A hundred years ago
From the 'Spectator', 21 May 1870—In a dis- cussion on Vagrancy raised by Dr. Brewer, Mr. Goschen made an impressive as well as an amus- ing speech about the inmates of the casual wards. The vagrants, by which he meant those who look to the casual ward of the workhouse for their lodging, and who do not pay for their own, he estimated at about 1,200 in number for the metropolis, and from 6,000 to 7,000 for the whole country (London included). These persons are, to a certain extent, fastidious in their selec- tion of opportunities for throwing themselves on the public hospitality. They prefer Saturday night to any other, because no task-work is done on Sunday. They look upon the casual ward as their hotel, and one night passing St. George's Workhouse, Mr. Goschen heard one vagrant say to another, "Hullo! where is the hotel?" They are very particular in choosing the work- houses where they are treated best. There seems every chance of disgusting them with the public charity by imposing terms sufficiently stringent. Mr. Goschen relied on the power of detaining the vagrant,—for some forty-eight hours, say,— whenever he comes in, and extracting a good spell of forced work during that period, for rendering these convenient "hotels" less popular,
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