Poor be their Oppressors, to whom, in this world, shall they look for protection ? Dreadful as these things are, I have still worse to relate. Here, I fear, the Star-chamber have been too suc- cessful — they knew the secret ways of the citadel ; they made their attack on Mam- mon-gate, and they found an easy en- trance." — Ibid. " The Commissioners found out that ' Rascally Publications' were continually being issued against them and their wicked law. They were well aware that the press was a powerful engine, possessing more than a hundred horse or ass ministerial power. They, however, knew too, that this machine might be made, hy proper greasing., to work, in agreat measure, either for or against them. Having command of the national grease-pot — as well as of the unnational purse of secret service-money — they have been enabled to bring by far the greater number of those engines to work /or them. Some of them are said to be almost clogged by them wdth grease. Thus is this important source of know- ledge and truth, not only turned out of its due course, but impelled into a contrary one, and so polluted as to render the waters which it pumps up, poisonous, instead of refreshing. I ap])rehend that more than nine-tenths of the public perio- dical press is thus polluted. Every means, however, ' rascally,'' that could be devised by the determined maintainers of that ruin- ous disgrace to England — the New Poor- Law, has been resorted to, to uphold it. Not only are enormous sums of the secret service-money applied (as has been asserted without contradiction) to thus sustaining the accursed law, but every method is taken to injure those few newspapers which have dared honestly to expose and condemn it. While the sycophant papers in the same places, whose Editors are perhaps Guardians or Overseers, may contain from ten to twenty advei-tisements on the sub- ject, the former have not one sent to them ; nay, resolutions of Guardians have been passed to prevent it. Nay, emissaries are sent round to cajole or intimidate them, while all the almost innumerable batteners on the villain-feeding law, are opposed to them.'' — Ibid. "Our House of Commons is corrupted to the core by mercenar)' members, enjoy- ing, or looking forwards to, places for supporting the Bill, many of them being proprietors of the papers which defend it. Thus corruption from this foul infectious source, is pervading all grades of society above the lower ranks — ' Fleas there are which live on men, While other fleas bite them again ; These little fleas liave fleas that bile 'em, Thus fleas bite fleas ad infinitum.' "^ —Ibid. " By the accumulation of twenty, thirtj-, or forty parishes into one Union, the poor are often thrown to the distance of six, eight, or ten miles from the noble and ignoble faniishers who assemble at the fl)is) Union prison, to whom they are to apply, even if they happen to be dying for want. There they may go — I well know — two, three, or four times, before they can even get an answer — which will generally be, you must come in. Well, biit if they get a shilling and a short-weight loaf per week allowed, and happen to be sick, the coming of the Doctor and the Relieving Officer, will be equally uncertain, unless the poor old woman should happen to have a hand- some granddaughter living with her to take care of her. In that case it has been known that the latter gentleman has been punctual, and not only freely bestowed his favours on the old woman, but even condescended io force them on the young one." — Ibid. " There is one clause of the Bill, be- yond all other superexcellent. I believe that it originated with either Lord Brougham, or Lord Melbourne, probably in company with Mrs. Norton when the blinds were down ; it, however, was the most strongly enforced by one of the highest dignitaries of the Established Church of England — a man considered as being as well acquainted with the ways of the world as most of the cloth in the kingdom, and one w'ho in this case must have been disinterested. When a poor, frail, trembling female was brought and placed before our blessed Saviour, accused of a certain crime, he mildly told that man among the Priests and Levites (who had brought her and stood around) who 210 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. was without sin, to cast a stone at her. My Lord of London was not among them — so they all, one by one — from some reason or othex* — slunk away." — Ihicl. " If my Lord Brougham's design in concocting this unprecedented Bill had, instead of ''testing'' the sufi'erings of the poor, been to ' test' the humanity and understandings of the Aristocracy, it could hardly have been better contrived. I am, of course, speaking of them as a body — individual exceptions there happily are. Nevertheless, harsh as the assertion may sound, I am sure that if I were com- pelled to name the class of human beings with whose conduct I had the most reason to be dissatisfied in the whole empire, I should name the Aristocracy of Britain, particularly as it has been shown in their conduct respecting this infamous Bill. To compare them with savages, or even heathens of any description, is out of the question. If the Aristocracy are vile, it is contempt of the clearest Ught, the greatest advantages, the purest example, the highest obligations, the most holy ties, the most solemn engagements. They can have no plea of either ignorance or poverty. If, then, they go down to hell, it must indeed be ivith the lighted torch in their hands.'''' — Lord Brougham and the Neiv Poor-Laics, by Samuel lioberts. " You have followed in the train of certain persons in Yorkshire and Lanca- shire, whose language and proceedings have been seditious, and even next to treasonable, in opposing the operation of a most wise and beneficient law." — Dr. Pye Smith's ^^ Letter to the Rev. John Hanson,'" Lndcpendent Minister of Lox- ley, March, 26, 1838. " By the Bench — ' I was once flogged because a piece of something stuck to a dish containing the pudding which was kept ready for master against he came home from hunting.' By Mr. Prall — ' Master used to go a-hunting very often. I have heard ' Missus ' say so, and have seen him go away on his horse.' " — Ex- amination of the Master of the Hoo Union for cruelly and indecently heating the children, " Times," Jan. 5, 1841. " I could not tell how Mr. Miles could act so cruelly in cold blood, for after he had given one stroke, his blood «/>- peared to rise, and his anger increase." —Ibid. " Hoo Union. — The depositions of the witnesses examined before the Ma- gistrates at Rochester, against Miles, the jmaster of the Hoo Union workhouse, who, it will be remembered, was charged with various acts of cruelty to the chil- dren under the care of the matron, ^\ere, as required, duly forwarded to the Mar- quis of Normanby. The receipt of them was formally acknowledged by a letter from the noble secretaiy, but he has suffered the assizes to go by without giving directions to Mr. Vizard, the newly-appointed solicitor to the Home- office, or any one else, to move in the case. INIiles still remains in the establish- ment at Hoo, as before. It was reported that he had been dismissed by the Poor- Law Commissioners, and certainly as far as papers, signatures, and seals go, he was so, but no further. Thus is public decency outraged, and public justice mocked at and defied, by the despotic rulers over England's poor. The effect of the retention of such a person in his situation is to terrify the helpless crea- tures under his control, and to stifle all further complaint and inquiry. Some of the paupers who appeared against Miles at Rochester have since been threatened (it may be guessed by whom) with im- prisonment for swearing falsely against him.''— Times, April 6, 1841. " As to the Poor-Law, I should be ashamed to raise a cry upon that subject, even to win my election. I believe and trust a great deal of good (?) will come out of it." — Mr. Thomas Dyke Acland, M.P., for West Somerset, his Address, 1837. " The Poor-Law Commissioners were now trying to introduce tlie infernal sys- tem into London, and in order to disguise from the public the extent of its cruelty, they allowed the poor in the London workhouses eleven pints of beer per week, gave them leave to go out of Sundays, and forbore to insist on carrying into effect the disgraceful regulations for sepa- rating married couples. They made their regulations as palatable as they could, in order to blind the public." — Times, Feb. 20, 1838. " Is it not a moving and lamentable commentary on Whig patriotism, to see Mr. Bigge, who has grown gi'ey with bawling for reform, sitting at the JNIorpeth Poor-Law Union, with the minute-book before him containing a resolution, that the poor shall no longer have the rights of Christian Burial?" — Blakey's " Con- trorersial Letters tvith the Morpeth Board." THE FllIEXDS AND FAVOURERS OF THE NEW POOR-LAW. 211 ' Like are their merits, like rewards they share ; That shines a Consul, this a Commissiuuer." — Dunciad. ' Beggars in ev'ry age and nation, Are rogues and fools by situation; The rich and great are understood To be of course both wise and good." — Churchill. " Who are these Assistant-Commis- sioners who assume sucli airs, and ride rong'h-shod over the yeomanry and gentry of rural England ? Tliey are composed of briefless barristers, boy I'eformers, and the hungry hangers-on of Whig families. As a sample of the set we will mention that four or five years ago, an Assistant- Commissioner in Suffolk, a philosophic opium-eater, who is to supersede by his schemes of education all the scholastic establishments in the kingdom, prepared himself for an encounter with a refractory board by an extra dose of his favourite stimulant; 'and now,' said he, *" I will break their necks.'' " — Metropolitan Con- servative Journal, Sep. 19, 1840. " Lord Howick says, ' with respect to the able-bodied, relief was not now lavished upon them as it was formerly ; they did not now receive indiscriminately large allowances from the parish ; but in return for that deprivation, the really honest and industrious were enabled, without being indebted to any man, of their own honest industry, to maintain themselves in comfort, and frequently by their active exertions to raise themselves to a station of life far superior to that in which they were brought up. These were the consequences of the law which the Hon. Member for Oldham proposed to repeal. He trusted, therefore, that the House, by the decided majority by which it would negative that proposition, would show its approbation of the mea- sure, and its regard for the poor and in- dustrious classes.' So, a man, his wife, and five or six children, Avith 8s. a-week, are expected to raise themselves far above the sphere in which they were brought up ! If they can be honest under such circum- stances, they are indeed the purest of human beings ! Honesty with half-filled bellies ! — what a glorious picture ! Lord Howick has £2,580 a-year, I believe, and I could find a man starving upon 8s. a-week with more common sense than his Lordship." — A Suffolk Juror's '•'■ Letters^ " The Bishop of Norwich has just written to Mr. Somebody, ' that no legis- lative enactment has ever tended more effectually to raise the character of our pauper population !' There is scarcely a sentence in this letter that is not open to censure, and 1 may one day return to it ; but that a Bishop, who has been raised from a humble station to affluence and idleness, by an imbecile Ministry, merely for publishing a pamphlet to further their views, should dare to use the woy^ jyauper, whilst he is living upon what was set apait chiefly for the use of the poor, when we had no paupers! The Bishop says, " Whenever the Bill has been allowed a fair trial, the condition of the poor has obviously improved; and I heard the wives and mothers of the labourers repeatedly express satisfaction at the increase of their domestic com- forts !' Before I should question the veracity of so high a functionary as a Bishop, that I might not mislead my readers, I made some inquiries in this parish, and I will report a few cases : — " The first case is of a man, his wife, and seven children. He earns, when in work, 9s. himself, and one of his boys Is. 6d., together 10s. 6d. a-week, for niue persons ! The man is unwell, and he has no allowance! 1 asked the woman, if the New Poor-Law had made her hus- band more sober, more prudent, or more industrious. She said, ' No, Sir ; my husband has always been a hard-working man, and a good husband ; we used to be distressed under the old law with our large family, but now we have not enough to live upon at all — the sooner we are dead the better.' This woman, then, is not one of the Bishoi)s informants ! " The second case is of a man, his wife, and four children ; he and his family have earned 5s. only, in the last five inclement weeks. ' How do you live .'" ' 1 do not know; I happened to have a few pota- toes.' He was so weak as to be hardly able to stand. He can have no allowance, but he and his family may go into the Union-House. This man's wife is not one of (he Bishop's happi/ women ! o P 2 212 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. " Tlie third case is an old sick man and his wife, their allowance is Is. Gd., and one stone of Hour in a week ; 3s. 7d. in the whole — they have not food enough ! How should they ? They would cost the parish 7s. 6d. a-week, in the Union- House, notwithstanding the economy of that place ! This poor man has worked with one kind master thirty-three years ! during which time he has received eleven hundred pounds for the lahour of himself tmd family ! ' Eleven Hundred Pounds !' a Commissioner would cry out, ' Why ! you ought to have saved enough from such a sum to keep yourself and wife to the end of your days in independence!' ' Yes, Sir ; but I have brought up a family of seven children with very little assistance from the parish, and I am told that half my earnings has always gone for taxes, and if you divide the money for 1,721 weeks, you may easily see I had never too much to maintain my family. They tell me that you have more every 3'ear out of the taxes than I have earned in my life, and your chief business is to make poor people live nearh' without ■food. However, we shall soon be out of -our misery ; we are nearly starved, and, of course, such food as we can get for 3s. 7d. a-week, will soon bring disease and death !' " / have not found a Bishop's happy icoman yet ! " The fourth case : An able-bodied man, his wife, and six children ; the average earnings of the man, 8s. a-week ; a stout boy, 3s.; the total income lis. Two sick children, but being one of the •* independent ' sort, the man has no allow- ance for them, except surgical attendance. The Union Surgeon was sent for to one of the children last Tuesday, his assistant •saw the child ; it was very ill ; he sent it some powders, nothing else. The wo- man went for some more medicine on Thursday morning ; the child was no better, and the assistant said he would see it in the course of the day ; but he did not attend ; nor did he on the Friday, till the evening ; the poor man, after he left his work, having ventured to go and inform the Doctor of the state of the child, the assistant went directly, and said, ' / Itad forgotten it.' ' Oh, Sir,' said the poor mother, ' if this had been a rich person's child, you would not have forgotten it !' ' Well,' said he, ' have you any brandy in the house ?' What a ques- tion for a 1 ] s. a-week family ! ' Have you an a^s, ?' ' No.' ' Well, then, send in my name to ask your mistress ibr a little brandy and an e^g.'' The poor creature had them, of course, but ' ?«// name ' had no weight in the grant ! The poor woman had several restless nights with the poor child, but she sat up the whole of that night, and in the morning she had bread only for breakfast — oh yes, water ! Bread and water ! Felons'' allowance ! ! The child wished for a morsel of meat. Vain wish ! The poor child died on Sundaj'' mornmg. Happy release ! Another es- cape from the tender mercies of Poor- Lavv Commissioners, Guardians, Reliev- ing-Officers, and Union-Surgeons ! I could not ask this poor unhappy woman how she liked the New Law ; but surely we may guess !" — Letters of a Sujfolk Juror. " I have heard a Guardian of the Bath Union, a Rev. Mr. Spencer, state, at a Temperance Meeting, that he knew a workhouse, not a hundred miles from Bath, the schoolmaster of which had been disco- vered to be so addicted to drinking, that he had been seen several times very nearly to fall from his chair through intoxication while reading prayers to the paupers, be- sides having been repeatedlj- seen in a state of intoxication at other times. It is well known in what Union this happened, and also that this most unfit instructor of youth is still retained in his post. Only a few days ago this schoolmaster came home in such a state of intoxication, as to beat one or more boys, while in bed, so cruelly about the head, with some large keys which he had in his hand, that, to use the expression of the person who mentioned it to me, ' the blood ran all over the bedding.' Every endeavour, I find, has been made by the Master and other officers in the said workhouse to conceal the circumstance." — Rev. C Fowell Watts f of Bath J, in the '' limes,'' Sept. 15, 1840. " We resume the subject of the Bath workhouse investigations of Januarj% 1839. Our readers will recollect, that in the first stage of this affair, when charges were made against Mr. Laurence, the then Master of the Bath Union workhouse, by a person who had been employed as his clerk, and privately investigated by the Board of Guardians, one-half of those charges, imputing to him habitual neglect of his routine duties, systematic falsifica- tion of accounts, and non-attendance at Divine service, was admitted by himself to be well founded ; and that, nevertheless, Mr. Laurence was continued in his office, almo.st without a reprimand ; while the THE FRIENDS AND FAVOURERS OF THE NEW TOOR-LAW. ■21. 'J virtuous indignation of the Guardians vented itself in a bitter attack upon the motives of his accuser. Neitlier will they have forgotten, that when out of fourteen other charges subsequently made against the same person, and referred for investi- gation to Mr. Commissioner Adey, three became the subjects of actual inquirj'. Mr. Laurence was acquitted of the first, being a charge of incontinence, because the principal witness's testimony, though clear, consistent, and uncontradicted, w'ould have been insufficient (in the judgment of the Poor-Law Commis- sioners,) to insure his conviction by a jury in a legal trial for rape : that he was acquitted of the second, being a charge of dishonesty, because it appeared that, upon the eve of the inquiry, he had paid over money which he had improperly re- tained for eleven months : that he was convicted - Jio/tert Peel, House of Commons, March 19, 1841. " Mr. Slancy said he had supported the original Bill, and would not have done so if he had considered it in any way hostile to the poorer classes. His belief was, that this Bill was absolutely necessary to their welfare. He merely spoke as to the })rinciple of it, and not as to every clause of it. In almost every county on the south and east coasts the labourers had formerly had their wages made up out of the poor-rates, and the services of labour- ing men were put up to auction. That was a system which had been maintained, not in one parish, but in several. If that were the case, was not the change which had taken place in the condition of the working classes of these counties to be considered as an improvement? He con- tended, that the labourers were much improved in condition by having tiieir wages paid directly in money. The con- dition of the poor in the old workhouses was ill attended to. The able-bodied, dissolute woman, with two or tln-ee bastard children, Avas there mixed up with the old and infirm woman of correct life. Now these classes were separated, and old persons were placed in situations where they could enjoy those decent comforts fitted for their age, and where they were separated from those who formerly, under the old system, used to tease and plague them. The able-bodied had the option whether they would work or not, and if they would there was sufficient employ- ment found for them. But, above all, what was the beneficial change which had taken place in the condition of the infant poor ? They were now separated from the contamination of bad example, they had the best instruction, and were; enal)led to go out as servants and apprentices. He thought that these were reasons why they ought to finish the improvements they had begun. He thought the law would want some alteration ; but, on the whole, there were such improvements in the Bill that it would be rash to return to the old system." — House of Commons, March 1 9, 1841. " But there is another point in the Leicester petition, and that is the selling of the goods of poor people before relief has been afforded to them. (Hear, hear.) The Chairman of the Committee, and 220 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. many who supported the Bill, have been anxious to have it made known that it was not the practice of those who executed this law to require the goods of the poor to be sold before they received relief from the parish. But here these petitioners are prepared to prove that such is the practice invariably pursued. (Hear.) And who can doubt the fact when we are told by the Commissioners in their third report, and in circulars, that the strict workhouse ' test ' requires that every man before re- ceiving relief should enter the workhouse, and his goods be sold for the benefit of the parish? (Cheers.) Would anybody for a moment question that when such in- structions were given, that the fiends — for they are nothing better than fiends — who received those instructions, would follow them up to their very letter.^ (Cheers.)" — Mr. Fieldens Speech at his Manchester Dinner, June 4, 1838. " What was this people, concerning whom one of the wealthiest of the land, who were really sensualized by the indul- gencies that the labour and industry of those people had given them until they actually lost their reason and their intel- lect — had said, within a very short time, that to take notice of the wants and miseries of that people was impugning the Supreme Governor of the universe, and robbing him of his just attributes ! (Execration.) Some of us, proceeded Mr. Condy, recollect the Bible as well as Earl Fitzwilliam. (Hear, hear.) We know there never was such a thing asserted by any author of the inspired writings. If we choose to turn the tables upon him, if we let loose the roaring ordinances of his threatenings, as exposed in the inspired book, upon the voluptuousness of an age when a single bottle of wine swallows up the weekly wages of five hand-loom weavers, — what will become of them in the day of popular wrath, which certainly will be kindled up if they go on in this abominable trickery ? Hypocrites they must be ; and it is the pleasure of a great many men to fancy themselves successful hypocrites. But here is a nation perish- ing, and a nobiUty and aristocracy luxuri- ating in the most monstrous indulgences, and then telling the people that they are bound to starve, for such is the will of the Supreme Governor of the universe ! (Loud cheers.) How came the people to be in this starving condition — that is the next question. (Hear, hear.) What is it that has made Lord FitzwiUiam's estate worth what it is? Is there one of his ancestors that ever added one farthing per acre to the value of that estate ? (Hear, hear.) Is there one man of all the aris- tocracy, excepting Sir R. Peel, and he has lied into the arms of this worst of factions, who can say that he or his ancestors ever contributed one farthing's worth, either of thought or means, to aid or in- fluence that intelligence and industry which has made this country more cele- brated in all inventions, mechanical and agricultural, for the improvement of the soil, and the development of human power, than any country past or present ? (Cheers, and cries of ' No.') In what a plight are we then ! A whole people that have lifted this aristocracy up till their very hearts are fat, and their minds be- reaved of intellect, are put out of the pale, and under what circumstances ? (Hear, hear.) A century and a-half ago, or a little more, there was no debt, and scarcely any poor-rates. (Hear, hear.) The poor-rates were an invention to sub- stitute the means by which the poor were fed before they were robbed of them by aristocratic pillage. The poor-rates are now denounced by men sweltering with wealth, who are actually eating and drinking themselves into disease from superabundance, who cannot get xid of it except by most inordinate waste, and who say that the peoj)le must not be relieved from any distress, by whatever cause it falls upon them. The late Mr. Cobbett has taught us to track the evil, and we will track it with a great deal more fidelity than we hitherto have, and find whither the oxen hunted into the den of Cacus, by-and-by, go. (Loud cheers.) We see nearly a thousand millions of debt, and eight millions o^ poor-rates, with land trebled, nay quadrupled, in value. The price of corn, as was suggested in an ex- cellent letter from Bronterre, published in our friend Mr. O'Connor's paper, has risen in the same proportion, whilst the wages of the labourer remain almost in the same state as they were in the begin- ning. (Hear, hear.) But this is not all. Six millions of acres of common land belonging to the labouring classes were withdrawn from them in the reign of George the Third — (hear, hear) — and yet we have these men asserting, with all this accumulation of wealth, that they cannot rid themselves of, except by almost scat- tering it to the wind, that the poor-rate is going to devour the estates of the most wealthy and most powerful aristocracy that this world ever saw! (Immense THE FRIENDS AND FAVOURERS OF THE NEW POOR-LAW. •3-27 cheering.) Now as to the robbery of their estates, take you notice of their robbery of the six milHons of acres of land belonging to the poor. (Cheers.) They have, by a pretended economy of the poor-rates — for it is only pretence — •wrested three miUions per annum from the poor ; they have stolen six millions of acres in addition ; and they have saddled the labour of the country with more than four hundred millions of permanent debt for the pleasure of beating down one race of Bourbons, and live hundred millions for restoring their successors. (Hear, hear.) No language can overtake this subject ; and if we were to discourse ujion it at the length it requires just now, it would be totally at variance with my respect for your president's most excellent observa- tions. But now a word upon the question itself. Is there any man but one tied up to a system which seeks to devour the last remnant of wages, a man who dooms the labouring people to a ' coarser kind of food,' and who offers imprisonment instead of reUef to labourers made destitute by the havoc of their own legislation — is there any man, I ask, who believes that a people so intelligent, so industrious, so inventive, as to alarm the jealousy of all the nations of the world — that such a people are seeking to destroy the property of others, to annihilate the reasonable rights of others, to pull down the monarchy, or to extirpate the privileges of the peer- age such as they have a right to enjoy in reference to their natural extent of pro- perty ? (Loud cheers.) The worthy canon of St. Paul's (the Rev. Sydney Smith) says he wonders how many of our institu- tions are under notice of destruction. These are his Avords : — ' I will, before I finish my letter, endeavour to procure a list ; iu the mean time I will give you the bill of fare with which the last Session opened, and I think that of 1838 will not be less copious. But at the opening of the Session of 1837, when I addressed my first letter to you, this was the state of our intended changes : — The law of copyright was to be recreated by Sergeant Talfourd ; church-rates abolished by Lord John Russell, and imprisonment for debt by the Attorney-General ; the Archbishop of Canterbury kindly undertook to destroy all the Cathedrals, and Mr. Grote was to arrange our voting by ballot ; the Septennial Act was to be repealed by Mr. Williams, corn-laws abolished by Mr. Clay, and the House of Lords reformed by Mr. Ward; Mr. Hume remodelled county rates, Mr. Ewart put an end to primogeniture, and Mr. Tooke took away the exclusive privi- leges of Dublin, Oxford, and Cambridge ; Thomas Buncombe was to put an end to the proxies of the Lords, and Sergeant Prynie to turn the universities topsy-turvy.' Q 2 Now I should like to ask him which of all the radical bodies that ever gathered to- gether, have jiroposed any such system of destruction for the rights f>f others ? " — Mr. Georrje Condijs Speech, Ibid. " If there was any object to which he was willing to devote every energy both of body and mind, that feeling and that object was to raise the moral and physical condition of the humbler classes of his fellow-countrymen. He believed those sentiments animated the majority of the House ; and that, though Hon. INIembers might differ as to the best mode of effect- ing that object, yet all desired to attain it, and he must take this occasion to say that he left the responsibility of such a contrary course upon the heads of those who, within and without the walls of the House, endeavoured to convince the people that the state and condition of the humbler classes was not at all times of deep and vital interest to members on both sides of this House. In common with the noble lord below him (Lord Howick), he was bound to express his admiration of the honesty of purpose which had induced the Hon. Member for Oldham to bring this question distinctly forward for the decision of the House. The Hon. Member had evidently no second purpose, and he (Mr. Clay) was delighted, that after all the violent language which had been used out of doors by individuals and by some por- tions of the public press, actuated no doubt by conscientious views, but who had laboured to influence the opinions of the people of England on the subjects of the New Poor-Laws — he was delighted that the question had been so calmly brought to the test of a decision of the newly-assembled Parliament, and that it might thus be ascertained what proportion of the representatives were to be prepared to say that the New Poor-Law should be repealed. (Hear, hear.) But to the motion which had been brought forward by the Hon. Member for Oldham he was most decidedly opposed. (Heai-, hear.) No motion less worthy to be entertained by the House could possibly be propounded. He (Mr. Clay) had been an earnest and con- sistent supporter of the Poor-Law Bill in its passage through the House, and there was no one circumstance in his whole parliamentary career upon which he looked with more unmingled satisfaction. (Hear, hear.) He conceived there never had been a legislative measure grounded on clearer or more overwhelming evidence of the necessity of such a measure — on evi- 228 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. dence more carefully sifted, than had the Poor-Law Amendment- Act. It was with a view to the benelit of the humbler classes that he and the majority of the House had supported that measure. The supporters of the Bill had believed that there was no other remedy for that process of demoralization which had begun to an extent which threatened to bring the la- bouring classes into that abyss of moral and physical degradation from which it would in a few years longer have been impossible to redeem them. The antici- pations under which that Bill had been passed he maintained had not been disap- pointed — nay, he would assert that those anticipations had been more than fulfilled ; and it was to him matter of surprise that Hon. Gentlemen could, after the over- whelming evidence of the beneficial effects of the New Poor-Law, hold such language as had been adopted in the House to- night, and out of it, on other occasions. Had those Hon. Gentlemen read the evi- dence given before the Agricultural Com- mittee two Sessions back? — was there any one point on which the evidence was more convincing than that which went to show the beneficial effects of the New Poor-Law ? Agriculturists, merchants, farmers, indeed all who had been examined, had concurred in that opinion. That Committee had heard from all the wit- nesses that the result of the New Poor- Law had been the reduction of rates, the prevention of peculation, and jobbing, and the substitution for an irresponsible administration of a responsible direction, conducted by a body elected by the rate- payers themselves. It had been said both by the Hon. Member for Finsbury, and the Hon. Member for Oldham, that the old poor-laws were well administered. Now, what had been the object of the New Poor-Law Bill but to apply to all the parishes of England those very salutary regulations which had been found to be necessary even in those well-administered districts to which those Hon. Gentlemen had alluded ? But the results of the New Poor-Law Bill were not confined merely to those which he had stated, but there had been also an improved condition in the labouring classes. (Hear, hear.) The strongest evidence had been afforded that good conduct, industry, and merit, had met their appropriate rewards — the clear- est proof had been afforded that sound and wholesome relations between the em- ployer and labourer, which previously had been so rare as almost to become matter of history, were now, under the New Poor- Laws, rising up again. There was also reason to believe that the condition of the labouring classes had not only morally but physically improved, and that they had now a larger amount of money in the shape of wages than formerly came into their possession in the degrading shape of parish allowance. There was proof that friendly societies, which had been on the decline previous to the passing of the Bill, had, since the Bill had been brought into effect, increased both in the number of their contributors and the amount of the contributions ; and this fact had been par- ticularly shown to exist in the counties of Kent and of Sussex. Another test of the beneficial effects of the New Poor-Law was afforded by the saving-banks' deposits, which in 1837 had increased £900,000 upon previous years, and that increase consisted of the contributions of small contributors. (Hear, hear.) Again, it had been shown, that while the purchase of the necessaries of life had increased, the expenditure in beer- shops and other places of a similar character had decreased. With regard to the diet he could only say, that in one Union in the country with which he was acquainted, the increase of the allowance of wine to the old and infirm in the workhouses had been greater than it was under the old system. The Hon. Member for Durham (Mr. Liddell) had said he desired greater powers to be given to the Boards of Guardians, and that relief should not be confined to the work- houses. Now, he was not aware of any case of emergency having been refused ; but whilst he believed that the test of the workhouse should be strictly attended to, yet he thought there were cases in which that test might properly be departed from, and he believed that in no case had that departure been negatived by the Commis- sioners in London. However, a full and ample inquiry was now going on, and he thought the proposition of the Hon. Member for Oldham would rather operate against those very classes whose interests he was most anxious to protect and pre- serve. (Hear, hear.)'' — Mr. Clay, House of Commons, Feb. 20, 1838. " It might be well if the noble lord's (Howick) notification to the people of England, who had that night been chas- tised for their excessive quietude, were not replied to in sterner terms than might be pleasing to certain individuals. The original proposal had, however, been mitigated. The proposal in the first in- THE FRIEXDS AND FAVOURERS OF THE NEW POOR-LAW. 22.0 stance ^vns, that no relief should be given outside the walls of the workhouse. Was that, he would ask, the general rule ? Was it not rather the exception ? The very excessive severity of the law had overshot the mark, and it was found ut- terly impossible to carry it rigidly into effect. If, indeed, the noble lord were to rise in his place and say that the prin- ciple of exclusive in-door relief would be abandoned, and a more generous princi- ple substituted in its place, very much of what was obnoxious and repulsive in this Bill would be withdrawn, (Hear, hear.) Was it proper, he would ask, that an in- stitution of this description should exist in this country, so unconstitutional in its combinations, so oppressive in its autho- rity, so irresponsible in all its decrees as the dictatorial central Board by which tlie entire Poor-Iiaw system was managed under the new Act ? The opponents of this law would be greatly disarmed of their hostility if the Poor-Law Guardians througliout England were vested with the due discretionary power as to the admi- nistration of relief. (Hear, hear). The great, the decided error in the machinery of this Bill, was the peculiar constitution of the Board of Commissioners sitting in Somerset-house, vested, as they were, with an original and absolute authority, and not sitting as a Board of appeal. Their authority was so extensive, that they had the power, not only of confirm- ing, but originating, laws of the most stringent nature ; and this was a circum- stance, perhaps, of all others, the most repulsive to the feelings of all those who objected to the unconstitutional nature of this tribunal." — Mr. D. IF. Harvey, Tbid. " Mr. J. M. Cobbett commenced by observing, that he was afraid he should not, in the observations he was about to make, be able to carry out in words the * destructive' desire the meeting had just exhibited in their acclamations ; but he would assure them, that if words of his could destroy the New Poor-Law, and the factions which supported it, those words he would do his best to supply. (Hear.) They had, however, the conso- lation of reflecting that some of the par- ties instrumental in bringing forward, and in passing that Act, were, if not de- stroyed, effectually placed upon the shelf. In the first place, there was the bold Northumbrian. He was prime minister when the Bill was brought into the House of Lords ; but he ceased to hold office the very day, or within a short time after it passed ; and he had not been heard of since. Then there was Lord Spencer, the father of the Act in the House of Commons. That noble lord very speedily after the Bill was passed into a law retired, as his noble friend Lord Morpeth expressed it in Latin, ' to fatten oxen, sheep, and pigs ;' and it was to be hoped, that however well he might handle an ox, he might never again have any- thing to do with handling his country- men. (Hear, hear.) Lord Spencer was gone, never to be found again, for he was as much set aside as any man, except Lord Brougham ; and he was so com- pletely and so fitly sprawling upon tlie shelf, that no man ever expected him to live again in political matters. (Hear.) There was one circumstance with regard to Lord Brougham which did not apjjly to either of tlie other parties ; he vowed that it was contrary to all just principle, contrary to all good policy, and contrary to all sound morality, for any man not to lay by enough whilst he was at work to keep himself when out of work; he said this was so contrary to all just principle that he never could hear of it himself, yet he took care to retire upon a pension of £5,000 a-year ! (Hear, hear.) Having so far disposed of that part of the Whig faction which supported the New Poor- Law, he would speak to the toast as it had been proposed. He had, on two or three occasions, expressed his strong opinion that this Act never could be car- ried into full operation, and that it ought to be totally repealed, because, to carry any portion of it into operation, if there should be even but a single clause worthy of being retained, would be keeping upon the statute-book an incumbrance and a disgrace to the country. But in discuss- ing the merits of the law, we ought al- ways to charge the parties who brought it in to fix it upon us, with having before their eyes experience — experience telling them that it had in it many of the princi- ples of one passed a great many years ago, which was repealed with the uni- versal consent of the nation. There was an Act brought into full force against the people in the first reign of the Brunswick family, George I., which directed that no poor man should receive relief unless he consented to go into what might be called a Union workhouse, for it was a large building erected for the use of a great number of parishes. What was the con- sequence ? Why, that the wages of the labourer were immediately reduced, aruj 230 TPIE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. that a vast body of tradesmen, who lived as they all did, from receiving on the Saturday night the custom of the labour- ing men who worked six days in the week, were rooted out. That Act de- stroyed also all those institutions which grew out of the 43d of Ehzabeth, and which had wound themselves in, as it were, Avith the constitution of the coun- try. He had in his hand a small pam- phlet which showed that there was at that time something strikingly apposite to the state in which we were at present. This pamphlet was written about fifty years after the Act 9th of George I. was put into operation, and the writer was principally speaking of Great Yar- mouth to show its efiect ; he concluded in these words : — ' Let it not be tliroAvn in the teeth of the Eng- lish of the present day, that, whilst a great part of our countrymen are overflowing with zeal to annihilate negro-slavery, and hesitate not to risk, for the purpose, a convulsion in our plan- tations, that at home they are absolutely eager and strenuous in degrading their fellow-coun- trymen to a worse than negro state, in dooming them to dependance on many masters, to cease- less labour and confinement, to hopeless want, to the curses of society, which mutters whilst it maintains them, to a herd without attachment, and to a gaol without guilt.' This was from a pamphlet which, from its dingy state, they might see was an old one, written by a gentleman very well versed on the subject, and after fifty years' experience of a law which embraced the main principles of that which was now wished to be brought into operation. (Hear, hear.) Its promoters, then, had before their eyes experience to teach them that the Act, in those parts of the country M'here they had thrust it upon the people, had signally failed in produc- ing any sort of good to the labouring men. With that experience they were chargeable with guilt, with criminality, in having attempted to impose upon us an Act whose operation must be similar to that of the 9th of George V'—T/ie Manchester Fieldeii Dinner, ixxno. 4, 1838. " As far as regarded the evidence given before the last Poor-Law Commit- tee, it was not entitled to the considera- tion of the House, and although he was not able to deny, not having acted upon it, that an improved spirit prevailed in the present Committee, yet when he called to mind that there had been al- ready laid on the table of the House six successive reports from that Committee, and that those reports embraced the e\.i- dence of but one man (Hear, hear, and a laugli), and that one man a Poor-Law Commissioner, he must ask what was likely to be the value of the evidence which would be laid before the House as the result of their entire labours. Why, who wanted to examine a Poor-Law Commissioner? (A laugh.) They had enough of them already. What the country wanted was, that an inquiry should be made among those persons who could alone tell what the real effect of the measure was. A Committee had sat to inquire into the condition of the handloom weavers, and volumes of its reports had been presented, which it would require the strength of a more than ordinary pauper to wield (a laugh), and now a Commission was going to make another inquiry. Why not adopt the same course here, and empower the Com- missioners of Inquiry into the state of the handloom weavers to inquire into the working of the Poor-Law Amendment- Act? Or, if it was thought that this would be too largely extending their du- ties and labours, why not appoint a Com- mission on purpose ? If the Commission- ers visited the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, with the condition of which he (Mr. Harvey) was best acquainted, they would be witnesses of a harrowing scene of misery, which would aftbrd a complete answer to the delineation of content and happiness produced by the measure with which the noble lord had indulged his imagination. The evidence of Mr. Poor- Law Commissioner Poison bore reference to the working of the system in the town of Nottingham. Now, the real evils of this Bill were not to be traced in large towns. The circumstance of 60,000 or 80,000 persons being brought together within a circumference of four or five miles presented many advantages, and here lay the fallacy. There was no real comparison between town and country, as far as the working of this measure was concerned. In the rural districts the in- conveniences resulting from the existing^ sj'stem were most strongly felt by the poor. It was true that the poor object could apply for relief, but it was in the power of the Relieving Officer to deny relief, until he might choose to submit the case to the consideration of the Board of Guardians ; or, if he pleased, he might dole out such relief as would barely serve to keep soul and body together during the interval. That he might refuse the relief, however, was an undoubted fact ; THE FRIENDS AND FAVOURERS OF THE NEW POOR-LAW. 231 and the poor applicant might be forced to walk for a distance of several miles before he could obtain relief. He heard some gentlemen cry, ' Humbug !' (A laugh.) This was a sentiment on wliich, doubtless, many landlords and others, who derived substantial advantages from the existing law, might be disposed to rely. ('No.') He had most undoubtedly heard the expression, and trusted that he might for the future receive a more dis- passionate consideration from the House. The attention which had been paid to the speech of his hon. friend the member for Oldham, and which had been exhibited, in fact, throughout the whole course of this debate, completely negatived the supposition that the House was indif- ferent upon the subject of this night's discussion. (Hear.)" — Mr. D. W. Har- vey^ House of Co7nmons, Feb. 20, 1838. " Lord John Russell and the members of the New Poor-Law coalition are no ad- vocates of half-and-half measures. They propound their theory boldly, and endea- vour to work it out consistently ; and if any difficulties arise, either of a specula- tive or of a practical nature, which may prove stumblingblocks to more dim- sighted or less intrepid minds, they have a sovereign remedy at hand to allay them at once. It is, indeed, not the least in- structive among the many lessons which may be learned from this political cxperi- ment, that no argument is too poor to de- fend a bad cause. Point to the dismal and unsightly erections, the new land- marks of our once happy isle, framed so as to shut out the fair face of nature from their inmates, and to consign them to vir- tual darkness, and we are told that the very object of these deformities is to in- spire terror into the poor, and to operate as an effectual check upon idleness ; and that the only cure for the evils of the old law is to make the present so severe that none but the most destitute will accept its dear-bought relief. On the other hand, exclaim against the cruelty, which, with an unpitying eye and unsparing hand, invades the cottages of the poor, not to administer relief or consolation, but to drag them from their homes and trans- plant them by an imperious deci-ee, hus- band torn from wife, parent from child, and stripped of every earthly good that belonged to them, to the foreign soil of a Union — speak of this, and with the same lips men will piously disclaim the barbarous edict, and congratulate them- gelves, with a self-satisfied air, that they at least have done all they could to ren- der the lot of the poor far more comfort- able than it was before. Again, the advocates of the New Poor-Law pretend, in general terms, that the workhouse is only intended for those who will not work ; but, if hard pressed, they are obliged to qualify this general assertion, and to descant on the impossibility of providing adequately either relief or work for the poor, the necessity of reducing rates, and the like. But the last and most bare- faced apology lor the system remains to be stated. There is an old saying which expresses the facility with which evil men can veil the most sinister purposes under the garb of sanctity. Now, without de- siring to lay so heavy a charge upon the supporters of the New Poor-Law, we cannot help remarking that there is some- thing of the same spirit in the assumed charity with which, as a last resource, they seek to clothe it. Happily for the honour of humanity, there are some men, who, though supporters of the Bill in the main, are yet incapable of acting fully up to the principles which may be fairly deduced from it, and which its originators avow. But we very much doubt whe- ther, of the two, they are not less dan- gerous enemies to the poor who tell us plainlj' that almsgiving will defeat one main objei-t of the Bill, than those who dare to boast that the very severity of the Bill will be the greatest inducement to alms- giving, thus making the charity of indi- viduals witness against the want of cha- rity in the nation. Better is it that an evil should burn out by its very intensity, than be prolonged by unwholesome miti- gation. Now, why all these contradic- tions? Why this dexterous shifting of arguments ? What honest measure ever required the support of such Januslike advocates ? Why, if charity be right in individuals — why, O ye political econo- mists, tell us why it is wrong in a nation ? These are not imaginary theories, but doctrines gravely maintained, and re- peated by men who should know better, evei-y day. However, Ijord John, and his competitors in the work of extermina- tion, like the French philosophers in tlie last century, are resolved that the illumi- nation of the next generation shall atone for tlie necessary hardships of the present. If the reign of terror now held over the poor be severe, it is to lie short, and is to be succeeded by an age of glory. Poverty is to be unknown, because ignorance is forbidden; and if we take care of the 232 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. iiiiiids of the rising generation, their bodies will take care of themselves. What is to become of the workhouses then, is a further question, for which we trust the wisdom of the Poor-Law Com- inissioners will find a satisfactory answer. Such is the new truth, now first promul- gated, but not to be duly appreciated till the close of the nineteenth century." — Time*, April 9, 1841. " Yesterday, the Marylebone Board of Directors and Guardians of the Poor held their meeting in the Board-room of the workhouse, New-road, and Mr. Ancell having, at one o'clock, been appointed to the chair, Mr. Thorne, the secretary, read the minutes of the preceding meeting, and the whole of the coiTespondence respect- ing the emigration of pauper females to Australia, the whole of which, it will be remembered, apjieared in the columns of the limes of Satm'day last, and on their confirmation being put, Mr. Kensett moved the non-confirma- tion of that portion of the minutes which had reference to the communication from the Poor-Law Commissioners, namely, the resolution moved by Mr. Bushill — ' That the report of the committee, re- commending that certain female paupers be sent to Australia, not having been adopted by the Board, the Directors and Guardians of the Poor of St. Marylebone do not think it necessary to furnish the Poor-Law Commissioners with a copy thereof.' He (Mr. Kensett) was one of those who were opposed to that Board having anything to do with the Poor-Law gentry of Somerset-house, much less to submit to any dictation from them in the shape of rules, orders, and regulations. They had been much disposed lately to interfere with and pry into the secrets of that Board without any right or preten- sion whatever to do so. That Board were returned by a large body of the rate- payers, nearly the whole of whom had loudly and publicly expressed a distaste for the tyrannical, domineering, and cen- tralizing power of the Poor-Law Com- missioners. (Hear.) The great majority of that Board, he believed, were imbued with similar feelings respecting those gentlemen, and therefore he hoped they would not commit themselves by any communications with them. Perhaps the Board were not cognizant of the fact that tlie Poor-Law Commissioners had de- clai-ed to one of the members for the borough, that they had the power, if ihey thought proper, to come and take their seats at that table, and that they had serious intentions of doing so. (Hear, hear.) Such was the fact, and therefore the Board must be very cautious how they gave such persons the slightest op- portunity. The letters of the Commis- sioners were as much of a dictorial and commanding tone as if that Board be- longed to a Union absolutely under their control, and he therefore called upon them to put a stop to such a proceeding by boldly facing the Commissioners and denying their right to exercise one tittle of their centralizing power over that parish. He should, in the first place, move the non-confirmation of the minute in ques- tion, and he should then follow it up with another resolution. The motion having been seconded and carried in the aflSrmative, Mr. Kensett said, he would now move ' That this Board decline to ac- knowledge the power of the Poor-Law Commissioners or their Secretary, to issue any orders to, or demand from, the Board any information as a matter of right. The Board has no objection, how- ever, as an act of courtesy, to direct their secretary to inform the Poor-Law Com- missioners that the report of a committee referring to the fitting out of ten females to South Australia has not been adopted by the Board.' This he considered was the best way of disposing of the Poor- Law Commissioners, and of testing their boasted powers. That was an indepen- dent Board, constituted under a local act, and they were bound, as an act of justice to the rate-payers, to resist any attempt whatever on the part of the Poor-Law Commissioners to infringe it in the slight- est degree. Mr. Gibson seconded the resolution. He denied the right of the Poor-Law Commissioners, as they had recently done, to demand any explanations of that Board whatever. They had, on the sub- ject of emigration of female paupers, and also in the case of Harriet Longley, as- sumed a most dictatorial tone. This was not all ; he could corroborate what had been stated by the mover of the resolution. Sir Benjamin Hall had told him that the Poor-Law Commissioners had declared to him that they had the right, and they thought they should exercise it, of coming and taking their seats at that Board. (Laughter.) Pie would say, let them do it. If they did, the Board would be THE FRIENDS AND FAVOURERS OF THE NEW POOR-LAW, •233 oblifi^cd to do as they had done in the adjoining parish — order them to walk out, ai.d if they did not go, to eject them by force. Lord Denmau had distinctly de- cided that the Poor-Law Commissioners had no right to interfere at all with parishes under Hobhouse's Act ; and until that Act was repealed, or they got a clause inserted in the new Bill to give them such power, he thought they would not dare to carry their threat into execu- tion. Mr. Hakes was glad that such a reso- lution had been proposed, and he should support it, as he considered it would be a sort of trial of the actual powers of the Poor-Law Commissioners. (Hear.) Many and various opinions and constructions had been put upon the existing Act of Parliament. Some were of opinion that they had the right, if they thought pro- per, over parishes under local acts, and others that they had not. It was, there- fore, important that such a point should be settled. (Hear.) A resolution like that proposed would have a tendency to draw the Commissioners out, and if they were possessed of the slightest moral courage, and were convinced they held the right and power to interfere in the way that had been stated, they would not fail in openly asserting it. Mr. Langham, and other members of the Board, spoke a few words upon the question, and on the resolution being put it was carried 7iem. con. The Board, after transacting some routine business, separated." — Times, April 10, 1841. " The Commissioners justly thought that by refusing relief out of the House they stimulated the labourers to make provision in time of high wages for the frost and snow of February. At the same time, there was the workhouse, Avith wholesome food, for those Avho were in real and urgent distress. He would no- tice another statement of the hon. mem- ber for Finsbury, which, coming from a member of a committee to which they had both belonged, was startUng to him. He had said, that when able-bodied paupers had applied for relief, they had been told to sell their cottages, get rid of their establishments, and come into the work- house. Would the House believe that this statement was not only unwarranted by any fact, but had been proved by the examination conducted by the hon. mem- ber himself to be the opposite of fact ? (Hear, hear.) Questions had been put to Mr. Dawson, the Assistant Poor-Law Commissioner, and he had stated that in no instance of application for relief had persons been required to sell their furni- ture and part with their cottages ; that he had never known an instance in which it bad been done. (Hear.) In one case a person was possessed of plate (silver spoons and other articles of plate) ; the Guardians had felt that they were not justified in allowing a person possessing that property to enter the workhouse. His argument was, that the relief now administered was exactly the same system of relief which did prevail previous to the Poo)--Law Amendment-Act in the best administered pai'ishes, St. Mary's, Not- tingham, Derby, Cookham, and other places ; he, therefore, could not under- stand the consistency of the hon. members if they objected to both the machinery and the system. With respect to the workhouse system, the hon. member for Oldham had again adverted to the com- plaint so often made as to the separation of man and wife. But it was remarkable that the hon. member, in the same speech, had cited with approbation the former system at Oldham. He (Lord Howick) referred to the evidence taken in 1833, with refer- ence to the mode of administering relief at Oldham, a parish with which the hon. member was well acquainted, and he found it stated that ' there is a complete separation of sexes (hear), except in cases of old married people, who were allowed to live together ; but young married per- sons were separated.' (Hear.) The hon. member had professed to have a great ac- quaintance with the system of administra- tion in the country, and he had told the House that the object of his motion was to return to the old system of relief to the poor ; if so, why propose the repeal of the Act of 1834? Why, previous to 1834, the very same system of separation pre- vailed in Oldham. Why, then, employ these inflaming topics with respect to this part of the law, when the same system existed in Oldham, and not only in Old- ham, but in the majority of the work- houses in the manufacturing districts of Lancashire ? He had said that the new law was not necessary in Lancashire, as the system there was so good. The hon. member for Oldham had talked of the workhouses being prisons. Were they more so now than they were before 1834 ? (Hear.) In what respect? He (Lord Howick) thought that the real hardship 234 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. of a prison was not being able to get out ; but he had never heard that any man had been refused permission to leave a work- house whenever he pleased. He was re- fused liberty to go in and out when he pleased, and to obtain relief out of the workhouse at the expense of industrious persons. He had never heard of any in- stance in which a workhouse could be assimilated to a prison by its inmates being refused permission to leave it. The hon. member had said, that in eighteen counties, or at all events in a very large number of counties, the expenditure had been reduced 42 per cent. In a large number of Unions in the south of England the expenditure for the maintenance of the poor had been reduced 42 per cent., but notwithstanding all this reduction the expenditure was still greater, according to the hon. gentleman's statement, than it was at Oldham. But what did that prove ? It proved that in the south, in consequence of the old and improvident habits of expenditure which had long ex- isted there, they had not been able to adopt so perfect a system as in the north — that they had not been able to apply a strict corrective to all the evils which had grown up under a long system of mal- administration. Such was, in truth, the case, and the fact appeared to him to be one of the strongest arguments in favour of the system which the hon. gentleman wished to change." — Viscount Hoivick's Speech., House of Commons, Feb. 20, 1838. " The hon. member, in one of his last observations, had said that no petitions had been presented to the House signed by agricultural laboui"ers, and in favour of a continuation of the Poor-Law Amendment- Act. He had stated that all the petitions in favour of that Act came from Guardians and rate-payers, who had a direct interest in preserving it in opera- tion. Now he (Lord Howick) could not say whether that was the case or not, but he believed that petitions so signed had been presented. It was not, however, and never had been, the custom of those who were suffering under no grievance, who had nothing to complain of, to take the trouble of petitioning that House. " Mr. FiELDEN. — There have been petitions against the New Poor-Laws from the agricultural districts. " Lord Howick. — The hon. member said there had been petitions against the present system of Poor-Laws — no doubt of it. Those who complained naturally petitioned, but those who had no cause of complaint had no motive for petitioning the House. He was, therefore, prepared to expect that no petitions would be pre- sented complaining of the New Poor-Law, and signed by agricultural labourers. But did the hon. member believe, or could he show, that there existed on the part of the agricultural labourers anything like discontent or dissatisfaction with the operation of the new system. " Mr. FiELDEN. — The dissatisfaction is very great. " Lord HoAViCK. — The hon. member said the discontent was very great, but did the hon. member find no discontent existing during the year 1830 in the agricultural districts? The agricultural districts were then enjoying the full bene- fit of the system which the hon. member for Oldham wished to restore ; they were enjoying all the blessings of the system of relief which was then in operation ; and what, he would ask, was the state of the country at that period ? Had the hon. member forgotten the alarming state of the country in 1830 ? Did the hon. mem- ber forget that the insurrection in the agricultural districts approached almost to the capital? Did he forget the out- rages which extended from north to south — the nightly fires, and the state of alarm in which the farmers throughout the country were kept during the winter of that year ? The state of things was now very different, and that diffei'ence he (Lord Howick) contended was mainly to be attributed to the New Poor-Law Act, which the hon. member for Oldham so much condemned. The present condition of the southern districts, where the out- rages to which he had alluded had been greatest, was, in his opinion, to be attri- buted to the Act of 1834; and that the state of those districts was much im- proved no one would dispute." — House of Commons.) Feb. 20, 1838. " The hon. member for Oldham com- menced by complaining, that by the Act of 1834, the rights of the poor had been wrested from them, and that there was no occasion for the introduction of that law, for that the old Poor-Law was well ad- ministered ; and the hon. member for Finsbury commenced by saying, 'Where was the necessity for this law ? You see what are the principles on which the Com- missioners act , the whole of their system of relief might be carried into effect with- TIIK FRIENDS AND FAVOUrvERS OF THE KEW POOR-LAW. 235 out the act, as had been done at Chidies- ter.' He made the gooduess of the sys- tem of administration an objection to the law. Then, was it to the machinery of the new law they objected, or to the principle of administering relief? (Mr. AVakley said ' To both.') If to the ma- chinery only, they were not at liberty to use this argument and say, ' Your ma- chinery is objectionable because it con- tributes to introduce a system which is not itself objectionable.' But if they ob- jected to the system of relief, he asked them what there was in the system which they objected to? The Act of 1834 in- troduced some new arrangements with respect to the poor, but he denied that the system of relief sanctioned by that Act was any departure from the good and ancient practice of the country as the law existed up to 1834. Were gentlemen who talked of the injustice of repealing the Act of Elizabeth aware that that Act remained in force? (Hear.) ThePoor-Law Amendment- Act of 1834 was passed to enforce the proper application of the prin- ciple enacted in that statute. The ma- chinery introduced by the Poor- Law of 1834 was not a different system of relief from that which has existed in every well- regulated parish (hear, hear), particularly in the north of England." — Viscount Howick's Speech, Feb. 20, 1838. "As to the internal discipline of the workhouse, how many instances have we heard of cruelties which must shock and harrow up the feelings of every Christian and Englishman. Witness the atrocities which have been perpetrated at Hoo, at Eton, and in our own neighbourhood at Crediton ; witness the still more recent disclosures close to our own door at South- moulton ; — cruelties and abominations which are appalling to every feeling of humanity. And, I am sorry to say, that in every one of these instances the Com- missioners have endeavoured to stifle in- quiry ; and I am still more sorry to add, that in that endeavour the Commissioners have been assisted and supported by the Boards of Guardians : and who have the poor to look to for redress ? They can but appeal to the people out of doors, and through them to the Government of the country. The Boards of Guardians, too, have manifested their opposition to inves- tigation by attempting to intimidate any of their body who have had humanity and ])ublic spirit enough to bring these acts of cruelty before the public ; I speak from newspaper report, but I have a right to infer that it is true, because hitherto it has been uncontradicted. I will instance the case of Mr. Osborne, a most humane man, a Guardian of the Eton Union, who, finding that the Board was reluctant to deal with the cruelties which were too palpable to be denied, determined that tlie perpetrators should not escape with im- punity, and brout^ht them before the magistrates, and by the law of the coun- try and the justice of the bench they were exposed and jjunished as they deserved ; for, thank God, the law of the land is still the friend and protector of us all. But what was the course pursued by the Board of Guardians ? Why, at their very next meeting, they passed a vote of censure upon Mr. Osborne for having brought the matter forward ! At Penzance, in an adjoining county to us, a melancholy in- stance of the effects of this harsh treat- ment in the Union-house has lately hap- pened : a poor wretched creature (a bad character she is said to have been, and probably was) applied for relief and was ordered into the House, and lodged in the refractory ward, and there she remained without a bed, or a fire, or accommodation of any kind whatever, until she was so harrassed and hunted by this system of severity, that she gave over to despair and actually hanged herself in the place ! The Commissioners were applied to to order an investigation, they sent down an Assistant-Commissioner, who made inqui- ries and sifted the truth on the spot ; and although the facts were made out undeni- ably, yet I have been informed the Board of Guardians, after the scrutiny, censured the individuals who were the means of bringing the case to public notice." — The Rev. H. Luxmoore's Speech at the Barn- staple Anti-Poor-Laio Meeting, Feb. 27, 1841. " Out of a total of 236,000 aged and infirm persons receiving out-door relief, no fewer than 87,000, or more than one- third, are partially able to work. This large number of paupers may be consi- dered as receiving relief in aid of wages, and as injuring the independent labourers, by depressing the rate of wages. We entertain no "doubt that, if I3oards of Guardians would resolutely require, as the condition of giving relief to those persons, that they should come into the workhouse, or should be employed on account of tiie parish or Union, or should even, as in the case of persons receiving such allowances from friendly societies, abstain from all employment, a large proportion of this 236 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. 87,000 would be found capable of sup- porting themselves, and would, by refusing' relief upon these conditions, relieve the country from a large expense with which it is now fraudently burdened." — Com- missioncrs' Report, 1840. " To express pity for, or to speak re- spectfully of, the poor in either House of Parliament, would now produce contempt or derision. By what means has this awful change in the feelings and conduct, as respects the poor, been eftected ? By the higher classes having now during many years generally lived beyond their incomes, and being determined, rather than lower their expenditure, to stick at no means of oppressing those who could not resist, which held out any promise of affording some addition, however trifling, to their unnecessary abundance." — " The Paupers' Advocate,'^ hy Samuel Roberts f of Sheffield J 1841. " Should a man dare to propose in Parliament that the Inquisition should be established in this kingdom, does my Lord John think that it would be right in the people of this country to submit to it, even should the Bill be passed ? I think not ! Now I will tell our Legislators that they have passed, and seem determined to establish, an Inquisition more senseless, more unjust, more inhuman, more wicked, and more destructive, than any one that ever was established in any country on the face of the earth. In all such hitherto, the poor and the unaccused have been rarely molested by them. The inquisitoi's have been men of high rank, they were men who believed in God, who conceived that they Avere serving him, and endeav- ouring to save the souls of the victims whom they were sending to the stake, while one hiquisition jmson served for a whole kingdom. But what is the inqui- sition established here ? The three great Inquisitors-General niai/ be the vilest, basest reptiles in existence, while they are endowed with greater despotic power than those in any other country ever possessed. Three men (base as they may be) have had a power bestowed upon them which the bestowcrs had not, therefore could not give — that of enacting and enfoi'cing by their own decree, penal and destructive laws, with which Monarch, Lords, and Commons, had nothing to do. Nay, further than this, they are authorised to depute this power to others. In other countries, with one prison, a hundred prisoners were much more than the aver- age number, while here we shall probably soon have three hvmdred Inquisition Prisons, and perhaps three hundred thou- sand prisoners." — Tbid. " Lord Radnor said that as in the case of the Bridge water Union, the noble lord had promised to move for a committee on the subject, he should refrain from advert- ing to it. As to the Hungerford Union case, he thought that the Commissioners might as well give up the Bill altogether as concede that point. They were right in refusing to allow wages to be raised out of the rate. (Hear, hear.) He knew a case in which a labourer of good character, with a large family, applied to have one of his children taken into the workhouse. The Board of Guardians said they were not allowed to take one — he must come in with all his family. The next day the farmer with whom he worked said he would give him a little more wages rather than let him go into the workhouse. That was the way the Bill operated when enforced strictly ; but if it were not en- forced, it could not be expected to produce such good effects. The Guardians, in many cases, were farmers, who disliked high wages, and wished to keep labourers at low wages. He knew the case of a farmer saying to others. Why are you so desirous to keep this Bill? — what you save in rates, you'll lose in rent ; but he also knew the case of a farmer saying, he would consider himself a gainer by having good sei'vants, with whom he could live in comfort, and not those who did not care whether he employed them or not. He heard there were some Unions in York- shire going on without any difficulty. No counties had been more pauperised than Norfolk and Suffolk, and no farmers were more intelligent. In these counties every Board of Guardians had adopted the rules of their own accord. What was the effect ? In the winter before the establish- ment of the Unions, there were in one parish 1 ,264 labourers out of employment ; last year there were but eighty-one. (Hear, hear.) In another there were in the former winter 900 unemployed — in the last winter not more than 60. He knew another instance in which, when the Assistant-Commissioners came to the Union, all the labourers of one parish came to the Union and said they could not live on their wages, and asked for out-door relief. The Board of Guardians applied to the Commissioner to relax the rule, but he refused, and an order was made for the admission of QQ into the workhouse. The farmers saw that thev THE FRIENDS AND FAVOURERS OF THE NEW POOR-LAW. 237 could not do without so man}- labourers, and immediately raised their wages. In this way, by keeping the rule tight, the desired object was attained. There was another reason for keeping the rule tight, which he would give in the words of Dr. Whateley, the Rector of Cookham. The noble lord read from Dr. Whateley's pub- lication : — ' He always refused a worthy man relief, because he would not make him a pauper.' Some said relief should be given to men of good character ; he thought not — it was better to give it to men of bad character ; the man of good character would get wages, but the man of bad character should not be allowed to starve. Relief was given on account of destitution, and the man of bad charac- ter should not be let die. The proper test for relief was destitution, not character. (Hear, hear.) On every ground he ap- proved of the rule, and hoped it would be stuck to. The principle of the first poor-law was to relieve those who could not get employment, and that was the principle of the present Bill. The noble lord stated the other night, that there was an increase of crime since the passing of the Act ; nothing could be less conclusive than the returns the noble lord quoted. In one of the counties most pauperized, Bedford, there had been a decrease of crime not less than 20 per cent. In Cam- bridge there had been a decrease of 10 per cent., and in Norfolk and Suffolk, a decrease of 7 per cent. Where it was most carried into operation it produced the most good in its operation." — House of Lords, March 26, 1838. " By what strange infatuation the framers of this abominable law were in- fluenced, he was equally at a loss to tell : but how any person could discover any- thing good in the law was to him im- speakably strange. It is, as his friend had often expressed it, the Devil's own act. That such was its character few arguments would be necessary to prove, for the mark of the beast is stamped on every page, and the language of demons is incorporated in every sentence. (Hear, hear, hear.) He observed, that it was strange that many people of liberal politics should support this law. He could only thus account for it ; they must have read it through the medium of the Devil's spectacles, which perverts the true order of things, and leads those who wear them to think good is evil and evil good. He had frequently been astonished when he had heard the various speeches that were made in Parliament in support of this measure ; but his surprise was exceeded beyond everything, when he heard of Baines declaring that it was well received by the people. He might as well have said in the House of Commons that the people of Yorkshire were living without food." — Mr. Brooks's (of Iluddersfidd) Speech at Dewshury Atiti-Poor-Law Meeting, Dec. 11, 1837. " Mr. T. Attwood seconded the motion. He complained that while the noble lord wished to govern by coercion, he showed no disposition to ameliorate the condition of the people. If tlie noble lord had pro- posed to repeal the New Poor-Law, or to redress any other of the grievances that weighed so heavily upon the poor, he would have given the noble lord some credit for really pitying the miseries of the people. There must be some secret and unexplained reason for the partiality that the noble lord exhibited towards that bad measure, the New Poor-Law, for it could not he denied that the law had been received by the mass of the people with great dislike. He did not know any good it had produced. He had told the administration of Earl Grey that the law would have the most fatal consequences. He had asked Lord Althorp if he was ambitious of the title of Lord Pinch- pauper, and certainly the paupers had been pinched with a vengeance. About £2,000,000 sterling had been saved from the poor-rates ; but how had the people benefited by the reduction ? The poor creatures had had the bread taken out of the mouths of their families. It would have been better for the agriculturists if the £2,000,000 had been allowed to remain in the pockets of the paupers, in order that bread might be consumed. When 1,200,000 men came forward and complained of the suffering they endured from their unredressed grievances, it was very extraordinary that the noble lord would do nothing. They cried out for bread, but the noble lord gave them a stone. They cried out for liberty, and the noble lord gave them a serpent. (Laughter.) In every shape and way the noble lord gave the people coercion. He would remind the noble lord of the fate of the last Whig administration. Earl Grey brought forward the Irish Coercion Bill, and immediately afterwards the Poor-Law Amendment-Bill. He ( Mr. Attwood) told that Government that they were adopting Tory measures, and worse than Tory measures ] that they were 2.'JS Till' HOOK ol' IIII'; HASTIM'.S. scrkinij^ to iiiukc llir condition ol" Irrhuul moio \vrcti'li(-«l,aiicl to dnvj; lMii>lan(l down to tlic Irish level." — llottsr of Coininoiia, July, hSM<). '' It was found, whenevor the people wanted anythini; IVoni (Jovenuuent, there was always a dijfinilti/ in the arraiKjv- mntts : but, that, wlieu there were taxes to be raised there was no ingenuity re- «piired in levyiui:: them ; and tliat, if ne- cessary, she eould soon lind n I'ellow like Power, with a lonu: book in his pocket, and tellin;^ the people the exact number of tiie hairs on their heads, if so, that they were to be taxeil. The aristocracy pleaded that the peopli^ were yet too i,i;-norant to be put in possession of the franchise, but that tlie real nieaniiii; of this objection was, that they had too much knowledge. This objection was urgi'd because they knew tliat the people were in possession of that knowledge, which they dreaded more than they ailmired. That if know- ledge Avas to be taxed, we sliould have Mr. Spring Kice going about the country Avith a brain-guagc in his hand, measur- ing the diticrt>nt crania of mankind ; and lie was sine that when he came to guagc the brains of INlelbourne and his adminis- tration he woulil he obliged to write down no 'taxes paid here.' (Laughter.) He cxhibiteil the sclllshness and inconsistency o( Lord Brougliani in passing the I'oor- Law Amendment-Act to dci)rive the poor of their right, and employed his own ar- gument against him, by asking if working men were to lay up in their youth a suiU- ciency for their maintenair.-e when in age, Avhy Lord Brougham hail not adopted the same exct>llcnt plan, instead of taking out of the public purse live thousand a-year, in the capacity of retiring Chancellor." — FcarijHS O'Connor, Dcicslniri/ Mcetimj, Dec. 11, 1837. '' HUDDKKSFIELP Poon-IjAW UnION. — On Monday week, the Poor-Iiaw Com- missioners (by their rejMesentative, Mr. Mott, the Assistant-Connnissioner), con- ceded to the Guardians of this Union, that no relieving otlicers are to be ap- pointed, but that the assistant-overseers are to be continued, and their districts, duties, and salaries assimilated as nearly as possible to the present system ; that the guardians are to have the exclusive di- rection as to out-door allowance in all cases ; and that they are to adopt such u diet-table for the workhouse as they may think tit, without the interference of the Commissioners. In tact, they have sur- rendered the Avholc of their powers to the (iuartlians, and thus, in this union, a vir- tual repeal of the act has bien aecom- jilishcd by persevering opposition." — Mdntlivstcr and ISaJford Advertiser, Sept. 8, i.sas. " Karl Stanhope said, that some of tln» observations made by gentlemen wlu) had addressed the meeting, called for a few observations from him. A\'ith regard to the power said \o be possessed by the dif- ferent IJoards of CJuarilians appointed under the Act, he could only say that, although they ai)pearcd to be ' dressed in a little brief authority,' yet they were in fact the mere tools of the triumvirate of Somerset-house, and while that triumvi- rate had the pt)wer of lining and impri- soning persons wluxlannl to tlispute their decrees, it was mere idle folly to talk of any control the CJuardiaiis of the Poor had over the parochial expenditure. He (Karl Stanhope) was expected to attend the election of a Poard of Chiardians in his own neighbourhood, but he refused either to be elected a (iuardian or attend the nieetuig. (Hear, hear.) He washed his liands altogether of any proceeding heUl inuler so unhallowed and detestable an Act of Parliament. He woidd take no part in a measure acknowledging the des- potic authority of the Somerset-house Conunissioners. (Hear, h.ear.)" — Crown and Anchor Mrrfin;/, Feb. 9, 1838. ''No doubt it would be a 'saving of expense to the (Juardians to take one or two of the jHior man's lamily into the workhouse rather than to compel him to send in his entire family; but they were aware that many similar applications were made. If the admission was made in one case it should be in several, and the farmer would not strenuously strive to raise his wages when he could do so out of the poor-law% Therefore, he thought the Poor-Law Conunissioners were wise in their refusal. He thought when it had been found how the principle had worked, that it would be considered better that poor men shoidd struggle through their temporary difficulties rather than throw themselves on the parish for relief." — Juirl MeUnmrne, March 28, 1838. '' The Board of Guardians of the Stepney Union have dismissed from his situation a man named Thomas Quarmby, master shoemaker, in the Limehouse workhouse, who was recently convicted in the penalty of -JOs., by Mr. I'allantine, the Thames Police Magistrate, iV)r brutally assaulting a boy named .lanu's ^^'atts, with a leather strap. The dismissal, un- TIIK KKIKNDS AND FAVOURKUS OV TIIK NKW TOoU-LAW. 239 like soiiio olhers in this Union, lias been cuiriod into oirccl, and advertisements issned deelaring the nilnaliun vacant and calling upon aijplicants to send in tlieir testiinonialH. Tiie salary is lOs. per week and board and lod^inf^. It is some- what extraordinary that tlic Poor-Law Commissioners published a circular about four years aj^o, stating that they had dis- missed James Sargeant, one of the Re- lieving Ollicers, for inisi;onduct and neglect of duty, and a statenKtnt to that elfect, signed ' E. Chadwiek,' was inserted in nearly all the London journals, and the Ministerial papers conunended the Toor- Law Clommissioners for performing this act of justice. The lact is, that James Sargeant, the llelieving OlKcer, was jiever dismissed at all ; he did not leave liis situation for one day, and has been ev(!r since acting as the Relieving Officer of theShadwelland VVappingdistrict in the Stepney Union. — 'J'itiir.i, March 22, Ito such an extent, as to deem him worthy of a consulship, and did stable him in silver, in gold, in ivory, and in precious stones. The crooked tyrant, Richard the Third, who, though he relished his murders as if they wei-e mulberries, yet doted, almost to distraction, on his favourite steed, " White Surrey ; " and the " mad ]\Iarquis," Waterford, who cares very little (so 'tis eaid) how many old apple-women and foot-passengers he drives over, and maims, or kills, when, out on a " lark," he propels his "trap" with frightful velocity over the pavements, is remarkabljr regardful of •his "bit of blood," and on one occasion w^ished to have him subpoened as a witness upon oath. Again, the Duke of York, (afterwards James II.) who, as Jeffries' " bloody assize " can attest, was not very particular about the lives and liberties of his lieges, always exhibited especial solici- tude when the welfare of his beloved quadrupeds was concerned ; and when the vessel he was sailing in capsized in a storm, and was gradually going to the bottom, he loudly commanded the despairing and drowning mariners to " Save the dogs, and Col. Churchill, and spare not ! " But to return to the Duke of Welling- ton. The biographers, who have related the before-mentioned anecdote of the hero and his horse, loudly proclaim it to be such an example of the Duke's humanity and goodness of heart. It is very well for them to announce as much, but I, who have enlisted myself as a soldier to fight for God's poor, see ifoor/ upon the hero's face — not the blood of battles — not the blood of the French, — but the blood of the Bastiles — the blood of the friendless, which has been spilt like water within those dens of murder and manslaughtur — the blood of those who have died and sunk victims to the " test " in the pubhc streets ! Yes ! on the Duke of Wellington's cheeks I see large gouts of blood — red, red ! And what has placed those stains of horror there ? His constant approval and advocacy of that cursed crusade — that unholy war against the old, the helpless, the bedridden, the broken-hearted, the idiot, and the children of much sorrow and great misery — the Somerset-house edict, which slays utterly ! It is not on the temples of the hero of many victories that those crimson spots only ap- pear, but on the temples of all, of whatso- ever rank, of whatsoever party, who have joined byword or deed to exterminate those whom nothing (much less a fiendlike philo- sophy) can ever exterminate. "The poor shall never cease outof the land." Oh ! that the great Duke should have mixed himself up with such God-defying traitors ! I tremble for the friends and favourers of the New Poor-Law — I tremble for them hereafter, when they have left this vain, fleeting sphere! E'en now, methinks, that awful voice, never heard by mortal being, rings in my ears as it addresses them each individually — '■'■Cain, where is thy brother?'' — G. R. Wythen Baxter ^ March 30, 1841. " Mr. Grote said, a great deal had been said by gentlemen in that House respect- ing the arbitrary and despotic power of these Commissioners ; that Avas insisted on as a reason why the HjDuse should con- fine their power to so short a time as one year. He must deny that the Commission did at all deserve the appellation of 'despotic' or 'arbitrary.' The powers of the Commissioners were large, because their duties were serious and comprehen- sive. But the question for the House to decide upon was, were those powers more than sufficient for the duties which they imposed on the Commissioners to dis- charge ? When gentlemen talked about ' arbitrary ' powers, he understood by that word something that was subject to no legal or other limit. He asked gentle- men to say if the power of the Commis- sioners was so unlimited? Why eveiy part of the power of the Commissioners was deprived from the act of 1832, and one or two less important acts since THE FRIENDS AND FAVOURERS OF THE NEW POOR-LAW. 245 passed. Their power under every one of these acts was subject to revision by the Court of Queen's Bench by the processes known to the law. Not only that was tlie case, but every decision of the Poor- Law Commissioners was liable to be dis- allowed by the Queen in Council. Not only did these legal securities exist, but let them look at the moral restraints under which the Commissioners exercised these powers. All their acts Avere necessarily public ; open to the most rigid criticism — open to a criticism, which, to say the least of it, was severe and searching, not to say acrimonious. Then every one of the powers of the Commissioners was of a severe and restrictive character ; every one of their powers was liable to bring them into collision with persons of activity and station, and to create tliem enmity in all quarters. And, moreover, in the event of misconduct on their part, there was no authority in the state which could hope to find so little favour. If gentlemen con- sidered these things, and would only con- Hne their attention to the real nature of the case, and to the legal and moral restraints under which the powers of the Commissioners existed, he thought they would see that they were not deserving of the appellation of ' arbitrary and des- potic' If the powers of the Commis- sioners were arbitrary, he should like to know what gentlemen would say of the powers of the justices of the peace (hear) to construe upwards of a hundred different Acts of Parliament, and to the construction they put on them being looked on in the most indulgent manner in the courts of law. (Hear.) But the House would recol- lect, that if they destroyed the Commission they must give either to justices of the peace, or to Guardians, or to the Se- cretary of State, the power of making these subordinate regulations which are now vested in the Poor-Law Commissioners. That power was requisite for carrying out the law. Under the old Poor-Law the same power was exercised by a vast variety of inconsistent authorities, without the j)ublic having any power to check their abuses. He would put it to the House whether there was not a vast security in the Commission for the avoidance of every- thing that was mischievous, and for the enforcement of the real and true intent of tliis important law. He did say that the House would not be doing justice to its own intentions with respect to the power of the Commissioners, if it did not con- tinue the Commission, and the law under circumstances favourable to their action and if it consented to diminish the duration of the Commission to any period less than five years. If the House acquiesced in any shorter term, the effect of it would be to paralyze the authority of the Commission for good purposes much more than for evil purposes. The effect would be to create in the public mind an impression that these Commissioners had not the con- fidence of Parliament ; and any portion of those subordinate authorities who were now placed under their direction had only to run the duration of their own life against that of the Commission in order to contend successfully against its authority. — Mr, H. HiNDE confessed that he never was more surprised in his life than he was at what had just f\dlen from the Hon. Member opposite ; and, knowing the Hon. Member's powers of arguing, the only conclusion he could come to was, either that the Hon. Member had not read the Poor-Law Bill, or that he had no knowledge of the practical working of it. The Hon. Member denied that the powers of these Commissioners were ' arbitrary and despotic' On what ground was it that he founded that denial.^ He said that their acts were subject to the control of the Court of Queen's Bench. He (Mr. Hinde) should like much that the Hon. Member would quote to the House any case in which it was possible to make these Commissioners subject to that au- thority. (Hear, hear.) The Hon. Member also said that none of their orders became operative uidess they were allowed by the Queen in Council. A very superficial knowledge of the proceedings of the Poor- Law Commissioners would convince the House that the ingenuity of the Commis- sioners had very much exceeded that of the Hon. Member. They had found out a way of setting aside tlie Queen and Council altogether. They had taken care that their rules should not come under the title of ' General Order ' at all, and yet had applied them to every Union. He begged also to draw attention to another fallacy of the Hon. Member's speech relative to the great and arbitrary powers vested in justices of the peace. lie (Mr. Hinde) was not there to dispute with the Plon. Member whetlier the powers of justices of the peace were arbitrary or not; but could not the Hon. Gentleman draw a distinction between arbitrary powers of administering laws, and arbi- trary powers of making laws? (Hear, hear.) There were many faults under tlie 246 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. old system of the Poor-Laws. The law was frequently violated ; but still the functionaries under the old law might have been called to account for such viola- tion." — House of Commons, March 22, 1841. " When the Commission was estab- lished, it Avas understood that the new law was to create a new order of things. The law had been in existence ever since 1834, they were now in the year 1841 ; the Commission had been created to insure uniformity, and yet the decisions of magis- trates had been as chequered and various as they had been repugnant to common sense and the principles of humanity. Where were the general rules applicable to all Unions ? Was there a single one ? No. As far as he could learn, not one general rule had been published applicable to all Poor-Law Unions. But the Poor- Law Commissioners had been at work ; they had done something (plenty of mischief) he had heard; they had incorporated 13,000 parishes — how many more re- mained ? — 700. Now, trying the question by the rule of three ; — if in six years they could incorporate 13,000 parishes, would it take five years more to incorporate 700 ? Why in the six years had they not incor- porated the remaining 700 ? There might have been obstacles. Some had arisen, it was said, in the metropolis; all the metropolitan parishes had not been incor- porated, thanks to the mischievous dema- gogues. (A laugh.)" — Mr. Wakley, House of Commonsy March 22, 1841. " Mr. Hawes said, that having from the commencement given his most earnest support to the Poor-Law Bill, and having since attentively watched its operation, no fear of odium would induce him to swerve from the course, to the justice of which all his experience gave increased weight. He must say, that those gentlemen who had testified their disapprobation of the prin- ciple of the Bill, by voting against the second reading, had failed to show what they proposed to substitute in its stead. Mr. Canning had declared that, looking at the extent and complication of interests which surrounded a Poor-Law, no Govern- ment could be held culpable for leaving the subject untouched. In 1 830, not long before the introduction of the Poor-Law Bill, a noble lord (then Mr. Baring) de- clared, that he saw no means of coping with the increasing demoralization result- ing from the existing system of poor-laws. He (Mr. Hawes) thought economy the least important consideration. The point of greatest importance was the establish- ment of some control over the administra- tion of relief, not only with regard to the pauper, but Avith respect to that large class of persons living on the fund intended for the poor — to abolish jobbing. He was convinced of the beneficial working of the law, in a moral point of view, from the testimony of brewers and distillers whose sales had diminished. (Hear, hear.) The Hon. Gentleman seemed to intimate that this resulted from the narrowed means of the poor. Had the Hon. Gentleman ever visited those Unions which he had de- scribed as prisons ? He could assure him that the old workhouses came far nearer that description, where old and young, virtuous and depraved, were huddled to- gether without cleanliness, order, or clas- sification. Yet that was the law to which they would be driven to return. (Ironical cheers.)" — Ibid., Ibid. " Mr. Buncombe objected to the conti- nuance of the powers of the Commissioners even for a single day ; and he did so upon popular grounds, not such as those upon which the Hon. Member for Lambeth had defended the powers of the Commissioners, but grounds that were Ukely to become too popular for Hon. Members at the next general election, if they persevered with this Bill in its present shape. He had listened attentively to the speeches of the Hon. Members for London and Lam- beth, and he confessed he could not dis- cover in either a single argument in favour of continuing the Commissioners for the period of five years. If their arguments were good for anything, it was to prove that the present law could not be carried out without a Central Board ; and if such were the case, then the question resolved itself into this — a commission or no com- mission. (Hear, hear.) Why, then, had not some Hon. Member favourable to a commission at once informed the noble lord that he had made a mistake in having inserted five years, that there ought to be no definite time, and that for the effectual carrying out of the Poor-Law the com- mission must be perpetual ? That cer- tainly was what the Commissioners them- selves had said — that was what they had told the country and recorded in their report. Those who had undertaken their defence had not done them that justice which they deserved. Their own language was so simple and unpretending, and so compHmentary withal, to both Houses of Parliament, and to legislation generally, that he felt he should not be discharging THE FEIENDS AND FAVOURERS OF THE NEW POOR LAW. 247 his duty to the House or to the country, were he to omit stating- what those Com- missioners had propounded in their report of last year. The Hon. Member then read a passage from the report, to the effect that it was not for the Commis- sioners to justify the determination of ParHament in devolving upon them the power of the Legislature for the purpose of giving effect to the Poor-Law Act ; but that if such justification were needed, it might be found, inasmuch as the Parlia- ment of this vast empire, not only having the affairs of this great countiy, but also of our colonies and those of the East- India Company, to attend to, could not afford time for parochial and local legisla- tion. Here was a declaration, that the poor of England were not worthy of the attention of that House (cries of 'Oh ! ') — that they might vote pensions to a few, and attend to the affairs of the East-India Company, but that they could not attend to the labouring millions of the country ! If the passage he had quoted meant any- thing, it meant that. (Hear, hear.) The Hon. Member for London stated, that the powers of the Commissioners were not arbitrary or despotic ; but the Commis- sioners themselves said, that ' there was another advantage arising from the inter- position of an authority between the Par- liament and the people, namely, that they could issue detailed regulations regarding legislative law.' Thus it appeared that there was to be a something between the Parlia- ment and the people. According to the Commissioners, the Members of that House must delegate the powers with which they were intrusted for the protection and benefit of the poor to those Commissioners, who stated that that House had more im- portant affairs to attend to than the affairs of that class of the community. In another part of the same report the Commissioners observed, that the style of composition in Acts of Parliament rendered them hardly intelligible to persons who had not, by fre- quent study, become familiar with their peculiar language (laughter); and that they therefore thought it convenient that some competent authority should expound the intentions of the Legislature. But had those Commissioners themselves been so very explicit as to make the law capable of being understood by every one ? They certainly had not, for there were portions of it capable of so many constructions, that they might explain it to-day in one way, and to-morrow in another. If the principle were a good one, why not have Commission- ers to expound other laws ? Why not place three lord mayors in Somerset- house to expound the municipal law ? (Laughter.) His opinion was, that the Poor-Law would be administered in a more satisfactory manner without any Central Board." — House of Commons^ March 22, 1841. " Mr. Hamilton said he should support the continuance of the commission for the shortest possible period, not because he was jealous of the powers devolved, or because he thought the Commissioners wished to act harshly and unjustly, but because he would not be a party to hand over the poor of the country to any get of men, to be dealt with merely according to their will and pleasure,.however high they might be in station, or humane in purpose. He was sorry to say, from his own experi- ence as Chairman of a Board of Guar- dians, that all the late orders from the Commissioners were of that stringent and harsh character represented by the Hon. Member for Finsbury ; and it was much to be feared that there were too many Guardians in every Union who would be inclined to take advantage of those stringent regulations." — Ihid.^ Ibid. " Sir G. Strickland admitted that the powers entrusted to the Commissioners were unconstitutional ; the purpose, how- ever, was considered a necessary one, and the period for which they were to exist was but short. He confessed he was much disappointed with the working of the commission. He had hoped that in a much shorter period than seven years they would have been enabled to produce greater uniformity of system throughout the country ; and that their proceedings would not have given rise to so many com- plaints such as had been stated so fre- quently in the course of these discussions. The present system was very far from being uniform. In some parts the prin- ciples of the act were strictly enforced ; in others, and particularly in that part of the country where he resided, out-door relief was still extensively administered. He wished that the present system were im- proved and rendered permanent. He despaired, however, of seeing that effected by means of the commission. He was more inclined to rely on Parliamentary legislation and the practical knowledge to be acquired by the Guardians of Unions. If the commission must be continued, the control of that House should be constantly and vigilantly exercised, and with that 248 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. view he sliould certainly vote for the shorter period." — Ibid., Ibid. " He (Mr. Hawes) defended the Com- missioners upon popular grounds and principles. (Hear, hear.) For the first time, under the present law, was the ad- ministration of that enormous fund of up- wards of £5,000,000 placed in the hands of responsible officers ; and from the moment that that had taken place, there was observed a closeness of attention in the adminis- tration of the law that had never before been paid to it. If they went back to the old system, they would again be creating 14,000 or 15,000 independent and irre- sponsible bodies — a course which, he con- tended, would be highly injurious to the country ; for the question was one involving not merely the vital interest of one class of the community, but of the whole country. His Hon. Friend, the Member for Finsbury, said, that the poor had not derived as much benefit under the present as under the former Poor-Law. Was there no evidence before them of any amendment in the condition of the people, of increased attention to their education, to the state of their dwellings, and to those salutary questions which had been more or less brought before that House, and which had never been thought of until the care of the poor was intrusted to responsible persons ? He could, if neces- sary, produce fact after fact to show that, since that had been the case, not only had the wages of the labourer increased, but greater attention had been paid to the moral and physical condition of the poor than at any former period in the history of the country." — Mr. Hawes, Ibid., Ibid. " Mr, Villiers denied that the powers of the Commissioners were unconstitu- tional. They were appointed by the Crown, they received their salaries from the House of Commons, thej'' were obliged to lay their proceedings before ParHament, and if they misconducted themselves they were liable to be dismissed. It was ad- mitted that the former parochial system did not answer. Something more efficient was required, and the principle of the Commission was a supervision by the state of the parochial management of the poor. In fact, the Commission was only a branch of the Home Department. (Hear, hear.) He had said that the parochial system had failed. He believed that in a district of the Union where he resided the poor were actually farmed out by a pauper, and their treatment was perfectly horrible. — Mr. W. Attwood said, that the advocates of the pre- sent system were driven to the ne- cessity of reverting to the worst abuses of the old law, which certainly was not a very high compliment to the present. All the advantages promised by the supporters of the new system — the improved con- dition of the poor and the economical sav- ings to be effected, were now abandoned ; and the only argument urged in favour of the present system was a fear of reverting to the evils of the old one. (Hear.) " — House of Commons, March 22, 1841. " The hon. member then referred to the 54th clause of the Poor-Law Act, under which he said it was in the power of any justice of the peace to prescribe immedi- ate out-door relief in cases of emer- gency, Hon. members scarcely seemed to be aware of the extent to which out-door relief was at present afforded. It amounted to no less than four-fifths of all the relief granted, in point of value. If hon. members wanted more out-door relief than that, they had better abolish the workhouses altogether and give nothing but out-door relief. But what was the numerical amount of out-door relief afford- ed under the present law ? The number of paupers so relieved at the discretion of the Boards of Guardians was 818,632, while the in-door paupers were only 126,519. He wished that those who dis- approved of the present system would pro- pound some other, or tell the House what security there would be for the continuance of any system without some superintend- ing control. Take away that control and you take away, in his opinion, the only thing that could give stability and effici- ency to any plan. (Hear.) As far as his practical knowledge went, he must say that he had never heard, from any of those persons most deeply interested in a just and satisfactory administration of the law, any of those complaints which had been so strongly put forward by his hon. friend, the member for Finsbuiy. If his hon. friend would read the proceedings under the old workhouse system, and then examine into the new, he would find that the latter was not of that harsh character which he had ascribed to it. With regard to the question of popularity or unpopu- larity, he begged to say he held his seat in that House upon no such kind of tenure. If the measure were one which he could defend on principle he would do so inde- pendently of such a question, and in this instance he was prepared to share in any unpopularity that might be attached to bis THE FFJENDS AND FAVOURERS OF THE NEW POOR-LAW. 249 continuous and consistent support of the present Poor-Law." — Mr. Haives, House of Commons, March 22, 1841. *' Sir E. Knatchbull wished to define the powers of the Commissioners before he was called upon to fix the term of their continuance. He did not know what shape the bill might assume when the other clauses should be disposed of. It might be essentially different from what it was at present, and the period for which he should vote must therofore very much depend on the character of the powers vested in the Commissioners. Lord G. Somerset thought it would be very inconvenient to legislate what the Commissioners should do until it was deci- ded whether they were to be continued or not. He should certainly vote for the continuance of the commission for five years ; but he should reserve to himself the full right at a future stage of the bill, probably on the report, unless the clauses were so modified as to meet his approba- tion, to limit the duration of the Commis- sion as much as he should think proper. Sir E. Knatchbull, reserving to himself the same power of proposing, on the report, a reduced term of years, or, if the bill were not very much modified, of opposing it {71 toto upon the third reading, declined to press his motion for the post- ponement of the clause. Colonel SiBTHOKP expressed his deep regret that his right hon. friend would not divide upon this question. If the bill was to be continued for five years the house was at least entitled to have an answer to the question he put, namely, what was to be the number of Assistant-Commissioners and other officers. Lord J. Russell said, he had stated on a former occasion that the numberof Assist- ant-Commissioners in England and Wales should be reduced to 12. Colonel SiBTHORP suggested that they might at least be reduced to the noble lord's lucky number ' five.' (A laugh.) The first clause was then put. Mr. B. Wood moved a proviso, with the view of reducing the number of Assistant- Commissioners to five, and that they should continue for two years only. The num- ber of parishes to be unionized were only 799,* of which the population amounted * In page 246, they are stated by Mr. Wak- ley to be 700 ; however, both statements were copied from the Times, which is generally very correct in its reports, and in these instances doubtless printed the numerals as spoken by to but 2,000,000, and from which, at least, 1,000,000 should be deducted as representing large parishes in the metro- polis, and other districts which were not to be formed into Unions at all. A much smaller number than 12 Assistant-Com- missioners would be more than sufficient for every purpose. He complained that the Assistant-Commissioners were often employed in matters with Avhich they had no concern, and particularly alluded to the recent investigation which had taken place into the circumstances of the death of Elizabeth Wyse, who died of starva- tion in Kensington, the jury strongly con- demning the conduct of the relieving officer and the surgeon of the Union, but neither of the two Assistant-Commissi- oners (Sir E. Head and Dr. Kay,) who both were employed in the matter, had adopted any step or inflicted any punish- ment on the offenders. He maintained that the regularly constituted authorities of the country Avere the proper parties to inquire into such cases. There were many Unions which had not been visited by the Assistant-Commissioners for 18 months, and he thought the expense might as well be spared. At the same time he must say he was not instigated to make this proposition by any opposition to the principle of the bill. He was favourable to the continuance of the commission for five years. Lord J. Russell opposed the amend- ment. The Assistant-Commissioners were exceedingly useful in attending boards and explaining the objects of the law and its general operation with regard to relief. If the boards of guardians were perma- nent, and had other opportunities of learn- ing their duties, a smaller number of Assist- ant - Commissioners would be sufllicient, but in order to enforce something like uniformity of system, 12 was still necessary. Mr. Darby complained, not that the Assistant-Commissioners had not visited particular Unions, but that their visits were made when they were not necessary. If the Assistant-Commissioners confined themselves to their proper duties, fewer would be wanted. the Hon. Members in question. Nevertheless, I should say that neither of the Hon. Members* statistics is accurate, as they only make the total number of parishes in England and Wales, the one, 13,000 seven hundred, and the other, 13,000 seven hundred and 99 ; whereas, ac- cording to the Commissioners' bth Report, the number of parishes is 14,490. — G. R. W. B. 250 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. Mr, C. Wood rather feared tlie noble lord had carried reduction too far. Lord G. SoMEKSET had presented a petition to-night from the guardians of a Union who stated that they got on re- markably well, so long as the Assistant- Commissioners kept away from them. He was glad to hear that the noble lord in- tended to reduce the number of Assistant- Commissioners. He wished, however, to know whether the noble lord would have any objection to insert in the present bill the maximum number of Assistant- Commissioners to be hereafter appointed. By the present Act of Parliament nine Assistant-Commissioners were appointed, and as many more as might be deemed necessary by the Secretary of State for the Home Department. Would the noble lord give the committee legislative assur- ance that the maximum number of Assist- ant-Commissioners should not hereafter exceed twelve ? Mr. R. Palmer said, that in the course of last year he had received petitions from several boards of guardians in the county (Berkshire) which he had the honour to represent, and the object of all those petitions had been to state that there was no necessity for so many Assistant-Com- missioners, as the duties which they had to perform were completely works of super- erogation. The Assistant-Commissioners could hardly have at present as much duty to perform as they had when the new law was in its infancy. The object of Govern- ment in appointing them originally was to carry out the Bill by dividing the country into Unions. Now that the Unions, or at least the far greater portion of the Unions, were formed, their duties must generally cease and determine. Their duties must be ' few and far between' in those parts of the country where the Unions were formed. He was therefore anxious for a reduction of their numbers, though he did not know any reason for fixing their number at five, unless it were that it was one for each of the years that the Poor-Law Commission was to last. Whatever opinion he might entertain upon the policy of making the Poor-Law Com- missioners permanent — and he was by no means favourably inclined to such policy — he could see no reason for making the Assistant - Commissioners a permanent body. He thought that the house ought to have a legislative assurance that the number of Assistant-Commissioners would not in future exceed twelve. Lord J. Russell said, that what he had proposed was this — that in fiilurc the Assistant-Commissioners should be 12. The noble lord, the member for Monmouth- shire, had asked whether he had any objec- tion to insert a clause in the Bill providing that the number of Assistant-Commissi- oners should not exceed 12. That would be a limitation to which he was not at present prepared to accede. He had no objection to state that there would not be more than 12 Assistant-Commissioners appointed ; but he would not fix their number at that limit in the Bill, for he could not make such a limitation in the English Bill without inserting a similar limitation in the Irish Bill. Now as the system of Unions and of workhouses was quite new in Ireland, he could not tell how many Assistant-Commissioners might be wanted to cai'ry the Bill into cficct in that country. Mr. Hume suggested that the com- mittee should leave the number of Assist- ant-Commissioners at 12, as the noble lord suggested. As their salaries were voted annually by the house, the house would always retain in its own hands the opportunity of fixing their numbers. Mr. S. Herbert felt inclined to limit the duration of the commission to a shorter period than five years, but at the same time was not disposed to diminish the number of Assistant-Commissioners. He anticipated that the commission would not terminate at the end of five years, but it would be wholesome for the Commission- ers to know that it was not intended that their power should be permanent. Without meaning any imputation on their honour and integrity, he must say that the Commissioners were liable to commit errors in judgment, and particularly this error, that, instead of punishing any maladministration of the law they endea- voured to stifle all inquiry into it, under the idea that the publicity given to such maladministration would injure the sys- tem in public opinion. Now, in a country like this, inquiry could not be stifled. It would therefore be more useful for them to show that, wherever abuses were dis- covered in the administration of the law, they were resolved to check and punish them. He thought that it would be very useful, if once a-year an opportunity were aflTorded to the house of making observa- tions upon their conduct. They might thus receive advice like that which tlie right hon. member for Tamworth had that night administered to them — advice which would render them more careful in the THE FRIENDS AND FAVOURERS OF THE NEW-rOOR LAW. 251 administration of powers which, if they were not counterbalanced by the necessity of the case, would certainly be objecti- onable. He should not vote for the present amendment, but should reserve himself for the bringing up of the report, when he would give his vote respecting the duration of the powers of the Com- missioners in such a manner as the altera- tions to be made in the Bill might here- after require. [Such, we believe, was the substance of the hon. member's observa- tions ; but the indistinct tone in which he spoke, and the general confusion of the house, rendered him almost inaudible in the gallery.] Mr. B. Wood, amid great confusion, said, that after the observations which he had just heard, he would not put the com- mittee to the trouble of dividing, but would withdraw his amendment. (Hear, hear.) The Chairman was putting the ques- tion, 'That the amendment by leave be withdrawn,' when Colonel SiBTHORP said, that if such a course were adopted he should move that the chairman report progress and ask leave to sit again. (Hear, hear.) Two amend- ments had been proposed and then with- drawn, although the movers of both had threatened to divide the committee upon them. This was converting the business of the House of Commons into a mere farce. (' Hear, hear,' and laughter.) He objected not only to appointing 12 Assist- ant-Commissioners, but also to appoint- ing any Assistant-Commissioners at all. (' Hear, hear,' cries of ' Divide,' and great confusion.) The committee then divided, when there appeared — For the amendment 46 Against it 191 Majority 145" —March 19, 1841. " He had had some experience of the operation of the old law in the south of England, and from that experience he arrived at the conclusion that, in many respects, the alterations in the law had been beneficial." — Lord Francis Egerton, March 22, 1841. " Now, as the question was, whether they were to repeal the new law and return to the law which existed previous to 1 834, he called on the house to examine how the system in operation previous to that period affected the able-bodied labourers themselves, and how they were affected by the Poor-Law Amendment-Act. He would not go at length into a discussion of the state of the able-bodied labourers previous to 1834, but should confine him- self to a few facts stated in the report of the committee on which the new law was chiefly founded. Previous to 1834, it was the universal practice for the agricultural labourers to receive very low wages from the farmers, but they received some weekly help from the parish, so that one way or other they were in general more or less supported out of the rates. What was the consequence? The first effect was, that no labourer received remuneration in proportion to the value of his labour ; therefore the employers considered only, not who was the most useful and skilful labourer, but who was the man likely to be the most burdensome to the parish. The effect of this was, that numbers of skilful labourers were refused an oppor- tunity of earning wages, and were thrown entirely upon the parish for subsistance. In the evidence collected by the Assistant- Commissioners in 1832 and 1833, it was distinctly proved that when labourers came by any means possessed of a small sum of money, they were refused employment till their money was spent. One instance of this was furnished from Royston. In that parish a person had acquired consi- derable wealth, which he left in legacies to a number of labourers, to whom he was related, and when they received their money the parish authorities refused to find labour for them. The consequence of this was, that those persons were thrown into a state of complete idleness, and compelled to spend their money in beer- shops. The refusal of employment pre- vented them from laying up their money in savings'-banks, and they spent their time in idleness and dissipation. There was another case of a similar natui'e furnished by a neighbouring parish. In that in- stance a person was compelled to take twO labourers from the parish, and to dis- charge two excellent and honest servants, in Avhom he had the utmost confidence. One of these labourers, John Watt, had, by a long course of industry and economy, saved £100; and on being dismissed he applied in vain to the farmers and to the parish for re-employment. The money he had saved by honest industry prevent- ed him from being employed. He had a brother, who had also saved money, and was in consequence refused employment in the district to which he belonged. Now, 252 THE BOOK Of THE I3ASTILES. it was under the old system that these two persons, against whose characters and conduct no complaint could be made, were condemned to corrupting and demoralizing idleness. He could multiply cases of a similar kind, but he should not trespass further on the time of the house. He could show that in another case a person had been condemned to idleness and refused employ- ment in consequence of having been ena- bled by honest industry, to furnish his cot- tage better than the cottages of his neigh- bours, and to purchase two cows. Such was the effect of the old system, and yet the hon. member for Oldham said he was prepared to return to that system, and that, under the new law, no distinction was made between the honest man and the greatest vagabond in England. It, however, did make a distinction between the honest man and the vagabond ; it re- fused the vagabond relief ; it left him to be punished by the laws which he had violated, but it provided support for the honest and industrious. But the system which the hon. member proposed to re- store made no distinction between the honest man and the greatest vagabond in England. It relieved all, but it also punished, by condemning to idleness, the lionest and the industrious. A direct discouragement was given to all exertion. Sobriety and industry were actually pu- nished under the old law, and idleness and immoraUty were the consequences. But this was not all. Look at the effects of such a system on the population of country parishes. The whole labouring population in the southern districts were reduced to a state of degradation, and their morals were destroyed. They were employed at the most disgusting and de- grading labour. They were not unfre- quently employed in digging holes, and, immediately after, in filling them up again. Such was the nature of the employment afforded to the able-bodied labourers under the system which the hon. member for Oldham wished to restore. But that was not all. In the inquiry made by the Poor-Law Commissioners it was found that the able-bodied labourers were often paid for standing in the pound. He held in his hand the report of the Assistant- Poor-Law Commissioners, and in that report he perceived that in the books of one parish they had visited (we could not catch the name), they found an entry of £6 7s. paid to a number of able-bodied men and boys, for standing in a state of complete idleness in the pound. That was one of the effects of the system which the friends of the poor wished to re-es- tablish. (Cries of ' No, no.") Nor was it by any means an unusual practice to put up the labouring poor to auction. The labour of honest Englishmen was put up, without their consent, to public auction. The question was, what the labourer and his family required for their support, and then he was put up at a re- gular auction, at which the farmers at- tended. One would bid half-a-crown, another 3s., another 4s., and, jicrhaps, another 5s., and the labour of the man was knocked down to the highest bidder. The farmer who would give 5s. per week had the labour of the unfortunate man as- signed to him without any consent on his part, and the parish made up the 3s. or 4s. which might be required to make up what was considered to be a sufficient allowance for the pauper and his family. Now, he would ask, what inducement was there, under such a system as that, for a man to work ? And yet, if he was considered to be idle beyond a certain point, he was taken before the justices and punished. But he might be the ablest, steadiest, and most industrious man, and there would be no hope for him ; nothing in prospect was there for him but to labour on compulsion, and on com- pulsion alone. Such was the system which existed previously to the year 1834, a system precisely similar to that under which the negroes in the West Indies were placed. The English labourer was to all intents and purposes a white slave. The whole labouring population was de- graded to that system which would con- tinue in the West Indies for two years longer. The labouring man, then, had no inducement under that system to be industrious, but the fear of punishment and additional miseiy ; all hope of rising in life was destroyed and withdrawn from his mind : there was no prospect before him but that of dragging through, from infancy to old age, a degraded and wretch- ed state of existence. Indeed, the Eng- lish labourer was then in a far worse state than the slaves in the West Indies, be- cause, in a short time, they had a hope of being relieved fi'om their state of bondage. Up to the year 1834 the system was only getting worse ; partial efforts were made to break through it, but they were too partial, and proved to be ineffectual. The poison had corrupted the social state of every parish, and the gangrene, if he might use the expression, was mi k'ng ite THE FRIENDS AND FAVOURERS OF THE NEW POOR-LAW. 253 fatal progress from year to year, and its destructive influence becoming more ex- tended, for those districts into which it once made its way seldom, if ever, es- caped from it again. He would ask, then, ■was the House prepared to revert to that state of things ? (Hear.) He admitted that the measure of 1834 was a strong measure ; but was just such a measure as the desperate state of the organic dis- ease in the political society of this country required, it was calculated for and adapted to the correction, if not the eradication of that disease. Would the House, at the request of the hon. member, repeal the measure of 1834, and return to the evils of the former system ? It was perfectly true, as the hon. member had stated, that under the old law there did exist the means for the administration of relief to the poor, but there were no adequate means to secure its proper distribution. Would the House commit that injustice against the poor man, and the whole population, to return to the old and cruel system, the practical working of which had been pro- ductive of the most dreadful consequences to society at large ? He would go further, and say that any system which made relief desirable must necessarily be attended with such consequences. If men could not maintain themselves, and if they must be maintained by the community, the maintenance should be given only under severe laws of restraint, or all those evils which had resulted from the former al- lowance system, more especially in the southern and midland counties of Eng- land, would follow. With respect to the relief of the distressed, the sick, the aged, and the really impotent among the poor, those who had not any means or mode of supporting themselves, or of earning their subsistence, he would say that the system under the Poor-Law Amendment-Act would be the greatest possible blessing. They were not now left to the mercy of ir- responsible overseers or tumultuous ves- tries, or to the uncertain result of an ap- peal to magistrates. There was now in every district a body representing the interests of that district, a body of Guar- dians and paid Overseers appointed for the administration of relief, and above them there were the Commissioners and Assistant-Commissioners, whose duty it was to punish all instances of neglect of the really destitute and suffering poor. It was known that the power of those authorities had been usefully exerted. Any cases of neglect of the sick, or im- potent, or destitute poor, was brought be- fore the Commissioners, and promptly inquired into, and redressed by prompt punishment of the guilty. Was that the state of things under the old law ? Did not every hon. member recollect how often, under the old law, they were accus- tomed to hear of the sick and dying pau- per being transmitted from parish to parish, each trying to get rid of the onus of maintaining the suffering and distressed individual ? (Hear.) The disputes about settlement led continually to such cases. Paupers, almost in the agonies of death, wei'e removed by an order of the magis- trates from one district to another ; they were carried hither and thither in carts, and were bandied about from workhouse to workhouse, being denied relief at all, because neither parish would acknowleda-e the settlement. Women on the jioint of being delivered, in the very agonies of child-birth, were still more exposed. (Loud cries of ' Hear, hear.') The most dreadful cruelty and oppression was practised upon them. But to all that cruelty and oppression an end was now put. (Renewed cries of ' Hear.') Relief was now promptly afforded where relief was necessary. The sick, the dying, the impotent, women and children, and the aged, could obtain relief more certainly and promptly than they did under the old system. With respect to the able-bodied, undoubtedly relief was not so lavishly given to them as formerly ; they did not, good and bad, indiscriminately receive large allowances ; but, in return for this, the really industrious were now enabled, without being indebted to any man, to maintain themselves in comfort, and fre- quently, by their industry, to raise them- selves to a better condition in life than they were in before. These were the prin- ciples of the Act which the hon. member opposed and sought to destroy. He trusted that the decisive majority by which the proposition of the hon. member would be rejected by the House, would show that they entertained a real legard for the poor and the necessitous. (Hear.)"' — Viscount Hoioich, House of Commons, Feb. 20, 1838. " The change which the Bill proposed to make in the law of bastard}'-, was, he must admit, a bold measure ; but it was, at the same time, a good one. At present, the law threw it upon the man to avoid the offence, and visited him with penalties if he committed it. The law appeared, also, to leave the woman without any induce- 254 THE BOOK OF THE DASTILES. mcnt to join in the commission of it; but, in point of fact, it did not leave her with- out that inducement. The man found one enemy in the woman's breast to beat a parley in his favour, and that was her passions ; and then, when the parley was beaten, he found another enemy ready to recommend a surrender, and that was not her passions, but her calculations. Then came the suggestions, — The law is in my favour, — if it comes to the worst, I can make him marry me ; I am not doing that which is wrong in itself, provided marriage follows. Thoughts of a warmer nature followed, and sensations which overpower the woman when her passions are strong, and all that is wanted is a soporific to lull her conscience. The law furnished that soporific by enabling her to look forward to a period when marriage would cover the fault. The proposed change was founded on the same princi- ples on which their lordships were ac- customed to legislate every day in cases of applications which came before them in consequence of conjugal infirmities. How often had he heard it argued before their lordships, that the husband and the wife ought in such cases to be placed upon a par ! — that the wife should have the same right to divorce the husband which the husband now had to divorce the wife, and that the civil law should be introduced into this country for the better protection of female comfort and female honour ! ' No ;' their lordships had answered, and in the propriety of that answer he fully concurred, ' we will not trust the keeping of a woman's virtue to herself.' To her apply the threats which are to deter from crime — to her apply the menaces which are to prevent her backsliding. If she will not yield of herself, and if you can make it her interest not to yield upon the solicitations of others, the seducer will beat at the door in vain ; his object will be frustrated, and yours will be gained. Let this principle be applied to the law of bastardy ; let the woman be deprived of the advantages which she possesses at present ; let the disadvantages be placed on her side, and the man will have less chance to seduce her from virtue." — Lord Brougham^ House of Lords, July 21, 1834. " His Lordship, after giving an histori- cal account of the progress of the Poor- Laws, pointed out the manner in which they had become the source of so much evil. So long as it was supposed that the statutes secured relief only to the * im- potent ' — to those who, from disease, age, or worn-out faculties of body or mind, were unable to provide for themselves, and to no others, — the law, if not ad- vantageous, had not been detrimental ; but the unfortunate words which followed, giving overseers power to set poor people to work, interpreted as these words had been, first to find work for the pauper, and if work could not be obtained, then to provide food, had rendered the pro- visions of the statutes most pernicious to the poor themselves, no less than to the rich ; and all these consequences had been grievously aggravated by the Act of 1796, followed by the system of allow- ances. What had these consequences been ? In the first place, in every part of the country, in districts agricultural, manufacturing, and even commercial, there had grown up the constant and almost regular practice of able-bodied men, preferring a small pittance from the parish, that they might live in idleness, to a larger sum in the shape of wages for which they would have to work. In more than one or two places, they were found to prefer a pittance of 3s. 6d., to wages much higher in amount, because, they said, it was a certainty, and enabled them to be idle. Instead of being idle, however, they were the greatest workers of mischief in the country, the ready followers, if not the ringleaders, of every villainy and depredation committed in their neighbourhood. The very boatmen on the Kentish coast, who formerly would have risked their lives, even in the worst weather, for the support of their families, would not now go out in the winter ; for, said they, we have a right to be supported by the parish. Nay, when persons thus supported by the parish were obliged to work, they complained, and, in some instances, had actually appealed from the overseers to the magistrates, on the ground that they were compelled to work as much as labourers who received no parish aid. Another consequence had been that, in many places, those who re- ceived parish relief, and were employed by the parish, were better oflT, in point of wages, than the industrious labourer who strove to support himself by his own efibrts. It appeared from the report of the Commissioners that, in some parts of Sussex, and in the Isle of Wight, 10s. a-week was given to the paupers for w rk- ing a certain number of hours in the day, while the independent labourer, who worked a much longer time, had only THE FRIENDS AND FAVOURERS OF THE NEW POOR-LAW- 255 12s. In the Isle of Wight, 240 pauper labourers struck, because they Avere obliged to work as long as other labourers for smaller wages, and after having almost resorted to force, they made good their demand. Then came a still worse prin- ciple — that which substituted the parish rate for a man's nearest relations. The law of nature ordained that a parent should support his child, and a child his parents ; but the Poor-Laws stepped in, and told them to do no such thing, for it would take that duty upon itself. Sueh a law denaturalized men and made them act in a way of which they otherwise never would have dreamed ; it made them say, ' I will expose my children in the streets, unless you relieve them. I will turn my bedridden mother out of the house, and lay her doNvn at the overseer's door, unless you order me relief for her.' These evils, ruinous in themselves, were all aggravated by the tendency of the system, which produced them, to increase the number of individuals subjected to their influence ; for the wit of man could not have devised a more direct encourage- ment to improvident marriages than was afforded by the present system of the Poor-Laws, of which this was, in fact, the corner-stone. The language which the law held out to the poor was this : — 'Contract marriages if you please, and your children shall be supported at the expense of the parish ;' thus tempting the poor man intoan imprudent marriage — too probable an event in itself to require any legislative incentive — instead of inducing him to postpone marriage, till he had the means of supporting a family. The consequen- ces of all this on the propertj' of the country were as melancholy as any other effects resulting from the Poor-Laws. He would not say that many farms were deserted, and many parishes given up to waste (though he knew of one or two farms, and of one parish, which were in that condition ) ; but the system was tending to that point, and the fact of one parish being thrown out of cultivation inevitably tended to throw three or four others into waste. Nor was it only our fields which suffered ; the character of the people which cultivated them was de- graded. Such a system took away all sense of shame ; it deprived men of all feehngs of personal dignity, self-respect, and independence, and prevented them from seeking, in the honest paths of in- dustry, support for themselves and their families. Formerly it was considered a disgrace, nay, almost something criminal, to be dependent upon the poor-rates ; but now the peasantry demanded the parish allowance with an erect port and a manly air, or rather they called for it with a sturdy gait, and he would not say a manly, but a masterful port. They asked for it as masters ; and it was well known that they actually domineered over the parochial officers. By this strange and monstrous system, the pauper was tor- mented with all the ills — not of povertj'-, but of riches — all the evils, not of labour, but of pampered idleness — with that hypochondriasis which, in palaces, arose from want of occupation, and formed the greatest curse of wealth. The report proved that the pauper spent his time lounging about idle, half asleep during one part, wholly asleep during the re- maining part of the day, and sleepless at night in consequence of the idleness of his day. Industry, the greatest preser- vative against impure passion and wrong deeds, was wanting; and the consequences were, want of chastity, child murder, and the long catalogue of crimes which de- formed our calendars, in spite of all im- provements and extension of education." — Lord Brougham^ House of Lords ^ July 21, 1834. " The great principles of the proposed plan, then, went to this, to stop the allowance system — to deprive the magis- tracy of the power of oi-dering out-door relief — to alter in certain cases the con- stitution of parochial vestries — to give large discretionary powers to the Central Commissioners — to simplify the law of settlement and removal — to render the mother of an illegitimate child liable to support it, and save from imprisonment for its aliment the putative father, to whom she might swear it." — Lord Althorp, House of Commons, April 17, 1834 " The introduction of a principle which went to punish the female who gave birth to an illegitimate child, and not the fa- ther, had been objected to; but such was the uniform course of legislation ; such was the law of the land already ; such was the principle on which all moral- ists had proceeded, and on which also Parliament proceeded every day in the year ; and such was the principle upon which the laws of society at present stood. It was no novelty ; for in 1830 a gentle- man, examined before a Committee of that House on the Poor-Law, had stated his opinion, that ' We shall never be able to check the birth of bastard children by 356 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. throwing the onus upon the man ; and I feel strongly convinced that, until the law of the country is assimilated to the law of nature, and to the law of every other country, by throwing the onus more upon the female, the getting of bastard children will never be checked.' And what said the law ? Ever since the time of James I., bastardy had been regarded and punished as a crime in the woman, who was liable to be sent to prison or the house of correction, while the man was suffered to escape. Yet this principle was no more than that which the Com- missioners had laid down, and which had been designated by those who had assailed and attacked them, as unmanly, detest- able, and abhorrent to every principle of humanity. Common sense, indeed, dic- tated that want of chastity was a much more grievous offence in woman than in man, and those who thought otherwise could have considered the subject very superficially. Nay, any individual, who pretended to doubt it, was guilty of the grossest hypocrisy — for, would any man hesitate to say, that if he saw his daugh- ter in a house of ill-fame, he would hold her in a very different light than that in which he would regard his son, if he dis- covered him in the same situation ? The laws of society took precisely the same view of the subject : a virtuous woman was regarded as "the bond of society ; and when she once lost her virtue, ' a pearl of great price,' adieu to all decorum and de- cency in society ; and if female chastity was once at a discount, not merely were the bonds of society loosened, but actually broken asunder. With the woman the decision of the question rested. Without her consent the consent of the man was useless, and the law of the land decided that the great part of the blame rested with her. But there was another ques- tion. Was the putative father always the real father ? Was the man, who was compelled to maintain the child, the per- son who, either by the laws of nature, or of common justice, ought to provide for its support? Everyone knew the con- trary. Why, was not something like this the common practice? The para- mour of a young woman, after seducing her, persuades her to palm the child on another man, or, after corrupting her chastity and destroying her honesty, he devises means to make her the wife of another, and aggravates his crime by committing adultery. The general prac- tice was, for the woman to choose the wealthier man, and swear the child to him, whether he was the father or not. There was perjury on the part of the woman, dishonesty on the part of the man ; and these combined, led to the greatest injustice and oppression. The present law encouraged and fostered a crime only second to murder — the detest- able crime of wilful and corrupt perjury." — Lord Brougham^ House of Lords, July, 1834. " Next came the powers of the Com- missioners. In the first place, as it was desirable to have one uniform system ope- rating over the whole country, they were to have power to make general rules and orders as to the mode of relief, and for the regulation of workhouses, and the mode of relief afforded therein. As a check against any abuse, every such rule, order, or regulation, so proposed by the Commissioners, would be submitted to the Secretary of State ; forty days were to elapse before it could be brought into operation ; and during that period it should be competent, by an order of Council, issued for that purpose, to pre- vent it from being carried into effect. The discretionary powers proposed to be granted to the Commissioners, were, no doubt, extraordinary ; but, at the same time, it would be utterly impossible to carry an improvement in the present sys- tem of Poor-I^aws into effect, without acting upon great discretionary powers, and there was no more proper quarter in which that necessary power could be vested. The Commissioners would fur- ther have power to make specific rules and orders for the i-egulation and mode of relief of the poor in separate districts and parishes, — to form Unions of parishes, in order to make larger districts, — to ar- range classifications of poor in the same or different workhouses, — to exercise a genei'al control in such Unions as might be established without their consent, — and to dissolve Unions which might now exist. Unions having been once formed, each parish in the Union would have to maintain its own poor, or contribute to the general fund the proportion of ex- pense which it had hithertofore borne by itself The individual parishes, if the vestries in each parish should agree to such a proposition, might make a differ- ent arrangement ; but it was desirable, that parishes should have power to unite for the purposes of parochial settlements, and for the poor-rates altogether. The Commissioners would, likewise, have THE FEIENDS Ax\D FAVOURERS OF THE NEW POOR-LAW. 257 power to call the attention of parishes and Unions to the state of their workhouse cstabHshments, and to suggest to them the propriety of adding to those formed, or of building separate and distinct estab- lishments." — Lord AWiorji, House of Commons, April 17, 1834. " The Lord Chancellor, Earl of Win- chelsea, and Duke of Wellington, con- tended for the necessity of a Central Board, The object of it was to bring things back to their former state ; to put them in the right track ; to do all that those acquainted with the subject knew it would do ; to lop off" excrescences ; do away with abuses ; bring back things to their pristine state ; and reform the sys- tem according to the original meaning and construction of the Act on which it was founded. To do all this required a vigor- ous hand, and that vigour could be exer- cised only by vesting a discretionary power in a few persons. These Com- missioners, it should be remembered, would be appointed only for a limited time ; and, when that time expired, the administration of the Poor-Laws might be returned to those in whose hands it was now vested, with the benefit of the experience of the improved system to guide them in their future management." — Annual Register, 1 834. " The experience of every man taught him that one of the effects of the Bastardy laws was to inflict great mischief on the female population. Another was, that it diminished the inducements of every female to retain her chastity. A third effect of these laws was, that, under the operation of the existing enactments, females attempt- ed, by the number of their bastards, to ob- tain a settlement in marriage, and the tendency of the existing law counteracted, in a great degree, that moral feelhig on which success in this question mainly de- pended. A fourth was, that if the allow- ance charged for the child upon the father Avas large, it was given to the mother, whether she wanted it or not. He was afraid that perjury was often committed by the mothers to obtain a large allowance from men who had never had the slight- est connexion with them ; at any rate, there was a strong inducement for a wo- man to filiate her child upon a man who had not begotten it, provided he was rich and could make a lai-ge allowance. An- other effect of this system was, that wo- men, witii two or three bastard children, were often in a better situation than those women who had none. Such were the most prominent evils arising from the ex- istence of our present code of Bastardy laws. They took from the woman every feeling which was calculated to nourish modesty of thought, and delicacy of con- duct. They placed a check upon the man, and held out to the woman an in- ducement to violate the laws of chastity. The check was applied in the quarter where it was calculated to be the weakest, whilst the inducement was held out to the other sex, as if for the purpose of coun- teracting the great moral check which arises out of the principles of human na- ture. He was satisfied that, for many years past, the existing law had been most detrimental in its consequences upon the lower orders. An alteration in it was imperiously demanded, especially so far as related to women being compelled to filiate their children on some men or other, even before the children were born. After the children were so filiated, the justice was empowered to commit the putative fathers to prison in default of bail, and that too, without calling upon them to show cause against the order.'' — Lord Althorp, House of Commons, 1834. " He defended the first part of the Government plan, which consisted in en- trusting the Poor-Laws to a Board of Commissioners. He admitted that this was an anomalous course of legislation, and that the Board should be vested with great and extensive poweis ; but this was rendered unavoidable by the necessity of the case. A discretionary power must be vested somewhere to carry into effect the better principles now to be intro- duced. The local magistrates could not be the fittest depositaries of this power, because, however good their intentions, they would not have the command of those sources of information and compa- rison which were open to a Board of Commissioners; and, however excellent their motives, they would be apt to be biassed by local prejudices and feelings. This power, therefore, was proposed to be vested in a Central Board of Commis- sioners to be named by the king. Above all things, it would be necessary, even before extending any discretionary power, to fix a day on which the allowance sys- tem should cease, and in the Bill it would be fixed in some of the summer months, when the labourers Avere in full employ- ment. This allowance system, the prac- tice of supporting a labourer by the parish paying part of his wages, and bis em- ployer the other, was the foundation uf 258 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. almost all other evils ; and until it was completely got rid of, any attempt at amending the Poor-Laws would be ut- terly useless. Where this system pre- vailed, the farmer obtained an advantage to which he had no right, namely, assist- ance from parochial funds to pay those whom he employed in his own labour. Its abolition was necessary for the benefit of the labourers themselves. Some, in- deed, had supposed that, as the labourer at present had the wages received from his employer increased by an addition from the parochial funds, (the addition being regulated according to tlie number of his family), the effect of taking away that assistance would be to make it im- possible for him to maintain himself and family. Such would not be the case. As the labourer regarded the parochial assistance, added to the wages he re- ceived from his employer, as making the total wages to which he was entitled for his labour and industry, in a very short time after the removal of that assistance, wages would rise to an equivalent amount; and as soon as that was the case, the labourer would be placed in a situation infinitely preferable to that in which he at present stood." — Lord Althorp, House of Commons, April 1 7, 1 834. " There still remained one point of great importance, both to morality and to the Poor-Laws, the aliment of illegitimate children. Government had a clear con- viction, that the present state of the law in this respect, was a direct encourage- ment to vice and immorality ; that the effects of imprisoning the repiiled fathers of illegitimate offspring, frequently the finest young men in the country, was to demoralize and corrupt them; and that the consequent mischief and injury in- flicted upon the whole community was incalculable. As the law at present stood, if a woman chose to swear that she was pregnant of an illegitimate child, the party, Avhom she charged upon oath as the father, was ijoso facto liable to be committed to prison until he could find security for the maintenance and support of the child. Every man must know the difficulty to which a labourer in hus- bandry, so situated, would be exposed ; and if the difficulty of finding securities was not surmounted, the effect of the law was the committal at once of the indivi- dual to prison for five or six months, there to be associated with the very worst of characters. The intended Bill would, therefore, take away this power of impri- sonment, and, at the same time, make the mother liable for the support of her child, in the manner and mode of a pauper widow. ' ' — Ibid. " Not only is the New Poor-Law a precedent against all landed and funded rights, but since two bishops (more for aught I know) are recorded in the history of last year as unqualifiedly approving it, I will just call attention to the use of which it is capable against the existing rights of the clergy. Could my conceal- ment of such possibilities serve any good end, no power should wring them from me ; but the subtilty of the enemy far out- strips the penetration of friends, and my catalogue is brief to that which agitators are preparing for their own use, when- ever the time may promise advantage from its production. Who is jealous of the existing interests of the clergy, and I am not ? Who cries shame ! shame ! against all who call that Church Reform, which is to be eflectcd by injustice, and I will not re-echo their cry ? Who is warm on such subjects, and I burn not ? But have not the Bishops of London and Chester put the gag upon our mouths ? Has not the expediency of the New Poor- Law at once broken our shield } It has : for where, I ask, is shown any respect for ' the existing rights' ofthejmor? Certainly not in the hearts and principles of the Commissioners: and what then, let me ask, will the Bishops of London and Chester say, if it should, by some change, so happen that the Plouse of Commons ever votes it expedient to trust the ad- ministration of the ecclesiastical revenues to three lay Commissioners ? What lan- guage would they find strong enough against such a church law ? Would their lordships concur in such expediency? Who are to be the supreme court to settle possible differences ? Would their lord- ships think the ''existing interests' of plu- ralists and sinecurists, and absentees very secure under such a commission ? Or, suppose that the House of Commons was to select three parochial clergymen, in- stead of the three estates of the realm, to arrange matters, such as stipends, Sec, between incumbents and curates, and in- vest such a Commission with iiTesponsi- ble power, what would their lordships say then ? Or, suppose that three cler- gymen had been appointed to this new ecclesiastical Commission, instead of Peers, Ministers, and Bishops, to arrange the diocesses and episcopal revenues, what would their lordships have said THE FRIENDS AND FAVOURERS OF THE NEW POOR-LAW. 259 then ? that it teas simply a question of ex- 2iediency ? Would they then be satisfied that Lord Brougham should share the blame toith them? ' Existing interests ! !' are the clergy alone to stand, the poor alone to fall ?" — " Church Reform" by the RetK Edward Duncombe, 1835. " If what I have already exposed of the anti-parochial character of Centraliza- tion be not enough to call the Bishops of London and Chester to repentance for lending themselves to revive the monster in England, I yet am not quite without hope, that what I am now bringing for- ward may impress them with a little more regard for the consequences to poor peo- ple, and country parsons, before they take further steps against us. I mark ' revive this monster centralization ;' for, as I am bound to send copies of this address to all those on the upper seats, whose names I write, I am not such a fool as to give those Bishops the advantage over us, which they would derive if they had reason to doubt my knowledge of what no men know better than themselves — namely, that this centralization is not an original scheme for withdrawing power and wealth from country parishes and parochial clergy to concentrate everything in the hands of a few, called a ' Board' in London. It is merely an old trick be- come new in England. It is so stale in France, that there are regicidal and revo- lutionary attempts every year to try any change. Yes, this innovation upon the British constitution, to which the Bishops of London and Chester have committed themselves, and unhappily, to a certain extent, the whole church in which they are members and authorities, is neither more nor less than simple Romanism in the State ! That is the naked truth. Centralization, as it has begun, is but the narrow end of the immeasurable wedge, which was driven by Rome — till it im- poverished all parishes, divided all na- tions, and deposed sovereigns, until Caesar became synonymous with Satan — till the emperors and hierarchy, which rose as the agents of universal reform, of civil and religious liberty through all the world, fell the victims of the deceilfulness of their own hearts." — " Justice and Cen- tralization" by the Rev. Edw. Buncombe f Rector of Newton lujme, near TadcasterJ, 1840. " The only alteration made in the clauses regarding the Commissioners and their powers, was an addition proposed by the Duke of Wellington to the effect, S2 that they shoidd be bound to keep a record of each letter received, the date of its reception, the person from whom it came, the subject to which it related, and the minute of any answer given to it, or made thereon, and also, where the Com- missioners differed, of the opinion of each Commissioner ; and that a copy of such record be transmitted to the Secretary of State once a-year or oftener if required." — House of Lords, July, 1834. Sir R. Peel said he was not about to enter into the consideration of the question, but he felt bound to state how, and upon what grounds, he intended to vote. He intended to vote for a direct negative upon the proposition of the hon. member for Oldham, (hear,) and he could not consent to vote for the proposition just made to the House by the hon. and learned gentle- man on his left,* namely, that this question should not be put, and that Parliament should express no opinion on it. When he recollected that four years ago there was a universal impression on the part of Parliament, and on the part of the country, that the mode of administering relief then in existence was pregnant with the most injurious consequences, — that it was, in point of fact, dissolving property, and that, in the dissolution of property, they were doing most irreparable injury to the poor, inasmuch as it was not merely pro- perty itself that was injured, but that, by the mode of its appropriation, they were relaxing all the springs of industry, and holding out a temptation to idleness. When he recollected that Parliament, with the universal consent of the countiy, determined to make a great experiment for the purpose of recovering the country from that state of things, he thought it would not now be either fair or candid on the part of Parliament to refuse to pro- nounce an opinion as to whether that ex- periment should be adhered to or not. (Hear, hear.) He did believe that the hon. gentleman who had made the first proposition, in compelling a decision on this question, would do more to establish the Poor-Law Act, and to ensure its satis- factory operation, by eliciting the ex- pressed determination, he (Sir R. Peel) hoped, of a large majority of that House, to uphold its principle; that the hon. gen- tleman would thereby be doing more towards benefiting the principle, and to- wards the satisfactory operation of the measui'e itself, tlian any combination be- tween the ministry and opposition could * Mr. D. W. Harvey. 260 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. effect; because, in point of fact, while the countiy was in doubt as to the inten- tion of Parliament, no system could be satisfactory. In his own part of the country, doubts had been entertained as to the propriety of enlarging the workhouses, arising from the expectation of a motion in Parliament for the repeal of the law ; and while those doubts were entertained — whether it was intended to adhere to the l^resent, or revert to the old system — they would prevent the satisfactory operation of the law. He did, therefore, rejoice that his lion, friend had taken the means of provoking a decision. A committee was Jiow sitting for the purpose of ascer- taining whether, consistently with the raaintenan»;e of the principle, it would be proper to make any relaxation in the pi'esent measure. Therefore, while they maintained the principle of the existing Poor-Law, it would be perfectly competent for them to apply individual remedies to particular evils, if they should be satisfied, upon the evidence taken before that Com- mittee, that there were grounds for an alteration. But an alteration in the details of a law was a very different question from the maintenance of an existing sys- tem. (Hear, hear.) When they were told that abuses existed in the administration of the Poor-Law at present, how, he would ask, could they liope to see that great experiment, which necessity had compelled them to make, carried into operation without cases of abuse and indi- vidual hardship ? It would be a perfect miracle, and contrary to the ordinary course of human affairs, to recover from evils, such as those in which the previous system was involved, without having in- dividual cases of grievance, which they might deeply lament, but to whioli it was difficult to apply a remedy. He under- stood that the committee was appointed with a view to ascertain Mhethcr they could, consistently with the maintenance of the pi-inciple, relax any of the pro- visions of the present Poor-Law Act. Now, upon the whole, he was bound to say, considering the magnitude ef the ex- periment, that he thought the experience of thelastfouryearshad been quite as satis- factory as any man could have desired. Under these circumstances, believing it to be absolutely necessary, not for the sake of saving the property of the rich, not at all, that was a subordinate part of the question. (Hear.) The object of the experiment of the Poor-Law was not so much to protect property as to elevate the moral condition of the labouring poor, and invigorate the springs of industry ; but, believing it to be necessary for this latter object, it should have his sui)port. In that respect, so far as he had been able to ascertain, he did not think tiiat any wonderful change was or could have been made in four years, but he did think that the experiment had proved success- ful. He tliouglit that there was a gra- dually increasing demand for honest la- bour, and that he had a right to anticipate that the ultimate consequence of this law would be an increased reward for industry. He was therefore of opinion, that it would be discreditable to Parliament to hold out a hoi)c, or apprehension, as it would be to many, that the ancient system would be reverted to. He thought, too, if they did so, that those gentlemen throughout the country who had adhered to the prin- ciple of the Bill, and who had thereby subjected themselves to obloquy, would have a fair right to cast blame upon, and on any future occasion refuse to trust to the faith of, Parliament, or to co-ope- rate with them in the fm-therance of any law Avhich they might deem necessary to enact. (Hear, hear.)" — Hume of Com- mons, Feb. 20, 1838. " INIr. Darby said he could not give a silent vote on this occasion, in conse- quence of what the noble lord at the head of the Home Department had said at the commencement of the session, when he (Mr. Darby) had said that, unless there was some relaxation in the system of relief under the new law, he (Mr. Darby) should be compelled to introduce some amend- ment. Now, the noble lord opposite (Lord Howick) had said that in the agii- cultural districts there had been no relax- ation of the system ; if that had been the case he confessed himself to be guilty of neglecting to do that which he had promised to do. He (Mr. Dai-by) was prepared to show, that there had been a relaxation in the country districts. He did not complain of it; on the contrary, he thought that the Commissioners had used, in that respect, a wise discretion ; but he did not think it right that the noble lord, the Secretary at War, should keep the fact from the public that such a re- laxation had taken place. (Hear, hear.) He (Mr. Darby) had received a letter from the Chairman of the Board of Guar- dians for the Union of Hailsham, in the county of Sussex, stating that without some relaxation of the system it would be impossible to go on. To that letter THE FRIENDS AND FAVOURERS OF THE NEW TOOR-LAV/. 261 the Poor-Law Commissioners had an- swered, that they had under their consi- deration the letter of the Board of Guar- dians, and that they regretted to learn that, owing to the severity of the weather, men had been thrown out of work, and that their families were thereby reduced to a state of destitution. The letter went on to say, that the Commissioners consi- dered, with reference to those circum- stances and the state of the workhouse, that out-door relief might be temporarily afforded. (Hear, hear.) This relaxation liad been the reason why he had not brought the subject forward, coupled with the circumstance that the Poor-Law Com- mittee had not brought their labours to a close. The Commissioners had, he ad- mitted, allowed that letter to be commu- nicated to other districts in East Sussex, and that course with that permission had been followed. He believed the difficulty of the new law had not arisen from the statute, the 43d of Elizabeth, but from the neglect of that statute. He admitted that it would be difficult to return to that system, but it was strange that the order of the Commissioners of the 28th of July wholly repealed that law, and, instead of task-work, gave the labourer only the shelter of the workhouse. Now, this part of the new law j^ressed hard upon the man who, though willing, was unable, to maintain himself and his wife and chil- dren, and was obliged to enter his family and himself into the workhouse, or other- wise no relief would be affiarded him. It was too much for the noble lord ojiposite (Lord Howick) to say that a workman so situated need not part with his cottage or his furniture ; but he begged to know how, when he was deprived of the means of earning something, in consequence of his confinement in a workhouse, such a man was to pay his rent? (Hear, hear.) He (Mr. Darby) would not return to the allowance system, but he thought it was Avorthy at least of consideration whether some means could not be devised to aid a man who, by being three months out of the twelve in want of employment, might fall into distress, without sending him and his family into a workhouse. (Hear, hear.) He thought that the Commission- ers had, by their order of the 28th of July last, drawn the string too tight, and he only hoped it would not break. He had one curious passage of three lines from Blackstone, which had anticipated these difficulties. That passage, after speaking of the -13d of Elizabeth, said, ' that the excellent scheme of employing the able- bodied labourers having been departed from, we cannot but observe what a miserable shift and low ex2:>edient it was for them to attempt to patch the flaws thereby occasioned.' One of these flaws was the putting up of labourers to auc- tion, and that was illegal even under the old law. But the question for the House to decide was, whether they would get rid of the jaresent law or not, and if they did, what was the substitute which they would propose in its place. (Hear, hear.) He would ask hon. members, if the House repealed this law to-morrow, in what situation the country would be placed ?'" — Ibid. " He was now in possession of a copy of the rules, orders, and regulations sent to him by the Commissioners at the time he had been elected one of the Guardians. It had been said, that the Commissioners had allowed the use of beer in the metro- politan workhouses. Now, in those orders, which he held in his hand, it was specially ordered that no beer should be allowed. This order was dated early in the year 1836, and the loose manner in which they were drawn so much showed the inexperi- ence of the Commissioners, that he doubted whether INIr. F. Lewis, or Mr. Shaw Lefevre, or iNIr. NichoUs, or INIr. Chadwick, the penny-a-liner, had ever had anything to do with the poor of any parish in the kingdom. (A laugh.) INIr. Chadwick, some years ago, had probably been in a situation to render it likely that he might himself have applied to the overseers for relief (loud laughter), and he (Mr. Murphy) remembered the time when he almost appeared in that situation. The rule or order to which he adverted stated, that no pauper should have or use any wine, beer, or other spirituous or fer- mented liquors. Such was the rule of 1836, a rule which one of the Commis- sioners had told him (Mr. Murphy) could not be altered under any circumstances. But it had been ahered, because the Guardians of the pari- h3s of St. Leonard, Shoreditch, of St. Maitin's-in-tlie-Fields, of St. George's, and several others, had declared that they would give their respect- ive paupers beer, whether the Commission- ers hked it or not, and in no one instance had the auditors appointed by the Com- missioners, though nominally elected by the Guardians, dared to refuse to allow the charge for the supply to the poor of table-beer. But why had this alteration been made ? Why, because, as had been 202 TlIK nuoK OF JIIK MASTILKS. justly said, tlic Commismoncrs wanted to work lli(;ir way ([uiclly witli tlio people of lOii^land, and lie was uHliained to say that some of" the Guardians in one of the ])arislicH which had been alluded to, and who orij^inally had been (juite a^'ainst the rules, had told him that the I'oor-Law (li(!t was not (juitc so ohjectionahle as they liad thought it was ('Hear,' and ' Shame ! "), for now they were allowed to give them beer. But let these Commissioners but once get a fooling in the north, and both the south of England and the metrojjolitan parishes would be brought to obey all the objectionable rules and orders contained in the document with which he had been furnished by the Commissioners them- selves. Why, it was manifest that, in many parts of the country, the Guardians ■were no Ix'tter than slaves to the Commis- sioners. (Hear, hear.) Now, in those orders there was u remarkable circum- stance, to which he begged to call atten- tion, because it bore upcm the views of a noble and learned lord who had been a patron of this J'ill, and who liad se(Mired to himself for his services a snug £'),()()() per annum. That noble and learned lord Iiad always said 'educate the people' So said he (Mr. Murphy); but the Poor- Ijaw Couunissioncrs did not say so, for their order directed the Board of Ciuardians to elect a certain number of officers, and, if they thought proj)er, then to elect a schoolmaster, a chajjlain, and a port(;r to the workhouse. Now, lie should have thought, that a man who had secured £5,000 a-year by his education, would have looked to tlie education of others, for which he had so long declaimed, (('heers.) But under the orders the Guardians might, if they thought pro])er, appoint a schoolmaster, a chaplain, and a porter, who alone should open the door ; and so, if no porter was ajjpointed, there would not, according to tlujse orders, be any jierson to let others either in or out. (Loud laughter.) Did not this show how inexperienced were the men to whom the country paid £2,000 a-year each for their trouble ? (Hear, hear.) Well, but there was a rule which said that the Board of Guardians shall, at their discretion, if they think necessary, suspend from all pc-r- fornianc(; of his or her duties any medical oflicer, any relieving ofhcer, any master of a workhouse, any matron of a workhouse, and rejjort the same, with the causes thereof, to the Board of Commissioners in Somerset-house. He li()])ed that som-, perbon was pre:?cul liouj the piiiidi of St. Paul, Covcnt-gardcn, inasmuch an that which he shoidd have occasion to say uj)on the point he had just alluded to had reference to that parish. Now, the meeting had heard that they allowed the poor jieoplt! to go out on a Sunday, and to hcc their friends. But it was not so according to the rules which had been sent down to him by the Commissioners. In those rules he found one which said, that the j)aupcr8 are to be at liberty to see their friends singly, and in the presence of the master of the house. Why, look at them in St. Pancras. There they had 1,150 poor people in their workhouse, and he would ask how it was possible that such a rule could be carried into operation — how coidd the master of the workbouKC allow the whole of these 1 , 1 50 unfortvmate ])ersons to sec their friends ? Why, the jiroposilion in itself was monstrous. (Hear, hear.) Now, then, with regjird to the workhouse of St. Paul, Covent-gurden. A poor man was allowcid to go out to see his fri(;nds, aiid from some cause or other haj)pened to be seven minutes behind liis time. He was willing to admit that, for the sake of convenience and order, a little organization must be maintained, but at the same time tliere should be something like a reasonable limit thereto. Well, the poor man was seven miimtes beyond his time, and what did this meet- ing imagine was the punishment to which that poor fellow was sentenced by the master of the workhouse — a punishment, let it be remembered, which was after- wards confirmed by the Board of (iuar- dians ? Why, he was ordered to be imprisoned in the house for the period of six months. (' Shame, shame ! ') A few days after a friend went up to the work- house to see him, but on his arrival there he was told that he could not .see him then, nor for the ensuing six months." — J/r, Afiirplnj, Freemasons' Tavern, Feb. 1.9, 183H. *' He knew of no language sufficiently strong to characterize the atrocity of this disgraceful Bill. The Poor-Law ('om- missioners were now trying to introduce their infernal system into London, and, in order to disguise from the public the extent of its cruelty, they allowed the poor in the London workhouses eleven pints of beer ])er week, gave them leave to go out on Sundays, and forebore to insist on carrying into effect the disgraceful regu- lation for separating wedded couples. They made their rej^Milations as palatable a:i they could, in order to blind the public ; Till'; FIIFIONDS AND FAVOFJIIERS 01'^ TIIK NMW VCXm-l.AW. 203 but they might rest assured the public wore not Ro easily j^ulled. They saw llu; fetters which wen; lorgiiif^ for them, and Ihcy would not (jui(;tly Hubniit to liavo tliein ])ut on. (Cheers.) It was iiitolcral)lo that (he patience of th(; public should be abused by a set of irres])onsible Conunis- sioners, poHsessin^- powers f;;reater than tliose oJ" any ot!i(;r tribunal in the country, powers of \vlii(;li Lord J. Russell himself seemed hardly to know the ext(;nt. lie had ou one occasion represented to Lord J. liiissell the o])[)ressiv(! nature of that rct,'ulation which prevented the poor from leavirif^f the workhouse ou Sundays, and of other or(l(;rs issiK^d by the (louunissiou- ers, when his Lordship declared that he h;i(l never sancti(jned them. The I'oor- liaw Oommissioners were requirc believed was not very numerously at- l(Mide(l. Tlu; noble lord tluMi road an ex- tract, from an article published on this oci-asiou by the ntnvspaper* to which ho had alluded, stating that the motion of the lion. uKimbcr for Oldham for the re- peal of \\w I'oor-Law Act, was to be in- troduced oil the 2()th; that it would be sirenuously sup])orted by the South Lan- eatihiiv Toor-Law Association, which hud * 'Die Noillicrn Stiir. been engaged for some months in spread- ing tracts to show the injustice of the Poor- Law Act; and that their elforts, they (the editors) were happy to say, had been gene- rally attended with cojiviction to the minds of the i)eoj)le, that the law was repugnant to the first rights which they derived under the I>ritish constitution. \hi would not read to the House the lan- guage; which had been used in support of the resoluticjns proposed at this meeting. The resolutions themselves, three in num- ber, were to the effect, that the Act re- cently passed, called the Poor - Law Amendment- Act, had repealed all the wise and humane j)rovisions of the dSd of Klizabeth, and had taken away the rate-payer's control over the funds, and the management of his own aflairs; that under this new system the poor were sub- jected to a most tyrannical syst(.'m, by confinement in large j)risons, by separa- tion of husband from wife, by diflicullics thrown hi the way of relief, and that its e(Ie(;ts were to increase child murder, female suicide, and death b}' starvation. This was llie statement made at the mecl,- ing of the delegates, collected after months of agitation on the part t)f the oj)p(jnents of the Poor-Law Act, — these the conse- (pieiiccs which th(;y stated to have re- sulted from that Act. They sent \\\) a petition to that House signed by many, no doubt, who sincerely believed that such really was the result of the law ; and yet, when the question came under con- sideration the lion, and learned member,* one of its chief opponents, ])roposed that it should now be put in abeyance. (Cheers.) He (Lord J. Russell) would say, that it was but just to the individuals who took this view of the subject to let them know wh(;ther the re])resentatives of the peoj)le of the United Kingdom were prepared or not to sanction their descrij)tion of a law now in operation, and by which the coun- try was now governed. (Hear, hear.) If the House agreed in that dcscri])tion of the law, let it not lose a moment in re- pealing it. (Cheers.) If, on the contrary, the House was of opinion that it should still remain the law oi the land, let it not dei)rivc those by whom it was to be car- ri(;d into operation of the moral fbrco which was necessary for that purpose, by withholding its opinion. After the able spciech of his noble friend, as to the gene- ral effect of the law, he would not now (-nter ni)on its details. It aj)peared to hiui, however, that notwithstanding all « D. W. Iliuvey. 264 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. the descriptions which liad been given of the law, both for and against it, and although it contained many provisions, yet that it was far more simple in its principle than was generally understood or considered. The Poor-Law of Eliza- beth decided that certain persons, infirm and impotent, should be relieved, and that able-bodied persons should be set to work. A subsequent law, the 9th George I., de- cided that certain persons who, it had de- al u'ed, should receive relief, should be put upon the list, but that the parishes united together should have the power of making poor-houses, and employing them there, and tliat if they refused relief under such circumstances, they should be struck otF tlie list. He said, then, that these two Acts of Ehzabeth and George I., taken together, constituted the main body of the law under the present Act. The latter law was changed in 1796 by another law, departing from the principle of the former, but which he thought they had done very well to repeal in 1834. (Hear.) The main body of the present law to be car- ried into effect was therefore contained in these two Acts, and what they had done by the Poor-Law Amendment -Act was merely to say, that there should be a better means of carrying those Acts into opera- tion. (Hear, hear.) That whereas the power of giving or refusing relief, the ad- ministration under vestries, the separating of parishes according to the decision of a single magistrate, had led to great and mischievous abuses, they thought it better that there should be unions of parishes, and representative Guardians for a num- ber of parishes together, who would con- sult with more reference to the state of the neighbourhood, and be able to decide as to the cases of individuals with more re- ference to their general condition. He would say, moreover, that they had thought it better that there should be three Commissioners sitting in London, ■with the power to lay down rules for the guidance of those Guardians. Those Guardians, when cases arose where it might be necessary to afford relief, had tlie benefit of the views of the Board in London, who acted, not in opposition to, hut in accordance and co-operation with, the country Boards. It appeared to him that the whole of this Poor-Law Amend- ment-Act contained little else than what he had stated, and that a great deal of Avhat was said about the tyranny and criulty of the rules to be carried into cilect by the Couiiuissiouers, was not only exceedingly exaggerated, but completely erroneous. One of these rules had been made use of on the hustings and fl.se- where as a very popular and exciting topic — he meant the separation of the husband and wife in the workhouse. Now, in reference to that point, let hiiu ask, was it a scheme first thought of in 1834? (Hear, hear.) In those verj- ex- tracts, collected by the Commissioners of Inquiry before the Act passed, it was stated, that in the Liverpool workhouse the separation of husband and wife had already been effected. (Hear, hear.) There was another case which he was only told of in conversation, but which he nevertheless believed to be true, namely, that there was a parish in London, the Guardians of which had resisted the in- troduction of the Poor-Law Amendment- Act. They went to the Kings Bench, stated their case to the judges, who de- cided that they were free from the opera- tion of that Act. They were asked whether the husband was separated from his wife in the workhouse, and they re- plied ' certainly, that such had always been the case (cheers), and that they could not think of anythhig so improper as to admit them to remain together ' (hear) ; and yet, although that had been the case in every large and well-regulated workhouse throughout the country, an outcry was raised against tiie Commis- sioners for a total want of Christianity in having induced the House to pass an Act which was contrary to the law of nature and the laws of God." — Lord John Rus- sell, House of Commons, Feb. 20, 1838. " We have made useful reforms ; and, above all, we have carried reformation into a system, which you in Scotland are hap- pily free from — a system mischievous in itself, and still more mischievously admin- istered — I allude to the Poor-Laws. If Government had done nothing else in ten years, it would have deserved well of the country. If we have done little last session, I fear we shall do less in the next." — Lord Broiujham at Inverness, 1834. New Poor-Law Praise laid on WITH A Trowel — " The pecuniary re- sult was not so satisfactory as another result of the system, which it was more difficult to get at, and which was this : — that it certainly tended to raise the cha- racter of the Avorking classes in a degree which he believed no one in that House had expected." — Mr. Fox Mauk, House of Commons, Feb. 8, 1 S 11 . THE FRIENDS AND FAVOURERS OF THE NEW POOR-LAW. 2G5 " Grave and hoary hypocrites, Without a hopo, a passion, or a love, Who, through a lifo of luxuries and lies, Have crept by llattery to the seats of power, Support the system whence their lionours flow." — Queen Mab. " Lord John Russell in his speech in the House, March 19, 1841, said, 'If under the Old Law (1) any acts of cruelty took place they were hidden and un- known, and now they were in the news- papers and made the attacks on Com- missioners, or on tlie Government of the day, &c., &c.' (2) ' They should not leave it in the power of any person's ca- price to diminish or increase wages,' &c., &c. (3) ' It was obviously the interest of the labourer to say to the farmer — We are ready to work for fair wages ; if you will not give them, we will go into the workhouse, and it will be for you to pay the expense. That was the course the labourer ought to take,' Sec, &c. ; and he intimated they would do so, if not pre- vented by ' mischievous demagogues,' and then attempted to prove, that if pro- })erly carried out, it would tend to ' raise the character and improve the condition of the English labourer.' (4) " These are the greatest insults to com- mon sense that can possibly be. Now, with regard to the ( 1 ) old workhouses — they were always open to the rich ajid poor, and hardly a day passed without some poor persons within having some friend among rich or poor that would call and see them, and these hardly ever went without carrying them some little com- forts or consolation of some kind. Now see the practice of the New Law : — " A labourer, with a wife and seven children, were sent into a Bastile — and his brother walked ten miles, and ten back, making twenty miles, to see him, and cai-ried an ounce of tobacco, and a few onions from his garden, to eat with his bread and cheese, and also a letter from his son, living nearly 100 miles from him. But the Governor would not let him see him at all ; neither would he take the letter, or allow the porter to convey it into tlie House to tlie poor man. " A young woman, whose husband had deserted her, with two children, was in another of these Bastiles, and her hus- band's sister, and another young woman, Ibiaking her cruelly treated, walked twenty miles, like the last mentioned, with some little luxuries like the above : but they were not allowed admittance in- side the walls. These parties were both informed afterwards, that prirate and secret orders had been given to keep them both very strict indeed to the rules and regulations, and not allow them to have any indulgences on any account what- ever, and then they would soon be glad to go out again. Thus the poor are tormented until they are driven into the Houses, and then tortured until they are driven out again ! " One poor girl (16 years of age) went to see her grandfather, and the porter, not content with searching her pockets, &c., Sec, for fear she might carry the old man any tobacco, insisted upon puttimj his hand into her bosom. The girl would not submit to this, and was sent back, poor thing ! without seeing the old man, who was nearly 80 years old, at all ! Yet the Guardians, the Governors, Matrons, Por- ters, &c., &c., will all shamefully swear through thick and thin, that no such things are i)ractised — they never deny or refuse anything but ' frivolous and vexa- tious ' cases, and such bad characters as are induced, through ' mischievous dema- gogues,' to annoy them, and give them trouble for nothing. " (2) The labourer before-mentioned, could not stand the torture many weeks, before he must come out, and accept work at half price. " (3) They ai-e not allowed any such choice. If they refuse work (no matter at what price) the Boards all say, we have nothing to do with such cases, and the Believing Officers are reprimanded for allowing such cases to come before them, and the applicant or applicants fiercely threatened with imprisonment for refu- sing work. " (4) This a British Statesman declares is the way to ' raise the character and improve the condition of the English labourer,' when thousands of poor men are forced to live upon half bread and half potatoes, instead of bread, beef, pork, beer, and pudding, the good old Enghsh iiue of the working men of England. 266 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. ' Raise the character and improve the condition,' forsooth ! when the standing orders (secret of course) to all the under- officials, is to take special care that the poor are not invited into the workhouse by having as much food, or as much comfort within, as they can obtain without." — Extract of a Letter from a Southern County Correspondent to the Author, dated April 9, 1841. " The worst feature of the Act, in his \iew, was the unlimited power which it placed in the hands of the Commissioners. He was persuaded that if every Board of Guardians in the country had resisted the decrees of that triumvirate with as much firmness and intrepidity as that of the parish of St. Leonard, Shoreditch, with which he was connected, the cruel and inhuman provisions of the statute would now have been virtually inoperative. That Board had never taken the slightest notice of the nmltitude of orders and re- gulations which the Commissioners ac- cumulated on each other ; and the Com- missioners, at the end of every quarter, when they found that the Board disre- garded their mandates, sent them a letter of indemnity. ( ' Hear,' and laughter.) At last, finding that the Guardians were not men who would cringe to a power unknown to the British constitution, they sent the Board a letter of revocation, and desisted from all attempts to influence its proceedings. (Hear, hear.) A deputa- tion from the Board of which he was a member, had had several interviews with Lord J. Russell (groans), to represent the injurious working of the new system, and nothing could have been more heartless than the mean, shuffling conduct of the Minister. (Cheers, and cries of ' Bravo !') They took the liberty of stating to his lordship their utter surprise at the entire ignorance of the Government, which could intrust such monstrous powers to three irresponsible Commissioners. He (Mr. Gough) had also pointed out to the noble lord that there were certain properties at present in possession of the lay impropri- ators of tithes to which the poor had an inalienable claim ; on which his lordship said, ' Don't be personal, Sir.' (Laughter.) He (Mr. Gough) thereupon told the noble lord that he did not come there to talk to Lord John Russell, but to her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Home Depart- ment, and that he did not consider he was personal, since he came there on the public business. He did not see how it was possible for any man who had a heart in his bosom, who had a parlirle of hu- manity in his disposition, or wiio rever- enced the laws of his Creator, to defend the Poor-Law Amendment-Act, and he fervently hoped that the people would be speedily reinstated in their rights by the total repeal of the measure. (Cheers.)" — Mr. Gough, Freemasons' Tavern, Feb. 19, 1838. " The Poor-Law Commissioners pro- pose to render workhouses the universal medium of relief; this is the system of the Poor-Law Amendment-Act. Out-door relief is barely tolerated ; it is a violation of the system, and an evil which the Commissioners never cease to deplore. The Commissioners, in their report on the continuance of the Poor-Law Commis- sion, dated Dec. 31, 1839, say, the number of paupers ' in the workhouses is 98,000 ; tlic number of paujiors recei\ ing out-door relief is above 580,000; to carry out the system, the 580,000 must be lodged in workhouses, or denied re- lief; for the distribution of relief in money, or goods, to be spent or consumed by the pauper, in his own house, is in- consistent with the principle tliat the con- dition of the pauper ought to be, on the whole, less eligible than that of an in- dependent labourer.' They have already prohibited out-door relief to the able- bodied in many Unions, and ' propose to make the order as general as possible' Several of the abuses of the old system, they say, still continue to exist. ' Relief in aid of wages (their phrase for out-door relief) is still given, in almost e\ery Union, to all paupers, except able-bodied males ; and it is given even to paupers of this latter class, in many Unions in which the workhouse arrangements are not completed. Relief is still given exten- sively to paupers resident out of their Unions. From a recent return, it ap- pears, that in the quarter ending 25th of March, 1838, 94,852 persons were thus supported.' That they may put an end to this abuse — out-door relief — is one of the reasons which they urge in favour of the continuance of the Poor-Law Com- mission. Two justices may order out- door relief for the aged and infirm who are wholly unable to work, where one of the justices is personally cognizant of the inability of the party ; and from this the Commissioners infer that they were ' ex- pected to issue regulations, requiring the aged and infirm to receive relief only in the workhouse. They have recommended THE FRIENDS AND FAVOURERS OF THE NEW FOOR-LAW. 267 this ; but they say that they have, ' in very few instances, Hraited the discretion of the Guardians to giving out-door relief to this class of persons.' " — The Lancet, April 10, 1841. " In the heat of debate, Lord John Kussell advanced a second-hand paradox, Avhich his conscience and calmer judg- ment cannot fail to disclaim. He con- tended, that relief should be administered without any regard to the character of the poor. The destitute alone had a claim to relief; and all the destitute had an equal claim. That was the argument, which proceeded upon the assumptions that destitution is something absolute, and that any system of Poor-Laws can relieve all the destitution in the country. Now the degrees of destitution are infi- nite ; and range from absolute privation through all the degrees of want and suf- fering which give rise to disease and death. The workhouse is no test of the degrees of destitution ; the poor do not seek its gates at some given point of wretchedness ; their willingness to enter its walls depends on innumerable circum- stances in no way connected with destitu- tion. Then the Poor-Law Commissioners will not contend for a moment that the poor-rates or charity can relieve all the real distress of the country. Some kind of discrimination must be used. They would restrict the relief to the paupers who are willing to enter the workhouses ; they would refuse relief out of doors to the aged, infirm labourer, at the end of a life of toil, or to the industrious labourer, out of work, with a large family, and grant relief to the indolent, dishonest, drunken vagabond, who had no objection to an abode in the workhouse, and sepa- ration from his offspring. The revolting principle is unjust to the poor man and to the country ; to the labourer, because he has a right to relief from society in some proportion to the amount of his contribu- tions to its wealth, and to the country, because its industrious children are a part of its heritage, strength, and glory !" — Ibid. " It was not the object of this Bill to do honour to female virtue ; it was not its object, as had been assumed, to make women chaste and men continent; its primary intent was directed to other ob- jects. But he was prepared to demon- strate, that if the Bill had been constructed with a view to protect female virtue, and not to amend the Poor-Laws — to make men more continent, and not to diminish parochial burdens — it could not have been better framed for the accomplish- ment of these objects." — Lord Brouyham, House of Lords, July 28, 1834. " The great achievement of the Whigs since their accession to the Government, is the passing of the Act for the amend- ment of the English Poor-Laws. This is their true Reform Bill ; and if the mea- sure more distinctly so called, possesses any real value, it is chiefly as having paved the way for the passing of the other." — Annual Register, 1837. " He should look with great jealousy at any one that went to impair the prin- ciple of what he looked upon as a most humane, and most benevolent law." — Lord J.Russell, House of Commons, Feb. 8, 1 84 1 . " The continuance of the present Poor- Law was due to the community at large ; but, above all, it was due to the working classes themselves ; for without it, there could be no hope of improvement, either in their moral or their physical condition." — Sir Robert Peel, Ibid. " It was impossible to feel more strongly than he did, that the agricultural districts owed a deep debt of gratitude to the Poor-Law Commissioners." — Sir Harry Verney, Hoxise of Commons, March 26, 1841. " Whatever might be said of the law, the Commissioners were as deserving of public reward and of public admiration as any men who were ever charged with such high and important duties." — Lord John Russell, Ibid. " I believe that there never was a mea- sure passed through the British legisla- ture of so much importance to the inter- ests of this country as this Bill. I am aware there are many persons who hold a difterent opinion ; but I firmly believe there never was a measure calculated to give so much prosperity to this country as that measure." — Sir Robert Price, M. P. for Herefordshire — Agricidtural Dinner, Oct. 19, 1837. " He eulogized the New Poor-Law as one of the most important measures passed since the accession of the Bruns- wick family to the throne of these realms." —Mr. E. B. Clive, M. P. for Hereford, and Father of a Poor-Law Commissioner, at Ibid. " It is the policy of that small commit- tee of men who really manage the Board, to sit out everybody but themselves ; and then, when the room has been cleared of all but their own persons, they rapidly bring forward and determine upon the 268 THE BOOK OF THE liASTlLES. most important matters ; so that it very often happens, that more extensive and important business is transacted in the last half-hour of a seven hours' sittins^, than was done in the first six and a-half." —The Rev. W. G. Cookeslei/'s Letter to the Eton Guardians, Jan., 1841. " One object of attack on the Poor-Law Commissioners was, that thej' liad not used their power of dealing summarily with those Union officers who might abuse the trusts in which they were placed, efficiently in many cases. He could only say, that whenever abuse had been brought to light, they had not failed in most instances to substantiate their case, and either to dismiss or punish the officer, or to show the jiublic that he was not in- volved in the case brought before thera. In the last year (1840) they had dis- missed no fewer than 75 officers, besides accepting resignations from many others ; and in all instances no gentleman in that House could say that they had not shown the greatest readiness to make inquiiy." — Mr. Fox Maide, House of Commons, Feb. 8, 18H. A White Lie.—" Mr. White, M. P. for Sunderland said, that having acted as a Chairman of the Sunderland Board of Guardians, his attention had been drawn to the working of the Poor-Law Amend- ment-Act, and, as far as his experience and observation went, he must say that it had operated very beneficially to the poor, and that nine-tenths of the middle and lower classes in the north of Eng- land were in favour of the present sys- tem," — House of Commons, Jan. 29, 1841. The Best or Mk. Grantley BeKKELEY's WOKKS OF FiCTIOX. — " He believed that, though originally the Poor- Law was unpopular, it was now growing in esteem wherever it was properlv ad- ministered." — House of Commons, Jan. 26, 1841. Mk. James's Romance. — " In the county with which he was connected, the New Poor-Law had worked, and was still working, most beneficially, and the impopularity with which it was at first attended had almost entirely disappeared." — J/r. James, House of Commons, Feb. 8, 1841. LoKD John Eussexl's Candouk. — " He should be deceiving the House if he were to hold out that there was any intention on the part of the Government to propose any considerable alteration or relaxation in the main principles of the existing svstem." — House of Commons, Jan. 29, 1841. " If you desire to witness the literal and effectual carrying into execution the rules and orders of the Commissioners, go to the Union of West Ilampnett. You will there find that no labourer, having four children and upwards, can from his wages afford himself and family more than one meal of meat per week — that no able-bodied man receives assistance for himself or family, though since the New Poor-Law the price of labour has only advanced 10 per cent., while the price of flour has risen full 30 per cent — that a •widow being able-bodied, no matter how numerous her children, is not deemed an object for out-door consideration after the expiration of six weeks from the death of her husband — that old men are forced into the workhouse by the refusal of relief out of it, and there obliged to earn their subsistence witliin the confined and un- healthy oakum workshop — and that whether the Commissioners have or not the power of imprisoning in the work- house, such light has been assumed and exercised by the Guardians, as appears by the foUowingrcsolution in their minutes : — "'January 25, 1836. The povcrnor of the workhouse liaving reported thai Charles French, one of the paupers, liad left the workhouse for several hours yesterday without permission, and had returned by scaling the walls, " Resolved that he be placed in a room and confined for four days, and dieted on a pound and a-half of bread per diem, and water, and that he be employed during such four days in beating oakum.' " — Mr. TJiomas Rodgcrs's Letter in the ''Times;' July 9.0, 1837. " John Roads, a farm labourer, from Bromley, in Kent, applied to Alderman Humphrey for advice under the following circumstances. Seven ^-ears ago he married a young woman, who left him after living with him six months. She returned to him after being absent five months, but ab- sconded again after stopping three months. He saw no more of her for two years, and then she returned far advanced in preg- nancy. He refused to receive her, and she going to the parish, he was summoned be- fore the Rev. Mr. Thomas Scott, of Brom- ley College, a magistrate for Kent, who committed him to hard labour in^NIaidstone gaol for neglecting to maintain his wife. He did not know till he reached Maidstone gaol what business he was committed upon. His reason for refusing to maintain her was not heard. The magistrate did not even see him. When he was released THE FraENDS AND FAVOURERS OF THE NEW POOR-LAW. 269 lie again refused to receive his wife and her bastard, and the Rev. Thomas Scott again sent him to Maidstone gaol for two months. After he was discharged, the same magistrate committed him a third time to Maidstone gaol for refusing to receive his wife. In July last a reconci- liation took place between him and his wife, but now she had bolted again, taking some of his property, and he understood she was living with some man in London. He wanted advice. Mr. Alderman Hum- phery said he could not charge his wife with stealing the property, and he had better return home again. He was right in refusing to maintain his wife when she returned with unequivocal pi'oofs of her adultery. His imprisonment at Maidstone was a gross abuse of power, for no man was bound to maintain an adulterous wife, and he was the more astonished that such power had been exerted to bring about an immoral end by a clergyman, whose su- perior knowledge of the moral duties and ties should have made such a committal particularly repugnant to him. Mr. Alderman Humphery advised him to return home." — Times, A-prii 13, 1841. *'to the editor of the times. " Sir, — I beg to call public attention to the shameful conduct of the Guardians of Lambeth Union towards a poor woman named Elizabeth Buckhurst, who belongs to Lambeth parish, but resides in one of the almshouses belonging to the Cloth- workers' Company, at Sutton Valence, Kent. "Now, this poor woman, although she lives rent free, and has £4 a-year and half-a-ton of coals from the company, is in a state of destitution, and from her great age (77) and infirmities, is scarcely able to hobble about the house, much less to do anything for herself, and is obliged to pay 6d. a-week or more for some person to look in and do trifles for her. " As I was a sojourner at Sutton Valence a short time, I wrote a certificate for her to the Guardians of Lambeth Union, certifying that she was in a very infirm state of health, M'as unable to do for herself, and that she required more nourishment than she was able to procure, — of which they took not the least notice. I wrote a second ; still no notice. And I then got the Guardians and respectable inhabitants of the parish she resides in to memorialize the Guardians of Lambeth Union to grant her out-door relief; and after a fortnight's consideration, their gracious answer was — ' That it was against their system to give out-door relief, but she might go into the house if she chose.' It would cost them, I presume, at least 2s. a-week to keep her in their ' Bastile ;' but I suppose they calculated that their system in the said Bastile would be best adapted to kill her the quickest ; as by allowing 2s. a-week out (which she had previous to the introduction of this infernal Whig Poor-Law) she might be able to get little comforts that would prolong her life, and put the parish to a few pounds more expense. Now, this poor woman must either starve or go to the Lambeth Union slaughter-house ; and it is a very hard case that a person of her age should be compelled to leave a comfortable house, her friends, and the place of her nativity, for such a place. This New Poor-Law has the effect of producing madness, for a labourer belonging to Sutton Valence being out of employ, and not being able to procure any, or get relief, and from the thought of being obliged to go into one of these 'Bastiles,' and be separated from his wife and children, — these had such an effect upon his mind, as to produce mad- ness; and, from the Kent Lunatic Asylum being filled with patients that have gone insane, I suppose from the same cause, he has been sent to the one at Bethnal-gi-een. Have not two magistrates the poAver to order out-door relief to be given in Eliza- beth Buckhurst's case ? "HENRY H. RUGG, Surgeon. " London, November 3, 1837." " In the Commissioners' Reports the fathers of bastard children were spoken of as ' unfortunate' persons.' He was an unfortunate young man' who was brought before the justices for this oflTence ; but whenever the mother was spoken of, allusion was certain to be made to her ' vice.' You did not meet with this form of expression in a solitary instance onlv : on the contrary, it jjervaded the whole report. The languagre of the report was, ' the female is most to blame ;" — ' con- tinued illicit intercourse originated Mith the female.' He confessed that he must require much better authority than any which he had seen in the report, to belie^■e such an assertion." — T/te BisJioj) of Exeter, House of Lords, July 28, 1834. "Private charity should be always made the handmaiden of the New Poor- Law. so as to meet those cases which it would not be possible to define by the law. It was said that the New Poor-Law 270 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. might be applicable to agricultural dis- tricts, but it was not applicable to large manufacturing communities. Now, in his opinion, it was even mo7'e applicable to the latter than to the former. There were so many fluctuations in the condition of the manufacturing classes, arising from such a variety of causes, that the New Law was particularly applicable to them. The manufacturing operative obtained more wages than the agricultural labourer, and the New Poor-Law was well adapted to teach him the propriety of laying up for, and making provision to meet, the fluc- tuations of business." — Mr. Gaily Knight^ House of Commons, Feb. 8, 1841. " Experimental philosophers are pro- verbial for their indifference to the ordi- nary feelings of humanity. If any man doubts this, we recommend him to peruse the numerous interesting little publica- tions which are annually put forth by the Society for Preventing Cruelty to Animals. Here he will And recorded how science, in the calm investigation of some curious theorem, thinks as little of dissecting dogs alive, galvanizing tame rabbits, or pouring melted lead down the throats of screaming fowls, as it does of looking at the moon through one of DoUond's telescopes. Unsophisticated readers, not thoroughly imbued with the principle of consulting the ' greatest happiness of the greatest number,' uninstructed in geological divi- nity, which teaches us that Omnipotence itself could not secure the general balance of good, except by a ' police of nature' — i. e., of tribes impelled by an instinct of benevolence to eat each other — and not considering the intense satisfaction which the creature howling under the knife of the experimentalist would neces- sarily feel if it could only understand the importance of the principles which its sufferings may serve to illustrate — such readers, we say, are apt to feel a certain creeping sensation when they peruse the accounts of these things, a tingling of the blood in their veins, with a very unphilo- sophical disposition to feel ashamed, for the time being, of the species to which they belong. In proportion as the crea- ture tormented rises in the scale of intel- ligence, this indignation increases ; and no words are found sufficient for the con- demnation of those who dare to make man the subject of their experiments. Most persons have heard of the French physi- cian, who inoculated his Turkish patients with the plague to ascertain whether that disease might so be communicated ; and it would be easy to mention other cases, in which individuals have indulged a similar curiosity at the expense of their fellow-men, and, for so doing, have been visited with very general censure. But at length, in the present enhghtened age, prejudice of every kind is fast disappearing; and while sci- ence marches on with a more fearless and unliesitating step, the foible humanity is almost brow-beaten out of the field. " Experimental philosophy, as it for- merly advanced in its researches from rabbits to men, has now advanced from men to nations ; and, no longer contented with studying the fibres and arteries of animal bodies, has extended its researches to the finer mechanism and more subtle organization of those great moral interests which constitute political society. Laws of the most comprehensive nature, involv- ing the happiness of millions, are passed by Parliament avowedly as experiments ; philosophers are selected, from the newly- created department of science, to conduct the interesting process, with a carte blanche to vary the instruments, the mode, and the mechanism of investigation, as often and as widely as they think proper ; and, instead of cats, horses, or dogs, the poor of Great Britain are made the subjects of their operations. To the mother who is forcibly separated from her sick or dying child (as in a recent case mentioned in the House of Commons by Mr. Wakley) the moral pain may perhaps transcend the agony of the dog whose brain was par- tially removed by the process of vivisec- tion ; and the prison diet of the workhouse may be to the widow as the scalding lead which a surgeon at Plymouth formerly introduced into the stomachs of ' several lively fowls.' But what signifies this, or any amount of individual suffei'ing, when a great principle is to be established ? If Guardians will but ' resolutely refuse re- lief out of the workhouse to widows with families,' the saving to the landed interest will be as vast as was the accession to sci- ence when the medical student used his knife unflinchingly, without regard to the lamentable moan, or the piteous eye, upon the rabbit or the cat. And in both cases it turns out, to the immense triumph and exultation of the scientific, that as the dog contrived to live on much longer than was expected without his brain, so the mother does not hang herself for the loss of her child — as the ' lively fowls' were actually seen to skip about dunghills and feed with an appetite for several days after they THE FRIENDS AND FAVOURERS OF THE NEW POOR-LAW. 271 were leaded, the widow thrives corporally upon her prison fare, till, by abantloninsj her claim to relief, she proves, to the satisfaction of the experimentalists, that she is in a condition to maintain herself. " This may be called bantering, but we use the language of jest in bitter earnest. We ask those who hold the Poor-Law to be an experiment, and would continue it as such (Sir R. Peel is among the num- ber), whether they doubt that to great numbers of harmless, inoffensive, deserv- ing poor, it is a grievous and painful experiment — we should rather say, a sys- tem of experiments, most grievous and most painful ? Is it not evident, that the Poor-Law Commissioners are engaged, not in administering a fixed and positive law, enacted deliberately and with a view to its perpetuity by the State, but in investigating, at the expense of the poor, a vast number of problems and theorems devised in the closets of speculative politi- cal philosophers, scarcely one of which would, a 2Jriori, and in the absence of ex- periment, recommend itself to a humane and considerate legislature? Assuming this to be undeniable, we ask again, whe- ther Sir Robert Peel, and those who act Avith him, would act upon similar prin- ciples in any matters affecting the health or the mere bodies of mankind ? Would they, for the sake even of making dis- coveries, however vast, in medicine, and reforming abuses, however serious, coun- tenance the adoption of a wholesale system of experiments within our hospitals ? Would they reckon it a small matter that the health of individuals should be wan- tonly destroyed — that some should be mutilated, and others poisoned or killed, by unsuccessful steps in the process of demonstration, so long as it proved suc- cessful on the whole ? Above all, would they venture upon such a sacrifice of individuals, without a positive certainty beforehand that good would result to the community ? " To take a different test : the gentle- men to whom we appeal cannot be igno- rant that there is a large school of politi- cians (and we suspect the Poor-Law Commissioners and their entire sect among the number), who consider the present system of Corn-LaioH to be at least as capital and mischievous an abuse as the old system of Poor-Laws ever was. The arguments which they advance for their doctrine are infinitely stronger than any which could be brought forward against the old Poor-Law. At least, they say, let the experiment be tried, let it be seen whether the interests of all may not be sufficiently protected by a modification of the present law. An entire repeal, they agree, would be most desirable, and most beneficial in the main, even if all the land- owners were to be sacrificed in the tran- sition , but if the Legislature is not pre- pared for this, let us have (they repeat) the experiment on a smaller scale, and we will see how it works. " Now, how do the landed gentry, who are so very ready to make painful experi- ments in the persons of the poor, answer this ? They refuse flatly. Why ? Be- cause this experiment might be painful or dangerous, either directly or in its conse- quences, to themselves. In this case they see plainly enough the cruelty, the injus- tice, the robbery (as they consider it) of inflicting suffering upon the members of one class for the benefit of the rest — they see through the hollow pretence of those who would induce them to commit them- selves to principles under the name of experiments, and they exclaim against the suicidal infatuation of legislating experi- mentally upon the most important inter- ests of the nation. The numerical pro- portion of these gentlemen who might suffer by a Corn-Law experiment, to those who do suffer by the present Poor-Law experiment, is as that of units to thou- sands ; and a poor man has quite as great a capacity of suffering as any baronet or duke. Oh ! that we could either see our- selves as others see us, or look upon others with as much tenderness as we discover for ourselves !" — Times, April 14, 1841. " The Chairman of the Ludlow Board of Guardians, Charles Walker, Esq., at a meeting held on the 29th ult., refused to allow the subject of considering the pro- priety of petitioning Parliament to reduce the number of Assistant-Commissioners to be discussed, he considex'ing the Board incompetent to entertain any such ques- tion." — Hereford County Press, May 16, 1840. " The Poor-Law Commissioners have declined to accede to a resolution of the Bath Board of Guardians, for the admis- sion of reporters to their meetings." — Ibid., Dec. 29, 1838. " In the Queen's Bench, last week, the judges decided that no Board of Guar- dians had any power to appoint Assistant- Overseers or Collectors of Rates." — Ibid.y June 22, 1839. 