The Sun.
London, England, 1867-03-06 00:00:00

The Clerkenwell Casual Wards.

Last evening the guardians of Clerkenwell were
engaged iu another investigation with regard to the
management of the.casual wards, when some facts of
public interest were detailed. Complaints have been
made from time to time of the refusal of the persona
placed in charge of these words to carry out the
law by admitting the applicants for relief, and the
reply given on nearly all occasions has been that
the casuals have been intoxicated, and the persons
interceding for the casuals have been insulted. The
present complaint was made by Mr. Bassinger, a
parishioner of Clerkenwell, who stated that on pass-
ing the wards one wet evening, about 9 o'clock, he
saw a woman outside, to whom the superintendent,
Runciman by name, was refusing admission. Mr.
Bassinger and other.persons applied to the superin-
tendent to admit the woman, but Runciman told
them to go away, accompanying his demand by the
assertion that they were costermongers and crimi-
nals, acting, so the witness described, in a filthy
manner towards Mr. Bassinger's son. This led to
high words, in the midst of which some of the guar-
dians-came up, one of whom afterwards said the
woman was not intoxicated, and she was then taken
into the wards. The evidence of Mr. Bassinger was
corroborated by Mr. Dalton, a person residing in the
neighbourhood, who said he was in the habit of passing
by these wards and had often seen persons refused re-
lief, and had seen disturbances there. The woman, he
said, was not intoxicated, and hefeltvery indignant
to think that a woman should be kept out on the wet
stones. It was elicited by Runciman himself that he
had been heard by the witness using shameful lan-
guage to the casuals. Mrs. Gibbs, a resident in
Clerkenwell-close, near the casual wards, also de-
posed to hearing the bad language used by Runci-
man. She deposed to Runcituau's violent and in-
sulting behaviour towards herself on more than one
occasion, and then proceeded to give a remarkable
piece of testimony, from which it was gathered,' to
the evident astonishment of the guardians, that the
casuals had to pass naked through an open yard in
the rear, where they could be seen by the neighbours,
and she had had to move in consequence, as she had
a growing family. The guardians, from some re-
marks which were made, seemed to wish it sbould be
inferred that this di gradinfx atidc!be,l custom was not
now practised. Runciman brought as his witnesses
the porter William Taylor and a police-constable
named. Walter Colby. Both thes: denied hearing
any bad language used by Runciman, but theformer
was not present the whole time, and the latter gave
his evidence in such a manner that the guardi ins
said they had heard enough. Runciman then de-
clared solemnly that he had not used the words at-
tributed to him, and afterwards that he did not be-
lieve lie used them. He declared also that the woman
was " beastly drunk." Mr. Glover moved that
Runciman and his wife should be immediately dis-
missed, and expressed himself shocked with the evi-
dence which had been brought forward by Runci-
man. Mr. Drayton seconded the motion, which
was supported by Mr. Croucher and Mr. Poley. At
the request of several guardians the motion was
altered to one calling upon Runciman and his wife
to resign immediately, and this was carried unani-
mously. A resolution was also moved that
Taylor should be reprimanded for the manner
in which he had given his evidence, but this
was lost on a show of hands, the guar-
dians desiring to proceed to the next business. At
one stage of the proceedings an endeavour was
made to close the proceedings to the reporters, a
motion being made by Mr. J. W. Hopkins that the
inquiry should be conducted in committee. This was
not seconded.