The Sun.
London, England, 1846-08-21 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FR IDAV E'VrNING, AUGUST 21, 1846.

own national limits in our free-trade agitation. We neither 1
sought for aid abroad, nor stipulated for conditions with
other countries; nay, I will candidly admit to you that any
admixture of such foreign elements would have only compli-
cated and retarded our movement. Would to Heaven that
every other people were left as we were left, free to carry out its
; own domestic reforms, without the intervention of extraneous
influences. Having said this, you will not suppose, if I add
a word or two upon the proceedings of our League, that I
do it with the view to incite you to imitate us. The League
was organised solely for the purpose of disseminating
amongst the English people those truths which Adam
Smith and your own Baptist Jay had promulgated halt a
century before. We wished to make their principles,
which had been confined to the knowledge of the learned
few, familiar to the mass of our countrymen. Our object
was to prepare public opinion for the removal of all those
impediments, which, under the name of protective duties,
prevented the fi ee exchange of our productions for those
of all other countries. We wished, moreover, to teach
the Government that its duty consisted in abstaining
from all interference with trade. The doctrine of the
League could not be better explained than in the words
of your own great Turgot, written I believe before Adam
Smith published the "Wealth of Nations." "Ce que l'Etat
dolt A chacun de sea membres, c'est la destruction
des obstacles, qui les generaient dans leur indust-
trie, ou qui lea troubleraicnt dans la jouissence des
produits qui en seraient la recompense. Si ces obstacles
subsistent, les bienfaits particuliers ne diminueront point
la pauvrete generale, parce que la cause restare tout entiere."
There, gentlemen, all that I have spoken or written in Eng-
land for the last seven years has been only an amplification
of this maxim of your illustrious statesman. The League
raised funds, established its own journal, printed hundreds of
tons weigh of tracts, which were distributed taroughout the
land, and sent forth its missionaries to lecture in every town.
Copying, in our moral warfare, the tactics of your great
general, we precipitated all our force upon ene
division of the enemy. We attacked the corn-laws with
a Lull expectation (which has been since realised) that if we
carried that position, the rest of the monopolists would
surrender at discretion. I shall not dwell upon the details
of our struggle further than to give you one or two of the
great arguments with which our opponents managed so long
to maintain their ground. If you should find them to re-
semble those which you are accustomed to meet with in France,
it will not surprise me, for as truth everywhere wears the
same divine aspect, so error must always disguise itself in
similar sophistries. Our opponents, the monopolists, pleaded
that they were heavily taxed by the Government, and that,
therefore, they required protection. Our reply was, that we,
the free-traders, were as heavily taxed as they, and that that
was one great reason why we could not afford to pay addi-
tional taxes for their protection, and after a seven years' trial
before the tribunal of public opinion it has been decided that
we were right. Then they urged how dreadful it would be
to be dependent upon foreigners for food—that if it had only
concerned articles of clothing, or wood, or iron, it might
have been tolerated; but what madness to be at the mercy
of foreigners for corn ! Well, the people took time to con-
sider this terrible plea, and at length decided that they
would not subject themselves to famine during the time of
peace for the fear of being starved in case of war. But the
great argument of all is to come. Our opponents set them-
selves up as the representatives of native industry; they
protested that they were the great employers of labour,
the supporters of the revenue, and the main pillars of the
State. We modestly ventured to suggest that an interest so
powerful ought at least to be able to support itself, without
putting its hands into other people's pockets. We were then
assailed as traitors to England, who wished to ruin our native
country to enrich foreigners; we were denounced as the
friends of France, America, and Germany, nay one of the
protectionist journals actually charged us with being in the
pay of the Emperor of Russia. In vain did we try by argu-
ments and facts to put an end to this ever-repeated tale of
native industry. Oh, the hundreds of dull speeches that I
have been doomed to hear in the House of Commons in de-
fence of native industry? I shudder when I think
of their length and weight, and wonder that I am
alive to tell you of my sufferings. At last the judg-
ment of public opinion saved me by declaring that
ail kinds of industry were equally native industry, and that
no one portion of it was entitled to any privileges at the ex-
pense of the rest. There was one class of our opponents, the
most able men in the ranks of the protectionists, who seeing
the impossibility ,f defending any of these arguments sought
