The Express.
London, England, 1847-09-09 00:00:00

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SlWloaxelr-1122slag. 22 W. p, 3: Altusocs. IG ARA. tom 2.

LONDON, THURSDAY, SEPT. 9.

A SEARCHING inquiry will no doubt be instituted
into the circumstances in which two Irish paupers,
removed from the Rochdale Union, met their
deaths on board the steam-ship Duchess of Kent, on
the voyage between Liverpool and Dublin.
The material facts elicited at the inquest in Dublin
are as follow :—On Wednesday, Sept. 1, a number of
paupers were received on board the Duchess of Kent
at Liverpool, and, among others, eleven brought by
the officers of the Rochdale union. One of the Roch-
dale paupers, a boy about twelve years of age,
died daring the passage; another, a man, died
about three hours after the arrival of the ves-
sel in Dublin. The boy's brother stated that their
father and mother had died of the fever at Rochdale ;
that the deceased had been three weeks in the fever
hospital at Rochdale, and left it en the morning of
Wednesday [Sept. 1] ; that he was taken direct
to the ralfway, and placed is a third-Wass carriage,
where his brother (the deponent) had to hold him on
a seat; that he was earned on board the steamer;
that his "eyes were getting weak in his head when
he came on board, " and a man remarked he would not
live long. The captain of the vessel stated that the
Rochdale paupers were put into the stable, which is
capable of containing from 25 to 30 persons. He
also stated that they had a rough peerage, and shipped
a deal of water. The carpenter of the Duchess of
Kent stated that the vessel was so thronged as to
cause the boy to fare badly as to shelter. The
deceased's brother stated—" 'My brother was put on
the top of a box, and they lay on him. I was near
my brother when he was taken up by the captain ;
he was nearly smothered by the people lying on him."
The carpenter of the Duchess of Kent stated :
" About half-pest eight I heard 80111 e of the dick
patsengers cr}ing out that there was a child dying;
I went to the spot and saw the boy lying by the stable,
on the starboard side." The poor child was carried
down to the cabin and every possible effort made by
the captain, with the assistance of a medical gentle-
man present, to restore him, but in vain. With re-
spect to the man, nothing further could be learned
than that he was one of the Rochdale paupers ; that
about four in the morning he was observed to be so
weak that he was carried down to the cabin; a 4 that
in spite of every attention he died in about threelonre
after the vessel's arrival at Dublin. The medical
gentlemen in Dublin who made the post martens
examination gave as their opinions that, in the case of
the boy, " death was produced by the exposure of his
delicate frame to the cold of a tempestuous night;"
that the man " mast have been delicate a long time,"
and that his " death was accelerated, if not prema-
turely canned, by his exposure."
Assuming that the statements which we have now
recapitulated are true—and we fear there no
ground to doubt them—they display a most culpable
indifference to the sufferings, and even disregard of
the lives, of the poor. The worst of the case is, that
the indifference and disregard appear to be part of an
extensive system.
There is a shocking callousness in the haste
with which the authorities of the Rochdale Union
appear to have transferred an orphan lad from
the wards of a fever hospital to a third-class
railway carriage on a rainy day, and to the deck
of a steam-boat on a stormy night, while he was
yet so feeble from the effects of his illness that
he could not sit unsupported in the carriage, and had
to be carried on board the boat. But the canoe-
quencee of this heartless conduct were aggravated by
the concurring inhumanity of many others. The
reckless way in which the unions throughout Lanca-
shire harry off their return paupers is the
cause why the deck of the vessel was so over-
crowded that people were lying on the top
of the dying boy ; and that he was apparently ejected
from the imperfect shelter of the stable. The guardians
and officers of the Rochdale Union form bat a small
section of the crowd against whom the presumption
of inhumanity presses so strongly. And the municipal
authorities of Liverpool, or the managers of the docks,
cannot be acquitted of complicity in allowing night
after night the Dublin boats to sail thus surcharged
with densely packed masses of suffering humanity.
We may go farther : this transporting of paupers
with a recklessness which no grazier or drover would
exhibit in the case of cattle is part of a great national
neglect of duty. The death of the two paupers on
board the Duchess of Kent, like the bone-
breaking and eating of unclean flesh in the
Andover union, is only one of those appal-
ling incidents which recur at too frequent inter-
vela to remind us, of the easier classes, how apt we
are to forget oar poorer brethren. It is not inhumanity •
or covetousness among the proprietary classes, but a
forgetfulness, scarcely less culpable, that gives occa-
sion to such suffering. It is not enough that rates be
levied, and workhouses built, and overseers appointed
to relieve the poor with due discretion. All this is
the mere machinery of charity-administration ; and
machinery left to work of itself is too iron a thing to
.abject frail humanity to. It is the duty of
the rich, and the independent of moderate circum-
stance, to watch strictly their ministers of
charity, and see that the wants of the poor are
cared for in a spirit of humanity. In a numer-
ous and complicated population like that of Great
Britain individual charity is unavailing : there
must be a public organised system for its administra-
tion. But the establishment of such a system only
alters the mode in which Christianity requires us to
discharge the duty of charity. In small and simple
communities those who have the means ought to give
alms ; in multitudinously peopled empires they ought
to keep a jealous watch upon the working of the
machinery for administeringpublic charity, and take
care that the poor are tas brethren.
The question of the unfortunate paupers on board
the Duchene of Kent is a question between those who
require, and those who have the power of affording,
humane attentions. It has nothing to do with local
animosities, and therefore we regret to see the greater
part of the Irish firer, and some of the leading Irish
politicians, availing themselves at it to kindle and
exasperate foolish sectional hatreds. Accident has so
willed it that the sufferers on this occasion are Irish :
under the tender mercies se the law of settlement
they might have been Brignsh or Scotch as well.
WWI searesly, if at all, lees painful have occurred in
the streets of this metropolis.
In no spirit of recrimination, but in order that the
true mond of this sad tale may not be perverted, we
tell the Irish journalists and the orators of Conciliation-
hell, thda, tituthtee classas
much asindinepeEngnielnantdei,
orcugumhtstanto
lace;
an
went which reflects so little credit on the country at
begs seriously to heart. If throughout the British
hinds we had one uniform system of poor law—if
iheilldricts into which the country was parcelled out
ler purposes of poor-law administration were so ad-
as to combine suilicient control of local public
opinion with exemption from attempts on the part of
peculiarly circumstanced places to shift from their
shoulders their fair share of the burden—a law of
settlement would be uncalled for, and such in-
cidents as that on board the Duchess of Kent
impossible.
the English
and as freely
Wedthrhe
denied them
entirely eaten
steeled the
inhumane.

lire will -
duty of urging
ism and ward
raskLabil
0011400:••
poring

4. We have freely censured the conduct 6f
ish functionaries towards the poor sufferers ;
eely do we censure the conduct of
due in Ireland, which year • r ysilislF.l4l
their paupers to seek in 4-44. >4
MI at home, until • morlu•A..."" -of
eaten up by these hapless ,g 9 r• er•
ty.
he hearts of many naturally
it. . .71 7!.,
ll not allow ourselves to be di Vii A
urging further inquiry into thin 777
contributing what we can to 7art,
mingollitsgues.jamtriagainiti"eicapnisionthßMater. recurtilingoatimisa°'neeCpossilptNbl'EeLauLtdo'ritudur;ff-iii