22 OCTOBER

1828 The master of the Aldgate workhouse attended a hearing at London's Mansion House with a bandage around his head after being beaten in revenge by one of the paupers. The master stated that despite his best efforts to prevent the introduction of gin into the workhouse, the inmates managed regularly to get drunk. As might be expected, the gin inflamed more passions than one, and a female pauper had managed to make her way into the men's quarters where she was discovered in close conversation with a male inmate. When the master ordered the woman back to her proper place, her paramour had knocked him down and kicked him violently about the head and body. The assailant was then taken into custody. Soon afterwards, William Lamb, messenger to the paupers, was detected conveying seven small bottles of gin into the workhouse. The Lord Mayor remarked that it was an injustice to the distressed to keep in the workhouse persons who could afford to purchase gin. The master refuted this attack on the workhouse, and said that if it had not been for the gin, which brought many of the unfortunate paupers to their present conditions, there would be no disturbance whatever amongst them. The assailant was committed for trial, and the messenger sent to Bridewell for a month.