The Sun.
London, England, 1846-02-06 00:00:00

Sub-Committee No. 3.

(Continued from our Afternoon Edition of yesterday.)
SOUTH-EASTERN (PR.O3/ GREENWICH
RAILWAY TO CHART, NEAR ASHFORD,
WITH MUMMIES TO TITA BRIDGE AND
RIVERHEAD) RAILWAY.

This 11111 was passed, subject to future decision ; and the
SOUTH-EASTERN (CANTERBURY TO DO-
VER) raaiLwAY

Bill w,1.9 passed.

SOUTII—DAST.ERN (PROM MAIDSTONE TO
STOOD, NEAR. ROCRESTME) RAILWAY.
This Bill was passed likewise.

THE z.annrE, BELFAST, AND BALLYMENA
RAILWAY
Bill which was unopposed, was passed.
The Committee adjourned till twelve o'clock to-morrow.

SUDDEN DEATH AT THE DINNER TABLE.— Yesterday
Mr. Wakley, M.P., held an inquest at the Coleridge Arms,
Priitcess-street, Lisson-grove, on the body of Joseph Vining,
aged 59, a tobacco-pipe maker, at 12, Sandford. street. On
Sunday last he sat down to dinner, and his wife having said
grace, he retiponded fervently 4, Amen." Instantly after-
wards, he sank down in his chair, and having moaned three
times, expired. He was latterly in good health, though
partly disabled by a previous paralytic attack. Verdict—
" Accidental Death."
The Military Secretary to the Commander-in-Chief
transacted business yesterday at the Foreign-office.

IMPERIAL
HOrTc-'

-, 1846.

.-ARLIAMENT.
OF LORDS, Thursday, Feb. 5.
Lnere Lordships met at Five o'cl, ck.
The Earl of STRADBROKE presented several peti-
tions from various places in Cambridgeshire, the Isle of
Ely, and the county of Suffolk, against any change
being made in the present protective system.
Lord BEAUMONT also presented a large number of
petitions to the same effect, and expressing great alarm
at the measures brought forward by the Government.
THE PORT OF LIMERICK.

A NOBLE LORD presented a petition from the Corpo-
ration of Limerick, praying their Lordships to institute
an inquiry into the condition of that port, and to make
a grant of money to put it into an efficient condition.
Lord MONTEAGLE was understood to say that the
necessary amount might be attained by levying an adddi-
tional tollage on the ships entering the port.
The subject then dropped.
RAILWAY DEPOSITS.—REPORT OF THE
SELECT COMMITTEE.

The Earl of DALHOUSIE said that he was instructed
by the Select Committee appointed to consider the mode
in which the House should deal with the railway Bali
expected to be submitted to the Hopse during the pre-
sent session to state, that the Committee, having met and
considered the matters referred to them, had come to the
following resolutions :
" Resolved—That it is the opinion of this Committee
that such portion of the standing order No. 224, as re-
quires a deposit of ene.tentli of the amount subscribed,
should be suspended, with respect to all such railway Bills
as shall commence in the House of Lords during the pre-
sent session.
"'!'hat no such railway Bill shall be read a first
time in this House unless a deposit of one-twentieth
part of the amount subscribed should have been paid on
or before the 6th of February.
" That no such railway Bills should be read a third
time until a further deposit of one-twentieth part of the
amount subscribed should in like manner be paid.
" Resolved also, that it is the opinion of this Com-
mittee that this House should not receive any petition
for a railway Bill after Monday, the 23d of February."
The Noble Earl added that he would tomorrow call
their Lordships' attention to the subject.
POOR-LAWS (IRELAND).

