§ MR. BANKES moved the Order of the Day for the Second Reading of the Poor Removal Act Amendment Bill. It was not his intention to call on the House to repeal the whole of the Poor Removal Act, hut only a part of that Act which had excited so much discontent throughout the kingdom, and which had caused so grievous and unwarrantable pressure upon the towns and upon the class of humbler ratepayers. He had supported the Bill now in operation; but he found, when it pressed injuriously on towns, that it was his duty, although he was the representative of a purely agricultural county, to represent to the House the serious grievance which the poor population of towns laboured under. The pressure on the towns was an intolerable burden, and the consequence was, that a great number of persons were about to leave them, as their incomes could not bear the infliction of a double poor rate. He had in his possession a letter from the incumbent of the town of Blandford, who represented that the additional burden cast upon the poorer classes of the ratepayers was such as would compel them to quit the neighbourhood. In fact the poor had to maintain the poor; and unless some alteration were made, the evil would be so aggravated, that the result would be to depreciate rents to the extent of 25 or 50 per cent. [The hon. Gentleman proceeded to read various returns from the city of York, to show the increase of poor rates in that city, and to prove that the rate fell upon the poorest class of ratepayers, whilst the wealthier classes were permitted to escape comparatively free.] It was no answer to him to say that the Government intended to bring in a Bill which would have the effect of making a salutary alteration. He knew that the subject was one attended with so many difficulties, that the Government could not introduce any measure in a hurry. He knew they could not do it this Session, and he felt assured they would not do it in the next. But what objection could there possibly be to relieve the poor ratepayers, and to let the pressure fall on the rural and agricultural parishes, which were quite willing to bear their share of the burden? He denied that there was any redeeming quality in the Bill at present in operation; and he believed it had not been productive of any benefit to the class for whose interests it was originally framed. He was sorry to have to say it, 648 but it was his decided opinion, that the Poor Law Commissioners, however well versed they were in the law, were totally unacquainted with the mode in which the law worked. They sat in their chambers and took it for granted that all went well, until called to interfere by some serious or strong complaint. But the poor had no power to make a strong or a serious complaint against a grievance; and the present Poor Removal Bill inflicted upon them great and unjustifiable injury. The class of poor against whom the Bill operated with great cruelty and injustice, was more especially aged widows and other persons who were in the receipt of 2s. or 3s. a week from the parish, and who considered they would be enabled by means of this small assistance to pass the remainder of their days under the shelter of a relative's roof. Formerly they were permitted thus to live out of the parish, and even out of the union; but by the more recent enactment they were compelled to remove, and in many cases lost their shelter and support, without which their lives must be passed in poverty and desolation. The Committee which had been appointed some months ago to inquire into the working of the law, bad received a great' deal of evidence on the subject; but the inquiry, though extending over four or five months, had ended (as he expected it would) in nothing except a resolution, or rather a skeleton report, which was to be presented to the House to-morrow. The hon. Gentleman having alluded to the unequal pressure of the existing law, and stated, in support of his position, the particulars of cases from Norwich, South Wales, Cornwall, and other places, observed, that as it then wanted but a few minutes of the hour for the adjournment of the House, he would content himself by simply opening his case, and postponing his further remarks to another opportunity. If the Government remained deaf to all warning and entreaty—if they refused either to repeal or to alter the Act, he should certainly persevere in his Motion. He was aware that the state of the public business would not permit of his proceeding further until that day week; but as upon that day he would have a precedence over the other orders, he would content himself now by moving that the Bill be read a second time that day week.
§ Bill postponed.
§ House adjourned at Six o'clock.