The Sun.
London, England, 1837-09-13 00:00:00

TALE OF TRUCK.

There was not happier man in the principality of South
Wales than Walter Evans—there was not a better father
—there was not a better husband. He was a truly happy
man was Walter Evans—his wife was a good kind of a
creature, who loved her husband fondly, and his children
were stout healthy bairns whom he loved as a father should
love his offspring. Walter Evans was a miner, and had
worked for years for the same master, who respected him
as a good, honest, sober workman, and whom Walter
hoped too to serve as long as his Maker might permit
him to live. Thus had Walter Evans's life passed for
nearly twenty years, and thus he often prayed it might
always pass. But time has strange changes in his train,
and death struck Walter Evans's master in the prime of a
good life, and removed him from earth to, it is to be hoped,
a better resting place. It was a sore trial to many a poor
man to lose so good a master, and the state in which his
affairs were left occasioned them still greater uneasiness.
The iron trade had been for years depressed, and the affairs
of Walter's late master were, it appeared, far from satis-
factory ; in fact he had died insolvent ; and after a deal of
quibbling and feeing of lawyers, the works passed from the
family into the hands of a Company.
" Walter," said his wife, some months after the change
we have spoken of, " I want some money to buy grocery ;
I am going up the town, and I will get it at Mr. Smith's.
Why do you look so, Walter, I am in a hurry—give me
the money, there's a good man." There was something in
Walter's look that might well have excited his wife's sur-
prise, for he was pale, and shook like an aspen leaf. "It is
no use, Mary," at length he said, " I will tell you all—bad
news may as well be told first as last. lam no longer my
own master, Mary. To-day, when I went for my wages,
Mr. —, the clerk, directed me to go to a new shop they
have been building, and there I was told that it was re-
quired I should receive my wages in goods, and that unless
I dealt at the shop' I should be discharged ;" and here
the man sat down sullenly and moody. " I would have
spurned their offer," at length he said, " I would have as-
serted my right to the labour of my hands, but for you,
Mary, and our children. I could almost die before I
would forego my honest claim to dispose of the earnings of
my toil, but I cannot see you starve." For the woman,
she said nothing—but she felt a feeling of humbleness
she had never felt before. It had been a pride to her to
expend their weekly store in providing for her children, but
she now felt she was dependent on another—she could no
longer exercise her experience, or bestow her little patron-
age amongst her neighbours—she must seek the " shop"
for everything—take what was given her—nor dare to
grumble, lest retaliation should find out her 'husband.
From that day the cottage of Walter Evans was un altered
place—the man was an altered man—his wife wild children
no longer presented the same healthy, clean appearance—
their cottage was no longer the abode of comfort, since the
spirit of independence had passed from its innrates. The
man sought the beer-house, and the woman did the same—
both were grown reckless—their former character fled—
and those who did not know their history, of',;en wondered
at the change that had come over Walter Evans and his
wife. They were but one of the thousand victims of the
system of truck.—Card if C'brJnicle.

The Crown Prince of Bavaria, after levving Haw-
burgh, visited Oldenburg, which he left on the
.sth- inst., to
return to Munich, by the way of Du§f,eldorf an 4 Osnabruck.

SOO.

" Sir,—The Commissioners of Police inclose for the
information of the Poor Law Commissioners' returns from
the Divisions of the Metropolitan Police, showinc, for the
last three months the number of persons found° by the
Police in each, in a state of destitution. From these re-
turns it appears that difficulties still occur in obtaining that
immediate relief which the extreme urgency of some of
the cases demand, and all plea and claim for any relief is
resisted in others on the ground that the party should
seek for it elsewhere, perhaps in a distant parish ; although
in all fit cases of relief appears to be administered more
readily and effectually now than before the passing of the
Poor Law Amendment Act, and the whole amount of
mendicancy within the Police district has not increased.
The Commissioners beg leave to call the attention of the
Poor Law Commissioners to the points to which they have
above alluded, and they will be glad to receive sugges-
tions, arising out of the present mode of administering the
law as may enable the police to act more effectually in
cases of destitute persons of whom they are obliged to
take cognizance.
" I have the honour to be, Sir,
" Your most obedient Servant,
"RICHARD MAYNE."

" To E. Chadwick, Esq.
" Poor Law Commission-office, Somerset-house,
Sept. 6, 1837.
" Gentlemen,—l have read to the Poor Law Commis-
sioners your letter of the 24th ult., in which you give in-
stances where the police constables have found in the
streets persons in a state of destitution, and who were
refused relief on the ground that they belonged to distant
parishes.
" It was satisfactory to the Commissioners to learn from
you that cases of destitution and emergency occur less fre-
quently than previously to the passing of the Poor Law
Amendment Act ; and that a large proportion of those
which do occur are carefully treated by the officers charged
with the administration of relief to the destitute. It was
also satisfactory to the Commissioners to learn that within
the metropolitan districts the amount of mendicity has not
increased beyond that which has heretofore prevailed.
" It appears nevertheless that much misunderstanding
prevails as to the state of the law on the subject ; and the
Commissioners deem it advisable to state for your infor-
mation the nature of the relief available for cases of actual
destitution, as well as the mode in which the administra-
tion of the law may be mnde subservient to the suppression
of all pretexts for mendicancy. If any person state that
he have no food, and that he is destitute, or otherwise ex-
press or signify that he is in danger of perishing unless re-
lief be given to him, than any officer charged with the ad.
ministration of relief is bouud, unless he have presented to
him some facts or reaspnable evidence to rebut such state-
ment, to give relief to suck destitute person in the mode
prescribed by the law.
" If any person meet a wayfarer or other person asking
relief on the ground of destitution, then such person may
direct the destitute person to the proper officer, by whom
the relief must be necessarily administered, unless anything
shall appear to that officer to show at once and conclusively
the statement of destitution to be false. These directions
are at the choice of any subject, and may be given ver-
bally or in writing, and the Poor Law Commissioners
conceive it to be in some measure the more especial duty of
any peace officer to conduct or direct such destitute person
to the place where the relief will be administered.
" The overseers are not relieved from the responsibility
of administerit, relief according to the regulations prescribed
under the authority of the Poor Law Amendment Act.
By the 54th section any overseer is, in cases ' of sudden
and urgent necessity, required to give such temporary re-
lief as the case shall require, in articles of absolute neces-
sity; but not in money, and whether the applicant for re-
lief be settled in the parish where he shall apply for relief
or not but application may now in most districts be

