The Sun.
London, England, 1869-11-23 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 23, L'69.

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LONDON, TUESDAY, NOV. 23, 1869.

The public will learn, with a sense of relief, that
the Poor-law Board have given definite orders for
the removal of the sick poor from the fatal wards of
St. Pancras Workhouse to the Highgate Infirmary.
Five wards, accommodating 170 persons, are imme-
diately available for use, and there can be no imagin-
able reason for keeping the sick in what has not in-
aptly been termed the modern " Black Hole of Cal-
cutta," when a large and airy building, in a
healthy situation, is ready for service. It will,
naturally be asked why the sick people
at St. Pancras should have been crowded into
the narrow, ill-ventilated wards of the old infirmary,
while the really spacious establishment at Highgate
was left unfurnished and unused. The only answer
to be found is the unreasonable prejudice of the pre-
sent Board of Guardians against everything under-
taken or sanctioned by their predecessors.
The revelations made at the inquest yes-
terday, though painful enough, can scarcely
be called startling after the former evidence.
It was the old painful story in a new form with cer-
tain variations. JANE HAY Es, 17 years of age, had
been an inmate of the house for three months. She
was suffering from consumption, but died of typhoid
fever, her death being accelerated, according to the
medical evidence, by the poisonous air of the ward in
which she died. Considering that the allowance of
air for each patient in the ward was 600 cubic feet
instead of 850, the minimum required by the Poor-
law Board, that an air shaft connected with the ward
was found to contain sewage at the bottom, and that
twenty-nine patients occupied the ward, two of
them sleeping on the floor, and some in baths, this
result is scarcely surprising. The rest of the estab-
lishment is clearly in keeping with "Ward 24. Some
of the Wards, according to the evidence of Dr.
ELLIS, " would have to be better ventilated before
they could be used as stables for horses." Even
allowing for a little high colouring from the anta-
gonism existing between the Board of Guardians
and the medical officer, what are we to say to the
evidence of physicians and surgeons totally uncon-
nected with the establishment ? Mr. BRIME-
NELL CARTER, F.R.C.S., found Wards 24,
16, and 11 " all offensive," - and had no
hesitation in saying that such an atmosphere
would be calculated to accelerate the death of a
young woman suffering from consumption. The
Coroner asked whether it were true that the wards
were as good as those of some of the London Hos-
pitals, when Mr. CARTER declared the statement to
be preposterous. In no London Hospital were the
wards like it. After this what is the use of Guar-
dians thrusting themselves forward, contradicting
evidence, declaring the jury to be packed, disturb-
ing the regular course of inquiry, and maintaining
that the medical officer alone is answerable for the
state of the wards ? By acting in this
manner they only confirm the already widespread
impression of their total unfitness for the charge of
the sick and helpless. But before the matter is
finally disposed of, the Poor-Law Board had better
look to its own officers and take care for the future
that its inspectors keep it a little more au courant
with the state of affairs in metropolitan parishes. It
is scarcely worth while to engage the services of
gentlemen with high-sounding titles to inspect in-
stitutions in which every conditioa of sanitary well-
being is deliberately and systematically- set at de-
fiance.

THE sporting journals ought to devote a corner to
a record of king-hunting. This sport is not only
attaining a widespread popularity, but in proportion
as it becomes more common does it also appear more
exciting and strange. Nothing, for example, in the
annals of diadem intriguing can surpass in
novelty and startling effects the present
doings in Spain. The folly displayed by the
revolutionary leaders in the choice of a King would,
indeed, appear inexplicable, were it not to be feared
that there is method in their madness, and'that the
strange complications of the last twelve months are
not altogether the result of blundering. When
ISABELLA was driven out, of a score of candidates for
the vacancy most people agreed that the Duke of
MONTPENSIER, the husband of the ex-QUEEN'S
sister, had the best chance of success. For a long time
the Duke's name held the highest place in popular
esteem, and was produced at intervals as the
only "good thing" in the race. Not only,
however, is_ the Duke still uncrowned, but it

