The Express.
London, England, 1852-10-26 00:00:00

NEW POOR-LAW PROHIBITORY ORDER.

A meeting was held at the Albion Hotel, Man•
ehester, yesterday afternoon, consisting of deputations from
boards of guardians assembled for the purpose of coming at
a correct understanding of the general views and sentiments
of the several boards of guardians of Lancashire, the West
Riding of Yerkshire, and those parts of Cheshire to which
the recent prohibitory order of the Poor-law Board has
been addressed, and to afford an opportunity for a clear ex-
prey i-n of opinion thereon. The meeting had been sum-
moned by the Oldham board of guardians; and the com-
mittee of the association engaged in promoting the esta-
blishment of county financial boards, had summoned a
meeting at the same time and place, with the understand-
ing that the first-named subject would take precedence.
There were deputations, consisting mostly of three or four
persons, from the following places Ashton, Barton,
Blackburn, Bolton, Burnley, Bury, Chorley, Clitheroe, the
Fylde, Hulloed's, Leigh, Oldham, Pie,ton, Rochdale,
&Reed, and Wigan, in Lancashire; Barnsley, Bierley,
Bradford, Dewsbury, Halifax, Huddersfield, l'eoistone,
and Todmerden, I orkshire ; Nottingham' Nottingham.
shire ; Kendal, Westmoreland; and West Boughton and
Stockport, in Cheshire. The following M.P.'s were also
present:—Mr. J.W. Patten, M.P., Mr. W. Brown, M.P.,
Mr. Joseph Brotherton, M.P., Mr. John Cobben,
Mr. Robt. Townley Parker, , Mr. James Hey
wood, M.P.
Mr. Snacxxrros, of Penistons, moved the first resolu-
tion:—"That this meeting, composed of deputations from
the boards of guardians and rate yen in the county of
Lancaster, the West Riding of Yorkshire, and parts, of
Cheshire; end having, it is believed, the sympathy of the
great =writ, of the boards of guardians to which the new
order of the Poor Law Board, dated August 25, 1852, has
bees addressed, hereby records its condemnation of the'
said order, on the following grounds : First, because the
continuous decline of pauperism, for some time past, and
the present satisfactory management of poor's affairs, ren-
d•red unnecessary any resort to additional stringency or
any experimental innovations in the administration of re-
lief; secondly, because the provisions of the new
order generally ma only be can ed out by disre-
garding dike the results of experience, the dictatre
of humanity, end the interests of the slcietyl; and
thirdly, because the effect of the order is to destroy all in-
dependence and interdict all discretion on the part of boards
of guardians, and consequently to cover with insult the
representative process by which such boards are constituted.
That an examination of the order in detail only confirms
this estimate of its general character and tending, in proof
of which this meeting would refer to Article 5, selected
merely for the sake of illustration. This article enacts that
no relief shall be given to any able-bodied male person while
he is employed for wages or other hire or remuneration by
any person : such a restriction mud (in manufacturing dis-
tricts especially) operate with great cruelty upon the indus-
trious poor, and either greatly harems the immediate har-
dens of theretepayen or largely contribute to the increase of
matindicaocy and mime. In these districts it is no engine-
dos to Bay ebat one-half of the cases requiring relief an those
of persons in receipt of inadequate earnings. from causes over
which they have no control. By the vicissitudes of trade
an operative may be placed upon short time; by the bresk-
ing down of machinery, by. the occurrence of fire, and
numerous other contingencies, the income of his family
may be so curtailed as to render it temporarily insufficient
