The Sun.
London, England, 1844-02-24 00:00:00

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110 USE OF LORDS, Feb. 23.
The Loan CHANCELLOR took his seat on the Woolsack a
few minutes after_ Five o'Clock.
Lord WHA'RNCLIFFE brought in a Bill to simplify the
transfer of real property, which was read a first time.
POOR-LAWS.—RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION.
The Bishop of EXETER presented two petitions from
Penryn, in Cornwall, and another place in the diocese of
Exeter, praying their Lordships to adopt some means of se-
curing spiritual instruction to the inmates of union work.
houses. The Right Reverend Prelate then proceeded to
move, pursuant to notice, for a Select Committee,
to consider the provision which might require to
be made for religious worship and spiritual , instruc-
tion in the union workhouses in England and Wales. He
begged to state that he would not press this question to a
division, as he would leave the question of Committee or no
Committee to the responsibility of the Government. He bad
paid attention to the defects of the Poor-law Amendment Bill
and to their operation for the last ten years, and in no portion
of it had he seen such defects as in that which related to
spiritual instruction. The inmates of the workhouses he had
seen exposed to the greatest spiritual destitution. He spoke
of what he had witnessed in his own diocese
' and other places. He did net say things were not now ordered
better in this respect. He particularly instanced the union of
Liskeard, where, in consequence of the Commissioners
having originally omitted to nominate a chaplain
there was no spiritual instructor, except a Dissenting minister,
who came there without being sent for by the inmates. This
union formed a sort of precedent for the other, and this joined
with the exertions of the Dissenters, led to their having
no chaplains in any union throughout the diocese.
He held in his hand a remarkable proof of the accuracy of that
statement. In the union house of St. Austell there was a
large room originally designed for a chapel, but no chaplain
was appointed, and an unlicensed Dissenting minister reached
there twice every Sunday. In Bodmin, where the population of the
union amounted to 4,000, there was no chaplain, but the curate
gave his gratuitous services one day in the week to instruct the
poor. But in consequence of the extent of his parish it was
wholly out of his power 'to visit them on the Sunday. There
was in that house 56 inmates who were old people and unable to
walk out of the house to church. There were also 45 Children
who had no other instruction in religion but what they received
from schoolmasters. On Sundays. prayers were read by the
master, or sometimes by the porter. In St. Germain's union
workhouse th-ere was no chapel, and there were thirty-two aged
persons who could never stir from the house. He came next
to a case of a grave character, that of Penzance. The union
contained nineteen parishes, and the population extended to
45,951. There too every exertion was made by the board of
guardians to obtain the appointment of a regular chaplain, but
the party who resisted that measure succeeded in procuring
the appointment of a clergyman who had apostatised from the
Church. The clergy of the neighbourhood offered to do the
duty gratuitously, but the board of guardians rejected the
offer on the ground that it would be against the law, as the
statute required that the chaplain must be an officer of the
union, and be paid for his services. He did not say anything
against the moral character of the person who was appointed,
but that he had cast off the office which he held in the Church.
He took away the prefix of reverend from his name, and
even went so far as to appear in -public in a blue
coat and other coloured clothes. Having cast himself
from the Church be attached himself to a lady, who was a
daughter of a rigid Dissenter, a banker in the town of Pen-
zance. He went so far as to attend her chapel, and he had his
children baptised there. Their Lordships would suppose that
the appointment of that gentleman was not made with his (the
Bishop of Exeter's) sanction. It was reported to the Com-
missioners, and they sent down an Assistant-Commis-
' sioner le inquire into the matter, but having re-
ceived his Report, they took no further notice of it.
