The Sun.
London, England, 1841-09-03 00:00:00

MORNING SUN.

SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF
THE POOR-LAW COMMISSIONERS.
The Seventh Annual Report of the Poor-law Coin-
:aissioners, just issucd, carries on the history of the pro-
gress of this great measure, both in England and Ire-
land, down to the present time ; and, with respect to
Ireland, particularly, presents a very favourable picture
of the benefits already produced by its operation, within
a much shorter period than could have been reasonably
anticipated.
In England, the first point to be noted is the ope-
ration of what is called the " prohibitory order,"
during the last severe winter. The prohibitory order,
that is, the order withholding out-door relief from able-
-oodied persons in health, was supported, with only a few
exceptions, in which it had been for some time in force, and
in the majority of the unions to which it had been more
recently issued ; and even in the unions which were un-
able to carry it fully into effect, a considerable progress
was made towards its ultimate observance. The Com-
missioners remark, respecting the operation of the pro-
hibition of out-door relief to the able-bodied in health,
that it has produced the greatest amount of benefit, with
the least amount of suffering, in the places where it has
been in force for the longest time ; a fact which proves
that the difficulties attending its enforcement has arisen
chiefly from the changes which it necessitates on its first
introduction, and that they are not inherent in the CCIII•
di:ion of the labouring classes, and ir. the means by
which they obtain their subsistence. The number of
unions and parishes under Boards of Guardians to which
an order, prohibiting out-door relief of the able-bodied
has been issued in some form, is 437 ; the number to
which no such order has been sent is 151.
In their report for 1839, the Poor-law Commissioners
stated their objections to the system of advertising for
the services of medical officers, and gave their opinion
that the best mode of remunerating medical officers was
by a gross sum in respect of a pauper list, comprising
ail those who at the commencement of the parochial
year are in the receipt of relief, with the addition of a
fixed sum for able-bodied paupers and their families,
who could not properly be placed on the pauper list.
They also recommended that the districts for medical
relief should be of moderate size, so far as circum-
ences would permit, and they indicated within certain
iiinits the amount of remuneration which they deemed
to he reasonable, suggesting that fractures, amputations,
and other difficult surgical operations, should be
paid for at a separate and higher rate of
eeerge. Early in the present year the Commis-
eiireers took the subject of medical relief again
ee their consideration, and issued a circular on
the subject to a large number of Boards of Guardians
tliroughout the country. The answers to this circular
showed to the Commissioners that the Boards of Guar-
dians generally are averse to the adoption of the per-case
system of medical remuneration, and that they will con-
tinue to remunerate their medical officers by fixed sala-
ries, unless prevented from doing so by the regulations
of the Commissioners, or by the direct interference cf
Parliament.
In consequence of some recent instances of excessive
or improper punishment inflicted by masters of work-
houses upon some of the pauper inmates, the Commis-
sioners have prepared a new set of regulations on the
subject, which are to be issued generally to the unions.
The Commissioners have also kept constantly in view
the securing to the unions the services of an efficient
body of officers • and although this object can only be
partially effected by the Commissioners, since the officers
are appointed by the Guardians, the Commissioners have
endeavoured to raise the standard by dismissing incom-
petent officers, and by maintaining the salaries at a pro-
per height.
The Commissioners some time ago issued orders to a
large number of the Board of Guardians, authorising
them to appoint a clergyman of the Established Church
as chaplain to the workhouse. A Board of Guardians
resisted the validity of the order, and it was brought be-
fore the Court of Queen's Bench. The judgment of the
Court was confirmatory of the validity of the order, and
established the power of the Commissioners to direct a
Board of Guardians to appoint as chaplain for the work-
house a clergyman of the Church of England. Out of
the unions and parishes governed by Boards of Guar-
dians, 346 unions and eight parishes have appointed paid
chaplains.
