It was the duty of the commissioners to resist all such impulsive yieldings, and they failed not to urge upon the guardians the necessity for such resistance on their part, without which the limited means of relief at their disposal would be sacrificed. They were told that effectual relief, even to the extent of the existing accommodation could not be given, if contagious disease took possession of the workhouse; and that in attempting to go beyond due sanitary limits, the guardians would turn what was designed and adapted for good purposes into an active evil, and deprive themselves of the power of using effectually those means of relief which had been placed at their command. In some instances orders under seal were issued, prohibiting the guardians from admitting beyond a certain number. The commissioners likewise “called into action the proper functions of the medical officers of the workhouses, and placed upon them the direct responsibility of advising and warning the guardians of those limits, beyond which their admissions could not be extended without danger.” Notwithstanding these precautions however, such was the fearful prevalence of distress, especially in Connaught and the south of Ireland, that all considerations of this nature were borne down, and the workhouses became crowded to an extent far beyond their proper capacity, the consequences of which were in some cases very disastrous.
The workhouse hospitals were prepared for cases of sickness occurring among inmates, presumed to be in an average state of health, and they were generally found sufficient for the purpose. But now unhappily, almost every person admitted was a patient—was either suffering from dysentery or fever, or extreme exhaustion, or had the seeds of disease about him. Under such circumstances separation became impossible, diseases spread, and the whole workhouse was changed into one large hospital, without the appliances necessary for rendering it efficient as such. |Mortality among the union officers.| This state of things was not a little aggravated by the illness retirement or death of many of the principal officers. The usual difficulty of replacing a master or a matron, or medical officer when suddenly removed, was much increased by the dangerous nature of the service, there having been great mortality among these officers. During the first four months of the current year, at least a hundred and fifty were attacked with disease, of whom fifty-four had died, including seven clerks, nine masters, seven medical officers, and six chaplains—a number unusually large, and calculated no doubt to excite some indisposition to undertake such duties.
The weekly mortality in the workhouses went on increasing from 4 in the 1,000 at the end of October 1846, to 13 in the 1,000 at the end of January 1847,—20 in the 1,000 at the end of February, and 25 in the 1,000 at the middle of April; the number of inmates at these periods respectively being 68,839—111,621—116,321—and 104,455. In the last week of February, when the number of inmates attained its maximum, the deaths amounted to 2,267; whilst on the 10th of April, when the inmates had been reduced to 104,455, the deaths of the preceding week were 2,613, thus showing an increase of mortality notwithstanding a reduction in the number of inmates. The people had in fact become so exhausted by the severity of the distress, that in many cases death occurred immediately after admission. This was the time when to escape famine and pestilence at home, the great rush of immigrants to Liverpool and the western coasts of England and Scotland took place, and it is needless to say that the pressure must have been fearful to cause such an outpouring of the population.[150] We must not omit to state however, that at this time great exertions were being made in many, indeed it may be said in most of the unions to obtain increased accommodation for fever patients, by erecting or hiring buildings temporary or permanent according to the urgency and nature of the case; and also in like manner for increasing the means of workhouse accommodation, so as to bring it more nearly up to the wants of the period. The money expended upon these objects was in some instances obtained by way of loan, and in others was defrayed directly from the rates; but in all cases there was a considerable addition to the current expenditure by the provision thus made for affording additional relief.