It was not long before this time when one of the most bar-
barous instances of cruelty was enacted in that union, when
the master imprisoned an unfortunate female in a dark bole,
although she told him that it would be the cause of her death,
owing to the state of health in which she was ; and the conse-
quence was a premature labour and death. The Board of Guar-
dians notwithstanding retained him in his situation, and it was not
until the Assistant Commissioner heard of the matter, that he was
discharged. Baptism in that union was administered in the
workhouse instead of the parish church, and no registry was
made until long after birth in the parish books, in conse-
quence of it being considered a private baptism. The Lord's
Supper was administered by an unlicensed person, and contrary
to the laws of the Church. He should next allude to the parish
of Redruth, which consisted of nine parishes, containing a po-
pulation of 48,589 souls. The appointment of a chap-
lain to that union was opposed, and the consequence was, that
Divine service was performed by a Dissenting preacher. The
Assistant-Commissioner said the law required that some salary
should be given, and a nominal sum of 1/. per annum
was given. This was then raised to 201., to which 601
was added by subscription ; and although the salary was
thus raised to 901., no gentleman could be got to discharge
the duties in all the: workhouses throughout Cornwall.
Divine service was performed in the dining-room of the
workhouse, to the great detriement of religion; and he
trusted that their Lordships, in any Bill they should bring be-
fore the House, would see that care was taken to provide a
proper room, which should be alone devoted to the performance
of Divine service and the . administration of the sacrament.
In the union of Oakhampton,_the letter of the resident clergy-
man stated that the children born in the workhouse
were all illegitimate, and were never brought to the church
to be baptised. The consequence was, they were
never baptised, because the vicar of the parish had no power
to go to the union work-houe to baptise a child, unless it
was dangerously ill. Hence a great number of those un-
fortunate children died without baptism, and he need not point
out the awful result of 'such a state of things. The Tiverton
union presented an' equally lamentable state of matters. He
thought that those cases which he had mentioned, and which
he could authenticate, formed sufficient grounds for his obtain-
ing the Committee. The north of England did not present
a more cheering aspect. The union of York contained 79
parishes, of which the population was 39,600,000,rand in this
large union they refused to appoint a chaplain, solely, he be-
lieved, on the ground of expense. The appointment of a chap-
lain was, he thought, generally in the north of England, a
question of pounds, shillings, and pence.—(Lord Wharncliffe
here nodded hishead. ) The Noble Lord seems to assent.—( Lord
Wharncliffe here made a gesture of dissent with his head.)
The Right Rev. Prelate continued to say that he was glad
that the Noble Lord did not assent, because that was an
iindi-
cation that things were not so bad as he bad been led to sup-
pose. In December last the friends of religion'made another
effort to obtain the appointment of a chaplain, but their oppo-
nents said that the matter had been reported to the Commis-
sioners, and that they expected a mandamus, AO that the
friends of religion were again defeated.. In the union of
Preston, with a population of 69,000, and seventy-three
parishes, there were five union workhouses, in the
principal of which there were 418 inmates, of whom 139 were
children, and two-thirds of these were members of the
Church of England, but there was no chaplain, and the state
of health and morals in the workhouse was such that he was
sure the gaol was greatly to be preferred. He (the Bishop of
Exeter) had received that morning a letter from a clergyman
in Macclesfield, who had given his gratuitous services to-the
poor in the workhouse beyond his strength, and he stated that
the board of guardians had given permission to the Wesleyan
Methodists to preach twice on the Sunday—a course of reli-
gious instruction which was attended with more harm than
good, for he found it quite impossible to awaken a wholesome
religious feeling in the minds of the poor people who attended
those preachers. In the union of York, during the last
I four years, fifty persons had been consigned to the
grave without the consolations of religion. In the
union of Macclesfield, the gentleman to whom he
had alluded informed him that a young woman, who
had heen shamefully seduced, was admitted into the work-
house, and after she had been some time in the women's ward
she fortunatdy fell ill—for it was indeed a fortunate thing to
be removed from her depraved companions to the sick ward.
The young woman assured him that if she had remained many
days longer in the same part of the house she would have gone
mad. He believed that no woman who was not infallible could
remain in the workhouse three weeks without becoming a
confirmed prostitute, The schoolmaster, who was a pauper,
and could scarcely read and not write at all, was dismissed a
few days ago for being intoxicated during Divine service.
