The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-12-26 00:00:00

TIIR RETURNS

The Clerk reported that he had examined all the books
kept by the several officials of the union, and found them
correctly made up.
The Master of the Hospital reported that last week there
were 120 patients in that establishment, since when twenty
five had been admitted, seventeen discharged, and fire
deaths. This week there were 123, and for the correspond-
ing week of last year there were 118.
The Master of the Workhouse reported that last week
there were 672 paupers in the workhouse ' • since then
thirty three had been admitted, one birth, and sixteen dis-
charged. This week there were 690, and for the corres-
ponding week of last year there were 693.
Cheques to the amount of £ , were voted for the
relief of the out door poor, and also for the salaries of the
officials.

The Clerk stated. in answer to a ques ion put by a guar-
dian, that there was £2,00p in the bank, not quite half the
amount required to meet the demands.

THE FITZPATRICK DISPUTE

At the last meeting of this board it was unanimously
decided that in consequence of a certain appendix being
placed to a medical certificate, namely, " this is getting
medical orders with a vengeance," that Mr. Fitzpatrick, the
medical officer in vesticn, should be ordered to attend before
the board, and explain what he meant by adopting such a
course of conduct, which was deemed by the board to be
both offensive and impertinent; there woe also ano'her
charge made against the same medical gentleman, namely,
that of neglecting to attend upon a pauper patient (Duff•) ;
and it was then decided that the two cases should be decided
at one and the same time. Consequently, on Wednesday,
Mr. Fitzpatrick, the medical officer,with Duffy, the pauper,
were in attendance, and after the usual routine business had
been disposed of, one of the officials of the union was
requested to invite Mr. Fitzpatrick into the board room.
That gentleman attended, and was invited to take a seat ;
after which,
The Chairman, with his usual conrtesy, explained to Mr.
Fitzpatrick the offence the remark had given to the Board,
and that it was unanimously considered as perfectly uncalled
for, and not at all justifiable.
Mr. Fitzpatrick then, with what some persons might
censider impertinance, but others might attribute it to the
impetousity of his temperament, asked the clerk to produce
the certificate he had sent in on the previous week, observ-
ing that he could not explain the one without he had the
other.

The Clerk replied that he ha I not the certificate with
him.

The Chairman said, all that the board required was,
" What was meant by the offensive words he had appended
to the return ?"

Mr. Fitzpatrick then requested the chairman to inform
him, if there had not been a select committee appointed to
investigate such cases as these, and why it was that he bad
been the first medical officer who had been singlel out to
have his name paraded before the public is the newspapers.
The Chairinan said it was in consequence of the observe_
tions he had placed at the end of the return, the board
unanimously beine, of opinion that such remarks were in_
judicious and uncalled-for.'
Mr. Fitzpatrick said on that point there might be a
3ifference of opinion, as there was nothing in them that
was unbecoming a gentleman, or derogatory to the profes.
sion to which he belonged.
The Chairman said he did not sit there to bandy words,
or their meaning, with Mr. Fitzpatrick. All the board
wanted was an explanation.

Mr. Fitzpatrick then, with considerable volubility, and
with marked emphasis on certain words, informed the
chairman that he should not give any explanation of the
words, unless he was allowed to give a f,311 explanation, and
one to his own satisfaction, of all that had occurred. Ile
would not be in the sligh est degree tramm, lied or fettered
in the language he used, so long cs he did not go beyond the
bounds of decorum, er use such words that were unbecoming
a gentleman, or derogatory to the professioi to which he
belonged. If he was not allowed to state all that he had
to say, without being fettered; he should sit down and leave
the room, and apply to the Poor Law Board to send an
Inspector down to have a Lull investization into the matter.
After some further energetic conversation had taken place,
as to the etiquette of the discussion,

