§ Mr. Humewished to put a question to the right hon. Gentleman respecting a sum of 46,000l., which had been applied by the Government to defray some of the expenses connected with the erection of Union Workhouses in Ireland. He wished to know whether any portion of that money had been voted by the House, and if not, whether it was intended to be so voted.
§ The Chancellor of the Exchequersaid, he had not the papers connected with the subject before him, and therefore he might be inaccurate in stating details; but he could state generally that the Union Workhouses had been built, not by means of votes of money in Parliament, but the general authority of the Act which had imposed the Poor Law upon Ireland, and which had directed generally that a sum of money should be advanced on Exchequer Bills for the purpose of erecting workhouses in the different parts of Ireland. Those workhouses had been accordingly erected under the direction of the Poor Law Commissioners; and it had afterwards appeared that from the rapidity with which they had been erected, they were in point of fact not worth the total amount which had been charged for them. At last great complaints had been made by the parishes that they were called on to pay a larger amount than that which they had received was equitably worth; and upon their representations the Government had sent an engineer officer to examine into the real state of those workhouses, and in consequence of his report it appeared that certain deductions were to be made from the sums to be paid by particular parishes. These deductions were given in the papers which the hon. Gentleman held in his hands. Power had been given at the same time to remit part of the payments in particular cases, with respect to the advances which had been made.
§ Mr. Humesaid, his question had not been answered by the right hon. Gentleman. The question was, who was to pay that 46,000l.? Out of what fund was it to come?
§ The Chancellor of the Exchequersaid, it was advanced by the public—so much as was said to have been charged on the parishes unjustly, and the public would have to pay it.
§ Mr. Humesaid, if the Government had authorized the payment of any money which had not been included in the general stipulation, it was quite illegal.
§ The Chancellor of the Exchequersaid, that the money was to be paid in the course of twenty years. But the Government had the power, under the Act which enabled them to make the advance, of remitting those payments which were not justly due by the parishes to which they were charged, and they had exercised that power in the manner he had mentioned.
§ Mr. Humeconsidered the matter altogether 1448 a violation of the rights of the House of Commons, with regard to the expenditure of the public money.