The Sun.
London, England, 1841-02-04 00:00:00

LORD J. RUSSELL'S NEW POOR

LAW BILL.

The following are the chief features of Lord John Rus-
sell's Bill, presented on Friday, " To continue the Poor-
law Commission for a time to be limited, and for the
further amendment of the laws relating to the Puor in
England."
The preamble recites the 4th and sth Wm. IV., c.
75, s. I, 10; 2 and 3 Victoria, c. 83 ; and enacts, that
every Poor-law Commissioner appointed by his late
Majesty, or appointed or to be appointed by her Majesty
the Queen, her heirs and successors, and every assistant..
Commissioner, secretary. and other officer and person
duly appointed by the Poor-law Commissioners, shall
be empowered (unless he shall previously resign or he
removed) to hold his cffiee, and exercise the powcis
thereof, until the 31st day of Decembor, in the yei r
1851 ; and unfl the expiration of the said period it
shall be lawful for her Majesty, her heirs and successors,
from time to time, at pleasure, to remove any of the said
Commissioners for the time being, and upon every or any
vacancy in the number of Commissioners, either by remo-
val or by death, or otherwise, to appoint, by warrant under
the Royal sign manual, some other fit person to the said
office; and, until such appointment, it shall be lawful for
the surviving or continuing Commissioner or Commis-
sioners to act as if no such vacancy had occurred.
2. Provides as to the construction of this Act, &c.
3. Enacts that every rule, order, or regulation of the
Poor-law Commissioners a hich shall be issued after the
passing of this Act, and which shall apply to a class of
cases, or to a series or succession of occasions, shall be
deemed to be a general rule, subject to all the provisions
relating to general rules containedein_the 4.lct first herein
recited ; and that every such rule, order, or regulation of the
said Commissioners which shall apply only to a single case,
or a single occasion, or which shall suspend any previous
rule, order, or regulation, or which shall amend any error
of descrip,ion, or clerical error, or other error, through
which the intention of any previous rule, order, or regula-
tion whatsoever shall not have been accurately or com-
pletely expressed, shall be deemed a particular order, not-
withstanding that such rule, order, or regulation shall, at
the time ef issuing the same, be addressed by the said
Commissioners to more unions than one, or to more
parishes or places than one.
4. Provides as to the construction of the words " rule,"
" order," and " regulation."
Enacts that general rules, once allowed, shall take
effect thenceforth aspsrticular orders.
6. That evt ry order of the said Commissioners suspend-
ing any previous rule, or regulation, or suspending any
paid officer from the exercise of his office, in which the said
Commissioners shall declare that the urgency of tile case
requires that such order should take effect within the
period of fourteen days, shall come into force at such time
as the said Commissioners shall in such order direct, rot-
withstanding that fourteen days shall not have expired
since a written or printed copy of the same shall have Len
sent by the said Commissioners as required by the first re-
cited Act.
7. And whereas it is provided by the said first recited
Act that a written or printed copy of every rule, order,
or regulation of the said Commissioners shall, before
the same shall come into operation in any parish or union,
be sent by the said Commissioners by the post, or in such
manner as the Commissioners shall think fit, sealed or
stamped with their seal, addressed to the overseers cf
such parish, the guardians of such union, or their clerk,
and to the clerk of the Justices of the Petty Sessions
held for the division in which such parish or union shall
be situate; and whereas the proof of such sending is
often attended with great expense and difficulty, be it en-
acted, that it shall not in any civil or criminal proceeding
be necessary to prove such sending, except to the
clerk of the guardians of the union or of the
parish, or, where there shall be no guardians, to
the overseers of the parish within which such rule, order,
or regulation is intended to have effect, and that it shall in
no case be necessary to prove such sending, unless reason-
able notice in writing be given by the party requiring such
proof to the party upon whom such proof would lie that
such proof will be required ; and whenever such sending
shall be proved to the satisfaction of any Court, such
Court shall order the reasonable expenses of the witness
or witnesses proving the same, to be'paid by the party who
shall have given such notice, and such expenses shall be
recoverable as penalties and forfeitures under the first-
recited Act.

8. Dissolution and alteration of unions. Consent of
majority of guardians required to dissolution of unions.—
That so much of the thst recited Act as provides that no
dissolution or alteration of any union, whether formed
before or after the passing of the first-recited Act, nor any
addition to any such union shall take place, or be made,
unless a majority of not less than two-thirds of the guar-
dians of such union shall concur therein, or as provides
that no addition shall be made to any union of parishes
united for the purposes of settlement or rating, shall be re-
alma}s,-that.a.-slail-tuat be lawful.-for the
said Commtssioners to dissolve any union, whether formica
before or after the passing of the said firstly-recited Act,
unless a majority of the guardians thereof shall concur there.
iii, except in the case of incorporations of guardians and
unions of parishes, made under the provisions of the Act passed
in the 22d year of the reign of King George 111., entitled
" An Act for the better relief and employment of the poor,"
which last mentioned incorporations and unions of pa-
rishes the said Commissioners shall be authorised to dis-
solve as and when they shall see fit, without any consent
whatever of Guardians to such dissolution. Provided also
that in every case in which the said Commissioners shall
declare any parish or parishes to be added to any anion
for the purposes of settlement or rating, the parishes
which shall have composed such union for settlement or
rating before such addition, shall continua to defray the
expense of their poor, and to contribute and be assessed
to the common fund of the union constituted by such addi-
tion, as if they had before such addition been one parish.
9. Provides that parishes and unions be combined for
schools, infirmaries, lunatic wards, &c.

