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The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria cover

The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria

Chapter 1119: THE IRISH POOR-LAW BILL CARRIED IN THE LORDS.
By Edward Farr
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The volume traces British political, parliamentary, and military developments from the accession of George III through the early nineteenth century, chronicling changes of ministry and cabinet, debates over colonial taxation and the American conflict, parliamentary controversies involving figures such as Wilkes and Warren Hastings, questions of Catholic relief and slave-trade abolition, and responses to the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars, including major naval and continental campaigns, the union with Ireland, and domestic legislation on finance, civil liberties, and parliamentary reform.

THE IRISH POOR-LAW BILL CARRIED IN THE LORDS.

On the 21st of May Lord Melbourne moved the second reading of the Irish poor-law bill in the lords. The motion was opposed by Earl Fitzwilliam, who said that he was opposed to the whole principle of poor-laws. As for the present bill, he said, it could never be carried into effect; it was not an Irish bill, nor was it a bill desired either by the landed interests, the middling gentry, or the poorest classes of Ireland. The Marquis of Londonderry also opposed the bill; while the Duke of Wellington recommended their lordships to give it a second reading, with a view of amending it in committee. Lord Lyndhurst, having adverted to the unpopularity of the bill in Ireland, and cautioned their lordships against setting themselves up as better judges than the Irish people themselves of what was best calculated to promote the interests of that nation, said he should not object to a trial of the bill, provided he thought that they would, in the event of failure, return to their original situation. His lordship then stated his various objections to the proposed bill; but, in conclusion, intimated his intention of voting for the second reading, in the hope that it might be brought into a better state in committee. The Marquis of Clanricarde, Lord Brougham, and the Marquis of Westmeath opposed the bill; and Lord Radnor and the Earl of Devon supported it. On a division the second reading was carried by a majority of one hundred and forty-nine against twenty. In committee, Earl Fitzwilliam moved an am end-mend to the forty-first clause, by which he limited the relief under the bill to age, bodily infirmity, &c.; and he was supported by Lord Fitzgerald and Vesci, who contended that the operations of the bill would be mischievous; but it was not carried. On the 31st the latter noble lord moved another amendment, empowering the guardians to relieve in poor-houses “all destitute persons who are either incurably lame, or blind, or sick, or labouring under permanent bodily infirmity;” also all orphan children left in a state of destitution. Ministers, however, succeeded in carrying the original clause of the bill by a majority of one hundred and seven to forty-one. Subsequently some amendments were made in the minor details of the bill, and it was read a third time on the 9th of July, and carried by a majority of ninety-three against thirty-one. The momentous experiment, therefore, of introducing a poor-law into a country where the people were everywhere opposed to it was to be tried.