Beschreibung:

NIGHTINGALE, Florence (1820-1910). Autograph letter signed to the Reverend Stephen Hawtrey, 35 South Street, Park Lane, 7 November [18]68 , sending the address of William Rathbone in Liverpool, answering questions about charity and the new Poor Law reform, 'I scarcely ever have known an instance of an organized system of Charity giving relief in times of need that has not pauperized the recipients', on unemployment, criminal conduct, the situation of women in the workhouse, unhealthy housing, and sending a sketch [not included here] of Una, 12 pages, 8° . A very interesting letter on her hopes for the new Metropolitan Poor Law Act of 1867, on which she was an adviser, and commenting on its shortcomings , 'the new Poor Law is a vast improvement ... Political Economy does not say:- Madmen shall be let loose on the streets & shall get their living as best they may', commenting that the unemployed cannot be expect to work if there is no employment, 'The great mass of workmen are perfectly incapable, if work fails them ... our precious laws, instead of presenting work as the greatest blessing of the human race, present it as a punishment', expressing her distress at the poverty caused by unemployment and degradation of the workhouses, especially for women, and referring to alternatives in the form of loans, fines instead of imprisonment for theft, and the distribution of medicines to the poorly housed and homeless, 'The Poor Law Medical Officer can only give medicine to those who are already ill', and lamenting the death from fever of Una [Agnes Jones], who ran the Liverpool Workhouse infirmary, founded with the help of W. Rathbone, the Liverpool philanthropist, mentioned at the beginning of the letter.