POOR LAWS—IRELAND
THREE REPORTS
GEORGE NICHOLLS, ESQ.,
TO
HER MAJESTY’S PRINCIPAL SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT.
LONDON:
PRINTED BY W. CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET, FOR HER MAJESTY’S STATIONERY OFFICE.
1838.>o,|W
H 51
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
REPORTS I. and 11.
Lord John Russell’s Letters of Instruction , 3. 67.
Course of Inquiry pursued, 5. 68.
Heads of subject, 6.
Present State of Ireland, and the habits and character of the people, 7.
Improvement in the Country without a corresponding change in the mass of the population, 7*
Great extent of distress, 7. 69.
Subdivision of land into small holdings, 8.
General prevalence of Mendicancy, 8 ; its mischievous effects, 8. 17.
Use of whiskey and tobacco excessive, 9 ; depression of feeling and condition among the peasantry, 9—11.
Wretched state of their dwellings, 10.
Analogy between their character and that of the English labourer under the old Poor Laws, 11.
As to the Expediency of a Poor Law for Ireland, 11.
Objections stated and examined, 11, 12. 75, 76.
Apprehended demoralization of the people unfounded, 11.
Expense, 12. 25, 26.—Irish poor, how supported from the resources of the country at present, 12, 13. 70. 77. 78.
Preference of the principle of voluntary contributions, 12.—Scotch system, 13.	^
Recommendation of Houses of Industry, 14.—Institutions for the relief of the poor and mendicants in various parts of Ireland ; their management, 13, 14. 77, 78.
Reasons in favour of the introduction of a Poor Law into Ireland, 15.
General opinion in Ireland in favour of a compulsory poor-rate, 14. 16, 17.
Present time favourable to its establishment, 15. 70.
Its advantage in the transition from the present to an improved system in Ireland, 15, 16.
Irish Clergy, their influence; favourable to a Poor Law, 16, 17.
Necessary for the suppression of Mendicancy, 17.
Collateral advantages : Encouragement to the cultivation of bog and waste land, and consequent increase of employment, 17.— Importance of this consideration, 18.—Fisheries, Planting, Drainage, 18, 19.
Necessity of a system of Poor Laws: Its probable effect in improving the general character and condition of the Irish people, 20. 57, 58. 69.
The Workhouse system,
Its applicability to Ireland as a test, and efficiency for relief, 21—25.
Evidence on this point taken in England, 70 ; at Bristol, 70 ; Liverpool, 71 ; and Birmingham, 71 ; London parishes, 21.—Result of inquiries in England and Ireland, 71, 72. 75.
a 2IV
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Discipline of a Workhouse, and of Houses of Industry in Ireland, 22. 72. 77.
Apprehension as to safety of the buildings unfounded, 22, 23. Principle of the Workhouse system, 23.
Its practical efficiency, 24.
Objection to the Workhouse principle drawn from Continental experience, answered, 73—75.
Restriction of relief to the Workhouse proposed, 24. 37.
Classes to be relieved, 25. 36.
General assimilation of Workhouses in Ireland to the English recommended, 25.
Estimated expense of providing Workhouses, 25—27. 64. 99, 100. Relief.
Estimated number for whom relief should be provided, 64. 99.
Objects of, and on what ground to be given, 25. 36.
Mode of, the Workhouse, 25. 36. 37.
Objections thereto, answered, 37.
Inexpediency of giving a right to relief, 36. 47. 93.
Relief of part of a family, relief to the whole, 38.
Obligations of relatives of poor persons, 38.
Relief by way of loan, 38.
Medical relief, 39.
Inexpediency of providing out-door relief, 94.
Abuses of out-door relief, 95.
Proposed limitation of out-door relief to certain classes impracticable, 95.
Evidence thereon, 70—75. 95, 96.
Migration and Emigration.
Necessity and means of promoting, 53. 55. 97.
Precautions as to Emigration, 55.
Regulation of Emigration, expense, 56. 98.
Provision for facilitating Emigration recommended, 96—9 9.
Pauper Lunatics and Idiots.
Mode of relief and treatment of, 52.
Parochial Apprenticeship.
Use and abuse of Relief by means of Apprenticeship, 50—52. Regulation of, in Ireland, 52.
Bastardy in Ireland, and the relief of Bastards, 50.
Institutions existing for the relief of the poor in Ireland, Houses of Industry, &c., 57.
Modes of relief therein, detailed, 76—79.
Mendicancy.
General prevalence of, and its mischievous effects, 8. 17. 48. 108—110. Suppression of, recommended, 49. 108.
Mode of suppression, 49. 93, 94. 108. 110.
Necessity of a Poor Law for the suppression of, 17. 108.
Suppression of Mendicancy without conferring a right to relief, 93.
Rating.
Mode of, and assimilation of assessment to the English practice, 41— 44. 100—106.
Rate, by whom to be paid, 42 ; and in what proportions, 43.
Objections to Rating provisions answered, 100—106.
Collection of Rate, 106.TABLE OF CONTENTS.
V
Scale of Voting according to Assessment, 41.
As to cumulative Voting, according to amount of rate, 114.
Voting by Proxy, 114.
Settlement.
As to the expediency of a Settlement Law for Ireland, 44—48. 83—93. Evils and difficulties of, exhibited, 45. 47. 84. r Modes of, 45, 46.
Effect of, as regards Mendicancy, 47. 88.
Arguments in favour of Settlement enumerated and answered, 83—93.
Central Authority.
Proposed powers of in regard to the
Formation and constitution of Unions and Boards of Guardians, 27, 28. 34, 35. 58. 107.
Promulgation of rules for the administration of relief, 37.
Rating, 42.
Suppression of Mendicancy, 49.
Parochial Apprenticeship, 52.
Migration and Emigration, 55, 56.
Regulation of existing Institutions for the relief of the poor, Houses of Industry, &c., 57.
Objections to proposed powers of, answered, 116—118,
Constitution of, 59—63. 116—118.
Expediency of a separate Commission for Ireland, or of extending the English Poor Law Commission to Ireland, discussed, 60. Modifications that would be necessary in the English Commission, 61—63.
Provision for a Board sitting in Dublin, 62.
Local machinery of a Poor Law ; formation of Unions, 27. 39—41. Constitution of Boards of Guardians, 27. 34. 40.
Magistrates ex-officio Guardians, 28. 115.
Clergy, their ineligibility as Guardians, 30.
Centralization of Union and other establishments ; schoojs, dispensaries, police stations, 32.
Appointment of parochial or district officers, 33.
Assimilation of, to English local machinery, 39.
Election of Guardians and scale of voting, 40. 4L
Mode of proceeding in introducing the proposed Poor Law into Ireland : the formation of Unions, 58. 110 — 114.
In regard to individual Unions, 59.
Size and number of Unions, 106, 107.
Objections to the Bill introduced by the Government, enumerated and examined, 75—118.
Its alleged inapplicability to the North of Ireland, 76.
Institutions for affording Relief in the North of Ireland, 77—79. State of the County of Donegal, 80—82.
As to the expediency of a provision for Settlement, 83.
Arguments in support of Settlement, stated and answered, 83—93. As to giving a right to relief, 93.
As to the non-provision'of out-door Relief, 94—96.
As to a provision for Emigration, 96—99.
Estimated number of destitute persons for whom relief would have to be provided, 99, 100.
Mode of Rating and Collection of the Rate, 100—106.
Size and number of Unions, 106, 107.
As to the suppression of Mendicancy, 108—110.
Mode of proceeding in the introduction of the measure, 110—114.■Vl
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Cumulative voting, 114: Voting by proxy, 114: Making Magistrates ex-officio Guardians, 115.
Constitution and powers of the Central Authority, 116—118;
APPENDIX to Second Report, containing Evidence as to the Applicability of Poor Laws and the Workhouse system to Ireland, 119.
1.	Extract of a Letter from the Deputy Governor of St. Peter’s Hospital, Bristol, 119.
2.	Letter from the Governor of St. Peter’s Hospital, Bristol, 120.
3.	Letter from the Assistant Overseer of the parish of St. Philip and Jacob, Bristol, 121.
4.	Letter from R* Weale, Esq., Assistant Poor Law Commissioner,
121.
Enclosure—Letter from the Vestry Clerk of Birmingham, 122.
5.	Letter from the Governor of the Workhouse of Liverpool, 122.
6.	Letter from the Clerk of Liverpool Workhouse, 123.
7.	Communication from the Governor of Birmingham Workhouse, 123.
8.	Letter from the Treasurer, &c., to the Guardians«of Birmingham, 123.
9.	Letter from the Mayor of Waterford, 124.
Enclosure—Return of Paupers passed from Waterford to England, 124.
10.	Return of Inmates of Dublin House of Industry from different
• Counties of Ireland, 125.
11.	Return of Inmates of Dublin Mendicity Institution from different Counties of Ireland, 126.
12.	Letter from W. Richardson, Esq., Dublin, 127.
13.	Communication from William Stanley, Esq., Dublin, as to the extent of Destitution in Ireland, with statistical tables, &c., 127—147.
14.	List of Unions in England and Wales, with a radius of ten miles from the centre, 148.
15.	Extract from the Report of a Committee at Aberdeen as to Vagrancy, 148.
REPORT III.
HOLLAND AND BELGIUM.
Report on the state of the poorer classes in those countries, and on the relief of paupers, 153.
Holland;—cleanliness, comfort, propriety, and social order, apparent, 153.
Belgium ;—the whole country exhibits proofs of industry and enterprise, 154.
Education in Holland.
Institutions for popular education, the most prominent objects in the social policy, 153.
School instruction not obligatory, but a sense of its importance per-, vades the community, 155.TABLE OF CONTENTS.	VÜ
Interference of Government confined to regulating the system of instruction, 155.
Government inspection, 155.
Examination and authorization of the Teachers, 155.
The Teachers may be suspended or dismissed by the authorities, 155.
The Municipalities required by law to render the Teachers independent of payments for pupils, 156.
All persons entitled to send their children to the Schools, on making payments regulated by the nature of the education desired, 156.
Instruction given, gratuitously, when parents are poor, 156.
Religious Instruction in the Schools limited to the general Christian precepts, and Sacred History, 157.
Doctrinal Instruction confided to the Clergy of the respective religions, 157.
Normal Schools, 157.
Education in Belgium.
Normal Schools established in 1816 by the Dutch Government, 158.
Measures of 1817 for the Establishment of Public Schools, 158.
'Instruction given gratuitously at first, 159.
Industrial Schools,
Instruction for industrial pursuits, both in Holland and Belgium, left to parents, except in the Orphan Asylums and the Penitentiaries for Juvenile Offenders, 159.
General Education essential in England and Ireland, 158.
Religion.
The Division of Society in Holland into three distinct Religious bodies, does not disturb social amity, which is secured by the System of Education, 157.
Relief of the Poor.
Institutions of Holland, 160.
Repugnance of the Labouring Classes to dependence on the Pauper Institutions, 160.
The Asylums for the helpless Poor and Orphans invite dependence, by comforts superior to those enjoyed by the class to which their inmates belonged in society, 160.
District Workhouses in Holland and Belgium, 161—163.
Similarity between the District Workhouses and those established in England before the amendment of the Poor Law, 160.
Profitable application of Pauper labour has been sought, rather than the repression of Pauperism, 162.
Workhouse of Amsterdam, 161.
Superior arrangements of an Establishment at La Cambré, near Brussels, 161.
Penal Colonies established in Holland to check the increase of Pauperism promoted by a defective Workhouse System, 162.
Failure of the Free Colonies as sources of profit, 163.
Labour and restraints of the Penal Colonies, 163.
Mendicancy suppressed by them, 163.
Mendicants have the option of being tried as vagabonds, or of being sent to a Penal Colony for at least one year, 163.
Mendicants once condemned may be kept in a district Workhouse for life, but are set free when apparently disposed to labour, 161.
These rigorous measures adopted without acknowledging a right to relief or providing other funds than endowments and voluntary subscriptions, 163.
Superiority of the arrangements proposed for Ireland, 164.TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Small Farms of Belgium.
Their number increased on the decline of Manufactures, 164.
Comforts enjoyed by their occupiers, 165.
Productive capability of the Belgian soil inferior to that of Ireland, 165.
Superior cultivation, 166.
System of husbandry, 166.
Rotation of crops, 166.
Smaller divisions occupied by Weavers, 166.
Agricultural families not disposed to subdivide their farms, 167.
Their provident habits, 167.
Rent and wages, 167.
No surplus means for emergencies, 167, 168.
The improvement of husbandry in Ireland, a first step in social advancement, 168.
Ireland.
A Poor Law for Ireland must be conducive to the general good, by relieving occupiers of small farms from the pressure of Mendicancy, and by securing the sympathies and aid of the middle and 'higher classes, i69.
Holland and Belgium present no example to weaken reliance on the improved Workhouse System of England as a medium of relief and a test of destitution, 169, 170.FIRST REPORT
OF
GEORGE NICHOLLS, ESQ.
Dated 22nd August3 1836,
BPOOR LAWS (IRELAND).
TO GEORGE NICHOLLS, ESQ., &c. &c. &c.
Sir,,	Whitehall* August 22nd, 1836.
In order to arrive at a practical conclusion with respect to any measures to be introduced into Parliament during the ensuing Session* for the benefit of the Poor in Ireland* it is most desirable* that a person well acquainted with the operation of the past and present system of Poor Laws in England* should visit that part of the Utiited Kingdom.
There is no one to whom I can intrust such a duty* more able to perform it with judgment and diligence* than yourself.
You will* therefore* proceed to Ireland in the first week in September* taking with you the Report of the Commissioners of Poor Inquiry in Ireland.
The chief objects to which your attention will be directed are* —that part of the Report which relates to the Relief of the poor by Money payments* and the resource of Emigration.
You will examine how far it is judicious or practicable to offer relief to whole classes* whether of the Sick* the Infirm* or Orphan children.
You will consider whether such relief may not have the effect of promoting imposture* without destroying Mendicity; and whether the condition of the great bulk of the poorer classes will be improved by such a measure.
You will carefully weigh the important question—whether a rate* limited in its amount rather than its application to particular classes* might be usefully directed to the erection and maintenance of Y^orkhouses for all those who. sought relief as Paupers. With a view to this question, you will inquire whether any kind of Workhouse can be established which shall not* in point of food* clothing, and warmth* give its inmates a superior degree of comfort to the common lot of the independent labourer.
You will ask the opinion of experienced men, whether the restraint of a Workhouse would be an effectual check to applications for admission* and whether* if the system were once
B 24 lord john russell’s letter op instructions.
established, the inmates would not resist, by force, the restraints which would be necessary.
Supposing the Workhouse system not to be advisable, you will consider in what other mode a national or local rate might be beneficially applied.
You will examine the policy of establishing depots w^here candidates for Emigration might resort; and you will ascertain by what method it is proposed to avoid the evil, said to be likely to flow from the establishment of Workhouses, and which might arise in like manner from the formation of depots for Emigration.
You will specially direct your attention to the machinery by which any rates for the relief of the Poor might be raised and expended ; the formation and constitution of a Central Board, of Local Boards, of District Unions, and of Parochial Vestries.
Your attention need not be very specially given to the plans for the general improvement of Ireland, contained in the Report of the Commissioners of Inquiry: but you will generally remark upon those, or any other plans, which may lead to an increased demand for labour.
You will also inquire whether, under the direction either of companies or individuals, the capital applied to the improvement of. land, and reclaiming bogs and wastes, is perceptibly or notoriously increasing or diminishing.
You will also carefully read the Bills which have been brought into the House of Commqns on this subject during the present year.
Lastly, I call your attention to the draft of a Bill prepared by one of the Commissioners of Inquiry, in conformity with their Report.
The Lord Lieutenant and Lord Morpeth will render you every assistance in their power,
I have the honour to be, Sir,
Your obedient servant,
J, RUSSELL.FIRST REPORT.
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LORD JOHN RUSSELL, HIS MAJESTY’S PRINCIPAL SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT.
London, November 15th, 1836.
My Lord,
1.	I proceeded to Ireland in conformity with your Lordship’s instructions, bearing date the 22nd of August, and, after having had an interview with His Excellency the Lord Lieutenant and Lord Morpeth, and having carefully inspected the House of Industry and the Mendicity Institution in Dublin, and obtained such other information there as seemed necessary, I proceeded to visit Carlow, Kilkenny, Thurles, Cashell, Tipperary, Clonmell, Cork, Killarney, Limerick, Galway, Connemara, Westport, Castlebar, Ballina, Sligo, Enniskillen, Armagh, and Newry,—everywhere examining and inquiring, in the several towns and districts through which I passed, as to the condition and habits of the people, their character and wants ; and endeavouring to ascertain wdiether, and how far, the system established in England for the relief of the destitute, is applicable to the present state of Ireland.
2.	The above route appeared to be most eligible, with reference to this inquiry, because the inhabitants of the manufacturing and commercial districts of the north and the east approximate more nearly to the English than those of the south, west, and central parts of Ireland. To the latter, therefore, it seemed advisable to direct my attention in the first instance; for, if the English system of Poor Laws should be found applicable to them, there can be no doubt of its applicability to the northern and eastern parts of the country.
3.	I have not failed to attend likewise to the other points adverted to in your Lordship’s instructions; and I have carefully considered the several Reports of Committees of Parliament on the state of Ireland, as well as the Reports of the late Com-6
HEADS OF SUBJECT.
[First
missioners of Irish Poor Inquiry, and the evidence collected by them. This evidence establishes so conclusively the existence of a state of poverty throughout Ireland, amounting in numerous cases to actual destitution, that 1 feel it unnecessary to exhibit any additional proof of the fact. It is enough to state, as the result of my own investigations, that the misery now prevalent among the labouring classes in Ireland, appears to be of a nature and intensity calculated to produce great demoralization and danger.
4. I propose to divide the observations which I have to submit to your Lordship’s consideration into three parts:
I.—The first will exhibit the general result of my inquiries into the condition of the country, and the habits and feelings of the people; together with such observations as have occurred to me with reference to the introduction of a system of Poor Laws into Ireland.
II.—The second division will have for its object, to ascertain whether the Workhouse system can be safely established in Ireland, and how far the Workhouse may be there relied upon as a test of destitution, and a measure of the relief to he afforded; and, also, whether the means of forming Unions, and creating an efficient machinery for their management, exist in Ireland.
III.—In the third place, supposing these questions to be answered affirmatively, I shall submit to your Lordship in detail what appear to me to be the essential points requiring attention, in framing enactments for establishing a system of Poor Laws for Ireland.
PART THE FIRST.
5. It will be convenient to consider the two portions comprised in this division of the subject separately, and
i.—In the first place,—As to the present condition of the country, and the habits and feelings of the Irish people.
I soon became satisfied, that it is only by a personal inspection that the condition of the Irish people can be accurately known. A general, and a tolerably correct notion of the state of the country may be gained, by the examination of Reports and Evidence ; and deductions, pretty accurate in the main, may be <Report]	PRESENT CONDITION OF IRELAND,	7
drawn from them; but to arrive at definite and practical views, a personal inspection of the country is, I think, necessary.
6.	The investigations and inquiries in which I have now been engaged, have led me to the conviction that the condition of Ireland has, on the whole, during the last thirty years, been progressively improving. It is impossible to pass through the country without being struck with the evidence of increasing wealth, which is everywhere apparent, although, of course, it is more easily traced in towns than in the open country;, Great as has been the improvement in England within the same period, that in Ireland, I believe, has been equal. There are towns and districts there, as there are towns and districts in England, in which little, if any, improvement is visible, or which, owing to peculiar circumstances, may even have retrograded; but the general advance is certain, and the improvement in the condition, and increase in the capital of the country, are still, I think, steadily progressive.
7.	If it be asked how this accords with the apparent increase of misery and destitution among a large portion of the people, the answer I think is obvious. The capital of the country has increased, but the increase of the population has been still greater; and it therefore does not follow that there is an increase of capital or comfort in the possession of each individual, or even of the majority. The reverse is unhappily the fact.—Towns, exhibiting every sign of increased wealth, are encircled by suburbs composed of miserable hovels, sheltering a wretched population of mendicants. In the country, evidence of the extreme subdivision of land everywhere appears, and, as a consequence, the soil, fertile as it naturally is, becomes exhausted by continual cropping; for the cottier tenant, too often reduced to a level little above that of the mendicant, is unable to provide manure for his landj, and has no other mode of restoring its vigour but by subjecting it to a long and profitless fallow.
8.	Farmers of three hundred acres, or even of two or one hundred, except in the grazing districts, have become almost extinct in Ireland. A variety of circumstances seem to have contributed to bring about this change. In some instances the proprietor has himself subdivided his land into small holdings of five, ten, or fifteen acres, with a view of increasing his rent-roll, or adding to his political influence. In other cases the land has been let on lease to a single tenant on lives, or for a term of years, or both conjointly,—'and he has sublet to others, who have again gone on dividing and subletting, until the original proprietor is almost lost sight of, and the original holding is parcelled out among a host of small occupiers.8	CONDITION AND HABITS OF THE IRISH.	[First
9.	The occupation of a plot of land has now gotten to he considered,, by a great portion of the Irish people, as conferring an almost interminable right of possession. This seems in some measure to have arisen out of the circumstances in which they have been placed: for, there being no legal provision for the destitute, and the subdivision of the land into small holdings having destroyed the regular demand for labour, the only protection against actual want, the only means by which a man could procure food for his family, was by getting and retaining possession of a portion of land; for this he has struggled—for this the peasantry have combined, and burst through all the restraints of law and humanity. So long as this portion of land, so acquired and so retained, was kept together, it was possibly sufficient to supply his family with a tolerable degree of comfort; but after a time he would have sons to provide for, and daughters to portion off, and this must all be effected out of the land;—until the holding of ten or fifteen acres became divided into holdings of two, three, or five acres. After a time, too, the same process of subdivision is again resorted to, until the minimum of subsistence is reached; and this is now the only resource of a large portion of the Irish peasantry.—Land is to them the great necessary of life. There is no hiring of servants. A man cannot obtain his living as a day-labourer. He must get possession of a plot of land, on which to raise potatoes, or starve. It need scarcely be said that a man will not starve, so long as the means of sustaining life can be obtained by force or fraud; and hence the scenes of violence and bloodshed, which have so frequently occurred in Ireland.
10.	One of the circumstances that first arrests attention in Ireland, is the almost universal prevalence of mendicancy. It is not perhaps the actual amount of misery existing amongst the mendicant class, great as that may be, which is most to be deprecated: but the falsehood, the trickery, and fraud, which become a part of their profession, and spread by their example. Mendicancy appeals to our sympathies on behalf of vice, as well as wretchedness; and encouragement is too often afforded to the one, by the relief intended to be administered to the other. To assume the semblance of misery, in all its most revolting varieties, is the business of the mendicant. His success depends upon the skill with which he exercises deception. A mass of filth, nakedness, and misery, is constantly moving about, entering every house, addressing itself to every eye, and soliciting from every hand: and much of the dirty and indolent habits observable in the cabins, clothing, and general conduct of the peasantry, may probably be traced to this source; and I doubt even if those above the class of labourers altogether escape the taint. Mendicancy and wretchedness have become too commonReport.'] PREVALENCE OF MENDICANCY AND INTEMPERANCE. 9
to be disgraceful. It is not disreputable to beg, or to apj^ear wretchedly clothed, or to be without any of the decencies of life: and the semblance of such misery is not unfrequently assumed for some special object, by individuals not of the mendicant class.
11.	Another characteristic of the Irish is their intemperance. Drunkenness appears to be much more common than in England. The use of whiskey and tobacco appears to be excessive, although the evident poverty of the people would seem to forbid such indulgences. The number of spirit-shops in every town and village (for almost every shop in fact sells spirits), and the extreme cheapness of whiskey, afford facilities for drunkenness which seem irresistible. A man may get beastly drunk for 2d.; and I understand their potatoe diet renders the Irish people more easily affected by the spirit than others*—it may possibly help to increase their love for it. I have been everywhere assured that the vice of drunkenness is increasing, and that many of the acts of violence and disorder which occur in Ireland are planned in some obscure whiskey-shop, and executed under the influence of the poison there imbibed.
12.	The Roman Catholic Bishop of Kilkenny has set an admirable example, by putting a stop to drunkenness on Sundays throughout his diocese. It was at first supposed to be impossible to accomplish this, but by steady perseverance he at length succeeded, and is now rewarded by witnessing the improvement of the people in comfort and respectability. The new Act, prohibiting drunkenness on penalty of certain fines, seems to be working well in Ireland, and in some degree lessening the evil. The public exhibition of drunkenness is an offence against decency, for which the community is justified in defending itself; and the police are properly active in enforcing the provisions of the Act.
13.	During my progress through the country, it was impossible not to notice the depression of feeling, morally and personally, of the Irish peasantry, and this to an extent which a stranger could not witness without very painful emotions. It shows itself in their mode of living, in their habitations, in their dress, in the dress of their children, and in their general economy and conduct. They seem to feel no pride, no emulation; to be heedless of the present, and reckless of the future. They do not (speaking of the peasantry as a whole) strive to improve their appearance, or add to their comforts. Their cabins still continue slovenly, .smoky, filthy, almost without furniture, or any article of convenience or decency. On entering a cottage, the woman and children are often seen seated on the floor, surrounded by pigs and poultry, in the midst of filth—the man lounging10
DEPRESSION OF FEELING AND
[First
at the door, to approach which it is necessary to wade through mud; yet he is too indolent to make a dry approach to his dwelling; although there are materials fit for the purpose close at hand; his wife is too slatternly to sweep the place in which they live, or remove the dirt and offal, however offensive, from the floor. If you point out these circumstances to the peasantry themselves, and endeavour to reason with and show them how easily they might improve their condition and increase their comforts, you are invariably met by excuses as to their poverty. Are a woman, and her children, and her cabin filthy—whilst a stream of water runs gurgling at the very door ?—the answer invariably is, “ Sure, how can we help it ? we are so poor !” With the man it is the same; you find him idly basking in the sun or seated by the fire, whilst his cabin is surrounded by mud, and scarcely approachable from the accumulation of every kind of filth; and he too will exclaim, Sure, how can we help it ? we are so poor 1”—whilst at the very time he is smoking tobacco, and has probably not denied himself the enjoyment of whiskey.
14.	Now poverty is not the cause, or at least not the sole and immediate cause, of this mode of living of the Irish peasantry. If they felt a wish to better their condition, or to appear better, they might do so; but they seem to have no such ambition; and hence the depressed tone of feeling of which I have spoken. This may partly be attributed to the remains of old habits,— for, bad as the circumstances of the peasantry now are, they were yet, I am persuaded, worse fifty or thirty years ago. A part also must be owing to a want of education, and of self-respect; and a part likewise to their poverty;—to which last cause alone everything that is wrong in Ireland is invariably attributed. Coupled with this assertion of their own poverty, I everywhere found the most exaggerated notions of English wrealth, and a vague belief of certain great things that are by-and-by to be done by the influx of Englishmen and English capital. This, perhaps, is in some respects fortunate, for, although it may in a certain degree indispose the Irish themselves to present exertion, it will yet induce them to hail with favour whatever efforts may be made for bettering their condition, and developing the resources of the country.
15.	The desultory arid idle habits of the Irish peasantry are very remarkable. However urgent the demands upon them for exertion,—if, as in the present season, their crops are rotting in the fields, from excessive wet, and every moment of sunshine should be taken eager advantage of,—still, if there be a market to attend, a fair, or a funeral, a horse-race, a fight, or a wedding, all else is neglected or forgotten ; they hurry off in searchReport.	CONDITION AMONG the peasantry.	11
of the excitements and the whiskey which abound on such occasions, and; with a recklessness hardly to be credited, at the moment that they are complaining most loudly of distress, they take, the most certain steps for increasing it. Their fondness for ardent spirits is, 1 believe, one cause of this ; another, and probably the principal cause, will be found in their general position as part occupiers and part labourers. The work required upon their small holdings is easily performed, and may, as they say, “ be done any day.” Their work for wages is uncertain ; hence arises a total disregard of the value of time, a desultory and sauntering habit, without industry or steadiness of purpose. Under these circumstances, it will not be matter of surprise that the heaviest share of the work falls upon the females, who appear to do all the drudgery, and are commonly seen without shoes or stockings, whilst the men are in general supplied with both.
16.	Such is too generally the character, and such the habits, of the Irish peasantry at the present day ; and it may not be uninstructive to mark the close resemblance which these bear to the character and habits of the English peasantry in the pauperized districts, under the abuses of the old Poor Law. Mendicancy and indiscriminate alms-giving seem to have produced the same results in Ireland, that indiscriminate relief produced in England; the same reckless disregard of the future—the same idle and disorderly conduct—the same proneness to outrage, and resistance to lawful authority, having then characterised the English pauper labourer, which are now too generally the characteristics of the Irish peasant. An abuse of a good law caused the evil in the one case, and a removal of that abuse is now rapidly effecting a remedy. In the other case, the evil appears to have arisen rather from the want than the abuse of a law; but the corrective for both will, I believe, be found to be essentially the same.
it.—Secondly—As to the introduction of a system of Poor Laws
into Ireland.
17.	The objections usually urged against an Irish Poor Law may be divided into two heads—first, those founded on an anticipated demoralization of the Irish peasantry—and, secondly, those founded on the probable amount of the charge.
18.	The first objection derives its force from the example of England under the old law: but the weight of this objection is destroyed by the improved administration under the new law, which is rapidly eradicating the effects of previous abuse; and which will, there is good reason for believing, effectually prevent12	OBJECTION TO A POOR LAW EXAMINED.	[First
their recurrence. This belief is founded on the experience of thè
effects of the new system,, in every instance in which it has been
brought fairly into operation ; and particularly in two important
parishes in Nottinghamshire, where the workhouse principle was
first established, in its simplicity and efficiency, fifteen or sixteen
years ago ; and where it has continued to be equally effective, up
to the present time. Similar results have invariably attended its
application in the new Unions formed under the Poor Law
Amendment Act, which are conducted essentially upon the same
principle, but with a superior combination of machinery, and
administrative arrangement.
©
19.	With respect to the second objection, founded on the probable amount of expenditure,—it may be remarked, that the Irish population, like every other, must be supported in some way out of the resources of the country ; and it does not follow, therefore, that the establishment of such a system of relief will greatly increase the charge upon the community, if it increase the charge at all. During the progress of my inquiries, I wras often told that the recognition of any legal claim for relief would lead to universal pauperism, and would amount to a total confiscation of property. Many Irish land-owners appeared to participate in this apprehension,—under the influence of which it seems to have been overlooked, that the only legal claim for relief in England is founded on the actual destitution of the claimant; and that, as thé existence of destitution is the ground of the claim, so is its removal the measure of relief to be afforded. This circumstance alone, if the destitution be rightly tested, will afford sufficient, and perhaps the best, protection to property. At present there is no test of destitution in Ireland; mendicancy is only the outward sign of it. The mendicant, whether his distress be real or fictitious, claims and receives his share of the produce of the soil, in the shape of charity, before the landlord can receive his portion in the shape of rent, and before the tenant has ascertained whether he is a gainer or a loser by his labours and his risks. The mendicant’s claim has nowr precedence of every other. If the whole property of Ireland was rated to the relief of the poor, it would be no more : but in this case the charge would be fairly and equally borne ; whereas, at present, it is partial and unequal in the collection, and has, moreover, a direct tendency to evil in its application.
20.	The voluntary contributions of Scotland have been strongly recommended as an example, rather than the compulsory assessments of England ; and the Dublin Mendicity Association, supported on the former principle, has been referred to, and its working described as at once effective for the suppression of mendicancy, and the relief of the indigent within the sphere of its13
Report.] PRINCIPLE OP voluntary contributions,
operations* without in any way lessening the sensibilities of individual benevolence. It appears to me-, however* that the feelings of, charity and gratitude, which it is delightful to contemplate as the motive and the fruit of benevolent actions* can only exist, between individuals* and are incompatible with, the operation of such associations. It matters not whether the fund to be distributed has been raised by voluntary contribution or by legal assessment* or whether it has been devised for purposes of general charity : the application of the fund becomes* in each case, a trust ; it is distributed as a trust, and it is received as a right* not as a gift. Each applicant considers that he has a claim upon the fund* and regards every refusal as an individual injustice.
21.	As regards the mode of providing relief for the destitute* which prevails in Scotland*—interwoven as it is with the habits and religious feelings of the people* and made up of partly voluntary* partly compulsory* contributions* (for a contribution may be rendered almost as compulsory by custom, as if imposed by legislative enactment*)—it seems only necessary to remark* that its existence in Scotland does not prove that it is applicable to a country so essentially different in alb respects as Ireland, where no modification of voluntary contributions can be relied upon for rendering relief* from that source* permanent or effectual. Of this I was satisfied, after a careful examination of the Dublin Mendicity Association, which has with difficulty been kept in existence by the great exertions of the gentlemen consituting the committee* and by the threat of parading the mendicants through the streets^ If so much difficulty is found in supporting such an institution in Dublin* how impracticable must it be to provide permanent support for similar institutions in other parts of the country !—and if the relief, professed to be afforded on certain conditions* is not steadily supplied* what mischief and misery may hot ensue ?
22.	The practice of the Dublin Mendicity Association is, to receive all applicants* to supply them with sufficient food during the day* and* on dismissing them at night, to give each individual a penny to procure a lodging. Of the 2047 persons who were inmates when I visited the establishment* the far larger portion were seated in idleness. Some of the women and girls were occupied in spinning and; knitting, and some in stone-breaking: this last seemed a favourite occupation* and the women could easily earn Is, 8d. each per week at it, but they were not permitted,to earn more.. The men who were able and willing to work*: were occupied in grinding horse-corn* and in breaking limestone into gravel* and were not permitted to earn more than 2s. éá. per week; but none were compelled to work* and the men* as well as the women* earning as above* were provided with14 EXISTING INSTITUTIONS FOR AFFORDING RELIEF. [First
subsistence, for which they were charged 1 d. per day by the Association. The Dublin Mendicity Association has certainly done great good, and it must be admitted that the sudden closing of its doors would be productive of much suffering. It is, however, I think, evident that its tendency must be to hold out an encouragement to vagrancy, by ensuring a certain amount of support, on which the vagrant can fall back, under unfavourable circumstances, or a “ run of ill luck,” as it would probably be called,—thus operating, in fact, with respect to vagrancy, as a kind of voluntary labour-rate. The Dublin Mendicity Association, therefore, affords no precedent for general adoption as à medium of relief in Ireland ; and the chief reasons in favour of such an institution seem to be, the absence of any general system of relief for the destitute, and the amount of suffering which would attend its sudden dissolution.
23.	Some persons have contended, that relief for the indigent classes in Ireland ought to be provided in “ Houses of Industry,” similar to those now existing in Dublin, Clonmell, Cork, Limerick, &c., to be established and maintained by Government. These institutions are in general tolerably well managed in the large towns. Some degree of classification of the inmates is enforced, and the sexes are invariably separated. In this respect they are decidedly superior to the old Gilbert’s Incorporation Houses in England, although in most other respects they are nearly on a par with them. But they are certainly not entitled to the designation of “ houses of industry;”—there being little work done in any of them, and in some none at all. They are, in fact, places for the reception and maintenance of a certain number of poor persons, generally aged or infirm, and idiots, and lunatics. In some instances vagrants are committed to these “ houses of industry” for one day or more ; but, as a means of supplying needful relief to the destitute, and of testing that destitution, so as to detect and repel wilful idleness, and thereby afford a new stimulant to exertion, they are, I think, totally inefficient.
24.	Notwithstanding these objections, I found everywhere throughout my progress, after quitting Dublin, a strong feeling in favour of a general assessment upon property for the relief of the indigent. At present, the burthen of such relief falls almost exclusively upon what may be called the lower classes ; whilst the higher classes generally, and the absentee proprietors entirely, escape from any immediate participation in it. A system of Poor Laws, similar in principle to the English system, would go far to remedy this inequality,—the people are aware of this,— and, as the general result of my inquiries, I have been led to the conclusion, that Poor Laws may be now established in Ireland,Report.] NECESSITY OF A POOR LAW FOR IRELAND.	15
guarded by the correctives derived from experience in England,, with safety and efficiency. I think, also, that such a measure would at the same time serve to connect the interest of landlords and tenants, and so become a means of benefiting both, and promoting the general peace and prosperity of the country.
25.	The desire now so generally expressed for a full participation in English laws and English institutions, will dispose the Irish people to receive, with alacrity, any measure having a tendency to put them upon the same footing as their fellow-subjects of England. This is a circumstance particularly favourable to the establishment of a safe and efficient system of Poor Laws for Ireland at this moment. At another season, or under other circumstances, it might be difficult to surround a legal provision for the relief of the Irish poor, with such checks and counterpoises as to guard it effectually against abuse ; and to prevent that which was intended for the relief of the unavoidably indigent, from being perverted to the support of indolence, or to the encouragement of vice and improvidence. At present, I think, little, comparatively, of such difficulty exists ; and the Legislature may now^ venture to entertain the subject, having the experience of England before them, with a reasonable confidence of being able so to deal with it as to guard against abuse, and to bring the measure to a successful issue. All circumstances appear to be now favourable for the introduction of Poor Laws into Ireland ; and if the landed proprietors and gentry will there perform the same part, which the proprietors and gentry of England are so zealously and beneficially performing in the administration of the new law, the result will be neither distant nor doubtful. That the landlords of Ireland will do this, it seems unreasonable to doubt, since every motive of public duty and private interest impels them to it ; and it is, I think, impossible to over estimate the importance, morally and socially, of their thus taking their full share of the labour, as well as the charge, of local administration, and identifying themselves with the other classes of the community.
26.	A system of Poor Laws, however, if established in Ireland, must not be expected to work miracles. It would not immediately give employment or capital ; but it would, I think, serve to help the country through what may be called its transition period ; and in time, and with the aid of other circumstances, would effect a material improvement in the condition of the Irish people. The English Poor Laws, in their earlier operation, contributed to the accomplishment of this object in England ; and there seems nothing to prevent similar results in Ireland. Facilities now exist in Ireland for helping forward the transition, and for shortening its duration as well as securing its benefits, which16	TRANSITION TO AN IMPROVED SYSTEM.	[First
England did not possess in the time of Elizabeth, or for a century and a half afterwards. By the term “ transition period,” which I have used above, I mean to indicate that season of change from the system of small holdings, allotments, and subdivisions of land, which now prevails in Ireland, to the better practice of day-labour for wages, and to that dependence on daily labour for support, which is the present condition of the English peasantry. * This transition period is, I believe, generally beset with difficulty and suffering. It was so in England ; it is, and for a time will pro bably continue to be so, in Ireland ; and every aid should be afforded, to shorten its duration, and lessen its pressure.
27.	It has been considered, that the existence of the con-acre system in Ireland is favourable to such a transition. I am disposed to concur in this view’; and think that the frequent change, and annual hiring of the con-acre, wall help to wean the Irish peasantry from their now eager desire for becoming occupiers of land, and will thus lead them to become free labourers for wrages. This eager clinging to land, and its subdivision into small holdings, is, I think, at once, a cause and a consequence of the rapid increase of the Irish people, and of the extreme poverty and want which prevail among them. It is not because the potatoe alone constitutes their food, that a kind of famine, more or less intense, occurs annually in Ireland, between the going out of the old, and the coming in of the new crops; but it is because the peasantry are the sole providers for their own necessities, each out of his own small holding; and being all alike hard pressed by poverty, and prone, therefore, to endeavour “ to pull through,” as they call it, with the smallest amount of means, they are very apt to undercalculate the extent of their wants, and often squander their store so early, as to be left without food before the new crop is ripe. In this emergency there is no stock provided to which they can have recourse, even if they had the means of purchasing: and misery and disease are the consequences. All the evidence bears out this view of the subject, and it is confirmed by my own inquiries. A Poor Law, if established, would lighten the pressure under such a visitation, by providing for the relief of the aged and infirm, the widow and the orphan, who now depend entirely upon the labouring classes for subsistence. The Poor Law machinery, too, would probably afford the best organization for obtaining present relief for the able-bodied, in their extreme need, as well as for preventing the occurrence of such a calamity in future.
28.	It is impossible to mix with the Irish people, and not become sensible of the influence which the clergy exercise over their flocks. It seemed important, therefore, to ascertain the views of the clergy, and 1 discussed the subject with many of them, as well Catholic as Protestant, in all parts of the country, and took allReport.] CIRCUMSTANCES FAVOURABLE TO A POOR LAW. 17
opportunities of obtaining a knowledge of their views and opinions ; and I found them, with few exceptions, decidedly favourable to a Poor Law. In the cases where they were not so, the adverse opinion appeared to be founded on some vague notion, that their immediate influence might be lessened by taking from them the distribution of some of that relief, which now passes through their hands : but this narrow feeling was of such rare occurrence, that I feel warranted in saying, that the clergy of every denomination are almost unanimously in favour of a system of Poor Laws for Ireland. This was, perhaps, to be expected ; for the duties of the clergy lead them to mix more with the people, and to see more of their actual misery, than any other class of persons in Ireland. The shopkeepers too, and manufacturers and dealers generally, I invariably found favourable to Poor Laws. They for the most part declared that, independently of other and higher considéra-» tions, they should be gainers at the end of the year, whatever might be the amount legally assessed upon them ; for that they could neither close their doors, nor turn their backs upon the wretched objects who were constantly applying to them for aid ; whilst the landed proprietors, if resident, were in a great measure protected from such applications, and the non-resident proprietors were, of course, altogether beyond their reach.
29.	À legal provision for the destitute is, moreover, I think, an indispensable preliminary to the suppression of mendicancy. If the state offers an alternative, it may prohibit begging : it would be in vain to do so otherwise, for the law would be opposed to our natural sympathies, and would remain inoperative. This was the course adopted in England, where it was long endeavoured to repress vagrancy by direct enactments, but apparently with little advantage. At last the offer of relief was coupled with the prohibition of mendicancy,—and, until our Poor Law administration had become corrupt, with perfect success. To establish a Poor Law, then, is, I believe, a necessary preliminary to the suppression of mendicancy. That it will be, on the whole, economical to do this in Ireland, it is, I think, scarcely possible to doubt : but the moral effect of removing such a pestilent plague-spot from society is, beyond calculation, important.
30.	It is, I think, a circumstance favourable to the establishment of Poor Laws, that there is so much land lying waste and uncultivated in Ireland. A large portion of this land appears to be susceptible of profitable cultivation ; and the order and security which the introduction of Poor Laws would tend to establish, would encourage the application of capital to such objects. If capital were to be so applied, considerable tracts would be brought under culture, and thus afford immediate occupation to the now unemployed labourers. I have no experience in the reclamation
c18	ADDITIONAL MEANS OF EMPLOYMENT.	[First
of bog-land, but the finest crops which I saw in Ireland, were on land of this description ; and this often very imperfectly drained. Most of the recently-reclaimed bog which I saw in the western counties, was reclaimed by the small occupiers, who partially drained and enclosed an acre or two at a time ; but such operations were without system or combination, and for the most part indifferently performed. In this way, however, the reclamation of these wastes will, of necessity, proceed,—constantly adding to the number of small cottier tenants, and consequently swelling the amount of poverty and wretchedness in the country,-—unless proprietors and capitalists shall be induced to take the matter in hand, and, by inclosing and effectually draining whole tracts, secure the means of applying improved and economical management on a large scale. It appeared, from what I saw, and from all that I could learn by careful inquiry, that, wherever sea-sand, or sea-weed, or lime is to be obtained, bog-land may be cultivated to advantage,—-presuming always that it is first effectually drained. Now Ireland abounds in limestone beyond any country that I have ever seen, and along the western coast sand and sea-weed, are plentiful. The elements of fertility, therefore, are at hand,— all that is wanted is capital and enterprise to call them into action. The enclosing and draining, and the whole process of reclamation, would afford employment to a large number of labourers, who are now, for a great portion of the year, idling about without occupation ; and when the land so reclaimed becomes subjected to a regular process of cultivation, it will continue to afford them regular employment at daily wages, instead of the often miserably insufficient produce of their own small holdings, to which they now are compelled to cling as their sole means of support.
31. With reference to the establishment of a Poor Law, then, and to the passage of the labouring portion of the community through what I have called the “ transition period/’ the reclamation of the bog and waste lands in Ireland is a most important ' matter of consideration. Such reclamation, too, will be perhaps equally important, as affording almost the only unoccupied land, on which farms of sufficient extent for securing the advantages of improved cultivation and economical management, can now be established. In farms of small extent, there is not room for the division of labour, alternation of crops, and scientific and economical management, which are necessary for the profitable employment of capital in agriculture ; and hence the striking fact stated ' in the Report of the Irish Poor Inquiry Commissioners,—that the average produce of the soil in Ireland is not much above one-half the average produce in England, whilst the number of labourers employed in agriculture is, in proportion to the quantity of land under cultivation, more than double, namely as five to two : thus ten labourers in Ireland raise only the same quantity of produce thatReport.]	AUXILIARIES TO A POOR LAW.	19
two labourers raise in England; and this produce, too, is generally of an inferior quality. If the social and agricultural system of the two countries be assimilated, the produce of Ireland will be augmented, and the cost of production lessened. Hands, and capital, and enterprise will then be found for carrying on the fisheries, for which the coasts of Ireland are so favourable, but which have hitherto been almost or altogether neglected. Planting, likewise, will then be attended to by the landed proprietors of Ireland, as it has been by those of Scotland and England, and they will no longer allow extensive tracts of hilly and broken country, all capable of carrying timber, to remain without a tree. Ireland was evidently at one time a thickly-wooded country,—at present it is almost entirely stripped of wood, and every sapling is purloined by the people; but let planting become general, and such purloining will cease. It is the scarcity of wood, which now leads to the petty plundering, so destructive to young plantations.	^
32. In speaking of the reclamation of waste land, as an important auxiliary to the establishment of Poor Laws, I have presumed the land to be first effectually drained, which is an indispensable preliminary. An efficient system of drainage would also go far to correct the excessive humidity of the climate in Ireland. As drainage is now conducted, the water is not carried off the surface,
■—it is merely collected into pools and morasses, thence to be absorbed by evaporation, or else to stagnate and soak through the soil. But if, instead of this, the water was carried by effectual drainage into the great watercourses and rivers communicating with the sea, and the soil laid dry and warm, the climate would also become drier and warmer. There can be no doubt, I think, that the climate of Ireland, and particularly that of the western parts, was at one time less cold and humid than it is now; and that the growth of the bogs, by first retaining the rain as it fell, and then giving it back to the atmosphere by evaporation, instead of its being carried to the sea by the usual channels, has tended to make the climate and the soil more cold and wet. The size and character of the timber everywhere found at the bottom of the bogs, and over which they have grown in the course of years, proves this. Trees will not grow where these have grown ; and the deteriorating process appears to be still in operation. If the wet and bog lands of Ireland were effectually drained, and properly cultivated, and the general drainage of the country duly attended to, I am persuaded that the climate would be improved, as well as the produce of the soil. Such drainage, however, will generally require the co-operation of all the landowners of a district: and, to facilitate this object, the two Bills introduced in the last session by Mr. Lynch, if passed into law, would, I think, be highly useful. In addition to these measures, however, it would20
ADVANTAGES OF AN IRISH POOR LAW.
