The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-04-03 00:00:00

77.75 T DERBY GUARDIANS.

The usual weekly meeting of this board of guardians ASS
held on Wednesday last; at the 'boardroom, Mill 1,3,1;;
Evertor'. Mr. Harrison, the deputy-chairman of
board, presided.
After the usual routine business had been disposed of; ,c,
the subject which has for the last few weeks engrossed
much attention, was again brought under consideration'
namely,

THE BOARD AND ITS MEDICAL OFFICER. mood
At the last meeting of the board, Mr. Shag'Nevins
that the clerk be requested to write to 1)1.' ade in
to get his explanation, contained in the charges the letter inserted in the NORTHERN TIMES of the `,, and
In compliance with that request the clerk did write,
received the following reply:—
et. yoel. Gentlernen,—l beg to acknowledge the receipt s' the resolution of the 23th ult., asking me „to Inform
Nos,
board whether the statement made by me in tirhoeieS
THERN TIMES of' the 10th inst., ' that seven deal sing
were waiting in the dead-house for interment on 3 sneCt day, last week,' was intended as a charge in any r? .not,
.not,
against the guardians or any of their officers, andeel such
what meaning I intended to convey to the public U. 7
statement ?"
irell.
The statement you allude to, was first made in a e se
lar which I addressed to the county tnagislratesetee
ex-cfficio members of the board, in which I mentioned b 9,
amount of sickness in the house, the number of Oa tee
my repeated fruitless appiications for assistance,, tee declaration of your own visiting committee that tar
assistance was necessary for the sake of the sick, and tee
determined refusal to grant it. The express object o
.s
eethe'
circular was to suggest to the'ex officio guardians w e., in-
case had not occurred in which it became their duty Le,s'bet
terfere, and " provide the justice for the increasing all'ios
of sick poor in the workhouse which the elected guard 00
had determined to deny.'' statement to whichr,icie
allude does therefore form part of' a distinct and tire', of
vocal charge against the board of determined negle' se
rkbeti
its duty towards the sick whom it sent into the wo
this winter.
; to tll9
From this circular I copied the statement =tl ~eeet.
article in the NORTHERN TIMES with this further ow re
te
The board lately desired me to make a return ofthena..oo
and number of the diseases then in the sick wards "ite.
which it appeared that there were 89 old patients rened ing little attention, 66 cases of comparative mildnesseeitb
100 cases of the most severe and fatal diseases v
, ease,
which we are acquainted, viz., mortification, ureeeig
inflammations and the like. Notwithstanding the
return, however, it was repeatedly stated at A 0
board that the cases were insignificant, and required 11101 th ult:
attention ; that it was sufficient to go once a week inwiree wards and tell the nurses what to do; and it was %If
insinuated that the numbers were fictitious, and wereC to
obtained by sending a boy round the house with a bell' beat up skulkers, who should pretend sickness as an ex,'sr
for idleness, and so swell the apparent numbers. an ins`olivet tion so base that I should scorn to reply to it. But ''rl,
falsehoods, when often repeated, come at last to be baliefest
and it was, therefore, possible that the guardians hacienf
length succeeded in persuading themselves that
there rees
was but little sickness, and that little unimportant. 1
"ea
myself startled at hearing of seven deaths at oneesg.
the house, and I thought that if known it would be imp et
in
sible for the board any longer to shut its eyes to an a'et
of illness which could yield seven dead at one
"-
,e-
-and with this intention I made it publicly known. 0
There was yet one further motive which induced mogte
make it public. Ysur visiting committee, which conse's'a
chiefly of your oldest and most respected members, '1,40 tried in vain to rouse you to a sense of duty, and 01,3,00
from you the assistance for the sick which they tole) .3
was necessary; and my own representations had prode%,
no other effect than an attempt to disgust and drive ar'e
your experienced medical officer, in order that you meat
letee
replace him by a young man without experience. '
suasion and remonstrance had alike failed, and I the'ee;
fore had to appeal from the e'ected to the electors., aild,th
lay before the public—a tribunel to which WO inast b,0?;
bow--the whole of the circumstances connere,ee with le'",j,
sickness in the workhouse, and the candy ;;t -ee the 108'4
might not "bte3jd
its visiting committee, and its medical officer, in role/470
to it, and try whether shame
for power sick what a sense of justice or of dutY.7,3t
beenless to procure. It remains to be seen whe'-ea
the West Derby Board will be content to conti,°„;re
byeword and term of reproach, or whether its itl`n-00
conduct will be such as to remove the odium brought urine
it by its treatment of the sick in the workhouse dar'et.
the pasnter.—l am, gentlemen, your obedient serva" '
.T. BIRKBEEK NEVI°.
25, Oxford-street, March 28, 1857.
eeell
Mr. Shaw then moved, that a copy of the parag—e contained in the NORTHERN TIMES of the 10th ultialoi
headed, "The. West Derby Guardians and their Treatinteee
of Paupers," of which Dr. Nevins had avowed himself to at
author, together with a copy of the resolution passed
the last meeting with reference to the Caine, and the I.- (i
thereto, which had just been read, be forwarded to the he
r
Law Board requesting that they will instruct '
inspector to investigate the whole case.
This motion was seconded by,Mr. I. Edwards, and 05
unanimously adopted.
The board soon after adjourned.

..pg,f 101
I THE BALLOT IN SYDNEY.—In December the qu, _rigs'
' the Municipal Council Bill was considered in the
Lill' of
tive Assembly of New South Wales, when the prie_tuied
the ballot iu the election of town councillors was The,
To
by a majority of twenty two votes against e yd the
old objection of the ballot being "un.English,,;o niefli
duty of citizens acting " independently,l„ °naive'
relied upon by the op'ponents of the provic lish ~ betausE
member argued that the ballot was
"1%1! the (MS °I
he found 'that, it)vad ,au open a es
-II Xlearned gentlelell
Cicero, a translation of whose wort.,-. however, ww, el
'Mon,
alleged he possessed. The Oor:
very little weight, as may bP,
Ljanh se.
reported upon the division ,- e house.
...
1 erred from the nunibrs