Page:Local taxation and poor law administration in great cities.djvu/12

8 smaller towns and in country districts. It is almost impossible to make the same minute and close enquiry where such a vast number of cases are concerned. It is from a knowledge of this fact that great numbers of the least industrious and least profitable classes of the community flock to our large towns where their idleness and profligacy have a better chance of escaping detection. These masses of surplus population have been called our reserves of labour. Now a reserve of labour, to be of any use, ought to be available when it is wanted, but these reserves as they are called do not come to the large towns in times of prosperity. They flock to large towns in times of distress, and therefore, far from being reserves of labour, they are simply reserves of pauperism, and the large towns instead of receiving any benefit from their labour are simply charged with their support. This evil is very much increased by the want of any uniform efficient system for the treatment of the sick, the lunatic, and the infirm, in many parishes throughout this country. I will venture to point out to the House the result of this absence of uniformity and efficiency. A man living in a parish which makes no proper provision for the sick poor falls ill. There being no proper provision for giving him medical aid in his own parish, his sickness remains unattended to until it has become chronic, and he himself ultimately becomes a permanent burden upon the industrious portion of the community. After allowing matters to go on in a way that those who are acquainted with the habits of our working population can easily understand, he hears that in another parish, either by private charity or good parochial management, efficient provision is made for the curing of sickness. He contrives to reach the parish, is admitted to a hospital, is dismissed as incurable, and hangs on in the parish for more than a year in the hope that something may turn up. The year's residence in the parish now makes him irremoveable, and the burden of his support falls not upon the parish that neglected but upon the parish that performed its duties. I received a letter some short time since from the very able and intelligent master of our Workhouse, strongly urging this point upon my attention; and in the letter he mentions a curious instance which occurred within his personal knowledge. He says:—"You will possibly remember a man coming before the Workhouse Committee to make an application for assistance on leaving the House, who had on four or five different occasions come across