for their maintenance; yet in ell such cues, if the head of
the family apply for relief all independent labour (the pro-
ceeds of which &repro tango a saving of the rates) must be
relinquished, and, where a trifling advance would have suf-
ficed to sustain the family in industrial occupation, an enor-
mous charge is intoned by maintaining them wholly as
paupers, to their own metal and social degradation and the
serious burden of the tratepayen. In the event, however,
of the partially employed, from generally declining to accept
relief in such form and upon such terms, a frightful increase
of mendicancy and crime may bee expected he the restriction
in qiiestion, therefor*, can only result either in the whole-
sale manufacture of pauperism, or in grievously injuring
society by its attempted repression. That, extending its
obeereatioss from Article 5, this meeting would rte
such extrlctious as appear is Articles No. 1 and 2, which,
without providing evilest imposture, will needlessly aug-
ment the work of poor law °Moen, sad harass a large pro-
portion of the recipients of relief : as also the provisions of
Article 6, requiring guardians to find full employment of •
special kind for all able-bodied out-door paupare—a re-
quirement not only of very qinationable utility, but in
direct opposition to the past policy and orders of the Poor-
law commission. That Articles 3 and 4, if objec-
Ramble on no other ground'', are incapable of be-
ing satisfactorily administered, by reason of their
complicated character, the collision they enjoin with
past usages and prescriptious, and the numerous ex-
ceptions to which they are liable. That in short the entire
order is uncalled for, perplexing, end mischievous ; that
it can ugly be carried out through the sacrifice of all dis-
cretion and humanity by boards of guardians, and the sur-
render of all right of control or opinion by the ratepayers ;
and that, therefore, this meeting requires is total and im-
mediate revocation."
Mr. Dams, of Oldham, seconded the resolution, which
was carried unanimously.
Mr JOANDA Fawderr, North Bierley, moved the second
resolution :—" That a committee be appointed by this meet-
ing, and be requested to send a deputation immediately to
the Pour Law Board, to endeavour to effect the total and
immediate repeal of the order."
Mr. WARD seconded the motion, and it was agreed to
unanimously.
Mr. JOHN HOLT moved the following resolution :
"That in the event of the deputation not being successful
in obtaining a total and immediate repeal of the order of
the Poor Law Board of the 25th of August, the gentlemen
preempt at this meeting take steps for getting up petitions to
parliament in their respective localities fur inquiring into
the merits of this order, and the exercise of the present
powers of the present Poor Law Board, in order to obtain
the paring of some law preventing that board from bare-
after issuing orders declaratory of the law on points coo-
nected with poor law administration, but which order is in
effect new law, and greatly interferes with the discretion
and independence of hoards of guardians."
Mr. Sanest, Fauns seconded the resolution, which
was carried unanimously.
Mr. Mittens (Rochdale) moved, " That a committee be
now appointed to carry out the before-mentioned objects,
and to summon another meeting of the gentlemen present,
and that suck committee mutat of one guardian to be no- ,
minated from each board represented by this meeting, to-
gether with the following gentlemen—[here followed a lint
of names)—with power to add to their number."
Mr. HAWRRIDOE. of Nottingham, seconded the resolu-
tion, and it was carried.
The business concluded with a vote of thanks to the
chairman.