Emigration was regarded by many persons as the most prompt and effective remedy, under the circumstances then existing in Ireland; and government was appealed to for assistance in promoting it, by defraying the expense of passage and outfit for the emigrants. But it was thought highly probable that the emigration which would take place independently of any such inducement, would be quite as large as the United States and Canada could with advantage receive; and the government therefore limited its interference to appointing additional agents to superintend the embarkation of the emigrants, and to increasing the fund applicable to the relief of the sick after their arrival in the colonies.[151] In 1846 the emigration from Great Britain amounted to 129,851. This was the largest ever then known; but in the first nine months of 1847 the number of emigrants was 240,461, nearly the whole of them from Ireland, and proceeding to Canada and the United States, whence large remittances had been sent by former emigrants to enable their relations and friends in Ireland to follow them. Within the same period 278,000 immigrants reached Liverpool from Ireland, of whom only 123,000 sailed from thence to foreign parts; and the remainder must therefore have continued a burden on the inhabitants, or wandered about the country begging, or died of disease the seeds of which they had brought with them, and which proved fatal to a great number of other persons as well as to the immigrants themselves. It was the same everywhere.[152] |Mortality among the emigrants.| In the United States, in Canada and on the voyage out, the poor emigrants seeking to escape from famine at home, were assailed by disease whithersoever they turned, and very many of them sunk under its ravages. During this fearful crisis, the deaths on the voyage to Canada increased from 5 in the 1,000, to about 60; and so many more arrived sick, that the proportion of deaths in quarantine to the numbers embarked, increased from a little more than 1 to about 40 in the 1,000, besides still larger numbers who died at Quebec, Montreal, and elsewhere in the interior.[153]
Reference is made in the Report of 1846, to the generally satisfactory state of the finances of the unions;[154] but such was no longer the case in 1847, the heavy pressure consequent on the potato failure having exhausted their resources, and in many cases caused the most serious embarrassment. The returns show, that instead of there being as before money in the hands of the treasurers to meet the current expenditure, there was now, taking in the whole of the unions, a considerable deficit. Even those unions which were accustomed to maintain their finances in a fair state of efficiency, had latterly failed to obtain funds from the ratepayers proportioned to their expenditure. In some instances, the commissioners say, they have been compelled by the extreme urgency of the case, to supply the guardians with bedding and clothing, and with the means of procuring food to satisfy the immediate wants of the inmates, “the means of doing so having been furnished by government;” and they close their observations on these financial difficulties by stating, “that while the total expenses have been at the rate of at least 756,000l. a year, the sums collected have not much exceeded the rate of 609,056.”
The effect upon prices caused by the failure of the potato, may in some measure be judged of by the weekly cost of maintenance in the workhouses, which instead of being about 1s. 5d. per head as in former years, averaged 1s. 8d. per head in March, and 1s. 9d. per head in September 1846, after which it exceeded 2s. per head. This increase of cost must have materially added to the difficulties of the unions, not only by augmenting the pressure of the poor-rate, but also by reducing the means of the ratepayers for satisfying its demands. On every side there appeared ground for alarm, and no one could venture to look forward without feeling the most serious apprehensions. A third failure of the crops, should such unhappily occur, would be attended with consequences the disastrous extent of which it must be alike impossible fully to estimate or guard against; and the period was approaching when uncertainty on this vital point would be removed—At the end of another three months it would be seen whether want disease and misery were again, but in a more aggravated form, to overspread the land, or whether the earth would yield forth its increase for the sustenance of man.
The Report for 1847-8 would, in the regular order, have formed the tenth of the series. But it had now been deemed necessary to establish a separate commission for Ireland, entirely independent of the English commission, and the Report is consequently entitled the first of the new executive. This Report like the nine preceding, is dated on the 1st of May; and as three Acts making very important changes in the law for the relief of the Irish poor had been passed early in the period to which the Report applies, (namely on the 8th of June and the 22nd of July 1847), the insertion of the following summaries of these three Acts will be a fitting preliminary to our consideration of the Report itself.
The 10th and 11th Vict., cap. 31, is entitled ‘An Act to make further Provision for the Relief of the Destitute Poor in Ireland’—8th June 1847.
Section 1.—Directs the guardians of the poor to make provision for the due relief of all destitute poor persons disabled by old age or infirmity; and of destitute poor persons disabled by sickness or serious accident, and thereby prevented from earning a subsistence for themselves and their families; and of destitute poor widows, having two or more legitimate children dependent upon them. Such poor persons, being destitute, are to be relieved either in the workhouse or out of the workhouse as the guardians may deem expedient; and the guardians are also to take order for relieving and setting to work in the workhouse when there shall be sufficient room for so doing, such other destitute poor persons as they shall deem to be unable to support themselves by their own industry.