[First
probably be found necessary to give large powers for the purpose of enforcing drainage, and charging the adjoining property with a fair proportion of the expense in certain cases; and also to appoint commissioners of sewers or drainage, as in England, to superintend the drains and watercourses, and' to compel the occupiers of adjoining lands to keep them clear, with power to fine for any neglect of this very important duty.
33. It appears, then, I think, that a system of Poor Laws is necessary for relieving the destitution to which a large portion of the population in Ireland is now exposed. It appears, too, that circumstances are at present peculiarly favourable for the introduction of such a measure into Ireland. Poor Laws seem also to be necessary, as a first step towards effecting an improvement in the character, habits, and social condition of the people . Without such improvement,—peace, good order, and security cannot exist in Ireland; and without these, it is in vain to look for that accumulation of wealth, and influx of capital, which are necessary for developing its resources, agricultural and commercial, and for providing profitable employment for the population. Ireland is now suffering under a circle of evils, producing and reproducing one another. Want of capital produces want of employment— want of employment, turbulence and misery—turbulence and misery, insecurity—insecurity prevents the introduction or accumulation of capital—and so on. Until this circle is broken, the evils must continue, and probably augment. The first thing to be done is to give security—that will produce or invite capital—and capital will give employment. But security of person and property cannot co-exist with general destitution. So that, in truth, the drainage, reclamation, and profitable cultivation of bogs and wastes—the establishment of fisheries and manufactures—improvements in agriculture, and in the general condition of the country—and lastly, the elevation of the great mass of the Irish people in the social scale, appear to be all more or less contingent upon establishing a law providing for the relief of the destitute.— How such a law may be best formed, so as to secure the largest amount of good, with the least risk of evil, I proceed now to consider.
PART THE SECOND,
34. The two points which I propose to consider under this division of the subject, are of primary importance,*—the whole ques-Report.] APPLICABILITY OF WORKHOUSE SYSTEM.
21
tion of a Poor Law for Ireland turnings I think, upon the conclusions to which they will lead.
These points are—
i.	—Whether the Workhouse system can be safely established
in Ireland; and, if so, whether the Workhouse can be there relied upon as a test of destitution, and a measure of the relief to be afforded.
ii.	—Whether" the means exist generally, or partially, of forming Unions, and creating such a local machinery for their government, as has been established in the English Unions under the provisions of the Poor Law Amendment Act.
In my inquiries with reference to these two points, in the several districts of Ireland through which I passed, I endeavoured to exercise a care and vigilance proportioned to the importance of the object. I do not give—indeed I did not collect, detailed evidence on these and the other questions referred to me,—a sufficiency of such evidence being already accessible, in the Appendices to the Report of the late Commission of Irish Poor Inquiry, and your Lordship having required from me only practical conclusions, with a view to early legislation.
I.—First, then, As to the establishment of the Workhouse as a test of destitution, and a measure of relief in Ireland.
35.	I entered upon this inquiry, under great apprehension that the workhouse would be found to be less efficient in Ireland as a test, than experience has proved it to be in England; and that it would, probably, be applicable to the able-bodied in a limited degree only, if applicable to them at all. This impression had been somewhat weakened before my departure from London, by inquiries among the several workhouse-masters and parish-officers of St. Giles, Whitechapel, Stepney, and Shadwell, in each of which parishes great numbers of the Irish reside. All these officers assured me, as the result of their experience, that the Irish had just as much dislike to the discipline and regularity of a workhouse as the English, and would be as little likely to remain in the house, if they could obtain the means of support out of it. Notwithstanding these assurances, however, I arrived in Ireland with considerable misgiving on this point.
36.	I felt very doubtful also, I confess, whether it w'ould be practicable to control any considerable number of the able-bodied in a workhouse,—whether, in fact, the proneness of the Irish22	applicability of workhouse system. [First
peasantry to outrage and insubordination was not, as had often been represented, such as would lead them to break through all restraint, and probably demolish the building and commit other acts of violence. The probability of outrage thus occurring amongst a people so excitable as the Irish, is strongly insisted upon by the Commissioners of Inquiry in their Report, and the same argument was urged upon me by some of the individuals with whom I communicated in Dublin; so that my apprehensions as to the applicability of the workhouse system, as well as the security of the workhouse itself, were rendered extremely sensitive when I commenced my investigations in Ireland.
37.	I shortly found, however, in the progress of my inquiries amongst men most competent from experience to form a judgment, that there was no real ground of apprehension, either as to the applicability and efficiency of the workhouse for the purposes of relief,—or as to any danger of resistance to the establishment of such a system of discipline within it, as should constitute an adequate test of destitution. Indeed, if relief be limited to the house,—if no out-door relief whatever be allowed,—it evidently becomes the interest of parties relieved, or seeking or expecting relief therein, to protect the premises, not to destroy them : by such destruction they would, in fact, deprive themselves of the only means of relief provided for them by law. It is true that, when congregated in large numbers, and excited by whiskey, the Irish peasantry are prone to outrage and insubordination ; but this is not their invariable, nor even their habitual, character. I speak on the testimony of experienced witnesses when I state, that the Irish are easily governed, and easily led; and as in the workhouse they would be free from the influence of ardent spirits and other excitements, I anticipate no difficulty in establishing an efficient system of discipline and classification ; and I consider, moreover, that there will be little danger of injury to the premises, or of violence against the functionaries.
38.	In the several “ Houses of Industry” established in Ireland, a strict separation of the sexes is enforced, a,nd a discipline more or less approximating to our workhouse discipline is established. No spirits are admitted; but tobacco is generally allowed. On the whole, however, there is enough in these institutions to render them in some measure distasteful, as places of partial restraint,—the inmates being subjected to privations calculated, perhaps, more than any other, to excite them to resistance : yet from no governor of a house of industry could I learn that resistance had ever been made to their regulations, and a degree of surprise was even expressed at my thinking it necessary _ to make such an inquiry. I received the same opinion from the governors of gaols. In short, every man whom I conversed with,Report.]	fears as to its safety unfounded.	23
who had any knowledge or experience of the habits of the people, declared that the peasantry are perfectly tractable, and never think of opposing authority, unless stimulated by drink, or urged on by that species of combination for securing the occupancy of land, which has become so common in certain districts, and which is most generally formed and acted upon under the influence of whiskey. Neither of these influences are opposed to the establishment of a workhouse, or the regulation of its inmates, all of whom will have sought refuge in it voluntarily, and may quit it at any moment. Let the condition on which the inmates are received into the workhouse be clearly understood, and I think that there will be no resistance to the regulations by which it is governed.
39.	As regards the security of the workhouse, therefore, and the establishment of a system of discipline as strict as that maintained in our English workhouses, I believe that there will be neither danger nor difficulty. How far the workhouse, if established, may be relied upon as a test of destitution and a measure of the relief to be afforded,—how far it will be effectual for the prevention of pauperism, and for stimulating the people to exertion for their own support, instead of seeking that support within its walls;—how far, in short, the workhouse system, which has been safely and effectually applied to dispauperise England, may be applied with safety and efficiency to prevent pauperism in Ireland, is a question now remaining for inquiry.
40.	The governing principle of the workhouse system is this : —that the support which is afforded at the public charge in the workhouse, shall be, on the whole, less desirable than the support to be obtained by independent exertion. To carry out this principle to its full extent, it might seem at first sight to be necessary that the inmates of a workhouse should be in all respects worse situated,-—worse clothed, worse lodged, and worse fed,—than the independent labourers of the district. In fact, however, the inmates of our English workhouses are as well clothed, and generally better lodged and better fed than the agricultural labourer and his family : yet the irksomeness of the labour, discipline, and confinement, and the privation of certain enjoyments which the independent labourer possesses^ produce such disinclination to enter the workhouse, that experience warrants the fullest assurance that nothing short of destitution and of absolute necessity,—of that necessity which the law contemplates as the ground for affording relief,—will induce the able-bodied labourers to seek refuge therein: and, that if driven thither by their necessities, they will quit it again as speedily as possible, and strive (generally with increased energy and consequent success) to obtain their subsistence by their own efforts.24	OPERATION OF THE WORKHOUSE TEST.	[First
41.	This has been invariably the result in England, and hence the conviction as to the perfect sufficiency of the workhouse test. If the party is actually and unavoidably destitute, the workhouse affords relief to his necessities : if not absolutely destitute,—if sustenance is in any way attainable by his own efforts—workhouse relief does not lessen the stimulus to exertion in search of it; and there are instances without number of individuals so circumstanced, being successful in their endeavours, and thus securing an independent support for themselves and their families: whereas, under the old system they would have become confirmed paupers, ever after dependent upon the parish for their daily subsistence.
42.	Let these facts be now applied to Ireland. It would, perhaps, be in vain, even if it were desirable, to seek to make the lodging, the clothing, and the diet, of the inmates of an Irish workhouse, inferior to those of the Irish peasantry. The standard of their mode of living is unhappily so low, that the establishment of one still lower is difficult, and would, I think, under any circumstances, be inexpedient. In Ireland, then, there would not, I believe, be found this security for the efficiency of the workhouse test, which is in some, although in a very slight degree, operative in England. There are countervailing circumstances in favour of Ireland, however, which appear to more than balance this circumstance, even if it were weightier than it really is. The Irish are naturally, or by habit, a migratory people, fond of change, full of hope, eager for experiment. They have never been tied down to one confined spot, to one limited settlement, as has been the case with the English peasantry. They have never been enervated by a dependence upon a misapplied system of parish relief. Rather than bear the discipline and the restrictions of a Workhouse, the Irishman, if in possession of health and strength, would wander the world over in search of employment. All the opinions which I have collected from persons most conversant with the Irish character, confirm this statement. Confinement of any kind is more irksome to an Irishman than it is even to an Englishman. Hence, although he might be lodged, fed, and clothed, in a workhouse, better than he could lodge, feed, and clothe himself, by his own exertions,—he will yet, like the Englishman, never enter the workhouse, unless driven thither for refuge by actual necessity; and he will not then remain there one moment longer than that necessity exists.
43.	The test of the workhouse is then, I think, likely to be to the full as efficient in Ireland, as experience proves it to have been in England; and, if relief be there restricted to the work-house, it will be at once a test of destitution and a measure of the amount of the relief necessary to be afforded; and will serve toReport.] PROBABLE EFFICIENCY OF IT IN IRELAND.	25
protect the administration of a legal provision for the destitute poor in Ireland, from those evils and abuses which followed the establishment, and led to the perversion, of the old Poor Laws in England. In giving this as my deliberate opinion, I assume that the country is to be formed into Unions as in England, and that each Union is to be provided with a workhouse, adequate to the circumstances and wants of its population, and having a competent establishment of paid officers.
44.	I have spoken of the workhouse as a test of destitution generally, without limiting its operation to age, infirmity, or other circumstances ; for, independently of the difficulty of discriminating between those who may fairly be considered as aged and infirm, and those who are not,—as well as certain other difficulties, practical and theoretical, in the way of making any such distinction,—I have found in the state of Ireland no sufficient reason for departing from the principle of the English Poor Law, which recognises destitution alone as the ground of relief,—or for establishing a distinction in the one country, which does not exist in the other. I propose, therefore, to empower the presiding authority to admit the claims of all alike, able-bodied as well as infirm, young as well as old, male and female, to relief within the workhouse on the ground of actual destitution ; and I found this proposition upon a careful consideration of the present state of Ireland, as well as upon the experience of Poor Law administration in England.
45.	The discipline, mode of employment in, and general management of, the workhouses in Ireland, should, I think, be as nearly as possible assimilated to the practice in England. In one respect, however, it will probably be found expedient to depart somewhat from this. In England it has been found that land, beyond an acre or two for a garden, is not a desirable appendage to a workhouse. Out-door labour on the land, is not found to be so efficient for workhouse purposes, as the labour which may be provided in the house, by means of hand corn-mills, stone-breaking, &c. Looking at the circumstances of Ireland, however, and the possible influx of inmates at certain seasons, especially at the commencement of the system, I am disposed to think that a plot of land, varying from six to twelve acres, should be attached to each workhouse. This would be prudent as a first provision, and, if it should afterwards be found that it can be dispensed with, the land might be readily let off, or sold.
46.	The expense necessary to be incurrred for providing work-houses, will not, I apprehend, be so considerable as might have been anticipated. If the surface of Ireland be divided into26	MODE OF PROVIDING WORKHOUSES»	[First
squares of twenty miles each, so that a workhouse placed in the centre would be distant about ten miles from the extremities in all directions,, this would give about eighty workhouses for the whole of Ireland. A diameter of twenty miles was the limit prescribed for the size of Unions by Gilbert’s Act, but it was often exceeded in practice—it may, however, be assumed as a convenient size on the present occasion. In some cases, owing to the positions of the towns to be taken as the centres of Unions, or other local causes, the Unions will probably be smaller; in others, especially in the thinly-peopled districts of the west, they will in all likelihood be larger : but still, there is, I think, every probability that the number of workhouses required will not materially, if at all, exceed eighty. In aid of this number, the Houses of Industry, and Mendicity and other establishments, which will be unnecessary as soon as a legal provision is made for the relief of the destitute, will become available at probably a small expense, or at no expense whatever. In some instances, moreover, barracks, factories, or other buildings suitable for conversion into workhouses, will not improbably be obtained on easy terms :—but, excluding all these favourable considerations, which are calculated to lessen the estimated expense, and even admitting that, instead of eighty workhouses, 100 wrill be required, and that the cost of erecting each will be about the same as for the largest class of our English workhouses, namely, about 7000/.—this would give a gross outlay of 700,000/. for the whole of Ireland,—a sum surely not large, when the nature of the object is taken into consideration.
47. If Government were to advance this sum, or so much as might be necessary for providing the workhouses, by way of loan, as has been done to the Unions in England,—requiring an instalment of 5 per cent, of the principal to be paid off annually out of the rates,—it would make the whole charge so easy, that it would scarcely be felt. With such an object in view, it will scarcely be contended that a payment of 35,000/. per annum for twenty years, with the interest on the constantly-decreasing principal, would be considered as a hardship on Ireland; and this is in fact the whole of the new or additional outlay proposed: for, as regards the relief of the destitute, that, as I have said before, would not be a new charge, the destitute classes being now supported out of the produce of property; although in a manner calculated to lessen the amount of production, and consequently in the long run to lessen the income of the proprietors, as well as to injure and depress the general character of the people. No objection can, therefore, I think, be raised in Ireland, on account of this proposed outlay for the provision of workhouses.27
Report] local machinery of a poor law.
48.	It appears, then, from the foregoing statements, that the workhouse system, which has been successfully applied to dis-pauperize England, may be safely and efficiently applied, as a medium of relief, to diminish the amount of misery in Ireland. It appears, moreover, that the expense of providing the necessary buildings will not be so large, having reference to the importance of the object, as to cause any serious impediment to the measure ; and that this expense may, with the consent of the Legislature, be so spread over a period of years, that its pressure will scarcely be felt.
ii.—Secondly, As to the means of obtaining the benefits of combined management, and of creating a local machinery for the government of Unions in Ireland.
49.	If it was desired to establish, in the several parishes of Ireland a parochial machinery, similar to that which exists in England I believe the attempt would fail; for the description of persons requisite for constituting such a machinery will not be found in the great majority of Irish parishes. In some parts of Ireland, however, and especially in the north and the east, competent individuals would be found in many, if not in most, parishes. If an Irish Poor Law be established, the uniting of parishes for the purpose of securing the benefits of combined management, is, therefore, more necessary, even than it was for England; and by making the Unions sufficiently large, there can be no doubt that, in almost every instance, a Board of Guardians may be obtained, by way of election, of such in* telligence and efficiency, as to insure the orderly working of the Union, under the system of strict supervision and control, which it would be necessary, for a time, to exercise over their proceedings.
50.	In the first instance, and until a rate for the relief of the destitute is established, the contributors to the county-eess might be empowered to elect the guardians; but in some cases an efficient Board of Guardians may not be obtainable by election ; and this is most likely to occur at the commencement of a new system, when individuals will be ill instructed as to their duties, and when the public will, perhaps, have formed exaggerated and erroneous notions of what is intended to be done. To meet this contingency, it seems essential that large general powers should be vested in some competent authority, to control and direct the proceedings of Boards of Guardians, and even to supersede their functions altogether, when such supersession shall appear to be necessary. Power should also, I think, be given, to declare Unions, and to appoint paid and other officers to28	CONSTITUTION OF UNIONS AND LOCAL BOARDS. [First
conduct the business, under the direction of the central authority, without the intervention of a Board of Guardians; and in order to guard against the confusion and mistakes to be expected in some districts, on the first introduction of an entirely new order of things, and to prevent the mischief that might ensue from failure or misconduct on the part of the local authorities at the outset, the central authority should also be empowered to dispense with the election of the first Board of Guardians, and to appoint such persons as may appear most fit and competent to act as guardians of the Union, either until the Lady-day next ensuing after such appointment, or to the Lady-day twelve-months, as the central authority may decide. The number and selection of such specially-appointed guardians to be entirely at the discretion of the central authority.
51.	These powers are greater than those that were given to the English Commissioners by the Poor Law Amendment Act: but they are, in my opinion, necessary in the present state of Ireland; and as they will be openly exercised upon the responsibility of the central authority, whose governing motive must be the success of the measure, there is the best guarantee for their proper application. With these powers confided to the central authority, no difficulty will arise for which it will not be prepared; and it will, I think, be enabled to establish the Unions, and to constitute an adequate machinery for their government throughout the whole of Ireland, with certainty and efficiency.
52.	In England, all the county magistrates residing and acting within the limits of the respective Unions, are ex-officio members of the several Boards of Guardians. The number and position of the magistracy in Ireland seem to require a modification of this rule in its application to that country. The principle of Poor Law Administration established in England by the Poor Law Amendment Act, is based essentially upon popular representation. The guardians are elected by the actual occupiers and owners of the property rated, and in the hands of the guardians the administrative power is vested. The county magistrates, it is true, are admitted, in virtue of their office, to sit and act as members of the Board, having equal powers with the elected guardians : but this does not destroy the strictly elective character of the administrative body; for in every Union, the number of elected guardians so far exceeds that of the ex-officio guardians, that the popular and elective character of the Board is maintained; whilst, at the same time, by the infusion of a portion of the magistracy, who become in virtue of their office permanent members, and therefore connecting links between the successive Boards of Guardians,Report.] MAGISTRATES MEMBERS OF BOARDS—CLERGY.	29
the whole machinery is greatly improved; and a degree of stability and continuity of action is imparted to it, which, if based entirely upon election, and changeable annually, it would not possess.
53.	This is the constitution of the Boards of Guardians in
the English Unions, and nothing can work better : but in Ireland I have found, upon inquiry, that the number of magistrates who would be entitled, under a similar provision, to act as ex-officio guardians, would in general greatly exceed the number usually found qualified in England, and in some cases would, in fact, probably outnumber the elected guardians. If this should occur, the elective character of the Board would of course be destroyed; but even if this should not be the case, yet any undue preponderance of the permanent ex-officio guardians would detract from the popular character of the governing body, and lower it in the confidence and estimation of the people. On these grounds, and with a view of keeping as nearly as possible to the practical constitution of the English Boards of Guardians, I propose, in the Irish Unions,—1st. That the number of ex-officio guardians shall never exceed one-third the number of elected guardians:	2dly. That immediately on the declaration
of a Union, the county magistrates residing and acting within its limits, shall nominate from among themselves a number nearest to, but not exceeding, one-third of the elected guardians, —which magistrates so nominated by their compeers, shall be entitled to act as ex-officio guardians of the Union, until the Michaelmas twelvemonth after such nomination; and a list of their names, duly certified by the clerk of the peace of the county or division in which the Union is situated, shall be inserted twice in the county newspapers: and 3dly. That at each succeeding Michaelmas, the magistrates entitled as aforesaid, shall proceed to a new election. These regulations will, I think, not only preserve a due proportion in the constitution of the Boards of Guardians, but also ensure the co-operation of the most efficient portion of the magistracy in the government of the Unions ; as the magistrates will, of course, nominate those members of their body who are resident, and most active and able.
54.	A different practice from that established in England seems
also to be necessary for Ireland with respect to the clergy. Under the provisions of the Poor Law Amendment Act, ministers of religion of every denomination are eligible to fill the office of guardians, elected or ex-officio.	In the present condition of
Ireland, I fear that this would be attended with serious inconvenience, and might perhaps altogether destroy the efficiency of the Boards of Guardians. I therefore propose that no clergyman, or minister of any religious denomination, shall be eligible to actso
INELIGIBILITY OF CLERGY AS GUARDIANS.
[First
either as. elected or ex-officio guardian. This exclusion is not proposed from any notion of the general unfitness of the clergy to fill the office of guardian; but with reference solely to the present state of religious opinion in Ireland, and to the importance of keeping the functions of the Boards of Guardians totally free from even the suspicion of any kind of bias. If the ministers of one persuasion were to be admitted, the ministers of every persuasion must be admitted ; and then the deliberations of the Boards of Guardians would too probably, in some cases, be affected by religious differences. Many of the clergy of the Established Church, moreover, being in the commission of the peace, would be entitled to act as ex-officio members of the Boards of Guardians, if no such general ineligibility was to be established; and this would probably be considered by many as giving them an undue preponderance in districts where the bulk of the people are CatholicSé Ireland in this respect differs greatly from England* and seems to require the application of a different rule.
55. In the course bf my very anxious inquiries on this point, it was several times suggested to me, that the clergy, and ministers of religion generally, ought to be members of the Boards of Guardians in virtue of their office* on the ground that they knew more of the wants and necessities of the poor than any other description of persons; and this was stated to be more particularly the case with the Catholic Clergy. It might, perhaps, be sufficient to state, with reference to this suggestion, that any such admission of the clergy, as a body, would be directly at variance with the principle of popular election established in England, under which the Boards of Guardians are constituted, and to which they continue amenable, the several members having to be elected annually; whereas the clergy, if they were to be admitted as suggested, would be permanent and irresponsible members of the Board. In addition to this objection, however,— which, as it involves a principle, must be considered as final,— it may be remarked* that, if the above suggestion was to be adopted, and all the ministers bf religion within a Union were, as such, to become members of the Board of Guardians, it would make the Board far too numerous for the orderly and efficient dispatch of business. There would probably be much debate and contention, With but little progress in the affairs of the Union. The experience already obtained in the working of the Unions in England, is decisive upon this point. The most numerous Boards of Guardians are invariably the least efficient, and the most open to be acted upon by partial and party views. If this be the case in England, how much more likely is it to occur in Ireland, where the incentives to party bias, religious and political, are so much stronger! In Ireland, therefore, itReport.]	INELIGIBILITY OF CLERGY AS GUARDIANS.	31
seems most important to extend the size of the Unions, for the purpose of obtaining an impartial Board of Guardians; and to limit the number of its members, in order to secure its efficiency.
56.	The duty of a guardian will be altogether of a civil character, to be fulfilled in conformity with strict legal enactments, and having nothing in common with religious functions. If a clergyman were to become a guardian, he Would be bound to act in that capacity as if he were a lay member; and the clergy of all persuasions, it appears to me, would be enabled to exercise a more legitimate influence within their districts, if they were not members of the Boards of Guardians, than if they were. As guardians, their course of action would be strictly prescribed: but, if not guardians, they may be guided by what they consider to be their general or peculiar duties; and they will be enabled.* as teachers to whom the people look up for advice and instruction* to render most important service to the Union.
57.	The Board of Guardians, in the faithful performance of its duties, will often have to refuse applications for relief, and to act with strictness, perhaps at times even with apparent rigour. If any minister of religion was to be a member of the Board, a part of the odium which would attend such acts, however necessary and proper they might be, would attach to him, and possibly affect his ministry. If clergymen are restricted from acting as guardians, no such consequences can ensue.*— They may then moderate as well as inform, and become mediators between the poor on the one side, and the Union authorities on the other. The funds, too, which as clergymen they have to administer for charitable and religious purposes, must generally be distributed by them on a different principle from that which governs the administration of relief by the Board of Guardians. This circumstance, if they were members of the Board, and party to its proceedings, would probably embarrass their conduct in one or the other capacity. On no point have I taken more pains to arrive at a sound conclusion than on this, being fully sensible of the objections, on principle, to the exclusion of any class of men from office; but the great majority of the clergy themselves with whom I have conversed, Catholic, Presbyterian, and Protestant, have agreed in thinking that it will be, on the whole, inexpedient to admit any of the ministers of religion to act as guardians. After the fullest consideration and most anxious inquiry, therefore, I recommend that they should be declared altogether ineligible.
58.	The clergy, both Catholic and Protestant, may* however,32	THE CLERGY AUXILIARY TO PROPOSED SYSTEM. [First
by their influence and exhortations, greatly facilitate the introduction, and help the working of a system of relief for the destitute classes; and this they will be enabled to do far more effectually, if they are not guardians. I rely upon the clergy, and upon the intelligent portion of the community in Ireland, for explaining the real objects of the new law to the people, and thus preventing exaggerated notions as to what is intended. The Irish peasantry may otherwise be led to consider it as framed for their entire support, and be apt to look to the rates, instead of their own exertions. The application of the Workhouse Test, will, it is true, correct this after a time; but in the interim, and especially at the outset, inconvenience may be created, if this very possible evil is not guarded against, by explaining to the people that the relief which the new law provides, is intended solely for the destitute, and not for those who have ability to support themselves. Such explanations have been necessary even in England, where certain evil-disposed persons have occasionally laboured to persuade the people that they were entitled to be supported in idleness out of the rates: and similar practices may not impossibly be attempted in Ireland.
59.	With a central authority possessing such powers as have been indicated, I see nothing, present or prospective, to prevent the establishment of Unions in Ireland, similar to, and in all respects as effective as, the Unions established in England, under the Poor Law Amendment Act. In the less populous parts of the country, it might be desirable to have the chief police station near the workhouse, and the school would be close, if not attached to it. The dispensary too, and medical and surgical aid, if required, would be found there. The Union establishment would thus become a kind of colony, a centre of civilization, and the U nions might be made important engines for effecting improvements in the condition and habits of the Irish people, in whose clothing, cottages, and domestic economy, as well as in their agricultural and other management, there now appears a lamentable deficiency of the faculty happily so common in England,—namely, the faculty of making the best of everything.
60.	In passing through Ireland, no person can fail to notice the several police stations, nor can doubt that the order and neatness which they generally exhibit will operate in the way of example upon the neighbouring cottagers. It may require time to produce any very sensible effect; but some effect will assuredly be produced. Man imitates good as well as evil; and if examples of the former are placed before him, they will not be altogether lost, even under ordinary circumstances; but the example set to a district by a Union establishment such as is above described,—exhibiting neatness, order, and comfort, with probably a portion ofReport.]	APPOINTMENT OP DISTRICT OFFICERS.	33
land for farming and gardening attached—must be of far greater influence than any insulated example could be. Such an establishment would be the centre of resort of the whole district; and might become the source and nursery of almost every kind of improvement in the moral and social habits, the domestic economy, and general operations of the surrounding peasantry and occupiers of land.
61.	When there shall be a provision for the destitute at the common charge, the community will have acquired a right so far to interfere with the proceedings of individuals, as to prevent the spread of destitution, and to guard itself from loss or damage by the negligence, obstinacy, or supineness of any of its members. Under the old civil institutions in England, this interference was largely exercised, to the benefit of the community at the time, although in the present advanced state of society it has become unnecessary, and would now scarcely be tolerated. In Ireland, the state of the rural community is in many respects similar to that which prevailed in England when the local headman of the village or parish was looked up to as an authority, in advising and directing to what was right, as well as in restraining from what was wrong; but in the majority of Irish parishes the whole population is nearly on the same level; there is no gradation, no man or class of men sufficiently prominent to possess control, or even to exercise influence: there is not the least approach to self-government observable. To select, from among the inhabitants of a parish, one or more of the most intelligent individuals, and to array them on the side of the law, good order, and improvement, and to clothe them with a certain extent of authority and local importance,—as was the case with the headborough or local headman, and as is now the case with the parish officers in England,
*—would therefore, I consider, be productive of benefit as well as convenience in Ireland; and I recommend that the central authority should be empowered to appoint, or to direct the Board of Guardians to appoint, one or more wardens or officers for every parish, or for such districts of the Union as may be deemed most convenient.
62.	The central authority should have power to define the duties of these officers or wardens, which would be to superintend generally the affairs of the district, to assist and observe the in* structions of the Board of Guardians, especially with reference to measures intended to operate upon the habits of the labouring population. Parochial or district officers of this description might be made extremely useful in connecting the Board of Guardians with the several portions of the Union, thus extending its influence, and rendering it effective for the purposes of general improve-
D34 CONSTITUTION OF UNIONS BY CENTRAL AUTHORITY. [First
merit, as well as for the administration of relief. These officers, should, I think, he armed with the authority of constables or headboroughs; and should be second in local importance to the guardian, to which office theirs would probably often become preliminary. I propose to vest their appointment (subject to the control of the central authority) in the Board of Guardians, for the purpose of giving importance to that body within the district of which it is the head, an object obviously desirable. The appointment should be for a year, but the same persons might be re-eligible. Such officers would probably be found useful for other local purposes, with reference to the functions of Magistrates and Grand Juries; to which end it might be necessary to have one or more for every civil parish, according to its size, population, or other circumstances. This would be the first step towards self-government in the Irish parishes.—It has been said that the Poor Law Amendment Act has destroyed local self-government in England; but this is not the fact. It has not destroyed, it has on the contrary improved it, by centralizing and combining the best elements existing in a large district, in lieu of the scattered, desultory, and imperfect old parochial administrations. Such will also, I believe, be the effect of Unions in Ireland.
63. There are some other points connected with the creation of a machinery for Union government, to which it appears necessary to advert. In England, under the provisions of the Poor Law Amendment Act, every parish or township rated for the maintenance of its poor, and included in a Union, is entitled to return a guardian. In Ireland it will, I think, be essential that the central authority should be empowered to fix the boundaries of a Union, without being restricted to parish boundaries. It should be empowered to divide parishes, either for the purpose of electing guardians, or for joining a portion of a parish to one Union, and another portion of the same parish to another Union. It should also be empowered to consolidate parishes for the purpose of electing one or more guardians, and likewise to form ^election districts for this purpose, without reference to parochial boundaries. And lastly, the central authority should be empowered to add to, take from, and remodel Unions, with or without consent, at any time that such change might be deemed to be necessary. These powers have been much wanted by the English Poor Law Commissioners, and would have enabled them to make their Unions more compact and convenient than they are at present;—local prejudices and local interests having frequently compelled the Commissioners to abandon the arrangement which, with reference to the general interest, they deemed the best. In Ireland, full powers in this respect are, I think, indispensable, not only on account of the size and uncertain boundaries of some parishes, but35
Report.]	GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF A POOR LAW.
also to enable the central authority to deal with the various circumstances under which the Unions will there have to be formed.
64.	I consider then, that with adequate powers confided to a responsible authority, and with such modifications as are hereinbefore described, the principle of Union for the purposes of systematic and combined management, which has been established in England by the Poor Law Amendment Act, may be advantageously extended to Ireland; and that, as it has been shown that no insurmountable difficulty exists to impede the introduction of the workhouse as a test of destitution, and a measure of relief,—so neither will there be any insurmountable difficulty in establishing an adequate machinery for the government of the Unions when formed.
PART THE THIRD.
65.	I think it has been shown, that a system of Poor Laws ought to be established in Ireland; that the workhouse system may there be relied upon, as a test of destitution, and a measure of relief; and that the means of forming and governing Unions exist there, as well as in England. It now remains to describe, in detail, the several points which appear to require especial attention in framing a measure comprising these objects; and also to offer such further observations, as did not seem to come immediately within the scope of either of the preceding divisions of this Report.
66.	I assume, as the governing principle to be observed in dealing with this portion of the subject, that the Poor Law of Ireland should assimilate in all respects as nearly as possible to the Poor Law System now established in England,—varying only in those instances, in which the relative circumstances of the two countries require a different practice.
67.	The point first in order for consideration would naturally be the constitution of the central or chief authority, and the powers to be confided to it for carrying the measure of an Irish Poor Law into operation ; but I postpone this part of the subject for separate consideration—assuming only, that a central authority is to be established, with powers similar in kind to those conferred upon the English Poor Law Commissioners, but more ample in extent.
d 236	OP RELIEF :—TO whom,	[First
This point being disposed of for the present, the other objects for consideration may be taken in the following order.
i.	'Relief.—The objects for relief, and the mode and condi-
tions of its administration.
ii.	Local Machinery.—The appointment and authority of
the parties by and through whom relief is to be administered.
hi. Rating.—The mode in which the funds required for the purposes of relief are to be raised, and from whom.
iv.	Settlement.—This subject would have properly come
under the first head, but it will be more convenient to consider it separately.
v.	Mendicancy.
vi.	Bastardy.
vu. Apprenticeship.
vin. Pauper Idiots and Lunatics.
ix. Emigration and Migration.
X. Houses of Industry, Foundling Hospitals, Mendicity Establishments, and other Charitable Institutions.
On each of these heads I will now proceed to remark, in the order in which they are above placed.
i .—Of Relief
68.	The only legal claim for relief, in England, is founded upon the destitution of the party claiming it. I propose to extend the same principle to Ireland ; and, as a test of the actual existence of such destitution, and to guard against the abuse and train of evils which have invariably attended the unrestricted distribution of out-door relief, (that is, of relief administered either in money or in kind to parties out of the workhouse, or at their own homes,) I further propose that, in Ireland, no relief should be given except in the workhouse. This limitation should be specified in the Act, in order to protect the central authority from the pressure which is not unlikely to occur upon this point, and which would otherwise possibly be at times too great for it to stand up against, if not so supported.
69.	I do not propose to impart a right to relief, even to the destitute, but to place the ordering and directing of all relief in the hands of the central authority. The claim to relief in England may be said to be founded on prescription, rather than on legislative enactment; for, although the 43rd of Elizabeth provides for the levying a rate for the purpose of relieving the destitute poor, it invests them with no right to claim reliefi the administration of37
Report.] AND IN WHAT MODE TO BE ADMINISTERED,
which is left entirely to the discretion of the local authorities; who are, however, of course, responsible for the exercise of such discretion and for the due administration of relief.
70.	The promulgation of rules for the administration of relief would, therefore, be vested in the central authority, limited by this proviso,—that relief is only to be administered by receiving the applicants into the house, and subjecting them to the regulations established for its government. It would rest with the central authority to declare when the workhouse should be so applied in each Union; and also to take care that no time was lost in providing competent workhouse accommodation, as well as to establish such regulations as might be necessary for the guidance of the local authorities in the interim: but it will be most safe to prohibit all relief whatever, until the test of the work-house can be applied, rather than invest the central authority with a discretionary power of permitting or directing its administration in any case, without the intervention of such a test.
71.	The strict limitation of relief to the workhouse may possibly be objected to, on the ground that extreme want is found occasionally to assail large portions of the population in Ireland, who are then reduced to a state bordering upon starvation; and ought therefore, it may be asserted, to be relieved at the public charge, without being subjected to the discipline of the workhouse. This, however, is an extreme case, and it would not, I think, be wise to adapt the regulations of Poor Law administration in Ireland to the possible occurrence of such a contingency. In a period of famine, the whole population become in a great degree destitute; but it surely would not be expedient to hold out an expectation, that, if such an event should unhappily occur, support for all would be unconditionally provided at the public charge. This wrould lessen the inducements to a provident economising of their means of support on the part of the people, by a timely resort to w7hich the occurrence of actual famine may often be averted, although dearth and much consequent distress may still arise. This must in fact be the case in all countries, whenever a season of scarcity occurs. During such a visitation, the workhouse would not, in all probability, contain the numbers wdio might be anxious to crowd into it for support; but to the extent of its means of accommodation it wrould help to relieve the general distress, and the Union machinery would probably be found useful in the application of general relief, as well as for preventing the recurrence of the calamity.
72.	The occurrence of a famine, however, if general, seems to be a contingency altogether above the powers of a Poor Law to provide for. It must be remembered, that then there is an actual deficiency of supply. As there is less to consume, less38
LIMITATION OF RELIEF TO THE WORKHOUSE.
[First
must be consumed. To assess the rate-payers, in order to enable the rate-receivers to continue their ordinary consumption, would only shift the suffering. If the famine is not general, but merely local, the resources of the country, or the districts which have escaped its visitation, must be brought in aid of those suffering from its ravages; and this would be most effectually done by the public and private exertions of the opulent and the charitable. It is, however, I think, impossible to contemplate the longer prevalence of such a state of things in Ireland, as that in which any considerable portion of its population shall be subjected to the periodical occurrence of famine. As the habits, intelligence, and forethought of the people improve, with the increase of wealth and the progress of education, these visitations will be guarded against and averted. I do not therefore propose to make any exception, permissive of out-door relief in any shape, not even in kind ; although it is still allowed to be so administered in certain cases in the English Unions : but I recommend, that in Ireland relief should be limited strictly to the workhouse.
73.	It is also, I think, necessary for carrying out the work-house principle in Ireland, that no individual of a family should be admitted, unless all its members enter the house. Relief to the father or husband is equivalent to relief to the child or the wife, and vice versa ; and, while they continue one family, a part cannot be considered as destitute, and the rest not so; a family must be taken as a whole, and so admitted or excluded. This principle is established very generally in the English Unions, although in certain cases its direct application to the full extent has for a time been suspended, in consequence of the habits and abuses which had grown up under the old system, having rendered it difficult to enforce the principle at first in all its strictness. In Ireland, however, no such difficulty exists, and the rule should there be strictly and at once applied. In fact it is now acted upon in some of the Houses of Industry which I have visited, and with very good effect.
74.	Whenever the community shall have provided for the protection of its members against the effects of destitution, it will have acquired a right to compel individuals to fulfil their natural duties towards their relatives; and the provisions of the 43d of Elizabeth, requiring parents to support children, and children to support parents, should be extended to Ireland. I would also propose that the affording relief by way of loan, provided for in the 58th section of the Poor Law Amendment Act, be extended to Ireland. It may in certain cases be useful, and, if exercised with discretion and firmness by the Boards of Guardians, can scarcely be productive of mischief.Report.]	local machinery.—unions.	39
75,	The regulation of all relief being placed in the hands of the central authority, it is unnecessary to particularize several other points of detail, for which its powers would enable it effectually to provide. With respect to medical relief, it would of course, like any other kind of relief, be administered in the workhouse: but it may be a question whether, and how far, the medical aid now afforded by Dispensaries, and to which the people have become accustomed, shall be continued to outdoor applicants, in the event of these institutions being connected with the workhouse. This is a point of some importance, both in respect of principle, and as a matter of detail; and, in order that the central authority may be enabled to deal with it, I propose to give them the power to regulate all the Dispensaries. Independent medical clubs ought also, I think, to be encouraged in Ireland, as they have been in England, for the purpose of correcting the too prevalent disposition to rely upon gratuitous medical aid.
II.— Of the Local Machinery.
76.	I propose that the local machinery for the administration of relief to the destitute in Ireland, under the direction of a central authority, should be the same as that which is provided in England by the Poor Law Amendment Act; namely, the union of a district for common management, under a Board of Guardians to be elected annually by the rate-payers, with paid officers to be appointed or approved by the central authority.
77.	In forming the country into Unions, it will, I think, be necessary to observe the civil, rather than the ecclesiastical, boundaries of parishes; but cases will arise, in which it may be requisite to disregard all such boundaries—it being obviously more important that the district to be united should be compact, convenient, and accessible, and be naturally connected with its centre, than that the old and often inconvenient boundaries should be observed. This applies no less to county or baronial boundaries than to those of parishes or other divisions; and it cannot, I think, be too strongly impressed upon the individuals to whom the duty of forming Unions may be confided, that the point to which they ought to direct their attention in grouping the country into Unions, as regards size, form, and means of communication, is the general interest and convenience of the inhabitants.
78.	The principle which has governed the Commissioners in the formation of the English Unions, whenever they have not been driven from it by local circumstances, has been, to fix upon some market-town conveniently situated as a centre, and to attach to it the whole surrounding district, of which it may be considered40	BOARDS OF GUARDIANS—ELECTION OF.	[First
as the capital—-the mart, in which the general business of the district, both public and private, for the most part concentrates. The roads of a district always converge upon the market-town. The communications with it are constant, and the people settled within the range of its influence constitute almost a distinct community. To form such a district into a Union, under one common government, for general as well as for Poor Law purposes, seems therefore an obvious course of proceeding : and I strongly recommend its being adhered to, as closely as possible, in the formation of Unions in Ireland. There may be parts of the country in which such a convenient centre does not exist, but this will be of rare occurrence, and the general powers of the central authority will be competent to deal with it wherever it does occur. The larger the Unions are made, the less of course will be the difficulty in this respect.
79.	I have stated, in the second part of this Report, much of what appeared to be necessary, with reference to the members of the Boards of Guardians, both elected and ex-officio. The qualification for an elected guardian will consist of being rated at a certain amount; and this amount, as in England, the central authority will prescribe, as well as the regulations for governing the proceedings of the guardians, when elected. The central authority will also either appoint, or direct the appointment, and prescribe the duties, of the paid officers of the Union, together with the audit of the accounts, and the form in which they are to be kept.
80.	The important question—in whose hands the right of appointing Guardians shall be confided, and in what way that right shall be exercised,—remains still to be considered. In this, as in all other cases, the principle which has been established for England by the Poor Law Amendment Act, should, I think, be applied to Ireland, and the election or appointment of guardians be vested in the rate-payers and owners of property within the Union: but the circumstances of Ireland appear to require a certain departure from the English practice, in carrying this principle into operation. The owners of property, in England, are entitled to vote according to the scale which wras established by the Select Vestry Act, and which ascends, by gradations of 25/. each, from a rated value of 50/. per annum, up to 150/. per annum, giving one vote for the former, and six votes for the latter. This scale, is, perhaps, open to some objection on the grounds of complexity and over-minuteness. It is, moreover, different from the scale of voting fixed for the rate-payers by the Poor Law Amendment Act, and which provides that rate-payers, if rated under 200/. shall have one vote; if rated at 200/. and under 400/., two votes; and if at 400/. and upwards, three votes.SCALE OF VOTING—RATING.
41
Report.]
81.	The above scale of voting for rate-payers seems,, on the whole, well adapted to the condition of England; but the amounts specified are., I think, too high for Ireland; and the scale is not sufficiently minute in its graduation, with reference to the subdivision of property which prevails there. Instead of adopting these English scales, therefore, or either of them, I would propose to establish one scale in Ireland, by which simplicity of detail, and a right result, will, I think, be more effectually secured; and I recommend the following for regulating the votes of owners of jDroperty, as well as occupiers, namely,
above 51. and under 50/. 50/. and under	100/.
100/.	„	150/.	.
150/.	„	200/.	.
200/. and upwards
one vote, two votes, three votes, four votes, five votes.
This scale would, I believe, be found to work well and satisfactorily in Ireland. The cumulative votes of the owners and larger occupiers would serve to counterbalance the number of small rate-payers, and secure the return of competent individuals.
82.	I do not propose to extend the right of voting below a rating of 5/., on account of the vast number of small occupiers, especially in the west and south of Ireland ; but I recommend, that, for all property rated under 51. value, the occupiers of which would thus be deprived of the privilege of voting at the election of guardians, the landlord, or owner of the property, should be required to pay the rate, and not the tenant. The aggregate rated value of the property for which the owner would so pay must, of course, be included in the amount by which the number of his votes will be regulated, according to the above scale. If, as a matter of arrangement or otherwise, the occupying tenant of premises rated under 51. value should have paid the rate, he must in such case be authorized to deduct it from the rent payable to the landlord. A form of rate-book should be prescribed, as in England, in which the owners5 and the occupiers’ name, and the fair estimated value, or net rental of the property, should in every case be inserted ; and this rate-book, unless appealed against, should be conclusive evidence of the right of voting in every instance.
iit.—Of Rating.
83.	The power to assess the property and levy a rate within a Union, for the purpose of relieving the destitute^ must, I think, be confided to the Board of Guardians, by whom such relief is to be administered. The mode of assessing and collecting the rate,42
MODE OF MAKING AN ASSESSMENT.
