The Sun.
London, England, 1867-03-08 00:00:00

The Newport Market Refuge.

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Yesterday afternoon the annual meeting of the
members and friends of this institution was held at
Willis's Rooms. The Earl of Powis presided, and
M.P., the Archbishop
amongst the gentlemen on the platform were—the
d*GirllVlltaildstone, M.P., the Bishop of Ely, Mr.
;Lord Eliot, M.P.,
K.C.8., Admiral C.
oßfig
York, Sir
ID.Pr."Monro, Capt. Pearson, Colonel
Eden,xir.‘T
Capt. R.N., Sir Walter
James,i I. Childers,B.
trt
Lord M. Kerr, C. 13., Admiral Ryder, Major Dun-
das, the Rev. J. T. Rowsell, Mr. J. D. Chambers,
Mr. R. Brett, the Rev. J. C. Chambers, the Rev. A.
Cazenove, Mr. Carmichael, Mr. Walter Cocks, Mr.
Gurdon, the Rev. E. D. Tinling, Mr. E. Drum-
mond, the Rev. Nugent Wade, and 111 r. Ralph
Palmer. Amongst the ladies present were
Lady F. Cavendish, the Hon. Mrs. J. D. Chambers,
Mrs. W. E. Gladstone, &c.
Mr. J. A. SIIAW STEWART, the honorary secre-
tary, read the report. It stated that in March,
1866, owing to the death of the landlord of the
refuge premises the lease of the property was offered
for sale, and the committee, after careful delibera-
tion, thought it advisable to bid for the lease of that
part of the Old Market-house which formed the
refuge. Shortly afterwards they had au opportunity
of purchasing the lease of the other half of the Old
Market-house adjoining the premises of the refuge,
and they made this purchase with the object of con-
verting the property into a Boys' Industrial Ilome.
These purchases were effected by an outlay of
£2,000 for the lease of 27 years, the whole property
being subject to a ground rent of £B9 a year, allow-,
ing for sub-lettings. The expense of building the
Industrial Home and fitting it up was not leas than
£1,500. By the exertions of Mr. W. B. Ranken,
one of the hon. secretaries, a sum of about £6OO
had been collected specially for the founding and
fitting up of the Industrial School. This sum had
necessarily been largely exceeded, and the committee
must plead most earnestly for a large increase in
the annual subscriptions. The present annual sub-
scription list was a little over £3OO, whilst the out-
lay for the future could not be estimated at less
than £2,500 a
year. The committee wished to
remind their supporters that the Newport Market
Refuge aimed at drawing a marked distinction be-
tween the ordinary tramp and the more deserving
class of houseless poor. They had every reason
to believe that experience had taught them to
discriminate between these two classes, and that
they were now rarely deceived. The refuge hail
all but closed its doors to the tramp class,
but it was not the less full every night.
During the past year the refuge was open from
Jan. 1 to June 1, and again from Oct. 1 to Dec.
31, during which period 16,275 nights' lodgings
were given and 40,748 rations issued, and 11,520
were relieved from the soup kitchen—a useful ad-
junct to the operations of the refuge. During the
prevalence of the cholera, at the request of Mrs..W.
E. Gladstone, a number of friendless orphans were
temporarily received and sheltered in the refuge.

The Noble CHAIRMAN, in moving the adoption
of the report, said he was glad to see the Archbishop
of York present, because his grace had had to do
battle with a good deal of parochial criticism, and
he was also pleased to see Mr. Gladstone present,
because the right hon. gentleman's family might
almost be said to be the founders of the refuge.
(Hear, hear.) The refuge made au important dis-
tinction between tramps out of doors and the honest
poor, whom it was its object to aid, for it would be
wrong to mix up tramps with perscns whose poverty
was their misfortune, and not their fault. lie should

have been glad if the meeting could have been held
at the refuge, but he believed it would have been
impossible to accommodate the company he saw
before him comfortably there at present. He believed
that the Newport Market Refuge had done much
good, and that such institutions had been the means
of directing public attention more than had pre-
viously been the case to the great question of the
treatment of the poor and the general administra-
tion of the poor law. He hoped that henceforward
the refuge would be placed on a secure and stable
basis.