272 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. " Sir Robert Peel said, his opinion was, that paupers should not he exposed to the painful feelings consequent upon seeing burial-grounds attached to, or connected with, the workhouses. If paupers de- cidedly preferred being buried in the con- secrated ground attached to their parish churches — if they wished that their bodies should be gathered to those of their an- cestors — such wishes ought to be treated with due consideration. They had a right to decent interment ; they were entitled to expect that they should be allowed to re- join in death those whom they had loved through life. — Mr. T. S. Duncombe said, the right hon. baronet had spoken very pathetically of the feelings of old people, on the subject of being buried in the church-yard ; he wished that hon. mem- bers would have a little more feeling for the old people whilst they were living." — House of Commons, Feb. 8, 1841. Lord Howicks Commissioners For Ever and Ever! — "He for one did not see any time that the Act could cease He for one should have no objection to continue the Commissioners indefinitely ; because it appeared to him that there were many of the objects which these Commissioners were intended to answer, which it was impossible to suppose could be ever at an end. — Mr. AV. Attwood said the noble lord, the member for Northumberland, the unmiti- gated supporter of the Bill, would have an indefinite prolongation of their powers. He wanted a sort of hereditary Pashalick to be conferred on the Commissioners." — House of Commons, Feb. 8, 1841. " The Guardians of the Boston Union, at a Board held on Saturday last, ordered the Penny Magazine, Saturday Maga- zine, and Chambers'' s Journal, to be taken in regularly for the use of the paupers in the Union workhouse." — Lincoln Ga- zette, Feb., 1841. Hume's History Reviewed. — " At a meeting held within these few days at Marylebone, for the purpose of alleviating the condition of the poor, Mr. Hume, — though liberally subscribing to the fund of benevolence, — could not omit the op- portunity of lauding the provisions of the Poor Act, holding it up to the admiration of the Marylebone meetuig, as a measure all-sufRcient to meet the exigencies of the case. ' By the Poor-Law Act,' contended the hon. gentleman, ' every man had the assurance of immediate and full relief.' Yet, somehow, the eccentric and refractory poor die, perish of starvation, with the blessings of the Poor-Law showered like manna upon them. Does Mr. Hume — save when his own speeches are reported, read those vulgar, daily histories of the world, the newspapers? If so, what does he think of those little tragic epi- sodes^-coroners' inquests ? Can poverty be so refractory as to perish with famine, and only to give a had name to the New Poor-Law ? Is it possible that men die purely out of spite to the people of So- merset-house ? INIust there not be some- thing vitally wrong, wickedly unjust, in an enactment that, ostensibly framed to succour the poor, becomes to tliem a terror and a scourge ? Mr. Hume, how- ever, subscribed £5 for the poor of Maiy- lebone ; and hence gave the strongest evidence against the sufficiency of the New Poor-Law." — Morning Herald, Jan. 19, 1841. " As it was thus necessary to establisli a central control, it was plain that the individuals who were to exercise this control ought to be persons, not members of either house of Parliament, not selected for party jnirposes, and wholly uncon- nected loith the parties that arose in the state. To him it was further manifest that the contemplated reform could be effected only by investing the Commis- sioners thus to be appointed with large discretionary powers, nay, he would say, with arbitrary powers He was aware that these powers might be uncon- stitutional." — Lord Brougham, House of Lords, July 21, 1834. " He admitted that the censure passed on the female chastity of the lower orders, by one of the Assistant-Commissioners, was very strongly worded ; but that gen- tleman had a style of warmth and preci- pitancy which often led him to form con- clusions stronger than his premises war- ranted. Moreover, the evidence given before the Commissioners Avent a long way to confirm the correctness of the opinion given by the sub-Commissioner referred to." — The Bishop of London, House nf Lords, July 28, 1834. Under the proposed alterations of the law (the bastardy) there might arise cases of individual hardship ; but, on the whole, he conscientiously believed that it would be of unspeakable benefit to the commu- nity."— /^/d " Lord Althorp protested against these provisions (of the Bastardy Clause) being discussed as matters of feeling ; they must be looked at as they affected, not one portion of society, but the whole of THE FRIENDS AND FAVOURERS OF THE NEW POOR-LAW. 273 it; and looking at the question in this point of view, he was prepared to support tiiis part of the Bill, ' as a boon to the female population.'" — House of Com- mons, April, 1834. The Poor-Law Commissioners de- fended AS they never avere before, ANDNEVERWILL BE AGAIN EXCEPT HIS PRESENT Britannic Majesty, King Satan, should undertake to butter them preparatory to his frying them hereafter. — "I trust I shall be able to confute the statements of the more virulent and unreflecting opponents of the New Poor-Law Act, and to justify Boards of Guardians, the Magistracy, Clergy, and Nobility of these realms (who have been harmoniously (!) united in their several localities in carrying out the pro- visions of it) from the coarse and brutal attacks which have been levelled at them by some portions of the public press. The Poor-Law Commissioners may safely be trusted to defend their own regula- tions ; but I cannot help saying, that how- ever we may difier upon minor points, as to the proper number of Commissioners for instance, the amount of their salaries, or the duration of their office, never were 2)ublic functionaries, who have done so much and so icell for the country, so un- fairly treated as those gentlemen (! ! ) The Act, in order to cure enormous abuses, gives them very great powers, and their operations as a Board affect more or less the tenantable value of every house and acre in the kingdom ; the whole mass of the population, rate-payers, or rate- receivers, are subject to their regulations in all cases connected with pauper-paro- chial expenditure ; and when you bear in mind that the annual amount of it once exceeded £8,000,000 (?) divided amongst more than 2,000,000 paupers, some idea may be formed of the immensity of their labours and the extent of their responsi- bility. But that you may have accurate data upon which to ground your opinion touching the duties and remuneration of these Ubelled (!) stipendiaries, take the following account of their stewardship, since the administration of the law was confided to them in August, 1834. The average annual expenditure for the relief of the poor in England and Wales, for the five years, 1830, 31, 32, 33, 34, was £6,754,590; for 1835, 36, 37, 38, 39, £4,567,988. Average annual saving, £2,1 86,602 (! !) The total saving in the expenditure for the relief of the poor since 1834, as compared with the expenditure in the five years preceding is £ 1 0,933,01 3. Now tlie total cost of the Commission from August, 1834, to Lady-day, 1839, was £182,679. Again, the annual ex- pense for Poor-Law litigation for each of the two years immediately preceding tlie introduction of the New Poor-Law Amend- ment-Act, was £256,508, whilst the aver- age expense of Poor-Law litigation for each of the five years, ending March, 1 839, was £132,080. The saving under this head in the latter five years may therefore be estimated at £622,138, which is more than three times the expense of the Poor- Law Commission during the same period. The annual expenditure for the relief of the poor for the year ending March 25th, 1839, was £4,427,549, the interest of this at five per cent, would be £221 ,620 ; now what gentleman's landed estate is agented at a less rate than five per cent, per annum, and yet if you look at the whole expense of the Commission for the year above referred to (1839), the total amount for England and Wales is only £50,000; so that the charge for agency or super- vision is less than one per cent. But this is not all : the Poor-Law Commission- ers, in addition to their proper functions, have saved the comitry a heavy expendi- ture (! !) by their cheerful acquiescence in undertaking additional labours (without fee or reward), which the legislature has imposed upon them. Their own Central Board, as a supervisional court, and the efficient local bodies established by them as Guardians of the Unions of these kingdoms, have enabled the Government, with little or no extra cost, to carry on the parochial assessments, the Work- house Building Act, to obtain valuable subsidiary information relative to the tithe commutations, to give efficiency to the efforts of the magistracy and local police in suppressing vagrancy and mendicity, to fulfil the provisions of the Registration Act, which is chiefly worked by Clerks of Unions as superintendents, and by Re- lieving Officers as district registrars, and to provide the safeguard of prompt and efficient vaccination, successlully per- formed and duly attested for all the sub- jects of these kingdoms. Had a ver)'^ useful measure, introduced into Parlia- ment last year, been carried out for an improved and economical management of our highways, the Board in London, as a centre, and the Guardians of Unions in the country, as waywardens, presented a ready and effectual machinery for a de- velopment of it, without any fresh cost to 274 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. the country. These, then, are the indi- viduals who have done more work for the aiation than any other piibHc servants, who have, nevertheless been maligned, traduced, insulted, nay assaulted, for the faithful discharge of their duties ; duties Avhich I firmly believe have had a greater effect in re-uniting the dislocated bonds of society in this country, than any other efforts of a pubhc or private nature during the last two hundred years (! !) I have now given you a slight sketch of their labours, and of the compensation given, and you will have perceived that they are paid less in proportion than any other officers of the state. Undoubtedly in some Unions their services might be now gratefully acknowledged, and in future dispensed with, as Commissioners ; but, as auditors of accounts, and general super- •intendents, we shall still be glad of them ^as auxiliaries ; the rather because whilst Ave should be spared the local tax which we now pay for auditors, the Assistant- Commissioners are remunerated from the •Consolidated Fund." — The *■'■ Practical Working of the Poor-Laws in Hereford- shire,'^ hj the Rev. J, Hanmer Under- wood, Chairman of the Ledbury Board. Beimj Observations delivered by him to the ■ Gnnrdiaiis, March 16, 1841, and pub- lished by desire (to obtain a fat Ministerial living) April 17. A Grunt at the Gilbert Unions. — " 22 Geo. III., c. 83, is one of the most important Poor-Law Acts ever passed, •whether you view it in reference to the labourer, the interests of rate-payers, or ■to the present diccussions upon the power -of dissolving or I'etaining the incorpora- tions established under it. It is com- monly called the ' Gilbert Act,' and is •■vicious in principle (! !) as well as arbi- trary and unconstitutional (! !) in prac- tice. Guardians and Directoi-s may be appointed by it, and if three-fourths of them agree to it, their workhouse may be built out of their Union. Section 30 encourages the separation of families, permitting parents to send their children to the workhouse. Clause 33 lays on Guardians the onus of finding work for the able-bodied labourer Although the 22nd of Geo. III., c. 83 (commonly called the ' Gilbert Act") permits three- fourths of the Guardians of any Gilbert incorporation to build their workhouses in parishes not comprised in their Unions (to the great distress of relatives of in- mates, who may be unable to make long joujuies to visit them), the present law Jmmanely (! ) rejects such a provision, and at the same time repudiates ihe mon- strous principle so prominent in tlie Gilbert Act, which not only allows but requires Guardians to find work for the able-bodied out of the workhouse, on conditions alike destructive of the -welfare of the labourer, and the interests of the rate-payer. But these Unions are not only mischievous in themselves, they have also a bad eflect in co-terminate parishes, preventing them being formed into pro- per districts under our own Act. The resistance of the Gilbert Guardians to a dissolution of their incorporations, Avould be altogether unintelligible, if we did not know (I quote from the Commissioners' Keports) ' that they receive payment varying from £5 to £10, and even £20 per annum, for attending at monthly meetings only,' whereas our Guardians meet weekly, and that gratuitously (?) ' At a ineeting of the Oswestry Gilbert Union, when the Directors refused to dissolve, a butcher was in tlie chair, who was himself supjilying the workhouse with meat!' The Montgomery Guar- dians maintain their incorporation ' in direct opposition to evidence which shoAvcd that their expenditure was ffty per cent, higher than was necessary.' But, besides their monthly pay, these Guardians, by the 33d section of their Act, are ordered, at the expense of their respective parishes, to sui)ply their poor with clothing, on their own terms. And yet the encouragement held out to them for enrolling themselves under the rules of the Commissioners is very great (! ! \)< In the year 1835, seventeen Gilbert in- corporations consented to be extinguished. Under their own rules, their expenditure amounted in a year to £114,152 : under the Poor-Law Act to £67,039, giving a saving of forty-one per cent., £47,113." — Ibid. (Doesn't he deserve a living ?) " We, the Guardians of the Ledbury Union, are a corporation appointed to ad- minister in this place a law, whose provi- sions cannot be honestly carried out unless ice conform to the ' Rules and Regulations of the Commissioners.' If we oppose systematically those rules, we may, in- deed, obtain the unenviable celebrity of being lauded to the skies by extreme Tories and violent Chartists, as, par ex- cellence, ' friends of the poor,' ' foes of the three dictators,' &c., &c. If the ma- jorit}'^ of the Guardians were remiss in their attendance (which I am thankful in being able to say has never been the case) THE FRIENDS AND FAVOURERS OF THE NEW POOR-LAW. •275 the comments of the press would be a 'junta,' or a 'knot;' or 'a miserable minority of the Board,' attend and carry on the business at their own arbitraiy dis- cretion, ' trample on the rights of the poor,' and so on ; whilst the magistracy, clergy, and more humane friends of the lower orders, retire in disgust, or refuse to be partici])ators in such atrocious inhu- manities.' But no more striking proof of the general success of the Poor-Law Amendment-Actcanbe adduced, tlmn the great infrequencxj of petitions to Parlia- merit for any dejxirture from the j^rinci- ples of the Bill, by Boards of Gimrdians (! ! ! )■ This is a very important feature in the question, when you are told that the parishes in England and Wales are, in round numbers, 14,500, with a popu- lation of 14,000,000. Of these, 790 parishes, and 2,000,000 souls, remain under local or Gilbert Acts, whilst the re- maining 12,000,000 in 13,800 parishes are under the control of the new statute. Are, then, Boards of Guardians fair repre- sentatives of the interests of the upper and lower classes in their several districts ? Let us look at the constitution of Boards of Guardians, and take if you will our own as a sample. It is composed of 24 ex-officio, and 27 elected Guardians, amongst whom are seven clergymen, two solicitors ; gentlemen of rank and station, others farming their own estates, occu- piers of large farms, thriving tradesmen, rack-renters of smaller properties ; and I do not forget that the ex-officio members attend here in greater numbers than in any other Unions that I am acquainted with. Let me mention, incidentally also, to show how cordially the elected and non-elected Guardians are united in car- rying out the provisions of this Act, that no instance has occurred in the county (to my knowledo;e) of any magisterial interference (under the 27th and 54th clauses) wdth the decision of the Guar- dians : in this district, where the justices are nearly as numerous as the elected members of the Board, I am sure it has not been the case. Not that I deem the constitution of our Board so faultless, as to be altogether unsusceptible of any im- provement, for there are two classes not sufficiently, if at all, represented in it, and these are the very small rate-payer, occupying from one to fifteen acres, and the independent labourer who maintains (with decent frugality) (! !) himself, wife, and five children, on the average weekly ^vages of the county. I wi«h a few from T these classes were paid for their attend- ance here on our days of meeting, and that their opinions were asked on the relief (if any) and the quantity and quality of it which they would allot to the pauper applicants of their respective parishes. You must not, however, permit them to sit on your House Committees, lest they should discover that, while they content- edly maintain their own children at the cost of one shilling and sixpence per head per week, on a dietary, in which the potato is the principal ingredient, the profligate women with their illegitimate offspring, and the reduced drunkards living in the House, are faring on a com- missariat whose cost is three shillings per head per week, and in which are fresh meat and soup (each twice a-week) alter- nate with a white loaf of best seconds flour, good cheese, and good oatmeal. It may be urged that this anomaly sup- plies an argument to show the insuffi- ciency of the Central Board ; but let us be just, let us bear in mind the popular clamour which has been raised against it, and the comparison between gaol and workhouse fare, so generally and so untruly paraded in the columns of our journals. No, I am so far from indulging the unreasonable expectation, that abuses of three hundred years' standing can be cured in seven, by a handful of Commis- sioners, that I am very sure it will require all the care of the present officials, and perhaps of supplemental ones, as auditors, workhouse visitors, and ambulatory inspectors, to ensure a consistent and uniform national workhouse economy. The diet of the able-bodied and of chil- dren in workhouses, must be brought down to the average weekly cost per head of the hard working labourers' family meals ; and the aged and sick must have a different time for theirs, either an hour before or after the general ' mass of the inmates,' Let me hope that the learned Commissioner, whom I am happy to see here, will give his best con- sideration to these suggestions.'' — Ibid. (He must have the living !) A Blessed Bouncek. — " In Bed- fordshire, Berkshire, and Sussex, under the old Poor-Law, it is upon record, that the rule of right had become so completely inversed, by the dislocation of interests, that the pauperized labourer had actually swallowed up both landlord and tenant (! ! !). I repeat it, that in more than one pai-ish the landlord offered his estate to his tenant rentfree^ and that it icas refused 2 276 THE BOOK OF THE BASTH.ES. on account of the enormous amount of poor's-rate to be paid (! ! //' — Ibid. A Commissioner's Pattern Chair- man. — " Some of you (the Guardians) are aware that, so far back as the October of 1839, I was anxious to be relieved from the duties you had assigned me; and that I consented to act in compliance with the wishes of valued friends, who feared that high prices and a hard winter, pre- ceded by an autumn in which we had failures of our staple productions (hops and cider) miyht induce an infringement of some of the Commissioners' rxdes, unless carefidly tvatched by some one who had gathered experience in Poor-Law adminis- tration (! ! !). The same recurring causes, in a partial degree, induced a similar wish on your part, and acquies- cence on mine, last winter. The time, however, has now arrived when, without any imputation of abandoning ray post at a season of difficulty, I may be permitted respectfully to vacate the chair, in the hope that your just expectations may be realized by some gentleman of property and station in the neighbourhood, suc- ceeding to its duties. To yourselves my best thanks are due, as well as to the officers of the Union, who have all in their several stations faithfully and diligently discharged the functions assigned to them. You and they may reflect with just satisfaction on the success which has attended your united exertions ; for you have proved that the strictest compliance with the spirit of the law, and the Com- missioners' regulations, is entirely con- sistent with kindness to the deserving poor, and retrenchment of parochial ex- penses. Your estates are improved ten per cent,, your tenants are more prospe- rous, and yourlabourers have better wages (?)." — Retiring Addressofthe Chairmanof the Ledbury Board (the Rev. J. H. Under- wood j to the Guardians, March 16, 1841. " There are many other topics which I must endeavour to condense by quoting from the tabular returns of the Poor-Law Commissioners, the results of this great national experiment. The evidence given before the Committee of the House of Commons, particularly in questions and replies numbered '11,391' to ' 13,329,' will best attest the sentiments of credible and imimpeachable witnesses from all parts of the kingdom. Refer only to the answers to Mr. Tidd Pratt, under whose supervision every farthing of the Savings' Bank and Friendly Societies' Deposits is ■ paid into the Bank of England, and then say whether or not the New Poor-Law has failed in one of its principal objects, viz., the creation of provident habits amongst the lower orders. Surely the bare fact that the increase of depositors in the Savings' Banks of these realms, from Nov., 1837 to Nov., 1838, amounted to £50,000, and increased deposits to £1,890,000 (wheat averaging nine shil- lings per bushel) is enough to convince any one, who now hears me, of the sound- ness of these conclusions. There is, in- deed, a short way of excluding all evi- dence on the operation of the Poor-Ijaw Amendment-Act, by affirming that the ' Annual Reports ai-e forgeries,' and the authors of them persons who can only be described by a short word of a very unparliamentary character. It was upon some such sweeping principle as this that a gallant and eccentric senator, speaking of the disappointment experienced by a friend of his at the non-performance of political promises, quoted that friend's observation to the efi'ect, that ' King David in his haste had said all men were liars, but that he did so advisedly and deliberately.' " — Ibid. The Cirencester Guardians Out- bone ! — " For ourselves, gentlemen, I am quite sure we shall reject any left- handed compliments, to the effect ' that our affairs have been successfully managed in defiance of the Commissioners' rules,' or that ' our humanity (the Ledbury Guardians' humanity ! ! !) has intercepted or mitigated the severity of their orders.' For how stands the fact ? I find in the Commisioners' Report for 1840, that the Ledbury and Bromyard Unions have been distinguished for a strict adherence to the ' mandates of the triumvirate,' in refusing relief to able-bodied men out of the work- house. Take this also into consideration, that during the autumns of 1838 and 1839, wheat averaged 9s. 6d. per bushel, and neither fruit nor hop-picking afforded the wives and children of the labourers any opportunity of adding to the house- hold store. Notwithstanding, however, this heavy pressure in a hop and cider country, for the quarter ending March, 1839, only tivo able-bodied men entered the Bromyard and Ledbury workhouses. The former Union has always been well managed, and you know the characters of the Chairman and Vice-chairman so well, that it is superfluous for me to add, that humanity ( ! ! ! ) is a prominent feature there in the administration of the law. For ourselves, let us not shrink from THE FRIENDS AXD FAVOURERS OF THE NEW POOR-LAW. 277 avowing that we had, by anticipation, adopted all the more stringent rules of the Commissioners a-year-and-a-half before they were made binding upon us. From the day this workhouse was finished, we made a by-law prohibiting out-door relief to any able-bodied man ; and with re- spect to the Bastardy clauses, we acted upon the principle that an immoral woman should not be allowed to affiliate illegiti- mate children at all, and so be placed on a better footing than widows maintaining children without parochial aid." — Ibid. Scandal about Elizabeth. — "After this (the 18th of Eliz.) came the great battle-horse statute, the 43d of Elizabeth, c. 2, which the present im- pugners of the Poor-Law Act have called the ' Charter of the Poor,' and to the operation of which they would again co7n- mit the labouring population. The first clause of this Act directs Overseers to set to work the children of those whom the parish officers shall deem to be unable to maintain their own children ; to buy flax, hemp, iron, &c., &c., in order to set people to work, and to levy money for the relief of the old, impotent, and infirm ; where it is observable that %vork is pro- vided for the young and able, money for the aged, blind, sick, and infirm. Clause 3, If justices see that the inhabitants of a parish are not able to raise enough money to maintain their own poor, the said justices shall order a levy to be made on any neighbouring parish in the hundred to make up the deficiency ! ! ! Clause 5 enables overseers to apprentice out boys witil they are tiventy-four, and girls until they are twenty-one years of age ; it also enables the parish officers, with permis- sion of the lords of the manors, to build houses for the poor on commons or waste lands, and to place more famihes than one in a house." — Ibid. The Lie Dikect. — "The 71st sect. of the New Poor-Law extinguishes the provisions of the old statutes, which fixed the settlement of the bastard in the parish where it was born ; and by constituting the mother's settlement the settlement of the child, has efiectually taken away the motive to commit the atrocities so fre- quently practised, when parish officers carted wretched women, on the very verge of childbed, from one parish to another, lest their hapless infants should gain a settlement by being born within their confines. Nor will the New Act tolerate the rigorous spirit of 7th of James I. and 50th of George IIL, which punished immorality as though it had been felony^ but has taken away the penalty of impri- sonment formerly applicable to the father or mother of the bastard. Nevertheless profligates, if not punished as convicted felons, are not sufiered to bring burdens upon parishes, without some check and discouragement ; the father may be com- pelled to reimburse the parish, and the mother is no longer permitted to hold a better situation than the well-conducted Avidow who maintains one child without parochial aid, but must enter the work- house and labour for the support of her offspring. On these clauses, however, I will no longer detain you, but will only state respecting them, that countless re- ports are received attesting their efficacy in checking profligacy, as well as reducing parochial taxation — ' The number of bastards affiliated in the year, ending Ladv-day, 1835, was 12,381 ; the num- ber affiliated in 1837, was 4,408. The number of bastards chargeable in the year ending Lady-day, 1835, was 71,298 ; in 1837, 45,135; whilst, therefore, the number of affiliations has decreased sixty- four per cent., the burden on the parishes (so far from increasing from the fathers' not paying) has decreased at the same time thirty-seven per cent." — Ibid. The Hero of Waterloo. — "He maintained it was impossible for Parlia- ment to frame any law that could by pos- sibility remedy the abuses which prevailed at the present moment — abuses which were as varied in their character as they w'ere numerous. Hence, it became absolutely necessary that a Central Board of Com- missioners should be appointed, with powers to control the whole of the parishes in the land, and to adopt such remedies as would procure a same admi- nistration of the Poor-Laws throughout the country. The subject had been under the consideration of every Adminis- tration that he had known ; but no plan had ever been suggested or scheme pro- posed to remove and remedy the evils of the existing laws, which in his judgment at all equalled the present. The Bill before the House was unquestionably the best that had ever been devised." — Duke of Wel- lington, House of Lords, July 21, 1834. MR. JAMES ACL AND. " A little while before going to press, we received a communication that this worthy is about to figure in Rochdale Theatre, on Monday evening, in the character of a Lecturer on Poor-Iiaws, 278 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. find Defender of the New Poor-Law. He seems also to be mad enough to think that the good folk of Rochdale will give him a shilling a-piece for telling them that the New Poor-Law is ' a measure of impar- tial justice, benevolence, and policy.' We suppose the smell of the ' foot-lights ' must have brought up in Mr. Acland's memory the recollection of ' the days of lamj s_(/?«e,' for we perceive that, with a laud- able attention to theatrical propriety, his flaming ' bills of the day ' regard, with scrupulous exactness, the varying grades of his expected audience — ' Boxes, one shilling ; Pit, sixpence ; Gallery, three- pence.' The entertainments arc also to be varied, consisting of a new Burletta, in the shape of a Lecture on Poor-Laws ; after which will bo presented the admired farce of ' A Discussion on the INIerits and Demerits of the Poor-Law Amendment- Act.' 'Tis strange how a few years' Avant of practice causes some men to forget the technicalities and usages of their respective professions ! How is it that, in this an- nouncement of JNIr. Acland's performance, we do not find the usual 'half-price at nine o'clock exactly.' Perhaps he esti- mates the Farce as the most valuable part of the evening's performance, and we should not be surprised if it turn out to be so. But why do we, who upon all occasions court discussion on the New Poor-Law Amendment-Act, and who have visited every principal town in York- shire at our own cost for the purpose of publicly denouncing it, and challenging its friends to offer any defence for it, denomi- nate this called-for discussion of Mr. Acland's, a farce ? Simply for this reason, — that Mr. Acland takes the pre- caution by fixing a high rate of charge for admission, to keep out the greater part of those who, though most interested in the discussion, are not likely to espouse his side of the argument. We give Mr. Acland credit for being shrewd enough to perceive this, and to perceive also that in the small town of Rochdale it is highly probable no friend of ' impartial justice ' may be found, having moral courage enough to undertake a discussion on such a subject before a lob-sided audience, es- pecially when the tricks of Huddersfield, Preston, and other places, standing before our eyes, convince us that the Devil sticks at no means for the accomplishment of his ends. Besides, independent of all this, Mr. Acland knows full well that the people have no notion of allowing an avowed supporter of this infernal law to laugh at their folly, in filling his empty pockets, for the satisfaction of ascertaining that his head is as devoid of all useful furniture as his purse. If Mr. Acland really wishes for discussion, let him come from behind his shilling wall of entrench- ment, — let him stand fairly and honestly before us, — and we have no doubt that Rochdale contains a score of working men full}' capable of affording him ample demonstration of how poor a stand prac- tised sophistry can make against simple truth in Its most artless guise. Charac- teristic of ' humbug ' as this affected called-for discussion is, we venture to predict, that there are, at least, two towns in which Mr. Acland will not repeat it — Hull and BmsTOL. By-the-by, talking of Hull and Bristol, we should like to know whether this James Acland, late Editor of the North Cheshire Reformer, is the same James Acland who formerly edited the Jh-istolian in Bristol, and after- wards the Portfolio in Hull, — who was chosen churchwarden at Hull, and, after a vigorous opposition, had his election sustained so dcterminately, that the autho- rities were literally compelled to acknow- ledge its legality, and who afterwards acknowledged his obligation to the people by absconding with the parish funds — whose memory is also holden in tolerably vivid recollection b)-^ a number of indi- viduals in both those towns, to whom he has proved himself an exceedingly dear friend. We are exceedingly desirous for information on this subject, because if this James Acland and that James Acland happen to be both one James Acland, then we must indeed say that the three kings have chosen unto themselves a most worthy champion ; between Avhose charac- ter and that of the iniquitous law, the pubhc detestation of W'hich he seeks to turn to profitable account, there is an amazing similitude in villany. If it be not the same James Acland, then Mr. Acland owes it both to himself and to the great public measure which he has under- taken to defend, instantly and publicly to dissever himself and it from all possible association with so vile a character. We wait therefore for his disclaimer, and shall be guided thereby as to some ieetle dis- closures which may or may not be made. Of James Acland, late editor of the North Cheshire Refonner, Ave know but little; of James Acland, of Hull and P>ristol notoriety, we know more than we should like to be compelled to tell." — Northern AS'tor, Aj^ril^l, 18L^8. THE FRIENDS AND FAVOUEERS OF THE NEW POOR-LAW. 279 *' THE PAID POOK-XAW AGITATOR AGAIN. " On Tuesday week, this worthy a<,^ai!i made his appearance at Preston, and issued placards announcing tliat he was going to resume the discussion on the New Poor-Law, on Thursday evening, at the theatre. At the appointed time he made his appearance, and commenced by noticing the various placards which had appeared on the walls. He indulged for about an hour, no doubt much to the enliyhtenment of his tiumeroiis auditory, in the most violent personal abuse against some of our townsmen, after which he attempted to discuss the Bastardy Clause, but such a futile attempt was never heard before, together with such coarseness of expression, that the hearers were quite disgusted with him as the following even- ing proved. On Friday evening, he again, at eight o'clock, did make his appearance ; but, oh ! alas ! alas ! how chop-fallen was our hero when he looked around upon the emjity benches. At a quarter- past eight o'clock, about half-a-dozen had made their appearance in a place that would accommodate about 2,000 ; but at nine o'clock, (after some friend had sent the bellman round with the following announcement — ' Lost, Mr. Adand's au- dience, who so loudly cheered him last evening, — 'whoever will bring the same to the theatre immediately, shall be hand- somely rewarded,') the state of the house stood thus: Boxes, 13! Pit, 11 ! Gallery, 10 ! ! So much for the success of this ad- venturei-." — Northern Star, June 2, 1838. " MR. ACEAND AT HUDDERSEIEED. " On Monday last, the notorious James Acland, of Hull, Bristol, and Liverpool, &c., &c., notoriety, lectured in our Philo- sophical Hall, on the New Poor-Law, but at the expense of his party. By the rules of the society, it is provided that the Hall shall not be let to any person for political lectures without security being given by two bondsmen, householders of the town, for any damage that may be done ; ac- cordingly, fifteen of the committee met on Fiiday, and agreed, by a majority of thirteen to two, that the rule should be abided by ; Wm. Moore, the postmaster, and the notorious John Tempest, were the two who were for Acland having the Hall contrary to rule ; they said, why put the man about to find security, when, if the reptile mob dared to bi-cak the windows, the county would Imve them to pay for. On Monday, these two Avorthics again got the committee together, and succeeded in packing it so as to get a majority of eleven to three for Acland, to have the Hull without finding security. On the Friday , a proposition had been made to Mr. Acland, on behalf of the Anti-Poor-Law Association, by Messrs. James Brooke and Mark Crabtree, to discuss with Mr. Acland the advantages and disadvantages connected with the New Poor-Law, pro- vided Mr. Acland would agree that the proceeds of the discussion, after paying- expenses, and allowing a fair remuneration for Mr. Acland's time and trouble, should be devoted to such charitable uses as a majority of the audience, present at the discussion, might agree upon. To thi;* proposition Mr. Acland decidedly objected. He would allow no one ' to interfere v^'ith the question of profit and loss.' He con- ceived his family to have stronger claims than the charities of Huddersfield upon any profit which might arise — and he thought it unreasonable that they should wish him to adopt a course of proceeding which would soon oblige him to become an inmate of a workliouse. This inference was certainly not justifiable after the proviso made by the Association, that a fair remuneration of his time and trouble should take precedence of any charities^ in the distribution of the proceeds. So at least we think, and so it seems thought the public, for in the evening a meeting was held in the open air close to the Hall, when from eight thousand to ten thou- sand people assembled, and the following resolutions were unanimously passed : — "'1. That James Acland, having refused the fair and honourable terms proposed by the Anti-Poor-Law Association to meet him in discussion, has proved that he is un- worthy of the notice of all benevolent men. " ' 2. That James Acland's ' fair field and no favour ' is to challenge individuals to discussion without their knowledge, some of whom are about lOO miles distant, and to tell them ' pertinaciously ' and * imper- tinently,' by placard only, that they must pay him for admission, and, of course, for permission to accept the invitation he' gives them, to approach this Whig favourite runaway ' rational Radical.' " ' 3. That, in the ophiion of this meeting, James Acland, by his placard of date the 8th current, stands self-convicted of being a spy. '•' 4. That the attempt of the Whigs tj support him is only anotlier proof of ll e r baseness, and uf their consciousuess o£ 2S0 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. their own want of talent, no one of them- selves daring to support their own pet measure in the face of any competition. " ' 5. That we are convinced that this is the last dastardly Whig attempt to enforce the bloody Bastile Laws. '"6, That, convinced as we are that it is better to die by the sword than of hunger, we are determined to resist the introduc- tion of the Whigs tarvation scheme to the death.' " During the passing of the resolutions, some persons began throwing stones at the windows, and if it had not been for the interference of the speakers, they would certainly have destroyed the building. Many windows were broken, and the doors forced, but no personal violence was xisedr— Northern Star, Nov. 17, 1838. " Walton's music-saloon, south pakade, leeds. "As the Poor-Law Amendment- Act must, sooner or later, be introduced into this Borough — as certain individuals have laboured with extraordinary pertinacity to misrepresent the provisions of this im- portant Law — and as it is of moment that all classes should correctly appreciate a subject of common interest, the inhabit- ants of Leeds are respectfully informed, that on Monday Evening, December 3rd, 1838, 1 intend delivering a Lecture on the History of Poor-Laws, their Origin and Objects. "Admission at Seven o'clock. The Lecture (which will occupy an hour) to commence at Half-past Seven. ''At Half-past Eight, the audience will be called upon to elect a Chairman, in order to the proper conduct of a Discus- sion on the Merits and Demerits of the Poor-Law Amendment- Act, w^hich I here- by imdertake to defend (clause by clause) against all Opponents, not as a perfect Act of Legislation, but as a Measure of Justice, Benevolence, and Policy ; and to which end, I beg leave respectfully to invite any Opponent of the Law whatso- ever to the rational test of Argument, and the easily attainable result of an unpreju- diced and impartial investigation. " Admission by Cards only : — Orches- tra, Is. 6d. — Saloon, Is. — Gallery, 6d. " Cards may be obtained at the Tempe- rance Coffee-house, corner of Wood- street ; at the offices of the 31erctiri/ and Times ; of Mr. Heaton, Printer, 7, Brig- gate ; and no greater number will be issued than can be conveniently acconi- Biodaled. " Men of Leeds ! In arguing the superiority of the Poor-Law Amendment- Act over any Law for the Relief of the Poor which has yet been enacted, all I require is ' a fair field and no favour.^ If I am wrong, have the kindness to prove me so, for I seek but truth. If I am right, close not your understandings against the influence of reason, and the conviction of demonstration. "JAMES ACLAND. Temperance Hotel, Hall and Parkinson's Com-t, Briggate, Leeds, Nov. 29, 1838. This day is published. No. I. of the * West-Riding Letter-Bag,' wherein will be found an Epistle to Mr. Perring, of the Leeds Intelligencer, &c., &c." — North- ern Star, Dec. 1, 1838. " St. Herbert Smith, the Reverend Mawworm who, it will doubtless be recol- lected, took such infinite paius to stop the sale of the Disjmtch on Sundays, has for- warded a letter to us, addressed ' to the People of England in behalf of the Deserving Poor,' requesting our ' charita- ble aid to make known, through the me- dium of the Dispatch, his object.' We have no wish to strike Mr. Smith a very severe blow on the face, but he must have a good cheek to ask us a favour. How- ever, as the affair appears to interest the poor, and as we entertain no hatred or malice towards him, we will hear what the Reverend Gentleman has to say ; but before we do so, it is necessary to state that he is Chaplain to the New Forest Union Workhouse, Hants. First, then, he deplores that a book he had written, called 'An Account of a Union Chap- laincy,' is lying on the shelf, because he cannot obtain 500 subscribers to the work.' This ' labour of love' is, therefore, doomed to be interred ' in the tomb of the Capu- lets.' The object of the publication was to ' show the kind treatment' the inmates experience in the Bastiles ! Now, with- out saying one word on this subject, the rascally cases which have fi'om time to time been in the Dispatch sufficiently prove that his object is to gloss over the conduct of the Bashaws and the Guardians, and present to the public a statement eulogi- zing the Poor-Law Bill, and blaming the poor for not submitting to be quietly starved to death. Pious man ! We wish him no other infliction than Bastile fare for a month; we believe his now well- clothed havmches would soon number him with Pharaoh's tribe. Parson Smith, notwithstanding his approval of the Poor- THE FRIENDS AND FAVOURERS OF THE NEW FOOR-LAW. 281 Law Bill, thinks that paupers entertain a great abhorrence for the gaol workhouses, and in a pamphlet he sets forth the advan- tages of erecting alms-houses, in the maintenance of which the expense, he urges, would not be greatly, if at all, increased: — ' Such a system would also make a distinction between virtue and vice, between the deserving and undeserv- ing. Let almshouses be the allotted asylum for the deserving, and workhouses the refuge for the undeserving, to prevent their perishing from want.' We do not feel disposed to quarrel with our friend ; his intentions may be very good ; but his views, if carried into effect, would have a very bad tendency. The almshouses would be pointed at as places for the vir- tuous and aged, while the huge Bastiles, in all their hideous deformity, would stand in their true character. They would, indeed, be prisons, and the inmates branded as a vicious, disorderly set of rogues and vagabonds, instead of a body of persons deserving commiseration and sup- port."— TFee% Dispatch, '^ov. 11, 1838. " Upon the subject of the Poor-Laws, on which alone my opponents rest their claim to your support, I should wish the electors to ask them what their views on this question are ; they vituperate the new law, and would get rid of it, but what then ? Would they have no Poor-Laws, or would they return to the old system again ? Would they once more adopt the plan of making up the deficiency of wages from the poor-rates ? Would they do away with the popular election of Guardians, and have them appointed as formerly by the magistrates ? I suspect they find it easier to abuse than to amend. Electors ! I wish to be perfectly explicit on this im- portant subject. A bill is now before the House of Commons for the alteration and amendment of the New Poor-Law Act, and if I have the honour to be returned as your representative, I shall lend my zealous and hearty assistance in modifying such parts of it as seem to press hardly ujion the poor. With regard to the im- portant question of out-door relief, I am strongly of opinion that in large trading towns like yours the workhouse cannot properly be used for a test of destitution as it may in an agricultural district. In a time of sudden and general stagnation of trade, we should consider well before we break up the working man's home ; and, in a case like this, I think that a dis- cretionary power of acting may very pro- perly be confided to the Guardians of the poor. But, after all, and above all, the primary object of legislation should be to secure to the working man the full value for his labour, and this object I am confi- dent can only be effected by a total rejieal of the corn-laivs, as you know from expe- rience that dear bi-ead lowers wages, and cheap bread raises them. I want justice to the working man, not that he should be dependent upon charity." — Mr. G. G. De H. Larpent's " Address to the Elec- tors at Nottingham,'' April 22, 1841. " To argue against the perpetuity of the central board in London, and to pro- test against the expensive multiplication of Assistant-Commissioners, is a widely different thing from advocating the abro- gation of the Poor-Law Amendment-Act itself, or advising a recurrence to all the flagrant evils of the old system, which in many mismanaged parishes absorded the entire rental of the land. All we have maintained is, that Boards of local Guar- dians are better judges of the mode and measure of administering relief than three gentlemen sitting in London, and legislat- ing for distressed fishermen on the coast of Suffolk, frozen-out gardeners in Surrej', miners in Staffordshire, and coUiers at Sunderland, for all which very different classes a metropolitan Board may at one and the same moment be called upon to consult. We have furthermore insisted, that as Boards of Guardians are consti- tuted of rate-payers there was small appre- hension of their being prodigal of funds to which they themselves contributed, as was so often, and frequently, perhaps justly urged, against the system of relief by a single magistrate. What inconsistency there has been in our upholding the Poor- Law Amendment- Act, and writing against the too rigorous rules and regulations of the Poor-Law Commissioners, and pro- testing against the wasteful expenditure of public money in sending immature youths from college, or mayhap the re- porters' box, to guide bearded men, is beyond our sagacity to discern. One exhortation, however, we will utter in the face of friends and foes, and in defiance of the Poor-Law Commissioners, who in their last report have actually deprecated pri- vate charity as an encouragement to im- providence, and that exhortation is an earnest appeal to the affluent to remember the poor at this inclement season. The gardener cannot dig, the husbandman's labours in the fields are suspended, the barge is frozen in the canal, and many in- door trades are interrupted by the fright- 282 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. ful severitj' of the weather. Now, that out-door relief is rarely afforded, what resource is left to the poor but the chari- table donations of individuals ? It has been our pleasing task to record many gifts of coals and clothing, and food in many parishes ; let those to whom this w^orld's goods have been abundantly vouchsafed remember the poor and the destitue, the fatherless and the widow, and him who has none to help. While the wind roars above the roof, and the wealthy, in their well carpeted and warmly curtained rooms, cluster around their blazing fires with a keener sense of enjoyment from the raging tempest without, let them remember the poor creatures who have no fire and scarcely food, and hasten from their abun- dance to warm the cold, feed the hungry, and clothe the naked. While urging these considerations upon the attention of our affluent readers, we are not insensible to the cheering fact that in no realm of Christendom are the gifts of charitj' so liberally dispensed as in England, but the unusual protraction of the frost, and the instant evils it brings upon the labouring classes, evils that may not instantaneously occur to the minds of those who have less immediate intercourse with the i)Oor, in- duce us to call attention to their necessi- ties. The political economists will say that the labourer ought, in the dog days of sum- mer, to have anticipated the probability of a frost, and laid by from his earnings enough to purchase winter fuel, Alas, what wicked mockery is this ! And yet it is gravely urged as an argument against alms-giving in the last report of the Poor-Law Com- missioners, which we have been censured lor condemning." — Baxter's " Sussex Ex- 2)ressr Feb. 13, 1841. " Our attention has been drawn to a penny pamphlet, or tract, entitled ' The tchole History and Mystery of the Neio Poor-Law,^ which has evidently been fabricated in the Board-room of some Union woi-khouse, if not in the still more exalted region of Somerset-house. It is published by that eminent wholesale and retail dealer in useful knowledge, Mr. Charles Knight, of Ludgate-hill ; and as, by means of the strong recommendation and diligent distribution of the Poor-Law Commissioners and their admirers, it has managed to get through several editions, we think it may not be amiss to co-operate with those functionaries in the laudable work of bringing some of its statements prominently into notice at the present time. " It can hardly be necessary to remind our readers of the frequency and the earnestness with which we have pointed out the tendency of all the proceedings of the Poor-Law Connnissioners to the entire abolition of relief to the poor, except in the workhouse. This is the whole end and purpose of their policy, and till this is accomplished they will think little of any intermediate results. We have traced their steps from their first peremptory prohibition of out-door relief to the able-bodied, to the sugges- tions by which, in their last report, they shadow forth the contemplated extension of that order to the two large classes of widows with families, and old and infiim persons partially able to work. And in the reluctantly-abandoned clause intro- duced by them into the Bill now before Parliament, for enabling Boards of Guar- dians to farm out ' any class or classes' of their poor by contract to other Unions having workhouse-room to spare, we detected the cloven-footed attempt to facilitate the universal a])i)lication of the workhouse test by a system of separation and distribution which would have infi- nitely aggravated its cruelty, " The country is entitled to ask Sir Robert Peel, and the Conservatives who act with him, whether they desire even- tually to confine Poor-Law relief to the workhouse or not ? If they do, it would be honest in them to say so ; and we feel confident that enough humanity and inde- pendence would be Ibund left in England to cast off the statesman and the party who dai'ed to make such a declaration. If they do not, we ask them whether it is prudent, or reasonable, or consistent, or humane, to concede the administration of the Poor-Law, upon discretionary princi- ples, to persons whose avowed design it is to bring about this result? " Will the Poor-Law Conservatives an- swer, that they disbelieve in the existence of such a design on the part of the Com- missioners ? Will they persist in giving these functionaries credit for the amount of out-door relief which the want of work- house accommodation compels, or tem- porary motives of policy induce, them now to tolerate, against their inclinations and their principles? Shall we be re- minded, that in the debate on the 27th ult. Lord John Russell gave ' a state- ment of the relief granted to the poor according to the course pursued by the Commissioners, who Avere described as such cruel administrators of the law j' THE FRIENDS AND FAVOURERS OF THE NEW FOOR-LAW. 283 informing the House of Commons, that ' in the quarter ending Lady-day, 1840, the number of persons relieved by in- door relief was 134,000, whilst the num- ber of those relieved by out-door relief amounted to 747,000 ?' We disposed of that statement at the time, in a manner which must have convinced every person who read our exposure, that it was among the most fallacious ever made, even by the maintainers of the New Poor- Law. But if one individual exists who is really sceptical as to the views and in- tentions of the Poor-Law Commissioners in tliis particular, we commend to his no- tice the following passage from the tract now before us — a tract not abounding in honest or straightforward passages, and therefore the more worthy of attention when it ventures upon a simple and un- flinching announcement like this : — " ' Some people tliink, that all, all the pmi- pers, that is, all the 7nen and ivomen who cannot wholly maintain themselves, ought to live in the workhouse. No doubt it ^oould be better for the lahouriuf) classes in general if they did, because tlieu it would be certain they could not be taking away the work from other people, and so taking the bread out of other people's mouths ; bid at present there are not workhouses large enough to hold them all, so that this PART OF the new plan WILL BE ONLY GRA- DUALLY ADOPTED. Larger loorkhouses uiill by degrees be built ; and labouring people will be very much to blame if they do not lay by some- thing while they are in full work and in good health, that they may not be Avithout a shilling in case of accident or sickness, so as to keep out of the workliouse.' " We repeat our question, does Sir Robt. Peel approve of this ? If he does not, how can he make himself a party to an ' experiment,' which those who conduct it Avish to bring to such a termination ? " While we thank the Poor-I^aw Com- missioners and their pamphleteer for so unequivocal a declaration of their inten- tions, we can find no words sufKcient to express the feeling which it excites in our minds. It is a kind of notice to quit issued to the poor — a warning to all who may hereafter become destitute, aged, oj" sick, that their inherited interest in the soil and property of Great Britain will be invaded, and clogged with such intole- rable conditions as may extort from the majority of them a compulsory abandon- ment of their right. Posterity will have some difficulty in believing that the sys- tem which proposes to itself this result, was supported by men, like Sir James Graham, who vindicate the corn laws on the principle of vested interests, — by men like Sir Robert Inglis, who look upon church-rates as an absolute, inalienable portion of the endowments of the church, injuring no man, because all have taken their property subject to it, and incapable of being withdrawn without spoliation and robbery, — by men, like Lord Stanley, who would not abolish even West-Indian slavery without paying £20,000,000 of compensation to the class whose legal rights were unfavourably affected by that act of justice. Do these statesmen hold, that the only tax which can continue for centuries without conferring a vested in- terest is that for the relief of the poor ; or that the poor are the only class whose vested interests ought not to be respected ? " But it is alleged, that by tampering with the vested interests of the destitute we improve the condition of the able- bodied labourer. Would such an argu- ment be admitted to be a valid reason for tampering with the property of the Duke of Bedford ? We trow not. But, after all, how does the argument run ? ' If all paupers were compelled to live in the workhouse, it would be better for the la- bouring classes in general, because then it would be certain they could not be taking away the work from other people, and so taking the bread out of the people's mouths.' The premises happen to be as false as the conclusion is unwarrantable ; and the cold-blooded theorist might have leanit as much even from his own science of political economy. Are not all paupers who cannot wholly maintain themselveg unproductive members of society ? Is not their maintenance at the public ex- pense a burden upon the people's labour, whether they are maintained in or out of the workliouse ? Do they not, by eating bread which they do not earn, increase the price of provisions, ' and so take the bread out of other people's mouths ?' Our economist cannot escape from this result. The only way to carry his principle fairly into effect, and to get rid altogether of the pressure of the destitute upon the in- dustrious classes, will be to adopt the easy and expeditious method of a certain Indian tribe, mentioned by an ancient historian, who were accustomed to kill off all the impotent and the aged, as fast as they became burdensome to the commu- nity. We have no doubt that -such a summary way of disposing of them ' would be better for the labouring classes in general,' in that pecimiary sense which constitutes the economist's notion of good 284 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. and evil ; and it miglit possibly have the effect of raising wages, or at all events would avoid the peculiar evils of the old poor law — two considerations, which seein to furnish the only criteria by which our legistators estimate any principle or practice having reference to the subject of Poor-Law administration." — Times, April 15, 1841. " The pamphlet entitled, ' The whole History and Mystery of the New Poor- Law,' to which we adverted yesterday, is well worthy of being generally perused and studied, as a specimen of the depth of view, and honesty and veracity of statement, which characterize the Poor- Law Commissioners and their satellites. It is designed for distribution among the lower orders, and certainly proves that Messrs. Senior, Jones Loyd, and Co., faithfuU}^ represented the opinion of their sect, when they described the working population generally as sunk in a state of miserable and degraded ignorance. The Commissioners are, of course, anxious to remove tliis ignorance by the sovereign remedy of a liberal education, superin- tended by themselves ; but in the mean time, and until so desirable an end can be accomplished, they are not un\villing to practise upon the gullibility of the un- enlightened intellect, and, by an innocent Jesuitism, to recommend themselves and the law which they administer to those who are most interested in its working, at some slight sacrifice of truth. " The following extract (while it la- bours under the trifling drawback to which we have alluded) must be admitted to be conceived with infinite boldness and spirit. The effrontery with which it claims for the New Poor-Law the credit of a tender consideration for the rights of the poor, carried out at what linendrapers call an ' unprecedented sacrifice' on the part of the rich, can only be compared to the coolness of an experienced ' gentleman of the swell mob,' who gives into custody upon a charge of pilfering the very man whose pocket he has been picking : — " ' It no doubt costs the parish more money to maintain a man wholly, either in or out of the workhouse, than only to give him half his maintenance and let him earn the rest; but, in these times, the rights of the poor are considered i?i mak- ing the laios, as well as the benefit of the rich ; and it is no more than right to pro- tect the labouring man from having the work he ought to do done by the parish pauper, even although it should cost the parishioners a little more money.' " We desire to make no comment upon this passage, beyond informing our rea- ders, that it occurs immediately after the announcement of the Commissioners' in- tention to confine relief altogether to the workhouse, when the necessary accom- modation can be provided. " But we shall not abstain from ex- posing the puerile fallacy (ridiculous, if it did not tend to painful and demoralizing practical consequences) which is involved in this extraordinaiy statement, and which, indeed, it is the object of the whole tract to recommend. We are told that, in justice to the industrious labourer, it is necessary to administer the Poor-Law in such a manner as may ' withdraw entirely from the labour market' all old, infirm, and partially disabled persons, who cannot earn a suflicient livelihood by their own exertions. In other words, that we must either ' res utely refuse relief to all such persons, except in the workhouse' (the alternative most in favour), or pension them off in compulsory idleness, rigidly interdicting them from doing any work at all, ' The fact is,' says the tract, ' there is a certain quantity of work to be done, and the question is, who ought to do it ? — those who live by their labour, and THEIR LABOUR ONLY, Or thosc who have thrown themselves on public charity ? The intention of the new law is, that the work should be done, and the wages en- joyed, by those who will maintain them- selves and their families by their own in- dustry.' An imaginary case is stated of one Mr. Hobson, who refused to give his labourei's more than 7s. a-w^ek for work which was worth 9s., because he could get two infirm men, who were each al- lowed 3s. 6d. a-week by the parish, to do it for 7s. And an old errand woman is called into existence, who received Is. 6d. a-week from the parish, and made 2s. a- week more by her journeys. ' When the new law came into force, the Board of Guardians at once told her to choose between her travels and her allowance ; that she could not receive money from the parish and earn money besides ; and that if she could not maintain herself, she might be allowed 3s. a-week and do no- thing.' She ' very thankfully took the allowance ;' and what was the conse- quence ? An errand boy was created by the regular operation of the principles of supply and demand, and got 5s. a-week for his labour. THE FRIENDS AND FAVOURITES OF THE NEW POOR-LAW. 285 *' Without stopping to compare these imaginary facts to the fable of the Hon and the man, we will just point out a few of the assumptions contained in the doc- trine which they are intended to illustrate, and some of the consequences to which it leads. We think this the more neces- sary, as it is not merely the doctrine of the anonymous pamphleteer, but of the Commissioners themselves — it is largely insisted upon in their last annual report ; and it is practically carried out in many places. First, it seems to assume that the disabled and the able-bodied men enter the market as competitors upon equal terms, except that the former has the ad- vantage of a parish allowance. The ab- surdity of this is obvious. Any one who can perform 9s. worth of labour in a week can earn full wages, and is therefore no proper subject for Poor-Law relief. But if a man is only capable of doing 7s. worth of labour, it is plain that the farmer who employs him for those wages, in pre- ference to an able-bodied labourer who requires 9s., and will do work in propor- tion, gains nothing by his bargain ; if he pays less, he receives less in return. The argument, therefore, fails in the case where the pauper works for wages nomi- nally inferior, but really equivalent to the value of his inferior labour. But what shall we say if the pauper is induced to vpork for wages less than the value of his labour, by the circumstance that he does not live by his labour only, relying prima- rily upon the parish fund, and counting everything gain which he can scrape together in addition to his allowance ? AVe say, first, that if the allowance is calculated, as it ought to be, with a due regard to what the pauper is capable of earning and likely to earn, this will not and cannot be the case; secondly, that the Poor-Law Commissioners may as well attempt to extirpate diseases, or to estab- lish universal happiness, as to restrict the supply of labour to persons who rely ex- clusively upon labour for their subsistence. The smallest of the disturbing causes which influence the labour market (if, indeed, it has any place among them at all) is the ' underbidding' of the partially disabled labourers, who receive parish relief. Even the omnipotence of the Commissioners cannot prevent those who have property or realized capital, which brings them annual returns, from entering the labour market and selling their labour (as they can afford to do) at an inferior price. Nay, more, the very inculcation of provident habits upon the poor would, upon this principle, be suicidal ; the more they save, the further will they be re- moved from the class of 'those who live by their labour and their labour only.' Need we say more to show the folly of the doctrine ? " Another glaring fallacy is the as- sumption that the demand for the imper- fect labour of that disabled class who are forced to depend partially upon Poor-Law relief, is in no degree precarious or pecu- liar, and that those persons are in every case undersellhig, at the public expense, others who might supply their places more advantageously upon an independent footing. The fact is, that much of the labour which these persons perform is created on purpose for them — partly from charitable motives, partly from motives of inconvenience, which would not, under any other circumstances, constitute a re- gular demand. " We shall close our observations by noticing the morality of the conclusion to which the political economist would bring us in this matter. The moment a poor man's earnings fall below the point ne- cessary to maintain, without parish assist- ance, himself and his family, this rule would condemn him, either to perpetual imprisonment and separation from his family in a Avorkhouse, or to perpetual idleness out of it. The one alternative is demoralizing, the other cruel. All ex- perience, all philosophy, the laws of God and nature, agree in assuring us that idleness is naturally the parent of vice, and that industry continues to be a duty till it ceases to be physically possible. To those who have formed industrious habits, it is essential to happiness, as well as to the integrity of their character, to persevere in them to the end ; and every shilling obtained by honest labour is worth far more than a much larger sum gratuitously supplied. To say that a man shall not work six hours, because he cannot work seven, is an insult to huma- nity and to reason, worthy only of the source from which it has proceeded." — Ti?}ies,A^n\ 16, 1841. " The learned gentleman referred to a report which had reached him as to the effect which the economical dispositions of the Board of Guardians had produced. The report said, that during a recent oc- casion, when three men were on their death-beds in the Lambeth workhouse, so scurvily and so inhumanly were matters 286 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. managed therein, that one of them had begged that a Hght might be placed in the room, whilst another had cried out for a drop of water to moisten his parched lips, when they were told by the nurses that such luxuries and comforts were not permitted by the Board. (Cries of ' Shame !') He had no occasion, he was sure, to ask whether any in that room had ever heard of an instance where such barbarous parsimony had been enacted. No ; the inhumanity had been reserved as an exhibition — as a proof of the good working of the ever-to-be-reprobated Poor-Law Amendment- Act. (Cheers, and cries of ' Hear.")"' — Mr. Grady, Lam- beth Vestry Meeting, November 20, 1837. " Mk. Power, the Pooe-Law Com- missioner. — Bradford, Tuesday evening, — This town is in the greatest state of excitement, and has been so during the day, in consequence of the arrival of Mr. Power, to carry into eifect the Poor-Law Bill in this neighbourhood. The magis- trates attended Mr, Power to the Court- house, when a discussion arose as to the propriety of the meeting being an open one, which, however, was speedily decided by the people themselves, who threatened to take the building by assault. A scene of unusual uproar took place , the autho- rities met with the greatest and most de- termined opposition ; and upon Mr. Lis- ter, M.P. for Bradford, recommending the people to bear with the Act, now that it had become law, he, who was so popu- lar, was met with a volley of groans and hisses; and, it is supposed, has endan- gered his seat. At the conclusion of the meeting, Mr. Power was proceeding to the Sun Lm, when a general assault took place, in which the Commissioner suffered severely ; he reached the hotel, however, but in a state of considerable exhaustion from the loss of blood, occasioned by a wound under the eye. He was covered with mud, and had to run the gauntlet, receiving no assistance from magistrates or people. The town is still crowded with country people, in a state of great excitement, which is considerably in- creased in consequence of the trade of this place being in a very depressed state, so much so that commercial gentlemen who trade for mercantile houses unani- mously declare that trade was never so lo.w in Yorkshire." — Times, Nov. 3, 1837. The Veracity of Commissioners' Reports. — " The abuses of the old law had been said to be great, and the re- ports of the Commissioners teemed with statements to that effect; but, without meaning any disrespect to the Commis- sioners, he must say, that they were im- posed upon, for he firmly believed that few, if any, such cases existed in the country as tliey had thought fit to lay be- fore Parliament."' — Lord Wynford, House of Lords, July 21, 1834. The House of Commons' Poor- Laav Committee's * Good Report op the Worm.' — " Upon the whole they ex- pressed their distinct opinion, that the operation of the New Poor-Law was satisfactory, and ought to bp maintained ; they entertained no doubt of the general wisdom and efficiency of its provisions. They thought, too, that the administra- tion of the system had been in the main judicious They were of opinion, too, that, as far as they had the means of observing it, the authority of the Com- missioners had been exercised with great discretion." — House of Commons, end of the Session of 1 837. The Commissioners' Canterbu- ries. — " He had seen statements of cases in the report of the Commissioners, where women considered it a little fortune to have three or four illegitimate children, from the allowance of whose support they obtained a maintenance. He must believe that in such accounts the Commissioners were imposed upon." — Lord Wytford, House of Lords, July 21, 1834. " The Essex Herald has the following reply of Lord Western to an application made to him by some inhabitants of Ray- leigh, that he would present a petition to the House of Lords against the Poor- Law Amendment- Act : {Sun, April 14, 1841)— " ' Sir, — I have received your letter of yester- day's date, desiring me to present a petition to the House of Lords, signed by the inhabitants of Rayleigh, the purport of which is to express an opinion strongly condemnatory of the exist- ing Poor-Law, which is described as cruel and oppressive to the poor, also praying that the Amendment Bill may not pass into a law. I am sorry to say I cannot faithfully perform this duty you require of me, for my opinions are by no means in accordance with the petitioners' ; so far from it, I consider the Poor-Law to be a most salutary measure, called for by urgent ne- cessity to rescue the honest labourers from the state of dependence and moral degradation of spirit to which the miserable M-orking of the Old Poor-Law had reduced them, and at the same time to preserve the security of property and the peace of society. It was enacted by the conjoint wisdom of our ablest statesmen, uhose sole object, I am conlident, was the wel- THE FRIENDS A.ND FAVOURERS OF THE NEW TOGR-LAW. 287 fare of the people, and whose public and pri- vate characters fully warrant that belief. The best security against oppression is the publicity that attends all our proceedings under the pre- sent law, which did not exist under the old. That some cases of hardship may occur, no man can doubt ; where is the law that can provide against all the ills that human nature is liable to, from unavoidable accident, from idleness, and vice ? Tliere is not in the known world a country in which such efibrts are made, such laws in force, to obviate all the misfortunes and calamities of life. The present law I am de- termined zealously to support, and I concur in most if not all the amendments of the Bill now under consideration. Under these circum- stances I think you will deem it expedient to put the petition into the hands of some other peer. 1 am, Sir, your obedient, humble ser- vant, " ' WESTERN.' " To James Peare, Esq.' " " INIr. G. R. Wythen Baxter and THE PosT-OEFiCE. — This gentleman, \vcll known as the Editor of Don Juan^ Junior, and the associate of Mr. Oastler, in his determined opposition to the in- famous New Poor-Law, has been for some time past engaged in investigating llie causes of the frequent miscarriage and total loss of newspapers passing through the post, which at present occur. It is the intention, we understand, of Mr. Baxter, to bring the matter before the two Houses of Legislature, and so expose the infamous and un-English system which now, for the base servitude of party piu'poses and malevolence, exists in the Post-office departments — metropo- litan and provincial. Mr. Baxter has, as will be perceived by his recent communi- cations on the subject in the papers, been frequently annoyed by the unwarrantable detention, and total loss of his newspapers — detained and lost, as he says, '• pw- posch/, spitefully, and revengefully, hy the St. Martin s powers that be,' because of his (Mr. B.'s) connexion with Mr. Richard Oastler, and his unqualihed hos- tility to the Bastile decree. Our con- temporaries of the hroad sheet will do well to extract this paragraph into their columns, as it concerns their interests vitally that a safe conduct should be guaranteed to their several periodicals transmitted through the Post-office to their subscribers-^for if Post-office ' flunkies ' are permitted to break official faith with im- punity, and tamper with the newspapers, &c., entrusted to their conveyance, and for which adequate carriage, in the way of a tax, is paid — there is an end to all busi- ness, and the sooner evciy Journalist, from the Land's-eiid to Johnny Groafs, breaks up his type and establishment the better !'* —Sheffield Iris, April, 12, 1840. " TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES. " Sir, — Can you inform your readers whether the Mr. Assistant Poor-Law Commissioner Hawley, who appears to be implicated in an inquiry now before the House of Lords respecting the falsification of certain Poor-Law documents, is the same Mr. Assistant-Commissioner Hawley who gave the following evidence before the Poor-Law Committtee of the House of Commons in 1837 : — " ' William Henry Toovey Hawley, Esq., called in, and examined. " ' Question975 (by the Chairman).— Youare an Assistant Poor-Law Commissioner? — I am. " ' Question 976. — How long have you been so? — I Avas appointed in November, 1834, soon after the passing of the Poor-Law Amend- ment-Act. " ' Question 977. — What is your salary as Poor-Law Commissioner ? — £700 a-year. " ' Question 978. — Have you any other emolu- ments ? — The Assistant-Commissioners have a guinea a-day during the time they are absent in their districts. " ' Question 1,015. — You are charged with having made garbled extracts ; will jou simi)ly give your explanation of that? — My letter to the clerk of the Guardians requested his opinion of the application of the Poor-Law in the Pet- worth Union, not in any parish particularly, but in the parishes collectively. The only extract from Mr. Daintrey's letter which I conceived it ■was necessary for me to insert, was that which appears in the report, which begins thus : — ' I must, however, be permitted to observe that, so far as the partial application of the spirit of the new law can enable us to form an opinion of the moral effect of it, it has been good.' I should state that I have omitted the word ' moral ' in my report merely from overlooking it. The word 'moral' was a word of great consequence to me, and 1 omitted it unfortunately by over- sight; it was not omitted wilfully. "'Question 1,160 (by Mr. Walter).— You have stated that you receive only £700 a-year. By the Parliamentary vote there is £800 vuted to each Assistant-Commissioner; did yo\i re- ceive that sum ? — Not as a part of the salary. " ' Question 1,161. — Did you receive £800 in addition to the £700. ? — I am not able to answer that question as to the amount. " ' Question 1,162. — The note says, travelling and incidental expenses, when absent on ser- vice, including clerks and their travelling ex- penses, £800 ; did you receive that ? — I am not able to state what sum I received : that I received a sum is certain, of course.' " I learn from the Times that some Assistant-Commissioners were sent from England to Ireland, and that a Mr. Haw- ley is to be brought over from Ireland to be examined. If the Irish Mr. Hawley and the English one are identical, I hope their Loidships will deal leniently with a man whose memory is. so treacherous that 288 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. in the copy of an official document he leaves out a matter which he admits to be ' of great consequence ;' and deliberately asserts, after receiving his pay as an As- sistant Poor-Law Commissioner for nearly three years, that he knows nothing about the amount of salary which he is in the receipt of, but he receives ' a sum is cer- tain, of course ! ' " I am. Sir, *' Your obedient, humble servant, " A CONSTANT READER." —Times, April 15, 1841. *' TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUSSEX EXPEESS. " Sir, — I think you will concur with me in sentiments • of astonishment and alarm in observing the announced inten- tion of the Whig Radical Government to continue the unconstitutional and exces- sive powers of the triumvirate of Somerset- house, with all their satellites, for ten years longer! Surely the country will not endure this? When once laiv, it must be obeyed, and every good subject will then try to make the best of it. But, thank Heaven ! it has not yet passed through Parliament, and even in the He- formed House there are some good old- fashioned members who will not be con- tented to see the whole body of the poor of Great Britain committed for ten years longer to the tender mercies of the Poor- Law Commissioners. And in the mean- time I would call upon you. Sir, and the Conservative press, which I rejoice to say is generally opposed to this measure, I would call upon parishes, and Boai'ds of Guardians, and the gentry and yeomanry of England, whom this law practically declares to be incapable of managing their own affairs, and I would call upon the clergy whom I believe to be opposed to enactments, the cruelty of which, pressing upon their poorer brethren, none know better than they. I would call upon all these by remonstrance and peti- tions to use their legitimate influence to prevent the enactment of a measure which is founded neither on humane nor on Christian principles. The Scripture says, * If a man will not work, neither shall he eat.' The Poor-Law Commissioners say, ' If a man cannot work, neither shall he eat,' unless, indeed, he will accept the bread of affliction, and the water of bit- terness, in a Union workhouse. I speak not of the idle and the profligate, who bring their sufferings on themselves, but of honest, industrious labourers, whose poverty is their only crime — " ' For ■whom if labour spread its wholesome store, And gave what life required, and gave no more,' they would be satisfied and happy — but they can get no work, and are treated as criminal^. " I have spoken of the powers of the Commissioners as excessive, and shall I not be borne out in this assertion by any one who has ever attended a Board of Guardians, and listened to any one of their imperial edicts commencing with, ' Now we, the Poor-Law Commissioners, hereby order and command,' and ending with ' E. Chad wick ! ' leaving nothing to Guardians and rate-payers, the former of whom by their name are supposed to protect the poor, and the latter — who raise the funds for their maintenance — leaving nothing to them, I say, but to cairy the orders of their masters, however they may disapprove of them, into execution, and to pay whatever money is required with- out presuming to ask for what purpose it is intended ? Mr. Tuffnell, the Assistant- Commissioner, indeed, said the other day, that not a single Union workhouse could have been built without the concurrence of the Guardians. I always thought that this was the great ' test,' as it is called, of the necessity of relief, and if the Guardians of the United Kingdom had been generally so contumacious as to refuse to build these expensive — tests — would there not, let me ask, very soon have been an imperative order from Somer- set-house compelling such rebels to give their consent ? It reminds me of the ' Conge d'elire ' to a Dean and Chapter to elect a ' Bishop,' whom the minister of the day is kind enough to elect for them. " That the powers of the Commission- ers are unconstitutional is clear from the fact that they are above the laiv, for they are commissioned, not so much to see that an Act of Parliament is carried into effect, as — from time to time, to make fresh orders which are to have the authority of law, and to give arbitrary interpretations of their own, of every one of its provisions. And however extensive their powers have been hitherto. Lord John Russell, that soi-disant liberal, that professed friend to the liberty of the subject, proposes ac- tually to increase them for the next 10 years. They are to have the power of uniting Unions for the purpose of main- taining District Idiot Asylums, District Hospitals, and District Schools, where they may educate the children of the THE FRIENDS AND FAVOUEERS OF THE NEW-POOR LAW. 289 poor according to the approved Govern- ment plan ! that is to say — unfitting them for that situation of life ' in which it has pleased God to place them,' and taking no care to provide for them afterwards in a sphere for which they may be fit — if indeed they will be fit for any. Whilst at the same time schools must still be supported in the present Union-Houses, unless the children who are compelled to come there by distress with their parents for a short time are to be wholly neg- lected, and the pockets of the rate-payers are expected to furnish the means for these philosophical experiments, and politico-economical theories, which rustic farmers, and poor country gentlemen, of course, cannot be expected to comprehend. " Let me. Sir, call your attention to a recent order of the Commissioners, which has to my knowledge caused great hard- ship to individuals, and inconvenience to parishes ; I allude to their forbidding out- door relief to persons residing out of their Unions. Many a poor person, not find- ing work at home, and knowing that he must depend upon his own resources, which is quite right as lo7ig as he has any — has gone away many miles, and provided employment elsewhere, by which he has supported his family. After a time he falls sick ; he then has no resources, he applies to his own parish, which dares not relieve him because it is contrary to the order of the Commissioners to assist those who live out of the Union ; he then seeks assistance from the Relieving Officer of the place where he is, and is refused there because he is not a parishioner, or some little help is grudgingly doled out ; a suspended order is obtained, and he is passed home, which he has left because he could not there find the means of sub- sistence. He is not likely therefore to find it again, and his only resource is — the workhouse — his crime being — poverty. " There is another instance of arbitrary power in the Commissioners, and which, though not actually interfering much with the real welfare and comfort of the poor, yet perhaps savours as much as any other of the cold-blooded spirit of political economy, and the domineering tyranny of Somerset-house, and I know none that lias given more disgust to warm and generous minds — I mean the order to discontinue for the future a good Christ- mas dinner to the unfortunate inmates of the workhouse. These unhappy people are to know no distinction of times and seasons, and not even on the day when all the Christian world is rejoicing, and it is usual even for the poorest to have some- thing better than the usual daily fare — to signify that there is cause for gladness and satisfaction. The Poor-Law Com- missioners tell the rate-payers of Chris- tian England, that they are not to permit their poor ' brethren,' Avhose misfortunes consign them to a workhouse, to know by any outward and visible sign — that Christmas — the time especially dedicated to charity and ' goodwill to man' — is again come round, and that their happier and richer brethren around their own fire-sides do not forget them. I will an- swer for it — and I speak as a pretty large rate-payer myself, that nine-tenths of the rate-payers would hold up their hands in favour of this indulgence. I fear I am taking up too large a space of your valu- able paper ; let me then conclude in the words of our immortal poet, and use them in reference to the exorbitant powers of these Commissioners, which, at least, ought to be modified, — ' When what's not meet, but what must be, was law, Then they were chosen ; in a better hour, Let what is meet — be said it must be meet, And throw their power i' the dust.' Not being ashamed of the sentiments here professed, " I beg to remain, Sir, " Your humble servant, "WM. M. SMITH MARRIOTT." " Horsmonden, Feb. 8, 1841." — Sussex Express, Feb. 13, 1841. " Union" Doctoks. — The barberous race of surgeons who flourished in days of yore, seem likely again to start into exist- ence under the patronage of the Poor- Law Commissioners. The low rate of remuneration allowed to the Union doc- tors has driven many of the more I'e- spectable practitioners from the field, so that the practice has at times fallen into the hands of the unscrupulous and incom- petent. As a specimen of the acquire- ments of one of this class, we insert, ver- batim, an extract from an official return made by a district doctor to the Guardians of a Union, at a snug village in the north of Devon. The return, which is before us, gives the name, age, and disease of the patients, to which is appended the follow- ing remark by the learned doctor respect- ing the treatment: — 'This man have not been here lately, but have been trying a parcel of old women's fancies.' "' — Annah of Medicine. 290 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. "Down with all Poor-Laws," the Malthusians cry, "For Poor-Laws injure private charity." "Down with all charity" — exclaim the three Stern despots over want and misery, " Down with all charity — no alms — they cause " Results injurious to our kbid Poor-Laws." Well must our poor 'mid such wild dogmas fare, Bereft of private aid and public care. — Times. Not long ago an Assistant Poor-Law Commissioner, whose arro7ulissemcnt lay in a Welsh district, made the romantic and fashionable little watering-place of T , his head-quarters. Now this young gentleman, like Cfesar, all at once became " ambitious," — not, however, of fame, like that man of w'ar, but of foppery, like a man of ton ; and, above all things, in secret sighed to have his chin adorned ■with what the fashionable novelists are pleased to call an *' imperial." What were his innate and particular motives for desiring to possess such a hirsute ap- pendage, I cannot take upon myself to say ; but Mr. Edwin Chadwick, Secre- tary, who keeps and chronicles an accu- rate account of all the sayings and doings of the Commission when on the tramp, will, I dare say, if requested civilly by letter, give the necessary information. Perhaps this well-wisher for an additional whisker deemed, as he, like his fellows, had slain his thousands tvith the jmv-hone of cm ass, that he might rank as a colonel in the army at least, and, consequently, had a right to sport such a martial tip ; and if the right to turn the human face Divine into an old, hairy, travelling trunk, depended upon the number of mankind killed and wounded by the aspirant, he, undoubtedly, had well won and possessed an infinitely better title to make himself a beast than half the bold dragoons and gallant hussars (not excepting Prince Albert's, or my Lord Cardigan's), whose unshaven and shaggy appearances so fre- quently fright peaceful and propriety- loving subjects into distressing hysterics and fits of ague. But, perhaps, his rea- sons for longing to exhibit the aforesaid tip smacked more of benevolence, and less of the battle-field — or, I should rather say, review-field (there arc no battle-fields now), than fastidious folk were disposed to give him credit for. It may be he re- pented of the havoc he, in conjunction with his orders, rules, and regulations, had caused among his poorer counti-y- jnen, and to render amends, determined to cashier his destructive propensities for the nonce, and call into activity his re- productive ones, and pojiulate a lecde, and the imperial which he had coaxed on his chin was to specify, like the band on a Peeler's sleeve, that he was on duty. In a word, he perchance desired, by way of agreeable relaxation, to transact a little business as a commercial man, and that on the generous principles, now become fashionable by the blessed Bastardy clause, of nothing to pay and find yourself — 'tis all the girls' fault, &c. At any rate, let his motives for ge- nerating a tuft be what they may, he was determined, at all hazards, rescue or no rescue by the barbers, to have one, and for the space of three calendar weeks, inclusive of Sundays, shut himself up in his rooms, and morning, noon, and night, incessantly basted his face with bears'- dripping and soot, the former to breed the desirable bristles, and the latter to give them, when bred, a good colour ; for, sooth to say, he was more addicted to the cultivation of carrots than he liked the world — especially the fair inhabitants thereof — to be made acquainted with. But don't let any one be as stupid as forty cats in a wallet, and suppose, that during this probationary period of lying in wait for hairs, he subjected himself to the specified, drops and ounces of his own pauper diet-tables. Not a bit of it ; he regularly lined his under waistcoat with curries and conserves, diurnally lipped his six bottles of bees' wing, besides draughts of other sti'ong drink occasion- ally, and of nights several unsophisticated tumblers of nightcaps. The process of the procreation of his *' imperial" progressed wonderfully by the application to the part affected of the fat of bears and bottles ; and one morning, at the latter end of the third week of his ^'confinement," he looked himself in the face in the glass (he could not do so without hhishing — Commissioners never can), glories and Horseguards ! it was just the one thing needful! Without THE FRIENDS AND FAVOURERS OF THE NEW POOR-LAW. 291 more to do, he called for his boots and his beaver, and issued forth to astonish, as he inwardly determined, the male sorts, and make the female sorts feel they didn't know how, and think him such a nice, dear fellow — such a count ! But what was his dismay, his horror of horrors' head, when, after parading with a fierce step and stare the streets of T , from top to termination, he detected a natural tendency in all the little girls he passed to clap their fingers to their chins, and cry " 3/«ff, maa /" There was not one he met but who, as soon as she saw him, did so. Our Assistant-Commissioner was ready to burst his stays with anger and vexation. Oh ! that he had the young minxes in the workhouse — wouldn't he riddle them inside out with " skillygree" — wouldn't he black-hole them — wouldn't he have their heads in the frame in no time, and cut all their hair off, to take down their pride ! — wouldn't he have every mother's blessed daughter of them stripped to the chemise, and then laid on a table and flogged, a la the Mas- ter of the Hoo Union workhouse's ad- mirable method, " until the blood came," and they felt it ! But he hadn't them in the workhouse, and what could he do ? In vain he regarded them, individually, with that black, livid, savage look, with which he was wont to cow to despair the old and trembling paupers — that evil and stony eye, with which he had often laid waste the very heart of the mother, en- treating " to do let her child remain with her," and sent her shrieking away — there they were, those young maids, *' forty like one," shaking their jolly little chins between their fingers, and incessantly mimicing, " Maa, maa /" Mr. Assistant- Commissioner C could not bear it ; for once the brass with which every Somerset-house official clothes his coun- tenance, as with a mask, fairly melted away beneath the simultaneous resound of innumerable '■'■ Maas, maasT' Ten thou- sand fiends and their wives and daugh- ters ! had Plinlimmon and Snowdon, like the hills and mountains described in the Psalms, become locomotive, and, after having taken steps and skipped their fill, arrived, with all their four-footed inhabit- ants, at T , to avail themselves of the benefit of sea-bathing ? He rushed home to his lodgings — he scraped — he cut — lie tore the offensive bit of beastliness from his chin — ordered out a ' yellow' imme- diately, and, with four horses, scoured out of the place as if " Cadwallader and all his goats," were in hot pursuit. It is needless to narrate that this Mr. Assist- ant-Commissioner C has never been seen or heard of since in the town or neighbourhood of T . Glory to the little girls of Cambria ! Could not such an appropriate greeting of Assistant Poor-Law Conmiissioners, whenever they make their infamous ap- pearance in the streets and thoroughfares of England and Wales, be universally adopted ? Mothers of Britain, teach your daughters the trick, will you ? Probatum est everywhere, from his heart of hearts, says G. R. Wythen Baxter, April 28, 1841. " The attention of the people of Eng- land is at this time particularly directed to certain measures introduced into the House of Commons, with regard to the continuance of the Poor-Law Commis- sion in its present, or in a somewhat amended form. The debates upon this important subject are perused with more than ordinary interest, not only by those who are immediately aff*ected by that law, but by many who regard the whole affair merely as an experiment how provision can best be made for the poor. We find, on one hand, strong statements of existing hardships ; which are, on the other, re- butted by arguments that these are only abuses of the system, not natural conse- quences — that such hardships were not intended by the framers of it — that if this law be a bad one, the former was equally so — that in every trial on so extensive a scale, there must of necessity be some failures — and, as if to crown the whole, that the interests of the individual must be sacrificed for the public good. The author trusts that this will be considered a fair statement of the case at issue, and, if it were necessary, would add, by way of rejoinder, and taking the arguments inversely, that in the present instance the interests affected are not individual, but those of a vast body of the community — that the failures are too frequent to be considered only as exceptions to the rule — that even to be no worse than the old law cannot constitute a merit in the new — and that no one possessed of the com- mon feeHngs of humanity can suppose that the suffering said to exist is inten- tionally caused . But, dismissing all these as subordinate to the proposition which stands first in order, viz., that the alleged grievances are only abuses of the existing law, he imagines that he shall be enabled U 2 292 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. to prove, by a plain statement of facts, that they are the natural results of the principle upon which that law is founded; and if so, the subject will resolve itself into an inquiry, not how long the present enactments shall retain their force, but whether it would not be advisable to adopt some other plan at the earliest opportunity that can tcith safety be found." — "^ Voice from Scotland ; or, The English Poor-lMio Considered" Sfc, hij the Rev. J. V. Austi)i, April, 1841. " The grand principle of which this system boasts is Centralization, a high- sounding word borrowed, it would appear, from the art of warfare, but certainly mis- applied in the case before us, because, instead of one directing power we are here furnished with three. Its practicability depends upon combining decision of pur- pose with rapidit)^ in execution. The former certainly belongs to the ti'iumvirate, but scarcely a day passes without some complaint of delay in their proceedings. Doubtless, the Commissioners have so great a pressure of business on hand, that out of tlie vast number of cases submit- ted to them, many require time for mature reflection. Ileasoning from cause to effect, let us trace the practical result of this want of expedition ; and here we must appeal to facts, which, to use the backneyed saying, are stubborn things. The gentlemen at Somerset-house, amidst the weightier matters before them, seem to regaid it as of comparatively little im- portance, in short, trifling with their voca- tion, to discuss the question — ' Shall rice milk be at times substituted for water gruel ?' A Board of Guardians, however, are W'aiting their fiat, and imable to give an order until this simple question is decided ; in the meanwhile, a surgeon is restricted from changing the diet of his patients unless duly authorized by the Board, and fft>/ perso7is die of diarrha-a. ' Ah!' sighs man}' a kind-hearted gentle- man, as he cons his daily paper, ' How very shocking!' Again, with a laudable desire to prevent the possibility of intem- perance, a decree is made to prohibit the introduction of spirituous or fermented liquors into the House. ' A most excel- lent provision !' says the same worthy individual, as he sips his port with gusto : whilst, possibly, at that very moment, a wretchetl being, whose only crime is poverty, after a journey of fifteen miles in an open cart, with the thermometer ten degrees below the freezing point, is gasp- ing in the last stage of exhaustion, and dies for want of some remedy more stimu- lant than Union tea or gruel. The sup- porters of the Bill may, perhaps, reply tliat these cases are isolated, and studiously set forth in opposition to it; but I only bid them appeal to experience, and I assert, without fear of contradiction, that, for every case that meets the public eye, there exist ten, nay, a hundred, of sufl'er- ing, mental and bodily, with which the great mass of the community are totally unacquainted. Those only who have watched the actual working of the strin- gent clauses, and drawn their judgment from personal observation, can so much as dream of the secrets of the prison- houses." — Ibid. " The Commissioners are talented, excellent men, but naturally enough wed- ded to the existing system (I scorn to attribute to them any mcrccnoj-y motive !) disposed strictly to enforce what they con- scientiously believe to be right and proper. The Assistants, as far as we can learn, are equally worthy ; a little authoritative, perhaps, in their manners, and at least as anxious to retain their posts as are their superiors. Their occupation is to make periodical visits throughout their several districts, to inspect the state of the Unions, hear alleged grievances, and report the result to head-quarters. Next, we have the constituent members of the periodical Boards, taken from a class which has been usually regarded as England's strongest bulwark, her yeomanry. Then follow, in due oi-der, the several distinctions of Audi- tors, Relieving Oflicers, Masters, Sur- geons, and Chaplains. Such are the male- rials of which the frame-work is composed, yet, excellent in themselves, they are but ill-fitted to support the structure which has been raised. Granted that the far- mers of England are men of sense, no one I think will consider them over-sensi- tive. They are tolerably sound reasoners, yet not w^ithout strong prejudices ; and, though very far from unfeeling, are not too susceptible. Let it not be thought that I am in any way disparaging a class for which ever}- lover of his countr}' must entertain the profoundest respect. On the introduction of the New Poor-Laws into a Union, we can imagine that a lauda- ble spii-it of emulation has kiixlled in the breast of such a one, the desire of becom- ing Guardian of his parish. He succeeds : and his pride is in a little degree flattered by the position he has attained, possibly, after some contest. He resolves to watch THE FRIENDS AND FAVOURERS OF THE NEW POOR-LAW. 293 the state of affairs very closely, to attend regularly to his new duties, and give the system a fair trial. Methinks I hear some advocate of the law exclaim, can anything be more direct or better planned ? I con- fess the picture is a bright one, but let us examine it in another light. The worthy Guardian is for a time constant at his post, indefatigable in his inquiries, and satisfied with everything around him ; but a bad season has caused a failure in his early crop — he must bestir himself on his farm to-day, such a place must be visited — to-morrow, he will ride over and see how things are looking up— but stop : — to-morrow is Board-day: duty and inclination are now at variance : which shall he follow ? Without analyzing too closely the progress of his feelings, we may venture to affirm that he either relaxes in his attendance, thus leaving all the poor of his parish without a represen- tative^ or betakes himself to the Board- room in a temper unfitted for the calm discharge of his duties. This temper is not likely to be soothed by information that, in consequence of a disturbance among the inmates, arising from a refusal on the part of the Master to increase their rations one ounce per diem (or from some other equally absurd (?) cause), a correspond- ence has been held with the Commissioners, which the clerk proceeds to read in detail, setting forth the virtuous indignation of the higher powers at the insolence of such a request — their determination in no way to depart from the rules laid down — their astonishment that the Board of Guardians should have given a kind of sanction to innovation, &c., &c., &c. Or, supposing it to be inspection-day : our friend, the Guardian, accompanies the Assistant- Commissioner through the several depart- ments, which have been cleaned and ven- tilated (I will not say especially) for the occasion. The official gentleman peeps into the sick-ward, questions the old people, looks dignified at the children, and frowns magisterially upon the refrac- tory parties, concluding his labours by a luncheon off the regulation soup, which he pronounces excellent, departs, highly pleased at the condition of the House, or sometimes complaining that the atmos- phere is rather too close, for which a reniedy must be contrived before his next visit. Business being, ended, our Guar- dian rides homeward in deep thought, and soon begins to wonder what could have induced him to neglect his own affairs, and attend meetings ia wluch he has no real power ; doubts arise as to the actual necessity of an Assistant-Commissioner ; and at last, he resolves to resign ofiice at the end of the year. Attendance becomes irksome ; but, as he is to a certain extent responsible for the working of the system, such as it is, he determines to display his influence and exercise his authority by saving as much of the parish money as he can. The motive is a good one, the purpose in itself praiseworthy — Who Are The Sufferers ? " The Auditors, from the very nature of their office, are bound to adhere to the strict letter of the law, and to be scrupu- lously watchful over the expenditure ; whilst, to the Relieving Officers is en- trusted an almost discretionary power of recommending distressed objects, or at least of seconding their application. The masters of the various Houses are undoubt- edly persons of known character : in some cases retired non-commissioned officers, who, however qualified, from their own habits of discipline, to enforce submission, are not altogether, it woidd seem, the best adajJted to govern such heterogenous dis- positions as come under their care. They are, moreover, restricted from making any distinction in their treatment of the poor, except in regard to the power of punish- ing the more refractory ; a power which, considering the natural infirmities of all men, and the particular trials to which the temper of these must be subjected, is confessedly liable to abuse. " The Surgeons and Chaplains now claim our attention ; and here, indeed, the framers of the law have exhibited a praise- worthy, but I do not imagine judicious, study of economy. The situations are advertised, so as to admit of competition, the stipends fixed, and the duties plainly laid down. Hence, as no one is required to undertake either of the places, except of his own free will, this provision appears excellent to those who look no deeper than the surface. Here again, let us appeal to facts. Respectable Surgeons, who reside in the immediate neighbour- hood of Unions, must cither accept the post with a feeling that they lower them- selves by assenting to terms which they know to be inadequate to the proper dis- charge of their duties ; or else they must submit to the introduction of a stranger, who, it is possible, may not so much regard the actual amount of income, as the opportunity of establishing himself. An inducement is thus held out for unem- ployed, and, it niny be, inexperienced 294 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. practit ioners, to come forward ; but it would seem that the latter quality need not operate to the disfavour of any one ; since, whatever may be the nature of the com- plaint, or condition of the patient, no surgeon is allowed to make an alteration from the prescribed diet, unless by special orders from the Council of Three. Think of this, ye wealthy hypochondriacs, whose every fantastic wish is rcpondcd to by your medical attendant, with the assurance that your regimen disagrees with you, and that change of diet is absolutely essential to health. " But religious instruction likewise is judged expedient; and, if we are to reckon its utility by the value attached to ser- vices in this department, we shall find it regarded as the lowest in the descending scale. I will not dwell on the fact that the framers of this Bill are the same per- sons who have been most diligent in their abuse of the church, and most solicitous to disburthen it of what they are pleased to term its overgrown wealth. They certainly act in consistence with their avowed principles, when they allow such a salary as £24 per annum to the Chap- lain of a Union comprising forty-two parishes. The most devoted admirer of the Bill can scarcely suppose that this offer could tempt any one holding the rank of Clergyman of the Church of England, to undertake the responsible duties annexed to it, merely for what he can gain ; we may, therefore, look upon it as granted, that a higher motive of some kind must animate him. Those who have been in the habit of visiting the poor in their own homes — especially in manufacturing districts, where employ- ment fluctuates, and where the report of some extensive failure, or the rumour of some foreign misunderstanding, is suffi- cient to stop the work of half-a-parish, and reduce its people suddenly to want — may be admitted to know what poverty means, and to be acquainted with some of its desolating effects. Every minister, indeed, in the exercise of his parochial duties, must be compelled to witness suf- ferings and distress ; and, if his feelings are often shocked by individual scenes, of what material must his heart be com- posed, if he can behold unmoved the con- gregated misery which the Union work- houses present ? Surely, in order to be useful in his vocation, he needs some more animathig encouragement than the prospect of receiving his quarter's salary when it shall become due; surrouuded, as he is, by objects good and ill, tlirown together without discrimination ; exposed to much that, to say the least, offends his good taste ; and at times breathing an atmosphere in which it is difficult to de- cide whether physical or moral infection most prevails. If he displays an interest in behalf of his humble auditors, he soon becomes the deposit aiy of many a tale of real suffering, and in return can only bid them bear their trials patiently ; for should he at length be driven, by a sense of duty, to call attention to some case of hardship which stands pre-eminent above the many that he knows, the chances fire, nay the fact is, that he receives a note from the Secretary of the Central Board, censuring his interference with what docs not concern him ; referring him to his duties as set forth in the book of regula- tions ; and intimating that, if he is dis- satisfied, his resignation will be accepted. Upon this, his feelings are excited, an angry correspondence succeeds, threats and recriminations are interchanged, pub- lic interest becomes awakened, and an investigation is demanded. Plow is it conducted ? Not in the fair, old, honest way — not in accordance with the system which used to be considered the safe- guard of our rights, trial by jury (this is no clap-trap), but by a novel, unconsti- tutional method of proceeding. An Assist- ant-Commissioner arrives, invested with inquisitorial powers, into whose presence the trembling, and certainly 7iot free, witnesses are summoned; the case is stated ; and followed by a cross examina- tion, the object of which is, to defend the system quite as much as to elicit truth. A report is drawn up and submitted to the higher authorities ; and soon after, or possibly, just as the recollection of the circumstances is dying away, an oificial document is published ; conveying, at times, in rather vague language, an ex- pression of regret at the supposed abuse (for such every evil consequence of the Bill is represented to be), a reprimand to the offending parties, and a caution to be more careful for the future. Thus the affair terminates : the clerical or medical informer (for in this light he is viewed) retires in disgust, subject to the odium of being thought a busy, meddling person : nine-tenths of the world consider that he has failed in his proofs, or that the case is a solitary one ; and his successor takes office with a full determination not to in- volve himself in similar trouble, and, whatever his own convictions may be, to THE FRIENDS AND FAVOURERS OF THE NEW POOR LAW. 295 avoid offending any of the Boards." — Ibid. " The successful operation of the sys- tem in some parts of England is triumph- antly appealed to by its supporters ; but it seems by no means difficult to prove that this arises, not from any inherent good principles; but because there ex- ists in those places a strong counteracting influence, which exempts them from being entirely under tlie dominion of the Poor- Law. It works well in Bedfordshire ; but the state of Nottinghamshire presents a fearful contrast : and a brief examina- tion will suffice to show the cause. In all agricultural districts a strong mutual dependence upon each other subsists be- tween owners, occupiers, and cultivators of the soil ; no labourer of good character need ever dread compulsion into the workhouse ; it is the interest of those above him to give him a fair remuneration for his services ; to keep him in regular employment ; and even to devise methods of ensuring it." — Ibid. " The labouring people in this country have been for some years suffering great distress and poverty. Work has been scarce, and wages have been low. If the idle and dissolute had been the only suf- ferers this would have been no more than is always to be expected, for there is a natural connexion between idleness and poverty. But the industrious and well- disposed have too often been in want, or have been compelled to work for wages which would not fairly support their families. How is this to be accounted for ? One reason is, that a great many people who had parish allowances, and who could therefore do very well with low wages, have been employed to do the work of the farmers and others : of course they could afford to work under price. ' I have a job for you that will last you till harvest,' said Mr. Hobson, to two of his men, as they were coming down the ladder after helping to top-up the hay- stack. ' What is that, Sir r' said the men. * To let off the water from the pond in the stack-yard, and throw out the mud. "What must I give you a- week ?' ' Nine shiHings is what we have always had. Sir.' 'Oh, no ; I shall give no such price ; I can get two men who will work readily for a shilling a-day — Jem Collins and Tom Hasler.' ' Yes, Sir,. and well they may ; for they are allowed three shillings and sixpence a- week each, Ivy the parish — one because his eye-sight is bad, the other because he has a wooden leg. A shilling a-day, and three shillings and sixpence a-week, make more than nine shillings together.' I know nothing about bad eye-sight, or wooden legs,' said the farmer ; * all I know is that, with now and then an extra pint of beer, I can get almost as much work out of them as out of others; and, to cut the matter short, if you like the job at seven shillings a-week, you may do it ; if not, Collins and Hasler are the men for me.' Well, the two men did not know where to go for a better berth ; they thought it very likely that if they tried another master, some of the parish paupers would be offering to work for him, under price, in the same way ; and so they agreed to the seven shillings. No doubt the work was well worth nine, but what could they do ? it was literally Hobson's choice^ — that or none. Now who was to be blamed for all this? Who was to be blamed because these two men could only get seven shillings for nine shillings' worth of work? Not the farmer, cer- tainly. Nobody could blame him for getting his work done as cheaply as he could, particularly as he had so much money to pay for poor-rates. Not the two parish paupers. Nobody could blame them for earning six shillings, if they could, in addition to their three shillings and sixpence. Certainly not. Who then was to be blamed ? The law to be sure ; the law which allowed the parish to give to the crippled and infirm men so misera- ble a sum as three shillings and sixpence a-week, so that they could not possibly maintain their families without robbing the able-bodied and independent men of the work they ought to have had. The law Avas to be blamed,^ and the law only ; and for this very reason the law has been altered. By the new law the parish must maintain the man who is crippled or dis- abled, and maintain him wholly. While he is able to support his family by his labour let him do it ; and when sickness or infirmity overtakes him,, the parish will support him and his family too. But while the parish supports him, the farmer is not to have his labour ; this belongs, if it is worth anything, to the parish which feeds and clothes him and his children. And while the parish does this, he is not to be receiving from the farmer the M'ages of labom- ; these are the birthright of the able and hard-working man, who fairly and thankfully gives the sweat of his brow to tlie master who pays him." — " The 296 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. %vhole History and Mystery of the Neto Poor-Lmv;' 1840. (A Somerset-house ' Dilly, dilly ; come and be killed !') " Some people think that all the pau- pers, that is, all the men and women who cannot wholly maintain themselves, ought to live in the workhouse. No doubt it would be better for the labouring classes in general if they did, because then it would be certain they could not be taking away the work from other people, and so taking the bread out of other people's mouths ; but at present there are not workhouses large enough to hold them all, so that this part of the new plan will be only gradually adopted. Larger work- houses will, by degrees, be built, and labouring people will be very much to blame if they do not lay by something Avhile they are in full work and in good health, that they may not be without a shilling in case of an accident or sick- ness, so as to keep out of the work- house." — Ibid. " One thing at least will now be taken care of — that when there are more men in a place than can find work, — good, able-bodied men, willing to work if they could find employers, and when such men are compelled to seek parish relief, they will not be allowed to hang about doing many jobs for little or nothing, and thus themselves preventing the work, so to speak, from accumulating, or getting together, on the farmers' hands. No; there will be no more of this. If such men come upon the parish it is only fair and right that they should make them- selves useful, as far as may be, to the parish. Whatever work they do will be done on the premises of the parish which maintains them, and not on the premises of the farmer or tradesman who does not maintain them. And, at the same time, the work they do will be as much as possible of a kind not to interfere with the work of other people ; not to take away the employment from other men. The parish will not in general employ them in cultivating land, because, if it does, there will be so much less land for other labourers to be employed in culti- vating; neither will it employ them or their children in handicraft manufactories, because, if it does, there will be so much less demand for the labour of men or children in other people's manufactories. They will be employed as much as pos- sible in doing work which would not otherwise be done by men's labour at all, 6uch as grinding corn in handmills, which would otherwise be ground by water, or wind, or steam. While they are thus employed, the work will be getting ready again for them out of doors, and when the farmer wants it done, he will be willing to pay them fairly for doing it. But, after all, it seems extremely doubt- ful, whether there are more men in this country than are really wanted. In Lan- cashire, and Cheshire, and other counties, where large manufactories are carried on, there are not nearly people enough to do the work ; and some of the most respect- able men there would now willingly en- gage to find employment for large fami- lies from other parts of the country. They give high wages to boys and girls, so that the larger a man's family the bet- ter off he would be. A man with five or six children may readily obtain from twenty to thirty shillings a-week." — Ibid. " It used often to be said that the most deserving of the poor people, being modest and quiet, were less frequently relieved by the parish than the noisy and turbulent. The overseers of country parishes were often men easily deceived and even fright- ened by the impudent bluster of idle and worthless vagabonds. All this will now be remedied. Noise and turbulence will be of no use now. It will be difficult to deceive the Board of Guardians, and still more difficult to frighten them. Every case will be calmly and deliberately in- quired into, and decided by general rules ; and the decision will be strictly adhered to. Large families were things that used terri- bly to frighten the parishioners, and they often did what Avas unjust to the poor in general, in order to keep men with six or eight children off" the parish. But no one will be frightened at large families now. There will be plenty of room in the work- houses for men who may unfortunately be out of work for a time ; and whether they have two children or ten will be of very little consequence to any one. The beds in the workhouse will be better for having people to sleep in them ; and every one who knows what it is to provide food for two hundred or three hundred people, knows that when you come to such num- bers, half-a-dozen, more or less, is hardly perceived ; so that no one will be fright- ened, and no one will be out of humour, be- cause a man has a large family." — Ibid. " By the new law the most complete provision is made for attending to the wants of the destitute poor. The over- seers used generally to be men who had business of their own to attend to, and THE FRIENDS AND FAVOURERS OF THE NEW POOR-LAW. 297 could not spare time fully to inquire into all the cases; but now the relieving offi- cers are paid for doing nothing besides ; and therefore devote their whole time to the service of the poor. It is not easy to tell of what benefit this will be. The poor people in two or three parishes in Cambridgeshire can tell something about it. When the new law first came into work, some of them were so very ab- surd (?) as to abuse the reheving officer, when he came to bring them their money : they pelted him with stones and other- wise ill-treated him. So the next week the Board ordered the officer not to go to those parishes at all ; if the people did not like to have their money brought to them, they were welcome to come and fetch it. They might come to the market- town where the Board sat, if they chose to have any relief; if not, they might go without. The consequence was, that the poor old people who were stiff in their joints, and the younger people who had bad legs, and the women who had chil- dren to look after, were all obliged to walk over to the Board, four or five miles off, for their money ; and many an aching limb was there, and many a sorrowful face, and heartily they repented having ill-used the man who went to carry them their money, and faithfully they promised that if he would but come back again, no one should be sufiered to hurt him." — Ibid. " When the new law first came out, many people thought it would be hard upon the poor. But these people were evidently mistaken. Whatever hardship there may at first arise out of it, it is clear it will not fall on the industrious poor. The parishioners who pay to the rates, may perhaps have some large sums of money to raise, in order to provide proper places to shelter the destitute poor, and large sums will have to be paid to the various officers connected with the differ- ent Unions, as they are called. These payments may possibly be felt somewhat heavy at first, although they will no doubt, produce great benefit afterwards. But to the industrious poor, who really are wil- ling to work, there can be no doubt the new law will prove the greatest benefit they could possibly receive. If anybody doubts this, we have only one piece of advice to give him — Wait and See." — Ibicl. " A Board of entirely new Guardians was recently elected for the Union of this town (Nottingham.) Yesterday they went through the \Yorkhouse >Yith the workhouse authorities, and asked the miserable inmates of it whether they were satisfied with the treatment which they received. They one and all replied in the affirmative. It struck one of the Guardi- ans, however, that the poor wretches Avere acting under coercion, and he desired the workhouse authorities to withdraw. They withdrew accordingly, and immediately afterwards the poor creatures fiocked around the Guardians, and detailed vari- ous acts of severity which had been com- mitted towards them. They will, of course, be made the subject of inquiry." — Times, April 21, 184l'. " My thoughts turned on ' a fine old English gentleman,' but 7iot ' of the olden time,' whose rental is far heavier than was his honoured father's, who once met two little children in the road. He was seated in his carriage, and they were gathering acorns for their fathers' hogs ! The 'squire was a great friend of the accursed New Poor-Law, — he ordered his coachman to 'pull up.' He then actu- ally stole the acoi'ns from the children and drove home with that plunder in his carriage ! He afterwards threatened to discharge their fathers, who happened to be his labourers ! He stopped the usual allowance of soup from his kitchen, and it required the intercession of his amiable daughter to set matters right." — Oastlefs '' Fleet Papers;' 1:^0. 17. " The minister of the Gospel, whose duties lie within the precincts of a jail, may venture to address his auditors upon the evil consequences of crime, and the advantages of honesty ; and prove to them, from their own position, and independently of higher arguments, that the sword of justice is not entrusted to the secular arm in vain. But in the chapel of a Union, he finds a labour far more arduous : his dis- courses cannot be adapted to the inmates as a body ; his power of appeal to consci- ence is removed ; his feehngs are shocked ; his sense of moral right and wrong con- fused ; until at last he begins to doubt lest the prayers, the praises, and thanksgiving, which he offers in such a place be aught but mockery." — "^ J'oice from Scot- laml ; or, The English Poor-Law Con- sidcred;' by the Rev. J. V. Austin. " He was one of those who believed that the Act of 1834 was one of the most beneficial measures ever adopted by Par- liament, and for which he considered that the able Commissioners by whom it was recommended, and the Government which had the moral courage to propose it, were 298 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. equally entitled to the gratitude of the country." — J^ord Iloivickj House of Com- mons, Feb. 8, 1841. "Oa the 11th of August, 1834, when Lord Althorp moved the Commons to agree to the Lords' amendments, — an amendment was moved, that the amend- ments should be read a second time that day six months. This proposal was chiefly supported by those who were op- posed to the Bill altogether, or who wished it should be at least delayed till next session ; but Lord Althorp told them that, if the Bill did not pass that session, he would be a hold man who would try it in the next. The amendment was negatived by a large majority," — Aiinual Register, 1834. Poor-Law Commissionees' 'even- handed Justice.' — "The Poor-Law Commissioners were respectfully requested in the Bridgewater case to direct the inquiry to be an open one, and this they refused to do. They likewise refused to furnish a copy of the Assistant-Conunissioncr's Report. Not satisfied with all this, their conduct in this black transaction has to be contemplated in a still darker aspect, if that be possible. Among the papers Avhich were produced on Lord Wharn- cliffe's motion, and ordered to be printed by the House, on the 1 1th of April, 1838, is a letter from Mr. Weale, marked '■ jjrivate ' to one of the Poor-Law Com- missioners. This Assistant-Commissioner, who is directed to institute an inquiry into the horrors which have been detailed, thus writes to his official superior : — ' In what way would you advise me to conduct the inquiry ? Would it not be desirable tliat I should request the attendance of the Guardians — a large majority of them are favourohle to us J ! ' " — 3Ir. Bowen's Letter, Yeb. 11, 1841. " The three kings of Somerset-house, one of whom has already found it an hereditary throne, are to have their powers prolonged nominally for ten years, but in reality to be perpetuated to the * crack of doom,' and, by way of placing them on a bed of roses, all impediments to their future quiet are to be removed. Every Guardian of the poor who will not bow down to the gods whom the New Poor-Lawites have set up, nor kiss the firmans of the Poor- Law Sultans, is to be tongue-tied and bow-strung by an enactment that leaves the Poor-Law Molochs, like Robinson Crusoe, ' the monarchs of all they survey.' Every drop of the milk of human kind- iietis which has hitherto sweetened the bitter cup of affliction is to be denied to the unhappy, and they only whose hearts have hardened into stone are to be pro- tectors of the destitute ; to Avhom the Malthus clique have said that God has given them no place at nature's feast, and who are, therefore, not permitted, like dogs, to pick up the crums that fall from the luxurious table of an over-paid Poor- Law Commissioner." — Mr. James Dim- comhe's Address, Feb. 10, 1841. Sir Robert Peel. — "It is painful (o reflect, that in the most conspicuous points of his recent policy, he should have been found assisting the Whigs to do violence to the British constitution: at one time vindicating the legislative omnipotence of the House of Commons, asserting the su- periority of privilege over law, and casting into jirison patriotic magistrates, for re- fusing to violate their oflicial oaths — at another, interposing his influence to pre- vent the triumph of public opinion over the New Pooi-Law. It is sad to remem- ber, but it cannot be dissembled, that the Poor-Law Commissioners owe their five years' respite entirely to Sir Robert Peel. We believe that an hnmense ma- jority of Conservatives regard the present Poor-Law as impolitic, unjust, uncharita- ble, and unchristian. If we are right in this belief, the Poor-Law is a rock upon which any statesman, who reckons upon their support without adopting their views, must ultimately split. We hope for much better things from Sir Robert Peel ; but if we must either acquiesce in the New Poor-Law or abandon him, we cannot long hesitate which alternative to choose." — Times, April 23, 1841. " It is broadly asserted by manj% that every man who endeavours to find work may find it. Were this assertion capable of being verified, there still would remain a question, what kind of work, and how far may the labourer be fit for it .^ For if sedentary work is to be exchanged for standing ; and some light and nice exer- cise of the fingers, to which an artisan has been accustomed all his life, for severe labour of the arms, the best efibrts would turn to little account, and occasion would be given for the unthinking and unfeeling unwarrantably to reproach those who are put upon such employment, as idle, fro- ward, and unworthy of relief, either by law or in any other way ! Were this statement correct, there would indeed be an end to the argument ; the principle here maintained would be superseded. But, alas ! it is far otherwise. That prin- THE FRIENDS AND FAVOURERS OF THE NEW POOR-LAW. 299 ciple, applicable to the benefit of all coun- tries, is indispensable for England, upon whose coast families are perpetually de- prived of their support by shipwreck ; and where large masses of men are so liable to be thrown out of their ordinary means of gaining bread, by changes in commercial intercourse, subject mainly or solely to the will of foreign powers : by new discoveries in arts and manufactures, and by reckless laws, in conformity with theories of political economy, which, whe- ther right or wrong in the abstract, have proved a scourge to tens of thousands, by the abruptness with which they have been carried into practice." — Wordsivorth' s Postscript to Moxoji' s Edition of his Poeti- cal Works, published in 1837. " With all due deference to the parti- cular experience and general intelligence of the individuals who framed the Act, and of those who in and out of Parliament have approved of and supported it, it may be said, that it proceeds too much upon the presumption that it is a labouring man's own fault if he be not, as the phrase is, beforehand with the world. But the most prudent are liable to be thrown back by sickness, cutting them oif from labour, and causing to them expense : and who but has observed how distress creeps upon multitudes without misconduct of their own, and merely from a gradual fall in the price of labour, without a corresponding one in the price of provisions ; so that men who may have ventured upon the marriage state with a fair prospect of maintaining their families in comfort and happiness, see them reduced to a pittance which no effort of theirs can increase ? Let it be remembered also, that there are thou- sands with whom vicious habits of expense are not the cause why thej' do not store up their gains ; but they are generous and kind-hearted, and ready to help their kindred and friends : moreover they have a faith in Providence that those who have been prompt to assist others, Avill not be left destitute, should they themselves come to need. By acting from these blended feelings, numbers have rendered them- selves incapable of standing up against a sudden reverse. Nevertheless, these men, in common with all who have the misfor- tune to be in want, if many theorists had their wish, would lie thrown upon those sharp points of condition, from which the intervention of law has hitherto saved them." — Ihid. " The Chaplain of the Alderbury Union having been prevented by illness from performing his duties, for some time past, the Earl of Radnor, who is Chairman of the Union, has, on several occasions, sup- plied his place by reading prayers to the inmates of the poor-house, and also read- ing to them a sermon by an approved author." — Scdishu7-y Journal, Nov., 1839. (There's a holy lord for you !— G.R. W.B.) Hoc Union. — " A paragraph recently appeared in the Times, announcing that Miles, the master of the Hoo Union work- bouse, though said to have been dismissed by order of the Poor-Law Commissioners, was still retained in that situation, has had the effect, not only of shaming the Board of Guardians into the appointment of a new master, but of rousing the Home- office authorities from their lethargy. The justices at Rochester having held Miles to bail to answer the charges made against him at the assizes, forwarded the deposi- tions to the Marquis of Normanby, and only last week, the assizes in the interval having been suffered to elapse, the magis- trates received the following very curious communication, dated April 17, from Mr. Vizard, the solicitor to the Home-office : — ' Your letter of Feb. 9 last, addressed to the Marquis of Normanby, with a com- plaint against James Miles, the master of the Hoo Union workhouse, was, with its accompanying papers, submitted first to the Poor-Law Commissioners, and subse- quently to the Attorney and Solicitor- General, who advised that an indictment should be preferred against Miles, I see it stated, however, by the public papers, that another master is to be elected by the Guardians on the 29th inst., from Avhich I conclude that Miles has been dis- missed. I have to request you will be pleased to inform me whether such is the fact, and whether the magistrates, who were before desirous of having a prosecu- tion instituted, entertain still the same opinion, that I may be enabled to take the further directions of the Attorney and Solicitor-General upon the altered circum- stances of the case.' A very full meeting of the justices, on Wednesday last, di- rected Mr. Essell, the clerk of the court, to inform Mr. Vizard, that they had no official intimation of the dismissal of Miles, other than the order of the Poor-Law Commissioners, dated the 28th of January last; that it was notorious he was still continued as master and relieving officez', or was so only a few days ago ; that an advertisement had appeared for a succes- sor, whose duties were to commence on the 6th of May next, and that the justices 300 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. knew of no circumstances to altert heir opinion of the propriety of his being in- dicted on the charges which induced them to hold the accused to bail. The trickery resorted to in this case for the purpose of screening an acknowledged delinquent, is disgusting and contemptible in the ex- treme." — D'rnes, April 27, 1841. " The hon. gentleman (Mr. Larpent) in his speech at the Exchange-hall told them that he was a member of the Council of the London University, ' the object of which is, to withdraw from the trannnels of bigotry the classes which did not be- long to the Established Church; his views on education, therefore, were liberal, and he felt strongly that to educate the mind of man is to raise and elevate him.' Now he (Mr.Walter) was as great a friend to educating the poor as his hon. friend could be : but still, let them not put the cart before the horse ; let them look to their feeding and clothing first, and then give them whatever education their minds were capable of receiving. (Cheers.) To this effect he recollected a passage in a speech of an eminent and learned judge, Avho said, ' I do not expect any immediate benefit from any of the plans which have been suggested for the education of the poor. It is in vain to attempt to improve their minds if you neglect their bodies. Where have you ever known of a people desirous of education who had not clothes to cover them, or bread to eat ? I have never known such a people capable of receiving moral instruction.' (Great cheer- ing.)" — Jlr. Walter, at the Nomination, Nottingham Election, April 26, 1841. " He was charged with change of prin- ciples, and how did his opponent prove that charge ? By quoting the expressions of other people, with whom he had no- thing to do. He defied them to prove any contradiction of his during the whole course of his public life. (Cheers.) He could conceive nothing more absurd and ridiculous than for a public man to be always changing his opinion. (Cheers and laughter.) The Reformer of this day reforming what he was yesterday ; there ■was no end of such reformation. His opponent called himself a Reformer ; he (Mr. Walter) had seen and contemplated the whole brood of Reformers, and was sick of them and their practices. (Cheers.) Let the meeting listen to the opinions of three of them as a specimen, and from that sample let them judge of the whole sack. (Cheers and laughter.) ' The poor no longer strive,' said Lord Brougham, ' for the means of maintaining their chil- dren, but heedlessly, recklessly count upon that fund, out of which, whelher in sickness or in health, in youth or in age, in impotence or in vigour, they know that they may claim the means of supjiort.' ' If an Englishman,' said Lord John Rus- sell, ' receives from £4 to £5 at once, it generally happens that the sum is all but lost to him, from being expended, in the course of two or three days, in dissipation and debauchery.' (Cries of ' Shame.") His Lordship, he supposed, was speaking from his family experience in the corrup- tion of elections : for so long back as the time of Junius, the Russells were accused of having, in the way of traffic, bought and sold more than half the representative integrity of the nation. ('Hear, hear,' and cheers.) Then, again. Lord Mel- bourne used this language : — ' I would recommend to the Commissioners, as a general rule, that not only should not the inmates of a workhouse be allowed to go out on Sunday, but that they should not be allowed to go out at all.' ('Shame, shame.') Were these the principles of those great and illustrious Whigs, Fox and Whitbread, whose names were even yet the rallying cry of their party, and who were emphatically called the ' friends of the people r' He was sure that they were not : and could they be surprised when they found him deserting the Whigs, when the Whigs had themselves deserted their ancient principles ? (Cheers.) The end of them would be, that the Whigs would leave nothing in the world certain and fixed but their own places. (Cheers.) The only reform that was of the least value to the poor man, was that which the present Ministers would not give — full stomachs and unoppressive labour ; but, instead of that, starving dietaries and stone walls. (Immense cheering.) The people asked for bread, which they have a right to have, and they gave them a stone (cheers) ; they asked for fish, and in lieu thereof they gave them, not one serpent, but three. (Cheers, and loud cries of ' No Sarpent !' ' No Parlevous !' and a cry, ' There's a sting in that Sar- pent !') It was the hope of defeating the New Poor-Law that had brought him there. (Great cheering.) The present contest would decide whether they were favourable or hostile to, what he should at least think, that most iniquitous law. (Cheers.) If they chose his antagonist, by that act they would defend and promote it as much as lay in their power. By the THE FRIENDS AND FAVOURERS OF THE NEW POOR-LAW. 301 preference of himself, they would assist in removing it, and in soothing that irritation which would continue so long as its op- pressive provisions remainecl upon the Statute book. (Mr. Walter then resumed his place on the hustings, amidst great cheering.)" — Ibid. "An elector then stood up from the crowd and said, that Mr. Larpent having on a recent occasion stated that the New Poor-Law had worked well, and that it had a tendency also to raise wages and better the condition of the industrious classes, he begged to put one or two questions, the better to test his principles on this most impoi-tant subject. The iirst question he had to ask was, whether Mr, Larpent, in the event of his return for Nottingham, would pledge himself to use his vote and influence to abolish the Poor- Law Commission. (Cheers and confusion.) — Mr. Larpent at first positively re- fused to answer the question, which oc- casioned a new scene of turbulence and disorder. Ultimately, however, he de- clared (still evading the question) that if returned, he would do his utmost to carry the law into effect without harshness in its bearing on the poor. (Cries of ' Oh, oh,' groans and hisses.)" — Ibid. " Among other instances of intimida- tion which have been resorted to within our knowledge, we may mention that no less than three extensive firms in the lace trade, one at Basford and the other two at Nottingham, have threatened their workmen with immediate dischcm/e if they do not vote for Mr. Larpent. The poor fellows, who are considerable in number, had all promised to vote for Mr, Walter, and with tears in their eyes they have complained to Mr. Walter's committee, that they shall be constrained to vote against him, and thus to vote for the con- tinuance of that iniquitous measure the New Poor-Law Amendment- Act, which they hold in the utmost hatred. We are in possession of the names of these re- spectable firms.'" — Ibid. The arbiteary Powers of the Commissioners. — " A highly respect- able gentleman, a county magistrate, at- tended a meeting which was held at Barn- sta,ple, for the purpose of expressing their opinion with regard to the operation of the New Poor-Law. The gentleman to whom he alluded was called to the chair, and his presidency was the best assur- ance that the proceedings would be con- ducted with order and decorum. The House, he was assured, would hear with astonishment, that this gentleman received a letter from an Assistant Poor-Law Com- missioner to appear before him on the fol- lowing Monday; and he was further given to understand that he should be held guilty of a misdemeanor if he did not attend. He applied to have the as- sistance of a professional adviser, which appHcation was refused, and he was held from the Monday to the Wednesday under an ordeal of question and cross-question, and ultimately an affidavit as to the truth of the statement which he had made at the meeting was required of him." — Mr. Bucke, House of Commons, Feb, 8. 1841, Somerset - House Persectttion. — " In the case of James Lisney, he (Mr. Wakley) had felt it his duty to take the evidence of the paupers of the house. Upon the first or second occasion, one of the poor women was examined. On the third occasion, he found that her condi- tion in the workhouse was affected by the evidence she had given. Good God! what might he be bringing on that unfortu- nate woman at the present moment ! And where was her redress for any injury which they might choose to inflict on her ? That poor woman — he trembled while making the statement— said, that some assistance which she had before received was taken from her in consequence of giving this evidence, that her condition was rendered extremely uncomfortable, and that she was most desirous of leaving the workhouse." — Hozise of Commons, Feb. 8, 1841, The Post of Honour. — "Such a revolution in public opinion with respect to the office of Guardian has taken place, that the competition is now, not who shall fill the office, but who shall escape it, and the members of the several Boards are now generally elected without a competi- tion." — Sherborne Journal, Apiil 4,' 1 840. " At the first meeting of the Board of Guardians in Clare, the room resounded with defiances and point blank contra- dictions, in the most unr.-served terms." — Champion, Sept. 22, 1839. Humanity a Somerset - House Crime. — " At a meeting of the Haver- fordwest Board of Guardians, held on Tuesday last, for the election of a master of the workhouse, instead of Mr. Fi ancis Lemon, whose appointment has been at- tempted to be cancelled, one of the grounds urged by one of the Guaidans opposed to him was, his humane feelinys — it being one of the principles of the 302 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. establishment not to render it so comfort- able to. parties to go in and remain there. But this mode of reasoning failed in its effect, as the whole of the Guardians unanimously resolved to reappoint him." — Cminarthen Journal, March 20, 1840. " We regret to see the Morning Post, now at once flying off to the doctrine of expediency and political convenience, and endeavouring to show that the Conserva- tives in Parliament, though they have the power to defeat the renewed Poor-Law, are not bound to do so, but rather to yield to the ministry, as heretofore, sutKcient support to enable them to carry the Bill. We may venture to promise them this — that, should Whigs and Tories thus be found in union for such a purpose, and a dissolution of Parliament become inevit- able, as it not improbably may, before Midsummer, the effect would be, that a good many, both of Whigs and Tories, would lose their seats, and be replaced by men who were neither the one nor the other ! But it is said that the matter must be viewed practically; that the Old Law is to all intents and purposes defunct, and cannot be resuscitated ; that the former parish workhouses are already pulled down or sold, and new Union houses erected in their room; and that to undo all that has been done would be little else than to repeat a revolution within seven years. Now, the whole of this we at once and frankly admit. But it goes merely to the circumstantials, and not to the principle of the New Poor-Law. The new Union workhouses are not so bad but that under Christian and humane management they might be made abodes of peace and comfort for the worn-out widow or invalid labourer, and at the same time of reformation for the idle and refrac- tory. All this is matter of detail ; the chief faults of the New Poor-Law are found in its broad and fundamental prin- ciples. The absohiie potver, iov instance, yrasped by the Somerset-house trium- virate, alike over ill-managed and well- managed parishes, is most revolting to English feelings. Why should a district which has committed no fault, and whose management of its poor has been neither wasteful nor harsh — why should such a parish be utterly and for ever disfran- chised, and deprived of all self-govern- ment, merely because some other parishes, in a distant part of the kingdom, are ' reported' to have been too lavish in their expenditure ? The chief thing for \vhich we would contend — and we know that we shall have ninetcen-twcnticths of the people on our side — is, that where no offence, no misconduct has been proved, there the inhabitants of every district should be held competent to manage their own atiairs. And, observe, we can never admit that a kind and liberal treatment of the poor shall be taken to be ' mismanage- ment.' If a wealthy parish, not over- burdened with poor, and having a good opinion of the inmates of its workhouse, chooses to afford them the comforts of a little table beer, or tea and sugar, we utterly deny that any case is thereby made out for foreign interference, or for a peremptory decree from Somerset-house, confining all parties to a weak dilution of water-gruel. In like manner, to proceed with the same parish, for we have a real case in our eye : — The overseers under the Old Poor-Law had sometimes thought it not too much to allow a poor broken-down w idow of 70, who strove to keep herself out of the workhouse as long as possible, as nmch as 3s. or 3s. 6d., a-week, which barely paid her lodging. Under the new system, the utmost stretch of charity is conceived to lie in giving a«y out-door relief at all; and when the concession is made it is held that Is. or Is. 6d. a-week is the very utmost that can be permitted. The consequence is, that the poor crea- ture totters about heartbroken and half- starved, and the parish saves 2s. a-week contrary to its oivn rmantmons wish and prayer. These are the leading features of the working of the New Poor-Law ; and what is most to be desired is, to restore to parishes sufficiently populous to manage their own affairs with public spirit some share in the charge and dispo- sition of their distressed poor. This, at least, ought to be attempted at once ; and even with such alterations as these, the experimental Bill should only continue in force for one, or at most for two years." — Times, May 1, 1841. " Mr. B. Wood presented a petition from the parish of St. George, Southwark, in favour of the present Bill, and stating the belief of the petitioners, that if the controlling pow-ers of the Commissioners were removed, all the maladministration of the old system would return ; that if the power to carry out the law were vested in the Guardians, great fluctuations would result ; that a unity of design was secured by a central controlling power, and that they approved of the system of education adopted in the Bill.'' — House of Com- vwns, March 19, 184L THE FRIENDS AND FAVOUREIIS OF THE NEW POOR-LAW. 303 *' Mr. Round presented a petition from the Parish of Dunmow, in Essex, praying that the Poor-Law Commissioners may he continued for a further term of five years f ! ! ! )" — House of Commons, March 18, 1841. " Mr. Bolton Clive moved that the petition from the Chairman of the Board of Guardians of the Hereford Union,* in support of the Poor-Law Amendment- Act (presented the 9th of March) be printed with the votes, which motion was adopted." — House of Commons ^ March 11, 1841. " Sir R. Inglis presented a petition from the clergy and inhabitants of a parish in Salop, in favour of the New Poor-Law."— 7Z»/(/, March 19, 1841. " To us, we confess (while it is a matter of some psychological curiosity to watch so remarkable a tenacity of official life under the most trying circumstances), it is a question of little practical interest who may dispense the patronage and pocket the emoluments of Downing- street, so long as the country clearly un- derstands where the real responsibility of Government must henceforth reside. For the disbursement of the public money, for the preservation of the joublic peace, and for the performance of other merely executive acts, the holders of office, how- ever powerless in the Legislature, must of course be answerable, so long as the executive authority is in their hands. But it would be ridiculous, not to say unjust, to regard the principal share of legislative responsibility as attaching to men who are opposed by majorities in both Houses of Parliament. Common sense declares, that those who have the power of carrying salutary measures through Parliament, and of rejecting per- nicious measures, are answerable to their country for the use they make, or neglect to make, of that power. This is now the posture of the Conservative opposition : — Supported by an overwhelming majority in the House of Lords, and by a varying, yet sufficient majority in the House of Commons, they cannot decline the duties inseparably annexed to their position. Whether they assume the seals of office or not, it has become their duty, at all events, to take the lead in legislation. " It will not be sufficient to have defeated Lord Morpeth's Irish Registration Bill ; * Vide Part I. of this work, where a copy of the petition is given. — G. R. W. 13. they must vigorously press forward, and carry their own. And upon the Poor- Law Continuance Bill, as we hinted on Wednesday, they must be prepared, if they would give any satisfaction to the country, to take a far bolder and more decided course than might have been required of them under different circum- stances. Without their fiat, it is impos- sible for that measure ever to become law ; — will they dare to pronounce that liat now, after what has taken place at Nottingham ? " Let not any one suppose that respon- sibility upon this question can be evaded upon the plea that we must have some Poor-Iiaw, and that the rejection of the ministerial bill, without substituting another, would either throw us into a state of inextricable confusion, or oblige us to fall back upon the old law and its abuses. We are not so unreasonable as to desire that any step should be taken which, by any possibility, can tend to confusion ; nor tlo we wish for the intro- duction of any precipitate and ill-digested measure upon a subject of such vast im- portance. It may be necessary to take time ; and while the final settlement of this question upon Christian principles is under consideration, it may also be neces- sary to suffer, with some modifications, even the continuance of the present system. But a bill of four or five clauses, which the Conservatives could not fail to carry, would be perfectly sufficient for this pur- pose ; and while it is in their power to resort to so easy and so unexceptionable an alternative, there can be no possible excuse for fastening upon the country, roR five YEARS, and with augmented powers, the intolerable despotism of Somerset-house. We cannot sufficiently impress upon our readers, that if the Poor-Law Continuance Bill should pass the House of Commons, in the present position of parties, Sir R. Peel will be as completely responsible for it as if he were actually First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Ex- chequer. " Lord John Russell has postponed for a week longer the further consideration of this measure. We trust advantage will be taken of the interval by those whom it most concerns, to weigh the effects of any irresolution upon this subject, and much more of any resolution which may fail to satisfy the just expectations of the country. Who can tell how soon a general election may take place ? And, after the lesson of Nottingham, Avho can doubt the critical 304 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. influence wliicli the deliberations of the coming week may have, not upon that general election only, but upon tlie ulti- mate destinies of England ? Mr. Walter is the first Anti-Poor-Law member, em- phatically so called, who has ever taken his seat in the House of Commons ; but assuredly he will not be the last. Of the great movement on behalf of the rights of the poor commenced at Nottingham, it is now in the power of the Conservative party to take the lead ; in that event, un- bounded popularity and triumphant suc- cess await them and their principles ; if they do not, others will. Histoiy lias applauded that king of England who quelled a formidable insurrection by plac- ing himself at the head of the insurgents ; and why ? Not merely for the personal courage, not merely for the manly pru- dence, which the act displayed, but for higher and deeper reasons. There was a moral meaning and propriety in the pro- ceeding. To protect the poorest of his people, to redress their wrongs, to ac- quaint himself with their grievances, to save them from the temptation to acts of violence by kindness, and sympathy, and justice, was his peculiar place and duty : he was their natural and legitimate leader. The event proved, that he needed only to seek their confidence in order to obtain it — only to promise them justice, in order to quell their lawless and irregular cfibrts to right themselves. Surely it is no less the duty of Conservatives now — repre- senting (as they believe themselves to represent) all that is most noble, most honourable, most exalted, in our social constitution — identifying (as they have ever identified) themselves with the cause of religion, charity, and virtue — surely it is as much their duty and their policy to come forward as the friends, the counsel- lors, and the champions of the working classes, as it ever was that of an English king. The more disposition those classes .scover to go astray for want of proper Jirection, the more imperative does this duty become ; and with the proof that recent events have given us of their wil- lingness, even when deeply tainted with disorganizing principles, to place confi- dence in men who deserve it, we cannot imagine anything short of judicial blind- ness which can induce the Conservative leaders to shrink from the performance of this most honourable, though certainly most responsible and arduous function." — Times, April 30, 1841. " The Guardians of the Dorchester Union Bastile, with the view to economy, have threatened the Governor of the work- house with dismissal, unless he daily collect the bones, and wash ! and dispose of them for the benefit of the Union ! A woman, acting as cook in the establish- ment, had claimed them as her perquisites, and sold them for the enormous sum of sixpence a-week ! But this immense saving is nothing compared to what we are about to state. The girls, it appears, were in the habit of collecting the contents of certain vessels, which they sold to the neighbouring hosier. This duty is now imposed upon the master, who is to dis- pose of it, and pay the money over to the tx-easurer!" — Weekly Dispatch, Feb. 4, 1838. " The clerk of a Poor-Law Union in Berksiiire advertizes for a parish school- master, at the splendid salary of £15 a-yoar, and provisions from the workhouse supplies. It is added, that ' none need apply who has not a competent knowledge of reading, writing, and arithmetic ! ' " — Northern Star, Dec. 29, 1838. " The Poor-Law Commissioners have refused to allow the sum of £15 expenses incurred by the overseers of the parish of Thurlestonc, Kingsbridge Union, in this county, in prosecuting a woman for con- cealing the birth of her child ; and at the meeting of the Guardians on the 15th ult., it was stated an application for the allowance had been made to the count}', and also refused. It seems necessaiy, therefore, that it should now be determined by legislative enactment who shall be prosecutors in such cases, and in what manner the expenses shall be paid. — Devonport Independent. [Is the conceal- ment in which the bastardy clauses operate the object which the Commissionei-s have in view?]" — Weekly Dispatch, Feb. 4. 1838. Mr. W. L. Caswell, surgeon, of Hunts- hill, near Bridgewater, committed suicide on Saturday, from the following hard treatment received by him from the Board of Guardians of the Bridgewater Poor- Law Union. The unfortunate gentleman was employed bj^ the Board to attend one division of the Union, as surgeon. After twelve months' unremitting attention, the Board refused to pay him the sum of £90, the charge for his services, but off'ered him £50, which was refused. Mr. Caswell took legal proceedings against them, but as his family were ex- pensive and his means small, he ultimately THE FRIENDS AND FAVOURERS OF THE NEW POOR-LAW. 306 took £40, each party paying their own costs. This treatment preyed on his mind, and the fear that the knowledge of his having accepted a sum so much below his original and very moderate demand might create an impression that his stand- ing in the profession was lowered, so completely superseded every other reflec- tion as to bring on insanity, labouring under which, he went under the sea walls, on Saturday morning, and nearly cut his head ofi" with a razor. A Coroner's inquest was held on the body, and a ver- dict of temporary insanity was returned." — Dorset County Chro7iicle, May 26, 1838. The Pook - Law Committee. — " What should they say with respect to the Parliamentary investigation which had been instituted? Every step that was taken when it was first moved showed the utmost anxiety to prevent all impartial inquiry. Would persons who desired to have elicited the truth have consigned the investigation to a packed committee ? And that committee was proverbially so. It was his duty, previously to quitting it, to state before the House of Commons his motives for that step ; and he wished that respectable company, and every one else who read their proceedings, to bear in mind that not one single statement or alle- gation which he had made was ever con- tradicted; whilst he was most cautiously prevented from going into the official reports of the Commissioners. To pass over various suppressions of proceedings which turned out diflTerently from what the committee wished, and other matters of which he had complained at the time to the House, he would just mention one oc- currence as a sample which must strike this assembly. One of the Assistant- Commissioners, in giving a history of the administration of the old law, with a view to prove the evil of the allowance system, stated, that the having a large family was so advantageous, that a man had been knoivn to heat his wife because she did not breed fast enough ! ! On being asked where so marvellous an occurrence took place, the committee, whose sagacity suspected what the result would be, over- ruled the question, on the plea that this superfoetation man might be injured by exposure ; and everything relative to the subject was erased from the minutes. He was not allowed to test the evidence. He believed that no man ever came into that committee-room who did not retire from it most painfully impressed with the partiality of the proceedings." — Mr. Walter., Freemasons' Tavern Meeting, June 24, 1839. The Bishop op Londox. — " There can scarcely be a stronger confirmation of the mischief that arises from the interfer- ence of churchmen in politics, than the dreadfully zealous exertions of the Bishop of London, in promoting the passing of the impious Poor-Law Amendment-Bill, par- ticularly by his incomprehensible enforce- ment of that iniquitous, cruel, murderous measure, the Bastardy Clause. Had he then been God, instead of being as he now is, a Christian Bishoji, Satan would, on his having betrayed Eve, have probably escaped punishment, while all his ven- geance would have been exhausted on his unsuspecting victim. So likewise had the Scribes and Pharisees of those days, brought the woman taken in adultery to the Bishop, instead of to Christ, for con- demnation, their object would not have been defeated. The holy men would not have had (heart-smitten and conscience- struck) to have silently slunk away. Oh ! well may the poor exclaim — ' May we fall into the hands of God, and not into the hands of men ! ! ' Does the learned Bishop believe that the sacrament of Baptism is essential to salvation ? If he does, what a fearful reflection must it be to him, if he ever should reflect on the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of newborn infants, who, unbaptized, have, by this murderous clause in the infernal Act, been hurried, by their own mothers, into eternity." — " The Paupers' Advocate," by Samuel Roberts. Malthus. — " The Fellow of Jesus ac- knowledges that his fears of being starved out are not new ones, for that Plato and Aristotle, more than a thousand years ago, had entertained the same. But those fears of theirs are not yet realized ! It may, then, be some consolation and ground of confidence to the desponding Malthu- sians to be informed, that there now is perhaps ten times more known land un — or nearly — unoccupied, than there was in those days." — Ibid. '* The Commissioners said, in their first report, ' The duty of supporting parents and children in old age or infirmity is so strongly enfoi'ced by our natural feelings, that it is often well performed even among savages, and almost always so in a nation deserving the name of civilized. We believe England is the only European country in which it is neglected ...If the deficiencies of parental and 306 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. filial affection are to be supplied by the parish, and the natural motives to the exercise of those virtues are thus to be withdrawn, it may be proper to endeavour to replace them, however imperfectly, by artificial stimulants, and to make tines, distress-warrants, or imprisonment, act as substitutes for gratitude or love.' He quoted their words. How hard, indeed, it was, supposing such to be the fact, that the poor should have the feehngs of nature forced out of them by want ! It was painful for him to speak with the least ap- pearance of disrespect of any member of the royal family, and most of all of an illustrious and well-meaning prince now no more ; but did not a late royal person- age receive no less a sum than £10,000 a-year from the public purse for attending on his suffering parent only one day in the M'eek ? Was it worse for a poor man or woman, who perhaps had a family to maintain, to receive a trifle for at- tending to a sick father or mother, than for a royal son to receive £10,000 a-year for the same, or even much less duty ? He would willingly have omitted reference to such a subject, but he did not think he conscientiously could, without par- tially betraying that cause which lay near- est to his heart. Now if, as he believed to be the case, two of the gentlemen who had been prominent members of these Poor- Law Commissions, and who assisted, of course, in the composition of their report, did, as Members of Parliament, actually vote for the £10,000 a-year to the Duke of York, for the purpose just mentioned." — Mr. Walter s Speech at the Crotcn and Anchor, March 11, 1841. " His wish was to test the sincerity of the House with reference to the continu- ance of this Commission. Some hon. members, he found, were in the habit of saying that they were unfavourable to the continuance of the Commission beyond five years; others were unfavourable to the law. That being so, a great majority of members found means to vote for the Bill. But if the Bill were separated into two Bills, then the House would have an opportunity of seeing who were for an alteration of the law on the one hand, and, on the other, who were for continuing the Commission. Even if the House were determined that the Commission should continue for another five years, still, if they were prepared to act like public men, and with the spirit becoming members of the Legislature, they could not object to divide the Bill, so as to show on the same side who those were who were willing that the present state of things sliould continue to exist, and, on the other, what the House meant should be the law of tiie land — not a shifting, vexatious law, but such a law as would let every person who was poor know what course he must take. It was remarkable that both the present Bill and the Act of the Gth and 7th of William IV. throughout contemplated, apparently, the permanent continuance of the present system of Poor-Law, and of the Commis- sion. As for the present Bill, there was not a line of it, in any one place, on which a man could put his finger and say, ' This is a proof that it is not meant that this system shall continue longer than five years.' Now, he must say, that this was not dealing fairly with the House. If it were intended to continue the Commission longer, then the Government ought to say so in tlie Bill ; but if it were intended to terminate at the end of five years, and that then the relief of the poor should be worked by the anciently constituted autho- rities of the country, let the House say so at once, and not persevere in this mode of acting, which he could not but call dealing treacherously with the public. ^^ as the House afraid to take this course ? He feared it was. (Hear.) He could not un- derstand how the great landed proprietors in the House, with whom it was of course an object to live well with their neigh- bours, came to lend themselves — he had almost said meanly lend themselves — to this course. He told those gentlemen that this law was subverting the feelings of human nature in this country. He could not conceive how those gentlemen came to support this law, and yet promoted the education of the people. He told the House that it w as impossible that this law and education could go on together. The people saw, or rather he ought to say the people were beginning to see, the real nature of this odious enactment ; they were beginning to see, that it was an attempt to protect the wealth of this country at the expense of every feeling which Englishmen had been accustomed to revere ; they were beginning to see that the aristocracy, for their own advan- tage, supported this law at the expense of human feeling and human happiness. But he could tell the aristocracy, that there was not a man of them who was not placing his property, and perhaps his life, in jeopardy, by adhering to this law. (Hear.)" — Air. WaHey, House of Com- mons, March 19, 1841. THE Friends and favourers of the new poor-law. 307 "PershokE Pooe'La-w Union. — At R meeting of the Board of Guardians, held on Tuesday last, the presiding chair- man, Mr. Annesley, informed the Board that Mr. Weale, Assistant-Commissioner, had paid a visit to the workhouse on Thursday previous, at an early hour in the morning; and that the Assistant-Com- missioner had left word with the clerk, that he was unable to attend the Board, as he was taking a tour through his dis- trict to visit every workhouse, and that he begged to leave a resolution to be adopted by the Board, viz., ' That the medical officer be requested to attend at the work- house of the Union daily.' Mr. Annesley observed, that sitting as chairman, he should make no motion on the subject, but he could not conceal from the Board his disapprobation of the character of Mr. Weale's unnecessary visit, and his disgust at such an interference with the officers of the Union. This might be a verypleasant season of the year for the itinerations of the Assistant-Commissioners, and he supposed that something was required to be done to make out a justification of travelling expenses. Mr. Weale had, therefore, examined the master of the workhouse upon the attention paid to that establish- ment by the medical officer, Mr. Claridge ; and though he had been informed of the strict attention of that gentleman to his duties, and that the latter, or his assistant, had been in the habit of attending twice a-day upon any pauper who was unwell, yet, in order tliat some set-off should appear against his large salary and its large et ceteras, the Assistant-Commis- sioner had coolly left the Board the ungra- cious task of passing a resolution so un- called for and unjustifiable, by which the labours of their medical officer would be unnecessarily increased. Having made this communication as their chairman for the time, and having declared his own opinion upon it, he should now leave the Board to deal with Mr. Weale's resolution as it deemed fit. The Rev. Dr. Grove moved, that the resolution be taken into consideration on that day six months, which was seconded and agreed to unani- mously." — Worcester Guardian, Sept. 1, 1838. " A Hint to Pook-Law Guardians. — The three Poor-Law despots at Somer- set-house have received a rebuff from the Guardians of the Yarmouth Union, which may serve as a model to similar function- aries when subjected to ' the insolence of oflice.' The latter had received a polite X 2 intimation, that ' they had no discretion whatever as regards the mode of relief,' upon which they returned for answer, that as that was the case, the Commissioners ' might do the work of the Union them- selves.'' In the eye of common sense, of what earthly use can be the deliberations of the Guardians of the different Unions if they are not to determine on the best mode of administering relief, according to the varying circumstances of their peculiar districts ? In assuming all power, the Commissioners may perchance find that they will have to perform all functions likewise ; if they reserve all discretion to themselves, it is fit that they should have all the duty. In what way, we wonder, would the Commissioners propose to pu- nish a Board of Guardians guilty of the enormity of opposing their overgrown authority." — Sunday Times, Dec. 16, 1838. " As a minister of religion, I can speak gratefully of the difference of the work- houses under the old and new system of relief. Formerly, some miserable brick ruin, damp and deserted, because it had been deemed unfit for human habitation, was fitted up for the reception of the des- titute. Here, upon a thin litter of straw, lay the paralytic, the lame, the blind ; hei-e crouched the idiot that subsisted upon garbage ; here reposed the prisoners who for days rose not from their beds, because there was none to perform for them the offices of decency and humanity ; the aged who had none to help them. The master entrusted with these sad burthens upon human life, had but one duty to per- form — to diminish the poor-rate. The sighs and tears within those desolate walls fell not upon the public ear, nor touched the sympathies of the press ; but many a victim of untold oppression, de- serted by friends, unknown to the law and the law's pity, there perished by neglect. The Union-houses of the present day have been erected at the cost of many thousand pounds each, in such a manner as to provide for the essential comforts as well as for the reception of the destitute. They are built with especial reference to those who are to be their future inhabitants. There are apartments for the aged who dwell together — schools for children of both sexes — hospitals for the sick, with warm and cold baths, the first medical attendance ; and a chapel for the holy services of religion. There is a weekly meeting of Guardians to examine into every depaitment of the Union House. 308 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. The master is as amenable to these repre- sentatives of parishes as the humblest inmate; and as recent public inquiries have justly proved, it is impossible, from the number who visit the House from the different villages and towns, as well as from the inspection of the Guardians, that any wrong; can be inflicted without dis- covery, or continued without appeal." — " The New Foor-Laiv : Four et Contre" by ClericuP, 1841. " When I first heard of this infernal con- coction of the avaricious soul-pledger (Brougham — ohl how much easier it is to pledge souls than to redeem them !) and had learned to comprehend in some mea- sure (though but in pai't) its diabolical nature, I felt all the Christian, the Bri- ton, and the man, aroused within me ! I thought that the whole nation would in- dignantly arise as one man, and, if the insulters of God and their country wei^e really in earnest in their proposal to rob and murder the poor for plunder — they would unite and hurl the impious ti-aitors to God and their country from those high and impoi-tant stations of which they had thereby proved themselves so utterly un- worthy. Alas ! alas ! how horrible ! how lamentable ! that the painful experience of the last seven years has forced on the fmind of every humane being, the convic- tion, that in this professedly Christian country — Mammon reigns in the hearts of more than nine-tenths of the rich adult male inhabitants triumphantly over the true God !" — " The Paupers' Advocate^'' by Samuel Roberts, 1 84 1 . " I will compare the characters, the talents, the conduct, the works, and the principles, of the statesmen who have dis- carded the good old Poor-Law of Eliza- beth, with those of the enacters of that God-pleasing, country-blessing, legisla- tive Act ; an Act which then — let it be jemembered — was an untried experiment, as holy in its conceptions, as it proved to be beneficial in its consequences. But there were giant legislators on the earth in those days ! We now cannot find such as are even worthy of being called men. The Queen of those days would scarcely have intrusted them to carry her fan for her; perhaps she would have taken off their useless heads. Where among them shall we find the Bacons, — the Howards, — the Leicesters, — the Sidneys, — the Ra- leighs, — the Essexes, — or the Burleighs, of those days ?" — Ibid. " During the resumed discussion of the clauses of the Ii-ish Poor-Law Bill on Friday night, on Mr. O'Connell's remark- ing on the parts relating to vagrancy, Mr. A\"alker said, he thought the law ought to be very severe against trading 7)iendi- cants." — Hereford County Press, May 17, 1838. The Cat let out of the Bag. — " The principle of the Enghsh Act was a most simple one — it was this, that no man should perish for want, and that there should be a workhouse to receive him ; but at the same time it was provided, that the moral discipline should be such, that an able-bodied labourer would prefer going out to earn a subsistence by the sweat of his brow, to remaining in the workhouse. That system had worked well." — Lord Li/ndhurst, Irish Poor-Laiv Debate, May 21, 1838. So Ready to pekmit every In- quiry. — "Mr. Walter said, it was his intention to move for a committee to in- quire into the state of the Poor-Laws, and expressed a hope that the Government would give him an opportunity of bring- ing the subject forward on the day fixed for the motion. Lord J. Russell stated that he would give the hon. member no facilities for bringing forward this motion, and refused to say whether he would accede to the motion, or oppose it." — House of Commons, Feb. C, 1 837. Sauce for the Goose, Sauce for THE Gander. — " The clause enacting that, where the mother of an illegitimate child was dead, her father or mother should be burthened with its maintenance, was given up, so general was the disapprobation with which it was received. Mr. Cob- bett, laying it down to be perfectly right that the relations of poor persons should maintain them, actually divided the House on an amendment — ' that thisclause should be extended to paupers on the pension list receiving money for which no public service had been performed ; and that on the .children's parents or grandparents of of any such person failing to maintain him or her, the pension should cease and determine !' He found sixteen members to vote with him." — House of Commons^ March 21, 1834. The New Poor-Law Bill.—" This Act was proposed on the 17th of April, 1834, by Lord Althorp ; and it was moved to be read that day six months by Sir S. Whalley, one of the members for Marylebone. The amendment was se- conded by Alderman Wood, and sup- ported by Mr. Walter, M.P. for Berk- shire, and opposed by Messrs. Hume, THE FRIENDS A\D FAVOURERS OF THE NEW POOR-LAW. 309 Grote, Sir Francis Burdett, Sir James Scarlett, and various other members, who spoke on the question, all agreeing that there was no good reason against the second reading of the Bill, though none of them approved of it as a whole, and each of them pointed out some objectionable pro- vision which might be amended or omit- ted in the committee." — Annual Reqister, 1834. ^ ' Letting the Lion in to try to TURN HIM OUT AGAIN. — "Sir Francis Burdett told a story of a Bill brought in by Mr. Curwen, and still called Mr. Cur- wen's Act, having been so changed in committee, that a few lines of the preamble were the only part of the original Bill that remained; and he would vote for the second reading of this Bill, in the hojje that it would share a similar fate ! ! !" — Ibid. Insult of the Poor and Robbing OF THE Rate-payers. — " The Board of Guardians of the Hereford Union, anxious to testify the high estimation in which they hold the important services of their Chair- man, John Hopkins, Esq., have invited him, previous to his leaving the county, to a public dinner." — Hereford Press, March 16, 1 839. " We understand that the Guardians of the Ledbury Union, intend on Thursday, July the 25th, to give a dinner at the Feathers' Inn, Led- bury, to the Rev. J. H. Underwood, M.A., in order to mark the high esteem they entertain of the able and humane manner in which, for two years, that gen- tleman has discharged the duties of Chair- man of the Board."— /5/(/., July 20, 1 839. " The gentlemen who constituted the late Board of Guardians of the Droitwich Union are about to invite J. S. Packin^'- ton, Esq., M.P., Chairman, and J. H. Galton, Esq., Vice-chairman, to a public dinner, in order to express to them the sense they entertain of the kindness, attention, and courtesy, with which they have fulfilled the duties of their responsi- ble offices."— Ihid., April 28, 1 838. " The Guardians of the Ross Union intend to invite Sir E. W. Head, Bart., Kingsmill Evans, Esq., the Chairman, and W. Bridgeman, Esq., the Vice-chairman, to a public dinner."— 7J/rf., March 17, 183S. "On the ]5th inst., a most sumptuous dinner was given to Tomkyns Dcav, Esq., of Whitney-Court, at the Rose and Crown, Hay, by the Guardians and rate-payers (?) of the Hay Union, as a testimonial of the respect and esteem felt for that gentleman, and the sense entertained of his conduct as Chairman of the Board of Guardians " —Ibid, Oct.^ 26, 1839. " The Guardi- ans of the Tenbury Union have invited their Chairman to a public dinner." — Hereford Times, March 27, 1841. " Neavcastle-Emlyn Union. — On the 26th ult., being the first board day of the present year, James Richard Lewes Lloyd, Esq., of Dolhaidd, was re-elected Chairman of the Board of Guardians. Dr. Jones, of Lancych, in proposing the wor- thy captain, dwelt for some time on the services he had rendered the Board. Al- though we did not happen to be present at the time the Doctor was speaking, yet we are informed that he passed the highest encomiums on the conduct of this unwearied gentleman as Chairman, and on behalf of the Guardians and others, presented him with a very chaste silver salver, bearing the arms of the family, and an appropriate inscription. We can declare from the connexion we hold with the Union, that the zealous and indefatigable manner with which Captain Lloyd discharges his duties as Chairman, is a theme of admiration and gratitude amongst all the rate-payers ; he is untir- ing in his exertions to sift and probe mat- ters to the bottom ; and when a clear and satisfactory case of real and necessitous poverty is made out, he never flinches to recommend (if compatible with law) that relief be granted : and on many occasions has it been known, that this gallant gen- tleman has given alms from his own pri- vate purse to applicants who could not be legally admitted on the books of the- Union. May God's selectest blessings be poured upon him, who in his younger days- defended in arms the rights of his country in foreign lands, and who now contributes so greatly to uphold its internal peace at home." — Carmarthen Journal, April 16~ 1841. ^ "SOUTHWAEK ELECTION. "Mr. Benjamin Wood (brother to the- alderman), who is a candidate for the repre- sentation of the Borough, has been tolera- bly goaded at all his meetings, on the ques- tion of the Whig Poor-Law, to the principle of which he confessed, at one meeting, he was attached. The electors seem deter- mined to have something specific from him, however, and therefore they pursue him, from night to night, with questions of a gra- velling kind to one who evidently wishes to shirk them all and take a seat as little encumbered as possible. On Tuesday night, he seemed astonished that he had 310 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. not satisfied his friends on this matter, and spoke rather impatiently, but more to the point than upon any former occa- sion. We take the following short ex- tract from the report in the daily papers : — " ' He thought he had settled tlie new Poor- Law question at the meeting on Friday last ; but he would now say, tliat it would be in his power to do as much to make tiiat bill to their liking, and he hoped to the liking of all dasst s, as Mr. Walter. (Hear.) Indeed, he thought he c( uld go a great deal further, because Mr. Walter had been too passionate; but he (Mr. Woodj wmild be cool, and would take the matter up under the good advice of those who knew more about it than he did, and he would go amongst those electors who had paid a great deal of attention to the conduct of that bill, and then he would act to the best of his judgment. (Hear.) " ' A person here asked Mr. Wood what his opinion was upon the separation of man and wife in the Union workhouses? " ' Mr. Anderson. — That has nothing to do with the Poor-Laws; that is for the Guardians of each parish to manage as they like. '"Mr. Wood resumed. — He believed the great defect of the Poor-Laws was, that the Guardians were not appointed as they ought to be. They ought to be elected by those who paid rates, and there should be 7io plm-ality of votes or proxies. (Hear.) A certain check should be put upon the Guardians ; but they should have more power, and for the exercise of that power they should be made responsible to the people.' " We believe the gentleman will be * cool.' We are afraid that he will be too cool; and, moreover, we are also afraid that he will trust too much to those who ' know more about it than he does.' This profession of coolness and of defer- ence to others is awfully ominous, parti- cularly when we find the cool gentleman coming out, in a minute or two, with a confident assertion of his belief of the main defect of the new law, and showing that he does know very well what its de- fects and iniquities are. To be sure ; the plurality and the proxy-voting are ' de- fects,' and much more than defects. They are iniquities ; but to call them so is ' too passionate,' and the cooler phrase defect is a more suitable term for a system of representation, which gives a few indivi- duals the power to tax one part and coerce another part of the community, without any responsibility attaching to the privi- leged few, or the underlings of their choice ! Not one word drops from the lips of this cool gentleman about the cruelties to the poor that have been proved over and over again, and day by day, upon the working of the new law ; not a word about the Bridgewater gruel, nor about any of the numerous cases brought forward by Mr. Day. He is too cool a being to be melted by any of these occur- rences, and is even so cool as to make it a matter of boast, that the infiictions on his fellow-creatures which warmed his adversary into passion, will never produce a heat within his breast. We believe him; but we shall be astonished if the electors of Southwark, particularly the small householders, receive this icicle wilh. any more warmth than its own. " A question was put to Mr. Wood as to what he thought of the separation of man and wife. It was a home question, and he appears to have had a friend at his elbow to ward it oti'; for Mr. Ander- son observed, that it was not a part of the law, but rested entirely with the Guardians to do as they liked about it. This is partly true and partly false. It is no part of the law, in so many words ; but the law gives to the Poor-Law Commis- sioners absolute power in the making of rules for the governing of workhouses, and in their very first report they state, that one of their regulations, and one of the main ones, is to be a complete classi- fication of inmates, in which married per- sons are not to be excepted. This is the state of the law, and, under it, the prac- tice is to separate man and wife by order of the Poor-Laiv Commissioners. So far Mr. Anderson is right in saying that the separation is not a part of the Act of Par- liament. But what he next says is totally untrue — viz., that it rests ' with the Guar- dians to do as they like ;' for the Guar- dians are bound by the Act to do what the Commissioners direct. They are bound, for instance, to carry into effect the separation which the Commissioners order. The elector was quite right, there- fore, in his attempt to draw out of cool Mr. Wood what his sentiments on this matter are, and we hope the question will be rejieated. If he should shufile it off by saying it is not the Act which com- mands the separation, but the Commis- sioners, then shift your ground to meet the shuffle, and ask him, 'what do you mean to do when the potcers of the Com- missioners come to be reneivedf Hold him fast at this point. Do not let him move from this, until he has given a straightforward answer as to what he will do to lessen the poicers, or altogether de- stroy the powers, of those Commissioners." — Champion, Dec. 22, 1839. " Dismissal of the Assistant-Over- seer OF Cheltenham. — On Thursday last, the Board of Guardians of the Chel- THE FRIENDS AND FAVOURERS OF THE NEW POOR-LAW. 311 teiiham Union received from the Poor- Law Commissioners an order for the dis- missal of Mr. H. G. Trinder, an Assistant- Overseer and collector of the poor-rales for the parish of Cheltenham. Afler the order had been read, the Board unani- mously directed their clerk, Mr. Hubert Gyde, to write a letter to the Poor-Law Commissioners, expressive of their sur- prise and dissatisfaction at the power the Commissioners had assumed, in dismiss- ing an officer of the Board of Guardians without in any way consulting or even communicating with that body." — Chtl- tenham Free Press, Dec, 1839. Sir Fretful Plagiary. — " The Newspapers ! Sir, they are the most VILLAINOUS, licentious, ABOMINABLE, INFERNAL NOT THAT I EVER READ THEM No, I MAKE IT A RULE NEVER TO LOOK INTO A NEWSPAPER." " The Duke of Wellington has adopted a rule of never looking into a newspaper : what- ever comes from a quarter known to be adverse to the Poor-Law is cast aside by him as tainted with partiality, exaggera- tion, and the spirit of unfairness ; what- ever reaches the public in a form not bearing the stamp of official authority, is equally neglected as unauthentic." — Times, March 1, 1841. Stuff of Nonsense. — " Sir J. Swin- burne, Bart., contributed £100 to the erection of the Bellingham Union Work- house — a building which, to the honour of owners of property in the Union, has been erected altogether by public sub- scription, instead of poor-rates." — Conser- ative Journal, March 6, 1841. "Defence of the New Poor-Law. — It is really edifying to observe the kind of arguments by which the Liberal sup- porters of the New Poor-Law endeavour to prop up their sinking cause. Their staple assertion, to which they resort on all occasions, is, ' that the former law was full of errors, and subject to great abuses, and that it could never, under any circum- stances, be resorted to again.' Be it so ; but let the same principle be acted upon in the case of the New Poor-Law too, which is also ' full of errors,' and subject to ' great abuses,' and which, therefore, upon the reasoning of these legislators, ought to be instantly and for ever dis- carded."— r/wes, March 24, 1841. " Mr. Hawes (debate, March 9.2, 1841) declared solemnly, that the old work- houses might justly be called places of torture. The aged and the young, the vicious and tjie virtuous, were huddled together without order or classification.' Now, workhouses were no part of the system of Queen Elizabeth's Law, — they wei-e introduced by the Act of George I., which Ijord John Russell eulogised a few weeks ago, and from thence were copied into the new system." — Times, March 24, 1841. " A petition against the New Poor-Law was presented by Mr. L. Hodges, signed by 2,455 rate-payers of Ipswich. The hon. member said he Avas instructed to mention, that an Assistant Poor-Law Com- missioner had gone round and canvassed the inhabitants not to sign." — House of Commons, March 9, 1 84 1 . Commissioners. — " The proposition to place the estates of boroughs in the hands of Commissioners of the Crown, involved the greatest invasion of property that has yet been attempted." — Lord John RusselVs Speech on the Reform of Irish Corporations, ] 836. The Poor-Law Committee in 1838. — " Seventeen out of its twenty-one members supported every proposition which emanated from the Commission- ers." "He (Mr. Wakley) objected to the two great objects of the measure. The first was, that the Bill was to be renewed for a period of ten years ; and next, that it would give to the Commissioners what- ever extent of power they pleased. In fact, he believed that most members were ignorant of the real object sought by the working of the Bill. He was emboldened in this assertion by what had fallen the othereveningfromhishon. friend the mem- ber for Kilkenny,* and the reply made to it by the noble lord the Secretary for the Colonies.f In the discussion which took place on the introduction of the Bill, his hon. friend had said that the real ob- ject of the Bill was to make a distinction between that poverty which was the re- sult of vice and profligacy, and that casual poverty in which the honest and indus- trious were sometimes involved. If such were the real object of the Bill, who was there that would raise his voice or hand against it? But was that the object avowed by the noble lord? No such thing. The noble lord, with a candour and manliness which distinguished him in the support of those measures which he believed, mistakenly or otherwise, to be for the public advantage, did on that occasion openly and fairly state what he * Mr. Hume. t Lord Jolui Kussell- 312 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. believed to be the real object of the Bill. And what was that object recognized in the senate of England, that country which boasted of her institutions, of her great power, her great naval and military forces, her arts, her trade, and commerce ? He would state the object as it was men- tioned by the noble lord : — ' He differed Aery much from his hon. and learned friend (the member for Tynemouth), in thinl^ing that a distinction should be made in favour of merit; he thought it most unreasonable that any Board should pretend to say who was meritorious. All the public could do in the shape of relief was to adhere to that wise and good principle of the Act of Elizabeth, that no poor person in the country should be allowed to starve' (' hear, hear,' from some members on the Ministerial benches) ; and this was the boon held out to the poor of England by the ' Libe- rals,' as they were called, and from some of whom he thought he had just heard a cheer at his quotation. In the term ' liberal,' according to some hon. mem- bers, was included everything that was great and generous. Doubting of those meanings, he had looked out for the word in Todds Johnson, and there he found that its meanings were given as ' gene- rous,' ' noble,' ' magnanimous,' ' the oppo- site to parsimony and parsiraoniousness.' He owned, howevei-, that he did not think those terms applied to the term ' liberal' in its modern political applica- tion. But the statement of the noble lord had shown what was the ' liberal' treatment of the poor. You might in- carcerate them in Union prisons ; you might whip them once a fortnight — tor- ture them always — clothe them in the degrading dress — but then you would not allow them to starve. That was wise, and just, and liberal. Whatever else the poor might be made to endure, they were not to be allowed to starve. He had never in that House been a party man. He believed that faction was the curse of this country. He was not, therefore, a member of any faction, nor would he ever bind himself down to the opinion of any Minister, be he who he might ; and he would say to the noble lord and his col- leagues, and those who supported them, that if they wished to have the support of the people, they must not have such Bills as that which was then before the House. In the name, then, of the poor people of England, he felt bound to make an appeal to the great Conservative party, and to implore them to come to the rescue. The great landowners of the Conservative body were the natural protectors of the poor, who looked to them for protection. They were not alarmed about the corn- laws, for they knew that with the rise in the price of bread, there must be a cor- responding increase in the rate of wages. (' Hear,' from, we believe, Mr.O'Connell.) He heard again another cheer from the ' Liberal' side. He was surprised to hear the hon. and learned member for Dublin groaning at the truth. He re- peated, that he appealed in the name of the poor to the great Conservative body as their protectors. From the ' Liberal' side they had now nothing to expect. They (the Liberals) now confided in the noble lord, because they knew that he would not deceive them, and because he advocated that most liberal principle, ' that the poor were not to be allowed to starve,' and with that object the Poor- Law Commissioners were to be invested with almost unlimited power for tea years. But how was the necessity for this renewal shown ? It was shown by the report of those very men who were to live by it. They got a hint that such a report would be desirable — that amongst its happy results would be found that the Commission would be continued for ten years more, and for ever, for that matter. The report was of course ready at the expected time. It was laid, with all due formality, before the noble lord, who, with equal formality, laid it on the table of the House, and then, according to fresh directions, a Bill was concocted from the report, and that Bill was now before them. One of the points in the report most characteristic of the Commissioners (hear) was, that the paupers who received relief from the Boards of Guardians did not display a spirit of gratitude. He durst say they did not. He knew how paupers were treated by Guardians in general, what sympathy they met with, and how they were dealt with when they got into the Union workhouses ; and he could well conceive how the relief granted by the Boards of Guardians might not be always received in the most gratifying manner. But he denied that gratitude could be expected in the case ; and more, he held that those who did expect grati- tude from paupers, were not qualified to frame or to carry out a Poor-Law. (Hear.) What ! were the paupers slaves } Were they, because they were poor, to sa- crifice every right which they had possessed THE FRIENDS AND FAVOURERS OF THE NEW FOOR-LAW. 313 as independent men ? But they showed no gratitude, forsooth ! He said gratitude was not called for from them ; they ought not to show any gratitude. By what means were they entitled to relief ? Why of right, by Act of Parliament ; by the law of the land ; by right confirmed by Act of Parliament ; in fact, they had pre- cisely the same right to relief that the richest man the House held had to his lands. The law of the land had given precisely the same right in the one case as in the other. He denied, therefore, that the paupers ought to be called upon to show gratitude to the hands that re- lieved them." — House of Commons, Feb. 8, 1841. " Mr. T. Buncombe said, the present question was, not whether they would adhere to, or abandon the present system ; but whether they would agree to the second reading of a Bill entitled, ' A Bill to Amend the present Poor-Law Amend- ment Act,' but in which he found no amendment at all, but an aggravation of every evil and every subject of complaint which existed under the present system. It was, therefore, not fair in arguing this question to say, ' Shall we adhere to, or shall we abandon, the present system ?' He did not say anything against the pre- sent Commissioners ; he said, if the Com- missioners were to be continued, he did not believe the law could be safer than in their hands ; but he had a right to find fault with the system under which they were acting. (Hear, hear.) The Bill professed to be a Bill to amend the pre- sent law ; but where did it amend it ? (Hear, hear.) Why did not the Govern- ment introduce a short Bill of six lines, merely to say that the Commission should be perpetual ; and that the Commission- ers should have the full powers of the Commons, Lords, and the Crown, for the present Bill did confer on them such power? They had the power to make any rule or regulation they pleased. About two years ago he had brought be- fore the House some rules and orders issued from Somerset-house with regard to the appointment of clerks of Unions to be returning officers of the Boards of Guardians, which ought to have been general rules, and should have been laid before the Secretary of State. He had asked whether they had ever been laid before the Secretary of State, and the answer was, 'No;' but there was no necessity to send them, as, in the original orders, all the names of the Unions they were directed to were not inserted, and, though they went by the same post, they were not general rules. Everybody knew that there were two lists, Whig and Tory, and if the clerk of a Union hap- pened to be a Tory, he took care that Liberals should be excluded. Such things had happened in two parishes in the borough he represented, and the Poor- Law Commissioners had held the return to be a legal return." — House of Com- mons, Feb. 8, 1841. " It was not to any saving of money he looked in upholding this law, but to the improvement it would produce in the state of the virtuous poor; and if that object were attained, even if the rates were doubled, neither he, nor he believed any country gentleman of England, would begrudge the money. The question be- fore the House appeared to him, as the right hon. baronet opposite had suggested, to divide itself into two parts : namely, whether they should abandon the new system altogether, or, if they continued that system, whether it should be under the central superintendence or manage- ment of the Poor-Law Commissioners. He took it to be next to impossible to abandon the system. No man in this country, not even the hon. member for Finsbury himself, could, he thought, con- template such a thing in order to go back to the old system. The vices of that system had been already so well described, that he would not again allude to them ; but he believed there Avas no one who was willing to risk their return. The ques- tion then was, whether they could carry out the new system without the aid of central management. In his opinion that aid was necessary to carry out the system to a proper extent. Some hon. gentle- men might differ from him on that point, but against all their opinions he would endeavour to show, that without central management, they ran the risk of falling into the only course by which they could return to the old system. He would quote a passage from (as we understood) the report of the committee on which the law was founded. It was this : — ' The committee believe the powers of the Central Board to be indispensible to the execution of the law ; and that without them there will be no security against a recurrence to almost every variety of mis- management and abuse.' Now, if they intended to go on improving, they must * Sir R. Peel. t Wakley. 314 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. continue that central system ; for, if not, then would the hon. gentleman be quite right in withstanding the prolongation of the measure at all. But upon what was founded originally the Poor-Law Com- mission ? On the recommendation of the Commissioners of Inquiry who had been appointed to investigate the subject. And on what ground did they form their opinion ? Not upon any fancies of their own, but on the good system of manage- ment which had been adopted in some particular parishes that fell under their notice. That good system, then, Avhich they found established in those parishes, they recommended for adoption throughout the whole country of England and Wales. The only way for that to be done was, for some central authority to see that the same management was observed in all quarters. And while he was speaking of the value of a central autho- rity, he might quote instances that had occurred in his own experience. lie hoped hon. members would not think, when he used the term ' gaol,' that he was confounding the subject of prisons with that of Unions, but tije whole of the prisons in Scotland had been placed under a system of central management, and it had proved to be one of the best systems for prison discipline, and all had given it their hearty approbation. But what happened last year in that House, when, night after night, he defended the conduct ot the visiting justices ? Was he not assailed at that time with the charge of their being no system of general manage- ment? And yet now they turned round and opposed that principle. Although a great improvement, as they must admit, had been made in the administration of the Poor-Laws, still there was a great deal to be done ; there was a large field still over which the influence and autho- rity of the Poor-Law Commissioners had not been able to extend. If, then, they left it as it was, they would deprive the country of the advantages which that in- fluence and authority would produce — they would leave their work little more than three parts done, and the result would be, that they would have amended the state of things in one part of the country, whilst no system was introduced into another." — Mr. Fox Maule,, House of Commons^ Feb. 8, 1841. " Mr. G. Knight, notwithstanding what had been said against centralization, trusted the House would consent to go into committee on a Bill founded upon tlae amended system of the New Poor-I^aw. That advantage should be taken of pecu- liar topics and circumstances to inveigh against the law did not surprise him, when he considered what an easy road to popularity such a course opened up. (Hear.) It was much easier and more agreeable to give than to refuse, wlicn the grant was to be made with other peo- ple's property. It was, however, by no .means agreeable to those who advocated the new system to be held up to public odium as the oppressors of the poor ; but those who made such representations should recollect the state of tilings before the introduction of the present law. They sliould call to mind the unjust sys- tem of paying wages out of the poor- rates, and the extent to which the old system repressed industry, whilst it en- couraged idleness. Now, which were the real friends of the poor — those who, by adhering to the old system, would en- courage the lazy and profligate, or those who, by promoting tlie operation of the new system, would teach them industry and prudence, and a reliance upon their own exertions, and thus insure them better wages than tliey could formerly gain ? Those who aimed at the latter object were surely less the enemies of the poor than those who, by inflammatory ap- peals to tlieir })assions, excited them against the law. This is the only country which compelled those not paupers to con- tribute to the support of those who were. He did not complain of this. On the con- trary, he should desire to see the principle generally established. But had anything been done under the New Poor-Law which could not also have been done under the old ? In a parish with which he was connected, and which had not as yet been brought under the operation of the new law, the principles of that law had not- withstanding been acted upon ; nay, more, they had been anticipated in practice for two years before the passing of the New Poor-Law. This showed that what was done under the new law could be, and had been done, under the old. In that parish, by adopting these principles, a saving of £25,000 had been elTected, and the condition of the poor had been at the same time much improved. As to the particular cases of alleged oppression which had been instanced, he believed it would be found that, when traced to their sources, they would be shown either to be unfounded, or very much exaggerated. He did not stand up to defend severe or THE FRIENDS AND FAVOUREKS OF THE NEW POOR-LAW. 315 harsh treatment ; on tlie contrary, he was most desirous that all oppressors and wrong-doers should be punished. But it should be remembered that these alleged oppressions were not the result of the new law. The evils intlicted on the poor were greater when the old law was in operation than now. The pauper could not now, as he was then, be bandied about from parish to parish ; but when he was shown to be destitute he must be relieved on the spot. As to the case of the old man sixty years of age, it should be recollected that the new law authorized out-door re- lief to that class. It was only to the able-bodied, who could work, that out- door relief was refused, and even in these instances it was premitted in cases of in- firmity. It was easy to call the work- house a prison or bastile, and the poor man who laboured to keep himself and family out of it was deserving of respect ; but if that same man chose to eat the bread of idleness, he had no right to deciy it as not being a proper place for him. It was better in a great many instances, as respected shelter and food, than the labourer could have at his own home, and therefore, unless confinement were made one of the conditions, how could the workhouse be made less desirable than his own cottage? If the able-bodied labourer were to receive out-door relief to what class could it be refused ? and this being kept in view, it would be seen that the applications would be so numerous as to destroy altogether the workmg of the sys- tem. (Hear.)" — House of Commotis, Feb. 8, 1841. " This was an enactment Avhich in com- mon justice was due to the humble and independent labourer, who toiled inces- santly to keep himself from the degrada- tion of receiving parochial relief. The continuance of the present Poor-Law was due to the community at large, but, above all, it was due to the working classes themselves, for without it there could be no hope of improvement, either in their moral, or their physical condition. As to retracing our steps the idea could not for a moment be entertained. He never de- nied that there were cases of deep dis- tress, but he should never assent to the doctrine, that general rules of legislation should be founded upon particular cases. That House, he trusted, would never de- cide upon individual instances. He did not doubt that cases of extreme distress and hardship might be cited, and might be more easily cited now than when the workhouses were small, for large estab- lishments necessarily led to increased pubhcity. In the old workhouses, which were carried on upon a small scale, cases of abuse of power, cases of cruelty and hardship, must have existed, and he sus- pected that they did exist to a much greater extent, and were of a far more aggravated character, than had ever yet come to the knowledge of the public. (Hear, hear.) He did not deny the exist- ence of abuses at present, he lamented that they were to be found ; but he con- ceived that the best way of mitigatiii"- those causes of complaint would be to maintain a plan which, by reason of the great scale on which it was worked, aflx)rded that protection against abuse and tyranny, which publicity usually supplied. Influenced by considerations such as these, he had been induced to give the measure his support, and now he should deeply regi-et being convinced that the experi- ment of 1834 had failed, and must be abandoned. If such a conviction were forced upon him by circumstances, he should overlook his disappointment, and do that which upon the whole he thought would be most advantageous to the coun- try, but he repeated that it would occa- sion him great regret to be obliged to abandon the plan of 1834. Admittin"- for the sake of argument, that they must give up the measure of 1834, he desired to know what they proposed to substitute in its stead — what system was to be adopted ? They had heard of no project, nor had the most distant mention been made of any fresh plan. Taking for granted, then, that they must adhere to the general principles of the New Poor- Law, he wished to put this question — did they or did they not think it best to intrust the administration of the law to individuals scattered over various parts of the countiy, or to a central commission in London? (Hear, hear.) Amongst the causes of complaint urged against the old system was the want'of uniformity in its working, while the distinguishing fea- ture of the new plan was its tendency to maintain that uniformity. (Hear, hear.) With respect to the speech of the hon. gentleman opposite, the member for Bir- mingham,*-' he must be permitted to say, that it was anything but satisfactory ; it was unsatisfactory as a piece of logical argument. The hon. member appeared to say, that the evil was not so much in the law itself, as in the administration of * Muntz. 