In order to carry into effect the spirit as well as the pro-
visions of the section of the Poor-law Amendment Act,
which secures to every inmate of a workhouse the power
of rewiring the visits of a minister of his own religious
denomination, the Commissioners, looking to the help-
less and unprotected condition of the' inmates of
workhouses, have thought it objectionable, on grounds
of general policy, that they should be exposed to at-
tempts made for the purpose of changing their religious
opinions. With this impression they have expressed
their conviction that inmates of workhouses, who are
members of the Church of England, ought not to be
present at any divine service performed by a Dissenting
minister in a workhouse, especially if the inmate be an
adult. On the other hand, they have not thought it ne-
cessary to object to the indiscriminate presence of Pro-
testant Dissenters of all persuasions at the divine ser-
vice performed in a workhouse by a Protestant Dissent-
ing minister. Progress has been made in extending the
provisions of the new Poor-law to new districts, espe-
cially in the manufacturing districts. Thus Manchester
end Liverpool are now under Boards of Guardians.
~'he number of places not yet placed under Boards of
nardians, and which are still under local Acts, or
',lnheres Act, is 77G, containing a population, according
to the census of 1831, of 1,715,156.
In consequence of instructions from the Government,
measures were taken fur reducing the number of Assist-
.et Commissioners in England. There were seventeen
Assistant Commissioners, each having a district. At the
present time there are thirteen, each having a district.
Pie Commissioners intend to fix the number of districts
;we've' below which number they do not think they
e•ht to be reduced. Some of the districts, from their
ee a, and the number of their unions, almost exceed the
ewers of a single Assistant Commissioner. For instance,
the is hole of Wales, with parts of Herefordshire and
ethropshire, form one district. Another district compre-
I, ends Northumberland, Cumberland, Durham, and the
North Riding of Yorkshire.
The Commissioners, in concluding their account of
their proceedings in England, affirm that they have faith-
fully endeavoured to fulfil the intentions of the Legisla-
ture, as embodied in the Poor-law Amendment Act ; and
declare that, so far from their powers being absolute and
arbitrary, as they are sometimes supposed to be, they are
subject to nearly all the possible varieties of responsibie
lity, both legal and moral, in respect of their official
acts, forming,l in the aggregate, a security against the
abuses of power which can never be obtained against the
acts of a merely local authority.
In Ireland the introduction of the Poor-law has been
very general. The whole country has been divided into
130 unions, which are all formed, and there is reason to
believe that the new combination into which the whole
of Ireland has now been formed will work harmoniously,
end be productive of very important benefits, independ-
ently of Poor-law administration. A largo number of
enion work-houses have been built, or are building.
The chief desideratum at present is a suitable mode of
mployment for the inmates of the workhouses. The male
eetupers are, for the most part, elderly, and more or less
.ntirm, although most of them are able to do something;
rail with the view of keeping such of them from idleness
es are not employed in stone-breaking, oakum-picking,
eeitiyating the garden, and in the several kinds of house-
hold wort to be performed in their own wards, a hand-
rail' has been provided for the we of the establishment,
and other means will be resorted to as time and opportu-
nity serve. For the female inmates there is less difficulty
is 'finding employment. The ordinary occupation of the
establishment, joined to making and mending the linen,
&c., knitting stockings, picking oakum, and attending
the children and the sick, have hitherto furnished occu-
pation for the far greater number of them ; but still so
numerous is this class of inmates, and so much has been
accomplished in the way of needlework and knitting,
that houses are at this moment supplied with a sufficiency
of clothing, made by the inmates themselves.
Shortly after the workhouses of the two Dublin unions
were opened, a marked reduction took place in the num-
ber of beggars who usually infested the streets and
neighbourhood of the city, and persons who had before
been sceptical as to the results of the poor relief Act,
were now heard to express themselves favourably of a
measure which thus appeared 'to have rid them of
the mendicants. A considerable portion of the beggars
:jail then in fact been received into the workhouses,
aiid thus the public were relieved from their
:e)licitations ; but this relief i% as only temporary, for
the vacuum caused by the reception of these beggars into
tee workhouses, was soon filled by a fresh influx from
2,10 surrounding districts. Many, also, who had entered
e 0 workhouses, either as an experiment, or through an
appehension that mendicancy would no longer be per-
elitted, again left them, and resumed their former habits
idlencse and irregularity, subsisting by begging, as
before ; and thus, after a short time, the streets and su-
burbs o Dublin were as fully stocked with beggars as
r,trer. ur perhap'. more so.
