Mr. Punch's History of Modern England, Vol. 2 (of 4).—1857-1874Graves, Charles L. (Charles Larcom)
History
Mr. Punch's History of Modern England, Vol. 2 (of 4).—1857-1874
Graves, Charles L. (Charles Larcom)
Great Britain -- History -- Victoria, 1837-1901 -- Humor
Far more space, however, is devoted to the administration of the Poor
Law, the economics and evils of Industrialism in the manufacturing
centres, and the efforts of practical philanthropy. Throughout the
'sixties and right on into the early 'seventies _Punch_ never wearies of
insisting on the folly of making life in prison more comfortable than
that in the workhouse. His campaign begins with an onslaught on the
guardians of the Durham Union, who appeared to think that there "ought
to be a correspondence between the spiritual nutriment of paupers and
their material diet":--
Under this impression it evidently was that they advertised the
other day for a chaplain, offering the salary of £20 a year. Their
advertisement was answered by a tender from one John Smart, who
turned out to have been a clergyman's footman, and conceived that
he had learned to exercise the functions of a parson from his
master. He had, he said, "had a good deal of private practice, but
not public."
It is painful to find a respectable man-servant reduced to apply
for employment in the capacity of a Workhouse chaplain. Cannot an
inferior class of clergyman be ordained on purpose to administer to
paupers a coarser kind of spiritual food? Deep indeed must be the
humiliation experienced by a footman in exchanging plush and gold
lace for the canonicals of a chaplain whose salary is £20 a year.
It was the time of the garrotting scare. Hence the point of _Punch's_
comment:--
The frying pan as compared with the fire is much less comfortable
than the Model Prison in proportion to the Union-Workhouse.
The former of those two establishments relatively to the latter is
considerably milder than Purgatory may be imagined to be, in
contrast with the other place which the prisoners mentioned. Quod,
in comparison with the Abode of Want, is quite a tolerable sort of
Limbo. What is the moral of this arrangement, in the apprehension
of the classes who have to live by their own exertions? Whatever
you do, keep out of the Workhouse. Garrotte anybody rather than
apply to the Union.
_Punch_ still disapproved of the gallows; the strongest argument in its
favour was the manifest truth that the cheapest thing you could do with
a worthless rascal was to hang him. But he saw a better way in rendering
penal servitude exemplary:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account