The Express.
London, England, 1866-01-29 00:00:00

THE POOR-LAW GUARDIANS AND Ti
CASUAL WARDS.

(From the Times.)
The parish is the germ of our national liberties,
and the Poor Law is a peculiarly English institation,whiela
has never become acclimatised in other lands ; but meat
events make us doubt whether we have resign to be proud
of parishes or poor laws—at least as they exist in the me-
tropolis. The picture of the casual wards is the Lam-
beth Workhouse, drawn by au amateur casual, was
in itself sufficiently horrible to overeat our self-
complacency, but the mere description of moo and
boys of all ages and of every gradation in de-
stitution and vies indiscriminately huddled together
ostler an open shed on a bleak winter night is nothing to
what has since been revealed. The condition of the Lam-
' beth ward might have been excused as the consequence of
some sudden pressure, or it might have been condemned,
reformed, sad forgotten, had it been the result of negligence
or dishonesty on the pert of the subordinate officers of the
Auden ; unfortwistely it has been justified by the
guardians, who ought to have prevented such • thing
from Wog possible. One itilleiential member of
the Lambeth vestry declared himself not a whit lees
happy since be had become acquaisted with the reel
nature of the treatment which a casual pauper receives
is Lambeth, and his marvellous serenity was approved by
ethos who followed hint. lee, West, been-
dose In Lambeth in deference to the public outcry, but
that something has only intensified the worst &hernias-
tiou of the pump-shed. It would almost seem as if the
guardians could not uederstand what the world
sees in their wards to complsia of. Bat the Lam-
beth vestry are not alone in their notions of how to fulfil
their public duties. The vestry of St. Pancras, are,
oblivious
of duty, more determined to sacrifice every
If possible, more iinpatiset of criticism, more
obligation of
their office to their views of their own important*. The
guardians of Stepney seem to have deliberately formed a
design of evading, if not of making a gain out of, the burden
of sheltering the houselem poor who might apply to them
for relief. Having fitted up proper wards, and thereupon
received a certificate from the commissioner entitling them
to be repaid their expenses out of the punnet retool the metro.
pole, they quietly proceeded to dismantle the sleeping-places
they had provided, and to substitute for them sheds which
ware even worse than the famous one at Lambeth. The
trick has been discovered, the certificate withdrawn, and
the Stepney guardians will suffer for their cupidity. Mr.
Farrell met them on Thursday to remonstrate with them
on their conduct, sad, as they at ones proceeded to convert
the meeting into • secret session, we are left to infer that
no possible excuse can be devised for what they have done.
We have no sympathy with the professional philastbropy
which makes a pet of everything that is depraved. We
acknowledge that there is • strong presumption of vice
against every houselem wanderer applying for casual re-
lief. We see the danger of making that relief more cam.
fortable than the shelter which a willing but unskilled LIN
bourer can earn for himself, and it would probably
be too much to ask the amateur casual to dare
the horrors of the commonest of common lodgine-
houses. If every seedy applicant could get a aoat•
fortable bed and a substantial breakfast at the east of
• little wholesome exercise after his meal, the last »lie of
self-dependence would vanish, and the virtue of the clam
Immediately above those who are now habitual casuals
would be slowly eaten away. The vagrant would have the
workhouse for his lodgings by sight and • low public.
house for his club by day, and would want no
more. It is secressay to avow so much for two reasons—
find, that the existing indignation against work-
house management may not be betrayed into mis
chievona consequences ; secondly, that parish vestries and
workhouse guardians may not misrepresent the views of
their critics, and put the question on a false issue. For, in
truth, these remarks, however just, are beside the point.
The charge against metropolitan guardians is not that they
have failed to make their casual iumates perfectly
easa-
fortabla, but they have not attempted to secure that re-
pulsive decency which is the ideal of Poor-law hospitality.
