The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-07-30 00:00:00

HOUSE OF LORDS.-TUESDAY.

The Soap Allowance Bill, the Parish Constables Bill,
the Western Australian Bill, and the Colonial Postage
Bill, passed through committee.
On the motion of Lord WHARNCLIFFE, a clause was
added to the Farm Buildings Bill, to the effect that per-
sons, under the age of 18 years, convicted of arson, should
be whipped. The clause was introduced because the
crime was frequently committed by children and very
young persons, from no other motive than one of mis-
chief.

The bill then passed through committee.
The Sudbury Disfranchisement Bill passed through
committee.—Adjourned.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.-TUESDAY.

The Leeds Vicarage Bill was read a second time.
The house then went into committee on the Joint Stock
Banks Regulation Bill.
Sir W. CLAY said, the house having decided that the
liability of shareholders should be unlimited, Parliament
ought to take care that the liability should not be illu-
sory, but bond fide.
The SOLICITOR-GENERAL said the greatest care would
be taken to remove any difficulty or ambiguity on the
subject.
The clauses in the bill were agreed to.
The Joint Stock Companies Registration and Regula-
tion Bill was re-committed.

Mr. GLADSTONE, on the second clause being read,
moved the insertion of words to extend the operation of
the act to Ireland.

Captain JONES opposed the amendment.

. .
A conversation ensued, in which Mr. Ross, the Attor-
ney-General for Ireland, Mr. Gladstone, Sir W. Clay, and
other members, took part.
The amendment, extending the provisions of the bill to
Ireland, was agreed to, and ordered to stand part of the
clause.

The remaining clauses were read and agreed to.
M r. GwEENEbrought up the report on the Railways Bill
A desultory conversation ensued, in which Mr. P. M.
Stewart, Mr. Entwisle, and the Chancellor of the Exche-
quer took part.
The report was agreed to, and the bill ordered to be
read a third time on Thursday.
Lord Asti LEY moved an Address to the Crown, praying
her Majesty to take into her consideration the report of
the Metropolitan Commissioners in Lunacy to the Lord
Chancellor, and presented to the house by command of
her Majesty.
After considerable discussion the motion was withdrawn,
as was also a motion by Mr. T. Duncombe relative to the
employment of troops in the island of Guernsey.
Mr. Ross moved an address to her Majesty praying for
the removal of Mr. O'Driscoll from the commission of
the peace.
After a long and tiresome discussion the motion was
rejected by 92 to 59.—Adjourned.

HOUSE OF COMMONS..--WEDNESDAY.

Sir J. GRAHAM, on the order of the day for the second
reading of the Criminal Appeal Bill, proposed to Mr.
Kelly to postpone it for the present session, reserving to
the government the full right of affirming or denying its
principle, after that mature deliberation which it was
their intention to bestow upon the subject during the
recess.—Mr. Kelly agreed.
The report of the Poor-law Amendment Bill having
been brought up,
Mr. BORTHWICK proposed, that suitable and decent
accommodation should be provided in workhouses for
every man and his wife aged more than sixty years each ;
that, when from the infirmity of either, though below
that age, the attendance of the other should be requisite,
the arrangement should be the same as if both parties
had been aged more than sixty; that on a certificate from
one magistrate, or a case of temporary or insufficient em-
ployment, the guardians should order out-door relief
during the continuance of such suffering; and that chil-
dren under seven should not be separated from their
mothers being inmates of the same workhouse, with a
provision for the convenient access of mothers to all chil-
dren in the same workhouse aged under thirteen. Mr.
Borthwick declared himself desirous to found his legisla-
tion upon two propositions—that the law ought not to
separate husband and wife, nor parent and child ; and
that the workhouse ought not to be the lot of those who
are in want from circumstances over which they have no
control. If wealth had its duties as well as its privileges,
-poverty had its rights as well as its sufferings. It might
be that the commissioners or guardians would humanely
make order in such individual cases for the objects he
sought, but he preferred to secure them through the ge-
aleral sanction of the law.
Sir J. GRAHAM was not aware that any such provi-
Vona as had now been proposed were anywhere to be
found in the old law. The guardians had power by the
present law to give the proposed accommodation and re-
lief to man and wife under the circumstances indicated
in these clauses, and the access of mothers to children
was also provided for • Borth-
wick's third clause, for but the principle of Mr. Borth-
Qergrral allowance of out-door
relief, struck at the very of
t ofthr existing poor-law..
in He referred to the great anunoburi-otio
tor relief
reliefaf
forded under the existing 1,„ in prop
given in workhouses, and recommended it to the house
to reject these clauses.
Lord JOHN MANNERS said, that if the
practice were
really as represented by Sir J. Graham, there would be
no objection to enact that Practice by positive law. He

entreated the house to pass these clauses, that this session
might obtain the credit of having, in its last days, done
something effectual for the benefit ( f the poor.
Alter several other memhers had spoken, the house
divided, when the first of Mr. Borthwick's•Clauses was
negatived by a majority of 95 to 32. The other three
clauses were negatived without a division.
Mr. S. O'BRIEN moved a clause directing that the
commissioners should appoint clergymen of the Church
of England to act as chaplains in the workhouses, and
fix their s+laries, to be paid out of the rates; the chaplain
of each workhouse to be approved by the bishop of that
diocese. Mr. O'Brien enumerated a great number of
populous districts whose v, orkhouses had no chaplains;
and animadverted upon the disgrace incurred by England
by suffering such a state of things to exist for the sake of
saving money. Where these workhouses were planted,
the population was the most dense, and the parochial
clergymen consequently the least able to find time for the
religious instruction of additional poor.
Sir J. GRAHAM feared that the interests of the esta-
blished church would not be really promoted by any
measure that should force all districts to pay for her par-
ticular form of worship. As the law now stood, the
commissioners had the power of directing the appoint-
ment of chaplains to any workhouses, though they had
not the selection of the candidates, which belonged to the
guardians; and, in fact, out of 513 unions having work-
houses, there were 411 to which chaplains had thus al-
ready been voluntarily appointed. The proposed com-
pulsion would but kindle a flame of religious discord
throughout the kingdom.
The clause was rejected by a majority of 82 to 19.
The house soon after adjourned.