10. Provides that the Biard of Management have the
same powers as guardians.
11. Conta;ns a proviso for counties where there are
county lunatic asylums.
12. Enacts visitation of lunatic asylums, as by 2d and
3d William IV., c. 107.

13. Regulates contributions by parishes and unions so
combined.

14. Definition of " infirm," " insane," and " infant
poor."—That in the construction of the preceding provi-
sions, thc words " infirm poor" shall be construed to include
every person applying for or receiving relief who shall by
reason of any bodily defect or of any permanent ailment,
or of the permanent effects of any ailment or bodily accident
be incapable of supporting himself ; and the words " insane
pour" shall be construed to mean every person requiring
relief who, by reason of any mental defect, cr of any
mental delusion or morbid excitement, may be const truly
or occasionally incapable of protecting himself from
bodily injury ; and the words " infant poor" shall be con-
strued to include every person under the age of sixteen,
who may require or receive relief.
15. Board of Alanagement for Lewd and Disorderly
Poor.—'That all the provisions in this Act contained re-
lating to the management of infirm or infant poor, and to
the constitutive. and powers of a Board of Manage-

ment of such poor, .hall extend to the purpose of pro.
viding workhouses within the Counties of .Middlesex and
Surrey, and the Cities of London and Westminster,
and for relieving and setting to work therein of women
of lewd or disorderly behaviour, end chargeable to any
parishes within ,uch counties and cities.

16. Provides that unions, &c., may contract with guar-
dians for the maintenance of their poor.
17. Declares and enacts, that se long as the husband of
any woman shall be beyond the seas, or in custody of the
law, or shall be a lunatic or idiot, his wife shall, notwith-
standing her covcrture, be liable to maintain herself and
her children in the like manner in all respects as a widow,
and that relief to the children of any married woman whose
husband shall refuse or neglect to maintain his family, or
shall leave his family chargeable, or so that it may become
chargeable shall he considered relief to the mother.

Iti. Enacts that it shall be lawful for the guardians of
any parish or union to exercise the like guardianship, con-
trol, and custody of the body of any child under the age of
16, not having any natural or testamentary guardian, and
chargeable to any parish, and requiring relief in such parish
or union, as might by law have been exercised by the na-
tural guardians of such child.
19. Enacts the t the said Commissioners shall from time
to time, as they shall see occasion, make and issue all such
rules or orders for the management of poor children by
the guardians of the poor, elected under the said first
recited Act, or by a board of management appointed under
this Act, as they shall deem expedient, for attaining the
objects of an Act passed in the seventh year of the reign
of his late Majesty, King George [II., entitled " An Act
for the Better Regulation of the Parish Poor Children of
the several Parishes therein mentioned within the Bills of
Mortality ;" and while any such rule or order shall be in
force in any parish or union, the provisions of the said last
mentioned Act shall, so far as regards such parish or union,
cease to have. effect.

20. Enacts, that in addition to the principal sum or
sums of money which guardians arc empowered by the said
first•rccitcd Act to raise or borrow for the purpose of pur-
chasing, hiring, building, ci,larging or altering workhouses,
or buildings to be converted into workhouses, the guar-
dians of any parish or union, any part of which is situated
within the metropolitan police district, may also raise or
borrow, and charge the future poar rates of such parish or
union with such further or other sum or sums of money as

may be necessary for the purchase of any land, or interest
in land, required as the site of such workhouse, or of addi-
ditions to any such workhouse.
21. Parish Apprentices.—That the said Commissioners
may, by order under their hands and seal, Mae the classes
of poor children who may be apprenticed, the trades or
businesses to which they may he apprenticed, the cases in
which any premium or apprentice fee shall be paid with
such poor children out of rates raised for the relief of the
poor, and the amount and mode of payment thereof.
22. Expenditure of Funds raised for Emigration.—
And whereas it will be convenient for Boards of Guar-
dians to undertake such arrangements as are incidental
to the emigration of poor persons whose expenses arc
wholly or partly defrayed from parochial funds ; be it
therefore enacted, that every fund raised or borrowed
in pursuance of the provisions in the said first-recited
Act contained, shall be paid to the treasurer of the union
in which the parish raising or borrowing the same is com-
prised, to the credit of the board of guardians of the said
union, and shall be expended by the said board, subject to
the orders of one of her- hlajesty's principal Secreta' ics of
State, in defraying tho expeosea of the emigration of poor