The Sun.
London, England, 1856-02-28 00:00:00

ST. PANCRAS WORKHOUSE.

During the past month Dr. Bence Jones, accompanied
by one of the inspectors under the Poor Law Board, has
been making a searching investigation into the condition
of the above workhouse and the general treatment of the
poor.
The ordinary meeting of the parish authorities was held
yesterday in the Courthouse, King's-road, Camden-town,
Mr. Henry Farren, F.S.A., senior churchwarden, in the
chair. The following communication was read by Mr. C.
Hibbard, the clerk :
"Poor Law Board, Whitehall, Feb. 25.
" Sir,--I am directed by the Poor Law Board to refer you
to their letter of the Ist of January, 1836, in which they
informed you that they had thought it necessary, under
the powers conferred upon them by the 10th and 11th of
Victoria, chap. 109, sect. 22, and with the consent of the
Lords Commissioners of her Majesty's Treasury to appoin
Dr. Bence Jones to act as an Inspector of Poor Laws for a
period of 30 days, for the purpose of conducting a special
inquiry into the condition of the workhouse of the parish of
St. Pancras, with reference more particularly to the number
of persons at the workhouse can properly accommodate.
"Dr. Benco Jones, having completed the necessary in-
spections and investigations, has made his report to the
Poor Law Board, and, I am directed to forward to you,
for the directors of the poor, the six copies which accom-
pany this letter.
"I am directed to request the immediate attention of
the directors to the statements of the report, and to ex-
press the desire of the Poor Law Board that measures may,
without delay, be taken, calculated to remedy the serious
evils adverted to in it.

"I am further to request that you will inform the Poor
Law Board of the proceedings which the directors take upon
the receipt of this letter, and of the remedial measures which
they propose to adopt. " I am, Sir, &c.,
" COURTENAY, Secretary.
"To the Clerk to the Directors of the Poor, St. Pancras."
The report, which occupies 13 page; describes the state
of the workhouse to be highly unsatisfactory. There are 300
more in the house than there were in 1846. The wards are
described as being offensive, and almost without ventilation.
n four of the six principal wards there was a draught of
air from without, passing through the privy into the ward.
The medical officer is reported to have stated that the
crowding of the wards accounted for the slowness of the
recovery of many patients. On one occasion 10 male pa-
tients and two women were lying on the floor. Mr. Carter,
the senior-surgeon, states that the ground-floor infirmary
had been so offensive that he considered that certain dis-
eases, ulcerative stomatitis and dysentery, causing death
in some cases, had resulted, and that in the boys' infirmary
he (Jr. Carter) had been nauseated by the offensiveness
proceeding from the ward. The total number of sick is so
great that the infirmaries aro incapable of containing them,
and they are consequently put wherever room can be foiled,
the result being great confusion. In the women's receiv-
ing and casual ward as many as 80 and upwards slept
nightly. In order to test the purity of the air, directions
were given that the windows were not to be opened. This
was disobeyed, the inmates declaring that if they had not
opened the windows they would have been stifled. Omit-
ting the children, the average space was 164 cubic feet per
person. The air contained 1.14 per cent. of carbonic acid.
Both the medical officers of the workhouSe stated that the
offensiveness of their wards was excessive, and that fever
had been the result. Phillips, the puree, had seen seve-
ral persons made ill by the foulness of the room, and she
herself had suffered from it. The rooms were so crowded
that many had no beds or even ticks to sleep on, so they
bad to lie on the floor, the table, or forms. The occa-
sional ventilation in some of the wards, by opening the
