I have already stated that after the enforced resignation of his appointment at Newington, this model master was selected by the Guardians of Lambeth, as the master of their Workhouse, notwithstanding that he had as opponents some respectable persons who had creditably filled similar appointments elsewhere. His election was due to the assistance he received from the clerk of the Strand Union, and his old friends at that Board. His appointment was challenged at the time, but in spite of the serious evidence afforded by the Newington inquiry, it was confirmed by the Department, but with this proviso—that a special report as to his conduct should be sent by the Guardians to the Poor Law Board at the end of six months.
It was not very long before the opponents of this man's appointment were fully justified in the course they took, as he speedily renewed his old course of cruelty to the inmates, and of quarrelling with the other officers. One of these acts was inquired into, and reported on by Dr. Markham. Although it was clear that the master was in the wrong, yet Dr. Markham, in his official report, managed to throw a doubt on the evidence of the medical officer, evidently to screen the master; but he was not saved for long, for shortly afterwards a young woman, who had been subjected to much harshness by Catch, ran away and hid herself, as it was supposed, in the chimney of one of the women's infirm wards, when the master, with the view of forcing her to come down, induced the junior resident medical officer, to bring from the surgery some substance, on which he poured some hydrochloric acid, whereby some extremely pungent gases were evolved, thinking thereby to compel her to come down; but as the young woman was not there (fortunately for Catch, for if she had been she would have been suffocated), the only effect was that all the old women in the ward, were set sneezing and coughing. This atrocious proceeding, having been reported to the Poor Law Board, Catch was called upon to resign. It will hardly be believed that certain of the Guardians memorialized the Poor Law Board to let him retain his office, when Mr. Shaen, the eminent solicitor, on the urgent representation of his wife, who was a lady visitor at the Workhouse, and knew a great deal of Catch's doings, took the matter up. Mr. Shaen saw me, and asked me whether I could tell him anything about Catch. I narrated the incident of the false charge which he, in connection with the clerk, had made against me when I was away in Scotland, and also told him the story of his behaviour in reference to the sick woman in the lying-in ward of the Strand Union which had led to his leaving that Workhouse. Mr. Shaen took down my statement, and subsequently he sent me a pamphlet of some two hundred pages, in which I found not only my own statement, but sundry others of a highly damaging character, but unfortunately these were so recklessly drawn, that it gave Catch the opportunity of bringing an action for libel. Its publication had induced Mr. Goschen to peremptorily call upon him to resign his office. Catch sent out an appeal to all the masters of workhouses to support him in his action, and a sufficient sum having been collected, the Attorney-General of the day, now Lord Chief Justice Coleridge, acted as his counsel. Having been asked by Mr. Shaen to support my statement in the Court of Queen's Bench, I attended. When called on, I went into the witness-box, and after giving my evidence-in-chief, was cross-examined by the Attorney-General in such a manner that three times during the cross-examination Lord Chief Justice Cockburn interfered to stop it, giving as his opinion that the Attorney-General was pressing me unfairly. As I was leaving the witness-box I turned round and thanked the Lord Chief Justice for his kindness in screening me. I was followed by the late porter of the Strand Workhouse, who was there to substantiate my evidence. A similar attempt to browbeat this witness afforded fine fun. The witness was an Irishman, and at every effort made by the counsel to confuse him, Pat was too much for the Attorney, and feeling that he could make nothing of him, he told him peremptorily to stand down, which he did in such a comical way as convulsed the court with laughter. Unfortunately Mr. Shaen failed to justify several of the libels, and the jury, after twelve days' trial, gave a verdict in favour of Catch for £600—an amount which the judge said was excessive, and for which he refused to certify, thereby affording Mr. Shaen the opportunity for asking for a fresh trial. Subsequently a compromise was effected at the instance of the Lord Chief Justice. In summing up the case to the jury, the judge said that my evidence, if it stood alone, was sufficient to stamp Catch as an improper person to hold the office of a Workhouse master. Mr. Goschen would not allow Catch to resume his office, and, having no resources whatever, he drifted downwards until ultimately, being without means and having tired out all his friends, he in a fit of despair threw himself in front of a Great Western train and was cut to pieces.
I was so much annoyed by the action of the Attorney-General in cross-examining me that on my return home I wrote to the Lord Chief Justice again thanking him, and enclosing for his perusal a pamphlet I had just written on the administration of the Poor Laws. To my great surprise he sent me by hand the next morning a letter, in which he acknowledged its receipt, and informed me that he should read my pamphlet with the greatest pleasure. There is no doubt that my labours up to that time were very well known to his Lordship, as, when at the Bar, he was the standing counsel of The Lancet newspaper, in which my name had frequently appeared. When he became a judge he kept up his interest in that journal. This was told me by the late Dr. Wakley, to whom I related Catch's story and the account of my cross-examination and of the courtesy and support afforded to me by Lord Chief Justice Cockburn whilst under cross-examination. The Lord Chief Justice was a man of scrupulous integrity and honour. I remember a solicitor of good position in Soho, whose brother was then the Treasurer of the County of Middlesex, and whose son now holds the position, saying to me, "Although I am opposed to him politically, yet I have the highest opinion of his conscientiousness, and of his extraordinary ability—we are all proud of him." I esteem it a high honour to have received a letter from such a man written under such circumstances. I have this letter still.
