which such a fact as this has been told me, has often surprised me. Several poor creatures have said to me that they were weary of their lives, they had nothing to live for, they even hoped they might not live to see me again on my return from a short absence, and they longed for death to release them from their trials. Who can wonder at this, after spending years helpless on a sick bed, with literally no variety from day to day? Others, not bed-ridden, sit round the walls, vacant and dreary, with no occupation beyond the two or three well-worn books, which some tell me they know by heart; and probably in every ward there are several who cannot read at all, from blindness or infirmity. If these things could only be seen it would need little persuasion to touch the hearts of those who hear this, and persuade them to introduce some element of mercy into these abodes.
Then, as to the point of out-door relief, perhaps the most difficult of all. The very great reluctance to give it, and the desire to invite persons into the house as a test (as it is said), mainly arises from the conviction that great imposition is practised. The master of a union, a good and conscientious man, who enters into his work with some intelligence, tells me he cannot understand the reason for wishing to incur the far greater expense of entire maintenance rather than bestow partial relief; it seems to be supposed that persons must be either wholly destitute (the only conditions under which any one would enter), or else need no help at all, whereas in the greater number of cases assistance, and not maintenance is needed, and that probably only temporarily, except, of course, in a few cases of helpless widows, &c. All this appears to me to arise from the want of a thorough and trustworthy investigation into the cases requiring aid. Would it not be worth while to try the plan of enlisting some voluntary helps for this work? Might not district visitors come to the aid of "relieving officers," whose visits are often dreaded by the decent poor? They cannot object to this, because their plan is perfect and successful. The two following cases have just come before a board of guardians. One person had been receiving out-door relief for sixteen months, and was at last discovered to have been in the weekly average receipt of twenty-one shillings! Another had for some time received six shillings a week relief; he was found to have been receiving a weekly sum of three pounds! Could not the clergy or district visitors have given help in such cases as these? A poor woman whom I had long visited was compelled to go into the union at seventy years of age, worn out with weakness and a heart complaint, brought on by constant stooping over needlework. When I visited her in the union, to my surprise I found her in the "shed," with the able-bodied, and there she stayed for afort-
