COLONEL HOGGsaid, he wished to ask the Secretary of the Poor Law Board, Whether the cost of the District Asylums 1451 in the Metropolis for Lunatics will not greatly exceed the original estimated rate of £50 for each inmate; whether the Poor Law Board will sanction the erection of buildings for more than 2,000 Lunatics, the number stated to be sufficient for the requirements of the Metropolis; and whether, if it should appear that the total charge upon the Metropolitan ratepayers is likely to be more than double the sum of £400,000, as originally estimated, the Board would sanction the erection of buildings so greatly in excess of those which Parliament was led to believe would be necessary?
§ MR. SCLATER-BOOTH, in reply, said, he was sorry he had no information on the subject to which the hon. and gallant Member referred that would enable him to give a direct Answer to the Question that had been put to him. The subject to which the Question referred was in the hands of the Managers of the Metropolitan Asylum Districts, two-thirds of whom were appointed by the guardians of the different metropolitan unions, and who might be said to represent the interests of the ratepayers. The managers were understood to have appointed a committee, to whom had been referred the question of accommodation necessary for the imbecile poor of the different metropolitan workhouses. That committee had not made its report, and consequently no report had been received from them by the Poor Law Board. He could assure the hon. and gallant Gentleman that the Board would not sanction any excessive or unnecessary expenditure; but, on the contrary, they were disposed to encourage and enforce economy by every means in their power in the expenditure of the common fund of the metropolitan parishes as far as was consistent with a due regard to the important objects aimed at by the Act of this Session.