ABSTRACT
When “the able-bodied and their families” entered the workhouse, we find the Central Authority prescribing a classification altogether different from that applied to outdoor paupers. The policy of the Central Authority with regard to the relief of children rested on the general rule that children, residing with their parents and dependent on them for support, had to follow them for relief. The character of the workhouse of 1835-1847 was principally determined by the practice as to the segregation of its inmates. As the policy of the Central Authority was to exclude from the life of the workhouse inmates everything of the nature of reward, encouragement, stimulus, responsibility, or initiative, the question arises by what means the monotonous discipline was to be maintained. The workhouse for each union was to be one centrally situated, plain building; designed to house all sorts and conditions of paupers, under one head, and according to a single code of rules.
