ton 



POOR LAWS. 



POOR LAWS. 



1070 



provisions of the several statutes whereby the costs of the relief, 

 burial, and maintenance of certain paupers have been made chargeable 

 upon the common fund of Unions, and makes further provision with 

 respect to the chargeability to such fund of wayfarers, wanderers, or 

 foundlings, and of non-settled persons being chargeable to the poor- 

 rates by reason of temporary sickness (ss. 4 & 5). With regard to 

 psuper lunatics, whether they are irremovable or not, settled or non- 

 settled, the statute enacts (s. 6) that the cost of the examination, 

 removal, and maintenance of all such in any asylum, licensed house, 

 or registered hospital, shall be borne by the common fund of the Union, 

 and also provides (s. 7) that orders in lunacy may be obtained by or 

 appealed against by Boards of Guardians. 



With regard to the "common fund" of Unions, an alteration has 

 been made as to the manner in which parishes shall contribute towards 

 it, which will have the effect of equalising the burden, as betwixt rich 

 and poor parishes in the same Union, and of doing away at any rate 

 to a considerable extent with the close parish system. Under the 

 Poor Law Amendment Act of 1 834 (4 & 5 Wm. IV., c. 76), the common 

 und was apportioned amongst the several parishes in the Union accord- 

 ing to averages based upon the annual expenditure, for the relief of 

 the poor of each parish, as declared by the Poor Law Board, so that 

 the parishes which had incurred the largest expenditure for the relief 

 Hi their own poor during the three years over which the calculation 

 of the averages extended bore the largest amount of the charge of the 

 maintenance of irremovable poor residing in other parishes. The 

 result of this was, that in many parishes the poor were maintained out 

 of private funds raised by subscription, and that the poor were driven 

 into other parishes to seek relief. 



There being no basis for the declaration of averages for parishes in 

 which such practices were adopted, they consequently, under the 



popular designation of " close parishes," escaped all contributions to 

 the common fund of the Union in which they were situated, to the 

 manifest injury of the other parishes. In order to provide a remedy 

 for this state of things, the 24 & 25 Viet., c. 55, s. 9, enacts, that after 

 the 25th of March, 1862, the several parishes comprised in any Union 

 under the provisions of the 4 & 5 Will. 4, c. 76, shall contribute to the 

 common fund thereof, " in proportion to the annual rateable value of 

 the lands, tenements, and hereditaments in such parishes respectively 

 assessable by the laws in force, for the time being, to the relief of the 

 poor, and in no other manner, whether the lands, tenements, and 

 hereditaments shall be actually rated or not, and whether the rate 

 levied shall be collected in full or upon any composition." 



In computing the amount of contribution to the common fund from 

 the several parishes, the guardians of every town are to take the annual 

 rateable value of such property in every parish therein from the valua- 

 tion upon which such parish was assessed to the county rate, or where 

 there is no county rate, to the borough or ward rate, or other rate in 

 the nature of a county rate, in the last assessment made not less than 

 one month next preceding the day when the order for the contribution 

 is made. (24 & 25 Viet. c. 55, s. 10.) 



These alterations effected in the poor-laws will have a very important 

 result in emancipating the labour market from the restrict! onsimposed 

 upon it by the law of parochial settlement, as the labourer will now 

 have a larger area over which he can go in search of work, unrestricted 

 by the fear of removal to his legal settlement parish, in which perhaps 

 he ia wholly unknown. Moreover they will greatly equalise the 

 burden of the maintenance of the destitute poor between rich and 

 poor parishes. The amelioration of the law in these respects, it is 

 right to add, is due solely to the Right Honourable C. P. Villiers, the 

 President of the Poor Law Board. 



THE END. 



ANH HVANS miHTERB, WHITEFRURS. 



