The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-04-16 00:00:00

THE NORTHERN TIMES.-LIVERPOOL, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16

SELECT VESTRY

-YE STE RDAY.

death on board the steamboats had taken place, and there-
tore it was but proper that if they were to be remove,
they should be removed with due regard to the interests of
humanity. They should endeavour, then, to preserve the
good and remedy the evil in the bill. Re should say,
however, that there never had been on the part of their
officers one single instance of inhumanity towards Irish
paupers, and he believed scarcely an instance of accidental
inhumanity.
Mr. Denton said that it was in corning from Ireland that
the deaths took place on board the steamers, when the
Irish landowners exported their paupers at threepence
a head.

The first meeting of the new _board was held at ten
o'clock, yesterday, in the public offices, Brownlow-hill, the

Rev. Rector Campbell in the chair.

Other members present—Messrs Woodruff, Shaw,
SAtchell, Nixon, Taylor, Whitty, Bold, Crellin, Denton,
Critchley, Mellor, J. Jones, J. Hastings, C. Wise, H. J.
Cooke, S. B. Jackson, Syred, Gardner, Whitby, Bristow,
W. Jones, and Luff.
WORKITOUSE COMMITTEE.

From the proce'dings of this committee it appeared that
a short time since the Rev. Mr. Wilson, the chaplain of the
hou-e, being ill, intimated to the officials that the Rev. Mr.
Stafford would do his duty. While indisposed, a woman
of the name of Agues Hanah, being on the point of death,
earnestly wished for a clergyman. The Rev. Mr. StPfford
was immediately sent for, but could not come, in conse-
quence of the alarming illness of his wife, and before
another clergyman could attend, the woman died. The
committee referred the matter for enquiry to the Rev.
Rector Campbell. The number of vagrants who visited
the sheds during the past week, were 107 males, 107
females, and 27 children—in all, 304. The number of
sick cases in the house on the 5,h instant, were 714, in-
cluding 40 fever, and 65 itch cases. The number of
inmates in the house on the 10th instant, were 2,479.
The Chairman said that, in reference to the question of
the poor woman, Agnes Hanah, who died in the lying-in
ward, but who was not attended in her last moments, as
she wished, by a clergyman, he bad to express his deep
regret and sorrow th,tt any such event should have occurred.
He had deeply to lament that any poor woman, under such
circumstances, should not have had that religious conso-
lation which she was entitled to have from the ministrations
of the chaplain—and in the event of his illness or indispo-
sition, of some other clergyman—but he trusted that when
he made them acquainted with the circumstances, they
wouid see that there was more <f misfortune or mismanage-
ment, than misconduct in the case. At the same time,
they had the consolation of thinking, that though she had
not had the ministrations of a clergyman, yet she had been
attended to by the wardmistress of the department, who
read and prayed at her bedside, an.l gave her all the con-
solation of which she was capable. He thought there had
been some error or mismanagern-nt in the affair. He
thought that the Rev. Mr. Wilson should not have applied
to the Rev. Mr. Stafford, and that if he was not able to
attend himself, the proper person to attend would have
been the parish clergyman, or one of his curates. When
the chaplain was unable, from indisposition, to perform his
duties, the parish clergymen were those who should supply
his place, and to them, in this instance, application should
have been made. Three of them lived in the close neigh-
boarheod of the workhouse, and it was therefore the more
unfortunate that application had not been made to them.
The moment the matter was referred to him (the chairman)
he sent to Mr. Stafford and asked for an explanation. He
immediately received an explanation from Mr. Stafford,
which he deemed satisfactory, and which he would then
read to the vestry, trusting that they also would deem it
satisfactory, and would consider that there had been more
of misfortune than of misconduct in the business. The
Chairman then read the follossing letter :-
18, St. Anne-street, April 12, 1856.
Dear Sir,—l should have refused aid to Mr. Wilson had I
known there was a probability of ray being called out at night,
as under the present severe illness in my family I could not
attend without serious inconvenience ; still, having promised
assistance, no amount of mere inconvenience could have pre-
vented me attending to the governor's summons, and most
willingly would I have been at the workhouse on the night
stated, had it been within my power ; but such, I regret to say,
was not the case. , I was already in attendance on a bed of
illness and bitter suffering, and had taken my accustomed
nightly watch by the side of the patient. Some very unfa-
vourab'e symptoms had developed themselves, and which, I am
sorry to say, continued till Tuesday last; and had my wife at
that time missed me from my post, in her then state, even fatal
consequences might have been apprehended with too much
reason. I wrote to Mr. Wilson that I am willing to help him
in the daytime, hut cannot at night, It requires all my own
wakefulness, and that of a nursetender to watch over the long-
endured and critical illness under which my wife is suffering,
and on some occasions we require still further help. On the
night in questio❑ she had lost all power of voluntary motion,
and it required four of us to put her straight in bed. lam
sorry to be obliged to tell you of domestic griefs, which I am
unwilling to obtrude on any one, but without doing so, I could
not give a satisfactory reply to the accompanying paper—Yours
faithfully• J. H. STAFFORD.
Rev. A. Campbell, Liverpool,