refuge in an distraction "We agree with you," said they,
" in principle we admit that you are tight in the abstract."
To them we replied, that we were not fighting with a
phantom, but with a pretty numerous body made up of
flesh and blood, and which was making free with other
men's property; we asked them if they were prepared to
maintain that the eighth commandment was an abstraction.
Oh, give me an opponent who will admit that I am right in
the abstract ! We felt that we had nearly finished our
struggle when our ablest adversaries were driven to admit
the justice of our principles in the abstract. I must not omit
to do honour to one class of our antagonists who had the
prudence to resort to prophecies instead of appealing to
the facts and experience of the past. They always argued
in the future tense. They predicted for seven years without
ceasing, that if the corn-laws were abolished the land of
England would be thrown out of cultivation, and no rent
would be paid to the proprietors. Well the corn-laws are
abolished, and these very men have since been selling and
letting their land higher than before. I am delighted for their
own sakes that they have proved as false in prophecy as they
were deficient in logic. The same men predicted that if we
threw open our ports without stipulation with foreigners, that
other countries would not follow our example; unluckily for
these prophets the last mail from America brings the account
of the passing of a new tariff in the United States almost as
liberal as our own, and I am told his Holiness the Pope is pre-
paring to add his infallible testimony to the truth of free-
trade principles. But lam wearying you with these recitals.
Suffice it to say, that our victory was achieved after more than
seven years of discussion had elicited every argument in de-
fence of protection which the ingenuity and the sincere
alarm of the protectionists could devise. If you ask me
whether the question is settled for ever, I answer, Yes ; for
in England we never recede one inch in the path of reform, '
when every step has been gained by the force of reason and
argument. Besides, we have no man deserving the name of
a statesman who would undertake a Government founded
upon the protective principle. Ido not speak merely of Sir
Robert Peel, who has immortalised his name by the part he
took in the emancipation of our commerce, or ofLord J. Russell,
who so nobly supported him, but I mean that there is not one
member of the late or present Ministry who now advocates the
principle of protect ion. One and all have modestly repudiated,
on the part of Government, the right of interfering with the
freedom of individual industry and enterprise. Gentle-
men, I should not be doing justice to my own feelings, or the
views of those with whom I have had the honour to co-
operate in England if I sat down without saying that we
look for far higher results from the universal application of
our principles than those to which Ihave alluded. Doubtless
it is good to extend commerce, to multiply the comforts of
life, to stimulate industry, and increase the rewards of labour ;
but, valuable as are these physical gains, free-trade is des-
tined to confer a far greater moral blessing upon humanity.
You have joined this evening in drinking a toast to "peace"
—a sentiment which will find a response in every English
free-trader. True, we have now peace in Europe, but at
what cost is it preserved ? Everywhere we see preparations
for war. Peace is upon our lips, but war resounds from our
arsenals. The world sighs for some better guarantee
against that scourge of humanity than is to be found in
enormous and costly armaments by land and sea; for ex-
perience has, unhappily, proved that the warlike passions of
communities are more likely to be stimulated than sup-
pressed by the threatenings which surround them. To
render peace something better than an armed truce,
we must array on its side such a preponderance of ma-
terial interests as shall prevent the possibility of war. Here,
then, is the mission of the free-traders! Do we believe that
the daily and hourly interchange of mutual services
which must follow from the triumph of our principles
would afford the surest safeguard against national hosti-
lities? Do we believe that free trade, if adopted by all
countries, would make the universal people the negotiators
of peaceful relations with each other, and thus put an end
fur ever to our present system, by which the balance of
peace and war between two great nations trembles uron
the finger of diplomacy? If we sincerely believe
this, then it is our duty to strive to demolish those barriers
which separate man from his brother man, and which pre-
vent them from interchanging the kind offices of
humanity. Let nations meet face to face in the spirit in
which we meet together this evening, forgetting that we
are Frenchmen and Englishmen, and remembering only
that we are men. This must be the object of every tree-
trader, each in his own legitimate sphere. Gentlemen, I
heartily thank you for the patience with which you have
listened to this imperfect expression of my sentiments, and,
in conclusion, I drink with you to the " Union of all
Nations."