Sections 2, 3.—Whenever relief cannot be afforded in the workhouse owing to want of room, or when by reason of fever or infectious disease the workhouse is unfit for the reception of poor persons, the Poor Law Commissioners may by order empower the guardians to administer relief out of the workhouse to such destitute poor persons, for any time not exceeding two months; and on the receipt of such order, the guardians are to make provision accordingly—Relief to able-bodied persons out of the workhouse, is however to be given in food only, and the commissioners may from time to time regulate its application.
Sections 4, 5, 6.—The commissioners may direct the guardians to appoint relieving officers to assist in the administration of relief; and also medical officers for affording medical relief out of the workhouse, whenever they shall deem such appointments to be necessary or expedient. The commissioners may likewise, on application of the board of guardians, wherever an electoral division is distant six miles from the place of meeting, form such division into a district, with a committee to receive applications, and to report thereon to the guardians.
Section 7.—Relieving officers are empowered to give provisional relief in cases of urgent necessity, by an order of admission to the workhouse or fever hospital of the union, or only affording such relief as may be necessary in food, lodging, medicine or medical attendance, until the next meeting of the board of guardians, to whom the case is then to be reported, and their directions taken thereon. The guardians are to furnish the relieving officers with the necessary funds for the above purposes, in such manner as the Poor Law Commissioners direct.
Sections 8, 9, 10.—Relief to a wife or child is to be considered as given to the husband or parent, as the case may be; and children are liable for the relief afforded to their parents. Relief at the cost of a union, is only to be given within the union. Occupiers of more than a quarter of an acre of land are not to be deemed destitute, nor to be relieved out of the poor-rates.
Sections 11, 12.—Regulate the mode of charging out-door relief; and provide that no person shall be deemed resident in an electoral division, unless three years before he applies for relief, he shall have occupied some tenement within it for three months, or usually slept within it for thirty months.
Sections 13, 14, 15.—Prescribe the conditions on which assistance may be given to emigration, and the proportion of the expense that may be defrayed out of the rates. The provisions of 6th and 7th Vict. cap. 92, sec. 18,[155] for the emigration of persons who have been three months in a workhouse, extended to poor persons not in a workhouse, or who have been there less than three months. The expense incurred in aid of emigration not to be deemed relief.
Section 16.—The limitation of ex-officio guardians to one-third the number of elected guardians is repealed; but it is at the same time provided that the ex-officios shall in no case exceed the number of the elected guardians.
Sections 17, 18.—The commissioners empowered to dissolve or alter unions without consent of the guardians, and to form such other unions therefrom as they shall deem expedient, and to adjust the claims and liabilities consequent thereon. The commissioners also empowered to dissolve a board of guardians on their failing duly to discharge their prescribed duties, and to appoint paid officers to carry into execution the provisions of the law, without any intermediate election of guardians.
Section 19.—Enables the commissioners to provide a chapel, and to make such regulations as they deem expedient, for securing the religious worship of any denomination of Christians in the workhouses.
Sections 20, 21, 22, 23, 24.—Provide for the purchase of three additional acres of land to be used for a cemetery, or for the erection of fever wards. The commissioners are also empowered to hire or purchase, not exceeding 25 acres, for the purpose of erecting a school for the joint reception maintenance and education of the children of the North and South Dublin unions, the management of such school to be conducted by a board chosen from among the guardians of the two unions, in such manner as the commissioners shall by order direct. Other unions may also be formed into school districts in like manner, and for a like purpose.
Sections 25, 26.—The commissioners empowered to prescribe the qualifications and the duties of all officers, and to determine their continuance or removal, and to regulate their salaries, &c. The administration of relief is also subject to the commissioners’ direction and control.
Sections 27, 28, 29.—Accounts are to be kept and audited as prescribed by the commissioners. Any payment disallowed by an auditor, is to be recovered from the party debited therewith. And on or before the 1st of May in every year, an account is to be laid before parliament of the expenditure on relief of the poor, and of the total number relieved in each union, during the year ended on the 29th of September preceding.
The 10th and 11th Vict. cap. 84, is entitled ‘An Act to make Provision for the Punishment of Vagrants, and Persons offending against the Laws in force for the Relief of the Destitute Poor in Ireland’—22nd July 1847.
