The Sun.
London, England, 1837-10-20 00:00:00

The following extracts from the Third Annual
Report of the Poor-law Commissioners arc important,
as showing the working of the Poor-law Amendment
Act, during a season of almost unexampled commercial
distress in the districts to which they have reference.
It will be remembered that one of the loudest clamours
against the Bill was, that its beneficial operation in
the commencement was not attributable to the law,
but, to the flourishing state of our commercial inte-
rf,sts ; and that it would be productive of the most
awful calamities in a season in which labourers would
have to struggle against a scarcity of employment.
Here are ample proofs of the falsehood of such a pre-
diction. The Poor-law Amendment Bill has been
tested under the most trying circumstances, and the
result is just such as its most sanguine supporters pre-
dicted. All that was wanted for the law was a fair
trial, and that it has now had, in despite of the WAL-
TER conspiracy against it. We will take an early
opportunity of entering into a detail of the great bene-
fits which it has conferred, and must continue to con-
fer, upon all classes of the inhabitants of England and
Wales. The first extract refers to the proceedings of
he Nottingham Union, under the New Act, during a

long suspension of manufacturing employment :
" It is, however, to the proceedings in Nottingham thai
we arc chiefly desirous of drawing your Lordship's atten
tion, as they appear to throw considerable light on the
working of the Act in a manufacturing district, under cir-
cumstances as trying and difficult as can at any time be ex-
pected to occur.
" This Union, which consists of the three parishes con-
stituting the town of Nottingham, and contains an aggre-
gate population amounting to 50,000, was formed in July,
1836. It was distinguished at the outset by this peculia-
rity, that the rule prohibiting out-door relief to able-bodied
male paupers was issued at once on the formation of the
Union. Our object in at once establishing this rule was to
make the administration of relief to the poor conform to the
practice already established in the parish of St. Mary (the
principal and most populous parish in the Union), in which,
for three years previous to the formation of the Union, no
relief had been given to able-bodied males, excepting in the
workhouse.
" Under the operation of this rule, our attention could
not fail to be specially drawn to the working of this Union,
when in the early part of the Spring the pressure of com-
mercial distress and the suspension of employment caused
the manufacturers to discharge a large portion of their
workmen ; and we directed our Assistant Commissioner,
Mr. Gulson, to give as large a portion of his time and atten-
tion as could be spared from the rest of his extensive district
to the Nottingham Union, and to aid the Board of Guar-
dians to the utmost with his advice and assistance.
We knew that the Union was very inadequately pro-
vided with workhouse accommodation. It was possessed
of an old workhouse, capable of containing about 520 per-
sons, but not admitting of that arrangement and classifica-
tion which is found practically to be so essential to good
order in such establishments. As the applications for relief
increased, it was satisfactory to us to find that the Guar-
dians took steps to increase the workhouse accommodation
bv occupying certain premises belonging to the parish as
nurseries for children and as houses for old men ; and finally,
by using a workhouse belonging to the parish of St. Nicho-
las as an hospital for the sick. They were by these means
enabled to provide room for nearly 700 persons within their
houses.
" A constant communication was kept up with the Board
of Guardians, from whom we received a weekly report, as
well as with our Assistant Commissioner ; and it soon be-
came evident that a necessity would speedily arise for re-
lieving more persons than could he provided for within the
walls of the workhouses ; and after full consideration, we
felt it to be our duty to authorise Mr. Gulson to assure the
Guardians that the rule which prohibited them from giving
relief to able-bodied male persons, excepting in the work-
house, should be suspended whenever they should find the
pressure such as that, in their opinion, there existed a neces-
sity for so doing. Preparation was thus made for placing
the Guardians in a situation to meet the whole difficulty
(whatever might be its extent) of affording the necessary
relief to such destitute persons as might be unable to main-
tain themselves when thrown out of work.
" At this stage of our proceedings it was determined by
the principal inhabitants of the town to resort to a sub-
scription for the purpose of relict ing the unemployed ope-
ratives, this being considered a better mode of affording
them support than by having recourse to the poor-rate.
The kind feeling and praiseworthy benevolence of the prin-
cipal persons in the town and its neighbourhood succeeded
in raising about 4,0001. for this purpose, and a Committee
of the inhabitants was formed to superintend the applica-
tion of the money.
" Bearing in mind the important question which has been
pressed upon us, namely, in what way could the necessities
of the working classes in the manufacturing districts be
provided for in so sudden and so unforeseen an emergency,
if no such subscription existed, as in the case of Notting-
ham, and if the relief of the necessitous poor should have
to be provided for out of the poor-rates only, we think that
the experience of what has occurred, and is still occurring
in Nottingham, enables us confidently to state that the
Union authorities would be enabled to meet any exigencies
which might arise in the manufacturing districts out of a
distressed state of trade or other contingency, notwithstand-
ing there should be no fund subscribed, or other means for
the support and employment of those operatives who rr4,ht
be suddenly thrown out of work ; and we entertain no
doubt that in Nottingham, if the subscribed funds shall be
exhausted before the distress ceases, the Board of Guar-
dians will be able to meet the pressure out of the funds
placed by the law at their disposal."
The case of the parish of Stoke-upon-Trent is still

