is no doubt that in the new Consolidated Orders the age will be raised to sixteen.

The powers possessed by Guardians for lodging or maintaining a boy or girl altogether outside the workhouse or pauper school, between situations, are these:

1. In Unions under the Out-Relief Regulation Order (14 December, 1852), out-relief within the Union may be given to the able-bodied of any age, as limited by that Order.

2. Out-relief may be given in cases of sickness, in any Union, and to paupers of any age. The journeys to and from a Hospital, and the cost of maintenance there, may be paid, without special permission of the Local Government Board, and, with special permission of that Board, the Guardians may also subscribe to a Hospital.

3. The allowance for children boarded out beyond the Union under the Order of 1870 may be continued up to sixteen. No child may be thus boarded out for the first time after ten years of age, but a child who has been once boarded out might be re-boarded (of course, with signing of fresh agreements), after having been sent to service, up to sixteen.

4. A boy or girl may be sent to a Certified School or Home, either within or beyond the Union, without special leave of the Local Government Board. The Statute does not limit the age of children who may be sent to these Schools.

5. A deaf and dumb or blind boy or girl of any age may be sent, with the special leave of the Local Government Board, to any uncertified Institution, either within or beyond the Union.

6. By the provisions of the Poor Law Act, 1879 (42 & 43 Vict. cap. 54, sec. 10), Guardians are empowered to subscribe to any Society for aiding girls and boys in service. It may be better to give the whole of the Section.

10. Whereas, by Section 4 of the Poor-Law Amendment Act, 1851, Guardians are authorised, with such consent as is therein mentioned, to subscribe towards the support and main

tenance of any public hospital or infirmary as therein mentioned, and it is expedient to extend the said section: Be it therefore enacted as follows:

The provisions of the said Section shall extend to authorize the Guardians, with such consent as is therein mentioned, to subscribe towards any asylum or institution for blind persons, or for deaf and dumb persons, or for persons suffering from any permanent or natural infirmity, or towards any association or society for aiding such persons, or for providing nurses, or for aiding girls or boys in service, or towards any other asylum or institution which appears to the Guardians, with such consent as aforesaid, to be calculated to render useful aid in the administration of the relief of the poor.

Provided always, that nothing herein contained shall authorize any subscription to any asylum or institution unless the Local Government Board be satisfied that the paupers under the Guardians have or could have assistance therein in case of necessity.

Nothing can possibly be plainer than this.

A Board of Guardians may subscribe for one year only, without making any promises for the future; and if the sum subscribed be found insufficient, may, within the same year, increase the subscription, with the previous consent of the Local Government Board. The proposal should be submitted to the Local Government Board as a proposal to subscribe an annual sum, and not to give a donation. The Guardians may thus subscribe a regular and unvarying sum annually to a particular Society, for the general benefit of the boys and girls in service, without entering into the details of each case, as eighteen of the Metropolitan Boards thus subscribe to the Metropolitan Association for Befriending Young Servants; or they may subscribe to such a Society for one year only, and for a particular case—an arrangement constantly made for the purpose of sending a particular patient to a hospital. It is only necessary to satisfy the Local Government Board that the circumstances are such that they

can properly sanction the proposal of the Guardians. It is usually enough to show the general usefulness of the Society in connexion with supervising and assisting children who have been chargeable to the rates and have been sent out to service, the application of the subscription being left to the discretion of the representatives of the Society. A Member or Associate of any such Society may thus place a boy or girl, suddenly thrown out of place, at once in a respectable lodging, and then apply to the Board of Guardians, not to repay the cost of such lodging, but to subscribe to the Society, so that the amount which has been thus expended may be repaid; or the Member or Associate may apply for a subscription, with the view of meeting future expenses of this character. When the Guardians desire it, there may be an understanding between them and the representatives of the Society as to the particular case, or classes of cases, for which such a subscription shall be applied. It is sometimes necessary to place a child in safe lodgings on a sudden emergency, and impossible to wait until the case has been brought before the weekly or fortnightly meeting of the Board, the subsequent application made to the Local Government Board, and the answer received.

