HC Deb 07 February 1845 vol 77 cc218-20
Colonel Sibthorp

, in reviving a Motion, which he had brought forward and obtained the sanction of the House to in the course of the last Session, stated that for some reasons of which he was ignorant, the Order which was then made on the subject had been evaded, or at least it had not been complied with. The right hon. Baronet (Sir J. Graham) had, however, given him to understand that there was a difficulty in making out a return of the number of days during which the Poor Law Commissioners attended in the performance of their duties, because no regular roster was, he believed, kept in the public offices of the attendance of the functionaries; that being the fact, to his knowledge, with respect to the Home Secretary's office. He was quite ready to admit the ability, the perseverance, and the zeal of the right hon. Baronet in the performance of his duties, and the universal satisfaction which his assiduity and his untiring attention to his arduous occupations had given to all parties. He said this without any wish to flatter the right hon. Gentleman, and for that reason he did not require that a roster should be kept of the right hon. Baronet's attendance at his office, seeing so many proofs could be adduced of his attention to his duties; but the case was different with respect to the Poor Law Commissioners, and he should certainly like to know when and where they went; he did not mean to say they went into any improper places, but he should like to know what their attendance at their office was, and whether they attended regularly to their duties. He desired to know where they were, and what they were about. What he was anxious to obtain was a full return on these subjects; and, with respect to what had been stated to him by the right hon. Baronet, he must confess that he felt great surprise on being told that he now objected to what he had formerly agreed to without a word. He, therefore, begged to move, in the same terms which the House had sanctioned on the 12th of July, 1844, that there be laid before the House A Return of the number of days each Poor Law Commissioner has sat in discharge of his official duty at the office appointed for such official sittings, or at any other place for the same purpose. Also a Similar Return of the number of days each Assistant Poor Law Commissioner has been engaged in the discharge of his official duty, the place and periods at which those have been performed respectively, whether at the office of the Central Board of Commissioners, or in visits and inspections, or other matters of official duty at the different Unions or Union Workhouses throughout England and Wales, the number of days employed therein, and the amount of expense incurred by each Assistant Poor Law Commissioner in travelling or in other incidental expenses relating thereto.

Sir J. Graham

begged permission to address a few words to the House with reference to what had fallen from the hon. and gallant Member for Lincoln. Towards the close of the last Session the hon. and gallant Member had felt it his duty to move for the Return now under the consideration of the House, to which Motion he had not offered any opposition. In the course of the present evening, he had staled to the hon. and gallant Member what he had recently repeated to the House, as to the difficulty of making any Return to the first part of his Motion—namely, that with reference to the attendance of the principal Poor Law Commissioners at their office, no roster was kept, any more than the attendances of the Commissioners of Excise, Stamps, or Customs were thus registered, and consequently, in the absence of such registry, it was impossible to make any Return to meet the demands of the hon. and gallant Member. At the same time, he (Sir J. Graham) felt bound to state, of his own personal knowledge, that no public servants were more assiduous in their attendance to their duties than were the Poor Law Commissioners; and for the satisfaction of the hon. and gallant Member, as well as for that of the House at large, he would, as far as possible, give all the information on this subject that was possible, convinced that the dilligence of the gentlemen in question would be apparent. He had, therefore, resolved not to resist the Motion, lest such a proceeding should throw a shade of doubt over the subject, as far as the performance of their duties by the Poor Law Commissioners was concerned; and, for this reason, he acquiesced in the Motion.—Motion agreed to.