The Chairman said he should insis
giving an explanation of what he meant

on Mr. Fitzpatrick

Mr. Fitzpatrick then, with much energy and a con-
siderable amount of tautology, proceeded to explain that
the reason he wrote those words to the report which had
been considered as offensive was, that on the week preced-
ing he had received an order to attend upon a pauper,
named Taylor, at the extreme end of his district, at eleven
o'clock in the morning, and at half-past one o'clock he had
attended to the order, when he found that the pauper had
died on the previous night, so that when he went the man
had been dead eighteen hours, thus charging the relieving
officer with neglectinv, his duty. This latter observation
was strongly denied byi' all the guardi ins in at!'endance, and
after a little sparring between the awuss.d and the accusers,
the scene waq put an end to by

The Chairman asking Mr. Fi'zpatrick if he intended any
impertinence or disrespect towards the board when he wrote
those words to the return ?

That gentleman replied that be most certainly did not
intend to be offensive or disrespectful to the board, and the
board, through their ch iirman, accepted that as an apology,
and so ended the firs charge.
The man Duffy was then called in, and as it had been
stated that Mr. Fitzpatrick had refused to attend upon him,
he, in answer to the chairman, sail, that when Mr. Fitz-
patrick called to visit him he was out, and did not return
for ahout a qu irter of an hoar ; and th it when, on the next
day, he called at the surgery, Mr. Fitzpatrick refused to
have anything to say to him
In answer to this charge Mr. Fitzpatrick said, that when
be called et the house he found two women there, one of
whom was smoking, and that they told him that the man
was out, arid never said that he would b 3 in shortly, if they
had he should have sat down and waited until he came in,
but from what they said he was satisfi.?ii that he called
before he was expected, and that the man was out of the
house, therefore he went away. When the man called upon
him at his house he did not appear to be in pain, and he
would not attend upon him, and from what had taken
place he thought he had acted in a proper way. It was
not his practice to call upon people a second time, when
they were from home the first.
The Chairman here read a certificate from Mr. Hol-
lows of the Old Swan, who had attended upon the pauper
since Mr. Fitzpatrick had refused to do so, and he stated
that he was suffering from "acute rheumatism and inflame-
tiou in the bladder," therefore the board were of opinion
that he should have been attended to when he called at the
surgery.. . . . .

-Fi.zpatrick, on bearing that certificate, said he
should be prepared to prove that this man, whom the
guardians bad employed to attend the man, had been
endeavouring to get persons to conspire together against
him, there was no person suffering from acute rheumatism
and inflAmation in the bladder could have walked to his
surgery, and that the certificate given was false, and the
person who gave it was not qualified to judge of such eases.
He also went on to say tbat he did not think it was his
duty to look after the poor, when he did not do so to other
patients.
To this last assertion the Chairman replied amidst the
applause of the board, that the poor had as much right to
be attended upon as the rich, and should have the same
attention, and concluded by asking the medical gentleman,
whether, supposing the Mayor of Liverpool had called upon
him, to give him a visit, and that upon his going the
Mayor had been out, and then supposing the Mayor had
called at his surgery, whether he would have been treated
as that popr man had been ?

Mr. Fitzpatrick replied, that he would cot call a second
times on any patient.

Mr. Olney., the relieving officer, then gave some brief
explanation relative to the case brought forward by Mr.
Fitzpatrick, which was perfectly satisfactory.
Mr. Harrison moved, and Mr. Baynes seconded a reso-
Ixtion to the effect that Mr. Fitzpatrick was deserving of
the censure of the board, for not having afforded medical
relief to the man Duffy, when he called at the surgery.
This was unanimously adopted, and thus that part of the
business concluded.

THII NEW WORKHOUSES.
The following report was then read from Mr. Arthur

Ilohne

TO THE CHAIRMAN AND COMMITTEE OF GUARDIANS OF THE

WEST DERBY UNION

" Liverpool, December 13th, 1856

" Gentlemen,--In accordance with your instructions, I
have carefully surveyed the buildings in Mill.lane, with a
view to their present and future extension, to meet the in-

creasing wants of the union

unders

open Br

Gentlemen

"1 have to report-1, upon the present buildings. 2,
[low they can be extended. 3, Cost of extension. 4, Effect
of extension. 5, Whether it would be advisable to erect a
new workhouse on a more suitable and extended site.

