Increase of workhouse accommodation.

But although the labour-test might so far have succeeded, the operation of the workhouse system in the present difficult circumstances had been found far less equivocal, and its efficiency was more universally acknowledged by those engaged in the administration of relief. A large extension of workhouse room, partly permanent partly temporary had been provided. The whole accommodation including additional workhouses and fever hospitals connected with the workhouses would be sufficient for upwards of 150,000 persons, “being an addition of more than one-third to the accommodation originally provided.” In consequence of this great increase of workhouse accommodation, it appears that in 25 of the unions no relief was given out of the workhouse, “except perhaps in the occasional exercise of the provisional powers of the relieving officers,” and yet the workhouses of none of these unions were said to be full. In 35 other unions, out-door relief was afforded only under the 1st section of the Extension Act, that is to the infirm, widows with two or more children, and persons disabled by sickness or accident. In the remaining 71 unions, orders had been issued under the 2nd section, authorizing out-door relief in food; but in only 23 of these was it authorized to be given without distinction of class.

The Dublin unions.

In proof of the efficiency of the workhouse in checking applications for relief, when not caused by actual necessity, the example of Dublin may be cited. In the first week of July, rations were gratuitously issued in the two Dublin unions to 57,509 persons, and the proportion of these classed as able-bodied amounted with their families to 46,432. In the South union the number on the relief lists was greatly reduced before the 15th of August, the day on which the issues under the Temporary Relief Act were ordered to cease; but in the North union more than 20,000 persons continued to receive rations, and the commissioners were entreated to issue an order under the powers given to them by the Extension Act sanctioning its further continuance, the guardians being apprehensive that so large an amount of relief could not with safety be suddenly discontinued. The commissioners deemed it to be their duty to resist the appeal, and recommended the guardians to convert a building then in their occupation and capable of accommodating 400 persons, into a subsidiary workhouse. This was accordingly done, and admission was offered to such of the able-bodied and their families as applied for relief when the rations were discontinued; but the new subsidiary workhouse was not filled by those who accepted the offer, and all the others found the means of living by their own exertions. The class receiving out-door relief under the 1st section of the Act (i. e. the aged and infirm poor and widows with two or more children) were at the same time, with some assistance from the mendicity institution, reduced to about 4,000 persons; and no necessity afterwards arose for issuing an order under the 2nd section in either of the Dublin unions.

Report of commissioners appointed under the
10th and 11th Vict. cap. 7.]

To this example of the efficiency of the workhouse in preventing undue applications for relief, may be added the testimony of the relief commissioners appointed under The 10th and 11th Vict. cap. 7,[[164]] as to the extreme difficulty or rather impossibility in the state of Ireland at that time, of guarding against gross abuse in the administration of relief without the corrective of the workhouse test, even although in the shape of daily rations of cooked food. In their third Report dated 17th June 1847, the commissioners make the following remarkable statement—“In several instances the government inspecting officers found no difficulty in striking off hundreds of names that ought not to have been placed on the lists, including sometimes those of servants and men in the constant employ of persons of considerable station and property. These latter are frequently themselves members of the committees, and in some cases the very chairmen, being magistrates, have sanctioned the issue of rations to tenants of their own of considerable holdings, possessed of live stock, and who it was found had paid up their last half-year’s rent.”... “In other districts, the measure is subject to deception and petty frauds practised by many of the order immediately above the class of actually destitute, and which cannot be entirely checked by the best exertions of the best committees. Even in the districts where the service is most correctly performed, the numbers on the lists will no doubt exceed those of the really destitute.” It was perhaps to be expected under the circumstances then existing in Ireland, that something like what is here described might occur; but it could hardly have been expected that it would have been to such an extent, or that persons in the positions named would have descended to practices at once so disgraceful and so unpatriotic. Against such frauds the workhouse seemed to be the only safeguard.

Expenditure on relief of the poor.

The entire expenditure from the rates on relief of the poor in the 130 unions during the twelve months ending 29th September 1847, was 803,684l. The number of inmates on that day was 86,376, and the total number relieved in the workhouses within the year was 417,139. There was some expenditure in a few of the unions shortly before the 29th September, although the issues under the Temporary Relief Act did not until then wholly cease. The relief under the Extension Act (10th and 11th Vict., cap. 31) which then commenced, continued to increase as the distress arising from the exhaustion of the small crops raised in many parts of the country became more and more severe. |Numbers in the workhouses.|On the 12th February 1848 the number in the several workhouses amounted to 135,467, and the mortality reached 11 per 1,000. This was perhaps to be expected from the great pressure upon the workhouses, and the wretched condition of very many of the poor persons at the time they were admitted. Contagious disease again prevailed, and the fatal effects again extended to the workhouse officers, ninety-four of whom died, chiefly of fever, and also two of the Poor Law inspectors, and one vice-guardian in course of the year.

Out-door relief.

Although the numbers in the workhouses went on increasing in the latter months of 1847, it was not until February and March 1848 that the houses became filled, and that out-door relief was largely administered. In February the cost of out-relief in money and food amounted to 72,039l., in March to 81,339l. The numbers and cost were then both at their maximum, and according to the best estimate which could be formed, the average daily number of out-door poor relieved was 703,762, and of in-door 140,536, making an aggregate of 844,298 persons. The description of food supplied to the poor in lieu of their habitual food the potato, consisted for the most part of a pound of Indian meal, that being the quantity of cereal food approved by the Central Board of Health in Ireland as necessary for the daily sustenance of an adult. The price of Indian meal was at that time about 1d. per lb., so that the cost of the food thus supplied probably did not exceed the cost of that to which the people had been accustomed. It appears therefore that in the early part of 1848 no less than 800,000 persons were relieved daily at the charge of the poor-rates, consisting chiefly of the most helpless part of the most indigent classes in Ireland; and the commissioners say they “cannot doubt that of this number a large proportion are by this means, and this means alone, daily preserved from death through want of food.” The above 800,000 is irrespective of the children supplied with food and clothing by “The British Association,” the number of whom in March 1848 amounted to upwards of 200,000.[[165]] So that the total number of persons then receiving eleemosynary support must have exceeded a million, or over one-eighth of the entire population.