3

A burial place for those of the orphans who may die in Dublin was granted, unsolicited, by the incumbent of St. Catherine's. The spot he gave is close to that where, having just laid the body of a friend in its last resting place, and deeply moved by the destitute condition of his children, three humble tradesmen devised the Protestant Orphan Society. A suitable inscription on the tombstone placed in memory of the orphans first buried there records the origin of the association. It has indeed become a mighty tree from so small a seed! The provincial branches, as we learn from the annual report issued in March, 1866, have increased to thirty. They have 2,208 orphans under their care, and have placed out in the world 5,376; 1,817 orphans have shared the bounty of the parent society, of whom 453 children are now under its charge; 831 have been apprenticed, and 428 have been returned to friends whose circumstances had sufficiently improved to authorize the restoration.

The mortality of the Dublin orphans, calculated in 1862 upon several preceding years, is, according to the eminent statistician, Dr. Neilson Hancock, slightly under 1 per cent. per annum, the average national rate for their age being about 1 per cent. Let us contrast this with the deaths for the same period throughout Ireland in workhouses, which, for children under sixteen, was about three times the national rate, while in Cork Workhouse this was multiplied ten times; and in North Dublin Union the mortality of children under two years amounted to nearly 100 per cent. "In other words, children under two years of age were not likely to live more than ten months in the house." No wonder the guardians of that Union urged the nonadmission of such children, as it would be nearly certain

death to receive them." &

7

"5

About nine years ago a similar orphanage, called St. Brigid's, was established by a Roman Catholic lady in Dublin, with the warm approval of the Roman Catholic

3 Florence Hill, p. 131.

66

4" The Mortality of Children in Workhouses in Ireland." By W. Neilson Hancock, Esq., LL.D. Dublin, 1862.

• Ibid.

• Ibid.

71859. Florence Hill, p. 135.

archbishop, for children of that faith. Placed to board in respectable country families, they are constantly visited by the conductors of the Orphanage and watched over by the priest of the parish in which they dwell, and at a suitable age they are apprenticed to trades or service. Within seven years of the commencement 500 children had been taken in charge, of whom only three or four had turned out ill, while 200 were “already working for themselves at trades, at service, or growing up in the families and as the sons and daughters of the foster-parents."

The systematic attempts at realizing the boarding-out system made in England are but few. The results, however, of those trials which have been made by Mrs. Archer, of Swindon (Florence Hill, p. 176), Mr. Armistead, of Cheshire (p. 184), Miss Boucherett, of Lincolnshire (p. 190), by the Guardians of Leominster Union, and by the Guardians of Eton Union (p. 206), are very encouraging indeed.

The very best and most impressive results, however, have been obtained in Scotland.

In 1864 the Workhouse Visiting Journal printed an abstract of answers to questions submitted by it to Mr. Greig, clerk to the Edinburgh Parochial Board, upon the system adopted by that body in respect to the orphan children under their care; and the document has been since reprinted in various publications. We are enabled, by his courtesy, to give the following fuller information, brought down to the end of 1866:

'Report by George Greig, Inspector of Poor for the City Parish of Edinburgh, as to the mode of dealing with Orphan Children in that Parish, 1866.

"The pauper children of this parish were formerly maintained in an institution called the Orphan Hospital, apart from the poorhouse, but so dissatisfied was this Board with the results, that about eighteen years ago they resolved to board the children with families in the country, where they might have the physical advantage of the country air, & Florence Hill, p. 159.

as well as the moral one of being separated from bad associates and brought into contact with people of good character. This plan has since been followed by all the larger parishes in Scotland, the number sent out at present by the parishes of Edinburgh and Leith being upward of 700, by Glasgow somewhat more, and by Dundee, Aberdeen, and other towns, in proportion to their population.

"With the view of securing proper supervision in carrying out the family system, this Board appointed an assistant to the inspector, whose sole duty it is to superintend the children boarded out, both boys and girls, and to find out good nurses for them.

"They are boarded with cottagers, farm servants, or tradespeople, and not with persons who make the care of them their only task.

