Letters to The Times and Lancet on famine fever and public charities / by Sir Charles Trevelyan.

  • Trevelyan, Charles Edward, Sir, 1807-1886.
Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Letters to The Times and Lancet on famine fever and public charities / by Sir Charles Trevelyan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    their administration is really vested in a compact knot of persons residing in or near London, supported by the wire-pullers who manage the elections, and forming in many cases almost an hereditary con- nexion. Here also the only possible remedy is the power of the purse. Those who think that a change is called for should annex that condition to their contributions.* It was exquisitely painful, in going through the cases of many hundred persons in the receipt of relief from various quarters, to observe the pittances earned by women and children, and their miserably underfed condition, the result of which appears under various forms of delicacy, rickets, and a general low state of vitality. What they want k regular em- ployment and sufficient food, far, more than medical relief. This is the residuum of the great multitude which has been attracted by the chaotic state of public and private charity. London is the paradise of idlers, and the weaker members are left to shift for themselves. This will be remedied by degrees as relief becomes organised and based upon previous investigation, but meanwhile the evil is aggravated by an unfortunate habit of our charitable ladies. As soon as a'woman has lost her husband or been de- serted by him, they complete the disruption of the * In reference to this part of the subject see ‘ Proceedings of the Council of the Charity Organisation Society on the system of Periodical Contested Elections by the Whole Body of the Sub- scribers, in its application to Hospitals and Dispensaries; ’ and ‘ Report of the Committee for ascertaining the wishes of tho Subscribers to the Royal Hospital for Incurables as to tho mode of selecting the Patients.’ Copies may be obtained at tho ofiices of the Charity Organisation Society.