The master of the workhouse is now called in and delivers his weekly report of the conduct of the inmates, and any events that have happened.  One inmate, an ancient labourer, died that morning in the infirmary, not many hours before the meeting of the Board.  The announcement is received with regretful exclamations, and there is a cessation of business for a few minutes.  Some of the old farmers who knew the deceased recount their connection with him, how he worked for them, and how his family has lived in the parish as cottagers from time immemorial.  A reminiscence of a grim joke that fell out forty years before, and of which the deceased was the butt, causes a grave smile, and then to business again.  The master possibly asks permission to punish a refractory inmate; punishment is now very sparingly given in the house.  A good many cases, however, come up from the Board to the magisterial Bench—­charges of tearing up clothing, fighting, damaging property, or of neglecting to maintain, or to repay relief advanced on loan.  These cases are, of course, conducted by the clerk.

There is sometimes a report, to be read by one of the doctors who receive salaries from the Board and attend to the various districts, and occasionally some nuisance to be considered and order taken for its compulsory removal on sanitary grounds.  The question of sanitation is becoming rather a difficult one in agricultural unions.

After this the various committees of the Board have to give in the result of their deliberations, and the representative of the ladies’ boarding-out committee presents a record of the work accomplished.  These various committees at times are burdened with the most onerous labours, for upon them falls the duty of verifying all the petty details of management.  Every pound of soap, or candles, scrubbing-brushes, and similar domestic items, pass under their inspection, not only the payments for them, but the actual articles, or samples of them, being examined.  Tenders for grocery, bread, wines and spirits for cases of illness, meat, coals, and so forth are opened and compared, vouchers, bills, receipts, invoices, and so forth checked and audited.

The amount of detail thus attended to is something immense, and the accuracy required occupies hour after hour.  There are whole libraries of account-books, ledgers, red-bound relief-books, stowed away, pile upon pile, in the house; archives going back to the opening of the establishment, and from which any trifling relief given or expenditure inclined years ago can be extracted.  Such another carefully-administered institution it would be hard to find; nor is any proposed innovation or change adopted without the fullest discussion—­it may be the suggested erection of additional premises, or the introduction of some fresh feature of the system, or some novel instructions sent down by the Local Government Board.