decided that outdoor relief to single women having illegitimate children was illegal, as being in contravention of the Outdoor Relief Prohibitory Order in force in those unions;[96] thus proving that, under this order, the category of "the able-bodied and their families" included independent women with children; although in the other kind of orders, contemporaneous in date, the same category included men only (and their families). This is the more puzzling, in that we find the Central Authority, in 1839 at least, regarding these very outdoor relief prohibitory orders as practically, if not literally, applicable only to able-bodied males. In the comprehensive defence of its action, when pleading for a renewal of the Act, the Central Authority expressly describes these orders as "_prohibiting outdoor relief to able-bodied male paupers_"; and as having attained the object aimed at, that of destroying the allowance system or relief in aid of wages, "_so far as respects able-bodied male paupers and their families_."[97] [94] See for instance the Order of 31st December, 1834, issued to Sutton Courtney Parish, now included in Abingdon Union, and the Outdoor Relief Regulation Order, 14th December 1852, art. 1. [95] See Consolidated Order for the Administration of Relief in Town Unions, 7th March 1836, in Second Annual Report, 1836, p. 92; the Order of 26th April 1839, to Aston Union; and Outdoor Relief Prohibitory Order, 21st December 1844, art. 1. [96] _Official Circular_, No. 1, p. 8, 8th January 1840; _Ibid._ No. 34, p. 79, 30th April 1844. [97] p. 62 of Report on the Further Amendment of the Poor Law, 1839. To sum up this question of definition, in one series of outdoor relief regulations applicable to the able-bodied, in force in certain unions, the category of "the able-bodied" expressly excludes independent women; in another series of regulations, in force in other unions, the category of "the able-bodied" includes such women. There is actual evidence that the Central Authority enforced these differing determinations so far as to include as among "the able-bodied" unmarried women having illegitimate children in those unions in which one set of Orders was in force. Whether it ever actually enforced this interpretation as regards single women without children is not apparent in the published documents, but would be seen from its records. The fact of variance between the two interpretations of the category of "the able-bodied" becomes important when the two series of regulations are consolidated into two orders embodying distinct policies, one or other of which is made applicable to every union in the country.