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                               A HISTORY
                                 OF THE
                            IRISH POOR LAW,

                           IN CONNEXION WITH

                      THE CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE.

                    BY SIR GEORGE NICHOLLS, K.C.B.,

    LATE POOR LAW COMMISSIONER, AND SECRETARY TO THE POOR LAW BOARD.


                           ------------------

      “Let every man be occupied, and occupied in the highest
      employment of which his nature is capable, and die with the
      consciousness that he has done his best.”—SYDNEY SMITH

                           ------------------


                                LONDON:

                     JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.

                    KNIGHT & Co., 90, FLEET STREET.

                                 1856.








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     LONDON · PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET,
                           AND CHARING CROSS.




                              DEDICATION.

          To the Ex-officio and Elected Members of the Boards
          of Guardians in Ireland, in the hope that it may be
          of use to them in the performance of their important
          Duties, this History of the Irish Poor Law is
          dedicated,

                              By their faithful servant,

                                             THE AUTHOR.

          _November 1856._


                                PREFACE.

                           ------------------

The Irish Poor Law was in its origin no more than a branch or offshoot
of the English law, but it is a measure of so much importance, and has
so close a bearing upon the social well-being of the Irish people, that
it seems to be entitled to a separate consideration. The severe trials
moreover to which the law has been exposed, and the changes that have
been made in its organization and executive, have given to it a new and
distinctive character, on which account also a separate description of
its progress and the incidents connected with it appears to be
necessary. Hence therefore the intention which I at first entertained of
combining the history of the Irish Poor Law with that of its English
parent has been abandoned, and it is now published as a separate and
independent work.

Notwithstanding the separate publication of the histories however, it
must always be remembered that the English and the Irish laws are
similar in principle, and identical in their objects. The end sought to
be attained by each is, to relieve the community from the demoralization
as well as from the danger consequent on the prevalence of extensive and
unmitigated destitution, and to do this in such a way as shall have the
least possible tendency to create the evil which it is sought to guard
against. This is the legitimate object of a Poor Law, and the facts and
reasonings on which such a law is founded, are not limited to Ireland or
England or Scotland, but are in their nature universal. I hardly need
say that this object is distinct from charity, in the ordinary sense of
the term, although it is undoubtedly charity in its largest acceptation,
embracing the whole community—It is in truth the charity of the
statesman and the philanthropist, seeking to secure the largest amount
of good for his fellow men, with the smallest amount of accompanying
evil.

The part that was assigned to me, first in the framing of the Irish Poor
Law, and then in its introduction, seems to render any apology for my
undertaking to write its history unnecessary. Although failing health
and advancing years had compelled me to retire from the public service,
I thought that I might still be usefully employed in recording the
circumstances under which the law was established, and the events
attending its administration; and I am most thankful for having been
enabled to undertake the task, and for being permitted to bring it to a
conclusion.

It is true that for the last nine years I have not been immediately
connected with the Irish Poor Law, but I have nevertheless continued to
watch its progress with the greatest solicitude, and have spared no
pains to obtain information as to its working. I could indeed hardly
have failed to do this, after the part I had taken in the framing of the
measure, even without reference to the heavy trials through which the
Irish people have passed, and which obtained for them universal sympathy
and commiseration. If such was the general feeling with regard to
Ireland in its season of trial, it will readily be believed that mine
could not have formed an exception; and in the authorship of the present
work, I may therefore I trust venture to claim credit, not only on
account of my connexion with the origin and introduction of the law, but
also for having attended to its subsequent progress, and acquired such a
knowledge of its operation and results as to warrant the undertaking.

A history of the Irish Poor Law, explaining its origin and the
principles on which it was founded, together with an account of its
progress and the effects of its application would, it might reasonably
be supposed, afford information that must be generally useful—that it
would be useful to the administrators of the law, can hardly admit of
doubt. Such a history would place before them in a complete and regular
series, all that it would be necessary for them to know, and all that
ought to be borne in mind, in order that the examples of the past may
prepare them for promptly dealing with the present, or for anticipating
the future. The following work has been framed chiefly with this view;
and I can only say that I have earnestly endeavoured to make it
sufficient for the purpose, without any other wish or object than that
it should prove useful in a cause to which during several years my best
energies were devoted, and to the furtherance of which I could no longer
contribute in any other way.

                                                               G. N.

_November 1856._




                               CONTENTS.

 PREFACE                                                          Page v


                               CHAPTER I.

