§ MR. NORTONasked the President of the Local Government Board, Whether it is a fact that a great deal of litigation has arisen in consquence of the enactments relating to the abolition of derivative settlements comprised in section 35 of the Divided Parishes and Poor Law Amendment Act of 1876, 39 and 40 Vic. c. 61; whether the Judges of Her Majesty's High Court of Justice have frequently remarked, in their judicial decisions, upon the obscurity of that section of the Act, as to whether a widow does or does not derive the settlement of her deceased husband; and, whether he will introduce an explanatory or amending Act, with a view to define clearly the Law with regard to derivative settlements?
§ THE PRESIDENT (Mr. J. CHAMBERLAIN), in reply, said, it was a fact that there had been a good deal of litigation in reference to this question of derivative settlements; but he believed the difficulty had chiefly arisen with regard to the settlement of children, not of widows, and in consequence of a decision of the Court of Appeal being in 1521 contradiction to previous decisions. He believed that a case was about to be carried to the House of Lords, where the matter would be finally settled. Pending that decision, there was no intention to introduce a Bill on the subject.