§ Sir J. Grahamwished, before the Budget was brought forward, to call the attention of the Government to a matter of some importance connected with the enlargement and improvement of the several Workhouses throughout England and Wales. He believed it was the general impression that much of the success of the Poor-law Amendment Act depended upon every facility being given for the erection of workhouses. The Government, in the first instance, arranged that the sums to be lent the Unions for the purpose of building workhouses should be repaid within ten years from the period the advance was made; but, subsequently, on several representations being made that this time was too short, and that it was expedient to give the Unions every facility, it was extended to twenty-one years. He was informed, within the last few days, that very recently applications had been made from various Unions for advances, in conformity with the Act of last session, but it would appear those advances were refused, on the ground that there was no further sum available for the purposes of such works. Now, before the budget was brought on, he was anxious to direct attention to this matter, and he did so in the hope that some arrangement might be made for continuing to the Unions the assistance they required.
§ Lord J. Russellhad to observe, that the advances already made to the Poor-law Unions, for the erection of workhouses, 1161 very much exceeded the sum set apart for that purpose by Lord Althorp.