The law giving to paupers the preference in all cases where any public
work was to be done, operated badly. Good workmen might starve for
want of work: by declaring themselves paupers they obtained
employment. Thus, virtually, a bounty was offered to pauperism. His
lordship remarks, -
"There have been sad defects, no doubt, and some harshness, under the
new system; but the general result has been excellent; and, in many
instances, the system has been reduced to practice in a truly
patriarchal spirit. The great difficulty and the great failure are
found in the right and safe occupation of children who are trained in
these workhouses, of which so much has been said."
In the second place, the treatment of the insane has received a
thorough investigation. This began, in 1828, by a committee of
inquiry, moved for by Mr. Gordon.
An almost incredible amount of suffering and horrible barbarity was
thus brought to light. For the most part it appeared that the
treatment of the insane had been conducted on the old, absurd idea
which cuts them off from humanity, and reduces them below the level of
the brutes. The regimen in private madhouses was such that Lord
Shaftesbury remarked of them, in a speech on the subject, "I have said
before, and now say again, that should it please God to visit me with
such an affliction, I would greatly prefer the treatment of paupers,
in an establishment like that of the Surrey Asylum, to the treatment
of the rich in almost any one of these receptacles."
Instances are recorded of individuals who were exhumed from cells
where they had existed without clothing or cleansing, as was
ascertained, _for years after they had entirely recovered the
exercise of sound reason_. Lord Shaftesbury procured the passage of
bills securing the thorough supervision of these institutions by
competent visiting committees, and the seasonable dismissal of all who
were pronounced cured; and the adoption for the pauper insane of a
judicious course of remedial treatment.
The third step was the passage of the ten hour factory bill. This took
nearly eighteen years of labor and unceasing activity in Parliament
and in the provinces. Its operation affects full half a million of
actual workers, and, if the families be included, nearly two millions
of persons, young and old. Two thirds as many as the southern slaves.
It is needless to enlarge on the horrible disclosures in reference to
the factory operatives, made during this investigation. England never
shuddered with a deeper thrill at the unveiling of American slavery
than did all America at this unveiling of the white-labor slavery of
England. In reading the speeches of Lord Shaftesbury, one sees, that,
in presenting this subject, he had to encounter the same opposition
and obloquy which now beset those in America who seek the abolition of
slavery.