Sections 1, 2, 3.—After declaring it to be expedient to make further provision for the punishment of beggars and vagrants &c., the 59th section of the Irish Poor Relief Act[156] is repealed, and it is enacted instead, that every person deserting or wilfully neglecting to maintain his wife or child, so that they become destitute and be relieved in or out of the workhouse of any union, shall on conviction be committed to hard labour for any time not exceeding three months. And persons wandering abroad begging or gathering alms, or procuring children to do so, and every person going from one union or electoral division to another for the purpose of obtaining relief, shall be liable on conviction to be committed to hard labour for any time not exceeding one month.
Sections 4, 5.—Offenders may be apprehended by any person whatsoever, and taken before a justice to be dealt with as is above provided. Or when apprehended, the offender may be delivered over to a constable or other peace officer, to be taken before a justice for like purpose. Justices may upon proof of offence, issue their warrant for the apprehension of any such offender, to be dealt with as the Act directs. Proceedings by or before any justice are not to be quashed for want of form, nor removable by writ of certiorari.
The 10th and 11th Vict. cap. 90, is entitled ‘An Act to provide for the Execution of the Laws for Relief of the Poor in Ireland.’ After reciting the several previous Acts under which the administration of relief to the poor in Ireland is subject to the direction and control of the Poor Law Commissioners, whose commission will shortly expire, it declares it to be “expedient that the control of the administration of the laws for the relief of the poor in Ireland should be wholly separated from the control of the administration of the laws for relief of the poor in England,” and enacts that her Majesty may from time to time by warrant under the royal sign manual, appoint a fit person who, with the chief and under secretaries of the lord lieutenant shall have the control, and shall be styled “Commissioners for administering the Laws for Relief of the Poor in Ireland,” and the person so appointed shall be styled the Chief Commissioner—
Sections 2, 3, 4, 5.—The appointment of every chief commissioner is to be published in the ‘Dublin Gazette.’ The commissioners are to have a seal, which shall have the same force and effect as the seal of the Poor Law Commissioners; and they may appoint a secretary, inspectors, clerks &c., and may assign to the inspectors such duties, and delegate to them such powers as they may think necessary.
Sections 6, 7, 8.—One of the inspectors is to be appointed an assistant-commissioner, to assist in the business of the office in such manner as the commissioners direct; and to him may be delegated the powers and functions of the chief commissioner in the latter’s absence. The inspectors are entitled to attend boards of guardians, and all meetings held for the relief of the poor, and may take part in the proceedings, but are not to vote. All salaries are to be determined by the Treasury.
Sections 9, 10.—The powers and duties of the Poor Law Commissioners are transferred to the new commissioners; and if any vacancy occur, the surviving or continuing commissioners or commissioner may continue to act. The commissioners are constituted a body corporate, and for all purposes connected with the administration of the laws for the relief of the poor throughout Ireland they are to be deemed successors of the Poor Law Commissioners, all property held by whom becomes vested in them accordingly.
Sections 11, 12, 13, 14, 15.—The commissioners are empowered to make rules orders and regulations, and to vary or rescind the same. Also to make general rules with the approbation of the lord lieutenant, who may at any time disallow the same or any part thereof, without prejudice however to things lawfully done under them before such disallowance. Every rule order or regulation directed to, or affecting more than one union, is to be deemed a general rule.
Sections 16, 17, 18.—The rules orders and regulations of the Poor Law Commissioners are to continue in force until varied or rescinded by the commissioners appointed under this Act, whose authority is in all cases to be substituted for the former, and is to have like force and effect in Ireland. Acts under seal not to be valid, unless signed by two of the commissioners, or by the chief commissioner, or in his absence by the assistant-commissioner.
Sections 19, 20.—The commissioners empowered to summon witnesses not exceeding twenty miles distant, and to make inquiries and call for returns, and examine on oath. Persons giving false evidence are subjected to the penalties of perjury; and on refusing to give evidence, or neglecting to obey the commissioners’ summons, or to produce books vouchers &c., are to be deemed guilty of a misdemeanour.
