what was the New Poor Law of 1835?

Answer 1

The period we will be looking at is from 1815, when the wars with France ended, to 1834. The law we will watch being constructed is the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act. This is often called the new poor law and the law it amended is called the old or the Elizabethan poor law. Old and new poor laws provided support for people who became unemployed, sick, too old to work or who had more children than they could support, but the 1834 poor law tried to deter people from claiming these benefits. The most radical way this was done was by building workhouses. If you're ready for a good reading, here's the exact stuff for it:
section 15: ".. the administration of relief to the poor throughout England and Wales, according to the... laws, shall be subject to the direction and control of the ... Commissioners; and ... the ... Commissioners shall ... make and issue ... rules, orders, and regulations for the management of the poor, for the government of workhouses and the education of the children therein, and for the management of parish poor children under the provisions of an [existing] Act... Provided always, that nothing in this Act ... shall be construed as enabling the ... Commissioners ... to interfere in any individual case for the purpose of ordering relief."

section 16: any general rule was subject to a forty day delay during which a Secretary of State could disallow it. section 17: general rules were laid before Parliament.

section 23: If the majority of guardians in any union, or voters in a parish, wished it, the Commission could "direct the overseers or guardians of any parish or union not having a workhouse... to build a workhouse"

section 26: The commissioners could order the union of parishes to make common use of a workhouse

section 27: JPs could order relief of "any adult person who shall from old age or infirmity of body be wholly unable to work, without requiring that such person shall reside in any workhouse"

section 45: "nothing in this Act contained shall authorize the detention in any workhouse of any dangerous lunatic, insane person, or idiot, for any longer period than fourteen days; and every person wilfully detaining in any workhouse any such lunatic, insane person, or idiot, for more than fourteen days, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanour: Provided always, that nothing herein contained shall extend to any place duly licensed for the reception of lunatics and other insane persons, or to any workhouse being also a County Lunatic Asylum."
Have fun lol.

Answer 2

This gives a good overall picture of the Poor Law Commissioners and the way in which things worked out in practice. http://www.victorianweb.org/history/poorlaw/plcommiss.html

Answer 3

This seems to be an amendment to the original Poor Laws, please see the link below for good old Wikipedia. All the best with it...