The Sun.
London, England, 1870-06-09 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, JUNE 9. D-gn.

ment, would willingly part with that for which we
can find no substitute. The impressive language of Lord
I)ERBY left nothing to desire, and the accounts which
were furnished of the progress of the repairs, and
the general plan for the restoration of the Cathedral,
allow no room for doubt on the question. It may
fairly be said to those who are in the vicinity, that
their duty has been put before them, and it remains
for them to chew if they are wanting in the will or
the ability to perform it.

PARLIAMENTARY holidays in the middle of the
session give us time to look round us and consider
what we have done, and what yet remains to accom-
plish. Generally speaking the result of the inquiry
is more flattering to our good intentions than to our
actual achievements. If Ministers and members
have struggled through one quarter of the questions
they proposed to deal with at the opening of the
session by the time the Midsummer sun shines above
them, the session has been one of extraordinary
activity and success, and in the year of grace 1870 we
suspect few will be found bold enough to boaSt of
past achievements. If the present session disposes
of our second great Irish difficulty, and deals reso-
lutely with the education problem, it will condone
for many omissions; but the continual' neglect and
postponement of social questions affecting the daily
well-being of the people; is a continually recurring
grievance. The procrastination brings its own pun-
ishment, for the
.postponement of some difficulties
produces and perpetuates others which will not be put
aside. Thus the neglect of the great questions of edu-
cation and intemperance recruits our standing army
of paupers and criminals, and forces us to hap in
startling and unexpected forms the harvest of our
culpable indifference and apathy.
The problem of English pauperism is rapidly,
however, assuming gigantic proportions, and be-
coming one of those questions which, after long delay
and evasion, suddenly override all others. It was so
with Free Trade, it was so with . Parliamentary
Reform, it was so with the condition of
Ireland. A grievance by constant reiteration becomes
intolerable, and is fiercely resented, or an evil
augmented by accumulating years produces unex-
pected consequences. Parliament and people are
forced to deal with the question they fain would
shun, and the difficulties which, earlier considered
and frankly met, might have been easily resolved,
are then found to have become, under our complicated
social system, problems which perplex and confound
the wisest. The great pauper question may be
divided reeler many heads, any of which is a weighty
matter in itself. We have to ascertain whence
comes this overwhelming mass of misery and
degradation, how we are to treat it when
under our care, how we are to provide for it
in the future and diminish its extent. There is work
for a whole generation of social philosophers on this
one subject alone, for directly and indirectly it in-
volves a host of others. Looking to the most hopeful
view of the question, the chance of diminishing our
national burden, it is quite evident that we cannot
attain our end simply by deterrent influences.
Our workhouses are, Heaven knows, dismal
and uninviting enough, and should serve
one might suppose to drive away the most
incorrigible idler, who would rather live at
anybody's expense than his own. Lord DERBY said
the other day at Liverpool that it was inconceivable
any man would break his leg for the pleasure of
having it cured, but it is scarcely less amazing that
any one from indolence or greed of public charity
should elect to pass his days in St. Pancras! What
• influence can be exerted to break the spell of
habitual dependence is an enigma that remains to be
solved, but at least we can turn our attention to the
desideratum of stopping the supply of paupers. It is
an acknowledged fact that a very large proportion of
the children brought up by the parish.return to it in
after life. When we consider the great number of
children which came under the care of the guardians
from orphanage, desertion, the misfortunes or intern-
perace of their parents, and other causes, we shall
at once perceive that we are not likely to lessen our
poor-rate under these conditions. The workhouse is
a cheerless home enough, and certainly little of the
romance of early associations can linger in the memories
of the pauper apprentices or little " marchionesses " sent
out by the Union. But the fatal habit of helpless-
ness and dependence has been formed, and clings
more or less closely through life. The children are
not thoroughly and efficiently trained, and the guar-
dians, however good their intentions, find
it • difficult to get them into suitable posi-
tions. Employers of the better class are
averse to taking workhouse children, and in con-
sequence they very often fall into the hands of harsh
and unscrupulous masters. They have little heart
or courage, they have no one to work for
but themselves, they have no one to take
pride in their success, to encourage them
to exertion, or to cheer them after failure. The badge
of pauperism drags them down, and it is well,
indeed, if that downward path leads them only back
to the gloomy home from which they started, and
not to its kindred gaol. In the case of the girls,
indeed, there are other and worse agencies at work,
and it is here that our parochial authorities might at
once achieve a most important practical reform.
"Evil communications corrupt good manners " said
the wise apostle many a century since, and the
experience of later years has only served to
confirm his assertion. Many inmates of our work-
houses, no doubt, even among the able-bodied, are
driven there by sheer force of circumstances and
irresistible misfortune. Many more among the inmates
of the wretched infirmaries deserve our tenderest
pity rather than our censure. But it is not with
these that the young girl, fresh from the union school-
room, comes into immediate contact. It is with
those of her own sex a little older than herself
in years, far older in worldly wisdom and
wickedness, with those who have gone out into the
world and been driven back to the workhouse gates
by their own sin and folly. The lessons she learns
are not from the broken-down servant, the
widowed mother, whose health has failed
in the struggle, or the strong man
crippled by diSease and unwilling to burden his family.
They are from the bold flaunting girl, the woman
whose intemperance has broken up her home, and all
the loud and reckless crew, who fill our workhouse
sheds. So rapid is the consequent deterioration
in the young girls suddenly introduced into this
motley circle, that the chaplain of one of our large
workhouses stated that he could see a marked change
in their conversation and manner within one week of
their entry into workhouse life. While we are
puzzling as to what we are to do with our old
paupers it is certain that we have found a marvellous
receipt for manufacturing new ones.

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

withdraw from the campaign before they hays
actually raised their flag. The Dublin journals all
seem agreed as to the importance to Ireland, socially
and I olitica.lly, of local legislation ; and their efforts
to propagate their doctrines are in spite of the want
of sympathy shewn by Cork, Waterford, and
Tipperary, gaining the cause many strong adherents
from all parties.

£45, and that the directors can only pay a 2 per cent.
dividend. It would seem that the company, having
secured to themselves £60,000 or £70,000 per annum
from season ticket holders, care but little to fulfil
their contract of supplying reasonable accommoda-
tions and decent regularity, especially when it
would be afforded at a loss of money to be gained
from other hands, namely, those of the pleasure
seekers.