Report of the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress. : Report on Ireland.

  • Great Britain. Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress.
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Report of the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and Relief of Distress. : Report on Ireland. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

    23/106 (page 11)
    THE POOR RELIEF ACT OF 1838. 11 Clause of the Bill. This clause provided that relief to the destitute might be Relief optional, administered in the workhouses, at the discretion of the Boards of Guardians, subject to the conditions—in the first place, of a preference being given to the aged and infirm poor and to destitute children ; and in the second place, to persons residing in the Union before those not so resident, whenever there was not sufficient accommoda- tion for all the destitute. These latter provisions were introduced at the instance of the Duke of Wellington, in order to meet the objections, and mitigate the hostility of the opponents of the measure, as was also the provision in the 44th Clause, charging the cost of relief to the several electoral divisions, instead of to the Union at large, as it before stood. On this latter point, Mr. Nicholls observes : The localisation of the charge upon the electoral divisions approximates too nearly to settlement to be quite satisfactory. I wish this had been left as it at first stood ; but so long as no right to relief, and no power of removal, are given, we shall, I trust, be able to avoid the infliction of actual settlement. 40. The Bill received the Royal assent on July 31st, 1838. 41. It will be seen from the foregoing that the Irish Poor Law system was an off- Bill passed in the shoot from the English system. Furthermore, Mr. Nicholls was entrusted with the House of Lords administration of the Act, four of the English Assistant Commissioners being sent to assist him. Mr. Nicholls remained in Ireland from 1838 to 1842, when two of the Assistant Commissioners, (Mr. Gulson and Mr. Power), were deputed to act instead. On the appointment of an additional Commissioner in 1845, the delegation to Mr. Gulson and Mr. Power was revoked, and Mr. E. T. B. Twisleton, took charge of the administrative details in Ireland. On the formation of a separate Poor Law Commission for Ireland by the Act 10 and 11 Vic. c. 90, 1847, Mr. Twisleton was appointed as Chief Commissioner, the new Commission comprising in addition the Chief Secretary for the time being, and the Under Secretary. Mr. Twisleton resigned in 1849, and Mr. (afterwards Sir Alfred) Power was again sent to Ireland, this time in the capacity of Chief Commissioner. On the formation of the Local Goverrment Board for Ireland in 1872, Sir Alfred Power became its first Vice-President, an office which he continued to hold for eight years. 42. It will thus be seen that from the introduction of the Poor Law system into Ireland in 1838, down to the year 1880, the chief administrative officer was selected from amongst those trained in the English system. It may also be mentioned that the architect employed to design the workhouses was Mr. Wilkinson, who had acquired experience in the erection of workhouses in Wales under circumstances and with materials not very dissimilar to what exists in Ireland. The Poor Relief Act of 1838. 43. The salient provisions of this Act were:—• (1) The division of the country into Unions, composed of electoral divisions, which in turn were made up of townlands. ^ (2) The formation of a Board of Guardians for each Union—the Board consisting of elected and ex-officio Guardians.^ (3) The establishment of a Central Authority, viz., the Poor Law Com- missioners for England and Wales. (4) A compulsory rate for the relief of the poor. (5) The relief to be at the discretion of the Guardians, and accord'ngly no poor person, however destitute, to be held to have a statutory right to relief. A preference to be given to the aged, the infirm, the defective and the children ; after these had been provided for, the Guardians to be at liberty to relieve such other persons as they might deem to be destitute, priority to be given to those resident in the Union, in the event of the accommodation in the workhouse being insufficient for all. (6) The relief to be limited to relief in the workhouse. 1 Vide paragraph 139. 2 Ex-officio Guardians were selected from Justices of the Peace who were not Stipendiary Magistrates, Assistant Barristers, or persons in holy orders {vitlc Sec. 23 of Poor Relief (Ireland) Act, 1838). 429.