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

by Sir George Nicholls

State of Connaught and Munster.

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.

The workhouse children.

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.”

Their education and industrial training.

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.

Rate of wages and cost of subsistence.

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.

Remittances from emigrants.

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.