SUNSHINE

IN

THE WORKHOUSE.

BY

MRS G. W. SHEPPARD.

"He's only a pauper whom nobody owns."

CHRISTO IN PAUPERIBUS.

LONDON:

JAMES NISBET AND CO., 21 BERNERS STREET.

M.DCCC.IX.

270. c. 315.

"Between you and your best intent
Necessity her brazen bar
Will often interpose, as sent

Your pure benevolence to mar:
Still-every gentle word has sway
To teach the pauper's desperate mood,
That misery shall not take away
Franchise of human brotherhood."

R. M. MILNES.

PREFACE.

I HAVE been called upon for another Edition of my little Pamphlet, "The Experiences of a Workhouse Visitor," which was only printed in May last in its first form for private circulation; since which time it has gone through four editions: and having been requested to add further information on the subject, I thought it must be no longer enlarged, as it has been, in its late snowball fashion, rolling from May through June into July, and growing a little larger as each edition appeared; but must put it in a more taking form, emboldened to do so by the advice of a good and talented clerical friend, who, after urging me to take it out of its déshabillé, (which a loose octavo always is,) and give it forth in a new dress, further added: "I said inwardly as I read your pamphlet, Well after all, political economy is a fine thing, and we economists a wise people, but the kind sympathy of a Christian woman's heart is just the soft soap which we require to make our mechanisms work."