ABSTRACT
Throughout the reports of tl)eir Assistant Commissioners there runs the same statement of fact, namely, that the alleged surplus population was really an artificial creation of the Poor Law. Thus Mr. Tufnell, the board's representative in Kent, reports the remarks of the chairman of the Milton union. "We thought," he says, "that we should want workhouse room for 500 able-bodied, and for 1000 of the other classes; it turns out that we have no able - bodied males, not enough females to do the work of the house, and only 105 inmates altogether." Previous to the formation of the union, there had been 1900 persons in receipt of relief. Mr. Tufnell's predecessor, in recommending the union to build a workhouse, had remarked: "Of this number not one-half, it is expected, will come into the workhouse." Experience, says Mr. Tufnell, has shown that one-ninet.eenth would have been a truer estimate.