[First
as well as its application, will be prescribed by the central authority. The central authority, moreover, ought, I think, to be empowered to direct a rate to be at any time levied by the^ Board of Guardians, or by such other local executive as it might have found it necessary to appoint, under the provisions already sug-
84.	The Parochial Assessments Act, introduced by Mr. Poulett Scrope, and passed in the last Session of Parliament, establishes the principle that the rates are to be paid upon the net annual value of property. This was always, I believe, the law in England, although it had been widely departed from in practice. As regards the principle by which the assessment of property should be regulated, therefore, it will be only necessary to extend the provisions of Mr. Poulett Scrope’s Act to Ireland, substituting the Union for the parish authorities, and introducing such other modifications as the circumstances under which it will have there to be applied render necessary. The valuation of property for the purpose of rating need not, I apprehend, be made in every instance by surveyors and professional valuators. The fairly-estimated value of the property is all that is really necessary; and there will probably not be much difficulty in ascertaining this, either with or without professional assistance, taking the Union district parish by parish. In many instances a valuation has already been made for the purpose of tithe commutation in Ireland. Wherever this or any other fair valuation has been made, it will, of course, be available for the purpose of rating to the relief of the poor.
85.	Hitherto there has been no rate for the relief of the poor in Ireland. The destitute classes have gone on increasing in numbers, but still there has been no recognized or legal provision for their relief. Property has been acquired, capital invested, and contracts made, under this state of things. It will be impossible, therefore, suddenly to impose a rate upon property without affecting existing interests, and partially disturbing existing arrangements. The subject cannot be considered without our becoming immediately sensible of this consequence : but I believe that the effect will be slight, even at first, and that in the course of a very few years it will cease altogether. If the inconvenience were far greater than I anticipate, however, it will be as nothing when compared with the object to be effected; and all objections to the imposition of a rate on this ground are overborne by considerations of the public welfare.
86.	The question as to who shall be liable to pay the rate, and in what proportions, requires to be very carefully considered. The parties immediately interested appear to be the owner or
* See sec# 50, Part the Second.Report.]	RATE-PAYERS—WHO.	43
person possessing the beneficial interest of the property assessed, and the tenant or occupier. Between these two, it seems, therefore, at once equitable and expedient to apportion the rate. Where the two characters are combined, the same person would, of course, be answerable for the entire rate. As to the occupier, he would be resident, and no difficulty could occur with respect to him; and for the owner, I would not propose to look beyond the person having the immediate beneficial interest, under whom the occupier holds, and to whom he actually pays his rent. On these parties I propose to confer the right of voting for guardians ; and to apportion between these two alone the payment of the rate.
87,	It appeared to be the opinion of the Irish Poor Inquiry Commissioners, that the owner should pay two-thirds of the rate, and the occupier one-third; and it seemed to me, at first, that this would be an equitable division. On further consideration and inquiry, however, I was led to abandon this proportion, and thought that each should be called upon to pay half the rate. I was mainly influenced to adopt this change of view by the consideration that at present nearly the whole support of the destitute falls upon the tenantry. It is to the occupiers that the mendicant resorts, and from them he receives his daily rations. There is thus, in reality, a compulsory rate now levied in Ireland, although not sanctioned by legal enactment; and no occupier, however limited may be his means, turns away the mendicant empty-handed from his door. There is an almost superstitious dread of doing so; and this motive operates, perhaps, as compulsorily as the law would act, in the raising of a regular rate.
88.	It is, I think, in some measure the pressure of these constant calls upon the occupiers which bears them down, and keeps them at their present low level of subsistence. If, therefore, the destitute classes be relieved by means of a general rate upon property, of which the occupiers are called upon to pay half the amount, they would be relieved from nearly one-half their present burthen; for a Poor Law, if rightly administered, although it ensures relief for the actual destitute, will not increase their number, or tend eventually to swell the fund appropriated to their support. On the contrary, I believe it will help to lessen both. But, admitting that the number and the amount remain the same as at present, still the occupiers will then have to pay only one-half, the landlord the other; whereas now', in reality, the occupier contributes nearly the whole. For these reasons, it appears to me that the most equitable adjustment of the payment would be to divide the rate equally between the owner and the occupier. Whether the rate be paid in equal proportions by the landlord and tenant, or one-third by the latter, and two-thirds by the former, as already proposed, is,44
SETTLEMENT«
[First:
however, purely a matter of detail; of great importance it is true, but still involving no question of principle; and, in whichever way it may be decided, I feel that I shall have fulfilled my duty in thus stating my opinion, and the reasons on which it is founded.*
89. There is yet, however, another consideration connected with this question, deserving of some attention. In England, the whole of the rates are paid by the occupiers of property; and, assuming it to be desirable to assimilate the practice in both countries in all respects as nearly as possible, and even where a perfect assimilation is not at present practicable, to admit any exception which may be necessary, only with a view to its earliest abandonment'—assuming this, it may be asked whether the law, with respect to rating in the two countries, should not be assimilated within a certain period; whether in short, at the end of (say) twenty-one years, the occupiers might not be made solely responsible for the payment of the rates in Ireland, as they now are in England?—However this question, and the general subject of rating, may be settled, it is important that it should be clearly defined and provided for in the Bill.
iv.—Of Settlement.
90. Parochial Settlement, as established in England, is almost universally admitted to have been productive of great mischief. It has led to much litigation and expense ; and, by fixing the peasantry to the narrow limits of their parish, beyond which the world was to them a blank, it has probably done more to injure their character, by destroying its elasticity, and banishing all self-dependence and resource, than any other part of the old English Poor Law system. It will not, therefore, I presume, be considered right to establish parochial settlement in Ireland. In the Poor Law Amendment Act, provision is made for the several parishes comprised in a Union becoming one for rating and settlement ; and, although this may not be immediately achievable, the Commissioners are fully sensible of the extreme desirableness of the object, and spare no effort to hasten its accomplishment. This is now, in fact, the only practicable mode of correcting the evils of parochial settlement. In Ireland, however, no such practice has prevailed. The habits of the Irish people are migratory, their movements depending upon their own volition. To establish a Law of Settlement, would be to fix them to one locality. No such law has yet been established there; and it is therefore perfectly open to the Legislature to prescribe the limits, if a settlement shall be deemed advisable; or else to dispense with settle-
* la Scotland the rate is divided equally between the owner and occupier.45
Report.] OBJECTIONS TO a settlement law.
ment altogether, leaving the whole of the country open to the whole of its people, as at present.
91.	If it should be decided to establish a Law of Settlement, it will of course be a Union Settlement, making the limits of the Union the boundary. This would be open to fewer objections than a parochial settlement; an extension of the area necessarily lessening the amount of evil which must always result from fixing any limit whatever. The Union limits would be also the boundary for rating to the relief of the poor; and thus the Union would be one for rating and settlement in the sense provided for in the Poor Law Amendment Act. The chief difficulty in carrying such a Law of Settlement into operation, would arise out of the necessity of prescribing distinctly the individuals to whom the right of settlement should be imparted; so as to prevent doubt, and the occurrence of the dishonest trickery and expensive litigation, in which the English Settlement Law has been so prolific.
92.	If a census of the population actually within a Union on the day of its declaration was to be taken as the basis of settlement, it would necessarily contain a number of individuals who in fact belonged, in their own sense of the term, to some other part of the country, to which after a time they would probably remove. If, on the contrary, the names of those persons only were to be inserted who had been permanently resident, or who had resided three, five, or more years, (which seems the only other alternative,) many individuals would be excluded who might afterwards become permanently resident, and who would thereby be deprived of a settlement altogether. To establish settlement in a Union by means of a census, seems therefore open to serious objection, although at first view it appears to hold out a prospect of preventing litigation.
93.	The English practice with respect to settlement is, I think, rather to be avoided than imitated ; and apprenticeship, a year’s hiring and service, or renting a tenement of 10/. value, will not, I presume, be approved as conditions for conferring a right of settlement in Ireland. The simpler the conditions on which settlement is made to depend, the better; and, in the event of a settlement law being established, I would propose generally to limit these conditions to two,—namely, birth, and actual residence for a term of years. These conditions would be retrospective as well as prospective; and individuals not coming within either, would have to be treated as casual poor. In order that families should not be separated, the wife must always take the husband’s settlement, and the children that of their parents, until (say) fourteen years of age, or until they shall have acquired a settlement in their own right.46	MODES OF SETTLEMENT—BIRTH— RESIDENCE.	[First
94.	The right of settlement by birth is susceptible of the easiest proof. A copy of the register, or certificate from the clergyman, or parish authorities, would be sufficient to establish the claim ; and this, once recognised, would remain in force, unless superseded by the acquisition of a new right acquired by residence. To impart a right of settlement, the residence ought, I think, to be an independent residence. The individual should have supported himself without public relief, and have paid all assessments to which he was liable. This would in fact amount to what has been called “ Industrial Residence.” The duration of such a residence for conferring a right of settlement, admits of question. Three, five, and seven years have each been recommended, but the first period seems to have been most generally approved; and for my own part I think a period of three years is, on the whole, the best term. An individual who had maintained himself independently during that time, and paid his portion of contributions towards the common charge, appears thereby to have entitled himself to relief from destitution, at the charge of thè community. Three years’ residence, moreover, is the period fixed by the Municipal Corporation Act, for conferring a full participation in municipal rights ; and on this, as well as on other accounts, it seems to be the best term for conferring a right of settlement. It may be noticed here, however, that three years is precisely the period of residence on which the acquisition of a right of settlement was founded in Denmark; but this was afterwards discovered to be productive of so much inconvenience, and to lead to so many forced ejectments, with a view of preventing the completion of the requisite term, that the period has now been extended to fourteen instead of three years.
95.	The example which Denmark thus affords of the tendency to abuse, whenever such artificial distinctions and divisions are forced upon a community, is of considerable value; and, when added to the dearly-bought experience in England of the effects of a Settlement Law, may well call for consideration as to whether any such law is actually necessary in Ireland, or whether settlement may not be there altogether dispensed with. This point is of vast importance, and I have endeavoured to work through the details in all their practical bearings, so as to arrive at an accurate estimate of the comparative advantages and disadvantages of establishing Poor Laws in Ireland, with a Union settlement, and without any settlement whatever ;—and I have arrived at an entire conviction, that it will be better to dispense with settlement altogether. Some inconvenience 'may possibly arise at the first declaration of a Union, from an undue pressure for relief by persons not fairly forming a part of the Union population ; but the general powers proposed to be confided to the central authority, will I think enable it to deal effectually withReport.] INEXPEDIENCY OF A SETTLEMENT LAW.	47
such cases. As the Unions increase in number, moreover, the inconvenience from this cause will become less; and, when the whole country shall be formed into Unions, it will nearly, if not altogether, cease. Even then, however, with the present migratory habits of the Irish people, there may be occasionally an undue pressure upon particular Unions; but the workhouse will, I am persuaded, prove a sufficient corrective in the long run; and the evil arising from this cause, supposing it even to be far greater than I anticipate, will still be as nothing, compared to the evils which experience has shown to be the invariable attendants of a settlement law.
96.	Without a law of settlement, it is true, vagrants and mendicants from other districts may congregate in particular Unions, from accident or inclination, and may claim relief, or may be sent into the workhouse by the police; but, if the workhouses are all regulated upon the same scale of diet and discipline, there would be no inducement for the mendicant and vagrant classes to prefer one Union to another, and they would probably remain scattered throughout the country, much in the same proportions as at present. If such a preference was in any instance shown by them, it might be taken as a proof of inefficient management or lax discipline on the part of the favoured Union, and would be a signal for the central authority to interfere. Thus, if there should be no law of settlement, the numbers of inmates in the several workhouses would serve as a kind of index of the efficient management of each; and the local authorities would be compelled in self-defence to keep their Unions in good order, to prevent their being overrun with paupers. Such a competition, if well regulated, would go far to ensure the permanent efficiency of all the Unions. In speaking of vagrants and mendicants, I of course mean the existing race, and those whom the present habits of the people will for a time give rise to : but I confidently reckon on the extinction of mendicancy at no distant day—or at least that it will be so reduced in amount by the joint operation of the Union system and the Workhouse test, as to be no longer the source of evil and moral degradation, which unhappily it now is and long has been in Ireland.
97.	If the Legislature should see fit to dispense with settlement altogether, great care and attention will be necessary in establishing the Unions, especially the early Unions, to avoid imparting to any class of persons a right to relief, real or imaginary. The arrangements in the several Unions must be brought into operation gradually, the local authorities advancing step by step, and the central authority superintending their proceedings, and being always ready to afford assistance in the event of any pressure or48	PREVALENCE AND EVILS OF MENDICANCY. [First
difficulty occurring. With such management, I see no ground for apprehension as to the consequences of establishing a system of relief and Union government in Ireland, without a law of settlement. If, however, a different view on this point should be taken, and, for the purpose of guarding against the possible inconveniences which might at first occur, a Union settlement should be established,—it will then be deserving of consideration, whether provision should not be made for putting an end to such settlement, at the expiration of three or five years, or some other definite period, to be fixed by the Act, or determined by the central authority, whenever the whole country shall be formed into Unions.
v.—Of Mendicancy.
98.	Whenever relief is provided for the destitute, mendicancy maybe suppressed. A law, which says, “You shall not beg or steal, but you shall starve,” would be contrary to natural justice and humanity, and would be disobeyed; but if the law first makes provision for the destitute, and then says, “ You shall not beg, but you shall be relieved at the public charge,” the alternative thus offered will enable the community to suppress a practice which is held to be injurious to its best interests. On these grounds, I think the law which establishes a system of public relief for destitution, should at the same time prohibit mendicancy.
99.	The present state of Ireland, however, as regards beggars and vagrants, and the habits and feelings of the Irish people, throws considerable difficulty in the way of an immediate suppression of mendicancy. The number of such individuals is very great, and they are therefore of some importance as a class, and support and keep each other in countenance whilst following, what they seem to consider, no disreputable vocation. They enter the cottages of the peasantry as supplicants, it is true, but still with a certain sense of right; and the cottager would be held to be a bold, if not a bad man, who resisted their appeal. In fact, the appeal of the mendicant never is resisted,— if there is only a handful of potatoes, they are divided with the beggar; and there is thus levied from the produce of the soil in Ireland, for the support of mendicancy, I believe to the full as large a contribution as it is now proposed to raise by an equitable assessment of property, for the relief of destitution. The “ sturdy beggars,” adverted to in the 14th of Elizabeth, must have been of a class very similar to that which is now common in Ireland. Indeed the state of society at the two periods seems to have been nearly the same in both countries, the prevalence of begging inPREVENTION OP MENDICANCY.
49
Report.]
each being accompanied by the same general disposition to give, and this disposition of course causing a constantly progressive increase in the number of beggars. Such was the state of England at and prior to the time of Elizabeth, and such is now the state of Ireland.
100.	The evils of mendicancy in Ireland can hardly be overestimated, and its suppression should certainly be provided for at the earliest practicable period. The best mode of effecting this object would probably be, to enact a general prohibition, and to cast upon the central authority the responsibility of bringing the Act into operation in the several Unions, as the work-houses became fitted for the reception of inmates. In furtherance of this object, the police should act in close communication with the Boards of Guardians ; and the central authority might, I think, so regulate the progress of the measure, as that the now itinerant mass of mendicants, who may be really unable to provide for themselves, should be placed in the several workhouses with the least degree of coercion and inconvenience ; and that the able-bodied, but idle vagrants and disorderly persons, should be compelled to provide for their own subsistence, by the application of workhouse discipline.
101.	Time and forbearance will, however, be necessary in carrying such a measure into operation in Ireland, and these the flexible powers of the central authority will enable it to afford. The present generation will probably pass away before the disposition to encourage begging by indiscriminate almsgiving, which now prevails so generally among all classes in Ireland, will be corrected by the adoption of sounder views, and a more enlightened benevolence. It will then, we may hope, be seen, that the real friends of the people are those who lead them, even where necessary by compulsory measures, to active independent exertion, to a reliance upon themselves and their own efforts for support— not those who, by the constant doling out of what is called charity, entice and mislead the people into a state of dependence. It may minister to human pride, to be surrounded by a crowd of such dependents ; but it surely is inconsistent with genuine benevolence to encourage, or even to permit this, if it can possibly be prevented. For wise ends, man has been subjected to various wants, as stimulants to exertion ; and those persons are not the real friends of their race, who attempt to divert him from the exercise of the active faculties with which he is endowed, and to lead him to a reliance upon the volition of others rather than upon his own efforts. Looking at the present state of Ireland, it is, I think, much to be desired that correct views in this respect should be impressed upon the public mind. The clergy, it is to be hoped, will exert themselves in furtherance of this object,
E50
BASTARDY—APPRENTICESHIP.
[First
and particularly the Roman Catholic clergy,, whose influence will be most valuable in bringing about a right understanding on this very important subject.
vi —Of Bastardy.
102.	As far as I had opportunities of observing and inquiring, the Irish females are generally correct in their conduct. I am aware that opinions somewhat different have been expressed; but I feel bound to state that my own impressions of the moral conduct of the Irish females are highly favourable. Their duties appear to be much more laborious than those of the same class of females in England. Their dress, too, is very inferior, and so likewise seems their general position in society; yet they universally appear modest, industrious, and sober. I state this as the result of my own observation merely; and I do so here, because, if the Irish females have preserved their moral character untainted under the very trying circumstances in which they are placed, (as I believe in the main to be the case,) it affords a powerful argument for “letting well alone.” If it had been otherwise, however, and if the extent of bastardy, and its demo-ralizing influence on public manners, had been much greater, I should still have recommended that the Irish females should be left, as now, the guardians of their own honour, and be responsible in their own persons for all deviations from virtue.
103.	The abuses under the old English Bastardy Law, and the brief experience of the improved practice established by the Poor Law Amendment Act, warrant me in recommending that no such law should be applied to Ireland; but that bastards, and the mothers of bastards, in all matters connected with the relief of the poor, should be dealt with in the same manner as other destitute persons, solely on the ground of destitution. If, however, bastardy and demoralization should be actually more prevalent in Ireland than I apprehend to be the case, they are evils not, I believe, remediable by legislative enactments,—they must be left to the slow but certain amelioration which the diffusion of education, religious culture, and the increase of intelligence, industry, and wealth, will effect. These will in time improve the moral feelings of the people, and correct their social habits.
vii .^-Of Apprenticeship*
104.	The experience which England affords, as regards apprenticeship, is of a somewhat conflicting character, although the preponderance of testimony is certainly opposed to it It hasReport^ use and abuse of relief by apprenticeship. 51
been open to much abuse,, and has operated very mischievously in several parts of the country, by increasing that dependence upon the parish in the various contingencies of life, which Under the old system of Poor Law Administration had become so entirely the characteristic of the English peasantry. It "must, however, I think, be also admitted, that the apprenticing of orphan and destitute children, as provided for by the 43rd of Elizabeth, has in many cases been productive of good; and, if judiciously limited, and sparingly acted upon, so as not to be regarded as the ordinary mode of providing for the children of the labouring classes, but merely as a resource for the destitute and the orphan, it might still, I think, be continued with advantage.
105.	I am aware that this opinion is rather more favourable to the system of apprenticeship than that which was entertained by the members of the late English Poor Law Inquiry Commission: but the evidence of abuse submitted to the Commissioners was taken under the old Poor Law Administration, which, in fact, converted everything which it touched into an abuse; and it does not follow, that, because apprenticeship helped to add to the accumulation of evils under such circumstances, (as it unquestionably did,) it is incapable of producing substantial good if differently conducted'. It is on the different application of apprenticeship that I rely, and on the different circumstances in which it will be now applied, as compared with the old Poor Law Administration. In the case of Ireland, none of the abuses exist which prevailed under the old parochial management in England ; and, by the aid of the Union machinery, apprenticeship may, I think, be there safely applied to the placing out of destitute and orphan children, the number of whom is very considerable. Without some such provision, these children would too probably grow up without the training to habits of manual industry necessary for enabling them to support themselves, and to become useful members of the community. I consider, also, that the apprenticing of such children will gradually pave the way for the hiring of male and female servants by the occupiers of land. This will, perhaps, be the first step in that transition of which I have spoken, from the state of a mere cottier tenant, with a view solely to subsistence, to that of the agriculturist, occupying land with a view to profit.
106.	It is essential, however, that the governing principle of Poor Law Administration should be adhered to in the apprenticing of pauper children, and that they should on no account be placed in better circumstances than the children of the independent labourer. This principle had been, in great measure, overlooked in our English practice; and hence, apprenticing by the parish, instead of being looked to as a last resort in cases of actual52
PAUPER IDIOTS AND LUNATICS.
[First
need, has been regarded as a kind of established right for disposing of all the children of a district. Like mendicancy in Ireland, its general prevalence took from it all sense of disgrace : and parents, instead of exerting themselves to get their children out into service, regularly applied to" the parish, which most unwisely took upon itself the duties of a common parent in one of the ordinary affairs of life. In the fulfilment of the duty thus voluntarily undertaken, the old parish authorities were very frequently guilty of much jobbing, partiality, and oppression. Large premiums have been given, and weekly payments made out of the rates, on account of such parish apprentices, which never ought to have been allowed. Individuals too have been exposed to much expense and inconvenience, by having apprentices fixed upon them improperly. These abuses are now, however, for the most part remedied, wherever Unions have been formed ; and the improved administration by Boards of Guardians, and the strict supervision of the Commissioners, may be expected to remove them entirely.
107.	The Poor Law Amendment Act (sec. 15) empowers the Commissioners to frame rules, orders, and regulations, for apprenticing the children of poor persons ; and I propose to extend this provision to Ireland, by which it may be hoped that all the beneficial effects of the law may be secured, whilst the evils which certainly have resulted from it in England will in great measure be avoided.
vin.—Pauper Idiots and Lunatics.
108.	For individuals of this description, if not dangerous, the Union workhouses may be made available. Dangerous lunatics, and insane persons, must of course be sent to the county and district lunatic asylums, as at present, to be there subjected to such treatment as each particular case requires ; and it is important, I think, that these institutions should be kept totally distinct from Poor Law Administration. The deprivation of reason is a misfortune so extreme, that special and extraordinary efforts on the part of the community seem to be called for, in behalf of the unhappy individuals subjected to such a visitation. The careful supervision of such unhappy persons is moreover necessary, as a measure of police, for the protection of the community. On all accounts, therefore, the lunatic asylums should, I think, remain under the control of the magistracy and local authorities, as at present.
109.	With respect to pauper idiots and lunatics, not in a dangerous state, the case is different ;—these, I think, might be advantageously provided for in the several workhouses, where aReport.]	MIGRATION AND EMIGRATION.	53
lunatic ward should be prepared for such of them as might be unfitted to mingle with the other paupers of their class. There can be no hopes of the recovery of a confirmed lunatic, and medical treatment would therefore be unnecessary. Idiots, labouring under a deficiency, rather than a deprivation of reason, are capable of being employed in a variety of ways, and appear in general to feel contentment in proportion as they are employed; presuming, of course, that the employment is suitable for them. In a work-house, such employment might be provided, and they would probably partake as largely of comfort as their unhappy state is susceptible of. I propose, therefore, that the provision of the Poor Law Amendment Act, permissive of the retention in a workhouse of idiot and lunatic paupers, not dangerous, be extended to Ireland, and that their mode of treatment and employment be in all cases subject to the direction of the central authority.
ix.—Of Migration and Emigration.
110.	This subject opens a wide field for inquiry and consideration. A country may be so circumstanced, as to require that a portion of its population should migrate from one part of it to another, either permanently or occasionally; and may still, on the whole, have no actual excess of population. A country may also, with reference to its means of employment, labour under an excess of population; or both these circumstances may exist at the same time ; and this appears, in fact, to be the state of Ireland at present. The Irish population seems to be excessive, as compared with the means of employment wThich the country affords; and the effects of this excess would, I think, be much more felt were it not for the opening which England presents for migration. Still, however, notwithstanding this relief, Ireland now exhibits all the characteristics of a superabundant population ; but to what extent can scarcely be determined, as a small excess will operate prejudicially upon the whole mass.
111.	It is difficult, if not impossible, to effect any material improvement in the condition of a people, whilst they continue thus circumstanced; for, as long as the labourers exceed the number required, so long will their competition for employment tend to depress their condition, and to counteract any efforts that may be made to improve it. The only alternative, therefore, in such case, is either to increase the amount of employment, or to decrease the number of labourers depending upon it. Now, to effect an artificial increase in the amount of employment, may, under certain circumstances, be practicable for a time, I believe only for a short time : but this would merely mitigate the symptoms: it would not destroy the seeds of the disease. To bring about, by forced and direct interposition, any material increase of permanent em-54
MEANS OF EMPLOYMENT.
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ployment, is in every view difficult, and, under common circumstances, perhaps impossible; for mankind will, in the aggregate, spontaneously do that which their interest dictates. Something, however, may be done indirectly in this respect, in the way of legislation, by the removal of impediments and the establishing of increased facilities for the application of capital; and something also perhaps by the intervention of Government: but all such aids must of necessity be contracted in their application, as well as remote in their operations-—it is from spontaneous or natural employment alone, that the labourers of a community can look for permanent occupation, and the means of support.
112.	By natural employment, I mean all those objects on which capital is expended and labour applied by the voluntary action of individuals, uninfluenced by the application of any forced or artificial motives. The establishment of manufactures, the reclaiming of waste lands, the establishment of fisheries, the laying out grounds, and improving, planting, and ornamenting estates, the making roads, and opening communications, for the facility of intercourse and transit of commodities,—these are all natural sources of employment, tending to augment the capital of the community, and to increase permanently the demand for labour. So long as employment from these and other legitimate sources keeps peace with the increase of population, the labourers generally will be in a satisfactory position ; but whenever the number of labourers exceeds the means of employment, (as is now the case in Ireland,) distress and disorder must ensue, more or less intense, according to the quantum of such excess, and the character of the people.
113.	To aim directly at effecting an increase of employment in Ireland, however desirable such an increase may be, seems beyond the powers, if it is not foreign to the province, of a poor law, the immediate object of which is to provide for the relief of the destitute. Now destitution may be alike caused by an excess of labourers, and by a deficiency of employment, which are in truth convertible terms ; and if an able-bodied labourer becomes destitute from want of employment, however arising, he must, if actually destitute, be relieved at the common charge, like any individual reduced to a state of destitution by age or infirmity. Relief to able-bodied labourers in such case may be afforded in one of these three modes:—
1st. In the workhouse of the Union in which he is located.
2nd. Or he may be assisted to migrate to some other district, where employment is attainable.
3rd. Or lastly, he may be enabled to emigrate to some British colony, where he will find a field open for his exertions.PRECAUTIONS AS TO EMIGRATION.
55
R eport.~\
114.	With respect to the first, the offer of the workhouse would be the test of destitution, and the only direct relief to be afforded. The second should, I think, be expressly provided for in the Act; but, to guard against abuse, it ought to be a condition that the consent of the central authority should be necessary to all such migrations at the expense of the rates, and that they should be conducted in conformity to such regulations as the central authority might issue. It is important, however, that such migration should never be forced, but be permitted to arise naturally out of an excess in one quarter, and a demand in another. The law may properly give facilities for correcting such inequality, but ought, I think, do no more. The last mode of relief is emigration, which requires a more extended notice, involving, as it does, considerations of principle as well as matters of detail.
115.	Emigration ought not, I think, under any circumstances, to be looked to as an ordinary resource. An excess of population is an evil,—to relieve that excess by emigration is so far a good; but it may be doubted whether the parent stock is not enfeebled by the remedy thus applied. In general, the most active and enterprising emigrate, leaving the more feeble and less robust and resolute at home. Thus a continual drain of its best elements lowers the tone and reduces the general vigour of the community, at the same time that it imparts an additional stimulus to the tendency towards an undue increase of population, which was the immediate cause of disease.
116.	In saying this, I do not contend against the resort to emigration as a relief from an existing evil, but merely wish to point out the inexpediency of encouraging it as an approved practice in our social system. The necessity for its adoption should be regarded as an indication of disease, which it would be better to prevent than thus to relieve. The means of prevention will be found in the education and improved moral and prudential habits of the community. In proportion as these prevail, will its general character be elevated ; and individuals will feel a wholesome dread of entailing upon themselves burthens, which will depress their position in the social scale. In Ireland, unhappily, these prudential considerations do not prevail at all, or prevail in a very imperfect degree ; and the consequence is, that marriages are daily contracted with the most reckless improvidence. Boys and girls marry, literally without habitation or any means of support, trusting, as they say, to Providence, as others have done before them. It is quite lamentable to witness the effects of this ignorant recklessness, which, by occasioning an excessively rapid increase in their numbers, tends to depress the whole population, and to extend the sphere of wretchedness and want.
117.	Emigration not only may, but I believe must, be had recourse to, as a present means of relief, whenever the population56
PROVISIONS REGARDING EMIGRATION.
[First
becomes excessive in any district, and no opening for migration can be found. The actual excess of population will be indicated by the pressure of able-bodied labourers upon the workhouse. If any considerable number of these enter the workhouse, and remain there subject to its discipline, it may be taken as a proof of their actual inability to provide for themselves, and of the consequent excess of labourers beyond the means of employ. Under such circumstances, emigration must be looked to as the best, if not the only present remedy; and express provision should, I think, be made in the Act, for defraying the expense which this would occasion, as well as for the regulations under which it should be carried into effect.
118.	With reference to the expense, I propose that the charge of emigration should in every case be equally borne by the Government and the Union from which the emigrants proceed. This division of the charge appears to me to be equitable ; for, although the Union only is immediately benefited, yet eventually the whole empire is relieved, excess in one portion of it tending to occasion an excess in the whole. The emigration should, 1 think, be limited to a British colony, where such arrangements might be made, through the intervention of the Colonial Office, as would serve to protect the emigrants on their first arrival, and also ensure their obtaining employment at the earliest period. This is important, alike for themselves and the community; at home they were a burthen,—in their new position they will increase the general productive powers of the empire, as well as enlarge the demand for British produce. In every case, however, the emigration should be conducted under the control of the central authority, and be subjected to such regulations as the Government may deem it right to establish.
119.	I propose also, that, whenever it shall appear that any owners and occupiers of land, within a period of (say) three years antecedent to the passing of the Act, shall have actually incurred an expense in effecting the emigration of labourers and others, a moiety of the actual outlay so incurred may, at the discretion of the central authority, be repaid to such land-owners and occupiers—the charge to be borne jointly by the Government and the Union in which the property of such land-owner may be included: provided, however, that the moiety of such outlay so to be repaid shall in no case exceed (say) 51. for each of such emigrants. This provision will enable the central authority to deal equitably with respect to certain individuals, who have recently, at great personal charge, effected the emigration from their estates and neighbourhoods of a portion of the surplus population; and as the Unions when established, and the whole community, will be benefited by what has thus been done, it seems right that they should bear a moiety of the charge.Report."] REGULATION OF EXISTING INSTITUTIONS.	57
X.—Of Houses of Industry, Foundling Hospitals, Mendicity Establishments, and other Charitable Institutions.
120.	There is now a kind of Poor Law established in Ireland, under which the “ Houses of Industry” are managed, but it is altogether partial and ineffective ; and the several statutes providing for these Houses of Industry, and the other institutions intended for the relief of the poor, should, I think, be repealed, and the property and management of all such establishments placed under the central authority. With respect to institutions strictly charitable, and supported by voluntary contribution or otherwise,—these would of course remain, as at present, the property of their respective supporters; but it would, I think, be extremely desirable to invest the central authority with such a power of revising their rules and superintending their practice, as would ensure their acting in unison with the provisions of the Act, —or which would at least prevent their acting in contravention of the principles which it establishes for Poor Law administration in Ireland. The “ Houses of Industry” would generally become available "as Union workhouses, for which they are for the most part well adapted ; and, where of insufficient size, they may readily be enlarged. The other charitable establishments, where they are the property of the public, or provided or supported by Government, or by local grants from the county-rates, should, I think, be appropriated in like manner, under direction of the central authority.
121.	The foregoing appear to be the only points requiring especial attention, in framing a measure for establishing Poor Laws in Ireland, although there are several other matters of minor interest which must not be overlooked. I would propose that the “ Poor Law Amendment Act” should be taken as a guide in drafting the intended Bill, and that the language, order, and general provisions of that Act should be adhered to, except where the contrary is herein indicated, or where a variation is obviously necessary. There will, I think, be much practical convenience in thus assimilating the two statutes, which provide for Poor Law administration in the two countries.
CONCLUSION.
122.	A measure framed on the principles, and comprising the details, which I have endeavoured to develop in this Report, is, I think, necessary for Ireland. Unless the great mass of the Irish people are protected from the effects of destitution, no great or lasting improvement in their social condition can be expected. The establishment of a Poor Law is, I conceive, the first step58	PROPOSED COURSE OF PROCEEDINO.	[First
necessary towards this end; and* followed as it must be by other ameliorations* to the introduction of which it is a necessary preliminary* we may hope that it will ultimately prove the means of securing for Ireland the full amount of those benefits which ought to arise from her various local advantages* and the natural fertility of her soil.
123,	The disposition* everywhere observable* to rely upon the support of Government in all contingencies* rather than upon their own individual exertions, affords a painful proof of the disordered and enfeebled condition to which the social and moral energies of the Irish people are reduced. To restore* or create* the feeling of self-confidence—to revive* or establish* the habit of reliance upon their own efforts* I do not know any measure more effectual than one that shall compel them to acts of local self-government. vThis will obviously be the effect of the introduction of the Union system ; and it does not therefore appear unreasonable to expect* that the establishment of a Poor Law* as herein recommended, in addition to the advantages from its direct enactments* will be attended with collateral advantages of no trifling importance in the present state of Ireland.
124.	Supposing the recommendations contained in this Report to be adopted by His Majesty’s Government* and sanctioned by the Legislature* the following* I presume* would be the order in which the measure will be introduced in Ireland:—After carefully inquiring into the circumstances of the several districts* the central authority would proceed to establish Unions* according as localities were found to be prepared for the measure ; which would thus not be applied to every district at once* but be brought into operation gradually and successively* advancing step by step* until the whole country was in Union. This was the mode of proceeding in England* and this course would* I presume* be pursued in Ireland. It may thus* probably* occupy two years* or even more, before every district is put into Union; and possibly another two years* before the workhouses are all completed and in operation : but this will not be lost time* as it will serve to prepare the people for the measure* and to instruct them as to its objects. It is essential* I think* to proceed thus cautiously—pressing forward* or pausing* according to circumstances : but it is important* however* that there should be no more delay than is actually necessary* in carrying out the measure : for, until the whole country is in Union* the Unions which are established will be to a certain extent ineffective* and subjected to unequal action: but for this* and the other irregularities which may be expected to occur at the outset* before the system becomes fully established* the general powers of the central authority will enable them to provide.JReport] CONSTITUTION OF PROPOSED CENTRAL AUTHORITY. 59
125.	With respect to individual Unions, the proceeding, I presume, will be nearly as follows :—After a careful investigation, the central authority would issue the necessary order declaring the Union ; the Board of Guardians would be elected, and certain paid officers appointed ; steps would then be taken for providing a competent workhouse, with the least" possible delay. In these, and in all the earlier operations, an Assistant Commissioner would aid by his presence and advice. When the workhouse is so advanced as to admit of any part of it being used, in-door relief would be afforded according to the means of accommodation, beginning of course with the aged and infirm. As soon as the workhouse is completed, and the machinery effective, measures would be adopted, with the aid of the police, for the gradual suppression of mendicancy, by sending into the workhouse those who are dependent upon begging for support. This might be done more or less stringently, according to circumstances. By thus advancing tentatively, the Union authorities would be enabled to introduce the system, and to establish the workhouse test, without danger, and with little risk of failure in any case—always presuming the Assistant Commissioner to be watchful, and that a central authority, armed with sufficient powers, superintends and regulates the whole.
126.	In this way, I think, the Union system, as now in operation in England, may be established in Ireland, successively advancing until the whole country is formed into Unions. The duty of conducting this operation must, I apprehend, be confided to some responsible body, such as I have above designated by the term “ Central Authority and I have reserved for this part of the Report, such observations as have occurred tome on this subject, its importance seeming to require a separate and special consideration.
127.	I believe the proposed measure may be carried into operation, either by means of a separate Commission in Ireland, or by the existing English Poor Law Commission: one of these modes, I presume, must be adopted ; and, before deciding upon the alternative, it will be necessary to consider the advantages and disadvantages of each. In doing this, it is important to bear in mind, that it is the English Poor Law system which is now proposed to be established ; and that the knowledge and experience acquired in working that system, can be made available for Ireland, only by employing there individuals conversant with the English practice.
128.	If a separate commission should be issued for Ireland, it would therefore be necessary that the individuals to be selected as Commissioners under it, should be acquainted with English Poor Law as now administered ; and this, I apprehend, would exclude60
CONSTITUTION OF PROPOSED
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most of those Irishmen, who might otherwise be deemed qualified for the office, if it did not exclude Irishmen altogether. Such exclusion, however necessary, would probably have a somewhat ungracious appearance to the Irish people, and might excite angry comment. But, admitting that three Irishmen, conversant with English Poor Law administration, could be found for filling a separate Commission, there would be no guarantee that they would carry out the system in all its details. The law would be similar in both countries, it is true, but the practice might, and probably would, become widely different in each, as was the case in different parts of England under the old Poor Law administration. With two Commissions there might possibly be no unity of principle,—there would certainly be no unity of action,—and consequently no identity of result. Unless the existing English Poor Law Commission should be unequal to the additional duty of introducing the proposed law into Ireland, or unless it should appear that the Commissioners ought not to be intrusted with the performance of this duty, the above reasons would seem to be conclusive against a separate Commission.
129.	Now, it must be admitted that the official duties of the English Poor Law Commissioners have been, and in fact still are, very heavy. As a member of the Commission, and one too not unaccustomed to work, I may be permitted to say, that the labour has been throughout unceasing and excessive, to an extent that nothing but the hope of accomplishing a great public good would have rendered bearable. The success of the measure, however, in lessening the pressure upon the rate-payers, and in its improvement of the habits and condition of the labouring classes,—coupled with the support which has been afforded by Government, and by nearly all the intelligent portions of the community, have given the Commissioners encouragement and confidence; and, when the process of forming Unions shall be completed, as it will be in all probability by Midsummer next, their labours will become lighter. Under these circumstances, there would seem to be no insuperable difficulty in the way of the present Poor Law Commissioners being made the instruments of establishing the new law in Ireland; and, whatever may be the amount of difficulty at first, it will lessen as the amount of English business decreases, and the organisation of the Irish machinery is perfected. If, then, no other grounds of objection exist, and if it shall be deemed desirable, I see no reason to doubt that the English Poor Law Commissioners are competent to the additional duty of introducing the proposed measure into Ireland.
130.	Instating this opinion, I beg to be understood as in no way compromising my colleagues, whom I have not felt myself at liberty to consult in this matter, and who are in no respect answerable for anything contained in this Report. I may ventureCENTRAL AUTHORITY.
61
Réport.]
to add, however, that I do not anticipate any material difference of view on their parts ; and your Lordship will probably deem it right to ascertain their sentiments before coming to a final decision upon this subject.
131.	The reasons in favour of placing the Poor Law administration in the two countries under the same Commission appear to be weighty :—the equable action, if so combined—the total freedom from all local, partial, or party influences—the impossibility of jobbing—the certainty of the same application of the same law, and the consequent equality of England and Ireland in this respect—and lastly, the saving the expense of a new Commission,—which ought not perhaps to be altogether overlooked, although this last consideration should not have the slightest weight, as opposed to the establishment of a separate Commission for Ireland, if such was in any way necessary.
132.	Assuming that the charge of introducing the new Poor Law into Ireland should be confided to the present Poor Law Commissioners, it will then be necessary to consider whether any, and what, modifications are required, for enabling them to fulfil the large additional duties thus cast upon them. Mr. Senior, whose opinions are always entitled to especial attention, after expressly stating that whatever may be done in the way of a Poor Law for Ireland ought to be intrusted to the existing Commission, and not to a separate authority,—suggested the addition of one or two members to the English Board, which now consists of three. In practice, however, I believe it does not always follow, that the efficiency of a Board is increased by an increase in the number of its members. Three men may act harmoniously and effectively together ; but the addition of a fourth, by destroying the proportion, may injure the harmony, and lessen the efficiency of the Board. I do not say that this would necessarily be the case, but there is obviously some danger of it ; and as, in my judgment, no necessity will exist for increasing the present number of Commissioners, the danger need not be incurred.
133.	In the way of arrangement, however, although not by a direct addition to its numbers, I think the efficiency of the present Commission might be greatly increased. If the Commissioners were empowered to confei what may be called brevet rank upon such of their Assistant Commissioners as they might for a time find it necessary or convenient to associate with themselves, as acting members of the Board, it would afford the means of supplying every defect which could arise from want of number ; and that, too, with men already tried and trained, and whose minds would be in unison with the governing principle of the measure, with the previous administration of which they would be familiar. In practice, this would be found a great advantage ; and it would62
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[First
probably be some recommendation, that it would entail no permanent expense, as the Assistant Commissioners, when the emergency was over, would of course fall back into their former position. By the 12th section of the Poor Law Amendment Act, the Commissioners are enabled to delegate the "full powers of the Board to any Assistant Commissioner, excepting only as regards general rules, the making of which is reserved to the Board. I do not propose, in the above suggestion, to impart so extensive a power as this; but merely to enable the Commissioners to associate with themselves one or more of the Assistant Commissioners whenever they find it necessary.
134.	Another arrangement for increasing the efficiency of the Commission would be to constitute the Secretary a member of the Board in virtue of his office, whenever there are not two Commissioners present. This would be attended with great practical convenience in working the Commission. The precedents for such an arrangement are, I believe, numerous in the commercial companies, if not in other departments of public business; and there are especial reasons for thus rendering the Secretary eligible to act as a member of the Board, under the present Poor Law Commission, arising out of the extremely varied character of the business, of which no other individual (not a Commissioner) can have so intimate a knowledge. In this respect the Secretary stands far before any Assistant Commissioner, whose knowledge is necessarily local and particular, rather than general and comprehensive : and I would accordingly propose, whenever one Commissioner only is present, that the Secretary, in virtue of his office, should be entitled to act as a member, for the purpose of constituting a Board.
135.	With these arrangements, the provision of the Poor Law Amendment Act, requiring the presence of two Commissioners to constitute a Board, might be complied with, whilst one Board sat in Dublin and another in London, which might occasionally be necessary, especially at first. There will be no risk of two Boards, so constituted under one Commission, differing materially in views or in practice; but, to ensure a perfect unity of action throughout, it might be provided that every document of a general character should be approved by both. Thus a general order or regulation prepared in London, would be submitted to the Board in Dublin before being issued ; and, if in Ireland, it would be submitted to the approval of the Commissioners sitting in London. If a difference of opinion should occur between the two Boards, the decision of that Board to which the reference is made should be final. Each Board should regularly report its proceedings to tbe other; but each should be empowered to affix the seal of the Commission, where necessary, in the ordinary and current business of theReport.]	CENTRAL AUTHORITY,	63
office, without waiting for the sanction of the other; but it should nevertheless be open to either to raise a question as to the proceedings in any instance. In case of any difference of opinion arising between the Commissioners constituting a Board, the point should be referred to the other Board (if two Boards were sitting), whose decision thereon should be final.
136.	I lastly recommend, as another arrangement for increasing the efficiency of the Commission, that the Board should be authorised to empower one of its members to visit a district and to associate with himself the Assistant Commissioner in charge, or any other; and the two should then constitute a quorum, and be competent to exercise within the particular district the authority of the Commission, excepting only as regards general orders. A provision of this kind might occasionally be useful in England; but in Ireland it would be still more so, as it may there probably be requisite to visit and inspect the district before declaring a Union, and also afterwards to witness and regulate its working.
137.	The first and third of the above-suggested arrangements seem to come fully within the spirit, if not within the letter, of the Poor Law Amendment Act. The second stands upon its own merits : but it appears so desirable, with a view to the practical working of the Commission, that I strongly recommend its adoption. To prevent all doubt and misapprehension, I further recommend that the whole should be provided for in the Bill, and thus be made a substantial part of the system.
138.	The staff of able and active officers now attached to the Commission would immediately become available for Ireland, although it would, I think, be necessary to make some addition to the number of Assistant Commissioners, and to the office establishment, which might be done with the approbation of the Treasury, as at present. The Secretary, Assistant Commissioners* Assistant Secretaries, Clerks, and all other persons now in the service of the Commission, or who may hereafter be so, should be authorised and required to serve either in Ireland or in England, according to the directions of the Commissioners. These enactments would, I think, provide for the enlarged working of the Commission, and at the same time ensure its unity of action.
I have the honour to be,
My Lord,
Your Lordship’s obedient and faithful Servant,
GEO. NICHOLLS.64
ESTIMATED EXPENSE OP THE PROPOSED SYSTEM,
(Memorandum.)
An estimate of the annual charge of such a system of relief for the destitute poor in Ireland, as is recommended in the preceding Report, may be desired. The following will probably be found to be a pretty near approximation; but there are no data on which such an estimate can be framed with any pretension to minute accuracy.
The population of Ireland being about eight millions, I assume that workhouse accommodation may occasionally be required for one per cent., or 80,000 persons;* this accommodation to be provided in, say 100 workhouses, each capable of holding 800 inmates.
The cost of maintenance per diem, in the several mendicity institutions which I visited in Ireland, varied from 1 \d. to 2\d. per head. Taking credit for good economical management, I assume that the average cost of maintaining the pauper inmates of the workhouses will be Is. per week for each person. I assume also, that the average weekly cost of the establishment, including salaries, clothing, bedding, wear and tear, furniture, fuel, and other incidental expenses, will be about half that amount, or 6d. per head, making together a charge of Is. 6d. per head weekly.
