The Sun.
London, England, 1841-01-02 00:00:00

BELGIUM.

Bitt7SSELS, DEC. 30.—According to custom the Minister
account • of
sentatives, at the beginning of the Seisstitono,_
of Finance laid on the table of the Chamber of Refire-
f October lost.
the state of the Treasury on
attheth.at time the excess of
set.ting out.
This document shows what was
in other words, what
the expenditure above the revenoe;
Fhb the
the details of Willett would
year 1630. This document,
on
the Ist
was the deficiency of the Treasu details
of October, 18.
be uninteresting, amounted equal - 4 O, 4O,
to 18,455,000 f., requiring .an . sum in Treasury
bonds to be kept in circulation. To this amount of float-
ing debt must be added the four millions for the loan made
. .
to the Bank of Belgium, and the eight millions necessary
for restoring the edministration of the national debt to a
state But on the other hand, as five millions:are
regular
to .
be taken from the produce of the loan to reduce the
floating debt, this debt will be only 23,500,000 f. It %Tin
be further reduced by the application of the overplus. of
the current year, which promises to be considerable.
Baron Norman, Belgian Charge d'Affaires in America,
returned to Brussels two days ago.
nrll.ol AN ii. U Nl)s—tsaupppi.o, Prtc. 3...), ,
Actual Dept, 2y,", per Cent.
Rothschild's Loan, f‘ per c,nt ti6
Loan of Thirty Millions, 1 per Cent--
----- (I 4,9 tlti .
---- 3 pet Cent.
-----PTilitty-POVell
Loan of Cal', 1K52, 4 per Ccot .......... ......... $0
Society ot Commerce, ,I!..per Cent 1 ln
Hank of Belgium, 5 per Cent..„„ ........... ..„ t-t;
Nationa I Spcicty
Exchange on Imiitimi (short)
• —Brussels Papers, Dec. 30. ;
AUSTRIAN FUNDS.—VIENNA, DEC..r.:l'
101
fire per Colts. Mctalliques •.. ...................... ...•..
nn, ,
Fear per Cents.... ............... .......... •• • 1."
-%
Three tm- Cents. .................... ....., ..... •••• ........ 152
Bank Share; •
.—Allgemeine Zeitung, Dec. 27.
•

- ,
PROFITABLE PIIIACY.—I scud your. Grape
five or six letters more for the West India Governors,,..: to
my Luc! Ilellamont desires them. A clause is added that
tLey should restrain pirates from going out, and inYiriro
ofn;(Plitiadrda eibtesing yet named among them. They
who is assistant in equipping. This is done at the desire
who have had fresh advices
Company,eo committed in those seas; but I
ofdrt,'o,
it
ntel
ti ell:.
,(1:d:j :as t i
of
hear that the Governor of New York is one that has given
the most encouragement to these robbers; that he connives
at their going out, and receives presents from them at their
return. sane company of them who divided share 7001. a
man, besides other presents, gave Fletcher their 'ship
which he sold for 1,000/. and it was afterwards fitted out
again on the same design.—Jatmes's Court and Times of
Ihlliam 111.

MORNING EDITION

THE OPINION OF THE CITY
SOLICITOR ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF
THE POOR LAW.

TO THE WORSHIPFUL THE POLICE COWMITTII.

