The order by which a pauper husband had the right to detain his wife in the workhouse by "his marital authority" is now repealed. A case some years ago of this abominable breach of the law of Habeas Corpus startled the country, especially the ratepayers, and even the House of Commons were amazed at their own laws. The order was withdrawn in 1913 on the precedent of the judgment given in the case of the Queen v. Jackson (1891), when it was decided "that the husband has no right, where his wife refuses to live with him, to take her person by force and restrain her of her liberty" (60 L. J. Q. B. 346).

Many humane reforms and regulations for the classification of inmates were made in 1913, and the obnoxious words "pauper" and "workhouse" have been abolished; but before the authorities rightly grasped the changes the war was upon us, the workhouses were commandeered as military hospitals, the inmates sent into other institutions, and all reforms lapsed in overcrowded and understaffed buildings.

Once again the Poor Law is in the melting-pot, and it seems as if now it will pass into the limbo of the past with other old, unhappy far-off things.

CONTENTS

PAGE
EUNICE SMITH—DRUNK[13]
DETAINED BY MARITAL AUTHORITY[21]
A WELSH SAILOR[27]
THE VOW[33]
BLIND AND DEAF[39]
"AND, BEHOLD, THE BABE WEPT"[47]
"MARY, MARY, PITY WOMEN!"[53]
THE SUICIDE[61]
PUBLICANS AND HARLOTS[68]
OLD INKY[75]
A DAUGHTER OF THE STATE[80]
IN THE PHTHISIS WARD[85]
AN IRISH CATHOLIC[91]
AN OBSCURE CONVERSATIONIST[97]
MOTHERS[104]
"YOUR SON'S YOUR SON"[110]
"TOO OLD AT FORTY"[115]
IN THE LUNATIC ASYLUM[118]
THE SWEEP'S LEGACY[126]
AN ALIEN[130]
"WIDOWS INDEED!"[134]
THE RUNAWAY[138]
"A GIRL! GOD HELP HER!"[145]
ON THE PERMANENT LIST[148]
THE PAUPER AND THE OLD-AGE PENSION [153]
THE EVACUATION OF THE WORKHOUSE[157]

WORKHOUSE CHARACTERS