This toast was received with great enthusiasm, as were
also several others in favour of free trade, and the ameliora-

tion of the condition of the labouring classes, which were
proposed by different gentlemen.

RE FORD ABBEY.

It is amongst the on dits that the Catholic body have
a serious intention to compete for this splendid monas-
tery. Such an opportunity cannot by possibility ever
occur again, and the trustees (it should be known) are
required, by the will of the late Mr. Gwynnet_to place it
in the market without a protecting price. To say no-
thing of it as an abbey of so much renown, the estate
that appertains to, and surrounds it, cannot be estimated
at less than 1,5001. a year; and the value of the monas-
tery, in pieces, would realise ten thousand pounds.
Within this classic pile will be found congregated the
finest • collection of tapestry throughout England; and
there are some pictures of the Dutch and Flemish school
that are incomparably fine. The library is extensive
and select ; the furniture of the old school, and
very la la.

ROYAL POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTION.—During the past
week this establishment has been more than usual attrac-
tive, in consequence of the lectures of Drs. Ryan and Bach-
hoffner—the former gentleman having chosen as his theme
" the philosophy of steam as a motive power ;" and the latter
savant the " history and varieties of electric telegraphs."
We need not say much on the propriety and fitness of such
subjects in:these steam times, but we cannot avoid reiteration
of our opinion 9f the valuable services this institution and its
professors are continually rendering to science in thus bring-
ing so forcibly, and yet so simply, before the world all that
is new and really useful. Nor are the attractions of popular
science confined merely to the lecture-rooms of the professors,
every portion of the institution is fitted with novel applica-
tions of industry and mechanical genius to the furtherance of
human comfort and happiness. By the by, we must not for-
get to congratulate the directors:fur the vast amount ofpublic
patronage they daily incur, and we are bound to say they
deserve it. The music is another department here whin
deserves particular notice, and is highly creditable to its
conductor, Dr. Wallis.
NATIONAL GALLERY.—The visitors to the National
Gallery, it is shown in a Parliamentary paper yesterday printed,
numbered 456,105 in 1843 ; 681..845 in 1844 ; • and 696,245 in 1845.
1 he pictures purchased for that institution amounted to 114,8041. 165.,
for 27 of which 57,8041. 16s was paid.

.
THE WIDOW'S TALE.—At the petty sessions at
Woodstock, on Tuesday last, before Mr. T. Thornhill, Lord Dillon,
and the Rev. H. J. Passand, and S. G. Seagrave, on the complaint of
the assistant overseer of Ensham, Elizabeth Banbridge, of that
parish, widow, was summoned for a poor's rate amounting to 2s. 5d.,
said to be due to overseers of the said parish. She pleaded poverty,
and said she was not able to pay. The officer said she did net be-
long to the parish, and they were determined to make all those pay
who did not belong to the parish. This declaration drew forth tha
following telling statement from the poor creature :—I have four
small children ; the parish allows me eight loaves to keep them. I
sell two of these loaves to help me to pay the rent. I sit up hours to
keep myself. I have had no other pay since two weeks
after Wt,itsuntide. I c..nnot earn more than about Is. 10d,
per week at glove sewing. I work for Mr. Thompson, of Hensing-
ton. I should not have the work if I did not take goods for my pay.
We are expected to take goods. it y husband has been dead six
years, anti I never had more of the parish than Is. or six loaves a
week. I belong to Nt,rthleigh, in the same union as Ens:taut. How
can I pay out of eight loaves of bread ? I cannot live in the parish
where I belong, or I would. I have tried times and times to get a
place, and cannot. I have not one farthing in the world. My poor
children were hanging round me when I left home this morning.
They said they should not see me again. I pay 2s. per week rent.
I have but one loaf now to last till Saturday. Lord Dillon paid the
rate, and the clerk forgave his fees. For this the poor widow
peared very thankful. •The officer said he had anotherdemand of Is.
7d. Lord Dillon advised her to go Into the_poorhoutite Ur. Seagra've
remludid lie WA At woulsitlAYO to pay Mitre Meg!,

THE ANDOVER UNION.
REPORT FROM THE SELECT COMMITTEE.
The Select Committee appointed to inquire into the admi-
nistration of the poor-laws in the Andover Union, and into
the management of the union workhouse, and into the con-
duct of the Poor-law Commissioners and their late Assis-
tant-Commissioner, Mr. Parker, with reference to the two
investigations held at Andover, and into all the circum-
stances under which the Poor-law Commissioners called
upon Mr. Parker to resign his Assistant-Commissionership ;
and who were instructed to inquire into all the circum-
stances under which Mr. Day was called upon to resign
his office of Assistant Poor-law Cemmissioner ; and who
were empowered to report the minutes of evidence taken
before them, together with their observations and opinion
thereupon, to the House; have considered the matters to
them referred, and have agreed to the following resolu-
tions :

RELIEF.
Resolved, that it is the opinion of this Committee,-
1. That it appears to have been the practice of the An-
dover board of guardians to consider and determine upon
cases as stated in the relieving officer's books, without pre-
viously inquiring whether the applicant or any person on his
behalf be in waiting.

