To the Independent and Enlightened Ratepayers of the Parish of
Dudley.
Fellow Ratepayers,
It is very likely that in the course of a few days you will
again have the opportunity of Electing your part of the
Board of Guardians for this Union for the coming year. As
far as I can understand, an effort is to be made, and which
has been in contemplation for some months past (by means of
owners' proxies, obtained in some instances I believe by not
over-scrupulous means, and which in many others would never
have been given to be employed in such a manner) to unseat
the majority of those parties who received your support at
the last election. Let us then examine for a few moments
what these gentlemen have done during the past year of their
Stewardship to forfeit the confidence we then reposed in them.
First, they advocated and brought about the publicity of the
proceedings of the Board, which had previously, notwithstanding
the praiseworthy exertions of two or three of its members to
the contrary, partaken somewhat of the character of a secret
conclave. Secondly, the usual weekly checks for this Parish
only for out-door relief has gradually diminished during the
year, on an average, I should imagine from the now regularly
published newspaper reports, of not less than £8 or £10
per week--next--I believe that the in-door expenses of our
Workhouses are actually less at this time than when provisions
were only half their present price, and less by a considerable
amount per head per week than they were five or six years ago,
and that the poor, both in and out, not the less cared or
provided for. Fourthly, I observe that several of the gentlemen
against whom this opposition is principally to be directed
are amongst the most intelligent, active, business-like men
of the whole Board, that they are gentlemen using their best
exertions to promote the success and prosperity of the Town,
anxious for its improvement, and desirous of its progress;
witness their endeavours for the establishment of the Model
Lodging Houses--the promotion of the scheme for the erection
of a Public Hall--the alteration of the Post Office and
improvement of postal accommodation--their support of the
School of Design and Mechanics' Institution, and extension of
general Education--the erection of a proper Workhouse in place
of our present disgraceful building, by which I doubt not our
expenses will be lessened, and the comforts of its aged and
infirm poor inmates at the same time increased, and by their
generally evidenced desire to improve the condition of our
poorer brethren, both socially and morally--thus preventing
crime, obviating disease, and diminishing pauperism. Having
during the past year made a continued advance in the right
direction, should you be again called upon I trust that you
will encourage their endeavours, and show that you appreciate
their attention to your interests, by not only supporting the
seven gentlemen[33] I now allude to, but also any others with
whom their names may be connected in any list proposed for your
sanction, by placing their names triumphantly at the head of
the poll.
I am, Fellow-Ratepayers,
Yours faithfully,
A QUIET OBSERVER OF FACTS.
_March, 1854._
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