seems that hopeless animosity existed from the
first between him and Marshal Pnrm. Then came
Dom FERNANDO'S turn. The world was positively
assured that this prince, the father of the King of
PORTUGAL, would finally settle the difficulty. He
was confidently talked about in the official circles of
Madrid. his merits were canvassed in the Spanish
Parliament. Hopes of a Spano-Portuguese union
were held out. After weeks of talk the offer was
made, and—flatly refused.
Then the poor Spaniards turned their attention to
the Duke of GENOA, a youthful nephew of the King
of ITALY, and this unhappy lad soon became the
rage. He has enjoyed the doubtful gratification
of creating more disturbance than either of the
mature princes who preceded him. The
Progressists wanted to have the Duke of GENOA for
King ; but the Unionists, who justly apprehended
that the bov would be nothing more than the tool of
Plum, the Progressist leader, employed all their
energies to defeat the scheme. The fury of the
struggle became very serious. All the Unionist
Ministers, except the Regent himself, retired from the
Government. Civil war was thought to be imminent.
And now, in the height of this struggle, we are in-
formed, on the best authority, that the young DUKE
does not desire to be a monarch, and that, even if he
did, his relatives are not disposed to offer him up as a
sacrifice. Europe may now reasonably complain
that its credulity has been played upon too long.
One of these fascos might have been possible ; but it
is too much to expect us to believe that three imprac-
ticable candidatures have been successively canvassed
for weeks before the Spanish Government knew that
each in turn must prove a failure. It must surely
have been possible to discover that Doer FERNANDO
would not reign, that the Duke of GENOA would
not be allowed to reign, or at least that PRIM hated
the Duke of MONTPENSIEn so bitterly as to render
the latter's candidature hopeless. We must now
seek some more rational explanation of these doings.
And the only choice seems to lie between the pre-
sumption that PRIM is intriguing for supreme power
himself, or that, having lost hope of agreeing with
his colleagues respecting a King, he now seeks to
establish the Republic which he some months ago
pronounced a chimera. At present only the Mar-
shal himself can decide which of these two theories
is the correct one. But another event or two may
reveal the truth.

As pauperism is not merely a metropolitan plague,
so a minute just issued by the PRESIDENT of the
POOR-LAW BOARD on the better organisation of
London charity possesses a more than metropolitan
interest. Mr. GOSCIEEN'S document is a clear expo-
sition of the causes of the evil, and of the means by which
it should be met. Destitution has long been on the
increase, and unhappily it still continues to spread.
The average weekly lists of pauperism for 1867 and
1868 were high, but those for 1860 are still higher.
On the other hand, however, though the evil
is so great, the remedies are not deficient►
There is an extensive, if not abundant,
supply of public and private relief, but the great diffi-
culty is to organise and dispense it properly. llitherto
the poor-rates and the charity of individuals have
failed in their mission—indeed, have acted injuriously
through lack of system. Wherever distress has been
found, there has been a laudable but ill-directed rush
of assistance. No caution has sufficed to induce the
public to be as discriminating as it is generous. The
result has been the accumulation, and often the waste,
of large sums in certain districts ; nor has it unfre-
quently happened that parishes where money
has flowed freely have been actually colonised
by paupers from less happy regions. The
general principle which ought to be observed
to avoid these baneful results is clear enough. It is
far from desirable, in this selfish world, to restrict the
efforts of the generous, but private charity ought to
be so inethodised as to avoid interference with
the working of the Poor Law. The ground
covered by individual effort and by parish rates
should be kept as separate as possible. If this can
be done, not only will the evil of a double distribu-
tion be reduced, but private benevolence will no longer
be restrained by the feeling that charity is only
lightening the poor rates at the expense of the
generous.

