OUR LOCAL AUTHORITIES. 159 
In 1814 an Act of George III, gave authority to the Vestry to 
appoint persons with power to assess and collect money for the 
relief of the poor. In addition to the elected members were the 
Churchwardens and Overseers ex-officio, and this body went by 
the name of the Guardians of the Parish. This was the authority 
for making assessments of properties in the parish and for collecting 
rates, and was only abolished when its powers were transferred to 
the Borough Council in 1goo. The preamble of the Act of 1814 
commences, ‘‘ Whereas the poor within the Parish of Lewisham in 
the County of Kent are very numerous, and are maintained and 
supported at a great expense,” and then goes on to relate how the 
new body will have power to take over the Poorhouse, or Work- 
house, which was then in a decayed state, and not sufficient in 
size, for the purpose of enlarging or rebuilding it. 
THE Union GUARDIANS. 
This state of things continued until the appointment of the 
Union Guardians, under the Act of 1834. Since the commence- 
ment of the century the number of inhabited houses in the parish 
had nearly trebled, and the population was about 10,000, but the 
rapid increase of later years had not commenced. Throughout the 
country the cost of the Poor Law work was so great, and so many 
abuses existed, that, under the Poor Law Amendment Act, the 
Poor Law Commissioners (now, after further changes, known as 
the Local Government Board) were empowered to unite certain 
parishes to form a ‘‘Union,” for the administration of the Laws for 
the Relief of the Poor. In this way in 1836 seven parishes were 
united, of which Lewisham was one, to form Lewisham Union, and 
a Union Workhouse was afterwards built. Only Lewisham, Lee, 
and Eltham are now left in the Union, which still is the second 
largest of the Metropolitan Unions, and contains 10,795 acres. 
The Guardians of the Poor of the Lewisham Union were constituted 
under the above-named Act, and practically remain the same now, 
except that the number of members has been increased from time 
to time. The number of Guardians now is twenty-nine, all of 
whom are directly elected, no ex-officio Guardians having been 
appointed since 1894. 
They are elected by the various wards of the Union as follows: 
Church Ward (Lee), two; Manor Ward (Lee), one; South Ward 
(Lee), one; Blackheath Ward, two; Lewisham Village Ward, 
three ; Lewisham Park Ward, two; Brockley Ward, two; Catford 
Ward, five; Forest Hill Ward, four; Sydenham Ward, five; 
Parish of Eltham, two. 
The work of the Union Guardians involves a large expenditure 
of public money, and is in every way most important to the com- 
munity. It is not only a large concern, looked at from a business 
point of view, but the methods adopted may have a very con- 
siderable influence for good or evil. The number of Statutes 
