The Sun.
London, England, 1867-11-08 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 8, 1867

THE SECRETARY OP THE POOR LAW.
BOARD AND THE FARNHAM WORK-
HOUSE.

At the annual dinner of the North-East Hants
Agricultural Association„ which was held at Alton
on Tuesday, Mr. Sclater-Booth, M.P., took the op-
portunity, in replying to the toast of "The County
Members," to refer at length to the pending inquiry
into the condition of Farnham Union and other mat-
ters of public importance. His remarks on the former
subject, which was previously introduced by the
Rev. Dr. Fell, embodying as they do the sentiments
of the President and members of the Poor-law
Board, will doubtless be read with an amount of
interest corresponding to the attention with which
they were received.

Mr. SCLATER-BOOTII, M.P., in responding to the
toast, after alluding to the absence of Mr. Beach,
M.P., who is in Italy, said—lt is scarcely possible
for a member of Parliament to address his consti-
tuents at this moment without referring to the re-
markable circumstance that we are now on the verge
of a new session of Parliament in November. This
is a new state of things, which has only once oc-
curred within my experience, and I hope sincerely
that it will not occur again. When I look abroad
and see the Continent bristling with arms ; when we
see the great nations of France, Germany, and
Italy viewing each other with angry distrust, and
when we know that every Stock Exchange in
Europe has been for some months past in apprehen-
sion of war breaking out, not because there was any
reasonable apprehension or grounds of quarrel that
we could put our fingers upon, but simply from the
fact that the Powers of Europe were arrayed, as it
were, in arms, and it seemed impossible but that war
should follow. When we look at the critical state of
circumstances existing in Italy we ought to be
thankful that the worst that can happen to us—a
foreign war-r-is a war in Abyssinia,and this subject,
as you are aware, has necessitated the calling toge-
ther of Parliament at this unusual and inconvenient
season of the year. To the Government, Parliament,
and the country at large it is satisfactory to know
that the people are to be consulted upon the great
question of peace or war, although it is applied to a
place so obscure and comparatively insignificant as
Abyssinia. I feel that the country will respond to
the call which will be made, and which we hope will
not necessitate so serious an outlay as is generally
imagined. The expedition has been planned with
wisdom, and I hope will be conducted with success ;
but that some sacrifices will have to be made is cer-
tain. The cause of the war is, however, so just, and
the escape from it so impossible, that I feel sure the
Government will be heartily supported in the expe-
dition which they have undertaken to carry out.
Allusion has been made to my connection with the
Poor Law Board, and if this had not been the case I
could scarcely, speaking to an audience at Alton,
have forborne to allude to circumstances which have
been in everybody's mouth, and formed the subject
of discussions in newspapers, viz., with regard to the
neighbouring Union of Farnham. Many of you are,
or have been, guardians of the poor, and many of
you are guardians in this union. You will therefore
have viewed the raid of the Lancet commissioners
with mixed feelings, because you must be aware
that your turn may come next, and that an inquiry
begun in one place may be carried on in another.
(Hear.) I do not wish to give an opinion as to what
may be the condition of the workhouse at Farnham,
or of workhouses elsewhere, but I will ask you to
remember that the condition of workhouses gene-
rally is a subject which is receiving more and more
attention at the hands of the public, and that it is
one which we must expect to see engross still more
of that attention. The workhouses which were built
originally for the reception of the able-bodied poor,
have been changed by circumstances into hospitals
for the sick, aged, and imbecile of their respective
localities. I think there can be no doubt that public
opinion will require that the appliances and comforts
bestowed upon these sick, aged, and infirm, shall be
more in accordance with modern notions than was
intended or expected 30 or 40 years ago when these
workhouses were originally built. This is a subject
which I can assure you is under the anxious consi-
deration of the President of the Poor Law Board
(Lord Devon), and he will not fail to keep his mind
directed to that subject. Most of us have fellow-
feelings for those gentlemen who, at sacrifice of time
and trouble to themselves, undertake the onerous,
and, as it appears, thankless office of guardians of
the poor. Every consideration ought to be given
them in the discharge of their difficult duties —a
consideration which, I am sorry to say, they do not
always receive. There is one point in connexion
with this subject I should wish to explain—and that
is the apparent delay which has taken place since the
Farnham Workhouse has become the topic of public
discussion, in the inquiry which was appointed to be
held. That delay arises solely from the fact that it
was necessary to consult the guardians and the in-
spector of the district before any decision could be
taken by the central authority, and I think any one
of you as guardians of the poor would consider it
extraordinary if the Government were to seed down
to inquire into the condition of your workhouse—
first called to the cir-
complaint being made in the public newspapers—
without
cu ta stan yourcc.
A
was therefore caused by
the guardians of the Farnham Union not having an
opportunity of replying to the communications ad-
draised to them. Thatinquiry will be held in the
course of a few days, and I hope the result will be
satisfactory to all parties concerned. At the same
time it is difficult to see how that shall happen com-
pletely. I would only ask the forbearance of the
public so far as this. I would ask them to re-
member that the condition of the workhouses is
no longer what it was in former days—that the ob-
jects which the workhouses are intended to serve are
entirely changed ; that we have no longer able-
bodied paupers to be maintained in workhouses, and
that they are diverted from their original purposes
and converted into receptacles for a different class
of people altogether. This subject is not wholly
alien to the object which has brought us here to-day,
the main aim of our anniversary being the improve-
ment of the condition of the labouring classes. The
labourers who will be called upon to receive prizes are
the pick and elite of their class ; they are the fur.
thest removed from pauperism and are those whose
independence, honesty, and integrity we wish to
compliment, who, by their exertions and laborious
lives, set an example to their neighbours—that
which we wish to see generally spread throughout
the country—a horror of relying for relief from the
poor-rates, and a desire to maintain an indepen-
dence characteristic of every Englishman, be he high
or low in society. I wish it were possible to look
forward to the decrease of pauperism in this coun-
try, and to foresee the day when the labouring man
shall be able to insure against sickness and old age
for the benefit of his family, with the same regula-
larity, and in an analogous manner to that which
is done by the professional classes of 4his country,
by Friendly Societies, Odd Fellows' associations,
and by subscriptions to county friendly societies.
By these means a great deal of good has already
been done that may be carried very much further,
and it is to means of this kind that we may look for
the diminution of pauperism. The efforts of these
societies tend in that direction, and, therefore, my
remarks are not altogether alien to the purposes for
which we are met here to-night. The hon. gentle-
man was loudly cheered as he resumed his seat.

