ABSTRACT
THE Poor Law Amendment Act received the royal assent on the 14th August 1834, and on the 23rd of the same month the Commissioners were sworn into office. Information as to the steps by which they proceeded to carry out their duties is very amply supplied by the remarkable series of annual reports which for 14 years iRsued from their office. The 5th section of the Act, inserted at the instance of the Duke of Wellington, required the Commissioners to submit annually to one of His Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State a General Report of their Proceedings, in order that it might be laid before both Houses of Parliament. The First Annual Report, bearing place and date, Poor Law Commission Office, Somerset House, 8th August 1835, is addressed to the Right Honourable Lord John Russell, His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department. It is the first of a series of fourteen which carry us down to the year ended, Lady Day, 1847, when "the constitution of this Commission was on the point of being changed," by the establishment of the Poor Law Board.
