Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-08-12 00:00:00

TUC WORKHOUSE C)3I3IiTTER.

From the proceedings of this committee it appeared that
there were 485 Eick cases in the workhouse, 33 fever cases,
and 11 itch. The number of vagrants relieved was 249
males, 93 females, 30 children, being a total of 372. After
making several recommendations, the proceedings stated
that Mr. Leather had applied to have his medical pupil
admitted to the lying-in ward, but the committee hag
decided that the application could not be entertained.
Mr. SHAW said he begged to move the confirmation of
the proceedings. At the last meeting notice was given of
the appointment of two medical offieer.4, and he wished to
know whether that basiness would be proceeded with at
once.

The Vesvev-Ceeatt : Those appointments are usually
made after the business has been gone through with.
Mr Snew would move, then, that the tenders for the iron
gates, ,C.7c , be accepted.
The proceedngi were then confirmed.
TilE INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS COMM MEE.
The proceedings of this committee having been
read,
Mr WM. JONES said he had a few observations to make
in reference to a letter from the Rev. R. Doyle, Catholic
priest, which had been inserted i t one of the papers, on
the subject of the industrial schools, at Kirkdale. These
observations he had written down, and would read them
to the board. He had taken that course that he might be
correct and temperate. (Flear, hear.)
The CHAIRM us wished to know whether Mr. Jones
expected the vestry to take any steps in consequence.
(hear, hear.)
Mr. W. JONES : Certainly.
Mr. WOODRUFF objected to any person' going to the
vestry with his speech reedy printed, and reading of
it. If it had been printed he conceived that each
member should have been furnished with a copy.
Mr. JONES : The observations are my own. He then
proceeded to read —" Since we last met, a letter has
appeared in one of the newspapers from the Rev Mr.
Doyle, the Roman Catholic priest attending these schools,
not only assailing me personally for the observations I
thought it my duty to make to the Board, bat also
maligning the school committee and the Vestry."
Mr. WOODRUFF said he would rise to order. What-
ever might be Mr. Jones's reasons, he objected to the
observations being read. It was the first time he ever
heard of such a thing as a person going into a room with
his speech ready printed, and reading of it.
Mr. W. Jones : It will take less time to read it than
you are talking about it. ( !fear, hear.)
Mr. Snaw also rose to order, and cbjected fo the then-
ment being read, on the grounds that Mr. Doyle had not
the opportunity of defending himself.
The CHAIRMAN said there would not have been any diffi-
culty in the case if Mi.. Jones had learnt the speech off,
and came there and delivered it. There was no doubt
that the practice was very irregular, but he did not see
how he could preve .t it being read, for it was well known
that sometimes the members of the House of Commons
read their speeches. Therefore, ‘. I cannot authoritively
prevent Mr. Jones from reading hia. I think that he may
go on."
Mr. JONES continued :—" Tile present le, I conceive,
the proper place and time to rebut the unwarrantsb'e
aspersions cast upon us by that gentleman, and place the
acts of the committee and this board in a just and true
light before the pullic.
" Me Grace.—Mr. Doyle begins with the chanting of
g -ace before and after meat, as a religious grievance. It
will be remembered that about nine months ago, the com-
mittee authorised the chanting of the grace before and after
meals. This custom had been in observance some months,
when Mr. Doyle, (without previous communication with
either the governor or the board), ordered the Roman
Catholic children not to join in it. The committee com-
plained of the irregularity as tending to induce, by
example, a spirit of insubordination in the children. Mr.
Doyle still justifies his conduct, and claims a right, at all
times, to veto any rule of the school that shall not be in
agreement with what he to me his conscience. We now,
therefore. see your authority here for the first time openly
defied. Mr. Doyle denounces this community of p:ayer
as illegal ; but what says the law ? You know it.
" Observe, Ist, Thet grace shall be said.' 2nd, That
all shall be present at the time it is said,' though, how to
be raid, whether by chanting or otherwise, is not ordered,
this being left to the managing committee. It wilt by even,
then, that the illegality is but a pretence. The prayer is
not Protestant, but Catholic, thoug't perhaps, in his eyes,
not sufficiently Roman Catholic. The feeling and senti-
ments it expresses ought to be universal, and take in all
denominations. Where is the man with any pretensions
to proper religious feeling that could not join with every
Christain in singing, before meet—
" Be present at our table, Lord,
Be here and everywhere ado ed ;
These creatures bless, and g-ant that we
May feast in Paradise with Thee."
And after meat—