made to—
" 1. The relieving officers.
" 2. The master of the workhouse, and
" 3. To the board of guardians when it is sitting.
" The duties of the relieving officers with relation to such
cases, as those duties are prescribed in the Commissioners'
regulations, are as follows:
" To receive all applicationi for relief, and to examine
into the merits and circumstances of each case, and report
the same to the guardians at their next weekly meeting.
" In cases of sudden and urgent necessity to give such
temporary relief as each case shall require, either by placing
the pauper in the workhouse, or affording relief out of the
house in articles of absolute necessity, but not in money,
whether the applicant for relief be settled in any parish in
the union or not.
" As soon as he shall have had notice of the sickness of,
or of any injury received by, any pauper, to notify the fact
to the medical officer ; and in the mean time to furnish such
relief as the emergency ;of the case may call for, and also
furnish such further relief, in or out of the workhouse, as
th 3 case, upon the certificate of the medical officer, may ap.
pear to require.
" To report to the Guardians at their weekly meeting all
cases in which temporary relief shall have been given by the
Churchwardens and Overseers of the poor, or cases of sud-
den and urgent necessity as hereinafter provided."
The duties of the medical officers, with relation to such
cases are thus prescribed :
" To attend duly and punctually upon all paupers out of
the workhouse falling or continuityg sick within the limits of
his district, including all paupers whom, by law, any parish
of the union may be bound to relieve, whether belonging or
not belonging to such parish, and whether under suspended
orders of removal or otherwise, and to supply all such sick
paupers with all necessary medicines and appliances."
The master of the workhouse is bound " to receive into
the house paupers admitted in manner hereinafter men-
tioned, and to cause them to be examined by the medical
officer, and to cleanse, clothe, and place them in the proper
wards."
By the first article of the workhouse regulatioas, " Pau-
pers shall be received into the workhouse in any one of the
following modes, and no other, viz.:—
" 1. By an order of the guardians to be signified in writ-
ing by their clerk.
" 2. By a provisional order in writing, signed by an over-
seer, churchwarden, or relieving officer.

" 3. By the master of the workhouse, without any such
order, in any case of sudden or urgent necessity."
" On the occurrence of any case of destitution or of sud-
den and pressing emergency, the better course will be to
apply to the nearest paid officer of the union, the relieving
officer, or the master of the workhouse, who best know the
most efficient remedies applicable for the relief of such
cases, and who have the best means of applying them. The
Commissioners will feel it their duty to make those officers
responsible in their situations for any serious neglect ; for
the bad consequences of any omission to give prompt and
adequate relief in any case of real destitution and emer-
gency. For relief to be effectual, it must be given at the
,ime when the emergency shall occur, to the destitute per-
The question as to any existing means of repayment,
or as to the place to which the destitute person may be
chargeable, it will be the duty of the officer to reserve for
investigation after the pressing we.nt shall have been relieved.
" The relief of cases of simple destitution are the pro-
vince of the officers appointed for the administration of re-
lief under the poor-law. Where any person who has been
originally taken into the custody of the police for any other
reason than that of simple destitution, falls into the state of
destitution whilst in custody, title Commissioners conceive
that the relief should be give' out of the means provided
for the support and proper care of prisoners whilst in cus-
tody. All persons who are not. casually destitute, but who
beg as a profession, the Poor Law Commissioners submit
should he dealt with under the Vagrant Act, and be appre-
hended by the police and. taken before the Magistrate for
his award of punishment.. In those cases which the union
or parish officers find to be cases of imposture, or where,
after the destitution shall have been reUeved, it is ascer-
tained to have been brought about by misconduct, or by
any act of vagrancy, then it will be t:nrt duty of those offi-
cers to give the offenders into the cu.st.ody of the police that
they may be taken before the Magistrate.
" That which the Coremissiorvers are most anxious to
have made known is, that the ref' ief of actual destitution,
in cases of emergency, should e.P.ways precede the investi-
gation of any question as to its cause or as to the liability
of any other parties than the pi .rish to contribute to it.
" The Commissioners dire'zt me to express their satis-
faction on perceiving from per usal of the returns from the
P division, which includes the parishes of Camberwell and
Lambeth, that no cases of destitution have of late been
found in the streets of that division. In the parishes of
Camberwell and Lambeth, the Commissioners are informed
that the relief in the workhc ai se is ably administered, and
the workhouse freely offered to all destitute objects. The
Poor-law Commissioners t rust that in other districts, so
soon as proper workhouse e .ccommodation is provided, the
rate-payers will lave comp' pr Security that all proper cases