Reports on the sanitary state of the labouring classes, as affected chiefly by the situation and construction of their dwellings, in and about the metropolis.

  • Great Britain. Poor Law Commissioners.
Date:
1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Reports on the sanitary state of the labouring classes, as affected chiefly by the situation and construction of their dwellings, in and about the metropolis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    FROM THE FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THB POOR LAW COMMISSIONERS: APPENDIX (A.)—No. 1. Copy of the Report of the Poor Law Commissioners relative to certain Charges which have been disallowed by the Auditors of Unions in England and Wales. Report on the Necessity of introducing a Bill into Parliament For the pur- pose of making Parish Rates (or County Rates, as may be thought most ad- visable) liable to certain Expenses of Constables and others in the discharge of _ their Duty. To the Right Honourable Lord John Russell, <^c. c^c. Poor Law Commission Office, Somerset House, My Lord, uth May, 1838. In answer to the communication from Mr. S. M. Phillipps, of the date of the 18th ultimo, wherein he informed us that your Lordship considers it necessary that a bill should be introduced for the purpose of making parish-rates (or county- rates, as may be thought most advisable) liable to certain necessary expenses of constables and others in the discharge of their duty, the payments lor which have been disallowed by the auditors, and that you desired our opinion thereon, we have now the honour to report as follows: The legal principles on which it was necessary to act in the audit of the accounts of the expenditure from the poor-rates are thus stated in our instructional circulars:—- Your attention will next he required to your duties in the expenditure of the rates and other moneys so collected ; and herein you must bear in mind that usage is of no legal authority in the construction of the statute of Elizabeth, by which the poor-rates are established. The law has not given to the parish- officers, or even to the vestry, any power of charging or of taxing their fellow- parishioners, even for useful purposes, at their own mere discretion; and no charge upon the poor-rates is legal unless it is, in plain words, sanctioned or du-ected by some statute. In no case, however, except in rehef of destitution, will it be safe to make any payments out of the poor-rates, unless sanctioned by the express direction of some statute. In doubtful cases, therefore, the proper inquiry will always be, -—Under what statute, or by what regulation, is the proposed charge warranted ? And, unless the authority can be found in the words of the statute, or in some lawful order or regulation of the Poor Law Commissioners, it must be presumed that the charge would be illegal. By the 50th Geo. III., c. 49, s. 1, the justices (and by the Poor Law Amend- ment Act, auditors) are authorised to strike out of the overseers' accounts all such charges and payments as they shall deem to be unfounded, and to reduce such as they shall deem to be exorbitant, specifying, on the foot of such account, every such charge or payment and its amount, so far as such justices shall dis- allow or reduce the same, and the cause for which the same was disallowed or reduced. With relation to the unfounded charges, the primary general rule has already been stated—namely, that all charges on the poor-rates are unfounded which are not authorised by some statute. In another portion of the instructions to overseers, we stated that— Either from Ignorance or neglect, many illegal practices have crept into the administration of relief, which, from their notoriety and general prevalence, have