Mr. Duncombesaid, that he had, a short time ago, presented a petition to the House, complaining of the practice which existed in the workhouse at Mansfield. By the New Poor Law any person seeking nightly 1320 shelter and food, could be sent to a task of work, with a view of repaying the parish with that task of work for the relief afforded. The practice which prevailed in cases of that sort in the workhouse referred to was this. There was a wheel at which persons seeking nightly shelter or food were placed at work from one hour to four hours in the morning. This was not a wheel that produced anything. It neither drew water nor ground corn; but was established solely for the purpose of hard labour. From one to eight persons could work at the wheel, and if there were more than one, the master of the workhouse put on additional weight, so as to make the task more difficult. The circumstance was regarded in the neighbourhood with great dissatisfaction, and was thought to be contrary to the spirit and the letter of the New Poor Law Act. He had taken the liberty, at the time when he presented the petition, of drawing the right hon. Baronet's attention to the allegations contained in it, and he now wished to ask the right hon. Baronet if he had made inquiry into the subject, and if so, what steps he had taken in regard to it, if he considered the practice illegal?
§ Sir James Grahamsaid, that in consequence of what had fallen in March last from the hon. Gentleman, in reference to this subject, the Poor Law Commissioners had communicated with the Poor Law Guardians of the Union in question, about the illegality of the application of labour to machinery, the working of which yielded nothing. He thought, with them, that such employment of labour was of a penal character, and that it was neither within the spirit nor the letter of the New Poor Law Amendment Act. The first communication had not, it appeared, led to the discontinuance of this mode of employing labour, which led to a peremptory order being subsequently sent by the Poor Law Commissioners for its immediate discontinuance.