The Sun.
London, England, 1841-11-29 00:00:00

RELIEF TO THE POOR.

A few days ago, at Union-Hall, two Guardians of St.
George's parish waited on the Magistrate relative to the
case of the girl Gardener, who, it will be recollected,
was turned out of her father's house, and afterwards, ac-
cording to her own account and that of a policeman of
the M division, refused relief on her application to the
parochial authorities of St. George's and St. Saviour's
parishes, being at the time in a state of destitution.
The guardians alluded to the previous report of the
case in the papers, and said that it was calculated to con-
vey an impression that she had experienced very unfeeling
treatment at the hands of those to whom she applied for
relief after her father had closed his doors against
her. Now, the facts of the case were not such as had
been stated ; but when the girl applied at St. George's,
upon inquiry it was ascertained that she had not slept in
the parish the night previously, but in that of St. Sa-
viour's, the adjoining parish, where they were bound to
afford her that casual relief which the necessity of the
case required. The poor girl had been admitted into St.
George's workhouse, and slept there one eight, when the
father turned her out, but instead of being sent about her
business the next morning, as the report described, she
left of her own accord, a policeman having called at the
house and took her away with him. The Guardians
then adverted to the subject of the relieving of vagrants
and casual poor. great numbers of whom were in the
nightly habit of applying for' admission into the work-
house, and to such an extent had the evil increased that
the Guardians of an adjoining parish had written to the
Poor-law Commissioners on the subject, and the follow-
ing was their reply :
" Poor-law Commistion-office, Somerset-house.
" Sir—l am directed by the Poor-law Commissioners
to state that they have had under their consideration
your letter of the Ist inst., together with its enclosure'
relating to the relief of vagrants and casual poor. The
Commissioners are deeply sensible of the importance and
difficulty of the subject to which those papers refer, and
in the present state of the law they feel it impossible to
offer advice which can be wholly satisfactory either to
the Guardians or to themselves. The first and paramount
duty of those to whom the administration of relief of the
poor is intrusted must be to provide effectually and in-
stantly for all cases of urgent want. This object the
Commissioners feel confident will always be kept in view
by the Guardians, at whatever risk, or at whatever cost
it may be attained. The Commissioners know by
experience the too easy and indiscriminate re-
ception of all applicants who present them-
selves for a night's lodging often affords to street
mendicants and impostors that portion of food
and shelter which should be reserved for the really des-
titute. Prostitutes have been known to go forth to their
occupation in the streets every morning, and to return
at night, for a fortnight in succession, to the vagrant
ward of a workhouse, which was thus wholly misapplied,
and rendered a place of contamination to those whom
misfortune, and not vice, might bring thither. For
those evils the only effectual remedy would be an esta-
blishment for the reception of persons casually destitute
separate from the workhouse, conducted on different
principles of discipline, and with a power of temporary
detention as a test of the urgency of the want which
brought the applicant to seek shelter in it. In the mean-
time the Commissioners hope that the erection of a hand-
mill in your workhouse, which should be applicable to
the casual poor, might do much to diminish the num-
ber of able-bodied male applicants. There could be no
objection to the Guardians affixing a notice to the gate
of the workhouse, and at the residence of the relieving
officer, to the effect that no order for admission to the
vagrant ward will, under ordinary circumstances, be
given after a certain hour, remembering, of course, that
really urgent cases must form an exception to every
rule, and be admitted on application at the workhouse
at all times. In general, the fact of an applicant being
brought by any of the police should be taken as prima
facie evidence of real and urgent want, inasmuch as it
is the duty of the body to treat as offenders, under the
Vagrant Act, any impostors or persons committing acts
of vagrancy within their district. The Commissioners
haveevery reason to believe that the Inspectors of Police
will take care that proper caution is exercised by the
constables under their control, so that the shelter and
relief intended for the destitute may not be absorbed by
wilful and habitual mendicants.

