A Handbill, headed "Election of Guardians," and signed "another
_Quiet_ Observer," has been published, which contains a number
of insinuations so disgraceful and false in reference to
several public matters in which individually I take great
interest, that however reluctant I may be to intrude myself
personally upon you, I feel I should be wanting in a sense
of public honor, if I were to allow it to remain without a
distinct and indignant denial of its truth.
Had it confined itself to the ensuing Election of Guardians
I should not have thought it necessary to reply to its
insinuations, because it would be an insult to the Rate-payers
to suppose for a moment that they could be deceived by its
one-sided statements--statements, every one of which, if not
false in fact, are false and knowingly false in the inferences
drawn from them. But it goes beyond the Election of Guardians,
and insinuates that all the Public Institutions, which some
amongst you are now endeavouring to establish and to support,
are to be paid for by Public Rates.
I suppose the writer of the Handbill thought that by throwing
this paragraph into the form of an insinuation, and not a
positive assertion, he would escape from being branded with the
charge of _Falsehood_, but surely he cannot be ignorant of the
fact, that to deceive by the insinuation of a Falsehood is as
great a breach of Truth, as to deceive by an actual falsehood
itself.
The writer of that Handbill, whoever he may be, knows very
well that the Model Lodging Houses--the Public Hall--the
School of Design--and the Mechanics' Institute--are all
supported, and supported with one exception, exclusively by
Private Enterprise, and not by Public Rates. The exception to
which I allude is the assistance of Government to the School
of Design, to the extent of £10 during the first year of its
establishment, whilst Private Enterprise alone has raised
for its support during this time upwards of £400. I regret,
exceedingly, that any one should have attempted thus to injure
these Institutions, which are so much needed in this town, and
which are so rapidly placing it on a more equal footing with
the neighbouring Towns of the District.
From the falsehood of the insinuations thrown out, you may
judge how far the actual assertions which the writer of this
Handbill ventures to make, are to be depended upon.
The writer states that the "huge Union Bastile," as he terms
the new Poor House about to be erected, will separate Man and
Wife--Children and Parents.
He knows that the separation of Man and Wife--Children and
Parents--takes place of necessity in the present Poor Houses to
a far greater extent than can be the case in the new House.
He knows that _now_ the children cannot remain even in the
_same House_ as their Parents, but that in the new Union House
they will be under the same roof, and within the reach of their
Parents, at all reasonable and proper times.
He also knows that Man and Wife are invariably separated in the
_present_ Poor Houses, and that this separation will not take
place after sixty years of age in the new Union House.
The writer states that the cost of the new Union House will be
£20,000.
He knows that the cost is limited to £12,000 by the Poor Law
Board, and that this amount will be borrowed, and repaid at the
rate of £600 per year, with interest at four per cent.
He also knows that the economy of this expenditure will far
exceed the annual amount of the instalments; or if he does
not know this, it is because he will not take the trouble to
examine the results attained in other Unions by the erection
of proper Poor Houses. Upon this point Mr. Doyle has proved
"that the pecuniary interests of the Union would be materially
benefitted by the building of a workhouse adequate to its
wants."
But if the desirability of a new Poor House were not so
evident on the ground of economy, it would be so on far higher
grounds, since the existing Dudley Poor House is described
in a letter to me of the 28th instant, by one of the most
respectable of the medical gentlemen of this town, "_as the_
FOCUS _of epidemic disease and starting point of Cholera, at
two successive periods_."
You, the Ratepayers of Dudley, will, I am sure, weigh well
these words, and you will not shrink from showing the
estimation in which you hold the writer of a Handbill who thus
ignores the most sacred claims of Truth and Humanity.
Nor does the writer confine himself to the Guardian
question--he endeavours to make you believe that the Board of
Health is administered with great recklessness of expenditure.
As one of such Board, I am responsible only to the extent of my
individual vote for its expenditure; but here again the writer
endeavours only to deceive.
The Rates under the Dudley Town Act Commissioners and the Board
for the Repair of the Highways were during the following years
as under:
TOWN RATE.--1847-1848-1849, 2s. in the Pound. 1850-1851-1852,
1s. 6d. in the Pound.
HIGHWAY RATE, for the above Six years, 10d. in the Pound.