The instructions given by Mr. Charles Buller, the first President of the Poor Law Board, adumbrated in the guise of a policy what were really two distinct and inherently incompatible lines of action. The Central Authority, on the one hand, pressed on boards of guardians the advisability of discriminating between the honest unemployed in search of work and the professional tramp--"the thief, the mendicant and the prostitute, who crowd the vagrant wards"--even to the extent of refusing all relief whatsoever to able-bodied men of the latter class, who were not in immediate danger of starvation. It seems as if the Central Authority was at this point almost inclined to press on boards of guardians the Scottish Poor Law policy of regarding the able-bodied healthy male adult as ineligible for relief. "As a general rule," it was laid down, the relieving officer "would be right in refusing relief to able-bodied and healthy men; though in inclement weather he might afford them shelter if really destitute of the means of procuring it for themselves."[299] Acting on this suggestion many boards of guardians closed their vagrant wards,[300] and the Bradford Guardians decided to "altogether dispense with" the meals heretofore given "at the vagrant office."[301] The honest wayfarer in temporary distress might, it was suggested, be given a certificate showing his circumstances, destination, object of journey, etc., upon production of which he was to be readily admitted to the workhouses, and provided with comfortable accommodation.[302] [299] Minute of Poor Law Board, 4th August 1848, in _Official Circular_, 1848, No. 17, N.S., p. 271. [300] _On Vagrants and Tramps_, by T. Barwick L. Baker (Manchester Statistical Society, 1868-9, p. 62). [301] MS. Minutes, Bradford Board of Guardians, 23rd November 1849. On this, the Central Authority evidently felt that it had gone too far. It informed the Bradford Guardians that the resolution must be rescinded; that "in affording relief to vagrants the guardians should be governed by the same rule that applies to relief in other cases, namely, the nature of the destitution and the amount of the necessity of the applicant. If the guardians or their officers are satisfied that there is no actual necessity, no danger to health or life, they will be justified in refusing to give more than shelter [Mr. Buller's circular had suggested refusing even shelter in weather not inclement]; but if the applicant appears to be really in want of food, it must be supplied" (Poor Law Board to Bradford Union, 29th November 1849; MS. Minutes, Bradford Board of Guardians, 30th November 1849). [302] _Official Circular_, No. 17, N.S. July and August 1848, p. 270.