" The Commissioners have caused a copy of this letter
to be forwarded to the Commissioners of the Metropoli•
tan Police.—l have the honour to be, Sir, your most
obedient servant, " E. CHADWICK, Secretary."
The Guardians, then, in reference to the girl Gar-
dener's case, said that it had been ascertained her fa-
ther's place of settlement was at Mitcham, whether it
was intended to pass her on her exclusion from his house.
Mr. COTTINGHAM said, that since the inquiry had
taken place before him, a benevolent gentleman, having
read the account of the case in the newspapers, had not
only transmitted two guineas for her immediate relief,
but had also, through the medium of the Mendicity So-
ciety, to which he was a subscriber, undertaken to pro-
cure her a situation where she would be enabled to earn
an honest livelihood, and save her from the impending
ruin which was likely to result from the unfeeling con-
duct of her parent.

ORIGIN OF THE RICHMOND
CEMETERY, DUBLIN.

A County meeting was held at Dublin on Saturday
last, for the purpose of furthering the undertakings of
the " Land Investment Company." The High Sheriff.
Thomas Boy-se, Esq., in the course of an eloquent
speech, gave the following account of the foundation of
the Richmond Cemetery, and the great object secured to
Catholics by the movement :—I recollect (said the
Learned High Sheriff) that about fourteen years ago
the people of the city of Dublin were in a state of per-
petual confusion and irritation in coinsequence of the
Protestant clergymen of the city refusing permission to
the Catholic clergymen to read the office of the dead
over the remains of their deceased parishioners. In
the assertion of this ungracious right the police force
wore called in, and on more than one occasion blood
was shed in the grave-yard.—(Hear, hear.) To remedy
this state of things, the present Lord Plunket, then
Attorney-General, introduced a Bill into the House of
Commons, which passed. This Bill is known as " The
Easement of Burial Bill." It was so insulting in its
spirit, that although professing to remedy the evil, it
made matters worse than they were in their original
state. Amongst other provisions it contained one, that
the nearest of kin of a deceased Catholic should serve
twelve hours' notice on the parson of the parish of his
intention to inter the remains of his deceased relative in
the parish churchyard, and to have the office of the dead
said over them. The parson had the power to assent
or dissent, and in the event of refusing permission, he
was liable to a civil action in the due course of law, the
body of the deceased being outside the gate in the in-
terim, and, of course, approaching rapidly to a state
of decomposition.—(Hear, hear, and laughter.) Find-
ing this state Of the law absolutely intolerable, the
subject was, by myself and others, frequently
brought under the notice of the Catholic Associa-
tion ; and, assisted by Mr. O'Connell, w• succeeded
in getting from the funds of the Association a sum of
8001., with which a Committee then appointed—of which
I was one—purchased the fee simple of four acres of
land at Richmond, near Dublin, which we enclosed
with a twelve-foot wall, and, after being consecrated,
was converted int• a cemetery, where persons of all re-
ligious persuasions could be interred without the con-
sent of the parson. The first rule made by the Direc-
tors was, that in the descent of frail human nature to
the grave there should be no religious distinction.—

(Hear, and cheers.) The parson of the parish, finding
his revenues diminished to the extent of 1,5001., raved
and complained that his vested rights were evaded ;
but, on inquiry, he found that the law afforded no remedy;
and his churchyard, which at all seasons of the year, exhi-
bited the appearance of a ploughed field, from the number
of interments, threw up such a crop of noxious weeds and
loathsome lgrass that it afforded employment to the moan er
three times during that and every succeeding season
since.—(Hear.) An additional result has followed the
labours of the Directors—namely, that the fees arising
from interments were so large, that they have been en-
abled to take a tract of forty acres of land adjoining the
Botanical Gardens, on the north side of Dublin, which is
also enclosed and devoted to the interment of the dead
without religious distinction ; a large space is devoted
to the interment of the poor without any charge ; and
the Directors have continued to govern this society since
the year 1828 gratuitously. The parson's freehold right
has been destroyed without being directly invaded—
Lord Plunket's insulting "Easement of Burial Bill" re-
mains a dead letter on the statute•book, and that which
was considered perfectly impracticable—namely, the in-
terment of the Catholic or Protestant Dissenter, without
the leave of the parson, has been fully accomplished.