A history of the Irish poor law, in connexion with the condition of the people

The ninth Report (for 1846-7) is like the others dated on the 1st of May. It describes very fully the effects consequent on the potato disease of the previous autumn, so far as these effects bore upon the working of the Poor Law. The connexion between the two, although in one sense intimate, is in other respects limited; for where the land has ceased to be productive, the necessary means of relief cannot be obtained from it, and a poor-law will no longer be operative, or at least not operative to an extent adequate to meet such an emergency as then existed in Ireland. A poor-law, rightly devised and judiciously administered, will generally be found equal to the relief of destitution in the ordinary progress of events; but a state of famine, or a total failure of the means of subsistence is extraordinary, and the wide-spread destitution thence arising is beyond the powers of a poor-law effectually to relieve, although it may doubtless be applied to some extent in mitigation. Under the circumstances at that time unhappily existing in Ireland, other aid was necessary beyond what could be derived from any modification of the Poor Law; and the nature of those circumstances, and the means pursued in dealing with them, will be explained in the following pages.

The potato disease made its appearance in 1846 much earlier than in the preceding year, and it was also much more general and destructive. Captain Mann in his narrative of events in the county of Clare at this period, says that the symptoms of the disease were first noticed in the latter part of July; but that the change which took place in one week in August was such as he shall never forget—“On the first occasion (he says) I had passed over thirty-two miles thickly studded with potato-fields in full bloom. The next time the face of the whole country was changed—the stalk remained a bright green, but the leaves were all scorched black. It was the work of a night. Distress and fear was pictured in every countenance, and there was a general rush to dig and sell, or consume the crop by feeding pigs and cattle, fearing in a short time they would prove unfit for any use.” And in a letter printed in the Parliamentary Papers, Father Mathew^[134] states—“On the 27th of July I passed from Cork to Dublin, and this doomed plant bloomed in all the luxuriance of an abundant harvest. Returning on the 3rd of August, I beheld with sorrow one wide waste of putrifying vegetation. In many places the wretched people were seated on the fences of their decaying gardens, wringing their hands and wailing bitterly the destruction that had left them foodless.”

The disease made its first appearance in the form of little brown spots on the leaves of the plant. These continued to increase until the leaves became withered, leaving the stem bare, and so brittle that it snapped off on being handled. The whole was effected in less than a week, the fields appearing as if they were burnt, and the growth of the root entirely destroyed. No potatoes were pitted this year, and the wheat crop barely amounted to an average, whilst barley and oats were decidedly deficient. “On the continent the rye and potato crops again failed, and prices rose there early in the season above those ruling in England, which caused the shipments from the Black Sea, Turkey and Egypt to be sent to France, Italy and Belgium; and it was not till late in the season that our prices rose to a point which turned the current of supplies towards England and Ireland. The Indian corn crop in the United States this year was however happily very abundant, and it became a resource of the utmost value to this country.^[135]

In June 1846, The 9th and 10th Vict. cap. 22, was passed, providing for the gradual reduction of the import duty on corn, and fixing it at 1s. per quarter on every description imported after the 1st of February 1849. On the assembling of parliament in January 1847, two other Acts were passed^[136] making further reductions in the duty on corn, and removing the restriction imposed by the Navigation Laws on the importation of corn in foreign vessels; and shortly afterwards the whole duty on rice and Indian corn and Indian meal was suspended.

In the early part of 1846, relief committees were formed throughout Ireland, under the superintendence of a central commission established in Dublin, for the purpose of dispensing food, the requisite funds being furnished by private subscriptions assisted by donations from government. The months of June and July was the period of heaviest pressure, during which one of the central depôts established by government, issued in a single week no less than 233 tons of meal to its various sub-depôts, and one of these latter again retailed 20 tons to the public daily. If the people had lived by wages like the labouring classes in England, the providing a cheap substitute for the potato would have been sufficient for the present emergency. But money-wages were comparatively little known in Ireland, the people chiefly subsisting on produce raised by themselves; and it was therefore necessary to adopt some plan for enabling them to purchase the new description of food which had been procured for them.

