A PAPER
ON THE
CONDITION OF WORKHOUSES,
Read in the Department of Social Economy, at the Association
for the Promotion of Social Science, Birmingham.
Having very recently collected all the information I could obtain in the form of a pamphlet on the subject of Workhouses and their management, I hardly thought it likely that I could offer any new suggestions for the consideration of the present meeting. I have found, however, such a generally-awakened interest in the cause, and so many persons ready to furnish facts and observations from their own experience, that I am not without a hope that these remarks may prove of some value to the important subject of the treatment of our poor under the present poor-law system. It is satisfactory to find that the various opinions I have received from different quarters may be said to be unanimous as to the existing evils, and nearly so as to the suggested remedies. When this is the case, and public feeling is once aroused and expressed, there is much ground for hope that such suggestions will be adopted and carried out. Some few have indeed confessed that they feared the difficulty was an insurmountable one, and the problem insoluble, to make kindness and humanity and comfort compatible with the strict economy which is necessary when charity is granted and bestowed by law. But I think these remarks were made by persons who were the least acquainted with the subject practically, and I hope to be able to show that increased expenditure is by no means the chief aim of those who are earnest in the cause of workhouse reform, or necessarily involved in their suggestions. Neither do they violently denounce the system itself, which is very probably less to be blamed than the manner in which it is carried out. No extreme measures or alterations in the rules are demanded, but rather a calm and quiet investigation into the workings of