Sections 21, 22.—The commissioners are annually to report their proceedings to the lord lieutenant. The Report is to be laid before parliament, and is to contain a distinct statement of every order and direction issued in respect to out-door relief. All lawful proceedings of the Poor Law Commissioners, and all things done under previous Acts, and not varied or repealed by this Act, are declared valid.
Section 23.—The chief commissioner and other persons to be appointed and employed under this Act, are not to hold office or exercise any of the powers hereby given, “for a longer period than five years next after the day of the passing of this Act, and thenceforth until the end of the then next session of parliament,” after which the power of appointing commissioners is to cease to operate or have effect.
These three Acts have, it will be seen, made very considerable changes in the law, and taken conjointly with the original Relief Act of 1838, and the Amendment Act of 1843,[157] may be considered as forming the entire code of Irish Poor Laws, and such moreover as they may be expected to continue, there being apparently no room for further alteration, or at least not to any material extent.
The sanction of out-door relief given by the first of the three Acts is a most important departure from the principle of the original statute, and was wrung from the legislature by the distressing circumstances in which the country was placed by the successive failures of the potato crop. With starvation raging almost universally around, it was felt that it would be impossible to maintain the restriction of relief to the limits of the workhouse. The concession made in the 1st and 2nd sections must however be regarded as exceptional, and as being intended to meet an exceptional case; for the necessity of workhouse relief being the established rule, never perhaps commanded more general assent, than at the time when a departure from it was thus sanctioned. The author was examined before a committee of the house of lords on this question, and he gave it as his deliberate opinion that under the circumstances existing in Ireland the concession was necessary, the preservation of life being paramount to all other considerations; but at the same time he considered, that the rule of in-door relief should be departed from only so far, and in such a way, as would secure its resumption with the least difficulty and at the earliest possible period; and the two first sections of the Act are not at variance with this view.[158] In sanctioning out-door relief under the then emergency, the legislature limited its application, imposing certain conditions and restrictions, and at the same time investing the commissioners with large powers for checking abuse. Nay more, as if distrusting the discretion of the commissioners themselves, the 21st section of cap. 90 provides that their Report, which is to be laid before parliament, “shall contain a distinct statement of every order and direction issued by them in respect to out-door relief.” The appointment of relieving and medical officers and of district committees, was no doubt a considerable extension of the union machinery, but it was necessary for giving effect to the law at the time, and either or all might be discontinued when no longer required. The limitation of relief by the 9th section, and the extension of assistance for the purpose of emigration to persons not in a workhouse by the 14th section, are both likely to be of use, as may also be the provision in the 16th section with regard to ex-officio guardians. But the power given to the commissioners by the 17th and 18th sections, to alter unions, and to dissolve boards of guardians and appoint paid officers to carry the law into execution, is by far the most important of the provisions of this Act, with the exception of those sanctioning out-relief.
The second of the above Acts (cap. 84) is in fact a resumption of the vagrancy clauses which were intended to form part of the original Relief Act,[159] and which have now been rendered more necessary by the sanctioning of out-relief. The third of the above Acts (cap. 90) providing for the appointment of a separate commission for Ireland, may be regarded as a consequence of the unfortunate condition of that country, which was now said to require all the care and undivided attention of distinct functionaries. I have already stated that such was not my opinion, and after all that has passed I still am satisfied that the Poor Laws of England and Ireland might be administered under the superintendence of the same commission, as efficiently as under separate commissions; and that there would be a weight of authority influence and other advantages arising from the combination of the two, which would not be found in a separate commission. The example of Scotland was much relied upon as warranting the separation, but the cases are not similar, the Scottish Poor Law differing essentially from that of England, whereas the Irish law is directly founded upon it, and in its working must to a great degree be regulated by English experience. But the separation having taken place, it would be difficult to retrace the step, unless indeed there should be, as has on high authority been proposed, an entire amalgamation of the two governments by abolishing the office of lord lieutenant, in which case the Irish commission would naturally if not necessarily become merged in the English. It is bootless however to speculate upon these or other possible changes, and we will therefore resume our task of tracing out the progress of the law, and inquiring into the circumstances under which it has to be administered.
