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

by Sir George Nicholls

“In order to furnish some revenues for the said corporations at the outset,” the grand juries are required to present annually at every spring assizes in every county of a city or town, to be raised off the lands and houses equally and rateably, any sum not less than 100l. nor more than 200l., and in every county at large any sum not less than 200l. nor more than 400l., to be assessed and collected as other county taxes are, and paid to the corporations respectively, without fee or deduction whatever, for the charitable purposes of the Act. All rectors vicars and incumbents of parishes are likewise required to permit such clergymen as the respective corporations may appoint, to preach sermons in their churches annually, and to permit collections to be made for the objects contemplated by the Act.

Recapitulation.

We here see that provision has been made, partly by compulsory assessment, partly by voluntary contributions, and through the instrumentality of corporations specially appointed—for the badging and licensing of the poor to beg—for providing hospitals workhouses or houses of industry in every county at large and county of a city or town—for separately confining therein able-bodied vagabonds and disorderly women who are to be kept to hard labour—and for the maintenance therein of poor helpless men and women. Authority is likewise given to seize any one found begging without a badge or licence, and to send such as are above fifteen to the house of industry for punishment, whilst the children are to be placed at school or put out to trade or service. And finally, persons are appointed at reasonable salaries to carry these enactments against unlicensed begging into effect.

In this Act therefore we have stringent provisions against mendicancy, coupled with a conditional permission for practising it. The deserving poor are permitted to beg, or if helpless are maintained; the undeserving poor if they beg are punished: but the distinction between the two is not defined, neither is it perhaps possible so to define it as to guard against continual deception and fraud. The punishment of vagrancy in every shape prescribed by this Act, accords with what we find in all the earlier Scottish and English statutes, and if due provision were at the same time made for relieving the destitute poor, this would be open to little objection; but the relief of poverty is here proposed to be effected chiefly by means of an organised system of begging, the helpless poor for whom provision is made in the houses of industry, being evidently those only who are too infirm to travel about for that purpose. By thus combining two objects of an opposite nature, it is evident neither will be accomplished—vagrancy will not be put down, and poverty will not be relieved. The providing for the establishment of corporations in every county, with powers to erect hospitals, houses of industry, or workhouses, and to tax the property of the country for such purpose, was no doubt an important advance in the legislation with regard to the poor; but like many other Irish enactments the present does not appear to have been carried into effect, except in a very few instances; and as a general measure the Act may be said to have been inoperative. It possessed however so much of a general character, and seemed to hold out such a promise of efficiency by consolidating the provisions of former Acts, that it was for a time relied upon, and upwards of half a century elapsed before anything further was attempted for the relief of the poor in Ireland.

The foregoing is the last of the Acts of the Irish parliament which we shall have occasion to notice, and when the Union took place in 1800, the Imperial legislation superseded that which had been local.

On here closing the last volume of Irish statutes, it may be convenient to give a short statement of the nature and extent of the previous legislation connected with our subject. Houses of industry and foundling hospitals, supported partly by public rates, and partly by voluntary contributions, were we have seen established at Dublin and Cork, for the reception and bringing up of exposed and deserted children, and the confinement of vagrants—free schools were directed to be maintained in every diocese, for educating the children of the poor—parishes were required to support the children exposed and deserted within their limits, and vestries were organised and overseers appointed to attend to this duty—hospitals, houses of industry or workhouses, were to be provided in every county, and county of a city or town—severe punishments were enacted against idle vagabonds and vagrants; whilst the deserving poor were to be badged and licensed to beg, or if infirm and helpless were to be maintained in the hospitals or houses of industry, for the building and upholding of which however, reliance was chiefly placed on the charitable aid of the humane and affluent, assessments for the purpose being limited to 400l. in counties at large, and to 200l. in counties of cities or towns.

