The Sun.
London, England, 1847-02-27 00:00:00

the course followed by them in conducting the business
of their office. He had received a full report upon that
subject, and that report had been referred to the opinion
of the law officers of the Crown, to ascertain how far the
practice of the Commissioners might be in conformity
with the law under which they held their powers.
The result of that reference was, that the
opinion given was not such as to leave her
Majesty's Government in doubt as to the legality of the
acts, or the validity of the law under which they were
performed. He was surprised that the Honourable
Gentleman should have proposed to delay by a long in-
quiry the measures to be adopted with regard to Ire-
land, when he himself had approved of them.—(Hear,
hear.) The Noble Lord at the head of the Government
had stated the course he was to pursue upon this point,
and had asked and obtained leave to bring in a Bill upon
this subject. That Bill would shortly be in the hands
of Honourable Members, and would be under considera-
tion upon the Bth of March, the day for which the dis-
cussion on the suLject was fixed.
Mr. HUME wished to call attention to another im-
portant document. He wished to call attention not to
the evidence, but to the report of the Committee ap-
pointed to inquire into the subject of the Andover
Union. That report showed completely that every act of
the Commissioners since the year 1841 was illegal,
When the Committee were asked to condemn the con-
duct of the Commissioners, their reply was that the con-
duct of the Commissioners was not referr,d to them by
the House. The Commissioners had carried on their
business in private rooms without having a secretary
present to record it. The proceeding; were noted down
on slips of paper, instead of being recorded in books,
and that was an additional reason why Gevernment
should take up the question. It was rather too bad, when
an inquiry had been instituted into a particular matter,
that Government should decline to take any notice of
its results.

Mr. STAFFORD O'BRIENis tated that, as an indivi-
dual he believed, after having carefully examined the
working of the two Poor-law Bills in England and Ire-
land, it would be a benefit to Ireland if the English
Poor-law were taken clause by clause, and applied to Ire-
land, and any Hon. Member who would bring f,rward
such a measure should receive his cordial support.
Mr. SHAW wished to know when the House were
likely to have in their hands the Bill for the reconstitu•
don of the Poor.law Buard fur Ireland, and whether
it was intended to bring the measure of the Irish
Poor-law under discussion at the same time as the
Landed Property (Ireland) Bill, which was to be brought
forward on the Bth of March.

Lord JOHN RUSSELL, before he answered the ques-
tion of tl-e Hon. Member for the University of Dublin,
would make a remark upon what had fallen from the
Honourable Member for Montrose. That lion. Member
seemed to suppose that the reports of the District
Asylums Committee and the Andover Union Com-
mime were left unheeded and negli cted by the Govern-
ment, who stood by as though they were not
concerned in the matters referred to in tho3e re-
ports. He would ask, then, whether any higher
authority could be appealed to, for knowing whether
the Commissioners did their business in a legal
manner or not, than the Attorney General, at least
so long as the administration of the poor-law was
under the management of Government ? On that
appeal the only answer they got was, that
the Commissioners could be asked for any further ex-
planation. It was true that there had been a series of
letters in the newspapers, signed by Mr. M. D. Hill, in
which allegations were made that the Commissioners did
their business illegally ; but all these allegations were
founded on an anonymous case, which was itself founded
upon nothing, and it was a little hard that such grave im-
putations as these should be thrown out against the
Poor-law Commissioners on the assertions of this
among gentleman. For his own part, he could not help
being of opinion that if the Commissioners had thus
violated the law to such an extent they must have been
conscious of the fact. So much for the legality part of
the affair. With respect to the delay in bringing forward
the measure, the House knew as well as he did, that,
what with the measures for the introduction of corn,
the Sugar Distilleries Bill, the discussion on the Noble
Lord's proposition of railways for Ireland—that while
carryingc)ontry, rit wwaasr d
utterlythe measures
impossibleforwith
thethe
relief w odfaytsti
aa
tt
o
the command of Government to bring the Poor-law Bill
under the notice of the House, and he would have
been highly imprudent if he had forced it forward.
v to the
have
wished to go pro form into
With respect to the alteration of the poor-law in Ire-
land, he hoped that they should be enabled to lay on
administrationthe tab le pa per so containingfthe po o r i a fionrmlr
• ae iaonri d.
CommitteerHe uponle wouldatie
the Poor-law (Ireland) Bill, but it would be too late to do
it .
, t
H
on Mondaye
for Ireland. phreop o shouldse a Bill for
r thatthe
itb
committed. loans
RELIEF OF THE DESTITUTE IN THE
METROPOLIS.
would eveningthn
Sir W. JAMES wished to ask the Secretary for the
Home Department, if it was the intention of her Ma-
jesty's Government to introduce any measures to relieve
the casual poor in the metropolis?
Sir G. GREY had not received any information on the
subject from the proper quarter, and was not at all in a
position to say what his views on the subject were.