by the nurse to fulfil this duty, had been too
completely bedridden for the last few days to
arise and give it to her. Other patients had not
had their medicine because they had diarrhœa;
but the suspension had not been made known
to the doctor, nor had medicine been given to
them for their diarrhœa. The nurses generally
had the most imperfect ideas of their duties in
this respect. One nurse plainly avowed that
she gave medicines three times a day to those
who are very ill, and twice or once a day as
they improved. The medicines were given all
down a ward in a cup; elsewhere in a gallipot.
The nurse said she 'poured out the medicine,
and judged according.' In other respects the
nursing was equally deficient. The dressings
were roughly and badly applied. Lotions and
water-dressings were applied in rags, which
were allowed to dry and stick. I saw sloughing
ulcers and cancers so treated. In fact, this was
the rule. Bandages seemed to be unknown.
But the general character of the nursing will be
appreciated by the detail of one fact, that I
found in one ward two paralytic patients with
frightful sloughs of the back; they were both
dirty, and lying on hard straw mattresses; the
one dressed only with a rag steeped in chloride-
of-lime solution, the other with a rag thickly
covered with ointment. This latter was a fearful
and very extensive sore, in a state of absolute
putridity; the patient was covered with filth
and excoriated, and the stench was masked by
strewing dry chloride of lime on the floor under
the bed. A spectacle more saddening or more
discreditable cannot be imagined. Both these
patients have since died: no inquest has been
held on either."

If it be asked how this horrible condition of
things could have escaped the government
inspector, the answer is ready. There are forty-
one workhouses in the metropolitan district,
and visiting these from time to time forms but
a portion of the duties of the gentleman in whose
charge that district is supposed to be. The real
supervision and control is necessarily entrusted
to a visiting committee appointed by and from the
guardians themselves, who, at stated intervals,
take a hurried glance at their own handiwork,
and pronounce it very good. It was formally
advanced in the last report of the Poor Law Board,
that if this committee perform its duty, the
scandalous cases of cruelty and neglect to sick
and dying paupers can never occur. Without
endorsing this highly imaginative hypothesis,
let me quote the opinion of a guardian in whose
parish workhouse a death took place, under
peculiarly atrocious circumstances, a few weeks
ago. "It's very well," remarked this gentleman,
with great cogency and force, "for the
newspapers to make a fuss, and to say we're brutes,
and I don't say we're right in this; but if you'll
remember that we're all men in business, and that
our regular board meeting takes up several hours
a week, you'll perhaps understand why our
visiting committees hurry through their work.
How long does it take us to inspect the wards
and vouch for the proper tending and care of
one thousand two hundred people? About two
hours. Of course the master goes round with
us, and of course we leave it principally to him,
and then fill in the blanks below the printed
questions in the Poor Law Board's book with
'Yes' or 'No,' as the case may be. No! I
don't remember any of us ever making an
independent report. We just fill up the book,
and are glad when the job's over, for it's a
bother, and we get nothing for it, and it's
impossible to do it properly without giving up more
time than is possible for men like me." It is to
ensure the proper performance of duties which
this plain-spoken guardian honestly confessed
were shirked, and for the lack of which a pauper
had just died miserably and shamefully, and to
make the task of inspection a practical reality, that
the new Humane Society asks for public support.

Let me quote some more personal experiences
proving the urgent necessity of reform. Some
months ago it was my privilege to accompany a
representative of the Poor Law Board on an
official inquiry into the condition of the sick wards
of a London workhouse. Some necessary alterations
were urged as essential to decency and
health; and "our guardians talked it over, sir,
when you recommended it before, but thought it
wasn't necessary!" was given in reply. A few
minutes later a serious blot was discovered in
the discipline of the wards, and "our guardians
wouldn't hear of it, sir, when I mentioned what
you said," was elicited. Through the day's
inspection, I saw evils which had been condemned
for years still flourishing; heard recommendations
made and advice given, which have never
been, and, under existing management, never
will be, carried out, and have ever since been
puzzled to know the use of an authority which
is powerless, and of advice that may be ignored
with impunity by a handful of petty jobbers,
whose self-interest is as keen as their sympathies
and intelligence are obtuse. The Poor Law
Board is utterly powerless over guardians who
are obstinate and obstructive; and, but for the
comments and strictures of the press, its reports
and inspections would be still more futile and
inoperative than they are. As it is, its officials
are not unfrequently defied. I have myself seen
a guardian wag the forefinger of menace at a
government inspector who, in the course of his
duty, reminded those present that the regulations
of their workhouse were contrary to the law;
and I have heard a guardian, in the most flowery
style of pot-house eloquence, denounce the same
official as a cozener, because a few pounds had
been struck off the parochial balance-sheet by
the district auditor as improperly claimed.

It was a touching scene. There had been
some stern comments upon the inhumanity of
this local board, and the inspector attended its
meeting, to hear whether its members meant to
persist in their defiance of official authority and
public opinion, or whether they would submit to
both, to the extent of making decent provision
for their poor. They had determined to withdraw
their stupid opposition, but, in revenge,
set their crack orator upon the unhappy official