From these assumptions, the following results may be deduced :—
If the hundred workhouses, each capable of holding 800 Paupers, should be fully occupied ihoughout the year, the total charge of maintenance, salaries, clothing, wear and tear, &c., would be, per annum .	.	*	.	.	£312,000
If the workhouses were, on an average, to be occupied by only three-fourths of the full number throughout the year, the establishment and other charges continuing the same, the total charge would be, per annum ................. 260,000
If the workhouses were to be only one-half filled, on an average of the whole year, the charge would then be, per annum	•	208,000
Our experience of workhouse administration in England would warrant the adoption of the last of the above assumptions for Ireland ; but it may be safer to take the second, which will probably be found to approximate pretty nearly to the truth.
* In Kent, Sussex, Oxford, and Berks, the amount of in-door pauperism, as returned on the 29th of September last, was just one per cent, on the population. These four counties were among the most highly pauperised, have been longest under the operation of the new law, and are provided with the most effective work-house accommodation.SECOND REPORT
OP
GEORGE NICHOLLS, ESQ.
Dated *Òrd Novembert 1837.
FSECOND REPORT.
POOR LAWS—(IRELAND).
TO GEORGE NICHOLLS, ESQ., &c. &c. &c.
Whitehall, August 12th, 1837.
Sir,
I am desirous that you should take advantage of the interval previous to the assembling of Parliament to revisit Ireland, and to renew your inquiries with reference to the Irish Poor Law Question. My Letter of Instructions, addressed to you on the 22d of August of last year, will sufficiently explain the objects to which your attention should be chiefly directed: and the discussions which occurred in the late Session of Parliament, on the introduction and during the progress of the Poor Law Bill, will afford you many valuable suggestions which you will of course keep in view.
I think it desirable that you should visit the North of Ireland, and those districts generally, which a want of time prevented your inspecting last year; after which I shall be glad to receive your Report, as to whether the circumstances of these districts, or any new matter which you may now be able to observe or collect, shall have caused you to alter, or in any way to modify, the opinions and recommendations set forth in your last Report.
I am, Sir,
Your obedient faithful servant,
J. RUSSELL,
F 268
INQUIRIES RENEWED.
[Second
SECOND REPORT.
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LORD JOHN RUSSELL,
&c. &c. &c.
London, November 3rd, 1837.
My Lord,
1. In obedience to the directions conveyed to me in your Lordship’s Letter of the 12th of August last, I have again visited Ireland, and renewed my inquiries with reference to the Irish Poor Law Question,, directing my attention more especially to those parts of the country which I was unable to examine last year. In doing this, I have endeavoured to divest my mind of all preconceived impressions, and to judge of the facts and circumstances which came under my notice without regard to my former conclusions. I dare not hope that I have altogether succeeded in this endeavour; but if I had in any instance seen reason to doubt the correctness of those conclusions, or if whilst extending my inquiries new facts had been elicited, requiring the abandonment of any recommendation or the modification of any opinion which I had previously maintained, I trust it will be believed that I would now frankly, and without the least reserve, lay the whole circumstances before your Lordship.
2. The investigation which I have just concluded has not however afforded grounds for any material change of opinion. I may now probably form a somewhat higher estimate of the difficulty of establishing Poor Laws in Ireland than I did before, but of the necessity of the measure, I am if possible more fully convinced ; and I am now, with increased confidence, arising out of a fuller consideration and more extended inquiry, both in England and in Ireland, enabled substantially to confirm the statements in my Report of last year—to which I can at present add but little in the way of practical recommendation, although it may be desirable to give explanations on certain points which were then perhaps too briefly handled. Some cautionary remarks and additional illustrations may be also desirable; and it will be necessary to notice certain objections which have been made to portions of the Report, and to some of the provisions of the Bill of last Session,PROPER OBJECT OF A POOR LAW.
69
Report.]
with a view of showing how far such objections are well or ill founded.
3.	It may be useful at the outset to guard the public against exaggerated anticipations, by explaining the real object of a Poor Law, there being obviously danger to be apprehended from an over-estimate of its effects in Ireland. The immediate object of a Poor Law, then, is to provide relief for the destitute. This purpose may be accomplished in various ways, so as to be productive of much collateral evil, or of great collateral good, according to the mode in which it is sought to be attained; but the object remains the same—that is, to provide relief for the actually destitute at the common charge.
4.	As to the benefit of such a law to the destitute individuals relieved under it, there can be no question; and the benefit conferred by it upon the community will be in proportion to the extent of the destitution with which that community is afflicted. In Ireland the amount of destitution is confessedly large, and the amount of poverty beyond all ordinary proportion larger still; but, which is yet perhaps in its consequences a greater evil, the burthen of relieving that destitution falls principally upon the poor, —upon individuals all but destitute themselves; and w5 * 7ho, by the addition of this burthen, are brought down to the lowest level of independent subsistence. This wfflole class would be relieved by a legal provision for the destitute, which would therefore benefit the whole labouring population of Ireland. To this extent the intended Irish Poor Law measure may be confidently relied upon for working direct good. There are other important benefits which I believe will result from it, some of w?hich will be hereafter noticed; but the relief of destitution at the common charge, and the consequent emancipation of the poor, and the labouring classes generally, from the necessity which now presses exclusively upon them of supporting the destitute—a necessity growing in part out of a feeling that they may speedily stand in need of such support themselves^—will confer a direct benefit upon a large portion of the Irish people, and be productive of good to the whole community.
5.	Whether this will satisfy all the advocates of a Poor Law, may be doubted. Many sanguine persons appear to consider it
as the purpose of a Poor Law, not only to relieve destitution, but to eradicate poverty; and it has been proposed to tax property for the purpose of giving or ensuring to every individual in
Ireland, a given portion of the comforts and conveniences of life, —forgetting that these can only be obtained by the industry and forethought of the individuals themselves. It is true that the development of these faculties in large masses of the population,70
APPLICABILITY OF WORKHOUSE SYSTEM.	[Second
and their consequent elevation in the social scale* and their acquit sition of an adequate share of those comforts and conveniences, may be greatly facilitated by legislative and fiscal arrangements; but these do not come directly within the province of a Poor Law* although* without the aid of a Poor Law to take off the pressure of destitution* they would probably be ineffective* however well devised in other respects.
6.	The necessity of a legislative provision in Ireland for the relief of the destitute* is* I think* as obvious and as urgent as it was last year. The minds of the people appear moreover to be generally better prepared for its reception; and* as no material change in the Bill appears to be called for* it is to be presumed that Government will again proceed with the Poor Law measure essentially as then proposed. That measure is based upon the English Workhouse System, and as, notwithstanding the facts and reasonings which were adduced in proof of its applicability to Ireland* doubts were still expressed both in arid out of Parliament upon this vital point* it seemed of the utmost importance to ascertain as correctly as possible* in the first instance, whether any real grounds for such doubts existed. With this view I visited Bristol* Liverpool* Manchester* and Birmingham* through the first two of which places nearly the whole of the Irish migrants pass and repass* and in all of which there is a large resident Irish population* and where therefore the habits of the Irish are familiarly known. All the persons whom 1 consulted in these places united in declaring their belief* that nothing short of absolute inability to provide for himself would induce an Irishman to enter the work-house. With the aged and infirm* especially females* the case might be somewhat different; but even to these* the workhouse was not considered to be more attractive than to the English of the same class; and as regards the able-bodied Irish* the master of St. Peter’s Hospital* in Bristol, declared that he had never known an instance of one of them remaining in the house a week, during the fourteen years that he had held his present situation. All the other testimony which I obtained was of similar purport*
7.	At Bristol I examined Mr. Morgan* the deputy governor of St. Peter’s Hospital* and Mr. Downing* the master of that establishment | also Mr. George Chick* the assistant overseer of the parish of St. Philip and St. Jacob* who has had much experience in the management of the poor in Bristol. From all these persons I obtained written statements of opinion* copies of which* numbered 1* 2, and 3, are appended to this Report. I also consulted the clerk of the Clifton Union* and the master of the Union Workhouse* who perfectly concurred with the others; and* from Mr. Weale* the Assistant Commissioner* who has had great and,Reporté] EVIDENCE AS TO IRISH IN ENGLAND.	71
varied experience of Poor Law administration, I obtained a statement as to the applicability of the workhouse system to Ireland : his letter is inserted in the Appendix, No. 4.
8.	At Liverpool I examined the governor and clerk of the workhouse, as to the effect of the workhouse, upon the great body of Irish resident in that town ; and the result of their experience confirms the opinions obtained at Bristol. I put this case to the governor of the Liverpool Workhouse : “Suppose a hundred able-bodied English and a hundred able-bodied Irish labourers to be in precisely the same circumstances,—judging from your experience of the habits of the people of the two countries, which do you think would be likely to resort in the greatest number to the workhouse for relief?’’ He instantly answered,— “ More English would come ; the Irish would endure more, and strive harder before they applied for relief.” A copy of the written testimony sent me by Mr. Dowdall, the governor, and Mr. Barker, the clerk of the Liverpool Workhouse, will be found in the Appendix, numbered 5 and 6.
9.	At Manchester, the workhouse principle has not yet been brought into operation. Their poor-house is altogether inefficient as a test of destitution, and indeed it is not used as such, being appropriated to the reception of the aged and infirm, and children. The parish officers endeavour to supply the want of a workhouse test by individual vigilance, and have provided a sort of subsidiary test by means of a stone-yard, where the able-bodied are employed; and they have thus doubtless prevented much abuse, although it is evident that the total prevention of abuse must be sought for in the employment of other measures. Under these circumstances the experience of Manchester can hardly be cited in proof of the applicability of the workhouse to the Irish, although the results which I noticed there, as far as they went, were confirmatory of the information which I obtained on this point at the other places mentioned.
10.	At Birmingham the result of my inquiries was altogether satisfactory. Mr. Alcock, the governor of the workhouse, and Mr. Welch, the treasurer and clerk to the Guardians, both possessing great experience, each declared their conviction that the workhouse would be found at least as efficient as a test of destitution, when applied to the Irish, as it had proved to be in its application to the English. Copies of their written testimony to this effect are inserted in the Appendix, Nos. 7 and 8.
11.	My investigations at Bristol, Liverpool, Manchester, and Birmingham, have thus been confirmatory of the view embodied in the Bill of last Session, establishing the workhouse as a means72
EFFICIENCY OF WORKHOUSE IN IRELAND.	[Second
of relief in Ireland. The experience acquired in those places proves that the workhouse system is not less applicable to the Irish than to the English. Such moreover has been the result of my inquiries in every other instance. The answer has been always essentially similar to that given by Mr. Barnett, the master of the Nottingham Workhouse, when under examination before the Select Committee of the House of Commons on the Poor Laws, as printed in the Minutes of Evidence of the 28th June,
1837
“ Question 19,850, by the Chairman:—
Judging from your experience, do you think the Irish are more apt to stick to the workhouse than the English ?
u Answer, Mr. Barnett:—
No, by no means; far from it. I should say the contrary, speaking of them as a whole.”
12. It may possibly be objected, that, although this disinclination “ to stick to the workhouse” is the characteristic of the Irish when in England, such would not be the case if the system were established in Ireland. This objection does not admit of an answer directly founded upon experience ; but, reasoning from analogy, and making due allowance for the different circumstances of the two countries, there seems no reason to doubt a similarity of result in each. The Irishman is, perhaps, by habit and temperament, somewhat more roving and migratory than the Englishman, but this distinction is assuredly not calculated to reconcile him sooner to the restraints of a workhouse, or lead him to resort thither more readily. In this view nearly all the individuals with whom I have conversed in Ireland, concurred ; and I made it my business to inquire, and to court objections from all classes of persons : and, with scarcely an exception, it was affirmed that an Irishman would never go into the workhouse, if he could in any ivay keep out of it. The result of my investigations in the several Houses of Industry and Mendicity Establishments has been to the same purport, all tending to show that, if the work-house is properly regulated, it will be resorted to only by the actually destitute. It is not less important to state, however, that I found the same individuals unanimously and decidedly opposed to anything in the shape of out-do or relief. I have not met with an individual conversant with the subject, either in England or in Ireland, who did not at once declare against the giving of any outdoor relief. “ Coniine relief to the workhouse,” was the general reply, “ and you will be safe ; but if you once grant out-door relief, your control is gone, and the whole Irish population will become a mass of paupers.”
13. Doubts have been expressed whether it would be practicable to establish a dietary in the Irish workhouses, that would not be superior to the ordinary mode of living of the peasantry inReport.] workhouse dietary and discipline.	73
the South and West of Ireland, and that consequently some danger might arise from this source. Every such objection is of great value, and affords a proof that the workhouse principle is appreciated ; and here it may be remarked, that the discussions on the Poor Law Question during the last year" or two in Parliament, and in Reports and pamphlets and through the medium of the public press, have diffused much information on the subject throughout Ireland. I found a considerable advance in this respect since my visit last year, a circumstance not a little encouraging, as it shows the readiness with which the principle is received, and strengthens the belief that, whenever the law shall be established, competent individuals will be found for conducting the business of the Unions.
14.	It is doubtless important that the workhouse dietary should not be of better quality, nor exceed in amount the ordinary subsistence of individuals supporting themselves by their own exertions ; but, although this is important as a matter of principle, our experience in England proves that it is not absolutely essential in practice. The diet in the English workhouses is very generally superior to that which can be obtained by the independent exertions of, the English labourer, and yet this class is not found to resort to the workhouse. In fact, the dietary forms only a small portion of tile workhouse discipline, of which the classification of the inmates, the confinement, and the order and regularity of the whole establishment, constitute the chief elements. Still the dietary is a matter of very considerable importance in. work-house management, and, although it may be found difficult to adjust it in strict accordance with correct principle in every case, it will yet probably, in Ireland, be freed from some of those disturbing circumstances, which have, on many occasions, caused the Commissioners to sanction a dietary notoriously too high in the English Unions.
15.	It has been argued that the workhouses will eventually fail in Ireland, as they have failed in France, at Munich, and at Hamburgh ; but there is no analogy between the two cases. The workhouse principle was never recognised in these last-named establishments, which were all either poor-houses for the maintenance of the aged and infirm, or manufactories for setting to work vagrants, mendicants, and such other persons as could not readily find the means of support by their own exertions. All these institutions were established under the notion that profitable labour could be always found, and that pauper labour could be made profitable to the community : and their management and arrangements had all reference to these objects. There were certain variations in practice to suit local circumstances, but this was the view under which the institutions were founded, by Count74	ARGUMENT AGAINST WORKHOUSE EXAMINED. [Second
Rumford, at Munich, by the Imperial Government in France, and by Baron de Voght, at Hamburgh. I need scarcely say that this view is essentially different from the workhouse system as now established in England,, and as it is proposed to establish it in Ireland. Experience has proved that pauper labour can never be profitable. The workhouse is here used merely as a medium of relief; and, in order that the destitute only may be relieved, the relief is administered in such a way, and on such conditions, that none but the destitute will accept it. Subsistence in the workhouse is made less desirable than that to be obtained by independent exertion, and it follows, that none will resort thither who can support themselves by their own industry; it follows, also, that forethought and temperance in early life will be relied upon, rather than the workhouse, as a means of providing against sickness and old age. This is the workhouse principle, as first established in the two parishes of Bingham and South-well eighteen or twenty years ago, and as it has recently been established in the Unions formed under the Poor Law Amendment Act; and we have the experience of these two Nottinghamshire parishes, and the more varied, though less prolonged, experience in the English Unions, in proof of the efficiency of the system, which has worked hitherto without a single instance of failure. It is not therefore upon mere hypothesis, that it is proposed to proceed with reference to the Irish Poor Law, but upon the sure ground of experience.
16. It has been urged, however, that there is always a tendency to deterioration in such institutions,—that after a time they fall away from the principles on which they were originally established,—that this was the case in France, at Munich, and at Hamburgh; and that this will also be the case in Ireland. To this it may be answered, that no such deterioration occurred at Bingham, or at Southwell; on the contrary, the workhouse principle continued to operate in these parishes in all its simplicity and efficiency, up to the day when they were each constituted the centre of a Union. The two workhouses remained as effective as when they were first formed, after they had been in operation for eighteen or twenty years. May it not be inferred, therefore, that, if established as a test of destitution and a medium of relief, and not with a view to profitable labour, or any other object, the workhouse will continue to operate effectively, and that the work-house principle will protect itself by its own simple energy from the asserted tendency to deterioration, as it did in the two cases named above ?—But the proposed measure does not depend on this inference alone; a safeguard is provided, which never seems to have been thought of until it was proposed in the Poor Law Report of 1834. Commissioners are appointed under the control of the executive, and the supervision of Parliament, speciallyReport.] objections made to the bill enumerated. 75
to superintend the working of the measure, and to apply from time to time such correctives as may be called for, whether local or general. There is little resemblance then between the work-houses established in England, and proposed for Ireland, and those which have failed in France and Germany ; and it cannot reasonably be inferred, that, because insulated establishments, originally founded on a false principle, unchecked and undirected, have fallen into decay on the Continent, therefore institutions founded here on different principles, with different objects, and under different management, will also fail.
17.	The documents inserted in the Appendix, and the facts and reasonings here adduced, will, I trust, serve to remove whatever doubts may have existed on either side of the Channel, as to the sufficiency of the workhouse system to afford needful relief to the destitute, as well as to protect the rate-payers from the charge of supporting those who are not really destitute ; and I feel it to be my duty to express to your Lordship my conviction, not only that this system is applicable to Ireland, but that it is the only mode in which relief can be safely administered to the destitute classes in that country.
18.	Having thus cleared the question of a difficulty, which, as it involved the very principle of the workhouse, applied to the whole measure,—I will now proceed to notice such other objections as have been made to the Bill generally, or to certain of its provisions, or to the proposed mode of carrying it into effect. In doing this, I propose to introduce such illustrations as may seem to be necessary, and such further information as I have been able to collect since my last Report, and more especially during my recent investigations in Ireland,—in the progress of which, I visited Dublin, Waterford, Carrick-on-Suir, Wexford, Monaghan, Armagh, Belfast, Coleraine, Londonderry, and the counties of Donegal, Fermanagh, Cavan, and Meath. The chief objections which have been made to the measure, as proposed by Government, may be enumerated as follows :—
i.	It is not applicable to the North of Ireland.
ii.	There ought to have been a Law of Settlement.
hi. A right to relief should have been given.
iv.	Out-door relief should have been provided for.
v.	Emigration should have been provided for.
vi.	The estimate of the number of destitute is erroneous, the actual amount of destitution in Ireland greatly exceeding the number assumed.
vu. The mode of rating and collecting the rate is wrong.76	APPLICABILITY OF THE MEASURE TO	[aSecond
viii.	The Unions as intended are too large, and their number is consequently too small.
ix.	The clauses for the suppression of mendicancy are objected to.
x.	The measure should be established simultaneously throughout the whole of Ireland.
xi.	Objections are made to cumulative votes in the elections of guardians, to voting by proxy, and to the admission of magistrates as ex-officio Members of the Board.
xii.	The constitution of the Commission and the powers of the Commissioners are objected to.
These several objections I now propose to consider in the order in which they are here placed.
i. First,—As to the applicability of the measure to the North
of Ireland.
19.	It has frequently been asserted, both in and out of Parliament, that the condition of the people in the north of Ireland differs so essentially from the condition of those in the south, that a system of Poor Laws which might be applicable in the one case, would be totally inapplicable in the other ; and it was urged by some as a ground of objection to the measure proposed by Government last session, that it had been framed exclusively with reference to the circumstances existing in the southern and western districts. Objections of this general nature are readily advanced, and always attract some attention wrhen used in debate. In this instance, the objection appears to have been made mainly on the ground, that no specific information had been obtained as to the north of Ireland; whereas, in fact, a large mass of information had been collected by the late Commissioners of Irish Poor Inquiry, with respect to the north, as well as the other parts of the country; and this information, coupled with what I had obtained from other sources, and supported by my own observation in those qf the northern counties which I had visited, seemed to be sufficient, without entering into a more minute and extended examination of the northern districts.
20.	An opportunity for such examination having however been afforded by the postponement of the Poor Law Bill, and your Lordship having requested me to avail myself of it,—1 have nowr visited most of the northern counties, and carefully examined the condition and habits of the people, with special reference to the contemplated measure* and I can with entire confidenceReport.]	THE NORTH OF IRELAND.	77
state it as my opinion, not only that a Poor Law is necessary for the north of Ireland, but that the provisions of the Bill of last session are even more adapted to the circumstances existing there, than to those which prevail in the south. Whatever difficulties may occur in carrying the proposed law into effect in the south and the west of Ireland, from ignorance or misapprehension on the part of the people, or from want of the necessary elements for creating a local machinery, fewer comparatively of such difficulties will be found in the north. The habits of the people are there fitted for its reception, and they are already familiar with its provisions. The necessity of some established relief for the destitute is there admitted and acted upon, for, in most of the northern towns of any note, there is now a kind of voluntary Poor Law established. In Monaghan, in Armagh, at Newry, Belfast, Coleraine, Londonderry, I found provision made for relieving destitution, and the principle virtually admitted, that it is the duty of a civilized community to protect its members from perishing by want. The means by which this end is sought to be attained in the several places named, are sufficiently various, but they all tend to the same object, and it may not be without use to notice them here in detail.
21.	At Monaghan, since 1818, a kind of voluntary rate has been annually raised by subscription among the inhabitants, which is distributed in small weekly allowances to infirm and destitute persons, at the discretion of a committee of subscribers; and to guard against the influx of the needy from the surrounding districts, and other places not provided with such means of relief, a beadle is appointed by the local authorities, to prevent as far as possible any foreign mendicants from entering Monaghan. Great complaint was made, however, of the refusal of some, and the backwardness of others, to subscribe to the mendicity fund. This, indeed, I have found to be invariably the case in other places. The liberal and the benevolent give freely of their time and their money, but there are always many persons who give neither, and this inequality becomes of course a constant source of bickering and dissension.
22.	At Armagh, voluntary subscriptions are also raised, but religious and political differences seem of late to have imparted a somewhat exclusive character to the distribution of the funds. I cannot believe, however, that, in such a community, the claims of the destitute will long be suffered to depend in any way upon the party or profession of the individual, or class of individuals, needing relief.
23.	At Newry there is a mendicity establishment, supported by voluntary contributions, which has been efficiently managed,78	APPLICABILITY OF THE MEASURE TO	[Second
and contributed materially to the relief of destitution in that town and neighbourhood.
24.	At Belfast there is an establishment called “The Poor House/’ very similar in its objects and management to the Dublin House of Industry. It contained, when I visited it, 244 adults, and 217 children. It is supported at an annual cost of about 2300/., raised by voluntary contributions and donations, with the exception of certain rents from lands and houses with which it has been endowed, and the sum of 700Z., which is annually paid to the “ Poor House” fund, out of a rate upon the inhabitants for supplying the town with spring-water. There is also in Belfast a kind of mendicity establishment, called the “House of Industry,” supported entirely by voluntary contributions, at an expense of about 1500/, per annum, of which one-half is raised among the subscribers, and the other half by donations, charity sermons, and casual bequests. This institution is now in debt, and its subscriptions appear to be declining. It was established in 1809 expressly for the suppression of mendicancy, and it has strong rooms, to which persons found begging are committed, under sanction of the local authorities. Individuals are not maintained in the “ House of Industry,” but the committee of management purchase flax, which they deliver out to be spun at a fixed rate by such aged and other females as the committee deem proper : the committee also employ men in stone-breaking, in both cases paying for the work performed at a certain rate, and supplying the individuals with rations from the house. The committee also distribute daily, at the “ House of Industry,” bread and soup to such poor persons as apply for them, and are deemed fit objects for this relief ; and it is worthy of note, that bread is here given as being less acceptable to applicants, and as a kind of test of actual want, the potato being generally preferred by the people.
25.	At Coleraine there is a poor-house and mendicity establishment combined, supported by voluntary contribution, at an expense of about 350/. per annum. The institution is in debt, and the contributions are said to be falling off. There were 38 aged and infirm persons supported in the house when I visited it ; and relief, varying from 5c2. to Is. per week, was afforded to 110 poor persons out of the house.
26.	At Londonderry there is a “ Mendicity Association,” which was established in 1825, with the express object of suppressing mendicancy. It is supported entirely by voluntary contributions, which here, as elsewhere, press heavily upon some, whilst others altogether avoid the burthen. The proverb of “ the willing horse” has been often quoted to me, and a wish frequently expressed, that a rate for the relief of the destitute, to which all should be compelled to contribute in fair proportion, was substituted for theTHE NORTH OF IRELAND.
79
Report.]
partial and unsatisfactory mode in which the funds for this purpose are now raised* “ The Mendicity Association” in Londonderry is managed by a committee of subscribers, and three beadles are employed to apprehend mendicant strangers, who, when detected begging, are locked up for 24 hours in a strong room provided for the purpose, and the master afterwards sends them away “ over the bridge,5’—on which bridge there is a toll of a penny, which seems to prevent their re-entering the town, at least for a time. The expenditure is about 750/. per annum; but there has been of late great difficulty in collecting this amount. On the 19th of September there were 248 on the books, of whom 48 adults and 35 children wTere in the house, and 121 adults and 44 children were relieved out of the house.
27.	I have given this detail of the means resorted to for relieving the destitute in these northern towns, in order to show that the necessity for some established relief is there at present recognised and acted upon—imperfectly acted upon, it is true, but yet perhaps on the whole with as much steadiness and efficiency as could reasonably be expected, in the absence of any legislative provision for this object. Indeed, if any doubt existed as to the expediency of establishing Poor Laws in Ireland, an inspection of the northern counties would, I think, remove the doubt, and show the necessity of such a measure. The extent of poverty is there less than in the south and in the west; but the amount of destitution is perhaps to the full as great. There is this important difference however,—in the south and ivest the destitute depend for support upon the class immediately above them, namely, the small cottiers and cultivators : but in the north, the sympathy existing between the different ranks of society—between the opulent and the needy— has stimulated the former to make efforts for providing some kind of permanent and general relief, with the view of preventing the extremity of suffering in the latter class.
28.	If the charge of this provision was equally spread over the whole community—if the relief afforded was sufficient, and permanent, and equally distributed, it would be equivalent to a Poor Law: but the charge is unequal; the provision uncertain; and the relief partial and inefficient. To apply the proposed measure of Poor Laws to the north of Ireland, is little more than carrying out, in an equal and effective manner, that which has been long but ineffectually attempted by the several communities themselves. The north of Ireland is better prepared for the reception of the measure than the south; and competent individuals for carrying out the law, and for conducting the business of the Unions, will there be more readily found. In saying this, I do not imply any doubt of the successful establishment of the measure in the south and the west. There may be difficulties to contend with there,80	CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE IN DONEGAL. [Second
which do not exist to the same extent in the north: but I have seen no reason to doubt of success in establishing the law, nor of the necessity of its application, over the whole of Ireland.
29.	In speaking of the north of Ireland, I ought to except the county of Donegal, the inhabitants of which differ materially in character and circumstances from those of the other northern counties,, and approximate more nearly to those of the extreme west and south. Small holdings, and minute subdivisions of land, prevail in Donegal to a greater extent than I have found in any other part of Ireland; and the consequent growth of population has been there so great, as to press hard upon the productive powers of the soil, and to depress the condition of the people to nearly the lowest point in the social scale,—exposing them, under the not unfrequent contingency of an unfavourable season, or a partial failure of the potato-crop, to the most dreadful privations. This has unhappily been the case during the last four years, in each of which, and especially in the last, there has been a general failure of the crops in Donegal. In May, June, and July last, nearly the whole of the population along the northern and western coasts of the county, were reduced to a state bordering on starvation ; and, had not Government sent a supply of meal and medical aid, numbers of the people would probably have fallen victims to famine and disease.
30.	The northern and southern parts of Donegal are chiefly of slate formation, with frequent alternations of limestone. The central part is mostly granite. The surface is generally covered with bog, susceptible of profitable cultivation wherever lime, or sea-sand, or sea-weed is obtainable; and the people have in consequence congregated wherever these elements of fertility abound, —along the coasts, and on the shores of the numerous bays and inlets opening upon the Atlantic, along the banks of the rivers, and up the narrow valleys and ravines with which the country is intersected—everywhere, in short, where the soil is most easily reclaimed by individual exertion; but wherever combined effort, or an outlay of capital is necessary for draining, fencing, and reclaiming, there nothing has been done, and the surface is permitted to lie waste and unproductive. The process of reclamation in such circumstances is above the limited means of the people, each of whom just manages to cultivate a patch of land to raise potatoes, on which his family may subsist—a patch of oats to supply them mostly, I fear, with whiskey—and then, as to rent (for they all pay rent), they rely for raising that upon a few cattle or sheep running wild on the mountains.
31.	Nothing can exceed the miserable appearance of the cottages in Donegal, or the desolate aspect of a cluster of these hovels, always teeming with an excessive population. Yet, if you81
Report.] condition op the people in Donegal.
enter their cabins, and converse with them frankly and kindly, you will find the people intelligent and communicative, quick to comprehend, and ready to impart what they know. They admitted that they were too numerous, “too thick upon the land,” and that, as one of them declared, “ they were eating each other’s heads off,” —but what could they do ? There was no employment for the young people, nor relief for the aged, nor means nor opportunity for removing their surplus numbers to some more eligible spot. They could only therefore live on, “ hoping,” as they said, “ that times might mend, and that their landlords would sooner or later do something for them.” Yet, with all this suffering, no disturbance or act of violence has occurred in Donegal. During the severe privations of the last summer, when numbers were actually in want of sustenance, there was no dishonesty, no plundering,— the people starved, but they would not steal; and, although their little stock of cattle and moveables has been notoriously lessening these last four years, and especially in the last year, which seems to have swallowed up nearly all their visible means, they have yet paid their rents—the occupier’s share of the produce has been insufficient for his own support, yet the landlord’s share has generally been paid in full; and I was assured, by the agent of one of the largest proprietors, that he had no arrears worth noticing.
32. To improve the condition of such a people would immediately increase the productive powers of the country, which is a point well deserving the attention of the great landowners, with whom it wall mainly rest. But no material or lasting improvement can be effected, so long as the present division of the land into small holdings is permitted. This practice, wherever it prevails, inevitably forces the whole population down to the lowest level of subsistence—to that point, where subdivision is arrested by the dread or by the actual occurrence of starvation. It will, I think, be admitted, that it is alike the duty and the interest of the landowner, so to exercise the right of property which the law secures to him, as to guard his tenantry from such a depression : or if, from ignorance or neglect on the part of himself or others, the people should have unhappily been permitted to sink to this level, as is now the case in Donegal, then it becomes the landlord’s duty to make the necessary efforts for improving their condition, and for leading them back to a higher level in the social scale. Such efforts may be beset with difficulty, and may require sacrifices of time and capital, but public duty and individual interest alike combine to influence every landowner to make the effort; and the longer it is delayed, the greater will be the danger, and the greater the difficulty in attaining the object.
, 33, In the case of Donegal, a twofold remedy seems to be ne-
G82	CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE IN DONEGAL. [Second
cessary—namely, emigration and extended cultivation. The former requires no explanation, and, as regards the latter, I will only remark, that capital can perhaps be in no way more profitably employed in Ireland than in draining, reclaiming, and improving the land. There is abundant room for this in the county of Donegal, and if undertaken with spirit and intelligence, and on a sufficiently extensive scale, either by the owner of the soil, or by individual capitalists, to whom the owner might sell or let tracts of land on such terms as would form an adequate inducement for the outlay, it will not only ensure an ample return on the capital expended, but also afford employment, and provide suitable locations for a part of the surplus population. If a portion of this surplus were removed by emigration, and another portion placed on new grounds, effectually drained, fenced, and reclaimed, a consolidation of the present small holdings might be effected. This would be a great point gained, where the average of such holdings does not probably exceed 2L, and numbers are under 11. per annum. Consolidation must continue to be followed up, as means and opportunity serve, until the holdings generally become of a size to afford room for the investment of capital, in stocking and working them with a view to surplus production, instead of occupying the soil, as at present, with a view to mere subsistence upon what it yields.
34.	A Poor Law would tend to facilitate this change, which is so necessary for the landowners as well as for the great mass of the people of Donegal. The principle of a Poor Law is to make the property of a district answerable for the relief of destitution within the district; and the application of this principle will serve to connect the several orders of society, and teach them to act together—it will show them that they have reciprocal duties to perform—that each is necessary to the other—that their interests are in fact identified, and that the cordial co-operation of all is necessary to the well-being of the whole. I augur great good, therefore, under circumstances similar to those which now prevail in Donegal, from the establishment of a Poor Law; and I believe that such a law, whilst it provides for the relief of the destitute, will be a safeguard to property, and facilitate the introduction of those other ameliorations which the condition of the people requires.
35.	In what is here stated, I must be understood as speaking of the northern and the western portions of Donegal, and not of the eastern or midland parts of the county. I wish also to be understood, when speaking of the consolidation of small holdings, as not recommending that all farms should be large, or of equal extent. Gradation in the size of farms is necessary to meet the gradations of capital and capacity in the cultivators, and also forReport J\
SETTLEMENT.
83
enabling the humble industrious man to ascend in life; but if the grade be set too low, as is now generally the case in Ireland, especially in the western districts, the occupation of land becomes not the means of advancement in life, but, on the contrary, leads to the depression and impoverishment of the whole labouring population.
ii. Secondly,-—-¿4s to the question of Settlement.
36.	There was no part of the subject to which I gave more earnest attention last year than to the question of Settlement. Of the evils which had arisen from settlement in England, there can be no doubt; but the way at first did not appear clear for establishing a Poor Law in Ireland without settlement. The grounds on which, after much inquiry and consideration, I at length adopted this conclusion, I endeavoured to explain in my former Report; but it appears that the reasons there given have not been altogether satisfactory, and that many persons still consider some Law of Settlement necessary,—for securing local cooperation based upon local interests—for the protection of particular Unions—and for guarding the large commercial towns on the eastern coast from being unduly burthened with the destitute who may flock thither, or be sent thither from England or Scotland, on their becoming chargeable—or with the wives and children of the large body of migrants who annually proceed to Great Britain in the harvest-season, and return at its conclusion.
37.	I readily admit that, if there were danger of any material degree of undue pressure from all or any of these sources, it would be right to make provision against it in the Bill; but I am satisfied that, in carrying out the measure as now proposed, none of these inconveniences will arise, beyond what the Commissioners may meet by special regulations, without recurring to a Settlement Law; and I will now state the grounds for this opinion, with reference to each of the four points adverted to above, namely:— 1. as to the sufficiency of local interest for ensuring local co-operation : 2. as to the protection of particular Unions from undue pressure: 3. as to protecting the eastern ports from being burthened with destitute persons sent thither from England and Scotland: 4. as to the migration of Irish Labourers, and its tend^ ency to burthen the eastern ports.
38.	First, as to Local Interest.—It is true that a law establishing a Union Settlement (which is the mode of settlement contended for) would give to the rate-payers of the Union a direct interest in repressing pauperism, and also in keeping down the number of settled individuals within their particular Union; indeed, it would be their interest to do without settled labourers at
g 284	SETTLEMENT UNNECESSARY FOR THE	[Second
all,, and to have all the work performed by labourers belonging to other Unions, on which the onus of relief might be cast whenever the labourer became disabled and destitute. This was not an uncommon practice in English parishes, the property in which was thus raised in value at their neighbours’ expense; and I have known it to be a matter of boast that a parish was without a settled labourer. A Law of Settlement would certainly afford some inducement for this practice in Ireland, although it might not possibly be there carried to the same extent that it was in England; but it is obviously open to chicanery, abuse, and oppression of various kinds.
39.	In addition to the other reasons against Settlement, there is this primary objection, namely, that it interferes with the free distribution of labour, and virtually compels individuals to sell their labour in a particular district for whatever they can there obtain for it, instead of disposing of it to the best advantage where-ever a demand for it exists. Settlement thus destroys the fair and open competition which is alike necessary for protecting the employer and the labourer, and by which an equalization of supply and demand in the labour-market can alone be maintained. Its direct tendency, therefore, is to depress the character of the people; for, by narrowing the field of labour, and binding individuals to a particular locality, not perhaps favourable to the development, or to the most profitable employment, of their faculties—improvement is checked—independence is destroyed, and the working classes are left, without resource or elasticity of spirit, in helpless dependence upon their place of settlement in every contingency. If, therefore, settlement should be unnecessary, for imparting a requisite degree of local interest—if the Bill as now proposed, by requiring the rate to be levied upon the Union, for relief of the actually destitute within the Union, is sufficient, as I believe it to be, for securing attention to the business of the Union, there can be no necessity to establish a Law of Settlement for that purpose; and nothing short of absolute necessity could justify the introduction of a principle, of which the direct tendency is to depress the condition and character of the people.
40.	It is to be remarked, too, that the arguments by which a settlement is defended, would not be satisfied by a Union Settlement. In order to give its full effect to individual interest, each property, each estate, must be rated separately, and separately support its own poor. This would be a perfect Settlement; but a Union Settlement would be imperfect, as the Union would necessarily comprise a great number of such estates. The interest which it would impart would be too general to operate with any decided effect in the several portions of which the Union would be composed. There would be a general or Union interest in theJReportJ]	PROTECTION OF LOCAL INTERESTS.	85
repression of pauperism, but the individual interest would be slight. It is true that, independently of their direct interest as rate-payers, the common interest which would be felt by all persons within a Union to keep down the charge of pauperism, to encourage industry, and to elevate the population in the moral and social scale, would constitute a powerful incentive to individual exertion; but this motive would operate without a Settlement Law. It would not, I admit, be as powerful as that which would stimulate a landlord to exertions directed exclusively to improve the condition of his own tenants and dependents; but since we cannot obtain the aid of this motive, since we cannot make as many settlements as there are properties, but are forced to require the landowners to make exertions and even sacrifices for the benefit of the estates and tenants of their neighbours,-—it surely will not be worth while to incur the evils of a Settlement Law., for the purpose of somewhat narrowing a field of action, which after all must remain a very wide one.
41.	If we regard the whole of Ireland as one great Union, the numerous Sub-Unions into which it is proposed to divide it for the convenience of local administration, will bear about the same proportion to the wrhole island, which the estates of individuals bear to each separate Union which they collectively constitute; and the inhabitants of each Union, as a whole, will have the same kind of moral inducement to promote industry and to repress pauperism, that would be felt by any individual owner, with reference to his own estate. There will be a separate interest in each Union, but there will also be the corrective of a general interest; and these will operate in the same direction, and alike stimulate to exertion, under the guidance of those high motives which have influenced, and will always influence, individuals to labour for the promotion of the general weal. On the score of local interest, a Settlement Law does not, therefore, I think, appear to be necessary in Ireland.
42.	Secondly, as to the protection of particular Unions from undue pressure.—It has been asserted that, without a Law of Settlement, particular U nions will be liable to be inundated with paupers, whilst others may be comparatively free from the pressure. This is certainly possible, but not I think very probable. Why should an excessive number of paupers congregate in one particular Union, when all the Unions are equally accessible, and are governed by the same regulations ?—it is difficult to imagine a reason for their so doing; and I believe there will be no such gatherings of paupers under the Union System as proposed. The pauper classes will then, in all likelihood, be spread pretty equally over the country, as they are now. There is an inherent love of home existing among the Irish, which, notwithstanding their migratory habits, will generally attract them to-86
SETTLEMENT UNNECESSARY FOR THE	[Second
wards their native districts, especially when age, sickness or suffering press heavily upon them. There may be, and of course there will be, many exceptions; but the exceptions will apply to every part of Ireland alike, so that the, effect will, I think, be pretty equal in the several Unions. Should it be otherwise, however, and an undue accumulation of paupers press into any particular Union, the Guardians will have the remedy in their own hands ; for, as no right to relief will be imparted, they will be at liberty to exercise their discretion in its administration. The Commissioners will moreover be armed with sufficient powers for correcting such inequality, should it occur, and generally for applying a special remedy to whatever inconvenience may arise, or be apprehended, in carrying out the measure, as soon as the nature and extent of the danger or the evil becomes apparent.
43.	The period at which there will be the greatest danger of an excessive influx of paupers, will be whilst the Unions are in progress of formation ; and, during this interval, it might be useful in certain cases for the Union authorities to have a Settlement Law to fall back upon. The object may, however I think be accomplished without the inconvenience of a Law of Settlement, as the Commissioners’ general power to prescribe the conditions on which relief shall be administered would enable them to issue regulations specially adapted to the evil, either existing or apprehended. The possible occurrence of the partial pressure here adverted to, whilst the Unions are being formed, affords a strong argument for hastening their formation, and carrying forward the measure with as much celerity as may be found compatible with their complete organization; for, when the whole country shall have been formed into Unions, there will be comparatively little danger of undue pressure upon any particular Union.
44.	If a right to relief was given, it would certainly strengthen the argument in favour of Settlement. An absolute right to relief would seem to require a law of Settlement to define the boundaries within which the right is to be available. A right to demand implies an obligation to pay; and this must be imposed on some individual, or some locality—it can hardly be unlimited: but, if no right to relief is given, the call for settlement on this ground ceases. Destitution will then constitute the only claim for relief,—there will be no other condition; and the administering to this claim will be in the discretion of the Union authorities, to whom the relief of the destitute is proposed to be confided, under the superintendence of the Central Board.
45. This condition—namely, the fact of destitution—is simple and complete; but, if settlement be superadded, another element is involved. The question will then no longer be, “ Is the applicant really destitute?” but, ‘/To what Union does he belongReport.'] PROTECTION OF PARTICULAR UNIONS.	87
-—where is he settled?” and this will open the whole array of Settlement subtleties,—birth, infancy, adult age, residence, parentage, marriage, re-marriage, death, relationship, all presenting endless sources of litigation, chicanery, and incertitude; and, pending the adjustment of these, is the destitute individual to be permitted to perish when the means of relieving him exist?— where the power exists, relief will generally be administered; and thus the principle of settlement will be departed from, and casual relief to the unsettled, on the ground of destitution, will practically be admitted. This will open out another question: Is the casual relief, so afforded, to be repaid by the Union to which the pauper belongs, or to which he may, possibly after years of litigation, be adjudged to belong?-—if it is not to be repaid, a principle of justice seems to be violated; but that it should be repaid is inconsistent with the principle of the measure, that relief shall not be matter of right, but discretionary, with the Guardians. In the exercise of their discretion, they may think it right to relieve out of their own funds, but have they a right to apply the funds of another Union?—might not that Union reply, if You have thought fit to grant relief under circumstances in which we should have refused it ?”—and, supposing this objection overcome, yet accounts lengthy and intricate would have to be often kept between the several Unions; nor is it likely that the Union authorities would exercise the same vigilance in administering relief to the unsettled casual applicant, the amount of which relief was to be repaid to them by some other Union, which they would exercise when acting for their own Union; and thus a lax and partial action might be introduced, instead of one steady and uniform system.
46. It may here be noticed, incidentally, that a Settlement Law would operate to impede, if not to prevent, the suppression of mendicancy. Every vagrant would say that he was travelling to his place of settlement, where alone he would be entitled to relief; and, as the districts through which he passed would have to incur the expense of forwarding him to his destination, or else to connive at his mendicancy, there can be little doubt that a large toleration would be extended to the vagrant classes, and their existence be perpetuated, to the injury and demoralization of the community. A Law of Settlement, therefore, seems to be unnecessary “for the protection of particular Unions,” whilst it would probabiy prove a source of much evil to all.
47- Thirdly, as to protecting the Eastern Ports from being burihened with the Destitute Persons sent thither from England and Scotland.—The necessity of a Law of Settlement for this purpose has been strongly urged by individuals, whose opinions are entitled to the most respectful consideration; and I88
SETTLEMENT UNNECESSARY FOR THE
[Second
made it my especial business to inquire carefully into the present extent of the burthen, with the view of ascertaining the extent of inconvenience that may be likely to arise from it, under the measure as now proposed. The result of my inquiries was that, with the exception of Dublin, no material inconvenience has hitherto been experienced in any of the ports on the coast, from the influx or accumulation of destitute individuals of this description. When sent over from Great Britain on their becoming chargeable there, these poor persons generally find their way to the part of the country of which they are natives, and which they consider as their natural home. At Wexford, Newry, Belfast, Coleraine, Londonderry, no inconvenience of the kind had occurred, and none seemed to be apprehended. At Waterford some alarm had been felt, and representations from the Town authorities had been forwarded during the progress of the Bill last Session, urging the necessity of some protection in this respect; but, on inquiry, I found that the number of individuals who had arrived there from England during the preceding twelve months, and who had applied to the corporation for assistance to enable them to join their friends, was only ten ; and that these, on receiving some trifling aid, went onward to their destination. It is worthy of note, however, that although ten only had so arrived, sixty-eight individuals (many of them English) had been passed to England, at the expense of the corporation, within the eleven months preceding. After discussing this subject with the Mayor of Waterford, he became convinced that there existed no real grounds for alarm, and that a Settlement Law was not necessary for the protection of Waterford. This opinion he gave me in writing, together with a return of the individuals passed to England, copies of which documents I have inserted in the Appendix, No. 9.
48. The case of Dublin, with reference to this question, is somewhat different from that of the other great towns. Its superior wealth and population ensure for the mendicant classes, and for the needy, a richer harvest there than is obtainable in any other town. This harvest is augmented by the donations of casual visitors, whom business or pleasure call to Dublin, and who are generally more open to the importunities of beggars than the permanent residents. The numerous charities, also, which exist in Dublin, and the known benevolence of its inhabitants, all serve as lures to the mendicant classes. If these circumstances be taken into consideration, combined with the fact that, with only a few exceptions in some of the large towns, no charitable institutions, or other means of relief for the destitute, exist throughout all the rest of Ireland,—that ihere is no other place where the needy, or the famishing, will be sustained,—but that nearly the whole tide of wretchedness and want must of necessity pour in upon Dublin,89
Report.) PROTECTION OF PORTS AND LARGE TOWNS.
—the wonder, I think, is, not that there are so many, but that there is not a greater number of the destitute and mendicant classes congregated there.
