Though there were several persons of both sexes who were very advanced in years, when one takes into account the difference in the numbers that were to be found in the Strand and Westminster Workhouses, yet in this latter House I did not see so many interesting old people as were to be found in the former. About ten years ago, however, there was an admission from St. Anne's, Soho, of an extremely aged woman. She claimed then to be one hundred years old. She must have been extremely good-looking in her youth, as she still retained evidences of personal beauty. Like my old friend in the Strand, she had a bright blue eye and a fair complexion; she was in possession of all her faculties, and talked and laughed by the half-hour together when I was in the humour to sit and chat with her. She knew the younger Pitt intimately, Charles James Fox, the Prince Regent, Edmund Burke, and several of the politicians of the latter part of the last century. She also told me she knew Wellington and Nelson. At last I discovered what she had been. Her constant references to Sheridan in her conversations with me induced me one day to ask her if she knew him. Drawing herself up in a sprightly sort of fashion, "I rather think I did," said she. Eventually it came out that she had been under the protection of the box-keeper of Drury Lane Theatre. On putting the question which brought out the somewhat equivocal relation in which she had lived during the latter part of the last century, she blushed up to her eyes—the only thing of the kind I ever witnessed in a lady of such advanced years, so much so that I felt sorry I had elicited the confession from her. She was a very interesting old woman, and her remarks about the appearance of the celebrities of the latter end of the last century and beginning of this, unmistakably showed that she had associated on familiar terms with many of the celebrated persons who lived and moved and produced a sensation nearly a hundred years ago. She used to sing some very good songs; they were chiefly Scotch, and when singing them she would work herself up into a great state of excitement. She was very fond of talking to me, and I suppose this arose from the circumstance of my taking interest in her conversation. She was a very well-behaved old woman, and therefore a great favourite with the inmates and nurses, who were highly amused whenever they could get her to sing one of her Scotch songs. At the latter end of the last century and the beginning of the present, she had accompanied her male friend through Portugal and Spain prior to the war; at the same time she knew Lord Nelson and Wellington before their names had become famous. When she had reached 104, she rather suddenly lost her vivacity, became childish, and insensibly passed from time into eternity.

We had, during the portion of the time I was at the Westminster Union, quite a little community of aged and, so far as I could ascertain, religious women, at any rate they struck me as being such, and I kept them together until the harmony of their daily life was rudely interfered with by the master and matron, Mr. John Bliss and Miss Heatley, neither of whom had any sympathy with, or kindly feeling for, decently conducted pauper women. Indeed they rendered the lives of these people so wretched by harsh interference, as to compel me to distribute them among other wards; some of them I even sent away to the sick asylum hospitals, so as to get them out of their way. It was a wonder to me that Miss Heatley, after all that was proved against her on the official inquiry, should ever have been allowed to continue matron of the Workhouse; but though spared by man's power, she was destined to perish by one of the most fearful diseases that can afflict any woman, being destined to die of cancer of a certain internal organ, and I have been told her sufferings were of the acutest possible character. It is very remarkable that, having had very large opportunities of witnessing the deaths of my fellow-creatures, I have constantly observed that some untimely fate has overtaken those who, exercising power in a workhouse, have exhibited a cruel use of that power; and of one thing I am absolutely certain from personal observation, repeated over and over again, that, "Blessed is he who considereth the poor and needy, the Lord shall deliver him in the time of trouble." It has often been asserted that the inmates of a workhouse are generally worthless people, but I demur to that conclusion entirely. Of this I am certain, that many a person who has died in the infirmary of the sick ward of a workhouse has gone as straight to Abraham's bosom as has ever passed from a bishop's palace, or the death-chamber of a king or queen, or however highly placed. During the thirty years that I was engaged in waiting on the sick poor, I never lost sight of the fact that they were my fellow-creatures who were accidentally placed in a humbler social position than myself. Though, in accordance with the custom adopted in the institution, they were stigmatized as paupers, I never allowed myself to make them feel I thought them such. After the departure of Mr. John Bliss and the disappearance (through illness) of Miss Heatley, the Guardians appointed as master and matron, Mr. and Mrs. Minter. I found them to be exceedingly respectable people, kind to the old and afflicted, and fair and kind to the general population of an urban workhouse. The sick poor were quietly attended to, whilst loud-mouthed swearing and blasphemy were banished from the place. Unfortunately, however, I began to break in health. Mounting up staircases day after day, which had gone on for nearly forty years, told upon me, aggravated as it was by repeated attacks of bronchitis. Then a heart affection, followed by its usual concomitants, proved too much for me, and I was compelled to resign the work I had done for so many years. What made the blow the greater to me was this, that in all other respects my professional life was a happy one. I had nothing to ask for from the Board of Guardians, as all my legitimate requirements were at once courteously met and complied with; a different atmosphere pervaded the establishment, and therefore it was a pleasure to me to meet my fellow-officers and to work with them. Looking back upon the change which had taken place from the day I first entered upon my duties in January, 1856, in the Old Strand Workhouse, till I finally left the Westminster Union in 1886, a period of thirty years, the change that occurred was enormous. Then there was hardly a paid nurse in any workhouse in London, the duties being performed by more or less infirm, drunken, and generally profligate inmates of the House. It was a miracle to find an honest one among them; they were a chance medley of Sairey Gamps and Betsy Prigs, who were selected at the will of master and matron, and who obeyed the orders of the medical officer just as much as, and no more than, their fancy led them. The scenes of untold misery which might have been witnessed by the Guardians of the Poor will never be fully exposed until the grave record of all things is opened to universal gaze. Fortunately, a change has come over the spirit of these things: in the present day the sick poor are housed in buildings which were never dreamed of twenty years ago; pauper nursing is now entirely a thing of the past; Lazarus now meets with careful, Christian consideration, and if it be possible to restore him to health, an opportunity is afforded him of resuming a position in society, useful, though it maybe humble. My readers will therefore fully understand with what great regret I took my pen and wrote the resignation of my office, especially when I recall to mind my having been twice suspended from my duties for the efforts I had made in bringing about the changes which I have above referred to, and that at last, when I was no longer able to do my work, I was constrained to sever my connection with the Board who had come to look upon me as one solely actuated by a sense of duty.

