3. The windows of every sleeping-room in this house are to be kept open to their full width from 9 to 11 o'clock every morning, and from 2 to 4 o'clock ever afternoon (weather permitting), unless the sickness of any inmate of such room should require the window thereof to be closed; and during the time such windows are opened the bedclothes of every bed in the room shall be turned down and freely exposed to the air.

4. The floors of every room in this house shall be well swept every morning before the hour of 10, and shall be well washed during the morning of every Friday.

5. This house shall be thoroughly cleansed, and the walls and ceilings of every room thereof shall be well and sufficiently lime-washed during the first week of the months of April and October.

5. The blankets, rugs, bed clothes, and covers used in this house shall be thoroughly cleansed and scoured at least four times a-year, that is to say, on the first week of each of the several months of March, June, September, and December.

7. Every sleeping-room in this house shall be ventilated to the satisfaction of the officer of health of the Local Board of Health.

8. Upon any person in this house, whether a lodger or one of the family, being affected with fever or any infectious or contagious disorder, the keeper shall forthwith give notice thereof to the officer of health.

9. If any person in this house shall be affected with fever or any infectious or contagious. disorder, the blankets and bed clothes used by such person shall be thoroughly cleansed and scoured, and the bedding fumigated immediately after the removal of such person: and where the bedding used consists of shavings or straw, the same shall be burned immediately after such removal. In periods of unusual sickness from any epidemic, endemic, or contagious disease, the number of lodgers to be accommodated in this lodging-house shall be reduced to such a number as the officer of health shall consider necessary to protect the health of the lodgers.

10. This house shall be provided with sufficient accommodation for washing, together with a sufficient supply of water for the use of the lodgers.

11. This house shall be furnished to the satisfaction of the Local Board of Health, with sufficient accommodation to the lodgers in the way of privies or water-closets.

12. The keeper of this house shall reduce the number of lodgers, or shall cease to receive lodgers altogether, immediately upon receiving notice to that effect under the hands of two justices of this town.

K

198 Bye-Laws for Common Lodging Houses.

13. This ticket shall be placed and kept in such situation in this house, and in such part of each room in this house, as an authorized officer of the Local Board of Health for this town may direct. It shall moreover be produced and delivered to such officer on demand.

14. The door of the room for which this ticket is intended shall have a number painted on it corresponding with the number on this ticket.

15. The keeper of this house shall not permit persons of different sexes, except children under the age of eight years, to sleep in the same room, unless such persons be man and wife.

N.B.-The keeper of any lodging-house defacing or removing this ticket, or omitting to apply to the Local Board of Health for another ticket in case of this being lost, or refusing to admit any duly authorized officer of the Local Board of Health to inspect the same, or disobeying the above rules and instructions, will be liable to the several penalties in that behalf, provided by bye-laws for regulating lodging-houses in this town, a copy whereof may be obtained by application at the office of the clerk of the Local Board of Health.

POOR LAW BOARD.

1.-INSTRUCTIONAL LETTER.

POOR LAW BOARD, WHITEHALL,

August 25th, 1852.

SIR, The Poor Law Board have thought it expedient to issue to certain Unions and Parishes, in many of which no regulations concerning out-door relief are now in force, a General Order regulating the administration of relief, and prescribing, among other things, an out-door labour-test for able-bodied males.

The principle kept in view in all the provisions of this Order is that which was established by the 43rd Eliz. c. 2, namely, that the disabled Poor should be relieved and the able-bodied be employed; which ruling principle of the Poor Law is laid down in these words by that statute,-the Churchwardens and Overseers shall "take order from time to time for setting to work the children of all such whose parents shall not, by the said Church wardens and Overseers, or the greater part of them, be thought able to keep and maintain their children; and also for setting to work all such persons, married or unmarried, having no means to maintain them, and use (using) no ordinary and daily trade of life to get their living by; and also, to raise, weekly or otherwise, a convenient stock of flax, hemp, wool, thread, iron, and other ware and stuff, to set the poor on work; and also, competent sums of money for and towards the necessary relief of the lame, impotent, old, blind, and such other among them being poor and not able to work."

The Guardians at the present day stand in the place of the Churchwardens and Overseers, and the Poor Law Board therefore address to them the following remarks explanatory of the several Articles of the Order :

The Board are of opinion that where there is a commodious and efficient workhouse it is best that the able-bodied paupers should be received and set to work therein; but, looking to the circumstances of most of the Unions and Parishes in London and in some other populous places, they have not thought it expedient in this Order to prohibit out-door relief to any class of paupers; at the same time they leave the Guardians at liberty to offer relief in the workhouse only in every case in which they may consider it right to apply that test of destitution, or in which they consider that form of relief the most suitable to the necessity of the applicant and the circumstances of the case.