The plan adopted was by establishing public works, as had been done on former somewhat like occasions; and an Act was accordingly passed enabling the magistrates and principal cess-payers to obtain advances of public money for this purpose, one-half as a free grant, the other half as a loan to be repaid by the barony out of the grand-jury cess. The greatest number of persons employed under this system was 97,000. It was brought to a close in the month of August, and may be said on the whole to have answered its intended purpose, although not without considerable drawbacks, partly through the misapplication of public money, and partly by increasing the tendency which has always prevailed in Ireland to rely upon government aid. The entire amount expended by the government down to the 15th of August 1846, in affording relief to the Irish people during this season of distress was 733,372l., of which one-half was a free grant, and the other half a loan. The sum raised by voluntary subscription for like purposes was 98,000l., making together 831,372l., obtained from other than poor-law sources, and expended during this first season of severe pressure in relief of persons many of whom would else have perished through absolute want.

With the approach of autumn another period of distress commenced in Ireland, far heavier and more intense than the preceding, the potato crop having now almost universally and entirely failed. In the former season there were helps or palliatives, some districts having nearly escaped the disease and others being less generally affected by it; but in the present season there were no such exceptions, and neither help nor hope was to be found in the natural resources of the country. A new emergency may thus be said to have arisen, and the public works which had been put an end to in August were renewed in the following month, and the entire machinery of provision depôts and relief committees was reorganized on a more comprehensive scale than before.

In order to check the exorbitant demands which had in many instances been made in the previous season, the whole expense of the public works was now under the new Labour-Rate Act made a local charge, to be defrayed by a rate levied and assessed in a manner similar to the poor-rate, which makes the landlord liable for the whole on tenements under 4l. yearly value, and for half the rate on tenements valued above that amount. It was also determined that as far as possible task-work should be adopted, and at a rate of payment below what was usual in the district. It was further determined in order to avoid embarrassing the operations of the private trader, that government should not order supplies from abroad, and that its interference should be confined to the western districts, in which no trade in corn for local consumption existed. Moreover, the government depôts were not to be opened for the sale of food so long as it could be obtained from private dealers, and no purchases were to be made in the local market, where the appearance of government as a purchaser would be certain to raise prices.

Such generally was the plan proposed to be pursued under the pressure of famine, and the other distressing circumstances consequent on the failure of the potato crop at the end of 1846; and it was expected that the resident proprietors and ratepayers would perform their part, by ascertaining the extent of destitution in the several localities, and determining what was necessary to be done in the way of relief, and the best mode of doing it. This expectation however was not fulfilled, and in almost every instance these duties were left to be performed by the board of works, which had thus to obtain the best information it could through hired agents, “to advance the necessary funds, to select the labourers, to superintend the works, to pay the people weekly, to enforce a proper performance of the labour, to ascertain the quantity of labour required for farm-works, to select and draft off proper persons to perform it, to settle the wages to be paid to them by the farmers and to see that they were paid, to furnish food not only for all the destitute out of doors, but in some measure for the paupers in the workhouses”—in short, “the board of works became the centre of a colossal organization, 5,000 separate works had to be reported upon, 12,000 subordinate officers had to be superintended, and their letters averaged upwards of 800 a day.”^[137]

The strain upon the executive through this system of centralization was excessive. Government had to bear the entire pressure of the masses on the sensitive points of wages and food. Task-work was generally objected to, and its enforcement gave rise to frequent struggles, in which the safety of the superintending officers was sometimes put in jeopardy. The number of persons employed on the works continued to increase—“Thousands upon thousands were pressed upon the officers of the board of works in every part of Ireland, and it was impossible for those officers to test the accuracy of the urgent representations which were made to them. The attraction of money wages regularly paid from the public purse, or ‘The queen’s pay,’ as it was popularly called, led to a general abandonment of other descriptions of industry, in order to participate in the advantages of the relief-works.|Evils of the system.| Landlords competed with each other in getting the names of their tenants placed on the lists; farmers dismissed their labourers and sent them to the works; the clergy insisted on the claims of the members of their respective congregations; the fisheries were deserted; and it was often difficult even to get a coat patched or a pair of shoes mended, to such an extent had the population of the south and west of Ireland turned out upon the roads. The average number employed in October was 114,000, in November 285,000, in December 440,000, and in January 1847, 570,000.” It was obviously impossible to exact from such a multitude the amount of labour that would operate as a test. Huddled together in masses they screened each other’s idleness. It was thought that the enforcement of taskwork would stimulate their industry; but when after a hard struggle this point had been carried, an habitual collusion between the labourers and the overlookers appointed to measure their work revived the former abuse, and the labourers were as idle as ever.

