the public orders in such a way as to regularise the aggregate volume of employment. As regards the Metropolis, it was recommended that individual boards of guardians might contribute, with the sanction of the Local Government Board, out of the Metropolitan Common Poor Fund, half the cost of the works undertaken by the vestries or district boards at their instance.[539] Moreover, as it had been discovered that the Acts of 1819 and 1830 had not been repealed, which authorised the local Poor Law authorities to purchase or hire not exceeding 50 acres of land on which to set the poor to work at reasonable wages--statutes which the Central Authority had persistently ignored as obsolete, and had refused to make the rules under which alone they could be made operative--the Committee recommended: "That the Local Government Board should consider the application of such powers, and make rules for the use of boards of guardians in relation thereto."[540] [532] Circular of 14th November 1892, in Twenty-second Annual Report, 1892-3, p. 38. [533] Circulars of 27th March and 30th September 1893, Twenty-third Annual Report, 1893-4, pp. lxiv-lxv; Board of Trade Report on Agencies and Methods for dealing with the Unemployed, 1893 (C. 7182), pp. 187-206. [534] Twenty-fourth Annual Report, 1894-5, pp. lxxi-lxxiii. The local authorities were taking action before the Circular was sent; _see_, for instance, MS. Minutes, Bradford Board of Guardians, 4th February 1895, showing that they had decided on a deputation to the town council on 23rd January; and that the town council, on 25th January, had agreed to find work in clearing away snow. [535] _Ibid._ p. lxxiii; First, Second, and Third Reports of the Select Committee on Distress from Want of Employment, 1895. [536] Twenty-fourth Annual Report, 1894-5, p. lxxiv. [537] Third Report of Select Committee on Distress from Want of Employment, 1895, p. 560. [538] The Lord Mayor of Manchester, in reply to deputation from the Chorlton Board of Guardians, 1895; _see_ Second Report of Committee on Distress from Want of Employment, 1895, p. 54. [539] Third Report of Committee on Distress from Want of Employment, 1895, p. v. The Committee also recommended the abolition of the penalty of disfranchisement, on persons in receipt of poor relief, so far as "the deserving man forced to become dependent on public aid" was concerned (_Ibid._).