SECOND READING. ADJOURNED DEBATE. (Hansard, 23 July 1879)

§ MR. SCLATER-BOOTH
explained that the measure would extend the Act of 1876 to those cases which it did not now reach. It would meet the very peculiar case of the Metropolis, and would relieve the local authorities from certain responsibilities which were now very heavy to bear. He had been pressed by the local authorities of London and the Metropolitan Asylums Board to pro- 1121 pose legislation in the direction in which the Bill went, and he hoped the House would now read it a second time.

§ SIR CHARLES W. DILKE
doubted very much if there was much chance of the Government being able to pass a measure of such importance at that late period of the Session. He had a very great objection to the 2nd clause of the Bill, which he considered dealt in an unsatisfactory way with the matter in question.

§ MR. RYLANDS
I must join with my hon. Friend (Sir Charles W. Dilke) in regretting that we should be called upon at this late period of the Session to deal with a measure of this kind; and in doing so I wish to point out to the right hon. Gentleman opposite the President of the Local Government Board that the present mode of the election of Poor Law Guardians should receive very great and careful consideration. It is a question which attracts a considerable amount of interest, and the right hon. Gentleman is perfectly aware that a great many complaints have been made concerning the present manner of election. We have a number of instances in which there have been either frauds or suspected frauds, and, in fact, the present system does afford opportunity for the exercise of personal influence in certain districts. I am pleased to find that the President of the Local Government Board is rather disposed to favour the election of Poor Law Guardians by a poll of votes instead of by voting papers. Under the Bill the permissive principle is established, and this may lead to a variety of modes of elections all over the country. In dealing with the elections of Guardians, I think it is important that they should be assimilated, as far as possible, with other Representative Bodies. Certainly, I could imagine no course more inconvenient than that Poor Law Guardians in the country should be elected upon a variety of modes. I will venture to suggest that Guardians should be elected upon a certain fixed principle, and not according to a mere permissive clause.

§ MR. SCLATER-BOOTH
, in reply, said, that the clauses in the Bill dealing with the re-arrangement of the boundaries of parishes and other matters were essential to the proper carrying on of the work of the Poor Law, and he hoped the House would regard that as the im- 1122 portant part of the Bill, and agree to it. In answer to the remarks of hon. Gentlemen opposite, a provision had been inserted dealing with the election of Guardians in large and populous places, and in regard to that he should be glad to consider any proposal when they got into Committee.