2. That when applicants having made application to the
relieving officer have been admitted to the board, on its being
made known that they are present, it has ordinarily been
only on their objecting to the decision in the case; whereas
justice and humanity alike require that every applicant for
relief should have the opportunity, if in waiting, of making
a personal statement betbre his case be decided upon.
3. That the Andover board of guardians have adopted the
practice of leaving it to the relieving officer to communicate
their opinion to the applicant, a practice of which your Com-
mittee strongly disapprove, it being in their judgment no
less just to the pauper, than expedient, with a view of pre-
venting mistake or fraud, that the decision in each case should
be communicated to the applicant, if in attendance, by the
presiding chairman, in the presence of the board.
4. That in this censure on the practice of the Andover
guardians, the Committee would not be understood as fa-
vouring a practice which may often lead to serious hardship,
of requiring all applicants to attend at the board.
5. That the free admission to the presence of the board of
applicants for relief was the more important in the Andover
Union, in which it has been proved that the relieving officer's
books have been very imperfectly kept; columns which
should contain important particulars, e. g., the earnings of
the applicant, and the present cause of seeking relief, being
often left entirely blank.

6. That froni instances brought under their notice, the
Committee believe that the board of guardians have, in
several cases of applications for relief to them, left to the
relieving officer a large discretionary power as to adminis-
tering or withholding it. While they admit that, under
special circumstances, this may sometimes be necessary
(though whether such special circumstances existed in the
cases referred to, the defective state of the relieving officer's
book affords no evidence), the Committee think it right to
record their conviction of the impropriety and inexpediency,
under ordinary cases, of thus delegating to the relieving
officer the discretion which the law has vested in the board
of guardians.
_

7. That in regard to the non-allowance of partial relief to
the aged and partially disabled, a principle which appears to
have been generally acted upon in the Andover Union, the
Committee feel bound to express their apprehension, that, if
rigidly carriei out, it may lead to various individual hard-
ships, without any equivalent amount of public advantage.
It is just to add, that the boards of guardians have in this
respect only followed out the recommendations of the Poor-
law Commissioners in their annual reports and other publi-
cations, tnough no order has been issued by the Poor-law
Commissioners to that effect.

8. That on the application of an able-bodied man for re-
lief, on account of sickness in his family, and also in some
instances where the applicant has been partially disabled,
the Andover board have required, as a condition upon which
such relief is made dependent, that he should perform a cer-
tain task of work at the workhouse, the amount of food to be
allowed to him not being supplied until such task is com-
pleted ; and although, as stated by some witnesses to have
been the case, this practice may have been only adopted as
regards the able-bodied applicant, and where he is out of
work, and under circumstances, therefore, which, were it not
fur the sickness in his family, would render admission to the
workhouse the only relief applicable in that union to the
case, still your Committee think that the annexing this con-
dition to the relief otherwise deemed necessary, and espe-
cially where parties are brought long distances from their
homes, to execute the task imposed, is (except under sus-
picion of fraud or gross imposition) an unduly severe mode
of administering relief.
WORKHOUSE.
Resolved, that it is the opinion of this Committee—

1. That on the investigation which took place in Septem-
ber, 1845 (as hereinafter stated), before Mr. Parker, many
charges of gross immorality, and of fraudulent appropriation
of the workhouse stores, were brought forward against
Mr. M'Dougal, the then master of the workhouse, and were
deposed to en oath by many witnesses; that that investiga-
tion was brought to a close (under the circumstances parti-
cularly detailed in the papers and evidence printed here-
with) by Mr. MeDougal's resignation of his office, no evi-
dence up to that time having been brought forward by
him in his defence against the greater part of the charges so
preferred.
2. That having reference as well to the necessarily great
extent and variety of the subjects referred to them, as more
especially to their obvious incompetency to complete that
inquiry satisfactorily without the power of administering an
oath, the Committee have thought themselves justified in
forbearing to re-open the investigation referred to.
3. That the Committee at the same time think it right to
state that several of the witnesses examined in proof of the
charges of gross immorality on such previous investigation,
have given evidence before them, as well upon points which
did not come under inquiry in that investigation as upon
some matters which were then deposed to, and that the
evidence so given appears to your Committee entitled to
credit.