Teis circumstance seems to have opened the eyes of
tf` e inhabitant's of Dublin, and to have produced a very
Zeneral conviction of the necessity of some enactment
foe the suppression of mendicancy. The repression of
inentlicancy is stated by the Commissioners as necessary
je every union and so long, as the workhouse is open,
available for the relief of the destitute. This
eonviction, the, are satisfied, is also felt generally
throuelame the country, particularly by. the
small farmers and occupiers, who are indeed
tare chief sufferer; the contributions being for the
most part levied upon them. The congregation of the
beggars in towns at certain periods, or at certain hours
of the day, gives an appearance of the pressure being
greater than in the neihbouring- rural districts ; but
such is not the case, the alms which the mendicant col-
lects in the country being almost always taken to the
fawn ;'or consumption, or for the purpose of being sold
or eechanged to supply his wants or minister to his ap-

petites.
The Commissioners think it manifest that this state of
things should not be permitted to continue, and that it
becomes a duty to protect the inhabitants of a union from
the piessure of mendicancy, when they are compelled to
pay a tax for relieving the destitute. It has been thought
i,.);.some that persons will cease to give to beggars when
called upon to pay poor-rates ; and that mendicancy
will thus, without the enactment of any new law for its
rrpression, be put an end to, cr at least be ,;0 reduced as no
danger to be the great public evil it unquestionably cow
is. The Commissioners cannot concur in this opinion.
They believe that the mendicant classes will continue to
itvy their contributions, and that the fears and freju-
diccs of the people will lead them to give alms, as here-
tofore, after the workhouses shall have been opened and
thdlill)or-rates paid ; and that mendicancy will thus be
c'iltinued, and its evils perpetuated, unless the regisla-
t:Tre shall protect the rate-payer from demands and
threats, which, if lef‘ to himself, he will be total]y un-
able to withstand. Such baing the view of the case
entertained by the Commissioners, they express their
regret that the Bill introduced by Lord Alorpeth into
the House of Commons for the repression of mendicancy

should not have been proceeded with, though no less
than forty Boards of Guardians made strong representa-
tions on the subject.
The distress which has usually prevailed in the south-
ern and western districts of Ireland during the months
of June, July, and August, from a failure of the old, and
pending the incoming of the new potatoe_erop, will pro'-
bably occur for years to come ; but the Commissioners
hope that it will be felt in a continually decreasing ratio.-
The intensity of the distress is necessarily in proportion
to the length of the interval between the exhaustion of
the one crop and the maturity of the other ; and this in-
terval, in the average of years and circumstances, can be
reduced, and the duration and permanence of supply be
insured only by the increase of forethought and pruden-
tial habits in the people. The increase of these qua-
lities is now, we are satisfied, in rapid progress in Ire-
land, and to this the Commissioners mainly attribute the
important fact that the pressure of last year was sus-
tained, not only without the usual aid from Government
bnt with less suffering and privation among the
people than prevailed during previous years. Yet the
crops of last year, as a whole, were certainly under an
average ; and that after the recurrence of two, if not of
three, preceding short crops. The people must there-
fore, have become more provident, and must have hus-
banded their means. They have also begun to acquire
a clearer perception of their real interests, and of the
necessity of relying upon their own efforts. They are
likewise better informed with respect to their social con-
dition, and the duties which it imposes upon them indi-
vidually and collectively ; and hence their improved
habits and more general self-reliance.
A portion, perhaps no inconsiderable portion, of this
improvement may, we think, be attributed .to the agita-
tion of the Poor-law question in all its bearings, in every
part of Ireland, during the last five or six years ; a por-
tion is also attributable to the organization which has
been established throughout the country by the formation
of unions ; and, lastly, and that in no inconsiderable de-
gree, to the spread of temperance which has happily taken
place of late.