The Sun.
London, England, 1848-03-17 00:00:00

servance of a practice contrary to that to svlaich they
had been accustomed, and which they had ad opted and
found beneficial in practice. The great object was to
secure adequate medical services with fair r emuneration,
and, as was his duty, he should endeavour so, tolappor-
tion the annual grant of 70,0001. as to attain it. There
was another matter connected with medical relief which
was of grave imp iftance ; he alluded to the present
mode of supplying the poor with medicines. That mode
he thought was unsatisfactory. He thought the throw'
iug the charge of providing drugs upon the medi cal offi-
cer was open to abuse, but now he confessed his powers
of remedying were inadequate to his powers of perceir.
ing the evils of the system. However, in pros: ess of
time he hoped, by the assistance of the residents in the
various districts, by the union of private charities, by
the aid of the inspectors, the clergy, and the guardians,
some better plan of dispensing drugs than at present ex'
isted might be devised and adopted. At present, how-
ever, he had no plan to suggest himself. He feared be
was dealing with the House in a very crude form, but
he hoped the House would excuse him. It was. s matter
of great difficulty to form a sound judgment on these
questions, and would require the experience of as many
years as he had been months in his present office. ge
threw himself upon the indulgence of the House; if be
had advanced crude opinions let him be shown them/
and it would be found his docility would be exemplary'
—(Hear, hear.) Another complaint which had been
meths was the mode in which the medical officers were,
unduly fettered in respect to their administering relief
to the poor; but he thought this complaint arose from 6
reference to the cases which occurred in the first Year
of the new poor-law. His opinion was, that in the
matters of medical relief very little ought to be
left to
the discretion of the relieving officer, who was total's'
incompetent to pronounce an opinion whether or not 5
man was sick. His only duty was to decide the question,
" pauper or no pauper," and the medical officer 014
ought to be entrusted with the discretion of attending
such persons as he held to be sick, such discretion being
subject to the approval of the guardians at }their nest
meeting. But in truth the complaints which hued reaches'
him had not been against relieving officers far refusing
to allow medical men to attend, but against medial
officers for having neglected to attend. He 110 W CSTOO to
make a few observations on the remaining resolution._
laid on the table by the Noble Lord the Member for
Bath—resolutions by which the Noble Lord had, he
thought, raised an unfair impression against the working
of the poor-law, inasmuch as they put forth evils which
had long since been remedied. He would take, in the
e
first place, the fifth resolution. The evils there state"
had already been provided for by articles 161
and 109 of the consolidated orders issued by
the Poor-law Commissioners ; the only difference
between those orders and the resolution of the
Noble Lord being that the first are legal, whereas tie,
latter was contrary to the existing law, inasmuch 1/5
would let in as medical officers in this country Irish sliu
Scotch practitioners. With regard to the 6th resolution
propounded by the Noble Lord, if he would turn to the
75th and 76th articles of the consolidated orders, lie
would find that the Commissioners had not stinted medl.
cal relief as the Noble Lord's resolution proposed to Jo.
Hence, in these two respects, the resolutions cast an tin'
just slur upon the poor-law, while they would not It'
vide for the evils so effectually as the orders issued °?
the Commissioners. The Noble Lord had confined his
argument on the present occasion to his first resolution,
which related to women claiming medical relief from tin
parish in consequence of their being pregnant- -/
this respect he (Mr. Buller) had hoped the orders °I
the Commissioners would have satisfied the 1”b
Lord. The resolution of the Noble Lord ineite,,,,
not only every pregnant married woman, but er!''„
pregnant unmarried woman, to claim relief at the tica:
of childbirth—(Hear, hear)—and this would
ate'
scandaleus injustice upon the poorer classes of r
payers, who were already sufficiently crushed d°e'eal/'
If this was yielded to, and if indiscriminate relief le
to be given at the time of child-bearing, it would t•
idle to keep up any safeguards to the ratepayers lene'i
ever. At present the 182 d article of the consolidates
orders provided that every pregnant woman who eree
pauper, or who obtained an order from a person leg e,
authorised, should be attended at childbirth by the Ine;
dioal officer—after birth, in case of difficulty or datige.
and that the medical officer should be paid for such a'r:
tendance and medicine not less than 10s. nor more 'hi;
205.; and in case of difficult labour the medical officer ni,;
attend without an order, subject to the future decisie;
of the board of guardians as to whether the woroan,ll.,
a proper object for medical attendance. This he Vrtj,
Buller) thought was as far as liberality could go
due regard to the interests of the ratepayers. hi
should not go further into the questions raised II tah".
'-
resolutions of the Noble Lord. He had stated'•
general principles on which relief should be ad
tered, and had given his reasons why he opponed g.O
resolutions of the Noble Lord. Ile regretted, to
on this the first occasion of his addressing the P.°`',"“
since he had been appointed to the office he held,,,,hu` 0
was for the House to decide; and he hoped the ilea
would decide against a resolution which he belief
would be most dangerous and prejudicial to the conntll„.
The Right Hon. and Learned Gentleman concluded we
moving the previous question. a
Mr. WAICLEY regretted that the Right Hon.