316 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. the law — that there was great diversity in the mode of its administration. Surely, that was the very evil for which the pre- sent system was framed and fitted to afford a remedy. One of the faults of the old system was. that it did not dis- cover the idle, but indiscriminately gave relief to all. The hon. member opposite said, that wages rose as poor-rates dimi- nished ; and that ' the stupid farmers,' as he called them, had now as much to pay as ever; but that result was desired. The hon. member complained, that the farmers paid the wages of the working men out of the poor-rates. It was true that in many cases that happened ; but the operation of a central commission put an end to the practice. (Hear.) The act of Elizabeth had been well administered in some parts of the country, and ill ad- ministered in others, and, as the House had frequently heard, a great variety of practice prevailed. Now, that was just the evil which the establishment of a Central Board was calculated to prevent by the gradual introduction of a uniform system — of a system more likely to be uniform and humane, than if left to the sole management of the Guardians of in- dividual parishes. The hon. member for Birmingham was a high authority upon a question of this nature ; he employed a great number of working men, and there could be no doubt that he was influenced by the most humane and benevolent motives ; but he requested the House to consider for a moment the argument of the hon. member ; it was, that the altered system of the Poor-Laws had increased rent and wages ; and that, therefore, the position of the farmer was not ameliorated. To that it could with perfect fairness be replied, that the object of the measure was not to improve the state of the far- mer, so much as to elevate the condition of the working classes ; he (Sir R. Peel) rejoiced to hear that the elFect of the mea- sure had been to increase wages — that the balance was against the emploj'er, and in favour of the working man. It was only by making this distinction between the idle and the industrious that the inde- pendent labourer could be encouraged. (Hear.) The hon. member for Finsbury had referred to the working of the Poor- Law in Devonshii-e. It did so happen, that in that county a greater amount of out-door relief was granted than in any other, at the same time that he (Sir R. Peel) did not for a moment suppose, that "in. a-week was a sum sufficient to main- tain a working man and his family ; but he denied that the state of the poor in Devon at all arose from the application of the workhouse test (Hear, hear.) On the general grounds, then, which he had stated, remembering the evils of the old system, impressed with a conviction that the present law afforded the best chance of a good administration of the funds available for the use of the poor, he should vote for the second reading of the bill, reserving, however, to himself the most perfect freedom of judgment with regard to the policy of the several clauses. (Hear, hear.)" — Sir Robert Peel, House of Com- mons, Feb. 8, 1841. *' Take, for example, the parish of Ken- sington. How many relieving officers did it contain ? The parish had 25,000 in- habitants, and was 16 miles in circum- ference. It bordered on their court, and was under the very noses of the Commis- sioners. Yet it had but one relieving officer. (Hear, hear.) In St. Luke's there were 40,000 inhabitants, and the relieving officer had latterly received the benefit of an assistant. (Hear.) Was it possible that the poor could have adequate relief under such a system ? It was im- possible ; and the people knew it. What was the language held by a relieving officer to the wife of a man who had gone down to the Stratford-upon-Avon Union, and had subsequently returned to the parish of Chelsea } The moment he saw the woman he said, ' I shall hang you.' He afterwards admitted that he had used this expression, but said that it was only a joke. He (Mr. Wakley) did not com- prehend this description of joke. In the Kensington Union what had happened in the case of Elizabeth Friry ? She was a poor, exhausted, and decrepit creature, with mortified legs. A poor Irish girl, who gave her a shelter, went to the doctor of the Union, and asked him for God's sake to come in and see her. The girl was quite alarmed, and informed him, that she had been told by some of the people about the workhouse, that she had subjected her- self to three months' imprisonment for giving the poor woman shelter. When the girl mentioned this to the relieving officer, ' And serve you right, too,' was the re- mark which he made. These officers were, it was true, censured by the Com- missioners ; but they were not deprived of their situations, and vague censure was of little use with such men. The Com- missioners exercised a novel function in all these cases. After one of the consti- THE FRIENDS AND FAVOURERS OF THE NEW POOR-LAW. 317 tutional authorities has instituted an in- quiry, and the rate-payers have given their opijiion, what did the Commissioners do? They sent down an agent of their own to inquire, and contrive, by every in- genuity, to get rid of the moral effect pro- duced by the verdict of the jury. What did hon. gentlemen think of this new func- tion ? (Hear, hear.) In the Hendon Union the Commissioners authorized the Guardi- ans to issue a publication reflecting on the jury. Look to the case of Lisney. This poor man was admitted into the Hendon Union in April last year. In July he asked for permission to see some of his family. He was not allowed. In August he made the same request. The answer which he received was, ' Not at present.' In September he renewed his application. The answer was, ' No.' In October he made another application, and was again refused. Now, an entry had been made on the books by the Governor of the workhouse, to the effect, that this poor man was afflicted with a disease which would prove mortal, and that if he was not allowed to go out shortly, the long days would cease, and he might not be able to go at all. On the 4th of Novem- ber, the Guardians visited the house, and, in the Governor's presence, Lisney said, ' Have I got my holiday yet ?' — ' I don't know,' was the answer. ' If I haven't,' said Lisney, ' I ought to have it.' Here- upon one of the Guardians said, ' What is that you say ?' ' It is very hard (was Ijisney's reply) that I am not to have a holiday as well as other men.' He followed them into the passage, and the relieving ofiicer said, ' Go away.' ' I don't see why,' said Lisney. He was called up immediately afterwards to the Board- room. Now, that man was afflicted with the disease called ' diabetes,' which almost always proves fatal, and how was he sen- tenced by this Board of Guardians, whom the Commissioners laud for their humanity — this exceedingly kind, this remarkably generous Board, — a Board, too, possessed of very great experience ? It was entered in their communication book, that ' James Lisney wanted to see the Board ; that he saw the Board, and was ordered twenty- four hours' bread and water.' But this was not all ; he was ordered into close confinement besides. (Hear, hear.) He was confined in a separate room ; he was put in on the night of the 4th of Novem- ber, and kept there until six o'clock on the following morning. The place where he was confined had no ceiling ; it was only covered with tiles ; and the weather was exceedingly cold at the time. When he came out, he told his companions he was so cold and shivering that he could sit upon the fire. (Hear, hear.) The medi- cal man, who gave his testimony upon this occasion, said, that he could not separate the punishment of James Lisney from the death of James Lisney. This medical witness was a gentleman of great experi- ence, wholly uninfluenced by feelings of partizanship or political leanings. In fact, he had never taken any part in the administration of the Poor-Law. In this case he (Mr. Wakley) had felt it to be his duty to take the evidence of the paupers in the house. For this he had been condemned ; but how else was he to get at the facts? Was he to rely im- plicitly on the evidence of the master ? Was he to receive the evidence of the Guardians who inflicted the punishment? To shut out the only testimony which could be satisfactory to a jury? (Hear, hear.) Yet the Commissioners presumed, with the money of the people in their pockets, sitting in Somerset-house, to permit the Guardians to send forth a libel on the jury which returned the verdict. Was this a thing to be endured in a civilized country, in a country boasting of its freedom ? (Hear, hear.) He called on the noble lord to cause the notes taken on this occasion for the Poor-Law Commis- sioners to be published, for the information of the House and the country. The Commissioners had a reporter on the spot." — Mr. Wakley, House of Commons^ Feb. 8, 1841. " Sir R. Peel rose for the purpose of stating his reasons for supporting the second reading of the Bill then under the consideration of the House. It appeared to him, that in discussing this measure there were two main questions to be kept in view. The first was, whether it was advisable to adhere to, or abandon, the great experiment made in 1 834 ; and, secondly, whether, if the House thought it expedient to allow the law to remain unchanged, a Board of Central Commis- sioners was necessary to carry it into suc- cessful operation. When the Poor-Law Amendment Bill was introduced to the House, he assented to its being a law of the land, not for the reasons assigned by some hon. members opposite, for the pur- pose of diminishing the amount of assess- ment, but to remove great evils, the exist- ence of which all admitted. The condi- tion of the country at that period would 318 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. admit of no delay ; a chang^e was inevit- able ; the old Poor-Law, like a cancer, was corroding the industry of the country ; pauperism, demoralization, crime, and starvation, existed to an alarming extent, thus rendering a continuance of the old Law an utter impossibility. He was ready to admit, that had there existed a Conser- vative Government in 1834, when the Poor-Law Amendment-Bill was introduced into Parliament, it would have had to encounter great difficulties in passing the measure through the House, as it would have been opposed by a large section of hon. members who, on general measures, support the Government, but who, when- ever this question was discussed, placed themselves in opposition. In order to carry such a measure, it did require the unbounded confidence and active, zealous, unremitting co-oj)eration of a great politi- cal partj'. In discussing the merits of this Bill, the House should not forget tlie state of things, the actual condition of the country, prior to the alterations made by the Bill of 1834. He admitted that it was natural for the mind to dwell on existing evils, those present to the mind at the moment, and to forget all previous ones ; but this Avas not taking a states- manlike view of the question. He would briefly remind the House of the enormities that sprung out of the old Poor-Law, the consideration of which had mainly induced him (Sir R. Peel) to co-operate with the Government in carrying the Poor-Law Amendment-Bill through Parliament. In 1824 a committee of that House was appointed to inquire into the condition of labourers' wages, and a witness Avas ex- amined relative to the hundred of Blandon, in the county of SuflTolk. It appeared, that in that hundred the sum applied to the unemployed poor had gone on pro- gressively increasing from Lady-daj', 1810, to Lady-day, 1 823. The sum applied to tliat purpose for the year, from Lady-day, 1809 to 1810, was £1 3s.; in the next year, £1 12s., in the following it amounted to £3, in 1814, to £6, and in the following year it was £5. It went on increasing until 1834. In 1816 the sum had increa- sed to £2,397, and in 1822, to £3,556. This Union consisted of 46 incorporated parishes. The whole of the evidence contained in the report then before him went to show, that in the 46 parishes from which the facts had been collected, there had been a progressive increase in the rates, a progressive increase in the amount of relief, and in the numbers to whom that relief had been granted. He would now ask what had been the result of the sys- tem which displayed this tendency ? Had there betn anything like a coiTesponding moral improvement in the condition of the people ? On the contrary, there had been a manifest deterioration. The witnesses stated, that relief to the unemployed poor had efiects which might naturally be anti- cipated from the payment of money as the wages, not of labour, but of idleness. They described the efiects of that system as dreadful, as demoralizing in an extreme degree, as converting the sober and the industrious into poachers, thieves, and robbers ; and let the House recollect that that was the testimony, not of persons who could have any strong prepossession in favour of the present Poor-Law, or any prejudice against it — the evidence before him was that of most unbiassed witnesses ; he was far, however, from saying that this afibrded any argument against relief behig afforded to the industrious, when no doubt existed as to their being really industiious. When these witnesses were asked if crime flowed or appeared to flow from the then existing Poor-Law, their answers were to the cfiect, that it was a most fertile source of crime, and nothing else could be ex- pected as the consequence of giving money without exacting labour. Its effects were to break the bond of union, which sub- sisted between the labourer and the farmer. In former times it was not unusual, but, on the contrary, it was the general practice, for the labourer to continue on the same farm, not merely for a few years, but for the term of his life. In the success of the farmer he rejoiced, and sympathized with him in his disappointments. He was the friend of the farmer, almost a member of his family. But now, the husbandman was a mere servant, whose connexion with his employer was of the most temporary description ; when his task was finished, the interest which he took in the affairs of the farm altogether ceased ; and when the period of his engagement expired, he sought elsewhere for fresh employment, or became a burden to his parish. No case, then, could present a more striking exemplification, than the operation of the old Peor-Law did of a contrivance to pay the wages of idleness from the fruits of honest industry. The able-bodied poor, when in possession of out-door relief, were seen to waste their time in idle games, or insulting the passengers along the pub- lic roads, or else spending the day in sleep to pr(>pare themselves for the execution of THE FRIENDS AND FAVOURERS OF THE NEW POOR-LAW. 319 those practices which required darkness and concealment. The men whom those witnesses thus described were in the habit of receiving 4s. 6d. and 5s. a-vveek." — House of Commons, Feb. 8, 1841. Thk Poor-Law Commissiokers' Commencement of Hostilities.—" In order to form a colourable pretest for an accusation of the poor-rates causing great distress among the landlords and farmers, the Commissioners sent out circular ques- tions to noblemen, gentlemen, magistrates, and farmers, of all the counties of Eng- land and Wales. The two questions which more immediately bear upon our subject were the following : — ' Is the amount of agricultural capital in your neighbourhood increasing or diminishing ?' and, ' Do you attribute such increase or di- minution to any cause connected with the administration of the Poor-Laws ?' These questions were sent to 1717 persons, and the answers were as follow : — Every one of these persons, except one, returned for answer to the first question, that agricul- tural capital was diminishing, that is, that all individuals connected with the cultiva- tion of the soil were daily becoming poorer. In answer to the second question, relative to the supposed cause of this poverty, 401 positively declared that the admi- nistration of the Poor-Laws had no- thing to do with the diminishing their re- sources ; 1,157 assigned other causes for this pecuniary depression, or assigned no cause at all ; and now, reader, mark the residue of the number, 159 only ascribed the diminution of capital to causes con- nected with the poor-rates ! Only this pitiful number ! and out of these several were so ashamed of the answer sent, that they shrunk from adding their names to them, and they were accordingly received and published upon anonymous authority." Blakey's " Genet'al Principles of Paro- chial Relief^' Poor Law Party Work— "Lord Devon asked the Secretary for the Home Department, whether he was aware, or had heard, that in the Poor-Law Union of Cloghereen, in the county of Tipperary, the names mentioned in the books of the valuators had been marked by political distinctions, and that the words ' Tory out' had been appended to several of them." —House of Lords, Feb. 11, 1841. True Patriots they, be it under- stood — " Mr. W. Denison presented a petition from the Guardians of a parish in Surrey infavotir of the Poor-Law Bill — House of Commons, March 29, 1841. *' Lord Howick presented a petition from Norfolk, signed by several persons who had been for fi\e years carrying the existing law into effect, testifying to its beneficial effects upon the poor, and the great morcd improvement of which it had been the cause. It added, that affording out-door assistance to able-bodied men would be destructive of the advantages Avhich had already been attained, and reintroduce all the evils of the old system. The petition further expressed a belief that the present system afTordcd full means of affording out-door relief to deserving objects." — House of Commons^ March 19, 1841. " Mr. Hawes presented a petition from the Guardians of Richmond, Surrey, ex- pressing their satisfaction with the Bill, and stating that the law had been admi- nistered in their Union without creating any dissatisfaction ! ! — House of Commons. March, 26, 1841. " The Duke of Wellington presented a petition from the Guardians of a Poor- Law Union, in the county of Southamp- ton, in favour of the continuance of the powers of the Poor-Law Commissioners, as is contemplated by the Poor-Law Amendment - Bill." — Hottse of Lords, March 16, 1841. THE NEW POOR-LAW OPPOSITION. THEIR OPINIONS OF THE ACT, AND ITS TRINCirLRS. " Some eminent in virtue shall start up, Even in perversest time : The truths of their pure lips that never die, Shall bind the scorpion falsehood with a wreath Of ever living flame, Until the monster sting itself to death." — Queen Mab. " Full of wise saws and modern instances." — As You Like It. Confirmations strong As proofs of holy writ." — Othello. " Whatever is destructive of the con- stitution, cannot itself be the constitution ; for then the constitution would be felo de «e." — Atkins. " The New Poor-Law and the Aris- tocracy cannot long exist together." — Samuel Roberts (of Sheffiehl.J "It is unconstitutional; no power is lodged with the Legislature to ])ass such a Bill. If, indeed, things have got to this, the only remedy would be a national convention. But I can do no good now. I have withdrawn from the House of Lords. It is sure to pass ; for nowadays they will pass anything." — Lord Eldon. " If the rights of the poor were in- vaded, the property of the rich would not long be safe." — Mr. Walter, Freemasons' Tavern, June 24, 1839. " I, in the most express terras, deny the competency of Parliament to pass this ' Act.' I warn you — do not dare to lay your hand on the constitution. I tell you, that if, circumstanced as you are, you pass this ' Act,' it will be a nullity, and that no man will be bound to obey it. I repeat it, and I call on any man who hears me, to take down my words. You have not been elected for this purpose. You have been appointed to make laws, not legislators — you are appointed to act under the constitution, not to destroy it — you are appointed to exercise the func- tions of legislators, and not to trample on them ; and if you do so, your act is a dis- solution of the Government — you resolve society into its original elements, and no man in the land is bound to obey you." — Lord Chancellor Plunket. " A more odious Bill, considering the circumstances of the times, or more cruel and unjust to the poorer classesof the com- munity, had never received the sanction of the British Parliament. Its effects had been oppressive and injurious not only to the working classes, but had also diminished the profits of the merchant and the landholder. He entreated them not to persevere with this tyrannical and odious Bill, which ground down the faces of the poor; and told honourable mem- bers that they knew as little of the sub- ject, as he did of music, or of the cloisters of Oxford and Cambridge." — Mr. T. Attwood, in the House of C'ommo7is, July 15, 1839. " It is a tyranny which the people of England will never submit to." — Sir James Scarlett, House of Commons, April, 1834. " This law is contrary to the maxims, and to every principle of the laws of this country." — Lord IVynford, July, 1834. *' The Poor-Law Act is only an ex- periment which the Government dare not carry into execution in some parts of the country." — Lord Lyndhurst, on the Second Reading of the Irish Poor-Latv, May, 1838. " The most execrable law that ever was enacted in any Christian country." — Lord Eldon. *' Britons ! if you believe in God and fear him — if you honour your Queen — if you love your country — if you value your liberty — if you regard equal laws — if you abhor tyranny and delight in justice — if you esteem purity in the female cha- racter, and execrate deceptive villainy in its betrayers — if you regard your aged parents and love your children — if you hate the Devil and all his works — join hand, heart, voice, and unwearied ex- ertions, to rid your degraded, afflicted country of this hell-concocted New Poor- Law."— 3//-. ^am. Roberts (of Sheffield. J THE NEW rOOn-LAW OPPOSITK N. 321 "The Poor-Lrxw said to the pauper, * Thou hast no riglit to hve ;' but it also said to the monarch, ' Thou hast no right to reign.' It was the iuaHenable right of a constitutional monarchy to know what are the laws by which its people are to be governed. The law of the land, according to the constitution of England, was not law unless it was known to be the will of the monarch. And yet this accursed law had absolutely pushed her Majesty on one side, and said to her, ' We want none of thy interference !' and it had appointed three scoundrels, under the name of Commissioners, to make laws for her people." — Richard Oastler. " Tf ever an adverse state of the manu- facturers' interests should occur, it would be impossible to carry it into operation. I do not believe it is an Act calculated for the state of a population out of employ — but in emplovment." — Mr. Cayley, M. P., Nov., 1836. " A law which will not be enforced in England unless the Bible be first burnt, and Magna Charta and the Bill of Rights with it, in every market-place in Eng- land." — Richard Oastler. " There never had been so gross an imposition practised as in passing the New Poor-Law. The papers were teem- ing with complaints of the cruelty of this law, and the expenses of the Commission- ers were enormous." — Col. Sibthorp, Hoxise of Commons, July, 1839. " He had no confidence in the Poor- Law Commissioners — for he had closely watched their proceedings, and he did not perceive that they had administered the discretionary powers entrusted to them by the Poor-Law Act in a manner consonant with humanity. Therefore it was his opinion that Parliament should step in and interfere in the matter." — Lord G. Somerset, House of Com^nons, Augusts, 1839. " Ample experience of the New Poor- Law had proved that it was unchristian and inhuman, because it subjected the poor to an irresponsible tyranny, and unjustly assumed that they could always find work, and that when they had work their wages were sufficient." — J^Ir. Walter, Freemasons'' Tavern, June 24, 1839. " He could not imagine how the legis- lature could think of so degrading and insulting the peasants of England by ?uch a Bill, when they could not tell how soon 500,000 men, as in the days of Napoleon, might endeavour to invade England.'' — Lord Tcynham, Ihid. " The question was, whetiier the peo- ple would tolerate, without the strongest resistance, the arbitrary power of those dictators, who would by our forefathers never have been endured — whose powers were unconstitutional in their principles, and often cruel and oppressive in their operation. Another question was, whe- ther they would not insist on the natural right of Englishmen — the right of self- go\ernment — the right of expending their own funds for those objects, and in that manner, which they deemed best. Would the working classes — those who were the most useful class of society — submit that the i-elief which they might require should be dealt out to them at the tyrannical Avill of these despots ; irresponsibly in- vested as they were, with such arbitrary powers, by an Act which had truly been characterized as the most infamous that had ever disgraced a Christian country." — Earl Stanhope, Ihid. " He was decidedly opposed to the centralizing system ; — they might as well have three Lord Mayors in London, and thirty itinerant Aldermen — to administer the corporation law, as to have the three Poor Law Commissioners.'" — Mr. T. Dimcomhe, Ibid. " The revoking of the Edict of Nantz, and the consequent massacre of St. Bar- tholomew, were not equal, by any means, in wickedness and cruel atrocity, to the revoking our long-established, good Old Poor-Law." — 3Ir. Samuel Roberts (of Sheffield). " Are we to be told that the poor man has no right to a wife or to a child — are we to be told that the poor man has no right to a cottage ? I say, if the poor man has no right to live, neither has the rich. If the poor man has no right to a wife, neither has the rich. If the poor man has no right to childi'en, neither has the rich. If the poor man has no right to a cottage, the noble has no right to a castle — the merchant has no right to a mansion — the shopkeeper has no right to a house — and the Queen upon her throne has no right to her palace. I would not that the Queen should be without a palace ; I would not that the cottager should be without a home ; but first the cottager. The cottager before the Queen — the labourer before the shopkeeper. Let the poor be the first partakers of the fruits." — Rev. J. R. Stephens s Third Sermon in London, June, 1839. 322 THE BOOK 01' THE BASTILES. " He was convinced, from experience of what had lately taken place in the ma- nufacturing districts, that it would be quite impossible to enforce the provisions of the Poor-Law Amendment-Act without the employment of the military." — Mr. John Fieldcn, M. P., Crown and Anchor Tavern, Feb. 9, 1838. " The regulation which so generally prevailed of refusing out-door relief to able-bodied paupers when they applied for it, was contrary to the letter and spirit of the law of the land." — Lord Wynford, House of Lords, May 1, 1839. " With regard to the Bastardy law, he must say, that it was a most unjust law, and led to the commission of some abo- minable crimes." — Ibid., Ibid. " The Bible and the Poor-Law Amend- ment-Act cannot live in the same coun- try. If the Poor-Law Amendment-Act be once established in England, the prayer of George IIL, that every child in his dominions might have a Bible to read and be able to read it, will be crushed, and the Bibles will be taken away from the people, or they will be compelled to hear the Bible read, and professedly preached, to suit the interpretation which they wish the people to receive of the Bible." — Rev. J. R. Stephens's Sermon, preached Feb. 10, 1839. Is it not an insult to our common sense to tell us, that a shilling, or at most 15d., will suitably support a full-grown man for seven days ? Do we not all know the value of money, and the price of provi- sions ? and could not any one from tlie age of 8 to 80, detect the sophistry ? The Commissioners have not yet the power of buying provisions at half the rate of other people, though God only knows what extra powers may not soon be attempted to be added to tJieir ambi- tion."— Tmics, Nov., 1836. " The Poor-Law is not a question of politics, but a question of what belongs to ourselves, and what belongs to our neighbour. He could conceive the wealthiest man so reduced to circum- stances of comparative poverty, as to be- come the inhabitant of a humble cottage, and yet as secure and content in that abode as the proudest of the land. But there must be one thing, without which this happiness could not be complete — without which it could not be said to exist at all. In that cottage corner his wife must sit — the proud, fond mother of the children who gambol in joyous inno- cence upon that cottage floor. Without this the cottage is no home lo the poor man — nor is the palace, without this, a home to the monarch." — Rev. J. R. Ste- phens, at Liverpool, Sept., 1838. " lie should wish to know at what period of history, ancient or modern, sacred or profane — in what region of the earth, savage or civilized, the diabolical doctrine had been adopted, that poverty should be punished as a crime. Were those to be thus treated by whose labour so large a portion of the wealth of the country was provided, of which wealth they themselves received eo scanty a portion ?" — Earl Stanhope, House of Lords, March 20, 1838. " It is impossible to contemplate a more complete system of grinding slavery, than that to which this Bill will subject the poor of this country. They must eat, drink, sit, sleep, or work, at the bidding of the Conunissioners. They will hardly be allowed to breathe the air, or enjoy the light without their permission. Pass the Bill, and the poor of this country will become more complete sla\cs, than were the villains who formerly existed in Eng- land, or than the slaves in the West Indies." — Lord IJi/nford, on the Second Reading/, July 21, i»"34. " It was an Act which struck at the root of all local government ; which took from the rate-payers, who raised a fund for the relief of their indigent brethren, all power of control over it. It imposed a tyranny of the worst description ; it was a Coercion Bill." — Mr. John Fieldim, M. P., Freemasons' Tavern, Feb. 19, 1 838. " He hated, he detested the Central Board ; he hated, he detested the work- house ; but he disapproved still more strongly of the measure, as having a ten- dency to reduce the wages of the labour- ing man, and by that means placing him under the necessity of going to the work- house." — Ibid., Ibid. " All the reports, statements, and alle- gations of every kind, of the Poor-Law Commissioners (and he might make the same assertion with respect to the state- ments of many of the Boards of Guar- dians) were of that nature, that they were not entitled to the least credit ichatcver; they were totally undeserving of any attention whenever they spoke of any benefit derived by the poor under the Bill : such as their improved condition, the increase of their wages, and the vast felicity of the inmates of the new work- houses." — Mr. Walter, Freemasons' Ta- vern, Yi^i. 19,1838. THE NEW i'OOK-LAW OPPOSITION. 323 '* London itinerant Commissioners had no right to govern the poor of Leeds, tlie poor of Sheffield, the poor of Mancliester, and IJirmingham, of Bradford, and of Huddersfield — to say what family should have one or two loaves of bread allowed — who should be transported to a distant workhouse — or who, driven by the inflic- tion of want, should be banished to a dis- tant settlement. Even tyranny itself should be uniform — despotism should be impartial : but what did these London gentlemen do who professed to be acting on a uniform system ? To the Ijondon poor they allowed a reasonable jiortion of Avholcsome food, with beer ; an extra allowance at commemorative feasts ; be- sides a day's holiday in the week out of the workhouse. The rule for the separa- tion of husband and wife was not acted upon. To the poor country sufferers they allowed, in certain places which had been specified, potato dinners, without bread, and a constant succession of oat- meal gruel to soothe their irritated and inflamed bowels — no beer, but incessant confinement and separation. If this se- vere course was relaxed, it was owing to the humanity of particular Boards. Was ever such a thing heard of, or had it any place in fact or in analogy in our consti- tution, that England should be thus governed — that their parish vestries should be thus invaded by aliens — foreigners, he might call them — Minis- terial adherents — or, to sum up in one ill-omened word, what had now become the bane of this country — by paid Com- missioners." — Ibid., Ibid. " The Prince of Orange said, that he would die in the last ditch in defence of his country. Yes ; and I declare in the face of high Heaven, and the brave men who now stand before me, that I will re- sist this law to the death." — Fearcjus O'Connor, Dnvsburtj Poor-Laiv Meeting, Dec. 11, 1837. " The flames of liberty are not quenched yet in old England. There was once a Wat Tyler — he bearded a mighty monarch with a hundred thousand I'jiiglish hearts at his back. In other lands there have been Washingtons and William Tells. We pronounce this iniquitous bill to be one which neither the barbarity of a Judge Jeffries, nor the gross sensuality of a Rochester, could have exceeded in infamy and atrocity. It is the enactment of a heavier blow to British freedom, and a greater outrage to English character, than has been inflicted on this threat nation for a thousand years. Peasants of England ! be not trodden under like Kussian serfs, or African slaves ! — Metropolitan Con- servative Journal, March 4, 1837. " It was requisite that every labourer in the country should be enabled to pro- vide himself and his family with an abun- dance, sufficient in quantity, as well as wholesome in qualitj' — that he should have sufficient, and all other articles re- quisite for his personal comfort, and that he should also keep a cow." — Mr. Pitt. " The remark which I annex (espe- cially addressed to Conservatives) is — Can you. Gentlemen, afford to lose supporters ? Be assured that unless you most distinctly and specifically pledge yourselves to alter the Poor-Laws — unless you tell us, most distinctly and in detail, what you will cancel, and what you will enact, you will at least lose some who are inclined to support you. Puts-off and vague pro- mises will not do at the next election." — Ilie Rev. Edmund Dcwdney (of PortscaJ " Times," May 18, 1839. " A Bill, which established a most cruel and hateful despotism in the place of the old domestic management of parochial affairs, — a despotism undefined, and without any limits to the exercise of its unconstitutional authority, — which avowedly declared its stern deterniiiiatiou to compel the people of this country to live on a coarser kind of food, — to sub- mit to a gradual reduction of wages, until reduced to the destitution and squalid wretchedness of their Irish brethren, — and to bend their necks to a yoke which their fathers had never worn, nnd which they could not wear and live." — Ste- phens's " Life of Oastler.''' " The discretionary powers of the Commissionei's may, without contra- diction, be designated as unconstitutional." — Lord Brougham. " You may ' Damn and bullet the beg- gars' if you please ; but remember the game of ' Bullets' is one that two parties can ])la3' at. If you wish to make Eng- lishmen into assassins, try to enforce your New Poor-Law and ' Bidlet the beggars.'' If you wish to make your factories, and workshops, and warehouses, into bar- racks and hospitals, try to enforce your New Poor-Law and ' Bullet the beggars.' Merchants, if you wish to destroy trade, tiy to enforce the New Poor-Law and ' Bullet the beggars' Shopkeepers, if you wish to ruin your customers, try to enforce the New Poor-Law and ' Bullet the beggars.' Fundholders, if you wish to y -2, 324 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. lowor Uie fuiitis and soon abolish them, try to enforce the New Poor-Law and ''Bullet the heygars.' Landlords, if jou wish to turn your fields into fields of battle, try to enforce the New Poor-Law and ' Bullet the bejjyars.'' "SMiigs, if you wish to dig your own graves and to intro- duce the Lish system of murder in England, try to enforce the New Poor- Law and ' Bullet the hetjijars.'' '' — Rieliard Oastler. " An Englishman's house is his castle. The winds of heaven may whistle through the roof; but the finger of power dare not lift the wooden latch." — Earl Chatham. " It is not competent to the legislature to transfer to any other body the power oi making any rules, orders, or regula- tions, that shall have the effect of laws, and that it cannot be showii that the na- tion has ever authorized or allowed such a transfer of legislative power." — The Rev. G. S. Bull's Petition to the House of Lords, U^y 30, 1838. " The working of tlie Bill illustrated tlie entire ])olicy of the Goverimient. The Poor-Law Commissioners must have lorn their hearts from their breasts before they could have i)ronmlgated the horrid decree, that infirmity was a crime, and should be treated as such — before they declared the house of sorrow was a gaol, and the fit companions of dejected inno- cence were to be found in convicted felons. With them age inspired no vene- ration — infancy, no love — virtue, no re- spect. Cold and heartless calculators, they see no humanity but in econojny — no sympathy but in shillings saved. Who empowered these creatures of the law to set at nought the benignant laws of the Creator ?" — J/;-. Daniel Whittle Harvey s Speech at the Souihu-ark Anti-New Poor- Law Meetiny, August 23, 183G. " The Poor-Law Commissioners are despotic in their authority, and cannot be tolerated ; they should be a regulating not a controlling power, an appellant judica- ture, and not an arbitrary executive." — Lhid. " Holding (he situation which I do, it is R,t all times extremely difficult for me to suppress the feelings which rise in my breast — not a feeling to covet applause from others, but a feeling of humanity at the distress of my fellow-creatures. Since I have held this ofHce, no one knows better than myself what I have sufTered. I have endeavoured to act as a conscienti- ous man in the discharge of my duties ; but when I have seen my fellow-towns- men, with their meagre looks and empty bellies — when I have seen dying chil- dren, weeping widows, and starving orphans, it is hard to suppress the emo- tions of the heart, and my mind wanders and roves about seeking to find a cause. Some view it in diflerent lights, and attri- bute it to various causes, whilst L think- ing for myself", have, as I have already said, hard work to su])press my feelings when I consider // is hrouyht about by tlie law of the land. In my othcial capacity, it has been my study not to excite anger, and, from the first period of distress, I have exhorted and advised the working classes to pre- serve peace and order under their depri- vations. There certainly has been an unexampled time of distress, and many cases (jf want have come before mc ; and when I see large sums of money collected for the poor, and ha\e observed the ope- ration of the Poor-Laws since I became Mayor, I am satisfied as to their working — tliat tliey never can work tcell for large manufaeturiny towns like Nottinyham, and they never will. I will defy inge- nuity, however able and kind the schemes may be, to make them work well — it is an utter impossibihty." — William liouorth, Esq., {Mayor of Nottinyham J at a Meet- ing of the Rate-payers, held in that pl William Jolliffc, M. P. for Petersfeld, " Hamp- shire Lidependent,'' August 29, 1837. " Is it not lamentable — is it not even marvellous — that the monstrous practical sophism of Malthus should now have gotten complete possession of the leadhig men of the kingdom ! Such an essential lie in morals — such a practical lie in fact, as it is too ! I solemnly declare that I do not believe that all the heresies and sects and factions, which the ignorance and the weakness and the wickedness of man- kind have ever given birth to, were alto- gether so disgraceful to man as a Christian, a philosopher, a statesman, and a citizen, as this abominable tenet. It should be ex- posed by reasoning in the form of ridicule. Asgill or Swift would have done much ; but, like the Popish doctrines, it is so vicious a tenet, so flattering to the cruelty, the avarice, and sordid selfishness of most men, that I hardly know what to think of the result." — Coleridge. " Our palaced paupers, (whom God dooms he infatuates !) have enacted another law, the New Poor-Bill, by which they deprive their most helpless victims, the honest paupers, of the privilege of out- door relief. These poor victims — who, if they were not robbed of half their earnings by one law (the Corn-Law), and, at the same time, deprived of employment, Moold need no relief at all — feel the horrible cruelty of this law, but perceive not its still more horrible inconsistency." — Ehenezer Elliott, in " Tait's Magazine," April, 1838. " All who wish to prevent revolution — all who Avish to prevent anarchy and con- fusion — all who with to preserve property THE NEW rOOR-LAW OrFOSITIOX. 329 and life — ought, by all means, to exert themselves to upset this New Poor- I.aw." — Mr. John Fielden, M.P., at the Manchester Ficlden Dinner, June 4, 1838. " The pauper mittimus act of general incarceration is even now almost a dead letter. I^ord Brougham warned the Loi-ds, when moving it, that if not passed, their estates, in the course of years, would be swallowed up in poor-rates. As a rider to his Lordship's startling discovery, we will add a forewarning more startling still. Let the M'orkhouse system be at- tempted now in the manufacturing dis- tricts, and then neither their lordships' estates, nor Lord Brougham's pension, Avill be found bargains too marketable at twelve months' purchase." — Blackwood, March, 1837. " Recollect, that if in the supreme legislative power the abuse be enormous, nature will rise up, and, claiming her original rights, overturn a corrupt politi- cal system." — Dr. Johnson. " If a poor man, who is not known, applieth, saying, I am hungered, I pray thee give me that I eat, he shall not be examined to learn whether he be a de- ceiver, but food shall be instantly given to him." — Peppercorne s " Laws of the He- brews, relating to the Poor and the Stran- ijer." " It ought to be their (Englishmen's) aim, therefore, rather to preserve the ad- vantages and improve the forms of the excellent institutions they have inherited, than to attempt, on a new basis, experi- ments in Government.''' — Lord John Rus- selVs " Essay on the English Constitution.'' " The pretended power of dispensing with laws, or the execution of laws, by regal authority, as it has been assumed and exercised of late, is illegal." — Bill of Rights. " As long, however, as the supreme power of the State is placed in the hands of one or many, over whom the people have no control, the tenure of civil and personal liberty must be frail and uncer- tain." — Lord John Russell's " Essay on the English Constitution.'''' " Tlie pretended power of suspending laws, or execution of laws, by regal autho- rity, without consent of Parliament, is illegal."— i?/// of Rights. " The commission for erecting the late Court of Commissioners for ecclesiastical causes, and all other Commissions and Courts of the like nature, arc illegal and pern icio us. — lb id. " The town of Hamburg, which was followed by nearly the Avhole of the north of Germany, after many ineffectual at- tempts to meet the evil of pauperism, saw itself obliged, about the middle of the last century, to establish a system of Poor- Laws on the principle of our own. The principle laid down in the regulations is, ' To allow no poor person to suffer from want. 1. To provide, though poorly, for the person who is incapable of all labour. 2. To supply the person capable of labour with work, or compel him to work. 3. To supply with pecuniary aid the person Avho cannot completely support himself with labour. 4. To place the bashful poor in a medium condition between pri- vation and abundance.'" — Hamhirgh Pa- j)er, quoted in the Atlas, 1828. " The Bishop of Exeter contended, that such a proceeding as the separation of man and wife was illegal, and contrary to the decisions of the judges of the land. He would feel it his duty to put the ques- tion into a course of legal investigation either by certiorari'm the Court of Queen's Bench, or some other mode." — House of Lords, June 23, 1838. "Earl Stanhope then presented a pe- tition from the Rev. Thomas Curtis, rector and vicar of Sevenoaks, who stated, that the defects which arose under the former law certainly arose from the maladminis- tration of it, and therefore prayed that the present Poor-Law might be repealed." — House of Lords, March 19, 1838. "Absolute power annuls the public: and where there is no pulilic or constitu- tion, there is in reality no mother-country or nation." — Shaftesbury. " In what I have seen of the operation and mismanagement of the New Poor- Law, in Nottingham, during my office, and I have had a good opportunity of ob- serving it, both during a time of great suffering from want of employment and since, I have compared it in my own mind to a mortal disease, working death in a variety of forms." — " Observations on the Administrat'ion of the New Poor-Law in Nottingham,'" by W. Roivorth, Esq., Mayor, 1840. " The hand of arbitraiy power dare seldom enter tbis charmed circle, and tear asunder husband from wife, parents from children, brother from sister, as it docs in slavery. Yet our New Poor-I^aw has aimed a deadly blow at this blessed secu- rity, and till the sound feeling of the nation has again disarmed them of this fearful authority, every poor man's faniil 330 THE BOOK OF THE BASTII.ES. is liable, on the occurrence of some chance stroke of destitution, to have, to their mortification, bitter enough in itself, the tenfold aggravation of being torn asunder and immured in the separate wards of a poverty prison. The very supposition is horrible, and if this system — this iron and indiscriminate system — a blind tyranny, knowing no difference between accidental misfortune and habitual idleness — between worthy poverty and audacious imposition — between misfortune and crime, be the product of philanthropy, may philan- thropy be sunk to the bottom of the sea." — IF. Hoivitt the Poet. "If the wealthy would make them- selves acquainted with the poor in their distresses, the good effect would soon be seen. If our members of Parliament, during a prorogation, would visit their poor const it unit S.I and make themselves acquainted with their real situation, and learn from them how the Poor-Law ope- rates in times of depression of their labour, they would not find their poor constitu- ents saying, ' they suffered no more in times of extreme pressiu'e, under the New Poor-Law than under the Old ;' on the contrary, they would give them such a ' statement of facts' as would make them careful how they voted for enactments upon the testimony of relieving officers, or any other paid servants. " — liowortKs " Observations on the Administratioti of the New Poor-Laiv in Nottingham,^^ 1 840. " The present power given to the re- lieving officer is very injurious to the poor ; he has to see a great number of cases, both of sickness and destitution, and the relief of so many should never depend on one person. He, by habit, becomes so accustomed to misery, that he has no proper feeling to prompt him to relieve it : he is like the grave-digger, who removes the beautiful green turf, and with his spade works in the earth amongst the remains of those he once knew, with- out any feeling." — Ibid. " I cannot at present believe any so- phistry can justify the present Poor-Law, and how clergymen can lend their sanc- tion to it, with a good conscience, surpasses my comprehension." — Rev. A. S. Atche- son's (Teigh Rectory^ near Stamford, Lin- colnshire J Letter to the Author, Oct. 17, 1840. " I hold the Poor-Law to be the most detestable and inhuman enactment, in spi- rit and in purpose, that ever passed into a law. That it has not been carried out universally in all its rigours, I deem to have been a great evil, as the reaction on public opinion in that event, would have been so powerful as to have swept away the whole of its abettors, and have led to the adop- tion of better social arrangements, an event not now to be expected." — Extract of a Letter from T. Allsop, Esq. (of Corn- hill f to the Author, Sept. 16, 1840. " I regard the New Poor-Law as the most portentous enormity of our times — except alone the betrayal of the nation toils fiercest foe ; both springing from an inde- votion, or declension, of the national intel- lect and morals, which, in all ages and all times, has been the nurse of prodigies." — Extract of a Letter from Charles Att- icood, Esq. (of Newcastle), to the Author, dated Sept. 26, 1840. "Both sections of the aristocracy have coalesced in support of that law, of which the strong and disgraceful proof was to be found in the division upon Mr. Walter's motion ; and latterly their sycophancy to the Crown on the framing measures for the increase of the burdens of the working people, seems to fortify the notion I have often harboured, that nothing short of a lick of the sabre will suffice to put an end to the spinning-jenny, red-tape system which has coiled itself round all the public affairs of our time." Sam. Gordon, Esq. (Dublin J, Sept. 2], 1840. " Suppose the multitude vote it expe- dient to wipe off all old scores with a rub of the finger : who can gainsay, who can plead in tlie name of justice for the vested rights of fundholders ? the Nctv Poor-Law at once ensures silence ; '\i is a precedent for destruction of existing rights.'^ — The Rev. Edward Duncombe' s (of Neivtou Kyme, Yorkshirej Pamphlet on Church Reform. " The people of England patiently en- dured, up to the enactment of the New Poor-Law, all the sufferings which war, taxation, and bad government, imposed upon them ; for they always considered that they had legal protection against starvation ! I therefore firmly believe — and I am by no means singular in that belief — that the old Poor-Law, from the justness of its principle, and in despite of the badness of its practice, has been the means of jjreserving the English people in a state of comparative comfort, tran- quillity and obedience. It saved us from highway robberies and agrarian outrages." — Gen. Sir Charles Napier's Letter to 0' Connell. " It was a new system of legislation — a species of despotism, which it was his THE NEW POOR-LAW OPPOSITION. 331 internal conviction the country would never be brought to submit to." — Lord Abmf/er, Cliief Baron of the Exchequer. " The working of the Whig Poor-Law is producing bitter fruits through the country. Cases of the most desperate hardsliip are constantly coming before the parish officers, Avhich, by the New Law, they are destitute of all power to relieve, and the consequence is, that the miserable sufferers are driven from parish to parish, till they can be driven no more — and they die!" — Blackwood, March, 1837. " Providence has so ordained matters in the world, that if we make the poor very poor, the rich shall not be very rich." — Sir Matthew Hale. " The interest of those who live by wages is as strictly connected with the interest of society, as those who live by rent." — Adam Smith. " Every industrious person has a right to be made comfortable in his own dwell- ing — himself and his family, and to be furnished with a cow, or a pig, or some other animal yielding profit." — Mr. Pitt. " I say, that jjeace at home, means con- tentment at home ; and unless we can establish such a system of things as will afford men a fairer remuneration for la- bour, and enable the labourers to maintain themselves and families in comfort, there can be no peace at home ; there never will be peace at home ; there never ought to be peace at home." — aS'^V John Beckett's Address to the Leeds Electors, " Leeds Jn- telligencer" Jan. 10, 1835. " A man must always live by his work, and his wages must be at least sufficient to maintain him ; they must even, upon most occasions, be something more ; other- wise it would be impossible for him to bring up a family, and the race of such workmen would not last beyond the first generation . ' ' — Adam Smith . " The basis of the English constitution, the capital principle on which all others depend, is, that the legislative power belongs to Parliament alone ; that is to say, the power of establishing laws, and of abrogating, changing, or explaining them." — De Lobne's Constitution of Eng- land, chap, iv,, p. 60. " When the liberty of the subject is invaded, it is a provocation to all the sub- jects of England. A man ought to be concerned for Magna Charfa and the laws ; and if any one against law imprison a man, he is an offender against Magna Ch arta . " — Ch ief Justice Holt. " Some also do grudge at the great increase of people in these dales, thinking a necessary brood of cattell farre better than a superffuous augmentation of man- kind But I can liken such men best of all unto the Pope and the Diuell." — Hollingshed, vol. i., p. 308. " Born and bred the son of a landlord out of Parliament, and bearing a name known to prove my position, all the law- yers and Peelites together cannot deceive me. This is the summary of all I wish to say on this point : the landlords made the Poor-Law Commission ; the magis- trates are landlords ; the magistrates make themselves ex-officio Guardians ; the land- lords and magistrates have for years neg- lected their duties : as work is distasteful to idlers and drunkards, so they, ruling the law, depute a Commission to do their duty : the Commissioners undertake it on one plain and well-understood, though never expressed rule. It is, that succes- sive ministers do their bidding, and all, whom the Government appoints magis- trates, use their ex-ojficio votes as the Central Board directly, or indirectly, but intelHgibly among the party, signify: and also, that all things with the leading tradesman in all boroughs be so ma- naged, that those only shall be chiefly supported by them who support the friends of the New Poor-Law. So that landlords being magistrates, and magistrates ex- officio Guardians, and members of Parlia- ment elected out of them, the wheel is complete. Go round on the circle which way you will, you will find LANDLORD- ISM is, as I say, the starting and ending point. I freely allow it is not a PARTY question within Parliament. Parliament itself is the party : call the New Poor- Law henceforth a CLASS question ; for the two parties are THE CLASS in Par- liament against THE CLxlSS out of Parliament. Deny it who dare : disprove it none can." — The Rev. Edward Dun- combe's (Rector of Newton Kyme, Tadcas- ter, Yorkshire J Pamjjhlet, " Justice and Centralization; or, the Parson and the Constitution." " ' Away with centralization,'' as said one who has more practical knowledge than half the House of Commons, and as much honesty as the whole : ' they that pay the fiddler ought to choose the tune.' " —Ibid. " The ancient laws, laws as ancient as the titles to nine-tenths of the estates of the kingdom, compelled certain officers to support the poor, and gave the magistrates the power and ministerial function of 332 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. seeing that those officers performed their duty. This Act compels no one to sup- port the poor ; it says, that certain indi- viduals wr/7/ give relief, but it does not say they shall give relief; nor does it empower any one to see that they do give relief. Is not this a total repeal of the poor man's rights and securities — rights and securities as sacred, as ancient, as fully recognized by statute, and by judicial authorities, as any right to property, to title, or to pre- rogative, possessed by the highest in the land ? " — Quarterly Review. "Let me exhort and conjure you, never to suffer an invasion of your political con- stitution, however minute the instance may appear, to pass by, without a deter- mined, persevering resistance." — Letters of Junius. " The laws which protect us in our civil rights, grow out of the constitution, and they must fall or liourish with it." — Ibid. " Plutarch, disgusted with the callous- ness of heart of Cato, remarks, quite in the spirit of the Mosaic law, that a good man will take care even of his horses and dogs, when they are aged and past service. For his own part, he would not, he says, sell even an old ox that had laboured for him, much less would he, to make a paltry saving, remove from his xtsual place, and condemn to coarser food, a man grown old in his service. Plutarch, Cato, Dr. Kay, and Commissioners of Poor-Laws, belong to different categories of beings." — Pep- pcrcornc's '•'^ Rights of Necessity, and the Treatment of the Necessitous, by various Nations.''' " I have but one opinion of the New Poor-Law. It is one of those excrescences of a bad system which is used with many others to endeavour to conceal mismanage- ment. The present working of the Poor- Law is ridiculous , the great object was to prevent out-door relief being given ; and where is the large town where such a practice can, or ought to be adhered to ? " —Mr. Muntz, M.P.'s " Letter to the Bir- mingham Cotmcil," Dec. 1, 1840. " How the ' marble-hearted fiends,' who concocted this bill, could coolly look at their own handy-work, it is impossible for a person of ordinary feelings to con- ceive. To us it seems, that in speaking of this savage enactment patience would be a vice, and temper a weakness. We per force feel ourselves roused to that de- termination of resistance so finely de- picted by g;lorious old Chapman in his ' Bussy D'Ambois,' when he exchums- — ' I am up, ' Horn, like a Roman statue, and I'll stand Till death hath made me marble.' We feel it impossible that Englishmen can ever submit to such an enactment, and exclaim, ' With the Poor-Law Amend- ment-Bill war to the knife!' — Samuel Roberts's " The Peers, The People, and the Poor." " Let our insane rulers have a care. If existence is indeed to be made a bur- don to the poor; there will be but one cry all over the country — which Heaven itself will then echo back — for univer- sal suffrage. This awful consequence, with all the ruin it involves — ive charge upon the New Poor-Late Act. — " Church of England Quarterly Review." " I can remember when, half-a-century ago, this New Poor-Law would neither have been offered nor borne. I can re- member a tyrant Tory, named William Pitt — ay, and 1 can remember a liberal Whig, named John, Did\e of Bedford. Had that tyrant had the insane audacity to have proposed such an insult to the Knglishmen of those days, tliat liberal ancestor of Lord John Russell would have publicly declared (as a noble legis- lator) that he wotdd have his head — ay, and if I am not mistaken, he would have been enabled, almost imopposcd, to have kept his word. But we had moi as legis- lators then (the two mentioned being spe- cimens of them), who knew and cared for the real interest of their coimtry ; — they were no drivellers — no place or pen- sion hunters — no profligate sjienders or pocketers of the public rnone}' — no puppies tied to the apron-strings of- mar- ried ladies. Their cry was not, ' Oh, save their estates/' but, with the latest breath, ' Oh, save our country !' They were not men who, to add to their own superabundant store, robbed the poor of their paltry pittance. It is true that the Tory tyrant alluded to, like many other able, disinterested men of those days, strove to amend the Old Poor-Law, but the declared, as well as the real object was, to increase the comforts of the poor. When he found that it would not produce that effect, he relinquished it." — Mr. Roberts's " The Peers, The People, and The Poor:' " The triumvirate of Somerset-house — Avhose eye, like that of some old arch- spider, pervades this complicated web spread over the kingdom — may trust us, that, let the mind of man be ever so much inured to 6ervitude, still there is a point THE NEW POOR-LAW OITOSITION. 333 wl)cn oppression will rouse it to resist- ance ; and the Government which abets these infamous doings, may depend upon it, that the instinctive feelings of nature will urge to some desperate effort ; and they will cease to be restrained by legal coercion, who already suffer more than the utmost rigour of the law can inflict. The heart that is withered by persecution, obtains an awful emancipation from the ordinary restraints of human action ; and when one-half of the population is ren- dered liable to that extremity, what is to be expected, but that the physical ene- gies, inadequate to lay by a subsistence for old age, will, in the prime of life, take a destructive direction ? Every drop of blood that will be shed, loe charge upon the New Poor-Lmv Act. For every man who is not cut out for a tyrant or a slave, must know, think, and feel, that a people so cruelly scourged and oppressed, are justified in their resistance. We fear we leave our readers saddened by the perusal of this, but their melancholy hath its con- solation. We leave them in the bosom of their families, presiding over the mo- rality of the parental board. We are sure that they will form the young minds of the future nobility and gent)-y of Eng- land by their precepts, and we trust that they will confirm those precepts by their example. Let them instruct their chil- dren in the sublime institutions of that Kedeemer who lived and died for them, and for all men. Show them how charity to the poor is part and parcel of Chris- tianity ; and when they shall be imbued with the doctrine and example of Jesus, recount to them the story of those hapless children, — their sire's murder, — their se- paration from their mother, — their pining at her loss, — their starvation, and their deaths. Then, readers, when you find your youthful auditory hanging upon your lips — their eyes overflowing with sym- pathy and sorrow, and their guileless hearts ready to burst at the picture of those martyred innocents, lighten up their little countenances, and make their eyes flash fire, by telling them that you had the boldness to denounce, even at the foot- stool of the throne, the reckless inhuma- nity of the New Poor-Law Act." — " Church of Emjlaml Quarterlu:' Jan.. 1838. -^ " Every individual who is withdrawn from a state of extreme indigence, is pre- vented from contributing his share to the diffusion of the habits from which a re- dundant increase of mankind arises. Suf- fering among the poor, like contagious fevers, never remains stationary; if it is not checked, it spreads its ravages ; if the rich will not reheve its distresses, they will speedily be made to feel its bit- terness." — Alisons " Principles of Popu- lation.''^ " To reduce all stomachs of the same sex and age, to the same calibre, to re- duce all habits, and skill, and tastes, to a few fixed occupations, is abhorrent enough to the variety of human nature ; but to test all shapes and habits of the body and mind, all tastes and desires, and feelings, by the workhouse ; to try all claims to re- lief by this assay, the measure of actual endurance from poverty by the capacity to bear this other endurance in the alter- native — this is certainly one of the boldest and most fallacious attempts to enforce mechanical rule and contrivance upon human minds and motives that has ever been ventured upon by town-made poli- ticians." — British Critic, Dec, 1840. " It is wretchedness that is so prolific ; it is despondency that breeds so fast amongst us. Relinquish all national cha- rity — resign all steady effort to uphold that class which is most exposed to ad- versity and least wise to guard against it ; let them sink, and you will open the door of mere sensuality and despair to the offspring of men having all the reckless- ness of savages or wild beasts, and who yet live and multiply within the folds of ci- vilization." — Blachcoocr s Maqazine.'Ditc., 1840. ^ " There are no measures so effectual in checking the growth of a redundant population, as those which relieve the present distress of the poor." — Alisons '■'■Principles of Population" 1840. " If then it come to that, that either the ^oor or the jjeers must perish out of the land, there is no alternative, for God hath declared that the poor shall never perish out of the land." — Mr. Satnuel Roberts's " IVie Peers, the People, and the Poor:' " The cries of the poor ascend up to heaven, and call down vengeance from God. Cambyces was a great emperor; he had many lord-presidents, lord-depu- ties, and lieutenants, under him. It chanced that he had under him in one of his dominions, a briber, a gift-taker, and a gratifier of rich men. The just cry of a poor widow came to the emperor's ears ; upon which he flayed the judge quick, and laid his skin in the chair of judgment. Surely it was a goodly sign, the sign of 334 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. the unjust judge's skin, I praj'^God, that — if need be — we may again see the sign of the judge's skin." — Life of Latimer. " A breach is made in the constitution — the battlements are dismantled — the citadel is open to the first invader — the walls totter — the place is no longer tenable — what then remains for us but to stand foremost in the breach, to repair it, or to perish in it ? Unlimited power corrupts the possessor ; and this I know, that where law ends, there tyranny begins." — The Earl of Chatham. " This is strictly congenial to the British constitution, which in its political, as well as its religious regulations, takes special care of the convenience of the poorer classes." — Wilberforce. " Whence is it that the crowds of un- employed poor have been generated, who now overwhelm the British empire ? Is it in the workhouses of England, or among the numbers whom her vast paro- chial assessments have called into being, when the state of society did not require their production ? It is, on the contrary, among the morasses of Ireland among those whom want and misery have driven from their homes, and who now seek, from the wealth and charity of Britain, that succour which is denied them by the institutions of their native land. It is amidst the iridigence and misery of her unrelieved poor., that the principle of popu- lation has displayed its terrible powers ; and from the squalid habits of her reck- less inhabitants that the multitudes have issued, who now fill every part of the em- pire with distress. A more extraordinary, a more memorable example of the con- sequence of neglecting the poor, never has been exhibited in the civilized world. The system of repressing the numbers of the poor by depriving them of relief, has been tried to its fullest extent ; for cen- turies misery and want have stalked through the land, and the redundancy of the people, as well as the density of the population, are in consequence now greater than in any country in the world." — Alisons " Principles of Population.^'' " Conservative leaders. Conservative gentlemen of England, before you take office, accept our honest, most disinter- ested, but soundly-based advice : look not at the rate-books only, but also to the poor — do not re-echo that most odious cry, ' It works well,' when you see the sum total of rates somewhat reduced. Gentlemen of England, be assured that nothing ultimately ' works well' in this world which is not sanctioned by the Bible, and that most certainly the Poor- Law Amendment-Act is not. If the Conservative statesmen of England will amend the Poor-Law Amendment- Act, they will have the blessings of 'God's poor,' and the staid support of the people of the realm ; but if, as has unhappily been the case on some former occasions, they prefer the smooth compliments of a smirking opponent, cunningly laying baits for their vanity, to the honest, un- bought suffrages of their countrymen out of doors, then will they speedily again be driven from power notwithstanding all their dexterity in debate and divisions, and have upon their consciences the heavy load of having left undone that which they ought to have done, and had full power to do." — Metropolitan Conservative Jour- nal, Dec. 26, 1840. " Whenever the English people are resolutely so minded, they have ever, and we trust ever will, step in between an un- duly severe law that encumbers the statute-book and its victims. The lines of blood and torture may be inscribed on some sanguinary page, but there they re- main an inoperative dead letter. Neither do the executioners of evil laws long pre- vail against the aroused sense of English- men. Empson and Dudley have been kicked into the kennel only a few gene- rations before the same fate will befall Mr. Edwin Chadwick, and the Commis- sioners whom he leads by the nose." — Ibid. " The New Poor-Law is not a ques- tion which necessarily involves a choice between Whig or Tory, Radical or Loyalist, but between justice and injus- tice, between those who would give a large and liberal construction to the com- mands of a merciful Creator, and those who would set up their own presumptuous philosophy, or their own rapacity, against the dictates of eternal justice. "-^J/;-. Boiven's Letter in the " Times," Dec. 23, 1840. " It must be a sorry day, when any honest Englishman, whose misfortunes were unavoidable, and who would blister his hands to support himself, should be compelled merely from the want of employ- ment to consent to an imprisonment in a workhouse for life — at the same time separated from his wife and family. He believed and most conscientiously declared it to be his belief, that the object of the Poor-Law Commissioners was, the mo- ment a man entered the workhouse, to THE NEW POOR-LAW OPPOSITIOX. 335 render him the most miserable man alive, with a view of driving him out of the house again." — Mr. J. H. Cutler, in the Birminyham Council, Dec. 1 , 1 840. " Cases of death by starvation never occm- in Venice. Even during the great distress caused by the blockade in 1813, and the famine in 1817, no occurrences of this kind were known. In fact the more urgent the circumstances are, the more abundant are the subscriptions and donations." — iSetiior's " Foreign Poor- Laws.''' "It is high time for every man pro- fessing Christian principles, especially those who are the appointed, consecrated promulgators of the Christian faith, to ask themselves whether they can conscienti- ously approve of a law which is so ad- ministered as to violate the first rule of Christian charity ? And I cannot but observe, that this cruel method of execut- ing 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 I'egular jacquerie — that is, a systematic tear of the poor against the rich; as it must end religiously in the total destruction of all Christian influence upon the poor ; for it is absurd to suppose that they will listen to tlie doctrines of a religion ivhose principles they see piracti- cally despised by their betters.^'' — " Letter to the Rate-payers of Eton,''' by the Rev. W. G. Cookesley, Jan., 1841. " He said, then, that it was a coarse, cold-blooded Act — that it was based on ferocious and savage principles, and that it was calculated to lead only to the tor- ture and grinding of the poorer classes — that it was calculated to make the muscle and bone of England strive against the Parliament, and he wai-ned the House that if they tried to carry it out fully they would raise a spirit of resistance which nothing but force would be found etfective to cure." — Mr. Wakley, Hottse of Com- mons, Feb. 8, 1841. " The Constitution at this moment stands violated. If the breach be effec- tually repaired, the people will return to tranquillity of themselves. If not, let dis- cord reign for ever! I know to what point my language will appear directed. But I have the principles of an English- man, and I utter them without fear or re- serve. Rather than the Constitution should be tamely given up, and our birth- right be surrendered to a despotic Minis- ter, I hope, my Lords, old as I am, that I shall see the question brought to an issue, and fairly tried between the people and the Government." — The Earl of Chatham's Speech on the Exjmlsion of Mr. Wilks. " Power without right is the most de- testable object that can be offered to the human imagination : it is not only perni- cious to those whom it subjects, but works its own destruction. Res detesta- bilis et caduca ! Under pretence of de- claring law, the Commons have made a law, a law for their own case, and have united, in the same persons, the offices of legislator, and party, and judge." — Ibid. " Nothing can be politically right which is morally wrong." — Charles James Fox, " For what purpose was the Poor-Law Amendment-Bill introduced ? What ob- ject had its originators in view, in con- cocting the measure ? It was certainly to benefit some one class of the commu- nity ; but he maintained, that it was im- possible for the honourable members who supported the Government measure to specify any one class who had been bene- fited by the alteration of the law. Tlie condition of the poor had not been alle- viated, and verj' little or no saving had been made in the parish rates." — Tlie Hon. II. T. Liddcll, House of Coinmons, Feb. 8, 1841. " The Revolution declared itself the enemy of Royalty and of Provincial insti- tutions at the same time ; it confounded all that had preceded it — despotic power and the check to its abuses — in indiscri- minate hatred, and its tendency was at once to overthroiv and to centrcdize." — De Tocqueville' s " Democracy in America.^'' " Whenever the heel of oppression is raised, trodden misery springs up, and glares around for vengeance." — Sheridan. " Superfluity will bear retrenchment, and that in proportion as it is superfluous : a bare subsistence will bear none. Take from a King's brother half his income, lie still remains an opulent prince. Take from an ordinary labourer half his income, he starves." — Bentham, on the Organiza- tion of Judicicd Establishments in France. " With respect to the Bill, he could not help thinking that the Government would have to regret the steps they w^ere now taking. There was much discontent in the country ; and he regretted to see it had been fanned almost into a flame by the work- ing of the New Poor-Law." — Mr. Grims- ditch, House of Commons, Jan. 29, 1841. " He had always said, and he now said again, that it was, in every point of view, a most unconstitutional measure, at once 336 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. repugnant to the feelings, and habits, and opinions of the people at large, and calcu- lated to undermine the best feelings, the morals, and the happiness, of the whole population of tliis country. He had op- posed the Poor-Law Amendment- Act be- cause he felt that it was not merely an experiment, but a most dangerous, and very rash experiment He tliought Par- liament had done a most dangerous thing in introducing so cruel an experiment He would support any motion for its re- jieal/' — Sir Francis Burdett, House of Commons, Jan. 29, 1841. " The poor are last becoming a serious, a solemn charge. They have claims upon us far beyond mere alms-giving. They have claims upon our sympathies, our cai-e, and, more than all, our respect. AVe hear, frequently, a talk of the rights of propertv : we never hear a syllable of the rights of poverty. Yet has it inalienable rights — rights awarded to it by the Giver of all good, — rights, that make misfortune an almost sacred applicant for our assist- ance — our earnest, and most impassionate consideration." — Morning Herald, Jan. 19, 1841. "The King of England cannot alter the laws, or make new ones, without the express consent of the whole kingdom in Parliament assembled.'' — Lord Chief Jus- tice Fortescue's " De Laudibus Lcgmn AngliceT " He knew many parishes in the coun- try where, if they attempted to carry the regulations of the Board into effect, a re- bellion might be the consequence, or some- thing a great deal worse than the state of things in 1830. He could not avoid looking at the Bill with considerable alarm ; and he voted for it, because he found no better scheme proposed, and he was not prepared to propose one himself. Some of the powers given by it were to be viewed with much jealousy and suspi- cion.'' — DuTie of Richmond, on the Second Reading, in\y -21, i%?,A. " The Government of England consists of three branches of the Legislature, by Act of Parliament, and the poor have as much right to be governed by Act of Par- liament as the rich. The law of Com- missioners must be a spurious authority." — Letter from T. Lindop, Esq., to the Author, dated, Hanley, Staffordshire, Feb. 10, 1841. " The most dangerous rebellion is the rebellion of the belly." — Lord Bacon. " That was a singular sort of merciful rigour, the application of which was con- fined exclusively to the female, the vicious and profligate seducer being allowed to go unpunished." — Bishop of Exeter, House of Lords, July 28, 1834, Committee on the Bastardy Clause. " Great as was the crime of inconti- nency, that of infanticide was a more serious offence ; and could any noble lord be satisfied, on consideration, that the enactment of such a clause as that now under discussion would not tend greatly to the increase of that most serious offence. — Lord Wynford, Lhid. "The object of the legislature ought to be, to endeavour to secure to the poor man a home Let him have a home which his wife might prepare for him and his chil- dren, on their return fiom their daily em- ployment, with some degree of comfort, and w'hcre he could spend his evenings in domestic happiness. To talk of religi- ous and moral improvement without that would be absurd Although he ad- mitted that avarice had its rights, he did not forget that there likewise existed the rights of humanity, and those rights he felt should be respected." — Lord EUen- horough. House of Lords, Debate on the Drainage and Jmprovement of Buildings' Bill, Feb. 12, 1841. " He opposed in tola the scheme of placing all the poor of the country at the mercy of this Central Board of Commis- sioners. The ground on which it was proposed was, to establish a uniformity of i)ractice in the administration of the Poor-Law s ; but that was impossible, for every parish would be administered ac- cording to its particular circumstances, and a Central Board could not prevent it. How could two out of three chief Commis- sioners, necessary to constitute a Board, examine and control the affairs of the 12,000 parishes in England? The Commissioners were to have much greater power than the legislature had ever been willing to intrust to the King, and these were not only to exercise this power themselves, but w'cre even authorized to delegate it to others. There was no sta- tute in existence which conferred any similar powers upon any set of men in this country Their salaries, too, were not fixed by the House of Commons, These were to be fixed by the Crown, by whom the appointments were to be made. Here were permanent appointments to be made by the executive, and the salaries named ; which salaries were to be made good by the House of Commons. Carry that principle a little further, and there THE NEW POOR-LAW OrrOSITIOX. 337 would be an end to the constitution of the country." — Lord Wynford, on moving that the New Poor-Law be read that day six inonths, July 21, 1834. " He could not agree to the introduction of this system which had no English name; the French systena of centralization was inconsistent with the genius, and incom- patible with the prosperity of this country. How did it happen that this country, in spite of every disadvantage, carried on a commerce a thousandfold greater than any other nation in the world, and enjoyed unexampled wealth and prosperity ? How was it that this country had been able to retain the possession of colonies larger in extent than the Roman empire, in defiance of the whole civilized world, which during the last war was opposed to her .^ The reason was, because the Government of this country had hitherto judiciously per- mitted every man to develop his talent in the manner he liked best. The coun- try was intersected by canals and roads, covered with public works, and adorned by magnificent edifices. This would never have been the case, if every man who wished to make a road, or construct a bridge, had been obliged to submit his plan to a central board des jJonts et Chau- sees ? Besides, he was perfectly convinced that the Poor-Laws, as they stood at pre- sent, would, if properly administered, re- move all the evils respecting which so much had been heard, and which were, in truth, the effects only of the raal-admi- iiistration of these laws. — Lord Alvanley^ Second Reading, July 21, 1834. " We objected to the appointment of the Commissioners, in the first instance, upon the broad principle, that taxation and representation ought to be co-existent — a doctrine inculcated, upon all occa- sions, by the Whigs themselves, but which was totally subverted when the New Poor-Law came into operation." — Sheffield Iris, Feb. 9, 1841. '■ I do not see any co-active necessity, that many should be without the indis- pensable conveniences of life." — Rambler. " He trusted that the more opulent, whatever their hopes might be, would feel tliat they could not exist in security and comfort, while they repelled their poorer brethren, drove them to a distance, and plunged them into the lowest abyss of misery. Society, he was convinced, could not exist, in this or any other country, unless by regular and \minterrupted grada- tions, from low to high, from humble to exalted ; while the effect of the unnatural New Poor-Law was to draw a broad line of demarcation — to place the affluent loftily above their bretln-en — to create a wide chasm between them and their labo- rious fellow-creatures. He repeated, that there could not and would not be this de- pression of the humblest, without the highest tumbling down with them. A man acquired confidence in himself from the verification of his past opinions ; and there was not any dissatisfaction, turbu- lence, and rebelhon, resulting from it, which he had not predicted, and all his predictions he had seen amply, and he would add painfully, verified." — Mr. Walter, Anti-Poor-Law Meeting, Cronn and Anchor, March 11, 1841. " The project had failed in most parts of the kingdom. Li small communities, unquestionably, they had driven the people away to die of want out of the house ; but in more populous districts the experiment had signally disappointed the Commissioners ; for there they dared not inflict the rigours which the law enjoined ; there the workhouses had been crowded to repletion; and there they had been obliged to supply a miserable out-door relief, amounting usually to a loaf of bread, and 3d. or 6d. a-week. Now, originally, out-door relief to the able-bodied was expressly prohibited ; that was one of the principles of the New-Law; whereas it was now well known that the workhouses had been so crowded, that the Guardians had been obliged to distribute out-door relief on the miserable scale which he had just described." — Ibid. "I abhor the New Poor-Law upon every ground that can be named. I do not believe in any respect that it is a just law. If a law had been passed with re- spect to the dogs kept in the kennels of the rich at all resembling that enacted for the poor — if their hounds were to be fed on so nuich water gruel a-day — what would have been the language of the aristocracy? Would they have been quiet and submissive under the control of a rascally commission sitting at Somerset- house ? Would they not give them a fidl allowance of horse flesh to keep up their courage, and the sleek air they delight to see ? Would they be coerced in such a matter ? But what is their conduct with reference to the poor } These men sit as ex-officio Guardians, and when applica- tions were made for an increased allow- ance to the poor, the proud, high-minded aristocracy, the nobles of this great country, so renowned over the face of the 338 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. whole globe, and who would show so much determination in any other case, absolutely stooped and bended to paltry Commis- sioners sitting at Somerset-house. When the poor ask these for relief, what is their answer ? They say, ' It is our desire, we wish to do so from our hearts, but unfor- tunately the law is against it, and the three Commissioners will not allow it." — Mr. Wahley at Ibid. " The destitute are Nature's pensioners, and have a right to receive her pension free from any infliction of cruelty from the hand of man." — Oastlers " Fleet Papers" No. 8. "ThePoor-Law cannot be amended. It is an evil tree and must be plucked up by the roots and bunit. Nothing must be left behind. From first to last it is a law of fear and death. It has plagued the poor till their lives are so embittered, that they would rather die than live." — Stephens s " People's Magazine^'' Feb. 1841. " The poverty and misery of mankind, in almost all parts of the globe, is no proof that population has a tendency to increase faster than capital has actually increased. To prove the existence of such a tendency, other facts must be supplied. It must be shown, not only that the labouring classes are generally in a state of misery and poverty, but that, from the time that capi- talists and labourers became distinct classes, the misery and poverty of the lat- ter has gone on increasing. Even this is not enough. When the fact of the con- ■Btantly increasing wretchedness of man- kind has been estabhshed, it is further necessary to show, that the increasing misery has not been produced by another cause, fully adequate to the efiect ; namely, by an increase in the ratio of population to the extent of the fertile lands from which erroneous legislation permits subsistence to be obtained. \\'hen we examine this question with the atten- tion and accuracy which its great import- ance demands, and compare the motives which influence mankind in increasing their numbers, and in accumulating wealth, we find that, in almost every society, the tendency is not to increase population faster than capital ; but, on the contrary, to increase capital more •rapidly than population." — Col. Torrens, £uckinff/mm''s '• Parliamentary Review," May, 1834. " This Act has been called the Poor- Law Amendment-Act, but, from the in- structions given under the hand and seal, not of our king or of our queen, but of three kings, this is no law at all ; it is a mortgage upon the wealth, the industry, and the labour of this country, to be dealt with according to the will and the plea- sure of the three men sitting in Somerset- house." — Mr. Feargus O'Connor, Brad- ford Anti- Poor- Laic Meeting, Dec. 13, 1837. " Upon what principle is this Bill based? Why, upon the murdering prin- ciple of putting out of existence those who are no longer able to contribute their labour towards the luxuries in which the other part of the community rioted Ought not the poor to have some claim on the land in which they first saw the light ?" — Mr. Peter Bussey, at the Brad- ford Atiti-Poor-Laio Meeting, Dec. 13, 1837. " Does the new law draw the line of demarcation between the virtuous and the vicious, the deserving and the unde- serving, when they are immured in the Bastile ? No. Here you find that de- serving old age, which has stood a series of calamities for nearly half-a-centuiy, is compelled to mingle amongst the most vicious outcasts that have plagued society — and the treatment of the one is equally the same as the treatment of the other, — and both remain there as felons in a com- mon gaol." — Tbid., Dec. 13, 1837. " There was no doubt whatsoever that many cruelties had been committed under the existing law ; neither did he, as a lawyer, entertain the slightest doubt that where the poor died in consequence of bad treatment, the oflTsnders might be indicted for manslaughter or murder, according to the facts of the case." — Lord Wynford, House of Lords, May, 1838. " He should like all the Poor-Law Commissioners to try the experiment of living upon bread and cheese and gruel for three months ; and if at the end of that time they were satisfied with the condition in which they found their bo- dies, he would be satisfied with the con- dition of the labourers of England." — Dr. Fletcher (of Bury J at the Fielden Dinner at Manchester, June 4, 1838. " He believed this Act never would give satisfaction to the people of this country. In the whole of its arrange- ment, in the whole of its spirit, in its entire mechanical discipHne, it was utterly hostile to the best wishes and feelings of the people." — Mr. Wakley, Home of Commons, Feb. 20,1838. THE NEW POOR-LAW OPPOSITION. 339 ' Blessings be with tliem— and eternal praise."— Wordsworth's Sonnets. " Hands that penned, And tongues that uttered wisdom — better none." — Ibid. " Jack Ketch may be a man of some feeling, and stern necessity compels him three or four times a-year to deprive a single fellow-creature of life, but his task is executed in the course of a few minutes, and his victim's agonies are over. A Poor-Law Commissioner, on the other hand, must be a callous being who can sit calmly by and gloat on the contracted misery of thousands. For months and years he voluntarily gazes on the wasted and still wasting forms of the poor wretches whom he consigns to the care of his understrappers ; and, by a refine- ment in cruelty, unknown in any other clime, calculates to a nicety the smallest quantity of the worst quality of food by ■which body and soul can be ' held toge- ther' for a given period ! What cares he for the prayers of the distracted wife ? What to him, are the remonstrances of the unfortunate husband? What influence is exercised by the tears of the orphans, rendered so by his instrumentahty ? These questions, I fondly trust, can be answered only at Somerset-house. The mother may address him in the words of a Scottish poet : — ' Can the fond mother e'er forget The infant whom she bore ? Can its weak, plaintive cries be heard. Nor move compassion more ?' She speaks to marble. The pensioned dispenser of misery — the venal creature, whose vampirelike existence depends on the amount of privation to which he can subject the wretched and the poor — is deaf to the calls of humanity ; and, deem- ing starvation too slight a punishment, he adds the horrors of solitude to the bitter draught."— Z>«sp«M, April 29, 1838. " I have no difficulty in believing the most hon-ible things that can occur as the results of this system, which to me ap- pears to have been contrived with all the cunning that bad men could supply, and all the malia:nity that the evil spirit could superadd."— TVie Rev. G. S. Bull's (of Bradford) Letter to Wharncltffe, August 22, 1838. " Not a parish can meet without de- nouncing its atrocities — not a post arrives that does not cover our table with the most affecting illustrations of its barbarity — not a street can we walk in without beholding the proofs of its demoralizing provisions — and not a newspaper can we read which does not teem with examina- tions, trials, and verdicts, exhibiting its odious brutality, insufficient medical attendance, repulsive workhouse impri- sonment, inadequate and unwholesome diet, child-murders, vagrancy, robbery, and starvation, aggravated by official insolence and luxury : all these, we solemnly declare, constitute only the general heads — under each of which we could present illustrations of the most revolting and authentic kind, that would occupy our entire publication for nearly a month to come !'' — Editor of the *' Metro- politan Conservative Journal^'' Nov. 19, 1836. " It is against public policy and good morals to permit the separation of man and wife, even with their consent." — Mr. Justice Bayley. " It is a great evil, even if tolerated by the statute law, to remove a wife from her husband, when the parties consent to such removal ; it is unlawful altogether, without their consent." — Lord Tenterden. " With respect to the Poor-Law Com- missioners, I am decidedly opposed to the union of the legislative and executive powers, which it is proposed to lodge in them. This is a delegation of authority — a sort of ' imjjerium in imperio,' I can never bring myself to allow." — Lo7-d Chief Baron of the Exchequer, May 12, 1838. " If he was reduced to poverty, and was compelled to seek relief, before he Avould allow any person to separate him from his wife, he would cither be killed or kill. He stood upon the throne, upon the word of God, and upon the institu- tions of his country, and no consideration should induce him to become either a traitor to the throne, a traitor to his God, or a traitor to his wife, by bowing wit h submission to the commands or dictates which the three Commissioners thought proper to set up. He would not — he defied them to do their worst, and he would infinitely rather ascend to Heaven z 2 840 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES from a scaffold, speaking tlie truth, and maintaining liie rights and privileges of every Britisli subject, than he would take up his abode in the kennel on the otiier side the Strand, where the three-headed Cerberus daily and nightly set up its howl !" — Richard Oastler, Freemasons' Tavern, Yah. 19, 1838. " The mischief that has grown to such a height from granting relief in cases where proper vigilance would have shown it was not required, or in bestowing it in imdue measure, will be urged by no truly enlightened statesman as a sufficient rea- son for banishinsj the principle itself from legislation." — Wordsworth the Poet. " My Ijords, remembering who I am, and where I am, I have no hesitation in «aying, that it is a law which the people, as Englishmen, cannot submit to ; — it is a law which, as Christians, they dare not 'Gubmit to." — The Bishop of Exeter. '^ * In a speech deUvered by Mr. OavStler at the Freemasons' Tavern, Feb. 19lh, 1838, his lord- ship is made to say — " It is a law which I am resolved I never will submit to. I am resolved to pay no rates raised under the authority of the Commis.sioncrs. I am resolved to denounce their authority in any and every way. I am prepared to go into a court of justice, and before twelve of my coun- trymen to be tried, for having declared that the laws of England were not to be made by three Commissioners." Whilst this work was in progress, its author was honoured with the following letters from the Bishop of Exeter, in which his lordship de- nies having made use of the words in question. (No. 1.) "London, Aug. 1, 1840. " SiK, — As you state that speeoiies of mine are among those which will be included in your work, I think it right to say, that there is one, which Avas seen by me in a memoir of my life, in the series called Conservative Statesme?i, Avhich was not made by mo, and which I called upon the publisher of that work to correct. I know not whether he did so. It was a speech (probably made by some one else) in which I was made to say that I never would obey the laws of the Commissioners. " I am. Sir, " Your obedient servant, " H. EXETER. " G. R. Wythen Baxter, Esq. " P. S. My opinion of the Poor-Z,a?y Act continues what it has always been." (No. 2.) " Exeter, Sept. 8, 1841. " Sir, — I rely on your not inserting, as mine, that speech which I told you in my Ibrmer let- ter is erroneously ascribed to me in the Cori' servative Statesmen. " I remain, " Your obedient servant, " H. EXETER. " G. E. Wythen Baxter, Esq." " And shall the Deity be so daringly insidted by the adamantine-hearted legis- lators of our highly favoured Kngland, by the enactment of a cursed Poor-Law Bill for the starvation and separation of hus- bands and wives ? God forbid that any part of his Divine record should be legis- lated away, and made of none effect, by beings little better than fiends from the bottomless pit." — The Rev. W. V. Jack- son's Sermon on the Neiv Poor-Law. " Who are the victims of this infernal New Poor-Law of yours, my lord ? They are the worn out, honest, industrious labourers, who have contributed through life, to the support of great, lazy lubbers. They are poor afflicted creatures, male and female, whom it hath pleased God (we know not why) to afflict with mental and bodily diseases. They are poor in- fants and children, deprived of, or torn from their fathers, their mothers, and all their natural relations. They are, in short, my lord (I beg your lordship's pardon, you, perhaps, believe in no such person), those whom the Lord of life, when on earth, the most loved and the most cared for. These, my lord, your accursed Bill (which you are now going to revivify) consigns to close imprison- ment, exclusion from worshipping God, to famishing and disease, to brutal vio- lence, to horrible filth, and to premature death !" — Mr. Samuel Roberts (of Shef- field) to Lord John Russell. " The legislature cannot transfer the power of making laws to any other hands. For, it being but a delegated power from the 2?eople, they who have it cannot pass it over to others The power of the legislature being derived from the people by a positive, voluntary grant and institu- tion, can be no other than what that posi- tive grant conveyed, which being oidy to make laws, and not to make legislators, the legislature can have no power to transfer their authority of making laws, and place it in other hands. The legis- lature neither must nor can transfer the power of making laws to anybody else, or place it anywhere but where the people have placed it." — Locke. " My Lord Duke, if you pass that law, Apsley-house is yours now, but it may be mine hereafter." — Oastler to the Duke of Wellinc/ton. " Anti-popular votes, such as those for the abolition of the old Poor-Law, that palladium of the poor man's social rights, and for the enactment of that barefaced imposture, miscalled the Poor - Law THE NEW POOR-LAW OPPOSITIOX. 311 Ainendaieut-Act, are not calculated to curry-favour with those who are both iiisuhed and aggrieved thereby." — Black- wood'' s Magazine, April, 1837. " The law which prohibited relief, where any visible property remained, should be abolished. That degradhig condition should be withdrawn. No temporary occasion should force a British subject to part Avith the last shilling of his capital, and compel him to descend to a state of wretchedness from which he could never recover, merely that he might be entitled to a casual relief." — Mr. Pitt. " If the New Poor-Law remain un- changed, mimodified, the corn-laws can- not stand ; to uphold them would be a paltering with princi2iles which can meet no sympathy with us." — Blachoood, April, 1837. " The rules and orders of the Com- missioners, under this Act, have an effect which is in opposition to the Christian religion — to its precej)ts which command us fvide 1 John iii. 17, James ii. 14 — 16) not to shut up our compassion from a brother in need — to the declaration of Christ, who says (Mark xiv. 7, Matt. XXV. 31 to the end) that we have the poor always with us that we may do them good, and who impresses upon us, that in the great day of account, one principal test of the sincerity of our Christian pro- fession will be our tender regard to the poor." — The Rev. Mr. Bidl's Petition to the House of Lords. " Great God ! what a convulsion — what ruin — misery universal must be the consequence of heartless experiments for determining the extreme minimum of food upon wdiich soul and body can be just kept from final separation !" — Blackwood, April, 1837. " Now is the time to promote union, and cement harmony among and between all denominations of society ; strike down the monster Poor-Law Abolition- Act — it will be acceptable as a peace-offering — the security of home and property will be fortified — the ' flood of mutiny' will be dammed and dried up at its source — con- tentment and concord will revisit the land. If not, worse may betide — we are yet only — in the beginning of the end." — Blackwood for June, 1837. " The decimating consequences of workhouse incarceratian and workhouse starvation diet will be found cheerless and unfructifying econon:iy, when corn-j-icks are blazing, cotton-mills are fired, and the massesj manufacturing and agricultural, with their Jack Cades and Wat Tylers at their head, are in open insurrection." — Blackwood's JMagazine, April, 1837. " It cannot be expected of your peti- tioner that he should be contented with a statute, which operates to produce a separation amounting to a painful and ' temporary divorce,' when he has pro- nounced the marriage tie indissoluble except by death, and has challenged all men at their peril to put asiinder those whom he, in God's behalf, has joined together. That, although the civil magis- trate is competent by reason of commis- sion of crime to separate the man and wife, yet poverty, which is not itself a crime, and which in general does not ori- ginate in criminal causes, ouglit not, and by Christian laws cannot, be treated and visited as though it were criminal, by ' breaking up the cottage establishment,' disposuig of the cottager's goods for the benefit of the parish (vide Commissioncr.H Third Report), and inflicting upon such as have a right to be esteemed the best and most meritorious members of society, a set of barbarous regulations which have the effect of a penal statute. That your petitioner has solemnly engaged, before the Bishop who set him apart for his office, that he will take care for the poor, to the best of his power (vide Office fur Ordaining Deacons), and he appeals to your right honourable House, that he should not fulfil that duty as a shepherd, if he stood by mute and unmoved, to see the flock drooping — driven from their homes — incarcerated in the sacred name of charity itself, and compelled to accept ' relief by torture of their best feelings, and 'relief' by deprivation of their dear- est liberties." — The Rev. G. S. Bull's Petition to the House of Lords. " Against the workhouse system our stand is determined."^ — Blackwood, June, 1837. " I trust that we shall henceforth see an end to legislation, by entrusting power to Commissions ; we have already had enough and too much of them, they are not in accordance with the spiiit of the constitution, and are fast tending to de- stroy that independent feehng and honour- able desire to give gratuitous aid in sup- port of all the institutions of the State, which hithertoforth formed such a distin- guishing feature of our constitutional polity. I trust that we shall see our rulers adopt the only fair, manly, and constitutional course, standing boldly forward on their own rcsponsibihty, rrot 312 THE BOOK OF T]IE BASTILES. delegating their power to Commissioners or even to Coniiiiittees.'' — Tlie Duke of NewcaHtle' s " Thouyhts in Times /*«.v/." " The State owes to every citizen a proper nourishment, convenient clothing, and a kind of life not inconi])atible with he alth . " — Montes(jtiieu. " I reside in Morpeth, in the county of Northumberland. There has lately been a Union formed in this town, called the ' jMorpeth Union,' embracing the town, and about 60 or 70 neighbouring parishes and townships. I was appointed a Guardian for the town of Mor])etli, and from what I have seen of the working of this measure, I am fully convinced that a more cruel and inhuman IJill never passed the British House of Connnons. I have seen the feelings of the aged and intirm wounded in the most brutal manner, and their pressing wants ridiculed and neglected. I can only in this brief note allude to the general working of the Bill ; but I shall mention, that there have betm two suicides of working men in this U^nion, from Poor-Law oppressions. The ]Joard of Guardians of the same Union Jiave, only a few days ago, resolved that the common decencies of Christian burial should not be given, as heretoforth, to de- ceased paupers." — lilakcrjs " Controver- sial Letters ivith the Morpeth lioard.'^ " I have repeatedly said the New Poor- Law and the ' Regulations ' of the Com- missioners are not only oppressively, but perfectly impracticable, impolitic, and theoretical. I have no doubt but the (Jommissioners act very much upon the suggestions of Mr. Edwin Chadwick, their Secretary, who, I understand, at the death of Jeremy Bentham, was made his executor, and by which he received some eight or ten manuscripts relative to the maintenance of the poor, founded upon Utopian principles, evidently introduced into the Poor-Law Amendment-Act. Be that as it may, I will venture to suggest that it is fallacious almost from beginning to end. What will prove my assertion jnore than the indisputable fact, that the Commissioners have completely failed in proposing to act upon one ' uniform sys- tem.' The thing may sound pretty well, but how can it be practised ? To talk also of so doing away with out-door relief, how can it be done ? It is to those who know something about the relief of the poor, perfect nonsense. To make general regulations at Somerset-house, and tell us that it is better than permitting the Guardians of the different localities (who examine the various cases, and know something probably of each) a discretion to act as they may think best for all parties, — to say so is a libel on common sense. To say that no distinction shall be made between the virtuous and the vile, is what the Guardians will never act upon, and what the poor will never long submit to. To attempt to make workhouses prisons, and so punish poverty as a crime, is what Englishmen (thank God !) are not prepared for. Witness, how I am completely borne out in this fact by the long list of Metroj)olitan Unions, pub- lished this week, who, jierfectly regardless of the ' orders ' of the Poor-Law Commis- sioners to the contrary, have given to their workhouse inmates beef and j)ud- ding and porter, yes, and a day's holiday, to commemorate the festive season of the year. See, in this simple fact, the utter impossibility and the stupidity of attempt- ing to carry out a law opposed to the will, the wishes, the feelings, and the common humanity of our nat\ne. The thing is impossible. The attempt will fail. So this Poor-Law and all tlie regulations of the Commissioners are fast becoming the scorn and derision of all free and inde- pendent men in the community. They are becoming every day less able to en- force any one of their regulations." — Mr. John Days Letters to Lord John Russell. " Notwithstanding all that can be said against this most cruel and oppressive law — a law altogether repugnant to every principle of humanity, and at variance with the whole spirit of the Bible, it is nevertheless frequently said, ' Oh, the law works well.' But in what respect it works well I cannot imagine, and whether the observation is meant for the rich or poor I cannot tell. Let us, atone glance, see for which of the two classes it works well. It works well for the poor : — In depriving them of their liberty, and in putting nearly one hundred together in a ward, of different tempers, habits, &c. In separating man and wife, parents and children. In giving them bread that many can scarcely eat, that some cannot eat, and gruel that all loathe. In shutting up females, at the risk of their lives, in a cold, damp cell, for trifling offences, for twenty-four hours together. In making females to pick oakum all the winter through in a cold out-house without any fire in it, and in sending to the treadmill those who, under these circumstances, object to pick the same. In giNiug a" TIIK NEW rOOR-I.AW OPrOSITIOX. 3-13 opportunity to tlic inorciloss to beat most cnu'llv intants Avitli iinpuiiity. In keeping in olHce ilrunUen schoolmasters who break tlie ehiklren's heads. In foreint:; into the Houses young widows with chikhrn, in- stead of making tliem a tritling aUowance. In subjecting those who cannot submit to imprisonment to the greatest possible deprivations. And in greatly increasing crime. It works well for the rich — in making the rates very much higlier than ft)rmerly. AVe see then, that the only persons for whom this wicked law can jHissibly be said to work well are the Commissioners, Assistant-Commissioners, and their clerks." — Ju'v. C. FowvU Watts I" of liat/i J, Sci^L 15, 1840. " Poor men may be led through any hardship almost, but they will not be (Iriven tor ever ; they are cowed down now ; but there is a point beyond which human nature cannot be made to depress ; and that is every day hastening upon us, and when the day of reckoning shall come, the cry amongst the present supporters of the law will be, 'who could have thought that so bcncvi>l<'nt a measure could bring about such cruel results ?' It is tbrmed contrary to human nature, aiid can never stand, I will defy it ! ay, more, I will defy a people like the English to wish it to stand!" — The Sujf'ofk Jtiror, " There is little need of a conspiracy to obstruct the Poor-I^aw in the south of England. Its unworthiness is virtually admitted by those employed to carry it into etlect. Our readei"s are already aware, that out-dixir relief has been sanctioned by the Conniiissioners in several Unions; and the week presents an instance of the utter fiiilure of the new system in a populous district in Wilt- shire ; where the labourers with their f\\milies preferred the workhouse faic to wages at 7s. a- week, with bread at the present high pnces. They demanded admission in considerable numbei-s ; and, as the accommodation in the workhouse was sufficient only for a portion, the old svstem was resorted to. ' — Sptcfaior, Jan.» 1830. "The New I>aw is only calculated for ordinary times, and then when workhouse fare is superior to what industrious per- sons can procure by independent labour, the nuioh vaviuted 'test ' fails." — Moniiw/ C/iriviich\ Jan., 1839. *' Tlie New Poor Law stands forth in all that hideous deformity which at once disgraces a Christian country, and is dis- creditable to live lesrislaturc of a so-called free people ; proclaims the cruelty and cowardice of its concocters, and entitles them to the hatred of every philanthropist. It is ' cowardly,* because it gives powers which its authors were afraid to embody in the clauses of the 'Act' itself; and ' cruel,' because it punishes poverty as a crime, subjects the poor to a treatment n'o?-se than criminals, makes poorer the poor, and leaves them to the mercy (I) of their tyrant masters ! ' — Aufi-Mali/iiisian J^hodstieker, in the '' Manchester Adver- tiser;' Sept. 19, 1840. " Let Englishmen, tax-payers and rate-payers, see how they are degraded under this New Poor-Law, and say, will they be content that this scheme of whole- sale taxation, without representation, should continue any longer ? and will they be satisfied that their lawful and ancient right to control the expenditure of their own funds shall be taken away for ever, and that the comforts — and even the lives — of their i)oor. shall be placed in the hands of a set of theoretical specula- tors, hired Government otlicers, who aie to them comparatively aliens and foreign- ers, instead of neighbours and friends ?"' — Dai/'s " Practical Observations on the Xeir Poor-Lair." " We know that God has not left one man so to the mercy of another, that he may starve him if he please." — Locke. " The State is bound to supply the ne- cessities of the aged, the sick, and the orphaii." — Montescpiieiu "The lecj/islative poirer hath no other end but preservation, and, therefore, can never have a right to destroy, enslave, or designedly to impoverish the subjects... Absolute arbitrar}- power, or go- vernment, without settled standing laws» can neither of them consist with the ends of society." — Locke's '" Treatise on Go- vernment;' "^ In all tyramiical governments,, thc" supreme magistracy, or the right both of making and enforcing the laws, is vested in one and the same man, or one and the same body of men ; and wherever these two powers are united together, there can be no public liberty." — Judge Blackstone. " Lawshumr.n must be made according to the general laws of nature, and without any contradiction to any positive law in Scripture ; otherwise they are ill made." — Hooker s ** Ecclesiastical PoUtii;' '' The suspension of that valuable law (the I labeus Corpus, which was suspended in 1817) was not only xmconstitutional. but those who had been instrumental iu. 314 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. this instance in attacking the liberties of the people, ought to have been inmhhed. The practising of such things by a Government, and the submission of the people to them, must, in the end, bring about such a state of political ex- citement, as would leave the people no other alternative but base endurance, or forcible resistance.'''' — Lord Greys Speech at a public Meeting at Netccastle-on- Tyne, 1819. " Find employment for such as are able to work ; and this principally by pro- viding stocks to be worked at home, which perhaps might be more beneficial than accumulating all the poor in one common workhouse ; a practice which tends to destroy all domestic connexions, the only felicity of the honest and indus- trious labourer, and to put the sober and diligent upon a level, in point of their earnings, with those who are dissolute and idle." — Blackstone. " The separation is contrary to all law ; for there are more than a score of decisions of judges, that the separating of man and wife is unconstitutional and unlawful from the very nature and offices of society.'" — Blakeys " General Principles of Paro- chial Relief.^'' " No free man shall be taken or im- prisoned, unless by the legal judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land." — Magna Charta. " Never join in, or give countenance to, the silly talk of this infamous Bill being more necessary or advantageous to the South than to the North. There is injus- tice as well as silliness in this opinion. You cannot but admit, that it must be as painful for a man in Devonshire to be parted from his wife and family as it is for a native of Northumberland or Dur- ham ; and that the former has as keen sensibilities to the thousands of outrages to his feelings and domestic comfort which this Act must, in its very nature, inflict upon him, as the latter." — Blakey's " Gen- eral Principles of Parochial relief'' " If there is a man who has no home, that man has a just cause for quarrel with society. Everyman without a home, and whose home is not all that God meant it to be, is robbed." — Rev J. E. Stephens's London Sermon, preached May 12th, 1839. " Society can have no right or power to shoot or hang a man because he is in a poor and destitute condition ; and what the law of reason forbids you to do dirccth/, it equally forbids you to do indirectly, by placing a man in a situation, on account of his helpless condition, where his deatli becomes sure and inevitable." — Blahey's " General Principles of Parochial Relief." " The old Poor-I^aw recognized the right of every man in times of distress, and in circumstances of poverty over which he had no control, — established the clear, indefeasible right of every such man, to a maintenance out of the property of the country. But what does the New Poor-Law ? It throws every man upon his own resources ! It sajs to the work- ing man, ' Let jour wages be never so small — let your employment be never so laborious, you may work 18 or 20 hours a-day — you may exhaust your strength in procuring food and clothing ; but if you fail in doing that, though you have no command over wages, yet you shall have no relief in this country, out of a prison." — Mr. John Fielden, M.P., at the Man- chester Fielden Dinner, June 4, 1838. " I defy you, my Jjord, with all the wealth and power of Britain, to maintain the crown on Victoria's virgin and ho- noured brow, or the coronets on the dun- derheads of the peers, or the rents in the hands of the landlords, or the wealth in the miser's coffers, along with the damna- ble, the devilish, the Anti-God New Poor- Law. You will find me right in the long-run! my Ijord." — Oastlers Jjctter to Lord John Russell, Nov. 27, 1838. " I hate the New Poor-Law, because it establishes a dangerous and iniheard-of authority in this country. I hate it for its principle of centralization, and for its rami- fication of servile agents. I hate it, be- cause it supersedes the authority of the magistrates and clergy. I hate it, because it deprives the rate-payers of essential control over the application of their funds. But above all I hate it, for its mockery of charity, and for its injustice : its injustice, because the evil-disposed and the well- disposed paupers are treated alike : its mockery of charity, and injustice, because the .acceptance of relief is accompanied with subjection to degrading conditions ; so that the honest and deserving labourer will be the last to receive it : and men of any spirit will be exposed to suflci-ing and famine, or loill prefer to commit crime; whilst the vile, only, will submit to such iUiberal and disgusting conditions. I hate it, also, for its disrespect of the clergymen, and of social and moral ties, in separating parishioners from their pastors, neighbour from neighbour, married couples fruni e.ich other, and children from their THE NEW rOOR-LAW OPrOSITION. 3-15 parents." — Mr. John PercevaVs Letter to Mr. Oastler, Feb. 6, 1838. " If you refuse the able-bodied pauper relief from the fund for the poor, you will have to provide for him from the fund dedicated to the maintenance of criminals. The pauper will not starve; and what you refuse to give, he will take : for this you will send him to the House of Correc- tion. This House of Correction is main- tained at the public charge, and the pri- soners must be fed. Do what you will, talk as you will, there is no escaping from this difficulty." — TaWs Magazine, Feb., 1831. " I have read this report (of the Poor- Law Commissioners) with the most horri- ble disgust : it is a lie against God and the poor." — Michael Thomas Sadler. " If any man, from no fault of his own, in extreme want of victuals and clothing, cannot obtain from those richer than him- self, either by entreaties, or by some pay- ment or other, or by his labour, that which he needs, he is by no means guilty of theft or felony if he takes them, either by force or privately. — Puffenclorf. "J. S. Smith, Esq., rose to propose a series of resolutions expressive of the opinion entertained by the vestrymen of this parish in reference to the Poor-Law Amendment-Bill proposed by Lord Al- thorp, many of the obnoxious clauses of which, his Lordship had said, would not be enforced. Where then was the neces- sity of passing such a measure ? He believed, if it were once passed, the Com- missioners Avould enforce every part of it with the utmost rigidity. (Hear.) One of the clauses empowered the Commissioners to make new regulations, subject only to the approval of the Secretary of State, and to convert the provisions of any act of Parliament which might suit them to their own purposes ; in fact, the object of tlie Bill seemed to be to destroy all local jui'isdiction in matters relating to the poor. To be sure, the Board of Guar- dians might review the propositions of these Commissioners, but the latter had the power of moulding the former to their own liking, so that the Guardians would be the mei'e tools of the Commissioners. (Hear.) By the 19th clause, poAver was given to alter :ind enlarge parish work- houses, and to call upon the Guardians to pay the expense, while they were limited in their resources. Sir James Scarlett drew the attention of Lord Althorp to this point, and his lordship replied, that it meant to give them power only to lock up a door. Was not that absurd ? The Commissioners, if they pleased, would add extensively to the building. One clause provided for the union of different parishes, for the purposes of settlement and rating. Did not this betray an act of injustice. A petition from the parish of Bethnal- green, Avhich was veiy poor, had avowed that it would derive great benefit from being united to a richer parish. He would not object to a general metropolitan rate, but first let the debts of each parish be paid by itself. Unfortunately, not half the members of the House of Commons were practical men, and, therefore, it was not unfair to suppose they had not waded through the voluminous report of the Commissioners : though that report de- tailed much absurdity and mismanagement on the part of many country parishes, those facts did not prove that the present system was bad, but that it was badly ad- ministered. Government had no right to call upon the parishes to submit to the control of the proposed Commissioners unless the consent of the assembled vestry of each parish was first obtained. (Hear, hear.) To exclude lunatics from poor-houses was a great hardship, for many of those unfortunate beings were perfectly harmless. He was satisfied that the intended alteration in the Bastardy laws would only increase the number of illegitimate children. (Hear.) Why were the metropolitan parishes to be saddled with this arbitrary, unjust, injurious mea- sm-e? Only because some country parishes had mismanaged their affairs. A sample of this management he would just quote from the report of the Commission- ers. In one parish the overseers' accounts contained entries, without date, like the following : — ' For catching two dozen sparrows, 2s.' ' For catching a hedgehog, 4d.' ' For going to prevent a marriage, 1 s.' ' To William Bugden, for bringing good news, 2s.' ' For looking out for a bastard child, 2s. (Laughter.) This occurred in a parish near Coventry ; and he would ask if the rate-pa5ers were such fools as to endure such things, were those who looked after their aflfairs properly to be punished by Lord Althorp's Bill for their folly? (Hear.) The parish of Whitc- chapel was in comparatively easy circum- stances, but this Bill would involve it in new difficulties, and therefore it was not wanted. (Hear.) The expenditure in this parish in 1824 was £9,000, but in 1 833 it Avas only £6,000. This improved state of things was owing to the persever- 346 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. ance of the parochial officers, assisted by the magistrates of the district. The really necessitous were duly relieved, but able-bodied impostors found no encourage- ment. What more could be desired ? The Commissioners reported, that illegiti- mate children were only paid for in pro- portion to their charges at the I'ate of 50 or 80 per cent. In this parish there were at present ninety-two illegitimate children; they cost last year £318, and the actual receiptsamounted to £ 1 68. The Commissioners stated, that the parishes could not make any new regulations. This he denied, for the vestry had power to do so at all times, consistent with the public benefit. He would conclude in the words of the Times respecting another Commission — ' This Commission will only add another to the pompous, costly, and burdensome establishments which have deluged the country so long." — Vestry Meetiny, St. Marys, Whitechapel, June 5, 1834. " The labouring classes always suffer privations. If the rich are just towards them they are content and social ; they feel that God hath made them poor and they do not repine ; for, as our Saviour affirms, they are more religious and more moral than the rich. In consequence of possessing their rights, they become more noble in their thoughts and in their deeds. But if the rich educate the multitude, and, while they teach the poor man to estimate his rights, teach him also to see that he is deprived of them ; if, while the rich do this, they expect the poor to suffer in patience, not what God inflicts, and with it sends the power to bear ; then do the poor feel vilified and injured ; they become base and revengeful ; fear may long prevent open violence ; but it generates h)-pocrisy and all that demoralization which renders man devilish and dreadful. To bestow upon man his rights, and instruct him how to value and use them, is to cultivate all the nobleness of human nature. It is a fearful thing so to depress men as to im- poverish them, and at the same time so to cut off relief, that they are driven to revolt. Wo to those who push a people to such straits, for the state of society then becomes indeed deplorable. Men who succeed in seizing their rights by force have seldom any regard for the rights of others ; they are filled with a spirit of vengeance, and, in the fulness of success, they them- selves become despotic tyrants ; if they fail in the struggle they sink into hopeless baseness. Goverumenls should have that moral courage which makes them boldly just. It is not men who receive justice, but those who are denied it and take it, that are to be feared. Why will not Governments see that their force to hold the multitude in subjection is quadrupled by giving men their rights. ? To do this, renders the power of a Government gigan- tic. To refuse to do this, gives to it the feebleness of decrepitude, and to its ihus created foes the fierceness of the tiger with the strength of tlie lion. To oppress and deny the people justice, is to drive them to revolt ; it may come sooner or it may come later, but that result is as certain as that night follows day." — General Sir Charles Napier. " The last riveted link in the chain of slavery is, that which deprives a man of his right of (unoffendingly) worshipping and obeying God in the way which his reason and conscience dictate. Tliis is the link which is by this accursed law sought now to be riveted. Against this attempt it is the bounden duty of every true Christian, in one way or other, to ' cry aloud and spare not.' The doing of this by no means necessarily implies a turbulent spirit, or ill-will to any one ; on the contrary, I am sure, that, in this instance, it is accompanied with universal love and charity. Living under this accursed, impious triumvirate is living at the peril of fine and imprisonment ; under it true Christian subjects of this land of boasted freedom dare not to obey the most clear and explicit, essential commands of their Saviour." — " The Paupers' Ad- vocate. A cry from the Brink of the Grave.''' By Samuel Roberts, (of Shef- field), 1841. " Could all the instances of the dreadful sufferings which ever have been brought, and authenticated, before the ])ublic (the consequence of this law), though probably not a ten-thousandth part of those which have really been inflicted and endured — they would fill more and larger volumes than even those enormous ponderous books of the poor-calumniating Commissioners, concocted by order of our rulers, to induce the rich to consent to the utter spoiling of the poor. The most gloomy and fertile imagination could not have conceived, I think, any legislative measure so stupidly insane, so unjust, so impolitic, so ferocious, cruel, and wicked, as the proceedings leading to, and connected with, the New Poor-Law." — Ibid. " I do earnestly hope the public voice will be raised upon this subject, from THE NEW POOR-LAW OPPOSITION. 347 North to South, from East to West, of this kingdom, — now, at the proper time, and in the proper manner. It is a vital question, as regards the peace and pros- perity of the kingdom ; for there is more depending upon the settlement, satisfactory or otherwise, of the New Poor-Law, than upon any question of domestic and inter- nal economy, which has ever been brought before Parliament within my recollection. It is not enough that the question be settled ; it must be settled satisfactorily, at least in a great degree more so than by the first attempt. The opponents of the present law are not a handful of grumbling lovers of antiquated systems, who would oppose all amendment and hinder all reformation. They do not consist either of the merely discontented of the lower classes, or the prejudiced pai'tizans of the higher. Their opposition is not only to details in practice ; it is a struggle in defence of a great principle ; that princi- ple is charity ; not the niggardly doling out of support for animal existence to the destitute, as might be justified by stern and unavoidable pressure of poverty throughout all ranks of the people ; but the principle which under that name con- stitutes the tie and bond of all social con- nexion between man and his fellow-man — a principle whose spirit ought as dearly to be recognized in the legal provision for destitute poverty by the state at large, as in the administration of charitable benefi- cence in private, or in combination with others apart from Parliamentary interfer- ence, — that principle which lays down this rule for itself, that the administration of relief to the unfortunate and the destitute shall never be rendered painful to the recipient, by conditions which at once degrade his character in his own eyes, and in those of his neighbour, and thus unnecessarily wound his feelings ; or, ■what is worst of all, leave to the sober, industrious, respectable poor man, only the alternative of submission to disgrace or starvation in silence. This is the only principle of a poor-law to Avhich I can assent, because it is the only one which the law of God, or my duty to my neigh- bour, admits of. If it be denied to the poor, as it is now by many, that they have an abstract right to a maintenance out of the superfluities of enormous wealth, such as tliis country can boast of (a right which in feudal times was admitted and acted upon, whilst in these days of eman- cipation it appears the responsibility of the wealthy has disappeared^ with the bondage of the serf), they have at least a right to claim that, what relief they do receive from the state in its character of universal parent, shall be free from any circumstances which bring upon them insult and needless suflering in addition to their poverty." — Sir George Creive's Address to his Constituents of South Derbtj, Feb., 1841. " As far as my experience extends, as Rector of a parish containing a population of 2,181 souls, I k7iow that the poor have not right, and never con have it, under the operation of the Poor-Law Amendment- Act, as it now stands. I know this, and I am ready to prove it before any tribunal, excepting, however, a packed committee of the House of Commons, and a Board of Guardians with closed doors, and a Poor-Law Commissioner as their counsel. I know, for instance, that many labourers have necessarily been out of employment in my parish, week after week, during this intense frost. I know that their families have gone through hardshijis which most people would consider intolerable, but which very possibly may not have exactly reached the extreme point of destitution which, according to the dura ilia of Lord John Russell, Lord Radnor, and the Poor- Law Commissioners, might have entitled them to relief; and, notwithstanding that private charity and a public subscription have done much to mitigate their distress, I know that many families in this parish have suffered during the long protracted inclemency of the weather both from want of food and fuel. Some of them who had not yet learnt, by a refusal of relief, the severity of the law, and who, in the fond hope of some assistance during such weather, applied to the Board of Guar- dians, were of course offered ' the house.'' But no, they had rather satisfy their hun- ger with one scanty meal of potatoes per day, they had rather starve, they had rather drop in the streets, than enter that house, and be parted from their wives and children. And they remain out, and suffer cold and hunger ! But is there nothmg else that they do ? Is there no temptation to them to put forth their hands and steal ? or, if they have the fear of God or of punishment to restrain them, are there no thoughts of bitterness in their hearts against their superiors ? ' What have I done ?' may the honest and hard-working man in such circumstances exclaim, ' what have I done to deserve such treatment at my country's hands? Has not my honest labour been given to her for many a-year, 348 THE BOOK 01' THE BASTILES. and has she ever found nie unwilhng to work when there has been work to be done? Have my wages of 9s. or 10s. a- week, with a wife and four or five small children to support, and with bread and every kind of provisions at high prices, enabled me to save anything for this period of necesssity ? I ha\ e never fre- quented the beer-shops ; I have always behaved myself lowly and reverently to all my betters ; I have sent my children to school with regularity ; and I myself have been constant to church. Why should 1 be denied a little assistance for a little while, until I can return to my w^ork ? Why should I be compelled to go into the ' House,' and be parted from my Avife and children, and be condemned to keep company with the vicious and depraved, and to be vexed with the filthy conversa- tion of the wicked ?' I know that these are the feelings of many an honest and industrious labourer ; and those ministers who have large parishes where the work- house test has been applied, and who visit their people and converse with them, must know the same. And will Ivord John Russell tell us that a law, which proposes a house without moral classification to such men, and which pretends to test their destitution by an oifer of relief upon such terms, is a most humane and benevolent law ? No, my Lord, call it by its proper name : it is a most inhuman, ungenerous, uncharitable, un-English and un-Christian law.' — The Rev. William Brock's {Rector of Bishop's Waltham, Hants, J Letter in the " Times," dated Feb. 11, 1841. " To my mind, the most alarming characteristic of the New Poor-Law is its tendency to estrange the people from the church and the religion of their fathers. Sir Robert Peel has expressed his disappro- bation of that clause in the Bill now before Parliament, which relates to the attachment of burial-grounds to the workhouses ; and well he may, for the proposition of the Commissioners to dissever the poor from their ancestors in death is as barbarous and revolting, as the excuse attempted for it by Lord Howick is hollow and pitiful. But if that hon. baronet knew what a blow has been levelled against the church by the New Poor-Law, and how that measure is every day embittering the minds of the labouring classes against their superiors, he would have demanded that their feehngs should not be outraged while they live, any more than their remains insulted when they die. I solemnly declare, that I do not believe that anything has tended more to alienate tlie minds of the poor from the churcii and the aristocracy of the land than the Poor- Law Amendment-Act. Time was, when the applicant for parochial relief w as wont to look up to the minister as a powerful friend, and to the magistrate as an equita- ble judge : but now he perceives that the minister and the magistrate are alike powerless, and he is apt to conclude, not so much that they cannot, but that they uill not, help him. By this, in conjunction with the INlarriage and Registration Acts, the parochial system, hitherto so powerful a means of binding the aficctions of the poor to the church, has been invaded ; the Union has taken the place of the parish ; and the tie which used to unite our people, by every happy and hallowed association, to the House in which their fathers wor- shipped, and round which are their fathers' graves, has been weakened. The end of these thhigs can be nothing but evil ; would tiiat the professed friends of the institutions and religion of the country would consider it ! To adopt the language of one of old, while speaking of the national judgments which he dreaded for his people, ' O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end !' " — Ibid, Feb. 18, 1841. " Of all the destructive laws that ever were invented — of all the sanguinary laws that ever were framed — he believed that the equal of this law had never been designed or concocted by human being. (Hear, hear.) It was but seldom that he spoke upon this subject out of that House, but he could not relate the thousandth part of what he had witnessed with regard to this detestable law. He wished that the House could hear the expressions used by jurymen, with reference to themselves and their legislation, when they witnessed the appalling instances in which those feelings were sacrificed, which ought to be cherished by every human being. Was it their intention that a man should be punished because he would not go into a gaol for them ? He would not call the workhouse by any other name than a gaol. It was a gaol, and a particularly odious one. (Hear, hear.) From what he had seen of houses of correction and work- houses, he declared positively he would rather go into the house of correction. (Hear, hear.) It was said that they must have a workhouse test ; they must make it less agreeable than the situation of a man out of doors. It was ast^uracd that THE NEW POOR-LAW OPPOSITION. 349 all those who applied for admission into the workhouse were idle and disorderly. But it was well known that there were many men who lahoured assiduously for thirty or forty years, toiling from morning till night, and never, until decrepitude arrived, made any application to the parish for relief. Besides these labourers, there were numerous little tradesmen, who never applied for assistance until it was impos- sible for them longer to exist without it. What he wanted the House to state dis- tinctly was, whether it was the intention of a majority amongst them, that such a man as he had described should, after thirty years' assiduous but unsuccessful toil, be treated as a spendthrift and a squanderer ? Yet, did they make the slight- est distinction between the two cases ? None. The noble lord,* with his usual candour and boldness, had not hesitated to say, that ' no Board of Guardians shall dare to make any distinction between merit and demerit where destitution exists.' What a monstrous position was this to lay down, that there was to be no discrimi- nation or difference, even if in one case distress was the produce of a long series of crime, in the other, of a long series of misfortune ! (Hear, hear.) The noble lord had laid it down, that the treatment should be precisely alike in both cases. And this was what a reformed House of Commons (hear) — yes, a reformed, but not an amended. House of Commons — had done. He would prefer having the old boroughmongers back. (Laughter.) He declared solemnly, from what he had seen of their legislation, that he would prefer seeing the boroughmongers in the House to those whom he saw there now. (Cheers from the opposition benches.) He firmly believed it would have been better for the interests of the people. Would the boroughmongers have dared to introduce such a law? (Hear, hear.) But now, be- cause that House was elected by consider- able masses of the people, it was presumed that they were strong enough to work out the iniquity. The people were not repre- sented there, and, if they w^ere, such legis- lation would not be permitted to exist for an instant. An hon. member near him said, that ' it would be worse,' if the repre- sentation were more popular. If so, he would regret that there had been any such thing as reform, and should be sorry that he had ever taken a part in producing such a change. The people of England were not envious or malignant; on the * John Rus.;el!. contrary, they w^ere of a kindly and generous disposition. (Hear, hear.) All that the}'' required was a kindly feeling. He did not believe that there existed on the face of the earth a more honest-hearted or a better people. (Hear.) Ought they to be treated in this way ? Was it be- coming in a body of gentlemen to sit there, under a pretext of legislating for the poor, and frame laws for their persecution and torture ? But it was said, that the law would have the effect of raising wages. It had now been six years in existence, and the very reverse was proved to be the fact. How could it be otherwise ? They said to the working people, ' We have secured our property by law ; we have our man- sions, our parks, our herds of deer, our hundreds of thousands a-year, and all the luxuries that wealth can purchase : we allow you to live outside of our park- palings ; don't come over them, — if you do, you'll be a trespasser, and shall be punished. Don't pull down our paling ; if you do, you'll be a thief.' Throughout the rural districts of England, there w^as a time when scarcely a cellar or a place about a farmhouse where he was born was secured. Thieves were not then thought of. Both farmers and gentlemen thought themselves surrounded by friends. How different was the state of things now ! (Hear, hear.) They wanted a police to protect them ; they required a new class of guardians around them. Having made laws for the security of their property, stringently providing against aggression, they further said to the people : ' Now you may get work if you can. If you do, you must take the wages that are offered you, or go into a gaol. You have only to choose between the proffered wages and a prison,' And this they called a contrivance for raising wages. It had the opposite effect ; and it must be so, so long as this law continued. A man would prefer re- ceiving five or six shillings a-week to going into a gaol. It was natural that men should dislike the restraint, the silence, the dietary, of a gaol. It was natural that they should dislike, that the governor should place them on bread and water for twenty-four hours, if he fancied them, in his whim, to be refractory. He (Mr. Wakley) received each day a multiplica- tion of communications from all parts of England upon this subject, and here was one of them. A Dissenting minister in Oxfordshire wrote to him, that ' a man be- longing to his congregation, of a sober, industrious, and religious character, had 350 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES, applied for relief for himself, his wife, and five children. That man solemnly stated, that he would prefer 5s. a-week for the maintenance of all seven, rather than go into a Union workhouse.' (Hear, hear.) It would be absurd to say that this was a solitary case. In the discharge of his functions as Coroner, he had met several cases of persons who had absolutely perished rather than go into a workhouse. It was only a few days ago he had held an inquest in the Kensington Union on the body of a man who had died, with an order for his admission to the workhouse in his possession, dated three days before his death. He had been discovered in a room in a state of perfect exhaustion : never had he witnessed such a skeleton. The jury retired from the body with averted eyes, horrified at what they had seen, and exclaiming against the operation of the Poor-Law Act. It was stated at the inquest to be a frequent occurrence, that where a number of persons applied for relief on the Tuesday, some were obliged to remain from eleven in the morning till eleven at night before their cases were examined into. Sometimes the wretched paupers dropped in the passage in a state of exhaustion. Why had the Unions been made so enormously large, unless to prevent the people from obtaining relief ? His belief was that they had been constructed on that principle. How was a poor man, a cripple, to go eight, nine, or ten miles to a workhouse, from which, if he only slightly miscalcu- lated his time, he was sure to be shut out ? And this was the system so actively abetted by the gentry of England — that proud and haughty aristocracy, boasting of the pure and generous blood which flowed in their veins ! It was but the other day, that a Board of Guardians had applied to the Poor-Law Commissioners for four ounces of rice every day more than was allowed. These gentlemen were told, that their application could not be acceded to, and they were obliged to say to the people, ' We are sorry, but we (the great landed proprietors of the district) cannot give you the four ounces more of rice per day — the Commissioners will not let us.' (Hear.) The poor would ask, why did they submit? The gentry of England were not a timid race of men — they were not an ignorant race of men. The poor would say — ' Suppose a law were passed to prevent the gentry from keeping more than a certain number of hounds, or racehorses, or to prevent them from giving their dogs animal food more th.tn once a-week. Then would each high-minded gentleman exclaim, ' What! a law framed to prevent us from feeding as many hounds as we please ! ' Then would the yeomanry cavalry be out in less tiian a week, and swords would ghsten upon every hill, while the cry would be — ' Shall we not be allowed to feed our hounds as we like ? ' But when there was question of the poor, then did these high-minded gentry bow down and truckle to every Government agent, and say, with due submission — ' We regret exceedingly, that the Poor-Law Commissioners say the potatoes and bread you receive are amply sufficient for your sustenance ; we cannot depart from their regulations.' Desiring the re-establishment of generous sympa- thies and kindly feelings, desiring that concord and goodwill shall reign around the land, in the room of the dangerous and growing spirit which was now spring- ing up amongst us, and deploring the existence of this law, which had made tyrants of those who should be the legiti- mate protectors of the people, he sub- mitted his motion to the House, in the hope that it might be carried. His ob- ject was to divide the subject into two Bills, one entirely appropriated to the Commissioners, the other so applied as to convince the jieople that it would work well without the Commissioners ; and, if it were so framed, he believed that it would give satisfaction.'' — Mr. Waldcy, House of Commons, March 19, 1841. " He thought the measure unjust, cruel, and unnatural." — Hon. H. FUzroy, House of Commons, March \9, 1841. " He should be sorry to say anything harsh towards the noble lord opposite ;* the county had a high respect for his pri- vate character; but he could not refrain from asking him how he could insult the people of England by offering them such a bill ? The noble lord had spoken on former occasions on the necessity of con- ciliating the Irish people, in order that we might be strong in ourselves, and become a united people. He could assure the noble lord, that in the north of England nothing was so well calculated to separate and disunite the people from the Govern- ment as this bill, and he trusted he would not think of doing justice to Ireland alone, but that he would also do justice to the people of England. (Hear, hear.) He would address himself to the other side of the House, to those who consi- * Lord John Rustscll. THE NEW POOR-LAW OPPOSITION. 351 dered themselves as the friends of the poor, and called upon them to consider that this was the poor man's bill, and not to widen the interval between the rich and the poor, by supporting it. Before he sat down he would merely say, that nothing would more soothe the country, or be more satisfactory to the poorer classes, than the tearing this accursed bill from the statute-book ; and although he did not expect he should be supported, still he must not forget that he had a duty to perform to his constituents, and to the other large counties in the country, and he would give an opportunity to hon. members to redeem their pledges to their constituents, by requesting, that the Speaker would put from the chair the re- solution he held in his hand, ' That the bill be committed this day six months.' " — Mr. T. Parker, House of Commons, March 19, 1841, on the Poor-Laiv Com- missioners' Continuance Bill going into Committee. " General Johnson was opposed to the bill because, in his mind, it put the whole labouring class out of the law, and into the hands of the Poor-Law Commissioners. Petitions to a very great number had been presented to the House against the bill, and it was a remarkable circumstance, that there were only two petitions with two signatures in its favour. The pre- sent measure had a tendency to keep up dissensions in the country, and, if the legislature wished to excite the deadly hatred of the working classes, all they need to do was, to pass the bill under con- sideration. It was designated by the working classes throughout the country, as the rich man's law against the poor. (Hear, hear.) Out of every 100 of agri- cultural labourers or mechanics, 99 would be found, he undertook to say, to entertain the greatest abhorrence of the existing law. (Hear, hear.) Great stress had been laid on the bad administration of the old law ; and it had been urged that no- thing could be so injurious as paying wages partly out of the rates. He ad- mitted this, but to what extent had such a system prevailed? It existed in not more than five counties ; and in the north the paying of wages out of the rates was a thing unheard of. It was no reason, then, because the Poor-Law had been previously badly administered in five counties, that the old constitutional system should be totally subverted, and an' inno- vation introduced throughout England. (Hear, hear.) Much was said about the uniformity established under the New Law, but he denied that any uniformity existed ; for in some Unions orders for out-door relief were issued, while in others the power to give such relief was with- held. The expenses for out-door relief, during the quarter ending Lady-day, 1840, was £818,632 ; and for in-door relief, £136,592; being a proportion of seven to one. He felt confident, that if Parliament persisted in imposing this law on the country, the results would be that society would be disorganized, and one class of the community would be set against the other. (Hear, hear.)" — House of Commons, March 19, 1841. " Never did the aristocracy of this country lay the political axe with greater- force at the root of their own tree than when they passed the New Poor-Law. It was an act that proved one of two things beyond all controvertibility, — either that, as a body, they have no rational claim to their own privileges and immu- nities, and that no portion of the com- munity has any specific right to its dis- tinct existence as a class ; or that they are altogether so ignorant of the science of social polity, as to be totally unfit to hold their present legislative rank. The Constitution of England recognizes the right of the poor to an inheritance on the soil, as clearly as it does that of the ma- norial lords to their estates ; but in pass- ing and applying this law, constitutional authority has been set at nought ; power and cunning have usurped all precedence of justice and rectitude ; and an example has been set which will be available in future times, when the will of the strong shall stand, as it hath here done, in the stead of all precognizance, and when the people, being more mighty than the aris- tocracy, will argue that they have as true a right to appoint a commission for farm- ing all the landed capital of the country for the purposes of the common wealth, as the aristocracy had to appoint a com- mission for abrogating the ancient claim of the poor to a legitimate and sufficient maintenance from that land. We have here alluded to the subject only in rela- tion to those who have usurped this right ; but what heart-rending volumes might be written in illustration of the effects upon their victims ! Let us for a moment ex- cept altogether from consideration the incompatibility of such a measure with the genius of our institutions, — and upon what principles of humanity do we find it based ? — to what end, morally viewed, do 350 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. applied for relief for himself, his wife, and five children. That man solemnly stated, that he would prefer 5s. a-week for the maintenance of all seven, rather than go into a Union workhouse.' (Hear, hear.) It would be absurd to say that this was a solitai-y case. In the discharge of his functions as Coroner, he had met several cases of persons who had absolutely perished rather than go into a workhouse. It was only a few days ago he had held an inquest in the Kensington Union on the body of a man who had died, with an order for his admission to the workhouse in his possession, dated three days before his death. He had been discovered in a room in a state of perfect exhaustion : never had he witnessed such a skeleton. The jury retired from the body with averted eyes, horrified at what they had seen, and exclaiming against the operation of the Poor-Law Act. It was stated at the inquest to be a frequent occurrence, that where a number of peisons applied for relief on the Tuesday, some were obliged to remain from eleven in the morning till eleven at night before their cases were examined into. Sometimes the wretched paupers dropped in the passage in a state of exhaustion. Why had the Unions been made so enormously large, unless to prevent the people from obtaining relief ? His belief was that they had been constructed on that principle. How was a poor man, a cripple, to go eight, nine, or ten miles to a workhouse, from which, if he only shghtly miscalcu- lated his time, he was sure to be shut out ? And this was the system so actively abetted by the gentry of England — that proud and haughty aristocracy, boasting of the pure and generous blood which flowed in their veins ! It was but the other day, that a Board of Guardians had applied to the Poor-Law Commissioners for four ounces of rice every day more than was allowed. These gentlemen were tuld, that their application could not be acceded to, and they were obliged to say to the people, ' We are sorry, but we (the great landed proprietors of the district) cannot give you the four ounces more of rice per day — the Commissioners will not let us.' (Hear.) The poor would ask, why did they submit? The gentry of England were not a timid race of men — tliey were not an ignorant race of men. The poor would say — ' Suppose a law were passed to prevent the gentry from keeping more than a certain number of hounds, or racehorses, or to prevent them from giving their dogs animal food more th.TU once a- week. Then would each high-minded gentleman exclaim, ' Wiiat! a law framed to prevent us from feeding as many hounds as we please ! ' Then would the yeomanry cavalry be out in less than a week, and swords would glisten upon every hill, while the cry would be — ' Shall we not be allowed to feed our hounds as we like ? ' But when there was question of the poor, then did these high-minded gentry bow down and truckle to every Government agent, and say, with due submission — ' We regret exceedingly, that the Poor-Law Commissioners say the potatoes and bread you receive are amply sufficient for your sustenance ; we cannot depart fi"om their regulations.' Desiring the re-establishmcnt of generous sympa- thies and kindly feelings, desiring that concord and goodwill shall reign around the land, in the room of the dangerous and growing spirit which was now spring- ing up amongst us, and deploring the existence of this law, which had made tyrants of those who should be the legiti- mate protectors of the people, he sub- mitted his motion to the House, in the hope that it might be carried. His ob- ject was to divide the subject into two Bills, one entirely appropriated to the Commissioners, the other so applied as to convince the people that it Avould work well without the Commissioners ; and, if it were so framed, he believed that it would give satisfaction." — Mr. Waklcy, House of Commons, March 19, 1841. " He thought the measure unjust, cruel, and unnatural." — Hon. H. Fitzroy, House of Commons, March \9, 1841. " He should be sorry to say anything harsh towards the noble lord opposite ;"* the county had a high respect for his pri- vate character ; but he could not refrain from asking him how he could insult the people of England by offering them such a bill ? The noble lord had spoken on former occasions on the necessity of con- ciliating the Irish people, in order that we might be strong in ourselves, and become a united people. He could assure the noble lord, that in the north of England nothing was so well calculated to separate and disunite the people from the Govern- ment as this bill, and he trusted he would not think of doing justice to Ireland alone, but that he would also do justice to the people of England. (Hear, hear.) He would address himself to the other side of the House, to those who consi- * Lord John Russell. THE NEW POOR-LAW OPPOSITION. 351 dercd themselves as the friends of the poor, and called upon them to consider that this was the poor man's bill, and not to widen the interval between the rich and the poor, by supporting it. Before he sat down he would merely say, that nothing would more soothe the country, or be more satisfactory to the poorer classes, than the tearing this accursed bill from the statute-book ; and although he did not expect he should be supported, still he must not forget that he had a duty to perform to his constituents, and to the other large counties in the country, and he would give an opportunity to hon. members to redeem their pledges to their constituents, by requesting, that the Speaker would put from the chair the re- solution he held in his hand, ' That the bill be committed this day six months.' " — Mr. T. Parker, House of Commons, March 19, 1841, on the Poor- Lmv Com- missioners' Continuance Bill going into Committee. " General Johnson was opposed to the bill because, in his mind, it put the whole labouring class out of the law, and into the hands of the Poor-Law Commissioners. Petitions to a very great number had been presented to the House against the bill, and it v/as a remarkable circumstance, that there were only two petitions with two signatures in its favour. The pre- sent measure had a tendency to keep up dissensions in the country, and, if the legislature wished to excite the deadly hatred of the working classes, all they need to do was, to pass the bill under con- sideration. It was designated by the working classes throughout the country, as the rich man's law against the poor. (Hear, hear.) Out of every 100 of agri- cultural labourers or mechanics, 99 would be found, he undertook to say, to entertain the greatest abhorrence of the existing law. (Hear, hear.) Great stress had been laid on the bad administration of the old law ; and it had been urged that no- thing could be so injurious as paying wages partly out of the rates. He ad- mitted this, but to what extent had such a system prevailed ? It existed in not more than five counties ; and in the north the paying of wages out of the rates was a thing unheard of. It was no reason, then, because the Poor-Law had been previously badly administered in five counties, that the old constitutional svstem should be totally subverted, and an inno- vation introduced throughout England. (Hear, hear.) Much was said about the uniformity established under the New Law, but he denied that any uniformity existed ; for in some Unions orders for out-door relief were issued, while in others the power to give such relief was with- held. The expenses for out-door relief, during the quarter ending Lady-day, 1840, was £818,632 ; and for in-door relief, £136,592; being a proportion of seven to one. He felt confident, that if Parliament persisted in imposing this law on the country, the results would be that society would be disorganized, and one class of the community would be set against the other. (Hear, hear.)" — House of Commons, March 19, 1841. " Never did the aristocracy of this country lay the political axe with greater force at the root of their own tree than when they passed the New Poor-Law. It was an act that proved one of two things beyond all controvertibility, — either that, as a body, they have no rational claim to their own privileges and immu- nities, and that no portion of the com- munity has any specific right to its dis- tinct existence as a class ; or that they are altogether so ignorant of the science of social polity, as to be totally unfit to hold their present legislative rank. The Constitution of England recognizes the right of the poor to an inheritance on the soil, as clearly as it does that of the ma- norial lords to their estates ; but in pass- ing and applying this law, constitutional authority has been set at nought ; power and cunning have usurped all precedence of justice and rectitude; and an example has been set which will be available in future times, when the will of the strong shall stand, as it hath here done, in the stead of all precognizance, and when the people, being more mighty than the aris- tocracy, will argue that they have as true a right to appoint a commission for farm- ing all the landed capital of the country for the purposes of the common wealth, as the aristocracy had to appoint a com- mission for abrogating the ancient claim of the poor to a legitimate and sufficient maintenance from that land. "We have here alluded to the subject only in rela- tion to those who have usurped this right ; but what heart-rending volumes might be written in illustration of the eflfects upon their victims ! Let us for a moment ex- cept alto<,^ether from consideration the incompatibility of such a measure with the genius of our institutions, — and upon what princijjles of humanity do we find it based r — to what end, morally viewed, do 352 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. its operations tend ? Grounded on the inhuman supposition, that it is possible, in a country where the chief of the hinded capital of twenty millions of people is in the possession of about as many thousands, and where labour and bread are denied to a majority of the remainder by unnatural restrictions on trade — grounded, we say, upon the supposition, that it is possible, under such circumstances, to pimish the poor into independence of those who by custom hold all real property in their own possession ; its inevitable tendency is to confirm the clutch of poverty and barb its pangs, while it professes to annihilate pauperism, by substituting imprisonment for liberty, and starvation for relief." — Sheffield Iris, March 23, 1841. " Seeing, then, what had been the prac- tice of the Commissioners — seeing the confusion to which the present system had given rise — that it had produced disorder in the place of uniformity, for what pur- pose were these Commissioners to be fastened on the country for five years longer ? The people looked to that House, and not to the Poor-Law Commissioners. He besought them, then, not to leave this question to the triumvirate, but to under- take it themselves. How could they ex- pect justice to be done if they shrank from their duty ? They were not treating the question in a manly and consistent spirit. If they were really desirous of establishing a uniform law, let them set down that law in their own hands, let them set it down in the statute-book, where it might be understood and ad- ministered by the judges of the land. The present Ijill went on a mean, pettifog- ging system, unworthy for a great country to receive, and unbecoming a great assem- bly to impose. If they knew what should be done, why not make a law themselves in conformity with that knowledge? If they — 658 men of all states and occu- pations — necessarily well acquainted with the people, did not possess sufficient in- formation to enable them to come to a decision on this question, how could they expect the Commissioners to possess the knowledge of which they confessed them- selves deficient ? Under these circum- stances it was their duty to make the duration of this Commission as short as possible, so as not to leave, in the undis- turbed possession of power, an irresponsi- ble body, whose previous conduct had given nothing but dissatisfaction to the country. (Cheers)." — Mr. Wakley, House vf Comma?} s, March 22, 1841. " Mr. Muntz would like to hear some reason adduced for continuing the power of the Commissioners for five years, for it had not yet been shown what benefit would be derived from the continuance either to the public or the Commission. The hon. member for London* indeed said, that a shorter period would lead to discus- sion and unnecessary excitement, but, by urging the same argument, it might be proposed to grant the supplies for the five ensuing years, or pass the Mutiny Act for the same period. Until some reason was given, he did not know well how he should vote." — House of Commons, March 22, 1841. " He could not conceive a greater amount of moral guilt and obloquy, than the House incurred by passing the New Poor-Law Bill." — Mr. Wakley, House of Commons, March 22, 1841. " The Act of Lord Althorp was an experiment so cruel and so unnecessary, in its harsher provisions, that nothing, but a belief in their extreme Ignorance and stupidity, can palliate our sense of the wickedness of its original authors. The countr}' has borne the experiment for nearly seven years ; and its shocking con- sequences in many, very many instances, will not properly bear a recital. Let us dismiss them with the acknowledgment that they have, in a state of peace, loo often realized the worst horrors of war, and gone far to prepare the people for a rebellion against order and property." — Standard, April 5, 1841. " In the course of his journal of his visit to Ireland in 1832, we meet with the following opinion on a subject, now much canvassed, namely, the introduction of Poor-Laws into Ireland : — ' The moral poor of Ireland are not vitiated by a poor- house education, but feel that spirit of independence which renders them superior to the servile spirit of those who are taught to live on begging, or on legal and syste- matic charity. This has been the case with England by the operation of the Poor-Laws. The noble and independent spirit of the yeomanry is degraded, and nearly extinct; and, when Ireland gets the Poor-Laws with which it is now threatened, the present rising sun of its prosperity will sink below the horizon, to rise no more for ever.' The question is, could not a system of Poor-Laws be intro- duced, which should be free, and kept free, from those abuses which have made the English system a millstone round the * Mr. Grote. THE NEW POOR-LAW OPPOSITIOX. 353 nation's neck ?" — Stephens's " Life and Labours of Dr. Adam Clarke," (2nd edition). " Great complaints had been made of the working of the New Poor-Law gene- rally. By it it was endeavoured to pro- duce a change in the habits, feelings, and manners, of a number of persons, just as if their individual sufferings and position were a matter unworthy of consideration. He thought it expedient and impracticable to make any system of philanthropy, how- ever good it might be in itself, universal without considering the peculiar habits of the people residing in the different sections of the kingdom. A bill which might be good for the north might be injurious in the south. The evil which he and others had to complain of was the attempt made by the Commissioners to introduce the same law into every parish in the kingdom, without any reference to local circum- stances, which might act in modifying the operation of that law. The principle which was recognizable in medicine was applicable to the Poor-Law Bill — that which was most nutritious was not always the best. It was necessary to consider the habits and constitutional peculiarities, and not make any sudden and violent changes without proper reflection." — Sir F. Pollock, House of Cmmnons, March 26, 1841. " One thing which he in particular objected to, was, the spirit that pervaded the whole of this law, in making pauper- ism a source of degradation to the poor. That might be the most efficacious means of diminishing pauperism, but it was a most unworthy mode of attaining that end. In the first place, paupers were no sooner admitted than they were clothed in the workhouse di'ess. Now, as a magistrate, he had had opportunities of knowing that persons confined in gaols felt no degra- dation more strongly than the badge of the prison dress. Was it right, then, that they should class those who had \\o- lated the laws of their country with those ■who had had the misfortune of being reduced to want and penury ? But there was another regulation more degrading than that. It was, that the Relieving Officer and Overseer of every parish were bound to make out, and post on the church doors, a list of all the persons who, during the last three months, had received the most trifling relief from the parish." — Mr. H. Hinde, Ibid. " It was said that the Board of Com- missioners was necessary in order to shel- ter the Boards of Guardians from oblo- quy in the exercise of their duty. To impute this degree of cowardice and want of good sense to the people of England, was a libel on their characters which they did not deserve. He did not think that the rich and poorer classes stood in such relation to each other, that they wanted a central and immediate autho- rity to stand between them." — Mr. Hal- ford, Ibid. " He defied any one to prove that the labouring classes supported this bill. No petitions had been presented in its favour — certainly not from the labouring classes ; whilst, on the other hand, petitions against it had been presented from all parts of the West Riding of Yorkshire, from Lanca- shire, with 50,000 signatures, from Shef- field, and all the great manufacturing districts. The hon. member for Sheffield (Mr. Ward) had boasted, that the bill had improved the condition of the industrious poor, and created good feeling among the lower classes. What evidence could he produce of such a state of things ? Did he mean to say such was a faithful repre- sentation of the feelings and opinions entertained upon this subject at Sheffield ? The next time the hon. gentleman pre- sented himself among his constituents he would find out his mistake. He opposed all the main principles of this bill. It made poverty a crime ; for no misconduct it incarcerated the labouring classes in dungeons, it tended to embitter their feelings, to bi-eak asunder the dearest ties, and would go far, he feared, to alienate the affections of the people from the laws, the Government, and the constitution of the country." — The Hon. W. Dimcombe, Ibid. " Indigence in a civilized country is the result of a failure to fulfil the conditions imposed upon social existence. Undoubt- edly these conditions are more onerous in proportion to the advance of the state in civilization, but the means of fulfilling them are at least equally multiplied." — Dr. W. CookeToylors'"'' Natural History of Society. ''' " He had, from the introduction of the bill into the House in 1834 to the present time, maintained that there was no neces- sity for such an act, and that what was called the abusive administration of relief to the poor under the law as it then stood was not caused by the poor themselves, nor by any defect in the law, but was the effect of excessive taxation, of alterations from time to time in the currency, of corn- 2 A 354 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. laws to make food deaa* and to sustain rents, of laws to repeal the tax on pro- perty, and raise the revenue by taxes on every article that ought to be largely con- sumed by the poor, and, lastly, by the bill of 1819, which, by contracting the cur- rency, doubled the pressure of taxation on the people, and withdrew from thou- sands the means which they would have otherwise had of employing the poor, and paying them wages adequate to their pro- per maintenance. There was not one of the causes to which he had referred, and which were all consequent on Acts of Parliament, that had not produced a ne- cessity for the relief of the poor being administered, as to its amomit, according to the wants of the poor in every one of the parishes to which they belonged. Where labour was scarce and w'ages low, the labourer had a right to more relief out of the provisions made for him by the Poor-Law, than where work could be had in plenty, and was properly paid for ; and those resident among the poor were the best judges of the merits of every appli- cant. It was absurd to attempt, by a central Board sitting in London, to lay down any regulation that could operate justly towards either the poor or the rate- payer, or to carry into effect any uniform practice of administration by means of a self-acting test. The experiment had not succeeded, but the trial of it had been attended by harsh treatment and wanton neglect of the poor, such as was disgrace- ful to the age. Were the Act passed, and the despotic power conferred upon the Commissioners by it, intended to bring on us that disgrace ? Unless the nume- rous harsh cases of treatment and neglect of the poor, which had been proved before committees of that and the other House of Parliament, and the statements made in debates on this Bill, and former discus- sions in that House — unless the Act were in effect repealed, or the truth of those cases and statements denied, his question must be answered in the affirmative. Every one who had any knowledge of the real state of the poor of this country, when the Act was passed, knew that such dis- tressing consequences would result from the attempt to carry it into execution by the despotic power the Act created. Re- peated predictions were made in that House, when the Bill was under discussion, that the poor would be subjected to severe privation, loss of life, and all the other distressing circumstances which were now matters of history, if an attempt were made to carry out this inhuman and unjustifiable law ; and repeated supplications were made to Lord Althorp, on that occasion, by many honourable members, that the House should pause on its proceedings on the measure ; but these supplications were without effect." — Mr. Fielden, mov- ing for the Repeal of the New Poor-Law, March 29, 1841. " It is not by the consolidation or con- centration of powers, but by their distri- bution, that good government is effected. Were not this great country already divided into states, that division must be made, that each might do for itself what concerns itself directly, and what it can do so much better than a distant autho- rity. Every state again is divided into counties, each to take care of what lies within its local bounds ; each county, again into townships or wards, to manage minuter details ; and every ward, into farms, to be governed each by its indivi- dual proprietor. Were we directed from Washington when to sow and when to reap, we should soon want bread." — Jeffersoiis Memoirs. " If my courage had everj- declined on the subject of the odious Poor-Law — if, with my impressions, and the view which I have taken of its effects upon human society in this country, I could ever have sunk into despair — the I'evived discussion of the subject in the House of Commons would have reanimated my sinking reso- lution, and induced me to make at least one effort more in behalf of my oppressed countrymen. With how much more spirit do I come into the field again, when I never did doubt but that the operation of the law itself w'ould fulfil my gloomiest predictions ; and be, in fact, my best ally in shaking off the yoke which a malignant Whig ministry, and a misled Tory oppo- sition, have combined to fix upon the necks of those w-hom it was their duty to cherish — the manufacturing artisans of the towns and villages, and the rural population of the country.^ My hopes are now, therefore, revived. My hopes did I say ? No, those of millions of my brother Englishmen — those of millions who know how to estimate the national character, and are determined that starva- tion, ' bonds, and imprisonment,' exclu- sion from the sight of the fair face of nature, and separation from those they hold most dear, shall not be the lot of men who are guilty of no other offence, than having sunk in their endeavours to THE NEW rOOR-LAW OPPOSITION. 355 save themselves and their families — in fact, guilty of no other crime but that of poverty. " What now ai'e the feelings of those who baffled me by every disingenuous art when I was in Parliament, cried me down with almost deafening clamours, garbled the evidence given to the Com- mittee, of which I was an oppressed mem- ber? Do they not, whatever they may avow, feel in their hearts ashamed of their conduct ? Have they not, though too late, learnt one grand lesson — that honesty is the best policy ; and that all their efforts to govern this country by a contrary course, are, after years of trea- chery, falsehood, and cruelty, still in a state of suspension ? They have 7iot carried their New Poor-Law, of which they boasted as a panacea — they have 7iot carried their New Poor-Law, notwith- standing the manner in which they vilified all its opposers...they have not carried it ; and I verily believe they are now more remote from their object than ever. In fact, the language which they now hold is not the language of advance, but of retreat : they are looking behind them for the means of escape. ' What can we do with the large Union workhouses ?' they now ask. ' How can we get back again to the ori- ginal law ?' That may be matter of con- sideration to them ; but to the nation at large, who think with me, and like me — to the mass of the British people — it is no consideration at all. ' Rescue us from these places of torment (say they), and put them to whatever uses you please afterwards.' *' I have said above, that the authors of this law heaped all kinds of falsehood upon the heads of those who opposed it. This is the language which Lord John Russell used respecting me at the close of the election for Stroud : — ' His first inquiry in the new Parliament (he said) would be to know how those principles which had been applied to agricultural, could be applied to manufacturing dis- tricts. Indeed, he would have suggested three months ago, that the Committee should direct its inquiry to that object, but for the mass of rigmarole evidence wliich Mr. Walter, the late member for Berkshire, had obtruded on the Com- mittee. However, that was now at an end. The constituents of that hon. member were so dissatisfied by his con- duct with respect to this Bill, (hat they would not return him again. The Com- 2 mittee would, therefore, go on with its inquiry with less difficulty ' " It was in July, 1837, that his lord- ship used these words, and then he was at the point of beginning a new stage in his sham inquiry, unencumbered by me. He and his friends, ay, and his enemies too in political matters, have been inquir- ing ever since, and their inquides ' have found no end.' It is now the spring of 1841. Have they gone on without diffi- culty? I ask them, Are they not now more embarrassed than ever ? " My constituents (he says) were so dissatisfied by my conduct with respect to the Poor-Law Bill, that they would not return me again. The fact is, that he knew as little of the county of Berks at that time, as he and those who joined him in that county on the subject of this noxious Bill, know of the feelings of Englishmen in general. My motive for retiring then was chiefly because I did not receive that support which I ought to have done in my opposition to this mea- sure. With me it was vital ; if I failed of overthrowing it, I cared nothing for being in Parliament. Those of the county who fled to the Whigs upon this odious measure might have been opposed to my return. Upon this point, however, I desist from saying more, though much more might be said, as it relates to myself personally. Personally, I trust, I have said enough to wipe off the aspersion which Lord John endeavoured to cast upon me and the county generally ; and I do not believe at this moment, that there is any man in the county, or the Ministry, or the section of the Tory party who joined the Whig ministry upon this ques- tion, who does not wish that the New Poor-Law Bill had never been thought of or attempted. " I have, on former occasions, explained why such a measure as that which has been forced upon the country was not necessary ; and what mischiefs have sprung from it ! The rural police, the English gendarmerie it may be called, was one of its deformed and unnatural offspring. Its expenses, where it has been inflicted, are enormous ; and if it be necessaiy, it has only been made so, with its attendant charges, by the New Poor- Law. Then Chartism, yes. Chartism, we owe to the odious measiu'e of oppress- ing the poor. Ijord John Russell himself broadly states it. He says, that Chartism sprang out of the ' agitation got up (that A 2 856 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. is his word) against the Poor-Law Amendment- Act.' Are these no evils to spring from one single public act ? Even if the Poor-Law itself had not been re- prehensible and cruel, its consequences and concomitants were sufficient of them- selves to have rendered it objectionable. With respect to the first of these evils, the rural police, I believe that few of those who originally supported it have Dot the same feeling as those who first supported the Poor-Law itself — they wish they had never known anything of it. For its inutility in some cases I myself can answer. At the close of last summer some gentlemen, who are friende of the Poor-Law, asserted, that the rural police was indispensable in two parishes in which I have property, and strenuously contended for the establishment of a mounted and dismounted police. I my- self argued against the project, for which, as the event has shown, there did not exist the slightest necessity. The police gentlemen were so strenuous for its in- troduction, that they took the necessary steps to cause its being carried into effect ; when, unluckily for them, it was disco- vered that a deposition must be made of misdemeanours committed or appre- hended. This turned out to be imprac- ticable, as no one could be found to make such deposition. However, rural police or no rural police (for in some places it is inflicted), were ever spring assizes known to be burdened with such lists of criminals as those which have been lately held ? And to what cause is that to be attri- buted, but to severe suffering, occasioned conjointly, no doubt, by the length of the winter, and the determination of a de- graded population to starve, or commit crime, as their morals might be more or less firm, rather than enter the odious Union workhouses ?" — Mr. Walter s *' Opinions expressed by him since he was in Parliament,'' March, 1841 . " If self-preservation be the first law of our nature, would not every one in a state of nature be morally justified in taking to himself that which is indispen- sable to such preservation, where, by so doing, he would not rob another of that, which might be equally indispensable to his preservation? And if the value of life be regarded in a right point of view, may it not be questioned whether his right of preserving life, at any expense short of endangering the life of another. does not survive man's entering into the social state, whether his right can be surrendered or forfeited, exc(!pt when it opposes the Divine law, upon any suppo- sition of a social compact, or of any convention for the protection of the mere rights of property." — Wordsworth. " The New Poor-Law is only one branch of the Factory system, intended to drive the agricultural poor into the factories." — Oastlers " Fleet Papers'^ Aprils, 184L " The glory was gone — the glory of God, of humanity, of benevolence, of Christian principle and practice — the glory was gone, and mammon sat in Jehovah's throne, and Belial was exalted over the cross of a bleeding and dying Redeemer. (Hear, hear.) How long this was to last God only knew. This law, however, must be repealed (cheers) or England would go down to rise no more for ever. (Cheers.) It must be repealed, or we shall be disinherited of our very humanity, and become worse than the beasts that i^erish. When he himself contemplated how it was possible for a law of this kind to become enacted, he could not forget that this law was concocted by a Liberal Administration (hear, hear, hear), and he had no doubt that this law had been many j'ears in a state of projection, and the very men who enacted it — the Broughams, Russells, Peels, Melbournes, Spencers, and O'Con- nells, and the whole of the leaders of the great political factions of the country, had long had their eye on the principle of this measure, and that the most able, cunning, and crafty lawyers of the land had been employed to lay their heads together to devise an Act of Parliament, out of which there could be no outlet; and they had devised an Act out of which it was impos- sible for the country to escape, unless by a plan which he should recommend before he concluded the remarks he was about to make. (Loud cheers.) He then ad- verted to the state of the country at the time this Bill passed, and the great con- fidence which the people had in the Government, in consequence of the pro- raises that had been made of continued reform. Their whole cry was ' give us time, and you shall see what we will do.' And they did see what they did, they gave the Poor-Law Amendment-Act. He spoke of the deception used in the word ' amendment,' and remarked, that when the people found that the Poor-Laws THE NEW POOR-LAW OPPOSITION. 357 were to be amended, they naturally ex- pected the condition of the poor would be improved. As soon, liowever, as the country found that a Relieving Officer meant not a man to relieve distress, to succour the afflicted, to give food to the Jiungry, medicine to the sick, and the blessings of religion to the dying, but meant a man to relieve the landlords from the necessity of the payment of all rates, and to remove from the poor man's cottage the last chair, and the few hands- ful of flocks on which he and his wife and children slept — when the country found that a Relieving Officer meant a man to remove the last relict of household furni- ture from the cottage of the miserable, Avhen it found the Bastiles rising, and the whole of the Devil's scheme car- ried into full and awful execution, — then the country began to work — then it began to arise and shake itself, and cry out * Repeal, repeal, repeal — not amend — repeal, repeal the New Poor-Law.' " — Rev, J. R. Sfejihens's Speech, reported in the ''Northern Star." Aug. 4, 1838. " From its very birth we detected that the principles of Lord Althorp's Act, the ' boon to the female population of Eng- land,' were cruel and unchristian ; but, with many others, we determined to see how it worked, (an odious phrase, but so current in these days, that we use it,) hoping, as in the cases of many other severe statutes, that man would interpose between the rigour of the written law, and its actual execution and enforcement. We said within ourselves, ' Such and such powers are created and conferred upon certain functionaries by the law, but will be resorted to only in cases of extremity — of emergency.' To the disappointment of om* reasonable hopes, the incessant labours of the Commissioners in London, and their itinerant satellites, have been di- rected to prevent any interposition between the letter of the law, and its exact exe- cution." — Frazer's Magazme, April, 1 84 1 . " Some recent votes in Parliament make us fear that it will come to this — a necessity may arise for the nation out of doors to compel their representatives, or rather, we should write members of Par- liament, for Christian England is not represented in this matter, ' to consider the cause of the poor.' Deeply do we deplore the probable occurrence of such a necessity, for evil comes of agitation, even to promote a good cause ; and, therefore, we earnestly implore the members of the legislature who profess to believe their Bibles, the truth of which are the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, and which do not fluctuate with man's versatile and shifting opinions, nor are dependent on time or locality, but are as applicable in the England of to-day as in Palestine of yore, and shall not be violated with im- punity to the end of time, to turn to their Bibles, and see whether every other maxim of the promoters of the Poor-Law Amendment-Act is not contradictory to the written word of God, and nearly all the rules and regulations of the Commis- sioners — certainly all those which we object to — in daring defiance of the reiterated threats denounced in Scripture against those who mock and oppress the poor. Every argument m-ged by the economists and calculators in favour of their system is answerable from the pages of that volume which they now profanely deride as obsolete, but from which they shall hereafter be judged. Fully are we sensible of the sneers that await us from such beings as Mr. Edwin Chadwick, the viceroy over the three kings at Somerset- house; and Lord John Russell, who laughed outright the other evening at good Sir Robert Inglis, lor alluding to the Divine projjliecies in Parliament ; quite prepared are we for all the rebuke and blasphemy that may assail us when, taking our stand on the revealed verities of God's word, we pronounce the Poor-Law Amendment-Act impolitic, unjust, op- pressive, and unchristian." — Frazer's Magazine, April, 1841. " The workhouse is a bad test. And this is not disproved by the fact, that it has been the instrument of reducing the rates. If flogging to 100 lashes had been made the condition of relief, it would have had a similar effect. It is true that, with the derisory Amendment-Act in their hands, the Commissioners did not say, ' Prove the reality of your destitution by submitting to the test of physical torture.' Their words and intelligible acts ran, 'Prove the reality of your destitution by abandoning your home and your friends in poverty — sell all the little furniture which you have acquired with so much difliculty — quit the side of your partner in toil — consent to give up yovu* children — see your whole family exposed to the i)estilcn- tial diseases of a workhouse — submit to imprisonment, and associate with vaga- bonds in wards, and sleep with them in beds — or we cannot admit your claim to relief in the vicissitudes of winter, or the fluctuations of trade.' Now, this ' lent ' 358 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. is in every respect bad ; it is worse than the direct infliction of pain, because per- sons are reduced to destitution from various causes ; and a vagabond, a sturdy rogue, a heartless villain, could enter the work-, house without any loss, and would be too ready to part from those who had any claim on his affections and industry ; while the sacrifice to the unfortunate hard-working labourer would be inconceivable, tearing up all his best feelings by the roots, and drying up every source of enjoyment left to him by the curse of Adam — Uberty, self-respect, and family affections." — The Lancet, April 3, 1841. " Our foremost complaint against the present Poor-Law, as directed to be ad- ministered, is, that the rules and regula- tions of the Commissioners, which we presume it will be before long declared the * crimen lessee majesfatis,' high treason, to disobey, do not recognize men and women as human, rational, and immortal beings, but as animals to be lodged and fed. The possibility of involuntary misfortune is never admitted, nor any distinction made between the honest, industrious, virtuous couple, whom events over which neither husband nor wife could have any control, have reduced to destitution, and the idle, the drunken, the dissolute, or the dis- honest. The Commissioners have officially announced, that none are legally entitled to relief, nor to be considered destitute, unless they are in danger of perishing for want. Therefore, if a workman, by the failure of his master, or any other cause for which he is not responsible, nor could have prevented, is thrown suddenly out of work, he must not be relieved during his temporary suspension of employment, if he has a box of tools which he may turn into money to buy food. So long as the ' varnished clock clicks behind the door,' — so long as any stick of furniture, ay, or a Bible, handed down from sire to son for a centurji, remains to be pawned or sold, — the honest family involved in dis- tress by a father's, or a husband's sickness, are not legally entitled to relief — they are in no danger of perishing for want. The rich and lofty ones of the earth know not how all but impossible it is for a poor man to furnish his humble home a second time, nor understand how its smoky rafters can be dear to him, and with what a bleeding heart a mother's elbow chair, all ricketty though it be, is sent to the brokers to buy bread." — Frazers Magazine, April, 1841. " Will you hear one word about the New Poor-Law, Sir, from me? You have heard many in former years. I would save you from destruction if I could. Listen to me this once — the New Poor- Law is a failure — the bubble has burst ! How do I prove it ? Not by disgusting you with the recital of those accumulating instances of death, in every shape, which that forerunner of want engenders, and which has made England one great char- nel-house for the poor! It is true. Sir, that while we boast that we have been spared from the ravages and rampings of the foreign war-horse, we are cursed with a law more direful and deadly in its operation, than contending armies are in the battle-field. For the present, how- ever, I waive all those heart-rending facts (I shall, in my forthcoming numbers, not fear to grapple with the monster, and trace his blood-marks inch by inch). Now, it is enough that I demonstrate that the Neio Poor-Law is a failure. Lord Brougham said, if that law were passed, ' It would effect a great and a most desi- rable improvement in the morals and the happiness of the poor. That it would re- store to industry its proper reward — rein- state property in security, and lift up once more — God be praised ! — the character of that noble English peasantry to the proud eminence, where, but for the old Poor- Laws, it would still have shone untarn- ished — the admiration of mankind, and the glory of the country which boasts it as its brightest ornament!' " Such were the promises of Lord Brougham to their lordships when he pro- posed that fatal measure, July 21, 1834. Now, Sir, what is the result? Read over once more the noble dreamer's anti- cipations — the wise philosopher's deduc- tions — and then turn to the avowed organ of her Majesty's Government, the Globe newspaper, in the seventh year of trial of that very measure, and solemnly peruse these awful words ; you cannot read them too often, Sir : — ' The working classes are note, in fact, at war tvith all the superior classes. They are alienated and hostile^ heart and soul.'' Remember also the fact, that, in consequence of this alarming state of things, a rural police (which Lord John Russell has himself declared would destroy the freedom of England) is now demanded, in aid of the tyrannical and unconstitutional power of the Poor-Law Commissioners ! and then, Sir, turn to that file of letters, which, when I was yoiu- steward some years ago, I wrote to you, endeavouring to convince you, that THE NEW POOR-LAW OPPOSITION. 359 such would be the awful and ruinous re- sults of the operation of that accursed Act, and say, ' Have Lord Brougham's or Richard Oastler's opinions been stamped by time, experience, and fact, with truth ?' Sir, it is a failure — and if there be either honesty or truth in its proposers and pro- moters, they will seize the very first op- portunity to tear that ' atrocious and ex- ecrable Act' (these are the venerable Eldon's words respecting it) from the statute-book. But if not — if they resolve to ruin themselves rather than acknow- ledge their error and retrace their steps, I need not now inform you of the further consequences; you will find them fully explained in those letters to which I have referred you. If stupidity resolves to maintain that law, those consequences are inevitable, in spite of Commissioners and police ! — Oastler's " Fleet Papers.''' " What dolts are we of these enlight- ened days ! In 1533 an Act was passed regulating the price of ' beef, pork, mut- ton, and veal ' — and why ? Because the poor were then fed on those substantial viands ; and the legislature required that they should have enough ; — 'these (beef, pork, mutton, and veal,) being the food of the poorer sort,' says that Act. But why should we Christians be reduced to the necessity of quoting Acts of Parliament, or the opinions of magistrates and states- men ? Hath not Eternal Wisdom spoken, and declared, that ' the hiisbandman that labourcth must be first partaker of THE FRUITS ?' He has. Sir ! Yet the Poor-Law Amendment-Act, not only de- nies the husbandman that right ; but it also invents, under the influence of Satan, * a scheme,' a ' test,' as it is called, to re- duce him ' to live on a coarser sort of food,' by forcing the labourer to measure his wages, not by the comforts and neces- saries which are his right, but by his natural dread and detestation of impri- sonment, separation, and workhouse diet ! So that, instead of ' beef, pork, mutton, and veal,' which was the fare of his ancestor — he is reduced, under the ac- cursed 'test,' to potatoes and a little coarse bread — with, now and then, a red herring. My blood chills while I write. I wonder that English aristocrats can be so cruel ! I still more wonder, that Eng- lish labourers can be so submissive and so servile ! "Well then. Sir, such being my opinions, I reject the leadership and the companionship of any man who has sanc- tioned that most accursed Act. The jargon which we hear ' about the impossi- bility of making laws to protect labour, and to ensure to the industrious labourer a comfortable competence,' might be worth an answer, in a country where laws could not be made to secure wealth ; but in this country, where individuals are jyrofected in the enjoyment of thousands and hun- dreds of thousands of pounds a-year, it is surely not too much to expect, that the industrious labourer should be guranteed and protected in the enjoyment of com- petence and plenty! If this cannot be done, the end of Government is not at- tained, and the bond of society and civili- zation is broken. In my opinion, men who indulge in such wild theories, are fit only for Bedlam, or the enlightened modern school of liberal philosophy. At all events, they are not required, because they cannot be useful, in the constitutional. Christian, civilized legislature of England. We hear much about ' Bible education ' for the people — would to God that our law makers were educated therein ! They would then know that God requires mercy and justice towards the helpless, imbe- cile, and impotent, who are His poor ; and that He insures plenty as the reward of industry. " The power given to the Poor-Law Commissioners over the rates and the poor of England, is a power which the Constitution rejects, and which in my opinion cannot long exist with the in- stitution of Crown, Lords, and Commons. The centralizing system is at open war with the self-governing constitutional system ; one or other must, I think, soon give way. Nothing ever surprised me more, than the ready acquiescence of the magistracy in the enforcement of the New Poor-Law. It levels its power, not more against the poor and the rate-payers, than it does against ' their own order.' But, to conclude : I consider any statesman who supports the New Poor-Law Amend- ment-Act, as totally unfit to lead any I^arty of Christians or constitutionalists. I care not what their rank, talents, in- fluence or wealth, may be — they are phi- losophers — not Chi'istians ! — they are le- vellers, not Conservattors ! They may call themselves by what name they please, to gull their followers — they have rendered themselves incapable of guiding the vessel of state in a Christian land." — Oastlers Retiring Address to his Friends at Htiddersjield, October, 1840. 360 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES The sweet words Of Christian promise, words that even yet Wight stem destruction." — Coleridge's Sibylline Leaves. " Mr. Thornhill, it is high time that you landlords should awake out of sleep. Nothing is more sure than, that the mil- lions of pounds which the landlords fancy they have gained by the horrible operation of the New Poor-Law will, if restitution to, the poor and rightful owners be not made, act as a millstone to their whole ' order,' and destroy that which it was intended to preserve. You know. Sir, that upon this question I admit of no com- promise. You know that I have afore- time warned you, and you have turned a deaf ear ; I can now appeal to facts and admissions ; with the authority of those facts and those admissions I am now emboldened — even at this, the eleventh hour — to conjure j'ou, and through you the whole of your ' order,' as you value your property and the peace of society, to sever yourselves from those men, and those delusions which have now (even on their own showing) disappointed your hopes, and falsified all their predictions. Haply it may not be too late, certainly there is no time to spare. Do not de- spise this appeal ; it proceeds not from your enemy, your prisoner has no evil in his heart towards you. No, Sir, he will rejoice if his incarceration shall be one means of restoring you and ' your order' to the heart-place of the people. By the New Poor-Law the landlords have, under the pretence of charity, robbed the poor ; with the promise of protecting industry, they have stolen its reward ; pretending to improve the morality of the poor, they have forced modesty to blush and weep because of their horribly-indecent ' rites ;' in the name of philanthropy, they have murdered the sons and daughters of adversity ! This they have done — if in ignorance, facts cannot now fail to instruct them ; if, being convinced, they still resolve to con- tinue in their sinful course, as sure as God is truth they will very soon have cause to repent." — Oastlers " Fleet Papers" " How anomalous, that while our legis- lators provide with the nicest care for the prevention of cruelty to brutes, they are planning one of the most brutal enact- ments ever heard of, that for rendering poor idiots still more idiotic and miserable, by depriving them of the little sun-light of liberty they can enjoy, by wresting them from the society of kind, intelligent friends and neighbours, and huddling them together in moping crowds, in places re- mote from all those who can take a na- tural interest in their comfort ! There is something horrible in the mere contem- plation of such a project. Two-thirds, at least, of those who come under the de- nomination of idiots, are people more susceptible of happy impressions from acts of kindness — more alive to any plea- surable ministration to the animal senses — than the intelligent and educated can possibly be : nor is this at all wonderful to those who have given the subject a tithe of the attention it merits. Domestic attachment, gratitude, and all the in- stinctive faculties, are generally exces- sively strong in those whose lot is cast in this unfortunate class ; and being the only medium through which they can receive any personal gratification, we can- not think of anything more cruel, than this intention of the legislature to hive the unhappy beings in places where their better feelings can never, or rarely, be called into action, and where the most painful and disgusting degradation of the human form will be the inevitable conse- quence. But why proceed ? The mea- sure entails a multiplicity of evils — all subversive of whatever is noble or kindly amongst those whom nature may not have fitted to struggle into a mastery over the rest of their species. Yet, after all, viewed wnth an eye to pecuniary interest, what have the teople gained by the change from the old system ? What, under the new system, will they ever gain in one way that will not be lost in another ? From numberless illusti'ations of its absolutely ruinous effects— say nothing of its total inapplicability — in some localities, just let us select one : — During the last jear, the overseers of a populous parish in the Mansfield Union were summoned before the magistrates, because that parish could not meet the de- mands of the Union upon it, and so im- practicable is the New Law there, that though upwards of £200 was dispensed in the way of public charity, after ten THE NEW POOll-LAW OPPOSITION. 361 rates had been allowed — some of the rate- payers, we are informed, were the ichole ten m arrears; while others had positively to pledge the clothes oil' their backs to meet parochial demands ! Yet so sensi- ble ft-om the first were the inhabitants of that place of the misapplication of the law to their own condition that, with only one or two exceptions, petitions condemn- ing it were signed, in 1836, by every qualified resident. For Englishmen, after that, to thrust so intolerable a burden upon such a parish, were almost enough to make the poor people view the possi- bility of a foreign invasion with delight." ^Sheffield Iris, March 23, 1841. *' There is another subject upon which, in the course of a conversation which I had with some members of your consti- tuency last summer, I was less explicit than I might have been. Allow me now to dwell upon it more fully, I was asked whether I was an enemy to the corn-laws. I said that I was an enemy to violent or vindictive proceedings against any party or body of men. Gentlemen, it may not be evident to you at first sight how closely this question is connected with that of the New Poor-Law. This last detested enactment found its chief support in a body of landed proprietors, whose estates were encumbered with settlements, mort- gages, and other debts, and who conse- quently endeavoured to protect Avhat remained to them free from incumbrance, from bearing its proportion in contributing to the necessities of their poorer brethren. I do not say that those contributions were not very heavy — I know they were, and they ought to have been diminished, as they were in many parishes, by the exer- tions of the local authorities acting under the old humane law. But that which I have stated above, I assert to have been the origin or operative cause of the New Poor-Law. Now, gentlemen, if we could procure the repeal of that inhuman law, or the reduction of its enactments to a bearable state, I should then say, that it would be hard upon the landed proprietary of the country to press for a total repeal of the corn-laws also. It would be treat- ing them harshly; it would, to use a homely proverb, be ' burning their candle at both ends.' For still, gentlemen, the landed interest is an important one in the country — upon their ease and sufficiency depends the employment of the agricul- tural labourers, that class from whence other classes spring, and by which they are invigorated. But to suppose that the landed interest is, on the one hand, to get rid of the proper and Christianly main- tenance of the poor, by building work- houses calculated, as one of the Poor-Law Commissioners himself stated, to inspire ' the dread of torments' — to suppose that the landed interest are to do this on the one hand, and, on the other, to stop the approach to this country, or sale in British markets, of all corn but their own, by means of high and prohibitory duties — to suppose that the landed interest, I say, are to do both these things, is to suppose a double act of injustice and inhumanity. If, then, we must have the poor treated as they are by the present law, at least let the rest of society have a free access to corn and bread, that those who are able to Avork may also be enabled to live, and to keep themselves and their feebler rela- tives from those ' places of torment !' And you will be pleased to obseive, gentlemen, that when I do thus talk, it is not on a subject in which I have no interest. I have a considerable one, and am speaking against that interest ; for I also am a landed proprietor, and shall feel as much as many the low price of grain. " I have so often spoken on the subject of the New Poor-Law, that I shall now add little more, except that if there is any one question upon which my conduct has already spoken, and which you have rewarded with your approbation, this is that question. On the scheme of ])arting man from wife, and children from their parents, in these Cyclopean dens, the Union workhouses, with which the Whigs are smothering the land, it is difficult to say anything new, and for this reason — that when you assert that fire burns, water drowns — that pain is distressing, torment intolerable — what can you say more ? In the same Avay, when you have asserted, that the separation in question, those of parents and children, and of man and wife, violate the laws of God and nature, you can add nothing more to describe the greatest conceivable atrocities. I will not here press the constitutional part of the question. Connected with this sub- ject is the new Rural Police-bill. This, as you are aware, is a necessary appendant of the New Poor-Law Bill ; it is meant to constrain obedience to the severity of the novel method of treating the poor. But if I were not thoroughly convinced of this, as I am, and as reason shows to be the fact, I should still object to both, as novelties in our history — as experiments 362 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. of which, under a happier state of things, and a more constitutional administration of the laws, we should have no need. Here we have one tyrannical measure producing another. It has been pecu- liarly gratifying to me to find that, in a town constituency like yours, I had made friends by my conduct upon a question that might appear exclusively rural. Some of the electors of the borough of South- wark, having also the franchise of the county of Berks, have promised me their whole support in the former, as they had done in the latter, on account of the opposition which I had in some instances successfully raised to mischievous Enclo- sure Bills. It was from Enclosure Bills that poverty first began to press with a heavy hand upon the poor, as, if necessary, I could prove to you from portions of our history. Be assured, that whatever can be found to affect injuriously the interests of the industrious classes of society, whether agricultural or manufacturing, shall have my most determined and active resistance." — Mr. Walter's Address, Southwark Election, Dec, 1839. " The April number oi Frazers Maga- zine has a very able article, recommending a summary and complete repeal of the New Poor-Law. If we consulted popu- larity alone, or if we followed the bent of our own inclination, without looking to consequences, we should undoubtedly con- cur in this proposition. We must, how- ever, look further than popularity — must take some other guide than present im- pulse, if we are honestly to discharge our duty ; and therefore, in the case before us, we will, for the few minutes that we can devote to the subject, employ the same practice of cool and minute inquiry, which a humorous and very clever writer in the same number of the Magazine has paro- died in a manner probably more faithful than complimentary. " Let us suppose, then, the new law summarily and totally repealed, in what condition would the parishes, and more particularly the poor, be placed.^ We confess our inability to describe, or even adequately to imagine, the chaos of con- fusion between old regulations and new ; old claims to parochial property and new claims ; rights of settlement under the old law and under the new ; and in all this whirlpool of disorder the poor would be sure to be the principal sufferers — the lawyers the only gainers. We may the more easily pass over tliis view of the matter, because it must appear manifest to every one who for a moment reflects upon these consequences of a simple repeal, that the thing is an impossibility. Another view of the question will, we think, reconcile most thinking men, how- ever they may feel towards the law (and none can dislike it moi'e than we do in its present shape), to this conviction — that a simple repeal is impossible. The act of Lord Althorp was an experiment — an experiment so cruel and so unnecessary in its harsher provisions, that nothing but a belief in their extreme ignorance and stu- pidity can palliate our sense of the wick- edness of its original authors. The coun- try has borne the experiment for nearly seven years ; and its shocking conse- quences in many, very many instances, will not properly bear a recital. Let us dismiss them with the acknowledgment, that they have in a state of peace too often realized the worst horrors of war, and gone far to prepare the people for a rebel- lion against order and property. If we had not good assurances, that the worst of these consequences of the new law are about to cease very promptly, we should go the whole length with the writer in Frazer ; but we think that most of the worst consequences of the law have ceased through the vigilant humanity of the oppo- nents of it; and among these, ever honoured be the name of Mr. Walter, whose conduct in this particular has justly raised him to a place among the best benefactors of his country and of mankind. Other bad consequences of the law are, we think, about to follow the fate of those that have been already removed ; and in truth we hold to our first opinion, that, bad as any law may come from the hands of its authors, the people of England will, sooner or later, mould it into a shape of humanity and religion. This is no excuse for introducing a bad law. The doctrine that the happiness of the people of one age, or of half-an-age, or indeed of a year, may be sacrificed with a view to the benefit of a succeeding class, is a doctrine suited only to Jacobins, as Robespierre and Marat were its first teachers. But, though no apology is sufficient for the introduction of such a law as Lord Althorp's, it may be a grave question whether we are to throw away all its good, little as that all may be, after all its evil, or nearly all, has been exhausted. " Whoever has paid attention to the late proceedings of the House of Com- mons must see, that it is uow for the first THE NEW POOR-LAW OPPOSITION. 363 time that that assembly is approaching to a condition of intelligence to legislate for the poor. The New Law has furnished that instruction which an experiment always furnishes, and the instruction has been forced upon the House, however reluctant, by the benevolent importunity of the public. Already the harsher pro- visions of the law are either explained away or formally condemned ; and the process of amelioration in this respect must proceed, if the country persevere in its humane exertions, of which we have no doubt. Already the Commissioners liave had some sharp rebukes to humble their arrogance and mitigate their tyranny. Already their hours are counted, and they have been apprised, that even the respite Avith which they are indulged is to be dependent upon a considerable amend- ment in their conduct. With the termi- nation of the commission, however, will expire that principle of centralization, of which thewriter in i^rff;:er justly complains ; and, the principle of central control once extinguished, it demands little foresight to anticipate with perfect certainty, that the management of the poor will return to its old kindly channel. The Unions will be dissolved in every case in which they shall not be found beneficial to the poor — the vile clauses, exposing weak young women to the arts of seducers, encouraged by a legal irresponsibility, will be repealed. We have already said, that the cruelties of detail will cease when we have said that the management of the poor will return to the old channel. What, then, of the law may be expected to remain? — the provisions against expensive litigation — the provisions against paying wages from the poor-rates, and, as a consequence of this, a more equitable scale of rating — a beneficial remnant beyond question. The experiment has been tried , let us take from it all the profit it aflbrds ; we have just mentioned a part of this profit, but a far greater good remains — the moral lesson. " The old Poor-Laws were unpopular with many besides the prating coxcombs who made a character by railing at them in speeches, pamphlets, and reviews. The New Poor-Law has demonstrated that this unpopularity was unjust ; that if the old law was not faultless, it stood in the way of another law, which has been little better than a mass of blunders and cruelties." — Standard, April, 1841. " It is apparent that bodily strength is the only patrimony the labourer enjoys j this is to supply him and his family with the necessaries of life: tiie same patri- mony, in conjunction with the opportunity of exerting the faculties of the mind, the inhabitant of an uncivilized country pos- sesses ; the first is restrained by the laws from trespassing on appropriated property, and in this country all that can be called property is appropriated ; the other has ample scope for the exercise of his facul- ties, both of body and mind, the gifts of nature lying open to the first man who has strength or dexterity sufficient to occupy them : here is a manifest advan- tage which the savage possesses, and which the laws of his country have taken from the English labourer. " In this island a disposition to relish the comforts of life, the meanest of us equally possesses with the greatest ; surely, therefore, those comforts corres- pondent with our station, should not be removed at such a distance from the grasp of any of us, as to he attainable only by a breach of the laws of society. " While a tenth part of our country- men enjoy the comforts, or revel in the luxuries of life, the patient and industri- ous multitude are sinking beneath a load of poverty and wretchedness. " The claims of the poor on society are, a fair retribution for their strength and ability to labour ; their claims are as se- riotcs KTGHTS, and they demand from the State full as serious a consideration as any other claim upon it, for security of political liberty or private property ; the RIGHT to receive a compensation for their labour, adequate to their necessary wants, while they have a capability of labour, is certainly due to them ; and the eight of maintenance, when that capability to labour is passed, is another debt which society owes them. " The labourer is worthy of his hire, because he gives for it his sole property, his strength and his time, reserving to himself only sufficient intervals for re- freshment and repose ; what ought there- fore to be his hire ? The answer is ob- vious ; the necessaries and comforts of life, equal to the reasonable wants of that class of society among which he ranks ; in this country clothing, fire, and dwell- ing, with the supply of such meat and drink, as shall enable him, day after day, and year after year, to pass through a life of hard labour and constant fatigue. There is a tacit contract between men, when societies, states, and kingdoms, are in their infancy ; that to him whose only 364 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. patrimony is his strenfjth and ahility to labour, that patrimony should be equal to his comfortable existence in society, in those relations in which he may be engaged as a son, husband, and father''' — " History of the Poor," by Thomas Ruggles, Esq., F. A. S. " The continuance of the Poor-Law Commission has been carried chiefly on the ground, that ministers have not had time to consider the question jn-operly in the course of the session. There is such a thing as ' not finding time' to do a thing, but Lord John Russell's excuse is, that the House insisted on his proceeding with a Registration Bill, instead of allow- ing him to bring the whole subject of Poor-Laws under revision. The one Bill was the cause of the other not being introduced. This sounds at least like a a reason, but it turns out, rather oddly for Lord John, that neither Registration nor Poor-Laws have been attended to. We do not mean that they have been thrown into the legislative limbo, but that neither measure has been discussed or passed. All we have for consolation is, Lord John Russell's assurance that both measures will be brought in as soon as possible next session. This is the old story — ' Man never is, but always to be blessed.' All difficulties are smoothed, all asperities softened, by a reference to next session. Parliamentary short- comings make long faces among the people, but the session that is to come is to make amends for all. This is the in- ference we are expected to draw from his lordship's official declaration. And truly we do not apprehend, that ministerial ingenuity will be able to devise many more excuses for the maintenance of the power usurped by the three Commission- ers. A little time longer they must be endured ; for a brief period they may issue their mandates to the Guardians of the different Unions, but the game of ty- ranny in this shape is nearly at a close — their reign over their pauper kingdom must speedily end. A revision of the law is the signal for the withdrawal of their authority. Their services can only be needed in case of the next Bill being as the present one, which we take to be im- possible. Parliament dare not give per- mission, a second time, to the enforcement of the inhuman restrictions which are the peculiar property of the Poor-Law Com- missioners. The mere fact of their being- necessary for the working of the ' ma- chinery ' of the Bill will noiv be regarded as full proof of its inherent worthless- ness." — Sunday Times, July 26, 1840. " It will be seen by our Parliamentary report, that the 18th clause of the New Poor-Law Continuance Bill, for enabling the Guardians of one Union to contract or farm out their poor with the Guardians of another Union, was withdrawn by Lord John Russell for the present, after Lord Granville Somerset had forcibly pointed out the cruel bearing of its pro- visions, according to which paupers might have been drafted from their own to any other parish, where starvation chanced to be more stringently administered under the dispensations of the Commissionei's, and therefore rates economised in both the one parish and the other. According to this clause, which, it must be observed, is intended to be re-introduced in some other shape, the unhappy tenants of workhouses, or applicants for relief, were to be let out on lease, for terms not ex- ceeding seven years, to such contracting parishes as should bid for their support at the lowest money-rates of payment, so that side by side of the usual advertise- ments of ' Cattle taken to grass at per head,' may come to figure also, ' Paupers to let out on convenient terms ; tenders for the supply of food at the lowest rate per head to be addressed, sealed, to the Poor-Law Commissioners, Somerset- house,' &c. This, however, was not the worst feature in the clause, for the pau- pers might be classified under it, and the husbands contracted for to one Union, the wives to another, the sons to a third, and the daughters to a fourth. We re- collect that, in the first report of the Commissioners ajipointed to inquire into the working of the old Poor-Laws, it was made a special charge, that they tended to the destruction of family, that is parental, conjugal, filial, and fraternal afiections, which of course the intent of a New Poor-Law morality was, in favour- able contrast, to cherish and re-establish. It was with this laudable view, we pre- sume, that the New Poor-Law theory for strengthening the ties of kindred was invented, under which each of the mem- bers of the same family, consisting of father, mother, sisters, and brothers, were to be separately transported for periods not exceeding seven years each, renew- able on expiration of the terms ad libitum and ad infinitum, to separate workhouse Bastiles, as far asunder each from the other as within the extremities of the THE NEW rOOR-LAW OPPOSITION. 