The Right lion. W. E. GLADSTONE, M.P., rose to
second the resolution, and was greeted with loud
cheers. He said he had not been aware until that
moment of the precise function he should be called
upon to di,charge, but still the one which the
chairman had been pleased to entrust to him was
best adapted to the position he hell, which
was that of an uninformed though old friend—a
willing witness rather than an informed instructor.
They had heard the contents of the report, and they
had heard the practical commentary upon it de-
livered by the chairman. Now, he believed it to be
laid down as a general rule in London that, in order
to make good the demands of any institution upon
the liberality and Christian charity of the world, it
was necessary that it should fulfil two conditions—
first, that it should have a bad balance-sheet, or, at
all events, a bad prospective balance-sheet ; and,
second, that it should have a good purpose. They
had heard that the income of the institution was
£3OO a year, while it was contemplated that the
expenditure would be £2,500 a year. Now, on
comparing these two sums together, he should be
inclined to say that in that respect at least there
remained nothing to be desired. (Laughter.) It
might seem, indeed, that that was a strange method
of going about the attainment of a practical object,
but they lived in the midst of a society whose wealth
might almost, without exaggeration, be denomi-
nated boundless. Within a few yards of the room
in which they were assembled he ventured to say if
any one would venture to ascend the stairs of the
highly respected firm who from week to week were
offering the luxuries of art to the London pur-
chasers, the experience they would derive would
amply support the statement he fearlessly made,
that the means which existed amongst them of meet-
ing the wants of their less fortunate fellow-crea-
tures were means as nearly without limit as could be
attained. Therefore, if the purpose of such an
institution were good, it followed that the amount
of its necessities recommended it to the hearty sup-
port of those who had the power to help it. (Hear.)
There was a passage in the report which
spoke of the hardships which the poorer mem-
bers of the community had to undergo in being ex-
posed to the inclemency of the weather, and that
was a true and just remark in a climate such as this.
But there was another kind of inclemency which
poverty had to encounter, and that was inclemency
of heart. He did not refer in that expression to the
amount of indifference, indolence, selfishness, and
positive hardness, and harshness that was to be
found in the world, but he referred to that temper,
that armour, if he might so denominate it, by which
persons were compelled, iu such a vast and promis-
cuous society as theirs, to clothe themselves, and
to muster courage as to where to refuse the de-
mands made for the granting of indiscriminate re-
lief. They had seen 30 years ago the effect pro-
duced by indiscriminate relief given even under
the sanction of the law. That effect had not been
too strongly described by the chairman when he
spoke of it as having brought the country to demo-
ralisation and nearly to ruin—that was, to the ruin
of that moral tone and temper in the people, that
self-reliance and dependence which were essential
to the well-being of the community. But they also
lived in times when the student of political economy
who had had opportunities of inquiry, as well as all
sensible and humane persons had come to the con-
clusion that indiscriminate alms-giving was an evil.
Indiscriminate alms-giving without inquiry was an
easy mode of escaping from duty and responsibi-
lity ; but if it was an evil, they must not resort to that
mode. Only iu determining to abstain from that
practice they were in danger of falling into another
evil, because, if they found that those channels
which were the natural and obvious channels for
ministering to a large portion of the wants prevail-
ing amongst their fellow-creatures ought to be
closed, it became the more a duty to see that
other channels were opened. The duty had lost
none of its authoritative power, and conse-
quently the cessation of those modes of helping
their fellow-creatures formerly in use im-
posed upon them the highest responsibility to
devise other modes which should be judicious and
effectual. Now, he imagined that the original pur-
pose of institutions such as this was to provide with-
out much discrimination of character for the occa-
sion, and short-lived wants of members of society,
to take up those they found in the streets, to give
them a night's shelter, and to dispose of them with-
out much inquiry into their condition ; and certainly
the past existence of these institutions would be am-
ply justified if they had nothing to plead but the
palpable, manifest, undeniable effect they had had
upon the administration of the poor law ; for it had
been due in a great measure to them that public at-

