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can well imagine for various reasons, the chief impediment being that to which I have referred; and another, perhaps as important, that there was no one amongst the few workhouse officials who had the least power to train the women, had they been found. With the rarest exceptions, they were, without doubt, of a class far too low to be capable of any such high and important employment as that of nursing the sick.

Here again, however, we have another instance of encouragement in perseverance, for though a good and true suggestion may not be able to work itself out in its original form, still it is a seed sown, which somehow and some day will bring forth results. The idea which was at the root of this suggestion was the enormous and universal want of trained nurses for the sick of all classes, but more especially the poor-a want which had in a great measure been brought to light by the experience of the

Crimean War. And now the actual work demanded is being effectually and worthily carried out by many institutions, amongst which we may especially name the "National Association for Nursing," " with this vast and remarkable difference, that instead of ablebodied workhouse inmates, the nurses are all educated women. Thus does a good suggestion fulfil itself in many ways and after many years!

In 1857 another effort was made to obtain the more direct sanction of the Poor Law Board for the voluntary visitation of workhouses, and though permission was then granted (of course under certain conditions and limitations), it became then evident that the guardians had only sought for an excuse, by reference to the higher authority, for now that its sanction was granted the power to use it was refused, in the following correspondence.

* Central Home-23, Bloomsbury Square.

Extract from letter from the Poor Law Board to the guardians of the Strand Union, December, 1857-"I am directed to state that the Board will offer no present objection to the proposed arrangement, provided that the guardians of the union and the chaplain assent to it, and the plan be subject to such rules for the preservation of order and punctuality as the guardians may think fit to prescribe. I am, however, directed to add that the Board reserve to themselves the right to withdraw their assent, if inconvenience should hereafter arise from the arrangement." This was forwarded to me, with the following letter from the Board of Guardians to the Central Board :—“I am to state, in reference to such application, and also to the conditional sanction given by your Board, subject to the assent of the guardians and chaplain, that the guardians, after having given the subject a very full and careful consideration, adopted unanimously the following resolution: 'That

whilst this Board desire to express their sense of the benevolent motives which have actuated Miss T in making the application contained in her letters to the Poor Law Board, this Board, upon mature consideration, deem it inexpedient to comply therewith.'"

A great step in advance had, however, been made this year by the proposal to form a central society for the promotion of workhouse visiting. This was brought forward at the meeting of the Social Science Association, held at Birmingham in the autumn of 1857, when a paper was read on "The Condition of Workhouses," in the Social Economy Department. This plan was afterwards developed at the rooms of the society (then in Waterloo Place), under the presidency of the Hon. W. Cowper, and with a large committee consisting of many well-known men and women of position and benevolence, including bishops, clergy, and laymen, many of whom wrote with warm

sympathy and approval of the plan of this

society.*

The real object of the society thus formed and affiliated to the Social Science Association may be said to have been twofold, viz. the individual benefit and comfort of the inmates of workhouses, and also-and perhaps a more important aim-the enlightenment of public

* I was the honorary secretary. It may be well here to give an extract from the first prospectus of the Workhouse Visiting Society :-"This society has been established to promote the moral and spiritual improvement of workhouse inmates, of whom there are upwards of 100,000 in England and Wales, and will provide a centre of communication and information for all persons interested in that object. . . The chief object at which the society aims is the introduction of a voluntary system of visiting, especially by ladies, under the sanction of the guardians and chaplains for the following purposes: 1. For befriending the destitute and orphan children, while in the schools, and after they are placed in situations. 2. For the instruction and comfort of the sick and afflicted. 3. For the benefit of the ignorant and depraved, by assisting the officers of the establishment in forming classes for instruction; in the encouragement of useful occupation during the hours of leisure, or in any other work that may seem to the guardians to be useful and beneficial." Seven simple rules followed, one of which was the formation and enlargement of workhouse libraries, for which purpose grants were given during several years.

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