THE scheme of Poor-law Reform which Mr. HARDY propounded last week will be received, on the whole, with satisfaction. We congratulate Mr. HARDY very sincerely on the display of honest zeal and very considerable acuteness in appreciating the problems to be solved, and on the delivery of a, statement to the House which was a model of temperate and statesmanlike language. We accept with thanks the thoroughly courteous and candid acknowledgment which he has made of the important part which THE

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... T and its Commissioners, Dr. ANSTIE, Mr. HART, and Dr. CARR, played in arousing attention to the monstrous deficiencies of the London workhouse infirmaries. But we cannot help expressing a desire that some improvements may be made in the Bill; and we believe that we shall be doing Mr. HARDY a service if we point out certain matters in which he must go much further than he at present proposes to do, if he hopes to satisfy reformers who possess a large acquaintance with the question of Poor Relief. We can scarcely do better than lay before our readers, in the first place, the standard regulations by which the Workhouse Infirmary Association proposed that the treatment of the sick poor should be guided in future. These regulations were drawn up by two of our Commissioners. They were not hasty à priori conclusions about the matter, but were the fruit of much reflection upon the mass of evidence which was pre. sented to them in the course of their exploration of the London infirmaries. They were carefully read over, and immediately signed by