" We thank thee, Lord, for this our food,
Bat most of all for Jesus' blood ;
Let manna to our souls be given,
The bread of life sent down from Heaven."
" The minds of all, both in and out of Parliament, are
anxiously exercised to devise some practicable mode of
combined religious education, for the purpose of elevating,
if possible, the moral condition of the poor of the country ;
but how hopeless must seem the task when we find a
Roman Catholic priest denouncing the idea, and persist-
ing in claiming a right to prohibit these children feorn
,j caning in chanting words so unobjectionable, so uni-
versally appropriate and devotional.
'..b2SUbordineion.—Mr. Doyle charges me with connect-
ing, as cause and effect, his conduct on the subject of the
chanting, with the morals of the children in the schools.
The charge, if charge it was, was simply this, that the
right Mr. Doyle assumes is perfectly incompatible with
the proper discipline and good g comment of the schoo's.
Insubordination is a word of greater impost than is
ordinarily conceived. Obeience and pliability of
disposition in the young contribute chiefly to the
formation of moral character. And when we find a gentle-
man, without being an officer of the schools, as he himself
acknowledges, bat daily in attendance there, claiming a
right, as regards a large number of these children, para-
mount to the constituted authority, and in the exercise of
such right calling upon those children to openly disobey
lawful authority, I again assert that he is, to a serious
extent, responsible for the insubordination prevalent there,
with its ultimate consequences.
" The Boys Watson.—With reference to the boys
Watson, Mr. Doyle has worked tragedy out of this, and in
a running comment upon the atrocities alleged t 3 have
been commit.ed upon one of them, assumes a qes,ntity of
virtuous indignation which he knew he did not feel. The
history of these boys is soon told : deserted by an affectionate
parent, they were brought by a friendly hand to the
workhouse as orphans, and registered Protestant. The
mother is still alive, and is married again, and residss on
the Cheshire side of the river; the boys obstinatlyrefased
to give any clue to the whereabouts of their parent, and
were, to some extent, seconded by Mr. Doyle, when he, in
the hearing of the boye, repreaended au endeavour to obtain
the information for the purpose, not of determing th-is
rellgicl, but of discovering the delinquent parent. How-
eve.., to return; the b ys were educated as Protestants at
the workhouse until they were drafted to the schools, and
were there registered as Protestants. Not long after this,
however, by either oversight or management, the boys are
found on the Roman Catholic side of the home. The error is
d;scevered, but, according to the testimony of all the officers,
none of them was punished. Again, and recently, a second
inquiry takes place, and the committee is asked to consider
the case. A Sunday intervenes between the hearing of the
case and the decision thereon. As a concession to the
prejudices of Mr. Doyle, and, at hi= own request, the boys
are kept neutral on that Sunday ; and, for this end, they
are detained during Service in the large school-room. Tnis
Mr. Doyle, with sgi utter recklessness cf assertion, calls
locking them np' penalty. On the to seeding Sunday,
at the hour of Divine Service, in the afternoon, one of the
boys being then on the play-ground, is ordered by the
master to to church,' meaning by the word church
the service which the lad was accustomed to attend, what-
ever that might ba. He refuses to go, and becsmes inso-
lent. Tile master gently taps him upon the back cf the
head with a small twig, about six inches long, which he
held in his hand. The boy upon this applies the oppro-
bious epithet which you are all aware of, and which is
too revolting to repeat, and runs for a brickbat to throw at
the master. This eransaetion was afterwards searchingly
examined into by the committee, when a Roman Catholic
member was present ; the result wa', the master was
exonerated from all blame, and the boy expelled the
schools. In a few days after this, Mr. Doyle represents to
the public this profane, insubordinate, wicked lad as a
martyr to religious constancy, and myself as his persecutor,
the incarnation of intolerance and cru lty, just fit for the
functions of a grand inquisitor. Pity that the conscience
of Mr. Doyle did sea feel more the restramisg power of
the divine prohibition, Thou shalt not bear false witness
against thy neighbour.'
` Presol4/46414. —Mr. D0:46 feigns a charge agaiust