"First.—lt appears that the present buildings, situated
on the northwest side of Mill lane, Everton, was erected
about fourteen years ago ; at which time the inmates num-
bered about 208, and for which there would no doubt be
sufficient accommodation.

" The buildings are substantially built with brick, and
stone dressings ; have been both light and airy, although

there does not seem to have been any attempt at elassifica-
tion, beyond the mere separation of the sexes.
_.

" Th) original space occupied by the buiidings did not
extend beyond the stables and piggeries, which are now
however, not far from the centre, in consequence of the
extension of the land, and the erection of bays', girls'.
and infants' schools. Laundry and wards over, hospital
and other buildings (see plan). It appears in the female
section an addition has been made to the dry rooms and
dormitories by lengthening the wing into the women's
yard.

" The house is in good order, and clean in every depart
ment, and the sewerage ssems to have been properly con,
structed, and the ventilation well attended to.

" Second Extension.—lt is found that the number of
inmates has been gradually on the increase from 208 to 787
in the 14 years that the building has been occupied; the
highest number being 787, and the lowest within the last
few years 590; the average being 688, the annual increase
being 34. The original structure not having b
for more than half the 'Umber now in the hour
buildings have been raised from
cies of the case demanded ; it
od that a lar,
is now 0.,

.ge portion of what a

rendenn
design further accommodation without

fore, be readily

icult t

airing grounds, and affecting the light and tree circulation
of air. On reference to the plan which I have prepared to
illustrate this report, it will be seen that, in order t(
for the wants of the male side, I have proposed to (
a wing 82 feet long by 24 feet wide, a
viz., ground floor, day rooms, two up

--this would provide space for 60 additional
of the day rooms. The smith's shop, now or
be easily removed to a more suitable po
" The next extension very much req
and children's departments

provide

site, c

This can be provided I

raising one or two stories over the laundry and nurseries
This would:give 35 beds, for 72 children, on one floor, with
out any alteration in the rooms below.

The hospital is merely a shed, never intended for its
present use, and quite unfit for occupation, as there is not
any possibility of separating medical, surgical, or other
cases. It is also imperfect as regards ventilation ; in fact,
it appears strange that the inmates have escaped hospital
and other favors in such a confined and unhealthy range of
sheds.

" This section should be entirely removed, and a new
building erected, having proper reception rooms, nurses',
bath, and operating rooms, with classified wards for the
different cases. As the space at your disposal is small, I
advise that this structure should be two stories high.
warmed, and properly ventilated.
" An additional space might be obtained, on the female
side, by the further extension of the wings ; but I am
afraid it would very much interrupt the space of the airing
yards, already reduced by former erections, and obstruct
that free circulation of air so essential in buildings of this
character.

" I consider the present position of the stables and pig.
genies as very objectionable, being near the dining hall, and
other occupied buildings. lam not prepared, however, to
say where they could be removed, unless additional land is
purchased behind the schools and hospital. The kitchen
and domestic part is badly arranged, and too much cur-
tailed for such an establishment.
" Third—Cost of Extensions—

The cost of the extension to the male side,
three stories, would be about •• • •
The cost of constructing new rooms over
the laundry, strengthening tie roof, &o.

The cost of erecting new hospital, with proper
accommodation, as described .

£1,040 0 0

800 to 900

The total cost would therefore be about 2,500 0 0
" Fourth.—Efect of Extension.—These extensions would
provide additional accommodation for about four or five
years, at an expense of say £1,700, the cost of the hospital
not included. It ,is, therefore, for the board to consider,
how far it would be judicious to carry out these proposed
buildings, on the present limited space, or whether it would
be better to purchase land at the back, for a more extended
and permanent provision. In doing so, however, it must
be borne in mind, that the buildings are already much de-
tached, and difficult to superintend, which would be further
increased, if extended beyond the line of the present bound-
ary. It, therefore, becomes worth consideration.

