§ CAPTAIN PECHELLmoved for a Return of the copy of any Instructions issued by the Poor Law Commissioners for the purpose of uniting the parish of Farnham, in Surrey, now under Gilbert's Act, with certain other parishes under the Poor Law Act; also, for a copy of any memorial to the Poor Law Commissioners from the ratepayers of the parish of Farnham remonstrating against such union or any interference whatever. The hon. and gallant Member said he had given notice of his intention to move for this return, in consequence of the extraordinary proceedings of the Poor Law Commissioners. The parish of Farnham was a single parish under Gilbert's Act, and that Act had been shown to work satisfactorily in it. The law, under certain circumstances, permitted a single parish to subsist without being annexed to a Poor Law Union; and, considering that the Report of the Parliamentary Committee relative to the Gilbert Unions had been carried only by the casting vote of the chairman against the Gilbert incorporations, it did appear extraordinary that this unfortunate parish should be taken out of them to be made the centre of a Poor Law Union. He contended that this certainty should not take place until a searching inquiry had been made into the working and operation of the Poor Law Act. He could not see the policy or expediency of the Government meddling with a parish, the management of which had been so satisfactory that it had not been considered necessary to bring it before the Gilbert Unions Committee. To annex it to a Poor Law Union without inquiry was, to say the least, most extraordinary. Great dissatisfaction existed at it; the inhabitants had met; and they had unanimously agreed 1146 to a memorial against such an outrage. Whatever opinions the Government might formerly have entertained with regard to the Poor Law, and the right hon. the Secretary of State for the Home Department in particular, he (Captain Pechell) hoped that their change of opinion upon the important subject now under discussion in that House, would be so extended, that they would see the advantages to be derived from preserving the Gilbert Unions.
§ Returns ordered.