Distress in certain unions.
The official returns of the collection and expenditure of the poor-rates are made up to the 31st March 1848, and comprise six months only of the parochial year which will end on the 29th September following. They show that in those six months 961,356l. had been collected, and 781,198l. expended, thus exhibiting an excess of collection over expenditure of 180,158l. The state of the balances appears therefore to have greatly improved,[[166]] and rates to the amount of 661,855l. still remained on the books for collection. “Up to this point therefore (the commissioners observe) the financial progress has been favourable”—But they add, “if we should have to sustain operations for five months longer, at the rate of expenditure exhibited for March, it is clear that great exertions have yet to be made in the collection of rates, in order to escape a large accumulation of debt at the close of the year.” The above statements apply to the unions in the aggregate. There are however the commissioners say, certain unions which “cannot for some years be cleared from present debt under the most favourable circumstances, and in unions which on the whole are well provided with funds, many electoral divisions are in a state of almost hopeless bankruptcy.”
British Relief Association.
The proceedings of the “British Relief Association” have already been noticed.[[167]] The committee of the association had still a considerable sum at their disposal in the latter end of 1847, and this it was determined to appropriate in aid of such of the distressed unions above adverted to as the Poor Law Commissioners should recommend for that purpose, and also in “affording food and clothing to children through the medium of schools.” Accordingly grants to the amount of 143,519l. were successively made to the distressed unions[[168]] in aid of their general expenditure; and with regard to the school-children, it is said—“by the 1st of January 1848 the system was in full operation in thirteen of the more distressed unions, 58,000 children were on the relief-roll of the association, and this number gradually increased, until in the month of March upwards of 200,000 children, attending schools of all denominations in twenty-seven western unions, were participating in this relief. The total expenditure for feeding the children amounted to 80,885l., in addition to which the sum of 12,083l. was spent in clothing, making a total expenditure during the second period of the relief operations of the association of 236,487l.”[[169]] Treasury grants to the extent of 114,968l. had also been made in aid of the distressed unions, during the present year.
Total amount of rates raised.
It may not be irrelevant here to state, that the entire of the rates made in all the unions from the first introduction of the Poor Law down to the date of the present Report, have (exclusive of the last rate) amounted to 2,496,412l., of which not more than 48,804l., or 2 per cent., has been lost—143,046l., or 6 per cent., of arrears having been carried into the rates last made. The last-made rates amounted to 1,462,878l., which added to the above makes a total of 3,959,290l. assessed upon the property of Ireland for the relief of the poor, in course of the ten years since the introduction of the Poor Law, the last three being years of such intense distress as it was perhaps never before the lot of an entire people to be subjected to.
1849.
Second annual report of Poor Law Commissioners for Ireland.
The Report for 1848-9 is dated, not on the 1st of May, as before, but on the 14th July. At the end of their last Report, the commissioners adverted to the great efforts which were made to restore the potato to its former position of the staple crop of Ireland, as being a circumstance at once hopeful and alarming. The policy of a people’s relying for subsistence on a crop so uncertain in its produce, and which so soon decays, is no doubt a question of momentous importance. But this was lost sight of in the promise of an abundant harvest; and as the disease had done little mischief last year, it was hoped the country would be equally free from its ravages in the present.|Recurrence of the potato disease.| At the beginning of August however, the appearance of blight was reported from many parts of the country, and although not so general nor so destructive as in 1846, the disease proved much worse than in 1847, and there can be no doubt that a considerable proportion of the crop was destroyed by it. In October sound potatoes were sold at 8d. per stone, a price at which the ordinary rate of wages would not allow a labourer to purchase them for the support of his family. Another season of distress was therefore evidently impending. The out-relief lists had been reduced from 830,000 in July, to 200,000 on the 1st of October, when the numbers again began to increase, and on the last day of December they amounted to nearly 400,000. The numbers in the workhouses increased in the same period from 114,000 to 185,000, with a weekly rate of mortality of 6½ per 1,000. Statements of the numbers relieved, and the cost of the relief afforded, were periodically submitted to parliament throughout the whole of this trying period.
Great distress and sickness.
In the earlier months of 1849 there was greater privation and suffering among the population of the western and south-western districts, than at any time since the fatal season of 1846-7. “Exhaustion of resources by the long continuance of adverse circumstances, caused a large accession to the ranks of the destitute. Clothing had been worn out or parted with to provide food, or seed in seed-time; and the loss of cabins and small holdings of land, either by eviction or voluntary abandonment, rendered many thousands of families shelterless and destitute of fuel as well as food.” The distress hence arising, aggravated by the inclement weather which then prevailed, was not we are told effectually met by the system of out-door relief. Where the workhouses were full, poor persons receiving out-relief were often compelled to part with a portion of their food to obtain a lodging. The cabins became crowded with ill-fed, ill-clothed, sickly people, and epidemic disease found victims prepared for its attacks. A great proportion of those who died in the workhouses at this period, had previously suffered from fever and dysentery, and entered the workhouse weakened by extreme privation, or in an advanced state of disease.