6' Fifthly.—Whether it would be advisable to add only
to the present 'buildings, so far at is absolutely necessary,
and to provide a more suitable and cheaper site on which
to erect a new building, capable of meeting the wants of

this rapidly-increasingiinion

Inept at a very high r

rchase of cheaper la,

o be, difficulty of

a an extent as

would adUnit of out-door labour and employment.
" The erection of a building with proper classification
and capable of future extension, without interfering with
the integrity of the plan, as regards proper superintendence,
classification, light, or ventilation.

"Should theb-dardians decide upon the extension of the

present bnildi 'g upon_the plan sug,

requisite pleas, s
the course of six i

" Trusting tho

s from

_port may

ested in t

and teu

may be ready in

,tore, I remain,

our obedient servant
"Annum. HILL HoLmu, Architect."

TO THE CHAIRMAN AND COMMITTER OF GUARDIANS OF TIE

Esr DERBY 'UNION.
'• Liverpool, Dec. 22, 1856.
" Gantlemen,—At your meeting, held hero on the 19th
instant, having been requested further to consider the best
position for the hospital, stables, and piggeries, on the pre-
sent land, I beg to state that I have prepared a plan, marked
No. 2, on which the hospital is placed at the end of the
new wing, or man's extension, and the stables piggeries,
&c.; on the site of the present boys' hospital.
" It will be seen, on reference to the drawings, that the
whole of the workshops, stables, and piggeries are placed in
such a position, that they will form a blank wall next to the
boys' playground, the windows, doors, and yard for those
buildings being tamed away from the schools,and facing the
The materials of the present stables, &c., would of
course be re-used, so that the expense, in my opinion, would
not be more than £250, to carry out this very necessary and
important removal. The large space which would be left
open where the workshops and stables now stand. would
give ample room for the new hospital, besides opening up
a free passage for air and light to the main buildings.

" I am not prepared to submit any plans for the hospital
at present, as, before doing so, I should prefer having a
consultation with the governor and medical officers, in order
to arrive at the amount of accommodation required ; but,
I may state that I am of opinion that the site now proposed
would give great facilities fa supervision and inspection,
being near the main building, at the same time having a
distinct and separate entrance yard, &o. The cost of the
hospital would of course depend upon its extent. —I remain,
gentlemen, your obedient servant,
"ARTHUR HILL HOLMIC, Architect."
After some conversation, and the propositions of several
ammdments, it was decided, on the motion of Mr. Lunt,
seconded by Mr. I. Elwards, that the subject of the report
should be considered that day fortnight.
The Board then adjourned.

4
WHY SAILORS DESERT FROM AMERICAN SHIPS,

peculiar hard

Amore

cow, of tt

thing mor
concl

on to v

mots to

architects ha

and library

architect at its

rating

suffrag

made s
stands

11 thes

carp pull ur

Aution

regard to the

derate the al

ever, thA there

The desertion of seamen from Americ an merchant ships
in foreign ports has latterly, we regret to say, become an
event of frequent occurrence. Last summer a rather
remarkable case of this kind took place in England.
Several sailors, who had contracted on American soil for
the voyage out and back, absconded from their vessels at
North Shields in the River Tyne, and thus violated the
engagements to which they had voluntarily become parties,
in this, their native or adopted country. When the details
of this case first reached us, we could perceive no valid
-excuse for such conduct on the part of the absconding
seamen, and at once denounced it as unjustifiable and
criminal—nay, we went so far on that occasion, as even to
cry out for a remedy for an evil which appeared equally in:
jurious to the interestsof our shipowners and our commerce.
In this particular instance the conduct of the sailors was
probably what we described it ; but our subsequent expe-
rience in cases of a similar class has led us to the conclu.
Bien that oppression on the part of ship's captains and
their subordinate officers too often constrains seamen to
abscond from their vessels and violate their engagements.
The Liverpool correspondent of the London Times, in a
recent communication, reports shameful things of some
officers of American merchant ships that have visited that
port. Outrages by officers of United States' vessels, as well
on the high seas as in the Mersey, are, according to him,
of common occurrence. Seamen, he assures us, are not un-
frequently seen to jump into the river on the arrival of our
ships, that they may swim ashore and escape the brutality
of our mates. Nor is this the worst. Numerous cases
are admitted into
,the hospital in which men have been
beaten, he asserts, " within an inch of their lives " while
for several days before the commuication in question
was penned, Mr. Mansfield, the stipendiary magistrate of
Liverpool had been engaged in the investigation of charges
against three of the mates of the American ship Ocean
Monarch, and hearing evidence which disclosed a series
of atrocities of the most dreadful and disgusting nature.
The result of this investigation was that the three officers

