The Express.
London, England, 1868-09-12 00:00:00

TEE METROPOLITAN POOR ACT.

The Poor-law Board: in their report for the
year 18674, thus describe the measures they have taken
Fume the date of their last report for bringing into opera-
tion the provisions of the Metropolitan Poor Act, ltki;
The difficulty which bad previously stood in the way of
the establishmsnt of a unitotm system of administration
of relief to the poor from the different provisions of the
local acts pasted at various times and on no fixed prin-
ciples, and from the existence of different bodies consti-
tuted under those acts, which governed the administra-
tion of the law in the large metropolitan parishes, was
removed by sections 73 and 74 of the acts referred to.
Those sections required the board by their order, notwith-
standing anything in any such local acts, to direct the
election of a board of guardians according to the
General l'oor-law Acts, and conferred upon those
guardians the Fame powers and authorities,
and subjected them to the same orders, regu-
lations, and restrictions as boards of guarthaus
cletted under the poor law acts. We accordingly pro-
ceeded in the first instance to issue in succession °Riese
for the election of beards of guardians for the important
pal laws of St. Pancras; St. Mary, Islington ; St. Mary-
'chyme ; St. George, ibusover-square ; tit. Mary, Newing-
ton; fit. Margaret and St. John, Westminster St.
Leonard, Shoreditch ; St. James, Clerkenwell ; St. Luke,
Middlesex ; St. ; and St. George,
Bloomsbury. By these orders the number of guardians
to be elected for each of the puddle* is eighteen, with the
ezetptien of St. Margaret and St. John, Westminster, fur
which sixteen only are raected ; and the qualification pre-
scribed for the of is an assessment to the poor rate of
a rateable value of not less than 4W. With regard to the
Unitas and pariah°s already under the provisions of the
four-law Amendment Act, we have thought it desirable
to make the following alterations:—We have
taken the parish of St. Ann, Soho, from the
Strand union, and have added to the union in lieu of
that parish the parish of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. We
Lave also thought it desirable. in consequence of the groat
increase of the population of the Greenwich and Lewisham
Ltlitall., to form a new union, termed the Woolwich union,
consisting of the I arieh of Woolwich, taken from the
former union, and of the parishes of Charlton-next-Wool-
wich, Kidlnook, and Plunistead, taken from the Lewisham
onion. We have also formed a union from the parish of
St. James, Westminster, hitherto governed under a local
act, and of the parish of St. Ann. Soho, taken from thu
Strand union. called the We-tminstcr union. It is saint-
factory to state that the unlers for theelectione of Wankel
gutird.ens in the I arbehea hitherto governini ley the local
acts burr been duly carried into effect, and the hoards of
peal diens elected larder the m have proceedoil to appoint
the requisite officers, and to carry into execution upon
• tlttlitilln 113,44 M the administration of relief to
the poor, under the general regulations of the
board. These are in accordance with the re-
gulatir no in force throughout the rest of the
kingdom. The Poor-law Bean', in accounting for the
increase ref I auperiern, in their report for 1847-8, say that
the inerseie hue tukeu place over the whole country, with
the exception of the Last ltidiag of Yorkshire, where
there has Lem a 'lutist deereive. The highest rate et
Ott revise occurred in the metropoliten district. The b ward
thinks that the increase may be mainly attributed to the
g, net al depression teluequent upon the cowmen:nal crias
of 1146, vehicle had teen precreel by much speculatren
and over-trading. Large numbers of workmen were Bud-
d(
uly tlitewn out of esuployuieut, many of whom had
been 'Wheeled to the metropolis by the high rate of
wages obtainable in the item shipbuilding yard's, the
building trades, and the numerous railway works in
tropreis. in all of which an almost unprecedented demand
for hibotu bad for some time existed. The cholera,
which prevailed in the summer and autumn of
ltetn, added still further to the distress thus caused,
can ying off in the east of London many of the heads
of families', whose wives ant children were left almost en-
tirely dependent upon the poor rates. This calamity was
followed hey a winter of great severity, causing the sue-
pension of out-door employment, and tin urgent pres-
sure for relief ; and as in such a case an easy and abundant
supply actually creates or increases the demand, even the
large sums which were so liberally subscribed by the
public to relieve the distress, and which in many inetancee,
it is to be feared, were distributed without due discrimi-
nation, tended to aggravate the evil. The chew of ordi-
nary labourers, marry of them already half pauperised, and
others only just removed above pauperism, noon learn the
advantage of living in a district where the alias of the
benevolent flow in to eke out the legal provision from tho
poor rates. Lodgings in these districts are comparatively
cheep; upon that account numbers flock thither in haul
times, and still more when it is found that charitable
contributions are systematically advertised for, and
alms indiscriminately distributed. The provisions of the
sanitary sett; are not always duly enforced, overcrowding
follows, and thus disease and pauperism are generated.
Another cause of the increase of expenditure, which has
not been confined to the metropolis, but has affected the
relief throughout the whole country, has been the coin-
s natively high price of bread. In the year 1511.7-66 the
average vice of wheat wax 435. 6.1. ; in the year 151,6-67,
Alts. lid. It is evident that a high price of previdons not
only adds to the cost of maintenance of the existing
paupers, but brings additional claimants upon the poor-
salt s. An the metropolis also the crowded state and con-
dition of, the workhouses, which has excluded the appli-
cation ref the workhouse tests to the ableboditel, end the
difficult), of providing out-door labour on a large elite,
breve alike tended to increase, the numbers of the able-
bodied class applying for relief.