The Labour-Rate Act (9th and 10th Vict. cap. 107) was founded on the assumption that the owners and occupiers of land would themselves make efforts commensurate with the magnitude of the crisis, and that only a manageable number of persons would have to be supported on the public works. But including the families of those so employed, more than 2,000,000 persons were maintained by the relief-works, and there were others behind including the most helpless, for whom no work could be found. |Failure of relief-works.|The extent to which the rural population were thrown upon the relief-works, threatened likewise to interrupt the ordinary tillage of the land, and thus to perpetuate a state of famine. In short, a change of system had become necessary, and at the end of January (1847) it was announced that government intended to put an end to the public works, and to substitute another mode of relief. The pressure nevertheless continued to increase. The 570,000 men employed daily in January, became 708,000 in February, and 734,000 in March, representing with their dependents upwards of 3,000,000 of persons. The expenses were in proportion, and exceeded a million sterling per month.^[138] At the end of February however preparation was made for a change of system by passing the Temporary Relief Act (10th Vict. cap. 7). In March the numbers employed were reduced by 20 per cent., and successive reductions continued to be made as the change of system was brought into operation. In the first weeks of April, May and June respectively, the numbers employed were 525,000, 419,000, and 101,000; and in the week ending the 26th of June the number was reduced to 28,000. The necessary labour was thus returned to agriculture, and a foundation was laid for the ensuing abundant harvest. “The remaining expenditure was limited to a sum of 200,000l. for the month of May, and to 100,000l. a month for June, July, and the first 15 days of August, when the Act expired.”

The system of affording relief through the agency of public works having broken down, while that of administering it in a direct form on the principle of the Poor Law had generally been found effective wherever it had been tried, it was as above stated determined to give validity to this mode bypassing the 10th and 11th Vict., cap. 7, which directs that a relief committee consisting of the magistrates, a clergyman of each persuasion, the poor-law guardian and the three highest ratepayers, shall be constituted in each electoral division, and that a finance committee of four gentlemen of character and knowledge of business should be formed to control the expenditure in each union. Inspecting officers are also to be appointed, and a central commission sitting in Dublin,^[139] was to superintend and control the working of the whole system. The expense incurred was to be defrayed out of the poor-rates, and when these proved insufficient they might be reinforced by government loans, to be repaid by rates subsequently levied. But no loan is to be made, until the inspecting officer had certified that the guardians have passed a resolution for making the rate upon which the loan was to be secured. Such were the chief provisions of the Act, but free grants were also made in aid of the rates in the poorest unions, and when private subscriptions were raised the government made donations to an equal amount. The liability of the ratepayers would, it was considered, operate as a check to undue expenditure; and with regard to the recipients, the test applied consisted in requiring the personal attendance of all who needed relief, (excepting only the sick and impotent poor, and children under the age of nine) and that the relief should be given in cooked food,^[140] in portions sufficient to maintain health and strength.

The cooked-food system of relief was found to a great degree efficacious in preventing abuse, but it was objected to at first, and the enforcement of it was in some cases attended with difficulty. Undressed meal might be sold or exchanged for other articles. “Even the most destitute often disposed of it for tea tobacco or spirits,” but stirabout soon becomes sour by keeping, and was not likely to be applied for except by persons who wanted it for their own immediate use. Depôts of corn and meal were formed—relief committees were established—mills and ovens were erected—huge boilers cast specially for the purpose were sent over from England for preparing the stirabout—and large supplies of clothing were collected. In July 1847 the system reached its highest point “3,020,712 persons then received separate rations, of whom 2,265,534 were adults, and 755,178 were children.” This vast multitude was however rapidly lessened at the approach of harvest,^[141] which happily was not affected by the disease. |Cessation of famine.| Food became comparatively abundant, and labour in demand. By the middle of August relief was discontinued in nearly one-half the unions, and ceased altogether on the 12th September. It was limited by the Act to the 1st October.

