§ MR. FRENCHrose to put a question of which he had given notice some time ago. He had seen it stated in the public prints, that the Poor Law Commissioners had taken upon themselves to dismiss two boards of guardians in Ireland. He had since received a communication stating, that the Commissioners had been defeated in a proposition brought before the board; 965 and that, in order to prevent a second defeat, they had taken upon themselves to dissolve them. The question was, whether it were true that the Poor Law Commissioners had taken upon themselves to dismiss the guardians of Castlereagh and Tuam?
§ SIR J. GRAHAMreplied, that it was true that the Commissioners had thought it necessary to dissolve the board of guardians of Tuam and Castlereagh. He apprehended that what he was about to state would show that the exercise of this power was not only unobjectionable, but that it was absolutely necessary in the present circumstances of Ireland, distressing as those circumstances were. At Tuam and Castlereagh the guardians had positively refused to open the workhouse, or to relieve the poor out of doors. For that reason, and for that reason mainly, the Commissioners had deemed it absolutely necessary to dissolve the two boards, and to call upon the ratepayers to elect fresh boards.