POOR LAW UNIONS. (Hansard, 27 February 1845)

§ Captain Pechell

said, that at the close of last Session an Order had been transmitted to the different Poor Law Unions throughout the country, for a return of the employments of the poor in the workhouses in each Union; and that from the Returns laid upon the Table of the House, all the Unions had complied with the Order of the House, with the exception of the Boston Union, the Guardians of which, instead of making the specified returns, thought proper to address a letter tantamount to a denial of the authority of the House, and stating that they had decided not to make such return. From what had fallen the other night from the right hon. Baronet the Secretary for the Home Department, he was bound to believe that it was the wish of the right hon. Baronet to discourage the employment of the poor in workhouses in the grinding and crushing of bones. And no other course was now left to vindicate the authority of the House but to insist that further instructions should be sent down to the Poor Law Guardians of that Union. The hon. and gallant Member then moved— That there be forthwith laid before this House a Return from the Boston Union, stating whether the pauper inmates thereof are, or have been, since the formation of the said Union, employed in grinding or crashing bones by means of mills, machinery, or otherwise, together with the date of the erection of 119 such mills or machinery, and the names of the Chairman and Vice-chairman of the Board of Guardians of the said Union at the period; also, the cost of the said bones, including the expenses of carriage and other incidental expenses, and the amount which the same have produced in their manufactured state, and whether the same have been sold by tender, or at a fixed price or otherwise.