A discussion took place on the Law of Settlement at
a confer- ence of Metropolitan Poor Law Guardians, held on Monday at the rooms of the Social Science Association, Adelphi, in which Mr. Valiance advocated very elaborate reforms of the Law of Settle- ment, but the weightier opinions appeared to be in favour of its abolition altogether. In a recent speech in the House of Lords, Lord Henniker showed how strongly the authorities even of great towns,—who would suffer most pecuniarily by the abolition of settlement,—feel the injustice of the law, and our own impression is that no reform is feasible which would not be almost as bad as the present law. Mr. Stansfeld, who took the chair, and who has been at the head of the Poor Law Board, evidently leaned towards the abolition of the law altogether, though he saw certain dangers in that course ; and we noticed that Lord Lyttelton, who has made a great study of the subject, supported Lord Henniker warmly in the recent debate in the Lords. We suspect the com- plicated and often most unjust Law of Settlement has not long to live.
Previous page
