*564 THE POOR LAW AMENDMENT BILL. 



DID NOT SEE IT UNTIL THE WORK HAD BEEN FOR SOME TIME IN 

 CIRCULATION !" 



In the name of wonder again, we ask, what did the commissioners 

 do, for what are they really to be held " responsible/' when not only 

 the evidence, the abstract, but the index, and the " OPINIONS," are 

 the work of " others," about whom neither themselves nor the public 

 appear to know any thing, and whose labours the commissioners 

 themselves had never' inspected until they had been " for some time 

 in circulation?'' 



The commissioners say, that " upon a question of such importance 

 as Poor Law Amendment, they were unwilling to incur the respon- 

 sibility of selection ;" they did not venture to offer an opinion so far 

 as to separate from amongst the vast mass of returns before them such 

 as appeared to be " of no value," amounting to about one-half of the 

 whole lot. Yet these gentlemen, who had so very low, but perhaps 

 just, appreciation of their own discretionary powers, were very soon 

 afterwards called upon, and actually did offer, and " humbly certify," 

 to his majesty their " opinions" upon the whole question of poor law 

 legislation ; opinions which, being founded upon evidence which they 

 did not even pretend to understand, must be of a rather doubtful 

 value. The commissioners do not pretend even to have looked into 

 any part of the evidence furnished them till as late as February in 

 last year ; for it was then that, feeling it " to be of the utmost import- 

 ance that they should themselves be masters of the contents of this 

 evidence," and the use of it in MS. " being extremely fatiguing," 

 they applied for and obtained permission to have it printed. Well 

 this huge mass of papers was put into the printer's hands in February, 

 and the commissioners declare that if, as they had expected, the print- 

 ing of it had been finished in three months, that is, by May or June, 

 " they would have been able to report before the end of the session." 

 In that case, doubtless, legislation would have followed close upon the 

 heels of report, and the country might even now be in the midst of 

 enjoying the abortive enactments of a three months 1 gestation. Very 

 fortunately, however, it happened that the parliamentary printers 

 were in too full employment under the auspices of the economical 

 and indefatigable Mr. Joseph Hume ; and the printing of the Poor 

 Law evidence was thrown aside till after the session, that is, till after 

 September last ; and then it went on so slowly, " that even now (the 

 date of the Report) it is not completed!" Under these dilemmas how 

 do the commissioners act ? With a resolution, which, in another case, 

 might do them credit, they determine not to delay their report beyond 

 another session, and as they cannot get the evidence together to re- 

 port upon, report per force they must without it. Hear what they 

 say on this point : 



" We have been forced, therefore, to take it as it was furnished us week 

 by week, using the proof sheets unpaged and unindorsed. And this is one 

 of our apologies for the defects of this report, and for the omission and occa- 

 sional false references which, wita all our care, must, we fear, he found in 

 it. If it had been possible to wait till the whole appendix was in a perfect state, 

 we could have completed our report with far less labour, and in afar more satis- 

 factory manner; but that would have involved a delay of three months longer. 