JERSEY GAMBOL—The military and artillery
force at the garrison in Jersey in to be considerably aug-
mented. The militia totes at Jens, is now 20,000 strong.

BETHLEHEM I lOSPITA L.

(Frees the bony Newt.)

AtetnMee witness has voluntarily entered the field
to give evidence against the enormities of Bethlehem
Hospital, and it is quite clear that the painful sub-
ject cannot now be allowed to drop until a full and
complete reform of the institution in St. George's.
fields has been secured. It is per Wetly monstrous
to hear that,—notwithstanding the startling ex-
posure made by the publication of Lord Su
W
srrEs-
RY'S Report in the columns of this paper,—the
sins of Bethlehem are as flagrant as ever, and are
mtill of daily commission. At the Inkling of
the Court of Common Council on Saturday,
Mr. BENNOCH, a member of that body, gam
notice of a motion for a committee to inquire
into the management of Bethlehem. In the letter of
Sergeant STEWART Mr. Iles:No(1i will lied new
reasons for persevering in his most commendable
intention. Letts see what evidence is given by this
new witness, and what is its weight, his letter
being taken, of course, for what it may be really
worth, and the authorities of Bethlehem king
at liberty to disprove the writer's assertions—if
they can. Ex•Colour-Sergeant CHARLES Srewser
—the writer of the letter—is understood to he a
soldier who having reached one of the highest
points of non-commissioned promotion, retired from
the ranks, and, being a hale mall, hoped to find
in an engagement at Bethlehem quiet employment
as a civilian. Unless he had had an excellent
character in the army he could nut, surely, have
obtained admission so readily to the corps engaged in
St. George's-fields. Having such a character he %A us
appointed a keeper, and on the 2(1111 Septceilier last
he entered upon duty at Bethlehem. A man who
has seen service in the ranks is seldom too seuearnish;
but eighteen days were enough to horrify th a veteran
so thoroughly, that he resigned in disgust ; nut, how-
ever, before he Lad explained to the committee of the
Hospital " the moon why." His catalogue of the out-
rages he saw committed is indeed serious, and when
reading it we cannot but remember how many times
eighteen days there are in the year, nor help
wondering whether those days can possibly
be a fair specimen of the ordinary daily and monthly
proceedings of an establishment which spends
20,0001. a year of public and charity funds upon the
custody of lunatics ? That the experience of Ser-
geant STEWART does glee a truthful idea of the
ordinary current of Bethlehem life there is too
much reason to fear. When we find a repot tto the
SECRETARY of STATE, signed by a peer of the realm,
describing a place where men are half garrotted and
women turned naked to sleep in straw, it is easy to
believe that knocking a tooth from a patient's head or
jerking the skull of others against the pavement may be
far from extraordinary circumstances in the same es-
tablishment. But let Sergeant STEWART tell his own
story in his own way—keeping in mind the while
that he entered the service of the Hospital on the
20th of last month and left it on the 13th of the pre-
sent month—his whole ex pet knee having been gained,
and his evidence relating to occurrences long after
the report of Lord SHAVTESOURY had been published.
That report ought to have put the authorities of the
place fully on their guard against the possible occur-
ream of ill conduct on the part of their subordinate,
in the dreadful basement story of their lunatic prison
house. Yet see how they profited by this lesson :
I believe it was on the day after 1 entered the hospital
(says Sergeant Stewart) that one of the patients, James
Brown, a jeweller, who was in the dining-room, had take*
a piece of bread belonging to another patient. He was in
the act of eating it, when a keeper seized him by the
throat, and squeezed it so tightly as to strangle him,
forcing him to disgorge the bread lie teas in the art of
agaliewisg. Keeping hold of him by the throat, he dragged
the patient into the passage, and threw bum down violently
en the ground, and there left him.
A day or two after this, Frederick Madison, a patient,whO
I understand was formerly • government dirk, was in the
west airing ground. Poor Madison, who is under the delu-
sion that he is • king, went up to a keeper and
demanded to be let out at the gate. The keeper not
appearing to pay attention to his request, Madison stamped
on his foot, on which the keeper, losing his temper, seized
Madison and threw him against the wall. The patients
wear a canvas frock, with a strong eord runnirg round the
neck, with which it is fastened behind. The kelur seized
Mattison by Me top of the micas frock, squeezed it tight by
Me cord so as almost to strangle 41M, shook him against the
wall and cruelly beat and abased him, striking him many
times. Ultimately he took him from the airing ground ism
the back basement.

Here we have a new mode of partial strangula-
tion by the brutal people who have charge of the
basement story of Bethlehem. This poor, mad jewel-
ler is seized by the throat and choked when he seeks
to satisfy his hunger with a piece cf bread put near
him—whilst the still more wretched MADISON, who
in his crazy humour only stamps his foot whilst
thinking himself a king, is seized and almost
strangled by a string that offers too fatal facilities
for the purpose ; and, in addition, is shaken, beaten,
and abused. On other occasions we are told that
both MADISON and bows were still more brutally
and dangerously treated. Have these two poor
creatures no friends outside Bethlehem who care for
their treatment within its walls?

But worse remains yet. We next learn how
an omnibus proprietor, named BratNELL, was
felled by a blow from a keeper his head
cut by the fall and the doctor who dressed
the wound is said never to have asked the
other attendant how the mischief was done; the
keeper'. statement that his victim had " cut his head
in a fit" was evidently regarded as an ample expla-
nation of the cause of the wound. Again, we hear
of a patient's head being beaten with a boot, and of
other injuries being inflicted upon him by an attend-
ant. These injuries the luckless prisoner appears to
have shown to the physician, Sir ALEXANDER NiOR•
RISON, without procuring any seeming sympathy
from that learned gentleman. or any inquiry on Ins
behalf as to the cause of the bruises be saw upon
the patient's person. One other case must be par-
ticularised.

