The Express.
London, England, 1865-05-06 00:00:00

the retention of a dead body in a room full of aid.
people is nothing more than a tribute to the public
opinion of the house ! After plabellaahia.ugh Tana
after room full of these elderly inv constantly
stoppiag by the way to examine instant
wardawomen, and to geutly listen to the remarks
of paupers, the sleeping wards of the other inmates
were examined. of these were better venti-
lated, bad more light,. and were in all respecta
superior to the foregoing. Still, there seemed le
be an uncertainty as to the number of beds which*
might on emergency be crammed into each room
which was far from satisfactory. The same scrutiny
of bed-clothes and approval or condemnation of
windows and air-shafts were gone through, and in
all cases notes were made for the subsequent consi-
deration of the guardians. The want of lavatories
on the same floor, or at least in the same building
as the sleeping chambers, was very striking, and
formed a stronger testimony to the crowded condi-
tion of the establishment we were in from the fact
of the rooms wherein such acoommodation would
appropriate being filled with beds Whil be
st pro-
gressing from one ward to the other the new sleep-
ing plans and baths for the beniesises poor came
under view. Then an of the kind familiar to all
visitants of refugee and casual wards. The
barrack beds, like butchers' trays, were bare
and empty, and the Toga belonging to them'
were piled up in a corker of the oblong cham-
ber while over its &MAIM hung a hideously gaudy
dreis, and an ungranimatien announcement that
any woman tearing up her clothes would be num-
polled to wear it. The horror of a patchwork gar- •
ment, composed of all the hues of the rainbow, and .
suggesting equally a sweep whose intellect had fled
on May Day and a scarecrow afflicted with colour
blindness, has been too much for even the most
refractory, and since its exhibition and the warning
affixed to it there bee been no case of clothes-
tearing at this workhouse. From the baths below
to the sleeping-pine above runs a stone stares" •
up which these poor women have to walk after
being immersed in warm water. Up to Tuesday
there had been no regular supply of covering for
feet or body for such of them as were without shoes
or fit drew, and Mr. Yarnell very properly insisted
upon coarse robes and slippers being temporarily
provided for all. The guardians have net ap-
pointed a paid superintendent to look after this
branch of relief, though the cost of dotog so, as
, well ea all other necessary expenditure for their
casual poor, would fall upon the common
fund, cud they thus furnish one men Weans-
tion of the reluctance with which parochial bodies
avail themselves' of the advantages proffered than,
if such advantages involve innovation or reform.
In this particular workhouse it has taken yens of
argument and manifold official recommendations,
or letters and reports, wherein the same things hays
been urged with persistent frequency, to being
about the changes essential to decency and order ;
aid even washen much has been done, and its
capabilities apparently developed to the
Utmost, it is impossible to avoid the conclusion
that it is sadly unsuited for a population of 1,700,
a large number of whom are permanently invalided.
At the aide of the house which is furthest from'
the main entrance, and beyond some dungeons
which have not been used for years, but which are
fine specimens of the British lock-up in the Jack.
Shepherd and Dick Turpin era, is situate a lengthy
outhouse known as "the building." In the ground
floor of this place some 20 male paupers were sitting,
and in its upper chamber were their beds. Neither
the one nor the other is fit for human habitation,
and are as gloomy dark, and unpleasant as,
bad lighting and inadequate ventilation can make
them. The sole defence for their use in the present
day is the extreme pressure on the space at the dis-
posal of the guardians, and this may be met by the
question—la it necessary to keep the parish work-
house is as present position at all, and is it son
the fact that a judicious extension of out-door relief
would thin the list of occupants amazingly I More
than one old woman said in our beetling that she
would gladly have kept out of the house if the
guardians would have granted her 2s. 6d. or Sr. a
week, and though this branch of the subject le
fraught with difficulty, it may be doubted whether
the interline of ratepayers are beat served under
the system now in vogue. When it is a saving of
trouble to medical officer and out-door functionary
to drive paupers into the workhouse, it seems oar-
tain that scant encouragement will be given to those
who desire to keep out of it, and it may be that
means might be adopted which would relieve the
overcrowded buildings without adding one penny to
the rates. But in the face of all we saw and
heard on Tuesday the question of moving this work-
house to some other site—which it seems has been
frequently mooted—is one of paramount import-
ance. We have shown that so far as the Poor-law
Board is concerned its inspections when they take
place are minute and searching in the extreme.
We understood that the infirmaries and a great
portion of the building examined by Mr. Fanuill
during last week are excellently appcinted, and
from what we heard was the condition of the work-
house a few years back—when the inmates, sick,
infirm, or otherwise, bad to cook their own food,
and when the whole place was a pandemonium of
unruly none—it is certain that vest and imports
ant improvements have been effected. But it is
one thing to declare that the best is made of
faulty. materials, and another to assert that the
materials are suited to their purpose. Maryle-
bone workhouse is, it is obvious, too small for the
number thrust upon it, and no degree of willingness
on the part of guardians, or rigid examinations
and reports from the Poce-law Board, can remedy this
defect. It should be here stated that the
inspection of the wards and dormitories is much
lees frequent than is enjoined by law. Judging
from the report book in which their visits are
recorded, it would seem that two, three, and even
six months not unfrequently elapse between their
several examinations of the establishment under
their care. This is radically wrong, and when we
compare it with the " once a week or once a fort-
night" laid down by the Poor-law Board as • fitting
time for the guardians to inspect their workhouse,
the possibility of a Daly or Gibson lingering for
weeks unknown and unheeded becomes painfully
apparent. This pariah, however, like many others
in the metropolitan district, being governed by a
local act, its guardians are elected by the vests',
instead of the ratepayers, and are far less amenable
.o official authority in consequence. And this it
is which seems to point to a missing link between
the framing of regulations and their enforcement.
It is indeed quite possible that the recommenda-
tions of Tuesday will be refused or not granted for
years, said that, despite the minute particularity
of inspection, the intelligent attention of master
and matron, the note-taking, the advice' and the
I remonstrances, even the simple request that a
short preyee—" five minutes" were specified-.-
shall be aimed up night and morning, will be
Sladared unreasonable. In another metropolitan
amt worked nyder a local act, the alleged
ity of paupers attending church service every
evening has been made the pretext of altering their
supper hour from the rational one laid down by the
Poor-law Board to 4in the oftersoon, so that the
poor wretebee, in order that they may be well plied
with spiritual food, are sent hungry to bed. At
Marylebone, judging from the statements made by
paupers, children and others, the religious ex-
erases seem to run in the opposite direction, aed
to be scarcely so frequent as might be wished. But
at present each workhouse has its little list of
im-
pediments, ahcetcominge, and neglects, whereof the
guardians themselves are sometimes at cues
ignorant and iseocent, and which are perhaps due
to some narrow-minded master or obstructive clerk.
So long as this is possible, so long will the old moral
assert isS, in spite of inspections, letters, and lb-
port. ; sad a mere stringent system of supervision,
sot es to sande bet sabot, and greater uniformity
et rule, he imperatively celled foe.