 State of Ireland before the conquest—Its subjection by Henry
   II.—Spenser’s account of the state of the country—Plantation
   of Ulster—Progress of population—Legislation previous to the
   accession of Anne—Dublin and Cork Workhouse Acts—Hiring and
   wages—Apprenticeship—Provision for foundling and deserted
   children—Licensed beggars—Arthur Young’s account of the state
   of Ireland                                                          1

                               CHAPTER II.

 Rebellion of 1798—The Union—Acts of the Imperial Parliament:
   respecting dispensaries, hospitals, and
   infirmaries—Examination of bogs—Fever hospitals—Officers of
   health—Lunatic asylums—Employment of the poor—Deserted
   children—Report of 1804 respecting the poor—Dublin House of
   Industry and Foundling Hospital—Reports of 1819 and 1823 on
   the state of disease and condition of the labouring
   poor—Report of 1830 on the state of the poorer classes—Report
   of the Committee on Education—Mr. Secretary Stanley’s letter
   to the Duke of Leinster—Board of National Education—First and
   second Reports of commissioners for inquiring into the
   condition of the poorer classes—The author’s ‘Suggestions’—The
   commissioners’ third Report—Reasons for and against a
   voluntary system of relief—Mr. Bicheno’s 'Remarks on the
   Evidence'—Mr. G. C. Lewis’s ‘Remarks on the Third Report’          67


                              CHAPTER III.

 Recommendation in the king’s speech—Motions and other
   proceedings in the House of Commons—Lord John Russell’s
   instructions to the author—The author’s first Report—Lord John
   Russell’s speech on introducing a bill founded on its
   recommendations—Progress of the bill interrupted by the death
   of the king—Author’s second Report—Bill reintroduced and
   passed the Commons—Author’s third Report—Bill passes the
   lords, and becomes law                                            153


                               CHAPTER IV.

 Summary of the 'Act for the more effectual Relief of the Poor in
   Ireland,' and of the ‘Amendment Act’—Arrangements for bringing
   the Act into operation—First and second Reports of
   proceedings—Dublin and Cork unions—Distress in the western
   districts—Third, fourth, fifth, and sixth Reports—Summary of
   the Act for the further amendment of the Law—Seventh
   Report—Cost of relief, and numbers relieved—Issue of amended
   orders                                                            222


                               CHAPTER V.

 Eighth Report of proceedings—Failure of the potato—A fourth
   commissioner appointed—Ninth Report—Potato disease in
   1846—Public Works Act—Distress in autumn 1846—Labour-rate
   Act—Relief-works—Temporary Relief Act—Pressure upon
   workhouses—Emigration—Financial state of unions—First Annual
   Report of Poor-Law Commissioners for Ireland—Extension Act—Act
   for Punishment of Vagrants—Act to provide for execution of
   Poor Laws—General import of the new Acts—Change of the
   commission—Dissolution of boards of guardians—Report of
   Temporary Relief Act Commissioners—British Association—Second
   Annual Report of Poor-Law Commissioners—Recurrence of potato
   disease—Cholera—Rate-in-Aid Act—Further dissolution of boards
   of guardians—Boundary Commission—Select committee on Irish
   Poor Laws—Expenditure, and numbers relieved                       303


                               CHAPTER VI.

 Third Annual Report of Poor-Law Commissioners—Further Amendment
   Act—Fourth Annual Report—New unions and electoral
   divisions—Consolidated Debts Act—Rates in aid—Fifth Annual
   Report—Annuities under Consolidated Debts Act—Treasury
   minute—Act to amend Acts relating to payment of
   advances—Medical charities—Medical Charities Act—First Report
   of Medical Charity Commissioners—Census of
   1851—Retrospection—Sixth Annual Report—Rate of
   wages—Expenditure, and numbers relieved—Changes in Poor-Law
   executive—New order of accounts—Author’s letter to Lord John
   Russell, 1853—Present state and future prospects of Ireland       364


 INDEX                                                               405

------------------------------------------------------------------------

                                HISTORY

                                   OF

                          THE IRISH POOR LAW,

                           IN CONNEXION WITH

                      THE CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE.

                  ------------------------------------




                               CHAPTER I.

State of Ireland before the conquest—Its subjection by Henry
  II.—Spenser’s account of the state of the country—Plantation of
  Ulster—Progress of population—Legislation previous to the
  accession of Anne—Dublin and Cork Workhouse Acts—Hiring and
  wages—Apprenticeship—Provision for foundling and deserted
  children—Licensed beggars—Arthur Young’s account of the state of
  Ireland.