windows, alone prevented the inmates dying of suffixation.
In the men's casual ward. it is reported by the surgeons that
ten men had passed the night lying naked as close as pos-
sible, on one of the planks. The stench in the night-nul•see'
sleeping-room is described by Mrs. Gray as terrible. Test-
ing the air, it was found to contain 2.75 per cent. of car-
bonic acid. In the infant nursery Di. Jones found in bed
25 mothers and 30 children. from 10 months to five weeks
old. The room was very offensive, and contained nearly 2
per cant, of c trbonic acid. Diseases of the digestive c.rgae s
and meeenteric disease were prevalent. The children's bed-
room is similarly described :—there had been eight chil-
dren, between one and seven years old, sleeping in one bed,
4ft. 6in. broad, and sft. Gin. long ; and that cutaneous
disease had spread from the closeness of the children.
The men's day-rooms and insane wards are described as
being fearfully overcrowded. One sleeping apartment is
described as a cellar, where 15 persons sleep. There was no
chimney to the room, and no means of ventilation, except
one small window in the door. The report adds—" The
place was fit for a coal-hole, but not for human beings to
sleep in. The laundry ie formed out of a cell on the other
side of the passage. How the reonired work can be, done
in this place I cannot comprehend. Oa the same level
under ground was a low long room seven feet two in. high,
containing :32 sleepers." The arrangement for the adrai-
eistration of out-door relief is depicted• as most defective.
As many as 90d are sometimes relieved in one clay. The
applicants are crowded into pens, the air being most offen-
sive, frequently causing women to faint. "At half-past
5 o'clock as many as 150 still remained unrelieved. They
had no food all day. and many of them stated that they di4
not expect any until 7 o'clock. Mr. Birchinore, the relieving
overseer, states that his predecessor died from the effects
of the foul air of this underground office, into which the
directors were unwilling to comp. Dr. Jones adds—"
cannot _sufficiently strongly express the opinion I have
formed of the evils which result from the cold, wet, foul
air, and fasting which the poorendure. While endeavouring
to obtain out-door relief, they are exposed to disease, and
even to death." C" Such a state of things ought not to be
tolerated by the Government." The report concludes by
recommending that the out-door relieving officers should be
removed at once. Immediate steps ehou'al also be taken to
prevent the crowded state of the house by removing the
schools. The arrangement by which the casual women are
mixed with those waiting for admission into the workhouse
in the receiving wards is most likely to introduce and keep
up an outbreak of low fever. These wards should be im-
mediately separated. It is very desirable that an entirely
new budding should be made for an infirmary, where the
access of foul air would be prevented. The collars for out-
door relief aro described as the worst part of the work-
house. It is fortunate that death has not taken place
among the poor in them. "That disease and death has
come out of them is certain, and, although everything has
been done that can be done, I know no word more suited
to them than horrible.' "
Mr. W. D. COOPER remarked, that although Mr- Beu-
verie had stated in the House of Commons on Friday that,
this report had been forwarded to the directors of the poor'
of St. Pancras, they did not receive it until that morning,
the letter accompanying the document being dated the
25th. There was no denying the fact that in the main the
report, though very painful, was correct. Ho therefore
moved that the letter be entered on. the minutes, and that
it, the report, and the report of the vestry committee ou
the state of the workhouse, be referred to a committee of
five...
Mr. F. T. STREETEN seconded the motion.
The resolution was carried, and the board broke up.

