Cumberland & Westmorland Newspaper Transcriptions

The unconstitutional powers of the Poor Law Commissioners are working out their necessary results in this county, and already the Whitehaven Union has, in consequence, lost its able and high minded chairman.   The following is the letter of Mr. BRISCO on resigning his office:—

     Gentleman.—I beg to resign into your hands the Chair of your Board, and to return you my thanks for the courtesy and kindness I have invariably received at your hands since the formation of the Union.   In doing so, however, permit me to state to you a few of the reasons by which I am actuated, as the step I have taken does not arise from any unwillingness to take my undo share of the public duties imposed upon every member of society, but because I cannot conscientiously lend myself to the Poor Law Commissioners as their tool, to work out a low rendered harsh and cruel to the public by their extraordinary utilitarian views.

                                                     Low Mill House, January 23, 1844

 

  I resign, then, for the following reasons:—

1.     That the law possesses many glaring defects, which its advocates seem unwilling to amend.

2.     That the orders of the Commissioners may be, and are, productive of more evil, than the law itself.

3.     That the Commissioners in working out the law seem entirely to overlook the feelings of the rate-payers and of the poor.

4.     That the Guardians are but the tools of the Commissioners, being denied the power of acting upon their own judgment derived from local knowledge and experience.

5.     That the money of the rate-payers is unnecessarily squandered in defiance of the opinion and will of the Guardians, and that the said unnecessary expenditure does not go to the relief of the destitute.

6.     That the Commissioners view man as a machine only, and screw him down to the smallest possible amount of relief,—even below the felon's allowance, while they compel the Guardians to give the officers of the Unions salaries much exceeding in mount that which is required.

7.     That the law has the effect of checking private charity, by leading the public to suppose that under its Influence the poor are amply provided for, whereas in reality the Commissioners, by their orders, prevent the Guardians administering to the more deserving and retiring poor, in order that the law may appear to cause a saving of expenditure.

8.     That great and unnecessary difficulties are thrown in the way of those who need parochial assistance, which prevent many obtaining relief who require and deserve it.

9.     That the attendance of Guardians is required at the Board to hear and determine the applications for relief, and yet when convinced that relief is needed, the law in numberless cases, interposes its authority and prevents them giving what they consider the necessities of the applicants require; thus constraining the Guardians to do that which they deem cruel, contrary to Christian charity, and opposed to the principles in which they have been reared.

10. Lastly, that the law is destroying the good feeling between the upper and lower classes of society (the preservation of which is so requisite for the well being of the community) by leading the latter to look upon the farmer in the light of their oppressors.
 
  As your chairman, I have been particularly required to see the law carried out, and to witness those parts put into practice, of which, in my conscience, I disapprove, and which I consider unnecessarily harsh, cruel, and unjust,—the only way therefore left open to me to save my feelings from so many painful trials is to resign.

                                                I remain, Gentlemen, truly yours,

                                                          ROBERT BRISCO.

 

To the Guardians of the Whitehaven Union