During the • debate on the Civil Service Estimates on
Tuesday, Sir John Gorst asked the President of the Local Government Board to make a statement as to the proposal made by certain Guardians in the East End to acquire land for the purpose of setting the unemployed to work. He—Sir John Gorst—was strongly in favour of their being allowed to make the experiment. The result might be useful in helping to solve " the great social problem." Sir Charles Dilke and Mr. Powell-Williams approved the scheme. In replying, Mr. Fowler objected to this return to the system of the unreformed Poor-Law, and declared that the obsolete law of George III. could only be revived by legislation. We are glad to note that the Government stood firm on this point. We have plenty of evidence as to how the experiment worked sixty years ago. The parish-farms were complete failures, and there is no reason to suppose that the present generation of Overseers would work them more successfully. In answer to another question, Mr. Fowler stated that rags, according to the best experts, do not carry infection, and that those im- ported are always four years old. If we wished to stop the rags collected in 1893, we must wait till 1897.
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