§ MR. FERRANDrose to put the following questions:—By what authority Parliament is invested with the right to delegate to any person, or body of persons, the power of making rules and orders which shall be as binding and authoritative upon the people of England and Wales as an Act of Parliament? If Parliament is not thus authorized, by what statute can the people of England and Wales be forced to obey as law the rules and orders of the Poor Law Commissioners? If there be no statute, have not all persons committed to prison for disobeying the rules and orders of the Poor Law Commissioners been illegally deprived of their liberty?
The ATTORNEY GENERALsaid, he would answer the hon. Gentleman as briefly as possible. With respect to the first question, he apprehended that Parliament had an inherent authority to delegate to any person or body of persons the right of making rules and orders which should be as binding on the people of England as an Act of Parliament. All the rules of the Courts of Law were founded on this principle; and the Parliament having given to the Judges the power to make those rules, they had, in consequence, all the force and effect of statutes. AH the schemes of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners were founded in a similar way; and by the powers of the House the Commissioners could issue their scheme, as it was called, which should have the force of an Act of Parliament. If it were necessary, he could give numerous examples of a similar kind; but he conceived that these were quite enough to show that Parliament had such power. With respect to the second question, his answer was, that Parliament was thus authorized; and that the people of England could be forced to obey the rules and orders of the Poor Law Commissioners by the statute which expressly gives them that power. His answer to the third question was, that because there was that statute, no person committed to prison for disobeying those rules and orders had been illegally deprived of liberty.