The Sun.
London, England, 1855-03-31 00:00:00

DISMISSAL OF IRISH POOR-LAW COMMIS-
SIONERS.

Mr. H. BLAND begged to call attention to the circum-
stances under which the reduction of officers acting
under the statutes for the administration of the poor-law
in Ireland had takeli place. In the month of June
last.the then Secretary for Ireland gave a pledge to
the house that he would make inquiries as to the
reductions that could be made in the poor-law esta-
blishment in Ireland. On that ihquiry being made, he
gave a further pledge that certain reductions should take
place, and ho (Mr, Bland) now begged to submit to the
house that the reductions proposed were not the most ece-
mical; and-were not for theibenefit of the establishment.
They bore a relit ions complexion, and that was calculated
to do considerable injury in Ireland. They should bear in
mind that nearly all the recipients of relief in Ireland were
of the Catholic creed, and yet out of seven Roman Catholic
administrative officers, five wore to be reduced, leaving
only at" the most two ixoma,n Catholic officers, while eleven
officers, independent of the two ex officio commissioners,
were Protestants. The present staff consisted of a chief
commissioner, two commissioners, a secretary, an assistant
secretary, and sixteen inspectors, and instead of reducing
one of the three commissioners, it was proposed to dismiss
the secretary. .and' assistant secretary, and five cut of the
sixteen inspectors ; four out of the five who got notice of
dismissal being Roman Catholics. The right hon. baronet
the late Secretary for Ireland had stated that the dismis-
sals were to take place froni amongst the juniors. on the
list, and that no distinction was to be made on account of
religion, but it appeared from a return which he (Mr.
Bland) had obtained of the dates of the appointment of
those officers that such statement was unfounded. Instead
of th. 9 juniors being seleeted.for dismissal, there were eight
inspectors all junior to Riman Catholics that were to be
dismissed. (Hear.) It therefore appeared that a return
received from an office with which the right hon. baronet
was connected contradicted a statement which the rigV
hon.. baronet had inade.to that house. (Hear.)
Dr. BRADY also complained that four of the five Roman
Catholic inspectors' should have been selected for dismissal,
thus leaving only one Roman Catholic out of the eleven in-
specters. He hoped the present Chief Secretary would not
follOw in the steps of his predecessor, because the appoint-
ments of ihe right hon. baronet bore the stamp of the
most Culargecl-bif;otry. Under the-Medical Charities Act
the department in Dublin Castle absorbed 7,0001.- a year
for carrying otit the act, while the medical officers ap-
pointed under it received only 401. a year each, or (allow-
ing three visits to each patient) one penny and one-eighth
of a farthing for'esch visit or attendance. (Hear.)
Mr. BALL was quite sure that the gentleman at the
head of the Poor-law Department in Ireland, Mr. Power,
was not influenced by any sort of sectarian feeling in the
recommendations he had made; but he (Mr. Ball) greatly
regretted that the right lion. gentleman the late Secretary
for Ireland had not thought of the political aspect of the
question, and the effect which such reductions would pro-
duca in Ireland. He thought it much more important that
one of the commission should be a Raman Catholic than
any of the inspectors, as the absence of any, member of
that ChurCh exposed the commission to a certain degree
of Suspieion.

Mr. OSBORNE said it had been, truly staled that the
reduction was not a voluntary act on the part. of the com-
mission ;it had been made when the ed,itnatea were framed
last year. It appeared' tikat by redliditg the first-class of
inspectors, a saving of1;t06/. a year Would be effected on
each ; whilst by making reductions in the second-class, the
• saving would be only 6001. Consequently, in the first in-
stance the board of commissioners decided that tho reduc-
tions should be made in the first-class, which contained 8
gentlemen, of the highest character for efficiency in the
performance, of their duties. 'lt was, perhaps, unfortunate
that so many reductions should have been made in this class
as it had b&iron sic to great misconception. The commis-
sioners, however, made the reductions which they felt to.
be most proper, and left it to publie opinion and to Parlia-
ment to vindicate the course they had taken. Of the 8 in-
spectors in the first-class,. 5 were to be reduced, includ-
ing the secretary to the board, Mr. Hanley. In all there
were to be eight redactions, five of the parties being 'Ro-
man Catholics and three Protest ants, besides the assistant-
s.:cretary, the auditor, anti the architect, who were all Pro-
testants. Altogether six Protestants would be reduced
and five Roman Catholics, supposing thearrarrgements pro-
posed to be carried out. -.No one had imputed. to the com-
missioners that they were influenced by sectarian motives
in the exorcise of their duties, and in this case it was un-
doubted that they had been, actuated by none but the
purest intentions:
Sir J.-PAXTON wished to make some suggestions re-
lative to the erection of new works at AldershOtt. At.
present there were but from 300 to 400 huts conitructed,'
and there were 800 more to be constructed. He considered'
the design to be defective, as about double the quantity
of boards necessary was put on thorn. 'The roofing was
bad, and the water, from the boards giving way, would
certainly penetrate into the huts. As soon as the dry wea-
ther set in he thought it likely the roofs-would all crack,
and the huts would require some other covering beyond the
roof., Had Government consulted any carpenter in a coun-
try village, he would have shown them how to make a bet,
ter. The ventilation was very defective, the windows
being placed four feet from the ground. He considered the
double boarding and roof boarding of uo use. It was a
great pity that the-Board of Ordnance had not'had one but
made in 'perfect condition, to serve as a model for the con-
tractors. Had this been done, he believed half the ex-
pense of raising them would have been saved. Consider-
ing the large quantity of timber to be used in them, he
thought sufficient time far deliberation had not been
given, only three days being 'allowed for sending in the
estimates. As there were to be solid wooden foundations
put in, they could not be finished under three months.
He Would suggest that the boarding should be single
rather than double, which would conduce both to
the health of the soldiers and the saving of expense.
But he thought huts for 20,000 men were much more
than enough ; it would be far• better to have 5,000 men
undertents, in order that the troops might be properly in-
structed in pitching tents and-the other duties of the en=
campment.