'
"The members of this board were very sage, deep, philosophical men;
and when they came to turn their attention to the workhouse, they
found out at once, what ordinary folks would never have
discovered--the poor people liked it! It was a regular place of
public entertainment for the poorer classes; a tavern where there
was nothing to pay; a public breakfast, dinner, tea, and supper all
the year round; a brick and mortar elysium, where it was all play
and no work. 'Oho!' said the board, looking very knowing, 'we are
the fellows to set this to rights; we'll stop it all, in no time.'
So, they established the rule, that all poor people should have the
alternative (for they would compel nobody, not they) of being starved
by a gradual process in the house, or by a quick one out of it. With
this view, they contracted with the waterworks to lay on an unlimited
supply of water; and with a corn-factor to supply periodically small
quantities of oatmeal; and issued three meals of thin gruel a day,
with an onion twice a week, and half a roll on Sundays. . . . Relief
was inseparable from the workhouse and the gruel; and that frightened
people."
A movement which helped, possibly far more than any other, to better
the lot of the children of the Poor commenced with the foundation
of the Ragged School Union, of which the Queen became the patroness.
Out of this sprang a small army of agencies for well-doing.
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