The Sun.
London, England, 1866-01-08 00:00:00

The Administration of the Poor Law.

On Friday Mr. H. B. Farnall, C. 8., the Poor
Law Board's Commissioner, made an official inspec-
tion of the workhouse of St. Giles's, Camberwell,
and some facts relative to the general mode of ad-
ministering the poor law were elicited which may
prove of interest at this time when public attention
is directed to the subject. The Commissioner's visit
was quite unexpected by the workhouse authorities,
and no preparations whatever could have been made
for his coming, so he saw the workhouse in its ordi-
nary every-day working order. He first inspected
the books, and he gathered from these that the work-
house, a straggling building, or series of buildings—
for the place has had several additions made to the
original structure from time to time to meet the in-
crease of poor on the change of the parish from a coun-
try district to be a part of London—has accommoda-
tion for 512 inmates, and that the average number is
450. In the corresponding week last year there
were 455 inmates, while this week they have been
451. Of these 355 are classed as disabled, sick, in-
firm, or insane ; 46 as children, and 50 as able-
bodied men and women. The last weekly return of
vagrants relieved shows the number of houseless to
be 125. About £l6O is given a week in outdoor
relief, and in addition to the people in the work-
house the parish has 252 children being brought up
at an establishment far away from the workhouse
—namely, at Sutton, where they are kept apart as
much as possible from workhouse influences, and so
educated that they may be weaned of all parochial
associations—a plan not, however, generally
adopted. The total number of persons receiving
relief in any shape in this parish is 2,534, out of a
population which at the last census numbered
71,488, and now must be upward of 100,000, if its
growth has been anything like in proportion to that
of other suburban parishes. The visiting book
showed that the inmates are daily visited by a chap-
lain, whose salary for the duty—an anxious and
painful one—is not equal to the wages of a brick-
layer or carpenter. A Roman Catholic clergyman
comes and goes when and where he likes, and
" sisters" and other ladies occasionally visit the
house. The medical books are kept on a plan to
show the diet and medicine of every patient. The
Commissioner then passed into the body of the
house. Going through a large dining-hall, which
is also used as a chapel, as a pulpit in the centre
showed, and up some well ventilated corridors and
staircases, he visited the places where ablebodied
women, a very small class, were employed at
the wash-tub. -In answer to questions directed to
some of these as to what made them paupers some
interesting details were learnt. In one case, the
husband was sick in the house, and in another the
woman had been left a widow witi some five or six
children. One of these had been apprenticed and
the others were at Sutton, and the woman was evi-
dently looking forward to the time when, with a little
help from the board, she should be able to take her
little brood " out." Without the stimulating of any
official onlookers she expressed her thankfulness for the
bounties she had received, and acknowledged that she
had all she wanted. The infirm and sick wards of the
women were then visited. In every ward, without ex-
ception, the commissioner went up to one of the unoccu-
pied beds, and, pulling it down, article by article, ended
by turning over the mattress or bed itself, in order
to satisfy himself that all was clean. In every case
the inspection proved satisfactory, inasmuch as the
beds were found well " made," the clothing good,
and the mattress sufficient. In some of the wards,
sacking-bottomed bedsteads are in use, and in some
iron ribs, and the latter are being removed to make
way for the former, a most desirable change. The
commissioner's unceremonious manner of inspecting
the bedsteads led to one or two laughable dis-
coveries, as some hidden treasure of out-door life,
which had been poked under the mattress by the
owner as the place most secure from accidental
observation. In the infirm women's wards the com-
missioner remarked with evident pleasure such little
humanising influences as books—in addition to the
usual religious books—of a light character, and
birds, flowers, pictures, and little ornaments, such as
decorate the homes of the humblest Londoners of
the labouring class. Armchairs, too, he noticed,
were given for the use of the sick and infirm, and
he said he considered this exceedingly kind and
thoughtful, and contrasted very strongly with the
usual form, or straight, panel-backed, uncomfort-
able kitchen chair in some workhouses. The wards
are tolerably airy, and all were clean and tolerably
free from bad smells. From most of the windows
the Dulwich meadows can be seen, and the inmates
have a pleasant view of the manor bought by Ed-
ward Alleyne, " the friende and fellowe-player" of
our national bard, and in the benefaction of the
Dulwich estate this parish receives no little benefit. ,
All the women said they were quite comfortable,
and they seemed so ; and it was among these old and
infirm people that several of the able-bodied women
were employed, under paid nurses, as attendants.
In the men's wards there was the same clean-
liness and contentedness observable. In the im-
becile wards, and in which only harmless lunatics
are kept, there are, in the men's wards, billiards and
such like games, and in a garden attached a bowling
alley. The women have toys and such like little
indulgences, which keep the poor creatures amused
and happy. An inspection of the out-places gave an
insight into a class of people not exactly recognised
as either out-door or houseless poor, namely, some
dozen men, mostly of the " labouring-class," who
are chargeable to the parish, but are contented to
receive a loaf and 2d. a day, for which they work
from 7 a.m. until 4 p.m. at stone-breaking and wood
sawing rather than become inmates. From questions
which were asked of these men, who were single, it
appeared that one or two of them worked out dur-
ing the summer and came back in the winter, a course
one owned he had followed for five or six years, while
another, apparently a very young man, alleged he
" hadn't troubled the parish for this six years." In
making some inquiries and inspecting the accommo-
dation for the houseless, the commissioner found
that it was usual, when mothers or fathers and their
young children occupied one bed between the two,
to make a return that two had been accommodated.
This is important, inasmuch as the accommodation
for the houseless is set down as for 2,000, and the
average attendance each night as 1,238 ; and if in
many cases two " persons" occupy one berth the
margin for more than apply is larger than is gene-
rally supposed. The commissioner, on concluding
his inspection, certified that the house was clean and
in good order and the inmates contented. He also
expressed his opinion that the condition of the house
showed that every attention was given by the officers.

