They were to have power to make rules and regulations as to
the mode or modes of relief to be given, subject to the approval of the
Secretary of State, that thus the establishment of one uniform system
over the whole country might be secured. Power was to be given to unite
several parishes into one union, and to erect large workhouses for the
several parishes thus massed together;[230] and every union was to be
under the management of boards of guardians, elected by the rate-payers
of the different parishes, with the addition of the resident magistrates
as ex officio guardians. Lord Althorp, who introduced the bill, admitted
that such extensive powers as he proposed to confer on the Board of
Commissioners were "an anomaly in the constitution," but pleaded the
necessity of the case as their justification, since it was indispensable
to vest a discretionary power somewhere, and the government was too
fully occupied with the business of the nation, while the local
magistrates would be destitute of the sources of information requisite
to form a proper opinion on the subject. The commissioners alone, being
exclusively devoted to the subject, and being alone in possession of all
the information that could be collected, were really the only body who
could fairly be trusted to form correct opinions on it.
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