§ MR. JOHN TALBOTsaid, he would beg to ask the President of the Poor Law Board, Whether his attention has been drawn to the large number of deaths reported within the last few weeks in the Metropolis, upon which the coroners' juries have returned a verdict of "Death from starvation or insufficient food;" whether he is aware of the overcrowded condition of many of the London workhouses, and of the labour-yards attached to them; and, whether Her Majesty's Government have any measures in contemplation for the investigation and relief of the distress now prevailing in the metropolitan district?
§ MR. GOSCHEN, in reply, said, that on being asked whether his attention had been drawn to the deplorable circumstances to which the hon. Gentleman alluded, he felt very much as a man might feel who, in the midst of a tremendous struggle, was asked whether he knew that he had an enemy in front of him. The attention of the Poor Law Board had been unremittingly directed to the state of pauperism in the metropolis. As regarded those cases of star- 328 vation, the hon. Member—who was himself the chairman of a metropolitan Board of Guardians, and a very active one—must be aware that the Central Board had no power whatever to deal with isolated cases. That part of the administration of the law rested with the relieving officers and the Boards of Guardians; and the only way in which, as it seemed to him, those casualties could be avoided was by increasing the staff of relieving officers—the most efficient mode of improving the organization for poor relief—and a policy that had been recommended incessantly to Boards of Guardians by the Poor Law Board. With regard to the second Question—namely, as to the overcrowded condition of the London workhouses, he was sorry to say they had been overcrowded for the last three years. The Poor Law Board had been insisting all that time—his predecessors as well as hiniself—on the erection of further workhouses; but it had been a very slow work. It might, however, be satisfactory to the House to know that in the year now commenced 7,000 beds would be added to the workhouse accommodation in the metropolis, and in the succeeding year 4,000 more, if all the arrangements now in progress were carried on with fair activity. Thus 11,000 beds in the aggregate would be added to the accommodation sufficient to hold space in which 33,000 or 34,000 were now packed. As to the last Question—namely, whether the Government have any measures in contemplation for the investigation and relief of the distress now prevailing in the metropolis—he could assure his hon. Friend that the facts were all known; they could be placed before the House, and he should be prepared to facilitate such inquiries as the hon. Gentlemen might wish to make in every respect. But it was not by inquiries that they would be able to remedy that distress. If the hon. Member meant to ask whether the Government had in contemplation any exceptional Acts of Parliament by which the distress of the metropolis could be relieved, he must frankly state they had not, nor did they believe that any such Acts of Parliament would remedy it; but, on the contrary, that if any special relief were given in the metropolis, it would tend to heighten the operation of those causes which for some time past had been attracting pauperism to the metropolis.