365 kingdom could be contrived, so that no family bickerings, growing out of family communion, might by possibility arise to impair the family love which, at first and final parting with each other, to be im- mured in those living tombs from whose sad bourne, perhaps, never to emerge, was in all the full bloom and vigour of natural feeling." — Courier, April 2, 1841. " The present race of philosophers, speculators, quacks, and reformers, hate the poor. They dream like madmen, and think like fools ; and they imagine that nothing can give so much security to their lands, houses, factories, preserves, gardens, and other property, as rigorous enactments against the labouring classes, union prisons, spai-e diet, thin gruel, worse food than they give to their race- horses and hounds, and a complicated system of tyranny, which, separating men from their wives, and mothers from their childi'en, is driving the aged poor to despair, and the able-bodied pauper, and occasional pauper, to deeds of revenge and every description of crime. This is veiy mistaken policy. To live at enmity with the masses is downright infatuation. To think of extorting obedience, and causing the laws to be respected, by keeping the labourer perpetually at the starving point, even when he is in the ripeness of his strength, and pinching and grinding him when he is too old to work, is criminal infatuation. The poorest per- son that lives within or without the walls of a workhouse, has feelings like other men — oftentimes more Christian and cha- ritable feelings than the haughty and purse-proud millionare. He is bound by the ties of blood and kindred like other men — he is easily soothed and gratified — a trifle less or more can make him happy or discontented — a smile may win him when a frown would not daunt him — and it is much less expensive to gain his affections, than to restrain his exer- tions or change his opinions. It is strange that all these natural qualities have of late years been totally overlooked by our reforming and speculating states- men. They have forgot, or rather they seem not to know% that the poor are made of the same materials as themselves, and that they are quite as valuable in the estimation of their Maker as the noblest peer in the realm. It is a curious fact, that since the House of Commons has been rendered more accessible to the mer- cantile classes, or, in other words, since the Reform Bill expelled the nominees of the aristocracy from their seats, and ad- mitted traders, pedlars, attorneys, apothe- caries, and the writers of trashy novels and filthy plays in their room, the cha- racter of the House has been grievously deteriorated, and the laws founded in charity and beneficence have been super- seded by harsh and unchristian enact- ments, all bearing most oppressively against the labourers of England, and are disgraceful to the statute-books. Ses- sion after session one quack succeeds another in introducing some new mea- sure of coercion. Men who, within the present generation, have sprung from the lowest of the working classes, seem invariably the foremost in pro- posing some highly artificial measure for grinding the faces of their cousins, kinsmen, and other poor relations — in propounding some scheme by which a cheaper kind of food may be manufac- tured for the Union prisons — some cheaper substitute for beer, and more wholesome, of course — some compound better than beef or mutton soup — some coarse vegetable compost in lieu of wheaten bread, to protect the pauper from the speculative visits and experi- ments of the doctor — and some ingenious plan of making one blanket cover six adults and ten children. The labourers of England have cause for bitterly lament-- ing the day when the Eeform Bill be- came the law of the land, and when the millowners and political economists, the Unitarians, Quakers, and other dissenters, became the legislators of this once happy kingdom." — Liverpool Mail, Jan. 16, 1841. " Mr. Oastler said he must now beseech the meeting to lend him their calm and serious attention, whilst he appealed to them on behalf of the constitutional rights of the poor. Every one who venerates the constitution, the liberty of the subject, the rights of the Crown and of property ; whoever respects and venerates the sacred rights of the poor, he should be able to prove, must on this occasion vote for Mr. Walter. The question of the New Poor- Law, he observed, was treated by the Whig candidate as a mere trifling, babbling matter ; a subject scarcely worth notice. Now, that very circumstance ought to satisfy every honest, respectable man, that Mr. Wood is either perfectly ignorant of the principles and the character of that law, or if he be acquainted with them, then that it is his wish to establish slavery for liberty, and poverty and misery for hap- 366 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. piness and plenty. (Cheers.) There was one fact with regard to the New Poor- Law which ought never to be forgotten, and that was, that the Government sent out a set of Commissioners for the purpose of inquiring into the state and condition of the poor of England, for the avowed object of ' forcing the poor of Eng- land to live upon a coarser sort of food.' (Shame, shame.) He did not state this on his own authority, but it was a fact, that the late member for Oldham, Mr. Cobbett, had seen a copy of those instruc- tions. (Shame, shame.) In proof that the statement was correct, he would mention, that Mr. Cobbett had moved in his place in Parliament for their production, which motion was resisted by the then Lord Althorp, whereupon Mr. Cobbett told the House, that he had himself seen them, and that they contained the diabolical instruc- tions to which he had referred. (Hear.) This declaration of the late member for Oldham had not been denied by Lord Althorp, and therefore it was quite clear that the statement must have been true. (Hear, hear.) Well then, seeing that such an inquiry had been made, it was but natural that the Commissioners should keep out of the way, whenever they could so manage it, of the friends of the poor, (hear, hear,) and, in pursuance of that object, they had taken very good care not to come near him. They had kept out of the way of every person in his neigh- bourhood who possessed the confidence of the poor, or who was able to afford them any true account of their real condition. (Hear, hear.) Probably there were per- sons present who were not aware, that he (Mr. Oastler) had some years back put himself at the head of an agitation on behalf of the factory children, and that they had succeeded in compelling Govern- ment to pass a law to shorten the hours of labour, and, in other respects, to protect the children from the cruelties of which they had formerly been the victims. The hon. gentleman then went on, at consider- able length, to say, that the factory masters, finding the number of children who were liable to work in factories very much diminished by the operation of that law, had entered into a bloody compact with the landholders, to assist them in carrying the New Poor-Law Act, provided the children of the agricultural labourers might be made available to their purposes, and be transported from the rural districts to their mills. The result of this cruel bargain had been the introduction of a migration clause into the New Poor-Law. Under that clause, thousands of children had been transported from Kent, Norfolk, Sufiblk, and other agricultural counties, to the manufacturing districts, and there they had been consigned to all the horrors of the factory system. The children had been forced, by the accursed workhouse test, off" their native soil, and they had been actually sold to the factory masters. (Shame.) This had been done under a rule or order of the New Poor-Law Com- missioners ; many invoices of these poor slaves had come into his hands, which he had published, names, ages, prices, and everything. (Loud cries of shame, shame.) The poor creatures had no choice left them between going into the Union workhouses, and being there torn asunder from their parents, and their fathers and mothers separated from each other, or giving themselves up to the factory monster to transportation under the immigration clause. (Shame, shame.) The Government had employed Dr. Kay, who had been sent from Manchester, where he had published a book descriptive of the horrors of the factory system, which system he had declared was one of the most horrible it was possible to con- ceive ; he had, however, been made an Assistant Poor-Law Commissioner in Norfolk and Suflfblk, where he told the agri- cultural labourers, that the factories, were very fine, comfortable places ; and gave such glowing accounts of them, that eventually, in consequence of the lying delusions of that plausible demon of the Govern- ment, the poor children were transported by their own consent, thus obtained by threat and delusion, from their native fields, into the horrors of the pestilential factory. He spoke of what he knew ; he had seen many of these poor victims ; he had heard the cries of hundreds of these poor la- bourers ; they had come to him with curses loud and long, against the hypo- crites, the oppressors, and the tyrants of the New Poor-Law ! (Cries of ' Shame, shame.') He understood that that same Dr. Kay was at present Assistant Poor- Law Commissioner in London. Oh, that he had been in that room, that he might try and make his icy blood to melt. (Loud cheers.) He believed this same Dr. Kay could never make a hundred pounds a-year by his wits in medicine ; by his skill in deluding the poor, he makes just £1500 a-year!! And this is called saving ! I (Hear, hear.) With respect to the New Poor-Law Bill, he asserted that THE NEW rOOR-LAW OPPOSITION. 367 there was no such thing as mending it. It was bad in principle, (Cheers.) He wished to ask the meeting, and through them he would ask Mr. Wood's committee, who said that the Poor-Law was only a little, babbling, cackling question, whether they believed, that the industrious poor of England had a right to relief when they could not obtain work, (hear, hear,) be- cause he had no hesitation in declaring it to be his opinion, that the poor had as distinct, as clear, and as indefeasible a right to relief out of the land, as the can- didate for a seat in Parliament had to that seat when elected by the constituency, or a landlord to his rent. (Cheers, and cries of ' a greater right.') That was well, it was so ; the apostle says, ' but the labourer must be first partaker of the fruits.' He (Mr. Oastler) maintained, that the indus- trious poor man had the right to relief out of the land, and that, if that right were destroyed, all other titles and institutions must be worthless, they must crumble into dust, (Cheers.) It was not so much the power which had been usurped by, or had been vested in, the three Commission- ers (although he was always prepared to prove, that those powers were unconstitu- tional) of which he now complained, as it was, that the Bill denied, and was intended to destroy, the right of the poor man to relief out of his native land. (Hear, hear.)" — Mr. Oastler s Sjieech at the Southivark Election, Jan., 1840. " I call attention to a most unsound spot in the constitution of the Bill, the poison of which infects it throughout all its ramifications. An attempt has been made to force upon all parishes, without regard to their various peculiarities, a code of regulations, enacted and carried out into effect by persons, who, whatever may be their other qualifications, have, in one sense, no interests in common with the parties to whom the law relates. Surely this looks like a departure from the legis- lative wisdom of our forefathers. It seems a strange anomaly, that the very persons who have been loudest in their declama- tions about political equality, extension of suflfrage, &c., &c., should muster in the front ranks to defend a principle, the very essence of which is arbitrary power. What voice, let me ask, had the inmates of the Union workhouses in the measures which now consign them to those abodes of misery, where aged honesty and uncom- plaining want are thrown into fearful contact with shameless impudence and hardened vice ? the infallible result of that political panacea, that universal remedy, the TEST. Shame on thee, England! that thy statute books should have been disgraced by such a word applied to such a purpose ! Shame on thee, that thy poorer sons should have been flattered by the promise of civil rights, and, for a time drugged by its spell, should now awake to a consciousness that they have lost their personal freedom. Apply the principle to any question which atiects the interests of a class of the community, advance it as an argumentum ad homiiiem, and see if it will stand a fair trial. Then I will appeal to the common sense of one great body, which has been called into existence by this law, the Guardians of the several parishes now subject to its control. Let us suppose that, in the present day, when great difference of opinion exists upon the corn-laws, Government were to decide upon adopting a new system, and resolved, with a view to increase our agricultural prosperity, that there should be a Central Board, Assistant Officers, and stated meetings of individuals from every parish ; but that the latter should be compelled to adopt one universal method of farming throughout the country, at variance with their practice, in spite of their experience, and in defiance of their suggestions. I will not waste the time of my reader by dwelling upon the self-evident absurdity of such a proposal, or its probable recep- tion. Our theories might be very satisfac- tory, but I fear our crops would fail. And yet, in this imaginary case, the trio who form the agricultural Board, and issue the compulsory regulations, would necessarily be practical men ; but in the Poor-Law system this requisite has been overlooked. I complain that the framers of the law have not reasoned from facts to principles, but, laying down one fixed rule, have striven to make all things square with it. The very motion brought forward by its supporters for a tempoi-arij duration of any kind, is a confession of its impotence, and of the disgust which they themselves feel whilst they hug this incubus to their breasts. 'Truth is ever consistent, then why temporise in this matter ? If the law be good for five years, why not for fifty?'' — "^ Voice from Scotland, or, the English Poor-Laio considered in its Principles and Administration,^' by the Rev. J. V. Austin^ April, 1841. " Something must be done ; things cannot continue in their present state ; in fact, they will not. Pauperism is ad- vancing with giant strides; and the re- 368 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. ports of the Commissioners fully warrant the assertion, that if their favourite TEST be strictly applied, our funds will be ex- pended in building, not Union Houses, but Union Towns. Upon their own con- fession, the experiment has failed ; and, whatever be the motives which induce its supporters to force upon the unwilling people its continuance for five years longer, it surely looks like unsound and sophistical reasoning, to make a merit of having departed from what has always been vaunted as its grand and distinc- tive principle, the abolition of out-door relief. Commons of England ! the cause of humanity, the welfare of your country, demand that you should seriously deli- berate, before you impose this galling yoke, for any fixed time, upon the shoulders of the oppressed. We ask not that you should at once uproot the pre- sent system ; we trust that you have pro- fited by the expeiience of late years, and will not seek for change merely in com- pliance with the innovating spirit of the age. But we do call upon you to lay aside all minor considerations ; to view this not as a party question, but a moral lesson to the world at large ; to avail yourselves of whatever good can be derived out of its materials; but, by all means, to reconstruct the Bill upon the approved bases of sound principles and equal justice It would be desirable if our legislators could divest themselves of a feeling much too prevalent among the higher orders of society, which naturally affects the tem- per with which they act in these mat- ters : namely, that the poor are generally nngratefid. My own experience, such as it is, induces me to believe otherwise, and to maintain, that they are more open to conviction, more easily managed, more sensible of kindness, than any other class of the community. But a workhouse order, fiom the hands of a Relieving Officer, is a possitive non-conductor of sympathy ; and when homes have been irrevocably destroyed, feelings outraged, and bodies starved, it needs some very logical reason- ing to make the poor believe that their betters either care or feel for them. Those members of Parliament who hold honourable distinction as officers in our armies or fleets need not be reminded, that it is possible to combine the strictest discipline with the truest kindness. They know that the members of those bodies which constitute our strength, though drawn from the humblest ranks, are highly susceptible ; and will endure every hardship, provided they are encouraged by the love and respect of their superiors ; they know, too, that dissatisfaction is usually the prelude to defeat. Landlords of England ! there was a time when you or your sires were looked up to by the sons of the soil as their legitimate guardians ; when a year of hard labour was cheered by a day's festivity, in which 'the master,' as they loved to call him, shared. Far others are their guardians and masters now ! The aged cotter, who has toiled half-a-century upon an estate, and inight seem to have earned a title to his humble home ; oppressed by want, now pines within the walls of some castellated Union-House, surely not a fit companion for hoary vice, or decrepid imbecilitj^ ! Are ye men ? have ye hearts ? If so, shake off" your present apathy, which can arise only from ignorance of the real state of the poor, and from the insidious work- ings of the Bill, which have lulled you into a belief that, because your rates arc as heavy or heavier than formerly, your responsibility is ended, your duty done. There is something essentially zci'onff in the present system. My reason- ing may be illogical, but the facts are in- disputable ; and, strengthened in my con- victions by daily testimony, I do not scruple to denounce the measure as un- sound in theory — unsatisfactoyy in practice — expensive in its machinery — arbitrary in its laivs — unfeeling — unjust — UNCON- STITUTIONAL \"—md. " With God's word, for my warrant, I solemnly denounce the present Poor-Law as entirely xinscktptukal. It is very likely, that this declaration will be viewed with contempt by many Avho evidently think religion has no connexion with legislature ; whose conduct, during the last few years, has been marked by liberality of measures, and laxity of prin- ciple ; and who, to use the words of a writer on the subject of oaths, 'profess reverence for the name of God, that they may wholly exclude it from the dealings of mankind, and may empty every social institution of the spirit which hallows it ! Among such, my observations will pass for mere preaching ; but, as I trust they may reach the hands of a few who regard the Bible as something more than a ' valuable record of antiquity,' or ' admir- able text-book for our discourses,' — I shall avoid references. Those who study the Scriptures will know where to find my proofs ; and, to others, who are not THE NEW POOR-LAW OPPOSITION. 369 in the habit of reading the word of God, research will do no injury. Among the many remarkable features of the Jewish PoHty, there is none more striking, than the extreme care with which the inspired Lawgiver was directed to provide for the wants of tlje poor ; amounting, as may be seen, to a most jealous watchfulness over their interests : even at a time when the Almighty, by his visible presence, was pleased to be the ruler of his people ; or, to speak more learnedly, when the go- vernment was Theocratic. I cannot for- bear to extract one passage from * the law ' of those days, which appears espe- cially worthy the attention of our rulers in the present :— ' If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in thy land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother : but thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need, in that which he wanteth. Beware that there be not a thought in thy wicked heart, saying, The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand ; and thine eye be evil against thy poor brother, and thou givest him nought ; and he cry unto the Lord against thee, and it be sin unto thee. Thou shalt surely give him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him : because that for this thing the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thy works, and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto. For the poor shall never cease out of the land : therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy bro- ther, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land.' Such was the principle upon which the dealings between the higher and lower classes among the Israelites were to be regulated ; and, in fulfilment of the pro- mise attendant on its observance, we find that peace and prosperity marked the reigns of all the kings whose delight it was to 'judge the people according to right,' and to ' defend the poor.' Scarcely a day passes in which this doctrine is not impressed upon our minds by precepts or allusions in the Psalms : whilst the books of the Prophets, which mark the decline of the nation, and foretell its overthrow, are loud in their denunciations against them that ' grind the faces of the poor ;' that ' decree unrighteous decrees, and write grievances which they have prescribed, to turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of the people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the father- less.' We may be told, perhaps, that this administration was intended for a particular people, and adapted to their immediate circumstances ; doubtless it was so : but is it not, to say the least, reasonable that some respect should be paid by all ages to the broad principles upon which, (with the utmost reverence be it spoken,; the Almighty appears to to have based his laws ? — principles, con- cerning which there can be no doubt, since the Son of the Most High has in- vested them with His own authority, and taught us, that the foundations of all sound morality, of all Christian ethics, and therefore of all Christian legislation, are love to God, and love to man. With re- gard to the former, it may be observed, that where once the feeling really exists, it is sure to increase and expand ; whereas the natural selfishness of our hearts is likely to make us imagine, that the latter is sufficiently evinced by our concurrence in the generally received methods of doing good ; as for instance, if we content our- selves with paying the rates which are by law required for the rchef of the poor. But, that no such self-deception may avail, our Great Teacher has advanced another rule by which our sincerity may be tested : ' Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.' Weighed in this balance the Poor-Laws of England are found wantmg ; tried by this standard, their deficiency is most lamentable. We have seen in the former part of these remarks, that they pay little regard to man as a fellow-creature. In vain do we look for anything like a recog- nition of the first and great command- ment, love to God ; which can only be manifested by an obedience to his say- ings. Amongst these we find it recorded that, whilst ' Evil shall slay the loicked, — HE will be a refuge for the oppressed in the time of trouble ;' and that ' the 7ieedi/ shall not always be forgotten.' The pre- sent Bill seems to confound what God has plainly made distinct; and, assuming to itself a prerogative equal to Omnipotence, strives to break down that moral barrier which His word has appointed, and His providence has hitherto sustained. 'What have we to do with character?' is the cry of these inventors of the Test ; — that un- godly weapon which has inflicted a deadly wound upon our social system; and which, unless it be withdrawn, will effectually sever the ties that unite us to 2 h 370 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES- our poorer fellow-subjects. ' We entirely disapprove of alms-giving,' is the dictum of the Central Board ; very unlike the command of Him whose name we bear, whose example we profess to follow. He bade His servants do their alms in secret, so as not to be known of men ; and, as if to prove that charity requires no fixed rule, but depends mainly upon the spirit in ivhich it is bestowed, He has attached a rich blessing to that simple offering, a ' cup of cold water.' Away, then, at once with this glaring impiety — this gross affront to a God of justice ! Build high your prison walls, increase your disci- pline, mark your deep sense of wicked- ness in every shape, restrain the vicious, employ the idle, reclaim the wandering ; but seek not to deprive of their rights, their liberty, and their homes, those against whom poverty alone can be alleged . ' ' — Ibid. "The poor have feelings, affections, and kindly associations as well as the rich, and if these are wantonly trampled under foot, when poverty, before whom they had never been above half-a-day's march, at last assails them, need we wonder that they should writhe under the infliction, and turn round upon their tor- mentors. The Corn-Law and the New Poor-Law cannot exist together. One or the other must be yielded up, if the aris- tocracy would heal that wide breach which has already separated the working classes to such a distance, and has sown so extensively the seeds of discontent among themr— Sheffield Iris, Feb. 9, 1841. " The New Poor-Law stands forth in all that hideous deformity which at once disgraces a Christian country, and is dis- creditable to the legislature of a so-called free people ; proclaims the cowardice and cruelty of its concoctors, and entitles them to the hatred of every philanthro- pist. It is * cowardly,' because it gives powers which its authors were afraid to embody in the clauses of the Act itself; and * cruel,' because it punishes poverty as a crime, subjects the poor to treatment worse than criminals, makes poorer the poor, and leaves them to the mercy (!) of their tyrant masters ! — Anti-Malthusian Blood- Sticker's Letter, August 1, 1840. " If the experience of the last seven years have not undeceived the Poor-Law Commissioners, the public is pretty well convinced that the workhouse system is vicious, and that the old law would have been amended by its limitation rather than by its extension. As a test of desti- tution, the workhouse is unnecessary, unequal, and harsh — admitting the un- deserving, and excluding altogether nine- tenths of the deserving poor from the temporary relief to which they have a thousand claims on the country.'' — Xrtw- ce^, April 10, 1841. " Mr. Boxer said, he was addressing them as fellow-slaves, for that they would be if this law was allowed to be renewed, as it would rob them of what few remain- ing liberties they possessed. They had been robbed of all control over their rates, the ancient rights Avhich they once pos- sessed taken from them, and that by a Bill which was hurried through the Houses of Parliament, took the country by surprise, and, before they were aware, repealed a law which had existed for 300 years. No doubt during that period dis- crepancies had grown up, and that they wanted pruning, but this did not suit the insatiable Whig Government ; they saw that the people had the control of seven millions of money yearly, and, to gain possession of it, they passed this monstrous and arbitrary law, which took away the ancient right of the people to the soil and the tithes of the land. (Hear.) He would say again, they were slaves ; for if the Government passed the Rural Police Bill they would remain no longer free men, and they Avould be trampled on without the power of resistance. When they brought in the Bill they said it was to increase the wages of the labourer, but this it had not done ; it was the re- verse, and the labourer was now being ground down to the earth. Certainly he was told he could emigrate to Australia, the Cape of Good Hope, or Van Diemen's Land ; and they were sent abroad by the Government in the same manner as a cargo of Birmingham cutlery. (Hear, hear.) What was this state of things owing to ? Why to that unmeaning word ' reform,' which had been raised by the Whigs throughout the country, the real meaning of which was deformity (cheers) in every shade and way. Look back to the year 1795. A man then earned, in 21 days, as an agricultural labourer, what now required 40 days' labour to gain. Everything was done to reduce the la- bourers, so as to fit them for transporta- tion, and when reduced to that state they were sent away like a flock of sheep. This was the fact, for let them look at the second clause of the Poor-Law Act, and they would find that parishes possessed this power. (Shame.) The people were THE NEW POOR- LAW OrPOSITION. 371 reduced to the state of slavery into which the Asiatics have fallen. For instance, under the Poor-Law Act, an Assistant- Commissioner could come down to a Board of Guardians and say, this Guardian shall not be here, and he must leave the Board ; and to do this, all he would have to show, would be the great seal of Somerset- house ; in fact, he was armed with the tyrannical powers of an Asiatic manda- rin. (Cheers.) Since the introduction of the Poor-Law, how many a poor crea- ture had died of want, although coroners' juries returned a verdict ' Died by the visitation of God.' Certainly they could not charge a Commissioner with being the assassin, because he Avould say he did not give an individual but a general order. Again, they possessed the power to make or unmake Unions, and under their power the country became an automaton. To this dreadful state were the people of England reduced ; and he had no hesita- tion in charging their members with being participes crmiinis in this transaction, for they did not oppose it as they ought to have done. It was a base and fraudulent neglect of their duty in not resisting it — they connived at the robbery which was meditated against the rights of the people at a time when they were humbugged by the name of reform — not the constitutional reform which you Chathams intended, but one which was brought forward for the sake of place. While they (the people) were thus in a state of inebriation, they were reduced to vassals and slaves. (Cheers.) That the Bill sanctioned mur- der, he would refer them to the case of the man Morris, aged 32. He applied to Peckham for relief; this was refused, although the poor fellow was starving : at length he got admitted, but before anj'^ food was given to him, he was tested and set to work to grind corn, and while at work on the mill he died. ( Cries of ' shame.') How long Heaven would suffer this state of things he could not say, and yet their hireling press said, the Bill worked well. Did it not encourage white slavery — were not children sent out from workhouses by what were denominated Christian Societies, and sold for £7 15s. a-head, and that to a parcel of Dutchmen, who had no feeling for these friendless and unprotected children ? It was in this way the slave-trade began, and which, it appeared, was intended to be continued merely in changing it from black to white slavery. From a report which he had read in the Times of that day, an attempt '> B was made to contradict this charge, but it could not be done. If tliey but looked to the operation of the bastardy clauses, it was enough to stultify their senses. Down at Sandwich, a girl of the name of Dandson had drowned herself and infant in the river Stour. This part of the country he knew well, and a few years ago the place did not contain a public prostitute. At the recent Chester assizes, three females for child murder had been, cast for death ; the Home-Secretary was afraid of carrying out this sentence for fear of setting the country in a flame ; but his commutation was perfectly Draconian. In Rome's worst days such a sentence was not inflicted. Hurling from the Tarpeian rock was mild to that of the Home-Secretary. The punishment was remitted to five years' in the Penitentiarj^ three months out of each year to be passed in solitary confinement, the effect of which would be to make them lunatics, and, at the expiration of the five years, to be transported for life to a penal settlement. (Loud cries of 'Shame.') Such was the hell-bom soul which guided the councils of this country. He could not express in sufficiently strong terms his indignation ; but he trusted so loud would be the voice of the country as to cause the Govern- ment to pause in its career. He regretted their members were absent, and unless they did their duty on the present occa- sion in Parliament, he should call on them for their resignations. (Loud cheers.) Now was the time for the people to act with decision, for there was but one step for them to take which would determine whether they would be free men or slaves. (Mr. Boxer sat down amidst tremendous cheering.)" — Southioark Anti-New Poor- Law Meeting, May 1, 1839. " INIr. Day observed, that it was intend- ed to call upon the members to oppose the measure, instead of petitioning the House of Commons, from which they could ex- pect nothing, as it had hitherto j^acked the committee relative to the Poor-Law Bill, and secured only packed evidence from packed witnesses ; for, with one or two exceptions, the whole of the evidence heard was either Poor-Law Commissioners, clerks to Boards, or Guardians favourable to the measure. (Hear, hear.) There- fore it would be useless to apply to the House of Commons for relief ; but if the Members of Parliament did their duty, then would this bill be repealed. The question Mas one of vast importance to every man, from the rate-payer to the o 372 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. pauper, especially as they were all en- titled to relief Avhen required — a right which existed previously to the 43d of Elizabeth, and which was vested in the soil, but which right the present bill had taken away. This right in the land was never attempted to be touched until the introduction of the Enclosure Acts, and as they increased so did the poor-rates. This point had been most ably stated by Mr. Walter, the late member for Berk- shire, in his place in Parliament ; and he regretted, from the variety of facts he should have to state, he could not read to them from a published pamphlet contain- ing the report of his speeches. The evils under which the poor laboured had been gradually increasing; for in 1776 com, he found, was 40s. the quarter, while in 1813 it was 128s. a-quarter, the price of labour remaining much the same. This was not a party question ; it had nothing to do with eitlier Whig or Tory ; it was a question between the rich and the poor ; and as the act had worked badly, it was now necessary that it should be repealed. The Poor-Law Act had had five years' trial, and it had decidedly failed ; this its framers knew, for what were they at- tempting to do ? Why, to renew the bill with greater powers to the Commissioners, and then backing it by a rural police for the purpose of putting down the poor if they should happen to complain. He had heard, since he had taken up the question, many say that the bill worked well. ' See,' said its advocates, ' we can give out-door relief.' He would tell those gentlemen they were not carrying out the bill, and that they would soon find out if •Lord J. Russell carried his new bill ; let them wait till then, and they would soon find that they were tricked. (' Hear,' and ' That will be it.') What did Lord J. Russell intend to do r Why, to do away with the Gilbert Unions ; and here he would beg to remind the people of Man- chester, that they would then have the New Poor-Law forced upon them, and be liable to all the pains and penalties which the Commissioners miglit think proper to impose on them. (Mr. Day '"here entered into a detailed statement of the mode of relief, the interference of the Commissioners as to whether one or two shillings should be given per week to a poor old woman ; and the law of settle- ment, which, instead of being simplified, had been rendered more difficult, in the course of which statement he was re- peatedly cheered.) Under the old law the rate-payers possessed a control over the funds ; now, if the Poor-Law Commis- sioners thought proper to order £ 10,000 or £20,000 to be expended, the rate-payers could not help themselves ; and how was that done ? Why, by the system of proxy voting, which entirely robbed them of all their rights. (Shame.) He would in- stance it in St. George's parish, which contains 50,000 inhabitants ; he and two others had sufficient proxies to return all the Guardians, and that in opposition to the rate-payers. (Shame.) Mr. Day here adverted to the misstatements as to the savings which the Commissioners had put forth in their reports, but these having been already noticed in the Times, it is unnecessary to re-state them. He would now make one observation as to the test. Lord John Russell had declared, that no distinction could be made between the vicious pauper and the virtuous one — that they were all entitled to the same mode of relief, namely, a bare sufficiency of food (shame) ; and those unfortunate creatures, where the law is carried out, never leave the Avorkhouse — or, more properly, the Bastile — until carried out ; yet, from the destitution which existed, their places Avere filled, although Mr. Mott had declared, that the sight of a scaffold before a workhouse would be quite sufficient to drive the poor away. Although there were a variety of other points to which he was anxious to advert, yet he found it would be impossible ; therefore he would merely content himself with saying a few words on the bastardy clauses. They were told that these clauses would make the women more moral. How was it to be done ? Why, heaping all the fault on the female, and permitting her vagabond seducer to go free. Was it not absurd to talk about curbing the feelings of human nature? And yet the poor and unprotected female, who was left open to the wiles of man, was punished — driven to commit the crime of murder on her helpless offspring, because the Poor-Law had robbed her of all protection. (Hear, hear.) He would now conclude by expressing a hope that their members would do their duty in their piece in Parliament, and that the repre- sentatives of every other place Avould be called on by their respective constituencies to do the same, and then the Poor-Law Bill would be kicked out of the House of Commons. (Loud cheers.)" — Ibid. " Since he last had the good fortune to address a meeting in this metropolis, THE NEW POOn-LAW OrrOSITTON. 373 all he then said had been confirmed by subsequent experience, wherever thePoor- Law Commissioners had been enabled to estabhsh their despotic power. Owing to the strenuous and patriotic exertions of some who sat around him, and above all of his friend Mr. Oastler (cheers), and Mr. Ilichardson, of Manchester — owing to the courage evinced by the people themselves, this law happily had not yet been carried into execution in the manu- facturing districts. (Cheers.) Such had been the disgust, such the great, general, and just discontent which had been en- gendered by the cruelties which had taken place, that throughout those extensive and populous districts numerous asso- ciations had been formed for the sole and distinct object, unconnected with any other political purpose whatever, of ob- taining the repeal of this obnoxious law. (Cheers.) He hoped, by the formation of a central society, these associations would be extended to other districts where they had not yet been formed, and that being generally established throughout the country, they would acquire that nume- rical force which, directed by unity of action, could not fail of complete success. (Cheers.) For whatever delusion might exist, both in the Administration and Par- liament of the country, if the voice of the people were generally raised and express- ed, as it ought to be, in a voice of thunder, calling for the restoration of their rights — of those rights, founded on nature, secured by positive statute, and enacted 'during a period of more than two cen- turies, that voice could not be raised in vain. (Cheers.) Such was the discontent that had been excited by the New Poor- Law, that unless it should be repealed, speedily and entirely repealed (cheers), no one could say for how long, or how short a period, it would be possible to preserve the peace and protect the pro- perty of the country. (Cheers.) It ap- peared, therefore, that not a moment should be lost, that no exertions should be spared, in establishing in the metro- polis an association, to be in constant com- munication with the other bodies which had been formed in different parts of the country, so that where hitherto the agri- cultural labourers had appeared inactive or supine, they might gave vigour and energy to their exertions (Cheers.) But, although it was undoubtedly true, that more petitions had proceeded from the manufacturing than from the agricultural districts, it should not be supposed that the silence of the rural districts implied consent. (Cheers.) They would learn from a friend of his from the county of Suffolk, that intimidation was used there and in other counties for the purpose of preventing the labouring classes from freely expressing their opinions on this question. In the present deplorable and disgraceful state of thraldom, they were unable to express the grievances they so strongly felt, and which could not be al- lowed much longer to continue without consequences tlie most calamitous. Nor was it any apology for the present law, that some persons had conceived an unjust prepossession against the former poor- law. It was utterly impossible to suppose that the poor-law should have existed for two centuries, and yet only at the con- clusion of that period to have brought forward those evils which were said to be inherent in it. The former amount of the poor-rates was not the disease of which complaint was made — it was only a symp- tom of the disease — the natural result of the pauperism which had arisen from other causes. (Cheers.) But, whatever might be thought of the former poor-law, their object now was simply and singly to obtain a repeal of the present poor- law (cheers), and then, speaking his own individual opinion, he thought they should re-enact, in all its simplicity, the statute of Elizabeth without any alteration, but with such additions as would be beneficial to the labouring classes. (Cheers.) Hav- ing stated thus briefly the general nature and object of the purpose for which they had assembled, it would be altogether unpardonable in him to trespass any longer on their time. The resolutions would be moved by one of the firmest friends of the labouring classes, whom they had long revered, and in whom they justly placed great confidence — he meant Mr. John Fielden (cheers), and they would be seconded by Mr. Walter (loud cheers), who, during the last session of Parliament, exerted himself with the most laudable patriotism, and tlie most indefa- tigable perseverance in collecting evidence on the subject, and in endeavouring to obtain a repeal of the New Poor-Law. (Loud cheers.) ISIr. Dewdney, a clergy- man from Sussex, one of the witnesses examined before the committee; Mr. Oastler, from Yorkshire, and iNIr. Ilichard- son, from Manchester, would also address the meeting-. (Cheers.) He entreated, he conjured them, as one who had en- tirely at lieart the welfare, the interests. 371 THE BOOK OF THE BA8TILES. and the rights of the hibouring classes (cheers) — as one who knew and felt that no other class of the community could prosper if they were in affliction (cheers) — as one who was aware that no property could be safe unless their rights were se- cured (cheers) — he entreated them as one who had never pursued any object of personal vanity or ambition ; who had constantly before his eyes, without look- ing to the right or left, the welfare of his fellow-citizens (cheers) — he entreated them, on this occasion, to obtain that triumph over the friends and supporters of the measure — that triumph over the triumvirate of Somerset-house (cheers) — that triumph which could only be ob- tained by unity of purpose, by directing all their exertions, by confining all their deliberations and discussions, to this one object, abstaining altogether from intro- ducing any extraneous or irrelevant mat- ter, however it might appear on any other occasion," — Earl Stanhope, Freemasons^ Tavern, Feb. 19, 1838. " Melius est omnia mala pati, quam malo co7isentire, is an established maxim of right; insomuch that a king cannot legally dispense with malum en se, nor can the ' omnipotence of Parliament' estab- lish it by statute, because, by the reno- vating principle of the common law, any such statute must be deemed null and void — in itself a mere corruptela, and no statute." — Granville Sharp. " Mr. Walter said, he felt great plea- sure in attending their summons, to pro- pose a resolution which had been assigned to him for the purpose of resisting the continuation of the New Poor-Law. They were now arrived at the period when, according to the original Act, the Commissioners were to have been with- drawn. This was the time when the law •was to have stood upon its own feet (cheers and laughter) — was to have Avalked and run on by itself, without the aid of these despotic male nurses, the Commissioners, who had hitherto had it in leading-strings. And what was the case really at this season of puberty ? That the law could neither stand nor go, but was still to be upheld by these its original nurses. (Hear, hear.) It was said, indeed, that it was to be continued but for one year longer. He did not be- lieve that the authors or upholders of the law could at the present moment assign any reason why it should be better able to support itself a yer.r hence than it was at this time. The fact was, that it must always, so long as it existed as a law, be maintained and supported by its present agency, by the Commissioners ; for it was a perpetual violation of the rights of na- ture and the principles of humanity (cheers) ; and, therefore, if left to itself — if depi'ived of this artificial and ex- pensive support — the rights of nature and the principles of humanity would instantly overthrow and trample it under foot. (Cheers.) It was impossible to live in the perpetual violation of nature except by violent and artificial means. (Cheers.) So multiplied were the evils of this law, and so much had come to his knowledge of the mischiefs which it worked, that he hardly knew where to begin first. He was absolutely distracted by abund- ance rather than perplexed by selection. If they went back to the origin of this law, they would find, that with much abuse of the poor — ' that they were thoughtless, reckless, improvident, and so forth,' — there was one grand acknow- ledgment on the part of the rich support- ers of the Bill — that they themselves had been liable to the imputation of improvi- dence, and that from such improvidence their estates were in so unsatisfactory a condition, that they could not continue to afford the provision for the poor which they had hitherto received, and to which they had a prescriptive right. (Hear, hear.) This subject was so wound up with the conduct of distinguished per- sons, that he had some pain in introducing it. Sir James Graham, in a speech in the House of Commons, March I, 1834, on a motion for altering the corn-laws, said, ' If the effect of the proposed mea- sure should be to reduce rents 20 per cent., he spoke advisedly when he said, that two-thirds of the landed property of England would change hands.' And re- specting the noble lord who carried this measure through the House of Commons, and was himself the Chairman of two Boards of Guardians, in Northampton- shire and Nottinghamshire, he found in that same year the following paragraph in the newspapers : — ' Lord Spencer died much less wealthy than had been sup- posed, and since his demise the greatest economy prevails at Althorp. All the servants have been discharged, much of the park has been ploughed up, and the present peer contents himself with a sin- gle servant.' Lord Brougham told the peers, ' that the chief point involved in the Bill was, whether their lordships should lose their pvopertics or not.' This, THE NEW POOR-LAW OPPOSITION. 375 therefore, he had no question, might be assumed as the moving cause of the Bill — that a large portion of the landed in- terest throughout the country was in that state of embarrassment, from no fault of the poor, be it observed, but from im- providence elsewhere — that recourse was had to a diminution of the poor-rates by the infliction of this Bill ; and that hope, he had no doubt, would prove as delusive as the law itself was cruel and unconsti- tutional. If from the origin of the Bill he passed on to its operation, he would take care to give them nothing upon that subject on his own authority, but every- thing from unquestionable documents. He would give an instance of its working from a rural district, that of Alderbury, in Wiltshire. The Chairman of the Board of Guardians thus wrote : — After stating that the winter had been one of unexampled hardship to the peasantry, he said, ' I recollect at no time more peo- ple unemployed, no time when distress has assumed a severer form. In some cases the usual winter arrangements have been disturbed ; in many more the Guar- dians, seeing a certain expense incurred by the machinery of the Board, were de- termined to meet it by increased economy — perhaps severity of conduct towards the poor: whilst the objects of relief themselves occasionally added to their own misery by distrusting the new au- thority when offers were made to them of taking their children into the poor-house. From this state of things we are now in a great measure relieved.' And what did the meeting think was the remedy for these evils ? What was the method by which they had been relieved ? He would tell them in the writer's own words : — ' The experience our labourers have had (said he) of the rigid investigation attending application for relief, their dislike of sepa- ration from their children, and their horror of the workhouse, have induced some hundreds to emigrate.' Was this the humanity of British legislation — was this the becoming character of an English law, that when carried into effect it was to drive our fellow-Englishmen, with their suffering wives and children, into eternal banishment from their native land ? He could quote several instances of a similar character, especially from Norfolk, Suffolk, and Hampshire. But in this instance they had their opponents confessing that emigration was one of the effects of this cruel law ; and, in addition to that, there was undeniable evidence to support this charge against them, that, while the pau- per was oppressed at home, they held out the most false and deceptive hopes to him of the wealth and happiness which he was to enjoy by emigrating to the oppo- site side of the globe. (Cheers.) Young women are promised marriage settlements in Australia (a laugh) — artisans, enrich- ing wages. The Government agent in Canada told our people, that ' industrious men can earn as much there in two days as will support a family a week ; country girls will readily obtain from £9 to £18 a-year. The industrious labourer will in five or six years be the owner of from 50 to 1 00 acres of good land, with plenty for his family to eat and drink, a couple of milch cows, and future independence.' (Incredulous laughter.) Whereas, with respect to Australia, the authors of these seducing stories, on the exposure of their falsehoods in the House of Commons, at once broke up their association, being forced to acknowledge the fact, that the country was too much demoralized to admit of having unprotected women sent to its shores." — Mr. Walter at the Free- masons' Tavern Meeting, June 24, 1839. " It had been said that the New Poor- Law could not be carried into effect with- out that central control which M^as almost essential to its working. Now, he would not deny, that under such a system they must have some central control, but it was not necessary, he did not see why, the controlling power should be in the metropolis. He could not see why it might not be exercised in a provincial town as well as in London. Looking, then, at the main principles which were involved in this Bill, it remained to be shown that it had worked for the happi- ness or improvement of the people. That had not been shown. Nay, even, it had not been proved, that there had been that reduction of expense on which the pro- moters of the Bill had calculated as one of its important results. It was natural that a Poor-Law district should be under local Guardians. Why might not that trust be confided to such a body, as well as to the body of Commissioners sitting in the me- tropolis ? To what had the principle of parochial Unions led ? It had led to the union of Unions, and in following that principle out, by which paupers were brought from great distances to those great Unions, he did not see why the pauper peasants of Buckinghamshire might not be transferred to Lancaster on the same principle. In fact, there was 376 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. nothing to prevent it, for the Commission- ers would have the power. Indeed, no man who had at all attended to the working of the Bill would deny, that the Commissioners under this Bill would have a power which had never been ex- ercised by the Parliament of England. If, then, the present Bill should turn out to be, as he feared it would, an ex- aggerated copy of the former Act, the noble lord must not be surprised at the opjjosition which it would encounter in and out of that House. He repeated his admission, tliat centralization was useful and salutary in many instances, but they ought to be jealous of its introduction to such cases as it would be applied to under this law. It would have that most injurious tendency of making the Govern- ment strong, and society weak, instead of having that position reversed, as it ought to be. Looking at the principles which the Bill involved, feeling convinced that even in those features on whicli it had been most warmly supported by its advocates it was defective, believing it to be the secret cause of the discontent and outrage which had prevailed in the coun- try, and that in it the true character of the people had never been consulted, he should give it his strongest opposition, and would now move, as an amendment to the motion of the noble lord, that the Bill be read a second time that day six months." — Mr. D' Israeli, House of Com- mons, Feb. 8, 1841. " There was no redress, no appeal for the unfortunate workhouse poor ; the Board did what they pleased — imprisoned and tortured at ^vill. The most atrocious cruelty might be inflicted on the poor man ; yet to whom was he to appeal for redress? How was he to obtain it? How could he even communicate with his relations under this atrocious and infernal system ? He could describe it in no other terms. He had no desire to give a personal colouring to his remarks ; but he was discharging what he considered a most important duty, since he had had more opportunities of witnessing the ope- ration of the existing law than any other man in that House. (Hear, hear.) He was stating facts, in every instance, which had fallen under his own observation. He begged to ask whether the noble lord, by his present Bill, bettered the condition of the poor in any one respect? The noble lord had increased the powers of the Commissioners. These powers were already so extensive, that all respectable men were driven from the Boards of Guardians. The noble lord had increased the power of the Commissioners, and taken away from that of the Guardians. (Hear, hear.) And this he had done in a I3ill which was avowedly for the amend- ment of the existing law. He entreated the noble lord to ask permission to Avith- draw the Bill, and introduce another for the purpose of getting rid of the Com- mission, in about two years' time, so as to put the Poor-Law on a rational and in- telligible basis, and make it capable of being recognized by the constitutional authorities of the land. (Hear, hear.) If the law continued to be administered as it had hitherto been, it would exist only in the feelings of the Commissioners, and not in the statute-book — in the Com- missioners' caprice, in their whim of the moment. Talk of uniformity ; there never was a more chequered thing than the Poor-Law in its present shape. The Commissioners themselves acknowledged it. Every Union had its own particular rule as to the formation of new districts, as well as to a variety of other matters. It was a miserable, pettifogging system. Let them lake the 1 1 th rule—' That if for any special reason it appears fit to the Board of Guardians to dispense with article 10 in respect of any married couple, both of whom are infirm through age or any other cause, the Guardians shall be at liberty to direct that such couple shall have a sleeping apartment separate from the other paupers ; ' but mark the con- dition : — ' Such resolution, together with the reason for it, shall be entered in their minutes of proceedings, and a copy of the same shall be transmitted ' — from the Land's-end — ' to the Poor-Law Commis- sioners for their consideration and appro- bation, without which the resolution shall have no efiect.' And the gentlemen of England would consent to act on these Boards ! He asked whether they would 60 far debase themselves ? He was satis- fied, that if they took their places on these Boards, it was only from a desire to benefit the poor ; for surely they could not other- wise submit to these gross and foul indig- nities. (Hear, hear.) The Guardians had not the power to order these poor decrepit beings to be permitted to sleep in a separate apartment without the special sanction of the Poor-Law Commission- ers ! " — Mr. IVakleij, Ibid. " For what purpose was the Poor-Law Amendment-Bill introduced ? What ob- jects had its originators in view in con- THE NEW POOR-LAW OPPOSITION. 377 cocting the measure? It was certainly to benefit some one class of the commu- nity ; but he maintained that it was impossible for the hon. member who sup- ported the Government measure to specify any one class who had been benefited by the alteration in the law. The condition of the poor had not been alleviated, and very little or no saving had been made in the parish rates. It was true, as had been stated, that in the Union of Alnwick £2,000 a-year had been saved, but in the Union in which he resided no such good result had followed; in fact, no saving had been made at all. It had been found that men could not be got to act as Guar- dians, unless they were well remunerated for their services, and this payment must be made from the private rates. Accord- ing to the noble lord's bill, all paid Over- seers would be ineligible to act as Guar- dians. He (Mr. Liddell) considered this clause very objectionable ; and if not struck out, or materially altered, it would throw many Unions into great disorder. But his great and serious objection to the Bill now before the House was, in consequence of its perpetuating the Central Board for Bo^ long a period as ten years. Against this portion of the Bill he entertained well-founded and constitutional objections. Was such a Board, with almost unlimited powers, with a jurisdiction extending over the whole of this country, endowed with legal power to govern almost every parish and district in the kingdom, possessing authority beyond the law, for one moment to be tolerated ? He entreated the House to pause before they allowed a Bill to receive the sanction of the Legislature containing a clause of such a character. He could not believe that the House would give its consent to the Bill. It was not only the object of the Government measure to empower the Central Board to exercise their authority for a period of ten years, but the Commissioners were to be endowed with new and extraordinary powers. To the seventh clause of this Bill he had a serious objection. It pro- posed to relieve the Commissioners at Somerset-house from the necessity of specifying and publishing the rules which they intend to issue for the government of the Unions. In his Union much evil had arisen from the circumstance of the Central Board not issuing specific regu- lations for its government. He considered this clause pregnant with evil, and one which he could not support. He (Mr. Liddell) agreed with the hon. member for Finsbury in lamenting the want of a court of appeal from the judgments of the Poor- LawGuardians and from the central board. If such a court were established, it was hia belief that many cases of hardship, cruelty, and oppression, would be exposed to the public eye, and thus benefit would result. The opponents of this measure had been asked what they would substitute instead of the Central Board, were its functions to cease ? It was his belief, that the Board of Guardians, if properly consti- tuted, could act for all useful purposes without the Central Board. He did not believe for one moment, if they were delegated with proper authority, that any of those evils which spring out of the operation of the old law would again arise. It was his opinion, that the Guar- dians of the poor were alive to the mal- administration of the old system of poor- laws, and that they never would dare to introduce into the districts over which they presided the objectionable portions of that system. On these grounds he was induced to believe, that the existence of a Board of Guardians rendered a Board of Commissioners at Somerset-house un- necessary. He thought that the relief afforded to the poor by rule and square, as measured out by the Commissioners at Somerset-house, was abhorrent to the feelings of the humane, and repugnant to the genius of Christianity. Its effect had been to alienate the affections of the people from those who were placed in authority over them. Cases of great hardships had occurred; the feelings of the community had been blunted ; and a great portion of the public had been in- duced to array itself in opposition to a law which oppressed so severely the poorer classes of the community. For these reasons he (Mr. Liddell) would not consent to the existence of the Central Board for a longer period, than was neces- sary for them to wind up their accounts with the public."— J//-. Liddell, Ibid. " Mr. Muntz was satisfied that nmch injustice was done in consequence of the lawmakers acting on the reports of others on subjects of which they had themselves no knowledge. If the noble lord at the head of the Colonial Department, or any other member of the Government, served six months in the office of a Poor-Law Guardian, they would never think of enforc- ing such a law as the present. The New Poor-Law made no distinction between the honest and industrious, and the idle and drunken. The truth of this came 378 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. under his own observation, in the instance of a man who had been recommended to him for employment, and whom he had tried to serve, but could not procure him work. When asked why he had not ap- plied to his parish, the poor man's answer was, 'I have applied, but before receiving relief I should first sell all my furniture, and what should I then do when I came out of the workhouse ? ' The system of compelling a poor man labouring under temporary distress to resort to the work- house lowered him in his self-esteem, and produced a consequent demoralization. The faults of the old system were not in- herent in the law, but were the result of its maladministration. As to the saving which was said to be effected by the new law, he had considerable doubts. That the present system was harshly adminis- tered he was perfectly satisfied, for he knew no man who could serve the office of overseer for six months without his feelings, however fine at first, becoming callous, and then what must it be with those who acted as masters of workhouses for five or six years ? The cases of cruelty were more numerous than met the ear, for there were few men who had the nerve of the hon. member for Finsbury, and few Guardians who cared so much for the poor as the Rev. Mr. Osborne." — House of Commons, Feb. 8, 1841. " Mr. D'Israeli said, he was well aware of the difficulty which was found in in- ducing the Legislature to retrace its steps on a great measure of this kind. He was also aware, that when any great measure on which the country had been much ex- cited became the law of the land, it seldom happened that it realized the hopes of those by whom it had been supported. This he believed would be found to have been the case with the measure which the motion of the noble lord was about to prolong. Still he despaired of being able to induce its supporters to retrace their steps respecting it. Before agreeing to this measure, he thought it was of great importance for the House to inquire whether the Bill had those remedial effects which had been predicted of it, whether the carrying out of certain principles which it embraced possessed a beneficial influence on the condition of the poor of the country, and whether there had not been certain influences at work to mar the good which its supporters had contended it was calculated to produce. In offering a few observations on those points he begged the indulgence of the House for a short time, the more particularly because many taunts had been thrown out against those who were loud in decrying the measure on the hustings, but who were said to be discreetly silent on it in that House. He would address himself to what he considered the salient and original principles of the Bill — the principles upon which all its details must mediately or im- mediately depend. He wished to see whether the noble lord had profited by the experience of the last six or seven years. Of the Bill, as it at present existed, one of the most important features was doubt- less the union of parishes. It was a pro- position that met with considerable discus- sion when it was first addressed to the notice of the House and of the country. For his own part, he did not think that it had ever received that attention which it ought to have commanded. The union of parishes was, in fact, a total revolution of the ancient parochial jurisdiction of England. That jurisdiction was the most ancient in the country, much more ancient than the political jurisdiction, one which bore a much nearer affinity to the lower classes of society, than any political forms which they could possibly invent. He (Mr. D'Israeli) thought that the alteration in this respect was as great a social revo- lution as had ever been effected. (Hear, hear.) There were many reasons given at the time for a measure which was generally i-ecognized as one of a veiy strong character. Necessity was the plea by which it was supported ; they were told that they could never obtain an efficient and economical management of the poor but by the union of parishes. It was then said, and it might be said now, that the abuses of the old system, which were never denied, grew out of circumstances which did not depend upon the size of the parishes. It was on that occasion particu- larly pointed out to the House, that the reform of the old system had already commenced in England, and had proceeded to a considerable extent for many years before the Government projected interfer- ing. Several parishes were adduced : many parishes indeed were quoted in the original reports ; and in the first papers brought before Parliament several instances were adduced of parishes which had effected this self-reformation with the most complete success. It was alleged by the Government, that if they left this i-eformation to the parishes themselves, it would most probably fail, or, that if it suc- ceeded; its progress must be slow. (Hear, THE NEW POOR-LAW OPPOSITION. 379 hear.) There were some who thought that it was better that seh-reformation should accompany self-government. There were some who thought that there was no proba- bility that the Government would interfere. For what had the Government, as far as its domestic policy was concerned, ever effected in England ! It had, indeed, sometimes promoted commerce by grant- ing bounties, sometimes fostered manufac- tures by lessening the duties ; but, so far as our domestic economy was concerned, there was nothing of any great benefit, of any vastness, or of a comprehensive character in our social condition, for which we were indebted to the Government. The Government did not originate our system of national education. The Government did not institute our universi- ties, or endow our colleges. The Govern- ment did not even create our colonial empire. It was not the Government of England that conquered India. It did not build our citadels, make our roads, or build our bridges ; and even in the present age, when the Government interfered in almost every great undertaking, it did not construct our railways. The Government, however, did interfere, and terminated the whole parochial j urisdiction of t he country ; and, certainly, it was impossible to con- ceive any revolution, although it might not have the hubbub and the individual interest of political revolution, that exer- cised a greater influence on the condition of the people at large than that interfer- ence did. But what had been the conse- quences? Nobody would deny, that if they had not outraged the constitution, or violated the laws, which they might alter when they liked, they had done that which was much more important than constitu- tion or law — they had outraged the manners of the people. No statesman would treat that consideration with contempt, and he thought it was doubtful whether any pecimiary or financial consideration could weigh against the injury which by out- raging the manners of the people they committed. But had they gained that pecuniary advantage ? As far as could at present be ascertained, the parochial con- stitution of England had been destroyed for a mere sordid consideration (hear, hear), and that sordid consideration they were in the miserable position of finding they had not obtained. It was now matter of notoriety, for they had it from authority, that the sum which had been levied on the people of England for the year that had terminated, according to the official statement, amounted to more than £1,200,000. (Hear.) If that sum were added to what had been expended last year, and the increase of the county-rates, and the universal pi-omise in every parish of the increase of the poor-rates for the coming year, were taken into considera- tion, he would ask whether there was any man bold enough to say, that before two years had expired the expenditure for the Poor-Law would be less, than it was two years before the present law came into operation. (Hear, hear.) He mentioned the period of two years because, in the average formed by the Commissioners, they omitted the year immediately preced- ing the commencement of the new law ; the practical consequence of that would be, that they must probably pay as much as they did under a system of abuse, and without any of the advantages that resulted from that system." — House of Commons, Feb. 8, 1841. "What can we say, how can we meet and assuage the cravings of self-interest ? how can we baffle and defy the suggestions of expediency, when it is notoriously sanctioned as the leading principle, by the King, the Parliament, and the Episcopacy ? Are we to call in the aid of the Commis- sioners in preference to the Bible ? I wish to put the subject only in a fair point of view ; I have no occasion, and God knows no inclination, to speak disrespectfully of any superior ; but when we discuss public measures, public men must appear also. I yield not to the most strenuous advocate of the new law in believing the devotion (?) and anxiety (?) of the present Commis- sioners to ' do justice, love mercy, ami walk humbly tcith their God :' it is, I re]ieat, the 'principle against which I protest; the principle of violating the laws of justice whenever a majority can be got together to effect it — and, since expediencj- has begun its march, let the opposites of poverty look to their rights and landmarks, and the opposites of the people beware of the consequences. The Commissioners may for this generation do good (?), and property may prosper ; but it will be the prosperity of fools, which is a snare in which they are taken — of a man, who finds it easy to raise money when it is expe- dient, and thinks not of the hour when it will not be convenient to repay — it will be the prosperity of llaman erecting the gallows for Mordecai. ' A new broom sweeps clean ;' but let the present and past state of the church declare the advan- tages of discretionary power : let any one 380 THE BOOK OF THE BABTILE8. study the history of Dispensation, and he will never advocate anything but a Lex Scripta : he will then, if he does not now, see the evils of speculating upon human strength, which has never yet developed itself. Why we are to presume Commis- sioners better than the Archbishop of Canterbury, and trust power to irrespon- sible power, when we know the conse- quences, I leave to Parliament to announce — it is simply a question of expediency ." — " Church Reform^ By the Rev. Edward Duncomhe^ 1835. " Do I charge the Commissioners or the Parliament with evil motives in devising the New Poor-Law, which would be far more properly called the New Property- Law? No; I do not: but I do suspect them of judicial blindness: and I do fore- warn landed proprietors to beware, lest they themselves fall into the pit which is digged to protect them. For look at the possible sequel of this property-law : is there any encouragement to industry or frugality affixed to it } any clause recom- mending landlords never to let a cottage without ' a rood of land' — any clause to secure, wherever possible, for the poor in towns, that so much of the land adjacent shall be let to the poor at a fair accommo- dation-rent as will give all householders under a certain rent the option of ' ivhole- some store by light labour sjwead ?' is there any promise, any praise for them that do well? No, forsooth : there is no redeeming attention to the poor of this sort : and why not ? because it would be an infringe- ment on the existing rights of landlords — because Parliament has no power to interfere with these. Whence then does it derive the power to abridge the ' rights of the people?' why does it not exhibit the same delicacy and respect for these ? *' It IS a question of expediency.'' Be it so — how is the question decided ; by an appeal to numbers — by a majority of the two Houses of Parliament. It was so : and now look at the possible consequences — and if you are a candid, reader, un- pledged to any ministry, unprejudiced to any party, you will agree with me, that ' Even now the devastation is begun, And half the business of destruction done.' You will agree with me, that no one act of the legislature can contribute more directly and abundantly to equality in all things, than this miscalled Poor-Law, devised for the protection of property, not for the maintenance, or employment, or encouragement of the poor. It is not the number of persons, \Yhom this new enact- ment will at first oppress, which renders it dangerous to every existing institution : but it is the j>^'inciple ivhich it has recog- nized as the primary motive in man : the principle of expediency and self-interest — for suppose that it is at one fell swoop proposed to appropriate all the property, and destroy all the exclusive rights of civil corporations — What, let me ask, can the authors and supporters of this Poor- Law reply ? they majf say it is 7iot expe- dient. But the proposers of destruction may reply, Parliament sets up numbers as the standard of right, and there is a majority in the countr\', who think it ex- pedient that the dock revenues of Liver- pool should be taken in part payment of taxes. It is no longer a question of justice, but it is a question of expediency : how, let me ask, are such proposals as these ever to be put to silence, if the legis- lature sets the example of preferring expedieiicy to the weightier matters of the law." — Ibid. "' Property has its duties as well as its rights:' and I, for one parson, shame whom it may, will (by Gods help) leave the rights and property of one parish at least upon some better understanding by the people of it, than for some years past. The Rev. Mr. Duncombe will try by ex- ample, as well as by ' circidating printed papers ivith his name attached,' to extend among the landlords the practice of the holy commandment, ' Thou shalt not remove the landmarks set in thine inheri- tance ; but thou shalt do to others, as ye would that others should do to thee.' I have no merit in pursuing this enterprise. On the contraiy, I am the parson of the parish, 'the servant unto all,' hired and paid for this very purpose ; and if I left undone anything in my power to do, to reclaim, defend, and hand down to pos- terity, parish rights and property, I should be a traitor, amenable to the just rule of eternal judgment. ' For, to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin' (James iv. 1 7). But some clergyman will perhaps say, with a ' stand- thou-back' countenance, ' the Bishop is with the government, and against the parochial system.' What is that to any honest parson? If the Duke of Wellington had sold England to Napoleon, would that have excused Captain Gossip (a great Yorkshire New Poor-Lawyer) for not protesting against such perfidy ? Mr. Justice Gossip may answer ' Yes ;' but you, my 2,533 comrades, will agree No." — ^^ Justice and Centralization; or, the THE NEW POOR-LAW OPPOSITION. 381 Parson and the Constitution,'^ hy the Rev. Edward Dnncombe, 1840. " The next thing I have engaged in, and which I apprehend is one of the many causes of your bringing me before you to- day, is tlie part I have taken in every attempt to defeat that worst of all acts ever passed in England, the Poor-Law Amendment- Act. (Loud cheers.) When that Act was passing through the House, I gave my feeble opposition to it, with Mr. Cobbett and IMr. O'Connor, who was then in the House, and some others ; but it was lamentable to see in a House of 658 mem- bers, only twenty voting against the prin- ciple of the measure. (Cheers.) That was reform ! (Hear.) We have a Reform Bill, it is true, but we have not got what we want, nor what you want. Gentlemen. (Cheers.) I see a tyranny of the worst description at a distance. It has already set in ; the wedges are inserted ; and if the people do not rouse themselves, they will be placed under a stronger tyranny than the Poles or the Russians are. It has been announced by a Secretary of State, that the time has arrived when we may alter the laws and the institutions of England! Now, I am so far a Conserva- tive, that I do not wish to see our old English institutions destroyed ; I am so far a Conservative, that I will exert myself to the utmost of my power, and I will call upon the people to back me, and those who are opposed to the same thing, to prevent those institutions wliich the Radicals never asked to be destroyed, but which it is now proved that the Whigs wish to destroy. I will exert myself, I say, to prevent the loss of tliose valuable institutions whicli have made England what she is, the greatest nation that has ever been upon tlie face of the earth. (Cheers.) They first commenced with the destruction of the poor man's charter, and they passed a law more unjust in principle, than any that was ever passed since the Poor-Law was first enacted. (Cheers.) The old Poor-Law recognised the right of every man in times of dis- tress, and in circumstances of poverty over which he had no control, established the clear, indefeasible right of every such man, to a maintenance out of the property of the country. (Cheers.) But what does the New Poor-Law .'' It throws every man upon his own resources ! (Hear, hear.) It says to the working man, ' Let your wages be never so small — let your employment be never so laborious — you may work eighteen or twenty hours a-day, you may exhaust your strength in procur- ing food and clothing, but if you fail in doing that, though you have no command over wages, yet you shall have no relief in this country out of a prison.' — (Hear, hear.) That is the New Poor-Law, which is destroying one of the best institutions which has made England and Wales superior to any other country upon the face of the globe. I would ask any man to account to me for the difference between the people of Ireland and the people of England, if it is not to be found in the Poor-Law. I would ask any man to account to me for the difierence between England and Scotland, if that difierence is not to be found in the Poor-Law — (Hear, hear.) My late excellent colleague took great pains to ascertain the mode of living in Scotland, and he described it in a man- ner I have never forgotten. — ' The labour- ing people in Scotland' he said, ' live in hovels and feed upon broths !' — (Hear, hear.) In Ireland they live upon the worst sort of potatoes. In England the labouring people, who feel the taxes operat- ing so heavily upon them, did, even up to the time of the passing of the New Poor- Law Act, contrive to get a little meat and bread, they did continue to get a few pota- toes, and some of them a little beer, to feed them upon, and that is the difference between England and Ireland, that is the difference between England and Scotland, and it is the New Poor-Law, which was carried by the Whigs, and which they are determined to support, that will reduce the working people of Lancashire as low as they are now in Ireland. Besides, is it not most unjust to the working man to say, that he shall have no relief when he has done all that nature has given him the means of doing to maintain himself? (Hear.) The land was not given to the lords, and the baronets, and the 'squires, unconditionally. (Hear.) The land was given to the whole of God's creatures, and they have all a right to the produce of it in some way or other. (Hear.) Their right cannot be disputed ; and it is a wise pi-ovision which requires, in case of failure of work, of wages, and of the means of obtaining a sufficiency of food, a sufficiency of clothing, and a comfortable shelter; for the land was only to be given up on condition that these things should be supplied. (Hear.) And on that, Gentlemen, we must insist." — Mr. Fieldens Speech, at the Manchester Fielden Dinner, June 4, 1838. 382 THE BOOK OF THK BASTILES. Poor Rates. Government Taxes. Reign of James II.— £160,000 £1,300,000 1776— £1,490,000 £8,000,000 1789— £2,250,000 £16,000,000 1833— £6,700,000 £52,000,000 " Ought not the insolent calumniators of the industrious classes of England to blush at the sight of this } Ought not these impudent and unfeeUng men to think a little of the consequences of their thus wantonly calumniating this laborious people, and calling them idle, sturdy- vagabonds? Must it not be evident to every one, that the increase of poor-rates has arisen from the increase of rents and the increase of taxes, and not at all from any defect in the poor-laws, nor from any defect in their administration by overseers and magistrates ? How comes it that they never produced all this mass of evil attributed to them in the course of 200 years ?" — CobbeWs " Legacy to La- bourers.''^ " Mr. Oastler then came forward, and was received with immense applause. He said, he rejoiced once more to have the honour of appearing in the metropolis of his native land. Five years ago he had been privileged to raise his voice in favour of the poor oppressed factory chil- dren of the north, at a meeting in the city of London, at which the then Lord Mayor presided. (Hear, hear.) But circum- stances were very different with him now. On that occasion he had come to inter- cede on behalf of the weak, the oppressed, and the defenceless, but now he appeared before them as the advocate of the rich and the great, advocating their cause, even against themselves, and endeavouring to make them see, if that were possible, that the pit they had dug for the poor was one into which they themselves would fall. (Loud cheers.) He had ceased to talk about the New Poor-Law as a ques- tion with the poor ; that question was now settled; the poor neither would nor could submit to it. He, therefore, wished to raise his voice this day on behalf of the rights of property, being fully convinced, that if the New Poor-Law continued to be the law of the land, the title to property would and must be extinguished, and the order of society would be entirely de- stroyed. (Cheers.) The first occasion on which his attention had been drawn to the Poor-Law Amendment-Act was during its progress through the House of Lords, when a copy of the original Bill was sent to him by his respected friend, the Hon. William Duncorabe, number for the North Riding of Yorkshire. Then he consulted nobody — he asked no ques- tion of any man of any party, but he in- stantly sat down to examine the Bill, and he saw at that moment, what subsequent proofs had only served to establish in his mind, that were the Bill to be passed into law, the institutions of the country must inevitably be subverted, and anarchy, con- fusion, bloodshed, and destruction, must be the consequence of the measure. (Hear, hear.) What did he do? He did not know what his friends here might be, but being himself a retired country worker — for he was not a country gentle- man, he was a very hard worker — and having very settled habits, and being be- sides a very strong Tory, in fact most amazingly so, he did not think of agitat- ing the country about it at first. He had agitated the country some years on behalf of the poor factory children, and he did not at first look at the Poor-Law as a question that concerned the poor. What then did he do ? He started directly for London at his own expense, and without any bid- ding (hear, hear) ; he did not call on the working people here to support him, though he saw a good many of them too ; his object was to see the nobility ; and the first person he called upon was the Duke of Wellington. He had an interview with his Grace, and with several other noble lords ; he apprised them of their danger, and he told them, distinctly and unequivo- cally, that if the Bill became law their parchments and coronets were not worth one year's purchase, and he said so still. It was because he loved the institutions of the country, that he felt imperatively bound to be instant, both in season and out of season ; and that he would consent to join with men of all parties, in politics and religion, in doing what appeared to him right; he would go all lengths with them in such a cause, and when they could go no further, they could shake hands and be friends. Now, finding that the ears of the aristocracy of England were stopped, that their eyes were blind to the danger into which they were bring- ing their order, their titles, dignities, and properties — finding it impossible to arouse the higher classes to a sense of their situa- tion, and that they might save themselves from the ruin which yawned for them, he went back to the people, and he had been trying for some years to rally the people of England under the old con- stitutional principle of fair play for every man and for every party. (Hear, THE NEW POOR-LAW OPPOSITION. 383 hear.)" — Freemasons' Tavern, Feb. 19, 1838. " If I could engage to work out this New Poor-Law, or take any part in its administration, either direct or indirect, I would go the whole length in obeying the Commissioners, because the sooner this is done, the sooner will the effects of the law become manifest to the people ; and as soon as those effects do become mani- fest to the people, the sooner we ^shall have the law repealed or a revolution. (Hear.) Of that I have no doubt ; and therefore I say, that all who wish to pre- vent revolution, all who wish to prevent anarchy and confusion, all who wish to preserve property and life, ought by all means to exei't themselves to upset this New Poor-Law — (loud cheers) — if it be deserv- ing of the name of law, but I am not much disposed to recognize it as law. (Hear, hear.) I am inclined to think that if we are to take the authorities of former days (and that is quite as good as any we have at present), they would tell us it is no law at all ; and that it is not the law of the land I am quite certain. (Hear, hear.) For if anything were wanting to tell me it was not the law of the land, I would ask what was said by Sir James Scarlett when opposing it ? He said, ' It is a tyranny which the people will not submit to.' (Cheers.) What said Judge Best, Lord Wynford ? He said, ' This law is con- trary to the maxims and to every principle of the laws of this country.' (Continued cheers.) And what said Lord Lyndhurst, in the debate upon the Poor-Law Bill for Ireland ? He said, ' The Poor-Law Amendment-Act is only an experiment,' an experiment observe, ' which you dare not carry into execution in some parts of the country.' (Renewed cheers.) Why this cannot be law if it be an experiment ; and upon whom is the experiment made ? That is a question which you would do well to consider. The experiment is made upon the poor — upon those who are ready to perish — (hear, hear) — and upon this account I would recommend and suggest, that all men who wish well either to life or property, to the security of the cottage, the mansion, and the palace, to unite, and by every means in their power, endeavour to obtain the re- peal of this abominable law." — 3fr. Fieldens Speech at the Manchester Fielden Dinner, June 4, 1838. " I do not approve of the principal part of the measure proposed by the Poor-Law Commissioners in the first instance, and adopted and subsequently brought forward by Ministers ; viz., an extension of work- houses for the reception of the poor, where employment is to be provided for them ; and rigorously prohibiting relief ' out of the house.' Modifications of the report have certainly been proposed ; but the grand principle remains, and is brought into ex- clusive operation, of public instead of parochial workhouses being established all over the kingdom — of centre Boards, consisting of strangers, for their govern- ment — of local and central Commissioners — and, at last, of the Secretary of State for the Home Department (perhaps some new secretaryship, with some neAV Home- office) for the direction and government of the whole. A new power is to be created in the country. This is the general outline of the plan, respecting which I must remark, that it is an inver- sion of what has been esteemed the natu- ral and regular order of all good govern- ment, which rises from the management of families, parishes, towns, coimties, to the general administration of the State. Here the State starts first, in the character of a Central Board, and diffuses its regulations below. This is what the French call centralization. Everything springs from Government in France ; the people do nothing for themselves; roads, bridges, canals, are all the work of the State. I do not know that this is a happy example to copy Mr. Pitt has said, that ' the law which prohibits giving relief where any visible property remains, should be abolished — that degrading condition should be withdrawn — no temporary oc- currence should force a British subject to part with the last shilling of his little capital, and compel him to descend to a state of wretchedness, from which he could never recover, merely that he might be entitled to a casual supply.' I do not think your present condition will be improved by a totally new system, engen- dered in despair, and which we are called upon to adopt in the heat of the moment. I should desire that we might cast our eyes on ancient usages, and endeavour to return to them, rather than introduce a plan which might draw the country yet further from its ancient habits, and ulti- mately tend to change the very nature of EngUshmen, who have been accustomed to look to each other for support, and not to call for the cold and hard hand of Government in all occurrences of life, and change of fortune If no other indi- vidual, either in or out of the House, shall 384 THE BOOK OF THE BA8TILES, oppose this measure, I shall at least have done what my conscience tells me to be right, in thus holding up my hand, and exerting my feeble voice against it Here is a scheme theoretic merely, the invention and discovery of theorists, of speculators knowing Ijut little of the habits and usages of Englishmen ; and those of whom they do know the usage, living chiefly in London and other great towns. The principle of the English con- stitution was also heretofore self-govern- ment; every one had a certain understand- ing of the law, because every one partici- pated, in a greater or less degree, in its administration in their several districts, as overseers, magistrates, jurymen. This wholesome principle is set aside ; and the most important body of laws in the king- dom — those on which the comfort of the lower orders, and of course the tranquil- lity and stability of all orders, depend — are to be administered by Government officers, by strangers among those who are to be the subjects, or rather the vic- tims of them. The very appearance of parishes would thus be changed, and the respectable inhabitants have little to do with their own concerns. Such a change, I will venture to say, never took place in this country since the time of the con- quest You, Gentlemen, honoured me by your choice, and sent me into Par- liament as your representative, in order to support the principles of Reform, and to that extent the Ministry by which the great measure of Parliamentary Reform has been effected. You may naturally suppose that I could continue to give them my support. They have now intro- duced a measure of vast importance — I should think of even greater importance than Parliamentary Reform itself, affect- ing every parish, hamlet, I may say, cot- tage, in the kingdom. I think portions of the measure pregnant with evil ; I think it a change of the British constitution it- self; I think it calculated to pi'oduce a revolution in the manners and habits of the British people; providing inade- quately for its ostensible objects, and pro- ductive of consequences which cannot be looked at without dismay." — Mr. Wal- ter's Retiring Address to his Berkshire Constituents, April 26, 1834. " As it is an implied condition in the delegation of the powers of Government and legislation, that they shall be exercised for the good of the community, it follows as an undeniable consequence, that when- ever they are exercised to the prejudice of natural justice, there cannot be any obli- gation, either moral or religious, to obey them ; and, therefore, they are invalid." — Williams's Commentary on Blackstone. " Natural unalienable rights cannot be surrendered, since man is an accountable being. Nor is it possible to annul the obligations of the law of nature. It must, therefore, be conceded, that the great law of nature, self-preservation, authorizes the people of every state to recall that power which is employed for counteracting the ends for which it was conferred, and jus- tifies their attempts to wrest their dele- gated power from hands which employ it for purposes different from those for which they were invested with it." — Williams's Commentary on Blackstone, " Treason is a betraying of the State, and the first and highest treason is that which is committed against the Constitu- tion." — Lord Chancellor Somers. " When Colonel Axtell was tried in the reign of Charles II. for having mounted guard in the High Commission Court, which condemned Charles I., he pleaded, that he only acted as a military man, un- der the Parliament, which was then obeyed by the three Kingdoms ; and said, ' I am to serve and obey all my superior officers — that is my commission — if I do not, I die by the law of war.' He was answered by the Court, ' You have to obey them in \h.Qix just commands; all unjust com- mands are invalid.' And he suffered death." — Cartivright. " Statutes cannot exist against reason or the law Divine, for these two laws can- not abate or turn aside." — Doctor and Student. Ed. 1688. " To say that if Parliament will posi- tively enact a thing to be done which is unreasonable, there is no authority to control it, for that which has been done by Parliament can only be undone by Par- liament, is really childish, and implies an absolute ignorance of the natural rights of mankind. For surely the staunchest ad- vocate for arbitrary power will not deny, that since Government is constituted for the good of the community, should either the legislature or executive branches vio- late the powers, either expi'essed or im- plied, with which they have been entrusted for the management and direction of pub- lic affairs, such violation amounts to a for- feiture of the terms of the compact be- tween the governors and governed, and consequently authorizes a resumption by the latter of the delegated authority." — - Williams's Commentary on Blackstone. THE NEW POOR-LAW- OPrOSITION. 385 " Soul-animating strains- -alas, too few ! "—Wordsworth's Sonnets. -But what can Cato do Against a world, a base, degenerate world ?" — Cato. The other day, in the village of M- which is situated somewhere between Hereford (the citij of the snobs J and the island of St. Helena, the parishioners thereof, and their rector had a little friendly " rixa " on the score of his (the rector's) dismissing from his service a curate, whose clergy sayings, they (the parishion- ers of M ), delighted to hear and honour. The war of words and the strife of thoughts raged high and ran low. The teterrima causa helli, the curate, however, was forced to resign by his superior prac- titioner, and all the little children in the village of IVI , on the day of his de- parture, presented him, as a testimonial of the esteem they held him in, lapsful'of pieces of plate, bits of china, ware, delf, &c. This was as it should be, and exceedingly proper and appropriate on the part of the juveniles. But their fathers and mothers were of a higher mood — mucli more de- votional, and pre-eminently Christian in their display of feeling on the occasion. They, on the day of their fancy man's leaving them, hoisted a black flag on the church tower, making the same looking as if it were the Flying Dutchman's pri- vateering schooner. They likewise in- scribed on the door of the sacred edifice, *' This church is to be let, and the clerk of the parish to be railed for .' " But what has this to do with the New Poor-Law ? Something. Let the New Poor-Law — that enactment of cattle-breeder Spencer, and Baron Brougham of the brandy- flask, of the little " Finality " creature, whose blood runs cold and white, and of Mag- dalene Melbourne, whose delight it is to be with married ladies with the blinds down — let this enactment, in spite of the myriad murders, seductions, suicides, which its operation has occasioned — in spite of the innumerable hands and voices which have been lifted up against its horrid working— let it continue a little longer to be the law of the land, and every church steeple and minster tower in the kingdom will be decorated with a dark flag, and every house of prayer will be advertised to be let, and its clerk, a>j, and its clergy too, to be raffled for ! The Malthusian malice — its decree of deadlv 2 c hatred to God, and illwill to man— has already stabbed Religion with daggers steeped in poison, and if the fell thing should be allowed to fester in the land much longer, and aim its lethiferous blows at benevolence and virtue, all the churches will topple down, deserted, and Religion, desperately wounded, will flee from Britain, and seek refuge in some other clime ! These are no words of idleness. Re- ligion, or the New Poor-Law, must leave England — one or the other, and that ere long. Somerset-house and the cathedrals cannot exist for any length of time con- temporary. The Commissioners or the Clergy must be abolished — but which ? that is the question, and events will show. This is the true state of the case — this is the crisis — this is the most important con- sideration, at present, and all else is but mere unnatural noise — but faction's farce — much cry and little wool, which no true patriot ought to regard. Of what account are, or ought to be, discussions of Corn- Law, Slave-Sugar, Church-Rates, Hill- Coolies, and suchlike, when Benevolence lies bleeding, Charity cursed. Religion routed, and God's own poor massacred by this barbarous Act } What ! but impi- ous trifling, and miserable, merciless mockery. When such dreadful results are taking place. Who's for the rescue ? should be the cry. Those who say, down with the New Poor-Law, are my friends — friends to their country and their Maker. Those, the expediency-mongers, who whine, do let it be a little longer, ought never to be permitted to shake the hand, or taste the cup, of an honest man — they never shall have shake or taste of mine. As for the barefiiced favourers of the brutal decree, I denounce them as ene- mies to God, their country, and their kind ; and I hope to see the time Avhen it shall be decided between them and the people, whether poverty is to be punished more painfully than crime, and their children's bread to be thrown to dogs — dogs of Commissioners. Oh ! but for one xvord — one unanimous ivord of encouragement, from the people of England, and I am up — up for God's 386 THE BOOK OF TflE BASTILES poor and helpless, and ready, like Peter the hermit of old, but in a much nobler cause, to traverse the length and breadth of the land, to cheer to the onslaught, and preach a crusado against our island's curse and shame, the New Poor-Law Amendment-Act. — G. R. Wythen Baxter, May 14, 1841. "What, we ask, is Chartism, — what but an armed poverty ! " — Morning Herald, Y eh., 1841. *' It was promised, that the New Poor- Law M^ould increase the wages of the labourers, whereas, even with the God- send of the raikoads, it is notorious, that wages have fallen. The New Poor-Law was to have elevated the moral character of the labourers ; — the calendars of crime testify the reverse. Property was to have been secured by the enforcement of the New Poor-Law ; but the establishment of a rural police, ' to sweep the country'— ' to clear the county more rapidly' — ' to visit those parts of the comity that are most infested, for the purpose of breaking up the dens of thieves which infest certain parts of the count}',' demonstrates, that property is much less secure now, than it was before the introduction of the New Poor-Law. I beg, Sir, that you will bear in mind, that the expressions inserted above (in inverted commas) are not in- ventions of my own — they were publicly used by a clerical magistrate of your own county (Norfolk) when he was giving his reasons for the augmentation of the Nor- folk Rural Police. You are aware, that about a year ago, i. e. as soon as you had fairly established the New Poor-Law in Norfolk, the result was just what I told you it would be. The labourers could not, because they are EngUshmen, submit to its cruelties and tyranny. They grum- bled — became surly and revengeful. Find- ing that their rights were stolen from them, (for it is tlieft to deprive them of their relief, and they know it,) they began to imagine that there could be no harm in their invading the rights of others. This state of things caused the owners of pro- perty to be very uneasy ; they had to * watch and ward' for a while ; at length they tired of guarding themselves, and resolved to hire a strong body of rural police, at many thousands of pounds ex- pense, to prowl about day and night, and catch thieves : but it now seems that they only hatched them — ' the more police, the more thieves,' — is now, as you know, a common saying in your county. Still, so blind is injustice, that you have agreed to tax yourselves more heavily, and have resolved to hire a larger body of police ! — Will you hear me. Sir ? — It will still be — ' the more police, the more thieves.' So that, you perceive, the more you enforce the New Poor-Law, and increase your police, just so much more insecure does your property become ! But, instead of restoring the labourers their rights, you madly hope for security in a stronger body of police. Thus are you whipping yourselves with your own cords. Again, domestic peace and loyalty were promised, as the sure consequences of the enforce- ment of the New Poor-Law. Now, Sir, what is the fact ? In the seventh year of trial, it is acknowledged, even by the organ of the Government, that ' the work- ing classes are now, in fact, at war with all the superior classes. They are alienated and hostile — heart and soul.' Still, I know that there are those in very high places, who have made up their minds to re-enact ' the execrable and atrocious New Poor-Law ;' and who still, in defiance of every fact, declare that ' the New Poor- Law has worked well.' I know all this, Sir, and that they expect their rank and office will screen them from the shame which most certainly awaits all liars ! But, Sir, knowing as I do, and having demonstrated, by undeniable facts, that the Neiv Poor-Law is a failure — if I wished those men harm — I should desire that they might succeed in thus deluding Par- liament. They know that facts are all against them ; but they stupidly cling to error, and resolve to build up injustice by fraud and force, rather than acknowledge, that they have made a mistake ! They seem resolved to jeopardize all, rather than bend to truth ! I know all this. Sir ; and if I were as rich as you are, I should be very, very uneasy !" — Oastlers " Fleet Papers, " {addressed to Mr. Thomas Thornhill,) No. 6. " In cases of unconstitutional oppres- sion on the part of the sovereign power, mankind will not be reasoned out of the feelings of humanity, nor will sacrifice their liberty by a scrupulous adherence to those political maxims, which were originally established to prevent it." — Blackstone. " Obedience is due to the laws when founded on the constitution, but when they are subversive of the constitution, then disobedience instead of obedience is due, and resistance becomes the law of the land." — Earl of Abingdon. THE NEW rOOR-LAW OPPOSITION. 387 "THB GILBERT UNIONS. " The following circular, savs the Times of March 1 8, 1841, has heen fonvarded to Members of the House of Conimous. In all the Gilbert Unions, we are informed, in which a difference of opinion originally existed as to the exjjechency of chssolving them, the strongest unanimity at present prevails in favour of their presen-a- tion, the Guardians ha\'ing now had six years' experience of the working of the new system in other parishes : — " We, the undersigned visitors and chairmen of Unions of parishes incorpo- rated under Gilbert's Act, having ob- served with the greatest regret the per- severing endeavours of Lord John Rus- sell to abolish by force the said Unions, a proceeding which we consider unjustifi- ably harsh, take the liberty of submitting to you the following observations on the subject. " The Gilbert Unions have been established generally nearly 50 years, under the express sanction of the Legis- lature, and having now had the benefit of six years' comparison with the neighbour- ing Unions under the new law, the rate- payers must certainly be qualified to judge as to whether the dissolution of their said Unions would be beneficial or otherwise, and after an uninterrupted ex- ercise of their privilege for so long a time (being longer than is now required by law as a possessionable title to freehold estates), we submit that they are entitled, in common justice, to exercise their own discretion in the matter. " From our individual experience of the working of the Gilbert Unions we consider them to combine, in a great de- gree, the two essential requisites of economy to the rate-payers and humanity to the poor ; and though, as regards the former, the Commissioners boast of their savings, such savings we believe, if cor- rectly stated, to be principally owing to the greater prosperity of the country during the last as compared with the previous five years, and to the immense increase of labour caused by the construc- tion of railroads. " Tlie total number of parishes in Eng- land and Wales, actually incoi-porated into Unions by tlie Poor-Law Commis- sioners, is 13,G70, the number not subject to their control 7.99, of whicli only 288 are under Gilbert's Act, and the remain- 2C der principally under local acts : the assertion of the Commissioners, therefore, that the existence of the Gilbert Unions has interfered with their general arrange- ments must be without foundation. " The late announcement by Lord John Russell of his intention to respect the intcgi-ity of the local Unions, while no relaxation is to be made in the treat- ment of the Gilbert Unions, would be difficult to account for, did we not reflect, that the former being principally in towns whose inhabitants are enabled to hold large meetings and use other means of popular intimidation, his lordship yields to the pressure ; but in the case of the Gilbert Unions, situate in agricultural dis- tricts, whose inhabitants are quiet and disj^ersed, and who are consequently un- able to make their voice heard in the Le- gislature, their interests and feelings are wholly disregarded by his Lordship, though the justice of their claims must be at least as evident as those of the local in- corporations. " If the Commissioners were willing for their system to have a fair trial (the dread of which we believe to be a princi- pal reason for their anxiety to get us un- der their control), no better test could be devised, than their allowing the present comparatively small number of parishes under Gilbert and local acts to remain in being with their new Unions, Both sys- tems would be equally affected by the geneial prosperity or reverses of the country, and if the new law have the efficacy its supporters contend for, the rate-payers under the old systems would not be slow to perceive its advantages, and the Commissioners might safely leave to their self-interest the enrolling them- selves under it ; but, on the contrary, we believe that in districts where the new law has been long in operation, crime has fearfully increased, and that by the consequent increased expenditure for police and county rates, the enormous establishment charges of the new Unions, and the additional highway rates (to which many expenses formerly included in the poor-rate are now generally added), no actual benefit to the rate-payers ac- crues, and the poor are infinitely worse off", thereby weaning the poor man from his respect to the institutions of his coun- try, which he considers give him no i)io- tection, and engendering a feeling which in times of future commercial or agricul- tural distress may have the most direful effects. 2 388 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. " We, therefore, on the part of the Guardians and rate-payers, and more em- phatically on the part of the poor of our several Unions, respectfully solicit the honour and benefit of your exertions in our behalf, when the Poor-Law Amend- ment-Bill goes into committee, to strike out that part of the 8th clause which em- powers such dissolution by the Poor-Law Commissioners of our Unions without our consent ; that the rate-payers may not be deprived of the right, which they trust they have exercised beneficially for half-a-century, of superintending the dis- 'bursement of their own funds, and of themselves administering to their poor neighbours the assistance which their local knowledge of the respective cases con- vinces them is imperatively required ; and that the poor may not be handed over to the mercies of men who violate every do- mestic tie, and who make no distinction between the visitations of Providence, and the results of improvidence and de- bauchery. " We have the honour to be, &c." ■*' NO OUT-DOOR KELIEF KESIGNATION OF THE CHAIKMAN OF THE BASFORD UNION. " Some time ago the Poor-Law Com- missioners issued an imperative mandate to the Unions in country districts, pro- hibiting the Guardians from granting any out-door relief to any persons, however aged, or under whatever circumstances. This cruel order is now in force in the Basford, Bingham, Mansfield, Southwell, Worksop, Newark, and Retford Unions, but has not yet been issued to the Unions in large towns, such as Nottingham, &c. The following letter from Henry Smith, Esq., High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire, and Chairman of the Basford Union since its formation, speaks volumes against the Bill now before Praliament for extending and continuing the power of the Commis- sioners for ten years : — " 'Wilford, near Nottingham, '"February 11, 1841. " ' SiR.^On Tuesday last, a printed docu- ment of some length was read to the Board from the Commissioners, explaining their views as to the inexpediency of giving out relief to non- resident paupers through the medium, and under the supervision, of local Boards of Guardians. " ' You are aware that the decision the Com- missioners have formed upon this subject is directly at variance with the view I have been led to entertain, after nearly five years' ex- perience as a Guardian. And you are sensible, too, of the .pain, as well as dismay it has given me, to find that surrounding Unions are carry- ing out this regulation. " 'It is not fit or becoming in mc to maintain my own view in the face of such high authority as the document referred to ; and feeling, as I do, that I cannot, under the existing law of settlement, conscientiously act upon a prohibi- tion which, I conceive, will inflict so much needless suffering upon a large class of poor persons in circumstances of old age, widowhood, and temporary sickness, especially in an ex- tensive Union hke Basford, I have no alterna- tive but to retire at once from the administra- tion of the Poor-Law. " ' In resigning, therefore, the office of Chair- man, I beg you will convey to the Guardians my sense of their uniform kindness, and of the able assistance they have afforded me in the discharge of the arduous duties which have de- volved upon me: and I wish also to express to yourself, and to the several officers of the Union, my best thanks for your obliging attention to me on all occasions. " ' I am, Sir, your obedient servant, " ' HENRY SMITH. " 'Mr. William Ashton. " ' Clerk to the Basford Board of Guardians.' " We need not make one word of com- ment. Mr. Smith characterizes the order as inflicting ' needless suflering upon a large class of poor persons, in circum- stances of old age, widowhood, and tem- porary sickness.' He very properly re- fuses to be made the instrument of so much torture to the aged and deserving poor ; and he flings the thankless office in the faces of the Commissioners, that they may find some more iron-hearted Guar- dian, some more pliant tool, to carry into efiect their cruel mandates. Such will be the consequence in many Unions, if such regulations as these are enforced ; the humane, the benevolent, the Christian man, will revolt from being made the in- strument of such tyranny, and the poor will be left to the tender mercies of paid officers, and Guardians who are not very scrupulous what means they employ, however oppressive to the poor, so that they may but lower the rate. Now, how- ever, is the time for every feeling. Chris- tian man, every one who has pity upon the poor, to exert himself to the utmost, to get up petitions against the Poor-Law Extension-Bill noAV before Parliament, and thus, as far as in him lies, to prevent the present Poor-Law Commissioners from being again entrusted with a power which they have so cruelly abused. " From personal knowledge, we can give a most cordial testimony to the high moral dignity and genuine philanthropy of Mr. Smith's character ; we know that party bias or private interest could not possibly influence him in the noble deci- sion to which he has come ; he is dis- tuiguished in his own neighbourhood as a THE NEW POOR-LAW OPrOSITION. 38a liberal and pious Dissenter ; and we, tlierefore, feel confident that his example will have great weis^ht with every man whose heart quails not in the advocacy of justice and the rights of humanity.'' — Sheffield Iris, Feb. 23, 1841. " lu u report of the trial of Mr. Stephens, which appears to be the fullest that we have seen, Mr. Justice Patteson is represented as having used the following language : — " I am very sorry to have to pass sen- tence upon any person of your talent and ability, and of your education, for an offence of this sort ; and if it be indeed true that you have hitherto advocated peaceable doctrines, and have endeavoured to inculcate upon the persons whom you have attended in your ministerial capacity the notion of submitting to the constituted authorities of the country, and have only upon other occasions advocated a resist- ance to the Poor-Law Amendment-Act and nothing else, then indeed, although you would have been committed, by ad- vocating such resistance, to a very great extent, yet their might be some sort of reason for saying that you had made a mistaken notion, — that you had fallen into error in supporting that, because that law, in your judgment, was contrary to what you think you are bound to obey in the law of God, therefore you were not bound to obey that law. But, on the present occasion, I can see no reason whatever for supposing for a moment that that meeting had anything whatever to do with the Poor-Law Amendment-Act. " If this language has been used by any judge, it is a ' heavy blow and great cUscouragement ' of the New Poor-Law, and another indication of the fate that awaits it." — Chaminon, Sept. 8, 1839. " The base of society, the working cliisses, is in ruin, and distress has now entered the middle rank — how the super- structure will fare, time will show. ' With the same measure ye mete withal, it shall be measured to you,' seems to be in tlie course of fulfilment. The word of God is true, and therefore the New Poor- Law must be wrong. The poisoned chalice which has been given to the poor to drink, must be brought to the lips of the rich, unless they ' repent, and do works meet for repentance.' " — Extract of a Letter to the Author from Mr. Thomas Lhulop, Ilanley, Staffordahire, March 30, 1841. " It is probable, that a more determined and inflexible enemy of the Poor-Law Amendment-Act does not exist than my- self. Detestable alike in theory and practice, it is a most mischievous error iu legislation of which the ultimate conse- quences cannot fad to be disastrous in the extreme to this misgoverned country." — Extract of a Letter to the Author from W. J. Uttcn Brottme,Esq., theLodfje, Bramerto7i, near Norwich, December 14, 1840. " Well, well ; God's curse will, sooner or later, fall upon the designers and the carriers into effect of so hellish a statute. Let us hope the lime is drawing nigh when the power of these wicked ones shall draw to a close. Much has been done in this neighbourhood ; but, I am sorry to have to say, seemingly so far to little purpose, in trying to stem that accursed torrent of Iteform which has given us New Police, New Poor-Law and put into power a Manmion-worship- ping body, and soul-selling band of Cotton Lords. That their end may be speedy, and that the evils they assisted to create may cease with them, is the fervent prayer of your well-wisher." — Extract of a Let- ter to the Author from Mr. W. Willis (of Manchester J, Sept. 14, 1840. " Though in a constituted common- wealth, standing upon its own basis, and acting according to its own nature, that is, acting for the preservation of the com- munity, there can be but one supreme power, to which all the rest are, and must be, subordinate; yet the Legislative, being only a fiduciary power to act for certain ends, there remains still in the people a supreme power to remove or alter the Legislature, when they find the Legislature act contrary to the trust re- posed in them. For all power given with trust for attaining an end, being limited by that end, whenever the end is mani- festly neglected or opposed, the trust must necessarily be forfeited, and the power devolve into the hands of those who gave it, who may place it anew, where they may think best for their safety and security. And thus the community per- petually retains a supreme power of saving themselves from the attempts and designs of any body, even of their legisla- tors, whenever they shall be so foolish or so wicked as to lay and carry on designs against the liberties and properties of the subjects.'' — Locke. 393 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. " "Was anything more severe ever con- templated by a set of legislators in this or any other country ? Look at its ten- dency ; it tends first of all directly to destroy that great and salutary principle of Englishmen, the very foundation of our boasted liberty and freedom — self- government. We have been wont our- selves to manage the affairs of our own localities, and this habit is congenial to our disposition and our interest ; but now, instead of local management, all the power is to be thrown immediately into the hands of three Commissioners, who know nothing of us or of our affairs ; and by this means self-government will be surrendered and abolished. (Cries of 'Turn them out.') What can be more cruel than to tear away from their families merely because they are poor, the disabled, and the infirm, and the helpless ? How many instances do I know of a poor widowed mother, half maintained by the industrious exertions of her daughter ; of an aged father, whose son or grandson is w'illing and anxious to assist in his support out of his slender earnings ! all his feelings are planted where they ought to be, among his own family, and for a paltry shilling or sixpence a week he might remain and end his days amidst the affectionate attention of his friends ; but, no ; the Commissioners decide that he shall go to the central workhouse ; every bond of affection is ruthlessly rent asunder, and he it sent off and immured in this gloomy abode until the friendly hand of death relieves him. I can con- ceive nothing more cruel — nothing more affecting than this. And then the children of the poor are to be subjected to similar inhumanity ; they are all to be dispatched to the central house for education, as it is alleged. But it will be asked, ' How can there be anything inhuman in taking the children from parents who cannot provide for them, and sending them to suitable buildings, where they will be ■well fed and educated ?' Gentlemen, I wUl tell j'ou wherein the humanity con- sists ; I well understand the meaning of the word, and I employ it in its proper sense ; I call that inhuman which is con- trary to those feelings and dictates of humanity which God Almighty has im- planted in the bosoms of us all. Perhaps I shall better explain myself by quoting an instance in illustration of my meaning. I recollect, Pome time ago, a poor man of this town, whose name Avas Chappie, died, and left behind him a numerous family of little children ; his widow did not long survive him, and at her death the children were left in a state of pitiable distress ; of course nothing remained to them but to go into the Union-house ; they had an aunt who was particularly attached to the youngest child, a little girl, three years old, and she came to me and ex- pressed her very great anxiety to keep the child with her ; she would do any- thing she could to retain her out of the house, and besought my interference to procure for her from the Board a trifling allowance towards her maintenance, that she might take charge of her altogether. The child went into the house with the rest of the family until the Board met, but she did nothing but cry the day or two she remained. On the Friday the aunt attended, and I introduced the ques- tion to the Board, and proposed a small pittance to the woman for the child's sup- port out of the house. I was met with the question, ' But why would you keep her out of the house ? W^ill she not be better clothed, better fed, and better taught here than she can be by her aunt, who is too poor to take charge of her without parochial help ?' But I was not to be imposed upon by a species of plau- sible reasoning which I had been too much accustomed to ; I pressed the subject, and, by strange good fortune, I carried my point, but it depended upon a single vote whether the child should be kept in the house or not. It so happened that on leaving the Board I followed this poor woman, but without her knowledge : she was on her way home with the child, whom she pressed closely to her bosom with the warmest affection and tender- ness. I was interested by the appear- ance of mutual joy which their counte- nances and gestures indicated, and I kept close to them, and heard the aunt saying, ' O ! my dear child, now I have got you again ; I shall never, never part with you more — no, not if I starve myself for it !' And with expressions like these she gave utterance to her pleasure, while the child's eyes sparkled with delight at her resto- ration to her aunt's embraces. Gentle- men, that is what I call education ; this woman was at that moment implanting in the child's bosom feelings and affections which could never have found entrance there by other means ; that is the sort of education which God, in his infinite wis- dom and mercy, has provided for us in our childliood ; feelings were then planted and fostered in the child's mind which THE NEW POOR-LAW OPPOSITION. 391 will grow into maturity, and constitute one of the greatest cliarms and felicities of life. And will you place in competi- tion with this the simple teaching of A, B, C, in the cold system of a Union work- house ? (Cheers.) Gentlemen, I am very sorry so long to trespass upon you. (Cries of * Go on.') When I saw that bill I was astonished at its contents ; but my eyes were opened by the perusal of the speech of Lord John Russell upon it. Of his lordship personally, I say that I believe him to be a kind-hearted and humane man, but he is misled by the crude theories which inexperienced per- sons have put forth. He says that the great curse which has always accom- panied the management of the poor in this country is, that three things which have no natural relation to each other have been strangely combined, viz., the pecuniary relief of the poor, private cha- rity, and the provision of labour for the unemployed ; the system of poor-laws had joined these three things, which were in fact, distinct and separate. With re- gard to the first, his lordship said, that the poor had no claim to anything more than bare relief; that the Board of Guar- dians had no right whatever to inquire whether the applicant was deserving or undeserving, whether he was good or bad ; all the Board had to inquire was, whether he was starving or not , every- thing beyond the point of the prevention of starvation must be left to be supplied by private charity, I think highly of private charity ; and I wish to God that Christian charit}'^ was so well known amongst us as to lead to the result which his lordship contemplates. But upon what principle he can ground his expect- ation of the sufficiency of the spontaneous charity of the people to meet the exigen- cies of our multiplied and multiplying poor, I am at a loss to imagine. Does the condition of the Irish poor warrant the hope that private bounty shall be so abundant ? What, then, are the reports of their perishing condition, which con- tinually reach us ? Or does the state of the poor of Scotland give greater coun- tenance to the expectation ? Look at the reports of the numbers starved and starv- ing ; and whence happens it that the pro- portion of deaths in Scotland is enor- mously greater than in this country? No; the principle of charity must be much more extensively fostered among us before it can be adequate to the tax which his lordship would impose upon it. I remember well, when the Assistant- Commissioner was here to introduce the new system at first ; he told us, again and again, that it was a principle of the law that the workhouse would afford a test. I confess that in ray simplicity I supposed that he meant it would test the character of the applicant, to prove whether he was willing to labour or not; but no, it is nothing of the kind ; the workhouse is intended to test whether the man is starv- ing or not ; that is the test, and the only test. I now begin to detect the point to which the system is leading. Let those additional houses be built, and then, de- pend upon it, an order will be issued by the Commissioners, that no relief of any kind shall be afforded, under any circum- stances, out of a workhouse : that is the point which they are driving at ; that is the principle which they wish to establish. But will the people of this country permit it? When the great question was agi- tated, with regard to slavery, do you not recollect, that the constant appeal of the holders of slaves was, ' Why should you interfere with our slaves ? they are better fed, better clothed, better provided for in their old age, by far, than your own I^ng- lish poor : why, then, should you interfere with us ?' You said, and truly said, in answer, ' Because your slaves are men ; because they have the feelings of hu- manity ; because the stamp of a rational being is upon them ; we look not at their bodies, but at their minds : don't tell us that they are better clothed and better fed ; as long as they are your slaves, they are degraded, and we insist on their emanci- pation.' But what does the legislature now propose to say to the English la- bourer, after he has spent a life of hard, but ill-requited toil ? Let him apply to the parish, and the language of the Bill is, — ' You must leave your home, your family, your friends, and here is a house for you ; and that is all you are entitled to: the house or nothing.' Sir, I say that that is slavery — that it is worse than slavery, for it desecrates a land and a people whose very birthright is freedom. My great quarrel with the Act is, that it takes no account whatever of the feelings of our nature — it respects not the ties of kindred — it assumes that so long as our poor have enough to cat and drink, and are clothed, and sheltered in a workhouse, that is all they want — all the country is required to give them. I discard the principle altogether ; and I say, if it be carried into effect, it must, and will, prove 392 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. the greatest curse that this country was ever visited with ; it will rob us of our greatest boast, and of our surest defence. Here the rich and the poor dwell together. We are placed, by the wisdom of an over- ruling Providence, in different stations and circumstances in life, but we feel that we have a common interest in our country, our father-land ; and that our country is alike dear to us all. What was it that animated your soldiers to fight their coun- try's battles, and to defend their country's rights ? Not the medals, not the honours, nor the rewards which awaited their vic- torious arms. No, the great Nelson caught the inspiring principle, when he made his memorable appeal to his forces, ' England expects every man to do his duty.' He knew that every man in his fleet would be aroused by the recollection of the claims which his country had upon him. And the hero of Waterloo, when he was encouraging his soldiers against the appalling front of the French bat- talions, touched the same string, when he cried out, ' What will they think of us at home ?' And it was when they heard of home, that the French troops, although clad in brass and iron, and apparently im- pregnable, fell under their arms by thou- sands, and as grass before the hands of the reaper. It was the ties and the claims of their country which inspired them amidst the carnage which surrounded and the perils which threatened them. Gentlemen, let us stick close to the constitution of our country. There is nothing which I dread so much as the degradation of the lower classes : they are the strength, the sinews of the country, and the source of its wealth. What is the value of the estates of all the landed aristocracy of the empire, without the in- dustry and skill of the laborious husband- man ? It is not the number of his acres, or the richness of his soil, which constitutes the value of the possessions of the lord, but the sweat, the toil of those who cultivate it. I am most anxious to maintain the attach- ment of the labouring poor to the soil of their fathers, and I deprecate every measure which tends to shake or diminish it ; for, — ' 111 tides the land, to hastening ills a prey, Whose wealth accumulates and men decay; Princes and lords may flourish or may fade, A breath can make them, as a breath has made : But a bold peasantry, their country's pride, When once destroy'd, can never be supplied.' " — The Rev. H. Licxmoore'' s Speech at the Barnstaple Anti - Poor - Law Meeting, " Times;' March 11, 1841. " When this Bill Avas in the House of Commons I supported the immortal Cob- bett, and raised my voice against the monopoly of wealth, to advocate the rights and inheritance of the poor and industri- ous. I voted against every clause of this measure, and therefore I cannot justly be considered as a trafRcing politician, or as having any selfish objects to promote. I cannot justly be charged with living upon the wants of others, and coming into the country for the purpose of agitation, having voted for the measure. No. I voted against it, and I am still determined to persevere at every risk and every sacri- fice in my opposition. (Cheers.) I opjiose this measure, not because I hate the law and the constitution of England, but be- cause I love them. It is because this is a complete pulling down of the constitution — a complete infraction of all our institu- tions — a complete unsettlement of the only, and the dearest, and the most con- soling inheritance of the poor man ; and I care not by whose machinations this law may be enforced, the moment it is enforced the constitution of England will not be worth the trifling value of one day's purchase. But, let me ask, had you any voice in the passing of this law ? Was it enacted at your instigation, and with your consent ? Did you send representa- tives to Parliament thus to betray you and rob you of your inheritance ? No : slave- like, you had not even a voice against it. I should not care whether your power was affirmative or negative, if you even had the power of opposing bad laws ; but, alas ! you have no power at all. The power which is your native and sacred right has been rudely filched from you ; and while you have been tamely confiding to others to do for you your work, like base and cowardly thieves, they have stabbed you in the dark, and robbed you of your all. (Hear, hear, hear.) What is there in you? Are you tainted with crime ? Are you half as bad as the aristocracy, to save whose purses this law has been enacted ? No : your morality and general demeanour are alto- gether untarnished, when contrasted with the very men who passed this law. But we are not yet so far sunk into slavery, that the people of this country should tamely submit thus to be led blindfolded, while ninety-nine out of every hundred find this burden so heavily pressing upon them. (Cheers.) We were told, indeed, that this measure would be perfectly satis- factory to all parties ! Did you ever know a barr/aiti to be good for both sides? THE NEW POOR-LAW OPPOSITION. 393 In Ireland we say that this is impossible. The aristocracy framed and passed this Bill to save their own purses, and there- fore you have no right to pay rates. (Cheers.) I am glad that the former speakers have entered into the real cause of all your sorrows. If you had had the nomination of these men who made this law, I have little fear in saying that it would never have existed. Those men who have written on the British Consti- tution say, that every unwilling idler in the land lias a right to be supported from the land. And whether shall we be governed by those men whose eminence has entitled them to Hve in the grateful respect of posterity to the most distant ages, or the three }}ctty Kings under Mr. Power, the tramping Poor-Law Commis- sioner? (Loud cheers.) Well had it been for the Whig Administration if they had confined all tlieir coercion to the land whei'e their scenes of tyranny have now become so familiar that they are little thought of. But we may thank the Whigs for passing this Bill, for had thej' not passed it we should never have been suf- ficiently upon our guard. It has done this good for you ; it has told you of their tender mercies, and shown you how much they respect your liberties and lives. But look to the position in which landlords and farmers, and shopkeepers and others, have placed themselves by lending their sanction to this unhallowed measure. They have said, in effect, we are unfit to be disposers of our own property — we know not how to administer our own funds, we know not how to provide for our own poor, or to soothe the misfortunes of our own friends, and we therefore place ourselves and our connexions under the care of three heartless Poor-Law Com- missioners, at whose dictation our property shall be lavished, and our liberties and domestic enjoyments encroached upon, just as they think proper. (Hear, hear.) You ask to return to the 43d of Elizabeth. I would not have it. While all other sciences are going on to perfection, surely the science of legislation should not for ever stand still (hear) ; and while luxury is going on apace, and depravity and dis- sipation are looking for means on which to support themselves, let us also have an extensive improvement in the condition of the working classes of the people. (Tre- mendous cheers.) I am not satisfied with the 43d of Elizabeth ; it perhaps is prefer- able to the beastly, brutish, and tyrannical law which is now in existence. If they gave me my choice I should certainly prefer it to the other ; but having tried the strength of the people, and seen that they are willing to present their naked breasts to an armed soldiery, rather than submit to the enactments of this law, shall we die for our country and our homes, and yet tamely submit not only to be robbed of every political privilege, but even of the last and unwelcome resource to which the poor man can look as a feeble security against starvation, and a cold shelter against the terrors of despair ? (Loud and continued cheering.)" — Feargiis (X Con- nor. Deivshury Meeting, Dec. 11,1 837. " Mr. Brooke then read his resolution — ' That this meeting views with feelings of serious alarm and indignation the apparent determination of the Poor-Law Commis- sioners to introduce (by force of arms if necessary) the Poor-Law Amendment- Act into this district, as it is generall}' repug- nant and inimical to the feelings of the people, and calculated to produce misery, crime, anarchy, and confusion.' Such, he said, was the result of the law, and he felt convinced that no other result would follow it. It was strange to him to see a large mass of the wealthy part of the community united together in doing away with the original law of Elizabeth, which gave to every man the right to live on the soil on which he was born ; and, what was still more strange, this was not coi. fined to one particular class of politicians, but Whigs, Tories, and Eadicals, all join in doing away with the original law. As it regarded the introduction of this law into Dewsbury, he should be sorry if any of the inhabitants resorted to violence as they did on a late occasion at Bradford ; by resorting to this plan they would not be able eflTectually to resist its introduction. The Whigs seemed re- solved to force this law upon them ; if they did, they would produce such an amount of misery as was unparalleled in the annals of I3ritish history. If this starvation measure be forced upon the country, it will produce a great deal of crime, our prisons will be filled with de- linquents, and much more serious expenses will be incurred by their prosecution, than the Poor-Law can save by preventing relief being given to the poor. The great argument for the passing of this law in the House of Commons, was, that if the old law was allowed to remain in force, it would ultimately take away the whole landed estates of the wealthy. The old law never took more than eight millions. 394 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. and out of that amount four millions were annually spent in litigation. This was, indeed, a strange argument. They be- grudged a little pittance which was to be paid to the poor, and determined to pre- vent them having any aid if they could. This showed them the necessity of being ready to meet this enactment. If the people of England had done their duty to themselves before this Bill was introduced into the House of Commons, there would have been no necessity for any such meetings as these." — Ibid. " I have this moment returned from beholding one of those awful scenes — so grand, so terrific — which force man to acknowledge the existence and the power of that Being whose ' is the sea,' because ' He made it ;' a scene which feeble man can never contemplate without reverence and awe. I have been standing on the beach, when a mighty storm was raging, and the sea was troubled ; roaring, as the waves, in majestic grandeur, rolled upon the agitated surface, ' and beat upon the dry land,' which the same God had ' pre- pared ' as a boundary for the safe residence of man. His voice, louder than the ocean's thunder, proclaimed — ' hitherto shalt thou come, but no farther — here shalt thy proud waves be stayed.' The tempest cracked and howled around me. The waves, in mountains of water, rolled in terrific masses, and, curling themselves together as they approached the shore, as if, in united force, to vent their rage at the interruption offered to their conquer- ing course, they dashed themselves in fury upon the beach ; thus, spending themselves in volumes of foam, covering the strand (which seemed to laugh at their menaces) with broad layers of quiver- i'lg froth. The sight was truly magnificent. Thank God ! no ships were nigh. No lives, as far as our eyes could reach, were endangered. As I stood listening to the howling of the wind, the roaring of the waves, and watching the raging of the ocean, I thought — just so furiously is man now raging against his fellow-man — just so is Infidehty now vainly daring to vent its rage and malice against Christianity — just now, embodied in the accursed New Poor-Law, is falsehood thus warring against truth — tyranny against justice — Satan agahist God ! But, as surely as these waves are stayed by this sandy beach, so surely shall it soon be said to that power infernal, which now seems to hold our destiny in his hands, ' Thus far slialt thou come, but no farther.' " — Oastlcrs Letter to the Editors of the " Norther7i Star" dated from Rhyl, near St. Asaph, Nov. 2, 1838. " That infamous, that vile, that atro- cious ordinance (for it is no law in fact, nor should be obeyed as such), tlie ac- cursed New Poor-Law Act — 'Sprung from that parent of ten thousand crimes The new philosophy of modern times,' a philosophy that reigns in all its hideous supremacy throughout our manufacturing and commercial systems, deforming and slaying labour's sons and daughters : seeking to seduce our young men and maidens from the land of their sires — that they may toil in the swamps of Canada, or perish in the wilds of Aus- tralia. A pretended philosophy that crushes, through the bitter privations it inriicts upon us, the energies of our man- hood, making our hearths desolate, our homes wretched, hiflictingupon our hearts' companions one eternal round of sorrow and sickening despair; nor is this all, when that we shall have arrived at a pre- mature old age, our only reward for all our cares and toils is to be a horrible Bas- tile ; where, separated from all that is near and dear to us, we may pine out the re- maining period of our existence, exposed to all the brutality which demons could conceive, or woi'se than demons execute ; and then the pauper's funeral — consigned to the earth like dogs, or delivered over to the dissecting knife of the surgeon for the benefit of the rich ! thus does this hypocritical, Malthusian philosophy, out- rage the decrees of Heaven, trample upon the best feelings of humanity, and violate all the principles of justice and morality — thus do our scoundrel tyrants pursue us from the cradle to the grave, inflicting upon us all the bitterness of poverty, and thus punish us for being poor!" — Ex- tract fro^n the London Democratic Asso- ciation's Address, Oct. 13, 1838. " Resolved, — That in the opinion of the electors of Southwark, now assem- bled, the Poor-Law Amendment- Act is bad and vicious in practice and in principle. " That its working during the five years' trial, now expiring, has fully proved it to be a measure fraught with injustice and oppression, which at once deprives the poor of England of their natural and lawful right to relief in dis- tress and destitution, and the rate-payers of the kingdom of all management and control over their own ftmds, subscribed by themselves for the relief of the poor. THE NEW POOR-LAW OPPOSITION. 895 That it is now proved to be an arbitrary, oppressive, and cruel enactment, repugnant to the feelings of every rightly constituted mind, and therefore a blot upon the sta- tute-book of a free and independent coun- try, and ought at once to be expunged. " That the mode of electing the Guar- dians is most unjust to the rate-payer, and destroys entirely the principle of re- presentation, by giving a plurality of votes, with the power of voting by proxy to owners of property who do not contri- bute a shilling to the rates. " That the authority given to the Poor- Law Commissioners to make rules and resolutions declared to be equal to dis- tinct Acts of Parliament, is opposed to the mixed formof government of this kingdom. " That the tyrannical abuse of the powers of the men filling the offices of Commissioners and Assistant-Commis- sioners, and the misrepresentations of facts and figures in their reports, has created disgust in the minds of all en- lightened and honest men who have con- sidered the subject. " That the proposed offer of the work- house to all, as a ' test of destitution,' without any distinction whatever as to age, character, or condition, is destructive to the principle of morality, and discou- rages all attempts on the part of the poor to endeavour to persevere in overcoming temporary difficulties, and has a tendency to pauperize them for life. " That the Bastardy clauses of the Poor-Law Act are a cowardly attack on the female sex, who are the least able to support their offspring, and give encou- ragement to seduction, whilst they have a tendency to increase the horrible crime of murder. " That as this obnoxious Act of Par- liament is now expiring, this meeting calls upon the members of this borough, Daniel W. Harvey, Esq., and John Humphery, Esq., to use their utmost ex- ertions in the House of Parliament to prevent the re-enactment of this Act in its present objectionable state ; and this meeting cannot but express their earnest hope, that every constituency thi'oughout the kingdom will call upon their repre- sentatives to assist in so just and holy a cause." — ResohUmis jxissed at the South- ivark Meeting, May 1, 1839. "It was asked why they proposed the repeal, and not the amendment, of the law ? It might as well have been asked why they should not attempt to wash a blackamoor white. (A laugh.) The evil of the law did not consist alone in the innumerable cases of grievous crueltj', of flagrant injustice, of unexampled op- pression, which had occurred under its operation ; although such were the natural and necessary consequences of the system it had introduced, and where a tree was found to produce such fruits, it should, according to the language of holy writ, ' be hewn down and cast into the fire.' (Cheers.) Yet he should most strongly oppose the New Poor-Law, and he would call on them to join with him in procuring its repeal, even though no acts of tyranny, oppression, and injustice, had already occurred under its operation. (Cheers.) What was the evil of slavery, of which they had heard so much from those associations which had been formed for the very laudable purpose of putting an end to slavery in the colonies ? Not that a slave in every case and of necessity must be miserable, and ill-treated ; the evil consisted in this — that his good or ill-treatment, his happiness or misery, depended entirely on the will and caprice of his master. (Cheers.)" — Ecn-l Stan- hope's Speech at the Freemasmis' Tavern, Feb. 19, 1838. " I have lately endeavoured to demon- strate, at some length, the imprincipled violation of right effected by the New Poor-Law, and I am now in the course of detailing a series of enormities perpetrated under its provisions, which enormities have occasioned the untimely death of a considerable number of her Majesty's subjects. This is not a time for going at length into either of these points, but ra- ther for briefly stating some of my reasons for believing that nothing short of an entire repeal of the law will meet the frightful exigencies of the case ; and I do so believe, for the following, among other reasons : — " Because the New Poor-Law, by sub- stituting the word ' may' order relief, for ' shall ' order relief, entirely abrogates the right of the poor to relief in their necessi- ties ; the power, said to be vested in magistrates, being merely permissive, and utterly nugatory in practice. " Because vesting the absolute power of granting or of refusing relief in a Board of Guardians, who are themselves the payers, is equally at variance with natural justice, and with the recognized practice of mankind, who have never before au- thorized debtors, in possession of funds, 39S THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. to lock themselves up in little squads, and there to determine whether they will or will not attend to the application of legal claimants. " Because the power vested in the three Commissioners to make regulations, having, for all practical purposes, the force of laws enacted by the three estates of this realm, is a gross outrage on the British constitution in general, and a cruel infliction on the helpless portion of her majesty's subjects in particular, who may, by dietary and other regulations, emanating from this irresponsible power, be thinned out to any assignable extent. In the Bridge water workhouse alone, a disease, occasioning the untimely deaths of about thirty persons, has been charged by the medical attendants on the dietary established by a regulation said to possess the force of law. " Because the appointment of a large body of men under the designation of Assistant-Commissioners, forming a con- necting and practically irresponsible agency between the Boards of Guardians and the Central Commission, is favour- able to the perpetration of injuries on the poor, and to the concealment of even fatal abuses, the parties committing such abuses being, perhaps, the bosom friends of the Assistant-Commissioner appointed to inquire into them, who may visit, feast, and sleep at the houses of the accused, even while an inquiry is in progress, and conspire with them to frustrate the ends of justice, by garbling evidence and fram- ing an exculpatory verdict, not supported by an atom of truth or probability. " Because the peculiarly helpless con- dition of the poor renders it a matter of vital importance to them that their wrongs and necessities should be impartially and summarily inquired into by some respon- sible authority, and not aggravated, as they now are, by a conspiracy between the persons of whom they have to com- plain, and the functionary who is most prodigally paid from the sweat of the poor man's brow, under the pretence of watching his interest. " Because transporting the decrepit and helpless poor from their villages into a workhouse, perhaps ten miles off, and thus tearing them from all familiar things, and consigning them to a dreary impri- sonment for life in that which may be a pest-house, is a more severe and terrific punishment, than the law has hitherto pro- vided for most of the enormous offences which ravage society. " Because obliging the necessitous claimant on funds so long set apart for his necessities, to go eight or ten miles for that relief to which he had a legal claim in his own parish, is a monstrous outrage on justice, indefensible on any principle which would not comprehend the right of insultingly referring the claimant to the Land's-end, or to John o'Groat's house. " And because the above, with other abominations, are so vitally interwoven with the New Poor-Law, that they can- not be extirpated without destroying the whole fabric, it is only to the repeal of the law that men can reasonably look for any relief from its iniquitous principles and provisions. " I have thus endeavoured to furnish you, briefly, with the general results of that patient and impartial consideration which I have bestowed on this subject, I could have wished to have done this more in detail, but I will not refuse to do anything, because at present unable to do that which may possibly be more fully effected on another occasion. You will, I trust, excuse me for thus occupying your time, and for expressing an earnest hope that no persons will be engaged in this great cause, who will make it a ve- hicle for inflammatory or seditious doc- trines, and that the class more imme- diately interested will remember, that up to the passing of this Act the British constitution had secured to them greater enjoyments, freedom, and privileges, than were ever secured to a corresponding class of society, in any age or country. That this plague-spot, which has for a time polluted our land, may be dissipated un- der the influence of a brighter order of things, is the most earnest wish of. Sir, " Your obedient humble servant, "JOHN BOWEN." — Mr. Bowetis Letter read at the Free- masons' Tavern Anti-Poor-Laiv fleeting, Feb. 19, 1838. " I want no books, I want no argu- ments, I want no laws, I want no consti- tutions, I want no charters, or anything to tell me, and you want nothing to tell you, that being men, you have a right to be what the Father of men, whose children ye are, made you and wanted you to be. (Cheers.) It is said in the oldest book in the world, and I think the best book in the world, that God made man in his own likeness (he did), and if God be what we have always been taught to understand that he is, wise and great, and happy, THE NEW POOR-LAW OPPOSITION. 897 then to be made like God is to be made great and wise, and good, and happy after our kind. (Hear, hear.) We are told, that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth ; the heaven was spread for us, the sun to shine by day, and the stars to glitter and twinkle and smile by night, and the round world for us to tread upon, and to walk abroad in. He has told us that this earth was made, not for ornament, not for amusement, not out of any intention to display a mere act of power, but that it was made as a house for man to live in — (hear, hear) — as a field for man to till, as a storehouse holding everything that is good and useful, to which man was to have free admission, free ingress and egress, and going in and coming out, and always getting from that storehouse everything which he needed, either for his body or his soul. (' Ay, ay,' hear, and cheers.) We are told that this earth, after it had been made, and after God had walked over it himself, as an architect would walk over the build- ing which he had erected, so we are told that God walked throughout the world, and looked at everything to examine whether it had been made according to the plan, and whether it answered the purpose, and, after he had looked at the whole of it, it is said that he made this declaration, — ' Behold, all things are very good ;' and having found that all things were very good, he made a deed of settlement, and took that deed and gave it into the hands of Adam and Eve, and said unto them — ' Here is the earth ; I give it unto you ; take it, and be masters of it ; till it, and it will bear enough for you and yom* off- spring ; and lest you should have any doubt at all, be fruitful — don't be afraid — be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it, for all things are yours.' (Loud cheers.) Now I go to that ; I stand by that ; and I know that if God be true — if he be according to his word — that will stand by me. (Cheers.) I have been lately told by the Whigs, in answer to this argument — I contend, you know, that the end of all law, whether of God or of man, is not ' the greatest hap- j)iness to the greatest number,' for that would be committing an act of injustice Tipon the few ; and we have no more right, being many, to commit an act of injustice upon the few than they, being few, have to commit an act of injustice upon the many, and therefore, I hold and I teach that the end of all government. Divine or human, is by teaching what is right and doing what is good to produce and promote the happiness of all. (Loud cheers.) W^ell, now how do the Whigs get over that ? They cannot say that it is a bad thing to make all happy ; and, there- fore, they say it is a very sweet idea, a very lovely thought, a very beautiful term ; and if Stephens could only awake from his dreams some morning, and find his paradise, it would be all very well. (Hear.) But they say, ' how stands the case ?' and they make it out that the case stands thus — that God never intended happiness to be the lot of man. (Shame, shame.) They say that revelation and reason and experience all go to prove that God Almighty never intended the human race to be happy. They cannot get over the argument from the creation, and, therefore, like the Devil, their father, and the father of lies — (bravo) — who was a liar and a murderer from the beginning, and who has spit out lies and murders through the tube of Whiggery ever since, hke their father the Devil, they go to blast the garden of Eden, and turn round upon us, and say, 'ay, but man has fallen and God cursed him :' Very well, I never flinch. (Cheers.) If they will come up to the rail I will come up to the rail too. Now then for the curse. God said unto man, ' in the sweat of thy brow, shalt thou eat bread all the days of thy life until thou return unto the dust, for dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return.' That is the curse ; will anybody object to it ? (No, no, and tremendous cheers.) Now what will the infidel Bishop of Norwich, — what will the practical Atheists of the Whig party say to that } God has declared that if a man trill work he shall eat bread, not only to-day or to-morrow, but all the days of his life, (Hear, hear, hear.) Don't be in a hurry. A man can only sweat so long as he has moisture ; he cannot sweat after his moisture and his gums are dried up. He can only sweat through manhood. Li old age he cannot sweat, and that shows that God intended and designed, that if man were willing to work so long as he has manly strength and power and vigour to do it, he should be able, during the time of his natural strength in manhood, to pro- vide enough not only while he was work- ing to supply the wear and tear of his body, but he should have it in his power to provide enough during manhood for his old age. (Hear and cheers.) God has thrown man upon his own resources : his resources are to work while he is young, and \s\)ih he has all the marrow of goodly 398 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. manhood within him. If he will do that, God says he shall have bread enough to eat until he return to the dust. (Hear.) Now I think that is settled : I think it is shown even from the Bible that God meant man to be middlinghke happy ; ay, to be infinitely happy as compared with man in his present condition in this atheistic country of yours. (Cheers.) Now then for woman. (Cheers.) God cursed woman as well as man. The first curse of woman was, that she was to be a help meet for man, or that she should be man's com- panion, and keep him company all the days of his life. Anybody any objection to that? (No, no, and cheers.) The next part of the curse that was put upon woman was, that she should be in subjection to her own husband, her desire should be unto her husband, and he should rule over her — (hear, hear) and not the mill- owners — (tremendous cheering) — not the coal-pit master — (continued cheering) — not the Poor-Law Commissioners, (Cheers.) I have seen, since I came into this town, women whose faces are as black as soot. Now I want to know whether these men are true, and God a liar, or God true and these men liars, for God says that woman is to be subject to her own husband and nobody else; and therefore I argue, from the word of God, that man is to be the bread provider, and woman the bread distributor, (Tremendous cheers.) That man is to be the bread maker, and woman the bread baker, and that she is to deal it out to all her little ones, and all that go to make up the household at home. (Cheers.) The woman's factory is on the hearth-stone and over the kitchen fire ; there is the woman's world. Her desire is to be at her husband's hearth and at her husband's bed. Her desire is to be with her children, those dear babes, sweet pledges of love, and tokens of God's benevolence, which he has been merci- fully pleased to bless them with. (Cheers.) That brings me to the 3rd part of the curse upon woman ; she is in sorrow to bring forth children. Now I will maintain, against all the interested, detestable, and damnable doctrines of the Whig political economists, that woman, dear, lovely, virtuous woman, was made by the God of heaven, his last wofls and his best work, to be at our side — to be our companion — to be our solace and our support — to be our crown of rejoicing — to be the mother of our children, the rearer of our babes — to go up the hill with us, and down the hill with us, until, at the hill's foot of life we lay us down and sleep in peace, and awake together reunited in yonder blissful paradise above. (Loud cheers.) When I say that God meant man to be happy, as the end of his work and the object of his administration here upon earth, do they think I am fool enough to mean that the bulk of mankind are never to have the tooth-ache or the head-ache — that their children are never to have the small- pox or the measles, and that their wives are never to die in child-bearing ! No ; we know full well that disease is ours ; we know full well that God's judgments are ours. Sometimes he takes the ewe lamb out of the fold ; sometimes he takes away the desire of our eyes as with a stroke, and the wife that shared our bed and slept upon our pillow — the Avife of our bosom, is sometimes taken away ; but God doeth it ; and I teach and strive to learn that lesson, ' the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away ; blessed be the name of the Lord.' If God should take away my babe, I should weep ; but I would not sorrow as one without hope, for I should know that the little budling, the flowerling of my love, was only trans- planted into yonder garden to flourish and never fade — to blossom and never decay, (Cheers.) If God should take away my wife, I should sorrow and mourn, but I should think of the time when, being in God's keeping yonder, and I being in God's keeping here, our hearts I know would be again united, never to be parted anj' more. (Hear, hear, hear.) But is there anything in the word of God of the Poor-Law Commissioners taking away my child or my wife ? Are you ever told in the word of God that you are to be resigned — that you are to be submissive — that you are to be obedient — that you are to be patient, while the Poor-Law Commissioners take away your children or your wives? ('No, no.') No, nowhere. Nature, reason, instinct, revelation, say — ' If you be men, rise up ; strike home ; fight for your wives, your children, and your homes. (Tremendous and deafening cheers.) I know full well that our frail flesh is heir to many ills ; all I ask for is, that the poor should have it in their power, when God visits them with affliction, to enjoy those consolations which he has oft'ered them. That is all. Your children will have the measles, the small-pox, the typhus fever, I cannot hinder it when it comes ; but a great deal of it might be prevented. (Hear, hear.) For when does it come? hardly ever but when starva- THE NEW rOOR-LAW OPPOSITIOX. 399 tion comes before it. (Cheers.) Now, cut away the root, and the tree will not flourish in our country ; and when it does come, all I ask for them is, that the mother shall have it in her power to go to the apothecary's and confectioner's, and buy the drug at the one shop, and the currant juice at the other, and give the medicine, so that at all events the poor dying child may expire with as little possible pain, and with the smile of affection upon its lips. (Hear, hear.) All I ask is, that when a poor woman stands alone in the world, — the oak being shattered from its top to its root, shattered as by the lightning stroke of disease or of death, — that she, the ivy, now left with nothing to cling to — all I ask is, that she should have a prop — not a Poor-Law Bastile ; a staff — not of separ- ation, not of starvation and death — but that she should have the pillar of kindness and sufficient support, of comfort and consolation. (Hear, hear, hear.) All I contend for is, that in this chequered scene, that in this transitory state of things, the ills of life should be fairly shared, we bearing each other's burdens, the rich bearing the burdens of the poor, and the poor bearing the burdens of the rich, and so fulfilling the royal law of Christ. (Cheers.) All I ask is, that in this vale of tears, in this difficult and dis- tressing and dangerous state of existence in many respects, we should share and share something alike of the sweets as well as the bitters. I contend that not any one class can, or ought to be exempt from misery ; but I do contend that the rich have no right to a monopoly of the superfluities and indulgencies of life, while the poor are condemned to a monopoly of wretchedness and misery. (Cheers.) Now I love that argument ; and I will compel the enemies of the people, Whig, Tory, or Radical, Pagan or Christian, in profes- sion, I will compel the enemies of God and man, either to answer that argument, to your satisfaction, or otherwise to allow that argument to be carried into practical operation." — The Rev. J. R. StejjJiens's Speech, at the Wigmi Meeting, November 12, 1838. " Dr. Fletcher was then introduced to the meeting, and was received with loud cheers. He should have been glad to meet the working men of Halifax had it not been for the thrilling consideration which was everywhere placarded on the walls of their town, requiring £6,800 for the erection of a Bastile. (Hear.) This was too fearful a coiisideratiou even to allow him to indulge in that degree of pleasure which he would otherwise have enjoyed in coming amongst them. (Hear, hear.) This fact furnished another among a thousand proofs of the baseness, hypocrisy, falsehood, and fraud, by which the Government of the country was car- ried on. (Hear, hear.) The first reso- lution of the Committee appointed for taking evidence during the last session of Parliament as to the working of the New Poor-Law for the purpose of propounding some amendments, recommended that henceforth the Guardians should be per- mitted, uncontrolled by the Commission- ers, to give out-door relief to all those Avho were married previous to the passing of this Act, while they saw at the same time, the Commissioners commanding the Guardians of this and other towns to build prisons which could not possibly be necessary if even these recommendations were carried into effect. (Hear, hear.) But they would be convinced that it was merely a base and hypocritical delusion, to endeavour to lull the peoj:)le asleep and put an end to the agitation, which, he was happy to tell them, their enemies admitted was not only efficient in keeping out this accursed law, but had also had the effect of obliging them to treat their poor vic- tims of the south with much more kind- ness, and with much less of devihsh cruelty, than they would otherwise have been. This was a gratifying fact ; for even if they should fail in their efforts to repeal this accursed measure (which they certainly would till they obtained uni- versal suffrage), it was something to know that a dozen agitators had had the power of drawing some of the fangs of this monster. But it was not a dozen agitators, but a dozen thousands — ay, hundreds of thousands of agitators, that had struck terror to the hearts of the peo- ple's tyrants, and thus another useful les- son had been taught them — that the peo- ple, when united, were irresistible. After the recommendation above-mentioned, they were led to hope that the Bastardy clauses would be repealed. And what was the only recommendation which re- ceived the least attention of this Com- mittee ? Why, that the poor girls who had been seduced should have damages for seduction, and they were to be left to get them as they best could. (Hear, hear, hear.) After some other recom- mendations with regard to the lessening the size of the Unions, and with reference to medical relief and other matters, they 400 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. recommended that the Guardians should have the power of relieving persons who had large families. (Hear, hear.) And how was this to be done ? By taking part of their children into the work- houses. (Groans.) And all this was in England, the boast of which was, only a few years ago, that it was the only coun- try in the world which had a word really expressive of all the feelings which we attach to the word home. (Hear, hear.) They were not content with degrading the people to the condition of brutes, but they seemed as if they were determined to destroy those feelings which they had in common with brutes. (Cheers.) There was not an animal in nature which would not stand by its parental feelings. There was not one so tame that would not bristle up to defend its young when attacked. And yet, they thought, fools and madmen as they were, that they could be guilty of these outrages against human nature, and that the people would submit to them. After some remarks on the insufficiency of the Bastile allowances, and the horrid cruelties which were prac- tised upon the paupers, the speaker ad- verted to an Act of Parliament passed in the reign of Elizabeth, by which it was enacted, that every person who built a cottage should attach to it four acres of land for the maintenance of the occupants of such cottage. This they kept in cul- tivation, which, in addition to their la- bours at the loom, rendered them a com- fortable subsistence. (Hear, hear.) Had this law contumed to be enforced, they •would have no barren wastes as they have now ; and they would have had still less necessity for locking up their poor in the Bastiles on the one hand, or trans- porting them on the other. (Cheers.)" — Halifax Meeting, July 28, 1838. " When Legislators who were set up for the service and protection of the peo- ple, their liberties and properties, shall attempt to enslave the nation, or by force or fraud, or unconstitutional legislation, to take away those liberties or properties, such Legislators, in that case, are pro- perly, and with the greatest aggravation KEBELS." — Locke. " It may be as much duty, at one time, to resist Government, as it is at another to obey it." — Palexj. " Against this law (law of nature) pre- scription, statute, nor custom may not avail ; and if any be brought in against it, they be not prescriptions, statutes, nor customs, but corruptions, — things void and against justice." — Doctor and Stu- dcntr—Ej). 1688. " This Avasalaw which interfered with all their local rights. Mark it ; he would not care if this law did make paupers happy ; he would oppose it. (Hear, hear.) He would not care if the Bastiles were palaces, and the people were fed like princes, still he would oppose it. (Loud cheers.) He would not care if this law gave the Commissioners liberty to command princes to be paupers' lackeys, and ordahied that paupers should ride in princes' carriages, he would op- pose it still, because it interfered with every local right, and because it attacked every man in every comer in the land. (Loud cheers.) Let them take their own case. He lived in a part of that Union ; the rate-payers of Fixby had always managed their own parish affairs, and their paupers and rate-payers had always been contented and happy together. (Hear, hear.) They had never refused to pay anything that had been required of them from any other township, and yet they were deemed of being unworthy of being trusted with their own money, and their paupers were deemed unworthy to reside in their own townships, and among their own neighbours and friends. (Hear, hear.) They had their poor re- lieved without interfering with their liberty. They opened their door when they liked, and they shut it when they liked. They received their several al- lowances according to circumstances, and they went round in the township to see their old neighbours and friends. (Hear, hear.) They were formerly rate-payers (hear, hear), and, though they were poor, they had not lost their character (hear, hear), and they ought not, therefore, to lose their rights. (Loud cheers.) They went to see each other sometimes ; and sometimes they came to his house, Avhere, occasionally there might be a few ribs of mutton, or something of the kind, which they did not use, and they took it away with them with all goodwill. (Hear, hear.) And who had a right to interfere with them ? (' Nobody,' from several voices.) Ay, and nobody should. (Tre- mendous cheering.) This law was such a direct interference with all their local rights, that he would rather die than see it established. (Continued cheers.) They were told that the Guardians were popu- larly elected ; but what was the use of their popular election, when the Guar- dians themselves >vere wholly powerless. THE NEW POOR-LAW OPPOSITIOX. 401 (Hear, hear.) The Chairman of the Dewsbury Board, the other day, said he had been to London to receive his in- structions, and if he could get two Guar- dians to act with him, he would act as he thought proper. (Hear, hear.) If there was a Guardian before him, he certainly would recommend him to make his will (laughter); and he was going to tell them what was coming to pass. All sorts of deception had been practised upon the people by the friends of this cursed law. All sorts of misrepresentation had been carried to the Houses of Commons and Lords by the friends of this law, and one and another got up in these Houses, and said, that the people were favourable to it. (Hear, hear.) Even Earl Fitzwilliam had declared that the people of the West Riding had approved of it, and had found out that it was a very beneficial measure. (Shame, shame.) If these gentlemen thus deceived themselves, the people could not help it ; but he had often told them of the perilous state to which they ■were driving this country. (Hear, hear.) He hated blows and bloodshed and as- sassination; but if blood was to be shed, he would rather have it done openly than on the sly. (Hear, hear.) If the friends of the New Poor-Law were determined to defy the povver of the Omnipotent, why then he would say, ' Have at ye.' (Tre- mendous and deafening cheers.) He was not long ago in London, and a noble lord told him, that he had been conversing with another nobleman on the dissatisfac- tion occasioned by the New Poor-Law, when that nobleman replied, ' Oh, d — n them, a regiment of dragoons would put them down directly.' (Hear, hear.) But he (Mr. Oastler) knew better than that. (Hear.) He had been talking with an old sergeant in her Majesty's service, and he had said to him, 'King (laughter), when they bring us out among the people in shigle troops we are forced to seem to do our duty. But depend upon it, that if all the British army was fairly marched against the people on that question, they would die before they would fight against them for that measure.' (Hear, hear, and loud cheers.) If then, the friends of the Poor-Law relied upon the army, they would rely upon a sword that would pierce them through. (Hear, hear.) But what were they to do ? (' We wont have it,' from scores of voices.) Well, if they chose to be the tools of the three 6C0UNDRRLS, they would do it as scoun- drels, and they would soon discover all the consequences of their folly. All he could say to the Guardians was, that if tlioy were determined to try to build Bas- tiles, he would try to pull them down. (Tremendous cheers.) But what should they do ? He knew what the friends of the New Poor-Law wanted ; they wanted to spread a net for the whole land ; they wanted to destroy our local governments, and to infest the land with prisons be- longing to Government, and they would become Government slaves in the hope of advancement. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) But that should not be. (Cheers.) He knew that in the agricultural districts the people would not stand it, nor would they petition any more against itr — Mr. Oastler'' s Speech at the Halifax Meeting^ July 28, 1838. " For the first time in the history of the country the New Poor-Law, they were aware, gave to three Conmiissioners appointed by the Crown the authority and power of making rules, orders, and regu- lations, which were to have the force and effect of law — which were to be binding as so many Acts of Parliament, which no man could venture to resist without sub- jecting himself to fine and imprisonment. (Hear.) This principle extended through- out the entire Bill ; it pervaded it from the first page to the last. Those, there- foi'e, who talked of the amendment of the Bill could surely never have read it, or they must have found that, taking from it the unconstitutional and despotic powers conferred by it on the Commis- sioners, the Bill would fall altogether to fragments ; every vestige, the very foun- dation, would be taken away. (Cheers.) Nor was this his only objection to the principle of the Bill ; he must strongly object and solemnly protest against a Bill which, under the specious title of ' An Act to Amend the Poor-Law,' was, in fact, an abrogation and repeal of that statute of Elizabeth which had been truly designated, by no less an authority than Lord Bacon, the poor man's charter. (Cheers.) Most of all, should he protest against such an Act being passed by those who called themselves the repre- sentatives of the people, but who were not, in fact, what they ought to be — also the representatives of the labouring classes. (Cheers.) He had asked, in the House of Lords, whctlier Parliament so constituted had the legal power, without the sanction and concurrence of the la- bouring classes, to repeal an Act which was intended for their benefit, and which, 2 D 402 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. during a period of more than two cen- turies, had been of signal service to them. (Cheers.) Nor was this all. Another principle of the Bill which would not admit of amendment, and called for no- thing less than a total repeal, was what had been truly called the pivot on which the whole turned — the workhouse system (groans) ; that system which, for the first time in the history of the world, and in this country, calling itself civilized and enlightened, and boasting of its free institutions, punished poverty as a crime (cheers), and immured in prisons those who solicited relief. (Cheers.)" — Earl Stanhope's Speech at the Freemasons' Tavern, Yth. 19, 1838. " Mr. Anson said, he was sorry to in- trude himself upon a meeting like the present, assembled to remonstrate, on legal and constitutional principles, against the perpetuation of a measure which would be a curse to England. He re- gretted to see, that the other day there had been an expression of gratification in the House of Commons, that the Minister of the Crown in that House had con- sented to reduce the continuance of the Commission from ten down to five years. The meeting would remember that in the original measure the powers of the Com- missioners were limited to the period of five years, and then they were to cease ; but it was now seen that the Commis- sioners, having themselves drawn the new Bill, asked, by their last report, the House of Commons to consent to their re-appointment, (Cheers.) It was said they did not seek this for the sake of their salaries, but that the re-appointment was sought for the sake of the salaries, and the salaries only, was clear from the fact that Mr. Frankland Lewis, the first Chief ■Commissioner, had resigned his ofiice, and had prevailed upon the Government to appoint his son in his stead. (Cheers.) But the Bill now before the House of Commons carried the exclusive principle still further than had been attempted in the Bill of last year. The present mea- sure provided, that ground should be at- tached to the workhouses, in order that, even after death, the detestable exclusive principle, so horrible to the contemplation of the poor man, should be carried out. Why, he begged to ask, should not the churchyard, in which there was no dis- tinction between the rich and the poor, be opened for the reception of the poor man's remains? (Cheers.) But here, under the present Bill, power was con- ferred upon the Commissioners to issue orders, which would be tantamount in force and efiect to any clause in any Act of Parliament, for the establishment of burial-grounds for paupers to be attached to each workhouse. (Cries of ' Shame.') What did the meeting think of the cir- cular order, issued by the Commissioners in the month of July last, prohibiting the Boards of Guardians from giving a feast once a-j'ear to the paupers in their work- houses ? Some of the Boards had re- sisted this order, and what had been the consequence ? Whj% in the Union in which he lived — the Kensington Union — the Board gave them a feast on last Christmas-day, and the Auditor of the Union had disallowed the expense of that feast in the accounts of the Board. (Cheers, and cries of ' Shame.') Now these were facts which he hoped would induce this assembly to be unanimous in the great object for which they were met — namely, to petition and remonstrate with the legislature not to carry this ini- quitous, unconstitutional, and detestable Bill further. (Cheers and shouts of ' We'll see about that by-and-by.') From the short experience he had had, he was convinced that when a man was paid to do a certain duty, he became one of the greatest tyrants in existence. The Guardians fairly elected (and not by proxy votes) by the rate-payers, ought, in his judgment, to have the sole power to manage their own finances, and look after the care and com- forts of their own pauper neighbours. He was surprised that no member of the House of Commons, professing liberal principles, should not have long ago proposed that, as plurality of voting was good in local affairs, it ought to be adopted in matters of a national cha- racter. This they durst not do, because they would have to go back to their con- stituents to be elected by single votes. (Cheers.) He must also remind the meeting of the distressing events to which the workhouse test, as applied under the orders of the Commissioners, had led during the late inclement season. It was manifest that, but for the charity'of many humane individuals, there must have been hundreds of cases of death from starvation. (Cheers, and cries of ' That's true.') He was sure the hon. member for Finsbury (Mr. Wakley), in his office of coroner for the western division of the county of Middlesex, must have had nu- merous cases brought before him of per- sons who had actually died from want, THE NEW POOR-LAW OPPOSITION. 403 rather than seek relief and shelter within the walls of the workhouse. (Cheers.) The last report made to Parliament was one of the most horrible proceedings he had ever witnessed. It gave to the members of the House of Commons the best possi- ble face of the dietary tables, for it set forth table No. 1, which gave to each pauper 15 oz. of meat per week; but it did not publish table No. 4, by which only 4 oz. of meat per week were allowed to each pauper inmate of a workhouse. That fact alone ought to induce the House of Commons to let the Bill drop, 60 far at least as the Commissioners were concerned. If the powers were left, as they ought to be, in the hands of the Boards of Guardians, the poor and the rate-payers would have some protection, because the Guardians were elected only for twelve months, and, therefore, if they drew the screw too tight upon the poor, the rate-payers could turn them out, and elect in their places more humane men. Not so as to the Commissioners. They could not be turned out, and the conse- quence had been, that the poor were ac- tually put into the scale and weighed, in order to see how little they really could exist upon. (Cheers.) He regretted that throughout England there was not that general feeling against this odious law which, in his judgment, ought to exist — he regretted that no large meetings had been assembled to petition and remon- strate against its further continuance. But it was the poor man's cause, and, therefore, the rich did not come forward as they ought to oppose it." — Freemasons' Tavern^ March 11, 1841. " Mr. Wakley, who was loudly cheered on presenting himself, said, — A statement has been made at the meeting with regard to my conduct, and I now rise for the purpose of answering what I do regard as a very serious, but at the same time one of the most unfortunate accusations that could be alleged against me in the discharge of my public Parliamentary duty. It has been stated, that I have promised to support the Poor-Law Bill with the Amendments which Lord J. Russell has proposed. Nothing can be more false. (Cheers.) What I said in the House of Commons was this — that the proposed alterations which the noble lord had announced, so far as they went, would give satisfaction (' No, no ') ; and at that time I understood the noble lord to say, that he intended by his alterations that the new Bill should not affect the 2 D parishes in London which had local Acts, and that the Commission should continue, not for ten, but only five years. I am against its continuance for a day. (Cheers.) I regard that law as the most iniquitous that ever was fastened upon the people, the foulest stain upon the legislature, a national disgrace, an histrument of torture directed against the poor. I approve of it in no form nor shape. From the bottom of my soul I detest it. I have opposed it whenever an opportunity presented itself; and I beg of you to recollect, that when it was enacted I was not a member of the House of Commons. If I had been a member at the time it would not have passed so easily. (Cheers.) In jus- tice to our hon. Chairman I ought to have spoken of him before I spoke of myself. Upon all occasions of this kind, good temper, forbearance, liberality, toleration, should be our motto. (Cheers.) The greatest difference of opinion may prevail among us. It is impossible for men whose heads are differently constituted to think alike. Are we to hate each other and be angry because we differ ? No such thing Nothing would be more foolish. If any intemperate warmth be exhibited at a public meeting, if we are hurried away by indiscretion, not guided by reason, our proceedings can do no good either here or elsewhere ; but if, with feeling subdued, and judgment called into full action, we exercise that reason with which God has gifted us, whatever we may determine will be regarded as the result of rational and considerate men, and our decision, let it go where it may, must carry due weight with it. (Cheers.) I frankly own to you that I have in coming here a mixed motive. My first object is to concur with you in your expression of detestation of the New Poor-Law Bill. My next ob- ject, and that a most influential one, was to pay my respects to our Chairman, whose conduct I had the opportunity of witnessing in the House of Commons for more than four years. I worked with him day by day, when j'ou did not see him, when the public had no opportunity of seeing him, and he worked then like a slave on behalf of the poor (cheers), at an enormous cost, and labouring under an anxiety of mind which I shall never forget to the last hour of my life. (Loud cheers.) Whatever might be his politics, whatever difference may exist between us upon some political questions, while I have breath I shall never fail to respect that man for his labours in the cause of the o 404 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. poor. (Loud cheers.) I have still another reason for recollecting him ; and I allude to it now more particularly, because Mr. Cleave observed, that they knew well Mr. Walter's political history. Do you recol- lect a motion I made in the House of Commons for the recall of the Dorchester labourers ? I shall not forget that night. There were 400 members present — more than 300 on the Tory benches. Out of that number four only voted for their return, and one of those four was that man, Mr. Walter. (Loud cheers.) After such a case as that, supposing him to be opposed to us in opinion with regard to the suflrage, are we not to pay him due respect for his exertions ? (Cheers.) To be sure we ought. We must never forget those kindly, generous, and noble acts which he has done on the part of the poor. (Cheers.) I say I never will forget them. (Cheers.) I believe that the par- ticular political opinions he holds are honestly entertained, a credit I claim for myself, and readily accord to all of you. (Cheers.) But if it was praiseworthy in those four men to separate themselves from those with whom they were accus- tomed to act, I must say with regard to Mr. Walter, that I do not recollect any vote he ever gave against the interest of the poor, with the exception of the suf- frage question. (Cheers.) But is that even a question on which we are all bound to agree? You believe, and I used to believe, that reform would accomplish everything for us. I recollect when the cry was raised in this room, ' The bill, the whole bill, and nothing but the bill;' and any man who should have opened his mouth to propose anything further would have had a tin can or broken bottle thrust down his throat. You have had that bill, and what has it done ? If I could have believed ten years ago that reform would have ended in the enactment of the Poor-Law Bill, rather would I have had my tongue drop from my mouth than have advocated it. (Cheers,) See what it has done." — Freemasons' Tavern Anti-Poor- Law Meeting, March 11, 1841. " The Chairman said, that before the business proceeded further he thought it right to read to the meeting a letter he had received from Earl Stanhope, which it was peculiarly proper should be com- municated in the present state of the pro- ceedings, because the Noble Earl offered at the latter end of his letter some counsel which it would be wise for the meeting to adopt. The Noble Earl was one of the firmest opponents of the New Poor-Law, and had presided on the only two occasions upon which meetings on that subject had been held in London. The letter was as follows : — '" Derby, March 7, 1841. " ' My Dear Sir, — I leain by the newspapers that a public meeting, at -which you are to pre- side, is to be held on the 11 ih inst., fur the pur- pose of sending a remonstrance to Parliament against the New Poor-Law, and I deeply regret that it is not in my power to attend it. I sbould upon that, as upon every other occasion, be most anxious to co-operate with my fellow-citizens in defending their rights, which I sball always have at heart, and in opposing, by legal and con- stitutional means, the continuance of a law •which is most detestable and despotic, and which was truly said by my venerable friend, the late Lord Eldon, to be ' the most infamous law tliat ever -was enacted in any Christian country.' Under that law parishes are deprived of the right of self-government — the labouring classes cease to enjoy their natural rights — poverty is treated as a crime and is punished by imprisonment — and the dictators exercise a tyranny which it is now intended to continue and confirm, but which our forefathers would not have endured. The example given in the metropolis will, I trust, be followed throughout the Country by all those who have patriotism and public sjjirit, and who desire to restore the rights and to promote the welfare of their fellow- citizens. As for those who are not animated by such feelings, but by selfish and sordid motives, and who approved of the New Poor-Law in the hope that it would reduce the poor-rates, they have in many districts met with the reward which they deserved, and have found by experi- ence, that the rates have in consequence been increased instead of being diminished. " ' I am most strongly of opinion, and I have expressed it in my place in Parliament, that the labouring classes have a right to be fully repre- sented in the House of Commons, and that no other representation is just in itself, or can be satisfactory to the people. It has, indeed, been shown by that most odious and oppressive enact- ment, the New Poor-Law, and also by other measures which have been unjust and injurious to tlie labouring classes, that those classes ought to be fully represented. Although these are opinions which I am able and willing to defend, whenever and wherever it is requisite, I would not propose at the meeting any resolution on the subject, and I am anxious that the object for which it will be assembled may be cordially supported by all those who are present, whatever may be the difference in their political senti- ments.' Then followed a compliment to him (the Chairman), which he must be excused for omitting." — Freemasons'' Tavern Anti- Poor-Law Meeting^ March 11, 1841. " It was quite clear that a vast difference of circumstances existed between the ne- cessity of Poor-Laws in Ireland, and in those which had led to the miscalled THE NEW POOR-LAW OPPOSITION. 405 amended Poor-Law in this country. He begged, however, the meeting to under- stand, that though he was opposed toto coelo to the present Poor-Law, he was an advocate for giving relief to the poor, and he beheved in the existence of an abstract right of the poor to share in the produce of the earth. (Cheers and confusion.) Such, however, had not been the object or end of the present Irish Poor-Law, and that it was not so was stated so much better than any words he could give utterance to, by a gentleman in a speech delivered a few days ago, that he (Dr. Maunsell) would read an extract from that speech. It was a speech delivered in Cork by a gentleman of the name of Hayes, who for a long period had been the devoted advocate for the introduction of Poor-Laws in that country. This gentleman came forward the other day, at the annual election of Guardians of the poor for the city of Cork, to tender his resignation of a seat at that Board. In doing so he said ' the framers of the Act entitled it ' an Act for the more effectual relief of the destitute poor, which Avas holding forth a great boon and a great blessing, and he had hoped, that by a zealous attention to the details of the law, a system still better would be worked out than that proposed by the law. (Cheers.) But he regretted to say, that from his ex- perience in its working his opinion was entirely altered, and he now held it to be a foul imposition upon the country, and he therefore could no longer consent to remain in connexion with its administra- tion. (Loud cheers.) This was the opinion he had given at the Board of Guardians, and he came here this day in- tending not to accept any delegation under a law so destructive to the country. The term on the statute-book ' for the relief of the destitute poor ' was a foul lie, for it was an Act to render the poor destitute, and the destitute hopeless. (Loud cheers.) The Act had failed in its purposes, and •was aggravated by the conduct of the Commissioners, who had applied a strin- gent construction to its clauses that never could be thought of by an honest man. (Cheers.) The very diet of the work- house fell far short of that given to con- victed felons ; but that Act which rendered the poor destitute, the destitute hopeless — gave £67,000 per annum to worthless Commissioners and Assistant-Commis- sioners, and to useless secretaries.' (Great applause.) Such was the opinion which had been expressed on the Irish Poor-Law Act by a man who had paid zealous atten- tion to the law, who had assisted in carrying it out into operation, and who, therefore, was well qualiticd to judge of its working. The matter, however, at present in hand for consideration, was the despotic charac- ter of the New Poor-Law in this country (though in Ireland it was still more des- potic), and to him it was matter of surprise and astonishment that such an Act had ever been passed by the British Legisla- ture, And what was the nature of the Poor-Law sent as a boon to Ireland ? It provided for the election of a number of Guardians of the poor in each Union, but this was in practice a mockery of the right representation of the rate -payers. The Guardians so elected had practically only the power to register, and to carry into operation the decrees and orders of the tyrants of Somerset-house, They ordered the election of a body of men to take care of the money of the rate-payers, who were to elect them, and to watch over the interests of the poor of whom tliey were to be the Guardians. But these Commis- sioners had the power to frame orders which had the force and effect of law, and those who refused to obey or who disobeyed these orders were not even to be tried by a jury, but were to be carried before a magistrate, who was empowered to fine the party for the first offence £5, for the second £20, and for the third, the dis- obedient individual might be indicted as for a misdemeanour, and be placed on the treadmill for the term of one calendar month, (Cheers.) This was the law which was said to be designed as a relief to the poor of Ireland, He had already told the meeting, that these elections of Boards of Guardians were a mockery of representation of the rate-payers, and he would prove them to be so. It was true, the Guardians were nominated and elected by the rate-payers, but if the Guardians so elected acted in opposition to the orders and decrees of the Commissioners, the Commissioners could at once dismiss them from their offices, (Cheers.) Again, the Commissioners had unlimited power to exact from the country any sum of money they thought fit to ask for. They had already placed a dead weight of £ 1 ,500,000 upon the country, for building workhouses — not almshouses, but prisons for the re- ception and confinement of the poor. But there was nothing to prevent the Com- missioners from exacting £10,000,000; for if the Guardians refused to lend their assistance, tlie authorities at Somerset- house could dismiss them, and direct the 406 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. election of a new Board ; and should the rate-payers still return the same individu- als who had thus been faithful to their interest, and watchful over those of the poor, the Commissioners, by the provisions of this worse than Algerine Act, were empowered to appoint paid Commissioners to carry their orders into effect. (Cheers.) Some persons had spoken of many flagrant jobs having been committed under this law ; but what had been done to conceal from the light of day the operations of the Commissioners ? Why, they actually had excluded the press from the meetings of the Boards of Guardians, and had published an order making it penal for any reporter to attend such meetings. He could state many instances of gross jobs, but he would only detain the meeting by the mention of one case which had lately occurred. It happened, that a great job had been perpetrated by the Commission- ers (without the knowledge of the Board of Guardians) in the Union of Mount- mellick. The job was this — they had purchased a site upon which to erect the Union workhouse, without notice to the Guardians — without advertisements to excite competition, and they had taken ground at £10 per acre, while in the same district there was plenty of ground to be had at £4 per acre. On the fact coming to their knowledge the Guardians dared to remonstrate with — to oppose the Com- missioners. Dr. Jacob, one of the Board of Guardians, a gentleman who had been unanimously elected by the free suffrages of his brother rate-payers, came forward to oppose this job, and he succeeded. He proposed a petition to Parliament ; he was instrumental in passing resolutions by the Board condemnatory of the conduct of the Commissioners; he had himself re- ported the proceedings ; and what had been the result ? Within the last fortnight the annual election of Guardians came on, and this gentleman came to the meeting, and as his last act as a member of the Board, he supported the petition to Par- liament against the Commissioners, and read the following letter, which he had received from the Government in Ireland. The letter was dated ' Dublin Castle, Feb. 25, 1841,' and was as follows: — " ' Sir, — I am directed by the Lord Lieu- tenant 10 state, that it appears to his Excellency that the fuur medical situations which you hold are fully sufficient to occupy your time without superadding the duty of a member of the Board of Guardians ; and, consequently, that in the event of your being again placed in that situa- tion, his Excellency will think it right to appoint some other medical attendant to the Lunatic Asylum. " 'I am, Sir, &c. '"N. H. M'DONALD.' (Cheers, and cries of ' Shame.') Here, then, was a most useful and zealous member of the Board dismissed by the Government at the instance of the Com- missioners, for the conscientious discharge of that which he felt to be his duty. (Cheers.) It would be a useless waste of the time of the meeting were he (Dr. Maunsell) to state other instances. Was not this single case sufficient to show the Commissioners should no longer exist — not for five years more, but for even one year ? (Cheers and applause.) Was the meeting aware of the danger of intrusting to three dictators the power of legislation for the nation ? (Cheers.) Was the time arrived when the constitutional au- thority of King, Lords, and Commons, exercised at St. James's Palace and at Westminster, should be placed in the hands of three men sitting in Somerset- house ? (Great cheers.) Again, were these Commissioners precisely such men as were tit to be intrusted with these extraordinary pow'ers — were they persons to whom they could commit the trust — •' ' Ne quid detrimenti capiat respublica ?' Dr. Maunsell concluded by moving in form the first resolution as already set forth." — Br. Maunsell, Anti-Poor-Laio Meeting at the Freemasons' Tavern, March 11,1841. " Mr. Wakley presented a petition from the Very Rev. Henry Bathurst, Archdeacon of Norwich, complaining of directions given by the Poor-Law Com- missioners to Overseers to assess tithe commutation rent-charge to the full net amount without any reference to the pre- vious proportion assessed between tithe and land, and without any notice of the liability of occupiers of land to be assessed, not only for rent, but for profits of stock in trade, and also complaining that the operation of their letter was rendered more oppressive to the clergy by a bill brought in at the heel of the last session of Parliament to suspend the liability to assessment on the part of personal pro- perty and stock in trade, and thereby to fix by law the injury offered to tithe pro- perty. The petitioner added, that he considered the result of the above Bill to be nothing less than a fraud upon the tithe proprietor, virtually changing to the disad\antage of one party the terms in THE NEW POOR-LAW OPPOSITION. 407 which the original contract of commuta- tion was made, and he, therefore, prayed that, by some conciliating adjustment, this injustice might be remedied. The petition then went on to say : — 'And your petitioner in particular still further feels reluctant to submit to such injustice with- out remonstrance, inasmuch as the pro- visions of the New Poor-Law Amend- ment-Act contain clauses, many of them repugnant to the humanity and the feel- ings of a Christian country, bursting asunder the tenderest connexions of life, reducing innocent poverty to despair, disgusting to the general feelings of hu- man nature, and the source of those bit- ternesses and public discontent which have broken out among the lower orders of the people within no long time past ; and to remove which cause of discontent belongs to every sincere friend of social and political liberty; and most gladly, while your petitioner admits the necessity of checking fraud and imposition, such as the New Poor-Law was intended to check, would your petitioner see some milder and more effectual plan substituted, whereby facilities may be afforded to provisions for the poor, in sickness and age, derived from reasonable aid given to their own industry and economy, the legitimate, though aid-requiring, basis of their pro- vision and independence, instead of making, as it were, a fresh Bill, now proposed, to be ' a little finger bigger than the father's loins,' in reply to remon- strances which the framers thereof them- selves have caused. And your petitioner, &c.' " — House of Commo7is, March 10, 1841. "Mr. Richardson, of Manchester, said, under the 43rd Elizabeth the country had flourished for 200 years ; and after accu- mulating wealth, had come to be called the workshop of the world. And now, after being taxed to the amount of nine hundred millions, after accumulating thirty millions annually, the conclusion was that they were idle. (Hear, hear, hear.) Let the conclusion be, not that the Poor-Law must be abolished ; but taxes taken off. Mr. Richardson subsequently proceeded to read an extract from the Rev. Mr. Malthus, the founder of the sect to which Lord Brougham belonged, to the effect, that all attempts to make food and capital keep pace with population were useless, and that all endeavours should be directed to keeping population within bounds. That if poor men get married, they ought not to beget children until their means were sufficient for their support. And that it was out of the power of any Go- vernment to change the physical condition of the people. This was "the new system of political economy which Mr. Roebuck, Mr. Hume, Lord John Russell, Lord Radnor, and other reformers so eulogized, and Miss Martineau, a female ! Mr. Richardson found that the doctrine he had cited was in opposition to the command in Scripture, ' Go forth and multiply.' The regulation in the workhouse was not separation ; but classification ! The ob- ject was equally to prevent population. The speaker also contrasted Christ's answer to the Pharisees, ' Let no man sunder whom God hath joined,' with the regulation of the Commissioners, and thence deduced that regulation to be blasphemous. He related a case of ex- traordinary cruelty, of a poor widow in Avershaw, who had once been in affluence. She was a cripple, and could not obtain enough to support her children. Under the old law she had obtained 5s. Under the new law the allowance was reduced to 3s. ; further to 2s, ; and under the authority of the Commissioners it was cut off altogether. That was not all. She went to beg relief for her starving chil- dren, and she was told that she had been wealthy, and that had she not been pro- fligate and improvident, she might have saved. (Hear, hear.) She went to the chairman of the Board, a reverend mem- ber of the Established Church, to beg a shilling, and he slammed the door in her face, and told her to go away and not bother him. She could not brook the insult ; but went, on Christmas-eve, and flung herself into a pond in the parson's garden. (A strong impression was pro- duced on the meeting by this awful story.) It was on the very land which had be- longed to the poor, and of which they had been robbed by Lord John Russell's ancestor, the Duke of Bedford. It hap- pened beneath the walls of Woburn Abbey. (Hear, hear.) The Bill was unconstitu- tional, and the orders of the Commission- ers might be legally opposed, if not written according to the letter of the law. If any one proposed to take their wives away, or prevent their egress, they were justitied in knocking him down, as it was uncon- stitutional to imprison a man without an offence committed, or to separate man and wife. Let them elect overseers op- posed to the law, and pass a vote of in- demnity for any fines that the overseers might incur. If they were compelled to 408 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. elect Guardians, let them elect men op- posed to the law. The speaker contended that the measure did not succeed in the agricultural districts. A great boast had been made of Chorlton-upon-Medlock Union ; but there the Guardians wanted to get rid of it now. It was said, that no out-door relief would be given except by way of loan. Suppose they received 5s., lUs., or 20s. As soon as they got work again, a note would be sent to their employers for the amount, and if the mas- ter refused or neglected to pay it out of their wages, they would be sent to prison for three months. That was an inter- ference with the contract for labour, with the law of debtor and creditor, but was the only condition in these districts of out-door relief. He had been to Maccles- field. The workhouse wall there was formerly six or seven feet high ; it was now twenty feet, topped with broken glass. There was formerly a large gate ; now tliere was a little door, with a porter, by the way of a gaoler. When an ap- plicant was admitted, he was sent to the probationary ward ; he was washed, scrubbed, and his hair cut ; and he was put to bed, without supper. In the morning he was sent two hours to the mill. Some breakfast was then given him, and he was sent about his business. He also found fault with the diet, as scanty, and measured out as it were by spoonsful. In short, he stamped the ■whole proceeding as cruel. He had pub- lished the whole of what he now asserted in the London papers." — Stockport Anti- Poor-Law Meeting, Feb. 1, 1838. " It was to the principle, the root of the law, that he (Mr. O.) wanted to lay the axe. (Renewed cheers.) He had, upon its earliest inti'oduction into Parlia- ment, prophesied, that if such a measure were attempted to be carried into eflect, it would lead not only to the destruction of property, but eventually to the over- throw of the Throne. (Hear.) He had often said, that the law never could be en- forced without a rural police, and the latter had been recently sanctioned by Parliament, and as surely (if our goAcr- nors persisted in enforcing the New Poor- Law) would the former predictions be realized. (Hear, hear.) The expense of the police too would be paid out of the land, so that the condition of the labourer, which had been already reduced to the very lowest state, was even yet to be made worse. One-half the property would soon be spent in defending the other from the attacks of the plundered peasantry. (Hear, hear.) It was to pre- vent the invasion of any man's right that he had opposed the New Poor-Law, and he had done so on the soundest principles of political economy, sanctioned by the word of God. The great truth which he wished to impress upon their minds was, if the rich have a right by law to deprive the poor of their rights, then the poor will most assuredly call to their aid the law of nature, and assert their right to live by force. The greatest constitutional authorities are all agreed upon this point. He had many extracts in proof of this assertion with him from Putfendorf, Gro- tius, Bacon, Noyes, Hale, Blackstone, Paley, and others. He had, however, occupied their attention already too long, and would now content himself by men- tioning the names of those learned men, who, one and all, agreed in the view which he had taken, in reference to the right of the poor to live. This right (]\Ir. Oastler continued) is the only safe founda- tion on which the institution of private property can rest with security — destroy that right, and very soon, despite police and soldiers, your title-deeds will be only waste paper — your homes will no longer be sacred — society will be disorganized — anarchy and confusion will overspread the face of England ! (INIr. O. sat down amidst loud and repeated cheers.)" — Mr. Oastler s Speech at the Southivark Election, Jan., 1840. "Neither Lords, nor Commons, nor King, no, nor the whole legislature toge- ther, are to be considered as possessing the power to enslave the people of this country ; they might, separately or unitedly, do such acts as might justify resistance from the people. Is this doc- trine false ? Is it necessary to urge any argument to support its truth ? It is a doctrine which I have learned from my early youth. I have been taught it, not only by Sidney and by Locke, but by Sir George Saville and the late Earl of Chat- ham. If there were no authority to support it, I would maintain it myself. I trust, however, that the spirit, the energy, the vigour of the English charac- ter, is not to be depressed, and that there will be always found in this country men bold enough to assert, ay, and to maintain also, that King, Lords, and Commons, uniting to compose a legislature, may so conduct themselves, as to justify resist- ance on the part of the people." — C. J. Fox. THE NEW POOR-LAW OPPOSITION. 