MR. OWEN STANLEYsaid, he wished to ask the President of the Poor Law Board, If he has taken into his consideration the Petition from the parish of Holyhead lately presented to this House, together with any Special Report from the Poor Law Inspector of the district, Mr. Doyle, urging the necessity of immediate Legislative interference, to enforce upon the Guardians of the Holyhead Union the building a workhouse and hospital for the sick poor, and giving means for instruction to orphan and pauper children in the Union; and if he will be prepared to bring in a Bill to enforce the same; and if he will lay upon the table of the House any Report or Papers relating to this subject?
§ MR. GATHORNE HARDYVery soon, Sir, after I came to the Poor Law Board this subject was brought before me, and the facts were of so dreadful and disgusting a character that I made up my mind at the time that it should be the fault of Parliament and not mine if measures were not taken to redress the grievances existing in that district. It appears that no workhouse has ever been built, and that cases had occurred in which people suffering from typhus fever have lain for weeks on chairs in common lodging houses, for the want of proper accommodation, and that girls of tender age have been lodged in a common brothel because no workhouse was provided. If the House will take the trouble to read the petition presented by the hon. Member for Beaumaris, it can have no doubt that there is strong grounds for legislative interference. I propose, as soon as I have the opportunity, to bring in a Bill to invest the Poor Law Board with a power they do not possess. At present they can compel the making of alterations in a workhouse, but they have no power to compel the building of one. At other places—very few, I am happy to say—there is almost an equal call for interference; and I shall have pleasure in laying the Reports that relate to Anglesea and Holyhead on the table.
§ MR. NEATEsaid, he would suggest that it was a question for the consideration of the Law Officers of the Crown whether persons who had been so far guilty 811 of a breach of the trust placed in them were not punishable at Common Law.