SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Under this heading we notice such Books of the week aa have not been reserved for review in inker forme.]
The Minority Report of the Poor Law Commission of 1909. Edited by Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Webb. 2 vols., (Longmaus and Co. 12s. (3d. net.)—We have already dealt with the minority Report of the Poor Law Commission. We may notice here its non-official publication in two handsome and well-printed volumes. The Report is edited and prefaced with introductions by Mr. and Mrs. Webb. The introductions, however, do not call for any special comment, except in one particular. Mr. and Mrs. Webb point out that the minority of the Commissioners protest against the terms in which the majority have thought fit to speak of the Poor Law Guardians of England arid Wales. " We see no warrant," they tell ne, "for such a description of the 646 Boards of Guardians, or of their 24,000 members." They proceed to a strong eulogy of the Guardians and the work accomplished by them. One might have thought from this eulogy that the minority Report did not advocate the abolition of the Guardians. Tot, as a matter of fact, the essential point about the minority as about the majority Report is the recommendation of the abolition of the Guardian.. Take, next, the passages dealing with the Guardians to be found in the minority Report. They contain such sentences as the following : "The Guardians themselves, Jealous of the officers and their powers, and keenly alive to the electoral advantages of being able to oblige individuals and to obtain a reputation for sympathy with the poor in whole neighbourheode, are naturally altogether on the side of popular sentiment in the matter." Again, the minority Report euotes, and, as the context indicates, with approval, the statement of a witness that "each Guardian's attention is attracted only by cases from his own pariah, and too frequently it is turned, during the rest of the time occupied with the relief lists, to other matters, to the loss of silence or orderly procedure." Guardians delighted by the irxtrerlpet,i0n will, we fear, experience a feeling of dia. appointment when they turn to the text.
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