409 " 'Tis something, in the dearth of fame, Though link'd among a fclter'd race, To feel at least a patriot's shame. Must we but weep o'er days more bless'd ? Must we but blush ? — Our fathers bled. Earth I render back from out thy breast A remnant of our ' British' dead ! Of our noble sires, oh ! grant a few, To shame the base Malthusian crew." Don Juan, Senior, altered by Don Juan, Junior. What a precious tyranny this New Poor- Law is ! What a tyranny on the poor, its victims ! What a tyranny on the rate-payers, its dupes ! What a tyranny on the Guardians, its slaves — its tools — its scape-billies, and its stalking nags ! The poor of England used to have a famous bunch of Jives at the ends of their arms: how is it that they quietly submit to be tested, skillied, black-holed, dead- housed, and done for ! The rate payers of the land of Hampden and Sydney were not wont, in days gone by, to be bound hand and foot, and robbed, with a Somerset-house " d — n your eyes, your money and your liberties :" how is it they have so tamely surrendered their right to do what they liked with their own ? The Guardians — oh, if they but could see themselves as others see them ! — what poor, paltry figures of ill-fame they cut, as the shoon-suckers of the Somerset- house slaughter-house, they would silently sink with very shame, up to their long, dirty ears, in the neighbouring sinks and sewers — or, if such receptacles for filth were not convenient, buy the necessary quantuin of tenpenny cord, and choke themselves, and get rid of their mean- ness and their misery ? Poor, unfortu- nate, reprehensible devils ! King Lewis's, King NichoU's, King Satan's, and the Grand Vizier Chadwick's, most obedient humble servants of all-work to command — their most worthy and respectful, trembling, terrified, stinking turnspits — Ods manhood and meacocks ! why don't the sorry subalterns extinguish the stench of their existence, so that Old England may smell ivholesome mjain? The other day I was sojourning for ray health at T — by, a little watering-place in South Wales. Among many others who were also there, luxuriating in bathing-ma- chines, sailing-boats, and light boots, and in sea breezes, and little Hock beds in little bird-cage closets, was a rather re- markable young lady. This young lady had rather a wide mouth, but very pretty- withal, and the better for kissing my dear ; her long ringlets were seldom curled, but flew, like goldfinches (for they were of flaxen hue) about her cheeks, as the winds of Heaven pleased, and after the natural and pleasing manner which Moore makes Nora Creina's petticoats fly. Altogether she was, in flounce and figure, extremely prepossessing — though in such a far ofi" sjiot, among sea-weeds, steep rocks, and granny-gran shells, — I guess 'twas fright some there to see A lady so richly clad as she, Beautiful exceedingly ! Well, this young lady of the " ribbed sea sand," had very peculiar notions on cer- tain subjects, very much so indeed. She was constantly fearing and apprehensive that gentlemen, lords, dukes, counts, or noble princes (German, of course), had designs on her person, and would come to woo and win her, unknown to her ma- ternal guardian, to whom, it appeared, she cherished a great respect ; and well she might, for the old lady, her mother, was a tremendous terror to all evil-doers in the aino cnnas line, and made it a cus- tom every night, in co-partnership with a baker's batch of bread, to take half-a- pint of yeast, in oi"der to enable her to rise early in the morning, that she might de- tect and prevent, if possible, anv assigna- tions or flirtings which might be coming off" at that period. But to retm-n to her daughter. If a beau happened to take her hand to dance at the Ceremony's (suhaudi Master of) ball, slie would, in the most artless and bewitching manner imaginable, burst into a gush of tears, and, dropping her diamonds and Bristol stones from her sweet eyes' languish, sob out, " Oh, Sir, you must ask Mamma .'" And one day, whilst entangled amid the rocks, and most unmercifully drenched with the oncoming surf, she almost petri- fied the jacket and trowsers who gallantly volunteered to rescue her from her peril- 410 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. ous situation, and who, by token, had not the most distant idea of turning himself into a bottle of ginger beer and popping — she almost petrified him, the said sailor's vestments, I repeat, as, after he had lifted her down, she turned to him with tearful eyes, and blushing cheeks, and protested, " Oh, if it is come to this, you must, in- deed, ask Mamma. I could not,'' Sfc, Sfc. The Guardians who hold office under the New Poor-Law possess just as much volition as this sea-side heroine ; they dare do nothing — grant nothing — without first asking their mammas at Somerset- house. And who are these Somerset- house mammas ? Fine fellows certainly — extremely so ! Would you like to see a specimen brick of Somerset-house ? Mr. Assistant-Commissioner M has gone his western circuit ; he has arrived at H , and, according to his general custom, proceeds to take his ease at his inn, and change the " guinea a-day, be- sides travelling expenses," Avhich his grateful country allows him, into sundry tumblers and glasses of port, champagne, sherry, brandy, rum, gin, porter, and beer. In this instance, I learn from Boniface, he did his spiriting anything but gently ; and when it was time for him to attend the local Board, he found himself not exactly capacitated so to do. But he must go : what a nuisance ! But how could he ? people were so censorious — so apt to take in vain the characters of them, the humane and patriotic Poor- Law Commissioners for England and Wales, that it would be rather a danger- ous expedition, under existing circum- stances ; for our Assistant could not but acknowledge to himself that, like the man who " died o' Wednesday" in his shoes, he had taken a drop too much. How could he go and face the H Board ? His fertile genius hit upon an expedient — a plan to hide the " deep damnation of his taking off" so many glasses at a sitting from coming to the ears of the authors of " rascally publica- tions !" Commissioners are very cunning fellows, but sometimes they are worsted at their own weapons. In the present instance it was so. The perpetration of that carouse did come to my knowledge. They (the Commissioners) have, for some time past, set spies to watch my pro- ceedings, and to report progress: they have even inte^'cejyted my letters passing through the post, and had a bird's-eye view of their contents — letters connected with the publication of this very work, and, therefore, I have thought it but fair to return the compliment, and have lately engaged, at considerable cost, and now keep in pay at all the inns and public- houses (and they are legion) at which they put up when tramping, lookers-on to tell me all about their res gestce — about their frequent freedoms with bottles and barmaids — with milliners, and other peo- ple's door-knockers and bell-handles. Nothing escapes my observation, there- fore, via my agents. But to return to the Assistant lickspittle with whom we have now to do. With unsteady step and unremitted hiccough (although it was only eleven o'clock forenoon), he issued from his caravansary, and by dint of handling walls and shop-windows, managed to wade his way to the H Union-house. When he entered the court of that place of death, as might have been expected, several Guardians were sauntering about waiting his com- ing, and each vieing with the other, to have the honour of kissing his — feet. As he drew near, they smiled, and were, in the obsequious manner which Guar- dians so like to exhibit to their supei'ior officers, about to congratulate him, with touched tiles and bended hams, on the excellence of my host's tap — when he (our brave Assistant - Commissioner) wrinkling and puckering up his coun- tenance, like an old lady's petticoat in getting over a stile, and none to help her — or like a young lady's bonnet and ribbons when a gallant dear fellow would do so, naughty man ! and ought to be ashamed of himself — he (our never-to-be too-often-designated brave Assistant- Commissioner), his face suffused with deep red redness, and his head which now, from the potency of his potations, Hung on his shoulders like the moon, whose orb Thro' optic glass the Tuscan artist views At ev'ning from the top of Fesole, commenced, as if in excruciating pain, *' Oh, gentlemen, 1 cant come any further — / can't come on — / have broken my leg — Oh ! oh ! Please pidl it doion, one leg is got shorter than the other — Oh ! oh .'" So much for the New Poor-Law — for its people and their perpetrations. Noblemen, gentlemen, landlords, mer- chants, clergy, tradesmen, and yeomen of Old England, are you guilty or not guilty for supporting such a system — yes or no, upon your honours? — G. R. Wythen Baxter, U^y 15, 1841. THE NEW POOR-LAW OPPOSITION . 411 '* TO THE BOAED OF GUARDIANS OF THE KETTERING UNION. "Gentlemen, — I beg to enclose for your information a copy of a letter trans- mitted to me through Mr. Weale (the As-sistant-Commissioner) from the Poor- Law Commissioners, in reply to certain queries which I addressed to that gentle- man. After i-eading this communication, you will probably agree with me in the view I take of the relative position of ourselves as Guardians, and the Re- lieving Officers hitherto supposed to be acting under our directions. It clearly appears that the Relieving Officers have an authority independent of and superior to ours, an authority which, in the opinion of the Commissioners, they are bound to exercise, and which they may exercise with impunity. The auditor has an in- dependent jurisdiction likewise paramount over all parties, the Commissioners them- selves of course being excepted. It further appears from the same letter, that the discretionary power which the Commis- sioners profess to leave in our hands of giving out-door relief in 'cases of urgent necessity ' is a mere nullity, for it is now said, not only that the Relieving Officer is the ultimate judge of what is and what is not urgent necessity, but in order to shut the door still more closely against all benevolent interference on the part of the Guardians, all cases arising from any sud- den deficiency of w'ork, from the exigen- cies of a large family above the age of seven, or from the wickedness of a hus- band in deserting his wife and children, are declared to be of that class in which the workhouse is the only alternative. From what contingency then any case of urgent necessity can arise, it would be difficult, I think, for any but a Somerset- house Commissioner to guess. Cases of accident or illness, or the first six months of widowhood, were open to relief before the last rules were sent down to us, and therefore have nothing to do with my pre- sent argument. I rejoice to think that the stern decree of the Poor-Law Com- missioners has been already more than once disregarded by the Kettering Guar- dians, and that one of the last acts of my official existence at the Board was to con- cur in an order of out-door relief to a poor woman of my own parish, who, according to the doctrine of the Commissioners, ought to have been sent away with the brief reply, ' House offered.' This, how- ever, was done before the intention of the Commissioners was so plainly laid down as it now is, and while we still entertained a faint hope that some loophole would be left through which humanity might creep in. Under the New Poor-Law, any rule sent from Somerset-house has the same authority with an Act of Parliament ; we have therefore, as it seems to me, no choice left, but either openly to act in contradiction of the law, or escape its penalties by evasion (thus making a sort of compromise between our conscience and our humanity), or carry it out in its full rigour, or decline acting as Guardians altogether. For myself, I prefer adopting the latter alternative ; and though I regret that it will no longer be in my power to assist in carrying into execution a law which, if kindly and judiciously adminis- tered, might, I believe, have been a bles- sing to the country, I must at once resign my seat as chairman of your Board, ratlier than, under the pretended name of Guar- dian, be converted, contrary tomy will, into an oppressor. My fellow-Guardians will not, I believe, be indisposed to allow that I have never flinched from making the idle and dissolute feel the severities of the law ; but to visit with its penalties those who are anxious, as far as Providence Avill allow them, to earn their bread by the sweat of their brow, but who, from the vicissitudes of trade or agriculture, are unable for a short season, perhaps, to get their own living; or those who, under the bad system of the old law, have been encouraged to make improvident mar- riages, and thus burden themselves with large families ; or those who may have been left destitute through the wickedness of their natural protectors — to force such unoffending persons into the workhouse, is a system to which I will never be a party. Such persons have, I conceive, a moral right to be assisted out of the rates, and as the property we may any of us happen to possess was purchased either by ourselves or our predecessors, subject to such deductions, and therefore was valued accordingly, I should as soon think of striving to avoid, under colour of law, the relief of those who are paupers by necessity, and not by choice, as I should of evading any other payment to which my estate may be legally subject — such, for instance, as the rate laid upon it from time immemorial for the support of the national worship of God, or any charge which a former proprietor may have bur- dened it with for the maintenance of a Dissenting chapel. " Strictly speaking, 1 must still be 412 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. considered the chairman of your Board till the expiration of the current year, but it may be a convenience to the vice-chair- men and other members of the Board to know, that I shall not again be present at your meetings. I cannot take my leave of you without expressing my sincere thanks for the kindness which I have in- variably received at your hands, during the three years that I have been the chairman of your Board, for the valuable assistance rendered me by all those who usually attend, and especially the two gentlemen who are vice-chairmen ; nor can I forbear from testifying to the judg- ment with which you have applied your- selves to the just management of the pub- lic funds, and the humanity with which you have ever listened to the claims and necessities of the poor. These circum- stances, however, only prove how unne- cessary and injudicious is the interfei'ence of the Commissioners, and therefore how important it is to protest against the rigour of their system. I am, Gentlemen, with great respect, your faithful servant, "GEORGE S. ROBINSON. " Cranford, Oct. 10." Letter from the Poor-Law Com- missioners to R. Weale, Esq., Assist- ant-Commissioner, transmitted by him to Sir George Eobinson, and referred to above. " Poor-Law Commission-office, "October 7, 1839. *' SiE, — The Poor-Law Commissioners have had under consideration the letter which you have forwarded to them from the Rev. Sir George Robinson, chairman of the Board of Guardians of the Ketter- ing Union. In reference to the inquiries made therein they desire to state — " 1. That if a Relieving Officer shall refuse to carry into effect an illegal order of the Board of Guardians, the Commis- sioners would feel it their duty not to dismiss him or permit him to be dismissed on account of such refusal ; and they are further of opinion, that he might compel the Guardians, by legal proceedings, to pay his salary. " 2. The auditor may disallow any illegal payment made by the Relieving Officer, notwithstanding such payment may have been made by the direction of the Guardians, and the Relieving Officer would have to bear the loss of such dis- allowance. " 3. The Commissioners concur with you in thinking that insufficiency of wages, want of employment, or number of family, do not of themselves render the case of an applicant one of urgent necessity, and they think that such would be the opinion of the auditor, who would ultimately have to decide whether the relief given under that exception was or was not legally given. By order of the Board, " E. CHADWICK, Secretary." " The Neto Poor-Law teas the result of a bargain between the landlords and the factor}/ masters. This fact explains the reason why all the great parties in the state supported it. Yes, my lord, they two, having resolved to destroy the labour- ers, rather than yield a fraction of their own property to the support of the state, were resolved to obliterate the title-deed of the English labourers ! To deliver their children up into the jaws of the factory monster ! and ' to force thein to live on a coarser sort of food T In fact, they determined to establish the principle, ' that Christianity should no longer be part and parcel of the law of England !' For this deed of blood and of intidelity, like their great prototypes, Hetiod and Pon- tius Pilate, the landlords and factory masters ' were made friends together, who before were at enmity between themselves.' The LANDLOKDs wished to rob the poor, by adding the poor-rates to their rentals ! the FACTORY MASTERS, having worked up the stock of little children in their own districts, as well as those which they could procure by stealth from the London and other workhouses, required the chil- dren of the agricultural labourers to be worked up in their accursed murderous system. My lord, horrible as this state- ment may sound, it is the truth! The tyrants, for those unhallowed purposes, joined their bloody hands, and ' were made friends together !' Then, political and religious partisanship were dormant! the storm of political strife was hushed ! religious bigotry and liberal latitudinarian- ism slumbered on the same couch ! Whig, Tory, and Radical — Papist, Churchman, Independent, Methodist, and Socinian, all drowned their animosity in that bloody contract, and ' the same day were made friends together !' So degraded were the landlords, that, in order to effect this robbery and murder of the poor, the des- cendants of the high and mighty, the proud and chivalrous barons of England, actually consented to pass an act of Par- liament, which has exalted above the lavv (in order to enable them to rob and mur- THE NEW I'OOR-LAW OPPOSITION. 413 der the poor by the law) a mean, low-bred, unfeeling plebian, who once sold his own bastard, Avith £40 to the parish otHcers — a wretch, who, when his father was in want, and applied to this graceless son for relief, received an answer to the following effect : — ' / owe you nothing — you begat me, and you could not help it.'' My lord, it is true that this monster has, by the New Poor-Law, been elevated over the heads of the aristocracy and of the Crown ! That he is now the law-maker for En- gland, it is true that, under his infernal sway, the nobles do not blush to serve! My lord, it was natural that I, ' the king of the factory children,' should resist the enactment of that Bill, which was granted as a blood-bonus to the factory masters, on condition that they would sanction the robbery of the agricultural labourers ! I did so ; I became ' an Anti-Poor-Law agitator.' Beginning at Apsley-house, my lord, I have entered every door. I have used every means which God has given me, to prevent the jmssing or the etiforcemetit of that law; and, by the help of my God, / tvill continue to do so, to the close of my life. The migration part of the system — the buying and selling of the agricultural children to the factory monster, I have, without the aid of Par- liament, annihilated ; and, by the blessing of God, the whole of the Devil's own law, shall soon be erased from the statute-book of this, so-called Christian land." — Oast- lev's Letter to the Marquis of Norynanby, Jan. 26, 1840. "Mr. Whyte said, — Gentlemen, of the existing act, my opinion has always been, and I have never studied to conceal it, that it is most un-English, unconstitu- tional, arbitraiy, and cruel ; and the Bill of Lord John Kussell, now before Parlia- ment, is only worse and worse. (Cheers.) The clauses in the original Bill liable, I think, to the greatest objections, are those which prohibit the Board of Guardians, under any circumstances, from giving relief to able-bodied paupers without bringing them into the house ; let the peculiarities of the case be what they may ■we have no option — they must come into the house, for they cannot have relief else- where. The next is the Bastardy-clause, "which I think a very disgrace to the statute-book. The Bill of Lord John Russell confirms the clauses which will not permit us to relieve able-bodied pau- pers under any circumstances except in the house, notwithstanding all the peti- tions which the people have poured in against them. The new bill, in addition, contains a clause which authorizes the form- ation of boards of management, which are empowered to raise more money to build houses (as though there were not enough already) in the central part of a district or county comprising several Unions, and to these houses all the old and infirm from the several Unions are to be sent. This is most cruel and oppres- sive. Here, if our old and infirm poor are obliged to go into the house, they go with some degree of pleasure, because they have occasionally opportunities of seeing their relatives and friends, and to them they can communicate if they have any ill-usage to complain of, and they can report it to those who have the means uf inquiring into and correcting it ; but if the poor creatures are to be sent away to a remote part of the county, how is it pos- sible that their relatives or friends can ever go to see them ? — so that, suffer what they may, their condition is hopeless. In addition to this, there is not only the expense of these new houses, but all the various places to be filled up : they must have governors, and matrons, and porters, and God knew what besides. And then, there is another clause which authorizes yet other boards of management to be formed, and other houses built, and other sets of governors and officers to be em- ployed, and to these houses all the boys and girls of the poor, under 16 years of age, are to be sent for what they call edu- cation ; they are to be marched off from their fathers and mothers, and sent to these Central houses. And what will they be good for when they come out ? Why, the boys will do for nothing but for fine gen- tlemen, and fine gentlemen without a farthing to live upon. (A laugh.) And what will become of the girls .'' They will be kept shut up in these houses during the years in which they ought to be fitting themselves for useful life, and come out at last to be useless members and mere burdens on society. Again, there is the eighth, a most objectionable clause, to empower Boards of Guardians to purchase burial-grounds for the interment of the remains of those unfortunate paupers who may happen to die in the house : to these grounds they are to be carried, away from the church, away from their friends, to be buried privatelv." — Barnstaple Anti-Poor- Law Meeting,' IsUvdi 1, 1841. [This is the Magistrate of whom Mr. Bucke spoke in the House of Commons, February 8, 1841, as having been put under arrest by 414 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES an Assistant Poor-Law Commissioner for presiding at an Anti-Poor-Law Meeting whicli had previously been held at Barn- staple. G. R. W. 13.] " Mr. March said, there were many- persons who professed that they were in favour of the principle of the Bill, but objected to its details, or to the way in which it was carried out. He recollected that some time ago he met with a gentle- man at the Union-house who talked in this strain, and he replied, ' I confess I do not understand you ; will you explain your- self? What do you mean by the principle of the Bill ?' His friend looked confused, and, after a little hesitation, confessed, that he did not know what it was. He had never met with any one who would avow M'hat the principle of the Bill really was. Its advocates and sujjporters had not the hardihood to admit it, but he believed, if the Bill had any principle, it was this — that relief to the poor should be made as difficult and inaccessible as possible ; and he had no doubt that its ultimate intention Avas, however carefully and speciously it might be disguised, to do away with relief to the poor altogether. Some theorists might think this practicable ; indeed, many years ago he hiuiself was of opinion, that by a judicious system of management the poor might be enabled to provide for themselves in sickness and old age, and the Poor-Laws be entirely abolished. But after an experience of more than 20 years, he no longer dreamt of it ; for he w as perfectly satisfied that, in the existing state of society, the discontinuance of Poor- Laws was utterly impracticable. The sub- ject of Poor-Laws, he was glad to say, had attracted the attention of many emi- nent medical and scientific men. He had lately read a little work, written by Dr. Alison, on the state of the poor of Scot- land. There, let it be observed, they had no Poor-Laws ; and notwithstanding the moral and intellectual character of the people, Scotland appeared to be the most wretched country in the world. Thou- sands of the poor had only three meals a- week to subsist upon ; their miserable hovels had no bed, no furniture ; they lie down in their clothes, and pine away^ in destitution, until by-and-by the extremity of their filth and wretchedness produces fever and other diseases ; these proceed in their devastating progress until they reach the abodes of the rich, and when they themselves begin to suffer, their sym- pathies are awakened to the sufferings of the poor around them, and they afford them relief, and the disease is checked for a season ; but when persona,! danger is over and forgotten, then the rich steel their hearts and shut their ears until the same unhappy result ensues, and they are driven again to the exercise of charity in self-preservation. Lord John Russell, and those who supported him, were ignorant of the sul)ject thej' legislated upon ; if they had had a hundredth part of the ex- perience in the management of the poor which he (Mr. March) had had, they would relinquish their crude and ridiculous no- tions. His lordship had pointed out that book (the report of the Commissioners) as his guide and text-book ; with such a guide he did not wonder that his legisla- tion was most erroneous, for he (Mr. March) had read many of those reports, and greater absurdities he had never in his life njet with ; no, nor greater falsehoods. As to his neighbourhood, in the account which the Commissioners gave, from beginning to end, there was not one single statement Avhich was strictly true ; and yet these falsehoods wore employed as the data for legislation, and the lives and comforts of the poor were made to depend upon them ! The books, to him, were utterly incom- prehensible, and a gentleman who acted as a Guardian, and was a banker, and as good an accountant as any in the town, had told him, in reference to the compli- cation of the accounts, ' I do not under- stand the accounts, although I have paid great attention to them ; and, if I don't, I am sure no one else at the Board does.' And this was the system which was to su- persede the plain and simple accounts under the old Law ; he declared one might as well try to decipher the hierogly- phics on the Egyptian columns as attempt to understand it. He scarcely knew what other part of the Poor-Laws first to ad- vert to ; for where all was so objectionable it was difficult to fix upon a point. The whole system was most withering to the feelings of the poor, and showed them that relief was most grudgingly afforded. If they applied for relief, they were brought in and jilaced upon a raised platform like criminals, and subjected to all the ques- tions and cross-questions which the chair- man and the Board chose to put to them. Here one Guardian would ask, 'Don't you get drunk sometimes ?' and another, ' Don't you keep a gambling-house ?' and a third, ' How much do you spend in tobacco ?' He recollected an instance of this sort which his friend Mr. Mortimer had told him of. A poor old fellow from THE NEW POOR-LAW OPPOSITION. 415 Bratton Fleming came before the Board, 73 years of age, and after he had been severely questioned by the Chairman, a Guardian got up with much self-compla- cency and asked him, ' How much do you spend a-week in tobacco?' The old man answered, 'Why 3d., and 2d. of it go'th for duty,' and looking archly at the Board he added, ' so, 'tis but a penny arter all.' He had been asked why he did not bring a charge before the Board, when facts of ill-treatment had come to his knowledge ? He knew better than to bring a charge before a judge and jury whose verdict was always predetermined. Mr. March went on at considerable length to comment upon the workhouse discipline ; noticed that it was a crime in the house to drink tea, and the exultation with which the master brought some empty teapots before the Board one morning as an important cap- ture which he had made under the beds and upon the persons of two or three female inmates ; that when the law was first before Parliament, he had confidence in its originators, from their great profes- sions of respect for the liberty and rights of the subject, and that it would be a useful and humane measure ; but how great was his mortification and disgust when the Assistant-Commissioner came into this neighbourhood to put the Act in force ; that the cold and exposure to which the poor were subjected, when they were di'agged into the town to undergo exami- nation before the Commissioner, had issued in the death of many of them ; and several other points he noticed in which we have neither time nor space to follow him." — Barnstaple Anti- Poor -Law Meet- ing, March 1, 1841. '* Mr. Fielden presented a petition from Hannah Ingreg, of Chesterton, Cambridge, complaining of the conduct of the Earl of Hardwicke and other Guardians of the poor of the Caxton and Accrington Union, towards her husband and family, and representing that her husband had been deprived of his home by being shut up in the Union-house, while the whole of her children had caught the itch in the same place, and that, finally, the whole family had been cast out to wander about in a starving condition, without house or home ; — from Mr. William Rowcliffe, Churchwarden of Runnington, Somerset, representing, that before the New Poor- Law came into operation in his parish, the annual average amount of poor-rates was £31, whereas since the adoption of the New Law it had amounted to £49 4s. 6d. ; and that no content or happiness will be known in England until the New Law is repealed ; — i'rom Mr. Cadogan Williams, of Newcastle-Bridgend, Glamorganshire, representing the- great hardship of the New Poor-Law, under which poor per- sons are not to be relieved, except under the condition of going into the Union- house, there to be separated from their wives and children, a regulation that has lately been introduced among his neigh- bours, who feel shocked at its cruelty and impiety ; representing also, that per- sons reason too rigidly with regard to the poor, for that others in a higher sphere are paid without performing service, and praying that the law may be modified ; — Irom twenty Guardians of the poor of the Union of Carmarthen (being a large ma- jority of the Board), three of them justices of the peace, representing that they have carefulljr observed the working of the New Law since they have been Guardi- ans, and that they are satisfied that con- ceding to them the discretion of allowing out-door relief to all classes of paupers, whether adult or infant, would be benefi- cial ; also, that the Bastardy clause of the New Law is cruel and directly opposed to justice and Christianity ; and entreating the House to amend the law in these respects ; from fifty-one persons of the parish of Aldershott, Hampshire, being artisans, mechanics, and labourers, mem- bers of a benefit society, representing that they view with alarm the bad ieeling which has been caused by the introduction of the New Law, and expressing their fears that the members of the House of Commons do not know the condition of the poor, the privations they endure, and the temptations under which they conse- quently labour ; that crime is to be attri- buted to poverty, and not to innate dis- honesty, and praying that the rights of the poor may be established by the restoration of the 43d of Elizabeth ; — from the mem- bers of a benefit society at Seal, in the county of Surrey, signed by eighty-three mechanics and labourers, representing that the poverty of the labouring classes is the cause of their committing crime, and therefore aggravates that cause ; and praying that the 43d of Elizabeth may be restored ; — from 860 mechanics and la- bourers of the parishes of Guesthng, Icklesham, Fairlight, Bechley, Westfield, and Brade, in the county of Sussex, expressing their indignation at the cruelty practised under the New Poor-Law upon 416 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. their classes, by which poverty is treated as a crime, and praying the House of Commons to unite with tlie other House of Parhament in passing a law more humane than the present, by which the poor of England are treated worse than the black slaves of the West Indies ; — from 872 inhabitants of Radcliffe, Lanca- shire, condemning the New Poor-Law, and praying the House not to renew the powers of the Commissioners ; — from the inhabitants of St. Mary's Newington, in vestry assembled, a petition signed by Mr. H. Hearsee, Chairman, representing the evils arising from the system of plural and proxy voting established under the New Poor-Law, the enormous cost of the New Law, and praying the House to give no further power to the Commissioners, but rather to repeal the law altogether, and suifer the ])arish to manage its own affairs ; — from Llanndysell, Llangyullo, Bangor, and other places in the county of Cardigan, signed by 203 clergymen, gen- try, dissenting ministers, farmers, and other rate-payers, expressing their indig- nation at the unchristian and unconstitu- tional practices put in force under the New Poor-Law Amendment-Act, and concluding with an earnest demand and prayer that the law may be forthwith repealed. The hon. member then pre- sented a petition, signed by the inhabit- ants of Oldham." The following is the portion of it which regards the New Poor-Law. " ' That the New Poor-Law was passed on authority of Commissioners whose re- ports were so voluminous that no man could read and digest them in less than two years of diligent reading; and that several volumes, even of these reports, on which the bill was founded, were not printed for the use of members till after the bill was passed. That the provisions of the Bill itself are unconstitutional, inconvenient, and unjust; and that the powers given to Commissioners under it have been, as might be expected, acted upon in a manner so arbitrary, and so shocking to humanity, that the country ascribes to those who procured it to pass the wicked intention that the powers should be so used, but the unmanliness of shrinking from avowing it by direct enactment. That, under this law, thou- sands of human beings have been driven from their native homes in the south of England into the north to seek employ- ment in manufactures, and, having worked in disappointment, have pined to death, or wandered forth again, without home or means, outcasts on the world ; and that this experiment of the Poor-Law Commis- sioners and hard-hearted Guardians hav- ing failed, no redress to the sufferers is offered, except the mere unblushing avowal that the scheme is a failure, and is to end. " ' That, in the renewal of the Bank Charter in 1833, encouragement was held out to combinations of bankers to deluge the country with paper-money of different denominations, owing to which a false prosperity was created, ending in three years after the passing of the Act, and continuing its operation still, in ruining merchants and manufacturers, and in throwing suddenly out of work thousands of industrious workpeople, and dooming them to the ' labour test,' another inven- tion of the esperimentors under the New Poor-Law Commission.' " — July 16, 1839. " The parish of St. Pancras had a Local Act, and that the Poor-Law Commission- ers attempted to introduce their particular government by virtue of one of the clauses in the old Act. In that attempt, however, they failed. The Court of Queen's Bench held, that, when there was a Local Act, and a Board of Guardians, it was not compe- tent to the Poor-Law Commissioners to introduce a Board of Guardians under the Amendment-Act, as distinguished from the Guardians under the Local Act. (Hear.) The parish of St. Pancras, therefore, escaped from the Poor-Law Commission- ers with the dissentient opinion of one of the learned judges. He well remembered what had taken place when he left the Court, though he would not mention names. He left the Court followed by a gentleman who said, ' As you don't like to have a Board of Guardians, we will put you into a Union,' (hear, hear), upon which he (Sir F. Pollock) said, ' Sir, if you have any intention of doing that, I beg to tell you that your present remark will for ever prevent that; for in the Court of Queen's Bench, or in my place in Parliament, I will always be ready to state what I have said, and prevent you from doing indirectly what you cannot do directly.' He (Sir F. Pollock) was a parishioner, and considered that, if they were large enough to conduct their own affairs under a Board of Guardians, they did not want to be put into a Union. He dared the party to do so. Some time after the Poor-Law Commissioners had put the whole of the city of London — he THE NEW rOOR-LAW OPPOSITION. 417 thought no fewer than 51 parishes — into one Union. He had moved in the Court of Queen's Bench to set aside that order. Many parishes, under the govenjment of local Acts and Boards of Guardians com- plained of the interference of the Poor- Law Commissioners, and had said, that if they received the law as laid down at Somerset-house, many respectable per- sons who could live out of the workhouse with a little assistance, which the parishes were ready to afford (cheers), would be driven into the workhouse, and woukl, in consequence, die of shame. The Court of Queen's Bench had decided, after great deliberation, that under the 28th section the Poor-Law Commissioners had the power of forming a Union of any number of parishes they thought jiroper. There was no injustice in saying, that a Board of Guardians should not be imposed where one already existed ; but these Boards were superseded bj^ uniting the several parishes into Unions. What was done with reference to the Reform Bill and the Municipal Bill ? In the former a clause was inserted repealing every charter, statute, and act, standing in the way of that Bill. A clause to the same effect ■was introduced into the Municipal Bill. Was this course adopted in the Poor-Law Bill ? No ; and he was not surprised at it. When the Poor-Law Amendment- Bill was passed, it was the general under- standing in the House, that all Local Acts should not be interfered with, but should remain in due force. He had endeavoured to obtain some precise and exact in- formation with reference to that declara- tion, and had searched in the usual chan- nels of information — not in the newspa- pers of the day, but in the Mirror of Par- liament. He had not been able to find any distinct statement that fell from Lord Althorp ; but certain expressions that fell from the noble lord during the discussion, justified the House in believing that pa- rishes, then under the control of local Acts of Parliament, and local Boards of Guar- dians, were not to be brought under the oi)eration of the Poor-Law Bill, and were not to be interfered with by the Poor-Law Commissioners. It was worthy of re- mark, that botli the Reform Bill and Mu- nici])al Bill, repealed all those Acts which stood in the way of the operation of tliose measures. It was never intended by Par- liament, that between 300 and 400 Acts of the Legislature sliould exist by the sufferance and caprice of the Poor-Law Commissioners. It was ridiculous to sup- pose that such an idea was ever contem- plated. If it were the intention of the noble lord to make the House believe, that the Poor-Law Commissioners did not intend to repeal the Local Acts under which so many parishes were now go- verned, it was his duty to say so more explicitly, and in less ambiguous language than that contained in the third clause of the bill. It washiglily important that the noble lord should, by a declamatory enact- ment, set the matter at rest without any delay." — Sir F. Pollock, Ploiise of Com- mons, INIarch 26, 1841. " Now what was the operation of that law ? — what the effect on the minds and feelings of the people of that law, coming to them, as it did, under the sanction of a Liberal Administration, and proposed by a Liberal Administration ? This was a case which showed how careful one ought to be in the use of terms, because he was confident that no Tory Administration could have proposed such a measure ; and if it had proposed such a one, no Tory Administration could have passed it into a law. But what was the mode of rating under it.'' A proposition was made in the year 1808, for the first time, to give the right of plural voting. By an Act called Sturges Bourne's Act, tlie rate- payers occupying at £190 a-j'Car, were to give two votes in country elections of Overseers. And what was the system of voting under the New Poor-Law ? That right of voting, which had been granted to occupiers by Sturges Bourne's Act, was by the New Poor-Law transferred to owners, even to non-resident owners ; so that, imder the existing law, a non-resi- dent owner could give six votes, for tlie very property for which the occupier gave only three votes. (Hear.) Was this a proper franchise ? was this a specimen of Liberal Administration? was this what the country had a right to expect from a Reform Government? If it were, then, he said, the sooner the country got rid of them the better. (' Hear, hear,' from Colonel Sibthorp.) Surely tluit could not be a Liberal Government which gave its sanction to a franchise of this kind. See how it worked. He himself knew of one parish in which there were put in 1,500 votes by proxy alone. Now, how- ever, it was jnoposed to alter this ; and the noble lord wished that 21 should.be the greatest mmiber of votes that any one person should be allowed to give. But what was the oi)eration of the system on the rate-payers ? They were vii'tuuUy E 418 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. disfranchised. (Hear, hear.) They knew it ; they were indignant at it. ' What use is it,' said they, ' for us to interfere in these elections? We are deprived of our right by the non-residents and their proxies.' (Hear, hear.) In consequence, then, of the operation of the law in this and other respects, and on reflecting upon these things, he could assure the House, that this class of persons had become dissatis- fied, at least, at the proceedings of the House of Commons ; that they had no respect for the legislature, and felt no in- terest in its proceedings. They said, ' It is of no use for us to petition the House of Commons ; for when we do scud a petition no attention is paid to it, and not one word is allowed to be spoken upon the subject of it.' In short, it was felt among the people that the proceedings of that House were adverse to popular rights, adverse to popular interests, and only cal- culated for the protection and advance- ment of the rights and interests of the rich. These were the sentiments of the persons of whom he spoke ; and for him- self he would say, that when he found the principles of the Poor-Law Act en- tirely hostile to the interests of the poor he should not do his duty, as a member of Parliament, if he did not express his opinion upon it. He said, then, that it was a coarse, cold-blooded Act — that it was based on ferocious and savage princi- ples, and that it was calculated to lead only to the torture and grinding of the poorer classes (hear, hear) ; that it was calculated to make the muscle and bone of England strive against the Parliament ; and he warned the House, that if they tried to carry it out fully, they would raise a spirit of resistance which nothing but force would be found effective to op- pose. Was it well to pass such measures ? Was it wise ? He thought not. (Hear, hear.) He believed that the House had, in a great measure, been led astray, in legislating on this subject by the fabulous statements put forth by the Poor-Law Commissioners. But there was yet time to retrace their steps. The poor man, ■who had been toiling for 40 years, and scarcely obtaining bread for his wife and children — he, on his knees, was now ap- pealing to that love of justice which be- longed to the House — to the feelings of their hearts — to all their affections and sensibilities, and asking them, in the name of God, not to impose on him a law so savage as this. He who had supported a wife and children by so many years' toiling, appealed to the House not to let him fall a victim to the cruelty of those who might be inclined to make his poverty the groundwork of punishment. (Cheers.) Day after day, and week after week, he (Mr. Wakley) met with many instances of this sort among the jurymen who came before him — men on whose cheek the deep wrinkles told sufficiently what sor- row and grief they had passed through. Such men would tell him, that they thought Parliament wished the people to be mur- dered. He (Mr. Wakley) said to them in answer, ' No; Parliament wishes to do justice to the people;' but these persons would not listen to him ; they referred him to the Poor-Law, and compelled him to reflect how much of truth what they said might have in it. (Hear, hear.) He wondered if hon. members generally knew what the nature of physical toil was ; did the noble lord know what it was ? Well, then, let them take, by way of example, the boy of 15 years of age: — Take him (said the hon. gentleman) dragging his feet through the field, following the plough; at 21 he thinks himself a man; he can plough, mow, and reap ; but every day tells him, that day after day, through life, he must toil. To-day passes, and next day comes ; but throughout his life the same law operates, until at 60 he is broken down, paralyzed, rheumatized (hear, hear) ; and still, as his body falls away, his days become more and more oppressive, more and more wretched. He passes the doors of the workhouse, and says every time he passes, ' There it is my doom to end my days ;' and, to make the matter more wretched still, there meets his ej'e the cemetery attached to the same workhouse, and his view is regaled, day after day, with the sods under which he is soon to repose. At last, he cannot earn, by the wages of his labour, enough to support himself and his family, and his employer, true to the principles of the political economist, says, ' I have lost by you for the last three weeks. I pay 8s. a- week to you ' — bad wages in these times, the House would agree with him — ' I pay you 8s. a- week ; but I can do it no longer.' ' But,' says the poor man, ' I hope some- thing may be found for me that I can do.' ' No,' says the unfeeling master. The poor man then applies to the Guardians. They say, ' Come into the house.' Says he, ' I think that if you could let me have 3s. or 4s. a-week, I could do.' They an- swer, ' We would be glad to do it, but the Commissioners at Somerset-house will THE NEW POOR-LAW OPPOSITION. 419 not allow it ; they let us have no control ; we have no means of upsetting their au- thority. We willingly would, but we cannot,' (Hear, hear). From that mo- ment darkness and clouds overshadow that man ; and from the moment he enters the portals of tlie workhouse, he feels that he has entered his tomb. The hon. gentle- man then went on to ask,Was that the pro- per effect of Christian legislation ? was it possible that hon. members could be aware of these things ? that they could be familiar with the operation of a law of this nature, and yet vote for its continuance ? No ; hon. and learned members, and especially the noble lord (Lord J. Russell), could have no knowledge of the working of this monstrous system, or they would not think of supportinsj it." — House of Commons, March 8, 1841. " If the Conservative party suffer themselves to be caught in the snare so artfully laid for them by their opponents, with reference to what we may venture to call the antagonist questions of Poor- Law continuance and Corn-Law repeal, they will prove, in the face of the world, their utter incapacity for the government of this country. It is not a temporary disadvantage, a mere trifling obstruction to their return to popularity and power, but the total annihilation of their political pretensions, which may be the result of a false step at this peculiar juncture. " The game of Ministers has evidently been to entrap the landed interest into committing themselves irrevocably to that most unjust, despotic, and unchristian measure which they have substituted for the ancient charitably-intended system of Poor-Law relief; to carry this measure, and continue it, by their assistance ; and then, when the tumult of popular indig- nation had begun to set in strongly against both the law and its authors, to offer compensation for its cruelties, at the ex- pense of the same landed interest ; with- drawing themselves from the storm under cover of this concession, and leaving to the Conservative party the exclusive re- sponsibihty of maintaining an oppressive Poor-Law and an unpopular Corn-Law both together. " Had there been among the agricultural Conservatives that degree of foresight which might have been expected, they would have suspected this trick from the beginning, or, at all events, would not have failed to perceive the shadow of coming events in the words uttered by o Lord John Russell in the Corn-Law de- bate of 1839. ' I did hold,' said the noble lord, ' whatever might be the pro- per opinion with respect to the Corn- Laws, that when agricultural distress and tlie Poor-Laws weighed upon the landed interest with aggravated burden, it was desirable not to enter into the questijn with a view to the alteration of the law in a manner which might aggravate the distresses already existing ; but noiu, u'lien the burden has been much diminished since the enactment of the Poor-Law Amendment- Act, that is one of the rea- sons ivhich induce me to believe that the question may be now fairhj entered upon.'' Surely this ought to have satisfied the men who, while they considered the main- tenance of the Corn-Laws indispensable to the landed interest, eagerly seconded every proposition, however unconstitu- tional, which could tend to diminish the amount of poor-rates — this language, we say, ought to have satisfied them that they were pursuing a penny-wise and pound-foolish policy, and assisting both to mask and to fortify a battery against themselves. " And so, in the event, it has proved. The administration of the Poor-Laws has been placed in the hands of indivi- duals notoriously unfavourable to the Corn-Laws, and they have taken care to work their instrument well. They have created a deep sense of oppression, they have exasperated the people, on purpose to offer a vent to that exasperation, a pretended remedy to that oppression, in an attack upon the Corn-Laws. They have curtailed the measure of relief afforded to the poor, by every cruel and unjustifiable device which political eco- nomy could suggest; and just as the landed proprietor began to count his gains, and to felicitate himself upon a re- duction of his burdens to the amount of 40 or 50 per cent., they interpose with a proposition intended to make him dis- gorge the ill-gotten pelf, and share his profit with the manufacturer and the merchant. " For our own part, we honestly de- clare that, although we see a good deal of finesse, we see no particular injusti(;e, in this. We think, as we have always said, that an alteration of the present Corn- Laws, effected by peaceable and consti- tutional means, and adjusted with due consideration for the interests of the agri- cultural as well as the manufacturing poor, would be a national benefit ; not, E 2 420 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. indeed, so great a benefit, especially to the working classes, as empyrical agita- tors pretend, but still a benefit. And if the New Poor-Law, that enormous pub- lic fraud, is still to be administered so as greatly to retrench the sums of money formerly appropriated to the relief of the poor, we cannot understand on what principle of reason one class only should be permitted to monopolize the benefit of such a retrenchment. We assent, there- fore, to the proposition, that the present Poor-Law and the present Corn-Law cannot stand together : we think that cither both or one of them must be greatly altered or repealed. " It becomes, then, important to con- sider, with respect to those measures, the actual position of the two great political parties. In the first place, we observe that neither of them is prepared to abandon both these laws ; the Whigs take their stand upon the Poor-Law, and jiropose to give fresh harshness to all its odious features, to pei'severe in its present mode of administration, to enlarge the powers of the Commissioners to whom that administration is intrusted, to fix it without mitigation for ever on the country ; while the Conservatives, with equal per- tinacity, reject, as a party, every overture for the alteration of the Corn-Laws. This is the actual state of things ; we may regret it, but such it is, " The people, therefore (assuming the people to be, like ourselves, dissatisfied with the present state of the law upon iboth these subjects), know that they can- not expect to have their views on both points seconded by either the Whig or the Conservative party. At the best they will have to choose between one party oflfering them a change in the Corn-Laws without Poor-Law reform, and another party offering them Poor-Law reform without a change in the Corn-Laws, Which, therefore, if this is to be the alternative, will be their choice ? " No reasonable man, with a common share of humanity, can hesitate in such a case. Whether he regards the certainty or the nature, the nearness or the magni- tude, of the evil to be redressed; or the safety, the facility, or the efficacy of the remedy, his decision must be the same. On the side of the Poor-Law there is gross, direct oppression ; not a depriva- tion of good, but a positive infliction of evil, upon the poor; not a mere conti- iiiuation of a fault}', established system, but a despotic inuovatiou of six yeai's' date ; not a question of complicated re- lations and remote influences, in which it is diflicult to trace with certainly the con- nexion of cause and effect, but one in which the whole machinery and working of the system is broadly displayed before the jiublic eye. Again, any alteration of the Poor-Law upon which the Conser- vative party might resolve would be brought forward bond Jidc, would be carried with case through both Houses of Parliament, would be universally ap- proved in every part of the country, and by all classes of the people, except those few miserable Whigs and political eco- nomists, who would grumble over it in silence. " The Corn-Law, on the other hand, is neither an acute, nor a novel, nor a pressing grievance. It is a very com- plicated commercial question, of which those who have considered it most think the practical importance much overrated. It is a grievance pressing far more upon the rich manufacturing and commercial interests than upon the poor, and any considerable change in it, if suddenly made, will have a tendency to produce new distress, instead of removing that which already exists among the agricul- tural poor. In the debate of 1840, Lord John Russell justly stated, that 'the evil caused by this law had been much exag- gerated,' and would continue (though in a less degree), even after the law should be altered ; and Mr. Muntz, the radical member for Birmingham, observed, that ' after much reffection he had come to the conclusion, that the repeal of the Corn- Laws would not effect all the good which some seem willing to suppose. He con- sidered (referring to facts in support of his opinion), that if the Corn-Law were repealed, the rate of wages, the rent of land, and the price of corn, would be all reduced to the continental level;' and that, ' if,' by the infliction of a heavy blow upon the landed interest, ' the home trade were destroyed, the increase in the foreign demand would not make up for the loss.' Again, if tried by the sound and statesmanlike principles then laid down by Lord John Russell, it will be evident that the ministerial proposition now made for the alteration of the Corn- Laws is not hona fide, but hollow and in- sincere ; the noble lord having stated, in the passage which we quoted jesterday, that for the Government to introduce any measure upon this subject in the face of an adverse majority, and under circum- THE NEW POOR-LAW OPPOSITION. 421 stances likely to create excitement, would bo ' not to promote, but rather to retard, tlie settlement of the question.' Nor can the Government projiosition be car- ried, if Lord Melbourne is to be believed, by any but revolutionary means, involving the disorganization of society, and other moral and political evils of the most frightful magnitude. " For all these reasons, it appears to us impossible to doubt that every man who really cares for the poor, and is not wedded to political economy, would rather get rid of the Poor-Law Commissioners and the workhouse test, at the expense of submitting to the existing Corn-Laws, than assist Lord Melbourne's ministry to rivet the New Poor-Law upon the country for the sake of a violent, and in all pro- bability a profitless agitation, against the Corn-Laws. But most assuredly, if the Conservatives are not prepared to con- cede upon one or the other of those sub- jects, they must not expect to succeed to that popularity which the Whigs have lost. " It is in the power of Sir Robert Peel to maintain himself as Minister, to com- mand a majority upon a dissolution of Parliament, to defeat all the trickery of his adversaries, without any sacrifice of principle. He has said, that it would be discreditable to Parliament to hold out any prospect of a return to the abuses of the old administration of the Poor-Law ; and no one wishes him to do so. He has expressed himself willing to watch a little further the progress of the present law, considered as an experiment ; and no ob- jection will be offered in any quarter to its provisional continuance, with some obvious modifications, till the entire sub- ject can be calmly and fully investigated. All that is at present required of him is a pledge that justice shall be done, that the question shall be solemnly reconsidered and adjusted on a Christian and consti- tutional basis when he is minister. We cannot believe it possible that he should hesitate, under existing circumstances, and after the experience of the Notting- ham election, to adopt this obvious, this necessary, and manly course." — Times, May 6, 1841. " The poor are the aristocracy of the church." — Br. Hook. " While the farmers are complaining of the prices of their produce, wliy are the consumers kept with locked j'aivs T' — The Suffolk Juror. '* I was ever of opinion, that the honest man who married, and brought up a large family, did more service, than he who continued single, and only talked of population." — Goldsmith. " But now for the New Poor-Law in these parts, conceive one of the most beautiful, rural, romantic, agricultural districts ; inhabited by a few nobles, who are surrounded by their tenants and labourers, as industrious, as moral, and as confiding a race of men as dwell under the sceptre of Victoria. Think, too, of thatnational feeling ofveneration which the Welsh foster towards their lords — and of the patriotic fire which once warmed the hearts of the Welsh nobility ! — and see, what ' liberal and enlightened principles' have done for Wales. Behold the de- scendants of those, who would have suf- fered ten thousand deaths, rather than have submitted to foreign tyranny, now base enough — (they are actually so de- graded, that they submit) — to become the tools of the Poor-Law Commissioners, to delude and betray their confiding tenants and labourers into slavery ; nay, so wick- edly are they debased, that, knowing full well, that the blood of the Welsh would rise even in sjnte of them, if the truth were told, they are so far sunk, as wil- lingly and knowingly to misrepresent the nature of the neio laic to the people, and then, to induce their tenants and labour- ers to submit to be harnessed to the cha- riots of the Somerset-house despots ! All this is true. Newspapers are very little read hereabouts. So the tcord of a noble is believed. The nobles become Guar- dians, they act as the tools of the Assistant- Commissioner, and have actually got all the machinery of the ' Devil's own' estab- lished, under the assurance, ' that the only alteration on the old law is, that the poor are to be much better provided for — that out-door relief is to be continued as heretofore, and that the Union workhouse is o)dy intended foi- those poor invalids tcho require good iiurs-iny, and who, under the old law, were left without many com- forts, ichich will be pi-ovided far them in the Union workhouse!' — and they are all assured, ' that no separation of man and wife will ever be attempted.^ Such, I do assure you, are the promises made to these people — and made, too, by men who are called ' noble !' As I said before, tl>ey read little — but now that they see the size of the ' house,' the}' wonder — and some little light is breaking in upon their understandings. As one person said tG> 4-22 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. mc — ' they hegin to fancy that they have been cheated;' and another said, 'The labourers, noio that they see the house building, have a horror about it.' I was assured, by a very respectable tradesmaTi, 'that forty- nine out of fifty, who really knoiv anythiny about the laiv, detested it ; but,' he added, ' the landlords are all for it, and the tenants must do as the stew- ards bid them.' One man told me, ' we look to Yorkshire and Lancashire to get rid of it — we dare not oppose our land- lords.' I am going to St. Asaph on Monday, and will see some of the officers, and try if I can find some labourers who can speak English. Is it not disgusting to see a Government of a great nation, in one district employing police, and spies, and soldiers to force the people to sub- mit to slavery : and, in another, engaging noblemen to delude, deceive, and betray a confiding people into the hands of a tyrannical Commission ? With such a Government and such a race of nobles (?) what chance is there for the constitution and institutions, but in the people ? The day of reckoning will not long tarry." — Mr. Oastlcr\s Letter to the " Northern Star,'' from Rhyl, near St. Asajjh, Oct. 6, 1838. "When the New Poor-Law was first introduced into the House of Commons, my highly-valued friend, the Hon. Wm. Duncombe, M. P., did me the honour to send me a copy of the Bill. I was horror-struck when I perused it. I saw, at once, that it loas the death-hiell of England; — that if it were passed and enforced, the constitution and institutions of this country mtfst inevitably fall ; — that the Church of England would be a useless incubus ; — because, then, Chius- tianity would be banished, — every precept of Christian morals Jiaving been enacted by that laio to be a lie. Indeed, my lord, I was horror-struck ; and I resolved, as soon as I coidd find time, to visit London, and try if, by any means, I could prevent its passing into a laio. When the Bill was in your lordship's House, I did visit London, and used such means as I had, to obtain interviews with the nobles of the land. I had, on several previous occa- sions, been honoured by interviews with the Duke of Wellington. I was first introduced to him by the Duke of Rut- land. My first call was at Apsley-house. I had a long conversation with his Grace; but it was of no use, his Grace ' was pledged' to the diabolical measure. I waited upon other noblemen, and, amongst the rest, the late venerable Earl Eldon. I found his lordship as much opposed to the Bdl as I icas ; he decla ed it ' to be unconstitutional ;' ' but,' he added, ' it is sure to pass ; for, nowadays, they will pass anything :' and then, he said, ' there is no authority to empower the legislature to pass such a law. If matters have, indeed, come to this, a national convention should be called. But I can do no good now ; I have with- drawn from the House of Lords.' I left London with a heavy heart ; I had ap- pealed to the fathers of the nation, — to those whom I had always recognized as the supjjorters of the institutions of the country, — to those whom the constitution had ennobled, not for their own sahes, but for the protection of the rights, liberties, and lives of the people. I had appealed to the aristocracy of England, whom I had always honoured, and in defence of whose rights I had often subjected myself to the popular fury, and for whom I had sacrificed more than any other man in my situation and circumstances. But my appeal was iii vain. The claims of the sons of itulustry were disregarded, and the EIGHTS of the poor were confiscated, at the bidding of the very man whom the 2}oor had just before raised to the ' ivool- sack ! ! ' From that moment, my lord, / resolved to turn to the people, and try if, by their means, I could save my country from the ruin which the aristocracy had prepared for it, and for them. To the people my appeal has not been in vain. Since then, I have addressed many hun- dreds of thousands of my fellow-country- men on the subject of the New Poor- Law ; and I have everywhere found them unanimous in petitioning for its total repeal. On one occasion, I met three hundred thoiisand Englishmen, all of them peaceable, my lord, but all of them resolved not to submit to it. I remember well, during the Reform mania, that Lord Brougham (then Mr. Brougham) fright- ened the old Parliament out of their senses, by representing the Birmingham meeting of a hundred and fifty thousand persons, as an overwhelming demonstra- tion. He talked of the great ease with which they might be armed with muskets, and he declared that no Government could stand against them. Now, my lord, these three hundred thousand men of Yorkshire, were the very men who raised Brougham to the woolsack ; they are quite as able to carry arms, and to use them, as were the men of Birmin^- THE NEW POOR-LAW OPPOSITION. 423 ham : but, because Lord Brougham laughs at them, the Government does not seem to fear them. Tliank God, however, the destinies of my country are no longer in the keeping of Brougham." — Extracted from Oastler's Letter to the Bishop of Exeter, tvhich appeared in the '■''Manchester and Salf or d Advertiser " June 2, 1838, A Poor-Law Repealer with a Hook. — " Lord Morpeth then addressed the electors. He said, there had been a great many altei-ations since first he was elected as their representative. Among those alterations, and for the better, he would mention the Reform Bill, which had given representatives to large towns instead of to Gatton and Old Sarum, The abolition of the slave-trade was another meritorious act performed by his Majesty's Government since he was last elected to be their representative. That measure was passed by a liberal and en- lightened Administration. The passing of the Poor-Law was another alteration made by the Liberal Government. He confessed that was not exactly for the better. It might work well in the agri- cultural districts, but he doubted whether it would do well for the manufacturing towns and districts. He considered that the Commissioners' powers were too much extended. There was, however, a report before the House on that subject, and whenever it was brought to a discussion, he would vote most pi-omptly for any modification that might tend to the com- fort and happiness of the poor and desti- tute. Corporation Reform was another beneficial measure that had been passed by the Liberal Administration, and he was most anxious that L-ishmen should have the same measure granted to them, and so placed on the same footing as their more favoured brethren in England. The noble lord concluded by calling on the electors to unite all their powers for the purpose of giving full effect to their wishes, to vote for the Liberal party, for the Ministry, and the Queen, (The no- ble lord was frequently saluted with min- gled cheers and hisses from the multitude.)" — Leeds Election, July 18, 1837. "Laws incompatible with the constitu- tion are in themselves void," — Elements of Universal Law. " What the Parliament doth shall be holden for naught whensoever it shall enact that which is contrary to the rights of nature, or the principles of the consti- tution." — Sharp and Lord Coke. " Letter to the Right Hon. Earl Stanhope, President of the jNIktro- POLiTAN Anti-Poor-Law Association, FROM Mr. R. J. Richardson, of Sal- ford, Secretary of the South Lancashire Anti-Poor-Law Associa- tion, " ' Salus populi suprema lex.' *' My Lord, — It gives me great plea- sure to witness a nobleman of j-our elevated rank and character, devoting your time, your talents, and your influ- ence, to promote the doctrine which I have chosen for my motto, the opinion written at the conclusion of the Twelve Tables of Rome, that ' The safety of the people is the highest law.' I cannot but admire the truly patriotic fire which ani- mates your Lordship's breast, and urges you forward in the people's defence, at a time when they stand much in need of protection from the evil doings of those W'hose real duty should be to succour and protect them. Allied to no faction, the slave of no party, above the artifices and intrigues of courts and cabinets, regardless of the favours or the frowns of any minis- try, or of anything ichich they can bestow, you have generously come forward, at the call of the people, with whom you deem it no disparagement to associate, claiming no superiority or slavish obedience in con- sequence of your rank, but humbly to ask their assistance to join you in the common cause of humanity, of freedom, and of peace, " The first principle of civilization is that of the associating of mankind in one common family, for one general purpose, the protection, the welfare, and the hap- piness of the whole : and the further anj^ laws may difier from this principle, they become growing abuses of the social com- pact. Hence it is, that mankind, so prone to err, have become divided,, and the doc- trine of meum and tuum has distracted society, by creating envy, strife, and un- charitableness, in the world. Even in our own nation, where we boast of the excellency of our civil constitution, as being compatible with the true and genuine principles of liberty, we have divided opinions (not all just ones) upon the subject of right and wrong, splitting up society into factions, and sacrificing the common interest of the people. Such is the madness of political partizanship, and the unblushing turpitude of the leaders of factions, when called upon to legislate for the good of the common- wealth, that the principle of every luca- 424 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. pure they propound is the accumulation of power to their own part)', be tliey Tory, Whig, or Radical ; and, in the midst of their contentions, their philosophizing and their metaphysical abstractions, they hurl the cause of suffering humanity into tlie whirling votex of experimental cruelty, until the poor, the aged, and the infirm, are dragged down into the abyss of de- struction. " To counteract the effects of this state of things, and remove the causes that produce them, your Lordship has long toiled, almost in vain, and your endeavours liave been directed to restore to the peo- ple the i)rotection the constitution aftbrds of their lives, liberties, and fortunes, and to prevent the poor from being dispoiled of those rights which are inherent in their nature, and were ratified at their birth, the right to a living from the land Avhei-eon they were born, in consideration of their allegiance to its laws, and the services they have rendered upon it for the good of the whole. " The Poor-Laws of England have long been celebrated for their simplicity, the honesty of their purpose, and the wisdom of their provisions. They have called forth the warmest panegyrics from the most eminent writers upon English jurisprudence, one of whom, the great Lord Bacon, Chancellor to James L, called the 43d of Elizabeth, ' The poor man's charter ;' and my Lord Coke said the same Act was the 'most perfect specimen of human legislation.' No Avonder that you, my Lord, should cling so tenaciously to this good old law, which Sir W. Blackstone, Attorney-General to Queen Anne, said had so interwoven charity into our constitution, that to re- peal it would be to virtually abrogate the constitution itself. No wonder that the people should have been alarmed at the gradual innovations made upon this be- nevolent statute by subsequent Acts of Parliament, until its powers and provi- sions have become nugatory by the passing of the New Poor-Law. All I marvel at, my Lord, is, how it comes to pass, that the people have remained quiescent at this serious outrage upon the constitution ; but my wonder ceases when I contemplate the deplorable condition of the great mass of society ; — when I pause to reflect upon what they once were, and what they now are ; — when I sigh for the days that are passed, when our forefathers were comparatively happy and free in the enjoyment of the fruits of their labour. In the rude ages of English history, even so fiir back as the days of Saxon idolatry and superstition, the laws approximated nearer to the principle of civil liberty, and inspired the people with greater ve- neration for their institutions and more profound respect for their rulers, than now, after the lapse of eight centuries, when law-making has become a matter of business, and not of civil policy ; and instead of our lawgivers being regarded as the brightest ornaments of political jurisprudence, possessing all the wisdom, virtue, and noble-minded independence of our venerable Saxon ancestors, they are a degenerate, selfish, cruel, experi- mentalizing band of factious conspirators, leagued hi unholy alliance against the commonwealth, exciting in the people a rankling hatred and a deep spirit of re- venge. " ' The principal aim of society is to protect individuals in the enjoyment of those absolute rights which were vested in them by the immutable laws of nature, but which could not be preserved in peace, without that mutual assistance and intercourse which is gained by the insti- tution of friendly and soci.al communi- ties.' { Blackstone" s Com., Lib. 4, vol. L) Therefore, it may bejustly observed, that the Great Alfred had this principle in view when he digested the infinite diver- sity of laws passed during the heptarchy into one common code, the ' liher jitdici- alis ;' and instead of trusting to an abso- lute power in the monarch, he instituted the Wittena-Gemotes, or, Parliament of wise men, to frame laws for the govern- ment of the social system ; and, in order to secure respect for those laws, he caused their administration to be lodged in ma- gistrates elected by the people ; and, to prevent any undue influence being ex- ercised over the lives and liberties of the people by such magistrates, he established that great palladium of British freedom, trial by jury, as an admirable test of truth. Justice then knew no distinction; the rich and the poor were equal in the eye of the law : the wapentake court, with the chief- baron at its head, aflbrded j^i'otection to all, and the institution of Frank-2)lcdge bound the whole of society in one common bond of fellowship ; and so rigid was Alfred in preserving the strict rules of equal laws and equal justice, that forty-four judges were hanged in one year for wilful and corrupt judgment against the poor people. fSclden ; Mirroiir of Justice, Sfc.J It is true, at this time there were THE NEW POOR-LAW OPPOSITION. 425 many barbarous laws, such as Trials by Ordeal ; but these laws were not the eHect of AllrecFs institutions, but the re- mains of a system engendered by the superstitious character of the northern nations, whose barbarous customs yet exist in many parts of refined Europe : — and even in England, in the nineteenth century, we have a refined system of tor- ture, a new mode of trial — trial by hxm- ger, in order to ' test ' the destitute con- dition of the poor in ' Union ' prisons. " In the early dawn of Christianity in England, even in the Saxon times, we find recorded in the Mirroicr of Justice, a book written antecedent to the Norman conquest, chap. 1, s. 3., the following strong proof of the existence of a legal provision for the poor, and the obligations of the people to maintain them : ' It was ordained, that the poor should be sustained by Parsons, by Rectors of the Church, and by the Parishioners, so that none of them die for want of sustenance.^ Let us pause, and refiect upon the moral and social condition of the people in those dai'k ages, when, as historians tell us, they were barbarous and superstitious ; and, after a pause, venture to contrast that truly benevolent ordination with the practice of parsons, and rectors, and parishioners, in this brilliant age of sys- tematic refinement and human improve- ment : how shall we find the Right Reverends, the Very Reverends, and the Rev. Pastors, of the modern church em- ployed ? Not in administering relief to the poor, not in attending to their temporal wants, not in seeing that none of them die for want of sustenance (for that is an every-day occurrencej, not in sharing the tenth part of the produce of the earth with the aged and the infirm, the desti- tute, the widow, the orphan, and the stranger, but luxuriously enjoying all the legitimate revenues of the poor as a vested right, settled upon them by Act of Par- liament, or by the will of the most vo- luptuous monarch that ever disgraced England's throne, as a reward for their base apostasy to the religion of their fathers, and their panderings to his licentious appetite and ambitious designs. The revenues be- longing to the poor in this country formed the largest branch of the public treasury, inasmuch as they not only consisted of the predial tithes, but that a very large amount was derived from jirivate endow- ments. The charitable spirit tliat existed before the Christian era in all nations, had laid the foundation of the maxim, * that the rich ivere hound by moral ohliga- tion to maintain the poor.^ The era of Christianity coniirmed the maxim, and it became one of the canons of the ancient Catholic Church : as the heathens had established that rule, the Christians found it not incompatible with their pious offices to exhort the rich to observe it ; hence originated the numerous monastic institu- tions all over Europe, as also in England, where the religious houses were so im- mensely rich, not so much in costly fur- niture, as in their territorial possessions, which afforded them every means of ad- ministering relief to the poor and needy, as well as to contribute to the service of the state. " It is very probable that Great Britain was first laid out in parishes by Archbishop Honorius, about the year 630, during the Saxon Heptarchy : but as the country was divided into provinces, and under the dominion of different monarchs, and as the civil wars between Edwin, King of Northumberland, Penda, King of Mercia, and Cenowalch, King of Wessex, kept the island in a fermented state, the clergy were obliged to confine themselves to their monasteries, and wait a more favour- able opportunity of carrying out the ec- clesiastical divisions as laid down by Honorius. In 709, Ina, King of Wessex, published a code of Saxon laws, many of which were for the government of the church and the poor ; and in 727, the tax of Peter's Pence was first levied for the sujjport of the college at Rome. Selden observes, at this time, that the clergy lived in common without any divi- sion of parishes : this cannot be true; for the island was divided into parishes, although the clergy could not avail them- selves of such division in consequence of the intestinal commotion that prevailed. In 828, Egbert commenced the kingdom of England, by uniting the several king- doms of the Heptarchy. This encouraged the clergy to persevere hi com])leting the boundaries of parishes ; but in forty years after, the Danes ravaged England, pillaged the churches and monasteries, ravished, and afterwards burnt the nuns to death, and committed many other excesses, until Etheldred was slain, and Alfred ascended the throne, who waged war against them, and finally succeeded in expelling them from the kingdom : then the civil divisions of the kingdom took place, and the clergy completed their arrangement of parishes. The tithes, up to this period, had been considered a voluntary offering to the 426 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. church ; the clergy now began to consider them a legal impost upon the land, and the divisions of parishes enabled them to levy them in a more regular manner than they had hitherto been, thereby reducing their collection into a system, and the poor consequently were better attended to by their pastoral deacons ; and, despite of the turbulence of the times, the Danish in- vasions, and the Norman conquest, this right of the poor remained inviolate. ^" In the reign of Henry I. a convoca- tion of the clergy was held, in which tlie canon laws were revised, and one of them clearly established the division and uses of the tithes, which right existed until the period of the Reformation. In Diujclales Monasticon is shown the express canon, directing and authorizing such division. He says, ' Ut ipsi sacerdotes a popidis suscipiant decimns, et nomina eorum qui cumque dederint scn'pfa habeant, et secun- dum autoritatem canonicam coram testibus dividant ; et ad ornamentum ecclesice pri- mam eligant partem ; sennidam partem ad usum pauperum et perigrinorum per eorum ?imnus, miserecorditer cum omni humili- tate, dispensent; tertiam, vera, suhimet ipsis sacerdotes reservent.' ' Tlie priests tliemselves may receive the tithes from the people, and record in writing the names of those who give them, and divide them in presence of witnesses, according to canonical authority, and let them take the first part for the ornament of the church, and distribute the second with their own hands, compassionately and humbly, for the use of the poor and the stranger, and the third part the priests may reserve for themselves.' Sir W. Blackstone differs a little from the above authority, and adds a fourth division, namely, one for the use of the bishop. He may be right in thus dividing the tithes into four divisions, but such division cannot be antecedent to Hen. I. ; and if it was so, what authority had the bishops to collect the tithes, when we find that the clergy generally were obliged to forego many of their privileges for want of power to enforce them, during the long contests between the Britons, Saxons, Danes, and Normans, which unsettled all the ecclesi- astical institutions of the country ; and until Archbishop Anselni, in the reign of Hen. I., obtained something like a conces- sion of particular rights of privileges, appertaining to the church, nothing of permanent or settled division can be said to have existed. Besides, it is fair to assume, that the bishops, as the heads of the clergy, received the whole of the third division of tlie titlies as set forth in the canon of Hen. I., and made such sub- divisions of the ecclesiastical moiety as they, by their superior wisdom in conclave assembled, might determine. In addition to such monastic revenues they themselves possessed, they had the power to retain what they pleased I'rom the tithes entrusted to them for division and distribution ; and having also great power in the state, they could exercise a control over such revenues as they thought meet. " If we look back into the earlier history of Europe, we find a similarity existing in the division of the ecclesiastical and lay revenues in France, which clearly shows, that the poor were always con- sidered in the testaments of the rich : Charles, Emperor of France, in the year 801, who, 'for his grate dcdis and vic- toryes, he deseruyd to be namyd Charlis the Grate, and for all his grate myghte and hououre, yet that notwithstoding, he was meke and lowlie in his hert, and mylde and graciouse to the poore, and marcyfuU to wretchis and nedy ; and set his sonnes to lerne as well letters, as marcyall and knightlye featis, and his doughter he set to spynnynge and woll warke. This noble man Charlis, iii yeres before his deth, he had peace with all coiitreys, as well such as were obeysaunt vnto the em- pyre, as such as longed to his domynyon of France. In the which tyme of rest, amonge other goodlye und vertuous dedis, he made his testament, and distributyd his teporall moveable goodis in iii partis, wherof ii partis he gave to maynteynynge of Bisshopis and other mynysters of the church, and for the reparayon of churchis and necessaryes to the same, and to y" maynteynyge of the dyuyne seruyce of God, with also the ayde and fedynge of poore and nedy people ; and the thyrde parte to his children, and others of his allye.' (Fabyan Chron. Cap. Clvi.J " The above instance of charity was only one of many in the earlier history of Europe. England could at all times boast of her benevolence. Whilst Europe was in a state of slavery, England en- joyed comparative freedom, because her institutions were founded upon justice, and her people were charitably disposed towards each other ; notwithstanding the changes of dynasties, the civil wars, and other internal distractions, charity and benevolence were the characteristics of the rich towards the poor. Virtues such as these will alw.iys prevail. The law of THE NEW POOR-LAW OPPOSITION. 427 Elizabeth made charity a part and parcel of the constitution. It compelled those among the rich that were selfish, to yield a portion of their wealth to support the poor and needy, the widow, the orphan, and the stranger. It was a glorious con- firmation of that invaluable right of every poor and helpless person to a maintenance from the s il whereon they were born and reared. The Report of the Charity-Com- missioners inconteslably proves, that since the Elizabethan age, the rich have contributed largely to swell the poor's funds in their respective parish churches. Munificent endowments and voluntary donations are found recorded in the parish books, and on public boards in parish churches, proving the charitable zeal of our fathers. That zeal is fast dying away, and a spirit of selfishness, called economy, is spreading abroad. The Charity - Commissioners have been at Avork to discover the amount of funds, disposable by the churchwardens to the uses of the poor, and the whole have been handed over to the Poor-Law Commis- sioners of Somerset-house. The Mal- thusians hate charity ; they discounte- nance charitable acts, even to the distri- bution of roast beef and plum-pudding upon a Christmas-day according to the ancient custom of the land. ' Charity,' say they, ' makes men idle, improvident, and profligate.' I say the want of charity in the human heart makes men demons, cruel, selfish, and despotic. Well may you, my Lord, be so zealous in the cause of the poor, when you see them cast upon the wide world, to live or die upon what- ever resources chance may throw in their way. Well may you make the New Poor-Law a question of questions, when you behold the noblest virtue that ever adoi'ned the human mind sacrificed to the cold and heartless philosophy of a Mal- thusian age. Well may you feel indig- nant at the conduct of those of your fellow-citizens who support such infernal measures as the New Poor-Law, so well calculated to destroy every noble senti- ment of the human heart, every tender feeling of humanity, every tie that binds man to his fellow-man, every endearment that makes the family and the home of an Englishman worthy of living and dying for ; every principle of political government, which has made our consti- tution and laws the wisest and freest of any other monarchy in the world. Well may you, my Lord, take your stand against such an odious, unchristian, un- English and unnatural law, as the New Poor-Law Amendment-Act. May you ultimately succeed in your endeavours to rescue the poor of England from its ope- rations : my hearty concurrence, in all your views, be with you — Go^ and pros- per/" " I remain, " Your Lordship's obedient servant, "R. J. RICHARDSON. "Feb., 1837." This letter is well worth a most attentive perusal by lord and loon : its sentiments are pre-eminently honest, honourable and hearty — truly British — and worthy of those better days when everything British was not pro- nounced Brutish as it now, alas ! is. I am a gi'eat admirer of the gallant, glorious forefathers of our isle — their humane charities, and the charms, hardly yet forgotten, of their noble patriotism, heroic qualities, unbounded hospitality, and that sturdy uncome- at-able independence of soul, which neither the sovereign on his tlu'one, or sovereigns in a imrse (tempting tackle nowadays !) could seduce or subdue. The thoughts that breathe of our Saxon sii'es in my friend Richard- son's letter, are, therefore, especially grateful to me, and it affords me cor- dial pleasure to embalm them, for ever and ever, in the pages of tliis work, which the patriotic and humane will not willingly let die, I know\ — G. R. W. Baxter. " They had called for him from the knowledge they had of the opposition which he had shown to that unconstitu- tional and oppressive law, the New Poor- Law. (Great cheering.) He had frankly and readily responded to their call, because he knew that, whatever other men might be as to talents, none could possibly have exceeded or surpassed him in their zeal and endeavours to obliterate that law from the statute-book. (Cheers.) In that respect, therefore, he humbly conceived that his claim was at least equal to that of the first man in the realm, be he whom he might. He could cnly add upon that head that, such as he had been, such, with God's blessing, he should continue to be. (Loud cheers.) He had enter- tained with others a hope that the country would be bettered by Parliamentary re- 428 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. form ; and that the present Ministers, as Reformers, would do something in favour of those on wiiose backs they came into power, and by whom tliey were supported in it. Many uprig-ht Whigs, he believed, as well as himself, had entertained the same opinion ; but when he saw the Reform Ministry turn round upon the industrious poor of the realm, and not only upon the poor and defenceless, but upon the constitution itself (cheers), and drive the industrious labourer and artisan to despair and even death, by their New Poor-Law and by their huge prison work- houses (cheers continued), he certainly then thought that humanity was the first of all Christian duties. (Cheers.) All the old laws of the constitution were to be overturned ; Commissioners, Assistant- Commishioners, Relieving-officers, and men of he knew not how many new appellations and offices (cheers ; ' Take tliat Mr. Barnett'), were to supersede all the official persons of the old constitution. (Cheers.) The dissatisfaction engendered by these various forms of tyrants produced their new rural police. (Cheers.) That and their New Poor-Law produced Chart- ism, What would come next? Perhaps a proclamation of military law (cheers) — for, whatever might be done, the people of this country could not, and would not, be driven from their once respectable station, dow-n, and down, and down, into slaves, without a struggle. (Cheers con- tinued.) Finding his task hopeless in the House of Commons, and feeling that he ought not to obtrude his own opinions witliout further support, in or out of the House, he retired, resolving to husband his forces for a better and more promising time. (Hear, hear.) That time had at last come ; and here he was, at their invi- tation (great cheering), because he felt that, if he should be returned to Parlia- ment, he should be able to act with effect as their repi'esentative. (Cheers.) There was, however, another subject upon which he had reason to feel satisfaction, with which the meeting might not be so well acquainted. If there was any one system of misgovernment, and of mischievous policy, which more than any other had tended to reduce the poor to that depress- ed state, for which the New Poor-Law was pretended to be the only panacea, it was the system of enclosures (cheers), by which, though the effect might not be so visible in that place as in the more rural districts, the poor man, who had been used to have the connnon land to turn out his cow — and wliere there was a cow there was generally a pig — by which the poor man, he said, had been most unjustly deprived of those invaluable rights. (Cheers.) A Bill of that kind, in which he had supported their members, was one in which their own town, the very town of Nottingham, had been materially concerned. It was no apology for such a system to say, even if the fact were so, that some compensation was generally made to the poor. (Hear, hear.) No such compensation could be made (cheers), and if it were made to the poor man of the present day, or even of the present year, of what use was that to his succes- sor in the cottage or tenement which had conferred that right ? (Cheers.) Of these enclosures he had always been a decided enemy, and had in nofewer than three cases been the chief instrument in throwing out bills of that mischievous character and tendency. (Cheers.) The rich had no right thus to buy up the advantages of the poor, and to leave the future race to fare as they could. (Cheers.) The effect, however, of throwing out those three enclosure bills had not been confined to the bills themselves ; for, from his success in those cases, a general apprehension had been ci'eated that others could not be carried ; and, in fact, during the remaining three years that he was in Parliament, only a very few were passed ; whereas, in the three subsequent sessions, the amount of enclosure bills had been doubled or trebled. (Cheers.) He only mentioned these facts to show', that he had never been indifferent to the privileges of the people, and above all to the rights of the poor. (Cheers.) His friends, Mr. Fielden and Mr. Wakley, had borne such generous testimony to his public conduct in that respect, that he thought it better to refer them to their expressions, than to say any- thing further on the subject himself. (Cheers.) He had told them in his ad- dress, that he had not been content merely Avith this activity against measures calcu- lated to injure the poor, but that in every- thing connected with taxation he had been zealous in opposing those imposts which obviously pressed most heavily upon the industrious classes. (Cheers.) How- ever, certainly, the Poor Law-Bill, as the master-mischief, — not only as the Devil, but as Beelzebub the Prince of the Devils, — did chiefly occupy his time (cheers), and engage his labour in order to thwart and put an end to it. (Cheers continued.)" — Mr. Walters Speech at THE NEW POOR-LAW OPPOSITION. 420 Nottingham Election, (which he afterwards won gloriously) April 16, 1841. The following Petition is from the parish of St. Clement, Ipswich Union, wliich shows the dissatisfaction that prevails. Agreed upon November 3, 1839: "to the HOKOUEABLE the POOR-IiAW COMMISSIONERS FOR ENGLAND AND WALES. " We, the undersigned parishioners and inhabitants of the parish of St, Clement, in Ipswich, in the county of Suffolk, present this our humble Petition to yourselves, requesting you (as having the sole power) to relieve us as a parish from the Ipswich Union, and vest us with the power of conducting our parochial affairs unconnected with any parish what- ever. Our reasons for making this request are as follow : — "First. That to us, as a parish, there was not sufficient publicity given of the intention of the parish-officers to connect this parish with the Ipswich Union, and that we were consequently constituted part of the said Union without our know- ledge, and entirely against our consent. " Second. That had sufficient publicity been given, the parishioners would have decidedly opposed any connexion with the said Union, inasmuch that, at that period, a most salutary system of management was adopted and carried on in the parish. There was no cause of complaint. The rates were lowered from six shillings in the pound upon our assessment to two shillings and sixpence in the pound, and the necessitous poor equally done by as before. Impositions of various kinds were detected and abolished, and there was every probability of the rates never in future exceeding two shillings and six- pence in the pound. " Third. That under the old Law and management, every parishioner had imme- diate access to the parish accounts, if re- quisite, to ascertain how the parish-officers expended the money collected for the relief of the poor ; but that now our facility for obtaining any information upon that point is so circumscribed and mystified that the attempt is seldom made, and never attended with satisfaction. " Fourth. That under the old Law much pecuniary relief was given, and the money so distributed was usually spent in the parish amongst the various classes of tradespeople 3 but now that the Poor-Law Union is supplied by wealthy contractors, to the entire exclusion of those tradesmen whose means are insufficient to take any part of the contract. The whole of them are suffering from the system. " Fifth. That under the old Law, in cases of immediate necessity and distress, immediate relief was given, whether as to money, medical attendance, or otherwise ; but now, the Relieving Officer has the full power, so that the wants and necessities of the poor cannot be attended to with satisfaction. " Sixth. That under the old Law, if a medical man rendered essential service to any pauper, whatever parish that pauper belonged to, that medical attendant was compensated for his expenses, time, and skill ; but now, if a medical man is instru- mental in saving the life of a fellow-crea- ture, and is at ever so much trouble and expense so to do, and applies to the Guardians for payment of his account, because he is not the appointed surgeon to the Union he is refused payment, and put to a great trouble, and censured for interfering. " Seventh. The present mode of manag- ing parochial business being so repug- nant to our feelings, and opposed to our views, we, therefore, beg to take the management of our parochial business under our immediate control ; — and your petitioners will ever pray," he. " The Honorary Secretary (Mr. J. Dun- combe) then read the remonstrance at length, as follows : — " TO THE HON. THE COMMONS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, IN PARLIAMENT ASSEM- BLED. " The earnest remonstrance of the undersigned electors, rate-payers, and others, in public meeting assembled. " That the essential difference between a nation of freemen and a nation of slaves is this — that the former have the manage- ment of their public affairs, either by themselves or by their representatives, and that the latter have no such manage- ment, but are taxed without their consent, or that of their representatives. " That Englishmen have been favour- ably distinguished by possessing a larger portion of self-government than most other nations, and more especially paro- chial self-government, which has de- scended to them from the earliest times, and has been, and is, in the opinion of the ablest writers, English and foreign, 430 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. the best preparative for national self- government. " That in proportion to the increased education of the people they are still better fitted for self-government, parochial or national, and that knowledge has of late years increased with a rapidity, and to an extent, unparalleled in the history of the country. "That, in accordance with this incon- trovertible fact, the party at present hold- ing the reins of Government contended strenuously, while out of office, for, and signalized their advent to office by carry- ing into effect, a considerable extension of the suffi-age. " That, nevertheless, after having thus increased the number of those who elect members of the legislature, the same party has most inconsistently abridged the means of parochial self-government by a plurality and proxy system of voting, which in effect entirely disfranchises 99 out of every 100 of those who support the poor (the rate-payers), and makes the land- lords, who, as such, pay no rates, the sole electors of the Guardians of the poor. " That such Guardians, even so elected, have very little power in the management of the parochial funds, or of the poor, but ai'e subjected to the arbitrary caprice and ukases of a highly-salaried body, termed Poor-Law Commissioners, who, being neither ubiquitous nor omniscient, cannot know the necessities of each parti- cular parish or case, and who, consequently, issue rules and orders of the most string- ent and inflexible character, for the ever- varying infinitude of suffering which poverty produces. *' That were these men as wise, just, and humane, as their past conduct induces us to fear they are the reverse, they are invested with power with which no human being should be trusted — the unconstitu- tional power of making rules, orders, and regulations, equal in effect to so many acts of Parliament; and thus three salaried officials supersede and possess the united power of Queen, Lords, and Commons. " That under this system the rate-pay- ers and the poor are both oppressed ; the former, being taxed without their consent, are treated as slaves ; and the latter are incarcerated in gaols, called Union work- houses, and treated as felons ; while, in many instances, they are worse fed than felons. " That such has been the fearful amount of discontent, and so general the com- plaints arising out of the exercise of these arbitrary powers, that it has been found necessary to add to the burdens of the people the enormous cost of a half-military horde of rural police, who, in the preva- lent opinion of the community, are dis- persed throughout the country to silence the wailings of the poor and the murmur- ings of the people. " That, dissatisfied with the enormous power of evil they already possess, the Poor-Law Commissioners are anxious to increase and perpetuate it. " That, regardless of the most solemn, reiterated pledges, that local acts and Gilbert Unions should not be interfered with, the object of the Government now appears to be by indirect means to repeal all local acts, and to destroy all Gilbert Unions, and thus deprive the rate-payers of the last vestige of parochial self-govern- ment. " That the conduct pursued in relation to the New Poor-Law, from the day it was first proposed to the Legislature to the present time, appears to this meeting to have been of the most insincere and disingenuous character, discreditable un- der any circumstances, but on the part of a Government highly culpable, tending as it does to make public virtue a doubt, principle a word of no meaning, and Government an object of suspicion, con- tempt, and hatred. " That this meeting deeply regrets the necessity of thus plainly stating their opinion, for thej^ would wish to see the people free, the poor treated with humanity, and the Government beloved and deserving the confidence of the people. " This meeting, therefore, begs most respectfully, but firmly, to remonstrate with the representatives of the people as to the course that has been already pur- sued relative to the Bill now before the House to increase and perpetuate the power of the Poor-Law Commissioners, and request the representatives of the people will lose no time in rejecting a measure so adverse to the principles of freedom, so injurious to the rate-payers and the poor, and so repugnant to the feelings of the British community. " And this meeting will ever pray," &c. — Anti-Poor -Laiv Meeting, Freemasons' Tavern, March II, 1841. The followiug is the answer of Eaii Stanhope to the address of the Anti- Poor-Law delegates iu Yorkshire : — THE NEW POOR-LAW OPPOSITION. 431 " Sir,— The address of the Anti-Poor- Law delegates, which was signed by your- self, as their Chairman, and which was pi-esented to me by Mr. Oastler, has con- ferred upon nie an honour wliich I most highly value. In the discharge of my public duty I have sought only the satis- faction of my own conscience ; but I am proud to enjoy the approbation of my countrymen, which, next to the happiness that I should feel in being useful to them, is the only reward of which I could be ambitious. I wish that my exertions had been more worthy of their commendations, and that the powerful assistance which I derive from them, and from some portions of the public press that are eminently dis- tinguished by their talents, had already enabled me to render them such services as might entitle me to their gratitude. " As long as I am honoured with their confidence, which I shall ever be most anxious to deserve, and with their sup- port, without which I could not even hope for success, I shall continue to defend, strenuously and steadfastly, the cause of the labouring classes, which I consider as my own, and to act in Parliament as their representative. They form the most use- ful, the most meritorious, and also the most numerous portion of the community, and their welfare is essential to that of the other classes as well as to the security of the State. Their rights cannot be at- tacked with impunity, and are founded, not on the statute of Elizabeth, by which they were merely recognized, but on the institutions of human society, and on the sacred and eternal rights of man. " As I know that my intentions are pure and patriotic, and that I have truth and justice on my side, I am not deterred by any aspersions that may be cast upon me, and, amongst others, by that of my endeavouring to excite revolt, which would, on the contrary, be prevented by the course that I recommended, of re- dressing those grievances which, if allowed to continue, may lead to anarchy and con- vulsion. The most effectual way of avoid- ing disturbance is by removing just causes of discontent ; and I have encouraged meetings and petitions by which public opinion may be legally and constitutionally expressed, and Parliament might be in- duced to repeal an odious and oppressive law. I thought it my duty to warn the House of Lords of the dangers to which the country and all its institutions are exposed from the consequences of that measure, and those who choose to persist in it must be responsible for all the calamities which it may produce. " I am not in the least intluenced by the representations which I heard in Par- liament, that the New Poor-Law is bene- ficial and acceptable to the labouring classes and to the whole community. If the three dictators entertain that opinion, let them subject it to the test of actual trial. They exercise an arbitrary autho- rity over all those who may, through their misfortunes, be compelled to apply to their parishes for relief, and the)' possess the power (I do not say the right) of making, suspending, altering, or rescinding such rules, orders, and regulations, as they may think proper for the management of the poor, and for the formation or dissolution of Unions. Let them declare, by way of experiment, that every parish may refuse to join a Union, or may separate itself from that with which it had been incor- porated, if such should be the decision of its vestry, in which, according to the ancient system, no person should be allowed to vote by proxy, or to have a plurality of votes. It would then be seen that the rate- payers would eagerly resume the management of their own parishes, that the Unions would be speedily dis- solved, and that the labouring classes would no longer groan under that most detestable and despotic law. "After presenting to-day to the House of Lords several petitions, and, amongst others, one from the Trades' Union of Manchester and Salford, against the New Poor-Law, I stated my intention to bring this subject very frequently, and in vari- ous forms, under the consideration of that House. I expressed my earnest hope, and my confident expectation, that the people, to which an appeal must be made at the ensuing elections, would, in all quarters of the country, declare very strongly its sentiments upon this subject, which is of vital importance to all classes of the community. I added, ' It will very much depend on the result of these elec- tions, and particularly with reference to the New Poor-Law, whether the peace of this country will be preserved, whether the property of this country will be pro- tected, and whether the institutions of this country will continue to exist.' " Most fervently do I hope, that the opportunity which a dissolution of Parlia- ment offers will be duly employed, that a close and cordial union of all classes will be formed, as I recommended in a letter to Mr. Oastlcr, that zeal and energy will 432 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. everywlicre be shown, and that strength of numbers ^ith uniformity of action, will insure tlie success of those who are friends to tlio real interests of the country, the defeat and discomfiture of those who call themselves ' political economists,' and the speedy and entire repeal of the New Poor- Law. " Allow me, before I conclude, to thank most cordially you, and the Anti-Poor- Law delegates, for the great kindness of their address, to express the extreme satisfaction which I have derived from it, and to offer to you my most grateful acknowledgments, with the assurance that I shall always continue to be " Your most faithful " and devoted servant, " STANHOPE. "London, July 15, 1837. " To Mr. Charles Robinson." ^'' To Her most Gracious jlfajesfi/ Victoria, bi/ the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Queen, Defender of the Faith. " The Petition of the Loyal and Indepen- dent Inhabitants of the Borough of Oldham, in the County Palatine of Lancaster. *' May it please yotjr Majesty, — " We, your Majesty's faithful and loyal subjects of Oldham, have, on this day of your Coronation, assembled for the pur- pose of showing our firm attachment to your Majesty, and to those laws, and to that constitution, according to which it is no less your INIajesty's pleasure than 5'our duty, to govern the kingdom of England. " Viewing, as w'e do, with joy and satis- faction, the ascension of your Majesty to the throne of your ancestors, we deeply regret that we cannot join with those of your Majesty's subjects who now celebrate that ascension with all the outward show of unmingled satisfaction. However much ■we may rejoice, and we do most sincerely rejoice, that your Majesty is our Queen, our joy is saddened and embittered by our firm conviction, that the rights of the Crown, and the rights and liberties of the people, are trampled in the dust by cor- ruption and treachery. In such a state of things we consider it deceitful and dis- loyal to offer your Majesty any sort of congratulation. Being thus painfully situated, feeling that we ought not to let this day pass unnoticed, but feeling, at the same time, that we could not join in the rejoicing, real or pretended, or other- wise, without doing violence to our sense of duty ; we have come to the conclusion, after mature deliberation, that it would be most consonant with the circumstances of the case, with our feelings of duty to your Majesty and to our feUow-subjects, and we doubt not with your Majestj''s feelings also, that we should in the best manner we may be able, lay before your Majesty one of the most unconstitutional, oppressive, and cruel, of the manifold grievances under which the crown and the people of this once glorious and happy, but now degraded and miserable kingdom of England, labour : trusting to the goodness and wisdom of your Majesty, under the blessing of Providence, to bring to yourself and your faithful people a speedy and happy deliverance. " We, therefore, beg most humbly to submit to j'our Majesty, that it has been the undoubted right of Englishmen, from times to which the knowledge of man ex- tendeth not to the contrary, to live in reasonable ease and comfort upon the soil on which it has pleased God to put them ; that all the property and privileges of any of your Majesty's subjects are founded upon, and subject to this right, that even the allegiance and obedience which are undoubtedly due to the Crown and to the laws of England are so due, and due only upon the condition, that the Crown and those laws will afford full pro- tection to the people in the enjoyment of this inalienable right : that this right has been most grosslj', wickedly, treacher- ously, and cruelly violated, contrary to the peace, security, honour, and glory of 5'our Majesty, your crowm, and your dignity. That it is notorious, that this unheard-of wickedness has been perpe- trated by three persons sitting in Somerset- house, in the city of Westminster, and knoAvn by the style and title of ' The Poor-Law Commissioners for England and Wales ; ' that these infamous per- sons, pretending to act under the authority and by the direction of an Act passed in the fourth and fifth years of the reign of your Majesty's lamented predecessor, have issued rules, orders, and regulations con- cerning the relief of the poor ; that under these rules, orders, and regulations, poverty has been treated as a crime; your Majesty's loyal and dutiful subjects have been con- fined in prisons, as a punishment for their unavoidable misfortunes ; husbands have been separated from their wives, and children from their parents ; that in this their state of unlawful imprisonment. THE NEW POOR-LAW OPPOSITION. 433 your Majest3''s subjects have been ill- treated, abused and insulted, and that in very many instances; particularly by means of food insufficient in quantity, and pernicious in quality, whereby great num- bers of your Majesty's subjects have been brought to premature deaths ; that your Majesty's petitioners are convinced, if these horrible atrocities be not put an end to without loss of time, the bonds of society can not much longer hold together, and that even the stability of your Majesty's throne will be endans^ered. " They, therefore, most humbly and earnestly pray that your Majesty will be graciously pleased to order, that such Commission do cease to exist, and that the three wicked and infamous per- sons aforesaid, be handed over to receive such punishments for their wicked acts as are by the laws of England in that case provided, and as to your Majesty's wisdom may seem meet. " And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray " GOD SAVE THE QUEEN." " REPORT. " The deputation of the Vestry, ap- pointed to the National Anti-Poor-Law Association, have attended several meet- ings of that Association, and beg leave to report, — "That the 'Poor-Law Amendment Act ' has now been in operation nearly five years. It has had a fair trial, and it becomes highly important to ascertain, dispassionately, its results. " Three classes of individuals vehe- mently assert, that it ' works well,' and are anxious for its permanence. They are — " I. The Gox^ermnent — it centralizes their poiver, and greatly increases their patronage. " 2. ^ numerous body of Landlords : — it enables them to overwhelm the rate-pnyers by a system of plurality voting, and to dispose of the money of their unrepresented tenants, under the denomination of j^oor- rates. "3. TJie Poor-Law Commissioners and their dependents : — it gives them the liveli- est interest in each succeeding quarter-day. " For these and other reasons, however, an immense majority of the population is decidedly opposed to the New Poor-Law. " It subjects the pauper, untainted with crime, to the smallest quantity of food capable of sustaining hfe, and throws im- pediments in the way of obtaining relief. 2 F which have produced extreme suffering, and even death, as verdicts of Coroners' Inquests attest. "It thus treats poverty as a crime, and converts the workhouse into a prison. It prohibits the holiest charities of life, by separating parent from child, by ibrbid- diug the access of relatives, excepting at distant periods, and by preventing the re- ception of the smallest pittance from humane friends. " It may be said to have almost legal- ized seduction, inasmuch as it punishes the victim, while the chief culprit gene- rally escapes with impunity, and is en- couraged to repeat the crime. " It thus tends to produce an appalling amount of infanticide, and destroys the warmest feelings implanted by the Creator in the human heart. " It is most tyrannical to the rate- payers. It gives in some cases six votes to the landlord, who as landlord pays no rates, while his tenant, who pro^■ides the funds, has only one vote : — the con- sequence of this is, that the votes of a minoi-ity, who ought not to vote at all, overwhelm those of the vast majority. " It assumes that the people in every parish throughout the country have less charity for the poor, know less of their condition and necessities, are less ac- quainted with their own interests, less careful of, and less fitted to manage them, than the three paid Commissitners at Somerset-house: — assumptions as op- posed to truth, as they are adverse to the best interests of the country. " It creates functions incompatible with the institutions of a i'ree people ; it gives the Commissioners authority to issue Rules, Orders, and Regulations, equal in effect to so many Acts of Parliament ; thus investing three salaried officials with the power of Queen, Lords, and Commons. " It creates and fosters a host of slavish aspirants for office, and stipendiary de- pendents upon the Government, always ready to second and support whatever attempts may be made to destroy the liberties of the people. " It has excited general discontent, and alienated the affections and contidence of a great portion of the community in their rulers. It has created a strong im- pression, that the titular and lauded aristocracy are determined, by a central ized system of governmenl, to monopolize all power to themselves, to deprive tlie people of an important branch of their 434 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. local rights, and to coerce the poor to an extent hitherto never attempted. " Tlie advocates of this measure de- clare that it has reduced the rates ; hut they studiously conceal the fact, that in many parishes the rates have been raised ; they do not tell us, that in consequence of the manual labour required for intersecting the kingdom ^vith railroads, parochial rates have necessarily been diminished in several districts ; nor do they inform us, that in those parishes where the local authorities are fairly chosen by the mass of the rate-payers, the rates have been reduced to a greater extent than they have been under the New Poor-Law Act. " These ingenuous persons, too, care- fully abstain from any allusion to the annual expenditure inflicted on the people, for the salaries to the Poor-Law Commis- sioners and their dependents, and to the amount of litigation which has resulted from the New Poor-Law, and the conduct of the Commissioners. " The Deputation, therefore, respect- fully recommend the vestry and rate- payers of St. Marylebone, to petition either for a total repeal of the New Poor- Law, or for such an alteration as will abolish the arbitrary and unconstitutional powers of the Poor-Law Commissioners, and will substitute in its place an inde- pendent system of local government, based upon the principle of equal repre- sentation — will deprive landlords, except when they are also rate-payers, of the power of voting either personally or by proxy — will secure to the resident rate- payers their inherent right of expending their own money, in the waj- best calcu- lated to maintain a judicious economy, to administer to the necessities of the deserv- ing and industrious poor, to punish profli- gacy, and to subject idleness to the severity it deserves. " The Deputation further recommend, that the petition pray of the legislature to blot out from their statute book the foul stain of visiting the seducer's wrongs on his victim, woman, in the hour of her help- lessness and shame — on woman, depend- ent by the law of nature, and excluded by the laws and usages of societj', as well as by the condition of her sex, from those active and protitable pursuits in which man may successfully entra^e. ♦' G. A. YOUNG, " W. KENSETT, "J. WILSON." " PROTESTS AGAINST THE PASSING OF THE NEW POOR-LAW. " Dissentient, — " 1. Because this bill is unjust and cruel to the poor. It imprisons in work- houses, for not working, those who cannot procure employment, and others for not maintaining their families who cannot, by the hardest labour, obtain wages sufficient to provide necessaries for their wives and children, although the want of employ- ment and the low rate of wages have been occasioned by the impolicy and negligence of the Government. "2. Because the present rate of wages, insufficient as it is, cannot be sustained, or emj)loymcnt found for the poor, or their condition materially improved, without ameliorating the condition of the Irish poor. " 3. Because we think that no necessity or sufficient expediency has been estab- lished to justify the withdrawing of the power of executing the poor-laws from the local authorites, and transferring them to a Board so constituted as proposed by the bill, and possessing the arbitrary powers conferred on three Commissioners appointed, and removable, by the Crown. "4. Because we think the system suggested in the bill, of consolidating immensely-extensive Unions of parishes, and establishing workhouses necessarily at great distances from many parishes, and thereby dividing families, and remov- ing children from their parents, merely because they are poor, will be found justly abhorrent to the best feelings of the general population of the country ; and especially, inasmuch as it introduces the children of the agricultural poor to town poor-houses, it will conduce greatly to the contamination of their moral principles, and be calculated to prevent their obtain- ing in youth those habits of industry most likely to be beneficial to them in after life. " 5. Because the alteration of the Law of Settlement is calculated to operate un- justly, and to lead to still more extensive removals and more intricate lawsuits than the law as at present existing. " 6. Because the alterations made in the Bastardy Laws are inconsistent with the principles of Christianity, on which the Parliament of the united empire has always professed to jjroceed, since, both parents being equally bound by those principles to maintain their offspring, the father, being more able to contribute to that maintenance than the mother, ought THE NEW POOR-LAW OPPOSITION. 435 to pay more largely, whereas by this bill he is all but exonerated from any such obligation. " 7. Because we consider that nearly all, if not all, the evils which may have existed in the administration of the present laws might have been corrected by a short Act, securing the administration of the Poor-Laws under the control of the existing magisterial, and other local authorities. " KENYON. "H. EXETER, (for the 4th and 6th reasons.) " ROMNEY. "ROLLE, (for the 4th and 6th reasons.) " WYNFORD. *' MOUxNTCASHEL. ♦'PENSHURST, (for the 1st and 6th reasons.) " TEYNHAM." " PEOTEST AGAINST EETAINING THE FIFTY-FIFTH CLAUSE IN THE POOK- LAWS' AMENDMENT-BILL. *' Dissentient, — " 1 . Because the parts of the bill which it was proposed to reject impose the charge of maintaining every bastard child on the mother alone, thus laying on one of the parents the whole of a burden, which, by the most obvious dictate of natural jus- tice, and the plainest deduction from the law of God, ought to be borne equally, or in proportion to their several ability, by both. " 2. Because the burden thus laid on the mother, in a degree far beyond her power to bear, will ordinarily place and keep her in permanent and absolute de- pendence on parish relief; and, coupled with another provision, which makes any man who shall marry any such mother liable to the maintenance of her child, can hardly fail to encourage the most un- bounded licentiousness; for as the woman is thus shut out from all prospect of mar- riage, and as both she and her spurious progeny, present and future, . be they as numerous as they may, will be all maintained by the parish, without fur- ther shame, suffering, or inconvenience to herself, as, in short,'she will be deprived of all the aids to virtue which Providence has mercifully given in temporal objects of fear and hope, it can hardly be doubted that her own incontinence, and the abso- lute impunity held out to every man who, after she has once borne a child, may choose to offend with her, will make 2f almost every such woman to become a common prostitute, and every workhouse of which such women are inmates to be a common receptacle of prostitutes, from which they will carry on their vicious courses with little or no effectual restraint, unless the workhouse itself be converted into a gaol, and every woman who bears a bastard child, and is too poor to maintain it without assistance, be consigned to lasting imprisonment. " 3. Because another and more appal- ling consequence may be expected to ensue, in the case of those unhappy women who, after their fall from chastity, still retain some perverted feelings of honour, which the provisions of this bill are too likely to place in conflict with the best instinct of their nature, tempting them to the destruction or the abandon- ment of the wretched infants, whose lives cannot be sustained without subject- ing their mothers to so much of lengthened misery and degradation. " 4. Because, while such is the injus- tice, and such the frightful tendency, of the provisions of this bill, as they affect women, its probable effects on men are scarcely less to be deprecated. From men in humble life this bill removes one of the most powerful checks on their licentious appetites, which Providence has imposed in the cost and burden consequent on the indulgence of them, thus opposing itself to God's holy institution for the con- tinuance of the species by lawful wedlock. It does more — it directly tends to harden the hearts of men, to aggravate their natural selfishness, to pervert and corrupt their moral sensibility, to make them deem themselves released by Act of Parliament from one of the first and most obvious duties which the laws of nature — in other words, the laws of God, impose — a duty which must endure so long as the relation of parent and child shall subsist — a duty which no man, who deserves the name of man, has ever yet dared to set at nought. " 5. And, lastly, because a law which professes on the very face of it to bear so unequally on two parties w'hose moral guilt must be deemed equal — unposing its burden with exclusive and extreme severity on the more heljjless, leaving the stronger and the abler absolutely un- touched (even by the provisions subse- quently introduced), so long as the weaker l)arty is capable of bearing anything, and then interfering, not on the principle of equal justice, but solely to indemnify the parish for any excess of charge which the 436 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. exhaustion of the mother may make it impossible to wring from her — because such law cannot carry with it that which is indispensable in all wholesome legisla- lation — the sanction of public opinion ; but, proceeding on the unchristian principle of doing evil that good may come, must, like every other such attempt, fail of the end proposed, with this unhappy aggra- vation of the failure, that it tends to shake the confidence of the people in the justice and righteousness of the laws in general, and to impair their respect for that legis- lature which shall have ventured to enact it. " H. EXETER. *' PENSHURST. " FALMOUTH. "ROLLE. " MOUNTCASHEL. "Augusts, 1834." " For a nation to be free it is sufficient that she wills it," said French La Fayette. For a people to be free it is sufficient that they be fed, says G. R. Wythen Baxter. Town-folk gaze foolishly at the misery around them, and immediately resolve themselves into political economists and state tinkers, and talk you and the uni- verse deaf with their panaceas for crime, rebellion, pauperism, and squalid misery. The repeal of the corn-laws would do the business, cries one. Nothing short of universal suffrage will sufficit, roars another. The ballot for ever ! sneaks a third. Give 'em a liberal education, insinuates a fourth. What say you to emigration ? lisps a fifth. A few rounds of ball cartridge, inclusive of an ad. lib. of sabre slashes, would be vastly effective, swears a sixth. Better leave things as they are, softly say all who have every- thuig to lose. You be d — d, outrage all who have everj^thing to gain. Let such prate till each is as black in the face as is ink in a bottle, with the recommending of his own favourite nostrum, but I say, the distress and discontent of the working classes are only to be removed by the immediate agitation in their behalf of a bread and meat question. Look to their bellies — ' the best of remedies is a beaf-steak !' " — G. R. Wythe7i Baxter. " In relation to out-door relief to the able-bodied labourer, we are well aware that the refusal is, in a majority of cases, a true test of idleness ; but the Mede and Persian law, that no able-bodied labourer shall receive out-door relief, under any circumstances, is as cruel as it is unjust, in the present state of society ; and the cruelty and injustice, if persisted in, will certainly recoil fearfully in some future day." — Hereford Times, March 27, 1841. "The New Poor-Law, in principle, and many of its details, is an abomination — a violation of the inalienable rights of the poor — a disgrace to the name of England." — Leeds Intelligencer, April 24, 1841. " The main principle of the New Poor- Law seems to be to save money, no mat- ter what misery it entails. It no longer remains doubtful, that this must become a party question, not a political party ques- tion, but a question between the benevo- lent and humane, and the cruel and oppressive; and it is to be hoped, that there is still enough of good old English feeling left in the countiy to preponderate in favour of the poor." — Mr. Jonathan Too- good' s (of Bridgeivaterj Letter in the " Tiynes;' dated March 1, 1840. " I know no crime of greater magnitude against the liberties of the people, than a deliberate attempt to alter the constitutional privilege of local government, and substi- tute in its stead a centralized irresponsible authority. I have said to one of the most eminent constitutional barristers of the day, who fully responded to my feelings, that much as I detest and abhor the sus- pension of the constitution, I much prefer it to that total change which is craftily and surreptitiously brought in under the guise of a Parliamentary enactment, since the very siisjiensioii itself still implies the con- stitutional RIGHT : just as the dictatorial power at Rome, as originally limited to six months, was preferable to the system of governing the Republic by commissions appointed by the Senatus Consultimi, or decree of the Senate, such as that for re- gulating the affairs of the State, under which the three Commissioners, or trium- virate of Octavius (afterwards Augustus), Antony, and Lepidus, tyrannically dis- posed of the lives and fortunes of the peo- ple ; or that other decree which lodged absolute power in the hands of Augustus, as Imperator, or Commander-in-Chief, for toi years, which formed the precedent for continuing it to him for ten years more, and so on, by three successive decades, to the end of his life. The old names of the other officers remaining all the Avhile the same, the people were imposed on, and continued to call the State a republic in opposition to a kingdom, whilst it had, in fact, become an imperatorial monarchy, or autocracy." — Williaiyi S. Villiers San- ley, Esq., April 28, 1841. THE NEW POOR-LAW OPPOSITION. 437 " The very essence of the British con- stitution is self-government, — the ten- dency of every pUin of the reformers is centralization, or, in other words, despotic power. If there be any excellency in the constitution of England, over that of all other nations, it is in this — that it leaves the inhabitants of every locality to manage their own affairs. It is, in fact, an infinity of republics under one head ; which head is not intended to exercise any influence or control over the executive in different parts of the provinces, but is established to poise and regulate the whole, by pre- venting the jarring which would otherwise be inevitably occasioned by the separate independencies. It is, in fact, the 'fly wheel' of society, interfering with none of the intricacies of its machinery, but regu- lating the movement of the whole. Now, Sir fThornhillJ,i\ie object of centralization is, to create one ruling, prying, irrespon- sible, despotic power, which is incapable of co-existence with our constitutional monarchy, and republican social system. It is intended to degenerate England into London, and thus to prepare the way for ' the destruction of the freedom of the peo- ple :' to destroy the local influence of property and of character, and to centre all power, both legislative and executive, in an irresponsible Government. Does it never strike you, Sir, that such a change cannot take place in England, without an entire destruction of the present social system ? Do you never contemplate, that the same principle which now demands the sacrifice of the rights of the poor, must next demand those of the rich ? Do you not perceive, that the only way in which the new system can be carried out is, that you, who possess such very large estates, must yield up the local influence which such property gives you ? It is evident to bystanders, like myself, who have no interest in the matter, that the only way in which the Commission scheme can be made to work well, is the entire destruc- tion of every local influence, and the absorption of all power by the Central Commission. It is, therefore, evident, that such a measure must entirely break up our present system of society, and, consequently, I maintain, that it is safer to restore the sacred and constitutional rights of the poor, than to persist in a course which must inevitably bring ruin on its authors — the rich. ' Ah ! — but' say you, ' when the powers of Government are centralized, there can be no movement excepting under their control — the mobs can no longer agitate society by their tur- bulent assemblings — every attempt at rebellion will be nipped in the bud — all then will be security and peace.' Say you so ? Then, Sir, you have discovered the folly of the institutions of the monarchy and the aristocracy — you have proved them to be useless, expensive mischief- makers ! You have found out that our wisest lawgivers were fools, and that all wisdom has, till now, been locked up in a Commission box ! ! Beware how you make so light of established principles ! Be careful how you build the Commission buttress against the constitutional pillar." — Oastler's ''^ Fleet Papers" April 17, 1841. BASTILE FOOD. Macbeth.— Act IV., Scene 1st. (Workhouse Laboratory— a Cauldron boiling— Groans— Three Guardians discovered.) First Guardian. — Thrice hath the dying pauper groan'd, Second Guardian. — And once his starveling child hath moan'd; Third Guardian. — Hot-gut ciies, " 'Tis time, 'tis time :" First Guardian. — Round about the cauldron go ; In the loathsome victuals throw. Bone that in the shambles' drain Thirty days and nights hath lain, Ta'en from sheep that liad the rot, Boil there in the charmed pot. All. — Double, double, toil and trouble, Fire burn and cauldron bubble. Second Guardian. — Fillet of a new-slunk calf. In the cauldron put but half; Horn of goat and hoof of hog, Head of cat and lights of dog, Asses' tongue and wcavled wheat, Sundry scraps of putrid meat. For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth, boil and bubble. All. — Double, double, toil and trouble. Fire burn and cauldron bubble. Third Guardian. — Shell of oyster, chicken's claw, Duckling's entrails, turkey's maw; Measled pork and mouldy meal, Clods and Stickings, greasy heel; Sweltered cabbage, eye of ox, Scaly tail of mangy fox, Dug from out a pungent drain ; Horse's ear, and head of crane; Here I have a strangled mole, Lately taken from his hole ; Add thereto the back of ferret ; Round about the cauldron stir it. All. — Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble. Fire burn and cauldron bubble. First Guardian. — Cool it with a pauper's blood. Then the charm is firm and good. (Enter Assistant Pinch -pauper.) Pinch-pauper. — Well-done, I commend your pains. And every one shall share the gains. Round about the cauldron sing, Like good guardians in a ring. Praising all that you put in. (Enter Relieving Officers and the chorus of Guardians — Groans and lamentations.) Pinch-pauper. — Black gruel and white, Green gruel and gray, Mingle, mingle, mingle. They that can eat it may. First Guardian. — Now for water ; make it thin. Second Guardian. — Put of that a plenty in. Third Guardian. — That will make the paupers grin. All. — Around, around, around, about, about, All bad come running in — all good keep out. — Weekly Dispatch, "Having no intention of adding to the water Union was held on May the 12th, number of declaimers 'totally unac- 1836; the dietary appears to have been quain ted' with the requisite quality and fixed on June the 1 4th, but for some time quantity of food, I shall confine myself after the introduction of the new system as closely as possible to matter-of-fact oc- it appears from the visitors' book, that the currences officially reported. The first prescribed dietary was not rigidly ob- meeting of the Guardians of the Bridge- served. Milk was used, at the recom- BASTILE FOOD. 439 mcndation of the medical officer, instead of the pint-and-half of gruel prescribed by the Commissioners ; and during this time the inmates are reported generally healthy.' But I am informed, that the indulgence of milk was violently opposed at the Board, as being too great a devia- tion from the regulations of the Commis- sioners to be tolerated. Rigid obedience was enforced ; and the following entry appears in the visitors' book, for the last time, on the 16th of August: — " ' Is the established dietary duly ob- served, and are the hours of meals regu- larly adhered to ? Yes ; except in the use of milk, as recommended by the me- dical officer, in lieu of gruel.' " On the 23d of August the indulgence ceased, as appears by the following entry :— " ' August 23. — Inmates generally health)^ Gruel is now used instead of milk.' " The fatal diarrhoea, which apj)ears to have followed the introduction of the Commissioners' gruel in other places, soon appeared in the Bridgewater work- house, alternating with, and increasing the violence of, other diseases. The me- dical report for September contained several cases of diarrhoea, and the visitors' book thus alludes to the prevalence of the disease in the workhouse : — " ' September 27. — The aged poor are afflicted with cholic and diarrhoea, and the children suffering from the same complaint.' " The Bridgewater workhouse v,-as now to affiard an awful illustration of the fact, that diseases having their origin in local causes, become infectious wherever many suffi^rers are congregated in a mass. A large proportion of the inmates became reduced to mere skeletons by this loath- some disease. The sufferers, however cleanly in their former habits, involuntarily voided their foeces. The Governor, in describing the effect of the gruel, said, that — " ' It did not affect the poor people so much at first, but after the use of it for a few days, they became terribly bad ; it ran from them while they were standing upright as they took it. It affected them upwards and downwards. All the way down the stairs, across the hall, and down the garden path, was all covered every morning, and the stench was horrible all through the house ; making the people ill and sick who had not got the diarrhoea.' " Thus a nauseous pestilence appears to have pervaded the whole house ; not confined to those who took the gruel, but infecting others who were obliged to breathe an atmosphere saturated with fcctid exhalations. The family of tlie Governor were attacked ; the Governor himself, although previously a healthy and a powerful man, became unable to go into the paupers' apartments without be- ing violently affected, and the medical attendant, after repeated attacks of diarrhoea, and temporary respites, was at length obliged to relinquish his jiost to another. " It would requii'e too much space to give a copy of the medical weekly return ; I shall therefore give a few short extracts from the ' visitors' book.' " ' October 25. — There is much sick- ness amongst the children and the old peo- ple. There are 33 cases under the care of the medical gentleman. 96 inmates in the house.' " On the day that the above entry was read at the Board, a letter was received from the medical officer of the Bridge- water workhouse, stating, that he had 'watched' the effect of the gruel for 'some days;' and that he had stated the result to the visiting committee, * as pro- ducing diarrhoea,' and imploring the Board of Guardians to sanction the sub- stitution of milk. About this time the disease raged violently in the house ; many were confined to their beds, utterly unable to help themselves ; some children had died, and others were said to be dying. " It will scarcely be believed, that under such frightful circumstances, all the indulgence which could be obtained by the representations of the surgeon, and some members of the visiting committee, was confined to the victims who were actually on the sick list. " ' The Board desired me,' says an active and humane member of the visiting committee, ' to inform the medical officer, that they wished every necessary comfort to be granted to the sick, but declared that they could not make any alteration in the dietary for those who were not ac- tually on the sick list.' " This statement accords with a letter to the Board from Mr. John Evered Poole, a medical practitioner, who acted for Mr. King, when prevented by illness from attending the workhouse. But while the urgent representations of Mr. King, and of the committee, liad obtained ' necessary comforts' for tlic sick, they 440 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. had entirely failed to remove the alleged cause of the diarrhoea. On the very 25th of October, when the awful state of the helpless poor in the house was pressed on the Board, and ascribed to the use of oatmeal, on that very day a fresh supply was ordered to be sent into the house. That the use of the gruel was wilfully persevered in does not rest on the state- ment of an individual member of the visiting committee, or of the medical officer, however unexceptionable the tes- timony of those gentlemen may be. The fact may be traced through the records of the Board. The visitors' book contains entries to the following effect, from the 25th of October, to the end of the year : — " ' Is the established dietary duly ob- served ? — Yes, vat h respect to the healthy inmates ; but for the sick, rice-milk and arrowroot have been substituted for gruel, by order of the medical officer.' " Here is unquestionable evidence, that the fatal gruel was regularly administered to the helples poor, although it had been distinctly declared to the Board by the medical officer that it produced diarrhoea, and that irritation of the stomach and bowels produced other distressing effects! A considerable number of these cases terminated fatally, yet the Commissioners' deleterious compound continued to be perseveringly administered to those Avho were not yet seized with the prevailing disease. The wretched inmates of the workhouse were gruelled up to the very day of attack, when the poor sufferers were considered to be legally entitled, under the regulations of the Board, to the rice-milk, &c., prescribed by the sur- geon for the sick ! But, until they were attacked and placed on the sick list, the rules, regulations, and dietary table were to be inexorably observed, although the house had been so frightfully ravaged by diarrhoea, deliberately and officially de- clared to have been produced by the Commissioners' gruel. " From the tirst appearance of the diarrhoea, on the introduction of the gruel, to the end of the parochial year, the entries in the visitors' book attest the distressing state of the poor in the Bridge- water workhouse; while the weekly list of articles ordered by the Board for the use of the unhappy inmates of that house, will show the recklessness with which the use of the gruel was persevered in. "'August 16, 1836. — No peculiar sickness. The dietary is observed, ex- cept in the use of milk, as recommended by the medical officer, in lieu of gruel. "'August 23. — Inmates generally healthy. Gruel now used instead of milk. " ' September 27. — The aged poor are aflfected with cholic and diarrhoea, and the children are suffering from the same complaint. (Gruel used according to the dietary.) " ' October 25. — There is much sick- ness amongst the children and the old people. There are 33 cases under the care of the medical gentlemen. 96 inmates in the house. " ' 25th. — For some days I watched the result (of the gruel) which was given to the visiting committee as producing diarrhoea.' (Signed by the Medical Officer). " '25th. — One hundred tceight of oat- mecd ordered. "'Nov. 1st. — There is still much sickness. " ' 1st. — Half -a-hundred-weight of oat- meal ordered. " ' 20th. — Still much sickness. "'22d. — One hundred-iceight of oat- meal ordered. " 'Dec. 13th. — Much sickness is still prevalent in the house. " ' 16th. — One hundred-weight of oat- meal ordered. " ' 20th. — Half-a-hiindred-weight of oatmeal ordered. " '27th. — One hundred-weight of oat- meal ordered. " 'Jan. 3d, 1837. — The inmates again unhealthy, particularly the children, who have had the measles. " ' loth. — One hundred-weight of oat- meal ordered. " ' 31st. — Generally unhealthy. " '31st. — One hundred-weight of oat- meal ordered. " 'Feb. 14. — Generally unhealthy. " ' l4th. — One hundred-iceight of oat- meal ordered.' " Thus the gruel cauldron and the diarrhoea, the cause and effect, were kept in full reciprocal action by the Board. There are intermediate entries which show transient improvements in the general health of the poor sufferers. On the 21st of February it is said, 'Gene- rally improved in health, but the diarrhoea is still very prevalent.' This improved state appears to have continued but for a short time, when the fatal disease re- sumed its former virulence. During the Vvhole awful period, comprised between BASTILE FOOD. 441 the first death from diarrhoea, which took place in September, to the end of the following March, the termination of the parochial year, the Board wilfully perse- vered in sending a regular succession of helpless victims to breathe the poisonous atmosphere of that pesthouse, saturated with the effluvia of putrid excrements, and to be gruelled in precisely the same manner as that which had occa- sioned such extensive suffering, and pro- duced such fatal results. So far I have })roceeded, either on the records of the Board, or on the testimony of its officers and members ; I am now to commence on my own knowledge, having in the be- ginning of April taken my seat at the Board as one of the Guardians for the pai-ish of Bridgewater. " JOHN BOWEN. "Bridgewater, Feb. 7, 1838." " Mr. Parker, the Assistant Poor-Law Commissioner, ordered the master of the I..oughborough workhouse to divide a jiotato, in his distribution of meals for the inmates, if an entire one exceeded the exact weight prescribed by the dietary for the subsistence of paupers." — Nottingham Review, March 27, 1840. " The Commissioners sent out the sort of diet we must feed them with; we found it too small, and had it increased, after a time, four ounces more of bread." — Mr. Ford's examination before the Poor- Laio Committee, March, 1837. " Let me contrast the treatment of American felons with that of English paupers. I take my account from a well- known book, entitled Historical Sketches of the Ten Miles Square, forming the District of Columbia, Sfc. ; page 208 : — ' Rations and clothing of tlie convicts, as authorized by the regulations of the Penitentiary,' — 1st, The ration for each man, per day shall be 12 ounces of pork or 1 6 ounces of beef (every day) ; 10 ounces of wheat flour, not boiled; 12 ounces of India meal ; \ gill of molas- ses ; and 2 quarts of rye, 4 quarts of salt, 4 quarts of vinegar, I \ ounce of pep- per, and 2i bushels of po'tatoes to each 100 rations. All to be good and sound, including a comfortable bed." — Corres- pondent to a Leeds Paper, Aug. 1 , 1 838. " A society exists in the parish of St. Clements, Ipswich, for the purpose of watching strictly the working of the New Poor-Law. At one of its meetings it was unanimously agreed, that Mr. John Scott, butcher, St. Clement, should be the person to inspect the meat served to the Union-house ; and the result of his first visit was, the discovciy of a quantity of bull beef We think every feeling mind will give credit for the discovery of such frauds ; particularly as our suffering fellow-creatures are shut up with only 1 2 ounces of meat in the week ; surely it ought not to be bull beef, and that of the very worst description."— iSt^/b/^ Chro- nicle, Feb. 8, 1840. " The boy, Daniel Simons, who ran away from the Stowmarket Union work- house, in Dec, 1838, stated, that he and his brother had been so cruelly used, and so_ badly fed (he stated that resin was mixed with their skilly to keep it on their stomachs) that they resolved to run away." " Christmas Cheer for the Poor. — The Poor-Law Commissioners, in answer to applications that have been made to them, have refused to sanction any extra allowance to the poor in the Unions that have been recently formed." — Morning Chronicle, Dec, 1839. " The parish of St. George, Hanover- square, has been the pattern parish of the Poor-Law Commissioners. It has been the disgraceful boast of the Guardians, that they feed the poor of that parish on 15id. per head a-week : and the noble example has been recommended by the ■svell-paid Poor-Law authorities to the imitation of all England besides." — Me- tropolitan Conservative Journal, Nov. 24, 1838. " Poor-Law Soup. — Take ten quarts of water and stir it with a rushlight till it boils ; season it to your liking, and it is ready for use. The wick may'be bolted," " It was said that many of the paupers had been seriously injured in their health, and that some of them had been nearly poisoned, by the food which had been there administered." — Lord Wynford, on the Bridgewater cases, House of Lords, May 1, 1838. _ " The general system of diet was prin- cipally as follows : the poor got for break- fast what was called porridge, but which was no thicker than ordinary gruel ; to this they had a little treacle and water. They had one flesh dinner in the week. Two days they had what was called soup, made out of a beast's head ; the weight of the flesh of this head averaged about four pounds ; this served forty-eight per- sons for two days, allowing to each about three-quartors-of-an-ounte of solid food. There was no bread allowed to this soup. 442 THE BOOK OF THE BAST1LE8. In the afternoon they got what was con- sidered and called a luxury, coffee, made with seven pints of water to one ounce of cotfee at Is. lOd. per pound. To this they were allowed seven ounces of bread ; but many of the poor creatures had weighed it, and found it only five ounces. Boiled barley was also gi\ en for dinner ; and he had the testimony of medical men to prove, that this article was so un- wholesome to the people, that it passed through the bowels quite in an undigested state." — A Speaker at a Meeting at Mor- ;5e^A, March 6, 1839. " I was with a very eminent physician in London, who, when speaking of the * diet table ' of the Bridgewater work- house, said — ' Mr. Oastler, I have been carefully examining that table, and I have no hesitation in giving it as my opinion, that the Commissioners have employed professional men to devise a diet which might seem like food, but which would act upon the human frame as slow poison.' " — Oastler s Letter to Lord John Russell, March 3, 1838. " I would have set up in every Union poorhouse, a patent digester, upon a new scale, and upon the most improved prin- ciples, such as the toughness of some of the materials may require. I would have every man, woman, and child, that shall die in the Union-houses, boiled down, and made into soup, which will be, I am persuaded, sufficient in quantity to support all the living inmates, if the fast days are as religiously observed as they ought to be ; and in quality quite equal to the celebrated ' Black Broth,' the public meal of that great people and notable econo- mists, the Lacedemonians. Still, after the flesh has been all boiled off the bones, it is manifest there will be an overplus — the bones themselves, which must likewise come within the ' appropriation clause ' of my scheme. These bones may be partly manufactured into forks, and spoons, and ladles, for the use of the poor. The rest I would have regularly c/round, made into bread, and distributed to the poor on Sundays. Treadmills may be here of great use, and thus will be accomplished the great scheme so long the desideratum of all philosophers — of Grinding the poor for their own henefit. I am here only taking into account the infirm and aged. Sickly and delicate constitutions will occasionally require something approaching to luxury. After, therefore, by a series of lectures, deUvered under the sanction of the Poor- Law Commissioners, on the nature of nutriment in general, in order to do away, as I observed before, the prejudices against different sorts of meats, and showing, by chemical and other experi- ments, that all nutriment is Avholesome, and that is the great matter in all sorts —I think the sickly poor may be brought to relish the more tender food of infants and children, Avho must of course occa- sionally die in the ' Houses ;' a regular certificate from the sui-geon and registrar of deaths being just put up in some con- spicuous place in the kitchen and eating- rooms, that they have not died of measles, no meats \mder such circumstances, being conside)-ed wholesome. I have been told by a retired sausage-vendor, that children under twelve years of age, particularly females, are as good and as tender as chickens I have here spoken only of the food ; should there be at any time a scarcity, I reckon that much nutriment may be conveyed in the water drink. For instance, the solar microscope has sufficiently shown the immense number of living aniraalculre in one drop of stagnant and green pool water. Such water must, therefore, be extremely nutritive, and such exclusively would I recommend to the notice of the Commissioners and Guardians of the poor. Horses like it best, and they are noble animals." — A Satirical Article in " Blackwood' s Ma- gazine,^'' April, 1838. " I am fully aware that science has long been at work, and some admirable inventions are advancing to an astonishing maturity. I have recently attended the lectures of a great political economist, who performed the wonderful operation of making loaves of bread out of saw-dust — wherein it was fully shown that the poor may be made to ' lick the dust ' with great advantage to themselves and the rest of mankind : — and the saw-mill for the tread-mill — and there never will be a lack of grist. I had scarcely recovered from my w^onderment at this wonder of wonders, when it was declared, to the in- finite satisfaction of a great number of Poor-Law Guardians present, that very good bread had been made out of granite — so that it is hoped the sciences may yet come, when, without shame, the poor shall ask for bread, and you shall give them a stone ! ! !" — Ibid. "Whilst the gallantry of the Whigs has been so conspicuous towards ladies of high degree, whose patronage was essential with royalty, and therefore ne- cessary to the preservation of place and BASTILE FOOD. 443 power now, let us see what has been their chivah-y, and what their gratitude to the poor that are, by whose voices in full and irresistible acclaim they gained, and were enabled to preserve, power and place. The following is a starvation dietary din- ner, meted out by Lord John Russell to able-bodied pauper women : — For Dinner. oz. Of mea.t per week . 10 Vegetables ditto . . 24 Soup (pork water) 3 pints . ditto Boiled rice, or suet pudding . ditto . . 12 Bread ditto . . 24 Cheese ditto . . 4 — Blackwood's Magazine, April, 1838. " I have several times had bread shown me, at the time of receiving it, not half its proper size."— Tlie Rev. C. Fowell Watts f of Bath J in the " lYjnes" August 25, 1840. " I have gone frequently into the chil- dren's school-room at their dinner time, and seen them drinking cold water (their gruel being pushed aside), and upon my inquiring the cause, have been told by the schoolmistress, that they could not endure the gruel, and that most of them preferred cold Avater." — Ibid. "I know a woman of unblameable character who, when she was in the house, could neither eat the bread nor drink the gruel that was brought her. She has accordingly left both her break- fast and supper, day after day, for weeks together, and has told me that she has frequently gone to bed and cried bitterly on account of her not being able to eat the food ; that the porter, finding one day a large bagful of stale bread, which she acknowledged to be hers, said she should have no more until she had eaten it ; to which she replied, her having no more would be no punishment, as she never could eat it fresh or stale. Others have informed me, that the bread made them quite ill, and that the gruel they all per- fectly loathed. I have sometimes myself had the greatest difficulty in eating a mouthful of the bread. The gruel I have frequently tasted, but although a lover of gruel (and without sugar) I never could drink a spoonful of it, so excessively nauseous did I find it. I have asked the poor woman just alluded to, how she lived out of the ' house,' when she answered, upon a little good bread and a drop of tea, upon which she could rather live, and work from six in the morning till twelve at night, than be in the work- house and have the best food possible, so perfectly wretched was she there. Other kinds of their food are also commonly very bad. In proof of which statement I give the following fact : — A short time since the inmates of the ward, containing between 8U and 00 in number, growing tired of the wretched stufi" called broth, that they long had dealt out to them, and finding it one day a little better than peppered hot water, insisted upon seeing the Chairman, who, according to his daily custom, was at the time giving directions in the house. When he entered, they sur- rounded him, uttering their complaints, which, because he made light of, several of them threw their mixture all over him, exclaiming, ' there, you may have the stuff for your dinner; we don't Avant it, and won't drink it, for you look thin, which no doubt comes from your walking about, and Avorrying and op- pressing your servants at home, as you do us, every day.' " — Hev. C. Foioell Waits (of Bath) in the " Times," Sept. 15, 1840. " Cheap Food for the Poor. — At a late meeting of the Board of Guardians of the Bolton Union, it Avas unanimously resolved to memorialize the Lords of the Treasury, praying that they may be allowed to purchase foreign grain duty free for the use of the paupers in the Union. The memorial is grounded on ' the dear- ness of provisions, the great scarcity of employment, and the consequent bur- dens on the rate-payers of the Bolton Union.' It proceeds to say, 'That, although a large portion of this year's Avheat crop has been so much spoiled as to make unwholesome fiour, if used Avith- out a due mixtiu'e of good grain, such is the effect of the present prohibitory duty of 20s. 8d. per quarter on all foreign wheat imported into this country, that the poorer classes are forced to live on this unAvholesome food, Avhereby disease and mortality are greatly increased.' " — Chamjnon, Uec. 15, 1839. " Unparalleled Starvation. — A farmer, at Low Crompton, near Oldham, had cut into quarters, and buried, a coav, a few days ago, that had died from some natural distemper, but it had not been buried long before a number of his starving neighbours got to know, and came to request him to alloAV them to take it up, as they Avere almost dying of Avant. The farmer granted their request, and it was eaten as a most delicious morsel." —Northern Star, March 7, 1840. So* ' B EC • J, -1 _, o o "-< ^ B - -^ ii S c? 2 o '^ ce g td'i •-• ^. ^ tn f^ re !=■&'"' 5 2 St rt ai 2. a. fD '^ ^— t/3 o cr 1:5 ^ C8l 3 2-g a 2 ^ re "= "■ P re I c cr: HO Ol IS eg CO o a. CD CD o "^ 2 ^S ? 5 o. i-,'^ «■ g2 2. "-^ TO O) P- o g o O J^^-'" P- sx. ^ *^ & 5 o 2 S P ,L TO W CO l-J CC TO .^ "^ r^ <^ I— ' c* o _ rf^ '■^ si. o o^ r p^ 1^ o Pi o o p p- o p P 1^ TO !5i t:ti "S ^ o» C5 O P 3 JO CO o p cc p »«3 O P P o P P P § t5 O P* P 2 o Ms CO '^ <->■ TO TO H TO Q^ P TO TO - 2 to P _ CO O p. CO <- o p:^ 1— TO ^ p- JO »^ p 5 ^E TO TO P P p . (-^ P tb- P o P CO P Bl CO ^q ca 1 c p CD cn •<5 S P- 02 P P P- <1 £ 3 " ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ " o^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ |pOp|a| = |p03 w c 12. a r- 0)^OVj05"«JCiVJOi»-J05"^05^i D3 2- S Or Org to ^^ . : CiVjOiV|C5V|CiVjC3^C5" a o CO hr] »» ". P 5: 1 P P- «< P cn ^ «< 000000 Oco 0000000 CO o w Co 00 CO c*j CO CON O O O O O O O I CO 00 CO OOOOOOO;* ^ o O 4^ O CO (0)m (Ol- t£)|>- toll- (O)-- »C'H M-! re ^ BASTILE FOOD. 445 " One of the beauties of the New Law was to be its uniformity, and as a speci- men of such uniformity, I will here repeat what has been justly called the appalling contrast between the allowances to the London poor, and to those of Ciren- cester, in their respective workhouses : — ALLOWANCE IN THE CIRENCESTER WORKHOUSE, FOB MEN, PER WEEK : — Bread 98 ounces. Bacon 5 *' Cheese 7 " Gruel and Soup 9 pints. Potatoes 6 pounds. ALLOWANCE IN THE LONDON UNION, FOR MEN, PER wi;ek: — Bread 112 ounces. Cooked Meat 21 " Cheese 14 " Suet-pudding, or boiled rice, with milk and sugar 16 " Milk porridge and Soup 15 pints. Vegetables 2| pounds. Beer 11 pints. Besides this, the London poor receive an extra allowance, amounting to a feast, on the great holidays of Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide ; and are allowed a day's recreation out of the house once a-week throughout the year. The order, also, of separation between man and wife is relaxed in the metropolis" — Mr. Walters Letter to the Editor of the " Evening 3Iail,^' dated November 28, 1837. " Cirencester Union. — The Guar- dians of this Union, it will be recollected, desired their Clerk to Avrite to us on the subject of the table published in The Dis- patch, regulating the quantity and sort of food to be given to the inmates of that establishment, and to deny what we stated, namely, that the male pauper had only five ounces of bacon with potatoes, on Sunday, for his dinner; and that the re- mainder of the week he received only one pound of potatoes and nothing more. We have since received another commu- nication from the Clei'k, enclosing a copy of the 'amended dietary,' and which table is now in force ; and our readers will readily acknowledge, that in every gaol in the kingdom, felons are by far better fed than the worn-out English labourer, un- tainted with crhne, in the Cirencester Union. This ' amended dietary,' as it is called, is signed by T. Franklund Lewis, J. G. S. Lefevre, and George NichoUs, who direct that all persons ' who may, now or hereafter, be received and main- tained in the workhouse or workhouses of the Cirencester Union, shall, during the period of their residence therein, be fed, dieted, and maintained in the manner described and set forth; and that two copies of the order, printed in large type, shall be hung up in the most public place in such workhouse or workhouses.' The Guardians, notwithstanding their state- ment that the paupers had never been fed in the manner described by us, have not thought proper to reiterate their declara- tion, and the presumption is, that we gave the matter correctly. It appears clear to us, that the Poor-Law Commissioners have resolved to allow jast such a quantity of food, and that of a coarse description, as will suffice to keep life and soul together, and no more ; and yet it is attempted to retain the services of those men for a period of ten years longer ; as though it were possible to squeeze a little more saving of rate, by pinching the bellies of the poor, and in order to show the gain to be effected by this hellish plan. Right glad are we that the country is up and stirring from one end to the other in the business, for if the Whigs succeed in their proposed object, every remnant of power or control will be taken from places ununionized, and the whole management of the poor centralized in the persons of the Somerset-house Bashaws, whereby the misery that is now inflicted by the Bastile system, will be spread far and wide. But let us allude to the ' amended dietary' of the Cirencester Union — a dietary par- taking of the flint soup system. It now appears, that able-bodied paupers are allowed for breakfast seven ounces of bread and a pint and a-half of gruel ; for dinner on Sunday two ounces and a-half of bacon (!) and a pound of potatoes ; and for supper seven ounces of bread and one ounce of cheese. This is the sumptuous fare an able-bodied pauper receives in the Cirencester Union on the Sabbath-day. We now come to the other days of the week. On Monday, the poor man has for dinner one pound of potatoes, and nothing more ! On Tuesday, he is allowed half-a- pound of potatoes and fourteeen ounces of pudding. On Wednesday, the pauper is again gorged; for he has two ounces and a-half of bacon, and a pound of potatoes allowed him. On Thursday, the vegetable system is enforced, the 'able- bodied man' being allowed one pound of potatoes, and a pint a.ul a-half of soup. On Friday, the niggardly Commissioners allow half-a-pound of potatoes, and the suet pudding; and on Saturday, potatoes and soup. This is the ' amended" dietary table ; and in our opinion it is little better 446 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. than the scandalous order issued in December, 1 836. We put it to any humane individual, whether an ' able-bodied man,' upon such a system, can experience the slightest amount of comfort. We main- tain, that the situation of a Union pauper is truly miserable. Confined within high walls, without the association of his wife ; or the chance of obtaining a sight of his children (whereas they are confined in a distant Union), he retires to bed in sad- ness, and rises in the morning to curse his hapless state. Englishmen ! then, we say, petition against the accursed Whig measure, and suffer not the poor of England to be treated by far worse than thieves. Recollect, that in the City Comp- ter, a prison scarcely five hundred yards from The Diapafch Office, even confirmed thieves are allowed six ounces of beef for dinner three days during the week, and a bellyful of excellent soup, &;c., the remain- ing ibur days. ' Comparisons are odious,' and in this case, the one we have adduced, stamps the belly-griping gruel system with mhmy"— Dispatch, Feb. 28, 1841. " I cannot repeat too often, nor can you too often observe, what the dietary at Cirencester is : nor, I again say, can you too often observe, that the salaries of the gentlemen who ' order and direct' a pound of potatoes as the dinner of each poor man in that house, five days out of the seven, have £2,000 a-year a-piece ; while their 21 Assistants have each £1,500 a-year voted to him." — Mr. Walter's Letter to Mr. R. J. Richardson [of SalfordJ, dated Jan. 31, 1838. " I took up a newspaper and read an account of an inquest, which had been held on the body of a poor woman, who had literally been starved to death. How awful this ! and when the very crumbs that fall from the rich man's table might have saved her — the broken victuals, which his pampered menials waste and cast heedlessly away, have preserved her life — the provisions daily bestowed on his household brutes, his dogs and cats, have made to live ! I took up another paper (it was the Bristol Mirror of April 3, 1S41,) and what saw I there ? Thousands of grisly skeletons, the visionary remains of those who have been murdered by the scant and griping dietaries of the Bastiles, and who, for want even of that horrid sustenance, have died in the streets, and roads, and woods, and by their own delirious hands, each, with his and her fleshless fingers upraised, beckon me to tell what I saw there. I do not wish to be what tlie friends and favourers of the Act call " violent" or " factious ;" but I do wish to ask if such things as deaths from want, and the doings detailed in the follow- ing paragraph, ought to be — is it right that they should — is it natural that they should ? Oh ! that the Queen of this land would permit me to come — if it were only to crouch for a moment at her feet, and afterwards to be spurned away by her Whig courtiers, — if she would permit me to come, as humanity's advocate, and the friend of the helpless, into her ro3-al presence, and there exhibit the long and grisly list of those her poorer subjects who, during the past winter have died — have been suffered to die for want of food, of very hunger and thirst, and to contrast that same list with the following chronicle of royal household dinners — to contrast the " look on this and the look on that," — the wretched home-made pauper dying for lack of a morsel of food in the streets, and the foreign home-made rich prince, feasting on the rarest and dearest dainties, the cost of one mouthful of which would provide a whole famishing family with a week's daily bread : Oh ! that her Majesty would but deign to let me thus relate the wrongs of her poor, foodlcss subjects, and the excesses of her thoughtless courtiers ! It is with sorrow I pen this, but it is with anger it will be perused by Him, who seeth not as man seeth, and who has declared ' vengeance is mine, and I will rej^ay.' — "Luxury Of The British Court. — Some idea may be formed of the extent of the estab- li^ilinient at Buckingham Palace, from the fact, that ncarhj thirteen thousand dinners have been partaken of, during the last month, at the tables of her Majesty and her noble guests, their suite and the household !' This tells that every poor wretch who has died of want has been murdered — This proclaims that the glory of England is growhig dim — that her once glorious name, because she was good, is fast depart- ing away from her — and that the starva- tion of her poor and helpless, and the profusion and hard-heartedness of her high and noble, are but types of her decline, which foretell that her fall is not far distant." — G. R. Wythen Baxter, April 10, 1841. " I am a great advocate for the right administration of the New Poor-Law, and I am fully aware of the necessity there is for keeping the dietary of the BASTILE FOOD. 447 able-bodied in the workhouse, below that of the able-bodied labourer out of the house ; but I am no advocate for starving the poor, and making it desirable to the man who cannot keep himself, to inhabit a prison rather than a workhouse. The Lewes House of Correction dietary allows 5 ounces more of bread, besides a pint of soup daily, than that of the workhouse. I have made known these things to the Poor-Law Commissioners, and have also superadded the (to me) astounding fiict, that though, in the memory of the oldest inhabitant, fever of a malignant and fatal character has not been known in our workhouse, yet since the introduction of the dietary now used, very many have died of typhus." — Extract of a Letter from the Rev. Mr. Pitman, Vicar of East- bomne, to the Poor-Law Committee, March, 1837. " Mr. King, doctor to the Fristou Union, Suffolk, says that the poor are starving to death by hairs'-breadths, and that they would swallow prussic acid, if he would give it them, rather than endure their present privations." — Champion, Nov. 24, 1839. " In comparing these tables (the pau- per dietary, No. 5, and the dietary, as it was previous to 1822, of the prisoners at the Penitentiary, Milbank) it will be seen that the allowance of the prisoners was 10^ pounds of bread per week, and 18 ounces of meat, whilst the New Poor-Law Dietary (No. 5) allows only 6 pounds 2 ounces of bread, with only 10 ounces of meat, or 3 pounds 14 ounces of bread, and 8 ounces of meat less. I am aware this dietary at the Penitentiary was re- duced, but the consequence of the altera- tion, as reported by Drs. Rogers and Latham, and dated 5th of April, 1823, set forth, ' that the adoption of the new system was soon followed by a general decay of health and strength." — Dafs ^'■Practical Observations on the New Poor- Laiv.'^ " There is dispensed, with economical prudence, to the poor of the Morpeth Union, abundance of savoury and deli- cious prepaiation of sheep's head.''' — Bla- heys Letters with the Morpeth Board. " The following extract from an adver- tisement from the Wolverhampton Union for a master and matron, is certainly a curiosity of its kind, and looks like a joke on any applicants that may offer them- selves. ' The salary of the master £30 a-year;' — very good — 'and that of the matron, £30 a-year j' — also very good — * ivith double ratio?is to each, of the diet of the able-bodied panpers.' The able-bodied paupers in Wolverhampton Union must be shockingly pinched in mere food, if a double allowance is deemed necessary for the support of the master and mistress." — Ph/mouth Paper, Sept., 1839. " The Cirencester Board of Guardians are distinguished for having out-IIeroded Ilerod, by an allowance of a dietary to the inmates of their workhouse, more meagre than any of the number submitted to them for selection by the Commis- sioners. These worthy Guardians are of opinion, that, for an able-bodied man, who toils from morn till night, five ounces of bacon per week afford ample animal sustenance." — Northern Star, April 7, 1838. " It was affirmed, by the Commis- sioners, to be necessaiy, not only for due economizing, but reallj^ called for to pre- serve the health of the objects themselves, whom, the Commissioners affirmed, even if able-bodied men, would be over-fed by 24 ounces of food per day. Now the boys of the Sheffield Charity-school (whose undei"-feeding has sometimes been com- plained of, but their over-feeding never) have more than 50 ounces of food per day — morning and evening, milk porridge with the cream in — and meat dinners on five days in the week ; yet many of them are not more than 8 years of age — none more than 1 3." " Among the tricks resorted to in the Hereford Union workhouse to exalt the character of the establishment, and cor- roborate the superexcellence (!) of the victualling department, or ' tenders, as ' they' call them,' is the keeping, for the reception of visitors, a show-cheese. Thus, Avhen the tradesmen's wives and daugh- ters, on holidays, such as Easter-Monday, Whit- Tuesday, &c. (their daddies— I beg pardon, their j^npas and gentlemen — hav- ing gone a-hunting), want to sink the shop for that day only, and to go and see ' summut' amusing like, they don those blessed yellow bonnets of theirs, with the red ribbons, and black feathers, tipped with orange and green, and set out on a gij)sy party to inspect the ' Union.* ' Now,' says Mrs. Brown-Holland-Sheet- ing, the spokeswoman of the party, to the Governor, cutting her words as fine as hardly to give them bare measure, ' What sort of division — hem, how stupid I am — ^;rovisions I mean, do you give your paupers?' 'Oh, the very best of 448 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. everything, Ma'am, the very best,' replies the Master and Commander, according to his ' written instructions.' ' Do you, indeed ! Well, that is so good of you ! Do you know. Miss Maria Matilda So- phiuisba Coffee-Snuff-and-Tobacco (ad- dressing one of her companions), he says the paupers have the best of everything — the very superfine, love !' ' You don't say so !' ' Really now !' ' Indeed, well I am sure,' are immediately returned her in small change. ' They have indeed, Ma'am,' chimes in the Governor, taking off his hat, and wiping his head with a large yellow silk handkerchief, with great bunches of very red flowers on it. ' But you shall judge for yourselves. Here, John, hand down one of them establish- ment cheeses for the ladies to taste.' " It is necessary to state, that the cheese which is thus submitted to the ' taste' of the fair counter-charmers is of a very different quality to the rest on the shelf of which the wretched inmates are occa- sionally ' allowed ' to nibble small quan- tities — in fact, is the Union Workhouse Show-Clieese, which has been ' got up' especially for the refreshment of visitors, who, after partaking thereof, are respect- fully requested to inscribe their names in a book kept for the purpose in the house, and to express, in fervent, glowing lan- guage, their cordial appreciation of the comfortable and liberal arrangements of the estabhshment, &c., &c., and &cc., &c. " Of course, the visitors in most cases know nothing of these delicate Somerset- house arrangements, and consequently return home in perfect raptures at the gratification they experienced in finding, after all the ' mischievous agitators' had said to the contrary, the workhouse to be ' really now, so uncommonly well con- ducted, and sicli superior living !' ' No gentleman's house in the county (so the citizens of the city of the snobs express themselves) could possibly be cleaner, ejaculated Mrs. Brown- Holland-Sheeting, the next morning after her excursion al- ready mentioned, as, in the way of busi- ness, she placed a box of Woodstock gloves before Mr. Swallow-any thing, one of the softest of her regular customers, and who was supposed still to retain some little prejudices asjainst the new order of Poor- Laws. ' Will you believe me. Sir, that the cheese which we lately bought of Messrs. Mite-and-Rind, at 1 1 ^d. a-pound — to be sure they are unconnnonly high in their charges, no one can deny that — ian't nearly so good — no indeed, as that the poor are allowed at our Union. It is a fact, I assure you. Sir, for I have tasted it. It was delicious ! I only wish we could get as nice for our own use — yes, indeed ! The pau[iers ought to be con- tented : but there, they are such a nasty, horrid, low set, Sir, that — Two pairs did you say. Sir ? Thank you. Sir. Any- thing else, Sir, I could have the pleasure of showing you ? But, as I was saying, Sir, those paupers are the most discon- tentedest set that,' &c., &c. " So the fame of the luxurious living of the poor in the Hereford Union dun- geon is circulated in that city by the in- cessant revolving of the tongues of weak, ignorant, over-fed and little-taught, shop- keeping women, and Whig Aldermen's ungrammatical and over-dressed wives ; and should any one say that the cheese (the Hereford Guardians have declared they ivill stand or fall by their workhouse cheese — their Show-Cheese especially) wasn't better than the best Parmesan or Stilton that ever was made from milk, if a nervous man, the sooner he marries or turns Hindoo, as Shelley has it, and leaves the city of the snobs, the better for him- self, and the equanimity of the Hereford Guardians {vel geese)." — From a Here- ford Correspondent, April, 1841. " Some time ago the Poor-Law Com- missioners sent to our Union six dietaries, one of which we were to select to regulate the quantity of food to be allowed to the paupers in our workhouse. I made a motion that each Guardian be sent a copy of the dietaiT, to give him an opportunity of examining whether the quantity was sufficient, and at the same time I expressed my determination to add to the allowance, it being ray opinion that it is too little to sustain life. This morning, Mr. Clive, the Assistant Poor-Law Commissioner, attended our meeting : he asked me what alteration I intended to propose in the dietary ? I said, ' a greater quantity of food, and that the paupers should have occasionally a little beer !' 'I am,' said he, ' directed to inform you, that what- ever determination the Board may come to, the Poor-Law Commissioners will make no alteration in the dietary. They will not allow a greater quantity of food ; they will allow no beer : in short, the Board must adopt one of the tables, with- out any addition.' My answer was, ' I was sent here by the inhabitants of this borough, as a Guardian of the poor of the borough. I will endeavour to see BASTILE FOOD. 449 tliat the money of my constituents is not improperly applied ; but I will also see that those who are forced by poverty to a])ply to the parish for relief shall not be put on a quantity of food too small to sus- tain life. I have not yet, nor do I mean to consider the will of the Poor-Law Commis- sioners as to the quantity of food to be allowed to the paupers. I will exercise my own judgment, quite regardless whe- ther the Poor-Law Commissioners are offended or pleased.' " — Extract of a Let- ter from John Frost, Esq., Mayor of New- port, to John Walter, Esq., M.P. for Berks, Feb. 25, 1837. " Bastile Fare. — At Hatton-Garden police-office, on Friday, Thomas Kates, a distressed looking man, Avith three chil- dren, (the youngest four years of age,) their appearance indicating wretchedness and starvation, was brought up in the custody of Samuel Daniels, a Mendicity officer, chai'ged w ith begging. The pri- soner made the following statement : — Some time ago he was in the employ, as labourer, of Mr. Thomas Tubbs, at Palace-yard, Tottenham-court-road, when his wife, after a lingering illness, died. Being out of work, and distressed, he went out to ask charity, when he was taken into custody, and the Mendicity Society gave him work, and relieved him. He was afterwards, by the parish officers of St. Pancras, removed with his family to his parish, Wallingford, Berks, a Union. On their arrival there they were received into the workhouse, where he was kept separately from his children, where once a-week he was only suffered to speak to them. He was immediately put to work, digging in a garden, and grinding at a mill daily ; but finding that the food he received was not sufficient to enable him to do the work, he determined on leaving the Union, and coming to London with his family, in the hope of procuring employment and providing for them. He arrived in London in Septem- ber last, and endeavoured to get trifling jobs ; but being unable to procure perma- nent employment, on Friday morning he took his family out with him to ask alms, when they were taken into custody by the officer. Mr. Rogers sympathised with him, and ordered Daniels to take him to the Mendicity Society, in order that he might be relieved and put to some work, The prisoner was asked what quantity of food he was supplied with at Wallingford, by the parish authorities. He replied, ' Not near enough fur any man who was put to hard work, digging, and grinding at a mill. In the morning they gave him six ounces of bread, and a pint and a-half of skilligalee (gruel) for breakfast; five ounces of meat, four ounces of bread, and half-a-pound of potatoes, three times a-week for dinner ; and on other days, 18 omices of pudding for dinner; one ounce and a-half of cheese, and six ounces of bread, for supper.'" — Northern Star, Nov. 24, 1838. " The Hanwell Guardians seem deter- mined to ascertain the precise minimum of the human appetite, if we may believe a statement which has just reached us. A poor man, named Strange, a cripple, his wife and three children, were com- pelled to apply for relief to these worthies, and it was granted. ' To what extent ? ' inquires a reader. We feel our blood boil within us when we announce, that two quartern loaves were declared suffi- cient for the support of these five poor wretches for four days ! To add to the brutality of this ' order,' poor Strange — a cripple, be it remembered — w^as compelled to walk from Hanwell to Isleworth and back (a distance of eight miles) before he could receive this pittance ! Why ? Each loaf was a halfpenny cheaper at the latter than the former place ! For the sake of a penny they force a man, whose lameness prevents him from earning one, to walk this distance. The Rev. Mr. Emerton, the Overseers, and several other benevolent individuals, not only expressed their horror at the line of conduct adopted by the humane Guardians in open vestry, but most charitably and liberally subscribed to raise a sum which would release the suf- ferer from the fangs of such individuals." — Weekly Dispatch, Nov. 25, 1838. " Mr. Wakley said, he desired to take this opportunity of calling the attention of the House to the dietary tables for the poor in the city of London. If he neg- lected to avail himself of that oppor- tunity, one so convenient might not again present itself. They all knew that the object of the New Poor-Law Amend- ment-Act was to make provision for the destitute, and to take proper care of the funds of those who contributed to the payment of the rates. These objects, it was quite clear, could not be effected without some test of destitution. The bill al>;o professed to introduce a system of uni- formity throughout the whole of England and Wales. It was well known to hon. members that considerable ineqtiality pre- vailed as to the mode of administering 2 G 450 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. relief, and that the regulations of the Commissioners had, in some Unions, been considerably relaxed. Amongst the ad- vocates of the measure it was rumoured that the bill had ceased to be unpopular ; they alleged, that its unpopularity was rapidly declining. In that House on Friday they had heard unqualified state- ments, to the effect, that its unpopularity had ceased altogether. When inquiry was made as to whether or not relief had been withheld from able-bodied poor, the reply was, that no such order had been issued by the Commissioners. From that, and other causes, it did happen that the bill was not so unpopular in the city as it was in most parts of the country, and it was therefore that they had not heard so much lately of the nature of the diet sup- plied to tlie poor. In most parts of the country it was well known that water- gruel formed the chief article of diet. Now, he wished to know whether the country gentlemen would sanction one system of diet for their own Unions, and quite another for the parishes in the metropolis. One thing was quite clear, that the allowances to the poor in the city of London were quite different from those which they received in other parts of England and Wales ; and he should not for a moment hesitate to say, that if the House did their duty, they would have the Poor-Law Commissioners at their bar to render an account of their conduct in this respect. He hoped that the hon. member for Lambeth would turn his attention to the subject of diet. He was a M'arra advocate of the measure, though he hoped that Lambeth would not be affected by it. Neither that hon. member nor any other hon. member of that House could shut his eyes to the fact, that in many places water-gruel formed the chief article of diet. At Kensington the auditor refused the extra allovv'ances granted by the Guardians, and they were under the necessity of defraying the charge out of their own pockets. On the various grounds which, upon that and upon other occasions, he had stated, he did hope that the attention of hon. members would be directed to this subject. It was disgrace- ful and disgusting that the poor agricul- tural labourer, after a long life of toil, should be cast into a dungeon, and placed upon worse than a gaol allowance, al- though his previous circumstances never had been such as to enable him to make any savings ; and that the London mechanic, who frequently earned from 30s. to 40s. a-wcck, out of which he might have laid aside some surplus, sliould in his period of destitution be sup- plied with a diet comparatively good. In London, the men received on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, seven ounces of bread, one pint of milk-porridge for breakfast, seven ounces of cooked meat, three-quarters-of-a-pound of vege- tables, and one pint of beer for din- ner. Beer, as they well knew, was altogether withheld in country parishes. For supper, in London, they were allowed seven ounces of bread, one ounce and a- half of cheese, and a second pint of beer. The women received five ounces of bread and a pint of tea. Such was the diet supplied in a place where there existed no order for withholding out-of-door relief. Now, in the country, the poor were all but starved. In London the women re- ceived six ounces of cooked meat, three- quarters-of-a-pound of vegetables, one pint of beer ; and for supper, five ounces of bread, one ounce and a-half of cheese, and a second pint of beer. On Saturday, the London paupers received 14 ounces of suet pudding, and, as he had already stated, the adult males and females all re- ceived a pint of beer at dinner, and the same at supper. Did he state this for the purpose of making any complaint that the diet in London was too good ? Quite the contrary. He thought it only just and equitable that the poor should be fed in this manner ; but how was it that the poor in the country were not equally well treated ? The noble lord, perhaps, could not explain the matter, but the Poor-Law Commissioners might, and he held, that they ought to be called to the bar of the House for that purpose. Then, as to cases of sickness, the practice in London was, that the patient should be allowed wine or whatever other necessaries the medical attendant might direct. How different from that was the state of things at Uxbridge, as appeared from the state- ment of Mr. Rayner ! If the practice of the London Unions were just and proper, how could the practice of the country Unions be defended ! Roast-beef and plum-pudding were given at Christmas, roast-veal, or roast-pork, at Easter and Whitsuntide, and on ordinary occasions, the diet which he had already detailed. With justice done in London, would the people submit to injustice out of London ? The two systems could not both be right. The poor agricultural labourer had no chance in the country. While the London BASTILE FOOD. 451 mechanics possessed all the advantages of superior intelligence, of trade unions and combinations, they could protect them- selves, and were not exposed to the same vicissitudes as the agricultural labourer. This was a serious question, and ought not to be shirked by the House ; and if by the House, it ought not to be neglected by the country. He did not charge the Commissioners with dishonest}^ — he did not say that they were afraid to illtreat the larger and more influential population of London ; but one thing was evident, that a wide difference prevailed between the dietary of London and the dietaries of the country, and he held that the causes of the difference ought to be explained. It had been stated invariablj'-, and the noble lord the Secretary for the Home Depart- ment, had urged it continually, that the object of the law was to make labourers independent. That certainly was an ex- cellent object; but how did the Commis- sioners propose to carry it out in country places ? They found the labourers there working at wages that barely kept them from starvation ; and they said to them- selves, ' We must take care, in framing our regulations, that we don't incite the labourers to enter the workhouses, and they must, therefore, be made one degree, and no more, above starvation point.' But how, he should like to know, would wages ever be raised if such a system as that were pursued ? Suppose, for example, a work- ing man in the country were offered 6s. a-week wages, and were told, ' If you don't take that, you must go into the workhouse, and then you will have food worth only 2s. 6d. or 3s, per week.' Of course he would prefer taking the wages of 6s. per week. But offer that dietary to the poor in the workhouse, and then he would admit, with the noble lord, that the Poor-Law would raise wages, because the poor man would in such case prefer going into the workhouse to accepting low wages out of it. He trusted the noble lord Avould see the utility of causing the dietary tables to which he had referred to be more generally used, and that his having read extracts from them in that House would have the effect of their being compared with the dietary taken throughout the country ; and, if the discrepancies that existed between them could not be recon- ciled, that the Poor-Law Commissioners would be ordered to attend at the bar of that House to state why it was that such dietary tables had been framed for the city of London, and totally different ones for the poor in the country. (Hear, hear.) He had another dietary table in his pocket, in reference to the children who were farmed at Norwood, which was equally as good as the one he had before referred to ; but he v/ould not detain the House by making any further observations respect- ing it. (Hear.)'' — House of Commons^ Aprils, 1841. " I see in the Times of this day a state- ment to the effect, that, in the Hartis- mere Union, a pauper boy named Qiientiu, between eleven and ticelve years of aye, haviny watched the mouse-traj} set m the mens attic, secured a mouse from it, and shinned, roasted, atid ate it in tlie men's sittiny-room, and in their presence ! ! ! Mott, the Assistant-Commissioner says, that the Governor of the Hartismere Union Workhouse considers this to have been a mere ' larh,'' but a Mr. Rodgers, asserts that ' it can be distinctly jjroved, and by a person (not a pauper) who inter- rogated the boy on the subject within twenty-four hours after the roasting, that hunger was his inducement for having eaten the mouse, &c.' Mr. Rodgers goes on to saj% — ' That a different version should have been obtained from a simple lad by an Assistant Poor-Law Commissioner is by no means extraordinary.' I know not whether Mr. Rodgers knows INIott as well as Mott is known in the parish of Lambeth, but if he does, he must know that a viler caitiff does not exist than the said Mott. In my character of Journalist, I have had several letters addressed to me describing the fellow's horrible treatment of paupers and mad-people, describing him as a man who has realized an ' inde- pendence ' by starving paupers, by driving them mad, and afterwards contracting for their maintenance as a keeper of lunatics, in short, as a man who has carried on a regular traffic in the woes and tortures of his fellow-beings. If the letters I allude to be true, (and I have no reason for doubting them), the oath of Mott ought not to weigh against any other man's simple word of honour. A man capable of torturing paupers and lunatics (the latter of his own malcinyj would be capa- ble, not only of falsehood, but of any crime within the comjiass of human vil- lany, provided money was to be made by it, and that it was not cognizable by a Court of ' Law.' With these premises, I leave the public to judge between Mott's ' report,' and Mr. Rodgers's statement in the mouse-eating affair. But INIr. Rod- gers does not leave the matter to mere G 2 452 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. parole evidence ; he has given facts and figures as well." — Bronterre O'Brien in the ^'■Northern Star" August 1, 1838. " Mr. Blakey then showed the meeting, that the end and object of all these harsh and unjust measures were to reduce the amount of out-door relief. The work- house was to be made into a place of pu- nishment and suftering, in order that the poor might be deterred from applying for any relief; or if application were made, they might be obliged to take whatever was offered to them. This was ' carrying out the principle ' of this most odious, un- just, and unmerciful Bill. Thei-e was, however, an apprehension that the poor creatures in the house would be getting too fat and indolent on the rich fare allowed them. To prevent this, that very ingenious gentleman, the Rector of Bothal, Mr. Parry, has kindly sent up a grinding machine for the poor work- house inmates to toil at. And what, can it be conceived, is this machine to grind ? Why, beans for his horses ! This is a beautiful system — the poor man to be fed on gruel and wretched soup, without a particle of bread, to toil all day, to grind food for this fat Rector's fat horses ! The speaker then showed how beneficial the little notice of these cruelties last week had been to the workhouse people. The Guardians had assembled early on Monday morning, and made a change of their diet, and allowed more bread, cofiee at 2s. instead of Is. lOd., but no pepper to be allowed. This was a confession worth something. The individual cases of hardship could not all be pointed out, but two would be selected. William Hun- ter, an elderly person, became affected with a bowel complaint. Dr. Shute ordered port wine and sago ; the port was considered too dear, and gooseberry '^vine was given. The consequence was, that the poor man was carried off" quickly. The next case was that of Ann Thomp- son, aged 27, who died on Friday last. She lived with her father, in the country ; became afflicted with nervous debility ; was taken from her father's house, cram- med into the workhouse, and compelled to live upon the ordinary slop of the place. She v/as half-starved ; and many of the poor people in the house had to give a share of their own miserable por- tion of bread to satisfy her hunger. The consequence was, that consumption was induced. Three or four days before her death, she was removed, by an express -lC|l-MH i(l-M|Mj|M»|MM|M0|M,^|M^|H»HM|^IO|H ^ w *>. ly 3 C5 00- 05 -J Ol (J> 02 "^t OS ^1 OS "^ N ^- ta H- to o 0'050'-MlMMIt- CS Bread Gruel. So 2. o p Soup. Bread. Cheese Bread, Cheese "Old people of 60 years of age and upwards, may be nli owed 1 oz. of tea, 5 oz. of butter, and 7 oz. of sugar per week, in lieu of gruel for breakfast, if deemed expedient to make this change. " Children under 9 years of age to be dieted at discretion ; above 9, to be allowed the same quantity as women. " Sick to be dieted as directed by me- dical officer. CONVICT DIETARY TABLE, IN THE HULKS. Daily Allowance a to K 0) 03 ta O '3 m IS s o o pq lb. oz. OZ. oz. oz.' pts. pts. Sunday . . 14 4 7 1 Monday . . 4 4 7 1 Tuesday. . 11 4 7 1 "Wednes . . 4 4 7 1 Thursday . 14 4 7 1 Friday . . 4 4 7 i Saturday . 14 4 7 i "My lord, I had heard much about ^ paver ttj being treated tvorse than crime.' I had thought such things impossible,, at least hi England. The existence of the ' New Poor Law' led me to examine this point ; I found at once that the jrrinciple of the Bill was odious — its operation cruel and revolting ! and the conviction is forced upon me, that the charge is strictly true. Look at the above tables once more, my lord, — see your ' able-bodied ' pauper made to subsist on 13 ounces of meat, during a whole week, 5 ounces of which are bacon. Then, my lord, cast your eye over the beef column of the convict dietary, and you see him with 14 ounces oi fresh beef four times a-week ! ! One ounce more, at 07ie meal, than your ' able-bodied ' 2^(iuper is allowed for the 2vhole tveek! ! The convict with three pounds and a-half of fresh beef in a week ; the pauper, 13 ounces, 5 of which are bacon ! My lord, will you now believe, with 'proof,' that in this country, ' poverty is treated xcorse than crime ?' " Nor is it in the article of meat alone that the convict is better provided for than the pauper ; no part of the convict dietary will suffer in comparison with No, 3. The pauper, be it observed, is left, after repeated meals of bread and cheese, to slake his thirst at the pump ; but the convict, in such cases, has his pint of beer to refresh and strengthen himself with. As a proof that the con- vict diet is wholesome, I may state, that at the time I obtained the scale of diet, the number of convicts on board the hulks was 588 ; of these, two only were on the sick list. Can the same amount of health be shown to exist among the in- mates of the New Poor-Law Bastiles ? Among the convicts, my lord, ' diarrhoea' and 'ophthalmia,' the natural concomitants of low diet and confinement, are un- known. ' Irish bacon-Avater broth,' and ' flour and water skiUy,' form no part of the diet of the convicts^ When fhey have ' gruel,' it is of a good consistency, and is made with oatmeal and not with flour. " They know not what it is to make a meal (a dinner) from ' suet ' pudding alone, which, for the sake of economy or some other motive, has been made from the grease scummc;! from the copper after the boiling of Iiish bacon \ " The note at the foot of the dietary table No. 3, is little less than a mockery. ' Old people of 60 years of age and up- wards, may be allowed, if deemed expe- dient to make this change.' Who is to deem it expedient ? INIy Lord ' Cruelty,' I suppose, in which case I say, Lord have 456 THE BOOK OF THE BA6T1LES. mercy on these poor old creatures. ' Cliiidren under nine years of age to be dieted at discretion.'' Poor little inno- cents, it had been better for you that ye had never been born. I can readily ima- gine that ye will not be likely to suffer from surfeit. ' Above 7iine years, to be allowed the same as women.' I should say, my lord, that the authors of the dietary tables for the ' Unions' were not physicians ; if they were, they deserve to lose their diploma for not knorcing, or for disregarding, the requirements of youth or old age. Periods when much sustenance is necessary; in the first, to encourage growth and natural development ; in the 7iext, to support decaying nature. But I am forgetting myself; these are consider- ations altogether foreign to the object of the New Poor-Law." — Anti-Malthiisian Bloodsucker' s Letter to the " Manchester Advertiser;' Sept. 19, 1840, pronounce such food to be as pernicious to the one class, as it is insufficient for the other." — Bronterre O'Briens LettcTy August I, 1839. " Pray, reader ! mark the following table : — DIETARY FOR CHILDREN UNDER SIXTEEN YEARS OF AGE. Breakfast Dinner. Supper Days. 6 ■5 T3 a to « a. d Bread. Cheese. oz. pnts oz. oz. lb. pts. OZ. oz. oz. Sunday. Monday Tuesday Wed. . . 4i 4i ■41 3 ^ ^ 4 i i' 4i ^ 4i 4i Thurs . . 4i 4i 1 4i Friday . Sat 4j 3' 4^ 4' i 4i It will be generally admitted, that at no time of life is the appetite keener than between the ages of 10 and 16. Towards the latter, in particular, growing boys and girls are quite ravenous. Now, it appears, that unless a child be sick, the above table cannot be legally departed from. And what a table ! Six ounces of meat and tico pints of soup in the week for a growing youth ! No puddings ! no milk ! no beer ! but the everlasting gruel, and the everlasting cheese, morning, noon and night. ' No matter, whether the pauper be a pxding infant or a hearty youth of 16, the pint of the one, and the ounce of the other, are doled out to each without respect to age. It consequently requires no other experience than that possessed by every father of a family, to " He stated, and he was determined that they should hear it, that they were much indebted to the Times newspaper for the part it had taken upon the New Poor-Law Bill. (Cheers and uproar.) He held in his hand a most important dietary table, published some years ago, and which he believed would never have seen daylight but for the I'imes. It was the pauper dietary table of the Cirencester Union, and it exposed the cruelt)'^ of in- tention, and the baseness in practice, of the Commissioners by whom it had been framed, and of the Guardians who had submitted to its orders. It had been put forth and sent to the Cirencester Union in 1836, and the only morsel of animal food which it gave to the poor, and which the Guardians had no power to increase, was 5 ounces of bacon on a Sunday. (Great confusion, and cries of ' Shame !') Now, since that time this table had been, it was said, amended, and to what did that amendment amount ? Why to this — that the 5 ounces of bacon had been divided into two parts, and were served out to the able-bodied paupers and infirm paupers, and those above 70 years of age, in these portions — 2^ ounces on a Sunday, and 2^ ounces on a Wednesday. (General shouts of ' Shame !') The cruelty in both principle and practice of those who framed, and of those who ad- ministered this law, and of their sub- agents, was sufficiently substantiated in his mind by the damning fact which these tables established. It was true, then, that the poor were put into the scale, in order to ascertain what reduction of food they could bear, and he himself was an evidence to-day that, though the inmates of prisons were also so weighed, they were not fed so low as Avere the inmates of the workhouse. When he himself was an inmate of Tothill-fields prison, where he had the honour to be placed in the people's cause, and for which he never had regretted or whined, he being a bulky chap had been weighed, in order to see ' how far the food would go with him.' And he fearlessly asserted that, at the present moment, the food allowed in that prison to convicted prisoners, was infinitely more than was prescribed for paupers in the dietary tables issued by the three kings of Somerset-house."