TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 181 



any rights of private property ; and the State which undertakes the ultimate sup- 

 port of the poor is bound to present its own efforts to reduce pauperism from being 

 frustrated, as they are at present. 



And while speaking of charities, it is impossible to avoid noticing the influence 

 of medical charities. No one could for a moment propose to abolish hospitals and 

 numerous institutions which are absolutely necessaiy for the relief of accidental 

 suffering. But there is a great difference between severe accidental disease or in- 

 jury and the ordinary illnesses which almost every one will suffer from at various 

 periods of his life. No working man is solvent unless he lay by so much of his 

 wages as will meet the average amount of sickness falling to the lot of the man or 

 his family. If it be not easy to determine this amount, there are, or may be, sick 

 clubs which will average the inequalities of life. In so far as trades unions favour 

 the formation of such clubs, they manifest that spirit of self-reliance which is the 

 true remedy of pauperism. 



But the wealthy classes are, with the best motives, doing all they can to coun- 

 teract the healthy tendencies of the artisans. They are continually increasing the 

 number and resom-ces of the hospitals, which compete with each other in offering 

 the freest possible medical aid to all who come. The claims of each hospital for 

 public support is measured by the number of patients it has attracted, so that, 

 without some general arrangement, a more sound system is impossible. Hospitals 

 need not be self-supporting, and in cases of really severe and unforeseen suffering 

 they may give the most lavish aid ; but I conceive that they should not relieve 

 slight and ordinary disease without a contribution from those benehted. As 

 children are expected to bring their school pence, though it be insufficient to support 

 the school, and as Government has wisely refused to sanction the general establish- 

 ment of free schools, so I think that every medical institution should receive small 

 periodical contributions from the persons benefited. Arrangements of the kind are 

 far from uncommon, and there are many self-supporting dispensaries, but the com- 

 petition of free medical charities has, to a great extent, broken them down. 



The importance of the subject with which I am dealing can only be estimated 

 by those who have studied the statistics of London charities prepared by Mr. Hicks 

 and published in the 'Times' of 11th February, 18G9. It is much to be desired 

 tliat Mr. Hicks, or some other statistician, would extend a like inquiry to aU parts 

 of the United Kingdom, and give us some notion of the amoimt of money expended 

 in the free relief of the poor. 



Closely connected with this subject is that of the poor-law medical service. 

 Admirable efforts are being made to improve the quality of the medical aid which 

 aU persons sufficiently poor can demand, and some imions have already erected 

 hospitals almost perfect in their comfort and salubrity. It will be conceded by 

 every one that those sick persons whose charge is undertaken by the public ought 

 to be treated with care and humanity. Where medical aid is given at all, it ought 

 to be good and sufficient. But the subject seems to me to be surrounded with dif- 

 ficulties, out of which I cannot find my way. The better we make the poor-law 

 medical service, the more we shall extend and deepen the conviction, already too 

 prevalent, that the poor may make merry with their wages when well and strong, 

 because other people will take care of them when sick and old. We thus tend to 

 increase and perpetuate that want of self-reliance and providence which is the 

 crowning defect of the poorer classes. In this and many other cases it seems as 

 necessary as ever that our humane impulses should be guided by a stern regard to 

 the real results of our actions. 



I now turn to a subject which must come prominently before our Section. I 

 mean the futiu-e financial policy of the kingdom. We are now at a most peculiar 

 and happy epoch in our financial history. For thirty years or more a reform of the 

 tariff has been in progress, audit is only a year since the last relic of the protective 

 system was removed by Mr. Lowe's repeal of the small corn-duty. One great 

 scheme is thus worked out and completed ; henceforth, if duties are remitted, it 

 must be on a wholly different ground — as simple remission of revenue, not as the 

 removal of protective duties which benefit some to the injury of others. It might 

 weU be thought difficult to overlook the difference between a tax for revenue pur- 

 poses and one for protective purposes ; and yet there are not a few who seem not 