Major-General Sir J. F. Love, the Lieut.-Governor
of Jersey, suddenly left that island for England last week,
in consequence of a despatch received from the Govern-
ment. _ _..

HANOVER.—The Hanoverian Cabinet has survived its
recent crisis, the Ministers who had proposed to secede
having been induced to retain their portfolios. A decree
convoking the Legislative Chambers for the 2d of April
next bears the signatures of all the members of the Go-
vernment.

THE WENSLEYriA

,E PEERAGE.

( Prom the Times of this day.)
The Peers of England are reconciled, and the
Hodse of Lords, no longer torn by contending
factions, resumes its ease and its good humour.
Lord Granville acquiesces in the decision of the
Committee of Privileges, and will divide no more.
Lord Campbell assures the house that lie is Do
longer pugnacious, and, believing himself vic-
torious, is, with his natural and unsophisticated
simplicity,,anxious for peace. Lord Derby wishes
Lord Wensleydale to be made an hereditary peer,
but admits that he can see advantages in a peerage
for life ; his doubt is whether a life peerage be a
sufficient honour for eminence in any professional
department. Men of literature and science are too
much absorbed in their pursuits, soldiers and,
sailors would disdain the honour, lawyers in full
practice could not afford to accept it, and it would
tend rather to the length than to the intelligence
of the debates. He is afraid of being lawyer-ridden
hut let him dismiss the apprehension from his mindt
for recent events have shown that it is the pride
and happiness of lawyer peers to bow their shoulders
to the litter in which hereditary nobility is borne
rather than aspire to assert the claims of learning
and intellect over the pretensions of birth and
wealth. Lord-Wensleydale is not to intrude upon
this newly-established harmony, and Lord Campbell
will be spared the pain of ordering the room to be
cleared and appealing to physical force, in order to
vindicate on the person of an old colleague of the
bench his own view of the law. In imitation of
the plenipotentiaries, the peers have proclaimed
an armistice, and glad indeed should we be could
we hope this armistice might lead to the rectifica'
tion of the boundary which separates modern usur-
pation from antiquated prerogative.
We ventured from the first to anticipate that all
this noise and fury, this ransacking of ancient pre-
cedents, and keeping the house up till midnight,
would end without establishing any right, without
settling any principle, without increasing any reps'
tation, and without exciting any violent public in'
terest. The squabble has been the topic of the
day, but neither side has succeeded in enlisting ile
its favour popular sympathies, and the people have
looked on with wonderful complacency and quietude
h:le oue branch of the Legislature has been de-
poiling tle other of its sights. But, the shale.
:ontest being over, the real difficulty succeeds,
nd the House of Lords finds that the struggle 00
the Wensleydale peerage has only opened the
way to a much more serious question—the apPel'
late jurisdiction of the house. The peers mat
iticceed in excluding everything except wealth
from their political arena, but they must not
any longer trifle with the sacred trust they bear
as administrators of public justice. On this
point they begin to perceive that the public Is
entirely in earnest, and that the dream of Lord
Lyndhurst, that after having, by whatever means,
got rid of peerages for life, things would return to
their old state, is as unreal as those hallucinations
that made him during his long political life the
constant adversary of reforms ho was obliged to
adopt, and the unwearied advocate of abuses be
was compelled to surrender. The house was about
to take measures for reforming its appellate juris-
diction. It is a wise resolution, and one whicu.
they cannot too speedily or too effectually earl
out. They have, ended where we imagine they
should have begun, and have now at last got into
t train of thought which may, if carefully follows'
out, lead to great advantage to the public and t?
themselves. The appellate jurisdiction cant)"
possibly remain in its present state. The committee
about to be appointed must not delude themselves
with the notion that trivial changes will do. It ie
simply ridiculous to suppose that any eatisfactori,
tribunal can be made by a mere reconstruction of
the old materials. The house has not suffisienr
power and weight, and- no mere re-allocation
parts will suffice` to give it. Assistance must be
sought from without, for it is quite clear that the
hereditary peerage will never supply lawYere
enough for a good Court of Appeal, and the 0"
periment of life peerages is, we may presume
v
say, not likely to be repeated. This being so, °I/
house must seek for the elements of a Court of
Appeal in some other body than its own. '
The horror of admitting lawyers—an act of IV
gratitude in return for the efforts they have re'
i
cently made on behalf of the peerage, of whie,
they are the humble admirers—seems universs!,
and Lord Lansdowne and Lord Derby, agreeing 111
nothing else, combine in their desire to exclude 7,
much as possible these faithful and valuable an
liaries from the house. Then. there is the realm'
proposed in the House of Commons, which C 0,41-
sists in giving the judges of law and equip
votes on appeals ; in other words, in creating
them a Court to hear appeals from their oval
P decisions. This could be effected at once by
• enabling the Court of Exchequer Chamber,
to pronounce its decisions in the name 01'
' the House of Lords, and the Lords Justices, the
Lord Chancellor, and perhaps the Vice-Chancellote,
to exercise a like jurisdiction over equitable deal'
sions. This would have the advantage of virtually
sweeping away one of the Courts of Appeal, en."
aiding the suitor in his weary pourse from one tr'"
banal to another, but it would have the disadvau;
tape that the Court of Appeal would be compost
of persons fully occupied with the ordinary busiller.
H
of their respective courts, and possessing little
authority or pre-eminence over those judges ivh°e.
opinions they might modify and reverse. For
supreme Court of Appeal, we should imagine, for
. ourselves a tribunal of higher merit and more
trious composition, not consisting of the ordinary
judges, but of men illustrious among their fellows
• for learning and 'acuteness, above the average
judicial ability, and chosen not necessarily from tli„
ranks of the judicature. It is worthy of retool
that the judge of greatest weight in the Judios
Committee of the Privy Council is one who never
administered justice elsewhere, and who, contrar_,
of
to the ordinary opinion, has not the advantage
, exercising original as well as appellate jurisdiction'
To get the ablest men that can be found, from
whatever part of the profession—to pay they
liberally—to admit such as are wealthy enough to
d
the hereditary peerage, and to bestow upom
not sufficiently rich judicial titles, similar to thoSe
of the Lords of Session in Scotland—to form such
a body into a Judicial Committee of the House O
Lords, and thus, while retaining the honour of
administering justice, to provide that it shall he
as well administered as possible—seems the 01°6
et
feasible scheme, and one which, now that t°,.
Lords have agreed to suspend the Wensleyds4,
controversy, we begin to have some hope of seeing
carried into effect.

