On Wednesday afternoon the Report of the Royal Com- mission
on the Poor Laws was published. We have dealt with the whole question elsewhere, but may say here that the majority Report, which was signed by the chairman, Lord George Hamilton, and the following members, Miss Octavio Mrs. B. Bosanquet, Mr. F. H. Bentham, Sir Samuel Previa, Mr. J. P. McDougall, the Rev. L. R. Phelps, Sir H. A.. Robinson, the Bishop of Ross, Dr. A. Downes, the Rev. T. Gage Gardiner, Mr. C. S. Loch, Mr. T. H. Nunn, and Professor W. Smart, is a work for which the nation must owe them a deep debt of gratitude. Without committing ourselves to agree- ment with all the details of the Report, we can find nothing but the heartiest approval for the spirit in which it approaches the momentous problems with which it deals. Though he would be the last man to desire to be singled out from among those over whom he presided, we feel sure his colleagues will desire special public recognition of the great burden that fell on Lord George Hamilton as chairman, and on the tact, the ability, and the self-sacrifice with which he discharged his duties to the Commission. No man ever worked harder at a very hard piece of national work. But he will have his reward in full, as will his colleagues, whose task was only less arduous than his, if the nation can be saved from the terrible evils which threaten it from poor relief badly organised and based on unsound principles.
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