Statement of the Provision for the Poor, and of the Condition of the Labouring Classes in a Considerable Portion of America and Europe / Being the preface to the foreign communications contained in the appendix to the Poor-Law Report

by Nassau William Senior

Art. 3. To prevent all communication between the mendicants of different sexes and ages, the porter is ordered to keep locked the doors of the dormitories, the work-shops, the courts for recreation, and other places to which the inmates have access, as soon as they have quitted them, in pursuance of the regulations of the place.

4. It is the duty of the porter and other officers and servants to see that the inmates are carefully kept to the apartments provided for them respectively. The porter must go the rounds from time to time to ascertain this.

Section 3.—Dormitories.

Art. 1. The bell is to announce the hour of rising from the 1st of March to the 30th of September at 4 o’clock in the morning, and from the 1st Oct. to the 28th Feb. at 6. The inspectors must take care that the inmates immediately rise.

3. After prayers at 6 o’clock in summer, and 7 in winter, the inmates, accompanied by the inspectors, are to proceed to their respective workshops. The dormitories are to be swept and cleaned by two inmates, selected by turns for this employment out of each dormitory, and then to be kept locked.

4. At 9 in the evening, in all seasons, the bell is to announce bedtime. The inmates are immediately to proceed to their respective dormitories; the roll is to be called by the inspector, and prayers (not lasting more than a quarter of an hour) are to be said, and listened to attentively; after prayers each shall go quietly to bed, and perfect silence be kept in every dormitory.

Section 4.—Refectories.

Art. 1. Breakfast shall take place during the summer six months precisely at 8 in the morning, and during the six winter months at 9, and last half an hour. Immediately after breakfast the inmates are to return to work until precisely half-past 12 o’clock, the dinner hour at all seasons.

5. From half-past 12 till 2 is allowed for dinner and for recreation, under the inspection, in each division, of a servant. At 2 o’clock precisely the bell is to summon the inmates to return to work, and the inspectors are to call the roll in each workshop.

6. At 8 in the evening, in all seasons, the bell is to be rung for supper; the inmates may remain in the refectory till nine.