Report of the Poor Law Commissioners to the Most Noble the Marquis of Normanby; Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Home

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1840 Excerpt: ...in the receipt of 3s. a-day became chargeable: she does not belong to Chatham, but the parish is still bound to support her, as her husband can neither be made to aid in her maintenance, nor be examined as to his settlement. Should he be ordered abroad, he might he examined; but in no case can he be made to contribute anything towards his wife's support. All vagrants should be made chargeable to the Union, and not to the parish in which they first become applicants for relief; and in case of chargeability arising from workmen employed in the formation of railways and large public works, the company or the contractors should be bound to support such persons, provided they have no settlements in the parish in which they are working. The burden which accidents on a railway, to the workmen, sometimes inflicts on small parishes is very heavy, and I think unjustly imposed on them. Of all the abuses that existed under the former system of administering the Poor Laws, I believe that the payment of wages out of the rates has been considered the greatest, and that the extermination of this great abuse, in comparison to which all the others have been deemed (and in my opinion justly too) light and unimportant, was the main object of the Poor Law Amendment Act. To the operation, therefore, of the measure, as respects its chief aim, my attention has been incessantly directed; and, gratified as I am in observing that nineteen-twentieths of the abuse have been suppressed, I view, with the strongest feelings of apprehension, the existence of the remaining twentieth, keeping alive as it does the seeds of the evil, and ready as it is but too obvious to myself, on any withdrawal of the pressure that now restrains it, to spring forth into its former luxuriance. The injustice, -...