"Preference is given to people of character who have a steady income apart from the allowance for the board of the children, and who will receive and treat them exactly as members of their own family; and it is found that when the children are sent out young, they learn to call the parties to whom they are sent father and mother.

"They acquire toward them the feelings of children, and the result generally is that the nurses acquire for them a parental affection.

"In selecting nurses for the children the assistant inspector visits the parties who agree to take them (and there are generally plenty of applicants), and makes inquiry in the neighborhood as to their character; inspects the house as to its accommodation, dryness, and ventilation; ascertains if there is a well-taught school in the neighborhood; and it is only after being satisfied on all these points that children are sent.

He afterward visits the nurse as well as the school at least eight times in the year; satisfies himself that the children are healthy, sufficiently fed, cleanly kept, and their education attended to; and, in addition, the inspector and members of the Board, in rotation, visit all the children boarded out once a year.

"People of excellent moral character are generally got to take charge of the children; but, should inferior per

sons be perchance selected, the close superintendence prevents them from doing injustice. Should neglect occur in any case, however, the children are at once removed; but although there are about 300 children boarded out, and some years ago there were 400, I have only had occasion to remove children, in consequence of neglect on the part of their nurses, on three or four occasions during a period of five years.

The localities selected are generally small villages at a distance of ten, fifteen, or twenty miles from Edinburgh, and of convenient access by railway; and never more than four children are sent to one family.

"In consequence of our requiring the regular attendance of the children at school, the teacher has to fill up a schedule showing their progress, and each day's absence with the reasons given-which forms a check on the nurse. Our children are, consequently, the most regular in their attendance; are generally the best scholars, carrying off a large share of the school prizes; and when sent to service prove as good servants as the children of the cottagers or workpeople not dependent on the rates usually do certainly not inferior, and many of them rise to positions of trust. It is a rare thing for either a boy or a girl, who has been brought up by the Parochial Board in this way, to become chargeable to the parish in after-life, which was not the case as to the children who were brought up in the hospital in town.

"In a report by Mr. Adamson, the able inspector of Glasgow, issued in August, 1864, reference is made to results equally satisfactory in the case of the children who had been boarded out and brought up in the same way by this Board.9

'The Board pays to the nurse, for each child sent to board, two shillings and sixpence a week, which covers board, lodging, washing. and mending. The Board, in addition, provides clothing, which is sent from the poorhouse, of a good quality, and not uniform in color or kind;

The boarding-out system has been pursued in Glasgow for upward of a hundred years.

and also pays the fees to the schoolmaster, the same as paid by the children of the district. In cases of sickness, which is rare, the nurse obtains the services of a medical man in the district, for which the Board pays. The total amount of all these charges for each child for the past year, including the salary of the assistant inspector and all expenses connected with the children, was £8 10s. 10d.

"It is the nurse's duty to take the children with her to the church which she attends, to see that they attend the Sabbath-school and study their lessons, and, in short, to deal with them in every way as if they were her own; and with the view of extending the benefits of the domestic influence on the children beyond the period when the Board has charge of them, we get the nurses to find apprenticeships for the boys and service for the girls, as much as possible, with employers in their own neighborhood, so that the children may have an opportunity of visiting their nurses on the Saturday afternoons, or at other times when they get liberty; and, in these cases, the nurse continues her care over them, and washes and mends their clothes when necessary, for which they remunerate her.

'On such visits the children are received with friendly welcome, as if it were their home, and they thus contract the habit of returning to it at intervals, assured of meeting with advice in difficulties, sympathy in distress, and heartfelt congratulations on success.

"In the event of a boy or girl having to leave their service, through sickness or otherwise, they return to their nurse's house, and are often supported there for months without any remuneration ever being asked from the Board. Should the nurse, however, not be in a position to do this, or wish assistance, the Board readily grants it, but this is seldom asked.

Many cases have come to my knowledge where the child has in after-life contributed toward the support of the nurse.

"The children are sent to board at all ages, but the younger they are sent so much the better.