then I will give a few of the suggestions which would provide remedies for the present state of things.
First, as to the hardships and grievances, and their consequences.
Perhaps, the chief grievance of all is the employment of incompetent officials, especially the choice of masters and matrons unfitted for their work by any previous training, or knowledge of the poor and their ways; and also the employment of pauper nurses, under no sufficient superintendence or control, for the visit once a day of the matron virtually leaves them to themselves in their treatment of their patients. Let us hear what the poor-law rule itself says as to this point. "With respect to the use of pauper servants, they require the strictest superintendence on the part of the master and other officers. The employment of paupers in offices of trust is inexpedient, inasmuch as it tends to impair the discipline of the house. In offices of mere labour, which can he performed under trustworthy superintendence, paupers may he useful. Where responsibility is involved, paid servants should be engaged." Are not the entire charge of a sick ward, the kitchen or laundry for many hundred persons, posts of responsibility? And if so, why are they left entirely to the management of pauper inmates, as in so many cases? It is evident that those who framed the poor-law rules contemplated the very possible abuse of power that would ensue; but even all their precautions and warnings have failed to avert the evil.
Instances of such are only too numerous. In one infirmary where no paid nurse is employed, the pauper nurse is continually being changed; she has one helper, and no extra person at night. The present nurse has a bad leg, which has disabled her from hospital work; she is continually grumbling at her occupation and situation, and says she would never stay if she could do anything else.
One poor old woman has been bedridden for years, and her hands are nearly useless, and the fingers bent inwards. A lady observed her long finger nails, and asked why they were not cut? She said she could not get it done without paying for it. She offered to cut them for her, but the old woman would not hear of it, and evidently thought it would make the nurses suspect she had been telling tales of them. She said she had to gnaw her potato at dinner like a dog, for no one would cut it up for her. She had been kept awake for two nights by the groans of a dying neighbour in the next bed. She said of the nurse, "You have no idea of the language she uses; it is so low I could not repeat it." She was many times deterred from receiving the Holy Communion, because she said the conduct of the nurse was so intolerable, both before and directly afterwards, that she could not compose her mind for it.
