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

by Sir George Nicholls

Under these circumstances, and in the then state of Ireland, it cannot excite surprise that there should be resistance to the law, and that efforts should be made to evade its provisions. As early as the end of 1842 there had been resistance to payment of the rates in some of the divisions of the Skibbereen and Waterford unions, which afterwards extended to Tipperary and several other unions in different parts of Ireland. At Skibbereen indeed a death had unhappily occurred, through the violent resistance made to the constabulary while assisting the collectors in levying the rates. In a return made to an order of the house of commons, 21 unions are named as having down to the 1st of January 1844, so far resisted the payment of the poor-rates as to require the intervention of the constabulary or the military to enforce the collection. In 11 of these unions, a military as well as constabulary force was deemed necessary. In the other 10, the constabulary alone were found sufficient to protect the collectors in the execution of their duty. But it was not alone resistance to the rates which obstructed the working of the law; in the Tuam union a rate was made in October 1842,[^[119]] but no part of it had been collected on the 1st of January 1844. This was not owing to resistance on the part of the ratepayers, but to the unwillingness of the guardians to proceed in the administration of relief. The workhouse, capable of accommodating 800 persons, had been declared fit for the reception of destitute poor in August 1842, a master matron medical officer and porter had been appointed, but such was the backwardness of the guardians in fulfilling the requirements of the law, that no case of destitution however urgent, was or could be relieved except by application to some neighbouring union.

Even after the workhouse had been opened, and relief therein administered, there were several instances of unwillingness on the part of the guardians to make rates of sufficient amount to meet the liabilities of the union, and at the same time to provide for the relief of the poor. Some of the boards moreover refused to borrow and charge the rates with the sums necessary to cover the expense of building the workhouses, on the alleged ground of dissatisfaction with the architect’s certificates in favour of the contractors, or of the manner in which the work had been executed.[^[120]] Legal proceedings against the guardians were in consequence taken on account of these refusals, and much expense was thus injudiciously incurred, whilst the poor were curtailed of their needful relief. The contracts entered into under such circumstances for supplying the workhouse, if they could be made at all, were necessarily made on extremely disadvantageous terms; and thus the intentions of the legislature were frustrated, and disaffection towards the law was generated, by the very parties appointed to carry out the one, and guard against the occurrence of the other. Several unions are named in the Report, in which such was or had been the case, and in one (Carrick on Shannon) a poor man had died in consequence of being refused relief. Yet there can be no doubt that where the unions were properly in operation, a large amount of actual destitution and extreme suffering was effectually met by opportune relief afforded in the workhouses. In many cases however the poor people were so reduced as to be in an extremely debilitated state when admitted, and they often died shortly afterwards. In this worst extremity to which, in a physical sense, a human being can be exposed, an institution affording shelter, medical attendance, and the last consolations of religion, must surely be one of the most effective forms in which relief can be administered, more especially among a population such as exists in Ireland.

Divisional chargeability.

Much dissatisfaction continued to be expressed with regard to the apportioning the charge of relief upon the several electoral divisions. Those in which the rated property was large, and the number of poor inconsiderable, complained of the proportion they had to pay towards the common charges of the union, whilst the amount of relief required by them was so small. The divisions on the contrary in which the number of paupers was considerable, and the amount of relief bore a large proportion to their rated value, complained of the high rate of poundage to which they were subjected, in comparison with the other divisions. The change now made in the law may help gradually to reconcile although it does not remove these distinctions. As new admissions take place, the proportion charged upon the union at large would most likely increase, and there would thus be a closer approximation towards an equal rating of the whole union. But many boards of guardians expressed themselves as not satisfied with this gradual and partial change, and declared themselves favourable to a union rate, whereby all charges would be borne by an equal poundage-rate over the several electoral divisions. That these guardians took a correct view of the question seems hardly to admit of doubt. They had seen the evils of divisional chargeability, and wished to apply the obvious remedy by bringing the law back to what was originally proposed; but the time for so doing had not arrived, and the evils and inconveniences were still to be continued, although perhaps in a somewhat mitigated form.

Collection of the rates.

At the date of the present Report (1st May 1844) resistance to the collection of the rates was in great measure overcome, and the authority of the law vindicated. The general results of the collection are stated to have been as follows—In 98 of the unions, in which the rates made previously to the 24th August 1843 amounted to 605,864l., there remained uncollected on the 1st January 1844 only 46,322l., or something less than 8 per cent. of the entire amount. But it must not be supposed that even the whole of this arrear was collectable. All tenements, whether occupied or not, are usually included in the rate, the infinite number of small tenements making it impossible to distinguish with certainty what are unoccupied at the time the rate is made; and it is only the occupied tenements which pay. Public property legally exempt is also often included in the rate, and the arrears in the South Dublin union amounting to 4,479l., are likely to include sums of this nature. On the whole therefore, it appeared to the commissioners, that “considering the great difficulty of collecting the rates from the occupiers of very small tenements, on which class a large portion of the entire rate is laid, these results would not be regarded as unsatisfactory.”

Auditors appointed.

In order to secure regularity and efficiency in the collections, and the proper keeping of the union accounts, it was determined to appoint four auditors, who would be employed exclusively in that capacity; and it is expected that they would be the means of establishing a greater degree of uniformity as well as accuracy throughout all the unions in Ireland.

Cost of relief, and numbers relieved.

Fourteen workhouses had been brought into operation in course of the year 1843, the cost of relief administered in which amounted to 23,277l., and the number of inmates to 1,529, on the 1st of January 1844—on which day the number of inmates in the 92 workhouses in operation prior to 1843 was 31,981, and the cost of relief 221,097l. So that the entire number of persons relieved on 1st January 1844 in 106 workhouses was 33,510, and the cost of relief during the year amounted to 244,374l. This appears less than in the preceding year, but the difference is probably owing to the much greater number of workhouses which were opened in 1843, and the extra expenditure always attendant upon first bringing the houses into operation. By a statistical table appended to the Report, the total number of inmates of all classes in the several workhouses on 31st January 1845, is shown to have been 43,293, of whom 9,231 were able-bodied (that is 2,809 males and 6,422 females) and 11,441 were disabled through sickness age or other infirmity. Another minutely framed table in the Appendix to the Report shows, that of 27,529 adults above the age of fifteen, and 22,585 children under that age, 5,942 of the former were widows, and 3,622 widowers; and that of the children 19,886 were legitimate (4,164 being orphans) and 2,639 were illegitimate.