They have abandoned the destitute and the vicious to
their deviate, they have mixed them up indiscriminately
together without attempting any supervision over them,
awl when the fsulte of their management are pointed out
they see nothing antis in what they have dose ; when they
attempt • correction they make bad worse. The
Lambeth guardians have given up the pump-shed,
and have hired some common lodging-houses in the
neighbourhood of their workhouse. The lodging-
houses are thereupon withdrawn from the regale-
twos of the lodging-house Act, and the guardians have
appareatly taken no pales to supply the lose. The teas-
' menus are described as dirty and dilapidated, and the
casual paupers are huddled together in them, so that the
door of • elespingsroma resembles • gulf in the Inferno,
when the forms of the lost are intertwined in naked,
halal's" occlusion. The guardians of Stepney have
rivalled this picture is a loft whims their walls *Lath they
' fitted up, as described, by way of substitute for the
' certified ward. Their custom, before it was exposed asd
' stopped, was to give the casual, after he bad bathed
in water which bad been used by five or six predecessors, •
blanket, which he carried around him till he had climbed •
ladder leading to the loft. When he reached the door the
blanket ~dropped for the use of another, sod the vagrant
went naked to one of the hay-bags covering the floor,
' with which and • rug be made his bed. The abomina-
tion has been checked, but what security is there
that it may not have been replaced by something as
bed, when we see the first thought of the guardians to be
resentment at inquiry, and their part conduct tells us that
they will sot scruple at any means of escaping their obliga-
tions' We know their motives and their temper, and,
indeed, if there were any doubt abs.ut them, the conduct
of the vestry of St. Pancras in dealing with come warnings
of their medical officers would sufficiently enlighten on
The health officer of St. P•ocres is Dr. Hillier. physician to
the Hospital for Sick Children and attached to the Unleersity
College Hospital. and he very properly thought it his
duty to address the banitary Committee of the vestry on
the steps which should be taken at the commencement of
the year as a precaution against the visitation of cholers
in
summer. He pointed out that neighbouring Islington had
been for sax months purifying, aul that typhus
already prevailed in St. eancine. The report of Dr.
Hillier was read in the full vestry, and the indignation
it
excited was very instructive. One vestryman interrupted
the reeding, by denouncing the report as " bordering on
impertinence,' and instantly moved a resolater (carried
unanimously) calling on Dr. Hillier to justify his
statements. A little more of the report was then got
through, when another vestryman broke in to remark
on " the coolness" of the conduct of medical officers
towards the ye/tries "by whom tier are engaged and
paid." A third characterised " the report as couched in
laspiase calculated to bring the vestry into tiontempt."
(Hear, hear.) The medical officers of the metropolis had
precisely the tame object in view— (bear, bear)—and, with
the 'notch of a comer fur Middlesex at their bead—(loud
cries of ' Hear, bete)— they sought by all mesas in their
power to bring ridicule on the various vestnes."
Metropolitan vestrymen and guardiase peed not fear
what others may do to impose them to ridicule and con-
tempt. What they bave to dread is the recompense of
their owe conduct. It was well said by Napoleon that •
statesman's heart should be in has head, bat thee, men
have hearts nowhere, nor heads either. They are
public I noctionaries, yet they have no conception of
public reeponeibilities. No patron of a rotten borough
cold mimeses more absolutely the DOII01) of • trust
given to him to administer than these elected representa-
tives of metropolitan householders. They are chosen for
the most tart from a clan whose education and motiments
are equally safavowable to tee growth of generosity or the
development of statesmanlike ideas, aud they sacrifice every-
Wag to a petty selfishness or a wretebedeelf-cooceit. It is
painful to ray so much of men who are ira pancake' of great
power for good or evil. The conviction is, however, forced
upon us that however fit they may be to govere the nation,
they are daily proving themselves more disqualified for
undertaking the government of London. The managemeng
of the Bouseleas Poor Act is but one item in a long indict-
ment against their incapacity. Nor have we much hopes
in the obeli-repeated suggestion that persons of a different
grade might be advantageously introduced into the com-
position of metropolitan vestries. There is no absolute bar
preventii-g theca from undertaking the dates of guardian
and vestryman now, and the fact that each offices are habi-
tually undertaken by men of education and refinement in
the country shows that their absence from metropolitan
boards is not due to say disinclination on their part to en-
gage in onerous work. The truth is that the qualities
which give such men weight in rural parishes are lost sight
of in Louden, and those only are or can be chosen whose
bushier relations have made them knows melte the
holden of of their neighbourhood. If metropolitan vestries
and boards of peardishs are to be improved by an infuaioa
of fresh blood, it Banat be done by a reform in the way of
electieg them. If this is impossible, there is no alternative
short of the establishment of • single authority, responsible
to parbaimmit, which shall be shamed with the goner
masted the metropolis.