1821 .] Report of the Select Committee on the Poor Laws. 241 
that the returns so procured are very 
nearly complete. The deficiencies are 
very few in number, and with the ex¬ 
ception of one parish in Middlesex, 
arise in inconsiderable parishes. 
This is the parish of St. Matthew, 
Bethnal Green ; and the deficiency ap¬ 
pears to have arisen from litigation 
with respect to the custody of the books, 
and not from any wilful neglect on the 
part of the churchwardens or overseers. 
Your committee have directed the ex¬ 
penditure of this parish to be estimated 
in the abstract according to its amount 
in the preceding year. 
The returns for the first four of the 
years mentioned were called for by an 
order of the house, dated 30th April, 
IS19, and those of the last of these years 
by an order of the 5th of July, 1820. 
It is necessary to make this distinc¬ 
tion, because there is a slight variation 
in the wording of the two orders. That 
of the 30th of April, 1819, which was 
carefully framed so as to require as little 
as possible of detail from the officers, 
required an account, 44 shewing the 
total amount of the money assessed and 
levied upon each parish, township, or 
other place maintaining its own poor; 
distinguishing in the said account, the 
amount of money paid out of such as¬ 
sessments for any other purpose than 
the relief of the poor. 11 The remain¬ 
der, after deducting the latter of these 
amounts from the former, was taken as 
the amount expended on account of the 
poor. 
Before the order of 1820 was issued, 
it appeared that this mode of ascertain¬ 
ing the expenditure on account of the 
poor was not quite accurate, inasmuch 
as the sum “assessed and levied, 11 and 
the sum 44 expended 11 for all purposes, 
do not always in each particular year, 
correspond in amount. The expendi¬ 
ture of any year may be defrayed in 
part out of the balance of the assess¬ 
ment of the preceding year; or there 
may be a debt remaining at the end of 
the year, which in some returns may 
be included in the account of the sum 
expended, and in others excluded. 
Some of the parish officers appear to 
have supplied this defect in the order, 
by stating separately the sum expended 
on account of the poor; and it is owing 
to this circumstance, that in the ab¬ 
stract of the four years ordered to fee 
printed on July 17th, 1820, the second 
and third columns, which were intend¬ 
ed jointly to state the total expenditure, 
do not exactly agree in amount with 
Monthly Mag. No. 359. 
(lie first, which contains the amount 
assessed and levied. The difference, 
however, is very inconsiderable; and 
your committee are satisfied that the 
corrected account now given of 44 money 
expended solely on file poor, 11 contains 
a sufficiently accurate statement of the 
expenditure for any purpose of compa¬ 
rison. 
The order calling for the returns of 
the year ending March 25, 1820, re¬ 
quired as before, an account of the sum 
assessed and levied, and also “ the total 
amount of the money expended in that 
year: 11 when from this latter sum the 
amount of the expenditure 44 for other 
purposes, 1 ’ is deducted, the remainder 
comes out accurately as the amount of 
the expenditure on account of the 
poor. 
There may possibly still be some 
difference between different parishes 
in the mode of making up the return ; 
some officers may perhaps include in 
one column, and some in the other, 
monies expended in litigation, and 
other matters immediately connected 
with the poor, but not applicable to 
their relief. The amount, however, of 
this mixed expenditure, though consi¬ 
derable in one point of view, does not 
bear so great a proportion to the whole 
expenditure, as to constitute a material 
objection to the accuracy of the re¬ 
turns. 
The committee have the further sa¬ 
tisfaction of adding, that the returns 
under the late order have been made 
more promptly, and in a more regular 
form, than those called for in the pre¬ 
ceding year. 
It may be convenient here to observe, 
that in the order recently made by the 
house for returns for the year ending 
25th March, 1821, a still further cor¬ 
rection is made of the form. Instead 
of calling for the amount “ assessed and 
levied, 11 the requisition is now for the 
amount levied only: this alteration 
was certainly proper, as the whole sum 
assessed may not always be levied 
within the year. 
Your committee having been in¬ 
structed to report to the house an ab¬ 
stract of the late returns, together with 
their observations thereupon, conceive 
that they cannot more useful ly execute 
the duty assigned to them, than by con¬ 
necting the returns of the five years 
referred to them with those of former 
periods, which are to be found in the 
journals and papers of the house. 
Returns are already before Parlia- 
2 II men t 
