248 REPORT— 1861. 



accursed to "withhold" com in times of scarcity, how much more infamous and 

 criminal it must be to cause that scarcity, by artificial means, by the deliberate 

 desti-uction of human food, and by the conversion of it into that which is not food, 

 but which tends to promote disease, and to degTade the people, in the same pro- 

 portion that it dissipates the resources of the nation, and perverts and frustrates the 

 boimtiful and beneficent intentions of Providence ! " 



Cooperative Stores ; their Bearing on Athenceums, 6fc. 

 Bij the Rev. W. R. Thoebtien, M.A. 



After some remarks on the principle of cooperation — the advantages of the 

 scheme, the salutaiy influence it exerts — the subject was illustrated by a reference 

 to the Btirtj P)-ovision Societi/. In March 1858, there were 280 members, capital 

 £1346, and a dividend of £'157. In March 1861, there were 1550 members, capital 

 £9420, and a dividend of £1451. 



The 2}hase of the subject now submitted is educational or literary — an appendage 

 of news-room, reading-room, and library, to these cooperative stores. This is a 

 neiv and injluential element. The Society referred to opened a news- and reading- 

 room in October 1859. The source of income to this department is not subscrip- 

 tion, but 2h per cent, on the net profits, yielding an average quarterly sum of £27. 

 This sum is disposed of in these proportions : — £10 for the news-room and £17 for 

 the library. 



The influence which this edncatio7ml element is fitted to exert on athenaeums and 

 mechanics institutions is great. They are dependent entirely on personal sub- 

 scriptions. The Bury Atheneeum had, in 18.59, 628 members ; now, in 1861, 431, — 

 the decrease chiefly to be referred to this cause. The tendency of this phase of 

 cooperation is to weaken or annihilate athenseums, and to bring about one of two 

 issues, either to throw this department of education into the hands of working men, 

 or to prompt the middle class to espouse cooperative institutions. 



The Rev. W. Thoebuen also read a paper, in which he deplored the effects of 

 cooperative societies on Athenffiums and other literary institutions. 



On the Employment of Women in Worlhouses. By Miss Ta\'ining. 

 The author commenced by saying that in 646 unions and workhouses in England 

 and Wales there were on the 1st of January 11.3,507 inmates, of whom 30,654 were 

 children in pauper schools. The whole number of indoor and outdoor poor was 

 850,896 ; and of those who were called able-bodied 40,000 were males, while above 

 110,000 were females. Thus a large proportion of our destitute pauper population 

 was composed of women and children ; in many workhouses they were two-thirds 

 of the inmates. The returns of the Poor Law Board gave but scanty information ; 

 and with regard to particular workhouises, details were not published. The num- 

 ber of deaths in the course of the year might be ascertained from the reports of the 

 local inspectors of health, but they found no details as to the ages and causes of 

 death. Thus those who paid the rates, and ought to be interested in the mode of 

 their expenditure, as well as in the welfare of those who were supported by. them, 

 knew nothing whatever about it. The one nu dical man who visited the workhouse, 

 and the Guardians, were the only persons who knew anything about the state of 

 things or the condition of the inmates. With a view of enlightening and interesting 

 persons in these various large and important institutions, she would suggest that 

 reports should be annually published, containing accounts of the numbers and classes 

 of the inmates, the length of time they had been such, 'and, what would be the 

 most important of all, the causes of death. This would give the information which 

 now they had not, about the mortality of infants and children in workhouses, about 

 which much was sunnised, but little was known, from the impossibility of obtain- 

 ing facts. In short, what she was anxious to urge was the admission of more day- 

 light generally into workhouses, which would soon result from a more general 

 interest in them. Subscribers to hospitals and other institutions wished to know 

 how their money was spent, and what the management was ; and why should not 

 ratepayers wish to know what was done with the money they contributed ? It 



