The Express.
London, England, 1867-11-21 00:00:00

16.orth Looda

•
North Staffordshire (AK.) 274 8,401 8,161
South Devon
Ulster 194 1,409 1,1195 2,1104 2,014

THE FARNHAM WORKHOUSE INQUIRY.—The in-
quiry was resumed yesterday, when the re-examination of
Dr. Powell was concluded. Mr. Richard Eager, surgeon,
was next examined. He spoke to the over-crowding and
insufficiency of the ventilation of the wards. He looked
upon it as • remarkable fact that typhoid fever had not
gecerated in the workhouse. Mr. John Bou'ter, auc.
tioneer and hotel-keeper, of Frimley, was next called.
He was for two years overseer for the parish of Aldershot,
and had at different times been guardian of this union for
three years for the rime parish. He had often visited
' and inspected Farnham workhouse. The general condi-
tion of it had always been, es it was up to that morning,
disgraceful. The want of cleanliness was always objec-
tionable, and everything seemed wrong. The closets were
very bad ; there were common pans, but no traps, and
the smell was consequently very offensive. The lavatories
were disgusting. He was surprised that morning to find
that the sick men in the infirmary were sitting on •
hard form, seven inches wide, without backs or elbows.
On Thursday night last he was coming to the house, when
he saw two males and • female near the principal
entrance, standing in the rain. It had been mining hard all
day. They said they had got an order for the tramp
ward, and they were each dripping wet. The matron
afterwards came and spoke privately to the woman, and
the porter came with • lantern sod removed the two
men. The next morning, about 11 o'clock, he saw the
same persons there, and the men told him they were
waiting whilst their clothes were being dried. They were
huddled in the straw without their clothes, and were
covered with • rug. The girl, who was wearing her own
clothes, was in the same male ward, sitting on the bench,
It was the worst union as regarded construction and ma-
nagement in England, and the persons connected with it
must be the worst managers. All were as bad as they
could be, and censurable, from the President of the Poor-
law Board to the house porter. There was nothing good in
any part of the house excepting the master's apartments
—not even the medicines. In the absence of other mate-
rial witnesses, Dr. Stallard, one of the Lanc,t commis-
sioners, who visited the union on the 12th alt., and subse-
quently reported thereon, was called, and his evidenoe was
in fact • repetition of the particulars as they appeared en
the Lancet of the 19th ult., the general accuracy of which
he entirely confirmed. The inquiry was again adjourned.
THE ItIETROPOLITAN RAILWAY IN THE Cot NTY
Coral. —At the Mlebone County Court yesterday
the Metropolitan Railway Company figured as defen-
dants. From the evidense of plaintiff, Mr. Taplin, an
auctioneer, of Walham-green, it appeared that a few
minutes before 10 o'clock on Sunday might, the 6th Oct°.
her, he took a second-class ticket for Chelsea at the Edge-
ward-read station of the Metropolitan Railway. On
arriving at Kensington the passengers were told the train
went no further that night, and when shown the Chelsea
tickets the inspector at the station said he was very sorry
for ;.„ but that they must get home the best way they
could. On being asked for his ticket plaintiff refused to
give it up unless the company took him to Chelsea, and
this not being done, be yesterday claimed a guinea from
the company for expenses sustained by him through non-
fulfilment of their contract. He also produced his ticket
in court. The company's solicitor, Mr. Tillsley, urged in
defence thst on the night in question no tickets were issued
for Chelsea after 9 o'clock at Edgware-road station, and
also that the plaintiff's ticket produced had not been
issued till the following morning. Both these allegations
were sworn to by two of the company's booking clerks.
Mr. Edward Clarke, for the plaintiff, demanded to see the
book kept at Edgware-reed station, showing the business
done in the issue of tickets and after a careful examination
of the book in question, he called his honour's attention to
two important erasures. The judge, Sir J. E. Wilmot,
after making a personal examination, said that on the page
for Sunday, Oct. 6, • number corresponding with that on
plaintiff's ticket had been inserted in the book amongst the
numbers of the tickets issued to other passengers that ti.y.
This number, as also the fare paid for it, had been subse-
quently "erased," and both transferred to the following
page, in which the Monday's business was recorded. This
example of the mode in which • railway company kept
their books involved, his honour said, • very grave suns,
cMn, and in giving judgment for the plaintiff, with cote,
he pointedly stated to the company a solicitor that the
defence raised was, to say the least, moat shabby and con-
temptible.