Article 1 prescribes that a certain proportion of the relief

given to any applicant, whether infirm or able-bodied, shall be given in kind. The object of this provision is to prevent the misapplication of the relief furnished, and the general rule is to be observed whether work is exacted in return for the relief or not.

Article 2 prevents the practice of delivering a large amount of relief to a pauper at once in cases in which it is intended that the relief shall be for a considerable period, and the amount is consequently more than the immediate destitution of the pauper requires. The object of the Board in this article is mainly to save poor persons in the receipt of relief from being exposed to the temptation of expending at once money given to them beyond their present necessities.

Article 3 is intended to preclude the payment of rent, and the allowance of relief in other specified forms, which are not recognized by the law, and are at variance with the principle laid down in the statute of Elizabeth above-mentioned. The cases here indicated are those which cannot, without great difficulty, be sufficiently investigated and watched by Guardians and their officers, and are, therefore, such as afford frequent occasions of deception.

Article 4 imposes a restriction upon the allowance of relief to non-resident paupers, with certain exceptions, wherein a discretionary power, subject however to the restrictions imposed by the other Articles of this Order, is left to the Guardians. It is obvious that relief to non-resident paupers is a form of relief peculiarly open to abuse, and the Poor Law Commissioners have, in their minute of the 26th January, 1841, printed in the Seventh Annual Report, App. p. 107, fully detailed the general objections and evils arising out of it. The present Örder, however, in consideration of such relief having, in recent times, prevailed extensively, only provides for its gradual extinction, and still permits it in certain cases, where the denial might be most felt as a hardship. The relief of this kind which is authorized by the 7 & 8 Vict. c. 101, s. 26, to widows, is necessarily excepted from the rule. The Guardians will remember that, in cases where the non-resident pauper is irremovable by reason of the late Removal Act, there is no legal ground for their granting relief, which if required should be given by and charged upon the Union or Parish of the residence.

Article prohibits the allowing relief to an able-bodied male pauper out of the workhouse unless he be set to work, and kept at work by the Guardians as long as he continues to receive relief. Several cases, however, which are described in Art. 7, are exempted from the compulsory operation of this Rule, though in all or any of them the Guardians may, if they think proper, upon a consideration of the circum

stances, require work to be performed in return for the relief given.

The Board must observe that every payment made by Guardians to paupers ought to assume the form of relief, not of wages, and consequently should be measured by the wants of the applicant, and not by the quantity of work done. It is, therefore, of primary importance that the paupers should labour under vigilant superintendence, and should be required to execute a task fixed according to their physical ability.

The General Consolidated Orders provide, in the Unions and Parishes to which they have been issued, for the appointment, and prescribe the duties of a Superintendent of Labour (Arts. 153 and 217); and where superintendence is mentioned in this Order, it is assumed that a Superintendent of Labour is, or is to be, appointed under one of those Orders, or, where they have not been issued, by the general authority of the body administering relief in the Union or Parish, and the Board also assume that he shall be competent, under the direction of the Guardians, to enforce the performance of the required task.

Article 8 directs that the Guardians shall, within thirty days after the time when they begin to put this test in operation, supply the Poor Law Board with full information as to the measures they have taken for giving effect to the provisions of the order.

Article 9. The strict observance of this Article is important for the correction of a prevalent error regarding relief by way of loan. It is not unfrequently supposed that there are cases in which, though the Guardians may not give relief, they may lend it. But this Article points out that what cannot legally be given must not be lent; and that the power of lending is only to be exercised where the Guardians think fit to do something less than absolutely give the relief applied for in cases where the application is lawful. In such cases, and in such only, they may lend it; and such loans should never be made without being in due time strictly recovered.

Article 10 is a proviso upon all that precedes it, with one exception; and it is introduced for the purpose of guarding against any special case which may occur, so that, by means of the concurrent action of the Poor Law Board and the Board of Guardians, a departure in such case from the letter of the Regulations may not involve the consequences of a violation of the law. The exception refers to the 3rd Article containing absolute prohibitions which can in no case be relaxed. I am, Sir, your obedient Servant, COURTENAY, Secretary.

To

The Clerk to the Guardins.