SECOND READING. (Hansard, 21 March 1879)

§ LORD ABERDARE
, in moving that the Bill be now read a second time, 1418 said, it had already received the sanction of the other House. The Bill was a short one—of a single clause—and its provisions were clear. At present persons in receipt of medical relief were disqualified from voting; but it was clearly important that, in cases of infectious disease, no obstacle should be I placed in the way of a man removing from a crowded neighbourhood in which he might reside, in order to receive the medical attendance of which he stood in need. The Bill, therefore, provided that no man should be disqualified for being on the register of Parliamentary or municipal electors, by reason of himself, or any of his family, having received medical treatment or relief for any infectious disease as an in-patient of any public hospital, infirmary, or other sanitary institution; but at present, if that were done, the man forfeited his right to vote. If the Government would introduce a Bill, he would be very glad; in the meantime, he hoped this Bill would pass through its second reading, which he now begged to move.

THE DUKE OF RICHMOND and GORDON
said, it was quite true this Bill was a short one—it consisted of one clause of 10 lines; but it was full of anomalies and mistakes, as he should take the opportunity of showing. He doubted very much whether this measure would ever have come out of the other House had it not been for the severe indisposition of the President of the Local Government Board, who was incapacitated from attending while the Bill was passing in the House of Commons. The Bill passed through that House somewhat hastily in the short Session before Christmas, when everybody's attention was called to the great matters then under discussion relating to the Afghan War. The Bill having passed in that manner, a Motion for its re-commitment was made by the hon. Member for South Leicestershire (Mr. Pell); but it was not successful. The noble Lord (Lord Aberdare), in moving the second reading of the Bill, had very wisely touched lightly on the slight infringement which he said the Bill would make on our electoral law. That was one of the main objections of the Government to this Bill—that it did touch on the electoral law, and in no slight manner. It had 1419 been the custom in this country for years past that all persons who were in receipt of relief given out of the poor rates should be disqualified from voting; that all persons receiving either medical relief or other relief should be debarred from the exercise of the franchise. That was the principle of the electoral law and the Poor Laws, and as such he confessed he was not prepared, at the present moment, to agree to any infringement of it. The only departure from that law was in the case of the Irish Poor Law; and in the Act 25 & 26 Vict., c. 83, sec. 6, passed in 1862, it was provided that— Every poor person admitted into the fever hospital or infirmary of a workhouse, who shall on admission claim to repay the entire cost of his or her maintenance therein, according to the full average cost thereof, as hereinbefore stated, and every poor person admitted into such fever hospital or infirmary on whoso behalf the person liable by law to maintain such poor person shall claim to repay the entire cost of such maintenance therein, as aforesaid … and the person so relieved and the person so claiming shall not, after payment of the said charges of maintenance, be subject to any disfranchisement or disability as persons having received relief from the poor rates. This law applied to Ireland at the present moment; and so far as that departure from the principle of the electoral law was concerned, he did not see any objection to it. And here he would point out that this Bill applied to Ireland— Ireland was not excluded from the operation of the Bill. Therefore, with this measure, in one clause it was proposed to practically override the Act 25 & 26 Vict., which he had quoted. Again, supposing the noble Lord was successful in carrying this Bill into law in its present shape, it would fail to achieve the object in view. It was proposed that no person should be disqualified from voting by having received medical treatment or relief. Now, medical treatment or relief must mean medical treatment and medical relief. But when a person entered a hospital there must be what was called in-maintenance—a term familiar to all Poor Law Guardians—and there was no provision for the in-maintenance in the hospitals in this Bill; and, therefore, a person might receive medical treatment and relief in the hospital, and you would say that he would not be disqualified; but still the person would require maintenance, and he would be a pauper re- 1420 ceiving relief out of the rates. If the Bill, then, were carried in its present form, it would not meet the object the noble Lord had in view. There was no matter about which there was so clear and distinct a line drawn as in medical relief as distinguished from other relief. If the Bill passed in its present form, and only dealt with medical relief pure and simple, leaving untouched the question of in-maintenance, it could not be regarded as satisfactory. He was astonished to bear what fell from the noble Lord on the subject of sanitary hospitals, or, rather, hospitals established by sanitary authorities; because it ought to be known that the occupants of such hospitals were not disqualified from voting in the existing state of the law. The only persons so disqualified were those to whom relief was administered from the poor rates by officials legally appointed for the purpose, and the law did not apply to the inmates of these sanitary hospitals. He, therefore, thought it would be dangerous to retain the word "sanitary" in the clause referring to this branch of the subject. And there were several other respects in which the wording of the Bill might be altered with advantage. He did not object to the principle of the Bill, but should ask leave to introduce Amendments in it when it reached the Committee stage, in order that it might be made to include, not only medical relief, but the cost of in-maintenance; that it might follow the lines of the Irish Bill of 1862; and that persons admitted to hospitals on terms similar to those of that Bill should be similarly treated. He saw no reason why the inmates of such hospitals, if they chose to pay for their maintenance while under treatment, should be disqualified from voting. He would prepare Amendments in the spirit of the remarks he had made, and move them in Committee.

§ LORD ABERDARE
said, he was not responsible for the language of the Bill. He should be glad to give his consideration to any Amendments the noble Duke should propose.