§ MR. C. P. VILLIERS,in rising to move for leave to bring in a Bill to make provision for distributing the charge of relief of certain classes of poor persons over the metropolis, said, he simply sought by the measure to give effect to the recommendations of a Committee which had arrived at an unanimous conclusion on the subject. The House was familiar with the accounts which so frequently appeared of the wandering poor who paraded the streets of the metropolis at night, and who were sometimes unable to obtain the relief which the law provided, and the Committee inquired very closely into the liability of the parishes to contribute to their support. Upon investigation it seemed that the present law failed in the respect that there was an unfair distribution of charges throughout the several Unions, while there was no doubt of 1772 the liability of the various parishes to support the destitute. After much inquiry the Committee came to the conclusion that the evil arose from the unequal distribution of the charge, and they recommended that some common fund should be created for the maintenance of that class of poor. They considered that the machinery of the Metropolitan Board of Works might be made available for the purpose, while under the machinery of the Poor Law Board there would be every check against abuse. The Bill provided for the creation of the necessary fund, which would only amount to £5,000 for the whole metropolis, while the property, on which the Metropolitan Board made their rate, amounted to £13,600,000. He believed that all the Unions in the metropolis agreed to the Bill, and that the Metropolitan Board did not object to it.
§ Motion agreed to.
§ Bill to make provision for distributing the charge of the Relief of certain classes of Poor Persons over the whole of the Metropolis, ordered to be brought in by Mr. VILLIERS and Mr. GILPIN.
§ Bill presented, and read 1o. [Bill 224.]