tention had been attracted to the necessity of en-
deavouring to carry into this department of poor
law administration something like humanity and
decency. (Cheers.) And he would go further and
say that he believed that even respecting the less re-
spectable portion of those who were found wander-
ing in the streets, even as regards that portion of the
needy, the continued existence of these institutions
side by side with the public institutions of the poor
law was necessary. The official administration of
relief must always be more or less deficient in those
principles which were the life of charity. It was no
reproa'h at all to the characters of those by whom
that administration was managed to say that. It
was an irksome employment for the paid officers of
the poor-law administration to deal with the classes
of persons such as they received from one night to
another without an opportunity of forming any kindly
connection, and without any previous knowledge of
their circumstances. Perhaps there were features of
repulsiveness in their condition when admitted into
the wards, and conditions generally which could not
be pre-eminently favourable to the existence of hu-
mane and kindly sentiment in those who administered
the law, or calculated to engender feelings of gra-
titude in return by those who received what were
intended to be its benefits. Now, in order to keep
the system of public administration of relief up to
the very best condition it was capable of attaining,
it appeared to him to be an object greatly to be de-
sired that they should have amongst them other in-
stitutions of a character in some degree kindred—
kindred in a very great degree to that in behalf of
which they were assembled, so long as the necessity
existed in which the poorest, the neediest, even the
filthiest of those wanderers in the streets might be
received, and relief administered to their immediate
necessities out of no other motive and no other object
than the fulfilment of the purposes of Christian love
by diminishing the mass of human suffering. But it
was no doubt true also that those who had been en-
gaged in conducting this institution had exorcised a
very wise discretion in altering the limits of their
own sphere of action with due regard to the improve-
ments which were taking place and would take place
in the workhouses of this metropolis. As workhouses
became more and more qualified to discharge their
duties with regard to wanderers and persons of that
class, the conductors of that institution would act
wisely in refraining from any attempt to compete
with them or to regulate their action. They would
find ample scope for their exertions in dealing with
a class of persons who were of a somewhat higher
order —with those whom it was difficult to comprise
under any one formula, any one set of words accu-
rately describing them, but whom they might regard
as comprising those classes of cases in which it was
desirable to do something more than to satisfy the
physical and absolute wants of one or two, or three,
or four nights, as the rule might be. These were
cases in which it was desirable to inquire and to see
whether in the rear of that temporary relief they
might not venture to contemplate something in the
nature of a more permanent assistance ; for in the
condition of society in which we lived no one could
doubt that there was ample scope for such under-
takings as this. They must expect to see manifold

and rapid developments of the social structure,
and of social wants and conditions, a continual
multiplication of the forms in which human neces-
sities present themselves, and they must consider
how those demands were to be met in a spirit of
Christian charity. It did not appear that there was
in this metropolis any other institution precisely
adapted to the object which the conductors of this
refuge had in view. If there were such institutions
they might well believe that in a population of
three millions there would be abundant space for
many. He might state that although almost
entirely excluded on account of other pressing en-
gagements from attending much to such matters,
yet that within the last fortnight he had had a case
under his notice of singular interest and difficulty,
with which without the assistance of the refuge he
should have found it impossible to deal. This was
a case fresh and recent, lyat upon grounds that com-
mended themselves to all he urged that the purpose
which this institution had in view was as eminently
rational as it was unequivocally Christian, and with
this conviction he supported the motion of the
noble lord, and he trusted there would be given to
this institution a warm, steady, and practical sup-
port. (Cheers.)
The resolution was put to the meeting, and una-
nimously adopted.
The Archbishop of YORK, in moving the second
resolution, affirming the necessity of increased sup-
port to the refuge, referred to some of the cases in
connection with the metropolitan workhouses, and
remarked that some years since it was considered a
hopeless thing to deal with criminals and outcasts,
but now the case was altered, and it was found that
success attended well directed efforts for such pur-
poses. He expressed his fear that it would be long
before poor-law administration was improved.
Mr. CIIILDERS, M.P., in seconding the resolution,
said he had been over the refuge, and found that
everything was iu the best order; indeed it was
like the main deck of a smart man of war. (Hear,
hear.)
The resolution was agreed to.

On the motion of the Bishop of ELY, seconded by
the Rev. E. D. TINLEsiG, one of her Majesty's In-
spectors of Schools, the retiring members of the
committee were re-elected.
A cordial vote of thanks was, on the motion of
Admiral RYDER, awarded to the Earl of Powis for
presiding.
The Archbishop of York dismised the meeting
with the benediction.

SPIRIT OF THE !PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—The Game Laws question is not one for
legislation, as it seems to us, but for discretion and
mutual consideration. On the one side there is a
grievance, much exaggerated ; and on the other, a
right—nay, more than a right—a national taste,
equally exaggerated. The grievance will be suffi-
ciently met by a little moderation and the occa-
sional exercise of tact on the part of game preservers.
There is something almost ridiculous in allowing
wild and wasteful animals, such as hares and rabbits,
to overrun and devastate a district possessing high
cultivation, expensively manured, ploughed, har-
rowed, and harvested with costly machinery, studded
with fine farm buildings, and with the steam-engine
rendering its multifarious assistance. All this for
hares and rabbits ! Well, that is absurd on the very
face of it, and the absurdity is not the less even if
the farmer has ample compensation. But, on the
other hand, what do people own land for in these
days? Certainly not for profit. They cannot get
more than half the interest for their money that
they would from first-class securities. They look
for two returns, in fact—one, a very poor one, in
money ; and another, in what may be called teeri-
torial privileges, such as the mere pleasure of a fair
possession, influence and amusement. The last on
Mr. M'Lagan's showing, is the chief bait, and no
doubt it is, in fact, the great inducement to many
capitalists to become landowners, to spend great
sums on their land, and to reside with more or less
advantage to the estate and the people on it. Talk
as we will—and, of course, as politicians and as
economists, we shall continue to ;talk about game
preservers, comparing them to the depopulator of
the New Forest, to the Ameers of Sciude, to Red
Indians and aborigines in general—we all know,
and we most of us hope, that game will be pre-
served in this country, and that sport will be kept
up. But cultivation will also be kept up and im-
proved. The two things must be kept up together,
and the only way to do it is to keep the wilder and
more aggressive of the two within the limits sug-
gested by common sense and mutual consideration.