On the passing of the first of the above Acts (10th and 11th Vict. cap. 31, commonly known as the Relief Extension Act), copies of it were forwarded to all the unions, and the attention of the several boards of guardians was called to the necessity of making provision on a much larger scale than heretofore for the relief of the poor, and pointing out the conditions on which the relief was henceforward to be administered to the classes of infirm and able-bodied. Five additional assistant-commissioners were also appointed[160] to attend to the large increase of duties now devolved upon the commission. On the 27th of August the appointment of Mr. Twisleton as chief commissioner, under the 10th and 11th Vict. cap. 90, was notified in the Dublin Gazette, and on the following day the administration of the law became vested in the new commission established by that Act, the ten gentlemen then acting as assistant-commissioners were appointed inspectors, and Mr. Power was appointed the assistant-commissioner.
The extent of sickness and mortality in the workhouses towards the middle of April, has already been noticed.[161] The returns continued to show a gradual decrease of deaths from that time, although there was no material decrease in the number of inmates or of fever patients until the month of July, when a decline rapidly took place in all three; and in the last week of August the number of inmates was reduced to 76,319, of sick (including 5,782 fever patients) to 15,240, and of deaths to 646, or 8 in every 1,000 weekly. In the first week of October the inmates had again increased to 83,719, but the deaths were only 433, averaging 5 per 1,000 weekly. These numbers show the extent of the pressure on the workhouses in the earlier part of 1847. But the extent of assistance afforded under the Temporary Relief and the Fever Hospital Acts (10th and 11th Vict. caps. 7 and 22) must also be stated, in order to show the universality of the distress. |Decrease of rations issued.|Under the former Act, on the 8th of May rations were issued to 826,325 persons; on the 5th of June to 2,729,684; on the 3rd of July to 3,020,712; on the 1st of August to 2,520,376; on the 29th of August to 1,105,800; on the 12th of September to 505,984; and at the end of September the issues altogether ceased. Under the latter Act accommodation was provided for the treatment of 26,378 fever patients, and the average number in hospital was about 13,000. The proceedings under these Acts, when viewed in conjunction with those under the Poor Law, will sufficiently explain the magnitude of the crisis through which the country passed at this period, and the fearful suffering and privations to which the people were unhappily and it may be added unavoidably exposed.
The financial state of the unions became greatly depressed during this trying period. The fact of the treasurers’ balances having turned against the unions is noticed in the Report of the previous year,[162] and this continued down to the end of September, when owing to great exertions in the collection, the returns again showed a credit balance of upwards of 10,000l. in favour of the guardians. There was still however a large arrear remaining for collection, and this continued to be the case throughout the succeeding half-year, notwithstanding that the large sum of 961,354l. was collected and lodged with the treasurers, a proof that the guardians were not backward in making provision for carrying out the law, although the impoverished state of many of the unions rendered the collection difficult after the rates were made.
The harvest of 1847 proved to be a good one. Contrary to expectation the potato crop was free from disease, but the quantity grown was comparatively small, and the price continued so high that the peasantry were unable to purchase. The failure of the crop in the two previous years had discouraged them from planting, and they were consequently in great measure deprived of their usual means of living. The large importations of Indian meal had however so far reduced the price of that and other descriptions of food, that the general cost of subsistence was not much greater than in ordinary seasons, and in districts where the people found employment at moderate wages, they generally fared better than in former years. But in districts where there was no employment or money wages, and where the peasantry had been accustomed to subsist on potatoes raised by themselves, this resource being neglected, they would necessarily be in want of food, and would require assistance to preserve them from starvation. It was certain therefore, notwithstanding the non-appearance of the potato disease, that there would be much distress in many parts of the country long before the approach of harvest in the following year; and in order to be prepared for affording needful relief in such a contingency, without at the same time weakening the incentive to independent exertion in the labouring classes, it was necessary that a large increase of workhouse accommodation should be provided. This point the commissioners continued earnestly to press upon the attention of the several boards of guardians, and for the most part with success.