A excite

with the
Chester ;

amenable to a wl-

mischievous pi

ward with

people volu

intolerable tt

public eneou

case one o

ism) naively a

were found guilty, and- fined in proportion to their
respective criminality. Now, these cases reveal a state
of things which is not less discreditable 'to our national
character than injurious to the interests of our commer-
cial marine. Of course, such disgraceful conduct is far,
very far from being characteristic of the officers of our
mercantile navy as a class. But there can be no question
that it is too extensively prevalent among them, and that
in every case where it exists it not only induces desertion
on the part of our seamen, but renders desertion under
such circumstances justifiable and excusable. Let there
-be only less of tyranny and brutality on the part of our
officers and :they may depend on it that there will be
less desertion and more fidelity to their several engage-
meals on the part of our seamen.—New York Paper.

Winiftj,‘=fta,.....al

LIVERPOOL LIBRARY COMPETITION

A careful perusal of the proceedings of the Liverpool
Town COuncil, as reported in last week's Building News,
brings one to the unpleasant conviction, that the evils of
our present system of ercbitectural competition are every
day becoming worse and worse. They have at last shed
their malignant influence over Liverpool itself—the very
city of art patronage, sans pear et sans reproche ; and, as
poor Haydon declared it, " the Florence of England."
Mr. Allow, the author of the design, " Con Amore,"
belongs, we belie- "n Rorql Institute of British
Architects,' to

[lop . body we may

Our-bus.

but with Liver

gher game still) the candid

ent sys

-Z26,000." S,

opotent, and ti

for months, and learning (at an
pet ing architects) what they one►

eon ven

—that £20,000 was a sun] titter's, it
setion of th

coolly added .e6-.000 to their es

after all, their corporation surveys
phrase of a councilman, " the derni_i
whose prolific noldle they are to 100 l
problem, which other architects hay

in vain—tnalgre the unlucky little 1

ave known

quate to the reali

tion surveyor was

the council broke up, that said (
authorised to—what do our res
We Know no

an architect to assist him

)!e have now

iscovered that,
to apply the

rehitects

lution of a
it hands at

ozed out ere

repute) of Mr. Allom ; we know noth

ng (save by

what we learn by the foregoing proceedings ; and that
best of all possible authorities in this matter, Mr. Picton,
the architect chairman himself, who, it is gratifying to
see, has kept his fingers and his cloth unsullied by the
pitch and tar with which this unlucky business has
become smeared, asserting, up to the very last of it, that
—" The plan was acknowledged on all hands to be the
best; that it could, by an alteration, be brought within
the means at their disposal ; that it was satisfactory to
Mr. Brown, who had given them nearly one half the cost;
and that there was no solid substantial objection to it.
• * * The surveyor's report was, that the plan " Con
Amore " was in every way the best for their
purpose." The town surveyor may be, for aught we
know, quite equal to the architectural emergency, to meet
which he has been called on by the ruthless Town Council, but
he can hardly be expected in fairness to jump down his own
throat, for the request of his taskmasters is
to a cat call for the performance of t
556 0 0
assured them " the plan of ' Con A
I -