The proceedings were confirmed, and the Chairman, the
Vestry Clerk, the churchwardens, and the senior overseer
were appointed a deputation to proceed to London in
reference to the bill.

On a motion to increase the salary of one of the officers
named Power, from 12s. to 14s. per week,
Mr. Satchel! expressed a wish that the matter should be
referred back to the committee, in order that certain charges
against Power, in a letter which he held in his hand, might
be enquired into.
The letter being an anonymous communication, the board
refused to entertain it, but intimated that it was optional
with Mr. Satchell to adopt the charges as his own, and lay
them before the committee.

The Chairman read the following letter :-
10, Oxford-street, April 15, 1856.
Rev. Sir,—Having, through you, addressed-the board at
its last meeting, in reference to a contemplated re-arrange-
ment of the medical staff of the workhouse hospital, Mr.
Bradley took the opportunity of making some unjust state-
ments relative to the regularity of my attendance at the
hospital, duration of my visits in the wards, &c. I beg to
give those statements of Mr. Bradley an unqualified contra-
diction.—l am, rev. sir, your obedient servant,

ROBERT GEE, M.D.
The Rev. Aug. Campbell, M.A.
The committees for the current year were then cast as
follows :

The medical relief committee has been merged in the
workhouse committee.

Finance : Messrs. Denton, Gardner, H. Jones, Luff,
Mellor, Whitby, William Jones, Hind, and Brancker.—
Industrial Schools : Messrs. Whitty, William Jones,
Gardner, Luff, Taylor, Hastings, Cooke, B. B. Jackson,
and Wise.—Workhouse : Messrs. Mellor, Whitby, H.
Jones, J. Jones, Denton, Jardine, Bold, Crellin, Critcbley,
and Syred.

. -
I would suggest that when illness or any other cause obliges
the chaplain to require assistance, that he give the names of at
least • two clergymen to whom application may be made, to
avoid disappointment arising from circumstances over which
there is no controul.

Mr. Denton observed that it now appeared that the chap-
lain lived all the way at Kirkdale, and he thought that
they should order him to remove his residence nearer to the
workhouse.

Mr. Shaw said that the committee would take care that
for the future the chairman's suggestion should be acted on,
and that in the event of the chaplain's illness, application
would always be made to the parish curates.
Mr. Woodruff concurred with Mr. Denton, th,t the
chaplain should live as near the workhouse as possible.
The proceedings were then confirmed.
INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS COMMITTEE.

The proceedings rf this committee were read. They
recommended that £6O be expended in repairing the ship.
Mr. W. Jones observed that half of this expense should
be charged on the Duke of Cambridge's visit, as much
injury had been done to the ship by the firing of the guns
from her deck.

