Mr. R. Yorkebegged leave to ask the right hon. Baronet at the head of her Majesty's Government a question of which he had given notice. The question he desired to ask was, whether the Government had instituted or intended to institute— sanction, or intended to sanction — any public subscription for the relief of the destitute districts of the country.
§ Sir R. Peelsaid, that such was undoubtedly the intention of her Majesty's Government. The exemplary patience with which the distress had been borne in the country generally had induced her Majesty's Government to institute a public subscription through the medium of a Queen's letter, and he sincerely trusted that the appeal would be generally responded to.
§ Captain Mangleshad understood the right hon. Baronet the Secretary for the Home Department, in his speech on the Poor-law Amendment Act the other evening, to state that 1,200,000 persons were in the receipt of relief. He wished to know if this were the case. He wished also to ask the right hon. Baronet whether he had any objection to lay a statement on the Table of the House which would show what proportion of those receiving relief belonged to the agricultural, and what proportion belonged to the manufacturing-classes of the population.
§ Sir James Grahamsaid, that he had stated the entire number at 1,072,000, exclusive of relief administered under local acts, those receiving in-door relief at 159,000, and those receiving out-door relief at 913,000. He had no returns showing the proportions required by the hon. Member.