The Report on the medical charities in pursuance of the powers conferred by the 46th and 47th sections of the Poor Relief Act, was presented to government shortly after the date of the last annual Report,[[107]] together with the evidence which had then been taken, and including “the heads of a proposed bill for the better regulation and support of the medical charities of Ireland.” The remainder of the evidence was presented on the conclusion of the inquiry, and the whole was in due course laid before parliament. I was then the commissioner acting in Ireland, and being highly impressed with the importance of the numerous medical institutions, and with the necessity for their better support and regulation, I had bestowed much time and labour on the subject, and had earnestly endeavoured to devise the means of placing these valuable charities in a more secure condition with regard to their finances, and at the same time to improve the position of the medical practitioners by whose exertions they were in very many cases chiefly supported. All my efforts were directed to these ends, and to increasing the efficiency of the charities for the objects for which they were instituted. I was aware that there were difficulties to be overcome, arising from interested motives professional jealousies and misapprehensions; but there was no concealment, the course adopted was open, no pains were spared, able assistance had been obtained, and I was hopeful of success. The Report, with the heads of the proposed bill, was sent to every medical institution throughout Ireland, and had also been otherwise extensively circulated, without calling forth any expression of dissent, either from the medical profession or other parties; and with the sanction of government a bill was prepared in exact conformity with the headings set forth in the Report, and was about being introduced into parliament, when so violent an opposition was suddenly manifested by a great majority of the medical profession, that government deemed it inexpedient to proceed with the bill. The measure for “the better regulation and support of the medical charities in Ireland” was therefore suspended, but it was not abandoned; and the author had a few years afterwards the satisfaction of seeing a measure substantially the same as he had recommended, and founded on the inquiry which he had instituted, generally acquiesced in and become the law.[[108]]
Vaccination.
Every attention was continued to be given for carrying into effect the provisions of the Vaccination Act, and no efforts were spared to realize the benevolent intentions of the legislature for extending the benefits of vaccination, and for preventing the occurrence and the spreading of smallpox. The Appendix to the Annual Report contains a return showing the numbers successfully vaccinated in each of 100 unions, the whole amounting to 104,713, a number fully equal to if not exceeding what could reasonably have been expected under the circumstances.
Mendicancy.
The prevalence of mendicancy continued to be felt as a burden, and was very generally regarded as an evil which ought to be put an end to. It is true that the law did not confer an actual right to relief, and that the workhouses might possibly be sometimes inadequate for the reception of all who were in a state of destitution; but a rate was nevertheless made for the relief of the destitute, and the persons who were most helpless would be received into the workhouses. It was therefore considered that means should be taken, if not for putting an end to mendicancy altogether, at least for its diminution in a ratio corresponding with the means which had been provided for the relief of destitution. Many of the boards of guardians had passed resolutions to this effect; and at a public meeting held in Dublin for considering the subject, it was resolved to apply to the Irish government, urging the necessity of immediate steps being taken to put down the evil. The prevalence of mendicancy was found to be a positive obstacle to the working of the Poor Law. Thus in some of the unions, after the stock of habitual mendicants had for the most part been taken into the workhouses, the ratepayers of particular electoral divisions finding that the removal of what might be called their own established poor did not protect them from mendicancy, but was followed by inroads of beggars from other districts, deemed it better that their own poor should be permitted to levy contributions from house to house as theretofore, than that the ratepayers should incur the charge of maintaining them in the workhouse, and at the same time be called upon for contributions to the mendicants by whom their doors were beset. If the mendicancy clauses in the Poor Relief Bill as originally framed had been retained, these evils would have been prevented, and the repression of begging would have kept pace with the administration of relief under the Poor Law; but in the passage of the measure through parliament, these clauses, as before stated, were withdrawn, and no step had subsequently been taken for their re-enactment in any shape, as was understood to be intended at the time.[[109]]
Unfavourable weather, backward crops, and consequent distress.
During the greater portion of the last year, excessive rains and a general prevalence of cold ungenial weather affected both the grain and the potato crops, which were in consequence neither so early, so good, nor so abundant, as under more favourable circumstances they might have been. The same had been the case in the two or three previous years; and this succession of adverse seasons necessarily tended to increase the distress which usually more or less prevails in Ireland, especially in the western districts, during the months of June July and August. But notwithstanding the existence of much distress from these causes, it was in the present as in the preceding year met and overcome by the energies of the people themselves, without aid from government as on former like occasions; a circumstance which must be regarded as indicative of improved habits, and as warranting hopeful anticipations with regard to the future.
1843.
Fifth report of proceedings in Ireland.
At the date of the last Report (May 1st 1842), the whole of Ireland had been formed into 130 unions, all the workhouses were either built or in progress of building, and 81 had been declared fit for the reception of destitute poor. It was then likewise expected that by midsummer of the following year all the workhouses throughout Ireland would be in operation.[[110]] This expectation however was not fulfilled, for at the date of the present Report (1st May 1843) no more than 110 of the workhouses had been declared, and in only 98 of these was relief administered. In the earlier proceedings, it had been the practice to declare and bring the workhouses into operation as quickly as possible, leaving certain minor matters to be more leisurely completed afterwards. This was done, often at some inconvenience, in order to give effect to the law at the earliest practicable period. But it was now deemed more expedient to have the workhouse and all the arrangements fully completed before bringing it into operation; and hence a period longer or shorter according to circumstances, would necessarily intervene between the declaration of the house and the actual admission of applicants by the guardians. This accounts for relief being administered in only 98 of the houses, although 110 had been declared. It may also account for the non-fulfilment of the expectation which had been expressed, as to the declaration of the whole of the workhouses.
Cost of relief and numbers relieved.