The commissioners’ sixth Report is dated 2nd May 1853. After the usual weekly summary of the in-door and out-door recipients of relief, it is remarked that the number of out-door poor is so inconsiderable, and liable to so little fluctuation, that “the comparative extent of pauperism in successive years is now almost wholly dependent on the number receiving relief in the workhouses.” This number, it is added, “continues to fluctuate almost in the same degree as formerly, notwithstanding the absolute decrease which has taken place; the number in autumn not usually much exceeding one-half the number at another period of the year.”

The satisfactory progress made by the province of Connaught in surmounting the effects of the famine years has already been noticed.^[198] Although some of the Connaught unions were still in a state of financial embarrassment, and subject to payment of heavy rates, the reduction of relief in the last three years had been remarkable, the number in the workhouses having decreased from 42,286 in April 1851, to 17,389 in April 1853. In Munster on the contrary improvement continued to be comparatively backward, that province still containing more than half the pauperism of Ireland.

A large number of the children and young persons who had been admitted during the prevalence of the famine, were discharged from the workhouses in the course of the last two years. These must be regarded with satisfaction as the fruits of the Poor Law, but for which, they would in all probability have fallen victims to want and disease. The children still remaining in the workhouses, a great proportion of whom were likewise rescued at the time of the famine, were chiefly orphans, or illegitimate or deserted, and without friends able or willing to take charge of them. The number of these children in the workhouses on the 2nd April 1853 under the age of fifteen, was 82,434, of whom 5,710 were illegitimate; and looking at the large proportion who were returned as being orphans or deserted, the commissioners say they “cannot but feel that the prospect of enabling a large number of them to leave the workhouses and obtain a permanent position in society, must depend in a great degree upon the exertion made to educate and train them in such a manner as to enable them to do this at an early age.” A child of twelve or thirteen is, it is observed, “more easily grafted into society, than if he resides in a public establishment till eighteen or nineteen, when he becomes too much accustomed to its routine to exert himself in a new position, where more labour and individual efforts have to be exacted, and greater hardships and privations endured.”

The literary education in the workhouse schools was considered to be on the whole satisfactory. But letters alone, without industrial training, will not, it is truly said, help a boy or girl of fifteen to get into employment; and the commissioners therefore encouraged the formation of agricultural schools, in connexion with the national education board. The boys were moreover in most of the workhouses taught some kind of trade, such as tailoring, shoemaking, carpentering &c. The girls were taught to wash, and make and mend their own clothes, and clean their own dormitories and day-rooms; but there is obviously more difficulty with them than with the boys, in regard to employment. As the country improves however, “and when the drain caused by the continued emigration is more felt,” there can be little doubt, the commissioners say, that in all the unions where proper attention has been paid to the education and training of the children, there will be a demand for those educated in the workhouses as soon as they are of an age fitted for being useful; and in the mean time it is satisfactory to learn, that during the year 1852, no less than 5,371 of these children under fifteen years of age, found employment out of the workhouse.

The drain of emigration just adverted to, must have given rise to an increased amount of employment for those who remained, but this was attended with a less apparent effect upon the rate of wages than might have been expected. Another circumstance had however occurred closely bearing upon wages which it is necessary to notice, for we find that the weekly cost of maintenance in the workhouses, the average of which in 1847, exclusive of clothing, was as high as 2s. 1½d. per head, had fallen to little more than 1s. per head in the years 1850, 1851, and 1852.^[199] Comparing the cost of subsistence with the rate of wages, it will therefore appear that there has been relatively a very considerable rise in the latter, although the money-rate in 1852 and 1853 may not appear to differ very materially from what it was in 1845. Employment had likewise become more certain and more steady, so that the labourer’s actual earnings during the year were probably greater than before, which coupled with the general reduction in the price of provisions, would enlarge his command of the necessaries and conveniences of life, and tend to improve his condition.

Returns had been obtained from the several unions showing the extent of remittances from abroad, for enabling certain of the workhouse inmates to emigrate. From these returns it appeared, that in the last year 2,158l. was so remitted to enable 877 of such inmates to join their friends in America; 136l. to assist 489 to go to England and Scotland; and 221l. to enable 31 to proceed to Australia. When the sums remitted were insufficient, assistance was often afforded by the guardians under the provisions of the Poor Law, and 14,041l. was so expended for this purpose in the year ending 29th September 1852. In the following year (ending September 1853), 12,865l. was so expended by the unions for the emigration of 403 men, 1,202 women, and 996 children, making together 2,601 persons; and including the cost of free passages, about 3,500l. is known to have been remitted to enable more than 1,100 inmates of the workhouses to join their friends who had emigrated, or had settled in Great Britain. Others are likewise supposed to have left the workhouses in consequence of similar remittances, which were not made through or known to the boards of guardians.

