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

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
bad 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
acroentirnoisanl from circumstances over which they have no
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 suchindividual cases for the objects he
sought, hut he preferred to secure them through the ge-
neral sanction of the law.
ions now n proposed anywhere to be
found in the old law. The guardians had had powerabnyd the
present law to give the proposed accommodationlief to man and wife under the circumstances indicated
in these clauses, and the access of mothers to children
was also provided for; but the principle of Mr. Borth-
wick's third clause, for the general allowance of out-door
relief, struck at the very root of the existing poor-law.
lie referred to the great amount of out-door relis-f af-
forded under the existing law in proportion to the relief
given in workhouses, and rccommenCed it to the house
o 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 nractice he nnsitive 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 of the poor.
Alter several other members 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 salaries, 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 vairkliouses 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
religions 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 atter adjourned.