49.	Whatever may have been the amount of these classes in Dublin up to the present time, or however they may have been led thither—whether settled denizens, or voluntary migrants from other parts of Ireland, or sent compulsorily from Great Britain— it seems quite certain that there is nothing in the intended Poor Law calculated to increase their numbers. The object of that law is, not to create pauperism, but to suppress mendicancy, by making provision, in every district throughout ihe country, for the relief of the destitute within the district; which will be the means of retaining at or near their source those numerous streams of vagrancy that now flow with an unrestricted current into the capital, as the general reservoir.
50.	Much of the reasoning, however, in favour of a Law of Settlement for the protection of Dublin, is founded on the assumption that Dublin at present only supports its own poor,—that the various classes of destitute and needy persons now relieved there, actually belong to, or are natives of that city, or its immediate neighbourhood. How far this is from being the case, may be inferred from Returns which I have obtained from the “ House of Industry’’ and the “ Dublin Mendicity Institution,” showing the several counties in which the inmates of these establishments were respectively born, and to wdiich they may be said therefore naturally to belong. In the “ House of Industry,” out of 888 inmates in the aged department, 889 only are natives of the county or city of Dublin. The remaining 499 belong to other Irish counties, excepting 22, who are not natives of Ireland. I give a copy of this Return in the Appendix, No. 10. In March of the present year there were 2409 individuals on the bcoks of the “ Mendicity Institution,” and of these 1555 only were natives of the city or county of Dublin, leaving 854 for the rest of Ireland, excepting 45, v7ho belonged to other countries. A copy of this Return is also given in the Appendix, No. 11.
51.	It appears, therefore, that no inconsiderable portion of the destitute individuals now supported in Dublin, are not natives of the county or city of Dublin, not settled” there, in the mode contended for, but belong to different and distant parts of the country, and are drawn thither in search of support. This was to be expected, for there is nothing to prevent the influx of mendicants into Dublin; and when there, and actually or apparently in a state of destitution, they of course meet with relief in some w7ay : if not admitted into the charitable institutions, begging, at least,90	SETTLEMENT UNNECESSARY FOR PROTECTION [Second
is always open to them, and thus a mode of relief, the most expensive and the most demoralizing, is perpetuated. This is the present state of Dublin, and, if a Poor Law were established without a Law of Settlement, there seems to be no reason for supposing that it would then be worse—on the contrary, if the poor persons who resort to Dublin in search of charity, or who are sent thither from Great Britain, instead of being relieved as they now are by street begging and private donations, or by the intervention of the Mendicity and other charitable institutions,—if, instead of this, mendicancy were forbidden, and they were subjected to the test of a workhouse, where the absolutely and unavoidably necessitous would be adequately provided for, but where, also, the simulators of that necessity would be subjected to restraint, and be compelled to labour,— if this were done, the labour and the restraint being alike at variance with their indolent and vagrant habits, may it not reasonably be inferred that the number of such individuals in Dublin would speedily decrease ?
52.	The result of my inquiries on this subject is, that a Law of Settlement is unnecessary for the protection of Dublin and the other towns: and I feel assured, moreover, that the measure as now proposed will be productive of great benefit to those places, by providing in every district throughout Ireland adequate means for relief of the destitute, who will then be no longer compelled to resort to Dublin and the other great towns for obtaining the means of subsistence.
53.	Fourthly, as to the Migration of Irish Labourers, and its tendency to burthen the Eastern Ports.—It has been asserted that the labourers who every year migrate to Great Britain would, in numerous instances, leave their wives and families at the place of their debarkation; and that the ports on the Eastern Coast would thus be subjected to a heavy charge, unless a Law of Settlement were established for their protection.
54.	The cheapness and facility of communication between Great Britain and Ireland, by the application of steam-power, is now carried to an extent that would not have been thought possible twenty years ago. The ocean has become the medium for connecting the two countries more closely, as regards the time and expense of communication, than if it had not intervened between them. The effects of this approximation are important, and must daily become more so. To pass from Waterford or Dublin or Belfast, to Bristol or Liverpool or Glasgow, is now easier and cheaper than to pass from those places to London or Nottingham or York. The sea, therefore, no longer separates England and Ireland. The application of steam-power has converted it into aReport,] AGAINST THE BURTHEN OF IRISH MIGRANTS. 91
means of the most intimate communication—it, in fact,, unites the two countries into one. Under these circumstances, the labour-market in each will be open to both alike. If there is a demand for labourers in England, the unemployed in Ireland will avail themselves of it, and vice versa. There has dong been a great influx of Irish labourers into Scotland and England, at certain seasons ; and it appears to be every year increasing. Many of the individuals who so migrate do not return, but remain dispersed through the great towns in England and Scotland, where certain branches of labour, of the coarser and harder descriptions, are performed almost exclusively by the Irish. In the manufacturing districts, too, the children of these labourers, and other children brought directly from Ireland, are employed in the factories ; so that there is now actually a large and rapidly-increasing Irish population, permanently resident in England and Scotland.
55.	These settlers are distinct from the regular migratory tide of agricultural labourers, who annually pass and repass between Ireland and Great Britain, at the commencement and termination of harvest; and to these, the reasons which have been urged for a settlement law chiefly apply. The season during which the migration of these “harvesters” takes place, comprises the months of May, June, July, and August. They belong, almost exclusively, to the western parts of Ireland, and the greater portion of them to the province of Connaught. They nearly all occupy small portions of land, and, as soon as their own little crop is planted, set off for the eastern ports, to embark for England or Scotland, generally leaving their wives and families at home; but in some instances these accompany them, either to the sea-ports or across the channel, in which cases they too commonly resort to begging as a means of support. For the most part, however, the families remain at home. Many young unmarried men, who do not occupy land, are found among the migrants; but the far greater portion of them are as above described.
56.	During the hay and corn harvests in England and Scotland, the services of these Irish labourers are very important, and in many districts the harvest could hardly be saved without their aid. They are generally sober, well-conducted, and inoffensive, —living hard, and labouring hard. They mostly resort year after year to the same districts, where they become known ; and the English farmer not unfrequently engages, during the current harvest, the labourers who are to come from Connaught to assist him in getting in his crops in the next. As the harvest-season draws towards a close on this side of the Channel, these migrants are seen travelling westward to embark for Ireland; and, on their landing, they immediately commence their journey homewards, where their own potato-crop has ripened during their absence,92
INEXPEDIENCY OF A SETTLEMENT LAW. [Second
and now requires their care. With the harvest-money obtained in England they are enabled to pay their rent, and to provide clothing and a few other necessaries ; and on the produce of their bit of land they subsist during the winter, to commence the same migratory round the following summer. This is the course ordinarily pursued by the great mass of itinerant labourers, who annually pass and repass between Ireland and Great Britain, according to the best information which I could collect. Mr. Richardson, a gentleman of much practical experience both in England and Ireland, also undertook to investigate the subject for me, which his residence in Dublin enabled him readily to do. The result of his inquiries, agreeing in all respects with what I have detailed above, he stated to me in a letter, a copy of which, No. 12, is given in the Appendix,
57.	It does not appear, from the information obtained by Mr. Richardson, or from that which I collected, that any new or material charge would be likely to be cast upon the Eastern Ports under the proposed law, by the efflux and influx of these agricultural migrants, who merely pass through, but never stop, in either case. Their families may, in some instances, become chargeable at first, as they are now, in fact, chargeable by their begging; but this is not of frequent occurrence even now, and it would eventually be stopped altogether under the provisions of the Bill: for when the only relief to be obtained would be in the work-house, and when also it became known that the relief so afforded would be recoverable from the husband, on his return from harvesting, it may be concluded that the charge now cast upon Dublin and the other Eastern Ports, by these agricultural migrants or their families, will become less under the operation of the proposed law than it is at present.
58.	Finally, then, as to Settlement,—it seems apparent, from the facts and reasonings here adduced, that, whilst a Law of Settlement is open to most weighty objections, its establishment is not necessary in Ireland for securing adequate local co-operation, based upon local interests,—nor for the protection of particular Unions from undue pressure,—nor for guarding the large commercial towns from being unfairly burthened with the mendicant classes who may flock thither, or with the destitute who may be sent back from England or Scotland,—nor for protecting the ports on the eastern coast from the charge of supporting the wives and children of the agricultural migrants absent at harvest-work in England or Scotland. I cannot, therefore, hesitate in expressing my decided opinion, that Settlement should not be made a substantive part of the Irish Poor Law Bill,—and I urge this with the greater confidence, because, if, from change of circumstances or other cause, it should hereafter be deemed necessary to enact a93
jReport.*]	AS TO CONFERRING A RIGHT TO RELIEF.
Law of Settlement, it may at any time be done, without disturbing the other portions of the measure ; whereas, if we begin with Settlement, it will afterwards be difficult, if not impossible, to put an end to it, however unnecessary or mischievous it may prove.
hi. Thirdly,—As to giving a Right to Relief .
59.	It has been contended that a right to relief must be given, in order to ensure the suppression of mendicancy ; and that, if you prevent a destitute individual from begging, you ought to relieve him. Thus put, the case is strong ; for, if the question lies between begging and starvation, there can be no doubt as to the alternative to be preferred. It may be said that this is an extreme case, and that mendicancy is in general the result not of want, but of idleness or misconduct: still the supposed case, namely, that of a person having to choose between begging and starvation, is possible in every country, and I fear not unfrequent in Ireland; and it must be admitted that a destitute individual ought not to be prevented from begging, unless provision be made for relieving his actual necessities,—the community, of course, reserving to itself the right of testing the existence of such necessities.
60.	The Irish Poor Law Bill proceeds upon this principle* It proposes to suppress mendicancy, but it first provides the means of relief for the destitute ; and it provides also, through the Union authorities, and the operation of the workhouse, the means of testing the existence of such destitution in every instance. It may, I think, be safely assumed that, under the operation of the proposed law, as soon as the Unions are formed, and the workhouses established, no person really destitute will be permitted to perish from want in any part of Ireland, or be compelled to resort to begging to obtain needful sustentation; and thus the community will have acquired the right of suppressing mendicancy. It is practically the same in England. Under the old law, relief was administered under the joint though not always concurrent discretion of justices and parish-officers. Under the new law, relief is administered at the sole discretion of the Boards of Guardians, of which justices are ex-officio members. The discretion in both cases is, of course, presumed to be a sound and legal discretion; and, if it be corruptly exercised, the individuals who abuse it would be subjected to legal penalties. If, however, the discretion be exercised in good faith, and with a right intention, the law will protect the public functionary from the consequences, should mischief unwittingly ensue.
61.	When the proposed Poor Law measure shall have received the sanction of the Legislature, and when the Unions are formed, and the workhouses established, the right as well as the means will94
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exist for suppressing mendicancy, which has always been regarded as injurious to the community. Many severe laws have been enacted for its prevention; but these have proved altogether in-effectua], and are now in fact a dead letter, the alternative of relief for the destitute, which could alone ensure their efficiency, not having been provided. Should this alternative ever fail,—if from any unforeseen circumstance the workhouse should be full, so that a destitute person is of necessity refused relief therein,—it is provided, in such a case, that the destitute individual, so refused relief, should be exonerated from the penalties provided against begging; and thus the principle, that to be entitled to suppress mendicancy, the alternative of relief for the destitute must be first provided, is strictly adhered to.
iv. Fourthly,—As to Out-door Relief
62.	Much has been said as to the necessity of providing outdoor relief in Ireland; but most of the arguments in favour of an extension of relief beyond the workhouse appear to me to be founded either upon a misapprehension of the objects of a Poor Law, or upon an exaggerated estimate of the number of actually destitute persons who would require relief under it.
63.	The object of a Poor Law is to relieve the destitute,—that is, to relieve those individuals who, from sickness, accident, mental or bodily incapacity, failure of employment, or other immediate cause, may be unable to obtain the common necessaries of life by their own exertions. Under such circumstances, the destitute individual, if not relieved, might be driven to beg or to steal; and a Poor Law, by providing for the relief of destitution, prevents the necessity or the excuse for resorting to either: and in this sense it may be regarded as a measure of police, as well as of humanity. There are other high and more general considerations, arising out of the application of the law, and its ultimate effects upon the condition of the people, to which I need not now advert.-—The above is the immediate and legitimate object of a Poor Law, and to this its operations are proposed to be limited in the Bill of last Session. But if, disregarding this limitation, it be attempted to provide relief for all who are needy, but not destitute,—for all who are poor, and whose means of living are inferior to what it may be desirable that they should possess,—if property is to be taxed, not for the relief of the destitute only, but for ensuring a given amount of income, or such a portion of the comforts or conveniences of life as shall be assumed to be necessary, for the whole or any part of the labouring population,—the consequence of any such attempt must be in Ireland, as it notoriously was in England, not only to diminish the value and destroy the security of property, but also to demoralise the whole labouring population, by leadingOUT DOOR-RELIEF.
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them to look to the rates, instead of their own exertions, to make up every deficiency of earnings, from whatever cause arising.
64.	The evidence collected by the late Commissioners of Poor Law Inquiry in England establishes the conclusion that out-door or domiciliary relief is inevitably open to gross abuses, and that its administration entails consequences prejudicial to the labouring classes, and to the whole community; and, in short, that there is no security for the prevention of abuse, nor any mode of ensuring a due administration of relief to the individuals really in need of it, but by restricting it to the workhouse. The facts and reasonings contained in the English Poor Law Inquiry Reports on this subject, have been confirmed by the experience of the present Poor Law Commission ; and, although the Commissioners, in the exercise of the powers with which they are intrusted, have not yet, in any of the English Unions, totally prohibited out-door relief, there can be no doubt that the intention of the Poor Law Amendment Act points to the workhouse as the sole medium of relief eventually, and requires that it should be so restricted at as early a period as the circumstances which had grown up under the old system may permit.
65.	To establish out-door relief in Ireland would, therefore, be to act in direct contradiction to English experience, and to the spirit of the English law. It would introduce a practice in the one country, under the prejudicial effects of which the other has long been suffering, and from which it has not yet completely recovered. It would be establishing different and opposing principles of action in the two countries; for out-door relief is at present only tolerated in England, as an evil unavoidable for a time, and which is to be gotten rid of as speedily as possible; but, if now established in Ireland, it will either be the means of preventing its extinction in England, or else the practice in this essential particular will be directly at variance in the two countries. >
66.	It has been recommended by some advocates for out-door relief in Ireland, that its administration should be restricted to the aged, sick, and infirm; but, even with this limitation, how is abuse to be prevented, and how is the precise amount to be defined of that age, or sickness, or infirmity, which shall entitle an individual to be relieved out of the workhouse ? I believe it to be impossible so to define the conditions, as to prevent partiality and jobbing, and the occurrence of gross abuses, which would not only be a source of demoralization, but would also serve to engender strifes, jealousies, and ill-will in every locality.
67.	On this subject, the opinion of the managers of the Dublin Mendicity Institution, founded upon the large experience obtained in the working of that establishment, is peculiarly entitled to at-96
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tention. In the Report of a Sub-committee, “ specially appointed to consider the provisions of the Irish Poor Law Bill,” it is stated -—“ Your Committee conceive that the cautious spirit which pervades the Bill is peculiarly suited to the introduction of a measure which is expected to produce a considerable change in the social condition of the poorer classes in Ireland, the proposed system of relief admitting of enlargement should its principles be eventually deemed too narrow, and avoiding the danger of sanctioning those modes of administering relief which have confessedly produced great mischiefs elsewhere, and from which, if once adopted, it is found difficult to retreat” And in a letier addressed to me on the 3rd of March, by the two Honorary Secretaries of the Institution, forwarding a copy of the Sub-committee’s Report, they state further, that—“ Some persons, and certainly men of some experience and sagacity, are desirous of having introduced into the Bill some discretionary authority of giving out-door relief; but it is at the same time greatly to be feared, that out-door relief would soon become the rule, and workhouse relief the exception; and that this plan would soon degenerate into the allowance system, in a country where the wages of labour are in many parts so very low. The Union would soon come to pay half, and the employers the other half.”
68.	After the best consideration which I have been able to give the subject, in all its bearings, I still retain the opinion which I originally submitted to your Lordship, that in Ireland relief should be restricted to the workhouse, or, in other words, that no out-door relief should be permitted.
69.	With respect to the number of individuals who would need relief, and which has been variously estimated at from one to six millions,—and for the whole of whom, therefore, it would, as has been stated, be impossible to provide the means of relief within the workhouse—this point will be considered under the 6th head ; and I will merely remark here, that, in those estimates, the distinction between poverty and destitution appears to have been overlooked—every poor person has been assumed to be destitute, although in possession of the ordinary means of living—and hence the exaggerated statements adverted to.
v. Fifthly,—Emigration should have been provided for.
70.	I am very sensible of the difficulties which beset the question of emigration, in principle as well as in its details. Having stated these pretty fully in my former Report, I will not now enter into a general consideration of the subject, but confine my observations to the specific point—as to whether any and what provision should be made in the Irish Poor Law Bill for the purposes of emigration.EMIGRATION.
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71.	Without attempting to decide the question whether Ireland, as a whole, is over-populous,—whether there are such means of employment as to afford, if properly developed, adequate support for all,—it is yet, I think, quite apparent, that in certain parts of the country there is an actual excess of population beyond the existing means of employment; and, wherever this excess exists, it must operate to lower the price of labour, and to increase the competition for land; and thus to force down the mode of living to a lower level, and to depress the whole population in the moral and social scale. These are universally admitted to be the inevitable consequences of an excess of population in any district; and an examination of the country must, I think, convince any impartial observer that such excess does actually exist in certain districts in Ireland, producing there all the consequences above indicated. In parts of Donegal, for instance, the people are so crowded together, and so impoverished by competition in their struggles to obtain the common necessaries of life, that, unless some step be taken in the first instance for lessening this competition, either by removing the surplus hands, or by increasing the amount of employment, or by both measures combined, it will, I fear, be impossible to effect any very material change in their condition.
72.	The means of employment may, no doubt, be very generally and profitably increased, by the intervention of the landlords, the application of capital, and an extended cultivation of the soil; but this alone, in the present condition of many districts in Ireland, will not be sufficient; the remedy from these sources, although good in itself, and absolutely essential to the final attainment of the object, will yet necessarily be slow in its general application. But the evil is present and pressing, and emigration appears to be the only immediate remedy, or rather palliative, of the state of things existing in Donegal, and which exist likewise in other parts of the west and south of Ireland. It seems to me, under such circumstances, that it is only by emigrating one part of the surplus population, and providing employment for another part, that the excessive competition adverted to, and its attendant evils, can be remedied. Of the means for affecting an increase of employment I need not here speak. Several measures have been submitted to Parliament with this avowed object, and 1 understand it to be the intention of Government to take the whole subject into its early consideration.
73.	With respect to emigration, the opinion expressed in my last Report, that it should be provided for in the Bill, has been confirmed by what has recently come under my notice; and I now recommend the insertion of a clause essentially similar to that in the English Poor Law Bill, authorising Boards of Guardians, under the direction of the Commissioners, to defray out of the poor-rates the expense of emigrating the surplus population of
H[ Second
98	EMIGRATION.
any Union. To ensure the proper application of the funds,, and a judicious and impartial selection of the individuals, it will be necessary to place all the details of the measure under the immediate control of the Commissioners. With regard to the expense, I suggested last year that one-half should be borne by the Union whence the emigrants removed, and the other half by Government. Without urging this suggestion at present, it may be sufficient to point out that an agency by which emigration might be conducted already exists. There are emigration agents at the ports of Dublin, Belfast, Cork, Londonderry, Sligo, and Limerick, who might superintend the embarkation of the emigrants. There is an agent at Quebec who might afford them protection and assistance on landing ; and agents with similar duties might be appointed in the other colonies to which emigrants proceed. The expense of the officers who would thus superintend the embarkation is now defrayed by the British Government, and the expense of the colonial agents might be borne by the colonies. A portion of the cost of conveying the emigrants to their destination might probably be defrayed out of the fund derived from the sale of waste lands in the colonies; and if, from this or any other source, a moiety of the cost of conveyance was obtained, the Unions from which the emigrants proceeded would be benefited, and the colonies would reap the advantage of an increased supply of labour.
74.	It has been said, that if any such provision were made, the spontaneous emigration which now takes place would be immediately stopped. To a certain extent, perhaps, this would be the case; and I am disposed to think it would not be altogether an evil. The individuals who now spontaneously emigrate are, for the most part, possessed of more means, and more mental and physical energy, than their neighbours. They are, in fact, forced out by the growth of a lower class at home. The best go—the worst remain. An active, thrifty, provident individual, who by the exercise of these qualities has acquired some little capital, seeing no room for employing it at home, embarks with it for the United States or the Canadas, and thus the country sustains a double loss : but if means were adopted for emigrating the actual surplus population of a district, room would be made for such individuals, and they would probably remain at home, at least a portion of them would; and thus, instead of the best of the people only leaving the country, as at present, the emigrants would consist of persons possessing the average qualifications of their class, and the mass of the people would be preserved from deterioration as far as it may be connected with this circumstance.
75,	A legislative provision for the purposes of emigration does not therefore seem open to any serious objection, on the ground of its tendency to prevent spontaneous emigration; whilst in otherReport.] EXTENT OF DESTITUTION IN IRELAND.	99
respects it would, I think, in the present condition of Ireland, be productive of immediate and important benefits, and facilitate the introduction of those improvements in the condition and habits of the people, which are so greatly to be desired.
vi. Sixthly,—As to the number of Destitute Persons in Ireland,
and the adequacy of the proposed Workhouse accommodation.
76.	The estimate inserted in a Memorandum at the end of my last Report, of the number of individuals whom it might probably be necessary to relieve on the score of destitution, has given rise to much comment. Your Lordship will do me the justice to remember, that I never attached much importance to that estimate, —that I always declared my belief, that no sufficient data existed for framing an accurate estimate,—and that I merely regarded the paper, as showing a kind of approximation to what I thought would probably be found to be the amount of actual destitution in Ireland. This indeed is stated in the paper itself, which seemed too loose and vague to be inserted in the Report, and I therefore placed it at the end, in the shape of a Memorandum, thus marking the slight importance which I attached to it.
77.	Although the data on which that estimate was founded were meagre, they were not however so very slight as seems to have been supposed. It was not altogether because one per cent, of the population were domiciled in the workhouses of Kent, Sussex, Oxford, and Berks, that I ventured to infer that such would be the proportion of the destitute in Ireland; but because the presumption which this fact afforded was borne out by my own observations, and the rough estimate which I had formed during my examination of the country. I may possibly be wrong on this point, and indeed the variety of estimates which have been framed prove how easy it is to err on such a subject; but, whatever may be the actual number of really destitute persons in Ireland, there can, I apprehend, be no doubt that they should be relieved, and this the Poor Law Bill makes the necessary provision for accomplishing.
78.	It has also been made a ground of charge, that I omitted to state, in the Memorandum adverted to, that, in addition to the one per cent, of destitute individuals in the workhouses of Kent, Sussex, Oxford, and Berks, out-door relief was administered to a great number of poor persons, amounting to four or five per cent, of the population; and that, consequently, instead of one per cent, or 80,000, at least five per cent, or 400,000, ought, by analogy, to have been assumed as the probable number of destitute persons for whom means of relief should be provided in Ireland.
79.	A charge of this kind, as it implies a want of accuracy or of fairness, ought not perhaps to be left altogether unnoticed. I
H 2100	adequacy of phoposed workhouses. [Second
was of course aware that a considerable number, amounting to something above three per cent, of the population of the above-named four counties, were in receipt of out-door relief at the time to which the estimate refers; but I regarded these annuitants as the residuum of the old system, which would-gradually pass away; and 1 considered that the in-door poor alone exhibited the amount of what may be called the natural pauperism then existing, and which alone therefore could be taken as affording a criterion applicable to Ireland; and I have seen no reason to alter my view in this respect.
80.	Very different estimates, it is true, have been formed; but these, as before observed, appear to have been framed in total disregard of the distinction between the poor and the destitute. There is more poverty in Ireland, in proportion to its population, than there is in England; but I doubt whether there is more, if so much, destitution. There is this great difference, however, between the two countries—in England, the destitute are relieved at the common charge; in Ireland, the destitute are, for the most part, supported at the charge of the poor, of those persons who are only elevated one step above the destitute in the social scale, and who, by the custom (amounting in practice to a necessity) of affording such support, are themselves reduced to the very verge of destitution. Under such circumstances, to confound poverty with destitution is a mistake easily made, and hence the discrepancies adverted to: but I am relieved from the necessity of entering more at large into the consideration of this point, by a statement which has been drawn up at my request by Mr. William Stanley, of Dublin, the author of an able pamphlet on the Poor Law measure. Mr. Stanley’s local knowledge and position, and his intimate acquaintance with Irish statistics, peculiarly fitted him for the task, and I solicit your Lordship’s attention to the important document which he has produced, a copy of which is inserted in the Appendix, No. 13.
vii. Seventhly,—As to the mode of Rating and Collecting the
Rate.
81.	The question of rating is obviously open to much contrariety of opinion. The mode of valuation, of assessment, of collection, and the proportions in which the rate shall be paid by the several parties interested, are all questions on which different conclusions would probably be formed by different persons; and accordingly the views taken upon these points have been various and conflicting. On the whole, however, the mode proposed in the Bill, of dividing the rate equally between the owner and occupier, seems to have met with pretty general concurrence,' not as being altogether free from objection, but as being less open to objection and possessing greater advantages than any other mode.Report]
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82.	Among the different opinions to which I have adverted., one is that the whole of the rate should in every instance be charged directly upon the owner, on the ground that the tenant derives little profit, often no profit whatever, from the occupation, and ought not therefore to be called on to pay any part of the rate. Those who take this view of the question appear to overlook the fact, that the destitute classes in Ireland are now supported almost entirely by the occupiers, and that the occupiers will be relieved from this charge when the proposed measure shall have come into operation. To require them to pay half the rate is not therefore to impose on them a new charge, but a portion only of an old charge, to which they had been long subjected. The occupiers too have a direct interest in the property,—not permanent, indeed, like the owners’ interest, but more immediate, and extending to the limit of their tenancy, whether covenanted or implied; and on this further ground they are therefore justly chargeable with a portion of the rate. If the rate be charged directly upon the owners, the occupiers, as they do not contribute, will not of course be entitled to take a part in the distribution of the funds raised by it, or in the management of the business of the Union—they will have no interest in common with their landlords—there will be nothing in which they can meet and act together—they will be separated more entirely from the owners of property than they are at present, and in truth, to a certain extent, be arrayed against them; for their interest and their sympathies would too probably lead them to increase the amount of the burthen upon the landlords, rather than to lessen it. Even if there were a sufficient number of resident owners, it would seem inexpedient to place the whole control of the Unions in their hands, thus constituting them a separate class, and at the same time lowering the position of the occupiers; but in the present state of Ireland, and with the generally small number of resident proprietors, such a proposition seems especially open to objection.
83.	The proposed exemption in favour of occupiers of 5L value and under, and the charging the owners of such property with the payment of the entire rate, forms an exception to the above reasoning, and will probably be disapproved by those whose interests may appear to be burthened by it. But, if rightly considered, this arrangement ought not to excite opposition in any quarter, for it is certain that every charge is eventually borne by the property; and in the long run, therefore, it is not very material to the owner, whether the rate is paid directly by himself, or by the occupier, it being in fact a portion of the rent. This arrangement is proposed, partly as a matter of convenience, on account of the difficulty and expense of collecting a rate from the vast number of small occupiers, of 5L value and under, which exist in Ireland, and partly also with a view of relieving this description of oceupiers, who are102
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for the most part in a state of poverty bordering upon destitution,, from directly bearing a portion of the burthen: and it is gratifying to observe, that this proposition seems to be more generally approved than any other part of the rating classes.
84.	The extension to Ireland of the principle of the English Parochial Assessment Act, making all real property liable for the relief of the destitute, according to its actual market value, has also, I think, as a matter of principle, been very generally approved : but, notwithstanding this, when it became necessary to carry out the principle, and to arrange the details requisite for its application, difficulties and objections were immediately raised. The principle of taking the fair average annual value of property as the basis of assessment is so convenient, and so obviously just, that no one can well object to it on general grounds,—the objections must all be local or particular, and this was precisely the case with respect to Ireland. The mode of assessment provided by the Bill has not been objected to on account of its unfairness, but solely because there were circumstances existing in Ireland, with which it was apprehended that it would not harmonise, and these circumstances it is here necessary to explain.
85.	A great charge has already been incurred, for the purpose of making a general survey, and a general valuation of property throughout Ireland. Both these measures are still in progress, and they have been undertaken with the avowed intention of making the valuation, when completed, the basis of assessment for all purposes, whether local or general. Nothing could well be more unequal than the old mode of applotting and collecting the county-cess ; and this at length came to be felt as so great an evil, that Government was compelled to interfere, and it was determined to have the whole of Ireland surveyed and mapped, and then also to have every part of it valued by scientific valuators, under the direction of the Public Survey Department. Considerable progress has been made in effecting each of these objects, but it is estimated that eight or possibly ten years may yet elapse, before the whole will be completed. Wherever the new survey and valuation have been completed, and the county-cess collected upon the data thus provided, it is of course a vast improvement upon the old unequal mode of applotment, and affords proportionate satisfaction to the cess-payers.
86.	The new valuation is nevertheless open to three weighty objections : first, it does not include all real property, many kinds properly as subject to be rated as any of those which it includes, being omitted: secondly, it does not specify the value of particular properties as occupied separately, but values the property in each townland collectively. And, lastly, it omits to make provision forReport.]	rating.	103
correcting the valuation from time to time* as circumstances alter the value of property. None of these objections apply to the very able manner in which the valuation has been made, as far as it has been proceeded with; but they seriously affect its sufficiency for Poor Law purposes.
87.	It certainly is important that a poor-rate should be levied equally upon all real property alike,—that is, upon all property in land, or profits arising in any way out of its occupation. Personal property is necessarily excepted, as, independently of other considerations, its changeable nature, and the impossibility of tracing its changes, without an inquisitorial power of investigating private affairs that would in practice be found intolerable, totally unfit it for becoming an object of assessment. Realproperty, on the contrary, is open and tangible, its changes can readily be traced, and its value easily ascertained. The equable pressure of the rate would in every case be necessary to reconcile people to the burthen. If any inequality were permitted—if some descriptions of ratable property were omitted whilst others were charged—it would not only be unjust in itself, but it would also be a constant source of dissatisfaction, and possibly of resistance; and this would be the case if the present valuation for county-cess were used in an assessment for the poor-rate. Tithes, mines, roads, canals, tolls, mills, water-power, and all tenements under 51. value (which in fact exceeds 71. value according to the mode of valuation adopted), are totally omitted; and it would therefore be necessary to add these and any other kinds of property not now included; so that the valuation now in progress, even where just completed, would have to be amended before it could be taken as the basis of a poor-rate.
88.	The omitting to distinguish individual properties in the valuation, also unfits it in a great measure for poor-rate purposes. The town-land is valued as a whole, and according to the value affixed upon it will have, as a whole, to pay its portion of contribution to the county-cess. The proportions of this charge, which each individual occupying property within the town-land will have to pay, is still to be ascertained, and this is left to certain applet-ters to determine. The present valuators, moreover, in valuing the town-lands, do not proceed upon the principle of fair average annual value, as now established in England, but * they fix the valuation according to a certain scale, contingent upon the price of corn and other produce, and the particular qualities of the soil; so that the intervention of scientific persons will be as necessary for correcting the valuation, as it has been f )r its formation. This raises a formidable difficulty as regards the future, for it seems essential that the rate-book should be readily adaptable to every change of value in the properties rated; and this, I apprehend,104	rating.	[Second
can only be secured by enabling the several localities to correct it from time to time, as is now practised in England.
89.	Notwithstanding these objections, it has been contended that the present valuation, wherever it has been completed, should be taken as the basis for the poor-rate ; and that progressively, as the measure is completed in every county, it shall form the sole ground of assessment for local and general purposes. Now if the valuation had comprised every description of ratable property, or even if, in its present shape, it had been carried throughout the whole of Ireland, it might be a question whether it would not be better to take a valuation so prepared, although imperfect, rather than incur the labour and the expense of constructing a totally new one :—but the valuation has been completed in eight counties only out of thirty-two, and several years must elapse before it will be finished in all,—it does not comprise every description of property, but omits several very important particulars. It also omits to specify the value of the several holdings of the individuals to be rated, and it is unprovided with any means for correcting the valuations from time to time, according to the change of circumstances which may take place;—so that even now, or certainly long before the whole of the valuations can be completed, the districts first valued either have become or will become, in numerous instances, unequally assessed.
90.	On these grounds, therefore, I have always considered that the valuation for the county-cess, now in progress in Ireland, would be insufficient for the purposes of the poor-rate; but, although insufficient, the valuation will yet be a most useful auxiliary; for, wherever the survey and valuation have been completed, the difficulty of framing a rate under the provisions of the Poor Law Bill will be comparatively light, the principal part of the labour being already accomplished, and that too in a very superior manner. The survey and maps are of course distinct from the valuation, and will be of permanent utility, fixing boundaries, distances, and elevations, and giving an accurate delineation of the surface of the country. The valuation also will always be useful, for, although it will be affected by the changes which are constantly taking place, it will yet be a statistical document of great interest and importance, and will serve to refer to as a corrective in adjusting future assessments.
91.	Your Lordship is aw7are of all that took place with reference to this part of the subject, during the progress of the Bill last Session, to which, therefore, I need not now advert. But I made it my business, whilst in Ireland, to discuss the question of rating with a great number of individuals conversant with and interested in its details; and there has rarely been an instance in which,RATING.
105
Report,]
after such discussion, it has not been admitted that the mode of rating proposed in the Bill is preferable to that now in use for the county-cess. In Dublin, I had several meetings with the heads of the departments connected with the subject, and on the last occasion, after carefully considering the question in jail its bearings, it was the unanimous opinion that the principle of real average annual value, as established in England, and as proposed in the Bill, was the correct principle on which to found an assessment of property for the purpose of a poor-rate, and that it ought to be established in Ireland. The value of an opinion thus deliberately expressed, after the fullest consideration, by individuals competent, from their position and acquirements, to form a correct judgment, your Lordship will appreciate ; and, presuming that the clauses, as they now stand in the Bill, and as thus approved, will continue unchanged, it may be useful to explain how the mode of rating proposed will be carried into operation.
92.	Wherever the survey and valuation are completed, the difficulty in the first instance of establishing a poor-rate will be comparatively trifling. The several kinds of property omitted from the valuation must be added ; the value of each being affixed according to the principle on which the existing valuation is founded;—The several holdings or occupancies must then be entered in a rate-book, to be provided for every town-land, with the value of each holding, and the name of the owner and occupier ; and for this the applotment of the county-cess will afford most of the information necessary. A rate-book for each town-land will thus be formed, comprising the whole of the property within it, and having a certain value affixed to each holding, with the names of the occupier and owner. This will be all that is absolutely necessary as a first step, and rates may thus, for a time, be levied essentially upon the basis of the present valuation, without being open to material objection. It is true the principle of actual value will not have been applied, but the present valuation is, on the whole, so well and equally done, that it may safely be adopted as the basis of assessment in the first instance ; and this will give the Board of Guardians time to attend to other matters.
93.	It will still, however, be desirable in all cases to apply the principle of actual market value as early as it may be found convenient ; and, for doing this, provision was made by the 62d, 63d, and 64th clauses of the Bill of last Session. The Guardians may avail themselves of all existing surveys and valuations, or under the direction of the Commissioners they may make a new survey or valuation, for which purpose a committee of rate-payers may be named as valuators, or a professional valuator may be appointed to complete the valuation, or, which will probably be found in most cases to be the most convenient moçie of proceeding, to assist106
COLLECTION OF POOR-RATE.
[Second
the committee in completing it. These powers are general, and may be used at all times during the progress of the Union., as well as at its commencement; and thus eveiy contingency seems to be provided for, as far as concerns the making of the rate, and the necessary correction of the valuation from time to time.
94.	In cases where the Government survey and valuation have not been completed, the difficulty of framing the first assessment for a poor-rate will of course be greater. There will be no general valuation of any kind to fall back upon, since the old applotment of the county-cess is too unequal to be of much use. Still, however, whatever surveys or valuations exist, whether public or private, may all be made available; and the valuation recently made under the Tithe Composition Act will at the outset be found extremely useful. With such helps, a committee of rate-payers will, I think, be able, either with or without the aid of a professional valuator, to frame an assessment of the property within a Union, on the intelligible principle of fair marketable average annual value, even where the survey and valuation have not been completed; and, as the necessity for a rate will not immediately arise on the declaration of a Union, the money requisite for providing the workhouse being obtainable by loan from Government, there will be ample time to make the necessary valuation, and prepare the requisite machinery, before a rate is actually called for ; and any error or inequality which may exist in the assessment as first made, or which may arise afterwards, will be always open to subsequent adjustment.
95.	As regards the collection of the rate, all that is necessary seems to be provided for by the 68th clause of the Bill, which sanctions the appointment of the collector of county-cess, to collect the poor-rates,—giving him the same powers for this purpose, which he exercises in the collection of the Grand Jury cess. A unity of operation will thus be secured in the collection of these two rates, which is certainly of great practical importance, and will, probably, ensure the more orderly and efficient collection of both. I trust that these explanations will serve to show, not only that the mode of rating proposed in the Bill ought to be adhered to, but also that it may be carried into effect without very material difficulty.
viii. Eighthly,—As to the Size and proposed Number of Unions.
96.	In almost every discussion during the progress of the Bill last Session, some reference was made to the proposed size and number of the Unions, and frequently in terms of disapprobation.Report.]	SIZE OF UNIONS.	107
But there was nothing in the Bill itself to excite any such objections. The discretion of tl*e Commissioners is unfettered, and they are left at liberty so to form the Unions, as may be best adapted to the circumstances of each district. This discretion has been confided to the Commissioners in England, and" it seems to be equally necessary that they should possess it in Ireland. The observations as to the intended size of the Unions applied, therefore, not to the Bill, but to certain portions of my First Report, and particularly to the 46th paragraph, in which it is stated that, “ If the surface of Ireland be divided ihto squares of twenty miles each, so that a workhouse placed in the centre would be about ten miles from the extremities in all directions, this would give about eighty wrorkhouses for the whole of Ireland. A diameter of twenty miles was the limit prescribed for the size of Unions by Gilbert’s Act, but it was often exceeded in practice; it may, however, be assumed as a convenient size on the present occasion.?>
97.	Instead of eighty workhouses, however, I assumed that a hundred might be required, and I calculated the probable expense accordingly. Now this was mere assumption, for it must obviously be impossible to arrive at any precise conclusion as to the number of Unions which it may be necessary to form in Ireland, until some progress has been made in the work of formation. The Commissioners are bound, on every principle of public duty, to form the Unions in the best manner, according to the best of their judgment; and they can have no possible inducement to act otherwise. Their credit as public functionaries and as individuals would alike be compromised by any failure in this respect. It is almost impossible for men to be called upon to act under purer impulses, or to be more entirely freed by the nature of their duties from local or personal bias. It may be presumed, therefore, that, in forming the Irish Unions, the Commissioners will use due vigilance and impartiality, and that they will avail themselves of the corrective which the experience of England affords.
98.	The generality of the English Unions are of less dimensions, many of them considerably less, than twenty miles diameter ; but there are also many that equal, some that exceed, that extent. I insert in the Appendix, No. 14, a Table of Unions in England and Wales, in which the radius from a workhouse in the centre would exceed ten miles, and these have not been found more difficult to manage, or less effective, than the smaller Unions. On the whole, after again considering the subject, I find no reason for materially altering the view expressed in my former Report. What is there stated is of course matter of opinion merely, and will be no further attended to in carrying the measure into effect, than as it i§ found to accord with the actual circumstances of the several districts.108
MENDICANCY.
ix. Ninthly,—As to the Repression of Mendicancy.
99.	Objections have been made to the insertion of the vagrancy clauses (55 to 58 inclusive) in the Irish Poor Law Bill; and it has been contended that, if such provisions were necessary, they should be established by a separate Act. Practically it seems immaterial whether the suppression of mendicancy is provided for in the Poor Law Bill, or by a separate Bill; but it is most important that the provision should be made concurrently with the Poor Law measure, To establish a Poor Law, without at the same time suppressing mendicancy, would be very imperfect legislation, especially with reference to the present condition of the Irish people. It is true there are now Vagrancy Laws in Ireland, which enact whipping, imprisonment, and transportation as the punishments of mendicancy; but these laws are inoperative, partly from their severity, and partly from other causes. Ireland wants a Vagrancy Law that shall operate in unison with the Poor Law, for, without such a harmony of action, both laws would be in a great measure ineffective.
100.	The suppression of mendicancy is necessary for the protection of the cultivators of the soil in Ireland. No Irish cottier, however poor, closes his door whilst partaking of his humble meal. The mendicant has free access, and is never refused a share, even although the mess provided be insufficient for the cottiers family. There is a superstitious dread of bringing down the beggar’s curse, and no one dares reject the application; and thus mendicancy is sustained in the midst of extreme poverty, perpetuating itself amongst its victims. Much of the feeling out of which this state of things has arisen, may, I think be traced to the absence of any provision for relieving the destitute. A mendicant applies for aid on the plea of destitution.—His plea must be admitted, for it cannot be disproved; and, if not relieved, he may possibly perish for want of sustenance. To refuse relief, therefore, may occasion the death of a fellow-creature, which would, of course, be regarded as a crime of great magnitude, both in a religious and moral sense. Hence the tacit admission of the mendicant’s claim, which is now regarded by the Irish peasantry as a kind of right, having priority over every other. To make provision for relieving such mendicants at the public charge, without at the same time preventing the practice of begging, would leave the Irish cottier exposed to much of the pressure which he now sustains from this source; for the mendicant classes generally, if permitted, would probably prefer the vagrant life to which they are accustomed, to the order, cleanliness, and restraint of a work-house. To suppress mendicancy, therefore, not only constitutes an essential part of the proposed system of Poor Laws, but it is moreover necessary for the protection of the Irish cottier, and the labouring classes generally.Report.’]	MENDICANCY.	109
10L The evils resulting from the practice of mendicancy are strikingly pointed out in a Report from a sub-committee specially appointed at Aberdeen to inquire into the sub ject ; and I have thought it useful to insert in the Appendix (No. 15) an extract from this interesting document, containing its summary and conclusions. It is extremely valuable, as showing the conclusions arrived at by intelligent and impartial men, after a careful inquiry, not with reference to mendicancy only, but also as to work-house relief, the principle of which they fully recognise. The sub-committee observe, that—
“ The great evil of begging is its tendency to idleness and irreligion. Every person who can work commits an injustice when his fellow-citizens are taxed for his support ; and the chance is, or rather it is a certainty, that he will do mischief rather than leave his mind and hands entirely unemployed. In a poor’s-house, the question whether parties are willing and able to work can best be tried. Begging habits may thus be justly controlled. The large class of persons who so often are found in the streets pleading inability and want, will not, unless in real need, be bold enough to incur thè risk of such a trial. Of this class may be reckoned the young persons who parade the streets, many of whom can work to some extent, and all of whom may at least be learning something useful, in place of following that most evil of professions, vagrancy, with all its mischiefs. Another benefit to be derived from a poor’s-house is, that there, if a proper management and superintendence be adopted, nothing can be misapplied ; and, while there is every reason to believe that, in many cases, out-door pensions are made the means of temporary dissipation, and, in some cases, grabbed at by petty usurers, while the recipients for whom they are destined are left in misery,-—by the poor’s-house system these evils will be prevented. And, if begging be suppressed, the inhabitants of Aberdeen will be able to afford a large sum, which is now often unprofitably employed on vagrants.”
102.	The above extract completely accords with the views embodied in the Irish Poor Law Bill ; and it is highly satisfactory to find this concurrence of opinion in a distant part of the country, where the people differ in many respects from their fellow-subjects of Ireland and England ; but where, nevertheless, mendicancy and destitution, similar in character, although it may be different in degree, prevail as in other parts of the empire. For these evils of mendicancy and destitution, the Irish Poor Law measure has been devised, as a palliative at least, if not as a final remedy; and, on a subject of such vast importance to the community, as well as of general difficulty, it is not a little encouraging to find that a totally independent and extensive range of inquiry, has led to the same or very similar conclusions to those which have been adopted by Government, and submitted to the Legislature.
103.	In England, the organization of the Unions has, in many110	MODE OF INTRODUCING THE NEW SYSTEM. [Second
instances, been made available for the suppression of mendicancy. The Boards of Guardians have, in several districts, issued tickets to the rate-payers, containing a recommendation that the bearer should be received into the workhouse and relieved as a casual pauper, being at the same time, of course/ set to work; and one of these tickets the rate-payer (having first signed it) gives to any beggar applying to him for relief. The result has been, almost totally to extinguish mendicancy within the Unions where this plan has been adopted; for the beggars, finding no relief to be obtained except in the workhouse, and that labour would there be exacted in return, speedily quitted the district, and sought for contributions where they might be obtainable on easier terms. Some plan of this kind may possibly be found practicable in Ireland ; but the evil of mendicancy is there so inveterate, that, without special enactment, and the co-operation of the civil power, it will be impracticable to effect its suppression.
104.	The moral effects of mendicancy upon the character and habits of the people, deserve particular notice. The mendicant is never stationary—he is constantly moving about, entering every cottage, mixing with every community, joining every assemblage. He is the newsman, the chronicler, the talebearer of the district; and many of the broils and party feuds which exist in Ireland, may, I believe, be traced to this source. The gossip and tattle to which the mendicant gives currency, divert the people from what ought to be their ordinary pursuits, and hurry them away to fairs, markets, funerals, and other places of resort; and many acts of violence and breaches of the law probably originate in the tales, true or false, which the mendicant classes circulate. The suppression of mendicancy would therefore, it may be presumed, tend to the peace, as well as to the moral and social improvement, of the Irish people.
