The minute states, that the _3rd section_ of the Act directed that relief should be administered “according to such laws as shall be in force at the time being;” and that the _41st section_ provides—“That when the commissioners shall have declared the workhouse of any union to be fit for the reception of destitute poor, _and not before_, it shall be lawful for the guardians to take order for relieving and setting to work _therein_ destitute poor persons &c.” Nowhere else is power given to the guardians to administer relief—their functions in this respect are limited to receiving destitute persons into the workhouse, and relieving and setting them to work “_therein_.” And by the _52nd section_ it is further provided, “that it shall not be lawful for the commissioners, or guardians, or other persons acting in execution of this Act, to apply directly or indirectly any money raised under authority of this Act, to the relief of destitute poor in any other manner than is herein expressly mentioned, or to any purpose not expressly provided for in this Act.” Whether the relief so provided for be or be not in the opinion of the guardians suitable or sufficient, the Act under which they are constituted, and whence their administrative functions are derived, is thus seen to be precise and definite in its provisions; and they were told that they could not legally deviate in the slightest degree from the course it prescribes, neither did there reside in the Poor Law Commissioners any power or discretion to authorize any such deviation. Some persons however suggested that the law should be altered early in the next session, so as to allow of other modes of relief as a temporary measure, to meet the then apprehended exigency. But this, it was said, would be re-opening a question upon which the deliberate sense of the legislature had been recently recorded; and parliament having deemed it right to prohibit all relief except in the workhouse, the commissioners could not encourage an application which had for its object the reversal of that decision.