An illustration of profligate expenditure, and the absence of all efficient control at the Poor Law Board, was at this time supplied by my old friends, the Strand Union Board. Shortly after I resigned the Board decided to build a new Workhouse at Edmonton, and plans of the contemplated building were issued to builders, &c. Tenders from sundry large firms for its erection were sent to the Guardians, the lowest tender being from an eminent firm that had acquired a great reputation for the buildings it had put up in various parts of town, as well as in the country. Their tender was rejected, and the contract given to a small builder, resident in St. Paul's, Covent Garden, whose estimate was some £2,000 higher. It was stated at the time that after the contract had been signed the members of the Board were invited to a dinner given by the lucky contractor. The large firm that competed for it, feeling that they had been improperly treated, got the question raised, and the new President, Mr. Goschen, investigated the transaction, but it was too late, as the builder had already set to work, and had a considerable amount of his plant on the ground. Although Mr. Goschen felt that he could not interfere to stop this disreputable transaction, he did not fail to give this party of jobbers a most severe lecture, probably the most severe that ever emanated from the Poor Law Board, in connection with the doings of a Board of Guardians. The issue of it to this Board must have brought about a change of policy among the permanent officials who had not remonstrated against it. I know not whether it was this transaction, or Mr. Goschen's general knowledge of the laxity of the staff, certain it is that during his Presidentship he kept the Secretary in his place, and did not permit him or Sir John Lambert (then plain Mr. Lambert) to obtrude themselves upon him when he received deputations from public bodies and from societies. But I am anticipating.
In the autumn of 1868 a general election took place, with the result of replacing the Liberal party in power. With the concurrence of the Council of the Poor Law Medical Officers Association, I had issued a circular letter to the various candidates for Parliamentary honours, in which I drew attention to the imperfect character of the Poor Law Board, and the usurpation by the permanent officials of powers they were not entitled to, and asked whether the candidate would assist us in our efforts to reconstruct the Board, and to improve the system of medical relief. The replies I obtained were not only very numerous, but they held out the prospect of an alteration for the better. Looking back at the various changes that were made subsequently, I have no hesitation in asserting that many of these improvements were brought about by the action our Council took at this general election. These will be briefly referred to.
I will here relate an incident that gave me the cue as to the line to be taken in the introduction and establishment of a Public Health Act. I was desirous of visiting an aged relative who lived in a village in Hampshire. The local medical gentleman kindly volunteered to fetch me from the station, some seven miles distant, and to put me up for the night, &c. As I neared his house my sense of smell was assailed by one of the most awful odours I had ever encountered. To my inquiry from whence it originated, my host said, "That is from the farmyard over there. Young Green, the son of the corn dealer, has taken Miss Smith's farm, and has commenced to breed pigs. He has at least 300." "Well," I replied, "if I lived here I should make short work of Mr. Green and his pigs; I would at once indict him." "Ah," he said, "you can afford to be independent, you live in London. I dare not; for if I complained, or took any action in the matter, old Green would go to all the markets round about, and would denounce me for attempting to interfere with his son's business, and I should make enemies by the score." Some three or four years after Mr. Stansfeld brought in his Public Health Bill, one of the essential features of which was that every district medical officer should be the health officer in his district. I opposed the proposition with all my might. I knew the Act would be absolutely abortive if Poor Law medical officers were placed in this utterly false position which Mr. Stansfeld proposed. In taking this course I encountered much opposition, and became for a time very unpopular, though at last my views prevailed, and gentlemen wholly independent of local influences were appointed to large areas. Among the remonstrants was the medical man who was the neighbour of the pig breeder, when I silenced him by reminding him of Mr. Green and his pigs, and of the fear that he had that if he complained that his business as a country medical gentleman might be damaged. He said no more.
Having come to the conclusion that the course followed by my poor friend, Richard Griffin, of Weymouth, in continually calling attention to the grievances of Poor Law medical officers, would never eventuate in an improvement of their position, for the general public have never cared for our class in any way, I cast about to ascertain whether there could be any course adopted by which the attention of the public could be drawn to the shortcomings of the system, and decided that the only chance that existed, whereby an improvement could be effected, was by proving that an amended system of medical relief would eventuate in the diminution of the duration of sickness, and consequently of its cost to the ratepayers; and having at this time a copy of the annual report of the Irish Poor Law Commissioners placed in my hands, I studied its pages, and saw that under the Irish Medical Charities Acts the poorer classes of that country had secured to them the most complete system of Poor Law medical relief. I resolved to go over to Ireland, and study its administration on the spot. I carried out my intention, and during my stay in Ireland obtained a complete insight into the way in which the Irish dispensary system was carried out. I also brought back with me all the papers and documents that enabled me to popularize the subject here. I also spent much time in examining the annual returns of the English Poor Law Board, with the result that I was enabled to prove conclusively that efficient medical relief was followed by diminished poor relief expenditure, not only by shortening the duration of sickness, but by the actual saving of human life: this latter was shown also by a return I got Mr. W. H. Smith to move for, which was as follows—
"A return of the population at the last census in England and Wales, in Scotland and in Ireland.