post tantamount

Having

Ls in every way the

best for their purpose," what is the poor man to do:—produce
a beater ? It says little for the architectural' intelligence of
our times to find two men of such known experience as Mr.
John Stewart and Mr. Samuel Holmes lending their names to
the perpetration of such an absurd farce as
being enacted—that of attempting to get
building by the process of consn'

a good public

iting one
of i

and con a trnctio

about the planning _
..., and ano-
ther about its facade or architectural expression. The
better sense of these gentlemen will surely show them that
nothing good can possibly be got at by such a miserable system
of patchwork. To us it really would appear that the only
logical step for the town surveyor to take, is to return the
design of " Con Amore" to the council. If it must needs be
curtailed to £26,000, Mr. Allom is the most likely person to
know how to do it ; and if there is nothing for it but the pro-
duction of anew and cheaper design, he has proved himself the
fittest person to produce it. This v-
for the architecture of Liverpool

out of pure re

mate erec
new libra

,s pres,

Allom. The Liverpool corpo
granted that the mere paymen
them of all obligation to the

~ how-

of prem

•dly be conceived

prone to rush into psi

We will venture to ray

nk so low as to compete for E

fessional public status
they feel

an only be atta

day for English art when our

repressing, by continued b
generous--so truly hon,

have fall

pressum seems
of Liverpool, who, witt

works of Wood

Elmes, of La

," who, after an, is I

give them anything under
As to the right of the C

mium of £l5O in the face of the c

right to the design by virtue of its PI

words,

y the vot

protection for architects ag

y enriched

son, of

£30;00

titions, it is high time there should be one provided. We

that in the case of a town club house competition, a competitor,
who declined to part with his design on these terms, had it
returned him—accompanied, nevertheless, with a cheque for
the amount of the offered premium ; and in the Competitions
Code of the Architectural Association there is, if we remember
rightly, an express provision against the very trap in which
Mr. Allem appears to have. been caught. If the Royal
Institute of British Architects will do nothing for him, his
brother architects ought, at least, for their own sakes, to enter
a strong protest against the proceedings of the Liverpool
people, who seek now to avail themselves of a picked design,
produced with every bawd of failure, for a paltry remunera-
tion, short, by a hundred pounds at least, even of that pay to
which its author would have been entitled had he been simply
employed to prepare them, sans any of the risks of competi-
tion, and wish, therefore, a certainty of being paid for his
services. If, on the contrary, our architects are to tacitly
put up with this affront, we ask,.where is it to end : are they
prepared to sanction by their silence the monstrous
assumption that competition premiums, with nothing
beyond them, are to be their guerdon "in full
payment of all demands" on future committees ? This
question should be

promptly and plainly replied

There is

in this Liverpool case one peculiar feature, and we cannot con-
clude these remarks without noticing it. After having sub.
jected Mr. Allom to the ordeal of a public competition, the
Town Council now set themselves up to decide, forsooth, upon
We shall not

that gentleman's eminence as a _
condescend to enter into the question, but we raise onr

Liverpool, Barry

as a question at all, and against the
lved in it. Elmo has built in

t Westminster,

ly chose a c

if they seek to orePerye

,hey have made their bed

tions a

Leir fair

Du at Hunt

(RATIO

advanced

Thn I

Bittonstration against the Ina
lace about the middle of next
ttpacious place which can be y

xlieve,"from what we kn

ame, at

,ourney

aking for the in
r to seal the door

•erpool

Ley must,

great popoular CIE
BARON WARD.—Bar
of Parma, and Regent to the
possessed of princely estates in
Howden, in Yorkshire_ anri

n this very

me Minister

boy, and served as

went to Italy

Baron Lowenber.

afterwards, on his a

Parma, in whose household he
most important position in th
Manager.

SLAVERY----JVHAT IS SLAVERY

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NORTHERN TIMES.