— BASTILE FOOD. 457 Mr. Cleave, Croivn and Anchor Meeting, March 11, 1841. " Mr. Fletcher, of Bury, then rose. The toast, he said, was very extensive, and he should direct his attention to that branch of it which, as a medical man, he might be supposed to understand best. He felt the more inclined to do this because Mr. Assistant-Commissioner Power, in his evidence before the Poor-Law Com- mittee, had challenged him to vindicate what he had said on the occasion of his (Mr. Power's) visit to Bury. After pay- ing the people of Bury the very gratifying compliment of saying, that his first diffi- culty occurred in that town, Mr. Power said some very wild assertions were there made with regard to the diet hi the Union workhouses in the south, and that it was declared the food allowed in those work- houses was not sufficient to support a human being in full health and strength. And in reply to some leading questions from the chairman, Mr. Power added, ' this was said by a person who, from his station and character, ought to have been better acquainted with the subject,' and that he Avas a medical man. Now he (Mr. F.) had not only stated, that the food allowed in those workhouses was not sufficient to support a human being in health and strength, but he added, that he would stake his professional character upon the correctness of that opinion — (hear, hear) — and he was not at all inclined to withdraw that pledge. He did not think that he was so likely, in consequence of that pledge, to sacrifice his professional reputation, and the confidence of the public, as CO be obliged, like one of their late townsmen in Manchester, to seek the degraded office of a Poor-Law Commis- sioner because he could not obtain support. The meeting Avould allow him to notice one of those barefaced and deliberate falsehoods which the Whig Commissioners and the Whig ministry never hesitated to use, whenever it could answer the purpose, even of a week or a day, or any period of time, though they were confident that it would be exposed within that short period ; but it seemed as if Mr. Power thought that this falsehood might be of some years' duration. He (Mr. F.) asked Mr. Power the question, he having given reason to suppose that a Union workhouse would be established in the parish of Bury, if there would be the same dietary as in the south. He replied, that the object of the Act was to establish uniformity. He (Mr. F.) thereupon exhibited to the people assem- bled a meal according to the scale of the West Hamptnett Union dietary ; and, after that, Mr. Power altered his tone of uni- formity, and said the dietary would be adapted to the habits of the people in the different districts. He (Mr. F.) then alluded to the Unions in Yorkshire, which had been mentioned to him, and asked for their dietary. ' Oh,' replied Mr. Power, ' you see how you have been misinformed, I assure you there is not a single Union founded in all Yorkshire.' He (Mr. F.) then mentioned his authority, the Sheffield Iris, but on Mr, Power's assurance gave no confidence to it. Now, according to the third report of the Poor-Law Commis- sioners, there were no fewer than seven Unions formed in Yorkshire three or four months before Mr. Power made this asser- tion at Bury, the object of which was to make him (Mr. F.) appear ignorant. (Hear, hear.) But suppose he had been ignorant, was he or any other private individual to keep pace with or to follow the tortuous windings of the Poor-Law Commissioners, and know where they carried this law, which was law at one time and not at another, and where every Union was established? It would be strange indeed if Mr. Power, a Poor- Law Commissioner, acting in a district in close contiguity, could be ignorant of the fact ; if he were not ignorant, he asseiied a deliberate falsehood in his evidence before the committee. After hearing Mr, Power's assertion at Bury he (Mr. F.) could say no more, and he brought for- ward the dietary of the West Hamptnett Union, The meeting would remember, that this dietary had been brought forward in the House of Commons by the late Mr, Cobbett, and admitted to be correct by one of the sons of the Duke of Richmond, It was upon this dietary that he (Mr. F.) founded his assertion, that it was not suffi- cient to support a human being in health and strength; and it had since been made to appear so by their own officers, for the books of the surgeon of the workhouse, given in evidence before the Poor-Law Committee of last session, showed, that above 150 people were in the hospital, and 72 died in one year. Might he not, then, safelj' say, that he would rest his j;rofes- sional character upon the assertion ? The parties died, too, of just that kind of disease which was most likely to be in- duced by insufficient diet. Very consi- derable pains had been taken to prove, by the surgeon's book, that a variety of dis- eases prevailed, and the attention of the 458 THE BOOK OF THK. BA8TILES committee was directed to that fact. There were ' senile debility,' ' decay of nature,' and different names substituted for old age. An old man required more support than a man in the robust part of life. It was the old men and the young children that were starved to (ieath. A very great number of children were put down as having died of bronchitis, or in- flammation of the air passages, whilst the surgeon admitted that none of the patients out of the workhouse died of that disease ; the reason being, he was inclined to believe, that they had been very much reduced by the workhouse diet. In fact, Mr. Fletcher observed, the Poor-Law Commissioners determined to put the nation on short allowance. Mr. Mott was commissioned to form dietaiy tables, and he actually brought forward the short allowance table in Captain Parry's voyage to show the capability of his dietary to support human life. He forgot that when a ship's company were put upon short allowance, the officers were put upon short allowance too. (Cheers.) And if the aristocracy, the Duke of Richmond, and the Poor-Law Commissioners were put on short allowance, the people would be very willing to join them. (Hear.) Mr. Mott being commissioned to form this dietary, what did he do ? He took the lowest quantity of food upon which the people could exist : he did not set to work experimentally. (Hear.) There was a very great philosopher to whom Lord Brougham had been compared, but whom he resembled just as an ape resembled a man — there was Lord Bacon, who always recommended experiment. Now he (Mr. F.) shjuld like Mr. Mott, and all the Poor-Law Commissioners, to try the ex- periment of living upon bread and cheese and gruel for three months ; and if at the end of that time they were satisfied with the condition in which they found their bodies, he (Mr. F.) would be satisfied with the condition of the labourers of England. Mr. Mott did not go to work experimentally. He got hoid of the Penny Magazine^ which taught him the quantity of nutritious matter in the dif- ferent sorts of food ; but Mr. Mott was not right as to their relative nutritious qualities. No chemistry could teach him that ; that could only be learned by ex- perience, and by observation. The late lamented Mr. Cobbett declared, that the knowledge that potatoes would not fatten a hog was worth all the chemistry, and all the philosophy in the world j but Mr. Mott had discovered that bread had about one-third more nutritious qualities than potatoes. Having settled what Captain Parry's crew could live upon, he observed, that some of their food was animal food, which being not so nutritious as bread, his patients would not need so much of it. Now this animal food upon which Captain Parry's crew lived he (Mr. Fletcher) happened to know something about, through Lieutenant Hood, a lamented friend of his now dead, who was employed in the operation under Captain Franklin. This kind of food was called pelican ; it was the flesh of the buffalo dried, powdered, and made into a paste with suet ; deprived of all watery parts, it was a purely animal substance ; and the North American Lidians having discovered from experience that they could live longer upon a smaller quantity of this kind of food than any other, it was adopt- ed. (Hear.) Mr. Mott had not only found out that this food was as nutritious as bread, but he had also discovered what quantity of it was consumed ; he admitted it was a greater weight than his patients got, but then we eat beef and mutton, and they had bread and potatoes, and there- fore the smaller weight was more nutri- tious than the larger. However, his patients, like Dr. Sangrado's, obstinately continued to die under his regimen. They had died in the "West Hamptnett Union ; they had died by hundreds in the Bridge- water workliouse, and he (Mr. F.) was only astonisLed that the parties who there starved them to death had not been in- dicted. There were some friends near him who recollected, that after the last Poor-Law meeting, when the delegates were assembled at dinner, he stated that the proper use of any subsci'iptions of money raised in support of the opposition to the Pooi'-Law Act, would be in in- dicting those parties for murder and man- slaughter ; and he believed Lord Wynford was of the same opinion. What could be done when the evidence of the surgeon proved that the patient had died from an insufficiency of food ? Whatever kind of jury might be met with, the very exposure would be worth something, and it would be worth something to hear the charge of an English judge upon the subject. When Mr. Power was in Bury, they took an opinion upon the right of indicting him (Mr. Fletcher), for he had said not only that they dared not bring the question into a court of law, and before an English judge, and an English jury, but that he BASTILE FOOD 459 would punish the person who dared to separate his wife and family from him, and tluit if he were put upon the diet of the Union workhouses he would take food wherever he could find it. (Cheers.)" — Halifax Meeting^ August 28, 1838. " Dudley Dietary Tables. " The Bishop of ExETERhad to present a petition from the Guardians of the Dudley Poor-Law Union. They prayed to be protected from the extraordinary powers granted to the Poor-Law Comniissioners, either by abrogating or by mater ially abridg. ing those powers ; and the petitioners prayed also that all Boards of Guardians might be at liberty to provide for the poor according to tlieir own discretion, because they thought that the Poor-Law Guar- dians, who were living among the people, were the best judges of what, in each district, was fit and proper nourishment for them. There was much dissatisfac- tion felt by the Guardians, at the dietary- table sent down to Dudley, because they considered that it Avas not such as could sustain life, or could render the person receiving it fit to renew his work on his discharge. The Dudley Guardians sub- sequently became acquainted with the dietary-table used in the City of London Union ; and they found it so much more generous and liberal than their own, that they, without scruple, adopted it, and an- nounced their determination to the Com- missioners, who, probably with great pro- priety, checked and reprimanded them for adopting it without consulting them ; and they added, that the London tables had been allowed only for a short time, and under peculiar circumstances. The Guar- dians, however, from their local know- ledge, being aware that the dietary-table sent by the Commissioners was not a pro- per support for the inmates of their work- houses, persevered in giving what they deemed a fitter diet, and persisted in their resolution of having the City of London dietary-tables. The Commissioners told them, that if they did this the master and matron of the workhouse, who had no right to act in disobedience of the Com- missioners' orders, would be dealt with by them in such a manner that neither the power nor the orders of the Guardians M'ould protect them, and that they would be ordered to be displaced. This, of course, called forth a strong remonstrance on the part of the Guardians, who said, that so far from the nature of the case requiring an additional allowance to the paupers in the neighbourhood of the me- tropolis, the fact was the very reverse ; for that the working men in the neigh- bourhood of Dudley were subject to harder labour, to which they had been brought vip from their youth, and were accustomed to substantial diet ; but that their strength would not be kept up with the proposed allowance, and that until they obtained for the working men the necessary allowance of food, the Guar- dians declared that they would not relax their exertions for the discharge of w'hat they considered their duty to God and man. At the time the remonstrance was drawn up, no answer had been given to the Guardians' last letter ; but since that time he believed that a Deputy-Commis- sioner had been sent down, and something had been done, but nothing which was satisfactory to the Guardians. On three days in the week they had this diet : — 21 oz. of bread per diem, 3;^ oz. of cheet^p, and \\ pint of gruel. This was all they received on three days. On one other day the allowance was 20 oz. of bread, 1^ 08. of cheese, 1^ pint of soup, and \\ pint of gruel. On two other days, which were signalized as meat days, the allowance was 5 oz. of cooked meat, 1 lb. of potatoes, 14oz. of bread, l^oz. of cheese, and 1 \ pint of gruel ; and on the seventh day, instead of meat, each had 7 oz. of bacon. Now he would beg their lordships to compare that dietary with the one in use in the City of London Union. On three days in the week the allowance was 7 oz. of cooked meat, f lb. of vegetables, 1 lb. of bread, 2 oz. of cheese, \ pint of milk porridge, and one pint of beer at dinner, and another pint at supper. On three other days the al- lowance was \\ pint of soup, made of good materials, with one pint of beer and the other articles ; and on the remaining day, instead of meat or soup, the allow- ance was 1 lb. of suet pudding, or boiled rice, and bread. He had thought it his duty, before he mentioned the case to their lordships, to give notice to the Commis- sioners, and also to consult an eminent physician in London, who had attended one of the largest hospitals in the country. That physician had told him that the dietary table furnished to the Dudley Union was not sufficient to sustain the body of the pauper in health. Nor did he think it sufficient to prevent him from falling into disease, nor sufficient to keep him in a condition to resume his work ; neither did he think it right entirely to 460 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. exclude this class of persons from the use of beer. He considered the dietary-table of the City of London Union sufficient, but not too profuse. He had also in- quired into the ordinary dietary allowed at St. George's Hospital, and he found that the ordinary diet, which was not the full diet given to a person advancing to- wards recovery, but was only to sustain the patient in his present state, was a pint of tea, a quarter-of-a-pint of milk, six ounces of meat roasted, and half-a-pound of potatoes, these six ounces of meat being just half the full diet. At supper the allowance was one pint of gruel, lialf- a-pint of milk, and during the day 12 oz. of bread, and one pint of beer daily. Such was the difference in the three sys- tems of diet; and the Guardians of the Dudley Union implored their lordships to allow them the control over the dietary- table ; and after the experience they had had of the want of discretion, perhaps %vant of knowledge, on the part of the Commissioners, that the Lcgislatui-e would make such alterations as would enable the Guardians to do that which their duty to God and man required. The petition was signed by 28 Guardians ; there were in all the Union 27 appouited Guardians, and three ex-ojficio members of the Board. The three ex-ojpcio Guardians had signed ; but two of the appointed Guardians had, from accidental circumstances, not signed ; but the Board was unanimous upon this subject, and they entertained a very strong opinion upon it. " Lord Brougham entered his protest against the measure being condemned upon such statements as the present ; but he could not sit down without stating his total dissent from what had been assumed, and only assumed, because it had never been argued, and still less proved, that extraordinary and unprecedented powers were given to the Central Board of Com- missioners, or to the Guardians. He denied that any one power, or any one authority, had been conferred on any of the newly constituted authorities, which was not in existence under the old law, since the time of Elizabeth, with this material difference only, that previously these powers existed and were exercised irresponsibly, unsatisfactorily, irregularly, and in the dark. " Viscount Melbourne understood that with regard to the complaints of the Dudley Board of Guardians, the dietary- table was accepted by them out of two or tluee submitted to them by the Poor- Law Commissioners, and which had been collected from those parishes which ap- peared, before the passing of the Poor- Law Act, to have paid the greatest atten- tion to the subject. That dietary was acted upon till the Board of Guardians read in the newspapers the dietary of the City of London Union, when they desired to adopt it. To this the Poor-Law Com- missioners, as he thought justly, objected. They stated that the London dietary was only temporary, that it had not been sanc- tioned by them, and that it was only adopted under the particular circum- stances of the London Union. The paupers in London were not j-et collected into Union workhouses; they were pro- vided for by contractors, and the Com- missioners had not yet assumed the guid- ance of the workhouses ; the Commis- sioners did not approve of the dietary- table in use ; it was only temporarily in force ; it was not intended to be perma- nent ; and being thought by the Commis- sioners to be too large, it had not received their support or approbation. This was the simple case. With respect to the Dudley dietary-table itself, he would not then enter into a discussion on its suffi- ciency or insufficiency ; but he must say, that he did not think that the opinions of medical men on this subject were always the best which could be attended to, for this was a dietary for persons in health, and medical men were more conversant with that for persons who were sick. '• The Earl of Winchilsea, having given his support to the Bill when before the House, would offer only a few obser- vations, especially as he Avould have an- other opportunity of stating his opinions when the whole question was before them. He confessed that he attached much im- portance to the prayer of the petitioners, for, in his opinion, it would be a very ad- visable measure to place the dietary en- tirely under the control of the Guardians, who were most interested in the welfare of those about them, and that the Com- missioners should not be allowed to inter- fere. There was also another point on which he was decided that alterations ought to be made, and this was in i-espect to allowing the Guardians power to ad- minister out-door relief. " The Earl of Radnor differed alto- gether from the noble earl on both points which he had ui'ged, relating to the diet and to the giving of out-door relief. " The JNIarquis of Salisbury said, that notwithstanding the inconvenience of BASTILE FOOD. 4G1 discussing such questions as this on peti- tions, he couki not refrain from stating, that from his experience every attention was always paid by the Poor-Law Com- missioners to the representations that were made to them respecting the operation of any rule that was established in any of the Unions. Whenever a case was made in which it satisfactorily appeared that a relaxation of those rules would be just, the Commissioners had always most rea- dily acceded to any proposal to that effect. " Earl Stanhope would call upon the noble and learned lord opposite (Lord Brougham) to state whether there was ever an instance, in any former period of the history of this country, of any body of men being empowered by law to frame rules, orders, and regulations, which were to have the force of an Act of Parliament, such as these Poor-Law Commissioners had the power to do ? It was stated, that these Commissioners were responsible to the public ; but they were neither respon- sible to the Government nor Parliament. These rules, now complained of, never had obtained the sanction of the Govern- ment or of Parliament. " The Duke of Richmond had always been of opinion, that they ought not to give better dietary to the poor in the workhouses than the labourers obtained out of it. He admitted, that it would be a good thing if the wages of labourers could be raised to an amount that would enable them to live better, and bi-ing their families up better than they now did." — House of Lo7'ds, March 17, 1838. " TO THE EDITOR OP THE CHAMPION. " SiK, — I hasten to lay before you the particulars of the treatment which three working men experienced from the Gover- nor of the workhouse at Macclesfield, and who belonged to the parish of Ashton. The facts of the case were detailed before a select vestry at Ashton, One of the men Avantonly insulted, for there could have been no difficulty in allowing him the privi- lege of a spoon, if it were not intended to insult or drive him ' to his own resources,' stated, that being in want of employment, which they had been anxiously seeking for without success, these three apphed to the Governor of the Union workhouse, on a cold and dreary night, for shelter from the winter's blast. After some hesi- tation, he consented, and being in want of food, in a little time a can was brought to them, containing a portion of porridge left by the inmates of the house. There was no other description of food with the porridge, nor even a spoon to eat it with ; and when the Governor was asked for even this latter luxury, ' Oh, no ; we never allow anything ! ' The poor men were then driven to the necessity to eat the porridge as they may with pieces of a stick, which they had broken for that purpose. I think I need not offer another word on the horrid degradation to which the honest, hard-working people are sub- jected. " I have sent a letter to the Governor, asking if he had his commands from the Commissioners, but he has not yet replied to your obedient servant, " MOSES CHAPMAN." — Champion, Jan. 26, 1840. " Death from Starvation. — The cases of immediate death from starvation are comparatively rare. The mode in which deficiency of food occasions death among the poor is by gradually wasting and destroying their constitutions, and predisposing them to diseases and com- plaints, by which apparently and im- mediately they are carried off. The multitudes of such cases are great beyond belief; and the instances in which persons among the poorer classes have their strength undermined, and are incapacitated both in body and mind by the habitual deficiency and inferiority of food, though their death, perhaps, is not occasioned by it, are still more numerous, and not less injurious consequences to the well-being of the state." — British Critic. " Reception of Lord Morpeth and Sir George Strickland at Hudders- EiELD. — In pursuance of their intention (the walls at Huddersfield having been previously placarded to that effect) the noble lord and his colleague left Leeds for the former place in his lordship's travel- ling carriage. Three o'clock was the hour at which these unworthy and unwel- come visitors were expected, and conse- quently crowds were assembled to receive them. They did not arrive, however, until after five, when their reception was far different from that they had contem- plated. In Huddersfield the New Poor- Law is peculiarly obnoxious to all classes, and, as a consequence, they do not hesitate to show their detestation and utter abhor- rence of the men who could attempt to force such an abominable and imprac- ticable measure upon them, and the next moment be mean enough to ask them for their votes, that their liberty might be 462 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. thereby more effectually withdrawn from them. It was known that his lordship and Sir Geoi-ge would address the people from tlie window of the Rose and Crown. Accordingly, on the noble lord presenting himself at the window, he was rather dis- agreeably surprised at seeing a small piece of bread and cheese (the exact weight, as apportioned by the Poor-Law Commis- sioners for the diet of able-bodied paupers) stuck on a fork at a corner of the window. His lordship viewed it for a moment, and taking it from the window, threw it dis- dainfully from him. This discomfiture of the noble lord was the signal for the ex- pression of that disapprobation with which the congregated thousands (many having come into the town from the adjoining villages,) view the odious Poor-Law and its authors. The deep, determined, but honest and manly avowal of their dislike of the two candidates was vented in hootings and execrations. It did not, however, prevent the noble lord from re- peating probably the same speech over again that he delivered at Leeds in the morning, for his lii)s were seen to move, but not a syllable was heard. He was followed by Sir George Strickland, in the same manner, and to the like effect. After remaining about an hour at the window, both Lord Morpeth and Sir George Strickland withdrew, under a salute of hissings and hootings, such as ought to deter them from ever entering the town of Huddersfield on a similar errand." — Times, July 20, 1837. " Good News fok the Poor. — At a late meeting of the Guardians of Keighley, an applicant, commonly called a pauper, presented himself to the notice of the Board, and requested r. little relief. On being questioned in the usual manner about Avhat he had to live upon, he frankly told them it was two shillings and sixpence per week, but he found it insufficient, and hoped they would add a little to it. One of the Guar- dians, who had once been wretchedly poor himself, appeared astonished at the man's request, and told him, that a person with an income of two shillings and six- pence per week, had no reason to come there, as he would very soon prove that it would not only support him comfortably, but leave him a very handsome surplus at the end of the week, if managed with economy. In proof of this, he told him that he had nothing to do but to buy two- pennyworth of oatmeal, and a halfpenny- worth of old milk a-day. The oatmeal, divided into three parts, would make tliree good basins of porridge, and the milk divided in the same manner of one-third part to each dish would act as a beverage, and thus furnish him with three substan- tial meals a-day at the low rate of two- pence-halfpenny. His victuals would consequently only cost him about seven- teen pence a-week, leaving him thirteen pence clear — a sum which, if taken proper care of, would serve him on some future occasion, when he might, perhaps, be in a state of real want. After this charitable advice the man was dismissed, and the whole assemblage of Solons forming the Board, seemed highly delighted with the penetration of their brother, who could teach the poor man how to save a fortune out of two shillings and sixpence per week ! The above is a fact, and shows with what rapid strides the march of economy is progressing since the intro- duction of the New Poor-Law." — North- ern Star, Feb. 16, 1839. " That determined and consistent opponent of the New Poor-Law, Mr. Day, one of the members of the Board of GuiU'dians of the parisli of St. George, Southwark, has resumed his letters to the Times on the cruel work- ing of tills atrocious law, from one of which we make the following ex- tract : — " William Williams, now resident in the parish of St. George, Southwark, is 63 years of age, and his wife 64, and burdened with an afflicted idiot daughter, aged 37, the health of the mother also being very indifferent. Williams belongs to the parish of Seasalter, near Canterbury, in the Blean Union. He is well known to have been a sober, industrious man ; has been in good business, and paid poor's rates for a considerable time. Having been unfortunate in business (as it is understood, without any fault of his own), he became so reduced about two years and a-half ago as to be compelled to go into the New Blean Union Workhouse, which, as Avill presently appear, would with propriety be denominated the ' Blean Union Prison.' Williams remained in that place about three weeks, when he determined, though old and feeble, to make a desperate attempt to leave his place of confinement, where he was, a matter of course, separated from his wife and daughter, after having been married nearly 40 years. He by some means BASTILE FOOD. 463 managed to get to London, and, after a considerable effort and great suffering, he got together a few customers, whom, he supplied at their houses with small quan- tities of greens and potatoes. In this way, through much difficulty, he has contrived to exist for nearly two years, having been during the winter, and at other times, so thinly and miserably clad and covered as to excite the pity and commiseration of all who observed his sober, industrious, and persevering determination to maintain himself, and wife, and daughter, without parish assistance. Having by this time got behind, and so much in difficulty as to make a little assistance indispensably ne- cessary, he applied to me, as one of the Guardians of the parish he resides in, to write a letter for him to the Blean Union Guardians, requesting a loan of 20s. or 30s. to enable him to go on, and to get him through the winter. Knowing his character so well, and having had my eye upon him almost ever since he came to London, I cheerfully complied with his request, and informed the Blean Union Guardians exactly how he was situated, remarking, that it would save this worthy man and his family from destruction, and reminding them that it must be the best policy as regarded the interests of the parish ; because, otherwise, however un- willingly, he must, with wife and daugh- ter, be passed home. To my letter I received the following reply : — " ' Canterbury, 5th September, 1839. " ' Sir, — I am directed by the Board of Guar- dians of the Blean Union, in answer to yours of the 3rd instant, requesting relief for a family of the name of "Williams, to acquaint you, that they have many applications of a similar nature, but have come to the determination to grant no relief out of the Union. " 'I am, Sir, your obedient servant, '"W. SLADDEN, Clerk. '" Mr. John Day.' " Having communicated my fruitless attempt to the poor fellow, he said, ' Let the consequences be what it might, he would never go down into the Blean Union workhouse again, to be imprisoned for the remainder of his short life ; for he would rather die in the streets than un- dergo the separation and privations of that place.' " Williams states, that when in this Bloan Union Bastile, two years and a- half ago, a man of the name of Bailey was Governor (formerly in the army), who it seems was considered to be well calculated to do the dirty work of his masters. Williams positively asserts, that the quan- tity of food given was by no means suf- ficient, that meat was given only twice a-week, then about two ounces each time in pudding. That no beer or tea was allowed except to those above GO, and therefore nothing to drink but water. Also, that the bread in quantity was not anything like enough. He states, that some of the younger men, who were set to work in a field at the back part of the workhouse, fo;;i ,1 die quantity so insuf- ficient, that he has seen them, from hun- ger, frequently eat potato peelings. That none were ever permitted to go out at any time, either Sunday or week-day, and could only do so (as he did) by giving notice to go for good, and altogether. Who will say this is not perpetual im- prisonment ? Again, he observes, that no relations or friends were permitted to see the inmates but once a-week, at the door- way, in the presence of the Master or Governor, who at all times prevented them receiving anything from visitors ; that tea, sugar, or the most trifling article, was not allowed to be accepted. In proof of this Williams states that, whilst he was there, he knew an inmate, who, being above 60, had his ounce of tea and four ounces of sugar weekly ; that he had a family and a wife younger than himself there, and, considering she required the tea more than he did, though she was under 60, he contrived to let her have it, and did without it himself; for this of- fence he was deprived of the tea and sugar, by an order, for three months, (that is, his own allowance). He further states, that on one occasion, when the men were working in the field (before referred to), a gentleman sent them a little beer, about half-a-pint each, but it was immediately ordered to be sent back by the Master, and that when the gentleman expostulated, the Master declared he was only acting according to his positive or- ders, and agreeable to the rules of the Poor-Law Commissioners." — Champio?t, Sept. 15, 1839. " A successful method of converting stones into bread has been transmitted to the New Poor-Law Commissioners, and a three-and-sixp. 'uiy medal presented to the ingenious discoverer thereof." — Comic Almanac, 1 835. " I perhaps may be able to throw some light upon the representations of Guar- dians and their published diet-tables ; you will find in their tables broth ap- pointed for supper three times a-week; 4G4 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. now'brotb, in the proper sense, forms no part of the diet, it is merely the water (with the trifling addition of a few herbs) in which the meat has been boiled for dinner; broth, in the common accept- ation of the word, is the liquor of meat thoroughly stewed, and consequently the virtue extracted ; if, therefore, such is the nature of the workhouse broth it must necessarily follow that the five ounces of meat allowed for dinner can contain little or no nourishment, but as I understand that the meat is rather boiled than stewed, it follows that pot-liquor rather than broth should appear on the diet-scale of the Droxford Union." — Rev. Stephen But- lers (of Soberton) Letter to the Rate- payers of the Droxford Union. " Much has been said on the subject of pork- water; and a feeling of disgust having been excited at the idea of such a wash being forced upon the workhouse inmates, it will perhaps create some as- tonishment when I state, that bacon-umter, and not broth, seems to be the diet for Wednesday evenings ; and, as this has been a subject much disputed, I give nearly verbatim a conversation which took place in the workhouse, in my pre- sence, on Saturday, March 3, (1838). Mr. Harrison was asked, what the broth for supper on Wednesday evening was made of : he answered, the meat cooked for dinner ; the question was put again, and the same answer returned, which Mr. Harrison said he thought a sufficient reply. He was then asked the descrip- tion of meat; he replied, bacon — Irish bacon ? Yes. Is there anything besides the water in which the Irish bacon is boiled ? Yes ; the meat ordered for the sick is boiled with the bacon. I after- wards learned, that the fresh meat cooked for the sick must have formed a very small proportion ; and therefore, after the above statement, I leave it for the rate-payers to decide whether bacon-water does not form part of the dietary of the Droxford Union?'' — Ibid. " The pea-soup appointed for dinner three days in the week, though not so unpalatable as the bacon-ioater or skilly, is by no means of sufficient substance or strength to form a suitable meal, without the addition of bread, meat, or vegetables. I questioned Mr. Harrison minutely as to the composition of that soup ; his state- ment is, that in making it for about 100 or 120 persons, he uses half-a-bushel of split peas, and adds two gallons of liquor to the water in which they are boiled ; on consideration, I find it difficult to ac- count from what source these two gallons are derived, unless from the savings of the beef or bacon-ivaterj'' — Ibid. " As to the gruel, or skilly, used daily for breakfast, its composition is, accord- ing to the master's statement, — 9 lb. of flour boiled in a sufficient quantity of water to dole out 1| pint to 100 or 120 persons. Having tasted it myself I can only say, I should undoubtedly join those who prefer slaking their thirst with cold water after a breakfast on dry bread. As cheese appears on the diet-scale, I would merely observe, that the quality of those cheeses which I tasted appeared to be of a veiy inferior description." — Ibid. " I have twice seen the Governor of the jail here (Bath). I learned from him, that the bread in the prison is infinitely superior to the workhouse bread." — Ex- tract of a Letter from the Rev. C. Foivell Watts (of Bath) to the Author, dated Oct. 23, "1840. " On Tuesday evening the effigies of Mr. Thomas Day, and his lady, were burnt in front of their residence. The fault committed by the lady was a report that she had stated that nettles and coarse bread were quite good enough for the labouring classes." — Leeds Intelligencer^ June 23, 1 837. " Mr. Hindley complained of the dietary of the poor, as dictated by the three kings at Somerset-house, and instanced the case of a parish between Margate and Rams- gate where the paupers were limited to the starving point," — House of Commons, July 15, 1839. " Brentfokb Petty Sessions. — Monday. — George Anderson and James Christopher Glenning, two of the paupers of the Uxbridge Union, were charged with the following oflence in the work- house of that Union, at Isleworth. It appeared, from the evidence of the wit- nesses, that, about half-past one o'clock that morning, as police constable Cussan, T. 157, was on duty in the Twickenham road, near the Union workhouse, he saw sparks of fire rising from a chimney at the back of that building. He instantly went to the front terrace, and gave an alarm, when the Porter and Govei-nor were called up, and all three proceeded to the day- room, in which the men sit and work; and, on entering, found a blazing fire in the stove, before which were the two prisoners. On the fire were two tins, in which they were cooking some beef. They were immediately taken into cus- BASTILE FOOD. 465 tody, and, subsequently, it was ascertained that they had gone to bed with the other inmates, but had afterwards got up again and 2>i'oceeded down stairs. They had then removed the bars of the larder window, from which they had abstracted about 2 lbs. of beef, some porter, and some butter, cheese, and bread, the re- mainder of which was found in a bag belonging to Glenning in the day-roonr, to get into which they must have first got into the dining-hall, and then through a window into the yard. Both prisoners were fully committed to Newgate for trial." — JMetropoUfan Conservative Joicr- «rt/, November 28, 1810. " I shall take the statement of the Poor- Law Commissioners, as it appears in the 30th page of their report for 1840, in which they so pathetically plead to be continued in office. In attempting to prove those persons in error who have ' stigmatized the dietary as a slow process of starvation,' the Commissioners have given the following table as their dietary for an able-bodied man, and have annexed the price to each article. ESTIMATED WEEKLY COST OF MAINTAINING AN ABLE-BODIED MAN AS IN TABLE NO. 1. Weisht. Price per pound. Total. oz. d. Bread 84 .. 2 Meat 15 .. 54 Cheese 8 .. 5 Potatoes 24 .. o\ Suet-pudding 14 .. 2 s. d lOi 5i u '^k Of H Total. 145 1 8f Broth, 9 pints ; Gruel, 10^ pints, ^d per pint 4| Such is the oiEcial document which is to refute those persons who ' stigmatize the dietary as a slow process of starvation !' Twenty ounces and a fraction of solid food per day for an able-bodied man, with a mess of gruel, charged at one farthing a- pint, and which may perhaps be worth a farthing a-pint as a substitute for glauber salts, but as an article of food is certainly not worth a farthing a-hogshcad. How- ever, let the gruel stand at their own valuation, which brings the cost of feed- ing an able-bodied man at 2s. and l^d. per week. " In referring to this allowance in proof of their liberal treatment of the poor, these Commissioners say, ' Its weekly cost at such prices, we trust, relieves us from the necessity of entering into a vin- dication of its sufficiency, although it may possibly expose us to a charge of a con- trary nature — that we have provided (I thought 'twas the rate payers had provi- ded) more amply than the hard-working labourer with a family could accomplish for himself by his own exertions.' " Now, it is of some importance that you members of ' Operative Conser\ ativc Associations' should read these statements over and over again, and that you should remember they are the statements of the Poor-Law Commissioners ' presented to both Plouses of Parliament, by command of her Majesty.' These Commissioners, who receive £2,000 a-year from the people, tell you that 2s. \~ per week will purchase a more ample diet ' than the hard- working labourer with a family could accomplish for himself by his own exer- tions.' If this be really the state of the question in the highest taxed country on the face of the earth, should you not seriously ask yourselves why you are Conservatives? Why you are associated to perpetuate a system Avhich gives 2s. Ijd weekly for the diet of a ' hard-working labourer ;' and £2,000 a-year, taken Irom the pro- ducts of these hard-working labourers, for a pen-and-ink man who makes ' Dietary Tables ?' " The 4th Report of the Inspectors of Prisons, appointed under the provisions of an act of the late king, contains an elabo- rate account of the General Penitentiary at jNIilbank. The following is there given as the weekly allowance of food : — DIET TABLE FOR ADULT MALE PHISONERS. Ounces. Bread 184 Meat 20 Cheese 4 Potatoes 80 Onions 4 Total ounces, 292 Broth 4| pints. Gruel 11 The articles of diet are nearly the same as those in the Poor-Law Commissioners' Table, with the exception of 14 oz. of Union-house pudding, which, being valued by the Commissioners at 2d per lb., the price of bread may be classed with that article. Here, then, you see that the convicted felon has 292 ounces of solid food weekly assigned to him, at the ex- pense of the country whose laws he has outraged, while the poor hard-working labourer, who cannot obtain work, is cut down to 14.5 ounces, being somewhat less than half the quantity which is given to the felon." — Mr. Bowcn's (of Bridgc- ivaterj Letter to the ^levibers of Operative Conservative Associations, Nov. 24, 1840. " Mr. Fair, a better judge of such matters than the Commissioners can pre- tend to be, and certainly a far more dis- H 466 THE BOOK OF THE BASTII.ES. interested one than any medical hirelings who report the minhmmi of diet necessary to impair the functions of life, distinctly told them (the Commissioners), corrobo- rated by the high authority of Dr. Dalton, that ' the privation of proper food, accord- ing to tlie extent to which it is carried (in the Union-houses) produces death, di- rectly or indirectly, by (jwing rise to dis- eases of various kinds, and that the want of food, implying a want of everything else, such as firing, clothing, and every necessary of life, destroys a much higher proportion than is indicated by the regis- ters.' To precisely the same effect was the testimony of Professor Hannay, at the late meeting of the British Association ; and yet the Commissioners, carefully con- cealing the fact that the increase of dis- ease among the poor is mainly attributable to starvation, are bold enough to assert, that the prevalence of disease among the lower orders, in close and crowded neigh- bourhoods, is to be attributed entirely to the want of cleanliness and to non-venti- lation. On the authority of a Parlia- mentary Committee, appointed to inquire into an extraordinary mortality in the Penitentiary at Milbank, they explicitly learn that the rash experiment of reducing the i)risoners' diet, though even their diminished allowance was more than dou- ble the Somerset-house standard, had been the sole cause of the fatal disease which had decimated the wretched inmates." — Times, Nov. 25, 1840. " Much has been said about the scanty allowance to the inmates of the Union workhouses, but the following fact appears to tell a different tale. The Master of the Ludlow poor-house, in going his round on Wednesday, found, in the able-bodied women's ward one bag containing 51bs. of pieces of bread, and three other bags with an average of from 21bs. to 31bs. each. It seems that they had found the allowance to be too liberal, and being imable to consume the whole, adopted the plan of concealing a portion rather than state the fact, lest the quantity should be diminished another time." — Commission- ers' Paid Paragraph in the " Hereford Journal," Dec. 2, 1840. (A pro-skilly print.) " Skilly — a sort of hell broth, with which those wretches in the Union houses of bondage, convicted of the abominable crime of poverty, arc, ' according as the Act directs,' drugged. Since writing this,^ I have seen an account in the papers of the analysis of this villainous compound as used in a certain ' Union,' and it is reported a considerable presence of poi- sonous matter was detected in its compo- sition ! Verily, the disciples of the Mal- thusian and the Broughamite academies are not unwise in their generation. The cheapest way to keep paupers is certahdy under ground." — Note to " Don Juan, Junior." " As one barrier to the increase of ex- penditure in the detailed management, the Commissioners should be empowered to fix a maximum of the consumption per head within the workhouse, leaving to the local officers the liberty of reducing it below the 7naximum, if they could safely do so.'' — Commissioners'' \st Pcport. " Weekly allowance of food to an able- bodied man in a Union workhouse, 145 ounces." — Commissioners' Report, p. 30. " Weekly allowance of food to a con- victed felon in the Penitentiary, 292 ounces." — Inspectors of Prisons' 4th Re- port, p. 28. " The convicted felon's w'eckly allow- ance at the Milbank Penitentiary, the most severe in the kingdom, is somewhat more than twice as much as that of an able-bodied pauper in a Union workhouse, against whom no crime but poverty has been alleged.'' — Metropolitan Conservative Journcd, Dec. 25, 1840. In a report of a Committee of the House of Commons on the state of the Penitentiary, the following directions arc appended to the dietiiry table : — " Prisoners emjiloyed in work of extra- ordinary labour, or under circumstances which may render it necessary, may be allowed an addition to the quantity of their provisions, by the direction of the Committee." " Memorandum. — Female prisoners employed in the washhouse shall be allowed an addition of half-a- pound of bread, and an allowance of meat on washing-days, until the further orders of the Committee. By order of the Com- mittee. " A. MACDONALD " Now compare these directions with the following ukase issued by the Poor-Law Commissioners, and you will see, without the aid of a telescope, how much more tlie bellies of criminal prisoners are regarded than the belhes of the Union-workhouse poor : — " Sir, — I am directed by the Poor- Law Commissioners for England and B A STILE FOOD. 1()7 Wales to request, that you w ill call (he alteution of the Board of Guardians to the practice of increasing the allowance of food to paupers emploj'ed in the do- mestic and household-work of Union- workhouses, with a view of its discon- tinuance, if it exists in the Union. — By Order of the Board, " E. CHADWICK, Secretary. " To the Clerk of the Union." The Out-dooe. Relief Dinners of Lord Melbourne. — " Queen-square. — William Donovan, a labouring man, was charged with carrying a placard on the footway pavement in front of the House of Lords, by which he obstructed the free passage of the members, and rendered himself liable to a penalty under the 8th section of the 54th clause of the Police Act. Police constable Carter stated, that about half-past four o'clock on Friday evening, he was on duty in front of the House of Lords, when his attention was directed to the defendant, who was walking up and down with a board on which was the following placard : — ' Vis- count Melbourne and the boy Jones. Ex- tract from Jones's Peep into the Palace : Dinners : Viscount Melbourne, 867 ; E. Jones, 4 ; majority for Lord Melbourne, 863. Thus giving your lordship a clear tvorking majority of 863 dinners over me.' " — Sunday Paj)er, May 22, 184L " expense of CHRISTMAS DINNERS IN WORKHOUSES. "The following correspondence has been addi'essed to the Assistant Poor- Law Commissioners in the country, and also to the Auditors of the different Unions ; from which it will he seen, that the Guardians ought to feel very much obliged to the Commissioners for allowing them to do what they like with their own money — a discretion which we liope they will not fail to use on all occasions most fit for making the hearts of the poor to rejoice : — " ' Poor-Law Commission Office, " ' Somerset-house, 18th '"March, 1840. " ' Sir, — The Poor-Law Commissioners have perceived, that, on Christmas-day, and other recent festive occasions, the Guardians of various Unions have pro- vided for the inmates of workhouses din- ners which, both in quantity and equality of food, and its cost, have greatly exceeded the usual diet of the workhouse inmates, and even many of the less prosperous portion of the rate-payers. The Commis- sioners admit that they are very unwilling to interfere with these proceedings, owing to their respect for the motives which have given rise to them. " ' The Commissioners, however, cannot but perceive the injustice of applying the proceeds of a compulsory tax, raised only to reheve destitution, to provide for the inmates of a workhouse luxuries which are beyond the reach of those by whom the tax is paid. They have, therefore, determined to give positive instructions to the Auditors to disallow in the accounts any expenditure which shall henceforth have been incurred in the extra allow- ances which shall be furnished on the occasion above alluded to. " ' The Commissioners have only to add, that when the indulyences above men- tioned are supplied to the inmates of the ivorkhouse at the crpcnse of 2}>'ii'(ite indi- viduals, the question assumes altogether a different form, and, if strictly confined to extraordinary occasions, seems not to require the interference of the Commis- sioners. " ' Signed, by order of the Board, " ' E. CHADWICK, Secretary. " ' To Assistant Poor-Law " ' Commissioner.' " ' Poor-Law Commission Office, " ' Somerset-house, 20th '"March, 1840. " ' Sir, — The Poor-I^aw Commissioners forward, for j'our information and guid- ance, with reference to future cases of Christmas and other similar feasts in workhouses, the accompanying copy of a letter recently addressed by them on that subject to their Assistant-Commissioners. " ' With respect to any past instances in which expenses of this nature have already been incurred, and shall not be objected to, the Commissioners have no wish to interfere. " ' Sityned, by order of the Board, " ' E. CHADWICK, Secretary. " ' To the Union Auditor.' " 2 H 2 THE MEDICAL TREATMENT OE THE PAUPER POOR. " Making sure of murder's work!" — Walter Scott. " Mr. Waklet said — A pauper of the name of Parks had died of exhaustion ; a complaint was made that the poor man had not received proper attention ; that his case had been most grossly neglected. When the matter came before the magis- trates, the mayor was examined with re- gard to the case, and he stated, that he had endeavoured to obtain some relaxa- tion of the rule which had reference to tlie administration of nourishment in cases of exhaustion. The rule was, that when the surgeon ordered any article of food not in the diet table, it was not to be ex- hibited until the subject had been brought imder the consideration of the Board of Guardians, and had received their sanc- tion. So that, in point of fact, if the eurgeon were called in to a case, and he found the person dying of starvation, either caused by disease, or for want of proper nourishment, he had not the power to order a glass of wine, or any additional food, until his prescription went officially before the Guardians and received their approbation. One of the magistrates on the bench, when the case of Parks was investigated, was Col. Rolleston, a mem- ber, he believed, of that House. He hoped the hon. member was present. He (Col. Rolleston) had said, on the occa- sion referred to, that the rule of the Board of Guardians had met with the disappro- bation of the Poor-Law Commissioners. A surgeon had that day come before him, who had had some dispute with the Ux- bridge Board of Guardians. It was his (the surgeon's) practice when called in to a case of sickness occurrincr in a work- house, to order first a proper supply of nourishment. This gentleman, Mr. Rayner, was told, that if he addressed himself to the Commissioners they would give such directions, and that anefiectual remedy would in due time be applied. To that Mr. Rayner's answer was, that he would place the whole of the corres- pondence into his (Mr. Wakley's) hands, with full authority to lay it before the House. Before he proceeded to read the correspondence, he wished to put this ques- tion to hon. members, and he called upon £uch as could answer it to do so. He wanted to know if the Bill then before them was a Bill for the benefit of the poor, or for the benefit of the rich ? The rich could protect themselves, but the poor had no representatives in that House, though they had some friends, and now, as one of those friends, he called upon the House to say if the rule laid down by the Board of Guardians of the Uxbridge Union was such a rule as the House, by its deliberate vote, was disposed to sanc- tion. Were they prepared to maintain the inflexible operation of a law, the efiect of which must be to consign the poor to utter destitution ? The medical officer of a Union might order for a patient Epsom salts, he might order jalap, he might order rhubarb, or any other drug — he might prescribe medicines to any extent ; but, as the House well knew, those drugs would not sustain human life. Still the Guardians put no restraint upon the ad- ministration of drugs ; but the medical officer must beware how he recommended anything more costly. There nmst be no stimulant : no remedy of that descrip- tion could at any time, or under any pre- text whatever, be administered without the consent of the Guardians previoush'^ obtained. Now, he put it to the just feelings of hon, members to say if any- thing could be more horrible than this ? Could there be anything more deserving than this was of being called direct, cold- blooded, heartless cruelty ? It never happened to him to meet with any detail of circumstances which struck his mind as being more horrible and dreadful than the conduct of these Guardians. He should now, with the permission of the House, proceed to lay before them the correspondence to which he had, up to this time, been directing their attention. The first letter he should read was from Mr. Rayner to the Board of Guardians of the Uxbridge Union, and was in the fol- lowing terms : — ' Uxbridge, Dec. 3d, 1841. — Gentlemen, — It having been re- presented to me, that the Board of Guar- dians had observed that I had given many orders for mutton, bread, and beer, to the cases under my cai'e, and which have appeared to them to be more than rea- MEDICAL TREATMENT OF THE PAUPER POOR. 4()9 sonablc, I have considered it right to ac- qiKiiut the Board, that I have not, in a single instance, given one order more than what I considered, as a medical officer, it was m)' duty to do ; and I beg leave re- spectfully to remark, that a proper quan- tity and description of nourishment (only to be known by the medical attendant) is of as much, if not more, importance to the successful issue of any case under treat- ment, as any other remedy. — I remain, &.C., William Rayner.' The next docu- ment to which he wished to direct the attention of the House, was an extract from the order-book of the Uxbridge Union ; it was in these words : — ' It ap- peared from the medical weekly return- book of the Ruislip district, that the medical officer has attended nineteen patients during the past week, to fourteen of whom he has ordered indiscriminately mutton, beer, bread, &c. Besides these cases, he has given two orders to the Relieving Officer for paupers whose names do not appear in the medical re- turns, namely, Mrs. Edwards's child, J lb. of mutton per day, INIrs. Fellows's, mutton as before. Resolved, that Mr. Rayner, the medical officer, be requested to furnish the Guardians with an expla- nation on the subject.' The reply to that resolution made by Mr. Rayner was this :—' Uxbridge, Feb. 4, 1841. To the Board of Guardians, Uxbridge Union. Gentlemen, — I have to acknowledge the receipt of a resolution of the Board of Guardians, handed to me this day by Mr. Woodbridge. I beg to refer you to my letter addressed to the Board on the 3d of December, 1840; and again to state, that the articles of diet which I have ordered, to which that resolution refers, I consider necessary for my patients, and so long as I remain a medi- cal officer of the Union I shall continue to order them, if they require them. I have to-day learned, that some of my orders have been refused, and others torn up, while to the paupers threats have been held out by Mr. Stockwell, that if Mr. Rayner continued them he should witlidraw the money allowed to the pau- per by the Board of Guardians. I there- fore consider it to be my duty to state distinctly to the Board, that I will not take upon myself the care and responsi- bility of those patients to whom diet is refused as a remedial means, nor risk the danger incurred by such refusal ; but sliall feel myself bound no longer to con- tinue a medical officer of the Union under such disadvantageous and hopeless cir- cumstances. I have the lionour to re- main, Gentlemen, your obedient servant,. William Rayner.' On the same day, Mr. Rayner wrote the following letter : — ' Uxbridge, Feb. 4, 1841 . To the Poor- Law Commissioners of England and Wales. — Gentlemen, — I am a medical officer for one of the districts of the Ux- bridge Union, under a contract for one year, to terminate in March next. On the 3d of last December, in consequence of reports which reached me, I sent the letter marked No. 1 to the Guardians. To-day I received the resolution of the Board marked No. 2, and have since sent the letter marked No. 3, in reply. The district which I have is extensive and exceedingly poor, and I have ordered articles of diet which, in my judg- ment, I deemed necessaiy for the well- doing of my patients, and send you a copy of the return to the Board of Guar- dians on which the resolution was founded. Now, Gentlemen, I wish to be satisfied on the following points, and as it is my present intention to publish the whole correspondence for the benefit of others similarly circumstanced, I shall, therefore, thank you for an explicit and clear answer to my inquiries, as upon your answer will greatly depend my con- tinuing a medical officer of the Union : — 1. Have I authority, as a medical officer, to order any description of article of diet for pauper patients under my care } 2. From whence does that authority arise? 3. Have the Board of Guardians or Relieving Officer authority to refuse an order for diet which I, as a medical officer, deem proper for my patients ? And, if so, 4. What would be the pro- per grounds for such refusal ? — I have the honour to be, Gentlemen, your obe- dient servant, William Rayner.' He wrote again on the 26th of Februar^y, in the following terms : — ' Uxbridge, Feb. 26, 1841. Gentlemen, — I had the ho- nour of addressing a letter to you, three weeks ago, on a subject in connexion with the Uxbridge Union, and have not yet been favoured with a reply. Similar cir- cumstances having occurred since I wrote to j'ou, I am anxious for your immediate answer to my inquiries, and have the lionour to be. Gentlemen, your obedient servant, William Rayner. — To the Poor- Law Commissioners.' ' 1,636 A. — Poor- Law Commission-office, Somerset-house, March 4, 1841. Diet for Sick Paupers. — Sir, — The Poor-Law Commissioners- 470 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. acknowledge tlic receipt of your letter of the 4th ult., and of its enclosures, and they have had under their consideration the inquiries which you submit to them with respect to your authority as medical officer of the Uxbridge Union to order any description of articles of diet for pau- per patients under your care. The Com- missioners, in reply, desire to inform you, that a medical officer is not empowered by the orders of the Commissioners, or by his contract with the Guardians, to order articles of diet for pauper patients under his care. Such a power would be equivalent to the power of giving relief, wtiich the law has vested generally in the Guardians, and which it is not competent to a medical officer to exercise. A medi- cal officer can only recommend or advise the Guardians (or Relieving Officer) to give certain articles of diet to a pauper patient, and the Guardians (or their Relieving Officer) will exercise their dis- cretion, upon their own responsibility, whether they will or not adopt such re- commendation or advice. — By order of the Board, Assistant-Secretary.' The House must now have seen, that the Board of Guardians, after employing a medical man themselves, assumed the power of interfering with his medical treatment of the patients intrusted to his care. What else did their conduct amount to ? The doctor was called in, he found the patient with a sinking pulse, he found that nutriment, and not medi- cine, was the chief thing required ; he found that beef and mutton, that jellies and soups, and wines, were the remedies which alone could restore the patient to a state of health. The necessity for this might arise on the night of a Tuesday ; the Guardians might not meet until the following Tuesday, and what in the mean time w^as to become of the unfortunate pauper patient? The Poor-Law Com- missioners took little pains to provide for his sustenance in such an event. In what light, he would ask, was it probable that the public would view a transaction of this nature ? Would they not view it •with horror and disgust ? It was horrible and disgusting, and nothing else ; it gave the Guardians the power of sentenc- ing the paupers to death. (Hear, hear.) What a contrast this exhibited to the treat- ment which the inmates of prisons expe- rienced ! There the medical officer was not i-estrained, as he was in the case of the innocent and unoHending paupers : he might order whatever diet he pleased, The prisoners were immediately supplied with Avine or with other sustenance to whatever extent the medical officer might think necessar}-, and all this for the bene- fit of delinquents Avho had offended against every law ; while the honest and industrious pauper, who had toiled and slaved through 30 or 40 years — who, throughout the whole of that period had, in common with the class to which he belonged, conti-ibuted to the resources, the dignity, the strength, and the wealth of the empire, yet was to be allowed to perish in his old age from mere want of sustenance ! In the peculiar gaol which the Poor-Law Amendment-Act had created, the prisoners were allowed to starve. The medical officer must see them die under his care, and was not supplied with the means of administering to them the only remedy which his art enabled him to suggest. (Hear, hear.) " Mr. Uakby said, that under the old law a remedy for the evil of which the hon. gentleman complained was to be found in an apjdication to a magistrate ; he believed that remedy still continued to exist. If a medical oflicer said, that the case of any pauper patient was one of a dangerous character, and that additional nutriment and stimulants were required for his use, then the magistrates possessed the power, and it was not to be supposed that in any case they would want the in- clination, to make such an order as the exigency of the case might seem to require. There certainly was a clause in the exist- ing law to that effect, and he could not help feeling surprised that it should have eluded the examination of the hon. gen- tleman opposite, the hon. member for Finsbury. " Sir H. Veknet was quite sure that, where an alteration of diet was necessary, means existed for enforcing a supply. " Lord HowiCK quite agreed with the last speaker, that in any case of emergency a remedy did exist. The question which the hon. member for Finsbury had raised Avas this, whether or not the medical officer could order supplies of food inde-- pendently of that discretionary power with which the Board of Guardians were supposed to be invested by the law, as it at present stood. That was, he appre- hended, the question which had been raised. Now, in common justice, he felt bound to say, that he never remembered an instance in which any Board of Guar- dians hesitated to allow nutritive diet when required to do so by the medical MEDICAL TREATMENT OF THE TAUPEIl POOR. 471 officer. It was well known, that in every part of the country they readily gave wine, and everything else that the con- dition of the patient seemed to require ; it was possihle, that in many cases state- ments to a contrary efiect were circulated, but he believed that they were put forward without the least foundation. It did not by any means follow, that because a medi- cal man had received legal authority to practise, he was therefore free from the wish to excite dissatisfaction throughout the country. Although a member of the College of Surgeons, he might be anxious to acquire a low and despicable popularity ; he might wish to flatter the worst passions and prejudices of the multitude ; he might abuse the trust reposed in him ; he might avail himself of the power which he pos- sessed and convert it to purposes of mis- chief ; it did not follow, from what the House heard that evening, that something of that sort might not be the case ; and if a Board of Guardians suspected that anything of the kind were practised under the plea of duty, they were bound not to allow the medical officer to take out of their hands the power of giving or with- holding relief. He could not, without stronger evidence than had yet come imder his observation, bring himself to believe, that the gentlemen, the magis- trates, the farmers of England, would be guilty of such conduct as had been im- puted to them by the hon. member for Finsbury ; he could not believe it on the unsupported statement of the hon. member. He heard enough to convince him, that the hon. member gave ready credence to every story related to him on subjects of this nature ; he never allowed himself for a moment to doubt any statement made to the disadvantage of the Poor-Law Commissioners. He did not accuse the hon. member of wilful misrepresenta- tion — to do so would be unparliamentary. (A laugh.) He accused the hon. member of nothing of that sort ; but if he were in the habit of loosely adopting statements with which he might be furnished on oc- casions of this kind— [Mr. Wakley ob- served that none of his statements had been rebutted]— but they had not been substantiated. (Hear, hear.) The hon. member was a strenuous advocate for the maintenance of local governments, and for allowing parties to manage their own affairs ; yet now he objected to the exer- cise of any discretion on the part of the elected representatives of a parish or Uniori. But the whole of what occurred at Uxbridge, and at the Nottingham Union, convinced him — if he could be said to want any further proof — of the justice and the Avisdom of having an impartial central authority to control the proceed- ings of local Boards and officers. He did trust that the cases which had that evening been brought forward would not be implicitly received. Before he sat down, he could not help observing, that the hon. member who brought them for- ward had not taken the precaution of mentioning the matter to gentlemen con- nected with that part of the country,^ in order that it might be inquired into before the subject came under the consideration of the House. Nothing was known of the matter beyond the statements which the House had heard from the hon. mem- ber himself, and he did hope that the House would not attach any weight to complaints of that description. " Colonel SiBTHOKP said, it had been stated that Mr. Rayner might be one of those who were seeking popularity to serve their own ends, by bringing this measure into disrepute : but were there not others who were seeking popularity with the same view? Were there not noble lords who, when they were turned out of one place, were trying by all means in their power to get into another? (Laughter.) It appeared, that three weeks had elapsed before any answer was sent to the statement of this medical officer. Now, if that were the feeling which the noble lord justitied, he would tell the noble lord he had no reason to boast of it, and that the sooner he quitted the situation of Poor-Law Guardian, the more satisfactory would it be to the poor of the Union over which he presided. (Hear.) He thought this was a most important case, and that it proved how little they could trust to the Poor-Law Commissioners in the regulations they made, and how little coniidence they could have in the Boards of Guardians in carrying those rules into execution. " Sir A. Daleymple said, he had lis- tened with pain to the speech which had been made by the noble lord opposite (Lord Howick) in answer to that of the hon. member for Finsbury. (Hear, hear.) The noble lord seemed to forget that at that moment the whole of England was not under the sway of the Poor-Law Com- missioners, and that, therefore, it was necessary, patiently and calmly to li-ten to and investigate any of those statements that were made, and see \Yhether they 472 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES ■were accurate or not, and not to answer those who brought them forward in the same way as the noble lord had answered the hon. member for Finsbury. What was the case and manner of proceeding in those places which were not in Union ? He would mention a case within his own knowledge. During the last winter, he had received a letter from an individual resident in the town which he represented, stating, that his foot was frost-bitten, that he was in great distress, and begging he would allow him some relief. It appeared that he was a person who had been a pauper in the parish. He (Sir A. Dal- rymple) went to the surgeon who attended the parish, and asked him the state of the case. That officer answered, that the applicant was a pauper who had received out-door relief, but that it was in his power, from the directions he had received, to administer to the paupers under his charge any species of food or nourishment which he thought fit (loud cries of ' Hear, hear,') and that it was therefore unneces- sary for the man to have made that appli- cation. (Hear, hear.) Now the statement which had been made by the hon. member opposite, appeared to him to deserve con- sideration in this respect. (Hear.) Even supposing that the medical oflScer, as the noble lord had suggested, had made this statement for the purpose of creating popularity, still it was possible that the persons to whom he wished to administer that relief might really have i-equired it, and it was therefore the duty of the Board of Guardians to have inquired into the circumstances. (Hear, hear.) It was possible they had done so, but he had re- ferred to the Poor-Law Commissioners in London. An extract from their answer had been read, and it stated nothing of any inquiry having been made. There seemed to have been no distinct inquiry, and the medical officer had received a re- proof for his conduct, which in his opinion was wrong. (Hear.) But what he wished was, that all acrimony should be avoided on both sides of the House when cases of this kind were brought forward. (Hear, hear.) He was sure that that acrimony had been one of the causes that had pro- duced so much ill-feeling against the Poor-Law throughout the country. There was only one more observation which he wished to make. Many of these gentle- men, who acted as Assistant-Poor-Law Conmiissioners, had theories of their own that did not answer when carried into practice, and it was therefore highly necessary that their proceedings should be carefully watched. (Hear, hear.) " Colonel RoLLESTON said, he under- stood that, during his absence, his name had been mentioned in reference to a case with which he was in some degree ac- quainted ; and he must express his regret that the hon. member for Finsbury had not given him some little intimation of his intention to refer to that case, as he was led to believe, from what he had as- certained from hon. members on one side or the other, that some misapprehension might exist as to the circumstances of it, and that blame might be attached to the wrong quarter. (Hear.) He wovdd, how- ever, endeavour to give some explanation of the circumstances of the case. As an ex-officio Guardian of the Union in which that case occurred, he was one of those who held the opinion, that unless Guar- dians regularly attended to the business of the Board, they did little or no good by only going now and then. Acting on that principle, he seldom visited the Board ; nor should he have done so on this occasion, but for a most frightful statement that had appeared in the public papers, in reference to a pauper, who was represented to have died in the Union workhouse under the most distressing circumstances. When he heard of it, he considered it his duty to attend the Board to ascertain whether any steps had been taken in reference to it ; and on doing so he found the question had been already argued, and that a resolution had been come to that the case should be investi- gated. From that investigation it ap- peared, that this unfortunate man was exceedingly ill, and that he had been re- moved to the Union workhouse, a distance of ten or eleven miles, in an open cart, in most inclement weather, when the tem- perature was ten or fifteen degrees below the freezing point. He was received into the workhouse at about five o'clock in the evening in a state of extreme debility, and was attended to, but he never rallied, and he died at eleven or twelve o'clock the following day. Everything was done, he believed, that could be done by the in- ferior servants ; but the more particular part of the question rested with the medical officer. On examination, he said he had prescribed for this man some water-gruel and tea, and something warm, &c. He (Colonel Rolleston) asked him whether he had prescribed in writing or verbally, and his reply was, ' in writing,' and he accordingly produced his book. MEDICAL TREATMENT OV THE PAUrER POOR. 473 In that book, he (Colonel Rolleston) saw entered, ' water-gruel and tea,' with an ' Sec.' He observed to the medical officer, tliat the ' &c.' was very wide in its mean- in;^, and asked him what lie meant by it. His answer was, ' something warm of that sort ; nothing but warm tea or water- gruel.' He (Colonel Rolleston) said, ' Do you mean to say, that under the cir- cumstances of this case, which I under- stand to be one of extreme debility, something more calculated to sustain life, or more stimulating, Avas not necessary ? ' The answer of the medical officer, to his astonishment, was this — ' Most assuredly ; I should have given him warm wine, or spiced wine, or something of that sort, but I had no power of doing it, by the oi'ders of the Board of Guardians.' (Hear, hear.) He said he thought that was totally impossible, and that there could be no such order (hear, hear,) for it was contrary to the spirit of the Act, and the rules and regulations of the Poor-Law Commissioners, and the common feelings of humanity. He told the medical officer he was quite satisfied he must be mistaken, but his answer was, that he was not mis- taken ; that there was such an order, and he would appeal to the Chairman of the I5oard, a gentleman of the highest respect- ability, to know whether such an order did not exist. The explanation that was accordingly given was this : — that what had been done had been according to their order : it was true thei'e was no written order of the kind on the books ; but the medical officer had received an injunction that he sheuld not apply stimu- lants of this sort without a special order of the Board. (Hear, hear.) He regretted further to say, that that medical officer had applied four or five times to the Guardians to have that injunction set aside, but he had been unable to attain it. (Hear, hear.) He was sure, however, that the House would see that this did not reflect on the Commissioners. If the Board of Guar- dians had given that injunction, and that injunction had been acted on, the Com- missioners were not to blame. It so hap- pened, that one of the Poor-Law Commis- sioners (as we understood) was present at the time of the investigation ; of course he took no part in the proceedings of the Board, but he (Colonel Ptolleston) ap- pealed to him whether such an order was not contrary to the spirit of the Act and the rules of the Commissioners. (Hear, hear.) He really believed it to be so, and he considered that this unfortunate occur- rence, whether from a mistake on one side or the other, did not rest with the Poor-Law Commissioners, or any order they had made. But the case had been carried further. It was brought before the magistrates, and they thought the matter so serious as to require still further investigation. It was then brought before a court of law, and the learned judge, in his address to the grand jury, said, that the persons were indicted only for a misdemeanour in this case, but he would most distinctly tell them it ought, if anything, to have been an in- dictment for manslaughter, and it was, therefore, not found. The indictment was against the medical officer and the overseer, who had sent this poor unfortu- nate man to the workhouse in an open cart in such inclement weather. (Hear, hear.) Those were the circumstances of the case, and they were even now imder investigation by the proper authorities, who would see where the blame ought to rest. (Hear, hear.) " Captain Hamilton thought the state- ment of the hon. member for Finsbury would induce hon. members to pause be- fore they voted for the report at all ; be- cause it was stated in the report, that the Commissioners did not sanction this extra allowance to paupers. It was said, that the by-rule had been applied only to the Uxbridge Union ; but, according to the 4th clause of this bill, he believed it would become a general law for all Unions. " Mr. Wood said, he thought the hon. member who had just spoken would find nothing in the 4th clause of this bill to justify the fear he had expressed. The question was, whether a medical officer of a Union had a right, without an order of the Board of Guardians, to order an indiscriminate supply of extra sustenance. He recollected that, according to the do- cuments which the hon. member for Finsbury had read, the medical gentle- man in question had ordered extra sus- tenance in two cases which did not appear in his medical report ; and he must say, that, according to all the experience he had had as a Guardian of the poor, such a course was contrary to all the rules and regulations of any Board. " Mr. C. BuLi.EK said, that if a report were laid before a Board of Guardians, that a medical man had attended in the course of the last week only 19 cases, and that out of those in 14 cases he had ordered wine and extra sustenance of that kind, he must say, that if he were Chair- 474 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. man of that Board he should have felt hhiiself bound to make some inquiry into the circumstances. But he did not think it possible, that out of such a small num- ber of cases, so many could have required such a liberal order as to wine and other things of the same kind. It did not ap- pear to him, however, that the Board of Guardians did restrict their medical offi- cers from making those orders until they extended them too far. " General Johnson said, it must not be forgotten that this case had been re- ferred to the Commissioners, and three weeks elapsed without any notice being taken of it. Another letter was then sent, and after taking further time to con- sider their answer, they at last confirmed the order of the Board of Guardians by saying, that the medical officer was not to* give extra sustenance except by the advice of the Board of Guardians, and either at the option of the Guardians or the Relieving Officer. Now, since Boards of Guardians met only once a fortnight, and although many cases might be brought in requiring extra sustenance, yet the medical man would only have the power to order water-gruel or tea. (Hear, hear.) Were hon. members sent to that House to devise means for starving the poor ? " Mr. Gkote said, no blame could be attributed to the Commissioners or to the Board of Guardians ; but the hon. mem- ber for Finsbury desired that all medical officers attached to Unions should have the unlimited liberty of ordering suste- nance of the most expensive kind, with- out its being in the power of the Guar- dians or the Commissioners to disallow the orders of the medical officers, even if they felt it necessary to do so. (Hear, hear.) If this principle were admitted, the medical officers would become the real administrators of the relief to the poor, and the Poor-Law Commissioners and the Boards of Guardians might be dispensed with all at once. (Hear, hear.) In the case instanced by the hon. mem- ber for Finsbury the Commissioners were appealed to, and they were obliged to in- terpret the law as it existed. The prin- ciple which the hon. member wished to establish was a bad one, both under the new and under the old law. " Colonel Wood protested against the doctrine of the hon. member for the city of London. He regarded the medical officer as not only responsible for the me- dicine he prescribed to his patients, but also for the diet he ordered, (Cries of ' Order!') " The Speaker decided, that as the hon. member had spoken before, he was out of order in addressing the House a second time. " Mr. Easthope concurred in the ob- servation which had just fallen from the hon. member for Brecon. The medical officers ought to be allowed a proper dis- cretion ; and if they executed their duty inefficiently, the Board of Guardians had it always in their power to dismiss them. He objected to the interference of the Guardians with the medical officers in the cases of individuals. Common sense and common humanity seemed to suggest the contrary mode of proceeding. (Hear.) Mr. W. Attwood said, that the case before the House was that of poor persons who had been convicted of no crimes, but whose sufferings proceeded from their poverty. They required medical assist- ance, and the medical officer did not feel at liberty, in consequence of the positive orders he had received, to administer the relief which their suffering and sinking nature required, without first receiving the sanction of the Board of Guardians, even though death might be the conse- quence of delay. If this was the case of any individual who was suffering, not from poverty, but from some cause that occasioned an excitement in the country, he was sure that such treatment would be alluded to in that House in the strongest terms of reprobation. (Hear, hear.) It had been said, that no blame was due either to the Guardians or to the Com- missioners. The hon. member for Lon- don had gone so far as to say, that no blame w'as attributable to any one, and that that which had occurred was only what might be expected to occur under similar circumstances. Now, the House would bear in mind some observations which had been made by the right hon. member for Tamworth, showing the in- cautious manner in which the Poor-Law Commissioners were accustomed to ex- press their wishes and instructions, and which was felt to be improper even by the supporters of the Poor-Law. He would put it to the House, then, whether some of these incautious expi-essions might not, in the case brought under the notice of the House, have led the Board of Guardians into error. It was the opi- nion of some hon. members, that the medical officer should not administer re- lief witliout the consent of the Guardians ; but it might happen, that unless the medical olUcer had such power he would MEDICAL TREATMENT OF THE PAUPEK POOR. 475 not he able to save the life of a pauper suffering' from sickness. (Hear.) He saw no security for the pauper if the medical oliicer were taught to looli upon the Board of Guardians in the cliaracter of a consulting physician. (Hear, hear.) Un- less a medical officer could be intrusted witli the discretion of ordering proper sustenance for the poor, he was not fit to be intrusted with their care. (Hear, hear.) It was competent for the Board of Guar- dians, at their weekly meetings, to check any abuse. When he saw the hon. mem- ber for London defending rules whicli must necessarily lead to the recurrence of cases similar to the one just alluded to — (Cries of 'No.') Why, the hon. mem- ber had said, that if the medical officer were vested with the unlimited discretion of administering food and sustenance to the poor, in tliat case the medical officer, and not the Board of Guardians, would be the actual administrator of relief to the poor. Now he (Mr. W. Attwood) said, that if the medical officer were to be allowed to administer no relief to the sick paupers without the consent of the Guardians, cases similar to the one brought under the considei'ation of the House must constantly occur. (Hear, hear.) When he saw attempts made to extenuate proceedings of such a nature, he could not but believe that some ex- pressions — unguarded they might be — contained in the reports of the Poor- Law Commissioners, had led to the form- ation of these stringent rules by the Boards of Guardians. It was for this reason that those who opposed the New Poor-Law thought it would not be wise to continue it until security was obtained for greater caution in its execution. (Hear.) " Mr. Ward said, that the hon. mem- ber who had just sat down had totally misstated the argument of the hon. mem- ber for London, who had not said that no discretion should be intrusted to the me- dical officers, but had merely stated that vmlimited power could not be delegated without responsibility to them, unless in- deed they were made the sole adminis- trators of the Poor-Law Relief Bill. (Hear, hear.) The hon. gentleman, there- fore, had entirely misstated this argument, and had done so almost wilfully. (Cries of ' No.') He begged pardon for having made use of an improper phrase. He should have thought that the last charge Avhich would have been brought against the Poor-Law was this charg**, tliat it prevented the medical officers from pre- scribing discretionary relief. In every part of the country the medical officers were empowered to order discretionary relief for the whole week intervening be- tween one sitting of the Guardians until the succeeding sitting. This was the case in Hertford, and the Union with which he was connected. He knew a medical gentleman who prescribed the use of wine, meat, and bread to any ex- tent he pleased, giving in his account to the Board of Guardians at the end of the week, and in no single instance had the exercise of this power ever been found fault with. In the pai't of the country ■with which he was acquainted, a low typhus fever prevailed in one district, and a. number of poor persons were at- tacked by it. By order of the Board of Guardians, the medical officers attended on these poor people for six whole weeks ; and the charge for wine, and other com- forts and necessaries, amounted to £3, £4, or £5 for each family. He thought it necessary to make these observations, in order that both sides of the question should be heard. Mr. W. Attwood said, that as the hon. member had withdrawn the charge he had made of wilful misrepresentation, he (Mr. Attwood) would leave the House to decide which of the two had been most guilty of misrepi'esentation. " Mr. Wakd said, that the manner in which the argument of the hon. member for London had been misrepresented al- most justified him in using the expression Avhich had fallen from him. (' Order,' and cries of ' Spoke !') " Mr. CouRTENAY thought, that the old system of poor-laws was like a cancer spreading on the vitals of the country, and he entertained respect for the courage of the ministers who dared to probe the wound. He would no more think of charging them with cruelty than he would the surgeon who used the knife to cut out a cancer. Nevertheless, he could not shut his eyes to the occurrences which were taking place in the country. The House had heard of an individual case ; but he could quote the case of many in- dividuals in the LTnion of Bridgewater, and he was sure the House could not listen to his account without shuddering at the pain and misery which the poor l^eople had endured. At the end of Oc- tober, 1836, the workhouse at Bridge- water was crowded to excess. An epi- demy of a grave character broke out; dysentery prevailed, and a vast number 476 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. of persons were ill. The medical officer represented to the Board of Guardians that the disease was of an infectious nature ; and he recommended that some change should be made in the diet. The House had heard of wine and meat and all kinds of comforts being prescribed, but in this case, all that the surgeon asked was, that the poor might be allowed to change their water-gruel, which, as lion, members might be aware, had a tendency to aggravate certain disorders of the bowels, for rice milk. The an- swer the surgeon received from the Board of Guardians \vas, that they could not interfere. The surgeon was given to un- derstand, that his duty was with the sick only. No redress was to be had. These statements could hardly be believed, un- less they had been proved on oath before the House of Lords. An appeal was made to the Commissioners, but from the end of October until the month of April following no answer could be obtained ; and no power was given to change the diet, though the people were dying ; and, in a small population, not less than 50 deaths occurred. He was not about to reason upon the principle 2^ost hoc ergo 2)ropter hoc ; he admitted that these people may have died from some other cause ; but when they saw persons enduring all the miseries of an hospital (for it was nothing else), medical men were bound to apply their understanding, their medical understanding, to the treatment of these poor people, in order to prevent the spread of an infection which had continued for live months, and nearly 50 persons had died. These were very serious con- siderations ; and although he was no enemy to the Poor-Law, and did not wish ■ to inllame men's minds, he could not but think that the House should have before it what had taken place under this law ; and he trusted that the noble lord, in the present bill, would take care that, where an epidemic unfortunately happened to break out, there should be a change of diet, not only of those who Avere actually suffering, but of such as lived in the at- mosphere of the disease. " Mr. MuNTZ said, that the great objec- tion to this bill was the power given to the Commissioners. If Guardians could not do as they liked, why should they be re- sponsible ? He did not say that the Com- missioners would do what they thought wrong ; but if, from the circumstances in which they were placed, they did that which produced the death of an indivi- dual, they were guilty of murder. If they gave an order in consequence of which a poor man died, they were guilty of murder. No person of independent mind would be a Guardian in the present state of things (hear, hear) ; no man of feeling would act under orders which no man of feeling could put in execution (hear, hear) ; and, therefore, no man of feeling would be a Guardian. If a sur- geon refused to act without the order of the Commissioners, he ought to be dis- missed. To tell him (Mr.^Muntz) that a surgeon ought to wait for the order of the Commissioners before he acted — why, it was a cold-blooded, deliberate murder. Men did not starve now, as in Queen Elizabeth's time, through idleness and dissipation, but because they could not get the means of employment ; thousands were eveiy week thrown out of employ- ment by the condition of the country. The object should be to induce men of inde- pendent minds and good feelings to be- come Guardians, who w^ould do justice to the people. " Mr. Wakley replied, no sooner did one hon, member get up to make a state- ment of a particular case of cruelty, than up started another hon. member to state that no such thing had ever hap- pened in the Union of which he was a Guardian — in his Union all parties were quite delighted with the system. The hon. gentleman, the member for Sheffield, had given an account of what passed in his Union ; and from his statement, and that of other hon, gentlemen, it might be pre- sumed by the House and country that a uniform system prevailed. He held in his hand a list of ' amended workhouse rules,' dated August, 1840, in which he found special reference to the matters under discussion at the present moment. He would read the part relating to the power of medical officers with respect to making arrangements for the sick. One hon. member had stated, that the medical officer had power to order anything he pleased for a pauper for a week. What said the rules ? Were the Commissioners to be tried by their own rules, or by the statements of Guardians? In the 17th rule he found ' the paupers of the respec- tive sexes shall be dieted with the food and in the manner described in the dietary table hereunto annexed, marked B, and in no other manner.' Then came a pro- viso — ' Provided, however, that the medi- cal officer may direct in writing such diet for any individual pauper as he shall deem MEDICAL TREATMENT OF THE PAUPEIl POOR. 477 necessary ; and the master shall report such direction to the Board of Guardians, who shall sanction, alter, or disallow the same at their discretion.' (Hear, hear.) Very well — hear, hear. Now observe, a medical practitioner had a patient under his care, afflicted with some exhausting fever or abscess, day by day draining his strength, and threatening his life : the most imminent danger would be incurred by delay. Under these circumstances the surgeon orders port wine — as would be done in the case of criminals — mutton and rich broths, jelly ; could the master of the workhouse keep these things r No such thing, he could not. Here was the evi- dence of the Master of the Basford Union ; — ' jNIr. Johnson, Governor of the Basford workhouse, was then called by the magis- trates, and deposed, that the Board of Guardians had made an order that no wine, ale, beer, or stimulants should be given without the sanction of the Board.' This was on their own book, it was not denied ; ' and that the auditor' acting, be it observed, under the immediate authority of the Commissioners, ' had told him, that if any wine, spirit, or liquor, were given Avithout the previous sanction of the Board, the charge would not be allowed in his accounts.' Was not that an answer ? (' No, no.') What he complained of was, that the law was whatever the Commis- sioners pleased to make it ; for the Guar- dians were entirely under their authority. If they were not satisfied with that, let them look at the interference of the Com- missioners with regard to diet proved by the 17th rule of the work to which he had already directed their attention. In this rule he found the following : — ' Pro- vided also, that if the medical officer shall at any time certify that he deems a tempo- rary change in the diet essential to the health of the paupers, the Guardians shall cause a copy of such certificate to be entered on the minutes of their proceed- ings, and shall be empowered forthwith to order, by a resolution, the said diet to be temporarily changed, according to the recommendation of their medical officer ; and shall forthwith transmit a copy of such certificate and resolution to the Poor- Ijaw Commissioners for their approval.' That was the second provision ; but he would entreat the attention of the House to the provision in the first, to which no answer had been given — namely, that the recommendation of the medical officer could not be carried into effect until it had been laid before the Board of Guardians. ('No, no.') He spoke only of what was laid down in their own printed rules. He would read them the evidence of a surgeon with reference to a man who had died from exhaustion — in short, from starvation. He stated, ' I should have given him spiced port wine but that I had no power to do so, because there was an order of the Board which precluded me.' The effect of that order was, that if a man were taken ill on a Tuesday, the surgeon had no power to administer these necessa- ries until the Board authorized him on the following Tuesday. He was prepared to contend, that this was in strict conformity with the resolutions of the Commissioners which he had quoted. (' No, no,' from Mr. G. Knight.) The lion, gentleman shook his head, but he held in his hand the printed rule. What followed ? Refer- ring to the minute-book he found that wine was prohibited without special order." — Debate in the House of Commons, March 22, 1841. [From the Times, November 22, 1837 j " FACTS CONNECTED "WITH THE MEDICAL RELIEF OF THE POOR IN THE BRIDGE- WATER UNION." Under the aLove title a pamphlet has just appeared, published by a ' Medical Association,' containing facts and state- ments of a nature to stagger belief, were they not published on authoritv. Some of the reasons for puhhshing these statements are given in the following introductory remarks : — " The intimate connexion which exists between the helpless poor of a district, and the medical men who are appointed to attend them during the diseases and accidents to which they are so liable, ren- ders every attempt at unduly depressing the condition of such medical men, an indirect attack on the very existence of the suffering poor, whose lives frequently depend on professional assistance being promptly and cheerfully rendered, as Avell as on that assistance being continued with a perseverance which nothing short of professional zeal can supply. The medi- cal man cannot be expected thus to act promptly, and cheerfully, and persever- ingly, if he be depressed and degraded to the condition of a menial, and the conse- quences of such a degradation, although reaching him in the first instance, must fall with a more destructive effect on the poor. Under this conviction the medical practitioners of the town and neighbour- 478 THE BOOK OF THE DASTILES. hood of BridgowatcF have determined to submit to the public the following plain statement, not as a matter in which- the profession is sepecially interested, but as a subject of general interest to the community." These are intelligible public grounds, but as to the private matter at issue between the Board of Guardians and the medical practitioners, the adequacy or inadequacy of the remuneration offered by the Board, — that we decline entering upon, further than is abso- lutely necessary to an understanding of the general bearings of the case. The medical men assert, that ' their salaries were inadequate as a remunera- tion, even on the most moderate scale, for the important duties wliich they had to perform :' and they thus put in contrast the salaries offered to the medical men with those received by theAssistant-Commissioners. " The Union-house is calculated to con- tain 300 persons : the salary offered to the medical officer was £30 a-year, or Is. 7|d. a-day. In the miscellaneous estimates presented to the House of Commons May 30, 1836, are the fol- lowing items : — 21 Assistant-Commis- sioners, £700 a-year each, £14,700. Their travelling and incidental expenses, including clerks, £800 a-year each, £16,800. Each Assistant-Commissioner, therefore, is charged to the country, £1,500 a-year, or £4 2s. 2d. a-day; whilst 19|d. a-day is considered a proper remuneration for an expensively educated medical man, intrusted with the lives of hundreds of his suffering fellow-creatures.' ' This is a Idnd of information which cannot be too fi'equently brought before the pubHc. When the ' No Patronage' Cxovemment can fall upon a scheme for quartering a shoal of hungiy dependents on the people of England, then thousands upon thousands of the public money are wickedly lavished ; but when the necessities of the helpless are to be provided for, then rampant Whiggery is metamori)hosed into the very genius of famine, and gluts itself, vampire-like, on the vitals of its vic- tims. But to proceed with the pam- phlet before us : — The scale of remu- neration offered by the Boai'd to the medical men was considered by them .so inadequate, that at the conclusion of the year they decHncd sei'ving again on the terms proposed, at the same time stating, that, " To prevent the poor from suffering by the delay consequent on the course taken by the Board of Guardians, the medical officers are ready to continue their professional attendance on the poor gratuitously until some other arrangement can be made, provided such arrangement be effected within a reasonable period." This liberal offer was not accepted, but they were desired to attend the poor on the footing of " private patients." Wlien the bills for such attendance were sent in, payment was delayed, under various frivolous pre- tences, and they say that, "On Friday, October 27, a motion was made and seconded at the Board, that the medical officers should be offered double the amount of three weeks' pre- sent salaries in lieu of their bills ; or, in other words, it was proposed to pay them £38 13s., instead of £248, the amount of their bills according to the agreement entered into with the Board on the 16th of June, making a difference of £209 7s. This was carried by a majority of one — 16 voting for, and 15 against it. " In refusing to accede to such an unheard-of proposition, the medical men are not influenced by the mere amount unjustly withheld from them. They pro- test against the principle of employing professional men on terms clearly defined, and then, when the services have been performed, turning round and offering them payment on some other terms which were never alluded to at the period of the agreement." We must again say, that we have nothing to do with the foregoing statement further than is necessary to the understanding of the following appalling facts. It is said, that dur- ing the time that the poor were to be thus attended, and each case sepa- rately charged, " The Relieving Officers were directed to be sparing in their orders for medical relief, and many cases occurred in which orders were repeatedly refused, and dur- ing this period many of the poor suffered severely. Many instances occurred in the Stowey district, amongst which the following is (it is to be hoped) unexam- MEDICAL TREATMENT OF THE PAUPER POOR. 179 plod in cruelty and neglect : — Charlotte Allen, aged 31, who had been suifering for many years from a disease of the liver, Avith occasional severe attacks of fever, for which she had often been attended by the parish surgeon, was reported by the medical officer to be in a critical state, and in daily expectation of her delivery. The surgeon informed the llelieving Officer, that under such circumstances he thought his attendance would be neces- sary in her approaching laboiu\ The Relieving Officer also considered it neces- sary, but declined giving an order with- out the direction of the Board, but subse- quently told the surgeon, that his attend- ance would not be allowed. On the evening of Friday, the 30th of June, she was delivered by a woman, after a diffi- cult and violent labour. For several days afterwards she was extremely ill, and becoming daily worse, a neighbour applied to the Relieving Officer on the following Monday for assistance, and was told by him, that, as there was no parish doctor at that time, no order must be given unless in cases of absolute ne- cessity, as it was very expensive. He ordered her to apply to his wife, that she might visit her and judge whether it vvas necessary or not. His wife did not go, but sent to the midwife, who directed the poor sufferer to take three pennyworth of castor oil ! She got worse and worse until Wednesday night, when her danger became so imminent, that an order was at last granted for the surgeon. He in- stantly obeyed it, and found the case so formidable, that he requested the advice and assistance of a friend. The poor woman had been attacked with a puer- peral fever, the most dangerous and fatal disease to which lying-in women are liable ; in addition to which she had, from the violence of her labour, and the unskilfulness of the midwife, suffered a dreadful laceration and a j^rolajisus of the womb, which is not only irremediable, but must render the remainder of her existence miserable to herself and into- lerably offensive to those around her. In this dreadful condition was this poor woman kept from Friday, the 30th of June, to the following Wednesday night! She has been confined to her bed nearly ever since, and is at this time, four months from her delivery, totally unfit for anything : she can stand upright only a few minutes at a time. And all this suffering has been borne by a helpless woman to effect a saving of 10s. ! " This is by no means a ?olitarj' case of the sufiering and irremediable injury inflicted on the poor. The following copy of a letter, sent to the surgeon of the Huntspill district, will illustrate the sys- tem adopted by the Board of Guar- dians : — " ' Woollavington, July 1. " ' Sir, — I am dh-ecled by the Board of Guardians to infurm you, tliat you are to dis- continue your attendance on the undermen- tioned paupers in Woolhxvington, until you re- ceive further ordeis from the proper authorities — viz., George Reynolds's child, Nanny Mil- lard, Kezia Coles, and Thomas Lovibond. " 'I am. Sir, yours obediently, " ' J. STAGG, Relieving OfFicer, " 'To Mr. Caswell, Surgeon.' " Here we see written directions given to the surgeon to discontinue his attend- ance ; and what follows ? Why, the death of one of the poor sufferers, who died a few days after this mandate was issued ! " It would be tedious and distressing to multiply cases ; perhaps the following will be sufficient with the preceding to elucidate the fatal effects of the system adopted by the Board of Guardians. This case was that of a child, who was attacked with croup in the night, and for whom the anxious mother sought an order early in the morning, when she was refused by the Relieving Officer, accord- ing to the instructions which he had ]-e- ceived. The heart-rending particulars of this dreadful case will be best understood by the following letter from one of the surgeons of this place : — " ' July 14, 1837. " 'Gentlemen, — I consider I am only doing my duty in laying this case before you. " ' I was requested as a charity this morning to visit John Cook, Mount-terrace, Pig-cross, Bridgewater. I found him suffering from acute inflammation in the windpipe, and lite- rally dying for want of surgical assistance, his mother having applied to your Relieving Officer, Mr. Newman, who refused to give an order, on the grounds of no medical man being appointed. She showed me the duplicates of part of his bed-clolhes, wliich she had pawned for Is. 6d., and which she ofiered me in payment of the medicines wliich I gratuitously supplied her with. This disease is a most dangerous one, and requires very prompt and efticient treat- ment, and already much time has been impro- perly lost. " ' I beg to remain " ' Your obedient servant, " 'J. C. PARKER. " ' To the Board of Guardians of the " ' Bridgewater Union.' "Between twelve and one o'clock on the same day, an order was received by Mr. King to attend the child until he was directed to the contrary ; he instantly attended ; but, as had been foretold by 480 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. Mr. Parker, so much time had been lost without any attempt to reUevc a disease which, of all others, requires the most prompt and efficient treatment, that the poor child died the same evening. " The above are some of the conse- quences of the line of conduct pursued by the Boai'd of Guardians towards the me- dical men ; but even these, and other dis- tressing examples, failed to produce any ameliorating effect. When the day came for making the medical appointments, the Board, which had first divided the Union into seven districts, and then, finding these districts too large, had further divided it into nine, now determined, in the face of their former resolution, to re- duce the number of districts to six ; thus inevitably inflicting a still further degree of suffering on the helpless poor." After making some further detailed statements, the medical men proceed to say — *' Whatever their feelings may be on the points above detailed, and however injuriously it may affect their interests to be obliged to institute expensive proceed- ings for the recovery of rights dishonestly withheld from them, they feel that this is a comparatively trivial part of the case submitted to the public. It is to the in- evitable operation of all this persecution on the poor, during the pangs of acute dis- ease, and in the excruciating hour of labour, that the attention of the public is especially invited. It is to such heart- rending cases as Charlotte Allen's and Reynolds's and Cook's, where the very bed-clothes of the dying are stripped off" and pawned to obtain relief, where imme- diate death or a life of torture are the con- sequences of the system acted on by the Board of Guardians — it is to these and other equally horrible circumstances, that the public attention is called. " In denouncing such acts, as the ne- cessary consequence of the system pur- sued by the Board in its collective capacity, the medical men are most an- ;xious to excejDtmany excellent and humane Guardians, who have nobly supported the cause of justice and humanity, and most ably advocated the claims of the poor. In such honourable hands the medical men would be most happy to leave their own case, but as the interests, and even the lives, of the poor, are, to a certain extent, involved in this question, they cannot consent to commit those interests en- tirely to the sentence of a secret tribunal, where the honest and humane may find themselves in a minority. Under such circumstances, they do not feel that they should be performing their duty towards their poor neighbours, or to the profession of which they are members, unless tlicj- submitted to the salutary influence of public opinion some of the ' facts con- nected with the administration of medical relief in the Brideewater Union. ' " — Times, Nov. 22, 1837. " We know nothing more disgraceful than to attempt to fetter the discretion of a medical man in prescribing what is needful for his patient, even though it may involve a trifling expense. To re- fuse it on such grounds, is to be accessoiy to the death of a fellow-creature, and to incur the guilt of homicide, if not of mur- der. Away with such weighing of pounds, shillings, and pence, against human life — away with such murderous economy — better that all the inmates of workhouses in England were stuffed to repletion, and gluttonized on their medicines, than that one of them should perish by starvation." Conservative Journal, March 27, 1841. " On Tuesday evening, the members of the Board of Guardians of St. George the Martyr, Southwark, assembled an hour earlier than usual for the purpose of pursuing the inquiry into the alleged charge of neglect as regarded the non- attendance of Mr. Evans, one of the sur- geons of the parish, to a case of scarlet fever, of which the child of a Mrs. Grubb was afflicted, and of which it died. The case has created a very considerable de- gree of excitement in the parish, and which was still further increased by Mr. Payne, the coroner, causing an inquest, and also from the fact, that some of the Guardians, who of late had not been in the habit of attending, were present on this occasion, as well as Mr. Evans. A long and angry discussion ensued among the members of the Board, one party charging the other with being actuated by political motives in bringing forward the case. Eventually, the friends of Mr. Evans decided upon bringing matters to a close, and Mr. Roberts moved the fol- lowing resolution : — ' It is the opinion of this Board, that INIr. Evans, one of the surgeons of this parish, is entirely exone- rated from all blame as regards his treat- ment of the deceased child of Sarah Grubb.' Mr. Perry, of the Westminster- I'oad, seconded it. Mr. Day then moved, as an amendment — ' Resolved, that after MEDICAL TREATMENT OF THE PAUPER POOR. 4S1 hearing tlie evidence as to the case of the child Grubh, the Board are of opinion that two attendances from Thursday morning at ten o'clock, till half-})ast twelve on Monday, when the child died, were not sufficient, and the Board requests that IMr. Evans in future do attend more fre- quently to dangerous cases.' Mr. Hughes seconded the amendment. The parties then divided, when the amendment was carried by a majority of 10 to 3. Mr. Evans was then called in, and informed of the result." — Champion^ Uec. 29, 1839. " Mr. Blackstone wished to put a case which he believed would show, that the Guardians could administer the law better without than with the Commissioners. A short time ago, while a low fever raged in his Union, the Board of Guardi- ans wished to send some old women out of the workhouse to wait as nurses upon the sick. It was found, however, that the Board of Guardians could not do so without the sanction of the Commissioners, and that sanction was refused. (Hear, hear.)" — House of Commons, March 26, 1841. " He put it to the legal authorities in that House whether medical practitioners were empowered, under the existing rules, to administer such food and wine to the sick poor as they might deem necessary ? The answer of the Commissioners to Mr. Rayner was, that he had not authority to do so. So that, however ill the patient might be, or however much in need of nourishing food or stimulants, the surgeon could not at once order or give, or cause to be given, such food to the patient with- out the sanction of the Board of Guardians. He had that day received a communi- cation from Mr. Phillpotts, the surgeon of the Paddington parish, who said, that he really pitied the poor old inmates of the almshouse ; that before the new law they received 5s. and 6s. a- week ; but that it was now greatly reduced. One poor old person who had been questioned on the subject, rephed, ' Is. 6d. a-week, a pound of beef, and a loaf of bread.' INIr. Phillpotts had informed him, that if he ordered wine and an additional quan- tity of food it would be given ; but that in a short time it would be discontinued, and the patient told that he or she could not receive it any longer without going to the workhouse. He (Mr. Wakley) had gone himself to the almshouse, and asked some of the old people whether they w^ould prefer remaining where they were, or going to the workhouse and receiving this additional quantity of food, and the answer was, that they should not like to go to the workhouse. Such was their horror of the workhouse, that they preferred remaining and perishing where they were to encoun- tering its cruelties ; and yet this was the system which it was alleged had so much benetited the position of the aged and infirm. On Monday next he would make a statement respecting the rules for govern- ing medical relief, which would show, that those rules were as repugnant to the prin- ciples of common justice as they were obnoxious to the dictates of common sense ; and if, therefore, any persons should be ill-natured and vulgar-minded enough to doubt his statement on the subject, he hoped they would take the trouble of inquiring into it." — Mr. Wakley, House of Commons, March 26, 1841. " There is one material part which demands immediate and serious attention, I mean the medical and surgical care of the sick, and on this point a very exten- sive practice of 40 years renders me com- petent to give an opinion. During the early part of that period mj'^ intercourse with the poor was great and constant, often passing whole days and nights in their cottages, and for the last 28 years I have been the senior medical officer in the Bridgewater Infirmary. These opportuni- ties have made me familiar with the habits and feelings of that class, and justice requires me to state, that I have fre- quently witnessed such instances of kind- ness, charity, and affection, towards each other as do honour to the best feelings of our nature. " Before the introduction of the New Law, the overseers of parishes contracted with a medical practitioner of known reputation for the care of the poor, and, with very few exceptions, the duty was properly and satisfactorily performed at a very moderate expense, the surveillance of the rate-payers being sufficient to insure its proper discharge, whilst the mutual good understanding which existed be- tween the medical men and the parochial authorities enabled the poor to receive prompt assistance without the trouble or delay of an order for attendance. But the New Law has broken up all old con- nexions, delivered the poor over in many instances to a set of needy, unprincipled, and unqualified practitioners, and has not only rendered medical assistance difficult of obtainment, but often delayed it until useless. This must be obvious to every 2i 482 THE BOOK OF THE BASTII.ES. one who has contemplated the size and extent of many of the medical districts. For example, in the Bridgewatcr Union a person was appointed to a district con- taining ten parishes, and when the Guar- dians could not compel one of their former officers to imdertake another district in an opposite direction, containing four large and scattei'ed parishes, on their own terms, they appointed the same person, (a man who was not legally entitled to dispense medicine,) to these four parishes in ad- dition, making the distance from one extreme to the other nearly eighteen miles, and thus putting it wholly out of the power of the poor to obtain relief in the time of need. I contend, thereibre, that under the present system, the poor are infinitely worse provided with medical assistance than under the old — not only from the size of the districts, but from their being committed to the care of incompetent persons, some of whom have obtained employment by fictitious certifi- cates, as in the case of the Bridgewater district. The fatal consequences of that flagrant appointment have already been beibre the public, and ought to be a warn- ing to authorities never to consign those committed to their charge to reckless and unprincipled adventurers. " When under examination before the select committee of the House of Lords, I stated my conviction, that the poor were worse provided with medical assistance under the New Law than under the Old, and was sharply cross-examined by Lord Radnor on this point, who affirmed, that the registration of medical visits insured better and more regular attendance on the sick : in answer to which I replied, that, from my own knowledge, such entries could not be depended on, and that they were often made at random by the pupil or dispenser. In proof of which, I ad- duced an instance in which three entries of visits had been made to a man in one week, who was proved by the Death Book to have been dead a fortnight before. " Li the Times of January 26th I pub- lished tlie two following cases of cruelty, both of which terminated in the death of the sufierers — an apjialling fact, which cannot be too forcibly impressed on all those who ai-e sincerely desirous of amend- ing the harsh provisions of this law : — " ' That women often die during labour from want of proper assistance, is certain, and my own observation convinces me, that such deaths have been more frequent since the poor have, inider llie operation of the I'oor-Law Aiiicnd- mcnt-Acl, cither been rcl'used Iheir actu^tomt d aid, or consigned to the care of adveiiiurers, and incompetent and uiiqualiiied pracliiioneis. I could till the columns of the Times if I detailed the many fatal cases which have come within my knowledge, but I cannot forbear mentioning the following two : — One was that of a poor, but nKJSt industrious and respectable woman, whose former labours had been such as to require the assistance of one, and sometimes two, surgeons, ■who was refused by the Board of Guardians, to whom her husband applied, the assistance of the parish surgeon, and died in consequence, leaving five children. This poor woman had, on a former occasion, been attended by the parish surgeon, assisted by another surgeon, in consequence of the difficulty and danger to be apprehended ; the child died, and the mother was only saved by great exertion. On the approach of her next confinement, her husband, a labourer of excellent character, working for 8s. a-week, lost a day's work to come in him- self to the Board ot Guardians of tlie Bridge- water Union, and petition for the assistance of the Union surgeon. His ow-n account is as fol- lows : — 'I went to the Board of Bridgewater on a Friday ; the Chairman w^as there, and asked me what I wanted. I said a note for my wife to have the doctor when she was put to bed, for that she liad a very bad time before, and had two doctors with her. He told me to go out and wait, and the gentlemen would consult. I was kept there waiting an hour and a-half, when the relieving officer came out and told me, that no note was granted. When I got home and told my wife that the doctor was not to be allowed, she was very much cast down.' The poor woman was taken in labour that day fort- night, without any assistance but an ignorant midwife, until it was too late, and she died from the consequence of excessive haemorrhage. The other was a case in which the necessary aid was so long delayed that she also died, leaving eleven children. I saw both these cases myself; and, after an extensive experience of 40 years, am warrai;ted in saying, that both these women would have been saved if timely assistance had been afibrded.' " Not one of the amendments of which notice has been given in the Commons, would go to the prevention of such dread- ful occurrences as the foregoing, where human life was recklessly sacrificed to save a few shillings, at a period, too, of peril and suftering, when the most urgent calls are made on our natural sympathy, and Christian feeling !" — Mr. Jonathan ToogootVs (of Bridgewater J, Letter in the " Times;' dated March 2, 184L [A more humane and patriotic opponent does not live than Mr. T. In the name of the poor I thank him for past endeavours iu their behalf, and hope to meet him, again and again, in the field fighting for so good a cause. — G. R, W. B.] THE DECREASE OF WAGES, AND THE DESTITUTE CONDITION OF WORKING MEN UNDER THE NEW POOR-LAW. •' 'Tis to work, and have such pay As just keeps life from day to day."— Shelley's Masque of Anarchy. " See yonder poor, o'er-Iabour'd wight, So abject, mean, and vile. Who begs a brother of the earth To give him leave to toil : And see his lordly fellow-worm The poor petition spurn. Unmindful, tho' a wee])ing wife And helpless offspring mourn ! " — Burns. " The wages of the day-labourer, tvhose lot urns to be bettered by the bill, have been reduced, and he is fast descending into a state of indescribable misery and distress." — Blaleys " General Principles of Parochial Relief." "We see by the evidence before the Committee of the House of Commons, now sitting (1837), that the labouring man's wages are reduced in the south to five shillings per week. This is acknow- ledged by the Poor-Law Commissioner himself. Let the New Bill be a year or two firmly rooted in the north, and you will speedily feel, to the same extent, its degrading and pinching influence." — Blaheys " Letters to the Mechanics and Labouring Men of the North of Eng- land" " I know that the tendency of the law is not to advanceihe wages of the labourer." — The Suffolk Juror. " I said to a man, the other day, ' Whom are you working with ? ' ' Oh ! at my old place, Sir ; I have never worked anywhere else,' ' Oh, no ! I don't mean at what place : I can remember you upon that farm nearly forty years ' — see how the poor creatures stick to the land ! ' I mean, whom do you work with — who is your partner in work ? ' ' Oh, my old partner, Tom, Sir.' ' What are you doing ? ' ' Thrashing, Sir ; but we can only earn eight shillings a-iveek ! ' " — Ibid. " The Spitalfields' weavers, not one in a hundred of them, after working twelve hours a-day, can earn tioelve shillings a- week ; and the handloom weavers of the north cannot, with all their toil, earn more than seven shillings a-iveek. I have known girls, eight years of age, working at the anvil, making nails from six in the morn- ing until eight or nine at niglit, and on Friday, all night long, and, after all, could not earn more than otie shilling and sixpe7ice a-week. The mother of one of them worked equal time, and whilst she was at work, one of her children was burnt almost to a cinder, and she could only earn three shillings a-iceek ; whilst the grandmother could get no more than one shilling and sixpence ! " — Rev. J. R. Stephens's Sermon, preached May 12, 1839. " Wages had not risen, but, on the contrary, were reduced in Bedfordshire." —Mr. Fieldeiis Speech, Feb. 20, 1838. " It had been said that wages had ad- vanced since the New Poor-Law Act had passed, and that in the south of England they had been as loio as six shillings a- ivcek before that measure came into operation. Now he could only say, that as far as his recollection went, wages had never been lower than 10s. to 12s. a-week, and he knew that there had been no in- crease of wages since the Poor-Law Act came into operation." — Mr. Darby, House of Commons, Feb. 20, 1838. " Poor-Rates. — Saturday, a large number of the inhabitants of the parish of Heston appeared before the magistrates at Brentford, for the purpose of applying to be relieved from the payment of poor- rates. Some of them stated their wages amounted to only 12s. per week, out of which they had, in some instances, to sup- port ten children. Others were widows, and persons upwards of eighty years of age, several of whom are at the present moment in the receipt of parochial relief. Most of them were relieved by the Bench, with the concurrence of the overseers ; a few were ordered to pay forthwith, and the remainder were directed to pay fid. per week until the rate was dis- T 2 484 THE BOOK OF THE BASTELES. charged." — Globe. [This is another giving way of the New Poor-Law, part of the administration of which was to oppress the poorest with the demand of the rates. — Ed. Champion, Aug. 25, 1839.] " He would prophesy, that as soon as the raih'oad labours were concluded, they would see wages reduced to a starving point." — Mr. T. Attwood, House of Com- mo7is, July, 1839. " The workhouse scheme, say the friends of the Poor-Law, is the grand method to raise wages ; I maintain, that it is the sure method to reduce them : how many orders for admission into the workhouse have been issued by the Board during the past year ? I venture to guess, hundreds, and why so few accepted ? because, since the character of the house has become known, the poor will not take advantage of it as a refuge from pinching want and half starvation ; labouring men prefer working on two meals a-day, and spend- ing their evenings with their wives and children, rather than submit to irksome confinement, bacon-water, thin pea-soup, sTiilly gruel, and family separation: the workhouse must be raised to a much higher standard before it can have any other tendency than that of lowering wages." — Hev. Stephen Butler's " Letter to the Ratepayers of the Droxford Union.''' " Definition of Comfort. — Meke Statistics op Wages, &c., insuf- ficient TO Attest the Presence of Comfort. — What constitutes the well- being of a man ? Many things ; of which the wages he gets, and the bread he buys with them, are but one preliminary item. Grant, however, that the wages were the whole : that once knowing the wages and the price of bread, we know all; then what are the wages ? Statistic inquiry, in its present unguided condition, cannot tell. The average rate of a day's wages is not correctly ascertained for any portion of this country ; not only not for half centuries, it is not even ascertained any- where for decades or for years : far from instituting comparisons with the past, the present itself is unknown to us. And then, given the average of wages, what is the constancy of employment ? what is the difficulty of finding employment ? the fluctuation from season to season, from year to year ? Is it constant, calculable wages ; or fluctuating, incalculable — more or less of the nature of gambling ? This secondary circumstance, of quality in wages, is, perhaps, even more important than the primary one of quantity. Further, we ask, can the labourer, by thrift and industry, hope to rise to mastership ? or is such hope cut off" fi-om him ? How is he related to his employer? by bonds of friendliness and mutual help, or by hos- tility, opposition, and chains of mutual necessity alone ? In a word, what degree of resentment can a human creature be supposed to enjoy in that position ? With hunger preying on him, his contentment is likely to be small. But even with abundance, his discontent, his real misery may be great. The labourer's feelings, his notion of being justly dealt with or unjustly; his wholesome composure, frugality, prosperity in the one case ; his recklessness, gin-drinking, and gradual ruin in the other, how shall figures of arithmetic represent all this ? So much is still to be ascertained ; much of it by no means easy to be ascertained. Till among the ' Hill Cooly ' and ' Dog-cart' questions, there arise, in Parliament, and extensively out of it, a ' Condition-of- England question,' and quite a new set of inquirers and methods, little of it is likely to be ascertained." — " Chartism," hy Thomas Carlyle. " His opinion of the law was, that it was intended to make the labourer live on less wages, and to make him at the same time do more work for a smaller remune- ration." — Gen. Johnson, Freemasons' Tavern, Feb. 19, 1838. " He had heard of cases in Cambridge- shire, in which a labourer accepted, and endeavoured to exist, on half-a-crown a- week." — Earl Stanhope, House of Lords^ March 20, 1838. " COPY OF THOMAS TURNER'S LETTER TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE COM- NISSIONERS OF THE NEW POOR-LAW AMENDMENT-ACT. " I now state to your honours, that I am a labouring man, belonging to the parish of Guestling, in the county of Sussex. I lived in the parish of Brede for nearly forty-seven years, and I oftimes applied to the Hastings Board of Guar- dians for some assistance to support my family. But they always denied to give me anything. But they told me they could not relieve me unless I was in my own parish, and then they could relieve me, as I have a family of nine children, and six of them lay on my hands for support. I hired a cottage in the parish of Guestling, in the Hastings Union, and I moved into the parish of Guestlmg on DECREASE OF WAGES. 485 the 17th of June last, when I had but one shilling in the world ; and I sent one of my children to the shop with that one shilling to get food for eight in familj', and I went to the Relieving Officer, and told him the distressed state I was in, and ask him to relieve me — but he would not relieve me ; and, on the 20th day of June, my wife went before the Board of Guar- dians, and asked them for relief. But they would not relieve us at all, and we were all in a strange place ; and I have oftimes applied to the Board of Guardians since — but they always deny me. They say they do not dare to relieve me, for the Commissioners will not let them relieve me, or else they should be happy to relieve me. The Guardians of Guestling parish tell me they should be very happy to give me four or five gallons of flour per week, if they dared to give it me — for you, the said Commissioners, would not let them relieve me. " Please your honours, my shoes are quite worn out, and my feet go on the ground, and have done for this six weeks. I have applied to the Board of Guardians of the Hastings Union for this last three weeks for a pair of half-boots, and some flour or money to help support my family, but they will not give me neither shoes, nor flour, nor money. They deny to relieve me in any way, and say that you, the said Commissioners, will not let them. " Please your honours, \vhen I work all the week I earn twelve shillings, but I oftimes lose a day or two in a week ; but if I woi"k the whole of my time, my income is only twelve shillings per week, for eight in family to subsist on, and we are all so weak and feeble that we are troubled to get about, and I am very much troubled to get to my work. " Please your honours, the flour that I require for my family is eight gallons, at Is. 5d. per gallon, and that amounts to 1 Is. 4d., and the rent of my cottage is tsvo shillings per week, and I cannot get firing under two shillings per week, which, with the flour, rent, and firing, amounts to 15s. 4d. per week, and my income is only r2s. per week, and how can I pay 15s. 4d. with I2s. ? And then we have nothing for meat, cheese, nor butter — no sugar nor tea — and my wife a child to suck, and no tea nor sugar, it is a very hard case, and not a sixpence for clothing them. And I most sincerely hope that you, the Right Honourable Commissioners, will have the goodness to return me a few lines in answer to this, so that I may know whether the laws of England are for a working, industi-ious, and sober man to go bare-footed and almost starved, or not. Direct to me to Thomas Turner, Guest- ling, near Hastings. — I remain, your honours' humble subject, "THOMAS TURNER. "November 18th, 1839. *' Should your honours wish to know my character, you can apply to the clergymen, churchwardens, or overseers of the parish of Brede, in the county of Sussex, or of Mr. George Bishop, of the parish of Northiam — as he was my em- ployer the last seven years I was at Brede." " William Holman examined : — I am a farm labourer from Taunton, Somerset- shire. My wages are 8s. per week. Sometimes I have received 7s. a-week, and three pints of cider ; the latter was worth Is. 6d. I now receive Is. instead. My wages have been under the amount last mentioned. The wages are less now than before last Christmas. I have a wife and four children." — Evidence token hy the Anti-Poor-Law Delegates, March, 1840. " In no one parish which I have visited in Sussex do the regular wages average more than 10s. a-week." — Anti-Corn-Law Circular, Oct. 15, 1839. " We have the case, this week, of a poor fellow, named Benjamin Ellis, an able-bodied labourer, who, wath a wife and eight children, only receives 8s. 6d. a-week wages, out of which he has to pay Is. 6d. rent. He resides near Ollbrd." — Dispatch, Nov. 11, 1838. " It is generally known, that, in Wilts, a truly agricultural county, the wages only average 6s. a-week." — From a Cor- respondmt, Oct. 3, 1840. " The Poor-Law Commissioners and their worshippers, in and out of Parlia- ment, have based their reform upon a series of principles, the soundness of which it may be well to examine. They tell us, that the principle of ' supply and demand,' with which it is the height of madness to interfere, furnishes us with a natm-al, and, therefore, a just, i-ate of ■wages ; that it is desirable to take this natural rate as a fixed point from which to start in all our other calculations on the subject ; that this natural or just rate of wages may be attained by almost every prudent, honest, and uidustriuus man, and 486 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. that whoever does not attain it, must be lelieved only by giving him something more disagreeable and undesirable than the receipt of these wages would be. In the very words of the Poor-Law Commis- sioners, in their report of 1840, on the Continuance of the Commission, ' the only expedient for accomplishing the end in view, which humanity permits, is, to subject the pauper to such a system of labour, disciplhie, and restraint, as shall be sufficient to outweigh, in his estimation, the advantages which he derives from the bodily comfort which he enjoys.' (Page 28.) " All this is very logical, no doubt ; and as to the exclusive humanity of it, there can be just as little question. But we confess we have a small feeling of appre- hension that the premises above stated are not quite so undeniable as logicians and phi- lanthropists would undoubtedly desire to find them ; and we, therefore, beg our readers to accompany us for a few mo- ments in considering whether the price (or wages) of labour is fairly determined, as the economists tell us the just price of all other commodities is determined, by the proportion between the supply and the demand. To solve this problem, let us take an individual instance ; for in moral questions we distrust most grievously all reasonings which treat men m inasses, as abstract quantities, without taking into account the essential individuality of every unit of these masses. Let us suppose, then, that a gentleman has a servant to hire ; that, in the parish in which he lives, there are ten i^ersons out of employ- ment, who are fit for the situation, and desirous to obtain it ; that these ten per- sons have been long out of work ; and that their only hope of escape fi"om starva- tion is to be found in the chance of getting this situation. Under these circumstances, tlie supply is out of all proportion to the demand. On the one hand, the gentle- man has a servant to hire whom he can, perhaps, do without altogether ; on the other, ten persons are driven by hunger to compete for their one only chance of pre- serving life. The natural operation of demand and supply, would, in this case, induce every one of those men to give the maximum of his daily labour for the mini- mum of daily wages. Here, therefore, the mathematical principles of the econo- mists reduce wages to the very lowest point that can support human existence ; the coarsest food, the smallest quantify of food, out corner of a room, or the shady side of a hedge, rags and tatters pinned together so as just to cover his nakedness. All this time we suppose the employer fully able to afford higher wages, without putting himself to any inconvenience. We ask, then, whether the principles of the economists apply to such a case as this? Because a poor starving wretch would fain fill his belly with the husks which the swine are eating, is the em- ployer justified in screwing him down to the very lowest fraction of a farthhig, upon the principles of demand and supply ? To the question so stated, not even an economist, we believe, woidd re- turn any but a negative answer. " Well then ; the natural rate of wages is not always the just rate. Before any existing rate of wages can be proved to be just, there are two circumstances to be taken into account, besides the fact that they are natural. The one is — their sufficiency to maintain a man, his wife, and children, in the reasonable enjoyment of life ; the other is — the ahility of the em- ployer to give more if the existing rate is insufficient. "What is true of individuals is true also of communities ; when you are sure that you take into account, in the case of the community, all the circumstances which you would take into account in judging of individuals. The existing rate of wages for any class of labouring men in this country is not just, merely because it is the natural rate, because the poor have been pressed down to it by the natural operation of competition. Two other circumstances have to be taken into account in this case as well as in the for- mer. Can the labourers and their families live in reasonable comfort by the existing rate ? If they cannot, is the existing rate the very highest that their employers are able to dole out to them ? If both these questions can be answered in the negative, then, though their amount be what is called natural, though supply and de- mand, competition, and ail other prin- ciples of political economy, have been left to work unimpeded, wages are un- justly low. " What is there in the principle of competition which should lead us to imagine that the natural result of it in this particular case must be justice ? Every feature of it that we can discern leads us rather to the very opposite con- clusion. In the struggle of capital against labour, if, as political economy teaches, the luonev-t'cltinc? motives are to DFXREASE OF WAGES. 487 bear sovereign sway, iiutcmpcrecl by cliarity, justice, or fear, we, for our parts, see no chance for poor unprotected labour. In the first place, capital is accumulated labour. In the market, a capital of £1,000 a-year is the representative of the labour of twenty men whose labour is worth £50 a-year. The capitalist of £1,000 a-year wields in his own hand the power of twenty such men — speaking in a moHfy point of view. The competition, tiien, of such a labourer against such a capitalist is the competition of a single individual against twenty. When two such unequal powers try their strength together, thei'e needs no power of pro- phecy to tell which must prove the weakest. *' In the second place, it is the compe- tition of men to whom increase of wages is an increase of food, and other neces- saries of life, against a man to whom an increase of profits is an increase only of the vanities or luxuries of life. It is the competition of the dinner against the ser- vice of plate. The one man cannot wait for his dinner ; the other can wait for his splendour. The workman, if he does not speedily come to terms with his employer, nnist starve ; the employer, if he does not speedily come to terms with his work- man, merely loses a market, and, perhaps, retrenches a superfluity. " In this unequal contest of beggary against riches, of hunger against luxury, we confess we see few elements of justice. The natural result of such a contest, if no sense of equity, or no sense of fear interpose to mitigate the relentless de- mands of avarice, must be grievous wrong. Competition alone, the struggle of the strong against the weak, must end in the discomfiture of the weak. We are almost ashamed to repeat these truisms, which are yet practically denied and laughed to scorn by the men to whom the wisdom of both parties in the state has entrusted the management of the poor. What temperaments, then, -what miti- gations of this natural injustice does the nature of the case admit of ? " First let us place that natural sense of fairness, charity, and good feeling, which meet the economists at every step, and (blessed be God for it!) disturb the o[)eration of their rigid principles. This country is indeed in a wretched condition, if, in thousands of instances, these feel- ings do not secure for the workman higher wages than mere conipctition would allow him. Secondly, yc«?' ; — the fear of Glasgow Thuggery, the dread of vitriol bottles, pikes, and torches, lucifer matches, Swing burnings, Ashton explosions, Dublin slat- ings, and all the other milder expedients by which individual labour strives to become combined and accumulated labour, and thus to secure for itself that standing in the field of competition, that fair and adequate protection, which the Mammonry of this age has refused to give it. " Thirdly, private charity ; all too in- adequate in this self-applauding age to bear half the burden of which the whole was borne by the Catholic charity of the unenlightened middle ages. " Fourthly, public or legal charity ; the creation of modern times, invented to supply the deficiencies of that private liberality which w^as the glory of our pious ancestors. " Let us suppose for a moment the existence of a state of things in which all classes of society are living in tolerable comfort ; wages reasonably higli, work abundant, and the profits of capital good, without being excessive. Let us suppose that, by the operation of some accidental cause, such as a rapid increase of profits, the higher and middle classes are suddenly tempted to augment the splendour and magnificence of their living, lose their old virtues of sobriety and moderation of life, become ostentatious, vain, and fond of display. Let us suppose, too, that the causes which produced this change of living suddenly cease to operate. Let us suppose that when this chan.ge of manners and of life has been confirmed into a habit, profits suddenly tall even lower than their former moderate amount. Let us suppose, along with this disastrous change, that vanity, shame, and custom combine to deter these middle and lower classes from returning to their old mode of life, and render it a sort of desperate necessity for them to make large fortunes at any risk. If, at the best, the compe- tition between capital and labour is an unequal struggle, what must it become now ? The capitalist, to satisfy the crav- ings of his ostentation, must pinch and grind down everyone who is weaker than himself, and from whom a profit can bu made. A great part of the expenses ol his factoiy or his farm consists of wages These wages must be reduced at all hazards. As this vanity of his is not a personal failing, but a general disease, it produces a general tendency in the same direction. All capitalists, or the grcut 488 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. bulk of them, have large fortunes to make and desire to cut a dash ; and, therefore, all of them do their utmost to keep down Avages, to grind down the poor. On the other hand, the working man, his logical faculty stimulated by his empty belly and his famished children, argues that this unnatural co-operation on one side must be met by effective union on the other, and, accordingly, we have trades' unions and all that complicated macliinery, the fruit of whose working is too often naked and cold-blooded murder. " Such is the natural, and even neces- sary, result of ' suj^ply and demand,' left to rule unchecked in these times of ours. The hunger of vanity, on the one hand, crushing the unprotected in the dust ; on the other, the hunger of the belly striving to redress the injustice by the most horrible systematic outrage and crime. " Now, while this frightful intestine war is yet waging, suppose a humane, and sagacious legislature were to step in be- tween the contending parties, and were to say to them, ' This state of things shall be no longer. It is not right that five, or it may be ten, people should have to starve on seven or nine shillings a- week, while dukes live magnificently on £60 an hour. It is not right that the whole weight of this great transition should be made to fall upon the poor. It is not right, while the country is augmenting her wealth, that the artisan, by whom that wealth has its being, should starve or exist more miser- ably than the brute beasts. The annual income of this country is sufficient to pro- vide for each man, who is willing to labour, a comfortable subsistence ; other- wise these riches of ours are but a more elaborate poverty. While our income is thus sufficient, the means of so living must be secured to him. As in a family, so in a state ; first necessaries, then comforts, and, lastly, luxuries. First, let all the people be fed, clothed, and housed. Secondly and thirdly, let the comforts and luxuries of those who are further removed from poverty be rigidly secured to them. To parody a maxim of Mr. Burke, ' the first creditor of every country is the belly.' This demand must be satisfied before any other claim is taken into account. We will therefore enact a law whereby every man, woman, and child shall have a legal claim to such support as will make life tolerable. Henceforth it shall be a recog- nized principle that if M-ages are offered to a man at five shillings a- week, or seven shillings a-week, or at any other starving or unendurable rate, the man shall be at liberty to say, ' I will take no such wages. I will not work for you and starve. If you will not pay me in one shape, you shall in another. If you will not give me wages, you shall give me poor-rate. The state is bound to provide all her children who are willing to Avork for her, with food, clothing, and shelter, so long as she is able to do so. She is now notoriously able to do so, and, therefore, I will take no such wages as you offer me. The present rate of wages is a flagrant injus- tice. Until wages rise above a starving rate, I prefer to live on the bounty of the state rather than accept the wages which you talk of.' " Would there, we ask, be anything very revolting or absurd in a law framed on these principles ? in a law thus hu- manely striving to protect the poor from the standing injustice of the rich ? " Now, suppose such a law" already in existence ; but defiled and injured by many practical abuses. What would be thought of the wisdom of the legislator who, under pretence of removing these abuses, proposed to remove the law alto- gether, and the principle on which it was based ? What would be thought of a legislator enacting a different, or rather opposite, principle ? Declaring that the natural, that is, the starving, rate of wages is the just and expedient one ; taking that as the thing to be maintained and defended at all hazards, even though too often hcJoiv the starving point, as in Ireland ; depriving the poor man of every protection against the rich ; leaving poverty to cope single-handed with wealth ; hold- ing out to the poor man redress of griev- ances hy telling him that his poverty comes from his imprudence ; and promising to lead him into happiness by placing before him, on the one hand, wages at or below the starving point; and, on the other, public relief on terms which will be more unendurable than even this miser- able income. " What should we think of such legis- lators ? We should pronounce them irre- coverably mad ; and if they desired to carry such a law into operation, we should recommend them to vmtenant the strongest wards in Bedlam to find fit agents for the accomplishment of their ridiculous designs. " But, alas, this very ridiculous law is the very one under which the English poor are now living, This insane scheme DECREASE OF WAGES. 489 lias met with the approval of the legisla lure. This gigantic phrenzy is no deUri- ous imagination, but a practical existing fact. We are at present living under the empire of this astounding absurdity. " The rulers of the poor are men who tell us, that the actual or natural rate of wages is always just. They kindly in- form us, that at this point they design to keep them until the rich shall tind it con- venient to raise them of their own free will. They abhor combinations of work- men, the excesses of private charity, the humane weaknesses of ordinary minds. They denounce every artificial interference Avith the natural relations of supply and demand, to whatever depth — -plus qiiam Hibernicum — in the intinite abyss of misery those relations may lead. And they avow an intention of raising wages by leaving, and even compelling, each individual poor man to fight the battles of avarice single-handed with the powerful combination of wealth with which his bargains have always to be made. " Oh, profound wisdom ! Wonderful humanity! Miraculous offspring of the enlightenment of these latter days ! At the risk of being told by the Commission- ers that we express our dissent from their wisdom merely ' with the natural desire of producing an acceptable commodity for our readers,' we cannot but repeat our abhorrence of this entire system of mechanical inhumanity. We tell the calculating machines of Somerset-house, that their true function is to raise the rate of wages, by enabling the poor man to refuse wages scandalously low without his being subjected to the alternative of famine. We tell them, that the natural rate of wages is constantly tending to in- justice, and that one main purpose of a Poor-Law is to redress that tendency. We tell them — what they do not know — that a man differs from a piece of calico. To a piece of calico it makes no matter at what price it is sold. To a man it does make some difference what price is paid for his labour. We tell them, that it is no consolation to a man, with an empty belly and a dying wife, to be told that the natural valuation of his week's labour, on the principle of ' supply and demand,' is five shillings. We tell them, that the poor have a right to the protection of the state against the callous injustice of those men who wish them to work and starve upon any such allowance; and that the business of a Poor-I^aw is to wrest this instrument of torture out of the iron gripe of capitalists and speculators. We tell them, too, that if they will not protect the poor, the poor will combine to protect themselves. If they will spend their days and nights in making public relief as much more unendurable than nine shillings a week as it can possibly be made, they Avill have murders at Ashton, and vitriol bottles at Glasgow, and slating at Dublin, to the end of time. " The subject is a wide one, and we have not space to pursue it further at the present moment. We shall conclude with expressing our firm belief, that the only good point about the working of the New Law has been the introduction of a more stringent check on local jobbing ; but that in every other particular, from the first principle down to the last detail, the re- formed system is a most disastrous and fatal mistake." — The Tablet, April 17, 1841. " Labourers' Wages. — At a late agricultural dinner at Saffron Walden, considerable force was laid by several of the speakers on the necessity of an ad- vancement in the wages of the labourers. ' When,' said Lord Rayleigh, ' I look to the coming winter, and see that the quar- tern loaf is likely to get dearer rather than cheaper, it will be our duty to anticipate any demand for wages amongst the poor, so that, if there should be a cry out amongst the manufacturers at the dear- ness of bread, our labourers, instead of joining in that cry, may be able to say. We have found masters who have given us a portion of their advantages, and whether bread be cheap or dear, our masters shall have our good will.' Mr. Fiske urged the farmers, now that they were making a good price of their wheat, to pay their labourers in proportion ; and Mr. Gent added — ' The landlords, when times were bad, went hand in hand with you and reduced your rents, do you in turn assist the labourer? The Poor-Law has clipped his wings, and given an ad- vantage to you farmers in the rates, and, as the labourer is essential to the culti- vation of the soil, do not crush and tram- ple on him. If wheat continues at this price, you must increase his wages, there- fore do it with a good grace.' These observations were received with cheers of approbation, which showed that the farm- ers of the neighbourhood felt their appli- cability ; and from what we know of the hearts and feelings of the agriculturists, wc are certain the remarks fell not upon 490 THE r.OOK OF THE BASTILES. a soil where they will he permitted to wither and perish, without pi-oducing any practical result. The wages which were paid to the labourers in many parishes under the old system of Poor- Laws, ought to be no criterion for regu- lating the payment now. What the farmer paid his workmen on the Saturday night was but an instalment of his wages; he paid the remainder in the shape of poor-rates, and it was doled out to the labourer in the humiliating shape of re- lief; and if this secondary spring of re- ward — for reward for services it in many instances substantially was — be dried up, as it has been by the operation of the New Poor-Law, and direct wages be not increased, what can prevent the labourer regarding a wise and necessary measure as a means of increasing those hardships to which his station naturally subjects him ? We may talk to him of the com- fort and honest pride to which the inde- pendent spirit of his forefathers led — we may say to him, ' Be ye clothed, and be ye warmed ;' but if w^e give him not a patch for his tattered garment, and fling not a taggot on his winter hearth, our exhortations will sound to him as the voice of mockery. With regard to the mode in which a rise of wages should be made, it is dithcult to fix on any general rule. As customs vary in different neighbourhoods, and as the value of a labourer ought to be estimated by his skill and industry, and not by the number of his family — -for that would increase the depressing evils of improvident marriages — it must be left to the consideration of the farmers in the different districts. They, we are sure, will not disregard the feeling which is abroad on the subject. Let them talk over the matter at the vestry meeting or the market table — let them treat it with the liberality which the energies of the times require, and they will find their reward in the improved conduct and improved appearance of their dependents — while the blessings of the poor shall rise from a thousand cottages as a thank-offering to that Being who directs the storm, the pestilence, and mildew, and who, for seasons past, has clothed their fields with the full richness of plenteous harvests." — Chelmsford Chronicle, Dgc.I, 1838. " He (Mr. Villiers) did not believe that the people of this country were ever in a worse condition ; in every manufacturing district might be obtained details of the greatest physical suffering. Thchun. mem- ber here read a number of letters from the manufacturing districts. A letter from Preston, dated the 10th of May, 1841, stated, that the number of empty houses was 1,220 ; that the increase in the number of paupers in the Preston Union, which was last year 127 per cent., was 40 per cent, on that of the preceding year; that 1,330 poor had been relieved last winter ; that crime had increased 37 per cent. ; that the means of employ- ment were reduced, and all kinds of artisans were walking about with nothing to do. A letter from Bolton, dated the P2th of May, stated, that the immber of empty houses was 1,400 ; that in Little Bolton, consisting of 300 houses, 23 families were without any bed at all ; 42 lay seven in a bed ; 78, six in a bed ; 185, five in a bed ; 432, four in a bed ; and 582, three in a bed; that, of 1,025 persons, 511 received on an average Is. 6d. a-week ; 359, 2s. a-week; and 155, 2s. 6d. a-week. At Blackburn, a great number of houses were empty, and 100 cottages could pay no rent. At Old- ham, thirteen mills were at a stand, and the people were in the greatest distress. At Nottingham, some of the artisans were seen eating from a swill-tub, the wash for pigs. At Crompton, near Old- ham, the writer of a letter stated, a cow had lately died, and after it had been dead a day and a-half, twenty females came to the farraerand asked if they mighthave the car- cass, and, receiving his permission, they took it up, and divided the carrion amongst their families, declaring that it was the first meat they had tasted for several months. The hon. member then read some extracts from the report on hand- loom weavers, in which it was stated, that at Belfast, in Ireland, a kind of hog- wash, called ' sowens,' was sold to the people, and was eaten for breakfast ; that in the north of England, animal food was almost unknown, and the want of it was undermining the constitution of the people ; that the medical men declared that they were obliged to give tonics, but all the people wanted was mutton and beef." — Mr. Villiers, House of Commons, May 17, 1 84 1 . [This vapouring V is a great Poor Bastile man, and all the facts he has mentioned in his speech, of which this is a patch, are illustrative of the evil working of the New Poor-Law, and not of the lack of Corn-Law Repeal, and the ingress of slavish sweets. He has, in fact, filched his data from us, the New Poor-Law Oppoi^ition, and used the DECREASE OF WAGES. 491 Kame to bolster up the tottering tyranny of the base, brutal, and bloody Whigs. As for the Croinpton cow affair, that is a twice twenty times told tale; it will be found, with proper dates, in section Bastile Food of this work The idea of aNewPoor-Law butcher prating of the sufferings of the poor, when he, and such as he, have made them what they are, is excellent ! And then, what good will cheap sugar or cheap bread be to the inmates of the Union workhouses — the specimens of each which they obtain in those hell-holes are cheap enough al- ready, cheap and nasty, for sugar they never taste, and the bread which is dealt out to them by the ounce, is made of best seconds' flour, alias belly-griping grits and Bridgewater workhouse murdering medicated mixtures. The idea of cheap bread and cheap sugar from those who have been in the cruel habit of giving stones for the one, and serpents for any little necessaries like the other, beats the most flourishing blarney black and blue, and makes one suspect the Corn-Law repealing Whigs have calculated too largely on the swalloiv of the people. The thousands of poor creatures Avho have suffered the utmost rigour of the (Poor) Law, and have been murdered in cold blood in the Bastiles, will cause their new " bootis" to stick in the 2^oma Adami of those whom they wish o)ice yet again to become their dupes and victims ! —G. R. Wythen Baxter.'] " State of Bolton. — Distress in the manufacturing districts is daily becoming deeper and deeper. In Bolton there are 1,053 empty houses, of which about 60 are shops, many of them in the main streets. There is at least £3,000 per week less paid in wages than three years ago. The shopkeepers are in great diffi- culties. There were, a short time ago, three sales of the property of shopkeepers in one day. All the mills, except five, are working short time, three or four days a-week. South of Bolton, four miles, a large spinning establishment, which gave employment to 800 hands, has been en- tirely stopped for six months. The pro- prietor has 128 cottages empty, or paying no rent. Entering Bolton from Man- chester there is another mill, where tliere are 200 hands, but which has been en- tirely stopped for more than twelve months. North of Bolton, another spin- ning cstabhshment has been entirely standing some weeks, on which 1,100 persons were dependent for subsistence. The consequent misery and destitution are extreme. A few days ago, 500 per- sons were relieved by the Poor-Law Guardians in one day, in amounts varying from 6d. to Is. 6d. per head per week. In some cases, there are two or three families living in one house. In one case, seventeen persons were found in a dwell- ing less than five yards square. In another, eight persons, with two pairs of looms and two beds, were found in a cellar, six feet under ground, and mea- suring about four yards by five. The out-door relief to the poor is three times greater in amount than in the average of three years, 1836, 1837, and 1838. It is impossible to convey by words even a faint idea of the patient suffering of thou- sands of the labouring classes. The debts to shopkeepers, and the unpaid house rents, will amount to many thou- sands during the present year, and dis- traints for rent are taking place daily. The distress in all the manufacturing towns of this district, is probably as deep as it is in Bolton. Nor is it confined to Lancashire. We learn, that of thirty-five worsted spinning-mills in Leicester and its neighbourhood, only six are in full work. At Paisley, too, there are about fifteen hundred persons out of employ- ment. The distress arising from want of work, and from low wages, is greatly aggravated by the high price of bread ; and it will be increased in intensity by the cold weather that we may expect for the next three months ; for a great por- tion of the working classes have had nothing to spare for the purchase of bed and body clothing." — Mancheder Times. " State of Oldham. — At Oldham, the poor-rates of this year are just double what they were last jear; and we learn that nearly, if not quite, 1,000 cottages are empty, the miserable people, who are thrown out of work, being obliged to herd together, several families in one small house — an exhibition which has been described to us as the counterpart of Dr. Doyle's horrifying picture of the misery of an Irish town."' — ChantpioHy Dec. 'l5, 1839. [From tlic Wiltshire Independent.] "WEETCIIED STATE OF FAEM LABOUR- EKS. " In many parts of the county the con- dition of this useful, honest, and deserv- ing class of men, is still most pitiable ; bread, the article on which three-fourths, at leait, of their earnings are generally 492 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. expended, continues extravagantly dear, wliile their wages remain miserably low — 9s. a-week being the maximum in most parishes, " Almost all the present race of la- bourers well remember the proportion which bread and wages bore one to the other only a very few years ago ; they remember, that when bread was scarcely half the price, wages were within a shil- ling or eighteenpence a-week of what they are now : they contrast their pre- sent state with their condition at that time. " The New Poor-Law Bill, which we are willing to believe was intended merely to put a stop to those abuses which were so frequently practised by the lazy and dissolute, and which, when fairly and honestly administered, has a salutary ten- dency, is, we are afraid, in many in- stances, being taken advantage of to the prejudice of the labourer, and, instead of being confined to its legitimate purpose, converted into mi auxiliary for reducing toages to an amount harehj sufficient to procure the commofiest necessaries of life. " A most flagrant case has recently come to our knowledge ; but, although we are perfectly satisfied of its truth, we abstain from giving names, wishing to prevent a recurrence of such conduct, rather than to hold up the parties to pub- lic odium. " A labourer, living in a village in this county, who, although a strong able- bodied man, has never received "inore than seven shillings a-week, but frequently nuich less, being out of work, went round the parish to seek a job. He was not very successful, the only offer he met with being fve shillings a-week during the winter, and six shillings in the sum- mer, and, be it observed, only on condi- tion that he tvoidd agree to tvork on these terms for an entire year. The poor fel- low did not feel disposed to do this, so he tried round the parish again ; but, as it was known that he had liad an offer, he was told to go back to the farmer who had made it. He did so, and after some talkhig, it was improved to six shillings a-week, winter and summer, but still the condition that it should be binding for a whole year teas insisted on. The labourer was axious to earn his living, even on these terms, until something better should fall in his way, and expressed his willingness to do so, but the farmer was inexorable — a year's work for tliis miserable pit- tance, or no work at all. Tlic man, na- turally enough, refused the terms, and made fresh a})plications to other employ- ers, but the only answer he got was, ' Go to Mr. .' He then, as a last re- source, went to the Union-house, and applied to be relieved or admitted as an inmate ; this was refused by the Relieving Officer, who told him, that it was no use his coming there, for, as he had an offer of work, he could neither be relieved nor be admitted. *' Comment on such a case as this is unnecessary, the facts speak for them- selves. The corn-laws, on one side, en- hance the price of food without producing an increase in wages ; the administrators of the Poor-Law, on the other, refuse either relief or shelter to any man who has tbe offer of work, let the wages be ever so inadequate. Thus is the unhappy labourer driven either to sell his labour at half price — to beg, to steal, or to starve." — Champion, Jan. 26, 1840. [From the Wilts/iire Independent.] " A fortnight ago we mentioned the case of labourer, an able-bodied married man, who, being unable to procure higher wages than 6s. a-week, and those only on condition that he would bind himself to work at that rate for an eiitire year, had applied at the Union-house, either to be relieved temporarily, or to be admitted, and had been refused both applications, because an offer of work had been made him — no regard being had as to whether at wages which were a fair and honest remuneration for his services or not. Having made further inquiries into this affair, we find, that on a second applica- tion at the house, the poor fellow was told, that if he did not go to work on the terms offered, he would be sent to prison. The result is, that he is now working for 6s. a-week, the stipulation for the year's service at that price, having been at last abandoned, " It may be said, that the case we have mentioned above, is a solitary one ; per- haps, as to the circumstances under which the agreement to work at 6s. a-week was enforced, it is so ; but in hundreds of instances, equally low wages are given. Even at threshing, not by the day but by the piece — at which men generally earn higher wages than at day- work — we have been informed of cases where the earnings have not exceeded 7s. a-week. " In the southern part of this county, 6s. a-week is commonly given to agiicul- DECREASE OF WAGES. 493 tural labourers. Within the last fort- night, at the petty sessions held at Salis- bury, a farmer, living at Durnford, was summoned by a labourer, named Blake, for refusing to ]iay him 6s. 6d. for a ■week's work. The complainant stated, that he worked on ' the stem,' sometimes for one master, sometimes for another, at 6s. 6d. a-tveek, the rate agreed to hy the farmers at a vestry meeting. His em- ployer had refused to pay him more than 6s., which Blake would not accept, as it was not sufficient to maintain himself and wife. The master, in his defence, told the magistrates, that the farmers of Durnford had ' stemmed ' the surplus labourers of that parish at 6s. per zceek, tohich teas as much as they cotdd afford to pay. The Bench expressed their sur- prise — as well they might — at the prac- tice pursued by the farmers at Durnford towards the labourers, and ordered the defendant to pay Blake the full amount of wages agreed on, 6s. 6d., and to re- munerate him for his loss of time in seekingredress." — Wiltshire Lidependent. [" What may be the etymological derivation of this term, we do not know. But ' the stem' or ' stemming' is used in Wiltshire to denote that pinching kind of employment which a large part of the labourers there have to put up with. The farmers apportion among themselves just a sufficient number of men to do the work of their farms ; not enough to cul- tivate the farms icell, but barely enough to do that which must not be left undone. To those men they pay 7s., 8s., or 9s. a-week. This arrangement generally leaves a large number of men unem- ployed ; and the farmers, who are very willing to avail themselves of the service of these ' surplus labourers,' as they choose to term them, fix a rate of wages for them just above the sum which it wotdd cost to maintain them, with their families, in the Union-house. They then apportion these ' surplus labourers' among themselves, according to the size of their farms, and then they take it by turns to employ them ; and this the farmers call ' stemming' the labourers ; and the labourers call it working on ' the stem,' to which, as described in the above account, they are obliged to submit." — Ed. Champion, Feb. 2, 1840.] " He would just read what had taken place the other day at the Mansion-house, before Mr. Alderman Wilson, relative to the relief of the poor. Miller, the Re- lieving Officer of the West London Union, stated, that ' he was frequently obhged to make his escape by the back way to avoid the violence of the poor, who were waiting in front. It was im- possible that the present state of things could contiime.' On a subsequent occa- sion he said, ' These destitute objects had become so exasperated, and so reckless of life, he was afraid they would commit murder.' The same day Thwaites, the Relieving Officer of the City of London Union, stated, that his Union had re- lieved 6,000 destitute jiersons since Januarj^ last. It was impossible to give any idea of their distress. Hundreds of able-bodied working men were coming to him actually in a famishing condition. (Hear, hear.) These were not solitary instances. He would conduct them to the manufacturing districts, and point out to them the distress which really existed ; and if hon. gentlemen opposite could not deny the statement, he hoped he should hear no more of sympathy for the population of Culia and Brazil. (Hear, hear.) He would first refer to the state of Bethnal-green. In one instance, three families, with four or five children each, resided in one house of only four rooms. In another case, the family had only straw to lie upon; they had only three chairs, no spoon, and but one old kettle among them. Some of them (females) were so badly clothed, that they could not leave the room. The youngest child, nine weeks old, had never yet slumbered on anything but old rags. He Avould now refer to Marylebone, a district of tlie metropolis, in which the greatest misery prevailed, close to the walks of splendour and fashion. Countless masses of human beings were starving at their very doors. In 26 houses, the average number of rooms was nine, and of inhabitants, 882, of whom 162 were married couples, with 345 children; 66 widowers or widows, with 94 children ; 2 1 single males, and 22 single females. The average space allotted to each family was 11 feet by 10. In 126 of these families, parents slept in the same room with their children ; in 132 families, youths and children of both sexes, and all ages, slept together in one room. (Hear.) Such was the state of the poor in some parts of the metropolis. He would now go to Birmingham. What had been the want and distress of the labouring class there last winter.'' A relief committee had been formed, con- sisting chiefly of Conservatives, and what 494 THE BOOK OF THE BASTII.ES. was the result of tlioir labours ? They made a rojjort to the benevolent indivi- duals who had subscribed to the funds they had administered, and they said, ' they found, in the distribution of half the sum collected, above 40,UU0 persons in such a state of destitution, as to be eager and grateful recipients of the amount of relief aflbrded, being less than Ijd. a-head per week; that these indivi- duals were reduced to this extreme suffer- ing and degradation by causes over which they had no control, and from which, therefore, they possessed no means of escape, and that not more than one family in five could by any possibility make any provision for the vicissitudes of trade.' The committee, however, ceased its labours ; another committee was formed of working men from the mills, and, after expostulating with the members of the former committee for abandoning so many miserable creatures to their fate without one ray of hope, they reminded them that the difficulty might be got rid of by re- lieving industry, because then, each would produce five times more than he would have need to consume. (Hear.) Going a little farther north, he found, that in Burton-upon-Trent, four large manufactories had been closed on the 11th of this month, and 500 people thrown out of employment. From the report on the handloom weavers it ap- peared, that many families were working for less than Id. per day. In Lough- borough, the same state of things pre- vailed. The people were described as in a state of desperation. An eye-witness said, ' The heart sickens at what I daily witness. It is sufficient to make a wise man mad.' Families of five to seven, were earning only from 4s. to 7s. per week. In one instance, it was stated, a man had cut his finger, and a bread poul- tice was applied ; the next day the poul- tice was thrown away, and was imme- diately picked up by some children. They quarrelled who should have it, and ate it voraciously, as if they had not tasted food for a month. (Hear, hear.) Such things as these were a shame to the Government of England. The state of things was not different in Nottingham. They had recently had a lesson from Nottingham. (Hear, hear.) The poor were so much distressed there, that no matter whether he was a Whig or a Tory, or a Radical, the man who professed to be the friend of the poor, was immedi- ately returned to Parliament. (Hear, hear.) In a statement signed by Mr. Goodacre, the perpetual curate of Sutton- in-Ashfield, the distress was said to be unparalleled ; yet it appeared to be in- creasing, although the rates were so very heavy as to bring the tradespeople, who were doing very little business, to a level with the ojierative. The families of the poor were nearly naked, and their meagre looks showed that they were suftering hunger. Instances there were, not a few, where one bed of chaff or straw served for a man, his wife, and his children, and that without any covering. (Hear.) In Huddersfield, men were working 14, 16, and even 18 hours a-day, for from 3s. 6d. to 7s. 6d. a-week. He would give another instance from a letter addressed, not by a Chartist, but bj' a Church-and- State man,* to the Duke of Wellington. The writer said he could scarcely trust himself to describe the case. It was ac- tually incredible, but nevertheless it was true, and could be proved by incontro- vertible evidence. About six miles from Huddersfield, on the edge of the moors, a cow dying of dysentery was considered by the poor weavers as a godsend. They called it a green cake.f (A laugh.) They cut up the cow before it was stiff, and ate the pieces before they were fried. This was the state in which the manufacturing districts of the country were." — Mr. T. Dimcovihe, House of Commons, May 17, 1841. " ' Out-door relief,'' we are told, ' tends to lower the wages of the labouring man ;' and so it may if improperly administered, — but I found the pertinacity of abiding to the in-door test teas secretly icorking ad- vantageously to the oppressor. The refusal to give temporary relief to the able-bodied men out of employment, and the offering them the house, compelled them to take work under the regidar fixed price ; and the persons who wish to take advantage of their men, in this way, are fully aivare how this in-door test is operating. I could relate some facts which have come to my knowledge of the secret icorking of the oppressor, in grinding the face of the poor, but will confine myself to the fol- lowing : — During the time of the great depression in trade, last December (1839), I had been in the habit of visiting a family who were in great distress, and perceiv- ing that they were veiy clean and steady people, I called several times (unexpect- * Mr. Oastler— his Letter to the Duke of Wellington, Oct. 8, 1834. t It should be a " green tail." DECREASE OF WAGES. 495 edly( to SCO tlicm), and the man became comimmicative on his manner of living. To meet his difficulty, he weighed the food they had to eat ; but the Avant of employment continuing so long, he was at last necessitated to go to the relieving officer, to ask for an order for the house, being told hij his e)nj)Ioi/('r he could ghe him no work. When this man asked for the order, he was told to bring a note from his employer, to say he had no Avork for him. The man, wanting immediate relief, went for the note ; and, after wait- ing some time, and from what lie ob- served, thinking that there was some con- trivance going on between his employer and another person, his mind became pre- pared to expect an otier of work at an abatement of price. He was told, they ii'otdd not [live a note to say they had no work for him ; and the man then said, if you want to reduce the price, give me some work at what price you like, and I will do it; loork ivas then given to him. Thus the poor workmen, having no em- ployment, and being refused temporary relief, are compelled to ask for an order to go into the ' house,' but the master knows they will not go in if they can pos- sibly avoid it, and gets hunger-bitten ope- ratives to secretly submit to work nnder the regular trade price.^'' — " Rowortli s Observations on the Administration of the New Poor-Law in Nottingham^'' published Nov., 1840. " Many of the out-door weavers cannot afford to taste meat ; many cannot have tea for breakfast. That meal consists of bread and water, and a little salt ; it is called ' teakettle tea.'' A journeyman weaver, named William Evans, states, that his breakfast is warm water, with a little salt or some pepper in it, and a crust of bread, but he cannot have enough of that at all times. The dinner of a weaver is generally a piece of bread and cheese, or some potatoes, for himself and family, with some fat or 'flick' poured upon them. * * * ^4 * * * • * Francis Berry (of Randwick), out-door weaver, wife and three children. He is in debt for rent — his clothes are pawned — owes £2 to the broker ; was in the workhouse ten weeks, now receives 4s. a-week from the parish. Thoroughly understands his calling ; is an honest, hard-working man. Cannot earn on an average more than 5s. or 6s. weekly. He has tasted neither tea or sugar for some time, and his breakfast is nothing more than some broad, hot water and salt." — Mr. Miles Hand-Loom Commis- sioners'' Heport for Gloticcstershire. " At the time of a sudden depression of trade, when there is a scarcity of work, some masters deal out to the poor their employment to their own great advantage ; and there are a variety of ways whereby the poor are defrauded by their em- ployers through not being paid the regu- lar trade price, although the work is given out at such price. A poor man, in such circumstances, came to me to see if I could assist him, but I found his case did not come under any statute by which I could help him ; but I made such in- quiries of him as enable me to present the following statement of his week's work : — Making 12 pairs of stockings Deduct frame rent 1 2 seaming 1 winding 6 frame standing 3 2 11 5 7 The employer deducted from the trade price 1 (J 4 1 Thus leaving the poor creature, who had been working from Monday morning until Saturday morning, four sJiillings and a penny!!'''' — llowortKs '•''Observations on the Administration of the Neiv Poor- Law in Nottingham.''^ " Patrick Beard (of Randwick) out- door weaver, wife, and five children, seven in family ; average weekly amount of income, including the earnings of all the family : — Net income, after deducting rent of s. d. room, sleys, quilting, &c 7 EXPENDITURE. Rent 2 Poor-rate 3 Firing and Candle 1 U 3 3 Balance left for the weekly food and clothing of family 3 9 7 Average, not Id. per head per day. Price of quartern loaf 8j;d., potatoes lOd. per peck. — Report of ^Ir. Miles, Lland-Loom Weaver Commissioner, Gloucester sliire. " He had himself found a weaver in this city (Norwich) who, after working 16 hours a day, could only earn 9s. a- week. This was to support six children, his wife, and himself; and, deducting the out-goings, the earnings just left Hd. 496 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILE9. a-day per head for that family to subsist upon. He could go with the Bishop (of NorwichJ who had sxipported the New Poor-Laio to-morrow, and show him, not one individual case, but a hundred such instances of destitution. He could take the right rev. prelate to houses where the husband worked as a weaver for 1 8 hours a-day, and yet had nothing but a lock of straw for his wife, his children, and him- self to lie on." — The Operative Hewitt's Speech at the Norivich Anti-Slavery Meeting, Nov. 18, 1840. " We are concerned to hear, that, in the parish of St. Owen's alone, Q5 able- bodied men were, on Tuesday last, found AvilUng to work for one hundred-weight of coal, and two pounds of bread per man." — Hereford Times, Jan. 16, 1841. " He knew of one parish in Devonshire, in which wages were now at 7s. or 8s. a- week." — Mr. Wakley, House of Com- mons, Feb. 8, 1841. " The rate of wages in this neighbour- hood, does not exceed 8s. per week. Whenever a man applies for relief on account of sickness, the general rule of the Board, of which I am a member, is, to inquire, in the first place, what is the amount of the man's earnings? The answer is almost invariably, 8s. Relief is then ordered to an amount not exceed- ing his usual earnings, in most cases, somewhat less. Thus it is by no means an uncommon thing for a man with five, six, nay, seven, children, to drag on a miserable existence on a shilling, and sometimes less than a shilling per week." — The Rev. W. W. Gale, Curate of Kingston-Deverill, near Warminster, and Guardian of the Mere Union, his Letter to the " Times;' dated Feb, 21, 1841. " The rule or order which prohibits the allowance of out-door relief to able-bodied men has been rigidly adhered to in this Union, which comprises thirty-nine pa- rishes, several of which, possessing a large population, are distant more than ten miles, and some other parishes are distant more than eighteen miles, from the work- house, to which the poor are compelled to travel before their claims for relief can be investigated. The strict observance of the aforesaid rule has not effected any increase in the wages of the agricultural labourers residing in this Union, which vary from 6s. to 8s. a-week." — The Barn- staple Petition, " T/mes," March 1 1, 1841 . " It was urged, that its tendency would be beneficial, that it would tend to raise wages, to give the labouring man an ade- quate return for his toil, to enable him to lay up, by his own honest industry, for the hour of need, and to render him above the necessity of having recourse to parochial relief. I know that these were the ideas which were entertained, and entertained, perhaps, sincerely. But how was it possible that any man, or set of men, calling themselves senators, or pre- tending to legislate for this great country, could even suppose that the Bill would operate to the increase of wages, is most marvellous ; certainly it does show me, that it is necessary for the people of this country to give their legislators informa- tion of the actual state of things, which they are evidently lamentably deficient of; they must have relied on the most inade- quate, the most fallacious, sources of intelligence — sources which were not wor- thy their confidence ; they must have listened to absurd theories which could be expected but to deceive them. I ask you, Gentlemen, has the operation of the Act tended to increase the rate of wages in your own neighbourhood ? has it tended to make the labourer more independent — to raise him in the scale of society ? Or, has it not happened, that ever since the New Law was introduced among us, wages have continued to diminish? I have heard the fact admitted by some of the Board. And how should the Act otherwise than fail in a country where there is a superabundance of labour — where the employers have a choice of hands, and, from their number, and the consequent competition, can always make them work at the cheapest rate ? Do gentlemen imagine that able-bodied la- bourers can be thrown into the ' house' and then be thrown back again to their cottages, just as you can shift a set of nine-pins ?" — Rev. H. Luxmoore s Speech at (he Barnstaple Anti-Poor-Laiv Meeting, Feb. 27, 1841. " An agricultural labourer could only afford to have one pair of breeches in thirty-three years ; they then weighed forty pounds, with patches. One pair of shoes in a year and a-half — paid for (10s.) by instalments — having one year to pay it." — Mr. Sydney Smith, the jmid Atifi- Corn-Laiv " Ipse Sitmus," at Chelsea, April 8, 1840. " It had been said by the hon. member for Lambeth, that the working of the New Poor-Law had improved the condition of the poor. He admitted, that nothing could be worse than the old system, and that they should not, and could not, revert DECREASE OF WAGES. 407 to it. Still, lie conteiuled, that the measure had laileil in one iiiii)urtai)t point — instead of raising the rate ot" wages, its operation had been to lower thcni. liatlier than submit to the test of the workhouse, the poor would work for less wages." — Mr. Hamilton, House of Commons, March 22, 1841. '• The labourer and the artisan have such a liorror of the prisons called Union- houses, where the hallowed union which God has declared man shall not burst asunder, is impiously burst, that they are willing to work for any Mages they can obtain ; and merciful INIammonites reduce, and reduce, and reduce, until the starv- ation point is reached, and then either suicide or felony is committed, or the parish, the worst paymaster and the hard- est taskmaster, must be resorted to." — Frazers Mayazine, April, 1841, " It is certain, that the wages of the great mass of labouring poor are barely sufficient to supply them with three-fourths of the sustenance which they require ; their employers will give them no more ; but the disjiosition to grant out-door relief shows, that there is no unwillingness to insure them a small allowance in case of sickness, infirmity, misfortune, or age. They are in the condition of soldiers, or public officers, a part of whose earnings are set aside to form a superannuation fund, society stopping their wages, and thus making them, by compulsion, contri- butors to a friendly insurance or annuity society. We believe that this is not bad political economj\ It is attended with none of the ' danger' which the Commis- sioners appear to apprehend. It would, pei-haps, be better political economy to pay soldiers, sailors, and officers, a higher rate of remuneration in lieu of pensions : but practical men think differently, and assert, that the certain provision against sickness, age, and infirmit)', satisfies the provident, and saves the improvident from much misery. The Poor-Law Amend- ment-Act, in the hands of the Commis- sioners, has, to a certaui extent, made the parishes so many West Middlesex Com- panies : they refuse relief from the public fund, to which the labourers of the land have all their lives contributed." — Lancet, Aprils, 1841. " A poor hidustrious man, of Chalcomb, near this city, earned, owing to the bad yield and short days, by thrashing wheat by the bushel, during the whole of last week, from daylight to dusk — what think you, gentle reader? 2\vo shillings and elpvcnpence ! ! At the close of the same week, wheat was sold in the Bath market at ninety shillings per quarter." — Bath Journal, Jan. 18, 1839. " We are informed, that Mr. James Aked, Jan., worsted manufacturer of Midgley, has reduced the wages of his weavers from 8 to 10 per cent. Mr. A. is a liberal Whig corn-law repealer, and a great friend to the New Poor-Law and the Bastile system." — Northern Star, May 23, 1840. " Pie had also a petition to present from an individual who was Guardian of the Union of Uckfield. As this petition related principally to matters of local interest, he should not trouble their lord- ships with a statement of them, but he would call their attention to extracts from the reports of the Poor-Law Commission- ers. It was stated in the second Report, p. 313, — 'The farmers admit that they have not too many men, provided they can get their labour at a low rate, and that they hope, by the ofier of the work- house, to succeed in that object,' thus proving what he had all along stated, that the efiect of the Poor-Law Amendment- Act would be to reduce the wages of the labourers." — Earl StanJiope, House of Lords, July 22, 1839. " Agricultural Labourers. — We regret to hear, that more agricultural labourers are out of employ than is usual at this period of the year. This may be attributed partly to the long course of wet weather, which has retarded farming ope- rations, and partly to the discharge of many from the works on the railway. In one poor-bouse, in a neighbouring Union, there are now, at least, one hundred more inmates than there were during the cor- responding quarter of last year, and the increase is nearly 75 per cent, on the average of former years." — Berks Chronicle, quoted by the " Champion^ Jan. 26, 1840. " Wiltshire Independent, a moderate Whig paper, has an article this week, ou the rate of wages. We learn from it, that able-bodied labourers are paid there 5s. and 6s. a-weck ; and that many fami- lies in that county are living on one meal a-day — that meal consisting of potatoes and salt." — Champion, Sept. 15, 1839. 2 K " Lord John Russell stated, on the first day of the slave sugar debate, that there had been a reduction, within the last year, of at least £130,000 in the aggregate amount of wages of the labouring popu- 498 THE BOOK OF THE BASTH.ES. lation in the Bolton Union ; that * dis- traints for cottage rents were occurring there daily ;' that ' the pawnbrokers' shops were stowed full of the clothing, furniture, and even bedding, of the destitute poor ;' that there were ' scores of families with little or no bedding, having pawned or sold it for food ;' that a short time ago, 590 persons applied in one day, to the Guardians for relief, and, by way of relief, could obtain only ' amounts varying from sixpence to eigJiteen-pence per head per rveek;'' that 'a public subscription, amount- ing to nearly £2,000 had just been raised to mitigate, in some degree, the suflerings of the destitute poor ; in fact, to deal out a scanty pittance, just sufficient to keep them from actual starvation, to a body of workmen who possessed, perhaps, greater skill and industry than any population, of similar numbers, on the face of the globe.' ' There were similar accounts,' he added,' ' from Manchester and other manufacturing towns, from which, it ap- peared, that work was generally falling off, and the people with difficulty obtained wages sufficient to support life ; and, in the present state of things, there were still apprehensions that they might be yet much worse.' "Mr. Ward stated, that in Sheffield * one-third of the working men were out of employment, and the other tu-o-thirds, who ivere in icork, tccre subscribing, ivith singular generosity, smcdl sums out of their icages to keep their fellow -labourers off their respective parishes. They had no hope of relief except in emigration, the Union WORKHOUSE, or this measure of the Government' (for lowering the price of sugar by three-fifths of a farthing in the pound). ' The House would hear similar accounts of distress from Leeds, from Manchester, from Oldham, from Paisley, and from other manufacturing places.' " Mr. C. Wood said, that 'for the last six years,' (that is, ever since the passing of the New Poor-Law) ' manufacturing wages had been gradually falling ofi", while agricultural prices had been gradu- ally rising.' " Mr. Brotherton said, that owing to the distress which prevailed, there were at present 10,000 persons out of employ- ment in Manchester and its neighbour- hood. Disease, crime, and misery, were the natural result of this unfortunate state of things ; and, unless something icere done to relieve the distress of the people, he kacw not what might be the consequence.' " Mr. Hume observed, tliat ' something must be done to relieve the distress of the people, for there never was a time when the distress of the people existed to such a degree as it did at present.' If the House would take his advice as to the corn-laws, our labourers tcould no longer have to lie doum and die under the infucnce of disease and starvation.'' " Mr. Villiers read communications from Preston, Bolton, Blackburn, Old- ham, Notthigham, and other manufac- turing towns, in order to show ' ihat, pau- perism of the worst kind was everywhere fearfully on the increase, and that things from which even swine would turn away in disgust, were eagerly seized upon by multitudes of the working classes, and used by them as food.' " Mr. T. Buncombe read passages from a memorial of the Legislative As- sembly of Jamaica, in which that body described the prosperous state of the emancipated negro popidation, and felici- tated themselves, that among them ' there was no instance known of parents putting their infants to death to save them from the horrors of protracted starvation,' and ' no Poor-Laws existed to imprison, under pretence of maintaining, the poor,' — de- claring his conviction, that the picture was a just one, both of Jamaica and of this country." — Times, May 24, 1841. " Appalling Distress in Man- chester. — An inquiry has lately been instituted by the mayor into the condition of the people in one part of this town, (No. 1 district,) and the result has been laid before a meeting of the principal in- habitants — whence it appears that 911 families, consisting of 4,091 persons, were visited, whose average weekly earnings were thirteen-2)ence farthing a-week per head. In the possession of these families 9,829 pawnbrokers' tickets were found. A clergyman, present at the meeting, stated, that in going the rounds of his neighbourhood he found every family he visited in possession of pawn-tickets ex- cept one, and that one had literally nothing which it coidd jxncn. Another gentleman had visited an old widow, U2:)wards of 70 years of age, who showed him 34 tickets, having pawned, one by one, almost every article of dress and furniture belonging to her. There are hundreds of families in Manchester who, having thus disposed of their beds, are now lying upon shavings. A great portion of these miserable objects have no legal claim to parish relief in this DECREASE OF WAGES. 49f) borough, biMiig Irisli, or emigrants from the agrifnUural districts, and the gi'cat majority of Avhom wonid submit to slow starvation rather than be passed home. In fact, we have well authenticated cases of ACTUAL DEATH froui famine, ! A few days ago, a wretched man stimibled against .1 door under the weight of his tools, as he was proceeding in quest of work, and died (as was afterwards proved), from the want of the necessaries of life. Another case has been reported to us by the per- son in whose house it took place. A poor woman staggered into a grocer's shop, and fell exhausted upon the Hoor. 81ie was carried into the kitchen, and her ghastly form laid before the fire ; but, despite every care that humanity could devise, she died of what the surgeon hesitated not to pronounce STARVATION. Can these things happen in a country called civilized without be- tokening dangers to the rich and the powerful, who have the powers of legisla- tion in their hands ? We have seen with admiration the patience and long-suffering of the poor of this district ; but let not our rulers forget, that no law was ever yet strong enough to control a starving com- munity." — Anti-Corn-Law Circular, Yah., 1840. " He (Mr. Wakley) had some acquaint- ance with the condition of the poor; he ■was familiar with their miserable huts and horrid hovels ; and he would tell the rich, that in thousands of instances their Chris- tian brethren had not as much accommo- dation as their dogs in their kennels. Many years ago, when he was in practice as a medical man, he had become aware of this ; and he had, over and over, found, that in cases of sickness, when some little luxury was wanted, not a thing would then be at hand, cold water or dry bread being the only thing which a sick Chris- tian could be afforded. But the House was told, by the political economists, to press on this law : it -would raise wages, (Hear, hear.) Well, they cheered this on that (the Opposition) side of the House, did they? But had the law raised wages in the course of the last six years in which it had been in operation ? (Cries of ' Hear, hear,' from the Ministerial benches.) Well, then, there was a difference of opinion in the House on this point. But on passing this measure they had told the working people that it was to raise wages. Were wages raised ? His belief was, that they were not. (Hear, hear.) He had had accounts of the rates of wages from various parts of England, and he thought 2 they were not. He knew of one parish in Ucvonshire in which v.'agcs were now at 7s. or 8s. a-week. Did hon. members wish this to continue ? Did they wish that the agricultural labourers should combine against their cmplo}ers ? Did they wish that when the mowing season began this should be a specimen of a conversation between a master and a labouring man : — ' Very fine weather now, John ; I think of starting with the mowing to-morrow ; I think we could not do better.' ' Why, yes,' says John, ' it is very fine weather, and the grass is quite ripe ; but. Sir, we cannot stait with the mowing unless you agree to give 7s. the acre. We have got a little sort of thing of a combination like, such as they have in London ; and we have just saved up a little bit against such a time as this to go on with, and we must have 7s. the acre. Parliament tells us to save, and that not to save is a crime, and so we have done so.' Well, in a short time, in two or three weeks, the grass would be spoiled ; so the grass is cut at the wages asked, and that difficulty is over. But, by-the-by, the peas, the barley, and the oats, would come on to be harvested, and just the same thing might, perhaps, come over again. Was it the desire of English gentlemen to force men into these combinations, and destroy every kindly feeling between the employer and the employed ? If such was not their de- sire, then, he must say that the course which they were pursuing was most extra- ordinary. It would necessarily produce this effect, — it was of no use to disguise the fact, — it would convince the working population — and they were already con- vinced — that it was the object of Parlia- ment to deprive them of any relief, either in or out of the workhouse. If this was not their object, to wdiat did the existing arrangements tend ?" — House of Com- mons, February 8, 1841. " We perceive from Burns Commercial Glance, that in the first nine months of 1839, there has been a decrease of 317,796 bags, or about 25 per cent., in our imports of raw cotton, as compared with the first nine months of 1838. Now as the stock of raw cotton on hand at present is only about 60,000 bags less than it was last year at this time, it is clear that oui" consumption of cotton during the first nine months of 1839, must have been very little short of 20 per ceiit, loss than it was during the same period of 1838. Taking these facts into account, then, let us see how the falling off in the k2 500 THE BOOK OF THE BASTIJ,ES. amount of wages paid would be. In 1832 our annual consumption of cotton, accord- ing to MaccuUoch, was 891,574 bags. The total amount of wages paid to the various classes of operatives — including spinners, weavers, bleachers, engineers, machine makers, masons, smiths, joiners, &c. — at that time was estimated by him at £21,000,000 annually. But the quan- tity of cotton wool entered for home con- sumption last year was 460,756,023 ; while in 1832 it was only 260,000,000, according to MaccuUoch, So that we shall be considerably under the mark if we estimate the wages paid to the various classes of operatives employed in the cot- ton manufacture last year at £32,000,000. Comparing the amount of wages paid in the first nine months of 1838 and 1839, the difference will then be as follows : — 1838 £24,000,000 1839 (20 per cent. less). 19,200,000 Here we have a falling off in the purchas- ing power of the operatives employed in this branch of manufactures alone to the enormous extent of £4,800,000 in nine months. But the number of mills on short time, or entirely stopped, is much greater now than it was during any part of those nine months ; so that if we bring up the account to the end of the year, it •will exhibit the following result as com- pared with the previous twelve months : — 1838 £32,000,000 1839 (20 per cent less). 25,600,000 A reduction of £6,400,000 in the amount of wages paid to one portion of the labour- ing classes ! Of this large sum, which our industrious operatives have been pre- vented from earning by our mischievous laws, nearly £5,000,000 would have gone into the pockets of the people of Lan- cashire. What wonder, then, that the population of this country are starving. If the greater number of them have little more than can supply them with a suffi- ciency of the first necessaries of life, even when in full employment, what a wretched condition must they be in now, when their wages have been diminished to the extent of about £4 per head for the whole popu- ation of the county, man, woman, child !" — Bolton Free Press. "Persons readingnewspaper paragraphs may form some vague idea of the poverty existing among the mass of the labouring people, but to arrive at any adequate con- ception they must visit from door to door, inquire the amount of earnings, see their food, inspect their bedding, and enter into free conversation with them as to all their affairs, " To give a full detail of the poverty of the people, would occupy, instead of a short article, a whole Circtdar, so that I shall content myself with giving a few leading features in this picture of misery, "First, as it respects bedding. When they lie seven in a bed, three or four lie at the top, and the youngest children lie across at the feet. In cases where there are no beds, the people have straw, and shake it up as they would do for a horse, and cover it with a wrapper. The straw or shavings have sometimes been so dirty that I have often heard the visitors ob- serve, ' It is not fit for a pig to sleep on.' Unless you saw their bed-rooms you can furnish no idea of their emptiness and misery. No chairs, tables, glasses, or any of the common conveniences of a bed room. And owing to so many families crowding together in one house to save rent, the sleeping is often in violation of all decency, I should say, upon a moderate estimate, that we have in Preston, more than 2,000 families who have not a single blanket, and I believe the poor are not in a worse condition in Pi'eston than in Chorley, Wigan, Blackburn, Bolton, and the other manufacturing towns, " Then, as to furniture. I can easily say what they have not, but can scarcely attempt to describe what they have, which is worth naming. Two or three chairs with wood or rope bottoms, or no bottoms at all, an old table — in some instances I have seen a tea-chest or a flour-barrel as a substitute — a pan, two mugs, and a few pots are all you see ; and I think I should be within the truth if I said, that we have three thousand families, the whole of the household furniture of each (with the excep- tion of the bedding just given,) would not sell upon an average for twenty shillings. " As to medicine, — and I am sorry to say it is often wanted — it is uniformly all procured at the Dispensary. " What kind of a father would he be who would only allow his children two meals a-day instead of four, and would see them ready to fight each other for the mere crums, while the pantry shelves were laden with food, spoiling for want of being used ? At the taxation price of bread, how is it possible for such as our weavers to live ? Take, for instance, a case, and not an extreme one, which resembles hundreds of others. ■DECREASE OF WAGES. 501 J. fl.'s earnings Ts. Wife's do. ... Is. Kent, Looms, and out- goings '2s. Fire in winter Os. Candles and soap . . . . Os. 8s. 6d. 3s. 7d. 4s lid. " Four and elevenpence for a man, wife, and three children ! being scarcely a shilling a-head for food, leaving not a far- thing for the numerous necessary wants of the family." — Preston Correspondent to the '•^ Anti-Corn Law Circular" Feb. 1834. " TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES. " Sir, — Two worthy Suffolk Conserva- tives have recently made me acquainted with the following case : — " A good farming labourer at Yoxford has a wife and five children, whereof the family flour-bill alone for the week amounts to 13s. which one of the county members admits to be consistent with the usually calculated rations, whilst the highest wages are but r2s. Now, here is a deficiency even of dry bread for a hard-working Englishman, who has the misfortune to have five children ; and what he did in the winter, and what he must yet do, even with the warm weather before him, in these dear times, for other necessaries, is equally problematical and deplorable, except by what is falsely called charity. " I am yet more puzzled to make out how, except by half-starving, our poor Devonshire labourers exist ; since the wages there, unquestionably, do not average beyond 8s. per week, and the difference in the price of bread corn can hardly be 33 per cent, in their favour. Do the foregoing rates of wages in either instance, Sir, offer the due proportion between labour and the remuneration for it that was held forth by the advocates of the New Poor-Laws ? " The statestnen who planned that measure must surely have designed to raise up the dcfimct character of our once ' bold peasantry' thereby. So sure as they and the majority in Parliament con- fine themselves therein to tlie keeping up of their rents, and the constructing Union workhouses, sufier who may, so early will they arrive at the halfway-house towards the end. I look upon the law itself as the beginning. " 1 liave the honour to be, &:c., " A FREEMAN OF EXETER. ''May 18, 1839." [From the Anti-Corn-Law Circular, Oct, 15, 1839.] " REPORT ON THE SOCIAL CONDITION OF THE AGRICULTURAL POPULATION OF THE COUNTY OF SUSSEX. "Population, Area, &c. — The pre- sent population of this county is a trifle under 300,000 souls. " The number of statute acres, exclu- sive of the roads, rivers, and canals, is estimated at 903,000, namely, 110,000 of waste, and 793,000 of productive land. Of the soil under cultivation, there are supposed to be about 1 0,000 statute acres of hop-grounds, being nearly a fifth of the soil devoted to that peculiar description of agricultural produce in the United Kingdom. " The farmers of Sussex have long ac- customed themselves to the estimate, that every forty acres of land imder ctiltiva- tion (arable and pasture), should provide full employment for an adult husbandman ; a calculation wliich enables us to assume the number of adult labourers employed in agricultural pursuits in this county, at (in round numbers) 20,000. " Wages of the Agricultural Labourers. — The condition of iarm la- bourers in this county is a degree less pitiable than that of the serfs of Devon- shire. In no one parish which I have visited do the regular wages average more than 10s. a- week. It is the custom in Sussex to make a broad distinction be- tween the married and the single husband- man ; to pay the former higher wages than the latter ; to get husbandry work done at a price relatively, not to the value of the labour, but to the exigency of the labourer. And this practice may be said to prevail, more or less, throughout the agricultural districts of the kingdom. A labourer is paid wages in proportion to his imprudence, rather than with reference to his industry and skill. " In the counties of Devon and Corn- wall, the remuneration of the labour of the husbandman is low, yet there this principle is unknown. Even in Devonshire, the husbandman who can do a day's worli is paid what is called a day's wages for that work, whether he be single or married. The cfl'ect of the practice complained of must be either to drive the bachelor luisbandmen from their native land, in sheer disgust at the gross injustice with which they had been treated, or to prompt them to early and imprudent marriage, in relief from that heavy discount upon their industry, to which, as bache- 502 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. lors, they must have been most unwisely f^ubjected. In the one case, the farmers lose their best men ; in the other, they make premature provision for a pauper population ! " It is now about nine years since Swing originated Chartism in Kent, and illuminated tlie northern boundary of this county with his torch. The wages then given in Sussex were 10s. and 8s.; the former to married, the latter to single husbandmen. Wheat was then at a com- ])aratively reasonable price, and hitimida- tion extorted from the farmers a general admission that a week's labour was worth the wages of 12s. Wages were then raised to that amount for the period of the duration of the fear which Swing-fires had excited, and no longer. " The following anecdote may serve for an illustration : — " ' The manorial estate of Cowdray (at J]astbourn, near Midhurst), is the property of W. S. Pointz, Esq. By the agency of that gentleman's then steward (Mr. Cameron), the farmers of that estate, and of the surrounding districts, were induced to make terms with the people by a promise, that the wages should be increased to r?.s. ; and Mr. Pointz, specifically to enable his tenants to redeem their pledge without personal inconvenience to themselves, voluntarily reduced his rents. These tenants paid the wages of 12s., thus agreed upon, and thus compensated to them for a short time only, when the la- bourer's remuneration again fell back to its natural level, and iNIr. Pointz raised his rents by one half the amount of the original reduction ; and now, within a few days, that gentleman has given his tenants to understand, that because they have not paid the wages agreed upon, their rents must henceibrth stand at the sum paid by them anterior to the threatened visit of that predial Chartist, Captain Swing.' " There is a tract of good farm land running along the north side of the South Downs, and which may be estimated at twelve miles in length, by two in breadth. It comprises nearly the entire of the parishes of Sutton, Bignor, Duncton, Graff'am, Weyshot, Cocking, Bepton, Linch, Greygord, Didliiig, Elsted, South Harting, and West Harting. The wages throughout this district of the county do not average more than 8s. 6cl. In the north-west district of Sussex, Mr. Jenner, tlie tenant of the Cowdray-park farm, gives the nominal wages of 12s. to his married labourers. Even Mr. Jenuer, who is to be regarded as, in some measure, the locum tenenn of Mr. Pointz in the dis- trict to which we are directing attention, pays his able-bodied unmarried labourers only the average of 9s. per week. Be- tween this and the 12s. wages of his married husbandmen, we get, as the average of the value of labour in this purely agricultural district, 10s. 6d., or the medium of the two wages of 1 2s. and 9s. In the eastern division of the county, instances of the 12s. wages are more numerous than in the central, or western districts , for there the demand for the labour of the husbandman is less regular, and less legitimate, by reason of the hop cultivation of some ten thousand acres, and of its proximity to the vast hop grounds of the adjoining district of South Kent. Yet, even in East and Central Sussex, the wages of the agricultural labourer do not exceed an average of 10s., whilst those obtaining the maximum of 12s. live on a much less nutritious diet than the operatives of our commercial and manufacturing population. " In another point of view, the insuf- ficiency of the maximum wages of the married agricultural labourer in Sussex will be more immediately obvious. His wages, after paying the rent of his cot- tage (which is under-stated), is 10s. 6d. ; with this money he has to maintain five human beings for'a-week, i.e. with a trifle less than 2s. Ijd. per head. The cost of food for a week of each pauper in the workhouse is 2s. 4d. ; very many of such pauper inmates are young children, whilst but few among them are hale men ; their diet is regulated by the Commis- sioners ; the food is purchased wholesale, and by contract ; and the expense of feeding them, under such circumstances, is 2jd. per head per week more than the independent labourer is able to earn as a provision for feeding and clothing himself, his wife, and httle ones ! " "A correspondent from the neighbour- hood of Abergavenny writes us word, that the state of the still labouring poor in that part of the country is likely to be very distressing during the winter — wages being only 9s. a-week, whilst flour is 14s. per bushel." — Hereford Press, Dec. 22, 1838. " At Adpar, Cardiganshire, labourers' wages are low, being from 4s. 6d. to 6s. per week in summer; the labourers finding their own food." — Parliamentary Ga-^c'tccr, 1810. DECKEASE OF WAGES. 603 "The labourer is worthy of his hire." — Luke x. 7. " Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wronp:; that useth his neighbour's service toithout wages, and giveth him not for his work." — Jer. xxii. 13. " He that taketh away his neighbour's living, slayelh him : and he that defraudeth the labourer of his hire, is a blood-shedder." — Ecclus. xxiv. 22. "And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right." — -Mai. iii. 5. " Let not the wages of any man which hath uTought for thee, tarry with thee, but give it out of hand : if thou serve God, he will also repay thee." — Tob. iv. 14. " The character of Englishmen is made up by the circumstances by which they are surrounded. If those circumstances are constant employment, with wages sufficient to obtain enough of the neces- saries of life for themselves and famihes, they are contented and happy in their homes, and faithful and diligent servants. There is no gainsaying this truth ; all history proves this fact. Now it is notori- ous that, for many years prior to the pass- ing of the ' Poor-Law Amendment- Act,' the very best wages given to agricultural and other labourers, were altogether in- adequate to their wants, the price of pro- visions rising, and the wages becoming lower and lower ; and hence the great increase of the poor-rates. " The making the labourer partly de- pendent on the poor-rate for his scanty wages, was a system introduced by the employers, to which the labourer was forced to submit. A law to punish those employers was indeed required — not one to give those men a power to inflict on their labourers a still greater oppression and degradation, such as the ' Poor-Law Amendment- Act ' is. My lord, under all the circumstances, that Act may be justly designated a ' diabolical ' law. " Under that law, full scope is given for the very worst oppression ; under the working of that law, these very employers are enabled to withhold entirely that (piota of wages heretofore supplied from the rates ! This is done in thousands of instances ! But then, that Act was, you say, intended to raise the character of the labouring population — to make them more provident, and stimulate them to lay by for a ' rainy day.' Gracious heavens ! to talk of stimulating those to lay by for a ' rainj'- day,' whose invention was ever on the rack as to how they were to obtain food enough to keep body and soul together, is mon- strous ! It is villainous in the extreme ! " My lord, allow me to ask, did your lordship ever recommend the application of this principle to ^'x-Lord Chancellors, or other state paupers ? Was it the dread of becoming a ' Westmoreland pauper ' that induced your lordship to look out for a ' rainy day,' not on the principle laid down for the guidance of the labourer and the artisan, but by proposing an increased retiring pension for Lord Chancellors, for two or three years' services, of £5,000 a-year ? Was it by robbing the poor of their patrimonj^ your lordship hoped to prove your title to the increase you mo- dest/i/ proposed for yourself. " These are questions you may evade answering ; but, my lord, be assured, that the nation willansv/er them for you, some day, with a vengeance ! But then the Poor-Law Amendment- Act, besides caus- ing the poor to lay by for a ' rainy day ' — as though they know any other than ' rainy ' days — was to raise wages also ! The sequel has already proved the false- hood of that assertion. It tends, directlj', to lower wages, as I will prove. A la- bouring man is out of work : he goes in search of employment ; one offers him work at eir/hf shillings a-week (and mind, my lord, this sum is above the average in many counties, Wilts particularly. I mention this to show that I am not going to extremes in naming eiff/tt shillings ; thousands, notwithstanding the Poor-Law has been in operation four or five years, Avork for eight shillings a-week). Well, my lord, the man has a moderate family — say five children ; seeing that poverty and wretchedness must be his portion, with eight shillings a-week for seveti persons, he refuses to work for that sum. He goes furtlier — but, as is generally the case, my lord, those who give the lowest wages are the only persons wanting hands — as a last resort, he applies to the parish for relief. And now comes the proof of the efficacy (?) of the New Poor-Law in ' raisin!? wages.' 504 THE BOOK or THE BASTILES. " He applies to Ihc ' Relieving Officer,' (who, in general, is anytlnng hut a ' Ke- lieving' Officer) ; he refers him to the ' Board of Guardians,' of which my Lord Cruelty is Chairman, who has been elected to that office from his known antipathy to, and hatred of, the poor, and of any poor- laws. It is, my lord, beyond dispute, that, with a ' Board ' determined to carry out the principles (intended and under- stood) of the New Poor-Law, such a man would be preferred to that office in preference to any other. And indeed, my lord, this is quite necessary, as no humane man would, or could carry its in- fernal designs into etfect. The man attends the ' Board ; ' the usual questions are put and answered, and it is discovered that he is an ahle-hodicd labourer, and that he has refused to work at Farmer Kiirem-and-Eat'em's, who happened to be one of the ' Board,' at eight shillings ! This latter fact establishes at once in the minds of the Board, the conviction that the man is not entitled to relief; and, indeed, they begin to talk of the propriety of sending such a rascal to the ' treadmill ' for a month, when the Chairman, who being a ' bit of a lawyer,' rings the bell, and Mr. Bumbell, the beadle, is ordered to show that villain (the labourer) the door ; and then my Lord Cruelty tells the gentlemen of the pleasure it would have afforded him, to have met their wishes in sending the villain to the ' treadmill,' but that, as Guardians, they had not power to do so, which he very much regretted ; and at which they all wonder much at the oversight of the legislature, in net having introduced a clause to that effect ! " Well, my lord, be pleased to go with me into the street, and we shall see the man, with his wife and children, who had been waiting for him, of course, quite re- signed to his fate, that of ekeing out a miserable existence upon eight shillings a-week, praying to God to forgive him his sin, of having refused to avail himself of the kind ofl'er of Farmer ' KiU'em-and- Eafem,' and blessing God that he is an Englishman, privileged to live in \\nsfree and happg country, where rich and 2^oor are alike protected by ' wise and good ' laws ! " But it might be otherwise, my lord. We find him breathing curses, ' loud and deep,' against the hard-hearted wretches who had just proved themselves dead to every kind of sympathy, and hardened against every principle of justice and humanity ! " Being by this time driven to despair, the man resolves (not having read the clauses of the New Poor-Law,) to appeal to the j us- tices. He accordingly repairs to the Ses- sions' room, and he is almost petrified at beholding my Lord Cnicltg head and chief here also ; at the sight of whom the poor man seems disposed to give up all for lost. But hunger, my lord, is a ' sharp thorn ; ' and he proceeds to crave for justice in be- half of himself and family, but with no belter success than when before the ' Guardians ' the day previous. Indeed, my Lord Cruelty, after having poured forth a plentiful share of magisterial abuse on the poor fellow for daring to refuse to work for eight shillings a-week, has seized a pen for the purpose (by the way of gratifying the Guardians) of making an order for committing him as a ' rogue and vagabond' to the treadmill, for a month. But just at this moment, another justice (Sir Christian Meekness) arrives, and my Lord Cruelty seems a little abashed. Sir Christian inquires into the business, and condescends to explain the laio of the case to the poor labourer ; tells him that they have no power to order relief to persons of his class, their power only extending to persons know-n to them (the justices) pei'sonally, to be incapacitated for further labour ! Sir Christian regrets that he can render him no assistance, and recom- mends him to go to work for the eight shillings a-week, until something better ' turns up ! ' And thus we find our British labourer at liberty to die of starva- tion, or to work for wages that would keep both himself and family within a hair's breadth of it ! " The chances being that if he goes to Farmer ' Kill'em-and-Eat'em,' to accept of his offer of eight shillings a-week, the latter has grown bold, by the countenance of my Lord Cruelty, and noio offers but seven shillings ! or, if perchance he gives the eight, as first offered, takes great pains to impress upon the mind of the labourer the very great act of charity he is per- forming by so doing ! This system has, in some places, reduced the labourer's wages to four or five shillings a-week! " Can your lordship say that this is not a faithful picture ? This shows the efficacy of the New Poor-Law, on both points, namely, that of raising the ' character ' and the ' wages ' of the labourers of England ! " Another species of oppression is now being pretty generally practised upon the labourer, by making him contribute to- DECREASE OF WAGES. 505 wank tlie relief of the poor. Justices are not ' found wanting ' to carrj' this phm into operation, as every Petty and Quarter .Sessions abundantly testifies ; the object being, to make the poor keep the poor ! La- bourers with nine or ten shillings a-weck made to pay poor-rates, and expected to ' lay by ' for a ' rainy ' day, notwithstand- ing ! But your lordship would not believe, ' irithont proof,' that it did not ' tend to raise the character, as well as to increase the comforts of the poor." — Anti-j\Ial- thu.sian Bloodsucker s Letter to Lord Broufjham, Sept., 1840. " Had it not been urged, that the new law would benefit the poor by increasing the rate of wages? Indeed, Lord Brougham had declared, that but for his anticipation that this would be its efiect, he woidd not support it ; but it was due to his Lordship to add, that he had recently declared that in this respect the Act had miserably failed. In corroboration of this assertion, he need only refer to the thirty or forty men who were now at work in the public walks at the rate of Is. a- day — a circumstance, he believed, quite unprecedented in this town." — A Speaker at the Barnstaple Meeting, 'M^rch. 1, 1841. " Would any one assert, that distress of the most poignant character did not fre- (piently exist amongst the agricultural la- bourers ? And how could it be otherwise ? No man could affirm, that the average wages of a labourer, with a wife and four children, exceeded 10s. a-week, which was little more than a shilling a-day. He (Mr. Harvey) would assert, that wages were much lower in many parts of Eng- land. He would instance, from personal knowledge, the county of Essex, as af- fording a very sufficient example. It could not, however, be asserted, that the average amount of agricultural labourers' wages exceeded 10s. per week. Why, a learned and noble individual, who had lately left this world, having tliought fit to leave a legacy for the maintenance of a favourite dog, left almost as large a sum for the support of a mere brute. It was his (Mr. Harvey's) conviction, that some efficient measures must be adopted for raising the rate of wages. He had often before observed, that the Poor-Law Act, and the Corn-Law Act could not coexist in this country. According to the existing system, they depreciated the value of agricultural labour when converted into corn — the only mode which was left at tiie labourer's disposal. The necessarv consequence of that system was to raise the price of bread ; and how, be would ask, could a labourer, situated as he had before described, with a wife and four children, support them at all adequately upon 10s. a-wcek ? It had been his fortune to attend before a Committee of the House, before which a labourer was produced as a witness, whose tottering condition, the consequence of deficient food, had rendered it necessary to provide him with a chair while giving his evidence. The wages of this ])oor man were no more than 8s., and out of this miserable sum he was obliged to support a wife and several children. It was only at rare intervals that the wife had it in her power to indulge in her favour- ite beverage of tea; and the sunan ce of the whole family was of the most meagre description. This was but one instance out of the many. By existing laws the poor man was stripped of 4s. out of every 10s. If the appeals of the friends of the working classes in that House were unheeded, the attention of the working community out of the House would be strenuously and strongly directed towards the subject. And then they would speak with a voice of power and moral energy, for which some hon. mem- bers might, perhaps, wish to see sub- stituted turbulent opposition and insur- rectionary movements. This was a course into which they were too wise to be en- trapped. While they perfectly knew their strength, they had the sagacity to exert it with propriety." — Mr. D. W. Harvey, House of Co7nmons, Feb. 20,1838. " But to come to the plain and simple fact, one great hardship on which the op- ponents of the new law dwelt was simply this : — a man, without any fault of his own, might be reduced, for a time, to want relief, but however well conducted he might have been, however respectable in character, or illustrious in talent, in his past life, he would be neglected, and no relief Avould be aflbrded to him unless he was sick, or infirm, or aged. Such a person would be met bj- a stern i-cfusal of relief out of the workhouse. This regu- lation, in many cases had been severely felt ; and, speaking as one not anxious to throw any unjust imputation on the new law, and desirous to ste that law, as it Avas intended, a benefit to the country, he earnestly hoped, that the strings of" re- striction might not be drawn too tight, but tliat inquiry might be made, and upon the information derived from that inyesti- 606 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. gation, instead of going back to the old law, these restrictions of the new law might not be pulled too tight , and that, in cases where a man was proved to be in need and deserving of support, he might receive it under his own roof, and not be subjected to separation from his wife and family in a New Poor-Law workhouse. That was a tangible com- plaint against the law, and one of the main grievances which was loudly spoken of by the opponents of the bill ; indeed, it had been admitted by Mr. Gulson, in the report of the Poor-Law Commis- sioners. The moment a man sought for 2)arochial relief, though he might be out of employment, and have become dis- tressed from causes over which he could have no control, it seemed to be assumed, that he came to the Board of Guardians of his parish only to impose upon them ; for the workhouse was pi-oposed as the test of his destitution and sincerity. Pie (Mr. Liddell) must say, that, in his hmitcd experience, he had not thus understood the people of England. In that part of the country to which he belonged, every man who was able to work was also an- xious to obtain work. They were in- fluenced by that good old English feeling which led them to sti'ive to the utmost, and to make any sacrifice, even of life almost, i-ather than ask parochial relief. (Hear.) He did believe, that in many other parts of England the feelings of the people were not so debased as to lead them to seize every opportunity of im- posing on the Guardians for the sake of getting a miserable pittance. (Hear.) Those who would take the trouble to in- quire, would find that in almost every case want, and want only, led such per- sons as those which he had mentioned to apply for relief, and he trusted that their feelings would not be outraged, and cha- rity poisoned at its source, by their being pointed to the workhouse as the only medium through which assistance was to be obtained. The noble lord had referred to the abuses under the old law, with re- spect to imposition and the manner in which the labour of the pauper was dis- posed of by auction. Admitting this to have been the case in the southern and midland counties, he must say that he would rather have his labour sold by auc- tion, than have the workhouse allowance pointed to him as the only means by which he could receive relief, being an able- bodied labourer; for bad as the first evil was, he considered the latter to. be one of much greater magnitude. (Hear.) It was also said, that this workhouse principle of relief would induce a desire to work and get good wages, and also a habit of saving something against the day of dis- tress among those who were fortunate enough to obtain work and good wages, and thus a spirit of economy would be infused into the labouring population, and tend to their great improvement. He trusted that this idea would be realized. A very ingenious pamphlet had been put into the hands of the members of that House, showing, that, from the rate of wages in many parts of the country, it was possible for labourers to lay up sav- ings, while it was impossible in others. But while he admitted the possibility of the labouring classes being able to save something, and would most earnestly im- press on them the advantage of cultivating habits of frugality and economy, in order that they might be in some measure pre- pared for the day of distress, he would remind the House, that mankind were not in a state of perfection, and that there were feelings and habits among the lower orders, which it was difficult to restrain ; and that if they did not lay up all they might save, to guard against unforeseen distress, the House should consider how many persons there were in the higher ranks of life whose education, intelligence, and means might warrant the expectation of better things, but who did not know how to keep their expenditure within their income. (Hear.) If such, then, was the case, they ought to look with some degree of tenderness on the conduct of the humbler classes in this respect, though they did spend a little more than was pru- dent in present gratification instead of laying up their savings for a time of need. (Hear.)"