SHOCKING MURDER IN SOC/TLAND.—OH Tbuni-
duy afteunoon, about 6 o'clock, William Cargill, fisher-
man, Auchmithie, was apprehended charged with parer-
bating an atrocious murder. During the herrin4 fishing
season Cargill had been living in Arbroath, and he lorbsed
in a room in Ladybridge-street, adjoining a small public-
house oocupiod by Mrs. Vaunt. Ho had been drinking
for some days; but it is stated that when taken into
custody, although he was in an excited state, ho was not
chunk. The victim is a girl named Ann tiwsuiltie, live
years of age, daughterof David fiwankie,fishornian, Union-
street East, and it is supposed that Cargill bad decoyed
the girl into the house in which be lodged, and in which
there was nobody but himself at the time. About
four o'clock some persons passing along the street were
alarmed by hearing an unusual noise. and looking in at
the open street door of Cargill's room, it is stated that
they raw him in the passage smashing the head of the
child with • poker. They at once rushed in upon him,
and laid hold upon him. The child was lying on the
floor quite dead, and its blood and brains bespattered the
wall. Cargill was taken to the police office. The police
remain in on of the body and the premises toll the
arrival of the Fiscal boas Dundee. It is many years sine
a case of murder or homicide occurred in Arbroath, and
the affair on Thursday has created a grist sensation in
the community. No motive fur the murder is known.-
6rotswaso.

CRYSTAL PALLOS.--ONH SHILLING DAY.—
F2ll 1/11i 5X11221102 1 .-44m.inninon by manna tink•l2.
1;0614 ; ditto on payment. 1,809 ; total •Ilittera. 2,877.
" I n Avz been a groat 'offeror from indigrKtion
and violi•nt sick hoadachovi for upwards of four yours. 1
ounsulted many Opinions, but would got no brn•dit from
any source till 1 trial your Pain Killor, which onto fly m-
ho% rd mu.— Eirntn Biwa's, notion, J uno 2, 1849. Advt.
J
DITAIVILLI and Co., Belfaat, are the 'argent
boidern of Whisky to Om workt. Their 01,11rinh WhinlyM rooms-
by the onniinnl pruftinaton to pri.ionnion to Proneh Brand,.
Kupplied to
ruko and sawn for Wane unn or tin 111. Quota-
bans on application to if 1.111111. Thin Ville sod trIV, taat;
ataasurt.bolkUnm. Strand. London, W.0.-4.ll4rammsassot.