ABSTRACT
We have been much pleased with the June report of the Central Association in aid of the wives and families of soldiers ordered on active service. The sum of £60,000 has been obtained, and of this amount about £49,000 was collected on the Humiliation Day. The proceedings of the association have been conducted with remarkable judgment and discretion, and the principles which they have laid down for their guidance in dispensing their funds are at once sound and practical. They do not intend to exhaust their resources in the erection of buildings for the reception of the objects of relief, nor will they unnecessarily interfere with the ordinary processes applied to the wives and children of soldiers in a state of destitution. Their real home is the parish of the husband and father, and to this they are sent, free of expense, without the intervention of the Association; but when they have arrived at their destination, instead of the workhouse becoming their home, the wives are assisted in the way of earning their own livelihood. A mangle is purchased, or some small stock-in-trade as may appear, upon “very serious consideration,” calculated to provide a permanent means of subsistence. The children are sent to school. To those who are motherless an allowance of £11 a year is made. The clergyman of the parish is appealed to, and interests himself in their behalf, and all the designs of the Association appear to have been accomplished with singular success. Upwards of forty wives of soldiers have been provided with situations in and near the metropolis; the cases of 1,500 wives and 2,100 children had been relieved or investigated up to the 7th of June, although the Association was only established on the 7th of March. We are glad to learn that not fewer than fifty-five voluntary unpaid local committees have been established in different parts of the country in connexion with the Central Association, and which will greatly facilitate the means for effecting its objects. The title of the Association has now been altered, for obvious reasons, so as to comprise the widows and orphans of soldiers. We have not space to mention the various thoughtful and considerate regulations for alleviating distress without weakening the sense of independence and self-reliance.