The extent and population of the Irish unions and the constitution of many of the boards of guardians, rendered it probable that the new and more laborious duties imposed upon them by the Extension Act (10th and 11th Vict. cap. 31) would not always be fulfilled, and that in some instances there might either be a failure of necessary relief, or a misapplication of the union funds. The power of dissolving a board of guardians, and at once appointing paid officers to discharge their duties, was given to the commissioners for the purpose of enabling them to deal with cases of this kind; and being armed with such a power, they were responsible for its exercise whenever the occasion called for it—“Although reluctant in the highest degree, (they say) to interfere even temporarily with a system of self-government involving the great principle of popular representation in the raising and expenditure of a public fund, it appeared to them that in the immediate circumstances of the country, a more imperative object demanded for a time the sacrifice of those considerations, and that it was their paramount duty by every means which the legislature had placed at their disposal, to provide for the effectual relief of the destitute poor.” Acting under these views, and on the occurrence of what they considered to be serious default on the part of the guardians, the commissioners dissolved thirty-two boards,[163] and appointed paid officers in their stead. The default in nearly every instance was either a failure to provide sufficient funds, or to apply them efficiently in relieving the destitute. Full details of each case were laid before parliament, and the necessity of the proceeding was generally admitted, although it was no doubt much to be lamented that such a necessity should have arisen.
It is, however, satisfactory to find that in a great majority of the unions relief was provided and administered by the guardians in an orderly and efficient manner. There were some exceptions in addition to the above, it is true, and the commissioners had to exert all their influence and authority in procuring the appointment of relieving officers to receive and inquire into applications for relief, as provided by the Extension Act and directed by their own order. Another point on which the commissioners found much difficulty in winning the acquiescence of the guardians was with regard to the mode of employing poor persons, for whose relief out of the workhouse under the 2nd section of the Extension Act, a necessity had arisen in some unions. The guardians wished the employment to be of a productive or profitable nature, and that it should be applied mainly with that view. The commissioners were desirous that the employment should serve as a test of destitution, and recommended stone-breaking as open to least objection, the food to be given not as the price of labour but in relief of destitution, the labour being required simply as the condition of the relief; and in the unions where out-door relief in food was given to the able-bodied on this principle, the numbers are said to have been for the most part kept within moderate limits.
But although the labour-test might so far have succeeded, the operation of the workhouse system in the present difficult circumstances had been found far less equivocal, and its efficiency was more universally acknowledged by those engaged in the administration of relief. A large extension of workhouse room, partly permanent partly temporary had been provided. The whole accommodation including additional workhouses and fever hospitals connected with the workhouses would be sufficient for upwards of 150,000 persons, “being an addition of more than one-third to the accommodation originally provided.” In consequence of this great increase of workhouse accommodation, it appears that in 25 of the unions no relief was given out of the workhouse, “except perhaps in the occasional exercise of the provisional powers of the relieving officers,” and yet the workhouses of none of these unions were said to be full. In 35 other unions, out-door relief was afforded only under the 1st section of the Extension Act, that is to the infirm, widows with two or more children, and persons disabled by sickness or accident. In the remaining 71 unions, orders had been issued under the 2nd section, authorizing out-door relief in food; but in only 23 of these was it authorized to be given without distinction of class.
In proof of the efficiency of the workhouse in checking applications for relief, when not caused by actual necessity, the example of Dublin may be cited. In the first week of July, rations were gratuitously issued in the two Dublin unions to 57,509 persons, and the proportion of these classed as able-bodied amounted with their families to 46,432. In the South union the number on the relief lists was greatly reduced before the 15th of August, the day on which the issues under the Temporary Relief Act were ordered to cease; but in the North union more than 20,000 persons continued to receive rations, and the commissioners were entreated to issue an order under the powers given to them by the Extension Act sanctioning its further continuance, the guardians being apprehensive that so large an amount of relief could not with safety be suddenly discontinued. The commissioners deemed it to be their duty to resist the appeal, and recommended the guardians to convert a building then in their occupation and capable of accommodating 400 persons, into a subsidiary workhouse. This was accordingly done, and admission was offered to such of the able-bodied and their families as applied for relief when the rations were discontinued; but the new subsidiary workhouse was not filled by those who accepted the offer, and all the others found the means of living by their own exertions. The class receiving out-door relief under the 1st section of the Act (i. e. the aged and infirm poor and widows with two or more children) were at the same time, with some assistance from the mendicity institution, reduced to about 4,000 persons; and no necessity afterwards arose for issuing an order under the 2nd section in either of the Dublin unions.