Sir,—There is hardly a single handicraft, exclusive
of those exercised in the production of the most
indispensable necessaries of life, which has not its
periodical undulations of high and low demand ;
now, a season when work is abundant, and wages
consequenCy high ; on the other hand, a season
when employment is scarce, and the gains of the
workman necessarily small. The great sea of
British industry has, in fact, Ps ebbs and flows, with
this unfortunate peculiarity, however, that many
departments of labour are doomed to be continually
depressed, both at one and the same time—whether
in ;cod times or bad times it is all alike to them.
on • does not need to look far, though he needs to
look coolly, in order to see and convince himself that
a large proportion of the troubles of society arise
from this depression of the hard working lower
classes, and hence this thorny question—what is

slavery ?
There is, I am happy to say, a growing interest
going on at the present period regarding the condition
of that portion of our population inhabiting as it
were the debatable land lying between the dominions
of poverty and crime—the access from the former to
the latter being so easy and rapid, and so frequent,
that the attent.;,on of philanthropists and influential
men has been aroused to endeavour to withdraw
them, if possible, from ground so dangerous and slip-
pery. And, certainly, there should be an experiment
made to furnish remunerative employment to such a
class of individuals, and, at the same time, to arouse
them from their state of apathy and ignorance ; to
carry on their education begun, perhaps, in the
Ragged School, or elsewhere ; to awaken within
them good dispositions; to form them to good man-
ners; and to engage their hearty co-operation in
plans devised for their benefit, which must eventually
aim, however slow, at their gradual emancipation
from abject poverty and misery.
We frequently hear all this declaimed against as
resting on an absurdity. What, we are frequently
asked, is there degrading in work ? There is
nothing, I say, degrading in work ; but, nevertheless,
people continue to estimate each other by the nature
and circumstances of their respective employments,
preach to the contrary as long as you like. The fact
is, it is not in the work itself, but in the conditions of
the work that we see such grounds for complaint,
where men, women, and children are compelled to
toil and work incessantly, without the least com-
miseration or compassion shown towards them. To

those whose minds take pleasure in successful results,
any attempt, however small, being made towards
the amelioration of the condition of the millions,
must, and will, be received with a cheering welcome
—in other words, any eagerness directed towards
those who are thrown on the world to battle with its
temptations and endure its worst privations, in
homes where dirt and filth reigns predominant, and
whose human forms have lost all trace of that come-
liness and beauty which the great modeller of the
universe has stamped, more or less, on us all—and,
again, to press them on by every entreaty towards
that great calling of improvement, and to see that
they do not sink back again into that physical and
moral degradation out of which such an earnest
attempt is being made to rescue them This, if
fully carried out, wou'd indeed, be something like
striking at the root of the evil, instead of lopping off
a few of its topmost branches—

" To wake the soul by tender strokes of art,
To raise the genius, or to mend the heart,"

And this rule applies more espec:ally to the children

of the poor, to see that they are well cared about and
seen after, for certainly, looking at the swarm of
them we meet in our every-day walks we cannot
help speculating within ourselves the d•-scription of
homes t--hP:y spring up in, and the dangers they hourly
encounter; and how it often strikes us with wonder
that they contrive to struggle up, even to that early
phase of infantile life when they first appear on the
surface of society—society which, from their very
birth, seems entirely set against them. Poor little
wretches ! It is enough to puzzle one how they
grow up to be men and women. Very likely not
one fourth of them do. But replenish the earth we
are told. With what ? With lives so f. ail, that
their necessary and swift decay is to death.
Must the many, then, be sacrificed for the few ?
We boast of the progress of our arts and sciences,
but we too often forget the cost of such progress.
Surely God, who ordained man to eat bread in the
sweat of his brow did not ordain that he should eat
it in suffering, in the rotting of his vitals, the perilling
of his soul, and the welcoming of a premature end
—such an agonising end, as might be fancied, is the
death struggle of the shipwrecked mariner who
perishes in sight of shore and home. Unquestionably
not, and, therefore, it should be one of the most hope-
ful signs of the day to see another system estabted,
—a system that will show us that masters take a
lively interest in their servants, by endeavouring to
assuage their grievances, by endeavouring to afford
them comforts in prescribing their hours of labour,
healing them when sickness overtakes them, provid-
ine them with recreation, establishing reading rooms
for their use, delivering lectures to them on all sub-
jects of interest and information, cheapening their
necessaries, recommending their food and drink.
assisting them in arranging their houses, and keeping
them in hot water occasionally to wash both their
skin and their clothes If all such matters were
brought to p tss they, as employers, would, at least,
carry out schemes of this hind for their own good,
and the working man would, doubtless, highly
appreciate them, and feel more grateful to his earthly
providers, by so far lessening his dangers, than men
in general feel towards Divine Providence for all his
good and excellent gifts to them. It may be argued
by some, on the other hand, that they would receive
and treat all these things as a something that they

