Decrease of sickness and mortality.

The extent of sickness and mortality in the workhouses towards the middle of April, has already been noticed.[[161]] The returns continued to show a gradual decrease of deaths from that time, although there was no material decrease in the number of inmates or of fever patients until the month of July, when a decline rapidly took place in all three; and in the last week of August the number of inmates was reduced to 76,319, of sick (including 5,782 fever patients) to 15,240, and of deaths to 646, or 8 in every 1,000 weekly. In the first week of October the inmates had again increased to 83,719, but the deaths were only 433, averaging 5 per 1,000 weekly. These numbers show the extent of the pressure on the workhouses in the earlier part of 1847. But the extent of assistance afforded under the Temporary Relief and the Fever Hospital Acts (10th and 11th Vict. caps. 7 and 22) must also be stated, in order to show the universality of the distress. |Decrease of rations issued.|Under the former Act, on the 8th of May rations were issued to 826,325 persons; on the 5th of June to 2,729,684; on the 3rd of July to 3,020,712; on the 1st of August to 2,520,376; on the 29th of August to 1,105,800; on the 12th of September to 505,984; and at the end of September the issues altogether ceased. Under the latter Act accommodation was provided for the treatment of 26,378 fever patients, and the average number in hospital was about 13,000. The proceedings under these Acts, when viewed in conjunction with those under the Poor Law, will sufficiently explain the magnitude of the crisis through which the country passed at this period, and the fearful suffering and privations to which the people were unhappily and it may be added unavoidably exposed.

Financial state of the unions.

The financial state of the unions became greatly depressed during this trying period. The fact of the treasurers’ balances having turned against the unions is noticed in the Report of the previous year,[[162]] and this continued down to the end of September, when owing to great exertions in the collection, the returns again showed a credit balance of upwards of 10,000l. in favour of the guardians. There was still however a large arrear remaining for collection, and this continued to be the case throughout the succeeding half-year, notwithstanding that the large sum of 961,354l. was collected and lodged with the treasurers, a proof that the guardians were not backward in making provision for carrying out the law, although the impoverished state of many of the unions rendered the collection difficult after the rates were made.

A good harvest.

The harvest of 1847 proved to be a good one. Contrary to expectation the potato crop was free from disease, but the quantity grown was comparatively small, and the price continued so high that the peasantry were unable to purchase. The failure of the crop in the two previous years had discouraged them from planting, and they were consequently in great measure deprived of their usual means of living. The large importations of Indian meal had however so far reduced the price of that and other descriptions of food, that the general cost of subsistence was not much greater than in ordinary seasons, and in districts where the people found employment at moderate wages, they generally fared better than in former years. But in districts where there was no employment or money wages, and where the peasantry had been accustomed to subsist on potatoes raised by themselves, this resource being neglected, they would necessarily be in want of food, and would require assistance to preserve them from starvation. It was certain therefore, notwithstanding the non-appearance of the potato disease, that there would be much distress in many parts of the country long before the approach of harvest in the following year; and in order to be prepared for affording needful relief in such a contingency, without at the same time weakening the incentive to independent exertion in the labouring classes, it was necessary that a large increase of workhouse accommodation should be provided. This point the commissioners continued earnestly to press upon the attention of the several boards of guardians, and for the most part with success.

32 boards of guardians dissolved.

The extent and population of the Irish unions and the constitution of many of the boards of guardians, rendered it probable that the new and more laborious duties imposed upon them by the Extension Act (10th and 11th Vict. cap. 31) would not always be fulfilled, and that in some instances there might either be a failure of necessary relief, or a misapplication of the union funds. The power of dissolving a board of guardians, and at once appointing paid officers to discharge their duties, was given to the commissioners for the purpose of enabling them to deal with cases of this kind; and being armed with such a power, they were responsible for its exercise whenever the occasion called for it—“Although reluctant in the highest degree, (they say) to interfere even temporarily with a system of self-government involving the great principle of popular representation in the raising and expenditure of a public fund, it appeared to them that in the immediate circumstances of the country, a more imperative object demanded for a time the sacrifice of those considerations, and that it was their paramount duty by every means which the legislature had placed at their disposal, to provide for the effectual relief of the destitute poor.” Acting under these views, and on the occurrence of what they considered to be serious default on the part of the guardians, the commissioners dissolved thirty-two boards,[[163]] and appointed paid officers in their stead. The default in nearly every instance was either a failure to provide sufficient funds, or to apply them efficiently in relieving the destitute. Full details of each case were laid before parliament, and the necessity of the proceeding was generally admitted, although it was no doubt much to be lamented that such a necessity should have arisen.

Out-door employment.

It is, however, satisfactory to find that in a great majority of the unions relief was provided and administered by the guardians in an orderly and efficient manner. There were some exceptions in addition to the above, it is true, and the commissioners had to exert all their influence and authority in procuring the appointment of relieving officers to receive and inquire into applications for relief, as provided by the Extension Act and directed by their own order. Another point on which the commissioners found much difficulty in winning the acquiescence of the guardians was with regard to the mode of employing poor persons, for whose relief out of the workhouse under the 2nd section of the Extension Act, a necessity had arisen in some unions. The guardians wished the employment to be of a productive or profitable nature, and that it should be applied mainly with that view. The commissioners were desirous that the employment should serve as a test of destitution, and recommended stone-breaking as open to least objection, the food to be given not as the price of labour but in relief of destitution, the labour being required simply as the condition of the relief; and in the unions where out-door relief in food was given to the able-bodied on this principle, the numbers are said to have been for the most part kept within moderate limits.