§ VISCOUNT ENFIELDsaid, he wished to ask the Secretary to the Poor Law Board, Whether any nominees have been appointed under the Provisions of the Metropolitan Poor Relief Act, passed during the present Session, to act as joint guardians of the poor throughout the Metropolitan Parishes and Unions; and, if such nominations have not taken place, whether it be in consequence of one of the provisions of the above-mentioned Act, which stipulated that the nominees and ex officio guardians together shall never exceed one-third of the whole Board, the resident Justices of the Peace in several Unions already constituting that number.
§ MR. SCLATER BOOTHsaid, in reply, that no nominees had been appointed under the provisions of the Act to serve as joint guardians of the poor throughout the Metropolitan Parishes or Unions. But it could hardly be said that the reason was exclusively in consequence of the provision referred to, because in the only two instances in which the Act had been put in force it would have been competent for the Poor Law Board to appoint such a number of nominees as, taken together with ex officio guardians, would not exceed the just proportion. As far as he could foresee at present no inconvenience was likely to arise from the Act. Under the same Act a District Asylum Board had been already formed, of the governing body of which one-third were nominees under the provisions of the Act.