Carl Schurz's Report on the Condition of
Affairs in the Southern States.

General Carl Schurz's Report on the condition of affairs
in the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mis-
sissippi, and Louisiana, has been publishod. General
Schurz was sent by President Johnson on a tour through
the Southern States, and his report gives the results of
his investigations during three months' travel through
the country. The document is exceedingly voluminous,
but of absorbing interest. We extract some of the more
important passages :

CONDITION OF THINGS IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE CLOSE

OP THE WAR.

In the development of the popular spirit in the South
since the close of the war two well-marked periods can
be distinguished. The first commences with the sudden
collapse of the Confederacy and the dispersion of its
armies, and the second with the first proclamation in-
dicating the " reconstruction policy" of the Govern-
ment. Of the first period, I can state the characteristic
features only from the accounts I received partly from
Unionists who were then living in the South, and partly
from persons that had participated in the rebellion.
When the news of Lee's and Johnston's surrender burst
upon the Southern country the general consternation
was extreme. People held their breath, indulging in
the wildest apprehensions as to what now was to come.
Men who had occupied positions under the Confederate
Government, or were otherwise compromised in the
rebellion, run before the Federal columns as they ad-
vanced and spread out to occupy the country, from vil-
lage to village, from plantation to plantation, hardly
knowing whether they wanted to escape or not. Others
remained at their homes, yielding themselves up to their
fate. Prominent Unionists told me that persons who
for four years had scorned to recognise them on the
street, approached them with smiling faces and both hands
extended. Men of. standing in the political world ex-
pressed serious doubts as to whether the rebel States
would ever again occupy their position as States in the
Union or be governed as conquered provinces. The
public mind was so despondent that if re-admission at
some future time, under whatever condition, had been
promised, it would then have been looked upon as a favor.
The most uncompromising rebels prepared for leaving
the country. The masses remained in a state of fearful
expectancy.

" RETURNING LOYALTY."

It is a well-known fact that in the States South of
Tennessee and North Carolina the number of white
Unionists who during the war actively aided the Govern-
ment, or at least openly professed their attachment to the
cause of the Union, was very small. In none of those
States were they strong enough to exercise any decisive in-
fluence upon the action of the people, not even in Louisi-
ana, unless vigorously supported by the power of the
general Government. But the whitepeople at large being,
under certain conditions, charged with taking the preli-
minaries of "reconstruction" into their hands, the success
of the experiment depends upon the spirit and attitude
of those who either attached themselves to the Secession
cause from the beginning, or entertaining originally op-
posite views, at least followed its fortunes from the time
that their States had declared their separation from the
Union.

The first Southern men of this class with whom I came
into contact immediately after my arrival in South Caro-
lina expressed their sentiments almost literally in the
following language:—" We acknowledge ourselves beaten,
and we are ready to submit to the results of the war. The
war has practically decided that no State shall secede and
that the slaves are emancipated. We cannot be expected
at once to give up our principles and convictions of right,
but we accept facts as they are, and desiro to be reinstated
as soon as possible in the enjoyment and exercise of our
political rights." This declaration was repeated to me
hundrads of times in every State I visited, with some
variations of language, according to the different ways of
thinking, or the frankness or reserve of the different
speakers..

FEELING TOWARD THE SOLDIERS AND THE PEOPLE OF

THE NORTH.

A more substantial evidence of returning loyalty would
be a favorable change of feeling with regard to the Govern-
ment's friends and agents and the people of the loyal
States generally. I mentioned above that all organised
attacks upon our military forces stationed in the South
have ceased ; but there are still localities where it is un-
safe for a man wearing the Federal uniform or known
as an officer of the Government to be abroad outside
of the immediate reach of garrisons. The shooting of
single soldiers and Government couriers was not unfre-
quently reported while I was in the South, and even as
late as in the middle of September. Major Miller,
Assistant Adjutant-General of the Commission of the
Freedmen's Bureau in Alabama, while on an inspecting
tour in the southern counties of that State, found it diffi-
cult to prevent a collision between the menacing populace
and his escort. His wagonnmster was brutally murdered
while remaining but a short distance behind the com-
mand. The murders of agents of the Freedmen's Bureau
have been noticed in the public papers. These and simi-
lar occurrences, however, may be looked upon as isolated
cases, and ought to be charged, perhaps, only to the ac-
count of the lawless persons who committed them.