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    336 INTERFERENCE.

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    B W11 Two .A.T \H Or Interference Throe ...

    One thing which has led me to this subject is the following opinion recently recorded of the _JBoard of Guardians at one of

    their meetings . Lady visitors have for some time been admitted to that vast workhouse , they are tolerated by the guardians and

    officials , and permitted to enter , we believe , only by tickets furnished by the former ; lately however we have hoped that they were

    acquiring a more recognised position , and were valued for some real work and reformation that they had not only attempted , but effected ;

    their number has increased , and there seemed to be a hope that , in the women ' s department at leastsome good influence might be

    in-, troduced into the enormous and unmanageable machinery . As the proceedings of the guardians are recorded and published in a weekly

    periodical , there can be no harm in my stating that the management of the nursery had been complained of as most defective , and a

    committee ( of gentlemen of course ) had been appointed to report upon it ; it stated that they were " satisfied with the present management ,

    and were of opinion the same would continue , if the matron exercised a proper supervision" ( one matron we must remember to eighteen

    hundred persons of all sorts and ages under her charge . ) The report further proceeds to state , " The lady visitors attended the

    nursery , and materially interfered with its management , which they consider hihly objectionable ; they suggested the placing of notices

    in that and g other wards , informing ladies they object to any interference with their rules and regulations . "

    Now , would not our first and most natural supposition be that it was the ordained and proper ! work of women to superintend the

    arrangements of a nursery , anjd how has it come to pass that these matters are now vested entirely in the hands of men ? Surely none

    of these _guardians would be invited to look into the details of their own nurseries , or would be supposed competent to give an opinion

    about them ; yet here is a nursery , on a large scale , dealing with difficult subjects and difficult nursesplaced entirely under their orders ,

    , ( for the matron is evidently only supposed to carry out their directions , ) and when women , educated ladies , presume to offer a

    suggestion , or a word of advice , it is styled , in what we must venture to call at the least _imcoicrteoits language , " interference , _" and is moreover

    stigmatised as "highly objectionable . " * Perhaps then we may now be allowed to ask " what is interference , " and how can it be prevented ?

    Clearly , in the first place " interference" is help or advice which is not asked for or desired , but intruded upon persons and places where

    it is unwelcome and ( of course said to be ) unnecessary . The sure remedy then for this objection would be to ask forsanction , and

    , authorise the advice or help , and it would then cease to be " interference , " for when two parties or bodies co-operate together and

    assist each other , the help of the one is clearly not considered _" interference" by the other .

    * Be it observed that the details are not stated , or any opportunity given

    the to the accusation accused s to consisted clear themselves . , so we _haye no means of judging- in what

    336 Interference.

    336 INTERFERENCE .

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), July 1, 1860, page 336, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01071860/page/48/