the notion frequently entertained to the contrary, both by medical men and by a large portion of the educated public. I am far from participating in the sentiment of Dr. Ure, and some others, that factory labour is protective from scrofulous diseases, and conducive to good health. On the contrary, I believe that it is most prejudicial to a sound condition of the body; but then such also, I ́am satisfied, is the case with a vast proportion of the occupations and habits. of individuals in all classes; and I do not think, after an examination of the above data, that manufacturing industry exerts a disproportionate influence in undermining the general health, because nothing is more satisfactorily determined than that it is in this way that consumption, and other scrofulous affections, are developed in habits of body predisposed to them, rather than by causes leading to irritations in the chest ; which latter notion has plainly given rise to the speculations concerning the origination of consumption in factory occupation. The medical and other witnesses, before the recent Factory Committee of the House of Commons, dwelt upon the prevalence of scrofula in general in these districts, more than of consumption in particular. I feel very little doubt, however, that, if means existed for applying any test so generally as the present one to consumption, the conclusion would be equally at variance with the anticipation. For, as a rule, it will be admitted that where the scrofulous taint prevails extensively, so do the deaths from its particular manifestation, consumption. On the Moral and Industrial Workhouse School about to be erected by the Guardians of the Poor of the Manchester Union. By NER GARDINER, Esq. [Read before the Statistical Section of the British Association at Manchester, 27th June, 1842.] Ar the request of your chairman, who is an ex-officio member of the Board of Guardians of the Manchester Union, I have forwarded to your sectional room the perspective view of the elevation of the workhouse industrial and training school, intended to be erected by the Board at Swinton. The other parts of the design are in the hands of the Poor Law Commissioners for consideration and approval, the Council of Education having already made suggestions thereon. The building is calculated to hold 1,500 children, independently of the hospital. The site on which it is to be erected is in every way most desirable, and the estate comprises upwards of 23 acres of land, statute measure. Although Manchester has been formed into an Union under the Poor Law Amendment Act only 12 months last March, yet this town has made the greatest progress hitherto of any Union in entering, on a large scale, upon the important warfare with pauperism at its source, by removing the infant and youthful mind from immoral and debasing influences, and so far instructing it as to enable it to procure the means of future support. To those who have ever been engaged in administering the poor's fund, it need not be told, that to perpetuate and increase pauperism in the most rapid way possible it requires only that the adult and aged paupers should have communication with the young. To account for this, it may be reasoned that by far the greater portion of those who become residents of a workhouse arrive there from some of the following causes,-idleness, intemperance, misconduct, or a low standard of intellect. With such it seems a pleasure to mislead and corrupt the ingenuous. Immediately on the formation of the Manchester Union, the guardians of the poor entered on an investigation of the management of the workhouse, when the deficiencies in the accommodations for the children were so apparent, that it was determined to take advantage of the greater facilities afforded by the Poor Law Amendment Act for making provision for them at a distance from the Union workhouse. The Prestwich workhouse was made available, temporarily, for the girls, of whom there are about 160 under the care of a schoolmistress and of those having the superintendence of the establishment. The Blackley workhouse, capable of holding about 150, was fitted up for the boys, and a schoolmaster was procured from the Normal School at Glasgow, who has been engaged in his duties for nearly 12 months. It must, of course, be presumed that in the selection for removal to the schools, children of bad or doubtful character were rejected; in those who have been taken from the contaminating influence there is a manifestly great improvement in all respects, whilst with those who have been left in the polluting atmosphere of the workhouse the moral depravity seems to have increased in an accumulating ratio in proportion to the operation of a maximum amount of vice upon the minimum of doubtful virtue. So much has this been the case, and so much has this state of things tried the principle, that the guardians have had more trouble and annoyance with the few concentrated bad than they ever had with the whole mixed number. Among the causes of some recent outrages committed by the younger inmates of the workhouse, one is the severe pressure on the workhouse in consequence of distress, and a number of girls and youths of indifferent character, ranging from 15 to 20 years of age, having been driven into it. Another is, that the guardians have introduced employments which have not been acceptable to this class of paupers; but the most material one has been the influence which the adult and more aged poor have had and ever use amongst this class of residents in a workhouse, and which in the instances brought forward have been traced to this source. Now, if one of the results of rearing this workhouse school should be the reducing these elements of confusion into a state of quietude and order (without which no establishment, or business, can be well conducted), even then sufficient will have been obtained to compensate for all the expense and trouble that may be occasioned by its erection. But there are other considerations to be weighed: numbers of infants and children come into the care of the guardians of the poor as their natural protectors, such as those deserted by their parents, the fatherless, and the orphan. It should be inquired, what are the duties of parents? Not to sustain and bring up only, but to teach. To teach what? Not the elementary knowledge of reading and writing alone, but the way how to apply them, namely, by instruction in sound moral and religious views. Even here the task is not ended; the good parent will add to these the knowledge of some occupation by which his child shall become an