PATER’S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3017, 10 January 1912, Page 79

PATER’S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

THE SEVENTH EARL OF SHAFTESBURY.—III. Last week I promised a Chat up‘on the social reforms the Earl was largely responsible for. ' In 1822 he took a first in classics, but d'ci not take his JVI.A. until 1832, and in 1826 we find him, at 25, entering Parliament for Woodstock, the pcckethorough of the Marlborough family. The “John Bull” newspaper said of him at the hustings “The speech of Lord Ashley was distinguished by eloquence and sound judgment, and breathed a spirit of regard for our glorious Constitution which should animate the hearts of all electors and elected at this crisis, when the demon of Popery is struggling to raise its accursed head.” 1 give this quotation because of its reference to Roman Catholicism. Then there was an agitation for the repeal oi laws against Reman Catholics, laws which may or may not have served a good purpose previously. It was not for Some years yet that "these obnoxious laws wero repealed, and m 1828 he voted against the renewal of disabilities, though in the following year lie re versed his decision His religiousness is shown by tin entry he made in his diary after his election:—“November 10. —Took the ‘oaths of Parliament with great goodwill; a slight prayer for assistance in my thoughts and deeds.” AN ELECTION IN 1851. Elections then were conducted very differently from what they are now and with us. With us it is voting by ballot; the voting is confined to one day ; all members are elected the same day; town and country electorates contain approximately a defined number of votes, and there is a limit to expenditure. None of these conditions obtained then. The voting in a constituency extended over several days, and had to be open; the total elections might extend over weeks; half a dozen votes might return a member, ami a con tested election might run into a cost of thousands of pounds. In 1831 the AntiReform party— the Duke of Wellington was at the head of it, 1 think —raised a fighting fund to contest elections, and put up Lord Ashley for Dorsetshire, promising to pay his expenses. Ashley won, but the hill totted up over £15,600. and by far the greatest portion of this was spent in public-houses! Imagine t hat for a reformer ami a man so extremely religious! Times have changed. Haven’t thev? I write this paragraph so that young readers may contrast elections in England in 1831, when there was no payment of members, with New Zealand in 1911. when there is. T A R LI A ME NT A R Y C A REER. With this I shall not concern myself auart from his own special work, except to say that he was a strong Conservative. *His opinions upon men and affairs arc often very interesting, hut I must pass on. In 1820 Wellington made him Commissioner of the India Board of Control, and of this he writes in Ins diary—by the bye, this was kept very intermittently : “I am installed, ft man of office

' I dread my duty, rtot my work. So much 1 is now crowded upon me, and my ditficul- ! ties appear so much greater, that I almost repent of the acceptance of the charge But God be with me if I am honest.” LUNATICS AND LUNATIC ASYLUMS. 1 From about 1828 to about 1833 Ashley devoted himself ro lunacy reforms. I suppose that you know that the word | ‘‘lunatic” conies from “.hma,” the moon, i a,1( l that lunatics are so named because j their mental aberration is supposed to be due to the moon’s action. If you wish to keep in Dr 'I ruby Ling’s good graces }ou will drop this survival of ignorance and adojit the more accurate expression •‘mental hospital” for lunatic asylum. “In the Middle Ages the insane had been canonised as saints, burned as heretics, or hanged as criminals.” Sometimes, later on, madmen became the i bject of sport, when not too violent. At the time 1 am speaking of “Londoners out for a holiday paid their twopence to stroll through Bedlam and laugh at the poor lunatics; and at another lime the town was panic-stricken because the Lord George Gordon ritdeve threatened to let the madmen out of Bedlam.” Lord Ashley visited the asylums and saw sights that made Ids i heart bleed. “Lunatics were kept conj stantly chained to walls in dark cells, and had nothing to lie upon but straw. ' The keepers visited them, whip in hand, and lashed them into obedience ; they were also half-drowned in ‘baths of surprise,’ I and in some cases semi-strangulation was j resorted to. The ‘baths of surprise’ were so constructed that the patients, in passing over a trap-door, fell in; some patients • u ore chained in wells and the water made to rise until it reached their chins. One I horrible contrivance was a rotary chair, in which the patients were made to cit and were revoived at a frightful speed. The chair was in common use. Patients, men and women, were flogged at particular periods, drained and fastened to iron bars, and even confined in iron cages.” The filth, nakedness, and misery were indescribable, and yet regarded as mat. ters of course. It was in connection with lunacy reforms that Lord Ashley made his first speech m Parliament. It was spoken in so low a tone as scarcely to be audible some distance away; but it was a beginning. His diary contains the following reference to it: —‘‘February 20. ' —Last night 1 ventured to- -speak, and, God be praised, I did not utterly disgrace myself, though the exhibition was far from glorious; but the subject was upon lunatic asylums, a mere matter of plain business and requiring simplicity alone with common sense . . . by God’s blessing, my first effort has been for the 1 advancement of human happiness. May I improve hourly.” It took yeans to make a clean sweep, but when he saw the miseries I have outlined and saw lunatics chained to their beds and left from Saturday afternoon to Monday morning with only bread and water within their roach, he was nerved to steady action until barbarities were reduced to a minimum. BOBBIES AND PEELERS.

" You know what 1 mean, don’t you? We are now coming to tihe period when Ashley’s career as a reformer stands prominently out. But before I touch upon it let me notice a minor reform. The factory towns were in a pitiable condition, and there was almost an entire absence of law and order. ‘ Before 1829 the public were dependent for their protection upon a staff of parochial watchmen, who were muffled up in heavy cloaks, and beat a stick upon the pavement fo announce their approach and allow evil-disposed persons to get out of the way. At night thev carried lanterns, which served, as the" stick bv dav, to announce their whereabouts,” and 'after they ( had made their rounds they retired to their watchboxes.” The watchmen were often old men more ridiculed than feared, and often enough were overturned, boxes and all. Robert Peel put an end to this farce. Wonderful to say. the institution of a police force on a more effective basis was met ‘‘on nil hands with the heicost opposition and invective, ’ and in contempt or amusement the police were named “bobbies” or “peelers. FACTORY LEGISLATION. And. after all, I haven't touched upon v hat is my main theme; but a biography of a man like Shaftesbury is largely a his-Ivji-v of the domestic legislation of Fngiaud and therefore abounds in interesting detail. I’ll lave to allow future reference to his work to another Chat,