The Express.
London, England, 1866-06-22 00:00:00

THE TREATMENT OF THE SICK POOR.

POOR-LAW INQUIRY.7(TIILS DAY.)

This morning Mr. }arnal', C. 8., opened an in-
vestigation at the Paddington Workhouse, relative to the
treatment of the sick poor in that establishment.
Mr. Parnell said before the proceedings commenced ho
wished to say he attended by order of the Poor-law Board
to institute en inquiry into the truth of certain statements
which were made by Mr. Ernest Hart to Earl Carnarvon,
who communicated. with the Poor-law Board on the
subject. A copy of the statements had been dent to the
guardians of the Paddington Workhot s.. He would now
examine Mrs. Bateman, the nurse of the workhouse, and
the guardians could afterwards cross-examine her if they
should think it necessary to do so.
Mr. Montagu Bere, barrister, said he attended profes-
sionally on the occasion on behalf of the guardians, and he
was instructed by them to express their strong desire that
the commissioner should sift the matter of inquiry to the
bottom to search for the truth. Every facility would be
given by the guardians, and no obstruction would be
thrown in Mr. Farnall's way.
Mr. Parnell said the Archbishop of York attended, and
be wished to know if the guar cans had any objection to
his remaining in the board-room during the inquiry.
Mr. Bere said the guardians could not have the slightest
objection to the presence of the Archbishop of York, on the
contrary, they wished to have him present.
The Archbishop of York then entered the board-room,
and was subsequently followed by the Earl of (.larnarvon.
Jane Bateman—l was trained for three years in King's
College Hospital as nurse. I entered on my duties at the
Paddington workhouse on the 30th of April. No one here
instructed me as to my duties.
Mr. Fenian here remarked that there were three para-
graphs in the instructions of the Poor-law Board intended
for nurses, and he would call the attention of the guar-
dians to the necessity of reading them to those officers.
A Guardian asked the witness if the instructions had
been placed in her hands.
The witness replied in the negative.
Guardian—Were they hung in your room
Witness—Never. I had nothing to do with the female
sick and infirm wards. I have seen three sick children,
one with inflamed eyes, a second with water on
the brain, and a third suffering from chicken
pox, all sleeping together in one bed. This existed when I
left, and all the other beds in the infirmary were full.
When the medical officer saw the children in the
day, two of them were up, and he was not made
aware that the children so slept together. I
did not know that it was my duty to report to
the medical officer anything I knew to be wrong and I did
not tell him. Ho knew the infectious diseases were
warded with the others. All the cases of sick, the aged,
the young, the infirm, the chronically and the acutely sick
were all mixed up together from two to three in a bed,
and I was told by one of the women that there had been
as many as five in a bed. I have known an
aged patient of dirty habits and covered with vermin
warded with sick children. There were no night nurses,
paid or pauper, for the wards. I had as many as 70 pa-
tients to attend to. I did not find out for some time that
the woman was in the condition I have described, and
then everybody told me what a dirty woman she was.
[The inquiry was proceeding when our report left.]

A very painful railway accident is reported froi
SheffieliL It appears that a passenger by the Midland ex
carrion train to Buxton, yesterday morning, on passing
the works of Messrs. Firth and Sons, threw out several
toppers. Some workmen who were standing near com-
menced scrambling for them, and at the same moment a
mineral train came up, and ran over one of the poor fel-
lows, killing him on the spot.
A letter from Rome of the 15th says :—" The
suspicion with which prelates from Rome are looked on
at Florence proved inconvenient to the Australian Arch-
bishop of Sydney, Dr. Folding, who, returning hence to
England, was arrested in that city last week on the very
evening of his arrival from Rome, but liberated on the
following morning. Archbishop Cullen has arrived here
in time for the approaching Consistory, at which he is
to he raised to the rank of cardinaL The Earl and
Countess 'a! Northesk, with their family and suite, left
Rome on Monday for Florence and the north.
The president of the Society for the Prevention
of Cruelty to Animals in New York has preferred a com-
plaint against a merchant captain who arrived at that port
with a cargo of turtles from the coast of Florida. The
president in his affidavit swore " that in the hold of the
captain's vessel a number of turtles were confined in a
cruel manner by lying said turtles on their backs and
having holes through their flesh and cords run through
said holes for the purpose of securing said turtles." The
captain has been held to bail. The counsel for the de-
fendant said that he should ask for the discharge of his
client on the ground that the case does not come under the
act by which the society was incorporated, as a turtle is
not an animal but of the fish species.
During the three days ending the 26th of last
month nearly 7,000 emigrants landed at Now York from
Europe in ten steamers, one of which was from Hamburg,
two from Bremen, five from Liverpool, one from Glasgow,
and one from
A CFICRCH wrrnovr A CLERGYMAN. —ln one of
the districts of Sunderland, that of All Saints, in Monk-
',mouth parish, a most anomalous state of things
Cults. The incumbent of the parish, embracing some 5,000
or 6,000 people, is the Rev. B. Kennicott, who lately
appeared in the Divorce Court at the suit of his wife for
cruelty. For some time past the whole of the duties have
been performed by the Rev. Mr. Bennett, curate. The
latter, however, has for three weeks been absent on leave,
and during that time no provision bad been made for
tarrying in the service. The first two Sunday mornings
the congrention, a miserably small one, waited for a long
tune fora minister, but none appearing, a Sunday-school
teacher read a portion of the prayers. Last Sunday
morning five persons alone were present, and waited in the
church, but no one appeared to conduct the service. The
church is a handsome atone building erected only a few
Yeoman, and the present occupant of the living, a com-
Porotively young man, is the only clergyman who has filled
the office. The living is worth 3,00/. a yoir. Representa-
tions are about to be made to the Bishop of Durham in
truer that some steps may be taken to remove the present
lamentable state of things.—Mancliester Esconiner.
The Gipps Land Times says that the English
Pheasant is now numbered among the feathered inhabitants
of the weeds of some parts of Australia.