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234

CHADWICK.

castle- on -Tyiie and Westmins- ter.

CHADWICK, Edwin, C.B., social economist, born in 1801, was called to the bar in 1830. His first publication was an article in the Westminster Bevtew, in 1828, on Life Assurances. He attracted the notice of Jeremy Bentham, who bequeathed to him part of his library and a small legacy. When Lord Grey's GK>yemment issued the Commission of Inquiry into the Administration of the Poor-Law, Mr. Chadwick was appointed As- sistant-Commissioner, and his in- vestigations in the rural districts were of great service. He was engaged on the Commission of Inquiry into the Labour of Young Persons in Factories, intended to protect young children engaged chiefly in cotton-mills from physical deterioration by overwork ; and although its object, with respect to the securities for an efficient system of half-time instruction, was de- feated, the foundation was laid for the system of Governmental inspec- tion, since extended to labour in mines and other branches of in- dustry. Mr.Chadwickwasapppinted one of the Commissioners for pre- paring the Beport on the Adminis- tration of the Poor-Law. The measures adopted were chiefly remedial, and for the direct repres- sion of abuses ; but Mr. Chadwick urged a preventive course,including the industrial training of children separately from adult paupers in district schools, and the entire abolition of the law of settlement. In 1838 he obtained the consent of the Poor-Law Commissioners to a special inquiry into the local and preventable causes of disease, and the improvement of habitations in the metropolis. This inquiry, after- wards extended to the -whole of England and Wales, was undertaken by Mr. Chadwick, in addition to his laborious duties as Secretary to the Poor-Law Commission. From the former investigations proceeded

the Sanitary Eeport, proposing a venous and skrterial system of water- supply and drainage for the im- provement of towns, and works for the application of sewage to agri- cultural production. In 1843 he produced a report on interments in towns, which laid the foundation of legislative measures on that sub- ject. In 1839 Mr. Chadwick was appointed on the Constabulary Force Commission for the preven- tion of offences, the detection of offenders, and the organization of the police forces. In 1848 he was appointed a Commissioner of the Gheneral Board of Health for im- proving the supplies of water, and the sewage, drainage, cleansing, and paving of towns. Upon the reconstruction of this B<NEu*d, in 1854, when it was placed under poliiical chiefs who are changed with the Gk>vemment,Mr. Chadwick retired with a pension. In 1848 he was honoured with a civil Companionship of the Bath ; and in 1854 his aid was sought by Government in framing measures for the improvement of the civil service. He has since published a paper on its reorganization, more especially on the results of competi- tive examinations for appointments, and on the necessity of further securities to insure promotion in the public service. He has pub- lished in the Transactions of the Statistical Society papers read there, and at the British Association, on the principles of competition for private as well as for public service. In 1858 he read a paper at the Liverpool meeting of the Association for the Promotion of Social Science, on the application of sanitary science to the protection of the Indian army, which led to the appointment of a Commission on that subject. In 1859-60 he examined, in aid of the Education Commission, and collected evidence laid before Parliament, on the results of good voluntary half-time schools, the effects of physical