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July 15, 1854.] THE LEADER. 663
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THE BOARD OF HEALTH. The following passa...
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THE SHOE-BLACK BRIGADE. We find some cur...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Beware Of The Dog. It Is An. Old Proverb...
slaughtering , game ? How many of their Peeresses kept pet poodles , dandled into plethoric agony ? How many of these humane Peers " bred" specimens for the Bakerstreet show next -winter ? Sucli considerations suggest that we had better not commence to legislate according to Providence ' s intentions : there is no Parliamentary precedent for that . But if the Peers iire in earnest , who would say " Stop ?" The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals is a fine institution of police , necessary in an age of large towns ; and the excellent agents of that association can assure the House of Lords that even animals " intended " ( as if a cab were an intention !) for draught are systematically ill-used . Thus , on the same principles as are now being insisted on , we should get horses as well as dogs in our pork pies . Indeed , on the same principlebecause a few are ill-used—would not wives be prohibited by venerable Peers , seeing how many wives are dail ^ beaten by the " stronger sex ?"
July 15, 1854.] The Leader. 663
July 15 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER . 663
The Board Of Health. The Following Passa...
THE BOARD OF HEALTH . The following passage in that luminous " Report " which Lord Pahnerston laughingly assured the careless House of Commons he did not think it necessary to read—Lord Palmeiston understanding the House and knowing that he could carry his point by appearing indifferent to it—explains fully the causes of what is called , falsely , the " unpopularity " of the Board of Health . " " We are aware that , in the discharg e of the duties which have devolved upon us , we lave unavoidably interfered with powerful interests , which have the immediate means of making themselves heard by members of Government and of Parliament .
" Provisional orders which supersede Local Acts have interfered extremely with the professional emoluments of parliamentary and other agents " We have been under the necessity of stating facts with relation to the inefficiency and waste of former works . These expositions , required for the protection of the public against the extension of like works , amounted to the condemnation of the professional practice concerned in them , and _ militated also against the interests of contractors . "" "Where large amounts of money had been invested in such works , as in those for the supply of water , and for cemetries , the hostility of trading companies , of directors , and of shareholders has been induced , appearing to have been based on public grounds .
" The scheme wo proposed for improved and economical extramural burial endangered the emoluments of cemetery companies and the entire body of trading undertakers . " The demands on their time and energy which , for the saving of life , we wero obliged to make on boards of guardianB during the prevalence of cholera , excited in numerous instances loud complaints . We have already stated the general and favourable change which has taken place in the opinion of boards of guardians and other local authorities with reference to our proceedings on that occasion .
" The report in condemnation of the present sources and works for the Bupply of water to the metropolis , necessarily excited the hostility of existing water companies , as well as of those who were before Parliament with plans for the extension of similarly constructed works from similar soureesr " The requisition in accordance with the act , and with tl je recommendations of the Commissioners for improving the Health of Towns , that surveys should bo completed in detail before any new works wero undertaken , scrutinies into the efficiency and economy of the plans for town drainage and water supply , caused the active hostility of professional cnginetirs who wero unaccustomed to such checks , and who were now called upon to change their principles and practice of construction , and ut tho same time to reduce in particular casus thoir emoluments . "
Even had a man of Lord Palmerston's tact , or of Sir William Molesworth ' t * indolonco , conducted , tho business of tho J 3 oiml of Heulfcli , that now dopartinc > ut would have hoou " unpopular . " Conducted « a it has been l > y a man of Mr . Oluulwiok ' s flinglonoHH ol purpose , self-reliance , and careless , because conscientious , inde pendence , tho Board inevitably reacheditspreacnt position ; anoTganiaed opposition being formed in PnHinmont to tho
act renewing its functions for some few more years . But the Board is not really " unpopular : " and the organised opposition would have no chance if the House of Commons were a body of men in contact with the people , and compelled to be accurate and honest , instead of being a club , susceptible , by interest , or friendship , or indifference , to the busy correspondence and lobby buttonholding of discontented great engineers and outraged local " interests . " The people ,
unfortunately , do not know enough of the Board of Health to regard it with either love or hate . The Board is too young , its work too vast , to have produced such wide , grand , and tangible results , as to win the popular admiration . But M . P . ' s ought , nevertheless , to be accurate and to analyse the clamour . In the report we have quoted from , there is a full and explicit statement of facts . There is the evidence . There it may be seen that the Board of Health , the product of the agitation
of sanitary reformers , " has organised sanitary reform , and is changing the face of the country—this being a country , packed with big towns , with a remarkably dirty face . The Board states its philosophy and its plans : what it has proposed to do , and what it has done . The community which speaks through our journal , cannot be suspected of any tendency to centralisation : and we offer , -with emphasis , our opinion that the Board of Health is a Board to do away with
centralisation and create local self-government , in matters of sanitary police , in lieu of local self-neglect . The figures speak for themselves : 284 towns have memorialised and petitioned inform for the application of the act ; those petitions being the petitions of majorities of the ratepayers , —not got up hy the Board , but arising out of local agitation : and , in all these instances , the Board has conveyed plans , and created an organisation , for the cleansing of these towns , and for the supplying them with water .