more strongly elucidatory of the admirable working of
the New Poor Law Bill, under the most adverse cir-
cumstances. No trial can be conceived better calcu-
lated to test the beneficial operatio❑ of the New Law
than that afforded by the necessity of providing for
25,000 labourers suddenly thrown out of work for a
period of ten weeks. The following extracts are quite
conclusive upon this point, which is the only one we
shall insist upon at present :
" The course of the administrators of relief, under such
circumstances as existed at Stoke-upon-Trent, is clearly
marked out by the law ; and one of our most important
duties we deem to be the prevention of any improper inter-
ference with the labour market, by the substitution of relief
for wages. In answer to the inquiries of the Guardians as
to the course by which they should meet the claims for re-
lief which it was apprehended would arise from the general
strike of the workmen engaged in the Potteries, we stated,
on the 23d of November, 1836, that ' in deciding as to
the manner in which relief should be afforded, and upon
what term, the Guardians should be governed by the fol-
lowing considerations :—For all able-bodied applicants re-
lief in the workhouse is most in accordance with the spirit
and provisions of the Poor-law Amendment Act ; and the
Commissioners consider, therefore, that no able-bodied ap-
plicant should receive out-relief as long as there remains
room in the workhouse.
" Next to relief in the workhouse, out-relief in kind is
best ; and, therefore, where the workhouse is full, at least
three-fourths of the relief to the able-bodied should be given
in kind.'

" The strike took place in September last. The work-
men of fourteen manufactories in the parish of Stoke.upon-
Trent struck, and the payment of about 10,0001. in weekly
wages was suspended in the manufactories alone. It was
stated to us that about 30,000 persons were deprived of
their usual mode of subsistence during ten weeks, and of
these at least 7,000 during twenty weeks. About 5,000 of
the operatives were maintained from their own common
funds ; the remainder were not known to possess any other
resource than the poor-rates. Great numbers of the work-
men were thrown out of employment against their consent.
They were ready to work, but could not ; because, from
the peculiar nature of the manufacture, every branch of it
must go on simultaneously. We believe that during the
whole period of the suspension of work, the great body of
the workmen conducted themselves peaceably. The fol-
lowing evidence of the officers describes the administration
of relief on this occasion.
" The following is an extract from the deposition of Mr.
William Johnson, taskmaster to the Stoke-upon-Trent
workhouse :
" I cannot remember so extensive a turn-out among
the operatives as now ; indeed, I never heard of a general
turn-out before : this is the first that has ever occurred.
There has been a stagnation in the trade of the place once
or twice ; once, in 1826. There was a great depression of
trade during this period ; it commenced in April and lasted
till August ; but the works were not so completely sus-
pended then as now : the applications for relief were infi-
nitely more numerous. We had then 500 heads of families
daily receiving provisions from the workhouse ; besides
which there was a great addition to the money out-relief
account ; whereas now only 103 heads of families have re-
ceived relief in consequence of the turn-outs ; 700 cases,