Robert Blatchford compares the workhouse pauper’s daily diet with the soldier’s, which, when he was a soldier, was not considered liberal enough, and yet is twice as liberal as the pauper’s.

PAUPER    DIET          SOLDIER
3.25 oz.   Meat          12 oz.
15.5 oz.   Bread         24 oz.
6 oz.      Vegetables     8 oz.

The adult male pauper gets meat (outside of soup) but once a week, and the paupers “have nearly all that pallid, pasty complexion which is the sure mark of starvation.”

Here is a table, comparing the workhouse officer’s weekly allowance:-

OFFICER    DIET          PAUPER
7 lb.       Bread         6.75 lb.
5 lb.       Meat          1 lb. 2 oz.
12 oz.      Bacon         2.5 oz.
8 oz.       Cheese        2 oz.
7 lb.       Potatoes      1.5 lb.
6 lb.       Vegetables    none.
1 lb.       Flour         none.
2 oz.       Lard          none.
12 oz.      Butter        7 oz.
none.       Rice Pudding  1 lb.

And as the same writer remarks:  “The officer’s diet is still more liberal than the pauper’s; but evidently it is not considered liberal enough, for a footnote is added to the officer’s table saying that ’a cash payment of two shillings and sixpence a week is also made to each resident officer and servant.’  If the pauper has ample food, why does the officer have more?  And if the officer has not too much, can the pauper be properly fed on less than half the amount?”

But it is not alone the Ghetto-dweller, the prisoner, and the pauper that starve.  Hodge, of the country, does not know what it is always to have a full belly.  In truth, it is his empty belly which has driven him to the city in such great numbers.  Let us investigate the way of living of a labourer from a parish in the Bradfield Poor Law Union, Berks.  Supposing him to have two children, steady work, a rent-free cottage, and an average weekly wage of thirteen shillings, which is equivalent to $3.25, then here is his weekly budget:-

s.  d. 
Bread (5 quarterns)                   1   10
Flour (0.5 gallon)                    0   4
Tea (0.25 lb.)                        0   6
Butter (1 lb.)                        1   3
Lard (1 lb.)                          0   6
Sugar (6 lb.)                         1   0
Bacon or other meat (about 0.25 lb.)  2   8
Cheese (1 lb.)                        0   8
Milk (half-tin condensed)             0   3.25
Coal                                  1   6
Beer                                  none
Tobacco                               none
Insurance ("Prudential”)              0   3
Labourers’ Union                      0   1
Wood, tools, dispensary, &c.          0   6
Insurance ("Foresters”) and margin    1   1.75
for clothes
Total                                13   0

The guardians of the workhouse in the above Union pride themselves on their rigid economy.  It costs per pauper per week:-

s.   d. 
Men            6    1.5
Women          5    6.5
Children       5    1.25

If the labourer whose budget has been described should quit his toil and go into the workhouse, he would cost the guardians for