Lord CLANCARTY moved for the appointment of
a committee to inquire into the laws relating to the re-
lief of the sick poor and destitute in Ireland. He would
lay before their Lordships the grounds upon which he
would ask Noble Lords to grant him this committee.
Looking at the present condition of the people
of Ireland and the accounts of the agrarian disturbances,
assassinations, and systematic attacks upon private pro-
perty which constantly reach us, circumstances which
might no doubt be attributed to other causes, but which
in his opinion were mainly attributable to the destitution
at present existing in that country—looking at these
things, he thought that the Committee ought to be granted
It was important for Noble Lords to inquire into the
operation of such laws as wero designed for the benefit
of the poor of Ireland. The Medical Charities and
the Poor-law Bills, he considered, deserved their
mostseriouscoasideration. The Poor-law Bill, in order to
be efficient for its purpose, should not only afford relief
to the destitute, but should also place persons above
destitution. And in such a country as Ireland it might ex-
ercise, if properly conducted, a most beneficial influence.
If their Lordships would turn to a report which had
been laid on the table, they would see the abuses and
defects of the existing law for the medical relief of the
poor. They would see in that report abundant argu-
ments for legislative interference. He would likewise
refer their Lordships to the report of a committee of
the House of Commons, which had laboriously investi-
gated the subject of medical charities. That Committee was
appointed through the instrumentality of the Hon. Mem-
for Roscommon. His Noble Friend, the present Post-
master-General, who was then a Member of the House
of Commons, was upon that Committee, and he would
correct him (Lord Clancarty) if he were wrong in stat-
ing that the Committee were unanimous in their opinion
as to the importance of legislative interference with re-
spect to the medical charities of Ireland. They were
unanimous upon that point, but unfortunately they could
not agree upon any other. A reference to the poor-law
statistics of Ireland would show their Lordships that the
workhouses though formerly designed as receptacles
only for the destitute had practically become hospitals
for the treatment of chronic and other disorders, and
boarding schools, as it were, for the children of the
paupers. He trusted that their Lordships, in looking
into the abuses or rather the inefficiency of these
iustitutions, would legislate in such a manner as
would remedy the evils he had to complain of. In
Ireland there were three institutions for the benefit
of the poor. There were the iafirmaries, the fever hos-
pitals, and the dispensaries, but they were so scattered
apart that they were not of that advantage to the poor
which the necessity of cases demanded. Now these
institutions were partly supported by grants from
the counties, and subscriptions from the chari-
table. There was also a grant to many of those
charities from the Government, but the amount at dig.
posal was not only insufficient, but it was not so advan-
tageously disposed of as it could be under a well-ma-
naged system. In. 1843, a gentleman spent much of his
valuable time in looking into the present state
of the medical charities of Ireland; he meant
the Hon. Member for Roscommon. He could assure
their Lordships, that that Hon. Member would give all
the assistance in his power to any reform which legisla-
tion on the question would bring about. He (the Noble
Lord) was of opinion that a rate should be paid by all
parties who were rateable, for the support of their re-
spective districts. He would have the means of medical
relief within the reach of every poor man's cabin in Ire-
land, and this would be attended with the double advantage
of affording a speedy recovery in slight and easy cases,
and of saving the valuable time of the medical men. This
object could be effected by establishing a number of fever
hospitals, and so placing them in every poor-law union,
that they should be, as it were, at the door of every
poor man. The jurisdiction of a poor law union
in Ireland, ranges from within ten to twelve miles ;
he believed twelve miles was about the average
radius, and it would not be doing too much
to establish a local fever hospital in each of
these unions. And he would suggest also
that each union in Ireland should have an infirmary.
Now, with regard to the building of these
establishments, it might be done in many ways. He had
already alluded to an Irish Act of Parliament,
which gave the medical practitioner in each
union workhouse a salary of 1001. a year.
and he would propose that the sum of 100,0001. should
be raised partly by public, partly by private subscription,
for the building of infirmaries, and that their
medical officers should be transferred to the new
establishments. This he thought was the best
mode of placing the medical relief of Ireland
on a safe and sure footing. It only remained for
him to state the manner in which he proposed
that these infirmaries and hospitals should be governed.
At present the local dispensaries were under the control
of the medical officers appointed to them by the local autho-
rities. Now he would propose that the power of governing
the new hospitals and infirmaries should be trans-
ferred to a board, to be constituted of the largest
rate-payers in the parish in which the institu-
tions were situated; and that a donation of 201.,
or an annual subscription of a smaller sum, to
the institution, should entitle the donor to be elected on
this Board. This Board, conjointly with the Board
of Poor-law Guardians, he would suggest, should have
the power of electing medical officers as well as of
auditing the accounts ; and when it was
necessary that a patient should be admitted into
the infirmary, the board of rate-payers should
decide whether his treatment should be at the expense
of the institution, or of the- patient himself,
Having disposed of the principal matter of detail,
he now came to the consideration of the propriety of
establishing a central medical office, for the purpose of
laying down regulations for the guidance of the local
authorities, and for the inspection and auditing the
accounts, and confirming the general proceed-
ings of the local boards. An officer of this
sort would have ample information and suffi-
cient means for reporting from time to time
upon the sanatory condition of the country. He
could not conceive a subject of more importance than
that of the appointment of a general board of health in
Ireland, and he would suggest that a central institution
of this sort should be established in Dublin. He was
sure, however, that the subject would receive every at-
tention from those who would be called upon to serve
on the committee, and that proper means would be sug-
gested of affording proper medical relief to those who
stood so much in need of it. He did not think it neces-
sary to refer to the lunatic establishments of Ireland,
because they were under separate and distinct laws, and
did not, in fact, come within the compass of the sub-
ject with which he was dealing. He did not, however,
agree with the opinion of the Noble Lord (Lord Mont-
eagle), who was an able advocate of the poor of Ireland,
and who did everything in his power to alleviate their
sufferings, because his plans would entail, he believed,
unnecessary expense on that country. Lie would, how-
ever, take that opportunity of saying a few words with
respect to the Irish population. He did not believe that
there existed in Ireland at that moment, notwithstand-
ing the unpopularity of the Act amongst certain parti-
sans of the people, and notwithstanding the strong
terms which had been applied to it, a reckless dispose.
don in favour of its abolition. He had taken means to
inquire into the date of opinion in Ireland with respect
to it, and had received several letters on the subject,
which he should submit to the Committee, not one of
which was in favour of the repeal of the law. He had
before him a report of a meeting held in Dublin
in 1843, under the presidency of- the Duke of
Leinster, and attended by real and influential land-
owners, and at which resolutions were passed calling for
a Parliamentary inquiry, in order that the law might he
carried out in a more official manner, but not objecting
to the principle on which it was founded. It had been
said, with much truth, that the poor-law had been pro-
ductive of drying up all the sources of charity and be-
nevolence to the poor ; but they should recollect that
this was the natural consequence of a law having for its
object the efficient support of the poorer classes, on whom
such charity might, in the estimation of some, be mis-
applied. A Right Rev. Prelate had stated that the col-
lections in the churches for the- benefit of the poor had
materially fallen off ; but he (Lord Clancarty) was abie
to state that collections for other charitable objects had
increased instead of diminished. There was no doubt
about the law being looked upon with a
great deal of
prejudice ; but it would appear from this that the state-
ment that the law had dried up the springs of Chris-
tian charity was without foundation. He considered
that the poor and destitute should not be thrown as
outcasts on society, or be left as mere objects for the
casual display of Christian benevolence. He considered