Page:Pauperization, cause and cure.djvu/14

8 case of more than casual sickness, in any sudden epidemic, attention in this Union is immediately directed to the state of the cottages in question; and if found, as is usually the case, in a state of palpable unhealthiness, the notice of the landlord or his agent is at once called to the circumstance; and it generally happens that either through the local guardians, or some other influence, an improvement is made. By this means the death rate in the Union has been reduced to fourteen per 1000—one of the lowest in England. And here it might be mentioned that the duties of guardian should not altogether cease when leaving the board. If landlords and clergymen, guardians and others, would interest themselves a little in these apparently small matters of the economy of life; if, instead of diffusing direct charity, they would use some active intelligence and sympathy in their own immediate neighbourhood by first serving on boards of guardians and getting to understand the relation of law, and then applying practically sound principles to the elevation and improvement of the poor, they would be the greatest allies a board of guardians, and a chairman in particular, could have in his struggle with pauperization, and make the Poor Law itself a means of raising instead of a mode of degrading a population.

In many unions it would be desirable to appoint at once a medical inspecting officer for a short time, to examine and report upon sanitary deficiencies, and this more especially in towns where much sickness is produced by neglect of the most simple precautions. Much of the success herein recorded was considered by the Chairman to be due to the perfect harmony and unanimity that reigned at the Board, and to the zeal and activity of the officers. The changes for the last thirty years, both in guardians and officers, have been as slight as is compatible with human life.

In conclusion, to recur to the question of giving relief to members of benefit societies (in which must be included the members of some that have by a wrong basis of computation broken up), and also in giving relief to applicants who at some time have attempted by deposits in savings banks or otherwise to make some provision for illness or old age, the issue is rather an important one. It is a difficulty which has occurred to most practical administrators of modern Poor Law, and it is a question not yet solved by the circular of the Poor Law Board in 1840, or the letter of January 5, 1870, in answer to Mr. Paget, and the Somersetshire miners, which is given at p. 108 of the Poor Law Report of 1869-70.

This much, nevertheless, may be said, that, however correct in law, or sound in theory, a system may be which encourages improvidence, or teaches the poor, as they are being practically taught in nearly every union in England, that any provision they make will disqualify them for relief—which is looked upon often as a sort of right—any such system must, eventually, come to be superseded by a more elevating one, and however perfect, even in principle, it may appear, you must first make it perfect in practice before it can be advantageously adopted. Furthermore, as a matter of principle, is