GENTLEMEN—In obedience to your directions, I
have the honour to report in writing the opinions upon
the construction of the Poor-law, which at your last
meeting I delivered, viva voce, to the Committee.
I have hereunto annexed a copy of the several sec-
tions of the Act of Parliament, which bear upon the
particular questions submitted to my consideration. I
bare also appended copies of two of the orders of the
Commissioners which, having been made under the
authority of the st ►lute, and in conformity with its pro-
♦isions, must be equally received as law, and construed,
in reference to the wording of the several clauses of
the Act, as much as if they had been incorporated in
and formed part of the statute itself.
I have not the smallest doubt but that it is the duty
of the Board of Guardians in the City of London Union,
to make provision for giving, in cases of urgent neces-
sity, immediate shelter, either temporary or permanent,
as the case may require, to houseless wanderers found
in a state of destitution within the limits of the Union.
By the 26th and 76th sections of the Act, work-
houses for each Unioe aro to be provided. It is not
prescribed by the Act that these workhouses shall be
situtated within the district • if, therefore, the Guar-
dians with a view to the economical administration of
the funds, or the better to secure the health of the in-
mates, or for other lawful reason, shall see fit to occupy
a workhouse at a distance from London, they are un-
doubtedly at liberty to do ao ; but, in my opinion, the
fact that the workhouse is at a distance, does not
exonerate them from the obligation of providing tempo-
rary shelter upon the spot, in all cases of emergeucy
where the necessities of the case do not admit of imme-
diate removal, to the house provided in ordinary cases,
for the reception of the poor.
The Committee will perceive that the 52d section
of the Statute expressly mentions " temporary lodging"
as well as '' food and medicine " as being part of the
relief to be provided in cases of particular urgency.
It is true the words " temporary lodging" are not
repeated in the .54th section of the Act, or in the or-
ders of the Commissioners, and thence some persona
have contended that " lodging, or shelter" is not of the
description of relief required to be provided in cases of
emergency.
I confess that the attempt to put upon the Statute
such a construction appears to me quite untenable.
The word " medicine " is omitted in these clauses, as
well as " temporary lodging," yet it will be scarcely
contended that a person perishing in the street from
the consequence of accident or active disease, is not
entitled to medical relief, as instantaneous and effectual
as if he were dying from want of food. The 54th sec-
tion expressly says that the relief is to be " such as
each case shall require,' and it would be an insult to
common sense to say that this requirement of the
Statute would be complied with by offering bread to
a houseless stranger, about to perish of cold, and to
refuse him shelter " such as his case required."
I have the honour to be,
Your most obedient servant,

CHARLES PEARSON, City Solicitor.
Guildhall, Dec. 1, 1840.

4 and
.5 William IV. cap. 76.

See. 52. And whereas a practice has obtained of giving
relief to persons or their families, who at the time of apply-
ing for or receiving such relief were wholly or partially
in the employment of individuals ; and the relief of the
able-bodied and their families is in many places admi-
nistered in modes productive of evil in other respects.
And whereas, difficulties may arise in case any imme-
diate and universal remedy is attempted to be applied
in the matters aforesaid, Be it further enacted that from
and after the passing of this Act it shall be lawful for
the said Commissioners by such rules, orders, and regu
lations as they may think fit to declare, to what extent
and for what period, the relief to be given to able-bodied
persons or to their families in any particular parish or
anion may be administered out of the workhouse of
such parish or union by payments in money or with food
or clothing, in kind or partly in kind and partly in
money, and in what proportions, to what persons or class
of persons, at what times and places, on what conditions
and in whit manner such out-door relief may be
afforded. And all relief which shall be given by any
Overseer, Guardian, or other person having the con-
trol or distribution of the funds of such parish or union,
contrary to such orders or regulations, shall be, and the
same is hereby declared to be unlawful, and shall be
disallowed in the accounts of the person giving the same,
subject to the exceptions hereinafter mentioned. Pro-
sided always, that in case the Overseers or Guardian,
of any parish or union, to which such orders or regula-
tions shall be addressed or directed, shall, upon consi-
deration of the special circumstances of such parish or
union, or of any person or class of persons thereM, be of
opinion that the application and enforcing of such orders
or regulations, or of any part thereof, at the time or in
the manner prescribed by the said Commissioners,
would be inexpedient, it shall be lawful for such Over-
seers or Guardians to delay the operation of such orders
or regulations, or of any part thereof, for any feriod not
exceeding the space of thirty days, to be reckoned from
tke day of the receipt of such orders or regulations.
Aid such Overseers or Guardians shall, twenty days at
the least before the expiration of such thirty days, make
a statement and Report of such special circumstances
t• the said Commissioners. And all relief which :hall
he given by such Overseers or Guardians before an
answer to such Report shall have been returned by thy
said Commissioners, if otherwise lawful, shall not be
deemed unlawful, although the same shall have been
given contrary to such orders or regulations, or any of
them ; but in case the said Commissioners shall disap-
prove of such delay, or think that for the future such
orders or regulations ought to come into operation, not-
withstanding the special circumstances alleged by such
Overseer or Guardian, it shall be lawful for the said
Commissioners by a peremptory order to direct that from
and after a day to be fixed thereby such orders and re-
gulations, or such parts or modifications thereof as
they may think expedient and proper, shall be enforced
and observed by such Overseers and Guardians. And
if any allowance be made, or relief given by such Over•
seers or Guardians, after the last mentioned period,
contrary to such last mentioned order, the amount of
the relief or a lowance shall be disallowed in the accounts
of the party giving the same. Provided also that a
qnartsrly report of all such cases as shall occur in any
quarter shall at the end of every such qu irter be laid by
the said Commissioners before one of her Majesty's
principal Secretaries of State. Provided also that in
case the Overseers or Guardians of any Pariah or Union
in which such orders or regulations shall be in force
shall depart from them or any of them in any particu-
lar instance or instances of emergency, and shall within
fifteen days after such departure report the same, and
the grounds thereof, to the said Commissioners, and the
said Commissioners shall approve of such departure, or
if the relief so given shall hare been given in food, tem-
porary lodging, or medicine, and shall have been so re-
ported as aforesaid, then and in either of such cases the
relief granted by such Overseers or Guardians if other-
wise lawful shall not be unlawful or subject to be dis-
allowed.

