of his votes is limited according to the amount of his property or rating in the parish; and he cannot give more votes in one ward than his property or rate in that ward entitles him to. But by notice before the nomination day he may, if he have property, or be rated in more than one ward, determine for which ward he will vote, and what proportion of his votes he will give to any one wardhaving regard to the property situated therein. This notice must be annual. Minors cannot vote. Unmarried females being owners or ratepayers may vote. A voter, whether owner or ratepayer, has one vote, 'if the property in respect of which he is entitled to vote be rated upon a rateable value of less than £50.' An additional vote is conferred by every additional £50, or less, up to £250, and by a rateable value above £250, six votes. An owner who is occupier may vote in both capacities subject to his sending in his claim as owner (see above), and being duly qualified as a ratepayer. of Guar The qualification of a candidate for the election of Guardians the being rated to the poor rate in respect of property in the parish da or in the union of an annual rateable value of £40, or under, as may be fixed by the Local Government Board. The precise qualification varies in different parts of the Metropolis (see local lists).* A person qualified for election in a parish is eligible for election in any ward in the parish. It is only necessary that a candidate should have been assessed. He need not have paid rates. Nor need he be resident, or an occupier. It is well to emphasise these points. A would-be candidate cannot stand unless he is assessed. The preliminary, therefore, which he has to settle, is not the payment of rates (for the payment of the rate is not essential), but when, how soon, he can be assessed or rated. And he cannot be considered rated, unless his name be on the rate-books prior to the date of the making of the rate-i.e., when it is allowed by the justices. 'If the candidate's name is actually in the rate, it will in general be safest to treat him as being duly qualified.' + Any owner, or proxy for an owner, or any ratepayer, qualified to vote, may nominate a candidate for the parish in which the property of the former is situated or his rate paid. If the parish is divided into wards, the nominator must be qualified to vote for the ward for which he nominates a candidate. A person nominated for two or more wards must, before the election, choose that for which he will stand, or he will be placed as candidate for the ward for which he was first nominated. According to a decision of the Local Government Board, married women are not eligible for election. ‡ *See Schedules appended to the General Order (Consolidated), 14th February, 1877. Glen, p. 33. Dates at which nomi to be sent in, etc. On or before the 15th March the clerk to the Board of Guardians nations have has to publish a notice stating the number and qualification of the Guardians to be elected, and giving information in regard to the nomination, the mode of voting, and the scrutiny of votes. Nominations have to be delivered to him after the 14th, but on or before the 26th of March. If when the nominations have been received, the number of the properly qualified nominees exceed the number of seats, he has to arrange for delivering the voting papers at the addresses of the ratepayers, owners, or proxies. These contain a list of the nominees, and instructions for marking the votes. On the 7th April, the voting papers are issued, and on the 8th they are collected. On the 9th, and, if necessary, on the following days, they are examined, and a list of the successful candidates is subsequently published.* It is greatly hoped that readers of this short statement will take an active interest in the election of Guardians wherever they may have votes, and, if they are almoners, wherever their work may lie. A misguided or lavish bestowal of Poor Law relief produces evil results on character and on family life, which the most widely diffused state education cannot cope with. The Board of Guardians are in the most practical, forcible manner-viz. by giving or withholding relief-either the moral instructors or the well-intentioned enemies of that large section of the poor which is on the verge of pauperism. In the Metropolis persons may also become Guardians on the and ex-officio nomination of the Local Government Board. They must be either justices of the peace of any county or place, resident in the Union, or ratepayers, whether resident or not, assessed to the poor rate on an annual rateable value of not less than £40.† The nominated Guardians must not, together with the ex-officio Guardians, exceed one-third of the number of the elected Guardians. Nominated Guardians. Justices of the peace residing in any parish, and acting for the county, riding, or division in which it is situated, are ex-officio guardians. XIV. THE DUTIES OF GUARDIANS IN REGARD TO INDOOR AND OUTDOOR RELIEF. Under the management of the Guardians are Workhouses and Schools (Indoor Relief); Infirmaries and Dispensaries (Medical Relief); Casual wards and casual relief; and outdoor relief. In the Metropolis several Unions share District Schools and other establishments. What these are will be seen in the local lists. * If any of these days be a Sunday, Good Friday, or a Bank Holiday, or any day appointed for public fast or thanksgiving, the act has to be performed on the day next following, unless it be one of the days excluded as aforesaid, in which case the act shall be performed on the day following such excluded day'; and each subsequent proceeding has to be postponed correspondingly. 31 & 32 Vict., c. 122, s. 9. The cases cases. The workhouse is the corner-stone of the English Poor Law Workhouse system an institution part penal, part alleviative. which charity may fitly leave to the workhouse are incurable cases of vice and intemperance; chronic cases, i.e., cases of intermittent need, in which no provision is or can be made for future contingencies; or cases of continuous need, in which, owing to the applicant's fault, no provision has been made for old age, and in which without an allowance he will lack the means of subsistence; cases in which relatives are able to assist adequately, and avoid doing so ; able-bodied persons out of work and with no definite prospect of work. This list does not pretend to be exhaustive; and it is charity's first duty to take each case on its merits. An off-hand classification of charitable applications as falling under any of the above categories, is greatly to be deprecated. But we have here to consider what the distinctions are which the Guardians themselves have to draw between indoor and outdoor relief, and what is the workhouse. A pauper is defined as any person maintained wholly or in part A pauj er. by or chargeable to any parish, borough, or city.'