TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 249 



was not only desirable but a positive duty to do so ; and it was to be hoped that 

 the interest, now partly awakened, might soon become more active and beneficial. 

 The tide of sympathy and benevolence, which had reached to the very lowest and 

 apparently to the most hopeless depths of the social system, could not faU to pene- 

 trate in time the recesses of our workhouses, where thousands of our poorest and 

 most suftering fellow-creatures were maintained, but about whom so much ignorance 

 and still more iuditi'erence prevailed. Here was one of the widest fields yet opened 

 in our coimtiy for the exercise of woman's sympathy and help. Hitherto both had 

 been practically ignored in these institutions, the management being entirely in 

 the hands of the guardians, and fi-equently the only responsible woman in authority 

 being the paid matron, who was expected to control and manage the house and all 

 the inmates, however numerous they might be. It was now six years since Mrs. 

 Jameson directed attention to the claims of women to an influence over persons of 

 their own sex in institutions. Whatever the faults of the inmates of workhouses, 

 they stood in need of woman's help and s\nnpathy, probably all the more deeply 

 because women only coidd be the reformers of their own sex ; and if vice had 

 directly or indirectly brought these women and children to the last refuge of the 

 destitute, there was the more m'gent call for those of their own sex to come forward 

 to their rescue. This was the position taken by the Workhouse Visiting Society 

 three years ago. During the Crimean war, hospital nurses were thought to be bad 

 enough ; but the workhouse nurses were almost invariably many grades lower still, 

 because no remuneration was permitted for them. The most helpless cases faUed 

 to receive attention except through giving bribes to the nurses, who hovered aroimd 

 visitors to the patients in the hope of procuring gifts. The condition of the young 

 was fully as important as that of the sick ; and Miss Twining advocated the desira- 

 bility of separating the decent and respectable girls and women from the corrupted 

 and depraved — a point which had never yet been attended to as it deserved. The 

 experience of nearly six months in the Industrial Home for yoimg women opened 

 by the Workhouse Visiting Society in London proved that a respectable place was 

 needed for girls in the intervals of changing their situations. During that period 

 30 had been received, and fi-om eleven workhouses alone. Of these 20 had been 

 in pauper schools of some kind, and not having lost their character were not fit ia- 

 mates of the wards in workhouses where women of all kinds congregated without 

 distinction. One girl declared that she had never heard such language as greeted 

 her ears in the ward of a London workhouse, to which she was transfen-ed on 

 leaving her place ; and another girl, of 16, who proclaimed her intention of leaving 

 the ward for the worst of pm-poses, said she had gained her infoi-mation from 

 women in the ward ; and it was well known that the elder women, who were invari- 

 ably the worst, took a pleasure in coriupting the minds of the younger ones. 

 Guardians should have the power to pay for girls in institutions where there might 

 be some hope of their remaining uncorrupted. At present there was no suificient 

 agency for doing this whilst they were in workhouses. The admission of a higher 

 and better influence was the only hope of improvement that existed; and why such 

 an agency should be so frequently rejected was surorising; for it was obvious that 

 to improve the morality of the inmates was to enable them to lead a respectable 

 life out of doors, and to get them ofl!" our hands. Yet th'is seemed to be entirely 

 overlooked by the jealousy of some officials as to " intei-ference,'' so called. She 

 did not lu'ge an indiscriminate and unauthorized admission of visitors to workhouses. 

 That had never been the proposal of the Society to which she belonged. That 

 might have caused confusion and inconvenience, which their plans had never done 

 when properly caiTied out ; they had always ministered comfort to the inmates, 

 and contributed to the peace of the house. 



On Strikes. By Dr. J. Watts. 

 Strikes, he said, were amongst the most serious evils to be encountered in the 

 operations of trade ; and he noticed the importance of a veiy intimate connexion 

 between an employer and his workpeople. 1 he pertinacity and endurance of work- 

 people on strike would do credit to a good cause, and was proof of their capacity 

 for great improvement. He then passed in review some of the principal strikes that 

 iave recently taken place, most of which had arisen fii-om dissatisfaction with the 



