Page:Australian views of England.djvu/113

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X.]
OF ENGLAND.
101

in extreme cases, and to enable parishes that are overburdened with their poor to claim relief from the whole of the Union. There seems a difference of opinion as to the policy of this measure, and some argue in favour of a loan to the distressed parishes, on the security of the future rates, to enable them to tide over their difficulties.

At this juncture a good deal of exasperation has been caused by the introduction of a bill for the prevention of night poaching, the principal provision of which would enable the police to search any person suspected of possessing game. The Conservative member for Oxfordshire, Mr. Henley, has vigorously opposed this measure at all its stages, and the other evening Lord Stanley indignantly reminded the House of the great distress in the North, and warned them that there must be a limit to the patience with which it was borne, and asked what would be said if the last act of the House of Commons, before it rose at such a time, was to pass a law for the protection of game.

The House of Commons has devoted a night to the consideration of the civil war in America, but with no result, and a very small display of wisdom.