440 [Assembly 



upon the soundest principles, will be generally respected, if it be 

 opposed to popular error. I can imagine that there are many who 

 would be glad to receive the visits of a health officer, if he were 

 gentle, kind, and unofficious — if he had the confidence of the family, 

 and if he caused all cleaning and improvement to be done without 

 expense or inconvenience to the tenant — hut not else, I have been 

 accustomed to visit the poor during the last forty years, and experience 

 convinces me that if a wealthy individual, when bestowing a gift, 

 lind fault with the dirtiness of a place, he must do it with gentle- 

 ness, and with due regard to feelings, and with no assumption of su- 

 periority, or he will exclude from the mind all sense ot gratitude for 

 the gift bestowed. Or if the person communicating kindness be 

 known as the almoner of others, everything like scolding, and blus- 

 ter, and importance, will be still more offensive; and though regard 

 for the yet ungiven dollar that he holds between his fingers, may 

 preserve the peace until he leaves the room, then will there be a 

 bursting forth of pent-up indignation; and though at his future vis- 

 its he may be received with civility, it will be the civility of hy- 

 pocrisy. How then can we expect that the official intrusion, without 

 a peace-ofFering, of a public officer into the place which, however 

 poor, the poor man calls his castle, will be received with favor? 

 He may, indeed, be clothed with legal authority to enter the place, 

 and there to look into holes and corners, enforce the scrubbing of 

 the floor, the liming of the walls, and the cleansing of the furniture, 

 and oblige the woman to wash herself and her children, comb their 

 hair, and scour their clothes; and all this may be important to the 

 welfare of the family, and the health of the neighborhood, but it will 

 be more likely to cause a breach of the peace, than to be regarded 

 as a kindness. . 



There is a power somewhat similar in England, given to the go- 

 vernors of the poor; but in that country, under monarchical govern- 

 ment, rights are often proportioned to property; laws are made to 

 benefit or coerce distinct classes, and strength is given to the govern- 

 ment by clothing it with vast powers to be used whenever discreet — 

 that is, in cases of urgency. So with the law; the spirit of English- 

 Dien would not submit to the every day enforcement of the power it 

 givcc, rtod therefore it is not to be found in every day life, but in 

 the Statute book, ready for use in case of pestilence, or other appa- 

 rent necessity. Then such a law would be really valuable. They 

 have it in reserve for such a season, and it might be well if we had 

 a similar law to be used under similar circumstances; for then, the 

 judgment of every one showing its importance and necessity, it 



