The Express.
London, England, 1867-03-07 00:00:00

.L\ CEI'M.

Tins EVENING. VIE TWo POLTS. Mr. Wlddicomb.—And
ROFOE Er NOIE. Masan. rockier, Emery, Jordan. Moreland,
Fitzpatrick. thitou, Lomas, Aictrawa Prico, rte. ;
Ira. L Murray, :1114.1 licurade, Grattau, and C. Lecieraq.

STRAN-D,

IRN EVRVINCI NIA R I.:1) DA I "i; UTERI% AND YOT'NG 111 US.
—F;SM Kilt I,IIA TIIE s hAs A Tlt oN 041 AT. mew".
h0r0,..1,,me5, h0i,,,0u, and I ui net . SWARIN orough,
110 111,. Neu too. WvAlltursloy, 6.c.—Autt A al,lL rwxhirs.

HOLBORN.
Tips Eemenfo, MY TORN NKXT. Mr. Delmore: WINN
Vodte and Lenomc kod k*LY INO SCUD. Messrs. Neville, Bel-
more, Blake, %% Bair, : Mesdames V. Josephs, C. Moulders,
Resale Foots, Addeo, Lennox, Raymond,: ac.

KRITANNIA.
TRI. EVENING, AsMULLI s. ult, TIIE LITTLE DEVIL'S
E E 1.1. “D.r which the opc.sung .4 the PAN
.11 )\I 1%1 V11.1i11...7 Wit h the Tranvformati..n St.cne. 11n. Lane &
31issJacolw.-1.. In-c wrth TIJK LAST LINK or UIVE.

WATICR AT LONDON BRIDGE.
THI9 DAT —Th.rnint:, CR Otra Afternoon, 3h. 510.
TO-ROAttote—lloruing, 2lm Afterimon, aim

LONDON, THURSDAY, MARCH 7.

Torus are two modes of judging of a proposed
Act of Parliament. 'We may inquire as to its aim
and intention, or, as we more commonly say, its
principle ; or we may ask how it will work, and
what will probably be its effect. Mr. HARDY'S
Poor Low Bill has hitherto been judged mainly by
the former method, and its soundness of principle
is undeniable. When its probable working comes
to be analysed there is reason to fear that it will
leave the fruitful teiuree of abuse and MlA-
management practically mit inched, and that
definite responsibility and direct control are
apparently as far off as ever. Let us take
the representative case of TiMeerriv DALY,
and see to what extent the sufferings of that
wretched pauper would be ameliontted were it to
Weill' in a metropolitan workhouse managed under
the provisions of the measure now before the
Hinge. TllO medical officer attending him will
be better paid; the drugs supplied Inim will pro-
bably lie of sup..rior quality, and he will no longer
be liable to lie with a gibbering idiot in the bed to
his right, and a mall want fever case in the one
to his left. The latter contingency is doubtless
illiprohnble now, but the Act makes it impossible
in the future, and is so far good. Further, his
chances of being nursed in Wilke way are increased,
RS the charge of nurses will be defrayed by the
common fund, awl his workhouse bed-sores will
theoretically entitle him to 1,000 feet of cubic
space about his bed. Oil the other hand, doctors
and nurses will be appointed by the guardians,
and the latter will be if the guardian type.
lit the poorer districts, relatives and friends of
the people sitting en the local board will be made
paid nurses, and upon these will the onus rest of
curtailing all expenditure net falling on the com-
mon fund, mid so ensuring the re-election of their
guardian patrons by keeping down the rates.
Ditty's treatment will depend, therefore, practi-
cally upon the sante contending interests as now ;
and the administration of the sick ward he lies in
may he faulty as ever. Nor is his right to 1,000
instead of 500 feet of cubic space ensured by Mr.
HARDY'S Bill. The Poor-law Board may order
this amount, and the guardians may disobey the
order, and if litigation follows, may go into court
saying," We coaaut give the space asked,our work-
" house does not afford it, and you ask us to per-
" form an impossibility." It is idle to urge
soundness of principle in defence of a mea-
sure under which such anomalies as these
are possible ; and Poor-law reformers, before
accepting what is admitted to be a
compromise, should carefully consider how far
the great bulk of the sick poor will he benefited
by the change. It is upon the administration
rather than the letter of the law that the real
value of Mr. lIARDY.,4 proposed alterations rests ;
and directly we ask how this improvement or
that reform is to be ensured, we find feebleness of
purpose awl laxity of control. Mr. HARDY is
ready to give up the 100/. rating as a qualification
for the nominees who are to sit with and exer-
cise a moral influence over guardians, and will
accept any other test which should seem to secure
a supply of zealous and efficient men. We doubt,
however, whether the realities of the nominee
position have been sufficiently weighed ; and
whether in practice those filling it would nut be
driven to one of two things—either they would
become ornamental, but useless, appendages,
playing into guardian hands, or they would resign
their seats in disgust at the insult and annoyance
inflicted on them by their elected colleagues. It
is only those who have sat through the board-
room discussions at such places as Bermondsey, the
Strand Union, and Clerkenwell, who can realise the
tone and temper ci num, inly pervading them ; but if it
be remembered that personal charges of the grossest
character aro among the amenities of debate, that
at one of the vestries quoted " it's a lie " was fob
lowed by a hand-to-hand fight between two of the
local legislators, it may be well to ask how educated
men are to be induced to sit on hoards where they
will be constantly liable to such treatment, where
they will be limn:mealy in a minority, and where
they will only have the shadowy and uncertain
authority of the Poor-law Board to hack them up?
Some isolated beings there may be in whom the
sense of duty and the instinct of combativeness
are ex.nitionally strong, and who will consent to
be nominated and continue to serve ; but they
will be practically helpless, and administration will,
it is to be feared, drift into the same condition of
muddled hopelessness as now.
The plain truth is that the whole of the sick
poor should be taken out of the hands of the
guardians ; and Mr. Haitey's measure is good to
the extent to which this principle is recognised,
and had in so much as it is ignored. There can
be no valid reason why one class of disease should
be taken out of the workhouse infirmary and
another left there, for, as Mr. VILLIERS re-
marked the other night, to suppose that pauper
inmates would simulate illness in order to serve
their parish by being kept out of the common fund
is attributing to them a depth of party feeling not
common to their own or any other class. The
broad argument that rates for sickness should be
general and not local, because the poorest districts