for, 197 against) a motion "that this House, while ready to entertain any necessary reforms in local administration, deprecates the postponement of further measures of relief acknowledged to be due to ratepayers in counties and boroughs in respect of local charges imposed on them for national services." On this occasion Mr Pell made his longest speech in the House, for he spoke for one and a half hours (Hansard, vol. cclxxxvi., p. 1023). On 3rd July 1885 the President of the Local Government Board (Mr A. J. Balfour) brought in his Bill to prevent the grant of medical relief disenfranchising any person. Mr Pell, as might be expected, opposed the Bill from first to last, and on the motion for its second reading placed his opinions on record by moving as follows: "That in the relief of any person out of any poor rate, the House declines to draw a distinction in favour of enfranchising those who obtain it in the form of medical treatment and those who are compelled to accept it in the form of bread" (Hansard, vol. 299, p. 964); but he could not prevent the passage of the Bill. Mr Pell has sat upon three Royal Commissions, viz., the City Parochial Charities, the City Guilds, and the Aged Poor. He took great interest in and was a regular attendant at all of them. In 1899 he served in America as one of the Assistant Commissioners to the Royal Commission on Agriculture, having Mr Clare Sewell Read as his colleague. It is hardly necessary to say much about his work in connection with Poor Law Conferences, as it is known to most Guardians of the Poor. The first Conference which he attended was that held for the North Midland District in 1875, at which we are not surprised to find him contributing a paper on "Outdoor Relief." From that time to this he has been a attendant at the Central Conferences and at those of his own district, often contributing papers as well as a constant joining in the discussions. He was Chairman of the Central Committee from 1877 to 1898, and is still one of its elected members. It is almost unnecessary to add that it was owing to his energy and influence alone that the Central Conferences were never allowed to fall through. At the Central Conference of 1896 his great services in their cause were publicly recognised by the presentation to him of an album with the following Address, signed by some two hundred Guardians and Clerks : "We, the undersigned, assembled at the Central Poor Law Conference, 1896, and who are either actively engaged or interested in the administration of the Poor Law in England and Wales, desire to take this opportunity of placing on record our high appreciation of the valuable services rendered by Mr Albert Pell to the Central Conferences during the long time that he has been associated with them, and over which he has so often presided ; and also our deep sense that it is mainly owing to his untiring efforts that these Conferences are still in existence and so successful at the present day." Mr Pell's best friends would hardly be prepared to call him a conciliatory advocate, but any defects arising from this attitude of mind are redeemed in him by the saving grace of humour, and his raciness, readiness, and courage have always given delight even to his strongest opponents. It would take up too much space to recount the many amusing anecdotes which are connected with his name, but it will not be out of place to tell one of them here. The dramatis persona in this instance are Mr Pell, a candidate for Parliament, and Thomas Jones, a "heckler" and local politician. The scene is at an election meeting. T. Jones. Mr Pell, are you the man what brought in a Bill to oblige us poor men to support our parents? A. Pell.-No. That is an older Act of legislation. That is Number Five of the laws which Moses found written on the Tables of Stone. I tell you what it is, Thomas, my man, all that you carry in your heart of these laws is the stone on which they were written. Ever since then the man went by the name of "Stony-hearted" Thomas. That Mr Pell has the kindest of hearts is well known to all who have been thrown in close contact with him. For the sturdy begging vagrant, however, he has no mercy, and he was once actually seen to force one of this class to return to a poor woman what had been taken from her by working on her fears. Mr Pell still remains with us, and continues steadfast to the views of Poor Relief which he has held ever since he gave serious thought to this subject thirty years ago. He still believes in the demoralising influence of legal relief, especially in its outdoor form; that it is within the power of all, save those physically or mentally disabled, to make themselves independent of it, for, as he expressed it at the Central Poor Law Conference of 1878, "it is not the amount which a man earns a week that is the measure of his condition, it is whether he has been so trained as to be able to live below his income." For these principles he still continues to fight, and who shall say that in so doing he is not acting as a much truer friend to the poor man than those who are always preaching to him that he cannot become independent, and that it is useless his striving to be so. It would be out of place here to refer to Mr Pell's services to agriculture. It is sufficient to say that he has been for years a first authority on the subject both in Parliament and outside of it, and that his old University took advantage of the occasion which the meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society at Cambridge in 1894 afforded, to confer upon him the honorary degree of LL.D., in recognition of his valu able work in that field. He has been a member of the Council of the Royal Agricultural Society since 1886, and of the Society from 1843, and was the first Chairman of the Central Chamber of Agriculture in 1867. He was instrumental with his friend, the late Right Hon. W. E. Forster, in founding the Metropolitan Association for Befriending Young Servants, and was Chairman of the London Charity Organisation Society in 1886. He is a Deputy-Lieutenant for Cambridgeshire and Justice of the Peace for the Isle of Ely, Northants, and Leicestershire. He was elected a member of the first County Council for Northants, and is now an Alderman of that County. But, in spite of all the honours which have accumulated to him during the course of a long and useful life, his proudest boast is that he still remains a Guardian of the parish in which he lives, and which he has served in that capacity since 1853. As a proof that he still retains the affection and trust of his constituents, when his seat was attacked this year, he retained it by obtaining a majority of three to one over his opponent. W. CHANCE. April 1900. |