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

by Sir George Nicholls

Sections 14, 15.—Existing medical officers are in the first instance to be the medical officers of the dispensaries. The medical officers of a dispensary district are to attend at the examination of dangerous lunatics, and are also to attend the bride-wells within their districts.

Sections 16, 17, 18.—The commissioners and inspectors are empowered to examine on oath, and to summon witnesses. The giving false evidence is declared a misdemeanour, and the refusing to obey summons &c. is subjected to a penalty of 5l. Inspectors may visit dispensaries, and attend meetings of guardians. The commissioners are to report upon hospitals and infirmaries. They are also to execute the powers and purposes of the Nuisances Removal and Diseases Prevention Acts, and to report their proceedings annually to the lord-lieutenant.

Such were the chief provisions of this Act, and the powers conferred by it appear sufficient for procuring the establishment of dispensaries in districts where they were much needed, and also for securing better management with regard to medical relief. |First report of Medical Charity Commissioners.|In their first Report dated 15th February 1853, the commissioners remark, that by the Medical Charities Act, a partial and imperfect system of medical relief, unattended with responsibility in its agents, and resting on a financial basis at once uncertain in duration, and unequal in its pressure as a tax, has been exchanged for a system uniform and universal, supported out of the poor-rates, and “influenced in its administration by well-defined responsibilities, under the direction and control of a central authority.” The expenditure is estimated at 102,700l. per annum. |Anticipated expenditure.|But “having regard to the diminution of pauperism, and the improving circumstances of the country,” it is thought probable that the cost of dispensary relief under the Medical Charities Act, will not exceed 100,000l. in future years.

New electoral divisions.

A few more of the electoral divisions were divided, in addition to the subdivisions which had been made the preceding year,[^[194]] and the total number of electoral divisions was now increased to 3,439, that is 1,390 more than what were originally constituted, although still short of the number recommended by the Boundary Commissioners. The permission of out-door relief, and the increase in the number of unions, especially the latter, would no doubt render some increase of electoral divisions necessary; but after the distress out of which these changes had arisen shall have passed away, and when the country has regained its normal state, it is not unlikely that these changes may be found burthensome, and the machinery they have created be beyond what is really necessary for affording relief to the destitute poor. |New order of proceedings issued.| The various changes which had been made in the law, also rendered a new order for regulating the proceedings of boards of guardians necessary; and accordingly on the 19th January 1852, the old order was rescinded, and a new one adapted to the altered circumstances of the unions and the state of the law was issued.

Apprenticing boys to the sea-service.
14 and 15 Vict., cap. 35.

In July 1851, the 14th and 15th Vict. cap. 35 was passed, to extend the benefits of the General Merchant Seamen’s Act relating to apprentices bound to the sea-service by guardians of the poor in Ireland. By this Act, the board of guardians of a union is empowered to apprentice any boy of the age of twelve and upwards being of sufficient health and strength, and who is or whose parents are receiving relief in such union, and who consents to be so bound, into the sea-service for not less than four years, or until he attains the age of twenty-one, or has served seven years, as the case may be. The apprentice is to be furnished with a suitable outfit at the expense of the union, and sent to the seaport where the master or owner of the ship resides; and it is further provided that any such boys may, if they desire it, be placed out in the naval service. This is a well-devised Act, although it may not be very operative, at least for a time, the Irish generally having little predilection for the sea. The Act however supplies what was certainly an omission in the Act of 1836, and which became more apparent as the number of boys accumulated in the workhouses, without any means for apprenticing or getting them out into service. But the abuses which had resulted from the apprenticeship law in England, prevented its introduction in any shape into the original Irish Poor Relief Act.

Emigration.

Emigration under the provisions of the Poor Law was more active during the year 1850-51 than in any preceding year, although many unions were prevented by their poverty from resorting to it.[^[195]] The commissioners had, as is before stated, applied a portion of the rate-in-aid fund in relieving the overcrowded workhouses in the counties of Clare and Kerry, but the nearly exhausted state of that fund disabled them from meeting other urgent applications for similar aid. Indeed the decrease of the population in the impoverished districts, as shown in the census returns, together with the smaller number of applicants for relief, and a greater demand for labour, would seem to render further aid or stimulus to emigration both unnecessary and inexpedient. Where the guardians and ratepayers of a district however were desirous of raising funds for the purpose, the commissioners did not refuse to give effect to the proposition.|Extent of emigration.| It appears from the Reports of the colonial land and emigration commissioners, that the total Irish emigration from 1847 to 1850 inclusive, was 833,692, nearly all of which was for North America—the Canada and New Brunswick immigration from all countries in the same period amounting to 210,904. In 1851, the emigration from Great Britain to the United States was 267,357, and it was 244,261 in 1852, in which year the number of Irish emigrants to New York alone was 118,134. This continuous emigration was chiefly effected by the aid of remittances from persons who had previously emigrated, to their friends and relatives at home, to enable them to follow.

Population census of 1851.