105.	On these grounds, as well as on the grounds stated in my former Report, I feel it to be my duty strenuously to urge the adoption of measures for suppressing mendicancy in Ireland, either by retaining the vagrancy clauses as they originally stood in the Bill, or else by introducing a separate Bill for the purpose, to be carried through simultaneously with the Poor Law measure. The latter plan would afford an opportunity for giving a complete vagrancy lawr to Ireland, if that should be deemed desirable.
x. Tenthly,—As to the Mode of introducing the Measure.
106.	This presents a very important subject for consideration, the early, if not the final, success of the measure, depending greatly upon the mode in which it may established* Some persons comReport'] MODE OF introducing the new system.	Ill
sider that it should he introduced gradually and experimentally, whilst others are of opinion that it should, as nearly as possible, be established simultaneously; and it is important to ascertain which of these modes is entitled to the preference.
107.	On a question of this nature, the opinion of the managers of the Dublin Mendicity Institution seems entitled to especial regard, their local knowledge and experience affording them the best means of forming a correct judgment of the temper and habits of the people, as likely to affect the introduction of the measure. In the Report on the Irish Poor Law Bill, to which I have already referred, under the fourth head, it is stated—“Your Committee have learned with regret, that it is not intended at once to carry into effect the erection of the proposed workhouses generally through the country, yet your Committee conceive that any other course will be productive of great inconvenience, causing unequal pressure in places such as Dublin and other great towns, where it may be supposed the first establishments will be opened; whereas by a general, and, as far as may be found possible, simultaneous opening of the workhouses, not only will such inconvenience be avoided, but the poorer classes will be impressed with a much more favourable opinion of the determination of Government to carry the measure seriously into effect.” This opinion of the Committee was subsequently confirmed by the whole body of managers of the Mendicity Institution, whose sentiments it must, therefore, be considered as expressing.
108.	It is certain that most of the difficulties which may arise from dispensing with a law of settlement, will be peculiarly liable to occur whilst the measure is in progress of introduction; but when the Unions are all formed, there will comparatively be little inconvenience to be apprehended, and this constitutes a strong argument for proceeding with celerity in their formation. Another argument in favour of proceeding vigorously in establishing the measure, is adverted to by the managers of the Dublin Mendicity, namely, that it would show the people that the Legislature was in earnest ; that there was no halting between two opinions; and that Government was determined to carry out the measure with promptitude and effect. A manifestation of this kind would tend to prevent opposition or difficulty, and to remove them if they occurred. Such an impression, moreover, would go far to reconcile the people to arrangements, which might perhaps be distasteful to them, only because they were new ; whereas to proceed slowly with the measure—to establish one or any given number of Unions, and then to wait for the results to be developed before proceeding farther—thus evidently showing that the step was taken as a matter of experiment, and that Government was as ready to go back as to advance^—this would certainly strip112	MODE OF INTRODUCING THE NEW SYSTEM. [Second
the measure of the moral influence which it would acquire under the opposite course, and greatly add to the difficulties of its introduction.
109.	Referring to the experience of England, I am warranted in saying that, if the Commissioners had not at the outset proceeded with celerity in establishing the English Unions — if they had hesitated in carrying the new law into effect—if they had paused for the development of results, or waited for the impulse of local opinion, their progress would have been comparatively insignificant; and, instead of the efforts which are now making in every Union throughout England and Wales, for restoring the independence, bettering the condition, and renovating the moral character of the labouring classes, the evils and abuses of the old Poor Law system, with its long train of demoralising consequences, would still have remained, lessened perhaps in bulk, and curtailed of some of its powers of mischief, but still instinct with life, and pregnant with future evil.
110.	Reasoning then from the experience of England combined with the other circumstances before adverted to, it seems difficult to resist the conclusion that the Poor Law measure, when sanctioned by the Legislature, should be carried into operation in Ireland with as little delay as possible; and that it should, moreover be carried out as a whole, with a view to the final result, and not by piecemeal or experimentally. Some delays of course there unavoidably will be in the creation of so large a machinery, and some portions of the country must of necessity be placed in Union before others ; for, however desirable it may be to have “ a simultaneous opening of the workhouses’' throughout the whole of Ireland, as recommended in the Dublin Mendicity Report,—this will be found impracticable, although its desirableness may be kept in view. After the Unions are formed, time will be required for providing the necessary workhouse accommodation, and this will be more readily done in some cases than in others. In many instances, barracks and other large buildings, capable of being converted into workhouses, will probably be obtainable, which will facilitate the commencement of operations, as well as lessen the expense. In the cases where an entirely new workhouse will have to be provided, twelve or eighteen months will probably elapse before it will be in a state to be used: and it is only when the workhouse can be brought into operation, as a medium of relief, that the Union will become effective.
111.	There is a subject adverted to in the extract above given from the Report of the Dublin Mendicity Institution, which requires some notice. The managers assume that the Unions will be first formed, and the workhouses first opened, in Dublin and theReport.] MODE OF introducing the new system.	113
other great towns; but this is a point on which the Commissioners will have to decide after full inquiry and investigation, and I am desirous of keeping the question clear for their discretion. In some cases it may be expedient to begin with the great towns; in others, not: and it is important to prevent Dublin, Cork, Belfast, and such places, from supposing, as a matter of course, that they will first be dealt with. Mendicancy now flows into these towns from the neighbouring and distant districts, and every workhouse established in those districts would serve to lessen the influx, by providing relief for the destitute in their own locality. On this account it might seem advisable that the country districts should be first united, and provided with workhouse accommodation, in order to keep back the tide of mendicancy, and prevent its undue pressure upon the towns at the outset. In Dublin and the other great towns, moreover, a machinery now exists for providing for the destitute, and it is extremely important that the several houses of industry, and the mendicity and other charitable establishments, should be kept up and managed as at present, until the arrangements under the new law are completed. Any failure in this respect might be attended with serious inconvenience, and vrould certainly bring a vast amount of suffering upon those who have been accustomed to reiy upon these charitable institutions for support.
112. After the most careful consideration of the question in all its bearings, it is my duty to state to your Lordship my opinion, that no time should be lost in giving legislative effect to the Irish Poor Law Bill, and that the measure should then be carried into operation with the least possible delay. If there be danger of failure in any respect, it will be in the period which intervenes between the establishment of the first Union and the formation of the last. When the whole country is in Union, and the several local executives formed and in operation, there will then, I believe, be no undue pressure in any quarter that may not be dealt with under the powers vested in the Commissioners; but, in the interim, whilst the Unions are in progress of formation, I am sensible that some inconvenience may arise, and it is to lessen the chance of its occurrence that I wish to shorten the period, and push forward the formation of the Unions with as much celerity as may be consistent with the safe and orderly completion of so important a measure. If I venture to press this point with unusual earnestness, it is not from any doubt of the sufficiency of the workhouse principle in Ireland when brought fairly and fully into operation, but in order to guard it from an unfair or partial exposure, and to prevent as far as possible its being subjected, under adverse circumstances, to a pressure that may possibly (I say possibly) be thrown upon some one part, instead of being spread over the whole of the machinery—for then, if this part, possibly
i114	voting—-cumulative—proxy.	[Second
too a weak or defective part* should fail under such an unequal pressure* there will not be wanting persons to impugn the whole system ; and thus its moral influence may be lessened, if its very existence be not endangered.
xi. Eleventhly,—-As to cumulative Voting, Voting by Proxy, and constituting Magistrates ex-officio Guardians*
113.	All these provisions have been objected to. It might perhaps be sufficient to say, in answer to such objections, that the Irish Poor Law Bill follows in these respects the example of the Poor Law Amendment Act, and thus only proposes to assimilate the law in the two countries. There are* however* weighty reasons in favour of each of these provisions, some of which it may not be without use to notice.
114.	With respect to cumulative votes, it should be borne in mind that the raising and disbursing of a poor-rate involves no question of political rights. It is to be regarded rather in the light of a mutual assurance, under which certain members of a community unite together, for the common purpose of protecting each other from the effects of pauperism, each member being required to contribute according to his visible means, and each having an interest according to the amount of his actual contributions. If therefore the amount contributed be the measure of each rate-payer’s interest, it ought in justice also, within certain convenient limitations, to be the measure of his influence; and these limitations the Bill provides, by fixing a scale according to which every rate-payer is to vote. The principle of voting according to the direct interest of the individual has always been recognised in the great commercial companies, such as the Bank of England, the East India Company, &c., and is now, I believe, invariably acted upon in every joint-stock company in the metropolis, for whatever purpose established. This principle is indeed so obviously equitable, as to make it almost a matter of surprise that it should ever be objected to; but, if the objections be examined, it will be found that they originate in certain notions, confounding political rights with the question of raising and disbursing ,the poor-rate; whereas, in fact, there is little or no analogy between them.
115.	As regards the right of voting by proxy given to owners by the Bill, it may be observed, that such a power is necessary for enabling the owner to protect his property, his interest in which is permanent, although he is not always present to represent it by his personal vote; and the Bill therefore provides for his doing so by proxy. The occupier is always present and mayReport.] MAGISTRATES EX-OFfTCIÓ GUARDIANS.	115
vote in person; not so the owner. He would very rarely be present, and his interest would be unprotected without this power of voting* by proxy. That the owner’s interest ought to be represented, I presume will not be denied. The rate must be regarded as a charge upon the property,, and as Such it becomes a portion of the rent, which in the average of years Would be increased by the amount of the rate, if this was not levied for Poor Law purposes; so that in reality it is the landlord, the permanent owner of the property, who finally bears the burthen of the rate, and not the tenant or temporary occupier; although this last is, as a matter of convenience, required to pay the rate in the first instance. It seems consonant with justice,, therefore, that every facility should be afforded to the owner for protecting his interest by his vote.
116. There are many reasons why magistrates should form a portion of every Board of Guardians. The elected Guardians will probably, for the most part, consist of occupiers, or renters, not the owners of property; and their interest will consequently be temporary, and may end with the current or any future year; but the interest of the oWrner is permanent, and embraces all times. Some Union of these two interests seems necessary towards the complete organization of a Board of Guardians; and as the magistrates collectively may fairly be regarded as comprising the great landed proprietors of the country, the Bill proposes to accomplish this object by creating them ex-officio members of the Board. The elected Guardians, moreover, are subject to be changed every year, and it is not improbable that their proceedings might be changeable, and perhaps contradictory, and mischief and confusion might be caused by the opposite views of successive Boards. The ex-officio Guardians will serve as a corrective to this evil. Their position as magistrates, their information and general character, and their large stake as owners bf property, will necessarily give them much weight; whilst the proposed limitation of their number to that of one-third of the elected Guardians, will prevent their having an undue preponderance. The elected and the ex-officio members of the Board will probably each improve the other, and important benefits may be expected to ensue from their frequent mingling, and from the necessity for mutual concession and forbearance which such mingling cannot fail to teach. Each individual member will feel that his influence depends upon the opinion which his colleagues entertain of him, or upon the respect or regard which they feel towards him; and hence will arise an interchange of good offices, and a cultivation of mutual good will, beginning with the members of the Board of Guardians, but extending to every class throughout the Union, and eventually it may be hoped throughout the116	CONSTITUTION OF THE COMMISSION.	[Second
country : and thus the Union system may become the means of healing dissensions, and reconciling jarring interests in Ireland.
117.	On these grounds, I consider that the establishment of ex-officio Guardians, voting by proxy, and cumulative voting, as provided in the Bill, should be adhered to.
xn. Twelfthly,—As to the Constitution of the Commission, and the Powers to be confided to the Commissioners.
118.	In course of the debates upon the Bill in the last Session, allusion was frequently made to both of these points. With respect to the first, I need only state that I have seen no reason to change the opinion expressed in my former Report, that the existing Poor Law Commissioners are competent to perform the duty in Ireland as well as in England; and that the advantage of this consolidation would more than counterbalance the inconvenience, if any, as far as Ireland is concerned, of not having a separate commission. With respect to the second point, it has been universally admitted that large powers are necessary for enabling the Commissioners to meet the difficulties with which they will have to deal: but still there appeared in the last Parliament an indisposition to confer such powers, however necessary, founded, seemingly, on an apprehension that they would be abused, and that the abuse might become permanent under the provisions of the Bill.
119.	Such jealous caution can, of course, in no way be objected to; but its exercise in this instance should be in subordination to the great object of rendering the Poor Law measure really effective; and if for this end large powers are necessary, every motive of prudence and policy require that they should be conferred. That they are necessary, appears to be admitted by all parties, and it must be presumed, therefore, that they will be granted: but whether permanently, or for a limited time, may be worthy of consideration. The duration of the powers conferred by the Poor Law Amendment Act was restricted to five years; this forms a precedent, and, if limiting the powers of the Commissioners under the Irish Poor Law Bill to a similar period would remove objections to the measure in any quarter, it might be well to adopt the limitation.
120.	As regards the probability that the Commissioners might abuse the powers confided to them it may be remarked, that it is impossible to point out any adequate motive for wilful abuse, even if the opportunity for it existed, which, generally speaking, it will117
Report.]	PROPOSED POWERS of commission.
not; for the powers of the Commissioners, after the Unions are formed, are in a great measure restrictive. They can interfere to prevent abuse, and to correct faulty action,—to punish delinquency, or to remedy error,—-but they have no power to interfere in the individual ordering of relief, and no ihoney or property of any kind is brought within their reach. Their powers are altogether genera], and are guarded by the strongest motives for their impartial exercise, without any motive whatever for their partial or faulty application. It seems not too much, therefore, under such circumstances, to assume that the powers proposed to be confided to the Commissioners will not be abused.
121.	The difficulties attendant upon the introduction of the measure will of course depend in some degree upon the state of the country at the time; but, however modified, these difficulties will certainly be of a nature and extent requiring the exercise of large powers, and much vigilance and discretion in their application. Of the amount of difficulty I now form a somewhat higher estimate than I did last year. I may probably have then underestimated it: but, however that may be, the difficulty has certainly been increased by what has since taken place in England. The outcry here raised against the new Poor Law, the misrepresentations of the public press, and the currency which has been given to unfounded or exaggerated statements both in and out of Parliament, have all tended to augment the difficulty of establishing the proposed measure in Ireland. These statements and misrepresentations have been copied into the Irish papers, and read and commented upon throughout Ireland. The workhouse, instead of a place of refuge for the destitute, is described as a Bas-tile. The benevolent intentions of the law, in its present guarded form, are questioned—and, the administering of relief in the shape of out-door allowances to the poor, instead of needful sustentation to the destitute within the workhouse, is contended for; and thus the partial clamour which has been raised in England, for a return to the abuses of the old system, has not altogether failed of producing some effect in Ireland: I do not think that it has been considerable, but still some effect has been produced; and to that extent will the difficulty of establishing the measure be increased.
122.	That some such change would, after a time, take place in England, with reference to the new Poor Law, was perhaps to be expected. The long train of abuses which had previously existed in almost every English parish could not all be swept awray, without the numerous individuals who wrere benefited, or who believed that they were benefited, by the existence of such abuses, making strenuous efforts for their perpetuation; and it was therefore probable that sooner or laterthese efforts would produce a118
CONCLUSION.
[Second Report,
certain amount of reaction. The effect however is temporary. The present ebullition will subside, and the character and tendency of the new law, in its spirit and in its details, will be generally appreciated as they become better understood. I have the same confidence with respect to Ireland. The difficulties of carrying out the proposed measure in that country may have been increased by what has recently taken place in England; but these difficulties will also subside; and they afford no ground for delay in proceeding with the measure, nor for doubt as to its results,—provided only that adequate powers be imparted to the authorities on whom the duty of establishing it will be devolved.
] 23. Many measures, local as well as general* have been proposed, either for removing existing restrictions to the application of capital, or for giving direct encouragement to its application in Ireland; and some of these measures I understand it to be the intention of Government to take into its early consideration, with a view to giving them effect, Of the measures necessary for calling into activity the vast natural resources of the country, your Lordship possesses the best means of forming a correct judgment. In the limited survey which I have been able to take of the state of Ireland, and of the condition of the Irish people, it has appeared to me that quiet, and the absence of exciting and disturbing causes, is one of the objects chiefly to be desired. With repose would come security, and with security the investment of capital, and thence would arise employment, and the diffusion of wealth, and the development of the latent energies of the country. The proposed Poor Law will not of itself accomplish these objects, but it will be found a valuable accessory; and w7ith the progress of education, and that orderly submission to lawful authority which is at once the cause and the consequence of peace and prosperity, all those other objects will be eventually secured for Ireland.
I have the honour to be,
My Lord,
Your Lordship’s obedient and faithful servant, GEO. NICHOLLS.APPENDIX.
No. 1.—Extract of a Letter from Mr. Morgan, Deputy^ Governor of SL Peter s Hospital, Bristol.
St. Peter’s Hospital, 28th August, 1837.
Sir,*—In compliance with your request that I would furnish you with my opinion on the probable effect of the workhouse system in Ireland, I will do so as succinctly as I can. That opinion is formed from personal observation of the Irish paupers that have been brought under my notice weekly at the relief-table during the last four years.
From what I have seen of the lower classes of Irish, they seem to be attached to a life of vagrancy—satisfied with a bare subsistence—'accompanied by a great want of forethought—and disposed to rely much on eleemosynary aid. Vast numbers that apply for relief make a trade of begging, and will not accept the offer of being sent home, preferring to remain, although apparently in a state of destitution. Perhaps the numerous charities here may have a share in producing this result, for I firmly believe these charities operate as a bounty on the importation of Irish vagrants, and are the cause of engendering pauperism to no small extent among our own population. The certain knowledge that no such resources existed to fall back upon, would stimulate the poor to habits of exertion and providence.
I do not think that out-door relief, in the shape of employment at a low rate of wages, will do for the Irish, as all attempts of this kind have proved abortive with them here. Even to the aged I doubt the. policy of giving out-door relief, on the introduction of poor-laws into a country for the first time. Any system of relief to work well should be complete, not partial ; that is, a due provision of food and raiment with lodgings, and this should be in the workhouse, where the public, in return for their maintenance, should receive the benefit of whatever labour the recipients are capable of bestowing. Any system of outdoor relief is necessarily liable to imposition, and has a tendency to relax self-exertion, and almost inevitably leads the recipient to seek for charitable aids, and even furnishes him with leisure to prosecute his objects.
Upon the whole, looking at the habits and propensities of the lower classes of Irish visiting this country, I am of opinion that the workhouse system is the best adapted to Ireland ; but the framing a suitable dietary will require great care.
I have the honour to remain, Sir,
To George Nicholls, Esq.,	Your most obedient servant,
Poor Law Commissioner. Samuel Morgan, Deputy-Governor.120
EVIDENCE AS TO IRISH POOR —
[App. to
No. 2.—Letter from Mr. Downing, Governor of St. Peter's Hospital, Bristol.
St. Peter's Hospital, Bristol, 28£/t August, Ï 837.
Sir,—In compliance with your request, I submit to your notice a few remarks on the Irish poor who have come under my notice in Bristol, during the last 12 or 13 years that I have held the situation, first of Clerk, and then as Master, of St. Peter’s Hospital in this city. During this period I have had great numbers of Irish paupers constantly under my notice, and I am decidedly of opinion that the introduction of out-door relief in Ireland would increase the number of paupers there, for, instead of begging, they would then throw themselves on the poor-rates. The able-bodied, I am well assured, would very readily accept out-door relief in the shape of work. Under the old law, when great numbers of Irish paupers were constantly being passed to Bristol from London and other places to be sent to Ireland, it was our practice to send home the aged and infirm immediately on their arrival ; but the able-bodied were set to breaking stones. The wages paid them were very low, even lower than those paid to our own paupers ; yet they found themselves so well off when compared with what they had been accustomed to in Ireland, and they remained so long on our hands, that we were frequently obliged to threaten to send them home in order to get rid of them. If there had been a workhouse into which we could have sent them, I believe none of them would have remained, or at least none for any length of time.
I think the workhouse system the only one that would work well in Ireland. There might be some difficulty in framing a suitable dietary; but I have always found among those who apply to us for relief, even among the aged and infirm, the greatest reluctance, under almost any circumstances, to come into our workhouse, or in most cases to be sent back to Ireland.
Feigning sickness is one of the means by which the Irish try to obtain out-door relief from us—frequently women will apply to the committee of relief and say their husbands are ill, and confined to their beds, or unable to leave their houses ; the committee offer to take the husbands in and cure them, and then send them and their families to Ireland, but in 9 cases out of 10 they refuse to accept relief in the house.
In Bristol there are a great many public charities, and the poor Irish avail themselves of them to a very great extent; indeed Mr. Hemmons, our visitor and inspector, who is also one of the visitors of the “ Stranger’s Friend Society,” says, that full two-thirds of the applicants to that charity are Irish. The “ Stranger’s Friend Society” visit and relieve persons at their own houses or lodgings.
I have the honour to be, Sir,
To George Nicholls, Esq.	Your obedient humble servant,
&c. &c. &c.	Josias Downing,
Master of St, Peter’s Hospital.FROM BRISTOL.
121
Second Kept.]
No. 3#.—Letter from Mr. George Chick, Assistant Overseer of the Parish of St. Philip and Jacob, Bristol.
Bristol, 28th August, 1837.
Sir,—I have been assistant overseer of the poor of the parish of St. Phliip and Jacob, in the borough of the city of Bristol, between seven and eight years, and during that period have had repeated applications from Irish poor for relief, which has been administered to them partly in money, partly in food, and sometimes by taking them into the work-house of this parish.
In all cases that my memory serves I found their stay in the work-house to be much shorter than paupers of our own parish, similarly situated (I mean able-bodied). It is my opinion, from the experience I have had among them, that the Irish poor had a much greater dislike to the workhouse than our own, even when the discipline of the work-house could not be so rigidly enforced under the old system of management, as is now so admirably arranged under the new.
I am, Sir,
To George Nieholls, Esq ,	Your very obedient servant,
&c. &c. &c.	George Chick,
Assistant Overseer, Parish of St. Philip and Jacob.
No. 4.—Letter from Robert Weale, Esq., Assistant Poor Law Commissioner. With an Enclosure.
Bristol, 29th August, 1837.
My dear Sir,—In pursuance of your request that I would, as far as I could, inquire into the habits of the Irish poor visiting this neighbourhood, and especially as to the fact of their willingness to receive parochial aid through the means of a workhouse, I have taken every means in my power of conversing with persons practically acquainted with the subject; and the universal opinion of such persons appears to be, that the destitution of an Irishman must be extreme before he will surrender his liberty, and subject himself to the restraint and discipline of a workhouse. Under the old system of management in workhouses, where there was an almost total absence of order and discipline, and when they presented strong attractions to persons of idle and slothful habits, relief in this shape was, I find, excepting in cases of sickness, refused by the Irish poor; and it is hardly to hp expected that under a more rigid system it will be accepted.
In pursuing my inquiries, I called at the house of a person who lets it out in lodgings to the Irish poor, and entered into conversation with several of the inmates. I found one remarkably intelligent man, and was much struck with the shrewdness of many of his remarks. He seemed to think it a reproach to the national character to suppose that there would be a willingness to enter into workhouses, and his countrywomen, of whom several were present, exclaimed, that half a meal of potatoes with their families would be always preferred to good living and separation in the workhouse. These, of course, were all able-bodied persons.
The poor fellow to whom I have before referred, in answer to an in-122
EVIDENCE AS TO IRISH POOR—
[App. to
quiry of mine, if it would be possible to introduce a system of out-relief, replied, tc that the difference between England and Ireland was, that there were shoals in the former to pay it and receive it, and that in the latter the shoals were all one side.3’ He had imbibed all the hostile impressions of the English poor against the workhouse system, yet he felt strongly persuaded that no other system was practicable in Ireland.
I remain, my dear Sir,
To George Nicholls, Esq.,	Yours, very faithfully,
&c. &c. &c.	Robert Weale.
[.Further Note.']—15th October.
I had a long conversation with Mr. Bynner, the vestry-clerk of Birmingham, lately, and I enclose his opinion as to the probability of the Irish poor flocking into a workhouse.
ENCLOSURE.
Letter from Mr. Bynner, Vestry Clerk of Birmingham.
Birmingham Workhouse, 16th September, 1837.
Sir,—In answer to your inquiries* I beg to say, 1st, from the knowledge I possess of the Irish character as exhibited by their poor in this country, I am of opinion that the able-bodied would not accept of relief in a well-disciplined workhouse, where they would be constantly kept to work, and subjected to the restraint of rules and orders of such an establishment.
2nd. I think the Irish are less likely to accept of relief in a workhouse than the English ; but I attribute this chiefly to the wandering habits of the Irish, who are not so domesticated as the English poor.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
Robert Weale, Esq.	W. W. Bynner, Vestry Clerk.
No. 5.—Letter from Mr. James Dowdall, Governor of Liverpool
Workhouse.
Liverpool Workhouse, 3rd! October, 1837.
Sir,—In compliance^vith your request, I beg leave to offer my opinion (also that of my ctllk, Mr. Barker) in reference to the disposition evinced by the Irish to enter workhouses. This opinion is founded on an experience of upwards of nineteen years3 service as a parish officer, —nearly four years of that time I have been engaged in the government of this house. I am of opinion that the Irish would not be more, if so much, disposed to enter a workhouse as the English. At this time, I have no able-bodied Irish in the house. It is very seldom they do apply for admission, except in old age, sickness, or infirmity.
I have the honour to be, Sir,
To George Nicholls, Esq.,	Your most obedient servant,
Poor-Law Commissioner.	James Dowdall, Governor.123
Second Rept.] from Birmingham and Liverpool.
No. 6^Letter from Mr. Thomas Barker, Clerk of Liverpool
Workhouse.
Liverpool Workhouse, 3d October, 1837. Sir,—I have been employed here as clerk, &c., upwards of twelve years, during; which time a great number of Irish persons have been admitted into the house either sick or in a destitute state ; but, when fit to go out and able to work, I never found in them any particular disposition or inclination to remain, but rather a wish to get away, and endeavour to obtain their own livelihood. Referring you to the governor for any further information,
To George Nichqlls, Esq., I am, Sir, your obedient servant, Poor-Law Commissioner.	Thomas Barker,
No. 7 Communication from Mr. Thomas Alcock, Governor of Birmingham Workhouse.
Birmingham Workhouse, 5th October, 1837. Sir,—I herewith enclose you the answers to your queries, left with me this morning, relative to the Irish and Scotch poor, which, from observation, I believe to be perfectly correct.
' I am your obedient servant,
To George Nicholls, Esq.	Thomas Alcock.
enclosure.
Have you found the Irish generally more or less disposed to enter and remain in the workhouse than the English ?
The same question with reference to the able-bodied Irish in particular.
Do you consider the test of the workhouse as applicable to, and that it will be as effective with, the Irish as experience proves it to be with the English ?
No. 8.--Letter from Mr. Welch, Treasurer, 8fc., to the Guardians of the Poor of Birmingham.
Birmingham Workhouse, hth October, 1837.
Sir,—In answer to your inquiries, I beg leave respectfully to inform you that, from my observation of the character of the Irish poor in Bir-
1.	I have lbund, from ten years’ experience, that the Irish are less disposed than the English to enter and remain in a well-regulated workhouse in which labour is provided for them. Birmingham, some years ago, was much troubled with the wandering Irish and Scotch ; but, since the establishment of corn-mills in the workhouse, I do not recollect an instance of one continuing many days in the work-house.
2.	The above answer applies equally to this question.
3.	Yes; their wandering habits will render the confinement of a workhouse and application to regular employment irksome.124
EVIDENCE AS TO IRISH POOR
[App. to
mingham, made during a connexion of nearly sixteen years with the affairs of that parish, I am of opinion that they would be less likely than the English to domicile themselves in workhouses in which labour was provided, and which were, in other respects, well regulated and disciplined.
I have the honour to be, Sir,
Your obedient servant.
George Nicholls, Esq.	J. Y. Welch.
No, 9.—Letter from John Harris, Esq., Mayor of Waterford.
Waterford, 9th September, 1837.
Sir,—In compliance with the wish you expressed at the interview you recently favoured me with, I have the honour to send herewith a statement of the number of paupers passed from Waterford, at the expense of the corporation, to London, Liverpool, and Bristol, since I entered upon the mayoralty, 29th September, 1836.
I have not the means of ascertaining with accurary how many persons were refused passages to England in the same period ; but I am disposed to think they do not amount to more than twenty, including men, women, and children. There have not been more than ten applications by paupers arriving from England for assistance to travel to other parts of Ireland ; but very few days elapse without demands being made for help by persons wandering from one part of Ireland to another, and very generally upon pretexts the most absurd and even ridiculous.
Since I had the honour of seeing you, I have frequently considered the subject of the “ settlement” clause, in any Bill to be introduced for the relief of the poor in Ireland; and I frankly own that, by the point of view in which you placed the matter, and especially by showing the necessary connexion be tween a right to relief and the clause of settle-mcnty my mind has been completely changed.
I have the honour to be, Sir,
Your most obedient servant,
George Nicholls, Esq.	John Harris, Mayor.
ENCLOSURE.
Return of the Number of Paupers passed at the expense of the Corporation from Waterford to England between the 8th October, 1836, and 8th September, 1837
	Men.	Women.	Children.
To London .	. . . 0	2	1
To Liverpool	... 12	12	14
To Bristol	... 9	9	9
Total .	... 21	23	24—68
Mayor's Office,
Waterford, 9th September, 1837.	John Harris, Mayor.AT WATERFORD.
125
Second Rept.]
No. 10.—Return showing1 the Number of Persons in the Aged Department of the House of Industry, who are Natives of the following Counties in Ireland, and other places :—
Dublin .			389	Brought forward		. 784
Meath . •			39	Kerry		2
Longford . •			26	Limerick .		12
Kildare •			51	Waterford		3
Wicklow			56	Cork ....		16
Louth .			15	Tipperary		10
Wexford			25	Clare		2
Carlow • Queen’s County			26 32	Munster .		— 45
King’s County			22	Sligo ....		9
Westmeath			34	Roscommon .		16
Kilkenny .			14	Galway .		11
Leinster			—729	Mayo . . Leitrim .		3 1
Cavan .			8	Connaught . .		— 37
Antrim			8			
Downpatrick .			11	Ireland		. 866
Armagh .			10	England .		11
Tyrone			6	Wales		3
Monaghan			6	Scotland		3
Fermanagh			5	America .		2
Donegal .			1	East Indies .		1
Ulster . • •			— 55	West Indies .		1
				Holland ,		1—22
Carried forward		•	784			888
September 15, 1837.	George Alley, Registrar.
Tnmates not natives of the City and County of Dublin	499
Inmates who are natives of	ditto	ditto	389
Total 888126	EVIDENCE AS TO IRISH POOR—	t^PP' io
No. 11.—A Return showing the Number of Persons from the several Counties in Ireland, and also those not belonging to Ireland, in the Dublin Mendicity Institution, in the month of March, 1837
Counties in Ireland.	Males.	Females.	Children.	Total.
Antrim .	2	6	4	12
Armagh . .	1	10	4	15
Carlow .	1	41	9	51
Cavan .	1	15	5	21
Clare	. .	5	. ,	5
Cork . .	I	19	4	24
Donegal .	•	4	2	6
Down	1	7	1	9
Dublin City	87	1,066	295	1.4481S
Dublin County .	6	78	23	107j2
Fermanagh k .	•	4	•	4
Galway	2	20	9	31
Kerry	1	3	1	5
Kildare	4	83	16	103
Kilkenny .	• •	28	15	43
King’s County	2	18	8	28
Leitrim	« •	1	,	1
j Limerick .	2	11	6	19
Londonderry t .	1	1	.	2
Longford .	1	11	6	18
Louth .	1	27	7	35
Mayo	* ,	8	6 4‘	12
Meath	4	46	18	68
Monaghan	2	10	1	13
Queen’s County .	4	30	12	46
Roscommon	2	11	5	18
Sligo	. .	6	4	10
Tipperary	4	13	2	19
Tyrone	1	6	1	8
Waterford	1	13	7	21
Westmeath	2	29	9	40
Wexford .	2	30	8	40
Wicklow .	6	49	27	82
	142	1,709	513	2,364
England .		9	2	11
Wales		1	i #	1
Scotland .		10	3	13
Island of Jersey ..		1	3	4
Spain		1	2	3
America .		4	2	6
East Indies		1	• «	1
West Indies		4	# ,	4
At Sea		2	•	2
Not belonging to Ireland .		12	33	45
Belonging to Ireland	142	1,709	Vi 513	2,364
Total	142	1,721	546	2,409127
Second Kept.] letter from william Stanley, esq
In addition to the foregoing, there were orphan children, whose place of birth is not known, 68; adults on the Eastern Sick-list, 195; in Fever Hospital, 12 ; persons seeking for admission, 100 : making altogether the total number 2,784.
No. 12.—Letter from W. Richardson, Esq., Dublin.
Dublin, 29th September, 1837.
Dear Sir,-—Referring to the conversation which I had the honour of having with you some time since, I am fully confirmed in the opinions I then submitted to you respecting the labouring poor who voluntarily migrate to England for the harvest-work. These people are mostly natives of the province of Connaught, generally holding small parcels of land, from one to twenty acres, with a small tenement. The larger holders frequently subdividing their land among their grown-up children, until a great part of the district is now in very small holdings, namely, the southern part of the county Sligo, Mayo, Roscommon, and the northern part of Galway. Towards the end of May and June, these people, having finished their own farm-work, form into parties and proceed to the eastern ports in various directions, but principally to Dublin, from its advantage of daily steam-communication with England. I should think the aggregate number in the two months named would exceed twenty thousand from this port alone. Some few of them are accompanied by their wives,' but the greater number of their families remain behind, or wander about the country as mendicants until the return of their husbands, which is usually in the latter part of August and September, when it is not uncommon to see six or seven hundred arrive in one vessel, and the moment they land they form into parties and set out for the western country. I would say scarcely in any instance do they ever remain twelve hours in the neighbourhood of Dublin, but proceed direct homeward, and, after passing the bridges over the Shannon, principally the Lanesboro-bridge, they branch off to their various districts with the produce of their labour, amounting to from five to fifteen pounds each. With this they pay their rent; and, by the labour they obtain and the produce of their holdings, they are enabled to exist during the winter season ; and, unless in times of partial famine, I should think these persons not likely to become chargeable to the contemplated poor-law funds, as their habits are certainly industrious whenever they can obtain labour.
I have the honour to be, dear Sir,
Respectfully, your very faithful servant,
✓	W. Richardson.
George Nicholls, Esq., Commissioner of Poor Laws,
&c.	&c.	&c.
No. 13.—Communication from William Stanley^ Esq., Dublin.
To George Nicholls, Esq., 8çc. fyc.
Sir,—Conformably to your desire, I have reconsidered my views (communicated when the Relief Bill for the Poor of Ireland was before the last Parliament) on the extent to which destitution exists among the poorer classes of the Irish population ;—and I have now to place before you the statistical data by which I have been guided, accompanied by observations on the deductions they afford.re
GO
Table 1.—An Analysis of the whole Population.
—	1 Total of Families, Census 1831.	2- Inhabited Houses. Census 1831.	3 Families exceeding the inhabited Houses.	4 Total of Persons. Census 1831.	5 Proportion of Persons to Families.	6 Total of Adult Males. Census 1831.	7 Adult Males exceeding the total of Families.	8 Proportion of Adult Males not charged singly, with Families.
Leinster Munster Ulster Connaught	344.314 376,051 425.314 239,387	292,729 330,444 402,005 224,638	51,585 45,607 23,309 14,749	1,909,713 2,227,152 2,286,622 1,343,914	Twentv-two in four Families.	465,953 542,200 540,479 319,133	121,639 166,149 115,165 79,746	Upwards of one-fourth.
Ireland	1,385,066	1,249,816	135,250	7,767,401		1,867,765	482,699	
England Wales .... Scotland	2,745,336 166,538 502,301	2,326,022 155,522 369,393	419,314 11,016 132,908 Army, Navy, &c. . . .	13,091,005 806,182 2,365,114 } 277,017	Nineteen in four Families, exclusive of Army, &c.	3,199,984 194,706 549,821	454,648 N 28,168 47,520	1 Upwards of rone-eighth. Upwards of one-twelfth.
Great Britain .	3,414,175	2,850,937	563,238	16,539,318		3,944,511	530,336	
EVIDENCE AS TO IRISH POOR—	[4pp. io129
Second Kept] letter from william Stanley, esq.
It appears, by the third column of this Table, that Irish families exceed the number of occupied houses only by a tenth of the whole ; but that, in England, the excess amounts to nearly a sixth of the total number of families ; while in Scotland it is more than a fourth»
This circumstance, notwithstanding the inferior condition of the Irish population, bears importantly on the measure to which your inquiries relate. The possession of a house, by a single family, must lessen the probability of its occupiers abandoning it, to seek relief in an asylum for paupers, while any means exist by which a subsistence can be earned. It is true, indeed, that a large portion of the houses in Ireland are comfortless cabins ;—but to these the occupiers are habituated, and on possession of them depend for local employment.
In the province of Ulster, the number of families exceeding the inhabited houses is only an eighteenth of the whole, notwithstanding the large number of towns;—in Connaught, the excess of families is but a sixteenth;—however, in Munster it is nearly an eighth, and in Leinster nearly a seventh.
Of the whole excess in Ireland,—135,250 families,—it appears, by the details of the Population Returns, that 50,815 of the families are in Dublin, Drogheda, Newry, Armagh, Belfast, Londonderry, Sligo, Galway, Limerick, Nenagh, Clonmel, Cork, Waterford, and Wexford,— the fourteen largest towns.
The Returns do not enable me to show the proportion of houses to families engaged in agriculture ; but, when the number of families exceeding inhabited houses, in fourteen of the largest towns, reduces the total excess to 84,435, it may be safely assumed that nearly the whole of the excess is in towns, and therefore that all, save a small portion, of the families engaged in agriculture, occupy houses singly.
According to the’fourth and fifth columns of the preceding Table, there are, in four Irish families, twenty-two persons, and, in the same number of British families, nineteen persons. This is the* closest approximation which can be made in whole numbers to the exact proportions.
The excess in Ireland appears unfavourable to its poor population until analysed, and then it proves to consist largely of adults not singly burdened with the care of families.
In the sixth and seventh columns it is shown that the adult males exceed the number of families, in Ireland, by 482,699 ; in England, by only 454,648; and, in Scotland, by only 47,520. Upwards, then, of one-fourth of the Irish adult males are not singly charged with families ; while, in England, the proportion is little more than one-eighth without families ; and, in Scotland, it just exceeds a twelfth.
Consequently, although the poorer Irish families. are larger than the British, they have more able hands to toil for their subsistence.
Lest, however, it should be supposed that the greater excess in Ireland is caused by old persons burdening the industry of the young, I have extracted from the Census Returns of 1821, the last year in which the ages of persons were distinguished, the following totals. (Board of Trade Tables, Part IIL, pages 445 and 448.)130
EVIDENCE AS TO IRISH POOR—
[App. to
Ireland. Males and females aged 60 and upwards (the sexes not distinguished in the Census Returns for Ireland) .	.	. 275,170
Deduct for females; the proportion in the whole population being more ihan half.....................................140,170
Males aged 60 and upwards England.	Ditto,	ditto
Wales.	Ditto	ditto
Scotland.	Ditto	ditto
. 135,000 . 351,064 .	27,377
.	68,323
These totals show that longevity is much greater in England, Wales, and Scotland than in Ireland,—but do not affect the previous deduction, that the poorer Irish families, containing more persons than the British, have also a larger number of able hands to toil for their subsistence. It appears, however, by Table 2, annexed,—that the excess of adult males is principally in towns, throughout the United Kingdom, but still that in the agricultural population of Ireland there is also an excess.
Table 3.—Analysis of the
	Families chiefly employed in Agriculture. Census 1831. 1	Landholders.			Families in Agriculture exceeding the total Landholders, therefore wholly dependent on hire for subsistence. 5
		Employers of Labourers. 2	Not employing" Labourers. 3	Total. Census 1831. 4	
1 Leinster ....	186,177	20,789	87,819	108,608	77,569
1 Munster ....	244,770	33,443	120,268	153,711	91,059 1
I Ulster ....	268,864	29,301	189,087	218,388	50,476
Connaught	184,528	11,806	*167,100	178,906	5,622
Ireland .	884,339	95,339	564,274	659,613	224,726
England ....	761,348	141,460	94,883	236,343	525,005
Wales ....	73,195	19,728	19,966	39,694	33,501
Scotland ....	126,591	25,887	53,966	79,853	46,738
Great Britain .	961,134	187,075	168,815	355,890	605,244
The Population Returns do not distinguish families engaged wholly in agriculture from those partly in that and other branches of industry; it would therefore appear, from the totals in the first column of Table 3, that in Ireland, where the cultivated territory is under fifteen millionsSeeond Rept.] letter from william Stanley, esq. 131
Table 2.—Proportion of Adult Males to Families.
	Agricultural Population.	Town Population.	The whole Population.
Ireland . . Great Britain Excess ini Ireland)	29 in 21 Families. 28 „ 21	26 in 21 Families. 23 „ 21 „	28 in 21 Families. 24 „ 21 „
	1 „ 21	3 „ 21 „	4 „ 21 „
The comparative excess of persons in Irish families, (Table l, col. 5,) being three in four families, is equal to 15§ in twenty-one families; and in that number of families, there being an excess of four adult males, and, consequently, of at least an equal number of adult females, —the excess of young persons is only about seven in twenty-one families, or one in three, over Great Britain.
Much, therefore, that is said on the swarming of Irish families, and consequent pauperism, is to be distrusted.
Only for the improvident marriages, superinduced by numerous small holdings of land, in some Irish counties, the adult males, not singly charged with families, would exceed the proportion of Great Britain as much in the agricultural population as in towns,—in consequence of the great number of farmers5 labourers not holding land, who are unmarried.
Agricultural Population.
Total Labourers in Families of	Statute Acres of Cultivated Land.					
Landholders, and also in Families wholly dependent on hire for subsistence. 6	Total in use, either for	For each Labourer in Column 6, deducting from the total quantity five acres for each Landholder not employing Labourers. 8	For each Labourer wholly dependent on hire, making the same deduction as in forming the average in the preceding column. 9	For each Family in the	For each Landholder employing Labourers.	
	Tillage or Pasture, &c. 7			whole Population. Col. 1, Table 1. 10	In the whole cultivated Territory. 11	Deducting five Acres for each of the other class of Landholders. 12
162,417 212,347 120,795 71,882			See observations following this Table.			
567,441	14,603,473	20f	38	104	153	1234
744,407 55,468 87,292						
887,167	34,250,000	| S7J	42J	10	183	1784
of acres, there are nearly as many agricultural families as in Great Britain, which possesses a cultivated territory exceeding thirty-four millions of acres. However, if the whole cultivated territory were divided among the landholders employing labourers, each in Ireland
k 2132	EVIDENCE AS TO IRISH POOR—	\APP' io
would have 153 acres, and each in Great Britain only 183 acres,—an excess of but thirty, which appears very small when the numerous great parks of England are taken into account.
The apparent disproportion in agricultural families to territory is caused by the habit in Ireland of combining agricultural employment with some other pursuit, in consequence of which the Irish landholders, not employing labourers, but working for themselves, amounted to 564,274, in 1831, while at the same period there were of the same class in Great Britain only 168,815.
The persons who made the census were bound to set down in the column for landholders all the adult males found in possession of land, otherwise the numbers in that column would be erroneous; and such of these as were also engaged in other pursuits could not be included in tlie succeeding columns, without causing an excess in the totals. A glance at the returns will prove this view to be correct. It is corroborated by the terms used in the enumerators’ classification,—the agricultural families being described as a families chiefly employed in agriculture.”
In the Census Returns for Ulster, only 20,919 adult males are set down as wholly employed in manufacturing*,—including every branch of manufactures carried on in the province ; and of these only 8859 were engaged in the linen-trade. It appears, however, by a Return presented to the House of Commons on the 22nd of June, 1825, that the value of the unbleached linen, sold in 1824, (the last year in v$hich the records were kept,) by weavers, in the markets of Ulster, as computed by the local inspectors and seal officers of the late Linen Board, was 2,109,309/.;—and the linen thus sold and valued is exclusive of the quantity made by weavers working for regular manufacturers. The quantity thus sold only in the county of Armagh was valued at 568,799/.;—yet, in the Census Returns for that county, only 1683 adult males are stated to be employed in every branch of manufacturing. In 1831 there were in the province of Ulster 189,087 working landholders, (the highest number in any of the four provinces,) and the county of Armagh contained 15,728. It is from these landholders the hands were supplied which created so much wealth by manufacturing linen in 1824.
The greatest number of working landholders, in proportion to agricultural families, is in Connaught, where employments are not much varied; but even there, a large number of them are engaged in other pursuits, not distinguished in the Census Returns. The unbleached linen sold by weavers, in the markets of Mayo, during 1824, was valued at 111,896/., and the quantity sold by weavers, in the county of Sligo, was valued at 23,682/.; — yet, in the Census Returns, only seven adult males are set down as solely employed in the several branches of local manufacturing within these two counties; and, for Mayo, only four are set down,—while, according to the evidence, appended to the First Report of the Poor Inquiry Commissioners, there were, in the parish of Burrishoole alone, 486 weavers, all occupying land.
These working landholders are not numerously employed as weavers, except in Ulster, but they have many other pursuits. A portion, however, in each province, will be found to have no other pursuit thanSecond Rept.’] letter from william Stanley, esq, 133
agricultural labour, either on their own 'land or that of employers in Ireland or Great Britain; and this class is largest in Connaught.