Mr. GOSCIIEN points out how this result, this
separation of the two species of aid, may be effected.
The poor-rates can, in general, ho explains, he
applied only to the relief of positive destitution.
As a rule, so long as a person is in
employment, and wages aro earned, poor-law
authorities ought to hold aloof, and refuse to
supplement the receipts of the family. This prin-
ciple may appear hard in many instances—in fact, in
the case of widows it is often relaxed ; but for the
most part no system could he more dangerous than
to supplement insufficiency of wages by the expen-
diture of public money. It is obvious that
if once this principle were admitted there would be
no end to its operation. The public expenditure
would be enormously increased, and the self
reliance and thrift of the working population
would proportionately decline. But there is great
scope for assistance to those who suffer from insuffi-
ciency of means ; and though public money cannot
much good may be
bd eo expendedne by
y aitod fo
those s c h
who
hpou raproes enot utterly .
,
Here, then, is the proper field for private charity. The
Poor Law will take care of positive, the generous
may attend to comparative, poverty. Charitable
societies ought to refrain from giving where
the Guardians give, or, at all events, for
the same purposes. Their assistance should
be confined to gifts of bedding and the like, and in
no case should parish relief be so augmented as to
form a regular increase of income. Boards of Guar-
dians cannot legally help the poor by
redeeming their clothes from pawn, pur-
chasing tools or clothing, or paying fares
from one part of the country to another. But
private charity may accomplish infinite good in all
these respects. To carry these instructions into
practice a system of registration must be
adopted. Unfortunately the Poor-law Board
has no funds to provide any effective registra-
tion, but it is suggested that weekly lists, con-
taining the names of all out-door paupers, with their
addresses and the amount received, should be pub-
lished by the Guardian in every district. Private
persons should give information of their doings. Thus
the two species of charity would begin to work
together, and thus would be laid the foundation of
that affiance between private and public aid which
has been so long needed,

Colonel J. W. Lovell, C.B. Commanding Royal
Engineer at the Chatham district has presented at
the Chatham parish schools, the certificates and
prizes won by local students in the examinations by
the Science and Art Department ; and the most
distinguished of them was Sergeant John Snaden,
of the Royal Engineers, stationed with bis corps at
Brompton Barracks. Colonel Lovell, with compli-
mentary remarks, presented him with the gold
medal awarded to him. Sergeant Snaden also won
a " Royal Albert Scholarship" in the Royal Col-
lege of Science, Dublin, entitling him to £5O a year
for three years, and to the free enjoyment of lec-
tures, &c., at the College. He would also have re-
ceived a £25 Whitworth Exhibition if he had not
been slightly beyond the age fixed. Sergeant
Snaden is a self-taught man, and has gained the
honours mentioned by studying in the intervals of
his duty as a non-commissioned officer.
BREAXFAST.—EPPS'S COCOA.—GRATEFUL AND COM-
FORTING.—The very agreeable character of this prepata,-
Con has rendered it a general favourite. The Civil Service
Gazelle remarks:—." The singular success which Mr.Epps
attained by his homoeopathic preparation of cocoa has
never been surpassed by any experimentalist. By a
thorough knowledge of the natural laws which govern the
operations of digestion and nutrition, and by a careful ap-
plication of the floe properties of well selected cocoa, Mr.
Epps has provided our breakfast tables with a delicately,
flavoured beverage which may save us many heavy doc-
tors' bills." Made simply with boiling water or milk.
Sold only in tin-lined packets, labelled JAMES ggPS and
Co" lipluceopathji ChenOss, London.

A STRANGE OUTRAGE.

The lawless spirit of the south of Ireland is still shown in
various outrages. The wife of a labourer named Neville,
who works on the railway near Foynes, county of Limerick,
was fired at on Wednesday night. The house in which the
Nevilles lived is divided, and a caretaker of Mr. Mangan's
occupies one half. The caretaker and his wife left the house to
attend the fair of Ra.thkeale, and gave the key to Neville's
wife, asking her to attend to some domestic matters
for them. Hearing footsteps a littlo after dusk, and
thinking her neighbours had come back, she went out with
the key to her own door, and there met a man, armed with
a double-barrelled gun, who desired her to stand back,
and, instantly presenting the gun, fired into her
face, and then, turning round, discharged the second
barrel into the window of the caretaker's house.
The poor woman received the contents of the gun, which
was loaded with shot and pellets, in the head and shoulders,
and was wounded severely, but, under medical treatment,
is likely to recover. The Cork Examiner states that on
Friday morning, as the contractor was about to resume
work on the western bridge, it was found that 201 t. of rope
and a letting-down platform on which the workmen stand
had been cut and taken away. If it had not been discovered
loss of life, in all probability, would have occurred. On
Wednesday night a party of ladies and gentlemen who
were driving to a ball in Tipperary had stones flung at
them. One of the ladies had a narrow escape. This is a
rare species of outrage.