§ SIR WILFRID LAWSON (Cumberland, Cockermouth)I beg to ask the President of the Local Government Board whether he is aware that considerable numbers of working men who have been employed in temporary relief works in districts where work has lately failed through the depression of trade will, in consequence, be deprived of their Parliamentary franchise; and whether the Government propose to take any steps in the matter?
§ MR. RITCHIEI do not find from the information received by the Local Government Board that, taking the whole of England and Wales, there is any appreciable number of able-bodied men in receipt of relief from Boards of Guardians on account of their being out of work. There are, so far as I am aware, only two districts in which the number of able-bodied men so relieved appears to be considerable. As regards the question as to the Parliamentary franchise, there is no intention on the part of the Government to propose an alteration of the law under which a 1198 person who receives relief as a pauper from a Board of Guardians becomes disqualified for being placed on the register of Parliamentary voters.