This was the second year in which upwards of 3,000,000 of people had been fed “out of the hands of the magistrate” in Ireland, but it was now done more effectually than at first. The relief-works had been crowded, often to the exclusion of numbers who were really destitute; but a ration of cooked food was less attractive than money wages had been, and it also proved a more effectual relief to the helpless poor. “The famine was stayed.” Deaths from starvation no longer occurred. Cattle-stealing and other crimes connected with the want or insufficiency of food became less prevalent, and the system of relief which had been established is with allowable self-gratulation declared to be “the grandest attempt ever made to grapple with famine over a whole country.” Organized armies, it is said, had been rationed before; “but neither ancient nor modern history can furnish a parallel to the fact that upwards of three millions of persons were fed every day in the neighbourhood of their own homes, by administrative arrangements emanating from and controlled by one central office.”^[142] The expense of this great undertaking amounted to 1,557,212l.,—a moderate sum in comparison with the extent of the service performed, and in which performance the machinery of the Poor Law unions was found to afford most important aid. Indeed without such aid, the service could hardly have been performed at all; and the anticipations of the advantage to be derived from the Poor Law organization in such emergencies,^[143] were fully verified.

Fever as usual followed in the train of famine, and in order to check its ravages the 10th and 11th Vict. cap. 22 was passed, “making provision for the treatment of poor persons afflicted with fever,” and enabling the relief committees to provide temporary hospitals, to ventilate and cleanse cabins, to remove nuisances, and to procure the proper burial of the dead, the funds necessary for these objects being advanced by the government in the same way as for furnishing food. Upwards of three hundred hospitals and dispensaries were provided under this Act, with accommodation for at least 23,000 patients, and the sanitary powers which it conferred were extensively acted upon. The expense incurred for these objects amounted to 119,055l., “the whole of which was made a free gift to the unions in aid of the rates.”

The amount expended under the Public Works Act (9th and 10th Vict. cap. 1) was 476,000l., one-half a grant, the other half to be repaid by twenty half-yearly instalments. The expenditure under the Labour-Rate Act (9th and 10th Vict. cap. 107) was 4,850,000l., half of which was a grant and the other half to be repaid as before. The sum advanced under 9th and 10th Vict. cap. 2 for local purposes, was 130,000l., to be repaid in various periods out of grand jury presentments. Lastly the sums expended under the Temporary Relief Act, 10th Vict. cap. 7, in the distribution of food, and under the 10th Vict. cap. 22 in medical and sanitary relief, amounted to 1,676,268l., of which 961,739l. was to be repaid, and the remaining 714,529l. was a free grant. So that the entire amount advanced by government in 1846 and 1847 towards the relief of the Irish people under the fearful calamity to which they were exposed, was 7,132,268l., of which 3,754,739l. was to be repaid within ten years, and the remaining 3,377,529l. was a free grant.^[144]

But it was not the government alone that contributed to the relief of the Irish people in this trying emergency.|Private subscriptions.| Individual subscriptions were poured forth from all parts of the British empire. Associations were formed, local committees were appointed, all were active in sympathy and benevolent efforts for the relief of Irish distress. The chief organ for receiving and dispensing these various contributions was “The British Association,”^[145] which collected subscriptions to the amount of 269,302l., and to which was likewise committed the proceeds of two royal letters inviting contributions, amounting to 200,738l., making together no less than 470,041l., one-sixth of which was apportioned to Scotland,^[146] and the remainder to Ireland.^[147] Then there was the “Society of Friends” who collected 168,000l., which was distributed almost entirely in provisions, whilst a great number of persons in all parts of England acted independently of any association, but all directing their efforts to the same benevolent object.