EADvEnTisnaNT.]--Heneeforth no one will doubt the valuable
properties of Du Barry's health-restoring Revalenta Arabica
invalids' and Infants' Food, since to the thousands of blessings
it has already received from Invalids whose position had been
deemed hopeless, we may now add that of his Holiness the Popo.
whose health has boon perfectly restored by it after thirty years
of unsuccessful medical treatment. We quote from the " (lazette
do Midi," July 23th :—" Rome, July 21, 1866.--" The health of
the Holy Father is excellent, especially since, abandoning all
other remedies, he has confined himself entirely to Du Barry's
Revalenta Arabica Food, of which he consumes a plateful
at every meal. It has produced a surprisingly beneficial
effect on his health, and his Holiness canavt praise this
excellent food too highly." We extract a few out of
more than 68,000 cures:—Cure No. 58,216, of the Marchioness
de Brehan, of seven years' liver complaint, wasting away,
debility, nervousness, with a nervous palpitation all over, bad
digestion, constant sleeplessness, and the most intolerable ner-
vous agitation. Cure No. 1,771: Lord Stuart de Decies, Lord
Lieutenant of Waterford, of many years' dyspepsia. N 0.49,832 :
" Fifty years' indescribable agony from dyspepsia, nervousness,
asthma, cough, constipation, flatulency, spasms, sickness, and
vomiting.—Maria Joly." Cure No. 46,270: Mr. James Roberts,
of Frimley, Surrey, of 30 years' diseased lungs, spitting of blood,
liver derangement, and partial deafness Important Caution.—
Beware of the many unsavoury and more than sloppy imitations
to which, without authority, Baron Liebig's name is most auda-
ciously attached _ .

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