4. That this Committee is of opinion that Mr. APDougal's
conduct while master of the workhouse was marked by
undue severity ; that he was, on several occasions, once even
when reading prayers to the inmates, seen in a state of in-
toxicatio❑ ; that he was utterly deficient in many of the
qualities which are of essential importance in the difficult
position which he tilled. viz., fairness and impartiality, a due
sense of truth, a well-regulated temper, and proper habits of
self• control. _

5. That the Committee cannet refrain from directing
special attention to the case of Hannah Joyce; she appears
to have been presumed by Mr. and Mrs. M'Dougal to have
been guilty of child murder, not only without evidence, but
against the verdict of the coroner's jury, and to have been
treated by them, in consequence, with great cruelty. It has
been further proved, that on the day of the inquest on the
body of her child she was threatened by Mrs.M'Dougal with
being compelled to sleep in the dead-house, where that body
was then lying; anti having been confined, apart from the
other women, in the night-time, she was forced by Mr.
M'Dougal to carry the body of her own child up the High-
street of Andover to the grave; moreover, on the occasion of
her leaving the workhouse, some days afterwards, Mrs.
M'Dougal directed some of the female inmates to take pans,
plates,
&c., and make as much noise as they could, on the
ground of her presumed guilt. It also appears that this
latter proceeding took place at the time when the guardians
were assembled in the board room, and that some of the
guardians, at least, were aware of what was going on ; but
no inquiry appears to have been instituted by the board, nor
any censure
passed in consequence of the outrage which had
been committed.

6. That as a farther proof of the ill-regulated state of the
workhouse, your Committee refer to the fact that
commitments took place to the gaol of Andover during -
for offences against the rules and discipline of the work-
house, a state of things which they believe could 'not have
existed had the workhouse been properly managed. That
they cannot omit farther to state, that it has been proved
that on numerous occasions indi7iduals were taken from the
workhouse to the borough gaol of Andover, by the direc-
tions of Mr. M'Dougal, and were subsequently discharged
therefrom without, on either occasion, being taken before a
justice of the peace.
7. That without going further in this place into details,
for which they refer to the evidence and papers printed here-
with, the Committee feel bound, upon the evidence given
before them, to express their conviction of the utter unfit-
ness of Mr. M`Dougal and his wife for the situations of mas-
ter and matron, which they respectively held from December,
1836, to December, 1845, and they have therefore learned
with much astonisrnent that his influence with the board
has been far greater than that which should properly
belong to his office, and the confidence reposed in him seems
to have been unqualified.
8. 'That the Committee feel called upon further to express
their opinion that no such misgovernment of the workhouse
could have taken place, bad the visiting Committee acted re-
gularly and duly in the discharge of their important duties,
as defined in the workhouse rules laid down by the Poor-law
Commissioners (Article 56), and carefully recorded the re-
sults of their observations and inquiries for the weekly in-
formation of the Board.
9. That the Committee believe it to be one of the most im-
portant duties of the Visiting Committee to ascertain from
inmates whether any ground exists for just complaint;" to
inquire into such complaints when preferred, and so to
discharge this part of their functions, that the inmates

may eniertaini just confidence in the fairness of those

under whose charge they are placed; but your Committee
fear that in the Andover workhouse this important duty
of the visiting guardians has not been satisfactorily per-
formed.

