The Sun.
London, England, 1835-05-20 00:00:00

POOR LAWS.

( From the Leading Article of the Bath Gazette.)
Amongst all the mysteries of iniquity which have been de-
veloped by the recent inquiries into the state of pauperism,
there is one connected with medical men which has been
brought to light in a pamphlet written by " John Leslie, a
Vestryman, Governor, and Director of the Poor of the Parish
of St. George, Hanover-square, London," and recently ex-
emplified in the neighbourhood of Bath. The following is a
quotation from Mr. Leslie :
" The medical officer, in a great majority of instances, contracts
with the parish, to attend all the paupers belonging to the parish,
during the year, for a fixed small amount of remuneration, reserv-
ing to himself the right (and parochial authorities consenting to
transactions of such a character) to make whatever charge he
pleases for every non-parishioner he may attend, by order of the
Overseer ; and to such a frightful extent has this practice pro-
ceeded, that the charge in frequent instances for the medical at-
tendance on one non-parishioner patient has greatly exceeded the
amount of the contract for the year's attendance on the whole of
the pauper patients of the parish ; and by such means the parishes
shift from themselves the burthen of medical attendance on their
own poor by obtaining the contract for so much less, in considera-
tion of the probable profits the medical man may obtain from his
attendance on non-parishioners. This exhorbitant charge for me-
dical attendance can only be obtained by the actual removal of the
man to the parish to which he belongs.
" The Overseer's turn in the affair comes next. He foresees a
long journey with a family, and a long bill of costs. He applies
for an order of removal for the family ; the magistrates sign the
same ; but, on account of the illness of the man, and his wife, or
his children, as the case may be, the removal is suspended. The
medical attendant has, by this process, now obtained a legal do-
cument to enforce his demand, and he consequently pays the utmost
attention to his own interest in this affair ; and, what with draughts
every three hours, mixtures, and boluses, he contrives to make out
a frightful demand on the parish to which the unfortunate man
belongs. The man, in spste of the drugs he has swallowed, reco-
vers ; the doctor's charges are paid, the magistrates withdraw the
suspension of the removal, and the Overseer commences his share
of the plunder—proceeds with the family the two or three hundred
miles, as the case may happen to be ; personally delivers the un-
fortunate family to the parish to which they belong, and receives
the amount of his demand, including the exhorbitant charge for
the medical man's attendance. On his return home he reimburses
himself out of the poor-rates of his own parish for all the expenses
of himself and the family during the journey.
" There have been, and there still are, inflicted yearly innume-
rable instances of such harsh administrations of the Poor Laws as
the one described ; all done under the specious pretext of benefit-
ting the poor man, and paid out of a fund raised for the relief of the
pooF." .

After reading the above exposure we may cease to wonder
at the outcry that was raised against a reform in the Poor
Laws. Magistrates, clerks, parish-solicitors, parish surgeons,
paid overseers, and thousands who had a vested interest in the
poor-rates, were loudly exclaiming against the cruel attempt
to abridge the comforts of the poor. These, forsooth, are the
friends of the poor 1 Judas of old made a similar pretence ;
but he who knew what was in man has left on record respect-
ing him, that he did not in reality care for the poor, but
that he was a thief and had the bag, and bare that which was

put therein.' In like manner, the bare-faced pretenders to
charity in our days show their pity to the poor by putting the
money collected for them into our pockets. And yet they can
descant with seeming eloquence, upon the virtue of humanity.
If the rate-paying shopkeepers and labourers are sinking under
their accumulated taxation, and ask for reduction of their bur-
thens, the vestry-clerk reminds them of the generosity of the
English character, and hopes that no man of feeling will
grudge the poor-rates, or wish to diminish their amount. And
how does he prove his benevolence to the poor? By demand-
ing every year many hundred pounds out of the poor-rates for
expenses in law 1 No wonder he admires the poor-rates How
too does the parish-surgeon of the metropolis show his love for
the poor strangers that require assistance ? In their feeble-
ness, they ask for nourishing focd—he gives them a daily box
of pills ; they ask for wholesome drink—he gives them a mix-
ture; they ask for a change of diet—and he gives them pow-
ders, boluses, aperient mixtures, and draughts, of various
hues ; and having thus once shown his pity to the poor, he
next manifests his regard to the rate-payers by sending in a
bill of 61. or 71., if the parish be poor; and if rich, a bill of
501. or 601., for medical attendance upon a single pauper.
A case of this kind has recently occurred in the neighbour-
hood of Bath. A parishioner of Hinton Charterhouse was
residing with his wife and daughter in a large parish near
London ; the man having a temporary ailment, applied for
assistance, and being found to belong to a distant parish, the
system described by Mr. Leslie was set in action, and for six
weeks, without the intermission of a single day, boxes of pills
and mixtures were inflicted upon him ; and when the parish
doctor had run up a bill of sufficient length for the small parish
to which the man belonged, one would suppose the poor fellow
would bare been permitted to pursue his usual avocation, and
make up by his earnings for loss of time. But no! the
bill of the humane surgeon was of far more consequence
than the man's happiness or prosperity ; and in order to se-

. . . .
cure this, a parish beadle is sent down with the man, his wife,
and daughter, committed to his care precisely as if hey were
criminals in the custody of a policeman, and they were in due
form delivered to the overseer of Hinton, together with the
doctor's bill and the parochial charges, assigning, as the only
reason for this useless journey, that it was necessary, in order
to enable the parish of
overseer of Hinton. The poor man and his family, as soon as
they were set at liberty, left Hinton again immediately, and
returned to seek their own maintenance as before. To this
kind of imposition every parish is liable ,_• no care, no wise
management at home, can protect them from it. The new
Poor Law has unhappily provided no remedy ; on reference
to the Commissioners, it appears that it is a case of daily oc-
currence, and beyond their power to prevent. When the Bill
was passing through Parliament, certain persons, in their
anxiety to take from the Commissioners the power of doing
harm, were not sufficiently aware that by the very same means
they deprived them likewise of the power of doing good.
The following is a copy of the doctor's bill :-
The Overseers of -, To - -.
Feb. 1835 s. d. 'March s. d.
25. Aperient Mixture ... 1 6.12. Box of Pills
Mixture • 2 6: Mixture
Box of Pills
26. Box of Pills
Mixture
27. Mixture
Box of Pills
2d. Box of Pills
Mixture
March 'l6. Ditto
1. Mixture
Aperient Mixture ... 2 0 18. Ditto
Box of Pills
2. Box of Pills
Mixture
Ditto
3. Mixture
Box of Pills
4. Box of Pills
Mixture
5. Mixture
Box of Pills
6. Box of Pills 1 0 28. Ditto
Mixture
7. Mixture
Box of Pills
8. Mixture
Aperient Ditto
9. Mixture
Box of Pills
10. Box of Pills
_ _.

Mixture
11. Mixture
Box of Pills
We pledge our veracity that the above is an exact statement
of facts—that there is nothing fictitious mixed up in the nar-
rative ; but the indefinable Libel Law might render it dan-
gerous for us to specify the parish which made the claim upon
that of Charterhouse Hinton.