[252] This remained so even in the General Consolidated Order of 24th July 1847, art. 167.
[253] General Order of 5th February 1842, art. 10, proviso 6, in Eighth Annual Report, 1842, p. 81.
[254] Instructional Letter of 5th February 1842; in Eighth Annual Report, 1842, p. 109.
[255] Consolidated Order for the Administration of Relief in Town Unions, 7th March 1836, in Second Annual Report, 1836, p. 91.
[256] Letter of 18th February 1842; in Official Circular, 13th February 1843, No. 23, p. 43. See also the interesting letter of 5th March 1842, giving the reasons for grinding by stones rather than by a steel mill (ibid. 30th July 1842, No. 20, p. 298).
[257] General Order of 8th November 1845, and Circular Letter of the same date, in Twelfth Annual Report, 1846, pp. 72-77.
[258] The last instruction of the Central Authority during this period with regard to employment is the Circular of 1st April 1846, stating that the task to be exacted in oakum-picking should be 4 lb. per day for males and 2 to 3 lb. per day for females (Official Circular, 1st April 1886, No. 58, p. 57).
[259] Form of Order, 1840, art. 5; in Seventh Annual Report, 1841, p. 115. This was repeated in the General Order of 5th February 1842, art. 38, and Instructional Letter of the same date, in Eighth Annual Report, 1842, pp. 86, 121. But it was omitted from the General Consolidated Order of 24th July 1847. And when a board of guardians had made all the unchaste women wear a yellow gown, this was in 1839 disallowed by the Central Authority, on the mixed grounds that the Poor Law Amendment Act had removed all penal consequences from incontinence, and that classification should be by present habits and character, not by past conduct (Minute of 5th March 1839, in Sixth Annual Report, 1840, pp. 98-100; see also Instructional Letter of 5th February 1842, in Eighth Annual Report, 1842, p. 121). We are told that the slang term for workhouse wards for immoral women was "Canary Wards," so that the distinctive dress must have been widely known.
[260] Circular Letter of January 1841, in Seventh Annual Report, 1841, p. 121.
[261] Form of Order, 1840, art. 23; in Seventh Annual Report, 1841, p. 118.