— Jl/r. Liddell, Ibid. " What, then, were the objects of it as put forth by their own Commissioners ? They told us, that the object of the act Avas, in the first place, ' to raise the wages of the labouring man ;' and in the next, ' to make the labouring man more moral.' One anecdote would convince the meet- ing, that it must either have grievously failed, or that the Commissioners had put forth the grossest delusion in the propo- sition, that the act was likely to raise the wages of the labouring man. There lived at Bolton, not many miles from INIanchester, Mr. Ashworth, a large ma- nufacturer. That gentleman, before the act had passed, before the bill had gone through the House, wrote a letter to Mr. DECREASE OF WAGES. 507 Cluidwick, secretary to the Poor-Law C(jnimissioiiers, which he addressed, ' Re- spected friend Chadwick,' in which he said he was extremely happy to see this judicious Act about to be passed. And for what reason was he so glad that it was about to become law? (Hear, hear.) Because, he said, it would immediately bring agricultural labourers down into the north, where labourers were wanted, for the purpose of equalising wages ! (Hear, hear.) Could the meeting suppose that Mr. Ashworth meant, that labourers com- ing from the south to the north would raise wages in the north ? (Hear, hear.) No ; but he went on and said, ' for la- bourers are much wanted, and the wages of the hand-loom weavers have been raised ten per cent, lately.' (Hear, hear.) This was in 1834, and on turning to the date of the letter and to the date of the appointment of the hand-loom weavers' committee, he (Mr. Cobbett) found that INIr. Ashworth's letter was written very nearly on the same day when evidence was brought before that committee of Avhich Mr. Fielden was a member, that the people of Bolton were in the greatest possible distress, that they had scarcely any furniture, that they were unable to renew their clothes, and that their wages were not much more than 2jd. per day individually! (Hear.) It was a very nice calculation to ascertain what the rise of ten per cent on 2fd. per day was ! Mr. Ashworth was a very expert calculator — he was a Quaker — and so he found out there was a rise of exactly ten per cent. What that came to on 2|d. a-day he (iNIr. Cobbett) left the meeting to ascertain, for he could not. [Mr. Fielden : A farthing and one-tenth.] Mr. Fielden said this rise was one farthing and one-tenth of a farthing ! (Hear, hear.) From this one anecdote he left the meeting to guess whether the men of St. Stephen's, when tlicy managed to pass this Poor-Law Act, which had such a particular friend in Mr, Ashworth, believed its operation upon the country would raise the wages of the la- bouring man. Mr. Fielden had proved that here they had not been raised ; and in the agricultural counties he (Mr. C'ob- bett) knew, that so far from wages having been raised, they had been materially les- sened — (hear, hear) — in manj' instances as much as twenty per cent." — Manchester Fielden Duuicr, June 4, 1838. " Upon one occasion when he was pre- sent, a labourer was under examination, which ran somewhat thus : — The witness was asked how much his wages were under the old system of poor-laws ; he replied 8s. a-week. How many children had he, and had he a wife ? Yes, he had a wife and six children ; and, in addition to those six, it so chanced that his wife had had an illegitimate child before her marriage, so that in point of fact he had seven children to support. Well, but he was receiving Is. 6d. a-week from the gentleman who was the father of the child, thereby increasing the labourer's weekly pittance to 9s. 6d., and then he stated that he had Is. Gd. each allowed by the parish for two of his children, on ac- count of their ages ; so that, taken alto- gether, he had P2s. 6d. a-week to provide for himself, a wife, and seven children. Now that was before the New Poor-Law had been brought into operation. Well, but then, said the chairman, in his own pecidiar manner, and a most peculiar manner it was, ' Pray what wages have you received since the New Poor-Law has been brought into action ?' ' 9s. a- week' was the answer. ' So,' continued the chairman, ' in fact, you get I s. a- week more wages under the new than you did under the old act ?' ' Yes,' said the man, ' I do, Sir.' Well, seeing the false impression the effect of this examination was calculated to produce, he (Mr. Mur- phy) sent up a note to an hon. member, one of his own party, requesting that the witness might be asked whether since the new act he had been in the habit of re- ceiving the Is. Gd. a-week from the father of the illegitimate child? The question was put, and the reply was in the negative. It then turned out that the allowance from the parish of 3s. a-week for the other two children had been likewise withdrawn — showing, therefore, that if the wages had nominally increased Is., yet that in point of fact the man was receiving 3s. Gd. a-week less. (Hear, hear.) But the New Poor-Law was said to have in- creased wages. That, however, was to be seen. He knew it in reality to have had a different effect. Now, he did not know whether this examination ap- peared in the minutes of the evidence published by the Committee ; whether it did or not, it was perfectly fresh in his own recollection. The witness was next asked as to the quantity of bread his family consumed in the week under the old law, and he said seven gallons, and that the cost was then lOd. per gallon. ' And how much do you now consume, and what price is it ? ' The labourer re- 608 TPIE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. plied, that his consumption, in point of quantity, was the same, but that he now was obhged to pay 14d. instead of lOd. per gallon. ' Then,' said the hon. mem- ber, ' your wages are not so good, they are not so advantageous for your necessi- ties now, inasmuch as when you received 8s. a-week you paid no more than lOd. a-gallon for bread ; whilst, since the passing of the new law, your wages have betn 9s., and you have been compelled to pay 14d. per gallon for your bread — in fact, in that particular alone, you are 2s. 4d, a-week worse since the new lavp came into operation than before it was passed ? ' ' Yes,' said the poor fellow. (' Hear, hear,' and ' Shame ! ') Now, it was manifestly clear that the man's wages, in as far as his comforts, his necessities, were affected, were very much otherwise than being better ; but Mr. Fazakerley, the Chairman of the Committee, had been, as he had already shown, endea- vouring to leave the evidence to the Com- mittee, so as to create an impression favourable to the effect of the operation of the new law upon the circumstances of the witness." — Mr. Murphy., Freemasons' Tavern, Feb. 19, 1838. " Now, he would appeal to every gen- tleman in the House who was connected with the hidustrious classes, engaged either in manufactures or in agricultural occupations, to stand up in his place and say, whether he believed that they were receiving wages equal to those which they obtained anterior to the period when this Bill passed. Nothing could be more at variance with the statements made before the Committee. It was established by hosts of witnesses, farmers and others, that before the Bill came into operation, persons who were receiving 8s. or 9s. a-week, at the same time received from the parish corn or meal, according to the number of their families, to the amount of from 5s. to 10s. a-week; and that since the passing of that law, an able-bodied man was not receiving more than 8s. or 10s. a-week, while he was entirely ex- cluded from all parochial aid. Could the noble lord conceive it possible, after £2,000,000 or £3,000,000 had been abstracted from the funds formerly ap- plied to the support of the poor, that this diminution of means could have no mate- rial influence on their comforts and con- dition ?" — Mr. B. W. Harvey, House of Commons, Feb. 20, 1838. " Now, whatever were the evils under which the country was labouring when this Act was introduced, to coerce the people because they were poor, was cer- tainly not the way to abate the griev- ances then complained of. (Cheers.) It would have been well if, before the Bill passed, the advice of his late colleague had been taken ; if an inquiry had been instituted, as his late friend desired, into the causes of the poverty of the people, and the increase of the poor-rates, it would have led, he was persuaded, to a very ditrerent measure than that of which they now sought the repeal. The causes of i)overty might be very shortly stated. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries it was well known, it was on record, what were the prices of labour ; and Mr. Davies, a clergyman of Berkshire, in 1795, took' great pains to ascertain the point; and in a work which he published, he proved, from indisputable authorities, that the common labourer in the country, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, could obtain for between 21 and 22 days' labour, a quarter of wheat ; but what could a labouring man obtain for 22 daj's' labour during the twenty years immedi- ately preceding the passing of the Poor- Law Amendment- Act ? From 1815 to 1834, when the Poor-Law Amendment- Act was passed, the quarter of wheat had been 63s., and the wages of a com- mon day-labourer, on the farms through- out England, he was quite certain, would not amoimt to more than 9s, a-week ; so that, from the simplest calculation, it was evident that tlie labouring man, instead of getting the quarter of wheat for 21 days' labour, as his forefathers did in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, got exactly only one-half. (Cheers.) If the legislature had begun its business at the right end, it should have set to work to restore to the labouring man the quarter of wheat for his 21 days' labour, instead of requiring him to work 42 days for it. (Cheers.) Had they done that, there would have been no occasion to talk about pauperism, about the people being pau- perized, and the necessity of adopting means to dispauperize them ; the legis- lature would have been spared all that trouble. But to correct the evil what sort of Act had they given ? He had already stated, that it struck at the root of all local government ; the great amount of the rates raised for the relief of the poor before the passing of the new law, was not so heavy, was not so much per head on the population, as the rates were now in those twenty counties where the DECREASE OF WAGES 509 administration of the Poor-Laws had heen carried into full effect. If there were eighteen counties in England that managed their affairs well, why not say to the other thirty-four counties, ' Take an example from the eighteen, act upon their system,' and then no alteration would have been required in the law. At any rate, there was no necessity for coercing the eighteen counties. But there were other objects to be accom- plished. The rates raised for the relief of the poor were to be diverted to defray the cost of an expensive machinery (cheers), thus directly and at once rob- bing the poor of those rates which had been raised for their support. (Cheers.) Such had been the effect. A diminution of rates, it was true, had taken place, but that diminution of rates had conlen-ed no advantages on the poor ; on the contrary, it had tended to oppress them in a man- ner never before known in England. (Cheers.) Nor had it at all benefited the rate-payers as a body. INIany rate- payers, he believed, had sustained consi- derable loss from a diminution in their customers, arising from the fall in wages. Who, tlien, had the benefit ? None but those fellows clothed in a little brief authority, who were sending out spies through different parts of the country, endeavouring to irritate the people, and pocketing, to a large amount, that which belonged to the poor. (Cheers.) What was the principle laid down on which they would effect this saving of the rates ? It was said to be a self-acting test ; it was notiiing less than a prison for the pauper, the workhouse test, which was to try satisfactorily, and invariably, whe- ther a man was deserving of relief or not, by subjecting him to the degrading ne- cessity of entering a workhouse, most properly denominated a prison or Bastile."' — Mr. Fielden, Freemasons' Tavern, Feb. 19, 1838. " I have been upon the Poor-Jjaw Committee from December to the i)resent time, and I have been discussing with every witness the operation which this Act of Parliament has upon wages (hear), because I think that a most important feature in the case. A few females may liave died hi childbed for want of medical attendance ; a poor old man may be starved to death for want, in consequence of the operation of the Act ; but these cases are as nothing compared with its operation in lowering the wages of work- ing men. (Hoar, hear.) I have, as I said before, been discussing this question with the witnesses before the Connnitti'c. The first witness was INIr. Gulson, and he was put forward as the cleverest of all the clever Assistants of the Commissioners at Somerset-house. I then discussed it with Mr. Howe, then with Dr. Kay, and then with Mr. Power. (Hear, iiear.) ]\ir. Power would convince you in these parts, that you would have a far better administration, accounts better kept, less trouble, and that you would be better satisfied with your affairs under the ma- nagement of the Poor-Law Commission- ers, than under your own. Is there any one of you who can believe and say, that the Commissioners can manage your affairs better than you can yourselves ? (Loud cries of 'No, no.') Then take care that these Commissioners do not take them out of your hands. (Hear, hear.) If I wanted any proof that these men are paid for telling untruths — for that they tell untruths I do say without hesitation, and I have no hesitation in saying that they are paid — I say, If I wanted any proof of this, the proof is already coming forward and a challenge is made. Last week I received from Leicester a petition, making a wholesale denial of INIr. Gulson's evidence — of his evidence commencing, not with me, but of liis evidence in chief in answer to ques- tions put by Mr. Fazakei-ley and other supporters of the Bill ; and, I think, fifty- six questions follow on successively, on which the clergy, the bankers, the mer- chants, the manufacturers, and all the respectability of Leicester, say that Mr. Gulson"s evidence is altogether untrue, and they are prepared to deny it. They state that wages in Leicester were 9s. a-week before the passing of the Bill, and that they are now reduced to 7s., but the scarcity of work is such that the earnings of the workpeople do not amount to more than 5s. a-week. (Hear, hear.) And not only this, but the ])etitioners are pre- pared to prove, that the direct tendency and operation of this law is to lower the wages of the manuflicturing population of Leicester, so as to ensure an inevitable reduction of them, and this they pray to be allowed to prove at the bar of the House of Commons, or before the Poor- Law Amendment Committee."' — Mr. Fielden at his Manchester Dinner, June 4, 1838. " Mr. Briscoe said he was struck with one observation of the hon. member for Oldham, that there were 25,000 luuidloom 510 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. weavers in that district whose earnings did not exceed 4s. 6d. to 5s. per week each. Now, with such a fact before them, could they expect anything else than discontent at Bradford at the intro- duction of the poor-laws ? If relief could be given only in the workhouse, how could that mass of beings, who must be in dis- tress, be relieved in the workhouse ? For his own part, he would be willing, either in or out of that House, to contri- bute to the rehef of those distressed par- ties, but certainly not to continue them in a trade which did not afford them the means of subsistence." — House of Com- mons, Dec. 12, 1837. "His (Mr. Fielden's) main objection to the law was founded on his firm con- viction, that it would reduce the wages of the labouring people, and if he had nothing more than even the Assistant-Commis- Bioners to satisfy him npon that point, their evidence had shown him that that had already been the result. The House should have foreseen this before it passed the law. When it affected to throw men upon their resources, it shoukl have been certain that they had these resources ; but the crueltj' of this law was now becoming obvious in all times of depression of trade, and in the intervals between the different harvests in the agricultural parts of the country. This report stated, in contra- diction to what was the fact, ' that the real interests of all classes of the commu- nity have been consulted in the operation of the law.' He (Mr. Fielden) was so thoroughly satisfied that this was un- founded — he had seen such strong proof that it had brought misery upon the labouring classes, that he had thought it his duty to move an amendment to this part of the report. Hon. members would perceive, that it was stated, on the autho- rity of Mr. Overman, Vice-chairman of the Ampthill Board, that the wages of the la- bourers in his neighbourhood had been raised since the law came into operation. Indeed, in illustration of the fact, he stated what he himself paid upon his own farm in 1834, and what he paid in 1837 — that was to say, he gave them a table contain- ing the weekly payments for every week in those years, to his labourers, and the totals showed an increase in the gross amount in the year 1837. So far, Mr. Overman made out the case very well ; but in his previous examination he had stated, not only that wages had been raised, but that many more men had been employed on the land. And here Mr. Overman had failed to establish his whole case, but had completely succeeded in establishing the point which he (Mr. F.) aimed to prove — namely, a reduction in wages. Mr. Overman, in 1834 and 1 835, employed 20 men and 1 3 boys, and the gross amount wliich he stated he paid to them in the year, was £775 6s. Id. He stated, in 1837 and 1838 his gross pay- ment in wages was £870 8s., which was, doubtless, a considerable increase in the money spent in wages ; but he employed, in the latter year, 1 1 boys and 26 men, which, as any one would find on calcu- lating it, proved a reduction of lid. per week in money wages. As Mr. Overman and his table were cited in the report as a proof of an advance in wages, he (INIr. Fielden) proposed an amendment to that part of the report, which he would read to the House. It was as follows : — ' That so far from the real interests of all classes having been consulted by the adminis- tration of the Poor-Law Amendment- Act, as expressed in page 25 of this report, the interests of the poor have suffered by the withdrawal of relief and reduction of wages, as appears by the evi- dence [15,305, 15,318, 15, 361, Ceeley ; and 16,472, and 16,474, Raw son ; and 14,345, 14,349, 14,353, 14, 354, 14,370, 14,479, and 14,480, Overman]. The statement of weekly wages paid for farm labour during four years, by T. W. Over- man, accompanied hy the list of labourers in his employment, from July, 1834, to July, 1835, and from July, 1837, to July, 1838, in the former of which years he had 20 men and 13 boys, and in the lat- ter 26 men and 11 boys, shows the following result. In this calculation, 5s. per week only are allowed for the boys in both years, although Mr. Overman, in his evidence [14,378,] says, boys' wages had been advanced. " 1834 and 1835. £. s. J. " 13 boys, each 52 weeks, or 676 weeks for one boy, at 5s 169 "20 men, each 52 weeks, or 1,040 weeks one man, at lis. 8d. .. . 606 13 4 £775 13 4 "Amomit paid, as per Ml-. Overman's statement £775 6 4 "1837 and 1838. "11 boys, each 52 weeks, or 572 weeks for one boy, at 5s 143 " 26 men, each 52 weeks, or 1,352 weeks for one man, at 10s. 9d. 726 14 £869 14 "Amount paid as per Mr. Overmiin's statement. £870 4 0" PKCREASE OF WAGllS. 511 " A reduction of labourers' wages in money, ot" from lis. 8d, per week, in 1834-5 to 10s. 9d. per week in 1837-8, or 8 per cent., . is thus shown by Mr. Overman's statement; and lis. 8d. would buy the hibourer 129:^ pints of wheat, at the average price of wheat per quarter (40s. 2d.), during the year 1834: whereas, 10s. 9d. would purchase him only 99 pints of wheat at the average price of (oos. 9d.) during the year 1837, being a decline in his command over wheat of 25 per cent., and, taking wheat at the average price of the week ending 5th July last, his command over wheat then, as compared with 1834, is reduced 37^ per cent., and this has been going on under the operation of the New Poor- Law, notwithstandingMr. Overman stated in his evidence that there is an increased demand for labour (14,336 and 14,337), no scarcity of -work (14,132 and 14,467), that wages have been advanced but the men do more work (14,183, 14,185, and 14,209), and that farming has not been so prosperous for mau)^ years as in 1837 (14,507.)' He had moved this resolution when complaining in the committee of the whole report, and he asked whether he had not a right to complain of such a delusive statement being sent forth to the country as that which he had just pointed out? (Hear, hear.) Such a delusion might deceive the House in some measure, but the countr}% which knew the truth, would not be deceived by it, and would only look with the more dissatisfaction on the proceedings of the committee. Before he had become a member of this com- mittee, he had imagined that the hand- loom weavers and some others in the north were the most miserable of all the English labouring people, but he had heard enough, he confessed, in the committee to show him that if the people of the south were not now as badly off as the handloom weavers, it would take but a short time to bring them to the condition of those miserable people ; and he begged to remind the House, that when the destitute condition of the handloom weavers was spoken of, it was attributed to machinery. Had machinery produced the misery on the land ? He would pause, in order to ask the House whether it was not both cruel and impolitic to continue this wicked and obnoxious law, when it is working such z-esidts as he had stated ? He could point out good, honest, and industrious labourers, in Bedfordshire, men whose characters were not disputed, who, with their families, were living now upon 3d. per head per day. Mr. Ceeley, a surgeon from Ayles- bury (whose evidence, by-the-by, was well worthy of being read), stated, that he was in considerable practice ; that he was well acquainted with the neighbourhood of Aylesbury and the labouring people in its vicinity, and he gave it as his opinion, that, sickly and distressed as they were before, their lot had become considerably worse since the New I^aw came into opera- tion ; that he had inquired in what he deemed the best sources of information, the tradespeople, those who sold to the labourers the food on which they live, and they had told him, that they sold now less provisions to this dass of persons than they did before the New Law. If this were a fact, he would ask whether anything could be more convincing ? (Hear, hear.) If the baker, and the grocer, and the cheesemonger, w'ere now selling less food to the labouring man than they did befoi-e the New Law, was not the conclusion forced upon us, that the New Law had deprived the labouring man of the means that he had before it passed? (Hear.) In the reports of the committee it would be found, that Mr. Weale, the Assistant- Commissionei', had made a statement of the wages of the agricultural labourers in Somersetshire, Gloucestershire, and Wor- cestershire, and the average rate of wages per-day labour in a considerable number of the Unions in those counties is stated to be Is. 5^d. to Is. 5^d. per day. jNIr. Ilawson, a manufacturer at Leicester, stated, on his own experience, that wages had been reduced one-third since the New Law came into operation, and he appre- hended a continued reduction. He (jMr. Fielden) had sent two men down into the neighbourhood of AmpthUl, to make in- quiries in that neighbourhood, and they had taken a survey of the parish of Wes- toning in particular ; they had obtained the name, number in family, and earnings of nearly every labouring man within the parish for the years 1834 and 1837, and the result, which he would state as short as possible, was an average reduction of 16 per cent, on their means of living-. The tables establishing these matters had been put in hj Mr. Turner, one of the persons whom he had sent to make the inquiries. One of Mr. Turner's tables, describing the condition of 48 labourers in Westoning, was adverted to in the report of the committee, page 4, as a proof of the good working of the New Law ; but, Mhile the committee were 512 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. discussing this part of llie report, lie (Mr. Fielden) had moved this resolution: ' That although the labourers have more money paid in I'bS? than in 1834, as stated in the report, page 4, yet the table put in by Mr. Turner showed that the income of those labourers and their families had been reduced from Is. lOgd. per head per week in 1834 to Is. 6d. per week in 1837.' These tables had been attacked in the committee, and ISIr. Pierce, chairman of the Woburn board, had been brought up to the committee to refute them, and, according to Mr. Pierce, these labourers were in the receipt of much more money than Mr. Turner had made out in his tables. But how was it ? Why, Mr. Pierce found, that the earnings of the families of the labourers, that vvas, the earnings of the wives and children of the labourers in Westoning, at straw plaiting, made an important ditierence in the total earnings of the family during the year. ]SIr. Pierce found little to dispute as to the wages of the labouring men. All the difference that there was between his table and Mr. Turner's consisted in this, that Turner had stated the earnings of the families at too little, according to Mr. Pierce's account. He (Mr. Fielden) was prepared to dispute the truth of Mr. Pierce's statement. He had the names of the witnesses ready, and amongst them the names of persons who could have spoken from experience and with authority upon the subject — (hear, hear, hear, and loud cheers) — but these witnesses he could not get before the committee. In the absence of them, however, the House might find, by turning to Mr. Pierce's evidence, that when it was the object of the different Boards of Guardians in Bed- fordshire to send families into the north of England to the factories, then the earnings of the wives and children were set down in Mr. INIuggridge's returns as amounting to little or nothing. The earn- ings of a mother and all her children were stated in one instance at 3s. 6d. only per week, whereas Mr. Pierce stated, that young women in Bedfordshire, of from thirteen to nineteen years of age, could earn from 5s. to 7s. a-week at straw plait- ing. As to the men taking their earnings, as they were stated by Mr. Pierce himself, the House would find that they were getting no more than would afford Is. lOd. per week per head for themselves and then- families. He (Mr. Fielden) thought he had stated enough already, citing even the authoritv of Commissioners and Guar- dians, to prove to the House tliat it was necessary to keep a watchful eye on the condition of the agricultural labourers. He had received letters from all parts of the country, from so far west as Barnstaple, and so far east as Norwich, from Carlisle, and from many places in the interior of the country, addressed to him by magis- trates, clergymen. Guardians of Boards, and by tradesmen, all complaining of the operation of this law, and all stating it to have the effects which he had anticipated with dread, and which he had often stated to the House." — House of Commons, August 7, 1838, on Mr. P. i^crojje hrimjing ttp the Heport of the Poor- Law Committee. " My attention has been called to the last report of the Poor-Law Com- missioners relative to the working of the atrocious Poor-Law Bill. Therein thej"^ state, that it has been the means of bet- tering the condition, and raising the wages, of the labourers, and that their masters are kinder to them now^, than they were before the Whig law came into force. Now, as to the measure having bettered the condition of the labourer, and raised the wages, the statement is completely false. The rate of wages of agricultural labourers in 1834, was 8s. per week, and those who had families received bread- money for their children, which often made their money 12s. or 14s. per week. Since this law came into force, the bread- allowance has been done away with, and the wages of the labourers are now, in some places, 8s., and in others, 9s. per week ; but if they get the additional shilling per week, it is not in consequence of the Poor-Law Bill, but owing to the produce of the farmer having risen nearly 50 per cent, in value to what it was in 1 834. I will give a case in point, which is that of a most honest, industrious labourer, with a wife and eight childrtn, the eldest twelve years of age, one of them only being able to go out to work, who receives 2s. b'd. per week, which, with the 8s. which the father earns, makes 10s. 6d., to keep ten persons, and who, if he re- ceived bread-money, as under the old law, would now have 16"s. 6d., so that the law robs him of 6s. per week. This is only a solitary case out of thousands ; we have widows in the parish in which I reside, upwards of sixty years of age, who re- ceive, at this inclement season, only Is. 6d. in money, and a 41b. loaf to keep them seven days : the poor labourers in the agricultural districts are nearly starving, DECREASE OF WAGES. 513 whilst their em])loyers are basking in the sunshine of plenty. As to their nmsters being kinder to them, it is completely false, for what is the consequence if the men should happen to grumble at the miserable pittance which they receive. The masters hold u]) the terrors of the workhouse to them as their portion, if they are not satisfied ; and where is the man whose heart would not recoil at the idea of being thrust into a prison, and the dearest ties of his life separated from him ? I would recommend the Bashaws of So- merset-house, ere they issue another of their manifestoes, full of fallacies and false- hood, to institute an inquiry into the rapid increase of sheep-stealing, and other crimes, and they will find, that it is this abominable Bill which has driven men to commit these crimes, to satisfy the hun- ger of their starving children." — /. J. Pryor, Harwell. "The Act had inflicted grievous wrongs on the industrious poor. It had reduced their wages — it had raised rents, and the price of food had advanced under its ope- ration. It had completely failed to pro- duce the two important specific efiects which the Commissioners of inquiry, in their ' Report,' said would follow the application of the principle of administer- ing relief to the indigent, which they laid down in the case of able-bodied paupers ; that was to say, first, a rise of wages, and, secondly, ' increased content of the labour- ers and diminution of crime.' What was that principle ? He found it in that book which, in another place, was called the ' Record of Idleness and her sister Guilt,' but which he (Mr. Fielden) said, was the record of the most slanderous expressions of the character of the poor of England that, up to that period, he believed, had ever been published by authority. The principle was thus stated : — ' that the con- dition of the paupers shall be in no case so eligible as the condition of the lowest class subsisting on the fruits of their in- dustry.' Before this had been put forth by Commissioners appointed by the King, it would have been wise to inquire what was the condition of the numerous classes of his Majesty's subjects who were pining in want, although subsisting on the fruits of their industry. It would have been well to have ascertained how many hand- loom weavers there were, scattered over his Majesty's dominions, who could not earn l|d. per head per day, for the mainte- nance of themselves and those dependent upon them for support, but who, not with- 2 L standing, were not receiving parochial aid. It would have been well to have ascer- tained, how many labourers in the land, and at various other occupations in the country, were nearly similarly circum- stanced in this respect, with the handlooni weavers, but without parish aid, and daily dying of want, before his Majesty's ad- visers had allowed such a principle to be promulgated by authority. Responsibility must rest somewhere, and if the New Poor-Law were persevered in, the ques- tion of ' who is responsible ?' might be mooted, and the responsible parties might be called to account for having given this advice. The principle had been acted on by the Central Board, but it had not afforded the advantages promised to the able-bodied by its adoption. No : they had been placed in a worse condition by the attempt to carry out this principle of administering relief. And hei-e he must observe upon the cruelty of refusing re- lief to the able-bodied labourer, when his earnings were altogether inadequate to maintain him. The peremptory order was directed against the able-bodied — those on whom you called to fight your battles — those you required to cultivate your lands — those you required to do what none but the able-bodied could do — and yet, when his labour failed him, when his wages were altogether insufficient for his maintenance, you denied him relief, except in your prison workhouses, and, in many cases, he had been denied that, if he had work at any wages whatever. He (Mr. F.) felt disgusted with the treat- ment of the able-bodied labourer by the Guardians acting under the Commission- ers. He knew none in society more deserving of sympathy, than the virtuous, able-bodied man, with a family to support, but whose wages, notwithstanding he endeavoured to acquire the best he could obtain honestly, were altogether inade- quate for the support of himself and those dependent on him. The proposition to throw the able-bodied 'on their resources,' Avhen one half of their earnings were taken from them by taxes on their bread, and every other article they consumed, was both ungenerous, and unjust. But he (Mr. F.) had said, that the adoption of this principle of relief had failed to raise wages, and to produce increased content of the labourers, and diminution of crime. Look at the calendars, and to the charges of the Judges of assize, who were almost everywhere deploring the increase of crime, and suggesting education to prevent 514 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. it. It was food that the people wanted, and without that, education would not avail ; and as to reduction of wages — instead of a rise, he (Mr. F.) had proved that before a Committee of that House. Many hon. members had stated the same facts ; and, if the noble lord doubted it, let him appoint a fair committee to in- quire." — M)\ Fielden, House of Com- mons, March 29, 1841. " The following is the account of a parish in Wiltshire, as given in the Wilt- shire Independent : — " ' This week we will take a different district, and uame Rushall, a parish standing compara- tively in ftivourable circumstances, where the poor have advantages which, in many other places, they do not enjoy. This parish is divided into three large farms, the land is chiefly arable, and of excellent quality, producing, on an average, certainly not less than eight sacks of wheat, and ten sacks of barley per acre. On this fertile spot, the highest wages of able-bodied married labourers with families, are only 9s. per week (we except harvest work, for which, of course, more is paid) ; those without children, and single men, although equally able, ay, and willing too, to do a good day's work, are put off with bs., 6s., and Xs. a-week. We do not under- stand why this is ; it appears to be an act of injustice, and we should be glad to know iipon what principle the distinction is made : — If an able man's services be worth 9s. a-week, then is the single man deprived of his due by being paid only 5s. or 6s. ; but if an able man's ser- vices be worth only 5s. or 6s. a-week, then must the difference between that and 9s. be con- sidered as parish allowance for the children ; it is high time this were properly understood, for if the latter be the case, the real rate of wages is much lower than it is represented to be. Of course, with such wages, destitution and dis- tress abound. Many families are unable to •obtain more than one meal a-day, and in many instances, that one meal consists o{ potatoes and salt alone, without meat, without even the coarsest bread.' " These facts are collected in the grreat- est corn-growmg county in England, and, in most respects, one of the richest coun- ties. Yet this is the lot of those who make it rich ! The remarks which this editor makes, as to the treatment of the single men, are excellent, and the more valuable, as the case of these persons is the same all over the country ; for, when we hear of wages being 10s. a-week or 12s., it is the wages of a particular class, as carters, for instance, and always of married men ; but to say that ten, or even nine shillings, are the wages paid to the mass of labourers, is wholly false. The distinction is universally made, though the false wretches who Avere examined before the Poor-Law Committee affected never to have heard of such a practice. It is, as the Wiltshire paper says, a scan- dalous injustice to the single man, or the allowance system is still pursued in another form ; but, with this difference, let us remark, that it is a redticed alloica7ice, and in its adoption, has first caused a great reduction of wages to the single man. We should like to know from some one of the coxcombs at Somei'set-house, which it is that he calls wages, the nine shillings a-week paid to the married man, or the five, or six, or seven shillings, paid to the single man ; or whether, both men being of equal strength, both having done an equal day's work in the same field, he calls both sums by the same name — tvages ? " Upon ' what principle the distinction is made,' we cannot inform the Wiltshire editor ; but if he will look to the speeches of Mr. Whitbread, in 1796, in bringing before the House of Commons a pro- position for fixing a minimum on the price of labour, he will see that the sudden rise in the price of provisions (caused by a putting out of paper-money) had brought starvation to all labourers who had fami- lies. Their masters reaped the benefit of high prices, but did not raise wages. Pitt passed the 36th of Geo. 111., to allow magistrates to order out-door relief to the vien tcith families, and thus stopped the actual starvation of thousands who were on the point of it. The single man could manage to eat and hide upon his wages, now reduced in eftect one-half, and, there- fore, he was thought well enough off. And fellows, like Colonel Torrens, tell their hearers that the Poor-Laws caused the allowance sj^stem ! That system was caused by the wickedness of paper-money, and gi'eedy and unjust employers. The abolition of the allowance system has reduced the married man very nearly to what the single man had, and it has re- duced the single man to what is now so well detailed and characterised by the Wiltshire editor." — Champion, Sept. 2, 1839. " I met two men casually by the sea- shore ; I asked ' how wages were ? ' ' Fallen,' said a lad about eighteen years of age. I answered, that ' 1 doubted it, for that I had heard the New Poor-Law had made wages rise.' ' Oh ! but I know it,' said he, ' where a man could have earned 12s. he now only earns 9s., and that's little enough for a man to live on with a family.' He then mentioned the name of a man, whose wages had been DECREASE OF WAGES. 515 reduced from 12s. to 9s,, and muttered something to his companion about two others ; to which the other replied, — ' It is a shame.' " — J/r. Oastlers Letter from Rhyl, near St. Asaph, Flintshire^ Oct. 12, 1838. " A correspondent of the Oxford Chro- nicle says, the weekly wages of the labour- ers at Burford do not exceed 7s." — Man- chester Advertiser, Feb. 2, 1 839. " With regard to the lowering of wages (which this cruel law has done, and will continue to do, in spite of all that is done to make an outward show of raising wages, ■when the same parties are secretly lower- ing them in all indirect means that is pos- sible to practise) : for instance — One poor man was out of employment, with a large family, and to prevent his going into the workhouse, to cost them a great deal of money, the two largest farmers of the parish agreed to find him and his family work : one set him to pull, top, and tail turnips, and fill them into the carts ; and the lowest price he had ever heard of before for this, was 5s. per acre ; but this farmer would not agree to give him more than 3s. 6d. ; yet, on settling his account, and finding his complaint true, and that he could hardly get food enough to keep him and his family alive, he gave him 4s. This, of course, was 20 per cent, less than he had ever had before. He then went to the other farmer, who, though he was as rich as a Jew, would only give him 3s. per acre. In order to try to do them at this price, he (the poor man) hired five children, and took three of his own — one girl (16), another (12), and a boy (8), and all, he and the eight children — nine of them — could earn, was 32s. in three weeks — 10s. 8d. per week for the nine persons who went to work, and the man had a wife and two younger children, which made twelve persons to live on the 10s. 8d. per week. He told his master, that he and the children lost part of the time, owing to the turnips being so wet in the rainy weather : and then his master made a great favour of allowing liim to do some haumincj (that is, rake and get u^j the wheat stubble) at Is. per acre, when the general price varied from Is. 6d. to 2s. per acre. The last day he was finish- ing this job, the whole family went all day without food, hoping to have his money to buy some at night, but his master told him he would give him another day's work to-morrow, and did not pay him ; so he was obliged to go home and borrow a loaf of a poor neighbour, and they ate it for 2 L their supper ; and they all went without food tlie whole of the next day ; for the poor man's master had gone from home, and he (the poor man) returned home without money or food, the nest night, when the whole family sat down in the cottage, and cried, and then went to bed empty. Early the succeeding morning, the poor man went for his money, but his master could not be seen till one o'clock, and then he had only 7s. to take home, which he did, and got his family some flour ; and as soon as they had eaten their dinner — and, of course, hungry enough they all were, for they had no food for the two whole days (except the borrowed loaf the first evening), the poor man went to his other master, who was to give him work again in turn. But his other mas- ter was there before him, whom he had told once before, while working for him, that himself and family had nothing but potatoes for six days out of the last four- teen days, and hoped he would give him more — but he would not : and when he took the 7s. before mentioned, on settling his account that morning, he was almost stai-ved with cold and hunger, and forgot to saj^, ' Thank you. Sir :' and, going up to the door of the other farmer, he heard him say — ' He is a grumbling and dis- satisfied fellow !' ' Then,' said the other, ' he shan't come here :' and he told the poor man that he had no work for him ; and thus he and his whole family were driven into the Union Bastile." — Extract from a Letter of a South County Corres- pondent to the Author, dated Oct. 2, 1840. " One man, not a very good character, Avith his wife and child, had been in the Bastile for some time, and when he came out, he could not get any work. He was not an able-bodied man, but could earn about Is. per day generally. To prove the law does lower wages, I offered him 6d., and his wife 4d., per day, until they could get better employment. They were glad to accept this ; and, although I re- peatedly told him I did not wish to keep him an hour after he could get better wages, — indeed, any day he could get better pay, to take it, and come back to me when he could not get any more, — he actually worked for me for 6d. a-day from the 1 St of May, to the 23d of June, 1 838 — that is, eight weeks, excepting six days, which were all he could obtain better wages for during that time. Not being an able-bodied man, this man was entitled to some out- relief; but two farmers in his parish, both lovers of this law, took o 516 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. him each for a few weeks, and gave him full wages. This made an able-bodied man of him ; and he could procure no out-door relief, and has been forced into the Bastile repeatedly ever since." — Ibid. " I can prove wages are lower, and can be lowered to almost any extent, through the hatred of the workhouse, and its cruel treatment : yet the lovers of the law will always have instances of its hav- ing raised wages by paying some few higher as bribes and hush-money ; in the same manner that the workhouse is washed and cleaned to give it every appearance of comfort ; and they will bring a power of witnesses to swear, through thick and thin, that all are bad characters who say anything against the Act — and if not so, they make them so, if possible." — Ibid. " We noticed, in a recent number, the circumstance of two men residing in Can- terbury, being employed by a Guardian of a Kentish Union at the rate of Id. an hour. The following extract from the Sunday Times will show that the practice is not confined to this district : — ' Copy of a note given by Almond, the Relieving Officer of Spitalfields, to the unfortunate man Bartlett, having a wife and eight children totally dependent upon him for support: — Sir, Please to employ the bearer, Bartlett, upon the hospital grounds, at Id. per hour, by order of the Board of Guardians, I am. Sir, your obedient servant, Thomas Almond. To Mr. Waite, Turner-street, Whitechapel-road, 31st Jan., 1838.' " — Kentish Paper. "Norwich, in 1839, contained some thousands of operatives, whose wages averaged less than 6s. a-week. In Co- ventry and its vicinity, at the present time, I am told that there are multitudes of the ribbon-weavers who, when they can procure work, must labour hard to earn about 5s. a-week. Calico-weavers in Lancashu-e, as was stated in one of the Leeds papers very recently, are now re- ceiving 9d. per piece for their work' — which, of course, includes winding as well as weaving. Surely these prices are as near the starving point as they can well be reduced." — Mallinson's (of Leeds) *' Letter to Merchants^ Manufacturers, and Operatives" published. May, 1840. " I wish you had better news to send me than the sad tidings of another serious reduction in the wages of the already too poor mill- workers." — Sfephe7is's '■''3fonth- ly Magazine" July, 1840. " Bread is twice as dear as it was when the Poor-Law was introduced at West Hampnett, while wages (if they be gene- rally 2s. per day, which I doubt) have risen but one-sixth." — Rev. E. Deudney's (of Portsea) Letter to the Duke of Rich- mond, May 12, 1840. " The Poor-Law Commissioners, in their elaborate report to Lord Normanby, gives lis. 7fd. as the cost per week of keeping a man, his wife, and five children in food only. I am very anxious to see how it appears that 12s. is sufficient for the purchase, not only of food, but also of every necessary besides, for a man, his wife, and eight children." — Ibid. " In several families, the average in- come daily for food and clothing to each individual is only one penny ! In a pretty large number it ranges from one penny farthing to ttoopence-halfpenny a-day.'" — Bolton Free Press, Nov., 1837. " In the toAvnships about Manchester there are many thousands of handloom weavers, with large families, whose earn- ings do not amount to more than from 3s. to 6s. a-week, to obtain which small pit- tance they must work hard for fourteen hours per day." — Conservative Journal, Dec. 5, 1840. " Depkessed State of Tkade : Re- duction OF Wages in Wigan. — During the last week the wages of the hand-loom weavers were reduced on some fabrics of cloth 15 per cent. This week the wages of others have been reduced, and they are at the same time stinted for work. On Monday last, the mule-spin- ners belonging to Messrs, Eckersly, Mr. Wm. Wood, and Mr. Acton, made a stand against a reduction of wages, amounting on an average to 12s. a-week each. The men, it appears, are willing to submit to a reduction of 10 per cent. ; but, owing to the number of spinners out of employment, and the improvement of the self-acting mule, it is supposed that they will be obliged to submit to the mas- ters' conditions." — Manchester Advertiser, July 18, 1840. " Laboitkeks' Wages. — A corres- pondent of the Wiltshire Independent says : — ' I am most intimately acquainted v/ith nearly all the villages in the vicinity of Devizes ; and without fear of contra- diction I assert, that there are but few (if any) farmers who give more than 9s. per week to able-bodied married labourers, and 6s. or 6s. 6d, a-week to able-bodied single labourers ; the latter sometimes re- ceive as low as 5s. per week." — April, 1840. THE BOASTED ECONOMY OF THE NEW TOOR-LAW. " Cui'se on these taxes — one succeeds another." — Wat Tyler. " I've seen overseers at parish-paid carouses, Who, drinking, could not see the trees for the wood, Afterwards tell poor devils and their spouses. To rob, hang, burn, kill — anything as they could^ For the New Law grants no out-door relief Except to Barristers without a brief."— Don Juan, Junior (Second Edition). " The expenses of Radford Union, near Nottingham, have increased in the last year 29 per cent." — Champion, July 28, 1839. " The New Poor-Law has been most disastrous to the rate-payers of Chichester by adding enormously to the expenses of the current year of about £1,000, besides leaving a debt of about £300." — Cor- respondent to the " Champion" April 26, 1840. " Mr. Adcock said, that in Barley- thorpe, the rates had been increased 25 j)er cent, since the New Poor-Law Amend- ment-Act came into operation. Several other Guardians also said the rates had been increased." — Leicester Journal, April 18, 1840. " That your petitioners have to repre- sent, that though they have done their utmost to keep down expense in the Oakam Union, yet that in very many parishes within the said Union, the rates have been much increased since the Poor-Law Amendment-Act came into operation."— The Leicester Petition in Ibid. " The Clerk of the Todmorden Board of Guardians, by the unanimous consent of all the Guardians present, was ordered to draw up a memorial to the Poor-Law Commissioners; and to ground the request of the Guai'dians to have the Union dissolved upon the fact of the increased expenditure., and the impracticability of carrying out the provisions of the New Poor-Law in the manufacturing districts." — Halifax Guardian, March 28, 1 840. " Where the rate-payers of Ipswich had to pay 4s. 6d. under the old law, they have now to pay 9s. fid. under the new." — Champion, Nov. 10, 1839. " Many at Dewsbury, who formerly supported the New Poor-Law, begin to be out of love with it, because they find that it does not lessen the rates, but that they are fast incrcasiny ; and a terrible complaint is made against the establish- ment charyes." — 'Correspondent to the " Champion" March 8, 1840. " Earl Stanhope said, he rose to present a petition, which, though coming from an individual, was worthy of serious con- sideration. It came from William Oke- liffe, a Churchwarden, in the county of Suffolk, and complained strongly of the operation of the New Poor-Law. The petitioner stated, that there was an in- crease in the amount of poor-rates, but that, nevertheless, the poor were worse off than before."— April 23, 1839. "At the meeting of the Guardians of the poor of Marylebone, on Tuesday, Mr. Kensett asked why there had been pur- chased in thirteen days, one thousand one hundred eyys, at the enormous pi'ice of 12s. 6d. a hundred, or Hd. a-piece, when they might be had at Is. a-dozen. It was answered, that 300 eggs were consumed in the Christmas pudding, and 100 a-day were used for the sick. The clerk said the workhouse eggs cost the parish £100 a-year." — Metropolitan Conservative Jour- nal, Jan. 12, 1839. " In the Treasurer's last account of the York West Riding, is the following specimen of Poor-Law economy : ' For the expenses of the Metropolitan Police at Dewsburj', and special constables to pre- serve the peace, at different times, for the Poor-Law Guardians — one thousajid pounds!^" — Conservative, Jan. 26, 1839. "On the monstrous iniquity and folly of the New Poor-Law, we have often en- larged : the incrcasiny expenses of the sys- tem bid fair to bring it into disrepute, in quarters where its cruelty might pass un- questioned. We are sure that the cost of the New Poor-Law will be found, if fairly stated, to exceed the cost of the old sj'stem. The Commissioners, at all events, would seem to spare no pains to produce such a result. The expense which these inter- 618 THE BOOK. OF THE BASTILES. esting functionaries entail on the country- is increasing at a rate absolutely asfomid- ing In 1837, their expenses amounted to £12,582. 9s. 2d., whilst in 1838, their expenses are set down at £41,250!" — Morning Herald. " The rates have been raised from lis. to 16«." — Palish of St. Bride's Vestry Meeti7ig, March, 1838. " The rates, which were formerly 3s. in the pound, at Kidderminster, are noic 8s." — Ten Toions' Messenger, Dec. 3, 1838. " The Guardians of Hahfax propose spending £8,000 in the erection of a new Union workhouse." — Northern Star, August 4, 1838. " The introduction of this measure into our purely rural and thinly-populated districts, has increased the former expenses of relieving the poor fourfold ; besides en- tailing upon the inhabitants and parish officers, trouble and loss of time, so seri- ously affecting those operations by which they live, as to cause a most grievous evil to the tradesman and farmer. A serious consideration of the principles of the measure, divested of all partiality, in- contestably prove its details quite unfit for any but large towns and crowded dis- tricts." — North Wales CJironicle, March 25, 1837. " At a meeting at St. Clement Danes, Mr. Dunn rose, and in a very lengthy and elaborate speech, contrasted the old and parochial law with the new. ' It had been thought that,' he said, ' a considerable saving would be effected when the New Poor-Law came into force. Those who thought so were miserably deceived, for a greater expense had never been incurred since they (the Commissioners) had established their head-quarters here.'" — Cmiservative Journal, August 26, 1837. " At the monthly meeting of the Guar- dians of the Bury Poor-Law Union, on Thursday, a poor-rate of 3s, in the pound was ordered, being 6d. more in the j^ound than the highest rate previously made, al- though the expenses of prosecutions are paid out of the county rate." — Bury Post, Nov. 12, 1836. " In Halifax, Avhere it had been said that the system went on beautifully under the Assistant-Commissioner, the Board met last week for business, and voted away, in yearly salaries, 1,030^., by way of beginning ; besides that, they gave a man £140 for being clerk there last year, when there was nothing doing." — Mr. Oastlers Speech in the " Times" Feb. 20, 1838. " The parishioners of Isleworth are, at the present time, deriving the following benefits from the New Poor-Law Bill. Their handsome and comfortable work- house, erected only sixteen years ago, at an expense of nearly five thousand pounds, is to be sold as old materials ; a new one, to contain the paupers of every parish in the Brentford Union, is being built, where it will be an unsightly nui- sance ; one of their principal thorough- fares is blocked up, in order to form a drain from the New Bastile ; their poor- rates are materially increased since the management of them has been taken from the parishioners, and will be still further raised when the Avorkhouse job is coia- ^leted."— Northern Star, Nov. 3, 1838. '• On Friday, Oct. 26, Benjamin EUis, applied to the Board of Guardians, of the Epping Union, for some assistance to enable him to support his family, consist- ing of a wife and eight children, which he said he w'as not able to do at the present increased price of flour, with only 8s. 6d. a-week, which was all he received, after paying Is. 6d. a-week rent. He hoped they would allow him only a peck of flour, which was all he required. This the Guardians refused to give him, and he was ordered to go with his whole family into the Union workhouse, where they are now supjiorted at the expense of about 25s. 3|d. a-iveek." — Northern Star, Nov. 24, 1838. "At Pontefract Sessions, more than £40 were paid out of the county] rates, for expenses incurred by the Poor-Law Guardians of Huddersfield, in constabu- lary force for their protection in their several attempts to force the Devil-King's law down the throats of the people. Up- wards of £300 was also paid for the London police for the same glorious purpose." — Northern Star, April 14, 1838. " Stkoud Boaed of Guardians. — A correspondent of the Cheltenham Ex- aminer says — ' In the Stroud Union, the expenditui-e for the maintenance and relief of the poor, has increased three per cent, since the establishment of the New Poor- Law ! ! ! In the face of this, Mr. Thomas Hall, the Vice-Chairman, lately proposed an increase of £10 per annum to the salary of the Chaplain of the Union workhouse, making his salary £60 ; which motion was carried on the 24th of January. But why is not this £60 per annum saved, by accepting the offers of respectable dissenting clergymen, who THE BOASTED ECONOMY OF THE NEW POOR-LAW. 519 have offered to do the duty icithoutj^ay ?" — Champion, Feb. 7, 1840. " The good people of Halifax, and other townships, are about to be saddled with the following economical salaries out of the poor-rate: — Clerk, £140 per an- num ; four Relieving Officers (£80 each), £320 per annum ; Halifax Assistant, £150 per annum; five Assistant Over- seers (£80 each), £400 ; Auditor of Ac- coimts, £20 ; making, in the whole, the sum of £1,030, which would keep 158 paupers, allowing as much as is generally granted, that is to say, 2s. 6d. per week each!"— rmes, Feb. 20, 1838. EXPENSES OF THE POOR-LAW COMMIS- SION : — £. s. d. S Commissioners, at £2,000 per annum 6,000 1 Secretary, at £1,200 per ann. 1,200 18 Assistant Commissioners, at £700 a-year 12,600 2 Assistant Secretaries, (1 at £700a.year, the other, £550 1,250 Chief Clerk, at £220 a-year.. 220 Clerks— 8 of Class 1, at £200 a-year 1,600 8 of Class 2, at £150 a-year ],200 10 of Class 3, at £120 a-year 1,200 12 of Class 4 (7 at £100 a-year, 3 at £80, and 2 at £70) 1,080 Migration Agent 400 Ottice Keeper 100 Messengers (2 at £78 a-year, 1 at £G2 8s <- 284 18 Housekeeper, at £36 10s Travelling expenses and allow- ances of 18 Assistant Commis- sioners, while absent from London on service, including salaries and travelling ex- penses of their clerks ..... 15,318 1 1 Contingencies and House ex- penses 5.435 7 10 " At Hulme, the expenditure under the old Poor-Law, for the two quarters of March and June, 1837, was as follows : — £. s. d. March quarter 398 1 June ditto 337 0^ Total of both quarters 735 1 0^ " Under the New Law : — 1838— March quarter 502 16 9^ June ditto 567 1 4 Total 1,069 18 IJ Balance in favour of the old law 334 17 IJ — Manchester Advertiser^ July> 1836. " The sum expended for the relief of the poor alone, in the year ended 25th of March, 1838, was £4,123,604, which is tico per cent, more than in the preceding year." — Companion to the Almanac^ 1840. " Increase of the espenditiu'C of the poor-rates in Lancashire is l.Q per cent. ; Nottinghamshire, 18; West Riding of Yorkshire, 12; Warwickshire, 9." — Conijyanion to the Almanac, 1840. " The rates have been diminished prin- cipally by the great demand for labour ; but they have, in many cases, increased under the present system : as, for in- stance, in a Union in Berkshire to the amount of ^/"/y j^cr cent." — Extract of a Letter from Earl Stanhope to the Author, dated Chevening, March 7, 1839. Ultimately the New Poor-Law must fail even as an economic measure. It appears by the last published report of the Poor-Law Commissioners, that the increase of the poor-rates, in spite of every art to reduce the nominal amount, is, for the year, seven per cent, for all England, and ticelve for Wales. For Kent the increase is ffteen per vent., in some other counties, more than that." — Kent Herald, August, 1840. COST OF UNION AVOHKHOUSES. No. of persons Place. house, to contain. Grant. Abingdon 500 £9,200 Banbury 300 £6,000 Bishop Stortford. . . 400 £ 1 0,530 A Place in Kent... 500 £5,000 Leicester 600 £9,600 Wolverhampton.. 500 £9,000 Wandsworth 400 £11,000 — Commissioners' Reports. " The Radford workhouse for 200 peo- ple had cost £5,000; and the rates at Ijenton had increased from £16 Ids. per quarter to £91." — A Speaker at the Not- tingham Meeting of Rate-payers, July 1 6, 1840. " I come here free from all bias, boldly and fearlessly to plead the cause of hu- manity, and I ask how have the poor- laws acted upon the parishes in Notting- ham ? Has there been less expense ? By the Poor-Law Commissioners' ' Re- port' for 1 838, as compared with an aver- age of three years preceding the forma- tion of the Union, I find an increase of 66 per cent.'' — William Roworth, Esq., Mayor of Nottingham, at Ibid. " Whilst the poor have been ground 520 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. down in theii' allowances, the higher order of paupers, the Commissioners, flourish in all the chubby freshness of absolute plethora. Their salaries have been raised in the ratio of pauper allowance cut down, thus — Chief Commissioners, from £1,000 to £2,000 per annum ; Assistant-Com- missioners, from £800 to £1,500 ditto. Ey the workhouse bill the number was restricted to nine ; there are now twenty- five ! ! !" — Blachvood' s Magazine. " Notwithstanding the vaunt of the supporters of the New Poor-Law, that mider it rates would be reduced, such is not the case in these parishes, a very considerable debt having been incurred by the enlargement of the workhouse, which entails a heavy debt upon the rate-payer for sixteen years." — Petition of the United Parishes of St. Andrew, Holborn Bars, and St. George the Martyr, Middlesex, Feb. 22, 1841. " So painfully expensive is the New Poor-Law working at Bath, that I feel persuaded, ere long, the rate-payers will be up in arms against it. The rates are so high here, that the tradesmen know not how to pay them ; and, accordingly, every species of economy, bearing most heavily upon the poor, is being put into jiractice by the Board. Heavy are the grievances both of the middle classes and the paupers ; and very soon it must come to a climax." — Extract of a Letter from the Rev. C. F. Watts, to the Author, dated i?«M, August 21, 1840. " It (the Poor-Law) has also failed in the boasted efficacy of placing the pauper below the labourer. The wages of the labourer in the Axminster Union amount, to a family of six persons, to Is. 2d. each, while the cost of maintaining paupers in the Union-house is 2s. 9d. per head per week." — Kent Herald, August, 1840. "A woman, whose husband had left her, but who bore an irreproachable cha- racter, being anxious to stay out of the house, and finding she could not earn for the maintenance of herself and two chil- dren above half-a-crown a-week, applied to the Board to allow her a trifle, but in vain. The poor woman was accordingly forced into the Bath Union workhouse, with her children, where she has been ever since, upwards of twelve months, at a cost to the rate-payers of nearly 9s. a-week, when about 2s. or 3s. a-week out-door relief would have satisfied her." — The Rev. C. Foivell Watts s (of Bath) Letter in the " Titnes," Aug. 25, 1840. "In the ' Fourth Report' of the Poor- Law Commissioners, page 50, will be found the following statement, made to Lord John Russell, relative to the saving said to have been efi*ected since the intro- duction of the Poor-Law Amendment- Act — ' We need hardly assure your lord- ship, that although we derive satisfaction from perceiving the gradual diminution of the burdens of the rate-payers, and from the conviction that the Poor-Law Amend- ment-Act has already relieved the country from a direct annual taxation of nearly £2,300,000 sterling, we look with greater interest upon those higher results of that important measure, which are daily de- veloping themselves. Note — The actual amount of decrease upon the 462 Unions, after deducting the increase shown by the next column, is £1,627,826.' " " The pubUc have most undoubtedly a right to expect a vast saving and a large reduction in their rates in consequence of the thousands of poor who have been in- discriminately deprived of their paltry pittances, and frequently of their pitiful existence ; but the more this matter shall be fairly examined, and properly under- stood, the more it will be discovered, that instead of the rate-payers reaping any beneflt from the starvation diet-tables of the Poor-Law Commissioners, and the frequent deprivation of the deserving poor of any relief but a prison workhouse, it will be found that a very large portion of such surplus will be swallowed by in- creased salaries, newly created places, jobbing in building and altering work- houses, expenses of electing Guardians, and the general wholesale jobbing under this new law. All this (as a matter of course) it is the interest of the Poor-Law Commissioners to hide from the public view, and therefore if, with the help of their hosts of Assistants, who are living in luxury at the expense of the countrj^, and depending upon the maintenance of this scheme, and the thousands of paid officers, such as clerks to the Guardians, Masters of w^orkhouses. Relieving Offi- cers, and suchlike, all entirely under the control of the Commissioners, they can succeed in persuading the public that the new law is not only good for the poor, but a saving of more than £2,000,000 annually, they will easilj^ succeed in get- ting rid of all opposition to the New Poor-Law Act." — Mr. John Day's (of Southwark) " Letters to Lord John Russell." " At first the Poor-Ijaw Commission Avas to be for a term of years ; it has, we THE BOASTED ECONOMY OE THE NEW TOOR-LAW. 521 fear, obtained a permanent establishment. At first, Mr. Edwin Chadwick was the sole secretary, there are now three well- endowed secretaries, and they are crying out for additional colleagues. At first, there were nine Assistant-Commissioners, there are now twenty-eiyhf, who, in place of travelling from county to county, as was originally intended by the legislature, now pitch their tents indifferent quarters, and dictate every measure to Boards of Guardians with domineering arrogance." — Metropolitan Conservative Journal., Sept. 19, 1840. "Farmers, hereafter, will find, that no lasting benefit is intended for them by the law ; new leases at increased rents, in exact proportion to the reduction of rates, will bring them to their former position ; but, when the trifling furniture of the present poor shall have been swal- lowed up, can the present pinching be continued ? Must not the poor creatures then flock to the Union-houses to escape starvation? In such weather as this, they must go or perish ! The ' houses ' must then fill, and consequently the rates must increase." — " Letters of a Suffolk Juror on the New Poor-Law." " In the parish, or Union (St. Geoi'ge's, Southwark), everybody knows how the rates have increased since the formation of the Union under the Poor-Law Act. Yet, in this Report (the fourth) of the Poor-Law Commissioners, we are told there is a decrease of 47 per cent, in the expenditure in 1837 and 1838. The Commissioners, in their columns, state our expenditure is, for the year ending the 25th of Mai-ch, 1 838, £10,938, where- as the actual expenditure, according to our books, is, the sum of £16,025 7s. 2d., and the money paid for the alteration of the workhouse during the year was £4,853 3s. 5d., making a total of £20,878 10s. 7d.— nearly double the amotint stated by these Poor-Law Com- missioners." — Mr, John Day's " Letters to Lord John Russell." " Practical experience has taught the Board, that the townships which refuse to come under the supervision of the Com- missioners (and there are two of them in the Todmorden Union), manage their affairs in such a manner, as that their rates are not half so niicch in the pound as in those townships which have elected Guardians, and thereby put themselves under Somerset-house tuition and con- trol. Langficld, for instance, one of the townships refusing to adt)pl the law, is rated at only one shilling in the pound, whereas those which have come under the law are rated, one at 3s. in the pound, one at 2s. 6d., and another at 2s. ; no township in the Union being rated so low asLangfield." — Halifax Guardian, March 28, 1840. " The fact that, at Ludlow, the extra- vagant salary of £120 a-year is paid to a gentleman clerk, in the person of Mr. Thomas, whose post is of a character to enable him to yo touring doion the Rhine, for near three months toyether, making his salary something like £160 for the time he is actually in attendance, is a great abuse, and a fraud upon the rate-payers ; when it is a well-known fact, that several persons, a respectable solicitor amongst them, are ready to take the duties of the office for £80 a-year." — Ludloiv Standard^ Oct. 17, 1840. "Mr. Thomas Bond, Clerk of the Stroud Union, appeared on Friday last, before the bench of justices at Stroud, to answer an information laid by Mr. Parker, the Assistant-Commissioner, charging him with having embezzled and wilfully misapplied the sum of £5 12s. 6d. be- longing to the funds of the Stroud Union." — Morning Herald, Nov. 17, 1840. " I have long considered that this New Poor-Law must eventually increase the burdens of the rate-payers, in proportion as the workhouse system is carried out. In this opinion I am fully borne out in my practical experience in the ad- ministration of relief in St. George's f Southwark J parish ; for with us, I have observed, that in proportion as the Poor- Law regulations have been acted upon, so the rates seem to have risen ; and again, in proportion as the regulations have been set aside, and the Guardians have acted upon a discretionary policy, as well as with humanity, such as grant- ing out-door relief, judiciously and care- fully, to deserving applicants, so have they decreased. In 1836, whilst I was a Guardian, this policy was generally pursued, and the rates were at one period of the year as low as 7d. in the pound, and no part of the year more than 9d. In 1837, the Guardians were favourable to the Poor-Law, and, although I think not inclined to go its full length against the poor, still they acted upon its policy generally, and the number of in-door poor was considerably increased, the amount of loans was extremely small, one quarter only £3 1 4s. ; but, what with workhouse alterations, and the Poor- 522 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. Law system generally being more carried out than in the previous year, the rates gradually mcreased, until, by the time they left office, a rate was required of Is, upon an increased assessment equal to Is. 2d. in the pound." — Days ^'■Prac- tical Observations on the Neiv-Poor- Law.^'' " I know that all the small occupiers are paying more rates than ever they did, some of them twice and thrice the amount. But, although some parishes are higher, yet upon the face of any district, or county, their accounts may be made to slioio a decrease^ because the Auditor strikes off so many items that used to be passed, which are not allowed now. They boasted, at first, of saving 40 per cent., that is, they saved 40s. and spent 40s. in salaries and expenses, and the poor only get about 20s. out of every £5 of rates that they used to have under the old law." — From a South County Cor- respondent. " The expense the keep of the poor cost in some of these Bastiles, is enor- mous — according to the Union printed accounts, 3s. 3^d. each per week. Thus, if a man, his wife, and six children, eight persons, are, for want of employment, sent into the Union workhouse, they cost £1 5s. 8d per week. But from these same printed accounts I have added the salaries of the officers, &c., &c. — that is, the expenses of the establishment, and then find they cost above 7s. 8f d. each per head per week ; and, in fact, although the food and clothing only are 3s. 2id. a-week, yet, directly and indirectly, this same man, wife, and six children, these eight persons, who would be hiyhly con- tented with an out-door allowance of 8s. or 10s., cost £3 Is. lOd, ! ! Was there ever anything so outrageous ! ! when the parishioners, I repeat, might have the man's labour for 10s., and keep him happy and comfortable in his cottage, and, perchance, a profit of another 10s., which, mind, is 20s. per week on one side : these sameCommissioners, headed by the Somerset-bouse Cerberus, compel the aforesaid man, wife, and six children, to march into a gaol to save life at an ex- pense (directly and indirectly) of £3 Is. lOd. on the other side! thus making a difference of £4 Is. lOd. per week, to make, perchance, the man and his growing-up family, mark ! robbers, rogues, and rebels ; planting the seeds of hatred, malice, and revenge, in their bosoms against their superiors — not to mention the after calling for and requir- ing a rural police, at an enormous ex- pense, in addition, mind ! to keep these said New Poor-Law-made robbers, rogues, and rebels, in order and sub- jection !" — Ibid. " Although the poor are almost half, and frequently altogether, starved in these Union-houses, I think you may say, they cost each Is. per day, or 7s. per week, directly and indirectly, all over England. Thus a man and wife, with four chil- dren, six persons, cost two guineas per week to make them wretched and miser- able ! Now, if you can couple such facts and figures with your sympathies^ and simplify them so as they can spread, not only among the higher and middle classes, but into every cottage, you would do wonders against this accursed law. The sympathies touch the feelings — but the cost will make a double and more lasting impression on the minds of all ranks ; for the higher and middle classes generally have no idea that the poor cost half the money they do ; and, if aware of it, it would frighten them to such an ex- tent, that they would instantaneously give more allowance or employment out of the Bastiles, rather than send them in."— Ibid. " Lord Melbourne, our Prime Minister, declared in his speech, on the introduc- tion of the Bill, that the poor-rates were ' a growing tax increasing every year J Now, the Parliamentary documents on the subject, completely refute his lord- ship's declaration, for the year previous to the enactment of the new measure, the poor-rate in England and Wales, was stated to be reduced three-and-a-half per cent, upon the gross amount for that very year." — Blahey's " General Principles of Parochial Relief." " Previous to the introduction of the New Law, the rates in St. George's, Southwark, were reduced from 18d. to 9d. in the pound per quarter. This fact pretty well shows, that the evils of the old law were principally in its adminis- tration, rather than in the law itself." — Days " Practical Observations on the Neio Poor-Laiv." *' According to the testimony of Mr. Gray, one of the Guardians of the Chichester Union, it appeared that the rates in 1832 in that Union amounted to £6,399 and, in 1837, to only £2,216; and where had there been a greater reduc- tion in any of the Unions which had been formed ? But was the Chichester Union THE BOASTED ECONOMY OF THE NEW POOR-LAW. 523 under the regulations of the Poor- Law Commissioners ? No ; it was regulated by an Act which had been in existence more than 80 years." — Mr. Wakleij, House of Co?n?nons, February 20, 1838. " Under the present system a great deal more was paid for the poor than was levied by rates. In many parishes sub- scriptions were raised for soup, clothes, and money, for the poor ; in short, making an addition to the rates which caused the benevolent portion of the inhabitants to come down with very much larger sums than they paid under the old system." — 3Ir. Hodges, Houses of Commons, Feb. 20, 1838. " How economically, as well as humanely, is this New Poor-Bill working ! Of this his Grace of Portland is probably fully convinced I have been given to understand, that so great, through the summer, has been his Grace's a^^prehen- sion of a visit from the acknowledged children of his Grace's favourite adopted bantling, the New Poor-Law, the Chartists — that his spacious splendid mansion has been guarded throughout, like a fortress when besieged. That nearly _y?/'ify armed men have been kept within, ready to defend it by night and day — none being suffered to pass in or out, but by watch- word. How economically and pleasantly is the Bill working!" — Mr. Samuel Roberts, in the " Sheffield Iris,'^ Nov. 5, 1839. . "He hoped they would see the pro- priety of following the example of the Guardians of the Todmorden Union, who, after being consulted by the Auditor and Commissioners, proved clearly that the New Law or scheme, tvas much more expensive than the old one, and unanimously resolved to petition for a dissolution of the Union. The Droitwich Guardians had petitioned for the discontinuance of the Assistant-Commissioners, as expensive and unnecessary ; and the Worcester Guardians had petitioned for the dimissal of the three Commissioners in London... He had heard, with some surprise, that the clerk and auditor's salaries had been raised only a few weeks ago, and now they could not find means (being 800/., in arrears) to meet payments." — Mr. L. Pitkethley' s Address at the Huddersfield Board of Guardians — " Northern Star," April 25, 1840. " By the ' Report, of the Commissioners just published, it appears, that ' several thousand pounds are saved by the New Poor-Law in litigation alone.' Indeed ! ! ! Pro-di-gi-ous ! ! ! Well, then, there are the three Inquisitors-General, with all their travelling Torturers, their Informers, Spies, &c., &c., whose salaries and other expenses probably amount to more than a hundred thousand pounds per annum. Set this to the per contra side of savings ! Well, then, it has been calculated that the erecthig of New Union Bastiles, with incidentals, will not on the whole be less than five hundred thousand pounds to the same side. Again, the addition which the New Poor-Law has rendered neces- sary to be made to the Army (with all requisites) in order to keep the dissatisfied people in subjection, cannot be less than half-a-miUion a-year. This is something more on the same side. In addition to these — for the same necessary purpose — another army of Policemen is kept in constant liberal pay — to what amount I cannot tell — but it is said that, along with these, there is to be a General Rural Police to be spread (like the fleas, lice, and locusts of Egypt) all over the face of the country, to teach agricultural labour- ers to eat bread made of something in- ferior to flour, and to make them thankful for 8s. a-week wages. We will only estimate this at a hundred thousand a-year, but this is something on the outside. Then there are the Chartists — that religious body of men — (which we are assured, by Lord John Russell himself, would never have existed but for the New Poor-Law,) — have not only much added to the alarm of the country, but have consequently caused a loss, and an expense, far beyond what would be considered as correct, could I here accurately calculate it ; at any rate it must form (already J a most formidable drawback in the saving in liti- gation. Then there is a great proportion of the Secket Service Money goes in support of the New Poor-Law, as well as of the holy Regium Donum — how much, perhaps, the Rev. Dr. Pye Smith may be able to tell !" — Mr. Samuel Roberts, (of Sheffield,) Letter dated Feb. 10, 1840. " I have this morning received a letter from a clerical brother, to whom I had written. He states ' I understand that the parish rates are generally increased ; and it is evident that this is the case in those Unions in which the recipients of parish relief are by no means so well, or so comfortably, provided for as before. Even in the Chippenham Union, than which a more humane one cannot be named, it is so." — Extract of a Letter 524 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. from the Rev. C. Powell Waits (of Bath) Octobers, 1840. " Again, a clerical brother, in Wiltshire, has informed me, that where he paid, on an average, £38 a-year, during the seven years immediately preceding the operation of the New Poor-Law, he has already paid, since its operation, on an average, £52 a- year, and shall pay this year considerably more ; at the same time adding, not that the poor are better off — far otherwise ; for their privations and distresses are much increased." — Ihid. "With regard to the increase of rates, I can only say, that with us it is alarming !"' — From a Portsmouth Correspondent to the Author, October, 1840. " Under the establishment of the New Poor-Law, I have no hesitation in saying, that in the smaller parishes the expense has increased ; in about two larger places it has diminished. So that, by this central- ization measure, little parishes are made to pay to the larger ones." — Pxtract of a Letter from a Gentleman at Stamford to the Author, dated 24th of October, 1840, " The rates levied upon the town of Bolton are likely to amount to £16,000 for the year 1840. In 1834 and 1835 when the rates paid stood at about £4,000 that sum included, not merely the poor-rates, but the county rates and the constabulary charges. Now, however, vestries are changed into Boards of Guardians under the absolute despotism of the Poor-Law Commissioners, and the constabulary is changed into a Rural Police ; and the charges for each branch of the local ad- ministration, the poor, the police, and the county, are kept separate. Of the £ 1 6,000 the Guardians require £8,342 for the poor. Sir Charles Shaw requu-es 3,920/. for his police ; and the magistrates, within 2001. or 300/., require the remainder to make the prison keep pace with the Bastile ! When the parochial vestry of Bolton managed their own affairs, they could provide for poor, police, and prison altogether for the same sum as Sir Charles Shaw requires for police alone." — Metro- politan Conservative Journal, Nov. 21, 1840. " HuDDEKSFiET.D Union. — This Union is now involved in so great a debt, that its banker has refused to advance any more money unless proper security is given. We understand that none of either the elected or ex-officio Guardians will give it." — Manchester Advertiser, August 8, 1840. " Lord Sandon presented a petition from Liverpool signed by betveeen 30,000 and 50,000, stating, that they had been under Sturges Bourne's Act for 20 years, during which time the rates had been reduced from 5s. 6d. in the pound to Is. 6d., that they were quite satisfied, and praying to be left alone." — House of Commons, March 26, 1841. " Mr. Fall then proceeded to denounce the Poor-Law Act, and reprobated, in no measured terms, the conduct of the late Board of Guardians, who carried on their proceedings with closed doors, in order that their scandalous treatment of the poor who came to apply for relief might be concealed from the public. (Shame.) That system would, however, now be changed, as the present Board meant to hold all their meetings in public, upon whom the only restriction would be, that they are not to take part in their proceed- ings, unless to prevent imposition being practised by those persons applying for relief. The late Board, as the meeting was already well aware, had been building additions to the workhouse, which cost an enormous sum of money ; and would they believe, that the late 13oard had paid to Dr. Barrett, and other persons, for a quar- ter-of-an-acre of land, not less than 4,530/. 10s., this sum being made of several items, to two or three reverend gentlemen, who somehow or other found they had a right in it, when it was to be paid for at so extravagant a rate. (Cries of ' Shame, shame.') They charged also the sum of 725/. a-year for officers and servants, added to which there were salaries to the Relieving-OfBcers of 600/. a-year — (not too much, perhaps, for the nature of their duties) — master and mis- tresses 515/. a-year, and a schoolmaster 1 37/. per annum. All this was monstrous enough, but he now came to one of the grossest things he ever remembered. At Norwood, the parish had nurses at a shil- ling a-week, as a sort of premium on good conduct in the workhouse ; there were also nurses under them, who conducted themselves well and kept the place in admirable order. All these poor people were turned back to the workhouse, and servants were hired to fill their places at an expense to the parish of 800/. a-year ! Then they further picked up a school- master, some enthusiast from Glasgow, named Stone, who wanted all manner of books, maps of England and Scotland, and Europe, and of Palestine (a laugh) — also treatises for making sugar — the West Indies (laughter) — for cultivating rice in THE BOASTED ECONOMY OF THE HEW POOR-LAW. 5-25 China and cotton in South America (roars of laughter) — and coloured prints of this thing, and that thing, and the other, even to a print of the ' Finding of Moses.' (Continued laughter.) But was this all ? Oh, no. He also wanted shuttle- cocks and battledoors for the boys, and a handsome swing for the girls. The Scotch master, however, was dismissed with other useless persons, which already produced a saving of 350^. a-year. Mr. Whatman, too, had been dismissed, with considerable saving to the parish, the object of his dismissal being, that the vestry could do very well without him." — Meeti7ig of the Parishioners of St. Mary's, Lambeth, April 17, 1838, " The rates have in many places been increased since the measure came into operation. By the simple production of our receipts, we could pi'ove this to be the case in the parish in which we are now writing; and a well-managed parish it is, according to modern notions of manage- ment, that is, the administrators of the law give as little to the poor as they can, and use all diligence, and strain all their faculties, to save the pockets of the rate- payers. And if the fifty thousand a-year which is paid out of the taxes to the Poor-Law functionaries, and the cost of Union-houses and Union-officers, were added to the poor-rates, is it not probable that the increase we have felt in one parish would be found general throughout England ? But, supposing we add the salaries of paid Guardians — and let our words be noted — if the present system is continued, Poor-Law Guardians will, before long, be paid as well as Poor-Law Commissioners, Secretaries, and Clerks ; supposing we add these salaries to the sum above mentioned extracted from the pockets of the poor, and, moreover, the cost of maintaining that armed rural police which is the immediate offspring of the Poor-Law Amendment-Act, will not the sum total required to subject the poor to starvation be found not only to equal, but considerably to exceed, the amount of the old poor-rate, even under all the abuses of the old law ?" — Frazers Maga- zine, April, 1841. by that law. You are aware that an official account of these savings is pomp- ously ushered out by the Commissioners annually ; and that, when any one is audacious enough to say that his rates have been increased under the New Poor- Law, he is indignantly referred to that list as a conclusive argument. The following fact (and one fact is worth a thousand arguments) — the following fact illustrates most beautifully, the manner in which such list is made out, and proves to a demonstration, that no confidence what- ever is to be placed in any document emanating from such an impure source. I shall give you it verbatim, from the lips of the gentleman from whom I received it. Let the Commissioners deny it, if it be not true. "'RADFORD UNION, NEAR NOTTINGHAM. " ' When the report of expenses (increase and decrease) of the Poor-Law Unions through- out the country came from the Commissioners to this Union, finding that the report stated that the expenses of Radford parish, under the Union, had decreased in the last year 29 pe? cent, (the fact being, that the expenses had in- creased about that per cent.) the Chairman, Mr. Matthew Needham, was requested by a Guardian to have ' the report ' contradicted by the Board of Guardians to the Commissioners. The Chair- man replied, ' I think we had better not; there has already been so much stated with regard to the Commissioners and the New Poor-Law Act, that we had better let it alone ! ' The result is, that the report has never yet been contradicted. Needham is a crony of the Commissioners, a Whig, and he is said to be one of those magis- trates whom the Duke of Newcastle would not recommend.' " You have it, just as I received it, from a most respectable manufacturer, gentle- man, and Guardian. I will make no com- ment. — I remain. Sir, your truly obliged, " RICHARD OASTLER." —Champion, July 28, 1839, " TO THE EDITOR OF THE CHAMPION. " Sir, — As it appears that the Govern- ment is resolved to drive the people to extremities, rather than repeal the New Poor-Law, it may be as well to show the base tricks resorted to, to deceive the nation, with respect to the savings effected " The amount of poor-rates levied in 1 803, in the Isle of Anglesea, was £6,167; in 1827, £15,285; in 1837, £18,270. In Bath, the poor-rates' expen- diture, in 1839, amounted to — for the city, £14,168; and for the Union, £24,092, The average annual expendi- ture on the poor of the district, during the three years preceding the formation of the Union, was 19,928/." — Parliament- ary Gazeteer, 1840. " His constituents were unanimous in their opposition to this bill ; and they be- lieved that this system had a tendency to increase, rather than diminish, the poor- rates." — 3Ir. Brotherton, House of Com- mons, March 19, 1841. 526 T?rE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. ' A lavish expenditure of the public money '." Whig (when in opposition) Stock Phrase. "At the end of 1835, upon the intro- duction of the New Law into the parish of St. George's, Southwark, there was a good balance of cash at the bankers after every claim was paid. But in how dif- ferent a situation is our parish now placed, though the Commissioners will insist upon making their boast of saving us 40 per cent, (and at first they said 47 per cent.). At the meeting of our Board of Guardians on the 4th of April, 1838, the first meeting after the accounts were made up for the 25th of March, 1838, the statement was made to the Guar- dians, as follows : — ' Debts due for tradesmen's bills, maintenance of the poor, &c., up to the '25lh. of March, 1838 (besides workhouse alterations) . . £2,500 Cash at Bankers to meet the same 700 Deficiency £1,800 One Half-year's Instalment, due to 25th of March, upon the £G,500 borrowed for workhouse alterations (since paid) £325 Half-year's Interest (ditto) . 162 10 ' This will clearly show a sum of £2,287, which, having all been contracted for, or a debt due arising out of what had been actually consumed in 1838, must form part of the expenditure of that year. If the money could have been obtained, it would have been paid, as was the pre- vious rule ; but the poor-rate having been raised so considerahly, the people could not so well pay, and so became in arrear." — Mr. John Day's " Letters to Lord John Russell.'''' "At the close of 1835, when the parish of St. George's, Southwark, fell into the hands of the Commissioners, it was perfectly free from debt — no man had a claim for a single 10/. — and the first entries in the New Pooi'-Law ledger, Jan. 1, 1836, will be found as follows : — 'Cash received from Mr. Gilham, the Overseer £1,446 10 Ditto from the April, July, and October rates, 1835 . . 1,505 15 8 Ditto for Summonses on same rates 10 4 6 Total.... £2,962 10 2' Thus showing a sum of 2,962/. 10s. 2d. for the Poor-I.,aw Commissioners to com- mence with, free of all debt, as before stated — a sum that proved to be very nearly equal to the entire expenditure of the quarter, including county and poHce- rates. Now, wlien the inhabitants com- pare this healthy state of affairs when the Poor-Law Commissioners interfered, and now find that at the end of the quarter ending the 25th of March, 1838, the parish was in debt, and witliout the means of paying a sum of 2,289/. ; and that, besides all this, they are in debt between 7,000/. and 8,000/., money borrowed at exorbitant interest for workhouse build- ing, and that, notwithstanding all this mischief, the Poor-Law Commissioners have the audacity to tell the country, that they have effected a saving of 40 per cent. V'—Ihid. " The expense of electing Guardians in St. George's, Southwark, for 1838, was 134/. 13s. 3d."— //>/>/. " The rates (in St. George's, South- wark) made in 1835, amounted to 3s. 8d. in the pound, but in the present year (1838) to 4s., allowing for the increase of assessment. The parish is also more than 3,000/. worse than it was at the end of 1835, which 3,000/. is equal to about a lOd. rate. The fair and proper com- parison, therefore, should be as follows : — For the year 1 835 (under the old law), rates, 3s. 8d. ; ditto, 1838 (under the Poor-Law Amendment- Act), 4s. lOd. — difference. Is. 2d. in the pound, besides the workhouse debt still to pay, which workhouse is by no means applicable for what it was even intended, there being no proper means for full and efficient classification ; and if the Poor-Law prin- ciple of constantly ' offering the house' were acted upon, it will hold so few more than the old one, that it would very soon be full, and then the ' test ' (supposing it to be good) is at once defeated, and the outlay of all these thousands is compara- tively lost to the parish. After this ex- planation, I will venture to ask, was ever such a piece of deception and trickery attempted to be foisted upon men in their senses as to tell us the Poor-Law Com- missioners have saved us 40 per cent. ?" —Ibid. THE BOASTED ECONOMY OF THE NEW POOR-LAW. 527 *' The disgraceful misrepresentations of the Poor-Law Commissioners, parti- cularly in our locality (Southwark), are now likely to be taken up in thorough good earnest by the inhabitant rate-payers themselves, for it seems they cannot be persuaded, by all the ingenuity the Com- missioners can devise, that they are really saving their money, ivhilst paying increased rates.'' — Ibid. " Barnett, the Relieving Officer of Nottingham, has 250/, a-year, besides food, house-rent, coals, candles, &c." — Nottingham Review, Nov., 1840. *' The poor in the ' houses' were to be kept upon \kiQ fiftcenpenny -halfpenny sys- tem — it is still that sort of food ; how happens it, then, that the charge for maintenance is now about 3s. 6d. a-head.^ Is there no mismanagement? Who gets the plunder ? The cost, too, of clothing, is at the rate of 9d. a-head, when it is •well known, that those who go in only for a short time, take no clothing away with them ; still the 9d. a- week has to be paid. Now, if a man, his wife, and six children, go into a Union-house, and they are to cost a parish 30s. a-week, when it is well known, that not one labourer in fifty can earn even one-third of that amount ; and, that in the ' house,' he and his family are separated, and are kept but one degree above starvation — where does the one pound go to ? Either a poor man in full work is starved, and contentedly too, or the rate-payers are plundered when the families are sent to the house!" — '"''Letters of a Suffolk Juror." " I have frequently known well-con- ducted young widows, and women de- serted by their husbands, with two or three children, to be forced into the ' house' at an expense to the rate-payers of 10s. or I2s. per week, when the same would have rejoiced to stay out upon an allowance of one-third the sum." — Rev, C. Fotvell Watts' s (of Bath) Letter in the " Times;' Sept. 15, 1840. " I need not give a better illustration of the deplorable and helpless situation of rate-payers under the New Law, and how they can be taxed to any extent without their consent, and against their will, than a fact that has recently taken place in St. George's (Southwark) parish. The official returns of the num- ber of votes on the polling papers will show that the majority of the Guardians of St. George's, for 1837 (eighteen in number), were elected by a majority of proxy votes, as opposed to the votes of the rate-payers. The Poor-Law Com- missioners had long been solicitous to obtain a workhouse, built upon their principle. This the previous Board had refused to consent to, and had proposed a certain moderate alteration, at an ex- pense of a few hundred pounds, which the Poor-Law Commissioners positively refused to sanction. However, the Guardians of 1 837 appeared to be quite equal to the occasion, for never were men more obedient to their masters, and ten or eleven out of this eighteen, ventured and dared to invohe the parish in an expense of 8,000/., in addition to nearly 2,000/. more, — the extra expense of farming the poor during the time required for the completion of the job, and this for the purpose of altering (not building) a workhouse, in the Mint, one of the most filthy situations in the metropolis, with- out the necessary yard-room, so import- ant to the health of the inmates, and without the means of complete classifica- tion, or room for workshops, &c. Nay, more ; they borrowed the money at five p)er cent, interest, without any competi- tion, and that from a private company, when no one doubts it might have been obtained at four per cent. ; but then, the Poor-Law Commissioners had recom- mended them to horroiv it of that parti- cular company, at that interest, and this appeared to be quite a sufficient reason for these gentlemen to act upon, although it was notorious, that the great majority of the inhabitants, who had to pay for it, were opposed to it. A public vestry was called to petition against it, and did so almost unanimously, but to no purpose, as the job was determined to be done, and the money must be paid. Here, then, I think I fairly show, by incontro- vertible facts, that this New Law will enable ten gentlemen, not representing the parishioners, to spend 10,000/. to please the Poor-Law Commissioners, out of the parish funds." — Days " Practical Observations on the Neio Poor-Late.'''' " Already the eyes of the poor are be- ginning to open, and many a man, with a large family, very naturally now, in revenge for New Poor-Law oppression, says, I will try all I can to get sent into the ' house,' for the expense of keeping my family in there is so great, that those who send me there can't aflford to keep me and mine there long. I mention this from practical experience ; as a buyer of corn, I am much among the farmers, and 528 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. often hear them complain of the Guar- dians for sending men with large families into the ' house,' because, they say, they must take them out again, almost directly, on account of the expense. And they say, if the poor men, with large families, knew the expense, they Avould go into the ' houses' in troops, out of spite to those who had to pay it ! And the poor men, in many instances around me, have gone in with their families, and have soon been sent for out again, and after- wards have been better treated. When they threaten, in words like the following — ' Well, then, if I cannot get work for myself and family, or have some allow- ance (perchance for a sickly or lame child) to assist me, I'll e'en go into the building' — they have uniformly gotten out-relief, by some means or other, rather than they should be sent into the ' house.' " — Contributed hy a South County Friend. " In some counties — Suffolk among the number — though the poor-rates had diminished, the highway-rates had in- creased; for it had been found impossible to drive the poor into the Bastile, in which the dictators wished to confine them, and they had been, therefore, em- ployed on the highway." — Earl Stanhope^ Freemasons' Tavern Poor-Law Meeting, June 24, 1839. " In Marylebone the rates had been reduced from 4s. 4d. to Is. lid. — they had no Poor-Law there.'' — Mr. Webb, at Ibid. " The mere saving in money is pe- remptorily asserted to be a pure delusion, sustained by keeping out of sight the whole circumstances of the expenditure ; how much, for instance, that used to be charged against the poor-rates, is now charged to another fund ; how much that used to cost nothing separately on ac- count of the poor, as i-ural police, is now raised by the new system to an enormous item of public expense." — Blachvood's Magazine, March, 1841. " Petitions against the New Poor-Law Bill, in whole and in part, were presented from seventeen Guardians of the Union of Halifax, complaining, that since the New Poor-Law Bill, the rates had been doubled.'" — House of Commons, March 9, 1841. " Mr. Grimsditch presented a petition against the Poor-Law Bill from 2,133 respectable rate-payers ; they complained that the expense of the poor had increased 1 ,600^. a-year in the three years after the passing of the New Poor-Law, as com- pared with the three years before." — March 9, 1841. *' The Poor-Law Commissioners had, as he had before stated, taken to them- selves great credit for the vast economy and saving their administration of the law had proved to the nation. Now, by the printed documents which had been laid on the table of the House, on the motion of the noble lord, the member for Monmouth, he found, that in the year 1 839, the number of parishes that were united was 13,671 ; and in 1840, 13,695; so that in one year, the only increase in the number united was 24. In the year 1839, the amount levied for the relief of the poor was 4,865,600/. ; in the year following it was 5,213,898/.; so that in the year 1840, there was an excess in the expenditure, over the year 1839, of 348,298/. The Commissioners, however, said they had saved the countiy between 2,000,000/. and 3,000,000/. annually, but it appeared that that prospect would very shortly close, for he had shown that there had been, in one year, an increased expenditure of 348,298/., while there had been only 24 parishes added to the general Union, What he had hitherto stated was in respect of the general interests of the country as affected by this law ; but he would now refer to those interests which were more particularly local, and with which he was better acquainted. He would mention first, the Union of Preston, the town which he had the honour to represent. It was one of great extent, comprehending about 53,000 acres, and, at the present time, not much less than 90,000 inhabitants. In the year ending March, 1840, the expenditure of the Union for the maintenance of the poor was 12,632/. The average expense for the years 1834, 1835, and 1836, for the same purpose, amounted to 11,350/., so that there was an excess of more than 10 per cent, in the expense, and he was informed, it had been found necessary to increase the next call on the town 5 per cent. For the town of Preston for the same year, 1840, the expenditure was 6,782/., whilst the average for the years 1834, 1835, and 1836, was only 5,644/., so that there had been an excess of 1,138/., or more than 20 per cent. The average for the borough rate during the same three years, had been 9,867/., but for the year ending the 5th of March, 1841, the actual rate levied was 12,349/., show- ing an excess of 2,482/. He was in- THli BOASTED ECONOMY OF THE NEW POOR-LAW 5-29 formed that that, to a great extent, was to be attributed to the distress that existed in that district duiing the last year ; but be understood also, that it was to be at- tributed to their giving little out-door relief. He could not but think that that statement was exceedingly alarming ; for it had taken place during the time one of the Poor-Law Commissioners was re- siding in the town, and all was done under his particular direction, and now he had left, in all probability the expense would be greater. From the town of Preston he would return to that of Chor- ley, a large and populous town in his neighbourhood. In that place, also, there appeared to be a gradually-increasing ex- penditure for the relief of the poor of the parish. It was only united to the other parishes in 1838, or, he might say, not until March, 1839. Now, the average expense, then, during the years 1834, 1835, 1836, and 1837, had been 5,930/., but in the year following the Union, the expense had not been less than 6,430/. showing an excess of about 8 per cent. over the former expenditure. In the township of Adlington, in the same Union, for the three years preceding its junction with the Chorley Union, the rates were 221/., but since that time, they had been 291/., showing an excess of 34 per cent. In the township of Anderton, for the three years preceding its being joined to the other parishes, the average expense was 147/., but since that time it had been 248/., showing an excess of 70 per cent. He would now refer to the town of Pres- cot, with which he was not connected, but with the circumstances of which, he was well acquainted. During the time that town was managed by a select vestry, the average expense for the relief of the poor was 797/. ; but since the Union it had been 1,361/. annually, so that there was an excess of 70 per cent, in that township. These were very striking facts, and he should be much to blame if he were not to take that oppor- tunity of informing the noble lord oppo- site, that if the New Poor-Law had been such a great blessing and great saving to the country, its advantages had not yet reached that part of the north with which he was connected." — Mr. R. T. Parker, House of Commons, March 19, 1841. " He had always considered that the great value of every law was uniformity ; but the Poor-Law iVmendment-Act pro- duced no uniformity; what was law in one Union was not law in another Union. He should like the noble lord, who had had some experience as a Poor-Law Guardian, to pay a visit to the county of Lancaster, to the Bolton Union, to see how the law worked there. Why, at this moment, there were 6,000 or 7,000 pau- pers ; whereas, at the formation of the Union, the number was but 5,000. He might be told, that this was a time of pressure, which he would not deny ; but what was the machinery of the law in the Bolton Union, where the population was now about 100,000? He should like to know how 30 or 40 Guardians, meeting once a-month, to select different parts of the Union, could get through the-whole of the cases. He was sorry to take up the time of the House, but he felt the feeling against the Bill to be strong in the densely popu- lated districts ; that an anxiety prevailed on the subject there, nor was it popular in any part of the country. He would make only one or two observations with reference to the particular Union with which he was connected. Its area was 60,000 acres, and the expense, which, previous to the establishment, had been 3^. in the pound, was now 6s," — Mr. Grhnsditch, Ibid. " The petition against the introduction of the New Poor-Law Bill into the Borough of Liverpool, and against the continuance of power to the Poor-Law Commissioners, has, in the course of a few days, received no fewer than 40,000 signatures — signatures, too, bearing a character not generally appended to Par- liamentary petitions. Independent of the feeling thus displayed against the bill, by parties who have had no opportunity of experiencing its practical defects, the op- posite side of Liverpool, viz., the Cheshire side of the river, in the Union of the hundi'ed of Wirral, has got up a petition against it, which is also numerously signed. The inhabitants of this part of Cheshire, in consequence of finding that the bill is wholly inapplicable to their dis- trict (although an agricultural one), speak out more plainly to the Legislature than the people of Liverpool. Mr. Ramplin, a higlily-respectable inhabitant of that district, who has a thorough knowledge of the workings of that bill on the Cheshire side, says : — ' I find that the bill is a most abominable, andunchristianlike measure, and for a complete development of its abominations, I need only refer to the exposes given by the Times newspaper of the doings at Hoo, at Eton, and other places where its diabolical provisions have M 530 THE BOOK OF THE liASTILES. been enforced. With respect to its economy, they had printed evidence that the rates had increased 8^ percent, in the majority of the Unions. In the village of Hoylake, with which I am acquainted, there is only one pauper, a very aged woman, and this poor creature the myr- midons of the Poor-Law Commission- ers would have thrown into the work- house to spend her days, subject to those laws which I consider repugnant to the Christian religion, and to the laws of Eng- land. Friends of mine, however, exerted themselves, and procured to the old woman 2s. 6d. per week out-door relief, instead of being cast into the new dun- geon ; and, to sho\v the admirable work- ing of the system, to give this half-crown it cost the township 7s. 6d. in the travel- ling expenses of the Relieving Officer.' This statement of j\Ir. Ramplin may be corroborated by your correspondent in this respect, that he lives in a district which has only one pauper, and yet the district has to pay 60/. per year to the Union." — Times, Uareh 23, 1841. " A few days ago, a man, his wife, and eight children, who were lecciving 6s. per w^eek as out-door relief, and with •which they were content, and managed to live, were told they must either give up •the paltry sum, or go into a neighbouring Union workhouse, which latter alternative they accepted ; their maintenance now costs 21. per tveek I ! ! " — Sheffield Iris, March 23, 1841. " Lord Worsley presented a petition from the parish of St. George, Gloucester- shire, complaining that since the applica- tion of the Poor-Law Bill to that place the rates /tad increased from 1,742/. to 2,185/., and praying, that the rate-payers might be allow^ed to conduct their own affairs in the parish under their local act." — House of Commons, March 22, 1841, "Nothing could be more unfortunate than the selection by the Ministerial speakers on Monday's (March 22, 1841,) debate, of points upon which to contrast the two systems. Effectually silenced upon the points of uniformity, economy, and the effect upon the rate of wages, they struck out a new light on ^londay. Mr. B. Halves promulgated the discovery, that ' the great saving which had been effected, arose, not from any contracting of the comforts of the poor, but from putting down jobbing, and divesting the administration of the Poor-Law fund by a mass of interested persons.' We are Ao understand, therefore, that no saving has arisen from the regulations w hicli tear the poor receiving relief from their homes, and from the society of parents, children, husbands, wives — no saving from dietaries which cost only 2s. l^d. per pauper weekly, clothing included. But all tiie boasted gain has been effected, by placing the ad- ministiation of the Poor-Law in the hands of ' disinterested ' Commissioners, and Assistant-Commissioners, Relieving Offi- cers, Clerks of Unions, Masters and INIatrons of workhouses, &c., ivho cost the country nearly half-a-million sterling in salaries every year — instead of that ' mass of interested persons,' the overseers and country magistrates, who never were paid a farthing for their services."' — Times, March 24, 1841. " Sir J. Yarde Buller presented a pe- tition from the parish of Liche, in the Honitou Union, stating that the population of their parish was purely an agricultural one ; that, prior to the introduction of the New Poor-Law, their rates had been decreased, and there had been no com- plaint from their poor — that since the in- troduction of that law three years ago, the rates liad increased enormously, and the poor had complained greatly, and they prayed the House to dissolve the Honiton Poor-Law^ Union,'' — House of Commons, March 18, 1840. " The T'imes city article of Friday has the following passage : — It has been af- firmed by parties in the city w'hohave op- portunities of noticing the amount of Ex- chequer Bills afloat, and the purposes for which they are issued, that not less than 2,500,000/. has been advanced towards the erection of the various Union workhouses formed under the New Poor-Law in differ- ent parts of the country. At the outset of this unpopular and odious measure, the estimate was, that not more than 800,000/. would be required from Government in aid of such buildings. The history of these, and other advances for public works, w ith a list of the uncertain debts, and of the losses actually incurred, should it ever be fairly brought to light, will form one of the most curious and instructive portions of the financial administration of the present day. On the plan now in use for keeping the public accounts, no sort of clue is afforded to it. Exchequer bills are put down as issued and paid ofl' from time to time, but the old accounts in arrear are seldom brought forward, and, when they are ex- hibited, there is no possibility of collecting what the quality of the security is upon which ultimate repayment depends. Even THE BOASTED ECONOMY OF THE NEW POOR-LAW. 531 among the Union workliouses, it Is be- lieved by many well-informed persons, that the security in some cases is by no means of the best kind.' No arts will be able to keep this infernal law on its legs, if the people do their duty." — Champion, Oct. 20, 1839. " As much has been said of the advan- tages of the New Poor-Law, and Cam- berwell is considered rather a crack parish, the printed account of the expenditure of that parish, recently published by the Guardians, to the 28th of Dec. last, will show the extravagant rate at Avhich the machinery is worked. £. s. d. " The maintenance and clothing of the poor in the workhouse for one year, is stated at 1,875 2 7f *' Funerals of ditto 30 12 6 1,905 15 1; " Salaries of Officers . . . 689 17 8 " Ditto Medical Officers 263 " Rations of Officers in the workhouse 123 3 2f £1,076 lOf Showing the expense of management, as regards the poor in the workhouse, to be more than 50 per cent. The printed state- ment also shows upwards of 200^., ex- pended for furniture, &c., and no doubt the room where the Guardians meet is elegantly fitted up. And, although the workhouse is under the supervision of the Poor-Law Commissioners, yet 1,247^. 14s. d\d. is charged for out-door relief. This I do not object to, but it strongly shows the impossibility of carrying out the New Poor-Law with anything but humanity, without out-door relief. There are also charges of 62^. 16s. 8f/. for sta- tionery, &c., and 193/. 16s. Qd. miscel- laneous. Now, if the 1,247/. 14s. Q\d. charged for out-door relief is added to the charge for the poor in the workhouse, 1,905/. 15s. Iff/., it will make 3,153/. 9s. 1 If/ , showing the expense, even then, of this New Poor-Law management, to be more than 33 per cent." — Corres- pondent m the " Times," March 9, 1841. " An argument, put forth in behalf of this disgraceful measure, was, that the poor were maintained at a much less cost than under the old law. Now what was the fact? The expensive machineiy by which the New Poor-Law Act was carried 2 M out, had cost the country an increase of 1 ,200,000/. since the period of its intro- duction." — ITr. 3Iann, St. Pancras Meet- ing, March 8, 1841. " It is now more than five years since the Poor-Law Amendment-Act came into this Union, and your petitioners are disap- pointed at not having experienced the beneficial results so confidently promised by its promoters — namely, the improve- ment in the social condition of the laboui"- ing poor, by which their independence would be secured, and their wages in- creased, and also, that the amount of poor- rates would be greatly diminished. That a reduction of nearly fifty per cent, in the expenses of maintaining the poor in this Union was confidently held out by the Assistant-Commissioner in his reports, published in the year 1836; your peti- tioners, therefore, regret that the accounts of the expenditure in each year from that time to the present period, have proved his statement to be altogether fallacious, more particularly as tliey can have no reason for supposing that the expenses of carrying out the new law will be ultimately lessened." — The Barnstaple Petition, "r»«es," March II, 1841. " A numerous meeting of the parishion- ers of Lambeth was held last night, pur- suant to adjournment, at the school-room, Lambeth-green, to take into consideration the assessment of the parish under the New Poor-Law Act, Mr. Sanderson in the chair. Mr. Fall said, it had come to his knowledge, about Michaelmas last, that the Board of Guardians and others had concocted a plan by which the assess- ment of the parish was to be given to three gentlemen, who were to be paid the enormous sum of 6,000/. for the survey (hear, hear), and it was in consequence, that the present meeting had been called. He need not tell them, that the Guardians were ahens to them in principle and feel- ing. They had claimed 40,000/. for the Bastile, but 20,000/. had been got back, and he thought they would have some difficulty in again getting possession of it. He appealed to them (the meeting) whe- ther those who were called upon to pay the rates, ought not to have some con- trol over the levying and expenditure. The Board of Guardians had, as far as they possessed the power, closed a con- tract for the assessment of the parish, but he hoped the parishioners would see the Commissioners on the subject to-morrow, and endeavour to persuade them not to ratify it. (Heai-, hear.) Mr. Fall then 532 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. made a laughable allusion to the services of the officers of the Board, and, amongst the rest, to the duties of the surgeon, who, he said, had in the last year, 6,620 patients. He had paid 20,000 visits, served 16,000 mixtures, administered 12,000 powders, and 36,000 pills. This, at a very moderate calculation, would amount to £800 a-year, but the Poor- Law Act only provided £105 for such wholesale doctoring. (Laughter.) He would again refer to the Guardians, of whom he must say, that their acts would not bear the light. Nothing made courts so honest as to throw them open to the public. Now the Marriage-Act required, that the bans should be published at that Board. But could it be called a publication when, perhaps, not more than three were present? It was from tliis cu'cumstance, that the parishioners claimed a right to be jiresent, but not to interfere. The Commissioners had sent along letter, evidently the work of Mr. Mott, and the Clerk of the Guardians, in which they said, they had not thought proper to throw open the Board of Guardians to strangers, as they called the parishioners. (Shame.) The parishioners desired to relieve worthy objects, but before a Board so constituted, the worst pauper told the best story, whilst the really deserving were sent away. (Hear.) The Commis- sioners said, too, that if the Boards were opened, garbled statements would go forth. So they thought it better the parishioners should know nothing, for fear incorrect accounts should appear before the world. (Shame.) They had also offered to hear any complaints in matters of relief, but he had sent them so many that had not been attended to, that he should reserve many he now had a knowledge of for a Committee of the House of Commons. (Cheers.) He would state, with respect to the rating, that it had been so partial and imperfect, that some properties had been raised from £250 to £1,150 a-year. (Hear, hear.) In many parishes, the inhabitants were making the assessment themselves ; and why should they not do so ? (Hear.) Those who were resident in a parish were best acquainted with the value of the pro- perty. He should therefore propose, that a Committee be appointed, to be divided into district committees, for the purpose of making a new assessment of all the •property in the parish. The expense >would not exceed £300, he pledged him- •Bclf it should not go beyond £500, It would be completed in ten days, and the great object — an impartial assessment — would be gained. (Hear.) The Whig Governnient would do no good for them, and, therefore, they must do it for them- selves. (Cheers. )'' — Nov. 6, 1837. " Perhaps no other Union has more reason to complain, than has the Halifax Union (in which Union this district is situate) when we state, that the expendi- ture has gradually increased since this Union was formed (now three years ago), from £11,000 to upwards of £20,000, in addition to which, the poor are more harshly dealt with, and the rate-payers saddled with the payment of from £10,000 to £12,000 expended in the erection of a' Union Bastile, for which there was no need whatever." — Leeds Intelligencer, May, 1841. " 01)scrve, Sir, in the first place, how well the Duke's interest is protected. " Chairman — the Duke. " Vice-chairman — the Duke's tenant and personal friend. " Deputy-chairman — The Duke's te- nant. " Clerk of the Union— The Duke's solicitor. " A Guardian — the Duke's steward. " Seven other Guardians — the Duke's tenants. " 2dly, See how zealously the Guardi- ans have defended tlieir chief. " At the formation of the Union, there were four poorhouses, and among the foremost of the acts of the Guardians, was a resolution for reducing that number to one. In prosecution of that determination, plans and sections were prepared, and an enlargement of the Duke's house at West Hampnett determined on ; and within eigliteen months, the three condemned houses were dismantled or destroyed. Regardless of expense, for (to borrow the expression of Mr. Assistant-Commissioner Gulson, in reference to an outlay of £5,000), it was ' a mere trifle, a mere bagatelle,' the worthy Guardians take up £6,000 at interest, and lay out the whole upon the Duke's property. They deemed it right to prepare accommodation for upwards of 600 paupers, though it ap- pears that the number of inmates since the Union, has never exceeded 150, and that the number at present is only 123, Nothing short of a combined assault from the labourers could have been anticipated ; the competency, in any strait or emer- gency, of the power wlu'cli had imposed THE BOASTED ECONOMY OF THE NEW POOR-LAW, 533 the order denying out-door relief, also to modify or limit its operation, was entirely lost sight of, and such a thing as a sus- pending order had never been dreamed of in their philosophy. " Pray bear in mind, that this identical property had, for thirteen years, previously been held by the suppressed West Hamp- nett Gilbert Union at a rent of £40 ; — never, surely, was there a truer exempli- fication of the Droxford Guardian's asser- tion, that the value of land had been enhanced by the New Poor-Law, than in the present case; for that Avhich had before been held for so many years, at a sum always considered a fair rack-rent, was, by the simple touch of the Commis- sioners' wand, so altered, that, without the slightest hesitation, it was taken by the Guardians at £60 per annum, being an increase of £20, and so cheap was it esteemed, that, in their judgment, they were fully justified in borrowing £6,000, and expending it on the premises ! Happy Duke ! Provident Guardians ! Admira- ble Poor-Law ! Some, however, among the 'best friends,' less enlightened, and more obstinate, than their brethren, were not quite convinced that the value of land had undergone so magical a change, nor that it was the part of wise trustees to lay out so large a sum on an uncertain and unsatisfactory tenure ; for though the Board had, it is true, been engaged from time to time in negotiating for a lease, or for the purchase of the inheritance, yet everything still remained in an incomplete state. The obstinate minority saw, at length, with satisfaction, that the eyes of their fellows were opened to the pitiable condition to which they were reduced ; and the Board became convhiced, that no alternative was left them but to sue for terms through the mediation of their own clerk and his Grace's man of business. A reply was vouchsafed. " Extract from the minute-book, July 4, 1836 :— '"The Clerk reported to the Board, that he had the authority of the Duke of Richmond to state, that he fixed the price at which the house and premises might be purchased at £2,500, with a clause, that on a resale the premises be first ofiVred to the Duke at the same sum, and a clause, that the Guardians should not have the power, during their ownership, to apply the premises to any other purposes, or, his Grace will extend the term (15 years) to 50 years, and reduce the rent to £50 from Michaelmas next, with a similar clause as to applyuig the premises to any other purpose.' " Now, Sir, I should like to see the in- dividual among the Guardians, who, sup- posing him to be free and unfettered, and acting on his own behalf, would not have scornfully rejected both the above alterna- tives. That a man, after expendhig £6,000 in substantial improvements, and (exclusive of the money so expended) o-iving the full value for an estate, shall be restrained from setting a value on those improvements on a resale ; or that, not- withstanding the outlay, he (if a farmer) shall not possess the right of converting his farm-house into a dwelling-house for a man of family and substance, are pro- positions that would be laughed at by men of business, and ought never to have been entertained by free agents ; but the Board was in a dilemma, their £6,000 was in the Duke's hand, and they them- selves lay at his Grace's feet. It must be confessed, that few owe more to the Poor- Law than the landlord of West Hamp- nett, for without it, the house would now be worth less by some thousands, and who, after this, shall deny that the law has worked well ? " The result of this monstrous waste and want of foresight, is, that although 60 paupers had, under Gilbert's Act, been comfortably accommodated in the same house at a rent of £40, yet 123 paupers cannot be lodged at a less rent than £310, notwithstanding £6,000 has been irretrievably sunk on the premises." — Mr. Thomas Rodger's Letter in the " TimesT " Nottingham Union. — On Tuesday last, the first meeting of the new Board of Guardians took place. In consequence of Mr. Barnett, the Clerk, (an old pet of the Commissioners), having managed to obtain the control of the last Board, and, with their assistance, to build a new work- house on an extensive plan, against the wishes of the rate-payers, expressed in public meetings and in every other legiti- mate manner, the town showed its sense of his conduct, and its abhorrence of the New Poor-Law, by electing, last week, twenty-four Guardians, all decidedly op- posed"'to the rule and policy of the Somer- set-house despots ; seventeen of the new Board being Tories, and seven Radicals. Mr. Brewster, a sound Tory and staunch opposer of the New Poor-Law, was elected Chairman. Committees were ap- pointed to inquire into the amount ex- pended in building the new workhouse, to suspend the works (which are not yet complete) until that Committee shall have made a report, and to inquire into Mr. 634 THE BOOK or THE BASTlLES. Barnett's plurality of offices, he being (under the fostering care of the Commis- sioners) Clerk to the Union, Relieving Officer, Superintendent Registrar, and Master of the workhouse. The question of improving the diet-table was mooted, and a protest against the practice of sepa- rating man and wife in the workhouse was made. The new workhouse has already cost £13,509 15s. 7d., and the rates of the inhabitants greatly increased. " — r/me5, April 15, 1841. " Did the meeting know, that, in addi- tion to the avowed cost of the Poor-Law Commissioners and their attendants, there was an annual parliamentary vote of 70,000^. ? (' No, no !' ' Shame !') At the time the former Commissioners made their lying report, upon which the present bill was framed, those gentlemen had the as- surance to say, that the poor-rates of England amounted to 8,000,000^. yearly. That was, he was prepared to prove, a falsehood. He did not mean to assert, that there was not that sum collected as for poor-rate, because, with the various addenda which the Parliament had heaped upon the overseers, that amount was doubtless collected. But then, two-thirds only of that sum were appropriated di- rectly to the relief of the poor. (Hear.) He had never, in any instance, known of a man refusing to pay the poor-rate when he knew that that rate was actually ap- plied towards the relief of the poor, (hear) ; neither had he ever heard a single expression of regret in his own parish at the giving of out-door relief. (Hear.) The speaker, after some few further re- marks, concluded by expressing a wish, that every Guardian in the room would join him, and would exert himself to de- stroy the powers of the Somerset-house committee, and in seeing Frankland Lewis, George NichoUs, and Shaw Le- fevre subjected to the same punishment and the same sort of labour which they were endeavouring to heap upon so many of their fellow-creatures. (Hear, hear.)" Mr. Murphy, Freemasons' Tavern, Feb. 19, 1838- *' Now, he begged the attention of hon. members to the results of inquiries which he had made into the returns of the Poor- Law Commissioners themselves, to show how far there had, after all, been any ad- vantage in the new system over the old. ' From returns published by the Poor-Law Commissioners, the poor-rates were the highest in 1818, being then £7,870,801 ; year ending March 25, 1832, £7,036,967; thatendingMarch25, 1835, £5,526,416; that ending March 25, 1837, £4,044,741 ; showing a decrease between 1818 and 1835, of 30 per cent., between 1832 and 1835, when the rates were every year de- creasing, 21 per cent., and between 1835 and 1 837, of 20 per cent. When pay- ments that used to be made out of the rates before the new law, and since then have been paid out of their funds, are taken into account, it is questionable whether the new^ law has effected any re- duction of rates at all, and in this opinion I am confirmed by the reduction of rates in Lancashire, and in the West Riding of the county of York, where agitation pre- vails. In Lancaster (county), the decrease of rates between 1835 and 1837 is 17^ per cent. ; in the W^est Riding of York- shire, 21 per cent. In a return made to the House of Lords, and ordered to be printed, on the 22d of May last, the ex- penditure is given for in-door maintenance and establishment charges for one year, ending December 25, 1836, in 125 Unions, comprising 2,312 parishes, and a population of 1,666,150, all that return embraces ; and I find b}^ this return, that the maintenance of the in-door paupers averages £5 lis. Id. per head for the year — that is, 2s. Hd. per week for each person in these Union workhouses ; and I find that the establishment charges average £9 15s. 8d. per head for the year, or 3s. 9d. per week for each person in those workhouses. So that the cost of maintenance and establishment charges of each person in your Union workhouses is £15 6s. 9d. per annum, or 5s. 10|d. per head per week ! By the same return, I find that the establishment charges in these 125 Unions amount to £2 2s. 0|d. per head on the whole population of the Unions. And by a return in the last report of the Poor-Law Commissioners, the rate per head of expenditure for the relief of the poor on the whole population of Lancashire for the year ending the 25th of March, 1837, is but 2s. 9d. per head, that is, only 6id. per head more than the establishment charges alone in those Unions ; and in the township of Oldham, which I have the honour of representing, the rate of expenditure for the relief of the poor for the same period is only Is. 2ld. per head on the population of that township ; that is. Is. 0|d. per head less than the establishment charges alone amount to on the whole population of those 125 Unions. Why, then, should this law be forced on my constituents by TlIE BOASTED ECONOMY OF THE NEW POOR-LAW. 535 bullets and bayonets ? They wish to know why. From the same returns of the Commissioners, I find that in 18 counties, the rateof expenditure per head, with reference to the population, in the year ending the 25th of March, 1834, was less by 28 per cent, than the expenditure was in 1 8 other counties under the opera- tion of the New Poor-Law in the year ending the 25th of March, 1837, and in which latter 1 8 counties a reduction in the rate of expenditure of 42 per cent, is said to have been effected since the new law ■was passed. In the former 18 coun- ties, too, the highest rate in any one of them is less than the lowest rate in any other one of the latter counties, in which the saving of 42 per cent, had been effected. This shows that the Poor-Law Amendment-Act was unnecessary." — Mr. Fielden, House of Commons, Feb. 20, 1838. " Is the country enriched by two or three millions wrested, by power, from the perislung poor, and bestowed upon the rich ? — no — it is impoverished — this is clear, and the state of the Exchequer already proves it. With its rightful owners — the poor — it was all spent at home in home product : by the rich rob- bers it is, in a great measure, spent in foreign pi'oduct, if not abroad. This, according to the old proverb, — ' That which is acquired over the Devil's back, soon goes under his belly !' " — " Dr. Pye Smith and the Poor-Law,''' by Samuel Roberts. " Every sane person in the kingdom, experienced on the subject, knows that a hundred persons in a small district can, at half the cost, be as well relieved at their oion homes, as they could be in a workhouse, with all the expenses attend- ing it. Pretty roguery there will be with the fellows sent round a district of twenty miles' diameter, to take the bread, and the gruel, and the money, to the poor old creatures — for the conjurers have already found it out, that they must, in spite of the law, relieve many at their own homes." — Mr. Satmiel Roberts's " The Peers, the Poeple, and the Poor.'' " The town of Macclesfield alone has been subjected to an average increased burden of from 1,400^. to 1,600Z. per annum, for three years, during the exist- ence of the Union, as compared with the three years prior to its establishment, and that without any special cause arising from want of employment or depression of trade." — Macclcsfidd Courier, Dec. 1 840, s S-aq'2. ^3 S, ^ . :^ P » c:: t3 o' a en 5 s>i N . *rl g p H 00 'Bu : 5 O a _ ^ Oo" 13 H ^ CO '— to 1— '-' ►-' *. •1 s ^ ^ CJi 03 Cti 05 CO *» Cfl --i "1^ y < O' ^ 13 « 5 CO ^_ i_ H-i 1— ^ to o Sa ^ oo pi _00 J- O ^4^ _pO ^ c 2 « V Oi ~4^ "— "go "Oi "co "O p' hfii. Oj 00 ^o to CO Cn CO H-» ^ n 5; CO 00 CO i4^ CO -^ CO c a t § O) 2 a H "^ M H -< ts 1— — i h- k— to S a' ^CO JO ^— jD _4- Ct o "o lo "co "Ci "•<» ^ H- O 0< CO o ^ » 2 bo C5 Oi ^ Oi to C3 r* o n 2 w o GO fH 3 ui a s>l "* 00 jlj^ J Oi o» ^ ^2 ^' ►^ K- ' CO CO CO Ol Ci to 2'^ a a 5 ^ CO _^t>• 0» J35 JO J3i f "cjt ~CO rf^ Oi O 07 ^ >-* i— — 00 M 4- O • vj CO 00 O 03 4- 2 Tl § ft) H CO hP» rf^ 05 05 Oi s W CO >-' CO o to ►t' n ^ " The Poor-Law Commissioners' ex- penses are, in the gross, for 1839, 43,352/. 15s. 9d.; but this does not in- clude the Irish Commission, which amounts, in the gross, to 19,496/. lis. 4d." —Ibid. "The Waleses, North and South, hate the New Poor-Law as they do the Devil and Edwin Chadwick, and they have cause. At Tenby (Pembrokeshire), where the rates used to be two in three years, they are now three in one year ! Again, the Pembroke Guardians have found the rates in their Union so enormously in- creased, owing to the establishment ex- penses, &cc., that they have recently agreed to permit the pauper inmates of the workhouse to go oat with the allowance of half-a-crown per week each, and 8s. a-year to buy clothes. So that, after all the expenditure required for the erection of the pauper Bastile, recourse to the old and better svstcm is obliged to be had. 53(1 THE BOOK OF TIIL: BASTlLES. How nicely the Act works ! " — From a Pemhro'hshire Correspondent^ March, 1841. "Among the exorbitant charges in the Poor-Law Commissioners' Annual Ac- counts, are — Somerset-house expenses, charwoman's wages, coals, candles, &c., 449/. 19s. Ad. ; travelHng expenses of seventeen Assistant-commissioned officers and their clerks, 13,817/. ^s. 6d. ; Sta- tionery, 5,000/. ; travelling expenses of eleven Irish Assistant-Commissioners and clerks, 7,536/. lis. 4d. ; ditto of Archi- tect and two clerks, 700/. ; Contingen- cies, 1,100/. ; Architect's salary, 500/. ; clerks to ditto (one at 150/. and another at 100/.), 250/.; Printing, 2,000/." — Vide " ParUamenfarij Returns.'' " It was said, that the management of the New Poor-Law was more economical than under the old ; and, with a view to prove this, Mr. Weale, the Assistant-Com- missioner, stated, that the average cost of the population of Aston, is only 2s. 8^f/., while in Birmingham (under the old sys- tem) it is 5s. 5\d. a-head. Now, this was extraordinary, but he should like to know how the parish of Aston could keep their poor at a cost of 2s. 2d. a-heacl, that being the net cost of the maintenance, exclusive of the other expenses attendant upon the establishment. He found, however, upon unquestionable authority, that the poor under the New Law, in 1836, amounted to 4,254,000, or a bur- den on each of the population of nearly 7s. 7c?. Where, then, was this boasted economy under the new arrangement ? It evaporated immediately the test was applied ! Let them go to Manchester, where the cost, taking into calculation the population of the poor, was 6s. Qd., thus showing a difference of Is. 6d. in favour of the old system." — Mr. J. H. Cutlers Sjyeech in the To-ivn Council of Birmingham, iipon the threatened Intro- duction of the New Poor-Law, Dec. 1 , 1840. " By actual expenditure of the Not- tingham and other Unions, it is seen that in-door relief costs 2s. Ad. or 2s. Qd. per head per week, for food and clothing only, and about the same sum for ' estab- lishment charges;' making, in all, about As. to 4s, Qd. per week each, or 20s. to 23s. for each family of the average num- ber of five — two parents and three chil- dren — which is, in fact, about the propor- tion of adults and children in the Notting- ham workhouse, reckoning the school- children (as the otficers do) araon^ the inmates. Out-door relief, for a short time, would be tJianhftdhj received at Italf tills rate per family of fi\e, and no break- ing up of home, or permanent pauperising need be encouraged under proper super- intendence ; the good being thus kept out of the house, and enabled to get work, while the incorrigible, or those proved to be timvilling to work, might be imprisoned in the house, by refusing out- door relief to them any longer. Besides, half the expense being thus saved, all the heart-burning and discontent among the poor, and all the desertion of wife and children, which now is caused by the in- door test, would be saved to the country, and with it much of the crime and ex- pense of police and military, in the popu- lous districts. But the Poor-Law Com- missioners report, there is an actual saving of 4,000,000/. or 5,000,000/. sterling. Ansicer. In Nottingham there is no saving ; and if thez'e he so great a saving in the rest of England, then, from actual cost above shown, it is manifest that the saving is all in unthholding re- lief, and not at all (but quite the reverse) in the management and expenditure of the parish funds, as compared with the number relieved. If we take into ac- count the enormous expenses of the buildings erected by the various Unions, it is plain that far fewer persons must, upon the whole, have been relieved than formerly — in proportion to the sum saved, the greater cost per head, and the cost of bricks and mortar given to the poor (in- stead of bread) in the shape of new houses." — Roicorth's '''' Ohscrvatio7is of the Administration of the Neiv Poor-Law in Nottingham,'' 1840, " The New Poor-Law is, beyond question, far viore expensive than was the law of Elizabeth. Despite all the efforts that have been made to mystify the public on this point, the universal rise in the rates has convinced many of the original supporters of the New Pooi--Law, of this error. The rates are rising in every direction, and the rate-payers find them- selves powerless in regulating the distri- bution of these rates." — Morning Herald, Dec. 3, 1840. " Expenses of the Poor-Law Commis- sion for England and "Wales, for 1839, v/as 50,215/. Os. 3d.'' — Commissiotiers' Report, page 15. " The New Poor-Law system works so expensively in Herefordshire, that the Guardians of the parishes of the Dore Union declare, that they originally only THE BOASTED ECONOMY OF THE NEW TOOR-LAW. 537 enlere(i into a contract with the Poor- Law Commissioners for three years, and that the third year will expire in the summer of 1841, when they are deter- mined they will not renew the contract, but break up the Union, and support and manage their own poor as they used to do, which they say they could do for much less cost to themselves, and much more comfort to the paupers, than under the present new system. They declare, that they have examined the accounts, and find that so much of the money is dwindled away in salaries and establish- ment expenses, that the poor do not re- ceive more than one-third, or fourpence out of every shilling subscribed for their support by the rate-payers. The farmers, too, in these parishes protest, that they cannot stand the expense, and that it will be impossible for them to keep on their farms and pay such high rates." — Fro7n a Dore Correspondent of the Author''s, Dec, 1840. " Fat Commissioneks and Lean Paupers. — Let us contrast the salary of NichoUs and his Assistant, Hall, with the sum of money voted to maintain the Irish paupers in the two metropolitan Unions, by which it will be seen, that our paternal Government think more of two Commissioners, than a swarm of our native mendicants : — ANNUAL EXPENSES OF THE COMMISSIONERS. Mr. Nicholi's salary £2,500 Travelling Expenses, «&c 1,500 Mr. Hall's salary 1,500 £5,500 ANNUAL EXPENSES OF TWO DUBLIN UNIONS. Food for 1,500 paupers in the North Union Workhouse £1,300 Ditto (or 1,800 ditto in the South ditto 1,609 Total £2,900 Increase upon the expenses of the two Unions £2,600 We demand of the no-patronage-loving Government, for what purpose is either Nicholls or Hall required ? Ought not the Guardians to be able to carry on the business of their Unions, now that the * Act ' is in full operation, without the superintendence of these overpaid Bashaws of a Whig administration ?" — The " World;' Dublin i}aper, Dec, 1840. [Are we to understand that body and soul are kept together for 205. a-year ?] "The New Poor-Law has worked badly for both the rate-payers and the poor at Nottingham : we have paid more money, and they have had less comfort. Mr. Barnett (the Relieving Offi- cer) says, there is no material increase. It is painful to see any person who pro- fesses to be a conscientious man, so guilty of a misrepresentation and per- version of facts, and departing from honesty of purpose, in not giving a plain statement, which the multiplicity of offices enabled the author, in this instance, to do, and not by any subtle means attempt to cover the truth, as the following facts tcill prove has been done : — " ' Sept. 12, 1840. " ' Dear Sir, — I wish you would iuibvm nie what has been the expense of St. Mary's parish, in maintaining the poor for the last three years, and what has been the increase in the expenditure as compared with the three years previous to the Union. " ' I am, dear Sir, yours truly, " 'W. ROWORTH. " ' To Mr. T. H. Smith, Auditor, " 'Nottingham.' " 'Sept. \o, 1840. " ' Dear Sir, — I have great pleasure in com- plying with your request for a return of the expenditure of St. Mary's parish for three years before the Union, and for three years since the Union, and I am sorry to find it ex- hibits such an unfavourable result. " ' I have the honour to be, dear Sir, " ' Your faithful servant, '"T. H. SMITH. " ' To W. Roworth, Esq., Mayor, " ' Nottingham.' " • Payments to the Union, by St. Mary's parish, for the year ending Michaelmas, 1837 £10,590 15 5 «' ' Ditto, ditto, 1838 18,761 2 2 " ' Ditto, ditto, 1839 10,671 5 4 £40,023 2 11 " ' Average of three years since the Union £13,341 11 " ' Average of three years be- fore the Union 8,486 " ' Increase, per annum £1,855 11 " ' Or 57^ per cent. ! 1 ! ' " It is evident from ihe facts produced, that Nottingham is now, and has been ever since the Union was formed, paying con- siderably more for the maintenance, or mismanagement of the poor : they are evidently worse treated, and more neg- lected ; and if the expense is not decrcasedy why is the town put under such misma- nagement? Who are benefited by it ? I can only know of such whose salaries are increased."' — Iloicorth's " Observa- 538 'THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. tions of the Administmtion of the New Poor-Law in Nottmyham." " With respect to expense, we have before showii, that it is far more expensive than the old sj'stem, for the sum levied for the use of the poor last year, was 1,200,000^. more than the preceding." — Stoclcport Advertiser, Feb., 18-11. " The truth was, that in order to pro- duce an appearance of saving, the Com- missioners had struck off very many charges Avhich used to affect the rate, and which were now fixed upon the county- rate. The money was taken out of John Bull's left pocket instead of his right." — Mr. Wa/det/, House of Commons, Feb. 8, 1841. " John Miller, belonging to the parish of Boldre, about eighteen months ago, applied to the Board of the Lymington Guardians, to grant him a loaf, in conse- quence of great pressui'e of distress at that time ; his children being much debi- litated by a sickness, from which they were slowly recovering. Having a wife and eight children, although in regular work, he was unable to meet the results of domestic visitation without aid. It was well known that his utter pauperism would follow a refusal ; yet, such was the tenacity of adhesion to the principle of this law, that a stern denial of any relief but the house was awarded to his appli- cation. The man was necessitated to quit his regular employment, and enter the Union-house, where he has remained an inmate during the last eighteen months, at a cost to the parish of Boldre of nearly 30s. a-week, for himself and family, in- stead of Is. 6d. per week, being the amount of relief oriffinallv sought."— Mornimj Hercdd, Jan.'"21, 1841. " That your petitioners, at the time of joining the Stejiney Union, were paying a quarterly poor-rate of lOd. in the pound, on the original assessment of the parish ; but since that period, they have been re-assessed at an additional rating of sixteen jyer cent., and are now paying on such increased assessment, a quarterly poor-rate of Is. 2d. in the pound, making an increase of upwards of 50 per cent." ^Tlie Petition of St. Patd's, Shadwellj Middlesex, I\h. 18, 1841. INCREASE OF CRIME UNDER THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE NEW POOR-LAW. " Rich men look sad, and ruffians dance and leap." — Richard II., Act 2, s. 4. Iago. — " What, ho ! Brabantio ! thieves ! thieves ! thieves ! thieves ! Look to your house, your daughter, and your bags ! — Thieves ! thieves !" — Othello, Act J, s. I. " It is much to be lamented, that since the Poor-Law Amendment-Act has come into operation, vagrancy has greatly in- creased in this neighbourhood." — Car- narvon Herald, Aug. 3, 1838. " Lord Wynford said, that the state- ment which he had made was founded on authentic retui'ns, which showed that crime had increased, not in Suflfolk, or in any other county in particular, but that there had been an increase to the extent of 800 or 900 in the number of crimes perpetrated throughout the kingdom generally." — House of Lords, March 20, 1838. " Under the 43d of Elizabeth, crimes were hardly known in this neighbour- hood (Cardiganshire), but since the New Poor-Law Amendment-Act came into operation, Avhich is just nine months, they have increased to an alarming extent, and their perpetrators have, as yet, es- caped vmdetected." — Dispatch, March 25, 1838. " On casting up the books at the Preston police-office, for the year com- mencing on the 2d of Dec, 1838, and terminating the 2d of Dec, 1839, we find, that during that period, 1,364 have been taken into custody on charges of misdemeanours, 468 charged with felony, 7 for uttering base coin, and 1 1 for embezzlement; making in all, 1,870 cases within the twelve months." — Champion, Dec. 8, 1839. " The more numerous descriptions of depredations in the rural districts, are of depredations on produce The depre- dations in some rural districts are carried on to such an extent, as even to threaten to put a stop to useful sorts of cultivation The Guardian of the parish of Braughing, in the Bishop Stortford Union (Essex) says, ' During the whole of last winter (1838) scarcely a week passed without sheep, pigs, poultry, corn, or straw, being stolen The Guardians of the parish of Sandau, in the Bunthig- ford Union (Herts), state, ' More barns have been broken into — a greater number of hogs and sheep have been stolen within these few years, than in former years." — -First Report of the Commission- ers appointed to inquire as to the best means of establishing an efficient Con- stabidarij Force in the Counties of Eng- land and Wcdes, pp. 70, 72, 78. "You may recollect, perhaps, at the beginning of this year, the complaint of the learned judges was all over the coun- try of the great increase of crime," — Recorder of the Bath Quarter-Sessions, July 9, 1840. " It used to be a common remark, that a street-robbery was hardly known in Manchester. Far different, however, is the state of the case now. Street-rob- beries have verij mtich increased, and have in this respect, therefore, kept pace with every other sort of depredation." — Man- chester Advertiser, July 18, 1840. " In the first class of offences — in rape and attempts to ravish, there is an increase of eight j)er cent. In the second class — the violent offences against property, the increase of the last 5'ear is sixjier cent. The principal increase in the second class has been in burglary, and in house, shop, and warehouse breaking. It is in the third class, containing the great bulk of offences committed by simple theft or fraud, that the increase has principally occurred, having amounted to nearly seventeen per cent.^ In sheep-stealing there has been a considerable increase in each of the two last years, and in larceny by servants in each of the last four years' In simple larceny alone, the increase exceeds 18 per cent." — Criminal Tables, 1839. " Crime has also decreased." — Fourth Annual Report of the Poor-Law Com- missioners, 1 839. [Ha ! ha ! ha ! Well done Somerset-house ! Newgate's no- thing to you! Your 'Reports' beat ropes hollow ; hemp falls at the very perusal of them. Conthjue ye men of 540 THE BOOK OF THE I3AST1LES. unimpeachable veracity thus to kill your sheep in preference to your lambs; 'tis no more trouble when your hands are in ! — G. R.W. B.] " During the past month, sheep-steal- ing has been carried on to an unprece- dented extent in the neighbourhood of Windsor and Eton. Witliin the last three weeks, no fewer than 22 sheep have been stolen in the neighbourhood of Old Windsor and the opposite side of the Thames." — Conservative Journal, Nov. 14, 1840. " On the highways of a large part of the country, commercial' travellers, and strangers, who travel singly, otherwise than by public conveyances, and carry money about them, abstain from travel- ling after dark, from fear of robbery and violence, and farmers return from market in company, from the like fear after dark." — First Report of the Constubidarij Force Commissioners fviz., Messrs. Lefevre, Rowan, and Edwin Chadwick, alias Poor-Law Commissioners J. "Concealing Bikths. — In 1817 there were ten cases for England and Wales; in 1827, five; in 1837, forty- one. Of crime generally, in the same decimal periods, — in 181 7, the convictions were 13,932; in 1827, they were 17,921; in 1837, they were 23,012. The transported convicts for the aforesaid years were, in 1817, 1,734; in 1827, .2,725; in 1837, 3,781." " Increase op Patjpekism ; oe, SoMEESET-HOUSE CuiME. — In the Ken- sington Union, on the 10th of Nov., 1839, the total number of in-door pau- pers was 920, and of those receiving out- door relief, 2,177, — forming an aggregate of 3,097. On the 14th of Nov., 1840, the corresponding numbers were 1,142 and 2,305, making an aggregate of 3,447, — thus showing, in one year, an increase of 222 in-door, and 208 out-door paupers, being a total increase ujDon the former year of 430 The increase of Commissioners' Crime in tlie City of London Union was, during the quarter ending Lady-day, 1840, 1664, being one in every thirty-four of the whole popula- tion." — Memorial of the Kensington Guardians to the Poor-Law Commission- ers, Nov. 26, 1840. "From the influence of the false as- sumptions on which the New Poor-Law is based, the security of property is ex- posed to the rudest shocks ; and the j)roperty-owning classes begin to feel this melancholy consequence of the Malthu- sian scheme for robbing labour of its title to protection. What means the anxiety of the advocates of the New Poor- Law to introduce a rural police into every parish in the kingdom ? Tliat anxiety involves the confession, that property is less secure tlian it formerly was ; and that their favourite measure, instead of elevating the moral character of the poor, has converted large bodies of labourers into thieves and desperadoes !"' — Morning Herald, Dec. 3, 1840. " The number of commitments to the Lewes House of Correction, from Oct., 1 839, to the present date, has been 993: — 85 above the number of the last year The number of persons chai-ged with felonies and misdemeanors for trial at Lewes, not only exceeds that of the last year, but also that of the year before... ...I am sorry to learn from calculations made at the Home Office, tliat the propor- tion of female criminals, in general, has been on the increase (or several years We have to deplore a melancholy increase in the most ofl'ensive crimes. The num- ber of persons charged with those grave offences being more than thrice that in 1838 and 1839 Burglary and sheep- stealing, — the real amount of these ci'imes, especially the latter, is very alarmingly increased." — The Rev. Richard Burnett's " Labours aiul Observations in the Lewes House of Correction," 1840. " The Increase of Commissioners' Crime in the Metropolitan Unions, — The number of pauper inmates in the Metropolitan workhouses, Christmas-day, 1 840, were — St. George's 386 ; St. Mary- lebone, 1,750 ; St. Martin's-in-the- Fields, 470 ; Strand Union. 650 ; Clerkenwell, 540; City Union, 1,200: Whitechapel, 721; St. George's-in-the-East, 630; St. Mary's, Lambeth, 833 ; Christchurch, Blackfriars, 420 ; St. Olave's, Southwark, 230 ; Bermondsey workhouse, 450." " The crime of incendiarism appears to be on the increase, Thursday's Police Gazette containing four offers of reward for the discovery and apprehension of the miscreants." — Conservative Journal, Feb. 13, 1841. " With respect to crime, it is greatly to the credit of the poor people that many more of them have not turned thieves, though certainly sheep-stealing, fence- breaking, Sec, have much increased." — Extract of a letter to the Aidhor from the Rev. W. M. Smith Marriott, of Hors- monden, near Tunbridge, Kent, Feb. 10, 1811. INCREASE OF CHIME. Oil " Much has been said of the moral im- provement of the people through this New Poor-Law ; but he contended, that morality had retrograded since it passed ; and proved, that in the very assertion of those Ministers, who brought in this law — that the Rural Police was necessary on account of the increase of crime of the people." — G. Golchmj, Esq., Bristol Anti-Poor-Law Meeting, Feb. 11, 1841. "The Criminal Tables for 1839 show a considerable increase in the number of persons committed for trial in that year — amounting to 5.8 per cent. The increase is spread over 25 English counties, and 9 Welsh counties, and amounts to 2,027 persons, or 12.5 per cent. Among the counties in which the increase arises, are the large northern and midland manufac- turing counties of Lancashire, Cheshire, Staffordshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicester- shire, and Yorkshire ; the metropolitan counties of Middlesex and Surrey ; the mining and coal districts of Cornwall and Durham ; and the agricultural counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Bucks, Berks, Oxford, Hants, Wilts, Dorset, _ Devon, Hereford, and Salop." — Companion to the Almanac, 1841. 1837. 1838. 1839. " Offences against the person 12.1 dec . . 8.1 inc . . 8.1 tnc. "Malicious offen- ces against pro- perty 32.1 dec. 21.9 dec. 17.9 inc. " Offences against property com- mitted with- out violence. 16.8 inc. 3.3 dec. 5.3 inc." — Redgrave's Tables. " The principal increase in the last year is an increase in the attempts to murder; and all those of most frequent commission have increased — such as larceny, ditto in dwelling-houses, from the person, and by servants, (which latter offence has increased 20 per cent, last year) embezzle- ment, fraud, and receiving stolen goods" — Companio7i to the Almanac, 1841. " Mr. Smy, of Rendham's (in Suffolk) gamekeeper says, that there is more poaching than ever under the new law." — Champion, November 24, 1839. " Then what is the principle of this Act, and what effects on the able-bodied did its framers contemplate ? The princi- ple was, that the paupers should in no case be eligible, unless they were more miserable than the lowest class who live on their labour. (Hear, hear.) He won- dered what lion, members meant by crying ' hear, hear !' He feared they had little idea of what the tendency of such a principle must be. What were the effects contemplated ? First, conversion of pau- pers into independent labourers, and reduc- tion of rates ; second, rise of wages ; third, the diminution of improvident marriages ; fourth, increased content of labourers, and diminution of crime. But there were certain special effects in the eye of the original Poor-Law Commis- sioners. First, supplying a self-acting test of the merit of all claims ; second, showing the requisite line of distinction between the class of independent labour- ers, and thereby checking the tendency to the indefinite extension of pauperism ; tlien removing from the distributors all discretionary powers, and thereby dimi- nishing abusive administration. Now, had the agency employed worked out the prin- ciple, and produced these effects ? It was true, that the self-acting test had been adopted, and that the rates had been in some places greatly reduced by this New Law. It was true that the discretionary power had been taken away, but had wages risen ? Had there been a return to content? Had crime been lessened by the New-Law? That was the question that called loudly for an answer. Upon the point of crime, what was said by Mr. Adey in his second report ? In the second report of the Poor-Law Commissioners (1836) Mr. Adey quotes Mr. Sniche, of the Biggleswade Union, who says the act is working exceedingly well for all parties, and in confirmation says — ' I challenge inquiry amongst the poor themselves, where, indeed, the inquiry ought to be made.' He then quotes from written testimonials of several of the principal occupiers of the Union; and of these one says — ' I think they frequent the beer-shops as much or more than ever.' Another — ' I am sorry to say tliat sheep- stealing and other depredations have been more prevalent since the system com- menced than ever was known before.' Another — 'They frequent the alehouse quite as much as ever. Poaching and other depredations have increased double to any former.' Another — ' I do not feel able to answer as to their frequenting the alehouses, or as regards poaching, &c., as to any alteration.' Another — ' The ale- houses are, I think, more frequented than ever. I am not of opinion that poaching and other depredations have at all dimi- nished, but that the greater crime of sheep- sleallng has increased tenfold.' Another, 54-2 THE BOOK OF THE. BASTILES. — * I think poaching and other depreda- tions have been quite as numerous and, sheep-stealing is spreading more every year." — Mr. Fielden, House of Commons, Februaiy20, 1838. " The Commission for holding the assizes for the county of Dorset was opened on Saturday last. The calendar presented a very formklahle and painfid appearance. It contained not fewer than 80 prisoners." — Times, March 10, 1811. " The late numerous conflagrations, which there is too much reason to fear have been the work of incendiaries, have naturally excited the alarm of farmers and others in this neighbourhood. Desirous of effecting insurances on haj^stacks and other farming stock, they have found great difficulty in doing so. We have heard of several instances where the head offices have refused to insure — the risk being so great." — Halifax Guardian, Jan. 2, 1841. " He would beg of them to look at the country papers of last week, and they would see what were the opinions which the Duke of Devonshire and Earl of Ebrington entertained at the Quarter- sessions of Devonshire. These noble- men advocated the introduction of a rural police ; and, in support of this recommen- dation, it was stated, that neither life nor property was safe in the present state of things. Why, the descriptions of out- rage to which these noblemen alluded were not known in this country before the introduction of the New Poor-Law." — Mr. Boxer, at a Dinner given to the Chairman of the Board of Guardians, of St. George's Southwark, Oct. 24, 1839. " Sheep-stealing is carried on to such an extent in the neighbourhood of Hun- gerford, that it is considered useless to offer any reward with a view to discover the offender or offenders." — Chamjuon, Feb. 2, 1840. " The number of prisoners for trial at the Monmouth Assizes, amounted to nearly 90, and it is evident that crime is greatly on the increase in that county." — Hereford Journal, jNIarch 31, 1841. " During no previous period of the modern History of London have five cruel murders been committed within two years, without some of the perpetrators having been brought to justice." — Times, May 18, 1840. " Liverpool Assizes. — The calendar isheaiy, containing a list of 97 prisoners — seven are charged with the crime of murder, two with attempts to murder, and one with aiding and abetting that crime ; ten for manslaughter. There are seven cases of rape, eight for cutting and wounding, four for forgery, two for bur- glary, two for stealing letters, and four for conspiring to raise wases." — Times, March 29, 1841. "Gloucester, April 1, 1841. — The calendar is extremely heavy, there being 117 prisoners for trial, a large proportion of whom are charged with serious offences. Indeed, there is hardly a crime, known to the common or statute law, which does not find a place in this calendar. There are seven prisoners charged with murder ; one with wounding with intent to nnirder ; one with rape ; two with unnatural oflences ; one with stabbing ; five with manslaughter ; eight with burglaiy ; ten with horse- stealing ; ten with sheep-stealing ; two with forgery ; six with highway robbery, &cc." — Times, April 3, 1841. "Chestek, April 1, 1841. — The calen- dar comprises between 70 and 80 prison- ers ; eight of whom are for murder, and a great portion of the offences are of grave and heinous character ; in fact, the calen- dar, whether in point of number or gravity, is jcifhout its 2}fi>'allel in this county." — Ibid. "NoKwiCH, April 3, 1841.— The Commission of Assize for the county of Norfolk was opened with the accustomed formalities this evening, and on Monday, the active duties of the learned judges will commence at 10 o'clock. The calen- dar is marked by crimes of a very deep dye, including two cases of alleged infanticide, six of burglary, three of highway robbery, four of malicious stabbing with intent to do grievous bodily harm, one of forgery, a case of rape, and two of a capital charge, from which the calendars of this country are, unhappily, never free. Six men are, also, charged under the Night Poaching Act, with being in certain pre- serves at night, ai-med for the destruction of game ; this number is greatly below the average for this county. The INIa- gistrates, at the adjourned Sessions last week, tried a most formidable list of petty larcenies, and only one case of that class of offences appeal's in the assize calen- dar." — Tiines, April 6, 1841. " Stafeoed. — The Commission was opened on Wednesday before Mr. Justice Coleridge. The calendar contained the names of 115 prisoners, most of whom are charged with offences of the most serious nature. There were for trial — for murder, four ; maliciously wounding, INCREASE OF CRIME. 543 eleven ; manslaughter, three ; rape, ten, (seven in only one indictment) ; house- breaking, seventeen ; highway robbery, fifteen ; sheep-stealing, nine ; horse and cattle-stealing, five." — Hereford Journal, March 17, 1841. " He was exceedingly sorry to inform them, that the calendar of prisoners was heavy, considering the short time which had elapsed since the Assizes — only one ■week — during which time, nine prisoners had been entered in the calendar, eight of whom were to be tried." — Mr. Barneby, M.P.'s Charge at the Herefordshire Sessions, April 5, 1841. "At the Brecknockshire Sessions, the Chairman said, that crime had increased very rapidly in that county." — Hereford Journal, April 14, 1841. " Although the Sessions were so re- cently held for this county (Bucks), the criminal calendar presents ^fearful list of between fifty and sixty prisoners for trial." — Times, March 11, 1841. " Some rascals have recently paid noc- turnal visits to the potato-fields in the parish of Hucknall Torkard. — Notting- ham Review. — [Better feed thera than call them rascals. There was a time when Englishmen, so far from stealing potatoes, would not eat them. Besides the above, the Nottingham Jleview contains nine cases of stealing food, or taking game.] " — Champion, Oct. 6, 1839. " Effects of the New Poor-Law. — Chesterfield, and its neighbourhood, feel the efiect of the New Poor-Law : robberies are so frequent that an extra watchman is appointed for the above borough. The law has driven thousands to vagrancy ; the refusing temporary relief to the honest, deserving, able-bodied labourer, doomed him to perpetual pau- perism, removing him from respectable society, and sooner than enter the Bastile, compelled to dismantle his home of that furniture for subsistence, which once cheered and made his fireside happy ; — but that once-considered Englishman's pride and comfort, is now fast fading away. The infernal clauses relating to bastardy will not bear reflection, causing murders to a fearful extent." — Sheffield Iris, May 17, 1841. " I am sorry to observe, by the calendar before me, that there are no fewer than 102 prisoners for trial." — Tlie CJiairmans Charge, Somersetshire Quarter-Sessioiis, March 29, 1841 " At the last Borough Sessions, the number of prisoners for trial was greater than was ever known before at Leeds."' — Leeds Intelligencer, Dec. 26, 1 840. " The Bath gaol is so full of prisoners that room cannot be found for moie with- out some additional accommodation. More than sixty prisoners are already confined there for trial ; and if the number of cases of felony go on in the same ratio till the next Quarter-Sessions, the Recorder will have to sit double the usual time." — Bristol Mirror, Feb. 27, 1841. " He believed that the case to which he alluded was not the only case of the kind which might become the subject of their inquiry. He believed that the noble Lord (John Russell) was aware of the ex- istence of another case of the same description. There had been abomina- tions practised in the workhouse of Ampthill (Beds), of the most horrible description. He had been told that the p>orter at that ivorkhouse had made it a place for the corrupting of the male youth of the county. Several youths had been spohen of as the objects of this mans iciched attempts. It appeared that one youth had been committed to gaol, per- haps to be tried for his life, on the charge of having inflicted severe wounds upon the person of this porter ; but, if report spoke true, it would appear also, that the conduct of this porter towards the same youth, had been such as to make the porter liable to be tried for a capital offence." — Mr. Ficlden's Speech, House of Commons, Feb. 20, 1838. " As poverty, under the new order of things, is esteemed a crime, that, too, has materially increased, as vide the following statistic from the Champion, Nov. 10, 1839:— " ' PERSONS RELIEVED IN THE PARISH OF MARYLEEONE. Number Relieved. " ' Year endinc; Nov. 1, 1837 3,359 '" ^ 1838 3,119 '" 1839 3,924.'" " I have learnt by inquiry of the gaoler here (Bath), that at the Session before the last, the number of prisoners was very much increased, being 75, a number un- known before the passing of the New Poor-Law. He also informed me, that crime in the county he knows to have considerably increased, as may be seen by county returns." — Contributed by the Rev. C. Fon-ell Watts f of Bath J, Oct. 9, 1840. " Though INIr. Edwin Chadwick, in his character as Secretary to the Poor-Laiv Commissioners, has frequently boasted that the administration of the ' Act ' has 544 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. caused a decrease of crime ; yet in liis other official cajiacity, as Constahvlanj Force Commissioner, he admits that crime has greatli/ increased within these two or three years ! " — Vide First Report of the Constabulary Force Commission. — G. R. W. B. " The Recorder regretted to state, that at the last Sessions, there was an unusually large number of prisoners, and at these Sessions, there was an umisually large number also, there being upwards of 60 prisoners, who will have to ans\ver charges for offences committed since the last Sessions, and this during the summer quarter, when we do not usually find so large a number of offences committed. It is clear, Jhat of late crime has increased with great rapidity''' — The Address of D. Jardine, Esq., Recorder of Bath, Michael- mas Sessions, 18 10. " The comparative number of commit- ments to the Petworth prison from Michaelmas, 1838, to Michaelmas, 1839, to Michaelmas, 1840, showing the increase or decrease of offences charged against the prisoners during those periods, and exhibiting an increase in the years 1839 and 1840 over 1838 and 1839, of seven- teen western prisoners, which was more than accounted for in the increase of va- grants, of whom there were thirty, being about one-third more than in the preced- ing year." — Sussex Agricultural Express, Oct. 31, 1840. " Infanticide has become aufully prevalent, and to the same detested cause may be ascribed the increased number of unnatural crimes." — " Moraviensis," in the " Weeldy Dispatch," April 29, 1838. " Since the last General Quarter-Ses- sions of the Peace for this county, the number of prisoners liberated from the House of Correction, at Knutsford, is 471, a number, we believe, exceeding, by at least one himdred, any previous gaol de- livery within the same period of time." — Macclesfield Courier, Oct. 24, 1840. " Unnatural offences — in these there is an increase. There has been a consider- able increase in sheep-stealing, and larceny by servants." — Companion to the Almanac, 1838. " Comparing the number of criminals in 1837 with the average of the preceding years, the increase in 1837 is 2,224 per- sons, or 10.4 per cent. If these general results are examined in detail, it will be found, that an increase has taken place in 33 English counties, and in both North and South Wales. In eight counties, it has exceeded 30 per cent. ; in nine coun- ties, between 20 and ^0 per cent.; and in ten counties, it has been between 10 and 20 per cent.'" — Companion to the Al- manac, 1839. [From tlic Companion to the Almanac iox 1810.] Slieep Stealing. 1818 1828 1838 Larceny in a Dwelling-house. 1828 1838 Larceny by Servants. 1834 1838 Simple Larceny. 1834 Convicted. 177 120 225 Convicted. 74 124 Convicted. 655 851 Convicted. 8,959 1838 10,057 Embezzlement. 1834 1838 Convicted. 18G 210 Rape. i 1818 1828 1838 Sentenced to Death . . Executed 2 1 5 3 7 Murder. 1 1818 1828 1838 Sentenced to Death . . Executed 13 13 20 18 25 5 CRIMINAL TABLE OF COMMITMENTS. In 1834 22,451 1835 20,731 1836 20,984 1837 23,612 1838 23,094 INCREASE OF CRIME IN 1839. Offences against the person, 8*1 increase per cent. Offences against property committed with violence, 9.8 increase per cent. Forgery and offences against the currency, 10.3 increase per cent. Transported or impris oned. ,1834 1835 18-36 1837 1838 Transporta- tion for 14 years .... 668 554 585 479 708 For 10 years . 179 880 For 7 years . . 2,501 2,325 2,219 2,413 . . Imprison- ment for 3 years and above2 yrs. 6 11 1 14 25 For 2 j-ears and above 1 308 290 285 394 393 For 1 year and above 6 months. . 1,582 1,543 1,455 1,628 1,718 For 6 months and under . 8,825 8,071 8,384 10,258 10,262 INCREASE OF CRIME. 545 " In Northamptonshire, crime has in- creased 69 per cent.; in Staffordshire, 43 ; in Cornwall, 42 ; Leicestershire, 39 ; Wilts, 36 ; Bucks, 34 ; Dorsetshire, 33 ; Berks, 32 ; Somersetshire, 29 ; Mon- mouthshire, 28 ; Devonshire, 27 ; Wor- cestershire, 25 ; Westmoreland, 25 ; Lancashire, 24 ; Durham, 23 ; Esses, 21; Herefordshire, 21 ; Derbyshire, 18; Southampton, 12; Rutlandshire, 12; Cheshire, 1 1 ; Northumberland, 1 1 ; Oxfordshire, 11 ; Salop, 11 ; Sussex, 10 ; Yorkshire, 10 ; Gloucestershire, 10." — Rid. " Deny it who may, we adhere inflexi- bly to the opinion, that it is the direct tendency of the New Poor-Law to aug- ment the number of juvenile offenders. Destitute artisans, with large families, who can neither obtain immediate bread, nor brook the frightful alternative of selling their furniture, and encountering the horrors of a Whig workhouse, are inevi- tably driven to the necessity, if not of committing such systematic pilferings themselves, as might expose them to the risk of imprisonment, at least, of inciting their children to venture forth upon lar- cenous adventures, in the hope that, while thereby bringing home a certain portion of plunder, the chances of impunity, in the event of detection, will be greatly en- hanced by the tender age of the delin- quents, and the relative hardships of their case. It is found, accordingly, that petty thefts committed by infant banditti, whose ages range from 9 to 14, are prodigiously on the increase. This fact alone, estab- lished as it is by the criminal returns throughout the districts where the New Poor-Law happens to be in fiercest opera- tion, might surely suggest to our philan- thropic Salons the possibility of there being some such connexion as that of cause and effect between the barbarities of their favourite code, and the increase of youthful depredations." — Times, Aug. 21, 1840. 2 N NEW POOE-LAW PAELIAMENTARY DIVISIONS. April 17, 1834, Second Reading of the New Poor-Laws' Bill — House of Commons. Ayes, 319 ; Noes, 20; Majority, 299. June 9, 1834, The Minority of 31, Tellers included, who voted for Mr. Jervis's Amendment, to leave out that part of the 33d clause of the Poor-Laws' Amendment- Bill, which gives to landlords the right of voting by proxy. Ayes, 31 ; Noes, 125 ; Majority, 94. THE MINORITY. Humphrey, J. Aglionby, H. A. Attwood, T. Baines, E. Beauclerk, Major Bewes, T. Brotherton, J. BuUer, E. Clay, W. Collier, J. Ewart, W. Faithful, G. Fielden, J. Fryer, R. Hawes, B, Heathcoat, — Hume, J. Jervis, J. Lalor, P. Lister, E. C. Maddocks, J. Oswald, R. A. Robinson, G. R. Scholefield, J. Tennyson, Hon Thicknesse, R. Vigors, N. A. Wallace, T. Williams, W. Wilbraham, G. Wood, Alderman C. June 9, 1831, Minority of 36, Teller included, who voted that the absentee owner should not have the power of giving six votes by proxy, while the rate-paying tenant should only give one vote. Ayes, 36; Noes, 128; Majority, 92. Aglionby, H. A. Attwood, T. Baines, E. Briggs, R. Beauclerk, Major Brocklehurst, J. Brotherton, J. Clay, W. Ewart, W. Evans, G. Evans, Col. Faithful, G. Fielden, J. Fryer, R. Gaskell, D. Hawes, B. Hume, J. Heathcoat, J. Humphrey, J. Jervis, J. MINORITY. Kennedy, J. Lalor, P. Langston, J. H. Lister, E. C. Oswald, R. A, O'Brien, C. Phillips, M. Poulter, J. S. Robinson, G. R. Scholefield, J. Tancred, H. W. Tennyson, Hon. C. Thick nesse, R. Vigors, N. A. Wason, R. TELLER. Torrens, Col. June 9, 1834, Minority of 10, Tellers included, who voted for Mr. Cobbett's Amendment :—"■ That before this House proceed further with the Poor-Laws' Amendment-Bill, it appoint a select committee to inquire into the causes of the great increase in the amount of the poor-rates in England and Wales ; and also, that the instructions given to the barrister who drew the Bill be laid upon the table of the House." Cobbett, W. Egerton, W. Evans, Col. Faithful, G. Fielden, J. Finn, W. Godson, R. Hodges, T. L. Robinson, G. Scholefield, J. SHUT OUT. Attwood, T. June 10, 1834, Minority of 41, Teller included, who voted that the Commissioners ehould not have the power to prohibit the Guardians from giving relief out of the workhouse to the aged, sick, and infirm poor ; or to any widow unable wholly to maintain herself and children. Ayes, 41 ; Noes, 148; Majority 107. THE MINORITY. Attwood, T. Davenport, J. Fenton, J. Bennett, J. Duncombe,Hon.W. Gaskell, D. Bethell, R. Egerton, W. T. Godson, R. Briscoe, J. I. Fancourt, Major Halcomb, J. Brotherton, J. Faithful, G. Hardy, J. ColHer, J. Feilden, W, Hod2:es, T. L. Cripps, J. Fielden, J. Irton'', S. Langston, J. H. Mills, J. O'Connor, F. Price, R. Robinson, G. R. Scholefield, J. Slaney, R. A. PARLIAMENTARY DIVISIONS. 547 Thicknesse, R. Walker, R. Throckmorton, R. Wallace, R. Tower, C. T. W^alsh, Sir J. Vernon, G. H. Walter, J. Wilbraham, G. Wilks, J. Willoughby, Sir H. Williams, Col. TELLER. Scropc, P. June 12, 1834, the House resolved itself into a committee on the Poor-Laws' Amendment-Bill, and resumed the debate on the 45th clause. Mr. Cobbett's amend- ment, the object of which was, to prevent the separation of married paupers, the wearing of workhouse dresses, &c., after considerable discussion, was negatived by a majority of 128 to 17. June 13, 1834, Minority of 25, who voted, that the word " exclusively" be omitted in clause 48 of the Poor-Laws' Amendment-Bill, whereby the poor would have been enabled to apply to justices for orders for relief during the intervals when the vestiy or Guardians were not sitting. — Ayes, 25; Noes, 129; Majority, 104. THE MINORITY. Astley, Sir J. Attwood, T. Baines, E. Bennett, J. Blackstone, W. S. Butler, Col. Cobbett, W. Durham, Sir P. Finn, W. F. Freemantle, Sir T. Godson, R. Hanmer, Sir J. Hodges, T. L. Jacob, E. Knatchbull, Sir E. Q-Connell, M. Scholefield, J. Slaney, R. A. Thicknesse, R. Tower, C. T. Tyrrell, Sir J. Vivyan, Sir R. Williams, Col. Willoughby, Sir H. Wood, Col. TELLER. Scropc, P. June 18, 1834, INIinorlty of 29, Teller included, who voted in favour of the motion of Mr. Jervis, " That the Commissioners and Justices should not be permitted to plead the general issue, and give the special matter in evidence." Aglionby, H. A. Attwood, T. Briscoe, J. Blackstone, W. S. Blamire, W. Bethell, R. Ewart, W. Finn, W. F. Hughes, H. Halcomb, J. Jacob, E. Irton, S. Ingham, R. Lloyd, J. H. O'Connell, J. O'Connell, M. O'Brien, C. Pryme, G. Potter, R, Peter, W. Robinson, G. Stanley, E. Scholefield, J. Tower, C. T. Thompson, Aid. Vigors, N. Willoughby, Sir H. Young, G. F. TELLER. Jervis, J. June 20, 1834, Minority of 33, Teller included, who voted for expunging the 69th and three following clauses relathig to bastardy in the Poor Laws' Amendment-Bill. Brotherton, J. Biickins:ham, J. BuUer, C. Cobbett, W. Davenport, J. Fenton, J. Fielden, J. Finn, W. F. Gully, J. S. Halcomb, J. Handley, H. Hardy, J. Heathcoat, J. Hughes, H. Hodges, T. L. Jacob, E. Jervis, J. Lloyd, J. H. O'Connor, F. O'Dwyer, A, C. Ruthven, E. S. Ruthven, E. Rider, T. Stuart, Lord D. Scholefield, J. Shawe, R. N. Strult, E. Tennyson, Hon. C. Torrens, Col. Tyrrell, Sir J Vigors, N. A. Walter, J. Young, G. F. Right June 20, 1834, Minority of 18, Teller included, who voted for Mr. Cobbett's Amendment to clause 73 of the Poor-Laws' Amendment-Bill. Blake, M. J. Buckingham, J. Butler, Col. Cobbett, W. Fielden, J. Finn, W. F. Gaskell, D. Gully, J. Hodges, T. L. Heathcoat, J. Maxwell, J. O'Connor, F. O'Connell, D. O'Connell, M. O'Connell, J. O'Brien, C. Ruthven, E. Thompson, Alder- man. July 1, 1834, Minority of 52, Tellers included, who voted, against the third read- ing of the New Poor-Laws' Bill, House of Commons. — Ayes, 187; Noes, 52; Majority, 135. •2x2 548 THE BOOK OF TIIK BASTILES. THE MINORITY. Attwood, M. Attwood, T. Bainbridge, E. Baines, E. Baring, H. Blackstone, W. Brotherton, J. Burrell, Sir C. Cobbett, W. Duffield, T. Buncombe, Hon- W. Egerton, W. T. Faithful, G. Fielden, J. Fitzsimon, C. Fryer, R. Guise, Sir W. Gully, J. Halcomb, J. Halse, J. Hardy, J. Hughes, W. H. Humphrey, J. Kennedy, J. Leech, J. Lister, E. C. Lowther, Col. O'Connell, D. 0"Connell, M. O'Connell, M. O'Connell, J. Parker, Sir H. Potter, R. Rider, T. Robinson, G. R. Ruthven, E. Scholefield, J. Somerset, Lord G. Spry, Sir S. T. Stanley, E. Thicknesse, R. Tower, C. Vigors, N. A. Yivyan, Sir R. Walter, J. Whalley, Sir S. Williams, Col. Willoughby, Sir H. Wilks, J. Young, G. F. TELLERS. Bennett, J. Hodges, T. L. PAIRED OFF. Tennyson, Right Hon. D. July 21, 1834, second reading of the New Poor-Laws' Bill, House of Lords, Ayes, 76; Noes, 13; Majority, 63. July 28, 1834, the Bishop of Exeter moved, in the House of Lords, to substitute for the leading enactment of the Bastardy clause the following provision : — " That the father and mother of an illegitimate child, or the survivors of them, shall be required to support such child, and that no parish shall be bound to support such child whilst either parent is able to do so ; and that all relief occasioned by the wants of such child shall be considered as relief afforded to the father and mother, or the survivor of them. — Ayes, 34; Noes, 38; Majority, 4. August 8, 1834, third reading of the New Poor-Laws' Bill, House of Lords, Ayes, 45; Noes, 15 ; Majority, 30. Feb. 20, 1838, Mr. Fielden's motion for the repeal of the New Poor-Law. — Ayes, 17; Noes, 309; Majority, 292. THE MINORITY. Attwood, M. Attwood, T. Burr, H. Disraeli, B. Dungannon, Visct. Feilden, W. Grimsditch, T. Hawkes, T. Johnson, Genl. Jones, J. Lewis, W. Martin, J. Parker, R. T. Sibthorp, Col. Turner, W. Williams, W. Wilberforce, W. TELLERS. Fielden, J. Wakley, T. April 30, 1838, the third reading of the Irish Poor-Law, House of Commons, Ayes, 234; Noes, 59; Majority, 175. July 21, 1840, Order read for resuming adjourned debate on question (17th July) " That the Bill (Poor-Law Commission) be now read the third time." — Question again proposed — " Debate resumed — Amendment proposed, to leave out the word ' now,' and at the end of the question, to add the words ' upon this day three months.' Question put, ' That the word ' now' stand part of the question." — Ayes, 74 ; Noes, 16 ; Majority, 58. Attwood, M. Bainbridge, E. T. Brotherton, J. Collins, W. Douglas, Sir C. E. Duncombe, T. Fielden, J. Gore, O. J. R. Grant, Sir A. C. Hindley, C. Irton, S. Johnson, Genl. Muntz, G. F. Parker, R. T. Sibthorp, Col. WiUiams, W. TELLERS. Attwood, W. Grimsditch, T. Feb. 8, 1841, second reading of the Poor-Law Amendment- Act Amendment-Bill, or, Poor-Law Commissioners Ten Years' Continuance-Bill. — Ayes, 201 ; Noes, 54; Majority, 147. Archdall, M. Baldwin, C. B. Blackstone, W. S. Brotherton, J. Attwood, W. Bell, M. Broadwood, H. Brownrigg, S. PARLIAMENTARY DIVISIONS. 549 Burr, H. Copeland, Aid, Ualryraple, Sir A. Dick, Q. Douglas, Sir C. E. Duke, Sir J. Duncombe, T. Duncombe,Hon.W. Duncombe, Hon. A. Egerton, W. T. Etwall, R. Evans, Sir De L. Feilden, W. Fielden, J. Fitzroy, Hon. H. Godson, R. Gore, O. J. R. Goring, H, D. Grimsditch, T. Halford, H. Hawkes, T. Heathcoat, J. Hinde. J. H. Hindley, C. Hodges, T. L. Hodgson, F. Hodgson, R. Irton, S. Jervis, J. Johnson, GenL Leader, J. T. Liddell, Hon. H. T. Moneypenny, T. G. Muntz, G. F. O'Connell, D. OConnell, J. Pechell, Capt. Pigot, R. Polhill, F. Richards, R» Rushout, G. Sibthorp, Col. Spry, Sir S. T. Shirley, E. Thompson, Aid. Williams, W. TELLEES. D'Israeli, B. Wakley, T. N.B. Among the majority were, Buller, Sir J. Y. ; Clive, Hon. R. H. ; Darby, G. j Goulburn, Right Hon. H. ; Graham, Sir J. ; Grote, G. ; Huroe, J. ; Inglis, Sir R. H. ; KnatchbuU, Sir E. ; Lascelles, Hon. W. S. ; Peel, Sir R. ; Sandon, Lord ; Shaw, Right Hon. F. ; Somerset, Lord G. ; Stanley, Lord ; Strickland, Sir G. ; Tal- fourd, Serjeant ; Teignmouth, Lord ; &c. Absent, Sir F. Burclett. March 19, 1841, Poor-Law Amendment-Bill. Motion made, and question proposed, " That Mr. Speaker do now leave the chair." Amendment proposed, to leave out from the word " That" to the end of the question, in order to add the words, " this House will, upon this day six months, resolve itself into the said Committee," instead thereof. Question put, " That the Avords proposed to be left out stand part of the question." — Ayes, 247; Noes, 51 ; Majority, 196. THE MINORITY. Archdall, M. Attwood, W. Attwood, M. Baillie, Col. Bell, M. Blackstone, W. S, Bradshaw, J. Bioadwood, H. Brotherton, J. Brjan, G. Collins, W. Copeland, Aid. Dick, Q. Duncombe, T. Duncombe,Hon.W. Duncombe, Hon. A. Egerton, W. T. Evans, Sir De L. Fielden, J. Fector, J. M. Fleetwood, Sir P.H. Gore, O. J. R. Halford, H. Hall, Sir B. Hinde, J. H. Hindley, C. Hodges, T. L. Hodgson, F. Hodgson, R. Houldsworth, T. Hurt, F. Irton, S. James, Sir W. C. Johnson, Genl. Leader, J. T. Marton, G. Miller, W. H. Palmer, G. Pechell, Capt. Planta, Rt. Hon. J. Polhill, F. Richards, R. Scholefield, J. Sibthorp, Col. Stanley, E. Thompson, Aid.. Wakley, T. Walker, R. Wilbraham, Hon-B- WiUiams, T. P. Williams, W. TEI.LEKS. Parker, R. T. Grimsditch, T. N.B. Among those who voted in the majorit}', were Lord Ashley ; C. B. Baldwin y Sir J. Y. Buller ; H. Burr; Sir G. Crewe ; G. Darby ; Sir C. E. Douglas ; Viscount Eastnor ; Lord F. Egerton ; Right Hon. H. Goulburn ; Sir James Graham ; J. Hume; Sir R. W. Inglis; J. Jones; Sir E. KnatchbuU; Hon. W. S. Lascelles;, Sir W. Molesworth ; O. Morgan; J. S. Packington ; Sir R. Peel; Coh Rolleston ; Lord G. Somerset ; Lord Teignmouth. Absent, Sir F. Burdett. March 19, 1841, Poor-Law Amendment-Bill (in the Committee). First clause (Poor-Law Commissioners and every Assistant-Commissioner continued). Amend- ment proposed, to leave out the words, " every Commissioner." Question put, " That the words proposed to be left out stand part of the clause." The Committee divided — Ayes, 191 ; Noes, 46 ; Majority, 155. THE MINORITY. Archdall, M. Attwood, W. Bailey, J. Baillie, Col. Baldwin, C. B. Blackstone, W. Broad woodj H. Brocklehurst, J. Buck, L. W. Codrington, C. W. Collins, W. Copeland, Aid. D'Israeli, B. Douglas, Sir C. E. Duncombe, T. Duncombe, Hon. W. Duncombe, Hon. A. Easthope, J. Ellis, W. Evans, Sir De L. Fielden, J, Gore, O. J. R. Grant, Sir A. C. Grimsditch, T. Halford, H. Hawkes, f . Henniker, Lord Hi:ide, J. H. 550 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. Pechell, Capt. Polhill, F. Scarlett, Hon. J, Y. Scholefield, J. Smyth, Sir G. H. Waklev, T. Williams, W. TELLERS. Sibthorp, Col. Mackenzie, W. F. Hodges, T. L. Leader, J. T. Hodgson, F. Lowther, J. H. Hodgson, R. Neeld, J. Hollond, R. Pecke, C. W. Johnson, Genl. Parker, R. T. Jones, J. N.B. Among those who voted in the majority, M'ere J. Brotherton ; SirE. Filnier ; Right Hon. H. Goulburn ; Sir J. Graham ; C. Hindley ; G. Grote ; J.Hume; J. Bailey, Jun. ; Sir J. Y. BuUer ; G. Darby ; Sir R. H. Inglis ; Hon. AV. S. Las- celles ; J. S. Packington ; Sir R. Peel ; Col. Rollcston ; Lord G. Somerset ; E. Strutt ; B. Wilbraham ; Col. Wood. Absent, Sir F. Burdett. March 22, 1841, Poor-Law Amendment-Bill (in Committee). First clause, (Poor- Law Commissioners and every Assistant-Commissioner, Secretary, and other officer and person duly appointed by the Poor-Law Commissioners, empowered to hold office, and exercise the powers thereof, until the 31st of December, in the year " 1846.") Amendment proposed, to leave out the words "one thousand eight hundred and forty- six," in order to insert the words " one thousand eight hundred and forty-three." Question put, " That the words one thousand eight hundred and forty-six stand part of the clause." The Committee divided — Ayes, 174; Noes, 135; Majority, 39. Ainsworth, P. Archdall, M. Attwood, W. Bailej^ J. Bailey, J. Jun. Baillie, Col. Bainbridge, E. T. Baldwin, C. B. Bell, M. Blackstone, W. S. Boldero, H. G. Broadley, H. Broadwood, H. Brocklehurst, J. Brownrigg, S. Brotherton, J. Browne, R. D. Bruges, W. H. L. Buck, L. W. BuUer, Sir J. Y. Burroughes, H. N. Canning, Rt. Hon. Sir S. Cholmondeley,Hon. H. Chute, W^. L. W. Collins, W. Courtenay, P. Crewe, Sir G. Darby, G. Dashwood, G. H. Dick, Q. D'Israeli, B. Douglas, Sir C. E. Dugdale, W. S. Duncombe, T. Duncombe,Hon.W. Dundas, C. W. D. Eastnor, Lord Eaton, R, J. Egerton, W. T. Ellis, W. Evans, Sir De L. Farnham, E. B. Feilden, W. Fielden, J. Fellowes, E. Filmer, Sir E. Fitzroy, Hon. H. Fleetwood, SirP.H. Forrester, Hon. G. Fox, S. L. Gaskell, J. M. Gore, O. J. R. Grant, Sir A. C. Grimsditch, T. Guest, Sir J. Halford, H. Hall, Sir B. Hamilton, C. J. B. Hamilton, Lord C. Hawkes, T. Hector, C. J. Henniker, Lord Hinde, J. H. Hindley, C. Hodges, T. L. Hodgson, F. Hodgson, R. Hollond, R. Hope, G. W. Hotham, Lord Houlds worth, T. Hurt, F. Irton, S. Jervis, S. Johnson, Genl. Jones, J. Kemble, H. Knatchbull, Sir E. Law, Hon. C. E. Leader, J. T, Lowther, J. H. Mackenzie, T. Mackenzie, W. F. Mahon, Lord Marten, G. Maunsell, T. P. INIoneypenny, T. G. ]Morris, D. Muntz, G. F. Owen, Sir J. Packe, C. W. Palmer, R. Palmer, G. Parker, R. T. Pechell, Capt. Pigot, R. PoUiill, F. Pollen, Sir J. W. Pollock, Sir F. Powell, Col. Praed, W. T. Rae, Right Hon. Sir W^ Richards, R. Rolleston, Col. Rushbrooke, Col. Rushout, G. Sanderson, R. Scarlett, Hon. J. Y. Scholefleld, J. Sheppard, T. Sibthorp, Col. Smith, G. R. Smyth, Sir G. H. Smythe, Hon. G. Sprj', Sir S. T. Stanley, E. Strickland, Sir G. Tancred, H. W. Trotter, J. Turner, E. Turner, W. Vere, Sir C. B. Vivian, J. E. W^addinston, H. S. Walker,''R. Wilbraham, G. Wilbraham, Hon. B. Williams, W. W^ilmot, Sir J. E. Wodehouse, E. Wood, Col. W^ood, B. Wvnn, Right Hon. c. w. Yorke, Hon. E. T. TELLERS. Easthope, J. Wakley, T. Round, J. Among the majority were. Sir A Dalrymple ; Lord F. Egerton ; Right Hon. H. Goulburn; Sir J. Graham; G. Grote ; J. Hume; Sir W. Molesworth ; Sir R. Peel; Lord G. Somerset; E. Strutt; Lord Teignmouth ; Col. Wood. Abse?if, iSir F. Bw-ddt; H. Burr; ami ghut out, W. Boiling and Alderman Copeland. PARLIAMENTARi' DIVISIOxN'S. 551 March 26, 1841, Poor-Law Amendment-Bill (in the Committee). Fourth clause (that every rule, order, or regulation, of the Poor-Law Commissioners, which shall be issued, and shall apply to a class of cases, or to a series or succession of occasions, shall be deemed to be a general rule, and that every such rule, order, or regulation, Avhich shall apply only to a single case, or a single occasion, shall be deemed a par- ticular order) ; Amendment proposed, to leave out the word " every," in order to insert the word " no." Question put, " That the word ' every' stand part of the clause." The Committee divided — Ayes, 225; Noes, 75; Majority, 150. Ains worth, P. Attwood, W. Bailev, J. Jun. Baillie, Col. Bainbridge, E. T. Bell, M. Blackstone, W. S. Boldero, H. G. Boiling, W. Broadwood, H. Brocklehurst, J. Brotherton, J. Buck, L. W. Buller, Sir J. Y. Burr, H. Burroughes, H. N. Collins, W. Copeland, Aid. Courtenay, P. Crewe, Sir G. Darlington, Earl of Hodgson, F. Dick, Q. Hollond, R. Disraeli, B. Easthope, J. Eaton, R. J. Egerton, W. T. Ellis, W. Evans, Sir De L. Farnham, E. B. Fielden, J. Fitzroy, Hon. H. Fleetwood, SirP.H. Gore, O. J. R. Goring, H. D. Grant, Sir A. C. Grimsditch, T. Halford, H. Hamilton, C. J. B. Hawkes, T. Houldsworth, T. Humphery', J. Irton, S. Johnson, Genl. Leader, J. T. Lowther, J. H. Lygon, Hon. Genl. Mackenzie, W. F. Martin, G. Miller, W. H. Muntz, G. F. Q-Brien, W. S. Owen, Sir J. Palmer, R. Palmer, G. Parker, R. T. Pechell, Capt. Polhill, F. Richards,- R,. Round, J. Rushout, G. Sanderson, R. Scarlett, Hon. J. Y. Scholefield, J. Sibthorp, Col. Smyth, Sir G. H.. Spry, Sir S. T. Stanley, E. Turner, W. Vivian, J. E. Wakley, T. Wilbraham, Hon.B. Williams, R. TELLERS. Hinde, H. Duncombe,Hon.\V- Hodges, T. L. N.B. Among the majority were, Aglionby, H. A. ; Bailey, J. ; Baldwin, C. B. ; Darby, G. ; Douro, Marquis ; Eastnor, Lord ; Egerton, Lord F. ; Filmer, Sir E. ; Goulburn, Right Hon. H. ; Grote, G. ; Hume, J. ; Inglis, Sir R. H ; Knatchbull, Sir E. ; Morgan, O. ; Peel, Sir R. ; Rolleston, Col.; Sandon, Lord; Shaw, Right Hon. F. ; Somerset, Lord G. ; Teignmouth, Lord ; Wood, Col. Absent, Sir F. Burdett. March 29, 1841, Poor-Law Amendment-Bill. Order for Committee read. Motiom made, and question put, " That it be an instruction to the Committee, that they have power to make provision to repeal the Poor-Law Amendment-Act." (Mr. J. Field- en"s motion). The House divided — Ayes, 9; Noes, 155; Majority, 146. Hawkes, T. Sibthorp, Col. tellers. Muntz, G. F. Smyth, Sir G. H. Fielden, J. Parker, R. T. Wakley, T. Johnson, Genl. N.B. Among the majority were, Aglionby, H. A. ; Bailey, J. ; Baldwin, C. B. ; Burn, H. ; Dalrymple, Sir A. ; Darby, G. ; Douglas, Sir C. E. ; Feilden, W. ; Goulburn, Right Hon. H. ; Grote, G. ; Halford, H. ; Hotham, Lord ; Inghs, Sir R. H. ; Lascelles, Hon. W. S. ; Molesworth, Sir W. ; Morgan, O. ; Pechell, Capt. ; Peel, Sir R.; Rushbrooke, Col. ; Sandon, Lord ; Somerset, Lord G ; Stanley, Lord ; Strutt, E.; Trevor, Hon. G. R. ; Wynn, Right Hon. C. W. Absent, Sir F. Burdett. Attwood, W. Brotherton, J Etwall, R. March 30, 1841, Poor-Law Amendment-Bill. (In the Committee.) Motion- made, and question put, " That the Chairman do report progress, and ask leave to. sit again." The Committee divided — Ayes, 18; Noes, 109; Majority, 89. Brotherton, J. Buller, Sir J. Y. Douglas, Sir C. E. Egerton, W. T. Etwall, R. Fitzroy, Hon. H. Fort, J. Freshfield, J. W. Grimsditch, T. Johnson, Genl. Kemble, H. Lowther, J. H. Mackenzie, W. F. Muntz, G. F. Packington, J. S. Parker, R. T. Somerset, Lord G. Wilbraham, G» TELLERS. Sibthorp, CoL Fielden, J, 552 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. N.B. Among the majority were, Aglionby, H. A. ; Boiling, W. ; Brocklehurst, J. ; Darby, G. ; Filmer, Sir E. ; Goulburn, Right Hon. H. ; Grote, G. ; Lascelles, Hon. W. S. ; Morgan, O. ; Pechell, Capt. ; Peel, Sir R. ; Rushbrooke, Col. ; Wood, Col. Absent Sir F. Burdett. April 1, 1841, Poor-Law Amendment-Bill. (In the Committee.) Twenty-second clause (in addition to the sum of money which Guardians are empowered to raise or borrow, for the purpose of purchasing, hiring, building, enlarging, or altering work- houses, the Guardians of any parish situated within the Metropolitan Police district, may also raise or borrow such further sums as may be necessary, for the purchase of land required as the site of such workhouse, or of addition to any such workhouse). Amendment proposed, page 9, line 1, after the words " Metropolitan Police district," to insert the Avords, " with the consent of the rate-payers in public vestry assembled." Question put, " That the proposed words be there inserted." The Committee divided —Ayes, 22, Noes, 216 ; Majority, 194. Attwood, W. Collins, W. Dick, Q. Fielden, J. Gore, O. J. R. Grimsditch, T. Hawkes, T. Hector, C. J. Hodges, T. L. Hollond, R. Humphrey, J. Johnson, Genl. Leader, J. T. Parker, R. T. Pechell, Capt. Round, J. Sib thorp, Col. Trotter, J. Turner, W. Williams, W. TELLERS. Duncombe, T. Wakley, T. Moneypenny, T. G. Walker, R. N.B. Among the majority, were Ashley, Lord ; Baldwin, G. B. ; Broadwood, H. » Brotherton, J ; Burr, H. ; Copeland, Aid. ; Dalrymple, Sir A. ; Darby, G. ; Douglas* Sir C. E. ; Douro, Marquis of; Duncombe, Hon. W.; Egerton, Lord F. ; Evans» Sir De L. ; Goulburn, Right Hon. H. ; Grote, G. ; Halford, H. ; Hodgson, F. ; Hodgson, R. ; Hume, J. ; Liglis, Sir R. H. ; Lascelles, Hon. W. S. ; Lowther, J. H. ; Morgan, O. ; Peel, Right Hon. Sir R. ; Rolleston, Col. ; Somerset, Lord G. ; Teignmouth, Lord ; Wilbraham, Hon, B. ; Wood, Col. Absent, Sir F. Burdett. •p ^ 5 -^ -9 o Bra a, ,3 g e 2 -a . 1, (J ■ rt-l § S'^ — o o g ^ Ph CO OJ t S S t« J3 c <^ oEc S ■iJ C O O *-• r; q; P.C~ 3 ■ ■ lO ^ ^ O o ' , p S r-1 H 2 2 & OJ Qj ^ w cu t:^ c c ■= t. 3 == (U (U 2 «J C8 = = ,*:^ o 'a - _ o . S O P S t^ .0 • r- p. a! '-' - -" >S S j; - 2 £ '^3 " '^ "2 2 rS ''O . S « o a y i-H , pH O > 0) >; c s '^ s £■ tg „- r3 2 -2 £ QJ ^ be (U c3 P- H ^ 1 1 ■" ^ ^5S ■^■E Rt. Hon. S. Lushington, and Sir R. H. Inglis, Deputy- Chairman Earl of Eiistou Lord C. Fitzroy Lord Sandon Lord Ashley Lord Eliot Lord Worsley Lord Teignmouth . . . Hon. C. P. Villiers Right Hon. T. B. Macaulay Sir T. Acland T. D. Acland E. Baines John i. Briscoe VV. Ewart W. Evans B. Hawes John Irving Charles Lushington B. Smith TS t-i 13 aa g a > ■5: fcc P > Q Q fa Q For For For For For For Abs. Abs. Abs. Abs. Abs. Abs. For For Abs. For For Abs. For For For Abs. Abs. For Abs. For Abs. Abs. Abs. Abs. Abs. Abs. For For For For For For Abs. For For For For For Abs. For For For For For Abs For For For For For For Abs. Abs. For For For For For For For Abs. For For For Abs. For Abs. Abs. Abs. Abs. Abs. For For For Abs. For Abs. For For Abs. For For For For Abs. For For For For For For For For For For For Abs. Abs. Abs. Abs. Abs. Abs. For For Abs. Abs. Abs. For Abs. Abs. Abs. For Abs. Abs. NEW POOE-LAW STATISTICS, RETURNS, ETC, " Mr. Grirasditch would just allude to the situation of the Union of Lancaster. This Union had been in operation nearly two years, and he held in his hand copies of some of the quarterly accounts, show- ing the number of persons who had been relieved and the amount expended; but so great was the number of paupers, that he thought it impossible to manage this Union according to the new workhouse system. The Guardians had purchased a quantity of land for the purpose of building a new workhouse, but this they afterwards abandoned. The Union con- sisted of 41 townships, extending over 60,500 acres, and with a population of 150,000. For the quarter ending 25th March, 1837, he found, exclusive of those to whom relief was afforded by the work- house, 3,040 had received out-door relief; for the quarter ending 24 th June, the number was 4,447 ; and for the quarter ending 29th September, 4,587. He would put it to the good sense and feeling of the House whether Government ought not to take these circumstances into considera- tion ; and he would ask, whether it was pos- sible that any Union could accommodate such a mass of people. He felt assured it was impossible, and he was anxious that the Poor-Law Commissioners should take it into consideration as the first point of their inquiry. He was certain that hon. members would be convinced, by the returns he moved for, that it was impossi- ble to apply this system universally." — House of Commons, Dec. 12, 1837. " But it is said, Sir, that ignorance pre- vails in the manufacturing districts of the excellent working of the New Poor-Law. The answer that'he (Mr. Fielden) would give to this charge would be found in the petitions presented to this House last Session. Sir, for repeal there were 164 petitions, signed by 201,967 persons. For amendment 152 petitions, signed by 63,796. For exemption from the act 17 petitions, signed by 2,269, and in sup- port of the act only 35 petitions, signed by 952 persons. So much for ignorance, Sir ; if it be such, it overspreads the land. Sir, there was no necessity for this law in the manufacturing districts. Lord Althorp, when the Bill was passing through the House, stated his doubts strongly of in- troducing it3 operation there. "What would he have now said, when it is being introduced with bullets and bay- onets ? Sir, the noble lord, the Secretary for the Home Department, had better i-etrace his steps ; he is treading on dan- gerous ground, and he will effect no good, but otherwise, by carrying the law into the North, even if he can succeed. From return in a third report of the Commis- sioners the expenditure is given per head, according to the population of 1831, for 1834 and 1837 for all the counties in England and Wales. This return shows — that in 1834, in Sussex, the expendi- ture was highest, being 18s. Id. per head; that in the West Riding of York, in which Bradford is situate, the expenditure is only 5s. 2d. per head at the same period, being the lowest expenditure of any of the counties, except Cumber- land and Lancaster; and that in 1837 Essex was the highest, being 9s. 4d. per head, and the West-Riding of Yorkshire was the lowest expenditure of all the counties except Lancaster, the West- Riding being 3s. 6d. per head, and Lan- caster 2s. 9d. per head. Now, Sir, these facts speak volumes against the unjusti- fiable proceedings at Bradford." — Mr. Fielden, House of Commons, Dec. 11, 1837. " Pook-Law Ukions. — Returns have been received from 501 English Unions, showing the size in square miles, the population, and the number of elected and ex-officio Guardians in each. These Unions comprise a total area of 39,205 square miles, and comprise a population of 8,668,270. The average population of each Union is conseqviently 17,302, and the average area is 78 square miles. One of the Northumberland Unions con- tains 331 square miles, but the population which it comprises is under 7,000. The town Unions, on the other hand, are the smallest in size, and the largest in respect of population. There are not a dozen Unions which have a population exceed- ing 50,000 ; but this is exclusive of the metropolitan Unions, which, however, are exceeded in population by several Unions in the country. The Bradford Union con- tains the largest population of any three Unions, being 94,621, according to the 554 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. census of 1831, and allowing only for a moderate rate of increase, it may now be set down at 100,000. There are two Unions which have a population under 2,700. The number of elected and ex- ojicio Guardians in tliree Unions is above 100. In several Unions the ex- ojicio Guardians are equal in number to these elected by the rate-payers. The following abstract from the returns will be interesting to our local readers : — Guardians. Sq. miles. El. Ex-off. YORKSHIRE. Howden 102 35 2 Pocklington 158 49 6 Bradford 61 29 5 Doncaster 168 58 15 Ecclesall Bierlow 37 12 3 Goole 55 20 2 Halifax 81 31 8 Rotherham 79 20 8 Sheffield 17 13 1 Settle 233 33 4 Skipton 197 47 6 Thorne HI 19 3 DERBY. Belper 79 53 13 Chapel-en-le-Firth 106 22 1 Chesterfield MI 39 7 Derby 4 27 3 Glossop 33 16 Hayfield 24 17 3 Shardlow 136 57 10 —Northern Star, April 21, 1838. " Repokt of the Poor-Law Com- MissiONEKS. — The Fifth Annual Report of the Poor-Law Commissioners has just made its appearance, being somewhat earlier than its predecessors in former years. The Report is less lengthy than those of former years, and is confined, as regards England and Wales, to a brief account of the proceedings of the Com- missioners during the last wintei', and to a few observations on the peculiar circum- stances wdiich distinguished that period with reference to the administration of relief to the poor. It also gives a detailed account of the measures which have been adopted for introducing into Ireland the provisions of the Act (I and 2 Vic, c. 56) of last Session for the more effectual relief of the destitute poor in Ireland. — From the tabular statements in the appen- dix we find, that the number of Unions declared in England and Wales, to the 1st of May, 1839, is 587 ; the number of parishes united, 13,641, of which the population is 11,751,345, and the average amount of rates for the year, £5,530,002. The task of forming Unions in England and Wales is therefore nearly complete, the whole number of parishes being 14,490, and the number united 13,641, leaving only 849. The report contains nothing more of general interest with regard to England and Wales, except the second report of Dr. Kay on training children according to the system intro- duced by him into Dr. Aubens Establish- ment at Norwood. In Ireland the Com- missioners seem to have met with no opposition, and they have accordingly formed nearly the whole kingdom into Unions." "Poor-Law Unions. — From a Par- liamentary return it appears, that the Poor- Law Unions in pjngland and Wales include a population of 8,668,270, aver- aging 17,302 in each Union, measuring on an average seventy-eight s(^uare miles, and having on the average thirty-five Guardians."' " During the month ending the 24th inst., the number of poor persons applying for a night's lodging in the Kensington workhouse have been no less than 1 ,099 ; and, in consequence of their nightly in- crease, the Board of Guardians have applied to the Commissioners of Police for the daily attendance of a policeman at the workhouse, between the hours of seven p. m. and two a. m., for the purpose of searching the unfortunate creatures, to see if they are in reality without the means of procuring food and shelter, which application has been complied with"— Times, April 30, 1841. " It appears from a return moved for by iNIr. WiUiam :Miles, M.P., that the total number of children in the respective workhouses in the different Unions (535 in all) in England and Wales, at the end of the Michaelmas quarter in 1840, amounted to 49,756, of whom 12,861 were illegitimate, and 36,895 were legiti- mate, and the total number of able-bodied w^omen was 19,167, of whom 5,156 were mothers of illegitimate children. The total population of the above 535 Unions in England and Wales amounted, in 1831, to 10,709,155 persons." " Wealth and Poverty. — M. Cas- par, of Berlin, has published the follow- ing table, showing the influence of wealth and poverty respectively upon the dura- tion of human life. He takes from the register of death in the Almanack of Gotlia, a thousand names belonging to the families of princes and Dukes, and from the official returns of the population of Berlin a thousand names of persons who had lived upon charity, and whose deaths hud been carefully registered. Of a thou- STATISTICS, RETURNS, ETC. 555 sand rich and poor, there were existing, says M. Caspar, At the age of Rich. Poor. 5 years 943 655 lU 938 .... 598 15 911 .... 584 20 886 .... 566 25 852 .... 553 30 796 .... 527 35 753 .... 486 40 693 .... 446 45 624 .... 396 50 557 .... 338 55 -464 .... 283 60 398 .... 226 65 318 .... 172 70 235 ... . 17 75 139 ... . 65 80 57 ... . 4 85 29 ... . 9 90 25 ... . 4 95 1 .... 2 100 .... — December, 1839. " In Liverpool there are 39,300 persons living in cellars, the greater proportion of which are dark, damp, confined, ill- venti- lated, and dirty." " In Manchester and Salford, there are 18,295 persons living in cellars, and out of 37,000 dwellings, 18,000 are ill-fur- nished, and of these, 10,400 are described as uncomfortable. An examination of 3,000 families at Bury, gave these results : — "In 773 houses they slept 3 to 4 in abed. In 207 4 to 5 In 78 5 to 6 Total 1,058, or one-third badly off." *' Mr. Horner states, that in the exami- nation of children imder fourteen years of age, employed in factories, of boys 46 per cent, could not read, 67 per cent, could not write their names ; of girls, 57 per cent, coidd not read, 88 per cent, could not write their names, " The rate of mortality is greatly in- creased in all manufacturing towns. In Glasgow, in 1822, the rate of mortality was 1 in 44 of the population. In 1837 it was 1 in 24J." — February, 1841. "In 1821, the population of England and Wales was 11,978,075,' and the simi expended for the relief of the poor, £6,958,445, In 1831, the population was 13,897,187, and the amount expended for the poor, £6,798,889, Thus, while the population increased 15^ per cent, the poor-rate was materially reduced ; and as the price of wheat was nearly 4s, per quar- ter higher in the parochial year 1831 than in 1821, the decrease in individual contri- bution to the poor amoimted, in the course of these ten years, to more Ihau 21 per cent, if measured by the price of Avheat, while the money contribution was reduced from lis. 7id. per head to 9s. 9id. Thus, the sum levied for the relief of the poor, so far from being in a state of pro- gressive advance, was in a state op EAPiD REDUCTION until the agitation consequent on a great political measure disturbed the peaceful pursuits of the people." — Mr. Boiven's Petition, March, 1841. "The Number of Poor in Eng- land," — England contains above 3,900,000 poor, being one-sixth of the whole population, which is taken at 23,400,000. The agricultural and the manufacturing population are in the ratio of 2 to 3, In London there are about 105,000 poor out of 1,350,000 inhabitants. In Liverpool, 27,000, out of 80,000. In Cork, 26,000 out of 60,000. In Sunder- land, 14,000 out of 17,000,"—" Chris- tian Political Economy,'' hy M. Be Vil- leneuve Bargemont, 1835. " In England, where the German system is now acted upon, there occurred, in the 24 years from 1810 to 1834, no more than 339 cases of infanticide, or rather more than fourteen annually ; and as the aver- age population of England and Wales, according to the census of 1810, 1820, 1830, may be estimated during that period at 12,012,275, the proportion of infanticide to the population was therefore as one to 856,581." — Eclectic Review. April, 1841. " Was it to be expected, that the in- crease of population was to take place among the rich only? Was all increase of the poor-rate to be grudged by a House of Commons which lavished hundreds of thousands on a Court and £300,000 on a single lady? (Hear, hear.) But while such sums were wasted in this way they were called on to declare that the paupers of this country were a restless and un- governable people. Restless and ungo- vernable ! Could it be said that, under existing circumstances, they had shown all that discontent and i-estlessness which had been attributed to them ? He thought not ; but, passing this, he would come to another point. He wished to show what Avas the state of things under the Poor- Law with reference to financial matters for 20 years previous to the year 1835, and he thought this must be considered as a new view of the subject, particularly if taken together with the fact of the in- crease of population during the same period. Hy look the years as ending 556 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. with the 25th of March in each year, and he fjund, that for the five years ending %vith the 25th of March, between 1814 and 1819, the expenditure of the poor-rates annually was 6,288,000. Between 1819 and 1824 it was £6,431,000; between 1824 and 1829 it was £6,157.000; be- tween 1829 and 1834 it was £6,754,000 annually. Now, take the average of the first year of the last ten, and they had the annual average expenditure at that date, £6,360,000 ; take that of the last year of the ten, and they had for the annual average expenditure £6,455,000; showing in the ten years immediately before the New Poor-Law came into operation an increase of £95,000 a-year. He begged the attention of hon. members to this. Here was an increase of poor-rate expen- diture, at the rate of 1| per cent, in the 10 years immediately preceding the intro- duction of the Poor-Law Amendment- Act. In what ratio had the population increased during that time ? At the ratio of 16 per cent. (Hear, hear.) Now look at the increase of wealth in the countiy, or of its income, as shown by the returns of legacy duty. For the 10 years ending with 1825 the amount was £319,363,000. In the period from 1825 to 1835 it Avas £382,577,000; giving £63,214,000 for the increase in the 10 years ; or, at the rate of £6,000,000 a-year."— J//-. Wak- lei/, House of Commons, Feb. 8, 1841. " Paktsh Vestries. — A return moved for by Viscount Sandon, M.P., of all parishes in England and Wales, with a population above 10,000 persons, which, previous to the passing of the Poor-LaAV Amendment-Act, were governed by a vestry chosen under the provisions of the Act 59 George III., c. 12, s. 1, states the number of the said parishes to have been as follows, viz., in Carlisle 2, in Durham county 4, in Essex 1, in Glouces- ter 2, in Lancaster 12, in Leicester 1, in Middlesex 2, in Norfolk 1, in Northum- berland 2, in Somerset 1, in Stafibrd 3, in Surrey 2, in York (West Riding) 3, in Glamorgan, Wales, 1. — Altogether 37." " It was utterly impossible for the workhouse test to be applied to large and populous districts. He took, for instance, the Preston Union. In 1837 the Union was formed, and there were 34 elected Guardians, including ten ex-officio. The number of townships was 28 , the aver- age was about 53,000 acres ; the radius 6f miles. The population of the Union was, in 1831, 58, 838 ; it was now said to be 93,732. Preston population was. in 1831, 33,112; it was now 63,633. The greatest number of paupers in the whole of the 28 townships before they were united, he had been informed, amounted to 657 in-door paupers, and 1,919 out-door; total, 2,576. In the December quarter, 1839, there were relieved, in-doors, 716; out of doors, 5,257 ; total, 5,973. In the correspond- ing quarter of 1840 there were relieved, in-doors, 1,170, and out of doors, 6,461 ; total, 7,631, showing an increase of 1,658 over the number of the preceding year, and 5,055 more than before the Union." — Mr. T. Parka', House of Com- mons, March 19, 1841. " That our readers may form some conception of what the Union system really is in large cities and manufacturing towns, we subjoin a statement of the population of some of the largest Unions, taken from a return just laid before Parlia- ment :— Bradford, 94,621; Halifax, 89,739; Huddersfield, 88,772; Bolton, 83,369; Kensington, 75,352; Sheffield, 74,058; Stepney, 72,446; Stockport, 70,886; Dudley, 66,009 ; Bath, 64,230 ; Whitechapcl, 64,141. Thirteen others, besides these, have a population of more than 50,000 ; and it is worthy of remark, that these great Unions include nearly all of the places where public opinion has been most unequivocally pronounced asrainst the law." — Times, March 19, 1841. " For the continuance of this system, all who desire to retain the Commissioners on the ground that all England is not yet Unionized, must be understood to vote. But, as it would not be necessary, for this purpose, to continue their powers for 60 long a period as five years or upwards, those who support that proposition must be understood to go still further, and to be willing to record their confidence in the Commissioners, on the ground as well of what they have already done, as of what they have intimated with regard to their plans for the future. " Among the reasons for such a con- fidence, we presume, must be reckoned their admirable discovery that paupers may be supported in a Cumberland work- house (that of Longtown Union) for Is. 7d. per head weekly. In that fortunate county there is another Union, which contrives to sustain the lives of its in-door pensioners upon Is. lOd. each per week ; and the average weekly cost of a pauper throughout all the workhouses of the nine Unions in the county is just 2s. Ijd. per STATISTICS, RETURNS, ETC. 557 head. Happy rate-payers of Cumberland, and happy poor !" — Ibid. "How RUINOUSLY THE OLD LaW worked! — From documents to the British Association it appears, that the increase of carriages from 1820 to 1833 was one-fourth ; armorial bearings, one- third ; and male servants, ditto." — Annual Register, 1837. " Previously to the Act of Elizabeth, the number of crimes committed through the country was enormous. In the reign of Henry VHI. alone, 70,000 were exe- cuted for theft and other offences. In Somersetshire, though 40 were hanged in one year, four-fifths of the guilty escaped. In London, even, it was found necessary to empower a certain officer to seize offenders in the streets, and hang them without trial." — Lord John RusselVs Speech on the Irish Poor-Laio, Feb. 13, 1837. " Establishment Expenses. — With regard to the expense of the system, it had been calculated, that the whole aver- age charge for each person in the English workhouses, including lodging, fuel, clothing, and diet, was Is. 6d. per head per week. If, therefore, we take a hundred Union-houses, each containing 800 inmates, and suppose them all fully occupied, the annual expense for the whole will be £312,000."