In administering the funds placed at its disposal, the committee of the British Association acted concurrently with the government and the Poor-Law authorities, each of whom bore testimony to its great usefulness. It determined at the outset “That all grants should be in food, and not in money;” and “That no grant should be placed at the disposal of any individual for private distribution.” The committee conclude their Report to the subscribers by declaring, that although evils of greater or less degree must attend every system of gratuitous relief, they are confident that any evils which may have accompanied the application of this fund, will have been far more than counterbalanced by the benefits which have been conferred upon their starving fellow-countrymen. “If ill desert has sometimes participated in this bounty, a vast amount of human misery and suffering has (it is said) been relieved.”^[148]

The foregoing account of proceedings by the government and by individuals for relieving the distress which prevailed in Ireland during the years 1846 and 1847, through the failure of the potato-crops, has been continued down beyond the date of the ninth Report in order to keep the subject together, and to obviate the necessity of again recurring to it. These proceedings form no part of the Poor Law administration, and are only so far connected with it as being directed to the relief of distress, and as having been latterly carried on very much in accordance with recognised Poor Law principles, and moreover to a considerable extent with the aid of the Poor Law machinery. We will now return to the detail of proceedings during the twelve months preceding the 1st of May 1847, as given in the commissioners’ ninth Report.

All the workhouses had been opened for the relief of poor, and every union had made a rate, so that the law might now be said to be in operation throughout Ireland. The amount of expenditure for the year ending 31st December 1846 was 435,001l., and the number of persons then receiving relief in the several workhouses was 94,437, which exceeds by 52,369 the number in the preceding year, and the expenditure is greater by 118,975l. The entire number of persons relieved during the year was 243,933.

All the unions being now in operation, and their accounts being made up and audited half-yearly on the 25th March and 29th September, it is intended hereafter to substitute the latter dates for the return which has hitherto been made up on the 1st of January, at which time no perfectly authentic account of the expenditure could be obtained, owing to its not corresponding with either of the audit periods. This therefore is the last occasion on which that statement will be given; and it may here be convenient to exhibit in a tabular form its progress from the commencement, as shown in the several annual Reports—

“The potato disease” having as before stated again appeared at the end of July (1846), letters were addressed to the boards of guardians requiring full information as to the state of the crop in the several electoral divisions. Early in September replies were received, which left no doubt as to the almost total destruction of the crop that had everywhere taken place, and the commissioners had anxiously to consider in what manner the poor-law could be made operative in mitigation of the distress which must inevitably ensue. Relief from the poor-rates being limited to accommodation in workhouses, it was manifest that such relief would be insufficient for meeting the present calamity, “and that the comprehensive remedial measures adopted by government in the establishment of a general system of public works, and the organization of relief committees, were to be looked to as the principal means.” |Measures taken by the commissioners.| The commissioners nevertheless considered that it was imperatively necessary to use all the powers provided by the law on this occasion, and they addressed letters to the several boards of guardians, drawing their attention to the probability of a great increase of distress, and requesting them “to be prepared to make the utmost use of the means of relief which the law placed at their command.” They were urged to look to the state of their contracts for provisions and other supplies, and to their stocks of bedding and clothing, and to base their financial and other estimates on the assumption that the whole accommodation in the workhouse would be required, probably for a considerable time. These recommendations were very generally acted upon. The total rates made in the months of September, October, November and December, amounted to 232,251l., and much activity was manifested in the collection of the rates, as well as in providing the necessary supplies.

On the 29th August 1846, the returns for the week showed that the inmates of the several workhouses amounted to 43,655, and the numbers continued to increase until on the 17th October, four of the workhouses were reported to be full,^[149] and most of the others became so shortly after, although they fluctuated in this respect from time to time. The aggregate weekly returns however showed a continual increase down to the end of February 1847, when the inmates amounted to 116,321. From that time the number decreased, but the decrease was probably owing to the distressed circumstances in which the unions were themselves placed, rather than to any abatement of the general distress. There can, it is observed, be few situations more painful than that of a board of guardians in the present condition of Ireland, surrounded by an appalling extent of destitution, yet without the means of relieving the sufferers. “Possessed of a workhouse capable of holding a few hundred inmates, the guardians are looked to with hope by thousands of famishing persons, and are called on to exercise the mournful task of selection from the distressed objects who present themselves for admission as their last refuge from death.” It was no longer a question whether the applicants were fit objects for relief, but which of them could be rejected and which admitted with the least risk of sacrificing life. Were persons in the last extremities of want to be denied admittance, or on the other hand were those already admitted to be made the victims of over-crowding?—The course which prudence dictated was the one most opposed to human sympathies. Eyewitnesses of the distress which was endured, the guardians could not always resist the appeals made to them; and applicant after applicant was admitted to the workhouse, long after the sanitary limit had been passed.