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slaughtering , game ? How many of their . Peeresses kept pet poodles , dandled into ^ p lethoric agony ? How many of these humane Peers " bred" specimens for the Bakerstreet show next winter ? Such 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 are 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 cat ) were an intention !) tor draught are systematically ill-used . Thus , on . the same principles as are now being insisted on , we should get horses as well as dogs m our pork pies . Indeed , on the same principle—Decause a few are ill-used—would not wives be prohibited hy venerable Peers , seeing how many wives are daily beaten by the " stronger sex ?"
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THE BOARD OF HEALTH . TrtE following passage in that luminous " Heport " which Lord Palnierston laughingly assured the careless House of Commons he did not tliink it necessary to read— -Lord Palmerston 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 have 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 Xocal 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 largo amounts of money had been invested in such works , as in those for the supply of water , and for cemetries , tlie hostility of trading companies , of directors , and of shareholders has been induced , appearing to have been based on public grounds .
" The scheme we proposed for improved and economical extramural burial endangered the emoluments of cemetery companies aud the entire body of trading undertakers . " The demands on their time and energy which , for the saving of life , we were obliged to make on boards of guardians during the prevalence of cholera , excited in numerous instances loud complaints . Wo have already stated the g eneral and favourable change which has taken plnco 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 supply of water to the metropolis , necessarily excited tbo hostility of existing water companies , us well as of those who were before Parliamont with plans for the extension of similarly constructed works from similar sources . " The requisition in accordance with the act , and with the recommendations of the Commissioners for improving tho Health of Towns , that surveys Bhould bo comploted in detail boforo any now works wore undertaken , scrutinies into tho efficiency and economy of , the plans for town drainage and water supply , caused tho activo hostility of professional engineers -who were unaccustomed to such checks , and who wore now called upon to change their principlos and practice of construction , and at tho same time to reduce in particular cases their emolumonte . "
Even laid a man of Lord Pnlmoraton ' s tact , or of ( Sir Willinm Molesworth ' ti indolonco , conducted tho business of tho Boiml of Health , that now dopartinont would have boon " unpopular . " Conducted na ifc has beon by n man of Mr . Ohudwick ' a singleness of purpose , self-reliance , and enreloss , because conscientious , indepondonco , tho Board inevitably reached itspresent position ; an organisod opposition being formod in Parliament to tbo
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 bate . 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 it ' s plans : what it has proposed to dp , 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 Boara 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 in form , for the application of the act ; those petitions being the petitions of majorities of the ratepayers , —not got up by the Board , but arising out of local agitation : and , in all these instances , the Board has conveyed plans , and createoVan organisation , for the cleansing of these towns , aud 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' ' into the hands of the Home Secretary . Is that de-centralisation ? . is that guaranteeing local self-government P 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 ; "but pass it into Downing-street and it is released from the criticism of public opinion , and is sheltered behind a great Parliamentary noble—whose responsibility to the Parliament , which does not watch him , or which he can manage , is a fiction .
• There is this peculiarity about the Board of Health : it is tho only department of the public service which is actually managed by men who arc not members 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 aro his superiors in intellect , practical capacity , and practical knowledge . Tho sudden secession , some two or three years ago , of Lord Ebrington , from hia comnussionership , aud tho malignant plaints , tho
other night , in tho Ho \ ise of Commons , of Lord Seymour , who , when Commissioner of Woods and forests , was connected with the Board of Houlfch , indicate that there is at least one portion of administration withheld from tho preedy grip and lazy misappropriation of fchoso blast 1 nobles who , wearied of society , tako to sociology . But whilo it is an advantage to tho public that the actual workers should bo tho actual managers it is uot to bo denied that tho Board of Health would still be improved , as an
institution , by being less of a Board , —which might be effected by . its enlightened despoi , Mr . Chad wick , taking a place-in the House of Commons as presentable head of the department . It is very likely , indeed , that there is 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 busybodies and scorn , fussynobles . 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 HepoTt , which , however luminous , will , as with all other official Reports , never get any general hearing .
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THE SHOE-BLACK BRIGADE . We find some curious facts and considerations in a pamphlet account of The Ragged School Shoe-black Society : its Operation and present Condition * . ( Seeleys . ) If a boy of lively temperament , quick appetites , some ingenuity , and small caution , should find himself astray in Itondon , it is really difficult to ' know what can become of him unless he become a thief . He is told that lie 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 , op 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 toe qualifications ; the boy must be a member of a ragged school , and must be recommended by the superintendent of a , ragged school , which presupposes that he lias had some turn for study , and has been able to procure the approbation of his superior . If he has this qualification he can eater 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 . The first 6 d ., daily , that he earns is his , and the remainder is divided into three equal parts , one-third is paid to the boy , one-third ia 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 bank . If he earn more than a boy in the upper divisions , he is promoted to that division . Tho
divisions are stationed at different parts of the town , but the boys are repeatedly transferred from station to station , so that the inequalities of emoluments belonging to particular stations may be divided pretty equally amongst them . Some boys have done very well—71 . 18 s . 4 d . belonging to a boy who has just left the society for a situation—28 ^ . 1 is . to another who now holds an office under the society—9 l . \> y a third , who ia now apprenticed to a respectable bmsa-turnor . This boy , for nearly two year * , walked daily eight miles , and sometimes more than ton , in coming from his home and returning to it .
At o * io time a dormitory was attempted , but given up as difficult of management . An arrangement has beon made in tho house of tho society , howover , for providing food which tho boys purchase . Tho disposition of all boys does not prove to bo suited to the occupation : some aro too rostlcsa , some cannot withstand tho temptations afforded by idleness in tho iatorvula of business , but to many it lias been a stepping atone for better employment . Tho total number of boys employed by tho society in tho threo years oi ite oxiatonco is 260 , " of whom 24 havo emigrated , 41 hnvo obtained situations in this country , one baa died , 153 have cither loft of their ovrn accord or havo
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Jui , y 15 , 1854 . ] THE LEADER . && 3
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 15, 1854, page 663, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2047/page/15/
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