Learned:Gentleman should have made so bad a cons.
meneernelat as to oppose the change in favour of hunionl,.t4
which had been offered to the House by the
Lord the Member for Bath. After the speech of
Right Hon. and Learned Gentleman he (Mr. Wakie7,/„
was at a loss to know why the Hon. Member oprel'
(Mr. C. Lewis) was out of office as a Poor-law Commis
sioner, for it seemed to him that the country was only to
a change of men, but not measures. It appeared te
him that the Right lion. and Learned Gentleman tin
absolutely got a sine cure appointment, for he eulogierA
all that had been done by his predecessors, and premier',
no change or modification of evils so long and so loallv
complained of. He would tell the Right Hon. and Learned
Gentleman that the medical practitioners were not on
discontented but exasperated, and their treatment At 1116
hands of the Commission operated injuriously to the
poor. The resolutions now under consideration merei
went to make it compulsory that the poor woman shoul
have medical attendance at the hour of her greatest phi'
sical suffering, and it would be easy to provide by 1,
clause in a statute punishment for those gully off
any fraud upon the guardians in this respect. It leµ.
most important that women should be attends
childbirth by competent medical men, or the re,'„sll,
lt
might be a ricketty, diseased, and crippled race. .lu.'
was the source of a vast amount of paurperism. d
number of relieving officers was so small that they Copt,
not make an adequate number of visits to the recipier""
of relief; but the medical officer, an important rate
payer, and who had an interest in reducing the perocb'„
burdens, was not likely to give incorrect inforralltie'.
As the law stood, guardians contracted with medical
officers, who were thus overwhelmed with orders b‘lB
their relieving officer. It generally happened that sem
patients were in a state of absolute f.x halation fr°„--
want of food; the medical officer accordingly gave orderk
for food; but where the relieving officer had to wan
twenty miles in a week, as had often happened in 1;0-
very county, there was not much chance of thie,i
orders being attended to, which must be confirmed
the relieving officer before they could be acted on. xb
the relieving officer was actually placed above ,',b,""e
medical officer in matters of sickness and beeps,
If a medical officer was liberal in granting
rtintsl
orders for food, he fell into distavon vl"
the guardians; but the orders en the medic
officer might be multiplied without end. How were nut
prisoners treated? The surgeons of the prisons andili;
firmaries might order not only nourishing food, but lel,
to any extent; and this without any check or rehu-,
from the visiting magistrates, or from the Home Secr",
tary, who was also a Poor-law Commissioner. It 1/-
true the medical officers of unions had the power of doinii
this; but certain returns to be moved for shortly le°,,illot
show in how many cases that power was exercised. .70
a single argument bad been urged against the selopll4
of this resolution, and the kigh t Hon. and Lvlo3•
Gentleman would never have resisted it, had be be-i,n
acquainted with the miseries of the poor creatures
of
whom it referred. They were frequently destitute 4
the most common necessaries of food and clothing, bog
the head of the family being in employ, they could,nbt
be treated as paupers. He regretted that the l'ooo
Hon. and Learned Gentleman appeared to be acting
~f
the system of his predecessors, whereby the counts''
would be deprived of the benefit of his splendid taletl'
as applied to this subject. le
Mr. HUME, while desirous to afford every' poletiois
comfort to women in the state described, could not
11-
fear that the adoption of the Noble Lord's resolution
ling
would make matters worse, by striking at the fee-,
of independence whet, it, we, co important to
and weakening the habits of thrift and foresighi.l
(Hear, hear.) To establish a claim to medical sites"
ance on the part of every poor woman, married or n°ll,
for the resolution made no distinction—would be Iri_„°"a
dangerous step,
,as regarded the poor themselves--';„
would be ruinous to that class of poor women who?;
.
tamed a lirlihood by assisting others. The first obri:
tion was one which he had felt to the poor-law geners'''
and he was sorry to learn that in Scotland it wes ee:
rating in the way ho had feared, by destroying the .11;
dustry and independence of the poor. He had ke°,34
many instances of the injury resulting from ill-dirge'
humanity. On these grounds ho should oppose the re
solution. d
Mr. C. BULLER, in referenee to something that bead
fallen from the Hon. Member for Finsbury, said he, the
sent copies of the Noble Lord's resolutions to all fen
members of the late Poor-law Commission; and
out of nine of those gentlemen objected merit untlul'ii.
fiedly to the resolution before the House; and Sir e.
Walsh objected to it, unless the class of females to r
ceive the proposed relief was accurately defined. tin
Mr. HENLEY said that every one must applaud
humane motives which had dictated this proposal'
ar
his union they had paid the medical officers 450/ Aro,
ar
ander the old system; but a neighhouring union ori?
paying 3001., with the sanction of the Commissional
the medical officers of his union had consented to acog,
a like SUM. When, however, the matter was broug_
before the Commissioners, they refused to sanction 10°11.6
than a payment of 2951. a year, which had since croft
f the
again to about 400/. lie had the highest opinion"
medical officers, and believed they were under nortri..
don as to giving orders for food and nourishing 'Fp
stances. He would not support the resolution, believing
that sufficient facilities existed for obtaining relief ler
the class referred to, if really destitute. gon.
Sir W. CLAY, after complimenting the Bight
and Learned Chief Commissioner, said he must never-
theless support the resolution, which went to remedy
very serious evil—greater than any that could be pro-
duced by its adoption. Let the House remember that no
form of eleemosynary assistance was so important to the
pour, and so little liable to abuse, as medical assistance.
While 5,000,000/ was applied to the relief of the poor,
only about 2 per cent., or 175.00/.,
was expended in
medical ref, F.---(Hear, hear.) Hence the inc.:case ess
small a charge was not a matter to frighten the House,
in 4 final point of view. He believed that the number