THE JAMES BAINES.—The James Baines, from
Melbourne, having been now 94 days out, solve
anxiety is expressed for her safety ; but, as 3:'°
other vessels have arrived from the same plater,
it is believed she is detained by contrary wind
At Lloyd's; yesterday, however, some small rig
were taken upon the ship at 151. 15s, per cent., 1.10
of average, and at 81. Bs. per cent. upon the gold'
Insurances on the cargo of the Pacific steamer'
long overdue at New York, from Liverpool, h°r°
been made at M. 55., free of average.
THEI MAILS.—SOUTHAMPTON, Feb. 27.—The Pair
solar and Oriental Company's steam-ship Madrid, CAP"
Bradshaw sailed this afternoon with the mails for Vie'
Oporto, Lisbon, Cadiz, and Gibraltar, 11 passengerl
1,000/, in specie for Lisbon, 22,0001. ditto for Cadiz, 10,
an average general cargo. The Royal Mail Compani .0
,
steam-ship Atrato, Captain Woolley, is preparing 'a
octhvey the next outward West India, Mexican, an,..•
Pacific mails on Monday next. The Parana, with tfa
homeward mails from the West Indies, Mexico, ana
the Pacific is expected about the same date. The Unite
States' mail steamer Hermann, rlaptain Higgins, 411d
thie afternoon for New York, with the German, FrencP".
and English mail., 90 passengers, and a very large 051;
of general merchandise, a considerable portion of vo'hlclrl
is goods transshipped from the unfortunate Etea,t
l3elgique.

LUCCA AND PISTOJA RAILWAY.—The Monitore Ps:
cano announces that the Grand Duke of Tuscany 1'1.4'
waived his right of dispossessing the Lucca and Pistol
Railway Company of their concession in consequence °f
their having failed to 'nave the line ready by the 31st et
Dec., 1854. The works are to be continued to 1043
the Montecatini and Pistoja line, and the whole railwal
is to be opened to the public before the expiration 0
nine months.

MDLLE. RACHEL—A New Ycrk correspondent write°
on the 12th inst. :—"Racbel takes her final departure,
to-day from the United States. She has not been Al
to fulfil her engagements, which extended to one hundre
and fifty performances, and it is feared she returns with
tier health materially impaired. But she carries bac".t,
with her the affectionate regards of at least two hunt
tired thousand Americans who have seen her impersoulv
tions, and felt her magic power."
THE RECENT BURGLARY AT WALWORTE(...-.A. rt
was circulated about town yesterday morning that t-a
woman whose throat was cut by the men who oommitt%
the recent burglary at Walworth had died from tu
effects of the wuund. The report, we learn, is untrue";
great hopes are entertained of her recovery. The P°°o 41
woman has been able to give a full description of f
tmralars to the detective officers who are in pursuit °
them.

THI3 LATE FLOUR ADULTERATION AT WAKEFIELV<
On the hearing of the late flour adulteration cue, 17,
which Abraham Ginn, a flour dealer, of Wakefield, oth"
defendant, it will be remembered that 40 bags (13 c(l°.
sisting of sharps, and 1'27 of flour) out of the quantity
taken from Ginn's premises were ordered by the ulag_Ais
trates to be retained for the purpose of being analr'7°
and accordingly the Rev. W. R. Bewditch and Wa
Statter, surgeon, nn the part of the prosecution, all
Mr. Rose, on behalf of the defendant, were instruoted to
analyse the same. The analysis Leing concluded, tits
result was reported to the magistrates at the Court-house
on Monday, when the whole of the 40 bags were ordered
to be sold for pigs.—Leeds Mercury.

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