The day after the receipt of my resignation, I received the following—

"Westminster Union,
"Poland Street,
"September 27, 1886.

"Dear Sir,—I am directed to forward you the annexed copy of a Resolution adopted by the Guardians at their meeting held on Friday last, when your resignation of the offices of Workhouse Medical Officer and Public Vaccinator of the Union was accepted.

"I am, dear Sir, yours faithfully,
"Fred J. Lampard,
"Assistant Clerk of the Guardians.

"J. Rogers, Esq., M.D.,
"Montagu Place, Russell Square."

(Copy Resolution.)

"That this Board has received with much regret the letter just read from Dr. Joseph Rogers, resigning the office of Workhouse Medical Officer and Public Vaccinator for the Union, on account of his continued ill-health, and while now accepting such resignation, the Guardians desire to convey to him their deep sympathy that he should thus be compelled to sever his connection with the Board after many years of faithful service, and to record their high sense of the zealous and efficient manner in which he has discharged the duties of his office, and for the warm interest he has at all times taken in questions affecting the proper treatment of the sick and infirm poor."

After the resolution had been submitted to the vote and adopted unanimously, Mr. Samuel Bonsor rose in his seat and gave notice that that day month superannuation allowance should be accorded to Dr. Joseph Rogers. Coming from this gentleman it was indeed an honourable recognition of lengthened public services. Mr. Bonsor had been in various offices of the parish of St. Anne's, Soho, since the introduction of the new Poor Law Bill in 1834. He had filled all the usual parochial offices, even the highest, up to the time when I first made his acquaintance, which was in the autumn of 1846, on the occasion when I brought before the Vestry of St. Anne's, Soho, the terrible condition of the burial-ground of that parish. After hearing my indictment he at once concurred in the appointment of a committee from the Vestry, of the inhabitants, to take the condition of the ground into consideration, and to devise such remedies as might appear desirable. Mr. Bonsor attended several of our meetings, and entirely agreed as to the dreadful state into which the graveyard had fallen, owing to the frequent funerals and the enormous overcrowding. It was that Vestry meeting that first made me a sanitary reformer, and caused me to advocate extra-mural interment as well as many other social reforms, in all of which I had the hearty support of Mr. Bonsor. I question whether a finer representative of a middle-class tradesman could be found in this kingdom; for more than half a century he has devoted more than ordinary ability to the interests of his fellow-parishioners. I never upon one single occasion heard, or was it ever hinted by any enemy (if he ever made one, which I doubt), that his actions were ever influenced by a single act of self-seeking; indeed, he has passed through an unusually prolonged life amidst the respect and regard of all who have come in contact with him. A very short time ago he brought me a circular letter, issued by the Poor Law Commissioners, proposing the Board of Guardians in London should issue a similar letter to their respective bodies, so as to more effectually deal with casuals. Laying it down before me, he said, "This is a return to what they did between forty and fifty years ago, for I was a member of the special Board which was appointed under this letter; but," said he, "I suppose they have forgotten all about it." And so they had, no doubt.

Before bringing my remarks to a close, I should like to briefly describe the various changes that have taken place since the Poor Law Commission was appointed in 1832. One of the original Commissioners was the Right Hon. C. P. Villiers, M.P. for Wolverhampton, who has told me in the course of various conversations I have had with him, that although a variety of subjects was referred to them in connection with the administration of the Poor Laws, yet that the question of sickness, as a factor in the production of pauperism was not referred to them, and if it had not been for the pertinacity of Dr. G. Wallis and some others, that this important subject would have been passed over altogether. It need not, therefore, be a matter of surprise that there has been a continual protest going on, on the part of those who have accepted Poor Law medical appointments against the way in which they have been treated by the Board of Guardians, and a reference to the Poor Law Commissioners resulting in the various changes that have taken place in the composition of the central authority up to the Local Government Board of the present day. Until 1864 the central authority was an extremely weak body, as continuous efforts were made throughout the country by Boards of Guardians and others to wipe the Poor Law Board out of existence altogether, and had it not have happened that the investigations and deliberations of the Select Committee on Poor Relief, presided over by the Right Hon. C. P. Villiers, had reported in favour of the maintenance of the Poor Law Board—not Local Government Board—such a disastrous thing would have happened. Let it here be fully understood that although I have taken a most determined antagonism to many of the acts of the Board, whether as Commissioners or as the Poor Law Board, yet that antagonism has been due to the fact that the administration has often been seriously faulty in detail. The office of a Poor Law Inspector is one which needs much judgment and tact. I trust this will be borne in mind by those who will draft the contemplated County Government Board. There is one point on which, feeling most strongly the existing mockery of so-called Poor Law inquiries, I do trust a change will be insisted upon, and that is, that those deputed to make the inquiry shall possess at least a modicum of legal intelligence. Finally, I have to express the hope that no Inspector, whether metropolitan or otherwise, will be vested with the sole power of deciding what shall be the evidence that shall be taken when the inquiry shall close, nor that he shall be the sole judge of the value of such evidence.

UNWIN BROTHERS, THE GRESHAM PRESS, CHILWORTH AND LONDON.