— /5i"rf " Deaths by Starvation. — In the latter half-year of 1837, there were 63 cases attributed to * starvation.' In 1 838, the deaths of 167 persons, — 126 males and 41 females, — were classed under the same head." — Companion to the Almanac for 1841, and Mr. Farrs Tables. " Deaths by Starvation and Want. —The mean annual Mortality out of a population of a million of both sexes: — Males, 17; Females, 5; Mean — 11." — Fan-'s Necrological Tables for 1838. " Increase of Population. — Whilst the increase of population in England and Wales, in 30 years, from 1801 to 1831, has been something more than 47 per cent, the actual increase in the number of in- habitants of five of our most important provincial towns has very nearly doubled that rate ; being, Manchester 109 per cent. Glasgow 108 „ Birmingham 73 ,, Leeds 99 „ Liverpool 100 ,, — House of Commons Report, 1840. " From a return lately moved for by Mr. W. Miles, M.P., we find that the total amount of salaries and other pay- ments received in 1840, by the Poor-Law Commissioners and Secretaries, Clerks, &.c, and by all the Assistant-Commissioners for salaries, travelling expenses, and allow- ances for clerks, &c., in England, was £41,831, and in Ireland, £19,435, making the total expense of the Commission £61,266. The amount of printing ex- penses incurred in 1840 by the Poor-Law Commission was, altogether, £3,320." " From a return recently moved for by Sir E. Knatchbull, Bart., M.P., it appears, that the number of Unions to which special and not general rules have been given by the Commissioner in 1840, is very nearly 500." "Poor-Law Commission. — We find from a return lately moved for by Sir Edward Knatchbull, Bart., M.P., that the total sums paid for law expenses, by order of the Poor-Law Commissioners, from 1835 to 1840, inclusive, amounted to upwards of £5,000." " POPULOUSNESS OF ENGLAND AND Wales. — The number of inhabitants to a square mile in England and Wales is at present about 265. In Westmoreland there are little more than 70 ; and in Lin- colnshire, almost a purely agricultural county, there are about 120. Mr. Fair states, that in the East and West London Unions the number of inhabitants to a square mile is 186,046; and that the greatest density attained in the heart of English cities is 243,000 to a geographical square mile." — Companio7i to the Almanac for 1840. " In the quarter ending Lady-day, 1840, the number of persons relieved by in-door relief was 134,000, whilst the number of those relieved by out-door relief amounted to 747,000. The num- ber of able-bodied persons, including their families, relieved in England alone, during that quarter, was 93,134, and in England and Wales 104,356." — Zorr/ Jnh?i Russell, House of Commons, March 26, 1841. " The total number of parishes in England and Wales, actually incoporated into Unions by the Poor-Law Commis- sioners, is 13,670; the number not sub- ject to their control 799, of which only 288 are under Gilbert's Act, and the remainder principally under local acts." —Times, March 18, 1841. Poor-Law Petitions, " The number of petitions presented, during the Session of 1837, was 314; of rjoS THE BOOK OF THE BASTILLS. these only 35 were in favour of the New Law, and all, with two exceptions, from Whig Boards of Guardians; 21 jirayed for exemption from the law; 18 for an amendment ; 44 relate to the neglectful medical treatment of the poor ; and 82 from public meetings. There were 60,000 signatures to the petitions praying for an amendment; 19 petitions contained spe- cific allegations or complaints of private treatment ; and 107 prayed for a total repeal. These 107 had 201,967 sig- natures. "In the Session of 1838, 367 peti- tions were presented ; 22 of which were in favour of the New Law ; seven, to which 8,760 signatures were attached, prayed for exemption from it ; 51 for general amendments ; 12, with 7,684 signatures, contained specific allegations against it; and 263, with 225,000 sig- natures, prayed for its total repeal. "Lithe Session of 1839, five peti- tions, signed by 87 individuals, were presented in favour of the New Law ; 98 for amendment and alteration, with 5,771 signatures, and 11 for total repeal, bearing 4,466 signatures. " In the Session of 1840, 87 petitions, with 6,526 signatures, praying for repeal, or alteration, of the Pooi"-Law Amend- ment-Act ; in support five, with 79 sig- natures. Against the Poor- Law Amend- ment Bill, 78 petitions, with 9,343 sig- natures ; for the same one, with one signature. Against the Poor-Law Com- mission Bill, 20 petitions, with 2,485 signatures ; in favour of the same, five, with 63 signatures. Against the Union Workhouse Bill, 62 petitions, with 3,253 signatures ; in favour of, 24, with 533 sig- natures." " It appears by the printed returns of the House of Commons, that up to the 26th of February, there had been presented 166 petitions for the repeal or alteration of the New Poor-Law, and these signed by 35,063 ; while, on the other hand, there had been presented in favour of this obnoxious law two petitions signed by two persons." — Times, March 9, 1841. Somerset - house and Gilbert Unioxs. — " The number of paupers in workhouses is about 98,000 ; the number of paupers receiving out-door relief is above 560,000 ; that is, more than five to one in favour of tlie Gilbert system, even according to p. 29, ' Report of the Poor- Law Commissioners on the Continuance of the Commission !' But t?o into details, and take, for instance, 1st quarter, 1839, as reported in the Yorkshire Gazette, the York New Poor Union, where it is noto- rious, that Mr. Assistant-Commissioner Revans is not very scrupulous in the means he takes to get rid of a Relieving Officer if he does not like him. ' From the abstract of the Union account, it ap- pears, that during the quarter there have been relieved the following number of paupers : — In-door. Out-door. "Adults .^^^•'^'^^ 25 35G ^'^""^ ^Females 49 838 "Children 40 1,008 The expenditure of the Board for the quarter is : — " In maintenance £204 10 " Out-relief £2,170 19 5^ Or, ten to one in money, twenty to one in persons, in favour of the Gilbert system." — " Gilbert ise the New Poor-Law^' by the Rev. E. Duncombe, of Ncivton Kyme, near Tadcastcr, published July, 1841. Pkoxy Voiixg. — " By the Poor-Law Commissioners' Continuance Report, it is shown, that there are Guardians — elected, 16,667; ex-ojjicio, 4,198; that is, one landlord and magistrate, self-created a Guardian, to four tenants-at-will, under the landlord class. Can anything be more grossly selfish in the Parhamentary class ? Can anything more certainly de- monstrate, that the New Poor-Law ought to be called the New Property-Law? Yes, there yet remains mixed up with ex-officio Guardians another poisonous ingredient. By this New Poor-Law, by your idol experiment of 1834, you have not only set up in the Board-room, the taxation-room, where the common rights and interests of the rate-payers ought alone to be represented, 4,198 landlords and magistrates against \Q,QQ7 commonly dependent, though elected Guardians, but you have also increased the power of landlords as landlords in the election of even these, four to one. Yes, landlords, not content with sharing equally with occupiers and as occupiers, have arrogated in this New Poor-Law additional J!;/m- rality of votes for themselves ; nor is this all. It might be inconvenient to land- lords to be subjected to equal laws with the rate-payers. It would curtail their hunting and shooting, their lounging and yawning — or unpleasant salutations might sometimes meet their ears if they came as Englishmen to the poll. Therefore, this scandalous landlord ' plurality of votes,' is carried out by proxy." — Ibid. STATISTICS, RETURNS, ETC. 55^) Retui'ns to an Order of the House of Commons, dated 2d of February, 1841. (Lord Granville Somerset.) Ordered to be printed February 18, 1841. A Return of the Number of Parishes, together with the Amount of their Aggregate Population, according to the last Census in each County in England and Wales, which were not comprised in Unions under the Provisions of the Act 4 & 5 Wm. IV., c. 76, on the 25th of March, 1838, 1839, and 1840, respectively ;— also, alike Account of Parishes which were included in Unions under the Provisions of the above Act, at the same Date. Number of Parishes Not Comprised in Unions on the 25th of March in each of the following Years. Number of Parishes Included in Unions on the 2oth of March i:\ each of the following Years. COUNTIES. 1838. 1839. 1840. 1838. 1839. 1840. 1- Popula- tion in 1831. P Popula- tion in 1831. o ^ 1^ Popula- tion in 1831. o _^ II Popula- tion in 1831. II 1^ Popula- tion in 1831. o ^ 5 ^ Popula- tion hi 1831. England : Bedford 134 189 233 174 478 316 114 303 447 284 280 413 363 255 141 106 409 383 301 705 196 145 682 334 493 263 273 53 236 488 286 206 507 143 263 237 108 329 218 386 467 342 95,483 145,389 146,529 141,900 313,028 300,938 76,689 189,073 400,373 159,352 253,910 317,.507 327,945 111.211 143,341 53,192 466,983 954,651 194,409 317,465 754,168 98,130 328,641 179,336 232,912 235,327 133,.541 19,385 174,899 404,300 240,041 364,098 284,881 ^31,993 201,544 191,068 55,041 229,827 211,365 163,064 171,8,53 653,013 134 189 223 174 478 316 203 357 447 284 280 413 363 2.55 141 106 409 382 301 705 196 145 682 334 492 363 273 53 236 488 286 317 507 143 263 237 108 329 218 386 478 354 95,48.3 145,389 146,,529 141,900 313,038 30u,938 169,681 216,836 400,373 159,3.52 2.53,910 317,507 327,945 111,211 143,341 53,192 466,983 9.54,651 194,409 317,465 754,168 98,130 328,641 179,336 223,912 225,327 133,541 19,385 174,899 404,200 240,641 404.141 284,881 431,992 201,544 191,068 55,041 229,827 211,365 163,064 176,177 669,015 134 189 223 174 478 216 203 258 447 284 280 413 363 355 141 106 409 401 301 705 196 145 683 334 493 363 274 53 236 488 286 217 507 143 263 237 108 329 218 386 478 357 95,483 Berks 145.389 146,539 1 9 2,055 21,363 1 9 2,055 21,363 1 9 2,055 21,363 141,900 313,038 300,938 Cumberland 89 107 25 92,092 48,097 94,205 169,681 53 25 20,334 94,205 52 25 19,942 94,205 217,238 400,273 159,352 253,910 Essex 3i7,507 20 59,074 20 59,074 20 59,074 337,945 Hereford 111,311 Hertford 143,341 53,192 Kent 14 67 7 12,172 382,203 2,.594 14 67 7 13,173 382,203 2,594 14 48 7 12,172 360,485 2,594 466,983 976,369 194,409 Lincoln 3 17, -i 65 14 604,162 14 604,163 14 604,163 754,168 Monmouth 98,130 Norfolk 45 61,413 45 61.413 45 61,413 328,641 179, .336 223,912 235,337 Oxford 13 18,615 13 18,615 13 18,493 133,663 Rulland 19,385 22 48,039 22 48,039 22 48,039 174,899 404,200 Southampton Stafford 48 33 2 52 9 73,639 46,414 11,436 54,342 70,796 145,542 48 23 2 7 53 9 73,639 6,371 11,436 54,342 70,796 145,542 48 33 2 52 9 73,639 6,371 11,436 54,343 70,796 145,542 240,611 404,141 Suffolk 284,881 431,992 201,544 191,068 55,041 Wilts 5 10,329 5 10,329 5 10,339 229,827 211,365 York, East Biding. York,North Riding York, West Riding 32 52 299 41,189 18,903 323,337 32 41 287 41,189 14,579 307,335 32 41 284 41,i89 14,579 303,634 163,064 176,177 673,726 Totals of Eng- land 972 3,242,011 795 2.061,787 771 3,034,844 13.469 10,848,994 13,646 11,029,218 12,670 11,056,161 Wales : Anglesey 73 103 96 102 73 83 40 165 34 47 148 62 48,335 47,763 64,780 100,740 66,448 80,337 60,013 136,612 35,315 49,416 81,425 24,651 73 103 96 102 73 83 . 40 165 34 47 148 63 48,.'!2.5 47,76o 64,780 100,740 68,448 80,337 60,012 126,612 35,315 49,416 81,425 24,651 72 103 9 103 73 83 40 165 34 47 148 63 48,,'i25 Brecon 477ii3 Cardigan 64,780 Carmarthen 100,7^0 66,448 Denbigh 2 3,302 2 3,302 2 3,303 80,327 Flint 60,013 126.612 Merioneth 35,315 Montgomery Pembroke 22 17,060 22 17,066 22 17,066 49,416 81,425 24,651 Totals of Wales 24 20,368 21 20,368 24 30,368 1,035 785,814 1,035 785,814 1,025 785,814 Totals of Eng- land & Wales. 996 2,362,379 819 2,082,155 795 2.055,213 13,494 11,634,808 13,671 11,815,032 13,695 11,841,975 E. CIIADWICK, Secretary. 560 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. No. 2. A Return of the Total Sum levied for the Relief of the Poor in all the Parishes comprised in Unions under the authority of Act, 4 & 5 Wm. IV., c. 76, in each of the Three Years, ending Lady-day 1838, 1839, and 1840. Number of Parishes United, with the Amount of Money levied for the Relief of the Poor, in the Years ending Lady-day. 1838. 1839. 1810. Number of Parishes United. Amount Levied. Number of Parishes United. Amount Levied. Number of Parishes United. Amount Levied. 13,494 £4,441,200 13,671 £4,865,602 13,695 £5,213,898 Note. — Out of the above Sums levied, are paid County Rates, Police Rates, and other fiXDBUSGS E. CHADWICK, Secretary. No. 3. A Return of Unions to which Special, and not General, Rules have been given in regard to each of the following Subjects ; viz., the Diet in Workhouses ; Out-door Relief in Money, Food or Clothing to able-bodied Persons, and to Widows with or without Children ; the Separation in Workhouses of Man and W^ife ; and Out- door Medical Relief; distinguishing the Number in regard to each Object, in the Years ending the 30th of September, 1838, 1839, and 1840. Years. Orders relating to Diet in Workhouses. Orders relating to Out-relief in Money, Food, or Clothing to able-bodied Persons. Orders relating to Out-relief in Money, Food, or Clothing, to "Widows with or without Chil- dren. Orders relating to the Separation in Workhouses of Man and Wife. Orders relating to Out-door Me- dical Relief. 1838 1839 1840 133 90 50 52 155 312 "94' 312 94 32 7 94 312 A like Account, for the same Period, and in regard to the same Objects, of Unions to which General Rules have been given in pursuance of the same Order. Years. Orders relating to Diet in Workhouses. Orders relating to Out-relief in Money, Food, or Clothing, to able-bodied Persons. Orders relating to Out-relief in Money, Food, or Clothing, to Widows with or without Chil- dren. Orders relating to the Separa- tion in Work- houses of Man and Wife. Orders relating to Out-door Me- dical Relief. 1838 1839 1840 — 2 2 — 2 Note. — The Provisions mentioned in the 3d, 4th, and 6th columns of the above Tables, are contained in the same Orders. Poor-Law Commission-Office, Somerset-house, 16th Feb., 1841. E. CHADWICK, Secretary. STATISTICS, RETURNS, ETC. 5G1 Return to an Order of the Honourable the House of Commons, dated 2nd February, 1841. (Lord Granville Somerset.) A Return of the Total Sums expended in the Purchases of Land, the Erection of the Buildings, and the Fittings-up of all Workhouses for Unions, under the Authority of the Act 4 & 5 Wm. IV., c. 76, made up to Michaelmas, 1840 ; also, a like Return for each of the Three Years ending Lady-day, 1838, 1839, 1840, and for the Half-year ending Michaelmas, 1840. Total Sums expended in the Purchases of Land, the Erection of the Buildings, and the Fittings-up of Workhouses, under the Act 4 & 5 Wm. IV., c. 76. Up to Michaelmas, 1840 £1,598,694 Dm-ing the year ending Lady-day, 1 838 382,084 Ditto 1839 410,492 Ditto 1840 253,179 During the half-year ending Michaelmas, 1840 94,235 Note. — The above statement only comprises 418 Unions, 140 Unions having failed to make a Return, and the Returns from 26 Unions having been found too imperfect to be used. Of the above amount, a large portion has been paid out of the produce of the sale of parish property, and the rest has been borrowed from the Exchequer Bill Loan Commissioners, and other sources, repayable in various periods, extending from five to twenty years. EDWIN CHADWICK, Secretary. Return of the Total Sum paid to Officers of Unions in each of the Three Years ending Lady-day, 1838, 1839, and 1840. Total Sums paid to Officers of 459 Unions in each of the Three Years ending Lady- day, 1S38, 1839, and 1840. Year 1838 £280,490 1839 318,604 1840 333,651 Note. — One Hundred and Twenty-five Unions have not yet made Returns. W. G. LUMLEY, Assistant- Secretary. 17th March, 1841. A Return to an Order of the Honourable the House of Commons, dated February 11, 1841. (Sir Edward Knatchbull.) Ordered, by the House of Commons, to be printed, February 26, 1841. For a Return of the Poor-Law Unions, distinguishing the County of each, to which an Order has been issued by the Commissioners, prohibiting Out-door Relief to able-bodied Paupers ; — Also a similar Return of Unions to which no such Order has been issued. 562 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. No. 1. Return of the Poor-Law Unions, distinguishing the county of each, to which an Order has been issued by the Commissioners, prohibiting Out-door Relief to able-bodied Paupers ; — Also, a similar Return of Unions to which no such Order has been issued. Unions to which such an Order has been issued prohibiting Out-door Relief to able-bodied Paupers. Bedford : Ampthill. Bedford. Biggleswade. Leighton Buzzard. Luton. Woburn. Berks : Abingdon. Bradfield. East Harapstead. Farringdon. Hungerford. Newbury. Reading. Wantage. Wokingham. Btjcks : Amersham. Aylesbury. Buckingham. Newport Pagnell. Win slow. Wycombe, Cambridge : Cambridge. Caxton and Arring- ton. Chesterton. Ely. Linton. Newmarket. North Witchford. Whittlesea. Wisbeach. Chester : Altrincham. Nantwich. Northwich. Worrall. Cornwall : Austell, St. Bodmin. Columb Major, St. Germans, St. Helston. Launceston. Liskeard. Penzance. Redruth. Cumberland : Brampton. Derby : Belper. Chesterfield. Derby. Shardlow. Devon : Axminster. Barnstaple. Bideford. Crediton. East Stonehouee. Honiton. Kingsbridge. Newton Abbott. Okehampton. Plympton St. Mary. South Molton. Tavistock. Thomas, St. Tiverton. Torrington. Totnes. Dorset : Beaminster. Blandford. Bridport. Cerne. Dorchester. Poole. Shaftesbury. Sherborne. Sturminster. Wareham and Pur- beck. Weymouth. Wimborne and Cranborne. Durham : Auckland. Chester-le-Street. Darlington. Durham. Lanchester. Sedgefield. South Shields. Stockton. Teesdale. Weardale. Essex. Billericay. Braintree. Chelmsford. Colchester. Dunmow. Epping. Halstead. Lexden and Win- stree. Maldon. Ongar. Orsett. Rochford. Romford. Saffron Walden. Tendring. West Ham. Witham. Gloucester: Cheltenham. Chipping Sodbury. Cirencester. Clifton. Dursley. Gloucester. Newent. Northleach. Stow-on- the- Wold. Stroud. Tetbury. Tewkesbury. Thornbury. Westbury-on- Severn. Wheatenhurst. Winchcombe. Hereford : Bromyard. Dore. Hereford. Kington. Ledbury. Leominster. Ross. Weobly. Herts : Albans, St.* Barnet. Berkhampstead. Bishop Stortford. Buntingford. Hemel Hempstead. Hertford. Hitchin. Royston. Ware. Watford. Welwyn. Hunts : Huntingdon. Ives, St. Neots, St. Kent : Ashford, East. Ashford, West. Blean. Bridge. Bromley. Cranbrook. Dartford. Elham. Faversham. Grave send and Mil- ten. Greenwich. HoUingboum. Hoo. Mailing. Medway. Milton. North Aylesford. Romney Marsh. Seven Oaks. Sheppey. Tenterden. Tonbridge. Leicester : Ashby-de-la- Zouch. Barrow-upon-Soar. Billesden. Blaby. Hinckley. Loughborough. *■ Order rescinded in this case. STATISTICS, RETURNS, ETC. 5(J3 Lutterworth. Market Bosworth. Market Harboro'. Melton Mowbray. LiNcoiiN : Boston. Boui-n. Caistor, Gainsborough. Glanford Brigg. Grantham. Hoi beach. Horncastle. Lincoln. Louth. Sleaford. Spalding. Spilsby. Stamford. Middlesex : Bethnal Green. Edmonton. George, St., in-the- East. Hackney. Hendon. Holborn. Poplar. Stepney. Strand. Whitechapel. Monmouth : Abergavenny. Chepstow. Monmouth. Newport. Pontypool. NOKFOLK : Aylsham. Blofield. Depwade. Docking. Downham. Erpingham. Faith, St. Flegg, East and West. Forehoe. Freebridge Lynn. Guiltcross. Henstead. Loddon and Claver- ing. Mittbrd and Laim- ditch. Swaffham. Thetford. Tunstead and Hap- ping. Walsina:ham. Wayland. Yarmouth, Great. NORTHAMPTOX : Brackley. Brixworth. Daventry. Hardingstone. Kettering. Northampton. Oundle. Peterborough. Potterepury. Thrapstone. Towcester. Wellingborough. NOKTHXTMBER- LAND : Alnwick. Belford. Berwick-upon- Tweed. Castle Ward. Glendall. Tynemouth. Nottingham : Basford. Bingham. East Retford. Mansfield. Newark. Nottingham. Radford. Southwell, Worksop. OxroRD : Banbury. Bicester. Chipping Norton. Headington. Henley. Thame. Witney. Woodstock. RUTI-AND : Oakham. Uppingham. Salop : Atcham. Bridgnorth. Church Stretton. Cleobury Mortimer Clun. Drayton. EUesmere. Ludlow. Madeley. Newport. Shifnall. o WeUington. Wem. Somerset : Axbridge. Bath. Bed minster. Bridgewater. Chard. Clutton. Frome. Keynsham. Langport. Sliepton Mallet. Taunton. Wellington. Wells. Williton. Wincanton. Yeovil. Southa-MPton : Alresford. Alton. Andover. Basingstoke. Catherington. Christchurch. Droxford. Fareham. Fordingbridge. Hartley Wintney. Havant. Hursley. Kingsclere. Lymington. New Forest. Petersfield. Portsea Island. Ringwood. Romsey. South Stoneham. Stockbridge. Whitchurch. Winchester. Stafeobd : Burton-upon- Trent. Cheadle. Leek. Lichfield. Newcastle-under- Lyme. Penkridge. . Seisdon. Stafford. Stoke-upon-Trent. Stone. Tamw^orth. Uttoxeter. Walsall. West Bromwich. -2 Wolslaiiton and Burslem. Wolverhampton. Suffolk : Blything. Bosmere and Clay- don. Cosford. Hartismere. Hoxne. Ipswich. Mildenhall. Plomesgate, Risbridge. Samford. Stow. Thingoe. Wangford. VVoodbridge. Surrey : Bermondsey. Camberwell, St. Giles. Croydon. Dorking. Epsom. George, St., the Martyr. Godstone. Guildford. Hanibledon. Lambeth. Olave's, St. Reigate. Rotherhithe. Saviour's, St. Wandsworth and Clapham. Sussex : Battle. Chailey. Cuckfield. East Bourne. East Grinstead. Hailsham. Hastings. Horsham. Lewes. Midhurst. Newhaven. Petworlh. Rye. Steyiiing. Thakeham. Ticehurst. Uckfield. West Bourne. West Firle. West Ilampnett. 364 TIIK BOOK OF THE BASTILES. Calne. Droitwitch. Carmarthen Chippenham. Dudley. Carmarthen. Cricklade and Wot- Evesham. Llanelly. ton Bassett. Kidderminster. Llandilofawr. Devizes. King's Norton. Llandovery. Highworth and Martley. Newcastle-in- Swindon. Pershore. Eralyn. Malmesbury. Shipston-on-Stour. Marlborough. Melksham. Stourbridge. Tenbury. Denbigh : Wrexham. Mere. Pewsey. Upton-upon- Severn. Glamorgan ; Neath. Swansea. Tisbury. Warminster. Worcester. Brecknock : Westbury and Brecknock. Pembroke : Whorwelsdown. Crickhowel. Haverfordwest. Wilton. Hay. WOKCESTER : Cardigan : Radnor : Bromsgrove. Aberaeron. Knighton. Warwick : Alcester. Aston. Atherstone. Foleshill. Meriden. Nuneaton. Rugby. Solihull. Southam. Stratford-on-Avon. W^arwick. Westmoreland : East Ward. Wilts : Alderbury. Amesbury. Bradford. Unions to which no Order has been issued prohibiting Out-door Relief to able-bodied Paupers. Berks : Cookham. Wallingford. Windsor. Bucks : Eton. Chester : Bough ton, Great. Congleton. Macclesfield. Runcorn. Stockport. Cornwall : Camelford. Falmouth. Stratton. Truro. Cumberland : Alston-with-Garri- gill. Bootle. Carlisle. Cockermouth. Longtown. Penrith. Whitehaven. Wigton. Derby : Bakewell. Chapel-en-le-Frith. Glossop. Hayfield. Devon: Holsworthy. Durham : Easington. Gateshead. Houghton-le- Spring. Sunderland. Herts : Hatfield. Kent: Dover. Eastry. Lewisham. Maidstone. Thanet. Lancaster Ashton-under- Lyne. Blackburn. Bolton. Burnley. Bury. Chorley. Chorlton. Clitheroe. Fylde, The. Garstang. Haslingden. Lancaster. Leigh. Manchester. Oldham. Ormskirk. Prescot. Preston. Rochdale. Salford. Todmorden. Ulverstone. Warrington. AVest Derby. Wigan. Leicester : Leicester. Middlesex : Brentford. Kensington. London, City. London, East. London, West Martin's, St., in- the-Fields. Shoreditch. Staines. Uxbridge. Norfolk : King's Lynn. Northumber- land : Bellingham. Haltwhistle. Hexham. Morpeth. Newcastle-upon- Tyne. Rothbury. Somerset : Dulverton. Stafford : Eccleshall. Suffolk : Mutford and Lo- thingland. Sudbury. Surrey : Chertsey. Kingston. Richmond. Westmoreland ; Kendal. West Ward. York, East Riding : Beverley. Bridlington. Driffield. Howden. Pati'ington. Pocklington. Sculcoates. Skirlaugh. York. York, North Riding : Easingwold. Guisborough. Helmsley. Leyburn. Malton. STATISTICS, Rf;TURXS, ETC. 565 Northallerton. Pickering. Reeth. Richmond. Scarborough. Stokesley. Thirsk. Whitby. York, West Riding : Barnsley. Boroughbridge. Bradford. Dewsbury. Doncaster. Ecclesall Bierlow. Goole. Halifax. Huddersfield. Keighley. Pateley Bridge. Pontefract. Ripley. Ripon. Rotherhana, Sedbergh. Selby. Settle. Sheffield. Skipton. Tadcaster. Thorne. Wakefield. Brecknock : Builth. Cardigan : Aberystwith. Cardigan. Lampeter. Tregaron. Carnarvon : Bangor and Beau- maris. Carnarvon. Pwllheli. Denbigh : Llanwrst. Ruthin. Flint : Asaph, St. Holywell. Glamorgan : Bridgend and Cow- bridge. Cardiff. Merthyr Tydvil. Merioneth ; Bala. Corwen. Festiniog. Montgomery : Llanfyllin. Montgomery. Newton and Llan- diloes. Welchpool. Pembroke : Narberth. Pembroke. Radnor : Presteigne. Rhayader. An Order was issued to each of the four undermentioned Unions, prohibiting relJief being given to any able-bodied male person so long as he should be in employment, who should not have been in the receipt of relief at some time since the 25th of March, 1837; also, to the wife of such person resident with him, and any of the family so resident whom he should be so liable to maintain, except only in case of urgent necessity, or in cases of accident, sickness, or infirmity. The Order also provided, that no relief should be afforded (except in the above cases), from the poor-rates of any parish or place in the Union to any pauper between the ages of 16 and 60, belonging to any such parish or place, who should not be resident in the said Union ; this regulation, however, not to extend to any person who, at any time since the said 25lh of March, 1837, should have been in receipt of relief, not being resident in the said Union, nor to any widow during the first three months of her widowhood. Anglesey Anglesej\ Carnarvon : Merioneth : Montgomery : Conway. Dolgelly. Machynlleth. E. CHADWICK, Secretary. [From the Rev. E. Duncombe's " Gilbertize the New Poor-Law."} AN account of the GREAT OUSEBURN GILBERT UNION. a . 00 en o 1 o CI >— ( O o O n 2 « ao o Pi '4 1 d ^25 < c bo cS 11 > 0) > < H 00 ^ •S rt H a o 42 50,000 13,000 44i 200 245 35 per cent. 50 to 70 per cent. Mr. Buncombe, in his clever work, contrasts the difference between this Gilbert Union, and the Somerset-house Union of Wandsworth and Clapham — the latter, as he says, " with fourteen ex-officios, exhibits, iu expenditure, nearly 12 per cent, in- crease iu the fourth year after formation. bGG THE BOOK OF THE BASTILfiS. Return to an Order of the Honourable the House of Commons, dated March 8, 1841. (Mr. Fox Maule.) Ordered, by the House of Commons, to be printed, March 10, 1811. For a Return, showing the Number of In-door and Out-door Paupers receiving Relief in the Unions formed (under the Poor-Law Amendment-Act) in each County in England and Wales, during the Quarters ended 1839 and 1840 respectively; together Avith the Population of such Unions in 1831, specifying the Proportion per cent, which the Number of In-door and Out-door Paupers bear to the Population : Also, the estimated Number of Paupers relieved during the Quarter ending Lady-day, 1840, in the Twenty Unions not included in the above Return, and in the places not yet brought under the Provisions of the Poor- Law Amendment-Act, assuming the same Ratio of Paupers relieved to the Population, thereby showing the estimated Total Number of Paupers relieved, in the whole of England and Wales, during the Quarter ending Lady-day, 1840, with a List of the Counties, arranged according to the highest Rate per Cent of Paupers relieved to the Population. COUNTIES. England : Bedford Berks Buckingham Cambridge Chester Cornwall Cumberland iDerby Devon Dorset Durliam Essex Gloucester Hereford Hertford Huntingdon Kent Lancaster Leicester Lincoln INliddlesex ]\Ionmouth Norfolk Norihampton .... Northumberland . . Nottingham Oxford Rutland Salop Somerset Southampton .... Stafford Suffolk Surrey Sussex Warwick Westmoreland .... Wilts Worcester York, East Riding York, North Riding York, West Riding Totals of England. Num- ber of Unions Population in 1831. 6 12 7 9 9 13 8 7 17 12 14 17 15 8 13 3 27 14 11 14 17 5 21 12 12 9 8 2 13 17 23 16 16 18 20 11 3 17 13 9 12 14 98.626 174,578 133,578 149,023 297,769 301,130 161,558 168,438 398,754 152,655 261,250 293.279 274,900 105,875 158,090 50,500 464,036 523,973 197,118 310,5,35 696,933 104,279 324,104 175,921 246.058 250,496 133,501 21,363 181,048 418,910 244,324 352,381 281,320 427,829 205,153 181,720 54,994 214,850 288,459 154,824 165,601 472,251 NUMBER OF PAUPERS RELIEVED. Lady-day, 1839. In-door. Out-door Total 1,305 3,051 1,864 2,938 1,216 1,943 1,377 1,436 3,13 1,829 1,176 5,795 3,024 1,175 2,599 643 9,915 2,964 1,454 2,858 15,042 496 5,956 1,707 1,114 2,185 1,983 220 1,551 4,162 4,352 3,099 5,007 7,892 5,681 1,300 635 3,668 1,773 875 856 2,173 8,483 12,105 14,121 12,455 18,175 17,649 8,916 5,921 34,855 17,617 17,497 30,614 17.978 7,689 10,657 5.151 31,813 29,458 13,769 15,679 33,509 4,722 29,101 14,167 16.394 10,920 12,279 1,315 8,865 38,452 22,582 14,534 29,050 23,197 21,259 10,818 3,296 24,528 16,638 11,451 11,563 2.3.576 9,788 15,156 15,98 15 393 19,391 19,592 10,293 7,357 37,992 19,446 18,673 36,409 21,002 8,864 13,256 5,794 41,728 32,422 15,223 18,537 48,551 5,218 35,057 15,874 17,508 1.3,105 14,262 1,535 10,416 42,614 26,934 17,6.33 34,057 31,089 26,940 12,118 3,931 28,196 18,411 12,326 12,419 25,749 Lady-day, 1840. In-door. Out-door Total 1,609 3,368 1,797 2,374 1,919 2,3(58 1,717 1,958 4,011 1,867 1,188 6,082 3,252 1,314 3,207 554 10,189 4,14 2,865 3,026 15,549 714 4,859 1,703 1,232 2,585 1,901 268 1,924 4,001 4,554 3,777 4,. 306 9,705 6,319 1,728 771 4,064 2,373 966 901 2,571 8,789 13,042 14,087 12,923 20,918 19,931 9,939 6,908 37,569 17,549 17,332 29,624 19,454 8,182 10,716 4,638 30,417 35,227 16,843 15,419 34,265 5,379 26,217 14,028 16,468 15,583 12,979 1,186 8,472 39,461 23,472 15,270 27,874 23,241 20,830 11,503 3,974 25,945 16,088 11,192 10,726 33,728 10,398 16,410 15,884 15,297 22,837 22,299 11,656 8,866 41,580 19,416 18,520 35,706 22,706 9,496 13,922 5,192 40,606 39,374 19,708 18,445 49,814 6,093 31,076 15,731 17,700 18,168 14,880 1,454 10,396 43,462 28,026 19,047 32,180 32,946 26,149 13,231 4.745 30,009 18,461 12,158 11,627 36,299 524 10,27 ],984|123,42G 712,818,836,344 134,683,747,387|881,970 Proportion per Cent, of Total Number of Paupers to Population, Lady-day, 1840. 11 9 12 10 7 7 7 5 10 13 7 12 8 9 9 10 9 8 10 6 7 6 10 9 7 7 11 7 6 10 II 5 11 8 13 8 9 14 6 STATISTICS, RETURNS, ETC. 567 Num- ber of Unions. Population in 1831. NUMBER OF PAUPERS RELIEVED. Proportion per. Cent. of Total COUNTIES, Lady-day, 1839. Lady-day, 1840. Number of Paupers to Population, Lady-day, 1840. In-door. Our-door Total. In-door. Out-door Total. Wales : Anglesey Brecknock Cardigan Carmarthen Carnarvon Denbigh Flint Glamorgan Merioneth Montgomery Pembroke Radnor 1 4 5 5 4 3 2 5 4 3 3 3 37,231 48,620 70,319 104,856 72,475 62,047 58,625 134,705 41,034 56,925 72,626 18,130 250 "2O8 " ' 182 ' 357 217 4,294 3,149 5,758 8,377 7,380 6,653 5,770 6,897 5,380 6,033 5,475 2,144 4,294 3,399 5,758 8,585 7,380 6,835 5,770 7,254 5,380 6,033 5,692 2,144 234 52 510 231 472 413 97 4,585 3,522 6,417 8,410 8,060 6,295 6,618 7,275 5,518 6,681 5,641 2,223 4,585 3,756 6,469 8,920 8,060 6,526 6,618 7,747 5,518 6.681 6,054 2,320 12 8 9 9 11 11 11 6 13 12 8 13 Totals of Wales. 42 777,593 1,214 67,310 68,524 2,009 71,245 73,254 9,V Totals of England } and Wales* . . ^ 566 11,049,577 123,640 780,128 904,765 136,592 818,632 955,224 8.V * Exclusive of that portion of England and Wales not yet placed under the provisions of the New Poor-Law. W "• to O 09 s P' W H ^ S s CO CO Er. o C3 O 5r tn Irs re & p S o "^ -, -■ a tri- >-t C3 g- h— h^ K3 ^ 2-re OOl-j »<^ re £." -S •si M O- ^ P ^ o o ,„. hd O o p p ra B, !> re JL rt- ^!I 5 3 re re' 5' !^ a g- 3- a^ g fa S- fo i-s pt S § i £ 5* S o" S P> re^oq crq g P- S:' f^ CO re o o 2,^P B C CD ere a re tr" o re' ^ <-» 5* aq P. oq 10 I—" o CO Or Oi "to 10 05 Number of Unions , 1— ' 0* 2 5* § i u C3 td W fa 3 -( •-s B Oq ■-^ ►*s HH •tj B- B p a> C C re -t i-f liJ m ?'i >-( re B re P^ re re B r; 0- P- <-»• a. Ciq re g. p.^ ns 05 re &^ CQ p ST. h.-*" re 00 t^ a ro re * CO -I re p P' B P- 3 1— 1 00 Ox >^ 01 OOi 3 Cl OT l-I ►0 o B R? ^ B* r-i- W r^ •^ S'os- PJ hj B a. ►B »5 B p- B S3 >n (Ti Cff 608 THE BOOK OI" THE B.^STILES. Counties arranged according to their highest Rate per cent, of Paupers Relieved to Per Cent, on Population. Wilts 14 Dorset 13 Sussex 13 Merioneth 13 Radnor 13 Buckingham 12 Essex 12 Anglesey 12 Montgomery 12 Bedford 11 Oxford 11 Southampton 11 Suffolk 11 Carnarvon 11 Denbigh 11 Flint 11 Cambridge 10 Devon 10 Population. Per Cent. on Population. Huntingdon 10 Leicester 10 Norfolk 10 Somerset 10 Berks 9 Hereford 9 Hertford 9 Kent 9 Northampton 9 Westmoreland 9 Cardigan 9 Carmarthen 9 Gloucester 8 Lancaster 8 Surrey 8 Warwick 8 York, E. R 8 York,W. R 8 Per Cent, on Population. Brecknock 8 Pembroke 8 Chester 7 Cornwall 7 Cumberland 7 Durham 7 Middlesex 7 Northumberland 7 Nottingham 7 Rutland 7 York, N. R 7 Lincoln 6 Monmouth 6 Salop 6 Worcester 6 Glamorgan 6 Derby 5 Stafford 5 [From the Rev. E. Buncombe's " Gilbertize the New Poor-Law."] EXPENSES OF GREAT PRESTON GILBERT UNION POOR-HOUSE FOR TEN YEARS. Years. Average Average cost Number of of provisions Poor in the per head, per House. 1 week. Average cost of provisions per week for the whole house. Annual cost of provisions. Annual cost of the Establish- ment. Total expenses of the Poor- house. s. d. £. s. d. £. s. d. £. s. d. £. s. d. 1831 40 3 6 312 154 12 466 12 1832 43 3 6 6 327 12 159 10 487 2 1833 46 2 8i 2 8| 6 4 322 8 178 8 500 16 1834 37 4 19 5i 258 10 9 415 15 0* 674 5 9 1835 26 2 6i 3 6 1 171 16 4 198 10 370 6 4 1836 27 2 6i 3 8 7 178 6 4 333 0* 511 6 4 1837 33 2 6f 4 5 6f 222 6 144 366 6 1838 35 2 8 4 14 2 244 16 8 169 14 414 10 8 1839 38 3 1 5 17 2 304 12 8 175 7 479 19 8 1840 37 2 71 4 16 9 251 11 166 1 417 12 Average of Ten Years. 36 2 10 4 3 2 209 9 468 16 N.B. 20,000. In Preston In Preston building repairs causeii this charge. The average inmates of the Preston Poor-house — 36 in a population of Here Mr. Duncombe draws these comparisons : — The average expense of " establishment " upon the land is, Gilbert Union, l^d. per acre. I la Wandsworth New Poor-Law Union, I £1 10s. per acre. The average expense of " establishment" on the whole population is. Old Poor-Law Union, i^d. per head. | In Wandsworth New Poor-Law Union, I lUs. per head. GILBERT SIDE. The thi-ee Unions of Great Ouseburn, Preston, and Barwick. Acres. Pop. In-door. 175,000 47,000 124 or. Persons, 1 to 3i acres. Inmate, 1 to 1400 acres. NEW POOR-LAW SIDE. Wandsworth and Clapham Union. Acres. 10,600 Pop. 33,000 In-door. 365, Persons, 3 to ] acre. Inmate, 1 to 28 acres. servants' WAGES. Gilbert Union— Barwick, £135 per year. | One New Poor-La^Y Union, £2,065 per year. BASTARDY— ITS INCREASE, &c., UNDER THE ADMINIS- TRATION OF THE NEW POOR-LAW. To general filths Convert o' the instant, green virginity." — Timon, Act 4, s. 1. •* Guilty of a several bastardy."— Julius C^sar. " We met a girl ; her dress was loose, And snnken was her eye ! Who, with the wanton's hollow voice, Address'd the passers by. I ask'd her what there was in guilt, That could her heart allure To shame, disease, and late remorse,— She answered she was jpoor." — Southey. "Returns had been ordered of the number of children registered by the clergy as illegitimate children, during the four years previous to the passing of the Poor-Law Amendment-Act, and the four years following it. What had been the result? Had it been as favourable as the friends of the law had anticipated? No. There had been, on the contrary, a large increase in the number of illegiti- mate children registered as baptized. But did their lordships think that increase really measured the increase of illegiti- mate children that had been born ? He wished he could flatter himself, or had any reason to induce their lordships to conclude, that this was anything like a fair criterion by which to judge of the truth. They might be quite sure, that the number of those unhappy children born since that period, and not baptized, •was considerably greater than the number of those returned as registered and bap- tized. For it should be recollected what was the state of things before the Poor- Law passed. Then, the birth of an illi- gitimate child was a matter of notoriety ; the mother was obliged to proclaim the birth in order to get relief from the parish, and there was no motive for con- cealment, or for not taking the child to be baptized. Then the mother would have been ashamed to keep the child of sin, which she had brought into the •world, from that blessed sacrament, which was intended at least to impart a hope of salvation hereafter. But, now, the mother was tempted to do the utmost to keep her illegitimate child from bap- tism, because her chief object was to avoid exposure, and to conceal the fact that she had given birth to a child. He did not speak lightly on this subject ; but he would ask. Was the increase of the number of illegitimate children, who Avere supposed to live, a satisfactory subject for their lordships to consider? Far from it ! But what would they say, if the number of children brought into the world only to be sent out of it by the guilty hand of their mothers, could be ascertained? Let them go to Chester, and inquire there what had recently oc- curred at the assizes of that county, and then let them say -whether infanticide had not greatly increased since the pass- ing of the Poor-Law Amendment-Act." — The Bishop of Exeter, House of Lords, July 25, 1839. " He had so often heard that the New Poor-Law system had raised the moral character of the country, that he believed it to be true. What, then, was his asto- nishment to find, that the returns pre- sented to the House of Lords the other day, showed the number of illegitimate children registered in certain counties, for the three years subsequent to the passing of the New Act, was 11^ per cent, greater than in the three years preceding — 8,579 before, and subsequently 9,548." — Mr. Hindley, House of Coimnons, July 15, 1839. " At the Quarter-sessions of the Peace, held at Knutsford last week, for the county of Chester, no less than sixty cases of bastardy were disposed of." — Dispatch, July, 1839. " Many (the same) girls have lain in with illegitimate children twice and thrice in the Hereford Union workhouse. Where's the moral check ? A dozen girls, about the same time, were, in that Union, delivered of bastards in the winter of 1839." — From, a Correspondent^ a Surgeon to the Hereford Union. 570 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. " With regard to the Bastardy clause, it was tlie greatest failure, and in this parish (Wangford, Suffolk) has had the effect of making almost all the young women the mothers of children without being married." — Correspondent to the " Champion^' Dec. 1, 1839. " The Guardians of the Poor in the Howden Union, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, have petitioned the House of Commons against the Bastard law, which they describe as a ' law which, instead of being a terror to evil-doers, in its j)resent state, operates as a license to the vicious,' " — Birmingham Advertiser^ JNIarch 26, 1840. " On Thursday last, the Relieving Officers of thirfy-eight parishes were questioned by the magistrates as to the working of the Bastardy clause in the places under their observation, when every one of the officers, but the Over- seer of Weddiker, which contains only six houses, declared, that cases of bas- tardy were of more frequent occurrence than before the passing of the Act." — Cumherland Parquet, April 8, 1837. " The New Act has been in operation with us, as it respects the Bastardy clauses, for three years, during which period we have made satisfactory pro- gress as it regards the question of mo- rality. The following yearly return of the number of bastard children, born in the township of Halifax, has been copied from the Overseer's register, for the in- formation of the Poor-Law Commission- ers, to whom it cannot fail to be a most gratifying and acceptable document : — " ' Number of Bastards baptized in the township — " ' From 25th of March, 1834, to 25tli of March, 1835 32 " 'From 25th of March, 1835, to 25'th of March, 1836 39 " ' From 25th of Marcli, 1836, to 25th of March, 1837 71 Total 142* We call upon every candid and honour- able person to ask himself, if this be not a sufficient answer to the eternal boasting of the improvement effected in the morals of the working classes by the New Poor- Law } Can a more decisive contradiction be given to it}"— Halifax Guardian, April 15, 1837. " At the last meeting of the Stamford Board of Guardians, it was stated by one of the members, that in the parish he represented at that Board, there were no fewer than sixteen females who had bur- dened the parish with their illegitimate offsprhig." — Champion, Dec. 2, 1838. " In Bedfordshire bastardy had in- creased." — Mr. Ficlden's Speech, Feb. 20, 1838. " During the last fortnight, no less than thirty children have been deserted in St, Giles's and St. Sepulchre's pa- rishes, and are now in the workhouses !" — Metropolitan Conservative Journal, June 3, 1837. " At the Carlisle assizes (the 23rd of ]\Iarch, 1838), Isabella Stockdale was tried before Mr. Justice Patterson, for the murder of her infant child, at Law Hesketh, on the 11th of Dec. previous. It was proved in evidence, that she had left her bed repeatedly in the night, and had at length delivered herself of a child, at 200 yards' distance from the house. The child was found in a ditch, with a mark of a blow on the head, but the child was not dead when it was discovered ; it was conveyed to the house, and the mother said, that she had rued what she had done ! The learned judge ' inti- mated,' that he thought the case was too doubtful a one for a jury to convict upon ! The prisoner was acquitted, and dis- charged, after a solemn admonition from his lordship ! Now, I beg his lordship's pardon, but if I had been a juror on that trial, I would have given a very different turn to that case. There was not a soul in that court who had the slightest doubt of the guilt of the prisoner, the judge himself not excepted ; and yet he, in mercy, ''intimated' to the jury, that there was no evidence to convict; and these ' twelve jurors' acquitted her. Is this a state of things to be desired, that a criminal should be acquitted to screen a cruel law ; a law which induced her to commit the crime? I contend it was premeditated murder. She left her bed repeatedly to deliver herself, and to kill and to secrete the child ! Is this an ex- ample to go forth to the world, that the murderer of a child is to be acquitted ? I should have said, ' Guilty,' my lord. But I am not blood-thirsty ; if this woman be hanged, she will be murdered ; and murdered, too, by the men who passed the Bastardy clauses of the Neiv Poor- Law ; they have already caused the mur- der of the child, let them save the mother. The judge must have performed his painful duty ; but the executioner would not be called upon to perform his." — The Suffolk Juror. INCREASE OF BASTARDY. 671 *' Oh ! this cruel, this barbarous law ! Can any one call it other than a hounty on infanticide ? At the assizes, at Staf- ford, on the 15th of March, 1838, Ann Thursfield was indicted for the wilful murder of her illegitimate child by suffo- cating it, but Mr. Baron Gurney ob- served, as the evidence of the surgeon, the first witness, proved that the marks on the face might be caused by the child being ovei'laid, it was unnecessary to go further. Not guilty ! The judges shake under the law. Will not the makers of the law have to answer at a higher tri- bunal V'^Ihid. " I will state one fact that would seem to argue that this evil (bastardy) must be on tlie increase. A clerical brother in- formed me, that he found several unmar- ried parties living in his parish, in this place, in a state of concubinage, some with families, and some without ; and that when he remonstrated with them, and endeavoured to prevail upon them to marry, the reply of the men had been, ' No, Sir ; we are very happy together, and live constant to each other, and shall continue to do so as if we were lawfully married ; but marry we will not ; be- cause, if we were to do so, the women could not, with the children, go into the workhouse without us men, which they can now do !' " — Extract of a Letter from the Rev. C. Foioell Watts (of Bath J to the Author, dated Oct. 8, 1840. " I am quite sure you may, with per- fect confidence state; that bastardy has increased, and will increase, as long as the strongest party is free to exercise all his power over the weaker, and she is responsible, and must take all the conse- quences. A neighbour of mine, last j'ear, was saying, he was sorry to say he was about to lose one of his very best men, — for he had told him, that there were three girls in the family-way by him, and they were always teasing him, and he thought he should go away into some distant county. But I do not think he went away at all, or appeared to think or care one atom about them. And this, I believe, to be a sample of thousands ; and I must leave you to draw your own con- clusions as to how many are secretly got rid of by hook and crook ; as it is quite certain the burthens on the females are greater than they can bear. I really be- lieve this accursed law drives many young females from want into crime and infanti- cide at the hazard of their lives ; and if I were to see any statements which might pretend to show a deci'case in instances of bastardy, I should not believe them, because I am convinced there are a great number that never can be brought into any account at all : in fact, common sense and common reason must expect such poor females to say to themselves — ' We may as well run the hazard of our lives in concealing our shame and dis- grace, as to be brought to public shame and disgrace in one of these horrible Union gaols, and there treated worse than beasts — and have our lives considered of no value — only as far as sometimes for boys, put apprentices to surgeons, to practice on.' " — From a Southern County Corresjmndent, dated Oct. 10, 1840. " I have been trying to obtain some- thing about bastardy here, but camot. I have called upon Registrars, but could gain nothing satisfactory ; indeed, they cannot give the required information. One told me, a day or two since, that it was impossible to judge, since he had found that thirty or forty births, in his district, Avere annually omitted to be re- gistered." — Extract of a Letter from the Rev. C. Fowell Watts (of Bath) to the Author, dated Oct. 23, 1840. *' There is no diminution of bastards whatever. In the last quarter, at Bourn (Lincolnshire), the bill of the medical department as to midwifery, consisted entirely oi bastardy cases." — Extract of a Letter from a Stamford Correspondenty dated Oct. 24, 1840. " The Pembroke Union workhouse has been, since its reception of paupers com- menced, almost entirely populated by prostitutes and females of light character, going in to be delivered of their illegiti- mate offspring, that it is now commonly called by the inhabitants, the ' Lying-in Hospital.' " — Extract of a Letter from a Pembroke Correspondent, dated October, 1840. "Bastardy has increased _/b«?- j»^r cent. in the North Riding of Yorkshire." — Companion to the Almanac, 1838. " I am satisfied instances of bastardy have no icay diminished, in any places that come within my own knowledge. They may not appear so numerous before the pubHc, but the number of girls that come home to these parts with child, I think far greater than it used to be ; for, hereabouts, they have such a dislike to the Union-houses, that they will undergo almost any privations rather than go in ; and yet the bastardy cases, even in these houses, are on the increase." — Extract of 572 THE BOOK OF irirc BASTILE9. a Letter from Gen. Johnson, M. P., to the Author., dated Wytham, near Stam- ford, Nov. 16, 1840. " The cruel operation of the Bastardy- clause of the New Poor-Law on numbers of seduced and deserted females, is dread- ful. It is working death in a variety of forms, and misery beyond description. I have frequently had cases of a most pain- ful nature before me as a magistrate. It is giving full liberty to the unprincipled and licentious." — Roioarth's " Observa- tions on the Admi7iistration of the Poor- Laio in Nottingham," 1840. " We have to state the death of an infant supposed to have been deserted by its mother. At the recent assizes for this county, one woman was indicted for the murder of her child, and another for con- cealing the birth of her offspring. Early on Tuesday morning, the body of a newborn female child was found at a short distance from the turnpike near the Hereford bea- con, on the road between Malvern and Led- bury. On the previous night, a young woman, travelling in a carriers' waggon to this city, left the vehicle near this spot, and did not again join it until it had arrived in Ledbury, when she stated to the waggoner, as a reason for her absence, that she had felt very unwell. It is sus- pected tliat the child belonged to this woman, who, it is thought, had, during her absence from the waggon, delivered herself and then left the babe to perish. The child when found, was living, but died shortly afterwards, no doubt from its inhuman exposure. The woman has been committed to our county gaol on the charge of manslaughter. " — Hereford Journal, April 21, 1841. " Mr. Goode, of Christchurch stated, that a clergyman last week informed him that in one place in the country, tenneivhorn babes were taken out of a river in one week !" — Southwark Anti-Poor-Laiv Meeting, May 1, 1839. " Thousands of undiscovered abortions and infant murders, are the consequences of this law of hell. Every one pities the victim, and strives to conceal the crime. The peasants — who are to be the sufferers — of course are often driven to be aiders and abettors. Not one in a hundred, it is probable, is ever heard of." — Mr. Samuel Roberts's Pamphlet, 1839. " The Cork Union. — At a meeting of the Guardians, held on the 26th of January, 1841, Mr. Gould drew attention to a dis- graceful and demoralizing trade carried on in that house— that of ' procuresses' going in as paupers, and mixing with the young females, whom they endeavoured to deprave in mind, and then got them to seek their discharge to become prostitutes. The truth of Mr. G.'s statement was assented to by the other Guardians." — Dublin Medical Press. — [Whether this system of swelling the ranks of the daughters of infamy is acted upon in Enghsh Union houses, I cannot take upon myself to assert, though I think it very probable. One thing, however, I can assert, i. e. that since the introduction of the " boon" in my neighbourhood, the number of prostitutes — especially of a tender age (under 15 years) — has most alarmingly increased. The streets of Hereford, Ledbury, Leominster, Brom- yard, and Ross, may now, thanks to local and central officials, fully compete with the highways and byways of Cyprus of old in her most palmy and lascivious days ! G. R. W. B.] " The following extract from a new work will corroborate, that the principles of the New Poor-Law are productive of crime — of infant murder — even when acted upon in other countries : ' I was naturally anxious to ascertain the probable cause of the great prevalence of that particular crime f infanticide) in a country fHunganjJ where the extraordinary ten- derness of parents for their children is everywhere manifest : and I requested one of the municipal judges, with whom I was acquainted, to explain to me his impression on tlie subject. By him the cause was stated to be twofold — povertij and shame. In the first case, no law enforcing the support of the infant by the father, and the mother being unable to maintain it, its destruction appeared to be generally rather an act of desperation than volition, and deferred for months, probably, in the hope that some accidental good fortune might enable her to provide for its neces- sities — a fact which bore painfully upon our New Poor-Law in England." — Miss Par doe's " City of the Magyar ; or, Hun- gary in 1839 ffw/ 1840." " Increase of Pkosxitution. — Dr. Colquhoun, the author of the well-knowu work on the Police of the Metropolis, estimated the number of prostitutes in London at fifty thousand, whilst, in a recent address for an association for the suppres- sion of prostitution, this enormous number was still further increased to eighty thou- sand !! !" — Companioti to the Almanac, 1810. INCREASE OF BASTARDY. 573 " Children of a sunnier star, Spirits from beyond the moon, Oh ! refuse the ' boon' " — Shelley. " When any women who have not ' loved wisely,' apply to be admitted into the Hereford Union-house, on account of their being in the family-way, before they are allowed to enter, they are first, one at a time, forced to appear before the Board of Guardians (Oh ! if my readers could but see what beauties the cifj/ of the snobs' Guardians are, they would burst with laughter), and there satisfy the gentle- men ( ?) that they are not telling untruths concerning themselves 5y turning round nine times (a fact ! !), and finally touching their great toe loithout bending their knees. After this delicate investigation has been concluded, ' some,' to use the words of my informant, a girl, who had been so * tested,' ' come out crying,' and some laughing and not caring about it.' What say the Guardians' wives to their spouses' intense investigation of ' lovely woman when she stoops to folly.' " — G. li. Wythen Baxter, January, 1841. " One of the results of the Poor-Law is that which was so strongly predicted by the Bishop of Exeter, the abandonment and exposure of infants." — Blackwood' s Magazine, March, 1837. " On Tuesday, a young woman, named Eliza Chandler, was brought before the Lord Mayor, under the following circum- stances : — Mr. Cloake, of No. 3, Liver- pool-street, stated, that the prisoner had been servant in his family about eight or ten days before the 30th of July, when it was found that she had delivered herself of a child, and thrown it into the water- closet. She did not look at all like a person in the family-way before the disco- very was made, and had an excellent character. Upon being spoken to by her mistress, she admitted that the child had been born on the Saturday, the 27th of July. The porter found the child dead. Witness did not appear to charge her with having committed any offence. The beadle of the ward stated, that the infant appeared to be a full-grown child. He attended the inquest, which was to the effect that ' the child was found dead in the privy, but there was not sufficient evidence to determine whether it was born dead or alive.' One of the inspectors of the police stated, that she said at the station-house that the father was a journey- man baker. Mr. Hobler observed, that somebody ought to take the matter up. The Lord Mayor said, since the passing of the New Poor-Law it seems to be considered that children, when they are born, are to be treated as kittens are treated. Unfortunate women, who are in a way to become mothers, seem to think that they are to deliver themselves as they can, and to get rid of their infants as soon as possible. This is a most fright- ful impression. Mr. Hobler said, that many women certainly appeared to be in- fluenced by that opinion. — The Lord Mayor : They deliver themselves as they please, and throw their infants into the privy or into the river, and no prosecutor appears. Prisoner, have you anything to say ? — Prisoner : Nothing, my Lord. — The Lord Mayor : Is the surgeon here to give evidence? — Beadle: No, I am not aware that he is. — The Lord Mayor : Nobody appears to think anything of the business, serious as it is. I, however, consider it to be my duty to commit the woman to take her trial at the Central Criminal Court. In past times the parish officers used to prosecute in cases of this kind — now, it seem.s there are no funds with which to prosecute, and desperate offences of this description may be com- mitted with comparative impunity. If the New Poor-Law is to be revised and altered, surely power ought to be given to the parish officers to prosecute persons guilty of disposing of their offspring in so shocking a manner. If the lives of children are to be presei'ved a change of this sort must take place. Mr. Hobler agreed with his Lordship, that an import- ant change should be made as regarded illegitimate children. It appeared to be very extraordinary that so much monej' should be expended in paying those who worked the Bill, and that forty or fifty shillings should be grudged where human life was concerned. — The Lord Mayor : It is most extraordinery, that Commission- ers, and Assistant-Commissioners, and Clerks, should have £54,000 per annum amongst them for carrying the New Poor- Law into effect, and yet that a parish should not be allowed as much as twenty 574 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES shiirings to prosecute, in order to prevent the practice of flinging poor children into destruction the moment they are born. There have been many destroyed since this law came into operation, more than we have ever heard of, I am convinced. Now the matter seems to be of ordi- nary occurrence. In this case, if the prisoner had not been very ill, and the mistress had not entertained suspicion of her, we never should have heard a word about it. The parties would never have thought of looking in the place where it was found. The effect of the example is really frightful ; we must have the surgeon's evidence, and I shall commit the prisoner for trial, and the Court, 1 am sure, will, under such circumstances, most readily pay the expenses. His lordship then ordered that the surgeon who exa- mined the body of the infant should be required to attend and give evidence." — August 13, 1839. " The increase of instances of astardy since the introduction of the New Poor- Law in Hereford, city and shire, is beyond the libertine's and Melbournite"s warmest and most villainous wishes. It is really piteous to meet so many of the daughters of humble life — young — unmarried, but burdened with the consequences of their shame — rather of man's shame, and the infamous enactment under which they suffer, and have been seduced. But facts. Not long ago a girl, then an inmate of the Hereford Bastile, took and secreted a piece of cheese under her armpits, whence, after undergoing not the most delicate investigatio7i, it was taken, and she for the offence (?) was sentenced to an incarceration in the horrid deadhouse which forms part of the Hereford pauper- cide establishment. When questioned why she took the cheese, she said (being in the family way), she longed lor it. They then asked her who was the father of her child, but she refused to tell them — only he teas a mamed man, the father of nine children, and that at the same time ivith herself there ivas another girl enciente by hiynf ! .'"—G. R. Wythen Baxter, March, 1841. " Sir R. Peel presented a petition from the Guardians of the Poor-Law Union at Tamworth, stating, that for the most part they approved of the Poor-Law Amend- ment-Bill, but they complained of the demoralizing effect of the Bastardy clauses. They stated that the number of illegiti- mate children baptized in their district in the two years after the passing of the Poor-Iiaw Amendment-Act was doiihle what it had been in the three years before." — House of Commons, March 29, 1841. [And yet Sir R. Peel supports and eulo- gizes the clause which is thus working seduction and infanticide under his very nostrils ! Well, for what were eyes given but to see with ; ears, but to ear with ; and hearts, but to make us feel ? And yet the proprietor of Tamworth town will make no such use of these organs ! — G. R. W. B.] " Sir, — I take the liberty to address you on the annexed clauses of ' the Bill for the amendment and better adminis- tration of the Laws relating to the Poor in England and Wales,' and to express the opinions of the overseers of Sheffield on the subject. *' It would appear, from the Commis- sioners' Report, that the 69th and follow- ing clauses are introduced for the purpose of effecting greater morality on the part of the female, and a saving to the parish by a discontinuance of relief to illegiti- mate children. This is to be done by, — " 1 st. Relieving the putative father from liability, and both father and mother from punishment ; 2dly, By requiring the mother to maintain her illegitimate off- spring ; and, 3dly, By extending the ha- bility of the mother to her parents. " It is presumed, that these clauses will not have the effect of reducing the number of illegitimate children ; for, although they may have a tendency to make the female more cautious, they en- courage the man to be less so ; and it is well known, that of the two parties the man is, generally speaking, more afraid of consequences at present than his guilty partner. " It may be said, that the alteration will prevent a great deal of perjury ; pro- bably it may, in some degree, but I am convinced that false swearing is less fre- quent in this part of the country than is generally supposed ; and further, that the abandoned female who would fix an inno- cent man with the maintenance of her child, would not hesitate to commit in- fanticide. The Commissioners who re- commend the present measures, appear to rely mainly on the liability of the mother and the parents as a preventive ; this, we are afraid, will not effect the object. In the cases receiving relief for their illegiti- mate children in Sheffield, and which, by- the-by, is not sufficient to maintain them, not one mother in six is in a situation to INCREASE OF BASTARDY. 575 provide wholly for the child, and not one grandparent (on the mother's side) in twenty would be found to be ' competent' and liable to an order under the statute of Elizabeth ; consequently, the greater part of the illegitimate children would be chargeable to the parish, and the mother would not be liable to punishment even if she had a dozen bastards. In a pecu- niary point of view, it might be easily ehown that the alteration would occasion considerable loss to this borough. We are at present paying, in the township of Sheffield, about £1,400 per annum, and receiving £1,200 from the fathers, and the liability of the mothers and grand- parfnts, in all probability, would not re- duce the expenditure more than £200 or £300. The other townships bearing their proportion, the loss to the borough may be estimated at £1,500 annually. " I will now shortly express the feel- ing of the overseers of the township of Sheffield (and I might, I believe, add that of the borough), that the ' repeal of the laws, i-equiring the fathers of illegitimate children to provide for their maintenance, and thus casting the burden thereof, in the first instance, on the mother, and in the case of her inability, on the parish, is unjust in principle, because it taxes one of the delinquent parties only, is calcu- lated to encourage licentiousness in men, and to add very materially to the parochial burden ; whilst the female, deprived of assistance, and left to struggle with po- verty, might be tempted to relieve herself from the effects of her frailty by the de- struction of her offspring.' *' If such are your sentiments, I make no doubt that you will throw impediments in the way of these clauses becoming the law of the land, as may appear to you the most advisable under the circum- stances. " I beg pardon for troubling you with this letter, and am, Sir, your most obe- dient servant, "GEORGE CROSSLAND, " Vestry Clerh. "Sheffield, May, 1834. *' To the Editor of Buckingham's " Parliamentary Review." The Good Bishop. — "The Bishop of Exeter gave notice, that on the third reading of the Poor-Law Bill he would move that the Bastardy clauses be omit- ted."— ^ow^e of Lords, Aug. 4, 1834. The Bastardy Clauses' Victim. — " The wretched woman, Celia Ti2')pins, who was convicted at our late assizes for the murder of her child, under very dis- tressing circumstances, has become quite insane, and on Wednesday last Captain Mason, the Governor of our county gaol, received an order to remove her at once to the Gloucester Lunatic Asylum." — Gloucester Journal^ May 9, 1840. " Petitions to both Houses of Parlia- ment are now in the course of signature in the various Poor-Law Unions of the country, praying that the indecent man- ner of affiliating illegitimate children in open court, at the quarter-sessions, may be erased from the Poor-Law Amend- ment-Bill ; and that it be transferred in a less objectionable form to the magistrates in petty sessions, where the characters of the parties can be better investigated. The petitioners declare that, from the dis- gusting and immoral disclosures usually made, the Guardians prefer taking appli- cants and their children into the work- house to compelling the heartless father to support his offspring." — Hereford Jour- nal, Jan., 1839. " It may be readily admitted, that for- merly many grievous hardships existed ; that a woman of bad character, by an ap- peal to the laws, could enforce payment for the support of her child from an indi- vidual who might be innocent (but here, let it be understood, the sufferer had the power of disproval). How has the pre- sent amendment rectified this evil ? Has it honestly probed the wound ? Has it made seduction a statutable offence ? Has it visited the ofience upon the offending party ? Not so. It suffers man, too often the cause of wrong, to go unpu- nished ; whilst it entails the entire burden of disgrace upon woman, the weaker ves- sel ; and leaves her unfriended, at a time when she most requires assistance. We know ivho has asked the question — ' Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb ?' And, unhappily, we can answer — Yes. When driven by the pangs of want — refused admittance to that shelter upon which she had some claim — an object of pity, even to those who are used to the sight of suffering — an outcast, amidst a city rolling in wealth — she resolved (madly, Me will hope), when nature could no longer afford sus- tenance for her babe, to save it from a life of misery, like her own, by commit- ting MuRDEK ! I care not what may have been her character. As a child of misfortune, she needed the greater pity ; 576 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. and, if this example shake the delicacy of any who peruse it, I would only add, in the words of Him who was purity itself, ' He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her' " — The English Poor-Laio Considered^ hy the Rev. J. V. Austin. " ' The following petition,' said the Hereford County Press of Jan 19, 1839, ' is in course of signature in the parish of Almeley, Herefordshire, and has already been signed by the vicar, the churchwardens, and other influ- ential persons.' " To the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, in Parliament assembled : "We, the undersigned, the Minister, Guardian, Churchwardens, Overseers, Proprietors, and Inhabitants of the parish of Almeley, in the county of Hereford, viewing with alarm the heavy burden which is likely to fall on property, from the whole expense of illegitimate children, together with the mothers, almost in every case, being incurrred by parishes, entreat permission, in preferring to your honour- able House, this our humble petition, to state the evils which appear to your peti- tioners to arise from the difficulty, certain expense, and public disgusting indelicacy attending affiliations at Quarter-sessions, according to the 72d and following clauses of the late Act of the 4 &;5 Wm. IV., intituled, ' An Act for the Amendment and better Administration of the Laws relating to the Poor in England and Wales.' *' 1st. Your petitioners have seen, that men of profligate and dissolute habits (knowing that parishes are deterred by the above reasons from ever attempting affiliation), frequent cottages, and endea- vour to seduce inexperienced, simple girls from the path of virtue ; such men feel- ing convinced that they can so act with impunity. " 2nd. Your petitioners have seen, that parishes, foreseeing the enormous certain expense to be incurred, almost universally, without any attempt to affi- liate the child, send both mother and child to the Union workhouse, where both are fed and clothed at the expense of the in- dustrious farmer and tradesman ; that, consequently, the moral and good are mulcted, whilst the immoral and evil go free. And that, although the bastardy cases made public are less numei-ous than before the passing of the late Act, the expenses falling upon the parishes from bastardy are, notwithstanding, much in- creased. " 3rd. Your petitioners feel assured, that the disgusting facts which are necessarily publicly exposed during attempts to affi- liate at the Quarter-sessions, where many persons of both sexes are present, tend much to corrupt and demoralize the minds of the audience. "Your petitioners having viewed all these things with alarm, humbly pray your honourable House, to take the above- mentioned clauses into consideration, with the view of removing the order of affilia- tion from the Quarter-sessions to the petty- sessions, where the magistrates present are more likely to know the circumstances of the case, and the real character of the persons; where the examination will be less public, and therefore less injurious to morals ; and where witnesses. Sec, can be collected with much less expense to all parties (at the same time granting a power of appeal to the Quarter-sessions to either party aggrieved by the decision), or at least of making such an amendment as may seem to your honourable House most likely to obviate the evils complained of. And your petitioners will ever pray, &c." " EXTRAORDINAKY DECISION OF THE Poor-Law Commissioners. — It is gene- rally known to our intelligent readers, that at the close of the last session of Parlia- ment an act passed to enable justices of the peace in petty-sessions to make orders for the support of bastard children. This Act was hailed w^ith great satisfaction throughout the kingdom, as it promised to relieve parishes from the great expense of applying to the Quarter-sessions, for the purpose of affiliating illegitimate children. The words of the preamble exhibit the intention of the legislature : — ' Whereas it is expedient to give more speedy and effectual means for obtaining orders upon the putative fathers of bastard children for their support and maintenance,' &;c. Under the expectation of thus more speedily and effijctually obtaining an order upon a putative father, a parish in the county of Gloucester lately applied to the Board of Guardians to take the necessary measures for bringing the case before the local magistrates, when the Guardian was told, that it would be necessary for the mother to reside the whole seven years in the workhouse, at an expense of '2?,. 9d. INCREASE OF BASTARDY. 577 weekl}', if the father was called upon to contribute Is. 6d. per week towards the support of the bastard child. This ap- peared to be so strange a mode of render- ing orders upon putative fathers more speedy and effectual, that an application was made to the Commissioners on the subject. The replj' was in these words, dated February the 13th, 1840 :— ' With regard to the case of the woman, the Commissioners need scarcely remind you, that it is the policy of the law, Avith a view to the discouragement of bastardy, to render mothers of bastards liable to maintain their offspring, and to avoid calling for the interference of parish offi- cers in such cases, unless the inability of the mother to support her bastard be established. The Commissioners are of opinion, that out-relief given to a woman affords no test of her inability to support her bastard, but acts as an encouragement to vice ; and they entertain the strongest conviction, not merely on general reasons, but as the result of extended experience, that a strict adherence to the principle of a new law, of obliging mothers to exert themselves to maintain their illegitimate offspring, will diminish immorality. E, Chadwick.' The Commissioners here avow, that, under their direction and sanction, parishes are to be taxed to the amount of 2s. 9d. for the support of the mother before they can recover of the father the usual payment of Is. 6d. per week for maintaining the child — an ex- traordinary mode of carrying out the in- tentions of the legislature, and rendering the obtaining orders upon putative fathers more speedy and effective. — Champion, March 1, 1840. " On Wednesday last, at the meeting of the Board, Mr. Wainhouse in the chair, two letters were read announcing that Mr. Power, Assistant-Commissioner over this Union, had been removed to another dis- trict ; and that Mr. Mott succeeded him. The auditor (Mr. Barker) announced his audit of the quarterly accounts for all the townshi])s except Halifax ; which he had again refused to audit, on account of the Overseers not having given in the parti- culars of the constables' accounts. He stated also that the salary of Mr. Highley, the Assistant-Overseer, would be dis- allowed, as before, until the requisite documents were produced. He also i-ead a letter from the Poor-Law Commissioners, requesting that affidavits of this disobe- dience to their orders should be sent up to them, with a view to obtain a manda- mus against the Overseers. The enor- mous loss to the Union by the operation of the Bastardy clause, then occupied the attention of the Board. W. Briggs, Esq., {ex officio) took an active part, and he and Mr. Peel (of Shelf) examined the Relieving Officers and Assistant-Overseers respecting the bastardy arrears, &;c. As an instance of the frightful importance of this subject, we may state, that one of the Relieving Officers had paid £97 in respect of bastard children within one quarter, of which sum only about £11 or £12 had been repaid by the putative fathers. Measures were recommended in order, if possible, to compel the putative fathers to contribute according to the orders made on them, at so much cost to the respective townships. Another call was made upon the respective townships ; and its excess over former calls excited the fears of the Assistant-Overseers, who express them- selves almost utterly unable to raise the sum. The call for Halifax is more than one thousand pounds ; the rest in propor- tion." — Halifax Guardian, Dec. 31, 1840. "I cannot forbear remarking, in refer- ence to the Bastardy clause, that, in a late conversation with the coroner for the western division of this county, I learned that he had held seven inquests on newly- born children, within the space of eight months, in his district. He admitted that he attributed this enormous increase of infanticide to the operation of the New Poor-Law, and that, notwithstanding a reprimand he had received from the Com- missioners, he had repeated his conviction to the jury." — Mr. Jonathan Toogood's fof BridyewaterJ Letter in the " Times," dated March 2, 1841. 2p MORTALITY IN THE BASTILES. Cethegus. — "The ragged Charon fainted, And ask'd a navy, rather than a boat, To ferry over the sad world that came." — Jonson's Cataline. " Murder, stern murder, in the dir'st degree."— Richard III., Act 5, s. 4. "Wehaveanew Bastile here, of which buried on Sunday, ^nd four some days the walls are so damp, that the inmates before." — Leicestershire Correspondent in are dying of the black fever. Five were the " Champion,'^ Feb. 16, 18-40. " In the Dewsbury Union, containing an average of 76 female inmates, the follow- ing deaths have occurred : — 1839. — Nov. 4.. .Mary Lee aged 20 years... Childbed-fever &Erisypelas. 10... Sarah Parker 53 " ...Erisypelas and Fever. 11... William Lee 22 days ...Convulsions. 16. ..Fanny Bedford 83 years. ..Old age. 29...Mary Haigh 75 " ...Asthma. Dec. l...Mary Blakelv 60 " ...Erisypelas. 3... Sarah Barraclough . 60 " ...Ditto. 5... Hannah Sykes 62 " ...Exhaustion. 1 8... Judith Kaye 56 " ...Fever. 19... Nancy Cleg 42 " ...Erisvpelas and Fever. 23... Elizabeth Beevers... 52 " ...Ditto. 23... Rachael Ellis 56 " ...Fits. 1840.— Jan. 18... Mary Smith 83 " ...Natural decay. 18...Mary Stockwell 54 " ...Fever and Erisypelas. Here we have fourteen deaths, seven of them the victims of contagious disease, within two months, whose lives might, in all human probability, have been spared, had they been allowed to remain in their comparatively thinly-pupulated parish workhouses."— Champion, March 8, 1840. " At Coventry, the state of the poor papers, that sixty deaths had taken place was most deplorable. Fever had broken in the Bridgewater Union workhouse, out in the workhouse, 84 of the wretched within the short space of twenty-six days ; inmates had died in January, in conse- and he could not rid his mind of the ira- quence of which, a public meeting had pression, that these poor paupers must been held, and a deputation appointed to have been jjoisoned. They had already examine the cause of the sickness in the heard from a person from Oxford, that workhouse, but they were refused ad- the paupers, in that Union, complained mission." — Lord Tcrjnlmm at the Crown that with the ' 5^7'%' their mouths were und Aiwhor, Feb. 9, 1838. sore and their teeth loose.'' — Mr. Oastler " In Rye churchyard He the bodies of in the ''■Northern Star,"' April 21, 1838. the tzce7iti/ children, who died in twenty- " Mr. Davies, watchmaker, of Tod- four days, as the sexton informed me, out morden, then addressed the meeting. * of the ' county,' viz.. Union-house." — * * * * He said, that in Covtntry, Extract from Mr. John PercevaVs Letter where he came from, seventy-three deaths to Mr. Oastler, dated from Hastings, had taken place in the Union workhouse Nov. 27, 1838. since the 25th of March last."— ^m^?- " A gentleman I met at Hastings, said Poor-Laio Meeting reported in the to me, ' I acknowledge there is one thing '■'•Northern Star,'' July 14, 1838. that I should think the paupers would "At a meeting of the parishioners of not like — so many of them die — I wonder St. Mary's, Lambeth, Mr. Fall said, that they can bear to see one another ' Upon an average of two years he found dropoff. I suppose the number of deaths the number of inmates was about 682 may be accounted for by low and unac- a-year ; of these, 393 had died, making customed diet." — Mr. John PercevaVs an average of deaths of 28f j)er cent, per ie««-. May 11, 1838. annum. (Shame, shame. J Well might *' He had lately seen in the London they say they had lessened the poor-rates, Mortality in the bastilf.s. 679 when they starved the poor. Ninety-one old women were sent to an old house, with a peck of coals in each room, and no candle, and the gruel, which was not bet- ter than pigwash, was sent a quarter-of-a- mile in pails, and the result was, that typhus fever had in a short time carried off sixty-one out of that number." (Cries of ' Murder .''J — Weekly Dispatch, April 22, 1838. " It is publicly stated, that the hospitals in London are now so glutted icitli dead bodies, that they refuse to take them in." ^Mr. Samuel Roberts's '■'■ Letter to Lord Brougham,'' 1838. " I see that the ' Ijysiuich Journalist^ who, by-the-by, is no Poor-Law advo- cate, has been requested to state, that the poor of Hoxne Union have no cause to complain of medical insufficiency, intend- ing that the whole Poor-Law press should copy the paragraph. I will just say, that I do not understand what it means by Q^l persons ' treated ' in 1 837 ; but I do understand, that for 680 cases cured, forty-three cases have ended fatally ; that is one in sixteen ! Whether this is 9. fair average mortality I do not know." — ^''Letters of a Suffolk Juror," 1838. " How far the number of deaths in St. George's (Southwark) workhouse was increased in 1837, in consequence of keeping the people, who were principally old, upon cold water, as a substitute for beer, and that during the inclement wea- ther of the winter, it may be impossible to say ; but one of the medical officers, constantly visiting the workhouse, has declared the water to be thick and bad, and unfit for a beverage. The number of deaths from the 25th of March, 1 837, to the 25th of March, 1838, was no less than 161 out of an average number in the * house ' of about 450 ; whilst the pre- vious year, during the corresponding four quarters, they were only 103. Thi?, great increase and large average number of deaths, per cent., would probably call for an inquiry in the Penitentiary, but in workhouses it appears to excite no sur- prise, nor to call forth any sympathy to- wards the unfortunate, afflicted, and inno- cent poor, who, there is too much reason to believe, are dieted and tested out of the world." — Days '■'■Practical Observations on the Netv Poor-Law." " One gentleman, a likely one to help another out of a ' scrape,' went lately to the poor woman, whose child died so queerly. ' How come you to talk about the neglect of your child ; you ought to 2 P remember, that the Union surgeon has a great deal to do.' An ugly blow that. Tliat is ' the unkindest cut of all.' A great deal to do! ! !"— The ''Suffolk Juror," 1838. " Two young women went into one of these Bastiles to lay in. One of them was put to bed on the Saturday, and the other on the Sunday. One mother and child were soon both buried in the same grave, the child one day and the mother the next, or thereabouts So that, before another Sunday, the four ivere dead ! and all in one short week ! Two lads, very young and racketty, who were at that time with the Union, or house- surgeon, were the medical attendants, and, of course, their master — perhaps when the poor creatures were dying or near it. The Governor said to an old man, who afterwards told me of the cir- cumstance — ' No one can say they were not well attended to ; for they had three doctors.' ' Yes,' said the old man, ' Ttvo boys and a fool, practising their experi- ments. But I will take care they shall not practise them on me, for I will never take any of their stuff.' I think these two poor young women were the first that went into the Bastile I speak of; and I believe, so help me God, if they had been allowed to have remained with their mo- thers or friends, in their own cottages, in the usual way, they would both, with their little babes, all four would have been alive now !" — From a Correspondent of the Author s, describing the tcorking of the Neiv Poor-Law in a Southerii County. " The deaths in the Ampthill work- house had been quite frightful." — Mr. Fielden's Speech, Feb. 20, 1838. " A few days ago, a friend of ours was complaining in a public room in Roches- ter, that the aged poor, in a place not far from Maidstone, were rapidly dying off under the rigours of the pauper prisons, when a young, bushy-wiskered dandy — a Whig, of course — exclaimed, 'Oh, what's the consequence of a parcel of old women dying off — they are better out of the world than in it — their bones are only fit to be burnt for manure ! ! ! ' ' Pray, Sir,' said our friend, ' is your mother alive ?' ' She is.' ' Well, then, suppose we starve her to death, scorch her bones, and spread them on your father's land.' ' My mother, Sir, is a lady,' cried Whisker- andos. ' No doubt,' rejoined the other, 'and, therefore, her bones must be all the richer. But I do not learn that she has any particular claims on the esteem of the 580 THE BOOK. OF THE BASTILES. country. Indeed (looking the other full in the face), I cannot perceive that she has produced anything worth preserving.' "■ — Weeldy Dispatch, Feb. 21,1 836. " Deaths in Union-houses, I cannot in any way ascertain. But, if I may judge by their treatment, I should say the deaths of infants, at least, if not of others also, have much increased." — Extract of a Let- ter to the Author, from the Rev. C. Fotvell Watts f of Bath J, dsited Oct. 23, 1840. "A return of the number of inmates and of deaths, at stated periods of three months, in every Union workhouse, in- cluding how many were buried, and how many tvere cut up, since their establish- ment, would be a very useful document. We should then see the proportion of deaths, Sec, and thus be able to guess how many murders are daily committed to keep up rents." — Mr. Oastlers Letter to the " Northern Star;' July 6, 1838. " I believe there is a secret number sleeping in their graves, through the neg- lect and cruel treatment of Reheving Oificers." — " Observations on the Admi- nistratio7i of the Netv Poor-Laio in Not- tingham,''' by W. Roicorth, Esg., Mayor, pubHshed Nov., 1840. " The in-door test, as it is put in ope- ration, is working disease and death in numbers." — Ihid. " How many have died from neglect, it is not for me to say ; though it appears, that human life is but little cared for by some persons ; for when a kind indivi- dual took an orphan child up to the Union-house, she was told to ' go home and mind her own business, what did it signify to her whether the child lived or died: ''—Ibid. " Deaths of convicts in the hulks, per cent, per annum . 2.3 Deaths of convicts in the Peni- tentiary 2.5 Deaths in the Bridgewater Union workhouse 41.4" — Lords' Poor-Law Committee Report, p. 909. " Where there is a duke, or a lord, for Chairman of the Guardians, they can contrive to kill them off much faster than where they have only common plebian scoundrels to take the lead as Guardians." — " The Rev. Dr. Pye Smith and the New Poor-Law," by Samuel Roberts. " We have all, I apprehend, when children, been terrified with astonishment and horror on reading of the mercenary cruelty of the unfeeling guardian uncle to the Babes in the Wood, who, to gel possession of their property, exposed the poor helpless little innocents to be starved to death, or be devoured by wild beasts in the forest. This, indeed, is bad enough in the retail way, but what is it in extent, to the hundreds and thousands of innocent babes in the Bastiles, starved to death by noble Guardian-lords for the sake of obtaining a part of their pitiful portion? So numerous are these victims, that all the robin-redbreasts in the world would never be able to find leaves to cover their bodies." — 3lr. Samuel Ro- berts's Pamphlet to Lord Brougham. " Before the formation of the Union, the inmates of the Bridgewater workhouse were aged, infirm, or children ; there was seldom an able-bodied person in the house. On taking the ages of the inmates when I was an overseer of the poor, I found that the ages of the first thirty on the list averaged more than 74 years each ; and that those thirty persons were more than 70 years of age, on the average, before they were taken into the workhouse. Thus these poor old creatures had worked out their ' threescore years and ten.' They were kindly treated, properly, but frugally fed, and allowed a small quantity of beer daily. " In August, 1836, all their little indul- gencies were stopped, and the Commis- sioners' dietary regulations rigidly en- forced. The medical return then was — ' Inmates generally healthy.' On the 27th of September, the following return was made to the Board of Guardians by the visiting Committee : — ' The aged poor are afflicted with cholic and diarrhoea, and the children sufiering from the same complaints.' On the 25th of October, the medical attendant wrote to the Board, stating that he had watched the result of the dietary, and that it was producing diarrhoea. He was told that the general dietary was no concern of his ; that he was to attend to the sick, and that only. In his evidence before the Lords' Com- mittee, this gentleman stated, that he was obliged to keep a common astringent mixture in the house to enable the poor to keep their food in their bowels for a short time. " The disease rapidly passed into that state of infectious dysentery which was so fatal in the Milbank Penitentiary, when the water-gruel experiment was tried on the convicts there. In this state the workhouse and the gruel were set up as a MORTALITY IN THE BASTILES. 581 * test of destitution ' against the poor of the 40 parishes which comprise the Bridge- water Union. The representations of the medical attendant were backed by the visiting Committee, but without effect. An active and humane member of that Committee deposed as follows : — ' The number of deaths which occurred, and the generally unhealthy state of the in- mates, were so alarming, that I was induced to apply to the clerk of the Board for information on the usual mortality of the house during the many years that he had the care of it as Assistant Overseer. This information I obtained, and took it to the Board, and, with the ' death-book ' in my hand, contrasted the few deaths under the old system, with the awful number re- corded in the obituary of the Board. I implored the Guardians not to send any more paupers into the house while so dangerous a disease prevailed there ; but to no purpose. The reply given was, that the law must be carried into effect as far as possible ; and that the house would hold still more, according to the report made of it when taken for the union.' " At this time the house, which was set up as a ' test of destitution,' under the New Poor-Law, against the helpless poor of 40 parishes, was in such an infectious state, that the surgeon warned the visiting Committee against going into the apart- ments. The surgeon was infected; the governor's family were infected ; the governor was infected several times, and at length obtained leave of absence. Neither nurses nor servants could be prevailed upon to enter the house. Still these Guardians of the poor, who durst not go round the house themselves, ordered 127 helpless persons, in whose deaths they had a pecuniary interest, into the work- house during the period of disease and infection ! This destructive system was wilfully persevered in, in spite of reiterated applications, and the testimony of the death-book weekly exhibited from the 25th of October, 1836, to the 21st of April, 1837, Avhen a vast number of help- less persons had been destroyed, and of those who were suffering under the dis- ease when the dietary was changed, ten died in the course of the year. " Such, Sir, were the leading circum- stances of this awful case. The doctrine had been formally propounded at the Board ' that not even a whisper on its proceedings should be permitted to escape the lips of the Guardians out of doors,' and ' that we should rather seem to think aloud than to speak.' I protested against so skulking and cowardly a course, and avowed ray unalterable determination of appealing to the public on the transactions of that Board, in any manner which, on due deliberation, I might consider most likely to be effective in drawing the attention of my countrymen to the injuries inflicted on the poor. Acting on this de- termination, I published a detailed state- ment of the foregoing facts, which was republished in the Times newspaper ; upon which the Poor-Law Commissioners directed the Guardians of the Union, and the Assistant-Commissioner of the dis- trict, to institute an inquiry into the crimes which they were thus charged with having committed. Strongly im- pressed with the pernicious character of such a vile mockery, and convinced that its only possible corrective was the public voice, 1 addressed the following letter to the Poor-Law Commissioners : — " ' Bridgewater, July 29, 1837. '"Gentlemen, — -I learn by the inclosed letter, from the clerk to the Bridgewater Union, that Mr. Weale, Assistant Poor-Law Com- missioner, has been directed by you to in- stitute an inquiry into the allegations contained in a pamphlet published by me, purporting to be some account of the working of the New Poor- Law in the Bridgewater Union. " ' It is alleged, in the pamphlet to be so inquired into, that many of our unfortunate fellow-creatures have been brought to an un- timely death in the Bridgewater workhouse. An inquiiy on so grave a charge cannot, it is sub- mitted, be conducted to a satsfactory termina- tion with closed doors ; neither can the ends of public justice be so attained ; with this convic- tion I take leave respectfully to request that you will be pleased to issue such directions as will prevent the public from being excluded during the progress of the inquiry .^ " ' I am. Gentlemen, " ' Your obedient, humble servant, "'JOHN BOWEN, " ' To the Poor-Law Commissioners for England and Wales.' " " To this respectful request for an open inquiry, the Commissioners refused to accede ; and it was afterwards discovered, by a letter printed by order of the House of Lords, that Mr. Weale, the Assistant Poor-Law Commissioner, had conspired with some of the Somerset-house authori- ties to frustrate the avowed object of the in- quiry which he was paid for conducting. In this letter, addressed to one of the Commis- missioners, Weale, after stating some gross and shameless falsehoods, says, ' the large- majority of the Guardians are favourable to us,' that is, favourable to the Commis- sioners and their train ; and he urges this amiable partiality, in proof of its being- 582 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILKS, 'desirable' that he 'should request the attendance of the Guardians' on an in- quiry into a charge of a vast number of the helpless poor having been brought to an untimely death in a Union workhouse under the management of these very Guardians. This infamous suggestion was literally adopted, and the parties who had been instrumental in killing ofFso many of the helpless poor, went through the vile farce of sitting in judgment, with closed doors, on themselves, and with the ' death book ' and the ' medical report ' staring them in the face, they gravely returned a verdict of ' Not Guilty.' The Somerset- house authorities received the verdict of self-acquittal with expressions of their ' satisfaction with the investigation made b}^ the Board,' and requested that ' they may be furnished with copies of the de- positions ! ' Thus they acknowledge their utter ignorance of the matter, with which they avow themselves perfectly satisfied ! Having made the criminal parties judges in their own case, and smothered up the enormities charged, under the cloak of a secret inquiry, they commit themselves to an unqualified ap- proval of the ' investigation,' and then ask for a sight of the evidence ! "The impunity thus established by au- thority, for even fatal outrages, if com- mitted in a Union workhouse, on the helpless poor, led to other crimes of an equally atrocious character. A number of poor old men were carried off in the course of a few days by a pestilential disease caught from a vagrant v/ho -was put into the room while he was suifering under typhus fever, and considered past recovery. In this hopeless condition he was placed among the helpless old inmates of the workhouse, who had no opportunity of escaping beyond the reach of infection. The awful destruction of human life which followed this wanton act was smothered up by false entries in so crimi- nal a manner, that the records of the Board did not contain any reference to the existence of this formidable disease. Out of eleven consecutive deaths in the work- house, only two entries were made in the column provided for the ' Nature of Dis- ease ;' the other nine were surreptitiously filled up three months afterwards, when the particulars of the cases had been published by me in the Times newspaper. Thus a number of poor helpless creatuies, after a long life of labour, were immured beyond the reach of public control, exposed to the poison of malignant fever, and then passed to their graves without a reckoning, under the cover of false entries. The horrible deaths of these poor victims, and the fraudulent entries, were fully proved be- fore the Lords' Committee ; but no steps have hitherto been taken thereon. " Awful and ominous as these events are, they are not the only results of the Somerset-house system. At a still later period, the workhouse was known to be ravaged by typhus fever, and other highly infectious diseases, and while it was in that condition, in the midst of a most severe season, with an average of 50 on the sick-list, it was enforced as a test of desti- tution against 203 of the suffering poor, mostly the families of agricultural labour- ers, whose general wages are only 7s. a- week, and who, therefore, could have had no means of providing against an exi- gency. 128 of the applicants preferred the chance of famishing, begging, or pil- fering, out of the house, to the more im- mediate destruction by pestilence, which threatened them within. " The wretched condition of those who, even under such circumstances, were forced to accept the ' workhouse test of destitution,' may be inferred from the following extracts from the deposition of Drusilla Winn, a poor woman, who was subjected to the ' test,' with four small children. She deposed, — " ' That she principally supported her- self by washing, and had been receiving from the Board, for herself and four chil- dren, under seven and a-half years of age, 4s. 6d. per week. " ' That on the usual day of pay she w'as told the whole of the 4s. 6d. was taken off, and an order made for her to go into the Union-house; she did not get her week's pay. " ' That her children were in perfect health at the time she went into the Union-house. " ' That her eldest child, seven and a- half years of age, was immediately taken from her, and she thinks he was very un- happy. " ' That his first complaint to her was of a pain in his head. After remaining in bed for two days, the nurse drove him down the staircase without shoes or stock- ings, through the chapel, which was wet, having just been washed, saying he was not ill. " ' That the schoolmaster, who is very kind to the children, immediately carried him back to his bed. He never got out of it after. He died in a few days. MORTALITV IN THE BASTILES. 583 " ' That she does not know why he died ; the doctor never told her. He was in the fever-ward. " ' That she does not know why the second child died; the doctor did not say. " ' That the doctor said, the third child died from inflammation of the lungs. " ' That she then left the house with her only child, who was very ill, and had on a blister under each ear.' " Such was the operation of the ' work- house test,' in little more than two months, on one wretched family I During this period, 29 widows and deserted women, and 95 helpless children, were subjected to the ' test,' while the house was ravaged to such an extent by pestilential diseases, that the deaths within the walls of the workhouse were to the deaths in the registrar's district without the walls in the proportion of 25 to one ! And re- member, Sir, this compendious slaughter did not take place in Central Africa, or in the hold of a slave-ship ; but in that division of the county of Somerset of which you are a representative, and under that very Poor-Law which you are so strenuously supporting in the House of Commons. " I have now brought before you three distinct series of destructive outrages committed on the necessitous, into the particulars of which I court the most searching inquiry, and defy any contra- diction which can be openly met. It has been shown, — " 1. That a deadly disease ravaged the Bridgewater Union workhouse similar to the fatal dysentery which swept oft' the convicts in the Penitentiary when the water-gruel experiment was tried there, and that, although the disease in tlie workhouse was ascribed by the medical officers to the Commissioners' gruel, the dietary was obstinately persevered in for five months ; during which period the disease became so highly infectious and fatal, that the Guardians diu-st not go round the house ; still, as vacancies were created by death or otherwise, they sent into this pesthouse, to be gruelled, a con- stant stream of helpless victims, in whose deaths they had a pecuniary interest. " 2. That at a subsequent period, a vagrant, in an advanced stage of typhus fever, was wilfully placed among the aged poor, a considerable number of whom caught this formidable disease and died. An attempt was made to conceal this destruction of the poor by a series of omissions and false entries, in which the existence of typhus fever is never once alluded to ; some of which false entries, although bearing date in November and December, were not actually made until the following March, thus consummating a series of cruel homicides by fraudulent concealment, and an audacious falsification of public records. " 3. At a still later period, in the depth of a most severe season, when the workhouse was known to be ravaged by typhus fever, and other pestilential diseases, with an average of 50 on the sick-list, more than 20U persons, above half of whom were widows and children, were 'ordered to the workhouse' as a ' test of destitution,' when the deaths within that house wei-e to the deaths without, in the frightful proportion of 25 to one ! Of one poor family, who \vere in a healthy condition when they were forced, by utter destitution, to accept the ' test,' three children out of four were carried off by the prevailing pestilence, and the fourth was removed from the house apparently in a dying state.'" — Mr. Bowens (of Bridgewater j Letter to — Sanford, Esq., M. P., May 8, 1841. " The Poor-Law Commissioners have never given Parliament any data whereby the influence of the workhouses on the mortality of the poor can be determined. They have published sanatory reports on the state of Whitechapel, and of various unhealthy parts of the country, but have never entered their own workhouses, where the mortality has been 500 or 600 per cent, higher than in the worst parts of towns. They have never told Parliament — nor, we believe, the Goverimient — how many of the inmates of the workhouses perish annually — what is the mortality of the aged and infirm, the children, the able-bodied men and women, confined in the workhouses, as compared with that of the same classes out of doors. They have never answered these questions, which fall immediately within their pro- vince, and have a direct bearing on the exclusive Avorkhouse system of relief, which they advocate. The select com- mittee on the Poor-Law Amendment- Act, ordered a return of the deaths in the workhouses, during the year 1837. The part of the return including ten metro- politan and a hundred provincial work- houses, was published in the Appendix to the Medical Evidence. There were 12,313 paupers in the workhouses, ancTi; 5S4 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. 2,552 perished in that one year ! ! ! ! We have, therefore, the following scale of mortality : — Annual deaths in a population of 1000. English prisons 16 hulks 28 hulks (crowded in 1840) 43 Whitechapel (1838) 44 Han well Lunatic Asylum 120 English luorkhouses 207 (! ! !) The annual mortality was 18 per cent, in the country, and 29 per cent, in the ten London workhouses. There are many aged and infirm persons in the Avorkhouses, and the criminals are young ; but there are also many young persons and able- bodied adults in the workhouses ; so that the tremendous mortality of 21 per cent, must, in great part, be ascribed to the con- finement in-doors, and the starvation diet- aries. We do not believe that the mortality of the same classes exceeds 7 per cent, out of doors ; so that, at the lowest possible estimate, the mortality is doubled by the administration of relief in workhouses. If the workhouse test be universally ap- plied — and out-door relief be abolished — one-third of the 580,000 paupers now living out of doors, in addition to the 98,000 at present under confinement, would, perhaps, find themselves necessi- tated to enter the workouses, were, at the lowest rate, 18 per cent. — 52,439 would perish every year, heart-broken, or poisoned by a contaminated atmos- phere. The workhouse test cannot be worked at a sacrifice of less than 25,000 lives a-year. We shall be glad to see this disproved by facts; but, until the Commissioners shall prove that the mor- tality is not doubled in the workhouses, we do trust that Parliament will put a stop to the fearful experiment of the worhJioiise test, and enact the continance of out-door relief.'' — Lancet, April 10, 1841. ^ "Li the month of February, 1839, a more than usual mortality took place in the workhouse of the Morpeth Union, situate in that town. Public attention Avas drawn to the matter ; and at length it became generally known, that an elderly labouring man in the workhouse, of the name of William Hunter, had been unwell of a bowel complaint for some time ; that his medical attendant, Mr. Robert Shute, had ordered him port wine ; but this being considered too dear, he was given gooseberry wine instead, and the conse- quence was, the man soon died. About the same time, a poor girl named Ann Thompson, aged 27, was dragged from her father's roof, placed in this work- house, and soon died of consumption. It became known that the medical attendant, Mr. Gibson, of the Morpeth Dispensarj', had been brought before the Morpeth Board of Guardians, and publicly reproved by that body, for having brought a piece of a tea-cake to this poor sufiering crea- ture to enable her to take her medicine ! These facts roused public indignation ; a meeting of the inhabitants w'as called at the Town-hall on the 27th of February, the house was crowded to suffocation, and the following resolution was jiassed with- out one dissentient voice : — " ' That this meeting has very good reason for believing that a very improper system of diet and general treatment has, for some time past, prevailed in the Morpeth Union workhouse ; that William Hunter, and Ann Thompson, recent inmates of that house, were cruelly treated, and tlicir deaths were occasioned or accelerated by ill-usage ; and that a coroner's inquest is indispensably necessary to further the ends of justice.' " I was the person appointed by this numerous and most respectable public meeting to convey this resolution to Mr. Russell, the coroner, who resides at Aln- wick — a gentleman your lordship knows very well. The coroner, on the receipt of my letter conveying the resolution, immediately issued his precept for an inquest on the bodies of both paupers, the next day, at the Queen's Head Inn, Mor- peth. I attended, with a solicitor, to watch the case. INIr. Russell came, the jury was assembled ; some hesitation or difficulty was expressed by the coroner about raising the bodies, which had been buried a few days. It was assize week at Newcastle, he had to be there that very day, and in consequence of this it was arranged, that he should consult about holding the inquest when at Newcastle, and give his decision as soon as possible. I went to Newcastle the next day, had an interview with Mr. Russell, the coroner, and he said that he had seen Mr. Bigge, of London, who thought it would be more advisable not to hold the inquest. " Now, my Lord Howick, you know who this Mr. Bigge is. He is Chairman (and has been from its foundation) of the Morpeth Board of Guardians ; he has been your bosom friend for many years ; he has been the gentleman fixed on for your nomination at every election you have stood for in Northumberland ; and, above all, it is very generally under- MORTALITY IN THE BASTILE8. 585 stood, that he has been your constant correspondent respecting all the Poor- Law movements in the north of Eng- land. Your lordship must, therefore, have possessed a knowledge of these facts and public proceedings, connected with the cases of William Hunter and Ann Thompson, occurring, as they did, in that part of the county of Northumber- land that your lordship represents. There is at this moment, an order of this Board, of which this Mr. Bigge is Chairman, ' that no medical man, shall be allowed to see a pauper but in the company of the Master or Matron of the workhouse.' I would advise you, my Lord, the next time you go among the ' gentlemen, magistrates, and farmers,' of your own county, to call at the Morpeth workhouse, and look at the Order-Book, and make inquiries how many poor creatures died there from November, 1 838, till the end of February, 1839, just three months. Make this inquiry diligently and fairly. Look at the orders for making the soup, to be given without any bread : at the orders for the coffee — seven pints of water to one ounce of one-and-tenpenny coffee ; inquire about your friend Mr. Bigge's great haste to get the dietary altered, when he found the public indig- nation steadily directed against this notable Board ; and, above all things, my Lord, remember to do all this in a proper spirit, not being ' anxious to acquire a low and despicable popularity ;' and then I shall be inclined to believe that you will come fully prepared with a stock of legislative wisdom to the next debate on this Poor-Law Bill that shall entitle you to be listened to with public attention." — Blakey's Letter to Lord Hawick, " Times" April 7, 1841. " When the execrable design was first mooted, the farmers, almost to a man, advocated the Bill, thinking it impossible that the atrocity of parting man and wife could have ever entered the heart of any man ; but soon, alas ! they found this was the case. One man, of the name of Henry Stapeley, was sent to gaol six or seven times ; the first time, because he resisted the unmanly outrage of being separated from his Avife and family ; the second time, because, when he came out of gaol, he obtained sufficient work to keep himself, and would not go back to the Bastile, and was summoned to show cause why he ran away, and left his wife and family; and after he obtained his discharge, he was brought back to his parish, and again consigned to the Bas- tile, whence he was again sent back to the House of Correction, because he persisted in cohabiting with his wife, and was thus bandied about to and from Lewes. When asked by the magistrates why he persisted in this obstinacy, he replied, that he would rather be in gaol than in the county house apart from his wife and family, because the work was very little harder, and the living infinitely better. This is by no means an isolated case. Death has been awfully busy among the inmates : one, two, three, and four persons, have lain dead in the house at a time. The medical officer has said, more than once, that the vile place was not near capacious enough to contain the suffering inmates in the slightest degree of comfort ; that disease had raged, and most inevitably would rage, unless arrangements were speedily made to pre- vent it. One of the Guardians — a most humane man — has himself called it a sys- tem of slow, silent, and sly murder ; and at the approaching annual election of Guar- dians, he will resign, declaring, in language that does him honour, that no man with a spark of humanity in his breast, can pos- sibly act as Guardian, unless discretion- ary power be given him from the Com- missioners to discriminate between the deserving poor and the idle and dissolute. One circumstance is worthy of mention. A poor man, of the name of Funnell, belonging to the parish of Laughton, applied for relief. He was presented with an order to go into the county house with his wife and three children. Necessity compelled him and them to go. The measles and the hooping-cough were raging dreadfully in the Bastile ; mothers, weeping for the untimely loss of their innocent offspring, were to be met with at every turn. The poor creatures were admitted, and, in compliance Avith the barbarous edict of the Poor-Law Commis- sioners, separated. Two or three days subsequently, the children were seized with this shocking disorder, and, horrible to relate, the whole of poor Funnell's children lay dead in the House at one time. Hear this, ye daughters of luxuiy ! and if ye have one spark of pity in your breasts, use your acknowledged influence with your fathers, husbands, and brothers, to have this infamous Bill blotted from the Statute book which it now dis- graces." — Weekly Dispatch, March 18. 1838. ' NEW POOR-LAW MISCELLANIES. " THE DEATH OF LOKT) JOHN RUSSELL's FIRST WIFE. " One of their bitterest foes, and one of his most maHgnant destroyers — one of the rich traitors of this country — had lately been visited by Providence Avith the most distressing and mourn- ful bereavement that any human being could sustain. He meant Lord John Russell, from whose side it had pleased God to take away the wife of his bosom. Now, mistake him not. Let no sneer, let no scowl, let no laugh arise even from the soul into which the iron has entered, and from which the spirit of vengeance has already arisen, and arrayed herself ready to go forth in righteous indignation. He warred not with the dead ; he let them rest ; for they and he must stand hereafter to their own master. Nor would he war with the living, when the living, by suffering and sorrow, were in- capable of coming into the field, and en- tering into the lists with him. But Lord John Russell now sat in the weeds of a mourning widower, by the side of an empty bed, into which he looked, but where he could no longer see the lovely appearance even of death itself. His wife, whom he loved, and who was worthy of his love — his wife, the chosen one, the first in the world to his heart — his wife had been taken from him. Now he (Mr. Stephens) would put it to Lord John Russell — he would ask him solemnly, over that grave where he had so recently said, ' earth to earth, dust to dust, and ashes to ashes,' over that body that he fain would have held in his loved embrace until they should have departed together — he asked that weeping, mourning, oppressed husband, whether death was not a period soon enough for man and wife to be separated? (Hear, hear, hear, hear.) Was it not soon enough, he would ask him ? Ay, that throbbing pulse, that pallid cheek, that bleeding, aching, broken heart, said, ' Oh, yes, it is soon enough, it is much too soon ! Had God allowed us to live together yet longer, even always here upon earth together ! ' ' Now, my Lord,' said he, ' does not the poor man feel as keenly the pangs of separation as the rich man? (Hear, hear, hear.) Does not the pauper in the most wretched hovel weep as briny tears, and send out sighs as strong, when he sits over, and looks upon the dead body of the wife of his heart, as royalty itself, with all its gaudy para- phernalia, and gorgeous apparatus of grief and mourning ? Oh, yes ! I have seen the wives of working men, when, as a minister of Christ, I have been sent for to pray with their husbands in their sick and dying bed, and, perhaps, when I have arrived too late, and have found that the living are numbered with the dead. I have seen your wives ; and what were they about? Why, I have found them with the apron thrown over the counte- nances to hide their grief, that they might weep and mourn in secret. (Great emo- tion.) Now, then, I put it to yonder proud and haughty peer, I put it to yonder blind and misguided Minister of State, to tell me whether it is not high time to destroy that law, which destroys the feel- ings and breaks the heart, and desolates the entire face of this once happy, but now a miserable and wretched people. I must not keep you longer ; but remember I say, " ' For child and for wife, I will war to the kniie.' " — Rev. J. R. Stephens, at Wigan, Nov., 1838. *' I would not willingly disturb a foe in grief; but I would, if in my power, when his heart is softened by sorrow, induce him to retrace his steps. It has pleased Almighty God to afflict Lord John Rus- sell. His Lordship was passionately attached to her, whom death has now snatched from him. Natiu-e was not ex- tinguished in his breast. No — no — lords and paupers are alike children of the same common parent. His wife was soothed in the prospect of death by the presence of her lord — and still the pang of sepa- ration pierced to his very soul ! The pauper feels as keenly as the lord — when God inflicts the separating pang ! But, if I dare venture into the grief-chamber of Lord John, I would ask — is not death soon ENOUGH ? His throbbing heart — his streaming eyes — his palsied tongue — would, in the soundless voice of anguish, utter — 'too soon, too soon!' Remember, now — thou noble and not vm- MISCELLAiMES. 587 pitied mourner — that the paupers whom, by force, thou hast separated in hfe — feel as much as when a lady dies ! By the last look — the last sigh — the last grasp thy lady gave thee — I entreat thee — relent — and set the prisoners of poverty free ! Those who have been aheady slain by grief, thou canst not restore — their blood still cries for vengeance ! There was a cause — thy trouble was not chance ! Perhaps to make thee feel for others. 'Thy sun went down while it was yet day,' Perhaps to open thy eyes upon the truth of nature's volume — ' The desire of thine eyes was removed at a stroke.' Lady Russell will not have died in vain, if her sorrowing lord now listens to the cries of suffering liumanity !— now sets the prisoners free. Oh ! that his dar- ling, innocent, orphan infant, may power- fully plead before his Lordship for the infants — the banished infants — the sepa- rated infants — the sorroiving infants — the man-orphaned infants of the poor ! " — Oastler's Letter to the Editors of the " Northern Star,'' dated from Rhijl, near St. Asaph, -^ov. 2, 1838. Moke Patriots ! — " Mr. Greene pre- sented a petition from the Poor-Law Guardians of Lancaster, praying the House not to reduce the number of the Assistant Poor-Law Commissioners." — Horcse of Commons, May 18, 1841. What a nice Law ! — " In the Kilrush Poor-Law Union, the valuation books have been sent in, from which it appeared that the rate-payers put in no fewer than 4,500 objections to the valuation of their property." — 3fetropolitan Conservative Journal, April 3, 1841. High Shekief.— " The Poor-Law Commissioners have expressed an opinion, that a person, while holding the office of High Sheriff' of the county, is disqualified to act as an ex-ojlcio Guardian within that county. To be an cx-officio Guardian under the 38th sec. of the Poor-Law Amendment-Act, the Justice must be acting for the county, which the statute, 1 Mary, sec. 2, c. 8, declares that the sheriff of the county is incompetent to do." — Worcester Herald, April 21, 1838. The Collection of Rates. — " By the New Poor-Law Act, if the deputy over- seer should neglect to summon house- keepers in arrear of their poor-rates, and, in consequence, the rate should remain uncollected, he is chargeable for the amount of such rates, the payment of which the auditor of the Union may en- force against him." — Hereford Journal^ Sept., 1838. HoAV Popular it is !— " No fewer than eight townships, or parishes, in the Thirsk Union, and ten ditto in the North- allerton Union, have this year declined, or neglected, to return any Guardians of the "poor." — Sheffield Iris, April 6, 1841. Value of Usury to the Poor. — " At the Dublin Sessions last week it was proved, that a man, named Campbell, had pawned a coat and handkerchief, every Monday, for the last seventeen years. The interest paid on both, during that period, was just £25 15s. 8d." — Championy Oct. 27, 1839. The Catholics and the Act. — " Mr. Langdale presented a petition from between 9,000 and 10,000 Catholics of Manchester and Salford, praying that Catholics in workhouses might be allowed to visit their places of worship on Sundays and holidays ; also, a petition from the Catholics in the metropoUs to the same effect."— March 26, 1841. Poor-Rates on Workhouses. — *' At Hereford Sessions, in an appeal against a rate, it wasdecided, that the new Union workhouse erected in that city, un- der the authority of the Poor-Law Amend- ment-Act, was not liable to be assessed to the poor-rates. This, we understand, is the first time that the point has been directly decided under the new law." — Championy August 12, 1838. The Shocking Suicide of Sir James Graham. — " He was about to comment on a measure which appeared to him to afford a most satisfactory test of the legislative skill of the Government, and of their power to carry out important measures. He alluded to the question of the Poor-Law. He (Sir J. Graham) had been a party to the introduction of that measure, which he regarded as one of primary importance." — Sir James Gra- ham, House of Co7nmons, May 28, 1841, ( Want of Confidence Debate.) "At the Strand Petty Sessions, on Monday, the proprietors of Covent-garden theatre appealed against the poor-rate assessment, which had been fixed at £2,700 per annum. After a lengthened inquiry, the Bench decided that the rate should be reduced to £2,000. That part of Drury-lane theatre which had been rated to the parish of St. Paul's at £360, was reduced to £300." — Champion^ Nov. 10, 1839. 588 THE BOOK OF THE DASTILES, KENSINGTON UNION. FORMAL CON- SENT OF THE GUAKDIANS TO THE SEPARATION OF THE PARISH OF CHELSEA THEREFROM. " At the weekly meeting of the Board of Guardians of the Kensington Union, held on Thursday last, Sir J. S. Lilhe in the chair, after the transaction of some ordinary business, " Mr. Cornell, the clerk, laid before the Board the following form of consent ne- cessary for the separation of Chelsea from the Union, which he had received from the Poor-Law Commissioners, and to which the Guardians (the valuation of the property belonging to the Union having been made, and the balance due from Chelsea ascertained) had been specially summoned to affix their signatures. " The Guardians then present (a full Board) signed the form; the remainder of the signatures making the required number having since been obtained, on Tuesday last the document was des- patched to their ' Majesties' at Somerset- house, who will forthwith issue an ' order' for the election of the long sought for, and at last granted. Board of Guardians in and for the parish of Chelsea only, which, it is expected, will take place the first week in July next. " ' KENSINGTON UNION. " ' Whereas thePoor-LawCommission- ers, by an order under their hands and seal, bearing date the 12th day of Janu- ary, 1837, did order and declare, that the parishes of St. Mary Abbott, Kensington, St. Luke, Chelsea, Fulham, Hammer- smith, and Paddington, in the county of Middlesex, should, on the Uth day of February then next, be united for the administration of the laws for the relief of the poor by the name of the ' Kensing- ton Union.' " 'And whereas, by an Act passed in the 4th year of the reign of her Majesty Queen Victoria, entitled, ' An Act for the administration of the Poor-Laws in the parish of St. Luke, Chelsea, in the county of Middlesex, and relating to the high- ways in the said parish,' it is enacted, that it shall be lawful for the Poor-Law Com- missioners, and they are thereby required, by order, under their hands and seal, to direct that the administration of the la\ys for the relief of the poor in the said parish shall be in a Board of Guardians to be elected and constituted according to the provisions of certain Acts for the bet- ter administration of the poor-laws. " ' And whereas it is considered desir- able, that a majority of not less than two- thirds of the Guardians of the poor of the said Union should, in furtherance of the said recited provision of the said Act, passed in the fourth year of the reign of her present Majesty, testify their con- currence to the separation of the said parish of St. Luke, Chelsea, from the said Union. " ' Now, therefore, we, being a majo- rity of two-thirds of the Guardians of the poor of the Kensington Union, do hereby concur in the separation of the said parish of St. Luke, Chelsea, from the said Union, upon the following terms, viz. — That, in consideration of the furniture, fixtures, and effects to be left at Chelsea workhouse, as the property of that parish, which furniture, fixtures, and effects are particularized in an inventory taken by Mr. Livermore, on the 19th, 20th, and 21st of May last, and in consideration of certain new buildings erected at the said house at the expense of the Kensington Union, and particularized in a survey and valuation made by Mr. Handford, of the parish of Chelsea, in May last, the said parish of Chelsea do pay to the Board of Guardians of the Kensington Union, the sum of £248 15s. 2d., and do pay such further sum as the stock of provisions and clothing, remaining in store at the said workhouse on the 22d day of July next, may amount to ; the valuation^of the same to be made upon the contract prices at which the same have been or may be supplied ; the said 22d day of July being the day on which the separation of Chel- sea parish from the Kensington Union is to take place, and on which day all the in-door poor, who may then happen to be chargeable to Chelsea, are to be removed from the other w'orkhouses of the Union to the workhouse at Chelsea ; and the in-door poor belonging to the other parishes of the Union inhabiting Chelsea workhouse are to be removed there- from. " ' And it is further agreed and under- stood, that the parish of Chelsea, on ac- count of the consideration before specified, renounces all claim, right, and title to any share or portion of the furniture, fixtures, provisions, or effects which now are, or which may be, in the workhouses at Kensington, Fulham, and Hammersmith, on the said 22d of July next ; and also renounces all claim to any compensation or satisfaction for or on account of any new buildings which have been erected at the said workhouses at Kensington, MISCELLANIES. 589 Fulham, and Hammersmith, since the formation of the Kensington Union.' " Thus will the Poor-Law Commis- sioners, after nearly four years of obsti- nate resistance to the just demands of Chelsea for a return to local government, have been completely beaten ; and it only remains for the country to do its duty by equally beating the heartless Poor-Law Ministers, by returning, at the approach- ing election, men opposed to that most savage, inhuman, pauper-punishing law — the New Poor-Law ; when we may expect, not only great modifications in that enactment, but a speedy annihilation ■of the intolerable Commission itself." — Times, June 17, 1841. The History of Thousands. — " A labourer near Eton, after applying in vain for relief to the Board of that noto- rious Union, and having no means for satisfying the famine of his wife and chil- dren, and being unable to bear the hor- rors of his own wretched dwelling, arose and left his desolate home, and laid him- self to sleep in a field, where, the next morning, he was found dead from starva- tion and cold. Suppose this same man had proceeded to the highway, resolved to feed his children by the fruits of rob- beiy 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?" — Rev. G. S. Cookesley's Letter to the Eto7i Guardians, Jan., 1841. Newspaper Reporting. — " The Poor-Law Guardians of the North and South Dublin Unions, having resolved to admit newspaper reporters to their meet- ings, received an intimation from Mr. Stanley, the Secretary to the Commis- sioners, that by so doing they would violate the Poor-Law Act." — Sheffield Iris, Bee. 22, 1840. Mr. Oastler's Eloquence. — " In the glorious accomplishment of witching with noble. Godlike eloquence an assembly of his countrymen, Richard Oastler has no equal, certainly no superior. He indeed plays the orator well, if what appears in him to be innate, can be so designated. As the Macgregor felt himself a poten- tate when his foot was on his native heather, so is Richard Oastler always 'himself when he electrifies from the hustings with ' sparkles dire ' against tyranny and oppression, the Factory and the Bastile. For working up into enthu- siasm a huge mass of people — eager, listening people — for moving their sym- pathies to and fro at will, and making them all feel as one man — united, ready to do and die for him — indignant of the wrong, and glorious for the right — Richard Oastler is pre-eminently, over all other public speakers, distinguished. Truly, when his tongue burns in a crowd, phosphorent with the flashing flame of his generous themes and sentiments, let that crowd beware ; for, as Byron says — ' Where men have souls or bodies,' he * must answer.' " — G. R. Wythen Baxter. EXTRAORDINARY AFFAIR AT BROMP- TON. " On Tuesday, at the Kensington Board of Guardians, at which Sir Ed- mund Head, the Assistant Poor-Law Commissioner, presided, the following extraordinary case came before them : — Thomas Johnson, a man between 50 and 60 years of age, a pensioner in the First Regiment of Foot Guards, and respect- ably attired, was brought up in the cus- tody of the superintendent of the Wor- cester police force, on a warrant issued at the instance of the parish oificers of Ken- sington Union, charging him with de- serting his wife and ten children. " From the statement made by the officer, it appeared, that the defendant had undergone an examination before the magistrates at Worcester, where he was apprehended, who, on understanding that the defendant Avould compromise the affair with the Relieving Officers of the Union, as to the amount claimed for the maintenance of his wife and family, ad- journed the case for the opinion of the parish authorities of Kensington. " By the direction of the Board the wife was called in and examined, to the following effect : — She said her name was Sarah Johnson, and at the time of the defendant's deserting her and her family, two years ago last September, she lived at No. 2, Queen's-gardens, Knights- bridge, in the parish of Kensington, ever since which she and her family had been maintained at the expense of the Union. Three years previous to her being de- serted, she was in the habit of acting as charwoman ; and the defendant, during that time, was in the habit of attending there also to assist about the house. Subsequently he was taken into the house to attend Capt. — — , who dislocated his shoulder by being thrown from a horse in 590 THE BOOK OF THE BASTII.ES, Jlyde-park. The family at that period consisted of Capt, and his two daughters ; one about 35 years of age, and the other 32 years of age, both tall fine-looking women, and of superior edu- cation. She had no idea of any intimacy existing between them and the defendant until the 28th of June, 1838, when a hint •was given her by the servant girl, that the defendant and Miss were re- markably familiar. A day or two after- wards, she spoke to Miss about it, and threatened to tell her father, when both Miss and the defendant contra- dicted her statement, and persuaded her to do the washing at home, instead of doing it at Capt. 's house. She would not, but some days after Miss came to her, and said, ' If she went home to wash, she would settle an annuity of £40 upon her for life ;' which she agreed to. Before, however, leaving, she had an interview with the youngest daughter, ]VJiss • , to whom she made known her suspicion. Her answer was, ' Pray don't tell my father, he is now in a weak state of health ; if you do, it will certainly cause his death. You need not fear, there is nothing bad between us. She and her sister were only fond of him be- cause he was fond of them, and he was kind to their father.' In the month of September following, she received pri- vate information that on a certain morn- ing the defendant and Miss were going to elope together from the Captain's house, and, accordingly, she waited about the spot accompanied by a friend. They remained near the house all night, till about four o'clock in the morning, when a coach drove up to the door, and a few minutes afterwards, the defendant came out of the house with a portmanteau in his hand. She instantly laid hold of him, and he dropped the portmanteau. Imme- diately after, Miss rushed out and jumped into the coach, but the moment she reached the lop step, her friend seized hold of her dress and pulled her back, and she fell into the kennel. A violent scuffle ensued. She (witness) was pushed down, and at length the defend- ant picked up Miss and got into the coach, which instantly drove off at a rapid rate before an alarm could be raised. From that time she had never seen the defendant until apprehended by the super- intendent of the police at Evesham, near Worcester. It was not the first time he had deserted her. A year or two before this occurrence he had eloped with a servant girl, when, after an absence of a year, he returned to her. She had borne him ten children. " Other evidence was adduced, from which it appeared, that the defendant has been living with Miss ever since. She had one child, and was in an ad- vanced state of pregnancy. She was possessed of property, which they had been living upon. " The Board, after some discusssion, came to an opinion, that the case was of such a description as precluded them from allowing the matter to be compro- mised, and that they would not be doing the duty which they owed to the public if they did not make an example. " The defendant was immediately taken back to Worcester, and on the following day was committed as a vagabond to the House of Correction for one calendar month, and to be kept at hard labour." — Times, May 21, 1841. What a perfect Enactment ! — *' Mr. Sidebottora has called the attention of the Worcester magistrates to an enact- ment in the Poor-Law, whereby, in cases of pauper removals, a personal service of the order is insisted on. Mr. Crisp had just presented an account of £6 for ex- penses incurred on account of a pauper belonging to the parish of Richmond, extra London ; and out of that sum, £3 12s. 9d. (and a very moderate sum, he confessed) was charged for the journey to that parish and back. Now, why could not this be sent by post, at the trifling cost of a penny ? Surely (Mr. Sidebottom observed) this required some amendment." — Hereford Journal, Nov. 25, 1840. The Distinction between Po- verty AND Indigence. — " The terms poverty and indigence, usually employed as synonymous, do not express the same idea, nor represent the same situation. Poverty is relative, indigence is absolute ; the poor man has not enough, the indi- gent has nothing; the former wants as- sistance, the latter must have succour, or perish. In modern times a new word has been coined which has not a little increased the confusion of ideas prevailing on this subject; pauperism is employed as a common name both for indigence and poverty, and has, consequently, led to the suggestion of common remedies for the very different evils of both ; the perni- cious consequences may be traced in our public discussions, in our varied institu- MISCEI.LANIKS. 5})1 tions, and even in our legislation. Finally, mendicity has been added to the chaos to express the result of indigence, a result by no means necessary, and the most pernicious test that could possibly be applied." — Dr. Taylor in " Bentley's Miscellany.'^ Wangford Union. — "At the Bvm- gay petty-sessions, on Thursday week, a young man, named William Charlish, was charged with robbing the Wangford Union of a suit of clothes, and also with going out of the poor-house without leave. The charge having been made by the workhouse master, the prisoner said, that being out of work, and almost starv- ing, he applied for relief a month back, and received an order for the workhouse, where his own clothes were taken away from him, and the Union clothes given to him. Instead of being put into the house, he and two others were taken into the criminal gaol, and put into a filthy cell, in which were two men ill with the itch. He thought that he had no right to be used in that infamous manner, and seeing a means of escape, he got out, but not before he caught the disorder. On the next morning, he sent his father with the Union clothes to the workhouse, but the master refused to take them or give up his own. The magistrate asked the workhouse-keeper if this statement were true, and he answered that it was. He did not think he had done wrong by put- ting a pauper into gaol with people who had the itcli. The Bench, after express- ing their disgust at the way in which the defendant had been treated, immediately dismissed the complaint." — Suffolk Chronicle. Oct., 1839. "In 1833, the late Dr. Ravenhill, of Tooting, died, and bequeathed the sum of £50 to the parish of Tooting Graveney, and directed that the interest, amounting to about 30s. per annum, should be given to the aged jieople in the poor-house of that parish, at such times, and in such manner, as the Overseers of the parish, for the time being, might think fit. The Bum was distributed, annually, according to the intentions of the donor, up to the year 1838.^ But when the poor of Toot- ing were sent to the Clapham and Wandsworth Union-house, and the money was tendered there, the Guardians refused to receive it, alleging as a reason, that it was contrary to the orders of the Poor-Law Commissioners. Is it, then, come to this, that the three kings of Somerset-house are to have the power of preventing parties from benefiting by a bequest to which they are entitled, merely because such parties are paupers? Of course, I am aware that the Poor-Law Commissioners will plead, first, that there are no aged poor in the poor-house of Tooting, for the paupers are in a Union poor-house out of the parish ; and, se- condly, that as the bequest gives a discre- tionary power to the Overseers for the time being to pay the money at such times, and in such manner, as the Over- seers may think fit, if the Overseer does not think fit to pay it at any time, or in any manner, there is no law to compel him. But such special pleading would be an insult to the sense of any man not a Poor-Law Commissioner. The money was to be given to certain persons, not because they lived in a certain house, but because they belonged to a certain parish ; and, as far as the intention of the donor is concerned, it would be a matter of per- fect indifference, whether the paupers were located at Tooting or at any other place. Then, as regards the discretionary power given to the Overseer, it is equally evident that his discretion was limited to the times when, and the parties to whom the money was to be given ; nor could the donor have intended that the money should remain undisturbed in the hands of the Overseer. I ask, then, with what view but to deprive the poor of those comforts which the kind-hearted donor intended, have the Poor-Law Commis- sioners thus turned aside the current of charity? And whether it was not to meet this and similar cases that a clause has been introduced in the falsely called Poor-Law Amendment-Act, by which the Poor-Law Commissioners and their puppets, the Guardians, are to have the power of putting their clutches on all monevs given for the relief the poor." — Times, April 2, 1841. A Whig's Opinion of Mr. Oastler. — " From our acquaintance with him, we can assure our readers there are few men like Mr. Oastler. His violence in politics cannot be tolerated in any way ; but his kindness to the poor, with whom he has much to do, stamps him a philanthropist of no mean order. Both his character and conduct have been much belied, although much that has been said may be true ; yet all who have had the pleasure of his acquaintance will agree with us, that there ai-e few men witli minds so well stored, or hearts so open. Take him away from politics, 592 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. Mr. O. is the finished scholar, the perfect gentleman ; attack him in his stronghold, and few can withstand the torrent of ar- gument he will bring against them. His enmity to the New Poor-Law continues as strong as ever, and will do so, Ave con- ceive, till the grave shall close over him — furthermore, even after that, if any- great agitation was got up against that measure, we question whether Mr. Oastler would not again appear to lead on his party, so deadly an animosity does he bear to it." — Nottingham Mercury, Oct., 1839. TREATMENT OF THE PAUPEK-DEAD. " To the Editor of the ' Times.' " Sir, — By appointment I attended at my church this afternoon to officiate at the funeral of two ' Union paupers.' At the time appointed a small hearse, drawn by a pony, was brought to the church gates, attended by two undertakers' men and two lads. A coffin, containing the body of a child, was first taken out, which one of the lads carried under his arm into the church, and placed, appa- rently with much difficulty, across two pews. The coffin containing the remains of the adult, was next brought into the church, by one lad and two men, and cer- tainly no accident, much to my astonish- ment, occurred. A man and a woman from the Union poor-house followed, in company with an interesting-looking girl, niece of the deceased adult. The service in the church being ended, we proceeded to the grave, one of the lads carrying the body of the child, and the other lad and two men bearing that of the adult as be- fore. The coffin of the child was first deposited in the grave, but not without an accident, for the rope not being held sufficiently tight, or from some other cause, the coffin fell into the grave. For- tunately I was spared witnessing any other accident, for the undertaker had joined his men, and, having assisted in lowering the other coffin, walked away with his assistants before I had time to commence the beautiful service appointed to be read at the grave, leaving myself, clerk, and sexton, to finish the ceremony of ' a pauper's funeral.' " The poor mourner afterwards told me how much her feelings had been wounded by the manner in which the re- mains of her dear relative had been com- mitted to the grave. " I trouble you. Sir, with the above particulars, in the hope that a line from your powerful pen may benefit those who, like this poor creature, may be summoned to the grave of a relation, who, though poor, may have been not the less beloved. " I am. Sir, yours faithfully, "AN INCUMBENT. "Nov. 19, 1840." " The Board of Guardians of the Pres- ton Union have decided, after a length- ened discussion, by a majority of 17 to 13, to have only one workhouse instead of four in the Union. A discussion also took place on the fee of 6d., charged for tolling the bell at Preston church, for in- fant pauper children, and 9d. for adults, which was sought to be abolished, but the custom was retained by a considerable majority." — Champion, Dec. 15, 1839. ** Our attention has been called to a resolution of the Guardians of Morpeth (the pocket borough of the ' blood of all the Howards') not to allow money for funerals of paupers dying within the Union Nothing is wanted to con- summate the measure, but to add a clause, that all persons dying in workhouses shall be dissected pubhcly ; and in furtherance of this, we observe in the Times, that the Bishop of Peterborough had consented to license a pauper burying-ground within the workhouse." — Conservative Journal, March 11, 1837. " It is stated to me as a fact, that the putrid remains of dead paupers have been sold for manure." — Oastler' s " Fleet Papers," No. 7. Refusal to bury a Pauper. — " The inhuman administrators of the Poor- Law, not content with denying the means of subsistence to the living, have, in a recent instance, even refused the last rite of sepulture to the dead. An application was made in the Bail Court, on Friday, to Mr. Justice Patteson for a mandamus, to compel the parish officers of St. George's, Hanover-square, to bury the body of a female pauper, named Ker- shaw, who had died in St. George's hos- pital. It was urged, that unless the Court granted the mandamus, the body must remain above-ground in a state of decomposition. The parish authorities, by their counsel, hoped the Court would merely grant a rule nisi, that they might have an opportunity of stating their rea- sons for not intei'ring the body. Mr. Justice Patteson said, that the body must MISCELLANIES. 593 be buried by the governors of the hos- pital, on the condition, tliat if the rule should be made absolute, the parish should reimburse the hospital. The Wretched motive of the parish is obvious. Under Mr. Warburton's Anatomy Bill, the bodies of paupers who die in an hos- pital became the property of the hospital for anatomical purposes, the expense of burial being chargeable to the hospital. In this case, however, St. George's hos- pital being supported by voluntary con- tributions, the governors might refuse to admit the pauper, so that the parish would have incurred the cost of medical treatment, in addition to the expense of interment." — Champion, January 2b\ 1840. " And your petitioners, as iu duty bound, will ever pray." ABtTSE OF THE PAUPER-DEAD. [Copies of the subscribed memorial were transmitted me by Mr. Oastler some months back, for to get signa- tures attached to them, hut, somehow or other, I was not successful. Such petitions, however, ought to he nume- rously signed, and sent up to both Houses. Let them he so. — G.K.W.B.] '' To the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, in Parliament assembled. *' The humble Petition of the undersigned Inhabitants of " Showeth, — That your Petitioners feel deep concern that the remains of the des- titue pool-, who, in God's providence, outlive their friends, should be sent to Schools of Anatomy for dissection. " That your petitioners are informed, that the Anatomy Act provides for the decent interment of dissected bodies ; but that the said Act is contravened, and human remains are promiscously allowed to decompose in a mass : — and, in some instances, persons connected with Schools of Anatomy are dealers in human bones for sale. " Your petitioners therefore humbly " That your Honourable House will appoint a Committee to inquire whether the Anatomy Act has been used to serve political or mercenary interests. " That whether the Government In- spector has aided such interests. " That whether paupers' remains have been wilfully wasted in anatomical schools ; — and that your Honourable House will call for all further evidence which may be required. Ax Affecting Incident. — Chi- chester. — "A stone was erected this week in Mundham churchyard, near this city, by voluntary subscription, with the following inscription : — ' In memory of Hainiah, wife of Charles Barnett, who died February 28, 1841, aged 28 year?, in the West Hampnett Union workhouse. Also of Ann, their daughter, who died the next day in the same place, aged three years. Charles Barnett was a farm la- bourer in this parish, and being out tf employ, and unable to get any work, was obliged to go to the above Union ■\^ith a sick wife and two children, where they were separated from one another; the parish officers having no power to grant out-door relief, he was obliged to go there, or starve, beg, or steal. He left the Union with an only daughter, seven years of age, and buried his wife and infant daughter in this grave. ' The bread of the needy is bis life : he that defraudeth him thereof is a man of blood.' Ecclus. xxxiv. V. 21.' " — From a Correspondent of the 'Times;' May 28, 1841. Begging for Guardians. — " Yes- terday, a numerous meeting of the rate- payers of the extensive parish of St. Mary Abbotts, Kensington, was held pursuant to public notice in the vestry- room of the Old Church, the "Venerable Archdeacon Pott (vicar) in the chair, ' for the purpose of receiving and con- sidering the report of a committee in reference to the properties belonging to the national school of that parish ;' after which, the Churchwardens submitted to the vestry a copy of an order of the Poor- Law Commissioners, dated the 26th of April last, directing the election of four more Guardians of the poor for that parish, two Guardians only having been elected under the Commissioners' order of the 4th of March last, instead of six, in order that the parishioners might con- sider what steps were necessary to be taken in respect to the nomination of pro- per persons to be such Guardians. An animated discussion then ensued as to the alleged irregularities practised at the late election, which wci'e stated to have i-e- ceived the sanction of the Poor-Law Commissioners, although the nomination was decidedly illegal ; the effect of which had been, that Kensington had been, for the last six weeks, virtually unrepresented at the Board of Guardians, although the 694 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. Becond parish in the Union. After the expression, in strong language, of dis- approbation at the conduct of the Com- missioners in maintaining the first elec- tion, the office of Guardian was offered to all the leading inhabitants present, the whole of whom declined accepting it ; and after the offer had gone the round of the vestry, the meeting adjourned without any nomination taking place." — Times, May 11, 1841. Murder of a Child by its own- Father. — " On Thursday last, John Newitt, a well-conducted labouring man, lately under porter at Addenbroke's Hos- pital, Cambridge, and who lived with his wife and children in the Falcon-yard, Pettycury, in that town, almost severed from its body the head of his own son, an infant seven weeks old, and then gave himself up to the pohce, stating, that he was led to commit the horrid deed through dread of the Union workhouse. The unhappy man had, on the morning of the same day, attempted his own life by tak- ing a quantity of laudanum. "When ex- amined before the mayor, the prisoner said he had murdered the child whilst his wife had gone out for half-a-pint of porter. He had been disappointed in Avork, and had murdered the child because he thought his wife could not get on with it, as he had no employment; it had no sins to answer for, therefore he thought it best to put it away, and he hoped to be for- given and go to Heaven after it. The magistrates committed the prisoner to take his trial on a charge of murder at the nest assizes." — Times, May 10, 1841. agitator, repealer, and vocifcrator of 'justice for Ireland,' gave notice of a motion for discharging the paupers from the miserable refuge of the workhouse at the rate of 100 per week — that is to say, that when, in order to wound their feel- ings to the quick, this worthy agent of the Somerset-house despotism has com- pelled them to accept the workhouse test, he would, by 100 at a time, turn them loose on the streets, to be dealt with by famine in such a manner as will effectually relieve the rate-payers. " It matters not whether the resolution be carried or rejected. It is enough that a notice so infamous as this could have been given — especially after the passing of the sideboard grant to the clerk. Let Englishmen be on their guard — the same sort of economy will soon be practised on them if the Poor-Law Administration re- main in office. " I have the honour to be. Sir, " your obedient ser\'ant, "May 31. " ERIGENA. —June 2, 1841." " TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES. *' Sir, — As you have undertaken the vindication of the cause of the victims of of the New Poor-Law on this side of the Channel, I take the liberty of inclosing to you an extract from the Saimders's Ncivs Letter (Dublin newspaper) of the 28th inst., from which you will see that the Liberals — lucus a non luccmlo — of Ireland are well qualified to address Lord John Russell and Co. in the language of Shy- lock — ' The villainy that you teach us we will practise, and it will go hard but we will better the instruction.' " The freeholders of England will do well to recollect, on the hustings, that immediately after the Guardians of the South Dublin Union Acf^ voted a sideboard to their clerk, under the proper and indig- nant protest of Captain Nowlan, Mr. Terence Dolan, Liberal, Corn-Exchange Lord Teignmotjth the Peelite. — " Before animadverting upon any of the ministerial speeches delivered in the House of Commons on Friday night, we think it right to express, in the strongest terms we can employ, our opinion of one passage in the speech of a Conservative member. Lord Teignmouth is reported to have said, ' that for some of the measures of the Government he admitted that the greatest praise was due to them, and the noble Lord (Lord John Russell) deserved hnmorfcd honour — the measures for the support of the Established Church, the alteration of the Poor-Law, and, above all, the nolle stand he made during the last session for the privileges of that House. Til those respects, the noble Lord deserved the highest praise.^ We trust we are not intolerant of other men's judgments ; we have no desire to make a personal attack uj^on Lord Teignmouth because he thinks differently from ourselves ; but we cannot regard the tone and manner of this pas- sage, in which he has so gratuitously chosen to express his admiration of the New Poor-Law, and the inflexibility of his attachment to privilege, as anything less than a defiance of those who differ from him upon these two important ques- tions. After such an announcement, dis- covering such utter contrariety of feeling and irreconcileable hostility to the views entertained by the great body of jjcople MISCELLANIES. 595 upon two subjects in which their rights and liberties are essentially involved, we should despise any man who, professing himself to be for liberty against privilege, or for the poor against the New Poor- Law, could yet tender his vote for Lord Teignmouth at any future parliamentary election — we should despise him.'" — Times, May 31, 1811. Petitioning. — " Mr. B. Wilbraham gave notice, that shortly after the Easter holidays, he should present a petition froxn Manchester, against the Poor-Law Contiimance-Bill, which had already been signed by upwards of 46,000 individuals." — House of Commons, April 2, 1841. Workhouse Doings. — " A girl ap- plied for an order to be admitted into the West London workhouse, she being preg- nant and utterly destitute. She stated, that she was cook in the workhouse, but was turned out to find a place of service. Nobody, however, would take her, she being pregnant by the pauper who cuts up the food for the rest of the paupers. Mr. Miller, the Relieving Officer, being present, said he had hoped she could have sustained herself till the Board met again, as he did not like to re-admit a person who had so misbehaved upon his own autho- rity. The girl, in answer to a question from the alderman, said, the cutter-up was permitted to do business in her kitchen. Mr. Miller said, he appeared to be a very bad fellow ; another girl in the House was pregnant by him. ]Mr. Alder- man Humphrey said it was very evident the house was badly managed. If the poor girl was destitute, she ought to be taken into the House. It was idle to suppose she could get into service. Mr. Miller promised to relieve her." — Cham- pioti, Nov. 10, 1839. The Gilbert Unions. " It may have been thought by some, and especially by those who recollect the com- pliments paid to the Gilbert Unions at the time when the change in the Poor-Laws was under discussion, that the difference between their system and that of Somerset- house was, after all, but trifling, and that in persecuting them, tb.e Commissioners were only adding another to the many examples already furnished by history of the fallacy of the classical maxim, ' Sccvis infer se convenit ursis.'' Such thoughts, however, do great injustice to both parties concerned ; — to the Gilbert Unions, which work indiflerently well, and are free, upon the whole, from the worst vices of the o Somerset-house system ; — to the Poor- Law Commissioners, who have been dri- ven to attack the Gilbert Unions in pure self-defence. The practice of the former supplies a convincing refutation of the principles of the latter, in every point in which they differ. The Gilbert Unions (in the language of the Commissioners themselves), ' set a bad example to the Poor-Law Unions,' the effect of which is materially heightened by the p)'imd facie resemblance between the two. It is most natural that the Commissioners should wish to get rid of an awkward commen- tary upon their administration ; of which they candidly admit, that, so long as it exists, they can never hojie to make their own system palatable or popular ! " Let us trace out a little in detail the principal points of resemblance and differ- ence between these systems : — Under Gilbert's Act, as well as under the Poor- Law Amendment- Act, relief is adminis- tered, not by every parish separately, but by a combination of parishes, repre- sented by Guardians. Under the one Act this combination is voluntarj' ; under the other compulsory. Under Gilbert's Act, a modified superintending power is lodged in a visitor, elected by the parishes themselves, resident in the neighbourhood, acquainted with the characters of the Guardians, and the local circumstances of the poor, and having frequent oppor- tunities of inspecting for himself the de- tails of the system. Under the Poor- Law Amendment-Act, a despotic super- intending power is placed in the hands of three gentlemen appointed by the Govern- ment, resident in London, ignorant and regardless of all local circumstances, and seeing nothing themselves of the working of their own regulations. " In the Gilbert Unions the Guardians, who are usually persons of substance and consideration, are bound to attend the meetings of the Board, and do attend punctually, under a pecuniary penalty ; so that all the parishes are l)0)id fide re- presented. In the Poor-Law Unions there is nothing to compel the attendance of Guardians ; a great projiortion of them . do not attend, and the business of the Union is constantly transacted by an in- significant jobbing coterie. " In the Gilbert Unions every Guar- dian discharges the duty of Relieving OfHcer, so that every parish has its own Relieving Officer, resident on the spot, and personally acquainted with the his- tory and circumstances of every family Q ^-^ 596 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. and every individual. In the Poor-Law Unions there is only one Reliedng Officer for all the combined parishes (except in the most populous town Unions, where there are sometimes two or three), who has neither the time nor the knowledge of persons or places, which would be necessary for the effectual discharge of the duties implied in his name. Captain Pechell well observed at Worthing, that, ' between the Relieving Officer's visits, which, like those of angels, are very ge- nerally far between, there arc no means provided for relieving urgent cases of distress. Everybody with a feeling heart must admit that the person who is to re- lieve ought to be resident in the parish, and that the poor ought not to be aban- doned to the casualty of catching relief from the Relieving Officer in his flying progress through a Union.' " With respect to the actual adminis- tration of relief in the workhouses and out of them, the contrast is still more striking. In the Gilbert Unions (to quote again the words of Captain Pechell), ' the Guardians have power to relieve the distresses and most urgent wants of the poor, without driving tliem into a workhouse, and blighting all their future hopes and prospects of independence, and they can give their poor a sufficiency of proper diet.' This power they not only possess, but use. They make a dif- ference between the cases of applicants, preferring virtue and industry over vice and intemperance. ' If a decayed trades- man, or industrious labourer, overtaken by misfortune, comes for assistance,' they think him ' entitled to better treatment and greater favour than the drunkard, or those who have been ruined by a vicious career.' They do not force such persons to enter the workhouse or confiscate their small remaining properties as a prelimi- nary condition of relief. In the East Preston (Gilbert) Union, of which Worth- ing is a member, the married people are not separated from each other, or from their families ; the workhouse diet con- sists of good meat, tea, and beer ; the poor having, upon their own solicitation, been indulged with a trial of the dietary of a neighbouring Poor-Law Union (West Hampnett), unanimously petitioned the Board to return to their own more liberal system ; the Board immediately com- plied with this request. It cannot be ne- cessary to point out the utter contrariety between such modes of administering i\elief and those of the Poor-Law Com- missioners. The difference is sufficiently illustrated by an every-day case, men- tioned at the Worthing meeting by a gen- tleman named Read : — ' He knew a case in which, through an accident which befel him, a man went into the Steynhig Union workhouse, and the moment he got there he was separated from his wife and chil- dren ; and it was not till after the most ear- nest and pressing solicitations that the wife was allowed to see her sick husband once all the while he was confined there.' " Then, as to the question of compa'- rative expense. The Gilbert Unions are at present economically managed, and the rate-payers are completely satisfied, and wish for no reduction in the amount of relief aflbrded. In that of Long Preston the entire expense of the working ma- chinery, including the Governor and Matron of the workhouse, and all the other paid officers, does not exceed £85 a-ycar. This sum would be raised at once to £500 a-year, if the Poor-Law Amendment- Act were introduced. And, in addition to this, ' the rates,' said Mr. Read, ' would be doubled, to build new workhouses to lock up the poor. ' " We have no reason to suppose that the case of the Long Preston Union is in any degree peculiar. No doubt there- have been, and will be, abuses in some of the Gilbert incorj^orations, as there will under every system, but we have never heard of any which can be compared for a moment to the gross and flagrant op- pressions so frequently practised under the sway of the Poor-Law Commissioners. Without affecting to prefer the principle of combination, in any of its forms, to that of parochial government, we believe it to be generally true, as stated by Capt. Pechell, that ' all the exertions and in- quiries of the Assistant-Commissioners have tended to prove that the system of management in the Gilbert Unions gives satisfaction to those who receive and those who provide the charity.' This, we are thoroughly persuaded, is the onl}^ reason Avhy the Commissioners are bent upon substituting for it a system which both these parties equally hold in abhorrence.'' — Times. — Fatal Affkat in a Wokkhoxtse. — " The J\Iile-end Workhouse is at present occupied by old men, and some of them were on Wednesday in the oakum-shed in the yard, at their accustomed employ. The deceased, William Spence, who was in his 78th year, and an old waterman, was so engaged, when some words arose MISCELLANIES. 597 between him and a man named Hancock, and the deceased, who is represented to have been an extremely quarrelsome man, challenged the other to tight, which he accepted, and a pulling or tugging each other about took place for some minutes. At length both the men fell, and in falling the deceased's head came in contact with a block or stool. The parties got up again, but the deceased appeared disposed to continue the fight, but after a little further struggling, one of the other men, named Isaacs, interfered and parted the combatants. Water was then procured, and the deceased's head was washed, and every pains taken to conceal the occur- rence from the master and mistress. The deceased came in to his dinner, which he ate heartily, and afterwards his tea, when Mrs. Yeldham, the mistress, observed that he looked unwell, and he said it was only a pain in his head, which he had had some days. She ordered him to go to bed, which, after some hesitation, he essayed to do, but, finding that he grew worse, she ordered the men to lead him to the sick ward. The man was then put to bed, and the surgeon immediately sent for, who pronounced him to be in a very dangerous condition. The deceased did not say one word of the matter up to his death, which occurred on Thursday morn- ing at seven o'clock. An inquiry was, however, instituted in consequence of some appearances on the deceased's head, when the whole truth came out, and Thomas Hancock, who is himself aged 67, and almost a cripple, freely acknow- ledged the whole part he had in the matter." — Times, March 20, 1841. Mr. B.vixes's Bother. — " Mr. Baines said, had as much pains been taken to rouse the people against power-looms, as had been taken to rouse them against the Poor-Law Amendment-Bill, there would not have been one left in the country. (Cheers.)" — House of Cotnmo7is, July 20, 1839. Was the Old Pook-Law so very BAT) ? — " It carried us throngh the most perilous and burdensome wix in which this country was ever engaged ; it bore us through a period in which British Com- merce and British manufactures multiplied tenfold, and British wealth one hundred- fold (we speak now of the half-century ending in 1 834, when the law was said to be most encumbered with abuses) ; it brought the people to a moral point, which we should be sorry to think a very low one, seeing that we have, according to the returns of criminal convictions, been declining from it ever since, that is, since- the enactment of the New Law ; and this, notwithstanding the unexampled zeal and success with which religious instruction, and all other instruction, has been pro- secuted for seven years. Now, looking to these things, we cannot think the Old Law so very bad as it is described by the school of philanthropists who cari-y hearts and creeds in breeches' pockets. Ijooking to the state of England from 1 784 to 1834, in contrast with that of Ireland, or of any other neighbouring country which had not abused Poor Laws, we see still more reason to think M'ith mercy of our own Old Law. It carried us through the war. Mark that ! We may have such another war ; will your New-Poor Law abide the test}''— Siaudanl, Feb, 9, 1841. The Pauper's History. — " The pauper, who comes to a Board for relief, may show not half his misery. Nay, the more worthy the object, the greater may be the struggle with him — the effect of an honest pride — to hide somewhat of his wretchedness. Starvation may whiten his face, famine may have worn him to the bones ! — the man may be a very spectacle of miserj' — and yet the amount of his sufferings be unknown, the full measuie of his wretchedness unacknowledged. Go to his hovel ; there behold the daily shifts he has made — the hourly battle M'ith the keenest, dearest wants ! Cold and- hunger are his fire-side gods — and his domestic comforts, naked, famishing chil- dren. The wild beast has a warmer laii-, a better shelter from the elements. The miseries of the honest struggling poor are seen in sternest truth at the poor man's- hearth." — Mo7-ning Herald. The right of the Poor to go to Church. — " The reason why the Lin- colnshire Unions go on well, is — the Guar- dians care not a fig for the minute and vexatious regulations and barkings od Cerberus in Somerset-house — the poor are not always shut up ; they take air and exercise ; they ^o to church — not (as once ordered, which order of the Poor-Law Commissioner was never obeyed) shut up to pray on a Sunday. I told them at I'ourn, the church was as much the pro- peity of th.e poor man as the rich lord, and when he stepped on its floor, he might raise himself up and say, ' The stone I tread on is mine, by the gift of our com- mon jNIaker.' " — Extract from a Letter to> the Author, from a Stamford Corrcspoiid-.. cnt, dated Oct. 21, 1840. 598 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. New Pook-Laav Justice. — "From a recent correspondence with the Poor-Law Commissioners, it appears that there are no parochial funds whatever apphcable to the payment of expenses incurred in the prosecution of persons deserting and ex- posing their children, even should the oifence amount to murder, as lately hap- pened, nor to advertising a description of the child, &c., or offering a reward for the apprehension of the delinquents." — Here- ford Journal, January 6, 1841. The TWO Systejis. — " The so much talked of evils of the old law (partial as they were) Avere the gradual accumulation of 250 years, while the growth of evil under the measure of 1834, has been as rapid as it is monstrous." — Times, March 24, 1841. The Frttits of the New-Poor Law. — " By Sir James Graham. Q. Do you think the presentrent of cottages can be sustained of 2s. a-week, if no assistance be given from the parish in aid of rents ? A. They cannot jicty ichen they have large families. Q. The rent of cottages will fall? A. The effect toill be that those tcith large families loill have no cottages at all ! In answer to various other inquiries, amounting in substance to whether or not Mr. Ford conjectared only , that many poor families might have to lie in the open air; he says, he knows of none, but anticijjates that it will be the case. By Mr. Harvey. Q. Then one of the consequences arising from the New Poor-Law is, that it pre- vents the cottager from paying the rent which he did previously to its enactment ? A. Certainly it does, or paj^ing any rent." — 3Ir. James ForcVs (of PetworthJ Ex- amination before the Poor-Law Committee, March, 1837. Interesting to Boards of Guar- dians. — " The Guardians of the Clutton Union are, we hear, at issue with the Poor- Law Commissioners on the mode in which the new averages on the three past years' expenditure for the relief of the poor should be taken; and have unanimously declined to adopt the averages proposed to them by the Commissioners. The pro- posed averages do not include the cost of medical relief, officers' salaries, the cost of the furniture of the workhouse, and other charges, amounting to about £2,000 per annum. The Guardians of the Clutton Union hold, first, that it is undesirable to levy future assessments on averages which do not represent the whole expenditur e for the relief of the poor, thereby giving to the rate-payers, and rate-receivers, and to the public generally, an erroneous impres- sion ; and, secondly, that the matter is not discretionary with the Commissioners, and that it would be unlauful so to calcu- late and enforce the new averages, as by the Poor-Law Amendment-Act (sec. 28 and 30) it is enacted, that future averages shall be made 'on a like inquiry and cal- culation' as those on which the original averatjes were made." — Champion, Sept. 15, 1839. The Persecution of Mr. Fear- GusO'CoNNOR. — "July 19, 1839. At the York Assizes, Mr. Feargus O'Connor was tried on a criminal information for pub- lishing in the Northern Star, a paper of which he was the editor, the following libel ( ?) on the Guardians of the Poor- Law Union at Warminster in Wilts : — " ' Warjiinster Bastile. — A little boy last week, for some small offence, was confined in one of the cells beloiifriiig to the above workhouse, and was literally starved to death. The poor little fellow during his confinement actually ate, in consequence of hunger, two of his fingers and the flesh from bis arm.' " Mr. O'Connor conducted his own defence. The article itself he said was ludicrous. If indeed they believed that the boy did eat his fingers, they might be quite certain the Governor was not fed on such things ; whatever he gave the boys, lie seemed at least to have taken good care of himself. Mr. O'C. was never at Warminster in his life ; he never wrote the paragraph ; he never saw or heai'd of it until the Attorney-General moved for the rule ; the article came through the medium of another newspaper, and the greater portion of it treated of the low price of labour at Warminster. He then adverted to the motives for the prosecution (qy, persecution ? ) ; and asked why this information had been allowed to slumber from December to April, except that the ministry hoped for a larger bait ; and that not being offered, they thought a smaller one would do ?' " A verdict of guilty was returned by the jury ; and Mr. O'Connor entered into recognizances to appear at Warminster and receive judgment, which, however, (because they tcere afraid! J the parties complaining did not evcntuall}' press for." — Annual Register, 1839. SPECIMEN OF NEW POOR-LAW DEBATING, IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS. " Earl Stanhope presented petitions, agreed to at public meetings of agricul- tural laboureis in difierent parts of the MISCELLANIES 599 counties of Cambridge, Huntingdon, and Suilulk, praying for the repeal of the Poor- Law Amcildment-Act. The noble earl stated, that the petitions were only signed by the chairman of the meetings, the Kev. W. Maberly, but they had been unani- mously agreed to. " The Earl of Radnob said, that the petitions could only be received as the petitions of one individual; they were all in the same words, in the same hand- writing, and could only be considered as so many copies of one and the same peti- tion. The noble earl, by presenting them as so many separate petitions, was really making a joke with the House. " Earl STANHorE repeated, that though they were all signed by one individual, they had been agreed to at different public meetings, and he had aright to read every one of them. "Lord BKOtTGHAM hoped that would not be inflicted on the House, as such a course would be calculated to turn their lordships into ridicule. He entirely con- curred with his noble friend near him (the Earl of Radnor), that these petitions were only so many copies of one petition, and that the petition only of one individual. "Earl Stakhope said, the difficulty would have been obviated if the meeting had been presided over by different per- sons. The petitions had, however, ema- nated from meetings composed in the aggregate of upwards of 35,000 persons. " The Bishop of Nokwich said, he wished to state that the person by whom these petitions had been got up was a clegyman in his diocese, and he thought it exceedingly strange for him thus to excite the people against the laws of tlieir country. He had received a letter from Mr. Maberly's curate, complaining of that "gentleman's refusal to pay him his small stipend, and he (the Bishop of Norwich) thought it strange that under such circum- stances Mr. Maberly should venture before the public in this way. " Earl Stanhope contended, that though Mr. Maberly was a clergyman, he was also a British subject, and as such entitled to the right and privilege of addressing the Legislature by petition for the redress of public grievances, " Lord PoRTMAN was sure that, after the statement of the right rev. prelate, the noble earl (Stanhope) himself would not attach much weight to the petition of Mr. Maberly. " The Marquis of Salisbuuy did not rise to justify Mr. Maberly's conduct, but he must say, that he thought it rather unfair in the right rev. prelate to attack any petitioner who was not there to defend himself. It would only have been just if the right rev. prelate had_ given Mr. Maberly notice of his intention to make the statement he had. " The Bishop of Herepobd could not help saying, in justification of the right rev. prelate, that when a party puts his name to a dozen or more petitions against a particular law of the land, and went round to different districts exposing him- self conspicuously as the defender of the rights of the poor, at the very time he had driven his own curate to a state of poverty,^ obliging him to partake of the benefit of that^very law, he (the Bishop of Hereford) thought the right rev. prelate was bound in duty to come forward and state that such was the gentleman who came with dozens of petitions against a wholesome and salutary law. (Hear, hear.) " The Duke of Richmond could not help saying, that these petitions seemed to be the result of agitation, got up, he regretted to say, by a clergyman, who went about the country for the purpose. In one of these petitions he found senti- ments rather at variance with each other, for, after speaking about ' charity to all men,' it proceeded to condemn the con- duct of the 'unfeehng Commissioners, and as unfeeling Secretary of State, for incarcerating the poor, and scarcely allow- ing them to breathe the air or see the light of heaven.' A man capable of entertainint? such sentiments scarcely de- served thelight of heaven. (' Hear,' and a 'laugh.') " The Marquis of Salisbttry said, that he believed Mr. Maberly was a gen- tleman of excellent private character, but he certainly had not raised himself in his (the Marquis of Salisbury's) estimation by getting up these petitions. He, how- ever, had a right to petition, and ought not to be attacked without the means of justifying himself. " Earl SiANHOFE said, that Mr. Ma- berly was a man whose character as a clergyman would bear the strictest inves- tigation, and why their lordships should not feel disposed to treat with the usual respect and attention a petition emanating from such a person, or why that right which, underthe British constitution, every subject in the realm was entitled to, should on this occasion be questioned, he (Earl Stanliope) could not understand. If the House did not receive these petitions, then 600 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. he would say the right of petitioning Parliament was only a farce. He, how- ever, hoped that the people would never cease to exert themselves until they got rid of such a great and national grievance as the Poor-Law Amendment- Act ; and his advice to them was to agitate, agitate, agitate, as long as such an obnoxious and detestable measure was allowed to remain. The noble earl then presented a petition from a place in the county of Suffolk, praying that the New Poor-Law Act might be forthwith repealed ; also a peti- tion from Stroud to the same effect, signed by 1,800 persons, amongst whom were several clergymen of the Established Church. "The Bishop of Norwich said, that as far as he knew, the clergymen of the Established Church were favourable to the present law, which he felt convinced conferred a blessing on the poor. " Lord PoKTMAN would suggest to the noble earl, convinced as he was that his only object was to assist and elevate the moral condition of the poor (hear, hear), that he would be more likely to accom- plish that object by applying his mind to the subject during the recess, with a view to devise some plan by which the poor might be put into the possession of cot- tages at lower rent than they were now obliged to pay. (Hear, hear.) If a plan of this kind, united with one for not rating cottages below a certain sum, could be brought into operation, he was convinced the poor would be more materially served than by anything which could result from the course the noble earl was now pur- suing. The New Poor-Law had brought to light many of the grievances of the old system, and in no respect had it more forcibly done so than in the rating of small cottages. " The Duke of Richmond was cer- tainly of opinion that there was no mea- sure more imperatively called for than one respecting the rating of cottages. They were at present rated to a higher amount than the cottagers could afford to pay. The question was well worthy of the consideration of Government. He thought it would be well if some arrange- ment could be made by which the occu- piers should only be called on to pay the rates when the rent of the cottage ex- ceeded a certain sum, say £8 or there- abouts, that the owners should pay when the rent was under that sura, and that cottages let at £2 or £3 should not be rated at all A grreat deal of the odium which had been cast upon the present Poor-Law Act might more properly have been bestowed upon the old law. The agitation which now prevailed resembled much that which took place in the neighbouring kingdom, with the noble earl as the leader, and the clergy as his agents. He did not object to clergymen petitioning and voting for members of Parhament, but he did object to their travelling about the country and presiding at meetings attended by 35,000 persons as had been stated, for the purpose of exciting their minds against an excellent law, " The Marquis of Salisbury rose, he said, to vindicate the clergy of the Estab- lished Church from the slur which had been very unmeritedly thrown upon thera by the noble duke. " The Duke of Richmond said, his remark applied not to the body, but to a few onlj- of its members, who had taken part in the agitation of this ques- tion. " The Marquis of Salisbury regretted that so much had been said on the sub- ject of these petitions. He would cor- dially concur in any measure for lowering the rents of cottages, which were at pre- sent too high, and also for causing the rates, to a certain extent, to be paid by the owners, convinced as he was that it would not have the effect of raising the rents. " Earl Stanhope, in reply to the sug- gestion of the noble lord (Portman), had to say, that he had already directed his attention to this subject, and to that branch of it particularly pointed out by the noble lord, but unsuccessfully, through want of proper support. He denied, as had been stated by the noble duke, that there existed the shghtest analogy be- tween the agitation which prevailed on this subject in England, and that which took place on others m L-eland. He did not mean, for a moment, to deny that agitation prevailed, and that these peti- tions, as had been stated, with a view to lessen their importance, and as a reason for not giving them that consideration which was due to petitions generally, had sprung from that agitation. On the con- trary, he avowed it, because he considered agitation not only proper, but highly re- quisite and commendable when the object to be attained by it — and therein lay the inaptitude of the noble duke's analogy — was the repeal of an odious and oppres- sive law, which was a disgrace to the MISCELLANIES. 601 statute-book, and which, it was not very difficult to foresee, if allowed to continue, would inevitably produce disturbance and discontent throughout the country, and perhaps eventually lead to anarchy and convulsion. The noble carl then pre- sented petitions, to the same effect as those already named, from the inhabit- ants of Middleton and Little Eolton, the latter signed by 4,000 persons ; also a petition from Huddersfield, upon, the noble earl observed, a subject connected with the New Poor-Law Act, containing a vindication of the conduct and character of certain magistrates of that town, against whom a calumny had been covertly com- municated to the noble Lord the Secretary of State, and praying for the production of whatever correspondence had taken place between the said noble lord and certain individuals residing in Hudders- field, relative to the interference of the military at a meeting that had recently taken place in that neighbourhood. " The jDctitions were then laid on the table. " The Earl of Radnor expressed his surprise that the noble earl should come down to that House, night after night, and put forth groundless statements, calcu- lated to lead the public mind astray, and encourage agitation through the country against a measure which had been found, and was generally acknowledged, to have worked most beneficially. " The Bishop of Hekeford begged leave to state what had been also stated by a right rev. prelate near him, that as far as his knowledge and experience went, the clergj' of the Established Church, many of whom had peculiar opportunities of watching the operation of the New Poor-Law Bill, having acted as Guardians under it, looked upon it as an excellent measure. " Earl Stanhope could only offer the signatures of many clergymen to these petitions in support of what he had stated. He knew also that it was the intention of several clergymen to preach against this law. A clergyman in this metropolis, a man of great learning and piety, had already done so, and he Avas fully con- vinced of what he had already stated, that if the existing law be not repealed, or greatly modified, in the next Parliament, consequences of the most disastrous na- ture would be the result. " Lord Brougham said, he had abetter opinion of the good sense of the people of England than to suppose they would give cause for any such disagreeable appre- hensions." — House of Lords, July 1 5. 1837. "GIVE IT A FAIR TRIAL." THE RICH law AMENDJIENT-BILI,. It is proposed to introduce to the Parlia- ment, during the present Session, the project of a law, for the " Amend- ment" of the Wealthy Classes and Higher Orders, — for the improvement of their property, the raising of their morals, and the general good of the conmnmity, which ought to be the end and object of all legislation. SECTION I. Appointment of Commissioners, &c. — It is proposed, to form a Board of three Commissioners ; to give power to them to appoint at most fifty Assistant- Commissioners, and that such Commis- sioners shall be called, " The Rich Men's Cornmissio7iers for the United Kingdom" whose salaries shall be as under : — per ann. The three Chief Commissioners . . £10,000 The Assistant-Commissioners .... £5,000 Salaries to be paid by a rate upon all property, real and funded, of all such persons as are rated at £30 yearly rental. SECTION II. Divisions in Unions and Appoint- ment OF Guardians. — The kino-dom to be divided into Unions for the purposes of this Act, and GUARDIANS to be chosen for each, as the Commissioners may appoint ; j^rovided always, that no such Guardian shall be above the rank of an "Independent Labourer," who has been educated in the New National Schools, and whose weekly wages shall not exceed 6s. The reason for appoint- ing Guardians from this "order," is, that the poorer sections of society are much better judges of what is good for the rich than they are themselves. SECTION III. Po-WER TO NURSE OR SELL EsTATES. — The object of this law being to correct the misapplication of property and capital, it shall be enacted, that in every case where the wealthy overrun their means and become what are called " poor gentlel men," the Commissioners shall have power to take their estates or property into their hands — to nurse or sell the saTue for the benefit of the Union, appoint- ing to the former proprietors of the same such allowance as is hereinafter provided' either as out-door relief, or in-door mainl tenance. 602 THK BOOK OF THE BASTILES. SECTION IV. Ert.ctiott of Union Palaces, — A7}d be it further enacted, that for the benefit of the " improvident" rich, there shall be provided UNION PALACES, conve- niently situated and well provisioned with such things as the aforesaid Com- missioners shall think proper. To ren- der these palaces as " irksome" as possi- ble, shall be the care of the aforesaid Commissioners. The rank, however, of the inmates must not be forgotten or dis- respected. They must have a uniform dress, of the first cut and fashion ; but one leg and arm of the coats and smalls must be longer than the other. They are each to have a carriage suitable to their rank, but the wheels are to be all differently painted, with wheels of diflferent diameters, and they are to be drawn by cart-horses, with long tails. SECTION V. Skpahation Clauses. — By way of promoting a greater degree of conjugal happiness, and for the purpose of a " check" to future embarrassments, the ladies and gentlemen shall live in oppo- site wings of the palaces, being allowed to see each other through a golden grate once a-week, and their children shall also be provided for in separate apartments. SECTION VI. Dietary and Treatment. — A dietary shall be appointed by the Com- missioners, and shall in no case exceed twice IS^d. per week. The " refractory" shall be subject to correction. A chap- lain and chapel shall be provided ; but, during service, the sexes shall be sepa- rated by a partition nine feet high ; and if any of the ladies or gentlemen should make any disturbance by whispering, nodding, smiling, or sighing, they shall be liable to be locked up till they amend. (Of course we anticipate many objec- tions to this scheme, but it is undoubtedly one of those reforms most devoutly to be desired, and for want of which the im- proved estates of the gentry, makes Downing-street and Whitehall to swarm with beggars, who eat the bread of idle- ness and live upon the community. How desirable is it then, to throw them upon their own resources.) SECTION VII. POWEK TO DISPLACE AND APPOINT Stewards. — The Commissioners shall also have the power in all cases to ap- point Stewards and Agents for the rich, it being notorious that many of these officials are very improper characters. They shall also gradually strike off" all gentlemen paupers and noble paupers, from the Pension List, Lord Brougham excepted. SECTION VIII. Power op Guardians, &c. — There shall also be power with the Commission- ers to relax and to tighten (as the case may be) the " instructions" to the Guar- dians, giving them full discretion, and taking it away when they like. The objections to this wholesome mea- sure are, of course, from interested par- ties—either money-lenders or auctioneers. Some may say, that the rich had " the second mortgage on the land ;" but the proper rei)ly is, that it is expedient to take that right away for ptiblic utility. If any of the capitalists should be so rash as to " agitate " against this excellent measure of reform, the Commissioners shall have power to order to the spot, a division of the London Police, or a battalion of Hussars. The transition may be painful, but the end must be good. " GIVE IT ONLY A FAIR TRIAL." God save the Queen. Union Bastiles. — " Last evening, I met with a gentleman, who is building a house in this neighbourhood ; he told me ' that he met Lord Mostyn the other day. His lordship said, ' How do you get on with your building?' The gentleman replied, ' I am at a stand still, I can get no masons.' ' How is that ? ' inquired his lordship. ' They are all building houses for themselves, my lord,' said the gentle- man M'ith a sly wink. ' Ah, indeed, building houses for themselves ? ' exclaimed his lordship, ' Where do they get the land and money } ' ' My lord, they are build- ing Union workhouses ! ' announced my informant — and he gave his lordship a look, that made the noble appear very childish. The lord slunk off", and said no more. I shall not forget that saying soon — ' They are building houses for them- selves.' Yorkshire masons, hear that ! and when you build Bastiles, repeat as you lay every stone, 'We are buildinq Houses for ourselves!"' — Oastler's Letter to the " Northern Star" dated from Rhyl, ?iear St. Asaj)h, Oct. 6, 1838. The Soldiers and the Poor- Law. — "A poor old soldier had broken a MISCELLANIES. 603 ■window of a public building with a stone ; he was taken before a magistrate, and asked what he had to say: he at once ad- mitted lie had done it, and told the magis- trates if that stone had failed, he had others in his pocket. On being questioned as to his reasons, he said, ' Sir, I am an old soldier, and the son of an old soldier ; I am starving, and now my poor father and mother are dead ; I have spent my strength, and the prime of my life, in fighting the battles of my country, I am destitute of the means of sub- sistence ; but I scorned to do a dis- honourable act, and I determined to do just enough to send me to prison, where at least I should get bread. Do you think the soldiers will tight for a law which thus treats them when they are old } Did you ever see a soldier, who was going abroad, take leave of his wife and children ? Oh ! what afibction is there displayed, what prayers and wishes for their happiness, and when in the midst of battle, when the bullets are flying around, each perhaps the winged mes- senger of death, what are their thoughts, what are their prayers, but for all that is at home, deai'er to them than life itself. Oh ! does not the soldier love his father, his mother, his wife, his children, his sister, and his sweetheart ? When the troops were called out at Bradford, and directed to fire on the people, an old soldier, who had been repeatedly in battle, and never shrunk from his duty, told me he never till that moment felt what it was to be a coward, but, said he, when I was about to fire, one man opposite to me bared his breast, and called on me to send it in there ; my heart failed me for the first time in my life ; I sunk the cai-binc, and that charge I carried home to the barracks. Government knows this is the feeling amongst the soldiers." — Mr. Ste- phens's Speech at the Norwich Meeting, Monday, Nov. 5, 1838. MK. KICHARD OASTLER. " There is no one, who has watched the proceedings of JNIr. Richard Oastler, who must not be convinced that he is one of the most extraordinary political characters that has sprung up from amongst the ranks of the people in the present century. lie is the first man within our knowledge who ever avowed himself an out-and-out Tory, and yet reached the very highest point of popularity amid the poorer classes of his fellow-countrymen. He has had the art, and the extraordinary skill, to be the de- clared supporter of intolerant political principles, and yet has made himself the idol of the democracy, to whose well- being, liberty, and happiness, those prin- ciples were diametrically opposed. He has acted the part of Spartucus, and yet has declared that his very heart and soul were with the Senate, who were ready to ])lungc their country into ruin, rather than consent to the passing of an agrarian law. He is a leader of the sans culottes, and the devoted friend of the ancient regime. He is a ISIirabeau, contending for the propriety of upholding the old abuses of courtly domination. He is, ia short, a man who swears by the bishops, holds fast to the lords, and is ready to die for the maintenance of church-rates, organizing and arming the people to break out into open rebellion against the law of the land. Nothing can be more adverse than his principles and his practices, his professions and his proceedings, his senti- ments and his acts. He is a Tory — a rank, ruthless Tory, and yet so complete and utter a mastery has he over the feel- ings, the affections, and the devotions of the people of the north, that he is called by them, and he is recognized by them, as ' the King.' It is no lip-loyalty Avhich they tender to him; for we believe that if contrary commands were issued from St. James's, and from the abode in which Mr. Oastler is found, the desires of their liege lady, would be neglected, and the com- mands of Mr. Oastler obeyed ; so that it may be said that in Lancashire, and York- shire, ' The King's name is a tower of strength,' which they of the adverse fac- tion, the Queoi's, would be utterly desti- tute of. *' It may well be asked, how comes it that a private individual — a man compara- tively in a humble situation of life, hap- pens to be possessed of such extraordinary power as that which is wielded by ISIr. Richard Oastler? The reader may be well assured that the subject of the present article has not attained it without his being gifted with great talents. We have heard many men address public assem- blies, but with the exception of INIr. O'Connell, and Mr. Steele, in Ireland, we never yet knew one to possess the art of moving, exciting, and controlling the pas- sions of a mighty nultifudc, like to Mr. Oastler. He has, in the first place, one of the most powerful voices we ever heard, which he sends forth with all the deep-toned strength and sustained energy of a full-pealing organ. With this, he 604 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. has a great command of well-arranged language, and he has a thorough know- ledge of all the topics which he knows lie nearest to the hearts of the poorer classes of Englishmen. No one can describe more eloquently the happiness and com- forts which once dwelt around the home- steads of the contented peasantry, and none can, with equal powers, depict the misery and squalidness which now abide there. He draws pictures of humble bliss, which he clothes with all the glow- ing colours of imagination, and he con- trasts them immediately with scenes which require no fancy to exaggerate them. Had he not recommended the people ' to arm,' he would have been a benefactor to his country. As it is, we fear that he has done irreparable mischief, for he has it in his power to do as much mischief as he might have done good. To those who have never heard him ad- dress, that which is called a mob, nor seen how his address was received, it is impossible to give an adequate idea of the gifts and talents of this very as- tonishing man. It is, or rather, it was, a common practice to associate the name of Mr. Oastler with that of the Rev. Mr. Stephens, and of Mr. Feargus O'Connor. As well associate Bibulus with Julius Cajsar, or Lentulus with Octavius, as for an instant to compare O'Connor, or Ste- phens, with Oastler. " Both Stephens and O'Connor are clever men in their way ; but at all times, and even now, their popularity lay in the hands of Mr. Oastler, and he could in an instant crush them into their original in- significancy. Supposing that there was a quarrel between the triumvirate, we can well fancy how easily the poor, weakly, schoolboyish sentences of Stephens, and the noisy splutter of O'Connor, would be lost and swallowed up in the lionlike roars of ' tlie King,' before an English popular assembly. We do not know what may be the feelings of Mr. Oastler towards Mr. O'Connor ,but this we are sure of, that he cannot but contrast his own gene- rous identification of himself, and all his opinions and sentiments, with those of INIr. Stephens, when that gentleman was first arrested in Manchester, with O'Con- nor's flight from Birmingham, when some of his CO- conventionalists were, for the first time, brought under the terror of the law. We conclude from this, that be- tween two such characters, there can be but little cordial sympathy or genuine feeling. We call attention to this circum- stance, because it is a common thing to identify them ; when the fact is, that there is only one point on which they agree — the abuse of the New Poor-La w. Mr. Oastler declares his utter separation from the convention — from all its views and objects — and if we are not mistaken, we believe he never took any part in their proceedings, nor even so much as visited them, even though he was in London while they were sitting. " There are many, we know, who doubt the sincerity of Mr. Oastler. We are not amongst the number. We believe him to be perfectly sincere, because he has been always consistent. We never doubt a man who adheres firmly to that principle with which he has first com- menced ; and on the same ground that we believe Oastler sincere, we doubt the sin- cerity of Phillpotts, when he abuses the Catholics ; and of Peel, when he says he will adhere to the Reform Bill. Mr. Oastler may be, and we believe, is, fanatical in his hatred of the New Poor- Law Bill ; for he will not admit that there is any good in it, from the first clause to the last. We do not adhere to the abuses of that Bill — we wish to see them re- formed ; but then we cannot go the length — the mischievous and the dangerous length — which Mr. Oastler has unfortu- nately gone, of getting rid of its provisions by force of arms. While we condemn ]Mr. Oastler for doing much mischief in this respect, we cannot deny him the merit to which we think him fairly en- titled, that he is perfectly sincere in his wish to get rid of the New Poor-Law, by any means — even by civil war, if neces- sary; for we are quite sure, that in such a cause, he is ready to lose his life in the field, or, if a prisoner, willingly to yield it up, on the scaffold. On this point his head is wrong, but his heart is right. His Koran is the Old Poor Law ; and to es- tablish it, he has all the fanaticism, devotion, and dauntless bravery of a Mahommedan. " It may be perceived, notwithstanding his rebellious projects as far as the Poor- Law is concerned, that Mr. Oastler is a great favourite with the Tory newspapers. They laud him as much as the Chartist journals ; but with better reason, for there is no man who has done such good service to the Tories as Mr. Oastler. It was with him originated the plan of inciting the population to procure arms — a plan which, for Chartist purposes, Avas taken up ; and, with characteristic clumsiness. MISCELLANIES. 605 SO mismanaged by Mr. Feargus O'Connor, that it only brought odium on his cause, and was near throwing, from the fear of convulsion, the entire country under the government of the Tories. In this respect, ISIr. Oastler showed his superior judgment, and his commanding dexterity over Mr. O'Connor. ' The King's ' men committed no violence — the Chartists did — hence the one escaped punishment, Avhile the others are now pining in prison. And yet there are some who still think, that Mr. Oastler is nothing better, nothing superior to a Feargus O'Connor ! — Bah ! " " SENATORIENSIS." — Bell's Neiv Weekly Messenger, Oct. 20, 1839. [This is rather a clever sketch, but I do not, in the remotest degree, subscribe to the writer's ill opinion of such men as the Bishop of Exeter, O'Connor, and Stephens.— G. R. W. B.] Pook-Law Place-Hunting. — " The Irish have become of late inveterate place- hunters. Upwards of 7,000 applications have been made for situations under the Poor-Law Act. For the otnce of Assist- ant-Commissioner there were 800 candi- dates. You may therefore imagine the disappointment and indignation of the latter at the appointment of five English- men. Several of the unfortunates, who are residents in Dublin, have been going about the city like roaring lions. I verily believe, if Nicholls crossed their path, they would sacrifice him on the spot, and devour him, body and bones." — I'he Record, Oct. 1, 1S38. THE NEW rOOR-LAAV NOT A NEW IN- VENTION or THE ENEMY. " The 43rd of Elizabeth Avas passed in 1601. A couple of years, or so, afterwards, a number of individuals in the southern counties of England, landlords, wealthy farmers, and the like, conspired together, and drew up certain queries, ten in num- ber, and forwarded the same to be answered by an eminent legal authority of that day. Sergeant Sniggc. This gen- tleman was a celebrated special pleader at the bar in Elizabeth's reign ; was contem- porary with Coke, Plowden, Glanvil,&c., and was knighted and made a judge by James I. The following are (lucstion 9, and the learned Sergeant's answer — his noble arid indignant answer : — " Farming the Poor. — Question 9. ' Some of the most n-ealthg l\nmcrs in the parish have devised a shdfnl mode by which all the trouble of executing this Act might be avoided. They have proposed, that we shall erect a prison in the parish, and then give notice in the neighbourhood, that if any persons are disposed to farm the poor of this parish, they do give in sealed proposals on a certain day, at the lowest price at which they will take them off our hands, and that they will be authorised to refuse relief to any one, un- less he will be shut up in the aforesaid prison. The proposers of this plan con- ceive that there will be found, in the adjoining counties, persons, who, being unwilli)ig to labour, and not possessing substance or credit to take a farm or ship, so as to live icithoid labour, may be in- duced to make a very advantageous offer to the parish. If any of the poor perish tinder the contractor s care, the sin tvill lie at his door, as the parish tvill hare done their duty to than. We are, however, apprehensive that the present Act will not ■warrant a jrrudetitial measure of this kind ; but you are to learn, that the rest of the freeholders of the county, and of the ad- joining county of B , will very readily join in instructing their members to pro- pose an Act to enable the parish to con- tract with a person to lock up and work the poor ; and to declare, that if any poor person shall refuse to be so locked up and worked, he shall be entitled to no relief. This, it is hoped, will prevent persons in distress from wanting relief, and be the means of keeping doivn parishes.'' " Mr. Sergeant Snigge's Reply. — ' It is a just suspect of the parish, that such a measure as you allude to, will not be warranted by the Act. And I deem too highly of the wisdom and integrity of the High Court of Parliament to surmise, that they will give their sanction to any such doings. Should any ever be so tveak and wicked as to jtropound, or even to vote for such a law, they would be answerable in conscience, not only for every poor person that may die, but also for every instance of suffering, or of depravity, in consequence of it. It is true, that in case the necessaries of life be lowered after the contract has been entered into, the contractor may thrive, and yet the poor may not suffer ; but, if those articles rise in price, it is net possible for a needtj vagabond to supply the diflerence. In such hands the jioor must inevitably perish. Again, I should observe, that when under sickness, or temporary dis- tress, a poor man is to be sent hopeless 606 THE BOOK OF THE BASTILES. into such a place of confinement, his spirit must, in most instances, be broken, and he become a burden to his parish for life." SYMPTOMS OF GIVING VF. " Mr. Waltek begged to ask the noble lord, the Secretary for the Colonies, when he meant to proceed with the Poor- Law Amendment-Act. " Lord J. RussELi, was understood to name Thursday, but he could not say positively that it would come on on that day. " Mr. Walter — Do I understand the noble lord to say that it will not come on on Thursdaj'. " Lord J. Russell — Certainly not on Thursday." — House of Commons^ May 18, 1841. Captain Polhill, seeing no fewer than 37 orders of the day upon the paper, wished to know whether it was the inten- tion of the noble lord, tlie Secretary for the Colonies, to proceed to-night with the Poov-Law Amendment- Act .^ " Lord J. Russell said he would state what he meant to do when he arrived at the orders of the day. " ISIr. Walter was sorry to renew the application he had formerly made, as to the course the noble lord (J. Russell) in- tended to take witli reference to the New Poor-Law, not having distinctly heard his answer to the question just put. Would the noble lord be so good as to say on what day he proposed to proceed with the Poor-Law Act ? " Lord J. Russell begged to say, that having formerly stated to the right hon. baronet opposite (Sir R. Peel), with respect to the case of Mr. M'Leod, that he believed it had beeii moved into one of the federal courts, he had now to state, from a communication received more re- cently, that the case had not been moved into a federal court, but into the Supreme Court of New York ; and that it would come on for discussion on the 3rd of iNIa)'', on a writ of habeus corpits. With respect to the Poor-Law Amendment Bill, it was his intention to have stated, before going into any other orders of the day, that it was not his intention to proceed with that bill during the present session of Parlia- ment. (Loud cheers from both sides of the House.) * * * * * * * * ■jf "Mr. Wakley said, it had been said, turn out the Poor-Law Ministry ; but where was he to get an Anti-Poor-Law Ministry ? The noble lord had announced to-night that he would not go on ■svith the Poor-Law Amendment Bill. (Hear, hear.) He was delighted to hear it ; it gave him the greatest satisfaction, and it would be heard with delight by thousands and thou- sands of his countrymen. Would the riglit hon. baronet opposite bring forward the Poor-Law Amendment Bill ? He (]Mr. Wakley) thought not ; but the right hon. baronet had advocated the measure. The right hon. baronet had told the House, that when he was in office he would take a careful review of the circumstances of the country. Was there anything to prevent the i-ight hon. baronet from doing that while he was out of office. (' Hear, hear,' and a laugh.) Assuredly the right hon. baronet, being now much less incum- bered by ajiplications, by dejjutations, and by business of every kind, had a much better opportunity of taking that careful review whch he had promised when he should obtain the seals of office. * **#«?* " Lord J. Russell wished to say, with reference to the approbation whicli the hon. gentleman had expressed of his post- ponement of the Poor-Law Amendment Bill, that that postponement was owing to the present state of public business. Having before the House the questions relating to the Budget, with other ques- tions which had excited a very great degree of interest, it would have been useless to proceed with the Poor-Law Amendment- Bill. In the first place, there would have been a protracted discussion without any final result ; and, in the next place, with the expectation that every hon. member seemed to have that he was to account for his conduct at the hustings, he thought there would have been a great many motions and a great many speeches made, intended rather for the hustings than for any useful purpose of legislation. (Hear, hear.) He certainly thought it would be better not to proceed in the present state of affairs with the bill ; but if the hon. gentleman thought that that announce- ment was made in consequence of his having at all altered his opinion of the measure, or anj' opinions he had given re- garding particular parts of it, he begged at once to say that there had been no such change. (Cheers.) On one motion, of which the hon. gentleman himself had given notice, he had indeed given no opinion, and he should have discussed it, if the bill had come on, but he would take MISCELLANIES. 607 leave to eay, that whether those of his (Lord J. Russell's) side of the House were destined still to govern the coun- try, or any other persons should oc- cupy iheir seats, he helieved the principles of the Poor-I^aw Amendment-Bill to be sound, to be such as must recommend themselves to any government and any Parliament of this countiy, to be those on which any salutary system of Poor-Laws must be administered. (Hear, hear.)" — House of Comvions, May 24, 1841. GiLBERTIZE THE NeW PoOR-LaW ; A Fresh Plan, in a Letter to Sir Robert Peel: being an Answer to HIS " / desire to knoiv what system is to be adopted:' (Speech, Feb. 8, 1841).— " Such is the title-page of a most praise- worthy and pithy work recently (July, 1841,) pubhshed by the Rev. Edward Buncombe, Rector of Newton Kyme, Tadcaster, Yorkshire, brother of T. S. Buncombe, Esq., M.P. for Finsbury, nephew of Lord Feversham, and a great favourite and frequent correspondent of the Author of the Book of the Bastiles. Mr. Buncombe's scriptures antagonistic to the infamous New Poor-Law, show him to be one of the most enthusiastic and noble-minded of men. He is a man of no party, but he has evidently chosen that " better part," which hereafter will give what the world cannot give — happi- ness. His independence of character is only inferior to his religious and moral sense of duty — of doing the thing which is right, and letting the crude crowd clap, or hiss, as they feel disposed. He is as chivalrous as he is charitable, and just such a Parmenio as every living kicking Alexander of us would wish to be, Avere he not already the son and heir of Jupiter Ammon. In his present publication, which is by far the most readsome that has yet appeared on the vexatious question, he virtually cuts Sir Robert Peel's expe- diency and sophistry props from under him, and, with much argument, autliori- ties, and appropriate applications, peels the very flesh from oil' the Tamworth town baronet's bones, until he " shows " quite raw — a Johnny Raw in such " perilous matters " as those of the New Poor-Law. His interpretation of what he (Mr. B.) intends by the phrase " Gilbertize the New Poor-Law," is, Parochialize, Constitutionalize, Christian- t'ze the New Poor-Law ; and the statistics and favourable mention which he chro- nicles in behalf of the Gilbert system, prove that the next best thing to utterly abolishing the fiendful Act, would be, to use his term, to ' Gilbertize ' it. He proves, beyond contradiction, the merits of the Gilbert over the Somerset-house system by the authenticated tabular illus- tration, that while, under the jurisdiction of the latter in Yorkshire, there is only one poor-house inmate to 1 ,400 acres ; in Surrey, under the predominance of the latter, there is one in-door pauper to every 28 acres ! ! ! Every politician, and Poor-Law med- dling man should purchase and peruse this work; and every such person -who, having purchased and perused it, and doesn't admire, and love, and like it, must be an unmitigated beast of burden — a de- scendant of the popular ptishiny kine recorded in Scripture. It is published by Whittaker, London ; Vincent, Oxford ; Sunter, York ; and all booksellers ; and the price is but 2s. 6d. G. R. WYTHEN BAXTER. The Victim of the Boon ! — " When friends and connexions forsake tlie poor outcast — when the father, who has cherished her in infancy, and has watched with pride and affection the opening bloom of her womanhood, blots out from his mind the name which has become as- sociated with ignominy and disgrace, who will dare to deny that she still has, or ought to have, nature's claim — woman's claim — on the author of her wrongs, or, if you will, the partner of her crime? But the Poor-Law Amendment-Act steps in, rends asunder the last hnk that binds her to life and to society, and flings her upon the world to perish, or to live by means in comparison with which perishing were a mercy. Shall we wonder if woman's nature sink in the trial — if even a mother's love, which will bear so much, and sacrifice so much, wither and dry up in her bosom ? Shall we wonder if, in the dark hour, reason rock in her seat, and the gloomy suggestions of despair arise, and insanity point to murder and infanticide, as the only refuge for the law's victim from the accumulated horrors which surround her." — JSIr. G. A. Youny's Speech at the Annivcrmry of the passiny of the Vestries'" Act, White Con- duit Tavern, July 31, 1839. — [This extract is taken from one of the 7nost elof^uent and humane speeches which has been spoken on tlie New Poor-Law. Mr. G. A. Young's head and heart are irell tvorth his being proud of. — G. R. W. B.J POOR-LAW SONNETS. THE WIFE S KEMONSTKANCE. Good master Parson Justice : man and wife Were I and Simon by your Honour join"d Some thirty years ago. No mortal coin'd The curse : 'twas taken from the Book of Life, On those who part us. Methinks Satan's knife Alone can cut that knot. Hath he purloin'd The page, and you consent? Or is't enjoined That ye be ministers of love or strife ? O, Simon, let us lie down in one grave ! We ask for bread ; they offer worse than stones, We'll take with us the blessing that God gave — Hard law, with little care about our bones — And not e'en death shall part us ; for we trust To rise again together from one dust. THE KUINED MOTHER. O cursed is the law that lends its aid To full-blown villainy to crush the weak ! Poor Simon's daughter Jane, a flow'ret meek, Alas ! no wife, a wretched mother made ; Scorn'd in her poverty and shame, dismay'd, Slew both herself and babe. Young Farmer Sleek Pass'd by while they in the cold trench were laid ! " It broke his heart? " " He had no heart to break." " Nor would maintain his own ? " " It is the law : Young Farmer Sleek approved it, and could quote ; Nor Parson Conscience there could find a flaw. He awed the Vestries ; gave a liberal vote ; Brawl'd for Reforms — There ends the tale. Yet more — Younsr Farmer Sleek is Guardian of the Poor." PARISH SICK AND PARISH DOCTOR. " Poor Simon's sick." " Then for the doctor send." " The Union doctor ? He lives far away — Seven miles, and has seven parishes they say, And his own private practice to attend. Besides, sick Simon has no idle friend. Where all must work ; nor has he pence to pay ; Nor comes the doctor without order penn'd By th' overseer — and this is market-day. " Then there's for raed'cine fourteen miles to go, As if the poor had lackeys everywhere, And the relieving officer will know When Simon's dead. He should have better fare. And Simon dreams they're apt to cut the thread, Wlio farm the parish sick three farthings by the head." roOU-LAW SONNETS. THE UNION WORKHOUSE. 609 Nature was strong, and Simon did not die ; He had no Union doctor ; but the poor. When he was up, atul sunn'd him at his door, Or came to chat, or chatted passing by : And sometimes brighter bcam'd the old man's eye, When the erood parson kindly cross'd his floor. Thus life with neighbourhood and kindness wore A smiling look, and cheer'd him on to die. Then came the Union law. Drawn in a cart To a far distant workhouse — there confined ; No neiglil)Our to drop in and cheer his heart ; No village sunshine on his face — he pined-— Without a crime condemn'd — imprison'd — died— - And thus th' unconscious law one charity supplied. THE rouR MAN S BURIAL. Ho ! contract coffins for the parish poor. Eight shillings each, complete with shroud and nails ! " An please your Honour stop within the rails, Poor Simon's scarce will reach the big church door." " Not take him into church ! " " It will not hold, Tho' we have patch'd it up." " I hear no bell." " Your Honour, the New Laws won't have it toll'd." " What ! stint a poor man's soul a parting knell ? " " Go, tell his Lordship that old Simon's dead, And now they bury him, whose honest hands Plough'd, sow'd, and reap'd — his Lordship ate the bread ; Bid him repeal harsh laws, that Heaven his lands May bless — God's poor not unregarded sleep ; Tell him new hands may sow, and God gave all to reap." AN ANTI-NKW POOR-LAW TOP-KNOT. " It's a pity 'tis pass'd, that pauper wo ! So rife with murder, poisonings, hearts broke — rack ! Authors of England ! why are ye so slow ? Gentlemen of England ! why are ye so slack ? Awake ! arise ! expose ! ward off the blow, Ere yet it comes down thundering on your back — Let its cruelties continue, and grow like weeds, And I can only say, Look to your title-deeds ! " — Don Juan, Junior.* • Mr. Oastler has adopted this New Poor-Law stanza from G. R. Wythen Baxter's Don Juan, Junior, as a top-piece for his adjiiirable Anti-New Poor-Law letters, which weekly appear in the columns of the Champion newspaper. In the hands of the " good old Tory king " it bids fair to outrival the ' Hereditary bondsmen ' tweedle-dee, twcedle-dum top-not of Daniel O'Connell. It is seldom living poets have their verse quoted from ; and, in the present instance, Mr. Oastler, by enlisting in his service tlie stanza from ' Don Juan, Junior,' has conferred special honour on Mr. G. K. Wythen B^xicx."— Sheffield Iris, April 11, 1841). 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