Another patient. named Berlins. formerly an indepen-
dent minister at Upway, Dorsetshire, was in the dining
room with others who were at dinner. Boding stood up,
and said he could not get his dinner comfortably that.
One of the attendants I have already mentioned in-
stantly seized him, threw him down, dragged him along the
passage to the airing ground, the poor man resisting all the
time, and at the end of the passage the keeper threw hies
dosonon the mat, opened the door, and Own threw Aim oat-
side on the parenseest, young our with him. I sow Boding
shortly afterwards. He could not walk Men, but could only
limp, leaning on some one else.
Doubtless this dissenting clergyman—a man of
education—has family and other friends who fondly
hope that within the charitable walls of richly-
endowed Bethlehem he is being tended by good Sama-
ritans, who strive to promote his recovery from that
most fearful and pitiable of all human afflictions—
the loss of reason. What will those frictida and what
will the public say to the statements of the usage
the unhappy clergyman is subject to
While I and another attendant were engaged with
other patients in the basement, Harting got into the bah-
teem. While going into the bath-room, my companion
saw Basting with a little piece of snap in his hand, which he
had purloined. Bailing crouched down, and, apparently
expecting to be struck, threw his hands over his head to
save himself. The keeper struck him with his fist on the
back of the left jeer, the force of the Now being such as
brenk off woe of the patrent's,front teeth, which /hare Now
in my possession. Haying omen Aim this blow, he foro, ed
it up by a kiet, and then I-ft him.
Surely the public will not leave Wm ? Surely his
friends and his brother dissenting ministers will not
leave him—to the mercy of such an " asylum " much
longer.
We hare frequently called attention to the fact that
there are no less than MO governors of Bethlehem,
and have also shown that the management of the
place is practically in the hands of a small knot of
persons whose capacity for the trust is now tolerably
manifest. Do the non-attending governors think
themselves free from all moral responsibility do
this matter ? It has been given in evi-
dence that any one of the three hundred may--ti
so inclined—go over the Hospital for the purpose of
inspecting it at any hour. Why, then, do not some
of them go unexpectedly to the place at night, and
go into the basement to be assured that the straw
beds are banished ? Why not be sure that a real
reformation has been effected? Bethlehem being a
City charity, escaped the wholesome jurisdiction of
the Commissioners in Lunacy. Unlike other asylums
for the insane, the Board over which Lord SilArim"
BURY presides cannot enter the building in St
Ueorges.fields to inspect its condition with-
out special authority. Why should this be?
Why should a public institution, spending
120,000 f. a year of charity and public funds, be
exempt from a surveillance known to bo useful in
other establishments? Into this question the com-
mittee of the Common Council should especially
inquire, with a view to a correction of the system:
but meanwhile the very abaenco of jurisdiction on

.k. part of the Commissioners in Loam, raiders
; 'moral responsibility of the three hundred
vetoers grader than it would otherwise 11w
sey nothing of PRINCI ALBRRT, whose 1
wit is et the very head of the list, we And ia ,
tbe catalogue of gentlemen havintpower over Beth-
iriom--if they think fit to exercise it—the Bishops
LespoN, ovum WINCHESTER, CMILETIR, sad
intent-stit ; Lords BaownLow, Frrzwauari,
o,Litioast, SSLISIWZY, PORTMAN, RADNOR. TAR-
mott, and ANDEL and SoalaY. pre-
hies and piers may think, perhaps, they dosofth
rod by permitting their names and titla
crate the list of supporters of the charity I—
but should they not remember the fact that,
to petmitting their names so to figure at the
lend of the list of managers of an institution,
:try (place as it were a stamp of approval
won its conduct and management. Who would
Amster that behind this lordly list there lurked
h a chamber of horrors as the basement story of
tiatlikhetu ? Who would doubt that the belOese
:.oane might he safely trusted in an institution with
,I.ett a list of managers? After this Bethlehem
remits• list—for the governors are classed in
grades of rank—we find next the names of
the Lord Mayor, and of twenty-six Aldermen,
then twelve members of the Common Council,
and hotly, a long catalogue of other gentlemen, I
soimpt whom we have Baron Rirruscamo, Sir
Ct'Ll 1,10 EARDLET, Mr. THOMSON HARKEY, jun.,
Mora NIONTEFIORIS, Mr. CHARLES PILAILSON,
and Mr. WILLIAM WILLIAMS, M.P. Have these
gentlemen all read Lord Suartr.savar's report on the
invtitotion they preside over ? If they have, and no
other go% tenor will bestir himself to see justice done,
surely the honourable member for Lambeth may be
mlird upon to act vigorously for the reformation of
a mismanaged institution which claims him as one
et its "(Mt 1114)1S, and which stands in the borough he
represents