10. That the bad administration of the Andover work-
house, and the rigour with which the board of guardians,
generally acting in accordance with the frequently published
views of the Poor. law Commissioners, have carried out the
law, have often been the means of inducing labourers to
accept reduced wages in order to avoid the workhouse.
11. That the system, as pursued at the Andover board, of
granting gratuities to the master for boys and girls placed
out to service, without requiring any proper voucher for the
accuracy of the master's statement, was very reprehensible.
WORKHOUSE DIETARY.
Resolved, that it is the opinion of this Committee,--
1. That in the month of February, 1836, several forms of
dietary were sent down by the Poor-law Commissioners, of
which one, marked No. 3, was selected by the board of
guardians for adoption in the workhouse, and sanctioned by
the Commissioners, and has been in use from that time until
December, 1845.
2. That in their second annual report, published in 1837,
the Poor-law Commissioners published six forms of dietary
as actually in use in workhouses, but that No. 3, of such
forms differs in several respects from form No. 3, as sanc-
tioned at Andover, and is is fact a superior dietary.
3. That your Committee have not received any evidence
in answer to their inquiries which can enable them to ex-
plain satisfactorily this admitted discrepancy, and that in the
absence of any such explanation they must infer that the
improvement made in the form No. 3, between its transmis-
sion to the Andover Union, and its publication in the second
annual report, was owing to its being judged insufficient by
Jaw Commissioners;
theirissin erisai they cannot in any case re-
frain that the improved die-
tary, from
a
printed in the second annual report, was never spe-
cially- communicated to the Andover board.
4. That from the evidence taken before the Committee, and
from the circumstance that the board of guardians, on the
recommendation of, and in concurrence with the Poor-law
Commissioners, have lately thought it advisable to adopt a
higher scale, the Committee believe, that from the forma-
tion of the union until the last autumn, the general dietary of
os\hVftahetii totelfaoskfuAeeffluaaCgtiii
the workhouse was, in quantity at least, too low, and more
particularly that the allowance of bread was insufficient;
1845, the medical officers of the union, Mr.
and they find that this dietary was often further diminished
by the dishonesty of the master. It is right, however, to
add that on the first inquiry held by Mr. Parker, on the
August, 1845,
Payne, gave evidence on oath in favour
rawof potatoes and grain and refuse food which
the workhouse dietary to maintain the
inmates in health. But it has been proved before the Com-
mittee
during the continuance of
that some of the inmates of the workhouse were in the
‘fDolvoilis.gal was master of the
in which inmates of the
erinsedreaa:.acrushing, eat the marrow re-
were set to break.
hwtinha ,usasdrit.
workhouse,knb
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the
honnhewls
and
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at the An-
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petition from another union complaining of its injurious
effects was presented to Parliament in 1842, it appears that
no order for the absolute discontinuance and abolition of the
practice was issued by the Poor•law Commissioners until
November, 1845. As, however, the practice of bone-crush-
ing in workhouses is discontinued in the Andover Union-
house, and prohibited by a general order of the Poor-law
Commissioners, it does not appear necessary to remark
further upon this point than to say, that by a very irregular
and improper practice the produce of the labour of the
paupers in bone-crushing at the workhouse is stated to have
been disposed of among the guardians, by the chairman
puting up the same at a sort of mock auction in the board-
room.

7. That it is the opinion of the Committee, that this em-
ployment—or in fact any labour which can justly be con-
sidered of a penal or disgusting character—should not be
adopted by boards of guardians, as such a course must tend
to prevent the really destitute poor from entering the union-
house, and is not consistent with a mild and considerate ad-
ministration of the law.

8. That from evidence given before your Committee, they
believe that instances have occurred in which inmates of
the workhouse have not received the extra allowance to
which they were entitled ; and as regards the sick, inasmuch
as it was not the practice of the medical officer of the work-
house to make any such orders for extra allowance in writing,
or to record them in a book, as provided for by the work-
house regulations, there has thus been no satisfactory check
upon such abuse.

9. That the Committee are of opinion, that if the medical
officers of the Andover Union had held their appointments
during good behaviour, instead of being exposed to removal
at frequently recurring periodical elections, and had they
been in a position of less dependence upon the guardians, they
would have been in a position to execute the trust reposed in
them with much greater advantage to the interests of the
sick poor, and the abuses which have been exposed before
the Committee would have been earlier disclosed and more
efficiently checked, if not prevented; and your Committee
would refer the House to the order of the Poor-law Commis-
sioners of March 12, 1842 (Article 20), in which, while it
permits an annual appointment, the Commissioners have re-
cognised the principle of the appointment of medical officers,
" until they may die or resign, or become legally disqualified
to hold such office, or be removed therefrom by the Poor-law
Commissioners."

10. That no remonstrance appears ever to have been
made to the Poor-law Commissioners by the chairman, any
member, or ()Seer of the board, or by any Assistant Poor-
law Commissioner, upon the subject of this omission, or in
reference to any of the instances of irregularity and mis-
management which have been stated in evidence before the
Committee.

11. That the evidence before your Committee leads to the
belief that a general system of laxity has prevailed in regard
to the accounts of the union ; that many important books
have remained for long periods unchecked ; and that in this
respect the board of guardians, and more especially the clerk
of the union, have failed in the due performance of the duties
which they respectively owed to the ratepayers and the poor
of the district.

12. That your Committee cannot omit to mention, as one
contributing cause of the irregularities prevalent in the union,
the circumstance that the clerk has, from the commence-
ment, been permitted, with the knowledge of the Commis-
sioners, to act by deputy; a state of circumstances in which
it is obvious that the personal respectability of the principal
affords no security for the due and honest discharge of
the duties of the office, and from which, in this case, a
serious defalcation in respect to the funds of the union
(subsequently, however, made good by the principal clerk
out of his private funds, for the particulars of which your
Committee refer to Paper No. 3 in the Appendix) appears to
have taken place.