Sec. 54. And be it further. enacted, that from and
after the passing of this Act the ordering, giving, and
directing of all relief to the poor of any parish, which
according to the provisions of any of the said recited
Acts, or of an Act passed in the first and second years
ef the reign of his present Majesty, isitituled " An Act
for the better regulation of Vestries, and for the ap-
pointment of Auditors of Acccounts in certain Parishes
is England and Wales," or of this Act, or of any local
Acts, shall be under the government and control of anv
Guardians of the Poor or of any Select Vestry, and
whether forming part of any Union or incorporation or
not (but subject in all cases to, and saving and except-
lag the powers of the said Commissioners appointed
under this Act) shall appertain
, and belong exclusively
es such Guardians of the oor or Select Vestry, accord-
ing to the respective provisions of the Acts under which
loch Guardians or Select Vestry may have b,2em or shall
be appointed ; and it shall not be lawful for any Over-
aeer of the poor to give any further or other relief or al-
lowance from the Poor-rate than such as shall be or-
dered by such Guardians or Select Vestry, except in
cases of sudden and urgent necessity, in which cases he is
hereby required to give such temporary relief as each
case shall require in articles of absolute necessity, but
n
trot in money, and whether the applicant for relief
be settled in the parish where ho shall apply for relief
or not ; provided
- ("ay' that in case such Overseer
shall refuse or neglect to give such necessary relief in
any such case of necessity to poor persons not settled
nor usually residing in the pariah to which such over-
seer belongs, it shall and msy be lawful for any Justice
eaf the Peace to order the said Overseer by writing,
under his hand and seal, to give such temporary relief
in articles of absolute nee. 3,ity as the ca,a shall require,
but not in money. And in case su h o.e-seer shall
disobey such o:der, he shall, on the conviction before
two Justices, forfeit any sum not exceeding five pounds
which such .Justic is shall order, provided always that' 1
any Justice of the Peace shall he empowered to give a
similar order for medical relief (only),to any parishioner,
as well as ow-parishioner, where any Cage Of sudden
reqi.ire it. And any Over-
and dangerous illness may
seer shall be liabl,! to the sans, penalties as aforesaid
for disobeying such order, but it shall not be lawful for
at y Ilstice or Justices to order relief to any person or
p.rsons from the Poor-rates of any such parish, except
as hereit.before p-ovided.

i± -4rief , _ iizt any parish or place
.4.
titivritr. r cHURCMVARDENi AND OVERSEERS.
.14-ViirilAA.. If any Churchwarden or Overseer of the
Rules and Orders of the Commissioners, made under
the authority of 4 and 5, W. 4, C. 76 :
. DUTIES OP THE RELIEVING OFFICER.
Thirdly.—ln cases of sudden and urgent necessity,
to give siKllttmorary relief as each case shall require,
either brpiasprthe pauper in the workhouse or of
stersiingirigW, ;the house in articles of absolute
',..c,r1 \ OA_ . money ; whether the applicant for
71.14.
I),
.4~;..
P 4s! oirsuy parish or place in this Union `hall, is any

case of sudden and urgent necessity deem it right that
temporary relief to any pauper in articles of necessity
should be given out of the workhouse, such Church-
warden or Overseer shall, if possible, cause the same
to be given to the relieving officer for such parish or
place ; but if such Churchwarden or Overseer shall give
such relief himself he shall forthwith report the same in
writing to such relieving officer.