The writer of this letter, not for any private reasons of his own,
requested that the name might not be mentioned, as if it were
he should be debarred from carrying out his good work by
the Dissenting guardian. If this be the case, he (the Bishop of
Exeter) would not longer delay an application to the Poor-law
Commissioners to induce them to send down to Macclesfield to
compel the appointment of a chaplain to the workhouse there,
and if they refused to give that order, he would move that their
Lordships send an humble address to her Majesty, praying
that the Poor•law Commissioners be dismissed, and he was
sure such a motion would be successful, because their Lord-
ships must he anxious to promote the cause of religion and
morality. The Commissioners had declared that they pos-
sessed the power to compel all guardians to appoint chaplains
to all workhouses under their control. In k:ngland there
were 587 unions, of which 20 were without workhouses, 51
with sufficientihouses, and of the remaining 516 unions, 102
had not chaplains, and in those which had chaplains, the
average salary was only 30!. a year. The Right Reverend
Prelate then went through numerous statistical documents
with respect to the conditions of the poor-law unloose after
which he passed an elogium upon the courtesey which he had
received from the Poor-law Commissioners, when he went to
them a few days ago for information on which he framed his
present motion. He was aware that the cry of "Do justiee to
the Dissenters," was a leading point, and even in matters of
the greatest and most vital importance, the saving of 6d. was
considered. But he was determined that the matter should not
rest here, and felt sure their Lordships would agree
with him that he had given quite sufficient reasons
for the motion he was about to submit to them.
It was the duty of the Noble Lord (Wharncliffe) to res-
cue those poor paupers from their wretched condition. He
would not do the Noble Lord the injustice to believe that any
paltry motives of economy would prevent him from interfering,
or that any wretched opposition from Dissenters, whose mon-
strous assumption it was impossible the Noble Lord could re-
spect, would for a moment deter him. The many inmates of
prisons and lunatic asylums had their chaplains. Chaplains to
prisons, where the number of prisoners was fifty, received 1501.
a year ; where the number was a hundred, 2001. a year ; where
the number was more than a hundred, 2501. The Dissenters—
and it was they who opposed the appointment of chaplains to
workhouses—were very numerous as guardians, but very small
in the workhouses. He asked their Lordships to grant the
Committee of Inquiry. Indeed he did not well know upon
what ground the appointment of that Committee could be
reasonably resisted. The law was in favour of the appointment
of chaplains, and all he required was that the law be enforced.
With respect to the question of expense—if a salary of 100/.
per annum was given to each chaplain, as there were only 600
unions, the salaries would amount to about 60,0001. Now the
value of the property rated annually to the poor was sixty mil-
lions sterling, and the proportion of 60,0001. to 60,000,0001.,
was only that of 1/. in 1,000/., which was somewhere about
one farthing in the pound, and this farthing the sordid guar-
dians of the north were unwilling to sacrifice to the best in-
terests, temporal and eternal, of the poor paupers. He was
happy to see that powers were to be given to create district
schools, so that he entertained the hope of seeing England
studded with schools like that of Norwood. The Right Rev.
Prelate then read a Report of Mr. Tuffnell on the state of
the poor-house schools, which he submitted was an-
other cogent reason in support of his motion. Whether
Ministers granted the Committee or not, he had done his
duty. The responsibility must rest with them. If they re-
fused a Committee of Inquiry into the matter, the glory of thin
Ministry—the best and most powerful that England had had
for many years—would be eclipsed. The Right Rev. Prelate
concluded by moving for a Committee to inquire into the best
means of promoting religious instruction in the workhouses of
England and Wales.
Lord WHARNCLIFFE was sure their Lordships
..1"ml
not expect that he should attempt to answer the able
elusive speech of the Right Rev. Prelate, iri asueb
that the
he entirely and heartily concurred. Battle :iilli;ehm the
course which the Commissioners bad p
to uappowt haplans was
boards of guardians, by persuasion.
was ir„' seely to
of the lew.--(Hearr, bear.)
jtoudtiheeiohuars,isannhd fee
England and Wales, there were now only
thbee more
HouseeeffectualofPtharan-
froaerus resorting
ot olfor6o
oge
(Hear, bear.) There was now
Bill for the amendment of the poor-law, and the best
'lament a
102 that had not chaplain whereas in 18:40 there were 206,-.
unions •
way to effect the object of the Right Rev. Prelate would be by
the introduction of a clause for the purpose into that Act.
The Bishop of SALISBURY agreed with the suggestion
of the Noble Baron, and he thought that the Right Rev. Pre.