colonies at the present day. Let us remember
that the white man is far more responsible for
his actions than the black man; but let us also
remember that his position is a trying one, in
having to hold his own, far away, against an
overwhelming force of numbers.

A NEW HUMANE SOCIETY.

To preserve human life; to put an end to
tortures and cruelties now systematically
inflicted on our poor countrymen and countrywomen
at home, and many of which are as
horrid and revolting, as any of the barbaric
rites we read of as practised among savages;
to substitute trained skill for brutal ignorance,
and conscientious carefulness for wicked and
inhuman neglect; to make wanton and aggravated
homicide less common, and at least to ensure
such tending and remedies for our sick and
suffering poor, as humane men provide for their
sick and suffering brutes; to free the national
character from a deep stain, and to relieve the
national conscience of the burden of a crying
sin; such are the objects of the new Humane
Society. In other words, its promoters
propose to take the occupants of workhouse
infirmaries out of the hands of men who are proved
to have shamelessly abused their trust, and to
place them in state hospitals appointed and
controlled as the establishments supported by
private charity are known to be. Our workhouses
are already hospitals, in the sense of being filled
with sick, infirm, and decrepid people, who
need careful nursing and professional care; and
the reform aimed at, is, to supply these with the
necessaries for the lack of which they languish
and die;—how painfully, an occasional newspaper
report tells us; how constantly, is only known
to themselves and God.

The Association for the Improvement of the
Infirmaries of the London Workhouses, owes
its origin to the revelations of the Lancet
commissioners, numbers many influential thinkers
in its ranks, and is pledged to direct its action
to the consolidation of the invalid departments
of the metropolitan workhouses; to the bringing
about of a hospital organisation under a central
management, and to the levying of a general
metropolitan rate for the support of the sick
poor. Taking our facts from an interesting
pamphlet by MR. ERNEST HART, let us first quote
the statistics of a few London workhouses, and
then examine into their disorganisation and
mismanagement. In many instances we are
able to confirm Mr. Hart's statements from our
own personal observations; in some we can
supplement them by facts acquired during investigations
commenced and carried on independently;
and the reader may accept all as trustworthy
and temperate records of evils which
are flourishing in rank luxuriance at our very
doors.

First of the workhouse buildings. That of
Clerkenwell is a wretched tumble-down place,
which was certified by the Poor Law Board to
hold five hundred inmates. The metropolitan
inspector has frequently urged upon the guardians
the necessity of removing their paupers to a
healthier and more commodious site; and has
for years past condemned the confined yards
and crowded wards of the present building as
unsuited to their purpose. These parochial
dignitaries have not yet, however, thought it
necessary to make a change, and we learn
that out of the five hundred and sixty people
improperly crammed into their workhouse two
hundred and fifty are sick, and two hundred and
eighty infirm, the latter number including
eighty who are insane. Remembering that
twelve hundred feet of cubic space for each
patient is the allowance recently prescribed as
necessary for military hospitals by the Barrack
and Hospital Commission, the condition of
these five hundred and thirty sick and infirm
people may be estimated by the fact that the
cubic space for each is but four hundred and
twenty-nine feet. Add to this, that the cramped
staircases of this house are so intercepted and
blocked up with inconvenient landing-places, as
to be useless as mediums of ventilation; that
the windows are insufficient in number; and
that one of the narrow prison-like yards which
form the only exercise-grounds for convalescents,
contains the dead-house, and a commonly
neglected dust-bin in close proximity; and the
shocking unfitness of Clerkenwell workhouse
for a public hospital will be understood.

At St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, the ground
within the building is so much higher than
that outside that those standing in its yards
are on a level with the first-floor windows
in Hemming's-row. This is due to the yards
being composed of a disused burial-ground.
Abutting on them, and so much beneath their
level as to be practically underground, are
the cellars chosen by the guardians as surgical
wards. They are all less than nine feet high,
and the average number of cubic feet per bed
is four hundred and twenty-eight feet. The
workhouse of the Strand Union is even less fitted for
infirmary purposes than those already quoted.
It is surrounded by noisy workshops and mews,
and, as if this were not enough, the guardians
have, with that keen eye to the main chance, and
that noble disregard of the feelings of mere
paupers, which are the distinguishing characteristics
of parochial boards, established a carpet-
beating business under the windows of the sick
wards. The unhappy patients are, of course,
stunned with the noise and poisoned with the
dust, but carpet beating is remunerative, and,
despite the remonstrances publicly made, the
guardians are too much men of business to
forego it out of any weak-minded and sentimental
consideration for the helpless creatures
committed to their care. It should be added, that
seven-eighths of the sleeping accommodation
here is occupied by the sick. The workhouse
infirmary of St. George the Martyr is perilously
unwholesome from its situation, surrounded
as it is by bone-boiling, grease, and catgut-
making establishments; while that of Greenwich