The opponents of the Board , on the ground of its centralising influence , will observe the result of their clamour : they are forcing the Board which controls the " sanitary movement" intothe ^ ands of the Home Secretary . Is that de-centralisation ? is that guaranteeing local self-government ? But Lord Palmerston is responsible to Parliament ; that is
the theory of that Secretaryship of State . At present the Board is responsible to the public opinion which created it ; hut pass it into Doyning-street and it is released from the criticism of public opinion , and is sheltered behind a great Parliamentary noble—whose responsibility to tho Parliament , which does not watch him , or which he can manage , is a fiction .
There is this jpeculiarity about the Board of Health : it is the only department of the public service which is actually managed by men who arc not membors of the governing classes . Certainly Lord Shaftesbury is , at present , tho nominal President of the Board , but his lordship is earnest and hearty in the sanitary movement , and ho does not attempt to lead men who are his superiors in intellect , practical capacity , and practical knowledge . Tho sudden secession , some two or three years ago , of Lord Ebrington , from his comniisaionorahip , and the malignant plaintatho
, other night , ia tho House of Commons , of Lord Seymour , who , when Commissioner of Woods and Forests , was connected with the Board of Health , indicate that thero is at loasfc one portion of administration withheld from the greedy grip and lazy misappropriation of those blast ! nobles who , wearied of society , take to sociology . But while it ia an udvuntago to tho public that tho actual workers should bo tho actual mnnngors it is not to bo denied that tho Board of Health would wtill bo improved , as an
institution , by being less of a Board , —which might "be effected by its enlightened despot , Mr . Chadwick , taking a place in the House of Commons as presentable head of the department . It is very likely , indeed , that there ia a good deal of truth in the general insinuation as to the unpopular manners , and unbending self-dependence , of that gentleman , who , as the best informed of British bureaucrats , thinks that he may venture to scout parish busy bodies and scorn fussyno bles . But we also think it possible that much of
the equivocal feeling of which he is the object arises out of misapprehensions—occasioned no doubt by his own contemptuous inattention to his personal unpopularity ; and , on the other hand , we are convinced that the Board ' s existence is being endangered because its originators and maintainers are helplessly in the background—their defence being left to an unscrupulous " managing man , " like Lord Palmerston , or to an official Report , which , however luminous , will , as with all other official Reports , never get any general hearing .
The Shoe-Black Brigade. We Find Some Cur...
THE SHOE-BLACK BRIGADE . We find some curious facts and considerations in a pamphlet account of The Hogged ScTiool Shoe-black Society : Us Operation , and present Condition . ( Seeleyfl . ) If a toy of lively temperament , quick appetites , some ingenuity , and small caution , should find himself astray in London , it is really difficult to know what can become of him unless he become a thief . He is told that he must find some occupation ; but who will employ a boy without a character ? The marine-store-dealer will give him pence for picking up a stray piece of iron , a forgotten piece of
furniture , or any other little article—and this is a resource always open . There appears for such a boy almost no alternative , except to become a member of the Shoe-black Brigade ; and even for that there must be qualifications ; the boy must be a member of a ragged school , and must be recommended l > y the superintendent of a ragged school , which presupposes that he lias had some turn for study , aad has been able to procure the approbation of his superior . If he has this qualification he can enter the brigade , and then a livelihood seems , at all events , before him . He is provided with the
uniform , box , brushes , and mat , and placed at once into the third of the three divisions of the brigade . Tho first 6 d ., dailyj that he earns is his , and the remainder 5 s divided into three equal parts , one-third is paid to the "boy , one-third is retained by the society , and the rest is put by , towards his bank—a reserve for his own benefit , by which , he will provide himself with clothes and other advantages . 'While his earnings fall below 6 d . a day , or he loses any of his implements , the deficiency is made good out of his banlc . If ho earn more than a boy in the upper divisions , he is promoted to that division . The
divisions are stationed at different parts of the town , but the boys are repeatedly transferred from station to station , so that tho inequalities of emoluments belonging to particular stations may be divided pretty equally amongst them . Some boys have done very well—71 . 18 b . 4 d . belonging to a boy who has just left tho society for a situation—23 / . Us . to another who now holds an office under the society— - 9 / . by a third , who ia now apprenticed to a respectable brass-turner . This boy , for nearly two year * , walked daily eight miles , and sometimes more than ton , in coming from his homo and returning to it . At one time a dornnitory was attempted , but given
up na difficult of management . An arrangement haa been miula in tho house of tho socioty , however , for providing food which tho boys purchase . The disposition of all boys does not prove to bo Buited to tho occupation : somo aro too restless , some cannot with - stand tho toniptations aflbrded by idleness in tho intervals of business , but to many it has been a stepping stone for bettor employment . Tho total number of boys employed by tho socioty in tho three years o > i ita exlstonco is 256 , " of whom 24 have emigrated , 41 have obtained situations in this country , one haa died , 103 huvu either loft of thoir own accord or have
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 15, 1854, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_15071854/page/15/
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