e bed at night,
and this method of punishment seems to be a favourite one. This
workhouse, which stands in one of the most beautiful regions of Kent, is
peculiar, in so far as its windows open only upon the court, and but two,
newly introduced, afford the inmates a glimpse of the outer world. The
author who relates this in the _Illuminated Magazine_, closes his
description with the words: "If God punished men for crimes as man
punishes man for poverty, then woe to the sons of Adam!"

In November, 1843, a man died at Leicester, who had been dismissed two
days before from the workhouse at Coventry. The details of the treatment
of the poor in this institution are revolting. The man, George Robson,
had a wound upon the shoulder, the treatment of which was wholly
neglected; he was set to work at the pump, using the sound arm; was given
only the usual workhouse fare, which he was utterly unable to digest by
reason of the unhealed wound and his general debility; he naturally grew
weaker, and the more he complained, the more brutally he was treated.
When his wife tried to bring him her drop of beer, she was reprimanded,
and forced to drink it herself in the presence of the female warder. He
became ill, but received no better treatment. Finally, at his own
request, and under the most insulting epithets, he was discharged,
accompanied by his wife. Two days later he died at Leicester, in
consequence of the neglected wound and of the food given him, which was
utterly indigestible for one in his condition, as the surgeon present at
the inquest testified. When he was discharged, there were handed to him
letters containing money, which had been kept back six weeks, and opened,
according to a rule of the establishment, by the inspector! In
Birmingham such scandalous occurrences took place, that finally, in 1843,
an official was sent to investigate the case. He found that four tramps
had been shut up naked under a staircase in a black hole, eight to ten
days, often deprived of food until noon, and that at the severest season
of the year. A little boy had been passed through all grades of
punishment known to the institution; first locked up in a damp, vaulted,
narrow, lumber-room; then in the dog-hole twice, the second time three
days and three nights; then the same length of time in the old dog-hole,
which was still worse; then the tramp-room, a stinking, disgustingly
filthy hole, with wooden sleeping stalls, where the officia