* But any person who receives Poor Law medical relief for himself or any of his family is not a pauper, in the sense that he does not lose his vote for Parliamentary and County Council elections. He has, however, no vote for the election of Guardians. Also, he may receive relief by way of payment of school fees without loss of the Parliamentary franchise. Also, by 4 & 5 Will. IV., c. 76, s. 6 (1834), relief given to the parent of a blind or deaf and dumb child does not make the parent a pauper; and there are other exceptions (see p. cxxv.). In the Returns published by the Local Government Board, the 'indoor paupers' include the paupers in all the establishments under the control of the Guardians, and also in some establishments not under their management, such as certified schools, schools for deaf, blind, and idiots. ‡ Children boarded-out are entered as in receipt of outdoor relief. The classes of paupers, out and indoor, are able-bodied, adult, male and female, and their children under 16; similar classes of those not able-bodied, and their children, or children without parents; vagrants and insane. For the guidance of Guardians in the administration of outdoor relief there are three Orders. Firstly, the General Prohibitory Order (Dec. 21, 1844). This applies to the larger number of Unions, but not to Unions in the Metropolis, or to Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle-on-Tyne, and several other large towns. It indicates the high-water mark of the actual prohibition of outdoor relief at the present time. Next, there is the Outdoor Labour Test Order (Oct. 31, 1842). This applies to many of the Unions under *See Glen, p. 192. + Medical Relief Disqualification Removal Act 1885 (48 & 49 Vict., c. 46). See Local Government Report 1887-8, pp. 187, 188. The Prohibitory Order: Residents. the Prohibitory Order, and may be considered as an appendix to it. Thirdly, there is the Outdoor Relief Regulation Order (Dec. 14, 1852), which applies to the Metropolis and the larger towns. Several of the more advanced metropolitan Boards of Guardians are now in practice adopting an administration of outdoor relief in accordance with the Prohibitory Order. They are making the grant of out-relief the exception instead of the rule. It is desirable, therefore, to place an outline of both Orders before the reader. The Prohibitory Order falls into two main sections: relief to cases resident in the Union; relief in non-resident cases. Subject to certain exceptions mentioned below, in the former cases relief, except in the workhouse, is prohibited to any ablebodied person, male or female, or to such members of his or her family 'as may reside with him or her, and may not be in employment,' or to the wife of such able-bodied person, if she be resident with him. Whether a person is or is not able-bodied is a question of fact depending upon the physical strength and condition of the applicant for relief. Thus, children of 14 or 15, able to maintain themselves, may be considered able-bodied, and a man over 60 is not necessarily 'not able-bodied.' * The exceptions then follow : Relief out of the workhouse is not prohibited to an able-bodied person, where such person (1) Shall require relief on account of sudden or urgent necessity; (2) Shall require relief on account of any sickness, accident, or bodily or mental infirmity affecting such person, or any of his or her family; (3) Shall require relief for the purpose of defraying the expenses, either wholly or in part, of the burial of his or her family ; (4) Shall require relief, being a widow in the first six months of widowhood; (5) Shall require relief, being a widow, who has a legitimate child or children dependent on her, is incapable of earning his, her, or their livelihood, and has no illegitimate children born after the commencement of her widowhood; (6) Shall be confined in any gaol or place of safe custody (subject to Article 4, quoted below); (7) Shall be the wife or child of any able-bodied man who shall be in the service of Her Majesty, or a soldier, sailor, or marine. (8) Where any able-bodied person, not being a soldier, sailor, or marine, shall not reside within the Union, but his wife, child, or children shall reside within the same, the Board of Guardians *See Glen, pp. 422, 444 (ed. 1883). of the Union, according to their discretion, may (subject to the regulation contained in Article 4) afford relief in the workhouse to such wife, child, or children, or may allow outdoor relief for any such child or children being within the age of nurture [i.e., seven years old], and resident with the mother within the Union.' The Article 4 of the Order referred to above in exceptions (6) and (8) is as follows: 'Where a husband of any woman is beyond the seas [i.e., out of Great Britain], or in custody of the law, or in confinement in a licensed house or asylum as a lunatic or idiot, all relief which the Guardians shall give to the wife, or her child or children, shall be given to such woman in the same manner, and subject to the same conditions, as if she were a widow.' The conclusions to be drawn from the exceptions (6) and (8) and the Article 4, appear to be, that 'able-bodied women deserted by their husbands should only receive relief in the workhouse'; but if such a woman requires relief for her children, any child under the age of nurture and residing with the mother may receive outdoor relief, but the children above that age must be taken into the workhouse.' If, however, the husband has gone beyond the seas, is in gaol, or confined as a lunatic, she is entitled to relief as if she were a widow. To non-residents the Order prohibits outdoor relief, except in the workhouse, unless (1) where such person, being casually within such parish, shall become destitute. This covers relief to vagrants; as to the provision for whom see p. xlii. Or (2), where such person shall require relief on account of any sickness, accident, or bodily or mental infirmity affecting such person or any of his or her family. Then follow other exceptions to the prohibition, two of which may be noted: an exception by which outdoor relief may be given to a widow not resident in the Union for the first six months of widowhood; and an exception by which such relief may be given to a widow who has a legitimate child or children dependent on her (see above (5)), and who at the time of her husband's death was resident with him in some other place than the parish of her legal settlement, and not situated in the Union in which such parish may be comprised. The object of this clause appears to be to avoid the disturbance of those connections and mode of life at a distance from the Union to which the family may have become accustomed, and which existed at the time of the husband's death.' The Outdoor Test Regulation Order, as has been said, supplements the Prohibitory Order. It requires the Guardians, if they depart from the instructions in regard to able-bodied paupers, and |