e prospective hardships of the new
order of things. The whole proceedings lasted several hours, and a
storm of rain did not help the ardour of the crusaders.

At the conclusion, however, the people drew the rev. gentlemen in a
wagon through some of the streets of the town and the threatened storm
passed off without any breach of the peace occurring. The chronicle of
the time says:--"The labourers went away apparently dissatisfied with
the result, having learned nothing to instruct them," and "the whole
was the completest failure ever experienced as to any public meeting."
The Guardians laid the matter before the Bishop of the Diocese as to
the conduct of the clergymen named, but in the general satisfaction at
the peaceful ending of the affair, things gradually settled down into
the system as we now know it.

The old parish Workhouses were sold, pulled down, or otherwise dealt
with, and the proceeds were in some cases invested in Consols and still
appear occasionally as an item to the credit of the parish in parochial
balance sheets. The Royston Parish Workhouse on the Warren was sold by
auction and realized L315, leaving, after expenses and the paying of a
parish loan, advanced by Mr. Phillips, a balance of L166.

The new Workhouse was commenced in October, 1835, upon the site of an
old barn the property of Mr. Luke, which had just been blown down. It
was finished in September, 1836, the Royston paupers being removed from
the old Workhouse on the Warren and those from the villages brought in,
notwithstanding the indignation of the Revs. Maberley and Clack.

For some years the new system was the subject of not a little hostile
criticism and the meetings were not always harmonious.

The Poor-law expenditure under the old system and the new showed a
striking contrast. For the whole country before the new system, and
for the last two years under the old, the amount of the poor-rate was
L6,913,883, and for the two years immediately afterwards the rate was
L4,381,185, showing a reduction of more than one-third of the
expenditure. In some cases in the rural districts the figures were
much more remarkable, and in one parish in the Buntingford Union the
expenditure for the last year under the old system was L800, and the
first under the new it was less than L300. It may be that--

Who holds a power
But newly gained is ever stern of mood.

Even so, there was certainly plenty of room both for reform witho