POOR
256
POOR
ing of the damage done by worthless labour. The
evils existing in the workhouses were absence of
classification, discipline, and employment, and the
extravagance of allowances. Children were herded
with older people and soon acquired their bad habits;
particularly was this the case with young girls who
were obliged to associate with the many women of
evil repute who came in to recruit their health and
then return to their trade; paupers were allowed to
leave the workhouse one day a week and return in-
toxicated without punishment. Only in a very few
instances were things found to be in the least degree
satisfactory and these particular instances were due
to the extraordinary energy and wisdom of a few in-
dividuals. It is not difficult to imagine the disas-
trous effect these abuses had upon all classes of the
community. The independent labourers, the em-
ployers of labour, the owners of property, were all
seriously affected. The foregoing evils were to a
large extent due to the administrative machinery,
upon which the commissioners were no less severe
in their report. Overseers, assistant overseers, open
vestries, representative vestries, self-appointed ves-
tries, and magistrates, were the chief administrators
of the poor funds. Some of these had to serve com-
pulsorily without payment and much against their
will; others were paid and were of a most illiterate
class, many not being able to read or write, and a
final appeal for the pauper against the overseers or
vestries was with the magistrate, who not having
the time nor inchnation to go into the details of the
cases brought to his notice would invariably give
a wrong decision, against which there was no
appeal.
One portion of the reporti is not without interest to Catholics, \iz., that in which the commissioners refer to the large number of Roman Catholic children who were illegitimate in consequence of the priest alone having married the parents. A magistrate said that as many as a dozen of these cases had come under his notice in a single day. The remedial meas- ures proposed by the commissioners fill two hundred and thirty-six quarto pages of close print, and the result of their report was the passing of the Poor Law .Amendment .\ct of 1S.34 (4 & 5 William IV, c. 76). The act consists of one hundred and ten clauses, the first fifteen of which deal with the appointment and duties of "The Poor Law Commissioners for England and Wales", three in number, afterwards called the Local Government Board. The future administra- tion of the poor laws, power to make rules and regula- tions for the management of the poor, and the govern- ment of workhouses, were placed in the hands of the new commissioners. They are required to make an annual report to be placed before Parliament and to give the Secretary of State any information re- specting their proceedings he may require. The succeeding sections of the act deal with the altera- tion and building of workhouses: the union and dis- solution of unions of parishes; the number, duties, and qualifications of guardians and their elections; expenditure and assessment; qualifications, duties, and salaries of officers; making of contracts; regu- lation of relief to the able-bodied and their families; raising of money; audit of accounts; and appren- tice.ship of children. The Roman Catholic Relief Bill, passed in 1829, gave courage and hope to a cer- tain number of Catholics, who soon began to bestir themselves in the interests of their poorer brethren in the workhouses, and the result of their efforts was seen in section 19 of the Act of 1834. This section provides that
"No Rules, Orders or Regulations of the said Commissioners, nor any By-Laws at present in force, or to be hereafter made, shall oblige any inmate of any workhouse to attend any religious Bervice which may be celebrated in a mode con-
trary to the religious principles of such inmate,
nor shall authorize the education of any child
in such workhouse in any religious creed other
than that professed by the parents or surviving
parent of such child, and to which such parents
or parent shall object, or, in the case of an or-
phan, to which the godfather or godmother of
such orphan shall so object: provided also, that
it shall and may be lawful for any ficensed minis-
ter of the religious persuasion of any inmate of
such workhouse, at all times in the "day, on the
request of such inmate, to visit such workhouse
for the purpose of affording religious assistance
to such inmate, and also for the purpose of in-
structing his child or children in the principles
of their religion."
Section .5.5 pro\ndes for masters of workhouses and
overseers keeping a register of all relief given, and sub-
sequent orders of the Poor Law Board provide for
the entry in this register of the religious creed of
those receiving indoor relief.
Although the Act of 1834 was the beginning of religious freedom for Catholics under the poor laws, it was not without considerable difficulty, and in some cases legal action, before the Catholic clergy and the inmates were able to obtain the benefit of that act. Some Boards of Guardians refused to admit a priest into the workhouse even when an inmate had made a request for him to visit, and others would give him no facilities for finding those who were Catholics. The creed register was therefore instituted in 1868 by the Poor Law Amendment .\ct, 31 and 32 Vict., c. 122. Sections 16, 17, and 19 provide for a separate register to be kept in every workhouse, district, or other pauper school, into which the religious creed of every inmate shall be entered: the religious creed of a child under twelve shall be entered as that of his father if it can be ascertained, if not, as that of his mother. The religious creed of an illegitimate child shall be deemed to be that of his mother. Should the father be a Protestant and wish his child educated as a Catholic, he is entitled to have his wish carried out, but the entry in the creed register must be that of the father's religion. Such register is to be opened to the inspection of any minister of any denomination, nearest the workhouse or school, or any rate-payer of any parish in the Union, at any time of the day between ten and four o'clock, except Sunday. Section 18. provides for any question as to correctness of entry being settled only by the Local Government Board. Section 20 provides for the minister visiting and instructing those who are of the same religion as himself. Although the act pro- vides for the child being instructed according to the entry in the creed register, the act of William IV referred to above in some instances contradicts it. A child may be entered as a Roman Catholic, that being the religion of his father, but he being dead, the Protestant mother can object to the child being in- structed in the Catholic Faith. Section 22 provides for a child abo-"e the age of twelve years altering his religion if the Local Government Board consider him competent to exercise a judgment upon the subject. Those for whom no religious service is provided in the workhouse are allowed by section 21 to attend a place of worship of their own denomination within a convenient distance of the workhouse. Many guar- dians have refused to allow inmates under sixty years of age to go out to Mass on Sundays, Good Friday, and Christmas Day, but this is not legal and can be remedied bv applying to the local Government Board (Order 1847," Art. 126). This right can only be stopped if abused and then the guardians must enter the cause in the minutes. The Local Govern- ment Board have permitted the appointment of a considerable number of priests, with stipends, to attend to the spiritual interests of Catholic inmates of