But the circumstances of each Union are different, and it must depend entirely upon what terms the members of any local branch of any such Society are on with the Guardians of their own Union, whether it is advisable or not for the Board to offer, or for the Society to ask for, a subscription, and in what manner. My own opinion is, that in large and populous Unions, where girls and boys without homes must frequently return to the workhouse unless means are taken to prevent it, the best method is to go back over as many years as possible, and, taking the average cost of such returns, for the Board to subscribe to that amount a regular and unvarying sum to some Society which will undertake to lodge and care for the young people in such cases. If the sum is one year in excess of the need, the Society can retain the surplus till another year,

when the needs may be in excess, and vice versa. It is much better that the Guardians and the Clerk should not be worried with constantly recurring cases, which should be dealt with by the Society. But in small Unions, where the case of a girl or boy returning to the workhouse occurs but very seldom, it is plainly out of the question that the Guardians should subscribe regularly to any Society for the purpose. It is much better that the representatives of such a Society should bring each case before the Board. In this I am again giving only my individual opinion, but I feel sure that all those who have experience of small Unions will agree with me.

Next, what existing Societies are the most suitable for such subscription? For the Metropolitan Unions, and for girls, the Metropolitan Association for Befriending Young Servants is the one, no doubt. The Girls' Friendly Society has always agreed to leave the field clear for it, and not to work in the Metropolitan Unions, except in cases where the two Societies can help one another. The Girls' Friendly Society is now working successfully in about 280 provincial Unions,* and in some places it may cover all the ground, and subscription to no other may be necessary; but the difficulty to a Board of Guardians in subscribing regularly and annually to this Society alone is this, that, as its object is to raise the standard of character among working girls, it admits none but girls of good character as its Members, and must therefore leave out many unsatisfactory ones, who, nevertheless, are in great need of care, and who, moreover, are the most likely to be entirely demoralised if returned to the workhouse, or to injure the children if re-admitted to the school. It seems to me-and here I again give my individual opinion, with which many people may disagree-that the Ladies' Association for the Care of Friendless Girls is better suited for such regular subscription, since it cares for girls of all characters, classifying them so that they do not mix, nor injure each other. But I should This is written before the publishing of the G. F. S. Report for 1884

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always recommend most strongly that the Ladies' Association should everywhere work hand-in-hand with the Girls' Friendly Society. The best arrangement is for one lady belonging to both Societies to obtain leave of the Guardians to visit the girls in the Workhouse Schools, in order to become acquainted with them before they leave for service, and herself admit as Members such as are eligible to the Girls' Friendly Society-the only one which is universal, and which 'commends ' girls who are Members to friends wherever they may go. This lady should hand over the unsatisfactory characters to other ladies belonging to the Ladies' Association, not looking after them herself, lest any confusion should arise in the girls' minds as to who are G. F. S. Members, and good characters, and who not. Though belonging to the G. F. S., it is much more convenient in working that she should also be on the Committee of the Ladies' Association. The hope should be still held out to all girls of not yet lost character, of becoming worthy to be made Members of the Girls' Friendly Society. The Guardians' subscription can thus be applied to the needs of all the girls of the Union, good, bad, and indifferent, who can be cared for by different ladies, and lodged in different places, each case being treated on its own merits. It may be said that it is hard upon any lady to expect her to look after bad characters only, leaving the satisfactory to others; but we do not work for our own sakes, and must be prepared to undertake what is disagreeable or discouraging if we are in earnest.

I hope I have made it clear to the Associates of the Girls' Friendly Society that I have not recommended the working of any Society instead of their own. I have only tried to point a way out of the difficulty which all of us who are much interested in workhouse girls have felt-that we cannot, as Associates of a 'Virtue Society,' treat good and bad characters alike without causing a confusion in the subject which it is our very object to remove; and yet it goes to our hearts to leave the unsatisfactory or fallen without help, to fall still lower.