It is evident that each of these measures partakes more or less of the nature of a poor-law, but there is one material deficiency pervading them all, that is, the want of a certain and sufficient provision for carrying them into effect. In no instance is such a provision made compulsory upon the public. A portion only of what is necessary for the purpose is so imposed, and the remainder is sought to be obtained by voluntary contributions, a combination always attended with uncertainty, and in most cases leading to an insufficiency of the necessary means. Even if the various provisions were fully carried into effect and generally acted upon, this would go far towards rendering them practically inefficient; but at that time in Ireland, it by no means followed because an Act was passed that its provisions would be enforced, and there is reason to believe that in very few instances only were the provisions contained in these Acts carried into operation. The existence of such provisions however, defective and for the most part inoperative as they were, would nevertheless serve as an answer to any person who might be desirous of seeing an efficient system established for the relief of the destitute; and thus the semblance of such a system may have prevented the establishing of one that would have been real, which it only could be when founded upon a general rate, as in the Act of Elizabeth. No such foundation was however, we see, here provided. Neither parochial nor parental liability as recognised and enforced in England, was established by these Acts. Even in the case of fatherless and deserted children, the entire chargeability of the parish for any such child was limited to 5l., an amount surely insufficient for its rearing and maintenance until it attained an age to support itself; so that here also reliance must have been placed on the co-operation of private charity, or else upon the child’s being received into one of the foundling hospitals, and the parish being thus relieved from further expense. In short, the training up and educating poor children as protestants, and the repression of vagabondism, appear to be the objects chiefly sought to be attained in all these Acts of the Irish parliament; and to these objects the relief of the infirm and destitute poor, seems to be regarded as a matter altogether secondary and subordinate.

A short account of the state of Ireland at this time will be a fitting conclusion of the present chapter, as well as a useful preparative for what is to follow. The best authority we can refer to for furnishing such an account I believe to be Arthur Young,[^[25]] who devoted three years from 1776 to 1778 inclusive, to a personal examination of the country, its agriculture, commerce, and the social condition of the people. I have had considerable opportunities of testing the accuracy of Arthur Young’s statements, and making due allowance for the changes which must be presumed to have taken place during a period of some sixty years, they have appeared to me to exhibit the circumstances of the country about the time they were written with remarkable accuracy and perspicuity. Of these statements, the following is such a condensed summary as will, it is hoped, show the reader what were Arthur Young’s views of the then condition of Ireland, more especially with regard to matters bearing upon our present subject.

Arthur Young’s account of the state of Ireland.

In natural fertility, acre for acre, Ireland is said to be superior to England. It has no such tracts of uncultivated mountain as are seen in the English northern counties, and its lighter shallower and more rocky soil (chiefly of limestone) is nourished by and flourishes under a fall of rain, which if it took place in England, would render the stiff clay lands almost useless. There is no chalk, and little sand or clay in Ireland. The fertility of England may be said to be in great measure owing to the application of skill industry and capital, that of Ireland chiefly to the soil and climate; whilst the bogs, which else would be waste, afford abundance of fuel. Notwithstanding the naturally superior fertility of Ireland however, the rent of land there as compared with England is in the proportion of two to five, or in other words, the land which lets in Ireland for two shillings, would in England let for five. It is considered that 5l. per acre expended over all Ireland (which would amount to about eighty-eight millions) “would not more than build, fence, plant, drain and improve that country to be upon a par in those respects with England;” and that it would take above twenty millions more to put the farmers in the two countries upon an equal footing. Profit in all undertakings depends upon capital, and the deficiency of capital thus accounts for the inferiority of the Irish rents. Tillage is little understood, and the produce is very inferior; “and were it not for potatoes, which necessarily prepare for corn, there would not be half of what we see at present.” The practice of harrowing by the tail, and burning corn in the straw, was still seen at Castlebar and other places in the west, notwithstanding its being prohibited by statute.[^[26]] The moisture of the climate is favourable to pasturage and the keeping of cattle was much followed, as it well suited the indolent habits of the people.