Act may be amended this session.

customary, or select vestry, or any meeting of inhabitants convened by any notice such as would have been required for the assembling of a meeting in vestry, at which meeting any business relating to the poor or the poor-rate shall be transacted or taken into consideration, so far as such business is concerned; the word "workhouse" shall be construed to include any house in which the poor of any parish or union shall be lodged and maintained, or any house or building purchased, erected, hired, or used at the expense of the poor-rate, by any parish, vestry, guardian, or overseer, for the reception, employment, classification, or relief of any poor person therein at the expense of such parish: and wherever in this act, in describing any person or party, matter or thing, the word importing the singular number or the masculine gender only is used, the same shall be understood to include and shall be applied to several persons or parties as well as one person or party, and females as well as males, and several matters or things as well as one matter or thing, respectively, unless there be something in the subject or context repugnant to such construction.

CX. And be it further enacted, that this act may be altered, amended, or repealed in this present session of parliament.

W

Duties of Churchwardens and Overseers of the Poor....163

Orders and Regulations for the Government of the

Work houses and Poorhouses of the -

Union ..175

[The following is a general Form of the Rules and
Orders issued by the Poor Law Commissioners,
upon the formation of any Union, for the guid-
ance and government of the Board of Guardians
which shall be elected for it. In particular cases,
of course, such alterations are made in them, as
may be rendered necessary from circumstances.]

To all to whom these presents shall come, We the Poor Law
Commissioners for England and Wales, send Greeting.

der.

WHEREAS, in pursuance of the powers given to us in and Preamble by an act passed in the fourth and fifth years of the reign of his present Majesty King William the Fourth, intituled Recites or "An Act for the Amendment and better Administration of the Laws relating to the Poor in England and Wales," We, the Poor Law Commissioners for England and Wales, appointed under the said act, did, by an order under our hands and seal, bearing date the order and declare that the parishes and places named in the margin of the said order, which are situated in the count of being the same which are now named in the margin at the foot of this page, should, on the

day

of
be, and thenceforth should remain united
for the administration of the laws for the relief of the poor:
And further, that on the

day of

and in

the manner therein mentioned, the said parishes and places should respectively elect a guardian or guardians for the said Union.

ing the Board

And whereas by the said act it is provided that the Recites the Poor Law Commissioners shall prescribe the duties of clauses in the guardians, and shall also, as and when they shall see fit, act authorizdirect the guardians of any Union to appoint such paid of Poor Law officers, with such qualifications as the said Commissioners Commissionshall think necessary, for superintending or assisting in the ers to direct administration of the relief and employment of the poor, ment of paid the appointeither within or out of a workhouse, and for the examining officers. and auditing, allowing or disallowing of accounts in such Union, and otherwise carrying the provisions of the said act into execution. And the said Commissioners are thereby empowered to define and specify and direct the execution of the respective duties, and determine the continuance in office or dismissal of such paid officers, and the amount and nature of the security to be given by, and regulate the amount of salaries payable to, such officers respectively, and the time and mode of payment thereof.

Preamble.

Guardians; powers of board.

Now know ye that, in pursuance of the said provisions of the said act, We, the said Poor Law Commissioners, do hereby order, direct, and declare, that

1. Upon and from and after the said

the

ordering and directing of all relief to the poor of the several parishes and places comprised in the Union constituted by 1. Orders that the order hereinbefore recited, and the building, hiring, as soon as the and providing of any workhouse, poorhouse, or other preboard of guar-mises for the reception and maintenance of paupers

dians shall

have been elected, the relief of the

poor shall be control, &c.

under their

2. No guardian to act except at a meeting of the board,

and except,

&c.

3. Three

therein, and the altering, improving, or enlarging the same, or any other existing workhouse or poorhouse within the said Union, and the regulation and management thereof, and the hiring or purchasing of land for such workhouse or workhouses, or for the employment of paupers therein, shall appertain and belong exclusively to the guardians of the said Union; subject, however, in all cases to the powers of the Poor Law Commissioners for the time being, and such orders, regulations, rules, and directions as are herein contained, or as may hereafter be issued by the said Commissioners, and saving and excepting such powers and authorities as in the aforesaid act are given or reserved to justices of the peace and overseers of the poor. 2. No guardian shall have power to act in virtue of such office, except as a member, and at a meeting of the said board of guardians, and except as hereinafter is provided with reference to summoning extraordinary meetings of the guardians, and except also as in the aforesaid act is excepted.

3. All the powers and authorities hereby or by the said guardians act granted to or vested in such guardians, shall and may concurring to from time to time be exercised by the major part of the be a quorum. guardians who shall attend at any meeting to be holden as is herein directed. But no act of any such meeting, except for the purpose of adjourning the same, shall be valid, unless three guardians at least shall be present and concur therein.

4. The guardians shall, at their first meeting, elect out of the whole number of guardians a chairman and a vicechairman, who shall continue to act as such until the next annual election of guardians shall take place; and at every meeting during the year the chairman, or in his absence the vice-chairman, shall preside; and if at any meeting the chairman and vice-chairman shall be absent, the guardians present shall elect a chairman of that meeting: And when there shall be an equal number of votes upon any question, including the vote of the presiding chairman, he shall have a casting vote.

MEETINGS OF THE BOARD OF GUARDIANS.

5. The first meeting of the guardians shall be held at

on the

183,

and