useful and beneficial member of the society of which eventually he may form a part. These, then, are the duties of the guardian of the poor also, who stands relatively as respects the orphan and others in the condition of a responsible parent, answerable to society and to his own conscience for the treatment which they may receive at his hands. For such reasons, the guardians of the poor of the Manchester Union are about to erect the moral and industrial school, of which the perspective view is submitted to the Statistical section of the members of the British Association. On the increasing Operation of Loan Funds in Ireland. By [Read before the Statistical Section of the British Association at Manchester, 24th June, 1842.] LAST year, when the British Association at Plymouth was about to adjourn, I asked the President of the Statistical Section, Colonel Sykes, what Irish subject he would recommend me to inquire into as likely to be useful as well as interesting to the members of the Association at Manchester; and his reply must plead my excuse for again trespassing on the Section with matter that may not be altogether novel to many of its members (See Journal, vol. iv., p. 209.) A recommendation had been made that a small grant should be given to a committee of three Irish members, with a view to extend the inquiries respecting Loan Funds; but the Council of the Association did not make the grant, and being unable to incur the expense a second year, however willing I might have been to undertake the labour, the information which I have now to adduce, does not extend to all the subjects of my former inquiries; and indeed, I am indebted to the Secretary of the Loan Fund Board, Chas. A. J. Piesse, Esq., for the greater part of the information comprised in the following Tables. No. 1, gives a view of the number of Loan Funds in each county in Ireland, with a summary of the number in each province. No. 2, gives the number of Loan Funds and Monts de Piété, added together, with the amount of their capital, their number of loans, and the circulation of money for the year 1841. No. 3, shows a comparative view of the years 1840 and 1841, and the increased operations during the latter. A few observations may be useful on each of these Tables. The value of the Loan Fund system in Ireland can only be estimated by those who are resident within the sphere of its operation, and take a part in its management; many, indeed, look on, while they can only see the evils which in some cases are unavoidable, while they are either wilfully or carelessly ignorant of the great benefit it confers upon every industrious person who is compelled to resort to the money-lender for occasional aid in times of difficulty or want. The gradual increase of confidence in these institutions is remarkable, and appears by the extent of capital placed at the disposal of the directors or managers; amounting to nearly 400,000l. And while we must at once see the good conferred upon the depositors of this large sum by affording them a safe custody for their savings, and a high interest of 5 or 6 per cent., yet it will be evident that the boon conferred upon the industrious labouring classes is infinitely greater, when we recollect that this capital is turned about four times every twelve months, and that above one million and a half has thus been circulated in poor unhappy Ireland in the year 1841. Add to this fact, that considerably more than 400,000 families are actively and laboriously occupied from week to week in earning the instalments which must be paid with punctuality, or else the borrower will, within three weeks be disqualified from again receiving a loan, and he and his sureties become subject to immediate legal proceedings and summary conviction. Among the benefits to be enumerated may be classed the profits arising from the system, which, in 1841, amounted, after payment of interest to depositors, and all expenses of management, to 16,053l. 7s. 10d. These profits must, in conformity with the Acts of Parliament, be either expended in local charities, or reserved as a capital, which is bonâ fide the property of the poor, though in the hands of trustees for their benefit. Of this sum, above one-half, namely, 8,884/. 16s. 7d, was actually expended in charity within the year. And here I may advert to a plan adopted this year, for the third time, by one of those institutions of which I am honorary secretary: 501. has been granted to reduce the price of oatmeal to the poor, so that instead of paying 2s. 10d. or 3s. for a score of oatmeal (20 lbs. weight), they receive a ticket from a director, and they procure that quantity for 2s., which is about one-third less than market price. This has the effect not only of relieving them so far, but of keeping the prices of provisions from rising higher, while there can be no objection on the ground of giving gratuitous relief, as they pay for the meal with their own earnings, though at a reduced price. I have written to suggest to the Loan Fund directors throughout Ireland, that it would be a most legitimate way of aiding the poor during the present high price of provisions. Another class who derive benefit from Loan Funds is their clerks, who not unfrequently are selected from persons very insufficiently paid in Ireland, I mean the village schoolmasters. Six hundred and fifty-three paid clerks are employed, receiving on an average 177.7s. 4d.; this remuneration would be wholly inadequate to carry on such a machinery, were it not that very efficient gratuitous aid is afforded by the resident gentry and clergy of various denominations. Above four millions of money has been lent within the last four years; while nearly 23,000l. have been dispensed through various charitable institutions, thus restoring to the same class from whence the profits have been derived a very large portion of the surplus. The number of Loans in 1841 have exceeded those in 1840, by nearly 300,000., while 1,3361. more have been expended in charities. The proportionate increase of nett profits is not as large for this reason; all bad debts of the former years were in 1841 deducted from nett profits, so that though there has been a nett profit exceeding that of 1840, it is less than it would have been, had each year borne its own legitimate portion of losses. I am unable to give any particulars of 140 Loan Funds, which are in connexion with the London Directors of the Irish Reproductive Fund. These have not registered their rules, and therefore it is not possible at present to ascertain their operations under any head. VOL, V.-PART III. 2 G |