The Labour-Rate Act (9th and 10th Vict. cap. 107) was founded on the assumption that the owners and occupiers of land would themselves make efforts commensurate with the magnitude of the crisis, and that only a manageable number of persons would have to be supported on the public works. But including the families of those so employed, more than 2,000,000 persons were maintained by the relief-works, and there were others behind including the most helpless, for whom no work could be found. |Failure of relief-works.|The extent to which the rural population were thrown upon the relief-works, threatened likewise to interrupt the ordinary tillage of the land, and thus to perpetuate a state of famine. In short, a change of system had become necessary, and at the end of January (1847) it was announced that government intended to put an end to the public works, and to substitute another mode of relief. The pressure nevertheless continued to increase. The 570,000 men employed daily in January, became 708,000 in February, and 734,000 in March, representing with their dependents upwards of 3,000,000 of persons. The expenses were in proportion, and exceeded a million sterling per month.[[138]] At the end of February however preparation was made for a change of system by passing the Temporary Relief Act (10th Vict. cap. 7). In March the numbers employed were reduced by 20 per cent., and successive reductions continued to be made as the change of system was brought into operation. In the first weeks of April, May and June respectively, the numbers employed were 525,000, 419,000, and 101,000; and in the week ending the 26th of June the number was reduced to 28,000. The necessary labour was thus returned to agriculture, and a foundation was laid for the ensuing abundant harvest. “The remaining expenditure was limited to a sum of 200,000l. for the month of May, and to 100,000l. a month for June, July, and the first 15 days of August, when the Act expired.”

26th Feb. 1847.
Temporary Relief Act. 10th and 11th Vict. c. 7.

The system of affording relief through the agency of public works having broken down, while that of administering it in a direct form on the principle of the Poor Law had generally been found effective wherever it had been tried, it was as above stated determined to give validity to this mode bypassing the 10th and 11th Vict., cap. 7, which directs that a relief committee consisting of the magistrates, a clergyman of each persuasion, the poor-law guardian and the three highest ratepayers, shall be constituted in each electoral division, and that a finance committee of four gentlemen of character and knowledge of business should be formed to control the expenditure in each union. Inspecting officers are also to be appointed, and a central commission sitting in Dublin,[[139]] was to superintend and control the working of the whole system. The expense incurred was to be defrayed out of the poor-rates, and when these proved insufficient they might be reinforced by government loans, to be repaid by rates subsequently levied. But no loan is to be made, until the inspecting officer had certified that the guardians have passed a resolution for making the rate upon which the loan was to be secured. Such were the chief provisions of the Act, but free grants were also made in aid of the rates in the poorest unions, and when private subscriptions were raised the government made donations to an equal amount. The liability of the ratepayers would, it was considered, operate as a check to undue expenditure; and with regard to the recipients, the test applied consisted in requiring the personal attendance of all who needed relief, (excepting only the sick and impotent poor, and children under the age of nine) and that the relief should be given in cooked food,[[140]] in portions sufficient to maintain health and strength.

The cooked-food system of relief.

The cooked-food system of relief was found to a great degree efficacious in preventing abuse, but it was objected to at first, and the enforcement of it was in some cases attended with difficulty. Undressed meal might be sold or exchanged for other articles. “Even the most destitute often disposed of it for tea tobacco or spirits,” but stirabout soon becomes sour by keeping, and was not likely to be applied for except by persons who wanted it for their own immediate use. Depôts of corn and meal were formed—relief committees were established—mills and ovens were erected—huge boilers cast specially for the purpose were sent over from England for preparing the stirabout—and large supplies of clothing were collected. In July 1847 the system reached its highest point “3,020,712 persons then received separate rations, of whom 2,265,534 were adults, and 755,178 were children.” This vast multitude was however rapidly lessened at the approach of harvest,[[141]] which happily was not affected by the disease. |Cessation of famine.| Food became comparatively abundant, and labour in demand. By the middle of August relief was discontinued in nearly one-half the unions, and ceased altogether on the 12th September. It was limited by the Act to the 1st October.

This was the second year in which upwards of 3,000,000 of people had been fed “out of the hands of the magistrate” in Ireland, but it was now done more effectually than at first. The relief-works had been crowded, often to the exclusion of numbers who were really destitute; but a ration of cooked food was less attractive than money wages had been, and it also proved a more effectual relief to the helpless poor. “The famine was stayed.” Deaths from starvation no longer occurred. Cattle-stealing and other crimes connected with the want or insufficiency of food became less prevalent, and the system of relief which had been established is with allowable self-gratulation declared to be “the grandest attempt ever made to grapple with famine over a whole country.” Organized armies, it is said, had been rationed before; “but neither ancient nor modern history can furnish a parallel to the fact that upwards of three millions of persons were fed every day in the neighbourhood of their own homes, by administrative arrangements emanating from and controlled by one central office.”[[142]] The expense of this great undertaking amounted to 1,557,212l.,—a moderate sum in comparison with the extent of the service performed, and in which performance the machinery of the Poor Law unions was found to afford most important aid. Indeed without such aid, the service could hardly have been performed at all; and the anticipations of the advantage to be derived from the Poor Law organization in such emergencies,[[143]] were fully verified.

Fever.

Fever as usual followed in the train of famine, and in order to check its ravages the 10th and 11th Vict. cap. 22 was passed, “making provision for the treatment of poor persons afflicted with fever,” and enabling the relief committees to provide temporary hospitals, to ventilate and cleanse cabins, to remove nuisances, and to procure the proper burial of the dead, the funds necessary for these objects being advanced by the government in the same way as for furnishing food. Upwards of three hundred hospitals and dispensaries were provided under this Act, with accommodation for at least 23,000 patients, and the sanitary powers which it conferred were extensively acted upon. The expense incurred for these objects amounted to 119,055l., “the whole of which was made a free gift to the unions in aid of the rates.”

Advances by government.

The amount expended under the Public Works Act (9th and 10th Vict. cap. 1) was 476,000l., one-half a grant, the other half to be repaid by twenty half-yearly instalments. The expenditure under the Labour-Rate Act (9th and 10th Vict. cap. 107) was 4,850,000l., half of which was a grant and the other half to be repaid as before. The sum advanced under 9th and 10th Vict. cap. 2 for local purposes, was 130,000l., to be repaid in various periods out of grand jury presentments. Lastly the sums expended under the Temporary Relief Act, 10th Vict. cap. 7, in the distribution of food, and under the 10th Vict. cap. 22 in medical and sanitary relief, amounted to 1,676,268l., of which 961,739l. was to be repaid, and the remaining 714,529l. was a free grant. So that the entire amount advanced by government in 1846 and 1847 towards the relief of the Irish people under the fearful calamity to which they were exposed, was 7,132,268l., of which 3,754,739l. was to be repaid within ten years, and the remaining 3,377,529l. was a free grant.[[144]]