Neither the Census Returns, nor any other authentic data, enable me to ascertain what portion of the Irish families employed in agriculture must be wholly dependent on it; or what portion of the families holding land must also have recourse to the employers of labourers, either in Ireland or Great Britain, for means of subsistence.
It is obvious, however, that of the 564,274 working landholders in Ireland there can only be a small portion wholly dependent on agriculture ; and, whatever may be the number of these persons, they must be considered exempt from destitution if only holding one acre each. An acre of land in the county of Dublin yields upwards of 15 tons of potatoes,—averaging soils and seasons. If an acre in a less fertile district yield only half the quantity, there would be, for the occupier’s family, 401bs. of potatoes per day during the whole year, with one ton surplus, for seed, pig, and poultry; and, taking the rent of land and cabin at so much as 3/. 10«?., it would require but a short period of employment at harvest-work to provide means of paying this amount and buying some family requisites. The Irish labourers who go to England annually, commonly return with 5/. each, and many earn much more.
Therefore, in the agricultural families of Ireland, destitution is only to be looked for among those wholly dependent on hire for subsistence; —but this number I cannot accurately ascertain. It is approached, by deducting the number of landholders from the total of families, as I have done in Table 3, column 5.
If the landholders were all charged with families, either as fathers, brothers, &c., the deduction of their number from the total of families would show exactly how many are wholly dependent on hire; but it cannot be assumed that all the landholders are charged with families, because the total number of them in Donegal, Mayo, and Galway, appears to exceed the total of agricultural families in each of these counties ; although, in going through the details of the Census, I have found several parishes in which the families exceed the landholders by a small number. Still I believe that the landholders without families must be principally among the 95,339 employers of labourers, and that only a very few of the adult males, included in the Census as landholders working for themselves, are without families. I have consulted several country gentlemen on this view, and found them to concur in it: it is also supported by data in the Census Returns.
According to the proportion of adult males to Irish agricultural families in fable 2, that is, 29 in 21,—there would be 1,221,226 adults in the 884,339 families chiefly employed in agriculture. From these deduct the 659,613 landholders, (Table 3,) both employers and nonemployers, and the residue is only 561,613, which includes the adult sons of country gentlemen and farmers, and of the working landholders, a large portion of whom are also employed as weavers, carpenters, smiths, masons, fishermen, and market-dealers in corn, butter, pigs, coal, salt, &c., in which avocations it is reasonable to assume that their sons are occasionally engaged.
I therefore ieel justified in assuming that the residue of 224,726, formed by deducting the total of landholders from the agricultural fami-EVIDENCE AS TO IRISH POOR-
134
[App. to
lies, (Table 3, col. 5,) represents very nearly the total of families dependent on hire for subsistence.
I compute the number of persons in these families to be 1,235,993, —according to the proportion in the 5th column of Table 1;—and I estimate the number of adult males in this total to be 310,336,— according to the proportion for agricultural families in Table 2.
If there be only this number of agricultural labourers wholly dependent on hire for subsistence, the cultivated land held by employers of labourers is in the proportion of thirty-eight acres for each labourer (Table 3, col. 9) —and, if all set down as agricultural labourers in the Census Returns were wholly dependent on hire, (which they are not,) there would be still, in the hands of employers, upwards of twenty acres of cultivated land for each labourer.
To avert destitution, then, from the agricultural labourers of Ireland, by securing to them the means of acquiring a comfortable subsistence from industry,—it is only necessary that the territory shall be applied, adequately with its capabilities, to the uses for which it was created, and for which the law sanctions its partition.
It has been assumed that, as Great Britain has upwards of forty acres of cultivated land for each agricultural labourer, there are too many persons dependent for employment on the agriculture of Ireland : yet it is at the same time admitted that the present extent of tillage could not be maintained in England if the annual migration of Irish labourers were stopped.
However, the* tillage in Great Britain is manifestly insufficient to supply the population; and, therefore, the agricultural operations in that part of the kingdom are inaccurately referred to as affording rules of proportions for this ;—particularly when the tillage there exceeds the capabilities of local labour in the harvest-season.
There is cultivated territory in Great Britain, in the proportion of ten acres for each family in the whole population ;—and, in Ireland, the cultivated territory gives 10 J acres for every family. If but one-tenth of this cultivated land, in both parts of the kingdom, were cropped with wheat, and yielded four quarters (being under seven Irish barrels) to the acre,—there would be upwards of five pounds of wheat per day for each family in Great Britain and Ireland. Yet the British people complain of the price of wheat, which is augmented by a demand insufficiently suppliedand the Irishlandholders do not keep foreign corn out of the English markets, notwithstanding the existence of heavy import-duties which ensure to them high prices,—and the cheapness of Irish labour, amidst abundant sources of production.
The reason commonly assigned for Ireland’s not fully supplying the demand for agricultural produce, which urges her landholders to give more employment to her labourers,—is, that the landholders have not capital;—but this only means that they have each more land than they can profitably use,—and thus pay rent for an excessive quantity, to get produce which might be obtained from less,—therefore wasting in rent a portion of the capital requisite for their operations. It cannot be that they hold a redundancy of land on compulsion. They may not, indeed, be permitted to underlet their holdings, and cover them with persons content with the lowest kind of subsistence; but then they are not bound to remain in possession, wasting their landlords’ pro-Second Rept] letter from willliam Stanley, esq. 135
perty, lessening the supply of food for the country, and pauperising the labourers.
A poor-law is the only remedy for this mismanagement. It would enforce adjustments between landlords and tenants, favourable to them and to the community, if the tax fall directly on both owners and occupiers of land.
It is postulated, on general principles, that, if holders of land be left to the ordinary influences which stimulate traders and manufacturers, they will, like these, in promoting their own interests to the utmost, necessarily promote the interests of the community. The Irish landholders have not done so even those who hold possession under leases for ever have not used the soil beneficially for the community. Therefore, the great body of the Irish people subsist on potatoes,— incapable of increasing the commerce of the empire by purchasing a sufficiency of its manufactures or any of its imports.
The productive capability of good Irish soils may be judged of by the following statement of the extent, outlay, and produce, of a small farm attached to the Female Orphan House, on the Circular Road, Dublin, near the Park, of which the Archbishop of Dublin is a governor and regular visitor. I have obtained the particulars from the accounts of the Institution; and I prefer them to any other indication of the land’s productiveness,—ns no more than ordinary care has been used, the common system of husbandry only resorted to, and as the locality is at hand.
The farm of the Female Orphan blouse, held on lease from Viscount Palmerston, contains about twelve statute acres, and is charged with the rent and taxes of all the ground occupied by the institution, amounting to ¿£100 a-year. There are from eight to ten cows fed on the produce of the land, except during two months in summer, when they are fed on hired pasture at an expense of about ¿£16. During seven months of the year, they are fed at night with hay and mangel-wurtzel, the produce of the farm. The land broken up is used for potatoes, cattle provender, and other esculents; —and there are employed through the year four labourers, each at 9s. a-week,—but one of these is occasionally employed in the business of a porter. There is also a horse for conveying water and manure. The whole yearly outlay for rent, taxes, wages, hired pasture, &e., does not exceed £250. For this outlay, the institution receives a supply of milk, which, if bought, for the 160 girls maintained, would cost, at 2d. per quart, £243;—there is also a supply of butterthere are about 36 tons of potatoes, which, if purchased at 3d. per 141bs., would cost ¿£72 ;—there is an abundant supply of vegetables ;—and there is offal sufficient to feed from two to five pigs. The net gain from the twelve acres thus exceeds ¿£5 an acre per annum; and the resident manager of the institution considers this produce much less than would be obtained if more labour were employed.
It is not ignorance of the soil’s capability that represses husbandry in Ireland. The feeder of cattle and sheep is fully aware that tillage would enable him to supply the country with a much larger quantity of beef136
EVIDENCE AS TO IRISH POOR—
[App. to
and mutton than pasture affords. The dairy-farmer is also aware that he could supply a much greater quantity of butter by improved husbandry; as now his cows get sufficient food only in summer and autumn, and are half perished during the other seasons ; yet he persists in trusting to pasture feeding, notwithstanding its frequent scantiness, occasioned by the prevalence of blighting winds and the loss of dairy produce in winter and spring, caused by the want of succulent provender for the cattle.
The capability of increased production which Ireland possesses,— the extent of the territory already enclosed or cultivated, as compared with the labour dependent on it for subsistence,—and the unsupplied demand of England for agricultural produce, combine to facilitate the removal of poverty from among the labouring classes. If, however, the population of the country were not principally agricultural, with productive resources existing everywhere only half developed, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to avert lowliness and pauperism, except by removing large bodies of the people to foreign settlements; as it does not appear that any market would exist to sustain their industry, which is not already supplied, almost to redundancy, from other portions of the kingdom.
The word none in the fifth column of Table 4 would appear to represent that there are not any agricultural families, except occupiers of land, in either Donegal, Mayo, or Galway, the counties in which the greatest distress has occasionally prevailed. However, on going through the details of the Population Returns, I have observed, as already stated, some districts where the number of landowners is a little under the number of families,—but in the total of each of these counties this is reversed, in consequence of there being a portion of the landowners still uncharged with families, and of course residing in the families’ of their parents. Of such landholders the number must be small,—but, whatever it may be, the residue formed by deducting the total of landholders from the total of agricultural families (on the reasonable assumption that nearly all landholders represent families) must be increased by its amount, as so many more families depend wholly on hire. (Table 4, col. 5.)
The great number of landholders in the Irish western counties has occasioned an extraordinary increase of population without improving the condition of the soil or its occupiers. During ten years from 1821 to 1831, the increase in Donegal was 20 per cent.—in Mayo it was 24 per cent.—in Galway 23 per cent.—in Clare 24 per cent. But in Leinster, where the small farms are not so prevalent, the increase, on an average of all its counties, was only eight per cent, in the same period. (Board of Trade Tables, Part 3, Page 443.)
I have estimated, in the 12th column of Table 4, the quantity of enclosed or cultivated land for each working landholder and each agricultural labourer (combined in column 7), supposing all to have no other resource than agricultural labour ; and it will be observed that, in the county of Armagh, so far superior to any of those in the west of Ireland, the proportion for each person in the total is only 8f acres ; while, in Mayo, for the same classes, it is 12f acres. However, it will be remembered that the majority of Armagh working landholders mustEVIDENCE AS TO IRISH POOR-
[■App. to Second Report.]	letter from william Stanley, esq.
Table 4.—Agricultural Population and Territory in each County of Ireland.	[To face page 136.
Counties on the Coast. Dublin (with County of the City) .
Meath.........................
Louth (with County of the Town of Drogheda,—the lands of which are nearly all in Louth) ....
Down..........................
Antrim (with lands of Carrickfergus)
Londonderry...................
Donegal.......................
Leitrim.......................
Sligo...................
Mayo..........................
Galway (with lands of the Town) .
Clare ........................
Limerick (with lands of the City) .
Kerry.........................
Cork (with lands of the City) . . Waterford „	„	. . .
Wexford.......................
Wicklow.......................
Inland Counties.
Kildare.......................
Carlow........................
Kilkenny (with lands of the City) .
Tipperary.....................
Queen’s County................*
King’s County.................
Westmeath.....................
Roscommon................... . .
Longford................
Cavan.........................
Fermanagh.....................
Monaghan. ....................
Armagh. . ........................
Tyrone........................
	Landholders. Census, 1831.				Labourers in all the Families employed in Agriculture. Census 1831. 567,441. 6.	Total of	Statute Acres of Land. (Totals in Board of Trade Tables, Part II., p. 119.)				
Families chiefly employed in Agriculture. Total in 1831, 884,339. 1.	Employers of Labourers. 95,339. 2.	Not employing Labourers. 564,274. 3.	Total. 4.	Agricultural Families exceeding the total of Landholders, therefore wholly dependent on hire for subsistence. 5.		working Landholders, and of Labourers, iu all the Agricultural Families. 1,131,715. 7	In use, for Tillage, Pasture, &c. 14,603,473 Acres. 8.	Bog and Mountain still uncultivated. 5,340,736 Acres. 9.	Proportion in use for each Landholder employing Labourers, Col. 2, deducting five Acres from the Total for each working Landholder. 10.	Proportion held by Employers of Labourers, for each Labourer in all the Families employed in Agriculture. Col. 6. 11.	Proportion in use, of the whole Territory, for each Labourer and working Landholder. Col. 7. 12.
10,339	1,004	1,962	2,966	7,373	13,475	15,437	Acres. 237,819	Acres. 10,812	Acres. 227	Acres. 16f	Acres. .) 15|-
22,396	2,102	6,894	8,996	13,400	23,045	29,939	561,527	5,600	250J	221	18J •
12,446	879	6,147	7,026	5,420	9,036	15,183	191,345	14,916	182f	17f	12^
34,447	4,568	20,483	25,051	9,396	19,048	39,531	502,677	108,569	871	21	12f
27,682	3,809	18,429	22,238	5,444	13,498	31,927	483,106	225,970	1022	28 f	15
25,009	2,530	15,530	18,060	6,949	14,717	30,247	372,667	136,038	U6i	20	12i
38,178	4,055	34,836	38,891	None.	13,330	48,166	520,736	644,371	85g-	26	10i •
20,937	1,240	18,639	19,879	1,058	6,203	24,842	266,640	128,167	139f	27f	lot
22,750	744	20,889	21,633	1,117	7,764	28,653	257,217	168,711	205j	19|	9
52,668	3,860	50,219	54,079	None.	17,238	67,457	871,984	425,124	1601	36 30J	12|
54,090	4,719	51,505	56,224	None.	22,752	74,257	955,713	476,957	147f		12i
32,580	1,593	24,394	25,987	6,593	22,208	46,602	524,113	259,584	252i	18	ni
34,034	4,072	14,132	18,204	15,830	33,326	47,458	582,802	91,981	125$	15a	12i 13f
34,043	2,381	15,719	18,100	15,943	26,116	41,835	581,189	552,862	211	19	
83,590	15,203	36,281	51,484	32,106	77,687	113,968	1,068,803	700,760	58 i	Hi	
15,472	2,908	6,561	9,469	6,003	16,570	23,131	358,247	118,034	lllf	19J	151
21,465	3,878	10,683	14,561	6,904	15,321	26,004	545,979	18,500	127	32 m	20|
11,649	1,517	6,072	7,589	4,060	11,319	17,391	400,704	94,000	244		23
11,880	1,632	3,208	4,840	7,040	14,107	17,315	325,988	66,447	189-|	2l£	18f
8,163	1,010	5,694	6,704	1,459	6,613	12,307	196,833	23,030	1661	25 i	16
21,228	3,266	10,660	13,926	7,302	18,2S7	28,947	417,117	96,569	lllf	19f	13f 14* 161
45,051	7,286	23,181	30,467	14,584	36,440	59,621	819,698	182,147	96J	19i	
17,164	1,837	9,594	11,431	5,733	13,412	23,006	335,838	60,972	1561	2l~r 2S£	
17,162	1,554	11,535	13,089	4,073	11,727	23,262	394,569	133,349	2161		
16,824	1,222	7,142	8,364	8,460	14,766	21,908	313,935	55,982	2261 260§	18|	14Ì lOf
34,083	1,243	25,848	•27,091	6,992	17,925	43,773 ;	453,555	131,063		18	
15,461	888	8,228	9,116	6,345	11,309	19,537	192,506	55,247	170^	131 22b 29£ 21 . 12f	91
31,091	3,348	21,486	24,834	6,257	13,913	35,399	421,462	30,000	93f		^4
20,617	2,253	16,984	19,237	1,380	7,881	24,865	320,599	101,952	104J 112| 93		12f 11
27,908 25,109	1,984 2,025	17,232 15,728	19,216 17,753	8,692 7,356	10,631 14,730	27,863 30,458	309,968 267,317	9,236 42,472			
38,823	4,729	28,379	33,108	5,715	13,047	41,426	550,820	171,314	86i ,	31t	13iSecond Rept.] letter from william stakley, esq. 137
be independent of agricultural labour, and that a greater portion of the Mayo landholders have no other resource. But, in the 11th column, it appears that Armagh contains only 12£ acres of cultivated land for each person classed in the Census Returns as an agricultural labourer ; for which class Mayo presents an average of 36 acres, deducting the quantity assumed to be held by working landholders.
The lowest average for the whole body of working landholders and persons classed as agricultural labourers, next to Armagh, is in Sligo, where there are only nine acres for each person; but in that county there are for each of the labourers (by census) upwards of nineteen acres, in the hands of employers.
The county of Cork presents only 9-^- acres cultivated, for each person in the total of working landholders and agricultural labourers ; and for each of the latter, deducting the quantity held by the former, only llj acres; but there are in this county 700,760 acres of waste land.
The remaining county in which the average quantity of cultivated land for both classes does not exceed ten acres to each person is Longford ; and there the average quantity for each labourer, by census, exceeds thirteen acres.
In every county the average quantity of cultivated land in the hands of employers of labourers exceeds ten acres (Col. 11, Table 4) for each of the agricultural labourers in the Census Returns,—being the whole of the adult males employed in agriculture and belonging to the families of working landholders and of labourers wholly dependent on hire for subsistence.
Now let me quote for you, in reference to this fact, part of the evidence given before a Committee of the House of Commons in 1835, on Irish Public Works, by Mr. Griffith, whose knowledge of Ireland, its geology, and local circumstances, renders him perhaps the most competent witness on the fact in the country.
Question 2843. Are the lands at present in cultivation sufficiently cultivated ?—They are not; very far from it.
Question 2844. If they were, would there not be provided a much more ample scope for the employment of the poor ?—Certainly. I conceive that one hundred acres of arable land, if properly cultivated, would give employment to ten families ; at present farmers rarely employ more than four, and sometimes in the proportion of only three families, to that extent of land.
In the 9th column of Table 4 I have stated the quantity of waste land in each county ; and it appears that where there are great numbers of labourers and working landholders, there also are great tracts of unreclaimed land,—as in the counties of Donegal, Mayo, Galway, Clare, Kerry, and Cork.
Thus do the wants and resources of Ireland providentially combine to facilitate improvement; leaving no cause for apprehending that the labouring classes, in any considerable numbers, would become chargeable on funds for relief of destitution if a poor-law were enacted, —giving the landowners and tenants an option of using beneficially the sources of society’s subsistence placed in their control, or of paying138
EVIDENCE AS TO IRISH POOR—
[App. to
a tax for the support of such of the labourers’ families in their respective localities as should become destitute by want of employment
However, the Commissioners of the Irish Poor Inquiry held a contrary opinion. They state, in their Third Report, that if a poor-law, on the principle of the English law, were enacted for Ireland, the labouring population employed in agriculture would require subsistence from the relief-fund during more than half the year.
Extract from the Report.
“ According to the third Table annexed, we cannot estimate the number of persons out of work and in distress, during thirty weeks of the year, at less than 585,000, nor the number of persons dependent upon them at less than 1,800,000, making in the whole 2,385,000.
Estimate in the Table referred to.
“ According to the census of 1831 the total number of labourers was 1,131,715, of whom 564,274 were occupiers of land, and 567,441 were not. It appears, by the First Report of the Commissioners of Public Instruction, that the population of Ireland had, in 1834, increased from 7,767,401 (the amount in 1831) to 7,943,940. We may assume that the number of labourers has increased in the same proportion, and therefore that it now exceeds 1,170,000, and that the number of them not holding land (being, as seen above, about half of the whole) is 585,000. If, consequently, this latter class would take refuge in a workhouse, when they cannot obtain employment on hire, they would there have to be provided for during 30 weeks of the year.”
I cannot see any ground for the apprehension that the persons liable to poor-rates would leave the whole body of the agricultural labourers to subsist on them for 30 weeks. I do not consider it possible that even at present these labourers are unemployed for such a period of the year.
In Table 3, and the observations following it, I show that the families dependent on hire for subsistence cannot much exceed 224,726, and comprise little more than 310,336 adult males. But suppose the number of labourers wholly dependent on hire to be 400,000, at least one-fourth of them must be in constant employment, there being nearly 100,000 landholders who employ labourers, and cannot be without at least one labourer on any day for work : indeed, two might be assumed to be a fair average of the number constantly employed by farmers ; as many employ three, while not any employer can be without one. It follows, then, that one-fourth of the labourers (at least one-fourth) being constantly employed, it would be necessary, in order to form so low an average of employment for the whole as 22 wreeks, that another fourth should be constantly idle, and therefore beggars.
The persons employed by the Commissioners to make the Returns of the average duration of agricultural labour throughout Ireland, on which their estimate of 22 weeks5 employment is founded, do not give the number of labourers constantly employed,—the numbers employed for various periods,—and the number continually idle; which would have been very important:—they only give an average, generally, of the duration of labour in some parts of 29 counties,—omitting Waterford, Tipperary, and Roscommon.139
Second Eept.'] letter from william Stanley, esq.
For Mayo the average is founded on Returns from the parishes of Kilgever and Aughavale, surrounding Croaghpatrick Mountain, on the western extremity of the county. In Kilgever the time of employment is estimated to be only 36 days; but the families there, chiefly employed in agriculture, were, in 1831, according tojcensus, only 1309, and in these there were 1301 landholders, leaving only eight families dependent on hire, (supposing all the landholders to represent families,) and for the labourers dependent on hire there were 165 landholders who employed labour. In Aughavale the employment is stated to extend to 100 days ; but there, according to census, not one family was dependent on hire for subsistence, in 1831. Both parishes are on the coast, in the Customs5 district of Old Head, and the following evidence on the Fisheries of the District, taken from the First Report on the Inquiry of 1836, bears strongly on the duration of employment there :—
4i In Old Head district the fishermen are all holders of land. * * * About four months are now employed in fishing; but double that time might be profitably occupied.5’ (Mr. Copplestone, officer of Coast Guard, Ev., page 88.) There are] 420 fishermen in the district. (Table, page 91.)
In Mr. Nimmo’s Coast Survey, given in the Appendix to the Fishery Report, (page 92,) the district is thus described :—
“ Behind Croaghpatrick the country is mostly bog, upon slate rock; —but cultivation is advancing rapidly, by the encouragement of the neighbouring market of Westport,—limestone being brought on horseback by farmers from the beaches in the head of Clew Bay/5
For Sligo the average of employment is taken on the duration of labour at Ballymote town, where it is stated to be only 24 days;—-also in Achonry parish, near Ballymote, where it is estimated to be 90 days ;— and in the barony of Carbery, where it is said to extend to 120 days. In Ballymote there were, in 1831, only nineteen families, chiefly employed in agriculture, and in these there were seven landholders. In Achonry there were not any families dependent on hire for subsistence in 1831. Carbery includes the town of Sligo, which contained, in 1831, 15,152 inhabitants; and the number of landholders was only 1815 under the total of agricultural families.
Why landholders, working for themselves,] should be idle for 30 weeks is not explained by the Returns.
The Longford average is made on a Return from the parish of Killi-more,—which is not included in the census under that name.
The Westmeath average is stated to be 90 days, although the average for the barony of Kells, (county Meath,) which is principally a pasture district, is stated to be 120 days. There is more tillage, and of course more employment, in Westmeath ;—and large supplies of wheat are bought in that county for the Meath mills.
The Louth average is taken on the duration of labour in the baronies of Dundalk, where it is estimated to be 210 days.
The Dublin average, notwithstanding the comparatively high one' for Louth, is stated to be only 160 days, although taken on the duration of employment in the barony of Balrothery, one of the best wheat districts140
EVIDENCE AS TO IRISH POOR—
[App. to
in Ireland, and from which the metropolis receives large supplies of early potatoes—so that winter employment there must be considerable. The proportions of labourers to land, in Dublin and Louth, are nearly equal.
The Antrim Return has been made with more caution than the others:—it states that the majority of the labourers are employed through the greater part of the year.
It does not appear that any of the Returns have been made on actual data, showing the number of persons employed during various periods of the year, and separating the labourers wholly dependent on hire from the other classes.
That a large number of the labourers wholly dependent on hire must be unemployed at intervals, through the year, is, unhappily notorious; but it does not follow that these are destitute while out of work.
Every agricultural labourer in the country, who is charged with the maintenance of a family, and is not a landholder, (except a very few, having permanent engagements, or living in villa districts,) raises a year’s supply of potatoes on hired ground, for which payment is generally made in labour, and this supply affords a redundancy for a pig and poultry. Nearly all the farmers provide potato-ground for labourers ; —many provide cabins for them ; and some of the landholders require each of their labourers (not holding land) to keep a cow, for the feed of which on common pasture and straw, a fixed weekly charge is made;—so that farmers have not much wages to pay in money ; and some of the landholders, who require a cow to be kept, not only get the labour they require, but have money to receive from the labourers, which is provided by the sale of butter, eggs, and poultry.
This system ensures a preference of employment to labourers who are not landholders,—and, although little calculated to improve their condition, it saves them from destitution.
Destitution in the agricultural classes is caused, under ordinary circumstances, only by the infirmities of age, when the sons have large families, or by the prolonged sickness or death of a labourer with a family depending wholly on hire for subsistence. Seasons of dearth, and ejectments largely inflicted, are its extraordinary causes ; and when there is a visitation of dearth, destitution is inevitable, where, as in Ireland, the labourers so generally give a large portion of their time for the right of rearing their own supply of food,—and prove to have given their labour, almost for nothing, if their crops should fail. When ejectments are extensively inflicted, they create destitution principally in the families of working landholders ; and affect labourers, dependent on hire, only when succeeded by an extension of the pasture system, or by delays in letting to new tenants, during which the lands afford no employment.
A diminution in the extent of destitution produced by the ordinary causes described can only be expected to follow a general improvement in both the moral and physical condition of the working classes.
But a sound poor-law would immediately diminish, if not altogether avert, the destitution now suffered under the extraordinary causes to which I have referred. If there were to be a failure in the labourers’ potato-crops,—I assume that the owners and holders of land would pay wages for work in progress, to support the labourers, rather than pay141
Second Rept.] letter from william Stanley, esq.
increased poor-rates without obtaining an equivalent. I also assume that the same influence would restrict the ejectment system;—not, however, by compelling* landlords to forego the legal means of recovering rent, but to reform the system of management, unhappily too prevalent in Ireland, by which the majority of agents have interests wholly opposed to those of landlords, tenants, and the community,—their profits (as land and law agents combined) being augmented by struggling tenants, numerous ejectments, and frequent lettings.
The extent of destitution which may exist in Ireland, after the enactment of a poor-law, will depend on the nature of the provision to be made.
If a great charity fund were to be created by the State, and not drawn from incomes arising in the localities appointed for its distribution, the present amount of destitution would be rapidly exceeded, in the progress of measures for clearing estates of families employed on them, and converting tillage-fields into pastures*
If an out-door pension system were to be established, the claimants of pensions would exceed the destitute ten-fold, and, by encouraging improvidence and indolence, would ultimately augment destitution.
Under a politic and re-active system of relief, judiciously administered, the extent of destitution could not certainly exceed the proportion to population in which it now exists. I have already estimated this proportion,—taking the destitution in Dublin for a basis,—and regarding as destitute only those persons who, without the aid of local charities, and the resource of mendicancy, must necessarily starve, if they obey the law against theft. I have now re-examined my data, and revised the estimate.
Table 5.—An Estimate of the extent of Destitution in Ireland.
1. In Dublin.
The House of Industry contains at present, exclusive of casual patients in the hospitals attached to it:—
Aged and infirm poor,—old and young .... 888 Mendicants committed...................24
The number in the original estimate was taken from the books of 1836, and, being higher than the present, while lower than the number on the books in 1835, I shall now adopt
it as a medium.................................. . . .	991
The Mendicity Institution contains at present,—men, women,
and children...................................2,614
Upon the 17th of June, the institution contained, the highest
number in this year............................2,917
The number in May, when the first estimate was made, being
a little higher than a medium of these totals, I retain it . . 2,800 The Street Mendicants were originally estimated to be . . 960
Carried forward
3,791142	EVIDENCE AS TO IRISH POOR—	\APP' to
Brought forward..........3,791
Another enumeration having been made, (and, as before, within the hours for dinner, when the mendicants are to be met in four-fold numbers beyond those seen earlier in the day,) there were reckoned in the 55 principal streets, and lines of short streets, (including sides of squares,) north and south of the Liffey, eastward from Capel-street (inclusive) and the Castle.......................................506
The average number thus obtained, barely exceeded nine. In the original estimate 120 streets were comprised, and the average for all was taken at eighty on the enumeration made in several of them. I therefore retain the original total. .	960
Local Charities:—
The original estimate included the average numbers assumed to be relieved iveekly, by the society for relief of Sick and Indigent Room-keepers,—the Strangers5 Friend Society,—and the Charitable Association.
These societies, however, do not relieve a certain weekly number; and their funds are given to assist and promote industry,—not as alms for relief of destitution,—excepting those of the Sick and Indigent Room-keepers’ Society, which are, in part, applied to relieve destitution caused by sickness, and also in weekly stipends to three or four aged persons.
The Strangers’ Friend Society (formed into two sections) grants aid for enabling strangers to reach their homes, and to enable poor residents of Dublin to live by industry. The relief may be granted more than once (to local applicants) if there be a chance of its enabling the applicants to live by industry; otherwise they are referred for relief to the Mendicity Institution. The principal section granted relief on 7993 applications during 1836,distributing £660. 7s. 3d.;
—and if all these were from distinct persons, the relief to each would be only Is. 8d. in the year. The other section’s funds would not give so much relief in a third of this number of cases.
The Sick and Indigent Room-keepers’ Society grants relief in the same cases only once in four months, excepting cases of sickness ; and it must be ascertained by the visitors that the applicants are “ sober arM industrious,” and occupy rooms kept in a clean, orderly state. The relief is granted in sums varying from 2s. 6d. to 7s., generally; but medium sums are the most common. The total number of families relieved in 1836 was 11,621, and the amount distributed was only £2459, which would give but 4s. 3d. to each family in the year. This is about the average amount of the grants; and as relief may be given in the same cases three times in the year,—and oftener in cases of sickness,—the number of distinct cases relieved during 1836 must be considerably less than half of 11,621. It is also to be observed, that only a small portion of the cases belong to classes in
Carried forward
. 4,751Second Rept^\ letter from william Stanley, esq. 143
Brought forward...............4,751
destitution. The object of the society is to aid the working classes in sickness or in health, and not to sustain destitution, for which its funds are insufficient. Were the whole funds of the society for a year given to the destitute, they would, in 1836, have been only sufficient to supply 647 persons with 2\d. per day.
There are several asylums for children, and for the blind, dumb, aged, &c., supported by endowments, subscriptions, and charity sermons ; but I exclude the inmates—(a very inconsiderable number however)—from this estimate, as such private charities will be always maintained by benevolent members of the opulent classes, or for sectarian purposes, as are similar institutions in London and other towns in England, notwithstanding the existence of a public compulsory provision for the poor.
The hospital patients are not included, because the institutions for the sick are already provided for;—but the persons reduced to destitution by the sickness of those on whose labour they are dependent must be comprised in the total of the estimate, there being no resources sufficient to sustain the destitute but those for which a computation of the number dependent on them is made.
The alms distributed annually by the Roman Catholic clergy of the city, and the clerks of the Roman Catholic churches, have been estimated for me, on satisfactory data, by a Roman Catholic clergyman, to be under £1000, but close to that amount.
It would take £3397 to give 2\d. per day, through the year, to 895 persons, left out of this estimate, by excluding the averages in the former one, for cases in which the funds of the Sick and Indigent Room-keepers’ Society, Strangers’
Friend, and Charitable Association, would be competent to give permanent support, if limited to a fixed number of destitute persons. This number is manifestly sufficient to comprise all the cases of destitution for which there are sources, exclusive of those already set down for the House of Industry, the Mendicity Institution, and Street Mendicants, or those few deriving support from endowed asylums and small private charities. I shall therefore retain it . .	895
Total number of destitute poor in Dublin, through the year 5,646
2. The Poor, out of Dublin.
If the number of destitute persons in Dublin be 5646, it would be precisely two per cent, on the present population of the city and its suburb streets. In the same ratio, the number in all Ireland, taking the population at 8,000,000, would be 160,000. But pauperism in Dublin must largely exceed the proportion to population in which it exists elsewhere, excepting Cork, Limerick, Kilkenny, and Drogheda. The
Carried forward . .

5,646144
EVIDENCE AS TO IRISH POOR—
[ App. to
Brought forward . ........5,646
great body of the Irish population being agricultural, and though indigent not destitute ; and as poor persons from all parts of Ireland seek support in Dublin, it is very reasonable to assume that destitution in Dublin more than doubles the proportion to population in which it exists in all the rest of Ireland, including Cork and the other populous towns. Deducting, then, the population of Dublin (at present nearly 284,000,) from the total of eight millions,—one per cent, of destitution in the residue of 7,716,000 gives a total of....................77,160
The number destitute in all Ireland, including Dublin,
would thus be ........ . ...... 82,806
According to this estimate, there is precisely one destitute person for every eighteen families in the present population ; and when the cost of maintenance is computed, we can hardly venture to assume that the number receiving it gratuitously is much beyond the total here worked out,—looking to the difficulties met in collecting money for the poor in Dublin,—and to the pecuniary condition of the great body of the population.
There are large numbers of the operative classes in towns who, expending all their earnings on receipt of them, are in penury when any suspension of employment occurs ; these my estimate cannot include, and I presume that it will not be considered necessary that I should include them, where the provision contemplated is not to be an outdoor distribution of money and food to persons in distress, from whatever cause, but maintenance in asylums, —a relief to which tradesmen in casual difficulties would resort but very rarely. In the early part of this year there were many tradesmen in Dublin out of employment, in consequence of a temporary depression of trade ; and it was reported to a public meeting convened by the Lord Mayor that 3500 persons required relief, and that the funds to be distributed would afford it to only 500. The remaining 3000 must consequently have subsisted on their own resources, the augmentation of persons relieved by the Mendicity Institution in the period being comparatively trivial. They were sustained, no doubt, in part from the funds of their trade bodies, and partly by borrowing from paw-noffices, or their credit with provision-dealers, which tradesmen acquire by their general punctuality while employed. These are emergencies of a commercial community, which are not within the scope of a permanent provision for destitution, and only require a provident use of earnings by families exposed to them.
At the period in which the report referred to was made by the Committee of the Mansion House meeting, a statement of the extent of pauperism in Dublin was published in a local journal, to show that the measure for relief of the poor then before Parliament would be wholly inadequate. It will be useful to place its figures here in contrast with those of the Report; I therefore quote them.
“ Dublin is known to contain about 26,000 persons quite destitute, as many mpre (26,000) who have only occasional employment, and145
Second Rept.] letter from william Stanley, esq.
18,000 others in occasional distress, besides those reduced to distress by sickness.
If the 26,000 in occasional employment, and 18,000 in occasional distress, be meant for 44,000 in the latter condition, and not 26,000 in occasional employment compressed when unemployed into 18,000, to economise the means of subsistence, the total"of this estimate would be 70,000, exclusive of the destitution caused by sickness, which, in the same ratio, ought to be at least another thousand, making the total just one-fourth of the population in the city and its suburb streets, and assigning, as it were, seven paupers to every two inhabited houses. It is not explained how they could exist, or how the rents of the 20,000 inhabited houses could be paid.
Another estimate handed about Dublin is for the parish of St. Michan, in which the cases requiring relief are stated at 18,000; but the whole population of this parish in 1831 amounted to only 23,918 men, women, and children.
These extraordinary miscalculations proceed from the very general error of confounding cases of actual destitution requiring relief with cases of distress arising from improvidence, inertness, and lowliness, which public interference never fails to increase. The statements indicate the fearful results which might be produced in this country by an uncontrolled public relief, even though administered by men sharing in the burden ; which is but an apparent safeguard, as is proved by the Irish grand jury system. The elective right, giving rate-payers the power to select administering bodies, is but a feeble safeguard ; it is found insufficient even in public companies.
Widely various views are commonly taken of the condition of Ireland by persons considered to be acquainted with it. In 1834, while the policy of the Legislative Union was under discussion, the country was represented by some of these persons to have receded, within a few years, from a state in which prosperity was rapidly augmenting ; but it was as firmly maintained, by persons of equal intelligence, that the country was not in a state of recession, and was for some years in progress to a very prosperous state, exhibiting everywhere an improvement more accelerated than the advancement of any other part of Europe; and among those who then maintained that Irish prosperity was at hand, if the country would be let go quietly on to right herself, were some, who now, to prove the impossibility of working a poor-law, maintain that the land is overwhelmed with paupers.
In all the views of Ireland placed before the empire, there is a remarkable concurrence in attributing the poverty which exists to the want of continuous employment for the population. This is very important;—for, if a considerable portion of the distress to be relieved were ascribable to sickness occasioned by bad climate,—to sterility of the soil,—to insufficiency of territory for employing and supporting the population, though beneficially used for all interests depending on it,— or to other causes not within the control of the Legislature ; then, a provision for the destitution thus arising would prove seriously detrimental, though still less costly and less injurious than mendicancy, and more just and politic than relief only drawn from the purses of the benevolent members of society, and distributed by voluntary associations.
h146
EVIDENCE AS TO IRISH POOR—
[App. to
Table 6.—View of the extent of Public Relief afforded to the Sick in
Poor Inquiry
—	Institutions for Relief in 1833.				Institutions from which Returns of the Number of Patients were received in 1833.			
	County Infirmaries.	Fever Hospitals.	Dispensaries.	Total.	County Infirmaries.	Fever Hospitals.	Dispensaries.	Total.
Leinster . . .	14	29	150	193	13	18	123	154
Munster . . .	8	31	131	170	8	19	110	137
Ulster . .	9	7	121	137	8	7	102	117
Connaught. .	5	3	50	58	4	2	42	48
	36	70	452	558	33	46	377	456
There are a few institutions for relief of the sick poor, which I believe are not included in the Returns on which this Table is founded; —but the great majority of the sick among the poorer classes (with a portion of the middle classes) must be here,—and yet the totals of the year (a year too of very general sickness in the country) give only small average numbers, for the long periods which I allow for each person’s illness,—the intern patients being but 3483 monthly, and the externs (every fortnight) 58,727. The externs might be reduced under thirty thousand, by allowing only a week for each case, as the totals of externs consist principally of persons supplied with medicine on producing orders for it at dispensaries, whose sickness is only trivial, and many of whom are well able to buy medicine, but prefer getting it for nothing. It is notorious, that traders in towns, subscribers to these dispensaries, give orders (authorized by subscribing) to accommodate the customers of their establishments. I append to this letter, as matter for useful reference, a statement of the incomes derived by these several relief institutions, from all sources, in 1833. [See Table 7 annexed.]
The conclusion to which I have been conducted, by deliberating over all the data I have here combined, is, that the poorer classes in Ireland may more justly be considered as in a lowly, depressed condition, than as suffering actual destitution in large numbers at any period of ordinary years.
Therefore, when objections are made to the measure of relief proposed by Government, on the pretext of its inadequacy, I apprehend that they emanate from a feeling hostile to the principle of a compulsory provision for the poor,—instead of a desire for more comprehensive relief.
The asylums proposed are objected to as being insufficient;—and, in the next moment, the same persons may be drawn on to contend that the poor of Ireland would not resort to such places of relief;—in proof of which is adduced their repugnance to the Dublin House of Industry, at a time when paupers were removed to it by force, as if it were now in contemplation to make prisons of the asylums proposed, instead of suppressing unnecessary mendicancy by rendering it punishable withSecond Rept.] letter from william Stanley, esq, 147
Ireland; taken from details appended to the Second Report of the Irish Commissioners.
Intern Patients in 1833.		Extern Patients in 1833.		Number of Persons under cure at one time, allowing a month for eath intern Patient, and a fortnight for extern cases.	
Of Infirmaries and Hospitals from which Returns were received.	Of all Infirmaries and Hospitals, on proportional Estimate.	Of Infirmaries, Hospitals, and Dispensaries, from which Returns were received.	Of all the Institutions, on proportional Estimate.		
				Interns.	Externs.
15,245	21,146	442,269	554,271	1,762	21,318
9,883	14,275	432,909	537,186	1,189	20,661
3,619	3,860	250,758	293,622	322	11,293
1,887	2,516	117,378	141,831	210	5,455
	41,797		1,526,910	3,483	58,727
imprisonment in the common gaols. Such objections are as inconsistent as the reasoning of those opponents of a provision for the poor, who contend that the English poor-law, even where well administered, has dissipated the capital of English landholders: but, on another occasion, will as earnestly assert that English rents are as much higher than those of Ireland, as English agricultural wages exceed the rate of remuneration for Irish rural labour; and yet they cannot tell how this could be, if English landholders’ capital had been dissipated by the poor.
Looking at the state of the Irish poorer classes, and all the circumstances of their condition,—their social habits,—the large number dependent on agriculture,—the extent of the Irish territory, with its capability of production,—and the demand for enlarged supplies of agricultural produce in the English markets;—I feel persuaded that a judicious poor-law, vigorously administered, must keep the total of destitution from exceeding the proportion which it is assumed to bear to the present extent of the population.
I would apprehend, nevertheless, if the asylum accommodation were to be provided for only 80,000 persons, that the great design of a compulsory provision, to avert pauperism by stimulating employers to extend labour, would be frustrated, and that the provision would become merely a resource for a limited number of paupers. It appears essential that there should be, in every asylum, means of accommodating a much greater number than it is computed may be driven there for succour, otherwise the poor-law cannot be efficiently worked as an instrument for raising up the condition of the poorer classes ; and, ultimately, an extension might be enforced by the increase of pauperism, which the erection of more extensive asylums, in the beginning,would avert, by convincing the landholders that an increase of poor-rates could only be prevented by their using beneficially the sources of employment and subsistence committed to their management.
I have the honour to be, Sir,
Your most obedient servant,
William Stanley, l 2
Dublin, 3rd October, 1837.148
RADIUS OF ENGLISH UNIONS.
[App, to
No. 14—List of Unions in England and Wales in which the Radius from a Workhouse in the centre would exceed Ten miles.
Counties. Unions.
Chester . . Cornwall . Cumberland Devon . .
Dorset . * Durham .
Hereford . Lancaster , Lincoln * .
Monmouth Norfolk. .
. Nantwich.
. Liskeard.
. Penrith.
. Barnstaple. Bideford.
South Molton. Okehampton.
St. Thomas.
. Dorchester.
. Auckland. Teesdale.
Weardale.
. Kington.
. Ulverstone.
. Bourn.
Caistor.
Glandford Brigg.
Grantham.
Holbeach.
Lincoln.
Louth.
Spilsby.
. Abergavenny. Newport.
. Mitford and Laun-ditch.
Counties.	Unions,
Northumberland . Bellingham.
Nottingham. . Westmoreland .
North York . •
West York . Brecon . . ,
Cardigan . . Carmarthen .
Glamorgan .
Pembroke . . .
Radnor
Glendale.
Hexham.
Rothbury.
. B as ford.
. East Ward.
Kendal.
. Malton. Richmond. Scarborough.
. Skipton.
. Brecknock. Builth.
. Aberystwith.
. Carmarthen.
Llandovery.
. Neath.
Swansea.
. Haverfordwest. Narberth. Pembroke.
. Knighton. Rhayader.
There are many other Unions, in which Parishes and portions of Parishes are more than Ten miles distant from the Workhouse.
October 30, 1837.
No. 15.—Extract from the Report of the Sub~Committee specially appointed at Aberdeen to obtain information with reference to the Suppression of Vagrancy, presented to the Aggregate Committee by Mr. Edmond, on the 17th of August, 1837 :—
<c The Sub-Committee refer to the returns which have been received, and to a more full abstract of these returns, to be laid upon the table, for more particular information.
a They have each carefully perused these documents and considered the whole scheme; and, in fulfilment of the remit made to them, by which they are required to give their opinion, they have farther to report that, without an union of all the measures adverted to in the queries, viz.:—«1. A vigilant superintendence to prevent begging; 2. A poor’s house; 3. A strict investigation into every case of pauperism, not only on the presentation of claims for relief, but from time to time afterwards—no attempt can be made to suppress begging, either with justice or with a prospect of ultimate success.
“ The great evil of vagrant begging is its tendency to idleness and irreligion, Every person who can work commits an injustice whenEVIDENCE AS TO IRISH POOR—
[Ajpp. to Second Report,
LETTER FROM WILLIAM STANLEY, ESQ.
To follow page 147
Table 7»—A Statement of the Incomes of the Public Institutions in Ireland for Relief of the Sick Poor ; also the Incomes of Houses of Industry, Lunatic Asylums, and Asylums for Foundlings,
(Compiled from the Appendix to the Second Report of the Irish Poor Inquiry Commissioners.)
Establishments in each Province.		Income from Le\ie.s„by Grand Juries, 1‘833.		Grants by Parliament, 1833.	Petty Sessions’ Fines, 1833.		Subscriptions, -1833.		Miscellaneous sources; as Legacies, Donations, &c., 1333		Total Income.					
											In 1833.			In 1832.		
County Initrmariiîs.		£. s.	d.	£. s. d.	£. s.	d.	£. s.	d.	£. s.	d.	£.	s.	d.	£*.	s.	d.
Leinster .	. 14	6,779 16	11	1,339 19 8	349 10	7	1,685 15	5	1,843 19	81	12,004	2	H	12 226	4	6*
Munster .	. 8	3,089 4	7	582 11 7	241 12	8	3,285 3	2	1,124 14	10"	8,323	6	10	6,718	12	2
Ulster . • •	. 9	4,485 7	7	538 11 3	236 0	6	719 1	2	1,035 6	6	7,015	7	0	8,175	7	10
Connaught .	. %	2,592 6	9	311 16 5	111 19	2	103 19	3	287 16	3	3,407	17	10	4,352	14	2
Total .	. 36										39,750	13	111	31,472	18	8J
Fever Hospitals.																