Mr. Shaw said that there were 120 boys above the age
of fourteen, fit to be apprenticed t) several trades, and also
a large number of girls of the same age, suited for situ-
ations, now in, the workhouse. He thought it only required
the fact to be made known to the public to induca parties to
make application for these boys and girls.
Mr. Denton suggested that the fact should be advertised
in the papers.
The matter then dropped, and the proceedings were
confirmed.

FINANCE COMMITTEE.-MR. BOURLAIE'S BILL FOR THE

REMOVAL OP IRISH AND SC3TCII PAUPERS

Mr. Woodruff, in moving the confirmation of the pro-
ceedings of this committee, called attention to the bill intro-
duced into parliament for the removal of Irish and Scotch
paupers, and stated that if the bill passed in its present
form, it would entail upon the ratepayers of Liverpool
thousands of pounds expense, in keeping paupers here until
the right to their removal had been established. He would
therefore move that the Finance Committee be authorised
to take such steps as they might deem best to oppose
the bill.

Mr. Whitty thought the Vestry should be supplied with
further. informaion as to the character of the bill, before
being called on to incur the expense of sending a deputation
to London to oppose it.

Mr. Woodruff replied, that at present they had the power
of removing Irish paupers to the next place on the Irish
coast they could have access to, but if this bill passed in its
present form, they could not remove them under thirty days,
and should also give notice of the particular parish they
belonged to. Those paupers were sent over by the landowners
in Ireland, in thousands, at a shilling a head, and, therefore,
the ratepayers of this country should not permit such a
bill to pass as would have the tendency of making that class
of paupers cost them thousands of pounds. They did not
wish to act harshly towards the Irish going from one place
to another on their legitimate business, but they did object
to the ratepayers of Liverpool being saddled with the coat
of such paupers.
The Chairman said that by this bill they should give
notice before removal to the Union (if they could find it.
which, he believed, in three-fourths of the cases they would
find to be impossible), and when they had given the notice,
then the Union might give notice to them that it was their
intention to appeal, and thus additional delay would be
created. In short, his imprtssien was, that if the bill
passed as it row stood, the power of removal would be null,
and, therefore, they should take some steps to procure a
modification of it.

Mr. Whitty observed that a large number of poor, who
originally belonged to Ireland, but who had lived in Liver-
pool from twenty-five to forty years, lost their right of set-
tlement by removing, if only for a month, into a neighbour-
ing parish. After so long a residence, he thought it hard
that such a removal, say, for instance, into West Derby,
which was very often done for the purposes of employment,
and which therefore contributed to the increase of the
commerce of the town, should deprive them of all right of
support on the community. If the bill removed that hardship
he would consider it fair and just, but if it created an open-
ing for the landowners or others in Ireland to throw their
poor on this country, he should heartily assist in opposing
it.

Mr. Bairstow said that, of the 5,000 poor removed to
Ireland last year, the majority of them had gone voluntarily
there, They came to the parish office, and begged to be
passed to Ireland. The present bill, however, could only be
eharacterised as a bill to manufacture paupers.
The Clerk said that most of the Irish paupers passed from
Liverpool left of their own accord. They came and begged
for passes ; but, if this bill were passed, the board could not
comply with their wishes in that respect. What was still
worse, they would be required to establish by legal evidence
the chargibility of those paupers to certain Irish unions, but
when the paupers themselves did not know more than the
name of the counties in which they were born, it would be
seen that the effect of the bill would be to make them
chargeable on the ratepayers of this country.
The Chairman said that there were, no doubt, some good
points and some very bad points in the bill. There were
some good points tending to humanity, but he did not think
it just that they should take a poor pauper And throw him
on the Irish coast, not knowing what was to become of
him.

Mr. J. Jones : They throw them so on our coast. (Hear,
hear, and laughter.)
The Chairman replied that even if it were so they should
return good for evil. They could not deny, however, that
the existing system, in its operation towards Irish paupers?
bad sometimes been very inhuman. Some dreadful cases of