The Speaker, in addressing a meeting of the Church of
England Society for Waifs and Strays at Leamington on Saturday, spoke of the appalling number of paupers in the country—namely, 728,043—and mentioned as specially dis- tressing the fact that there are 221,564 pauper children under sixteen years of age. " Emigration," the Speaker considered, " was the great outlet for suffering and destitute humanity,"— and especially as regards the children. A Poor-Law Guardian, who writes in Monday's Times, shows, however, that the figures look much worse than they really are. The actual " children of the State "—that is, pauper children in the workhouses—only number 49,564, and the huge total of over 200,000 is made up by regarding "as a pauper every child of every person who under any circumstances obtains outdoor relief of however small an amount. For instance, if a poor woman with half-a- dozen children receives at a time of stress a few loaves, seven persons are added to the pauper-roll of the country." It is, of course, no good to pretend that the pauper-roll of England is not a very serious matter. When, however, we are being urged on all sides to try new relief experiments., we must be very careful to avoid exaggeration as regards the existing system.
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