Leinster .	. 29	4,312 16	10	3,800 0 0	11 5	0	1,504 0	11	823 15	5	10,451	18	2	12,625	5	3
Munster .	. 31	7,051 10	6	89 1 10	25 0	0	4,775 19	9	1,613 13	0“	13,555	10	1	13,141	19	8
Ulster . . .	. 7	1,117 19	10	None.	None.		1.263 2	0	420 14	3	2,801	16	1	2,563	19	4
Connaught > ,	. 3	786 11	6	9 3	3 3		None.		None.		786	11	6	976	11	6
Total .	. 70										27,595	15	10	29,307	15	9
Dispensaries.																
Leinster • • ,	. 150	8,509 7	1	3 3	, 3		8,495 17	8	3 3		17,005	4	9	16,844	15	3
Munster . . .	. 131	7,957 4	8	3 )	3 3		7,230 4	0	3 3		15,187	8	8	16,527	0	9
Ulster . . .	. 121	5,400 1	2	3 3	} 3		5,862 10	8	3 3		11,262	11	10	11,591	9	0
Connaught .	. 50	2,982 17	8	3 3	3 3		3,215 18	3	Ì 3		6,198 15		11	6,311	0	8
Total .	. 452										49,654	1	2	51,274	5	8
Houses of Industry.																
Dublin . . .		None.		20,000 0 0	, ,		None.		549 11	11	20,549	11	11	Not stated.		
Cork ....		2,942 6	2	None.	, ,		245 4	0	946 6	2	4,133	16	4	5,033	10	6
Waterford		2,300 0	0	3 3	3 3		270 6	5	255 6	0	2,825	12	5	2,904	9	3
Clonmel , .		1,700 0	0	3 3	, ,		None,		29 5	0	1,729	5	0	1,728	3	0
Limerick		1,392 6	2	3 3	) 3		35 6	0	102 13	5	1,530	5	7	1,639	11	7
Belfast .		None.		} 3	3 3		772 12	3	326 0	5	1,098	12	8	1,159	18	5
Ennis • # •		600 0	0	3 3	3 3		None.		None.		600	0	0	600	0	0
Wexford . .		500 0	0	3 3	3 3		3 3		3 3		500	0	0	732	10	6
Kilkenny .	.	None in 1833.		} 3	3 3		3 3		3 3		.			200	0	0
Total, 9.																
											32,967	3	11	.		
General Total .		64,499 17	5	See observations,	975 7	11	39,465 0	11	9,365 7	10	140,967	14	10	. . .		
Observations.
The Returns for Leinster comprise the Infirmaries for Counties, with one in the City of Dublin, and one in Drogheda.
The Returns for Munster include two Infirmaries in Cork and one
in Limerick.
Waterford County has not an Infirmary.
There are not Presentments for the Infirmary in Drogheda and
the City of Limerick.
The Infirmaries of Kerry, Cavan, and Leitrim are wholly supported by Presentments, and the Infirmary in the City of Dublin principally by them.
Annexed to the House of Industry in Dublin there are Hospitals for Fever Patients, Lunatics, and Surgical Cases; therefore the Parliamentary Grant of ¿20,000 is for all, and probably a portion of it may be in the column for Grants, opposite Fever Hospitals, which would render the total of the column incorrect.
Of the sum levied by Grand Juries for the Cork House of Industry, the County contributes £1292. 6s. 2d,
The County of Limerick is assessed for £1000 of the sum levied by Grand Juries for the House of Industry in the City.
Of the £2300 levied by Grand Juries for the Waterford House of Industry, the City contributes only £1100, and out of that £200 is allocated to the Lunatic Asylum.
Lunatic Asylums.
Foundling Asylums.
Statute Acres of Land purchased for each Asylum.		Amount of Purchase Money, and ' cost of Building and Furnishing.			Patients when the Returns were made.	Income in 1833.			Foundlings on the Books in 1833.:	Income.		
												
A.	R. P.	£.	s.	d.		£• s.	d.			£.	s.	d.
								Dublin ....	6,793	15,750	11	7
					210	5,472 2	4					
	, .	# ,	.		not stated	4,172 7	uè					
8	0 23	20,900	4	*5i	104	3,530 19	44					
11	3 12	29,856	11	5}	150	3,600 7	2					
21	1 11	25,319	13	0	104	3,734 5	9					
12	5 2	25,678	2	4	104	3,005 0	0					
15	0 39	22,552	10	4	104	2,755 7	0	Cork .....	1,329	6,566	7	11
22	2 17	24,172	2	6	104	Opened in	1833.					
22	2 28	27,130	4	6	150	3 9						
14	2 12	16,887	12	7	100	Opened in 1835.						
11	1 4	16,587	19	3	60	i i						
5	0 0							Galway • • + .	9	62	0	0
		209,085	0	4|	1,390	(On Estimate) 35,000 0 0			8,130	22,378	19	6
Observations.
Dublin (annexed to the House of Industy; therefore see observations on the grant for the whole Institution) .... Cork (supported from local funds) .
Armagh ......................
Limerick........................
Belfast ........................
Londonderry.....................
Carlow..........................
Maryborough ........
Connaught .........
Waterford (see Observations on House of Industry) ...•••••.
Clonmel ..........
The Armagh Asylum has additional land on lease .	•	.	,
4000 of the Dublin Asylum’s Foundlings were apprentices when the Return was made.
The income here stated was proposed for 1835 by the Commissioners of Poor Inquiry.
The Income of the Cork Institution is derived from a tax on coal.149
Second Rept.] mendicancy in Scotland*
his fellow-citizens are taxed for his support; and the chance is, or rather it is a certainty, that he will do mischief rather than leave his mind and hands entirely unemployed. In a poor’s house the question whether parties are willing and able to work can best be tried. Begging habits may there be justly controlled. The large class of persons who so often are found in the streets, pleading inability and want, will not, unless in real need, be bold enough to incur the risk of such a trial.
“ Of this class may be reckoned the young persons who parade the streets, many of whom can work to some extent, and all of whom may at least be learning something useful in place of following that most evil of professions, vagrancy, with all its mischiefs.
“ There are, on the other hand, persons who cannot work, and who cannot possibly maintain life by the pittance received from public funds to be spent at home; who are left in old age, in sickness, or in solitary destitution, to grumble out their days ; and who might, by getting shelter in a house of comfort, and food and clothing, and by being enable to live in peace, and to enjoy the blessings of religion and society (which they have not now), afford the charitable the satisfaction that their money is employed and received as Christian charity should.
“ Another benefit to be derived from a poor’s house is, that there (if a proper management and superintendence be adopted) nothing can be misapplied; and, while there is every reason to believe that, in many cases, out-door pensions are made the means of temporary dissipation, and in some cases grabbed at by petty usurers, while the recipients for whom they are destined are left in misery, by the poor’s house system these evils will be prevented; and, if begging be suppressed, the inhabitants of Aberdeen will be able to afford a large sum which is now often unprofitably employed on vagrants.”THIRD REPORT
OF
GEORGE NICHOLLS, ESQ.
CONTAINING
THE RESULT OF AN INQUIRY INTO THE CONDITION OF THE LABOURING CLASSES AND THE PROVISION FOR THE RELIEF OF THE POOR,
HOLLAND AND BELGIUM.
Dated hth May, 1838.REPORT.
TO THE EIGHT HONOURABLE LORD JOHN RUSSELL,
&c. &c. &c.
London, bth May, 1838.
Mt Lord,
1.	It appearing to be desirable, with reference to the Irish Poor Law measure now before Parliament, that some examination should be made of the modes of administering relief, and the condition of the poorer classes, in Holland and Belgium, and your Lordship having assented to my request that Dr. Kay should accompany me for this purpose, I have now to report that we proceeded to Rotterdam, and thence through the Hague, Haarlem, Amsterdam, Utrecht, Breda, Antwerp, Brussels, Malines, Ghent, and Bruges, to Ostend. The time at our disposal was necessarily short, and our investigations were hurried and imperfect; but the letters with which we were furnished by Lord Palmerston, and the Dutch and Belgian Ambassadors, procured for us ready access to the authorities and institutions in the two countries, and enabled us to obtain information which would otherwise have been inaccessible.
2.	The institutions for popular education in Holland constitute one of the most marked features of the domestic policy of that country, and claimed our especial attention, not only on account of the strong resemblance between many parts of its social system and our own, but because of the great contrast perceptible between the means adopted for the education of the poorer classes in Holland and those which exist in this country.
3.	Nothing can exceed the cleanliness, the personal propriety, and the apparent comfort of the people of Holland. I did not see a house of a fence out of repair, or a garden that was not carefully cultivated. We met no ragged or dirty persons, nor any drunken man ; neither did I see any indication that drunkenness is the vice of any portion of the people. I was assured that bastardy was almost unknown; and, although we were during all hours of the day much in the public thoroughfares, we saw154 CHARACTER OF DUTCH AND BELGIAN POPULATION. [Third
only two beggars., and they in manners and appearance scarcely came within the designation. The Dutch people appear to be strongly attached to their government, and few countries possess a population in which the domestic and social duties are discharged with such constancy. A scrupulous economy and cau^ tious foresight seem to be the characteristic virtues of every class. To spend their full annual income, is accounted a species of crime. The same systematic prudence pervades every part of the community, agricultural and commercial; and thus the Dutch people are enabled to bear up against the most formidable physical difficulties, and to secure a larger amount of individual comfort than probably exists in any other country.
4.	The Belgians possess many of the virtues of the Dutch. A less minute and scrupulous attention to order and cleanliness prevails than in Holland, but the whole country exhibits decided proofs of industry and enterprise. The manners of the Belgians are somewhat more lively, and they appear to be susceptible of more vivid and sudden impressions; but they closely resemble the Dutch in their habits of industry, sobriety, and rigid economy. No drunkenness or disorder was anywhere apparent. The dress and the dwellings of the working-people showed the decent comfort in which they live. Bastardy is less rare than in Holland ; and the tone of moral feeling somewhat less elevated. Mendicancy also is more common, but in both countries the number of mendicants is small. In Belgium a beggar may be occasionally seen at a church-door, but very rarely at any other place; and mendicancy is not there practised as a profession, as in England and Ireland.
5.	For the general correctness of this brief sketch, I rely with less confidence on our own very limited observation than on the careful inquiries which we made from individuals most competent to afford information; but I believe it to be an accurate description of the general condition and habits of the people in the two countries: and, with reference to the contemplated measure of Poor Laws for Ireland, and as respects Poor Law Administration in England, it appears important to endeavour to ascertain the causes which have led to results so satisfactory. This question, if pursued in all its details, would open a wide field of investigation: but there are points immediately connected with the objects of our inquiry, which undoubtedly have had a powerful influence in producing this state of things in Holland and Belgium,—namely, Education, and a Provision for the Relief of the Poor. In addition to these, the habits and mode of cultivation of the small Farmers in Belgium seem to be particularly deserving of notice: and on each of these three subjects I will now offer a fewT observations.Report.]
EDUCATION.
155
i. First—Of Education.
6.	The measures adopted in Holland to promote the education of all classes have apparently resulted from -the conviction that the moral and social character of the people, their intelligence, and their capacity for increasing the resources of the country, must in a great measure depend upon the manner in which they are trained for the fulfilment of their several duties. The state has not rendered education actually obligatory upon the municipalities, neither has it required evidence of the education of the children of the poorer classes by any educational test, for a sense of the importance of education pervades the entire community— it is sought by the poor for their children, with an earnestness similar to that observed in the more wealthy classes in other countries; and in Holland the direct interference of Government is confined to regulating the mode of instruction, by means of an organized system of inspection. The department of education is under the superintendence of the Minister of the Interior, assisted, by the Inspector-General of Instruction, from whom all changes in the general regulations emanate; but the inspection of schools* the examination and the special authorization of teachers, devolve upon local Inspectors. The Inspectors of each department assemble thrice every year in the chief town of the province, when they constitute a Commission, at which the reports of each local Inspector are read, and various questions relative to the examination and general authorization of teachers, and the management and improvement of the schools, are discussed and settled.
7.	The Government, from time to time, also assembles at the Hague a Council of Inspectors, composed of deputies from the board of each department. Each Inspector must visit every school in his district at least twice every year, and his influence within his district is necessarily great.—The local Commissions originate with him, and no teacher can instruct within the district who has not been specially authorized by him. He is controlled by the Commission of the Department, to which is intrusted tile execution of the general regulations, and the provincial rules founded upon them, and this Commission is responsible to the Inspector-General and the Minister of the Interior. Every person desirous of becoming a teacher is first examined before the Commission, of the Department, which has authority to give a certificate of general capacity; but it is still necessary that the candidate should obtain a special permission from the authorities of the municipality, acting in concert with the local Inspector, before he can commence the discharge of his duties in any district. Teachers may be suspended or dismissed by the local or depart-SYSTEM OF GENERAL
156
[Third
mental authorities, when the Inspectors propose their suspension or dismission.
8.	The schoolmasters of the primary schools in Holland are supported in respectability and comfort. Their functions are held in high estimation, and we were assured that they are generally content with their lot; but there is no positive provision fixing their salaries. The law only enacts, generally, that the municipal and departmental authorities shall secure a sufficient income to the teachers, and that they shall not be left dependent upon payments from the parents of their scholars.
9.	To the schools thus provided, the people, without any exception or distinction, are entitled to send their children, on payment of certain fixed sums monthly, or at shorter periods. These payments are regulated with reference to the nature of the education to be afforded; but the whole charge, even for the highest class, is of small amount. In the case of parents so poor, or so burthened with large families, as to be actually unable to pay, the local authorities are empowered to remit the charge ; and thus the means of education are secured to the lowest, as well as to the highest. We were assured that no abuse of this power of exemption had ever occurred, and that no charge of partiality had ever been made. The people acquiesced cheerfully and contentedly in every arrangement, and were as desirous of sending their children to be educated as the Government and local authorities were to impart the benefits of education. In Haarlem, with a population of 21,000, we were informed there was not a child of ten years of age, and of sound intellect, who could not both read and write, and throughout Holland it is the same.
10.	In addition to these schools there are numerous private schools, as well as superior public schools, for the education of the children of the more opulent; but in all the same principle seems to prevail,—that is, to impart the highest degree of intellectual attainment applicable to each class. In this respect the institutions of Holland greatly resemble those of Scotland; and to the effects of a well-devised system of primary instruction for the children of the poorer classes in both these countries, may, I believe, be traced one of the chief sources of the moral strength of the labouring population in each. The funds raised for the immediate relief of the poor are, in both countries, small in amount, and not therefore likely to produce those mischievous consequences which, in England, followed the practical recognition of a universal right to relief: but neither in Holland nor in Scotland is there any effectual safeguard against the occurrence of such evils; and the only remedy provided consists in a well-Report.]	EDUCATION IN HOLLAND.	157
devised system of instruct ion, and its influence upon the habits and condition of the people.
11.	There are two Normal Schools in Holland; one at Groningen, for the departments of Frise, Dreuthe, and Overyssel ; and the other at Haarlem, for the rest of Holland. The latter school is conducted by M. Prinse, to whom Holland is chiefly indebted for the introduction of the system of simultaneous instruction, on the principles promulgated by Pestalozzi. We were introduced to M. Prinse by Baron de Koch, the Minister of the Interior, and visited the several departments of the Normal School at Haarlem, and obtained much information respecting the whole system of school discipline. These details do not come within the immediate scope of this Report; but the system adopted for recruiting the ranks of the teachers, by raising thè most distinguished scholars successively to the rank of élèves, supplying them with the instruction < necessary to their success, and gradually fitting them, by practice as assistant-masters, to assume eventually the office of master, appears completely to succeed, and indeed to be essential to any efficient system of general primary education.
12.	As respects religion, the population of Holland is divided, in about equal proportions, into Catholic, Lutheran, and Protestants of the reformed Calvinistic Church ; and the ministers of each are supported by the State. The schools contain, without distinction, the children of every sect of Christians. The religious and moral instructiQn afforded to the children is taken from the pages of Holy Writ, and the wdiole course of education is mingled with a frequent reference to the great general evidences of revelation. Biblical history is taught, not as a dry narration of facts, but as a storehouse of truths, calculated to influence the affections, to correct and elevate the manners, and to inspire sentiments of devotion and virtue. The great principles and truths of Christianity, in which all are agreed, are likewise carefully inculcated; but those points which are the subjects of difference and religious controversy form no part of the instructions of the schools. This department of religious teaching is confided to the ministers of each persusion, who discharge this portion of their duties out of the school : but within the schools the common ground of instruction is faithfully preserved, and they are consequently altogether free from the spirit of jealousy òr proselytism. We witnessed the exercise of a class of the children of notables in Haarlem (according to the simultaneous method), respecting the death and resurrection of our Saviour, by a minister of the Lutheran Church. The class contained children of Catholics, Calvinists, and other denominations of Christians* as well as Lutherans; and all disputable doctrinal points were carefully158	INTRODUCTION OF SYSTEMATIC	[Third
avoided. The Lutherans are the smallest in number, the Calvinists the largest, and the Catholics about midway between the two ; but all appear to live together in perfect amity, without the slightest distinction in the common intercourse of life ; and this circumstance, so extremely interesting in itself, no doubt facilitated the establishment of the general system of education here described, the effects of which are so apparent in the highly moral and intellectual condition of the Dutch people.
13.	On a review of the Dutch system of education, there seems much to admire, much that accords with our habits, and with the genius of our Government. The system appears complete, and possesses healthiness and vigour, as well as simplicity, peculiarly fitting it for imitation. A system similar, in some of its essential particulars, already prevails in Scotland ; and, if it were introduced into England and Ireland, some modification of the machinery of the Unions might probably be made available for working it with effect. That a system of general education would be of vast benefit to both countries, can hardly admit of a doubt ; and the necessity which has arisen since the passing of the Poor Law Amendment Act, of providing for the education and moral and industrial training of the children in the Union Workhouses, seems to render the establishment of a system of education for the children of the working-classes generally, absolutely essential ; as without this the pauper children in our workhouses will be placed in a better position, and be better fitted to rise in the world, than the children of the independent labourer, a position, as regards the latter class, much to be deprecated.
14.	On the union of Belgium and Holland into one kingdom, earnest and persevering exertions were made by the Government, from 1816 to 1830, to introduce into Belgium the system of primary instruction, which has had so happy an influence on the character and well-being of the Dutch people. The measures adopted for this purpose consisted in the establishment of Normal Schools in 1816; in the assemblage of a Commission of Education in 1817, which appointed provincial juries, who were intrusted with the duty of stimulating the communes and towns to provide funds for the repair and erection of schools. The Government lent assistance from the public purse to increase the salaries of teachers, and to provide school-rooms ; it encouraged the formation of societies of teachers for mutual instruction, and the establishment of courses of lectures on the art of teaching, at Luxembourg, Mons, Maestricht, Ghent, Liege, Namur, and Bruges ; and the establishment of circulating libraries, consisting of works on education likely to be useful to teachers. The several provincial Councils, and the local Inspectors and departmental Commissioners of Inspection, who were subsequently appointed,Report.]
EDUCATION INTO BELGIUM.
159
and who displaced the provincial juries, encouraged the introduction of the simultaneous method of instruction by subsidies to the Normal Schools, by promoting meetings of the teachers, by the terms on which they gave assistance to the schools, and by the introduction of the system of examination of teachers, the granting of general and special brevets of capacity, and the discouragement of unauthorised teachers, as pursued in Holland.
15.	Parents were invited to send their children to these schools for gratuitous instruction, and for this purpose great exertions were made by the local Inspectors, while every inducement was held out to the people to avail themselves of the benefit thus placed within their reach. It was deemed proper to afford the instruction gratuitously in the first instance, the Belgians being then a less instructed people than the Dutch, and consequently not so sensible of the advantages of education, nor so desirous of securing its benefits for their children. The success was commensurate with the efforts made by the then Government; and the moral and social improvement of the people, we were assured, was everywhere marked and progressive. Some difficulties and jealousies occurred on account of the over-zeal of certain functionaries, who, in their anxiety to realize the enlightened views of the Government, and to push forward rapidly the system of education, did not sufficiently regard the habits and prejudices of the people, which can only be ameliorated by time and continued efforts; but still the cause of education was steadily progressive throughout Belgium whilst it remained united with Holland.
16.	The revolution* which separated the two countries overthrew the system of inspection established under the Government of the King of Holland. Social distraction is unfavourable to institutions of this nature; and, notwithstanding that an earnest desire exists among the most enlightened Belgians for the construction of a new system of inspection, suited to the habits of the people, this has not yet been accomplished: and, in the interval which has since elapsed, although the number of the schools has certainly increased, the value of the education imparted therein has notoriously diminished.
17.	We did not find, either in Holland or in Belgium, that any provision was made for the industrial training of the children in the municipal and parochial schools, or for teaching them trades or other occupations*—this was' left entirely to the parents; but it appeared that the elder children of the working-classes were very generally in the habit of labouring with their masters during the day, and attending the schools in the evening, or at certain fixed periods. In the schools of the prisons for the correction of juvenile offenders, and of certain of the orphan asylums160
INSTITUTIONS FOR THE RELIEF OF THE POOR	[Third
we however found admirable arrangements for the instruction of the children in various arts of domestic service, and of handicraft-employment, by which they might, on their discharge, be enabled to earn their livelihood, and maintain an independent station in society.
ii. Secondly—Of the Relief of the Poor.
18.	The institutions for the relief of indigence are numerous in Holland, and consist of hospices for the aged and infirm, orphan houses, workhouses of towns, depots de mendicité, or district workhouses, the poor colonies, and private charitable institutions. The funds for the support of these establishments are, to a great extent, derived from endowments and voluntary contributions, the direct tax not being more than about 1,800,000 guilders, or £150,000 per annum. Many of these institutions, in their structure and appearance, rather resemble palaces than poor-houses, and they form one of the most prominent characteristics of the great towns. In Amsterdam, especially, the most superficial observer cannot fail to be struck with the magnitude and number of these buildings.
19.	Among the classes having ability to labour, a state of even temporary dependence is considered disgraceful, and great exertions are said to be made by the labouring population to avoid it. The condition of the able-bodied labourer, subsisting on the fruits of his own industry, is superior to that of the pauper, both on account of the degradation attaching to a state of dependence, and because the amount of relief given, either by the religious communities [or by the local authorities, is so small as to be barely sufficient for support. But no sense of degradation attaches to the orphan establishments, which are calculated to invite rather than to discourage dependence. Our visits to these institutions, and to the hospices, enabled us to ascertain that the arrangements for the comfort of the inmates are, in every respect, so superior to those enjoyed by other individuals of the same class, that it was evident these institutions presented no barrier to the dependence of the entire class, short of the exhaustion of the funds with which they are endowed.
20.	The depots de mendicité, or provincial workhouses, bore so close a resemblance to the old English workhouses and those established under Gilbert’s Act, and to the incorporated houses of industry, formed under local Acts, in the southern and eastern counties, as to induce a belief that the English workhouses must have been formed upon a Dutch model ; but, however this may be, the result has certainly been the same in both countries, the evil of pauperism having been increased rather than diminishedIN HOLLAND AND BELGIUM.
161
Report]
by these institutions, in which the profitable application of pauper labour has been sought for, rather than the repression of pauperism.
21.	The workhouse of Amsterdam is a vast building, capable of containing upwards of 1500 inmates. The imposing character of its exterior, the elegance of its entrance-hall, and the decorations of the rooms appropriated to public business, were in marked contrast with the aspect of the several wards. The inmates chiefly consisted of the lowest and least moral part of the population of the great cities, who had sought refuge in the workhouse because they had forfeited their claim to regular employment, and the vigilance of the police did not permit them to subsist by mendicancy. The sexes were strictly separated at all times ; but the children were in the same apartment with the adults of each sex. The males and females each occupied separate day-rooms, in which the dirt and disorder were very offensive. In these rooms the inmates ate their meals, without any attention to regularity or propriety. Here, also, they worked in the looms, or at other occupations. The first group of men to whom we advanced were seated at a table playing at cards ; we found another party playing at draughts, and a third at hazard. Others were sauntering up and down the room with their hands in their pockets. The women’s day-room was a scene of similar confusion. Both men and boys were clothed in a coarse kind of sacking. The chief article of their diet is rye-bread, almost black, and not overabundant in the quantity allowed, with an indefinite quantity of boiled buttermilk ; but they are permitted to work at certain rates of wages, and to spend a certain portion of their earnings at a canteen in the house, where coffee, tobacco, gin, &c., may be obtained. On application for admission, the paupers undergo a strict examination as to their ability to maintain themselves ; and while inmates they are rigorously confined, and are not permitted to go abroad u unless they give positive hopes that, on re-entering society, they will render themselves worthy of their liberty, by diligently endeavouring to gain their own livelihood by honest means.”
22.	The establishment at La Cambré, near Brussels, was superior in its internal arrangements to the workhouse at Amsterdam, particularly in the separate classification of the aged, of the children, and of adults, and also in the good arrangement and cleanliness of the sleeping-rooms. The sexes are strictly separated, as is invariably the case in all the other Dutch and Belgian institutions. The Inspector-General, M. Ducpétiaux, who accompanied us in our visit to La Cambré, informed us that,' by the penal code, a mendicant once condemned to a depot de mendicité for begging, may be kept there during the remainder of his life ;
M162
WORKHOUSES IN HOLLAND AND BELGIUM»
{Third
but, in practice, he is allowed to leave the establishment whenever the commission of superintendence are satisfied that he is disposed to labour for his subsistence, without resorting to mendicancy.
23.	There are three great workhouses for the whole of Holland, which are situated, one at Amsterdam, another at Middle-burgh, and a third in the commonalty Nieuve Pekel A, in the province of Groningen, Belgium has five great workhouses, situated respectively at La Cambré, near Brussels, for the province of Brabant ; at Bruges, for the two Flanders ; át Hoóg-straeten, for the province of Antwerp; at Mons, for Hainault, Namur, and Luxembourg; and at Reickheim, for Liege and Limburgh. Under their present regulations, these provincial workhouses, or depots de mendicité, both in Holland and Belgium, are* I think (judging from what we could learn and what ■we saw), very defective institutions ; and hence seems to have arisen the necessity for resorting to some stricter measures, which ended in the establishment of the poor colonies. In England, the defects of the old workhouses were remedied by the introduction of regulations calculated to render them efficient tests, by the aid of which we have succeeded in establishing the distinction between poverty and destitution : for the latter We have provided relief, but we have left the former to the natural development of its own resources. In Holland and Belgium no such distinction has been made, or test established. Their workhouses remain as they were originally formed—nurseries for indolence, and stimulants to pauperism. But, in order to correct this evil* the Dutch have had recourse to the establishment of poor colonies, to which all persons found begging (or committing vagabondage, as it is termed) are sent, if able to work, and compelled to labour for their subsistence, under strict discipline and low diet—this is the real use of the poor colonies, both in Holland and Belgium. Had the workhouses been made efficient* there would have been no occasion for these establishments : but, the workhouses not being efficient, recourse has been had to the penal colonies ; where the test of strict discipline, hard labour, and scanty diet, is so applied as to be held in the greatest dread by the vagrant classes. All beggars are apprehended by the police ; if able to wTork, they are sent to the penal colonies * if aged or infirm, or unable to perform out-door work, they áre sënt to the workhouses ; and, although the discipline of the workhouses is defective* and the management in many respects faulty in principle, yet, with the aid of the poor colonies, they secure the repression of mendicancy.
24.	We were unable, owing to the limited time at our command, to visit the poor colonies of Holland, which are situated in the remote province of Overyssel ; and the extreme severity ofReport.]	poor colonies—mendicancy.	163
the weather* and the badness of the roads (which were described as being almost impassable), prevented our going to Hoogstraeten, although we passed at no great distance from it: but the inquiries which we made enabled me to appreciate the character of these institutions, and confirmed the impressions received from a perusal of the papers of M. Le Comte Arrivabene, of the Baron de Hochepied Larpent, and of M. Ducpetiaux. With respect to the free colonies, we were assured that the expectation of profit which led to their creation had notoriously failed—it could hardly be otherwise—for to employ the least skilful and industrious labourers on the most sterile soil, first, in the condition of serfs ; secondly, of co-operation; and, lastly, of independent labourers, with the hope of profit, was an enterprise so inconsistent with first principles, that its success was obviously impossible.
25.	In the coercive or penal colonies, to which the able-bodied mendicants are sent, the case is somewhat different; these, as before stated, have become efficient for the repression of mendicancy. In the workhouses of these establishments one ward is used in common as a dormitory, refectory, and workshop; the inmates sleep in hammocks, and are very coarsely clad. They labour with the spade in the fields, or in making bricks, or at manufactures in the house, under the superintendence of an inspector. Count Arrivabene says, “ An account is kept between the colonists and the society in the military style. Each colonist is furnished with a book, in which are entered the work executed daily, the amount of food and clothes with which he has been furnished, and his share of the general expenses of the establishment, and whatever he has received in the paper-money of the colony. Guards on horseback patrol the boundary of the colony; rewards given to those who bring back any colonist who has attempted to escape; and an uniform dress; are the means resorted to to prevent desertion from the colony. When mendicants are arrested by the gendarmerie/ they are permitted to choose whether they will be brought before the tribunals as vagabonds, or be transported to the coercive colony, where they must remain at least one year.”
26.	These rigorous measures for the suppression of mendicancy have been adopted in the absence of any acknowledgment of a right to relief, and notwithstanding that a large portion of the relief actually administered arises from endowments and voluntary contributions. This forms an important feature in the Dutch and Belgian system; and if, as I believe, the rigour of this part of their institutions has been caused by the necessity arising out of the imperfect organization of the other institutions, the true remedy would seem to have been, not in the establishment of penal colonies, but in such an improvement of the organ-164
SMALL FARMS IN BELGIUM.
[ Third
ization of those institutions as would have removed their defects, and rendered them efficient for the repression of mendicancy, as well as for the administration of relief.
27.	If the modes of relief here briefly described as existing in Holland and Belgium be compared with the system of relief which it is proposed to establish in Ireland, by the measure now before Parliament, the latter will, I think, be found to be much more simple and complete, and consequently to promise greater efficiency. No right to relief exists in Holland or Belgium, yet mendicancy is suppressed in both those countries. It is proposed not to give a right to relief in Ireland, and it is intended to suppress mendicancy,—in this respect, therefore, the provisions are similar: but, in Ireland, it is proposed to divide the whole country into numerous districts of convenient extent, with a workhouse to each, so that every destitute and infirm person will there be within easy reach of adequate relief; and this arrangement is obviously preferable to the various, and in some respects conflicting, modes of relief which exist in Holland and Belgium; and, it may be presumed, will be more effective in its operation. The example of Holland and Belgium may therefore be cited, in addition to that of England, in support of the principle of the Irish Poor Law measure proposed by Government.
hi. Thirdly—Of the small Farms in Belgium,
28.	The extensive manufactures which, at no very remote period, flourished in Belgium, appear to have congregated a numerous population of artisans in and around the great towns. As the scene of manufacturing industry changed, this population was deprived of its means of handicraft employment, and was compelled to resort to the cultivation of the soil for subsistence. This seems to have been the chief, though possibly not the sole origin of the system of small farms which still prevails, and which are cultivated by the holder and his family, generally without other assistance. The farms in Belgium very rarely exceed 100 acres. The number containing 50 acres is not great. Those of 30 and 20 acres are more numerous; but the number of holdings of from 5 to 10, 15, and 20 acres is very considerable, especially those of the smaller extent; and to these I chiefly confined my inquiries.
29.	The small farms of from 5 to 10 acres, which abound in many parts of Belgium, closely resemble the small holdings in Ireland; but the small Irish cultivator exists in a state of miserable privation of the common comforts and conveniences of civilized life, whilst the Belgian peasant-farmer enjoys a large portion of those comforts. The houses of the small cultivators in BelgiumReport.]
GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF FARMS.
165
are generally substantially built, and in good repair; they have commonly a sleeping-room in the attic, and closets for beds connected with the lower apartment, -which is convenient in size. A small cellarage for the dairy, and store for the grain, as well as an oven, and an outhouse for the potatoes, with" a roomy cattle-stall, piggery, and poultry-loft. The house generally contains decent furniture, the bedding sufficient in quantity; and, although the scrupulous cleanliness of the Dutch may not be everywhere observable, an air of comfort and propriety pervades the whole establishment. In the cowhouse the cattle are supplied with straw for bedding; the dung and urine are carefully collected in the lank ; the ditches had been scoured to collect materials for manure ; the dry leaves, potato-tops, &c., had been collected in a moist ditch to undergo the process of fermentation, and heaps of compost were in course of preparation. The premises were kept in neat and compact order, and a scrupulous attention to a most rigid economy was everywhere apparent. The family were decently clad, none of them were ragged or slovenly, even when their dress consisted of the coarsest material. The men universally wear the bleuse, and wooden shoes are in common use by both sexes. The diet consists, to a large extent, of rye-bread and milk; the dinner being usually composed of a mess of potatoes and onions, with the occasional addition of some pounded ham or slices of bacon. The quantity of brown wheaten-bread consumed did not appear to be considerable. I need not point out the striking contrast of the mode of living here described with the state of the same class of persons in Ireland; and it appears important to investigate the causes of this difference.
30. In the greater part of the flat country of Belgium the soil is light and sandy, and easily worked; but its productive powers are certainly inferior to the general soil of Ireland, and the climate does not appear to be superior. To the soil and the climate, therefore, the Belgian does not owe his superiority in comfort and position over the Irish cultivator. The difference is rather to be found in the system of cultivation pursued by the small farmers of Belgium, and in the habits of economy and forethought of the people. The cultivation of the small farms in Belgium differs from the Irish—1st. in the quantity of stall-fed stock which is kept, and by which a supply of manure is regularly secured; 2d. in the strict attention paid to the collecting of manure, which is most skilfully managed; 3d. by the adoption of a system of rotation of five, six, or seven successive crops, even on the smallest farms, which is in striking contrast with the plan of cropping and fallowing the land, prevalent in Ireland.
. 31. In the farms of six acres we found no plough, horse, or cart; the only agricultural implement, besides the spade, fork,166
MODE OF CULTIVATION IN BELGIUM.
[Third
and wheelbarrow, which we observed, was a light wooden harrow, which might be dragged by hand. The farmer had no assistance besides that of his wife and children, excepting sometimes in harvest, when we found he occasionally obtained the aid of a neighbour, or hired a labourer at a franc per day. The whole of the land is dug with the spade, and trenched very deep; but, as the soil is light, the labour of digging is not great. The stock on the small farms which we examined consisted of a couple of cows, a calf or two, one or two pigs, sometimes a goat or two, and some poultry. The cows are altogether stall-fed, on straw, turnips, clover, rye, vetches, carrots, potatoes, and a kind of soup made by boiling up potatoes, peas, beans, bran, cut hay, &c., into one mess, and which being given warm, is said to be very wholesome, and to promote the secretion of milk. In some districts the grains of the breweries and distilleries are used for the cattle, and the failure of the Belgian distilleries has been reckoned a calamity to the agriculture of the country, on account of the loss of the supply of manure which was produced by the cattle fed in the stalls of these establishments.
32. The success of the Belgian farmer depends mainly upon the number of cattle which he can maintain by the produce of his land, the general lightness of the soil rendering the constant application of manure absolutely necessary to the production of a crop. The attention of the cultivator is always therefore especially directed to obtain a supply of manure. Some small farmers, with this view, agree with a sheep-dealer to find stall-room and straw for his sheep, to attend to them, and to furnish fodder at the market price, on condition of retaining the dung. The small farmer collects in his stable, in a fosse lined with brick, the dung and urine of his cattle. He buys sufficient lime to mingle with the scourings of his ditches, and with the decayed leaves, potato-tops, &c., which he is careful to collect in order to enrich his compost, which is dug over two or three times in the course of the winter. No portion of the farm is allowed to lie fallow, but it is divided into six or seven small plots, on each of which a system of rotation is adopted; and thus, with the aid of manure, the powers of the soil are maintained unexhausted, in a state of constant activity. The order of succession in the crops is various; but we observed, on the six-acre farms which we visited, plots appropriated to potatoes, wheat, barley, clover (which had been sown with the preceding year’s barley), flax, rye, carrots, turnips, or parsnips, vetches and rye for immediate use as green food for the cattle. The flax grown is heckled and spun by the farmer’s wife, chiefly during the winter, and we were told that three weeks’ labour at the loom towards the spring enabled them to weave into cloth all the thread thus prepared. The weavers are, generally^ a distinct class from the small farmers, though the labourersReport^	RATE OF WAGES* RENT, &C.	167
chiefly supported by the loom cotrimonly occupy about an acre of land* sometimes more, their labour upon the latid alternating with their work at the loom. In some districts, we were informed, every gradation in the extent of occupancy* from a quarter or half an acre to the six-acre farm, is to be found ; and in such cases more work is done in the loom by the smaller occupiers. *
33.	The labour of the field, thé management of the cattle, the preparation of manure, the regulating the rotation of crops, and the necessity of carrying a certain portiori of the produce to market, call for the constant exercise of industry, skill, and foresight among the Belgian peasant-farmers \ and to these qualities they add a rigid economy, habitual sobriety, and a contented spirit, which finds its chief gratification beneath the domestic roof, from which the father of the family rarely wanders in search of excitement abroad. It was mast gratifying to observe the comfort displayed in the whole economy of the households of these small cultivators, and the respectability in which they lived. As far as I could learn, there was no tendency to the subdivision of the small holdings ; I heard of none under five acres, held by the class of peasant-farmers, and six, seven, or eight acres, is the more common size. The provident habits of these small farmers enable them to maintain a high standard of comfort, and are necessarily opposed to such subdivision. Their marriages are not contracted so early as in Ireland, and the consequent struggle for subsistence among their offspring does not exist. The proprietors of the soil retain the free and unrestricted disposal of their property, whether divided into smaller or larger holdings. The common rent of land is about 20«?. an acre, and the usual rate of wages for a day-labourer is a franc (or \0d.) a-day.
34.	A small occupier, whose farm we examined near Ghent, paid 225 francs per annum for about two bonniers, or six acres of land, with a comfortable house* stabling* and other offices attached, all very good of their kind ; this makes the rent (reckoning the franc at 10û!.) equal to 9/* 7s. 6d. sterling per annum ; and, if we allow 31. 7$-'6d. for the rent of the house, stabling, and other offices, there will be 6L, or IL per acre for the land, which accords with the information we obtained at Antwerp, Brussels, and other places, as to the rent of land in the flat country, the soil of which is generally of the same quality throughout. This farmer had a wife arid five children, and appeared to live in much comfort. He owed little or nothing, he said, but he had no capital beyond that employed on his farm. We questioned him respecting his resources in case of sickness. He replied that, if he were ill, and his illness were severe and of long duration, it would press heavily upon him, because it would interrupt the whole farm-work ; and, in order to provide for His family, and to pay168	SMALL OCCUPIERS IN BELGIUM ANDÏRELAND. [Third
the doctor, he feared he should be obliged to sell part of his stock. If his wife and family were long ill, and he retained his strength, thé doctor would give him credit, and he should be able to pay him' by degrees in the course of a year or two. The thought of applying for assistance in any quarter appeared never to have entered his mind. We suggested that the Bureau de Bienfaisance, or charitable individuals, might afford him aid in such a difficulty, but, with evident marks of surprise at the suggestion, he replied cheerfully that he must take care of himself. If a sick club, or benefit society, were established among these people, so as to enable them by mutual assurance to provide for the casualty of sickness, the chief source of suffering to their families would be obviated, and there would be little left to wish for or amend in their social condition.
35.	The Belgian peasant-farmer above described is not very different from the small Irish occupier as respects his position in society, but he is in a far better condition as regards the comforts and conveniences of life. The cause of this difference is, I believe, to be found in the more skilful system of culture pursued by the six-acre farmers of Belgium, in the rigid economy which characterises them as a class, and in the persevering industry, providence, and forethought, which enable them to adj ust their limited resources to their wants : and the first step to the improvement of this important class in Ireland must be, I think, to endeavour to assimilate their farming operations, and agricultural and domestic management, to that of the same class in Belgium.
36.	It is not here necessary to enter into a consideration of the comparative merits of small and large farms, it being notorious that farms of very small extent abound in all parts of Ireland, in some districts, indeed, almost to the exclusion of any other ; and that any attempt at a rapid consolidation of these small holdings would inevitably produce misery and suffering, for which no adequate remedy has ever yet been devised. Extensive changes of this nature cannot be successfully undertaken without special reference to the moral and social condition of the people ; and the obstructions which arise from fixed habits and old social arrangements generally render great organic changes impossible, excepting in the lapse of years. But an improved management of the small farms in Ireland would afford the means of increasing the domestic comfort, and elevating the social condition, of the cottier tenantry, and would facilitate the progress of whatever other changes may be regarded as likely to promote their general wellbeing, because it will be accompanied by an improvement in the habits of the whole class. This would, in fact, be beginning at the lowest point of the scale,—improved management in the small farms would bring increase of capital, and improved habitsGENERAL CONCLUSIONS.
169
Report.]
among the cottier tenants,—with the increase of capital will come the desire to extend their holdings, and thus will arise a tendency to consolidate occupancies for the employment of increased capital which the vast extent of now waste, but reclaimable, land in Ireland, will greatly facilitate. An increase of agricultural capital will speedily act upon all the other sources of industry, and thus the demands of the home market for agricultural produce will be augmented, while, for all that is produced above that demand, the markets of England will be open. To begin with the improvement of the small cultivators seems, therefore, to be necessarily the first step towards ameliorating the condition of the Irish people; and the example of Belgium is important, as showing what may be done in this respect by adopting an improved system of cultivation.
37.	The establishment of a Poor Law in Ireland, by removing the burthen of supporting mendicancy which now presses most injuriously and almost exclusively on the class of small cultivators, will greatly facilitate the improvement of their condition, and afford them relief and encouragement: but the Poor Law alone will not effect the necessary ameliorations, which can only be accomplished by a combination of efforts of which the establishment of a Poor Law is one—possibly it is the chief; for a Poor Law will unite the interests of the other classes with the wellbeing of the poorest, and thus secure for the worst educated and least intelligent, and therefore the most dependent portion of the community, the sympathies and the assistance of the most competent and intelligent of the middle and higher classes. The Poor Law will in this way, I believe, become the means of combining the now discordant elements of society in Ireland, for the promotion of the common interest, and especially that of the humblest classes. But the first impulse in the career of amelioration must be given by the gentry and landed proprietors, who must unite in promoting improvements among their tenantry, as well as in carrying out the provisions of the law. Ignorance and prejudice may possibly arouse opposition, or interpose delay, and occasion disappointment; but let them not be weary of well-doing. The improvement of the condition of their dependents, not less than the security of their own interests, ought to inspire a spirit of perseverance superior to casual discouragements ; and it should never be forgotten, that, without s*uch efforts on the part of the Irish gentry, the future presents but a dreary prospect of discord and demoralization.
38.	In conclusion, I have to assure your Lordship, that I saw nothing either in Holland or in Belgium calculated to shake my conviction of the sufficiency of the workhouse as a medium of re-
N170
CONCLUSION.
[Third Report*
lief and as a test of destitution ; and I am satisfied that it might be introduced with advantage into both those countries, which would then be enabled to dispense with the cumbrous, and, in many respects, objectionable machinery of their poor colonies. Of the applicability of the union and workhoüse principle to Ireland I have seen nothing to excite the least degree of doubt, but, on the contrary, much that is confirmatory of the views detailed in my previous Reports.
I have the honour to be,
My Lord,
Your Lordship’s obedient and faithful servant,
GEO. NICHOLLS.( 171 )
The following Estimate was prepared during the progress of the Irish Poor Relief Bill. It was printed by order of the House of Lords, and is here inserted as a matter of information.
POOR RELIEF (IRELAND) BILL.
Estimate of Salaries, &c.
The Commissioners and Assistant Commissioners will be in common for England and Ireland, and the charge of their Salaries, and of the Establishments in London and Dublin, will be defrayed out of the Consolidated Fund.
Assuming that, there will be a Hundred Unions, each having a workhouse capable of accommodating 800 persons, the paid officers, with their respective salaries in each Union, may be stated as follows:—
Clerk of the Union -	- from £60 to 80
Master and Mistress of the Workhouse 60 — 80 Chaplains	-	-	-	-	-	50 — 80
Medical Officers and Medicines -	- 100 —>150
Auditor -	-	-	-	-	-20—30
Returning Officer -	-	-	-10 — 20
Collector	-	-	-	-	-50 — 70
Schoolmaster and Schoolmistress -	50 — 80
Porter and Assistant Porter -	-	20 —	30
Other Assistants in the Workhouse and)	A
Union, say -	-	-	- j
£ 450 to 650
For the Hundred Unions, this would give a total expenditure in salaries of from 45,000/. to 65,000/. per annum; or say 55,000/. on an average.
In addition to the above, it may be further assumed that, on an average throughout the year, the workhouses will be three parts mil, and that the total cost of mair tenanee, clothing, bedding, wear and tear, &c,, will amount to Is. 6d. per head* per week,
* Note.—In our best-managed English workhouses the cost of maintenance is something above 2$. per head weekly.1.72
ESTIMATE OF UNION EXPENSES.
which is equal to 3/. or say 4L, per head per annum ; this will give an expenditure of 240,000/. per annum, for maintenance, &c. in the Hundred Unions ; which, added to the 55,000/. for salaries, will make a total charge of 295,000/. annually for the relief of the destitute, under the provisions of the Bill.
The money for building the workhouses is to be advanced by Government, free of interest for ten years; and is to be repaid by annual instalments of five per cent. The cost of the work-houses has been stated at 700,000/., but assuming it to amount to 1,000,000/., this would impose an additional charge of 50,000/. annually for the first twenty years (exclusive of the interest after the first ten years on the then residue of the principal), which, added to the above, makes an aggregate charge of 345,000/. per annum.
G. N.
8th June, 1838.LONDON:
Printed \>y William Clowes and Sons, Stamford Street.