12 DECEMBER 1868, Page 3

We are not sorry to see a new hand at

the Poor Law Board, -which needs a strong hand, if ever any department needed it, but it is only fair to Mr. Villiers to say that the Pall Mall's remark on his " indolence and indifference " is probably grounded in ignorance. He was not nearly severe enough on the routine spirit of his subordinates, and he had not the public at his back, as the Conservative Poor-Law chief has had since the late revela- tions. But he carried successfully through two enormous reforms, —Union Rating,—and that change in the law of settlement against which Mr. Henley fought so bitterly. Very few Poor- Law chiefs in our time have done near as much.