The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-08-25 00:00:00

THE NEW POOR-LAW COMMISSION

The committee appointed by the Elouse of Commons
co inquire into the alleged irregularities of the Andover
Union have made their report.
Under the head of dietary, the committee point out an
explained discrepancy between the dietary No. 3, as pub-
lished in the second annual report of the Poor-law Com-
missioners, and the dietary said to be No. 3, adopted in
the workhouse of the Andover Union. They are of opi-
nion that, until last autumn, the Andover dietary was too
low ; and that it was often further diminished by the
master. It was proved that the hungry inmates had
been in the habit of eating Efuse food thrown to pigs
and fowls, and of eating the marrow of the bow-s
they were set to break. The committee find it proved
that produce of the paupers' labour in crushing bones,
was distributed among the guardians by a mock auction.
It is their opinion that this or any other labour of a dis-
gusting or penal character, Would not be adopted by
boards of guardians, to deter the really destitute poor
from entering the workhouse. It is remarkable that,
notwithstanding petitions to parliament to this effect in
1842, uo order for the discontinuance of the practice was
issued by the Commissioners till November, 1845. The
committee mention that the sick in the Andover Union
did not receive their necessary extra allowances. They
are of opinion that these abuses would have been checked
at once had the medical officers of the Union been placed
in an independent position by being appointed during good
behaviour.

The Committee find it proved that the greatest laxity
has prevailed in respect to the accounts of the Union ;
that many important books have remained for long pe-
riods unebecked ; and that the Board of Guardians and
Clerk of the Union have failed in the due performance of
the duties which they respectively owed to the rate-payers
and the'poor of the district. The Lommittee mention,
as one contributing cause to the irregularities prevalent
in the Union, that the clerk had been, from the beginning,
allowed to act by deputy.
The Committee account for Mr. Parker's not having
detected the abuses which prevailed in the Andover Union,
by the fact "that the large extent of his district, the
large number of Unions comprised in it, and the beavy
special calls made upon his time by the Poor. law Com-
missioners, have rendered it almost impossible for him
to pay visits to each of the Unions under his care, nu-
merous and long enough for effective inspection of the
workhouses." In connexion with the excessive size of
Mr. Parker's district, the Committee advert to the cir-

cumatance that while the number of unions has

yearly increasing, the run ber of Assistant Commission-
era has been successively diminished from twenty-one to
seventeen, to twelve, and at last to nine. Not only, it is
added, were Mr. Parker's labours excessive i • his special
representations of the disgraceful state of the accounts
and workhouses in many of the unions placed under his
superintendence, received no attention from the Commis-

shiners; nor is this the only instance in which these gen-
tlemen have failed to encourage the detection and removal
of abuses by Assistant Commissioners.

On the cases of Messrs. Parker and Day. "the com-
mittee are of opinion their (the commissioners') conduct
has been irregular and arbitrary, not in accordance with
the statute under which they exercise their functions, and
such as to shake public confidence in their administra-
tion of the law."
In conclusion, the committee intimate that they have

" received much evidence upon the mode of transacting
business which has been adopted by the Poor-law Com-
missioners. throughout the existence of the commission,
and upon the insufficiency of the present number of As-
sistant Commissioners for adequate inspection and con-
(rol, and upon other points connected with the adminis-
tration of the poor-law. to which they think it their duty
to direct the special attention of the house ; but upon
which, as these subjects are not included in their order of
reference, they consider themselves precluded from offer-
ing any opinion of their own."

THE GREAT WESTERN STEAM-SHIP.