THE WESTMINSTER GAZETTE ON " REFORM."—
The spirit of Reform, it appears, is at length
about to be satisfied. That unruly genius that
for so many years has agitated peaceful commu-
nities and unsettled men's minds, that seemed
to delight in popular turmoil and civil commo-
tions, and that gloried in those tumultuous mani-
festations of moral force, fully calculated to pro-
duce physical dread, is at length to receive his
quietus. The rival champions of Reform and no
Reform have engaged all their energies and mar-
shalled all their forces, not in opposition, but to
outbid, as it were, each other in catering for a
constitutional banquet of sufficient dimensions to
appease all the cravings of the hungry multitude.
To speak more plainly, and, perhaps, more truly,
the great political battle of party, with Reform
inscribed on the banners of both combatants, is at
this moment being fought. With place, power,
and predominance as the prize of individuals, Re-
form for all is to be the grand result. An infu-
sion of the working class interest, that is of the
popular and democratic element, into the electoral
body, is intended to correct and diminish the
monied, the aristocratic, and the territorial influ-
ences complained of, as pressing unduly in the
present state of the law on the representation of
the people. By an extension of the electoral fran-
chise so as to include some 400,000 voters, chiefly
of a class inferior in social position to those now
in possession of a vote. An increase of the de-
mocratic, and a corresponding decrease of the
aristocratic interest will, it is expected, accrue to
the House of Commons. Such would appear to be
the substance of the intended measure of Reform.
Taking for granted the justice of the complaints
so long, so loudly, and continuously made, as also
the constitutional rights and fitness of those who
lay claim to a participation in the privileges of
the extended franchise, it may be well to con-
sider how the proposed end is to be attained by
the projected measure. Theoretically, indeed, mat-
ters seems sufficiently clear, and the parchment on
which the law is engrossed will exhibit in a perfect
and constitutional arrangement, in admirable
order and adjustment, all the varied classes, and
interests, and elements of which the political body
is composed. The theory of a system enjoys,
however, but mi. abstract and intellectual exist-
ence, its practical working encumbered, and
affected, and influenced by the passions and inte-
rests, the frailties and corruption of individuals
often presents results directly the reverse of those
desired and contemplated. In matters of election
we are enabled and entitled from experience of
the past to pronounce a judgment on the future.
The general records of Parliamentary Committees
on bribery, recent investigations and scandalous
revelations, the knowledge of all men at any time
connected with elections, all testify to the fact
that, especially amongst the constituencies of towns
and boroughs, the influence of bribery and cor-
ruption is universal and paramount. And to
these, be it remembered, the numerical superi-
ority of representatives belongs. Such being the
case, if, at the present higher rate of qualification,
individuals are bribed, will voters of a lower
social status prove more virtuous? By increasing
the numbers, may it not be said that fresh and
more easily-worked material for the process of
corruption will bq supplied? If, as has been
already proved, the present voters paying rentals
of £lO, £l5, and £2O are not ashamed to sell
their votes, will it be more difficult to purchase
the interest of a poorer and more humble constit-
uent? Taking, then, the prevalence of bribery as
an established fact, may it not fairly be argued
that the greater the increase in the number of
voters and the lower the qualification required,
the greater also will be the facility for the ex-
clusive election of monied candidates, and that
consequentty any such measure of Reform,
instead of correcting, will, indirectly, at least,
serve to perpetuate and systematise the abuses and
grievances it purported to remedy.

NEW AMERICA.—A fifth edition of Mr. Dixon's
" New America" has just been issued by Messrs.
Hurst and Blackett. " There are few books of this
season," says the Pall Mall Gazette, "likely to excite so
much general curiosity as Mr. Dixon's very entertaining
and instructive work on New America.' None are moro
nearly interested in the growth and development of new
ideas on the other side of the Atlantic than ourselves.
The Mormons, the Shakers, the Bible Perfectionists, the
Spiritualists, the Tunkers, the Free Lovers, &c., are most
of them of English blood, though they are born on United
States soil. Tho book is really interesting from the first
page to the last, and it contains a large amount of valu-
able and euriqtl4 influmatiou."