After Strongbow’s expedition to Ireland in the year 1170, which was
followed by that of Henry the Second and the general submission of the
chieftains of the several clans in 1172, the history of Ireland becomes
closely connected with and may be said to form a portion of that of
England. The accounts we have of the state of the country anterior to
Strongbow’s invasion are vague and uncertain, although there are grounds
for believing that some degree of civilization had prevailed, and that
intercourse with the East had been to some extent maintained, at a very
early period. It has been said that “The Gauls or Celtes from the
north-west parts of Britain, and certain tribes from the north-west
parts of Spain peopled Ireland, either originally or by subduing the
Phœnician colonies which had been established there;” and that the
Irish, and their kinsmen the Highlanders of Scotland, are supposed to be
“the remains of a people who in ancient times had occupied not only
Britain, but a considerable part of Gaul and Spain.”[1] The Irish were
no doubt commonly known by the name of Scots, and the proximity of the
two countries, irrespective of all other considerations, renders the
identity of origin highly probable.

-----

[1]

  See the ‘Liber Munerum publicorum Hibernie,’ the first and following
  chapters on the Establishments of Ireland, supplementary to the
  History of England, by Rowley Lascelles, of the Middle Temple, printed
  by authority in 1824. This work has been chiefly relied upon for
  historical reference. It bears evidence of great research, and is on
  every account entitled to much weight in the conflicting testimonies
  with regard to the early events of Irish history.

-----

The Romans never extended their conquests to Ireland, and it was
protected by its insular position from the irruption of barbarians which
burst upon the Roman provinces in the fifth and sixth centuries, and
caused the dismemberment of the western empire. In that age, we are
told, “Irish missionaries taught the Anglo-Saxons of the north, who also
resorted to Ireland for instruction.” Lingard says that “when learning
was almost extinguished on the continent of Europe, a faint light was
emitted from the shores of Erin; and that strangers from Britain, from
Gaul, and from Germany, resorted to the Irish schools.” It is probable
however that the light was partial as well as faint, and that the
Christian monasteries with their learned men which constituted the
“schools,” existed in only a few places in Ireland, each establishment
forming as it were a speck of civilization, like an oasis in the desert
of barbarism. It is certain that the Irish of that day paid no Peter’s
pence, and acknowledged no supremacy in the see of Rome; and there is
reason to believe that the Irish Church was derived rather from the
Greek than the Latin hierarchy.[2] Whatever glimmering of civilization
prevailed in Ireland at this early period, must have been damped and
prevented from expanding “by the rude influence of the native
institutions, and it was nearly if not quite extinguished by the
irruptions of the Northmen, or Danes, who annually made incursions into
Ireland from the middle of the eighth to the end of the tenth century.”
The ancient division of the country into the four provinces of Munster,
Connaught, Leinster, and Ulster, which must be referred to this early
period, seems to have been for ecclesiastical purposes. The division
into counties, of which there are thirty-two, took place long after.

-----

[2]

  See ‘The Handbook of Architecture,’ a recent publication in which the
  ingenious author supports this conclusion by showing the similarity of
  the religious buildings erected in the East and in Ireland, which in
  both differ materially from what is seen in Italy and the other
  countries of Europe.

-----

The Conqueror is said to have at one time entertained the project of
bringing Ireland under subjection, but notwithstanding its proximity to
England, and the obvious advantages that would result from uniting the
two islands under one government, neither he nor his three immediate
successors made any effort to accomplish this object. In the reign of
Henry the Second however, a circumstance occurred which drew the
attention of the English sovereign to the state of Ireland, and led to
consequences most important to both countries. In the year 1169 Dermod,
king of Leinster, who had been expelled by O'Connor, king of Connaught,
sought the protection of Henry, who accepted the tendered allegiance,
and permitted his subjects to assist the Irish chief. [Sidenote: 1172.
Subjection of Ireland by Henry II.]Earl Strigul (or Strongbow) took
advantage of this permission, and in 1170 embarked for Ireland with a
few armed retainers. He was followed two years afterwards by the king
himself, with a considerable force. Henry was everywhere received as a
conqueror, the Irish princes and chiefs submitting without opposition;
and at a council assembled at Lismore, the laws of England are said to
have been gratefully accepted by all, and established under the sanction
of a solemn oath.

The chieftains who had however, so readily submitted to become Henry’s
vassals, as readily withdrew their allegiance on his quitting Ireland,
which he was compelled to do at the end of little more than six months,
in consequence of Becket’s murder, and the rebellion of his own sons.
Thenceforward for the long period of 400 years, the country was
distracted by local dissensions and jealousies, and the conflicts of