§ MR. ALCOCKsaid, he also wished to ask the President of the Poor Law Board, Whether he has any intention of proposing an alteration in the Law of Settlement, so as to prevent a recurrence of the case which lately occurred in the deportation of a pauper (William Adey), who, having passed sixty-seven years in Guernsey as a respectable labouring man, being worn out and unable to maintain himself, was taken out of the hospital of the parish of St. Peter le Port, and sent to the Union of Christchurch (the place of his birth), at the age of seventy-seven?
§ MR. C. P. VILLIERSsaid, in reply, that the Poor Law Department had no jurisdiction over the poor in the island of Guernsey, and that the case did not raise any question of law, either of removal or settlement. He believed that the authorities of Guernsey had assumed the right to remove any people who were destitute that were not born there. It was no aggravation of the case in question that they removed the person referred to to a place where he was chargeable. This law appeared to press very hard upon the poor of the Channel Islands; and the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the Law of Jersey had strongly recommended the assimilation of the Laws of England and Jersey in this respect—that after a few years' residence they should be irremovable.