shou'd have, as a matter of course—that-they would
only look at the gratuitous, or half-gratuitous aid
they received as nothing more than belonging to
their rights. Very well, let them think so. It is
quite correct and feasible that they should foster
such ideas so long as they labour and toil hard for
their living, and such inspiring thoughts would
unquestionably tend, in a very great degree, to raise
them from the common order and refuse of society—
that degraded, depraved, and lost portion of man-
kind, with whom they are doomed too often to inter-
mix. When this is looked to and accomplished, we
shall see, as we desire to see, work really set upon
golden feet, and to see, moreover, the artisan and
handicrafts raised out of ignorance to intelligence,
and out of their fallen state to cherish a becoming
pride and self respect. One word more. All pro-
4ects for the benefit of the class that are literally in
the hands of usurpers of authority, should be looked
at and entered into with a certai❑ amount of discre
tion and cautiousness ; their advice when given
should be given kindly and considerately, and then
it would be listened to with attention a!ld accepted
with all due regard; and those wishes made known,
which practically can be carried out, should be so far
warmly responded to, so as to make them agents, if
I rnLiy so speak, of their own ideas, in order that they
may urge others on to seek, and work out, their own
salvation " Will is might," and when was that
motto ever known to fail, when accompanied by a
spirit undiscouraged by obstacles ? Then let it not
be said of them, that they turned a deaf ear to
their entreaties, and " crossed over on the other side."
Yours, ecc., VERITAS.
Dec., 1856.

THE POLICE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NORTHERN TIMES.

Sir)—ln the Daily Post of this day is reported,
a case headed " Extraordinary Conduct of a Police
Constable," and which, the upright judge, Mr.
Mansfield, dismissed in these words, which I
quote from the Post:—" Sir," (to the constable 218)
"your conduct is abominable. Here is a respect-
able young man, who was standing waiting for his
friends, and you lock him up for forty-eight hours,
without any real offence. The young man is dis-
charged."
Mr. Editor, I was looking at the occurrence, along
with, perhaps, forty others; and I have been seldom
more disgusted in my life, than with the savage
assault and conduct of 218 ; so much so, indeed, that
I went to the station house, with several others, to
bear witness to the inoffensiveness of the accused,
and the barbarity of 218 towards him. Three or four
times he pounced upon the young man in the
street, collaring, throttling, and shaking him about,
as I thought, with the object of provoking the other
to physical resistance.
I now charge, not only 218 with this "abominable
conduct," (in the words of the worthy magistrate),
but, I must also charge the inspector of that locality
—Scotland Road—with abetting such conduct on
the occasion in question, by the way he received
the charge of 218. It appears now, the inspector
never had that young man before him previously,
and yet he decided as if he had had—by giving
the latter a bad character—which induced me
and two others to go away without giving evidence in
his favour. And now, let the whole truth go forth ;
the accompanying letter, which I wrote a month
ago, but which has never been published, brings
the same charge of abetting, home to the very
head of the force.—l am,

Tuesday, Dec. 23, 1856. JOHN H. GREENE