an effort to maintain that height of reform which has been reached, and from which we are in danger of relapsing. The remainder of this article will be occupied in pointing out some of those improvements and reforms which should be steadily kept in view by all who have influence in this matter, and are not satisfied that everything has been accomplished at which we should aim.

Those who have followed the subject and read the various publications at the time they were issued, will have noticed the chief points which were urged from the very beginning, and on which it was believed the hopes of reform depended.

Three of these may be thus briefly stated :— I. The classification of the inmates and separation of the different classes, in order that each class might receive the management adapted to its wants.

2. The election of a superior class of guardians,

unbiased by any personal views and interests, and who would be able to discharge their duties in an intelligent and unprejudiced manner.

3. The appointment of a higher class of superintendents, with education and administrative powers to fit them for their posts.*

It will be seen that the two last reforms hang upon each other, and that if we are to have a better class of superintendents, they must be upheld by the authority of the guardians. The first point may be said to have been gained when Mr. Gathorne Hardy's Bill was passed in 1867, and the power obtained to separate the different classes, at least throughout the metropolitan district. And this improvement has entailed in a great measure the second, as the Boards of Guardians or managers in the new large asylums have been selected from a higher

* An association is now formed for " promoting trained nursing in Sick Asylums and Infirmaries;" the result of a meeting held at the Dowager Marchioness of Lothian's, in July, 1879.

class and from an enlarged area. The advantages of this reform can hardly be overrated, and the few cases in which it has been fully carried out only serve to show indisputably the immense gain that has been obtained. In these respects the country unions have always been better off, for in almost all instances the parish clergyman or the neighbouring magistrate have been ex-officio members of the Board, and have interested themselves personally in the management of the workhouse, while in London this. has been rarely, if ever, the case. How far we are still from having obtained all that is necessary in this direction, we think few who have had any knowledge of Boards of Guardians, or have tried to act with them, will be inclined to doubt.

The greatest advance in the right direction that has ever been made, is in the now very general co-operation with voluntary charity outside, to which many Boards of Guardians have assented. All who are acquainted with the

subject will know how strongly (but for a long time hopelessly), this point was urged by writers on the question, and to the exertions of the Charity Organization Society is mainly due this most beneficial result, which confers benefits equally great and important on both branches of work amongst the poor.

As regards the third point, so urgently pleaded during the last twenty years, it is strange that so little advance has been made.

When women are everywhere calling out for work and employment, it would seem that posts offering remuneration generally far beyond what can be earned by teaching, would be sought for and obtained; the management of a household and the government of some hundreds of persons, many of these being women and children, might, we should suppose, offer a most fitting and welcome employment for numbers of welleducated and intelligent women, and at least be as attractive as the superintendence of hospitals

and prisons; but though both these classes of institutions have long since attracted educated women, it is rare to find that they have applied for, still more rarely been accepted in, workhouses. The chief cause of this must be referred to the second point of still necessary reforms to which we have drawn attention.

But it is possible that there may be another reason also, viz. the doubt if women of the upper classes are really qualified by previous training to fill such posts, where a thorough knowledge of domestic economy and homely duties are amongst the first requisites, and, at least in the estimation of the guardians, take precedence of all others.

If this should be the case, we would urge upon women the duty and necessity of duly qualifying themselves for such work as they would have to perform in the superintendence of workhouses and infirmaries, where the influence of a higher class of women would be