The valuations of rateable property in the several unions had, as was to be expected, varied more or less with the changes which took place from time to time in the circumstances of the country. In 1845 they appear to have amounted to 13,404,403l., and to 13,187,421l. in 1847; but in 1851 the entire valuation of Ireland for the purposes of the poor-rate was only 11,500,000l., so great had been the change caused by the severe ordeal through which the country had passed. Although the principle on which the valuation of property in the several unions was originally founded, namely, what it would let for, was undoubtedly correct, there were counteracting influences at work, and the valuations made under it were rarely altogether satisfactory. Some persons denounced them as being too high, some as being too low, and others as being unequal or partial.

In order to remedy these asserted defects, and place the valuations on what was expected to be a better footing, the 15th and 16th Vict. cap. 63 was passed in 1852, ‘to amend the Laws relating to the Valuation of Rateable Property in Ireland.’ The Act declares it to be expedient to make one uniform valuation of lands and tenements, which may be used for all public and local assessments and other rating. The lord-lieutenant is empowered to appoint a commissioner of valuation “who shall make or cause to be made a valuation of the tenements and hereditaments within every barony, parish, or other division when directed so to do.” But further legislation was still necessary, and in the following year the 16th and 17th Vict. cap. 7, was passed to amend the above, and directing the clerks of unions to prepare lists of tenements proposed for revision by the collectors, and to transmit the same to the commissioner of valuation, together with the opinion of the guardians whether a revision is necessary, and the name of a person whom the guardians recommend as fit to revise the same. The combined provisions of these Acts are no doubt calculated to effect improvement in the valuations; but the principle of fair letting value as originally prescribed, must still be adhered to in whatever changes are made.

The expenditure for relief of the poor during the year ending on the 29th September 1852, was 883,267l., being 258,380l. less than in the preceding year,^[200] and fully realizing the expectations then held out. The number relieved in the workhouses at the above date was 111,515 and the total number so relieved during the year was 504,864. The number then receiving out-door relief was 2,528, and the total number who received out-door relief during the year was 14,911. A further reduction was likewise still expected. “But the reduction must not, it is said, be expected to go so far as it would have gone if 32 new unions had not been formed, inasmuch as a certain amount of establishment charges must be incurred to maintain the new workhouses, and the necessary staff of officers, in whatever degree the pauperism of the districts in which they are built may hereafter be found diminished.”

The expected further reduction was again confirmed, the expenditure on relief of the poor during the year ending on the 29th September 1853, being 785,718l., or nearly 100,000l. less than in the previous year. The number relieved in the 163 workhouses was 79,600, and the total number so relieved during the year was 396,436. The number receiving out-door relief was 2,245, and the total number who received out-door relief during the year was 13,232—and now also, important as the reductions which have latterly taken place assuredly are, we are again told that still further reductions may be looked for.^[201]

A tabular statement^[202] has been given of the annual expenditure and the numbers relieved, down to the end of 1846, after which time the date of the returns was altered to correspond with the half-yearly audits in April and September. The following is a continuation of the statement before given, but also including the number of persons who were relieved out of the work-house in the successive years under the provisions of the Extension Act—

This table speaks at once to the eye, and by its ascending and its descending numbers indicates the circumstances of the period to which they severally refer. But in addition to the expenditure in the third column, it must not be overlooked that since the passing of the Consolidated Debts Act^[204] in 1850, a considerably larger amount of rates has been collected than was required for the immediate relief of the poor. Thus the amount collected in the year ending in September 1853 was 1,000,312l., whereas the expenditure on relief was only 781,523l., the remainder being applied in payment of the consolidated annuities, and in defraying expenses incurred under the Medical Charities Act. At present, it is said, out of 357,858l. the entire amount of the two annuities payable in 1852 and 1853, only 28,768l. remains unpaid; and the advances made on security of the Rate-in-aid have been wholly repaid, with the exception of a trifling sum due on certain newly arranged townlands. But it is expected that in a short time “all the exceptional charges on the poor-rates will cease, and that thenceforward the rates will be exclusively applied to the relief of the poor, and the support of the medical charities.”

Notwithstanding the general improvement, and the reduction of expenditure which has been shown to have taken place, assistance was still required by some of the western unions, and the government consented to an advance of 30,000l. being made to eleven of them,^[205] to pay their debts and relieve them from financial embarrassments; but this was done however, on the express condition that they “should not expect further assistance, and should make rates to the satisfaction of the Poor Law Commissioners, to meet their immediate and future wants.” The condition and the assistance were alike well timed and judicious, and secured the objects for which they were intended.

The cost of subsistence in the workhouse, may be considered to afford a fair criterion for judging of what is required for the subsistence of the labouring classes generally, there being in fact little difference between the food usually consumed by the peasantry, and that supplied to the inmates of the work-houses. The average weekly cost per head is ascertained half-yearly, when the union accounts are audited in March and September, and the following table shows the results on these occasions from 1847 downwards^[206]—