To this example of the efficiency of the workhouse in preventing undue applications for relief, may be added the testimony of the relief commissioners appointed under The 10th and 11th Vict. cap. 7,[164] as to the extreme difficulty or rather impossibility in the state of Ireland at that time, of guarding against gross abuse in the administration of relief without the corrective of the workhouse test, even although in the shape of daily rations of cooked food. In their third Report dated 17th June 1847, the commissioners make the following remarkable statement—“In several instances the government inspecting officers found no difficulty in striking off hundreds of names that ought not to have been placed on the lists, including sometimes those of servants and men in the constant employ of persons of considerable station and property. These latter are frequently themselves members of the committees, and in some cases the very chairmen, being magistrates, have sanctioned the issue of rations to tenants of their own of considerable holdings, possessed of live stock, and who it was found had paid up their last half-year’s rent.”... “In other districts, the measure is subject to deception and petty frauds practised by many of the order immediately above the class of actually destitute, and which cannot be entirely checked by the best exertions of the best committees. Even in the districts where the service is most correctly performed, the numbers on the lists will no doubt exceed those of the really destitute.” It was perhaps to be expected under the circumstances then existing in Ireland, that something like what is here described might occur; but it could hardly have been expected that it would have been to such an extent, or that persons in the positions named would have descended to practices at once so disgraceful and so unpatriotic. Against such frauds the workhouse seemed to be the only safeguard.
The entire expenditure from the rates on relief of the poor in the 130 unions during the twelve months ending 29th September 1847, was 803,684l. The number of inmates on that day was 86,376, and the total number relieved in the workhouses within the year was 417,139. There was some expenditure in a few of the unions shortly before the 29th September, although the issues under the Temporary Relief Act did not until then wholly cease. The relief under the Extension Act (10th and 11th Vict., cap. 31) which then commenced, continued to increase as the distress arising from the exhaustion of the small crops raised in many parts of the country became more and more severe. |Numbers in the workhouses.|On the 12th February 1848 the number in the several workhouses amounted to 135,467, and the mortality reached 11 per 1,000. This was perhaps to be expected from the great pressure upon the workhouses, and the wretched condition of very many of the poor persons at the time they were admitted. Contagious disease again prevailed, and the fatal effects again extended to the workhouse officers, ninety-four of whom died, chiefly of fever, and also two of the Poor Law inspectors, and one vice-guardian in course of the year.
Although the numbers in the workhouses went on increasing in the latter months of 1847, it was not until February and March 1848 that the houses became filled, and that out-door relief was largely administered. In February the cost of out-relief in money and food amounted to 72,039l., in March to 81,339l. The numbers and cost were then both at their maximum, and according to the best estimate which could be formed, the average daily number of out-door poor relieved was 703,762, and of in-door 140,536, making an aggregate of 844,298 persons. The description of food supplied to the poor in lieu of their habitual food the potato, consisted for the most part of a pound of Indian meal, that being the quantity of cereal food approved by the Central Board of Health in Ireland as necessary for the daily sustenance of an adult. The price of Indian meal was at that time about 1d. per lb., so that the cost of the food thus supplied probably did not exceed the cost of that to which the people had been accustomed. It appears therefore that in the early part of 1848 no less than 800,000 persons were relieved daily at the charge of the poor-rates, consisting chiefly of the most helpless part of the most indigent classes in Ireland; and the commissioners say they “cannot doubt that of this number a large proportion are by this means, and this means alone, daily preserved from death through want of food.” The above 800,000 is irrespective of the children supplied with food and clothing by “The British Association,” the number of whom in March 1848 amounted to upwards of 200,000.[165] So that the total number of persons then receiving eleemosynary support must have exceeded a million, or over one-eighth of the entire population.