Board is a sufficient answer to this, or a reference to the separate Memorandum of Dr Downes will show what enormous progress has been made.
The Attitude of the Report towards Guardians.
The Report, like that of the Majority, proposes to abolish Boards of Guardians, but not at all because of "any inferiority of calibre" (p. 737) or "any personal shortcomings" (p. 787). On the contrary, "grave injustice has been done to them" by the Majority (p. 1003), although they have given "devoted public service gratuitously rendered" (p. 1007). The Minority wish especially to dissociate themselves from such a statement (by the Majority) as the following:—"The work is tending to fall into the hands of persons who, caring more for their own interests than those of the community, direct their administration more to the attainment of their own popularity than to the solution of the real problem of pauperism" (p. 1003). Such flattering assurances might almost induce Guardians to acquiesce in their own extinction; but, unfortunately, the force of them is considerably modified by other and jarring sentiments in the same Report, which lead us to doubt whether they are altogether sincere. For example, a little earlier they speak of the Guardians as "jealous of the officers and their powers, and keenly alive to the electoral advantages of being able to oblige individuals, and to obtain a reputation for sympathy with the poor in whole neighbourhoods" (p. 760), and a little later of their "short-sighted good-nature, the desire for electoral popularity, the irresistible tendency of a ward representative to be looked on by his supporters as a patron saint" (p. 761), expressions even stronger than those of the Majority at which the
