t he saw, from the state of the public business,
and the time which would require to be devoted to the more urgent
question of the amendment of the poor-laws, that there was no
probability of its being brought to a successful issue before the
termination of the session.

POOR-LAW AMENDMENT ACT.

{WILLIAM IV. 1834}

One act was carried this session, which, in itself, is sufficient
to signalise the administration under whose auspices it was brought
forward. Soon after their accession to office the present ministry had
issued a commission of inquiry into the state and operation of the
poor laws. The inquiries of the commission were to be directed towards
ascertaining what was the cause why, in some parts of the country, the
poor-laws were considered a benefit by parishes, while in others their
operation had been ruinous and destructive. The commissioners had made
their report, and an abstract of the evidence which they had taken had
been printed in the course of the preceding session. Government was
so strongly impressed by that report, with a conviction of the evils
produced by the system in many districts of the country, that they
resolved to propose a remedy to parliament. On the 17th of April,
therefore, Lord Althorp moved for leave to bring in a bill to alter and
amend the laws relating to the poor. The necessity of interference was
maintained on the ground that the present administration of those laws
tended directly and indirectly to the destruction of all property,
whilst their continued operation was fatal even to the labouring classes
whom they had been intended to benefit. It was the abuse of the system,
rather than the system itself, which was to be apprehended. Its worst
abuses, indeed, were scarcely older than the beginning of the present
century, and they had originated in measures intended for the benefit of
that class of the community to whose interests and welfare they were
now most destructively opposed. A feeling at that period prevailed that
great discontent existed among the working classes, and a principle was
then adopted in legislation, which, though humane and well intended, was
found to produce the most baneful consequences. The 36th of George III.
laid down the principle that the relief to paupers ought to be given in
such a manner as to place them in a situation of comfort. It might have
been desirable to place all our countrymen in this situation; but to
give relief in the manner pres