The Sun.
London, England, 1842-11-21 00:00:00

WORKING of the NEW POOLLAW.

We lately had occasion to comment upon the, cruel
severity with which the " amended" laws for the
relief of the poor visited a three weeks' bandying
to and fro, from pillar to post, and post to pillar, upon
two poor little children, who were acknowledged by
all parties, the so-called relieving-officers included, to
be starving the while, and that innocently (which kit
is a concession not often made by these worthies),
with cold and hunger. The particulars have now
been furnished to us of a somewhat similar case which
has just occurred in Yorkshire.
The simple facts of the case were these :—On
Friday, the 21st of October last, the wife of John
Hill, a woolcomber, resident at Harden, within.
the limits of the Keighley Union, but belonging . to .
the township of Wilsden within the Bradford Union,
was confined of her third child. For the whole
fortnight previous to this the man had earned, from
whatever cause (whether, as it was alleged, from
any fault of his own or not, makes no difference in
the question of the destitution and consequent claim
to relief of his wife and child), only 4s. 6d. in the
whole. He consequently, and one should think with
very good reason, applied for assistance on behalf
of his wife on the day after her confinement to a
Mr. Mackley, of Wilsden, who appears to be 'a
guardian of the Bradford Union, and to be in the
habit of acting occasionally as relieving-officer on the
behalf of that body. This person having proof, as
he tells us, that Hill himself was " too idle to work,"
and was "a regular nuisance to the parish officers,"
for that reason refused to commiserate the truly
pitiable wants, not of the husband, but of the
wife and newly-born child, and for the same
very singular reason proceeded further to refer
Hill to the Assistant-Overseer, saying that he did
not know where the relieving-officer resided. It must
be added, that this Mr. Mackley admitted that, if it
had been a fit case, he would, and he was empowered
so to do, have relieved on behalf of the Bradford
Union. He conceived, therefore, that that union was
liable, if it were a fit case. ether it was fit or
not our readers must, of course, decide. The over-
seer, however, referred Hill to the relieving-officer of
Wilsden, which latter functionary referred him on to
the Keighley Board, because, as he said, the. Bradford
Board would not indemnify him (the officer) if he
relieved ; and the Keighlev Board then referred the
man hack to the Bradford 'Board ; and the Bradford
Board, in the person of Mr. Mackley aforesaid, said
that "it would be no use applying to them."
By this time the poor man had travelled nearly
thirty miles, and without effect! The condition of
his wife, in the meanwhile, is thus described by our
informant :—" The evidence proves that the mother
of the child was found sitting in a damp house, with-
out fire or food, on the day week after the child was
born ; and that the witness, Ann Smith, the wife of a
poor woolcomber, and the mother of five children,
gave her her afternoon meal, and went without food
herself
.from nine o'clock in the morning until nine
o'clock. in the following morning." Hill then applied
to Mr. Ferrand, M.P., "on the day his wife was
found by Ann Smith, ' apparently dying," and from
him obtained food and assistance, and also directions
how to arrive of the hitherto impenetrable Board of
the Bradford Guardians. On Monday, October 31,
only ten days after his wife's confinement, and th
days after she had been rescued from starvation by
the Christian charity of one almost as poor as herself,
the, poor man succeeded in reaching Mr. Ellis, the
relieving-officer, who was the party regularly bound,
if any person was, to relieve the miseries of his wife
and child, enfeebled and almost dying from the pri-
vations which they had suffered. This man, in the
words of our informant, " though he resided not:
more than a mile and a half from the place, refused
either to visitthe man's abode, or to relieve him ; and
ordered him about his business." At the next meet-
ing of the Bradford Board of Guardians these facts
were proved against this Mr. Ellis, who, however, re-
fused to attend or meet the charge ; and at the fol-
lowing meeting Mr. Mackley appeared and justified
his share in the transaction, on the ground, noticed by
us already, that Hill was an idle fellow, and did not
earn as much as he might. In the meantime, the
child died. A Coroner's inquest is to be held upon
the body, and we will not anticipate its verdict ; yet
we cannot but feel that it is no fault of the adminis-
trators of the Poor-law that the woman dig not
die also.
These are the facts of the case; wad they speak for
themselves. We proceed to elucidate their application
to the principles of the New Poor-law. The openly
avowed principle of that law is, to compel the poor to
support themselves, by making that maintenance
which in some few certain cases, as it is allot red,
cannot be refused, as pitiful, as rarely bestowed, and
as uncomfortable to the recipient as possible. This
rule is uniform ; and the weak, the sick, and the
aged, suffer for the benefit of the idle and the strong
—suffer, in order that these last may be driven t a
maintain themselves. This is the maked principle of
the law : it now appears that not only is the treatment
of the individual himself who is to be thus driven to
work to be used thus instrumentally, but the suffer-
ings, literally the dying sufferings, of his wife and
children, of those who are utterly innocent of his
idleness and profligacy (even supposing such idleness .
and profligacy to exist)--these are to be added as a
makeweight, and these guiltless ones are to be. re-
fused the very necessaries of a bare and miserable ex-
istence, in order that the husband may be gnarled
into supporting himself and them ! Sch is the law
of the Bradford Union.
Again, the effects of the centralization system, of
the union of parishes, are here also very tolerably
well illustrated. In the late dispute between the
West London Union and the overseers of St. Mar-
garet's, the journies from overseer to relieving-officer,
and from relieving-officer to overseer, were not so
very long ; the parishes were contiguous. In the
Bradford case, and the same thing would happen
in many instances in the country, the poor man who
was litigated travelled no less than thirty miles
before the point was cleared up. A dispute between
ttwo unions may be a matter of perfect indifference
to the respective officers ; but to the poor man whose
family are starving it is, as experience proves, no
light matter. Surely. it is but a mockery of that
\
true almsgiving, which is ready, of itself, even to seek
out objects for its charity; it is but a mockery of that
State provision for the poor which a Christian com-
munity should, one would think, bring home to every
poor man's door ; it is but a mockery of. mercy-4
mockery of public: beneficence, to remove the source
of charity to a distance—away from the home, away
Ifrom the s3mp?thies of the recipient, and to bring
him ten, or twenty, or even thirty miles, before you
dole out to him Ins niggardly pittance, or condescend*.
in the plentitude .of your kindness, to tell him that
Iyou dispute his claim.--Times.

Dispatches from the Governor of the West India
Colonies were received on Fiaturday, at tho' and.
office.